2037.-Handling Snakes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Apr 3, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 14.

2037.—Handling Snakes

By Editor

[We are willing to answer all questions in this department that are practical for the department and that would minister to the general good of our readers, but we answer no questions unless the name and address accompany the question. We do not ask this for publication, nor will it be published unless the inquirer so desires; we ask it, however, as an evidence of good faith, and that we may answer by letter if deemed best. Inquirers will please take notice. There is no departure from the rule. Unsigned questions reach the waste basket by the most direct route.]

2037.—Handling Snakes.

Is one in league with the devil who can handle snakes with impunity?

There has been prejudice against the snake from the unknown past, based on the fact that when Satan tempted our first parents, he came to them in the form of a serpent. The enmity which God placed between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent has seemed to continue as a part of the prophecy to the literal beast itself that was used as a medium by the devil; and yet without any question whatever, there are very many of the animal kingdom much more offensive and evil than the snake. Of course there are many poisonous kinds; there are many also which are perfectly harmless. We can readily understand how a child that knew nothing of the prejudice whatever, that had a natural instinct for zoology, a love for all kinds of insects and creatures, would handle snakes just the same as he handles all the other creatures. One naturally following these lines would find remunerative employment in taming or handling the most venomous, such as snakes, reptiles, etc. We would hardly wish to say that one was in league with the devil who could handle them with impunity, and yet it is not an agreeable calling, and we would advise any one who could handle them to seek some employment that is more elevating, refining, and educative. To us a tarantula is much more repulsive than a snake, but we would not care to have anything to do with either of them. We would much prefer to take some nobler animal of God’s kingdom if we want to lavish our attention or labor upon the brute creation.

2038.—Public Prayer. Matt. 6:6.

How can we be in harmony with Matt. 6:6 and teach and practise public prayer? Is there any reward for public prayer but the hypocrite’s reward? Does the Lord forbid adding to or taking from His word?

Matt. 6:6 should be taken in connection with the context. What our Lord prohibits is not public prayer, but PRIVATE prayer in PUBLIC. The class condemned in the fifth verse were not condemned because they prayed in public, with a congregation of their own, but they were those who made their private devotions out on the street corners that they might be seen of men, just as they may be found in the East at the present time, just as the Mohammedan spreads his rug down at certain times of the day wherever he may be, and prays before the public. Private devotions should be in private, as the Lord instructed in the sixth verse. He certainly did not condemn as hypocritical the public prayer of Solomon, as recorded in 1 Kings 8:12-53, for when that prayer was ended God answered by fire from heaven, which came down and consumed the burnt-offering and the sacrifice, “and the glory of Jehovah filled the house.” 2 Chron. 7:1. He did not condemn our Lord as hypocritical when He made the prayer with the disciples in John 17. Neither did He condemn as hypocritical the prayer of the apostles as recorded in Acts 4:24-30, for when they had thus prayed, “the place was shaken, wherein they were gathered together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of God with boldness.” Evidently the Lord did not condemn the public prayer at the time the deacons were set apart, as recorded in Acts 6:6, for the Spirit of God rested upon them. Nor have we reason to believe that He condemned Paul as a hypocrite when in his last meeting with the brethren at Ephesus he kneeled down upon the beach and prayed with them all. Acts 20:36. That there is hypocritical prayer does not set aside the truth that the mere making of many prayers in form is of no particular benefit. On the other hand, a prayer offered in secret, or in public, if it comes from the true heart of submission and faith, is equally acceptable with God. What our Lord condemns in Matthew 6 is the ostentatious private prayer in public.

2039.—The Immutable Law. Matt. 5:17-19.

Is Matt. 5:17-19 in harmony with the fourth commandment? If so, how can we teach that the first day of the week or Sunday is the Lord’s day?

We can only say for ourselves that we do not so teach. Mark 2:27; Isa. 59:13; and Ex. 20:8-10 show very clearly that there is but one day which the Lord calls His in the Scriptures, and that day is the seventh day, the Sabbath of Jehovah our God. What our Lord tells us in Matt. 5:17-19 is that the law is not changed, not even to one jot or tittle, to the smallest letter or point of a letter that would make any change in its meaning, that it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one tittle of the law to fail. Luke 16:17. It is in perfect harmony with the fourth commandment, and shows how binding the commandment is.

2040.—The Seal of God.

