Bible

They Professed to Be Wise

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The most fundamental truth in the Bible is stated in the very first words of the Holy Record. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The foundation of faith in God is based upon the fact that He is the source of all matter. He is the source of time. He is the source of all life.

When God gave the Ten Commandments to His people and wrote them in tables of stone with His own finger, this fact was so important that the longest of all the commandments is the fourth one, dealing with the origin of our world and of life. It reads, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work; you nor your son nor your daughter nor your male servant nor your female servant nor your cattle nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8–11.

Notice, the fourth commandment says that God created the entire world: planet earth, the atmospheric heavens around our earth, our solar system, the sun and the moons, the planets, this whole heavenly system, called, in the Bible, “the heavens and the earth.” God created this in six days—six twenty-four hour days. On the seventh day God rested and set apart the Sabbath as a memorial of His creative power—a memorial of the fact that He is the origin, the source of all life.

Jesus not only acknowledged the Sabbath by worshipping upon it. (See Luke 4:16.) He also affirmed the genuineness of the record written by Moses. Notice what Jesus said to the Jews. “For if you believe Moses, you would have believed Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how would you believe My words.” John 5:46, 47. Jesus acknowledged that the record written by Moses was factual and He said to the people of His time: “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” John 5:40. That is the problem with many people today. They are not willing to come to the only One who can give them life. 1 John 5:12 says, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” There is only one source of life. You cannot make life. No man can make life and life cannot be generated of itself. So, if you are not connected to this Source, you have no life.

A Final Message to Worship the Creator

Not only at the beginning of the Bible, but also at the end of the Bible, the truth about the creation of the world and the origin of life is repeated. The apostle Peter stated that in the last time there would come scoffers who would ridicule the idea of the Second Coming of Christ, and laugh at the Biblical record of the origin of the world and of the world-wide flood. They will say: “Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” 2 Peter 3:4–6.

So to the last generation, living in a great age of unbelief (as predicted by the Bible), the God of heaven gives three last warning messages. The first of these is on the very point of creation. It is found in Revelation 14:6, 7: “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue and people; saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.’ ” The first message of this final warning is a command to worship God as the Creator, to fear Him and to be afraid to tamper with or disbelieve what He has said. These three messages in chapter 14 are a focal point of Revelation. Careful study will show that all the chapters following them are simply the outworking of the results of these three messages having been given to the last generation.

The Bible teaches that we are all going to give an account of ourselves to God, whether we are atheists, agnostics or otherwise. But man does not want to believe this. He does not want to acknowledge a God Who is a moral Governor and Who will “bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:14.

Because man does not want to acknowledge God, he ignores the evidence around him that points directly to an infinite Creator. Paul wrote about this in Romans 1: “Because what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse.” Romans 1:19, 20. If people would just look on the natural world they would see the evidence of God’s eternal power and Godhead and they would be without excuse.

Continuing on Paul says: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” Romans 1:21, 22.

We are living in a time when there are many people who profess to be wise. They are wiser, they believe, than the Bible. (It has always been very dangerous when men place themselves above God. It has happened many times in the past, and it is one of the primary characteristics of our generation.) When men think they can figure out the origin of our world through science alone, and begin to doubt God’s creative power, they must doubt His Word. For you must either believe that the world was created in six days, or believe that the God of the Bible is a liar.

This is the dilemma to which modern science has brought mankind. Was the world created in six days or did it come into existence over a period of millions of years as people suppose and as is taught in institutions of so-called higher learning all over the world?

Creation Evidence in the Rocks

Many discoveries have been made that disprove the most fashionable and accepted evolutionary theories, but these discoveries have not been accepted because they counter the prevailing belief. One of these was made by a scientist named Dr. Robert Gentry. He discovered radiohalos below the sedimentary rock in the basement granites around the globe. He has examined more than one hundred thousand of these halo phenomena. According to every basic principle of evolutionary theory these halos cannot be there and yet they are!

Briefly this is what his studies have shown: Polonium isotopes were formed during the process of radioactive decay which took place during the formation of the granites. The halos were captured when the rock hardened. The polonium particle has a very short half-life, and so in order for these halos to be visible, the granite would have needed to be formed almost instantaneously, or the traces of this fleeting element would never have been captured. This is very powerful evidence that these rocks had to come into existence instantaneously —not over long periods of time. (The details of Dr. Gentry’s research is found in his book, Creation’s Tiny Mystery.)

Although this research has been published in several prestigious, peer-reviewed, scientific journals and the methods and findings have never been disproven, most of the scientific community does not accept it. They have either ignored it or tried to fight it because it totally demolishes evolutionary theory.

There are many other examples like this that totally disprove the most widely believed theories today, but they are rejected. For example: Detailed studies of various animals have revealed certain physical equipment and capabilities that the world’s best designers cannot duplicate, even using the most sophisticated technologies. Here are just a few: the miniature and reliable sonar systems of the dolphins, porpoises and whales; the frequency modulated radar and discrimination system of the bat; the efficiency and aerodynamic capabilities of the humming bird; the control systems, internal ballistics and the combustion chambers of the bombardier beetle. In addition to these, there are the precise navigational systems of many birds and fish. All of these things point to an exquisite, complicated and precise design.

If you ask some people where all this came from, they will say, “Well, it originated in the big bang.” Now think this through. There have been many “big bangs” around the world in the last fifty years, with different nations dropping bombs on each other. What has been the result? Have any of these explosions ever developed a precise design or a working model of anything? Of course not! Explosions produce chaos, not order and design. Yet we see exquisite, complicated order and design, beyond anything we can produce, all throughout the natural world.

The Work of a Divine Designer

One of the most persuasive arguments against the whole concept of evolutionary processes is something that every human being knows something about. We call it sexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction occurs in both plants and animals. If sexual reproduction were a result of some evolutionary or chance process, an absolutely unbelievable series of chance events would have had to occur.

First of all, the complex and completely different reproductive systems of the male must have independently evolved at about the same time and place as those of the female. A slight incompleteness in just one of the two would make both systems useless, and natural selection would oppose their survival.

Secondly, the physical systems of the male and the female would also need to be compatible. Third, the complex products of the male reproductive system such as pollen or sperm would need to have an affinity for and a mechanical and chemical compatibility with the eggs from the female reproductive system.

Fourth, the intricate and numerous processes occurring at the molecular level inside the fertilized egg would have to work with fantastic precision the very first time it happened. Processes which, even today, scientists can only describe in an aggregate sense.

Fifth, the environment of the fertilized egg from conception until it also reproduces, as an adult, with another sexually capable brother or sister would have to be controlled to an unbelievable degree. If these processes did not occur at precisely the right time, then one must restart this incredible chain of events all over again near ground zero. The odds then would become so astronomical that they insult the intelligence of anyone with common sense.

We are left with only two options. Either this series of incredible events occurred by random processes—as many people believe—or else an intelligent Designer created sexual reproduction. Which one makes the most sense? You decide. The first week of this world’s existence, creation week, as recorded in Genesis 1 and 2, was believed in by all the prophets, all the apostles and Jesus Christ Himself. God wrote down the facts in His Law which He wrote, with His own finger, in tables of stone. It said, “In six days God created the heavens and the earth.” But man says, “No, I know better than the Bible. I know better than Moses, I know better than Jesus Christ. I know better than the God that wrote His Law in tables of stone. I know that it took millions of years for the earth to come into existence through an evolutionary process.”

The Three Suppositions of Evolution

The evolutionary theory is built mainly on three suppositions or hypotheses. These are the theories of:

  1. Natural selection
  2. Mutations
  3. Lengthy periods of time

Let us look briefly at the first two:

According to evolutionists, natural selection is supposed to work this way. First, two different creatures mate and they reproduce offspring. This offspring then mutates or slowly changes into a better, more efficient species.

Now let us think about this. For thousands of years human beings have been experimenting with breeding animals. (Genesis records that even Jacob was working with breeding animals.) This is not natural selection. This is a man or group of men, with all their intelligence, attempting to control the selection process.

However, over the last several thousand years, even though men have controlled the breeding of many different species of animals, both wild and domesticated, has any person ever succeeded in creating a new species? Or maybe even a partial change from one specie to another? Certain amalgamations have been produced. But no one has ever been able to take a dog, breed it thousands of times and come up with a horse! It just will not work.

And the reason it will not work is because inside the DNA of every living cell there is contained an enormous amount of information, enough to fill a one-thousand six hundred page book. And the genetic information in a dog’s cells is not capable of producing a horse or a bird or a fish or anything else except a dog. This has been proven over and over again for thousands of years. No amount of breeding or natural selection has ever produced a change of specie, a change of what God called in Genesis “the kinds” that He originally created. We can change the animals within a specie, of course. We can breed two different dogs and get a new kind of dog. But it is still a dog. It is not a horse, a cow, an elephant, a fish or a bird.

The change of species by natural selection has been proved over and over again to be mathematically impossible. Yet, people want to believe it, because, if they do not believe in this evolutionary theory, the only alternative is to believe in the Bible and what the Bible says about the origin of the universe. And human beings are determined that they will not believe what the Bible says!

Magical Mutation

The next supposition upon which the theory of evolution is based is the idea that during natural selection various mutations occur and these mutations result in a better or superior creature than before. Mutations are accidents, or errors, that happen in the instruction bank of an organism. When that organism grows into adulthood, according to evolution, that accident is supposed to produce a better life form.

However, when we look at the real world, we find that mutations in genetic material are virtually always detrimental in some way and the results are usually fatal, although sometimes they are only crippling to the organism. The fact is that mutations almost always produce a form of life that is worse than the original.

There are a number of mutations that have happened in the human race in the last few thousand years. Here are a few of the mutations that we find present today. Which of these mutations would you like to have? There is albinism, dwarfism, color blindness, Downs’ syndrome and possibly dyslexia. These conditions are all caused by mutations in different parts of the human genetic code. Does that sound like the kind of process that produced modern man? That is what evolution demands we believe.

We are faced with a theory that is mathematically bankrupt, that has never been demonstrated or proved and yet millions of people all over the world believe it because they do not want to believe in the God of the Bible, the only other choice. The Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The Ten Commandments say, “For in six days God created the heavens and the earth and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” But our world has forgotten the Sabbath day and, in forgetting it, they have forgotten their Creator, and they have produced new theories to try to explain away the entire Bible because they do not want to keep God in their thinking. They do not want to be accountable to Him. But, friend, you are accountable to God whether you are an atheist, an agnostic or whatever you are.

The Bible says, “If you cannot tell from the natural world the power and existence of God, you are without excuse.” To the last generation God sends this message, “Fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.” Revelation 14:7.

There is a God in heaven. We are going to have to give an account to Him of what we have done in this world, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10.) If you want to be ready for that day of judgment, the Bible says, “Fear God and give glory to the Creator.”

Do not worship your own mind, your own intellect. You will never figure it all out on your own. Acknowledge God as your Creator and worship Him and you will have eternal life. “He who has the Son has life; he that does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:12. Remember, no one in this world, no human being, can create life. Only God can give life, and He can give it to you more abundantly.

For helpful information on Creation see these internet sites:

www.carm.org/evquotes.htm

www.icr.org

www.origins.swau.edu

The Second Coming of Christ

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In this article, we will discover how the glorious appearance of Christ in His Second Coming will affect both the righteous and the wicked before the redeemed begin their long awaited journey to heaven.

When Christ comes the second time, He will come to earth in a cloud, for He is to return in “like manner” as He left the earth. (See Acts 1:9–11.) Sister White describes the great scene with these words: “Soon there appears in the east a small black cloud, about the size of a man’s hand. It is the cloud which surrounds the Saviour and which seems in the distance to be shrouded in darkness. The people of God know this to be the sign of the Son of Man. In solemn silence they gaze upon it as it draws nearer the earth, becoming lighter and more glorious, until it is a great white cloud, its base a glory like consuming fire, and above it the rainbow of the covenant.” The Great Controversy, 640, 641.

How assuring is the promise, given by the angels to the disciples at Jesus’ ascension, that “this same Jesus” would return to take us home with Him. “The disciples had beheld the cloud receive Him. The same Jesus who had walked and talked and prayed with them; who had broken bread with them; who had been with them in their boats on the lake; and who had that very day toiled with them up the ascent of Olivet,— the same Jesus had now gone to share His Father’s throne. And the angels had assured them that the very One whom they had seen go up into heaven, would come again even as He had ascended.” The Desire of Ages, 832.

A Glorified, Triumphant King

There is also an additional factor to recognize. The Savior will be a glorified Christ when He returns. “The glory of Christ’s humanity did not appear when He was upon the earth. He was regarded as a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. We hid as it were our faces from Him. But He was pursuing the path the plan of God had devised. That same humanity now appears as He descends from heaven, robed in glory, triumphant, exalted.” In Heavenly Places, 358.

The glory revealed in the Second Coming will surpass anything that has ever been beheld by mortal eyes. “Christ will come in His own glory, in the glory of His Father, and in the glory of the holy angels. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels, the beautiful, triumphant sons of God, possessing surpassing loveliness and glory, will escort Him on His way. In the place of a crown of thorns, He will wear a crown of glory—a crown within a crown. In the place of that old purple robe, He will be clothed in a garment of whitest white, ‘so as no fuller on earth can white’ (Mark 9:3). And on His vesture and on His thigh a name will be written, ‘King of kings and Lord of lords.'” Our High Calling, 367. What a majestic description!

Can you imagine seeing countless angels accompany Christ as His glory fills the entire sky? He is no longer to be a man despised. He is now a conquering King! “Jesus rides forth as a mighty conqueror. Not now a ‘Man of sorrows,’ to drink the bitter cup of shame and woe . . . ‘He doth judge and make war.’ And ‘the armies which were in heaven’ (Revelation 19:11, 14) follow Him. With anthems of celestial melody the holy angels, a vast unnumbered throng, attend Him on His way. The firmament seems filled with radiant forms—’ten thousand times ten thousand, thousand and thousands of thousands.’ No human pen can portray the scene; no mortal mind is adequate to conceive its splendor. ‘His glory covers the heavens’ . . . As the living cloud comes still nearer, every eye beholds the Prince of Life. No crown of thorns now mars that sacred head; but a diadem of glory rests on His holy brow. His countenance outshines the dazzling brightness of the noonday sun. ‘And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.'” The Great Controversy, 641.

Who Shall be Able to Stand?

This display of overmastering power will affect both the wicked and the righteous. At first the saints will be apprehensive, while the wicked become terrified. “Before His presence ‘all faces are turned into paleness;’ upon the rejecters of God’s mercy falls the terror of eternal despair. ‘The heart melteth, the knees smite together . . . and the faces of them all gather blackness.’ Jeremiah 30:6, Nahum 2:10.” Ibid., 641. The righteous cry with trembling: ‘Who shall be able to stand?’ The angels’ song is hushed, and there is a period of awful silence. Then the voice of Jesus is heard, saying: ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’ The faces of the righteous are lighted up, and joy fills every heart. And the angels strike a note higher and sing again as they draw still nearer to the earth.

“The King of kings descends upon the cloud, wrapped in flaming fire. The heavens are rolled together as a scroll, the earth trembles before Him, and every mountain and island is moved out of its place. ‘Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people.’ Psalm 50:3, 4.” Ibid., 641, 642.

The difference between the saints and the sinners becomes a reality. While the righteous are filled with joy, the wicked are trying to hide and flee to the mountains, crying for the rocks to fall on them. “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand.” (See Revelation 6:15–17.)

The Wicked Cry to Their God

Today the disobedient seem unaware that Satan is preparing them for this final moment. Billions, in these closing hours, are choosing the pagan worship of “mother earth” rather than the worship of the Creator, as their living God. The following quotation reveals how such people will try in vain to escape, calling on their “nature god” to hide them from their Creator. “When the earth is reeling to and fro like a drunkard, when the heavens are shaking, and the great day of the Lord has come . . . the unsaved utter wild imprecations to dumb nature—their god: ‘Mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne. (Revelation 6:16).'” That I May Know Him, 356.

The wicked will flee to the same caves, in the mountains, which have recently been vacated by the faithful. “The people, who have braved out their rebellion, will fulfill the description given in Revelation 6:15–17. In these very caves and dens they find the very statement of truth in the letters and in the publications as witness against them. The shepherds who led the sheep in false paths will hear the charge made against them, ‘It was you who made light of the truth. It was you who told us that God’s law was abrogated, that it was a yoke of bondage. It was you who voiced the false doctrines when I was convicted that these Seventh-day Adventists had the truth. The blood of our souls is upon your priestly garments. . . . Now, will you pay the ransom for my soul? . . . What shall we do who listened to your garbling of the Scriptures and your turning into a lie the truth which if obeyed would have saved us?’

“When Christ comes to take vengeance on those who have educated and trained the people to trample on God’s Sabbath, to tear down His memorial, and tread down with their feet the feed of His pastures, lamentations will be in vain. . . . Rocks and mountains cannot screen them from the indignation of Him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.” Maranatha, 290.

At last, the wicked, beholding the glorified Christ in the clouds of heaven, have awakened to their fate, and their attitudes change. “The derisive jests have ceased. Lying lips are hushed into silence. The clash of arms, the tumult of battle, ‘with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood’ (Isaiah 9:5), is stilled. Nought now is heard but the voice of prayer and the sound of weeping and lamentation. The cry bursts forth from lips so lately scoffing: ‘The great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?'” The Great Controversy, 642. And such is the end of the wicked who are alive when Christ comes, for they are destroyed by the brightness of His coming.

“And They Also Who Pierced Him”

However, we must not overlook another most amazing prophecy. For there are some, among the wicked dead, who must live again to see the living, glorified Christ. Revelation 1:7 says, “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him.” Did you notice those words, “And they also which pierced Him”? These words refer to those wicked dead who played a part in the rejection and crucifixion of our Lord. These individuals, though dead for two thousand years, are to be raised in a special resurrection to behold the return of Jesus in His glory.

The servant of the Lord describes how these individuals will recall the words of Christ. “With thrilling power come to their minds the Sufferers’ words (speaking of Christ), when, adjured by the high priest, He solemnly declared: ‘Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.’ Mathew 26:64. Now they behold Him in His glory. . .

“Those who derided His claim to be the Son of God are speechless now. There is the haughty Herod who jeered at His royal title and bade the mocking soldiers crown Him king. . . . The men who smote and spit upon the Prince of Life now turn from His piercing gaze and seek to flee from the overpowering glory of His presence. Those who drove the nails through His hands and feet, the soldier who pierced His side, behold these marks with terror and remorse. . . .

“And now there rises a cry of mortal agony. Louder than the shout, ‘Crucify Him, crucify Him,’ which rang through the streets of Jerusalem, swells the awful, despairing wail, ‘He is the Son of God! He is the true Messiah!'” The Great Controversy, 643, 644.

These resurrected murderers, who mistreated the Lord, will join with the living wicked in calling for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of Jesus, because “they remember how His love was slighted and His compassion abused. . . . All the insult and despite offered to Christ, all the suffering caused to His disciples, will be as fresh in their recollection as when the Satanic deeds were done.

