Editorial

Which Church is Going Through? – Part II

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Four Theories

When you ask the question, “which church is going through?” here are the answers that you get:

  1. One of the most popular, or traditional, views among many Seventh-day Adventists is that the church organization (structure) is going to go through to glory purified. There may be tares among the wheat, there are sinners in Zion and they are going to be cast out; but the structure is going to go through.
  2. A second view that has come to the fore in the last year or two, is the idea that the church structure is Babylon, or it is just on the brink of becoming Babylon. Therefore, it is just waiting to be destroyed.
  3. A third position is that the church structure is in the same position as the Jewish church was just before the crucifixion of Christ. Ellen White says, “When the fast westering sun should pass from sight in the heavens, Jerusalem’s day of grace would be ended. While the procession was halting on the brow of Olivet, it was not yet too late for Jerusalem to repent.” Desire of Ages, 578. Some people say that is the condition of the church right now. The structure could turn around. Something irrevocable could happen, just like it did to the Jewish nation.

Before I mention the fourth position, consider that we Isaiah 28:9, 10 tells us that we should look through the entire Bible if we want to learn the truth about any subject. We need to look at everything that inspired writings say about that subject, and if we do that, the Lord will lead us to the truth. “All truth, whether in nature or in revelation, is consistent with itself in all its manifestations.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 114. “…no lie is of the truth.” 1 John 2:21. What does that mean? It means, the truth always has to agree with itself. If it does not, if it contradicts, there is something that is not true.

  1. People who take this position say you must answer the question what is the church before you can answer which church is going through. How can you tell which church is going through if you do not have an inspired definition about what the church is? God knows what the church is and if God knows what the church is, He could tell one of His prophets. If one of God’s prophets told you what the church is, would you believe it? Some people do not believe it. “From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth.” Acts of the Apostles, 11. That is the church militant; it could not possibly be the church triumphant because it says, “from the beginning,” and the church does not become triumphant until the end.

The Church is not Invisible

Someone might say it is the invisible church. Let us see if it is. The sentence we just read is right in the middle of a long discussion about the church. It says, “From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth. In every age the Lord has had His watchmen, who have borne a faithful testimony to the generation in which they lived.” Ibid. Were the watchmen invisible? No. Was the testimony invisible? No. Was the generation invisible? No. There is nothing invisible in that sentence. “These sentinels gave the message of warning; and when they were called to lay off their armor, others took up the work.” Ibid. Is there anything invisible in that sentence? Nothing invisible there. In all of these statements there is someone you can see. “God brought these witnesses into covenant relation with Himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in heaven. He has sent forth His angels to minister to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against His people.” Ibid.

Someone may say that we cannot tell who these people are. Look at the next paragraph. “Through centuries of persecution, conflict, and darkness, God has sustained His church.” This was hundreds of years of persecution. Can you tell who was being persecuted, or were they invisible? You could tell who was being persecuted. When somebody was burned at the stake, you could tell who it was. When you saw somebody taken off to the dungeon, you could tell who it was. Could you tell that there was a conflict going on where one person was on one side and one was on the other? Yes! This was something you could see. In fact, as you go through this chapter, there just isn’t anything anywhere about an invisible church. This is about people whom you can see, messengers bearing messages that you can hear. Even the wicked people can tell who is being persecuted. So it is not talking about the church triumphant, it is not talking about the invisible church; but it still says that the church is composed of faithful souls.

Every Word that Proceeds from God

Ellen White says that everyone who is faithful will be saved. That is good news. “Those who keep God’s commandments, those who live, not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, compose the church of the living God.” SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 949.

If you understand those inspired definitions and you understand who the church is, then when someone comes to you and says you must not leave the church, you must stay with the church, what does that mean? I believe in staying with the church. It means to stay with those faithful souls. It means to stay with the people who are living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God and who are keeping the commandments of God. That is what it means. Somebody might say, “You are getting mixed up. Matthew 13 says that there are tares in the church, and the wheat and the tares are all mixed up together. You cannot go and find a church where there is only wheat. The wheat and the tares have to be all together.” That is what people say.

Sinners in Zion

People also say that Ellen White said there are sinners in Zion. (By the way, that does not come from Ellen White, it comes from the Bible, but Ellen White does use it.) She says that right at the end these sinners are going to be sifted out, separated from the church. So, they say, the church is full of sinners. Let us take a look at that for a moment. First of all, let us find out who these sinners in Zion are. I like to make things simple, so here they are: “There are many sinners in Zion, and they are likened to tares among the wheat.” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, October 10, 1893. So these sinners in Zion are the tares. If we can figure out what Jesus was trying to teach us about the tares, we will understand about the sinners in Zion.

I just want to find out the truth. If the truth requires me to do something completely different than I am doing, then I want to do it. I have perfect confidence that if I find the truth, the truth will always agree with itself, and I will be on solid ground.

The Wheat and the Tares

First of all, let us look at a few points about the wheat and the tares. This is one of the few parables that Jesus gave where His explanation to His disciples is recorded afterward, and He said, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Matthew 13:36-43.

In verse 30 and 40 it says “at the end of the age.” The word “at” makes people think that a point in time is being referenced, which is not the case at all. In the Greek it says “in.” In other words, during the end of the age. The harvest time is during the closing period of earth’s history, and that is when the angels are going to gather out the tares.

In Christ’s Object Lessons, 70, Ellen White talks about the parable of the tares, which brings up several questions: First of all, we want to know who and what a tare is, because a tare is not to be uprooted. Now the way some people interpret that, you would think you could never put any wicked person out of the church. But that is not what Jesus was trying to teach. Let us see what Jesus was talking about.

“…it is in the church that we are to grow and ripen for the garner of God.” The wheat grows and ripens for the garner of God. Where? In the church. So is it important to know what the church is? If you are wrong about where you think the church is, could it result in you not having salvation? Is that possible? It most certainly is!

Where are the Tares?

Let us look at several facts about the tares. Who plants the tares? The devil. Where does he plant them? In the church. Let us notice how they are described. She calls them ‘those who bear Christ’s name while they deny His character.’ They bear His name; they are professed members of the church, but they deny His character. Are they connected to the church? In a way they are, and in a way they are not. But here are some descriptions of the tares. “Christ’s servants are grieved as they see true and false believers mingled in the church.” Ibid., 71. So a tare is a false believer. “The tares represent a class who are the fruit, or embodiment of error, of false principles.” They have false principles; they are false believers, but notice how she describes them on page 72. “The real character of these pretended believers is not fully manifested.” What does she call them? Pretended believers!

Notice three different descriptions of the tares. They are planted by the devil, and they are the embodiment of false principles. They are false believers, but they pretended to be believers. On the outside they look the same. And then on page 73 she gives another description and she mentions it twice. She calls them false brethren. So, a tare is a false believer, a pretended believer, and a false brother. Let us just think that through for a minute. Is a tare a true brother? No. Is it possible to be in a family, have the family name, but not be part of the family? Yes! But these false brethren are pretended brethren, and pretended believers. Now, let us take it one point further. A tare is a person who, on the outside, looks like a true believer until the time of the harvest. But when it becomes manifest that they are living in open sin, they are to be disfellowshipped, and people want to forget that. People want to think that if someone is a tare, you just have to let them be and the Lord will separate them at the Second Coming. Actually, the separation takes place before the Second Coming. Mrs. White had just been talking about the tares, stating that they are both growing together with the wheat until the harvest, then she says, “Christ has plainly taught that those who persist in open sin must be separated from the church.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 71.

