We read in our scripture reading this morning about the experience of Elijah at the end of three and a half years of famine. The story of Elijah is one of the most interesting stories in the Bible.

Elijah didn'tt write any of the Bible. Now, there were some prophets that wrote part of the Bible, like Jeremiah or Isaiah. Although Elijah didn'tt write any of the Bible, Elijah was a revival prophet (a reformation prophet). He didn'tt come to teach some new thing or to spell out the law like Moses, but he came to bring people back to the teachings of the law. When we study the experience of Elijah, only about a hundred years after King David, the nation of Israel (the ten tribes) had fallen to one of the lowest periods in its existence, so that Gods professed people were worshipping Baal.

Now I need to mention for some of you that maybe havent studied ancient history, Baal was the sun god. When ever you see the word "Baal" in the Bible, remember what it is talking about. Baal was the sun god the ancient sun god of Phoenicia. It was from these ancient times we get the name Sunday, because the Pagan nations devoted the first day of the week to a festival in honor of the sun god. In fact, in 321 AD, when Constantine made the first Sunday law, he talks about the venerable day of the sun, and that law was made as a memorial to the sun god. It could be entered into by all the Pagan peoples.

Elijah stood alone. Have you ever had to stand alone? Have you ever been in a situation where it just didn'tt seem like there was anybody else that understood? You were trying to do what was right, but you were getting opposition from every quarter. That is the kind of situation that Elijah was in.

Will you ever have to stand alone? Well, in the most real sense, if you are following Jesus, you will never have to stand alone. Jesus said to His disciples, "You are all going to forsake me and leave me alone, but I am not alone." Why? Because "My Father is with me." You will find that at the end of John 16. So in the most real sense, if you are a Christian, you will never have to stand all alone. But you might have to stand without any other human beings around. In fact, if you live to see Jesus come and you are faithful to the truth of the Bible, you will have to stand alone.

Let me read it to you. Ellen White wrote this in 1888. She says, "It does not seem possible to us now that any should have to stand alone, but if God has ever spoken by me, the time will come when we shall be brought before councils and before thousands for his names sake, and each one will have to give the reason of his faith."Thats at the Sunday law crises. Thats not our subject today, but thats what is going to happen.

The whole world (every single person in the world) has to hear the Three Angels Message before Jesus can come; and some people say, "How will that happen?" Well, I want to tell you, friend, one of these days when Sabbath keepers get called into the courts and start getting put into prison because they wont go along with the Sunday law, all of a sudden, things are going to hit front page news all over the world. Its going to be like it was in the days of Elijah.

Elijah lived about twenty-five hundred years ago. He dared to stand for the right when the entire government and all of Gods professed people were against him. He defied Jezebel and all the prophets of Baal. He hurled this challenge at them when he said, "How long are you halting between two opinions how long?" He said, "If Baal is really God, then go serve him all the way." Do you see what the people were doing? They claimed to be Gods people and to be serving Jehovah, but they were mixing up the religion of Jehovah with the religion of Baal, and Elijah said, "You cant do this. You need to either go all the way one way, or go all the way the other way. If Jehovah is the God, then obey Him and keep His commandments; and if hes not, and if Baal is the god, and thats the god you want to serve, then obey him and keep his laws. You are going to have to make up your mind. You cant go both directions. You cant go both east and west. You are going to have to make up your mind," Elijah said. "Which way you are going to go?"

So the name of Elijah has come down through history ever since that time as a symbol of decision. Elijah said, "You have to decide." The name of Elijah is a symbol for decision--a symbol for action. Elijah stood all alone, and Elijah is a symbol of the people that will stand for truth in the last days. When Elijah was done giving his testimony, do you know what God did? God said, "You are not going to die like other men. Im taking you up with me." Do you know how old Elijah is now? Hes over 2500 years old. Hes in heaven right now. He was a type of the people that would stand for truth in the last days and be taken to heaven and never see death.

But friend--catch this--if you are going to live to see Jesus come, and go up with Him to heaven, you are going to have to stand faithful and loyal to the truth, like Elijah did, while you are down here.

