Question Corner by Milton C. Wilcox

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 17, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 45.

Question Corner

By Milton C. Wilcox

Conducted by MILTON C. WILCOX Professor of Biblical Exegesis of the Faculty of the College of Medical Evangelists Loma Linda, California

NOTE.—This department is for the purpose of helping Bible students. Answers must of necessity be brief, often only suggestive, never exhaustive, never infallible only as they agree with the infallible Word. Such questions only will be answered as seem to the editors to minister to the mission of the paper. Questions of the same import can not be answered repeatedly in the same volume. Name and address must be given, not for publication, but as evidence of good faith and to insure reply by letter if thought best. It is well always to enclose stamp, not stamped envelope, unless answer is desired by letter alone.

46—EVENTS OF REV. 6:14-17

Do the events of Rev. 6:14-17 come in the order given in those verses? What passes away when the heavens depart as a scroll? Do the wicked call upon the rocks and the mountains to hide them after the heavens have departed?

There seems to be no reason to look upon the prophecy in any other than as a prediction of a series of chronological events. It certainly is true. The great earthquake foretold in the twelfth verse occurred in 1755; the darkening of the sun and the moon, in 1780; the falling of the stars, in 1833. The other events come in close connection with the second coming of our Lord. The fearful shaking that will take place, and the rolling up of the heavens as a scroll, are certainly caused by the voice of God. See Rev. 16:17 and other passages. There is nothing in the Scriptures that tells us just what the removing of the heavens as a scroll is. There are some passages that apparently throw light upon the matter. We have simply this to suggest,—that when sin entered this world, the world was veiled. Man has not been able to see God's glory. He has not been able to see the beauties of God's kingdom. He has not been able to see all that God would reveal. God in His mercy enveloped the earth with this pall, so to speak,—this veil over His glory; but when He comes into His kingdom, then the veil will be removed, rolled back as a scroll, and His own people will be changed from glory to glory, and the wicked will perish under its insufferable intensity. It is when this shall take place, when the earth itself, in which men have had their hopes, is shaken, that they will cry to the rocks and the mountains to fall on them.

This passing away as a scroll can not refer to the atmospheric heavens, because it is after this that the princes and the chief captains and the mighty men pray that the rocks may fall on them; and Isaiah 34 seems clearly to show that after the desolation made by the destruction of humanity in the earth, animal life will still persist. When the dead are raised again, at the end of the thousand years, they will doubtless feed upon the animal life that has been increasing during the thousand years of earth's desolation.

47—THE 2,300 DAYS

I would like you to explain why you add 34 to 1,810 when it has been cut off from the 2,300 days with the 490 days or years.

The 2,300 days begin 457 B. C., and end in 1844 A. D. They are 2,300 full years. Beginning in the autumn of 457 B. C., they would end in the autumn of 1844 A. D. 457 from 2,300 leaves 1,843 full years; but as the time began in the autumn of 457 B. C., it would extend over beyond 1843 A. D. to the autumn of 1844 A. D. There were 490 years cut off upon the Jews, or 70 weeks of the 2,300 years of Daniel 8 and 9. 457 from 490 would leave 33. That is, 457 of these years would be before Christ; 33 years would be after Christ, or carrying it over into the thirty-fourth year. This would leave 1,810 years to 1843. In other words, the 490 years that were cut off upon the Jewish people extend from the autumn of 457 B. C. to the autumn of A. D. 34. 490 from 2,300 leaves 1,810. 1,810 years from 34 A. D. carry us to 1844 A. D. It takes the two numbers—the 490 and the 1,810—to make up the 2,300,—the 490 devoted to the Jewish people exclusively; the rest of the time, of course, to the whole world.

48—VARIOUS TEXTS ON THE DEITY

How are we to understand the following scriptures: Ps. 90:2; Isa. 42:8; 1 Cor. 8:6; Deut. 6:4?
Can we conclude, from Rev. 3:14 and Col. 1:15, that our Lord Jesus had a beginning, and there was a time when God the Father was alone?

1. Some of these scriptures are so plain that it seems as though we could have no question concerning them at all. The one in Psalms would seem to apply to our Lord. The term used is not "Jehovah," but Adonai, which, without question, is applied to Christ; and this is the One whom Moses is addressing. He declares, "Even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God." And this is in harmony with Micah 5:2.

Isa. 42:8 evidently has reference to God. It is Jehovah Himself who speaks: "I am Jehovah, that is My name; and My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise unto graven images." That is the very family name of the Godhead. Sometimes our Lord is called Jehovah. This is emphatically true in Jer. 23:6. In verse 5 He is called the Branch. "In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called: Jehovah our righteousness."

1 Cor. 8:6 presents before us the agencies by which the earth is created, the relative positions of the two Persons: "To us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him." The same thought is expressed in John 1:1-3 and in Col. 1:16,—that all the creation was wrought through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Deut. 6:4 is simply an expression of the unity of the Godhead: "Jehovah our God is one Jehovah." Many times, when mention is made of God, it simply implies the Godhead. Of course there is absolute unity in that, just as truly as though there were but one Person; and therefore it is spoken of as one. Our Lord's prayer in John 17 indicates the same thing: "As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee." And then He prays that the same unity may exist among His followers.

2. Yes, some do conclude, from Rev. 3:14, that there was a time when the Son did not exist, save in the all-comprehending purpose and potency of God. And yet there are others who still hold—and there is nothing to the contrary in the text—that the beginning of the creation of God means the One in whom the creation began, as declared in Col. 1:17, "And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." The finite can not grasp the infinite. Let this suffice,—that our Lord is God with the Father from the "days of eternity"; that "He is before all things, and in Him all things consist," and He brings to all those who believe in Him the plenitude of the power of the Deity according to our needs.

Of course, sometimes the expression, such as is used in Col. 1:15, "the First-born," refers to preeminence rather than to priority. God calls Ephraim His first-born, although Manasseh was the first-born. He calls Israel His first-born, while Esau was the first-born of Jacob. That is, God had adopted these as such. They became preeminent because of character. So Jesus is called the First-born of the dead, and is preeminent above them all, and only by His power do all the others live.