Now let us just think this through so we know exactly what we are talking about. She says, “…He has not committed to us the work of judging character and motive.” Ibid.

An Open Sinner is Not a Tare

Open sin is a sin that involves an action that others can see. Let us be very plain in our speech. Adultery is an open sin if it is committed in the flesh. But if it is only committed in the mind, we do not know about it, and we cannot judge a person by what happens in the mind. That person is a tare, and God is going to judge them, but we cannot. At the time of the harvest, during the time of the end, the Lord is going to separate the people who have sin on the inside, that is not visible on the outside.

If a person covets something that belongs to somebody else, you cannot judge their character and motives. But if they actually rob or steal, that is an open sin. Christ has plainly taught that those who persist in open sin must be separated from the church. We find that in Matthew 18.
Paul also taught the same thing in 1 Corinthians 5. The apostle John taught it as well in 2 John.

When did the devil plant the tares? We know he planted them in the church, but when did he plant them? What time of day? While men slept. Have you read any warnings in the Spirit of Prophecy given to Seventh-day Adventists who are asleep? She tells us that we need to wake up! The more the church sleeps, the more tares the devil is going to plant. What would you do if you were in a church and the devil planted so many tares that the tares controlled the church? If there is somebody living in open sin, they should be disfellowshipped from the church. People who are living in adultery, incest, robbery, open liars, people who are openly breaking one of the Ten Commandments, are to be disfellowshipped.

When the Tares are in Control

But suppose they cannot be disfellow-shipped because the tares are in control of the church. The devil has planted so many, and people have slept so long, that the tares are in control. Suppose someone in your church has robbed a bank. You come to the church business meeting and some people are saying, ‘This man is disgracing the name of the church, and we must disfellowship him.’ However, another group of people are thinking, ‘If we disfellowship him, what is going to happen to me? I have done some pretty bad things myself,’ so there is no one willing to disfellowship somebody who is living in open sin because the tares are in control of the church.

What would you do then? Leave that church? Did you know that this has happened before? In fact, when Jesus was here the tares had control of the Jewish church. As you read the gospels, you can plainly see that. Why did they crucify the Lord? Because the tares were in control of the church.

Jesus gave very specific advice on what to do if the tares control the church.

“When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, ‘Hear and understand: not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.’ Then His disciples came and said to Him, ‘Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’” Matthew 15:10. The Pharisees were in control of the church in that day. There is no question about it, they were in the driver’s seat. Notice what Jesus said. “But He answered and said, ‘Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.’” Ibid., 13.

Who plants the wheat? The Son of man. But these are plants that God did not plant. So who planted them? The devil. They are tares. But these tares are in control of the church. You cannot get them out. Jesus said they are coming out. There will be judgments coming and these tares are going to come out, but you cannot get them out. So what should you do? Jesus tells us what to do. “Let them alone.” Some may say, “Oh no, Lord, that could not be possible. This is the true church, do you not understand that?” Well, is God God, or not? If tares are in control of the church, should you try to destroy and uproot them? Jesus said, “’Let them alone, they are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into the ditch.’” Ibid., 14.

Are you Being Led by Tares?

Now let us think that through. Not only did Jesus say to let them alone, but He warns you not to let those people lead you, or you are going to go into the ditch. “Oh, but Lord, these Pharisees, they are the leaders of the church, and I need to go to the synagogue and listen to them preach.” Well, if you do, Jesus says you are going to go into the ditch. People need to study Matthew 15:14. It always says the same thing.

Let us look at the harvest. During the time of harvest something is going to happen. “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest [that is during the time of the harvest] I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into My barn.’” Matthew 13:30. Notice, there is a two-fold harvest. At the harvest time Jesus said the first thing that gets harvested are the tares, the wheat harvest comes later. The tares will be bound in bundles, the wheat is not bound in bundles; but is harvested one at a time. If you are going to be in God’s granary, in His garner, you are not saved as a family, you must be saved as an individual. Who does it? Look at verses 40 and 41. “Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness.” So the first thing that happens is that the angels do a work of separation. This is one of the most fearful things that any Christian can think about.

“The looker-on may discern no difference, but there is One who said that the tares were not to be plucked up by human hands lest the wheat be rooted up also. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then the Lord sends forth His reapers to gather the tares and binds them in bundles to burn, while the wheat is gathered into the heavenly garner. The time of the judgment is a most solemn period. When the Lord gathers His own from among the tares, those who have been members of the same family are separated.” Testimonies to Ministers, 234.

Eternal Separation

When we say that those who have been members of the same family are separated, we are talking about an eternal separation. This is not a pleasant thing to think about, but it is reality. We are all going to have to face it sometime. In the time of the harvest, there is a separation of the tares from the wheat.

What is this separation? First, the tares are bound in bundles; and this binding of the tares in bundles is happening, and has been happening, for a long time. For example: Ellen White wrote a long time ago that the labor unions were one of the agencies by which people were being bound in bundles as the tares. (See Pamphlet to Sanitarium Workers in Southern California, 1905.) A lot of people do not know that. She also wrote that fearful is the work of the Third Angel. (See Early Writings, 118.) This is the Third Angel recorded in Revelation 14:9-12. His work is to separate the wheat and the tares. Whenever someone preaches the Third Angel’s Message, separations take place. Have you ever seen that happen in families? One person accepts the Third Angel’s Message, other people do not. What happens? There is a separation. The Third Angel separates the wheat and the tares. A mark is placed upon the righteous. “They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” Malachi 3:17. Those who have been obedient to God’s commandments, will unite with the company of the saints in light; they shall enter in through the gates into the city, and have right to the tree of life. The one shall be taken. His name shall stand in the Book of Life, while those with whom he associated shall have the mark of eternal from God.” Testimonies to Ministers, 234, 235.

Notice, this separation involves a mark. The righteous will have a mark and the wicked will have a mark. There will be a mark of deliverance and there will be a mark of destruction.

The harvest occurs during the end of the age. And of course, this harvest involves the purification of the church, because once you have all the tares out, you have a pure church. There are many statements in inspired writings about how the purification of the church takes place. What we want to understand is how the church is purified. How does it happen? It is very important to understand, because there are many people who say the organized church (the structure) is going to go through; it is going to go through purified. The next question is how is it going to be purified? You need to find out how it is going to be purified, and how the Lord is going to take it to glory. Is God going to take a church to glory that has sin in it? No. The church has to be purified before it can go to glory.

Purification of the Church

Next month we will look at how the tares are going to be separated from the wheat; how the sinners in Zion are going to be sifted out; how the purification of the church is going to take place. We will find that inspired writings are very, very specific about how this will take place.

