Salvation

The Sanctuary Furnished with Lessons

by

The sanctuary message is a message that is dear to the heart and soul of God’s people. It is as vital to the Christian’s life as the air we breathe, and just as air is life to the physical body, so the sanctuary message is vital to our spiritual life. But it is not just a message, it is a call to action—a plea to live after the perfect example of Christ.

“Thy way, O God, [is] in the sanctuary: who [is so] great a God as [our] God?” Psalms 77:13. Very few words, yet so profound. We are told that the sanctuary was originally a tabernacle built by Moses after the pattern of the sanctuary in heaven. “Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, [that] thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.” Hebrews 8:5. It was not just the physical nature of the sanctuary that was patterned after that of the heavenly, but also the services. “Thy way, O God, [is] in the sanctuary.” These words alone should state clearly how important it is that we have a clear understanding of the sanctuary. God’s way has been laid open for all to see as we take a walk through the earthly sanctuary.

Although not a complete list of all of the purposes of the sanctuary, four broad purposes can be identified. Through the representations of Christ in the sanctuary, the Israelites were to lay hold of the merits of the Savior to come. Secondly, the sanctuary was a physical confirmation that God was indeed with them. It was a place where He might dwell amongst His people. The sanctuary was also to show, not just the Israelites, but all generations of mankind, the plan of salvation. Although just a shadow, it provides all that needs to be known that we might be saved from a wretched world of sin. The message is presented to us in such a way that even children can comprehend the foundation on which it is built—love, obedience, and holiness. Fourthly, when we look at the sanctuary, we are also able to see the ministry of Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary. Just as the high priest went into the Holy of Holies once a year to cleanse the sanctuary, Jesus is now in that Holy of Holies ministering as our high priest.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6. Jesus is the only entrance into the sanctuary, and thus, into heaven. This is exemplified in the physical sanctuary. The only entrance into the tabernacle was the eastern gate. God and sin cannot coexist and because we all are sinners and have each fallen short of the glory of God, our only hope of eternal life with God the Father is through Jesus, our entrance.

It is only through Jesus that we can find forgiveness of our sins. This was expressed by John the Baptist the day Jesus came to be baptized by him. John 1:29 reads, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” In the earthly sanctuary the sinner was to bring a lamb without blemish over which to confess his sins, sacrificing its life in atonement for transgression of the law. The blood of the slain lamb was the foreshadowing of Christ’s perfect sacrifice on Calvary.

The sanctuary message makes it perfectly clear that the life of a Christian is a life of sacrifice. “If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Matthew 16:24. There were many types of offerings in the sanctuary, one of which was the burnt offering. In the burnt offering, not only was the sacrifice slain, but also dismembered and placed on the altar to be completely consumed by the flames. I Corinthians 15:31 says, “I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” Though just a few words, but profound. Each day we are to die to self and surrender all to Christ as He surrendered all for us, for what servant should expect to be treated better than the Master?

This brings new meaning to God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. The burnt offering in the sanctuary was a show of complete surrender to the will of God. Christ’s body was mutilated and hung on the cross for humanity. The torture that Christ endured prior to His death makes the Christian heart ache when struck by the reality of the cruelty. Words cannot express the affliction He endured as the cat of nine tails struck His body over and over again—an instrument of torture tearing at His flesh by the ends of each tail. Thirty nine lashes, not once, but twice. The crown of thorns pressed into His brow, the mockery, the nails, and the desertion; and all the while, Jesus, with just a word, could have put a stop to it all—but chose to endure. The very people that He was dying to save were His murderers. The inexplicable sacrifice of Christ for our salvation was a complete surrender to the will of the Father; a will which stemmed from an incomprehensible love for a vile, fallen race. Our Christian calling is portrayed in the sacrifice to Christ—to surrender our will completely to the Father. Our lives are not ours, but His—paid for through creation and redemption.

“The laver was placed between the altar and the congregation, that before they [the priests] came into the presence of God, in the sight of the congregation, they might wash their hands and their feet. … It was to show them that every particle of dust must be put away before they could go into the presence of God.” Gospel Workers, 162, 163. The “dust” to be put away was symbolic also of sin. The lesson taught by the washing in the laver is that Jesus provides the cleansing. Psalms 51:10 says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” There is nothing good within us without the presence of Christ. He alone can mold us into His image. Genesis says that we were created in the image of God and this image was to be reflected in each member of God’s family. Since the sin of Adam and Eve, mankind has adapted the image of evil and only by inviting Jesus into our hearts every moment of every day to cleanse us from sin and self, can we display the character of Jesus.

As the lambs were slain every morning and evening, the blood from the lamb was taken to the inner veil of the temple and sprinkled before it. Through the presentation of the blood to the sanctuary, the people were showing their faith in Christ’s cleansing and transforming power. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the veil would be cleansed; not by the priest, not with anything made by man, but by the only One who has the power to cleanse us from our sins and transform our lives. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9. Jesus is the only Source of forgiveness and cleansing from a life of sin. We must believe completely in His goodness and mercy for there is no other way to be cleansed and transformed.

A breathtaking glow radiated throughout the tabernacle, the light reflecting gently off the pure gold that furnished God’s house. In the life of the Christian, Jesus is the light. He is the source of life, goodness, and love. It is the object of all who love and fear God to reflect His perfect light and holiness to others. But just as gold does not come to its purest form except through fire, so we do not become perfect in character except through the trials and tribulations that God allows in our lives to purge the impurities from us. Only then, can we truly reflect Christ. II Corinthians 7:1: “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” We are to become perfect in holiness, so we can reflect Christ, the Holy One.

In the first apartment of the sanctuary was the table of showbread. Upon the table were twelve loaves of bread, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. The bread was placed in two stacks of six. Now, two sixes, when placed side by side make sixty six—the number of books that make up the Bible. God’s word, the bread of life, should be consumed daily. It is our life sustenance, an anchor to hold us steady through the churning waters we call life. There is no other standard, by which we can judge our lives or characters than by God’s word.

The candlestick was made of solid gold. The seven lights were to remain lit day and night, year in and year out, never to flicker. This light represents the Holy Spirit. Maintaining the light of the lampstand required constant vigilance as does having the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Satan is imposing and forceful, but the Holy Spirit is gentle and respectful. We must constantly be battling the devil and inviting Christ. The good news is that, with our invitation, Christ helps us fight the enemy. He is our most powerful ally, if we but ask.

In the first apartment of the sanctuary was the table of incense before which the priest offered prayers on behalf of the children of Israel. The smoke rising to the heavens exemplified their prayers lifting up before the Saviour. Just as the smoke is mixed with the prayers of the priest, Jesus mixes our prayers with His righteousness before the Father. Communion with God is the key for a spiritual relationship. No relationship can be built and sustained without communication. A relationship with Jesus is no different. He wants to be our best friend. Never would we consider cutting off communication with someone who is dear to our hearts. Christ wants to be part of our lives. There is no matter too great or too small for His interest. He granted us the privilege of prayer so that we can speak with Him. Just like a human relationship is built with time and dedication, so a meaningful relationship with God is built through persistent communion.

In these ways, the Sanctuary not only teaches of a need to purify our lives, but also how we can accomplish this. When Jesus asks something of us, He never leaves us without a knowledge of how to achieve His will; nor does He leave us without a means by which to do so. He recognizes our human frailty and reaches out His hands to uphold us if only we reach back.

Ecclesiastes 12:13: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this [is] the whole [duty] of man.” We are told in the Bible that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It would stand to reason, then, that if He said that keeping His commandments “is the whole duty of man,” it is just as true now as it was then. It is stated so very clearly that there is no room for speculation and doubt. This exact principle is depicted when looking at the Sanctuary. The law was designated a place of prominence—the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Holy of Holies, a place entered only once a year by only one person. Had the high priest entered the Most Holy place with a sin in his heart, he would have instantly died from the Shekinah glory of God. It was a serious matter to have cherished sin and it is just as serious a matter today. God has not changed. Sin cannot exist in the presence of God. Our eternal life with Him depends on our cleansing through Christ who is now in the Holy of Holies ministering on our behalf.

There were three objects in the Ark of the Covenant. The manna which Israel was given during the forty year exile in the desert shows God’s provision for His people. It serves as a reminder that God is the ultimate provider. Even something as simple as the food we eat is given us by the Creator. We need not depend on money, food or water—but solely to trust in Christ and lean on Him to meet our needs.

Aaron’s staff, which bloomed, was also stored in the Ark of the Covenant. The story is familiar to most of us. Because of the disunity amongst the Israelites over the appointment of the priesthood, God caused one staff to bud signifying His choice for the priest. God is the authority in the church, not man. This is just as true today as it was then. His directions are still binding to all Christians. We need to first follow the law and the authority of God. Only where the will and law of man is in line with that of heaven are we bound to succeed.

The third object in the Ark of the Covenant was the tablets of stone on which were written the Ten Commandments. The writing of the laws in stone was not abstract; it was to signify the undying contract that was made between God and His people. Stone stands the test of time and so it is with the divine commandments. The law is based on the love of God—God is love, and He is unchanging, thus His law is unchanging. Although people are increasingly disregarding the law created for the protection of a most beloved race, God has not changed even one letter of the law. Indeed, we are told that it would be easier for the heavens and the earth to pass away than for even a part of a letter to be taken away from the law of God. The Ten Commandments were so important to God that He wrote them with His own finger, not entrusting the job to a mortal such that we would recognize the weight of His law—the only thing given to humanity that was written by God Himself. The fact that we are bound to this agreement is indisputable. It is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Another lesson to be learned through the sanctuary is order. I Corinthians 14:40 says, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” During their sojourn in the wilderness, the twelve tribes of Israel pitched their tents in an orderly manner on the perimeter of the camp surrounding the sanctuary, which was always the centerpiece of the camp. Everything about the camp and the sanctuary was done in an orderly fashion. This is the way it is to be in our homes, our work places, and in our churches. God is a God of order and we, as His people, are to do all things “decently and in order” as taught through the sanctuary.

“All the pillars round about the court [shall be] filleted with silver; their hooks [shall be of] silver, and their sockets [of] brass.” Exodus 27:17. There are important lessons to be learned from the pillars that held up hangings that defined the perimeter of the courtyard. According to Exodus 24:4, Moses built an altar and set up twelve pillars, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. In Revelation 3:12, it says, “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God.” As you can see, the pillars in both of these two texts represent God’s people. The pillars that surround the court are joined by the linen hangings, so the pillars, which represent God’s people, are joined to each other by Christ. What a beautiful picture of our relationship to each other as shown to us in the sanctuary.

Lastly mentioned here in the sanctuary service is the lesson of the judgment. Once a year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest went into the holy of holies in the presence of the Shekinah glory of God. If the priest had not confessed and had his sins forgiven, he would die. We serve a Holy God, and no sin can withstand the presence of a Holy God. It was therefore critical that any sins be confessed and covered with the blood of the Lamb, Jesus. So, the sanctuary also teaches that every man will someday face his life record and just as the high priest had to be right before God, we also need to have our sins forgiven and covered with the blood of the Lamb, for God has “appointed a day in which He will judge the world.” (Acts 17:31.)

As we study the sanctuary, we see a beautiful representation of the plan of redemption. There are many lessons to be learned, and with each lesson comes a decision, to learn of and follow the Lord with our whole being. We can find You Lord as we study and act upon the lessons of the sanctuary for “Thy way, O God, [is] in the sanctuary.” Psalms 77:13.

Janet Headrick is office manager at Steps to Life. She can be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org or by phone at: 316-788-5559.

Repentance – Lessons from Lucifer

by

“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

2 Corinthians 7:10

“Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”

Acts 5:31

 

The book Steps to Christ is exactly what the title implies—a chronological step-by-step explanation of how to come to Christ and be saved. The third step in this progression to salvation is “Repentance.” Repentance follows the two chapters “God’s Love for Man” and “The Sinner’s Need of Christ.”

This is not an arbitrary order. These are truly steps, with each one presented in its necessary place, one after another. The sinner must first see and understand God’s love, and in seeing the depth, the breadth of this love the sinner then sees his own need when he sees his evil and degradation in comparison with the matchless purity and love of God. These two steps, “God’s Love for Man” and “The Sinner’s Need of Christ,” necessarily then lead him to the next step, which is repentance. Here we are going to look at repentance from a rather unusual perspective. We are going to glean lessons from an unconventional illustration—Lucifer. We do not often think of Lucifer as having repented.

In the following inspired narration, there are many valuable lessons to be gleaned, but we are going to focus on just the aspect of repentance.

We pick up the story of Lucifer and the fallen angels after they have been expelled from heaven, after the creation of this world, but before the fall of man. Let’s read an inspired description of the thoughts, the emotions, the thinking, the reasoning of this mighty, though fallen angel, his state, and the state of those who chose to listen to his reasoning and sophistry.

“The hour for joyful happy songs of praise to God and His dear Son had come. Satan had led the heavenly choir. He had raised the first note, then all the angelic host united with him, and glorious strains of music had resounded through Heaven. But now, instead of strains of sweetest music, discord and angry words fall upon the ear of the great rebel leader.

“Satan stood in amazement at his new condition. His happiness was gone. He looked upon the angels who, with him, were once so happy, but who had been expelled from heaven with him. Before their fall not a shade of discontent had marred their perfect bliss. Now all seemed changed. Countenances which had reflected the image of their Maker were gloomy and despairing. Strife, discord, and bitter recrimination were among them. Previous to their rebellion these things had been unknown in Heaven. Satan now beheld the terrible results of his rebellion. He shuddered, and feared to face the future, and to contemplate the end of these things. Where was he? Was it not all a horrible dream? Was he shut out of Heaven? Were the gates of Heaven never more to open and admit him? Bright, holy angels bow before the Father, but no more will Satan unite with them in heavenly song. No more will he bow in reverence and holy awe before the presence of the eternal God. Could he be again as when he was pure, true, and loyal, gladly would he yield up the claims of his authority. But he was lost beyond redemption, for his presumptuous rebellion! And this was not all; he had led others to rebellion and to the same lost condition with himself—angels who had never thought to question the will of Heaven, or refuse obedience to the law of God till he had put it into their minds, presenting before them that they might enjoy a greater good, a higher and more glorious liberty. This had been the sophistry whereby he had deceived them. A responsibility now rests upon him from which he would fain be released.

“These fallen spirits had become turbulent with disappointed hopes. Instead of greater good, they were experiencing the sad results of disobedience and disregard of law. Never more would these unhappy beings be swayed by the mild rule of Jesus Christ. Never more would their spirits be stirred by the deep, earnest love, peace, and joy, which His presence had ever inspired in them, to be returned to Him in cheerful obedience and reverential honor.

