Our Message by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jun 22, 1905

Our Message***

By Editor

Our Message

OUR subject is a very large one, and our time is very short; it will be possible to give only a brief outline of some suggestions concerning our specific teaching work,—the scope, the meaning, and the application of the special teaching which should be given by this denomination.

I will read first the scripture found in the Gospel by Luke, the third chapter. After fixing the time very definitely by naming the year of certain rulers, and those who held the office of the priesthood, it says: “The word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.” From what follows, both in this Gospel and in other Gospels, it is evident that the special word which came to John the Baptist was the word of the prophets, and specifically the words from the prophecy of Isaiah. The prophecy of Isaiah was given more than seven centuries before John the

Baptist lived, and his prophecy had been before the people all that time. But in the time of John the Baptist, that particular message came to him as the word of the Lord, and as the word of God for that special time; and when it came to him as the word of God and the special word of God for that time, it became the word of power that was needed to meet the special situation at that time. You will see the meaning, perhaps, in this way: it was the word of God that came to John the Baptist. It was the word of God which John the Baptist preached; and in preaching the word of God as the word of God for that special time, with a special application, his message would meet all the needs of that time.

Where others had substituted tradition, he would bring them the word of God; where others had put human authority, he would bring divine authority; where others had added to the word of God, he would cast that aside; where others had cast aside the word of God, he would restore that word. That is, his message would bring the word of God anew to the people as the word of God, and in such a setting, and with such power as the word of God, that it would meet every need, every situation, that had arisen because men had neglected the word of God.

Read further what is said concerning it. “The word of God came unto John the Baptist the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.” He became the voice to speak the word. He then became the messenger, whose message was the word of God. That included all the word of God; but as we read the scriptures which speak of his message, we shall find that the whole word of God took on shape, and was given a setting due to certain specific and special scriptures; as we read: “And he came into all the region round about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance unto remission of sins; as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:— “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, And every mountain and hill shall be brought low; And the crooked shall become straight, And the rough ways smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

There is nothing said in that specific scripture about repentance; there is nothing said about the remission of sin; there is nothing said as to the time of the first advent; yet John was the forerunner of Christ, to teach his coming, to fulfil these very prophecies; and in doing that, to prepare the way by teaching the remission of sins.

Therefore it must be that not in the words of Isaiah the prophet alone did he find his message, but that all the teaching of the gospel was given a point and an application, a special turn, by those words of the prophet that made even the old message of remission of sin and the provision for salvation a new and living truth to the people of that time.

Further, you will see in what he said at what errors he aimed his message. “He said therefore to the multitudes that went out to be baptized of him, Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”

Reading the full chapter from which this is taken in Isaiah 40, you will find that the voice said, “What shall I cry?” The message was, “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. . . . The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up on a high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God!”

All flesh is grass; behold your God. When that came to the Jews, as you can see, it was to them a specific and distinct reproof of their confidence as being children of Abraham according to the flesh; they were not to put confidence in the fact that they were children of Israel according to the flesh. All flesh is grass; behold your God. The confidence was not to be in the flesh; and yet this very message was to be a message of preparation for God manifested in the flesh; but they were to be taught by his message that not to the flesh, and not by the outward signs of the flesh, were they to look to determine the character; but that there was righteousness to be revealed—the righteousness of God—not determined by the nature of the flesh in which it was revealed, not determined by birthright, but by the works that followed it,—the revelation of righteousness in the flesh, which of itself was nothing, and in which there was to be no confidence.

So he said, “Even now the ax also lieth at the root of the trees: every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. And the multitudes asked him, saying, What then must we do?”

They saw in it not only a correction of their doctrines, but a correction of the revelation of their life in actual practise; so they asked him, according to this, not, What is the true doctrine? but they stepped from that to the true revelation of the doctrine, and they said, What must we do?

Now it can not be thought that John the Baptist taught righteousness by works; and yet in his reply he gave them distinct instruction what they were to do. That is, he not only taught correct doctrine, but he taught that correct doctrine must be proved by correct character, and that the two are inseparable, and his message included all of that.

Then I may say as a general characterization of the message of John the Baptist, and likewise of this message which takes up his work and carries it to full completion, that it was especially and emphatically the gospel according to God, in direct contrast and opposition to the gospel according to man.

The gospel at the time of John the Baptist had degenerated into a gospel according to man, which was a false gospel. It had come to be the gospel by birth, natural birth; it had come to be the gospel by works; it had come to be anything except the true gospel. As the result of that fact, in the character of those who had fallen away from the true gospel there was lacking the revelation of the evidences of the gospel according to God. That is, genuine righteousness by faith is the mainspring, and it leads to, and is revealed by, the works of faith; a righteousness by faith which does not reveal itself in works of faith is a perversion of the teaching of righteousness by faith; because, while we are not saved by works of righteousness which we have done, yet that righteousness which is of faith, and in which there is salvation, is that active principle which rules in the life and reveals itself in a character in harmony with God's law.

Now, taking it from that standpoint, in what way, what specific way, will the doctrine of righteousness by faith, which is the gospel now just as it was in John's time, and in all times,—in what way will that reveal itself among Seventh-day Adventists and in this message in any way different from what it will in the teaching of the same doctrine by other denominations?—It must distinctly and specifically call for such a revelation of that doctrine in life as will bring the life of the individual in perfect harmony with the complete law of God, in view of the judgment hour and the coming of our Saviour. That will make a distinct teaching and a distinct experience in connection with the true gospel teaching of righteousness by faith in this denomination, which you will not find in those denominations that set aside a part or the

whole of God's law, and do not insist upon that righteousness by faith which is witnessed by the law fully and completely.

I wish now to call attention specifically to what it means in this day to preach the gospel according to God, in contrast with the gospel according to man; because it is in the direct application of it that the special benefit of the study may come to us.

First, the gospel according to God in contrast with the gospel according to men must be founded upon a right conception of God himself. That is a fundamental principle. Then it must be founded upon the revelation that God has made of himself, and of the way of salvation, rather than upon that which has been reasoned out by the human mind. This leads at once to the basis that the gospel according to God must rest upon the supernatural in contrast with the natural; it must include in its experience that which is beyond the power of the individual according to the natural or fleshly birth; it will be witnessed to, it will be established by, works, by signs and wonders that are beyond the power of the merely human, and that are out of what we call the natural order of things.

There will therefore be a distinct basis of supernaturalism for the gospel according to God, both in the fact of its being a revelation from God, rather than being a matter of reason, and in the fact that it will be witnessed to by works, signs, and wonders outside of the natural order of things. These seem to me to be fundamental ideas in this question of the gospel according to God, rather than the gospel according to man. (To be continued)

Our Message****

Our Message***