“The voice which they heard so often in entreaty and persuasion will again sound in their ears. Every tone of gracious selection will vibrate as distinctly in their ears as when the Saviour spoke in the synagogues and on the street. Then those who pierced Him will call on the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.” The Last Day Events, 275.

The Second Coming and the Righteous

We have looked at how the Second Coming will affect the wicked. Now let us consider how the appearance of Christ, in all His glory, will affect the righteous living and the righteous who have died through past ages. First we will consider the righteous who are raised when the trumpet of God sounds.

Inspiration describes the scene like this: “Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightening, the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints. He looks upon the graves of the righteous, then, raising His hand to heaven, He cries, ‘Awake, awake, awake, Ye that sleep in the dust, and arise!’ Throughout the length and the breadth of the earth the dead shall hear that voice, and they that hear shall live. And the whole earth shall ring with the tread of an exceeding great army of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. From the prison house of death they come, clothed with immortal glory, crying ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?’ 1 Corinthians 15:55. And the living righteous and the risen saints unite their voice in a long, glad shout of victory.” The Great Controversy, 644.

What takes place in the truly born-again individual that makes the resurrection possible? Consider these words carefully with me, for they contain the secret to eternal life. “By the power of the Savior that dwelt in them while living and because they were partakers of the divine nature, they were brought forth from the dead.” Sons and Daughters of God, 359.

What a divine truth to contemplate. Should some of us be laid to rest before He comes, let us so live that we are daily partakers of this divine nature which is so freely offered to all of God’s obedient children. For we read, “The victory of the sleeping saints will be glorious on the morning of the resurrection. . . . The Lifegiver will crown with immortality all who come forth from the grave.” Ibid.

“When our friends go into the grave, they are beautiful to us. It may be our father or our mother that we laid away: when they come forth those wrinkles are all gone but the figure is there, and we know them. . .

“We want to be prepared to meet these dear friends as they come forth in the resurrection morning. Shall we lay hold upon the hope set before us in the gospel that we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is?” In Heavenly Places, 353.

Such assurance is given to all who have been faithful. “The precious dead, from Adam down to the last saint who dies, will hear the voice of the Son of God, and will come forth from the grave to immortal life.” The Desire of Ages, 606.

My heart throbs as I read these precious promises. “For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Hebrews 10:37. Don’t you feel like saying, “Praise God”? “The child of God will be terror-stricken at the first sight of the majesty of Jesus Christ. He feels that he cannot live in His holy presence. But the word comes to him as to John, ‘Fear not.’ Jesus laid His right hand upon John; He raised Him up from his prostrate position. So will He do unto His loyal, trusting, ones.” That I May Know Him, 360.

Again, I must re-emphasize the important truth that it is only because we become joined with Christ here on earth, that when we die we will come forth from the grave when He calls. This is stated clearly in Maranatha, 302. “Christ became one flesh with us, in order that we might become one spirit with Him. It is by virtue of this union that we are to come forth from the grave—not merely as a manifestation of the power of Christ, but because through faith, His life has become ours. Those who see Christ in His true character, and receive Him into the heart, have everlasting life. It is through the spirit that Christ dwells in us; and the spirit of God, received into the heart by faith, is the beginning of life eternal.” Is that not amazing? Here is the gospel in its fullness.

The Condition of the Resurrected Righteous

Have you ever wondered what the appearance and size of the righteous dead will be like when they are resurrected? That answer is found in inspiration also. “All come forth from their graves the same in stature as when they entered the tomb. Adam, who stands among the risen throng, is of lofty height and majestic form, in stature but little below the Son of God. He presents a marked contrast to the people of later generations; in this one respect is shown the great degeneracy of the race. But all arise with the freshness and the vigor of eternal youth. . . . All blemishes and deformities are left in the grave. Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will ‘grow up’ (Malachi 4:2) to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory.” The Great Controversy, 644, 645.

“When Christ comes, . . .we shall then be gifted with a higher nature. The bodies of all who purify their souls by obeying the truth shall be glorified. They will have fully received and believed in Jesus Christ.” Selected Messages, vol. 3, 427.

I have discovered another gift that will be bestowed upon the saints of God when He comes. “When Christ comes, we shall then be gifted with a higher nature. The bodies of all who purify their souls by obeying the truth shall be glorified. They will have fully received and believed in Jesus Christ.” Selected Messages, book 3, 427.

It is no wonder that the apostle exclaimed in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” Let these words of inspiration from 1 Corinthians15:53 be riveted in our mind: “This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.”

Ellen White emphasizes these word in The Great Controversy, 645. “The living righteous are changed ‘in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.’ At the voice of God they were glorified; now they are made immortal and with the risen saints are caught up to meet their Lord in the air.” “There are the columns of angels on either side . . . then the angelic choir strike the note of victory and the angels in two columns take up the song and the redeemed host join as though they had been singing the song on the earth, and they have been. Oh, what music! There is not an inharmonious note. Every voice proclaims, ‘Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain.” Sons and Daughters of God, 359. I get so thrilled when I read about the coming wonders that I can hardly wait. My heart cry is, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.”

Picture with me the reunion of God’s saints. “Angels ‘gather together His elect from the four winds; from one end of heaven to the other.’ Little children are borne by holy angels to their mother’s arms. Friends long separated by death are united, nevermore to part. . . .” The Great Controversy, 645. (If you are interested in reading more about children in heaven, see Selected Messages, vol. 2, 260 and Early Writings, 19.)

A Big Reunion

We shall know our friends even as the disciples knew Jesus. They may have been deformed, diseased or disfigured in this mortal life, but they will rise in perfect health and symmetry. Yet, in the glorified body, their identity will be perfectly preserved. “Then shall we know, even as also we are known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12.

“He [Jesus] will come to honor those who have loved Him and kept His commandments and to take them to Himself. He has not forgotten them or His promise. There will be a relinking of the family chain.” The Desire of Ages, 632.

What about those we have led to Jesus? “The redeemed will meet and recognize those whose attention they have directed to the uplifted Saviour. What blessed converse they have with these souls! ‘I was a sinner,’ it was said, ‘without God and without hope in the world, and you came to me and drew my attention to the precious Saviour as my only hope.’ . . . Others will say, ‘I was a heathen in heathen lands. You… came to teach me how to find Jesus and believe in Him as the only true God. I demolished my idols and I worshiped God, and now I see Him face to face. I am saved, eternally saved, ever to behold Him whom I love.’..

“Others will express their gratitude to those who fed the hungry and clothed the naked. ‘When despair bound my soul in unbelief, the Lord sent you to me,’ they say, ‘to speak words of hope and comfort, . . . so that I could grasp the hand of Christ that was reached out to save me. . . . You read to me the precious promises of God’s word. You inspired in me the faith that He would save me. My heart was softened, subdued, broken, as I contemplated the sacrifice which Christ had made for me…’

“What rejoicing there will be as these redeemed ones meet and greet those who have had a burden in their behalf! And those who have lived, not to please themselves, but to be a blessing to the unfortunate who have so few blessings—how their hearts will thrill with satisfaction.” My Life Today, 353.

As I recall these wonderful statements, beloved, we must be there. We must be there! Please contemplate this mighty appeal of the Holy Spirit found in Early Writings, 110. “Then only those who are holy, those who have followed fully the meek Pattern, will with rapturous joy exclaim as they behold Him, ‘Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us.’ And they will be changed ‘in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.’—that trump that wakes the sleeping saints, and calls them forth from their dusty beds, clothed with glorious immortality, and shouting, ‘Victory! Victory over death and the grave.’ The changed saints are then caught up together with the angels to meet the Lord in the air, nevermore to be separated from the object of their love.

“With such a prospect as this before us, such a glorious hope, such a redemption that Christ has purchased for us by His own blood, shall we hold our peace? Shall we not praise God even with a loud voice, as did the disciples when Jesus rode into Jerusalem? Is not our prospect far more glorious than was theirs? Who dare then forbid us glorifying God, even with a loud voice, when we have such a hope, big with immortality, and full of glory? We have tasted of the powers of the world to come, and long for more. My whole heart cries out after the living God, and I shall not be satisfied until I am filled with all His fullness.”

Is There Any Word From God?

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“For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth He devise means that His banished be not expelled from Him.” 2 Samuel 14:14. A woman of Tekoah preached this little sermon as a rebuke to the king of Israel.

The Bible story begins when Amnon, the king’s son wronged his half sister, Tamar, who was a full sister to Absalom. Absalom took revenge by killing Amnon then fleeing into exile to avoid revenge being taken upon him. For three years he lived with a foreign king, far from his homeland. For three years he anxiously watched and waited, asking everyone whom he thought might know, “Is there any word from the king?” But the king remained silent. There was no indication that he even cared about Absalom. Finally, the woman of Tekoah, in consultation with Joab, preached this little sermon to the king as a rebuke. Pointing out that his action was unlike the action of the Lord that he professed to love and obey, she reminded him that the merciful God we serve devises means whereby the banished may be restored.

In the beginning, Adam and Eve enjoyed open communication with the Lord. We are told, “The holy pair were not only children under the fatherly care of God but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator. They were visited by angels, and were granted communion with their Maker, with no obscuring veil between.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 50. All that changed when sin came in.

Have you ever noticed the way nations relate to other nations in modern diplomacy? When two nations are not getting along, very often they do not communicate directly but talk to each other through a third party. They fear that direct communication would blur the message of condemnation that they are trying to give, and cause people to say, “Well, it must not be all that bad. They are still on speaking terms.” So a means is devised by which communication can go on, but still the testimony, against what is conceived to be evil, remains.

God has used a similar method to bear testimony against the evil of man’s rebellion. God recognized that to communicate directly with man would blur the testimony and cause confusion. Maybe the rebel would say, “Well, I must not be so bad, the Lord is still talking to me.” So the Lord had to break off direct communication, yet He devised a means to continue communication. He chose individuals who were not in rebellion against Him and through them He sent messages to those in rebellion. In this way He communicates to the rebel, but at the same time He declares to the universe His rejection of the evil action of the rebel. We call this Divine Diplomacy.

This special class of people, through whom the Lord communicates, we call prophets. They can declare, “Now the word of the Lord came unto me,” and this gives them a sense of commission that is unlike anything the world has ever seen. We look in amazement at prophets going before their kings and demanding that they come into line. That is certainly not something a common man would do, for it would mean risking his life.

Recall the time when a certain king of Israel asked a prophet what would happen if he went to war. The prophet told him truthfully that he would not come back because the Lord did not approve. The king in fury said, “Take this man and throw him in the prison and keep him there until I come back.” We would expect the man to drop to his knees and plead for mercy, but he did not. He said, “Your majesty, if you come back at all, the Lord has not spoken by me.”

The history of the prophets’ relationship to their kings reveals their steadfast integrity, their unflinching and unyielding demand for righteousness on every level from the highest to the lowest classes of society. There is not any class of men like them in the world, and they produced literature. Some of their messages appear to us in a Book that is unlike any other book in the world—the Bible. We value it because we believe it contains revelations from God.

Theories and Facts

What actually is revelation? To fully answer this question, I first present an example to you. Suppose that you are the king of one of the Hawaiian Islands where a horse has never been seen. Some Europeans arrive and tell you that in Europe there is a large animal called a horse. How are you going to know what a horse is like? One way that you could find out is to call a committee of the most learned men in your kingdom and commission them to collectively study this matter out and report their findings back to you. The only problem is, they have never seen a horse. They only have fragments of information about a horse, and the largest animals they know are sharks and whales. It would not be too surprising, then, if the report they brought back to you is that a horse is something like a whale or a shark. Having never seen a horse, that would be the best they could do.

Another way to learn about a horse would be to send a few thousand dollars to Europe to have a horse shipped to your island. When the horse arrived in Hawaii, your learned men could examine the horse and then draw up their final conclusion. That would be a perfectly appropriate method as long as they did not try to ignore the evidence and force their previous theories on the actual horse!

Consider a theory that some of the best brains in our world adhered to before men had ever walked on the moon. They recognized the Law of Gravity in the world and in the universe. They believed that the degree of the pull of gravity was related to the size of the planet. The larger the planet, the stronger the pull; the smaller the planet, the less the pull. Since the moon is so much smaller than the earth, they reasoned that there would be very little gravitational pull there, which would mean that the surface of the moon might be extremely soft. Gravity would not have pulled it in as hard as it is here on earth and a man landing on the moon might sink in to his waist or even to his neck.

Finally, the day came when a man landed a spacecraft on the moon and stepped out onto its surface for the first time—and he only sunk in about two inches. There was not that much dust. What if the scientists had said, “We will not accept that; we know that the surface of the moon is soft”? That would have been ridiculous! Instead, they corrected their theory when the facts were in. They could not force their theory on the moon!

All of the examples I have given you are leading to a very crucial concept: there is nothing wrong with speculative thinking, but it should always be corrected by the observable data!

Man’s Theories about Revelation

As we come back to our basic question, What is revelation?, we discover that man has a very strong tendency to set up a theory about revelation and force it on the Bible instead of letting the Bible tell them what revelation is! Here are just a few of the many examples I could give you.

People theorize that if there is such a thing as revelation, if there is a Book in existence which contains information revealed by the God of the universe, certainly it would have just one heavenly literary style throughout that whole Book. But, when we look at the Book, it is not like that. There are sections of it that are purely historical in style. Sections of it are dramatical in style, like the book of Job. Others are poetical, like the Psalms, and others are apocalyptic, like Daniel and Revelation. What should we do with these facts? Will we let the facts correct our theory? Or are we determined to hold to our theory no matter what?

Another very common way that many have reasoned is that if there is something in the world called revelation, if God has spoken to man, then certainly that message would come from God in the highest language and with the most perfect vocabulary known to man. However, as men studied the New Testament, written in Greek, they saw a great difference between the Greek of the New Testament and the Greek of the classical writers. At the same time archeologists were finding written materials in the Greek language. There were contracts, deeds, instructions, bills of lading, and receipts. They finally found that the truth of the matter was that the language of the Greek New Testament was the simple everyday language of the common people. The idea that the Greek of the New Testament must be an especially elevated form of Greek had to be laid aside.

Some people had real trouble with that. They reasoned that it would be impossible that God could pass by the beautiful language of high Greek for the common language spoken on the street. It was a jolt to them. But that is exactly what God did, and we had better allow our theories be corrected by the facts.

Men speculate that if the Bible is a revelation from God then every description of a single incident should be exactly like every other description. But this is not true at all. We look at the Gospel records of the life of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and they are not contradictory, but they are different. They apparently reflect the different interests of the writer.

A study of the gospel of Mark shows that he wrote for the non-Jewish reader. His gospel contains many explanations telling why the Jews had certain customs or explaining a word that had a particular meaning for the Jews. Matthew, on the other hand, obviously wrote for the Jew and he often notes how prophecies, well known to Jews, had been fulfilled. Luke was the careful historian trying to set everything in the context of the events around it. He often says, it was in such and such a year of a certain ruler, it was such and such a time, or in such and such a place. John had a very different emphasis. He was the theologian. In his gospel, he spends very little time on locations, but he spends a lot of time on the theological meanings of what Jesus said. All of the gospels are true and contain important lessons for us, but they do not provide identical accounts. Here again we have to let our theory be corrected by the facts.

Some would argue that if the Bible is from God, it should be so legally precise that it is impossible to misunderstand it. But God, we discover, is not interested in forcing anyone to believe. He sets before us enough evidence that we can believe if we choose to, and with that He is finished. He will not try to force anyone. So we do not find the Bible to be legally precise. In order to be sure we have the right picture, we must compare many verses, one with another.

More of Men’s Theories

According to men’s theories, if the Bible is a divinely inspired book, we should not find any records of evil. But we find that the Bible records, in frank and honest detail, the sins of David and the apostasy and betrayal of Peter and other things that are painful for us to read. So we have to let that correct our theory again.

According to our theory, the Bible should be systematically organized. Everything should be in proper chronological order, but this is not true either. Take, for example, the book of Jeremiah. When you read it, it looks as though Baruch, Jeremiah’s secretary, collected all of the masses of Jeremiah’s writings and just bound them together in a book, without any attempt at all to put them in proper chronological order.

In the New Testament, even the parables are not recorded in the same order in the different gospels. If you tried to figure out which one came first, you would not find it easy. Ellen White suggests that the narrative of what Jesus said and what He did was called back to the authors minds by certain circumstances and so the different events of Christ’s ministry and the lessons He taught, do not always appear in chronological order in the different gospels.

We theorize that if the Bible truly is the word of God, certainly it must be entirely original. It does not seem logical that in it there would appear anything a man had copied from another man. But that does not check out either. When you look at your Bible, you find that there is clear evidence that there was some copying done.

If you begin with 2 Peter 2:4 and compare it with Jude 6, and read about the next ten verses in each chapter, you will conclude that someone did some copying. Either Peter had Jude’s epistle before him as he wrote or Jude had Peter’s epistle before him as he wrote. Matthew also must have had the book of Mark before him as he was writing, and Luke must have had both Matthew and Mark before him as he was writing. Some scholars tell us that ninety-five percent of the book of Mark is copied word for word into Matthew and Luke.

In the book of Genesis there is a strong indication that earlier records were incorporated into Scripture. Genesis chapter 1 through chapter 2 verse 3, covers the story of creation. There we see a record of the days of creation and exactly what happened on every day, including the seventh. And then, verse 4 starts in with another new story of creation. It begins, “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.” What is then recorded is not contradictory to the first account, any more than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are contradictory, but it is different.

Look at that word “generation” in verse four. In the past scholars believed that writing was unknown in the ancient world. Some skeptics insisted that we know Moses could not have written Genesis because writing was not being done in Moses’ time. However, the archaeologists have corrected our understanding and we now know there was a great deal of writing being done long, long before Moses was born. In the days of Abraham they even kept little clay tablets with Bills of Sale and Title Deeds to their property. So certainly writing was not uncommon.

Archaeologists have discovered genealogical tablets called the towledah. These little tablets would have all the names of one’s ancestors, so it was the towledah of that man or family. And towledah is the word used in Genesis 2:4, translated “generations.” There is strong indication here that when Moses wrote the book of Genesis he incorporated some pre-existing records into his own record of the early history of our earth. We believe that the Holy Spirit would not have let him include them if they had been faulty. But they were accurate records and so Moses simply copied them right into his own record.

We could go on and compare Kings and Chronicles and add many more illustrations, but the evidence is already conclusive and leads to one point—we must correct our theories by the facts revealed in the Word of God. We must let the Bible tell us what revelation is and not force our theories upon the Bible.

God’s Penmen Not His Pen

Another theory that is commonly held by many sincere Christians is that if God spoke to a man by His Holy Spirit, then certainly the man merely copied the words spoken to him. But that does not check out, either. I learned something about this with an experience of my own.