After the story of Elijah that we just read about in 1 Kings 18 (if we read the whole story we would have had to read 1 Kings 17 too; but we read a fairly long scripture reading, just reading 1 Kings 18) we dont find anything said about Elijah, until we get right to the end of the Old Testament. If you have your Bible, please open it to the end of the Old Testament. It is almost the last verse of the Old Testament. This is the last book in the Old Testament which was written before Jesus came. Malachi was the last prophet, and in Malachi 4 verse 5, notice what Malachi says. "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the great and dreadful day of the Lord." When is the great and dreadful day of the Lord? That is His second coming.

However, a type of what would happen before His second coming was to happen before the first coming of Christ. Before Jesus came, all the nation of Israel was looking to see if Elijah was going to come. They were expecting Elijah to come back down from heaven and talk to them. So turn to the gospel of John, the first chapter. They were looking for Elijah to come. Now they are coming to John the Baptist. The first time there had been a prophet in the nation of Israel, since Malachi, was when John the Baptist came. It says in John 1:21 "they asked him, 'What then? Are you Elijah? He said, 'lam not." They said, "'Are you the Prophet?" and John said, "I am not." And so they said, "That solves that. Hes not Elijah, so we still have to wait for Elijah to come."

I want you to see what Jesus said about John the Baptist. Do you think Jesus knew who John the Baptist was? Lets look and see what Jesus said about him. Look at Matthew 11 starting with verse 7. "As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: 'What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: 'Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You. Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist." And then look down to verse 14 "And if you are willing to receive it, he is" what? What did Jesus say? "he is Elijah who is to come."

Now, why is there this contradiction? John the Baptist said, "Im not Elijah." What did he mean by that? He was not the Elijah that stood before Ahab, that was translated, who had come back down from heaven. He wasn'tt that person, but he was the Elijah prophet. Jesus said so. We need to understand this.

Ill tell you why we need to understand this. Do you know, there are Christians today that read Revelation 11 and they say to me, "Is Elijah coming back again? Ive been taught by my preacher that Elijah is coming again." They are waiting for the same Elijah to come back from heaven that the Jews were waiting for in the time of Christ. Its not going to happen, but there is to be an Elijah prophet that comes before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Why did it say then, "I will send you Elijah."?

We will read how that is, from Luke 1. Turn to the gospel of Luke, chapter 1. Now, this is the story of the angel talking to Zacharias, John the Baptists father. John the Baptist was a miracle birth. Zacharias was too old to be a father. His wife was too old to be a mother. It was just like it was with Abraham and Sarah. But God said to him, "You are going to have a child. This is going to be a miracle child." It says in verse 17 concerning John the Baptist, "He will also go before Him in the" what? "spirit and power of Elijah." So John the Baptist was not the same Elijah that stood before Ahab, but he was the Elijah prophet that was sent in the spirit of Elijah.

What did Elijah do? Do you remember that at the end of the day when they had cut themselves, Elijah came to the altar of God, and it was all in disrepair, and Elijah built up the altar of the Lord. Remember that? He restored the worship of the true God. He restored everything. Those that followed Elijah came back to perfect obedience to the law of God, as recorded by Moses. They forsook Baal. They forsook all the trappings of idolatry. Everything was restored. The true worship was completely restored.

Did John the Baptist do that? Yes, he did. We will read that again from the words of Jesus. Look in your Bible in Matthew 17. This is the work of the Elijah prophet--to restore all things. In Matthew 17 starting with verse 10 (now, this is just a short while before the crucifixion of Jesus) they are coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration and the disciples asked him, "'Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" You see, the scribes were saying, "Elijah must come first. Jesus cant be the Messiah because the Elijah prophet has to come first, and John the Baptist said he wasn'tt Elijah."

Notice what Jesus says. "Jesus answered and said to them, 'Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore" how much? "'all things. "'The Elijah prophet will bring the people that follow him all the way back to a true religion with no errors in it. Elijah truly shall come and restore all things. He will bring the people all the way back to truth--no errors in their religion. Now notice what Jesus says, "'But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them"--of who? "John the Baptist." Jesus said the Elijah prophet surely is coming first and he is going to restore everything. But the Elijah prophet had already come and they didn'tt know it. That could never happen again could it? It has already happened.

