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Gold, Silver, Precious Stones
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Questions and Answers
AUTHOR(S): | Hassell, Sylvester
Pittman, R. H. |
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Soul and Body
Q. Some Boston doctors think that they have found that the soul of a human being weighs from half an ounce to an ounce, and some Chicago doctors think that, if this is so, the soul must be at least somewhat material, and could therefore be caught in an impervious glass or metallic case; what do you think about these pretended discoveries and speculations?
A. That they are as foolish as they are false, and are but the idle expressions of a heathenish pantheism and materialism, presuming to break down the distinction which the Creator has made between spirit and matter and to prevent God from taking the human spirit from its body, at death to Himself who gave it. The air in the body has a little weight, and when it is all breathed out, the body of course is a little lighter; but the conscious, living, thinking, perceiving, and feeling spirit is not air, and when the lungs do not breathe and the pulse does not beat, the spirit may still be in the body, as in a cataleptic trance (which some times lasts a month), and the body lives, and breath and pulsation return.
Q. What does Paul mean by "the body of this death" in Rom. 7:24?
A. The "body of sin" spoken of in Rom. 6:6; the "old man" spoken of in Eph. 4:22 and Col. 3:9; the "flesh," which "lusts against the spirit," spoken of in Gal.5:17; the old unregenerate self or entire natural man, which has all the parts and members of a man, and acts through the body, and will die only with the body.
Q. In Rom. 8:10 Paul says: "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness;" what does he mean?
A. He means to say that if Christ be in us by His indwelling Spirit (see verse 11), although our body is death-stricken, sentenced to death, doomed to death, as good as dead, in consequence of our union with our sinning natural federal head, the first Adam (Gen. 2:17; 3:19; Eccles. 12:7; Rom. 4:19; 5:12-18; 6:23; I Cor. 15:21,22; Heb. 11:12), yet our spirit, being in-dwelt and animated by the eternal Spirit of God, is instinct with everlasting life (John 3:6; 5:24; 6:47,51,54,56,57,58; 10:28; 11:25,26; 17:1-3,21) in consequence of our union with our holy spiritual federal Head, the second Adam, the Lord from Heaven (Rom. 5:15-21; 6:23; 8:14-18,28-39; I Cor. 1:30,31; 15:22,23,47-49; Ephes. 1:1-14; 2:5,13-22; Heb.10:14-18; I John 5:11,12). And as Paul in Rom. 8:10 declared that, by virtue of our union with the Holy indwelling eternal Spirit of God, our spirits are forever alive, so, in the next verse (verse 11) he declares that that same Divine and Almighty Spirit, that raised up Jesus from physical death, will also, in the same way, at last quicken or make alive our mortal bodies and make them as immortal as the revived body of Jesus (I Cor. 15:22-57; Phillip. 3:20,21).
Q. Does the word "house" mean a man's body as used in Matt. 10:12-14; Matt. 12:4; Luke 10:5-7; John 2:16-17; Titus 1:11 and many other scriptures of like import?
A. Most assuredly not. Very seldom does the word "house" used in the Bible refer to the human body, but refers to a building in which people lived or worshiped. It is dangerous to try to spiritualize every thing in the Bible. It manifests our ignorance and confuses those who listen to us.
Q. What is meant by having sin in the flesh?
A. It means to be in the flesh. Sin came by man, and death hath passed upon all men for all have sinned. The fleshly disposition of man is sinful and corrupt. The carnal mind is enmity against God. They that are in the flesh, or led by a fleshly spirit, cannot please God. God sent His Son into this world in the likeness of sinful flesh. Yet He was not sinful. All others are. P.
Q. What do you think of Sunday schools? Can you suggest and recommend any plan for gathering our children together on Sunday and teaching them God's word and Zion's songs?
A. God requires parents, not to send their children to some disinterested and unqualified person a few minutes every Sunday, but to bring them up themselves every day at their own homes, both by example and by precept, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). This Parents can and should do by their own lives and by their instruction and advice to their children, and by daily family worship, reading a portion of the Scriptures, explaining it if necessary, singing a hymn and bowing together in prayer with their families, and by encouraging their children to read the Scriptures every day, and by taking them with them to their religious meetings on Sunday, to engage with the congregation in singing spiritual songs, and in the attempt to approach the Divine Father of all our mercies in thanksgiving and supplication, and to hear a called and qualified servant of God expound His Word and preach His pure and everlasting gospel. And, as Sunday is a leisure day, it is desirable for our children to be gathered together on that day in some school or meeting house, so that they may be taught the rudiments of vocal music and be trained in applying these principles to the singing of the songs of Zion - a commendable practice which is observed by some of our members. If on any Sunday it is not convenient for the children to go to meeting or to a singing school, one of the parents might read with them one or more chapters of the Bible, and make such comments as may seem proper, and have their children also read other chapters and instruct the children, so far as they may be able, upon matters that may be obscure; or might question and converse with their children in regard to incidents of Scriptural history and the facts of the plan of salvation. Baptists parents have reared their children in this way for hundreds of years, and they should continue thus to "Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." This is the way in which my father raised his children, and the way in which I have tried to raise mine.
