With Our Inquirers

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 19, 1908

With Our Inquirers

“If ye will inquire, inquire ye.”

[All questions to this department will be answered which to the editors will seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. The same question can not be answered repeatedly in the same volume. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. It is well always to enclose a stamp for reply.]

2388.—Palmistry; Spiritualism.

Would you kindly give me your opinion of palmistry? Does the scripture, 1 Cor. 12: 10, refer in any way to this? Is not this power from Satan where the person is a Spiritualist or non-Christian? Can it be depended upon? M. R.

Palmistry is a mere matter of shrewd guessing, and all who attempt to read character by palmistry alone certainly can not be depended upon. Of course the hand shows somewhat of the character of one's work, of the way in which the hand has been used, by the lines and wrinkles, form, shape, and so on, and observations and guesses can be made on account of it. But it is not a science in any way, and is not to be depended upon at all. It is like a half-dozen other things of this sort, that single out some one feature of the human frame or physiognomy and endeavor to read the character. It is about the same as telling fortunes by tea-leaves. And yet the devil uses all these things to turn men away from the only true forecast of character which there is in the world; for there is a true forecaster of character, and that is God's word; and it matters not what one's antecedents may have been, if he gives himself to God and allows Him to work in him, he will develop character which shall shine forever; and on the other hand, one may show the very best palms and features and yet if he ignores God and His truth, according to that word, he will be lost. 1 Cor. 12: 10 has absolutely no reference to palmistry or any other subterfuges of Satan. The gifts mentioned there, the working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, and speaking with tongues, are among the gifts which God bestows upon His children thru the Spirit.

2389.—Under the Law.

Kindly explain Gal. 5: 18. L. S.

The scripture reads: “But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” The law over us holds us in condemnation. Christ saves us from that condemnation of the law. Rom. 8: 1. In other words, He sets us free from the law of sin and death, so that we are no longer under the law, but under grace. Grace is ministered to us by the word and Spirit of God, and that grace leads us to work in harmony with God's law and fulfil the righteousness which the law requires of us. Rom. 8: 4. God's Spirit is in harmony with God's law, so that it can be said of one who walks in the Spirit that against such there is no law. Gal. 5: 23. Therefore those who are led by the Spirit are not condemned by the law; they are in harmony with the law; for it is the office of the Spirit to write the law upon the heart, within the mind. Heb. 8: 10. Again, in Gal. 5: 16, “Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the works of the flesh.” The works of the flesh are sinful, as shown by the verses that follow, but to be led by the Spirit is to do just what the law declares, as shown from verses 22 to 24. The fruit of the Spirit is love, but the apostle declares, “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5: 3.

2390.—Matter of Time.

1. Do Adventists keep their Sabbath from sunset to sunset because the days were thus marked at creation? 2. When and by whom was the present system of marking the time from midnight to midnight established? 3. Was it done for convenience' sake? 4. Was it wrong to mark the time as the days are now marked off? 5. If Adventists kept their Sabbath from midnight to midnight, would it not be admitting that the seventh part of time would do just as well as the seventh day?

1. Seventh-day Adventists keep the Sabbath from sunset to sunset, as do the Seventh-day Baptists and all true Sabbath-keepers. God gave the sun to rule the day, and the day begins at sunset. This is shown not only in Genesis 1 but also in Matt. 8: 16; Mark 1: 32; Luke 4: 40; and Neh. 13: 19. See also Lev. 23: 32.

2-4. According to the best authorities the present method of reckoning the day came from Egypt to Rome, and was established for astronomical reasons. Yet astronomers at the present time mark from midday to midday. Of course any man had the privilege of marking time as he wished, but the week was of God's establishing, and so changes in it that changed God's worship were not right.

5. Neither Adventists nor other true Sabbath-keepers could keep the Sabbath from midnight to midnight, because that would be keeping only three-fourths of the Sabbath. Of course, if they were willing to concede that much, they might just as well concede it all. The test of God's word is this: “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” Deut. 4: 2. It would be utterly impossible for any people or any individual to keep the commandments of God who would add to or subtract from His commandments. Just as soon as we do this we become breakers of the law, and that which we add to the law or take from it indicates that we feel ourselves wiser than the Lawgiver.

Note also the spiritual advantage of beginning according to God's plan. Then God's children, if they are true Sabbath-keepers, have their work all done, they are in readiness to welcome the Sabbath when it comes; they enter upon its sacred moments with reading of the word and prayer and meditation on the works of God and His goodness. When it closes they can take proper leave of it in the full control of all their senses. But not so when the day begins and ends at midnight. They go to bed with the cares of life upon them; they wake with something of the same thoughts with which they retired. God's way is always the best way.

