With Our Inquirers by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jul 17, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 29.

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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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.]

2150.—What Is the Better Thing?

Are not times changed since Christ came into the world? Did He not have power to change things? Would it not be better to join hands with other Christian people for the advance of Christ's kingdom, teaching men outside of the church to love the Lord Jesus Christ, rather than take up questions which are of no importance and only cause trouble, as they can not be answered?

Yes, times have changed since Christ came into the world, from various causes, but the human heart is just the same. God's requirements are just the same; and, we say it reverently, tho we say it strongly, Jesus Christ can not in any way change the moral requirements of God, because He and God are one, and He can not deny Himself; for these requirements are but His own nature in precept. Did He not tell us, "Think not that I came to destroy the law." "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one tittle of the law to fail." He can change things, but the things which He wishes to change are not to pervert the everlasting requirements of God, but the hearts that are not in harmony with God. The divine love of His soul longs to change hearts, and He died that He might do it.

God's kingdom has a law, and that law is the law of God, unchangeable in its character, the law that Christ Himself kept. There can be no advance of God's kingdom in the world by those who are disloyal to His law. There are those who transgress the law unwittingly, but every true follower is loyal to that which he sees. Only such are in God's plan.

Teaching people to love the Lord Jesus Christ is to teach them to love Christ as "the Way, the Truth, the Life," "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." If the Lord Jesus Christ were working upon the earth He would do as He did two millenniums ago, He would still say, "I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love."

We have no question to present, no teaching to give to the people save such questions as can be answered by "Thus saith the Scriptures," save such teaching as is approved by our Lord Jesus Christ. We plead with our inquirer and all our other readers to make that word the man of their counsel, His commandments their guide; for Jesus declares, "Every tree which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." It is better to stand alone with Him than with all the world without Him.

2151.—Making No Difference. Isa. 66: 3.

Will you please explain the third verse of Isaiah 66?

J. A. C.

The passage in question refers to those who are not of a humble and contrite spirit and do not tremble at God's word in contrast with those who do, mentioned in verse 2. They really make no difference between the holy and the profane, between God's commandments and tradition. "He that killeth an ox is as he that slayeth a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as he that breaketh a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as he that offereth swine's blood; he that burneth frankincense, as he that blesseth an idol." Now the killing of an ox for sacrifice, the sacrificing of a lamb, the offering of an oblation to God, and the burning of frankincense to His glory were all good things, which God Himself commanded. On the other hand, in the idolatrous world the killing of a man, the offering of a dog, the sacrifice of swine, the blessing of an idol, are, of course, all contrary to God's word, but those who depart from God's word soon get to that place where they make no difference between the things which God has commanded and the things which He has forbidden; and so the prophet says, "Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations." This is the spirit that we see coming into the world at the present time, but God declares, "But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My word."

2152.—Winter and Summer.

I was born and raised a Quaker. I have heard all my life that the Bible says we shall not know winter from the summer, only by the budding of the trees, but I can not find it in the Bible. Will you please tell me where it can be found?

H. J.

We do not wonder that our inquirer has not found it, because there is no such expression in the word of God; it is not to be found there. Nor do we know anything similar to that. The word "winter" does not appear in the Bible in the plural at all, and in the singular only fourteen times. The only passage which could in any way suggest it would be Song of Solomon 2:11-13.

2153.—Marrying an Infidel.

Do you think God would disapprove of a Christian marrying an infidel, if both loved each other, and if the character of the unbeliever was good and pure? Does the Bible contain anything on this subject, in Christ's own words?

First, it may be truly said that all the Bible is the words of Christ to us, for it is thru Him that the Father makes His revelations to the world. John 1:1-3 and 1 Cor. 1:10, 11. And the disciples also were endowed with His Spirit. Acts 1:8. The instruction that we receive in the Bible is as truly Christ's in one place as in another. And so Jesus declared to His disciples, "If they have kept My sayings they will keep yours also."

Secondly, we have very plain instruction in regard to the union of God's children with the world. The closest union there can be between individuals is the marriage relation; by it the twain become one flesh; and upon this point we read in 2 Cor. 6:14-16: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." Abundant other texts could be given from the Old Testament showing the Lord's dealings with His people in this respect, but more is not needed than this passage which we have quoted.

Such a union as this case, if both parties remain as when married, can never be satisfactory to either. The Christian's duty is to love the Lord with all the heart and mind and soul and strength, but the infidel would demand that he (for it is generally the man who is the unbeliever) should receive the first of all love, and that God should not come between the two who were united in marriage. With two Christians united the Lord comes between only as a bond, uniting them all the more closely and sanctifying the union. With the infidel the Lord forms a barrier between him and his Christian wife. Such a union can never be satisfactory to the wife if the husband remains an infidel; for there is the constant knowledge that one of two things must sooner or later occur; either separation must take place in this life, or eternal separation in the life to come. Of course there is a bare possibility of winning the unbeliever to Christ Jesus, but that is almost never the case.

When a Christian girl takes such a step as that she compromises the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, weakens the influence that might otherwise have existed over the one to whom she is married, and places an argument in the unbeliever's mouth for all time to come. Better it is for Christians to remain single forever than to compromise the religion of Jesus Christ in an unsatisfactory marriage at the best.

2154.—Forgiveness of Sins. John 20: 23.

Please explain John 20:23. It is used to me as authority proving that the priest has power to forgive sins.

T. S.

This text reads thus: "And when He [Jesus] had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit; whosoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained." The power of the apostles did not exist in themselves, but in the endowment of the Spirit and the preaching of God's word. This is shown in Acts 1:8, "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you," and in the message they bore (Mark 16:15, 16), "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned." It was so with our Lord Jesus Christ; the Head of the apostles did not presume to set Himself up as Judge. He simply declared God's message; and so He said, "If any man hear My sayings, and keep them not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My sayings, hath one that judgeth him; the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I spake not from Myself; but the Father that sent Me, He hath given Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." All of which shows that the power to save was in the message which the apostles bore, for as God sent the Son, even so Jesus sent the disciples. John 17:18. If they failed to give God's word, they failed of the true power; and that word, that message, carried by any soul who is truly the Lord's, carries with it the power to save or to condemn. This is also shown in Jer. 1:10. God gave Jeremiah power over the nations, to cast down or to build up, but it was in the message which Jeremiah bore. It is just as true at the present day. If God's true ministers bear His true message, they will have power to save or to condemn.

2155.—Going to War.

If in case of war, drafting should be resorted to, what course would a Seventh-day Adventist take if he was one of the drafted ones? Would it be his duty to fight, or be counted as a rebel?

Every true Christian, it seems to us, should be a noncombatant, one who does not take up arms against his fellows. We think that is the general belief of Seventh-day Adventists, and this government recognizes noncombatants for conscience' sake, and does not force those who have religious scruples to take up arms against their fellows. This, we believe, is also true of England. It has been tried out several times on the Continent, and people have suffered considerable hardship for conscience' sake, but in the end the governments have invariably softened the rigors of their requirements.

2156.—Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Please tell me who founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and how long it has been in existence.

R. T. S.

Briefly the Seventh-day Adventist Church grew out of the great advent movement of 1840-44. The first church was at Washington, N. H., where a Seventh-day Baptist Church accepted the adventual teachings in 1844. The chief instruments under God in the development of the Seventh-day Adventist people were Joseph Bates, and James White and wife, Mrs. E. G. White. The first regular church organization was effected in 1861. For a complete account, see "The Great Second Advent Movement," by Elder J. N. Loughborough, Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn.,—a book of about four hundred pages.