FULFILLING PROPHECIES by E. H. Curtis

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 13, 1900

FULFILLING PROPHECIES.

By E. H. Curtis

E. H. CURTIS.

(Atwood, Kan.)

SEVERAL weeks ago, in a so-called Protestant church, I listened to a sermon from the text, “Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” The minister said, “For any one to disobey the civil laws in the least is nothing more nor less than anarchy;” also, “If a person disregards the laws of the government, he has no right to the protection of the government.” This was spoken with special reference to Sabbath observance, meaning that if a person would not observe the first day of the week as the Sabbath, he should have police protection for his life and property withdrawn. Of course the speaker did not say that the man should have “life and property protection withdrawn,” as he would not dare to put it exactly in that light. But if “he has no right to the protection of the government,” what else could he have meant than that such police protection should be denied him?

A person does not have to look far into such statements as these to see the principles, which, if carried out, will lead to the fulfillment of the prophecies in “Great Controversy,” page 615, which says: “It will be urged that the few who stand in opposition to an institution of the church and a law of the State, ought not to be tolerated;” also of the statement, on page 625, where it speaks of the decree being issued by the various rulers of Christendom against commandment-keepers, withdrawing the protection of the government, and abandoning them to those who desire their destruction.

Another minister of the same denomination said to me, a few months ago, “A man who will work on Sunday is no better than any other criminal.”

Thus we see that the minds of the people are being prepared to fulfill the scripture of Rev. 13:15: “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”

It is perfectly right to “render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s,” but it is just as true that we are to “render unto God the things that are God’s,” and there are some things that belong entirely and eternally to God. One of these things that are God’s is the Sabbath; for he says, “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath,” and in Isa. 28:13 he calls the Sabbath “my holy day.” Also in the fourth commandment he says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Therefore as the Sabbath is God’s, and not Cæsar’s, “we must obey God rather than men,” and “render unto God the things that are God’s.”

The Lord has told us what man would do unto us, and he also tells us not to fear those things. Brethren, is it not better to suffer shame for his name, that we may rejoice with him, than to save our lives here only to lose them eternally?