[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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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.]
2180.—Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus seems to imply endless torment. How else is the fate of Dives to be understood?
C.
The parable itself, to our mind, is designed to show the condition existing between those who rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and those who accepted Him; the rich man a type of the Jews, the poor man Lazarus a type of the Gentiles. The ones who believed and received Jesus Christ were taken into a position of nearness to God, represented by Abraham’s bosom, children of Abraham (Gal. 3:29), while the Jews rejecting Christ have been wandering on in darkness ever since. This can be very greatly amplified and made, it seems to us, quite clear. There is nothing in the parable which would imply eternal torment; no terms are used from which any such inferences can be drawn. On the subject of eternal torment, the tract, “The Rich Man and Lazarus,” can be secured at this office, price two cents.
2181.—Formation and Creation.
Is there any difference between formation and creation of man?
N.
Practically, no. They were synchronous, at the same time, the one issuing in the other. “Creation” may be defined as bringing into existence that which did not exist before, tho it by no means implies that the material composing the thing created did not exist before. So God will create out of the matter of the old earth, new earth. “Formation” means shaping that which exists already. The creating of man was his formation out of the dust of the earth. Gen. 1:27; 2:7.
2182.—Sinning Ignorantly.
What was the status of the Israelite who committed an offense not ignorantly but consciously? Could such a sinner repent? In your article, “Cleansing of the Sanctuary,” June 26, the writer begins with those sins ignorantly committed. Is there no chance for the sinner who knows what he is doing, providing he repents?
These expressions in Leviticus, the first part, it seems to us, are better expressed in the Revised Version: “If any one shall sin unwittingly” (margin, “thru error”); not a sin of purpose, but thru a lack of understanding of all that is involved in it. Lev. 4:2. But the same laws provided for the sins which are known; as, for instance, Lev. 6:2, 3, in which trespass, robbery, defaulting, oppression, and perjury are involved. It tells us that if he should restore that which he took by robbery, or the things gotten by oppression, etc., that they shall be forgiven him. See also Eze. 33:13-16, and many other scriptures. “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. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah; tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isa. 1:18. There is no limit to God’s forgiveness; the only difficulty comes in the sinner’s lack of the power to repent.
2183.—The Tables of Stone.
What was written on the tables of stone?
D. A. N.
The Ten Commandments as given in Ex. 20:1-17, beginning with “I am the Lord thy God,” etc., or better as in the American Revised Version, “I am Jehovah thy God.” That passage declares, “And God spake all these words, saying;” and then follow the ten precepts. Forty years afterward, Moses, in rehearsing that law, and urging his people to observe it, declared that God spoke it from the mount and the fire, and wrote it on two tables of stone, and gave them to Moses. Deut. 5:22. There can be no question as to that. As to work on the Sabbath, there were always three kinds permissible, work commanded of God for His own service, works of mercy, works of necessity. Under the first would come the service of the house of God; under the second the care of the sick, the feeding and watering of our beasts, the milking of cows; under the third, such things as were needful in the care of our bodies. No exact line can be drawn. The only way our actions can be right is to minimize all temporal work for His sake, and do all we do to the glory of God. Read Isa. 58:13; Matt. 12:1-12, as divine commentaries on the fourth commandment. God’s Sabbath is not a “yoke” to bear men down; it is made for man, to be a delight, a blessing to him in every respect. Even so receive it.
Please explain Rev. 12:1, “There appeared a great wonder in heaven.” When did this wonder appear? Was it before the creation of man?
D. A. N.
The vision was given to John on the isle of Patmos about A.D. 96. The woman clothed with the sun represented God’s church, and especially about the time of the first advent of Christ.
It Is Said; but That Is Not Proof.
THE following clipping from the Northwestern, without date, is sent us; it illustrates many other questions and answers:
“S. B. S.—I find in the questions and answers column reference to the change of the last day of the week to the first day for the Sabbath. Please give the location in the New Testament for the change and approval of the same.
“A.—There has been no change of the kind indicated by your query. The Sabbath was ordained by the Almighty, and the Jews observed the seventh day in commemoration of the creation and their redemption from the bondage of the Egyptians. The Christians observe the first day of the week in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and the universal redemption of mankind. The first is the Sabbath, the other is Sunday. Christ’s apostles transferred the religious rest observed by the Jews on the Sabbath to the day following.”
