Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 19, 1902

[From time to time we will reply under this head, if deemed advisable, to such candid inquiries as may be sent us. Correspondents wishing a reply to their questions must give their full name and address, not for publication unless they wish, but as an evidence of good faith on their part, and to give us opportunity to reply by letter if deemed best. It is always well to inclose stamp. Let the questions be short and pointed, and such as may be answered in limited space. The questions will be numbered continuously.]

1207.—Isa. 65:20.

In Isa. 65:20 the astonishing statement is made that sin, death, and the curse shall be in the new earth, apparently a most painful and violent contradiction of every other portion of the Sacred Word of God, and the only contradiction in all the Inspired Word for which I have no explanation. Please give me one. W. G. W.

Seeming contradictions are sometimes a matter of limited understanding, sometimes the result of wrong perspective. What to the experienced musician may be perfect harmony, to the untrained ear may be discord. God's Word, when rightly translated, is harmony. We may not see it or feel it, yet it is there; and if we wait the fuller experiences in the needful things, light will dawn in time on all the places erstwhile dark.

There will be no sin in the new earth; for “there shall be no more curse.” Rev. 22:3. For “curse” Etheridge's Syriac translation reads “falling away.” There shall be no more pain, tears, nor death. All these, the inevitable consequences of sin, will be no more, because sin is no more. Rev. 21:4. But to our querist Isa. 65:20 seems to contradict this; it is a discord in the harmony. The text reads:—

“There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die an hundred years old, and the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” R.V.

The chapter treats of the rejection of an ungodly people and the call of the Gentiles, the final division on character lines, and the ultimate rewards. Verses 17 to 19 promise a new heaven and new earth, and a new Jerusalem in which will come no “voice of weeping.” All that has then passed away. Rev. 21:4, 5. The thousand years are over, and the wicked dead have been raised; the organizing of them by Satan into armies during the “little season” (Rev. 20:3, 7-9), and their destruction, is then past. John does not tell us how long this “little season” is. We may justly infer from Isa. 65:20 that it is one hundred years. The verse therefore states that in that new earth there will be no more thence an infant of days, etc., such as we see here; for in that “little season” old and young who have rejected God will die, while God's people shall dwell in that better land forever. Their labor for God here has not been in vain; their rearing of godly seed here has not been for trouble; God has saved them from it all and for all time. The hundred years of sin beyond the millennium, end with the dawn-break of the eternity of righteousness and immortality.

1208.—Offending Members.

What is the meaning of Matt. 18:8, 9? G. T.

Individually it means the severing of every relation in life, of every cherished ambition, of every cherished desire which would be offensive to God, or cause ourselves or others to stumble. In the church it would mean the separation of those who were stumbling-blocks even tho they might seem as necessary as the eye. See Mark 9:42-50.

1209.—Different Baptisms.

Please explain in your Question Corner Matt. 3:11. Are the baptism of the Holy Ghost and the baptism of fire administered to the same ones? S. H. T.

Baptism means immersion, submersion, whelming. Baptism of the Spirit is a complete yielding to the Spirit, absolutely under the Spirit's control. It was well illustrated on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2. Baptism by fire is to be submerged, whelmed, immersed in fire. That will be when the fire of God's personal presence consumes all of sin and all that is identified with sin. Then will He be “revealed from heaven . . . in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints.” They will be consumed with “the spirit of His mouth,” and be destroyed literally “by the forth-shining of His presence.” 2 Thess. 1:8-10; 2:8. See also Isa. 30:27-30; Rev. 20:9, 10, 14; 2 Peter 3:7; Isa. 33:13-17. God's presence consumes sin. If we will admit His presence by His Spirit, He will consume the sin in our hearts, and leave us free and holy in Him; but if we will not, when He comes in unveiled glory, we shall be destroyed with the sin with which we have identified ourselves. He who is free from sin will be made immortal, and no element can destroy him. He who chooses sin will perish with it. The baptism of the Spirit pertains to the one class, the baptism of fire to the other. Read Matt. 3:11, 12 in connection:—

“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

He is speaking to and of two classes,—the wheat and the chaff.

1210.—Salutations. Rom. 16:16.

Applying Paul's discourse on charity, is it not proper to salute those of other denominations, according to Rom. 16:16? J. F. S.

In all matters of this kind, not only Christian love should guide, but wisdom, prudence, discretion, and common sense. Such a salutation might be wholly distasteful to some. “Let not your good be evil spoken of.” “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without.” “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, . . . understanding what the will of the Lord is.”

1211.—Tithing of Income.

Dear Sir: Are you in harmony with the following on tithing by R. A. Underwood, Bible Students' Library, No. 145, “Will a Man Rob God,” and found on page 54 last paragraph, and reads as follows: “The wages paid to hired help is not the income of the employer, but the employed. The latter should pay the tithe on his wages; hence the amount paid out for hired help to produce the product, whatever it might be, would be deducted from the amount received before tithing the same.”

We are in harmony with it. It is simple justice, and a just Lord requires no more.