Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 12, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 11.

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

No. 280. End of the Law for Righteousness.

WILL you please explain through the SIGNS what is meant in Rom. 10: 4? In what respect is Christ the end of the law to those that believe? C. F. C.

The text reads: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” The word “end” is used in the sense of object, design, see James 5: 11, “the end of the Lord;” 1 Tim. 1: 5, “the end of the commandment;” not that the Lord ceased to be, or the commandment came to an end. So in Rom. 10: 4 read, “Christ is the object [design] of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” The law itself can not give righteousness to the sinner; but it leads him to Christ, in whom by faith we obtain the perfect righteousness which is in the law, and to which the law bears witness. Study in connection with this text Gal. 3: 23, 24; Rom. 8: 1-4; 3: 20-22. The serial articles on Romans by E. J. W. will soon reach Romans 10, and will give a fuller explanation of the text than we have space to give here.

No. 281. Isa. 65: 20.

PLEASE explain the following passage of Scripture: “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” Isa. 65: 20. Does Isaiah in the above scripture have reference to the new earth? J. H. W.

The text is somewhat obscure. It teaches, doubtless, what will be in the new earth. There will be from that time forward no more death in any form, for the reason that all this passes away when God’s judgment against the iniquitous is visited upon them. That will be done in that period of time after the second resurrection ending with the second death. Rev. 20: 7-9. Some persons think that this period of deception and warring against God will be 100 years, at the end of which time sinners, young and old, having demonstrated their hatred of God, will be destroyed.

No. 282. Who Is Taken out of the Way?

PLEASE explain 2 Thess. 2: 6-8. Who is he that now letteth, or is taken out of the way? W. H. G.

The text reads as follows:—

“And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.”

1. When the Bible was translated, the word “let” meant to restrain, or hinder. The Revised Version renders, “restraineth.”

2. To understand the text it will be necessary to consider verses 3 and 4. The “man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” This is the development of the “falling away,” the chief exponent of which is the Papacy.

3. “The temple of God” is the church of God. See 1 Cor. 3: 16; Eph. 2: 19, 22.

4. God in Christ dwells in the church by dwelling in the hearts of the individual members by faith. Gal. 2: 20; Eph. 3: 17.

5. Just as long as faith abides in the church, just as long as Christ in his word is held paramount by the church, it must be evident to all that the man of sin could not reign or exalt himself in the church. If Christ is there, there is no room for another. Christ, therefore, must be the one who “withholdeth,” or, as the Revised Version, “restraineth,” the revelation of the man of sin in the temple of God, the church. But when Christ is rejected, when an apostate church tells him to go, then the mystery of iniquity comes in. Or when the church opens the door of her heart to bid the mystery of iniquity to enter, Christ departs as an unwelcome guest. Therefore all that can or that ever did prevent or hinder the man of sin exalting himself in the temple of God, is Christ in the heart by faith.

6. In harmony with this we suggest the following paraphrase of the Revised Version of verses 6 and 7: “And now ye know that which restraineth [the mystery of God, Col. 1: 27], to the end that he [the man of sin] may be revealed in his own season [foretold by the prophets, Dan. 7: 25]. For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work [it had begun to come into the church through unconverted men, 1 Tim. 5: 19, 20; 2 Tim. 2: 17, 18; 1 John 2: 18; Gal. 4: 8-10]; only there is one [Jesus Christ] that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way [by unbelief]. And then shall be revealed the lawless one [as during the Dark Ages and since], whom the Lord Jesus shall slay [consume] with the breath of his mouth [Rev. 19: 15], and bring to naught by the manifestation [forthshining, brightness] of his coming [personal presence].”

No. 283. Fasting.

Does the word of God still uphold fasting?

That it does uphold fasting see Matt. 9: 15. Jesus there says that his disciples will fast in his absence. Matt. 6: 17, 18 tells us how we should fast. In a prophecy of the last days the Lord clearly shows that his people will proclaim fasts, and will heed them. Joel 2: 12-18. He who continually eats and drinks to satiety becomes gross in mind, and can not keenly discern the great spiritual truths of God. As did Nadab and Abihu of old, they will put no difference between the clean and unclean, the holy and the common. Compare Isa. 56: 10-12 with Eze. 22: 25, 26. As one realizes his weakness and the necessity for physical food in abstention from the same, so fasting should lead him to realize that the spiritual nature must be fed with the bread of life, the word of God. This does not imply fanaticism or buying God’s favor by fasting. It simply should bring us where we may more clearly realize his truth, and our weakness and dependence upon him.