That we are a people called and commissioned of God to give Heaven's special message to men in this last hour, we Seventh-day Adveatist workers believe without mental reservation. But in the delivery of that message, which we are bound before God to proclaim, we should avoid all needless offenses and eschew all semblance of spiritual bigotry. It is wrong to erect unnecessary barriers against the favorable consideration and acceptance of what we very properly denominate "present truth," in the setting and authority of this message. Such a principle may well be considered, as it is but the enunciation of sound sense, as well as the application of good Christianity.
We simply make our witness more difficult when, by careless claims or cant phrases, we create the impression that we alone have "the truth," and fail to recognize that the individual truths constituting the component parts of our full message, are nearly all shared with various other Christian bodies. The candid recognition of this fact in our public presentations would accomplish two things:
First, we would spike the guns, as it were, of those who contend that we are a peculiar sect with strange, isolated, distorted views of Bible truth, by showing that, with the exception of our position on the sanctuary, every major doctrinal truth and prophetic interpretation we herald is believed and taught by other denominational groups of the conservative school, and by reputable individual Bible expositors as well, conspicuous in the religious world.
Second, we are then prepared to disclose that contrasting issue which separates us; namely, the fact that they surround these individual or isolated truths with multitudinous errors and perversions, and thus largely neutralize the truth they do hold, while in this movement these separate truths shared with others are assembled into one harmonious whole, stripped of the nullifying errors retained by them. And, further, we are then in position to show that this body of individual truths, consolidated and coordinated in this movement, is being presented in the setting and with the divine authority of the final gospel commission recorded in Revelation 14, the judgment hour message. Herein lies our distinctiveness, our power and authority, which comes not from men but from above. Let us in the light of these principles survey briefly the broad field of truth to note their application.
We share with Christian bodies of every persuasion, the truth of the divine origin, inspiration, and final authority of the Bible—except wherein they have yielded to the corrosion of higher criticism, which virtually annuls the central place and authority of the Word.
We share with multitudes of professed Christians the truth of the deity of Christ, His atoning death, bodily resurrection, and literal ascension—though we dissent from many sudsidiary positions held by them, and reject the blighting suggestions of Modernism emasculating these truths.
We share with Fundamentalists generally the belief that these are the last days, as indicated by multiplied signs of the times—though we disagree with their unscriptural corollaries of a temporal millennium, a literal return of the Jews, etc.
We share with hosts of Fundamentalists the truth of the personal, literal, imminent advent of Christ—though their conceptions are very generally distorted by erroneous details and unscriptural elements.
We share with the majority of the churches the truth of the changeless law of God as the standard of the judgment and the criterion of all human conduct—despite their evasions and inconsistencies relative to the fourth commandment of the inseparable series.
We share with Seventh Day Baptists the truth of the seventh-day Sabbath—though their understanding of the prophetic significance of the change, and of the culminating issues, is limited.
We share with many Protestant bodies the truth of justification by faith—though we dissent from their contradictory position relative to the law and the Sabbath.
We share with many earnest Christians of the day the neglected truth of the victorious life—but again, their relationship to the changeless obligations of the moral law separates us from them, together with extremes to which they sometimes go.
We share with a growing company of Christians outside this movement the truth of tithing —though they are still blinded to many of the other claims of the same God and His revealed word.
We share with Baptists and others the truth of baptism by immersion—though they follow the lead of Rome in Sunday observance and other fallacious practices.
We share with several religious bodies the truth of the unconscious sleep of the dead—though we are in irreconcilable conflict with their wrong views as to a second probation, and other unscriptural positions.
We share with many spiritually minded members of the various communions the truth of the blessed work of the Holy Spirit, the greatest gift next to Calvary in the provisions of salvation—but we part company with them in certain vagaries and inconsistencies clearly contrary to Scripture.
We share with a large group of Protestant scholars the truth of sound prophetic exposition and interpretation—though we most emphatically dissent from numerous fanciful interpretations in which they indulge.
And thus we might go on. Every one of these pertinent truths named, and others not here enumerated, have their origin and authority in Scripture. It must therefore be apparent that we have no exclusive patent rights upon the individual truths that constitute segments in the complete circle of "present truth." We are sharers with others of these separate truths which in their totality constitute the essence and burden of this message. They are the blessed possession of all who embrace them just to the degree that they are really accepted and followed. But only in this message are they assembled and coordinated into one harmonious system of truth. And only here are they found in their fullness of intent, and in right relation to all other truths. In this respect we stand unique and solitary in the Christian world. The proper presentation of these facts cannot be rightly construed as spiritual bigotry. And these are things that we must proclaim.
In summation, then, we differ from other evangelical bodies in these five vital and inescapable features:
1. Only in this message are all these separate truths united and coordinated so as to constitute a unity of truth for the last days.
2. Only in this message are the multiple apostasies introduced by Roman Catholicism repudiated, many of which have been retained in whole or part by the Protestant bodies. And with these, we likewise repudiate the perversions introduced by nominal Protestantism—Modernism, evolution, and kindred subversions of the faith once for all delivered.
3. Only from this movement shines forth the indispensable light on the sanctuary, which constitutes the key to an understanding of all these other truths, and of these latter times and their consummation. It is this fact that forms the setting of our message, and that makes it unique in contrast to all other Fundamentalist or Protestant groups.
4. Only in this movement is found the second of the divinely designated marks identifying the remnant church, and which are joined in the Word in inseparable union; namely, the Spirit of prophecy with the commandments of God.
5. Only this movement is knowingly and avowedly heralding the changeless "everlasting gospel" in the setting and specifications named in the threefold mandate of Revelation 14, which constitutes our commission and our authority in traversing the last lap in human history before our Lord appears.
These explain our presence and our work in the world. And such an approach to the world to whom we are witnesses will place us on vantage ground, and dispel misunderstanding with the open-minded. It banishes prejudice, and without compromise harmonizes with the broad, sound, changeless principles of the Word.
L. E. F.
