Question Corner by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 11, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 19.

Question Corner

By Editor

1499.—Mourning for Sin. Zech. 12:10, 11.

Please explain verse 10 of chapter 12. Does it mean that a greater part of the Jews would repent and be restored to the favor of God? S.

The book of Zechariah dealt with things present, things near to come, and things afar off, of which the present and near future were types. The people of God then were types of the people of God later on. Judah and Jerusalem were types of God's people and cause in later times. If the center of worship had then been known as Bethlehem, and the central ruling tribe as Dan, under these types God would have spoken of His people in time to come, whether those people came of the literal seed of Abraham or were born of Gentiles. Neither made them the true Israel of God. Prevailing faith alone was needed.

Zech. 13:1 speaks of the fountain to be opened for sin and uncleanness. This is the blood of Christ. But before the sin could be cleansed there must be repentance. This is what Zech. 12:10 refers to. This was true in literal Judah and Jerusalem when Christ came. Great companies of the Jews, priests and people, yielded to Christ. This was not a national work. Families mourned apart, wives and husbands apart. The mourning in the valley of Megiddo was for Josiah. 2 Chron. 35:20-24. Greater than this would be the mourning of those who truly repented of sin, each feeling that his sins pierced the crucified One. The names then used are typical of the truly repentant which should come after. All Jews who then returned did, or whoever will return must, yield to the conditions mentioned in Rom. 9:6-8; 10:11-13; Gal. 3:27-29; Eph. 2:11-22; 3:3-5. Those who contend for a literal restoration of the Jews ignore the plainest instruction in the New Testament.

1500.—"A Time Appointed." Dan. 11:35.

Does this have reference to the last generation? And does the "time" here referred to mean a year, as in symbolic prophecy?

This scripture has its application to the persecutions of the Dark Ages and the people who should suffer those persecutions. The time of the end began in 1798, when the 1,260 days of persecution ended. "The [not "a"] time appointed" means that the very period of that persecution was fixed. The word sometimes means a year, and sometimes simply a fixed period before appointed.