Question Corner by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 18, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 42.

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."

1728.—The Sixth and Seventh "Books of Moses."

Will you kindly give information concerning the sixth and seventh "Books of Moses"? P. C. W.

Only this, they are compositions with which Moses had no more to do than he had with the Book of Mormon. They are crude forgeries, of no authority whatsoever.

1729.—Mammon of Unrighteousness.

Please explain Luke 16:8, 9, 11. (1) Why should we make to ourselves "friends of the mammon [riches] of unrighteousness"? (2) Why did the lord commend the unjust steward? K.

1. Read as in the American Revised Version: "And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when it shall fail, they [the friends, the powers of heaven] may receive you into the eternal tabernacles." That is, lay up treasure in heaven. It is not the riches that are unrighteous, but the riches are worshiped by the unrighteous. Christians ought to make a better use of them.

2. The lord of the unjust steward [not Christ], commended the steward for his foresight and prudence in providing for the future, not for his dishonesty. How much more ought Christians to take true and just means to provide for the future!

1730.—Who is the Rock? Matt. 16:18; Deut. 32:18.

Will you please explain who the rock is in Matt. 16:18; and Deut. 32:18? T. W. L.

The best interpreter of the Word is the Word. Jesus was talking to Peter. Whom did Peter think that foundation rock or stone to be?—Listen: "To whom [the Lord] coming, a living stone, . . . ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house. . . . Because it is contained in scripture [Isa. 28:16], Behold, I lay in Zion a chief Corner Stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on Him shall not be put to shame. For you therefore that believe is the preciousness; but for such as disbelieve, the Stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner [Ps. 118:22]; and a Stone of stumbling, and a Rock of offense [Isa. 8:14]; for they stumble at the Word, being disobedient." 1 Peter 2:4-8. There can be no question over this. Peter and Isaiah and Jesus unite in applying all these terms to our Lord; He is the Rock, the foundation Stone. Matt. 21:42. Whom did Paul, speaking by the same Spirit, declare the Rock to be?—"For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. 3:11. It does not seem to us that there can be any question over Deut. 32:18. The Rock of the first part of the verse is the same as God of the last part. Israel were unmindful of the Rock. Read also verses 4, 15, 30, 31. See also 2 Sam. 22:2, 32; 23:3; Ps. 18:2, 31; 1 Cor. 10:4; Eph. 2:20 and many other passages. Christ is the Rock [petra]; Peter was one of the stones [petros] builded upon that Rock. To make Peter the Rock is to preach another gospel.