p. 7 | Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 14, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 28.

Question Corner

“Enquire and make search and ask diligently.”

827. Isa. 66:24.

Be kind enough to explain Isa. 66:24. D.

Isa. 66:24 is simply a comprehensive statement of the punishment of the wicked, and how the righteous will see the results of that punishment. Compare with Rev. 20:9. Note that it is not living persons on which the worm preys and which the fire consumes; but it is “the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against” God. The worm and fire will not cease their work of purification till the corruption is utterly consumed. See Matt. 3:12. The fire is not quenched till it does its work. Compare with Isa. 51:8; Jer. 17:27; 2 Chron. 36:19, 21. It will be seen that the work of worm and fire denotes not continual punishing, but completed punishment.

828. Satan and This World.

Why should Satan fall to the earth, our world, instead of to other worlds? C. F.

Is reference made to Luke 10:18 and Rev. 12:9? If so, he fell unto his own, to the world he had led astray, whose throne he had usurped. “Why did he come here at first?”—From the fact probably that the inhabitants of this world were youngest in experience. Suffice to say he is here, our adversary; but Jesus Christ, our Captain, is his conqueror.

829. H. P.—James 5:12 and Matt. 5:34–37 refer to extra judicial oaths between men and in common conversation, where such things are utterly uncalled for. We often hear such expressions as, “I hope to die if it is not so,” “as true as Gospel,” etc. All such things are condemned by the above scriptures. That it is proper to take an oath in a legal court when required by authority is shown by our Saviour’s example. In all the informal questions of the chief priests He answered little or nothing, but when the priest put Him under oath in the usual way, “I adjure Thee by the living God,” etc., Jesus answered. It is proper to take oath under proper circumstances, before proper officials.

830. J. J. J.—“If a married man is known to be an adulterer,” and his wife of her own free will continues to live with him as wife, condoning his sin, she becomes partner with him in the sin, and is an adulteress in that sense. See 1 Cor. 6:15, 16.

831. L. E. H.—“Eternal life” is the life of God given to and existing in all those who are in harmony with God’s eternal law; in other words, those who by faith obtain and maintain living connection with God through Christ. Immortality pertains to the body, the material being. When man, by faith, through “the power of an endless life,” by the power of “the eternal Spirit,” perfects an incorruptible character, Christ will make that man incorruptible or immortal at His coming. The immortality of being is God’s stamp of incorruptibility of character. John 11:26 refers to those who are living and believing in Christ at the resurrection. Those who believe and have died will be raised. Verse 24. But those who live at that time and believe will never die. 1 Cor. 15:51–55.

832. L. L. W.—No; all the righteous dead were not raised at Christ’s resurrection. The text (Matt. 27:52, 53) says “many bodies of the saints.” This was the first-fruits of Christ’s victory, the antitypical wave-sheaf, which He presented before God when He ascended (Eph. 4:8, margin), typical of all that will be raised when He comes the second time (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). The graves were opened by the quaking of the earth when He died (Hosea 13:14), and, having referred to this fact, the record then completes the account.