Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 8, 1913
"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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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.
4041 — The Creation of Man and the Plan of God
Do not regard these questions as sacrilegious. They are not so meant. We are told that God is all-wise, that time past and time future are the same to Him as present time; but if this is true (and it must be true if He is God), was it in His plan to place man in the garden with the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and that man should disobey Him and partake of the fruit and fall? Also that Christ should come and be betrayed and crucified? And if so, if it could have happened that the "wicked" ones could not have been found to betray and crucify Him, would not God's plans have been frustrated? But if these wicked ones were born for this purpose, were they to blame? In fact, if the least thing had happened to frustrate God's plans, would it not have proved that God was finite—if one can imagine a finite God?
P. H. A.
In the first place, God is infinite, and He knows all things; but foreknowledge does not imply, necessarily, foreordination. For fuller treatment of this, see tract on "Bible Election," No. 67, Bible Students' Library, price 2 cents.
Secondly, God has not foreordained evil. His plan does not involve that. In all reason He made the earth for a certain number of a certain character; but it was not in His plan that there should be evil characters, or evil men. These things lie outside of the plan, and lying outside of the plan must lie outside of the results of that plan.
Thirdly, it would be utterly impossible for character to be formed without test. The created men who will form characters acceptable to God can not be automatons, or machines. Man must be given freedom to choose; and God, tho He be infinite, could not step within that sacred circle of freedom which is thrown around each one. He Himself must take the awful risk of apostasy in His kingdom, and there could be no other way. But this did not necessitate man's choosing the evil, the selfish way, instead of God's way. But man chose the selfish way, yet God, in His infinite goodness, more than met the defect by abundance of grace, so that "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound,"—superabound. Rom. 5: 20. To put it in another way, God laid before man life and death,—life in the way of willing submission to His own law of righteousness, death in the rejection of that law and in the walking in his own way. If man rejects God's way, surely he can not count God unjust to deprive him of life, and if he be told, as he is told, that his own way means death, and death comes to him, God can not be charged with injustice. By death we mean death—cessation of existence, not eternal life in misery. And therefore, in God's plan, Christ should come, "the just for the unjust, the righteous for the sinner." "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Counting Himself a sinner for our sake, He died for our sake, that we through Him might live.
Nor was it necessary, in God's plan, that there should be certain wicked ones that would have any part in carrying this out. Of course God foresaw that there would be, and He predicted it that we might know His all-knowledge; but if Judas had not been there to betray Him, and the priests had not been there to purchase that betrayal, still Christ would have laid down His own life. It is His own words that "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." God permitted evil men to do as they did in order that the world and the universe might see that sin is exceeding sinful, and that the man who is utterly given to sin will not hesitate to take the life of the very One who would bring life, if his own way is thwarted.
So, God's plan can not be frustrated. There may be ten thousand efforts, as there have been, by the enemy of all righteousness to thwart that plan. Still will God triumph, and still will His plan triumph over all the devices of the enemy. God's work may seem to be at a standstill, and His plan utterly thwarted; the very Son of God Himself may die, and the black gloom of the heavens proclaim that God has turned against Him. His own disciples may forsake Him and flee, but out of the grave will come everlasting righteousness, and the very death which the enemy brought will be the means of saving souls. Men are not born for the purpose of doing wickedly. That some will do wickedly is clearly evident, and men hold them responsible if that evil affects their interests. The most ultra-Calvinist would hold his neighbor responsible if he stole his horse; and while he might believe in the eternal decrees beyond the grave, he would hold that they would not obtain in connection with the horse stealing. But that very element in the man proclaims that there is justice with God. It does not seem that way now. Even Abraham asked, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" And after the whole great plan of God comes to everlasting fruitage, and review is made by the righteous ones of that plan in all its workings, they sing triumphantly, "Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." We see so little now; God sees all. Let us trust Him.
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4040 — Shall We Know Each Other?
