It is much more delightful to revel in the fragrance and beauty of the flowers in a garden than to busy oneself removing cutworms from the plants. Few of us even wish to discuss such unpleasant things, much less to deal with them. Why talk of them when we may talk of flowers? But unless we remove the cutworms we shall not long be able to enjoy the flowers.

This simple illustration provides the reason for this book. It is written to meet false doctrine and thus to help ensure that the flowers of truth may continue to bloom and disseminate their heavenly fragrance to the children of men.

Perhaps some devout individual may reply that the illustration does not fit. He does not wish to think that enemies lurk in the garden of God. At least he feels that God will care for His own, and that the plants of the Lord, with their roots deep in the soil of eternal truth, can safely withstand all attacks. Therefore we should devote our time wholly to enjoying the flowers and to inviting the wayfarer to enter the heavenly garden and enjoy them with us.

The troubled history of the Christian church reveals the fallacy of such thinking. Even in the earliest, most divinely vigorous period of Christianity, the apostles felt it necessary to deal with threatening doctrinal dangers. John, whose writings breathe the spirit of love, warned,-in his epistles, against the deadly Docetic heresy then developing, that Christ was but an apparition. (See 1 John I:1-3; 4:2, 3) He also warned against the heretical idea that a Christian is beyond sin, and the equally heretical idea that we do not need to keep God's commandments. The person who sets forth such a view, said John, "is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 John 2:4. He discusses the matter at length to prove why such teachings are false.

Paul told the Corinthian church: "I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." 1 Cor. 2:2. And some would use that isolated declaration to support the contention that the gospel minister should take no notice of false teachings or opposition. How unwarranted a conclusion can be drawn from a text when it is isolated from its whole context.

Paul's epistles are generally tightly reasoned presentations of truth, with a negative as well as a positive aspect. Indeed he preached Christ crucified. But he realized that unless the deadly heresy of Jewish legalism was exposed and refuted, the preaching of Christ would profit nothing. That is

why his epistles deal so repeatedly and lengthily-with that heresy. Nor was it the only doctrinal error that he exposed and refuted. Note, for example, his extended and militant argument against the false teaching that "there is no resurrection of the dead." 1 Cor. 15:12. One cannot read his writings without exclaiming: "If Paul was not God's lawyer, pray tell what was he?"

Nor was this great apostle content simply to carry on militantly himself. He exhorted others to do likewise. To Timothy he wrote:- Fight the good fight of faith.....Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou has heard of me." 1 Tim. 6:12; 2 Tim. 1: 13. To the elders of the church at Ephesus he told of the "grievous wolves" that would "enter in among" them, "not sparing the flock," and of those in their own midst who would "arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." Then he added immediately: "Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears." Acts 20:29-31. When you "warn" you warn against. And this inevitably involves a negative action, justified however by its results, the protecting of the believer from false doctrine.

Jude wrote: "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." Jude 3. The whole of his brief letter warns against and exposes "certain men" who had 11 crept in unawares" and were corrupting morals and "denying" basic Christian doctrine.

Peter warned the church of "false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies." 2 Peter 2: 1. Then he proceeds to devote most of his epistle to an examination and refutation of those heresies.

The written record of these resolute, militant men of God seems not to support the idea that we should concentrate exclusively on enjoying the flowers, because forsooth the hardy plants of truth need no protecting care from God's husbandmen.

During the Reformation period its advocates had to do more than focus 6n the positive truth of righteousness by faith, and related doctrines. They had to deal with strong and specious arguments brought forth by Rome's most subtle protagonists.

In the Advent awakening of the early 1840's William Miller and his associates were not permitted to deal exclusively with the glorious, positive truth of the personal soon coming of Christ. They had to spend time refuting the plausible arguments of popular ministers who sought, among other things, to prove from Scripture that world conversion preceded Christ's Advent. The literature of the 1844 movement is filled with the vigorous, cogent reasoning of the Advent leaders as they exposed error and exalted truth.

When the Seventh day Adventist movement developed, immediately afterward there began to come from our press special tracts and pamphlets and books answering the claims of those who contended that Sunday is taught in the Scriptures, that immortality of soul is the possession of men, that the law of God is abolished, and other false doctrines.

