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.
One of the evident facts
regarding our denomination is that it is composed, not of rich men, but of
working men! Yet our whole membership are opposed to Sunday laws! Need more be
said on this point?
The next evident fact is that we are far from blind to the
moral state of the world. Our literature says much about the woeful state of
morality and the godless condition of men. The difference between us and the
Sunday law advocates is not in the relative degree of our eyesight but in the
methods that we believe should be employed to cure the malady of godlessness.
They would bring in the kingdom of God through the gateway of politics, and
have our legislators save us from destruction. We would invoke the promised
second coming of Christ to save the ungodly from this evil world, and as we
wait for His soon coming we work with earnestness to turn men to God by the
preaching of the gospel.
The third fact, which will become evident as we proceed, is
that our opposition to Sunday legislation is not prompted by a selfish desire
to save ourselves from possible persecution. We do not concede, of course,
that there is anything necessarily selfish or evil in a person's invoking his
constitutional rights to save himself from persecution. Even the great apostle
Paul repeatedly invoked his Roman citizenship to save him from brutal
treatment by his erstwhile brethren. Our reasons for opposition are these:
1. As students of prophecy we believe that the day is
coming
[pg. 430]
when the principles of religious intolerance
that marked the Dark Ages will be revived, that there will be in the very
closing hours of this world's history a mighty religio-political combine that
will endeavor to dominate the consciences of men. We believe it is our solemn
duty to warn men against giving their support to it. Indeed, we have no
alternative in the matter, seeing that Christ, through the prophet John, has
commanded us to cry out against this movement, so that men may be saved from
giving their support to such an evil program.
2. In connection with this warning message that we are
commanded to give, we find the injunction to proclaim the great Sabbath
message to the world, and what more auspicious occasion could be found for
giving special publicity to the true Sabbath than when men are endeavoring to
stir up the world in support of the false? In this way our opposition to
Sunday laws become not a negative but a positive thing. We simply capitalize
the occasions of great public interest in Sunday laws to proclaim more fully
the true Sabbath message.
As the time of trouble begins, the people of God are to go
forth to preach the Sabbath doctrine more fully and more convincingly than
ever before. The agitation for Sunday legislation provides a choice
illustration of how the wrath of man can be made to praise God; or, to state
it in the most charitable form, how the endeavors of mistaken zealots can be
made to serve a good purpose.
As a result of the widespread campaign that reformers have
made through the public press and otherwise in recent years, there are
probably more people who have become acquainted with the real facts on the
Sabbath question than ever before, because every agitation by Sunday advocates
has made newspaper and magazine editors even more than ready to publish matter
giving the other side of the case. We would have been woefully remiss in our
duty if we had failed to use these opportunities.
3. We believe that there are many sincere and earnest men
in the ranks of Sunday-law advocates. In fact, we are willing to admit
[pg. 431]
all of them are striving, according to their
conception of the gospel, to advance the kingdom of God. But their sincerity
does not make their course any the less wrong. If their program is carried
out, and the strong arm of the law is drafted in their support, they will thus
become persecutors.
We can conceive of no fate more tragic than that of a man
whose misguided zeal for God finally cause him to become a persecutor of
others who are striving to preach the gospel. Christ foretold such a tragedy
as this when He declared that the time will come when he that "killeth
you will think that he doeth God service." This divine forecast was
fulfilled during the Middle Ages, and may be fulfilled again in the last days.
In fact, at the very last there will be only two classes, the persecutors and
the persecuted—those who give support to the great religio-political combine
and those who, because of the opposing stand, are forbidden even to buy or
sell. Not to save ourselves from being persecuted, but to save others from
being persecutors, is the chief reason for our stand against Sunday laws. We
have endeavored in all our literature to make clear to the reformers the evil
direction in which they are going, and it should ever be in our zealous
endeavor to do this in a spirit of charity and Christian love, making our
attack on principles, not on persons.
4. The Scriptures plainly declare that we owe allegiance to
the state, and should endeavor loyally and zealously to support it in the
carrying out of its proper function. (See Rom. 13:1-7; Matt. 22:16:21.) In
this fact is to be found a valid reason for our outcry against the endeavors
of reformers to combine the church with the state. Knowing as we do from
history and prophecy that such a combine can work only to the detriment of the
citizens and to the destruction of the free institutions of the country, we
would surely fail to carry out the full meaning of the divine injunction to
support the government if we failed to raise our voice in warning against such
a menacing danger.
The truly loyal citizen is the man who possesses the moral
courage to rise up and sound an alarm, even though he may be
[pg. 432]
in the minority, and his numerous opponents
may be the advocates of an apparently good program. And the one who thus
sounds the alarm is in no wise violating the principle of the separation of
church and state. Instead, he is arousing all men to the need of continuing
inviolate that vital separation.
5. Finally, we oppose Sunday legislation because we would
protect Christianity from the false conception of it that the masses of the
people would have if proposed religious legislation were allowed to go
unchallenged. One of the greatest handicaps under which the minister of the
gospel labors is the feeling of the part of the man on the street that the
church symbolizes an organization that is striving to force its views upon the
people. Surely there is a historical basis for such a feeling. And when the
average individual, who is not a churchgoer, see the endeavors of present-day
militant church leaders to employ the power of the state, the antipathy toward
the church is only intensified.
We are jealous to protect the Christian religion from this
gross misconception. We could not be loyal to our divine Lord if we did not
use every means possible to let men know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is
not a gospel of force, and that He has commissioned His disciples to invite
men to believe in Him. We would oppose with equal vigor any attempt to enforce
the seventh-day Sabbath by law.
Source: Answers to Objections, by Francis D. Nichol, copyright 1932, 1947, 1952, by the Review and Herald Publishing Association, pages 429-432.
 http://www.aloha.net/~mikesch/ |