Gave Up Salary and Friends for Conviction
By Charles E. Ford
Sense of Duty Leads Successful Preacher to Resign His Position — A Trial of Faith and a Stand for Principle Should Not Hold to Doctrine Just Because Grandfather Did
Extract from Sermon
By CHARLES E. FORD HOW any one could be a Seventh-day Adventist was a mystery to me at one time in my life. But to-day the mystery is why all people are not Seventh-day Adventists. You may be interested to know how this great change has come about, especially when I tell you I used to be a Methodist minister. I did not leave that church because I had any trouble with the conference in which I was working, for I was on the best of terms with my coworkers. FEELINGS OF FEAR AND EMBARRASSMENT
In my Methodist days, the Seventh-day Adventists did not appeal very strongly to me. I thought them an ignorant class of people. They were associated in my mind with Holy Rollers, Dowieites, and Mormons. Yet acquaintance with them brought a feeling of fear, for I found they knew more about the Bible than I did, and I was embarrassed lest they should propound in public or private some question I could not answer. Ministers who have attempted to refute the position held by Seventh-day Adventists are not anxious to try a second time. I do not mean by that to say that all ministers of the Protestant churches are dishonest. But they realize there is something about Adventism which requires close mental application, and they do not have the time, with all their other duties, to give the question that study. THREE HUNDRED CONVERSIONS
The Methodists sent me out to hold revival meetings. In one of the towns that I visited, I found a church of two hundred members. I wanted some one to assist me in the altar service; but when I approached leading members of that church, I was surprised to learn that a Seventh-day Adventist and his wife had the confidence of the public to a greater degree than any one else in the town. Upon invitation, they were glad to help sinners find Christ, and the series of meetings resulted in three hundred conversions. The Adventists distributed considerable literature, and it was not long before members began to come to me with questions concerning the Sabbath. I told them it was not an important subject, but they insisted that I preach upon it. So I did the best I could with it, telling them they need keep only the seventh part of time, that it is impossible to keep the Sabbath on a round world, and that the seventh-day Sabbath was made for the Jews. I also gave the various other arguments so often used as a bolster for Sunday observance. I did not then realize that the round world theory would apply equally well to Sunday. Near the close of the meeting, we had a testimony service, during which I found the Adventists were not so easily turned aside. The brother who had assisted with the altar service urged that I allow the people to hear the other side of the question, now that I had presented mine, but I refused to consent. HAD TO ACKNOWLEDGE MY ERROR
A few years later, however, I had to go back to that town, and tell those people the truth of the Bible, for I found there was no Scripture support for the statements I had made in my sermon that day. I made my confession to those dear people, as I am glad to do to you. It is a great pity all the religious people of the world can not see alike. Jesus poured out to His Father the longing of His soul that all His disciples might be one, saying, "As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." John 17:21. Some say we must have many denominations and creeds, in order to reach minds of varied caliber. But I am persuaded Jesus knew what He was talking about when He made that prayer, and that it is God's desire that all His children read His word with the same mind. The Bible was never given to teach us one thing at one time and another thing contrary to it at another time. God never intended that one great religious class in the world should believe His word in one way, and others in another way. His will toward His people is that they shall be of one mind; and this would be possible if all would lay aside their preconceived notions, their prejudice, and what men have said about Bible truths, and study the word of God for themselves. That is what I decided to do. I was pressed with church duties, and with ritualistic lodge work, but I made up my mind God's word should have first place in my life. Taking my Bible and concordance, I went to my study, and praying God to give me light, began an exhaustive study of the Sabbath question. I searched my Bible from cover to cover, and was surprised to find not a line authorizing the observance of Sunday. Instead of finding that the Sabbath was made for the Jews, as I had been led to believe from a study of theological books, I found the words of Jesus, "The Sabbath was made for man." Mark 2:27. Then as I turned back to Genesis, I found it was even so,— that God did ordain and sanctify the seventh-day Sabbath in the beginning (Gen. 2:2, 3), at the time He created the world; that He rested on the seventh day, and made it a holy day for man's benefit, that man might think of his Creator, remembering whence come all life's blessings. Then, lest man should forget it, He reiterated it at Mount Sinai in thunder tones to His awestruck people: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20:8-11. If you belong to the race called man, the Sabbath is for you. Christ, the Creator of heaven and earth (John 1:1-3, 14, 15), says so, and He surely knows. I could think of no reason why the Jews should be called men more than I. Further study revealed the Bible statement that "he is not a Jew who is one outwardly." Rom. 2:28. I learned that to be an Israelite in heart is to be a Christian, for "if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3:29. I found that Christ Himself kept the seventh-day Sabbath, and that He asked us to follow Him. John 15:10. Thus if we do as He did, we must keep it. I began to see that we are truly Christians only as we walk in His footsteps. Not once in the Bible is Sunday called the Sabbath, but Saturday is so called many times. Even in the New Testament, there is no authority for Sunday keeping. TILL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS
I had been led to believe that Christ nailed the Sabbath to the cross; but I found, instead, Christ's statement: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:487I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matt. 5:17, 18. I found that even in the new earth, after sin is banished, the hosts of God will go up to worship Him from one Sabbath to another. Isa. 66:22, 23. I found evidence, even in the New Testament, that Jesus' disciples kept the seventh-day Sabbath faithfully (Luke 23:56), and that He commanded them to pray, for forty years after His death, that they might not be obliged, at the time of Jerusalem's destruction, to flee on the Sabbath day. Matt. 24:20. Thus He sanctioned the observance of the seventh day long after His ascension to heaven, and declared false the statement, often made by religious teachers, that the apostles kept Sunday in commemoration of the resurrection. I found the fact to be, according to the New Testament, that the apostles never attached to Sunday any sacredness, but that they faithfully observed Saturday as the Sabbath. NOT ONE TEXT TO SUPPORT ME
I had believed that the sanctity of the Sabbath was transferred to the first day of the week, but I was astounded to find not one passage of Scripture for it. Then I sent to the Methodist Book Concern an order for the best books they had on Sunday observance, regardless of cost. I studied them carefully, but found no Bible evidence for Sunday keeping. I did find plenty of Scripture for Sabbath keeping. I read in Isa. 58:13, 14: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath [from trampling upon it], from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." The other doctrines held by Seventh-day Adventists, I had not studied, but I decided I would do as God would have me do. I wrote my presiding elder, asking him to give me Scripture for Sunday observance, for I was anxious to be set right on the question. I told him if he could not, to consider that letter my resignation. When he sent a man to fill my place, I wrote a personal letter to the bishop, asking counsel and help. Later I surrendered my credentials, and my connection with the denomination was severed. I would have been a miserable hypocrite had I not followed in the light God had given me. There is not a more dangerous person in the world than he who is deceiving himself and others. GRANDFATHER DID, BUT SHOULD I?
Some people are blinded by theology and preconceived ideas. My grandfather was a Baptist preacher, and I expect to see him in the kingdom of God. But we are advancing in the light. I do not believe people will be saved because they keep Saturday, or because they do not keep it. But they will be saved because they are honest, and obedient to all God's commandments as far as God has given them light and understanding. My grandfather never saw the Sabbath truth; but God has revealed it to this generation, and will hold us responsible for obedience to His commandments. The Sabbath truth was not heralded in Martin Luther's time. It had been buried in the rubbish of tradition for centuries, together with many other Bible truths. When Luther proclaimed the doctrine of justification by faith, it was a great truth for the people to accept, who had believed in justification by penance, and who had been deprived of the Bible. Yet that doctrine rests upon a firm foundation in God's word. Rom. 5:1. The Bible foundation of the seventh-day Sabbath is just as firm. "But," says one, "if I observe the Sabbath, it will cost me my job. Keeping the seventh day puts us all out of joint with the world." True, Christianity has been "out of joint" with the world ever since it started. The Bible says that the man who "will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." It was not easy for me to leave a good salary, a popular church, my livelihood, and to step out, apparently upon nothing. All sorts of rumors were circulated concerning me, people even reporting I had been sent to the insane asylum. A note against me was due at the bank in a short time, but I had no money with which to meet it. I told my banker of the stand I had taken, and that I had no money. He gave me six months in which to meet the note. It was not an easy thing for me to do, but God never intended that a man should have a cotton string for a back-bone. He intends that His people shall stand firmly for principle. If they do not bear the test, they will never reach heaven. The trials are not easy to bear, for we are living in a wicked and perverse generation. "WOULD STARVE IF I LOST MY JOB"
"But I would starve if I lost my job," I hear you say. Why not trust your Creator? The Sabbath command is God's command. The same God made the earth, and He is still God. He will provide for the needs of those who trust Him. I had $1,000 worth of property and $3,500 worth of debts when I took my stand for the Sabbath truth. I tried hard to keep God's holy day, and to be an honest man. In my heart I said, "I will die by the right." One day, as I was working on my place, wondering where I would obtain needed money, I overheard a conversation, and learned that a janitor was wanted for a schoolhouse near. The position was offered me at twenty dollars a month, and I took it. Fifteen dollars a month had been paid before that. Then I borrowed a cross-cut saw and a bob-sled, and cut stove wood to supplement my earnings. Just think of a Methodist preacher working in the winter at sawing wood, with the snow two feet deep, and people he has converted during his ministry passing up and down the street. They would ask, "What are you going to do with the wood?"—"I hope to sell it." "Well, send a cord up to my place." I worked hard, but I had more money the next spring than the rest of the preachers. GOD OF HEAVEN WILL STAND BY YOU
My dear friend, if you are tested, the God of heaven will stand by you. I am so glad our Saviour left the glories of heaven, and came to this wicked world to help just such men and women as we are. The Father who so freely gave that gift for us, will not withhold any good thing if we walk uprightly. Jesus invites us to roll upon Him our heavy burdens. He will bear them for us. Let us, then, stand firmly for principle. "To the law and to the testimony." If preachers, learned doctors, "higher critics," and world-renowned theologians "speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. 8:20. Outside God's word, there is no God, no heaven, no hope. If you desire New Jerusalem's pearly gates to open for you to enter, throw your heart's door wide open now to the Saviour. Let Him cleanse it from sin, the transgression of God's law. He "is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory," and this He will do "with exceeding joy."