Do you know, friends, that there are people in Christian churches all over the world that are looking for the Elijah prophet to come? Now, what does the Elijah prophet do? He restores all things. He brings people back to Bible religion, with no errors in it. He restores everything. Friend, the Elijah prophet is not coming, because the Elijah prophet has already come.

Who is the Elijah prophet that God sent to prepare a people for the second coming of Christ-- just as he sent a prophet to prepare a people for the first coming of Christ? Who was the Elijah prophet? Ellen White. If you read the writings of Ellen White, do you know where it will bring you? It will bring you right back to Bible truth, and there wont be any errors in your religion. Everything you will believe and practice will be in accordance with this book [the Bible]. There wont be any errors in your religion. The Elijah prophet has already come, and people dont even know what has happened.

Well, the Elijah prophet repairs the breach. Has there been a breach made in Gods law? Turn in your Bible to Isaiah 58, and look at verse 12. It says, "Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach."

Who is the Repairer of the breach? What was the breach that was made in Gods law, and who is the repairer of the breach? Lets keep reading. "The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words, Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, The mouth of the Lord has spoken."

You know, friends, Im sorry to tell you. Im going to explain to you today, (and I hope it is not too painful for you) but Im going to explain to you today in a few minutes why there are so many churches and denominations. Why is it? We are in the same condition in the world today as Israel was in the time of Elijah. Our worship has been mixed up with paganism. Baal was pagan, and it is just like it was in Elijahs day. People like it better than the truth.

I should take time to explain some of the reasons they like it better than the truth: one is, it is not so strict. So there is a little bit of falsehood, and a little bit of tradition, and a little bit of Sunday. And all these things are all mixed in with the teaching of Christ--its all mixed up. Thats the way it was in Elijahs time. People say "Oh, dont be so straight laced. It isnt the letter of the law that is so important; its the Spirit thats important." Have you ever heard somebody say that? Have you ever heard them quote the text? (Its just part of the text actually.) 'The letter kills, but the spirit makes alive, and Im worshipping the Lord with all my heart." That is what they did in Elijahs time. There the true religion and the false religion was all mixed up together.

Let me ask you something. Can you keep the law of God in your spirit and not keep it in the letter? Have you ever asked yourself that question? The law of God says, "You shall not kill." Well, can I keep that in my spirit and yet kill somebody? Really? Well, that is what people want to do with the Sabbath commandment. They want to say that even though they are breaking it, that in their spirit they are keeping it. Its a mixture; just like it was back then. Its a mixture of true worship, all mixed up together. I want to tell you, friend, the Lord has given to Seventh-day Adventists the Elijah message for the last days; and Elijahs message was: you cant mix it all up together. You have to go one way or the other.

Lets read it in Revelation 14. In Revelation 14:6,7, you have the judgment hour message. When its judgment time, its time to make a decision. In verse 8, you have the message that Babylon is fallen. I wish I had time to explain to you the Spiritual nature of Babylon, but we cant talk about every thing in one day. Well talk about that another time. Babylon is fallen.

The Third Angels message is a warning against worshipping the beast. That is Babylon, or his image, or receiving his mark. The people that receive this message are described inverse 12. It says, "Here is the patience of the saints; here are those" (That do what?) "those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus." I want to tell you friends, that this is a message that transcends any church creed. Its a message direct from the God of heaven to me. If you want to be saved in the last generation, this is the group that Elijah gave them an invitation to come out from this Baal worship, because you cant keep going on like that. If you want to worship Baal, then go and worship Baal, but you cant worship both. That same message is going out in the last days. Look at Revelation 18:4, a message from heaven to the people that are in Babylon. It says, "I heard another voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues."

