Bates Spreads The Sabbath-3

March 7  Bates Spreads The Sabbath-3

 


And he shall speak great words against the most High. . .and think to change times and laws. Dan. 7:25. 


 

August 1846 saw the publication of Bates' first little book on the Sabbath-The Seventh-day Sabbath, a Perpetual Sign, From the Beginning to the Entering Into the Gates of the Holy City. According to the Commandment. 

 

That's quite a title! But it indicates his firm belief in the importance of the Sabbath at the end of time. 

The 1846 edition of that little book (it was only 48 pages) presented a largely Seventh Day Baptist concept of the Sabbath. Thus Bates set forth the ideas that the seventh-day Sabbath was the correct day of worship and that the Papacy had attempted to change God's law(Dan. 7:25). 

But two points of special interest in the 1846 edition of that book indicate that bates was beginning to interpret the Sabbath in the light of an Adventist theological framework. 

The first is the thought in the preface that "the seventh day" is "to be restored before the second advent of Jesus Christ." That idea derived from the restorationist platform that Bates brought with him from the Christian Connexion. Thus the Reformation was not complete and would not be until all the great Bible truths neglected or perverted down through history found their rightful place in God's church. 

 

The second very Adventist tilt in the 1846 edition is Bates' interpretation of the Sabbath within the context of the book of Revelation. He tied the Sabbath no Revelation 14:12:"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." He also pointed out in alluding to verse 7, with its command to "worship him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters," that "the seventh-day Sabbath is more clearly included in these commandments" than the other nine. 

 

It is that very emphasis that had turned off Ellen Harmon. But Bates didn't back off just because he ran into criticism and rejection.

Help us, Lord, to keep our eyes open to the implications of Your word. And give us strength when we discover important truths.