Question Corner by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Apr 5, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 14.

Question Corner

By Editor

FROM time to time under this head, we will answer pertinent questions, the answers to which we believe will be generally helpful to our readers. Some questions we can not answer here. They are of special interest only to the person who asks them. We will not answer what seem to be mere quibbles or cavils. We do not propose, for instance, to explain, more than once a year, where Cain got his wife. In all cases we must have the name of the questioner. We may wish to write them. To the questions we sign only the initials, or another term, if preferred by the questioner. But we have neither time nor space to bother with unsigned letters or questions. One more thought: 'Foolish and unlearned questions avoid.'

1635.—Rebuke the Devourer. Mal. 3: 10, 11.

I raise wheat, and the little ground squirrel does lots of damage when the wheat is growing, mowing down acres, when the wheat is in the "boot." Does Mal. 3: 11 mean that the Lord will rebuke the devourer in this instance?

If you have complied with all of the conditions of text and context, it is for faith to say whether the promise shall be yours or not. If it were in your power to destroy the destroyer, would not that be your first effort? If a dog were biting our child, would we be content to sit still and pray that God would rebuke him? Do all in your power in His name and seek Him to do in His power apart from you what He can not do in or through you. Let faith work.

1636.—Sold in the Shambles.

Do you understand 1 Cor. 10: 25 to mean pork also?

The question upon which the apostle is speaking is not of clean or unclean food, or of kinds of flesh, but of idolatry. It could not glorify God to eat unhealthful, unclean, corrupt food. See 1 Cor. 10: 31. But it did not injure the quality of that food to offer it to idols, because the idol is nothing. Yet there were acutely-conscientious persons who had once been idolators who could not thus eat of food so offered. The apostle's instruction is that believers should not raise the question as to whether it has or has not been so offered. See verses 27, 28.

1637.—Eating and Drinking. Luke 10: 7, 8.

Shall we take Luke 10: 7, 8 to mean that if lard were used in cooking, and meat of any kind set before us, we are not to refuse it?

We should take that scripture for just what it is. It is instruction to seventy disciples sent as forerunners of Jesus throughout the towns and cities of the Jewish people. They would find in all these places presumably no swine's flesh or products used. There is not one time in a thousand where one is called to eat among strangers where he can not get sufficient of fairly good food without violating conscience or offending the uninstructed. In all such circumstances follow 1 Cor. 10: 31 and do the best you can. God asks no more.

1638.—Where Cain Got His Wife.

Will you please answer me through the SIGNS where Cain got his wife?

There are many curious questions about Bible facts and people. We could help greatly to solve them in our own mind if we would remember: (1) That the Bible record is very brief, not aiming to give a detailed history in any way. The book of Genesis, for instance, covers a period of God's providential dealings with men of over 2,500 years according to the shortest reckoning. (2) The Lord never records events to satisfy human curiosity. Therefore he has not told us who Cain's wife was. But putting obvious facts together we must see that Cain married his sister, the only thing he could do if he were to have a wife at all. Gen. 4: 1-24 gives an account of Adam's posterity through Cain, but enters into few particulars. Genesis 5 gives the posterity of Adam through Seth, and incidentally mentions the birth of other sons and daughters. Gen. 5: 4. Of these doubtless there were many. For his wife Cain doubtless had to wait as long as did the righteous seed, Seth. Then there were hundreds of years in which to rear a family. Between verses 16 and 17 of Genesis 4 there may have intervened a period of from 200 to 400 years.

1639.—Blindness and Sight. John 9: 39.

Please explain John 9: 39.

A careful reading of the whole chapter will make it clear, especially verses 40, 41. The Jews professed in their self-righteousness to see; but the coming of Jesus manifested that they did not see after all. If they had admitted, what they were, spiritually blind, He would have given them sight, even as he did the blind man. Those who acknowledged their nothingness found Him; those who boasted of their superiority were shown to have nothing.

1640.—Repented that He Made Man. Gen. 6: 6.

Please state through the Question Corner what you understand by the expression in Gen. 6: 6, "It repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth." If God can not do a wrong act, and foreknows all things, how could he do an act to be repented of?

God is speaking after the manner of men in language that men could understand. Looking upon that generation of itself, utterly depraved as it had become, if there were to be nothing more, it were better that man had never been created. And, therefore, God proceeded to uncreate those who had so corrupted themselves as to be beyond hope. Out of all Satan's efforts God will eventually bring the greatest good; but looking upon it then, from the view-point of that time, it seemed a failure, and the heart of God was sad that so many had destroyed themselves.

1641.—A Sabbath-day's Journey.

Is it right to take a team and drive to church on the Sabbath day? If so, how far? What is a Sabbath-day's journey?

Yes, if the team has sufficient rest through the week as it ought to have, and the purpose of the journey is the worship of God. "A Sabbath-day's journey" rests wholly on the tradition of the Jews, about seven-eighths of a mile, the supposed distance from the tabernacle to the farthest corner of the camp. The term came to mean in common parlance about a mile.