Editorial

Editorial – Where is Your Flock? (Jeremiah 13:20)

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“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

“Instead of pleasantly asking their children to do what they wish done, parents often order them in a scolding tone, and at the same time administer a censure or a reproach which the children have not merited. Parents, this course pursued toward your children destroys their cheerfulness and their ambition to please you … .  Upon whom rests this great sin? If home had been made attractive, if the parents had manifested affection for their children, if they had wisely sought innocent enjoyment for them, and taught them the lesson of cheerful obedience, they would have touched an answering chord in their young hearts, and willing feet and hands and hearts would have carried out their wishes. By speaking kindly to their children, and praising them when they try to do right, parents may encourage their efforts, make them very happy, and throw around the family circle a charm which will chase away every dark shadow, and bring cheerful sunlight in. Mutual kindness and forbearance will make home a paradise, and attract holy angels into the family circle; but they will flee from a house where there are unpleasant words, fretfulness, and strife. Unkindness, complaining, and anger shut Jesus from the dwelling.

“Some parents fail to give their children a religious education, and also neglect their school education. Neither should be neglected. Children’s minds will be active; and if they are not engaged in physical labor, or occupied with study, they will be exposed to evil influences. It is a sin for parents to allow their children to grow up in ignorance. They should supply them with useful and interesting books, and should teach them to have hours for labor and hours for study and reading. Parents should aim to elevate the minds of their children, and to improve their mental faculties. The mind left to itself, uncultivated, is generally low, sensual, and corrupt. Satan improves his opportunity, and educates idle minds.” The Signs of the Times, April 17, 1884.

Editorial – The World’s Great Need

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What does the world need today? The people of this world look at the skyrocketing statistics of crime, pauperism, and degradation of the environment. They see the erosion of civil and religious liberty and the hatred that has developed between various races, nations, and religions. They see the development of new diseases, the increase in the old diseases, and the natural disasters occurring all over the world.

They hear what the various statesmen and thought leaders who are seeking solutions to all these problems say, but, “The world needs today what it needed nineteen hundred years ago—a revelation of Christ.” The Ministry of Healing, 143. However, when a revelation of Christ is made, the world will not recognize it. They will cry out for the destruction of those people who make such a revelation. Why is it that the very thing that contains the solution to the world’s problems will be rejected by them and hated? Why did the world hate Jesus when He came the first time? The following is not an exhaustive list of reasons; many more could be given.

  1. He could not be persuaded to go along with the popular customs of society. “Jesus had come to teach the meaning of the worship of God, and He could not sanction the mingling of human requirements with the divine precepts.” The Desire of Ages, 84. [Emphasis added.]
  2. He called sin by its right name. “The world loved those who were like itself; but the contrast between Christ and the world was most marked; there could be no harmony between them. His teachings, and his reproofs of sin, stirred up its hatred against him.” The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 2, 337, 338.
  3. He always told the truth. “The very fact that Jesus spoke the truth, and that with certainty, is the reason why the Jews did not believe Him. He said, ‘Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not’ (John 8:45).” Testimonies to Southern Africa, 37.

Most people think that they want to know the truth but sometimes the truth is exactly what they really do not want to hear, and they develop a hatred against the one declaring a truth that is unpopular and unpalatable to the natural heart.

  1. Jesus taught that we must faithfully perform every duty. He did not commend any who were not faithful workers. (See Matthew 25:14–30 for example.) “Unconsciously every true follower of the Master will say, ‘Are there not but twelve hours in the day? and am I not working at the close of the day? I must walk in the light as one of the children of light. I must lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset, and run with patience the race that is set before me. I am striving for a crown of glory that fadeth not away.’ ” The Signs of the Times, June 3, 1903.
  2. Jesus could not be swayed from the right way even once, no matter what the risk or cost or loss involved in doing right. (See Matthew 4:3—10 for example.) “[Jesus] dwelt among men an example of spotless integrity. His blameless life flashed light upon their hearts. His sincerity revealed their insincerity. It made manifest the hollowness of their pretentious piety, and discovered iniquity to them in its odious character. Such a light was unwelcome.” The Desire of Ages, 243.

