Fanaticism by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 9, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 38.

Fanaticism.

By Editor

FOR so large a meeting as our recent camp-meeting it was remarkably free from fanatics. This is the more remarkable, as Oakland has become quite a hot-bed of fanaticism. The "Salvation Army" is small here, a mere "squad," but it is as zealous for oddity and senseless parade as if it were a regiment. And there are many veritable "holiness cranks" all around us. Quite a body of them have entered the "resurrection state," and to their wondrous vision "Christ has come already." They have passed beyond the gospel dispensation; they converse with God as face to face; he tells them audibly that they need not keep his law! and they pity the fogy Christians who are living back in the regions of such ordinances as baptism and the Lord's supper. This is no exaggeration; a paper is published in this city advocating all this, and much more equally absurd.

It is true that a few fanatical spirits were on the ground, but by prompt action they were held in check. Of course there were some complaints; some grumblings about "arbitrary" action and "priestly rule." Our advice to these grumblers is to get up a camp-meeting of their own, and let fanaticism for a season have its own way, and then they can have all the confusion they desire; as they surely would have. But they need not think that Seventh-day Adventists will ever permit such works of disorder to prevail in their meetings. We are too well acquainted with fanatics to suffer our meetings to be broken up or broken into by them. We have met them from ocean to ocean, and in such meetings we are ever on our guard against that which, if left unchecked, would not only destroy the usefulness of our meetings, but disgrace us before the world. Camp-meetings have acquired a bad reputation in years gone by, in many places, because of the all-night noises and day and night confusion. But nothing of the kind has ever been known in a camp-meeting held by Seventh-day Adventists, and we confidently trust there never will be. Fanaticism is a rank, foul weed, with plenty of false zeal, but bearing very slight resemblance to genuine faith in the word of God; and they who cannot detect the counterfeit have but little discernment in the things of God. We only pity all sincere souls who suffer their sympathies to be perverted by it.

In this connection we mention an 8-page tract sent out by a fanatic in Michigan, labeled, "Another Angel Come Down from Heaven." We are only surprised that some professed believers in the Third Angel's Message have been troubled over it. The truth has over and over been proclaimed that "there is no time in the Third Angel's Message." We think their trouble must arise from the incautious expressions of some of our ministers who have tried to find an antitype of the forty years in the wilderness in the period from the disappointment of 1844 to the coming of the Lord. We regret that there are any ministers among us so given to unprofitable speculations. They have been feeding the flock with chaff, and if any are overthrown by these fanatics, they will have to give account "when the chief Shepherd shall appear." As the tract spoken of set the time for this present month, its folly will very soon be shown.