It Makes No Difference by Charles L. Boyd

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 23, 1872

It Makes No Difference.

By Charles L. Boyd

It makes no difference, we are often told, what you believe if you are only honest. This does not seem to be an argument of modern date, but one used centuries in the past to meet a plain, Thus saith the Lord.

When Naaman, the captain of the host of the king of Syria, heard that there was a man in Samaria, who could cure him of the fatal and loathsome disease with which he was afflicted, he at once set out with precious presents to find the man of God. Without pomp or ceremony, the prophet sends his servant to the captain of the victorious host, saying, “Go and wash in Jordan seven times . . . and thou shalt be clean. But hear the objection: Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them and be clean?”

And why not as well wash in the rivers of his own country? Would God care for so small a matter as this? Abana and Pharpar had their source near that of Jordan. They were clear, cool, and swiftly flowing mountain streams. They flowed through a pleasant country and “made the region they watered like the garden of Eden for fertility and beauty.”

The answer to the above, I believe to be, It was not in accordance with the command of God.

It is true that the deep, rolling Jordan, even at the time of year when it overflows its banks, was stopped in its progress as the feet of those who bore the ark of God touched its brink; and while the waters below rushed onward toward the Dead Sea, those above piled in a massive wall. Twice was the Jordan stopped, as the mantle of Elijah struck its waves, and a dry passage was left from shore to shore.

We are often met with this argument in regard to the Lord’s Sabbath. On failing to find any proof in the word of God for the observance of Sunday, our first-day friends usually resort to the argument of “It makes no difference which day we keep if we are only sincere and keep the day right.”

We are often told that it makes no difference whether we believe the soul to be mortal or immortal; or whether the dead are in a conscious or an unconscious state between death and the resurrection.

We are also repeatedly told that the time of the second advent is among the hidden mysteries of the Lord, with which we have no right to meddle; for if we are prepared for death, we are for the coming of our Saviour. But our resort is to the Bible, where we find it repeatedly asserted that the seventh-day is the Sabbath, with the reason why it was set apart; also that it is a sign between God and his people.

Unless we believe the Bible doctrine of the sleep of the dead, I know of no way to meet the fearful doctrine of Spiritualism, which is spreading with such awful rapidity among all classes, throughout our land. Spiritualism offers particular inducements to converts; especially to those who have lost near and dear friends. But thanks be to our kind Heavenly Father that he has made it so plain that the dead are at rest, that they know not anything.

Says our Saviour, “Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find watching.” And we cannot be watching, unless we are expecting and believing that our Lord is soon coming. Oh! that all would discover their mistake and retrace their steps as speedily as Naaman did, and build upon the sure foundation of truth, which alone will stand the final test.

CHAS. L. BOYD.

Cherokee, Iowa.