Now the first of that is absolutely true. There has been no change of the Sabbath; there can be no change in the teaching of the Book. God’s Sabbath is the same still, and ever will be. But neither Christ nor His apostles ever by word or act “transferred the religious rest” of the Sabbath to the first day of the week. There is not a scintilla of evidence to support it. They confirm God’s law, of which the Sabbath is a part, in every jot and tittle.
Keeping the Law.
And here is another question and answer from the Christian Herald and we are asked if it is correct:
“I. H. D., New York.—If we keep the first day of the week as the Sabbath, when God commanded us to keep the seventh, are we not transgressors of the law?
“Are you desirous of keeping the law? It is a step backward and involves an extensive change in your habits, but there is no reason why you should not do it if you wish. Do not, however, try to persuade other people to follow your ridiculous example. If you read the Epistle to the Galatians, you will see how indignant Paul was with the people who tried to fasten the law on the shoulders of the people whom Christ had set free. Peter, too, called it “a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear” (Acts 15:10). If you choose to desert the practise of the whole Christian church, and cast in your lot with the Jews, in this matter, commemorating the creation of the world, and not the resurrection of the Lord, you are voluntarily returning to a bondage from which you have been freed.”
What a question this teacher asks! “Are you desirous of keeping the law?” The opposite of keeping the law is breaking the law. To break the law is to have other gods before Jehovah, to worship idols, to take His name in vain, to break the Sabbath, to dishonor one’s parents, to kill, to commit adultery, to steal, to lie, to covet. What a blessing it would be to the world if all kept the commandments. Would it be “a step backward”? That is what the Gospel is for—to change man’s heart, write God’s law therein, in order that “the righteousness,” the “requirement” of the law might be fulfilled in those who “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” See Heb. 8:8-10; Rom. 8:1-4, A.R.V.
Nowhere does Paul condemn the keeping of the law, save as a means of justification. That is the thought of Galatians. No sinner can keep the law, and if he could, his keeping will not justify him for his sins. But leaving sin, uniting with Christ, “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3. It is only to the sinner that God’s requirements are become a “yoke.” God’s Sabbath rightly kept is a “delight.” Isa. 58:13.
As to Jews, Paul says: “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” Rom. 2:28, 29. There is absolutely no promise to the man who remains a Gentile; and certainly it is not to the praise of God that we should break His law.
The man who follows God is in the majority. If the whole Christian world has been deceived in receiving and passing a well-worn counterfeit, that is no reason why it should be done longer. It is counterfeit still.
He who keeps the Sabbath truly as a memorial of creation seeks in it the mighty power of God to recreate, to make a new creature. Eph. 2:10; 4:24; 2 Cor. 5:17. And so the Sabbath becomes a sign to him that God is He who sanctifies and saves. Eze. 20:12. Sunday is a sign of nothing save of pagan worship and decadent Church-and-State religion. Would God its devotees could see it as it is, and know the delight which comes in keeping the commandments of God in Christ Jesus.
THE TRUE EDUCATION READERS.
Mary L. Zener, Educational Secretary of the Colorado Conference, writes, “The copy of the first-reader duly received. I have carefully examined it and think it the best for our schools that I have seen. Not only is it good for our schools, but I think it good for any one needing a first reader. I am indeed glad that this series of readers is now published.”
Prof. A. W. Hallock, principal of Bethel (Wis.) Academy, writes upon receipt of Reader No. 2, “I have examined the book and like its contents and arrangement very much.”
The price of the readers No. 1 and No. 2, in full cloth binding, is 75 cents, post-paid; Reader No. 3 is 90 cents, post-paid.
All these books are fully illustrated, printed on first-class book paper, and substantially bound in cloth. They each contain lessons for a full school year, instead of for three months, as many other of the school readers do.
These books should be in every home where there are children, whether they have a home school, church school, or not.
This series of books is highly recommended by the professors and teachers in our colleges and academies, as well as by our church-school teachers. The books are thoroly practical in every way, and teach the principles of the third angel’s message and that which we call the Present Truth for this time and generation.
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