1 John 2:19 has to do with this purification of the church. You see, the purification of the church has happened in other ages, too, not just at the end. It says, “They went out from us.” Now let us think that through a little bit. Who is “us”? The church. What church? Who is the church according to Acts of the Apostles, page 11? Faithful souls. It is those who keep the commandments of God and live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Is that the definition of “us” that John is using here? Oh, surely it is. Look back at the beginning of 1 John 2:3–5. He says that the way you can tell if you really know Him is if you keep His commandments. And the one who says that he knows Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar. He talks about the little children, the fathers and the young men, and these are the people who have overcome the wicked one. These are people who are overcoming, who love their brother as themselves, who are keeping the commandments. That is the “us”! It is very clear who “us” is. Who are “they”? “They” went out from us. Are they the wheat or the tares? They are the tares, they left. But notice how it says this. “They went out from us, but they were not of us.” (Verse 19.) They had the name. They were professed church members. They were apparently part of the church. They went out from “us”, but they were not really of “us”, even though they had the profession and they looked like they were part of “us.” They were not of “us”, he said, because they left. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” If they had really been the wheat, they would have stayed. “But they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.” Ibid. Very, very interesting text. You have to understand who and what the church is to understand that text. All the apostles understood this. The apostle John understood who the church was. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” Formerly they had the name. They came to church. It looked like they were part of “us” but they really were not, they were the tares, they were these pretended believers—these false brethren. Finally things developed so that they left.

Paul says the same thing, “But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel.” Romans the 9:6-8. Everybody who has a connection with the church is not really of the church. Only the faithful are really part of it. There are a lot of other people clinging to the skirts of Zion who are going to get shaken off. “Nor are they all children because they are of the seed of Abraham; but, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called.’ That is, those who are the children of the flesh.” Those are the people who say, “I am a descendent of Abraham, I am part of the church.” But making a profession does not make you part of the church. “These are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.”

Are You Planted in His Vineyard?

Ellen White says the same thing over and over again in Christ’s Object Lessons, 216. “Shall the words of doom erelong be spoken of you? How long have you received His gifts? How long has He watched and waited for a return of love? Planted in His vineyard [the church], under the watchful care of the gardener, what privileges are yours! How often has the tender gospel message thrilled your heart! You have taken the name of Christ, you are outwardly a member of the church which is His body, and yet you are conscious of no living connection with the great heart of love.”

Outwardly you are a member; inwardly you are not. Outwardly you are part of the church; inwardly you are not. Just like the parable of the vine and the branches in John 15, some had an outward connection, and some had an inner connection. Those who had only the outward connection were cut off and burned up. Those who had the inward connection bore fruit.

Profession Is Not Everything

“God called them (the Jews) to be co-workers with Him in blessing the world; but while in profession they accepted the call, in action they refused obedience.” Ibid., 279. In profession they claimed to be sons of God. They professed to be part of the church, but in life and character they denied that relationship. Their profession is one thing; their life and character is something else. “In taking upon themselves the solemn covenant of the church they have pledged themselves to receive and obey the word of God, to give themselves to God’s service, but they do not do this.” Ibid.

They profess something, but they do not live it out; it is not real. They have an outward connection, but the inner connection, by which the life of Christ flows into their life, is not there.

“The professed followers of Christ are on trial before the heavenly universe; but the coldness of their zeal and the feebleness of their efforts in God’s service, mark them as unfaithful. If what they are doing were the best they could do, condemnation would not rest upon them; but were their hearts enlisted in the work, they could do much more. They know, and the world knows, that they have, to a great degree, lost the spirit of self-denial and cross bearing. Many there are against whose names will be found written in the books of heaven. Not producers, but consumers. By many who bear Christ’s name, His glory is obscured, His beauty veiled, His honor withheld. There are many whose names are on the church books, but who are not under Christ’s rule . They are not heeding His instruction or doing His work. There they are under the control of the enemy.” Ibid 303, 304

They have the name, but whose control are they under? Satan’s! There may be those who say we should not worry about all of this because the Lord is going to straighten it all out. The Lord is going to straighten it all out! Next month we will see just how He is going to do it.

The church is going to be purified, but, as we look at this subject, about which church is going to go through, remember we are asking one question. The question is, how? Your understanding has to agree with all of the inspired statements. If it does not agree with all of the inspired statements, there is something wrong.

An Inner Connection to Christ

There is a church that is going through, and that church is going to be composed of people who are overcomers. They do not just take the name, but they actually have an inner connection to Christ through the Holy Spirit, and the divine power is coming into their lives to give them power to overcome.

If you cannot understand everything yet, can you understand that if you are going to remain with the church until it becomes triumphant, you have to be an overcomer? You cannot just be a professor of religion, and play church. There are a lot of people playing church today. Do you know what it means to play church? You go to church. Maybe you are a deacon; maybe you teach the Sabbath School lesson or the Sunday School lesson; maybe you are even a preacher, or an evangelist, or an administrator. Maybe you have a high position in the church. You can do all of those things and just be playing church. The Pharisees did all those things, and people thought that they were righteous because on the outside it looked like they were. Judas did it. He was a tare. Annanias and Saphira did it, and they are described as tares. Demas did it, and he was described as a tare. Simon Magus was baptized; yet he was a tare. In every single one of these instances, when the tares developed to the point where they were in open sin, they were removed from the church. Do not ever forget that. The important thing for you, as an individual, even if you cannot understand all of the theology and all of the questions that people may ask you, is to understand this: the only people who are going to go through to the end are the people who overcome their sins. Are you going to be one of them?

Some years ago one of our best-known preachers made the statement that in these final battles we might lose some whole divisions. We might lose more than whole divisions. We might lose the whole General Conference. But the church will still go through. The question is, are you going to be an overcomer and go through with it? The Lord has power to help you if you are willing to surrender all to Him, follow Him, and be faithful to Him.

Those Who Follow the Lamb

In vision John saw a group of people who will ‘follow the Lamb whethersoever He goeth.’ They are going to be taken out of this world alive and taken to heaven. Would it not be wonderful if some of you could be part of that group? It could happen if you are willing to be faithful—not just to be a professed believer, Paul said to the Corinthians, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.” 2 Corinthians 13:5. Jesus Christ is in you unless you are unapproved. Is Jesus Christ in you? Can you say like Paul, “For me to live is Christ?” That is what will make you a grain of wheat. The Lord has promised in this last great contest that not one grain of wheat will fall to the ground.

Whatever my responsibilities are in this world, I have a pastor’s heart inside. I have a shepherd’s heart inside. I want to see every person reading this article saved. I would like to see the whole world saved, but I cannot bring it about. Would it not be wonderful if there were a few churches around, where the whole church was saved? If everybody is going to be saved in your church, you have to be saved. Every single one of you can be saved if you are willing to surrender all to Jesus. Say, “Lord I am in this thing for real, for serious. Please come into my heart so You and Your love may be living inside of me. I want my religion to not just be a profession, but something that I look like, something real.” Do you want to have that experience? Do you want to be connected to the Lord Jesus so that He is in you? If that is your desire, make a commitment to Him and say, “Lord, I want you inside to transform my heart and my life, to make me a grain of wheat.”

Editorial – What is Behind Religious Lawsuits?

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We live in an age when lawsuits are common in all areas of society.  Some years ago it was church policy (as well as a Biblical prohibition, see I Corinthians 6) that Adventists did not sue one another. If you read the report about the Mary Kay Silver case you will see that as late as the seventies this was considered sufficient reason to disfellowship a member. If it was wrong to disfellowship those that sue another, then a formal apology needs to be made to those who were disfellowshipped at that time for those reasons. But if it was not wrong to disfellowship members who were doing it then, the only consistent course to follow today would be to disfellowship those who are doing it today—which would include those in the highest positions of leadership in the General Conference in Silver Springs Maryland.

