With Our Inquirers by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 11, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 11.

With Our Inquirers

By Editor

"If ye will inquire, inquire ye."

[All questions to this department will be answered which to the editors will seem to minister to the 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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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.]

2412.—Husband and Wife.

Will you please explain the full meaning of Gen. 2:24? Is it right for a man to compel his wife to live with his father and mother when they do not agree at all? Should they not have a home of their own?

Go back a little. Verse 20 of Genesis 2 tells us that when the Lord purposed to make woman He made her a help meet for man—not a helpmeet (one word as usually quoted)—but one fitted to be man's companion, the complement to the man; not one below man, or the Lord would have taken her from the feet; nor one above man, or the Lord would have taken her from man's head; but the Lord represented her as being taken from man's side, a companion with him. Verse 24 declares that in their marriage, in the sense primarily given, that he should be all to her and she all to him, even to the forsaking of father and mother.

In answer to the last question of our correspondent, we would reply by a most emphatic affirmative. More misery has been brought into families by the parents endeavoring to keep the young couple with them than can be imagined. Of course the young wife will make mistakes; she will not do work like the husband's mother. The husband himself, if with the wife's parents, will not do just as somebody else would do. The very best way for them to learn to correct their blunders and find out each other and come into harmony with each other, is for them to set out alone, in a home by themselves, with occasional visits from the relatives and friends. Of course at such times advice will always be given, but father and mother should not feel hurt or slighted if the young husband and wife act upon their own responsibility. By thus doing they learn.

Now this instruction may not apply to all cases. Sometimes a mother-in-law is the very best thing in the world for a young wife, one who is wise and tactful and knows how to win and hold and welcome as a daughter the wife of a son. Sometimes a father-in-law is wonderfully helpful. But these are exceptions rather than the general rule.

2413.—The Spirit of Man and the Spirit of the Beast. Eccl. 3: 21.

What does it mean about the spirit of man at death ascending upward and the spirit of the beast descending? Do we not read that the spirit returns to God who gave it, and that as this spirit returns to God, consequently we shall know as we are known?

The wise man is simply giving us the facts of death. Verse 19 declares that that which befalls the sons of men befalls the beast, as the one dieth, so dieth the other. So in that respect man hath no preeminence over the beasts; all go unto one place; all are of dust, and all return to dust. And then he asks the question, "Who knoweth the spirit of man, whether it goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast, whether it goeth downward?" So far as man can see or science can teach, there is no difference; and yet in chapter 12:7 he tells us that when a man dies the "dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it." Now the real question is, What is the spirit? How did God give it? In Gen. 2:7 we are told that God gave it as "the breath of life." Man was complete before God gave it, an organized being; the breath of life caused him to be a living being. It did not come to this man whom God had formed as an intelligent entity; it came simply as life, vitalizing him, making him a living, thinking being. When it goes back to God it goes back in the same way as it came, simply as life, and leaves the man dead; and therefore we are told that "his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish."

Ps. 146:4. He will not live again until he is called at the time when Christ comes, when the dead shall be raised. Then and not till then shall we know as we are known. Then and not till then will the good be rewarded. Matt. 16:27.

2414.—Individual Communion Cups.

Do you not think it would be better to have individual communion cups in these days when there is so much disease, especially throat and lung diseases?

There are many who so think, and in not a few churches thruout Christendom, of many denominations, individual communion cups are in vogue. That they are more hygienic, more cleanly and neat, there is no question, and yet so far as the writer can recall he never heard of a case where disease was communicated by the communion cup. Naturally the writer has a feeling of prejudice against them, and yet at the same time when there are so many devoted, earnest children of God who feel that they are the better thing, he certainly would not count it essential to differ from them. It is true that the views of some who are weak affect their faith in the power of God to preserve them from disease, while others look upon it in this way, that when we can prevent anything of that kind of ourselves, and when all the wine is taken from the one receptacle, why is it not just as proper to pour it out into individual cups as to pass it to individuals from several glasses, especially if the church is large? And really we can see no argument against it.

2415.—Multitudinous Wives. Deut. 17: 17; 1 Kings 15: 5, the last part.

How do these scriptures harmonize? In Deuteronomy plurality of wives is forbidden. See 1 Kings 15: 15, the last part.

