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Bible Study Guides – “Ye Shall Be Witnesses Unto Me”

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June 25- July 1, 2000

General Introduction

The Saviour’s life on earth was not a life of ease and devotion to Himself, but He toiled with persistent, earnest, untiring effort for the salvation of lost mankind. From the manger to Calvary He followed the path of self-denial, and sought not to be released from arduous tasks, painful travels, and exhausting care and labor. He said, ‘The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.’ Matthew 20:28. This was the one great object of His life. Everything else was secondary and subservient. It was His meat and drink to do the will of God and to finish His work. Self and self-interest had no part in His labor.

“So those who are the partakers of the grace of Christ will be ready to make any sacrifice, that others for whom He died may share the heavenly gift. They will do all they can to make the world better for their stay in it. This spirit is the sure outgrowth of a soul truly converted. No sooner does one come to Christ, than there is born in his heart a desire to make known to others what a precious friend he has found in Jesus; the saving and sanctifying truth cannot be shut up in his heart. If we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and are filled with the joy of His indwelling Spirit, we shall not be able to hold our peace. If we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, we shall have something to tell. Like Philip when he found the Saviour, we shall invite others into His presence. We shall seek to present to them the attractions of Christ and the unseen realities of the world to come. There will be an intensity of desire to follow in
the path that Jesus trod. There will be an earnest longing that those around us may behold ‘the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin
of the world.’ John 1:29.

“And the effort to bless others will react in blessings upon ourselves. This was the purpose of God in giving us a part to act in the plan of redemption. He has granted men the privilege of becoming partakers of the divine nature and, in their turn, of diffusing blessings to their fellow men. This is the highest honor, the greatest joy that it is possible for God to bestow upon men. Those who thus become participants in labors of love are brought nearest to their Creator.

“God might have committed the message of the gospel, and all the work of loving ministry, to the heavenly angels. He might have employed other means for accomplishing His purpose. But in His infinite love He chose to make us co-workers with Himself, with Christ and the angels, that we might share the blessing, the joy, the spiritual uplifting, which results from this unselfish ministry.”

—Steps to Christ, 78, 79.

MEMORY VERSE: “And we are His witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him.” Acts 5:32.

STUDY HELP: Christian Service, 7–13.

INTRODUCTION: “It was the Saviour’s purpose that after He ascended to heaven to become man’s intercessor, His followers should carry on the work that He had begun. Shall the human agent show no special interest in giving the light of the gospel message to those who sit in darkness? There are some who are willing to go to the ends of the earth in order to carry the light of truth to men, but God demands that every soul who knows the truth shall seek to win others to the love of the truth. If we are not willing to make special sacrifices in order to save souls that are ready to perish, how can we be counted worthy to enter into the city of God?” Testimonies, vol. 9, 103.

“Go Ye Therefore”

1 How did Jesus express the commission to witness? Acts 1:8, last part.

NOTE: “His word is ‘Go, … teach all nations;’ and to the command is added the promise, ‘Lo, I am with you alway.’ The Lord requires of us nothing that He does not give us power to perform. The disciples obeyed the command to bear witness for Christ, and of their experience we read: ‘They went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.’ Of you as well as of the disciples these words may be spoken.” Signs of the Times, March 26, 1902.

2 What promise accompanies the commission to witness for the Lord? Acts 1:8, first part.

NOTE: See Acts of the Apostles, 54, 55.

“Into All the World”

3 Where is the Christian to witness for the Lord? Acts 1:8, Mark 16:15, Mark 5:19.

NOTE: “Every church member should feel it his special duty of labor for those living in his neighborhood. Study how you can best help those who take no interest in religious things. As you visit your friends and neighbors, show an interest in their spiritual as well as in their temporal welfare. Present Christ as a sin-pardoning Saviour. Invite your neighbors to your home, and read with them from the precious Bible and from books that explain its truths. This, united with simple songs and fervent prayers, will touch their hearts. Let church members educate themselves to do this work.” Testimonies, vol. 6, 276.

4 What examples are we given of Christians witnessing for the Lord? Acts 18:24–26; Acts 8:26–38.

NOTE: “The truth should be presented with divine tact, gentleness, and tenderness. It should come from a heart that has been softened and made sympathetic.…Let our words be gentle as we seek to win souls. God will be wisdom to him who seeks for wisdom from a divine source. We are to seek opportunities on every hand, we are to watch unto prayer, and be ready always to give a reason for the hope that is in us, with meekness and fear. Lest we shall impress unfavorably one soul for whom Christ died we should keep our hearts uplifted to God, so that when the opportunity presents itself, we may have the right words to speak at the right time. If you thus undertake work for God, the Spirit of God will be your helper. The Holy Spirit will apply the word spoken in love for the soul. The truth will have quickening power when spoken under the influence of the grace of Christ. God’s plan is first to get at the heart. Speak the truth, and let Him carry forward the reformatory power and principle. Make no reference to what opponents say, but let the truth alone be advanced. The truth can cut to the quick. Plainly unfold the Word in all its impressiveness.” Lift Him Up, 211.

“And Preach the Gospel”

5 What is to be the heart of the Christian’s message? Mark 16:15. Compare Revelation 14:6 and Matthew 24:14.

NOTE: “This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family. All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the Third Angel’s Message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure.” Evangelism, 190, 191.

6 What is the Gospel? Romans 1:16.

NOTE: “The gospel is called the power of God unto salvation because God alone can make the truth a power which sanctifies the soul.” Manuscript Releases, 56, 1899. See also Selected Messages, Book 2, 106.

“The Hour of His Judgment is Come”

7 In what special context is the Gospel to be preached today? Revelation 14:6, 7.

NOTE: See The Great Controversy, 355, 356.

8 What is the message of the judgment in practical terms? Amos 4:12.

NOTE: “Suppose that today Christ should appear in the clouds of heaven, who…would be ready to meet Him? Suppose we should be translated into the kingdom of heaven just as we are. Would we be prepared to unite with the saints of God, to live in harmony with the royal family, the children of the heavenly King? What preparation have you made for the judgment? Have you made your peace with God? Are you laboring together with God? Are you seeking to help those around you, those in your home, those in your neighborhood, those with whom you come in contact that are not keeping the commandments of God?… Are we getting ready to meet the King?” Maranatha, 98.

9 What is the preparation needed in the time of God’s judgment? Isaiah 58:5–14.

NOTE: “Through defects in the character, Satan works
to gain control of the whole mind, and he knows that if these
defects are cherished, he will succeed. Therefore he is constantly seeking to deceive the followers of Christ with his fatal sophistry that it is impossible for them to overcome. But Jesus pleads in their behalf His wounded hands, His bruised body; and He declares to all who would follow Him: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’ 2 Corinthians 12:9. Let none, then, regard their defects as incurable. God will give faith and grace to overcome them. We are now living in the great Day of Atonement.…All who would have their names retained in the Book of Life should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin and true repentance. There must be deep, faithful searching of heart.’” God’s Amazing Grace, 69.

“Babylon is Fallen”

10 What further message must be given to the world? Revelation 14:8.

NOTE: See The Great Controversy, 382, 383.

11 When this message is repeated, what addition is made to it? Revelation 18:1–5.

NOTE: “God has many thousands who have not bowed the knee to Baal. There are God-fearing men and women in the fallen churches. If this were not so, we would not be given the message to bear: ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen….Come out of her, My people.’ Revelation 18:2–4. Many of the honest in heart are gasping for a breath of life from heaven. They will recognize the gospel when it is brought to them in the beauty and simplicity with which it is presented in God’s Word.” Testimonies, vol. 9, 110, 111.

“If Any Man Worship the Beast and His Image”

12 What solemn message must the faithful witness for Christ give before Jesus comes? Revelation 14:9–12.

NOTE: “No one has yet received the mark of the beast. The testing time has not yet come. There are true Christians in every church, not excepting the Roman Catholic communion. None are condemned until they have had the light and have seen the obligation of the fourth commandment. But when the decree shall go forth enforcing the counterfeit sabbath, and the loud cry of the Third Angel shall warn men against the worship of the beast and his image, the line will be clearly drawn between the false and the true. Then those who still continue in transgression will receive the mark of the beast.” Evangelism, 234, 235.

13 What choice is to be placed before the world by God’s faithful witnesses? Compare Revelation 13:13–17 with Revelation 14:9–11.

NOTE: “This symbol [the beast], as most Protestants have believed, represents the Papacy….The ‘image to the beast’ represents that form of apostate Protestantism which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas….As the sign of the authority of the Catholic Church, papist writers cite ‘the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday.’ …What then is the change of the Sabbath, but the sign, or mark, of the authority of the Roman Church—”the mark of the beast”? Sunday-keeping is not yet the mark of the beast, and will not be until the decree goes forth causing men to worship this idol sabbath. And it is not until the issue is…plainly set before the people, and they are brought to choose between the commandments of God and the commandments of men, that those who continue in transgression will receive ‘the mark of the beast.’ ” The Faith I Live By, 286.

Food for Life – Temperance or Intemperance?

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What is so rare as a day in June? – Lowell

“’Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong;…that saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar?…Thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.’” Jeremiah 22:13-17.

“This scripture pictures the work of those who manufacture and who sell intoxicating liquor. Their business means robbery. For the money they receive, no equivalent is returned. Every dollar they add to their gains has brought a curse to the spender.

“With a liberal hand, God has bestowed His blessings upon men. If His gifts were wisely used, how little the world would know of poverty and distress! It is the wickedness of men that turns His blessings into a curse. It is through the greed of gain and the lust of appetite that the grains and fruits given for our sustenance are converted into poisons that bring misery and ruin.

“Every year millions upon millions of gallons of intoxicating liquors are consumed. Millions upon millions of dollars are spent in buying wretchedness, poverty, disease, degradation, lust, crime, and death. For the sake of gain, the liquor seller deals out to his victims that which corrupts and destroys mind and body. He entails on the drunkard’s family poverty and wretchedness.…

“Houses of prostitution, dens of vice, criminal courts, prisons, almshouses, insane asylums, hospitals, all are, to a great degree, filled as a result of the liquor-seller’s work. Like the mystic Babylon of the Apocalypse, he is dealing in ‘slaves, and souls of men.’ Behind the liquor seller stands the mighty destroyer of souls, and every art which earth or hell can devise is employed to draw human beings under his power. In the city and the country, on the railway trains, on the great steamers, in places of business, in the halls of pleasure, in the medical dispensary, even in the church, on the sacred Communion table, his traps are set. Nothing is left undone to create and to foster the desire for intoxicants. On almost every corner stands the public house, with its brilliant lights, its welcome and good cheer, inviting the working man, the wealthy idler, and the unsuspecting youth.…

“To create the liquor appetite in little children, alcohol is introduced into confectionery. Such confectionery is sold in the shops. And by the gift of these candies the liquor seller entices children into his resorts.…

“More terrible still, the curse is striking the very heart of the home. More and more, women are forming the liquor habit. In many a household, little children, even in the innocence and helplessness of babyhood, are in daily peril through the neglect, the abuse, the vileness of drunken mothers. Sons and daughters are growing up under the shadow of this terrible evil. What outlook for their future but that they will sink even lower than their parents?”

—Ministry of Healing, 337-339.

Tofutti Cream

Place in blender:

1 cup water

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup cashews

½-¾ cup dates

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/3 cup pineapple juice

12 oz. soft tofu

When thoroughly blended, add 1 heaping cup of your choice of fruit such as blueberries, peaches, strawberries, apricots, boysenberries, persimmon, raspberries, blackberries, or mangoes.

Blend again and pour into ice cube trays and freeze. When frozen, put through a juicer or blender and serve at once.

Children’s Story – When A Buffalo Attended Bible Class

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Hello, Children! Summer is too severe in India, especially in a remote, tribal, upland area as ours!

We have a lot of monkeys, mosquitoes, a thousand varieties of flies, snakes, and birds in our forest. Most of our villagers have herds of buffalo and goats. Indian buffalo are very black and huge! They have a long fixed face and two strong horns. The tribals make beautiful ornaments, combs, and decorations with these horns.

Every morning these buffalo go into the forest for grazing, and come back in the evening. Many times the tribal children sit on the backs of the buffalo and drive them into the streams of water to give them a good wash. They sing a thousand songs as they bathe together in the stream with the buffalo.

As it is summer, we have a Vacation Bible School, and many of the children from the neighboring villages attend our Bible school. They are all excited to attend and learn about the Bible as it is explained by using the flannelgraph. They learn nice songs; memory verses, and color Bible pictures. We have fixed time periods for each of these activities. It is really a very exciting experience when time passes like a flying horse!

On one such day, when every one of us was very busy in our own way during the Bible class, we had a strange guest! None of us had noticed it until it straight away walked into the center of our little room. It opened its mouth and started to brawl! Oh! It made all of us jump to our feet and we all broke into peels of laughter! The buffalo looked at all of us with its serene eyes, lifted his tail up and ran away before we could drive him out.

This incident delighted all of us for awhile. Especially, I felt really good to share the simple joy of my gleaming little ones. I said, “Well children, Jesus too is very happy now because a buffalo has attended our Bible class. It has come all the way here to sing a song in his own native tongue, and when the job was over it walked out. How much more should we praise Him, sing unto Him, thank Him, and always be ready to share the news of what a wonderful Saviour we have! When a buffalo, who does not have a hat or a pair of slippers could attend a Bible class in this hot summer—how about you?”

