“Seventh-day Adventists and Seventh-day Baptists”
By A Candid Reader
[Several contributed articles have appeared recently in the Sabbath Recorder (Seventh-day Baptist) dealing with the Seventh-day Adventists and their work. In them an attempt has been made to account for the rapid progress made by this people, while the Seventh-day Baptists have barely held their own. The following article, which appeared in the Recorder of December 28, covers the ground so fully, and gives such a clear description of actual conditions as viewed by one outside the denomination, that we reprint it entire.—ED.] I HAVE had more than a casual interest in the numerous articles which have recently appeared in the Recorder concerning the comparative growth of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination and our own, because I have many times been asked concerning this matter by those who were deeply interested in it. I am impressed that the question is worthy of our unprejudiced and careful study. I can not understand how the preaching of the second coming of our Lord should account for the marvelous growth of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, nor do I think the true secret of their rapid growth is shrouded in any mystery whatever. I think it is very largely due to the following facts:— As a rule, all members of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination are expected to be workers in spreading what they believe to be truth, and they are encouraged in all possible ways to enter the work and remain in it. As a result, their lay workers are to be found almost everywhere, busily engaged in selling their literature, and teaching their beliefs by the word of mouth, as they make their canvass. In this way their books, tracts, and other literature find their way into thousands of homes in almost every civilized country, and Seventh-day Adventists are known almost everywhere. By other denominations which are jealous of the success of Seventh-day Adventists, this work is called “proselyting,” but by the unprejudiced it is regarded as an intense and laudable enthusiasm in spreading what is really believed to be God’s truth. All Seventh-day Adventist clergymen are missionaries,—not located pastors,—and are busy preaching, teaching, and organizing churches the world over. A tent is erected or a schoolhouse secured, and the missionary begins a series of meetings. He preaches and teaches what he as a Seventh-day Adventist believes to be Bible truth, just as every true preacher will do. The result is a Seventh-day Adventist church is organized, a suitable person is selected to act as local elder, and the missionary goes on and enters some other new field, and the same results are repeated. Very often these churches are small, but from the very beginning they are not only self-supporting, but by their tithing and free-will offerings and through their sales of denominational literature, these small churches send large sums of money to their various boards to aid in sending out more workers and to publish and scatter more literature. It is also worthy of especial notice that not a dollar of the vast amount of money that is each year placed at the command of the Seventh-day Adventists is raised by means of sociables, church fairs, missionary teas, grab-bags, or rummage sales, because the Seventh-day Adventists regard these methods as far beneath the dignity of Christian people, and therefore never stoop to them. All money contributed by Seventh-day Adventists is used in propagating the truths that are held by the denomination, and for the sole purpose of winning people to the church which holds these doctrines to be true; and certainly this plan is commendable. Seventh-day Adventist schools are maintained for the one purpose of laboring hand in hand with the church in training young people in the faith of Adventism and for labor in the church. They seek no state aid for their schools, by which it might be possible to build up large and popular colleges and universities; they hold out no compromising offers to induce First-day students to patronize their schools, and if any such students do attend their schools, they are instructed along the lines of Seventh-day Adventist faith. Their schools are strictly denominational schools, and are maintained for the purpose of aiding the church in spreading what the denomination believes to be Bible truth. This certainly is as it should be.12 The preaching and teaching of the Seventh-day Adventists is in plain, simple language that is easily understood by the most illiterate, and very much of their preaching is illustrated by appropriate charts and diagrams, by which it is rendered more attractive and more impressive; and, as a rule, “the common people hear them gladly.” Seventh-day Adventists have never united with any of the modern popular organizations originated by First-day people, such as the National Y. P. S. C. E. or the Y. M. C. A., and have never wasted money in sending delegates to their large national conventions where Sabbath-keeping people have no influence whatever, and where they have frequently had no notice given them. So far as I know, the Seventh-day Adventist denomination has not united in the recent church federation movement that has drawn in so many evangelical denominations. Seventh-day Adventists have held aloof from all such alliances, and have gone straight forward with their specific work, expecting God to bless them and give them success, rather than depending upon modern methods and popular alliances to bring them success. The results are well known. In their Sabbath-school work, Seventh-day Adventists publish their own system of lessons, and prepare their own comments upon the lessons. The lessons are selected, and the comments are made upon them, with reference to building up the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the special truths to which they adhere; and this is consistent. They do not use the International system of Sunday-school lessons nor any quarterlies published by First-day