"IF YE WILL INQUIRE, INQUIRE YE."
By Editor
This Inquirers' Department is conducted for the purpose of helping those who are studying the Bible. The answers are oftentimes only suggestive. They are never to be considered infallible, only as they agree with the infallible Word. The writer who may answer them does not consider that his opinion is infallible. He will simply give the best that he has, and plead with the inquirer to search the Word. Such questions only will be answered as, to the editors, seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. We can not answer repeatedly in the same volume questions upon the same scripture. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. No letters are answered which do not contain the name of the writer. It is well always to enclose stamp for reply. The story is the same in both. The occasion was the healing of the child possessed with a demon—horribly insane, and fearfully violent. While Jesus was in the Mount of Transfiguration, the father of the child had brought him to the disciples, that they might heal him, but they failed. And when Jesus came down, He restored him. The demon was cast out amid awful agonies. The boy lay as one dead; but Jesus took him by the hand, and he arose and was healed. And then the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "How is it that we could not cast it out?" "And He said unto them, This kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer," the Revised Version has it; the marginal reading says, "Many ancient authorities add 'and fasting.'" The seeming degree of affliction has its effect upon the human. It takes the power of God to work any miracle, but faith grasps His power to work some miracles when it does not to work others. For instance, there are millions who have accepted the power of God, and have realized it in the forgiveness of sins; and yet the same power that forgives sins heals the sick, but their faith has not grasped that. The disciples could exercise faith to work some miracles; but here it seems as if it took more power, a mightier miracle, to heal this exceedingly violent, insane boy possessed of the demon. It staggered them. It demanded on their part greater faith, more seeking of God, and seeking God even with prayer and fasting, that they might be able in His grace and in His power to meet the enemy of all righteousness, and cast him out of the human temple which he had taken for his own possession. As beautifully expressed: "Their unbelief, that shut them out from deeper sympathy with Christ, and the carelessness with which they regarded the sacred work committed to them, had caused their failure in the conflict with the powers of darkness. The words of Christ pointing to His death, had brought sadness and doubt. And the selection of the three disciples to accompany Jesus to the mountain had excited the jealousy of the nine. . . . In this state of darkness they had undertaken the conflict with Satan. In order to succeed in such a conflict they must come to the work in a different spirit. Their faith must be strengthened by fervent prayer and fasting, and humiliation of heart. They must be emptied of self, and be filled with the Spirit and power of God."—"Desire of Ages," page 430. Let us not, however, get the idea that it is the fasting that brings the blessing, or the thing that we do that gives the power. It is the getting near to God, the placing ourselves in that attitude where we feel that we are nothing, and that He is everything, and then simply believing. The devil would induce souls to believe, as he has in the past, that if we fast a certain number of hours, or of days, we surely will bring a blessing; and he takes advantage of such perverted views. The object of fasting is not to go a certain time without food; it is to clear up a mind, perhaps, that has become gross in connection with an overfed body. It is to bring us into that attitude of humility before God where He can speak to us. There is no glory in the suffering of the flesh; we are not purchasing God's blessing by that. Proper fasting is not only a healthful exercise occasionally, but it clears up the mind, and disposes us to see more clearly our relationship with Him and our need of Him. 3635 — The Days of the Week
Ought not Christians to use the Biblical notation for the days of the week — first, second, and third — instead of the pagan names? D. R. M. It would have been very much better if God's children had persisted in the names which the Lord gave, for it would have forever kept before them the Lord's Sabbath. The commandment is, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." And every day, according to God's notation, would have called to remembrance the Sabbath; for the very thought of the days was, day one toward or into the Sabbath, day two toward or into the Sabbath, day three toward or into the Sabbath, and so on all through the week. But if those terms should be used now — first day, second day; or, day one, day two — there would have to be explanation connected with them, because the custom of the world has so fixed the days of the week by name that men would not recall or understand the day that is meant. That the common names of the days would not be condemned seems evident from the fact that God's children after they went into the Babylonian captivity, used for several of the months idolatrous names — names that originated in idolatry. So they did, also, in some of the cities of their lands; the words, altho of idolatrous origin, came to be understood as merely technical in meaning, without any regard to their origin at all. Not a few words in the common vocabulary of our language do not have the best origin; but their meaning has been entirely changed by usage, and so it is with the days of the week. And yet, after all, the devout commandment keeper must regret that the Bible usage was ever departed from. 3636 — A Second Probation