How did it happen that today we have all this mixture of all these pagan teachings in our Christian churches? How did that happen? When Jesus was here, John the Baptist restored all things, Jesus said. They had a true worship, and Jesus told His disciples the truth, and there was no error mixed with it. On the day of Pentecost, (we studied it in our Sabbath school lesson this morning) when the Holy Spirit came on the early church, the early church taught pure, unadulterated truth. There was no error in their religion, because their religion had as its leader and its founder the author of all truth, so there was no error in their religion.

I was just reading a book yesterday. I thought of bringing it here today, but I knew we wouldn'tt have time, because it has such a long list of pagan practices. This book was written by a Protestant theologian. I think hes a Presbyterian. He gave a list and it took over one page in the book. It was on two pages. He gave a list of different pagan customs and practices and the date--now some of them are just the approximate dates-- when they came into the Christian church. None of them go back to the time of the apostles. It was after the apostles. In fact, most of them didn'tt come into the Christian church until after 300 AD.

Paul predicted that this would happen in the Christian church. Turn in your Bible to Acts 20 and see what Paul predicted would happen in the Christian church Acts 20: 29-30. He says, "'For I know this, that after my departure"--thats after my death--"savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves."

Now, where was the great danger for the Christian church? Was it from the pagans from the outside? No, it wasn'tt. What does it say in verse 30? Where were the men going to arise up, that would corrupt the Christian religion? Where would it be? It would be from "yourselves." the greatest danger to the Christian church is from within. I want to tell you, friends, just quickly in passing, that is still true. Ellen wrote in 1887 to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and she said, "We have far more to fear from within than from without." Its still true.

Now, the thing that makes these words the most graphic of all is when you realize who Paul was talking to. Do you know who he was talking to here? Have you looked at the context of that verse? He was talking to elders, to bishops, to ministers, and he said, "From among you" (or from the leaders of the church) "there are going to arise people speaking perverse things."

After the terrible persecution of Diocletion from 303 to 313 AD, anew era came for the Christian church. Constantine said, "Were going to make Christianity the national religion."You see, they had tried to stamp out Christianity, and it was impossible. The more people they killed, the more people became Christians. They would kill them off, (and by the way, they killed them off by the millions) and more people became Christians. They decided this just wasn't working. By the way, the devil himself decided it wasn'tt working.

So the devil said, "We are going to do something different." Constantine said, "We are going to make Christianity the religion of the whole Roman empire." I want to tell you, that was more dangerous than persecution.

What if you went down to the city of Wichita today, and you said, "Now, we are going to pass a law. Everybody in Wichita is going to be a Christian." Would that make them a Christian? It wouldn'tt, would it? Constantine said, "My whole army is going to be Christian." Its reported to us that he took his army down to the river and marched them through the river and he said, "Now you are baptized, and now you are Christians, and we are going to put the cross on your shields."

But these people were still pagan at heart. They were Christians in name, but they were pagans at heart. These pagans came to the Christians and said, "Who are you praying to? You go to a church, and it is empty, nothing there. Who are you praying to?" The Christians would say, "We are praying to the God in heaven." Then the pagans asked, "Well, have you ever seen Him?"

The Christians answer, "Well, no." The pagans ask again, "How in the world can you pray to somebody that you cant see?" You see, these people were used to temples, and they were used to idols in their temple. And their Christian leaders at that time said, "We want our religion to become the religion of the whole world, so we are going to have to accommodate ourselves to these pagan people, so what are we going to do?"

The pagans had a statue to Jupiter. That was one of the pagan gods over in the Pantheon. You know what they did with that? That statue is still around. They took that very same statue to Jupiter, and they brought it over to Rome, and they changed the name, and they said, "This is a statue of the apostle Peter." It is still there, and you can go and see it. They did that with all their other gods. They made statues to all the apostles, and one to Jesus, and to Mary, His mother, and to the saints, and to the martyrs. So now they had images in the Christian church. That was just the beginning.

Pagan practices poured into the Christian church like a deluge, and the first day of the week came into the church during that period of time. It was in the fourth century, in the council of Laodicea, that it was decided, that if any Christians kept on keeping the Sabbath, let them be anathema, let them be cursed. Why did they have to curse them? Because there were still so many Christians keeping the Sabbath, and they were trying to stamp it out.

