With Our Inquirers by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jul 15, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 29.

With Our Inquirers

By Editor

"If ye will inquire, inquire ye."

This Inquirers' Department is conducted for the purpose of helping those who are studying the Bible. The answers are oftentimes only suggestive. They are never to be considered infallible, only as they agree with the infallible word. The writer who may answer them does not consider that his opinion is infallible. He will simply give the best that he has, and plead with the inquirer to search the word. Such questions only will be answered which, to the editors, seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. We can not answer repeatedly in the same volume questions upon the same scripture. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. No letters are answered which do not contain the name of the writer. It is well always to enclose stamp for reply.

2557.—Christ Died for Us.

How, by dying on the cross, did Jesus save the people from their sins?

It is impossible to tell the how of the great mystery of the Gospel of God. The Lord gives us poor humans the facts of the matter, and faith makes those facts genuine experiences. If our correspondent will read Isaiah 53; 2 Cor. 5:21; John 3:16; Rom. 5:1-10; 1 Cor. 15:1-3, she will learn the great facts of the matter, that God in His great love for His suffering children, gave His Son to die for them. According to Titus 2:15 that Son "gave Himself," became sin for us, and suffered in our stead, the innocent becoming guilty in our behalf that we who are guilty might be made innocent thru Him. He who by faith renounces sin and accepts Jesus Christ receives the benefit of the offering which has been made for him.

2558.—Greater than John.

What is meant by the expression, "He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he," referring to John the Baptist in Matt. 11:11? Do we understand by this that there are degrees of reward in heaven?

Not at all. John came as the messenger of the King. Jesus Christ came to inaugurate the principles of the kingdom of God in the hearts of His people. And when He came He proclaimed, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." John was to die before that kingdom was fully inaugurated. He was to see very little of the fruits of Christ's labor or work; was to know very little of the teaching which fell from the lips of Him who "spake as never man spake." And the expression, if we understand it aright, means that those who accepted of Christ and came into full fellowship with Him, had far greater privileges and opportunities than did John the Baptist; greater simply in point of privilege and blessing. This question has no bearing at all on degrees in the kingdom of heaven, or degrees of reward; but there evidently are degrees of reward, for we are told again and again in Scripture that one will be rewarded according to the deeds done in His body. We are also told that there will be differences in the resurrection of the dead. "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead." But when one has greater glory or greater reward than another, there will be a perfect fitness in it all, and all will recognize the perfect fitness.

2559.—Change of the Sabbath.

Does not Heb. 4:8 prove that Christ did not change the day?

There is nothing in Hebrews 4 which relates in any way to the change of the Sabbath. What the Lord is there talking about is the opportunities which He has offered to His people. He wants to give them rest. When He created the world, He rested on the seventh day. That was a pledge of eternal rest to all His people, if they would but believe Him and do His will. God entered there into His rest, that is, He was delighted with His work. If we will only yield ourselves to God and let Him work His works in us, we shall also enter His rest, even as we have His works wrought in us. When Israel came up out of Egypt, God wanted to give them that rest of which the Sabbath was a pledge, but thru their unbelief they did not enter it. So we read in the eighth verse, "For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day." The word "Jesus" ought to be "Joshua" as in the Revised Version. The word "Joshua" in the Hebrew means the same as "Jesus" in the Greek. Joshua did not give them rest, altho he took them into the land of Canaan. Many were still in unbelief, and they went into sin soon after entering the land. Therefore, the rest of God's people lay beyond that, and that other "day" to which the Lord has called them, beyond the time of Joshua, is "To-day." "To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation;" and any one who will come to God thru Christ, giving up his own works and accepting of the Lord's works, giving up his own way of salvation and choosing God's way, will in God's way enter into the Lord's rest spiritually. That spiritual rest is a type of the eternal rest of which the Sabbath day still stands for a pledge, as in the beginning.

2560.—Bible Weights and Measures.

I would like to ask thru the SIGNS OF THE TIMES what was the weight of a shekel in the Hebrew standard.

