With Our Inquirers by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jun 24, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 26.

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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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

2539.—Essential to Salvation.

Is it necessary for a Christian to have his name written upon the church record in order to be saved? I mean one who has been, and is now, living up to all the commandments of God the best he can? F. E.

The essentials to salvation as given by the apostle Paul are as follows: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom. 10:9. But such faith means more than mere belief, and such confession means more than mere words. There is a kind of belief which is mere assent to facts, as "the devils believe and tremble," but the belief which the apostle refers to is thus expressed in the following verse: "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." A belief which stops short of righteousness is not the belief which God requires. True faith lays hold upon God's promise and makes it ours; it submits to God's word, it gives up the sin which His word condemns; it embraces as its own the righteousness which the word gives. It yields the heart that the Spirit of God may cleanse it from its sin, and write upon it His own blessed righteousness. And the soul who thus believes will confess Christ; confess Him with the mouth in declaring himself a disciple of the Lord and what the Lord has done for him, and will also confess Him by living the life which the Lord requires. The soul that does that can not be shut out of heaven by any man or any body of men, or by any organization on the face of the earth. But the soul who does that will not want to go on alone.

Jesus Christ is the Head; His body is the church; and those who yield to Him are baptized, and in that baptism are baptized into His church. That makes them members of His body. Of course all that can be done, and the name not placed on the church record, and yet where one does go so far as that, will they not desire to unite with others of the same faith? Now, is it possible that God can save us each alone, and yet He has not chosen that way; He has associated men together in all the ages, in order that the deficiencies of the one may be supplied by the fulness of the other; the defects of the one may be remedied by the strength and completeness of the other.

There are some kinds of plants which must be fertilized thru other plants of the same kind. A hill of corn growing alone in a field may put forth great stalks, and yet its kernels be incomplete. It has not come in contact with other life in the way appointed by the Creator. That is why we find many times that hills of corn in the outskirts of a field rarely bear full ears, while much inferior-looking corn in the center of a field has well-filled ears. Read 1 Corinthians 12, and especially verses 12 to 27, also 1 Peter 4:10 and see if you do not think it best that one should come in the closest union possible with his brethren of like faith, in order that he may help them and be the means of helping others.

Selfishness is developed in the one who is content to remain alone. The sharp corners of our idiosyncrasies and bad dispositions are worn off and rounded out in constant contact with others. We obtain broader charity and greater sympathy in unselfish work for God, associated with others. We learn that our work is not the only work, our soul not the only soul, and thus it is that God has associated us together. The mere record on the church-book amounts to nothing so far as the form is concerned; on the other hand it does associate us together as one body and is helpful in this sense, that the soul feels that he is numbered as one of the family, or on the family record in that place.

One other thought suggested by our querist: God asks us to do not the best we can, but better than we can. If we always did only "the best we can," it would be poor human effort, and would constantly tend downward. It would ever be an excuse that we reached perfection by doing the best we could, and consequently the Lord asks no more of us. Such lives would be sure to degenerate. On the other hand, he who sees before him the perfect in Christ Jesus will grasp the power of God to do all that God requires of him; ever seeing before him the perfect, ever recognizing his own imperfection, ever reaching out for that which lies beyond; and yet with the constant assurance that God gives His own life and power to enable us to do His will.

2540.—Jesus and John the Baptist.

What did Jesus mean by saying to John the Baptist in answer to his question, "I have need of being baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?" "Let it be so now, for it is fitting that I should do all things that are right."

Our Common Version reads, "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." See Matt. 3:13-15. In other words, it meant that Jesus took the place completely of those whom He came to save; "was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him," and counting Himself a sinner for our sakes, He passed thru all things that were necessary to fit Him to become a Saviour for our sakes. Among those things was that of baptism, the marriage ceremony which connects us with the Lord.

2541.—Tithe Paying.

Can one have the faith of Abraham—genuine, saving faith—and not pay the tithe, providing he understands the tithing question? F. H. R.