There was a time when I feel that the Lord talked to me directly. It happened when I was pleading with the Lord for guidance in an important decision that had to immediately be made about an evangelistic series. I began to quote to the Lord one of His own Scriptures which said, “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” I said, “Lord, You have to tell me what to do. You have to give me a sign. I have to decide this quickly.” And the Lord responded. I did not hear a voice, but my mind was instantly illuminated with a complete thought, like a flash. I cannot quote it to you as quickly as it came, because I have to report it to you in words and the words take time. But the message came in a thousandth of a second. “What are you doing reading to Me a promise of wisdom while you ask Me for a sign? A sign is not wisdom.” That hit me so hard that I stopped praying. I said, “I guess that is right.” And so, I sat down on my chair and I said, “What would wisdom do?” Then I laid out a little plan, I tried it and it worked. It was a miraculous thing.

I cherish the memory of the few times in my experience that I believe the Lord spoke to me directly. I cannot tell you by what method it was done, but it was immediate and the whole message was there in my mind.

I tell people that experience in different words from time to time, words calculated to reach the understanding of the person I am talking to. I do not think that does any violence at all to the experience. It was not given to me in words that I either heard or saw.

Ellen White tells us that the writers of the Bible had to do something like that. “The Bible must be given in the language of men. Everything that is human is imperfect. . . . The Bible is written by inspired men, but it is not God’s mode of thought and expression. It is that of humanity. God, as a writer is not represented. Men will often say such an expression is not like God. But God has not put Himself in words, in logic, in rhetoric, on trial in the Bible. The writers of the Bible were God’s penmen, not His pen.” Ibid., 20, 21. (See also Selected Messages, vol. 1, 20–48.)

I have listened with great interest to many earnest and sincere scholars in the university classroom, as they struggled desperately to describe how God speaks to a man in revelation. They could not do it. I cannot do it either. But Ellen White reminds us that we see the same thing in revelation that we see in the incarnation. No man can tell precisely how humanity and divinity are blended in Jesus Christ. No man can tell precisely how humanity and divinity are blended in the Word of God. It is beyond the human understanding. This is probably a subject we will be studying through the ages of eternity.

She goes on: “It is not the words of the Bible that are inspired, but the men were inspired. Inspiration acts not on the man’s words or his expression but on the man himself. . . . The words receive the impress of the individual mind. The divine mind is diffused. The divine mind and will is combined with the human mind and will, thus the utterances of the man are the Word of God.” Ibid. And then summing it up, she says, “I take the Bible just as it is, the inspired Word. I believe its utterances in the entire Bible.” Ibid., 17.

The Bible can be compared to a tall man bending down to talk to a child, then getting down on one knee so that his eyes are level with the child’s and trying to communicate with him. It is God stooping down to communicate with us in language that we can understand. Human language is not adequate to fully contain the thought of God, but God devised a means to communicate the truths vital to our salvation in a way that we mortals could understand.

God Calls Us Back

David devised means whereby Absalom could be brought back. But notice the difference. David did not act until he was urged. God devised the means long before there was a need. He was ready with His plan that His banished would not be expelled and that those separated from Him by sin would not be hopelessly separated. He devised a means to bring them back, to restore them.

David’s restoration of Absalom was not complete. He told Joab to bring him back to Jerusalem and let him live in his own house free, but not to let him see his face. That is not like God. Remember in the story of the Prodigal Son, the father saw his prodigal son returning and he did not say, “Well, I see my son is coming back. Send one of the servants to take him to the servants quarters and we will send some clothing down there. But see to it that he does not come to this house.” Oh, no, Jesus describes the father, himself, going out to meet him. He wraps his arms around him and draws him close to his heart of love. Then he commands that a robe be brought to cover his filthy rags and he calls everyone to celebrate his restoration so that all will know that his restoration is complete. The son is restored as fully and completely as if he had never sinned. That is the way the Lord works. His ways are much higher than the ways of men.

How thankful we are that God devised means for rebellious mankind. It is as if the rope tying man’s boat to the dock is cut and man is on the boat drifting ever farther and farther away from God. But God was not content to sit in silence in His palace, like David did, and say, “That is too bad. It is not My problem.” God made it His problem. He devised a means and because He did, we have His Book in our hands.

This precious, invaluable Book is the greatest treasure we can have because it comes from God. I suggest that we lay aside all of our preconceived theories and let this Book tell us what revelation is and does and what it does not do. Let us thank God that He devised the means so that everywhere man may go, there is always this Book waiting for him. Whenever man in his exile asks, “Is there any word from the King?” the answer is always “Yes, there is a word from the Lord.” You can turn to it anytime, anywhere and discover that the Lord is waiting to welcome you home.

“Come, every soul by sin oppressed.

There’s mercy with the Lord,

And He will surely give you rest,

By trusting in His Word.”

That Word is always there. There is always a word from the Lord saying, “Come home and be forgiven. Be as fully restored as if you had never sinned.”

Are You a Living Stone?

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Some of the most misunderstood verses in all of the New Testament are found in Matthew 16. In this chapter Jesus asks His disciples who He is and Peter, answering Him, in verse 16, said: “ ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter (Petros), and on this rock (Petra) I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:16–19.

The word “petros” that is translated Peter, means a stone. “And on this Petra (a very large boulder or rock) I will build My church.” On what Rock is the church built? Peter knew the Rock upon which the church was built. He wrote: “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, ‘Behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.” 1 Peter 2:4–8. Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone upon which the church is built. (To see that this authority was given to the whole church, and not Peter alone, see also Ephesians 2:19–22; Matthew 21:44.)

Even though we clearly understand who the rock is, Christ’s command in Matthew 16 has still been difficult for many to understand. Jesus told Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:19. Here Jesus gave the Christian church enormous authority—authority which involves eternal life. (See also Matthew 18:18; John 20:19–23.)

I believe that the reason we have had such a difficult time understanding this verse is because we have not paid careful attention to who and what constitutes Christ’s church. We are in big trouble if we do not know who and what the church is, because the church has the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

It was by means of these Scriptures that the Bishops of Rome attained authority over the then-known world, during the Dark Ages. Dissidents, Bible-believing Christians, were tortured or burned at the stake. Robes and miters, with pictures of demons, snakes and devils painted on them, were placed upon them. Then the bishops would say, “Not only are you going to die, but we are consigning you to hell and you will burn forever.” By means of these Scripture texts, peasants, kings and nations submitted to the Roman authority.

However, many have failed to realize that this authority, which Christ conveyed upon the Christian church, has three big qualifications.

  1. The people that have the authority must have received the Holy Spirit. (See John 20.)
  2. They must have been taught of God. (See Matthew 16.)
  3. And they must follow the principles of gospel order. (See Matthew 18.)

Words From the Reformers

To help us better understand these qualifications, I will share with you what the reformers taught about the church to whom Christ gave this solemn authority.

John Knox, a Scottish reformer, said that the church was “a divinely originated, a divinely enfranchised and a divinely governed society. Its members were all those who made profession of the gospel; its law was the Bible, and its king was Christ.” The History of Protestantism, vol.2, 496, by J. A. Wylie.

Jesus Christ established the church and is the head of it. Olaf Petri (Paterson), a Protestant reformer in the Land of Sweden, said that the church was the body of Christ, and that believers were the members of that body. The question was whether the Pope and Prelates had the power to cast out of the church those that were its living members and in whose hearts dwelt the Holy Spirit, by faith. This he simply denied. “To God alone it belonged to save the believing, and to condemn the unbelieving. The Bishops could neither give nor take away the Holy Ghost. They could not change those who were the sons of God into sons of Gehenna. The power conferred in the eighteenth chapter of Saint Matthew’s Gospel, he maintained, was simply declaratory; what the minister had power to do, was to announce the solace or loosing of the gospel to the penitent, and its correction or cutting off to the impenitent. He who persists in his impenitence is excommunicated, not by man, but by the Word of God, which shows him to be bound in his sin ’til he repent. The power of binding and loosing was, moreover, given to the church, and not by any individual man, or body of men. Ministers exercise, he argued, their office for the church, and in the name of the church; and without the church’s consent and approval, expressed or implied, they have no power of loosing or binding any one. Much less, he maintained, was this power of excommunication secular; it was simply a power of doing, by the Church and for the Church, the necessary work of purging out notorious offenders from the body of the faithful.” Ibid., vol. 2, 18, 20.

The New Testament teaches clearly that the church is the body of Christ. (See Ephesians 1:22, 23; Colossians 1:18, 24 and 1 Corinthians 12.)

Petris main argument was that those that have the Holy Spirit make up the church. This is revealed in Ephesians 2:22. Baptism by water is a symbol of being baptized by the Holy Spirit. A person is only playing church if the Holy Spirit does not baptize him. “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” 1 Corinthians 12:13.

Petri saw that this issue of who had the authority to cast anyone out of the church, required an understanding of what constitutes the church. The church does have divine authority to bind and loose, but the question is, “Who is the church that has that authority?”

Taussan, a reformer in Denmark, drew up a confession which became the confession of the Protestants in Denmark. “It declared Holy Scripture to be the only rule of faith, and the satisfaction of Christ in our room the only foundation of eternal life. It defined the church to be the communion of the faithful, and it denied the power of any man to cast anyone out of that church, unless such shall have first cut himself off from the communion of the faithful by impenitence and sin. It affirmed that the worship of God did not consist in canticles, masses, vigils, edifices, shaven crowns, cowls, and anointings, but in the adoring of God in Spirit and in truth: that ‘the true mass of Christ is the commemoration of His sufferings and death, in which His body is eaten and His blood is drunk in certain pledge that through His name we obtain forgiveness of sins.’ It goes on to condemn masses for the living and the dead, indulgences, auricular confession, and all similar practices. It declares all true believers to be priests in Christ, who had offered Himself to the Father a living and acceptable sacrifice. It declares the head of the church to be Christ, than whom there is no other, whether on earth or in heaven, and of this head all believers are members.” Ibid., 42, 43.

Apostolic Succession

There was a remnant of the apostolic church in Italy called the Waldenses. They were terribly persecuted. One of the main issues with the Waldenses was who is the church? The Waldenses said that they were the Church, the spiritual descendents of the apostles, because they followed the pure teachings of the disciples. For this they were martyred and massacred by the millions. The Waldenses were a perpetual monument of what the church used to be and, as long as they maintained their purity, they were a living witness to testify against how far professed Christendom had departed from the original faith.

One of the early leaders of these people, around 820 A.D., was a godly man by the name of Claude of Turin. Ellen White speaks of him as a devout man who held back the tide of apostasy for a time. Regarding the church, Claude maintained “that there is but one Sovereign in the Church, and He is not on earth…Know thou that He only is apostolic who is the Keeper and Guardian of the apostles’ doctrine and not he who boasts himself to be seated in the chair of the apostle, and in the meantime doth not acquit himself of the charge of the apostle.” Ibid., vol. 1, 21, 22.

The question of apostolic succession has agitated minds in the Christian world for hundreds of years. Some boast, “Our church goes all the way back to the apostles and your church just started at such-and-such time.” Who really are the successors of the apostles? The way to understand this is to ask the question that was commonly asked in Christ’s day— “Who is the true church? Who are Abraham’s seed?”

The Jews told Jesus that they had never been in bondage, because they were Abraham’s descendents. (See John 8:33.) They said, “We are the true church and we are going to have eternal life.” They believed that the Gentiles had no hope of salvation because they were not Abraham’s seed. However, Christ attempted to enlighten their minds. He said, “ ‘I know that you are Abraham’s descendents, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.’ They answered and said to Him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.’ ” John 8:37–39. That is, you would have a character like Abraham.

Worthless Profession

Our characters are formed by our habits (or our works) day by day. And all throughout the Bible, it is clearly taught that we will be judged according to our works, or our characters. (See Revelation 20; Matthew 17:27, 28). Ellen White said that the day of judgment would be a day of bitter disappointment to most of the Christian world, because they make a profession but they do not have a character that matches that profession. A profession is worthless unless the character coincides with it.

If you profess to be a Seventh-day Adventist, you profess to be a member of the church mentioned in Revelation 12:17 that keeps the commandments of God and has the testimony of Jesus. However, if you do not keep the commandments of God, nor have the faith of Jesus, your profession is worthless!

Notice how Jesus drove this point home to the Jewish leaders. “‘But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.’ Then they said to Him, ‘We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.’” John 8:40–44.

These people professed to be the true church, but actually, Christ said, they were of the devil. They were representatives of Satan. (See The Desire of Ages, 36.)

How do you tell who the spiritual successors of the apostles are? The descendents of the apostles are those that teach the same thing the apostles taught and are filled with the same Spirit. (See The Desire of Ages, 466, 467.)

Profession is worthless unless you show, by your life, that you follow the doctrine you profess. Claude maintained in the ninth century, “Know thou that he only is apostolic who is the keeper and guardian of the apostles’ doctrine.”

The evangelicals during the time of the Reformation said that the church is not the clergy, it is the congregation of godly men. What is usually called the church is merely the old synagogue. The true church is the assembly of the just. In other words, as Ellen White said, “From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth.” The Acts of the Apostles, 11.

Nowhere in the Spirit of Prophecy does Ellen White say that the church is both the faithful and the unfaithful. It is the faithful only. If you are unfaithful and make a profession, your name may be on a church book but you are not part of the church. Your profession is false. The Jews made a profession, but their characters proved that they were the children of the devil. It is character that counts.

Wherever a group of people is filled with the Holy Spirit, living godly, righteous lives and meeting together in an assembly to worship, there is the church. The reformers all understood this, and it gave them the strength to stand before the Bishops who condemned them to eternal hell fire, and confess, “I know my Redeemer liveth!”

One of these faithful believers wrote, “If two or three cobblers or weavers, elect of God, meet together in the name of the Lord, they form a true church of God.”

Fryth, a leading reformer, in England, who was burned at the stake in the sixteenth century said, “‘I understand the church of God in a wide sense. It contains all those whom we regard as members of Christ. It is a net thrown into the sea.’ This principle, sown at that time as a seed in the English Reformation, was one day to cover the world with missionaries.” The Reformation in England, vol. 2, 126, by J.H. Merle d’Aubigne.

Another true and faithful believer, named Bennett, had this experience. “For a whole week, not only the Bishop, but all the priests and friars of the city, visited Bennett night and day. But they tried in vain to prove to him that the Roman church was the true one. ‘God has given me grace to be of a better church,’ he said.—‘Do you not know that ours is built upon Saint Peter?’—‘The church that is built upon a man,’ he replied, ‘is the devil’s church and not God’s.’” Ibid., vol.1, 465.

Tyndale Debates More

Another famous reformer was William Tyndale, a scholar that translated the Bible from the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts into English. On one occasion Tyndale was in a debate with Thomas More, a Roman Catholic. Their discussion went like this:

“More: We must not examine the teaching of the church by Scripture, but understand Scripture by means of what the church says.

“Tyndale: What! Does the air give light to the sun, or the sun to the air? Is the church before the gospel, or the gospel before the church? Is not the father older than the son? God begat us with His own will, with the word of truth. (James 1:18.) If He who begeteth is before him who is begotten, the word is before the church, or, to speak more correctly, before the congregation.

“More: Why do you say congregation and not church?

“Tyndale: Because by that word church, you understand nothing but a multitude of shaven, shorn and oiled, which we now call the spirituality or clergy; while the word of right is common unto all the congregation of them that believe in Christ.

“More: The church is the Pope and his sect of followers.

“Tyndale: The Pope teaches us to trust in holy works for salvation, as penance, saints’ merits and fryer’s coats. Now, he that hath no faith to be saved through Christ, is not of Christ’s church.” Ibid., 395.

The reformer said that wherever the word is faithfully preached and the sacraments purely administered, there is the church. Rome said, Wherever there is a line of sacramentally ordained men, there and only there, is the church.

The Struggle of Separation

For many of the reformers, who grew up believing this distorted view of the church, the realization of the apostasy and the decision of what they must do in response came only with great difficulty. Calvin, the great Swiss reformer faced a terrible struggle. “The doubts by which his soul was now shaken grew in strength with each renewed discussion. What shall he do? Shall he forsake the church? That seems to him like casting himself into the gulf of perdition. And yet, can the church save him? There is a new light breaking in upon him in which her dogmas are melting away. The ground beneath him is sinking. ‘There can be no church,’ we hear Calvin say to himself, ‘where the truth is not.’” History of Protestantism, vol. 2, 152.

Do you believe that? Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 3:15: “But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” Leaving the truth, is leaving the church. For many years Romanists have accused Protestants of heresy and of separation from the true church. But Ellen White says, “This accusation applies rather to themselves. They are the ones who laid down the banner of Christ and departed from the ‘faith that was once delivered unto the saints.’ Jude 3.” The Great Controversy, 51.

The church stays with the truth because the church is the pillar of the truth. When Calvin began to understand that, it set his mind free. “‘There can be no church,’ we hear Calvin saying to himself, ‘where the truth is not.’…If I shall come back to the truth, as contained in the Scriptures, will I not come back to the church? and will I not be joined to the holy company of prophets and apostles, of saints and martyrs? . . . In fine, Calvin concluded that the term ‘Church’ could not make the society that monopolized the term really ‘the Church.’ High sounding titles and lofty assumptions could give neither unity nor authority; these could come from the Truth alone; and so he abandoned ‘the Church’ that he might enter the Church—the Church of the Bible.” The History of Protestantism, vol. 2, 154.

We are living so near the end that it is time for us, as historic Adventists, to wake up to reality and not be deceived by pretension and profession. Our profession must coincide with our character. Unless our lives are in harmony with God’s law, we are not His people and our profession is worthless.

God’s church is going through as it always has in the past. The church went through in Samuel’s time, however, most of the professed people did not go along with it! The church went through in Jeremiah’s and Daniel’s time. And the church went through in the time of Jesus and the apostles; although the leaders of the professed church were not really a part of God’s church.

Latimer, another Protestant reformer, who was burned at the stake, wrote concerning the church: “Lively stones are needed to build up the temple of God.” The Reformation in England, vol. 2, 42. A church is not just bricks and mortar or corporations or theology. It is people who, as a result of being filled with the Holy Spirit, are spoken of in the Bible as living stones that emit light all around.

Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” Do you want to be part of that light? Our greatest danger is that we will be deceived, thinking we are part of the light, because we make a profession, but we do not have a character to back it up. What will we do if we come to the Day of Judgment and have only a profession without having the wedding garment on? I cannot think of a more terrible moment, for then it will be all over and each person’s eternal destiny will be forever fixed. It will be too late to change.

But today, my dear reader, it is not too late. Jesus invites you to become a part of His body. He wants you to become a living stone built into that beautiful building of His church. Is eternal life worth everything to you? The decision is yours.

The Endurance Race

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When I was in school, I ran in track. There were a number of different events that you could run. There was the one hundred-meter dash, the two hundred-meter dash and the four hundred-meter dash—but I did not run any of those. The event that I ran was the 1600-meter or the one-mile race. When the gun was shot, signaling everyone to start, the runners would begin dispersing. Some would get a head start, but it did not matter who started first, it mattered who finished. And many did not finish.

