"IF YE WILL INQUIRE, INQUIRE YE."
By Editor
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 as, 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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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. In replying to Question No. 3377 it was stated by mistake that Nebuchadnezzar built the tower of Babel. What it was designed to say was that he rebuilt it. A little syllable makes quite a difference sometimes. 3408.—Change of the Sabbath
Please answer in your question column when, where, and by whom the Sabbath was supposedly changed, giving good historical or other good authority for the fact. Our querist rightly says, "supposedly changed," because God's Sabbath is eternal. It is impossible to state the exact time when a change took place. Apostasy is never sudden, abrupt; it is gradual. Many of the early Christian converts or half-converts were formerly sun-worshipers. They honored the Sunday, and connected with that the resurrection of Christ, and observed the day, not as a command or a duty, but in honor of Christ, easily helped thereto by former customs. Both days were kept till the fifth century, the Sabbath coming to be a fast-day by the apostate church, the Sunday as a feast-day. It can easily be seen that Sunday would find more favor in a backslidden church. It was at this time that the Abyssinians were converted. They have kept the two days to a greater or less extent ever since.
We have not space in this department to give authorities covering several centuries. You will find these authorities fully given in Andrews's "History of the Sabbath," and partially given in "The Lord's Day the Test of the Ages," No. 134 in our "Bible Students' Library," costing ten cents, and in the "Apples of Gold Library," No. 45, "Historical Facts and Incidents Relating to the Sabbath and the Sunday." For instance, Fact 33 states that Tertullian, who wrote in A.D. 200, tells us that the commandments are "the rules of our regenerate life," and tells us also that Christ regarded the Sabbath. This comes in his work "Against Marcion," book 4, chapter 12. Fact 34, referring to about the time of A.D. 250, declares that Origen in his Homily 23 condemns the Jewish or Pharisaical mode of Sabbath observance, and declares that Christians on the Sabbath day "ought to abstain from all modes of worldly labor. Give yourselves up to spiritual exercises, repairing to church, attending to sacred reading and instruction, thinking of celestial things," etc., etc. Fact 35, A.D. 238, Archelaus, bishop of Cascar in Mesopotamia, in his "Disputation with Manes," section 42, says, "Again as to the assertion that the Sabbath has been abolished, we deny that He has abolished it plainly, for He was Himself also Lord of the Sabbath." In Fact 37 it is stated that the learned Giesler, "Ecclesiastical History," volume 1, chapter 2, section 30, says, that while the Jewish Christians of Palestine retained the whole Mosaic law and consequently the Jewish festivals, the Gentile Christians observed the Sabbath and the Passover with reference to the last scenes of Jesus' life, but without Jewish superstitions.
Prof. Edward Brerewood of Gresham College, London, in his "Learned Treatise of the Sabbath," page 77, 1631, says that "the Sabbath of the seventh day . . . was religiously observed in the East church 300 years and more after our Saviour's passion. That church being the great part of Christendom, and having the apostles' doctrine and example to instruct them, would have restrained it if it had been deadly."
Sunday came in gradually. At first just an hour or so in the morning was used. Later it took in a little more of the day, but it never was regarded as a sabbath for more than a thousand years after Christ, and a few centuries ago in England and Scotland, in fact, down to the sixteenth century, it was considered a day for sport and playing, people attending church only in the morning. The first of the early fathers who without doubt applied the term "Lord's day" to Sunday was Tertullian. This was in A.D. 200. You will find it in his works "De Corona," section 3. He tells us then that we have no Scripture authority for it. See his work on prayer and "De Corona," sections 3 and 4. One great trouble in the understanding of Scripture is that we fix a place where we think a scripture must apply, and it seems to fit one thing, but it does not harmonize with other scriptures. Now Isa. 24:1-3 declares that the earth shall be utterly emptied and desolate. John 14:1-3 and other scriptures declare that when Jesus comes He will take His people to heaven and the wicked will be destroyed. The earth during that time will be the abyss, "the deep," rendered in our Common Version "the bottomless pit," but the same word in the Greek as in Gen. 1:2, there rendered "the deep" in our Common Version. The earth is desolate of man until the wicked dead are raised at the end of the one thousand years of Rev. 20:1-5. They are gathered in their graves until the end of that "many days." See Isa. 24:21, 22. There are no scriptures, so far as we know, that militate against this view. Gen. 8:21, 22 refers to this earth during probationary time. See 2 Peter 3:5-7. Isa. 30:26 applies after the 1,000 years, as the text itself shows, especially the last part. Jer. 4:23 will be fulfilled. Verse 27 means that the earth will not be utterly destroyed; it will remain. Bird and beast and devil and demon will inhabit it. Isa. 34:8-15. But there was no man. The "few men left" of Isa. 24:6 are those translated when Christ comes. Jer. 32:37-44 refers to the land of Palestine at that time, and God would have done much more for them than their faith grasped. Promises were sufficient for complete restoration, but they did not see it nor grasp it. The day of Zech. 14:7 includes both type and antitype, and in the fullest sense the whole great day of the Lord with all of its catastrophic changes. Micah 4:9 applies to Israel during her captivity when she was longing for a king, the travailing of Rev. 12:2. Amos 8:9 is but a brief episode in last-day occurrences. See "Bible Students' Library," No. 65, "The Great Day of the Lord." Price, including postage, 3 cents. In Johnson's "Bible Text-Book," chapter 17, topic 3, paragraph 5, the Spirit is given as a seal. I understand that the Sabbath is a sign of acceptance. Are there different seals? Is there more than one seal? The Sabbath is the seal of the living God; the Holy Spirit is the sealer, the divine agency which impresses the seal. This is fully explained in our issue of February 28, page 7, columns 1 and 3. 3411.—The Transfiguration
Is the transfiguration generally understood to fulfil Jesus' words, "There be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power"? The words above are quoted from Mark; but in both Matthew and Luke, as well as Mark, they immediately precede the account of the transfiguration. Now the kingdom of God will come with power when Jesus comes the second time. It will have its glorified King, our Lord Jesus Christ. It will have those raised from the dead as was Moses. It will have those who were translated without seeing death as was Elijah. All this the transfiguration showed. Peter tells us that this represented the power and coming of Jesus Christ. See 2 Peter 1:16-18. This is absolutely conclusive that our Lord's words had reference to the miniature representation of His coming, and that this was shown in the transfiguration. Please explain Paul's meaning as to widows in 1 Tim. 5:3-16. There seem to be two or three classes referred to. See verses 3, 4, 6, 9. What is the meaning of "the number"? Verses 11, 16. Kindly answer through Question Corner. The apostle seems to make distinctions as follows: First there were the aged widows, and those, too, who were earnest and devoted. Verses 5, 9, 10. These trusted God and belonged to "the number" of those who ought to be supported. Secondly, there was another class either good or bad who ought to be supported by their near relatives. Verses 4-6. The third class consisted of young, light-hearted, perhaps light-headed, frivolous, idle, busybodies, who sought their own pleasure. Verses 11-13. These, Paul desires, should marry, settle down to a life of usefulness. Verse 14. Many large churches meet with these same problems now. 3413.—Observance of the Sabbath
Please say how the day set apart, hallowed, and sanctified, can be considered as kept properly by turning it into a day of sport and recreation. The Sabbath law declares, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." The inspired comment on that law is found in Isa. 58:13: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." And here is another blessing for him who observes the Sabbath: "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." Isa. 56:2. He who does not find his highest pleasure in doing God's will, has learned but little in Christian experience.