p. 5 | WITH OUR INQUIRERS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Dec 23, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 35, No. 21.

WITH OUR INQUIRERS

By Editor

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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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

2680.—The Creation of Angels.

Is there any place in the Bible where it tells of God creating angels? Or does it tell of God making a beautiful angel called Lucifer?

The Bible plainly declares that God created all things. 1 Cor. 8:6. "Yet 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." Again, Col. 1:16, "For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible, and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him."

Certainly, this is very explicit and must include angels, creatures of God. And among these angels was Lucifer. We can come to no other conclusion than this. Isa. 14:12-14. The name has come to have an evil significance now, but this is not true of the name itself. It means "Light-bringer," or "Light-bearer," "Morning Star." Such Lucifer was until he sinned. The same is taught in Revelation 12 where Satan in his worldly influence is represented as a great red dragon. "He was cast out of heaven, and his angels were cast out with him." Of course when they were cast out they were sinners, but from Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4 we gather that these angels were not always sinners. They once had an estate which they kept not, "but left their proper habitation." It was not until they sinned that they were cast down.

2681.—The Revolving Earth, and the Command of Joshua.

If the earth revolves, why did Joshua say, "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon." I do not understand how the earth goes, and the sun and moon also. The word tells us the sun goes down and rises. If the earth revolves, then where are we at times? The word does not say the earth revolves around, does it? If so please tell me where.

The language of the Bible is, in matters of astronomy, the language of appearance. We read of the "circle of the earth," which evidently refers to the great horizon which appears to us round. We read of the four corners or quarters of the earth which have evident direction to the north and south, east and west. These two expressions are themselves contradictory, and yet not so when we take them in their proper connection. The Bible speaks of the rising of the sun, and the going down of the same; so do astronomers—astronomers who do not believe that the sun rises and sets at all, but that it is the revolution of the earth which causes it. It is the language of appearance. Nobody misunderstands them, and nobody misunderstood the language of scripture at the time that it was written. There may have been those, and evidently there were those, who believed that the sun moved. But the language of appearance would be perfectly intelligible to each and every one. The sun seems to move. Everything is stationary as regards ourselves, to all appearance. The earth seems to be still. There is no body of great size near us which would make it seem to be otherwise, and God moved men to use such language as would be understood without any question or perplexity by His children.

Job tells us that "He hangeth the earth upon nothing." Job 26:7. That is scientifically true so far as any appearance is concerned. At the same time the Bible speaks of the foundations of the earth; that is, of course, the foundation of the earth upon which we ourselves live, that which is underneath us, or in a far larger sense, the foundations of the very word of God and His commandments. We will have no trouble with any of these expressions whatever, if we will simply allow the same liberty in language to the word of God which we hold for ourselves, and which will never be misunderstood if we will take its ordinary meaning.

2682.—Riding on the Sabbath Day.

Is it a sin to ride on the street-cars or steam-cars on the Sabbath; not in the standpoint of civilization, but in the standpoint of a right example toward those who do not keep the Sabbath?

Yes and no. It is utterly impossible to answer such questions as that with a categorical answer. It depends altogether on what our object is in riding. If a person is sick unto death, and news is sent to a physician in the next town, six or eight miles away, it is his duty to get there at the earliest possible time, and if the train is going so as to accommodate him, it is his duty to take the train. Would you condemn him for doing this?

Here is a minister who has two appointments; one of them may come the evening of the Sabbath, the next one on the Sabbath day; one of them is ten miles from the other, perhaps thirty miles from the other. He can only reach them by train. He takes a conveyance that is going in the regular way. He does nothing whatever that would be inconsistent with the keeping of the Sabbath in all his conversation and in his going. Would you condemn him for doing this?

On the other hand, if one is simply following his own pleasure in riding on that day, it would be well for him to consider Isa. 58:13. The whole crux of the matter lies over that text. "Not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words." These are the things which ought to guide Christians in their conduct on the Sabbath.

2683.—Satan a Person.

Where is the scripture that represents Satan as a person, either angel or any other personal devil? If he is represented as a person, I fail to discover it.

Our correspondent has not evidently read the Bible very faithfully. The simplest analogical reasoning could not conclude otherwise, it seems to us, than that Satan, or the Devil, known in the Greek as "Ho Diabolos," the devil, is a personal being.

Take, for instance, the temptation of our Lord. We have no question as to the personality of Jesus, but the personality of the devil who took Him to different places, who conversed with Him, is just as clearly evident as the personality of Christ. See Matt. 4:1-10. The apostle Paul assures us that Satan himself appears as an angel of light. Zechariah represents God's High Priest as standing before Him, and Satan at His right hand to resist Him. The apostle Peter tells us that "your adversary, the devil, walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." Jesus calls him "the prince of this world." On another occasion He said to His disciples, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." We also read of the devil and his angels. How impersonality can be attributed to all these and many more expressions, is beyond our power to conceive. Such reasoning would make the word of God of none effect, and destroy the worth of the clearest language as a medium to convey thought.