Answers 




   Answers To Objections

By Francis D. Nichol

-An Examination of The Major Objections Raised Against The Teachings of Seventh-Day Adventists-

Dedication

To That Valiant Company in the Advent Movement, Both Ministerial and Lay, Who Seek to Present to Men the Truth of God With Convincing and Convicting Power, This Book is: Prayerfully Dedicated.


REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION WASHINGTON, D.C.

1952


CONTENTS - (click on the underlined section you are interesting in reading)


Foreword, by W. H. Branson

From the Author to the Reader of This Book

Expanded Index


Section 1. Law - outline of  objections and answers

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Section 2. Sabbath - outline of  objections and answers

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Section 3. Second Advent - outline of  objections and answers

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Section 4. Mortal Man - outline of  objections and answers

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Section 5. Sanctuary and Atonement - outline of  objections and answers

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Section 6. General Objections - outline of  objections and answers

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Section 7. Science and the Advent Faith

1. A Reasonable Faith

2. Miracles and Natural Law

3. The Evolution Theory Examined 

4. The Creation Doctrine Examined

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Section 8. The Law and Legalism

5. The Law of God in Church Creeds 

6. Are Adventists Legalists?

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Section 9. The Sabbath and the Weekly Cycle

7. The Sabbath in Church Creeds.

8. Antiquity and Unbroken Sequence of Weekly Cycle.

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Section 10. The Second Advent

9. The Second Advent Doctrine in the Creeds

10. The Prophetic Origin of the Seventh day Adventist Church

11. Do Adventists Make a Real Contribution to World Betterment?  

12. Has a Century's Passing Invalidated Our Doctrine of the Advent?

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Section 11. The Historical Setting of the Threefold Message

13. The Origin and Growth of the Idea of World Progress. 

14. Collapse of the Idea of World. Progress.

15. The First Angel's Message

16. The Second Angel's Message

17. The Third Angel's Message

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Section 12. The Sanctuary

18. The Scapegoat and the Atonement.

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Section 13. Apostasy and Offshoots

19. Six Distinguishing Marks of Apostates.

20. An Answer to the Charge: "I Have Been Delivered From Adventism

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Section 14. The Foundation of God Stands Sure

21. Advent Movement Offers Certainty in Spiritual Matters.

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Appendixes

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A. How Sunday Observance Began

B. Sabbath in Matthew 28:1

C. "The Lord's Day

D. Gentiles and Sabbath keeping-A Letter to a Fundamentalist E. The Gamble Theory Examined

F. Admissions That Charges of Fanaticism by 1844 Adventists Are Groundless G. How Long Is Everlasting?

H. Life, Soul, and Spirit

I. "Upon This Rock”

J. How Are Prohibition Laws Related to Religious Liberty?

K. Do Adventists Seek a "Wide Open" Sunday?

L. How to Meet the "Christian Nation" Argument.

M. The Remission of Sins-a Comment on Matthew 16:19.

N. Rome's Claim to Unity in Contrast to Protestantism's Division


Expanded Index


Section 1. Law

1. Adventists quote much from the Old Testament in proof of their doctrines, particularly the law and the Sabbath. Christians find their guidance and doctrines in the New Testament

2. Adventists seek to prove that there are two laws described in the Bible, one moral, the other ceremonial. But there is only one law.

3. The Ten Commandments did not exist before the time of Moses.

4. "The very wording of the Sinaitic law proves that it was designed only for the Jews. The Ten Commandments is introduced thus: 'I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee ... out of the house of bondage' (Ex. 20:2). To whom is that applicable? Only to the Israelite nation, of course." See also Deuteronomy 4:8, Romans 9:4, and similar passages, which state specifically that the law was given only to the Israelites.

5. The Bible says that the Ten Commandments are the covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai, that is, the old covenant. (See Dent. 4:13) This covenant has been abolished, and we live under the new covenant. There fore we have nothing to do with the Ten Commandments.

6. Paul states that ministration of death, written and engraved in stones was "done away." Therefore the Ten Commandment law, which was written on the tables of stone, has been done away. (See 2 Cor. 7:2)

7. Paul's allegory on the two covenants in Galatians 4 proves that we have nothing to do with law in the Christian dispensation.

