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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 3, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 36.

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Question Corner

Please harmonize the statement that what goes into the mouth does not defile the man, with the prohibition against pork? J. J.
They do not relate to the same thing at all save as they apply to righteousness and purity in general. In Lev. 11:7, 8 swine’s flesh is prohibited as a food unclean, unfit to be eaten, and God forbade it because He wanted a holy people. Verses 44-47. The nature of the swine has not changed. He is still an unclean, unwholesome, scrofula-breeding beast. In Matt. 15:10-20 the question is not one of diet, or of clean and unclean foods at all. It was between the tradition of the elders and common sense. The hands of the disciples in all probability were not physically unclean; but they had been journeying a little while; they had perhaps come in contact with some ceremonially unclean thing; and, therefore, they ought not to eat bread unless they washed their hands. It was to rebuke this petty spirit that Jesus gave this instruction. The heart, the mind, the seat of the affections, is the principal thing; get that right and the person will wish to do nothing wrong, or to eat otherwise than will glorify God. 1 Cor. 10:31.
Please explain through the SIGNS, 2 Cor. 12:2 and Luke 23:43. Is this third heaven and Paradise the same place? and where are the first and second heaven? G. D. M.
The last clause of 2 Cor. 12:2 reads, “Such a one caught up to the third heaven.” In verse 4 he speaks of the same place, “How that he was caught up into Paradise.” Luke 23:43 reads, “Verily I say unto thee to-day, shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” Evidently these all refer to the same place. The first heaven is the atmospheric heaven, where the birds fly. The second heaven is where the stars are. The third heaven is where God dwells, and there is Paradise. There is the tree of life (Rev. 2:7), and there is the throne of God (Rev. 22:1, 2). Jesus did not go to Paradise on the day He was crucified. See John 20:17. But Jesus did promise the thief on that day, when He hung upon the cross, when His own people had rejected Him; that day when seemingly He had no power to fulfil His promise; He promised on that day that the thief would be with Him in Paradise when He came into His kingdom: “Verily I say unto thee to-day, Thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”