MATERIAL, OR IMMATERIAL?
By James White
Which? Material, or immaterial? We have neither time nor space at present to answer this question which seems to trouble some of our respected Christian friends. S. D. Adventists rest and worship on the day on which God rested after creating the material world in the preceding six days of the first week of time. We also immerse in material water as the only mode of Christian baptism. If our faith and practice relative to the ancient Sabbath of the Lord, and baptism, makes us worthy of the brand “Materialists,” the S. D. Baptists may wear it quite as well as S. D. Adventists; as they were centuries before us in faith and practice in these particulars. And if to look for that same Jesus to come again as he ascended from Olivet, that we shall see him when he shall appear, and that he is really coming himself to raise the righteous dead, and reward them according to their works, be condemned as “grossly materialistic,” the stigma rests equally upon the head of our adorable Redeemer, holy angels from the courts of glory, and the great apostle Paul. And if holding that God “only hath immortality,” 1 Tim. 6:16, and that it is brought “to light through the gospel,” 2 Tim. 1:10, not as an inheritance, but bestowed as a reward, Rom. 2:7, when the last trump shall sound at the second coming of Christ, 1 Thess. 4:16; 1 Cor. 15:52; and that sin and all sinners will cease to be, at the completion of the grand scheme of human redemption, Ps. 37:10, 20, 22; Mal. 4:1; Obad., verse 16; 2 Pet. 2:12; Rev. 20:9, be regarded as heresy worthy of shots from the guns of immaterialists, S. D. Adventists will hide behind the plain declarations of God’s word, stand the cannonading the best they can, and hold their present positions till our immaterialistic friends give us clearer light. But seriously, we call in question the good taste of two recent writers for the Sabbath Recorder, who use language not at all complimentary to S. D. Adventists. Bro. Main, in the issue for Nov. 13, under the caption, “Is it Wise?” says:— “Is it wise and right to want to have our Conference represented in the Adventist Conference by a delegate, to pass a resolution expressing our great satisfaction at the success of that people, and in other ways to assure them how large a place they fill in our Christian esteem? As for me, I firmly believe such a course to be both unwise and wrong. Their system of doctrine is unquestionably a grossly materialistic system, and our doctrines mold our life and character; and we cannot hope to lead them out of it by fellowshipping them in it. It strikes me that here is a test of the consistency of our so-called ‘close communion’ views.” “Again, they would undoubtedly overthrow every one of our churches in a day, were they able to do it. And this is something they certainly have a right to do. We would convert all the churches in the land into Sabbath-keeping churches, if we could. But it does not seem to me to be either right or wise to tell them that we are exceedingly glad, unless we really are, that they are so successful in making inroads upon our churches, and in spreading heresies that are so full of moral poison.” “A prominent member of one of our small churches, and a Seventh-day Adventist minister, called upon another prominent member, to whom the suggestion was made by the visiting brother that the church might be transferred to the Adventists. It is but just to say that Eld. White assured the writer that this minister is not to receive a preaching certificate another year. (He is, however, again on the field.) But are they prepared to do a wholesale business, if it be necessary, in the same direction, and so give good proof of their sincerity?” Again Elder Main says, “And such a people are in danger of employing questionable methods and measures.” No comment needed. We will say, however, that what Eld. White has said to Eld. Main and his brethren in public or private, he will be happy to meet again before competent witnesses at any proper time and occasion. The minister of whom he speaks came over from the no-law Adventists not long since, and brought with him much of the peculiar lawlessness of that people, and has taken such a course that he failed to get his credentials renewed at his Conference at its last session. Our people have no use for him. They have done their duty; and if this man will preach without credentials and support from S. D. Adventists, neither Elder White nor his brethren can stop him. If Elder Main thinks he can silence him, he can have the job. It is the veriest childishness to make us responsible for his being “again on the field.” Elder Wheeler, in the Recorder for Nov. 6, says: “The Adventists are steadily on the move, and as they stimulate thought, there is more and more demand for Seventh-day Baptists. This will increase. The errors of the Adventists are so numerous and in some instances so absurd, that they will be rejected more and still more as they are investigated.” Thank God that our errors are being rejected, and the Lord’s truth we hold and teach is being received by hundreds. May the prophecy of Elder Wheeler not fail, that our errors be rejected more and still more as they shall be investigated. That word “investigated” reads well, and we suggest a change in the exercises on this wise: Let investigation take the place of this wholesale dealing in unqualified assertions, rash declarations and unworthy insinuations. May God pity S. D. Adventists that they are so few in numbers, and so unworthy the name they hold and the doctrine they teach. But to show whether our views are being rejected by the discriminating public mind, we can record an increase during the last Conference year of twenty-seven ministers, fifty churches, and eleven hundred and fourteen members. “During the last year,” says the editor of the Sabbath Recorder, “we decreased in numbers twenty-seven.” These good men may imagine that they are doing S. D. Adventists, and all the rest of the world, great favors in dealing out upon us their sweeping assertions to pass into print in the venerable organ of the S. D. Baptists. But they are taking a bad way to help us. One ounce of proof will do us more real good than a hundred weight of assertions and harsh denunciations. But we are happy to know that the reliable men of the S. D. Baptist ministry are not pleased with these unchristian thrusts. The objectionable circumstances on the part of S. D. Adventists which have given rise to unpleasantness between the two bodies, we have referred to in previous articles. We as a people have not been able to control all those who preached S. D. Adventism. And if the S. D. Baptists find similar difficulties in a few cases, the entire body should not be judged by them, and consigned to the dark regions of heresy. It would be better for the cause of S. D. Adventists to-day, if they had as few unreasonable and unmanageable men as the S. D. Baptists. The movements and growth of the S. D. Baptists have been slow, while our movements and growth have been rapid. Time and discipline have fanned away the chaff, removed the hay, wood and stubble, and consolidated them. With us it is astonishing how the chaff flies sometimes, and the hay, wood and stubble move off from the gold, silver and precious stones, as if under Divine direction, as the creatures moved into Noah’s ark. Had it not been for the elements of confusion and insubordination brought in among us by the no-day-first-day Adventists, and if in exchange S. D. Adventists could have started in with the experience, education and refinement of the S. D. Baptists as a body, with the mighty truths we hold, we would now have an influence over the public mind a hundred-fold what it is. We have no fears of the results of this matter. A better understanding of the real feeling of the body of S. D. Baptists toward S. D. Adventists will exist. These things, unpleasant for the present, will work out good in the end. S. D. Adventists will be better understood, and, at least, will be regarded as a body of sincere Christians; and we in return will love and respect the S. D. Baptists, and observe the Golden Rule with greater care,—“Do unto others as you would have them do to you.”