Needless to say, I had full attendance during the whole week!

The Divine Science

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We are obviously standing at the threshold of the time of trouble, and we have been warned that the final movements will be rapid ones. Modern communication skills make it easy for us to understand how issues can quickly become known throughout the whole world. We can expect the closing events to happen in rapid succession. How then shall we maintain our faith and move through those awful events without fear or failure? A healthy prayer program would be a must. Of what would a healthy prayer program consist? I do not pretend to know all that there is to know about prayer, but let me share with you some things that I have seen.

The story begins when I was pastoring the Seventh-day Adventist church in Hilo, Hawaii. I was responsible, of course, for the Sabbath morning sermons and for the Wednesday night prayer meeting studies. As I was preparing material for these appointments, I came across some Spirit of Prophecy statements that rather surprised me. “There is a divine science in prayer.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 142.

The Prayer of Faith

This caused me to wonder. There is in science a principle that whoever conducts the same procedures in the same way will get the same results. Could this in any way be true of prayer? It seemed like an unusual combination of the terms, science and prayer. But I found them again in Education, 257 and Gospel Workers, 38: “In the prayer of faith there is a divine science.” “…watch unto prayer. This is the science of your labor.”

This encouraged me to make a study of the subject. As time permitted, I did more research on the subject of prayer. Then another incident further intrigued me. I had conducted some evangelistic meetings in our school auditorium and had baptized a nice group of people. Then one day I decided to remove some things from the shelf in the back of the church pulpit, and I found there, to my surprise, a heart shaped valentine box. I opened it, and found some names on prayer lists. As I looked at those names, I realized that most of the people whom I had just baptized were on those lists. This further stimulated my interest in the subject of prayer.

Secret Communion Sustains the Soul

Eventually, the brethren transferred me to the Central Church in Honolulu. By this time I thought I had enough material together on the subject of prayer for a series of studies, so I announced a series on The Science of Prayer. In these studies we gave careful attention to what appeared to be principles of the science. Among the important ones was the principle of Privacy. Notice the emphasis in this statement: “Family prayer, public prayer, have their place; but it is secret communion with God that sustains the soul life.” Education, 258.

So we did not spend much time on the family and public prayers, because they are so limited in subject matter and in time, except to note that if all of them that were performed in a week were added together, the total would probably be less than an hour. We focused our attention on private prayer, and we found many interesting things. There is, for example, a recommendation about the best time of day for private prayers: “At an early hour of the evening, when we can pray unhurriedly and understandingly, we should present our supplications and raise our voices in happy, grateful praise.” The Review and Herald, November 29, 1887.. “Let the youth follow His example in finding at dawn and at twilight a quiet season for communion with their Father in heaven.” Education, 259.

This was accompanied by a suggestion regarding the time spent in prayer: “Many, even in their seasons of devotion, fail of receiving the blessing of real communion with God. They are in too great haste. With hurried steps they press through the circle of Christ’s loving presence, pausing perhaps a moment in the sacred precincts, but not waiting for counsel. They have no time to remain with the divine Teacher. With their burdens they return to their work.” Education, 260.

Where Two or Three are Gathered

Then we come to the principle of Unity, and something happened that rather unnerved me. It was prayer meeting time on Wednesday evening, and the people in the meeting room had been singing. I was just opening the door to go in and lead the study when a member, whose name was Buddy Kelly, came up to me and said, “Elder Larson, would you please ask the people to pray that my wife will come back to church?”

“What is her problem?” I asked.

“I do not know, she will not tell me,” he said. “But she has not been in church for three years.”

I said that I would do it, and wrote her name on the bottom of my note page so that I would not forget it. I presented the study for the evening, on the principle of unity in prayer, based on the promise of Christ that when two or three are agreed as to what they should ask, it will be granted (Matthew 18:19-20). When I came to the end of the study, I noticed the name of Sister Kelly at the bottom of my notes and remembered my promise. I asked how many of the group knew her, and they all raised their hands. I asked how many of them would be willing to pray that she would come back to church. They all raised their hands again. Then it happened. Something slipped out of my mouth that I had not planned to say. It shocked some of the people, and it shocked me too. I said, “We have read the Lord’s promise and we have agreed to pray that Sister Kelly will come back to church. If she never comes back, we will know that this promise is false, will we not?”

Oh, Oh, Oh! Why did I say that? I do not know why I said it. It was not planned or premeditated. I had never said anything like that before. I am sure that if I had taken thought, I would not have said it at all. I had two tense and anxious days, Thursday and Friday, worrying about it. But my concerns were not necessary. On Sabbath morning the Lord had Sister Kelly in church. I apologized to the Lord, and I have never done such a thing again. But I sometimes wonder just how the Lord looked at it. Some day, by His grace, I may be able to ask Him.

Impressed by the Lord

Now that I have introduced you to Brother Kelly, I will step out of the time line of my story and tell you another experience involving him. He had remembered the thought about counseling with the Lord (see above) and a suggestion of mine that the Lord speaks to us at times, but we do not listen. On a certain Sunday, Brother Kelly, his wife, and his wife’s sister went shopping together in the Kelly’s car. When they had finished their shopping, they drove first to the sister’s home. She got out of the car and started up the walk to her house, and Brother Kelly started to pull away from the curb. Suddenly a thought struck him so forcibly that he stopped the car. What was the thought? Give her Bible studies. With his foot on the brake, he turned his head and looked at her going up her steps. “What a crazy idea,” he thought. “She does not want Bible studies.” But all the rest of the day he worried about it. He worried about it at work all day Monday and all day Tuesday. Finally he decided that he had to know the truth of the matter. Tuesday night he said to his wife, “Get cleaned up, honey. We’re going out.”

“Where are we going?”

“We are going to your sister’s house.”

“What for?”

“We are going to give her a Bible study.”

“Are you crazy?”

“I do not know. We will find out if I am crazy when we get there.”

So they went to the sister’s house and knocked on the door. She opened the door, put her head out, and said in surprise, ‘Well, Hello! What are you doing here?” Brother Kelly took a deep breath, then said firmly, “We came to give you a Bible study.” For a long moment she just stared at them, while her face turned deathly pale. Finally she spoke. “Well, come in then.”

They had a pleasant Bible study, and set up appointments for more. Things were progressing nicely, when I had to leave Honolulu for several weeks to fill an appointment on another island. When I returned, Brother Kelly came to see me. “Elder Larson,” he said, “do you remember about my wife’s sister?”

“Yes, I remember. How are the studies going?”

“The studies went fine, but right now she is in the hospital, dying of cancer.”

“Well, now we know why you got that signal from the Lord to give her Bible studies, do we not?”

“We sure do. I am so glad that I obeyed.”

The Five Major Elements of Prayer

Now let us return to the prayer meeting story. As we continued our studies, we found information about the content of prevailing prayer. There seemed to be five major elements: Thanksgiving, Repentance, Consecration, Temporal needs, and Intercessory prayer for others. The first three are quite specific.

1 Thanksgiving

“If the loving-kindness of God called forth more thanksgiving and praise, we would have far more power in prayer. We would abound more and more in the love of God and have more bestowed to praise Him for. You, who complain that God does not hear your prayers, change your present order and mingle praise with your petitions. When you consider His goodness and mercies you will find that He will consider your wants.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 317.

“He desires us to serve Him in newness of life, with gladness every day…To praise God in fullness and sincerity of heart is as much a duty as is prayer.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 299.

2 Repentance

“This daily review of our acts, to see whether conscience approves or condemns, is necessary for all who wish to reach perfection of Christian character.” Gospel Workers, 275.

3 Consecration

“Morning by morning, as the heralds of the gospel kneel before the Lord and renew their vows of consecration to Him, He will grant them the presence of His Spirit, with its reviving, sanctifying power.” Acts of the Apostles, 56.

These three principles, taken together, present us with some regular morning exercises in prayer. First we think carefully about all of the specific and individual blessings granted to us in the past twenty-four hours, and thank the Lord for each of them. This is very beneficial. We will soon realize that the Lord is doing more for us every day than we were aware. We will be reminded of the old song, “Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”

Then we repeat the memory exercise to see whether we may have disappointed the Lord in any way during the last twenty-four hours. This gives the Holy Spirit an opportunity to impress our minds and teach us lessons that we need to learn.

Third, we renew our vows of consecration, which involves the exercise of the will in deciding and reaffirming decisions. The use of this marvelous “kingly power” is a rewarding study in itself, which we do not have space enough for here. Suffice it to say that there is real benefit in renewing and restating our vows of consecration.

4 Our Temporal Needs

“Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him. He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of His children.…Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice.” Steps to Christ, 100.

It often happens that this is the major portion of our prayers, but it need not be. The real emphasis in our prayers would ideally be the next section.

5 Intercessory Prayers for Others

In this area, our attention was attracted to the following question: “Why do not two or three meet together and plead with God for the salvation of some special one, and then for still another?” Testimonies, vol. 7, 21.

Prayer for a Witch Doctor

This challenge appealed to us, so we decided to try it. We moved from the prayer meeting room to the main church auditorium so that we could spend part of the service in small groups with room enough to be separated from one another. The members of each group consulted together and agreed on a particular person for whom they would be praying. On the first Wednesday evening, three of the men came to me and asked me to join their group. I asked them for whom we would be praying. They answered, “We are going to pray for Joseph Poomaihealani. His brother, Ernest, is one of our members.” That seemed to make sense, so I joined their group. But it was more than a month before I learned who Joseph really was. Those men had me praying for a kahuna, a Hawaiian witch doctor!

He was a man who had a special chair in his front room. If you sat in that chair without his permission, the chair would turn over and deposit you on the floor. He had a shelf on which he would place a glass of whiskey and watch it disappear as the spirits drank it. He believes, to this day, that he has seen the devil face to face. One night he attended a meeting that I was conducting in Honolulu. I happened to make the statement that some people do not believe there is a devil. As he left the auditorium, he said to me, “Mr. Larson, I will tell you what you can do. If they do not believe there is any devil, just send them to my house. I will show them.”

I was dismayed. There were times when I felt like suggesting that we pray for someone else, but it seemed as if that would show a lack of faith, so I did not do it.

When Women Pray

Meanwhile, other things were happening. There were several ladies in the church whose husbands were not members, so it was difficult for them to attend prayer meetings. But they heard about what we were doing and wanted to get in on it. They talked it over and decided that they would have a set time each day when they would pray for their husbands, thus meeting at the throne of grace. And one by one their husbands started coming to church.

Mr. Kiehm came first, and was soon baptized. Then George Hirashima started coming and attending the Pastor’s Sabbath School Class, where we studied doctrines. One Sabbath morning, as I was walking up the stairs to the church door, I met him coming down. “Good morning, George,” I said. He did not return my greeting, but said, “Say, are you ready to baptize me today?” I said, “George, are you serious?” He answered, “I’m serious. I want to be baptized. But do not tell my wife. I want to surprise her.” So, at the end of the sermon I simply walked into the baptistry and performed the ceremony for him. Sister Hirashima almost fell off her seat. After him came three more husbands, Brother Kim, Brother Ho, and Brother Kahula for baptism.

The First Sabbath-keeping, Spiritualist, Pentecostal Church

Now, let us return to our kahuna, Joseph Poomaihealani. He began to make some changes. He visited some meetings that I was conducting and decided that the Sabbath was right. He visited some Pentecostal meetings and felt that he understood very well what he saw happening there. He decided to start a church of his own. Across the island from Honolulu there was a village named Waimanalo where there was no church of any kind. He bought some land there and built a church. Its design, in all details, was in line with directions that he received from the “spirits.” There he established himself in what I suppose was the first Sabbath-keeping, spiritualist, Pentecostal church on earth.

Meanwhile, the brethren had transferred me from Honolulu Central Church to become a full-time conference evangelist. As such, I traveled from island to island conducting evangelistic meetings. After about a year they asked me to conduct a series of meetings in Waimanalo. Joseph and his wife had become acquainted with Dr. Robert Chung and his wife, Mae, who invited them to my meetings. To make a long story short, they attended the meetings, joined our church and donated their church to the conference. It is still active today. You can see it in Waimanalo.

So there is indeed a divine science in prayer that we need to study.

“In the prayer of faith there is a divine science; it is a science that everyone who would make his lifework a success must understand.” Education, 257.

Freedom of Choice

We must keep in mind, however, that there is another principle involved in intercessory prayer, and that is the principle of freedom. God will never force anyone to submit to His will. If we keep this in mind, we will be protected against extreme views and fanaticism. Lucifer, after the fall, rebelled against a perfect God in a perfect heaven.

But our immediate concern is how we may come through the time of trouble victoriously. The situation calls for a trust in God that nothing can disturb, and a healthy, vigorous prayer program. We are hearing much these days about assurance. I find that my assurance relates more directly to my prayer program than to any doctrine that I hold. Let us take heed to these words of caution:

“Neglect the exercise of prayer, or engage in prayer spasmodically, now and then, as seems convenient, and you lose your hold on God.” Gospel Workers, 255.

Let us remember the encouraging words of the apostle James: “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:16.

Go, Set a Watchman

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As spring weather approaches, we are excited to know that God has a wonderful plan for all who commit themselves to His service. Need we remind you that we are living in a day in which the messages of the prophets must be understood and proclaimed?

