LOYALTY by L. A. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 17, 1901

LOYALTY

By L. A. S.

True loyalty is loyalty to right principles. Loyalty to God is loyalty to the principles of His government. To claim loyalty to God as a person, while repudiating any of the rules of right which He has set up, is fatally inconsistent. No transgressor of the divine law, however much he may have said, “Lord, Lord,” and taught and done “wonderful works” in His name, will be accepted at the court of heaven in the day of final account.

God did not ask the inhabitants of heaven to be loyal merely to himself; but there was a law which was followed by all in heaven—certain principles of right upon which the government of heaven was based; and God required that the beings He had created should be loyal to these principles.

There came a time when these principles were called in question among the inhabitants of heaven, and they were called to choose between loyalty to those principles, and loyalty to something else. They were called to choose between adherence to the principles of the divine government, and adherence to a person. A large number chose to adhere to the person who led them out in opposition to God’s government, and, in so doing, made a fatal and eternal mistake.

The Creator did not ask that the inhabitants of heaven should choose between Lucifer and himself, as a mere question of which one they preferred as their sovereign. This of course was involved in the controversy, but this was not the immediate and only issue to which the heavenly intelligences were brought by Lucifer’s rebellion. Had it been so, the controversy might have been settled at once; for the Omnipotent, as soon as all had made their choice between Lucifer and himself, might have destroyed the rebel host, and so ended the whole matter without any prejudice to His future government, since there would have been no further issue to be settled. But the Omnipotent did not do this. He left Lucifer and his rebel host free to carry on their rebellion to the extent of the power which they could command.

The Creator did not ask the inhabitants of heaven merely to accept Him in preference to Lucifer. He asked them to be loyal to the principles of righteousness set forth in the divine law. Nor did He ask them to accept these principles as righteous simply because He said so. They were to accept them of their own free choice; and further than that, the righteousness of these principles was to be demonstrated before them all, and before all the universe, by being worked out, in contrast with the working of Satan, through six thousand years of human history. Then, at the final day of judgment, which in His omniscience He had appointed, all intelligences would see and acknowledge that God’s law is just, and that He himself conforms to the principles which He had set before His creatures as the rule of right.

Satan represented God as an arbitrary being, having a law for others, but himself conforming to no law, and requiring of all others arbitrary obedience to himself. But God so ordered events that it will be demonstrated in the judgment day that Satan was the one who sought adherence simply to himself, while God asked adherence to principles, to all of which He himself conforms perfectly.

The great controversy which began in heaven is now going forward in the earth, and men talk much about “loyalty,” but the “loyalty” that is seen and advocated is mostly adherence to persons or to institutions. About loyalty to principles very little is heard. But there can be no true loyalty apart from this. “Loyalty” to persons or to institutions has often meant disloyalty to the right, and has led myriads away from God into outer and eternal darkness. We should realize now that loyalty to right principles is the only loyalty that will count in the end.

By being loyal to the right, we are loyal both to God and to our fellow men. As Shakespeare has said,—

“To thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou can’st not then be false to any man.”

Be loyal to the eternal principles of justice and truth; then you will be true to your own best interests, to your fellow men, and to God.

This is a matter of the greatest practical importance at this time. “Now, when we are on the borders of the eternal world, what can be of so much value to us as to be found loyal and true to the God of heaven?”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI. Not only is it important from a Christian standpoint, but the world is more and more demanding allegiance to its time-honored institutions and its kings and rulers, which can be rendered, very often, only at the sacrifice of allegiance to the right. Persons and institutions change, but the principles of righteousness are unchanging. We must not change our loyalty to the right for the sake of allegiance to anything else. We must not lose sight of right principles for the sake of being counted with the majority who may be looking to human leaders and to worldly interests, rather than to God. We must not lose sight of the fact, to which we are pointed by prophecy, that ere long loyalty to God will be counted disloyalty to the governments of this world; for in the prophecy of Revelation we find it written that at the final day, when He who appeared to His beloved apostle in the isle of Patmos shall appear in the glory of His second coming, the “Beast,” and “the kings of the earth, and their armies,” will be “gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army.” Rev. 19:19. The “kings of the earth” profess Christianity; nevertheless it will be necessary for the followers of Christ to be counted as disloyal to the governments of men if they would be on the side of Jesus at His second coming.

We must look beyond men, beyond institutions, beyond governments even, to the foundation principles of righteousness which underlie the very throne of God. To them we must give our allegiance, once for all time. And only by being loyal to God can we be truly loyal to our fellow men.

L. A. S.