With Our Inquirers by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA · May 1, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 18.

With Our Inquirers

By Editor

"If ye will inquire, inquire ye." Isa. 21:12

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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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

2058.—Who Is My Neighbor and Brother?

Will you please tell us who is a Christian's neighbor, and also who is his brother?

E. L.

Looking at it in a geographical sense, as the world does, those who live near to us are our neighbors, whether we are Christians, or whatever we are. The etymology of the word means one who dwells near us. In the Christian sense it is not for us to ask, Who is our neighbor? that is, one who is really nigh us in spirit and sympathy. In order to determine this we must make ourselves judges. That is the question the young man asked Jesus. Jesus said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The young man answered, "Who is my neighbor?" Read the answer in Luke 10:30-37, and notice also that when Jesus answered it, He did not tell the man who his neighbor was, but told the man to whom he ought to be neighbor. The priest ought spiritually to have been neighbor to the poor Jew who was stripped and beaten by thieves. The Levite ought to have been neighbor to him. The Samaritan was his only neighbor. It is not as to who is our neighbor, who really feels near to us in sympathy, but to whom should we be neighbor, to whom should we feel warm and sympathetic; and the answer is every one who needs our help. So Jesus asked, "Which of the three was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves?" And the lawyer said, "Him that showed mercy." Jesus said, "Go, and do thou likewise." Our earthly brother is each of the poor sinners of earth; our spiritual brother is he who is begotten of Christ Jesus. See Matt. 12:49, 50; I John 1:7; 3:1, 14; 4:20, 21.

2059.—Food in the Beginning.

In the light of Gen. 1:29 and Num. 11:5, did God in the beginning intend the use of such foods as lettuce, cabbage, onions, radishes, etc.?

E. K.

Evidently not. Gen. 1:29 seems clearly to indicate that man's original food was fruits and grains, but as sin developed, evidently the Lord saw that man needed other materials, and so we read in Gen. 9:3: "Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; as the green herb I have given you all. But the flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." Doubtless purer foods can be secured from fruits and grains than from almost any other materials, but the Lord has permitted the use of vegetables, and in many cases that seems to be necessary.

2060.—The Closing of the Seventy Weeks.

Does Acts 8:1-4 prove that the Gospel was given to the Gentiles in A.D. 34, as stated in the Sabbath-school Lesson Quarterly?

B. B. B.

It certainly proves this, that they that were scattered abroad from Jerusalem went everywhere preaching the word, not only to the Jews but certainly to the Samaritans. Doubtless it was given more fully to the Gentiles after that, but this shows just what God's design was. As a people, the Jews cut themselves off in the rejection of Christ by the martyrdom of Stephen. The disciples ought to have learned the lesson and gone out in the regions beyond. The Lord forced them to do this by permitting this persecution. Being scattered abroad by the persecution they went everywhere, witnessing for Him wherever they went. In His plan, slow tho they were in seeing it, the time was then fulfilled, as it seems to us the text clearly teaches. Acts 11:19 simply shows how slow the disciples were to comprehend the meaning of the commission which Christ had given them in the beginning. It even took a special vision of the Lord to show one of the leading apostles, Peter, that God designed that he should preach to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. The question itself in the Lesson Quarterly would have been better understood if it had pertained not to the preaching to the Gentiles but to the cutting off of the Jews, for that was to come at the end of the seventy weeks,—"Seventy weeks are marked off upon thy people." Of course, when that people were set aside as a special people of God, it was in God's plan that the Gospel should be carried directly to other nations. As a nation that people had cut themselves off from being the standard-bearers of God. Yes, there is a record of the Gospel carried to a Gentile. Our Saviour brought it to the Roman centurion in the healing of his servant, carried it to the Syro-Phenician in the healing of her daughter, and to the woman of Samaria at the well.

2061.—The Descent of the New Jerusalem.

Please state the order of events in connection with the second resurrection and the descent of the heavenly city.

From a study of Zech. 14:4, 5 and Revelation 20 and 21 it seems very clear that first of all Christ comes, that is, at the end of the thousand years. As He is descending to the earth His voice wakes the wicked dead or those who have slept thru the thousand years. As His feet touch the Mount of Olives, that mount cleaves apart and becomes a very great plain or valley. This becomes the "camp of the saints." Later, while the saints are encamped on the now beautified plain, the city itself descends. Then the wicked plot and plan and marshal their forces and come against the camp of the saints and the beloved city. We know of no scriptures which are contrary to this order. It seems quite clear from the Bible that Jesus and the saints descend before the city descends. See tract "The Great Day of the Lord," price five cents.

