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Isaiah a Seventh-Day Adventist

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 21, 1866

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 28, No. 12.

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Isaiah a Seventh-Day Adventist.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

SEVENTH-DAY Adventists believe that the law of God is holy, that the seventh day is the Sabbath, that Christ is coming to the earth again, that the dead are not conscious, that there will be a literal resurrection of the dead, that the wicked will be destroyed, and that the saints will inherit the earth. For believing these things they are denounced as heretics, and are cast out of the so-called Orthodox churches. Had the prophets and apostles lived in these days, they also would have been excommunicated by the same Orthodox churches. How do I know that? Because they believed the very doctrines for which we are now condemned. This we learn from what they have written on these subjects. Thus, for instance, Isaiah has written himself down a Seventh-day Adventist.
1. He pointed men to the law of God as the rule of their conduct. Chap. viii, 20. “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”
2. He kept the seventh-day Sabbath, and taught others to keep it. Chap. lvi, 2. “Blessed is the man that doth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.” Chap. lviii, 13, 14. “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, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, &c.”
3. He believed in the second advent of Christ, and earnestly longed to see it. Chap. xxv, 9. “And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Chap. viii, 17. “And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.”
4. He did not believe that the dead were conscious. Chap. xxxviii, 18. “For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.”
5. He believed in the literal resurrection of the dead. Chap. xxvi, 19. “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.”
6. He believed in the utter destruction of the wicked. Chap. x, 25. “For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction.”
7. He believed that the saints would inherit the earth. Chap. lxv, 17, 18. “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.” Chap.lxvi, 22, 23. “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.”
8. He believed that they would then build houses, plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. Chap. lxv, 21, 22. “And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat; for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.”
9. He believed that on the new earth there would be all kinds of beasts, &c. Chap. lxv, 25. “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.”
10. He denounced Spiritualism as not of God. Chap. viii, 19, 20. “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”
11. He believed in visions, as he had them himself. Chap. i, 1. “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.” Chap. vi, 1. “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.”
12. He believed in plainness of dress, and spoke against the wearing of jewelry. Chap. iii, 18–21. “Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet; therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughter of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, the rings, and nose jewels,” &c.
13. He had a very poor opinion of swine. Chap. lxvi, 17. “They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the great mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord.”
From the above quotations it is evident that Isaiah was a Seventh-day Adventist; and we are not ashamed to believe as did this man of God.
D. M. CANRIGHT.
Hartland, Me.