Can you tell me whether there is any scripture which justifies us in believing that we shall know each other in the heavenly land?
First, why should we not know each other? It is not, and has not been, God's plan that His children should be strangers to each other. That is shown in all of His plan unperverted by Satan. It was God's design that all in this world should be one great family, all children of the one father Adam, and if sin had never entered, all would have been relatives and acquaintances and members of the one family. See Eph. 3:15. Again, is it not reasonable to believe that God would have those who have been associated here in His work and have borne trials and perplexities and burdens and crosses, acquainted in the heavenly land? Jesus said to His disciples, "Verily I say unto you, that ye who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Matt. 19:28. The very companionship with Jesus here entitles them to a companionship over there. This same thing is taught in the Lord's Supper. "But I say unto you, I shall not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." One other passage of Scripture, found in 1 Cor. 13:9, 10, 12: "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away." "Now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known."
4042 — Chinese Chronology
Is it true that the Chinese have no account in their archives of the Flood, and have they been in existence longer than Bible chronology can give us any account of?
Among the old traditionary nations it is pretty difficult to get anything like a correct chronology. This is especially true with China. China has her traditional history and her recorded history, but her traditional history is not to be depended upon in any way. Whether in that we have a tradition of the Flood, we do not know. We have not examined it with that in mind. But as regards its history, we have no reliable history that carries us back to that time. For instance, Nelson's Encyclopædia states: "The earliest reliable historical account is that compiled by Sz-ma Ts'ien, in the first century B.C. According to native tradition, the earliest dynasty was that of the five monarchs ruling from the 29th to the 20th century before Christ. These were successively followed by the Hia (2205-1766 B.C.), Shang (1766-1122 B.C.), and Chou (1122-255 B.C.) dynasties, of whom only the last is truly historical. Twenty-five of the Chou monarchs are stated to have reigned from 827 B.C. to 255 B.C., and these are recognized as historical by Sz-ma Ts'ien. His views are, moreover, corroborated by certain 'bamboo books' which were found (A.D. 284) in the grave of a North China feudatory who had lived in the fourth century B.C. It is only with the Chou dynasty, therefore, that we begin to get in some degree on the solid ground of fact." Again it is stated, "But the first year of Kung-ho, namely B.C. 842, is the year the historian Sz-ma Ts'ien selected as the first genuine date that can be relied on in old Chinese history." This certainly is a good testimony from good authority.
4043 — Sun Standing Still
Please explain Joshua 10:13, where it says that the sun stood still and the moon stayed. In school I was taught that the sun stood still, and never moved. Explain in connection with this Isa. 38: 8.
The language of the Bible, like the language of every-day life, is often the language of appearance, especially as regards every-day phenomena. You will find scientists now, just the same as the common people, speaking of the rising of the sun and the setting of the sun,—that is, it appears to us to rise, and it appears to us to set. The earth seems to be a big thing because we are right close to it, and the sun small because it is a long distance from us, and we do not really take that into account. So the language in Joshua is the language of appearance. To the appearance of the people there the sun stood still, and the moon did not go down.
There are two things that would bring about this appearance, as also in the 38th chapter of Isaiah. First, there could be a reflection of light that would seem to prolong the day; or, secondly, the earth might cease its rotations. God is able to do either; and the earth could cease in its rotations for about a day, as stated in Joshua, chapter 10, without any disturbance in any wise, if God were so disposed. He has all power to do this. Certainly there was a mighty miracle wrought. The very words of Scriptures indicate that that is the case. We are expressly told, "And there was no day like that before it or after it, that Jehovah harkened unto the voice of a man." It might just as well have been that incident as any other; but God left on record there for us what He is willing to do in order to save His people, just the same as He opened the Red Sea and the River Jordan before Israel as they journeyed from Egypt to the promised land.