8. Paul declares that we are not under the law, but under grace. (Rom. 6:14) The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (John 1:17) Paul also declares that "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes." Rom. 10:4. These texts prove that the law was abolished by Christ.

9. Luke 16:16 proves that Christians have nothing to do with law

10. Romans 7:14 proves that the law is done away. Under the figure of marriage Paul explains that we are "delivered from the law," that, indeed, the law is dead.

11. Ephesians 2:14, 15 and Colossians 2:14, 16 prove that the law was abolished at the cross

12. Through Moses, God gave commandments to His people. Fifteen hundred years later Christ also gave commandments. Adventists fail to make a distinction between God's law, which was abolished at Calvary, and Christ's commandments that bind the Christian. Hence Adventists mistakenly contend that the Ten Commandments and Christ's commandments are the same and equally binding.

13. The only command that we need to keep now is Christ's new commandment to love one another, for He declared that we should keep His commandments even as He had kept His Father's commandments. And does not the Bible say that love is the fulfilling of the law?

14. Seventh day Adventists are constantly preaching that men should obey God's commandments, keep the law, as if that were the sum and substance of true religion and a passport to heaven. But the Christian has nothing to do with law; he lives wholly by the grace of God, which is made available to him through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus, and thus only, can any man he right with God and be in readiness for heaven.

15. Why preach the law when no one can be saved by obeying it? Furthermore, man is morally unable to keep the commandments.

16. By preaching the law you endeavor to deprive Christians of the glorious liberty of the gospel.

17. The Bible repeatedly and emphatically declares that no one can be justified by keeping the law. Hence to preach the keeping of the law is to preach another gospel. "Whosoever of you are justified by the law; you are fallen from grace." Gal. 5:4

18. 1 Timothy 1:9 proves that the Christian has nothing to do with the law, for we read there that "the law is not made for a righteous man

19. Seventh day Adventists teach that a man must keep the commandments in order to be saved

Section 2. Sabbath

20. Seventh day Adventists declare that the seventh day of the week was set apart as a Sabbath by the blessing and sanctification of God at the creation of the world. They thus seek to prove that the Sabbath preceded the Jewish race and applies to all men. But Genesis, which contains the record of God's resting upon and blessing the Sabbath, was written by Moses two thousand five hundred years after creation, or about the time of the Exodus. Moses simply set down in that Genesis reference to the Sabbath a statement of what God actually did for the seventh day at Mount Sinai.

21. Exodus 16:29 and Nehemiah 9:13, 14 prove that the Sabbath was not given until Israel left Egypt. The very silence of the Scriptures regarding anyone's keeping it before that time is strong corroborative proof.

22. The Sabbath is Jewish. It was given only to the Jews and was part of the old covenant that was made only with the Jews. Further, Deuteronomy 5:15 states explicitly that God commanded the Jews to keep the Sabbath as a memorial of their deliverance from Egypt. There for it has no meaning for us who are Gentile Christians.

23. In Exodus 31:14 we read that Sabbath violators were to be stoned to death. Do you believe the same penalty should be enforced today? If you say that the penalty feature of the Sabbath law is done away, then you have really declared the Sabbath abolished, for a law has no force if there is no penalty provided for its violation. Again, in Exodus 35:3 we read that no fires were to be kindled on the Sabbath. If you believe the Sabbath law is still in force, why do you kindle fires on that day?

24. When we as Sunday keepers declare that the ten commandment law was abolished at the cross, Adventists try to embarrass us by asking us if we believe it is all right in the Christian Era to steal or kill or do any other of the heinous deeds prohibited by the Ten Commandments. We do not. We believe that God has great moral principles that have governed the universe from all eternity and will continue to govern it to all eternity. The Ten Commandments was simply a partial reflection of these principles. The principles remain, but the Ten Commandments is gone. Hence the Sabbath is gone.

25. The fourth commandment in the Ten Commandments is not inherently a moral precept, but the other nine are self evidently moral commands. "All moral principles are discoverable by the light of nature - or reason, but the necessity of keeping the seventh day is not thus discoverable. For example, all men naturally know that it is wrong to steal, kill, commit adultery, et cetera, but no one would thus know that a particular day had been set apart as holy. That required a direct revelation from God Hence the Sabbath command is not moral. Furthermore, there is nothing inherently holy in the seventh day of the week. Hence "it would never have been wrong to work on the seventh day unless God had given a command to rest on it.

