Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 13, 1898

“Enquire and make search and ask diligently.”

693. Ezra and Nehemiah.

Does the number of the Israelites who returned to Babylon as given by Ezra agree with that given by Nehemiah?

They both give 42,360. See Ezra 2: 64 and Neh. 7: 66. There is a difference in the singing women of forty-five. One gives the round number; the other is exact. The items do not amount to the whole number, probably from the fact that there were some from other tribes whose genealogy could not be traced. There is nothing in this against the divine record.

694. The Soul and Visions.

If the soul or spirit of man does not leave the body, how is it that the Lord’s prophets have so often been taken to heaven, conversed with heavenly beings, etc., while the body was not moved, and apparently lifeless? L. C. H.

Do not people dream, and in their dreams go to other places and talk with other people?—But there is no separation of soul and body. God can by divine photography reveal to our minds that which the natural eyes can not see. Those in the prophetic trance are not dead; the bodily functions are only suspended; but “the body without the spirit is dead.” The prophetic trance or vision is not a separation of life, or soul, or spirit from the body, but divine telegraphy and photography, by which God speaks and portrays to the mind events not known to the natural man.

695. “The Letter Killeth.”

Please explain 2 Cor. 3: 6, “the letter killeth,” and verse 7 which speaks of “ministration of death,” and verse 9, “the ministration of condemnation,” also verse 11, “if that which is done away.” Does condemnation here refer to the Ten Commandments when transgressed? and what is “done away”? O. C. H.

The letter there referred to is the letter of the New Testament. The letter is the mere outward form, the mere theory, which will save no one. It will but condemn him who receives no more. Israel of old received the law in the letter alone, and were condemned. Moses received it by faith in the Spirit, the very Gospel, and was justified. God’s Word or law is a minister, if transgressed, of condemnation; if received by faith, of righteousness. What is “done away” is done away only in the believer. The condemnation is done away by the righteousness. The glory of the condemnation of the letter alone fades away in the glory of the righteousness by faith which receives the law in the heart. For fuller explanation see Bible Students’ Library, No. 149, 24 pp.; price, 2 for 3 cents; entitled, “From Glory to Glory.”

696. Matt. 25: 26, 27.

Will you please explain Matt. 25: 26, 27, which reads: “His lord answered and said unto him, thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knowest that I reap where I sowed not and gather where I have not strawed; thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury”? D. M.

It is a part of the instruction of the parable of the talents. It does not mean that God is a hard or cruel master; but it does teach that the wicked will have to give an account of their stewardship, as truly as the righteous. The wicked servant, knowing that he would be called to give an account, hid his talent in the earth, and excused himself on the plea that his Lord was an exacting master. All the more then he ought to have used his talent. He was judged out of his own mouth. See Luke 19: 22.