Protecting Our People

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 10, 1910

“Protecting Our People”

UNDER this head the Lutheran Witness of Feb. 3, 1910, deplores the fact that Lutheran pastors have not been faithful in instructing their members, not only in the positive doctrines of the Bible, but also in warning them against such errors as are taught by the Campbellites, the Russellites, the Methodists, the Adventists, etc. It says some are drawn off by the Campbellites on the doctrine of baptism, some by the Adventists over the question of the Sabbath, and others by the Methodists over the preaching of sanctification or the second blessing. Regarding Seventh-day Adventists, it says:—

The Seventh-day Adventists are very busy spreading their literature among the mixed denominations on the Dakota prairies. Lutherans who have been confirmed, and who have lived most of their lifetime among Lutherans, buy their books, read them, and “see nothing wrong in them.” Soon our people discover their church is wrong on the Sabbath question, and after a little while they are “thankful that the Lord opened their eyes.” Too often we learn that these Lutherans never heard of “Seventh-day people” before they met them out on the prairies, and were “taken in.”

It is certainly the privilege of the Lutheran Witness to warn its readers against the doctrines held by Seventh-day Adventists, and we appreciate the considerate spirit in which this is done, but surely Lutherans, of all others, should not charge other churches with proselyting when some members of its own church unite with other religious bodies. The Lutheran Church was actually founded on an apostasy from the Roman fold, and the founder of the church spent his whole life in endeavoring to convert his brethren of the Catholic faith from the errors of their ways.

If later in its history there shall come additional light, its merit should be determined in the same way as Luther determined the merit of truth; viz., by appealing to the Holy Scriptures. And as Luther welcomed the light which shone from the pages of this Sacred Book in his day, so those who profess to be his followers should welcome every advanced ray of light which shall shine from that source at the present time.