Question Corner by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · May 9, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 19.

Question Corner

By Editor

1816.—Apostles Now.

If there is to be a restoration of all the gifts in the church, why do we not have apostles now?

Are you sure we do not? The word "apostle" means "messenger," "one sent." Has not God apostles among His workers, upon whom He has bestowed His Spirit, who are messengers to unopened fields, and through whom God works? Sometimes we do not see God's gifts and blessings before our eyes.

For answer to your second question on Acts 19: 5, 6 write to your conference president or to the Review and Herald, Washington, D. C.

1817.—Is it in the Future Life?

Please explain Isa. 65: 20, 22. What is meant by the tree in this connection?

1. Isa. 65: 17-25 is a vivid description of the blessed future of God's people who are faithful to Him. It is clothed in the words and language of that time.

2. Verse 17 refers to the new earth, indicating its great superiority over everything men have known here, so much so that we shall never recall them with regret, if at all.

3. The Jerusalem here mentioned is the New Jerusalem, which shall come down out of heaven from God. Rev. 21: 1-5; Isa. 62: 1-5; 54: 4, 5, and other scriptures.

4. In contrast with these times, from that day forward "there shall be no more thence [from that earth] an infant" or a failing old man. Why?—Because before that time arrives when the righteous shall enter into rest, those doomed to death will have died.

5. The hundred years there mentioned may be the "little season" after the resurrection of the wicked. Rev. 20: 3, 5, 7-10. During this time those who are young in years and sin can live to the age of the period permitted, and the more aged sinner continues also, doomed at the close of the one hundred years, the little season, to die eternally.

6. Thenceforward God's children will live in peace and joy unutterable. The tree referred to is doubtless the tree of life, in the midst of the Paradise of God. They are the children of God forevermore.

1818.—The Highway of Isa. 11: 16.

What is meant by this highway?

That highway is the way of God's commandments in Christ Jesus, the only way of salvation which the Scriptures offer.

1819.—The Hour of Temptation. Rev. 3: 10.

What and when is the hour of temptation? Is the hour symbolical? Also the half-hour silence in heaven of Rev. 8: 1, how long is it?

The hour of temptation, or sore trial, to God's people is when the secular powers of earth unite to give their power to the apostate church, and the power of that union is thrown against the devoted children of God, the only ones who protest against the union and the unscriptural claims of apostasy.

Then the ten horns will unite to give their power and strength to the beast, and the harlot church shall say, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow." See Rev. 17: 12, 13; 18: 10, 17, 19; 3: 10. We believe it to be symbolical time—fifteen days, one twenty-fourth part of a year. Rev. 8: 1 is proportional time.

1820.—"Sprinkle Clean Water." Eze. 36: 25-27.

In Eze. 36: 25 it reads, "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean." Does this mean a form of baptism practised in that dispensation before Christ? Or what does sprinkle mean? In Heb. 10: 22 it speaks of "having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." Will you please enlighten us through the Signs on this subject?

No, the sprinkling there referred to is no form of baptism. The reference is to Lev. 14: 1-8. The sprinkling of water in these ancient ceremonies was an authoritative declaration, a judicial pronouncement, that the person was clean. So God will cleanse His people in no ceremonial way, but by the washing of water by His own pure Word. The form of baptism in pre-Christian times was immersion. The thought in Heb. 10: 22 is the same.