The thought is evidently that David, who did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, had a plurality of wives. It is true that David had a plurality of wives, and it is true that he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as far as he saw. Whenever he was reproved of God, whenever his wrong course was pointed out to him, he repented and humbled himself before God and did just what God asked of him. But he did not see all things, any more than did Abraham or Jacob, but his heart was to do right, and God accepted him because of his fulness of purpose. See 2 Chron. 16:9.

2416.—Mohammedans a Subject of Prophecy.

Are the Mohammedans a subject of special prophecy? If so give reference to the prophecy.

Revelation 9 clearly refers to the Saracens and the Mohammedans. If you wish a full exposition of it, we refer you to "Thoughts on Daniel and Revelation," by U. Smith. We have not space in this department to give it attention.

2417.—Free Will and Repentance. Matt. 11: 23-25.

If Sodom would have repented under the preaching of Jesus, how can it be said that everything that could be done for man's salvation, consistent with free will, was done?

Evidently as mighty works could have been wrought in Sodom as in Capernaum, as there is no limit to the power of God; and yet all that He does is done with wisdom and prudence. Eph. 1:8. He uses no unnecessary power. There certainly was light sufficient and grace sufficient in the days of Sodom to save men out of that awful condition. It was certainly enough to save Lot and bring him out of the awful corruption for a better start in life. It would have been true with all the others if they had listened to Lot's words. Of course, if the overwhelming power of God had been wrought among them, it would doubtless have terrorized them. The thought of the text, however, is this, to our minds, Capernaum sinned against far greater light than did Sodom, and therefore Sodom's award in the judgment will be far less than will be that of Capernaum. We may not understand all the reasons as to why God deals as He does, but we may truly believe that all have sufficient grace, if rightly employed, to insure salvation, tho, of course, all are not equally favored. It is the heart, the motive, that God requires. 2 Cor. 16:9. Sometimes the work of God is hindered by others, by the conditions of the state or government in which souls may live, or by a long line of ancestry which have persistently shut away God from their knowledge. It is certainly much easier to see the reasonableness of God's justice in all this from the simple viewpoint that the wages of sin is death, and not eternal life in misery.

2418.—A. W. J. H.—Those who are saved in all ages are saved by the same means, the mighty power of God thru faith. Faith sometimes was manifested in one way, at other times in another way. Abel manifested by his offering the sacrifice which typified the coming Redeemer, and he showed his faith in One who was to die that he might live. Those who have faith in Christ now look back to Him as the Lamb slain on Calvary, but who pleads for us in heaven above. It is only thru Christ and His character and His offering that we are saved, and the power that is furnished to believers of God, by which they are enabled to exemplify Him in their lives, is the power of the Spirit. There have been changes in ceremonies necessitated by developments in the plan of salvation, but there has been no change in God's great moral principles of His plan for saving men.

2419.—Cain's Wife.—Gen. 4: 17.—In reply to Bible Band No. 640: (1) There are two theories as to Cain's wife. One is that he married another of Adam's children, who must have been a sister. Objection against intermarriage in that early day before the race was corrupt and when the blood was pure would not be so strong as in later ages. Another theory is that God created for Cain a wife as He did for Adam. This would not at all militate against the idea of all the race springing from one pair. (2) The angel who wrestled with Jacob (Gen. 32:24), was the Archangel Michael, the Son of God. This the very record itself shows clearly. He is spoken of in Ex. 23:23 as "Mine Angel." Note also the dignity conferred upon Him in verses 20 and 21. See also Isa. 63:9.

2420.—Alpha and Omega. Rev. 1: 11.

I notice that the expression, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last," is omitted in the A.R.V. Can you give a good and Scriptural reason for this?

Evidently our inquirer has reference to Rev. 1:11. The reason why it is omitted is because it is not in the best Greek copies. Dean Alford says, "It is omitted by all old manuscripts and versions." Evidently it was introduced by some of the later copyists, first as a gloss, and afterward copied in the text by mistake. It does not alter any essential teaching of the scripture, however.

2421.—A. B.—1 Thess. 5: 23; Heb. 4: 12; Matt. 10: 28.—In these scriptures soul and body do not mean the same thing. Both terms have at least three different meanings in the word of God, as has been stated before. Here three separate things are indicated: the body, the flesh; the soul, the physical life; the spirit, the spiritual life. The sons of God referred to in Genesis 6 were the descendants of Seth who were faithful to God, and who called themselves by the name of the Lord, according to the margin of Gen. 4:26.