“Satan trembled as he viewed his work. He was alone, in meditation upon the past, the present, and the future. His mighty frame shook as with a tempest. An angel from Heaven was passing. Satan called him, and entreated an interview with Christ. This was granted. He then related to Him that he repented of his rebellion, and wished again to enjoy the favor of God. He was willing to take the place which had been assigned him, and be under Christ’s command. The Son of God wept at Satan’s woe, but told him, as the mind of the Father, that this could never be. Heaven must not be placed in jeopardy. The peace of Heaven would be marred, should he be received back; for sin originated with him; the seeds of rebellion were still within him. He had no occasion for his course, and he had not only hopelessly ruined himself, but the host of angels also, who would still have been happy in Heaven had he remained steadfast. The law of God could condemn, but could not pardon.” The Signs of the Times, January 16, 1879.

Here we see a picture of Lucifer, once the covering cherub, in rank next to the Son of God Himself, contemplating the results of his pride and rebellion, “his mighty frame” trembling as with a tempest. Lucifer regretted his work, his rebellion, his pride, his choices. He wishes again to enjoy the favor of God. He is willing to take the place God had assigned to him. He is willing to be under Christ’s command. Many people, and maybe even most people, would look upon these thoughts, feelings and emotions as tokens of genuine repentance; a genuine desire to return to a pure and holy state, but were they?

Let’s revisit the response from Christ, remembering who this Christ is—the compassionate, loving, forgiving God; the very same Divine Being who, because of love for His fallen creation [that is, man] left His own high position as the Majesty of heaven to come to this earth, clothed in the garb of man; willing to suffer the scorn and rebuke of sinners, to die the cruelest of deaths that the sinner might be rescued from the penalty of sin and once more be reconciled to a perfect, pure, and holy God. How does this Christ respond to the repenting Lucifer, once the covering cherub, the one closest to Himself in the ranks of heaven?

“The Son of God wept at Satan’s woe.” Friends, Christ is in grief. Christ is sorrowing over this fallen creation. But does He forgive? Does He accept Lucifer’s sorrow over his condition? Does He reinstate Lucifer in his position? Does He allow Him back into heaven? “The Son of God wept at Satan’s woe, but told him, as the mind of the Father, that this could never be. Heaven must not be placed in jeopardy. The peace of Heaven would be marred, should he be received back, for sin originated with him; the seeds of rebellion were still within him. He had no occasion for his course, and he had not only hopelessly ruined himself, but the host of angels also, who would still have been happy in Heaven had he remained steadfast. The law of God could condemn, but could not pardon.”

Why could Lucifer’s “repentance” not be accepted? This is where we can learn eternal life and death lessons from Lucifer. The inspired word of our God records the reasons why Lucifer’s “repentance” was not accepted. These things are recorded for our instruction, our protection, our own salvation.

“Satan did not repent of his rebellion because he saw the goodness of God which he had abused. The wretchedness he realized in losing the sweet light of Heaven, the sense of guilt which forced itself upon him, and the disappointment he experienced in not finding his expectations realized, were the cause of his grief. To be commander out of Heaven, was vastly different from being thus honored in Heaven. The loss of all the privileges of Heaven seemed too much to be borne. He wished to regain these.” Ibid., January 16, 1879.

Let’s look at the reasons for which Satan did or did not repent. Obviously the reasons for his repentance were not the right reasons. So we can learn what type of repentance is not acceptable. In this way we are able to learn what kind of repentance is necessary in order to be accepted.

“Satan did not repent of his rebellion because he saw the goodness of God which he had abused.” Did Lucifer repent because he saw the goodness, the love of God, which he had abused? No, it says that was not one of the reasons for his “repentance.” Acceptable repentance is repentance triggered by an understanding of the goodness of God, God’s love, we could say, and by our acknowledgment that we have abused that goodness. This is one example of an acceptable reason for repentance.

Another acceptable reason for repentance is found in the book Steps to Christ. Though this is stated in the negative—what is lacking is stated—we understand that repentance was not granted because something was missing, something that is required for genuine repentance. “There was no deep, heartbreaking grief in his soul, [that is, Judas’] that he had betrayed the spotless Son of God and denied the Holy One of Israel.” Steps to Christ, 24. What Judas lacked was deep, heartbreaking grief for betraying and denying Christ. We must have a deep heartbreaking grief for betraying and denying Christ. Remember friends, every time we sin, if we claim the name Christian, we betray and deny Christ.

“The sinner has a sense of the righteousness of Jehovah and feels the terror of appearing, in his own guilt and uncleanness, before the Searcher of hearts. He sees the love of God, the beauty of holiness, the joy of purity; he longs to be cleansed and to be restored to communion with Heaven.” Ibid.

The following are acceptable reasons for repentance:

1) An understanding of the goodness of God, and that we have abused that goodness.

2) There is a sense of the righteousness of Jehovah and feel the terror of appearing, in our own guilt and uncleanness, before the Searcher of hearts.

3) We see the love of God, the beauty of holiness, the joy of purity.

4)  We long to be cleansed.

5) We long to be restored to communion with heaven.

What are unacceptable reasons for repentance? We return to the story of Lucifer. “The wretchedness he realized in losing the sweet light of Heaven, the sense of guilt which forced itself upon him, and the disappointment he experienced in not finding his expectations realized, were the cause of his grief. To be commander out of Heaven, was vastly different from being thus honored in Heaven. The loss of all the privileges of Heaven seemed too much to be borne. He wished to regain these.” The Signs of the Times, January 16, 1879.

1) He realized his wretchedness

2) He had a sense of guilt

3) He was disappointed in not finding his expectations realized

4) He realized the loss of privilege, even the privilege of heaven

5) He had a desire to regain the privilege of heaven

Friends, what is the difference between these manifestations of repentance, that which is acceptable, and that which is not? One centers around our Saviour and how our rebellion, our pride, our evil, affects God, how it betrays the spotless Son of God, denies the Holy One of Israel, and abuses the goodness of God. The other manifestation of repentance, unacceptable repentance, centers around a loss for self, feeling pity for ourselves in our wretchedness, feeling discomfort over our guilt, having disappointment in our expectations not being met, loss of privilege for self, wanting to regain privilege for self. One kind of repentance is self-centered; the other is pain, sorrow, grief for injuring another, even God Himself.

Have you examined your own repentance? Is it the Godly sort, or is it the sort of repentance first exhibited and practiced by the instigator of evil and sin, the very epitome of selfishness and self-absorption and pride?

The reality is that if we have not prayed for true repentance, it will be the repentance of Lucifer, for Inspiration tells us that even repentance must be given us of God (Acts 5:31). Steps to Christ explains it in these words: “A repentance such as this [that is, such as David’s true repentance], is beyond the reach of our own power to accomplish; it is obtained only from Christ, who ascended up on high and has given gifts unto men.” Steps to Christ, 25.

Oh, friends, if you have not recognized the different reasons for repentance, those that are acceptable and those that are not, if you have not prayed for true repentance, the repentance which Christ alone can give, bow your heads and pray for God to give you His repentance that we may be saved; that we may be accepted into the courts of the heavenly kingdom where sin will never, never be allowed again to enter.

All quotes NKJV unless otherwise noted.

Brenda Douay is a staff member at Steps to Life. She may be contacted by email at: brendadouay@stepstolife.org.

The Mystery of Godliness

by

For the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, the church was a club for the saints. But the church that Jesus came to establish was not a club for the saints, it was a hospital for sinners. A place where they would be changed and healed. We must never forget that. Sometimes when we come to church we look around us and say, “Look at that brother or that sister.” But that is not what we are supposed to be looking at. When you go to the hospital, do you say, “Oh, no, I should not be here. Look at that man. He is sick! Look at that lady. She is sick! Everybody in this building is sick. I do not think I should be here”? Of course not! You are all there to get well. It is the same with the church. We do not go to look at each other with our faults. We go to look at Jesus, the Great Physician. Jesus wants to heal us from the sting of sin. That, Paul says, is the great mystery. “Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.” 1 Timothy 3:16. Satan hates this verse of Scripture. The devil does not like any part of the Bible, but there are certain parts that he especially hates. 1 Timothy 3:16 is one of those verses.

In the early centuries, before the printing press was invented, the only way you could get a copy of the New Testament was if someone copied it out by hand. There were professional copyists in those days, called scribes.

There were many scribes who copied the entire New Testament. We have over five thousand ancient manuscripts of the New Testament, although not all are complete. That is more than the writings of Homer or of any of the Greek philosophers or historians. In fact, there are more copies of the New Testament than any other ancient document.

In the ancient world, after the time of the apostles, there were two places where a gigantic apostasy developed against the true Christian faith. One was in Rome and the other in Alexandria, Egypt.

In Egypt by the second and third centuries there developed a counterfeit Christianity. Because Egypt is a desert country, we have many manuscripts from the third and the fourth centuries, whereas most of the other manuscripts we have, from other parts of the Middle East, are later copies.

In all the manuscripts there are mistakes. But in the Egyptian manuscripts we find not just random mistakes, but the type of mistakes that indicate to us that there was a conscious attempt by someone to weaken the testimony of the New Testament about the divinity of Jesus Christ.

That is one of the major reasons why many conservative Bible scholars, for many years now, have said that they do not have confidence in the Egyptian manuscripts. They instead have confidence in the great majority of the manuscripts of the New Testament from different areas.

In this text, I Timothy 3:16, it says, “God was manifested in the flesh.” In the Egyptian Manuscripts the word “God” is left out. This is the way it was done. The word for “God” in the Greek language is Theos. If the first two letters (“Th” in Greek is one letter) are removed, then just os is left. “Os” is a pronoun, and this makes the verse completely nonsensical. There is no appropriate antecedent for this pronoun in the sentence. Versions translated from the Egyptian manuscripts read like this, “He was manifested in the flesh.”

The majority of the modern translations of the English Bible are translated from the Egyptian text and are, therefore, not as accurate as Bibles that are translated from the great majority of Greek manuscripts. Read 1 Timothy 3:16, in your Bible. If the word “God” is left out it means that your Bible was translated from an Egyptian text. It would be well to get a Bible that is more accurate, such as the King James or the New King James versions.

 

God In the Flesh

 

The New Testament states unequivocally that Jesus is God. He is a divine person. “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21. This is the prediction that Mary, who was a virgin, would produce a child, conceived by the Holy Spirit. His name was to be called Jesu, or in the Hebrew language Joshua, or in English Jesus. That name means a Savior, or a Deliverer.

Who is this Jesus, who is going to save us from our sins? It says in Matthew 1:23, “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, God with us.” Matthew 1:23. He is God, God with us, God in the flesh.

The New Testament states this over and over again. Jesus existed before He was born of Mary. “John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, ‘This was He of Whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ” John 1:15.

John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus, yet, he said that Jesus was before him. How much before? “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” John 17:5. “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” John 17:24. Jesus said to His Father, “I remember the love You had for Me before the world existed.”

How long before the world was? “But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.” Micah 5:2. God the Father is saying that the one born in Bethlehem had been with Him from the days of eternity.

God has always been. In our human speech, when we go as far back as we can, we call that the beginning. The Bible says that in the beginning God already was. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning (you cannot go back beyond that) was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1–4, 14.

A person would have to be God in order to fully reveal God, because God is infinite. No created person could reveal the Father completely. Jesus could do what no angel, or created person could do. “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, Who is the Head of all principality and power.” Colossians 2:8–10.

Many Christians do not believe that verse. Yet, it is still in the Bible. “You are complete in Him Who is the Head.” That is the Chief, the One who is in control. The head is the top of the body. He is the head of all principality (rulers) and powers.

 

Seen by Angels

 

“Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels.” As being part of this great mystery Paul talks about Jesus being seen by angels. What was it that was seen by angels that was so mysterious? When Paul said Jesus was seen by angels, he was not only talking about God’s angels. He was talking about the devil’s angels, also.

The book of Revelation teaches that the devil has angels. There were angels that joined the devil in his rebellion against the government of heaven.(See Revelation 12:7–9.) Part of this great mystery is that when Jesus came down to this world, He was manifest in the flesh. The angels—the people in the heavens —saw something. What was it that they saw?

They saw what the great men of the earth saw as described in Psalm 48: “For behold the kings assembled, They passed by together. They saw it, and so they marveled; They were troubled, they hastened away. Fear took hold of them there, and pain, as of a woman in birth pangs, as when you break the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.” Psalm 48:4–7.

Jesus was crucified during the celebration of the Passover. At that time there were kings, representatives from foreign courts, nobles, princes—men who exerted a wide influence in the world, assembled from all parts of the world in Jerusalem for the Passover. These people witnessed the scenes of Christ’s death.

Many Jews read the inscription on the cross, and it caused such a stir that the chief priests went to Pilate and said, “Please change what you wrote, because it is having such an effect on the people.” It was at that time, when the kings, nobles, and so many important peoples were watching, that Jehovah struck a blow that was felt and has been felt all over the world. The tidings of Christ’s trial and crucifixion were taken by these people to all parts of the world.

This was by divine foreknowledge and decree, because God wanted all the people of the world to focus their attention on the meaning of what happened when Jesus died on the cross. That is to be the all absorbing theme. Everyone in the world is invited to look, to study, and to understand. That is to be the great center of attraction in our world.

The angels of heaven want to understand what happened. Peter, when writing to the Christians later in his life, said the angels desire to understand this great mystery.

What was seen on Calvary? One of the things seen was that God’s throne is a throne of justice. Many today have forgotten all about God’s justice. But the cross proves that our God is a God of justice. When His law is broken, the price has to be paid. It cannot be overlooked. The sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross paid the price for our sin. It also restored honor to God’s government which had been under attack.

Satan said to God, “You cannot be just and forgive the human race of their sins.” God said, “Yes, I can.” The cross is an unanswerable argument. At the end of the world the result of the cross upon the heavenly universe, upon satanic agencies, and upon everyone in this world will be, as the Bible predicts—every mouth will be stopped. In making this infinite sacrifice, Christ exalted and honored the law.

Many things are revealed at the cross besides God’s justice. God could have been just and destroyed the whole world. When man rebelled against God, God could have been just and righteous and destroyed every sinner in the world. God is just, but His character is infinite, it involves more than justice. It is merciful. Even though the devil claimed that God could not be just and merciful, the cross proved this also.

The cross proved that God is right, and the devil wrong. Was the penalty paid, terrible? Jesus exhausted the wrath of God against a broken law. He exhausted the penalty so that you and I would not have to pay it.

The cross shows that God is just and shows at the same time that He is merciful. It shows that His hatred against sin is as strong as death, but it shows that His love for sinners is even stronger than death. When it is all done, and God presents to the entire inhabitants of the world a panoramic view of the life and death of Christ, every mouth will be stopped, every rebellious voice silenced. God will have done everything that He could do to save each one. No one will be able to say to the Lord, “Lord, I had a bad inheritance, I had a poor marriage partner, I had bad health, or I had trouble on my job.” Every mouth will be silenced. God will say, “I did everything possible to save you. There were abundant opportunities for you to be saved. All you had to do was accept, all you had to do was commit your life to Me and I would have helped you. The plan of salvation would have worked out in your life.” What are you going to say when the Lord presents to you millions of other people that were just as weak as you were?

