Church

No New Denomination – Part II

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The Denomination of Christ

In Part I we learned that the true church is made up of those who have the Word of God and are purified by it.

So, if somebody says, of what denomination are you a part? Well, we are not part of any new one; I will tell you that! We are part of a denomination that existed since the days of Adam and Eve, and we do not ever intend to start a new one. We just want to stay with the old one. What is it that makes us a part of this denomination?

People say, Oh, you are non-denominational.

Well, I beg your pardon. We are strictly denominational. Ellen White said that she was strictly denominational. Here are a couple of statements that explain why we are denominational and what makes us denominational. People are very confused about this. I find people tend to think that we are just self-supporting workers, out there somewhere on the fringes. No, we are strictly denominational, friend. This is what it means to be denominational. “As I was considering this matter in the night season, it seemed as if One stood up in the midst of us and pointed us back to the Israelites as an illustration of a distinct people, denominated of God. That which made them denominational, was the observance of God’s commandments.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 19, 38, 39.

Are you keeping God’s commandments? If you are, that is what makes you denominational. That is what Ellen White says. “We are strictly denominational,” she said. Testimonies, vol. 7, 109. We still are.

This next quote is even more pointed than the first one. “When you come to the point where you decide to serve God, you are denominational.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 19, 52. Now what do you think of that? Have you decided that? Are you denominational? You are strictly denominational!

I am not claiming to be perfect. We do not claim to be the church triumphant. We do not claim that we are not making mistakes, but we have decided to serve God, have we not? We are trying to serve Him in an organized way. Then we are strictly denominational. That is what makes you denominational, she says. Then she says, “You should not link up with men who have no faith… Such men are not to have a voice in your council-meetings. Even if they were very rich, I would not bind myself to them by a single thread. I would not seek their advice in regard to the business transactions and other matters connected with the management of the institution. The time has come when we must find our bearings. We must come to our senses, and know where we are standing. We are on the very borders of the eternal world. We cannot tell what may happen next.” Ibid.

So, are we denominational? We are strictly denominational on two counts:

  1. We have decided to keep God’s commandments, and
  2. We have decided to follow the Lord. When you make that decision, Ellen White says, you are denominational. You are not somebody out there on the fringes. All the people who have made those decisions are to press together and work for harmony and unity.

Back to the Beginning

You see, we are not founded on any new denomination or any new organization. We are founded on an organization that goes back, back, back to the beginning. Here is the way Ellen White expressed it: “God has a church, and these churches [local churches] are organized on the foundation.” Testimonies to Southern Africa, 7. To what foundation do you suppose she was referring? The foundation of 1863? The foundation of 1861? The foundation of 1517? The foundation of 1901? No, no, no!

These churches are organized on what foundation? “God has a church, and these churches are organized on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.” Ibid.

So we belong to that same denomination for the very same reason that the Israelites did, because we decided to keep God’s commandments, and we have decided to follow the Lord all the way.

Now having said that, that does not mean that you will not have to organize some new churches. When you organize a new church, have you started a new denomination? Absolutely not! Was Paul starting new churches when he went all over Galatia? We do not even know how many churches they formed there. It could have been in the hundreds.

Remember, in those days they did not have automobiles. You could not travel to a church that was 20 or 30 miles away, so they organized little churches. They had many churches in the big cities. Paul told Barnabas to ordain elders in every city. Why did he have to do that? Because they had a church in every city.

Was Paul starting a new denomination when he organized these new local churches? Absolutely not. In fact, friends, we need to organize new churches and new conferences all over the world. Let us read what Ellen White said about this. This is not starting a new denomination. This is just organizing to finish God’s work, staying in the same organization.

Forming a New Conference

She says, “New conferences must be formed.” The General Conference Bulletin, April 5, 1901.

Oh, no, somebody says, that is starting a new organization! That is starting… No, it is not. Let us not be foolish. She was not talking about starting a new organization. Starting a new conference is not starting a new organization. It is not starting a new denomination. Ellen White does not contradict herself. She says starting a new organization would be apostasy from the truth. Was she telling people in the 1901 General Conference to go into apostasy against the truth by starting new conferences? Do you see, that starting a new conference and starting a new organization is not the same thing?

Is there any way, friends, that we can come to our senses and not just go contradicting ourselves and making the Spirit of Prophecy contradictory? You see, if the Spirit of Prophecy is the truth, it all has to agree with itself. Do you agree?

Ellen White says in Patriarchs and Prophets, 113, 114, that the truth is consistent with itself in all of its manifestations. If we really understand the truth, the Spirit of Prophecy will all agree. And Ellen White, while she said not to start a new organization, did say new conferences must be formed.

Oh, somebody says, that was 1901. We have all we need now.

No, we do not, friends. We need many new churches and these churches need to be organized into conferences to finish God’s work. Do you realize, that we still have billions of people to reach with the Third Angel’s Message? Are we going to be able to reach these people if we are not organized? To be organized is not starting a new organization. We are organized on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. Ellen White said, “New Conferences must be formed.” Local churches need to be established in all parts of the world.

The Message Must Go Out

When Evelyn and I were in India last year, we went out with the man we were visiting to look around. We were up in the mountains, out in the country, and there was a little village over there and another little village over there. There were not any Seventh-day Adventist churches in any of those villages.

I will tell you that when you go to a place like that, and you start looking around, you say, Lord, help us to get busy and to get organized so the work gets done. Those villages have to have the Three Angels’ Messages before Jesus can come. Do you believe that? So do not let the devil trick you.

This is the devil’s trick. The devil wants to keep God’s people from being organized so that God’s work can never be finished. That is the devil’s program. So he invents all kinds of philosophical tricks to try to make people think that if you organize to finish God’s work, then you are starting a new organization.

No, we are not! We believe and belong to the same denomination to which Adam and Eve belonged. The same one to which the disciples belonged. The same one to which Martin Luther belonged. The same one to which the Waldenses belonged. We are not starting anything new. All during all those times, God’s people were organized to do His work. We have the biggest job that anybody has had since the days of Noah.

We have the job of getting the Three Angels’ Messages to a world that is exploding in population. We are never going to do it, friends, unless we are organized. Becoming organized is not starting a new organization; it is getting back to the old principles that God taught us right in the Bible. In fact, Ellen White was so strong on this, that she said that the angels of God cannot bless His ministers if they work in an unorganized way. (See Testimonies, vol. 1, 49, 650.)

I do not want to work in a way so that angels cannot bless my work. How about you? If the angels are going to bless our work, we are going to have to be organized. That does not mean that we are going to start a new organization. We are going to start churches and organize conferences the same way that the apostle Paul did, the same way the Waldenses did, and the same way they did in the days of Ellen White.

New Testament Gospel Order

The same way! We are not starting anything new! What we are doing is exactly what you read about in the book of Acts. Is it all right to get back to New Testament gospel order? That is what we need, friends, and that is what we are going to have to do if the work is going to be finished quickly.

Sometimes, when I see the opposition to it, I say, Lord, what is going to happen? If You do not help us get organized, we are going to be in this world for another 50 or 100 years. If something does not happen so that God’s people can get organized to finish His work, we will be. But it is going to happen, and if you and I do not get involved in it, it will still happen. God will just finish His work with somebody else.

I have talked to the Lord many times about the thing that is scary to me. I have said, Lord, I do not need to be a leader, and I do not need to be known by anybody. I am not asking for any position or name or any title or anything else. But I just ask you one thing, Lord, since I see the evidence that You have decided to finish Your work in the world. Please, I know I am a sinner, and I know I need a powerful amount of grace so that I can overcome and do what is right, but Lord, please do not pass me by. I am willing to have the smallest part. I am willing to be the doorkeeper. I am willing to do whatever needs to be done. I am willing to take a lowly place and have nobody know anything about me; that is fine. But, Lord, please do not pass me by. Help me to have just a little part in Your work.

Do you want to have a part in God’s finishing work? If we are going to have a part in it, we are going to have to quit fighting New Testament Church organization and start getting organized the way the apostles were organized. They were organized, and they took the gospel to the whole world in just one generation. It can happen again. It can happen very quickly, when God’s people are ready.

Let me tell you it is already happening in some other countries, where they have almost no resources, faster than it is happening in the United States. I think that is a shame! With all the resources we have, I think we ought to be more organized than any other country in the world. But we are not. Could this be changed? Well, that is up to you and to me.

Apostasy and Revival

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The Anatomy of Apostasy

“The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.” Jeremiah 7:12.

Jeremiah was sent to speak to God’s people, and he was to speak to them in God’s house. These people came to worship God regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath.

And God said, Jeremiah, I want you to go and talk to My people. Let us see what God asked Jeremiah to tell them. “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these. For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever. Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.” Verses 3–8.

They undoubtedly had turned away from God’s Word to listen to somebody else’s word, because we know that God’s Word never lies. He is the same yesterday, today and forever, and what God says, He means. And what God means, He says, and it is truth. It is as endurable as is God. But here was a people who professed to be God’s people, but they were believing lying words.

“Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not?” (Verse 9.) Do you see how deep this apostasy has become? They professed to be worshippers of the living God, yet they were committing murder, stealing, and worshipping images.

After you have done all this, God says, “And come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.” (Verses 10, 11.)

He Watches Us, In Love

The statement, “Behold, even I have seen it”, is very interesting. Does God see everything? Oh, yes, He does. Yet, in all our weakness of humanity, we need to be constantly reminded of that fact—not that we should fear and tremble under condemnation, but so we know there is a God who is so concerned that He watches us. He is interested in us.

There was a time that I thought otherwise. I thought God wanted to watch me to see when I made a mistake. Some of us still carry that concept. In Psalm 40:5 we find that God’s thoughts toward us are a multitude that cannot be numbered. Jeremiah points out that God’s thoughts toward us are not thoughts of evil, but of expectation of the end that He wants to give us.

We see Israel just before they went into the 70-year Babylonian captivity. God is seeking to deliver His people from such captivity, and with His mercy and pity, He pleads with Israel through Jeremiah. Let us see how bad things had become. “They hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.” Jeremiah 7:24. “Yet they hearkened not unto Me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.” (Verse 26.)

Apostasy Does Not Diminish

“They did worse than their fathers.” The sad reality is that apostasy does not diminish; it grows. It is a malignancy with which man cannot deal—apart from God. If we separate ourselves from God, we are definitely headed toward apostasy, and there is no cure apart from God. They did worse than their fathers did, and the apostasy grows, not only through the years, but through the decades and the centuries, until we find ourselves today in deep darkness.

In Jeremiah 6:19, we find clearly delineated the cause of this apostasy. God is speaking: “Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto My words, nor to My Law, but rejected it.”

What had they rejected? They had rejected the words and counsel of God, and they had rejected the Law of God. Every subsequent apostasy by God’s people has followed this same anatomy. Not only as a group, but also as individuals. When we reject the Law of God, we start walking in a way that is contrary to God.

It is a marvelous and wonderful Law! It is actually the very transcript of God’s character. Paul refers to that in Romans 7:12, where he describes the Law of God as holy, just, and good. That is a description of our God, the God who created us.

He is holy. He is altogether whole. As Solomon put it, “He is altogether lovely.” Song of Solomon 5:16. He is a God of justice, and we live in a generation where justice seems to be nonexistent. We live in a very unjust, unfair world, but we serve a God Who is just and who someday will make things right.

He is a good God. Has He been good to you? He has been good to me. We bend, sometimes, to the weakness of the flesh. It is easy to look at the enormity of the injustice, unfairness, trials, temptations and trouble that comes into our lives through various sources and forget the goodness of God.

Overcoming by the Grace of God

If we would be mindful of the goodness of God in regard to those things that we take for granted, a problem that we think is a huge mountain, will become less than a mountain. It will become something that, by the grace of God, we can overcome. Let us focus on the goodness that God gives to us.

Let us look away from those things that trouble us and we may find victory a lot easier. He is mindful of our weakness. He knows us. Two thousand years ago He sent His Son into this world, and Hebrews 4 tells us that Jesus took upon Himself our flesh. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.

He knows what it means to be tired; He knows what it means to be hungry; He knows what it means to be tempted; He knows what it means to be misunderstood, and He knows what all this weakness means. Yet He overcame, and He wants to give us that victory.

The reason for the apostasy was that Israel turned away from God’s holy, just, and good Law. They found themselves in darkness. However, they did not think they were in darkness.

What are we really rejecting when we reject the Law of God?

Rejecting Knowledge

God says, through the prophet Hosea, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against Me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.” Hosea 4:6, 7.

When we walk away from God’s Law, the result is a lack of knowledge. We come into an experience where we do not have the knowledge that God wants to give us. What knowledge does the Law give, that, when we reject it, we lose? Paul clearly states in Romans 3:20, that the Law of God reveals to us our sins.

The Law of God is a revelation to us of sin. But if you and I are oblivious to what sin is, then we do not know we need a Saviour. We do not know we need One to save us from our sins. As we look out over the Christian community today, we can see that this is their experience. They have rejected the Law of God in one manner or another.

Knowing Christ’s Righteousness

God wants us to have knowledge, not only of what sin is, but a knowledge of truth. Psalm 119:142 tells us that the law of God is the truth of God. It also tells us that all of God’s “commandments are righteousness.” (Verse 172.) So, we not only see from the Law of God what sin is, but we see also what is righteousness.

God has created us as free moral agents. He has given us the ability to think, to reason, and to choose. Marvelous, indeed! Is it any wonder that the Psalmist said, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”? Psalm 139:14. God will not trespass that marvelous gift of free choice that He has given us. He honors it; even if it costs us our salvation. This was part of the price paid at Calvary. Christ died that we might have a choice of something other than sin.

Israel rejected the Law. Once they rejected the knowledge needed to understand God and themselves, what happened to their thinking? “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; they put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20. What was Israel thinking? They were thinking; I am all right. I am in the light. But God said, What you are doing is calling light darkness, and darkness light.

The ultimate result of rejecting God’s Law is confusion. It is confusion concerning what constitutes God’s righteousness, and once we are in confusion and we have no standard for righteousness, we start setting up our own standard of righteousness, even as we continue to profess to be the people of God. So it was with Israel.

Sounds Right —All Wrong

There is a very interesting statement in Scripture, which says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 14:12. It seems right; so if it seems right, it should be right. Is that right? Oh, no, that is not what God says. God says, It may look right, it may sound right, but it may be all wrong!

Have you ever come to the realization that if we are saved at last in the kingdom of God, it will not be by our own wisdom or by our own power? But it will be by our own decision!

We find that when we reject God’s Law we reject the knowledge that we need to determine what is right and what is wrong. The consequence of this rejection is confusion of mind. The ultimate result is rejection of God. “But My people would not hearken to My voice; and Israel would none of Me.” Psalm 81:11.

It is very hard to read those words once you come to know Him and know that He is everything He says He is. It is very hard to reject the individual who loves you the most. But what is harder, is to understand what this rejection means to Him. We catch glimpses of it in the life of Jesus.

Alone and Rejected

Jesus came into a world that He had created altogether good. He came unto His own, and His own rejected Him. At the end of His ministry, just prior to Calvary, we find Him on the hill of Olivet, preparing to go into Jerusalem on that triumphant entry. He paused and He wept. He wept not only for what He saw was coming to the people who had rejected Him, but, I believe, in response to their rejection of Him.