26. "The Sabbath was not a day of special religious worship. ... In God's plan, the keeping of the seventh day on the part of His earthly people was to be an external form, or rite; the performance of a definitely prescribed ceremony, stipulating the cessation of all work on a given day, or a day of complete physical rest. Only when connected with the annual feasts was it observed as a day of religious significance." All this proves that the seventh day Sabbath was simply one of the ceremonial Sabbaths. All those Sabbaths, in common with every other ceremonial statute, were abolished at the cross.

27. That the fourth command of the Ten Commandments is ceremonial, but the other nine are moral, "is clearly proved by the fact that Jesus, according to the strictest Sabbatarians of His day, broke the fourth commandment and was criticized by them for doing so. Furthermore, Jesus distinctly says, 'The priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless.' [Matt. 12:5] Would He have dared to say this if the fourth commandment were a moral law? Could the seventh commandment, or any other of the ten except the fourth, be broken by the priests, and the fact that they were broken in the temple make them blameless?

28. Though the Ten Commandments were abolished at the cross, nine of them were re-enacted in the New Testament, and thus are binding on Christians, but the fourth command was not; hence we are not obligated to keep it.

29. Paul specifically declares, in Colossians 2:14 - 17, that the Sabbath is abolished.

30. "The word 'Sabbath' occurs some sixty times in the New Testament. In every case except one the Adventists admit that the weekly Sabbath is meant. In the one case, however, where the word, in the Greek, is the same (Col.2:16), they insist that it means something different. Why is this so? Is it not because they know that this one verse ... completely shatters all their arguments for Sabbath keeping by Christians?

31. Many who were converted to Christianity in apostolic times came out of heathenism and lived in countries where Sabbath keeping was unknown. "It would have been necessary to instruct them as to the particular day they should observe. The New Testament is absolutely silent on the point." If the Sabbath is still in force, why was it not mentioned in Christ's reply to the rich young ruler (Matt. 19:17 - 27), or in the gospel commission (Matt. 28:19), or on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), or in the decision of the council at Jerusalem (Acts 15)?

32. If Paul were living, he would offer the same condemnation of Seventh day Adventists that he did of the Galatians. (See Gal. 4:9, 10)

33. The Old Testament prophets foretold that the time was coming when the Sabbath would be done away. (See, for example, Hosea 2:11.) In Amos 8:5 the question is asked, "When will the Sabbath be gone?" The prophet answers that this would take place when the sun went down at noon and the earth was darkened in a clear day. (Amos 8.9) The earth was thus darkened when Jesus was crucified. Hence the Sabbath came to an end at the

34. The psalmist prophesied that there would be a new day of worship. (See Psalms 118:22 - 24.) The "day" mentioned in Psalms 118:24 can refer only to Sunday, the day on which Christ became the headstone of the corner.

35. Noted astronomers have discovered that our world is twenty - four hours behind the rest of the universe in point of time. The Bible record of Joshua's long day - twenty - three hours and twenty minutes - and of the turning back of the sun forty minutes in Hezekiah's day accounts for this twenty - four hours. Hence both Jews and Seventh day Adventists are wrong about the time of the Sabbath. Our blessed Lord brought the Sabbath and the first day of the week together, merging them into the glorious day on which He arose from the dead, the day we celebrate as the Sabbath.

36. The Sabbath day is abolished because Paul says that it is all right to consider every day alike in the Christian Era. (See Rom. 14:5).

37. The days of creation were not literal, twenty - four - hour days, but long indefinite periods, millions of years in length. Therefore Seventh day Adventists are not warranted in using the creation story of Genesis 1 as an argument for the holiness of the literal seventh day of the weekly cycle.

38. The phrase, "the seventh day," in the fourth commandment means simply one day in seven. Therefore I am keeping the spirit of the Sabbath law so long as 1 keep one day in seven. And is not Sunday one day in seven?

