WHY SHOULD THEY DO SO?
By James White
WHY should our opponents persist in misstating our real position relative to the work of the law of God upon the minds and hearts of the children of men? Seventh-day Adventists have never taught that salvation from sin came by the law. But they have taught, from first to last, that by the law is the knowledge of sin, which can be put away only by the blood of Christ. We have proclaimed, and have repeated again and again, in our prints, and in our public discourses this plain and evident fact, that it is not in the power of law, either human or divine, to redeem the transgressor of law. Pardon is the sinner's only hope of escaping the full penalty of the law. It is not true that Christian Sabbath-keepers trust in the law for salvation. We rely on Christ alone for salvation from sin, and complete redemption from its results, to a life of eternal glory. Those who have the truth can afford to fairly state the positions of those with whom they differ. The strength of those who oppose the truth is in putting its advocates in false positions. Do our opponents feel that they cannot afford to have our real views correctly represented before the people? And do they feel that their success in keeping the people from investigating our views depends upon their skill in misrepresenting them? If we be thought severe, then we inquire, in the name of reason and religion, Why do our opponents persist in stating that, while they trust in Christ for salvation, we trust in the law? They give the impression that we have left Christ and have “gone back,” as they state it, to the law. If they are ignorant of our views, what right have they to handle them before the people? If they understand our real position, they very well know that ours, when properly contrasted with theirs, is this, that we hope for salvation through Jesus Christ alone, in obedience to the commandments of God, while they trust in Christ for salvation in violating one of the commandments of God and teaching men so. “Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Where? Certainly not with those who cast aside the commandments of God, and bear false witness against those who do them, and teach them. Near the close of the Christian age, see Rev. 14:12, a people was to appear to public notice, standing on the broad platform of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. On the one hand is the blind Jew, shut up to the Old Testament, boasting of Abraham, and trusting in the law. On the other hand is the equally blind Christian, shut up to the New Testament, and boasting of his faith in Christ, while trampling the commandments of God under his feet. Between these two extremes is the truth of God. Here is our real position. And by the grace of God the people shall understand it. And from it we reach out our arms to those on the right and left to help them from their nut-shell positions to the broad platform of the law and the gospel, or the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. On this broad ground stood the apostle Paul at Miletus as he appealed to the assembled elders that he had kept back nothing that was profitable to them, “testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:21. Our only hope of eternal life hangs upon Christ. Adam placed his hope there. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and the believing Jews, had no other hope. The hope of the next life depends upon Jesus Christ. Faith in his blood can alone free us from our transgressions. And a life of obedience to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will be a sufficient passport through the golden gates of the city of God.