Each one of us played a part in that rejection. Each of us knows wherein, in times past, we have rejected Him. We may know some areas wherein we are rejecting Him today. But He is pitiful and merciful, and He is willing to forgive to the uttermost.

He wants us to become a reflection of His Law—holy, just and good. That is what He wants from you and from me. Is it any wonder that the psalmist says, I delight to meditate day and night upon the Law of God? (See Psalm 1:2.) Maybe there is something that we have not seen in that Law. Maybe we all need to study the Law in the light of Calvary, because that is where the Law takes on its significance. Christ thought enough of that Law to die for us. The anatomy of apostasy stands before us as a lesson of the past, but what about the present?

Let us look at Laodicea. 2,000 years ago, the prophet John, while on the Isle of Patmos, received a revelation from Gabriel and from Jesus Himself. In Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus portrays the dispensation from the beginning of the Christian Church all the way down to the very end, where we find ourselves today.

Seven Churches depict seven different periods in the Christian Church. Laodicea is what we are concerned with, because it is the one in which we find ourselves. What does God see? John takes us back to the fact that God sees everything. “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched.…” Revelation 3:15–17.

Here we find a counterpart to ancient Israel. This is the sad reality that God foresaw 2,000 years ago. There is an attitude among Laodicea which says, We are all right, when they are indeed all wrong—not only in the manner that they are walking, but also in the attitude they are taking.

A Vast Deception

The Spirit of Prophecy tells us that this message is more specifically applicable to those to whom God has entrusted the special messages which are to be given to the world for the end time. (See Review and Herald, March 10, 1904.) It is us! I am not sharing anything new. We need to become riveted in the old ways. We need to go back to the paths that were traveled by the people of God—the faithful and true, the prophets of old who walked in all the truth. That is the path that God is lifting up before His people today. A path filled with truth, but also filled with sorrow and sighing.

So Laodicea finds itself doing as did ancient Israel and suffering the same delusion. It is interesting to note that this apostasy in Laodicea has the same ultimate consequence in regard to Jesus Christ.

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.…” (Verse 20.) Notice where He is standing; He is outside; just as surely as ancient Israel put Jesus outside and would have none of Him, so Laodicea has done the same thing. The reason they have done the same, is because, like Israel, they are rejecting the Law of God while professing to uphold it.

What a vast deception! To profess something, to do something totally contrary to what you are professing, yet believe that you are doing what you are professing, is deception! It almost gets mind boggling! It is confusion! “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door.…” Ibid.

There again, God is not going to trespass your decision, your will that He has given to you. He wants you to consent. Let us open that door by which He can come in and do for us that which we cannot do for ourselves. “I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Ibid.

It is a marvelous thought that our God, the mighty God, the wonderful God, the One who is altogether lovely, not only wants to talk to us, but He wants to walk with us.

Apostasy

Paul had a tremendous burden for Israel. Paul had been caught up in apostasy for years. But one day light came, a bright and brilliant light, for that is what our God is. On the road to Damascus, Paul experienced a conversion. He came to see things in an altogether different light, and he no longer called darkness light and light darkness. He was no longer confused. He wanted to share that experience with those who were still in the apostasy. In Romans 10 he tells us his burden, but he also tells us what Israel was doing in regard to this apostasy.

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” Verses 1, 2.

Now we know what that is. We know why they do not have this knowledge. He continues in verse 3, “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” God’s righteousness is linked up with God’s Law.

So here was a people professing great things about the Law of God, but Paul comes along and says, You are totally ignorant about that law; you do not understand the righteousness of God that is found in that Law. They were adding and subtracting from God’s righteousness, which is found in His Law. That is what we do if we only have a profession of religion without the possession. If we are subtracting from what God has said, then we are adding our own opinion, our own standard, our own manuals. We are turning away from God’s manuals. Where there is subtraction there is always addition.

Tradition

Mark tells us more descriptively what Israel was doing in regard to this apostasy. Speaking concerning Israel, Jesus said, “‘Howbeit in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’” Mark 7:7.

Israel was replacing the commandments of God with the commandments of men. “‘Making the word of God of none effect.’” (Verse 13.) How did they do that? “. . . through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.” Ibid.

Jesus said that Israel was putting tradition above the word of God. We live in a dispensation of earth’s history in which the majority of professed Christianity today are doing the same thing. If we are basing our experience on the past experience of our forefathers, who may have walked contrary to some of God’s Laws, it follows that we, too, will be contrary to those Laws. This is what happened to ancient Israel and is now happening to professed Christiandom..

There was a time, and I say this sadly, when my life was full of apostasy, and I walked away from God totally and completely. And I can tell you, not only from God’s Word but also from my own experience, that God can save a person out of apostasy. Paul would tell you the same thing. Yes, you can be brought out of apostasy, whether it is in an organization or whether it is in your own heart. God help us not to be deceived into thinking that if we hold the truth, externally, in our hands that we have it in our hearts. I hope you understand that you can actually hold it in your hands and not have it in your heart.

What is the Solution?

What is the solution to apostasy, whether it is on a corporate level or whether it is in our personal lives?

What was God’s plea to Israel in the days of Jeremiah? “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16. God is calling us back to His Law. He turns us back to those truths that have been riveted upon the Rock of our salvation by His people in past generations who have chosen to walk in those paths.

God calls for us to get back on the path of truth—not merely to look at it, not merely to observe it, not merely to hear it, but to walk in it. That is the experience to which God is calling us—an experience of walking in His Law, a Law that is holy, just, and good.

Micah enlarges upon this: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Micah 6:8. This is what the whole plan of redemption entails. It is a call from our wonderful God in heaven, to walk humbly with Him!

God not only wants to talk to us, He wants to walk with us. He created us for that purpose. He has made a way by which we can walk with Him. Romans 5:8 says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Sin is transgression of the Law. While we were rejecting God’s Law, He was dying for us. Oh, we cannot comprehend it all! But what we can comprehend will be sufficient for His grace to save us. We are told that through eternal ages we will constantly be looking and reflecting upon this subject and never come to the fullness of His infinite goodness! (See Steps to Christ, 109.)

This story is an eternal story, and God wants us to be a part of telling that story through eternity. He has made a way, and it cost Him everything.

“Come Unto Me”

Jesus gives us a solution to our predicament in apostasy. He gives us two invitations. He is the One who created us. He is the only One who can re-create us into His likeness, and so, with mercy and pity in His voice, knowing the weakness of our flesh, He says, “‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’” Matthew 11:28. He will give us rest, and if there is one thing that we need, it is rest. It is the peace and confidence of knowing that we are right with Him.

We need that experience because what stands before us in the remaining time of this earth’s history is a very dark and troublesome time. God wants to give us confidence, right now, that when we walk into that trouble, we shall be at peace. He is preparing a people. He is calling a people, one by one.

Is He calling you? Is He inviting you? Oh, yes, “Come unto Me.” And then He asks us to do something more. He says, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.” (Verse 29.) We will never learn of Jesus unless we become laborers together with Him. We will never learn the burden that He carries for this world until we take the yoke. And it is interesting to find that His yoke is involved in service and it is the very Law of God, because the Law of God is a manifestation of God’s divine love. It is a love that is constantly being revealed in heaven, as we minister unto one another of the love of God. This, and only this, will banish apostasy from the midst of our churches and from the midst of our hearts.

That is what the Law of God does in our hearts. That is why Paul could say, in Romans 13:10, that love is the fulfilling of the Law. We now know how God is able to solve the apostasy problem, but when will this happen?

“For He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:2. God has called us. He continues to call us, because He continues to love us.

Brothers and sisters, God tells us that we do not have to wait another year or another month. No, we need not wait even another day to receive the solution to the apostasy that may be found in some of our hearts as a result of compromising God’s Laws. He tells us that the “acceptable time” (See Isaiah 49:8.) is now. He tells us that He “is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (See 2 Peter 3:9.) We can choose today, right now, to turn from compromise to commitment, from darkness to light, from apostasy to “walking humbly with thy God.” (See Micah 6:8.) He invites us today to “come now, and let us reason together…though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18. May we determine to receive the invitation and allow Him to make us bright and shining lights in these last days of earth’s apostasy.

The Church – Part II

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When we left off our study last month, we determined that it was easy to say that we love God with our lips, but we also discovered that if we do not keep His commandments, if we teach that it is impossible to keep His commandments, then we have nullified the Bible definition of love. The apostle John says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3.

Something is Amiss

When we hold a teaching which teaches that Jesus came with a nature different to ours, which implies that He did not, in our fallen humanity, overcome sin, it implies that we, in our “fallen humanity,” cannot overcome sin and will sin until Jesus comes. We cannot then claim to be the people who “love God and keep His commandments.” Only those who are born of God overcome the world, and what does it mean to overcome the world?

What is “the world”? What is the “love of the world”? What is the “carnal mind” that is “enmity against God”? The “carnal mind” cannot keep His commandments. A man has to be born again. (See John 3:3, 7.) “Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus”, is what has to happen. (See Philippians 2:5.) The divine seed has to be planted. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds.” (See Romans 12:2.) “Grieve not the Holy Spirit” Who is that progenitor that does that work for God’s people. “Grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (See Ephesians 4:30.) In the quotation from Upward Look, 315, quoting from Matthew 18:20, the inspired pen writes, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Now that portion of Jesus’ statement, which says two or three and the gathering together, is altogether so plain as to defy elaboration.

But what is the meaning of gathering together “in Jesus’ name”? Because this statement says that where two or three are gathered together “in My name”, there I will be in the midst of them. So what does it mean to gather together in Jesus’ name? In Matthew 1:21 we read what the angel said to Mary when he instructed her what Jesus’ name was going to be.

Gathered Together in His Name

The angel said, “And thou shalt call His name JESUS [which means Jehovah saves]: for He shall save His people in their sins.” Is that what the Bible says? It says, “He shall save His people from their sins.” [Emphasis supplied.] Brothers and sisters, can we gather together in Jesus’ name if we gather together believing we are going to be saved in our sins? So to gather together in Jesus’ name is to come believing in Him to do what His name says, namely to save men and women from their sins.

Furthermore, to gather together in Jesus’ name is also to believe that He is fully God, because the other reference that we have in Scripture to Jesus’ name is found in Isaiah 9:6: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

To gather together “in His name”, as Jesus meant it, is to believe that He took our flesh and became human as we are in our fallen condition, because the Scriptures say, “For unto us a child is born.” Not unto Adam before the fall, but unto us a child is born and unto us a Son is given—not loaned. The Son of God became the Son of man, and that is how He reaches you and me where we are.

To come together in Jesus’ name means to believe this beautiful foundational truth about Jesus and His mission, as expressed in His divinely appointed name. Anyone not coming together with the simple faith in Jesus to save them from sin, but wanting to be saved in sin, will not find Him in their midst.

The initial lie that was given in Eden was, “Thou shalt not surely die.” You can live in sin; you will not die. That was the initial lie. Today, it is perpetuated in a slightly deviant form. Now the quotation from Upward Look, 315, supplies the final and absolutely definitive statement on God’s church. “Where Christ is even among the humble few, this is Christ’s Church.” Brothers and sisters, principle, Bible-based principle, is always the dividing line. We have to make sure that, when we come together, we come together “in His name”, that we, by His grace and His mercy and His love, can have Him in our midst, because the next statement says it all.

Only God’s Presence Makes a Church

“For the presence of the High and Holy One Who inhabiteth eternity can alone constitute a church.” Ibid. If the presence of Christ can alone constitute a church, how do we argue against an attack or a form of argument that is brought forth by antichrist himself in order to prove that he is not the antichrist? 1 John 4:1–3 is used by Rome to show that Protestantism is wrong in pointing out Rome as the antichrist.

Let us look at those verses. They say, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”

Does the Church of Rome teach that Jesus Christ came in the flesh? Yes, the Church of Rome teaches that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Just as we looked at those verses in Matthew 16 at the beginning of our study to show that a corrupt understanding of those verses is the foundation of the apostolic succession, they now use these texts to prove that they are not the antichrist.

This is one of those instances in Scripture where it helps to understand a little of the Koine Greek in which the New Testament was written. You see, it says, “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the sarx.”

The Spirit of God vs the Spirit of Antichrist

Now that Greek word, sarx, is a very interesting word, because it occurs many times in the New Testament in the Greek. On almost every other occasion it is translated “sinful flesh.” The moment you have that understanding of this text, everything falls into place, because every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in our fallen humanity is the spirit of antichrist.

Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in our humanity, that He adopted our humanity, that He took on Himself the “seed of Abraham” and was made in all points like unto His brethren—that is the spirit of God. Immediately it all becomes clear. But this definition of antichrist suddenly cuts sharper than any two-edged sword, much broader, much wider and much deeper than just the Papacy, because it speaks about the “spirit” of antichrist.

We know that antichrist sits in the throne of the dragon having his seat or authority and power. But the “spirit” of antichrist is abroad in the world and it is constantly set to deceive. “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.” 2 John 7. Once again the word is “sarx”, which denotes fallen humanity, sinful flesh.

Brothers and sisters, does the Lord do anything in harmony with Satan? No. How then is it that men and women can believe that they can harbor the teachings of antichrist and still expect the Lord to be in their midst? Remember, the presence of Christ alone constitutes a church.

Therefore, if things show that we work in harmony with Him, we cannot use or employ any of the methods or any of the deceptions of the antichrist and expect the Lord to be in our midst. You know, a very interesting thing took place when Christ was here on earth. Recorded in Matthew 23, are the woes on the Scribes and the Pharisees. In verse 37 we read Jesus’ heart-rending lament. He said, “‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.’”

Those last words are so significant in terms of what we have just been reading. When Jesus said, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate,” what happened to that house that day? In terms of what we have just been studying? In terms of what we read in Upward Look? [Remember, the presence of Christ alone constitutes the church.] He left. It ceased to be a church.

The Separation Struggle

Sister White, commenting on this particular event, says, “Divine pity marked the countenance of the Son of God as He cast one last lingering look upon the temple and then upon His hearers. In a voice choked by deep anguish of heart and bitter tears He exclaimed, ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!’ This is the separation struggle. In the lamentation of Christ the very heart of God is pouring itself forth. It is the mysterious farewell of the long-suffering love of the Deity. . . . Israel as a nation had divorced herself from God. . . . At this time Christ’s work bore the appearance of cruel defeat. He had been victor in the controversy with the priests and Pharisees, but it was evident that He would never be received by them as the Messiah.” The Desire of Ages, 620, 621.

The final separation had come. Was this the close of probation for the Jewish people? No, but something climactic, something fundamental, something far reaching, took place here. These people divorced themselves from their Messiah. Is it possible that the people of God in the last days can do the same thing? The pen of inspiration tells us that it is possible.

The Scribes and Pharisees strengthened themselves with these words from the book of Jeremiah: “Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is His name: If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever. Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.” Jeremiah 31:35–37.

And in the same chapter, verse 40, the Lord said, speaking of Jerusalem, “It shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever.” Those people gathered together and comforted themselves with these words and told themselves that they were secure. Now God had told the Jews that as long as the sun and moon and stars remained in the sky, Israel would remain as His chosen nation. He promised that just as surely as no one could measure the heaven or even examine the foundations of the earth, He would never cast off Israel as His chosen people.

But now look at Jeremiah 18:9, 10. Here the Lord is giving the foundational principle upon which that statement we just read has to be regarded. “And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in My sight, that it obey not My voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.”