39. Seventh day Adventists insist that a particular seventh day, coming down through from creation in cycles of seven, is the day God blessed and therefore the day that all should keep as the Sabbath. But no one now knows what that day is. Besides, calendar changes have confused the reckoning.

40. Seventh day Adventists declare that the Sabbath was in tended for all men in all lands. But it is evident that it was intended only for the Jews in the little land of Palestine. How could anyone keep the definite seventh day Sabbath up in the Arctic Circle, where there is six months day then six months night? Or how would a person keep track of the order of the days of the week in traveling around the world, for you lose a day if you travel in one direction and gain a day if you travel in the other direction?

41. The Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday at the time of Christ's resurrection. One of the strong proofs of this is the fact that Christ, after His resurrection, always met with His disciples on that day. A further proof is the fact that the Holy Spirit was poured upon the disciples on Sunday.

42. From earliest apostolic days Christians kept Sunday in honor of Christ's resurrection. This is clearly revealed in two scriptures, Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:2.

43. The apostle John calls Sunday the "Lord's day," and declares that he was "in the Spirit" on that day. This proves that Sunday is the sacred weekly rest day of the Christian world and that the Sabbath has been abolished.

44. Pages of authentic statements, selected from the writings of primitive Christian authors, could be quoted in proof of the fact that the first (lay of the week ... was continuously observed as a day of Divine worship from the Savior's resurrection on through the succeeding early

centuries of the present dispensation. But despite this evidence "Seventh day Adventists teach (supposedly by 'inspiration') that the change came in with Constantine, the first so - called 'Christian emperor' of Rome, 'in the early part of the fourth century.' (See The Great Controversy, p. 53) And by the same authority, they, contradicting themselves, also teach that 'the Pope changed [the Sabbath] from the seventh to the first day of the week.' (See Early Writings of Mrs. While, p. 33, edition of 1916)

45. The resurrection is the greatest event in the history of Christianity; therefore we keep Sunday. Sabbath keepers are not Christians, because they do not commemorate the great event of Christ's rising from the dead.

46. Seventh day Adventists make a great point out of the fact that the Sabbath memorializes creation. But we are not so much concerned with creation as with redemption, which is greater. Therefore we keep Sunday, the great memorial of our redemption.

47. The phrase "the first day of the week" in Matthew 28:1 should be translated "the first of the Sabbaths," or "one of the Sabbaths." This proper translation indicates that the apostle spoke of the resurrection Sunday as the first of a new order of Sabbaths.

48. Seventh day Adventists say that everyone who keeps Sunday has the mark of the beast. Such a teaching places under God's condemnation all other Christian people, and dooms forever all Sunday keeping Christians who died before Seventh day Adventists began to preach. By teaching that a person cannot be saved unless he keeps the Sabbath, Seventh day Adventists make Sabbath keeping the means of salvation instead of Christ.

49. I don't believe that a God of love would keep men out of heaven just because of a day. I think Seventh day Adventists put too much emphasis on a certain day that should be kept holy.

50. The Sabbath cannot save anyone. Why not preach Christ instead?

51. I have the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit has given me to understand that 1 do not have to keep the Sabbath.

52. We should keep all days holy in the Christian dispensation. But inasmuch as the law of the land has marked out a certain day - Sunday - as the particular day for rest, we should obey the law of the land, and keep Sunday.

53. If Saturday is the right Sabbath, why do not more leading men believe it? If what you preach about the Sabbath is true, why wasn't it discovered before?

54. If I should keep the Sabbath, all my friends and neighbors would ridicule me. 55. If I keep the seventh day Sabbath, 1 won't be able to make a living.

Section 3. Second Advent

56. The Seventh day Adventist Church sprang from the religious movement of the 1840's, known as Millerism, which set a time for the coming of Christ. Such a historical background reveals how irrational and unworthy of serious consideration that church is.

57. The Millerite, or Second Advent movement, out of which Seventh day Adventism sprang, was tainted with weird fanatical actions such as the wearing of ascension robes by the deluded followers of Miller, who sat on housetops and haystacks to await the coming of Christ. Multitudes were made insane by the fanatical preaching. The fanaticism was rampant both before and after 1844. This proves that God was not in the movement that brought forth Seventh day Adventism.

