p. 36 | TO CORRESPONDENTS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 24, 1879

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

31.—IN THE MIDST OF THE WEEK.

1. How could Christ cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease in the midst of the week, if he was not crucified until Friday? 2. How could he then have remained in the heart of the earth three days and three nights? M. D.

Ans. 1. The “week” in the midst of which the prophecy declared that the sacrifice and oblation should be caused to cease, was not a literal week, but a week of years, the last of the seventy weeks. This week commenced at the baptism of Christ in the autumn of A. D. 27. It extended seven years, to the autumn of A. D. 34. In the midst, or middle, of this week, that is, in the spring of A. D. 31, Christ caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease by his crucifixion. 2. There is no proof that the expression, “the heart of the earth,” in Matt. 12:40, means the grave; and we do not think that the “three days and three nights” are to be limited to the time during which Christ was in the tomb.

32.—THE DAY OF THE LORD.

How can we harmonize our belief that the day of the Lord in Joel 2:1, is the same as that in Zeph. 1:14 and 2 Pet. 3:10, when the word “afterward” is used in Joel 2:28; and that which was to happen afterward began to take place on the day of Pentecost? A. W. J.

Ans. The words rendered afterward, in Joel 2:28, achari chen, “after this,” Kimchi says, are “the same as beacharith hayyamim, ‘in the latter days.’” It is so given by Peter when he quotes from this prophecy of Joel in Acts 2:17. Joel, like other prophets, takes up events in independent series. His prophecy is not consecutive from beginning to end. Having gone through with one line of thought, he goes back and takes up another. Thus in chapter 2:27 we are brought through to the eternal state. In verse 28, the prophet goes back and takes up additional particulars, or events of another kind, by saying, “And it shall come to pass in the last days,” etc.

33.—HOW LONG DID NOAH PREACH?

Where may I find, in the Bible, proof that Noah preached 120 years? J. G. H.

Ans. There appears to be no direct proof for it, but several passages from which such an inference can be drawn. Thus in Gen. 6:3, it is written, “And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” This is generally understood to be the limit of the time during which man was to be suffered to live, if he did not repent; and this time ended at the flood. Then it is certain that 120 years before the flood, God formed the purpose thus to destroy man if he should not repent. Now, did Noah preach and warn them of this coming judgment during all this time? The testimony of Peter implies that Noah so preached to them. 1 Pet. 3:19, 20: “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water.” The argument on this passage is as follows: This testimony has its application in the days of Noah. The word “spirits” signifies the antediluvians, while they were yet in life. They were “in prison,” in the sense of being shut up under darkness, sin, and the threatened judgments of God. See Isa. 61:1, and Luke 4:18, for this application of the figure of a prison to those who are in darkness and condemnation. While they were thus in prison, Christ by his Spirit through Noah preached to them. During this time they were disobedient, and during this time also the ark was preparing. This would include the whole period of 120 years; for so long they were in this sense in prison, and so long they were disobedient.

But there are some passages in Genesis from which a different argument may be drawn. Thus: Gen. 5:32: “And Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” From this it would appear that Noah had no sons till after he was five hundred years old. But he was only six hundred years old when the flood came. Gen. 7:11. And it might be inferred from Gen. 6:18, that God did not make his covenant with Noah and command him to preach the coming flood, till after his sons were born, nor till after they had grown up and married; for the Lord’s language to him was, “Thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.” This, however, may perhaps be reconciled with the idea that this was one hundred and twenty years before the flood, on the ground that God spoke by anticipation, mentioning that which was to come, as though it had already taken place.