Signs of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 41. (10/22/1912)

Signs of the Times

Oct 22, 1912

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 22, 1912

Question Corner

By Editor

"IF YE WILL INQUIRE, INQUIRE YE."

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 The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable.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

To Our Querists.—We wish to say very clearly and strongly, as it is said in the note above, that we answer no anonymous questions. We must have the name of the writer in evidence of good faith. We do not wish the name for publication. We do not publish the name unless it is desired. We use only the initials, or any other proper designation the questioner may desire, such as "X Y Z," "Reader," a number, etc. We do not make the names of our correspondents public; but all correspondence not signed finds the quickest way to the waste-basket. This we do not desire, and our correspondents can easily prevent it.

3891—Breaking of Bread

By Editor

Please let me know if the words found in Acts 20:7 refer to the Lord's Supper. It says plainly, "On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread." It looks to me as tho that was their custom, as we never read of their breaking bread in the meetings on the Sabbath day in which Paul preached in the synagog.

Granted that the expression "breaking of bread" refers to the Lord's Supper. Certainly the text does not show that it occurred at a customary time. It does show that that gathering was upon the first day of the week, and among the incidents which occurred was the breaking of bread at that time. "And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow," reads the American Revised Version. Luke simply declares that as we were met together on that evening, Paul preached to them; but on that occasion we also broke bread, and it is when we were gathered to break the bread that Paul preached. That might have been a meal for the Sabbath day. If the expression refers to the Lord's Supper, Acts 2:46 clearly shows that it had no fixed time for observance, for "day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart." It clearly seems to refer to the common meals in this passage; but if it refers here to the Lord's Supper, it shows that the frequency or infrequency of the bread breaking was determined entirely by circumstances, and that it was not held upon any set day; and therefore the apostle Paul, in giving instructions upon this, declares, as we read in 1 Cor. 11:26, "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death till He come." This meeting would probably not have been recorded at all, had it not been for the noted miracle which was wrought on the occasion. Paul seems to have been with them the entire week; and having closed his Sabbath service with them, they partook of the Lord's Supper before departing. And yet Paul, eager to instruct them in the way of truth, preached to them on this occasion also. While he was preaching, Eutychus fell down, and was taken up for dead. Paul brought him back to life, went up with the disciples and broke bread—partook with them of the Lord's Supper, then preached again, even until the break of day, and spent the rest of that Sunday in his journey to Assos. We can well believe—devout Christians can—that the daily breaking of bread in Acts 2:46, and in this passage also, was the communion service, was a bringing to remembrance the death and sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ; and it was a preeminently fitting thing, as the apostle was departing, to solemnize the last meeting with an ordinance of this kind. But there is absolutely nothing whatever in the text or context which fixes the ordinance to the day, except on that one occasion. In the record given in Acts 2:46, it would seem that these celebrations would occur on the Sabbath as well as on the first day of the week. The Bible limits them to no day. There were doubtless a great many occasions of this kind that are not recorded at all.

3893 — Voice and Sound

By Editor

Compare Acts 9:7 with Acts 22:9. Both passages relate to the same event, namely, to the conversion of Saul. In the latter, Saul is relating the events leading to his conversion as mentioned in Acts 9:7, and says, "They heard not the voice;" while the passage in Acts 9:7 reads, "hearing a voice." Would thank you for an explanation. F. J.

This is one of the apparently contradictory passages of the Bible which are not contradictory at all if we would but take into consideration the widely diversified use of words. "Voice" is used simply of the sound, and also of what it utters. In Acts 9:7 the men who journeyed with Paul heard the sound, but did not understand anything which the voice said. The margin of the Revised Version renders it "sound." In Acts 22:9 Paul is speaking of what the voice said. Those that were with him "beheld the light, but they heard not the voice;" that is, they did not understand it, they did not grasp the words. Paul heard not only the sound, but he heard what the voice said. This is well illustrated by John 12:28, 29: "There came therefore a voice out of heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The multitude therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it had thundered: others said, An angel hath spoken to Him." Some of them heard only an indistinct sound like thunder, others knew that words were spoken. Jesus Himself heard the very words that were said. Looking upon it in this way, it is seen there is no contradiction between the two accounts. Rotherham also renders "sound" in the margin of Acts 9:7. Boothroyd renders Acts 9:7, "And the men who journeyed with him remained silent, hearing a sound, but seeing no man." And Acts 22:9, "And those that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid, but they heard not the words of Him that spoke to me."

3889—Tithe Paying

By Editor

I am a canvasser. I occasionally have to make special orders by express. I order a book, and it costs me twenty-five cents to get it out of the express office. In the payment of tithes, what should I do? Should I pay tithes on my profit less the express, or pay tithes on the profit including the express—that is, paying on the twenty-five cents also?

