Important Statements by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 3, 1875

Important Statements.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

I HAVE just finished reading “The Vatican Decrees, with a History of the Vatican Council, &c., by Gladstone and Schaff.”

Rev. Philip Schaff, D. D., is the prince of scholars. The following extracts are from his part of the book:—

PAUL'S “MAN OF SIN.”

“The dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which exempts the virgin Mary from sin and guilt, perverts, Christianity into Marianism; the dogma of Infallibility, which exempts the bishop of Rome from error, resolves Catholicism into papalism, or the church into the pope. The worship of a woman is virtually substituted for the worship of Christ, and a man-god in Rome for the God-man in Heaven. This is a severe judgment, but a closer examination will sustain it.”—P. 83.

TRUTH PROGRESSIVE.

“The history of the church is unintelligible without the theory of progressive development, which implies many obstructions and temporary diseases. All the attributes of the church are subject to the law of expansion and growth, and will not be finally complete till the second coming of our Lord.”—P. 86.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM.

“The difference between Romanism and Protestantism on this point is this: Romanism requires proof from tradition first, from Scripture next, and makes the former indispensable, the latter simply desirable; while Protestantism reverses the order, and with its theory of the Bible as the only rule of faith and practice, and as an inexhaustible mine of truth that yields precious ore to every successive generation of miners, it may even dispense with traditional testimony altogether, provided that a doctrine can be clearly derived from the word of God.”—P. 91.

AUTHORITY OF THE FATHERS.

“Not to interpret the Bible except according to the unanimous consent of the fathers, would strictly mean not interpret it at all.”—P. 106.

These are sound Protestant principles; but how readily those calling themselves Protestants go back on them when we come to the questions of the Sabbath, the nature of man, &c. Thank God, we teach no doctrine but what we can read in the holy Bible. D. M. CANRIGHT.

Stockton, Cal., May 14, 1875.