God’s Promises are Always Conditional

Any promise that God ever makes to an individual or a people concerning their relationship to Him and their future is always conditional on their response to His declared word. Moses had already spelled it out very clearly for the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 28:1, 2: “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all the nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.”

And in Deuteronomy 28:9, 13, 15 and 20, he said, “The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto Himself, as He hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in His ways.…And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:…But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:…The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken Me.”

“Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded thee.” (Verse 45.) Moses clearly warned Israel that they faced the possibility of total destruction if they became stubbornly disobedient to God’s will and way.

Mrs. White simply reiterates all these conditions that we have just read in Scripture: “It should be remembered that the promises and threatenings of God are alike conditional.” Evangelism, 695. As God’s people, as God’s children we are never to rest in a sense of security simply because of where we are. Our only security is being under the headship of Christ.

Retreating Toward Egypt

The following statement can only tug at the heart-strings of the Seventh-day Adventist. “I am filled with sadness when I think of our condition as a people. The Lord has not closed heaven to us, but our own course of continual backsliding has separated us from God.…And yet the general opinion is that the church is flourishing and that peace and spiritual prosperity are in all her borders. The church has turned back from following Christ her Leader and is steadily retreating toward Egypt.” [A state of sinful living.] Testimonies, vol. 5, 217.

Now, brothers and sisters, that admonition probably was given at a particular time in the history of our denomination. However, if that was happening then, can we say that it is not happening now? Or is it perhaps true, as Scripture has told us, that as time goes by, evil will wax worse and worse? (See 2 Timothy 3:13.)

Forsaking Our God

You remember that 1888 was the year when God sent a special message to His people, and truly, we have been tentatively touching on that message. The doctrine of righteousness by faith was given at the Minneapolis Conference of 1888. But in the Review and Herald of July 24, 1888, the pen of inspiration penned these words, and they were words of sadness:

“Some power has cut the cable,…[we] are drifting away to sea, without chart or compass.” And in Testimonies, vol. 5, 75, 76, she says, “You are following the same path as did ancient Israel.…Your neglect to follow the light will place you in a more unfavorable position than the Jews upon whom Christ pronounced a woe.”

These words are not meant to tear God’s people down. They are meant to wake God’s people up to a knowledge of the true situation which confronts them. Why does the Lord do that? It sounds discouraging. We want to hear “love and unity,” and we are to “unify,” but the Lord tells us “not to unify on a platform of error.” These words were not penned for our pleasure to tear and to strike at each other. These words were intended to rend our hearts.

“Unless the church, which is now being leavened with her own backsliding, shall repent and be converted, she will eat of the fruit of her own doing, until she shall abhor herself.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 250. God’s messenger wrote a letter, preceding the 1888 Minneapolis meeting, to Elders Butler and Haskell. You will find a transcript of this letter in Manuscript Releases, vol. 12, 320–322.

Internal Corruption Brings God’s Denunciations

In part it says, “Oh, what privileges are granted to us as a people! And if God spared not His people that He loved, because they refused to walk in the light, how can He spare the people whom He has blessed with the light of heaven in having opened to them the most exalted truth ever entrusted to mortal man to give to the world?…Internal corruption will bring the denunciations of God upon this people as it did upon Jerusalem. [As we read in Matthew 23.] . . . My brethren, we know not what is before us.…God will work with us and for us if the sins which brought His wrath upon the old world, upon Sodom and Gomorrah and upon ancient Jerusalem, do not become our crime.”

“Jerusalem is a representation of what the church will be if it refuses to walk in the light that God has given.…These are no idle tales, but truth.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 67, 68. “If we imitate their [Israel’s] example of transgression and depart from God we shall fall as surely as did they.” Ibid., vol. 1, 609.

By the way, how do we exalt God’s power? To exalt His power is to believe, to teach and to live that truth. To deny that truth is to have the form of godliness but denying the power thereof. Do you know what it says in 2 Timothy 3:5 where that verse is recorded? It says, Those who have the “form of godliness, but deny the power thereof, from such turn away.”

“Let a church become proud and boastful, not depending on God, not exalting His power, and that church will surely be left by the Lord, to be brought down to the ground. Let a people glory in wealth, intellect, knowledge, or in anything but Christ, and they will soon be brought to confusion.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 127. These are sobering statements, brothers and sisters. Jesus said He is the way, the truth and the life. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and the Finisher of the faith of God’s people.

Return to the Doctrine of Truth

By His grace let us determine every day that we will have our feet planted firmly on that doctrine of truth which He established as the Rock upon which He would build His church, the church against which the gates of hell will not prevail. Namely that He came to this earth, accepting our human nature, and in the flesh condemned sin that He might be able to succor them, that is you and me, who are also tempted.

We have to return to the doctrine of truth that is the foundation for us as a people. We cannot flirt with the doctrines of antichrist, because those doctrines will surely separate God’s people from the Saviour. We must ever remember that the presence of Christ alone can constitute the church. We have to remain closely united to that body of believers which has Jesus as its head—the humble few who love God and keep His commandments, not the vast majority who say they love God and teach that you cannot keep His commandments.

Let us determine to have Jesus as our Head, today, tomorrow and forever more, to be born again of the Spirit, to be led into all truth, as Jesus promised the Spirit would do.

Weddings, Baptisms and Tithe

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Weddings are momentous occasions. They are fraught with serious and far-reaching consequences. There is, of course, much happiness and joyful celebration, but along with this there is some serious business going on. Some very solemn vows are being exchanged. A man is solemnly promising to love, honor, cherish, and be faithful to a woman, and the woman, in return, is solemnly promising to love, honor, cherish and be faithful to the man.

Please notice that the wedding vows are mutual, two-way, reciprocal vows. They are not individual, isolated, personal vows. They are fulfilled in a life of mutual, faithful continuance by both parties. As long as both parties remember their mutual vows and honor them and remain faithful to them, all will go well.

The Bride Forgets Her Promise

But what if the bride forgets her promise and violates her wedding vow by entering into illicit relationships with other men? Does she still have the right to require her husband to be true to his wedding vow? Does he have to support her in her adulteries? “That would be ridiculous,” you say. “In that tragic circumstance, the husband would be free to do whatever he thought best, within the law.” You are right. The woman, by her violation of her wedding vow, has ended her husband’s obligations to her. They no longer exist.

Exchanging Vows

Baptisms are also momentous occasions. They are, like weddings, fraught with serious and far-reaching, even eternal, results and consequences. They are occasions of great joy and happiness, but along with these things there is some serious business going on. Solemn vows are being exchanged. A baptismal candidate and a church are exchanging vows. The church is promising to keep on telling the truth about God. The candidate is promising to keep on giving financial support to that truth-telling by his tithes and offerings.

These baptismal vows, like the wedding vows, are mutual, two-way, reciprocal vows. They are not isolated, individual, personal vows. They are fulfilled in a life of mutual, faithful continuance by both parties. As long as both the church and the church member remember their respective vows and honor them, all will be well.

But what if the church forgets her promise and violates her baptismal vow by entering into illicit relationships with other churches, accepting some of their false doctrines, and so inter-mingling those false doctrines with her message that it can no longer be said that she is telling the truth about God? Does she still have a right to require the member to support her with his tithes and offerings? Does he have to pay for her adulteries? This would be ridiculous. By her spiritual adultery she has canceled out all such obligations. They no longer exist. The member is free to do what he thinks best with his tithe, within the limits of Scriptural instructions about the proper use of tithe.

The Heart of the Matter

This is the heart of the tithe question. This is the central issue upon which all other tithe issues depend. It can be expressed in the simple question, “Does God require us to pay for the preaching of false doctrines?” The only right answer would have to be “No. That would be utterly ridiculous.” Apostasy has no rights and no authority, either to tell us what to do or to collect tithes and offerings from us.

False Doctrines That
Have Crept In

We pause to mention some of the false doctrines that are being taught in many Seventh-day Adventist churches and educational institutions today. The list would include, but not be limited to:

  • Rejection of our Sanctuary message
  • Rejection of the Spirit of Prophecy
  • Rejection of the authority of Scripture
  • A false doctrine of Justification. That we are saved by justification (forgiveness) only.
  • A false doctrine of Sanctification. That Christians cannot stop sinning, even by the power of God. Ellen White testified against this false doctrine more than 2,000 times.
  • A false doctrine of the nature of Christ. That Christ came to earth in the human nature of unfallen Adam. Ellen White bore testimony against this false doctrine 400 times.
  • Celebration (Satanic) worship services

And so we ask again, does the church yet have a right to require our financial support for the teaching of these false doctrines? The very idea is preposterous! Some may wish to argue that the church is not teaching all false doctrines but only a few. This is like arguing that the unfaithful bride is not having illicit relationships with all other men but only a few. Does this make sense? Surely not!

The Bottom Line

This is the bottom line, the bedrock principle upon which all other tithe matters must rest, and according to which all tithe questions must be answered. We must keep it in mind as we look at some of the peripheral questions.

Did not Ellen White write that the church is the only treasury of the Lord? No, she did not! In the year 1905, she wrote a letter to an Elder Watson, who was then president of the Colorado conference. In this letter she made three significant statements.

  1. She stated that for years she had been sending her tithe to places of her own choosing.
  2. She spoke of other persons, whom she knew, who were doing the same thing, and recommended that they be left alone. Here are her words: “If there have been cases where our sisters have appropriated their tithe to the support of the ministers working for the colored people in the South, let every man, if he is wise, hold his peace.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 2, 99.
  3. She stated clearly, “the money is not withheld from the Lord’s treasury.” Ibid. How could she make that statement if the church is the only treasury of the Lord? Obviously she could not.

A Position Apart from God

Another insight into Ellen White’s thinking regarding financial matters is provided by P. T. Magan, who with E. A. Sutherland, was a co-founder of Madison College in Tennessee. From Magan’s copious diaries we excerpt a few lines:

“May 7, 1907: Talked with Sister White regarding attitude of General Conference toward us . . . Told Sister White about the administration view that we had no right to go and get money unless we were owned by the conference. She replied: ‘You are doing double what they are. Take all the donations you can get. The money belongs to the Lord, and not to these men. The position they take is not of God. The Southern Union Conference is not to own or control you. You cannot turn things over to them.’

“May 14, 1907: Talked to (Ellen White) about the General Conference position that concerns non-conference owned should have no money. She answered: ‘Daniells and those with him are taking a position on this matter that is not of God.’”

A Statement of Understanding

Other careful investigators have gone before us in examining Ellen White’s teachings on the subject of tithe. Document WDF 213, in the White Estate Office in Loma Linda, is a record of an investigation made by W. C. White, A. G. Daniells, and W. W. Prescott in answer to an accusation that Ellen White sometimes violated her own counsel by sending her tithe to places of her own choosing. Paragraph six on page two of the document is a clear statement of how these leading brethren understood the totality of Ellen White’s teachings and example regarding the payment of tithe.

“As to the proper use of the tithe: The outline of a statement on this subject which was agreed upon was briefly this:

“To give extracts from Sister White’s writings as to the tithe and its use;

“To show that her testimonies and her own usual practise [sic] was in favor of paying the tithe into the regularly designated treasury, to be used under the counsel of the committees appointed for that purpose,

“To show further from her writings that when those who have charge of the expenditure of the tithe so far fail in the discharge of their duty that the regularly organized channels for the distribution of tithe become hindrances to its proper use,

“Then in order to carry out the divine plan that the tithe should be expended in the wisest manner for the furtherance of the work, individuals have a right to pay their tithe direct to the needy fields;

“But that this involves a considerable degree of personal responsibility, which must be assumed by those who decide to follow this plan.

“It was thought that this matter could be handled in a way to show that the departure from the regular plans was authorized only when the regular plans failed to be carried out by those in positions of responsibility.” [Sentence division and emphasis supplied.]

We must recognize that these men would have been appalled by the false doctrines being taught in so many of our churches today. They would have been horrified by the spectacle of huge amounts of tithe being paid to non-Adventist lawyers to sue, fine, and imprison persons, who thought of themselves as Seventh-day Adventists, for using that name. The principle that they set forth would certainly apply to our time. We need not wonder where they would send their tithe.

Using Your Own Judgment

Another question: Did not Ellen White say that persons should not use their own judgment in regard to tithe? Here are her words:

“The portion that God has reserved for Himself is not to be diverted to any other purpose than that which He has specified. Let none feel at liberty to retain their tithe, to use according to their own judgment. They are not to use it for themselves in an emergency, nor to apply it as they see fit, even in what they may regard as the Lord’s work.” Testimonies, vol. 9, 247. [Emphasis supplied.]

What Ellen White meant by the words “what they may regard as the Lord’s work” is made clear in the following pages by these lines:

“One reasons that the tithe may be applied to school purposes. Still others reason that canvassers and colporteurs should be supported from the tithe. But a great mistake is made when tithe is drawn from the object for which it is to be used,—the support of the ministers.” Ibid., 248, 249. [Emphasis supplied.]

In Counsels on Stewardship, page 103, she also rejects the idea of using tithe for the poor fund or for church expense.

Persistently Preaching the Devil’s Lies

Ellen White did not contradict herself, either in what she wrote or what she did. Her words here are in full harmony with her letter to Watson (quoted previously) and her own practice. Her own power of choice, like every other person’s power of choice, was limited by the Scriptural guidelines. Well may we rejoice in the steadfast integrity of the counsels brought to us by the chosen messenger of the Lord. And though our hearts are grieved by the rising tide of apostasy in our beloved church today, we may take comfort in the knowledge that our Lord is not surprised by it. He knew all about it, and He gave us ample forewarning. Let us carefully and prayerfully consider our duty in the light of these realities.

It cannot be denied that there are pastors in Seventh-day Adventist churches, teachers in Seventh-day Adventist educational institutions, and persons at all levels of church administration who are persistently presenting as truth the devil’s great lie, that Christians cannot stop sinning, even by the power of God. Ellen White has identified this assertion no less than 35 times as a lie that originated in the heart of Satan. The strongest of her statements is this:

“Satan declared that it was impossible for the sons and daughters of Adam to keep the Law of God, and thus charged upon God a lack of wisdom and love. If they could not keep the Law, then there was fault with the Lawgiver. Men who are under the control of Satan repeat these accusations against God, in asserting that men cannot keep the Law of God. Jesus humbled Himself, clothing His divinity with humanity, in order that He might stand as the head and representative of the human family, and by both precept and example condemn sin in the flesh, and give the lie to Satan’s charges. He was subjected to the fiercest temptations that human nature can know, yet He sinned not; for sin is the transgression of the Law. By faith He laid hold upon divinity, even as humanity may lay hold upon infinite power through Him.” Signs of the Times, January 16, 1896. [Emphasis supplied.]

Apostasy Has No Authority

Apostasy has no authority! In these dreadful times we must be faithful to our Lord, and follow our leaders only as far as they follow the Lord. We must not support apostasy with our tithes and offerings. There are some who are trying to be faithful in word and deed. Let us give our support to them, carefully complying with every instruction that we find in the Bible and in the Spirit of Prophecy. Then we may claim the blessing of the Lord. Settle it in your mind forever, dear friend. The storehouse of tithe must be the storehouse of truth. There is absolutely no way that a storehouse of falsehoods could be the treasury of the Lord, the storehouse of tithe. May God bless you.

A Time to Weep

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“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose. . .
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up. . .
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.…” –Ecclesiastes 3:1–4

Have you been troubled and confused over the Bible verses about dancing? What do these verses mean? Many are using these verses to bring in celebration. Do you understand these verses? Can you give a reason for your faith?

