Editorial

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.”

Editorial – The Incurable Wound of God’s People

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Jeremiah 30 talks about the time of Jacob’s trouble, and the promise that God’s people (the 144,000) will be delivered. The Bible speaks of three times of trouble, which are described as greater than anything before or after. Jacob’s trouble is one of these. The prophet says, “Alas for that day is great so that none is like it, it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble but he shall be saved out of it.” Jeremiah 30:7.

During this time, Jesus says,  “I make a full end of all nations” Jeremiah 30:11.  He will break the yoke of Babylon from off the neck of His people, (See Jeremiah 30:8; See also Isaiah 14:3-6) and will restore health to His people and heal them of their wounds. (See Jeremiah 30:17.)

God’s people need to be healed of their wounds because their wound is incurable (See Jeremiah 30:12), there is no medicine that will heal their wound because it is so grievous. (See 30:12, 13.) What is this grievous, incurable wound?  It is not a physical wound, but a spiritual wound—the wound of sin. (See Jeremiah 30:14, 15.)

Although all sin is incurable without the blood of Christ and repentance, inspired writings specifically speaks of some sins as incurable. Could it be that these sins are afflicting God’s people in the last days?  The reason they are incurable is not because the blood atonement of Christ will not cleanse the sinner from them, but because the victim of these sins will almost never humble himself to take the cure that God has provided.  We can only be saved in God’s appointed way. Here is a brief list:

  1. Pride and self-sufficiency: There is nothing so offensive to God or so dangerous to the human soul as pride and self-sufficiency. Of all sins it is the most hopeless, the most incurable. Christ’s Object Lessons, 155.
  2. Rebellion: It would not have been safe to suffer any who united with Satan in his rebellion to continue to occupy heaven. They had learned the lesson of genuine rebellion against the unchangeable law of God, and this is incurable…. Lift Him Up, 19.
  3. Pride of opinion: The sin that is most nearly hopeless and incurable is pride of opinion, self-conceit. This stands in the way of all growth. 2 Mind, Character and Personality, 726.
  4. Envy: Men often confess and forsake other faults, but there is little to be hoped for from the envious man. Since to envy a person is to admit that he is a superior, pride will not permit any concession. If an attempt be made to convince the envious person of his sin, he becomes even more bitter against the object of his passion, and too often he remains incurable. 5 Testimonies, 56.
  5. Bigotry and prejudice: The most cruel, and the most incurable thing is bigotry and prejudice and it lives just as firmly in human hearts today as when Christ was upon the earth. 1888 Materials, 800, 801.
  6. Men who have large opinions of themselves: Men who have large opinions of themselves are often in error, but they will not confess this. Envy and jealousy are diseases which disorder all the faculties of the being. They originated with Satan in Paradise. After he had started on the track of apostasy, he could see many things that were objectionable. After he fell he envied Adam and Eve in their innocency. He tempted them to sin, and to become like himself, disloyal to God. Those who accept of his attributes will demerit others, misrepresent and falsify in order to build up themselves. These persons are generally incurable, and as nothing that defileth can enter heaven, they will not be there. They would criticize the angels. They would covet another’s crown. They would not know what to do, or what subjects to converse upon unless they could be finding some errors, some imperfections, in others. The Paulson Collection, 358, 359.

“There are existing evils in the church that no human power can heal…. All misapprehension produces unkindness, consciously or unconsciously, and then unkindness provokes retaliations, and strife propagates itself.” 18 Manuscript Releases, 348.

To the church and the church member who is incurable, Jesus is making the same plea as He did 1900 years ago: “Would you be made whole?”

Editorial – Of What Spirit Are We?

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The Word of the Lord states, “I will  overturn, overturn, overturn, it; and it shall be no more until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.”  Ezekiel 21:27.

When the Jews were taken into captivity, never again were God’s professed people to have a king until Christ Himself would set up His kingdom.  Therefore, any one who should attempt to become king over God’s people would, in that very act of usurpation, become an antichrist.  To claim to be a “Vicar of Christ” is to claim to be an antichrist, because vicarius in Latin is equivalent to anti in Greek.  Both words are defined as one who acts in place of another.  While ministers may act in the place of Christ as an apostle to spread the gospel, no minister or clergyman may act in the place of Christ as Lord.  (See Matthew 23:8; I Peter 5:3.)  An antichrist is either a person who professes to stand in the place of Christ or one who is against Christ.  The Christian religion teaches that man has only one spiritual Lord, so anyone attempting to be Lord over other Christians is an antichrist.

In the days of the apostles there were many antichrists, just as there are today.  It is even possible to become an antichrist within your family by usurping the place meant for Christ alone.

“The prevailing spirit of our times is that of infidelity and apostasy.  The spirit manifested in the world is one of pride and self-exaltation.  Men boast of illumination, which in reality is the blindest presumption; for they are in opposition to the plain word of God.  Many exalt human reason, idolize human wisdom, and set the opinions of men above the revealed wisdom of God.  This affords opportunity for the working of Satan, and the spirit of antichrist is far more wide-spread than any of us imagine.