Of course there is a way to get around all of this. If I am a person of influence I can go to the church where my opponent is a member and persuade a majority in a church business meeting to disfellowship him first. Then I can claim that he is no longer a Seventh-day Adventist (because he is not a member of the “church,”) therefore he is no longer a brother, and the injunction in I Corinthians 6 no longer applies. I am free to seek any sort or redress I desire.

This controversy over who can call themselves by  what name has been around for a long time, most of 2,000 years. It is the same controversy that produced the dark ages—those dismal times when over 50 million Bible-believing Christians lost their lives over the very same issue. That issue is, are we going to have a religion based on the New Testament idea of religion or not.

Although there were many attempts to teach this idea in the Old Testament, Jesus taught it so strongly and forcefully that the New Testament ushered in a new concept for the society of that time. The New Testament envisions human society in this world, not as united or living in unity, or one accord, but rather  as composed of opposing factions which will continue until the end of the millenium. The New Testament teaches that some men will glory in the very same cross that other men will despise. It teaches that the same person who is precious to some will be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to others. But the New Testament also teaches that such diversity of religious beliefs do not make it impossible for a man to be a faithful and loyal citizen of the state. Although Christians of that time were of a different religious persuasion than the magistrates and all worldly rulers, they were to be obedient to all laws of the state (Romans 13 and I Peter 2), as long as these laws did not conflict with the law of God. When there was a conflict, Peter and the other apostles said,”We must obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:29. The apostles would not consent for the state to tell them whether they could preach or what they could preach—not because they were not obedient citizens, but because that jurisdiction did not belong to the state.  Jesus had taught them that they were to render to the state all that belonged to the state (taxes, honor of state authority, customs, and all other civil laws) but then, in the same sentence, Jesus said that they were to render to God those things that were God’s.  What things belong to God and not to the state are spelled out in the first four precepts of the decalogue. These precepts spell out what a man’s relation to God is to be, and the state does not have a right to command a man or to enforce a man to keep these precepts. This fact was most emphatically taught to the world in Daniel 3 and again in Daniel 6.

The New Testament envisions human society made up, not of one, but of two parts—the secular, that is the civil, the state, or the human government, or “that which is Caesar’s.” And in contrast to this the religious, that which is not of the state but is of the church. That which belongs to God and not to Caesar (the church belongs to God and does not, in any sense, belong to the state) that which involves a man’s relation to his God, his maker is not a matter to be decided by the state, but by that man’s will. God does not want the worship or service of any man that is forced upon that man by the state. God only accepts that worship that is freely rendered from that man’s will. The New Testament repeats the message over and over “Whoever will let him …”Revelation 22:17.

It was confusion over this issue—the idea that a human ruler could take the place of God and direct and order the way that a human being should practice his religion—that led to persecution both before and after the time of Christ.  This is what lay at the foundation of the persecutions of Christians by the pagan Roman government.  This is what lay at the foundation of the persecutions of Bible-believing Christians by the papacy during the dark ages.  And this is what will lay at the foundation of the persecutions coming during the great tribulation yet in the future. It matters not whether the human ruler be a king, a senate, a legislature, a judge, a court, a general, a Protestant church, or any other church or religion, or any other human group; the result is the same.

Jesus did not teach His followers to leave the world for caves or isolation, (see John 17) rather He taught them that they were to be in the world and deeply involved in the affairs of society, just as salt permeates the entire dish, “in the world but not of the world.” (see Matthew 5-7.) Jesus taught then that society was not mono-lithic but composite—composed of completely different factions of religious belief and His followers were to live peaceably with those of all other religions, and even conform to the rules and laws of society as long as these did not conflict with the laws of God. As one early writer described it (the Christians), “dwelling as they do in Hellenic and in barbaric cities, as each man’s lot is, and following the customs of the country in dress and food and the rest of life, the manner of conduct which they display is wonderful and confessedly beyond belief. They inhabit their own fatherland, but as sojourners; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is to them a fatherland and every fatherland a foreign country… They live on the earth but their citizenship is in heaven.”

So the New Testament church was always a fellowship of believers, it was never, never all those who lived in a certain locality. The early Christians knew that the church and the state existed on difference planes.

But the very essence of New Testament religion and teaching was lost when Constantine made “Christianity” the religion of the Roman State. “Christianity” was made into law for those who have only been born, instead of reborn. The result was that religion was now to be enforced by law.  The state would force men to be good, and all of society would become law-abiding Christians. (This idea, remember is what brought on 1400 years called the dark ages.) Indoctrination in tenets of the ancient pagan beliefs became outlawed and strictly proscribed. Unbaptized persons were required to attend catechism classes in preparation for baptism; all who, after attending such classes, refused to present themselves for baptism were subject to punishment by the state.

True Christians who understood the teachings of the New Testament saw that, what was thought to be the “church” had fallen (had apostatized), that the great apostasy predicted by Paul in II Thessalonians was manifested.  It was during this time, during the bishopric of Sylvester, that the Waldenses and others separated from those calling themselves “Catholic” and declared that this  “church” had fallen.

The Donatist controversy was one of the reactions to this departure from New Testament teaching. The controversy was not about doctrine but it was a question of the nature of the church as a society and its relationship to the world. Was the church all in a given locality (a state church) or was it a body of those being saved, surrounded by an unregenerate mass of people, as the New Testament taught?

Augustine, who opposed the Donatists said, “The issue between us and the Donatists is about the question where this body is to be located, that is, what and where is the Church?”

The idea of a “Catholic church” is totally foreign to the New Testament and even to the word church itself. The world “catholic” comes from two Greek words that mean together, “according to the entirety.” But the New Testament word translated “church” means “those who are called out” in other words not according to the entirety. The Apostle Peter described the church in the following language, first describing those that are not part of the church he says, “they stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession that you may proclaim the moral excellence of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.” I Peter 2:8, 9. The apostles never speak of the church militant, according to the entirety of society, but as those called out from the world, “be blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.” Philippines 2:15.

For ‘twelve centuries that went before the Reformation it has never lacked for attempts to get away from the State-Church Priests’ Church and to reinstitute the apostolic congregational structurization.’ “Throughout Medieval times there never was a moment in which Constantinianism stood unchallenged. . . .Wherever the New Testament is held in honor there its concept of the Church of Christ will continue to challenge. There a Church based on personal faith will challenge the concept of a Church embracing all.”

The frantic efforts by the church of the dark ages to keep in power by destroying opponents at the stake, the scaffold, on the rack, or by the headsman’s ax is proof enough that the New Testament concept of the church was an ever-present threat. The effort to destroy all their writings shows what men were afraid of—the New Testament concept of the church would destroy the concept of a state church and the earthly power of those who, through this concept, had become the spiritual lords of their fellow-men.

The Donatists taught that a true Church cannot exist where the secular rule and the Christian Church are blended. The battle for separation of church and state was finally won in the American colonies after centuries of the most bloodly conflict recorded in all religious history. It is this concept of separation of church and state that brought freedom to the persecuted who fled to America, and freedom brought prosperity such as no nation has enjoyed in recent times. In America a person could not be prosecuted by the state for his religious beliefs or practices as long as he did not injure his neighbor. (The state has the right to enforce the outward compliance with the second table of the 10 commandments, see Romans 13.)