It seems clear to us that the twenty-five cents should be deducted. That is necessary expense in the carrying on of the business, just the same as the freight would be deducted if the book came by freight. The Lord does not ask us to pay a tithe on that which we do not use, and which does not belong to us. Twenty-five cents of the book belongs to the express company in the carriage of the book. It is the duty of the express people to pay tithe upon that. It was the duty of the canvasser to pay what he received less the necessary expense in the securing of the book.

3890 — The Genealogy of Jesus

By Editor

I would like it if you could give me any light on the genealogy of Jesus, as there is a very great difference in the records of Matthew and Luke. L. P.

There are two objects in giving the genealogies. That of Matthew is to give the kingly side of the genealogy, and show that Jesus is the rightful King, the rightful Heir of Abraham. Some of the generations are omitted. The Spirit thought it wise to divide them into three groups of fourteen generations each. It may be said, however, that this is not an uncommon thing in the Bible, to omit a generation. Sometimes a grandfather is called a father, because he was the leading type, just the same as the Jews are called children of Abraham, tho many generations intervened between those so called and Abraham himself. The kingship came through the male line. Joseph was the legal father of Jesus, and he therefore is given as the ancestor of our Lord. Christ received legally the kingship through him. Luke, however, gives the mother's side, with a different object in view, to show that Jesus was of man, of the human family. But as it was not customary to trace the genealogy through women, the male members are mentioned instead of the female, the husband of Mary instead of Mary herself. And through this side of the family, the human side, the genealogy is traced back to Adam, the very first man, and yet still back of Adam,—the Son of God. So that the Son of God was truly the Son of Man. We believe that our inquirer, looking upon it this way, will find help.

3892 — Ten Men and a Jew

By Editor

Please explain Zech. 8:23.

The verse reads, "Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, they shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." The passage in general refers to the first coming of our Lord and Saviour, and the grace and blessing which He would pour out upon the world. So far as the Jews are concerned, God's blessings were confined to them. They could not see how God was going to work outside of themselves, but the prophet Zechariah tells them that there is coming a time when men of all nations — for we understand that the number ten is a representative number — would seek to the Jews for blessing. That would have been true throughout their entire history, if they had lived as God desired they should live. The nations surrounding them would have sought God in Judah. They would have seen God's wonderful law as Moses declares in Deut. 4:6-8. If God's children had been obedient to Him as they should, the nations all around them would have come and said, "What great nation is there, that hath statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law?" And God would have brought many of them to salvation through the faithfulness of His people. That is what the prophet Zechariah predicts. So Jesus declares in John 4:22, that salvation is of the Jews. The prophet Zechariah simply predicts that while salvation is of the Jews, and is offered through the Jews to the world, there will be those of all nations who will accept of it.

3894—After the Flesh

By Editor

Will you kindly explain 2 Cor. 5:16, particularly the latter part, which reads, "Yea, tho we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more"? Are we never to see Christ again in the flesh as He was at His first advent?

The term "after the flesh" means after the carnal way, after the way of the unconverted man. The phrase does not refer to the flesh of Jesus, but to our flesh. It is not of Jesus, but of man. Paul did not purpose to look upon the Lord that way any longer. He looked upon Jesus after the flesh when he was persecuting His followers. So therefore it does not mean Jesus after His flesh, or in His flesh, but after Paul's flesh. He would not look upon Jesus in a carnal way, but in a spiritual way. This is indicated in the next verse: "Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new." Jesus will not be seen again in mortal, human flesh. He bore that once for all. But 2 Cor. 5:16 does not refer to this. It may be said that those who profess the name of Christ, but know nothing of His power, simply know Christ after the flesh. To know Him truly, we must have His life, the new life in Christ Jesus which transforms character.

Schedule for the Week Ending November 2, 1912

Sunday October 27 Acts 20 Monday " 28 " 21 Tuesday " 29 " 22 Wednesday " 30 " 23 Thursday " 31 " 24, 25 Friday November 1 " 26 Sabbath " 2 Acts 27; Psalm 111

Paul’s Journey to Rome

In chapter 20 we have the wonderfully instructive record of Paul's visits to Troas and Miletus. In verses 7 to 11 is recorded an evening meeting on the first day. But there is in it no foundation or support for first-day observance, and the farewell words of the apostle to the elders of Ephesus lend naught to the claim. See verses 20, 27. The remainder of our week's readings, with the exception of Psalm 111, has to do with Paul's journey to Rome. It is of interest in showing God's way of overruling the plans of men against His cause to His own glory. Satan thought to hinder and bind God's work by the imprisonment or destruction of the apostle, but God used it all to the furtherance of His work.

EDITORIAL

By Editor

The Baptism of the Man

(See Matt. 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21, 22; John 1:26-34.)

