To Correspondents

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 4, 1878

To Correspondents.

For the benefit of one who has lately embraced the truth, please explain Matt. 22:11 and Luke 14:16-24.

J. S.

Ans. We hold Matt. 22:1-10, to set forth the general call of the gospel, first to the Jews, and after their rejection of it, to the Gentiles. The King who comes in to see the guests, is God. The examination of the guests, is the preliminary work of Judgment which must take place before Christ comes. It is accomplished by the cleansing of the sanctuary, now going forward. See works on the Sanctuary. The wedding garment is the robe of righteousness, which the faithful and true Witness now counsels us to buy of him, Rev. 3:18, as our cases will soon come under review in that great court of examination. Whoever is found unprepared for the kingdom, is cast into outer darkness, Matt. 22:13, or blotted out of the book of life, Rev. 3:5, or rejected utterly by the true Witness, Rev. 3:16.

The call of Luke 14:16-24, we understand to be a special call that goes forth just at the close of the gospel dispensation. The first, Matt. 22:4, was at “dinner” time. The last, Luke 14:16, was at “supper” time, at the close of the gospel day. It is composed of three distinct calls, corresponding to the three messages of Rev. 14:6-12, which are to prepare a people for the coming of Christ. The call in Matt. 22 is general, embracing all the work of the gospel; the call in Luke 14 is special, being a subdivision of the former, and included in it.

A neighbor of mine says he will keep the Sabbath if the three days and three nights of Matt. 12:40 can be explained. He claims that dated from Friday they would end Monday, hence Sunday is the seventh day, and the Bible Sabbath.

J. N. S.

Ans. All the difference lies in the interpretation of the expression “the heart of the earth.” Christ was to be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. But this cannot be taken literally. Applied to any inanimate substance, it means the center of it, as the heart of a tree. In this case it would mean the center of the earth. But Christ never went to the center of the earth, and therefore was never “in” there three days and three nights. There is nothing to show that this expression refers exclusively to his lying in the grave. Necessary and antecedent to this was his betrayal into the hands of his enemies, which Christ told them was their “hour and the power of darkness.” Luke 22:53. Reckoned from the time when he was betrayed into the hands of his enemies to his resurrection first-day morning, we have a period of time which harmonizes with all the expressions used concerning Christ’s death and resurrection.

A. E. S.: An exposition of Isa. 65:20, 21, was given in REVIEW, Vol. 35, No. 4, and in REVIEW Vol. 43, No. 1.