The Seventh Day

QUESTION: In Gen. 2:2 why is it said that "God ended his work on the seventh day," and then follows the contradictory statement that he rested on that day?

ANSWER: It is the general voice of the Scriptures that the whole creation was finished in six days. See Ex. 20:11 and 31:17. There is a good reason for the opinion of A. Clarke that this is a mistake of a transcriber who read the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet for the seventh, which very closely resembles it. The Jews did not have our nine digits but used letters instead. The Greek version, made about 200 B. C., and quoted in the New Testament more than 1,000 times, reads, "God ended his work on the sixth day." Thus reads also the Samaritan Hebrew, and the Syriac version.

— Steele's Answers p. 181.

The False Christs

QUESTION: What are the principal false Christs?

ANSWER: A Jew called Simeon assumed the title BarCochba, Son of the Star, from the prophecy of Balaam, cut a great swath in Judea, in A. D. 131-135 took Jerusalem, defeated the Romans in battle, was finally conquered and beheaded by Severus. Another was Serenus of Syria, about 720 A. D., followed by David Alrui (Alroy) about 1150; then came Abraham Abulafia of Spain, born in 1240; followed by Sabbathai Zebi, born in Smyrna in 1626, styling himself king of kings of whom "miracles" were related. From Poland, Hamburg and Amsterdam treasures were poured into his court; young men and women prophesied before him, some refused to till the fields, saying, "We will pay no more tribute, our Messiah is come." He was conquered by the Turks and compelled to choose between death and Islam. Although he chose the latter, many still believed in him, and, after his death as a professed Mohammedan, they insisted that he would rise from the dead and liberate Palestine. The next pretender was Jacob Frank, who lived in royal state in Austria. After burning the Talmud in public he ended his career as a Roman Catholic. The gullibility of the Jew is accounted for when we consider the dreadful oppressions they have suffered and the daily prayer for the coming of the Messiah, which every Israelite is required to offer. The false Christ which Christians in our times are setting up is Liberalism, so called, which pays divine honors to a false concept of Jesus Christ as the Revealer of the love of God, ignoring his holiness, justice and truth and disobeying his law. They are described and their doom is foretold in Matt. 7:22-24. "Many will say unto me in that day," etc.

— Steele's Answers pp. 180, 181.

Justification and Regeneration

QUESTION: Are justification and regeneration always concomitants?

ANSWER: It would not be safe for God to do a work for us without at the same time doing a work within. This unsafe thing every priest does who pronounces absolution, for he cannot get inside of the person and create him anew. It is true that some time may elapse after the burden of guilt is consciously removed — the real spiritual birthday — before there is a joyful assurance through the Spirit's testimony to adoption.

— Steele's Answers pp. 179, 180.

The Meek Inherit the Earth

QUESTION: In what sense are the meek to inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5)?

ANSWER: This is quoted from Ps. 37:11, and is thus translated in the Revised Version, "But the meek shall inherit the land" (Canaan) here used as an ancient popular antitype to the experience of entering into the Messiah's spiritual kingdom. This "land" from which the unbelievers were excluded in Num. 14:23 had already in Ps. 95:11 become "rest," emblematic of Christian peace, as in Heb. 3:18, and 4:1-9. It was at first necessary to use Hebrew phrases to express Christian ideas, for they could be intelligibly indicated in no other way to the Jews. Wesley says "the meek shall hereafter possess the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." In his note on Rev. 21:2, he says, "The new heaven and the new earth, and the new Jerusalem, are closely connected.. This city is wholly new, belonging not to this world, not to the millennium, but to eternity."

— Steele's Answers p. 179.

Faith and Prayer

QUESTION: What is the relation of faith to prayer?

ANSWER: It is both the cause and the effect. It is the cause, for no one would ask God if he did not believe that he would give. Then, again, answered prayer awakens a stronger faith for greater blessings. Thus believing and receiving we go hand over hand up the rope of salvation let down from heaven to earth.

— Steele's Answers p. 177.

On John 16:23

QUESTION: Explain John 16:23, "In that day ye shall ask me nothing." Does it mean that we should never direct our petitions to Jesus Christ?

ANSWER: The Greek has two verbs "to ask," one meaning to beg and the other to question. The latter is here used, and is thus translated in the American Revision, "In that day ye shall ask me no questions." In ver. 19 the disciples wished to question Jesus. He tells them that when the Comforter has come all will be clear; "the mysteries that now perplex you will then be illumined." "You will not need my personal instruction when you enjoy that of the Spirit." We are not forbidden to pray to the Lord Jesus as did dying Stephen.

— Steele's Answers pp. 176, 177.

On Confession to a Priest

QUESTION: When did the people first confess their sins to a priest?

ANSWER: In the fourth century the bishops began to give absolution without confession in public, but privately. But it did not become imperative as a sacrament, once a year, till the Fourth Lateran Council in A. D. 1215. Then it became an indispensable duty laid upon every one from the Emperor to the peasant, to open the whole heart to the priesthood.

—  Steele's Answers p. 176.

Baptized Into Christ

QUESTION: Is the statement that we are "baptized into Christ" of Rom. 6:3, and Gal. 3:27, to be understood to mean that water baptism actually brings the believer into a saving union with Christ, and that without it or until it has been performed, we are not really saved?

ANSWER: No, for often the sign, water baptism, is by metonomy put for the thing signified, inward cleansing, begun by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. Hence, the Westminster Catechism wisely says, "Grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it (baptism) as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it, or that all, who are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated." Unless the administrator of water baptism can read the heart of the candidate he may affix the sign in the absence of the thing signified as did Peter in the baptism of Simon Magus in Acts 8:13-23. If water baptism saves, it follows that Paul generally left his converts unsaved, for he says in I Cor. 1:14, "I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius." It seems that Peter, in Acts 2:38, thought baptismal regeneration was the invariable Divine order, but he was corrected in 10:44-48, when the Spirit fell on the hearers before they were baptized.

— Steele's Answers pp. 175, 176.

Do Children Need to be Born Again?

QUESTION: Some young men in evangelical pulpits are teaching that there is a seed of goodness in children which, if properly developed, will supersede the necessity of the new birth.

ANSWER: Only life can impart life. The child has not spiritual life, but only the capacity for receiving it from above. This capacity may be filled so early and quietly as to leave no memorable spiritual birthday. If children were nurtured in the atmosphere of spiritual homes with godly parents as models, daily worshiping at the family altar, such regenerations would be more frequent. They are ideal. Lord hasten the day when every professedly Christian home shall be "the gate of heaven" to all the children born therein.

— Steele's Answers p. 175.

Jesus Christ had One Personality

QUESTION: If only a sinless Divine Being can make an atonement for sin, and only the human Jesus died, how has an atonement been made?

ANSWER: There are not two personalities in Jesus Christ, but one only — the Son of God, who, since his incarnation combines the human nature with the Divine; and this Personality passed through the experience of death in behalf of his brethren, the whole human race.

— Steele's Answers pp. 174, 175.