Rare Bible Proof | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 4, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 46.

Rare Bible Proof.

A RECENT number of the Saints' Herald proposed to test some of the doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventists by the Bible; and commenced by quoting Isa. 8:20: “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” It then took up our claim on the change of the Sabbath, and gave a quotation from the “History of the Early Church,” by Sewell, and one from the “Church History” of Mosheim, neither of which says a word about the change of the Sabbath, and, without noticing a single text of Scripture, declared it had fully disproved our position!

Now it is very evident that there is no light in the Herald, because it rested its case on human authority, and not on the law and the testimony. Or, is its law by Sewell, and its testimony by Mosheim? This would be quite consistent in those who put the senseless jargon of the “Book of Mormon” on a level with the word of God.

How wondrously alike are the Mormons and multitudes of others when they treat on the Sabbath question. They promise to make the Bible the test, and then, turning from the Bible, trust in tradition only. How well the word of the Lord has pointed out their course in its rebuke to “the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing:—

“They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith; and the Lord hath not sent them; and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The Lord saith it; albeit I have not spoken? Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, behold I am against you, saith the Lord God.” Eze. 13:1-8.

The Lord gave the holy Scriptures to make us wise unto salvation, and therein are we “thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Tim. 3:15-17. If the keeping of the Sunday were a good work, it could be proved from the Scriptures, and then its advocates would not have to fall back on church history and ignore the Bible. But the Bible has almost entirely ceased to be the standard or textbook with many professed servants of God. We once preached in a certain city, proving from the Bible that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, that it is the only weekly Sabbath resting on divine authority, and that church history could not be depended on to prove doctrines and duties, inasmuch as it was discordant and contradictory, and was never given as a foundation of faith and practice. And then a minister, preaching against us, said he did not wonder that there were infidels in the land, when men were around denying the reliability of church history! That he denied the plain teaching of the commandment of God, did not seem to him anything amiss; that did not tend to infidelity at all. In the scheme of such people, and the Saints' Herald is of that class, it is made to appear that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of church historians. See Rom. 10:17. But in the day when God shall bring every work into judgment he will vindicate his commandments, and opposers will be put to shame. Eccl. 12:13, 14.