58. Seventh day Adventists say that they constitute a prophetic movement raised up by God to preach His last message to the world. At the same time they admit that their movement sprang from the soil of Millerism, whose leaders taught that Christ would come in 1844. Is God the leader of a movement that preached error at the outset and suffered great disappointment and confusion as a result of that error?

59. The Millerites thought they found in Daniel 8:13, 14 the proof that Christ would come on October 22, 1844. After their disappointment some of them, the founders of Seventh day Adventism, sought to maintain their claim that God was leading them by inventing a new interpretation to Daniel 8:13, 14, which enabled them to maintain that the prophecy was indeed fulfilled in 1844, but by an event that took place in heaven. Hence Seventh day Adventism was born of a dilemma.

60. For several years after the 1844 disappointment Seventh day Adventists believed that probation had closed for the world. Was God leading a movement that believed so un - Scriptural a teaching as that?

61. Christ's second coming is not literal, but spiritual. He comes to the Christian at conversion or at death.

62. It is revolting to the Christian idea of love to believe that Christ will come as a destroyer and wreak vengeance on the world.

63. We should spend more time helping people to make this a better world rather than stir them up about another world, as is the case when the Second Advent doctrine is preached.

64. Christ Himself said that He would come as a thief in the night. The apostle Paul made a similar statement. Seventh day Adventists are therefore unwarranted in claiming that they can know something definite as to the time of Christ's coming.

65. One of the best proofs that no one can tell whether Christ will come tomorrow or a thousand years from now is the fact that the apostles thought He would come in their day. But they were all mistaken. So will Seventh day Adventists be.

66. By preaching the soon coming of Christ, Seventh day Adventists are falsely creating hope and excitement. Misguided people through the centuries have repeatedly thought His coming

was at hand - That fact is best illustrated by the excitement that spread throughout Europe in AD. 1000, when multitudes waited, in fanatical fervor, for Christ's coming.

67. Seventh day Adventists declare that the great meteoric shower of November 13, 1833, was a fulfillment of the prophecy that the stars shall fall from heaven as one of the signs of the nearness of Christ's coming. But we need not seek some supernatural, miraculous explanation of this starry event.

Astronomers inform us that whirling in space is great swarm of meteorites, known as the Leonids, which are probably the shattered remains of a comet. These Leonids come within the orbit of our earth about every thirty - three years. There were showers in 1866 and 1899, though very small, because, as the astronomers explain, the planet Jupiter deflected the meteoritic group from the direct path of the earth. Probably this or a similar reason explains the absence of a star shower in 1933.

68. The whole idea that Christ will appear in flaming glory in the heavens, suddenly to change the present order of nature, destroying the wicked, and taking the righteous to heaven, belongs to the age of superstition. We who live in this modern era know that all this is incredible and contrary to the laws of nature.

Section 4. Mortal Man

69. When Christ was transfigured there appeared with Him on the mount - Moses and Elias talking with him." (See Matt. 17:3.) The fact that Moses was there proves that man is an immortal soul, for Moses died and was buried at the time of the Exodus.

70. Christ said: "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Matt. 10:28. This proves that the soul and the body are two distinctly different things, that the body can be destroyed and the soul remain, and therefore, that the soul is a separate entity that lives on forever after the body is dead.

71. Paul says: "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." 2 Cor. 4:16. This proves that the real man, the soul, is something different from the body, and flourishes despite the perishing of the body.

72. When Stephen was martyred he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Acts 7:59. Christ on the cross, said, 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Luke 23:46. This proves that at death the real man, that immortal entity called the "spirit," departs from the body.

73. Hebrews 12:23 proves that man has a spirit, which is the real man, and that with this spirit we shall have fellowship in our perfected state. In other words, this text proves that disembodied spirits dwell in celestial bliss.

74. Paul makes clear that it was possible for him to be "out of the body." This proves that the real man is an immaterial soul, or spirit, that is independent of the body. (See 2 Cor. 12:2, 3)

75. The apostle Paul says that at the second coming of Christ God will bring with Him from heaven those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. (See 1 Thess. 4:14) This proves that the righteous go to heaven at death, instead of lying in the grave until the Second Advent.