Among the great mass of professed Christians, the grievous character of the transgression of the law of God is not understood.  They do not realize that salvation can be obtained only through the blood of Christ, through His imputed righteousness; but this alone will avail to make fallen man what he should be, and exalt him to become a member of the royal family.”  Review and Herald, November 8, 1892.  [Emphasis supplied.]

“There are men among us in responsible positions who hold that the opinions of a few conceited philosophers, so called, are more to be trusted than the truth of the Bible, or the testimonies of the Holy Spirit.  Such a faith as that of Paul, Peter, or John is considered old-fashioned and insufferable at the present day.  It is pronounced absurd, mystical, and unworthy of an intelligent mind.

“God has shown me that these men are Hazaels to prove a scourge to our people.  They are wise above what is written.  This unbelief of the very truths of God’s word because human judgment cannot comprehend the mysteries of His work is found in every district, in all ranks of society.  It is taught in most of our schools and comes into the lessons of the nurseries.  Thousands who profess to be Christians give heed to lying spirits.  Everywhere the spirit of darkness in the garb of religion will confront you.

“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.  Yet we do not despair.  We have been inclined to think that where there are no faithful ministers there can be no true Christians, but this is not the case.  God has promised that where the shepherds are not true He will take charge of the flock Himself.  God has never made the flock wholly dependent upon human instrumentalities.  But 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, 80.  [Emphasis supplied.]

Today God is purifying a people.  When Ellen White was alive, the spirit of antichrist had permeated throughout the Seventh-day Adventist church, and that spirit is prevalent today as never before.

While it is true that the devil is the real antichrist, and while it is true that he has human vicegerents working under him who have claimed for many years to be antichrist, let us be sure that we do not also become antichrists by adopting a position of kingly power that only Christ is to fill.

Editorial – Character Perfection

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Some people have said that nobody is perfect, but that is not correct. Jesus is perfect, and you and I are to become as He is.

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.  And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure” (1 John 3:2, 3).

When the Lord returns He is coming back to receive a church—“That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).

“And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27).

“The longest journey is performed by taking one step at a time. A succession of steps brings us to the end of the road. The longest chain is composed of separate links. If one of these links is faulty, the chain is worthless. Thus it is with character. A well-balanced character is formed by single acts well performed. One defect, cultivated instead of being overcome, makes the man imperfect, and closes against him the gate of the Holy City. He who enters heaven must have a character that is without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Naught that defileth can ever enter there. In all the redeemed host not one defect will be seen.” The Youth’s Instructor, January 17, 1901.

When has a person reached perfection? “When self is merged in Christ, love springs forth spontaneously. The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within—when the sunshine of heaven fills the heart and is revealed in the countenance.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 384.

“Love to man is the earthward manifestation of the love of God. It was to implant this love, to make us children of one family, that the King of glory became one with us. And when His parting words are fulfilled, ‘Love one another, as I have loved you’ (John 15:12); when we love the world as He has loved it, then for us His mission is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven; for we have heaven in our hearts.” The Desire of Ages, 641.

Editorial – Living By Every Word, Part I

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According to Matthew 4:4, when Jesus was tempted by the devil, He quoted from Deuteronomy saying, “‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”  This clear statement makes it evident that every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God is important and should be the standard by which we live.   The problem is, how can you live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God if you do not know what words proceeded from the mouth of God?

This was the situation in the Dark Ages.   There was an attempt to keep people in the dark, even after the printing press was invented.  If you are saved in the kingdom of heaven, you will meet printers (men and women) who were burned at the stake,  because they printed the Bible for people to read.  Eventually, however, it became impossible for either kings or priests to stop the printing press.   Bibles began to be printed in ever larger quantities.

Before this time, the common people only had access to those portions of the Bible that were read in church.   In many churches a portion of the Bible was read every week from a lectionary.   This has been a custom from ancient times and seems to go all the way back to the Jewish church before the time of Christ.  (See, for example, Luke 4:14-20.)  We still use lectionaries.   In the back of the hymnal, published by the Review and Herald in 1985, there is a rather informal lectionary containing over 200 scripture readings which can be read in church.  (Some lectionaries contain a year of readings, which are read in sequence through the year.)

When the common people gained access to the Bible, as a result of the invention of printing, they found some very interesting things.   One of the most interesting things they found was that the sacred book contained no instruction or teaching about the worship of saints, or Mary the mother of Jesus, or prayers for the dead, or indulgences, or Peter and his successors being the head of the church, or many other things that were part of their worship.  This resulted in the development of Protestantism.  One of the primary foundation points on which Protestantism was built, was the idea that “the precepts of Scripture, conveyed through the understanding, are to rule the conscience; in other words, that God speaking in the Bible, and not the church speaking through the priesthood, is the one Infallible Guide.’—Wylie, b. 3, ch.  2.”   The Great Controversy, 102.

“As Protestants, the Bible, and the Bible alone, is the foundation of our faith; but by many ‘the Fathers’ are quoted as authority.  They do not come as humble learners in the school of Christ, saying, ‘Lord, what I know not, teach me.   “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”’”  Signs of the Times, August 5, 1886.

