BEST TO BE SAFE by H. Woodruff

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 4, 1879

BEST TO BE SAFE.

By H. Woodruff

In conversation with a skeptic some time since, in regard to the validity of the Bible, he was forced to admit that we would be just as well off in the future as he would, if his theory was correct,—that our position was a safe one, to say the least of it. He also had to admit that if the Bible was of divine origin, his position was a very unsafe one.

After telling him that it looked very foolish to see a man of good judgment stand on unsafe ground, or where he knew there was a probability or even possibility of being in danger, when there was nothing to be gained by so doing, and when it was just as easy to stand on a sure foundation which had glorious promises attached to it, we left him to think of his position.

It is best to be on the safe side; and the theory taught by Seventh-day Adventists is surely the safe one. We may say this, not only in regard to the point of difference between us and the skeptic, but in regard to every point of difference between us and those of other sects that profess to believe the Bible.

Take, for instance, the doctrine of future reward and punishment. There is nothing to condemn us for believing in the utter destruction of the wicked, 2 Thess. 1:9; Ps. 37:10, 20, or in the future inheritance of the saints; Ps. 37:11, 18, 19, 22; Matt. 5:5; neither can we be condemned for our belief in the sleep of the dead, Job 14:10–15; 17:13; John 11:11, 14, or in the hope of immortality through Christ at the resurrection, John 6:40, 44; 1 Cor. 15:50–54. Our position in regard to the second coming of our Saviour is certainly not a dangerous one. If we abide in Christ, and are fully prepared for his coming, should we die before that event, we would surely have a part in the first resurrection. 1 Thess. 4:16.

And in regard to the Sabbath we are surely on safe ground; for Jesus has left a glorious promise for those who do and teach the commandments. Matt. 5:19. John tells us that those who keep them have a peculiar kind of knowledge, which others, we conclude, do not have. 1 John 5:2, 3. Jesus says the keeping of the commandments will secure a passport into the holy city. Rev. 22:14. The Sabbath is one of these commandments. But a great many tell us that it makes no difference which day you keep. The command, they tell us, only covers one-seventh part of time, or one day in seven. Admit it, and we are safe in keeping the seventh day, for we keep one seventh of the time. But if God requires the observance of the seventh day (which he surely does, Ex. 20:8–11; James 2:10, 11), then they are not safe. The keeping of the commandments and the faith of Jesus is the only position in which there is not a probability of being unsafe. Then why so much scoffing and persecution? Because it makes the dragon wroth to see people keeping the commandments, Rev. 12:17, and having faith enough in Jesus to believe that he will come again to raise the righteous dead, and to change the righteous living to immortality. 1 Thess. 4:16–18.

H. WOODRUFF.

Greenridge, Mo.