The weight of a shekel, as near as can be calculated, was three fifths of an ounce avoirdupois. This was still further divided into twenty gerahs, each about one thirtieth of an ounce; ten of which made one-half shekel, or bekah. According to this calculation, Absalom's hair of two hundred shekels weight, weighed one hundred and twenty ounces, or about seven and one-half pounds. Other weights given in shekels can be easily reckoned from the above. Take three fifths of the number of shekels named, and you have the avoirdupois ounces; divide the number of ounces by sixteen, and you have the pounds. Sixty shekels made a maneh, and sixty manehs made a talent. The cubit is variously reckoned. Some give it at about twenty-one and eight-tenth inches, others, at eighteen inches. We can easily determine the length or height of objects where the term is given in cubits. The American Revised Bible Dictionary gives for the ordinary cubit 24 and 24-100 inches, or about 24 1/4 inches. The cubit was derived from the human arm, the length from the elbow to the fingers extended. The finger measure, the width, was used, about seven tenths of an inch. This was the smaller measure; the palm, or hand-breadth, was four inches; the span was the space between the extended extremities of the thumb and the little finger, about seven and one-half inches. The height of Goliath and other dimensions given in the Scriptures can be easily reckoned from this.

2561.—Eating Meat.

It would seem by the reading of 1 Cor. 10:27, 28, and Luke 10:8 that we should eat meat and everything that is set before us when we have to eat away from home. Please explain these texts.

The first scripture named does not have to do with the particular food. The question is, as to whether the food has been offered to idols or not. It was a general thing for the heathen to dedicate every animal they slaughtered; and a part of the foodstuffs were sold in the market, or shambles. Some who had been converted from heathenism could not eat these; their conscience condemned them. The memory of the old idolatry came up and they could not think of doing anything that would seem to them to be paying devotion to the gods. Others who had not been worshipers of idols had no conscience over this thing at all. The instruction of the apostle is, "Whatsoever is sold in the shambles," that is, presumably of food that is proper to eat, "eat, asking no questions for conscience' sake;" but if there is a weak brother at the feast and he says, "That has been offered to idols," for his sake do not eat it. The Lord permitted His people to eat flesh. The only prohibitions that He made are found in Leviticus 11 and in Deuteronomy 14. Thru all Biblical times, from the Deluge to the close of the Scripture canon, the Lord's people ate flesh in harmony with the prohibitions laid down in the scriptures above named, with the exception of a part of the time in the wilderness when manna was their food. At least we have no scripture record to the contrary. The disciples who went out to preach the Gospel of the kingdom were among Jews; those who were eating the food permitted of God, and whatsoever was set before them, that they were to eat, asking no question. The matter of a vegetarian diet is not a matter of Scripture command; let that be understood once and forever. Yet God taught us that there is a better food than a flesh diet. He has shown this in the primitive diet which He gave to man, containing no flesh; and in the manna which He gave to the children of Israel in the wilderness. Science tells us, and common, clear observation also, that the animal kingdom is becoming more and more diseased; that flesh foods are more expensive; that flesh-eaters are more liable to certain diseases than are vegetarians; and these reasons ought to be sufficient for the adoption, as a general rule, of a vegetarian dietary. The rule which should govern Christians is set forth in 1 Cor. 10:31: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." The reason why the writer is a vegetarian is that he has found that the better, the cleaner, the purer, diet. Why not choose the best? At the same time do not condemn others who may think differently, but try to teach them the better way.

2562.—Everything That Liveth Shall Be Meat for You. Gen. 9:2, 3.

Does not God say that "every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; as the green herb have I given you all"? I can not make this harmonize with Leviticus 11.

The passage in Genesis was given at a time when there was no vegetable food on the face of the earth. The Flood had destroyed everything; there were no unclean animals to eat because they entered the ark by pairs simply. There were clean animals enough in the ark so that when Noah and his family came out there would be not only enough for sacrifice, but some for food as well. The unclean animals went into the ark two by two, a pair of each only; the clean animals, seven pairs of each. The same distinction existed then as existed in the days of Moses when Leviticus was written. It is not an arbitrary law which makes one kind clean and the other unclean. This is true in the very nature of the animals themselves. If God's people were so situated that they could get absolutely nothing but unclean animals they would better eat them than starve. That has ever been true; and is just as true to-day. There are certain things that men use for food that are utterly unfit for food. Among these may be the animals designated as unclean in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Clean animals are permitted among the kinds of food which God gave to His people; some are much better than others. He has permitted a flesh diet; but He has shown us in different ways that there was a better than this.

2563.—Voting for President.

Which of the nine candidates for President of the United States should one vote for, if any? and if not for any, why?

Just now there are not so many candidates as that before the people of the United States. There may be more by the time we come to the next election, but this journal is not a political paper, nor is it advising any one as to his duty in politics. To look at it from the high spiritual standpoint, in the words of the apostle, "Our citizenship is in heaven," from whence we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. See Phil. 3:20, 21. Revised Version.