He will be able to show you people who had just as bad a marriage as you had, just as bad health as you had, just as much trouble on their job as you had, and all the kinds of trouble you had. Yet they committed their lives to Christ and He saved them, why didn’t you? What will you say? The Bible says every mouth will be stopped. It is the cross that will stop the great controversy.

 

Thoughts Revealed

 

The cross of Jesus has a dark side and a light side. The light side is how much God loves you and me. God loves you enough that He would rather die than leave you lost.

The dark side is this: God’s Son was permitted to endure the enmity of an apostate, called Satan, against the commander of all heaven. It was demonstrated what Satan was like.

This was predicted in the Bible. “Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, behold, this child is destined for the rise and fall of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes a sword will pierce through your own soul also) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” Luke 2:34, 35. What does it mean that the thoughts of many hearts are going to be revealed?

When Jesus came, the character of God was revealed to the whole universe. His justice, His mercy, His love for the lost, His kindness, His tact, His courtesy, His cheerfulness, His helpfulness, and His tender compassion. The character of God was perfectly reflected to us through the life of Christ.

The thoughts of God are revealed through the life of Jesus. God loves you so much that He would rather His Son die on the cross than you be lost. This is impossible to explain. We cannot understand the love of God, but it is real. The life of Christ revealed the thoughts of God’s heart.

The heart of the devil was also revealed. The heart of the devil had never been revealed before like it was when Jesus was on earth. It was the devil who inspired the men who crucified Christ. It was the devil who stimulated the people to taunt Christ, and the Roman soldiers to mock Him. He persuaded Pilate to condemn Jesus to crucifixion, even after Pilate said three times in the most emphatic language, “I find in Him no fault at all.”

The thoughts of the devil were revealed. But that is not all. In the life and death of Christ your heart is revealed. When you read the story you will take one side or the other. Either you accept Christ, or you deny Him and become His enemy. You cannot be neutral. When you read the story of Christ, especially about His crucifixion, you have to go one way or the other.

When you see that the devil has no mercy, but is only cruel, do you want to follow him any more? “Oh,” somebody says, “I have never been following the devil.” Oh? I wish I could say that.

Who is following the devil and who is not following the devil? “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8. Jesus wants to destroy the works of the devil. He was manifested to deliver us from sin.

The people who are given eternal life will be people in whom the Lord Jesus has destroyed the works of the devil, delivered them from sin. Do you want to be part of that group? Do you want Jesus to deliver you?

Sin is cruel. Sin is not something that anyone would want to have anything to do with. We see when we study the cross, it would be better for us to lose our lives than to be involved in sin.

“Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh . . . seen by angels.” Is this mystery going to change your life? Are you studying about it, thinking about it, praying about it? Are you saying, “Lord, I want this salvation that was worked out for me in the life of Jesus on the cross. I want this salvation to change my life. I do not want to follow the devil any more. I do not want to live a life of sin any more.”

Has this been your experience? It is a great mystery. It is beyond our understanding. But we serve a God of mysteries, a God of miracles, a God that wants to work a miracle in your life and mine.

 

Light in the Darkness

by

To every voyager on the storm-tossed sea of life, the Lord has given a compass which, if rightly used, will safely guide him into the eternal haven of rest. It was given to our first parents at the gate of Eden, after they had admitted sin into this beautiful earth as well as into their own lives. The compass consists of the following words, which were spoken by the Lord to Satan: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed” (Genesis 3:15). In every heart God has planted an enmity to sin, which, if heeded, will lead to righteousness and eternal life. Any man, whatever his station in life, who will absolutely follow the divine compass placed in his heart, will accept Christ as his Saviour and be led out into the sunlight of God’s love and approval.

As the result of our first parents’ eating of the forbidden fruit, over all the earth hung the gloom of the divine decree, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). The marks of death and decay were soon seen in the falling leaves and withered flowers. There was no escaping the decree, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). But a ray of light pierced the darkness when God spoke the following words to Satan: “It (the seed of the woman) shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). These words revealed the fact that for those who would cherish the enmity against sin which God had placed in the heart, there was a way of escape from death. They would live, and Satan would die; but before his death he would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. This was necessary in order that the death of Satan might be made sure, and that mankind might escape eternal death.

Before man was placed on trial, the love of the Father and the Son for him was so great that Christ pledged His own life as a ransom if man should be overcome by the temptations of Satan. Christ was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). This wonderful truth was made known to our first parents in the words spoken by the Lord to Satan, “It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.”

In order that man might realize the enormity of sin, which would take the life of the sinless Son of God, he was required to bring an innocent lamb, confess his sins over its head, then with his own hands take its life, a type of Christ’s life. This sin-offering was burned, typifying that through the death of Christ all sin would finally be destroyed in the fires of the last day.

It was difficult for man, surrounded by the darkness of sin, to comprehend these wonderful heavenly truths. The rays of light which shone from the heavenly sanctuary upon the simple sacrifices were so obscured by doubt and sin, that God in His great love and mercy, had an earthly sanctuary built after the divine pattern, and priests were appointed, who “served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5). This was done that man’s faith might lay hold of the fact that in heaven there is a sanctuary whose services are for the redemption of mankind.

The prophet Jeremiah grasped this great truth, and exclaimed, “A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary” (Jeremiah 17:12). David knew of God’s dwelling place in heaven, and when writing for the generations to come, he said, “He (God) hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth” (Psalm 102:19). The faithful ones have always understood that when they sought God with all the heart, “their prayer came up to His holy dwelling place, even unto heaven” (2 Chronicles 30:27).

All the worship in the earthly sanctuary was to teach the truth in regard to the heavenly sanctuary. While the earthly tabernacle was standing, the way into the heavenly tabernacle was not made manifest (Hebrews 9:8); but when Christ entered heaven to present His own blood in man’s behalf, God revealed through His prophets much light in regard to the sanctuary in heaven.

To John, the beloved disciple, were given many views of that glorious temple. He beheld the golden altar, on which, mingled with fragrant incense, the prayers of earthly saints are offered up before God. In vision he saw the candlestick with its seven lamps of fire burning before the throne of God. The veil into the most holy was lifted, and he writes, “The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament” (Revelation 11:19).

It is in this “true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man,” that Christ pleads His blood before the Father in behalf of sinful men (Hebrews 8:2). There is the throne of God, surrounded by myriads of the angelic hosts, all waiting to obey His commands; and from there they are sent to answer the prayers of God’s children here on earth.

The heavenly sanctuary is the great power-house of Jehovah, whence all the help necessary to overcome every temptation of Satan is sent to each one who is connected with it by faith.

The heavily laden electric car, with its slender arm reaching up to the wire above, through which it receives strength from the power-house miles away, is a fitting illustration of the Christian. As long as the connection is unbroken, through the darkest night, the car runs smoothly up and down hill alike, not only shedding light on the immediate track ahead, but casting its bright rays of light into the darkness far and near. But the instant the connection is broken, how great is the change! The car remains in darkness, unable to go forward.

So it is that Christ, our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, reaches His hand down over the battlements of heaven to clasp the hand of everyone who will reach up by faith and take hold of the proffered help. The one whose faith lays hold of that help, can pass securely over the steepest hills of difficulty, his own soul filled with light while diffusing light and blessing to others. As long as he by faith keeps a firm hold of God, he has light and power from the sanctuary above; but if he allows doubt and unbelief to break the connection, he is in darkness, not only unable to go forward himself, but a stumbling-block in the way of others.

The one who allows nothing to break his connection with heaven becomes an earthly dwelling-place for the Most High: “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit” (Isaiah 57:15). He who separates from sin and puts it far from him, becomes a temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). God loves to dwell in the hearts of His people (Ephesians 3:17–20), but sin cherished in the heart prevents His Spirit from abiding there. Christ knocks at the door of every heart, inviting all to exchange sin for righteousness, that He may come in and abide with them (Revelation 3:20).

There are three temples brought to view in the Bible—the heavenly temple, the dwelling-place of the Most High, where Christ intercedes in our behalf; the temple of the human body, where God’s Spirit rules and reigns; and the earthly temple, with its typical services designed to teach mankind how to receive divine help from the great storehouse above, so that God can honor them by abiding with them continually.

The earthly sanctuary with its types and symbols is like the powerful lenses of the telescope, which make it possible to view heavenly bodies that otherwise would be invisible. To the eye of the ignorant those wonderful lenses appear like ordinary glass; but the astronomer, who longs to know of the wonders of the heavens, is filled with rapture as he gazes through them.

In like manner the Christian who will study the typical service of the earthly sanctuary, not as a collection of dry, lifeless relics of ancient worship, but as a wonderful art gallery, where, by the hand of a master-artist, the different parts of the marvelous plan of redemption are portrayed, will be astonished at the beauty revealed. The figures fairly speak to him, as it were, from the canvas. They tell the beautiful story of the Saviour’s love until his very soul is filled with rapture as he gazes upon them. He sees the vivid picture of the priest in snow-white robe leading the red heifer out to the rough uncultivated valley, there to offer it a sacrifice for sin. He sees him sprinkle its blood on the rough stones of the valley, to teach that Christ died for the most worthless, for the veriest outcast. Who can gaze on that picture without having his heart filled with love for such a compassionate Redeemer?

Again he views a picture of the destitute sinner, longing to be free from sin; and beholding his wealthy brethren pass with their lambs for sin-offerings, the poor ones with their pigeons and doves, he sinks back into despondency, for he has no living thing to offer. Then the light of hope springs into his face as one tells him, “Only a handful of flour will answer.” And as the sinner watches the priest offer the crushed wheat as an emblem of the blessed body to be broken for him, and hears him say, “Thy sin is forgiven,” his heart leaps for joy, as did the heart of the poor man by the pool of Bethesda, who had no one to help him, when the blessed Master told him to take up his bed and walk (John 5:2–9).

If the one who longs to know more of Christ and His infinite love, will study the types and symbols of the earthly sanctuary, connecting each with its glorious antitype, his soul will be filled with rapture. Like the lenses of the telescope, they reveal wondrous beauties in the character of our blessed Redeemer, beauties that are revealed in no other way.

There is a separate and distinct heavenly lesson taught by each of the different types and symbols of the earthly sanctuary service; and when they are all viewed together, they form a wonderful Mosaic painting of the divine character of Christ as none but a heavenly artist could portray it.

Heaven is a Good Place

by

Jesus said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon the earth where moth and rust corrupts or disfigures and where thieves dig through or break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust corrupts and where thieves do not dig through, neither steal. For where your treasure is, there also your heart will be.” Matthew 6:19–21.

“Satan is constantly at work to present worldly things in so attractive a light that the Christian may be bribed to make the world his first consideration. Should he induce the Christian to seek for worldly treasures, and make things of God of secondary importance, he could readily efface the image of God from the soul. There is continual danger that the things of this world will gain the supremacy and cause us to neglect the things of priceless value.” The Signs of the Times, April 4, 1895.

More time should be spent on the subject of heaven. The devil is presenting all kinds of things in this world in such an attractive light that we are in constant danger of making the things of this world first and more important than the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33. The devil plans to rob us of our eternal inheritance.

“The great Teacher gives man a view of the future world. He brings it, with its attractive possessions, within the range of his vision. He presents the actual claims of God and heaven. If He can fasten the mind upon its future life and its blessedness, in comparison with the temporal concerns of this world, the striking contrast is deeply impressed upon the mind, absorbing the heart and soul in the whole being. He [Christ] thus removes the things of time and sense from the affections where they have had the supremacy and gives them their place as subordinate to the higher and eternal realities.” Our High Calling, 286.

Jesus presents the attractions of heaven to us to remove the temporal things of this world from our affections where they have had the supremacy. If we lose our vision of heaven, it will be impossible to get ready to go to a place that is out of mind. Constantly imagine the kind of a place it is and the things we will do there.

Firstly, let’s look at some things that will not be in heaven. Some time ago I knew a gentleman who had become a Seventh-day Adventist a short time before he died. His funeral was held in the Lutheran church which was packed with hundreds of people. Almost his whole family and friends were of the Lutheran faith. One of his friends suggested that I talk about heaven and in researching this subject, most of what I found in my Bible were things that would not be there.

No More Trouble

“There the wicked cease [from] troubling; and there the weary be at rest.” Job 3:17.

There will never be any trouble from any wicked person in heaven because they cease from troubling. Here in this world people are in trouble because of what they or others are saying or doing, something contrary to the law of God causing all kinds of trouble, stress, and strife in our world. In heaven, there will be no more trouble.

No More Tears

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death will not be anymore, neither sorrow, neither crying, neither pain will be anymore, because the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4. No more sin, no more death, no more sorrow. Just a few days before she died, Ellen White wrote, “All will be a happy, united family, clothed with garments of praise and thanksgiving. Over the scene the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy, while God and Christ will unite in proclaiming, ‘There shall be no more sin, neither shall there be any more death.’ ” The Adventist Home, 544.

No Violence

“Violence will no longer be heard in your land, wasting nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.” Isaiah 60:18. It goes on to say how the days of mourning will be ended and the people will all be righteous. It is a wonderful passage of Scripture. There will not be any mourning or any violence, and there will not be any destruction.

No Deformities

There are many deformities in this world. Most of us have fillings in our teeth, wear glasses and have many other kinds of deformities. But in heaven there will only be perfection. Isaiah 35:5, 6, says, “The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. The lame man shall leap as a hart [a deer], and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.” The deformities so common in this world will be gone, and no one will ever say again, “I am sick.” “Not, he will say, the inhabitant, I am sick.” Isaiah 33:24. Sickness and deformity will be something of the past. We look forward to the time when those using canes and wheelchairs and crutches will be able to throw them away and be rid of all their deformities.

No Selfishness

The disciples at one time came to Jesus inquiring who would be the greatest in heaven. He answered them in Matthew 18:3, 4 saying, “Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become as little children, you will in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

There will be no rough, unkind or selfish person in heaven; only those who have the meekness of a little child will be there. “In the family of God in heaven, there will not be found one who is selfish. The peace and harmony of the heavenly courts will not be marred by the presence of one who is rough or unkind. He who in this world exalts self in the work given him to do will never see the kingdom of God unless he is changed in his spirit, unless he becomes meek and lowly, revealing the simplicity of a little child.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 140.

If I recognize myself as rough, harsh, unkind, or selfish, I need to go to the Lord immediately and plead with Him to create in me a new heart and renew a right spirit within me. In heaven there will be no roughness or selfishness.

No Contentions

It is recorded in the Bible that on the night of Jesus’ betrayal there was strife and quarrelling amongst His disciples over which of them would be accounted the greatest. Jesus told them to be at peace with each other. You can read about it in Luke 22:23–27. Many times, whether being serious, or even in a joking manner, we fall into the devil’s temptation of shocking or jarring others, but there will be no contentions or war of words in heaven.