From this extremely brief, historical review, it is possible to draw  broad, but accurate, conclusions.   First of all, since “the Bible and the Bible alone is the foundation of our faith” as Protestants, any device, philosophy, or teaching that will weaken a person’s faith in the Bible will have the effect to eventually destroy Protestantism.   Many devices and philosophies and teachings have been introduced to the world in the last 400 years, which have had this result.  Examples would include the theory of evolution, the theories of higher criticism, the theories of atheistic socialism (related of course to the theory of evolution), the various skeptical theories about the existence of God, the teachings of the spirit world, and the errors of popular theology which contradict the Bible.  “There is nothing that he [the devil] desires more than to destroy confidence in God and in His Word.” The Great Controversy, 526.

It is not our purpose here to present the evidences for the divine character of the Word of God.   There is sufficient internal evidence for this within the Bible itself, even if you had no access to a history book; but, “While God has given ample evidence for faith, He will never remove all excuse for unbelief.  All who look for hooks to hang their doubts upon, will find them.  And those who refuse to accept and obey God’s Word until every objection has been removed, and there is no longer an opportunity for doubt, will never come to the light.”  Ibid., 527.

A second conclusion is that destruction of faith in the Bible not only will not destroy Catholicism but can actually foster its growth and success, since Catholicism is not built on the foundation of the Bible alone.

Editorial – Living by Every Word, Part II

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Before the Protestant Reformation, there was only one Bible.  Now, there were many manuscripts of the Scriptures, and the manuscripts of the New Testament in Greek (the language in which the New Testament was written) had many variant readings in them.  For example, in mainly those manuscripts of the Byzantine text-type (a major text-type of the New Testament which is the text type from which the “Received Text” was developed in the Sixteenth  and Seventeenth centuries),  John Mill published, in 1707, a Greek New Testament with a listing of about 30,000 variant readings, most of which did not alter the sense of the passages.

In addition to this, the New Testament had been translated into many other languages in the early Christian centuries.  It had been translated into Aramaic, and today we have several different ancient translations of the New Testament into Aramaic, the most famous of which is the Peshitta. We have over 1,000 manuscripts of the Aramaic Scriptures, and these manuscripts agree closely with one another, making us confident that they were copied with great care and accuracy.

The New Testament was also translated early into Latin. People in the Western part of the Roman Empire could read Latin much better than Greek.  Many, of course, could not read Greek, so very early in Christian history the New Testament was translated into Latin.  Relatively few of these old Latin manuscripts survive, and we have very few of the earlier copies.  It was called the Itala.  This Old Latin, or Itala, New Testament was the Bible that the Waldenses had and later translated into the Romaunt language, which was the language of the people in Northern Italy and Southern France several hundred years later. In the fourth century, Jerome gathered the best Greek manuscripts that he could find of the New Testament and revised the Old Latin text to harmonize with these Greek manuscripts. This version (the Old Testament he translated directly from Hebrew) became known as the Vulgate.  The Vulgate was about the only Bible in existence in Europe for most of the Dark Ages.  It was the Bible that Martin Luther studied in the library in the university and later in the convent.  It was the Bible that John Wycliffe used to translate the Scriptures for the first time into English.  We have more copies of the Vulgate than we have even of the Greek New Testament.  Unfortunately, as the Vulgate was copied over and over, it became corrupted so that the later copies were very far from the actual Latin Vulgate that Jerome had translated.

In addition to these two most important ancient versions of the New Testament, we also have several other ancient versions such as the Sahidic (Coptic dialect), the Bohairic (Coptic dialect), the Armenian translation, the Georgian translation (language spoken by a group of people living between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea), the Gothic translation (East Germanic language translation  by Ulfilas), the Ethiopic and a few others.

Although there are thousands of variant readings in the different versions and in the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament themselves, any one of them, if studied carefully, will lead the reader to the gospel and salvation.  They are an infallible guide to salvation, even though we do not possess a single autograph of a single verse of the New Testament.  The Protestant Reformation started as a result of men like Martin Luther and John Wycliffe studying from the Latin Vulgate, which was the only Bible available to them at first.

But when the Protestant Reformation began, the future of the papacy was in jeopardy.  If the new teachings were not met and opposed and proved in error, the future of the papacy was at an end.  Because the Roman church was burning people for even printing the Bible, and because the Bible that was being printed before the middle of the Sixteenth century taught a completely different religion than was being taught by Tetzel and the leaders of the Roman church, it was becoming evident that there was an irreconcilable difference between the Church of Rome and the religion of the Bible.  Both could not be right, because their teachings contradicted.  For example, the Bible forbids a person to bow down in front of an image (Exodus 20:4–6) and commands men to keep the Sabbath holy (Exodus 20:8–11), but the Roman church teaches men to adore images and to keep Sunday instead of the Sabbath.  The Bible forbids not only adoration or worship of dead images but also of living images; we are forbidden to give the adoration of worship to any man (Acts 10:26), in direct contradiction to Roman practice.

Because of the threat of Protestantism to the papacy, the Council of Trent was called from 1545–1563.  At this council four propositions were made which have affected Bible translations ever since that time.

(to be continued)