2724.-The Law of God by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 10, 1909

2724.—The Law of God

By Editor

[All proper questions on Bible and history will be answered on this page as soon as possible after receiving them. This will sometimes mean a month or more. We can not promise to reply to the same question often. Let those who ask read other answers; they may find reply to their own. Always enclose stamp if answer is required. Those outside our Bible Band, please enclose ten cents. This does not begin to meet expenses oftentimes. "Foolish . . . questions avoid."]

2724.—The Law of God.

Is the Law of God and Commandments of God one and the same? C. K.

They are many times. Sometimes God has given commandments which are purely ceremonial in their nature. These would not be considered, of course, as commandments of the moral law. The law of God includes in its wonderful scope all morality. The commandments of God may partake of the principles of the law. They may have to do with things which are purely local and ceremonial. Of course disobedience to such commands would involve moral principle. That is, disobedience would show that we dishonored God and had other gods before the Lord. In many cases in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms, and the 119th psalm in particular, the term, "commandments" is used as a synonym of the law. The context will almost invariably tell us how much is comprehended in the word commandment.

2725.—A Present Hell.

Kindly explain Isa. 66:24, Mark 9:44, and Luke 16:24. These scriptures seem to indicate a place of burnings. C. K.

There is nothing necessarily in any of the texts which would indicate that there is such a place of burning now. In the New Testament the word "hell" comes, with one exception, from two different words—"Hades," the abode of the dead, both righteous and wicked, and "Gehenna," the future place of punishment of the wicked. "Gehenna" comes from the Hebrew words, "The valley of Hinnom," a place just outside of Jerusalem, where was cast all the offal of the city, together with the carcasses of malefactors who might be put to death. Upon all this refuse the worms constantly preyed, and what survived the worms was burned in order to avert pestilence. For this purpose constant fires were kept burning, even as the worms constantly preyed upon the refuse that was cast there. In this way Gehenna became the symbol of utter and complete destruction, and so Jesus uses it in Mark 9:44. You will note that the same figure is used in Isa. 66:24 where the righteous are represented as looking not upon the living wicked who are enduring torments, but upon the carcasses of those who had sinned against God. A carcass is a dead body.

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16 is too long for explanation in this department. Send for the tract, "Rich Man and Lazarus," Address publishers of this paper; price, single copy, two cents. The whole parable is not the history of some literal transaction, but a representation of other events which the tract fully explains.

2726.—How Long the Law?

In referring to Gal. 3:19, you say that the law was given because of transgression, till the Seed should come. The text does not read like that, but says it was added because of transgression. The added law was the ceremonial law, added because of the transgression of the moral law. M. H. P.

When was it added? Presumably our questioner would say at the time of the Exodus when the children of Israel came out of Egypt; but transgression carries us clear back to Adam. Was it not needed then just as much as later? It seems very clear to us that Gal. 3:19 is parallel with Rom. 5:20. The argument of the two books is the same. The great point which the apostle wishes to emphasize in both of the books is that we are justified by faith, not by the works of the law; therefore we read in Rom. 5:20: "And the law came in besides, that the trespass might abound."

Galatians says, "What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come." Are the texts not parallel, and do they not refer to the same thing? Man had fallen away so far from God's ideal that the law written in his heart had become so obliterated that it was necessary for God to place before His own children a written expression of His law—a standard by which they were to regulate their conceptions of duty—their conscience. We are expressly told that when He gave this law in its written form, He "added no more." Deut. 5:22. He therefore "added" the Ten Commandments in that written form to the conceptions of truth which the Israelites had before that time. The very Greek word which is used in Gal. 3:19 is also used in Heb. 12:19 where the children of Israel entreated that no word more should be spoken unto them. That is, no word more should be added. And so the Septuagint, or Greek translation of the Old Testament, uses the same word in Deut. 5:22; and until our Lord Jesus Christ shall come the second time, the Spirit of the Lord will use the law to point out sin and make it exceeding sinful.

2727.—Till the Times of the Gentiles Be Fulfilled.

Does Luke 21:24 teach us that the Jews shall return to Jerusalem after the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled? C. K.

No, it does not. It isn't speaking of the Jews returning to Jerusalem, but that Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. That is, the nations which came in and possessed Jerusalem will hold it until the prophecies referring to Gentile dominion shall be accomplished. A parallel text to this, and one which will serve to explain it, is found in Ezekiel the 21st chapter, verse 26: "Remove the miter, and take off the crown; this shall be no more the same; exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him." Then the times of the Gentiles will be ended, and the Lord Jesus Christ shall take possession.