All that the Prophets Have Spoken

We know that Jesus lived and preached, constantly under the knowledge that He was fulfilling the words of the prophets. “Then He took unto Him the twelve, and said unto them, ‘Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished.’” Luke 18:31. Remember, Jesus upbraided the two disciples on the road to Emmaus for not believing what the prophets spoke. “Then He said unto them, ‘O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” Luke 24:25. The Apostle Paul clearly states that the prophets speak to these last days. “Yea and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.’” Acts 3:24.

John the Baptist also understood and preached the message of the prophets. He needed no new revelation, no new doctrine, and no novel truth. He preached from Isaiah! “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is He that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!’” Matthew 3:1-3.

We do not need some new, novel thing for which itching ears now seek. We need to hear what the prophets spoke about this, our day. They were accurate regarding Christ in every detail. They must also be right about their warnings and admonitions to us!

All through the New Testament you see events unfolding in order that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled. “When the evening was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils; and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, ‘Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses.’” Matthew 8:16, 17. “But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew Himself from thence: and great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all; and charged them that they should not make Him known: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet…” Matthew 12:15-17.

A Devastating Vision

Isaiah the prophet saw the glory of Jesus centuries ago; and he preached Christ in his own day. Isaiah not only saw the future Lord and Saviour; he also had a hard, devastating vision of the very days in which we live. His vision in Isaiah 21 must be understood, heeded, and proclaimed! It is a message for this time!

Isaiah begins in 21:2: “A grievous [harsh] vision is declared unto me;” The prophet does not give us the details of this horrifying vision; but his insight into the future was so devastating, it violently agitated him. Isaiah revealed the vision’s impact on him: “Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it. My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath turned into fear unto me.” Isaiah 21:3–4.

What caused such convulsions in Isaiah’s body? Why did his heart beat wildly? Why such anguish of soul? He saw a storm roaring in from the desert. It was a massive enemy army; riders, horsemen in pairs, trains of donkeys, and camels. The prophet sees the coming downfall of the Babylonian system. He hears in his spiritual ear, he sees in his spiritual eye the downfall of all that is of this world. He sees the end of pride, ambition, wickedness, and corruption. “Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods He hath broken unto the ground.” Isaiah 21:9.

Isaiah saw the coming judgment and destruction, and he cried out,”Pay close attention, very close attention.” Isaiah 21:8. “and he harkened diligently with much heed:” He calls out, “Rise up–oil the shields.” “Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.” Isaiah 21:5. But no one is listening! Instead, Isaiah 21:5 says, “They set the table, they spread out the cloth, they eat, and drink…”

Get Ready—Destruction Cometh!

Indescribable judgments are at the door; massive armies are marching outside of the gate; the day of reckoning has come! The prophet is shouting, “Pay attention! Get ready! Oil the shields! Put on the whole armor!” But they ignore the warnings of the prophet! They go about their ways, eating, drinking, making merry, spreading out a feast table of prosperity, success, and entertainment. They are deaf! They do not want to hear about the mounting gloom outside the gate! They have their own “Happy Days” prophets sitting at the head of their tables. While they sit with them on ivory couches, they prophesy smooth things. “…this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: which say to the seers, ‘See not,’ and to the prophets, ‘Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.’” Isaiah 30:9, 10.

What a vivid vision Isaiah had of our present day. Here are alarmed watchmen blowing a trumpet, begging the unconcerned to wake up, to prepare for a day of disaster! But the crowds spread their tables and sit down to feast, dance, and play! It is not just that they ignore him (the prophet), they shout to him, ‘Enough of your doom and gloom! You’ve been on the wall too long! Why don’t you ever give us a good word? Why so rough, so harsh, so negative?”

I ask you, if the watchman keeps quiet, if he gets weary of warning, if he does relent and ease up, will that change anything? Will that stop the destruction? No! Whether or not the people will listen, God is setting His watchmen in place! “For thus hath the Lord said unto me, ‘Go, set a watchman let him declare what he seeth.’” Isaiah 21:6. God has set up faithful watchmen in these troubled times. They see the gathering storm of divine judgment and they are appointed to warn the people.

We know that the Old Testament prophets and shepherds were set as watchmen. Some were called seers because they walked with God so closely they could see what others could not. They could see the approaching enemy; they could see into the future, their warnings came from the very heart of God. God said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at My mouth, and give them warning from Me.’” Ezekiel 3:17.

The Watchmen on the Walls

God spoke through Isaiah, “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day or night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” Isaiah 62:6, 7.

This should greatly encourage the holy remnant! It should bring hope to all of God’s people who sigh and cry over the abominations in the house of the Lord! Those who claim to be purest and persecuted for righteousness sake when all the time they are covering up their sin. Those who are going around as talebearers should take heed before it is too late. God has set up holy watchmen who will never shut up! Night and day, they will blow the trumpet and warn the people until God’s house is cleansed and awakened!

Some are saying, “This message of impending judgment by self-styled prophets will pass away. These ridiculous warnings, these awesome thunderings, these harsh visions will die out.” Not a chance! God has posted His watchmen! God has instructed them to “Keep not silent!” I will continue to preach, “Repent” from your sin and then receive God’s forgiveness and then be restored to God’s true remnant church. These sin lovers will continue to call God’s servants, self-appointed and misinformed. They can call me any name they choose. However, I will not be hindered in my mission. I have been set in place by divine authority!

The New Testament is a call to every servant of God to watch. “Verily I say unto you, ‘This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away; but My words shall not pass away. And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, [worldliness] and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.’”

Paul warns the present day ministry, “Watch ye! Stand fast in the faith, act like men, be strong!” 1 Corinthians 16:13. For three years Paul stood watch over the Corinthian church. “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears.” Acts 20: 28–32.

Watch! Warn! Cry Night and Day!

To the overseers, to bishops, to pastors, he says the same thing! “Watch! Warn! Everyone, night and day with tears!” Paul said of the true ministers, “They watch for your soul.” That is the test of a true watchman! Does he watch out for his own interests, his own dreams, and his own ambitions? Or does he watch for souls? If Paul had to preach to the ministers of today, he would deliver the same message he gave to young Timothy. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry…” 2 Timothy 4:3–6.

Isaiah’s vision focused on a cry coming to his ears “out of the land of the lawless.” “The oracle [or burden, or cry] concerning Edom…one keeps calling to me from Seir.” Isaiah 21:11. Genesis 36:8 says that Edom is Esau. God said, “And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains [territory] and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.” Malachi 1:3. Malachi gives us God’s view of what Edom and Esau represents: “Men shall call them the territory of the lawless, and the people with whom Jehovah hath indignation against until times eternal.” Malachi 1:4 Rotterman’s Original Hebrew.

What is this cry coming out of the territory of the lawless? It is the very same cry arising out of religious America! We have become the land of the lawless. We are those who have rejected the Lord and against whom God is indignant! Here is the cry from the land of the lawless: “Watchman, how far gone is the night? (NAS) The King James version reads, “Watchman, what is the night?” But the Hebrew text is actually, “How far gone is the night?” Isaiah 21:11.

There was no cry, “What must we do to be redeemed? How can we repent and turn to God? How can we prepare to meet the enemy?” The only question being asked by these deluded, unrepentant children of God was, “How much longer until the good times return? How soon will a new day dawn, so we can return to our feasting and drinking?”

A New Day Dawning

Mark my words, the day has already come. Multitudes of prosperity lovers led by their success preachers share one great concern, to bring in a bright, new day of endless prosperity and bliss. When the darkness of recession and depression begins to fall all around, they cry out, ‘How long will it last? How soon until we are back in the sunlight of good times? How deep, how long will be the darkness? They prophesy great things and prosperous times just ahead. The Scripture that says, “The night is far spent, the day is at hand” means something very different to them. They see that as a promise that God is going to set up His earthly kingdom soon! No imminent return of Christ. No going up to meet the Lord in the air! They have become so earthbound, they cannot see giving it up even to meet Him in glory!

This is the cry of the New Age people! New Age Christians! Or professing Seventh-day Adventists who are hiding in sin. It is the cry of the spreading gospel of the Kingdom Preachers: “A new day is dawning! A day of earthly peace and prosperity!” they boast. “God is going to give us the wealth of the world; we will become kings—take dominion over all government, all science, all law and legislation.” They are no longer for Mark 13:26, which says, “And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.”

They evidently do not believe the words of Jesus when He warned, “On this earth you will suffer and be persecuted.” They reject Christ’s warning that the church will be “hated and scorned” among men. “And ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake.” Luke 21:17. Christ is no longer expected to return. “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” 1 Thessalonians 5:2. They do not believe Paul’s warning in
1 Thessalonians 5:3, “For when they shall say, ‘Peace and safety;’ then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” Nevertheless, Jesus bluntly said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” His reign is in the hearts of men.

Return and Repent

Hear the answer of the watchmen. “The watchman said, ‘The morning cometh and also the night, if ye will inquire, inquire ye: Return—Come.” Isaiah 21:12. He is saying, “For those who return and repent, there is a new day coming—but for those who are living in the land of the lawless, bound by the spirit of Esau, with its lust and evil, there is nothing but night!”

Isaiah went on to describe what that meant for the backslidden and unconcerned. “For it is a day of trouble [confusion] and the treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.” Isaiah 22:5. Those who live for self, who lust for success, power, and earthly dominion, will awaken to a day of perplexity and unprecedented trouble.

I have received many newsletters from one Seventh-day Adventist physician who talks about all of the mission work he supposedly supports. The fact is, he uses these works to generate support to pay for his own overseas trips, and now to support his adulterous relationship. Yet he portrays himself as a humble purist who is persecuted by all of the other self-supporting workers because of his strong stands. Friends, he is only standing on sinking sand. He is not fooling anyone but himself, for God knows it all.

What makes this so frightening is that Isaiah is speaking of our time! Only a holy, separated remnant will comprise the Holy Zion. The city is coming down from God! While many preach about a new day of earthly might, glory and dominion—it will actually be that dreaded day of perplexity, sorrow, and cries for help!

The preachers of Paradise Restored are deluded prophets. That is easily proven by God’s Word. Here is unshakable proof that God has not sent them, but that they are deceived and speak their own imaginations.

“Then said I, ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured [lasting] peace in this place.’ Then the Lord said unto me, ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in My name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision, and divination, and a thing of naught, and the deceit of their heart [or deception of their own minds.]’”

There are holy watchmen and there are evil watchmen. We live in a day when many watchmen who were once mightily anointed are falling asleep in sin! They are justifying their sin and they continue to live in sin because they are pleasure seekers. They are ruled by their flesh.

Searching for the Bridegroom

Let me share with you one of the saddest indictments against evil watchmen in God’s Word. “By night on my bed I sought Him whom my soul loveth: I sought Him, but I found Him not. I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul loveth: I sought Him, but I found Him not. The watchmen that go about the city found me: it was but a little that I passed from them, but I found Him whom my soul loveth: I beheld Him and would not let Him go, until I had brought Him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.” Solomon 3:1–4.

Here is the bride—the church—the people of God who are truly hungering and thirsting for their Lord! They want Him! They yearn for His love and presence. It is a seeking people! They do not know how to reach Him! There is a confrontation with certain of the watchmen. If anyone should know where to find Him, the watchman should. Who could miss this Man so well described: “His head is of the most fine gold; His locks are bushy, and black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers; His lips are like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: His belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. His legs as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet: yea, He is altogether lovely…” Solomon 5:11–16.

Of the watchman she asks, “Have you seen Him whom my soul loveth?” In other words, “Lead me to Him whom my soul longs for! You are the watchman—bring me to Him!”

How sad these words are: “It was but a little that I passed from them; but I have found Him whom my soul loveth.” The bride is confessing, “When I got away from the blind watchmen, then I found Him!”

Blind Watchmen

They could not help me, Isaiah said, “His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark: sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.” Isaiah 56:10.

Think of it! In Isaiah 21 the watchmen are awake; they are calling the people to action, speaking only the truth; faithful; watching day and night. Now in Isaiah 56 some have fallen asleep. They are lying down like a bunch of lazy dogs. They refuse to blow the trumpet! They have left off warnings! Some are asleep on the wall. They have become spiritually blind and ignorant, with no discernment left.

What happened? Isaiah said they became self-centered! Greedy! Filled with lust and sensuality! They divorce their wives and marry younger ones. They need new thrills. “Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. ‘Come ye,’ say thus, ‘I will fetch wine and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’” Isaiah 56:11, 12.

Isaiah lamented, “The righteous man perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart.” Instead, some became greedy, looking out for themselves—their own dreams and plans—having fallen into lust and love for pleasure. They have opted for comfort, acceptance, and respect among men. They have been corrupted by a lust for power, position, and money.

Look around you today, as many ministers fall! Look at the supposed health educators. They are living for self. They do not hold to the basic principles of marriage, accountability, honesty. The worm of self is eating like a cancer, destroying the love of many. So few now weep for the lost. Fewer yet are taking to heart the backsliding of God’s people! There is greed, self-promotion, self-seeking, and self-indulgence!

God’s Grief

What grief God must carry over the backslidden, blind watchmen! His grief goes beyond their spiritual blindness. Beyond the pride and greed. Beyond sensuality and self-centeredness. It is a two-fold grief!

