Editorial

Editorial – The Secret of Christian Success

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Many people are striving to be or become successful. Although it is important to be successful, the most important success of all is to be successful in becoming fitted to receive the gift of eternal life. If you gain this, you will gain everything; but if you fail to obtain eternal life, Jesus said, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul” (Matthew 16:26)?

Like Naaman, some people think that success comes by some wonderful or dramatic action, but the truth is just the opposite of this. The secret of success is the faithful conscientious attention to what are called the little things—things that many people consider insignificant. (See John 20:6, 7 and The Desire of Ages, 789.) “Only by faithfulness in the little things can the soul be trained to act with fidelity under larger responsibilities.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 356.

Heaven is a place where each citizen is constantly seeking ways to be of service to others. This world on the other hand is a place where most people serve themselves first and only serve others after themselves. None of these people will be in the kingdom of heaven: “They consent to live for the service of self, and Satan is satisfied.” The Desire of Ages, 130.

“In the great judgment day those who have not worked for Christ, those who have drifted along, carrying no responsibility, thinking of themselves, pleasing themselves, will be placed by the Judge of all the earth with those who did evil. They receive the same condemnation.

“Many who profess to be Christians neglect the claims of God, and yet they do not feel that in this there is any wrong. They know that the blasphemer, the murderer, the adulterer, deserves punishment; but as for them, they enjoy the services of religion. They love to hear the gospel preached, and therefore they think themselves Christians. Though they have spent their lives in caring for themselves, they will be as much surprised as was the unfaithful servant in the parable to hear the sentence, ‘Take the talent from him.’ ” Christ’s Object Lessons, 365.

This is a major reason professed Christians do not receive the Holy Spirit even when they pray for it: “The continual misuse of their talents will effectually quench for them the Holy Spirit, which is the only light.” Ibid.

If we want to receive the Holy Spirit we must be seeking to be about our Master’s business.

Editorial – Unmasking the Master Mind

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The title for this editorial is copied from the title of chapter ten of the book Prophet of the End and is about the same subject. Ellen White received many visions, both public and private. Her public visions were accompanied with supernatural phenomena which forces any candid observer to the same conclusion that Ellen White made herself: “God is either teaching His church, reproving their wrongs and strengthening their faith, or He is not. This work is of God, or it is not. God does nothing in partnership with Satan. My work for the past thirty years bears the stamp of God or the stamp of the enemy. There is no halfway work in the matter. The Testimonies are of the Spirit of God, or of the devil. In arraying yourself against the servants of God you are doing a work either for God or for the devil.” Testimonies, vol. 4, 230.

On Sunday afternoon, March 14, 1858, at Lovett’s Grove, Ohio, in a schoolhouse where religious meetings were being held, there was a funeral at which James White was invited to speak. After he had finished, Ellen White believed that she was being urged by the Spirit of the Lord to bear her testimony.

I believe it is always appropriate for a Christian to attempt to comfort those who are bereaved. We have a “blessed hope” (Titus 2). Ellen White began to speak about the coming of Christ, the resurrection and the cheering hope possessed by the Christian. During this time she was taken in vision for approximately two hours and was shown many things that she had been initially shown about ten years before about the great controversy of the ages between Christ and Satan. She was instructed in this vision to write out what had been revealed to her. She was also told that Satan would make strong efforts to hinder her from writing.

This vision and later visions on the same subject form the basis of the books in the Conflict of the Ages series and especially the last book of the set, The Great Controversy. For any person who wants to avoid being deceived in our time, this book, The Great Controversy between Christ and His Angels and Satan and his Angels, is a book that should be carefully studied.

“In The Great Controversy, the last message of warning to the world is given more distinctly than in any of my other books.” Letter 281, 1905.

Editorial – The Great Disappointment

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“And at midnight a cry was made, Behold the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet Him” (Matthew 25:6, literal translation).

In 1844 this midnight cry was heralded by thousands of believers and “like a tidal wave the movement swept over the land. From city to city, from village to village, and into remote country places it went.” The Great Controversy, 400.

Jesus, the bridegroom, was coming to engage in the last phase of His work as our great High Priest to receive His kingdom. (See Hebrews 3:1.)

“And as they heard these things, He added and spake a parable, because He was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return” (Luke 19:11, 12 KJV).

In 1844 Jesus went before the Father to receive a kingdom. When the process is complete, then every case will have been decided for life or death. (See Acts 3:19–21.) The number of the subjects of Christ’s kingdom will be made up and it will then be too late for anybody to change sides in the great controversy—you will either be saved or lost and your destiny will be fixed by an unalterable decree. (See Revelation 22:11, 12.)

After He receives the kingdom, which is also likened to a marriage, He returns to this earth to take His people from here to the Father’s house. Jesus said, “And you be like men that wait for their Lord, when He will return from the wedding; that when He comes and knocks, they may open to Him immediately” (Luke 12:36, literal translation).

The believers in 1844 had the date for the fulfillment of the 2300 day prophecy (Daniel 8:14) right, but they misunderstood the important event that was to transpire and the result was what is called “The Great Disappointment.”

However, the greatest disappointment is yet in the future. Jesus predicted it in Matthew 7:21–23.

Ellen White described it as follows: “The great mass of professing Christians will meet with bitter disappointment in the day of God. They have not upon their foreheads the seal of the living God. Lukewarm and halfhearted, they dishonor God far more than the avowed unbeliever. They grope in darkness, when they might be walking in the noonday light of the Word, under the guidance of One who never errs.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 970.

May you not be part of the great disappointment that is coming.

Editorial – Are You Afraid to Sin?

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“But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” Romans 6:22

“… now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:26–28).

“It is submission to sin that brings the great unhappiness of the soul. It is not poverty, but disobedience, that lessens man’s hope of gaining eternal life, which the Saviour came to bring him. True riches, true peace, true content, enduring happiness—these are found only in entire surrender to God, in perfect reconciliation to His will.

“Christ came to our world to live a life of stainless purity, thus to show sinners that in His strength they, too, can obey God’s holy precepts, the laws of His kingdom.” The Review and Herald, July 4, 1912.

“Every sin, every unrighteous action, every transgression of the law of God, tells with a thousandfold more force upon the actor than the sufferer. Every time one of the glorious faculties with which God has enriched man is abused or misused, that faculty loses forever a portion of its vigor and will never be as it was before the abuse it suffered. Every abuse inflicted upon our moral nature in this life is felt not only for time but for eternity. Though God may forgive the sinner, yet eternity will not make up that voluntary loss sustained in this life.

“To go forth into the next, the future life, deprived of half the power which might be carried there is a terrible thought. The days of probation lost here in acquiring a fitness for heaven, is a loss which will never be recovered. The capacities of enjoyment will be less in the future life for the misdemeanors and abuse of moral powers in this life. However high we might attain in the future life, we might soar higher and still higher, if we had made the most of our God-given privileges and golden opportunities to improve our faculties here in this probationary existence … .” This Day With God, 350.

Editorial – Neglect of Health Reform and Delusions of Satan

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“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

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“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

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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

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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

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“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

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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.