Q. Should Primitive Baptists go into or allow their children to go into a Union Bible Class?
A. No, indeed. Innumerable and fundamental errors are taught in these classes. All true Primitive Baptists and their children should have Bibles, and read and search them at home, looking to God to guide them in the study of His Word. And both Baptists and their children should reverently and habitually attend upon the preaching of the gospel by the called and qualified servants of God. That is the way in which my father reared his children, and the way in which I have reared mine including attendance upon daily family worship. This is worth far more than all the Bible Classes, Sunday Schools, Theological Seminaries, and Protracted Meetings in the world.
Q. Is the body changed in any sense in the new birth?
A. No, except indirectly by the operation of the Divine Spirit on our spirit; the body is not directly changed or spiritualized until its resurrection from the grave at the second bodily coming of Christ to this world (Rom. 8:23; I Cor. 15:22,23,42-57; Philip. 3:20,21; I Thess. 4:13-18).
Q. Was the method of time-keeping the same as now when people lived for centuries?
A. It is believed to have been the same - the duration of a year being reckoned from the shortest day in one year to the shortest day in the next.
Q. How long has it been since the beginning of time?
A. No one knows except the Creator and those to whom He has revealed the period. The inspired writers of the Scriptures do not say, and only human and fallible inferences can be made from the Scriptures on the subject. Of the period from the creation of Adam to the birth of Christ more than two hundred different estimates have been made, the shortest being 3483 years, and the longest 6984 years - a difference of 3501 years. "Archbishop" James Ussher, of Ireland, the most learned of Irish Protestant prelates (born A.D. 1580, died 1656), computed that there were 4004 years from Adam to Christ; and this date, with others computed by him, were put, by order of the British Parliament, in the margin of the Authorized or King James Version of the English Bible published in 1611. But it is now generally admitted that Christ was born at least four years before the beginning of the "Christian Era;" and, if so, and if Ussher's estimates were otherwise correct, the period from Adam to Christ was 4000 years.
Q. When were the first Catholic and Protestant Missions established?
A. By the Catholics at Rome in 1622; by the Episcopalians at London in 1698; by the Moravians of Austria-Hungary in 1732; and by the Baptists at Kettering, England, in 1792.
Q. It is possible for the names of any of God's children to be blotted out of the book of life (Rev. 3:5)?
A. No; all of them will be saved eternally (Rev. 21:27).
Q. Does science conflict with the teaching of Joshua 10:12,13 and Isa. 38:8 in regard to the sun moving?
A. Not in the least; for science, in all the astronomies and almanacs, so as to be understood by the reader, speaks of the sun and moon rising and setting, although present science teaches that this apparent daily motion of the sun and moon toward the west is caused by the real daily motion of the earth on its axis toward the east. By "science" (knowledge) is meant the very little that human beings know of the universe of God; as to the cause, the upholding, or the destiny of the universe, men know nothing except what God reveals to them. The "laws of nature" are only the ways in which the God of nature acts. He who created and sustains all things is an omnipotent sovereign, and does His pleasure in heaven and on earth, and can just as easily stop as move the earth and the heavenly bodies, or turn them backward in their course as well as forward, and prevent all the disasters that we, in our ignorance and weakness, might suppose would result from such cessation or reversion.
Q. When, or by whose authority was the year of the world changed to "the year of our Lord?"
A. Before Christ, time was reckoned by the Greeks from their Olympiads (or Olympic Games, held every four years), beginning B.C. 776; and by the Romans from the building of the city of Rome B.C. 753; and, by other literary or civilized nations, by the year of the reign of their kings or chief officers. About 240 A.D. the Jews began to reckon time from their computation of the creation of the world, 3,760 years before the beginning of the Christian Era (though the Scriptures do not say how many years elapsed from the Creation to Christ, and the shortest estimate of this period is 3,483 years, while the longest is 6,984 years; this period, put in the margin of the English Bibles, by order of the British Parliament, is 4,004 years, which is the estimate of James Ussher, of Ireland). In A.D. 523 Dionysius Erigius, a Romish monk, of Italy, began reckoning time from his computation of the birth of Christ, 4,004 years after the creation; and, by A.D. 900, this computation of the Christian Era was generally accepted throughout Christendom. It is now believed that Christ was born at least four years before what is called the Christian Era; and scholars do not universally agree on the dates of events in the Old Testament. Ussher's system of dates is, on the whole, as satisfactory as any yet devised.
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