In the 1600-meter race, you have to go around the track four times. After the first lap you would already be exhausted. Your heart would be pounding, your legs would be aching, your chest would be burning and every muscle was yelling to “Give Up”! You wanted nothing more than to sit down beside the track and rest, but you knew that if you sat down and did not finish the race all of the effort you had put into running the race would be wasted.

And so the Christian journey is a race. It is not a walk. It is not a stroll in the park. It is not even a one hundred-meter race. It is the endurance race. Paul wrote about this in Hebrews 12:1.

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

Paul is saying, “Look, we are surrounded by a great crowd of spectators, so let us lay aside the sins which so easily entangle us, and let us run the race, and let us not just run it, but let us run it with endurance.” We cannot run just half-way around the track. And we are not running the one-hundred meter dash, we are in an endurance race.

Unfortunately, today, there are many who begin to run, but do not run with endurance. In this article, we will study how we can run with endurance.

The Devil’s Traps

In the great controversy that is being waged over each soul, the devil’s mission is to see that you and I, and the rest of the world, are not saved and do not finish the endurance race. He has many traps in which he tries to entangle men. He first works to prevent them from starting the race, and he is successful with almost the entire world. He leads men and women to think that there are just too many trials and obstacles to follow the Lord all of the way, and allures them with the pleasures of sin so that they never even start the race.

However, some do begin the race. All who profess Christianity have started to run the race. To these, the devil comes with many temptations to try to make them give up and not run with endurance. He tries to overwhelm them by bringing to mind the trials and hardships that may be in the way.

It is like when you are running a literal race. Your heart is pounding as hard as it has ever pounded, because you are giving it everything you have. Your mouth, throat and lungs burn with every heaving breath. Your legs feel like there are no muscles there and you are just going through the motions. And if you start to think about those things, you are going to give up and you will not make it to the finish line. If you are going to run with endurance, you cannot think about the pain that you may be going through, you must focus on reaching the finish line.

For those who may have been running the race for a longer time, the devil brings a more subtle temptation. He points to the problems within the church, and he says, “Look at all of the problems even among those who claim to be God’s remnant people. It is no use. You might as well give up now.”

Then there are other times that he comes even more deceptively. He does not ask us to give up everything. We may continue to come to church and profess to be Christ’s child, but he persuades us to stop running. He tempts us with self-confidence or discouragement so that we stop advancing in our Christian walk. You cannot win a race by standing still. And so we are not going to win the Christian race if we are not advancing. We may think, “Well, everything is all right.” But if we are not gaining new heights every day, we are not truly running the race.

The Christian’s life can be compared to a plant. It is either growing or it is dying. The minute a tree stops sending its roots out farther and farther to find nourishment, it begins to decay. And if we stop growing we have actually given up and are not running with endurance.

Ye Have Need of Endurance

If we are going to finish the race and make it successfully to the end of our Christian journey, we must run, but not just run, we must run with endurance. Paul spoke of this again in Hebrews 10:35–37:

“Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: ‘For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.’”

Paul says, once you have begun, do not give up. We must develop endurance which will allow us to stand through the difficult times which are ahead. We need an endurance that will take us all the way to the end. Because, if we do not have endurance and we give up, even just two steps before the finish line, all of the sweat and strain we have put into the race will be in vain.

When I was running, there were times when an individual would get a head start. He would be ahead of everyone else and still running strong. It appeared as though he was certain to win. But if he stopped, just ten feet before the finish line, he would not win any prize. He did not endure until the end. It is not speed that we need. It is not important where we are in comparison to our brothers and sisters who are running the race (we are not racing against one another). What is important is that we finish the race, and everyone who finishes this race is going to be a winner. There will not be a first or a second place. All who have endurance and finish the race will win the prize.

Why does Paul say endurance is so much needed now? Because Jesus is coming soon! “He who is coming will come and will not tarry,” is God’s promise. And the goal of each one of us is to be ready when Jesus comes and hear His voice say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord.” We cannot afford to give up now: the stakes are much too high!

Today, as the closing scenes of earth’s history are unfolding before us, and we know that we are living in the very last days, now, as never before, we especially need endurance. For it is at the end of a race when endurance is most needed.

When you are near the very end of the race, and you only have about a quarter of a lap to go, that is the most difficult time. Yes, you are near the end, but you still have to press through when the pain is the absolute worst. And so, right now, we do not know how soon Jesus is going to come, but we know that we are very near His coming, and we need endurance as at no other time.

How to Endure

In Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, he does not leave us with only the truth that we must run with endurance (for we must if we are to win the race). But he tells us how we can run with endurance. “And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1, 2.

There is only one way we can run the endurance race successfully and it can be summarized into this one phrase, “Looking unto Jesus.” If we have our eyes fixed on Jesus and we are following the example of His overcoming life, we are going to endure until the end. However, if our eyes are not riveted on Jesus, no matter our profession, we will not endure to the end.

It is the same as a race. From the second the starting shot is fired until you cross the finish line, you must focus on one thing. There is not room in your mind for many different things when you are running. Your focus must be on one thing, and one thing only: reaching the finish line. When you are half-way through the first lap, you are thinking “In three and a half laps I am going to make it to the finish line.” And then it is three laps, and then two, and each step leads you closer to the finish line. You cannot think about those behind you or you might slow down and you cannot think of those in front of you because you might speed up and not be able to endure to the end of the race. If you think about your pounding chest, or your aching muscles, you will give up. The only way to endure is to have your eyes and your mind focused on the finish line. And it is the same in our Christian race.

If our eyes are focused on anything other than Jesus we are not going to endure to the end. We may profess to run, or we may be able to make it part of the way, but if our eyes are not firmly riveted on Jesus, the center of our faith, if our thoughts and affections are not focused on Him and what He has done, we will not be able to endure the trials that encompass us. Somewhere, along the path, we will give up.

Jesus tried to illustrate this important lesson to Peter in an experience that is recorded in Matthew 14. The story begins after Jesus fed the five thousand. There was a great tumult among the people who were determined that they were going to take Jesus by force and make Him their king. Anticipation was thick in the air as excited voices repeated the many wonderful things that could happen to their nation if Jesus was their King. “Here is One who can feed all of our armies and heal all the wounded. We would never need to lose a man. We would be able to conquer all of the world. We must make Him our king!”

This was the moment the disciples had been waiting for. They had long dreamed of being rulers of the people, respected by all, instead of the poor followers of a reviled teacher from Nazareth. They mingled with the crowd urging on the excited company.

And then, right as the multitude was rushing forward, ready to take Jesus by force, Jesus, in commanding tones, dismissed the assembly. He told the disciples to get in the boat and to go to the other side of the sea. It was perhaps the hardest command from their Master that they had ever had to obey, but He spoke with authority that could not be disobeyed.

As they sailed on the peaceful sea, their minds were in turmoil. Their thoughts were not on Jesus and the miracle of mercy that He had performed that day. Instead, they were thinking about what could have been, and doubts began to fill their minds with discontent. At first they did not notice the storm clouds gathering in the sky, but it was not long until the sea changed from peaceful ripples, to raging waves. They fought to keep their boat adrift, but soon it was evident that they were losing the battle against the mighty sea. By about three in the morning, they were exhausted and ready to give up. It was then that they saw a figure coming across the billowing waves toward them, and they were very afraid. Amidst their cries of terror, Jesus said, “It is I, be not afraid.”

“And Peter answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’ So He said, ‘Come.’ And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’” Matthew 14:28–31.

As long as Peter’s eyes were centered on Jesus he was safe, but when he turned his attention to the wind and the waves that were breaking around his feet, fear overtook him and he began to sink.

Jesus has bidden to each one of us, as He did Peter, “Come.” And as long as we keep our eyes fixed on Him, the author and finisher of our faith, we are safe. But the minute we take our eyes off Him, to look to circumstances, to those around us or to the trials that we worry are ahead, we begin to sink.

Easy to Start, Difficult to Endure

When we came to the last night of our seminar in Koforidua, Ghana, we gave an altar call inviting people to go all the way with Jesus. Between 150 and 200 people came forward, choosing to keep the Sabbath and be part of God’s last day people. Many answered the call, but many of that number took their eyes off Jesus, and did not endure. There was a good number at church the next Sabbath, but not nearly all of those who had come out of their chairs and started on the race. It is one thing to hear the voice of Jesus call, and to say, “Yes, I will come,” but it is another thing altogether to endure. And it does not matter if we say we are going to come, if we do not endure we are going to sink like Peter.

Christ has not promised us smooth sailing. There will be waves lapping about our feet or towering above us, and the devil frequently tries to get us to look to these troubles. How easy it is for us to start focusing on our trials, discouragements and troubles, but the minute we do that, our eyes are moved from Jesus. The more we look to them, the larger they become because we start to sink and our troubles get closer and closer to us as we begin to be buried among them. However, our trials were not given to overcome us, they were actually given to strengthen us. James wrote these encouraging words which we should ever keep in mind. “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience (endurance).” James 1:2, 3.

James says, “Do not look to your troubles. Do not mourn over them. Instead, rejoice in them, because it is through trials that the Lord is seeking to teach us how to endure.” Our trials were not given to drown us, they were given to teach us the lessons we need to learn so that we can endure until the very end.

But, too often, instead of allowing our trials to increase our faith, we start focusing on the trials and we allow them to overcome us. I have seen it so often while working as a Bible Worker. I have met people who are so thrilled when they first hear the Bible truths. One man, I remember well, had discovered the truth of the Sabbath from His own study. However, he had never found anyone who was keeping it, so he was not keeping it either. But, when we studied the Sabbath, he was so excited to find that there were others who kept it, that he made the commitment that he wanted to start keeping the Sabbath. He ran for a short time. However, when the trials began to mount, he began to take His eyes off Jesus. Although he had once been so thrilled to find the truth, it was not long until he decided that the only thing he could do was to start working on the Sabbath again. He did not run with endurance.

Look Up!

The plan of salvation is described in many ways, but my favorite is when it is described the most simply. The following verses contain the framework of the plan of salvation in three short words. “Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord? And there is no God else besides Me, a just God and a Savior; there is none besides Me. Look unto Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! for I am God, and there is no other.” Isaiah 45:21–22. [Emphasis supplied.]

God’s invitation is open to all. It is not difficult. He simply says, “Look to Me.” Anyone can be saved if they will turn their eyes to their Savior. Only He can save to the uttermost all who come to Him.

However, the devil is in a battle for each soul, and he has many methods which he uses to draw our eyes from our Savior. If it is not our trials that we look upon, he tries to get us to focus upon the common things of life so we have no time to look to Jesus. Jesus said, “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” Luke 21:34.

There are many other things that the devil brings to us to draw our thoughts away from Christ. Especially now, in the days in which we are living, the devil is working with even greater energy to see that you and I do not endure until the end.

In Isaiah 17, Isaiah saw in prophetic vision the time that we now live in. A time when the majority is not enduring until the end, and many, even of those who profess the truth, are being shaken out. In his vision he saw an olive tree and, on this tree, there were only two or three olives in the top branches and four or five in the fruitful branches. All of the rest had been shaken off. But then he tells us how we can endure the shaking that is going on all around us today. “At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.” Isaiah 17:7, 8.

Isaiah saw who would endure this terrible shaking, and it is those who are looking to their Maker. These will not look to their trials, disappointments, the cares of this life, to other men or the problems in the world or in the church; they will be looking to their Maker.

And as we look to our Maker, as our eyes are fixed upon the One who gave His life for you and me, we will be strengthened to endure to the very end. And so Paul says, “Let us run the race. And let us not just run it, but let us run it with endurance.” Oh, how I want to endure. I do not want to be one of those who falls by the side of the track, who does not make it to the finish line. Let us not look to our aching legs. Let us not focus on our burning chest or our heart that is pounding. Let us look to the Author and Finisher of our faith.

The Character of Daniel

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It is through the Bible that we learn about God and His work for us and through us. In 1 Corinthians 10:11, we read that the stories of the Bible were recorded as examples for us upon whom the ends of the world are come. One is the stories contained in the book of Daniel. God’s grace and salvation are seen throughout the entire book of Daniel. In the prophetic portion of the book, the history of the world is pictured in dreams and symbols, but equally significant for us are the lessons that we can learn from the development of Daniel’s character, himself. We are told that “The case of Daniel may be studied with profit by all who desire perfection of character.” Signs of the Times, November 5, 1896. With this counsel in mind, let us look at the character traits of Daniel.

In the first chapter of Daniel, seven character traits are described as well as four rewards which were granted to Daniel because of his faithfulness. Let’s see what we can learn by studying the character of Daniel in relationship to our preparation for the soon appearing of Christ.

Daniel 1:1–2 tells us of the captivity of the children of Israel by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. This was prophesied by God’s prophet in Isaiah 39:3–7. As we research this event in history we learn that over 18,000 people were carried away to Babylon. (See 2 Kings 24:14–16.) Of these 18,000, God was able to chose four as His special messengers to this lost nation of Babylon. Thus the first character trait, seen in Daniel 1:3–7, is that he was chosen. These four young men were chosen because there was something different about their lives and character than the rest of the Israelites. It will be the same with the people of God at the end of the earth. They are a special chosen people who have as their purpose the proclamation of the Three Angels’ Messages of Revelation 14. Just as Daniel chose to follow God, regardless of the cost, so we must make that decision if we will be among the chosen of God.

The second and third character traits can be summarized by the words conviction and commitment. Daniel 1:8 says that “he purposed in his heart the he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank.” As a child, Daniel had been raised to know God’s health laws and in this foreign land he had an opportunity to eat and drink as he wanted. So the offer of the King to eat of his meat and wine was a test of Daniel’s personal convictions in the areas of diet, health, and obedience to God’s claims in all areas of his life. Before he took any public stand in regard to his diet, he determined in his own heart that what he had been taught had been truth and he was convicted of his need to remain faithful to God in this area. His next step was to make a public statement of his conviction not to defile himself. What a commitment this was to truth. When Daniel requested that he might not defile himself with the kings diet, the prince of the eunuchs was fearful that the young men would look worse than those who had the privilege of eating the King’s food. He was concerned that allowing the Hebrews to eat and drink according to their custom would make them less fit than the rest of the young men and could thereby endanger his own life.

We might ask ourselves, “Was the matter of diet really important enough to risk their lives?” This is what Ellen White tells us about their decision in regard to diet. “What if Daniel and his companions had made a compromise with those heathen officers and had yielded to the pressure of the occasion by eating and drinking as was customary with the Babylonians? That single instance of departure from principle would have weakened their sense of right and their abhorrence of wrong.” Fundamentals of Education, 81. This makes it extremely clear that our choices in dietary matters can weaken or strengthen our sense of wrong. There is a strong temptation to eat as we desire or to eat according to the customs around us. We do this because it is easier and does not hurt feelings, but the situation of Daniel had much more at stake than hurting feelings. It could have cost him and the prince of the eunuchs their lives. It is therefore clear that we should not conform our dietary decisions or any other of God’s commands to what is customary in the surroundings we find ourselves. Another statement from The Great Controversy makes a similar observation about putting ourselves on common ground with the world. From page 509 we read, “Conformity to worldly customs converts the church to the world, it never converts the world to Christ. Familiarity with sin will inevitably cause it to appear less repulsive. He who chooses to associate with the servants of Satan will soon cease to fear their master. When in the way of duty we are brought into trial, as was Daniel in the Kings court, we may be sure that God will protect us; but if we place ourselves under temptation we shall fall sooner or latter.”

Just as Christ struggled with appetite in the wilderness, so must we. If we are to gain perfection in character, we must overcome in this area of our life. Overcoming appetite is so crucial that Christ fasted for forty days in order to overcome. Through His strength we may be victors not only of appetite, but we may have the moral power to be victorious over every other temptation of Satan. Please note the following, found in Counsels on Diet and Foods, 59: “The controlling power of appetite will prove the ruin of thousands, when, if they had conquered on this point, they would have had moral power to gain the victory over every other temptation of Satan. But those who are slaves to appetite will fail in perfecting Christian character. The continual transgression of man for six thousand years had brought sickness, pain, and death as its fruits. And as we near the close of time, Satan’s temptation to indulge appetite will be more powerful and more difficult to overcome.” Just as Daniel overcame on the point of appetite, so must we, if we are going to stand in these final days as God’s lighthouse to the world.

So, what would become of Daniel’s request to the prince of the eunuchs? Why would the prince of the eunuchs even consider Daniel’s request if it might cost him his life? Part of the reason the prince considered Daniel’s request was because of his fourth character trait, courtesy. Daniel 1:9 tells us that, “God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.” Daniel had indeed gained the respect of the Babylonians, partly because of the courteous and respectful way in which he approached them. He had been taken from his home and was a captive in a strange land, but his courtesy was a daily witness to his captors. In Sanctified Life, 20, 21 we read: “Daniel possessed the grace of genuine meekness. He was true, firm, and noble. He sought to live in peace with all while he was unbending as the lofty cedar whenever principle was involved. In everything that did not come in collision with his allegiance to God, he was respectful and obedient to those who had authority over him, but he had so high a sense of the claims of God that the requirements of earthly rulers were held subordinate. The record of his noble, self denying life is an encouragement to our common humanity. From it we may gather strength to nobly resist temptation and firmly, and in the grace of meekness, stand for the right under the severest trial.”

Daniel’s ability to stand firm based on principle was a result of his fifth character trait, that of confidence in God’s Word. Daniel risked his very life because he had faith in God’s Word. The Bible is full of examples of men and women who have risked everything because of their belief in God’s Word. We may not have been in that position in the past, but each of us may face the same decision Daniel did, some time in the near future. Are we willing to risk all to follow God’s Word? The promise of protection is sure. (See 1 John 4:4, 1 Samuel 2:30, and 2 Peter 1:3–10.)

Because of Daniel’s courtesy and firm stand for principle the head eunuch decided to allow Daniel to have a ten day test of the diet he proposed. (See Daniel 1:10–16.) With confidence in God’s Word, Daniel, for not just the next ten days, but throughout his entire stay in Babylon, displayed his sixth and seventh character traits, courage and consistency. It takes true courage and strength of character, not just a momentary flash of glory, to stand for a lifetime, faithful to our God. Daniel 1:21 says that Daniel “continued.” This kind of courage and consistency, only God can give. Once we take a stand for God, we must, with His help, display consistency in our walk in the truth. Without this our witness will be weak if not even harmful. A quote from Prophets and Kings, 487, 488, brings this home to our heart. It says: “Strong, subtle influences may bind them to the world; but the Lord is able to render futile every agency that works for the defeat of His chosen ones; in His strength they may overcome every temptation, conquer every difficulty. There is need of men who like Daniel will do and dare for the cause of right. Pure hearts, strong hands, fearless courage are needed; for the warfare between vice and virtue calls for ceaseless vigilance.” We must, in our warfare against appetite and every other sin that the Devil brings our way, “stand like Daniel, that faithful statesmen, a man who no temptation could corrupt.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 332.

God never leaves the faithfulness of His children unrewarded. As a result of his obedience, in all areas to God, Daniel experienced rewards that were not shared by the other captives. First, Daniel experienced in his physical being a special impact. He was healthier than those who ate the King’s food. (See Daniel 1:15–16.) His countenance glowed with life and vitality and he had a degree of health that was not experienced by his fellow captives. We too can find health beyond that seen in the world when we follow God’s health laws.