Probably not; and yet the real question might come over this, Does he understand the tithing question after all? If it is a mere matter of law to him, he does not understand it. If he looks upon it as a matter of real union with God, as partnership with the Lord of heaven and earth, he probably does understand it. How does he see it? God has made man steward of two wonderful and valuable things, time and means. Of the time He demands that man shall in a general way consecrate all to Him, but one-seventh part of that time He demands that man shall specially consecrate to Him. Of his means, while in a general sense the Lord makes him steward of all, and will call him to account for the way in which he uses it, yet in a special sense He has demanded that one tenth of that means shall be yielded to Him, to which man has no right whatsoever. One seventh of time and one tenth of man's income, God has reserved to Himself as tests of the loyalty of His children, tests of the proving of their love. Further than this, God takes all those children who unite with Him into partnership with Himself. Jesus says, "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me." He yokes Himself up with every believer; He becomes a partner, so to speak, with that believer in all his transactions, and every duty of life. All that we have comes from Him. His is the world and its fulness, and He asks us only one tithe of our means, given unreservedly as first-fruits to His work. With that proper use of means, He promises a great blessing. "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Now if one has the faith of Abraham, he will see all this in the tithing system if he is properly instructed. If he does not see this, perhaps he has not been properly instructed, and the tithe may not seem to him of binding obligation. If he will look upon it with the eyes of faith, he will see in it great privilege and blessing in proving God, as have thousands upon thousands who have rendered to the Lord that which is His own.

2542.—Why Not Observe Them Now?

Will you please explain in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES in full why the sabbaths and passovers, and seven years, and, in fact, all the Jewish law, is not observed now by Seventh-day Adventists? Was it not a command set forth by God? Ex. 34:22; Lev. 23:34. INQUIRER.

All these laws peculiar to the Jews belong to one of two classes. They were either civil regulations for the Jews themselves in the wilderness, or in their own land, or they were typical and pointed forward to Christ. When the great antitypical Sacrifice was offered upon the cross, all these which pointed forward to that Sacrifice or were connected with its types expired by limitation. There could be no virtue whatever in offering sacrifices when the Sacrifice had come, no virtue in offering the lamb when "the Lamb of God" had died. And all the things which were promised in the feasts and yearly sabbaths were met in Him and took on far larger, greater, deeper meaning than they had hitherto.

And so we are instructed concerning that law of sacrifices and offerings, and all that pertain to that earthly sanctuary of which it was said "which is a figure for the time present; according to which are offered both gifts and sacrifices that can not, as touching the conscience, make the worshiper perfect, being only (with meats and drinks and divers washings) carnal ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation." Heb. 9:9, 10; read also the verses which follow. Certainly such scriptures as these are sufficient for not continuing these typical observances, and, in fact, in the nature of things, it would seem as tho the Scriptures were hardly needed. Col. 2:14-16 indicates the same thing. The ceremonies of the typical law stood for man's sin, as a bond that had been written against him, and these were blotted out, nailed to the cross, as the shadow of the things to come, but the body is Christ. To go back to these ordinances as saving institutions is to make of none effect the offering of Jesus Christ.

2543.—Cain's Wife. Gen. 4:17.

Would you please explain Gen. 4:17. Who was Cain's wife? L. F. W.

This is not really a profitable question, but one that rather ministers to curiosity. Neither is it a difficult question if we will but take into consideration the lapse of years during which the things in Genesis 4 were enacted. We do not know how long Cain lived before he was married. During this time, doubtless, Adam and Eve had many sons and daughters born unto them. See Gen. 5:4. It was one of these daughters of Adam that Cain married. We do not see any reason for taking the ground that some do that a wife was created for Cain the same as for Adam, from his own flesh and bone.

2544.—China.

Has China an older history than ours? L. F. W.

Certainly it has. Our history is not very old. It was only in 1492 that Columbus discovered America, and at the very most the discovery of this land goes back less than a thousand years, when America was said to be discovered by the Norwegians. Chinese history goes back perhaps the farthest of any living nation, and has the longest civilization of any nation now existing. We are not to take all its legends, however, as authentic history; many of them came down thru song and story, and are to be greatly discredited the same as those of Egypt.