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A Work of Restoration

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The Third Angel’s Message

June 28 – July 4, 2026

Key Text

“And He who sat upon the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ And He said to me, ‘Write, for these words are true and faithful.’ ” Revelation 21:5

Study Help: Prophets and Kings, 677, 678; Selected Messages, Book 1, 236–241

Introduction

“In the time of the end, every divine institution is to be restored.” Prophets and Kings, 678

Sunday

1 ALL THINGS MADE NEW

1.a. What is God’s purpose for our fallen world—the one world in rebellion? Luke 19:10; Matthew 19:29

 

Note: “Jesus became a man that He might mediate between man and God, … that He might restore to man the original mind which he lost in Eden through Satan’s alluring temptation.” That I May Know Him, 291

“We can see in the cross of Calvary what it has cost the Son of God to bring salvation to a fallen race. As the sacrifice in behalf of man was complete, so the restoration of man from the defilement of sin must be thorough and complete.” The Review and Herald, August 21, 1888

“Satan, by means of his success in turning man aside from the path of obedience, became ‘the god of this world.’ 2 Corinthians 4:4. The dominion that once was Adam’s passed to the usurper. But the Son of God proposed to come to this earth to pay the penalty of sin, and thus not only redeem man, but recover the dominion forfeited. It is of this restoration that Micah prophesied.” Prophets and Kings, 682

“Whatever was lost in the fall of Adam is more than restored in redemption.” The Review and Herald, June 7, 1887

1.b. Describe the specific work of God’s people in preparation for Christ’s soon return. Revelation 3:18–21; James 1:21–25; Revelation 16:15

 

Note: “In the closing work of God in the earth, the standard of His law will be again exalted. False religion may prevail, iniquity may abound, the love of many may wax cold, the cross of Calvary may be lost sight of, and darkness, like the pall of death, may spread over the world; the whole force of the popular current may be turned against the truth; plot after plot may be formed to overthrow the people of God; but in the hour of greatest peril the God of Elijah will raise up human instrumentalities to bear a message that will not be silenced.” Prophets and Kings, 186, 187

Monday

2 RESTORATION OF THE LAW

2.a. As far as the law of God is concerned, in what way did Christ start the work of restoration? Isaiah 42:21; Matthew 5:17–20; 22:36–40

 

Note: “ ‘Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.’ Here Jesus refutes the charge of the Pharisees. His mission to the world is to vindicate the sacred claims of that law which they charge Him with breaking. If the law of God could have been changed or abrogated, then Christ need not have suffered the consequences of our transgression. He came to explain the relation of the law to man, and to illustrate its precepts by His own life of obedience.” The Desire of Ages, 307, 308

2.b. Give two examples of how Christ sought to restore the law of God. Matthew 15:3–6; John 7:19. What respect did Christ show for the writings of the Old Testament prophets? Luke 11:28; John 5:46, 47

 

Note: “Christ Himself had given both the moral and the ceremonial law. He did not come to destroy confidence in His own instruction. It was because of His great reverence for the law and the prophets that He sought to break through the wall of traditional requirements which hemmed in the Jews. While He set aside their false interpretations of the law, He carefully guarded His disciples against yielding up the vital truths committed to the Hebrews.” The Desire of Ages, 307

Tuesday

3 CALLED TO ESTABLISH THE LAW

3.a. What law is to be established by Christ’s followers under the New Dispensation? Jeremiah 31:31–33; Romans 2:17–27; 3:19, 31

 

Note: “The Saviour’s life of obedience maintained the claims of the law; it proved that the law could be kept in humanity, and showed the excellence of character that obedience would develop. All who obey as He did are likewise declaring that the law is ‘holy, and just, and good.’ Romans 7:12. On the other hand, all who break God’s commandments are sustaining Satan’s claim that the law is unjust, and cannot be obeyed. Thus, they second the deceptions of the great adversary, and cast dishonor upon God. They are the children of the wicked one, who was the first rebel against God’s law. To admit them into heaven would again bring in the elements of discord and rebellion, and imperil the well-being of the universe. No man who willfully disregards one principle of the law shall enter the kingdom of heaven.” The Desire of Ages, 309

3.b. Though the law cannot justify (pardon) us, why do we nonetheless need it? Romans 3:20; 7:7

 

Note: “When the law was proclaimed from Sinai, God made known to men the holiness of His character, that by contrast they might see the sinfulness of their own. The law was given to convict them of sin, and reveal their need of a Saviour. It would do this as its principles were applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit. This work it is still to do. In the life of Christ, the principles of the law are made plain; and as the Holy Spirit of God touches the heart, as the light of Christ reveals to men their need of His cleansing blood and His justifying righteousness, the law is still an agent in bringing us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.” The Desire of Ages, 308

Wednesday

4 THE ARK OF THE COVENANT IN HEAVEN

4.a. What does the earthly sanctuary with its belongings (Hebrews 9:3, 4) reveal concerning the contents of the ark of the covenant in the heavenly sanctuary? Hebrews 8:1–5

 

Note: “Sacrilegious minds and hearts have thought they were mighty enough to change the times and laws of Jehovah; but, safe in the archives of heaven, in the ark of God, are the original commandments, written upon the two tables of stone.” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, 972

4.b. After the disappointment of 1844, what light did the honest searchers of truth receive concerning the heavenly sanctuary and its contents? Revelation 11:19 (compare Exodus 25:8–10, 16; 31:18)

 

Note: “When the temple of God was opened in heaven, the ark of His testament was seen. Within the holy of holies, in the sanctuary in heaven, the divine law is sacredly enshrined—the law that was spoken by God Himself amid the thunders of Sinai and written with His own finger on the tables of stone.

