THOUGHTS ON THE HOLINESS QUESTION by T. R. Williamson

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, March 17, 1885

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 62, No. 11

THOUGHTS ON THE HOLINESS QUESTION.

By T. R. Williamson

BY T. R. WILLIAMSON.

I was lately asked the following question by a representative man of the “holiness people: “Do you not think, in view of the relations existing between the two parties (God and man), that in order to live a holy life, something more is necessary than the mere keeping of the law?” He thought that the law of the ten commandments was a part,—“a very essential part,”—of holiness, but not enough; that in order to be holy, a knowledge of the law was not absolutely necessary; that a man who disobeyed the law unwittingly, so that he was conscientious in his disobedience, had as much right to be considered holy as one who faithfully kept the whole law, having a full knowledge of its requirements; and that if this were not so, then all who perished by torture and at the stake through the long rule of the popes of Rome, were lost, as “without holiness no man can see the Lord.” He thought also that those who did thus perish from off the earth, gave the best proof that could be given (that of laying down their lives for their faith) that they loved God in all sincerity and truth.

The position taken really amounts to saying that there is a holiness outside of God’s law; that the law does not cover all the grounds, is too low a standard of holiness; and that a man may be holy above and beyond the law. This is about the belief of the votaries of the holiness theory as it is commonly preached and practiced in the orthodox churches; and it would seem as if people must be poor readers of the Bible to give credence to any such ideas. They must be really ignorant of what the law of God is, as well as of what it requires.

In Luke 10: 26, Jesus asks the question of the lawyer, “What is written in the law? how readest thou?” And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.” Now if love to God to the very utmost extent of our ability, and love to our neighbor as ourself, “is written in the law,” he should be a holy man indeed who should keep all the law, and yet find possible attainments of holiness of so high and pure a quality that the law could not in its weakness and inadequacy cover them.

As I understand Scripture, every prayer recorded by God’s servants upon its hallowed pages was offered up in order that weak human beings might be forgiven the transgression of the pure law of God, or be enabled to keep its requirements. Every threatening given to the “peculiar people,” or to any people, every punishment visited upon any one in the world, has been in consequence of the violation of the law, and thus shall it ever be; and every mercy vouchsafed, or promised for the present or for the glorious future, has been and shall be for those who keep God’s commandments. Take the long 119th Psalm; read it through carefully from beginning to end, and note how the Psalmist in his pursuit of holiness uses over and over again in terms of highest praise the words “commandment,” “law,” “precepts,” “testimonies.” Read John’s opinion of those who claim to be holy and yet break the commandments, 1 John, chapters 1, 2, 3. Let some one who has in this present life ascended above that law which is perfect, above that commandment which is holy and just and good, just tell the rest of us weary pilgrims what noble acts, what shining duties, he finds to perform, which are not included in loving God with every power of the soul and body, and our neighbor as ourselves.

I have heard the complaint made that Seventh-day Adventists have no settled or satisfactory theory as to what constitutes holiness; but I think that as long as we hold that God’s law is in full force, and is a complete rule of action, and that it is explained and commented upon and exemplified by the remainder of the Bible, binding every man and woman and responsible child upon the whole earth to the utmost possible extent of every effort of the heart, will, and life, and that not even an approach can be made to its fulfillment in human conduct without the continual assistance of divine grace, we have about as good a theory in explanation of the requirements for holy living as can be found upon the earth.

And now about the martyrs,—I would not rob them of a single glory, nor cast upon their names the shadow of an accusation. They sealed their testimony with their blood, and are not amenable to our judgment; but we have the right to say that what agrees with the law of the ten commandments is right, and what violates that law is wrong in any age, whether in their time or ours. They were mistaken in keeping the first day of the week instead of the seventh day, where they did so. They were mistaken in not preserving inviolate the ordinances of feet-washing and baptism in the forms originated by the Lord himself. See also the message of the Spirit to the church of Thyatira, given in Rev. 2: 18 and to the end of the chapter; and as there were sacrifices appointed in ancient Israel for those sins which were unwittingly committed (thus showing that infractions of God’s rules are sin always), so, according to the testimony of the Spirit of God, Jesus offers special intercession for those who were truly his, yet who (under a mistake) kept those erroneous practices.

Giving one’s life for the gospel is not the highest test of love for the gospel. There were many during our late war who died lingering deaths in the prisons of the South because of their unwillingness to join hands with the confederate government against their country, who yet committed small crimes, and even crimes of some magnitude, such as stealing from their friends, sometimes petty articles, sometimes the very food which kept their comrades alive. Some of them were actually put to death for their robberies and depredations by a court of the prisoners themselves. Many a man in the ranks of the army evinced his willingness to give his life for his country, who yet while he lived failed, as did the prisoners already cited, to keep his country’s laws, and thus prove himself the highest kind of friend that a nation can have. A man may give his life for a principle, and yet while living be unwilling to be governed in every action and thought by that principle.

The quality of firmness will, if possessed in large degree, so set a man in a determination to oppose all odds and all enemies and all torture, that nothing can move him from his set purpose, while yet his life may be but indifferently controlled by the motives which give him inflexibility in death. I do not say these things to prove that the martyrs who died so gloriously for the faith were guilty of crimes, or that they did not love God, but to prove that the giving of one’s life is not the highest proof of devotion to principle, and can never take the place, as a test of devotion, of the faithful adherence to known duty in every particular through life. A general commanding a body of men would find those the most efficient and useful soldiers who understood and faithfully obeyed all of his orders; and he would love them best too, knowing that in the performance of duty they would not hesitate to give their lives also if that were required. Of course he would love those who under the stress of suffering and terrible temptation refused to desert him, though they constantly misconstrued and misunderstood his plainly written commands; but the first mentioned would in his estimation be worthy of the highest honor. “To obey is better than sacrifice;” “Though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.” This last quoted scripture shows that even the suffering of death by fire is possible without love, and that such a death is entirely without profit.

The only test of love to God or his law given in the Bible is the keeping of the commandments: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.” “But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected.” “For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments.” Everything that God requires of us, everything that we can do, the very utmost that an angel can do, aye, the very utmost that the Son of God can do, is contained in these two commands which are “written in the law.”

The law is everything; without it God’s government would fail. In order to explain it clearly, kings and prophets have lived and written. To reveal its perfect beauty, inspired poets have sung their most ecstatic strains. For its broad and benign liberty, men have freely given their lives. To vindicate its honor and majesty, Jesus lived, and taught, and suffered crucifixion. In heaven, earth, the sea, or in the stars that blaze on forever in the limitless space above, a creature is not to be found who is or who can be holy above the requirements of the law of God. Life in obedience to it is in nearer accordance with the Scriptural test of love, than death in its defense, with a mind in error as to its requirements. Tennyson says, “Obedience is the courtesy due to kings:” God is our King.

Tallmadge, O.