We take this opportunity of voicing deep concern over the constantly recurring, often insidious, and really serious assaults upon the foundation principles and positions of this message; and, at the same time, of pointing out certain distinctions that are often confused, as between fundamentals that are basic, and nonessentials that are incidental. Without such a clear and sound differentiation, the entire issue becomes clouded and distorted, and regrettable and needless misunderstandings ensue.
Attacks on actual fundamentals, coming periodically through the years, have been clearly pointed out and sharply rebuked by the Spirit of prophecy. Their identity and their sinister objectives and results have been definitely disclosed. And these heavenly counsels and warnings, left on record for our learning and admonition after the cessation of the living gift, are neglected, confused, or flaunted only at gravest peril to us individually, and as a people.
From the very beginning, there have been never-ceasing attacks—sometimes subtle and sometimes open—upon the basic facts and principles of the sanctuary truth, which in its larger aspects constitutes the central truth of our specifically commissioned message to the world for these last days, As such, it is the center of continuous assaults. This keystone essential embraces or involves every other leading truth for this time. It is tied inseparably into the great outline prophecies and prophetic time periods, with which it either stands or falls. It is embedded in the very heart of the first, second, and third angels' messages, which were and are cumulative. And this threefold message, as the expansion and application of the everlasting gospel for these last days, epitomizes our entire witness to the world, and constitutes the sole reason and authority for our existence.
The Inseparable Fundamentals
The enunciation of God's appointed judgment hour, as preceding and heralding the approaching second advent of Christ, is the first great indisputable essential. Joining this solemn announcement of God's mighty judgment hour, as beginning in 1844, comes the declaration of the moral fall of both papal and Protestant Babylon, as a result of the rejection of heaven's specific message for time's last hour. And then, with the dawning of the sanctuary light which explains the 1844 mistake and throws a floodlight on the closing scenes in God's plan of redemption, comes the supreme appeal, test, and warning concerning the Sabbath, as the third and final step in God's full-rounded message to man. This unparalleled warning is based upon the eternal and immutable law of God, with its luminous fourth commandment, as seen by the apostle John in the ark of the most holy apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, and likewise as viewed by God's last-day messenger in its relation to these last days. Thus the Sabbath, the sanctuary, the judgment, the resurrection, and the advent are inseparable fundamentals of the faith.
These mighty truths—involving the enunciation of man's unconscious state in death, his literal resurrection, and the final destruction of the impenitent wicked—constitute the Spirit-of-prophecy-named foundation stones of the advent message, to remove one of which is to imperil this Heaven-ordained, divinely unified structure. And joined inseparably to this clearly defined, threefold message, is the prophetically timed appearance of the Spirit of prophecy in the remnant church—God's gracious provision for our counsel and safe guidance. To weaken, therefore, or to tamper with any one of these great essentials, is to subvert the faith. Such subversion is fraught with gravest responsibility f or the subverter. Upon these fundamentals there can be no surrender, and there must he no quarter. And no genuine added light will ever set aside these verities of the past.
To the defense of such a foundational platform, The Ministry and every other agency and representative of this threefold message should be dedicated without reserve. To cease to believe in and faithfully to propagate and defend these fundamentals, is to cease to be a true Seventh-day Adventist. And any individual—particularly any worker—who no longer believes in these indispensable and immovable "old landmarks," should in common honesty and honor withdraw from this movement which was called into being solely for the enunciation of this body of coordinated truths to the world. And if he feels he must in conscience fight them, he should attack from without, and not seek to bore from within. This is the only right and honorable course to pursue. On these primary principles and practices we must agree, else we shall disintegrate as a body, and perish through confusion.
Those who have become confused and have left us have nearly always gone out because of stumbling over these very fundamentals, and not over incidentals, as a survey of the records will disclose. Nearly always the stone of stumbling is the threefold message centered in the year 1844, the sanctuary truth, the Sabbath and the law, or the Spirit of prophecy. This in itself establishes the distinguishing and fundamental character of these primary truths.
Regrettable Confusion of Issues
With this sharply defined understanding of basic principles involved, and such a resume of prime essentials before us, we would next point out the deplorable fact that there often is, on the part of some, a tragic confusion of issues. There is a regrettable failure to distinguish between the fundamentals which constitute the actual foundation pillars of this movement, and those minor or incidental items in prophetic interpretation that do not involve or affect the fundamentals, upon which there always has been, still is, and must continue to be a legitimate difference of individual view.
It is the confusion of these two radically different categories, and the magnifying of nonessential details which place them on a parity with the fundamental pillars of our faith, that periodically causes needless and regrettable controversy, and that forms the basis of a misconceived devotion to truth on the part of some, as well as a gratuitous defense of the faith against fancied assaults. It is this fallacious reasoning that arouses righteous indignation in truly loyal men who refuse to be stigmatized as disloyal on the basis of artificial issues and false tests explicitly condemned by the Spirit of prophecy.
Now, it will be not only conceded, but asserted, by every true Adventist, that in both the voluminous writings of the Spirit of prophecy and in its silences as well—which are likewise truly significant and determinative—we find safe and sure guidance as to what may properly be denominated the "foundation stones" in the "firm platform" of this message, or the actual "old landmarks" of this movement which are really "tests" and which cannot be tampered with without peril to all concerned. When the messenger of the Lord has clearly spoken in definition, support, or condemnation upon a given point, or has distinguished by her silences between essentials of the message that call for agreement, and nonessentials wherein uniformity is not material, that is decisive evidence for those who accept the gift as of divine origin and authority.
There are, we reiterate, tragic trends on the part of some today that would blur and undermine the truly fundamental verities of the faith. And at the same time there is sincere, but regrettable, confusion of issues on the part of others in ostensible defense of this heaven-born message, with misuse of the Spirit of prophecy to arraign those who differ from them as to secondary details which in no way involve the centralities of this message, upon which there must be unity... It is this course of raising false issues that causes estrangement, when all should be standing shoulder to shoulder in battle against our common and intolerant foes,—the world, the flesh, and the devil. Let us stand immovable upon the centralities of this message. Let us just as firmly resist artificial and unjustifiable tests upon subsidiary points. "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty."
L. E. F.
