THE DRAGON'S WRATH by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 11, 1878

THE DRAGON'S WRATH.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

In the book of Revelation, chap. 12:17, it is prophesied that the dragon will be wroth with the woman (the church) and make war with the remnant of her seed (the last generation of Christians), who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The remnant of the church are those “who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord.”

The same is brought to view in chap. 14:12. Just before the second advent of the Lord a company is seen “who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” This text also says, “Here is the patience of the saints.” As “tribulation worketh patience,” Rom. 5:3, it is said that the patience of the saints is in that message because the wrath of the dragon is manifested against them.

There is significance in every declaration of the prophetic word. It appears to be a matter of special remark that, in the last days, a company is found keeping the commandments of God. Why is this? It is because antinomianism, no-law-ism, the most fatally pernicious of all isms, is so unusually prevalent in these last days. In no other period of this dispensation has there been such a wide-spread declension from “the old paths” in this respect.

The early Methodists planted themselves as Reformers upon the idea of the perpetuity of the ten commandments, ascribing the laxity of morality and the low state of religion in England to the antinomianism in the established church. The Presbyterians have always taught the “Confession,” that the ten commandments are of universal and perpetual obligation. But now it is not unusual to hear Methodist ministers warn their hearers against clinging too closely to the law, as a practice dangerous to their Christian standing. And they who professedly accept the Westminster Confession now talk of the bondage of keeping the law as opposed to the freedom of the gospel!

There have all along been men of piety and experience who deplored this state of things. Prof. Finney, some years ago, pointed to the fact that a large proportion of the conversions of this age are superficial; that the converts show no depth of the work of the gospel in their hearts, and do not long endure in Christian walk; and he ascribed it to the prevailing practice of preaching the gospel without the law—of offering pardon without producing any depth of conviction for sin.

I remember hearing a story of a foreigner who came to America, with high ideas of the liberty of this land, and on coming here he knocked down the first man whom he met in the street; and he was both surprised and indignant when an officer arrested him for the outrage, he protesting that he had come to a free country! Such are the ideas of liberty which largely prevail in the churches of the present day. And they despise and even hate those who do and teach all the commandments of God. Matt. 5:17–19; 2 Tim. 3:1–5.

A notable instance of the spirit of the dragon showing itself against those who keep the commandments of God has recently appeared. In my Scripture argument on trine immersion I spoke of the “Dunkers,” or those who practice trine immersion, as a people who, by their kind and quiet deportment, had shown themselves worthy of esteem. In this I was sincere. My acquaintance with them was not sufficiently extensive to give me any other idea of them. But facts cause a change of mind in respect to them.

These people publish a denominational paper in Illinois. A recent number contains the following in regard to the N. Y. Independent:—

“It calls one of our leading ministers ‘a mighty bull of Bashan among the people,’ just because he advocates plainness and simplicity among the people of God. We think the Independent, when it resorts to such slang as that, is lowering itself considerable in the estimation of good-meaning people. If it cannot sanction our mode of dress, it certainly can use respectable language when speaking of us. We could not expect anything better from some secular papers, but when it comes from a high-toned religious journal, we are led to conclude that even finely educated and polished editors will sometimes forget that Christian courtesy and purity of motives that should characterize the opinions and conduct of the reading people of our land.”

In a prophecy of our country in Rev. 13 it is shown that there will be presented the opposite phases of the lamb’s appearance and the dragon’s voice. The extract above speaking of the Independent, is the lamb-like part of the picture. Take the following as a sample of the dragon spirit of that people. In the very same number of that paper is a communication from Kansas in which is the following notice of Seventh-day Adventists:—

“And that brings us to another spiritual conflict, that is to be fought to-night, Sabbatism, Sabbatarianism, Soul-sleeperism, Judaism, and many other ‘isms,’ all to be met to-night by our brother, ‘Captain Valiant for Truth;’ weapons, the Word of God on the one side, and the steam printing press at Battle Creek, Michigan, on the other. Seconds, the Holy Spirit and the cloven-foot. Ground, right at the margin of the beautiful, clear Gospel field, where Satan has entrenched himself in the thick, ragged jungles of sectarianism. This affords ample facilities for dodging the home thrusts of the two-edged sword.”

Such is the language of the paper which reproves the Independent for a lack of Christian courtesy! and there was nothing in the words of the Independent to compare with the vile scurrility of this extract. Never was there a more perfect blending of lamb and dragon in one people. Mordecai and Haman are not merely become friends—they are here united in one person. The reader may ask, how I could have

been so mistaken in that people. Answer: I had never seen them brought directly in contact with the truth of God. My observation of them had been when they were in a manner passive, and when the keeping of the commandments of God was not in question. The rule is without an exception, that all who set themselves against the law of God immediately show the spirit and temper of the dragon. Were their power equal to the venom which they manifest, we should look for no mercy at their hands.

And this is only a question of time, for all who oppose the commandments of God will unite to call for the aid of civil power by which they may put down those whom they so cordially hate. But vain will be the effort. Deliverance is coming to those who keep the commandments of God, while the plagues of his wrath will fall upon all the worshipers of the beast and of his image.

Were the above extract the utterance of some isolated person whose misguided zeal had carried him, not only beyond the lines of decency, but beyond the bounds of his sect, it would be unworthy of notice. But this is not the case. It is indorsed by the editor, who apologizes for a delay in its publication, saying, “The above ought to have appeared one month ago.” It thus stands as an index to the spirit of that people.

The irreverence of that article is as manifest as its lack of Christian courtesy. It presents the writer and his associates as principals in a conflict in which the Holy Spirit acts as second! If anything bordering nearer to blasphemy can be found among any people professing a high Christian bearing we would like to—be spared the sight. We would as soon be reproached as praised by a sect which speaks thus of the work of the Spirit of God; whose representative men so bitterly oppose the keeping of the commandments of God, and who seem to have no just idea of what belongs to the spirit of the gospel or to Christian courtesy.

J. H. WAGGONER.