“Heaven is a home where sympathy is alive in every heart, expressed in every look. Love reigns there. There are no jarring elements, no discord or contentions or war of words.” Last Day Events, 296.

Does this mean people will be free to think in heaven? Yes, we will be free to have a different opinion; however, we are not going to have a war about it. Heaven is going to be a place full of individuals with different tastes. Here on earth Christians don’t all wear the same clothes or eat exactly alike because of our different tastes and cultures, and God made us to exercise the power of choice in these matters. There are many good things to choose from, making the world so diverse and interesting, but in heaven there will be no war of words over individual likes or dislikes.

No Tempter

This is really something to anticipate. There will be no tempter in heaven. “No tree of knowledge of good and evil will afford opportunity for temptation. No tempter is there, no possibility of wrong. Every character has withstood the testing of evil, and none are longer susceptible to its power.” Education, 301.

For a thousand years he (Satan) will experience the fruit of the curse which he has caused.

“Limited alone to the earth, he will not have the privilege of ranging to other planets, to tempt and annoy those who have not fallen. During this time Satan suffers extremely. … But he is then to be deprived of his power and left to reflect upon the part which he has acted since his fall, and to look forward with trembling and terror to the dreadful future, when he must suffer for all the evil that he has done and be punished for all the sins that he has caused to be committed.” The Story of Redemption, 416.

This is not only deliverance for the people on the earth, but also for the beings on other worlds who have never fallen. The devil has also tempted the intelligences in all the other worlds, and they will be delighted to not have him around to tempt them anymore.

“I heard shouts of triumph from the angels and from the redeemed saints which sounded like ten thousand musical instruments, because they were to be no more annoyed and tempted by Satan and because the inhabitants of other worlds were delivered from his presence and his temptations.” Early Writings, 290.

No Funerals, No Tears, No Pain

“Pain cannot exist in the atmosphere of heaven. In the home of the redeemed there will be no tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning.” Testimonies, vol. 9, 286. I knew of a young man who was in so much pain before he died that he begged his father, “Please get a gun and shoot me; I can’t stand the pain anymore.” Any physician, preacher or anyone having to visit people who are very sick has run into situations where they have witnessed unbearable pain. That experience is seared into the memory for the rest of your life. I have personally experienced many things that I wish I had not witnessed or heard. All this pain and suffering is just a part of the results of sin. We are so familiar with the fact that this earth causes pain from time to time that it is almost impossible to imagine heaven being a place devoid of both physical and emotional pain. No tears, and no funeral trains or badges of mourning because there is no death, no hospitals, and no funeral homes.

This tells us what will not be in heaven, but what is it that makes heaven, heaven?

Jesus is what makes heaven, heaven. When Jesus was here on this earth it was like heaven to be in His presence. Heaven is where Jesus is. The reason the disciples were so troubled when He said that He was going away was because after they got acquainted with Jesus, they found more happiness, more enjoyment in being in His presence, than they had ever had in all their previous lives.

If you want to be ready to go to heaven, you need to get acquainted with Jesus. He is the King of that place, the One whom everybody loves and worships. The wonderfulness of His character is something no human being or angel can really describe. You have to be there in heaven and experience eternal life to fully realize how wonderful He is. But there are several other things that have been promised when we get there.

Rest

Over the years I have met many people who have worked so hard for so long that they are just plain tired. Heaven is a place where people, who are physically and mentally tired, will have time to rest. Those who are weary from the struggles and trials of this world are going to be able to rest. They will no longer be under pressure to go somewhere or do something. That is very comforting to many people who have been struggling under all kinds of pressing circumstances for many years.

Fullness of Joy

David said, “You will teach me (or show me) the path of life: in your presence there [is] fullness of joy; at your right hand [there are] pleasures for ever more.” Psalm 16:11. In the Hebrew text it says, “There is fullness of joys,” plural. There is more than one kind of joy; there are many joys. And fullness of joy is found in His presence. This means that in heaven we will be the happiest of human beings.

Ellen White describes it this way. “If we can meet Jesus in peace and be saved, forever saved, we shall be the happiest of beings!” Manuscript Releases, vol. 21, 343. “The Lord has made every provision for our happiness in the future life.” Marantha, 369. Then we are told that we are not “to measure the conditions of the future life by the conditions of this life.” Ibid.

“Everything in heaven is noble and elevated. All seek the happiness of others. No one devotes himself to looking out and caring for self. It is the chief joy of all holy beings to witness the joy and happiness of those around them.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 239 “One rich tide of happiness will flow and deepen as eternity rolls on.” Ibid., vol. 9, 286.

It is impossible for us to imagine a place of permanent bliss. For the average person, the happiest moments of this life were when they first got married. The Lord uses illustrations to help us understand how happy we are going to be in heaven. In the book, Song of Solomon, the most sensual language is used to describe this bliss. Unfortunately for many, marriage does not stay blissful, but in heaven, that bliss just goes on and on. One rich tide of happiness will flow and deepen as eternity rolls on, and we will be the happiest of beings.

Permanent Dwelling

Just prior to Jesus’ ascension he told his troubled disciples that He was going to leave. He encouraged them by saying, “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go also, I will prepare a place for you. Again I am coming and I will receive you to Myself, in order that where I myself am, also you might be.” John 14:1–3.

Heaven is a place where you will have a permanent dwelling. The word monai, translated mansions, means places or “places” or “permanent dwellings.” There will not be any trailer parks or mobile homes in heaven. All will have a permanent home that will last forever.

Everyone WIll Be Known

“For we see now through a glass in an indistinct image, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know as also I am known.” I Corinthians 13:12. This means that in heaven those who are saved will know the friends that they had here in this world.

“The resurrection of Jesus was a type of the final resurrection of all who sleep in Him. The countenance of the risen Savior, His manner, His speech, were all familiar to His disciples. As Jesus arose from the dead, so those who sleep in Him are to arise again. We shall know our friends, even as the disciples knew Jesus. They may have been deformed, diseased, or disfigured in this mortal life and they rise in perfect health and symmetry; yet in the glorified body their identity will be perfectly preserved.” The Desire of Ages, 804.

“Our personal identity is preserved in the resurrection.” The Faith I Live By, 185. God in His own time will call forth the dead, giving again the breath of life. The same form will come forth, but it will be free from disease and every defect. It lives again, bearing the same individuality of features so that friend will recognize friend.

“The loves and sympathies that God has planted in the soul will find truest and sweetest exercise.” Ibid., 279.

“Every saint connected in family relationship here will know each other there.” Selected Messages, Book 3, 316. In heaven there will be a reunion of friends and loved ones who are now separated by death. There, the saved will be together forever and never separated for more than a week. It is possible that one of your friends, or your family members may decide to stay in the Holy City and you may be taking a trip somewhere in the universe, but never more than a week. Why? Because it says in Isaiah 66:22, 23, “Every Sabbath and every new moon, all flesh is going to come together and worship before Me.” There will be no more “goodbyes” for more than a week.

A Home, Roots

“For those saying these things make it manifest that they seek a fatherland. And if, on the one hand, they had wanted to return to the one they left, they would have had time to return. But now they seek a better one, that is an heavenly. Wherefore God, is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.” Hebrews 11:14–16.

Notice, these people are seeking a fatherland, or a country, and God has prepared for them a city. In the Bible, the inheritance of the saved is called a fatherland or a country that also has a city. It has lakes, rivers, woods and mountains. Ellen White saw this in vision: “We entered a field full of all kinds of beasts—the lion, the lamb, the leopard, and the wolf, all together in perfect union. We passed through the midst of them, and they followed on peaceably after. Then we entered a wood, not like the dark woods we have here; no, no; but light, and all over glorious; the branches of the trees moved to and fro, and we all cried out, ‘We will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.’ We passed through the woods, for we were on our way to Mount Zion.” Early Writings, 18. Heaven is a beautiful place. It has everything the heart could possibly desire.

Occupation

What will we do in heaven? Isaiah 65:21, 22 tells us that we are going to build houses. You are already going to have a house in the city, but you are also going to be able to build yourself a country house, inhabit it and plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. It will never be taken from you. You are not going to build and another inhabit or plant and another eat. It goes on to say, “My elect are going to enjoy the work of their hands for a long time.”

“There [in heaven] every power will be developed. Every capability increased. The grandest enterprises will be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations will be reached, the highest ambitions realized. And still there will appear new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to study to call forth the powers of mind and soul.” The Review and Herald, July 1, 1915. “All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God’s redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar.” The Great Controversy, 677.

In Abraham’s day, looking at the sky without telescopes, it was thought that there were a few thousand stars. Later, with the use of telescopes, we found that there were millions of stars, and today with more sophisticated telescopes we know that there are billions. Every time we build a bigger telescope, we find that there are more.

How many galaxies are there? We have no idea, but in heaven you will be able to go to those places and also do things that Adam and Eve enjoyed doing: build houses and plant vineyards. All the treasures of the universe will be open to your study.

Music

Heaven is a place where we are going to enjoy music. No one will be singing the blues in heaven. A different kind of music will be heard there. “The ransomed of the Lord will return, they will come to Zion with songs.” Notice what kinds of songs. “And everlasting joy upon their heads. They will obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Isaiah 35:10.

Isaiah 51:3 also talks about joy and gladness, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. And there will be instruments: “The singers and the players on instruments: will be there.” Psalm 87:7.

When I get to heaven I want to have a music room with different kinds of instruments.

I learned when I was very young that there were all kinds of things I wanted to do that there would not be time to do in this world. I took trumpet lessons for a few years when I was young, but I actually wanted to be able to play a saxophone, the clarinet, the trombone, the piano, and the organ. It was impossible to learn all those instruments in this short lifetime.

In high school I thought it would be interesting to study science, history, biology, chemistry, and physics. Unfortunately, you cannot become a specialist in all those areas because we simply do not live long enough. I decided then that if I only had enough time to look at one of those subjects I had better study theology; I had better study, how to get to heaven so I will have enough time to study all the other interesting things throughout eternity.

Music is something I haven’t had much time to study, but someday I want to be a professional musician. Heaven will be a place where we will all be able to become musicians. “There will be music there, and song, such music and song as, save in the visions of God, no mortal ear has heard or mind conceived.” Maranatha, 361. For those of us who enjoy music, that is an exciting thing to look forward to.

Restoration of the First Dominion

In Micah 4:8, it says that we are going to be restored to the first dominion. When Adam was created, he was made the ruler, the king, or master of the whole world. All animals, birds, fish, and every living creature was under his direct control. “Man will be restored to his lost kingship, and the lower order of beings will again recognize his sway; the fierce will become gentle, and the timid trustful.” Marantha, 353. The wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the young lion and fatling together. A little child shall lead them. Why? Once more man will have dominion over the animals and they will do whatever the little child says. The cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together. The lions shall eat straw like the ox. They won’t hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, says the Lord. (See Isaiah 11:6–9.)

Man will again have dominion over the entire earth. The first dominion will be restored and all other living creatures will obey his will.

Living in God’s Presence

“There shall be no more curse; the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face, and His name shall be upon their foreheads.” Revelation 22:3, 4. In heaven there will be face to face communication with the Father and the Son. If you are alive at His Second Coming and make up part of the 144,000, you will go with Jesus wherever He goes throughout the universe for eternity. It is hard to imagine this, but it’s fun to try.

Youth and Beauty

At the resurrection, “All come forth from their graves the same in stature as when they entered the tomb. … But all arise with the freshness and vigor of eternal youth.” Maranatha, 299. “The mortal, corruptible form, devoid of comeliness, once polluted with sin, becomes perfect, beautiful, and immortal. All blemishes and deformities are left in the grave.” The Great Controversy, 644, 645.

Heaven is a place of youth and beauty. There are people now with defects or blemishes in their appearance that make it hard for them to socialize and live a normal life because of embarrassment. This is often more difficult for a woman than a man, but soon that will all be gone. Everyone in heaven will be beautiful with the healthful vigor of youth.

Sympathy and Love

Never again will it be heard, “Oh, nobody understands me!” Heaven is a place of sympathy and love. “Heaven is a home where sympathy is alive in every heart, expressed in every look. Love reigns there.” Manuscript Releases, vol.9, 105.

Heaven is a Place of Learning

Is there something here on earth that you would like to know and don’t get the opportunity to study? “Heaven is a school; its field of study, the universe; its teacher, the Infinite One.” The Faith I Live By, 360.

Maybe you want to study science or history. Maybe it is the plan of redemption, or how sin entered the universe and how the Lord has dealt with it for the last 6,000 years. What about understanding how the angels work in your own life? Do you want to understand what happened to you that seemed so awful that you said, “Lord, why did you even allow this to happen?” In heaven, “Jesus will lead us beside the living stream flowing from the throne of God and will explain to us the dark providences through which on this earth He brought us in order to perfect our characters.” The Adventist Home, 544. “All that has perplexed us in the providences of God will in the world to come be made plain.” Ibid., 542. This is something to really look forward to.

Inheritance

Hebrews 11:24–27 tells us that Moses chose to suffer with the people of God rather than enjoy the temporary pleasures of sin. He chose that course because he had respect unto the recompense or the amount of the reward—the inheritance. Jesus also referred to this inheritance in Matthew 19:29. He said that “whatever you have lost in this world, when I come again you are going to receive one hundred fold, plus you are going to receive eternal life.” Ellen White also writes about this: “Whatever crosses they have been called to bear, whatever losses they have sustained, whatever persecution they have suffered, even to the loss of their temporal life, the children of God are amply recompensed.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 180. The word amply means plentifully. If we could just grasp that one fact it would change our whole life. We would never be mourning when we lose something here, for He has promised that we will be paid back one hundred fold when the Lord comes.

All that is pure, all that is excellent and lovely is there. The possession of heaven is endless bliss, infinite glory, riches, and knowledge. The character of heaven is perfect love, and holiness, and peace. We know these things now only in part. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.” I Corinthians 2:9.

Oh, friend, you have to be there. We need to review these things so that we are not caught up with what this world has to offer. Everything in this world is coming to an end and is going to be destroyed. In heaven your happiness and joy will continually increase for eternity.

To miss out on heaven would be an infinite loss. For one soul to miss out on heaven is worse than missing out on a whole world of material possessions. In all of our relations with our fellow men, in our home, with our families, with our friends, we need to keep in mind at all times that we are all choosing day by day our eternal destiny.

Our mission as Christians is to reflect to others the character of Christ so that they also will be attracted to Jesus and desire to be in the place where He is. If they see Him in us, they will want to be there.

(Literal translation is used in many Bible quotes.)

Pastor John Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316–788–5559.

Corporate Repentance

by

Whatever the sins of your fathers have been, no matter what your past has been, remember this: God can save you if you commit your life to Him. Do not let the devil deceive you by getting you to think that your past is so bad that there is no hope for you. That is a delusion of the devil to get you discouraged. There is hope.

