Ellen G. White: The Progressive Years: 1862-1876 (vol. 2)

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Counsel to Seventh-day Adventists

Ellen White set forth principles that should guide Seventh-day Adventists in their relation to the war. 2BIO 49.1

I was shown that God's people, who are His peculiar treasure, cannot engage in this perplexing war, for it is opposed to every principle of their faith. In the army they cannot obey the truth and at the same time obey the requirements of their officers. There would be continual violation of conscience. Worldly men are governed by worldly principles.... But God's people cannot be governed by these motives.... 2BIO 49.2

Those who love God's commandments will conform to every good law of the land. But if the requirements of the rulers are such as conflict with the laws of God, the only question to be settled is: Shall we obey God, or man?—Ibid., 1:361, 362. (Italics supplied.) 2BIO 49.3

When this statement was published in January, 1863, there was not yet a draft. Military service in the Union forces was on an enlistment basis. 2BIO 49.4

In connection with the attitude Seventh-day Adventists should take to the war, Ellen White wrote on what their relation should be to the government of the nation: 2BIO 49.5

I saw that it is our duty in every case to obey the laws of our land, unless they conflict with the higher law which God spoke with an audible voice from Sinai, and afterward engraved on stone with His own finger. “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” 2BIO 49.6

He who has God's law written in the heart will obey God rather than man, and will sooner disobey all men than deviate in the least from the commandment of God. God's people, taught by the inspiration of truth, and led by a good conscience to live by every word of God, will take His law, written in their hearts, as the only authority which they can acknowledge or consent to obey. The wisdom and authority of the divine law are supreme.—Ibid., 1:361. 2BIO 49.7