False Witness by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 22, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 40.

False Witness.

By Editor

THE following we clip from the editorial column of an Oakland daily:—

"Adventists, we are informed, have carefully revised their calculations, having learned that all dates fixed for former ascensions were wrong because of an error in figuring, a logarithm having probably slipped out of place, and are now able to tell the precise date when the world will come to an end, and a great deal of excitement consequently prevails. This date the Adventists, with commendable good nature, have made public, that those not included among the elect, if unable to ascend, can at least be prepared to look on. The world will end, it is announced, May 14, 1886, and it will be perceived that only about eight months remain in which to make the most of life."

We first saw the above item several weeks ago in the San Francisco Examiner. We thought at the time that it was the work of some newspaper paragrapher who was obliged to furnish a certain amount of "copy," and had run out of legitimate items; because we have carefully scanned all the papers published by those who believe that men may know the date of the Lord's coming, and for a year have seen no time set. And now, when we find the same item used verbatim as a leading editorial in another journal, we are the more assured that it was inserted merely to "fill up." There certainly was no excuse for its publication, except a malicious willingness to circulate anything that would bring reproach or ridicule upon a name which they despise without cause.

All who know anything about Seventh-day Adventists, well know that they have no sympathy whatever with the practice of setting time for the coming of the Lord. Seventh-day Adventists have never yet fixed a date for that event, and they never will, because they everywhere teach that "of that day and hour knoweth no man." There are first-day observers who believe in the personal coming of the Lord, and some of them (not all, by any means) presume to fix the time of his appearing. But it may be set down as a fixed fact that no Adventist who keeps Saturday ever sets time for the Lord to come. Therefore it is manifestly unjust to make wholesale assertions like that in the above quotation.

But, as before stated, there is in this case no excuse whatever for such a statement. We are well satisfied that there are many people who are not Adventists, who look upon such journalism with the contempt which it deserves. The contempt of their fellow-men, however, is nothing compared with the fate that awaits those who love and make a lie.