All this was inevitable. The presentation of any belief or doctrine, religious or otherwise, is in two parts: setting forth evidence for the belief, and answering those who bring forth arguments for a contrary belief.

Now, the initial period of militant advocacy of belief, and the refutation of false teachings, has almost always been followed by quieter times. A religious movement brought forth amid controversy and opposition discovers in time that it has secured a measure of standing among men. Then comes the temptation to stress less earnestly the distinctive truths that brought the movement into existence. It was this policy that caused early Christianity to merge with paganism and various Protestant churches ultimately to lose their distinctiveness. Peace appeals as strongly to the warrior on the religious battlefield as it does to the literal soldier. The mistake that the spiritual warrior makes is in thinking that in this world, so dominated by evil, he can ever hope to conclude an honorable peace that will leave the kingdom of God safe from all future attacks. There is no discharge in the warfare until God declares, "It is done."

I am fully aware that the religious temper of the times is against emphasizing, much less fighting for, distinctive beliefs. It is not supposed to be good taste. It delays the much-desired union of all churches. Certainly if the churches wish above all else to unite, they must play down their differences in theology. But by the same token, if a church wishes to maintain its identity and to. justify its separate existence, it must be ready to give a reason for the hope and the doctrines that it holds, and this inevitably includes meeting the assaults of those who would seek to undermine its hope and its doctrines.

There is one point above all others that distinguishes this Advent movement, the firm belief that God raised it up to preach a distinctive message, and to call on all men to join it in readiness for the day of God. If we sincerely act upon this belief, we must be prepared to meet opposition, an opposition which we have prophetic reason to know will become more active and more bitter as the end draws near. Let us never forget that our announced objective is the completing of the great sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. That Reformation owes its very name to the militant protest made against false teachings though, of course, Protestantism stands for a great body of positive truths. We belie the great name Protestant when we no longer are concerned to protest that which is opposed to truth.

As members of tile Advent movement we should be forever warned of the danger of buying peace with the currency of compromise as we note what has happened to most of Protestantism today. At the opening of the twentieth century a great number of the Christian ministry were still firm believers in the historic doctrines of Christianity, beginning with the doctrine of creation, But an active, persuasive, and well-educated group of clergy were presenting the case for evolution and related rationalistic ideas. It was evident that their theories were opposed to the long-established doctrines of Christianity. And how did they seek to pierce this defensive doctrinal wall? By the simple expedient of minimizing the importance of doctrine and affirming that Christianity is really a matter of the spirit, a beautiful fellowship with God as our Father and with all men as brothers, and that everything else is incidental. Hence, if science has great discoveries for us, let us make the doctrines fit tile discoveries. Which is another way of saying, Let us abandon the doctrines.

And that is precisely what has happened in most churches. True, there was a fierce war waged for a time, coming to something of a climax in the 1920's. After that the majority of church leaders who had fought for orthodoxy gradually gave up, their will to fight having been sapped by the highly promoted notion that peace and harmony are more important than any doctrine. And so today most preachers discourse on the love of God, idealistic living, right attitudes of mind, the brotherhood of man, and the like. The great Bible doctrines of creation, sin, and salvation, and other cardinal tenets that have ever constituted the framework of the Christian edifice-these are now rarely heard in Modernist churches, which constitute the great majority of churches.

But the day that the Advent movement fails to put emphasis on doctrine, that day we have lost the justification for our existence. We have a definite doctrine to present on the Second Advent, else we lose the goal and the objective that should be ours. We have a definite doctrine to preach on creation, else we remove the foundation for the Sabbath. We have a definite doctrine to preach on sin and salvation, else we make meaningless our teaching on the sanctuary. We have a definite doctrine to preach on the nature of man, else we take all point out of our preaching on the resurrection and life only in Christ and our warning against the final delusions of spiritism. And thus we might go on enumerating. If ever there was a movement built on clear-cut beliefs, beliefs interlocked like the girders of a building, it is the Advent movement. We minimize these beliefs only at the peril of destroying the building. On the other hand, if we put emphasis on these beliefs, we must be prepared to meet opposition and contrary views.

