Question Corner by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 30, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 26.

Question Corner.

By Editor

"If ye will inquire, inquire ye." "But avoid foolish questions."

[From time to time we will reply under this head, if deemed advisable, to such candid inquiries as may be sent us. Correspondents wishing a reply to their questions must give their full name and address, for publication unless they wish, but as an evidence of good faith on their part, and to give us opportunity to reply by letter if deemed best. It is always well to inclose stamp. Let the questions be short and pointed, and such as may be answered in limited space. The questions will be numbered continuously.]

142. Luke 11: 24-26.

In your Question Corner please explain Luke 11:24-26 and Heb. 6: 4-6.

For explanation of the latter text see SIGNS OF THE TIMES No. 25, question No. 138, page 392. Luke 11: 24-26 reads as follows:—

"When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I come out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself: and they enter in, and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first."

It was no doubt spoken in regard to the Jewish people. They had, as a people, been cleansed from their wickedness through the goodness of God, but instead of being filled with the fruits of righteousness by faith, their house had been left empty. They had swept and garnished it by their own high professions and formalities and their outward works of humility and righteousness; they were like whited sepulchers, which appear beautiful outward, but, not having invited the Lord to take his dwelling with them, they had left themselves just where the evil spirit could return with sevenfold power, as it did in their rejection of Jesus Christ. It was true of them in the time of our Saviour. Under the powerful influence and preaching of John, many, no doubt, turned for a while from their sins, but instead of receiving Christ, whom John preached, the heart was left empty, and Satan came in and took the place which should have been occupied by Christ, and the nation went on from bad to worse, till it crucified its Lord. It is just as true as regards individuals. Sometimes the grace of the Lord comes to a man and casts out of him the demon of some habit, breaks the chain of some iniquity. Of course the angel of evil that has led him in the habit before is here represented as going through forsaken places seeking rest but finding none, and finally says, "I will go back to the one from whence I was cast out;" he comes back; he finds the individual free from the bondage of habit, but he has not accepted Him who relieved him from the bondage. The man stands in his own strength, and man's strength against Satan is nothing, and so the unclean spirit comes into the empty house with seven others, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So it is, and so it will be, with every individual who seeks to free himself without Christ. In order that we may not only be released but kept we must have Christ dwelling within. We must grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

143. BACKSLIDING AND THE PRODIGAL SON.

Kindly explain Heb. 6: 4-6, and also the parable of the prodigal son. In Heb. 6: 4-6 it seems impossible for the backslider to return, but the prodigal son seems to have returned, and was received by his father.

For a brief explanation of Heb. 6: 4-6 see question No. 138, on page 392 of No. 25 of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. That scripture does not imply that the individual cannot return, but that he will not return. It says that "it is impossible to renew them;" that is, no outward inducement of friends will bring them back to God. The desire to return is gone. The parable of the prodigal son is too plain to need explanation. Any soul, it matters not who he may be, that longs to return to his Father's house may return and find welcome, just the same as the younger son, who had wasted his substance, found welcome with his earthly father. Every desire which the backslider has to come back to his Father's house is but the echo of the pleading voice of the Spirit of God.

Every longing for the good which is to be found alone in Christ, is born of the love by which God calls the backslider to return. And God is as much more willing to receive us than the earthly father was to receive his son as heaven is higher than the earth. Isa. 55: 7-9. Read the description of backslidden Judah and Israel in Jer. 2 and 3, and then read Jer. 3: 22, "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings." And again, Jer. 4: 1, "If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me." In fact, the record of all God's dealings with his people shows that he "delighteth in mercy," and that there is nothing he longs for so much as to have the backslider and the sinner come to him. He says, "Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why wilt ye die, O house of Israel?" Eze. 33: 11. If we will but come as did the prodigal, saying, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son," yet with simple faith in God's goodness, the Lord will receive us.

144. CHRIST ON THE CROSS.

Did the wrath of God, and man, and Satan all meet on our Saviour as he hung upon the cross or was it we that "esteemed him smitten of God, and afflicted"? Was he not that same beloved Son at his darkest hour as he was at his baptism?

• Christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree, as the apostle declares. 1 Peter 2: 24. See also Isa. 53: 4, 5, 6, 11. God made him to be sin for us, and therefore he bore the consequence of sin, which is death. In this sense only did the wrath of God rest upon him. Of course it was Satan's hope that he might be destroyed, and so it was the hope of Satan's agents, wicked men. The prophet, speaking for the Jews at the time of the crucifixion, says, "We did esteem him smitten of God and afflicted," but he was not so because of his own sins, but because he bore our sins; and he was indeed the same beloved Son when he hung upon the cross and the horrors and darkness of death were around him as he was at his baptism and his transfiguration. The crucifixion was but the culmination of all that he did for man. He humiliated himself for man, even unto death. Death was the climax of all. But in it all he was submissive to God's will, and in it all God regarded him with the most tender favor. It was our sins which he bore for us, and which hid from Jesus, through his humanity, the Father's face, and caused him to cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Sometimes an overwhelming sense of our own sins brings the same feelings to us, but that does not mean that God has forsaken us.

145. SEEING GOD FACE TO FACE.

Please show the harmony between the statement made in Ex. 33: 20, that no man should see God's face and live, and that in Num. 14: 14, which declares that the Lord is seen face to face.

The passage in Ex. 33: 20 has reference to God and his ineffable glory. Moses pleads, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory," and Jehovah answers, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee," but "thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me, and live." That is, no man in his mortal, sinful condition could look upon his face and live. It was for this very reason that God manifested himself in his Son. That Son took upon himself the form of a servant, and, while the character of God was in him, yet the glory of that character was veiled in the position which he assumed; in the ancient times, in the form of an angel; after his incarnation, in the form of a man. As an angel Jacob looked upon him (Gen. 32: 30), and so also did others; but as the all-glorious Deity no man could nor can behold him until he stands complete in God's image. And there is this distinction made between God the Father and God the Son. No man has beheld the Father; the Son alone reveals him. Matt. 11: 27. So when the Son comes in all the glory of the Father, the wicked will not be able to behold that glory, but will perish in its presence.