p. 36 | TO CORRESPONDENTS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 31, 1878

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

H. Parnham: For a full explanation of 2 Corinthians, 3d chapter, see first number of the present volume of the Review.

E. M. Pierce: We do not think it would be correct to say that God permitted a plurality of wives in the Old Testament. The most that can be said of it is that God “winked at” it, or suffered it to be so. See Acts 17:30; 14:16. The darkness and ignorance of the world and the circumstances surrounding his people is sufficient reason for his thus suffering it. Skeptics themselves believe that the world has progressed and that this is an age of greater light than any previous one. Why, then, even on their own ground, may not God, without implying any change on his part, hold people to a more strict compliance with the principles of his government according to their changed conditions, and their greater light?

S. O. James: There was no substitute provided to stand between the sentence and Adam in case he should sin. The penalty for his transgression was carried out to the letter. The substitute has respect to us and our personal actions, and is to affect our future destiny only. We think Ps. 49:8 refers to the soul.

C. G. M.: For an explanation of the four beasts in Rev. 14:6, see “Thoughts on Revelation.”

L. C. Hutchins: For the meaning of the word day in Gen. 1, see the little tract on “Geology and the Bible,” published at this Office.

E. Williams: When people die so that the proper time of their burial would seem to fall upon the Sabbath, we see no objection to holding the funeral on that day. If any act ought to be one of solemn worship, it should be that with which we commit the dead to the grave, in hope of the resurrection.

Please harmonize Job 1:21 with Heb. 2:14. S. M. C.

Ans. The devil has power to work only as he is permitted, for the time being, by the Lord.

C. A. W.: John 3:13 contains no contradiction of 2 Kings 2:11, and Gen. 5:24, because Christ is speaking in reference to men going up to Heaven to receive instruction and coming back to teach their fellow-men. No man has ascended to Heaven for this purpose.

J. I. Lincoln: The Bible says that the day begins with the “even,” and the “even” it defines to be the setting of the sun. Engravings or pictures not made for worship are no violation of the second commandment.

Will J. Broom, who writes from Wyoming, please give us the State?

Answered by Letter. C. Stoddard, J. H. Thompson, D. M. Canright, A. H. Wentworth, A. W. Jenson, B. F. Taylor, Mrs. J. Maddux, Mrs. L. D. A. Stuttle, J. N. Andrews, S. M. Ives, Geo. I. Butler, J. M. Hopkins, Wm. A. Hicks, Mrs. O. F. Chase, A. B. Cushing.