p. 5 | Question Corner by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Dec 20, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 51.

Question Corner

By Editor

1745.—God's Permission to Noah. Gen. 9:3. Did the Lord permit Noah to eat all kinds of flesh? C. F. B.

The text reads, "Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; as the green herb have I given you all." And yet Noah perfectly understood the distinction between clean and unclean beasts, and, certainly, at the time this was given there was but one kind for him to eat, as there were but two of a kind of the unclean beasts taken into the ark, while there were fourteen of the clean. To have eaten the unclean would have been to have blotted out of existence the species. The evident reason why more of the clean were taken into the ark is that Noah might have enough of the clean for food and sacrifice. When the prohibitions were given and specific animals were named, as in Leviticus 11, the law was not a new law; it was simply a repetition of what had existed all the way through.

1746.—When Men Become Responsible. Rev. 14:9-12. What point do we have to reach in the Third Angel's Message when men become responsible for rejecting it? F.

That we do not know. All individual responsibility is toward God, not men, and God alone knows when men pass that point in their experience that the heart no longer responds to His invitation. From the very fact that men are of differing dispositions, some will reach it much sooner than others; some men decide quickly and emphatically, and some are slow in decision. Of course, in the giving of the last message of God to the world, it places, as it becomes better and better known, all the nations of the earth in the valley of decision. Joel 3:14. As the truth of God is pressed upon hearts and consciences on the one side, and as Satan, on the other, uses every means and device of which he is master to draw them away from yielding to God's Spirit and truth, in the very nature of the case men must range themselves with God or with the enemy. As the world shall pass laws in opposition to the law of God, as indicated by Revelation 13, men must take their stand in the face of God's warning against the beast and his image and his mark, or against the Word of God itself. Of course when all unite against God it will be perfectly evident as to where each and all stand, but the time when they make that decision in their own hearts is utterly hidden from man, because man is not the judge. Thank God that it is so. It is the duty of His people so to labor as to win people from making any decision against Him and His truth.

1747.—Pork-Eating and Coffee-Drinking. Have we not the Christian privilege to eat and drink what we will? and what harm is there in the drinking of coffee and the eating of pork? G.

It is Satan's purpose to enslave all those who yield to him so that they can not do otherwise than to do his will. It is the purpose of God through Jesus Christ to set men at liberty, so that in Him they may do God's will or may turn from that will if they so desire. They are not slaves to do His will, save by the bonds of love, but men may turn from God's allegiance and do whatsoever is in their hearts to do, if they desire. God will not compel them to serve Him. The liberty which Christ gives is freedom from sin; to walk in that liberty is to walk free from sin; it is the resolute turning from everything that would bring into bondage. Therefore the matter of diet becomes a matter of importance to the Christian.

Every one who has given the subject proper thought or consideration knows that eating to excess, eating unwholesome food, poisons the whole system, causes irritation of the nerves, blunts the sensibilities, and unfits a man for doing his best work for either God or humanity. The drinking of poison has the same effect. Now it is readily admitted by physicians of all classes that pork is not a wholesome food. The name of the female swine and the disease scrofula both come from the same root in the Latin. The first food almost that a sick person is forbidden is that of pork. It fills the blood with all sorts of impurities.

The only thing that makes coffee a desirable drink is the fact that it has stimulating and narcotic properties found in the caffein, which taken in strong enough doses is a deadly poison. It at first stimulates various organs, just as a whip stimulates a horse. The organs are at first more active until their functions utterly fail, and stronger stimulants or narcotics are demanded. It seems to us that the whole thing is met in 1 Cor. 10:31. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Is the eating of the filthy swine or the drinking of the narcotic coffee to the glory of God?.

1748.—The Heathen. I believe you are right on the law and the Sabbath, but will the heathen have a chance for eternal life? I. W.

The heathen always have had a chance for eternal life. Over and over has God expressed the truth that He is "no respecter of persons." He has given us in the Bible a history of His providential dealings with men, especially through the line of the descendants of Abraham, showing how His great plan has been worked out and His promises fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord. He has also in this shown us how He has worked for those outside of the people through whom Christ came. Abraham's ancestors were idolaters. In response to God's call, Abraham came out from among them, but the fact that he came from among them demonstrated that every other soul could have heeded the same call. Moses went down into Midian and found Jethro a priest serving God. Cornelius whom the Lord told to send for Peter is another instance. The three Magi who came from the East to find Christ came from outside the Jewish nation. And we are expressly told that "the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him." It is not perfect knowledge which God demands, but perfect motives. The primary instruction to the great world is given in Ps. 19:1-5, and also Rom. 1:20. Yielding to these evidences of God will lead men to the light, and one ray of light followed will save; it leads to the great center of light; while any amount of light rejected leads to darkness. It is not the amount of light that saves, it is the way one follows the light. Christ Jesus is the Light that lighteth every man coming into the world. John 1:9. Even so missionaries have found men in the very midst of the darkness of heathen lands who have found the truth of God. Consequently the apostle Paul declares that the heathen world itself, not shall be sometime left without excuse, but that the heathen "are without excuse." Knowing these revelations of His will, we can leave all that we know not safely with Him.

1749.—"This Generation." Matt. 24:34. You say that this generation shall not pass away till all those things are fulfilled. At what time did this generation begin?

Briefly it is the opinion of the writer that the last generation covers the period of the last great threefold message (Rev. 14:6-14), beginning in 1844, and from there onward. It is the same as the indeterminate "days" of the voice of the sounding of the seventh angel. Rev. 10:7.