Today, this freedom is being rapidly lost. Society is rapidly making the state the tool for enforcing the wishes of the church. Since we are still in name under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, a way has to be figured out to show that a person has injured somebody else in the practice of his religion, or in making known his personal beliefs. So a person is sued for talking about problems with meat on television. If a person cannot express what they think anymore without somebody else deciding they have been injured, we soon will have no freedom of speech, and what is worse (which you can know if you have traveled to totalitarian countries), when freedom of speech is lost, freedom to think is eventually lost. The loss to society is beyond computation.

Jesus said about His church “My kingdom is not of this world, if My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now My kingdom is not from here.” John 18:36. In the dark ages the professed church lost sight of this, they made the “church” a kingdom of this world, but any church which is also a kingdom of this world is not the true church of Christ according to Jesus statement. The “church” in the dark ages put Peter in the right for drawing the sword to promote the cause of Christ, and it put Jesus in the wrong for rebuking Peter for it. They conveniently forgot that Jesus had been deeply displeased at the first suggestion of a second sword; it forgot that Jesus had been so disappointed by Peter’s rash act of using the secular sword for promoting the cause of Christ, that He had stooped down to repair the damage Peter’s sword had inflicted.

The “bride of Christ” had so changed in appearance as to become unrecognizable. She, who had been sent on a mission of healing, had taken on the features of a modern police State.

The Anabaptists, one of the most persecuted groups, taught that the civil magistrate ‘must leave every man to his own devices in regard to religion no matter what he believes or teaches, so long as he does not disturb the outward civil quiet.’

The Donatists were proscribed, it was not allowed to call them Christians, they were to be called heretics and punished by the state for their heresy.  (Notice how their situation was identical to that of persecuted Christians today. They were forbidden to take the name of Christ because other Christians declared that the name belonged only to them and those of their religious beliefs, or of their church organization.) Their pastors told their flocks that nothing had changed now that the Roman empire had accepted Christianity. The only difference they said, was that before the devil had used force, he was now working in and with allies on the inside. For the true follower of Christ the result was the same, namely, persecution. There was no difference between the persecutions once staged by a pagan government and the persecutions of the flock from a supposedly Christian regime.

In commenting on this state of affairs a reformation writer says, ‘Who would not mistake the Christ for a moloch or some such god if indeed He delights in human sacrifice. . .? Imagine Him to be present, in the capacity of constable, to announce the sentence and light the fire. . .! Oh Christ, thou creator and king of all the earth, dost thou not see these things? Art thou so changed completely, become thus cruel and contrary to Thine own proper self . . .? Dost thou command that those who do not understand Thy commandments and institutions as yet, are to be choked in water, struck until the bowels gush forth, these then strewn with salt, to be struck with the sword or made to roast over small fire, with every torment martyred in as drawn out a manner as possible? Ah Christ, dost thou indeed command such things and dost thou approve of them when they are done? Are they indeed Thy lieutenants who officiate at such burned sacrifice? Dost thou allow Thyself to be seen at the scene of such butchery? Dost thou then verily eat human flesh, Oh Christ? If thou dost such things forsooth, or orderest them done, then what, pray what, hast thou left for the devil to do?

Quotations and many paraphrased statements in this editorial are from the first chapter of the excellent book “The Reformers and their Stepchildren” by Leonard Verduin, copyright 1964, published by Eerdmans Publishing Company, 255 Jefferson Ave., SE, Grand Rapids Michigan 49503

Editorial – Satan’s Victims, Part I

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Sin, the breaking of God’s law, is a horrid, hateful thing. It results in grief,  pain, misery, and finally in everlasting death. The question is, why then would anybody choose it? There is more than one true answer to this question. The answer as to why millions of angels chose it, and why Eve chose it, helps to explain many, otherwise unanswerable, questions, such as “Why did God allow this to happen?”

For thousands of years, philosophers have been asking this question: “If God is all powerful, and if He is the author and essence of love, and if, as the Bible says, He takes no pleasure in the death or pain of His creatures, then how can the degradation and suffering and pain around us be taking place?

It is of the utmost importance that an adequate answer to this question be given. It was the lack of an adequate answer to this question that resulted in a multitude of Jews becoming atheist after World War II. They could not correlate the holocaust, the genocide of six million Jews, with their ideas of God. It was, in part, because of an inadequate answer to the problem of suffering that the theories of evolution and atheistic communism were developed. These theories resulted in the deaths of over 100 million people in the last century. The lack of an adequate answer to this question has resulted in millions of people losing all confidence in the Bible and in the Christian religion.

It is significant that the theme of the first chapter in the Conflict of the Ages series of books is about this question. Again, this question is addressed in the first chapter of the Desire of Ages, as well as in the chapter called, “It is Finished,” and in the Great Controversy, the chapter on “The Origin of Evil,” and also in the final chapter of that book.

In fact, an underlying theme of the Conflict of the Ages series is to answer this basic question in a way that finite, fallen beings can understand. Of course, a complete answer to this question will not be understood, even by the saved at the end of the millennium. But enough can be understood now so that each descendant of Adam and Eve may understand enough of the basic issues involved so that intelligent decisions may be made.

Three of the most basic issues are:

  1. The character of God
  2. How do you know what truth is?
  3. Freedom

In this editorial we will begin to deal with number 2.

At the beginning of the great controversy between Christ and Satan, how did Lucifer persuade millions of angels to join him in rebellion against the government of God? We know now what the fallen angels did not know then—that Lucifer gained their allegiance by telling them lies! Although God had called a meeting of all the angels before this development, and had told them the truth in advance so that they would be prepared for Lucifer’s sophistry, the lies seemed more attractive to them than the truth. Although loyal angels attempted to persuade them to cease their independent, disobedient, unsubmissive course, Lucifer’s lies were more attractive to these angels than the truth. They seemed more true than the truth that God had told them. Ellen White makes the startling admission in Patriarchs and Prophets that during that epoch of time, before this world was created, Lucifer had a temporary advantage over God Himself, because Lucifer could, and did, use flattery and deceit, whereas God could not use any weapons like this.

From the standpoint of power, Ellen White makes it clear that God could have destroyed these rebel angels as easily as one casts a pebble to the ground, but this would not have solved the problem. The lies that Lucifer used were so persuasive and appeared so rational and reasonable, and so intrinsically logical and true to the angels, that the only way for finite, created intelligences to absolutely know for sure who was telling the truth was to allow those who believed the lies of Lucifer to live according to those lies and see what the consequences would be.

From our vantage point we can see that the angels who believed the devil’s lies and joined him in rebelling against their Creator became his first victims. By believing a created being instead of the Creator, they not only became Satan’s first victims, but they will suffer his same final fate, although their punishment in hell fire will be far less than his. (See Matthew 25:41; Luke 12:47, 48; 2 Peter 2:4.)

The point is, the very same technique that caused millions of angels to deliberately choose to live in sin, is the identical technique that is causing the vast majority of earth’s inhabitants to deliberately live in sin and will result in their eternal destruction along with Satan and his angels. What is that technique? It is the palming off of lies as the truth. The devil has millions of lies which he palms off as truth. They sound true; they are logical to the human mind; they often sound, to the human mind, to be superior to the truth God has revealed, but if you give your allegience to them, you too will become another of Satan’s victims whose number is as the sand of the seas.

To be continued…

Editorial – Satan’s Victims, Part II

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The vast majority of this world in every generation, but especially in the last generation, accepts Satan’s lies and thus become his victims.  This is a matter of Bible prophecy (See Matthew 7:13, 14; Revelation 12:9; 13:8; 13:14; 16:12-14; 18:23 and 6:14-17.)