Ellen White wrote, “Our divine Lord is equal to any emergency. With Him nothing is impossible” (Luke 1:37). In Heavenly Places, 17. God has promised to save everyone who comes to Christ Jesus. Jesus said, “He that comes to Me, I will in no case cast out” (John 6:37, literal translation). So if you come to Him and are cast out, that would prove Him a liar. Jesus Christ is able to save. The problem is that it takes a full commitment. It is wrong to think you can give half of your heart to the Lord and expect the plan of salvation to work. It will not work.

Every sin you commit, both before and after your child is born, has an effect on the children. This effect ripples down to the third and fourth generations. If you are a father, there comes a time when, as a father, you begin to see your own sins reproduced in your children. It is not a pleasant realization when you see your own sins reproduced in your children. We are told in Manuscript Releases, vol. 9, 236: “Parents have a more serious charge than they imagine. The inheritance of children is that of sin. Sin has separated them from God. Jesus gave His life that He might unite the broken links to God. As related to the first Adam, men receive from him nothing but guilt and the sentence of death. But Christ steps in and passes over the ground where Adam fell, enduring every test in man’s behalf. He redeems Adam’s disgraceful failure and fall by coming forth from the trial untarnished. This places man on vantage ground with God. It places him where through accepting Christ as His Saviour, he becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Thus he becomes connected with God and Christ. Christ’s perfect example and the grace of God are given him to enable him to train his sons and daughters to be sons and daughters of God.”

The next paragraph, a very valuable paragraph for anyone who is a parent or going to be, is having to do with raising children. Where do the children get this sinful nature and in spite of that, how can they become overcomers and be saved? Notice carefully. Ellen White tells us how this is done.

She says, “It is by teaching them, line upon line, precept upon precept, how to give the heart and will up to Christ, that Satan’s power is broken.” Ibid. Satan’s power is broken by teaching the children line upon line, how to give the heart to Christ, how to yield their will to Christ. That is how Satan’s power is broken. Unless the children learn to yield their will to Christ, Satan’s power is not broken.

The heart is the seat of emotions, affections, feelings, passions, and appetite. These must be given over to Christ, both heart and will. The will is the kingly power in a man that is the power to make decisions.

When you yield your will to Christ so that He has control of your mind, and you have given your heart to Him so He has control of your feelings, affections, passions, and emotions, “… Satan’s power is broken.” This yielding of the will is what we need to teach children how to do.

“ ‘As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name’ (John 1:12). This is the work, the grand and holy work of parents. They are to keep before their children the great and vital work of receiving Christ, of believing on Christ as their Redeemer, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is the instruction they are to give to their children.” Ibid. Do not wait until they are grown up or think that they will get instruction in preparation for baptism. Teach them when they are just learning to talk, how to yield to Christ. “All who will accept Christ by living faith will take His life as their pattern.” Ibid.

“After the Fall Christ became Adam’s instructor. He acted in God’s stead toward humanity, saving the race from immediate death. He took upon Him the office of mediator. Adam and Eve were given a probation in which to return to their allegiance, and in this plan all their posterity were embraced. In the fullness of time Christ was to be revealed in human form. He was to assume the position of head of humanity by taking the nature, but not the sinfulness of man.

“Satan is the originator of evil. He swerved from his allegiance to God. Those who persisted in sympathizing with him in his disaffection were, with him, shut out of heaven.

“Implacable hatred against God fills Satan’s mind. Persistently he has used his influence to efface from the human family God’s image, and in its place to stamp his own satanic image. His effort to deceive our first parents was successful. Made in the image of God, the human family lost their innocence, became transgressors, and as disloyal subjects began their downward career. Satan gained control of man’s power of action. Through the senses he influenced the mind.

“Thus it has been from the beginning of the world. Instead of remaining under God’s influence in order that he might reflect the moral image of his Creator, man placed himself under the control of Satan’s influence, and was made selfish. Thus sin became a universal evil. And what a dreadful evil is sin!” Ibid., 237.

The secret to breaking Satan’s power is to teach our children line upon line, precept upon precept. That means to go over it, and over, and over, and over again on how to yield both heart and will to Christ. That is the only hope and the only way of escape your children have.

When you begin to see your own sins reproduced in your children you will not want to see your children repeat all of your own mistakes.

When my son was just a small child, I used to ride a motorcycle. Working in the emergency room at Loma Linda, I saw many motorcycle accidents come in and I decided that motorcycle riding was not a wise thing to do so I quit. I did not want my son seeing me ride and develop the same desire.

The time comes when you are a parent that you do not want your children to make every mistake you have made, and you want their mistakes to be corrected. In other words, what you would like to see is corporate repentance in your family. And this was Jacob’s experience. Remember, Jacob lied to his father. As a result of lying to his father, his brother Esau became so angry that he decided when his father died that he was going to kill Jacob.

Isaac, Rebecca and Jacob were afraid that Esau would not even wait till Isaac was dead to kill his brother. They decided that it would be better if Jacob would flee for his protection. So, Jacob made preparations and fled on foot. He was all alone with his guilty conscience. He knew the reason he was in this trouble was because he had sinned. He was separated from his family never to see his mother again, for by the time he came back 20 years later his mother had already passed away.

At his mother’s suggestion, Jacob went to Laban, his mother’s brother. God did not work a miracle to keep him from reaping the consequences of what he himself had done. While there he was deceived by Laban into marriage with the sister of the one he loved. It was a very cruel deception. Laban suggested the problem could be solved by Jacob taking Rachel, whom he really wanted, as a second wife. Jacob decided to agree to this arrangement but his domestic happiness was destroyed for just about his whole life.

I do not know how to impress on the minds of young people the consequences of unwise decisions. Often young people with the least experience and judgment make decisions that will destroy the rest of their life, or at the least make it much less happy than it could have been if they had not made those unwise decisions.

Ellen White says: “Laban understood the wrong of polygamy, although it was alone through his artifice that Jacob had taken two wives.” The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, 116. Laban was covetous of money and saw that Jacob was such a good manager. By his devious plan he kept Jacob working for him to reap some benefits himself from Jacob’s industrious skill as a shepherd.

Now Jacob found himself married to two wives. The jealousy of the sister-wives and their handmaids resulted in terrible defects in the children. The children of Rachel, Leah and their two handmaids spent more time with each other than with their father. The jealousy they bore toward each other in regard to their positions and relationship with Jacob were the cause of the brother’s problems with jealousy, revenge, and hatred.

Most people know the story of Joseph. One reason his brothers had so much trouble with him was that they all knew Rachel had been Jacob’s favorite wife. Joseph was Rachel’s first-born son, and the other brothers who were older knew that the birthright would be given to him as the first-born son of his favorite wife. This knowledge caused contention and when Joseph related to them his dreams that appeared to indicate that he would have a high position over them, they really got angry.

What happened to Dinah was wrong. What happened with Shechem was wrong. (See Genesis 34.) Shechem should have been punished, but was it righteous to kill a whole city full of people because of the rash sin of a young man? It was a grievous sin.

In Genesis 34:30 it says, “Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, ‘You have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and I.’ ”

Just before his death, Jacob said, “Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place. Let not my soul enter their council; let not my honor be united to their assembly; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel” (Genesis 49:5–7).

He prayed and interceded with the Lord asking what to do so that his family would be protected. God told Jacob to go back to Bethel, the place he had first slept as he fled from Esau. It was there that he had the dream of the ladder that went up to heaven. The Hebrew word Beth means house, and el is God. So Bethel is house of God.

Jacob decided before they went to Bethel that his family needed to have a corporate repentance. Where there is corporate sin, there needs to be corporate repentance. He gathered his family together and he related to them about what had happened when he had to flee from his brother Esau.

He told his family that because of his sin and what he had done, he was so discouraged and had such a guilty conscience that he laid down to sleep. While he slept, God gave him a dream, and he saw a ladder that went all the way from the earth where he was clear up to heaven. Angels ascended and descended the ladder. God spoke to him in his dream and said, “I will be with you. And I will bring you back to this place.” As Jacob told his whole family the dream he was touched with emotion and it had a softening effect on their hearts. Right there they experienced corporate repentance.

Genesis 35:1–4 says, “Then God said to Jacob, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.’ And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.’ So they gave Jacob all their foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.”

Look at the steps that were involved in Jacob’s family obtaining corporate repentance.

  1. There was an acknowledgment of what was wrong by the father, the leader. It is not impossible but very difficult for corporate repentance to occur if the leader, the father of the family, is not involved.

An example of that would be the ten tribes. God sent them message after message by the prophet, but they never corporately repented. Finally, they committed the unpardonable sin and they were scattered among the nations. Their tribal identity has subsequently been lost.

Contrary to that, the nation of Judah and Benjamin corporately repented several times. Several good kings listened to the appeals of God’s messengers, the prophets.

The position of the father in the family carries with it awesome responsibility. Jacob, the father, led out in this desire to repent and he appealed to his family to repent also. Telling them his own story softened their hearts and led them in repentance.

  1. An appeal was made to forsake the evil. Jacob told them that the idols they had were foreign gods and not the God of heaven. He said, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you.” Quit worshiping them and purify yourselves.

Concerning those who are expecting, as Christians, to go home with the Lord, the apostle John says that “everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8 NIV). O, you cannot just go on living, doing whatever comes naturally, letting your appetites and passions control your actions. You need to put away the foreign gods and purify yourself. You need to be in control of your life.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8). The prophet Isaiah expressed it this way: “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:16, 17).

Walk in God’s way. Many say, We do not have any false gods. “It is as easy to make an idol of false doctrines and theories as to fashion an idol of wood or stone. … With many, a philosophical idol is enthroned in the place of Jehovah. … Though in a different form, idolatry exists in the Christian world today as verily as it existed among ancient Israel in the days of Elijah.” The Great Controversy, 583.

False doctrines, false teachings, become false gods and therefore idols. Idolatry has the effect to make people feel secure, but they are not secure. Have you met somebody who believes “once saved they are always saved”? If you try to show them what the Bible says about the Sabbath, they say, “I am saved. I do not have to worry about that.” That person worships a philosophical idol more than the word of God.

In Genesis 35, not only did they put away their false gods, purify themselves, and change their garments, but notice what it says in verse 4: “So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.”

Their repentance involved quitting to wear their jewelry. Jewelry itself is not wrong. God gave Lucifer lots of jewelry. It was beautiful, but was part of the reason for his fall. Lucifer was so beautiful that his heart was lifted up because of his beauty (see Ezekiel 28).

God made the jewels, and in heaven when the sin problem is solved, God is going to give His children more jewels than anybody has in this world. The jewels are not the problem but the pride of the wearer is where the error lies. The New Jerusalem, the holy city, is full of gold and precious stones and jewels. The problem is, because of his beauty, Lucifer’s heart became lifted up with pride. And what does the Bible say about the end of pride? It says in Malachi 4 that the days are going to come when it is going to burn like an oven, and all the proud, and all that do wickedly, are going to burn up.

Pride is a huge problem among beautiful women. Thus God has given counsel to all of His children since sin began not to wear jewelry and artificial beauty applications. By the way, how did Jacob know, how did his children know, that they should take this jewelry off and give it to Jacob and not wear it anymore?

The wearing of jewelry ever since the beginning of time has been associated with idolatry and immorality. Prostitutes in general wear lots of jewelry and make-up and color to give them beauty. This is very clear in the Bible. Let’s look at Jezebel, a very evil woman, in 2 Kings 9:30, to see how she was adorned. It says, “Now when Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she put paint on her eyes … .” Using color around eyes is nothing new. Jezebel did that thousands of years ago.

The use of jewelry and all kinds of ornaments to look beautiful is going to be a special problem among God’s remnant people in the very last days. Isaiah 2:2 says, “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days … .” And then he begins to give a prophecy about what is going to happen. This prophecy continues clear through for several chapters. Then in chapter 3 starting in verse 13: “The Lord stands up to plead, and stands to judge the people. The Lord will enter into judgment … . Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes …” (verses 13, 14, 16). Then Isaiah talks about all their different ornaments they wear to make themselves beautiful. This prophecy continues clear through chapter 4, and it says in verses 3 and 4, “And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy—everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem. When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.”

The filth that the Lord washes away is the pride that He described in chapter 3:16–25. Notice: The wearing of jewelry and artificial adornment is going to be a special problem among God’s remnant people, God’s chosen people, in the very last days of earth’s history. Isaiah predicts this in this prophecy.

Jeremiah talks about it in Jeremiah 4:30: “When you are plundered, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with crimson, though you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain you will make yourself fair; Your lovers will despise you; they will seek your life.”

Ezekiel talks about it also in Ezekiel 23:40: “Furthermore you sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and there they came. And you washed yourself for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments.”

And in the book of Revelation, you have a description of two women, a pure righteous woman who is clothed with the sun (Revelation 12), and a description of a harlot woman, a prostitute who is wearing all manner of gold and precious stones and jewels. In Revelation 17:4 it says, “The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.”

In Genesis when Jacob’s family had a corporate repentance, they took off their jewelry. At the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation, we see the very same thing again. Two women, one pure, clothed with the sun, not wearing any jewels at all, the other, a prostitute covered with jewelry and expensive clothing.

Here is what the apostle Paul said about it in 1 Timothy 2:9: “In like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls, or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.”

In 1 Peter 3:1–5, Peter said, “Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands.”

My dear friends in Adventism, we talk about having revival and reformation so that the Lord can come, but in the last 30 years, the wearing of jewelry has escalated. It has come in among Adventist people like an overwhelming tide, so much so that we now even have ministers and their wives wearing rings. By the way, when I was a young minister in the North Dakota conference, no minister was ever allowed to baptize a woman who had a wedding ring on. That is the way it used to be and now the ministers themselves and their wives are wearing wedding rings.

Ellen White says the outward appearance is an index to the heart. We cannot read the heart, but we can see what is hanging and dangling on the outside and that is evidence that we are not having revival and reformation but the opposite. We are going deeper into apostasy.

Another example of corporate repentance was after the golden calf apostasy of the children of Israel just six weeks or so after the giving of the Ten Commandments. After Moses came down there was corporate repentance. You can read about that in Exodus 32 and 33.

Exodus 33:4–6 says, “And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, ‘Say to the children of Israel, “You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.” ’ So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.”

They corporately repented. Did you notice? They had to put away the golden calf and their false gods, just like Jacob’s children did. In addition to that, they took off all the jewelry that was hanging from their ears and wrists and ankles, and every other kind of adornment.

Friends, if there was ever a time when it would not matter too much for God’s children to wear a little bit of jewelry it would not be on the Day of Atonement when your name comes up and your eternal destiny is going to be decided. We cannot afford to do anything that is contrary to God’s word that might cause us to have pride in our heart and ultimately lose our soul.

