QUESTION CORNER

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 3, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 39.

“If ye will inquire, inquire ye.” “But avoid foolish questions.”

[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 Correspondents wishing a reply to their questions must give their full name and address, not for publication unless they wish, but as an evidence of good faith on their part, and to give us opportunity to reply by letter if deemed best.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. 237. The Second Gathering.

TO WHAT time does Isa. 11:11 refer? E. A. B.

The question opens up the whole subject of Israel, which is much too long for this department. Suffice it to say that Israel is not a name according to the flesh, but according to faith (Gen. 32:24–28; Hosea 12:3–5), and the term is therefore used to denote all the people of God or those who have joined themselves to him, both before and after Christ. When the unbelieving tribes were cut off, the gentiles, or people outside of Jacob’s descendants, were grafted in by faith, and thus became Israel. See Rom. 11:17, 21. Therefore the children of the flesh are not counted for the true seed, but the children of promise. Rom. 9:6–8. And yet all are of the household of Israel (Eph. 2:19–21); all are seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:29); all are of the one body, of whom Christ is the head (1 Cor. 12:13); and thus all are Israelites, all are Jews (Rom. 11:26; 2:28, 29); and all enter the glorious city of God through the twelve gates (Rev. 21:12; 22:14). All the predictions therefore relating to the people or Israel of God in the last days have reference not to the Hebrews according to the flesh, but to those who have joined themselves to the Lord, whether Jew or gentile.

But even as all of Israel according to the flesh are not the true Israel, so all of the gentile-house of Israel—if we may use the term—all the people of God in this dispensation, are not true children of faith, are not the true Israel. The true people of God now, as in Elijah’s time (Rom. 11:2–4), as in Christ’s time (verse 5), are a remnant, scattered among all churches, denominations, sects, nations, peoples. God is gathering them out by a last threefold message (Rev. 14:6–14; Zeph. 2:1–3), not to any one place, but to himself, his one faith, one truth, preparatory to the final gathering home to his heavenly kingdom.

It is to this gathering doubtless which Isa. 11:11 refers: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.” Note that this is in the Christian dispensation, after the root of Jesse is revealed, to whom the gentiles seek. The names of all these various countries and peoples are used to indicate the different parts of the earth as familiar to the people at that time. It takes in all of God’s work for the last days.

No. 238. Swallowed Them Up.

IS THE original Hebrew the same in the passage, “The earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up” (Num. 16:32), as “The earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up,” etc. (Rev. 12:16)? L. J. C.

No; the former is from the Hebrew, the latter from the Greek. The prominent words, “earth,” “swallowed,” etc., come from words of similar meaning, but the former text relates a simple fact, while the latter deals in symbols.

No. 239. All Shall Know the Lord.

PLEASE EXPLAIN Jer. 31:33, 34. Speaking in verse 33 it says that he will make a new covenant with Israel “after those days,” and will put the law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts. What days are “those days”? MRS. M. C.

Evidently the fullness of blessings referred to will be realized only after Christ’s coming. And yet all these blessings begin here. Compare Heb. 8:6–13. The days after which these blessings would come were the days of the first and rebellious house of Israel. “After those days” includes all after the crucifixion. The term “teach” does not have reference to instruction in the Lord, to growth in Christian grace, but teaching those who do not know the Lord, the true God. Those who are truly the Lord’s know him of themselves; their sins are forgiven; God’s law is written in their hearts; but the fullness of all these blessings will be realized in eternity.

No. 240. Concerning the Dead.

I WOULD like to ask a few questions concerning the dead. Luke 20:37, 38; Eccl. 3:21; 12:7. W. W. P.

But what our brother wishes to know he does not ask, and we might write pages and yet not answer the questions he wishes answers to but did not ask. However, Luke 20:35–38 shows that a resurrection of the dead is proved necessary to make God’s words true that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the God of the living. In his purpose they live, and in the resurrection his purpose will be manifest in fulfillment. Eccl. 3:21 simply asks, “Who knoweth?” The context teaches that death comes to all. Eccl. 12:7 simply shows that the dust returns to the earth, and the spirit returns to God, not as a conscious, intelligent entity, but as it came from God,—the breath of life, to be given again at the resurrection.