A Short Address to the Seventh-day Baptists by One Who Believes in Consistency

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 18, 1875

A Short Address to the Seventh-day Baptists.

By One Who Believes in Consistency

[A BROTHER has sent us the following printed circular, which he says is extensively circulated through the mails, in the section where he lives, in Rhode Island. The inquiries are certainly pertinent, and deserve consideration by any whom they may concern.]

Will our S. D. Baptist friends permit one who entertains a high regard for their piety and conscientiousness to call their attention to some points that I have observed in their practice, which are deemed not quite consistent with their belief, which I will illustrate by the following proposition, viz.: You believe the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord our God, and, consequently, that all who refuse to keep it, whether ministers or laymen, professors or non-professors, are living in violation of the law of God, and therefore are sinners; which fact you prove by the following text of Scripture, “Whosoever sinneth transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. And, whereas other denominations are guilty of the above sin, you refuse to commune with them, which is strictly consistent on your part, so far; nevertheless you invite those Sabbath-breaking ministers into your churches to preach, and treat them as good Christians, never reproving them for Sabbath-breaking, and you carefully avoid saying anything to them about the Sabbath or the law of God, and by your silence lead them to believe you esteem the matter of small importance yourselves. It is believed your inconsistency in this matter has cost you the loss of many of your young people, who take it for granted from your practice that you believe Sabbath-breakers of other denominations are good Christians, which encourages them to abandon the Sabbath themselves.

Again, you would not invite a Roman Catholic priest into one of your churches, nor recognize him as a Christian minister, because he breaks the second command by paying adoration to images. Now I would like to know what the difference is between the Catholic who breaks the second, and the Protestant who breaks the fourth, command. Are they not equally guilty, in proportion to the knowledge they possess? But, say you, the former violates two commands, the second and fourth, while the latter violates the fourth. But what says the apostle James of such? Whosoever shall “offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (Jas. 2:10,) notwithstanding he may keep every other command of the law.

But you say, We must exercise charity toward our Protestant friends; perhaps they have not been enlightened on the Sabbath question. But how is that? Have they not the same Bible that you have? and if ignorant of the claims of God’s law upon them, is it not their own fault? The Saviour said of such, “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” John 3:19. And, although you doubtless should extend Christian charity to the errors of thousands of Christian people in various parts of our country, who have never had their attention called to the claims of the Bible Sabbath, yet such apology will not apply in the case of the people here, whose attention is called to the subject every week by seeing the seventh-day people close their places of business on the Sabbath, and go to church. The Saviour said, “That servant, which knew his Lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.” Luke 12:47, 48.

But I must not neglect to call the attention of Seventh-day Baptists to the charge that is sometimes brought against them, of not setting a proper example of Sabbath-keeping before others, in that some have employed men to work for them on the Sabbath, and allowed their business to go on on that day.

This is looked upon as a great inconsistency, inasmuch as the fourth command prohibits labor by your employees as much as by yourselves on the Sabbath. Ex. 20:10. In view of the above, if Seventh-day Baptists have the truth in relation to the Sabbath, will not God hold them accountable for the way they keep it, and also for any failure on their part in teaching it to others?

If on the other hand, the keeping of the seventh day is not a matter of any account, why not abandon it, and cease to divide the church by keeping a different day from the one kept by the majority?

All of which is respectfully submitted for your consideration, by

ONE WHO BELIEVES IN CONSISTENCY.