Question Corner by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 15, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 49.

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 Correspondents wishing a reply to their questions must give their full name and address, not for publication unless they wish, but as an evidence of good faith on their part, and to give us opportunity to reply by letter if deemed best.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.]

150. IS SIN NATURAL?

Is sin natural? If so, where does the Bible say so? If it is natural, how did it become so?

Sin is not natural as God made nature. All that God made he pronounced "very good." Gen. 1: 31. If all things which God made had continued according to the divine law of their being, they would have worked to his glory and man's greatest good. But man, tempted by Satan, attempted to turn them to his own glory. In yielding to Satan's suggestions he perverted or transgressed God's law, and came under the dominion of sin. He yielded all to Satan, and his entire being became the servant of sin. His nature, therefore, became changed, or perverted.

He rejected the nature of God and chose the nature of sin. Therefore sin is inherent in the carnal, or fleshly man; it is natural to him, or according to his perverted nature. Rom. 7: 14; 8: 6-8; Eph. 2: 2, 3. All men by nature, that is, the perverted nature of their own, are the children of wrath.

God in Christ was manifest to restore man to the nature of God. Therefore, when man by faith in Christ renounces his ways and chooses God's ways by accepting Christ, he becomes a "partaker of the divine nature," a son of God, a new creature in Christ Jesus. 2 Peter 1: 4; John 1: 13; 2 Cor. 5: 17.

It is so in the so-called "natural world." Man had dominion over the earth (Gen. 1: 28), but when he sold himself under sin (Rom. 7: 14), he sold all that was under him, thus subjecting the lower creatures to sin, decay, and death (Rom. 8: 20); but in that glad day when man is made immortal, all perverted nature shall be restored, and "there shall be no more death."

151. WHAT DEATH? GEN. 2: 17.

Will you please give an explanation of the latter part of Gen. 2: 17. What was the death he was to die?

The death Adam was to die was simply death, the death of the whole man Adam. It was neither spiritual, temporal, or eternal, but simply death. If the gospel had not intervened, it would have been eternal. When the gospel did intervene, it became temporal. The very act of sinning was what is called spiritual death, or death in trespasses and sins; but the penalty was simply death, or cessation of existence.

152. JOHN 20: 20.

Please explain John 20: 20.

The text reads: "And when he [Christ] had so said, he showed unto them [his disciples] his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord." We cannot see as it needs an explanation. It simply means that Jesus met with his doubting disciples, and convinced them that he was their Lord who had been crucified, by showing the marks made by the nails and spear. By this they recognized him, and were glad when they saw that it was indeed their beloved Lord. It is by some such simple evidence as this that the Lord reveals to us his blessings, which we are prone to regard as strange. After the evidence we see it as we did not before—a blessing from God.