On Isaiah 28:20

QUESTION: Explain Isaiah 28:20, "For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it; and the covering narrower than he can wrap himself in it."

ANSWER: This is a proverbial saying for the inadequate means for the defense of Jerusalem against a strong army. The Hebrew word for "covering" is used in chap. 22:8 for outworks of defense, the barrier of the city and of the country. The Jews were as poorly prepared for a siege as a tipsy man was for sleep whom I found one evening lying on the door of my veranda trying to keep himself warm by covering himself with the rubber doormat.

— Steele's Answers p. 151, 152.

No Treasures on Earth?

QUESTION: Explain Matt. 6:19, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth."

ANSWER: Infidels are fond of saying that this prohibition and others in our Lord's Sermon on the Mount are utterly impracticable and some superficial readers, though Protestants, admit that they are monkish: and the Roman Catholics imply this error when they teach that only those who obey the "counsels of perfection," the vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience, can be perfect saints. 

The truth is that the term "treasures" does not mean simply money, but that which we deem our main good, the aim of our life, the object of our supreme desire and love. This should not be "on the earth," where all things are perishable and transient, but in heaven. 

Wesley suggests that this prohibition is designed "to guard us against making anything on earth our treasure." It cannot forbid provision for the support of our dependent kindred, the neglect of whom Paul says is worse than being an infidel (I Tim. 5:8). When Dr. Chalmers was trying to give a Christian uplift to the slums of Glasgow he secured the establishment of a savings bank as an auxiliary to the Gospel of Christ.

— Steele's Answers pp. 150, 151.

Labor Is Not a Curse

QUESTION: What fact shows that labor itself is not a curse?

ANSWER: In Eden man was commanded. to "subdue the earth," to dress and to keep the garden, and to till the ground. These commands accord with his constitution of body and mind, for health, happiness and moral character suffer from idleness. Convicts in prison deprived of work for a long time beg for regular daily labor. The tribes of men who do not labor are savages. Excessive labor is a curse; and child labor in factories is cruel. Pres. Eliot of Harvard University declares that "labor is the greatest civiliz­ing force in the world." I should except Christianity.

— Steele's Answers p. 149, 150.

What Meats Should Christians Eat?

QUESTION: What meats should be eaten by Christians?

ANSWER: The word meat includes both vegetable and animal foods. There are some vegetables, such as tobacco, unfit for either saint or sinner to eat,  and  the extract of others, such as opium from the poppy, and alcoholic distillations from fruits and cereals, should not go into the mouth of any Christian. He is sure to eat healthy food if he limits himself to the clean animals enumerated. in Lev. II. But since Jesus abrogated the ceremonial law (Mark 7:19, American Revised Version), the Christian does not sin if he eats swine's flesh, clams, oysters, lobsters, eels, etc. It is thought that the superior longevity of the Jews arises from their observance of the Levitical Law which perfectly guards his beefsteak and mutton chops.

— Steele's Answers p. 149.

As Patient As God?

QUESTION: Must the wholly sanctified be as patient in their finite capacity as God himself in his infinity?

Ans. Yes. The command is, "Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect" in love. If your vessel be filled with love, God can be no more than full. He is the perfect infinite and every Christian is required to be a perfect finite. It is to be noted that the exact rendering of the Greek in the R. V., "Ye shall be perfect," is not promissory, but mandatory. Alford. here remarks, "No countenance is given in this verse to perfectibility in this life." Taking the word in its evangelical sense of a heart filled with pure love, Alford's remark is a fiat denial of Christ's plain command in Matt. 5:48. Such a denial is a very serious matter.

— Steele's Answers pp. 148, 149.

Is It Impossible to Restore Fallen Believers?

QUESTION: Explain the impossibility of renewing fallen believers, as stated in (1) Heb. 6:4-6 and (2) 10:26, 27.