Daniel also experienced an intelligence that was not common among the people around him. (See Daniel 1:17–20.) As we develop our spiritual character and are faithful to follow His requirements for health, God can also bless us with skill in learning. From the Review and Herald, March 22, 1898, this vital link between our spiritual nature and our mental capabilities is emphasized. “As in the case of Daniel, in exact proportion as the spiritual character is developed, the intellectual capabilities are increased.” Daniel 1:17 also states that Daniel had special insight into the meaning of the dreams of the King. He had an understanding and wisdom that only God could give. Finally Daniel was rewarded with a tremendous influence in the country of Babylon. The influence he had in society, and especially with the King, can be seen throughout the rest of the book of Daniel. If these rewards, physical health, intelligence, insight, and influence, were just seen in Daniel, one might say that it was just a coincidence. However, the Bible is full of examples of men and women who, by obeying God, have received similar rewards in their life. One must think of David, Joseph, Queen Esther, Moses, John the Baptist, and Paul. All of these pillars of Bible history were blessed as they obeyed God in their daily lives.

In conclusion, we must, in these closing hours of earth’s history, develop each of these seven character traits if we are going to stand for Jesus during these trying times. God wants us to be His very special chosen people to witness to this world. He wants us to be a people of deep conviction that is based on His word. He wants us to be committed to stand up for our convictions regardless of the circumstances or pressures brought upon us by the world. He wants us to be a courteous people that deal with each other gently and with meekness. He wants us, through study of the Bible and through life’s experiences, to develop firm and unshakable confidence in Him and His Word. Also, He wants us to have courage to privately and publicly stand for principle regardless of the circumstances or costs. Lastly, God wants us to be consistent in our character development and in our Christian walk before Him and the world. The development of these traits is crucial to the perfection of our character and our ability to witness to the power of God.

In Education, 57, we read: “The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost soul are true and honest, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.” I want to develop this kind of character, one that is pleasing to God and is safe for Jesus to take to heaven, where sin will never again exist. We must have each of these seven traits of character. Just as God helped Daniel develop a lovely character, He will be our helper also. May we each strive, in the struggles of our captivity, in this world of “Babylon,” to be ready for the Lord’s soon return to claim His faithful children as His own. May this be not just a desire, but a reality in each of our lives. Let us pray for this experience for ourselves and all those we love in Christ Jesus.

Janet Headrick is a registered nurse, wife, mother and grandmother. She writes from Rago, Kansas.

The Need for Certainty – Part II

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In Part 1 of this article we learned that all of the apostles taught the infallibility of the church. Even the apostles, themselves, were infallible. If this is the case, in such an uncertain world and uncertain times, in what, then, can we believe?

The One Infallible, Certainty!

How can you know with certainty, how can you know with infallible certitude, exactly what you believe? How can you know for sure? This is a question that every Bible- believing Christian needs to understand. Where can you find certainty? How can you know for sure that something is infallible, that all the demons of hell or the governments of the world cannot change it because it is the truth? Where can you find that kind of certainty? That is what people are looking for today. We read from the Bible in Revelation 2:18–26 that you cannot get it from the church, you cannot get it from church councils (See Acts 21:18), you cannot get it from theologians (See Acts 20). You cannot even get it from the apostle Peter.

Since you need to know for a surety, I will show what is absolutely for certain. It is infallible. It has infallible certainty. You can know the truth, and by means of the truth you can have salvation, if you choose it. We will go to a source that is accepted by every Roman Catholic in the world. We will go to a source that is accepted by Protestants. We are going to go to the apostle Peter himself.

We see in Galatians 2 that Peter himself was not infallible, but Peter knew the source of infallible certainty. He knew where to get it, and he tells us where we can get it. He says, “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming [that is the Second Coming] of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” 2 Peter 1:16–18. Here, Peter is referring to a story in Matthew 17.

In Matthew 16:28 Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” Now who were the ones that were standing right there that were not going to see death until they saw the Son of Man coming in His kingdom?— Peter, James and John. How could He say that? Because, in just a few days Jesus was going to show them, in miniature, what the Second Coming of Christ would be like. We read in the very next chapter, Matthew 17:1–5, “Now after six days [six days after Jesus’ statement in Matthew 16:28] Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!’” Notice, Jesus was transfigured before them into a glorious personage, just as He will appear in the clouds at His Second Coming, and there were two people talking with Him. One of them was Moses, who had died on Mount Nebo as recorded in Deuteronomy, but Jude tells us Moses had been resurrected from the dead and taken to heaven. Who did Moses represent? Moses represented all those who have died in Christ. We all probably know someone, a Christian who loved and followed Jesus, who has died. But they are not going to stay dead, because Jesus is coming again. The graves are going to open up, and they are going to come up in the clouds. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17 the dead in Christ are going to rise first, so Moses represents those who have died in Christ but who will be resurrected to go with the Lord. Elijah was also there, and the book of Kings tells us that Elijah was taken by a chariot of the Lord up into heaven. Who did Elijah represent? Since he never died, and never will, he represents the people who are living on the earth in the last generation and who are ready to meet the Lord. You see, the Transfiguration was a symbol of the Second Coming of Christ, in miniature. And, you notice, Peter was one of the ones that saw this. He heard the voice of the Father saying out of the luminous cloud, “This is My beloved Son. The Jews may decide to crucify Him. They may decide to spit in His face. The Roman Soldiers may nail Him to a cross, but just remember, this is My Son in whom I am well pleased. You listen to Him.”

So Peter says to the people, “What we told you when we preached about the Second Coming of Christ and His coming in glory, it was not some cunningly devised fable. It was not something that we made up. We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. We saw it. We heard it.” But now remember what you need? You need something that is infallible. You need something that you know absolutely for certain. Do you know that there is something that is even more certain than what the apostles saw? They saw the Second Coming of Christ in miniature; they heard the voice of God themselves, and they reported it to us.

An Even More Sure Word

But there is something that is even more certain than that. Look at 2 Peter 1:19, “We also have the more sure prophetic word.” More sure than what? Made more sure than what you see and hear. It is infallible! The church is not infallible, the theologians are not infallible, the preachers are not infallible, even the apostles are not infallible, but the Word of the Lord, the word of prophecy is infallible. It is more sure than what you see and hear, and you can depend on it. It will never ever fail.

Do you know how many learned people have tried to prove the Bible is wrong? They have been trying for hundreds of years. My grandfather was one of them. There was a time when he was a skeptic. William Miller was, at one time, a skeptic. These people tried to prove that the Bible was wrong. They used to say, “There never were any people like the Hittites.” The Bible talks a lot about the Hittites. They said, “Somebody made that up, because we do not have any record that there were any Hittites.” They are not saying that any more, because archeologists have found abundant evidence in the Middle East of a large nation in ancient times called the Hittites.

People used to say, “There never was a king Belshazzar as written of in Daniel, because we do not have any record of it in the Greek records of the Babylonian kings.” But, archeologists have since discovered a great deal of evidence, so no one is arguing today whether Belshazzar existed. They all know that they were wrong.

That is what happens every time skeptics try to prove the Bible wrong. The Bible is an infallible guide to truth. Peter says it is more sure than what you see and hear. It is infallible. You can depend on it.

“We also have the more sure prophetic word which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:19–21.

Whenever this subject comes up there immediately is a controversy between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Roman Catholics say that the church gave us the Bible. The Protestants say that the Bible gave us the church. Which is so? Let us go to the Bible itself for the answer. In James 1:17, 18, James is talking to the Christian church, as you can see in verse seventeen, and he says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will [It is not talking about the church here, it is talking about God in heaven.] He brought us [the church] forth….” Who is the parent here, and who is the child? The parent is God in heaven; the child is the church.

The church was formed by the Word of God. The Word of God produced the church. The church does not produce the Word.

I have been questioned about how we acquired the Bible. Jesus, Himself, tells us. “Then He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’” Luke 24:44. Those are the three divisions of the Hebrew Bible that contain exactly the same books that we have today in the Old Testament. Jesus confirms that we still have the same books in the Old Testament as they had in His day. It is infallible. You can depend on the Old Testament.

How about the New Testament? Jesus answers that for us, also. “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth [Holy Spirit] who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” John 15:26, 27. Who did Jesus say was to bear witness to the whole world that He was the Messiah? It was the apostles. He selected them. The early church did not produce the New Testament. Do not ever get confused on that. That is a lie. The apostles wrote the New Testament under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and the church received it from them. The Bible is not the word of the church. The Bible is the Word of the Lord.

The early church understood this concept. There were all kinds of people (see Revelation 2 and 3), who were coming to the early church saying, “I am an apostle.” The early church tested these people claiming to be apostles and found out that they were liars. The early church had one simple rule as to whether a book should appear in the New Testament—was it written by an apostle? All of the books in the New Testament came from apostles.

Peter knew the prophetic Word was Scripture. He says, “…that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.” 2 Peter 3:15, 16. Peter recognized that the apostle Paul’s writings were Scripture. The apostle Paul wrote over half the books in the New Testament, so there is the evidence for over half the books in the New Testament. This Book, the Scriptures, is infallible.

“Oh,” somebody says, “can you really say something like that?” Yes, I can. “But aren’t there some mistakes in the Bible? Did the translators make some mistakes? Did the copyists make mistakes?” Let me ask you something. Suppose you received a letter. The person who wrote you the letter dictated it to his secretary, and the secretary misspelled a word. The person told you the truth, but the secretary they dictated the letter to misspelled a word. Do you throw out the letter as being in error? No. This is what happened with the Bible. When we look at the Greek text, we can see that the people the apostles dictated to sometimes made a grammatical mistake. It does not change the message. I want to tell you something. It is all true. It is infallible. If you follow it, you will be saved.

The Strongest Arguments

The two strongest evidences in the Bible that prove that it is infallible are:

1 Fulfillment of prophecy. Prophecy has been fulfilled over and over and over again.

Just a hundred years ago people who were studying Bible prophecy said, “The time is going to come in the United States when this country is going to get very close to Rome.” And people said, “Oh no, this is a Protestant country; that will never happen here.” But it is happening here! How did they know that? They knew it from studying Revelation 13, 14 and 17.

As a boy I can remember when all the different churches were split up. There were people who studied Bible prophecy in Revelation 17 who said, “According to Revelation 17 there is going to be a movement when all the churches are going to try to get together.” People did not believe them. The Bible told the truth nineteen hundred years ago. It is that way with every single Bible prophecy.

Infallibility. This is the strongest proof of all that the Bible is true, that it is infallible. In Romans 8 the apostle explains the Gospel. He shows how a sinner, who cannot save himself, can have his sins taken away by the blood of Christ. If he puts his trust in Jesus, all of his guilt can be taken away; his life can be changed; he can receive the Holy Spirit, and he can live a new life. Then in Romans 8:16 Paul says, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” When you surrender your heart to Jesus as your Lord and Saviour from sin, the Holy Spirit changes your heart. The Holy Spirit comes in, changes your heart, and takes away the hate, the bitterness, the anger, the clamor, the competition, the sourness, the negativeness; all these awful things of sin that have ruined your life and ruined your family, the Holy Spirit takes them all away. That is the strongest evidence that the Bible is infallible and that it is true! And that is what all the apostles taught.

Maybe you have tried a hundred times to change. Mark Twain said that it is not hard to stop smoking. He said, “I quit smoking a thousand times.” That means that he started again at least nine hundred ninety-nine times. You may say, “I am not going to speak that way anymore to my wife because it hurts her,” and then you do it again. You try, and you try, and you try, and you find out, like the Bible says, that the sinner is in hell. He is bound with the cords of his sins, and there is nothing he can do about it. The Holy Spirit sets you free and gives you the power. He gives you a new heart so that you think differently; you feel differently; you speak differently; and everybody says, “What has happened? This is not the same person anymore.” The Holy Spirit is living inside, and when the Spirit bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God, you are not a child of the devil anymore. You do not have covetousness anymore. You do not have wrath, anger, clamor and strife in your home anymore, because you have given your heart to the Lord, and you have the peace of heaven in your heart and in your home. When that happens, that is a miracle that all the philosophy, all the psychology, all the sociology, all the learning of this world cannot produce. None of those things can give you a new heart. Only the Holy Spirit can do that, and that happens when you yield yourself to Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.

The strongest proof that the Bible is true is the miracle that God has worked in your life. No matter how many unbelievers there are, you know the Bible is infallible and it is true, because it has happened to you.

Do you want that miracle to happen in your life? It can. Even if you are the worst sinner, it can happen to you. Paul said that Jesus came to this world to save sinners “of whom I am chief.” I Timothy 1:15. Paul was a murderer, you know, and the people he murdered were not criminals. They were holy people. Do you want Jesus to come into your heart and your life to give you a new heart? That is a Bible promise. The Lord says, “I will give you a new heart, a new spirit. If you will seek me with all your heart you are going to find me.” (See Ezekiel 26:36, Jeremiah 29:13.) Jesus said, “Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,…and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28–30.

Do you want to come? Do you say, “Lord Jesus I want the strife, the anguish, the trouble, the anger, the wrath, the bitterness, all of these awful things that sin has produced, out of my life; I want a new heart! Is that what you want? Only He can give it to you, and He will give it to you, if you want it. He said, “If you come to Me I will give you rest for your souls.” Ibid. You will have the evidence that the Bible is so. It is the infallible proof of the Christian religion. It is infallible, and if you follow and do what it says, you will be saved.

Seeing in a New Dimension

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How would you describe something to someone who has never seen it or felt it? Some of you are acquainted, no doubt, with mathematicians or physicists who tell us that there is a fourth dimension. Some even say there is a fifth dimension. How would you describe this to someone who can only see, understand, and feel three dimensions, and cannot understand a fourth or fifth one? The best way I know to describe it is to look at history and see times when the human race saw things that they had never seen before.

Some years ago, a wonderful instrument was invented. It is called a microscope. As men started looking in the microscope, eventually they found that there were tiny creatures that people had never seen before. People did not know that these little creatures even existed. We soon
discovered that these tiny creatures could make people sick, so we developed a new theory because of what we had seen.

We had seen something in a new dimension, a micro-dimension, that we had not seen before. Because of what we had seen, we had a new experience of what reality was, and we developed a new theory about disease. We developed a theory about what made people sick, and we called it the germ theory, and these little creatures, we called germs.

In the nineteenth century, scientists, like John Harvey Kellogg and others, talked to people about germs, and this germ theory changed the practice of medicine and dentistry and all the health professions. It did not just change our theory about why people were sick; it changed our theory about the prevention of disease, preparation and preservation of food, sanitation, housekeeping, and how to manage buildings and premises.

In the nineteenth century people had to be convinced that it was really true. So the professors, who were giving lectures on health education, would take a microscope with them. They put the microscope up in front and inserted a slide. The most common little creature, a one-celled organism called an amoeba, would be on that slide. People would come up and look at it through the microscope and watch
it move about.

Some people still were not convinced. One lady looked in the microscope, saw the amoeba, and she said, “I still do not believe it!” Sometimes it is very difficult to see in a new dimension, because when you see in a new dimension, you are seeing something that is totally different, or totally foreign, to what you have always believed was reality.

Christ, An Imposter?

The Bible talks about seeing in a new dimension. You can read about a man who had an experience where he saw something in a dimension he had never seen before. He had been told that Jesus Christ was an imposter and an enemy. The Jews said that the disciples had stolen His body away while the soldiers were sleeping and that the resurrection was a myth.

He was told that these Christians were all deluded and were deceiving the world, and if he was going to save the church, he had to kill them and get them out of the way. He was in the process of doing just that. In fact, Scripture tells us that he was breathing murder against the Christians. He had letters from the High Priest and he was going to Damascus to have the Christians arrested and put in prison.

But on the way he had an experience. He saw something that he had never seen before. Scripture says a great light shone around him, and he looked, and he saw a Being that was brighter than the sun. That Being had nail prints in His hands and in His feet. It was the Being that he had been told was stolen away while the soldiers slept, and this did not look like a corpse. It was brighter than the sun and It spoke to him. (See Acts 9:3–6.)

He was so afraid. He asked the Lord, “What do you want me to do?” The Lord told him the way he was going was the hard way, and He told Paul to go down to Damascus, and it would be shown him what he was to do.

A Change in Plans

We do not know how long that experience lasted, whether it was just a few seconds or a few minutes. But from that experience, Paul was never the same again, because he had seen everything in a different dimension, in a different light. He was on his way to take the Christians as prisoners. He considered them his enemies, but after his experience, he considered them his brothers and friends.

The people whom he was going to try to kill, he was now going to try to save. The people whom he had hated, he now loved. The people whom he had scorned, he delighted to be in their company. You see, it changed everything in his life. When you see something in a new dimension, it changes everything; the way you feel, the way you think, the way you act, the way you talk, everything!

After that experience, as the apostle Paul traveled all over the world, he would tell people what it was that had changed his life. He told the Jews about it. (See Acts 22.) He told King Agrippa about it. He would repeat over and over again what had happened to him. He was an enemy, one who was going to kill and destroy the Christian Church—until he saw something in a new dimension.

The crucified One appeared to him, brighter than the sun, with the nail prints still in His hands. From that time on, everything was changed in his life. The book of Philippians describes his experience before and after he saw Christ. In this Scripture, Paul describes three things that he saw. This is what they were: “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Philippians 3:3.

Let us examine this statement for just a moment. The Jews said, “We are the circumcision,” but Paul wrote to the Christians and said, “No, we are the real circumcision.” The Jews said, “We are the church.” The apostle Paul wrote to the Christians and said, “No, they are not. We are the church, the Christians, we are the circumcision. We are the people of God.”

“Not the circumcision made with hands, but the circumcision of Christ to the cutting away of sin from the life.” (See Colossians 2:11.) He said, “We are the true church, the circumcision that is made without hands. We worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though, I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” Philippians 3:3–6.

I Was Blind, But Now I See

This is what happened to him after he saw the vision, after he saw in another dimension, on the Damascus road. He had all these things. He was sure that he was saved because he had the right lineage, he had the right religion, he had gone through the right rituals, he belonged to the right race, he belonged to the right group, he was an educated man and he was a wealthy man.

He had all these things, but after he had that vision on the Damascus road, everything he had, he considered worthless. “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things for loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead.” Philippians 3:7–11.

Paul said there was a time when he had everything. From the Jewish point of view, he did have everything. He was probably one of the youngest members of the Sanhedrin, the governing body of the Jewish nation. He says of himself, “I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews.” He belonged to the social elite; he was a Pharisee, the people that the Jews looked up to the most. He was respected and honored.

These Three Things I Desire

When Paul saw the crucified One, he said he considered all of that as rubbish. “I have lost it all and it is not worth anything. All I want to do is gain Christ. There are three things that I want.” (See Philippians 3:7–11.) After he had that vision, he was willing to lose everything else, but there were three things that he wanted.