However, someone may still inquire incredulously: Ought we not to follow Nehemiah's example in regard to the adversaries of truth? "I am doing a great work, so that 1 cannot come down." Neh. 6:3. 1 subscribe to Nehemiah's words. It is easy to fall into unnecessary controversy. Certainly we ought always to keep on building the walls of Jerusalem rather than go down into the valley to hold a conference with Sanballat and Tobiah.

But Nehemiah is the last man of God in all the Bible who ought to be quoted in behalf of inaction, where the adversaries of the Lord are concerned. When Sanballat and Tobiah sent their threats against the wall-builders Nehemiah kept his men working, to be sure, but only half of them, and they with only one hand, for "the other hand held a weapon." The remainder of his men he armed with swords and spears and instructed them to guard the walls with their lives. Certainly the walls would not have been constructed if men had not continued to labor. But with equal certainty we may say that those walls might never have been built if there had not been militant men with flashing swords and spears guarding the laborers. It was the gleam of the swords on the ramparts that gave heart to the builders. (See Neh. 4:16-18) Unquestionably, we should never go down into the valley seeking controversy, but when adversaries attack the citadel of truth on which this Advent movement stands, we should, in the name of the Lord God of hosts, be prepared to defend that citadel. To provide arms for the defense is the purpose of this book.

And now, lest this all sound too militant, let me quickly add that there are different ways to fight for the faith. We need to make certain that we fight the good fight in harmony with the principles of heaven. Only thus will we bring strength to the Advent movement and glory to God's name. A few primary rules, if followed carefully, will enable the soldier of Christ to conform to those

principles. These rules apply to a discussion on the public platform, through the press, in the parlor, or over the back fence.

1. Impute good faith and sincerity to the one with whom you are disputing. Sincerity may be possessed even by one who sets forth the most preposterous opinion.

2. Keep calm. If you cannot fight for the faith without displaying a rise of temperature, do not fight. Stay by the stuff, and let others of more equable disposition, or those who have gained the victory over anger, carry on the active warfare for the faith.

3. Be very sparing of strong language. There are doubtless times when such language may be in order, but those occasions, I believe, are rare. 'We are not often called to stand, like Elijah, on Mount Carmel. Because we are sure in our hearts that the truth and the evidence are on our side we can well afford to be not only calm and cool but kind in our language. The spectators, if there be any, will measure our argument, at least in part, by our form of speech, even if the one with whom we are differing does not.

4. Reveal a spirit of great seriousness. Let it be evident that )our contending for your religious views is not to satisfy a desire for wrangling or controversy, but is prompted by a solemn conviction that the beliefs you hold are of most serious importance.

5. Appeal to the heart as well as to the head. It is one thing to convince a man; it is another thing to convict him, and create in his soul a desire to obey the truths you have set forth. It is not simply a question of what to say, but how to say it, if you would bring conviction. As the discussion progresses seek increasingly to lift it above the level of a mere question of facts and evidence to the plane of the relation that the facts beat to the hearer's heart and eternal destiny. If we are really to help a man, we must do more than close his mouth; we must open his heart to receive the truth we have so earnestly been endeavoring to prove.

Now a word concerning the history of this book. It was first published in 1932, and contained 251 pages. In 1947 a portion of the book, then out of print, with considerable new matter, was published under the title Reasons for Our Faith. Some material from this latter book, now also out of print, with certain additional matter from the 1932 volume, plus new matter, has been combined to make this present volume. Probably more than half of the contents is material never before published in book form. Part 1 deals exclusively with specific objections to Adventist teachings. Part 11 provides certain added material in answer to various charges and more fully sets forth the evidence in behalf of certain doctrines.

In most instances the objections considered have come to me through the years in letters from out. ministers and lay workers who have stated that these were objections they frequently met. Sometimes these workers have sent in marked copies of anti-Adventist leaflets and booklets, which, they explain, have been widely circulated in the area where they are holding an evangelistic meeting. Sometimes the exact words of such printed matter are used in this book. Quotation marks indicate such use. Thus the objections considered are not academic, but practical. In answering them I have attempted to avoid the barren procedure of dealing merely with the negative; rather, 1 have endeavored to present the positive Bible truth on each question.

This book is sent forth with a desire, not to create needless dispute, but to aid you as you seek to carry out the Scriptural injunction to "earnestly contend for the faith which was delivered unto the saints."

Washington, D.C., August, 1952.