p. 3 | Answers to Questions

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 21, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 21.

Answers to Questions

No. 344. Satan’s Knowledge.

Does Satan know our thoughts before we speak them? W. D. F.

Yes, and no. Some persons reveal their thoughts in face and act. But he need not know our thoughts. God has not given him the power of thus reading our thoughts unless we are willing. That he has not this power seems to be indicated by such texts as Eccl. 5:6; Ps. 25:14; Eccl. 12:14; 1 Cor. 4:5; Heb. 4:12. The thoughts, the purposes, the motives are revealed only to God, except as they are revealed by manifest acts.

No. 345. The Two Witnesses.

WHAT are the two witnesses, Rev. 11: 3-9? J. W. S.

See “Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation,” or “Great Controversy,” or “Spirit of Prophecy,” vol. 4. In brief, they are the two witnesses of God’s love and salvation to men. In Christ’s day they were the words of God which went before, the writings of the prophets, and the works which God wrought through him in harmony with the prophets. This made a twofold, unimpeachable witness. These witnesses of God’s word are personified,

represented as persons, in Rev. 11: 3-12. It is by God’s word that judgments have come upon men, that the heaven has withheld and given rain, etc. During the Dark Ages of 1,260 years they are represented as men in mourning. Infidel France endeavored to destroy these witnesses from the earth; but God’s providence overruled to enable them to give their testimony more widely. A double witness to the world now is the unchangeable word of God, which has come down to us, and the same word revealed in the lives of his people, “living apostles.”

No. 346. The Covenant in Horeb.

IS THE covenant spoken of in Deut. 5: 2 the same as the one spoken of in Gal. 4: 20-26 and Heb. 7: 14-19? Does Heb. 8: 10-13 have reference to the Ten Commandments? If it does, how were the Ten Commandments abolished through the death of Christ? E. H. J.

Our correspondent has asked large questions for this department, but we will answer the important question briefly, asking study of our readers on the texts referred to.

1. “The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.” Deut. 5: 2. This covenant is not the Ten Commandments. The Decalogue is God’s covenant, not made with any one, but commanded to all. Deut. 4: 12, 13. The covenant made with Israel in Horeb is the covenant the record of which is found in Ex. 19: 3-8 and 24: 3-8, in which are found the mutual promises of God and Israel, of which the Ten Commandments, God’s voice (Ex. 19: 5), was the basis. But the breaking of that covenant, by transgressing the law, does not affect the covenant. A native of Ireland desires to become a citizen of California. He enters into a covenant with the state. He agrees to uphold the constitution of the state and obey its laws; the state makes him a citizen and gives him the protection and rights of a citizen. If he breaks that covenant which he made with the state, that does not affect the law of the state. If by his breaking that law California annuls the contract because he has forfeited his part, that does not affect in jot or tittle the constitution or law of California. So with the mutual covenant made at Horeb with Israel. Israel’s disobedience, and God’s consequent annulment of the covenant, did not affect his law which he had commanded all to keep, and which it was the duty of all to keep, whether they agree or not. The law is repeated in Deut. 5: 7-21, to show to Israel what their duty was in fulfilling the covenant, even as it was first given in Ex. 20: 3-17.

2. The covenant of Deut. 5: 2 is the same as that of Gal. 4: 20-25. As a means of salvation it gendered to bondage, because it was a national covenant, and salvation by man’s effort and promise through fear. Israel said through its elders, “All that the Lord hath said will we do,” but they failed. They endeavored to keep the law from without, and failed. The covenant which God designed for another purpose simply left Israel “under the law,” condemned by the law, because they were sinners. But the law was not the covenant.

3. The law of Heb. 7: 11-19 has reference to the law regulating the priesthood and vesting it in the tribe of Levi. The Lord ordained that Levi should be the priestly tribe, and it was death for one of another tribe to serve. Jesus Christ, our High Priest, came of the tribe of Judah. That he might serve, the law regulating the priesthood must be changed (Heb. 7: 11-14) before Christ could serve. It refers to no other law.

4. Heb. 8: 10-13 has reference to the Ten Commandment law and no other, the law which was obligatory upon Israel six hundred years before Christ. See Jer. 31: 31-33. The old covenant, based on Israel’s promises, could not put that law in the heart, but held it without in the letter. The new covenant, based on the eternal promise and oath of God, puts that same law in the heart of every man who will submit to God. It teaches no abolition of the law, but the strongest, closest relation to man possible. In Christ Jesus the law becomes a very part of man. See Ps. 40: 7, 8; Matt. 19: 17; John 15: 14; 1 John 5: 3. It is only the carnal heart which rejects or despises God’s law (Rom. 8: 7), a heart which we hope our correspondent has not.