We need to pray between the porch and the altar for God’s professed people. Like I say, the jewelry itself is not the problem. When you get to heaven, you are going to have more jewelry than anybody has in this world. That is not the problem. Jewelry itself is not sinful. The problem is the pride it invokes.

The Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and incurably wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). Pride is like cancer. Some of you have worked in medical situations and are aware of the fact that cancer itself does not hurt. What hurts is the nerve that the tumor is pressing against. There have been many people who were just a few weeks away from death before they even knew they had cancer. Pride is like that. You can be full of it and you do not even know it. Can you afford to take a chance when God tells you in His word not to do something because it could cause pride to develop in your heart?

When I was a child, my father used to kneel down in our family worship and pray that our family would be saved without the loss of one. In other words, my father wanted to have corporate salvation for our family. And by the way, if you are a father, I believe that is a prayer that is appropriate for you to pray, “Lord, I want for my family to be saved as a corporate unit, without the loss of one.”

The Lord wants everyone in your family to be saved. And there are going to be corporate family units that will all be saved. Would it not be nice if your family was one of them?

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

The Patience of Christ

by

There are various reasons given for the apparent delay of the second return of Jesus.

Justifiably, most if not all reasons given may very well be correct. However, I would like to highlight one most important reason that could very well be the reason of all reasons why Jesus has not returned. So just to make us think a little I would ask, What is Jesus waiting for to return to this earth? Will He wait forever? Some Christians constantly say they need time to change or to give up sin. How does this attitude influence the return of Jesus or the individual’s salvation? This waiting attitude of Christ as a question forms the substance of this message!

In reference to Christianity in general and more specifically as a religion, Jesus Christ the founder has been looking for a revelation, a demonstration of something from its inception, and might I say for well over two thousand years. He has been waiting, expecting, anxiously looking for, but He has been grossly disappointed. What is He waiting and looking for with great longing?

The Nature of the Problem and the Problem

Jesus identifies the problem and spells out its nature in His address to the end time church—Laodicea. We read of this in the last book of the Holy Scriptures. “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Revelation 3:14–17.

He provides the solution as recorded: “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Revelation 3:18–21.

The Laodicean message is for Seventh day Adventists—God’s servant in Manuscript 33, 1894, puts it this way, “The message to the Laodicean church is highly applicable to us as a people. It has been placed before us for a long time, but has not been heeded as it should have been. When the work of repentance is earnest and deep, the individual members of the church will buy the rich goods of heaven. Oh, how many behold things in a perverted light, in the light in which Satan would have them see.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 961.

“The message to the Laodicean church is applicable to our condition. How plainly is pictured the position of those who think they have all the truth, who take pride in their knowledge of the Word of God, while its sanctifying power has not been felt in their lives. The fervor of the love of God is wanting in their hearts, but it is this very fervor of love that makes God’s people the light of the world.” Faith and Works, 82, 83.

The Problem

God’s end time church is seriously affected by self-deception and being self-conceited. We do not understand ourselves. The faithful and true witness states, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Revelation 3:15–17.

Like the Ephesian Christians, the Laodiceans have experienced a great loss tantamount to spiritual death. They lost their first love—the love of Jesus. Her problem is that she is devoid of the character of Jesus which can easily be identified when an individual possesses faith and love, the righteousness of Christ and the spirit to discern between right and wrong, good and evil.

Often times Christians are caught up with the externals, which often reflect significantly that they are destitute inwardly. We may note this important quotation, “You may manifest great zeal in missionary effort, and yet because it is corrupted with selfishness, and tastes strongly of self, it is nought in the sight of God; for it is a tainted, corrupted offering. Unless the door of the heart is open to Jesus, unless He occupies the soul temple, unless the heart is imbued with His divine attributes, human actions when weighed in the heavenly balances, will be pronounced ‘Wanting [Daniel 5.27].’ The love of Christ would make you rich; but many do not realize the value of His love. Many do not realize that the spirit which they cherish is destitute of the meekness and lowliness of Christ, destitute of the love that would constitute them channels of light.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 961.

The Solution

We read the priceless advice given to the Laodiceans, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” Revelation 3:18.

Who is the faithful and true witness?

He is the vendor of priceless treasures. This thought is brought out clearly in the following statement: “The great Vendor of spiritual riches is inviting your recognition. The Saviour comes with jewels of truth of the richest value in distinction from all counterfeits, all that is spurious. He comes to every house, to every door; He is knocking, presenting His priceless treasure, urging, ‘Buy of me.’ ” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 964.

Jesus says, “Buy of me”—“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

“Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” Isaiah 55:1, 2.

What are the goods being sold?

Gold tried in the fire

White raiment

Eyesalve

What do these represent?

“Gold tried in the fire” represents love or faith that works by love which ultimately purifies the soul. This is the primary merchandise being offered to professing Christians!

“The gold tried in the fire is faith that works by love. Only this can bring us into harmony with God. We may be active, we may do much work; but without love, such love as dwelt in the heart of Christ, we can never be numbered with the family of heaven.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 158.

Spelled out even clearer, “The gold here recommended as having been tried in the fire is faith and love. It makes the heart rich; for it has been purged until it is pure, and the more it is tested the more brilliant is its luster.” Testimonies, vol. 4, 88.

Once again God’s messenger explains that this “gold tried in the fire,” is indeed the love of Jesus. The following is recorded, “The Lord knocks at the door of your heart, desiring to enter, that he may impart spiritual riches to your soul. He would anoint the blind eyes, that they may discover the holy character of God in his law, and understand the love of Christ, which is indeed gold tried in the fire.” The Review and Herald, February 25, 1890.

This gold tried in the fire has almost disappeared from the church of God. You see, this love is not superficial, spasmodic, earthly, or governed by circumstances. It is free from everything that savors of being human. It is pure and holy. It is of heavenly origin. It has diminished from the church because it cannot prosper where self reigns.

“Love of self excludes the love of Christ. Those who live for self are ranged under the head of the Laodicean church who are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot. The ardor of the first love has lapsed into a selfish egotism. The love of Christ in the heart is expressed in the actions. If love for Christ is dull, the love for those for whom Christ has died will degenerate. There may be a wonderful appearance for zeal and ceremonies, but this is the substance of their self-inflated religion. Christ represents them as nauseating to His taste.” Our High Calling, 348.

Consequently, because self is so prominent in the church today, when trials come, which, in the providence of God, will come, many are affected and end up defecting.

Ellen White makes this very clear. She tells us, “I was pointed to the providence of God among His people and was shown that every trial made by the refining, purifying process upon professed Christians proves some to be dross. The fine gold does not always appear. In every religious crisis some fall under temptation. The shaking of God blows away multitudes like dry leaves. Prosperity multiplies a mass of professors. Adversity purges them out of the church. As a class, their spirits are not steadfast with God. They go out from us because they are not of us; for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, many are offended.

“Let these look back a few months to the time when they were sitting on the cases of others who were in a condition similar to that which they now occupy. Let them carefully call to mind the exercise of their minds in regard to those tempted ones. Had anyone told them then that notwithstanding their zeal and labor to set others right, they would at length be found in a similar position of darkness, they would have said, as did Hazael to the prophet: ‘Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?’ II Kings 8:13.

“Self-deception is upon them. During the calm, what firmness they manifest! what courageous sailors they make! But when the furious tempests of trial and temptation come, lo! their souls are shipwrecked. Men may have excellent gifts, good ability, splendid qualifications; but one defect, one secret sin indulged, will prove to the character what the worm-eaten plank does to the ship—utter disaster and ruin!” Testimonies, vol. 4, 89, 90.

This “gold tried in the fire” is what plants a person in Christ. As the apostle Paul puts it, “rooted and grounded in Him.” Ephesians 3:17. This love is the stabilizing element that keeps the Christian permanently connected to Jesus.

A question that really requires our prayerful attention is, “Why is it that many who profess to have faith in Christ have no strength to stand against the temptations of the enemy?—It is because they are not strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. The apostle prays ‘that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.’ Ephesians 3:17–19. If we had this experience, we should know something of the cross of Calvary. We would know what it means to be partakers with Christ in His sufferings. The love of Christ would constrain us, and though we would not be able to explain how the love of Christ warmed our hearts, we would manifest His love in fervent devotion to His cause.” Our High Calling, 365.

Faith and love enables us to do something very important. What is it?

“Buy faith and love, the precious, beautiful attributes of our Redeemer, which will enable us to find our way into the hearts of those who do not know Him, who are cold and alienated from Him through unbelief and sin.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 964. [Emphasis supplied.]

The power of Christ’s love is revealed: “The love that was in the heart of Christ is to be in our hearts, that we may reveal it to those around us. We need to be daily strengthened by the deep love of God, and to let this love shine forth to those around us.” The Upward Look, 159.

Therefore, when Laodicea’s condition is critically analyzed, the verdict is that the church is devoid of the love of God, thus the heavenly merchant man who has been waiting and longing has declared, “You are neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm, and if you do not ‘buy of Me gold,’ I will spew you out of my mouth or I will reject you!” Revelation 3:15, 16.

The white raiment represents the righteousness of Jesus Christ. “Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us meet to appear in God’s presence. This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul. ‘I counsel thee,’ He says, ‘to buy of Me … white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.’ Revelation 3:18.

“This robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has in it not one thread of human devising. Christ in His humanity wrought out a perfect character, and this character He offers to impart to us. ‘All our righteousness are as filthy rags.’ Isaiah 64:6.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 311.

What does it mean to be clothed with Christ’s robe of righteousness?

“When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness. Then as the Lord looks upon us He sees, not the fig-leaf garment, not the nakedness and deformity of sin, but His own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah.” Ibid., 312.

How do we receive Christ’s righteousness?

“By receiving His imputed righteousness, through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, we become like Him. The image of Christ is cherished, and it captivates the whole being.” God’s Amazing Grace, 96.

It is evident that self must be surrendered to Christ, and the Holy Spirit be allowed to do the work of cleansing so that which is the soul’s need may be met.

What does the righteousness of Christ consist of?

“Righteousness of Christ imputed to men means holiness, uprightness, purity. Unless Christ’s righteousness was imputed to us we could not have acceptable repentance. The righteousness dwelling in us by faith consists of love, forbearance, meekness, and all the Christian virtues. Here the righteousness of Christ is laid hold of and becomes a part of our being. All who have this righteousness will work the works of God.” Testimonies on Sexual Behavior, Adultery, and Divorce, 134.

“The righteousness of Christ consists in right actions and good works from pure, unselfish motives. Outside righteousness, while the inward adorning is wanting, will be of no avail.” This Day With God, 182.

We can conclude on this point by agreeing that “the white raiment is purity of character, the righteousness of Christ imparted to the sinner. This is indeed a garment of heavenly texture, that can be bought only of Christ for a life of willing obedience.” Testimonies, vol. 4, 88.

“The eyesalve [represents, or] is that wisdom and grace which enables us to discern between the evil and the good, and to detect sin under any guise. God has given His church eyes which He requires them to anoint with wisdom, that they may see clearly; but many would put out the eyes of the church if they could; for they would not have their deeds come to the light, lest they should be reproved. The divine eyesalve will impart clearness to the understanding.” Ibid., 88, 89.

I must make this point clear to our understanding that according to the Faithful and True witness—Jesus Christ—the Laodicean Christians are not totally blind. “The Laodiceans,” Ellen White states, “were not entirely blind, else the eyesalve would have done nothing to restore their sight, and enable them to discern the true attributes of Christ. Says Christ, By renouncing your own self-sufficiency, giving up all things, however dear to you, you may buy the gold, the raiment, and the eyesalve that you may see.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 965.

Why anoint the eyes? “He would anoint the blind eyes, that they may discover the holy character of God in His law, and understand the love of Christ, which is indeed gold tried in the fire.” Ibid., 965.

This is important because while we are blessed with 20/20 vision to see about our self-interest and to glorify self, at the same time we are blind to see Christ and His wonderful love which we so desperately need. Because we are so focused on self we are totally destitute of the love of Jesus; therefore, when our love for God and our fellowman is tested, we utterly fail. We give up on Christ and we abandon our fellow human beings.

What we need to understand is that the more we promote self, the more we fail to realize how wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked and lukewarm we are.

But, let us not forget or be confused that there is love in the church, but Christ, the owner of the church still says to us, “Buy of me gold tried in the fire.” This conveys the fact that what the church calls love is not the genuine love. Jesus’ love holds up under all circumstances; it remains unchanged no matter how severely tried or unkindly treated! This is the gold tried in the fire.

The current love present in the church, which makes God nauseated, is a love that is destructive, which cultivates evil and only more evil, and which originates in the synagogue of Satan; it’s a love that cherishes hate, resentment, pride, jealousy, fault-finding, gossiping, envy, evil-surmising, strife, bitterness, an unforgiving spirit, deception, hypocrisy, unbelief and all manner of unchristlike attitudes and behavior! It’s a love that is pretentious. So Christ once again says, buy of me gold tried in the fire. Buy the genuine article, for this is the only one that will endure when all else fails. “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” I Corinthians 13:13.

Ellen White reminds us, “It is difficult for us to understand ourselves, to have a correct knowledge of our own characters. The word of God is plain, but often there is an error in applying it to one’s self. There is liability to self-deception and to think its warnings and reproofs do not mean me. ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?’ Jeremiah 17:9. Self-flattery may be construed into Christian emotion and zeal. Self-love and confidence may give us assurance that we are right when we are far from meeting the requirements of God’s word.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 332.

So, having said all this, I would like to go back to my original question and provide the answer. What is it that Christ is waiting for and longing for before He returns to this earth? We read in the Gospel of Mark, “But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.” Mark 4:29.

What fruit is Christ here referring to? The apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatian Christians identifies this fruit: “The fruit of the Spirit is love.” “This fruit can never perish, but will produce after its kind a harvest unto eternal life.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 68, 69.

“Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.

“It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (II Peter 3:12, margin). Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel.” Ibid.

Satan knows this; consequently, this is what he has been doing: “The enemy well knows that if we do not have love one for another, he can gain his object, and wound and weaken the church, by causing differences among brethren. He can lead them to surmise evil, to speak evil, to accuse, condemn, and hate one another. In this way the cause of God is brought into dishonor, the name of Christ is reproached, and untold harm is done to the souls of men.” This Day with God, 165.

So Jesus has been waiting, longing to see His love manifested in the lives of all His followers, and this in turn would hasten His coming. Will He wait forever? No!

In closing I leave these words with you: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 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.” I John 3:1–3.

Jesus pleads to you and me, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20. Will you open to the heavenly merchant man? “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Revelation 3:15, 16.

Pastor Ivan Plummer ministers through the Emmanuel Seventh Day Church Ministries in Bronx, New York. He may be contacted by telephone at: 718-822-3900.

Price of Peace

by

I Thessalonians 5:2 says, “The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” Now, what will the people be saying when they are surprised? “Peace and safety” [verse 3], or as we noted in other translations, “Peace and security.” Does God intend that His people shall be engulfed in this great disaster? No! We are to be saved from this overwhelming surprise.

