Question Corner by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jul 12, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 28.

Question Corner

By Editor

1683.—Lost Time and Sun Standing Still.

Was there any time lost when the sun stood still for Joshua? A READER.

No; there was more time made. The day was made longer, that is all; but it is called a day just the same; for it is said that there was "no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord harkened unto the voice of man." Joshua 10:13, 14. God in His mercy and might could control to His glory the sun and moon, the laws of which were already perverted by sin.

1684.—Eternity of Law.

Please explain Rom. 5:13, "For until the law, sin was in the world."

The statement means simply this: "For until the law [was spoken and written] sin was in the world." It can not mean that law did not exist; for immediately it is declared, "But sin is not imputed when there is no law." Therefore as sin was in the world from the time Adam yielded to the tempter, the law was also in the world, tho not in a written form. Men had so far lost a sense of sin from their hearts, and the consciousness that God gave His law, in order "that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." Rom. 7:13.

1685.—Judas Iscariot and the Lord's Supper.

Did Judas Iscariot leave Christ and the eleven disciples during or after the eating of the Passover Supper? Which took place first, feet-washing or the breaking of bread? A. S.

After the eating of the Passover Supper. Send to the Review and Herald, 222 North Capitol Street, Washington, D. C., and obtain "The Rejected Ordinance." The order was this: (1) The entire bath before the Passover, which John 13 shows the disciples to have taken before they came to the washing of feet. (2) The Passover Supper. (3) The strife at the table as to who should be greatest. (4) The ordinance of humility and feet-washing. (5) The Lord's Supper. Judas seems to have been with our Lord and His disciples through all. The tract above mentioned makes this clear. See also "The Desire of Ages" on this subject. We have not the space for the argument in this column.

1686.—Powers of Heaven.

What are the "powers of heaven" that are to be shaken just before Christ comes? Has that shaking begun? If so, when did it begin? Did Christ mean that He would come in the generation that saw these "powers" shaking? How long is a generation? O. A.

The sun, the moon, the sidereal heavens. The signs referred to in the same connection were literal, so also will be the shaking referred to. When God came down upon Mount Sinai and spoke His law, His voice shook the earth. Under the seventh plague, at the second coming of Christ, God will speak again, and then both heaven and earth will shake. Heb. 12:26; Rev. 16:17, 18; Joel 3:16.

As to the sending of your children where the truth is not taught, certainly it would not be best for them. While it might not be a wrong worship, it might confirm the children in error, and so lead to false worship.

1687.—"In the Heart of the Earth."

You made the statement in the SIGNS, of February 8, that the Bible does not say that Christ was in the grave three days and nights. How do you explain, then, Matt. 12:39, 40? M. M.

Matt. 12:39, 40 does not say that Christ was in the grave three days and three nights. Many believe that "the heart of the earth" means in the power of the Roman Government. Could we prove that it does not? This would make that period begin at the time of Christ's betrayal. See Luke 22:53; John 12:27.