Should Seventh-day Adventists Exist?—No. 4.
By R. F. Cottrell
The last special proclamation of the gospel to man in a state of probation, promised of God in prophecy, is that of the “third angel,” recorded in Rev. 14: 9-12. This assertion needs no other proof than a careful reading of the text with the context from verse 6 to the end of the chapter. The warning contained in this message against the worship of the beast and his image and the reception of his mark, is being preached by S. D. Adventists, as we have said, and by no one else. It is self-evident that no portion of the Word of God is of greater importance to the people to whom it is addressed, than this awful and final warning, of which the reception or the rejection is decisive of eternal destiny. Yet nobody, with the above exception, defines its terms and teaches its meaning. All seem to be in stupid ignorance on this thrilling theme; while the necessity of understanding it is so apparent. Since the wrath of God, without mixture of mercy, is the penalty of worshiping the beast and his image and receiving his mark, it is absolutely necessary that these terms should be clearly defined. Who will define them? No one attempts to do so but S. D. Adventists. The result of the preaching of this message is, that while it condemns the worshipers of the beast and his image, it separates the people of God, called saints, of whom a prophetic description is given in verse 12. The description is remarkably brief, but, like all the words of God, it is perfect; that is, it infallibly distinguishes the saints at the close of probation from all others. Only three points are given. 1. They are in their period of patience. 2. They keep the commandments of God. 3. They keep the faith of Jesus. They are in trial under persecution. “Tribulation worketh patience.” From this they will be delivered at the appearing of Christ. “Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” They are Adventists; they are waiting for his coming who shall deliver them; their hearts have been directed “into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ.” See Jas. 5: 7, 8; 2 Thess. 3: 5. And in their tribulation and patient waiting they keep both the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. These three particulars perfectly describe the saints, at the time when the last message of the gospel has accomplished its design; so that these three characteristics combined in one people is infallible proof that they are the people; and any people claiming to be the saints of God, yet are wanting in any one of these things specified, are not the people foretold and described in this prophecy. It is clearly evident that the commandments which these believers in Christ keep, are the commandments of the moral law, the ten commandments, for all Christians are agreed that the ceremonial law, the law of typical offerings and sacrifices, came to an end at the crucifixion of Christ. But it is not all professed Christians that keep this law. Some claim that it was abolished with the law of bloody sacrifices. They hold to no law but the gospel; consequently they are not characterized by keeping any commandments besides, and in connection with, the faith of Jesus Christ. Others who claim to keep the commandments of the moral law, do not keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Some say that it is done away; others, that its obligation has been transferred to another day, a thing impossible to be done, without the abolition of the commandment as it reads. A commandment-keeper keeps them all; the breaking of one makes him a commandment-breaker; “for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one, he is guilty of all.” He that secularizes the day which God sanctified, does not keep the commandments of God, and it is in view of the fact of the departure of the mass of professed Christians from this moral law that the fearful warning and terrible denunciation of wrath against the worshipers of the beast, was prepared in prophecy by divine prescience, for the very last days of the dispensation. The beast is that great anti-christian power, the Roman popedom, of which it was prophesied that it should “think to change times and laws,” and it is now manifest to all who investigate the question, that the change of the time of the Sabbath, and the law for the observance of the first day instead of the seventh, can be traced to no higher authority than the church of Rome. The people described in this prophecy must keep both the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. They cannot be Jews, who, though holding to the commandments of the Father, reject the faith of the Son. Neither can they be those Christians whose professed faith in Jesus Christ makes void the moral law of God, wholly or in part. “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” Rom. 3: 31. They do not keep the commandments of God who violate one precept of the decalogue; and all violate the fourth commandment who do not keep holy the day specified therein, the seventh day, the day on which God rested from the work of creation. Such do not establish the law; but by their false traditional faith they make “the commandment of God of none effect.” It may be asked, Are not the S. D. Baptists the prophetic people, that is, the people described in this prophecy? They hold to the entire moral law as it is, and also are believers in Jesus Christ. In reply to this, If it shall appear that they are defective in the faith, or in any respect fail to meet each specification in the description given, they cannot be the people. Are they distinguished from others by their “patient waiting for Christ”? Should the Lord appear, as he will to the people gathered by this last message (Rev. 14: 14), could they say as foretold by the prophet, “We have waited for him?” Isa. 25: 9. “The faith of Jesus” embraces, not only what he has done for the salvation of men and the institutions of the gospel which memorialize his death and resurrection, but also what he has promised to do. He promised saying, “I will come again.” All Christians profess to believe it. Besides this, Jesus foretold certain signs in the sun, moon, and stars, which, when fulfilled, should assure believers that his coming would be near. Said he, “When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near.” These signs have appeared, or they have not. If they have, his coming is at the doors; if they have not, he will not come till they do appear. Have the signs appeared? Is it a part of the faith of Jesus to have no position in respect to his word and promise? Suppose the signs have been seen. In that case, Jesus bids his faithful to know that his coming is at hand. When he bids us know, is it keeping his faith not to know? In the same connection Jesus assures us that his word shall not fail. “Heaven and earth,” said he, “shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away.” Is not that faith sadly defective that has no position on the very words which are the subject of this solemn asseveration of the Lord Jesus? Brethren, believers in Christ, may God “perfect that which is lacking in your faith.” It is very evident that the saints described as the result of the last message of the gospel, will be believers in the advent at hand. They will believe that the preceding messages have been announced in truth; that the period of the “Judgment is come,” and that “Babylon is fallen.” But S. D. Baptists do not reckon their pedigree in the fulfillment of any part of this line of prophecy; consequently they cannot take offense when we say, they cannot be the people here described. There is time and order in the prophecy—the messages follow in regular succession—and the peculiar circumstances and position of the people of the third message cannot be manifested till the first and second messages have been truly proclaimed. The saints, in this last period of their patience, will have faith in the fulfillment of these predicted messages, will see in their fulfillment the means that God has used to bring them to the light of his holy sanctuary in Heaven, and of his holy commandments therein contained in the ark of his testimony, Rev. 11:19, and, recognizing the hand of God in the history of their own development, they will not be ashamed of their pedigree. They will feel an assurance, when their faith comes to the trial of fierce persecution, that they are the people described in this prophecy; and it will sustain them. They will understand and realize that the Holy Spirit foretold their trial and described their character in these words: “HERE is the patience of the saints; those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”—Whiting’s translation, omitting italics. In the former period of the patience of the saints, during the period of papal persecution, they were distinguished by the simple additional characteristic of their sustaining faith. Rev. 13: 10. But in their final trial under the persecution of the image, Rev. 13: 11-18, the mutilated and down-trodden commandments will have been restored, and the keeping of them will be their leading characteristic, though joined with genuine faith in Christ and obedience to the institutions of the gospel in their purity. The final trial is at hand. The image of the beast is about to be formed. The “religious amendment” of our hitherto free Constitution is imminent. It is high time for the warning of the “third angel” to be given, to gather out the saints from among the followers of the traditions of men that make void the commandments of God. And leaving out of the account the preaching of S. D. Adventists, who are they that are giving a warning to mankind corresponding to that laid down in the programme of prophecy? The promised warning is evidently due; but who are giving it? The divine scheme demands that a people should now exist to proclaim the warning, a people distinguished by their waiting for Christ, keeping the moral law entire, and also the faith of the gospel in its purity. R. F. COTTRELL.