Signs of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 2. (1/9/1912)

Signs of the Times

Jan 9, 1912

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 9, 1912

Signs of the Coming Morning

By Editor

"WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT? THE MORNING COMETH"

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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

3634 — Answered Prayers

Please explain Mark 9:29 and Matt. 17:21. D. R. M.

The story is the same in both. The occasion was the healing of the child possessed with a demon—horribly insane, and fearfully violent. While Jesus was in the Mount of Transfiguration, the father of the child had brought him to the disciples, that they might heal him, but they failed. And when Jesus came down, He restored him. The demon was cast out amid awful agonies. The boy lay as one dead; but Jesus took him by the hand, and he arose and was healed. And then the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "How is it that we could not cast it out?" "And He said unto them, This kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer," the Revised Version has it; the marginal reading says, "Many ancient authorities add 'and fasting.'" The seeming degree of affliction has its effect upon the human. It takes the power of God to work any miracle, but faith grasps His power to work some miracles when it does not to work others. For instance, there are millions who have accepted the power of God, and have realized it in the forgiveness of sins; and yet the same power that forgives sins heals the sick, but their faith has not grasped that. The disciples could exercise faith to work some miracles; but here it seems as if it took more power, a mightier miracle, to heal this exceedingly violent, insane boy possessed of the demon. It staggered them. It demanded on their part greater faith, more seeking of God, and seeking God even with prayer and fasting, that they might be able in His grace and in His power to meet the enemy of all righteousness, and cast him out of the human temple which he had taken for his own possession.

As beautifully expressed: "Their unbelief, that shut them out from deeper sympathy with Christ, and the carelessness with which they regarded the sacred work committed to them, had caused their failure in the conflict with the powers of darkness. The words of Christ pointing to His death, had brought sadness and doubt. And the selection of the three disciples to accompany Jesus to the mountain had excited the jealousy of the nine. . . . In this state of darkness they had undertaken the conflict with Satan. In order to succeed in such a conflict they must come to the work in a different spirit. Their faith must be strengthened by fervent prayer and fasting, and humiliation of heart. They must be emptied of self, and be filled with the Spirit and power of God."—"Desire of Ages," page 430.

Let us not, however, get the idea that it is the fasting that brings the blessing, or the thing that we do that gives the power. It is the getting near to God, the placing ourselves in that attitude where we feel that we are nothing, and that He is everything, and then simply believing. The devil would induce souls to believe, as he has in the past, that if we fast a certain number of hours, or of days, we surely will bring a blessing; and he takes advantage of such perverted views. The object of fasting is not to go a certain time without food; it is to clear up a mind, perhaps, that has become gross in connection with an overfed body. It is to bring us into that attitude of humility before God where He can speak to us. There is no glory in the suffering of the flesh; we are not purchasing God's blessing by that. Proper fasting is not only a healthful exercise occasionally, but it clears up the mind, and disposes us to see more clearly our relationship with Him and our need of Him.

3635 — The Days of the Week

Ought not Christians to use the Biblical notation for the days of the week — first, second, and third — instead of the pagan names? D. R. M.

It would have been very much better if God's children had persisted in the names which the Lord gave, for it would have forever kept before them the Lord's Sabbath. The commandment is, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." And every day, according to God's notation, would have called to remembrance the Sabbath; for the very thought of the days was, day one toward or into the Sabbath, day two toward or into the Sabbath, day three toward or into the Sabbath, and so on all through the week. But if those terms should be used now — first day, second day; or, day one, day two — there would have to be explanation connected with them, because the custom of the world has so fixed the days of the week by name that men would not recall or understand the day that is meant. That the common names of the days would not be condemned seems evident from the fact that God's children after they went into the Babylonian captivity, used for several of the months idolatrous names — names that originated in idolatry. So they did, also, in some of the cities of their lands; the words, altho of idolatrous origin, came to be understood as merely technical in meaning, without any regard to their origin at all. Not a few words in the common vocabulary of our language do not have the best origin; but their meaning has been entirely changed by usage, and so it is with the days of the week. And yet, after all, the devout commandment keeper must regret that the Bible usage was ever departed from.

3636 — A Second Probation

Is there a second chance, or second probation, for the wicked, especially the heathen, who have died, yet never heard the Gospel? W. W. P.

