Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 12, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 31.

“Enquire, and make search, and ask diligently.”

No. 609. Preexistence of Christ.

DID CHRIST PREEXIST? Please explain John 17: 5; Matt. 3: 17 and 17: 5. O. F.

The Son of God existed with the Father in glory, before the world was, before his humiliation, and Christ prays that that glory may be restored. It was by the Son that God created the world. Col. 1: 13–17; I Cor. 8: 6; John 1: 1–3. It is a perversion of language to apply “before the world was” to Christ’s baptism. The goings forth of Him who was born in Bethlehem “have been from of old, from everlasting.” Micah 5: 2. Compare Matt. 2: 6. Matt. 3: 17 and 17: 5 are simply records of God’s approval upon the work and mission of his Son.

No. 610. Trust in God and Life Insurance.

WILL you please give us light on 1 Tim. 5: 8? If I provide the best I can, and trust in God for our daily bread, will I fulfil Matt. 6: 25–33? Or must I carry life insurance to comply with 1 Tim. 5: 8? D. M. R.

One is not dependent on life insurance or any other similar scheme to fulfil God’s Word. The Lord wants his children to be “not slothful in business,” to “provide things honest in the sight of all” (Rom. 12: 11, 17), “to work with your own hands” (I Thess. 4: 11, 12; 2 Thess. 3: 8–10); and yet he does not desire them to have anxious thought for the morrow, to continually be borrowing trouble, over what we shall eat, drink, or wear. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” This means to live his Word, and God will care for the rest.

No. 611. The King of the North.

How do some that claim Turkey to be the king of the north make out such from the eleventh chapter of Daniel? and why are they so positive? O. F.

We have not space in this department for an explanation of Daniel 11. For that view see “Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation,” by U. Smith. We suppose they are thus positive because they believe themselves to be right, tho positiveness is not proof.

No. 612. Every Day Alike. Rom. 14: 5, 6.

PLEASE explain Rom. 14: 5, and part of verse 6. Does the passage have reference to the seventh-day Sabbath? J. D.

Evidently not. It was with reference to days connected with meats and drinks. One man esteemed these days above others, another man esteemed them to be like all other common days. The apostle would not have them judging or condemning each other; for every man must give an account to God. Verse 12. Neither would the expression “every day” include the Sabbath; for the same Spirit uses the same term when the Sabbath is excepted: “The people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day.” Ex. 16: 4. But the seventh day was excepted. Verses 25, 26. It is an eternal truth that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20: 10. But to man he has given “the six working days.” Eze. 46: 1.

No. 613. “Under the Law” and “Under Grace.”

Will you be so kind as to explain Rom. 6: 14; Gal. 5: 18? F. S. S.

“Under the law” means under the condemnation of the law. “Under grace” means just the opposite, a condition in which the sin has been removed by the free grace of God. “Sin is the transgression of the law.” I John 3: 4; Rom. 7: 7. He who transgresses any law is condemned by that law: sin has dominion over him. He is a slave to sin, condemned by the law which holds over him the dread sentence of death. “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness.” Rom. 6: 16. This text and the connection (Rom. 6: 6–18) certainly show that “under grace”—under the favor of God—is the opposite of “under sin,” under the transgression and condemnation of the law. The same truth is told from the other side in Gal. 5: 18: “If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” Why—Because those who walk after the Spirit fulfil “the righteousness of the law” (Rom. 8: 4), and against “the fruits of the Spirit” “there is no law” (Gal. 5: 23), because the law is kept in those fruits. To be “under grace,” then, is to be by the favor of God free from sin and keeping his law; and to be under the law is to be walking in transgression, condemned by the law.

No. 614. Dead to the Law.

KINDLY explain Rom. 7: 4. F. S. S.

The verse reads as follows: “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” “Dead to the law” is dead to its condemnation. The law condemns all to death, because all have transgressed its holy precepts. Eze. 18: 4; Rom. 6: 23. But “Christ died for our sins,” in our behalf. I Cor. 15: 3. When we by faith accept Christ’s death as our death by turning from our sins, we are no longer condemned; the law has no claim upon him who is dead, and by faith in Christ we are reckoned dead, “that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.” Rom. 6: 7. Rom. 7: 4 merely states this again, “Ye also are become dead to the law”—dead to its condemnation—“by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” Christ lives his life, the same life he lived on the earth, over again in us. Gal. 2: 20. If we by faith truly die his death, we will also live his life, gladly obedient to all the Father’s law.

No. 615. Council of Laodicea.

WHAT was the composition in number of Greek and Roman bishops of the Council of Laodicea, held in 364, and which church would be held responsible for the action of that council, the Greek or the Roman branch of the Catholic or Universal Church, as it was then? E. K.

1. There was no Greek Church as such till centuries later. Frequently the bishops are spoken of as Eastern and Western, the former including those of Asia Minor, and later of Western Europe, the latter those more or less subject to the influence of the see of Rome.

2. Of the composition of the Council of Laodicea we do not know. The year in which it was held is a matter of debate among scholars, but there is general agreement that it was held between A.D. 343 and 381. We have generally given it in A.D. 364 according to Heylyn.

3. But we know much about that council nevertheless; for every one of its sixty canons have come down to us in the original language.

4. Furthermore, many of the canons are identical in substance with those of the general Council of Nicea, held under the supervision of Constantine, himself a cruel monster, and more than half pagan. The Council of Nicea was held in Asia Minor, as was that of Laodicea, was afterward ratified at Constantinople, but was distinctly Roman in influence.

5. Apostasy had taken possession of the church in the fourth century in many places, tho greater in some respects in the Western churches than the Eastern. Roman influence was dominant.

6. The 29th canon reads: “Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday [a Roman name for that day], but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall certainly honor, and as being Christians, shall if possible do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.” And yet canon 16 recognizes Saturday as a day of assembly, for it provides: “On Saturday the Gospels and other portions of the Scriptures shall be read aloud.”

7. The sad departure from the mercy of God and the simplicity of his worship is indicated by many of the canons. For instance, canon 6 forbids a heretic, so long as he is a heretic, to set foot in the house of God; canon 20, that a deacon may not sit in the presence of a priest unless the priest bids him, etc. These, like other records of the first centuries, reveal the constant exaltation of man, and the perversion of the truth of God. For further and fuller information see “History of Church Councils,” by Hefele.