2728.—Provision for All.

Will any souls be lost who might have been saved had Christians put forth more effort? M. M.

We think there will be souls lost who might have been saved if effort and sacrifice had been put forth. It seems to us that this must be true for the following reasons. First, the offer of salvation is open to every soul upon earth, and God does not make this offer to tantalize poor sinners, but to bid them to hope that God's grace is sufficient to save any one whose sins may be scarlet and his iniquities crimson. For He is able to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God by Him. Therefore any one can be saved.

Secondly, we have no reason to believe otherwise than that thousands of children would have developed right character had they been saturated from the beginning with the great truths of God, as the Lord gave directions in Deuteronomy 6; but the parents failed, and the children developed characters of wickedness only, and were lost.

Thirdly, there are people that Christians are continually meeting with, who, if they had had a different example set before them, perhaps if a plea had been made to them at the right time, might have yielded to Christ, but the example was not set, the plea was not made, they hardened their heart against the Spirit of God and went on in their wickedness.

Now this does not mean that all did not have equal opportunity, for every soul is sometimes touched by the Spirit of God, and many do not yield to it. God did everything on His part. If human beings had been willing to sacrifice and labor, souls might have been won. We are told in the word of God that those who failed to warn souls of danger, the blood of the person thus perishing would be required at their hand. On the other hand, if the soul goes on in sin, every man must bear his own sin, because every one has light sufficient to guide him to the kingdom of God if he will but follow it—accept of it. And yet in all this God is just, as well as the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. We may not understand all the motives and ways, and whys and wherefores, and yet "God is no respecter of persons." If it were a matter of justice that He owed humanity, we could charge Him with the loss of souls, but never in justice does He save a soul, as regards the soul itself; but always in mercy. Justice would demand the destruction of every human being. God in His goodness offers mercy to all; but if men reject His mercy, they must die. And yet may it not be true that if there had been more of an exhibition of His wonderful love on the part of humans, some of the sinful of earth might have accepted of the offer of salvation which otherwise they passed by?

We are not discussing the theory of the question; that of itself alone may not profit, but we plead with our questioners so to live that they shall not be a stumbling-block to the wicked, but may be willing to buy up every opportunity of seeking to save the lost.

2729.—The Death of Judas.

The Scripture seems to give two different accounts of the death of Judas in Matt. 27:5 and Acts 1:18. C. K.

We think if our questioner will study the two accounts seriously he will find no contradiction between them. Each of them states what the other does not, and one of them goes farther than does the other. Matt. 27:5 simply declares that Judas hanged himself; while Acts 1:18 carries us farther than this, saying that "he fell headlong and burst asunder," etc. He probably hanged himself upon some steep declivity near Jerusalem, and it is very reasonable to believe that the rope, or cord, with which he hanged himself broke, and the consequences recorded in Acts 1:18 followed.

2730.—The Times of the Gentiles.

In the second chapter of Daniel, verse 44, it says, "In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed." Would that indicate that these Gentile kingdoms would be in existence when the kingdom of God was being set up? Is there not a certain time allotted to Gentile rule, according to Luke 21:24? M. H. P.

Answering the last question first, there is a time allotted to Gentile rule, and that time began when the kingdom of Judah was overthrown and the kingdom of God upon earth was given into the hands of Gentile nations. Eze. 21:25 tells us that that condition of things will continue until He come whose right it is, then the kingdom will be given to Him. Regarding the first question, the language would not indicate that the setting up of the kingdom of Christ was a gradual process. In fact, the prophecy itself indicates otherwise, for the stone, the Messianic kingdom, smites the image on the feet, utterly destroys all earthly kingdoms, and takes the territory. What is meant by the 44th verse is that Christ's kingdom will not be set up in any of the other phases of earth rule, indicated by the metals in the image, but in the very last phase indicated by the mixture of iron and clay. There are no Christian nations, it is true, nor will there be till the Lord Jesus Christ shall reign from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.

No. 2731.—M. H. P.—Rev. 22:2, "the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations," in all probability refers to the nations of the saved which walk in the light of the city. The healing is the bringing back or the complete restoration to the glorious manhood which God placed here upon the earth. It would seem reasonable to believe that this might go on by gradual process; that men of little stature would, in partaking of the Tree of Life, be restored again to that full expression of human beauty designed of God in the beginning.