p. 46 | Wm. Kinkade by C. O. Taylor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 23, 1872

Wm. Kinkade.

By C. O. Taylor

WILLIAM KINKADE, who signs himself as “a companion of all them that fear God and keep his commandments,” commenced his religious life in 1802. While he was not an observer of the Bible Sabbath, he said some good things of the law of God as a whole. On page 196 he writes:

“Many professors of religion say that Christ became the surety of sinners, and as such fulfilled the law of God in their room and stead, and so redeemed them from under the law.

“I do not think that Christ redeemed us from under any law of God. He could not have redeemed us from under the ceremonial law, because we were never under it. None but the Jews were under that law; and it was abolished long before we came into existence.”

“The moral law consists of ten commandments written on two tables, the first of which teaches our duty to God, and the second teaches our duty to man. Christ sums them all up under two general commandments: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ Matt. 22: 37–40.

“Now if Christ redeemed us from under this law, he has redeemed us from under obligation to love God and one another; and

if he has done so, he must be the minister of sin and the enemy of all righteousness.

“The moral law is a copy of God’s will and a transcript of his nature; therefore, if Christ redeemed us from under the moral law, he has redeemed us from the will and nature of God. The moral law is the principle, yea the very system of the divine government. It is that eternal, unchangeable rule of righteousness, by which he governs all his obedient, rational creatures. And if Christ has redeemed us from under it, he has redeemed us from under the government of God; and has done us more injury than ever the devil did. The devil has induced us to rebel against the government of our Heavenly Father; but, thank God, he never got us clear from under it.”

On page 202 he writes: “There is not one text in the Bible that says Christ fulfilled the law for us. But the Scriptures say that he fulfilled the law in us: ‘For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.’ Rom. 8: 3, 4. From this text we learn two things: First, that the law of Moses was too weak to keep human nature under proper subordination to God; and, secondly, that Christ has come into the world to establish a religion by which the righteousness of God’s law may be fulfilled in us.” C. O. TAYLOR.