  1. He wanted to have the righteousness that is of faith in Christ, not just righteousness because he had kept the law, the kind that he had when he was a Pharisee. He did not want that anymore. He wanted a new kind of righteousness, the righteousness that is of faith, the righteousness from Christ.
  2. He wanted to know Him and the power of His resurrection.
  3. He wanted to know the fellowship of His sufferings.

Three things. We will look at the third one first.

Fellowship With His Suffering

Do you know anything about the fellowship of suffering? Maybe we do not want it yet because we have never had the vision that Paul had. Maybe we have never seen in a new dimension. Until we see in a different dimension than the people of this world see, we will not want the fellowship of Christ’s suffering. But Paul did. He said “I want to know Him.”

If you are really going to know someone, you have to know how they feel. Can you know how someone feels if you have never felt it? When Jesus was here, He suffered for you and me. Are we ever going to understand that?

We will never understand it fully, but if we never have any suffering ourselves, we will not understand it at all. Paul wanted to understand; he wanted to know Him. If he was going to know Him, he knew he would need to have fellowship with His sufferings. Does that mean we must be burned at the stake, put on a rack and get stretched apart, or get thrown to the lions? No! Those things could certainly be included, but every single person that is in the kingdom of heaven will have had fellowship in Christ’s sufferings, but not all will have been martyred.

“Those who reign with Christ in His kingdom must have a fellowship in His suffering. Every defect in character condemned by the law of God, must through the grace of Christ, which is freely given to every soul who desires it, be overcome. Every hereditary and cultivated tendency to evil must be seen, subdued, and cleansed, that the soul temple may become fit for the indwelling of the Spirit of God. The divine will must be accepted, and the human will brought into harmony with God, though it cause bitter agony and tears.” The Signs of the Times, in July 18, 1895.

What is the bitter agony and tears mentioned here? It is bringing our stubborn will into harmony with the will of God. When we do that, the result is fellowship in suffering. Mrs. White says, “Traits of character that are offensive to God are often very dear to man, and are cherished as virtues. How blind is humanity unless the light of heaven is accepted and cherished!” Ibid.

Paul wanted to have fellowship with Him; he wanted to know Him and have fellowship with His sufferings. Paul knew his stubborn will must be surrendered to Christ’s will, even if it caused bitter agony and tears. If we are going to have fellowship with Him in glory, we must have fellowship with Him in suffering.

The Righteousness of Christ

But Paul also said he wanted another kind of righteousness. “I was alive without the law once.” He thought one time he was righteous because he was a Pharisee. He says, “As far as the righteousness, which is of the law, I was blameless. I was perfect.” Philippians 3:6.

But after he saw in another dimension, he realized he did not have any righteousness at all. He went from being perfect, to having no righteousness at all in just a few minutes. Have you ever had that happen to you? In fact, he wrote to the Romans, “I know that in my flesh there is no good thing.” I do not have anything. (See Romans 7:18.) So now, not only did he want to have fellowship in suffering, he wanted a different kind of righteousness.

What is this righteousness that he was talking about? “We can be fitted for heaven only through the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart; for we must have Christ’s righteousness as our credentials if we would find access to the Father. In order that we may have the righteousness of Christ, we need daily to be transformed by the influence of the Spirit, to be a partaker of the divine nature.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 374.

If you are going to have the righteousness of Christ, it must be imparted to you by the Holy Spirit so that your mind is transformed, as Paul says in Romans 12. Have you received the Holy Spirit? Remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus. “Unless you receive the Holy Spirit, there is no chance that you will be saved.” (See John 3:5.) It is the Holy Spirit that makes us a partaker of the divine nature.

The apostle Paul saw that he could keep the law perfectly his whole life, but that would not save him. You see, if we could keep the law perfectly and earn our own salvation, then Jesus would not have needed to die on the cross. Paul saw that he had to have an experience. He had to receive the Holy Spirit, which he had not received.

He claimed to be absolutely perfect, yet he was going to a city to murder the saints! He saw that he was all undone and he was the one who was responsible for that. It is the same thing that happened with the Jews. Remember the Pharisees? They considered themselves to be the chosen of God and perfect, yet they murdered the Son of God.

“When we bring our lives to complete obedience to the law of God, regarding God as our supreme Guide, and clinging to Christ as our hope of righteousness, God will work in our behalf. This is a righteousness of faith, a righteousness hidden in a mystery of which the worldling knows nothing, and which he cannot understand. Sophistry and strife follow in the train of the serpent; but the commandments of God diligently studied and practiced, open to us communication with heaven, and distinguish for us the true from the false.” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 1, 1118.

This is what constitutes righteousness by faith!

The Power of His Resurrection

Let us look closely at the third thing Paul wanted. In Philippians 3:10, he says, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.”

The first time you read that, you may say, “Well, that means that he was hoping that after he died, he would be raised from the dead when Jesus comes again. That would be included, but he is talking about a lot more than the resurrection that will occur at Christ’s Second Coming. He is talking about something that he wants to know right now. How can you know the power of the resurrection right now?

In The Desire of Ages, 209, 210, Mrs. White quotes Philippians 3:10. Then she says, “That spirit of life in Christ Jesus, ‘the power of His resurrection,’ sets men ‘free from the law of sin and death.’ (Philippians 3:10; Romans 8:2). The dominion of evil is broken, and through faith the soul is kept from sin.”

How is the soul kept from sin? It is the power of His resurrection. The dominion of Satan, the dominion of sin is broken in the life and, through the power of the resurrection, the soul is kept from sin. That is what Paul wanted to know right then. How about you? How about me? Do we know the power of His resurrection? Have we seen it? What is it?

Let us look at something that is a most fundamental point. There could never have been a resurrection until there was a crucifixion. Does that make sense? Christ was not resurrected until He was first crucified.

Tell Them the Story

To understand the resurrection you have to understand the crucifixion. Here is a gem for the parents. Here is a story to tell to your children. Ellen White wrote this in The Signs of the Times, April 8, 1889. She said to parents concerning their children, “Tell them the blessed story of the cross of Calvary. This is the great, central theme of all wisdom.” Would you like your children to become spiritually wise? Tell them the story of the cross of Calvary. After Paul had seen his vision, he wrote to a church in Corinth, “If anybody thinks he is wise, let him become a fool so that he might become wise.” Concerning the apostles, he said, “We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are despised.” Sometimes we get too smart for ourselves. Ellen White wrote about this. She says, “I want to say to my brethren, Shall we humble our hearts before God and be converted? Shall we put off all the self-sufficiency and the lifting up of ourselves, and come down at the foot of the cross? The lower we lie at the foot of the cross the more clear will be our view of Christ.” Sermons and Talks, vol. 1, 57.

Where? If we get low at the foot of the cross, then we will begin to see Christ. And then she says, “For just as soon as we begin to lift ourselves up and to think that we are something, the view of Christ grows dimmer and dimmer and Satan steps in so that we cannot see Him at all.” Ibid.

If we are going to see what Paul saw, we are all going to have to be humble. We are going to have to come to the foot of the cross. We will not think of ourselves as intelligent, wise or self-sufficient. “We should take our fitting place in humble penitence at the foot of the cross. We may learn the lessons of meekness and lowliness of mind as we go up to Mount Calvary, and looking upon the cross, see our Saviour in agony, the Son of God dying, the just for the unjust. Behold Him who could summon legions of angels to His assistance with one word, a subject of jest and merriment, of reviling and hatred. He gives Himself a sacrifice for sin. When reviled, He threatened not; when falsely accused, He opened not His mouth. He prays on the cross for His murderers. He is dying for them.” That I May Know Him, 62.

The Lesson of the Cross

Have you seen the new dimension? Ellen White says this is the first lesson that we need to learn. It is good to learn Bible doctrine and something about prophecy. We also need to know what the law of God says, since Christ had to die on the cross because we broke that law. There are many other lessons that we need to learn, but the lesson of the cross is number one. This is what will enable us to see everything and everybody in a new dimension.

When Paul had this vision, when he saw this light, and the Lord spoke to him, it was just for a few minutes, but it changed everything in his life. Before, he had hatred for those Christians. After that, his hatred was gone. It changed the way he thought. It changed the way he felt. It changed the way he acted. It changed the way he spoke. It changed the expression on his face. It changed everything in his life.

Would you like to be changed like that? If you can see what he saw, you will see in a new dimension and everything will be changed. Just like he records in Philippians, “Everything that I thought was so important before, I realize now that it is rubbish compared with this.”

“Lift the cross and deny self. Control yourself. Then there will be an opportunity for Christ to let His mind be in you. Your words will be sweet and pure.” (Would you like every word that you speak to be sweet and pure? If you see this, that is what will happen.) “You will give no place to the enemy by giving way to evil thinking and evil speaking,— his most successful means of keeping the church in a weak, unconverted state.” Australian Union Conference Record, April 15, 1905. This is what will happen to us if we see in a new dimension.

When you see what Paul saw, it not only changes what you say, it changes your very thoughts, the way you think.

Who Killed Jesus?

After Paul saw this vision, he wrote to the Christians and told them there was danger. You see, the Christians all thought that it was the Jews who had crucified Christ. Paul said, “Oh, no, it is not just the Jews. We are the ones who crucified Him, by our sins.”

Do you believe that just the Jews crucified Christ, or do you believe that Christ went to the cross because of what you and I have done? The reason we do not understand is because we have not seen in a new dimension yet. If you understand from God’s point of view—you see from God’s point of view; and He understands the past, the present, and the future.

God knew all about you when Jesus was here. He took all of your sins, and all of the sins of everybody that would ever live in the world, and He laid them on Christ at Calvary. He did not go to Calvary just for the Jews, or for the people in the Old Testament, He went to Calvary for you and for me. Paul said we, as Christians, can crucify Him again. He taught this throughout the New Testament. I imagine when people first heard that doctrine they were absolutely shocked. “How could we crucify Him again? I would not crucify Him again, I am a Christian. I call Him my Lord and Master.” Yet, Paul said you can crucify Him again. He talked to the Hebrews extensively about this. The apostle John, who wrote the book of Revelation, said that when Jesus would come again, He would come with clouds and every eye is going to see Him, also those that pierced Him. (See Revelation 1:7.)

Lest you think that this refers only to the Jews, although they are included in this statement, look at Zechariah 12:10. “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me Whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”

Do you understand that? The people of God are going to see Him whom they have pierced and they are going to mourn and grieve over what they have done to Him. You may say to yourself, “I was not the one with the hammer.” No, but we only talk that way because we have never seen in another dimension.

The Hammer in Your Hand

We do not realize that when we sin we bring the identical, same kind of pain to the heart of God that Jesus suffered on the cross. Again in Education, 263, Mrs. White talks about how we can crucify Him.

Once you see in that dimension, it changes everything. It changes your whole outlook about sin, does it not? You realize that if you do it, you are going to hurt the One that loves you the most. “‘They also which pierced Him.’ These words apply not only to the men who pierced Christ when He hung on the cross of Calvary, but [also] to those who by evil-speaking and wrong-doing are piercing Him today.” The Signs of the Times, January 28, 1903.

Are there people piercing Him today? Yes! How are they doing it? By their evil-speaking and wrongdoing. “Daily He suffers the agonies of the crucifixion. Daily men and women are piercing Him by dishonoring Him, by refusing to do His will.” Ibid.

Do you want to see things in a different dimension so that sin will become hateful and hideous to you, so that you will never want to do it again? If you see what Paul saw, that is what will happen. When we see what he saw, instead of evil-speaking and wrongdoing, piercing Him, we will do the following: “It is our duty to help those who are downcast. Recollect what their privileges are, and do not talk of the difficulties, but go right to them and try to bind up the broken hearted.” Sermons and Talks, vol. 1, 103.

Where are these broken hearted people you and I are supposed to bind up? “These are right in the church all around us. Never have an idea that you know more than your brethren do, but just keep humble. It was this spirit of evil surmising that brought all the weakness into the Jewish nation.” Ibid.

We have to come to the foot of the cross and we have to see things that we did not see before. When that happens, the same thing will happen to us that happened to the apostle Paul.

Friends and Enemies

Here is an amazing fact about Jesus. As you study the life of Christ, it appears that He does not know the difference between His friends and His enemies. He treats them all the same. Ellen White wrote, “Can you stand under the shadow of the cross and there talk your crosses, your darkness, your wicked feelings? Can you do it? Dare you do it? You never dare to do it when standing under the shadow of the cross.” Sermons and Talks, vol. 1, 208.

You see, our problem is that we have somebody difficult with whom to deal. Do you know who that difficult person is? It is me! That is the person I have the most trouble with, me! “Self is the most difficult thing we have to manage. In laying off burdens, let us not forget to lay self at the feet of Christ. Hand yourself over to Jesus, to be molded and fashioned by Him, that you may be made vessels unto honor. Your temptations, your ideas, your feelings, must all be laid at the foot of the cross. Then the soul is ready to listen to words of divine instruction. Jesus will give you water to drink of the water which flows from the river of God. Under the softening and subduing influence of His spirit, your coldness, and listlessness will disappear.” The Upward Look, 218.

Oh, friends, what you and I need, what the Christian church needs, what Adventists need, what the historic Adventists need, what the revival and reformation movement needs, is to see in a different dimension. Then, all of a sudden, all of the troubles that we think we have will disappear.

What really happens to a person when they start to look at the cross of Calvary and start to think through the spiritual meaning of what they are looking at? A lot of Christians know the story. They have crosses hanging from their rear-view mirrors and in their homes, and all over the place, but they do not know the spiritual meaning of the story.

Redemption is a process by which a human soul is trained for heaven. It means a knowledge of Christ. After Paul saw that, he said in Philippians 3, “All I want is just to know Him. I want to know the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings. I just want to know Him, that is all. Everything I had before is junk.”

“It means emancipation from ideas, from habits and practices, that have been gained in the school of the prince of darkness. The soul must be delivered from the feelings and practices which are opposed to loyalty to God.” Signs of the Times, January 17, 1895.

Are you being delivered day by day from wrong thoughts and feelings? If you are starting to see in a different dimension, it will happen.

Oh, what a change it would make if we could see our spouses, our children, and our fellow church members in a different dimension. “We are here to learn submission to the divine will, or we shall not be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Those who are corrupt in their sympathies, that have never had the divine touch, never can sing the song of the redeemed. They would be unhappy in heaven.” Ibid.

If you do not have the Divine touch, if you do not see in a different dimension, (what Paul saw), if you never come to the cross of Calvary in your mind to study its spiritual meaning, the Lord cannot take you to heaven because you would not enjoy it. You would be unhappy in heaven. “They would feel that they were inharmonious elements.” Ibid.

We must have this experience, friends. We must pray for it and say, “Lord, help me to see what Paul saw. Help me to see what the cross means, and to experience it. Not just as a story, but as a change in my life so that I see everything and everybody differently.”

Seeing with New Eyes

Steven Colby, the famous author, tells of an experience that he had on a subway in New York. One Sunday morning he was riding on the subway. People were sitting quietly; some of them reading newspapers, and some were lost in thought. Some even had their eyes closed. It was very calm and very peaceful. Then suddenly a man and his children entered the subway car. The children were so loud and so rambunctious that instantly the whole climate changed.

This man came in with these unruly children and sat down right next to Mr. Colby. The man just sort of hung his head, closed his eyes and he seemed totally oblivious to what his children were doing. The children were yelling and were throwing things. They were even grabbing people’s newspapers. It was very disturbing, and everybody in the subway car was getting very irritated.

Yet the man sitting next to Mr. Colby just sat there with his eyes closed, doing absolutely nothing. It was difficult not to feel irritated. It was difficult not to be angry at this man who had no control over his children who were disrupting everybody in the whole car. He could not believe this man could be so insensitive as to let his children run wild and do nothing about it, taking no responsibility at all.

It was easy to see that everybody in the whole car was irritated. Just like people get in the church sometimes. Mr. Colby thought he was exercising an unusual amount of patience and restraint, but finally he thought, “I have to do something.” So he turned to this man, “Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you could control them a little more?”

The man raised his head a little bit and opened his eyes as if he had just come to consciousness for the first time, and he said softly, “Oh, you are right. I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I do not know what to think, and I guess they do not know how to handle it either.”

Mr. Colby said he was changed instantly. All of sudden he was not irritated any more. He felt so sad. He changed his speech, he changed his words, he changed his thoughts, and he changed his feelings instantly. Why? Because now he saw this man and his children in a different dimension.

If you and I are gong to go to heaven, we are going to have to see Jesus on the cross. We are going to have to see a vision that is going to change our dimension of thinking so that we see each other, our spouses, our children, our fellow church members in a different dimension than we have seen them before.

Do you want to see and experience reality in a different dimension so that you will be Christ-like in every situation? We have to have more than a storybook religion if we are going to go to heaven. We have to actually be converted and see each other in a different dimension. Let each one of us pray that we might have that experience today.

The Handwriting on the Wall

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Among the many things we see when we look at love is the fact that love can have limits. A young man is deeply in love with a young woman and tries desperately to win her love in return. If she never responds by loving him, his love for her will eventually reach its limits. He will give up and give his affections to somebody else.

Unfaithfulness to the marriage vow is the tragic thing that often brings love to the limits beyond which it cannot go.

God is love, but even the love of God must have its limits. The love of God cannot accept rebels into the kingdom of heaven. This would be going beyond its proper limits.

The love of God cannot go on forever forgiving a sinner while he continues to rebel and do injuries to other persons.

The Bible tells us that the love of God sets limits in sin for nations and also for individuals. The nations that God commanded Moses and Joshua to destroy had reached the limits that God’s love must set. The Bible tells us about some individuals who kept on sinning until they reached the limits that God’s love must set. We will study about one of them in this article.

The Handwriting on the Wall

In Daniel 5:22 we read a story—a very human, though tragic, story. This is the story of a man who knew what he ought to do, but did not do it. “Thou…, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this.”

Belshazzar was the king of Babylon. Babylon was one of the greatest empires, and greatest cities, of its day. Belshazzar was apparently the grandson of the great Nebuchadnezzar, who had built Babylon to its glory.

For many years we have marveled, and even doubted, at the reports that have come down through the centuries about the glories of ancient Babylon, but the modern science of archaeology has made it clear that the stories are indeed true. We know that the hanging gardens, rising terrace upon terrace, existed in all the unmatched grandeur with which legend has vested them, and its palaces were majestic. Its temples, mansions, and pleasure grounds were magnificent. Even the bottoms of the canals that crossed the city were covered with glazed tile, some beautifully ornamented with figures of trees, birds, and animals. Figures of lions, executed in brilliantly enameled tiles, have been dug from the ruins, many as bright and perfect as when they glistened on the walls of Babylon some 2,500 years ago. The royal banquet hall was 58 feet wide and 168 feet long. It is said that its pillars were figures of slaves, cast in bronze, standing upon the backs of figures of elephants, their hands supporting the ceiling.