The first point we need to understand, in this study, is that the type of dancing we have today and the type of dancing in Bible times do not compare at all. Look at what Ellen White says in Adventist Home, 517: “David’s dancing in reverent joy before God has been cited by pleasure lovers in justification of the fashionable modern dance, but there is no ground for such an argument.…The music and dancing in joyful praise to God at the removal of the ark had not the faintest resemblance to the dissipation of modern dancing. The one tended to the remembrance of God and exalted His holy name. The other is a device of Satan to cause men to forget God and to dishonor Him.”

Now, laying aside that the style of dancing today is not what is represented in the Bible, we will go forward to look at the time and place of dancing in the Bible.

A Time to Dance—After a Day of Victory

In Exodus 15, Miriam sang and danced to the Lord after the destruction of the wicked. In Judges 11, Jephthah’s daughter sang and danced after the Lord delivered them in battle. In 1 Samuel 21:11, the people sang and danced, “saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?” In these verses the time for dancing is clearly after a day of deliverance or victory. We can conclude that dancing is symbolic of the joy of the redeemed after salvation and deliverance.

Dancing— After the Destruction of the Wicked

“As the Hebrews witnessed the marvelous work of God in the destruction of the Egyptians, they united in an inspired song of lofty eloquence, and grateful praise. Miriam, the sister of Moses, a prophetess, led the women in music.” Spiritual Gifts, vol. 3, 236. “And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, ‘Sing ye to the LORD, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.’” Exodus 15:20–21.

David’s Dancing a Song of Deliverance

“And David gathered all Israel together to Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the LORD unto His place, which He had prepared for it.…Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, making a noise with psalteries and harps. And it came to pass, as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looking out at a window saw King David dancing and playing: and she despised him in her heart.” 1 Chronicles 15:3, 28, 29.

Victory—After Destruction of the Enemy

“So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands. And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.” Judges 11:32–34.

“And the servants of Achish said unto him, ‘Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?’” 1 Samuel 21:11. “Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?” 1 Samuel 29:5.

A Time to Mourn Day of Atonement

In the timeline of the Sanctuary, the Day of Atonement was a day to mourn, a day to sigh and cry.

“…on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.” Leviticus 16:30, 31.

“It shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls.” Leviticus 23:27.

In What Day Do We Live?

“Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.” James 4:8, 9.

“…pine away for your iniquities, and mourn.…” Ezekiel 24:23.

“…they…shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.” Ezekiel 7:16.

“We are now living in the solemn period of the antitypical Day of Atonement. In the type, the sins of the people were, on the atonement day, to be called to mind and repented of. It was a time of humiliation and affliction of soul.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 5, 5.

This tells us it is time to sigh and cry, the time to mourn, not dance.

Is This a Day to Celebrate?

Ezekiel 9:4–6 tells us those who sigh and cry are sealed for salvation and those who are not sighing and crying are slaughtered with the sword.

Does This Sound Like a Day to Celebrate?

“Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished: It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth?…Cry and howl, son of man…terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon My people: smite therefore upon thy thigh.” Ezekiel 21:9–12. “Son of man…prophesy against the land of Israel, And say…Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.…Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.” Ezekiel 21:2–6.

Celebrate Now— Mourn Later— at the Wrath of God

“In that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: And behold joy and gladness.…” Isaiah 22:12, 13.

“Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.” Luke 6:25.

“And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that…I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head.…Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.…” “The Lord GOD of hosts is He that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn.…” Amos 8:9–11; 9:5.

“The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musik. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head…Thou hast utterly rejected us; Thou art very wroth against us.” Lamentations 5:14–16, 22.

Mourn and Cry in Repentance

“We are now living in the solemn period of the antitypical Day of Atonement. In the type, the sins of the people were, on the atonement day, to be called to mind and repented of. It was a time of humiliation and affliction of soul.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 5, 5.

Mourn That God’s Wrath May Be Turned Away

“Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will repent Him of the evil that He hath pronounced against you.” Jeremiah 26:13.

“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness.…” “Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil.…Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Gather the people, sanctify the congregation.…Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, ‘Spare Thy people, O LORD, and give not Thine heritage to reproach.…’”
Joel 2:1, 2, 12–17.

“Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD.” Joel 1:13, 14.

Go Not to the House of Feasting—Celebration

“Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink. For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.” Jeremiah 16:8, 9.

“It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting.…Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” Ecclesiastes 7:2–4.

A Time to Celebrate

In the Sanctuary service, the Feast of Tabernacles comes after the Day of Atonement. A time of sighing and crying comes first, then comes the day of celebration.

Celebration Comes After We Are in Heaven

“The feast of tabernacles was the great holiday of the nation. This feast was preceded by a day of atonement…when every one was to afflict his soul by confessing his sins.…This humiliation was to prepare the way for the celebration of the feast of tabernacles.” Review and Herald, July 7, 1896. “The Feast of Tabernacles…celebrated the ingathering of the fruits of the earth, and pointed forward to the great day of final ingathering.…The people of Israel praised God at the Feast of Tabernacles, as they called to mind His mercy in their deliverance.…They rejoiced also in the consciousness of pardon and acceptance, through the service of the day of atonement, just ended.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 541, 542.

In Heaven Our Mourning is Turned to Joy—Dancing

The Bible tells us God’s people will first mourn, then He will deliver His people and turn their mourning into joy. It is in heaven that we will celebrate. It is in heaven that we will experience the joy the Bible dance represents.

“Behold, I will…gather them from the coasts of the earth,…a great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble.…Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion,…and they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.” Jeremiah 31:8, 9, 12, 13.

“Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.” Psalms 30:11. “Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” Isaiah 51:11.

A Time to Dance

In Psalms 149 and 150, David talks about dancing in the sanctuary. Many are using these verses as proof to bring dancing into the church services. What do these verses mean? Can you give a reason for your faith? We have already clarified that dancing in the Bible is much different than the dancing we have today. Dancing in the Bible represents the joy of the redeemed in the day of their salvation. Now we will look at the time and place of David’s dancing in the Psalms.

“Sing unto the Lord a new song.” Psalm 149:1. Does the Bible give us a time and place to sing “a new song“? We are told the 144,000 sing “a new song,” the song of Moses.

“Upon the crystal sea before the throne…are gathered the company that have ‘gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image’…And they sing ‘a new song’ before the throne, a song which no man can learn save the hundred and forty and four thousand. It is the song of Moses and the Lamb,—a song of deliverance.” The Great Controversy, 648, 649.

This song is sung in heaven, after the great day of deliverance and victory. Now we can understand David’s song of dancing in Psalms 149 and 150. The “new song” that David is talking about is after the great day of victory, the great day of judgment upon the wicked.

Song of Moses—Heaven’s Victory Song

“O sing unto the LORD a new song; for He hath done marvellous things: His right hand, and His holy arm, hath gotten Him the victory. The LORD hath made known His salvation: His righteousness hath He openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.…Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.” Psalms 98:1, 2, 4.

“Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and His praise in the congregation of saints. Let Israel rejoice in Him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise His name in the dance: let them sing praises unto Him with the timbrel and harp. For the LORD taketh pleasure in His people: He will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all His saints. Praise ye the LORD.” Psalm 149.

“Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in His sanctuary: praise Him in the firmament of His power. Praise Him for His mighty acts: praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet: praise Him with the psaltery and harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance: praise Him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise Him upon the loud cymbals: praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.” Psalm 150.

In this last chapter of Psalms, David sings praises to God for the final destruction of the wicked. The dance here does not apply to the Day of Atonement. The time and place here is when the wicked are destroyed. Do not let anyone fool you into thinking we are in the day of Celebration.

A Time to Clap Your Hands

Is the clapping of hands to be a part of worship? The Bible speaks of God’s people clapping their hands. Are these verses literal, or are they also symbolic of the joy of the redeemed? Isaiah 55:12 says, “For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”

“The psalmist calls upon the trees to praise the Lord; and the prophet Isaiah declares that all the trees of the field shall clap their hands in that day when the word of the Lord shall have accomplished its work of salvation among men.” Signs of the Times, February 2, 1882.

This clearly shows that the clapping of hands is symbolic of joy, the joy of the redeemed in the day of their salvation. Just like the verses about dancing, this shows the time and place is clearly after the day of victory and deliverance.

“O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the LORD most high is terrible; He is a great King over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance for us…God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King.…” “Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.” Psalms 47:1–6; 48:11.

Lift Your Hands to the Lord

Are we to lift our hands and sway our bodies in song to praise the Lord? What does the Bible say is the time and place to lift our hands?

“Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” Psalm 141:2.

“The LORD is good unto them that…quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence.…Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.” Lamentations 3:25, 26, 28, 40, 41.

These verses are about prayer, not about singing with your hands up in the air.

“And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God, And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to Thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head.…” Ezra 9:5, 6.

“And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.” Nehemiah 8:6.

Based on this verse, if you want to follow the Biblical lifting of hands you must do it on your knees with your face to the ground.

“Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD, in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven.”

“And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying…he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.” 1 Kings 8:22, 54.

Praise the Lord, that, from His Word, we can find the answer!

Dancing Fanaticism—A False Spirit

“I am telling you these experiences, in order that you may know what we have passed through.…
Some fanatics after 1844 would dance up and down, singing, ‘Glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory.’ Sometimes I would sit still until they got through, and then I would rise and say, ‘This is not the way the Lord works. He does not make impressions in this way. We must direct the minds of the people to the Word as the foundation of our faith.’

“I was but a mere child at that time, and yet I had to bear my testimony repeatedly against these strange workings. And ever since that time I have sought to be very, very careful lest something of this sort should come in again among our people. Any manifestation of fanaticism takes the mind away from the evidence of truth—the Word itself.

“You might take a consistent course, but those who would be influenced by you might take a very inconsistent course, and, as a result, we should very soon have our hands full of something that would make it almost impossible to give unbelievers the right impression of our message and work. We must go to the people with the solid Word of God; and when they receive that Word, the Holy Spirit may come, but it always comes, as I have stated before, in a way that commends itself to the judgment [reasoning, not emotions] of the people. In our speaking, our singing, and in all our spiritual exercises, we are to reveal that calmness and dignity and godly fear that actuates every true child of God.

“There is constant danger of allowing something to come into our midst that we may regard as the workings of the Holy Spirit, but that in reality is the fruit of a spirit of fanaticism. So long as we allow the enemy of truth to lead us into a wrong way, we cannot hope to reach the honest in heart with the Third Angel’s Message. We are to be sanctified through obedience to the truth. I am afraid of anything that would have a tendency to turn the mind away from the solid evidences of the truth as revealed in God’s Word. I am afraid of it; I am afraid of it. We must bring our minds within the bounds of reason, lest the enemy so come in as to set everything in a disorderly way. There are persons of an excitable temperament who are easily led into fanaticism; and should we allow anything to come into our churches that would lead such persons into error, we would soon see these errors carried to extreme lengths, and then because of the course of these disorderly elements, a stigma would rest upon the whole body of Seventh-day Adventists.

“I have been studying how to get some of these early experiences into print again, so that more of our people may be informed, for I have long known that fanaticism will be manifest again, in different ways. We are to strengthen our position by dwelling on the Word, and by avoiding all oddities and strange exercisings that some would be very quick to catch up and practice.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 42–44.

“Ellen White recounts early experiences. . . . She told incident after incident connected with her early labors shortly after the passing of the time in 1844.…As Sister White continued, she told of some who had strange exercisings of the body and of others who were governed largely by their own impressions. Some thought it wrong to work. Still others believed that the righteous dead had been raised to eternal life. A few sought to cultivate a spirit of humility by creeping on the floor, like little children. Some would dance, and sing ‘glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory,’ over and over again. Sometimes a person would jump up and down on the floor, with hands uplifted, praising God; and this would be kept up for as long as half an hour at a time. Among those who took part in these extraordinary forms of fanaticism were some who had once been faithful, god-fearing brethren and sisters. The strange exercisings of body and mind were carried to such lengths that in a few places the officers of the law felt compelled to restrain them by casting them into prison. The cause of God was thus brought into disrepute and it took years to outlive the influence that these exhibitions of fanaticism had upon the general public.” Ibid., Book 3, 370, 371.

“Those things which have been in the past will be in the future. Satan will make music a snare by the way in which it is conducted.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 38.

[All emphasis added.]

Who Can Contain God? When Probation Closes for the Church

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Two Camps of Belief?

It has been stated that there are two camps of belief among historic Seventh-day Adventists today.

The first group calls the church Babylon, because of the terrible apostasy within its ranks, and calls people to separate from it and remove their membership.

The second group recognizes the apostasy in the conference church, but believes that it is still God’s” one and only true church“, and that it is not Babylon until it teaches the immortality of the soul and Sunday worship. They believe the structured church will be rejuvenated by faithful preachers, and that the Latter Rain will fall only upon those in the structured church who have been sighing and crying at the abominations done therein.

There is a Third Group

In reality, the largest group of all has been excluded. In essence, it is very similar to the second group. This group also recognizes the ever-expanding evil in the church, but it does not call the church Babylon nor tell people to remove their membership, despite some of these dear folks being disfellowshipped for exposing error and standing for truth. However, this group does not believe that God’s Latter Rain will be restricted to the faithful few in the conference structure. They believe that God can work with whomever He sees fit, both in the structure, and out of the structure. They believe that God did not give any unconditional promises. The Jewish structure of old was never given an unconditional promise by God, whereby it could do as it pleased.

This is clearly seen by the fact that Christ raised up an independent church from among the common people before probation had expired on the structured conference church in Jerusalem. (See Acts 2.) He did not, however, call the doomed and disobedient structured church Babylon. This clearly shows that for a period of time, before the destruction of the structured church, there was a God-ordained overlapping of these two groups. Both groups were considered to be part of the church, for it would be a brave man who said that Christ’s little independent ministry was not part of the church, even though He was holding unauthorized campmeetings, speaking strongly against the ordained leadership, preaching the truth, and collecting tithe money.

Did God Make a Mistake?

The church leaders had the fatally narrow idea that God could only work through them and their structured church organization, because their probation had not expired. The next fatal step was to conclude that Christ’s independent ministry was outside their structure and, hence, of Satan. The final step was to kill Christ and members of His new independent ministry, in God’s name. Could Christ, who was disfellowshipped from the structured church, be used of God to further the gospel truth? Did God make a mistake by missing the structured church (whose probation had not expired) and giving the Former Rain to an independent ministry critical of the conference church?

Could this have a type and anti-type warning for God’s end-time church? “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Corinthians 10:11.

Is the present conference church repeating the history of old Israel? “I have been shown that the spirit of the world is fast leavening the church. You are following the same path as did ancient Israel.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 75, 76.

In Testimonies, vol. 1, 129, the angel said that we are worse than old Israel.

“The trials of the children of Israel, and their attitude just before the first coming of Christ, have been presented before me again and again to illustrate the position of the people of God in their experience before the Second Coming of Christ.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 406.

“Satan is working that the history of the Jewish nation may be repeated.…” Ibid., Book 2, 111.

“Internal corruption will bring the denunciations of God upon this people as it did upon Jerusalem.” Ibid., 378.

