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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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. 3706 — The Coming of Christ
Please explain 1 Thess. 3:13, concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints; and also chapter 4:14-17. Is the coming of this last scripture with all His saints? This does not seem to harmonize with Zech. 14:5, last part. I. T. H. The expression in 1 Thess. 3:13, "with all His saints," may have direct reference to angels. The word "saints" simply means holy ones, just as in Jude 14, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints"—of His holy angels, the holy ones. Then it is, of course, that the children of God will be gathered home, and the apostle prays that their hearts may be established until that time. Chapter 4:14-17 applies to the same coming. God will come, and all His holy angels with Him; but at that time He will gather His saints from all parts of the earth, and they will arise to meet Him and the holy angels in the air, thus to be ever with the Lord. See also Matt. 24:31. But at the end of the thousand years, after this earth has undergone its millennium of desolation, the Lord will again come; and not only will He come, but the city of the New Jerusalem will descend, as stated in Revelation 21. Then it will be that "the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with" Him. They will come from the heaven to the earth; the Lord's feet shall touch the Mount of Olives, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave asunder, and form a great plain; and upon this part of the earth, purified by the touch of the divine as our Lord descends upon it, will be that great plain upon which will be "the camp of the saints," and "the beloved city," as implied in Rev. 20:9, while the earth will melt by fervent heat. See 2 Peter 3:10-13. Upon that great sea of fire will the city of God rest, and the saints of God will remain unharmed. See Isa. 54:11-17; 33:14, 15. The Lord says of that city, "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires." And again, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord." And the latter text indicates that they are able to dwell amid the everlasting burnings unharmed, because of that righteousness which is in them. Matt. 12:40 does not mean just exactly seventy-two hours. It was customary among the Jews to speak of day and night as meaning a day, and three days and nights as meaning three days—a part of one day, perhaps, the whole of one day, and a part of a third day—and that is the way it is used here. To prove that it would mean just seventy-two hours, we would have to prove that Jonah was just seventy-two hours in the heart of the sea-monster. If we would compare all of the various texts which speak of the three days and nights of the time that our Lord was in "the heart of the earth"—not in the grave, for it does not say this—we would say that the terms were used with more or less latitude. We have not space to explain it fully here; but if our inquirers have access to "Questions and Answers," which is furnished to individual subscribers to the "Signs" for $2.00 a year, and will read what is said on pages 28 to 34, they will have a full explanation of this text, more than we have space for at the present in the "Question Corner." The article on another page entitled "Jesus and the Passover," will also be helpful on this subject. 3708 — Salvation of Children
Will children of evil parents, who have not reached the age of accountability, be saved? H. H. G. This we do not know, for God has given us no express revelation regarding it. He has, however, shown us this in His Word,—that Christ died to save us from Adam's sin. If Adam had not sinned, he would have been saved. The consequences of that sin Christ saves us from. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." It matters not what our character may be, or what our condition in life may be, we are saved from the Adamic death through Christ. Whether we shall be saved from the second death, the eternal death, or not, depends upon our own character; and our character, upon accepting God's plan of salvation. Those who do not do that, of course, will die; for there is no other means of salvation save through Him. But those who have no sins to answer for of themselves, it would naturally follow, would live; and that would include even the children of evil parents. Those who knew no evil of themselves, having no evil to answer for, would live, and be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. God exhorts us, however, to do all in our power to save our children, and count them with us in this salvation. There is another consideration that is worthy of note here, that will help us to leave these questions that we do not understand with God: The Bible is addressed to responsible men and women, to those who are accountable. Those who are in no wise accountable to God, we can leave with Him, can we not, and know that He will be kind, and wise, and merciful, and will do the very best that infinitely loving and omnipotently all-wise God can do for them? Surely we can trust Him with them. 3709 — Samuel and the Woman of Endor
Will you please explain 1 Sam. 28:7, 11, 14, 15? How could a familiar spirit call a prophet of God from the grave, if this woman is one of Satan's agents, and, according to the Scriptures, the dead know not anything? M. L. M. For a fuller explanation than we can give here, see Bible Students' Library, No. 112. Let our inquirer note these facts: 1. Samuel, before he died, would have nothing to do with Saul, nor would any other prophet. The Lord would not answer Saul, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets.
2. It was contrary to God's will that His children should go to those who had familiar spirits,—forbidden again and again. See Lev. 19:31; 20:27; Deut. 18:10, 11. Saul, when he was in better standing before God, had put these away out of the land as evil.
3. Saul had come to that place where, not receiving any answer from God in any way, he had fallen so low as to seek counsel from a woman who had a familiar spirit, an agent of Satan, and disguised himself and went under cover of night,—a fitting way and time to seek agents of darkness.
4. The familiar spirit of this woman warned the woman that it was Saul who came to her, and she told him that he was Saul. That was the first thing the spirit did. One would hardly believe that the spirit of Samuel was warning this woman of darkness for her safety's sake, when God had forbidden their existence in the land.
5. The king did not see the spirit which the woman brought up. The woman described what she saw,—"An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived [that is, from the woman's description] that it was Samuel." Is that the way the spirits are brought from heaven?—still as old men, covered with mantles?
6. The spirit (called "Samuel" in the narrative, because Saul believed it was he) asked Saul, "Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?" The theology of immortal soulism tells us that the spirits of the good are in heaven. This spirit is represented as having been "brought up."
7. It could not be the resurrected body of Samuel, because Samuel was buried at Ramah, and this woman lived at Endor. Was there a door opening to the outer world away from Samuel's grave, and the one who held that door the woman with a familiar spirit?
8. This spirit asks Saul why he had asked of him, when the Lord had departed from him and had become his enemy. Then the spirit proceeds to tell Saul some unwelcome truth—perfectly in harmony with the devil, always, who is an accuser. We are sure that if our inquirer will study the record carefully, he will see that even then the spirit told that which was not true, because it was not the next day, nor the next day after, that Saul was slain.
9. Would God reprove Saul for seeking Samuel? Saul had sought him many times in his life, in perfect harmony with God's will, and had been instructed by him; and now at his very last, when he was seeking Samuel, would the Lord reprove him, or slay him because of that? Yet we read in 1 Chron. 10:13, "So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it; and enquired not of the Lord: therefore He slew him." The whole record shows that Saul, having departed from God, was brought under the deceptions of the devil, and that the familiar spirit simply professed to be Samuel, as familiar spirits are professing to be Samuel, and Moses, and Paul, and thousands of others who are good, or whom we have loved. The "jesting" is just such foolish, idle, senseless talk as can properly be classed with the two preceding,—"filthiness," and "foolish talking." Rotherham renders it, "shamelessness and foolish talking, or jesting, which things are beneath you." Certainly it goes without saying that the Christian ought not to indulge in things that are beneath or do not befit him. The expression "convenient" in our Common Version does not convey the correct idea. The American Revised Version has it, "nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting."