ITS UNSCRUPULOUS FRAUDS The Third Article in an Exposé of This False Cult By E. B. Jones
I N Second Corinthians 2:17 (Wey mouth), Paul refers to “fraudulent hucksters o f God’s message.” Our Lord Jesus Christ, who knew how to speak very tenderly, also knew how to speak most severely. Note His words to certain religious leaders, as- recorded in John 8:44 (Weymouth): The father whose sons you are is the devil; and you desire to do what gives him pleasure. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand firm in the truth—fo r there is no truth in him. Whenever he utters his lie, he ut- ers it out of his own store; for he is a liar, and the father of lies. “ Is there anything wrong with Sev enth-day Adventism?” you ask. I an swer: “ Its unscrupulous frauds.” I am committed to the task of exposing false Seventh-day Adventism; but I am not, as some Adventists report, either “ bitter” or “ disgruntled” as a result of experi ences I had while one of their workers. However, let us hear the opinion of two men o f God who, never having been Ad ventists, could hardly be guilty of the charges brought against me. Dr. William L. Pettingill has this to say: “ The whole system of Seventh-day Adventism is built upon a lie and consists of a series of lies from beginning to end.” 1 Dr. Louis T. Talbot, in a discourse deliv ered in October, 1944, in the First Bap tist Church of Minneapolis, declared: “ Of all the false cults within Christen dom today, Seventh-day Adventism is the most deceptive and the most dangerous.” Let the next witness be the late D. M. Canright, a converted Adventist, who for twenty-eight years had been a prominent leader of the sect. He affirms: “ There is a streak of deception in the whole work of Seventh-day Adventists from the first to last . . . Do Baptists, Methodists, or any other evangelical churches have to practice such methods to cover up past mistakes? Not one of them. All are proud of their past. But Seventh-day Advent ists are ashamed of theirs, and well they may be.”2 Yes, indeed! Not only is Seventh-day Adventism false—founded upon nothing more stable than the “ sand” of errone ous interpretations of the Scriptures and the fancied “ divine revelations” of a neurotic girl, but it is today just as false as when originated. And now, because of its growth and temporal prosperity, it is even more dangerous. Conceived and nurtured in the atmosphere of illusion, it continues to depend upon the use of artful methods and deceptive practices. Consider these e x a m p l e s of their strategy: Their colporteurs avoid divulging the name of their sect and the denomina- J A N U A R Y , 1 9 4 8
tional identity of the concern they repre sent. They realize that their literature is almost universally regarded as being dangerous. Adventist evangelists, in their exten sive and expensive advertising, generally adopt fictitious names with which to disguise the identity of the Adventist church building in which they are to speak. Often they use a tent or a rented hall, and seek to give their campaign the appearance of a big union, or interde nominational meeting. They advertise sensational titles for their lectures. These evangelists know they must resort to camouflage and subterfuge if they are to attract and disarm “ the outsid ers.” Then there is their nearly world-wide weekly radio program, the identity of which is cleverly masked by designat ing it The Voice of Prophecy. Those who take part on this broadcast refrain from mentioning the name of the organization sponsoring it. They announce a course of studies offered in an astutely-titled “ free radio Bible correspondence course.” The magazine Revelation, in its Sep tember 1943 issue, editorially commented as follows regarding this Adventist broadcast: “ Some time ago we began receiving queries concerning a new na tional radio program. It was called The Voice of Prophecy, and originated in Los
Angeles. We had no occasion to listen to it, but some people with discernment said that it seemed orthodox on the sur face. But, little by little, after what the old sellers of patent medicine would call the ‘eome-on line,’ the real purpose of the broadcast could be seen. It was Sev enth-day Adventism, hiding itself, and ashamed of its name. Now we have been handed a book of seven sermons that were given in this broadcast. The first is innocuous. The title is ‘Is There Hope for Backsliders?’ and seems to present the gospel of the grace of God. But the second sermon adds law-keeping as a con dition of salvation, and leaves out a word in a verse spoken by Christ, in order to twist the teaching to the Adventist soul-sleeping doctrine. By the third ser mon, ‘the Lord’s day’ (Rev. 1:10) is in terpreted as being the Sabbath . . . And so on to the end. To anyone with discern ment, the cloak is off from the very be ginning, but for the simple, the lure at tracts until they are tempted to abandon the gospel of the grace of Christ for an other gospel which is not a n o t h e r (Gal. 1 :7 ).” There is yet another form of propa ganda which Adventist leaders make use of. It is the same that the scribes and Pharisees used against our Lord—fabri cation, studied misrepresentation of (Continued on Page 21)
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California
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