MISREPRESENTED

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 3, 1879

A SERMON preached by David Swing in Chicago, March 23, 1879, thus alludes to Adventists:

“One of the cardinal ideas of that wing of the ministerial army called the Adventists is, that the present labors of preacher and layman and church and school are all in vain as to any result in the public good; that under all these influences the world is growing worse instead of better; and that the better day will begin only when Christ shall come with divine power and push aside the childish efforts of man. It would hardly be possible for the pulpit to advance a doctrine more in conflict with the actual history of our earth, or more in conflict with the Bible command that man should be a patient and hard laborer in the vineyard of this life. The Adventist cannot stand a moment in the presence of history; for all that we enjoy of language, and science, and art, and industry, and improved politics, and improved homes, and improved religion, and reformed character is nothing else than the good works of the past worthies all rolled up into one large volume.”

This language puts Adventists in a wrong light. They do not say that “the present labors of preacher and layman and church and school are all in vain as to any result in the public good,” nor that like labors in the past have been in vain. These efforts are all that have saved the world in the past; they are all that save it now. But this is a very different thing from saying that these labors will accomplish what is expected of them according to popular teaching; namely, that they will regenerate the world, and bring in a golden age of universal righteousness and peace.

What Adventists do believe and teach is this: That while the agents of good are doing a grand and noble work, the agents of evil are doing more; that the latter, both in numbers and in work, are increasing in a more rapid ratio than the former; that there is therefore a growing preponderance on the side of evil; that in this sense the world is growing worse, and will continue to do so till the Lord shall come.

No other view is in accordance with the Scriptures; for Paul, in language which cannot be mistaken, says that “in the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false-accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.” 2 Tim. 3:1-5. If even professors of religion bear such a character as is here described, what may be expected of those who make no profession?

Again, Paul says that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,” 2 Tim. 3:13; and our Lord plainly intimates that true religion will almost have disappeared at the time of his coming; for he asks this question: “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8. It will be a time in which Satan will work with all power, 2 Thess. 2:8, so much so, that none except those who are firmly established in the truths of the word of God will be able to withstand his deception.

What then? Because all the world cannot be brought to Christ, shall we therefore not try to bring any one to Christ? Because all cannot be saved, is this a reason why we should not try to save any? By no means; but rather we should work the more diligently and earnestly, to counteract, as far as possible, the work of the powers of darkness, and save as many as it is in our power to save before the end shall come.

So Adventists believe and teach; and so far from paralyzing their disposition to work, it stimulates them to greater exertion. The result is that no people, in proportion to their numbers and strength, possess more of a missionary spirit than they, or manifest greater interest to labor for the salvation of souls at home and abroad.