SCRIPTURE QUESTIONS by W. H. Littlejohn

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, March 10, 1885.

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 10. Whole No. 1605.

SCRIPTURE QUESTIONS.

By W. H. Littlejohn

ANSWERS BY W. H. LITTLEJOHN.

316.—COMMANDING TO ABSTAIN FROM MEATS.

E. I. R.: You certainly need not fear that S. D. Adventists will fulfill 1 Tim. 4: 1-4 until there is at least some probability that they will meet the conditions peculiar to those who are described in that passage. Here are some of them: 1. The people in question are to depart from the faith and give heed to seducing spirits; 2. They are to speak lies in hypocrisy; 3. They are to forbid to marry. If you are acquainted with S. D. Adventists and I presume you are, as you call them brethren, you must be well aware that there is not a denomination to which these characteristics could not apply more fully than they do to them. They hold that Spiritualism and all communications with the dead, so-called, are the works of the devil, offering as a reason for this conviction that the dead are perfectly unconscious. (2) They keep the law of God, which forbids lying, and observe the seventh-day Sabbath, greatly to their pecuniary disadvantage, rather than play the part of hypocrites by keeping a day as the Sabbath which God never commanded, under the pretext that they believed that he would accept such service. (3) There is no denomination in the land who hold the marriage relation as sacred as they do, denying that it can be dissolved for any other cause than adultery. I repeat, therefore, that to apply 1 Tim. 4: 1-4 to S. D. Adventists simply because they hold that a vegetarian is preferable to a flesh diet, is absurd so long as they hold the points of faith mentioned above. If you would see an examination of the text with reference to its bearing upon the question of flesh eating, please turn to REVIEW, Vol. 60, p. 666, ques. 194.

317.—THE HOUR OF HIS JUDGMENT.

W. A. J.: 1. The term “hour” which is employed in Rev. 14: 6, 7, in the words, “Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of his Judgment is come,” is translated from the Greek word hora. Among the meanings assigned to it by the lexicographers are the following: “Due time, designated period, a point of time, time.” You will see from the foregoing that the definitions of the word are such that it would not be safe to build upon it any time theory respecting the termination of the Judgment. As employed in Rev. 14: 6, 7, it simply indicates that at a given point of time the commencement of the Judgment period would be reached, and that when reached that fact would be announced to the world by the church. The text throws no light whatever on the matter of the duration of the Judgment.

2. It is idle to try to make out that God has measured off any definite portion of time to answer as a day for himself. The expression found in 2 Pet. 3: 8, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” disproves rather than proves such a proposition; for if it states that a thousand years is with the Lord as one day, it also states that one day is with him as a thousand years. Mark this, it does not say that a thousand years with the Lord is a day; but it declares that a thousand years is as one day. Or in other words, that he does not mark the flight of time by days and years. The same logic which would make 2 Pet. 3: 8 teach that the Lord’s days are a thousand years long, would also make it teach that a thousand years with him is only as long as one of his days, which would be nonsense, as it would make God’s days a thousand times longer than his years. The simple fact is that the word day in that passage stands for one of our twenty-four-hour days, and as said above inculcates the grand idea that in God’s infinite plans our measurement of time does not enter at all.

3. The Lord has said through the testimonies that no time movement should ever be connected with the third angel’s message, and our brethren should show that they believe this to be true by ceasing to endeavor to invent some method by which to determine exactly when the Judgment will end or Christ will come. Every one who has hitherto attempted this since 1844 has come to grief, and every one who shall undertake it hereafter will share a like experience.

318.—CHURCH FESTIVALS.

E. O. S.: I am not wise enough to tell you when and where the first church festival was held. On that point I think you will have to refer to Leo XIII. or some of his priests, as they are more familiar with that kind of lore than are Protestants.