In order to be saved we must be prepared. We must understand what is leading the world to these disasters and we must be kept, not merely from the end result, but from all the causes along the way. That is the purpose of these studies, to help us understand the basic causes that are leading the world to Armageddon.

We found in Isaiah 8 that because of the fear of war and the fear of want, men are being led to extensive combinations. God plainly states that His people are not to enter into those confederacies. While the people of this world are talking confederacies, where will God’s people be looking?—upward, to Him. That’s the answer. “When we look to man, trouble grows. When we look to God, trouble goes.” And we must learn that day by day in our own personal experience.

In The Review and Herald, November 4, 1965, there is a most interesting report of a statement made by a leading Roman Catholic Cardinal commenting on the Pope’s visit to the United Nations. He says, “It was a striking thing that no responsible voice has been raised in protest against the Pope’s visit. As recently as ten years ago a papal visit to the United Nations would have been considered an onslaught and an invasion, but today, people are simply thrilled at the invitation of the Pope to visit the UN and his willingness to do so. The reason for this is that people are so frightened of war that they’re willing to try anything in desperation.”

The Cardinal spoke more truth than he realized. He put his finger right on the point. It is not a sincere turning toward God or religion in the right sense that is motivating the world to welcome the leadership of the papacy. What is it? Fear! We read in Isaiah 8, verse 13, speaking to God’s people, “Neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.” Are we afraid of war? No. Our Father is the King of this universe.

Notice the awful price that the people of this world are paying and will continue to pay, driven by their fear of war and fear of want. They are selling their souls for a mess of pottage, and they won’t even get the mess of pottage. Esau got his lentils, but the people of this world are not even going to get that for which they sell their souls.

What are they selling to get peace? What are they going to lay down in order to accept the leadership of the Pope of Rome? “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him.” “All the world wondered after the beast.” Revelation 13:8, 3. Verse twelve shows that the United States is the one that leads out in causing all the world to accept this leadership of the papacy. What is the price of all this?

Proverbs 23:23 is right on the point: “Buy the truth, and sell it not.” Can truth be bought and sold? Apparently. In Revelation 3:18, the True Witness says, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire … and white raiment … and eyesalve.” The eyesalve is the discernment to know what’s right and what’s wrong. “Buy the truth.” But once you have bought it don’t sell it! This is the terrible mistake the popular churches are making today. In Reformation days men like Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Knox, and Wesley bought the truth, and it led them to separation from Rome. Today the Protestant churches are selling that glorious heritage. They are selling the truth which their fathers sacrificed everything to buy. That’s the price they are paying to get back in favor with Rome in order that the Pope may save them from a third world war.

Do you know that some of the creeds of Christendom are being revised in order to say this—watch this little change—no longer “the Bible is the Word of God,” but the revised statement is, “The Bible contains the Word of God.” Which do you believe? John 17:17 says, “Thy word is truth.” The Bible is the Word of God. And there’s an infinite difference between those two things, my friends. The inroads of modernism, of higher criticism, are weakening the faith of Protestants in the Scriptures. These have prepared the way to accept a human court of appeal, in the person of the papacy, to interpret what is truth.

The servant of the Lord tells us that the reason the book, The Great Controversy, deals with the controversies of the past, the apostasy in the early ages, the rise of the papacy, the Dark Ages, and the reformation is simply this: What has been will be again. The last conflict into which we are even now entering is the climax of an age-long controversy. The issues are the same. The unseen forces are the same. And Rome that led the Christian world away from the Bible and set up the Pope as the representative of Christ; Rome which in the Dark Ages slew the saints of God, is the same Rome under whose leadership all the world will be united to war against God’s remnant.

On page 102 of The Great Controversy, we are told about the experience of John Huss, who was burned at the stake because he became a reformer. He had been a papist, but as he studied the Bible, he came to a certain conclusion, and this is the thing I want you to notice. “God speaking in the Bible, and not the church speaking through the priesthood, is the one infallible guide.” Here is the difference between Roman Catholicism on the one hand and true Protestantism on the other. And this is the truth which the Protestant world is selling that they may buy the favor of the papacy. And it is the fear of communism, the fear of atheism, the fear of war; yes, it is fear that is driving them to compromise.

Now notice the attitude of the true believers at the time the papacy was in process of formation. Here are the faithful few who would not go along with the Bishop of Rome and his hierarchy. “To secure peace and unity they were ready to make any concession consistent with fidelity to God; but they felt that even peace would be too dearly purchased at the sacrifice of principle. If unity could be secured only by the compromise of truth and righteousness, then let there be difference, and even war.” The Great Controversy, 45. This has been the position of Christ’s followers in all ages: not to make trouble unnecessarily, not to push minor points of difference; but when it comes to a vital principle, no ecumenical idea justifies the selling of truth.

In the seventeenth chapter of John, verse 17, we have the Saviour’s earnest prayer for unity among His believers, but in that same prayer is this text we have already noticed: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” So the great question before Protestantism today is this: Which is more important, truth or unity? And there are thousands, yes millions, who are willing to sell the truth in order to secure unity. May I read this again: “To secure peace and unity they were ready to make any concession consistent with fidelity to God; but they felt that even peace would be too dearly purchased at the sacrifice of principle. If unity could be secured only by the compromise of truth and righteousness, then let there be difference, and even war.”

Now, the next sentence is meaningful: “Well would it be for the church and the world if the principles that actuated those steadfast souls were revived in the hearts of God’s professed people.” The Great Controversy, 46. The only thing, dear ones, which will keep us from being engulfed in this world movement for security and peace, the ecumenical movement, is a love for truth, so that we would rather have any war than give up truth. Our desire for peace must never degenerate into a willingness to compromise. And this must be manifest in the details of our personal lives. If we get in the habit of sacrificing principle so that we will be well thought of, we are on the road to Rome. No question about it. The remnant will be those who overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and who love not their lives unto the death (Revelation 12:11).

Speaking of this apostasy in the early ages, we read in The Great Controversy, 49, “Almost imperceptibly the customs of heathenism found their way into the Christian church.” How did this compromise come about? “Almost imperceptibly,” that is, unnoticed, like the twilight falls. Well, this was the twilight, and as the darkness settled upon the Christian world, it came “almost imperceptibly.” That is the devil’s game, to make the advances toward the world so small that the person who resists one of those advances is looked upon as silly, odd, unreasonable, and stubborn.

And it isn’t always in direct defiance to what God says that this compromise begins. “Rome began by enjoining what God had not forbidden, and she ended by forbidding what He had explicitly enjoined.” The Great Controversy, 290. Rome began by telling people to do things that God had not plainly said they shouldn’t do. Let me illustrate. Here is Christmas for the birth of Christ; Easter for the resurrection. Is there a verse in the Bible that says, Don’t celebrate the birthday of Christ; don’t celebrate the day of His resurrection? No. So Rome began by introducing things that weren’t expressly forbidden in the Bible. She ended by forbidding what He had definitely told people to do, and the Sabbath is the great outstanding example. When men get in the habit of accepting as religious guides those who tell them to do more than the Bible says, they will inevitably end up following those guides to do what the Bible has forbidden. And this is the path that Protestantism, so-called, has been following for many years.

“As the Protestant churches have been seeking the favor of the world, false charity has blinded their eyes. They do not see but that it is right to believe good of all evil; and as the inevitable result they will finally believe evil of all good.” The Great Controversy, 571. This is what is responsible for their current attitude toward the papacy. The popular thing in the Protestant churches today is to pat everybody on the back, and for the moment even Seventh-day Adventists are riding on the tide of popular favor, the ecumenical spirit. Many in the popular churches are ready to welcome Seventh-day Adventists as a part of the great Christian world. But the same spirit that leads them to welcome us is leading them to welcome Rome. We need to look very carefully at the hand that’s stretched out to us, remembering that it is also offered to the Vatican. Let us not be flattered by the spirit of compromise. That hand which has been extended toward Rome will eventually be used, not to welcome us, but to smite us.

We need to look deep into our own hearts and see if there is anything in our souls that responds to this spirit of compromise. Are we weary of the war? Are we tired of the toil? Do we long for release from the conflict, and will we, in order to buy that release, sell the truth? That’s the question. Will we give up conscientious convictions; will we soft-pedal the Word of the Lord? God forbid!

Now, I mentioned that the world is not going to get the mess of pottage for which it sold out. Oh, my friends, this world that is selling the truth in order to buy peace from the Pope of Rome, see what it’s going to wake up and find! Revelation 19:19, “And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war.” This power that has supposedly led the world to peace is going to lead it instead to war! This is the war against God. “I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army.” And so while the nations of this world are following after the phantom of peace, they are led to the greatest war of the ages.

Again, Revelation 16:13, 14, “I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” Notice this in Testimonies, vol. 7, 182, “The world is filled with storm and war and variance. Yet under one head—the papal power—the people will unite to oppose God in the person of His witnesses.”

For a short time this world is going to be united. The next sentence says, “This union is cemented by the great apostate.” “Under one head—the papal power”—all the nations will unite to oppose God in the person of His witnesses. Where will you and I be? On one side or the other. We’ll either be with Jesus and His remnant church conscientiously standing for what the Word of God says, all ten of His commandments, or else we’ll be with the great popular movement which has sold the truth in order to buy peace. They are going to sell the truth, but they are not going to get peace. “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them … and they shall not escape.” I Thessalonians 5:3. [Emphasis supplied.]

Oh, friends, when the voice of God ends the captivity of His people, when His law is seen in the sky, there will be a terrible awakening among all these churches that have combined together in compromise to buy peace. The union which the great apostate has cemented will fall to pieces. The great city will be divided into three parts and every man’s hand will rise up against the hand of his brother. Read the awful picture in Revelation 16, and Jeremiah 25, and in The Great Controversy in the chapter, “The Desolation of the Earth.” See the breakdown of civilization. See the churches in chaos and the members tearing the ministers and the priests limb from limb. The whole world is going to be plunged into the scenes of the French revolution. Peace? Oh, no. Not peace. Sacrifice of the truth can never lead to peace.

And so it means much to you and to me to answer the question, Do we love the truth enough to die for it, enough to live for it? Or are we willing to compromise?

Dear Lord, write upon our hearts Thy truth. Deep in our souls put a love for it so that we would rather die than sacrifice on principle. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

Elder W.D. Frazee’s materials are reprinted with permission from Pioneers Memorial, a ministry he founded to promote the works of pioneer medical missionaries. Permission to reprint copyrighted material [in this publication, organization, or website] does not in any way imply affiliation with or endorsement by either the late W.D. Frazee or Pioneers Memorial. For more information, you may contact them at: Pioneers Memorial, PO Box 102, Wildwood, GA 30757, 706-820-9755.

Value in the Gift

by

A person who has an open wound or sore will usually prepare a poultice or ointment to treat it so it will heal. If an ointment was made up, but never placed upon the sore, what would happen? That preparation would be of absolutely no benefit and would do nothing for the sore until it was applied. This is also true in matters pertaining to our spiritual life. We can read all about Jesus; we can even believe that He is—the devils believe also— but if we do not “put on” our Lord Jesus Christ, what difference is there between us and the world?

What is the value you place on Jesus? Have you applied what you know of Him to your life, or are there other things of more value to you that come first, taking more time in your life over and above Jesus? “Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” Romans 2:4. That word “despisest” means to dis-esteem or consider worthless or of no value. What value is Jesus to you?

God has given to us a treasure in the gift of Jesus which few value as they should. We need to understand what Jesus is to us, so that we may apply Him to our lives personally and be like Him.

God tells us what Jesus is to us when we apply Him to our lives: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” I Corinthians 1:30. To understand what Paul is really meaning here we need to break this verse down.

The very first attribute that God has made Jesus Christ to be for us is wisdom. We are told that “fools despise wisdom.” Proverbs 1:7. Remember the word despise means to consider worthless or of no value. Society is full of worldly wisdom, rejecting the wisdom of Jesus. Each of us may think we have wisdom, but it does not show us our spiritual condition. Worldly wisdom causes envying and strife in hearts (James 3:14–16). It is not of a heavenly source because it does not show us that these worldly character traits are wrong. The devil wants us to have this worldly wisdom because it reflects his character and seems to look good, because the majority of the world carry this kind of wisdom. The devil also wants us to be ignorant of our spiritual condition, but God has made His Son Jesus to be our wisdom so we do not need to be ignorant. This world is in great need of Jesus, the source of wisdom.

When you put on the Lord Jesus Christ as your wisdom, Proverbs 3:13 says, “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom.” Read Proverbs 3:13–18 to understand what a blessing wisdom is.

God gave Jesus to us to be our wisdom, so we need to “put on” Jesus Christ and receive that wisdom, which is from above, which “is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” James 3:17.

With this heavenly wisdom, we are able to discern our sin and the resultant danger. Our true spiritual condition can be hid from us no longer as the cloud of ignorance is removed. The stupendous value of the gift of wisdom is beyond our deepest thoughts.

Proverbs 2:10–13 says, “When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things; Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness.”

Praise God for the gift of wisdom. Will you right now apply this gift to your life, or will you “despise” the gift and continue to be ignorant, giving glory to the god of this world, the devil?

As this wonderful gift of wisdom is applied to our lives we become aware of our unrighteous state and that there is nothing we can do about it; there is no way to cover our unrighteous life. Look again at I Corinthians 1:30 and see what God has provided us. God has made Jesus also to be our righteousness.

We are alerted through wisdom to the danger we are in, and realizing that our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), we feel sad and repent of our unrighteousness. As we apply and accept Christ to be our righteousness, our past sins are forgiven and the ugliness and unrighteousness is covered.

As our guilt from past sins, or unrighteousness, is covered, there needs to be a change in heart so we do not continue in the sins that have been covered. To accomplish that, the next attribute that God has made Jesus to be for us is sanctification.

As we apply Jesus to our lives, we no longer need to yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but we can yield our members as instruments of righteousness unto God, as we are now alive from the dead (Romans 6:13).

We now have the wisdom to make an intelligent choice between good and evil. We have Christ’s righteousness which covers our past sins, and the gift of sanctification to make us clean from our sinful state as wisdom directs our path through God’s Word and we walk in His paths. The Holy Spirit works in our hearts, as our knowledge increases, to transform our hearts in such a way that Christ’s righteousness flows forth in our lives, no longer revealing our own filthy rags.

“Sanctification is not an instantaneous but a progressive work, as obedience is continuous. Just as long as Satan urges his temptations upon us, the battle for self-conquest will have to be fought over and over again; but by obedience, the truth will sanctify the soul. Those who are loyal to the truth will, through the merits of Christ, overcome all weakness of character that has led them to be molded by every varying circumstance of life.” Faith and Works, 85.

