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The great issues involved in this discussion are
altogether too vital to be lightly considered. The truth of God is more
precious than gold, and we are bidden to search for it as for rubies. We
believe we have clearly shown that in renouncing Seventh-day Adventism, Mr.
Canright also renounced many of the great fundamental principles of the gospel,
and in reality placed himself on the side of the opposers of the truth. Every
argument that he has advanced against the doctrines of the Seventh-day
Adventists breaks down upon examination, and those who are misled by them are
surely building their spiritual houses upon the sand.
The Word of God is the only safe and secure foundation
on which one can build his hope of eternal life. Be a doctrine ever so popular,
if it is not established on that Word, it is unworthy of acceptance. Nor does
the unpopularity of a doctrine prove it to be false. Truth has never been
popular. She has always had to plead her cause, and has suffered much ridicule
at the hands of so-called wise men.
In the sixteenth century, as light broke over the world
that led away from and out of the night of papal supremacy, the Reformers were
sorely persecuted and everywhere denounced by the recognized religious leaders
of their day. Their enemies pounced upon them like dogs of war. Yet the
messages of these Reformers were Heaven sent, and finally came to be recognized
as light from above.
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But those early Reformers did not receive a full and
complete revelation of all the truths which had been lost sight of during the
Dark Ages, when the church was in apostasy. A fine statement of this fact is
found in the notable farewell address of Rev. John Robinson, pastor of the
English Puritans, to the many members of his congregation who turned from
Holland to seek homes in the New World. On this memorable occasion he said:
“Brethren, we are now erelong to part asunder, and
the Lord knoweth whether I shall live ever to see your faces more. But whether
the Lord hath appointed it or not, I charge you before God and His blessed
angels to follow me no farther than I have followed Christ. If God should
reveal anything to you by any other instrument of His, be as ready to receive
it as ever you were to receive any truth of my ministry; for I am very
confident the Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth out of His holy
word….
“Remember your church covenant, in which you have
agreed to walk in all the ways of the Lord, made or to be made known unto you.
Remember your promise and covenant with God and with one another, to receive
whatever light and truth shall be made known to you from His written word; but
withal, take heed, I beseech you, what you receive for truth, and compare it
and weigh it with other scriptures of truth before you accept it; for it is not
possible the Christian world should come so lately out of such thick
anti-Christian darkness, and that full perfection of knowledge should break
forth at once.”—W. C. Martyn, History of the English Puritans,
vol. 5, pp. 70, 71.
“For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the
condition of the reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion, and
will go at present no farther than the instruments of their reformation. The
Lutherans cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw; … and the
Calvinists, you see, stick fast where they were left by that great man of God,
who yet saw not all things. This is a misery much to be
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lamented; for though they were burning and shining lights in
their time, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God, but were
they now living, would be as willing to embrace further light as that which
they first received.”—D. Neal, History of the Puritans
(two-vol. ed., 1848), vol. 1, p. 269.
In these remarks Mr. Robinson was right. The uncovering
and unfolding of the truths of the gospel in the last days is a matter of
prophecy, and it is progressive. “The path of the just is as the shining
light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Proverbs 4:18.
The fact that a doctrine appears new is no argument against it. The fact that
Seventh-day Adventism dates back only a generation is no evidence that it does
not constitute a message from God to the world. Quite to the contrary: God has
told us of the rise and spread of just such a message, and the only proper
ground for questioning would be found in its failure to come.
Thus we read in Malachi 3:1, 2:
“Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall
prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to
His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He
shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming?
and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire, and
like fullers' soap.”
Also the prophet Joel tells of this preparatory message
in the following graphic language:
“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in
My holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of
the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” Joel 2:1.
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To John on lonely Patmos the rise and work of this
message was also revealed, and he said:
“I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven,
having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and
to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice,
Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and
worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of
waters.
“And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon
is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of
the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
“And the third angel followed them, saying with a
loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in
his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of
God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and
he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy
angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.” Revelation 14:6-10.
Here is a special message from God which sweeps through
the whole earth. It takes in all people and tongues. It announces that
“the hour of His [God's] judgment is come.” It warns against the
beast (the papal power which changed God's law and Sabbath), and against the
reception of his mark.
In verse 12 we learn that the result of this message
will be the gathering out of a people from the nations of the earth who will
obey all God's commandments. Of them it is said, “Here is the patience of
the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of
Jesus.”
Immediately after this, John says:
“I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the
cloud
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one sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a
golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the
temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy
sickle, and reap: for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the
earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on he earth;
and the earth was reaped.” Revelation 14:14-16.
