A Vindication of the Seventh-Day Sabbath and the Commandments of God: With a Further History of God's Peculiar People from 1847-1848Bates, Joseph
Religion
A Vindication of the Seventh-Day Sabbath and the Commandments of God: With a Further History of God's Peculiar People from 1847-1848
Bates, Joseph
Sabbath; Seventh-Day Adventists -- Doctrinal and controversial works
SIR:—After your repeated and unsuccessful attempts to stigmatize, put
down, demolish, and forever abolish the TEN WORDS, the law and
commandments of the living God, the only foundation for the bible, you
come forth in the A. H. of Nov. 9th, and say “We are not under the law (of
Moses,) but under (the law of) grace, the _New Testament_, and now all we
want to know is, does the NEW TESTAMENT _either by precept or example_
require us _to keep_ ANY day as a SABBATH?... We do not want your
inferences, but plain, direct NEW TESTAMENT testimony; nothing else will
do in a case of this character and importance.” Your term, law of Moses,
according to _all_ your teachings on this subject, includes the law of
commandments. We have given it to you in our work on the Sabbath, and
again in the Way Marks, pp. 76-78. Why do you still continue to demand
proof, until you have found out some new method to explain those texts
away. It is evident that your object on this point is to confuse the minds
of your readers and not give them the clear word of God. What would Christ
and his apostles have done for proof from the old testament, if your new
restricted rule had been laid before them? and you had told them seven
months previous, (April 28th,) that the law of commandments, when they
were abolished, were incorporated into the new testament, or _law of
Christ_. And now we are under the _law of grace_. It appears to me that
Jesus would have replied as he did on one occasion, “Get thee behind me
Satan.” Is the law of Christ and the law of grace, synonymous terms? or
are you so privileged now in the high station which you have assumed, that
you can change the name of _your_ NEW LAW once in seven months, and make
Christ and grace the same. It is impossible for any man to depart from the
clear word and abide in the truth. Call the commandments of God what you
will, and incorporate them where you will, you are bound, as I have told
you before, to show the precept, (i. e. how they read,) and then if you
refer us to the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, and the Revelation of
John, you will only point us directly to the ten commandments of God,
which as clearly proves that they are not, nor ever have been abolished,
any more than the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah or Ezekiel; and just so
sure as Jesus has spoken the truth, that eternal life is obtained by the
keeping of them, and that James wrote by inspiration, we are to be judged
by them; and not by what you have misnamed them, the _law of grace_. How
can the commandments of God be abolished, and yet the keeping of them give
us an entrance into the city. Rev. xxii: 14. And yet if they are
abolished, as you assert, who can ever know when they fail in one precept
or when they keep the whole? Your attempt to incorporate God’s law,
after—as you say—it has been abolished, and now enforce it without a
precept, because it is all incorporated in the new testament, is a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account