Four chapters of Judges come within our week's reading, 7, 8, 12, 13. We here leave the book. The other chapters may be easily read; they are not long. From Judges we pass to Ruth, a beautiful pastoral book, giving something of the sweet, simple home life among the children of Israel; and incidentally, God's care for the Seed, for the Moabitess maiden Ruth became one of the progenitors of our blessed Lord, according to the flesh. Note the lesson of the near kinsman, a type of our Lord. Some scholars think that Nathan the prophet wrote the book.
The first six chapters of 1 Samuel fall within our week's readings also. This book was probably written by the prophet Samuel. It tells us the charming story of his birth, of how he was "asked of God," and so the mother's prayer was met. We have revealed to us the low spiritual condition of Israel. The very priests themselves were wofully corrupt, with the exception of Eli, and he himself was not as sensitive over the conditions as he ought to have been. His love for his sons blinded him to their exceeding sin. The 4th to the 6th chapters show the awful humiliation of Israel. Even the very ark itself is captured by the Philistines, and Israel humbled to the very dust. The wicked sons of Eli are slain, and the priest himself dies of heart-disease, doubtless, on hearing the sad news of the battle. Our lesson in Samuel closes for the week with the Philistines sending back the ark to Israel. However men themselves might treat the sacred furniture, God Himself placed upon it a holy sacredness before which His very enemies quailed when it was in captivity.
The week's reading closes with Psalm 106, of God's goodness to Israel.
Walk in the Light
By Ellen G. White
By Mrs. E. G. White
THE present is a time of dense darkness to the world; but the true light is shining, and God, in His great mercy, has permitted us to behold its brightness and to walk in its guiding rays. We are favored above any other people upon the earth. Our spiritual blessings are more and greater than have been granted to the church in any previous age.
We are living in the time when Christ is about to close His work of mediation in our behalf. All should now closely examine their hearts to see whether they are in the faith. Instead of indulging doubt and unbelief, they should humble themselves before God, cultivate faith in His word and His work, and labor earnestly for the salvation of souls. It is no time now for caviling, dissension, and disunion. Where these exist, we may know that self is not dead. Those who have received the truth into the heart will be so filled with joy and gratitude, and so absorbed in the desire that others may share its great blessings, that they will lose sight of petty doubts and evil surmisings. In their disinterested labor for the salvation of souls, they forget self and selfish interests. Instead of acting the part of Judas the betrayer, or of Peter when he denied his Lord, they earnestly seek to follow the example of Christ, and carry forward the work which He came on earth to do.
Can those who are partakers of this great salvation, who are objects of this wondrous condescension, this infinite love, cherish one feeling of dissatisfaction or indulge one murmuring thought, because they are not free from trials, toils, and conflicts? Do we desire a better portion in this life than was given to our Lord? Can we not yet comprehend the great privileges which are ours through the grace of Christ? If Jesus had not died as our Sacrifice, and risen again as our Mediator, we could never have known peace, never have felt joy; we must have experienced the horrors of darkness and the miseries of despair. Then let only praise and gratitude to God be the language of our hearts. All our lives we have been partakers of His heavenly benefits, recipients of the blessings of Christ's atonement; therefore it is impossible for us to conceive the hopeless state of ignorance and misery into which we had fallen and from which the Saviour raised us. When we feel the pains, the sorrows, the bereavements to which we are all subject, we should not, by one murmuring word or thought, dishonor our Redeemer. In the hour of trial and affliction let us consider that we can not tell how much greater our sufferings would be, had we not a compassionate Saviour; we can not determine how much less we suffer than our sins deserve.
“Our sins mingled the bitter cup which He drank in our stead.”
Our sins mingled the bitter cup which He drank in our stead, that He might put to our lips the cup of blessing. He endured the cross, despising the shame, that He might reconcile us to God, that whosoever would come unto Him might take of the water of life freely. In view of the cross of Christ,4can you, my brethren and sisters, wish or expect to enter His kingdom in any other way than through much tribulation? We have a work to do which we have neglected. We do not love to follow where Jesus leads the way. Our heavenly Father requires of His church and people according to the grace and truth given them; and His requirements are just and right. All these must be fully met, or in the judgment they will condemn the transgressor.
