To Correspondents

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 11, 1875

To Correspondents.

A. Wike: We think the talents spoken of in the Scriptures, denote all the means, faculties, or powers we possess with which we can do any service in the cause of the Master, whether it be with money, tongue or pen.

A. T. J.: The passages you refer to (Eze. 39: 9-16; Zech. 14: 16-18), are confessedly obscure. The prophets occasionally glance down very clearly to the scene of the last days. But just where to draw the line to form a clear demarkation between that which refers to the past and that which refers to the future is not so easy a matter.

A. H.: John 7: 6-8, and 8: 20, evidently refer to the Saviour’s third attendance at the passover. His betrayal did not take place till his fourth passover the year following. John 13: 1.

J. S. M.: We do not understand the words of Acts 17: 28, “in him we live, and move, and have our being,” to teach that a part of deity dwells in us; but only that we are sustained in every part of our being by the constant presence of his power.

Please explain Mal. 3: 1. What temple is it that the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to? &c. It cannot be his first advent, for then he did not sit as a refiner, &c. J. G. Walker.

This prophecy we think is one of those in which the inspired writer looks suddenly over from the present to the future, or from one future event to one far more distant still, which has some resemblance to it, or connection with it. This is characteristic of all those prophecies that have a double application. The first of Mal. 3: 1 certainly refers to the first advent; for so Matthew, Mark, and Luke quote it. But it will be noticed that they only quote the first part of the verse. Verses 2 and 3 refer to the time when the Lord sits as a refiner, searchingly testing the people. This as evidently refers to the time when in the heavenly temple he carries forward the investigative Judgment preparatory to his second coming; for then it is, and then only, that he sits as a refiner in the sense brought to view in the prophecy. Here, then, are two well-defined points; and the transition is somewhere between them. We conclude it occurs between the declaration respecting his messenger, and his coming to his temple. That is, after referring to John the Baptist, as the messenger of Christ, who should prepare the way for his first advent, the prophet strikes right over to the closing work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, or temple, preparatory to his second coming.

J. M. A., and G. F. B.: There is considerable verbal difference between 2 Kings 19, and Isa. 37.

Please explain Rom. 14: 5, 6. M. E. H.

ANSWER. The days Paul mentions, in regard to which every one was left to his own persuasion, were the days, the observance of which was enjoined in the Jewish ritual; for they are associated with the eating of herbs, and troubled only those who were weak in the faith. There was no virtue in their observance, after the typical system ceased; but Paul was disposed to be lenient with those who were dull of comprehension, and slow to perceive the freedom of the gospel. If they thought it would honor God to still give the Jewish feast days a place above other days, let them do so till they should learn the truth more perfectly. This had no allusion whatever to the Sabbath of the Lord, and the position which that occupies as the Lord’s, not man’s time. U. S.