What Shall I Believe? by R. F. Cottrell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 19, 1864

What Shall I Believe?

By R. F. Cottrell

SAYS a friend, "I would be glad to know the truth, and I believe I would try to be a Christian, if I knew what course to take. I believe the Bible is the book of God, but there are so many sects of Christians, each claiming that they are right, though differing widely in teaching and practice, that I do not know what to choose."

If, my friend, you will study some of the prophecies of the Bible, which I can point you to, and some of the signs given by which we are to know when the coming of Christ is near, even at the doors, you will be convinced that Adventists are right, that the coming of the Lord is at hand, and that the true people of God are preparing for the event, so that they may, as the Scriptures represent they will, be looking for the advent and waiting for the coming Christ, when he appears.

"Of course you will have it that you Adventists are right. But if I should be convinced that the coming of Christ is at hand, what then should I believe, and how should I know what course to pursue? for they are divided as well as others."

It is in vain for people to call themselves Adventists and say they believe that the coming of the Lord is at hand, unless their faith and preaching produce a real reformation. They that are prepared for translation without death at the advent, will certainly be reformers. It will be something besides mere theoretical faith in Christ's coming. They will have faith in this and will be waiting for the Lord, but this is not all, there will be a moral reformation and renovation with them; in other words, they will keep more moral commandments than other people. From what we are warned of the perils and deceptions of the last days, reason itself would teach us that such would be the case. But the last warning for men before the advent expressly points to the fact. Rev. xiv, 9-12. After warning us not to follow the traditions of the leading

power in the great apostasy—the great corrupter of faith and manners, the changer of God's times and laws, Dan. vii, 25, Rev. xiii, 1–10,—it is said, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."

There is, in accordance with this prophecy, a people that are heeding and preaching this third angel's message, and they are distinguished from other professed believers in the advent at hand as commandment-keepers. And it is not a mere nominal distinction, for they do observe one commandment at least of God's great moral law, that the others are openly trampling under foot.

It will be a people reformed from the corruptions of the apostasy, and from the manners of this corrupt and degenerate age, that will be ready for translation at the advent, and will say in that day, "Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us." Isa. xxv, 9.

If you desire to find the people of God, look for those who have faith in prophecy, and not this alone, but look for reformers—real reformers, reformers in practice as well as in profession and theory.

R. F. COTTRELL.