We live in a world that has become partly fatalist; partly believing in behaviorism; and partly believing in atheistic blind chance so that nothing really matters. Many believe that human action is simply the result of electrical-chemical forces such as genes, heredity, hormones, plus external stimuli that trigger the built-in machinery in the human body and mind.

Some scientists now believe that homosexuality is simply the result of some abnormal or untoward event (“stress”) happening to the mother during the sixth to eighth week of gestation. Many have wanted for a long time to simply call alcoholism a “disease.” Scientists have been looking for years for evidence of the link between heredity and obesity.  We are doing the same kind of research with regard to aggressive or violent behavior.  Is it possible to decrease violent behavior, and thus reduce crime, with hormones and with diet? Yes, it is.

The conclusion of this kind of reasoning is that we live and act in the manner, first of all, that we are programmed to genetically, and secondly, after the manner that our parents and society around us have programmed us during the first few decades of life.

The Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy recognize that the two factors mentioned above are very powerful forces in influencing human behavior. “Their children often receive this stamp of character before their birth; for the appetites of the parents are often intensified in the children. Thus unborn generations are afflicted by the use of tobacco and liquor. Intellectual decay is entailed upon them, and their moral perceptions are blunted. Thus the world is being filled with paupers, lunatics, thieves, and murderers. Disease, imbecility, and crime, with private and public corruption’s of every sort, are making the world a second Sodom.” Signs of the Times, October 17, 1878.

 “The first three years is the time in which to bend the tiny twig. Mothers should understand the importance attaching to this period. It is then that the foundation is laid.” Child Guidance, 194.

But there is another element in human behavior that the devil does not want you to see. The devil wants you to believe that you are helpless to overcome your evil heredity and environment.   It was he who worked that your parents might transmit to you an increased depravity, that you might be spiritually crippled by perverted home training or none at all. If you truly are helpless to overcome, then how can you justly be taken to judgment? And this is the argument that many believe today; it is one of the devil’s lies that creates millions of victims. The Bible teaches that we are all going to judgment. (Acts 24:15; II Corinthians 5:10).

Why are we going to judgment even though we have a defective heredity and come from a terrible environment so that we are internally and externally programmed to do evil? The reasons are first, that God has not given to the devil; or to our parents, or to anybody else the power to force us to sin. Sin is breaking God’s law through an act of the will. The devil can make it easier to sin than to obey God’s law—he did this for Joseph, Daniel and Jesus and He will do it for you.  But the actual decision to commit sin, to break God’s law, is still up to us, the devil cannot force us to do it.

Though in ourselves we cannot resist the evils of our natures, God has provided all the help we need there too, He has promised, “The power that is near to deliver from physical harm or distress is also near to save from the greater evil, making it possible for the servant of God to maintain his integrity under all circumstances, and to triumph through divine grace.” Prophets and Kings, 545.

Editorial – He Sits as God, Part I

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In Adam and Eve, all was lost for the human race.  One of the principle deceptions which caused the fall of Eve was the temptation to become like God. (See Genesis 3:5.) This has been one of that ancient serpent’s most successful temptations, and it has sent billions of people to eternal destruction.

To understand the essence of the great apostasy which would have a leader who sits as God in the temple of God, as described by Paul in II Thessalonians 2:4, we must first understand, from the Bible, what prerogatives God has which men and women, or even angels, do not have.  For a person to sit as God, in the temple of God, he must assume powers or prerogatives that God has but that men do not have.

First, God has the ultimate right to decide what is right and wrong. God has not only determined, in advance, what right and wrong are, but He considers this subject so important that He has not even entrusted it to man to write down—He has written it down with His own finger in stone, and He has said that He will not change it. (See Psalm 89:34.) “…Whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it.” Ecclesiastes 3:14. This law is exceedingly broad (Psalm 119:96) so that it is impossible to do anything wrong without breaking it. and it is impossible to practice righteousness without keeping it.  The Bible says, “…all Your commandments are righteousness.” Psalm 119:172. All unrighteousness is sin, which is breaking the law (I John 5:17; 3:4.) For this reason the wise man said that the commandments of God comprise the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14.)

In the judgment only one question will be asked, and that question will be, “Did this person keep My law?” (See Revelation 22:14; 14:12.) Obedience proves that the Holy Spirit has regenerated a person’s heart and spirit and that he is walking according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh (Romans 8.) Jesus said that nobody could be saved unless they had been born again of the Holy Spirit (John 3:5.)

Christians submit themselves to human or civil ordinances and laws (I Peter 2:13) as long as the laws do not contradict the law of God, but if the human ordinance contradicts the law of God, then Peter and all his spiritual brethren say, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:29.

Concerning the moral law (the Ten Commandments) James 4:12 says that there is only one lawgiver who can save or destroy. There are not two or three lawgivers. The Apostles were never given this authority, and since the apostles were never given this authority, obviously the church does not have this authority, because the church has no authority which was not given to the 12 apostles. Even the angels have not been given authority over the law of God.

The temple of God (II Thessalonians 2:4,) of course, is the church of God. Writing only to the saints and to the faithful in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:1,) Paul says, “…the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:21, 22.

So any person in the professed church of Christ, any “church board,” “church committee,” “diocese,” “conference,” “church congregation,” “church,” or “church organization” that attempts to make a moral requirement, in addition to or in contradiction of the Ten Commandments, has thereby set himself, or themselves, up as God in the temple of God.  By that very act they become part of the antichrist.

Lucifer, or Satan, is the true antichrist, but if we attempt to assume one of the prerogatives of God like He did, we become part of antichrist.

God will not give to any angel, man, or group of men the prerogatives that He has reserved for Himself. One of those prerogatives is the right to be the moral lawgiver. The lawgiver is also the Saviour (See James 4:12,) so the lawgiver who gave the Ten Commandments is none other than Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12,) the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

The authority which God would not give to Lucifer, which he did not give to any of the prophets or apostles, which Jesus said was as enduring as heaven and earth (Luke 16:17) will always endure. Human governments and churches must always remember that they will never be able to judge the law; rather the law will judge them. (James 2:8-12.)

To be continued…

Editorial – He sits as God, Part II

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In his successful plot to deceive Eve in the Garden of Eden, and thus hopefully gain control over the entire human race, the devil, masquerading as a serpent, made the following statement to Eve: “God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5.

This statement contained truth and falsehood, as the devil’s sophistries generally do.  It was true that if they ate of the fruit that their eyes would be opened and they would know something that God did not desire them to know. “Their eyes were indeed opened; but how sad the opening! The knowledge of evil, the curse of sin, was all that the transgressors gained.” Education, 25.

The human race would not have known anything about pain, sickness, disappointment, misery, loneliness, bereavement, poverty, exhaustion, frustration, war, strife, quarreling, bitterness or death. By disobedience, our eyes were opened to know what God did not desire us to know. In the aspect of understanding what evil is and what its consequences would be, we learned something that only God knew before.  (At the time of the Garden temptation, even the devil did not know all of the consequences of evil, and it would take a long time for the human race to become acquainted with all of them. So in this sense, the statement was a lie and it will remain a lie until the end of the Great Controversy.)

