Sound Doctrine and the Federation Movement
By W. A. S.
Sound Doctrine and the Federation Movement
THE apostle Paul has more to say about “sound doctrine” than any other Bible writer. As the margin of the Revision sometimes gives it, it was “healthful doctrine.” There is health for soul and spirit and mind in the great doctrines of salvation. As the apostle preached, he preached the definite message of the Word of God, that saved men who received it. The love of Christ was in it all; and for that very reason there was no compromise with sin or with error in the message that he preached. He lived to see some who had been his associates turn from the truth. He saw fanatical movements sweep in, and men going among the churches to tear down and draw away believers. But his remedy for it all was to cling to the Word of God:— “I commend you to God,” he said to the elders of Ephesus, “and to the word of his grace.” “Study to show thyself approved unto God,” he wrote to Timothy, “rightly dividing the word of truth,” or, “cutting a straight course in the word of truth.” As he saw some churches rent by the deceptive teachers who had turned from the truth, his confidence was still in the eternal foundation, and he said:— “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” 2 Tim. 2:19. And those who remained firm on the platform of truth, putting away all iniquity, keeping sins forgiven, saw indeed that God’s truth and work remained when the flurry of opposition or fanaticism had spent itself. Looking forward, from that time of confusion and apostasy, the apostle was shown the “perilous times” of the last days. And for this time, by inspiration, he left this charge and exhortation:— “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” But the only remedy is the more earnestly to preach the “sound doctrine.” And because Seventh-day Adventists have set out to do this, in the fear of God, the complaint is often made that we preach “doctrine, doctrine, doctrine,” referring to the truths that distinguish the gospel message for the last days. But this is the apostolic idea of preaching the gospel. Christ swept aside the traditions of men, and rebuked the religious world for making void the commandments of God. Paul was commissioned to carry a message that would actually turn men “from darkness to light.” And this threefold message of Revelation 14 is doing that same thing, —turning men from following tradition to the keeping of God’s commandments, by the faith of Jesus. The age is impatient of sound doctrine, however. The time has come of which the apostle wrote. This year’s president of the British Wesleyan Conference said, in his inaugural address:— Doctrinal preaching is not popular today, and we are apt to be governed in our selection of topics by the popular taste; and yet other aspects of truth are but as the mint and anise and cummin compared with the weightier matters of the law. . . . If we do not seize and hold the conscience, it matters not what else we may captivate. These are true words. But more and more the true foundations are being undermined by skepticism and compromise. The fundamental idea of the Church Federation movement is the minimizing of distinctive doctrinal features, in order to secure common action in the promotion of Federation aims, including the exaltation of the Sunday institution. The idea is at work in the great mission fields, aiming at dividing the territory, and restricting denominational operations to certain districts, some going so far as to turn churches of one denomination over to another body. And some argue for the dropping of distinctive doctrinal features from the teaching in mission fields. There is a curious little contribution to this question in the Medical Missionary of June 10, 1910, a journal once connected with our own work. In the report of a convention of missionaries of various societies, held in the Battle Creek Sanitarium, we read of a question-and-answer service:— Question: Should the distinctive doctrines of the various churches in the home land be at all emphasized on the mission field? Voices in chorus: No, no, no, no. Elder A. T. Jones: Should they be emphasized on the home field? And the chairman explained that the opinion of the meeting was not at all divided. That is the sentiment prevailing in many quarters, and it is of the very essence of the Federation movement; but Seventh-day Adventists are not represented in such an attitude. This church and movement originated in the apprehension of a definite message, with distinctive doctrines to be emphasized and proclaimed in all the world in these last days. We were once asked by a missionary society, in a most kindly way, if we could see our way clear to withdraw from a certain country having about forty millions of people. The reason assigned was that the older society was at work there, and the tendency of our doctrines was to create division. Many answers might have been given, in Scripture terms; but we asked the representative to look at Rev. 14:6-12. That, we explained, was the divine commission in this advent message and movement. Believing that our call was to carry that special message “to every nation,” we asked how we could, in loyalty to our own principles, withdraw from any field or people. The representative saw that we could not. No, no, and always no. This advent movement was raised up in fulfilment of prophecy, and must proclaim the threefold message to the world, emphasizing the distinctive doctrinal features that are the deciding issues for this time. The foundations of this movement are laid in the sure word of prophecy. Men may turn from it, but the foundation remains, and the work goes forward. The movement will herald to all the call to worship God and keep his commandments, and cry the warning against the worship of the beast and his image and the receiving of the mark. Loyal hearts will hear and obey in every land, as the message speeds on, and will stand at last with the seal of God upon their foreheads. God’s seal is affixed only there; for no merely formal assent is counted loyalty to God. It must be the service of heart and mind. With the mark of apostasy, however, it is different. It may be received in the forehead or in the hand. The evil one is not particular about heart service. Some will give full assent to the doctrines of apostasy and the rival to God’s Sabbath, receiving the mark in the forehead. Others, having no care for religion, or knowing that the institution of the Papacy is not the Sabbath of the Lord, will be swept along by the false system, will reject the call to obey and proclaim the Sabbath truth, and, thus giving merely formal assent to the institution of apostasy, will receive the mark in the hand.11 Now is the time of all times to sound the advent message clear and straight. That message has built up this work, and spread its soul-saving influence through many lands; and the same message will see the finishing of the work, in spite of federated forces of opposition. Thank God for the “sound doctrine” of the third angel’s message! There is a wholesomeness and power in it that banishes the rash and the fanatical and unsound spirit, and plant in the heart the loyalty and love of Christ, the spirit of Christian fellowship, and the steady, even experience of the grace of God, that will strengthen believing souls to endure unto the end.