2062.—Death of Jesus.

When Jesus died, did His soul go to God? If not, what part of Christ was with God in the creation of all things? In other words, did the immortal part of Christ die?

A. J. W.

It is utterly impossible for poor humanity to understand the incarnation of Christ Jesus. We can only accept the great facts which God gives us in His word and know that they are true because He has so revealed them. The One who was with the Father before the world was, was the eternal Son of God, spoken of in Micah 5 as the One "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting," "from the days of eternity," called in John 1:1 "the Word." We there read also that "the Word was God" and "was in the beginning with God." That same chapter also tells that "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." The Son of God came down into the body of humanity, "emptied Himself," made in the likeness of sinful flesh, a brother man, so to speak. The prophecy of His sufferings in Isaiah 53 declares "He poured out His soul unto death." Verse 12. Jesus Himself said just before the crucifixion, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." Matt. 26:38. The glorified Christ Himself declared, "I am He that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forever more." Rev. 1:18. When He died on the cross, He committed not His soul, but His spirit, His life unto God, "Father, unto Thy hands I commend My spirit," My life. The term "immortal" part is not known to the word of God.

2063.—Questions on the Sanctuary.

Questions asked by the same writer on the sanctuary question, we have not space to answer in this department.

This, however, in brief. According to the type, when Christ entered upon His work of ministration above, the sanctuary was dedicated throughout. Consequently both holy and most holy places were dedicated, or anointed. 2. Every act of ministry which Christ performed was with reference to the culmination of all things; and the entire book of Hebrews deals with the ultimate culmination, looking forward to the end, speaking of that end as tho it were already accomplished. As an illustration, take verses 27, 28, of Hebrews 9, "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment." Christ was offered as a sacrifice, and the next thing is His coming. All intervening things look forward to the last great event. The rending of the veil in the earthly sanctuary showed that the typical service was over forever, and nothing more; and the ministration in the heavenly place, the "holiest," or literally, the "holy places," began; for Christ was appointed high priest by the word of the oath, after the law, after He was perfected thru suffering. Heb. 7:28. Sometimes when referring to the type the details of His ministry are referred to, but when referring to the hope of the Christian, we are carried forward to the closing work of His ministry where the Christian's hope is consummated.

2064.—Sinning Against the Holy Spirit. Matt. 12:32.

Will there be any chance for those who have not sinned against the Holy Spirit in the world to come (Matt. 12:32), or will all who are lost have sinned against the Holy Spirit? If so, in what way?

A. L. M.

The mission of the Spirit is to convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. John 16:8. No one is really convicted unless it is the Spirit that convicts him. When man rejects that Spirit he sins against the Spirit. The Lord comes, frequently, again and again, to souls who sin, and speaks in most pleading ways, sometimes by permitting affliction; but if the soul goes on rejecting the plea until the end, God has no other means of saving that soul; he has rejected the very agency which God has used for his salvation, and therefore must die. So it is true that every one who is lost has sinned against the Holy Spirit. He may not have committed blasphemy, as some of the Jews did. He need not carry it so far as have defiant, blaspheming men in all ages; nevertheless he does sin against all hope in rejecting God's means of salvation.

2065.—Baptized for the Dead; Leaves of the Tree of Life.

Please explain I Cor. 15:29; also Rev. 22:2, which says that the leaves of the tree shall be for the healing of the nations. I thought that when we reach heaven we would be free from sickness.

A SUBSCRIBER.

For a full reply to 1 Cor. 15:29, write Elder W. A. Alway, Blackfoot, Idaho. Rev. 22:2 may be understood in one of two ways: (1) Healing in the sense of service, and is so rendered by one scholar at least, "The leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations." Just how they use them is not within our understanding. It has been aptly remarked, however, that the later generations of men, upon whom sin has committed its ravages for centuries, will be smaller of stature than the early generations. The leaves of the tree will restore them to that same stature that God designed His sons should be.

2066.—Jesus in Infancy and Manhood.

Will you tell me thru the Question Department the difference between Jesus born of the virgin Mary and Jesus that rose from the dead?

H. S. W.

Simply this, the one was an infant, so far as humanity is concerned, untested, undeveloped; the other, Jesus the tested, the tried Son of God.