Thus far, Christ has been made unto us wisdom which covers and heals our ignorance. He has been made unto us righteousness which covers our past life, and He has been made unto us sanctification, in which we are cleansed moment by moment. And last of all God has made Jesus to be our redemption.

“What is redemption? It is that process by which the soul is trained for heaven, and it requires something higher, something more divine than the mere knowledge of books. This training means knowledge of Christ; it means emancipation from ideas, from habits and practices that have been gained in the school of the Prince of Darkness. The soul must be delivered from habits and practices which are opposed to loyalty to God. In this life we are to learn submission to the Divine will, or we shall not be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven. True religion enables a man to overcome stubbornness, pride, selfishness, worldly ambition, questioning, and unbelief. There is grace and strength in Christ to enable us to rise above the alluring, infatuating temptations of Satan and lead us to the Cross of Calvary that we may become active, devoted, loyal workers for the cause of truth.” (Australasian) Union Conference Record, July 12, 1899.

Jesus Christ is all that is necessary to our souls. Without Jesus you and I would be in the clutches of the god of this world in a most miserable life with no future. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us!” I John 3:1.

“It is the grand, great work of redemption. It is Christ, made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 80.

“We are individually to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. To each one of us He must become wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” Colporteur Ministry, 49.

Along with these most precious attributes, God has also provided us armor to put on. Ephesians 6:13 says, “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” [Emphasis supplied.] Who is this armor? It is Jesus. Are you beginning to realize the value of the gift God has given to us in giving us Jesus? Look at the armor:

“Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.” Ephesians 6:14. [Emphasis supplied.] Who is the Truth? John 14:6: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Who is our righteousness? I Corinthinans 1:30. Look through Ephesians 6:13–17. You will see Jesus in every piece of the armor, and this armor came from our Heavenly Father. (Read John 3:16.)

So, Jesus is not only made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, but He is also the armor which God has given to us. We must put it on for it to protect us from the wiles of the Devil. We must put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now you can know for sure in your own hearts that Jesus Christ is the solid Rock in your life.

“Let us, under all circumstances, preserve our confidence in Christ. He is to be everything to us—the first, the last, the best in everything. Then let us educate our tongues to speak forth His praise, not only when we feel gladness and joy, but at all times.” Sons and Daughers of God, 328.

“Jesus is all in all, and without him we can do nothing. Without Christ, spiritual life would be impossible.” The Review and Herald, December 4, 1894.

“Shall we not now tune our hearts to praise God from whom all blessings flow?” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, April 1, 1889.

Judy Hallingstad is part of our LandMarks team. She can be contacted by email at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.

Two Kingdoms

by

From eternity all the intelligent inhabitants of the universe enjoyed perfect peace and happiness in the kingdom of glory. The psalmist declared, “Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity.” Psalm 93:2.

The foundation principle in this wonderful kingdom of glory was love. “ ‘God is love.’ I John 4:16. His nature, His law, is love. It ever has been; it ever will be. ‘The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,’ whose ‘ways are everlasting,’ changeth not. With Him ‘is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.’ Isaiah 57:15; Habakkuk 3:6; James 1:17.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 33.

“The Sovereign of the universe was not alone in His work of beneficence. He had an associate—a co-worker who could appreciate His purposes, and could share His joy in giving happiness to created beings. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.’ John 1:1, 2. Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father—one in nature, in character, in purpose—the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. ‘His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’ Isaiah 9:6. His ‘goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.’ Micah 5:2. And the Son of God declares concerning Himself: ‘The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting. … When He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.’ Proverbs 8:22–30.” Ibid., 34.

“Angels are God’s ministers, radiant with the light ever flowing from His presence and speeding on rapid wing to execute His will. But the Son, the anointed of God, the ‘express image of His person,’ ‘the brightness of His glory,’ ‘upholding all things by the word of His power,’ holds supremacy over them all. Hebrews 1:3. ‘A glorious high throne from the beginning,’ was the place of His sanctuary (Jeremiah 17:12); ‘a scepter of righteousness,’ the scepter of His kingdom. Hebrews 1:8. ‘Honor and majesty are before Him: strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.’ Psalm 96:6. Mercy and truth go before His face. Psalm 89:14.” Ibid.

Such are the descriptions of the kingdom of glory before the rebellion of Lucifer in heaven and the fall of Adam and Eve on this earth. But immediately upon the fall of Adam and Eve everything changed. Another kingdom was established in the place of the kingdom of glory. In this new kingdom, the kingdom of grace, everything focused on two objectives: (1) the redemption of the fallen race and (2) the restoration of the kingdom of glory. In this article we will focus on the objective of the restoration of the kingdom of glory.

“At his creation Adam was placed in dominion over the earth. … When man became Satan’s captive, the dominion which he held, passed to his conqueror. Thus Satan became ‘the god of this world.’ II Corinthians 4:4. He had usurped that dominion over the earth which had been originally given to Adam. But Christ, by His sacrifice paying the penalty of sin, would not only redeem man, but recover the dominion which he had forfeited. All that was lost by the first Adam will be restored by the second. Says the prophet, ‘O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion.’ Micah 4:8. And the apostle Paul points forward to the ‘redemption of the purchased possession.’ Ephesians 1:14. God created the earth to be the abode of holy, happy beings. The Lord ‘formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited.’ Isaiah 45:18. That purpose will be fulfilled, when, renewed by the power of God, and freed from sin and sorrow, it shall become the eternal abode of the redeemed. ‘The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.’ ‘And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him.’ Psalm 37:29; Revelation 22:3.” Ibid., 67. [Emphasis supplied.]

At the establishment of the kingdom of grace “Christ assured the angels that by His death He would ransom many, and would destroy him who had the power of death. He would recover the kingdom (of glory) which man had lost by transgression, and the redeemed were to inherit it with Him, and dwell therein forever.” Ibid., 65. [Emphasis supplied.]

“The plan by which alone man’s salvation could be secured, involved all heaven in its infinite sacrifice.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 64. “Christ would take upon Himself the guilt and shame of sin—sin so offensive to a holy God that it must separate the Father and His Son. Christ would reach to the depths of misery to rescue the ruined race.

“Before the Father He pleaded in the sinner’s behalf, while the host of heaven awaited the result with an intensity of interest that words cannot express. Long continued was that mysterious communing—‘the counsel of peace’ (Zechariah 6:13) for the fallen sons of men. … it was a struggle, even with the King of the universe, to yield up His Son to die for the guilty race.” Ibid., 63.

The kingdom of grace is a kingdom of bloodshed and war. It required the separation of the Father and the Son. Jesus must lay aside his crown, step down from His throne and become a sacrifice—the Lamb of God, a High Priest and Mediator for the fallen race. For millennia this battle would continue. Martyrs for the truth’s sake would number in the millions.

So it was that immediately upon the fall of Adam and Eve the kingdom of glory was replaced by the kingdom of grace. It was ratified when Jesus yielded up His life on the cross. “When the Saviour yielded up his life, and with his expiring breath cried out, ‘It is finished’ [John 19:30], then the fulfillment of the plan of redemption was assured. The promise of salvation made to the sinful pair in Eden was ratified. The kingdom of grace, which had before existed by the promise of God, was then established.” The Great Controversy, 348.

The Savior had now provided His blood with which to remove the confessed sins of His people so they could be redeemed. Forty days following His death and resurrection He ascended to heaven to be inaugurated as our High Priest and Mediator in the sanctuary in heaven. A record of this grand celebration is recorded in Revelation, chapters 4, 5; 1:12–16, and The Desire of Ages, 830–835.

Because no sin can exist in the kingdom of glory the atonement ministry of Christ’s blood must be completed in the heavenly sanctuary before this kingdom of glory can be restored. “The work of the investigative judgment and the blotting out of sins is to be accomplished before the second advent of the Lord. … The apostle Peter distinctly states that the sins of believers will be blotted out ‘when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ.’ Acts 3:19, 20. When the investigative judgment closes, Christ will come, and His reward will be with Him to give to every man as his work shall be.” The Great Controversy, 485.

Here we are clearly informed that the restoration of the kingdom of glory cannot be completed until the investigative judgment is completed. The 7th trumpet, in Revelation 11:15–19 is an explanation of the investigative judgment. The Spirit of Prophecy informs us that the 7th trumpet began to sound on October 22, 1844. “The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament. Revelation 11:19. … The announcement that the temple of God was opened in heaven and the ark of His testament was seen points to the opening of the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary in 1844 as Christ entered there to perform the closing work of the atonement.” Ibid., 433.

The 7th trumpet also says that Christ, in addition to His work as a High Priest to complete the closing work of atonement, begins to reign. “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet; and there were loud voices in heaven, which said, The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he will reign for ever and ever.” … “You have taken your great power, and have begun to reign.” Revelation 11:15, 17.

There are three reasons that we can know that the role of the High Priest and that of the king are two different functions.

The role of a king is to reign, while the work of a High Priest is to mediate.

The work of the High Priest ends when the atonement is completed; the Most Holy Place is closed and probation ends.

Revelation 11:15 says that the king “will reign for ever and ever.”

Let us look further into the role of the king that is brought to light in the 7th trumpet. In the parable of the 10 virgins, the Bridegroom also represents the role of a king who in this parable is preparing for a wedding. The coming of the Bridegroom in this parable occurs at the same time that the 7th trumpet began to sound. “In the summer and autumn of 1844 the proclamation, ‘Behold, the Bridegroom cometh,’ was given. … In the parable, when the bridegroom came, ‘they that were ready went in with him to the marriage.’ Matthew 25:6, 10. The coming of the bridegroom, here brought to view, takes place before the marriage. The marriage represents the reception by Christ of His kingdom.” Ibid., 426.

These statements connect the coming of the Bridegroom with the same event described in Daniel 7:9, 10 and 13 where Jesus is seen coming before the Ancient of Days to begin the investigative judgment. “The proclamation, ‘Behold, the Bridegroom cometh,’ in the summer of 1844, led thousands to expect the immediate advent of the Lord. At the appointed time the Bridegroom came, not to the earth, as the people expected, but to the Ancient of Days in heaven, to the marriage, the reception of His kingdom.” Ibid., 427.

There is another representation of these events given in Matthew. “In the parable of Matthew 22 the same figure of the marriage is introduced, and the investigative judgment is clearly represented as taking place before the marriage. Previous to the wedding the king comes in to see the guests, to see if all are attired in the wedding garment, the spotless robe of character washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. Matthew 22:11; Revelation 7:14. … This work of examination of character, of determining who are prepared for the kingdom of God, is that of the investigative judgment, the closing of work in the sanctuary above.” Ibid., 428.

In this parable of the king selecting guests for the wedding banquet we see the relationship of the work of the High Priest and that of the king. The repentant sinner first goes before the High Priest and confesses all of his sins. The High Priest then atones for those confessed sins with His blood and washes them away. The High Priest then clothes him with the precious wedding garment and the saint then goes in before the king in the banquet hall. The King then selects those wearing the wedding garment to “ ‘sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,’ at His table in His kingdom (Matthew 8:11; Luke 22:30), to partake of the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Ibid., 427.

The marriage of the Lamb cannot take place until His work as Mediator is finished, the sanctuary closed and the kingdom of grace has come to an end. “He shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne.’ Not now upon the throne of His glory;’ the kingdom of glory has not yet been ushered in. Not until His work as a mediator shall be ended will God give unto Him the throne of His father David,’ a kingdom of which there shall be no end.’ Luke 1:32, 33.” Ibid., 416.

Right after the close of probation, the close of the sanctuary in heaven, the wedding of the Lamb takes place in heaven. “The marriage represents the reception by Christ of His kingdom [of glory]. The Holy City, the New Jerusalem, which is the capital and representative of the kingdom, is called ‘the bride, the Lamb’s wife.’ … Christ, as stated by the prophet Daniel, will receive from the Ancient of Days in heaven, ‘dominion, and glory, and a kingdom;’ He will receive the New Jerusalem, the capital of His kingdom, ‘prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.’ Daniel 7:14; Revelation 21:2. Having received the kingdom, He will come in His glory, as King of kings and Lord of lords, for the redemption of His people, who are to ‘sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,’ at His table in His kingdom (Matthew 8:11; Luke 22:30), to partake of the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Ibid., 426, 427.

Thus far we have studied following events in the restoration of the kingdom of glory.

Christ comes before the Ancient of Days to begin the investigative judgment.

Christ as High Priest purifies His people.

The king selects the guests who attend the wedding banquet.

Probation closes; the kingdom of grace ends.

The wedding of the Lamb takes place in heaven.

The king comes to take the saints to the wedding banquet.

There are two more events that must take place before the kingdom of glory can be fully restored to its original condition before the rebellion of Lucifer. The next event is the executive phase of the judgment. This phase is clearly defined in The Great Controversy.

“During the thousand years between the first and the second resurrection the judgment of the wicked takes place. The apostle Paul points to this judgment as an event that follows the second advent. ‘Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts.’ I Corinthians 4:5. Daniel declares that when the Ancient of Days came, ‘judgment was given to the saints of the Most High.’ Daniel 7:22. At this time the righteous reign as kings and priests unto God. John in the Revelation says: ‘I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them.’ ‘They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.’ Revelation 20:4, 6. It is at this time that, as foretold by Paul, ‘the saints shall judge the world.’ I Corinthians 6:2. In union with Christ they judge the wicked, comparing their acts with the statute book, the Bible, and deciding every case according to the deeds done in the body. Then the portion which the wicked must suffer is meted out, according to their works; and it is recorded against their names in the book of death.” The Great Controversy, 660, 661.

The last event before the full restoration of the kingdom of glory is the execution phase of the judgment which follows the millennium and the second resurrection. John gives the following description of this judgment:

“They [Satan, the fallen angels, and all of the wicked] marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves.” Revelation 20:9, first part.

“Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence; and there was no place for them.

“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: another book was opened, which is the book of life: the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.

“The sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them: and each person was judged according to what he had done.” Revelation 20:11–13.

“But fire came down from heaven, and devoured them.” Revelation 20:9, last part.

“And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Revelation 20:10.

“If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

“Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.” Revelation 20:15, 14.

When the execution of the judgment is completed the kingdom of glory is fully restored. “God’s original purpose in the creation of the earth is fulfilled as it is made the eternal abode of the redeemed. ‘The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.’ Psalm 37:29.” The Great Controversy, 674.

“The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.” The Great Controversy, 678.

In summary, the kingdom of grace is a temporary kingdom that is established for two purposes: (1) to provide a way for the fallen race to be restored to the kingdom of glory, and (2) to dispose of sin in the universe so the kingdom of glory can be restored to its original state.

Maurice Hoppe is retired and volunteers at Steps to Life. His primary responsibility is working with the Training Program for Ministers and Church Leaders and the Training Program for Lay Workers. He also conducts a Bible Correspondence School from his home with emphasis on Bible prophecy. He can be contacted at: mauricehoppe@stepstolife.org.