With Our Inquirers by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · May 8, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 19.

With Our Inquirers

By Editor

"If ye will inquire, inquire ye." Isa. 21:12

[All questions to this department will be answered which to the editors will minister to the general good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. The same question can not be answered repeatedly in the same volume. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. It is well always to enclose a stamp for reply.]

2067.—Prophecies Shall Cease. 1 Cor. 13: 8.

How do you harmonize 1 Cor. 13:8 with the idea of the continuance of the gift of prophecy in the church?

C. A. W.

We do not have to harmonize them, they are harmony already. The apostle is not teaching that prophecy shall cease in his day, or that tongues would cease in his day. These were "set in the church." 1 Cor. 12:28. The same apostle declares that they were placed in the church "till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Eph. 4:13. The church has not reached that condition yet, she is still lame and sick and halting. Until that time the gifts which God set in the church for all time will remain. When the day dawns the "sure word of prophecy" will not be needed. 2 Peter 1:19. God's people will have one language, a pure speech, and tongues will not be necessary; but love is eternal.

2068.—Elijah the Prophet. Mal. 4: 5.

What do you do with Mal. 4:5 where it says, "I will send you Elijah the prophet"?

Z. I. C.

We preach it with all the power we have. That text is best explained by the later Scriptures and events. It has a double fulfilment. Before Jesus came at His first advent, God sent a messenger to prepare the way before Him. Jesus said of that messenger, John the Baptist, "And if ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, that is to come." Matt. 11:14. When John was asked, "Art thou Elijah?" he said, "I am not." John 1:21. How can these statements be harmonized? The angel said of John the Baptist, "He shall go before His [Christ's] face in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to walk in the wisdom of the just; to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for Him." Now as John the Baptist fulfilled that prophecy in part by going before Christ at the time of His first advent in the spirit and power of Elijah, so God's messengers in a far wider sense will go before Christ at His second advent in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the people for His second coming, the great day of God. It can be said of no one of them, "He is Elijah," and if any of them were asked the question, he would say, "I am not;" but giving the message of God in the spirit and power of Elijah, he fulfils the prophecy of Mal. 4:5, even as did John the Baptist.

2069.—Clean and Unclean Meats.

Please explain what is stated in Leviticus 11, regarding clean and unclean meats, in connection with Mark 7:18, 19.

T. M.

Leviticus 11 is simply an expression in law of what existed in the nature of the thing from the time that man sinned. Previous to sin's entrance into the world, man's food was to be fruits and grains. Gen. 1:29. After men sinned, for various reasons, the Lord permitted them to eat flesh. That was especially true after the Deluge. When the Lord would call His people from Egypt and make of them a special nation to save the world, He places the distinction between clean and unclean animals in law, and yet this was recognized before, in the animals going into the ark and in the sacrifices that were offered. God's word did not make them arbitrarily clean or unclean, but it stated just what they really were, and we have no reason whatever to believe they are not as unclean now as when God stated that they were unclean. The swine was unclean then; it is unclean still, and about the most unwholesome food that can be eaten. The question in Mark 7 was not a question over clean and unclean meats at all. The question that was raised was in regard to washing of hands. The ones who raised the question had no question in their own minds over clean and unclean meats. Jesus did not set aside the law or the distinction which was made in the word. The great truth which He wished to force upon them was that the things which made them unclean and make all men unclean are the thoughts in the heart, and not the particular food eaten; but the man who has the right heart will want to eat the right food, and will do it if it is procurable. He will heed in his own life and practise the admonition of the word in 1 Cor. 10:31: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

2070.—Testified in Due Time.

If Christ gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, and if He will have all men come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:6, 4), and if "as I live, saith the Lord, every knee [none excepted] shall bow to Me, and every tongue [none excepted] shall confess to God" (Rom. 14: 11; Phil. 2:11; Isa. 45:23), and if "there is no other name under heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4: 12), what will become of all the babies and young children who die without this knowledge? Please explain this scripture, "to be testified in due time."

A BIBLE STUDENT.

