Will-Worship by E. R. Jones

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Apr 5, 1877

Will-Worship.

By E. R. Jones

Is THAT service offered to God for which there is no precept or instruction in his Word? We read that by the Word of God we are thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Tim. 3:17. But this course of worship virtually says to the Lord, “We do this to supply a great oversight in you. You ought to have commanded it, but as you did not, and as we think it is for your glory, we take it upon ourselves to correct your fault in this thing and supply your lack.” It really places the wisdom of God beneath that of those who thus offer service, and charges him with folly.

Is the great Creator of the heaven and the earth honored by such worship? No. Will he accept of it? Never. His frown will be upon those who by such pretended worship insult him to his face. Has God said anything in his Word about such a course? He has. “If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God in transgressing his covenant, and hath gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel, then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman which have committed that wicked thing, and shalt stone them with stones till they die.” Deut. 17:2–5.

God has brought before us our whole duty in what he has commanded, Eccl. 12:13, and any worship offered to him which he has not commanded is a wicked thing and an abomination in his sight; and how greatly is the case aggravated and the sin increased when it is in direct violation of plain precept. Can such reasonably hope to ever share the blessing promised to those that do his commandments? Rev. 22:14.

Much that is offered to the Lord in our day is but will-worship, for the very reason that he has not commanded it. We will bring an illustration: A vast majority of the professed worshipers of the Lord are observing the first day of the week as the Sabbath; and as we endeavor to find in the Word of God the reasons for such practice, and feel for the pillars of their faith, after a long and fruitless search, we stop and in astonishment ask, “Who hath required this at your hand? Where in his Word has he thus commanded you to do; and that too in violation of one of his ten words which says the seventh day is the Sabbath? As the Word of God thoroughly furnishes unto all good works, if this be a good work, then an abundance of testimony can be found in the Bible to sustain it. But we ask for only the one text, and still we ask in vain. Were it to be found in that Word, how quickly would those to whom we so earnestly appeal tell us where; but their utter silence is a confession that it is not there.

“Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The Lord saith it; albeit I have not spoken?” Ezek. 13:7. Was there ever a more manifest case of will-worship than that of Sunday-keeping? Due allowance is made for those who have thus done, honestly supposing they were obeying a command of God. But it is not so. They have been doing it ignorantly, in direct opposition to his express command.

“And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men every where to repent.” Acts 17:30. When light is once come, the responsibility in all such cases is very materially changed. Said Christ: “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin.” John 15:22.

God has fully set before us his will in his law, and requires us to obey him. It clearly makes known to us what we as his servants are to do. And when we, with this great rule of acceptable service right before us, offer to him as worship that which he has not commanded, and also in disobedience to what he has commanded, can it not be truthfully and Scripturally said, that it is a “wicked thing” and an “abomination?”

E. R. JONES.