BLOWN ABOUT by Mrs. Wm. Jones

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 24, 1878

“BLOWN ABOUT.”

By Mrs. Wm. Jones

There are a few of us at Fond du Lac, Wis., who are trying to encourage each other in the faith. We meet three times a week in a prayer-meeting, and once in a Bible-class, and we are strengthened by so doing. We interfere with no one; but even these little meetings had to be broken in upon by one who claims to be wise in the Bible, and who professes to know Greek and Hebrew. This man had spent his life in studying the word of God, and yet he wasted his time to show us our great error in keeping the commandments of God. He visited each one of us separately, and with a remarkable appearance of humility and meekness, tried to convince us of our mistake.

To prove that the Sabbath of the Lord is no memorial to us poor Gentiles, he showed us the law as it is written in Deuteronomy (or, as I should think, spoken by Moses) as the real ten commandments written on the tables of stone. He claimed that the commandments as they are written in Exodus are only nine, hence cannot be those written on stone. He also told us that the Sabbath command is really the third commandment, and the fourth is a command to the Jews to remember that they were once in bondage, and that God brought them out with a high hand and an outstretched arm. So the Sabbath was a sign to the Jews only.

From the words, “finished his work,” in Genesis, he claimed that God did more work on the seventh than on any other day. [The word used in Gen. 2:2 is ended, not finished.—ED.] To crown all, he deliberately tried to prove by three witnesses that Christ broke the Sabbath. These witnesses were Christ himself, John, and Justin Martyr. Christ broke the Sabbath by bidding a man take up his bed and walk, the carrying of burdens being forbidden on the Sabbath. His design was to prove to us that Gentiles are not under the law of God; and that no man can keep the first commandment, to say nothing of the Sabbath command.

I reminded him that when our dear Redeemer was crucified, the cry was, “Away with Christ; crucify him;” now it is similar,—“Away with the Father; we want none of him or his cruel commandments that no one can keep.”

If Gentiles are under no law, why need they be constrained to repent of their sins? Sin is the transgression of the law, and we know of no law we have transgressed but the law of God. But the word tells us we must repent toward God, and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now if we are not under God’s law while in the bondage of sin, we might begin to fear that the God of the Jews is not the God of the Gentiles; and that the Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, is not our Father. To whom, then, shall we pray? Our Saviour bade us say, “Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name,” and I thank God I can say this from my heart; for I love the Father as well as the Son, and I love all his commandments: they are holy, just, and good. I pray to the Father in the name of the Son; for we can approach the sublime presence of Jehovah, even in prayer, only in the name of his beloved Son. We cannot come to him by the deeds of the law; for all, both Jews and Gentiles, have sinned.

I think the Bible says that if the Gentiles do from the heart the deeds of the law, it shall be accounted to them for righteousness. Oh! if people could only realize, before they dare to tamper with God’s holy law, that they are under condemnation through transgressing it, and only under grace through repentance of their transgressions, they would not take upon themselves the task of breaking up a little body of commandment-keepers who are watching and waiting for the coming of the Lord, and striving, through the blood of the Lamb, to overcome their many faults. What misguided beings are they who are blown about by every wind of doctrine; what an unhappy lot is theirs. May God help them to see the dangerous ground they stand upon when they meddle with the sacred words our God has spoken with his own voice, and written with his own finger.

My heart leaps for joy when I think, If God be with us, who can be against us? What power can throw down the work of his hands? I praise him for the solid rock he has given us to stand upon; and though winds may blow and waves dash against it, it can never be moved.

MRS. WM. JONES.

Fond du Lac, Wis.