In the first place, this compound question carries on its face a wrong application of some of the scriptures referred to, for if 1 Tim. 2:6, 4 means that whatever men may be they will come to the knowledge of the truth, then even Judas himself, of whom Christ said, "It were better for him that he had never been born," would be saved; and if by the text "Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess," is meant that all shall acknowledge Him as Lord and accept of His salvation, then Satan and all the evil angels will be saved, all of whom the word of God devotes to everlasting destruction. The simple, clear understanding of 1 Tim. 2:4 is that God desires to have all men saved, as the Revised Version expresses, "Who would have all men to be saved." "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live." Eze. 33:11. The meaning of Romans 14:11, and kindred texts, is that in that last great judgment day even the opposers and enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ will acknowledge His power and mercy and wisdom, and will yield, as expressed again and again in the margin of the psalms, "feigned obedience." It will be the acknowledgment of even the unrighteous of the universe that all God's ways are just. As Jesus told the unbelieving Jews that they should not see Him until they should say, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord," yet the very ones who can say it will pray for the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them. And not simply sinful man will acknowledge, but "things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Now all this has nothing to do with the babies and young children who die without this knowledge. The ways and means of God, the saving of those not responsible, are not the subject-matter of His word; His word is addressed to responsible men and women; those who have not the written word, and sin without the knowledge of the written law, shall die and be judged according to the light which they have, and those who live up to the light which they have will be saved. Rom. 2:7-15. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 1 that they who die, who have no knowledge of God, shut the knowledge of God from them; and God is not responsible, nor can He be held responsible, for the results of men's sins. It is true, as has been demonstrated again and again, that men have been brought out of the darkness of heathendom simply because of yielding to the voice of the Spirit of God upon their own consciences, and have followed the true light to Jesus Christ; "for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him." 2 Chron. 16:9. Every child who has not reached the age of responsibility which can glorify God in His kingdom will be brought from death to life in His kingdom. Having no sin of their own, they are perfect before Him, and in that thousand years will grow up as calves in the stall, in the light of Jesus Christ and His glorious government and presence.

"Testified in due time," better as American Revised Version, "Who gave Himself a ransom for all; the testimony to be borne in its own times." And thus it has been thru all the generations since Christ died upon the cross. In its fulness it takes in all the ages since He gave Himself a Lamb of God before the foundation of the world. In the fulness of time, He came to die, in the fulness of time He will come again, and when His children are gathered home from every land and people and tongue, and nation, they will be still the testimony of His word that it had power to save and did save in all the ages and in all times.

2071.—Mention of the Sabbath.

How do you explain the fact that the Sabbath is mentioned only one time in all the twenty-one letters addressed to Christians, and that to condemn its observance?

S. S.

The Sabbath, that is, the weekly Sabbath, is not mentioned at all in these twenty-one letters. The only time where the term Sabbath occurs is Col. 2:14-16, and there it is no condemnation of the Sabbath. It is the yearly sabbaths which are referred to, the shadow of things to come. The condemnation there is not of any of God's commandments, but it is of that class that would force those things upon souls as mere matters of form, that is all. Read that chapter with this thought in mind. No mere observance of outward forms, whatever they are, has in it justification unto life, and no one has the right to condemn others for not following the outward form. The question is not that it is wrong to keep the Sabbath. It is not a question even as to whether it is wrong to keep the holy day or the new moon. It is this, that in keeping them we must let no man judge us or condemn us in the keeping. That is something which they have no right to do.

2072.—Remembering the Former Things. Isa. 65: 17; 43: 18.

Referring to a question in issue of March 13, especially the expression, "Doubtless there will be many in the kingdom of God whom we did not expect to see there; many will not be there whom we expected to see," does not this conflict with Isa. 65: 17; 43:18?

E. H. N.

The design of that answer is this, that we ourselves have no means of judging, and that were we to estimate character, the judgment would demonstrate that we had estimated wrongly. Isa. 65: 17 simply means that we shall not remember with longing or sorrow the things of the past, "the former things shall not be remembered, nor come upon the heart," literally (see margin); that is, they shall not be remembered to weigh upon the heart, to mar the happiness in the other world. However, before the redeemed of the Lord reach the new earth, they will pass thru the judgment spoken of in Rev. 20:4, and all the reasons and the motives of the judgment will be clearly brought before them, and in that judgment they must remember and see the former things. Isa. 65:20 refers to the new earth state which lies beyond the thousand years. Isa. 43:18 is the Lord's admonition that we shall not look to the past for salvation, but to God in the present and in the future.