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@®@ SCRIPTURE PROBLEMS SOLVED...
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Days of the Week
1. Will you please tell me who 1s the author
of the names of the days of the week? 2. Ac-
cording to Genesis 1 a day began at evening.
When does the Sabbath begin? M. A.
1. When men departed from the true
God, in order to forget Him and His holy
Sabbath, the seventh day of the week,
which constantly brought to their minds
His great creative act, they introduced
names of the days of the week which com-
memorated their apostasy. Sunday was the
name given to the first day of the week in
honor of the sun. Monday obtained its
name from the moon. Tuesday from the
Norse god, Tyr, who was the god of martial
honor. Wednesday was from the Norse
god Woden, the mad or furious one.
Thursday took its name from Thunres, the
god of thunder; Friday from the goddess
Frigga, answering to Venus; Saturday from
the god Saturn.
2. Leviticus 23:32 reads: “From even
unto even, shall ye celebrate your Sab-
bath.” Mark 1: 32 defines even. ‘‘ At even,
when the sun did set, they brought unto
Him all that were diseased, and them that
were possessed with devils.” Thus you will
see that from sunset to sunset we are
enjoined to keep the Sabbath. This time is
not dependent on any clock or mechanical
timepiece, but upon the setting of the sun.
The Sabbath, therefore, begins at sunset
Friday and closes at sunset Saturday.
Everlasting Fire
Kindly explain Matthew 25: 41, 46. What
1s the everlasting punishment? L. U.
The verses cited in Matthew read:
“Then shall He say also unto them on the
left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and
his angels. . . . And these shall go away
into everlasting punishment: but the
righteous into life eternal.” For a thorough
understanding of this scripture it will be
necessary for you to read carefully Christ’s
statements. He did not say, “These [the
wicked] shall go away into everlasting
punishing” but “into everlasting punish-
ment.” What is the reward of disobedience?
We read: “The soul that sinneth, it shall
die.” Ezekiel 18:4. Then the ‘punish-
ment” to which Christ referred was ever-
lasting death.
You will also observe that Christ used
fizurative language in these concluding
verses of Matthew 25. Notice that the
Lord is represented in the character of a
shepherd and His people as sheep, while
the wicked are spoken of as goats. (Verses
32, 33.) Verse 34 tells you that the king
shall say to those on His right hand, the
sheep, “Come, ye blessed of My Father,”
and they are represented as answering Him.
Likewise verse 41 represents Him as speak-
ing to the goats, while verse 44 gives the
answer of the goats. Verse 45 gives Christ's
reply to the goats. From these experiences
the conclusions of verse 46 are drawn.
Perhaps you are puzzled over the word
“everlasting.” The word translated ‘‘ever-
lasting” here is from the Greek aionios,
literally, “age lasting.” Atonios is derived
from the Greek word aon, meaning ‘‘ age.”
Bagster defines it, “A period of time of
significant character; life; an era; an age,
hence a state of things making an age or
era; the present order of nature; the condi-
tion of man, the world; ho aton, illimitable
duration, eternity.”
Atlonios, therefore, he translates ‘““inde-
terminate as to duration, eternal, ever-
lasting.” When this word is applied to the
punishing of the wicked by fire, some sup-
pose that the punishing will last throughout
all eternity, whereas our Lord was speaking
of the punishment which resulted from the
punishing, which was death. In speaking of
the punishment of the wicked the Revised
Version in 2 Thessalonians 1: 9 says: “Who
shall suffer punishment, even eternal de-
struction.” The King James translation
gives it, “ Who shall be punished with ever-
lasting destruction.” The result is ever-
lasting, eternal, but it is destruction.
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NOVEMBER, 1942
Page SEVENTEEN