First, grief because God can never delight in the fall of a single created being. He laments the loss of their love! The loss of their communion! The loss of a chosen son or daughter! The loss of one so important to His work on earth! Saul falls and the prophet Samuel weeps for him. Absolom rebels, is killed in rebellion, yet David laments, “Absolom, my son—my son!” Will not God lament over the loss of His rebellious, fallen watchmen?

Second, it is the grief of having to turn corrupted watchmen over to their sins! I call it the dread release. You will find it in Romans 1; but also throughout God’s Word. God never removes His offer of grace and mercy! His mercy is everlasting! But when men who once knew the truth, preached it, embraced it, then became bound and enslaved to creature lusts, and they refuse to let it go, refuse to walk in holiness before a holy God, then God must release them to their sins! You see this dread release in Ezekiel 20:39, “As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God. Go ye, serve ye everyone his idols…”

God is releasing this Christian nation to her idols. He is saying, “Go to your TV idol! Go to your secret lover! Go to your pornographic cassettes! Go to your filthy magazines! Go to your hidden sin! If you will have your idols rather than walk wholly separated in holiness, then go to the object of your desires.”

Tearing Away the Veil

This is the tragic end of the greedy, blind watchmen. “I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn Himself, and was gone: my soul failed when He spake: I sought Him, but I could not find Him; I called Him, but He gave me no answer. The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.” Solomon 5:6, 7.

Can you believe it? The blind watchmen are beating up on the bride! They are wounding the bride! They are tearing off her veil, her covering of modesty. Behind it she can blush, she can close her eyes to all others so she will not behold sin.

Think on the following points:

  1. All of the rock concerts going on in God’s house.
  2. The senseless choreographed dancing.
  3. The blatant entertainment!
  4. The emphasis on materialism, success, and self-improvement.
  5. The cancerous growth of worldliness in the churches.
  6. The lack of grief over sin among believers.
  7. The acceptance of rock, punk, and disco music in God’s house.
  8. The foolishness, the lightness, the off-color joking.
  9. The drinking and fornicating.

These are the fault of the greedy, backslidden watchmen who are tearing at the bride’s veil! Once again the blind watchmen are “taking away the veil…” The blind watchmen became candidates as rulers of darkness and angels of light. They end up preaching another Jesus, another gospel! Notice these very clear warnings. “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” 2 Corinthians 11:2–4.

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according o their works. ” 2 Corinthians 11:13-15

What of the Watchmen?

I listen to the so-called doctors, health reformers, as they talk so sweetly about loving Jesus and of their desire to take Him where the world is. They sound so pious, so humble, and so sincere. They say the right words, but their hearts do not belong wholly to the Lord. God says of them, “And the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. Oh, that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear me and keep all my Commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons, forever.” Deuteronomy 5:28, 29. NAS.

Some blind watchmen in the Northwest have introduced dancing with others’ spouses in their churches. They dance for hours with the mate of someone else, staring intently into each other’s eyes, calling the affair a spiritual connection. An intricate and evil doctrine has been concocted to support it as a so-called “new move of the Holy Spirit.” It is causing divorces, suicide among the adults, and terror among the children of those caught up in it. Many hundreds are involved, and adultery is rampant among them. The leaders of this diabolical doctrine preach so sweetly about Jesus, about the bride of Christ; and their words at times sound right. But they are the prophecies and doctrines of devils. Those involved are devil-inspired angels of light, come to deceive, if possible, even the elect. These are those referred to in the Song of Solomon who “wound the bride, smite her, and strip her veil from her! God has promised to deal with them with His holy fire of jealousy. “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.” Hebrews 10:26, 27.

Thank God, the true and faithful watchmen on the wall will never compromise! They will not stop warning the righteous about the seductions and infiltrations of the wicked one among God’s people. No sincere Christian need be in doubt about who to listen to in these days of many voices.

Tests of the True Prophetic Warnings

There are two very clear and unmistakable tests of all prophetic warnings:

1 True prophecy seeks to turn Christians away from sin. “But if they had stood in My council, then they would have announced My words to My people, and would have turned them back from their evil way and the evil of their deeds.” Jeremiah 23:22 NAS.

Heed the voice of those who seek to turn you away from wickedness. Avoid those who speak soothing words with no reference to sin. Those who are justifying their own sin. Yet, when you ask them a direct question, they talk in circles. They think they are clever, yet they are only deceived.

2 Prophetic warnings, from the beginning, spoke of judgments upon the wicked. “Yet hear now this word which I am about to speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people! The prophets who were before me and before you from ancient times prophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms, of war and of calamity and of pestilence.” Jeremiah 28:7, 8. NAS.

Those who warn of coming judgment are in good company. They speak the same word of all the prophets “from the beginning.” I declare with all assurance that the warnings now going forth from God’s holy watchmen are the greatest evidences of His love to this generation. He loves His people enough to prepare them; to give them time to repent and prepare the way of the Lord in holiness! Those who love the Lord will be thankful. Those who are at ease in Zion will be repelled and indignant. May God richly bless all of His true children.

Crossing the Line

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When we were in the show business world of musicians, recording artists, theater, and modeling, we always greeted each other with a hug and two kisses—one on the left side and one on the right side. This was body to body and cheek to cheek, sometimes lips to lips with both arms around the person. This greeting would last from seconds to minutes, with no regard for marital status. That was show business—worldly, carnal, and irreligious, with no moral compass. Just whatever felt good or seemed the “in thing” to do, we did in social relations. There was a definite comradeship that was “tight or close” because our careers were similar. This is only a mild example of how loose men and women of the world conduct themselves with one another. Should these exhibitions of familiarity be the criterion for God’s people?

God Draws a Line

“There is a distinct line drawn by God Himself between the world and the church, between commandment keepers and commandment breakers. They do not blend together. They are as different as midday and midnight.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 602. Surely God has drawn a line, as it were, in the sand of morality—go this far and no further. But how far do we go? May we suggest the lines have been crossed in male and female modesty? The barriers erected by the Word of God have been broken down, hence, the low morals and the state of unholiness among God’s professed people.

“I beseech you, therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:1, 2. “Barriers have been removed, safeguards broken down.” Testimonies, vol. 4, 578. What barriers have been removed? The barriers of female modesty which stand as a protection for solid Christian standards and morals.

“Immorality abounds everywhere. Licentiousness is the special sin of this age.” Counsels on Health, 673. The servant of the Lord goes on to say it would be as impossible for some minds to dwell upon holy themes as it would be to turn the course of the Niagara and send its waters pouring up the falls. Could things really be this corrupt in the church?

Unholy Exhibition of Familiarity

Have you ever been in church on Sabbath when you were told it is time to greet your neighbor? Besides being irreverent, this occasion encourages unholy exhibitions of familiarity that are condemned by the Word of God. Young and old, married or unmarried kiss and hug each other with happy music playing in the background to encourage a feeling of love and warmth. At times, perfect strangers feel at liberty to engage in these loose social exercises with the young and married in a way that is most appalling.

After Sabbath service some time ago, a brother we knew well decided to take the liberty to give Gwen a big Sabbath hello. With arms wide open and a pucker on his lips he launched forward toward her. She extended a firm and stiff right arm and hand. Not being able to cross that barrier, he said quickly, “Oh, its okay. My wife is right here, she does not mind.” Gwen quickly retorted, “But I mind!” She then added that she reserved her hugs and kisses for only one man—her husband! The fellow brother never tried that again!

Another time, years later, this happened with a young man who had previously worked with us in our business. He had since grown up and was a minister and pastor of several churches. He never ventured to do such years ago, but now he was a minister of the gospel and felt it was fine. He reached to hug and kiss Gwen, since he had not seen her in such a long time. She was happy to see him also, but extended her hand. Offended, he grabbed and hugged her anyway. This man is like a son to us, so we felt at liberty to tell him the truth about his actions. After cautioning him about such familiar behavior, he said he was the “kissing preacher.” This is how he kept on good terms with the women of the church—he gave them all a kiss and a hug every Sabbath. This was a handsome young man. Can you imagine what thoughts or feelings were prompted by this kind of behavior? He then admitted that his wife was very cold and unaffectionate toward him and that he made up for it with the ladies in the church. Before we left, we promised to send him texts and quotes so he would know Satan was laying a snare for him with such behavior. He really had a change of heart and spirit, and we prayed before we parted that God would give him grace to change.

The liberties taken in this age of corruption should be no criterion for Christ’s followers. These fashionable exhibitions of familiarity should not exist among Christians fitting for immortality.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 145.

Modesty and Reserve Depart

Because we have followed the world in almost every facet of our lives at a so-called respectable distance, our sense of morality is warped. For instance, at an evangelistic training program, a prohibition is stated for the wearing of jeans by men or women. That sounds good, but have you ever read what the prophetess said about pants—or more correctly the American Costume? This was modest compared to the pants worn now. “Those who feel called out to join the movement in favor of women’s rights and the so-called reform dress (American Costume) might as well sever all connection with the Third Angel’s Message.” Thy Nakedness, 123.

We are also told that the wearing of clothes that resembles that of the opposite sex would cripple our influence and destroy the influence of our message. But one statement is really poignant with meaning. “With the wearing of styles resembling men’s clothing goes a spirit of levity and boldness just in keeping with the dress.” Ibid., 133. The reason the subject of pants is brought up here is because it has an effect upon the way women and girls carry themselves. Pants are worn part of the week or in some cases, all of the week, which causes one to feel more relaxed, free and bold. As the servant of the Lord stated, “Modesty and reserve seem to depart.” Do you think women will, all of a sudden, become meek, unassuming and reserved on Sabbath because they have on their church attire? Have you noticed how many women in our day wear dresses? On Christian campuses or in Christian communities, dresses are as rare as in a common shopping mall. Through sports, worldly music and entertainment, the enemy has brought in a style of dress that is lowering the morals of the church and society in general. The standard of female and male modesty is degraded. The sexual atrocities perpetrated in the church, if done in the world, would be punished to the fullest extent of the law. These sins in the church are winked at, but God does not wink at them. The line drawn in the sand of morality is crossed again and again. Have you considered that the wearing of tight fitting sweaters, pants or skirts, low cuts, slits or sheer clothing invite unwarranted advances from both sexes?

Modesty In the Medical Field

Have we considered that careers where men or women massage, bathe, or examine the opposite sex is opening the door to those weak in moral character a tide of temptations they may not be able to resist? One Adventist massage therapist, who went to school and started her own business in a certain area, along with three other ladies who were also massage therapists, had no qualms about massaging men! After some time, she saw the handwriting on the wall and decided to stop massaging men. The other three therapists had broken families, some with children, and each had run off with their patients.

We are counseled “in our medical institutions there ought always to be women of mature age and good experience who have been trained to give treatments to the lady patients. Women should be educated and qualified just as thoroughly as possible to become practitioners in the delicate diseases which afflict women, that their secret parts should not be exposed to the notice of men…it is a most horrible practice, this revealing the secret parts of women to men or men being treated by women.” Counsels on Health, 364.

We know of at least three personal acquaintances whose families were broken or nearly broken because of the inordinate desire of the physicians to cross the line of female modesty. Many times the guilty parties are not disfellowshipped or censored, but they are transferred to a different area, are re-baptized, or the incident is covered over in secret. They usually keep their positions and supposed respect. This practice runs rampant among Christians.

To physicians, teachers, ministers, or any leader among God’s people, these words of counsel were written, “that which will bring the heaviest retribution is the practice of iniquity under the cloak of godliness.…there is more hope for the open sinner than for this class.” Ibid., 625.

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” Romans 6:12, 13.

We have been saddened as we have watched older married men caress and cuddle young innocent girls in an inappropriate way, time and time again. We have lamented the sad state of affairs, as some Christian men must close their eyes to the immodest parade of seductive fashions exhibited in our churches on the Sabbath day. As Sabbath school teachers, “women elders”, deaconess’ and members don their cleavage-revealing tops, high-slit skirts, form-fitting and sheer attire—is this an invitation to cross the line or what? “Many men are wicked and will lust after you in spite of anything you can do to prevent it…Should you therefore help them sin? Should you put further temptation in their way? Will God excuse you if you do?” Thy Nakedness, 150.

Dress to Please God

To know how to have Christian decorum and to dress modestly is not something most Christians understand immediately. In fact, most will have to be educated as to what is true modesty according to the Bible standard. In the book Education it says no education is complete without teaching one how to dress modestly and healthfully. So why are we not teaching our members, young and old, to dress to please God and not self? Why not teach our Bible workers, ministers and wives, elders (male and female) how to dress and act with true Christian propriety? Why not teach our students in our schools how to dress properly so they will know when they have gone over the line of modesty? We can assure you, God has given specific direction in every area of our life and we will not be excused because the information is available, but “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge, because thou hast rejected knowledge I will also reject thee.” Hosea 4:6.

“As Christ’s ambassador, I entreat you who profess present truth to promptly repent any approach to impurity and forsake the society of those who breathe an impure suggestion. Loathe these defiling sins with the most intense hatred. Flee from those who would, even in conversation, let the mind run in such a channel: for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Matthew 12:34. Counsels on Health, 625, 626.

In our brothers and sisters in Christ let us not be:

  • Careless in dress—wear whatever we have
  • Selfish in dress—wear whatever we want
  • Proud in dress—wear what attracts attention to self
  • Ignorant in dress—it is not important

If we would study the Bible and the counsels given to the people of God, we would be wise unto salvation. We would not come even close to crossing that line, or barrier, that God has set up between the sexes to preserve purity and morality. “It is not good for a man to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband.” 1 Corinthians 7:1, 2; Testimonies, vol. 2, 578.

