WHY DO THEY MISREPRESENT US?
By I. Sanborn
Some people continue to say we teach that Christ is coming in a month or two, or during this year or next. This is something we have never said, in print nor from the pulpit. No honest person who is acquainted with our history as a people will ever circulate such a report. We know that many of the first-day Adventists have set several definite times for the Lord to come since 1844, which Seventh-day Adventists have always rejected and never taught. We believe that it is safe to follow the counsel of Christ; and he said: “Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in Heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is.” “Watch ye therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch.” Mark 13:32–37. This is what we have always taught on this subject; and we think it is perfectly safe to obey Christ in this as well as in everything else. But why do professed Christians scoff at the truth for these last days, and try to misrepresent it? Because their ears are turned away from the truth and are turned unto fables, and they will not endure sound doctrine; 2 Tim. 4:3, 4. “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” 1 Thess. 5:1–3. Is not this careless slumber, this deep sleep and dead serenity, a token of approaching wrath? Did not Christ, as he surveyed the future, perceive and foretell this feature as belonging to the close of this dispensation? Most certainly he did. And when he predicted his coming he declared: “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.” Luke 17:26, 27. Just as that antediluvian generation despised all warning, invitation, and entreaty, danced and rioted on the very verge of life, and fell headlong from pleasure’s hight to ruin’s dark abyss, shall this careless, ruined, rebellious, and presumptuous world exchange the depths of slumber for the depths of destruction, and the cry of “Peace and safety” for the terrors of an irretrievable ruin. Again our Saviour says: “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot: they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Luke 17:28–30. Such are the predictions uttered by Christ. Are they not fulfilled before us? This is a solemn warning; and it may be well for preachers who sneer at the coming of the Lord, and smite with bitter words the men who expect it, while they follow the round of carnal pleasures, eating and drinking with the drunken, attending celebrations, excursions, parties, festivals, and church fairs, to bethink themselves lest these words be rehearsed in their ears with emphasis by Him who first uttered them long ago. Let Christians be solemnly warned by Him whom they acknowledge as their Lord and Judge, and run not to that excess of riot to which this age tends. Let them beware, lest saying in their hearts and by their conduct what so many say openly with their lips, “My Lord delayeth his coming,” they, too, be taken in the snare. Jesus says: “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” Dear reader, take heed, lest you be found unprepared for the sudden advent of the Lord, and receive your portion with the godless and the vile. Ah, scoffer, the day of the Lord will come. You may deride its tokens; you may mock at the signals of its approach; you may put it far away, and declare that it will never come. But come it will, when Justice shall array herself in majesty, and Judgment shall attend in her way, when God shall go forth to condemn the guilty and redeem the penitent. Then dismay and sorrow shall overwhelm the guilty, and terrible alarms break the slumbers of the careless soul. Ah, sinner, in that day your scoffings and mockings shall end. But will you not cease them now? Will you not heed the voice of warning and of love? Will you not seek a refuge in Christ, the ark of God, ere that final storm of wrath shall come, and deluge the guilty and rebellious world with fire? Turn, then, thou lukewarm professor; turn, then, poor sinner. “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Isa. 55:6, 7.