76. We agree that those who died in Old Testament days remained unconscious in their graves, as the Old Testament Scriptures prove. (See, for example, Eccl. 9:5, 6, 10) But when Christ came He declared that "whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die." John 11:26. This proves that in the New Testament times those who believe in Christ do not die, but go direct to heaven. In support of this conclusion is Paul's declaration that Christ "abolished death" (2 Tim. 1: 10), also the repeated statements of Scripture that the Christian now possesses everlasting life.

77. In Matthew 22:32 Christ declares that He is not the God of the dead but of the living. He said: "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." This proves that the souls of these patriarchs, who died long ago, are really alive in heaven.

78. Ecclesiastes 12:7 proves that there is a conscious, immortal entity that leaves the body at death. (See also Eccl. 3:21.).

79. That the righteous dead go to heaven immediately at death, and that man therefore possesses an immortal spirit, is evident from Paul's statement in 2 Corinthians 5:8. (See also 2 Peter 1:14).

80. Man is made in the image of God; God is immortal; therefore man is immortal.

81. The Bible describes the death of Rachel by saying that "her soul was in departing. Gen. 35: 18. (See also 1 Kings 17:21,22).

82. Revelation 6:9,10 proves that the souls of the righteous dead are in heaven.

83. Paul declared that when he died lie would go immediately to be with Christ. (See Phil. 1:21 - 23).

84. During the time between His crucifixion and His resurrection Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison. (1 Peter 3:18 - 20) This proves that there is an immaterial spirit, the real person, which departs from the body at death.

85. Christ told the thief on the cross that he would be with Him that day in Paradise. (See Luke 23:43)

86. How do you harmonize with your belief in the unconsciousness of man in death the Bible account of the witch of Endor, who brought forth Samuel to talk with King Saul? (See 1 Sam. 28:7 - 19)

87. Christ's story of the rich man and Lazarus proves the immortality of the soul. (See Luke 16:19 - 31)

88. The Bible speaks of "everlasting punishment" (Matt.25:46) for the wicked, and of "everlasting fire" (verse 41) in which they will burn, and of their being "tormented day and night for ever and ever" (Rev. 20:10). This proves the immortality of the soul.

89. The Bible repeatedly speaks of hell and hell - fire, and of the wicked going down into hell when they die. This proves the conscious state of the dead.

90. The Bible says that hell - fire w. 11 not be quenched and that "their worm dies not." (See Mark 9:43 - 48 and Isa.66:24) This proves the immortality of the soul.

91. The doctrine that a Christian at death goes down into the grave, there to lie unconscious until the resurrection day, is a gloomy belief.

92. The Adventist doctrine that when a man dies he lies silent and unconscious in the grave until the resurrection day is un - Scriptural, illogical, and gross, as compared with the doctrine held by Christians in general that the real man is an immortal soul that departs from the body at death.

Section 5. Sanctuary and Atonement

93. Seventh day Adventists do not believe in Christ's salvation offered to all men freely, because they preach that salvation is found in the keeping of the law. This false view of salvation is repeatedly stated in the writings of Mrs. E. G. White, who is regarded by them as an inspired spokesman.

94. "Seventh day Adventists teach that, like all mankind, Christ was born with a "sinful nature." This plainly indicates "that his heart, too, was 'deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." In harmony with this they also "teach that Christ might have failed while on His mission to earth as man's Savior - that He came into the world 'at the risk of failure and eternal loss.' " But the Bible repeatedly states that Christ was holy, that "he knew no sin," and that He would "not fail nor be discouraged.

95. Christ is the center and circumference of salvation. Paul declared to the Corinthian church: "I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." 1 Cor. 2:2. But Seventh day Adventists, in their emphasis on the law and the Sabbath and other peculiar doctrines, markedly fail to give Christ that central, dominant position that true Christians give to Him.

96. "Adventists teach that it is deceptive either to believe or to say that one who accepts Christ as his Redeemer is saved. Mrs. White declares: 'Those who accept the Savior, however sincere their conversion, should never be taught to say or feel that they are saved. This is misleading' (Christ's Object Lessons, p. 155)." "The gospel teaches that believers 'are saved' by 'the preaching of the cross' (1 Cor. 1:18). It teaches that God hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling' (2 Tim. 1:9)." To say that a born - again soul does not have salvation as "a present possession" is to proclaim a false gospel. Adventists make salvation a matter of - crucify self," "prove worthy," - struggle. - This proves again that they preach a false, a legalistic, gospel.