Breaking the Barrier of Modesty

We ask you to consider eight points that break down the barrier of modesty and encourage one to cross the line in the sand of morality, and some counsel to the sisters and brothers from the Lord. Sometimes in dealing with this subject, it seems as though there are as many opinions as there are individuals, almost like the sand on the seashore. But the only opinion that really matters is God’s opinion.

These things break down the barrier and encourage one to cross the line in the sands of morality.

1 History to be repeated:

“Near the close of this earth’s history, Satan will work with all his powers in the same manner and with the same temptations wherewith he tempted ancient Israel just before their entering the land of promise. He will lay snares for those who claim to keep the commandments of God, and who are almost on the borders of the heavenly Canaan. He will use his power to the utmost in order to entrap souls and to take God’s professed people upon their weakest point. Those who have not brought the lower passions into subjection to the higher power of their being, those who have allowed their mind to flow in a channel of carnal indulgence of the baser passions, Satan is determined to destroy with his temptations—to pollute their souls with licentiousness.” Adventist Home, 327.

2 Meat Eating

“Meat eating excites and strengthens the lower passions and has a tendency to deaden the moral powers. The less feverish the diet, the more easily can the passions be controlled.” Counsels on Health, 622.

3 Eating, Drinking and Dressing to Excess

“Christ has left us here a most important lesson…He presents the result of unrestrained indulgence of appetite. The moral powers are enfeebled so that sin does not appear sinful. Crime is lightly regarded, and passion controls the mind, until good principles and impulses are rooted out and God is blasphemed. All this is the result of eating and drinking to excess. This is the condition of things which Christ claims will exist at His Second Coming. Eating, drinking and dressing are carried to such excess that they become crimes.” Counsels on Health, 24.

4 Self Abuse

“Many adopt the secret vile practice of self abuse in their youth; consequently they and their offspring have corrupt, debased passions. This is carried over into adult life by parents who are controlled by corrupt passions and transmit this horrible legacy to children, who then are also corrupt and devoid of principle. Thousands drag out unprincipled lives… ” Ibid. 618–621.

5 Indolence and Idleness

“Indolence and idleness leads to the indulgence of corrupt and licentious habits. Idleness is a curse. Weariness which attends labor will lessen their inclinations to indulge vicious habits.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 348.

6 Novel Reading and Fiction

“Could a large share of the books published be consumed, a plague would be stayed that is doing a fearful work upon mind and heart. Love stories, frivolous and exciting tales and even that class of books called religious novels….the nature of one’s religious experience is revealed by the character of the books one chooses to read in one’s leisure moments.” Messages to Young People, 272–274.

7 Revealing Family Secrets

“Oh how many lives are made bitter by the breaking down of walls which enclose the privacy of every family and which are calculated to preserve its purity and serenity! A third person is taken into confidence of the wife and private family matters are laid open before the special friend. This is the device of Satan to estrange the hearts of the husband and the wife. Oh that this would cease! What a world of trouble would be saved.” Adventist Home, 337.

8 Modesty in Dress and Demeanor

“What crosses do God’s people bear? They mingle with the world, partake of their spirit, dress, talk, and act like them.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 28. “Chaste simplicity of dress, when united with modesty of demeanor, will go far toward surrounding a young woman with the atmosphere of sacred reserve which will be to her a shield from a thousand perils.” Education, 248.

Behavior at Social Gatherings and Amusements

“There has been a class of social gatherings in _________, parties of pleasure that have been a disgrace to our institution and to the church. They encourage pride of dress, pride of appearance, and self-gratification, hilarity and trifling. Satan is entertained as an honored guest and he takes possession of those who patronize this gathering. It prepares the participants of unholy thoughts and actions.” Adventist Home, 514.

“The exciting amusements of our time keep the minds of men and women…in a fever of excitement, which is telling upon their stock of vitality…and have a tendency to dwarf the intellect and corrupt the morals.” Adventist Home, 521.

May the Lord continue to teach us what is right and pleasing in His sight that we shall not venture to cross the lines in the sand of morality.

Which Church is Going Through? – Part II

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Four Theories

When you ask the question, “which church is going through?” here are the answers that you get:

  1. One of the most popular, or traditional, views among many Seventh-day Adventists is that the church organization (structure) is going to go through to glory purified. There may be tares among the wheat, there are sinners in Zion and they are going to be cast out; but the structure is going to go through.
  2. A second view that has come to the fore in the last year or two, is the idea that the church structure is Babylon, or it is just on the brink of becoming Babylon. Therefore, it is just waiting to be destroyed.
  3. A third position is that the church structure is in the same position as the Jewish church was just before the crucifixion of Christ. Ellen White says, “When the fast westering sun should pass from sight in the heavens, Jerusalem’s day of grace would be ended. While the procession was halting on the brow of Olivet, it was not yet too late for Jerusalem to repent.” Desire of Ages, 578. Some people say that is the condition of the church right now. The structure could turn around. Something irrevocable could happen, just like it did to the Jewish nation.

Before I mention the fourth position, consider that we Isaiah 28:9, 10 tells us that we should look through the entire Bible if we want to learn the truth about any subject. We need to look at everything that inspired writings say about that subject, and if we do that, the Lord will lead us to the truth. “All truth, whether in nature or in revelation, is consistent with itself in all its manifestations.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 114. “…no lie is of the truth.” 1 John 2:21. What does that mean? It means, the truth always has to agree with itself. If it does not, if it contradicts, there is something that is not true.

  1. People who take this position say you must answer the question what is the church before you can answer which church is going through. How can you tell which church is going through if you do not have an inspired definition about what the church is? God knows what the church is and if God knows what the church is, He could tell one of His prophets. If one of God’s prophets told you what the church is, would you believe it? Some people do not believe it. “From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth.” Acts of the Apostles, 11. That is the church militant; it could not possibly be the church triumphant because it says, “from the beginning,” and the church does not become triumphant until the end.

The Church is not Invisible

Someone might say it is the invisible church. Let us see if it is. The sentence we just read is right in the middle of a long discussion about the church. It says, “From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth. In every age the Lord has had His watchmen, who have borne a faithful testimony to the generation in which they lived.” Ibid. Were the watchmen invisible? No. Was the testimony invisible? No. Was the generation invisible? No. There is nothing invisible in that sentence. “These sentinels gave the message of warning; and when they were called to lay off their armor, others took up the work.” Ibid. Is there anything invisible in that sentence? Nothing invisible there. In all of these statements there is someone you can see. “God brought these witnesses into covenant relation with Himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in heaven. He has sent forth His angels to minister to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against His people.” Ibid.

Someone may say that we cannot tell who these people are. Look at the next paragraph. “Through centuries of persecution, conflict, and darkness, God has sustained His church.” This was hundreds of years of persecution. Can you tell who was being persecuted, or were they invisible? You could tell who was being persecuted. When somebody was burned at the stake, you could tell who it was. When you saw somebody taken off to the dungeon, you could tell who it was. Could you tell that there was a conflict going on where one person was on one side and one was on the other? Yes! This was something you could see. In fact, as you go through this chapter, there just isn’t anything anywhere about an invisible church. This is about people whom you can see, messengers bearing messages that you can hear. Even the wicked people can tell who is being persecuted. So it is not talking about the church triumphant, it is not talking about the invisible church; but it still says that the church is composed of faithful souls.

Every Word that Proceeds from God

Ellen White says that everyone who is faithful will be saved. That is good news. “Those who keep God’s commandments, those who live, not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, compose the church of the living God.” SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 949.

If you understand those inspired definitions and you understand who the church is, then when someone comes to you and says you must not leave the church, you must stay with the church, what does that mean? I believe in staying with the church. It means to stay with those faithful souls. It means to stay with the people who are living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God and who are keeping the commandments of God. That is what it means. Somebody might say, “You are getting mixed up. Matthew 13 says that there are tares in the church, and the wheat and the tares are all mixed up together. You cannot go and find a church where there is only wheat. The wheat and the tares have to be all together.” That is what people say.

Sinners in Zion

People also say that Ellen White said there are sinners in Zion. (By the way, that does not come from Ellen White, it comes from the Bible, but Ellen White does use it.) She says that right at the end these sinners are going to be sifted out, separated from the church. So, they say, the church is full of sinners. Let us take a look at that for a moment. First of all, let us find out who these sinners in Zion are. I like to make things simple, so here they are: “There are many sinners in Zion, and they are likened to tares among the wheat.” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, October 10, 1893. So these sinners in Zion are the tares. If we can figure out what Jesus was trying to teach us about the tares, we will understand about the sinners in Zion.

I just want to find out the truth. If the truth requires me to do something completely different than I am doing, then I want to do it. I have perfect confidence that if I find the truth, the truth will always agree with itself, and I will be on solid ground.

The Wheat and the Tares

First of all, let us look at a few points about the wheat and the tares. This is one of the few parables that Jesus gave where His explanation to His disciples is recorded afterward, and He said, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Matthew 13:36-43.

In verse 30 and 40 it says “at the end of the age.” The word “at” makes people think that a point in time is being referenced, which is not the case at all. In the Greek it says “in.” In other words, during the end of the age. The harvest time is during the closing period of earth’s history, and that is when the angels are going to gather out the tares.

In Christ’s Object Lessons, 70, Ellen White talks about the parable of the tares, which brings up several questions: First of all, we want to know who and what a tare is, because a tare is not to be uprooted. Now the way some people interpret that, you would think you could never put any wicked person out of the church. But that is not what Jesus was trying to teach. Let us see what Jesus was talking about.

“…it is in the church that we are to grow and ripen for the garner of God.” The wheat grows and ripens for the garner of God. Where? In the church. So is it important to know what the church is? If you are wrong about where you think the church is, could it result in you not having salvation? Is that possible? It most certainly is!

Where are the Tares?

Let us look at several facts about the tares. Who plants the tares? The devil. Where does he plant them? In the church. Let us notice how they are described. She calls them ‘those who bear Christ’s name while they deny His character.’ They bear His name; they are professed members of the church, but they deny His character. Are they connected to the church? In a way they are, and in a way they are not. But here are some descriptions of the tares. “Christ’s servants are grieved as they see true and false believers mingled in the church.” Ibid., 71. So a tare is a false believer. “The tares represent a class who are the fruit, or embodiment of error, of false principles.” They have false principles; they are false believers, but notice how she describes them on page 72. “The real character of these pretended believers is not fully manifested.” What does she call them? Pretended believers!

Notice three different descriptions of the tares. They are planted by the devil, and they are the embodiment of false principles. They are false believers, but they pretended to be believers. On the outside they look the same. And then on page 73 she gives another description and she mentions it twice. She calls them false brethren. So, a tare is a false believer, a pretended believer, and a false brother. Let us just think that through for a minute. Is a tare a true brother? No. Is it possible to be in a family, have the family name, but not be part of the family? Yes! But these false brethren are pretended brethren, and pretended believers. Now, let us take it one point further. A tare is a person who, on the outside, looks like a true believer until the time of the harvest. But when it becomes manifest that they are living in open sin, they are to be disfellowshipped, and people want to forget that. People want to think that if someone is a tare, you just have to let them be and the Lord will separate them at the Second Coming. Actually, the separation takes place before the Second Coming. Mrs. White had just been talking about the tares, stating that they are both growing together with the wheat until the harvest, then she says, “Christ has plainly taught that those who persist in open sin must be separated from the church.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 71.

Now let us just think this through so we know exactly what we are talking about. She says, “…He has not committed to us the work of judging character and motive.” Ibid.

An Open Sinner is Not a Tare

Open sin is a sin that involves an action that others can see. Let us be very plain in our speech. Adultery is an open sin if it is committed in the flesh. But if it is only committed in the mind, we do not know about it, and we cannot judge a person by what happens in the mind. That person is a tare, and God is going to judge them, but we cannot. At the time of the harvest, during the time of the end, the Lord is going to separate the people who have sin on the inside, that is not visible on the outside.

If a person covets something that belongs to somebody else, you cannot judge their character and motives. But if they actually rob or steal, that is an open sin. Christ has plainly taught that those who persist in open sin must be separated from the church. We find that in Matthew 18.
Paul also taught the same thing in 1 Corinthians 5. The apostle John taught it as well in 2 John.

When did the devil plant the tares? We know he planted them in the church, but when did he plant them? What time of day? While men slept. Have you read any warnings in the Spirit of Prophecy given to Seventh-day Adventists who are asleep? She tells us that we need to wake up! The more the church sleeps, the more tares the devil is going to plant. What would you do if you were in a church and the devil planted so many tares that the tares controlled the church? If there is somebody living in open sin, they should be disfellowshipped from the church. People who are living in adultery, incest, robbery, open liars, people who are openly breaking one of the Ten Commandments, are to be disfellowshipped.

When the Tares are in Control

But suppose they cannot be disfellow-shipped because the tares are in control of the church. The devil has planted so many, and people have slept so long, that the tares are in control. Suppose someone in your church has robbed a bank. You come to the church business meeting and some people are saying, ‘This man is disgracing the name of the church, and we must disfellowship him.’ However, another group of people are thinking, ‘If we disfellowship him, what is going to happen to me? I have done some pretty bad things myself,’ so there is no one willing to disfellowship somebody who is living in open sin because the tares are in control of the church.

