p. 2 | With Our Inquirers by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA · Sep 25, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 39.

With Our Inquirers

By Editor

"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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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.]

2229.—Bible Versions.

Why do you not quote from the accepted version? Many people do not have the American Standard and think you are misquoting Scripture. E. M.

The SIGNS OF THE TIMES carries this note constantly on its last page: Our authority is the Bible, the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. When the Common ("King James," or "Authorized") Version, or the American Standard Revised Version is used, quotations will not be designated in reference. Any Bible quotation in this paper, therefore, differing from the Common Version, unless otherwise indicated will be almost invariably from the American Standard edition of the Revised Bible, copyright 1901, by Thomas Nelson & Sons. When the quotations differ from the Common Version, and no other reference is given, the reader may know that it is from the Revised Version. We quote from the American Standard Revision because it is the very best translation there is in existence. It is made from the best Greek and Hebrew copies and by scholars who have studied upon the meanings of the exact words many years longer than did those who translated the Common Version. The Bible is God's Letter to His children. That Letter comes to a large mass who are in the world in a language they do not understand. They desire to know what He says, they wish to be able to read the Father's Letter to them, and therefore they get it translated into the language which they speak. The child of a loving father would want to be sure of his father's words, therefore he would not be content with merely one translation of those words, he would want more than one; he would get some other scholar or scholars to render it into his own tongue. And that is what they have with the different translations of the Bible. The scholarship of the men in the matter of the translation will usually guard against theological errors. That man makes mistakes sometimes is doubtless true, but the translators have endeavored faithfully, earnestly, studiously, to give the words of the original. We can not take the space in this department to give the many reasons why the American Standard Revised Version is better. This we may do in an article in the future, but we can assure our readers that almost invariably they are getting the thought of the words of the language in which the Lord gave His Book to us better thru the American Standard Revised Version than they are in the Common Version. The agreement of the two, however, shows that we can depend upon the Bible.

2230.—The Witch of Endor.

Will you kindly explain 1 Sam. 28:14, 15? A. M.

Please explain thru your paper the story of the witch of Endor and Saul. 1 Samuel 28. In the 12th verse we read that the woman was frightened when she saw Samuel; why should she be frightened when she saw Samuel when she professed to bring him from the dead? How did Samuel's appearance enable her to recognize Saul and his deception to her? E. M. R.

It is necessary to keep in mind several things in order better to understand this scripture. (1) God forbade any communication with those that had familiar spirits or with wizards or witches. Lev. 19:31; 20:6. Not only that, but He had given command that witches should be destroyed, because their very presence among His children would be the means of eternally destroying many; and in harmony with this Saul himself "had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land." 1 Sam. 28:3. 2. The Lord refused to answer Saul in any way. "And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets." Saul's disobedience to God had cut himself off from further instruction. This of itself shows that when the Lord leaves His regular manner of communicating with His children He would certainly not stoop to use an emissary of the devil to answer them. 3. When God refused to hear Saul, then Saul went to one that had a familiar spirit, or a demon. Verses 7 and 8. 4. It is the purpose of the great deceiver to satisfy the desire of the souls who seek him by deception. Saul asked for Samuel. It was the devil's purpose to simulate Samuel, and so when the woman called the familiar spirit, "an old man," appearing as Samuel did before he died, came before her. 5. The first thing the familiar spirit did was to warn the woman and tell her that Saul was deceiving her. 6. The king did not see Samuel at all, but "perceived"—concluded—that it was Samuel from the description which the woman gave. 7. It is utterly inconceivable, even according to the erroneous theories of the immortality of the soul, that this was Samuel, for, according to those theories, Samuel's soul would have been in Paradise, and yet this one who appeared to the woman is represented as coming up out of the earth, here at Endor, when Samuel was buried in Ramah. Then, too, if Samuel were called back from his abode with the Lord, would he still be an old man, bowed and decrepit? The whole account is utterly inconsistent with the idea that it was Samuel. The devil deceived the woman who was looking for something of that kind by sending the thing for which she was looking. 8. This familiar spirit tells Saul that in the battle which was soon to take place with the Philistines he would be slain. "To-morrow," he declares, "shalt thou and thy sons be with me." Verse 19. But there seems very good evidence to believe that it was not until the day after that Saul was slain. 9. Another and very conclusive reason which shows that the spirit was not Samuel, but was a deceiver, is that the Lord brought judgment upon Saul for the very reason that he sought after the evil spirit. 1 Chron. 10:13, 14. Note that it was because Saul asked counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it, and inquired not of the Lord; therefore He slew him. Satan comes in the guise of the spirit of the dead. When it is a well-known fact that men can so simulate and imitate men as to deceive effectually, how much more reasonable it is that Satan can imitate those who are gone.

