Editorial

Editorial – Neglect of Health Reform and Delusions of Satan

by

“The health reform, I was shown, is a part of the third angel’s message and is just as closely connected with it as are the arm and hand with the human body. I saw that we as a people must make an advance move in this great work. Ministers and people must act in concert. God’s people are not prepared for the loud cry of the third angel. They have a work to do for themselves which they should not leave for God to do for them. He has left this work for them to do. It is an individual work; one cannot do it for another.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 486.

“The controlling power of appetite will prove the ruin of thousands, when, if they had conquered on this point, they would have had moral power to gain the victory over every other temptation of Satan. But those who are slaves to appetite will fail in perfecting Christian character.” Ibid., vol. 3, 491, 492.

“God’s purpose for His children is that they shall grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ. In order to do this, they must use aright every power of mind, soul, and body. They cannot afford to waste any mental or physical strength.

“The question of how to preserve the health is one of primary importance. When we study this question in the fear of God we shall learn that it is best, for both our physical and our spiritual advancement, to observe simplicity in diet. … Nature’s laws are not to be resisted, but obeyed.” Ibid., vol. 9, 153.

“The voice of Satan is so disguised that it is accepted as the voice of God.” Ibid., vol. 5, 512.

“Do not forget that the most dangerous snares which Satan has prepared for the church will come through its own members who do not love God supremely or their neighbor as themselves.” Ibid., 477.

“God has placed it in our power to obtain a knowledge of the laws of health. He has made it our duty to preserve our physical powers in the best possible condition, that we may render to Him acceptable service. Those who refuse to improve the light and knowledge that has been mercifully placed within their reach are rejecting one of the means which God has granted them to promote spiritual as well as physical life. They are placing themselves where they will be exposed to the delusions of Satan.” Ibid., 193.

Editorial – Conformed or Reformed

by

“Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).

“The Lord is about to punish the world for its iniquity. He is about to punish religious bodies for their rejection of the light and truth which has been given them. The great message, combining the first, second, and third angel’s messages, is to be given to the world. This is to be the burden of our work. Those who truly believe in Christ will openly conform to the law of Jehovah. The Sabbath is the sign between God and His people, and we are to make visible our conformity to the law of God by observing the Sabbath. It is to be the mark of distinction between God’s chosen people and the world. It means much to be true to God. This embraces health reform. It means that our diet must be simple, that we must be temperate in all things.” The Kress Collection, 105.

“Unless the transforming grace of Christ conforms you to His character, you will never be numbered with the family of God in heaven. Now is the testing time. Angels of God are watching the development of character. Angels of God are weighing moral worth and nothing can make a man truly great in God’s estimation except being truly good, being a partaker of the divine nature, escaping the corruption of the world through lust. The world’s Redeemer demands that those who are called by His name, who claim to stand under His banner shall represent His character; Christianity is intensely practical. When Christianity is brought into the circumstances of actual life, it is a safeguard to the soul in all daily cares, perplexities, and annoyances, and then it is that the sympathy, tenderness, and gentleness of Christ is manifested in the deportment, and revealed in the character of those in whose heart God abides.” The Paulson Collection, 390, 391.

“It is a law of heaven that as we receive we are to impart. The Christian is to be a benefit to others; thus he himself is benefited. ‘He that watereth shall be watered also himself’ (Proverbs 11:25). This is not merely a promise. It is a law of God’s divine administration, a law by which He designs that the streams of beneficence shall be kept, like the waters of the great deep, in constant circulation, perpetually flowing back to their source. In the fulfilling of this law is the power of Christian missions.” The Review and Herald, August 12, 1909.

Editorial – Description of the Beast

by

The third angels’ message determines the destiny of every person in the world who is alive when Jesus returns. If rejected, it will result in a person’s receiving the seven last plagues (see Revelation 16:2) and finally being destroyed (see Revelation 19:20, 21). The third angels’ message is a warning against worshipping the beast (Revelation 13:1–10) or his image or receiving his mark. Before a person can understand the third angel’s message, he must understand who and what the beast is. Following is a description from Scripture of the beast power.

  1. A beast in Bible prophecy represents a kingdom or nation or power (Daniel 7:17, 23).
  2. This beast received his power, throne, and great authority from the dragon (Revelation 13:2). The dragon primarily represents the devil (Revelation 12:9). Secondarily, the dragon represents the pagan Roman empire because it was the pagan Roman empire that attempted to kill Jesus at his birth (see Revelation 12:3–5 and Matthew 2).
  3. The beast received a deadly wound, at which time it looked as if it would cease to exist.
  4. The deadly wound was healed. It recovered from this deadly wound and became worldwide in its authority again.
  5. This beast is a worldwide power—“all the world marveled and followed the beast” (Revelation 13:3).
  6. This beast is also a religion, because the whole world will worship this power (verses 4 and 8).
  7. This beast would blaspheme God, His name, His sanctuary and those who dwell in heaven (verse 6).
  8. This religion would be a persecuting religion, as it would make war with the saints and overcome them (verse 7).
  9. This beast would gain authority over every tribe, language and nation. In other words, this is a religion that would apparently conquer and control all other religions, all languages and peoples (ibid).
  10. his beast would eventually go into captivity—that happened at the time that this beast received the deadly wound (verse 10).
  11. The beast would eventually be killed by the sword (ibid.) This will happen in the future.
  12. This beast had a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. According to the Bible, blasphemy is described as a man assuming power to forgive sins (Mark 2:7) and as a man making himself God (John 10:33).
  13. This beast arose from the sea. Compare Revelation 13:1 with Revelation 17:15.
  14. This beast had certain characteristics in common with all the beasts in the vision of Daniel 7. Compare the vision of Daniel 7 with Revelation 13:2.
  15. The number of this beast is the number of a man and his number is 666.

