p. 4 | Opposition to the Message by G. B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 5, 1911

Opposition to the Message

By G. B. Thompson

G. B. THOMPSON

The fact that warfare is waged against a movement is no proof that the movement is not in the order of God. Opposition has been experienced by the church in all ages. God's true people have been mocked, scourged, imprisoned, stoned, sawn asunder, beheaded, and tortured. They have been outcasts; they have wandered in lonely and desolate places on earth, clothed in sheepskins and goatskins; yet from their affliction and destitution they have waxed strong; they have routed the armies of the aliens; they have gone forth conquering and to conquer.

The foes of God's people and work have not always been from without. From within have appeared wolves clothed in church livery, who have sought to hinder the work of God. In the days of Israel's wanderings in the wilderness, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rose up against the leaders. They charged Moses with usurping his position. Is it a small thing that “thou . . . make thyself a prince over us?” was their cry. With a rebellious heart they said, “We will not come up.” They were amenable to no leadership; they rejected all rulership except their own. “Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy,” was the language of rebellion.

In apostolic times, false teachers took from the Galatian church the true gospel, and substituted another, which was not the gospel. The believers in Asia departed from the faith, under the leadership of Phygellus and Hermogenes, who were doubtless apostates from the faith, yet no doubt claiming “new light.” Hymeneus and Philetus taught that the “resurrection is past already,” and overthrew the faith of some. No matter what is taught, somebody will believe it. Paul and other of the apostles had enemies, and no doubt the dissatisfied elements which were in the church gathered around these blind leaders, and made quite a showing. Some doubtless claimed that Alexander and Hymeneus should not have been turned out of the church, and strengthened them in their apostasy and wrong course by unwise sympathy.

Yet notwithstanding all these and numerous other adverse experiences, the gospel moved on and triumphed. The people which the Lord brought out of Egypt entered Canaan in spite of all the Korahs, Dathans, and Abirams. And Paul wrote that the gospel in his day had gone to all the world.

Truth can not be stamped out. The Bible has been ridiculed, hated, and despised, but it keeps on multiplying.

The last message will pass through experiences similar to those which the church has met in all ages. It has been assailed all through its history. It has had to contend with critics of various caliber, from the honest, perplexed doubter, to the outspoken skeptic and apostate. Men have risen among us, begun a warfare on former brethren, and sought to tear down what they once tried to build up; but up to the present they have neither torn down the message nor built up anything.

When men left our ranks in the earlier days of the message, they said so, took an open stand, and began their fight; but more recently the tactics of open opposition to the message have been changed. Modern opposers put up the claim that they represent the original

message; that while the whole movement has been side-tracked, they believe as they always have, not having moved a hair's breadth.

When Lucifer began his warfare against the government of heaven, he, too, claimed to be loyal. He could deceive his former associates better this way; and it took the Creator a long time to remove the mask, and disclose the real condition, so that all in the universe could understand the matter.

Some have left us, and declared they would never fight the message. But it is difficult for a man going over Niagara to stop when he is half-way down. Ere long some pretext has been found on which to hang an excuse to begin the work of opposition. But time has fully demonstrated that this message can not be disposed of with a sneer and a few tracts. While being opposed and ridiculed, it goes on reaching out into new lands.

Others, having received more “light,” which sets aside all former light, have maintained a sphinx-like silence for considerable time; but by and by they grow restless. They must preach the “truth,” for which they have sacrificed all. While they muse, the fire burns. With a martyr-like air, they declare that they have waited for light from former brethren, and none has been given. The great truths of the message which they have believed and preached do not appeal to them as proof. Some dissatisfied brother writes and tells how the “new light” has fed his soul, and urges that it be hidden no longer under a bushel, but that it be put on a candlestick. This advice is regarded as a clarion call to action. Tracts are written, and a campaign is opened.

But against what have the campaigns of those who have given up the message been waged? What is their mission? Do they raise large funds to plant missions in heathen lands to teach the gospel? The writer has never known of a single instance where this has been done. Do they organize an educational work, and build institutions in which to train the youth for the work of saving souls? We never heard of such steps being taken.

Do they go into the highways and hedges, turn sinners from their evil ways, raise up churches, and live from the fruit of a vineyard of their own planting? We never heard of such a thing. Instead of appealing to the ungodly to lead a better life, they hover around our churches, and directly, or through some sympathizer, seek financial help, to have, perhaps, the tithe diverted from its proper channel into their own pockets. Think of it! While nursing their spiritual mother for sustenance, they seek at the same time to strangle her. They present the strange spectacle of seeking to extinguish the fire around which they gather for warmth.

Do they establish printing-houses, and produce literature for the masses, to teach them the gospel? Do they send forth workers to labor among the millions who are unprepared to meet God in the judgment? It seems not. Their mission appears to be to tear down the work of their former brethren, to hold up to the gaze of an unfriendly world what they claim to be the errors of those whom they once fellowshiped. They make warfare on the Testimonies, and charge Mrs. E. G. White with being a false prophet. It requires neither prayer nor consecration to do this kind of work. But have any of those who claim such advanced light ever produced a single book of such deep spiritual power as those written by the one whom they denounce? Not one such has been produced during the past half-century.

The tracts and publications of those who leave the message are sent almost exclusively to Seventh-day Adventist churches and ministers. I have found these leaflets in distant parts of the world, not in the homes of heathen and unbelievers, but in the homes of those who are striving to keep God's law, and prepare to the best of their ability for a home in heaven. The literature seems to have been prepared and sent out for the express purpose of wrecking confidence in the message; but it gives no certain hope in its place.

Anybody can burn a house or scuttle a ship. It requires no fasting and prayer to sow doubt and divide a church, which has been built up by consecrated labor. The only wonder is that any are so blind that they can not understand the spirit which inspires such work as that pointed out.

One of the ablest opponents of this truth once declared that the believers under the message are the most spiritual of any with whom he was acquainted. Yet this is the class upon whom those who renounce the message do the most of their “missionary” work. Strange, is it not? If they have such great light, why not give it to the masses?

But we have no fears for the future of this work from this source. None need grow nervous, and wonder how things are coming out. No Goliath-like boast need cause any to be alarmed. I read recently of a lunatic who rushed into a crowded church, and seizing one of the pillars supporting the gallery, exclaimed, “I am going to pull down this structure.” Some screamed, and a stampede was threatened. But the aged minister quelled the tumult by exclaiming, in solemn tones, “Let him try it! Let him try it!” The message has stood for more than six decades, through all manner of opposition. It is safe for the future, so far as opposition is concerned.

There is not much to encourage a person to leave the message, and begin an effort to overturn it. We look in vain to find success in gospel work by those who have felt themselves compelled to separate from this truth. This will be equally true in the future. This is God's truth, and it will surely triumph. Let those who believe it consecrate themselves more fully to the Lord, that they may triumph with it.

Takoma Park, D. C.