Exclusiveness by Jesse Dorcas

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 6, 1866

Exclusiveness.

By Jesse Dorcas

DEAR BRETHREN: It seems that our duty, even in these perilous times, may be known, and faithfully discharged, notwithstanding the danger of being branded with being in possession of the spirit of the Inquisition, or of the orthodoxy. If the time has not fully arrived in which somebody will "return and discern between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not," it is unquestionably fast dawning upon us. So clear, indeed, seem to be the marks by which "the faith" may be known, from which, some "in the latter times" are to depart, that such departure is considered by the Spirit of Inspiration an evidence of unsoundness sufficient to exclude them from the communion of the saints. See Titus iii, 10, 11. "A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject; knowing that he that is such, is subverted and sinneth, being condemned of himself." And, though the doctrine would be inculcated even in our midst, which we readily allow to be too prevalent all around us, that peace can never exist in the Christian world, until Christians agree to differ, and agree to look for the evidences of Christian character in the temper and the life; yet we must not forget that the Saviour hath said that the time is coming, when the true worshipers must worship the Father in spirit and in truth. This will be as applicable to any other Bible doctrine, as to the Bible Sabbath.

Some in these parts raise the cry of "uncharitable," "exclusive," "sectarian," &c., because our ministers would admonish the brethren to stay away from the religious gatherings of certain men here, who declare that the gifts of the Spirit, as seen in Mark xvi, have all ceased with the apostolic age; that the three angels' messages are all in the past; that the judgment of Rev. xiv, 7, relates to the judgment upon "the beast" of Rev. xiii, &c., and moreover, who scoff at the warning of the brethren, against the danger of the beast, and image-worshipers' suffering the seven last plagues, literally, declaring them to be mainly in the past, many years.

Now, upon a moment's consideration, who can fail to see the necessity of some fixed rule by which to determine all such matters. We are not now determining what doctrines are; but surely none will blame the man who faithfully follows out the direction of the apostle, 2 Tim. ii, 16, and onward, "But shun profane and vain babblings," &c. This he said in relation to certain men that arose in his day, declaring the resurrection past already, and overthrew the faith of some." No doubt their "vain babblings" did not seem such to them. They probably thought that they deserved a hearing.

But to be short. Let us all understand that the Lord has made it incumbent upon his ministers, to take forth the precious from among the vile, so shall they be as his mouth unto them. Jer. xv, 19. Yet let us not forget that we all have a duty, so to aid the ministers of the Lord, by our faith and prayers, that they may be enabled so to speak, as to "in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves, that God peradventure may give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." Jesse Dorcas.