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
commandments will secure us eternal life, and the violation of them render
us of no esteem in the reign of heaven, how can those enter there who do
not keep them, and especially such ones as Joseph Marsh and his adherents,
who are teaching the world that there are no commandments, and are
endeavoring to dissuade and discourage and reproach all of God’s honest
children, who are striving to be highly esteemed in the reign of heaven.
Does not the Saviour’s language as clearly apply to them now as it did
when he was permanently establishing and confirming this covenant, the law
and commandments of God, “putting them into our minds and writing them on
our hearts.” viz.: “Why do ye also transgress the commandments of God by
_your_ tradition? Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophecy of you saying,
this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with
their lips,” [They are advocating his speedy coming to judge the world.]
“but their heart is far from me. But _in vain_ they do worship me
_teaching_ for _doctrines the commandments of men_.” Oh, but say some, we
believe that the commandments are as valid now as they ever were. Why do
you then constantly and perseveringly reject, scoff at, and sneeringly
deride, and denounce, those that are as honest as you are, while they are
endeavoring to keep the fourth commandment just as God had directed them?
When you have been so repeatedly shown by their writings, drawn from the
clear word that the fourth commandment is not abolished and _never_ has
undergone any change more than the other nine, and that there is no other
weekly sabbath recorded or intimated in the old and new testaments. If you
will follow such downright infidelity as is taught in _all_ the second
advent papers respecting God’s holy sabbath, and still continue to
stigmatize the holy law of God, how can you expect to be treated otherwise
than the rebellious house of Israel, and be made to feel in a very little
while from this, all the horrors of a guilty conscience, urging you to do
that which you now detest and abhor: even to come and bow at the feet of
these very despised—as you are now disposed to term them—“_door
shutters_,” “_mystery folks_,” “_Judaizers_,” “_feet washers_,” “_deluded
fanatics_,” _&c._ _&c._ See Isa. xlix: 23, and lx: 14; Rev. iii: 9. Here
your characters are delineated. You say no, these mean the nominal church.
It is not so. _They_ have rejected the message of the second advent. And
_you_ since that time (1814) have rejected the word of God. Our testimony
will not be rejected when called for that you with us left them with all
their creeds and confessions of faith and professed to take the whole word
of God for our rule of faith and practice. This then is your clear
position, even while opposing the commandments of God. If you ask why I
speak in such positive terms about or concerning the commandments of God,
allow me to cite you to our history, Rev. xiv: 12. Is not this positive
proof?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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