10 Commandments Summarized in Poem by Joseph Bates

1. "No God but me thou shalt adore; 

2. No Image frame to bow before; 

3. My Holy Name take not in vain' 

4. My sacred Sabbath don't profane; 

5. To parents render due respect; 

6. All murder shun and malice check; 

7. From filth and whoredom base, abstain; 

8. From theft and all unlawful gain; 

9. False witness flee and slandering spite; 

10. Nor covet what's thy neighbor's right.
1st John 2:4 'He that saith I know Him and keep not His commandments is a LIAR and the truth is not in him.'
Joseph Bates

SDA History: War of 1812 POW, Church Pioneer Bates

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11

"Probably his most trying experience was as a prisoner of the British during the War of 1812. 

At that time the British used impressment to fill the ranks of their

Navy. One April evening in 1810, 12 men and an officer entered a boardinghouse in Liverpool, England, where they “seized and dragged” Joseph Bates and some other Americans and put them in jail. 

The next day Bates and those with him were forced into the British Navy. Bates served on two large Royal Navy fighting ships. 

In 1812 the United States declared war on England because of the impressment issue and maritime rights. Bates and his American companions demanded to be made prisoners of war, as

they refused to fight against their own country. 

The British granted their request, and as prisoners of war they were confined on various prison ships. After numerous escape attempts, Bates and his friends were sent to Dartmoor Prison, a damp and dreary place near Plymouth, England. While there, Bates witnessed the “massacre,” when British guards opened fire on the prisoners, killing seven and wounding 60.
Finally the Treaty of Ghent was signed, and in April of 1815 Bates returned home a free man. After an absence of more than six years, Bates received a warm welcome. Among those who welcomed him was a childhood friend, Prudence Nye, who in 1818 became his wife." AR

Lesson of the Strictness of Guarding The Sanctuary

"....the Ark of the Covenant

containing the ten original
commandments, of which Moses received a copy, pattern or type, and placed it in the typical sanctuary here on earth.
The Ark of the Testimony from which comes the Sabbath commandment.....

*See with what sacred strictness and attention He required it to be guarded, --- sanctified Levites to pitch around about and guard it 

"But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony.....But those that encamp before the tabernacle toward the east, even before the tabernacle of the congregation eastward, shall be Moses, and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death." Numbers 1:53; 3:38:

Q: Is there any less attention in guarding the original Covenant in heaven?
A: No. There it is deposited in the Ark, covered with the Mercy Seat. ---A Cherubim on each end covering it with their wings; ...our great High Priest stands before it, and God between the Cherub Wings above, with his all-seeing eye upon it.
---Ten thousand times ten thousand angels for an outside guard.

Now we are told by one class of people
--that the 4th commandment in this Covenant was changed or altered at the resurrection of Jesus,
--while another in all their zeal declare they were all abolished at the crucifixion of Jesus.
*Neither of these two classes of people can produce one single text from Genesis to Revelation to prove their assertion.

God says, 

"My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." (Psalm 89:34).

He has said he will not BREAK NOR ALTER! God cannot lie! 

Why continue to charge Him with folly! 

His commandments are as holy, 

pure and binding to-day, 

as ever they were."

Joseph Bates

The True Meaning of the Cleansing of the Sanctuary

".....if we turn to Lev.16:15 - "And he shall make an atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins." etc.; see also 29-34 verses, particularly the 30th verse. 

 

Then the true meaning of the cleansing of the sanctuary is, Christ our high priest in the sanctuary which the Lord pitched and not man; Heb.13:2, that is, the new Jerusalem in the heavens, making atonement, or blotting out the sins of His true waiting people; and while He is doing this, they are in their trial. 

 

"Here is the patience of the Saints," as it was in the type referred to, with this difference - their day and trial and atonement was "from even to even," just twenty-four hours, whereas ours is to be until God roars out of Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem, then Jerusalem will be holy, the atonement will be finished. - Joel 3:16,17 - God's people be cleansed, sealed, and the captivity of Zion turned. His will be the shaking of the Heavens and the earth, the sea and all nations." Joseph Bates

The Mariner's Dead Reckoning (& ours)

"Every anxious traveler knows what a relief it is to his mind to find a guide board, a mile stone, or a post. 

