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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 5, 1874

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 43, No. 21.

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Queries.

By Uriah Smith

A CORRESPONDENT, J. W., of Westerville, O., sends us the following queries, not, he says, to cavil, but for information.
1. Is the keeping of the seventh day essential to man's salvation? If so, why is it that you make reference to so many men that you call great and good. Take for instance the REVIEW of March 10, 1874. In a short sketch headed “Strong Believers,” I see the names of Luther, Baxter, Whitefield, Chalmers, and Hall. Those men knew just as well as people now do that the Sabbath had been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week.
ANSWER. While these men knew that the Sabbath had been changed, they supposed that it had been done by divine authority, and consequently thought they were doing God service by keeping the first day of the week. They are to be judged according to their honesty of purpose and the light they had. In regard to its being essential to salvation, we hold that no person who knows his course of life to be in violation of the commandments of God, can persist in that course, and be saved. And further, a person to be saved must earnestly strive to render positive obedience to what, according to his best knowledge and belief, the law of God requires. This the men in question undoubtedly did, and will hence be accepted of God, though erring as to the nature of the Sabbath commandment.
2. We read in scripture that in the last days, “false prophets and false Christs shall arise.” I understand that Wm. Miller was the founder of the Advent church and that he prophesied that on a certain day the world would come to an end. As that did not take place, was he not a false prophet? The query in this case is, Can we suppose that God will make choice of a false prophet as the founder of his true church?
ANSWER. Wm. Miller made a mistake in the event that was to occur at the end of the prophetic periods, just as the disciples of Christ, when with acclamations of joy they hailed him king as he rode into Jerusalem, made a mistake in regard to what was then to occur. See Zech. 9:9; Matt. 21:4, 5; Luke 19:40. But this query devours itself; for if Mr. Miller was one of the false prophets that were to appear in the last days, his coming and preaching was proof that we have reached the last days. But the sum and substance of his preaching was to show that we are in the last days, and if this is so, his preaching, in its essential features, was correct, and therefore he was not a false prophet.
3. We read in the word of God, that no man shall know of that day and hour, not the angels, neither the Son, but the Father only. Why is it that people will prophesy against such positive Scripture declarations if they are God's chosen people.
ANSWER. We do not believe they will. This has reference to time setting, and Seventh-day Adventists do not engage in that kind of work. We do not think that is a point revealed, or that man is ever to proclaim it.
P. W. B. asks: What is the proper rendering of the word “blessed” in Rev. 14:13? The American Bible Union has it “happy.” If so, does it not make the dead conscious.
ANSWER: The word is defined by Robinson, “happy, blessed.” It does not, by any means, always denote a conscious happy emotion on the part of those to whom it is applied, but rather a condition in which the favor of God is secured to them. It is the word which in Matt. 5:4, is applied to those that mourn. It is applied in Matt. 13:16, to the eyes and ears of the disciples; in Luke 6:21, to those that weep now; in Luke 10:23, to the eyes which saw the things the disciples saw; in Acts 20:35, to the act of giving; in Titus 2:13, to the hope we cherish; in James 1:12, to the man who is buffeted with temptations, &c. In no such instances can it denote conscious joy; neither does it signify that in the case of the dead of Rev. 14:13. U. S.