APPENDIX IV THE COVENANTAL SABBATH
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS ACKNOWLEDGE SINAITIC
DECALOGUE That the Ten Commandments of Sinai, though correctly representing the exact sence of the imperishable and unchangeable moral law, are nevertheless cast a peculiarly non-essential infralapsarian form thereof, also seems to be frankly admitted by the most authoritative spokesman for Seventh-Day Adventism, Mrs. E. G. White, where she writes: "The Law of Jehovah, dating back to creation, was comprised in the two great principles, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these’. These two great principles embrace the first four commandments showing the duty of man to God, and the last six, showing the duty of man to his fellow man. The principles were more explicitly stated man after the fall, and worded to meet the case of fallen intelligences. This is necessary in consequence of the minds of men being blinded by transgression". (White: Signs of the Times, April 15th, 1875). [Our italics—N.L.]. Hence Mrs. White maintains that the "law of Jehovah" was "comprised in the two great principles" of Matt. 22 :36-40 at "creation"; that "these principles were more explicitly stated to man after the fall"; and that they were then "worded to meet the case of fallen intelligences" — hence (re-) worded, or worded differently their prior manner of communication which (re-)wording, she states, was necessary in consequence of the minds of men being blinded by transgression". Could the non-identical-ness of the form (or wording) of the Ten Commandments as such and the essence (or content) of the moral law as such be made clearer than this? Yost also supplies the following helpful table to prove that the moral law (and hence the sabbath) existed before Sinai: "The law, or the sins it condemns, known
from Eden: Rom. 5:12-17; 7:7; Gen. 3:7-21; 26:1-5:
Now let Yost’s heading here be noted. It runs:
"The law, OR the sins it condemns, known from
Eden". Exactly! Here is yet another tacit admission that the
form in which God’s moral law comes to man at any given
point in history is by no means identical to its essence and
basic authority for all given points in history, as a comparison
of each item of this table of Yost’s with the Ten Commandments or
with the whole of our table immediately after p. 23 (supra)
will soon show.
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