Your ShelfYour Projects

QUERIES

9%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 27, 1876

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 4.

Read the full edition

QUERIES

By Uriah Smith

Eld. H. Drennan of Phelps Co., Mo., sends us the following queries, to which we reply in the order of their numbers.
“1. Where is the command to keep the Sabbath after the resurrection of Christ?”
Ans. Right in Ex. 20 : 8-11, where it was before. Christ’s death and resurrection didn’t disturb it a particle. To illustrate our idea of this matter we will ask, Where is the law of the United States against murder since the election of General Grant?
“2. Where do the apostles teach it? and which?”
Ans. All of them, everywhere. By this we mean that they teach nothing against it, and that whenever they have occasion to speak of the moral law, they affirm in the strongest terms its immutability and perpetuity, beginning with Christ’s testimony in Matt. 5 : 17-20, and ending with John’s in Rev. 22 : 14. It is a rule of logic that whatever is affirmed of any document as a whole, is affirmed of every particular contained in it. So when they say of the law as a whole, that it shall not be changed in a jot or tittle while the heavens and earth endure, Matt. 5 : 18, that it is not made void but established by faith in Christ, Rom. 3 : 31, that it shall judge us at the last day, Jas. 2 : 10-12, and that it secures a blessing to all who keep it, even a right to the tree of life, Rev. 22 : 14, they say the same of every individual commandment contained in that law, the Sabbath with the rest.
“3. What do we understand Paul to teach in 2 Cor. 3 : 7-12, if not literal?”
Ans. We take it to be literal; but of what is Paul speaking? Not two laws, but two ministrations. That which was changed was not the law, but the ministration of the law. That which was abolished, or done away, was not the law, but the glory of Moses’ face when that dispensation was introduced.
“4. Why do you assume the name ‘Advent Christian’? Where will I find that name in the Bible?”
Ans. The name “Advent Christian” is assumed by first-day Adventists, not by us. We call ourselves Seventh-day Adventists, not because we find the name in the Bible, but to have a convenient title, which will distinguish us from other bodies, and at the same time, express in a word the leading features of our faith. We understand that names, as we find them in the Bible, are used for that very purpose.
U. S.