JOHN the baptizer, the messenger of God, was doing his Heaven-appointed work. His clear, strong reproof pierced the hearts of adamant, even those of the wicked Herod and his wickeder paramour, Herodias, the latter of whom was planning black vengeance. But his word bore fruit in regenerated hearts and renewed lives. Publican and sinner, male and female, merchant and fisherman, soldier and civilian, priest and peasant, had bowed before the rough prophet in the wilderness, confessing their sins, and had been baptized of him in the Jordan.

DEPRECIATIVE of himself, magnifying only his message and the One of whom he was the forerunner, his preaching swept through Judea like the early rain, until men began to think the roughly garbed preacher of the desert was himself the Messiah. But John knew to the contrary. He was not the Messiah, he was not Elijah, he was not Moses, or Jeremiah, or any of the prophets who had fallen in harness by the way. He was the mighty voice of Isaiah's prophecy, predicted more than six centuries before, and now vocal in Judea. That voice was preparing the way of the Lord in the moral desert of Israel. It was given to straighten their perverted theology, sift to the nothing the superstitious, soul-burdening traditions of the elders, bring low the mountains of self-righteousness, and exalt in the approval of God, humility, and humble trust. He pointed the way. The Coming One only could do the work. He would baptize the humble and faithful in the life-giving power of His Spirit, but immersed in the glory of whose presence the eternally identified with sin would perish.

Photograph from a scene on the Jordan. Our Lord may have been baptized on the spot photographed; but no "holy place," no "holy water" from the Jordan, can save the soul. There is but one Fount of cleansing; but one great Example—our blessed Lord.

ONE day He, the Predicted One, came. John knew, before He came, that He was manifest in their midst. "In the midst of you standeth One whom ye know not, even He that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose." John 1:26, 27. When John saw Him, he recognized His holiness. The prophet felt, in the very presence of the Holy One, the atmosphere of heaven. He was amazed that that Man whose very presence radiated holiness should ask to be baptized. John felt that the honor was above him. He would have hindered the Sinless One. "I have need to be baptized of Thee," faltered the prophet, "and comest Thou to me?" Jesus replied, "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered Him."

THE divine-human Son of God needed not to be baptized for His own sins. Personally He had none to confess, none of which to repent; but He had identified Himself with the race. He was made one with humanity. He stood in their stead. He bore their sins. He was a partaker of flesh and blood, of the seed of Abraham, of the flesh of David. He stood there in our behalf, kin with all mortals, bearing our infirmities, our weakness, our iniquities. He was our Fellow in the flesh, as He was and is God's Fellow in eternity. He repented in our behalf, died to sin in our behalf, rose to life forever in our behalf, and His burial and rising from the river Jordan was a symbol of that death and life as it should be in every believer.

WHEN Jesus came up out of the Jordan, He prayed; and what a prayer it must have been! That was the first step in the public life of His mission. It was the beginning of the time of that wonderfully pregnant three years' ministry which has changed the face of the world. Appreciating its meaning, its trials, its temptations, its fearful conflicts with baleful, malevolent powers of darkness, its heart-breaking burdens, its agony for souls, Jesus prayed; and in response to His mighty, simple faith, the portals of heaven opened. The Spirit in visible form, like a dove of peace, descended upon the Kneeling One, and from the blue above came the voice of the eternal God, "Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased." The simple, graphic narrative has its various lessons. Let us take home to our hearts two of them.

JOHN, and perhaps a few others, saw with Jesus the opening heavens, the descent of the Spirit's symbol. It was an assurance to the prophet that Jesus was the Christ. John said, "I knew Him not; but that He should be made manifest to Israel." "I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize in water, He said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon Him, the same is He that baptized in the Holy Spirit. And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God." John 1:31-34. So God reveals Himself to the pure in heart. Paul heard the voice of God speaking, and understood His words. His unspiritual companions heard but an incomprehensible sound. Jesus, in response to a prayer, heard the Father speak, and knew what He said. Others knew that some holy being was speaking to Him. Still others said, "It thundered." "The friendship of Jehovah is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant," or, as the margin reads, "His covenant, to make them know it." O soul, keep within the current of His working, within the circle of His manifest presence! Sometimes there may be clouds to shut from your human heart His indescribable glory; and sometimes He will flood your soul with light, and you will hear for that Son's sake His voice speak to you, "Thou art My beloved son; in thee I am well pleased." It was for Christ; it is for you, if you are in Christ. Then you can say of Jesus, with John, "Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!" All the divinely ordained Scriptures of the past met in Him. The sin Bearer, seen and embraced by faith in type, had come to save.