There will be a final and full revelation of the character of Christ in these last days, and it will be received just as it was received when He was here. (See The Desire of Ages, 680; Ephesians 5:25–27.) Are you praying and preparing to make such a demonstration, a revelation of the character of Christ to the world?

Editorial – Knowing the Time, Part I

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Several years ago, I was invited to preach at an independent (not conference sponsored or associated) meeting in Berrien Springs, Michigan. While there, a good friend, a very sincere Seventh-day Adventist whom I had not seen for several years, approached me. He informed me that the Second Coming of Jesus must take place before the end of 2007, which was over ten years away at that time.

Men have set numerous dates by or before which they have believed the Lord must come. I remember a sermon given by a conference departmental man in the late ’50s in which he instructed that the Second Coming, at the very longest, was going to be less than 40 years away, because of the 6,000-year theory. Then, the “as the days of Noah” prediction stated that the Second Coming must take place by 1964, and later came the theory that time would end in the latter part of 1979, followed by the theories about 1987, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1996, and the prediction made on an Adventist college campus in 1985 by one of the best known Adventist evangelists that Christ’s return would occur by 2000.

Do we believe the words of Jesus just the way He spoke them, or do we not? Jesus said, “See that you remain watchful, for you do not know when the time is.” “Therefore, you be watching; for you do not know when the lord of the house is coming¾ whether at evening or midnight or at the cock crowing or early in the morning.” Mark 13:33, 35. If there was to be a future time when the time of the Lord’s appearing could be computed, would not any candid man conclude that Jesus was mistaken in giving such a warning?

We believe that the Second Coming of Christ is a certainty: “The second advent of the Son of God is foretold by lips which make no mistake.” The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, 37. When Christ speaks, we know we are hearing instruction “from lips that never make a mistake.” The Upward Look, 301. We also know that the day of the Lord is near in a divine sense (see Zephaniah 1:14), but not necessarily in a human sense.

When my son was four years old, I instructed him that the coming of the Lord was near. About six weeks later, I learned he was thinking that I was a liar or a deceiver, because Jesus had not yet come. I began to learn at that time that the word soon can have different meanings. I also realized that if I wanted my children to grow up as Christian believers, I had to articulate my faith in a way that they would have an anchor that could not be destroyed on account of various events not happening by a certain calendar date. This could only be done by sticking closely to exactly what the biblical text said in its context.

Our commanded duty, given by our Lord, is to be watchful and ready at all times lest we be surprised and be found unready. (See Matthew 24:42-44; Mark 13:32-37.) When believers are disappointed by false prophecies, unbelief sets in, and the cause of God is weakened. Setting dates such as those previously mentioned always weakens the cause of God; that is why the devil loves to lure us into so doing.

I understand that this is strong language and that it will upset some people, but because the situation is so serious, for conscience sake I must warn you not to accept any time or date setting you may hear for the close of probation, the Second Coming, or the length of the time of trouble. Such things have the potential to cripple God’s work.

Editorial – Knowing the Time, Part II

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When believers are disappointed by false prophecies, unbelief sets in, and the cause of God is weakened. Why is that? Following is one reason: “Paul foresaw that there was danger of his words being misinterpreted, and that some would claim that he, by special revelation, warned the people of the immediate coming of Christ. This he knew would cause confusion of faith; for disappointment usually brings unbelief. He therefore cautioned the brethren to receive no such message as coming from him.” Sketches From the Life of Paul, 83, 84. [Emphasis added.] Notice that disappointment usually leads to unbelief. This has already happened to multitudes of Seventh-day Adventists who were sure that Christ would come before 1997 or 2000 or whatever date some have computed.