2391.—Shut from the Tree of Life.

Please explain Gen. 3: 22. It seems by the word that the Lord did not want Adam to partake of the tree of life and live forever, and why? Was it because Adam did not repent? R.

Adam was debarred from the tree of life when he sinned, doubtless before he repented. If God had permitted him to forever eat of the tree of life, he would have been a perpetual sinner, kept alive by the tree of life. In God's great mercy, sin bears its own punishment, death, and it is not in the Lord's purpose to prolong life in order that man may continue in sin. Therefore man was shut out from the tree of life, lest he should put forth his hand and eat and live forever. If man had known that he would thus live forever, he would continue in sin. Cut off from this source of life, man was bound to die in consequence of his sin, and that very thing would lead him to God, the Source of life.

2392.—The Tithe.

The Bible in several places defines the tithe as one-tenth of the increase. Please explain if this does not mean for one to deduct his necessary living expenses before taking out the tithe. E. A. A.

We do not so understand it. If you will turn to Lev. 27: 32 you will see one of the ways they had of reckoning the tithe. The herd itself was brought out and passed under the rod, the rod marking off every tenth one of the herd, and that tenth should be holy. The tithe of the increase was upon the actual increase of the fruit of the ground or of the flock. One's own living was to come from the nine-tenths, “the tithe is the Lord's.” Nine-tenths He gives to man. If the way suggested was the manner of tithing, the Lord's cause would certainly have very little, because many expend all that they make, their living expenses eat up what they receive. They would not be acknowledging God's right in any way. Of course if a man works a farm on shares, the share of the owner of the farm is taken out before the product is tithed. If one rents, the owner of the farm must be paid the rent before the product is tithed. That belongs to the owner of the farm; but one does not take out his own time or living before he tithes the increase.

2393.—Age of the Antediluvians.

Please explain Gen. 6: 3, the one hundred twenty years. I do not understand this, as men lived to be much older than one hundred and twenty years after that. M. G.

The one hundred twenty years did not mark the age of human life, but the period of human life before the Flood, evidently from the time the Lord warned Noah of the coming Flood; He fixed the time between His message to Noah and the Deluge at one hundred twenty years; that is, there would be one hundred twenty years more to the Deluge, during which time God would give all upon the earth the privilege of repenting. The age of human life continually decreased after the Flood, so that from Noah to Abraham man's life decreased from 950 years to 175, and in the days of David to three-score and ten.

2394.—One or Two Demoniacs.

In Matt. 8: 28 there are said to have been two demoniacs which met Jesus in the country of the Gergesenes, while Mark 5: 2 and Luke 8: 27 mention but one.

Both evidently refer to the same event. Matthew mentions the exact number. One of these may have been much more violent and much more prominent than the other, so much so as to cause one almost to lose sight of the second. It is the very violent one that Luke and Mark mention, while Matthew classed them both together. It will be noticed that neither Mark nor Luke says there was only one.

2395.—S. F.—Deut. 14: 26— We would say that the permission given in this scripture must be understood in connection with other things which God Himself has given. Take, for instance, the various parts of that 14th chapter of Deuteronomy. When God's people stood in the light, it would not be possible that they should lust after the things that were wrong. The strong drink of ancient times is not to be compared with the poisonous preparations which are used at the present time. We should compare every such passage as this with Proverbs 23. God wants His people to rejoice, and this was one of the times when they would gather together and rejoice, but if they were standing in the light they certainly would not go to unseemly excess.

2396.—A. O. G.— There seems to have been in the early days of creation week a cloudy condition in the atmosphere when the waters were divided, some of them deposited upon the earth, the others hanging in watery clouds above the sky. When these were removed the fourth day, the sun shone out in its glory. We know no reason to regard the light of those first days as different from the light of the days which followed. At the present time the light is dim as compared with what it will be when the new earth appears. We are told that then the light shall be as seven days and the light of the moon as the light of the sun.

2397.—D. F. L.—Gen. 11: 26; Acts 7: 24.— A question upon this was answered recently in this department. The question should not in fairness be “How can these things be harmonized?” but rather “How can they be made to agree?” Abraham is mentioned first in Genesis 11; still he may have been the youngest son after all. A reason why he should be mentioned first is that the promised Seed should come thru him. One or two simple suppositions, to which the text is not at all contrary, will make these matters quite plain.