Nebuchadnezzar, the grandfather of Belshazzar, had built this city to its greatness, but Belshazzar was not the man his grandfather, or even his father, Nabonidus, had been. On a prayer tablet from the hand of Nabonidus, archaeologists have found these words: “As for Belshazzar, my first born son, place in his heart fear of Thy great divinity, let him not turn to sinning; let him be satisfied with the fullness of life.”

Apparently Nabonidus was concerned about this son—and with good reason.

Standing Alone

Belshazzar had grown up in Babylon. He knew how God had dealt with the great Nebuchadnezzar, but he did not pay attention to this object lesson. He knew well about the exploits of his grandfather, invading the territories around the empire and bringing back slaves. He knew, too, how some of the slaves from Israel had risen to be prominent in the kingdom and how they had influenced Nebuchadnezzar so that he became a believer in the true God, instead of the sun god of Babylon.

He remembered well the time when Nebuchadnezzar had the strange dream, as recorded in Daniel, chapter 2, in answer to his question whether Babylon would last forever. He knew how Daniel had explained the meaning of the dream, showing that God had sent the dream to reveal the history of the world.

The image that was shown in this dream had a head of gold, representing Babylon, then other metals to show other future empires. Belshazzar remembered well how his grandfather had resolved to overthrow the prophecy, and had built a huge image, all of gold, to show that Babylon would not give way to another kingdom. He stood this great image on the plain of Dura. (See Daniel 3.) Here he called all the leaders of the empire to bow down before the image that he had built. Among these leaders came three who worshipped the God of Israel.

They would not bow down. It was called to the attention of the king, and he was sorry, because he greatly admired these stalwart young men from Israel whose intellectual brilliance had won them places among the advisors of his realm. So he decided to give them a second chance.

“Didn’t you understand the order?” he asked. “We will give you another chance. This time, when you hear the music, just bow down, and everything will be all right.”

The young men knew another chance wouldn’t make any difference, so they gave their answer to the king. Their reply is one of the great moments in history.

“We are not careful to answer, O King,” they said. “Our God is able to deliver us if He chooses to do so, but whether He does or whether He does not, know thou, O King, that we will not bow down to the image.”

Nothing quite like this had ever happened in Babylon before, and the God of heaven took notice of it.

Again the music sounded, and all the people, except these three, bowed low. Three against the thousands! Of course the devil tempted them, as he tempts Christians today—telling them it was not the letter of the law that was important, only the spirit, and that God would understand that the intent of their heart was that the image represented Him, etc., etc. But these men were not like the compromising, milk and water Christians of today—they were made of sterner stuff. They wasted no time on such rot. They would not even stoop to lace their shoes. Tall and straight they stood—three against the thousands and the might of great Babylon.

So they were thrown into the fiery furnace, with heat so great that it destroyed the men who threw them in, but the Son of God Himself came down and walked through that furnace with them and delivered them. Belshazzar knew all about this.

Stark, Raving Mad

Belshazzar knew also about the madness of his grandfather. Nebuchadnezzar had walked upon the ramparts of the city, his heart swelling with pride, as he looked across the monuments of his success. “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built,” he thought. He pushed aside all the warning and counsels that God had given him. He tried to force them out of his mind. He just could not believe anything evil could happen to great Babylon.

So the Lord sent him another dream. God saw something good in this king, and worked to save him. God said to him, “You are going to live like a beast in the fields and eat grass like the oxen, until you learn that the Most High ruleth in the affairs of men. In Daniel 4 we read how it happened. The king went mad—stark, raving mad. They drove him from the palace, and for seven long years he wandered through the forests and the fields, until his hair was like an animal, and his fingernails like claws.

Some have refused to believe this remarkable story, but the archaeologists have now deciphered a tablet of the king from the ruins of Babylon, on which appears corroborating testimony, telling of a time when the illustrious monarch conducted no business of the kingdom.

“In all dominions I did not build a high place of power. In Babylon buildings for the honor of my kingdom I did not lay out. I did not sing the praises of my Lord, I did not furnish His altars with victims, nor did I clear out the canals.”

For seven long years the king was mad. Then, even as God had said, his reason returned to him, and he returned to the throne, a changed man—a humbled, converted, surrendered man—as his prayer and proclamation in Daniel 4 indicate.

Crossing the Line

All of this Belshazzar knew. He had grown up right there in Babylon. Some of these things he had probably seen with his own eyes, and the rest had been recounted in his ears time and time again, but still he went on in folly.

We read in Daniel 5:1, 2: “Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.”

Belshazzar, of course, did not realize that this was to be his last feast. If he had known that, he would have acted very differently, for he was like all men, in that he expected to get right with God someday. I do not believe you can find a man on earth who really intends to be lost. Deep in his heart every man plans that he will get right with God—someday. Not now, but someday.

I met a stranger in the city of Hilo, Hawaii, and invited him to attend my meetings there. He answered: “I know all about your meetings. I attended some by one of your evangelists in Florida. I know the truth.”

“Well,” I said, “why do you not live up to it?”

“Oh,” he said, “I am going to hell.”

I said, “You are the first man I ever met who was planning on it.”

“Oh, I am not planning on it,” he said, “but I am afraid that is the way it’s going to work out.”

You see, nobody really plans to be lost. Everybody plans to get right with God—someday—but for many, that day never comes.

“There is a line, by us unseen, that crosses every path—the hidden boundary between God’s patience and His wrath.”

You can not tell how close you are to that line, and Belshazzar did not know either, so in his drunken impiety, he committed a great sacrilege. He called for the golden and silver vessels that had been used in the worship of God in Jerusalem and ordered them filled with wine, that he and his companions might drink from them.

The Hand of Doom

Satan had convinced him that God does not care for His sacred things, even as he does with men today. He tells them that God will take no notice, but He does. Men today defile the holy things of God—His holy day, His holy money, His holy ceremonies of worship—thinking that God will do nothing about it, but He will, even as He did with Belshazzar. We read in verses 5 and 6: “In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.”

Have you ever seen a man suddenly in fear of his life? Have you noticed how quickly the curses die upon their lips, and they start imploring one another for help? I have. It makes a great difference when they are suddenly brought face to face with eternity.

So the face of the king was changed, as he suddenly became aware that there were those in the dining hall whom he had not counted. As he had looked out across the vast room, he had thought that he knew everyone who was there, but he did not. There were some in the banquet hall that he had not reckoned with, as there are in every banquet hall—the silent watchers of God, recording everything that is said and done. They do not argue, these silent watchers. They never try to force us to do what is right, but they are always there. Even when we raise our hands in blasphemy against God, they do not interfere; they just write it all into the record, for the judgment day.

In his wild alarm, the king made a mistake that has been made by many other men since then. Wanting to understand something that God had done, he appealed to the wise men of the world to help him. This is entirely useless. They may be wise in the learning of the world, but if they do not know God, there is no use asking them anything of a spiritual nature. They will give the wrong answer every time.

So the king called for his wise men, and they came. “Now all the king’s wise men came; but they could not read the writing, or make known to the king its interpretation. Then king Belshazzar was greatly troubled, his countenance was changed, and his lords were astonished.” See Daniel 5:8, 9. (NKJV.)

Called As a Witness

Now the queen had not been in the banquet hall that evening. This was apparently the queen mother, not Belshazzar’s own wife. She had been in her own palace, listening with great concern to the sound of merriment from the banquet hall, for as a matter of actual fact, there was an enemy army camped outside the city walls at that very moment, trying to find a way to get in. Belshazzar, young, arrogant, and foolish, had decided to show his contempt for them by having a feast while they were there—which was a matter of great concern to the queen mother. She knew that Nebuchadnezzar would never have done a thing like that.

So her concern mounts as she listens to the sound of feasting progressing toward drunkenness, but as the sound of merriment suddenly stops and an awesome silence prevails, she is alarmed more than ever. Hastily summoning a servant, she sent him running to the banquet hall to learn the cause of the strange silence. The servant can only report that something terrible has happened, so she goes herself. Entering the banquet hall, she sees the lords and ladies in a stupor of drunken fear, and the king paralyzed by terror. Following the direction in which all eyes are turned, she sees the writing on the wall, and she remembers Daniel. Approaching the king, she says: “There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar… made master of the magicians…now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation.” Daniel 5:11, 12.

So, they sent for Daniel. Daniel was an old man now. For seventy years or more he had lived in Babylon, since his captivity as a youth. He had seen all of God’s dealing with Nebuchadnezzar, had seen him come, and had seen him go. Now he finds himself once more called to explain the works of God to a king of Babylon—but how different the message this time! As he stood before the king, Belshazzar said: “If thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom.” Daniel 5:16.

“…Daniel answered and said before the king, ‘Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.” Daniel 5:17.

In the hushed silence of the banquet hall, Daniel begins to speak but not, at first, to read the writing. He fastens his eyes upon Belshazzar, and as he looks at the young king, his mind runs back across the years. He remembers all that God has done to and through Nebuchadnezzar. He finally says:

“O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honor: And for the majesty that He gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down. But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever He will. And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this!” Daniel: 5:18-22.

Weighed in the Balances

Here Daniel spelled out the tragedy of the young king’s life. He knew what he ought to do, but he didn’t do it. Daniel went on:

“…this is the writing that was written, ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Peres; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” Daniel 5:25-28.

So Daniel left the banquet hall—and none too soon, for while he had still been talking to the young king, the armies of the Medes and Persians were entering the city. They had found a way to turn aside the waters of the Euphrates River, and they had marched down the riverbed, under the wall, into the city. In a few moments they burst into the banquet hall, and in that night was Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, slain.

Have you ever considered how differently sin opens her banquet, from how she closes it? As sin opens her banquet, there is laughter, gaiety, music, and song, but when she closes it—how different. Why don’t you laugh now Belshazzar? Here, have a drink! Let the clowns beguile you; let lust satisfy you; let the praise of your lords and ladies reward your bold sacrilege!

No! Sin’s banquet has closed. In all the great banquet halls, there are no smiles now—except upon the lips of the devil and his legions, who move in to look upon the faces of their victims. This is how sin’s banquet closes, then and now.

Belshazzar was weighed in the balances of God and found wanting—because he knew what he ought to do, but didn’t do it.

Dear friend, do you, today, know what you ought to do? Do not make the mistake that the king of Babylon made.

Saying Goodbye to God

Among all the names that come down to us across the pages of American history, I suppose there is no name more loaded with infamy and shame than the name of Aaron Burr. Burr was a man of great ability and of great ambition. You remember the story of how he became angry with Alexander Hamilton, then secretary of the treasury, over some trifle and challenged Hamilton to a duel.

Hamilton didn’t believe in duels, but he thought honor compelled him to accept the challenge. So they met, and Burr fired the shot into Hamilton’s heart that killed him, while Hamilton fired his shot into the air.

But public indignation was aroused against Burr. From there he went steadily downward in bitterness and sorrow, until finally he died by his own hand, disowned by his family, despised by his countrymen, loaded with infamy and shame.

This story every American knows, but few know the story of the earlier tragedy that lies behind this tragedy in the life of Aaron Burr.

When Burr was a young man, he was a student at Princeton University. While he was there, an evangelist came to town and preached the gospel of the living God. Burr, along with other students, attended the services and felt the call of God to his heart. He felt convinced that he should become a Christian.

Then he made the same mistake that Belshazzar made. Wanting advice on a spiritual matter, he went to a worldly wise man for counsel—he went to the president of the university.

“Sir,” he said, “what is your advice? I have been attending evangelistic services, and I feel convicted that I should become a Christian.”

The president answered: “I cannot tell you whether you should become a Christian or not, but this is my advice. Wait until the evangelist has left town, and no one is here to influence you. Then, by yourself, think it through and make your own decision.”

Like most of the devil’s advice, that sounded reasonable, so Burr agreed to do it. Call after call was made at the meetings, but he sat in his seat and refused to respond. Finally the meetings were closed, the evangelist moved on to his next appointment, and the revival influences ebbed away.

The fellow students of Aaron Burr reported that late, late one starry night, as they were studying in the dormitory, they heard a sudden noise. Looking out, they saw young Aaron Burr, leaning far out of his dormitory window, his face turned to the sky, gazing for a long moment towards the heavens. Then they heard his voice ring out on the silent night, “Goodbye, God. I have made my decision.”

This is the story that lies behind the tragedy of Aaron Burr. Like Belshazzar, he knew what he ought to do, but did not do it.

Wonder and Perish

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God has set His hand to finish His work and you can see it—if your eyes are open. But have you ever tried to tell somebody something and either it was so wonderful or so terrible that they just could not believe it? Did you know that God has that problem?

God talks about this problem in Isaiah 29:14 the Lord said, “I am going to work a wonder among you and you are going to be astonished. Just pause and wonder.” Then in Ezekiel He said, “You think that it is going to be a long time before these prophecies are fulfilled but it is going to happen right now.”

Friends, what has happened before is happening again. That, which some people are looking forward to a long time into the future, is happening right now, and they do not realize it.

Watch, be Utterly Astounded!

This is God speaking: “’Look among the nations and watch—Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days, Which you would not believe, though it were told you.’” Habakkuk 1:5.

The Lord says, “Look! Look and see what is happening in the world.” Do you see anything happening in the world? Do you see any signs that we are right at the end? The Lord says, “Look at what is going on in the world and be utterly astonished.” Utterly astounded by what? Well, the Lord says, “I am going to work a work in your days—not a hundred years from your day, but I am going to work a work in your generation, in your lifetime. If I told you what I am going to do, you would not believe it.”

I wonder, can you believe what God says He is going to do, or are you among the people who are astounded by what they see, and they just cannot believe that it is really happening?

Habakkuk 1:5 is quoted in the New Testament. As you know, those of you who speak more than one language, a word can be translated more than one way into another language. I want you to look at this text in the New Testament because, when they quoted it and it was translated, they used a few different words.

Wonder and Perish!

Let us see how the apostles quoted it. The apostle Paul is preaching, and he is preaching especially to his Jewish brethren. He says,

Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware [Now, notice. Here is a warning.] therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you: ‘Behold, you despisers, Marvel and perish! For I work a work in your days, A work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you. Acts 13:38-41.

Who are these people about whom the apostle Paul is talking? He says, “Watch out that what was spoken by the prophets does not happen to you.” Then he quotes the text from Habakkuk, “Behold, you despisers. Marvel and perish!” Or the Old King James Bible says “…Wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.”

I want to tell you, friends, this verse from Habakkuk 1:5 was fulfilled in the life and times of Jesus, and it was fulfilled again in the life and times of the apostles. Now as the Jews looked out at the world, when Jesus was here, they saw that something was happening, and they were astonished by what they saw. They were astonished when they saw people who had been blind from birth who could now see.

Astonished, but not Saved

They had reports of an individual who had been in the grave for four days and was alive. They actually saw that person, and they got so mad when they saw him that they decided to kill him. They knew that something was happening. They were astonished by what they saw. But even though they marveled, even though they wondered, they were not saved.

That is what it says, marvel and perish, wonder and perish. They knew that something was happening, but they would not confess that God was in it. They said, “This Man is working miracles by the chief of the devils.”

They knew that something big was going on when the apostles went all over the world, and they saw the Christian churches arising. In fact, there were so many churches in the lifetime of the apostle Paul that he wrote to Titus and said, “Go and ordain elders in every city.” (See Titus 1:5.) Why did he have to do that? Because there was a church in every city.

The leadership knew that something was going on, and Paul was appealing to them, “Watch out that this prophecy does not come true for you; that you marvel, that you see something is happening, but you will not believe that it is the work of God. You say it is something else.”

Marvel and perish. Who are these people? They are the people who profess to be the true people of God but they will not accept; they will not cooperate with what God is doing in the world. They fight it. Is that not what the Jews did?

The Condemnation of the Jews

Now for some reason, I do not know why, there are some people who get upset when we preach about this subject. They say, “Please do not compare us with the Jews.” Friends, I must tell you that Ellen White compared us to the Jews over and over again. In fact, she says, “Let every soul be careful lest he prove himself to be among those who despise and wonder and perish, who turn from Christ in the person of His saints, and bring upon themselves the condemnation that fell upon the Jews.” Signs of the Times, May 26, 1890.

So, what is the warning? Well, she says watch out lest the very same thing that happened to the Jews happens to you. Let us look at this Scripture about the despisers who wonder and perish from the viewpoint of a very well known parable of Jesus. This parable helps us to understand what the apostles and prophets were talking about when they said, marvel and perish, wonder and perish.

In the Greek New Testament it says that Jesus told the Jews a dark saying, or a riddle, a mystical saying, and they did not understand what He was talking about.

A Dark, Mystical Saying

What was this proverb, this dark, mystical saying that they did not understand? It was the parable of the sheepfold. This is a very interesting parable, and it has many interesting symbols in it. It says:

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. John 10:1

The New King James Bible calls it an “illustration” in verse 6, that is a dark saying, a mystical saying, a proverb, a riddle. They did not know what He was talking about, so He goes on to explain. This is one of the most wonderful parables that Jesus told, because of its meaning.

…Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. John 10:7–11.

Jesus talks about the hireling and the wolf that enters in. He says again, “I am the good shepherd; and I know those that belong to Me and I am known by them.” And then He talks about laying down His life for the sheep, and He talks about there being only one flock, one fold, one shepherd. (See John 10:12–16.)

Then Jesus is talking to the Jews and the Jews surround Him and they say, “How long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” (See verse 24.) Jesus said, “I have already told you and you would not believe what I told you. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. (See John 10:25, 26.)

Notice, these people were astonished; they were marveling; they were astounded by what they were watching, but they did not believe. So they perished.

…you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one. John 10:26–30.

Notice the symbols in this parable. We look first of all at the fold which Jesus calls the sheepfold. What is the fold? “The church of Christ is very precious in His sight. It is the case which contains His jewels, the fold which encloses His flock.” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 6, 1118.

What is the Fold?

So the fold is the church. A fold is a place that has walls of protection around it. “…the church is very precious in His sight. It is the case which contains His jewels, the fold which encloses His flock, and He longs to see it without spot or blemish or any such thing. He yearns after it with unspeakable love.” Testimonies, vol. 6, 261.

There is, friends, a fold. Are you in it? The fold is the church. Now I meet some people who say, “Well, I want to go to heaven, but there are so many hypocrites in the church. I am just going to go alone.” There are a lot of people like that in the world today. “God has a people whom He is leading, guiding, and instructing. They must be subject one to another.” This Day With God, 295. You see, you cannot be subject to one another if you are all by yourself. Have you ever thought that through?

“If one undertakes to go alone, independently, to heaven he will find he has chosen the wrong path that will not lead him to life.…” Ibid. How many people do you know who have decided that they are going to go to heaven alone? They lose their way spiritually.

God would not establish the church if we did not need it. We need each other. We need to be helping each other toward heaven. We are not going to go to heaven all alone. Now, we need to be ready to stand alone at any time for Jesus, just like Daniel did, but we are not going to heaven alone.

God has a people whom He is leading, and if we try to go alone, independently, we will find we have chosen a path that will not lead us to life. There are many sheep today that are out of the fold. It is dangerous for a sheep to be out of the fold. We are not condemning anybody who is out of the fold, but we would still like to get them back in the fold. It is safer there.