Christ Had an Independent Ministry

Some conservative Adventists think they can turn the church around by their faithful preaching, but Jesus—the greatest preacher of all time—could not turn the church structure around in His day through His independent ministry. He could only save the ones in the structured church who would listen to Him. The prophet said we likewise, will not stop the flood of iniquity which is entering the structured church. “Are we hoping to see the whole church revived? That time will never come.” Ibid., Book 1, 122. The prophet also saw that the great apostasy in the church would wax more and more till the coming of the Lord. (See The Upward Look, 352.)

“Before the final visitation of God’s judgments upon the earth there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times.” The Great Controversy, 464.

God Takes the Reins

Just as God took the reins into His own hands, because of the apostasy in Christ’s time, He is also taking the reins today, because of apostasy in the church.

“The Lord will work in this last work in a manner very much out of the common order of things, and in a way that will be contrary to any human planning.…God will use ways and means by which it will be seen that He is taking the reins in His own hands.” Testimonies to Ministers, 300.

In Christ’s time there was the structured church, which was controlled by an apostate leadership, and there was Christ’s independent ministry of the common people, which received the Former Rain. (See Mark 12:37.)

There were two parties in the church in Christ’s time, and there are also two parties in the church today. (See Selected Messages, Book 2, 114.)

Intellectual Philosophy

Today, we have the new system of intellectual philosophy controlled by an apostate church leadership, which is bitterly opposing the Righteousness by Faith message—a prerequisite for those who would prepare for the Latter Rain. Nothing will be allowed to stand in this new system’s way, but storm and tempest will sweep away the structured church, just as it did in 70 ad. (See Ibid., Book 1, 204, 205.)

“Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for My name’s sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.” Isaiah 66:5.

Sighing and Crying Ones

We see that this new system would cast out the saints who are sighing and crying at the abominations in the conference church.

In apostolic times, the common people, who believed in Christ and attended His independent ministry meetings, were cast out of the structured church. The common people will be used again: “Words will come from the lips of the unlearned with such convincing power and wisdom that conversions will be made to the truth. Thousands will be converted under their testimony. Why should the illiterate man have this power, which the learned man has not? The illiterate one, through faith in Christ, has come into the atmosphere of pure, clear truth, while the learned man has turned away from the truth.” Maranatha, 252.

We all know that we must sigh and cry at the abominations in the church structure. Many have done this and been assaulted and disfellowshipped for their loyalty to God. God is greatly displeased when we knowingly go and listen to error (See Early Writings, 124). We only have to admonish them twice (see Titus 3:10), and then move on to areas where the gospel has not been preached, just as Jesus did. Parts of the world might be considerably different than others, so we cannot make a sweeping statement restricting God and the giving of His Latter Rain.

The Stigma of John the Baptist

In the South Pacific it is nearly impossible to get the leaders of the conference church to preach the Righteousness by Faith message. (See Gospel Workers, 301.) They are now attacking those who do preach God’s message. It is a big call to sweepingly state that these saints, who have been thrown out of the structured church for preaching God’s truth, cannot receive the Latter Rain. There are miracles happening all over the world among Seventh-day Adventists. It is another big call to play God and state that the miracles happening among conference Seventh-day Adventists are of God, and those happening among independent ministries are of Satan. That is the only conclusion you can come to, if you believe the Latter Rain will only fall on the conference church.

John the Baptist had an independent ministry outside of the church structure. The church members went to see him in the wilderness. It is just as difficult and humiliating for conference church members today to come to an independent ministry to receive the light of God.

Testimonies, vol. 5, 208–216 has been used to support the case that only those who remain in the conference church will receive the Latter Rain. If you read on just one more page, however, you will see that the prophet said, in essence, that the Holy Spirit had left the church.

In another attempt to prove the Latter Rain only comes upon the remaining saints in the conference church, the type and anti-type are used. In the type, the manifestation of both good and evil took place in the structured church in Jerusalem, so one could conclude that in the end time the manifestation of both good and evil would also take place only in the conference Seventh-day Adventist church. All those with a basic biblical knowledge know that while the evil manifested itself through the conference church at Jerusalem, the good was manifested through Christ’s independent ministry, which He started because of the apostasy in the structured church. As the anti-type to this interesting scenario, the evil would have to be manifested through the apostate conference church, and the good would have to be manifested through the independent ministries, as God takes the reins into His own hands to again bypass heresy. Will acceptance of wrong theology on this point prepare me to follow the church leaders of old, who ended up speaking evil of good and good of evil? (See Isaiah 5:20.)

Just Who Will Receive the Latter Rain?

When the Former Rain missed the disobedient structured church and fell upon the obedient followers in Christ’s independent ministry, great miracles were wrought all over the known world, because no one could contain God.

Miracles are also taking place today in many parts of the world, among those who have never heard of the General Conference in Silver Spring, Maryland.

In China, it was recently reported that two men had a vision from God. They preached, and two thousand precious souls were baptized. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” Acts 2:17.

A geologist friend of mine, who at that time kept the Sabbath, discovered a primitive native tribe in the jungle of South America. They were keeping the Sabbath day holy. They had found it for themselves in an old Bible, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. They also had never heard of the structured Seventh-day Adventist Church.

In the jungles of New Guinea, the saints are being bashed, stoned, and disfellowshipped by the unbelieving brethren in the structured Seventh-day Adventist Church. Angels have appeared to some of these poor, persecuted saints. Hundreds are responding to their preaching of the Righteousness by Faith message and are joining the independent churches. “The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.” Psalm 34:7.

“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for My name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.” Matthew 24:9, 10.

“There are persons in the church who are not converted.…We have far more to fear from within than from without. The hindrances to strength and success are far greater from the church itself than from the world. Unbelievers have a right to expect that those who profess to be keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, will do more than any other class to promote and honor, by their consistent lives, by their godly example and their active influence, the cause which they represent. But how often have the professed advocates of the truth proved the greatest obstacle to its advancement! The unbelief indulged, the doubts expressed, the darkness cherished, encourage the presence of evil angels, and open the way for the accomplishment of Satan’s devices.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 122.

In the Pacific Islands, some of the people, who do not understand Greek or Hebrew, are having wonderful dreams and visions which lead them to the independent ministries, where they are nourished by the Righteousness by Faith message. Some believe that this is a fulfillment of Acts 2:17.

Repeating the Sin of Old Israel

In conclusion, the apostate Jewish church tried to restrict the movings of God to their narrow thinking and, consequently, spoke evil of the work God was doing through His Son’s independent ministry, which received the Former Rain. Today, those who fail to learn from the past will try to restrict God’s Latter Rain to the conference church alone, and will likewise speak evil of the Holy Spirit’s workings, as it falls outside the conference structure. They are in danger of repeating the sin of old Israel, who attributed the wonderful workings of God to Satan because things did not happen just as they thought they should happen.

(See Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 106.) It was this crime which sealed their fate.

(See Patriarchs and Prophets, 405.)

If, as some believe, the Latter Rain will only fall on the conference church structure, then they restrict the love of God and make Him an arbitrary judge by having Him withhold the Latter Rain from the saints who have been disfellowshipped from the structure for trying to stop the flood of wickedness. Also, they must take the next logical step and believe that the miracles taking place outside the structured church can only be of Satan.

If we believe, however, the church is as the prophet said it was, then we can believe God can give the Latter Rain to whom He sees fit, as He did with the Former Rain.

“The Lord Jesus will always have a chosen people to serve Him. When the Jewish people rejected Christ, the Prince of life, He took from them the kingdom of God and gave it unto the Gentiles. God will continue to work on this principle with every branch of His work. When a church proves unfaithful to the Word of the Lord, whatever their position may be, however high and sacred their calling, the Lord can no longer work with them. Others are then chosen to bear important responsibilities.” Upward Look, 131.

“The Lord does not ask permission of those in responsible positions when He wishes to use certain ones as His agents for the promulgation of truth.” Review and Herald, July 23, 1895.

May all the honest saints, either in the structure or in the independent ministries, prepare for the Latter Rain, for God is no respecter of persons. Who can contain Him?

Worship Methods Biblical or Culturally Relevant?

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Does It Matter to God?

“Unless correct ideas of true worship and true reverence are impressed upon the people, there will be a growing tendency to place the sacred and eternal on a level with common things, and those professing the truth will be an offense to God and a disgrace to religion.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 500.

Does God Leave It Up to Us?

“God…does not leave men to rely on their human judgment.…They are required to have correct views of duty.…They must take God’s word, and walk in accordance with His revealed will.” Signs of the Times, July 24, 1884.

“He who is infinite in wisdom has given explicit directions in regard to His own worship, and all who desire to serve Him should.” Ibid., July 8, 1880. “From the sacredness which was attached to the earthly sanctuary, Christians may learn how they should regard the place where the Lord meets with His people.…God Himself gave the order of His service.…” The Faith I Live By, 189.

“An enemy has been at work to destroy our faith in the sacredness of Christian worship.” Child Guidance, 541.

Strange Fire/Sacred Fire

“And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He commanded them not.” Leviticus 10:1.

“As the prayers and praise of the people are ascending before God, two of the sons of Aaron took each his censer…and used strange fire, contrary to the Lord’s commandment. And the wrath of God was kindled against Nadab and Abihu for their disobedience, and a fire went out from the Lord, and devoured them in the sight of the people. By this judgment God designed to teach the people that they must approach Him with reverence and awe, and in His own appointed manner.” Signs of the Times, July 17, 1884.

Sacred Fire—God’s Method of Worship, Following His Way

“The holy principles that God has given are represented by the sacred fire.…” Christian Leadership, 31. “Aaron’s sons did not realize the necessity of explicitly following the requirements of God.…Contrary to God’s express direction they dishonored Him by offering common fire instead of sacred.” Review and Herald, July 29, 1873. “Do not take worldly ideas as your criterion. Let there be no departure from the Lord’s methods of working. Use not common fire, but the sacred fire of the Lord’s kindling.” Testimonies, vol. 7, 267. “…the sacred fire which God Himself had kindled, and which He had commanded should be used.” Gospel Workers, 20.

Strange Fire—Methods of Men, the World (Culturally Relevant)

“The truth of God has not been magnified in His believing people.…They conform to the world, and depend upon it for their influence. They allow the world to convert them and introduce the common fire to take the place of the sacred, that they may, in their line of work, meet the world’s standard. There must not be these efforts made to ape the world’s customs. This is common, not sacred fire.” The Gospel of Health, November 1, 1898. “Men supposed to be sensible men, having discerning minds, will follow their own light, light which heaven has not originated. They will use strange fire in their service, but the Lord will not accept them.” The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, vol. 4, 1820. “Unless the change takes place [born again], we cannot serve God aright. Our work will be defective; earthly plans will be brought in; strange fire, dishonoring to God will be offered.” The Youth’s Instructor, September 9, 1897. “You have mingled with your offerings strange fire, which God has forbidden.…You have acted in your own unsanctified way, and not in God’s way.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 13, 310.

We Are Not to Mingle the Common (Worldly) With Sacred

“The Lord designs that everything connected with His work shall be treated as sacred.…that no common fire is to be used in place of the sacred fire, that common things are not to be mingled with God’s appointed agencies.” Review and Herald, September 27, 1898. “We must keep the way of the Lord, and speak and act as standing in His sight, living by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, that no strange fire shall mingle with that which is holy.” Ibid., May 27, 1890.

Evangelism—The Greatest Excuse for Using Worldly Methods

“Common fire has been used in place of the sacred. Plans, contrary to truth and righteousness, are introduced in a subtle manner on the plea that this must be done, and that must be done, because it is for the advancement of the cause of God. But it is the devising of men.…” Christian Leadership, 31.

What God Does Not Accept

“The Lord of heaven does not accept the strange fire offered to Him.” Pamphlet 46, 38. “Some in positions of trust have been…allowed to make decisions, to advocate methods, to carry out plans, which are not of the Lord’s devising. The enemy has been given an opportunity to control men, and to manage the work which God has shown should be kept pure and sacred, that it may be looked upon with reverence by all who claim to believe the truth. When men entrusted with responsibilities, neglect to cherish that which is sacred, and use common fire in God’s service, God will despise their offering to Him.” Pamphlet 080, 10. “God will not accept your common fire. He wants you to use the sacred fire which He has kindled on the divine altar.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 13, 198.

Using Strange Fire is a Sin—Punishable with Death!

“Aaron’s sons took the common fire which God did not accept, and they offered insult to the infinite God by presenting this strange fire before Him. God consumed them by fire for their positive disregard of His express directions.” Review and Herald, March 25, 1875. “At the hour of worship, as the prayers and praise of the people were ascending to God, Nadab and Abihu…trans-gressed God’s command by using ‘strange fire’…For this sin, a fire went out from the Lord and devoured them in the sight of the people.” Gospel Workers, 20. “Nadab and Abihu failed to reverence the command of God to offer sacred fire upon their censers with the incense before Him. God had forbidden them, upon pain of death, to present the common fire before Him with the incense.” Testimonies, vol. 3, 295. “Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that…walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of Mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.” Isaiah 50:11, 12. “It is difficult for men who begin to walk in the sparks of their own kindling to discern that it is not a sacred but common fire, until they lie down in sorrow.” The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, vol. 3, 1297.

Sacred Fire—Worships with Solemnity and Awe

“How few realize how solemn a thing it is to approach the throne of God. Angels bow before that throne with veiled faces, yet men who are stained by sin rush heedlessly into the divine presence. Let us remember that the holy angels approach the throne of God in reverence and holy fear. It is because men do not know God or Jesus Christ whom He has sent, that they take improper attitudes and improper words in their petitions.” Review and Herald, May 28, 1895. “True reverence for God is inspired by a sense of His infinite greatness and a realization of His presence.” Education, 247.

A Fearful Awe is Felt—When We Enter into God’s Presence

“God is greatly to be reverenced; wherever His presence is clearly realized, sinful man will bow in the most humble attitude, and from the depths of the soul cry out, ‘How dreadful is this place!’” Signs of the Time, February 26, 1880.

“I was shown that when God sent His angels anciently to minister or communicate to individuals, and these persons learned that they had seen and talked with an angel, they were struck with awe and were afraid that they should die. They had so exalted views of the terrible majesty and power of God that they thought it would destroy them to be brought into close connection with one direct from His holy presence. I was referred to Judges 13:21, 22: ‘Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.’ Judges 6:22, 23: ‘And when Gideon perceived that He was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! For because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.’ Joshua 5:15: ‘…And the Captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.’ If angels were thus feared and honored because they came from the presence of God, with how much greater reverence should God Himself be regarded.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 410. “What impression did this vision make on the prophet? Thus he described it: ‘Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.’ Isaiah had denounced woes upon others for their apostasy and separation from God.…But now he sees himself in danger. He is himself ‘a man of unclean lips.’ He had no disposition to exalt himself. O how little he was in his own wisdom, how unworthy, how unfitted for sacred service. He was overwhelmed with a sense of his own weakness and sinfulness.” The Bible Echo, September 9, 1895.

Angels Veil Their Faces—Humbled to Nothing, No Identity

“The angels veil their faces in His presence. The cherubim and the bright and holy seraphim approach His throne with solemn reverence. How much more should we, finite, sinful beings, come in a reverent manner before the Lord, our Maker!” God’s Amazing Grace, 94.

Bow Down—In the Presence of God

“O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture .…” “And Moses and Aaron went…unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces and the glory of the LORD appeared unto them.” Num-
bers 20:6. “Joshua…lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man…captain of the host of the LORD.…And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship and said unto Him, What saith my lord unto His servant? And the captain of the LORD’S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place where those standest is holy. And Joshua did so.” Joshua 5:13–15.