Part of the reason for the success of the temptation was the fact that it aroused in Eve an unholy curiosity to know something that she did not know, and that could not be known without disobeying God. This same curiosity causes the downfall of millions today. There is some knowledge that God has always forbidden us to tamper with and to cross that line starts one down a path to destruction.  There are some pictures you cannot look at and some reading that you cannot engage in and still be a Christian. There is some music that you cannot listen to, or play, and still be a Christian. There are some kinds of work that you cannot engage in and still be a Christian. Any work, occupation, reading, pictures, music, food or clothing that involves a violation of the law of God, or any practice that tends toward breaking any part of that law, is forbidden ground. If you venture upon that forbidden ground, the devil knows that you have entered his territory and are lawful prey.

But the other part of the temptation was the arousal of an intense desire to become elevated to a higher sphere of existence—to become like God. In all ages this same temptation has been one of the most successful in the downfall of the human race.

There are a number of things that are right for God to do that are wrong for anybody else to do.  This is implied right in the first commandment, which states, “you shall have no other gods before Me.”

In our first editorial on this subject we showed from scripture that there is only one lawgiver (referring to the moral law.) It obviously then, would be wrong for anybody else to attempt to be a lawgiver and define what is right and wrong.  All righteous human laws derive from that moral standard given by God Himself.

But there is something else that belongs to God alone and that is the right to receive worship.  This is stated in the most explicit and definite language in the second commandment. It is right for God to receive worship but it would be wrong for anybody else to receive it. Even an angel from heaven is not to be worshipped. (See Revelation 19:10; 22:8, 9.)

Contrary to this most explicit command, in the heathen religions, the leaders of those religions received worship. In II Thessalonians 2, when describing the antichrist power, Paul says “He sits as God in the temple of God showing himself that he is god.” We have seen already that the temple of God is His church (Ephesians 2:19-22.) This then is a prophecy that the antichrist will appear within the Church and that he will sit as God in the church. In other words, he will attempt not only to be another lawgiver but also be another demanding worship. The Bible predicts that in the last days all the world, except for the remnant, will worship this antichrist power (Revelation 13:8.) This applies primarily to the devil, but it would also apply to any human being who, under the inspiration of the original rebel against God’s government, attempted to rewrite God’s law and accepted worship from mankind.

Editorial – He Sits as God, Part III

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In our first two editorials on this subject, we pointed out how, for over 100 years, Adventists have revealed the identity of the antichrist power; this power, which is spoken of in the last days, and whom Bible prophecy warns us so plainly about.

While we have confidently shown the identifying marks of the antichrist power (it is easy from just Daniel 7, II Thessalonians 2 and Revelation 13 to list over 60 identifying, or descriptive, marks of the antichrist power) we have not suspected that we could ever get in such a situation ourselves. We thought that we understood Bible prophecy and we would never acknowledge any part of antichrist.  The Spirit of Prophecy does not give us such an optimistic picture, however.

“If all that appears to be divine life were such in reality; if all who profess to present the truth to the world were preaching for the truth and not against it, and if they were men of God guided by His Spirit,–then might we see something cheering amid the prevailing moral darkness. But the spirit of antichrist is prevailing to such an extent as never before. Well may we exclaim: “Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.” I know that many think far too favorably of the present time. These ease-loving souls will be engulfed in the general ruin. . . .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, 79.

What is this spirit of Antichrist that is prevailing to such an extent as never before? The spirit of antichrist includes man’s desire to be as god (This was the issue at the 1901 General Conference. Study the library speech.) The Greek work anti means, first of all, someone who is in the place of someone else, or in this context, another who stands in the place of Christ and receives that which only Christ can lawfully receive, such as worship. Any such person obviously would have become a god because only God can lawfully receive worship.

The things that the Spirit of Prophecy specifies will eventually make many in Adventism a part of antichrist are the following:

  1. Worldly policy
  2. Presuming to judge the motives of others
  3. Idolizing human wisdom and setting the opinions of men above the revealed wisdom of God
  4. Rejecting the prophets and holding to the traditions of men.
  5. Skepticism
  6. Spiritualism
  7. Molding ourselves (getting our own way)
  8. Following human nature (not dying to self).
  9. Manifesting a love for supremacy.

These brief quotations support these statements:

“Worldly policy is taking the place of the true piety and wisdom that comes from above, and God will remove His prospering hand from the conference. Shall the ark of the covenant be removed from this people? Shall idols be smuggled in? Shall false principles and false precepts be brought into the sanctuary? Shall antichrist be respected?” Counsels to Writers and Editors,

“Whoever presumes to judge the motives of others is again usurping the prerogative of the Son of God. These would-be judges and critics are placing themselves on the side of antichrist, Lift Him Up, 335.

“All that have refused to be taught of God hold to the traditions of men; they at last pass over on the side of the enemy against God and are written antichrist.” General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 18, 1897.

“There are rank infidels, those who believe in the lying wonders of Spiritualism, and those who reject the claims of divine truth. All these are placed among the class that John has written of, and are controlled by the spirit of antichrist.” Manuscript Release, vol. 20.

“Those who will not practice the lessons of Christ, but keep themselves in hand, to mold themselves, find in antichrist the center of their union. While the two parties stand in collision, the Lord will appear.” Ibid., 113.3.

“The crisis is just before us. The fierce conflict of mind with mind, of principle with principle, of truth with error, which is fast approaching, and which has already begun, calls for constant vigilance. . . .the walls of antichrist shall fall.”  Ibid.

“The spirit of antichrist is developing rapidly. Soon there will be a time when those who follow their own human nature, who manifest a love for supremacy, will be found to be on the losing side.” Ibid., 176.

Editorial – He sits as God – Part IV

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A quick review is that the church is God’s temple (Ephesians 2), that God has prerogatives that He will not give to any created being, and any man or angel who attempts to assume prerogatives of God in the church has thereby set himself up as God, in the temple of God, as the antichrist is described as doing in II Thessalonians 2.

One of the prerogatives of God that the angels and the apostles have never had (and which therefore the church has never had) is the right to decide what is right and wrong—the right to be the lawgiver. There is only one lawgiver (James 4:12).

Another right that only God has, is the right to be the Saviour—to deliver you and me from the guilt and power of sin.  Both the Old and New Testaments declare this. (See James 4:12; Matthew 9:2-6; Isaiah 45:21.) The church cannot save you from sin; the leaders of the church cannot save you from sin; the services of the church cannot save you from sin. Only God can do that. All that the church or any man can do is point people to where the help is, where the salvation is. But the essence of false religion is to lead men to look to men, to trust in men for salvation, to trust churches or rituals or theological beliefs for salvation.  This is why false religion doesn’t work.

If your religion is not leading you to victory over sin, to a cessation from sinning in your life, then there is something wrong with your religion. True religion points people to the true God and results in a spiritual new birth, which results in victory over sin. (See I John 5:18.)

Through heathenism, Satan had, for ages, turned men away from God; but he won his great triumph in perverting the faith of Israel. By contemplating and worshiping their own conceptions the heathen had lost a knowledge of God and had become more and more corrupt. So it was with Israel. The principle that man can save himself by his own works lay at the foundation of every heathen religion; it had now become the principle of the Jewish religion. Satan had implanted this principle. Wherever it is held, men have no barrier against sin. (See Desire of Ages, 35, 36.)