What would you do then? Leave that church? Did you know that this has happened before? In fact, when Jesus was here the tares had control of the Jewish church. As you read the gospels, you can plainly see that. Why did they crucify the Lord? Because the tares were in control of the church.

Jesus gave very specific advice on what to do if the tares control the church.

“When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, ‘Hear and understand: not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.’ Then His disciples came and said to Him, ‘Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’” Matthew 15:10. The Pharisees were in control of the church in that day. There is no question about it, they were in the driver’s seat. Notice what Jesus said. “But He answered and said, ‘Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.’” Ibid., 13.

Who plants the wheat? The Son of man. But these are plants that God did not plant. So who planted them? The devil. They are tares. But these tares are in control of the church. You cannot get them out. Jesus said they are coming out. There will be judgments coming and these tares are going to come out, but you cannot get them out. So what should you do? Jesus tells us what to do. “Let them alone.” Some may say, “Oh no, Lord, that could not be possible. This is the true church, do you not understand that?” Well, is God God, or not? If tares are in control of the church, should you try to destroy and uproot them? Jesus said, “’Let them alone, they are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into the ditch.’” Ibid., 14.

Are you Being Led by Tares?

Now let us think that through. Not only did Jesus say to let them alone, but He warns you not to let those people lead you, or you are going to go into the ditch. “Oh, but Lord, these Pharisees, they are the leaders of the church, and I need to go to the synagogue and listen to them preach.” Well, if you do, Jesus says you are going to go into the ditch. People need to study Matthew 15:14. It always says the same thing.

Let us look at the harvest. During the time of harvest something is going to happen. “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest [that is during the time of the harvest] I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into My barn.’” Matthew 13:30. Notice, there is a two-fold harvest. At the harvest time Jesus said the first thing that gets harvested are the tares, the wheat harvest comes later. The tares will be bound in bundles, the wheat is not bound in bundles; but is harvested one at a time. If you are going to be in God’s granary, in His garner, you are not saved as a family, you must be saved as an individual. Who does it? Look at verses 40 and 41. “Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness.” So the first thing that happens is that the angels do a work of separation. This is one of the most fearful things that any Christian can think about.

“The looker-on may discern no difference, but there is One who said that the tares were not to be plucked up by human hands lest the wheat be rooted up also. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then the Lord sends forth His reapers to gather the tares and binds them in bundles to burn, while the wheat is gathered into the heavenly garner. The time of the judgment is a most solemn period. When the Lord gathers His own from among the tares, those who have been members of the same family are separated.” Testimonies to Ministers, 234.

Eternal Separation

When we say that those who have been members of the same family are separated, we are talking about an eternal separation. This is not a pleasant thing to think about, but it is reality. We are all going to have to face it sometime. In the time of the harvest, there is a separation of the tares from the wheat.

What is this separation? First, the tares are bound in bundles; and this binding of the tares in bundles is happening, and has been happening, for a long time. For example: Ellen White wrote a long time ago that the labor unions were one of the agencies by which people were being bound in bundles as the tares. (See Pamphlet to Sanitarium Workers in Southern California, 1905.) A lot of people do not know that. She also wrote that fearful is the work of the Third Angel. (See Early Writings, 118.) This is the Third Angel recorded in Revelation 14:9-12. His work is to separate the wheat and the tares. Whenever someone preaches the Third Angel’s Message, separations take place. Have you ever seen that happen in families? One person accepts the Third Angel’s Message, other people do not. What happens? There is a separation. The Third Angel separates the wheat and the tares. A mark is placed upon the righteous. “They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” Malachi 3:17. Those who have been obedient to God’s commandments, will unite with the company of the saints in light; they shall enter in through the gates into the city, and have right to the tree of life. The one shall be taken. His name shall stand in the Book of Life, while those with whom he associated shall have the mark of eternal from God.” Testimonies to Ministers, 234, 235.

Notice, this separation involves a mark. The righteous will have a mark and the wicked will have a mark. There will be a mark of deliverance and there will be a mark of destruction.

The harvest occurs during the end of the age. And of course, this harvest involves the purification of the church, because once you have all the tares out, you have a pure church. There are many statements in inspired writings about how the purification of the church takes place. What we want to understand is how the church is purified. How does it happen? It is very important to understand, because there are many people who say the organized church (the structure) is going to go through; it is going to go through purified. The next question is how is it going to be purified? You need to find out how it is going to be purified, and how the Lord is going to take it to glory. Is God going to take a church to glory that has sin in it? No. The church has to be purified before it can go to glory.

Purification of the Church

Next month we will look at how the tares are going to be separated from the wheat; how the sinners in Zion are going to be sifted out; how the purification of the church is going to take place. We will find that inspired writings are very, very specific about how this will take place.

1 John 2:19 has to do with this purification of the church. You see, the purification of the church has happened in other ages, too, not just at the end. It says, “They went out from us.” Now let us think that through a little bit. Who is “us”? The church. What church? Who is the church according to Acts of the Apostles, page 11? Faithful souls. It is those who keep the commandments of God and live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Is that the definition of “us” that John is using here? Oh, surely it is. Look back at the beginning of 1 John 2:3–5. He says that the way you can tell if you really know Him is if you keep His commandments. And the one who says that he knows Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar. He talks about the little children, the fathers and the young men, and these are the people who have overcome the wicked one. These are people who are overcoming, who love their brother as themselves, who are keeping the commandments. That is the “us”! It is very clear who “us” is. Who are “they”? “They” went out from us. Are they the wheat or the tares? They are the tares, they left. But notice how it says this. “They went out from us, but they were not of us.” (Verse 19.) They had the name. They were professed church members. They were apparently part of the church. They went out from “us”, but they were not really of “us”, even though they had the profession and they looked like they were part of “us.” They were not of “us”, he said, because they left. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” If they had really been the wheat, they would have stayed. “But they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.” Ibid. Very, very interesting text. You have to understand who and what the church is to understand that text. All the apostles understood this. The apostle John understood who the church was. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” Formerly they had the name. They came to church. It looked like they were part of “us” but they really were not, they were the tares, they were these pretended believers—these false brethren. Finally things developed so that they left.

Paul says the same thing, “But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel.” Romans the 9:6-8. Everybody who has a connection with the church is not really of the church. Only the faithful are really part of it. There are a lot of other people clinging to the skirts of Zion who are going to get shaken off. “Nor are they all children because they are of the seed of Abraham; but, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called.’ That is, those who are the children of the flesh.” Those are the people who say, “I am a descendent of Abraham, I am part of the church.” But making a profession does not make you part of the church. “These are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.”

Are You Planted in His Vineyard?

Ellen White says the same thing over and over again in Christ’s Object Lessons, 216. “Shall the words of doom erelong be spoken of you? How long have you received His gifts? How long has He watched and waited for a return of love? Planted in His vineyard [the church], under the watchful care of the gardener, what privileges are yours! How often has the tender gospel message thrilled your heart! You have taken the name of Christ, you are outwardly a member of the church which is His body, and yet you are conscious of no living connection with the great heart of love.”

Outwardly you are a member; inwardly you are not. Outwardly you are part of the church; inwardly you are not. Just like the parable of the vine and the branches in John 15, some had an outward connection, and some had an inner connection. Those who had only the outward connection were cut off and burned up. Those who had the inward connection bore fruit.

Profession Is Not Everything

“God called them (the Jews) to be co-workers with Him in blessing the world; but while in profession they accepted the call, in action they refused obedience.” Ibid., 279. In profession they claimed to be sons of God. They professed to be part of the church, but in life and character they denied that relationship. Their profession is one thing; their life and character is something else. “In taking upon themselves the solemn covenant of the church they have pledged themselves to receive and obey the word of God, to give themselves to God’s service, but they do not do this.” Ibid.

They profess something, but they do not live it out; it is not real. They have an outward connection, but the inner connection, by which the life of Christ flows into their life, is not there.

“The professed followers of Christ are on trial before the heavenly universe; but the coldness of their zeal and the feebleness of their efforts in God’s service, mark them as unfaithful. If what they are doing were the best they could do, condemnation would not rest upon them; but were their hearts enlisted in the work, they could do much more. They know, and the world knows, that they have, to a great degree, lost the spirit of self-denial and cross bearing. Many there are against whose names will be found written in the books of heaven. Not producers, but consumers. By many who bear Christ’s name, His glory is obscured, His beauty veiled, His honor withheld. There are many whose names are on the church books, but who are not under Christ’s rule . They are not heeding His instruction or doing His work. There they are under the control of the enemy.” Ibid 303, 304

They have the name, but whose control are they under? Satan’s! There may be those who say we should not worry about all of this because the Lord is going to straighten it all out. The Lord is going to straighten it all out! Next month we will see just how He is going to do it.

The church is going to be purified, but, as we look at this subject, about which church is going to go through, remember we are asking one question. The question is, how? Your understanding has to agree with all of the inspired statements. If it does not agree with all of the inspired statements, there is something wrong.

An Inner Connection to Christ

There is a church that is going through, and that church is going to be composed of people who are overcomers. They do not just take the name, but they actually have an inner connection to Christ through the Holy Spirit, and the divine power is coming into their lives to give them power to overcome.

If you cannot understand everything yet, can you understand that if you are going to remain with the church until it becomes triumphant, you have to be an overcomer? You cannot just be a professor of religion, and play church. There are a lot of people playing church today. Do you know what it means to play church? You go to church. Maybe you are a deacon; maybe you teach the Sabbath School lesson or the Sunday School lesson; maybe you are even a preacher, or an evangelist, or an administrator. Maybe you have a high position in the church. You can do all of those things and just be playing church. The Pharisees did all those things, and people thought that they were righteous because on the outside it looked like they were. Judas did it. He was a tare. Annanias and Saphira did it, and they are described as tares. Demas did it, and he was described as a tare. Simon Magus was baptized; yet he was a tare. In every single one of these instances, when the tares developed to the point where they were in open sin, they were removed from the church. Do not ever forget that. The important thing for you, as an individual, even if you cannot understand all of the theology and all of the questions that people may ask you, is to understand this: the only people who are going to go through to the end are the people who overcome their sins. Are you going to be one of them?

Some years ago one of our best-known preachers made the statement that in these final battles we might lose some whole divisions. We might lose more than whole divisions. We might lose the whole General Conference. But the church will still go through. The question is, are you going to be an overcomer and go through with it? The Lord has power to help you if you are willing to surrender all to Him, follow Him, and be faithful to Him.

Those Who Follow the Lamb

In vision John saw a group of people who will ‘follow the Lamb whethersoever He goeth.’ They are going to be taken out of this world alive and taken to heaven. Would it not be wonderful if some of you could be part of that group? It could happen if you are willing to be faithful—not just to be a professed believer, Paul said to the Corinthians, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.” 2 Corinthians 13:5. Jesus Christ is in you unless you are unapproved. Is Jesus Christ in you? Can you say like Paul, “For me to live is Christ?” That is what will make you a grain of wheat. The Lord has promised in this last great contest that not one grain of wheat will fall to the ground.

Whatever my responsibilities are in this world, I have a pastor’s heart inside. I have a shepherd’s heart inside. I want to see every person reading this article saved. I would like to see the whole world saved, but I cannot bring it about. Would it not be wonderful if there were a few churches around, where the whole church was saved? If everybody is going to be saved in your church, you have to be saved. Every single one of you can be saved if you are willing to surrender all to Jesus. Say, “Lord I am in this thing for real, for serious. Please come into my heart so You and Your love may be living inside of me. I want my religion to not just be a profession, but something that I look like, something real.” Do you want to have that experience? Do you want to be connected to the Lord Jesus so that He is in you? If that is your desire, make a commitment to Him and say, “Lord, I want you inside to transform my heart and my life, to make me a grain of wheat.”

Editorial – What is Behind Religious Lawsuits?

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We live in an age when lawsuits are common in all areas of society.  Some years ago it was church policy (as well as a Biblical prohibition, see I Corinthians 6) that Adventists did not sue one another. If you read the report about the Mary Kay Silver case you will see that as late as the seventies this was considered sufficient reason to disfellowship a member. If it was wrong to disfellowship those that sue another, then a formal apology needs to be made to those who were disfellowshipped at that time for those reasons. But if it was not wrong to disfellowship members who were doing it then, the only consistent course to follow today would be to disfellowship those who are doing it today—which would include those in the highest positions of leadership in the General Conference in Silver Springs Maryland.

Of course there is a way to get around all of this. If I am a person of influence I can go to the church where my opponent is a member and persuade a majority in a church business meeting to disfellowship him first. Then I can claim that he is no longer a Seventh-day Adventist (because he is not a member of the “church,”) therefore he is no longer a brother, and the injunction in I Corinthians 6 no longer applies. I am free to seek any sort or redress I desire.

This controversy over who can call themselves by  what name has been around for a long time, most of 2,000 years. It is the same controversy that produced the dark ages—those dismal times when over 50 million Bible-believing Christians lost their lives over the very same issue. That issue is, are we going to have a religion based on the New Testament idea of religion or not.