Editorial – The Royal Family – Ephesians 3:15

by

Can you imagine anybody wanting to be part of the royal family in heaven (God’s family) but not wanting to be part of the royal family on earth? Remember,

“The family of heaven and the family of earth are one.” The Adventist Home, 544.

If you and your family and your church family become part of the family in heaven, you will have been part of heaven’s royal family first on earth. To be part of this family you must acknowledge the head of the family as the head of your home and church family. “Christ in counsel with His Father laid out the plan for His life on earth. It was not a chance, but a design that the world’s Redeemer should lay off His crown, lay aside His kingly robe, and come to our world as a man. He clothed His divinity with the garb of humanity, that He might stand at the head of the human family, His humanity mingled with the humanity of the race fallen because of Adam’s disobedience. The poverty and humiliation of the Son of the infinite God teach lessons that few care to learn. There is a link that connects Christ with the poor in a special sense. He, the life, the light of the world, makes poverty His own teacher, in order that He may be educated by the same stern, practical teacher {as are the poor}. Since the Lord Jesus accepted a life of poverty, no one can justly look with contempt upon the poor. The Saviour of the world was the King of glory, and He stripped Himself of His glorious outward adorning, accepting poverty, that He might understand how the poor are treated in this world.” The Southern Work, 85.

Now, in a physical sense, we are quarantined from the whole universe—since Adam and Eve were driven from the garden of Eden all their descendants are banished from Paradise, but soon the jubilee is coming when “you shall return every man to his family” (Leviticus 25:10, literal translation).

Editorial – Patmos

by

“John had a message for the people in his day. But they became tired of hearing of Jesus, and of the character which, in order to be saved, they must perfect through Him, so they tried to kill the faithful messenger. This plan being thwarted, they banished him to the lonely, rocky island of Patmos. They thought that by separating him from his fellow men, they would silence his testimony, and that he would live out the remainder of his life in mournful solitude. But God was with the lonely exile, and opened to his view the glories of heaven, and the things that ‘must shortly come to pass’ (Revelation 1:1).” The Review and Herald, January 19, 1905.

“Patmos was made resplendent with the glory of a risen Saviour.” The Youth’s Instructor, April 5, 1900.

“It was the Source of all mercy and pardon, peace and grace, the self-existent, eternal, unchangeable One, who visited His exiled servant on the isle that is called Patmos.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 955.

“And on that lonely isle he received more communications from heaven than he had received during the rest of his lifetime.” The Review and Herald, July 26, 1906.

When we study John’s prophecy in the book of Revelation, we find that we are living in the time of the judging of the people—in the time of the last church (“Laodicea” means judging of the people).

We are warned that the entire world will be given over to lawlessness and false worship, except for a small remnant of the world’s population. This remnant will be keeping the commandments of God and will have the same faith or religion that Jesus had. Then Revelation tells us that, as the end of the world draws near, the entire world will be enraged and at war with this small remnant and attempt to blot them from existence. We are assured that God will respond to this universal persecution of His people by sending on this world seven final plagues which will culminate in the end the world as we know it and the second coming of Jesus which will bring everlasting life to the righteous and everlasting death to the lawless.

We will all at the end be found on one side or the other. The wicked will claim to be righteous and God’s children, but the question is, does your life, does my life prove that my profession is true or false?

Editorial – The Issue That Determines Your Eternal Destiny

by

Many people in the last days will think that they are saved but will find at last that they are irretrievably  lost: Matthew 7:21–23. The reason for this is because they are not loyal subjects of the divine government—they are living in violation of God’s law.

It was through disobedience that Adam and Eve lost Paradise and plunged our world into ruin that would have been permanent if God had not devised a way of redemption for the human race. This salvation that Jesus came to our world to bring could be brought only by obedience (John 15:10; Hebrews 5:8, 9).

The person who has faith will be obedient (Hebrews 11:8) and only the faithful will be in the kingdom of heaven. (See Luke 16:10–12, 1 Corinthians 4:2, Galatians 3:9, and Revelation 17:14.)

The final issue in the last days will be over obedience to God’s law, whether or not you will keep it. Pressure will be applied to force all to worship an image to the beast (Revelation 13:11–17). The antichrist power described in Daniel 7, 2 Thessalonians 2 and in Revelation 13:1–10 has a special identifying mark. Daniel says that a mark of this power will be his intent to change times and laws (Daniel 7:25). The special mark of God’s children in the last days, on the other hand, is their obedience to all of God’s commandments (Revelation 14:12; 12:17; 22:14).

