OUR QUESTION CORNER by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 25, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 46.

OUR QUESTION CORNER

By Editor

112. HOSEA 6:2.

What is the meaning of Hosea 6:2?

The text reads as follows: "After two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight." It seems to refer to the death and resurrection of Christ, and may also be prophetic of the church, the body of Christ, in the Christian dispensation. The "former rain" of the next verse is the outpouring of the Spirit of God, beginning at the day of Pentecost, and the latter rain, or greater outpouring of the Spirit of God, in the last days, just when dawns the morning of the everlasting day.

OUR QUESTION CORNER.

113. THE ONE FOLD IN CHRIST.

Please explain Eze. 37:16-20.

The Lord through the prophet illustrates by the sticks joined together the union which would sometime exist among his people. This union takes place through Christ. He is the "one Shepherd," and uniting all in him they become the "one fold." John 10:16. This is in accordance with Jacob's prophecy that unto Shiloh, of the tribe of Judah, should the gathering of the people be. Jesus was of the tribe of Judah, and the magnetic center of all true union. See John 15:1-8; Eph. 2:13, 18-20; 1 Cor. 12:12, 13; Gal. 3:27, 28.

114. WHAT WAS "DONE AWAY"?-"CHURCH."

1. In 2 Cor. 3:6-14 the apostle Paul speaks of certain things done away in Christ, abolished, etc. Does he not speak of the law of Exodus 20? 2. Was the word "church" inserted in the New Testament by command of King James? 3. Is the original Greek word for church ekklesia? 4. Was the word "church" formely applied only to the heathen temples?

1. See answer to question 111. Notice, first, that the apostle is not comparing the law with the gospel. He is comparing the "ministration," or "service," of the Christian dispensation with the "ministration," or service, of the Jewish dispensation. Under the theocracy the priests administered law, and the transgression of the law was death, and this sentence was pronounced by priests, at the head of which stood Moses. That was a glorious ministration, and the glory of God rested upon his chief representative. But the ministration of Paul and his colaborers was the ministration of the gospel, the living word of God, revealing Christ, the life and light of the world. The glory of the past ministration was symbolized by the glory which shone upon Moses' face. But that glory passed away before the greater glory of Christ, even as the light of the moon is lost in the light of the sun. See Rev. 12:1. It was the glory of that priestly service or ministration which "was to be done away," "abolished," etc., because it "had no glory" "by reason of the glory that excelleth." But the law shines with the greater glory. It comes into a nearer relation to the people. It not only exists in its outward form but it is graven on the tables of the heart. Jer. 31:31; Heb. 8:10. The past was glorious, the present more glorious. It presents an example of the constantly increasing glory of God's plan, which centers in Christ, and which continually reveals more of the glory of God's law.

2. The word "church" was used in most instances to translate the word ekklesia. It had been so rendered in previous English translations, and was, we believe, one of the restrictions placed on the revisers.

3. The word translated "church" in the New Testament in every instance save one (Acts 19:37) comes from ekklesia. The word means "called out," "an assembly regularly summoned." It may mean any regularly summoned assembly (Acts 19:39), but when spoken of the people of God, it means those who have responded to Christ's call.

4. The word "church" is said by some authorities to come from the Greek word kuriake, from kurios, lord, through the Anglo-Saxon. It seems not to have been used for that purpose.

115. THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS.

Please explain how Christ was in the grave three days and nights, as he said he would be in Matt. 12:40. How does it agree with Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1. I had the subject brought up to me to show that the Bible contradicted itself.

1. Matt. 12:40 does not say that Christ should be in the grave three days and three nights, but "in the heart of the earth;" and this may mean when he was given into the hands of his enemies. Compare John 12:27, 31; Luke 22:53. Then Christ was yielded to the powers of earth.

2. A day and night, or the evening and morning, was a common expression among the Jews for a day. See Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23. In Judges 14:17 "seven days" are spoken of, which include but six and a part of the seventh, and doubtless but a part of the first. See verses 12, 18. See Esther 4:16 and 5:1. The three days, night and day, ended during the third day. Just so the "three days" of John 2:20 and other texts ended on "the third day." See Matt. 16:21; 17:23; Mark 10:34; Luke 24:21. If the three days began when Jesus was delivered into the hands of his enemies, they would include sixth day evening and morning, Sabbath evening and morning, and first day evening, or the first part of that day.

3. "As Jonah was three days and three nights," etc., so Jesus would be the same time in the heart of the earth. But this might have been only a part of two days and the whole of one. Who knows? Inasmuch as no one knows just what is meant by the phrase "heart of the earth," or just the very time in hours that Jonah was in the great fish, and inasmuch as, according to Bible reckoning, three days may mean only the whole of one and a part of two others, it is becoming in all men to speak modestly.