King's Business - 1947-07

How would you explain Luke 13:82: “Behold, I cast out devils [o r 'demons’ R. V .], and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day 1 shall he perfected"f The Lord spoke figuratively here of His approaching death and glory, meaning that He was not to be hur­ ried on, or turned aside from His course. God had planned His earthly career, and He would fulfill that career, and did at the hour appoint­ ed. Until His ‘‘hour was fully come,” no man could touch the Son of God; for He Himself was God, as well as the humble Servant of Jehovah. Listen to His own words: “I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:17, 18). Compare also these passages: ‘‘Mine hour ig not yet come,” spoken by Christ at the beginning of His ministry; and “Father, the hour is come,” spoken on the way to Geth- semane, in His high priestly prayer. (See John 2:4; 17:1.) It was not by mere chance that the Son of God was crucified on the Passover afternoon; He was our paschal Lamb! He came to die at a certain time, and He knew that He would be restored to His eternal glory which He had with the Father before the world was. (See John 17:5.) Do we have any scriptural proof for the location of the Garden of Edent Yes, while the exact boundaries of the garden of Eden are not named, yet the general location is definitely stated. At least four proper names recorded in the second chapter of Genesis may be located on the maps of history: "Ethiopia . . . Hiddekel [the ancient name for the Tigris River] . . . Assyria . , . the river . . . Euphrates” (Gen. 2:13, 14). Secular history calls the Tigris- Euphrates valley, or Mesopotamia, "the cradle of civilization,” and rightly so, according to the Genesis story of creation. JULY, 1947

Were Adam and Eve clothed with a garment of light before the fa ll? In your book, “God’s Plan of the Ages,” you state that before the fall, man was clothed with such a gar­ ment. I showed this statement to my pastor, and he said that it is not so. To prove his point, he quoted Genesis 2:25: “They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” How would you answer this objection f If Genesis 2:25 is to be understood as referring to an absolute naked­ ness, we must have an odd idea of Adam’s and Eve’s knowledge, or rather, of their ignorance, at being naked and not knowing it. Accord­ ing to this supposition, they were not ashamed because they knew not that they were naked; but only after they had sinned, “the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.” It is an inconceivable thing that Adam and Eve should be as naked before the fall as they were after­ ward, and yet be so blind as never to see this, or so ignorant as not to know it. It is unthinkable that their sight in this regard should come with their apostasy from God. Such a conclusion is unreasonable. The meaning, therefore, of the words must be this: That although Adam and Eve had no such material garment before the fall as they had afterward, when God clothed them with the' skins of animals (Gen. 3:21), yet they had no reason for being ashamed, because they were clothed with a luminous garment that more than made up that want. The whole story of the fall is sug­ gestive in this regard. They evi­ dently lost something in the way of clothing, because they immediately began to make for themselves a covering. Just one word further in regard to the statement that Adam and Eve were clothed with a garment of light before the fall: Psalm 104:1, 2 reads: “O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment.” And Genesis 1:26, 27 says plainly: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... So God

created man in his own image.” Does it seem farfetched to take the Word of God literally on this mat­ ter? Only after man sinned was he afraid of God, ashamed to stand in His presence. But made in the image and likeness of God—and He clothed Himself “with light as with a gar­ ment”—how beautiful and majestic must man have been when he first came from the hands of the Creator! Please explain Matthew 17:10-13, especially verses 12 and 13, where we read “Elias is come already . . . Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Bap­ tist.” Let me quote from Dr. C. I. Sco­ field: “All the passages must be con­ strued together (Matt, 11:14; Mark 9:11-13; Luke 1:17; Mai. 3:1; 4:5, 6). (1) Christ confirms the specific and still unfulfilled prophecy of Malachi 4 : 5, 6: ‘Elias shall truly first come and restore all things' Here, as in Malachi, the prediction fulfilled in John the Baptist, and that yet to be fulfilled in Elijah, are kept distinct. (2) But John the Baptist has come already, and with a ministry so com­ pletely in the spirit and power of Elijah's future ministry (Luke 1:17) that in an adumbrative and typical sense it could be said: ‘Elias is come already.’ Read Matthew 10:40, and Philemon 12, 17, where the same thought of identification, while yet preserving personal distinction, oc­ curs.” You said that the children of the Canaanites were destroyed, as well as their elders, because of the sins of the people. And yet you say that children who die before they reach the age of accountability are not lost. Please explain. The children destroyed along with the elders were physically destroyed. This does not mean that they were lost. The fact is that God, in mercy, destroyed the children of the Canaan­ ites because, under the influence of the wicked people with whom they lived, they would have been under condemnation as they grew to years of accountability. So God's act was really an act of mercy. PAGE TWENTY-THREE

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