ANSWER: The Hebrew Christian who apostatized to find favor with his Jewish kindred must abandon not only the practice of Christianity, but the theory also. Before restoration to the synagogue he must declare Jesus an accursed impostor, a malefactor, "a hanged man." So long as he is doing this he is crucifying the Son of God afresh, in the present tense, denoting continuousness, it is impossible for God, who respects free agency, to save him. In (2) the sinning willfully is another present tense. So long as willful sin continues the apostate can find in Judaism no effectual sacrifice, but, if he should turn to Christ, he will find that his sacrifice has not lost its virtue. So long as any man is abiding in a state of willing sin he is shutting the door of repentance behind him. God does not shut that door, the sinner shuts it himself, and he alone can open it. He is the first cause, the cause uncaused of all his moral acts. He is the creator of his own character and destiny.

— Steele's Answers p. 147, 148.

Restoration of All Things (Acts 3:21)

QUESTION: Explain Acts 3:21, "Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, whereof God. spake by the mouth of his holy prophets since the world began," or from of old, as the American Revised Version has it.

ANSWER: The difficulty is in the word "restoration" or "restitution," the original of which is used nowhere else in the N. T. I think it means the fulfillment of all the predictions respecting Christ; in the Old Testament. When a prediction is made, the prophet commits his veracity to the result, and the fulfillment makes it; good, restoring it to its unquestioned state, as many before that may have doubted the truthfulness of the prediction. In verse 18 Christ's sufferings are declared to be fulfillment of prophecy, and here his stay in heaven is a fulfillment of other predictions relating to the universal spread of the preached Gospel until the totality of the Gentiles — not as individuals, but nations, including the Jews — be brought in. Before such times shall have passed Christ comes not from heaven.

— Steele's Answers p. 147.

Church Entertainments

QUESTION: How can we best manage church entertainments?

ANSWER: The Question Box is not an expert in this matter. He never announced one, and never heard one announced from the pulpit till after his retirement from the active ministry. Then he attended one to see what it looked like. The new institution did not commend itself to him. He is sure that fun and frolic in the house of God are damaging to that spirit of reverence which should be cultivated in the young. I think it is Dr. J. M. Buckley who advises that a censor be appointed to supervise the program and eliminate improper readings and other objectionable performances. This would require of the pastor — for he ought to be the censor ­ eternal vigilance as the price of decency, and unusual courage and skill in the minister already sufficiently burdened.

— Steele's Answers p. 146, 147.

The Danger of Soft Drinks

QUESTION: Is it proper for Christians to indulge in soft drinks, such as "pop, ginger ale," and root beer?

ANSWER:  While these drinks may not be intoxicating, they may easily lead the drinker, and others through his example, to form a taste for the so-called hard liquors. If you would avoid being burned by the devil's fire, don't play with his matches and kindling wood.

— Steele's Answers p. 146.

When Did Christmas Festivities Originate?

QUESTION: I find nothing in the Bible about Christmas festivities. When and where did they originate?

ANSWER: Augustine (A. D. 354-430) considered the fast of Good Friday and the festivals Easter, Ascension and Whitsuntide (Pentecost) as the only holy days which had an apostolic origin. Christmas, he deemed to be of later origin and of less authority. This was because the day of Christ's birth was unknown. Neither did the Jews nor the great pagan nations make any record of the birth in a stable of a humble peasant babe. The various guesses were the 6th of January, the 20th of May, and the 20th or 21st of April. The 25th of December was conventionally chosen, I am sorry to say, because it was nearest to the pagan saturnalia to which the converts had been accustomed while heathens. Hence the purity of the day became sullied almost at the first by the revelry and unrestrained license of that period of seven days. The remedy is in joyful worship and in impressing upon the children especially, and all other receivers of gifts, that they are designed to remind them of God's great and unspeakable gift, of the world's Savior. If the gifts are of books, they should be such as relate to Christ. In this way the day may be rescued from follies and frivolities.

— Steele's Answers p. 145, 146.