p. 104 | To Correspondents by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 25, 1875

To Correspondents.

By Uriah Smith

A CORRESPONDENT asks if the word lightning, as found in Matt. 24:27, is a correct translation from the original. It is.

Please give an explanation of Luke. 17:37.

J. H. MOSER.

Christ had just been speaking of some being seized and others escaping. There is a time coming when God’s judgments are to draw a line between the righteous and the wicked. “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee,” is the promise of God through David to his people. The plagues will seize on the wicked, but the righteous shall escape. The disciples ask where this shall take place. And the Lord answers that wherever the body [carcass, Matt. 24:28, that is, the wicked] is, thither will the eagles [the plagues] be gathered together [to prey upon them].

When were the days shortened spoken of in Matt. 24:22? H. H.

We understand the days to be the days of tribulation brought to view in the preceding verse, which doubtless refer to the period of papal supremacy for 1260 years. The days were not shortened in the sense of reducing the number of years in that prophetic period, but their character as days of tribulation was changed when the power of persecution was restrained by the Reformation. They were shortened as days of tribulation; not that the persecution was entirely arrested; for others were afterward put to death, Rev. 6:11; but the storm had spent its force. Mark says, “In those days, after that tribulation.”

U. S.