2231.—The Dam and Its Young; Care of Birds.

Why are the commands found in Lev. 22:28 and Deut. 22:6 given? There may be reasons which we do not understand; reasons which God Himself gives, for some of His laws are certainly sufficient to show that all His laws are just and right, and whenever we know what the reason is, it is always a practical one. We certainly can believe the same concerning these commandments. Evidently it was that cruelty might not be developed in the minds of His people. Wholesale slaughter always rouses more of the cruelty and heartlessness in man than does the individual killing.

2232.—Living and Dead. Eccl. 9:5.

Please explain Eccl. 9:5. A. M.

The text reads: "For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten." We do not know how the text can be made any plainer than it is. It simply declares that the living know that the end of all mortals is death; and the second statement is that the dead do not know anything, that there is no more reward for them here, and that as a general thing they are forgotten by those who live. This is emphasized in the next verse, "Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun." That certainly shows very clearly that they do not come back and communicate with the living, as spiritualists claim. 1 Cor. 15:29 has been answered frequently in the paper and we can not repeat it now.

2233.—Riding to Church.

As I am not able to walk five or six miles to church, is it wrong or does it break the Sabbath to ride on the cars to the church? J. J. R.

Personally we do not so consider it. We are taking a public conveyance with the running of which we have nothing to do, and it seems to us it would be no more breaking the Sabbath than to hitch up a horse for the purpose of driving to the place of worship. Certainly the apostle Paul and God's servants of old took sea voyages, a part of which must have been sailed on the Sabbath. If the ride is taken for the pleasure of the ride, that is one thing, but if taken for the service and worship of God, it is, it seems to us, proper.

2234.—Living Prophets.

Is it possible that there is any true prophet living in the true church of Christ?

It certainly is. If it is true, as has been referred to, that "God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets," they certainly ought to be in His church to-day. Not only that, but we are assured in various passages of scripture that the church which is looking forward and waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, will come behind in no gift. 1 Cor. 1:7. She will possess the Spirit of prophecy. Rev. 12:17; 19:10.

2235. Ruling with a Rod of Iron.

What does it mean where it says that the Lord will rule with a rod of iron? J. P.

The passage is found in Ps. 2:9, "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Also in Rev. 12:5, "Who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron." See also Rev. 2:27; 19:15, and elsewhere. The prophecy refers to the work of judgment, not to the eternal rule of Christ. In the scales of infinite Justice the nations will be weighed, and the ruling with the rod of iron will be the destruction at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this will be but the fruits of their own sowing.

2236.—Calling of the Ministry.

How should the ministry be called to preach in the church of Christ? W. E. R.

In just whatever way it pleases God thru His Spirit to call. Sometimes He calls an individual thru another; sometimes by His own invisible agency He calls the individual. He has His own way, adapted to the needs and temperament of the individual. Should you ask the experience of a great many devoted, earnest, faithful ministers of God, you would find that they would differ greatly in the way in which the Lord called them to preach His Gospel.

2237.—Question on Marriage.

Is it right for a man to marry who does not want to rear a family of children, or even one? S.

Normally, no. And yet there might be circumstances to justify such a step. There are those who have loved women that were utterly unable to bear children, and have married them to give them a home. Such cases are unusual. It is therefore impossible for us to say what is right or wrong. That must be left with those who marry. It lies between them and God. Yet the normal condition and results of true marriage is the rearing of offspring. A home without children is much more likely to be a self-centered, selfish home. Nothing so develops true, strong character in man and woman as the right rearing and training of children.