But the mariner has to be more particular. Instead of finding guide boards and mile posts on the Ocean, he has to chain out the distance he runs, and so prove it by signs in the heavens - something after the following manner. - He takes the bearing by compass, and then judges his distance from the land or lighthouse that is now receding from his view.

 

At 12 o'clock every day this account is made up and recorded in the journal of the voyage. This is what the sailor calls dead reckoning. Every day when the sun is not obscured by clouds, the captain and officers ascertain the ship's position in relation to her latitude, by watching the sun, and noting the moment she leaves the Eastern and passes into the Western Hemisphere

  

*As the Mariner is here dependent on the celestial scenery, (sun, moon and stars,) to correct every now and then his dead reckoning, so the followers of Jesus are ever seeking from the Sun of Righteousness, whose habitation is in the heavens, a more correct view of their wanderings over the ocean of time, to correct their dead reckoning, and inspire them with unshaken confidence to pursue their pilgrimage toward the heavenly Canaan.

 
*But ah, how many professed followers of Jesus, after launching out from the shores of sin and folly, with strong determinations to pursue the voyage over life's rough sea for the heavenly Canaan of rest, have laid down their watch, and thrown by their instruments of observation, and concluded to pursue their onward course and trust alone for their destination to their dead reckoning.  

 

The case of Jacob, being overtaken by his father-in-law Laban, they

finally made a covenant that they never would pass that place to harm each other, and that they may never forget this covenant, Jacob took a stone and set it up for a pillar (or way mark) and told his brethren to gather stones and make a heap, the margin reads the heap of witness, beacon or watch-tower. 

Laban says, this heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me for harm. Gen. 31,43-52.
Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark. Deut.27:17.." Joseph Bates

Character Traits Revealed by "nicknames" for Sabbath

"One trait in their characters is now pretty clearly developed, that is

- they are Sabbath haters! 

The law of God is nicknamed by them, the 'Jewish Ritual,' the 'Jewish Sabbath,' etc, etc., thus virtually showing up their characters in these perilous times, according to Paul, as covenant breakers, boasters, proud, blasphemers, denying the righteous law of God, and yet professing to believe the whole word of God. 'As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses.' (2 Tim. 3:8) so do some of these leading men resist the truth." 

Joseph Bates

The Rythem & Rhyme of the 10 Commandments

Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor thy father and thy mother. Luke 18:20

 

1. "No God but me thou shalt adore;

2. No Image frame to bow before;

3. My Holy Name take not in vain'

4. My sacred Sabbath don't profane;

5. To parents render due respect;

6. All murder shun and malice check;

7. From filth and whoredom base, abstain;

8. From theft and all unlawful gain;

9. False witness flee and slandering spite;

10. Nor covet what's thy neighbor's right."

Joseph Bates

Joseph Bates on Rev. 7:1-4

"REV. 7:1-4 

And after these things I saw four messengers standing on the four quarters
of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that a wind might not blow on the
earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another messenger ascending
from the rising of the sun having a seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four messengers to whom it was given to injure the earth and the
sea: Saying, injure not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads! And I heard the number of those sealed.
A hundred and forty and four thousand were sealed of all the tribes of the
children of Israel.

 
I have given Professor Whiting's translation of the above verses in preference to king James's because I perceive wherein he has differed from the latter in several words; it has made the vision more clear and distinct. 

For instance, four quarters of the earth is more proper than four

corners, because the earth has no corners.
2nd. A wind, is clear, and admits of a choice of the different kinds of winds spoken of in the Bible, whereas the definite article, the wind, as in king James's translation, confines us to one kind of wind only.
3rd. A seal is clear, the seal is not, because there is more than one sealing spoken of in the Bible, viz: seal the Gospel, 2nd Timothy; seal of God; seal of the living God.
4th. From the rising of the sun, instead of the east.......

It must be very evident to the Bible reader that John in his vision saw the servants of God sealed with a seal of the living God, just before the four messengers let go.....The earth and sea is here personified, meaning the living people that are on the earth and sea.....A WIND, which they seem to have the power to hold, is something that will injure the inhabitants of the earth, and sea, as soon as they let go; hence the cry of the sealing angel for them to injure not the earth,
sea or trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.....When Michael stands up, this trouble will be all over the earth.