What is the seal of God? Is not the seal of God the Holy Spirit?

Tho the Holy Spirit is that which IMPRESSES the seal, it is not the seal. A seal is that which gives authority to a legal document. God has given His law, that law must have its seal; that seal must show the authority of the Law-giver, the extent of His jurisdiction. There is one commandment which sets this forth in God’s law, and that is the fourth commandment. It reveals Him to us as Jehovah our God; that is His name. It gives us the extent of His jurisdiction and His right to rule over us, the Creator of heaven and earth, and enjoins that we shall remember His Sabbath to keep it holy, a commandment covering every day of the week. It is utterly impossible for one to truly observe the fourth commandment and not keep every other commandment of God’s law. There are prophecies like Isa. 8:16, 17; Isa. 58:13; Rev. 7:1-3, which show very clearly that the seal of God’s law has been broken down, that His Sabbath has been trampled underfoot, and that in the last days a restoration will take place. That is called in Ezekiel 9 setting God’s mark upon His children, and in Rev. 7:1-3 sealing them with His own seal, in Rev. 14:1-5 impressing upon them His own name and character; but the power by which this is done is the Spirit of God. And “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, by whom ye are sealed in the day of redemption.” The mark of the beast is the very opposite of the seal of God. It is that which will in the last analysis of character distinguish between the followers of Jehovah and the followers of the beast. In other words, it will be the change which the beast-power has made in the law of God, enforced by civil statutes, the law and religion of men opposed to the law of God.

2041.—2 Kings 8:26 and 2 Chron. 22:2.

In 2 Kings it is stated that Ahaziah, king of Judah, was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and in 2 Chronicles that he was forty-two years old. In my Holland Bible, 2 Chron. 22:2 says that he was thirty-two years old.

This is probably an error or mistake made in copying, a mere change of a letter, and the trouble was caused. The scrupulousness of many of the scribes of the Jews after they once found an error in the Scripture text would lead them to persist in copying it, even tho they knew it was wrong, rather than to seek to hunt up the originals. The mistake in the Holland Bible would show that the error is in 2 Chronicles instead of in Kings. His age in Chronicles would make the son two years older than his father. Dr. Adam Clarke says, “In all the manuscripts which have been collected, which amount to several hundred, not one confirms the forty-two years.” The Hebrew letter mem for forty is quite similar to the Hebrew caph for twenty, and if the ancient Hebrew letters, now called the Samaritan, were used, which is quite probable, there is still less difference between the two letters, just one little mark of the pen.

2042.—Various References.

A sister sends us several texts such as Exodus 12, Lev. 23:4-9; Deut. 5:6-15; Lev. 23:10, 11, 15; Ex. 19:1-9 and Ex. 40:22, 23 from which the individual endeavors to reason that the Sabbath was a movable affair, changing every year, beginning with the first of the year. In other words it is the theory that has been suggested by Akers, Jennings, Meade, etc., the latest advocate of which is Gamble.

The whole force of the theory is the jumbling together of the weekly Sabbaths and the yearly Sabbaths, and then confusing all who do not understand it by endeavoring to make them believe that the annual Sabbaths were weekly Sabbaths. No one ever understands their explanations, but they furnish an excuse. To our readers who are troubled with this we refer to the following tract which completely answers Mr. Gamble’s theories. A. G. L. No. 78, “The True Seventh Day,” price two cents.

The yearly Sabbaths sometimes fell on the seventh day of the week, and sometimes on other days of the week, just the same as does the Fourth of July, New Year’s, or any other yearly holiday not fixed to any particular day of the week.

2043.—Time of the Passover.

Matt. 26:17, 19, 2; Mark 14:12, 14, 1, 2; Luke 22:8, 15; John 18:28. Please harmonize these scriptures. How is it that Jesus ate the Passover and the Jews had not eaten it?

Some scholars tells us that there were two different times of eating the Passover among the Jews at that time. Jesus seemed to anticipate by a day the Passover which the Jews ate, eating it on the evening before, but He met their time of the Passover by Himself dying at the very time when the Passover lamb was killed, between the evenings; that is, the time between three o’clock and sunset. See margin of Ex. 12:6. Jesus celebrated the feast with His disciples in order that He might teach them the great lesson and institute the Lord’s Supper before He died. But He met the type when He died upon the cross, “for our Passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ.”