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Replies to Elder Canright’s Attacks on Seventh-day Adventists

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    CANRIGHT FOR THE SABBATH

    “A great council of all the apostles and leading brethren was called at Jerusalem to consider this question. Verses 1-6. After much discussion Peter arose and said: ‘Why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?’ Verse 10. The ceremonial law, with its rites, its washings, its distinctions of clean and unclean, and its sacrifices was indeed a difficult law to observe. It might well be termed ‘a yoke.’”RCASDA 51.2

    “Are the ten commandments a yoke grievous to be borne? Look at them. 1. Have no gods but the Lord, Is this a yoke of bondage? Who dare affirm it? 2. Do not worship an image. Did the disciples find it grievous to obey this? Did they want liberty to disobey it? 3. Do not profane God’s name. Was this a yoke hard to bear? Omit the fourth. 5. Honor your parents. Is this the galling yoke? 6. Do not kill. 7. Nor commit adultery. 8. Nor steal. 9. Nor lie. 10. Nor covet. Where do we find a hard yoke in any of these, which ought to be thrown off? It is not there. Then it must be the Sabbath, if in the decalogue at all. But is it a hard thing to rest upon God’s sacred day, to give him one day out of seven? But that was not the subject about which they were troubled. It was circumcision, concerning which there was not one word in the whole decalogue.RCASDA 51.3

    “After thoroughly discussing this question, the apostles wrote to the Gentiles thus: ‘Forasmuch as we have heard that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law; to whom we gave no such commandment....It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves ye shall do well.’ Acts 15:24-29.RCASDA 52.1

    “‘There,’ says one, ‘the apostles have enumerated and brought over into the gospel all of the old law that it was necessary to keep; but they do not mention the Sabbath: therefore it is not binding.’ Profound conclusion! Look again. They do not say a word about swearing, lying, stealing, murdering, or coveting. Therefore the commandments which forbid these sins are not to be obeyed any longer! Indeed, not one of the ten commandments is mentioned at all. Every item enumerated is found in either the ceremonial or the civil law. The meats offered to idols were food set before an idol, and then removed to be eaten by men. Blood, and things strangled, were forbidden by the Levitical law. Leviticus 17:13-16. Fornication was, no doubt, one of the minor branches embraced in the seventh commandment; but there was a civil law directly mentioning and prohibiting it. Leviticus 19:29; Deuteronomy 23:17. Observe that this was not done away, but retained because it had a bearing upon the moral law.RCASDA 52.2

    “Notice this important fact: The great question before the apostles was whether or not a certain law was still to be kept by Christians. Acts 15:5-24. They decide that it is not, with the exception of four points, which they enumerate. So much of that law as they here specify should still be observed. All the rest is to be disregarded. If, therefore, the ten commandments and the moral precepts of the Old Testament are included in the law here under discussion, then Christians can lie, steal, covet, etc. Yea, and the commands to love God and your neighbor are also abolished, with all the moral precepts of the Old Testament!RCASDA 52.3

    “This conclusion cannot be evaded; for the apostles distinctly say that excepting the four items mentioned, no part of the law under consideration is to be observed by Christians. If, therefore, there was only one law in the Old Testament, covering all its precepts, then the great commandment to love God with all your heart (Deuteronomy 6:5), and the second, to love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18), are abolished. What a blasphemous conclusion! What do our opponents do with this dilemma? What do they say about it?—Just nothing at all. They are speechless. Yet they will doggedly cling to their position and bring it up again and again, with all these absurdities staring them in the face.”—Canright in Two Laws, pp. 28-32.RCASDA 53.1

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