Keep Silent—In His Presence

“The Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.” Habakkuk 2:20. “When the worshipers enter the place of meeting, they should do so with decorum, passing quietly to their seats.…Common talking, whispering, and laughing should not be permitted in the house of worship, either before or after the service.” My Life Today, 286. “If some have to wait a few minutes before the meeting begins, let them maintain a true spirit of devotion by silent meditation, keeping the heart uplifted to God in prayer.… “Testimonies, vol. 5, 492. “Do not have so little reverence for the house and worship of God as to communicate with one another during the sermon. If those who commit this fault could see the angels of God looking upon them and marking their doings, they would be filled with shame and abhorrence of themselves.” Child Guidance, 542. “When the benediction is pronounced, all should still be quiet, as if fearful of losing the peace of Christ. Let all pass out without jostling or loud talking, feeling that they are in the presence of God, that His eye is resting upon them, and they must act as in His visible presence. Let there be no stopping in the aisles to visit or gossip.…The precincts of the church should be invested with a sacred reverence. It should not be made a place to meet old friends and visit and introduce common thoughts and worldly business transactions.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 493.

Put Off Thy Shoes—Put Off That Which is Man-Made

“Study and ponder and often repeat those words of Holy Writ that show how the place marked by God’s special presence should be regarded. ‘Put off thy shoes from off thy feet,’ He commanded Moses at the burning bush; ‘for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.’ Exodus 3:5.” Education, 243. “There should be a solemn awe upon the worshipers as they enter the sanctuary, and they should leave behind all common worldly thoughts, for it is the place where God reveals His presence. It is as the audience chamber of the great and eternal God; therefore pride and passion, dissension and self-esteem, selfishness, and covetousness, which God pronounces idolatry, are inappropriate for such a place.” Child Guidance, 543. “Teach them to have the highest reverence for the house of God and to understand that when they enter the Lord’s house it should be with hearts that are softened and subdued by such thoughts as these: ‘God is here; this is His house. I must have pure thoughts and the holiest motives. I must have no pride, envy, jealousy, evil surmising, hatred, or deception in my heart, for I am coming into the presence of the holy God.’” Testimonies, vol. 5, 494.

Theatrical Style—Strange Fire (Methods of the World)

“Some ministers make the mistake of supposing that success depends on drawing a large congregation by outward display, and then delivering the message of truth in a theatrical style. But this is using common fire instead of the sacred fire of God’s kindling. The Lord is not glorified by this manner of working.” Gospel Workers, 383. “God…is as particular and exact in His requirements now as He was in the days of Moses. But in the sanctuaries of worship in our day, with the songs of praise, the prayers, and the teaching from the pulpit, there is not merely strange fire, but positive defilement.” Ellen G. White comments, Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 1, 1111.

Are We to Use Drama to Present the Gospel?

“The work in the large cities is to be done after Christ’s order, not after the order of a theatrical performance. It is not a theatrical performance that glorifies God.…” Testimonies, vol. 9, 142. “Do not encourage the men who are to engage in this [our] work to think that they must proclaim the solemn, sacred message in a theatrical style. Not one jot or tittle of anything theatrical is to be brought into our work. God’s cause is to have a sacred, heavenly mold. Let everything connected with the giving of the message for this time bear the divine impress. Let nothing of a theatrical nature be permitted, for this would spoil the sacredness of the work.” Evangelism, 137. “Our success will depend on carrying forward the work in the simplicity in which Christ carried it forward, without any theatrical display.” Ibid., 139. “Ministers in the desk have no license to behave like theatrical performers, assuming attitudes and expressions calculated for effect. They do not occupy the sacred desk as actors, but as teachers of solemn truths.” Ibid., 640.

What Spirit is Behind the use of Drama in Religious Services?

“Through the drama he [Satan] has worked for ages to excite passion and glorify vice.” The Adventist Home, 515. “Can the Lord Jesus Christ accept these theatrical exhibitions as service done for Him? Can He be glorified thereby? No. All this kind of work is done in the service of another leader.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 11, 335. “We must be guarded, for Satan is determined, if possible, to intermingle with religious services his evil influence. Let there be no theatrical display, for this will not help to strengthen belief in the Word of God. Rather, it will divert attention to the human instrument.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 23.

Are We to Use “Rock and Roll” Music to Present the Gospel?

“…a bedlam of noise. This is an invention of Satan.…Better never have the worship of God blended with music than to use musical instruments to do the work which last January was represented to me.…A bedlam of noise shocks the senses and perverts that which if conducted aright might be a blessing.…The Holy Spirit has nothing to do with such a confusion of noise and multitude of sounds as passed before me last January. Satan works amid the din and confusion of such music.…Those things which have been in the past will be in the future. Satan will make music a snare by the way in which it is conducted.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 36–38.

Are We to Use Dancing in the Solemn Service?

“I went into their meetings. There was much excitement, with noise and confusion. One could not tell what was piped or what was harped. Some appeared to be in vision, and fell to the floor. Others were jumping, dancing, and shouting.…I bore my testimony in the name of the Lord, placing His rebuke upon these manifestations.” Ibid., 34.

Are We to Use Humor and Laughter in the Worship Service?

“Ministers should not make a practice of relating anecdotes in the desk; it detracts from the force and solemnity of the truth presented. The relation of anecdotes or incidents which create a laugh or a light thought in the minds of the hearers is severely censurable. The truth should be clothed in chaste and dignified language.” Review and Herald, August 8, 1878. “Ministers are not to…get up theatrical performances.…Let them not bring levity into the work of the ministry, but let them preach the Word in a manner that will leave a most solemn impression upon those who hear.” Ibid., September 28, 1897.

Are We to Use Comic Strips in Church?

“What is the object of the ministry? Is it to mix the comical with the religious? The theater is the place for such exhibitions.” Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 143.

Are We to Dress Up as Clowns to Present the Gospel?

“We need to study methods whereby we may preach the gospel.…Let no one think that God will approve of a method which will require a man to act the part of a clown, or like a man who has lost his senses. Such methods as these are wholly unnecessary and inappropriate.” Signs of the Times, March 19, 1894. “The minister of Christ should be a man of prayer, a man of piety; cheerful, but never coarse and rough, jesting or frivolous. A spirit of frivolity may be in keeping with the profession of clowns and theatrical performers, but it is altogether beneath the dignity of a man who is chosen…to be [a] mouth-piece for God.” Gospel Workers, 132.

Is Worship an Emotional Feeling? A Happy, “Fun” Time?

“Some are not satisfied with a meeting unless they have a powerful and happy time. They work for this, and get up an excitement of feeling. The influence of such meetings is not beneficial. When the happy flight of feeling is gone, they sink lower than before the meeting, because their happiness did not come from the right source. The most profitable meetings for spiritual advancement, are those which are characterized with solemnity and deep searching of heart; each seeking to know himself, and earnestly, and in deep humility, seeking to learn of Christ.” Spiritual Gifts, vol. 4b, 152.

“If the preaching is of an emotional character, it will affect the feelings, but not the heart and conscience. Such preaching results in no lasting good.…” Testimonies, vol. 5, 301. “It is through the Word—not feeling, not excitement—that we want to influence the people to obey the truth.…A wonderful power accompanies its proclamation in our world.” Selected Messages, Book 3, 375. “Feelings are often deceiving, emotions are no sure safeguard; for they are variable and subject to external circumstances.” Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 1, 126.

Improper Worship Leads to:

Rejecting God: “In seeking to bring the worship of God nearer home, Gideon was but providing to indulge the people in their indolence.… The course pursued by Gideon proved a snare…to all Israel. The irregular and unauthorized worship led the people finally to forsake the Lord altogether, to serve idols.…The services at the place of worship were celebrated with feasting and merriment, and at last became a scene of dissipation and licentiousness.” Signs of the Times, July 28, 1881.

Rejection By God: “The Lord passed by Saul…because, as king of Israel, he did not follow the Lord’s requirement, but chose to follow his own plans and methods.” The Youth’s Instructor, November 10, 1898.

“Ye shall keep My Sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary: I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:30.

[Emphasis has been supplied.]

Will the Real Seventh-day Adventist Protestant Please Stand Up?

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Seven score and eighteen years ago our pioneers brought forth, line upon line, our distinctive message for the sole purpose of fulfilling a mission by manifesting it to the world. We are now at a crossroads, a fork, a great divide, attesting whether or not the Second Advent Movement will withstand in the hallowed footsteps of its founders.

“I was shown three steps—the First, Second, and Third Angels’ Messages. Said my accompanying angel, ‘Woe to him who shall move a block or stir a pin of these messages. The true understanding of these messages is of vital importance. The destiny of souls hangs upon the manner in which they are received.’ I was again brought down through these messages, and saw how dearly the people of God had purchased their experience. It had been obtained through much suffering and severe conflict.” Early Writings, 258, 259.

Dedicated to the Work

Our brave predecessors struggled against all odds. We may long forget what we do, but we can never forget what they did, what God did through them, for us! Those courageous pioneers now dead, struggled for us, so that we could be dedicated to the great task of completing the work that they started.

“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth.” Revelation 14:13.

It has been said that all a man hath will he give for his life. While we are required to contribute our substance, these honored dead gave their lives and devotion to our cause. The greater merits are due to them, and we should be highly determined that these shall not have died in vain.

“God had led them along step by step, until He had placed them upon a solid, immovable platform. I saw individuals approach the platform and examine the foundation. Some with rejoicing immediately stepped upon it. Others commenced to find fault with the foundation. They wished improvements made, and then the platform would be more perfect, and the people much happier. Some stepped off the platform to examine it and declared it to be laid wrong.” Early Writings, 259.

We expect to maintain this task come what may. Whether we triumph or are conquered, through life or death, come rain or shine, whether men embrace or forsake us, it must be well understood, once and for all, that we will not surrender or turn away from our stern purpose in making known our old, historical, timely, beloved messages to the world.

Proclaiming the Final Invitation

We urge you again, we admonish you not to let go but to be steadfast and do all you can do, which is your duty as well. It is your business to rise up and preserve this work. Do it for yourselves. Do it for your Lord. Do it for those that are still in Babylon, to whom the Lord declares, “Come out of her, My People.” Revelation 18:4. Let us readopt our mission, and together, let us harmonize with it. Let all Seventh-day Adventists, lovers of the Three Angels’ Messages, join in this great and marvelous work.

If we do this, we will not only save souls, but we will save ourselves and fulfill our destiny by proclaiming the final invitation from God to this dying world. The millions and millions of celestial inhabitants, and the holy people in the world made new, shall rise up and call us blessed, for we labor in the final era of the plan of salvation.

For now, this unpopular work must continue. The cause of God must not be surrendered, even though there may be one or a hundred obstacles.

Do Not Falter

So many find fault with our course of action, which can sometimes bring sorrow. Yet it is a perfect certainty that if we stick to our resolution, if we do not falter or give up, one day, very soon, God will turn all our sorrow into everlasting joy. We would be most happy indeed if we could be a humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, by perpetuating the real issues of the great controversy.

We must never remain silent. It is the eternal struggle between the two principles, right and wrong, that we endeavor to proclaim. These are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and have ever continued to struggle. In your hands, my fellow Adventist, is the momentous issue of the great controversy. Get involved. When you do, you will be assailed. You will be in conflict. You will meet with aggressors, but you will be registered in heaven as a co-laborer with God. Heaven will guide, preserve, protect, and defend your efforts.

My fellow Adventists, we are not enemies. We must not become enemies. Though many difficulties may have strained our bonds of fellowship, let it not affect our bonds of affections. The same Spirit that leads in every mission, every battlefield, whether past or present, will yet swell in our hearts again.

Kiss the Protestants Good-bye

“Romanism is now regarded by Protestants with far greater favor than in former years.” The Great Controversy, 563.

“It is not without reason that the claim has been put forth in Protestant countries that Catholicism differs less widely from Protestantism than in former times. There has been a change; but the change is not in the papacy. Catholicism indeed resembles much of the Protestantism that now exists. . . . Instead of standing in defense of the faith once delivered to the saints, they are now, as it were, apologizing to Rome for their uncharitable opinion of her.” Ibid., 571, 572.

“The Protestant churches are in great darkness, or they would discern the signs of the times. . . . Protestants have tampered with and patronized popery.” Ibid., 565, 566.

We, as Seventh-day Adventists, have already seen what has happened to Protestantism today. There was a time when Protestants would protest all the corrupt practices of apostate churches and promote true, biblical Christianity. By this unholy union with Rome, we shall see how Protestants have ceased to be what they once were. Rome has perpetuated a change, a “liberation” of the Protestants. This was accomplished through Vatican II. Adventists have seen this and know this to be true, so why do we believe that, if we do the same thing, somehow we cannot be affected in the same way? Why, then, should Seventh-day Adventists make compromises and concessions with ecumenical Babylon? We would be very foolish to do this, knowing what the consequences would be. It would be appropriate for us to review how this change has taken place and to review our Protestant-Christian heritage.

One “Catholic” Church

Soon after Christ’s ascension into Heaven, churches began to appear. In the New Testament, the word church means an assembly or body of people. The first Christian church was in Jerusalem. Most of its members, if not all, were Jews who had accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah. As the disciples of Christ began to carry the gospel to the Gentile nations, there were many churches established. Even though there were several churches started, God looked down from heaven and saw only one church made up of all true Christians.

The term catholic, which means universal or one, was used to describe the great church of all believers. The idea of a catholic church was gradually accepted to mean a single, visible, large, organized church for all Christians. Perhaps their motives were at first innocent—a desire to unite all believers (which Christ had taught) and to defend Christian beliefs, but the visible catholic church soon began to distort and change Christianity.

In time, the organization of the churches had changed. Bishops had come to the forefront and had become very powerful. A single bishop ruled several churches. The bishops tried to maintain and to justify their supremacy in the church by the idea of apostolic succession. They said that the apostles were the guardians of the gospel. Instead of emphasizing the New Testament as the Christians’ permanent link to the apostles, they claimed that the apostles had appointed bishops as their successors. They also claimed that these successors had, in turn, appointed successors of their own and that much, if not all, of the authority of the apostles had, therefore, been passed down in an unbroken line to the bishops of this day. During the first century, the bishops of Rome began using the scripture to support the Petrine theory, that Christ made Peter the head of the Catholic Church, and that Peter passed his power to the bishop of Rome. Yet, the Bible never shows Peter acting as if he were the head of the church nor does it refer to Peter as the church foundation.

The Petrine theory permitted the supremacy of the church in Rome to emerge, resulting in the idea of the Roman Catholic papacy that the bishop of the Church of Rome is supreme over all churches. The bishop of Rome, eventually called the pope, meaning papa or father, began to rule the Catholic Church as supreme ruler or king.

The Reformation

The word reformation is a term that describes the fragmentation of the Roman Catholic Church during the Sixteenth Century. Several Christian groups rose up to protest the way the established Roman church was distorting the truth and denying people access to the Word of God. Bible-believing Christians protested the corrupt practices of the Catholic Church and at first sought to reform the church, restoring it to the authority of the Scriptures, rather than to withdraw from it. The followers of this movement were called Protestants. By the 1530s all of Scandinavia, the British Isles, and much of Germany, Austria, and France had severed their ties with Rome. The Protestant Reformation so shook the Roman church that the pope soon responded with the Counter-Reformation. The main objectives were to prevent any more Catholics from becoming Protestants and to force Protestants back into the Roman fold. The Counter-Reformation put life into the Inquisition. Throughout Europe, the Inquisition used torture and terror to destroy Protestantism.