Thus we see that the message which prepares the way for
the coming of the divine Harvester (Jesus) is the judgment-hour message which
leads men to the keeping of the Commandments of God and the faith of
Jesus. There is no conflict between these two. The faith (the teachings or
doctrines) of Jesus, is not contrary to the commandments of God, and those who
truly follow Jesus and who make proper preparation for His coming will honor
and obey His law. There was nothing in the life, death, or resurrection of
Christ that in any way lessened the authority of the moral code.
No more God-dishonoring doctrine could be preached than
that the atonement of Christ has freed men from the obligation to obey God's
moral law. To make it possible for man to obey was its highest and holiest
object. Is it reasonable that Christ should die to save men from the guilt of
transgression, give them a free pardon for the past, and then say to them,
“Now you are free; go steal, lie, commit adultery, kill, desecrate the
Sabbath of God, etc.”? No! a thousand time no! Saved men are not free to
break the law of God. True, they are set free from its condemnation for sins of
the past which they themselves were powerless to undo, but license has not been
given them to presume upon God's goodness by continuing in transgression.
A man can be forgiven and justified before God who
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has never kept the law, but he cannot remain in this
justified state without keeping it. He does not keep the law in order to become
a Christian, but, being a Christian, he must keep it in a manner that becomes
one.
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit
the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor
thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall
inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but
ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by
the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
“Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father
which is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21.
“Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving your own selves.” James 1:22.
Thus God calls men back to the keeping of His holy law.
This includes the seventh-day Sabbath and all. Of the heralds of this message
it is said:
“They that shall be of thee shall build the old
waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou
shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell
in.
“If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from
doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of
the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor
finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou
delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places
of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isaiah 58:12-14.
This, then, is a message of Sabbath reform. It
constitutes
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a turning back to the old paths of God's Word, the paths
spoken of by David when he said, “Make me to go in the path of Thy
commandments; for therein do I delight.” Psalms 119:35.
This we believe is the Elijah message promised in
Malachi's prophecy where he said: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the
prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”
Malachi 4:5.
Now the outstanding event in Elijah's experience was the
mighty reformation he brought about in Israel on the point of regard for the
law of God. After the three and one-half years of drouth, during which time
Elijah was in hiding, he was bidden of God to go and appear before Ahab the
king. “And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him,
Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” He was thus charged with
responsibility for the awful drouth that had caused so much suffering in
Israel. But Elijah answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and
thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and
thou hast followed Baalim.” 1 Kings 18:17-19. When the people were
gathered together, fire was sent down from heaven to prove that Elijah's
message was true and that he was God's servant, and the outcome of it all was a
mighty reformation in Israel.
Now just such a message is to be given again before the
Second Advent of Christ. God's promise is, “Behold, I will send you Elijah
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the
Lord.”
Just as in the days of Elijah, many of the professed
people of God have forsaken His commandments, and are following the doctrines
of a false god. In the keeping of
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Sunday they are obeying the mandates of the papal church,
whose head has exalted himself to the position of “another god on
earth.” He is spoken of as “Lord God the Pope.” The church of
which he is head has given us a new Sabbath and a changed law. “It has
cast the truth to the ground.” Daniel 8:12. But just as the world is about
to meet its God over His broken law; just as men are about to be summoned
before the great judgment seat of Christ to be weighed in the balances of the
Lord, the Elijah message is sent forth, calling the nations back again into
full harmony with the law of their God. Once again the words of Elijah are
pertinent:
“Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How
long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal,
then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.” 1 Kings
18:21.
Said the great evangelist Moody:
“The law that was given at Sinai has lost none of
its solemnity. Time cannot wear out its authority or the fact of its
authorship….
“Now men may cavil as much as they like about other
parts of the Bible, but I have never met an honest man that found fault with
the ten commandments. Infidels may mock the Lawgiver, and reject Him who has
delivered us from the curse of the law, but they can't help admitting that the
commandments are right. Renan said that they are for all nations, and will
remain the commandments of God during all the centuries.
“If God created this world, He must make some laws
to govern it. In order to make life safe we must have good laws; there is not a
country the sun shines upon that does not possess laws. Now this is God's law.
It has come from on high, and infidels and skeptics have to admit that it is
pure….
“‘The law of the Lord is perfect, converting
the soul: the testimony of the Lord is pure, making wise the simple:
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the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the
commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.’
“Now the question for you and me is, Are we keeping
these commandments? Have we fulfilled all the requirements of the law? If God
made us, as we know He did, He had a right to make that law; and if we don't
use it aright, it would have been better for us if we had never had it, for it
will condemn us. We shall be found wanting. The law is all right, but are we
right?”—Weighed and Wanting, pp. 11, 12.