What proof have we that they never heard the Gospel? There are different degrees of Gospel light, even to those who have the Word of God — the Bible — among them. But the Scriptures expressly declare that "the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." And then we are told that "their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." God's glory is His goodness, and that is what the Gospel reveals to us. The apostle Paul, quoting from this very scripture, says: "But I say, Did they not hear? Yea, verily, their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." Rom. 10:18. Again, in speaking of the heathen, he says, "For the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse." Rom. 1:20. Every thoughtful, reverent mind will be truly led from the contemplation of God's wisdom and power and glory, as manifested in His works, to His love and power to save, and this has been manifest again and again among the heathen. It is not the "much light" which saves humanity; it is the devotion to the light that is revealed. One ray of light followed will lead to the central sun, and one ray of Gospel light followed will lead to Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness. But one may have ten thousand rays of light, and yet turn from them all and be lost in darkness. There is a profound truth in the words of the prophet, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself, strong in the behalf of them [not whose knowledge is perfect toward Him, not who have floods of Gospel light, but] whose heart is perfect toward Him." 2 Chron. 16:9. There is one other scripture, found in Rev. 22:11, 12, which clearly indicates that probation will utterly close before the Lord shall come. "He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still: and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness still: and he that is holy, let him be made holy still. Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to render to each man according as his work is." There can be no mightier Saviour than we have now, no mightier appeals to humanity than God has made throughout the ages; and men having free will can turn from the Gospel, and would turn from the Gospel in other ages, just as they have turned from it now. God will have saved, the judgment will reveal, all who desired to be saved during the past six thousand years of earth's history.

3637 — Regarding Baptism

Please explain 1 Cor. 1:14-17. The minister of this city says Paul did not consider baptism to be of much importance. O. H.

The words of the apostle are better understood by regarding the text. The Corinthian church was divided into factions. Some said, "I am of Paul;" and some said, "I am of Apollos;" and some said, "I am of Cephas," or Peter; and a few said, "I am of Christ."

They made so many sects, or parties, in that church. The apostle Paul wrote strongly against this. If they were going to divide up in that sort of way, he would simply say that he thanked God that he had so little to do in bringing any of them into the church. That is all he means by it. He tells us that in verses 14 and 15: "I thank God that I baptized none of you, save Crispus and Gaius; lest any man should say that he were baptized into my name." That is why; that is the only reason why he seemingly treats it as unimportant. He did not want men believing and trusting in men for salvation; for Christ sent him not to baptize — to tie men to himself — but to preach the Gospel, not in wisdom of words, that men should be tied to him, lest the cross of Christ should be made void. He wished to preach only that which was the power of God unto salvation. There is nothing in the text which indicates in any way that he considered baptism unimportant. The place of baptism is very clearly set forth in Rom. 6:1-6, and also in Gal. 3:27. Read also what our Lord said in Mark 16:15, 16; and Matt. 28:19.

3638 — The Spirit of Man and the Spirit of the Beast

How does the spirit of the man go upward, and the spirit of the beast go downward? Eccl. 3:21. M.

The text does not say that one goes upward and the other downward. The text simply reads, "Who knoweth the spirit of man, whether it goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast, whether it goeth downward to the earth?" Evidently men were trying to discriminate between the life which the beast had and the life which men had. They were teaching that the beasts all perished, but men lived after they were dead; but the thought of the text is that that which befalls one befalls the other. As the one dies, so the other dies. "Yea, they have all one breath;" and then, "all go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." And then comes the question of the text before quoted, "Who knows?" — what ground have we for saying that the spirit of one goes up and the spirit of the other goes down? All life comes from God; and when man dies, or the beast dies, or the vegetable dies, or life of any kind is taken away, the life returns to the great Fountain of life. And that is the thought of Job 34:14, — that if God gathered to Himself His Spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish together; and also of Eccl. 12:7, — that man dies, and his body returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit [the life, because it came from God as life and it goes back to God as life] returns to God who gave it. That is the simple teaching of the text.