As we draw near the end of time, the entire world is going to be polarized, divided into two camps. On one side are those who are obedient to God’s law who will be marked or sealed by Him and will receive eternal life (Revelation 7:1–3; 14:1–5). (NOTE: The words seal and mark are used interchangeably in the Bible. See Romans 4:11.) However, those who are disobedient and continue to break God’s law will receive the mark of antichrist, the mark of disobedience, called the “mark of the beast” (Revelation 14:9–12; 16:2; 19:20).

On one side will be those who have overcome the world, the flesh and the devil (Revelation 21:5–7; 1 John 5:4, 18; Romans 8:13), but on the other side will be those who have lived according to the flesh, who were conformed to this world and who were led on by evil spirits to commit all manner of sin. They will both worship the image to the beast and receive the mark of the beast (Revelation 21:8, 27; 22:15; 18:23, 24).

In the end of the world there will be no third category. You will be on one side or the other. The decisions that you make day by day are determining which side you will wind up on. “It is the issue of the daily test that determines their victory or defeat in life’s great crisis.” The Desire of Ages, 382.

Editorial – The Supreme Object of Life

by

In Proverbs 11:4, the wise man wrote that righteousness delivers from death. In Proverbs 12:28, he wrote that the way of righteousness is life and in its pathway there is no death. In Proverbs 21:21, he wrote that he who follows righteousness and mercy finds life. Isaiah wrote that the work of righteousness will be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever (Isaiah 32:17).

But righteousness is something that we cannot generate. Righteousness is something that He [the Lord] gives to us. “My soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10 NKJV).

There is no human being of the descendants of Adam and Eve who is righteous (Romans 3:10). If we become righteous, we must receive it from somebody else and that somebody else must not only be a righteous person but he must be able to do two things: He must first of all be able to take away our unrighteousness through forgiveness of confessed sin and then, having done that, He must be able to give righteousness to that forgiven person.

The bondage of sin involves being compelled to sin, even against a person’s will, because of three things: 1) the power of inherited and acquired evil propensities and habits (called the flesh in Scripture); 2) because of the compelling power and influence of the world around us; and 3) because of the direct influence and power of evil spirits on the human mind.

Jesus came to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound (Isaiah 61:1). In Jesus you can find relief from your restlessness. He is the strong tower into whom you can run and be safe (Psalm 18:10). He is that true city of refuge into which a sinner can run and find relief and healing.

In 1888 E. J. Waggoner summarized this righteousness which every person must have who is saved, teaching that only a transcendent Christ who is completely and intrinsically One of the constituent Persons of the eternal Godhead in the highest and fullest sense could be our all-sufficient Creator, Lawgiver, Atoning Sacrifice, Redeemer, Judge, Advocate, Justifier, Sanctifier, Glorifier, and Coming King. He believed that only such a One could constitute the sole and completely adequate Source of the Righteousness imperative for sinful man to stand fully transformed and panoplied in the presence of God’s immaculate holiness. This is all because it is Christ’s own Divine Righteousness—the Righteousness He wrought out while in the flesh on earth—the Righteousness of God Himself and that He provides for us. It is found and received only in Him. And it becomes ours by faith.

Editorial – Gods Many and Lords Many

by

“The days are fast approaching when there will be great perplexity and confusion. Satan, clothed in angel robes, will deceive, if possible, the very elect. There will be gods many and lords many. Every wind of doctrine will be blowing. … Chaff like a cloud will be borne away on the wind. … Trees without fruit are cut down as cumberers of the ground.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 80, 81.

We are rapidly approaching the time predicted in these sentences. Notice one of the descriptions of that time is that there will be gods many and lords many. Maybe we are already in such a time. If you desire to profess yourself to be a Christian, then you will arrange to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (See Matthew 28:20; Mark 16:15, 16; Acts 2:38.)

The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all called God in the Bible. (See 1 Corinthians 8:6; Hebrews 1:8 and Acts 5:3, 4.)

The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are also all called Lord in the Bible. (See Psalm 110:1; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 3:17.)

Both the Father and the Son are referred to many times in Scripture as being our Savior. (See Titus 3:4–6 and Luke 2:11.)

Inspiration makes it clear that the Father and the Son are two distinct persons.

“From eternity there was a complete unity between the Father and the Son. They were two, yet little short of being identical; two in individuality, yet one in spirit, and heart, and character.” The Youth’s Instructor, December 16, 1897.

Jesus “existed from eternity, a distinct person, yet one with the Father. He was the surpassing glory of heaven.” The Review and Herald, April 5, 1906.

It requires, however, not only the Father and the Son for a human being to be saved but also the working of the Holy Spirit on the heart. This is what Jesus taught Nicodemus by night so long ago. (See John 3:5.)

“The Holy Spirit was the highest of all gifts that He could solicit from His Father for the exaltation of His people. The Spirit was to be given as a regenerating agent, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil had been strengthening for centuries, and the submission of men to this satanic captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the Third Person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power. It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world’s Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure.” The Desire of Ages, 671.