Babylonian Captivity of the Church

Most of the Protestants compared the pope to ancient Babylon, which had taken the Chosen People captive. They declared that the pope held the church in captivity by his distortions of Biblical Christianity. They believed in the freedom of the Christian. They declared that one thing, and one thing alone, is necessary for life, justification, and Christian liberty. That one thing is the most holy Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Protestants said nothing new; they simply revealed that what the Catholic Church had put between man and Christ was a distortion of the Word of God. They only tried to restate the Bible and restore the authority of the Scriptures to men’s lives. The work of the Reformation resulted in the formation of the first Protestant churches. Roman Catholic doctrines and practices incompatible with the gospel of Christ were rejected. The sermon came to occupy a central place in public worship; in it the preacher exposed sin and then proclaimed forgiveness, life, and salvation in Christ through faith in the gospel. The formation of these Independent-Protestant churches completed the breach with Rome. In spite of intense persecution from Rome, the newly formed Protestant churches continued to greatly influence the world.

Second Vatican Council and the Ecumenical Developments

The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) brought about enormous changes to the Catholic Church. Vatican II produced 16 council documents in all. During the third session of 1964, The Decree on Ecumenism was produced. The decree describes the ecumenical movement as one of seeking Christian unity.

We know, from Bible prophecy (Revelation 13), that the decree on ecumenism is really an attempt to destroy the Protestant Spirit and to bring Protestants back to the already existing unity of the Roman Catholic Church.

Protestants once taught that the Roman Catholic Church was the whore and beast of Revelation 17. During the Reformation there were men like Martin Luther, John Knox, and John Calvin; and then you had the great preachers like Moody, Finney, Spurgeon and so on. They all believed the same thing—that the papacy was the anti-Christ. It wasn’t until lately, after Vatican II, that things have changed.

Liberals, Moderates, and Conservative Protestantism

In the past, when a person professed to be a Protestant Christian, this meant that they identified their theological beliefs by the list shown on page 7. But recently, after Vatican II, Protestants are finding themselves internally divided. Protestants today talk about the existence of two Christian religions. They are not referring to a split between Roman Catholics and Protestants, as in the past, but rather a division among the Protestant denominations. The terms, such as fundamentalist, conservative, evangelical, mainline, modernist, and liberal, all refer to Protestants today.

Religious conservatives and fundamentalists are viewed negatively, as overly strict on moral issues, close-minded, intolerant of other religious views, fanatical about their beliefs, too harsh, too much emphasis placed on guilt or sin, too concerned about their own salvation, and too rigid and simplistic. Many people would not like to have them as neighbors.

Liberals, mainline, and modernists are viewed as substituting social concerns for the true Gospel, too compromising with the world, morally loose, having a shallow knowledge of the Bible, and influenced too much by the world. The chart on the previous page spells out some of the differences between liberals and conservatives. Moderates fall somewhere in between.

Roman Catholic leaders have been trying to accelerate a change in the Protestant churches. They call it the modernization of the church. Vatican II is responsible for changes within Protestantism. The Roman church is trying to liberate (called liberation theology) Christians from fundamentalism. Rome’s objective is complete—Keep the Protestants fighting among themselves so that they are not protesting.

Protestants must wake up. Romanism, as a system, is no more in harmony with the gospel of Christ now than at any former period in her history. (See The Great Controversy, 566.) Does this mean our fight is with the Roman Catholic people who have been betrayed by their leaders? No! Our job is to rip that mask off her face, and let Roman Catholics and Protestants see that to which they are really tied. They have to be set free. They have to find Christ as the answer. It is not Mary and the rest of the unscriptural practices that will save them. It is our job to win them to the truth.

Protestants are in great darkness, or they would discern the signs of the times. Liberalism and modernism (New Theology) have taken over Protestantism and have even made their way into the ranks of Seventh-day Adventism. Historic Seventh-day Adventists must proclaim the Three Angels’ Messages, the only remedy for this spiritual disease that plagues this world. Catholics and Protestants must wake up! They can only do so by the faithful missionary efforts of the true, Protestant-historic Seventh-day Adventists.

“We are not to cringe, and beg pardon of the world for telling them the truth. We should scorn concealment. Unfurl your true colors to the gaze of men and angels. Let it be understood that Seventh-day Adventists can make no compromise.” Review and Herald, January 31, 1893.

Seventh-day Adventists should never apologize to Rome for the Three Angels’ Messages. Rome should apologize and repent for what it has done. We are not out to please pastors, churches, or denominations. The truth is worth everything, and we must be willing to share it regardless of the opposition. It is worth enduring persecution, when it is for the truth’s sake. But how do we expect to stand for the truth during the terrible crisis that is before us, when we have been compromising, acting political with the truth, and apologizing to Rome? Why do we keep deceiving ourselves?

“The persecutions of Protestants by Romanism, by which the religion of Jesus Christ was almost annihilated, will be more than rivaled when Protestantism and popery are combined.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 16, 239.

“Protestants will throw their whole influence and strength on the side of the papacy; by a national act enforcing the false sabbath, they will give life and vigor to the corrupt faith of Rome, reviving her tyranny and oppression of conscience.” Signs of the Times, June 12, 1893.

The fields are ripe for the harvest now! It is now time to go forward with the work and win precious souls for Christ. God bless you; may you “Prepare to meet thy God.” Amos 4:12.

The Cleansing of the Temple – Will It Happen Again? Part I

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In Jesus’ day there were thieves and robbers in the temple. Just imagine! The temple, the beautiful sacred building that God had established, where the sacrificial ordinances that He had ordained were preformed, was defiled. Most of the Jewish leaders became thieves and robbers. They told the people that there could be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of the blood of animals, which was true, but they then devised a system where the people would be forced to buy the sacrifices at exorbitant prices.

Looking at it two thousand years later, it seems a very bold and defiant act of the priests and rulers. How dare they presume to profane the holy temple of the Lord! Did they think they could continue in such a course without incurring the justice and judgments of God?

The Too Timid Believer

Nicodemus was a witness at the cleansing of the temple when all the robbers and thieves were forced out. This occasion, at the beginning of Christ’s ministry, could very well have been his first opportunity of personal contact with Jesus. Ellen White wrote: “He [Nicodemus] was a witness of the scene when Jesus drove out the buyers and the sellers; he beheld the wonderful manifestation of divine power; he saw the Saviour receiving the poor and healing the sick; he saw their looks of joy, and heard their words of praise; and he could not doubt that Jesus of Nazareth was the Sent of God.” The Desire of Ages, 168.

Nicodemus was drawn to the Saviour. He himself had been greatly distressed by the profanation of the temple. He was impressed with the words that Jesus spoke and went to the Scriptures to study anew the prophecies of the Messiah. As he studied, the conviction that Jesus was the Messiah became stronger and stronger, until he sought an interview with Jesus in the night season. (See John 3.) Oh, friends, how wonderful it was! Though the Jewish nation was in deep spiritual apostasy, there was one, a leader in Israel, who accepted the drawing of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of Christ’s ministry.

Though Nicodemus probably had many things to unlearn, because of his education in the pharisaical schools and because of his position (which kept him from becoming one of Christ’s disciples while He was yet alive on earth), Jesus was acquainted with the soil into which He had cast the seed. Nicodemus sought the Saviour, and Christ was able to speak with him because he accepted the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart.

Yes, it is too bad that he was so timid that he would not hold an interview with the Son of God by day. The opportunity of his lifetime was before him, but the political church system of the day kept him back from openly associating himself with Jesus. Today we see similar circumstances.

Many Seventh-day Adventists believe the truth, but they are not willing to stand with those who are upholding truth in the midst of one of the greatest apostasies among God’s people that has ever been. These timid people may well be saved in the end. Nicodemus was never an enemy of Jesus, but he realized after the crucifixion that he had missed the golden opportunity of his life by not closely and openly associating himself with Jesus.

Afraid to Stand?

Dear friend, if you are one who is afraid to stand with those you know are teaching and preaching the truth for fear of what others may say or think, remember Nicodemus. Yes, he did a wonderful work, but what could have been accomplished for the cause of truth had Nicodemus gone to the forefront while Jesus was still living on earth?

No doubt, he reasoned with himself that because of his exalted position in the Jewish nation he could have some influence over the priests and rulers that were not sympathetic to Jesus and His cause. He could protect Jesus while continuing in his present position. After all, being a member of the Sanhedrin was no unimportant position, and he was respected by all. This reasoning carried the day with Nicodemus and is no doubt accomplishing the same results with some today. But at what cost? Not only was Nicodemus himself bitterly disappointed when, after the crucifixion, he saw his fallacious reasoning and the opportunity that he had lost—nevermore to return, but the cause of God also suffered by his timidity and inaction. Oh! May God break through the heart barriers of those today who are allowing the current political system in our church to influence their reasoning and keep them from associating with those who are teaching and preaching the truth at personal risk and peril.

We are thankful, although Nicodemus was too timid to seek an interview by day, that at least he went by night. The seeds of truth that were sown in his heart he hid. “For three years there was little apparent fruit.” The Desire of Ages, 176. But, “After the Lord’s ascension, when the disciples were scattered by persecution, Nicodemus came boldly to the front. He employed his wealth in sustaining the infant church that the Jews had expected to be blotted out at the death of Christ. In the time of peril he who had been so cautious and questioning was firm as a rock.” Ibid., 177.

The Unbelievers

There were others there at the temple besides Nicodemus, however, whose heart response to the conviction of the Holy Spirit was not the same as that of Nicodemus. The priests and other rulers were there, and they, too, saw Jesus drive out the buyers and sellers. They, too, beheld the wonderful manifestations of divine power. They, too, saw Jesus receiving the poor and healing the sick. And they, too, saw the looks of joy, and heard the words of praise. But in them it roused, not an interest to further study the prophetic writings, but a “determined hatred.” Ibid., 167.

You see, the money changing provided a fraudulent source of revenue for the priests. Notwithstanding, they “were exceedingly proud of their piety. They rejoiced over their temple, and regarded a word spoken in its disfavor as blasphemy; they were very rigorous in the performance of ceremonies connected with it; but the love of money had overruled their scruples. They were scarcely aware how far they had wandered from the original purpose of the service instituted by God Himself’.” Ibid., 155.

“The courts of the temple at Jerusalem, filled with the tumult of unholy traffic, represented all too truly the temple of the heart, defiled by the presence of sensual passion and unholy thoughts.” Ibid., 161.

Cleansing Necessary

The temple could never fulfill its divine purpose until it was cleansed. Neither can we fulfill our divine purpose until we are cleansed from sin. “The days of purification of the church are hastening on apace. God will have a people pure and true. In the mighty sifting soon to take place we shall be better able to measure the strength of Israel. The signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord will manifest that His fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 80.

Well could the words of Jeremiah been spoken to the priests and money–changers, “‘Do not trust in these lying words, saying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord [are] these.”’” “‘Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and [then] come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, “We are delivered to do all these abominations”? Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen [it],’ says the Lord.” Jeremiah 7:4, 8–11.

And what of us today? “In the defilement and cleansing of the temple we have a lesson for this time. The same spirit that existed among the Jews, leading them to substitute gain for godliness, and outward pomp for inward purity, curses the Christian world today. It spreads like a defiling leprousy among the professed worshipers of God. Sacred things are brought down to a level with the vain matters of the world. Vice is mistaken for virtue, and righteousness for crime. Temporal business is mingled with the worship of God. Extortion and wicked speculation are practiced by those who profess to be servants of the Most High.” The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 2, 123.

Can you imagine anything worse at the time of Christ? The very system that God Himself established became so corrupted by priests and rulers that the opposite purpose from that for which it was designed was being accomplished. “The ordinances which God Himself had appointed were made the means of blinding the mind and hardening the heart.” The Desire of Ages, 36.

Can you imagine how God must have felt? In giving the sanctuary and its services to His people, He gave them the most wonderful gift that He could give them before He sent His only Son to die for their sins. He longed for that gift to help prepare them for His Son. He desired His people to search out its great truths. In designing it, He thought through the lesson of every detail. Yet, the symbolic value of the sacrifices “were now perverted and misunderstood. Spiritual worship was fast disappearing.” Ibid., 157.

So far had the Jewish nation wandered from God that “The worshipers offered their sacrifices without understanding that they were typical of the only perfect Sacrifice. And among them, unrecognized and unhonored, stood the One symbolized by all their service.” Ibid.

Turning Blessings Into Curses

God specializes in turning curses into blessings, but in a time of apostasy, men turn blessings into curses. In his last sermon, Marshall Grosboll [founder and first director of Steps to Life] spoke of the danger of Seventh-day Adventists turning the church organization from a blessing into a curse. That which God has designed to be a blessing can become a curse if it is perverted.

The divinely instituted services and the biblical instruction itself had been perverted by the Jews until the blessing had become a curse—they had the symbol but not the reality. They sacrificed the animals but rejected the One to whom their entire service pointed. They had the typical priest but rejected the real High Priest. The same thing can happen today.

Better to not Profess

We have the symbol of the three angels everywhere, but if we are not daily preparing for the judgment, the first angel’s message has not done its work in our hearts. Some professed Adventists today do not even believe in an investigative judgment that began in 1844. What good does the symbol do if we do not live out what we professed at our baptism to believe?

If we bring the teachings and practices of Babylon right into professed Seventh-day Adventist churches, the second angel’s picture on our stationary or in front of our churches is a mockery. If we do not believe that a person can keep the law of God perfectly through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, what good does it do to have a picture of the third angel outside the church or on our stationary? We will never risk imprisonment and death in the time of a worldwide Sunday law if we do not believe that God’s law can be perfectly kept.

It would be better to not even make a profession than to profess and then hypocritically not experience what we profess. It would be better if a person knew he was lost than to have a false security created by maintaining the forms of religion while the vital power of the gospel is not being experienced. One of the great earmarks of all apostasies is that professed Christians maintain the symbols, the profession, the outward forms of religion, while the vital godliness—which alone is of eternal value—is neglected.

God’s Solution

If you were God, what would you have done? “The ordinances which God Himself had appointed were made the means of blinding the mind and hardening the heart. God could do no more for man through these channels. The whole system must be swept away” “Christ’s work was to establish an altogether different worship.” Ibid., 36, 157.

Holy Wrath

“Slowly descending the steps, and raising the scourge of cords gathered up on entering the enclosure, He [Christ] bids the bargaining company depart from the precincts of the temple. With a zeal and severity He has never before manifested, He overthrows the tables of the money-changers. The coin falls, ringing sharply upon the marble pavement. None presume to question His authority. None dare stop to gather up their ill-gotten gain. . . . A panic sweeps over the multitude, who feel the overshadowing of His divinity. Cries of terror escape from hundreds of blanched lips. Even the disciples tremble.” Ibid., 158.

I wonder how many of us, if we had been in the temple, would have said, “I really think Jesus handled that situation with the priests, rulers and money-changers in the temple today a little too severely. I believe it could have been handled in a more diplomatic manner. Don’t you think Jesus should have gone and talked privately to the leaders before coming out so boldly against them? I realize the priests and rulers have not been doing everything right, and I do not condone it for a minute, but wasn’t that going a bit too far?” Oh, friends, that may sound sarcastic, but I fear that some are echoing these very sentiments today.