Although there were many attempts to teach this idea in the Old Testament, Jesus taught it so strongly and forcefully that the New Testament ushered in a new concept for the society of that time. The New Testament envisions human society in this world, not as united or living in unity, or one accord, but rather  as composed of opposing factions which will continue until the end of the millenium. The New Testament teaches that some men will glory in the very same cross that other men will despise. It teaches that the same person who is precious to some will be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to others. But the New Testament also teaches that such diversity of religious beliefs do not make it impossible for a man to be a faithful and loyal citizen of the state. Although Christians of that time were of a different religious persuasion than the magistrates and all worldly rulers, they were to be obedient to all laws of the state (Romans 13 and I Peter 2), as long as these laws did not conflict with the law of God. When there was a conflict, Peter and the other apostles said,”We must obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:29. The apostles would not consent for the state to tell them whether they could preach or what they could preach—not because they were not obedient citizens, but because that jurisdiction did not belong to the state.  Jesus had taught them that they were to render to the state all that belonged to the state (taxes, honor of state authority, customs, and all other civil laws) but then, in the same sentence, Jesus said that they were to render to God those things that were God’s.  What things belong to God and not to the state are spelled out in the first four precepts of the decalogue. These precepts spell out what a man’s relation to God is to be, and the state does not have a right to command a man or to enforce a man to keep these precepts. This fact was most emphatically taught to the world in Daniel 3 and again in Daniel 6.

The New Testament envisions human society made up, not of one, but of two parts—the secular, that is the civil, the state, or the human government, or “that which is Caesar’s.” And in contrast to this the religious, that which is not of the state but is of the church. That which belongs to God and not to Caesar (the church belongs to God and does not, in any sense, belong to the state) that which involves a man’s relation to his God, his maker is not a matter to be decided by the state, but by that man’s will. God does not want the worship or service of any man that is forced upon that man by the state. God only accepts that worship that is freely rendered from that man’s will. The New Testament repeats the message over and over “Whoever will let him …”Revelation 22:17.

It was confusion over this issue—the idea that a human ruler could take the place of God and direct and order the way that a human being should practice his religion—that led to persecution both before and after the time of Christ.  This is what lay at the foundation of the persecutions of Christians by the pagan Roman government.  This is what lay at the foundation of the persecutions of Bible-believing Christians by the papacy during the dark ages.  And this is what will lay at the foundation of the persecutions coming during the great tribulation yet in the future. It matters not whether the human ruler be a king, a senate, a legislature, a judge, a court, a general, a Protestant church, or any other church or religion, or any other human group; the result is the same.

Jesus did not teach His followers to leave the world for caves or isolation, (see John 17) rather He taught them that they were to be in the world and deeply involved in the affairs of society, just as salt permeates the entire dish, “in the world but not of the world.” (see Matthew 5-7.) Jesus taught then that society was not mono-lithic but composite—composed of completely different factions of religious belief and His followers were to live peaceably with those of all other religions, and even conform to the rules and laws of society as long as these did not conflict with the laws of God. As one early writer described it (the Christians), “dwelling as they do in Hellenic and in barbaric cities, as each man’s lot is, and following the customs of the country in dress and food and the rest of life, the manner of conduct which they display is wonderful and confessedly beyond belief. They inhabit their own fatherland, but as sojourners; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is to them a fatherland and every fatherland a foreign country… They live on the earth but their citizenship is in heaven.”

So the New Testament church was always a fellowship of believers, it was never, never all those who lived in a certain locality. The early Christians knew that the church and the state existed on difference planes.

But the very essence of New Testament religion and teaching was lost when Constantine made “Christianity” the religion of the Roman State. “Christianity” was made into law for those who have only been born, instead of reborn. The result was that religion was now to be enforced by law.  The state would force men to be good, and all of society would become law-abiding Christians. (This idea, remember is what brought on 1400 years called the dark ages.) Indoctrination in tenets of the ancient pagan beliefs became outlawed and strictly proscribed. Unbaptized persons were required to attend catechism classes in preparation for baptism; all who, after attending such classes, refused to present themselves for baptism were subject to punishment by the state.

True Christians who understood the teachings of the New Testament saw that, what was thought to be the “church” had fallen (had apostatized), that the great apostasy predicted by Paul in II Thessalonians was manifested.  It was during this time, during the bishopric of Sylvester, that the Waldenses and others separated from those calling themselves “Catholic” and declared that this  “church” had fallen.

The Donatist controversy was one of the reactions to this departure from New Testament teaching. The controversy was not about doctrine but it was a question of the nature of the church as a society and its relationship to the world. Was the church all in a given locality (a state church) or was it a body of those being saved, surrounded by an unregenerate mass of people, as the New Testament taught?

Augustine, who opposed the Donatists said, “The issue between us and the Donatists is about the question where this body is to be located, that is, what and where is the Church?”

The idea of a “Catholic church” is totally foreign to the New Testament and even to the word church itself. The world “catholic” comes from two Greek words that mean together, “according to the entirety.” But the New Testament word translated “church” means “those who are called out” in other words not according to the entirety. The Apostle Peter described the church in the following language, first describing those that are not part of the church he says, “they stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession that you may proclaim the moral excellence of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.” I Peter 2:8, 9. The apostles never speak of the church militant, according to the entirety of society, but as those called out from the world, “be blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.” Philippines 2:15.

For ‘twelve centuries that went before the Reformation it has never lacked for attempts to get away from the State-Church Priests’ Church and to reinstitute the apostolic congregational structurization.’ “Throughout Medieval times there never was a moment in which Constantinianism stood unchallenged. . . .Wherever the New Testament is held in honor there its concept of the Church of Christ will continue to challenge. There a Church based on personal faith will challenge the concept of a Church embracing all.”

The frantic efforts by the church of the dark ages to keep in power by destroying opponents at the stake, the scaffold, on the rack, or by the headsman’s ax is proof enough that the New Testament concept of the church was an ever-present threat. The effort to destroy all their writings shows what men were afraid of—the New Testament concept of the church would destroy the concept of a state church and the earthly power of those who, through this concept, had become the spiritual lords of their fellow-men.

The Donatists taught that a true Church cannot exist where the secular rule and the Christian Church are blended. The battle for separation of church and state was finally won in the American colonies after centuries of the most bloodly conflict recorded in all religious history. It is this concept of separation of church and state that brought freedom to the persecuted who fled to America, and freedom brought prosperity such as no nation has enjoyed in recent times. In America a person could not be prosecuted by the state for his religious beliefs or practices as long as he did not injure his neighbor. (The state has the right to enforce the outward compliance with the second table of the 10 commandments, see Romans 13.)

Today, this freedom is being rapidly lost. Society is rapidly making the state the tool for enforcing the wishes of the church. Since we are still in name under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, a way has to be figured out to show that a person has injured somebody else in the practice of his religion, or in making known his personal beliefs. So a person is sued for talking about problems with meat on television. If a person cannot express what they think anymore without somebody else deciding they have been injured, we soon will have no freedom of speech, and what is worse (which you can know if you have traveled to totalitarian countries), when freedom of speech is lost, freedom to think is eventually lost. The loss to society is beyond computation.

Jesus said about His church “My kingdom is not of this world, if My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now My kingdom is not from here.” John 18:36. In the dark ages the professed church lost sight of this, they made the “church” a kingdom of this world, but any church which is also a kingdom of this world is not the true church of Christ according to Jesus statement. The “church” in the dark ages put Peter in the right for drawing the sword to promote the cause of Christ, and it put Jesus in the wrong for rebuking Peter for it. They conveniently forgot that Jesus had been deeply displeased at the first suggestion of a second sword; it forgot that Jesus had been so disappointed by Peter’s rash act of using the secular sword for promoting the cause of Christ, that He had stooped down to repair the damage Peter’s sword had inflicted.

The “bride of Christ” had so changed in appearance as to become unrecognizable. She, who had been sent on a mission of healing, had taken on the features of a modern police State.

The Anabaptists, one of the most persecuted groups, taught that the civil magistrate ‘must leave every man to his own devices in regard to religion no matter what he believes or teaches, so long as he does not disturb the outward civil quiet.’

The Donatists were proscribed, it was not allowed to call them Christians, they were to be called heretics and punished by the state for their heresy.  (Notice how their situation was identical to that of persecuted Christians today. They were forbidden to take the name of Christ because other Christians declared that the name belonged only to them and those of their religious beliefs, or of their church organization.) Their pastors told their flocks that nothing had changed now that the Roman empire had accepted Christianity. The only difference they said, was that before the devil had used force, he was now working in and with allies on the inside. For the true follower of Christ the result was the same, namely, persecution. There was no difference between the persecutions once staged by a pagan government and the persecutions of the flock from a supposedly Christian regime.

In commenting on this state of affairs a reformation writer says, ‘Who would not mistake the Christ for a moloch or some such god if indeed He delights in human sacrifice. . .? Imagine Him to be present, in the capacity of constable, to announce the sentence and light the fire. . .! Oh Christ, thou creator and king of all the earth, dost thou not see these things? Art thou so changed completely, become thus cruel and contrary to Thine own proper self . . .? Dost thou command that those who do not understand Thy commandments and institutions as yet, are to be choked in water, struck until the bowels gush forth, these then strewn with salt, to be struck with the sword or made to roast over small fire, with every torment martyred in as drawn out a manner as possible? Ah Christ, dost thou indeed command such things and dost thou approve of them when they are done? Are they indeed Thy lieutenants who officiate at such burned sacrifice? Dost thou allow Thyself to be seen at the scene of such butchery? Dost thou then verily eat human flesh, Oh Christ? If thou dost such things forsooth, or orderest them done, then what, pray what, hast thou left for the devil to do?

Quotations and many paraphrased statements in this editorial are from the first chapter of the excellent book “The Reformers and their Stepchildren” by Leonard Verduin, copyright 1964, published by Eerdmans Publishing Company, 255 Jefferson Ave., SE, Grand Rapids Michigan 49503

Bible Study Guides – “The Lord Added to the Church”

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August 20-26, 2000

MEMORY VERSE: “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24, 25.

STUDY HELP: Acts of the Apostles, 9–13.

INTRODUCTION: “The church is God’s appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world. From the beginning it has been God’s plan that through His church shall be reflected to the world His fullness and His sufficiency. The members of the church, those whom He has called out of darkness into His marvelous light, are to show forth His glory. The church is the repository of the riches of the grace of Christ; and through the church will eventually be made manifest, even to ‘the principalities and powers in heavenly places,’ the final and full display of the love of God. Ephesians 3:10.” Acts of the Apostles, 9.

“Till We All Come in the Unity of the Faith”

1 Before the Holy Spirit could be poured out upon the church, what change had to take place among them? Acts 2:1. (Compare Acts 2:44, 45; 4:32.)

NOTE: See Desire of Ages, 827.

2 What was Paul’s desire for the members of the church? Philippians 2:1–5; 1 Corinthians 1:10.

NOTE: “Notice that it was after the disciples had come into perfect unity, when they were no longer striving for the highest place, that the Spirit was poured out. They were of one accord. All differences had been put away. And the testimony borne of them after the Spirit had been given is the same. Mark the word: ‘The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.’ The Spirit of Him who died that sinners might live, animated the entire congregation of believers. The disciples did not ask for a blessing for themselves. They were weighted with the burden of souls. The gospel was to be carried to the ends of the earth, and they claimed the endowment of power that Christ had promised. Then it was that the Holy Spirit was poured out, and thousands were converted in a day. When we have entire, wholehearted consecration to the service of Christ, God will recognize the fact by an outpouring of His Spirit without measure; but this will not be while the largest portion of the church are not laborers together with God.” Evangelism, 698, 699.

“All That Believed Were Together”

3 How does Paul describe the blessing he and others received from fellowship with believers? Romans 15:32; 2 Corinthians 7:13; Philippians 1:25–26.

NOTE: See Gospel Workers, 1892, 242.

4 What blessing can reports of missionary activity bring to the church? Acts 15:3.

NOTE: See The Adventist Home, 487.

“We Are Laborers Together With God”

5 How does Paul describe the importance of co-operation among the members of the church? Ephesians 4:16; Philippians 1:27.

NOTE: “There is variety in the human body, from the eyes to the feet. Yet all these members are dependent upon one another to make a perfect whole. In all the variety composing the human body, there is harmonious action in conformity to the laws controlling the being….By the figure of the vine and the branches Christ illustrated not only the relation that should exist between Him and His followers but also the union between every believer and his fellow–believer. The branches of the vine are related to each other; but they are not alike. Each has its own individuality, which cannot be merged into that of another, but all have a special connection with each other. The root that supplies nourishment to one branch supplies nourishment to every other branch. Each must depend alike on the vine for sustenance; all must be joined to the parent stalk. The life and growth and faithfulness of each depend alike on the parent vine. In obedience to the laws of nature, their common hold of the true vine makes them one; in their diversity there is unity….It is not the purpose of God to centralize in this way, bringing all the interests of one branch of the work under the management of a comparatively few men. In His great purpose of advancing the cause of truth in the earth, He designs that every part of His work shall blend with every other part. The workers are to draw together in the Spirit of Christ. In their diversity, they are to preserve unity…. They are to work in sympathy and love, with entire confidence in one another….The law of co-operation is the great one work in reciprocal influence. There is to be no kingly power, one man controlling the whole. All influences are brought to bear one upon the other in revealing Christ and the cross to a world that is perishing in sin and iniquity.” Manuscript Releases vol. 5, 361–364.