All who profess Christ are accountable for the talents committed to their trust. Christians must stand on that elevated ground which the truth has for ages been preparing for them. To meet the mind of the Spirit of God, we must exhibit to the world, in character and works, that union with Christ which is in accordance with the light of sacred truth now shining upon us. It is not the lack of knowledge and understanding that at the last day will condemn us and banish us from the presence of the Lord; but it is the truth that has reached the understanding, the light that has illuminated the soul, which will witness against us, if we turn away and refuse to be led by it. If we were blind, we would have no sin; but the Lord has given us great light, sacred truth has been unfolded to our understanding; yet we have not been wise unto salvation, we have not advanced in knowledge and true holiness according to the light and truth which has been bestowed upon us.
The time has come for us to take advanced steps. We should beware lest a selfish, covetous spirit shut out the blessing of God. The Lord calls upon us to give of our means to support His cause. He requires more of us than merely the payment of the tithe. The message is to go forth, "Sell that ye have, and give alms." Those who have large farms should begin to cut down their possessions. There is earnest work to do for God, and we are far behind His opening providence. Recall all the mercies and blessings that the Lord has bestowed upon you, and consider that He has made you stewards of His goods. Then let each one examine himself and see if he is honoring the Lord with his substance. We should come before Him with both thank-offerings and sin-offerings. Our obligation to God is endless. His work must not languish for want of means. His claims must be met first, at whatever cost or sacrifice. It is time for those who have large possessions to cut down the principal, that God's work may be extended in foreign lands. Throughout our own country also there are fields that have not yet been entered, and where the truth should be proclaimed.
John Wesley once preached a powerful sermon on the use of money. He laid down three rules: "Make all you can; save all you can; give all you can." To acquire and not save is improvidence. To hoard up money, adding land to land, and house to house, is covetousness and idolatry. To make and to save in order to give in support of the cause of God, is obeying the command of Christ, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal."
The Sabbath
By E. L. Cardey
By E. L. Cardey
IV. Present-Day Agitation Regarding the Sabbath
A s in all past ages, when a great reform was at hand the church and the world were agitated and stirred regarding the needed reform, so to-day all classes are agitated respecting "Sabbath observance." Preparatory to the great reformation occasioned by the first coming of Christ, there was world-wide distrust of the established religions. The historian says:
"The enfeebled world was tottering on its foundations when Christianity appeared. The national religions which had satisfied the parents, no longer proved sufficient for their children. The new generation could not repose contented within the ancient forms. . . . A great void was occasioned in the religion of the world. . . . In Europe, Asia, and Africa, there was but one vast empire, and the human race began to feel its universality and unity." (D'Aubigné's "History of the Reformation," book 1, page 33.)
Then, when men were ready to listen to the new teaching, the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. In a few short years, His teaching had made many converts among all nations of the earth. Even China heard the sound of that message.
Again, in the midnight hour of the Dark Ages, when all Europe bowed in humble submission before the Church of Rome, when the surface of society appeared tranquil, when men were seemingly contented to believe and worship as they were commanded — even then the fire of human liberty was at a white heat, and it needed but the touch of Luther's teaching to set it ablaze; and soon the Reformation had enveloped all Europe, yes, all the world. On God's timepiece, the hour had arrived to break the shackles of error and superstition; and preparatory to that work, many agitations had prepared the minds of men to receive the message of Luther. D'Aubigné says:
"Thus everywhere, from high to low, was heard a hollow murmur, forerunner of the thunderbolt that was soon to fall. Germany appeared ripe for the appointed task of the sixteenth century. Providence, in its slow progress, had prepared everything; and even the passions which God condemns, were directed by His almighty hand to the accomplishment of His designs." (Id., page 83.)