That tremendous amalgamation of Christianity and paganism resulted in what we call today the Roman Catholic Church, or the Papacy, which is the head of the Catholic Church. Incidentally, let me just read to you a few sentences from a Roman Catholic book. Roman Catholics who are educated know this--not everybody knows it--but any Roman Catholic that is educated knows that what I have just told you is all the truth.

Let me read to you from one of their best known, and one of their most published leaders, whose name is Cardinal Newman. He is a cardinal of the Roman Catholic church, and this is what he writes about their religion. Listen to this: "The rulers of the church from early times were prepared, should the occasion arise, to adopt, or to imitate, or sanction, the existing rites and customs of the populous." So they are going to accommodate Christianity to paganism. Thats exactly what they did in the days of Elijah.

What form did this take? Here is what he says. This is Cardinal Newman writing. If you want to look it up, this statement is quoted in many Protestant text books on Roman Catholicism. Its found in the essay on the Development of Christian Doctrines by John Henry Cardinal Newman, pages 371 to 373. Im just reading a few sentences. He says, "We are told by Eusebius, that Constantine, in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen, transferred into it the outward ornaments, to which they had been accustomed to in their own religion."That is in paganism, and then he mentions what they are.

He says, "The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, incense, lamps, candles, holy water, holy days, the ring in marriage, turning to the east--images all are pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the church." That became the great apostate church of the middle ages. They had all these paganistic trappings and teachings as part of it and they still called themselves "Christians."

Now, remember what Elijah said. He said, "You cant have it all. You have to go one way or the other. If God is God, then worship Him, and live according to His book [the Bible]; and if Baal is god; if the sun god is God, than go and be a Baal worshiper. Decide which way you are going to go, but you cant mix them together."

So God brought some reformers to lead the people that were so confused, and so mixed up, back to Bible truth. One of the great reformers was Martin Luther. He led people to understand that you cant buy salvation, and that is the truth.

Now, in my office I have a book. Its signed by Pope John Paul II. It is recent. It is the latest full complete Catechism. Its over an inch thick, and they still teach the selling of indulgences. That is the very thing that Martin Luther protested. Martin Luther said, "You cant get your sins forgiven by giving money."In fact, one of the things that Martin Luther protested was that people were buying indulgences for sins they hadn't even committed yet. But they were planing to commit them, and so they got them forgiven before they committed them.

Martin taught that you cant get forgiveness of sins by buying indulgences. He said, "That is not in the Bible."Of course its not. The Bible does not say anything about paying money to get the forgiveness of sins. In fact, the Bible says you cant get forgiveness of sins by paying money. Peter said that, by the way, (the so-called first pope). So Martin Luther led. There were millions of people that said, "We are going to get our sins forgiven by the grace of God and by the blood of Jesus Christ, and not by paying money," and they came out of the Catholic Church and that became the Lutheran Church.

Now, here is what happened. There were other reformers as time went on. Was that the only truth that God had for the people, that you dont buy indulgences, and that you got your sins forgiven freely by the grace of Christ? Was that the only truth that they needed to learn about? Oh no, they had been so mixed up in so many pagan practices that they needed to learn lots of other things.

So God sent more reformers. Another famous reformer was a man by the name of John Wesley. John Wesley understood something that previously had not been well understood by most of the Protestants. He said, "Look, you cannot be saved just by having your sins forgiven by the blood of Christ. You must be holy. You must be sanctified. The Bible says that without holiness no one will see the Lord." [See Hebrews 12:14.] John Wesley spent his whole life going up and down the British Islands, and he came to America, and went to the continent, preaching that it was not enough to get your sins forgiven. You must be sanctified-- you had to be holy.

Incidentally, Im not inviting anybody to do this--but its unfortunate that most Protestant churches have wondered so far away from what their founders taught that they dont even know what their founders taught--but if you want to start a ruckus in the Methodist church today, you take what John Wesley taught, and just read it to a Sunday class in a Methodist Church, and see what happens. John Wesley was a strict reformer in his manner of life. We won't go into that right now.

