Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 28, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 30.

“Enquire and make search and ask diligently.”

838. R. J. R.—God gave the earth to man for man’s home, in the beginning. Ps. 115:16; Gen. 1:28. Man held this dominion under God, subject to the divine law. He was told to subdue it; but man did not. It will not be wholly subdued and fitted for man’s abode till our Lord finishes His work, and the earth is renewed at the end of the 1,000 years of Revelation 20.

839. R. J. R.—A brother might be able to act as elder under the circumstances; we do not know enough about the case, whether he is divorced, and, if so, for what reason. If there was any question on the part of reliable, good Christians in the case of such an one, he should by all means not serve in any official capacity.

840. Religious Liberty and the Bible.

IF the Bible teaches religious liberty, how can you harmonize Neh. 13:15–21? E. Z.

The reference is to the use of compulsion by Nehemiah to prevent the desecration of the Sabbath by the men of Tyre. Note, (1) Jerusalem belonged to the people of God, a Sabbath-keeping people. (2) Because of their transgression of the Sabbath and the forgetting of God, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, and the people were carried into captivity. Jer. 17:21–27. (3) God restored them to their land and gave Jerusalem to them again, that they might serve Him. Nehemiah, over that people, was holding that city in trust for God. (4) He did not attempt to compel the Syrian merchants to keep the Sabbath; he simply said that they should not profane it on ground not their own, in the city holy to the Lord. Nehemiah evidently believed that he had the same right to forbid such outward Sabbath desecration in Jerusalem as the individual man had to forbid its desecration in his own house. (5) The fault of some reformers of to-day is that they assume that they act for God, and the earth is theirs. Nehemiah was acting for a theocracy.

841. What Was “Done Away”?

WHAT WAS “done away,” in 2 Cor. 3:7–11? A. M.

The “glory” of condemnation passed away before the glory of righteousness by faith. This is an experience which every truly converted child of God undergoes. The law held without the heart is glorious, yet it only condemns; but if the law by faith is written within the heart by the Spirit of God, the glory of the condemnation fades away before the glory of the righteousness. For a fuller explanation see No. 149 Bible Students’ Library, “From Glory to Glory.” Price, 2 cents.