p. 40 | To Correspondents

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 14, 1874

To Correspondents.

B. F. Koons: Luke 16:16, does not say that the law and the prophets ceased at the coming of John. “The law and the prophets were until John.” You will notice that the word “were” is supplied. Leaving that out, the whole sentence would read, “The law and the prophets until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached.” In all such elliptical expressions words must be supplied in accordance with what is already expressed. The only verb expressed is the verb “preached.” That word determines therefore what word should be supplied. Expressed in full, the sentence would then read, “The law and the prophets were preached until John; since that time, the kingdom of God is preached.” And the meaning evidently is, that before the time of John, people had only the preaching of the law and the prophets; while now they have, in addition to that, the preaching of the kingdom of God.

T. D. W.: Your friend is not the first one who has brought forward Eze. 43:27, to prove the change of the Sabbath; but it has no more reference to that than it has to the late Southern Rebellion. The prophet speaks of purifying the altar; and from the day they commenced to purify it, seven days were to be consumed; then from the eighth day and onward, every day, offerings were to be offered upon it. But nothing is said or intimated about a weekly cycle or Sabbath. Men show themselves driven to great straits when they resort to such texts.