Listening for the Shepherd’s Voice

“He came to help us live without sin. This He calls bringing us back to the fold.” The Story of Jesus, 77. What is it that draws us back into the fold? An eastern shepherd does not go to his sheep with a club to beat them back into the fold. That does not work. Sheep do not respond very well to that. They just get all confused and do not know where to go or what to do. In the East, where Jesus spoke this parable, they knew what He was talking about because we are told when he leads them out, he calls his own sheep by name. (See John 10:3.) As the sheep learn their name from the shepherd, they learn to respond and follow when their name is called.

We are living in a time when the true Shepherd is calling for His sheep to come back into the fold. Have you heard His voice? Are you listening for His voice? No one can return to the fold, of course, without the drawing of the Holy Spirit. “It is His love that encircles us, bringing us back to the fold.…” In Heavenly Places, 76.

The fold is where you belong. It is dangerous outside of the fold. People say, “There are hypocrites in the church.” Well, let me tell you, there are even more hypocrites out of the church. Are you in the fold? If you have strayed from the fold, would you like to come back?

Jesus said in John 10:16, “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be [one fold] one flock and one shepherd.”

The Church Organization is Not the Fold

The fold is the church. Now there are some people who get a little mixed up on this, and they think that the fold is the church organization. Now, I believe in church organization. I have always believed in church organization. We have elders; we have deacons; we have church board meetings; we have church business meetings, and we try to conduct all of our business in an orderly way because heaven operates in order. It does not operate in chaos and confusion. So, we believe in church organization, but the church organization is not the fold. That is very important to understand.

Here is an illustration that will show that is the case. In John 9 the story is told of a man whom the Jews decided to kick out of the fold. He was a Jewish man, a member of the church, and they decided to disfellowship him.

Ellen White comments on the experience of this blind man. She says,

The sheep was cast out of the fold for being a living witness to the power of Christ. Many have been cast out of the church whose names were registered upon the Book of Life. Wolves in sheep’s clothing were ready to cast out of the fold and devour one who was entitled to the Lord’s pasture; but Jesus, the True Shepherd, sought him, [You find that in the last few verses of John 9.] and gave him a place within the fold. Signs of the Times, December 4, 1893.

I have pondered that statement many, many times. It says that Jesus went to this man, the blind man whom He had healed, and He gave him a place in the fold. We know that the fold is the church. Now I want to ask you, How do you think that happened? Did Jesus go to Caiaphas and say, “Look, I have restored sight to this man, so I want you to put his name back in the church book”? Is that how it happened? No.

In the Fold of Jesus

Well, then, what does it mean? It says He gave him a place in the fold, in the church. You see, the church is not what people think it is. It is not the church organization. The real books of the church are kept in heaven. Did you know that? I like that. That man’s name was written in the book and Jesus gave him a place in the fold. If you are a believer in Christ, if you have chosen to surrender your life to Him and follow Him, He will give you a place in the fold. The Bible tells us that “God is no respecter of persons.” (See Acts 10:34.)

There may be some church in this world that disfellowships you. The Jewish church disfellowshipped this man, but Jesus gave him a place in the fold. Notice, in John 10:16 He says there is one shepherd. Now some people cannot figure that out. What that means is that there is one chief Shepherd, and He has other shepherds who are under Him.

One Head of the Church

Peter talks about these under-shepherds who are appointed by the Lord to do His work; but there is one chief Shepherd. That is an important point to understand. People were confused in Jesus’ day, and people are still confused today about who the shepherd is or about how many there are. There is one chief Shepherd, every other under–shepherd is under His authority. According to the Bible there is only one Head of the church, there are not two or three. (See Ephesians 1 and 4.)

But now we come to a third point, and this one is exceedingly important for you if you want to have eternal life. “’To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” John 10:3, 4.

Notice, it says, “the sheep know his voice.” We are living in a time when there are many voices. Have you noticed? And the different voices are not all saying the same thing. Here is the question: Can you distinguish the voice of the true Shepherd from all the other voices?

Let me give you a tip on how to distinguish the true Shepherd’s voice from all the other voices. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. (See Hebrews 13:8.) Since He does not change, since He is the same, if the true Shepherd speaks to you through any messenger today, what He says to you now will agree with what He said 2000 years ago; it will not contradict. Does that make sense?

The Voice of the True Shepherd

Many voices today are saying that all you have to do to be saved is love Jesus, just have a relationship with Jesus; even if you sin, it is all right because He will forgive you. Do not worry about it. But that is not the voice of the true Shepherd, because that is not what Jesus said in the Bible.

Jesus talked about this in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, “’Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the Law till all is fulfilled.’” Matthew 5:17, 18.

What did Jesus say about the Law? He said that it was not going to pass away, it was going to stay the same. Ellen White talked about this. In 1895 she wrote:

The voice that magnifies the Law of God we recognize as the voice of the true Shepherd; but we know that those who would make of no effect the commandments of God, are false shepherds, who would exalt tradition above the commandments of Jehovah. Signs of the Times, July 4, 1895.

If the preacher, teacher, Sabbath School teacher, friend, brother or whomever you are studying with and listening to, magnifies the Law of God, that is the voice of the true Shepherd. But if they tell you, do not worry about it; the Lord loves you, and He will save you anyway. That is the voice of a false shepherd.

Jesus said until heaven and earth pass, not the smallest part of the Law is going to be changed. This fold has a door. Did you notice that? And that door is narrow. You cannot drive a truck through it. Jesus said it is a narrow gate, a narrow way, and He said we must agonize to go through the narrow gate.

Over the Wall

Some people say, “Well, I cannot get all my baggage through the door, so I am going over the wall.” Jesus talked about that, too. Do you know the voice of the Shepherd? The true Shepherd’s voice will magnify the Law. Unfortunately there are many people in the church today, even in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, who do not recognize the true Shepherd’s voice. They cannot tell the difference between the voice of Christ and the voice of a stranger.

The result is that the church, right now, is going through some dark times, and it is going to get darker before it gets brighter.

Dark hours of trial are before the Church because they have not obeyed the warnings and reproofs and counsel of God. What a bewitching power comes upon human minds to do contrary to the oft repeated will of God, and close the eyes and stop the ears, when Jesus is calling to them to hear His voice. He says, ‘My sheep hear My voice.’ The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, vol. 3, 1002.

Mrs. White talks about people in the church who close their ears and shut their eyes so they will not hear and see what Jesus is trying to communicate to them. Jesus is saying, “If you are My sheep, you would hear My voice.” What is going to happen?

The dark hours of trial are to come to every one as a part of his education for higher work, for more devoted, consecrated effort.… Before the great trouble shall come upon the world such as has never been since there was a nation, those who have faltered and who would ignorantly lead in unsafe paths will reveal this before the real vital test, the last proving, comes, so that whatsoever they may say will not be regarded as voicing the True Shepherd. Ibid.

Revealed

Now that is a very interesting statement. Did you get what it is talking about? Before the great time of trouble comes, those who would ignorantly lead in wrong paths, it says, the Lord is going to arrange things so that they are going to be revealed. That is why you see some of the strange things happening today. The Lord expects you to be learning from what you are seeing and hearing. Do not be like the people who are just astonished, and go ahead and perish.

Mrs. White says, “…so that whatsoever they may say will not be regarded as voicing the True Shepherd.” A time of trouble is coming, friends, and if you are listening to the wrong voice, you are not going to make it. Mrs. White said, “The time of our educating will soon be over. We have no time to lose in walking through clouds of doubt and uncertainty because of uncertain voices.” Ibid.

To whom are you listening, friend? There is counsel after counsel in inspired writings, and in the Bible, about people who used to be in the light but are not now. If you are reading the word of the true Shepherd, you know that what they are saying today is not the voice of the true Shepherd, even though 20 years ago what they were saying might have been.

They are revealing who they really are. Are your eyes open? Are your ears open? Are you comparing what you are hearing with the Bible? Does it agree?

The fourth point is, to me, one of the most interesting points in the story. Notice this sheepfold, this church in John 10, has a door, and the sheep go in and out through the door. Jesus goes in and out through the door. In verse 2 it says, “’But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.’”

I am the Door

But notice also it says in verse 7, “…Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.’” A double symbol is used here. Jesus says He goes through the door, but then He says that He is the door. This door is the same door that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 7. It is the narrow gate, a narrow door. Jesus says that He Himself goes through this door. If you want to be part of the flock, if you want to be in the fold, you have to go through this door.

Now let us think, for just a moment, about going through the door. Any time you go through a door, there is a time before you go through the door, then you are going through the door, and then there is a time after you have gone through the door and are on the other side. Does that make sense? Remember that.

Now I am going to ask you some questions. Was it always true, throughout all eternity, that Christ was a Divine Person equal with the Father? Yes. There are many Scriptures and many inspired passages to show that. Jesus said there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with His Father. He was a Divine Person. So, when Jesus says that He goes through the door, that could not at all apply to His divinity because there never was a time when He was not divine.

But let me ask you the second question. Was there a time before Jesus Christ had become a man? Yes, there was. You see, going through the door has to do with the divinity of Christ. He always had that. It has to do with the fact that there was a time before He went through the door and there is a time after He went through the door. It has to do with the humanity of Christ.

This is one of the major themes of the New Testament! Remember Jesus used to say you are to be in Me and I am to be in you? (See John 14:20; 15:4.) And a Christian is a person who is Christ–like. In other words, Christ is living His life in Him. Not the life of a god, but the life of a man, because Christ had a perfect humanity.

Going Through the Door

To go through the door means that, just as Christ united His divinity with humanity, we unite our humanity with His divinity. Going through the door represents a union of divinity and humanity. In order for Jesus to go through the door He had to unite humanity to His divinity. If He had not done that, Ellen White says there is no way we could have been saved. (See Review and Herald, December 30, 1909.) There is no way.

If He had not come down to this world and become one flesh with us, there would be no way that we could be saved. But it is also true that unless we become one spirit with Him, there is no way we can be saved either. We have to go through the door just like He went through the door. He went through the door by uniting His divinity with humanity. We go through the door by uniting our humanity with His divinity.

Peter talks about that in 2 Peter 1:3, 4. It says we have become “partakers of the divine nature.” Oh, friends, that is what is involved in going through the door and becoming part of the church. If you have not gone through that door, even if you have been baptized by water, you are just playing church.

There are some people who decide to get inside the church without going through the door. Have you ever met someone who said, “I am listening to what you are preaching. I see that I am supposed to keep the Law of God; you say I am supposed to keep it perfectly, and I want to, but I cannot. I want to overcome this; I want to overcome that, and I cannot do it; I have tried a hundred times.”

I do not argue with anybody like that because what he or she is telling me is the truth. But do you know why it is the truth? Because there is no union of divine power with their humanity. Do you know how long we can keep ourselves from sinning if we are not united to divinity? Mrs. White says we cannot do it for one moment. (See The Ministry of Healing, 180.)

Why cannot we overcome? People are looking for a new gospel, a new theology, a different way to get to heaven because they have tried and tried, and they cannot do it. They think the Lord is going to have to save them in their sins.

Baptized into One Body

The reason that the sheep cannot overcome is because they have not yet gone through the door. That is what baptism represents. (See Romans 6 or 1 Corinthians 12.) It says in 1 Corinthians 12:13 “…by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body…” The body is the church, the fold. And we become members when we are baptized with one Spirit—that is the Holy Spirit.

Baptism by water represents baptism by the Holy Spirit. Romans 8 says that when you are baptized by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit gives the power to put to death the deeds of the body so you can overcome sin. You could not do it before, but the Holy Spirit will give you the power to do it. The only way you will overcome a besetting sin is through the power of the Holy Spirit. Are you asking for the power of the Holy Spirit to come into your life every day?

I hope you will pray about this and ask the Lord to help you to go through the door and not try to just climb over the wall to get into the church. There are a lot of people doing that today.

Jesus is the Door

There is not room to enter in at the strait gate and carry the things of this world along. He who would enter in at the strait gate must make an entire consecration of his all to God.… he who would carry the world with him, will never enter in at the strait gate. There is no room for one to walk the narrow way and yet carry along evil surmisings, doubts, criticisms, jealousies, and unkindness. Review and Herald, March 28, 1912.

Do you want Him to lay that aside so you can go through the door? Do you want to go through the door? That is where the safety is.

Oh, yes, we come now to some other people who are inside. Do not get discouraged about it, because the Shepherd is still watching over His sheep, whether they are outside the fold or inside the fold. When people become members of the church, after awhile they come to the pastor and they say, “I thought, when I became a member of the church, that it was going to be heavenly in here and that I was going to be with the saints. I am with some people that I cannot understand what is happening!”

Well, the reason that people have those kinds of experiences is because there are people in the church who did not go through the door. They climbed over the wall. Jesus called them wolves in sheep’s clothing. (See Matthew 7.) As I studied this, I found out that these wolves in sheep’s clothing, who are also called the blind leaders of the blind and hirelings, are the people specified in inspiration who will “wonder and perish.”

They will be astonished at what they see happening. They cannot comprehend some of the things that they see going on in the church because there are people in there who have not gone through the door, the thieves and the robbers.

Not Really Part of the Flock

Ellen White talked about these people. She said,

This strait, and self-denying path is too narrow for many to walk in who profess godliness. They want an easier path and are climbing up some other way. They refuse to follow in the footsteps of our Redeemer. Christ calls all such thieves and robbers. They take the name of Christian” [Notice, they have come into the church, and they call themselves Christians, and they are in the fold with the sheep.] which does not belong to them. This Day With God, 155.

In other words, they are not really part of the flock; they are not really in the church. They are in the fold but they are not really part of the group. Just like a person who does not go through the door into your house but climbs through the window. They are not part of your household, even though they are inside. There are people like that in the church. They are not part of the flock, even though they are inside, all zipped up in their sheep’s clothing.

They take the name of Christian, which does not belong to them, because they do not represent in their life the life of Christ. They claim the privileges which belong to the sons of God while they are none of His. They live selfish lives upon the earth and have done nothing for the truth and the salvation of souls as they ought to have done. Sad indeed for these self-deceived ones. They will never see heaven, because they are not willing to share the shame, the reproach, that Jesus suffered for them. Ibid.

…we should consider it the highest exaltation to be accounted a child of God, an heir of Heaven; and we should rejoice that we can walk with Jesus in His humiliation. But our Saviour assures us that there are some who would like to climb up some other way than the toilsome, self-denying way of the cross. They would avoid reproach and shun sacrifices. Christ calls such thieves and robbers. If we are not willing to breast the storm of opposition, if we choose to float with the current, we shall lose eternal life.” Signs of the Times, July 31, 1884.

Do not say, “I am too weak.” Remember, if you go through the door, you have Omnipotent power on your side. You could be the weakest person around; it does not matter. If you have been united to divine power, you are going to have all the strength and power that you need.

Thieves and Robbers

So who are the thieves and robbers? Oh, they are the Pharisees. They are the blind leaders of the blind. They are the wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are those who wonder and perish. They are in the church, but they are not actually part of the church. In Christ’s day, they were the leaders of God’s professed people. Ellen White says that these people are counted as true by many of their brethren but they end up being part of the synagogue of Satan. They are none of Christ’s and He does not accept them as being His own.

These people who wonder and perish are in the fold, but they end up being part of the devil’s church, the synagogue of Satan, just like the Jews in Christ’s day. (See Early Writings, 30.) They say, “We are God’s professed people” and Jesus said, “You are actually the children of the devil.” (See I John 3:10.)

The Lord has shown me that we are in just as much danger [of rejecting truth] in our day as were the people in the days of Christ. The Lord is speaking through His delegated messengers; but the same unbelief is exhibited. Men close their hearts against Jesus and hold themselves in the veriest bondage to Satan, supposing that they are preserving their dignity as free men; that they are maintaining their right to think and act for themselves, to believe or doubt; and like the despisers of the gospel in the apostolic times, they wonder and perish. Manuscript Releases, vol. 11, 283.

What is Our Danger?

What is our danger? Our danger is rejecting what God is doing in the world. We have leaders in Adventism today who say, “Oh, all these newspaper ads, you ought to just stop that. All this distribution of The Great Controversy, just stop that. It is not time now.” Well, friends, if it is not time now, when is it going to be time? Do you want to wait until you are in prison and then try to distribute it?

The Bible says, “wonder and perish.” I want to tell you this is not just about apostolic times. This is happening today! We have multitudes of professed Adventists today who are wondering; they are astonished; they see that something is happening—but they do not believe that they are going to perish.

There will be, even among us, hirelings and wolves in sheep’s clothing who will persuade the flock of God to sacrifice unto other gods before the Lord. We have reason to know how Paul would act in any emergency. ‘The love of Christ constraineth us.’ (II Corinthians 5:13.) Youth who are not established, rooted and grounded in the truth, will be corrupted and drawn away by the blind leaders of the blind; and the ungodly, the despisers that wonder and perish, who despise the sovereignty of the Ancient of Days and place on the throne a false god, a being of their own defining, a being altogether such an one as themselves—these will be agents in Satan’s hands to corrupt the faith of the unwary. The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, vol. 2, 484, 485.

It says they despise the sovereignty of the Ancient of Days. Well, what sovereignty do they want? They set up a false god. What is the false god? It is the same false god that the Jews set up in the days of Christ. The false god that they set up was their church organization, which they put in the place of God Himself.

Friends, it is no idle talk when somebody says that Jesus is the Head of the church. And watch out what Jesus impresses a group of people to do, lest in fighting it you be found to be fighting the Lord Himself. Let us get right down to the bottom of the problem. Seventh-day Adventists have been given the mission to take the Three Angels’ Messages to every single person in the world.

There is a Cross Involved

But here is the catch. Here is what keeps people from doing it. Here is why they are afraid to do it. It is the same thing as in the days of Christ. You see, there is a cross involved in taking the Three Angels’ Messages to all the world, because the majority of people will not accept it, and they will oppose it. Obviously, Babylon will oppose it.

In order to avoid going through the strait gate, enduring persecution, enduring opposition, we are in the time right now when the majority of Adventists are in the process (I am not saying it is final, I am not saying they cannot turn around.) of turning traitor to the Three Angels’ Messages because of the cross involved in promulgating it.

That is the bottom line. In Jesus’ day you could not be saved if you were not willing to take up your cross, and you cannot be saved if you are not willing to take up your cross today. It is not enough to know the truth. These people who were astonished, who were wondering and who have perished, they knew truth but they would not submit to it and follow it.

How is it going to be with you, friend? Are you willing to take up your cross and say, “Lord, I am willing to do whatever you want me to do to get Your work finished in all parts of the world.” Or are you just going to stand back and be astonished at what you see going on and say, “No, it is not time now, there would be too much trouble if we did it now. We have to wait for a different time.”?

Let me tell you, it is not going to get easier next year. It is not going to be easier in three or four years. It will only get harder. Do not be one who is astonished at what you see, but you do not have any part in it and end up perishing. Millions of Jews lost eternal life that way. Millions of Seventh-day Adventists are about to lose eternal life today. Do not let it be you.