We read of Jesus: “He was filled with holy wrath as he saw the Jewish leaders teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, and he spoke to them with the authority of true greatness. With terrible power he denounced all artful intrigue, all dishonest practices. He cleansed the temple from its pollution, as he desires to cleanse our hearts from everything bearing any resemblance to fraud. The truth never languished on his lips. With fearlessness he exposed the hypocrisy of priest and ruler, Pharisee and Sadducee.” Review and Herald, May 12, 1910.

We must each ask ourselves the question, Where would we have stood the day that Jesus cleansed the temple? Remember that even the disciples were surprised at His severity. Could it be that we, along with the Jews in Christ’s day, have become so hardened from the daily occurrence of sin among God’s professed people that when God performs a work of cleansing and purifying we find it too hard to accept. Or, like the disciples, we are surprised at the means that He chooses to use to accomplish His purposes for His people?

The Aftermath

Let us look at the aftermath of the cleansing of the temple. “Soon the tumultuous throng with their merchandise are far removed from the temple of the Lord. The courts are free from unholy traffic, and a deep silence and solemnity settles upon the scene of confusion.” The Desire of Ages, 158.

The Temple of the Heart

At last, the temple was fulfilling the purpose for which it was designed. It was “to be an object lesson for Israel and for the world. From eternal ages it was God’s purpose that every created being, from the bright and holy seraph to man, should be a temple for the indwelling of the Creator.” Ibid., 161. The temple was intended to be a symbol of the heart. Could the temple in Jerusalem in Jesus’ day, a symbol of the heart, really be a sacred temple when it was polluted and defiled with the sins of deception and fraud?

It was the presence of Jesus that made the temple sacred. Jesus did not abide in the temple at the same time as the money-changers and the priests. When Jesus came in, they left.

Neither will Christ abide in the heart with sin. “Christ does not abide in the heart of the sinner . . . .” Signs of the Times, August 16, 1905. “God does not live in the sinner. The Word declares that He abides only in the hearts of those who love Him and do righteousness. God does not abide in the heart of the sinner; it is the enemy who abides there.” Sermons and Talks, vol. 1, 343. “In cleansing the temple from the world’s buyers and sellers, Jesus announced His mission to cleanse the heart from the defilement of sin,—from the earthly desires, the selfish lusts, the evil habits, that corrupt the soul.” The Desire of Ages, 161.

There is one difference between the cleansing of the earthly temple and that of the cleansing of the heart. In the cleansing of the temple on earth, Christ made a whip of cords and drove out the money-changers and the priests and rulers without their permission. In the temple of our heart, “He will not force an entrance. He comes not into the heart as to the temple of old; but He says, ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him.’ Revelation 3:20.” Ibid. “How willing is Christ to take possession of the soul temple if we will let Him! He is represented as waiting and knocking at the door of the heart. Then why does He not enter? It is because the love of sin has closed the door of the heart. As soon as we consent to give sin up, to acknowledge our guilt, the barrier is removed between the soul and the Saviour.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 325.

Friend, if you want to be cleansed by the Spirit of Christ from every defilement of sin, you must open your heart’s door to Him by consenting to give sin up and acknowledge your guilt. “No man can of himself cast out the evil throng that have taken possession of the heart. Only Christ can cleanse the soul temple.” The Desire of Ages, 161. “It is necessary that Jesus should occupy his temple in the human heart every day, and cleanse it from the defilement of sin.” The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 2, 124. He longs to exercise His power to expel evil from your heart as He expelled the money-changers from the temple of old. Will we let Him do it? If we really love righteousness and want to be free from every defiling habit that has hold of our lives, we should be glad that Christ’s demeanor in the temple was so stern and powerful. He wants to use that power in our heart.

To be concluded . . .

Stones to Remember – Part I

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The name, Joshua, comes from the Hebrew word Yehoshua, which means Saviour or Deliverer. The Greek word that is equivalent to the Hebrew word Yehoshua is the word Iesous, and that is where we get the English word, Jesus. So Joshua is the same name as Jesus, just in the Hebrew language.

It was Joshua who took the children of Israel into the land of Canaan. “And it came to pass, when all the people had completely crossed over the Jordan, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying: Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from every tribe, and command them saying, Take for yourselves twelve stones from here, from out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood firm. You shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you lodge tonight. Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe; and Joshua said to them: Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, What do these stones mean to you? Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever. And the children of Israel did so, just as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, as the Lord had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day.” Joshua 4:1–9.

This event was not simply something that Joshua decided to do. It was something for which the Lord gave him special instructions, and the Lord worked a miracle so that His people did not have to build any pontoons or bridges. Even though it was in flood season, the Lord miraculously caused the waters of the Jordan River to stop flowing.

Lest We Forget

The Lord told Joshua,

“You are to do something to make a memorial of what I did here, so that in the future when your children come to you and they say, ‘What are these stones here?’ you can tell them the story of what the Lord did. You are to make a memorial so that the whole nation will remember what God did here.”

It is important for us today to remember and to know the leading of the Lord in our past history. In fact, it is so important that Ellen White wrote that we have nothing to fear for the future except as we forget how the Lord has led us in our past history and His teaching. (See Review and Herald, October 12, 1905.)

What do these stones mean? The stones are a memorial of what God will do for the children of Israel to bring them into the Promised Land. God has been leading in the second advent movement. God has been leading in the revival and reformation movement in Adventism that has been going on now for a number of years. We need to understand and know how the Lord has led us.

Of course, there are people saying that the Lord has not led us. We get a lot of phone calls and letters along that line. Some people say we are being led by the devil. Such an accusation is not anything new. Jesus had to meet that same accusation. It was said that He was performing miracles through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. (See Matthew 12:22–28; Mark 3:22–26; Luke 11:15–20.)

The apostles had to meet it. The reformers had to meet it. John Wesley had to meet it. James and Ellen White had to meet it. And we will have to meet it until the end. There are going to be people saying that the Lord is with them and that we are being led by the devil, that we are going the wrong way.

Do you know who is leading you? How can you tell who is leading?

Signs and Miracles

You cannot tell who is leading you because of signs or miracles. If you decide that the Lord is leading you because of certain signs and miracles, the devil can provide those things and lead you down the wrong path. The New Testament teaches that false miracles are going to happen more and more as we approach the close of time.

“And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume [destroy] with the breath [spirit] of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. The coming of the [lawless one] is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders.” 2 Thessalonians 2:8, 9.

There are going to be miracles. These verses are referring to the antichrist power. The devil is the chief antichrist, but he has human agents who are also antichrists. Verse 10 tells us, “And with all deceitfulness of unrighteousness among those who are perishing, because they did not receive the love of the truth so that they might be saved.”

The Scripture goes on to say how the Lord is going to send them strong delusions because they are having pleasure in unrighteousness. (See verses 11, 12.) If you are having pleasure in something that you know is not right, you need to go to the Lord and pray about that, because unless the Lord delivers you from that pleasure in unrighteousness, you will be deceived at the end.

We see in this passage of Scripture that we cannot depend on miracles to know that the Lord is leading us. Revelation 16:13, 14 talks more along these lines. In those verses is the description about Armageddon, and about three unclean spirits coming up like frogs out of the mouth of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. It talks about them working signs and miracles. Those signs and miracles are going to be so successful that the whole world is going to be gathered together for the great battle. They are going to think, of course, that they are getting together for a millenium of peace. They are going to walk right into Armageddon. No, we cannot depend on miracles or signs to know that the Lord is leading us.

Can we Count on Numbers?

Not only can we not depend on miracles or signs, but we cannot count on numbers! Never before in Adventism have I seen the importance of numbers being used, as they are today.

In the mail we received information from someone who was going to India, and they said they were going to baptize 50,000 people there. We have sent workers to countries such as India, and we have conducted evangelistic campaigns with the native workers in some of these countries. We have baptized people in these countries, but we have never baptized them by the thousands. Not yet! Again I say that we cannot ever depend on numbers to know whether God is leading us.

In Constantine’s time, do you know what he did to increase the baptisms? He had a very innovative method. He gave everyone, who would consent to be baptized, a new exchange of clothes (we would call it a new suit of clothes) and a piece of gold. He got a lot of people baptized in just a short time. He baptized full armies of people. People thought at that time that they were experiencing a wonderful evangelistic success.

The Latter Rain?

I remember reading an article in a Review and Herald, published a short time after World War II. One of our leading ministers wrote how Seventh-day Adventists had gone into some of the countries, which had not had freedom before World War II, and baptized thousands of people. He said he thought this was the beginning of the latter rain. This article was printed in 1948, but I was reading it in the 1990s. When I read that, I wondered, if indeed that really was the beginning of the latter rain, why are we still here?

If we were depending on numbers, Noah would have been a complete flop! If we were depending on numbers, Jesus, when He dwelt among men in the flesh, would have been a total failure, too. The night that Jesus was betrayed, He only had twelve disciples and a few faithful women who were following Him, and one of those twelve denied Him! So we cannot depend on miracles, and we cannot depend on numbers to know that the Lord is leading.

We have been warned that, as we approach the end, there will be many confusing voices saying, “Come, follow me; I have great light.” Do you see that happening today? It is going to happen more and more.

Every one of us should know that the Lord has been leading us. We should also know that the Lord has been leading in the second advent movement and in the revival and reformation movement in Adventism. There are two or three points that we always need to check when we are challenged about whether or not the Lord is leading.

Troublers of Israel

Ellen White saw, in vision, the true and faithful people during the time of trouble. (See Maranatha, 209.) She said that the wicked people were coming to the true and faithful and saying, “We have the truth!” And they would say, “Angels are walking among us and there are miracles among us. The Lord is leading us, and if you would not be so stubborn, He would lead you too.”

She wrote that the wicked would say that the whole world was at peace and in harmony with the Sunday law. They are going to have the numbers, and they are going to have the miracles, and they are going to say to the true and faithful, “If you would come into harmony, then everything would be all right. You are the fly in the ointment. You are the reason for the trouble, because you are at variance with everybody else in the world. The Lord is leading us. We know it, because the angels are walking among us and there are all these miracles happening. The whole world is converted—except you! You are going the opposite of everybody else, so you must be led by the devil.”

We are going to encounter this sort of thing more and more, right up to the end. It is not going to stop; it is going to get worse. God’s people are going to be just a little, tiny handful of people compared with the world’s population.

Is God Leading Us?

We must know for sure that God has been leading us, or we will not make it. Here is a way to be assured that God is leading us.

If God is leading us, He will always, without exception, be leading us in harmony with His law. In Matthew 7:21–23, we have the record of a number of people who thought that the Lord was leading them, yet they come right up to the end of time and find out that they have made a terrible mistake. They are so sure that they are right, though, that they start arguing with the Lord.

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

These people are not in harmony with God’s law, but they think that God has been leading them. They are mistaken. If God is leading you, He will always, without fail, be leading you in harmony with His law.

Of Which Spirit are We?

Another interesting text from the Old Testament addresses this point: “To the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:20. The context of this text, beginning in verse 19, is talking about spirits, or those who are led by or instructed by spirits. So this verse would apply either to spirits or to prophets especially.

Martin Luther is an example of men whom God has used who were not in harmony with all of His law, because they did not know any better. This verse, however, is not talking about men and women. A man or a woman could be used of God even if they were mixed up on some points about the law or about theology. It is not talking about just anybody in this text. It is talking specifically about spirits, and it would apply to anyone who is led or instructed by spirits, so it would apply to a prophet. This verse is one of the tests for anyone who claims to be a prophet. It is a test for any spirit that gives any instruction to anybody. A spirit is never in the situation that Martin Luther, or any other Protestant reformer in the sixteenth century, was in where he did not know all the truth.

A spirit is either a spirit from God and knows the truth, or it is a spirit from the devil and there is no light in him. One of God’s angels will never instruct you contrary to His law or to His word. So, if a spirit gives you any instruction that is contrary to God’s law or to His word, there is no light there. It is a wrong spirit, no matter how many miracles there are and no matter how many numbers there are.

Blessed Assurance

God’s children are going to be tempted on this point even during the time of trouble. Ellen White wrote about meeting all of this opposition, about people saying, “You are wrong!” What do you do after you have been told 500 times that you are wrong? Does it have an affect on you? Mrs. White mentions two things that will give assurance to God’s people during the time of trouble. She says their conscience and the word of God assure them that they are correct. (See The Great Controversy, 610.) So it is important to know, from the word of God, that the Lord is leading you. Remember,

“We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.” Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 196.

If you look at that quotation closely, you will realize that Mrs. White is assuming that we know that the Lord has led us. Have we forgotten how the Lord has led us? The Lord has been leading us individually; the Lord has been leading the second advent movement, and the Lord has been leading the revival and reformation movement in Adventism. But we need to remember how.

Overwhelming Evidence

The evidences of the Lord’s leading in the second advent movement are overwhelming. We could go clear back to before the War of 1812 and show how the Lord arranged events and prepared the world for the first angel’s message, which William Miller began to preach in the United States in 1831.

We could show what happened in 1843 and 1844 with the many signs and wonders whereby the Lord showed unequivocally that He was guiding this movement. We could go to the ministry of Ellen White, God’s special messenger to the Advent movement, and we could show over and over again how God showed to us, through her, that He was leading.

You have perhaps heard of the vision that Ellen White had in which she saw church leaders doing and saying certain things. At least once in public she was going to relate this vision, but as she began to tell it, her mind went blank and she could not relate it.

Several months later an early morning (5:30 a.m.) meeting was being held at camp meeting. Ellen White was elderly at this time, so her son, William C. White, was not going to wake her up to go to the early meeting; he was just going to get up and go to the meeting himself. But as he passed her room, he noticed that the light was on in her room. He knocked and asked if she intended on going to the 5:30 meeting. She replied that she was.

Then he asked, “Do you have some message from the Lord to declare to the people?” And she responded that she most certainly did. At this meeting she related what the Lord had shown her in vision. It became very, very quiet. The Lord had shown her that the brethren—some of the ministers, some of the editors, and some of the writers—did not want to talk about the Sabbath in the religious liberty magazine. They said the magazine would be much more successful if the Sabbath was not openly presented in it.

She related all that the Lord had shown her about that and how wrong it was. When she finished, there were some pale-faced people in the meeting. A brother stood up, and he said, “What you have related to us as having happened, just happened last night. We had a meeting that lasted almost all night, and everything that you said happened. We were saying these very things that you were talking about.”

You see the Lord had shown her exactly what they were going to say and what they were going to do a long time before they even did it or said it. That is why the Lord made her mind go blank when she was trying to relate it before, so she could not relate it until it happened. Things like that happened on a number of occasions, friends. You and I serve a God who knows everything. (See Manuscript Releases No. 1033: The Salamanca Vision and the 1890 Diary, 64, 65.)

Leading Us Home

After Ellen White died, in 1915, did the Lord continue to lead the advent movement? Yes! Is He going to lead us until the end? Yes! So, we need to study and to remember—just as the children of Israel put up a memorial when they went across the Jordan River—how the Lord has led us, not just up until 1915 but up to today.

In the development, in the understanding, and in the proclamation of the three angels’ messages, the Lord has been leading. We should know how the Lord has led, and we need to recognize how the devil has attacked and what the Lord has done in return. Our faith, as Adventists, must be grounded in the Bible.

To be concluded . . .