A PERTINENT QUESTION by S.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · May 24, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 21.

A PERTINENT QUESTION.

By S.

THE question is asked, "Does Christianity need restoration to the New Testament model?" That such a question could be asked shows that much now passing as Christianity finds no warrant in the Word of God. There is less of true Christianity in the pompous services of the gorgeous temples of wealthy congregations than in the simple deed of kindness performed out of sight and hearing of the multitude in some dreary alley, some lonely cellar home, or some lofty garrett where the suffering sick wait wearily for the help that seldom comes. "All is not gold that glitters," nor all Christianity that calls itself by that name.

There is no Christianity outside of Christ; there is nothing Christian that is unlike Christ; nothing Christian that Christ did not establish. Realizing this truth, the inconsistency of clinging to human forms and ceremonies as part of the saving Gospel of Christ is clearly apparent. Christ's own testimony on this question should settle the matter for all time. He declared, "Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." Matt. 15: 13.

Paul, as if in answer to the very question asked above, declares: "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." 1 Cor. 3: 11-13.

In reference to this same point we quote the words of Christ Himself, "If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." John 15: 6. Thus does Inspiration answer the question, declaring that God will eradicate every institution which He has not established. There is but one true foundation, and the fires of God's great testing day will consume all that is not builded thereon. So he who is following and teaching others to follow human ceremonies and human institutions, is not perfectly abiding in Christ, is not building a perfect structure upon the true foundation; and his work, instead of abiding to eternity in the garden of God, will be uprooted and consumed with all things that displease and dishonor Him.

The work of God in the earth is a work of restoration to the divine pattern. Wherever the observance of God's ordinances has been neglected, or wherever His institutions have been trodden underfoot, there is the need for a restoration; and no matter what day men may set up here in the place of God's holy Sabbath, the fact remains that those who enter "through the gates into the city" will keep there the only Sabbath ever recognized by the Creator and Redeemer. See Isa. 58: 12-14; 66: 23. The Sabbath of the Lord is one of those plants which our heavenly Father did plant, and which shall endure throughout eternity. The majority of professed Christians are not keeping it now. In this matter, then, there is certainly need of a restoration, a turning again, to that institution which the Lord Himself has established, to the ways that He Himself has planned for our feet. S.