4290 — TRIBULATION FOR TEN DAYS
By Editor
I should like to have you explain in the "Question Corner" the prophecy in Rev. 2:10. Are we living in that ten day or ten year prophetic period now? This is part of the message to one of the seven churches, the church of Smyrna. These seven messages to the churches are prophetic of seven periods in the experience of the church, covering the Christian age, from the time of the apostles down to the coming of Christ. This prophecy of the ten days (or ten years prophetic time) applies during the period of persecution under Diocletian, which continued just ten years, from A. D. 302 to 312. While the experiences of the church in all the ages are combined in its experience during the last years of its history, and this prophecy may apply in a measure to the persecution the church will undergo just prior to the second advent of Christ, it applies in a primary and definite sense to the time above stated. 4291 — "WHATSOEVER THY SOUL LUSTETH AFTER"
Kindly explain Deut. 12:22. Does this mean they could eat unclean meat? No, this text has no reference to the eating of unclean and clean meats. The question is regarding the place of slaying the animals. They were formerly restricted to slaying the animals at the sanctuary; and when the people were dispersed in their homes from Dan to Beer-sheba after their occupation of the land of Canaan, this necessarily could not be maintained. And so, while (as in verse 13) they were to offer their sacrifices as formerly at the place of worship, permission was given them to slaughter at home what was necessary for the table. There were certain animals that were consecrated for the service of the sanctuary, and the people had been prohibited from using these as common articles of diet; but now this prohibition was removed, and they were permitted to eat of them the same as of the roebuck and the hart. The "unclean" and "clean" in this text pertains to persons, not meats. After performing certain rites, or touching unclean things, the people were made unclean for a time, and were debarred from eating any of the sacred meats. But they were now to be as free in killing and eating domestic animals, as of wild animals, which had formerly been allowed for food but not for sacrifice. In interpreting these texts, we must remember that the Lord is consistent, and does not in one text command His people to do one thing, and then reverse it in another. Just two chapters later in this book (Deuteronomy 14), for the second time the law regarding clean and unclean meats was given to the Israelites, which shows that the Lord is not, in this twelfth chapter, giving them license to eat unclean meats. 4292 — TIME OF CHRIST'S CRUCIFIXION
According to Matt. 12:40, wasn't Christ crucified on Wednesday? From Luke 23:52-56, we learn that Christ was laid in the sepulcher on the preparation day; and this text shows that the preparation day was the day just before the Sabbath. It is in these times commonly called Friday. John 19:13-42 also gives quite a detailed account of the scenes attending the crucifixion, and these verses likewise show that the Master was crucified on the day just before the Sabbath. The difficulty in the mind of our inquirer is probably over the fact that Matt. 12:40 speaks of Christ's being three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Christ permitted Himself to be arrested and taken in custody by the powers of earth on the fifth day of the week, or Thursday, and that power was not broken until the following first-day or Sunday morning; and most Bible students agree that Christ referred to these powers of earth that thus were permitted to hold Him for three days and three nights, rather than to the literal earth itself. Besides this, the Bible, in other passages, counts parts of days for the full day. For instance, in Esther 4:16 she asks Mordecai to gather all the Jews that were in Shushan and ask them to fast for her, and neither to "eat nor drink three days, night or day," and she adds, "I also and my maidens will fast likewise." Then the first verse of the fifth chapter says, "It came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house," showing that this third day, on which she went to present herself before the king, was counted as one of the full days in which fasting was enjoined. 4293 — "KINGDOM OF GOD WITHIN YOU"
I would be pleased to have you explain through the "Question Corner" Luke 17:20-22, especially verse 21, where it says, "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." This expression in the original Greek is "in the midst." In verse 20, "cometh not with observation" shows that it comes not with watching or lying in wait, as for something to be outwardly manifest and to come immediately. It could not be said of a self-righteous, Christ-rejecting Pharisee, that the kingdom of God, as to its spiritual content, was within him; but the kingdom of God was actually in their midst in the persons of Christ the King and His disciples. God's kingdom is peopled by individuals who receive the principles of that kingdom into their inmost hearts. The developing of the perfect Christ life in the heart of the individual does not make any great outward show or spread. After the principles of His kingdom have thus developed within the hearts of individuals, and we reach the time of His coming, then the kingdom of heaven will come with outward show (see verse 24); but the kingdom of God must first be developed in the hearts of men and within the privacy of the inner lives, in order for us to participate in the experiences of that desirable day. 4294 — ACCUSER OF THE BRETHREN
Will you kindly inform me whether the word "brethren" in Rev. 12:10 is a mistranslation? Should it read "the accuser of our brother?" No; in all the translations that we have, it is as in the Common Version. At Christ's triumph over the devil at the cross, He broke the power of Satan, and made a way by which all who have faith in Him can claim the victory through His righteousness imputed for their sin. Before Christ's death, Satan could rightfully accuse the brethren, and claim them as his captives; but the One who has paid the penalty for their sin can silence his accusations, and he can no longer accuse Christians as he accused Job before God.