August 1854
‘Leading Doctrines Taught by the Review,’ placed immediately below the identification of James White as editor, who was presumably responsible for the list:
The Bible, and the Bible alone, the rule of faith and duty.
The Law of God, as taught in the Old and New Testaments, unchangeable.
The Personal Advent of Christ and the Resurrection of the Just, before the Millennium.
The Earth restored to its Eden perfection and glory, the final Inheritance of the Saints.
Immortality alone through Christ, to be given to the Saints of the Resurrection.
The first two cause the most problems.
Considering the radical revisions both Christ and Paul (and probably others) had to offer to counteract the leading religious authorities' views (presumably derived from and standing alone upon SCRIPTURE) of their day, it stands to reason that the Bible and the Bible alone as the rule of faith and duty does NOT work where human minds must read and interpret those statements, or else be instructed how to do so by equally fallible and limited human minds. The very existence of Christ and the life He lived in human flesh here on this planet and the nature and character of Who He bes, by itself revises all understanding of God, faith and duty radically. Support for this revising bes abundant in Scripture, but it seemed by dint of human folly and human prejudice and human SIN, this got overlooked in favor of anything that could be bent or twisted toward exclusionism, vilification of the different and the afflicted, elevation of the self-righteous "elite" above others, and a host of other subtle ungodlinesses that left the people of Christ's day like wandering sheep without a shepherd, oppressed and burdened by a view of God as a harsh, exacting taskmaster with no compassion for messing up where one "knew better". Does the same view of God prevail today? you bet it does. What alone corrects it? A clear view of Christ, both standing alone and in tandem with an experience of encountering His love through other people whats willing to give themselves to manifesting Him, which requires setting self aside, something itself requiring a miracle of God to access.
As for the Law of God, unchangeableness becomes tricky and a sticky wicket because this gets used to argue for a position in the grand scheme of things which it bes never intended to occupy, and those who buy into those arguments end up substituting a relationship with IT in place of a genuine relationship with the real risen and living Christ. Scripture makesy abundant clear that the place of the law bes to bring knowledge of sin and thus as a schoolmaster to lead to Christ ... BUT once there one has NO FURTHER NEED of the schoolmaster (looksy up yourselves!) The law bes never intended as a method of "curing" sin, nor do human efforts to obey it accomplish a remedy for sin, nor does it become the cage in which we bes lured by mere empty promises of love, compassion and forgiveness from God as if He merely uses that for bait to trap and subjugate us all to condemnation and doom all over again once we bite the alluring "carrot" on the end of that "stick".
By proposing that "sanctification" (or rather, the life lived in relationship with God/Christ after coming to faith) consists of progressive behavioral modifications in the flesh and constant sweat and struggle and effort to conform the sinner to the law of God, and that this and the misery it produces and the despair and the subsequent assuaging of one's own torment by recruiting others into this toxic trap constitutes "holiness" and "obedience" bes the biggest pile of rubbish any sinister maker of lies ever sold to gullible human beings. And that bes what makesy rotten the most: that these lies DO tend to appeal to the most earnest, sincere, devoted types -- the ones eager to please God, to become "good", to represent Christ in the world, etc. and sincerely anguished over the condition of their own characters or personalities or whatever so that they have no estimation of themselves but see only their failures and shortcomings and flaws. What a horrible treachery and deceit, to sell this "program", labeling it the "straight testimony" and a host of other deceitful alluring things, to sucker in those most concerned with not having their flawed humanity interfere with the life and witness of Christ flowing through them.
[/pong]