97. Seventh day Adventists reject the atonement of Christ. They make of no effect the death of the Savior, because they believe that His atonement for sin was not completed on Calvary.

98. Seventh day Adventists make Satan their savior, sin bearer, and vicarious substitute.

Section 6. General Objections

99. Seventh day Adventists, perhaps even more than most other religious bodies, carry on a vigorous foreign - mission program. But why impose the Christian religion on the people of other countries? Why disturb and disrupt their program of living?

100. It is clear there must be something wrong in the system itself, when so large a number of persons leave the Seventh day Adventists.

101. When Seventh day Adventist ministers go into a community to hold a series of lectures, they conceal, at the first, their denominational connection. They thus hope to draw into their audience people who would never come if they knew that Seventh day Adventists were conducting the meetings. This is a form of deception. There is something the matter with a religious body that is afraid to identify itself as soon as it begins to carry on any activity in a community.

102. Seventh day Adventists hold fanatical views on health reform and vegetarianism, and by such teachings restrict the liberty that belongs to Christians. In fact, the very distinction they make as to what is right to eat and drink brings them under the condemnation of the Bible. (See Rom. 14:2; 1 Tim. 4:3).

103. Seventh day Adventists are proselyters.

104. In their opposition to Sunday laws Seventh day Adventists reveal that they are callous to the needs of the working man and are blind to the fact that the very stability of the country is endangered by the godless course of millions who give no day in the week to God. It seems that they are more concerned to protect themselves against persecution than to give support either to the workingman or to the moral uplift of the country.

105. Seventh day Adventists, in their opposition to Sunday laws, show themselves to be in league with the disreputable elements of the country.

106. Seventh day Adventists teach that only they will be saved.

107. Seventh day Adventists are calamity howlers.

108. Seventh day Adventism is a new ism, and holds new and un - Scriptural doctrines.

109. Seventh day Adventists have a prophet like many other of the modern isms, and they make of her writings a second Bible.

Section 7. Science and the Advent Faith

1. A Reasonable Faith
2. Miracles and Natural Law
3. The Evolution Theory Examined 4. The Creation Doctrine Examined

Section 8. The Law and Legalism

5. The Law of God in Church Creeds 6. Are Adventists Legalists?

Section 9. The Sabbath and the Weekly Cycle

7. The Sabbath in Church Creeds.
8. Antiquity and Unbroken Sequence of Weekly Cycle.

Section 10. The Second Advent

9. The Second Advent Doctrine in the Creeds
10. The Prophetic Origin of the Seventh day Adventist Church
11. Do Adventists Make a Real Contribution to World Betterment? 12. Has a Century's Passing Invalidated Our Doctrine of the Advent?

Section 11. The Historical Setting of the Threefold Message

13. The Origin and Growth of the Idea of World Progress. 14. Collapse of the Idea of World. Progress.
15. The First Angel's Message
16. The Second Angel's Message

17. The Third Angel's Message

Section 12. The Sanctuary

18. The Scapegoat and the Atonement.

Section 13. Apostasy and Offshoots

19. Six Distinguishing Marks of Apostates.
20. An Answer to the Charge: "I Have Been Delivered From Adventism

Section 14. The Foundation of God Stands Sure

21. Advent Movement Offers Certainty in Spiritual Matters.

Appendixes

1. How Sunday Observance Began
2. Sabbath in Matthew 28:1
3. "The Lord's Day"
4. Gentiles and Sabbath keeping - A Letter to a Fundamentalist 5. The Gamble Theory Examined

6. Charges of Fanaticism by 1844 Adventists are Groundless 7. How Long Is Everlasting?
8. Life, Soul, and Spirit
9. "Upon This Rock"

10. How Are Prohibition Laws Related to Religious Liberty? 11. Do Adventists Seek a "Wide Open" Sunday?

12. How to Meet the "Christian Nation" Argument.
13. The Remission of Sins - a Comment on Matthew 16:19.
14. Rome's Claim to Unity in Contrast to Protestantism's Division

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