Should a Preacher Have a Fixed Salary?

QUESTION: Should a preacher have a fixed salary?

ANSWER: Yes, but not so fixed as to be incapable of increase when the cost of living is rapidly increasing, as in these days. Read I Cor. 9:4-16, in which Paul says, "They that wait upon the altar have their portion with the altar * * * they that proclaim the Gospel should live of the Gospel." The word "portion" seems to imply a fixed amount. The preacher should, as far as possible, be relieved of anxiety about material things that he may give all his time and strength to the spiritual interests of his flock. By the law of compensation the pastor, the soldier, the vintner, the shepherd, and the very oxen are entitled to their recompense.

— Steele's Answers p. 239.

Salvation and Baptism

QUESTION: Explain I Pet. 3:21, "which also after a true likeness (antitype) doth  now  save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

ANSWER: We are saved from sin which deluges the world and destroys all who are not in Christ, the ark, symbolized by baptism, "not indeed the bare outward sign, but the inward grace enabling us to seek successfully a conscience reconciled to God." "Answer" in the A. V. is "interrogation"; in the R. V., a craving, a seeking after earnestly.

— Steele's Answers pp. 238, 239.

Daily in the Jaws of Death

QUESTION: Explain (1) Rom. 8:36, "For thy sake we are killed all the day long" (2) I Cor. 15:31, "I die daily."

ANSWER: (1) This is a verbatim quotation from Ps. 44:22, meaning exposure to death continually for their rebellion, some daily falling a sacrifice to the persecuting spirit of their enemies. (2) "I die daily," "I am daily in the very jaws of death" (Wesley). If the dead believers in Christ are never to have a glorious resurrection, what good reason have I for my daily exposure to martyrdom? Sometimes we hear an ignoramus in the pulpit quote this text to prove that there must always be sin in Christians, an idea as irrelevant to Paul's argument for the resurrection as the man in the moon. In II Cor. 11:23 he demonstrates his superior apostleship thus, "in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in death oft." What stupidity in interpreting death in these three texts as a daily ineffectual cessation from sinning!

— Steele's Answers p. 238.

How Many Days Was Jesus in the Tomb?

QUESTION: Matt. 17:1 says, "After six days." Luke 9:28 says "about an eight days later." Harmonize this discrepancy.

ANSWER: Luke, by using the word "about," intimates that he is not speaking accurately in counting the fractions of two days, the first and the eighth, while both Matthew and Mark count only the whole days between the two events making only six. The Jews generally counted the fractions  as  whole days, so that Jesus was three days in the tomb, though only one whole day.

— Steele's Answers pp. 237, 238.

The Piano Tuner's Dilemma

QUESTION: I am a piano-tuner by occupation. Should I as a Christian refuse to tune the pianos used in ball-rooms and theaters?

ANSWER: In this wicked world there is scarcely any business which does not bring the Christian into evil associations which can be avoided only by "going out of the world," as Paul says in I Cor. 5:10. A poor day-laborer must either go out of the world or do the work, the evil use of which he is not responsible for, asking no questions for conscience sake. Yet he is to listen to the voice of conscience and heroically starve, if he should be required to take a direct and active part, such as that of the bartender, or the brewer, or distiller, or dance fiddler. Tuning the piano is one thing, but playing it for the dance is another.

— Steele's Answers p. 237.

Of Water and the Spirit

QUESTION: Does John 3:5 refer to water baptism: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God"?

ANSWER: It is figurative of the initial purification of regeneration, as the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire is figurative of the perfect cleansing in the entire sanctification of the believer. Fire is a more thorough purgative than water.

— Steele's Answers pp. 236, 237.

Perfected Holiness is a Progressive State

QUESTION: Can you give me light upon the following: I have read of and heard persons state that they received the blessing after making the consecration, and later they received the Blesser. Is it possible to have the blessing of a clean heart and not also have the Blesser who gives the clean heart?

ANSWER: The nominal experience of love made perfect is the incoming of the Comforter extinguishing the self-life, as light entering a room instantly banishes darkness. But others testify of a short interval between the conscious cleansing and the conscious fullness of the Spirit. It is also true that perfected holiness is a progressive state in which Christ manifests himself more and more wonderfully to the persevering believer whose love is attested by constant obedience. As they err who say; "I got it all when I was regenerated," so do they err  who say, "I got all that God has to give when I was wholly sanctified." The reader of the original of John 17:3 will note that eternal life lies not so much in the possession of a completed knowledge of Christ, gained once for all, as in a perpetually increasing apprehension of him: "and this is life eternal that they should be knowing (present tense denoting continuity) Thee, the only true God and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ." I expect to be eternally striving after a growing knowledge of the Father through the Son. My happiness will consist in love ever increasing promoted by a gainful striving which will know no end. Don't be afraid you will exhaust God:

"Immortal Love forever full,
Forever flowing free,
Forever shared, forever whole,
A never ebbing sea." — Whittier.

— Steele's Answers pp. 235, 236.

Is It Wrong to Raise Mules?

QUESTION: Is it wrong to raise mules in the light of Lev. 19:19, "Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed; neither shall a garment mingled with linen and woolen come upon thee"?

ANSWER: In the Old Testament the law embraces not only moral actions, such as are right or wrong as discoverable by conscience, or revealed in the Decalogue, but also acts violating the code of ceremonial purity, and acts forbidden by the Judicial law which relates solely to the Jewish nation. These three kinds of laws are intermingled in the Pentateuch. The Jew regards all of them as morally obligatory. Hence he regards the breeding of mules as sinful because it is forbidden by the ceremonial law, which the Christian is under no obligation to keep, because Christ abrogated it in Mark 7:19, "This he said making all meats clean," R. V. The Jewish farmer deems it wicked to put a pumpkin seed in a hill of corn, or to wear a linsey woolsey garment, or one made of cotton and wool, sometimes called crugget, a comfortable clothing within reach of the poor. The highest magnifying glass fails to find any moral element in Lev. 19:19. Hence the mule is not an outlaw, nor is his breeder a sinner.

— Steele's Answers pp. 234, 235.

The Forbidden Fruit

QUESTION: What was the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden?

ANSWER: The kind is unknown. It is described as good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise. It afforded an occasion for the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life, the three forms of moral evil.

— Steele's Answers p. 234.

Anger

QUESTION: Can a father having a hot temper get rid of it entirely when entirely sanctified?

ANSWER: Yes. He can be rid of all sinful anger. There ls such a thing as righteous indignation.

— Steele's Answers p. 234.