p. 28 | The Argument of Blessing by Joseph Harvey Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 19, 1877

The Argument of Blessing.

By Joseph Harvey Waggoner

A missionary worker in Battle Creek received a letter from a friend who resides on one of “the islands of the sea,” in which he writes:—

“I have read the book on the Sabbath, but am afraid you will be surprised when I tell you I cannot follow all the way you seem to go in the subject, for I cannot believe that our Heavenly Father would have showered down so many and so great blessings on the missionary efforts of both England and America if they were teaching so great an error.”

The writer of this letter is not alone in this opinion; it is an argument put forth in some form by a great many people. But this writer sees the apparent force of it beyond most of those who use it, because he dwells in a missionary field where the power of the gospel has been seen in the conversion of dark-minded cannibals to Christianity. Yet the argument is not only faulty, but really a dangerous one to act upon.

1. It leads to the conclusion that God blesses only those who are right in all things, and the belief will inevitably follow in many minds that they are right in all things because God blesses them. If it does not amount to this it amounts to nothing at all. Therefore it is a dangerous doctrine, fostering a spirit of self-righteousness. And hence,

2. It shuts out all efforts toward a growth in grace. Why progress, why change in any thing, why examine ourselves with a view to correct our errors, if the blessings of Heaven prove we are already right? This is the force of the argument precisely. We once conversed with a man in St. Clair Co., Mich., who made great profession of high attainments in Christianity; we tried to impress on his mind the inconsistency of a Christian indulging in the foolish, costly, injurious, and filthy habit of using tobacco, and we presented it in all these lights. With much self-complacency this man not only excused his habit but declared that it was right, and a thing to be commended; “for,” said he, “God sanctified

me in the use of tobacco, which he would not have done if it was wrong, and so I know it is a practice approved of God.” Of course we were too much shocked at his irreverence and selfishness to attempt to carry the argument further. Thus he made his own position and not the teachings of the word the standard of acceptance with God. And this is the direct result of that argument.

The same method of argument was once put forth in the American Congress in favor of slavery. A Southern Representative confidently pointed to the extent of religious influence which prevailed, to our growth and prosperity, to the many proofs of Heaven’s blessings on us as a nation, as evidence that slavery was right, for in this practice we had received all these blessings. Owen Lovejoy, who intensely hated the institution of slavery, met the argument with this proposition, that God had not blessed us because of slavery, but he had blessed us notwithstanding this wrong in our practice.

This is the correct view; this is the manner in which God bestows all blessings. All of us have more or less errors yet to correct, truths to learn, and duties to accept. But that idea shuts out all these. God has already blessed us; why strive for more?

Mr. Lovejoy used in Congress the following illustration to show the fallacy of the argument: A certain lady had a deformity on her face in the shape of a wen. She had an unusually kind and affectionate husband. She noticed that she was loved more deeply and treated more tenderly than her neighbor women, and of course she noticed that they had not such a wen as she had. Putting these ideas together she came to the conclusion that her husband had special love for her because of the wen! and therefore took particular pains to give it prominence and call attention to it, much to the annoyance of her husband. He could overlook the blemish, regarding it as a misfortune, and love her notwithstanding. But she regarded it as an accomplishment, as entitling her to special esteem, and therefore turned it into a fault.

God is compassionate; he often passes by our faults, and blesses us far beyond our deserts. If this were not so, who would ever be blessed? But when we build ourselves up in self-righteousness upon these faults, and make them minister to our selfishness and spiritual pride, then they become truly odious. Then there is need of reform.

The Lord bore with the errors of Israel with much long-suffering, even until they were almost all departed from his commandments, and the false prophets were numbered by many hundreds, with only one prophet of the Lord in the whole nation. Why he did not arrest their downward course before they strayed so far we cannot tell. It has been cause of wonder to many that God suffered the Papal power to triumph over the saints for so many centuries, and put such multitudes of faithful ones to death by most cruel tortures. His ways are not as our ways. He might earlier have started the Reformation, and spared the lives of his people, but he did not see best to do so. We must submit to the ways of his providence; we cannot correct them. “The times of this ignorance,” says Paul, “God winked at, [overlooked, or bore with], but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” Why he did not sooner command them to repent, we cannot say. In our view it was needed as much before as then. And this leads us to say,

3. That view would have annulled the great Reformation, yea, would forestall all reformation in the church. Prosperity, not truth, is to be made the standard of judgment. So the Catholics talked in the days of Luther, and so they still talk about the work of Luther. But Luther and his associates did not finish the work of the Reformation. This truth is accepted by Protestants generally, for almost all evangelical Protestants now discard some things held by Luther, and have received things not received by him. They have advanced upon his ground. Why is this? did not God bless him? Why not rest content with what he had, and not strive over new questions of reform? God blessed him for his faithfulness in using the light he had; but we have more light, and the continuance of our blessings depends upon our faithfully using the clearer light shining on our pathway.

We believe that we are in the last days; that “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” God has a special work of preparation for his people, a synopsis of which is presented in Rev. 14:12, in the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. It is now time to correct errors, and prepare to stand in that fearful time when Jesus shall proclaim, “Let him that is unjust be unjust still,” Rev. 22:11, when errors can no more be corrected.

Jude speaks of certain ones who turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness. This can be nothing but perverting the blessings or favor of God, making them subservient to our own feelings. So the Jews might have excused themselves from sprinkling the blood of the lamb upon the door-posts in Egypt, for the Lord had already owned them as his people, even his first-born,—the beloved and favored. Ex. 4:22, 23; 5:1. With such high commendations from God how could they need a special work to shield them from the plagues which were about to fall on the Egyptians? But such reasoning is vain. They did need this work, and without it their first-born would also have died, for God required it, and safety lies only in implicit obedience. So in the last days, before the winds of destruction are let loose upon the earth the servants of God must have a special work wrought for them. See Rev. 7:1-3.

Yes, God has blessed us. For this we should be thankful. But we insist that we shall better show our thankfulness by examining ourselves by the unerring standard of his commandments and drawing nearer to him by more perfect conformity to his will, than by sitting down self-satisfied with our past obedience because of past blessings. Every blessing lays us under increased obligation and should be made the incentive to still greater devotion and more perfect obedience. And this infallible rule and test should ever be in our minds, “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” If our lives are not in conformity with those commandments, now is our time and opportunity to reform. Excuses will not avail in that day, and great blessings, if perverted to selfish ends, will sink us to deeper perdition. J. H. Waggoner.

Battle Creek, July 16.