Although the Bible is specific and explicit about not setting time, those who believe in the inspiration of the writings of Ellen G. White have been warned over and over again in the most explicit language concerning the same: “When Jesus ceases to plead for man, the cases of all are forever decided. This is the time of reckoning with His servants. To those who have neglected the preparation of purity and holiness, which fits them to be waiting ones to welcome their Lord, the sun sets in gloom and darkness, and rises not again. Probation closes; Christ’s intercessions cease in heaven. This time finally comes suddenly upon all, and those who have neglected to purify their souls by obeying the truth are found sleeping. They became weary of waiting and watching; they became indifferent in regard to the coming of their Master. They longed not for His appearing, and thought there was no need of such continued, persevering watching. They had been disappointed in their expectations and might be again. They concluded that there was time enough yet to arouse. They would be sure not to lose the opportunity of securing an earthly treasure. It would be safe to get all of this world they could. And in securing this object, they lost all anxiety and interest in the appearing of the Master. They became indifferent and careless, as though His coming were yet in the distance. But while their interest was buried up in their worldly gains, the work closed in the heavenly sanctuary, and they were unprepared.

“If such had only known that the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary would close so soon, how differently would they have conducted themselves, how earnestly would they have watched! The Master, anticipating all this, gives them timely warning in the command to watch. He distinctly states the suddenness of His coming. He does not measure the time, lest we shall neglect a momentary preparation, and in our indolence look ahead to the time when we think He will come, and defer the preparation. ‘Watch ye therefore: for ye know not.’ [Mark 13:35.] Yet this foretold uncertainty, and suddenness at last, fails to rouse us from stupidity to earnest wakefulness, and to quicken our watchfulness for our expected Master. Those not found waiting and watching are finally surprised in their unfaithfulness. The Master comes, and instead of their being ready to open unto Him immediately, they are locked in worldly slumber, and are lost at last.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 191, 192. [Emphasis added.]

“Jesus did not come to astonish men with some great announcement of some special time when some great event would occur, but He came to instruct and save the lost. He did not come to arouse and gratify curiosity; for He knew that this would but increase the appetite for the curious and the marvelous.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 187.

To be continued . . .

Editorial – Knowing the Time Pt. III

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Should we advance in spiritual knowledge, we would see the truth developing and expanding in lines of which we have little dreamed, but it will never develop in any line that will lead us to imagine that we may know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power. Again and again have I [Ellen White] been warned in regard to time setting. There will never again be a message for the people of God that will be based on time. We are not to know the definite time either for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit or for the coming of Christ.

“I was searching through my writings, . . . and I found an envelope on which was written, ‘Testimony given in regard to time setting, June 21, 1851. Preserve carefully.’ I opened it, and this is what I found. It reads:

“ ‘A copy of a vision the Lord gave Sister White, June 21, 1851, at Camden, N. Y. The Lord showed me that the message must go, and that it must not be hung on time; for time will never be a test again. I saw that some were getting a false excitement, arising from preaching time, that the third angel’s message can stand on its own foundation, and that it needs not time to strengthen it, and that it will go with mighty power, and do its work, and will be cut short in righteousness.’ ” Selected Messages, Book 1, 188.

“The times and the seasons God has put in His own power. And why has not God given us this knowledge?—Because we would not make a right use of it if He did. A condition of things would result from this knowledge among our people that would greatly retard the work of God in preparing a people to stand in the great day that is to come. We are not to live upon time excitement. We are not to be engrossed with speculations in regard to the times and the seasons which God has not revealed. Jesus has told His disciples to ‘watch,’ but not for a definite time. His followers are to be in the position of those who are listening for the orders of their Captain; they are to watch, wait, pray, and work, as they approach the time for the coming of the Lord; but no one will be able to predict just when that time will come; for ‘of that day and hour knoweth no man.’ [Matthew 24:36.] You will not be able to say that He will come in one, two, or five years, neither are you to put off His coming by stating that it may not be for ten or twenty years.” Ibid., 189.