There were other reformers that studied the Bible, and they said, "The Bible doesnt teach baptizing babies by sprinkling water on them." Is that in the Bible? There is not a word in the Bible about that. The Bible says you are baptized when you have faith. The result was the Baptist Church.

But God had more truth. Remember, when the Elijah prophet comes, he is going to restore how much? What did Jesus say? "All things."Finally, in the nineteenth century, God sent to the entire Protestant world the message about the breach in His law that had been made--the breach in the fourth commandment, and you know what happened? They all rejected the message. You see, the Lutherans didn'tt accept John Wesley. Many of the Methodists did not accept the teachings of the Baptists about baptism, and they all refused to accept the truth about the law of God and the Sabbath. People want to say to me that somehow, it doesnt matter.

Do you mean to say that something that God wrote with His own finger on tables of stone, and it is the only part of the whole Bible that He spoke with His own voice, that, that doesnt matter? Now, Jesus and the apostles all kept the Sabbath.

People say, "Well, its just the spirit that you have." Ive tried to think this through in my mind. How do people think? Suppose that I am a member of a Sabbath keeping church, but I have a business that Im required from time to time to move to different parts of the country. So I move to another town and there is no Sabbath keeping church there, and Im not enthusiastic enough about my religion to start a home church. There are people like that, you know.

So now Im in a city and there is no Sabbath keeping church, and one day there is a knock on my door, and I go and answer the door. There is a nice looking man at my door, and he greets me. He says, "Im the pastor of the Baptist Church here, and Id like to invite you to come over and worship with us," and I say to him, "Well, thank you so much, but I cant do that." He says, "Why not?" I say, "Well, I belong to a Sabbath keeping church. I belong to a church that keeps all the commandments." He says, "Oh, you know, the letter kills, but the spirit makes alive. Its the spirit that counts, and we worship God with all of our hearts, and there isn't any Sabbath keeping church in this town. Dont you think that there are a lot of good people in the Baptist Church?" I say "Well, of course I think there are a lot of good people in the Baptist church. I have many friends that are Baptists." He says, "Well, why dont you just come over and worship with us. After all, it would be better to be going to our church than not to be going to any church at all. You need a church home." So I say, "Well, ok, Ill attend there on Sunday." Do you know what happens every time? Now remember this if you forget everything else we say today, remember this--every time you violate your conscience, it is easier to violate it the next time, until after a while it won't even bother you. Just remember that, and dont ever forget it. That is a principle of your mind and your conscience.

So after the first time I go over there, I realize that Im breaking the commandments of God. But after Ive been over there for a little while, it doesnt bother me so much, and after awhile, I say, these people are nice people, and these people are good people." So Im a Baptist now.

But the time comes that I have to move again. So I go to another town, and I look around, and there is no Baptist Church in this town. So I dont have any place to go to church now. After a while, there is knock on my door, and I go to the door, and there is a nice looking gentleman at my door, and he says, "Im the pastor of the Methodist Church. I would like to invite you to come over and worship with us," and I say, "Well, I cant come over and worship with you. Im a Baptist." He says, "Well, dont you believe that there are nice people in the Methodist Church? Our doctrines aren't that much different," and I say, "But you baptize babies, and we dont believe in baptizing babies." He says, "Now wait a minute, its the Spirit that counts. Are you going to make all that much out of whether its little people, or big people, or whether its lots of water, or a little bit of water? Its the spirit that counts." After he talks to me for awhile I say, "Well, theres no Baptist Church in this community, anyway. I might as well go to church somewhere." So I go to the Methodist Church, and after I go to the Methodist Church for awhile, infant baptism doesnt bother me so much.

