TO CORRESPONDENTS by C. W. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 16, 1876

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

By C. W. S.

1. Is it right for a S. D. A. to apply on the Sabbath for a certificate to teach school?

2. Can you give proof as to who was the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews?

3. Does John 11:26 prove that the believer is immortal as soon as he is a believer? or does it mean that he shall “never die”—the second death, i. e., if he is a believer in Christ at the resurrection.

O. H.

ANS. 1. “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.”

2. There is sufficient proof that it is Paul, but space forbids our giving it here.

3. The believer is not made immortal till the resurrection. 1 Cor. 15:42, 51-56.

He who falls asleep in Jesus lays down his life but “for a little moment.” Isa. 26:20. In the purpose of God, “who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things that be not as though they were”; who is the “God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”; who, at the same time, “is not the God of the dead, but of the living,” by which facts Jesus proved that the dead shall rise, and in proving it showed that God counts the faithful dead as though they were alive (Matt. 22:31, 32),—in his purpose, those who live and believe in Christ, shall never die; i. e., they may die and be dead for a little moment as is really the case with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but they shall not die the second death, and they shall be raised to live forever. His word dwelling in us is the earnest (pledge, assurance, token) of our inheritance. Eph. 1:4.

Please explain Isaiah 11:8. I have always understood that there will be children saved, but that all the redeemed will be of full stature.

F. H. M.

ANS. I think that the little children will be raised such, and that they, with all the redeemed, will “grow up as calves of the stall,” until they reach the size of our first parents, the size that God designed the race to have.

1. Are all the wicked destroyed by the plagues, or do some of them survive the plagues to be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming?

2. If some are destroyed by the “brightness of his coming,” will they come up in the second resurrection and suffer the second death?

W. G. MYERS.

ANS. 2 Thess. 2:8, to which you allude in your question, plainly shows that some will be alive after the last plague who will be destroyed at the coming of Christ. The remnant of the wicked, the very last ones living, will be slain by the sword of Him that shall lead the armies of Heaven. Rev. 19:11-21.

To the second question we answer, Yes. Why should they be excused from it any more than those who fall under the plagues, and others who have fallen under the judgments of God?

1. Does probation close with the commencement of the great time of trouble?

2. Who are the hundred and forty-four thousand of Rev. 7:4 and 14:1-3?

HENRY BEDDOR.

ANS. 1. When our Saviour closes his priestly work in the heavenly sanctuary, when he arises to put on the garments of vengeance, then there will be no intercessor, Isa. 59:16, 17; then he that is unholy must so remain; probation ends, for there is no longer an advocate; and then begins a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. Dan. 12:1.

2. They are the righteous who are alive at the second coming of Christ, and who are translated without seeing death. They are “redeemed from among men,” verse 4; and this expression seems applicable only to those who are translated from among the living. The hope of those who sleep in Jesus is a resurrection from the dead. Phil. 3:11. For further light on this question, see “Thoughts on Revelation,” published at this Office. C. W. S.