THE Spirit descended and abode upon Him. It was God's anointing for His work. For thirty years since His birth His mother had waited; His friends had waited; the world had waited; the devil had waited for His manifestation; and God had waited. Sometimes young men become impatient, and enter God's work, and run without an anointing, and without a message; but God's fitting is more than years. Jesus waited thirty years for the anointing of the Spirit, and then how God used Him! Have you not read of "how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him"? Acts 10:38. The lesson is ours, and the experience may be, if we will yield to serve God as did our blessed Lord.

The Lord's Day and the Lord of the Sabbath

WHEN the apostle John was imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos, in about A.D. 96, he says of himself, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet saying, What thou seest, write in a book and send it to the seven churches." Rev. 1:10, 11.

The foregoing text makes the clear statement that the Lord has a day, for John was in the Spirit on that day. It is further clear that it is the New Testament and new dispensation Lord's day that the apostle is talking about; for when he made the foregoing declaration, he was ninety-six years this side the beginning of the Christian era, and some sixty-five years this side the cross. The text, then, shows that we have a Lord's day in this dispensation, but it does not tell what day it is. The text simply speaks of the Lord's day in a matter-of-fact way, the same as we in America would speak of the Fourth of July, taking for granted that we were speaking of something so well known that any one would understand that to which we referred.

The foregoing text expressly says that it is addressed to the churches. Furthermore, the first verse of the book of Revelation reads, "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show unto His servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass." And again and again in this book of Revelation is it stated that the book is particularly addressed to the church. And being thus addressed to the church, it is taken for granted that the church, above all people, would know God's Word, and would know, from that Word, which is the Lord's day. Hence the prophet-apostle speaks of being in the Spirit on the Lord's day, without giving any explanation of which day that is; for he is talking to a people who know God's Word, and who well know, from that Word, its teaching concerning the Lord's day.

This may bring us to inquire what that teaching is. There are many who claim that Sunday is the Lord's day. But such a claim is based wholly on assumption. There is absolutely no warrant in the Scriptures anywhere for calling Sunday the Lord's day. Sunday, or the first day of the week, is never spoken of as the Sabbath, and there is absolutely no hint that it was ever to become the Sabbath by divine appointment. The Lord foreknew the attempts that would be made to put the Sunday in the place of His divinely appointed Sabbath, and it would seem that He purposely almost ignored even the mention of the day in the Sacred Book. The first day of the week is mentioned but once in the Old Testament, and that where the statement is made, in the first chapter of Genesis, that "the evening and the morning were the first day" of our planet's existence. The first day of the week is mentioned but eight times in the New Testament, and six of those eight refer to the same identical first day—the one on which Christ rose from the dead. And none of these eight texts even hint at the idea that Sunday is to be the Sabbath of the new dispensation.

Therefore we repeat that there is absolutely no warrant in the Word anywhere for calling the Sunday either the Lord's day or the Sabbath day.

But when we come to another day of the week, we find the Bible in numerous texts speaking in no uncertain way in regard to the day that the Lord claims as His. Note the following text:

"And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: so that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." Mark 2:27, 28.

This text explicitly states that the Son of Man lays claim to being "Lord" of the "Sabbath." There is no text that makes the assertion that He is Lord of any other day besides the Sabbath day. But there are other texts upon the subject:

"If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight," etc. Isa. 58:13.

This text calls the Sabbath "My holy day." Such an expression is equivalent to calling the Sabbath the "Lord's day." But read this statement from the commandment itself:

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Ex. 20:8-10.

"The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Then the seventh day, commonly called Saturday, is the day the Lord lays claim to. It is the one day of the seven that He has reserved to Himself for an exclusive day of rest and worship.

Now in view of the fact that the Master calls Himself Lord of the Sabbath, and in view of the fact that Isaiah speaks of the Sabbath as Jehovah's holy day, and in view of the further fact that the commandment itself tells us that the seventh day is the Lord's own Sabbath,—in view of these things, and in further view of all that the Word says, from beginning to end, concerning the Sabbath, ought there to be any difficulty in determining which is the Lord's day? And ought it not to be plain which day of the week it was when John was taken into the holy visions of prophecy on the isle that is called Patmos?

If sentiment and prejudice are to control us, we can not vouch for the conclusions that may be reached; but if we are to be governed by the evidence from God's Word, we should not take very long to decide in favor of the truth in the matter. For the case stands thus: There is absolutely no evidence anywhere that Sunday is the Lord's day, but on the other hand there is clear Scripture statement in favor of the fact that the Lord's day is the one which the apostate customs of the world have led men to call Saturday.

It is well to stand with the law and the testimony. There is indescribable blessing and joy in observing the day that Jehovah has specifically blessed. It is the true Bible Sabbath. It is the true Lord's day. All the evidence is on the one side. There is none whatever on the other.

Continue reading: On the Wing