Lessons from Genesis 22–31

| Sunday | January 14 | Genesis 22, 23 | | --- | --- | --- | | Monday | " 15 | " 24 | | Tuesday | " 16 | " 25, 26 | | Wednesday | " 17 | " 27 | | Thursday | " 18 | " 28; 29:1-30 | | Friday | " 19 | " 30:25-36; 31 | | Sabbath | " 20 | Psalms 7, 8, 9 |

Most interesting is the whole week's lesson of the special providences of God, over the progenitors of the promised Seed. What a culminating lesson of faith is chapter 22, confirmed by the immutable promise and oath of God! In chapter 23 is a sample of Eastern duplicity. The children of Heth said they would give the land, but expecting that Abraham would reward them munificently; but when he compels them to name the price, they ask more than it is worth — about $250. Chapter 24 shows the piety, unselfishness, and faithfulness of Abraham's trusted servant. "I being in the way, the Lord led me."

Chapter 25 is a chapter of genealogies; it tells of the death of Abraham, the probable last meeting of Isaac and Ishmael, and a forecast of the characters of Esau and Jacob. Note how God worked for Isaac when he refused to contend for his rights, but committed his cause to God.

Chapters 27 to 31 record the checkered and unsatisfactory experiences of Esau and Jacob; Jacob's selfish plottings, and his consequent suffering. He overreached, supplanted, and himself met overreaching. God's providence, tho seeming slow, brings retribution sooner or later.

We turn from the checkered career of Jacob to prayers and assurances of another tried soul — David. Surely we may close the week's lesson in ascribing to Jehovah, "How excellent is Thy name in all the earth."

Christ and the Law

By Ellen G. White

By Mrs. E. G. White

SUPREME love to God will be shown by every man or woman who is a true follower of Jesus Christ. "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name," writes the psalmist; "for the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: He is to be feared above all gods." Those who surround His throne, the sinless angels, bow down and adore Him, praising His name, and crying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." We are His creatures, the work of His hands, and He is justly entitled to reverence, honor, and love.

Only by obedience to Him can we prove our love. If He is our fear, we shall seek to honor and glorify Him, and shall find our highest happiness in doing His will. Any failure to render willing obedience to Him will show that our love for Him is false.

In love, with a desire to elevate and ennoble us, God provided for us a standard of obedience. In awful majesty, amid thundering and lightning, He proclaimed from Mount Sinai His ten holy precepts. This law reveals the whole duty of the human family; the first four precepts define our duty to God, and the last six our duty to man. A certain lawyer came to Christ, and tempted Him, saying: "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

What Does the Lord Require?

God requires perfection of character from His children. He demands that His law be remembered and meditated upon, that unswerving obedience be rendered to its requirements. "And now, Israel," He asks, "what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes?" But sin entered this world, and by yielding to the temptations of the enemy, man became degraded and sinful. His ability to distinguish between right and wrong was lost; his power to obey was weakened. Full of sin, he was of himself unable to meet God's standard of righteousness.

God saw man's hopeless condition. He looked with sorrow upon the world, which was steadily growing more and more degraded and sinful. He could not change His law to meet man's deficiencies; for He says, "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips." But in His great love for the human race, in His desire that man should not be left to meet the penalty of his transgression, but that he should be elevated and ennobled, He "gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Christ laid aside His royal robes, and came to this earth, bringing with Him a power sufficient to overcome sin. He came to live the law of God in humanity, that by partaking of His divine nature, we also might live that law.

Magnifying the Law

The Jews had misinterpreted the law of God, robbing it of its spirituality, and making it burdensome by their many exactions. Christ came to correct this. The very One who ages before had spoken the law from Mount Sinai, now came to magnify it and make it honorable. In His Sermon on the Mount He explained the law, showing what each precept comprehended. Covetousness was shown by Him to be idolatry, lust adultery, and anger murder. He made manifest the spirituality of the law, and pointed out that it reaches to every phase of life.

Before the universe of heaven, before the fallen angels, and before those whom He had come to save, Christ lived the law of God. By His supreme obedience to its requirements, He exalted and enforced it. By His purity, goodness, beneficence, devotion, and zeal for the glory of God, by His unsurpassed love for His fellow man, He made known the perfection of the law. By His blameless life He illustrated its excellence.

Christ was the representative of the love of the infinite God, and all His words and actions were the outflowing of God's love to humanity. And in word and action He was all that God required Him to be. The law was a controlling power in His life. Ever the language of His heart was, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart."