6 What examples are we given of co-operation among God’s workers? Acts 8:5, 12, 14, 15; 1 Corinthians 3:6–9.

NOTE: “God’s servants are to work together, blending in kindly, courteous order, ‘in honor preferring one another.’ Romans 12:10. There is to be no unkind criticism, no pulling to pieces of another’s work; and there are to be no separate parties. Every man to whom the Lord has entrusted a message has his specific work. Each one has an individuality of his own, which he is not to sink in that of any other man. Yet each is to work in harmony with his brethren. In their service God’s workers are to be essentially one. No one is to set himself up as a criterion, speaking disrespectfully of his fellow workers or treating them as inferior. Under God each is to do his appointed work, respected, loved, and encouraged by the other laborers. Together they are to carry the work forward to completion.” Acts of the Apostles, 275.

“Many Were Gathered Together Praying”

7 What precious promises does Christ make to those who assemble together to pray? Matthew 18:19, 20.

NOTE: “Here are the great cities in England and on the continent with their millions of inhabitants that have not yet heard the last warning message. How are these to be warned? If the people of God would only exercise faith, He would work in a wonderful manner to accomplish this work. Hear the words of Christ: ‘If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven.’ Precious promise! Do we believe it? What marvelous results would appear if the united prayers of this company were to ascend to God in living faith! Jesus stands ready to take these petitions and present them to His Father, saying, ‘I know these persons by name. Send answers to their prayers; for I have graven their names on the palms of My hands.’” Evangelism, 414.

8 What examples are we given of the power manifested when the church meets for prayer? Acts 4:31, 12:5–17, 16:25, 26. (See also Romans 15:30, and 2 Corinthians 1:11.)

NOTE: “Those who are really representatives of Christ are working for the good of others. They delight in advancing the cause of God both at home and abroad. They are seen and heard, and their influence is felt, at the prayer meeting….They do not seek to exalt self, or to receive credit for doing a great work, but labor humbly, meekly, faithfully, doing small errands or doing a greater work, if necessary, because Christ has done so much for them.” Christian Service, 244.

“The Lord has promised that where two or three are met together in His name, there will He be in the midst. Those who meet together for prayer will receive an unction from the Holy One. There is great need of secret prayer, but there is also need that several Christians meet together and unite with earnestness their petitions to God. Seek every opportunity to go where prayer is wont to be made. Those who are really seeking for communion with God will be seen in the prayer meeting, faithful to do their duty, and earnest and anxious to reap all the benefits they can gain. They will improve every opportunity of placing themselves where they can receive the rays of light from heaven. We meet together to edify one another by an interchange of thoughts and feelings, to gather strength, and light, and courage by becoming acquainted with one another’s hopes and aspirations; and by our earnest, heartfelt prayers, offered up in faith, we receive refreshment and vigor from the Source of our strength. These meetings should be most precious seasons.” In Heavenly Places, 91.

“The Disciples Were Called Christians”

9 What special name was given to the early church by the people of Antioch? Acts 11:26. (See also Acts 26:28.)

NOTE: “The name was given them because Christ was the main theme of their preaching, their teaching, and their conversation. Continually they were recounting the incidents that had occurred during the days of His earthly ministry, when His disciples were blessed with His personal presence. Untiringly they dwelt upon His teachings and His miracles of healing. With quivering lips and tearful eyes they spoke of His agony in the garden, His betrayal, trial, and execution, the forbearance and humility with which He had endured the contumely and torture imposed upon Him by His enemies, and the Godlike pity with which He had prayed for those who persecuted Him. His resurrection and ascension, and His work in heaven as the Mediator for fallen man, were topics on which they rejoiced to dwell. Well might the heathen call them Christians, since they preached Christ and addressed their prayers to God through Him.” Acts of the Apostles, 157.

10 What does it really mean to be a Christian? Colossians 3:12–17.

NOTE: “Those professed Christians who are constantly whining and complaining, and who seem to think happiness and a cheerful countenance a sin, have not the genuine article of religion.” Testimonies, vol. 3, 334.

See also The Adventist Home, 431 and Messages to Young People, 363.

“The Assembling of Yourselves Together”

11 What counsel does Paul give to those tempted to absent themselves from meetings of God’s people? Hebrews 10:25. (See also Malachi 3:16, 17.)

NOTE: “A book of remembrance is written of those who do not forsake the assembling of themselves together, but speak often one to another. The remnant are to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Some expect to overcome alone by the blood of the Lamb, without making any special effort of their own. I saw that God has been merciful in giving us the power of speech. He has given us a tongue, and we are accountable to Him for its use. We should glorify God with our mouth, speaking in honor of the truth and of His unbounded mercy, and overcome by the word of our testimony through the blood of the Lamb. We should not come together to remain silent; those only are remembered of the Lord who assemble to speak of His honor and glory and tell of His power; upon such the blessing of God will rest, and they will be refreshed.” Early Writings, 114.

12 What is the purpose of such meetings? Hebrews 10:24.

NOTE: “Make earnest and determined efforts to be to every meeting possible. The divine direction is, ‘Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but so much the more as you see the day approaching.’ You are to be found among the little few who meet to worship God. The help of every soul who loves the truth is needed to bear testimony of the truth and act as missionaries of God, home missionaries to strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die. Every jot of influence from Christ’s soldiers is now called for on the Lord’s side. Where two or three are assembled together in My name, there am I in the midst and that to bless. Then if we allow ourselves to be hindered by supposed excuses, the enemy will have a hand in creating circumstances so that we shall not be present where Jesus meets to bless His worshipers.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 12, 105, 106.

Bible Study Guides – “Go Out into the Highways and Hedges”

by

August 13-19, 2000

MEMORY VERSE: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, ‘Thy God reigneth!’” Isaiah 52:7.

STUDY HELP: Christian Service, 113–120.

INTRODUCTION: “Those who have been most successful in soul–winning were men and women who did not pride themselves on their ability, but who in humility and faith sought to help those about them. Jesus did this very work. He came close to those whom He desired to reach. How often, with a few gathered about Him, He gave His lessons, and one by one the passers–by paused to listen, until a great multitude heard with wonder and awe the words of the heaven–sent Teacher.” Gospel Workers, 194.

“Go Home and Tell”

1 What examples are we given of personal testimony in witnessing? John 1:40, 41, 43–46.

NOTE: See Desire of Ages, 141.

2 What example did Christ show of witnessing to an individual? John 3:1–17.

NOTE: “In manifesting an unselfish interest in others, in doing those things that will please the Saviour, you will grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour….What can I do that can be counted as good service to Him who has died that I might live? The Master gives this answer, ‘Seek and save that which is lost.’ You are to work in Christ’s way, with patience, with interest, with determination that you will not feel discouraged as you work for time and eternity, believing that Jesus can do much through human ability consecrated to His service. What higher privilege could we desire than to be laborers together with God, making the most of our entrusted powers, that this very work may be accomplished?” Counsels on Sabbath School Work, 69.

“My Meat is to Do the Will of Him That Sent Me”

3 How did Christ manifest His desire for the salvation of others? John 4:6–26.

NOTE: See Ministry of Healing, 27, 28.

4 What examples of personal ministry does Christ suggest? Matthew 25:34–36; Isaiah 58:6, 7.

NOTE: See Desire of Ages, 151.

“Arise and Go”

5 What response should the faithful servant make to the Lord’s guidance? Acts 8:26,27; 13:2, 3; 16:6–10.

NOTE: See Acts of the Apostles, 107.

6 What similar response did Isaiah make to the Lord’s call to service? Isaiah 6:8.

NOTE: See Gospel Workers, 265-266.

“Preaching the Gospel, and Healing”

7 What are we told about the ministry of Jesus? Matthew 4:23; 9:35.

NOTE: See Desire of Ages, 350, 351.

8 How did the disciples follow Christ’s example? Luke 9:6.

NOTE: “There is to be no separation in His work. Christ sent out the twelve apostles, and afterward the seventy disciples, to preach the gospel and to heal the sick. ‘As ye go,’ He said, ‘preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.’ Matthew 10:7, 8. And as they went forth preaching the kingdom of God, power was given them to heal the sick and cast out evil spirits. In God’s work, teaching and healing are never to be separated.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 165.

“Medical missionary work brings to humanity the gospel of release from suffering. It is the pioneer work of the gospel. It is the gospel practiced, the compassion of Christ revealed. Of this work there is great need, and the world is open for it. God grant that the importance of medical missionary work shall be understood, and that new fields may be immediately entered.” Medical Ministry, 239.

“God calls for thousands to work for Him, not by preaching to those who know the truth for this time, but by warning those who have never heard the last message of mercy. Work with a heart filled with an earnest longing for souls. Do medical missionary work. Thus you will gain access to the hearts of people, and the way will be prepared for a more decided proclamation of the truth.” Counsels on Health, 499.

“I wish to tell you that soon there will be no work done in ministerial lines but medical missionary work.” Evangelism, 523.

“Thy Sins be Forgiven Thee”

9 How did Christ minister to the physical and spiritual needs of one who came to Him? Matthew 9:2–7.

NOTE: “When the poor, suffering paralytic was brought to the Saviour, the urgency of the case seemed not to admit of a moment’s delay, for already dissolution was doing its work upon the body….Our Saviour saw and understood his condition perfectly. He also knew that this wretched man had a sickness of the soul far more aggravating than bodily suffering. He knew that the greatest burden he had borne for months was on account of sins. The crowd of people waited with almost breathless silence to see how Christ would treat this case, apparently so hopeless, and were astonished to hear the words which fell from His lips: ‘Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.’ These were the most precious words that could fall upon the ear of that sick sufferer, for the burden of sin had lain so heavily upon him that he could not find the least relief. Christ lifts the burden that so heavily oppressed him: ‘Be of good cheer;’ I, your Saviour, came to forgive sins. How quickly the pallid countenance of the sufferer changes! Hope takes the place of dark despair, and peace and joy take the place of distressing doubt and stolid gloom. The mind being restored to peace and happiness, the suffering body can now be reached.” Testimonies, vol. 3, 168, 169.

10 How does James echo the same unity of physical and spiritual healing? James 5:15.

NOTE: “With all our treatments given to the sick, simple fervent prayer should be offered for the blessing of healing. We are to point the sick to the compassionate Saviour, and His power to forgive and to heal. Through His gracious providence they may be restored. Point the sufferers to their Advocate in the heavenly courts. Tell them that Christ will heal the sick, if they will repent and cease to transgress the laws of God. There is a Saviour who will reveal Himself…to save those who will submit themselves to Him. The suffering ones can unite with you in prayer, confessing their sin, and receiving pardon.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 8, 268.

“Now in regard to that which we can do for ourselves. There is a point that requires careful, thoughtful consideration. I must become acquainted with myself, I must be a learner always as to how to take care of this building, the body God has given me, that I may preserve it in the very best condition of health. I must eat those things which will be for my very best good physically, and I must take special care to have my clothing such as will conduce to a healthful circulation of the blood. I must not deprive myself of exercise and air. I must get all the sunlight that it is possible for me to obtain. I must have wisdom to be a faithful guardian of my body.” Paulson Collection, 28.

“Questions and Strife of Words”

11 What counsel are we given about getting into arguments? 2 Timothy 2:23, 24; Romans 14:1; 1 Timothy 1:4.

NOTE: “The Holy Spirit does not work with men who love to be sharp and critical. This spirit has been cherished in meeting debaters, and some have formed the habit of squaring [off] for combat. God is dishonored in this. Keep back the sharp thrusts; do not learn in Satan’s school his methods of warfare. The Holy Spirit does not inspire the words of censure. A time of trouble is before us, and every honest soul who has not had the light of truth will then take a stand for Christ. Those who believe the truth are to be newly converted every day. Then they will be vessels unto honor. Do not repeat the words of your opponents, or enter into controversy with them. You meet not merely the men, but Satan and his angels. Christ did not bring against Satan a railing accusation concerning the body of Moses. If the world’s Redeemer, who understood the crooked, deceptive arts of Satan, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but in holiness and humility said, ‘The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan,’ is it not wise for His servants to follow His example?” The Upward Look, 270.

12 What example does the Bible give of contention among God’s servants? Acts 15:39. (See Philippians 1:16; Proverbs 13:10; 17:14; 18:16.)

NOTE: “Satan can skillfully play the game of life with many souls, and he acts in a most underhanded, deceptive manner to spoil the faith of the people of God and to discourage them….He works today as he worked in heaven, to divide the people of God in the very last stage of this earth’s history. He seeks to create dissension, and to arouse contention and discussion, and to remove if possible the old landmarks of truth committed to God’s people. He tries to make it appear as if the Lord contradicts Himself.” Evangelism, 359.

“Contention in the church is always attended with a dearth of spirituality. The Lord cannot be glorified by a contentious church. ‘All ye are brethren.’ Cultivate the grace of God. Lift up your hearts in prayer to Him for His keeping power. Avoid all contention among yourselves. Use every means within your reach to restrain the unsanctified words that are ever upon the tongue—words that would cast a reflection upon others. Be true to one another. We are bought with a price; therefore in word and act we should glorify God.” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, January 6, 1903.

13 How did Jesus deal with contentious questions? John 4:20–24; Matthew 22:17–22, 23–33.

NOTE: “We may answer foolish questions by saying, ‘Wait, and we shall all know what is essential for us to know. Our salvation does not depend on side issues.’” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 918.