February 11  A People Of The Book-1

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 2Tim. 3:16.

The most basic issue for any religious group is authority. Those who initiated the Seventh-day Adventist movement were clear on the topic. As James White put it in early 1847, "the Bible is a perfect and complete revelation. It is our only rule of faith and practice"

The Sabbatarians, as we shall see in the days to come, develped their distinctive doctrinal beliefs on the basis of Bible study. That fact was not always obvious to their detractors. Miles Grant, for example, argued in 1874 in the World's Crisis(a leading first-day Adventist periodical) that "it is claimed by the Seventh-day Adventists that the sancturary to be cleansed at the end of the 1300 [2300] days mentioned in Dan. 8:13, 14, is in heaven, and that the cleansing began in the autumn of A.D. 1844. If any one should ask why they thus believe, the answer would be, the information came through one of Mrs. E. G. White's visions."

Uriah Smith, editor of the Seventh-day Adventist Review and Herald, vigorously responded to that accusation. "hundreds of articles have been written upon the subject [of the sanctuary]. But in no one of these are the visions once referred to as any authority on this subject, or the source from whence any view we hold has been derived. Nor does any preacher ever refer to them on this question. The appeal is invariably to the Bible, where there is abundant evidence for the views we hold on this subject."

Smith, we should point out, made a statement that any person willing to go back into early Seventh-day Adventist literature can verify or disprove. Paul Gordon has done that on the subject of the sanctuary in The Sanctuary, 1844, and the Pineers(1983). His findings support Smith's claims.

The facts of the case are that whereas many later Adventists have tended to lean on Ellen White's authority or that of Adventist tradition, the early Adventists were a people of the "Book." Current Seventh-day Adventists of all persuations need to note that fact as they seek to discover the genuine Adventism of history. The good news is that God has given in His Book the words of life. We can rejoice today with the psalmist, who declared, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee"(Ps. 119:11).