“Today you are to have your vessel purified that it may be ready for the heavenly dew, ready for the showers of the latter rain; for the latter rain will come, and the blessing of God will fill every soul that is purified from every defilement. . . .

“God has not revealed to us the time when this message will close, or when probation will have an end. Those things that are revealed we shall accept for ourselves and for our children; but let us not seek to know that which has been kept secret in the councils of the Almighty.” Ibid., 191.

To be continued . . .

Editorial – Knowing the Time, Pt. IV

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There is no command for any one to search the Scripture in order to ascertain, if possible, when probation will close. God has no such message for any mortal lips. He would have no mortal tongue declare that which He has hidden in His secret councils.” Review and Herald, October 9, 1894.

“The world placed all time-proclamation on the same level and called it a delusion, fanaticism and heresy. Ever since 1844 I [Ellen White] have borne my testimony that we were now in a period of time in which we are to take heed to ourselves lest our hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon us unawares. Our position has been one of waiting and watching, with no time-proclamation to intervene between the close of the prophetic periods in 1844 and the time of our Lord’s coming. We do not know the day nor the hour, or when the definite time is, and yet the prophetic reckoning shows us that Christ is at the door.

“We have not cast away our confidence, neither have we a message dependent upon definite time, but we are waiting and watching unto prayer, looking for and loving the appearing of our Saviour, and doing all in our power for the preparation of our fellow men for that great event. We are not impatient. If the vision tarry, wait for it, for it will surely come, it will not tarry. Although disappointed, our faith has not failed, and we have not drawn back to perdition. The apparent tarrying is not so in reality, for at the appointed time our Lord will come, and we will, if faithful, exclaim, ‘Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us’ (Isaiah 25:9).

“I have also been pronounced a deceiver because I have said, ‘The Lord will soon come; get ready, get ready that ye may be found waiting, watching and loving His appearing.’ But in the Revelation I read this statement, ‘Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be’ (Revelation 22:12). ‘Behold, I come quickly blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book’ (Revelation 22:7). ‘Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown’ (Revelation 3:11). Was the One who bore this testimony a deceiver, because the ‘quickly’ has been protracted longer than our finite minds could anticipate? It is the faithful and true witness that speaks. His words are verity and truth.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 10, 270, 271.

“The Saviour did enter the Most Holy Place in 1844 to cleanse the sanctuary and the investigative judgment had commenced for the dead. I have been repeatedly urged to accept the different periods of time proclaimed for the Lord to come.

“I have ever had one testimony to bear: The Lord will not come at that period, and you are weakening the faith of even Adventists, and fastening the world in their unbelief. There have been plainly set before me events of great and thrilling interest, which must transpire before Christ will come. Satan will move mightily from beneath, and will delude the world, while the Lord God Omnipotent will move from above and prepare a people to stand in the great day of His wrath.

“The time-setters have pronounced the curse of the Lord upon me as an unbeliever who said, My Lord delayeth His coming. But I have told them that the books of heaven would not make my record thus, for the Lord knows that I loved and longed for the appearing of Christ. But their oft-repeated message of definite time was exactly what the enemy wanted, and it served his purpose well to unsettle the faith in the first proclamation of time, which was of heavenly origin.” Ibid., 269, 270. [Emphasis added.]

Editorial – Purity

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Enoch sought for purity of heart for 300 years (see Patriarchs and Prophets, 87). At the end of that period the Lord translated him and took him to heaven. He still lives there today, approximately 5000 years later. It is only the pure in heart who will see God (Matthew 5:8) and be taken to heaven at the end of the world. The trouble is that you and I do not have 300 years to seek for purity of heart. What are we to do in our short lifetime?

The Apostle Paul wrote to Titus that Jesus gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify unto Himself His own special people, zealous of good works (Titus 2:14).

