p. 4 (36) | Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 16, 1896

Question Corner.

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

[From time to time we will reply under this head, if deemed advisable, to such candid inquiries as may be sent us. Correspondents wishing a reply to their questions must give their full name and address, not for publication unless they wish, but as an evidence of good faith on their part, and to give us opportunity to reply by letter if deemed best. It is always well to inclose stamp. Let the questions be short and pointed, and such as may be answered in limited space. The questions will be numbered continuously.]

No. 254. Death and Sin.

1. AS DEATH came into the world in consequence of sin, and as death passed upon all because all have sinned, then, if there had been no person who had not sinned, would not that person have escaped death?

2. Is a person who has had his sin pardoned through Christ placed again on the same platform upon which man stood before the fall? And if from the time of his pardon he should thenceforth live without sin, would Satan have the power to bring him to the grave, provided, of course, that such a person had no hereditary or contracted ailment?

3. If he had such ailments, would not he who “healeth us of all our diseases,” in response to the petition of faith (James 5:15) heal him of his ailments? J. M. G.

1. The question is based on an impossible supposition. A stream can rise no higher than its source. From Adam all the race inherited a mortal, sinful nature. Such a person as implied in the question could not have been a descendant from Adam.

2. He is not placed on the same platform as regards his mortal nature. God’s grace abounded toward man before he fell, before he knew sinful flesh or mortality, but since sin abounded, grace has much more abounded. See Rom. 5:20, 21. Man’s condition through grace is as good as before the fall, but not the same. Christ was made in the likeness of sinful flesh that the power of the life of God over sin might be demonstrated. Rom. 8:1-4. Christ did this that the life of God in righteousness might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. See 2 Cor. 4:10, 11; Rom. 8:4. The promise to the faithful is that God will raise them up in the last day. See John 6:40, 54; Rev. 2:10. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Man dies the first death because he is mortal. From this Christ redeems all irrespective of character. Man dies the second death on account of his own sins. Of course Christ could translate the faithful as he did Enoch and Elijah, and as he will those who are his at his coming, but this translation is equivalent to a resurrection, because it is the exercise of the same power, the power that makes the sinner righteous. See 1 Cor. 15:51-53; Phil. 3:21; 1 Thess. 5:10.

3. God oftentimes heals disease. Sometimes it is not his will so to do. Paul, who healed by touching handkerchiefs, left Trophimus, a servant of the Lord, at Miletum sick, and told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach’s sake and often infirmities. But tho God heals, he does not make immortal. He forgives sin. He does that when we believe. It is his declared will to do that. He heals disease now, but not always. When he comes, he will forever bind up the breach of his people and heal the stroke of their wound. Isa. 30:26. Then “the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick” (Isa. 33:24); and pain and death and sin will be no more (Rev. 21:4; 22:3).

No. 255. Raising and Selling Swine.

WOULD you please explain from the Bible if it is right to raise and sell swine for food? L. N. O.

The Bible gives no specific directions concerning such things. To Israel of old the Lord said concerning the swine, “Ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcass.” Deut. 14:8. Personally we would not raise and sell swine. The swine is an unclean animal, and its flesh is unwholesome. The rules for all Christians to follow are briefly comprehended in 1 Cor. 10:31; Matt. 7:12; Rom. 14:13.