 

And signifies subscribe, represent, notify, mark. This being the
signification of a sign, it is the same as seal. God says that he gave the Sabbath for a perpetual covenant and "a sign (or seal) between him and the children of Israel forever. (His reasons for it are,) for, (or because) in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed." - Exo. 31:17. 

 

---How evident it is to any person of sane mind, that God gave this sign at the same time that he made the Sabbath, viz: on the seventh day of creation; not for the tribes of Israel only that lived in the days of Moses, but for the whole Israel of God, from Adam to the resurrection of the righteous dead. 

This sign then was given twenty-five hundred years before there was a descendant of Jacob on the earth.  

One thing more! ... Q: who has relaxed that fourth commandment? O thou foolish man! thou shalt feel the weight of this commandment when you cannot keep it." Joseph Bates

Why There Must be Order & Time to the Judgment

"Respecting 'the hour of God's judgment is come,' (Rev. 14:7) there
must be order and time, for God in his judicial character to decide the cases of all the righteous, that their names may be registered in the Lamb's Book of Life, and they be fully prepared for that eventful moment of their change from mortal to immortality."

Joseph Bates

Sabbath Nicknames by Sabbath Haters

"......of these professed ....Sabbath breakers. 

One trait in their characters is now pretty clearly developed, that is -

they are Sabbath haters! 

The law of God is nicknamed by them, the 'Jewish Ritual,' the 'Jewish Sabbath,' .... thus virtually showing up their characters in these perilous times, according to Paul, as covenant breakers, boasters, proud, blasphemers, denying the righteous law of God, and yet professing to believe the whole word of God. 'As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses.' (2 Timothy 3:1-8) so do some of these leading men resist the truth." Joseph Bates

Bates Nails it on the 1335 Days/Years of Dan. 12

"Do the 1335 days of Dan. xii. 12 reach to the end of the wonders in verse 6?
We answer, they do not.
We understand that the same period of time from the beginning of

the cleansing of the Sanctuary in 1844 to the breaking of the little horn without hand in Dan. viii, which extended beyond the 2300 days, will also be found between the 1335 days and the end of the Wonders in Dan. xii; because we further show that the 1335 days ended with the 2300 in 1844.

--In the typical day of atonement under the first covenant the earthly Sanctuary was cleansed at an appointed time once a year, at which time the lot was cast to obtain blood for a sin-offering which the high priest bore into the most holy place to make an atonement for the transgressions of Israel in all their sins. 
--Thus all Israel were in their lot. In the antitypical day of atonement under the new covenant the time appointed for cleansing the Sanctuary is unto 2300 days. This being the day of atonement.

It was previously declared to Daniel, "Thou shall rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." This shows most clearly that both of these periods, viz., the 2300 and 1335 days bring all of God's people in their lot, to be cleansed from all, their sins by the precious blood of Christ in the antitypical day of atonement.

And when the great High Priest has accomplished the work for them all, even to the last, and the sins of Israel are all blotted out forever, the living saints will surely know (and so will you, if faithful) that "blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the 1335 days." Daniel stands in his lot with all the righteous dead, that all their sins of ignorance may be blotted out before the resurrection.

The prophetic periods as you see are all ended, and we are now living in the day of atonement; the finishing, crowning work of God ; being address- ed by the third angel, declaring "here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the Commandments of God, and the Faith of Jesus."
When this message closes the work is done. The mandate will then go forth, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; he which is righteous, let him be righteous still." 

--We are also living in the Laodicean, the last state of the church, in imminent danger of being spued out of the Savior's mouth, unless we hastily repent and seek a closer walk with God."
Joseph Bates

Joseph Bates on 7 Branch Candlestick

South side, represents the state of the seven churches.

Oil denotes faith.

And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.

Matthew 25:8

Lamp denotes Word of God. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Psalm 119:105
Light denotes “Present Truth,”Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.1 Peter 1:12

Joseph Bates, 1st President of SDA Church