“Our only hope is perfect trust in the blood of Him who can save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. The death of Christ on the cross of Calvary is our only hope in this world, and it will be our theme in the world to come. Oh, we do not comprehend the value of the atonement! If we did, we would talk more about it. The gift of God in His beloved Son was the expression of an incomprehensible love. It was the utmost that God could do to preserve the honor of His law, and still save the transgressor.” Our High Calling, 45.

“Before the cross the sinner sees his unlikeness of character to Christ. He sees the terrible consequences of transgression; he hates the sin that he has practiced, and he lays hold upon Jesus by living faith. He has judged his position of uncleanness in the light of the presence of God and the heavenly Intelligence. He has measured it by the standard of the cross. He has weighed it in the balances of the sanctuary. The purity of Christ has revealed to him his own impurity in its odious colors. He turns from the defiling sin; he looks to Jesus and lives.

“He finds an all-absorbing, commanding, attractive character in Jesus Christ, the One who died to deliver him from the deformity of sin, and with quivering lip and tearful eye he declares, ‘He shall not have died for me in vain. Thy gentleness hath made me great’ (Psalm 18:35).” Manuscript Releases, vol. 4, 120, 121.

Editorial – Ellen White’s Counsel Regarding the Controversy over the “Daily,” Pt I

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[Editor’s Note: Historically—in the 1840s and afterward—Seventh-day Adventists have believed that the daily in Daniel 8, 11, and 12 refers to paganism in contrast with “the abomination that makes desolate” (Daniel 11:31) or the papacy; that both terms identify persecuting powers; that the word for daily—correctly meaning “continual or continually or continuance”—refers to the long continuance of Satan’s opposition to the work of Christ through the medium of paganism; that the taking away of the daily and the setting up of “the abomination that makes desolate” represents the action of papal Rome replacing pagan Rome and that this even is the same as that described in 11 Thessalonians 2:7 and Revelation 13:2; and that this replacing of paganism with the papal religion as the official religion of the most prominent country in Europe at that time (France) occurred in a.d. 508.]

Around the turn of the twentieth century, a new view of the daily surfaced in Adventism. This new view was promoted by W. W. Prescott (college president and later vice-president of the General Conference, chairman of the Review and Herald Publishing Association board, editor of the Review and Herald, and later field secretary of the General Conference) and A. G. Daniells (General Conference president at that time). The new view was that the daily, or continual, referred to the continual priestly ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary and to the true worship of Christ in the gospel age; that the taking away of the daily represents the substitution by the papacy of compulsory unity in a visible church in place of the voluntary unity of all believers in Christ, and the replacing of Christ, the invisible head, by the pope, a visible head, and an earthly priestly hierarchy in place of direct access to Christ by all believers; of a system of salvation by works ordained by the visible church in place of salvation by faith in Christ; and the confessional and the sacrifice of the mass in place of the mediatorial work of Christ as our great high priest in the courts of heaven. Those holding this view have no adequate explanation of the 1290 days in Daniel 12 unless they adopt futuristic interpretations. It was concerning this second view held by Prescott and Daniells that the following testimony by Ellen White was written. (See Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 4, 842, 843, 880, 881 for source material about the above two views.)

“At this stage of our experience we are not to have our minds drawn away from the special light given [us] to consider at the important gathering of our conference. And there was Brother Daniells, whose mind the enemy was working; and your mind and Elder Prescott’s mind were being worked by the angels that were expelled from heaven. Satan’s work was to divert your minds that jots and tittles should be brought in which the Lord did not inspire you to bring in. They were not essential. But this meant much to the cause of truth. And the ideas of your minds, if you could be drawn away to jots or tittles, is a work of Satan’s devising. To correct little things in the books written, you suppose would be doing a great work. But I am charged, Silence is eloquence.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 20, 17.

To be continued . . .

