OBJECTIONS ANSWERED by R. F. Cottrell

Publishing Committee · Saratoga Springs, N. Y. · Feb 3, 1852

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

By R. F. Cottrell

BY R. F. COTTRELL.

Obj. It requires both a command and a penalty to constitute a law. God's commandments were written on the tables of stone, and the penalty (death by the hand of man) in the law of Moses. When this was done away, the law was done away, for a law cannot exist without a penalty. Under the gospel the execution of the penalty is taken into the hands of God himself, who judges him a murderer who hates his brother, and condemns him to the second death.

Ans. A law must have a penalty. Read the tables, and see if there is nothing said about "visiting the iniquity" of those who disobey. In the fifth, the commandment with promise, LIFE is held forth to the obedient, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. What land is that? The land promised to Abraham. What was promised to Abraham? "That he should be heir of the world." Rom. iv, 13. "For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Heb. xi, 10. The land of Canaan was only a faint shadow of "the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Life then in the promised land, (the land where the city is,) is the reward of obedience to the law of God. And this agrees with Rev. xxii, 14: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life; and may enter in through the gates into the city."

If life is the reward of obedience, death is the punishment of disobedience. God will judge the ancients as well as the moderns, according to the disposition of the heart. He that hated his brother in ancient time was a murderer as much as now. God never put it into the hands of men to inflict the penalty of his law. The infliction of temporal death under the law of Moses was, like the rest of that law, a shadow—a shadow of the penalty which God will inflict on those who die in their sins. The full penalty of sin was, and is, and will be, eternal death. I repeat it, man never executed the penalty of the law of God. None but He that knows the heart can do it. Alas! for human wisdom. It can make the real law of God a shadow, and the shadow of the penalty, a reality.

Obj. The Sabbath must have been confined to a particular locality on earth, from the fact that the day begins and ends at different times in different parts of the earth.

Ans. This argument, taken in connexion with scripture testimony, charges God with folly. "The Sabbath was made for man," and man was made to inherit the earth. Human wisdom says, in order to keep the Sabbath of the Lord, we must begin and end it, all over the earth at the same moment; but the Pope's sabbath is more accommodating—it can be kept in any part of the world. Satan does not care whether you honor the Pope or not, if he can persuade you to dishonor God. Do you believe that Jehovah was ignorant of the shape and motions of the earth, when he testified by Isaiah that the time should come when all flesh should come from one Sabbath to another, to worship before the Lord? Isa. lxvi, 23. Will the Sabbath then be confined to the particular locality of Judea?

I must quote from a poetic argument written by Wm. Stillman, some thirty or forty years ago.

"And now to trace you round this rolling world, An eastern, and a western route you've twirled, And made out nothing by the spacious travel, But what I call a wretched, foolish cavil. And now to make you clearly understand That Sabbath day may be in every land, At least those parts where mortal men reside, (And nowhere else can precepts be applied.) There was a place, where first the orb of light Appeared to rise, and westward took its flight; That moment, in that place the day began, And as he in his circuit westward ran, Or rather, as the earth did eastward spin, To parts more westward daylight did begin. And thus at different times, from place to place The day began—this clearly was the case. And I should think a man must be a dunce, To think that day began all round at once, So that in foreign lands it doth appear, There was a first day there as well as here. And if there was a first, the earth around, As sure as rates the seventh can be found. And thus you see it matters not a whit, On which meridian of earth we get, Since each distinctly had its dawn of light, And ever since, successive day and night, Thus while our antipodes in darkness sleep, We here the true, primeval Sabbath keep."

A man's attention is called to a truth which he is not obeying. He seems convicted of his error, but having a choice to continue a popular practice, he goes at work to reason himself into the belief that it is right, and any flimsy inference answers his purpose. It matters not if it impeach the wisdom of God, and make him just such a being as ignorant, short-sighted, changeable man.

If the ten commandments were ever abolished, how long was it before the nine were re-enacted? If there was no intervening time, they never were abolished; and if there was, Jehovah's creatures were under no obligation to him during that time. Judged by human wisdom, what an oversight our Heavenly Father committed in making an institution for man, that could not be universally enjoyed! What an oversight, to place a Jewish rite with the eternal law of right on the tables of stone, so that afterwards, when the error was discovered, the nine must be annulled to get rid of the one! This wisdom is not from above.