Question Corner by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 21, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 12.

Question Corner

By Editor

1785.—Who Were Raised with Christ?

I would like to know what is meant by those who were resurrected with Christ. M.

There are three texts which seem to refer to those who were raised at the time that Jesus was raised, one of which expressly refers to the company and the other events having reference to the same thing. The first is in Matt. 27:51-53, declaring that when Jesus died, “the earth did quake; and the rocks were rent; and the tombs were opened.” This at the time of His death. The next clause refers to the time of His resurrection, “And many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; and coming forth out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many.” This certainly is very definite. The second is Eph. 4:8, “Wherefore He saith, When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive.” The marginal reading is, “He led a multitude of captives.” It was one of the ancient customs that when a monarch came home from a successful campaign, he brought with him the spoils of war and the most celebrated captives that he had taken, chained to his chariot wheels to celebrate the triumph. The captives of our Lord Jesus Christ were of a different character. They were those who had been snatched from the power of sin, and were bound to Him by the cords of love. His homecoming or entrance into heaven with those captives was predicted in Psalm 24, the latter part. Read that in connection with this. Note the call of the Lord Jesus with His accompanying liberated ones, and the responses of the angels inside the gate. Still other passages doubtless have reference to the same thing, Rev. 4:4, and elsewhere. Those who had been redeemed by Christ, who were assisting Him in the service of the sanctuary on high, represented God’s children in all ages. How they came there is indicated by the passages which we have briefly examined.

1786.—Is Saturday the Seventh Day of the Week?

Can it be proved from the Bible that Saturday is or was the seventh day of the week? D. C. E.

First of all no day of the week as we now recognize it corresponds to the Bible day. The Bible day begins at sunset and closes at sunset. Genesis 1, and many other passages. Therefore only about three-fourths of our civil day corresponds with the Bible day, yet in a general way the light part does. The Lord set apart the seventh day in the beginning. Gen. 2:2, 3. The Lord showed Israel by a threefold weekly miracle for forty years which was the seventh day at the time of the Exodus, so in that age the people could make no mistake. Exodus 16. At the time of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, the seventh day is also clearly indicated; it was the day just before the first day of the week. Mark 16:1, 2, et al. The day before the first day of the septenary cycle of the week must be the seventh day, and that seventh day was the Sabbath according to the commandment. Luke 23:56; 24:1. So far there can be no question. Now were the first day then, and the seventh day then, the same as our first day and seventh day now? There has never been any question about this until the question of the day of the Sabbath was brought before the minds of men. Then, to evade what was an unwelcome duty, men devised various ways and means to set it aside; and yet every almanac, every cyclopedia, all the great theological works, the customs and practices of the Christian churches in various nations, and the observance of the seventh day by the Jews in all lands whither they have been scattered,—all prove that the so-called first day of the week corresponds to our Sunday, and that the seventh day is our Saturday. I do not know what stronger proof could possibly be given than is given to show that the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord, corresponds, as far as the Bible day can correspond, with the civil day, with our Saturday.

1787.—Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses.

Will you please tell me where you find the proof that the sixth and seventh books of Moses were forgeries? Several of my neighbors claim that there are several books left out of the American Bibles that can be found in foreign Bibles. Is that so? and what books are they? and why left out? J. J. R.

The sixth and seventh books of Moses are fanciful things that any one knowing the character of Moses would not ascribe to him. (2) There is no reference to them anywhere in the sacred writings. (3) No scholar of any note gives any credence to them whatever. There are some books in some foreign Bibles which are not in our common American Bibles, and yet you will find some American Bibles which have these books. They compose what is called the Apocrypha, a number of uninspired books which were written between the time of Malachi and the time of Christ, of value historically and for showing the teachings of the Jews of those times. All the great Bible houses have the Apocrypha. The books are 1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, the Rest of Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, with the Epistle of Jeremiah, the Song of the Three Holy Children, the History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, 1 and 2 Maccabees, fourteen in all. These are not written in the ancient Hebrew or Aramaic, but in Greek, and have been rejected as not canonical by all Protestant churches, tho not by the Catholics.