Ellen White’s Counsel Regarding the Controversy over the “Daily” Part II

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Ellen White’s testimony regarding the view held by Prescott and Daniells of the daily, begun in Part I of this Editorial [October 2007], continues:

“I am to say, Stop your picking flaws. If this purpose of the devil [to divert your minds that jots and tittles should be brought in which the Lord did not inspire you to bring in] could only be carried out, then [it] appears to you [that] your work would be considered as most wonderful in conception. It was the enemy’s plan to get all the supposed objectionable features where all classes of minds did not agree. And what then? The very work that pleases the devil would come to pass. There would be a representation given to the outsiders not of our faith just what would suit them, that would develop traits of character which would cause great confusion and occupy the golden moments which should be used zealously to bring the great message before the people. The presentations upon any subject we have worked upon could not all harmonize, and the results would be to confuse the minds of believers and unbelievers. This is the very thing that Satan had planned that should take place—anything that could be magnified as a disagreement.

“Read Ezekiel, chapter 28. Now, here is a grand work, where strange spirits can figure. But the Lord has a work to [be] done to save perishing souls; and the places which Satan, disguised, could fill in, bringing confusion into our ranks, he will do to perfection, and all those little differences will become enlarged, prominent.

“And I was shown from the first that the Lord had given neither Elders Daniells nor Prescott the burden of this work. Should Satan’s wiles be brought in, should this ‘Daily’ be such a great matter as to be brought in to confuse minds and hinder the advancement of the work at this important period of time? It should not, whatever may be. This subject should not be introduced, for the spirit that would be brought in would be forbidding, and Lucifer is watching every movement. Satanic agencies would commence his work and there would be confusion brought into our ranks. You have no call to hunt up the difference of opinion that is not a testing question; but your silence is eloquence. I have the matter all plainly before me. If the devil could involve any one of our own people on these subjects, as he has proposed to do, Satan’s cause would triumph. Now the work without delay is to be taken up and not a [difference] of opinion expressed.

“Satan would inspire those men who have gone out from us to unite with evil angels and retard our work on unimportant questions, and what rejoicing [there] would be in the camp of the enemy. Press together, press together. Let every difference be buried. Our work now is to devote all our physical and brain-nerve power to put these differences out of the way, and all harmonize. If Satan could with his great unsanctified wisdom be permitted to get the least hold, [he would rejoice].

“Now, when I saw how you were working, my mind took in the whole situation and the results if you should go forward and give the parties that have left us the least chance to bring confusion into our ranks. Your lack of wisdom would be just what Satan would have it. Your loud proclamation was not under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 20, 17, 18.

To be continued . . .

Editorial – Conjectures

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“The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” 

Psalm 119:130

We will never know until the day of judgment how many souls will be lost because of the acceptance of conjectures. Eve was first believing the lie of the serpent. Today millions distrust the Bible as a result of a system of conjecturing that was developed in the 17th and 18th centuries called “higher criticism.” Higher criticism was first called conjectures by some of its originators and are accepted by millions of people today. As a result, they do not believe the Bible. What is true of the Bible is just as much true of the writings of Ellen White. People have put conjectures on the internet and thousands of people all over the world believe them.

Ellen White wrote the following: “The writer states that portions of my earlier visions, as first printed have been suppressed in the work recently published under the title Early Writings of Mrs. E.G. White, and he conjectures as a reason for such suppression that these passages teach doctrines now repudiated by us as a people.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 59.

“In another passage … I speak of scenes upon the new earth, and state that I there saw holy men of old, ‘Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Daniel, and many like them.’ Because I speak of having seen these men, our opponents conjecture that I then believed in the immortality of the soul, and that having since changed my views upon this point I found it necessary to suppress that passage. They are as near the truth here as in other conjectures.” Ibid, 64, 65. [Emphasis author’s.]

The evidence that the Bible is the word of God is contained within the Bible itself so that it is evident to every diligent searcher. But much more powerful than that evidence is the evidence of a changed, transformed life.