One of the most serious consequences of the rule of antichrist is that the people are not delivered from their sins and a theological system has been developed to handle this.  The theological explanation is that we cannot overcome our sins because of our fallen sinful nature (“original sin”). Therefore, we are saved just by being forgiven of our sins and the church claims to do this. So the sinner who goes on in sin, regularly confessing his sins, believes, mistakenly, that he is on the road to salvation. Nowhere in the Bible is salvation promised to the person who is living in sin.  In fact, damnation is promised to the person who goes on living in sin. Salvation is promised only to the one who overcomes or is set free from sin. (See John 8:32-36; Romans 6; I John 3; Revelation 21:5-7; I Corinthians 6:9, 10; Revelation 22:14, 15.)

There was a time when God’s remnant people knew this, and we proclaimed that the doctrine of being saved in sin was from the antichrist and that we could only be saved from sin.  But the doctrines of antichrist have strangely become much more acceptable to the professed people of God, and many have accepted the “saved in sin” theology along with the majority of the professed Christian world. Where will this theology leave you in the Day of Judgment? With antichrist. (See Matthew 7:21-23.)

“The victory that Jesus gained in the wilderness is a pledge to you of the victory that you may gain through His name. Your only hope and salvation is in overcoming as Christ overcame.” Testimonies, vol. 3, 457.

Editorial – Will You be Swept Away by the Coming Destruction?

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 “The Lord gave me a view, January 26, 1850, which I will relate.  I saw that some of the people of God are stupid and dormant and but half awake; they do not realize the time we are now living in, and that the man with the “dirt brush” [See William Miller’s Dream, Early Writings, 81] has entered, and that some are in danger of being swept away.  I begged of Jesus to save them, to spare them a little longer, and let them see their awful danger, that they might get ready before it should be forever too late.

“The angel said, ‘Destruction is coming like a mighty whirlwind.’  I begged of the angel to pity and to save those who loved this world, who were attached to their possessions and were not willing to cut loose from them and sacrifice to speed the messengers on their way to feed the hungry sheep who were perishing for want of spiritual food.

“As I viewed the poor souls dying for want of the present truth, and some who professed to believe the truth were letting them die by withholding the necessary means to carry forward the work of God, the sight was too painful, and I begged of the angel to remove it from me.  I saw that when the cause of God called for some of their property, like the young man who came to Jesus (See Matthew 19:16–22.) they went away sorrowful, and that soon the overflowing scourge would pass over and sweep their possessions all away, and then it would be too late to sacrifice earthly goods, and lay up a treasure in heaven.

“I then saw the glorious Redeemer, beautiful and lovely; that He left the realms of glory and came to this dark and lonely world to give His precious life and die, the just for the unjust.  He bore the cruel mocking and scourging, wore the plaited crown of thorns, and sweat great drops of blood in the garden, while the burden of the sins of the whole world was upon Him.  The angel asked, ‘What for?’  Oh, I saw and knew that it was for us; for our sins He suffered all this, that by His precious blood He might redeem us unto God!

“Then again was held up before me those who were not willing to dispose of this world’s goods to save perishing souls by sending them the truth while Jesus stands before the Father pleading His blood, His sufferings, and His death for them; and while God’s messengers are waiting, ready to carry them the saving truth that they might be sealed with the seal of the living God.  It is hard for some who profess to believe the present truth to do even so little as to hand the messengers God’s own money that He has lent them to be stewards over.

“The suffering Jesus, His love so deep as to lead Him to give His life for man, was again held up before me; also the lives of those who professed to be His followers, who had this world’s goods, but considered it so great a thing to help the cause of salvation.  The angel said, ‘Can such enter heaven?’  Another angel answered, ‘No, never, never, never.’  Those who are not interested in the cause of God on earth can never sing the song of redeeming love above.…  The mighty shaking has commenced and will go on, and all will be shaken out who are not willing to take a bold and unyielding stand for the truth and to sacrifice for God and His cause.  The angel said, ‘Think ye that any will be compelled to sacrifice?  No, no.  It must be a freewill offering.  It will take all to buy the field.’  I cried to God to spare His people, some of whom were fainting and dying.  Then I saw that the judgments of the Almighty were speedily coming, and I begged of the angel to speak in his language to the people.  Said he, ‘All the thunders and lightnings of Mount Sinai would not move those who will not be moved by the plain truths of the Word of God, neither would an angel’s message awake them.’  Early Writings, 49–51.

Editorial – Our Spirit and the Message

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Ellen White gives a good deal of counsel to Seventh-day Adventists who are going to be facing a Sunday law crisis. Excerpts from Testimonies, vol.9, 239-244 are contained below.  May these counsels help all of us in preaching, teaching, in any public speaking, or in publishing material for our own brethren or for the world.

“Satan’s attacks against the advocates of the truth will wax more bitter and determined to the very close of time. As in Christ’s day the chief priests and rulers stirred up the people against Him, so today the religious leaders will excite bitterness and prejudice against the truth for this time. The people will be led to acts of violence and opposition which they would never have thought of had they not been imbued with the animosity of professed Christians against the truth.”

“What course shall the advocates of truth pursue?

Their words must not be rugged and sharp. Those who know that they have the truth should not, by the use of harsh and severe expressions, give Satan one chance to misinterpret their spirit.”

“The course of Christ in dealing even with the adversary of souls should be an example to us in all our intercourse with others never to bring a railing accusation against any; much less should we employ harshness or severity toward those who may be as anxious to know the right way as we are ourselves.”

“It is our work to speak the truth in love and not to mix in with the truth the unsanctified elements of the natural heart and speak things that savor of the same spirit possessed by our enemies. All sharp thrusts will come back upon us in double measure when the power is in the hands of those who can exercise it for injury. Over and over the message has been given to me that we are not to say one word, not to publish one sentence, especially by way of personalities, unless positively essential in vindicating the truth, that will stir up our enemies against us and arouse their passions to a white heat. Our work will soon be closed up, and soon the time of trouble, such as never was, will come upon us, of which we have but little idea.”

“We should carefully examine our ways and our spirit, and see in what manner we are doing the work given us of God, which involves the destiny of souls. The very highest obligation is resting upon us. Satan is standing ready, burning with zeal to inspire the whole confederacy of satanic agencies, that he may cause them to unite with evil men and bring upon the believers of truth speedy and severe suffering.”

“It will be impossible for us to avoid difficulties and suffering. The deceptive errors that are widespread, and that are leading the world captive, are to be unveiled.”

“We grieve the Lord Jesus Christ by our harshness by our un-Christlike thrusts.”

“Those who have had great privileges and opportunities, and who have failed to improve their physical, mental, and moral powers, but who have lived to please themselves and have refused to bear their responsibility, are in greater danger and in greater condemnation before God than those who are in error upon doctrinal points, yet who seek to live to do good to others. Do not censure others; do not condemn them.”

“If we allow selfish considerations, false reasoning, and false excuses to bring us into a perverse state of mind and heart, so that we shall not know the ways and will of God, we shall be far more guilty than the open sinner. We need to be very cautious in order that we may not condemn those who, before God, are less guilty than ourselves.”

“Let everyone bear in mind that we are in no case to invite persecution. We are not to use harsh and cutting words. Keep them out of every article written, drop them out of every address given.”

“Let all be guarded in their words, lest they place those not of our faith in deadly opposition against us and give Satan an opportunity to use the unadvised words to hedge up our way.”