Will men be condemned for sins of ignorance? We answer, Yes, if they are “willingly,” or willfully, ignorant. For proof see Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me. Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” And Christ, in speaking of that wicked people who lived before the flood, says, in Matt. 24:39, that they “knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
We are commanded in John 5:39 to “search the Scriptures.” Now, if we refuse or neglect to do this, we shall be justly condemned, not for ignorance only, but for ignorance and disobedience. In Prov. 2:3-5, we are told how to seek: “Yea, if thou priest after knowledge, and lightest up they voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.” Do we have the same interest and zeal in seeking for heavenly wisdom, the Christian graces, the eternal home, that we have in seeking for the things of this perishing earth?
When, in the fulfillment of prophecy, the time comes to have the world warned of its coming doom, we cannot hide behind willful ignorance. I have known persons who expressed sorrow that they had found the truth, or, rather, that the truth had found them. This shows that their hearts were not right with God. We should rejoice more heartily to find out what the will of God is concerning us, than to find silver and gold.
The question is often asked, Will people be lost who in past centuries have been ignorant in regard to the true Sabbath? There are some who think they will; but we have good reasons to believe that those in every generation who live up to the light they have, and seek for more, will be saved. For proof see Acts 17:29. in the previous verses the people are reproved for idolatry; but verse 30 reads thus: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commanders all men everywhere to repent.” In the light of the above scripture, we cannot deny the fact that God made some allowance for those who lived in that time of ignorance.
The treading down of the law of God is a matter of prophecy. See Dan. 7:25; 2Thess. 2:3,4. In Deut. 19:4-6, we have testimony showing that the motives and secret thoughts of the heart are taken into account by the righteous Judge of all the earth. In the above text we find these words: “Whoso killeth his neighbor ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past,… he shall flee into one of those cities [of refuge], and live,” lest the avenger of blood pursue him, “and slay him; whereas he was not worthy of death.” In this case he had killed a man,—broken the letter of the sixth commandment; but he had not hated him in time past, and did not contemplate murder. He was free from guilt,—“was not worthy of death.” A city of refuge had been provided for him.
In the first case mentioned in this article, the people had broken the first commandment. God winked at the transgression, but after light came to them, commanded them to repent. In the second case, a man had broken the sixth commandment, but as he had not intended to do so, he “was not worthy of death.” If the fourth commandment were broken under similar circumstances, should the decision be different? In John 9:41, in answer to the Jews, Jesus said, “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”
From the foregoing we must conclude that the sin comes with the knowledge of the transgression, unless we have “rejected knowledge,” and have taken the course mentioned in Eze. 22:26; “Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.”
To-day there are people all over the land who are hiding their eyes from God’s Sabbath and its kindred truths; others are saying, “We see,” but they will not obey; and yet a third class are living up to all the light they have. May God speed the work, till the voice of the last message is heard all over the land, and the honest ones are gathered to their eternal home.
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald Oct. 10, 1882
By C. A. Washburn