p. 34 | A Crisis Coming by Charles P. Whitford

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 28, 1875

A Crisis Coming.

By Charles P. Whitford

For twenty-eight years Seventh-day Adventists have believed and taught that in this government oppressive laws would be enacted in religious matters as brought to view under the symbol of the image of the beast. Rev. 13:11–18. Yet some professed expositors of prophecy have ridiculed this part of our faith, as a thing too incredible to be entertained for a moment.

But that which we have believed and taught for so many years, and which was a matter of faith, now begins to show signs of fulfillment, and we now can walk almost by sight. We think no one will deny the following statement, that unrestrained human nature is tyrannical and persecuting, that it is not safe to give too much power into the hands of any body of religionists. It becomes then a very interesting question, Do the nominal churches of our day aspire to this end? and to this are their labors directed? The following from the Church Union shows what is aimed at:—

“If we are not Christians, let us make no hypocritical pretensions of founding our government on Christian principles. If we are, and believe they should govern our whole life, let us have them incorporated in the basis of our government and the national policy shaped to them. Let no one hold an office of trust or profit whose life has not been conformable thereto.”

From the above we see that it is proposed that the Christian principles of the people be incorporated into, and become an integral part of the Constitution, and that these principles shall form the basis upon which our government shall rest; and then it is proposed that the national policy be shaped according to them, so that no person can hold an office of trust or profit whose life has not been conformable thereto.

So far has the agitation of this question already progressed that public documents are everywhere circulated. A national association has been formed to carry forward the movement, and national conventions are being called in all parts of the country, and all American citizens without distinction of party or creed, who are willing to pledge themselves to secure, under God, an open communion and the recognition of our evangelical ministry, by the interchange of pulpits, thus to make visible the unity of the church, are called upon to unite heartily in the work proposed. They say they do not propose to form a Christian, nor even a Protestant, political party; but the position is taken that “good men throughout the nation should be thoroughly organized and prepared to act promptly and unitedly in opposition to everything that would endanger our free institutions.”

Among the things which they set down as endangering our free institutions they mention “the destruction of the Christian Sabbath.” And so minds are working, and the agitation moves on. Who can fail to see that such a condition of things would be a virtual union of church and State—a going back to the religious despotisms of the Dark Ages.

No one but Christians to hold any office! But who shall determine who are Christians? Why, the ruling churches, of course. All others will be branded as heretics, and all rights denied them. The success of the proposed amendment virtually destroys one of the first principles upon which our government was founded, viz., “All men shall have the privilege of worshiping God according to the dictates of their own conscience.” When the time shall come as predicted in prophecy; Rev. 13:11–18; when the Constitution of our country enforces the observance of the first day of the week as the Sabbath, what will be the fate of those who conscientiously believe and lay hold of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and dare to keep it?

“Rev. 13:15, says, “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” The image is to be an image to the papal beast. That was a church clothed with civil power. We therefore understand that the image will be a religious organization in this country clothed with power to punish heretics, and enforce its dogmas under a threatened penalty of death. And now let us notice how the way is prepared and preparing for this last great act of the two-horned beast. Under the mild influence of the Protestant principle that all have liberty to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, churches have multiplied in the land. But these churches have rejected light and truth, and, as a body, have met with a moral fall. A catalogue of twenty immoral features, with no good ones, is the photograph which Paul gives in 2 Tim. 3:1–5, of the popular church of these last days.

“But the people of God are yet to be found mainly in connection with these churches, and are yet to be called out. Rev. 18:4. And when the good have all left the nominal churches, and the saving influence of such is all withdrawn from their communion, then they will be ready for any desperate and oppressive movement that Satan can induce those who are led captive by him at his will to enter upon. Now out of this material, let an ecclesiastical organization be formed, and let the government grant it power to enforce its dogmas under the pains and penalties of the civil law, and what do we have? An exact image to the first beast, a church clothed with power to enforce its doctrines upon dissenters with fire and sword.”—Thoughts on Revelation, pp. 235, 236.

And such is the issue before us. The 13th chapter of Revelation leaves the people of God a small, and apparently weak and defenseless, company, in deadly conflict with the mightiest powers of earth; with the decree of death and banishment from society out upon them; and all this for their adherence to the truth. A decree is passed, backed up by the supreme power of the land, that they shall all receive the Antichrist mark, under pain of death if they refuse to comply.

“What can the people of God do in such a conflict and in such an extremity? What will become of them? Glance forward with the apostle to the very next scene in the programme, and what do we behold? The very same company standing on Mount Zion with the Lamb, Rev. 14:1–5, a victorious company, harping on golden harps their triumph through the courts of Heaven. Thus are we assured that when the time of our conflict with the powers of darkness comes, deliverance is not only certain, but will immediately be given, being the next event in our history, the glorious rest after the weary pilgrimage, the glorious consummation of a life of toil, suffering, and ceaseless conflict here.”—Thoughts on Revelation, pp. 242, 243.

CHARLES P. WHITFORD.

Berkshire Center, Vt.