This example of obedience is presented to the world. Christ is to be made our pattern in all things. He says to us: "Learn of Me." "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him."

Far-Reaching Character of the Law

The law which Christ gave from the mount, and which He exemplified in His sinless life, is far-reaching in its character. It condemns every evil action, and demands perfect obedience. Those who truly follow Christ, will keep God's commandments as He kept them. If they sincerely accept Him as their personal Saviour, they will be actuated by an earnest desire to fulfil their duty to God, and to represent Him in character. And if the law were perfectly obeyed, the earth would not now be corrupted under the inhabitants thereof. Oppression and injustice would not exist. Love, harmony, and joy would be seen. The power of Christianity would be revealed in the churches, and the world would have no cause to charge the followers of Christ with inconsistency. The converting power of the Holy Spirit would be felt, and thousands would be added to the church of such as should be saved.

But too often professed Christians forget their duty to their Maker. Dreading the cross, they neglect to honor Him by rendering obedience to His commandments; and religion is misinterpreted and despised by unbelievers, because so many who profess to follow Christ, do not reveal His character in their lives. Christianity loses its power because Christians constantly transgress the law of God, because selfishness is seen, and idolatry and covetousness manifest themselves.

We may say that it is impossible for us to reach God's standard; but when Christ came as our substitute and surety, it was as a human being. "He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham." He "was made flesh, and dwelt among us." With His divinity veiled by humanity, He lived a life of perfect obedience to the law of God. He "was in all points tempted like as we are," that He might be "able to succor them that are tempted." He has "given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." Shall we, for whom He has done and suffered so much, choose our own way in preference to that of God?

Much responsibility rests upon those who profess to know and love God. As dutiful sons and daughters of God, He expects them to let their light shine, not by pretension and assertion, but by good works, revealing to the world by their simple, elevated piety the binding claims of God's law and the power of Christ to keep them from transgression. But when those who claim to love God reveal by their works that they have little conception of His requirements, God is dishonored. If they could see themselves as God sees them, if they could realize how far short they fall of doing the will of God, they would be filled with terror lest their lives should be cut off in the midst of their disobedience.

"This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous." "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." Wherefore "receive with meekness the ingrafted Word, which is able to save your souls." "Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."

Guard the Weak Points

Obedience must come from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. As we endeavor to honor God, discouragements will come to us; the enemy will try with all his power to make us swerve from the right; but we need not, because of this, give up the warfare against evil. Our duty is to guard carefully the weak points in our characters, seeking by divine grace to make them strong. There is no one living that has any power which he has not received from God, and the source whence it came is open to the weakest human being. If we draw near to God, the unfailing source of strength, we shall realize the fulfilment of the promise, "Ask, and ye shall receive." If we lift the cross, leaving the results with God, who has given us the law which we are trying to keep, we shall find that "all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies."

As Christ lived the law in humanity, so we may do if we will take hold of the Strong for strength. As we realize that we can do nothing of ourselves, we shall receive wisdom from on high to honor and glorify God. And as we behold "the glory of the Lord," we shall be changed into the same image, "from glory to glory;" and at the last great day we shall receive the benediction, "Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."

Signs of the Times

Not as Pleasing Men, but God

"Even as we have been approved of God to be entrusted with the Gospel, so we speak: not as pleasing men, but God, who proveth our hearts."

The Testimony of Jesus

By George W. Reaser

II — "The Burning Bush of Prophecy"

[Note.—The extracts in this chapter are all taken, by permission, from Dr. Arthur T. Pierson's excellent work entitled "Many Infallible Proofs," pages 31-78. Fleming H. Revell Co., Chicago and New York.]

NOTHING can be of more importance to a Bible student than a mastery of the prophetic Scriptures." "Why does so much weight attach to the argument from prophecy? We reply, there are indeed a score of paths by which the advocates of the inspiration of Scriptures approach the heart of the theme; but the Scripture itself makes this the grand highway of proof. Hear the apostle Peter: 'We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed.'" "There are some sources of proof, whose force can be felt only by a converted man. But here is an evidence which needs for its examination only the reason of the natural man."