“Some people seem to think we have got beyond the
commandments. What did Christ say? ‘Think not that I am come to destroy
the law and the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily
I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.’ The commandments of God
given to Moses in the mount at Horeb are as binding today as ever they have
been since the time when they were proclaimed in the hearing of the people. The
Jews said the law was not given in Palestine (which belonged to Israel), but in
the wilderness, because the law was for all nations.
“Jesus never condemned the law and the prophets,
but He did condemn those who did not obey them. Because He gave new
commandments, it does not follow that He abolished the old. Christ's
explanation of them made them all the more searching.”—Ibid.,
pp. 14, 15.
“The conviction deepens in me with the years, that
the old truths of the Bible must be stated and restated in the plainest
possible language.”—Ibid., p. 15.
“The people must be made to understand that the
ten commandments are still binding, and that there is a penalty attached to
their violation. We do not want a gospel of mere sentiment. The sermon on
the mount did not blot out the ten commandments.
“When Christ came, He condensed the statement of
the law into this form: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind;
and thy neighbor as thyself.’ Paul
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said: ‘Love is the fulfilling of the law.’ But
does this mean that the detailed precepts of the decalogue are superseded, and
have become back numbers? Does a father cease to give children rules to obey
because they love him? Does a nation burn its statute books because the people
have become patriotic? Not at all. And yet people speak as if the commandments
do not hold for Christians because they have come to love God. Paul said:
‘Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law.’ It still holds good. The commandments are necessary. So long as
we obey, they do not rest heavy upon us; but as soon as we try to break away,
we find they are like fences to keep us within bounds. Horses need bridles even
after they have been properly broken in….
“Now face these ten commandments honestly and
prayerfully. See if your life is right, and if you are treating God fairly.
God's statutes are just, are they not? If they are right, let us see if we are
right. Let us pray that the Holy Ghost may search each one of us. Let us get
alone with God and read His law—read it carefully and prayerfully, and ask
Him to show us our sins and what He would have us to
do.”—Ibid., pp. 16, 17.
If in perusing this volume the reader has been convinced
that he has been living in violation of some command of God, we earnestly
beseech him to turn this day from such transgression, and yield obedience to
God's requirements. We are soon to be weighed in the balances. Shall we risk
heaven by continuing in disobedience? We cannot shut our eyes to light and
truth, and still be found just before God. The Lord declares, “He that
turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be
abomination.” Proverbs 28:9.
How pitiful is the case of one who, through the
rejection of light, has come to the place where his prayers are unanswered and
his petitions remain ungranted.
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But let none undertake to keep God's holy law in human
weakness. It is only by the grace of God and the indwelling of Christ Jesus in
the heart that man can do anything good. Our weakness must take hold upon His
unfailing strength if we would succeed in our efforts to attain to the
righteousness of the law. He is able to work in you “both to will and to
do of His good pleasure.” He can strengthen you “with might by His
Spirit in the inner man.” Ephesians 3:16. If Christ, who knocks at the
heart's door, is permitted to come in, He will ascend the heart's throne, and
will exercise His kingly power in subduing the life and causing it to conform
to His will as revealed in His holy law. He is able to save to the
uttermost. He can do “exceeding abundantly” above all we ask or
think, and with Paul we can say, “I can do all things through Christ which
strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:13.
Thus we see the Christ of the atonement, by whose blood
we are cleansed from past sins, coming to dwell and work in us even to the
point of making us “perfect in every good work.” This, then, is the
crowning work of the world's Redeemer. Not only does He pardon repenting
sinners, but He fully restores His image in them by bringing them back into
harmony with God's holy law through the power of His own indwelling
presence.
Dear reader, have you often mourned that you found it
hard to be good and obey God's requirements? Of course you have. You might well
go further, and say that it is humanly impossible, for so it is. “There is
none that doeth good, no not one.” Romans 3:12. But the indwelling Christ
makes all the difference between success and failure. He has all power in
heaven and in earth, and He offers to
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bring that power to bear upon the weak tendencies of your
nature, and make you mighty through God to do His will; and with God, nothing
is impossible.
This is what David meant when he said, “I will run
the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart.” Psalms
119:32. “I cried unto Thee: Save me, and I shall keep [margin, “that
I may keep”] Thy testimonies.” Psalms 119:146. Those, therefore, who
have the sweet, abiding presence of Jesus in their hearts will be led to
declare with David, “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the
day.” Psalms 119:97. And if Jesus is allowed full and complete control,
they will have the great joy of seeing the power of sin subdued in their lives
and every thought brought into captivity to the will of Christ.
Will you, then, dear reader, open wide the heart's door
and let Prince Emmanuel in? Will you tell Him that you are willing that He
should live His life of perfect obedience to the moral law of God in your
flesh? Will you do this, not only today, but every day? If so, then you will
daily know the joy of wearing the robe of His righteousness, and in the day of
God you will stand before Him unashamed.