UNRELIABLE TESTIMONY by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 21, 1906

UNRELIABLE TESTIMONY.

By G.

A POOR man who had observed the Sabbath of the Lord for many years, and had preached it from ocean to ocean, became dissatisfied because he thought he was not sufficiently honored by his brethren, and gave up the truth to which he had been very much attached. As an excuse for his apostasy, he claimed to have discovered that he had no ground for keeping the commandments of God.

Opponents of the law of God, who are always catching at straws, are wont to proclaim this poor man's weakness as the acme of evidence that the Scriptures do not sustain the Sabbath that Christ established for man in the beginning, commanded at Sinai, and observed as a man on earth, and which, as a central feature of the unchangeable law, is emphasized by the Gospel.

Such a pretext for ignoring the Sabbath, such a mode of arriving at conclusions, would justify one in giving up faith in Christ altogether—and such practically it is. Let us apply such reasoning to the case of Judas. He had been taken into the chosen band of Christ's immediate companions, chosen for special instruction as an apostle. He had been under this special instruction for three years; had seen the Lord's miracles; had seen His enemies thwarted and put to shame in every controversy; had seen His divinity demonstrated beyond any reason for doubt; had heard the Scriptures concerning the Messiah plainly expounded; had made profession of devotion to his Lord, even when the prospect looked very dark. Yet, in a moment of discomfort, he went over to the enemy, and testified that to him the Lord was worth only the price of a common servant.

Shall we say, because of Judas' great experience and intimacy with the Lord, even to being honored with the position of treasurer of the cause, because of the knowledge he had gained from the Word, that therefore his testimony is of extraordinary value? Not even the bitterest enemy of Christ has ever been known to bring up the final decision of Judas as evidence against the Christian religion. Yet such an argument would be just as plausible as the testimony against the Sabbath commandment on the part of one who had once believed and taught the truth of the Scriptures that sustain it. The testimony of an enemy of the law of God is not very potent against the truth. The testimony of the Spirit is that the law of God is the truth. Ps. 119:142.

The testimony of one who should openly disavow the ninth precept of the law would not be accepted in any court; yet the scripture tells us that to offend in one point of the law is to be "guilty of all." A resort to the testimony of one who has avowedly turned traitor to the commandments of God is evidence of a decidedly weak cause. G.