The Royal Signature and Seal

"If the Scriptures issue from the hand or mind of God, the seeker after truth asks for His royal signature and seal. And prophecy claims to be exactly this: the solemn seal of God's own hand upon the sacred scroll."

"Men have an instinctive conviction that when a future event is clearly and closely foretold, so that no guess, however shrewd, can account for it, and the event corresponds in every respect to the prophetic outline, it is the proof of the working of some power above nature."

"But first let us clearly understand that it is not commonly the object of prophetic prediction to inform us as to the details of the future; but rather, after an event is fulfilled, to show that it all lay in the mind of God, and was part of His eternal plan."

History Must Supply the Key

"This may explain the necessary obscurity of prophecy. It presents a lock, for which only subsequent history can supply the key. If prophetic details were clearly announced, wicked men would be prompted, like Julian, to conspire to defeat the prediction; or disciples might be supposed to combine to bring about a seeming fulfilment, in order to authenticate the prophecy. When prophecy is fulfilled, it must be by no design of men — better still if against their design, that it may be more apparent that the fulfilment is wholly of God."

Prophecy fulfilled, or "unlocked by events, opens a door that no man can shut, introducing us by a miracle of utterance to the presence of Him to whom all the future is as the present, and compelling us to bow reverently to hear what He will speak."

"The Christian faith supports its claim by a vast number of prophecies pertaining to different periods and persons. The argument from these prophecies began to be

of use when the first prediction was fulfilled; and every successive event, which added a new feature to the profile, added strength and weight to the argument. Prophecy is thus at first a rill, receiving constantly tributary streams, till it grows to a river whose grand flood of evidence sweeps everything before it."

Prophecy the Greatest of Miracles

"No miracle which He [Christ] wrought, so unmistakably set on Him the seal of God, as the convergence of the 'myriad' lines of prophecy in Him, as in one burning focal point of dazzling glory."

"Every sacrifice lit, from Abel's altar until the last Passover of the passion week, pointed as with flaming fingers to Calvary's cross. Nay, all the centuries moved as in solemn procession to lay their tributes upon Golgotha."

"The death of our Lord Jesus Christ was so distinctly foretold in the 53d chapter of Isaiah, that Bolingbroke, in order to break the force of the argument from this prophecy, was forced to assert that Jesus brought on His own crucifixion by a series of pre-concerted measures, merely to give the disciples who came after Him the triumph of an appeal to the old prophecies! You can see how grand must be the power of an argument, which compels infidels to invent such impossible theories to evade the force of its mighty appeal."

"Prophetic evidence goes on accumulating; the fulfilment of words long since spoken confronts us to-day. The histories of the Assyrian (Babylonian) lion, Medo-Persian bear, Greek leopard, and Roman complex 'beast;' the existing facts of Tyre, Babylon (city), Egypt, Nineveh; the remarkable dispersion of the Jews, the most clannish of peoples, most attached to their own land, rich enough to buy every acre of Palestine with pearls, yet providentially kept out of it . . . all these, and a hundred-fold more, furnish a colossal argument for the divine origin of the prophetic Scriptures; and yet the power and weight of this argument are growing still."

A New and Unfolding Miracle

"However conclusive the argument from miracles, it can not impress us as it did those who witnessed the works. But the prophecies, fulfilled and fulfilling before our eyes, become a new miracle, more conclusive and impressive every year." "Some unbelievers say, 'Could we see a miracle, we would believe;' but he who can see prophecy fulfilled, and not believe, is not to be persuaded by any other miracle. 'If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, tho one rose from the dead."

"The Christian religion is the only religion that has ever dared to rest its claim upon prophecy." "It challenges history, archeology, science, all the forms of human knowledge, to show one instance in which prediction has failed."

"Marvelous in their variety, extent, and number, yet no prediction has ever failed; and if those whose set time has come have not failed, with what assurance may we look forward to the sure accomplishment of those prophetic words whose full time is not yet!"

"So, while scoffers sneer and doubters question, while empires vanish and nations perish, prophecy moves steadily onward, and nears its grand fulfilment."

"We have pointed to the burning bush of prophecy with its many branches, wonderfully budding and blossoming into historic events. Well may we remove the shoes from our feet; the place where we stand is holy ground; that glory is the glory of God."

Continue reading: God Is Not Restricted to One Way of Doing Things