Question Corner by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 17, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 40.

Question Corner

By Editor

1906. The God of the Living. Mark 12:27.

Please explain passage of scripture found in Mark 12:27: “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” F. G. K.

God is the source of life. He is a living God. Death does not originate with Him, nor can it exist with Him. It does not come into His plan. It is here only by perversions of His perfect laws. He is not, therefore, the God of the dead. His children have fallen under its power and dominion. But in His purpose they are not dead. They live in their righteous characters recorded in heaven. So when it is declared, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” He counts them as alive; for in His purpose they live, and will come forth at the resurrection; “for all live unto Him.” Luke 20:38. He “calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17), because in His purpose they are, and by His power they will live at His appointed time. It is by this argument that Jesus proves not the immortality of the soul, but “as touching the dead, that they rise” (Mark 12:26), that the righteous dead are “children of the resurrection;” “that the dead are raised” (Luke 20:36, 37). This instruction of our Saviour was given for the express purpose of teaching the resurrection of the dead.

1907.—In the New Earth.

Will there be increase in the new earth, or will the people that are saved be all that are in the new earth? Prov. 28:28; Zech. 10:8; Ps. 92:13, 14 seem to indicate that there will be increase; if not, to what do these texts refer? M. T. C.

The size of this earth and the number and character of those who would inhabit it existed in the plan of God before the earth was. The names of these characters were written in the book of life “from the foundation of the world.” Rev. 13:8; 17:8. When that number is made up the work of begetting and procreation will cease; and presumably that work ceases when Christ comes the second time; “for they that are accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage,” “but are as the angels in heaven.” Luke 20:35; Matt. 22:30. It is true that the world pictures and talks about baby angels; but the thought is entirely unscriptural. Prov. 28:28 has direct reference to conditions in this life, in its last clause as well as its first. So also does Ps. 92:13, 14 and Zech. 10:8, and the increase of the latter text refers to spiritual children. There is no old age in the new earth.

It is a great mistake to endeavor to apply all the Old Testament promises which God gave Israel to new earth conditions. God would have fulfilled them to Israel then and there, if Israel had permitted it, the sanctuary of Ezekiel 40 to 48 would have been given, the wolf and the lamb would have dwelt together in peace, and the little child would have led the erstwhile savage beasts. But Israel failed to meet these conditions; and while God will give to His people even more than human words can express, He will not in the nature of the case carry out in detail what was promised to fleshly Israel. When sin is forever over and the work of God's creation shall go on, He will use those redeemed from this earth to teach other worlds the glory and praise and love of God.

1908.—Tithing Gifts.

Is it necessary or is it required that we pay tithe on all things given us? If so, will it not include Christmas presents, as well as all other kinds? If not, where is the line to be drawn? In other words, if presents are to be tithed, which ones, or does it include all? W. B. T.

The law of tithing is expressed and implied in Lev. 27:30-32; Gen. 14:20; 28:22. But in all this common sense is to be used. The gift should not be estimated by its cost to the giver, but its worth to us. If the king of Siam should give us a white elephant, it would be a magnificent gift on his part, worth, perhaps, several thousand dollars. It might be worth that to some show, but it would be worthless to us. We are sure that God would not have us tithe it. Friends might give us a gold-headed cane and a screeching parrot, costing from five to a hundred dollars, and we needed neither, unless we desired to destroy, by the latter, the peace of the neighborhood. To our mind these should not be tithed. But if we are given a suit of clothes, a pair of boots, a sack of flour, something we needed, something of worth or profit to us, or something we needed to purchase, it should be tithed. Give God the benefit of the doubt.

1909.—"The First of the Sabbaths." Matt. 28:1.

Will you please tell me the true rendering of Matt. 28:1, and like scriptures, where the word "day" is in italics? Should we understand it as it reads, or is the right rendering "the first of the Sabbaths," as some affirm? H. P. G.

The best rendering is doubtless that of the American Standard Revised Version, published by Thomas Nelson & Sons, New York. That translates: "Now late on the Sabbath day, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week." There is no authority whatsoever for "the first of the Sabbaths." The Greek adjective, mian, rendered "first," does not agree with "Sabbaths," but it does agree with "day" understood. Note this: All Bible translations in English have been made by those who adhered to Sunday observance. Do you not think that they would have rendered Matt. 28:1 and similar expressions elsewhere "the first of the Sabbaths" if it had been at all admissible? Surely, they would. But they knew better than that. Truth and scholarship demanded the faithful rendering they have given it. Greenfield, in his Greek Testament, suggests joining the first clause of Matt. 28:1 with verse 66 of the previous chapter, so that in English it would read: "So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting the watch, late on the Sabbath [or "in the end of the Sabbath"]. As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher." This is in perfect harmony with Mark and Luke.