But the trouble is, after Ive been there for a longtime, I get transferred again into another town, and after Im there for a while, theres somebody that comes, and knocks on my door, and I look, and there is a man with his collar turned on backwards. I thought, "Who is this?" He says to me, "I am the rector of the Episcopal Church in this town, and I would like to welcome you to our city, and Id like to invite you to come and worship with us," and I say to him, "Thanks so much, but really I cant. Im a Methodist, and you have heard the saying--'once a Methodist always a Methodist." He says to me, "Well, there aren't any Methodist churches in this town. Why dont you come and worship with us, because, dont you believe that we have a lot of good people in our church?" and I answer, "Yes, I believe that you have a lot of good people in your church. Im not against the people in your church, but you have so much liturgy in your church. He says, "Wait a minute. We dont have that liturgy because we worship the liturgy. We are just trying to create an atmosphere so the peoples minds are taken off the mundane things of life, and they can worship the Lord." Well, he talks to me for a longtime, and Im not feeling too easy about it, and hes not dressed the way Im used to seeing preachers dress, and Im just really uneasy about it. "But," I think, "theres no Methodist Church in this town, sol might as well go and worship somewhere." So I go down to the Episcopal Church.

After Ive been there for a while, the liturgy doesn't bother me anymore, and the fact that they have their preachers dressed in different kinds of clothing and that they read their prayers, and that the people do all these sorts of things--that doesnt bother me anymore.

But the trouble is, I dont stay there forever either, and finally I get transferred to another town, and now, of all horrors, there is no Episcopal Church in this town. Pretty soon there is a knock on my door, and I look, and here is the Roman Catholic priest. I am shocked, but he is so friendly and he says, "I want to welcome you to our town, and I want to invite you to come and worship with us," and I say, "I cant do that! Im a Protestant." He says, "Well, there is no Episcopal Church in this town, and is there any reason why you shouldn't come and worship with us? You teach many things that are not in the Bible too, just like we do." I say, "What, for instance?" He says, "Well, you read your prayers in the Episcopal church too." I say, "Well, thats true," and then I say, "But you use images! "He says, "You use images in the Episcopal Church too," and I say, "Oh! But you call your priests "Father", and Jesus said not to do that," and he says, "In the high church in the Episcopal Church, you do the same thing." I say, "But you have so much liturgy." And he says "Your liturgy is almost exactly like ours."

Now Im stumped. What can I tell him? While Im thinking it over how to win this argument, he takes advantage of the situation, and guess what he says? He says, "After all, brother, dont you realize that the Catholic Church is the oldest church, and its the biggest church, and its the richest church, and it is the only church that has a visible head over the entire world church--the Pope. We are the only church that has full authority vested in the Pope to speak, so that we can speak with authority on all doctrine--because Jesus gave that authority to Peter and he passed it on to every other Pope that came on. In addition to that, do you know that you wont find very much difference between the churches. The time is coming, very soon, when all the Protestant churches are going to come back to the mother church, and there is going to be one world church. So since its about to happen anyway, you might just as well come and worship with us now

Thats very convincing, so I think I might as well. Theres no Episcopal Church in town. All the churches are going to be getting together anyway, sol might as well join the Catholic Church. And now Im a Roman Catholic.

But thats not the end. I get transferred again, and I get transferred overseas. Now Im in a town, and I look around, and there is not even a Catholic Church in this town. I dont have any place to go and worship. But one day there is a knock on my door. What I tell you now is the truth, because my parents have been there; Ive been there, and I know that what Im telling you is the way they think. So I go, and I open the door, and of all things, I dont even recognize who is standing out there. It is a Buddhist priest standing there in a long yellow golden robe, and he says tome, "I want to welcome you to our town. Why dont you come over and worship with us?" I say to him"I cant worship with you! Im a Roman Catholic," and he says "Well, why not? Dont you think that the Buddhists are good people?" I say, "Oh yes, I know the Buddhists are good people; in fact Ive studied some of their teachings, and I know that Buddha has one of the highest moral, and ethical codes, of all leaders in all the world. The Buddhists have high moral standards, and I know that, but Im a Roman Catholic, and you have doctrines and teachings that I cant agree with." So the Buddhist monk says, "What, for instance?" and I say, "You have images in your temple," and he says, "Well you do too." I say, "You Buddhists use prayer beads." He says "You do too." I say, "You Buddhists, you memorize and read your prayers." He says, "You do too," and I say, "You Buddhists, you dont let your priests many," and he says "You dont either in the Catholic Church." I say, "In addition to that you dont let your nuns many," and the Buddhist monk says, "You dont either in the Catholic church."