Another Reformation at Hand
We have arrived at another epoch-making period in the history of the world. The surface of society appears placid to the casual observer, but a closer inspection reveals the great agitation underneath. To come to the point at once, we believe that a great conflict awaits the world, and the point of test in that conflict will be the authority of God versus human traditions in religious teaching. We will go farther, and say that God's test of authority in ages past — the seventh-day Sabbath — will be the test of loyalty to His authority again. As it was in the days of Elijah, when Israel was called upon to take their stand for God or for Baal, so again not alone one nation but the whole world will be brought to a place where a decision must be made for or against God. In vision, the prophet Isaiah saw the work of God coming to a close in the world. He saw a message — one message — going to all nations, and around that ensign all "Israel" would take their stand. The world surely needs now, such a message, an "ensign" to lead the "hosts of the Lord" through the labyrinth of errors in the world to-day. See Isa. 11: 11-16.
In evidence that we are in the midst of conditions that are rapidly placing the church and the world in a position where they must listen to some voice of authority, we call attention to the "lukewarm" church. On every hand is seen and felt the lack of spiritual zeal. The prayer-meeting is poorly attended. The regular church service is but little better, and the spirit of pleasure and amusement has invaded the sacred place of the sanctuary. The social, the supper, the entertainment, seem to be the only means left the church to attract the people.
Wherein lies the cause of this present lack of interest in spiritual things? The authority of the Scriptures, as a full and sufficient guide for faith and practise, is not being taught as it once was. The infirmity of the church is the result of the weak, sickly teaching we hear from the pulpit and the religious press, and that from men in high authority. As an example, notice the following:
"Where does the Bible come from? — From the same source whence all other worth-while books come — out of the soul of humanity is humanity's struggle to give expression to its divine ideals. . . . The question of inspiration confronts us when we think of the source from which the Bible came. Now, there are some things I do not know. One of them is what inspiration is. Neither does any one else know what it is. Anyway, men are inspired, and not the writings, not black marks upon a page. And so far as I can determine, all the term can reasonably suggest is that men write at times from a highly vitalized inward impulse." — Prof. T. E. Rankin, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in the "Homiletic Review," August, 1912, pp. 91, 92.
Men high in church circles no longer believe the plain declaration of the Scriptures regarding creation. Note this sample utterance:
"Take the incomparable stories of the temptation and fall at the beginning of Genesis, with their speaking serpent, their miraculous trees, their God who walks about His garden in the cool of the day and speaks face to face to Adam as to His friend. Are we to take all this literally as an historical account of the introduction of sin into our human world? And if so, what guarantee can we possibly have that these things actually happened as they are related? For manifestly the experiences of the first human beings lie far beyond the reach of human memory or tradition. . . . Is it not equally competent, and far more consonant with all we know of literature and history, to regard these narratives as embodying very ancient mythical material?" — "Homiletic Review" for December, 1912, p. 443, by Prof. John E. McFadden, Glasgow.
How can the church expect to have "the power of God unto salvation" as found in the gospel, when it will not and does not accept the Book that contains the gospel? What folly to say that the Bible is the best book in the world, but is not inspired, while it claims to be a direct revelation from God! The Bible writers were either what they claimed to be, or they were the greatest liars the world ever contained; for in nearly every case they claim that God spoke by and through them. But if they are false witnesses, how could they write the most spiritual, most sublime book man ever read?
Seeking Power Outside the Gospel
The church, having lost the "power of the gospel," is seeking for power elsewhere. The Federation of Churches was brought about to fill that very need. At its first session, held November, 1905, in New York City, one of the speakers made this significant statement:
"I trust that one of the practical results of this conference will be the organization of a force that law-breakers and law-makers will respect and heed when great questions of morals are involved. . . . It is our province, in the name of our supreme King, and seeking the good of mankind, to ask rulers to respect the code of our kingdom. . . . This federation will compel an audience, and it will speak with power, if it will put aside its differences and make its agreement its argument."