Is there a second chance, or second probation, for the wicked, especially the heathen, who have died, yet never heard the Gospel? W. W. P. What proof have we that they never heard the Gospel? There are different degrees of Gospel light, even to those who have the Word of God — the Bible — among them. But the Scriptures expressly declare that "the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." And then we are told that "their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." God's glory is His goodness, and that is what the Gospel reveals to us. The apostle Paul, quoting from this very scripture, says: "But I say, Did they not hear? Yea, verily, their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." Rom. 10:18. Again, in speaking of the heathen, he says, "For the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse." Rom. 1:20. Every thoughtful, reverent mind will be truly led from the contemplation of God's wisdom and power and glory, as manifested in His works, to His love and power to save, and this has been manifest again and again among the heathen. It is not the "much light" which saves humanity; it is the devotion to the light that is revealed. One ray of light followed will lead to the central sun, and one ray of Gospel light followed will lead to Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness. But one may have ten thousand rays of light, and yet turn from them all and be lost in darkness. There is a profound truth in the words of the prophet, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself, strong in the behalf of them [not whose knowledge is perfect toward Him, not who have floods of Gospel light, but] whose heart is perfect toward Him." 2 Chron. 16:9. There is one other scripture, found in Rev. 22:11, 12, which clearly indicates that probation will utterly close before the Lord shall come. "He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still: and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness still: and he that is holy, let him be made holy still. Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to render to each man according as his work is." There can be no mightier Saviour than we have now, no mightier appeals to humanity than God has made throughout the ages; and men having free will can turn from the Gospel, and would turn from the Gospel in other ages, just as they have turned from it now. God will have saved, the judgment will reveal, all who desired to be saved during the past six thousand years of earth's history. Please explain 1 Cor. 1:14-17. The minister of this city says Paul did not consider baptism to be of much importance. O. H. The words of the apostle are better understood by regarding the text. The Corinthian church was divided into factions. Some said, "I am of Paul;" and some said, "I am of Apollos;" and some said, "I am of Cephas," or Peter; and a few said, "I am of Christ." They made so many sects, or parties, in that church. The apostle Paul wrote strongly against this. If they were going to divide up in that sort of way, he would simply say that he thanked God that he had so little to do in bringing any of them into the church. That is all he means by it. He tells us that in verses 14 and 15: "I thank God that I baptized none of you, save Crispus and Gaius; lest any man should say that he were baptized into my name." That is why; that is the only reason why he seemingly treats it as unimportant. He did not want men believing and trusting in men for salvation; for Christ sent him not to baptize — to tie men to himself — but to preach the Gospel, not in wisdom of words, that men should be tied to him, lest the cross of Christ should be made void. He wished to preach only that which was the power of God unto salvation. There is nothing in the text which indicates in any way that he considered baptism unimportant. The place of baptism is very clearly set forth in Rom. 6:1-6, and also in Gal. 3:27. Read also what our Lord said in Mark 16:15, 16; and Matt. 28:19. 3638 — The Spirit of Man and the Spirit of the Beast
How does the spirit of the man go upward, and the spirit of the beast go downward? Eccl. 3:21. M. The text does not say that one goes upward and the other downward. The text simply reads, "Who knoweth the spirit of man, whether it goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast, whether it goeth downward to the earth?" Evidently men were trying to discriminate between the life which the beast had and the life which men had. They were teaching that the beasts all perished, but men lived after they were dead; but the thought of the text is that that which befalls one befalls the other. As the one dies, so the other dies. "Yea, they have all one breath;" and then, "all go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." And then comes the question of the text before quoted, "Who knows?" — what ground have we for saying that the spirit of one goes up and the spirit of the other goes down? All life comes from God; and when man dies, or the beast dies, or the vegetable dies, or life of any kind is taken away, the life returns to the great Fountain of life. And that is the thought of Job 34:14, — that if God gathered to Himself His Spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish together; and also of Eccl. 12:7, — that man dies, and his body returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit [the life, because it came from God as life and it goes back to God as life] returns to God who gave it. That is the simple teaching of the text.