Well, I declare! What am I going to say now? Everything that I can think to point out that is out of harmony with the Gospel, he says, "You are already doing the same thing with different names. Its positively amazing, when you study it, how similar the two systems are. So then he begins to talk. When he sees that Im kind of confused, he says, "You see, brother, we are all brothers. We are all striving for the same place. Some people climb the mountain with one road, and some people climb the mountain from the other side, but we are all going to the same place. You call it heaven and we call it Nevana, but we are all going to the same place. Its all the same. Its just reached by a different route. Forget your prejudice and come over and worship with us."

What is there to say? Now Im in the Buddhist faith, and now by no stretch of the imagination can I even call my self a Christian anymore. As I look back at my life, lam amazed at the distance that I have traveled. How have I gotten clear outside of Christianity? Oh, just by giving up a little bit here, and a little bit there, and a little bit here, and a little there, and one thing at a time.

Im clear outside of Christianity now. How can I ever get back to where I once was? Well, friend, if Im ever going to get back to where I once was--the only way Im going to do it is that if I decide that if something is true in God sword that no matter what the rest of the world does, Im going to obey it. The devil doesnt care how little or big it is if he can just get you to compromise.

If your life is not in harmony with this book, [the Bible] Elijah would say, "Why are you standing still and halting between two opinions? Either go all the way, and become a pagan, or if the Lord is God, well, then get your life in harmony with this book." Thats what Elijah would say. It doesn't matter if it is little or big. What matters is if my life is in harmony with this book or not. Thats what Elijah taught.

In the last days, according to Revelation, there is going to be a remnant of people, that are going to bring their lives into harmony. They have the Elijah prophet, and they bring their lives into harmony with everything in this book. They are not going to follow any kind of compromise. They are going to live be "every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."

I want to ask you, friend, when it is all over, where are you going to be? You know, I find that people are very interested to study about Elijah, and they think it is a wonderful story, that he would risk his life to be faithful and true to God; and when they read about the martyrs--how they were faithful to the Lord, even if they were burned at the stake, or stretched on the rack, no matter what they did--and they say, "Isn't this marvelous, the faith that these people had? I want to be like that," but they are not willing to risk their job for Jesus Christ. They are not willing to change the way they eat for Jesus Christ. They are not willing to change what kind of entertainment they go to, for Jesus Christ. They are not willing to change anything in their life for Jesus Christ--to be in harmony with this book. As we approach the end, everybody in the world is in a pressure situation. You are going to go all the way one way or the other.

Elijah asked, "How come you are halting? How come you are waiting? Why are you hesitating? Why dont you make up your mind and decide which way you are going to go? You would be better off going all the way into paganism and knowing that you are lost, than to try to mix it all up together, and thinking that you are going to be saved. Which way are you going to go?" Again, Elijah asks, "How long are you waiting? If God is really God, then obey His commandments and do His will."Jesus said to the people, "Why do you call me Lord and you don't do what I say?" (Luke 6:46) Thats a good question.

Joshua said to the people in his day, "As for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord." How about you? You cant go down the broad road and mix paganism and Christianity, and take the Bible and tradition, and mix it all up together, and figure that some way, you are all going to land up the same place. It wont work. We have to decide which way we are going to go.

You want your life to be in harmony with this book [the Bible]. That is the only people that are going to be saved, at the end--the people that keep Gods commandments, as we read it in Revelation 12. It says the same thing in Revelation 22:14. It says in Revelation 12:17 the people that keep Gods commandments and have the faith of Jesus. Do you want that experience? It is the time today as it was in Elijahs day. Its time for me and its time for you to make up our minds and say, "Lord, this is the way Im choosing to go." You can choose to go either way, but you cant take them both.

Do you want your life--everything in your life--to be under the control of the Holy Spirit? Do you want your life to be in perfect harmony with Gods book? If you do, please kneel down with me and lets pray.