people; and I have never yet seen in any of their comments upon the Bible any criticism made upon the text, such as calling attention to so-called “interpolations,” “discrepancies,” “work of a later hand,” etc. I have never known them to encounter any special trouble over the six creative days of Genesis, or the supposed two authors of the book of Isaiah, nor over the many other kindred questions which are absorbing the attention of many persons of our day. So far as I know, such doubts and criticisms have never entered the literature of Seventh-day Adventist Sabbath-schools, to poison the minds of their children. Seventh-day Adventists are thoroughly imbued with the conviction that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” and they make this truth prominent in all their work. Wherever they go, they herald this rejected truth. They preach it, teach it, emphasize it, and press its claims home upon the hearts of people with a zeal that is commendable. They never unite in union meetings with other denominations, but hold their own meetings, so that no restrictions may be placed upon them as to what they may or may not preach, and the great truth of God’s Sabbath is never lost sight of or suppressed. They teach that the violation of God’s Sabbath is as much sin as is the violation of any other of the precepts of the decalogue. They insist that such violation must be repented of and forsaken, the same as any other sin, and for the same reason. Such teaching is emphasized and pressed home upon the consciences of all who attend. If people become angry, and cease to attend services where the Sabbath truth is proclaimed, the policy of Seventh-day Adventists has ever been to keep right on preaching the truth, believing it is far better to preach the truth to the few than to withhold it from the multitude who might be induced to come if less truth were preached. And when a Seventh-day Adventist speaker has faithfully preached Sabbath truth in the presence of First-day people who happen to be present, none of his people apologize to the First-day people who have listened to the truth, or criticize the speaker for preaching God’s truth, or in any way neutralize the faithful effort the speaker has made. So far as my observation extends, I find that Seventh-day Adventist ministers are not very popular among First-day pastors and churches, and are not very often asked to occupy First-day pulpits. They do not seek such courtesies, and are not disappointed when they are not extended. They have little faith in influencing people in favor of Sabbath truth by simply standing in First-day pulpits and preaching upon general themes. They recognize the fact that the more faithful a person is to the Sabbath truth and in proclaiming it in public, the less popular he will be among First-day pastors and churches, and the greater favor he will have with the “Lord of the Sabbath.” They do not count it any dishonor to be somewhat unpopular with ardent advocates of Sunday. Seventh-day Adventists spend little time in hunting up their past history, and give little space in their periodicals to the publishing of it—they are too busy; and while other denominations are spending time and money in displaying their history before the public, Seventh-day Adventists are out on the broad and needy field making history. With them it is not so much “What we have been, and what we have done,” as “What are we to-day, and what are we doing, and what can we yet do?” Seventh-day Adventists are never at a loss for a man to send out in Sabbath reform work; for all their workers are Sabbath reformers, and are thoroughly trained in this branch of work. I have never known their workers to spend any time discussing the question as to which should be expected first, conversion or Sabbath observance, since they understand that to a person who has been rightly instructed conversion always means obedience; and I think so, too. While we look the ground over and realize that we are not gaining ground as Seventh-day Baptists, and attribute our failure to the “commercial spirit of this age,”—our common cry,—let us notice that our Seventh-day Adventist friends are building on, despite the “commercial spirit,” and each year they have notable results to report at home and in almost every foreign country. Let us also note that their small, pastorless churches are as active and as much alive and in earnest as many much larger churches among other denominations, which pay out large sums of money each year to support pastors, and still larger sums of money for sinful amusements; which sing Christmas carols and Easter anthems, and do many things that some persons regard as very nice and becoming. Much more could be written upon the question I have been dealing with, but I will close. I have tried to write in an unprejudiced manner, and have represented our Seventh-day Adventist friends as I have come to understand them. If I have represented them wrongfully in any particular, I shall be glad to be corrected. I am not a Seventh-day Adventist, and could not become such without passing through a radical change in my understanding of the Bible; but I do try to be a fair-minded man, and though I differ in many respects from Seventh-day Adventist people, yet I certainly admire their zeal, their courage, their devotion, their consecration and upright character, all of which bear testimony to what their religious faith does for them. I long to see the time when all God’s children who love his Sabbath and observe it shall cease to criticize one another, and shall no longer say hard things of one another, but shall unite as one people in the spread of the rejected Sabbath truth. Why do Seventh-day Adventists increase so much more rapidly than do Seventh-day Baptists? Since it can not be the preaching of the second coming of our Lord, why is it? Have I offered any suggestions as to why it is? Are there any lessons for us as Seventh-day Baptists to learn? May God help us to gather up useful lessons from every source, and profit by them.—A Candid Reader.