Recently there was an article on Advindicate about whether we should keep the feasts of the Lord or not. The author was quite against the feasts, and recommended me to check what James White wrote in the first volume of the Present Truth magazine in 1849. Here is my response:
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Yes, the Present Truth was a wonderful impetus to the 7th day Sabbath message – Praise God!
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We need to remember that just a couple of years earlier, James and even Ellen White were against the 7th day Sabbath. Joseph Bates was the main promoter among the Advent people.
Here are two quotes from volume 1 of that magazine, written by James White.”The law of Moses, was a law of shadows, which were abolished when the new, second, and better covenant came.”
“while the Gentile Christians were free from these customs, as they had not been educated in them.”
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But we see from inspired writings that he was mistaken.
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In consequence of continual transgression, the moral law was repeated in awful grandeur from Sinai. Christ gave to Moses religious precepts which were to govern the everyday life. These statutes were explicitly given to guard the ten commandments. They were not shadowy types to pass away with the death of Christ. They were to be binding upon man in every age as long as time should last. These commands were enforced by the power of the moral law, and they clearly and definitely explained that law. {RH, May 6, 1875}
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The Lord Jesus gave these commandments from the pillar of cloud, and Moses repeated them to the children of Israel and wrote them in a book, that they might not depart from righteousness. We are under obligation to fulfill these specifications; for in so doing we fulfill the specifications of the law of God. {RH, December 18, 1894}
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The light given me is that we are to study more than we do the instruction given to Moses by God after He had proclaimed the law from Sinai. The ten commandments were spoken by God Himself, and were then written on tables of stone, to be preserved till the judgment should take place. After the giving of the law, God gave Moses specifications regarding the law. These specifications are plain and explicit. No one need make a mistake.
In the day of judgment we shall be asked whether we have lived in harmony with these specifications. It is because we do not carry out these specifications in all our dealings, in our institutions, our families, and in our individual lives, at all times, and in all places, that we do not make greater advancement. It is by the directions that God has given that we shall be judged at the last day. {AUCR, March 25, 1907
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So let’s keep all of God’s commandments, statutes, and judgments, as we are going to be judged by them, and so we can make greater spiritual advancement. 🙂
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Many of us Seventh-day Adventists basically sing this tune:
Be like Jesus, this my song,
In the home and in the throng;
Be like Jesus, all day long! (unless it’s a feast day)
I would be (somewhat) like Jesus.