Associated with this movement are the Lord's Day Alliance, National Reform Association, and Sabbath Leagues, etc. These operate in every state in the Union, and in other forms in the entire world, all clamoring for power, for authority, for influence over the masses.
The main point in this subject is this: The vital issue in all these movements and organizations is sabbath (Sunday) laws. The agitation has at last enlisted the sympathies of politicians, and one of the planks in the Chicago platform of the National Progressive Party reads: "We advocate one day's rest in seven." Does not all this show that there is agitation regarding a sabbath?
In other circles of life much is said about the divine claims of the Sabbath of the law of God. In the New York Times, Sunday, December 22, 1912, there appeared a remarkable article entitled "Islam, on the Eve of Christmas, Sends a Message to Christianity." We quote the following:
"I have traveled far and wide. . . . And what have I learned? — That there is not a single Christian country where the Founder of Christianity is not set aside and the honor and respect due to the God He worshiped denied. I mean the first-day sabbath. As a son of Islam I have never under5stood why the Christian world does not keep the true Christian Sabbath — the Sabbath that was kept by the Founder of Christianity, the Sabbath which He ordered to be kept until the end of time, the crack of doom, until the day when the heavens should vanish as smoke, until 'earth grow old and the sun grow cold and the stars shall cease to be!' Who dared decree that the seventh day should no longer be the Sabbath? Was it Constantine, that infamous wretch who smothered his wife in a steam bath, who killed his own son, who slew his nephew, who fooled his people — pagan and pseudo-Christian alike? Was it the clerics who composed that Council of Nice? I have read of it! . . . When in a few short days the Christian world will bend in homage to Him who kept the seventh-day Sabbath, to Him who never would have tolerated the insult to His divine Father to set aside His command that the seventh-day is the Sabbath, to Him who commanded that the law and the prophets should be obeyed to every jot or tittle — I say, when the Christian world bends its knee at next Noel, or Christmas, shall not all true Christian men and Christian women say: It is time that we vindicate the honor of Him whom we revere and keep the Sabbath which He Himself kept, follow His example, and obey the lessons of His life so He lived it? Is it not time that we should go back to the original Sabbath? or shall we continue to respect more a Constantine or faulty clerics? Whom shall we respect — Jesus or Constantine? Whom shall we obey — the prophets of the Bible or the clerics of Nice? Oft, as I have wandered in many lands, I have thought of these and other such developments of Christianity. When will men and women begin to think for themselves?"
The Institution Standing for Jehovah's Authority
There is need of power and authority in the church, but God's power can not and will not come so long as the professed church rejects the institution that stands for the authority of Jehovah. Anciently the seventh-day Sabbath was the test of loyalty between God and His people. Eze. 20: 12, 20. If the honor which is due the seventh day has not been transferred by divine authority to another day — and it has not — then the seventh-day Sabbath still retains that distinction. This being true, is it not a plain rejection of the authority of God, and the exaltation of the commandments of men, to encourage by precept or example, the transfer, by the power of law, of the authority of the seventh-day Sabbath to another day, and make that "other day" the test of religious faith? This the sabbath reformers are doing. They have said that "Sunday is the bulwarks of American Christianity."
Then, are we stating more than the facts, when we say that this present Sabbath agitation will bring the people to a place where they must decide for one day or the other? But remember, dear reader, on that decision hangs eternity. The agitation for more strict sabbath (Sunday) observance is world-wide. In the nature of the case, the demand for a decision between the false and the true Sabbath will also be world-wide. In fact, the prophecies of the Word declare that the seventh-day Sabbath shall be a test of loyalty to God in the last days of earth's history. But of this we will speak further in another article.
The call is clear, the signs are evident; you and I must yield obedience to God and His law, and pray for strength to resist the commandments and traditions of men, and accept His authority only as revealed in His Word.