“The law of God in the sanctuary in heaven is the great original, of which the precepts inscribed upon the tables of stone and recorded by Moses in the Pentateuch were an unerring transcript. Those who arrived at an understanding of this important point were thus led to see the sacred, unchanging character of the divine law. They saw, as never before, the force of the Saviour’s words: ‘Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.’ Matthew 5:18. The law of God, being a revelation of His will, a transcript of His character, must forever endure, ‘as a faithful witness in heaven.’ Not one command has been annulled; not a jot or tittle has been changed.” The Great Controversy, 433, 434

Thursday

5 THE MEASURING PROCESS

5.a. To what work should we pay much attention since the heavenly sanctuary has been opened to our understanding in these last days? Revelation 11:1; Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14

 

Note: “Here is the work going on, measuring the temple and its worshipers to see who will stand in the last day. Those who stand fast shall have an abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. When we are doing our work remember there is One that is watching the spirit in which we are doing it. Shall we not bring the Saviour into our everyday lives, into our secular work and domestic duties? Then in the name of God we want to leave behind everything that is not necessary, all gossiping or unprofitable visiting, and present ourselves as servants of the living God.” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, 972

5.b. What is the rod by which we are measured? Romans 2:12; James 2:10–12. What call comes to every sinner while Christ is in the sanctuary? Isaiah 55:6, 7; Hebrews 7:25

 

Note: “The grand judgment is taking place, and has been going on for some time. Now the Lord says, Measure the temple and the worshipers thereof. Remember when you are walking the streets about your business, God is measuring you.” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, 972

“In all our acts of true devotion, we fix our eye of faith upon our Advocate, who is standing between man and the eternal throne, waiting to meet our every effort, and by His Spirit assist us to a more perfect knowledge of God.” Ibid., 948

Friday

REVIEW AND THOUGHT QUESTIONS

  1. In what aspect of Christ’s work are we to take part?
  2. How did Christ vindicate the authority of His law while on earth?
  3. Name some vital points which we should understand about God’s law.
  4. What must we realize about the ark of the covenant in heaven?
  5. In what sense should our attention continually focus on that ark?

Copyright 1998, Reformation Herald Publishing Association, 5240 Hollins Road, Roanoke, Virginia 24019-5048, U.S.A.

Recipe – Saucy Vegetable Tofu Pasta

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Whole Wheat Pasta

Alternative pasta is everywhere. Brown rice spaghetti, quinoa, chickpea, spelt, buckwheat, red lentil pasta, corn rotini, and seemingly endless varieties of specialty, gluten-free and nutrient-dense pastas crowd the pasta aisle, overshadowing traditional pasta with colorful noodles and healthy claims.

However, when it comes to picking a nutritious pasta, whole wheat pasta may be your best go-to. While traditional pasta is made from semolina flour, whole wheat pasta uses whole grains to create the dough and resulting shapes, making it more nutrient-dense.

Whole wheat pasta is any pasta made with whole wheat and contains the entire wheat kernel—bran, germ, and endosperm. Unlike refined white pasta, which lacks these elements, whole wheat pasta preserves essential nutrients like fiber, B vitamins, magnesium, and iron. Its abundant fiber content fosters digestive well-being and a satisfying feeling of fullness. Whole wheat pasta is rich in dietary fiber, aids in digestion, and contains essential nutrients such as folate, thiamine, B6, magnesium, and iron, all crucial for energy production and overall health.

Additionally, whole wheat pasta has a lower glycemic index than refined flour pasta, and can help manage blood sugar levels.

Like any ingredient, whole wheat pasta can be served in ways to make eating and enjoying it even healthier. Incorporating colorful, nutrient-rich vegetables like spinach, tomatoes, and bell peppers can increase vitamins and antioxidants. Choosing lean protein sources such as legumes and tofu further boosts nutritional value.

Source: realsimple.com/is-whole-wheat-pasta-healthy-8348940

Recipe – Saucy Vegetable Tofu Pasta

Ingredients

8 oz. whole wheat spiral pasta

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

1 large green or red pepper, coarsely chopped

1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise, and sliced

1 Tbs. olive oil or water

1 16 oz. firm tofu, drained, and cut into ½-inch cubes

2 cups spaghetti sauce

Process

Cook pasta according to package directions. In a large skillet, sauté the onion, pepper, and zucchini in oil or water until crisp tender. Stir in the pasta, tofu, and spaghetti sauce, heating through, adding preferred seasonings as desired.

A True Prophet Says –

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“that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.”

 
I have applied the tests of a prophet many times to Mrs. White. A true prophet must pass all the tests, not failing even a single one. Mrs. White passed all the tests of a prophet, so I believe that she is a true prophet of God.

Confusion

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit.” 1 John 4:1, first part

The Greek text could also be translated “Beloved, stop believing every spirit.”

The language John uses indicates that people are being deceived because of who they listen to.

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1

Obviously, when you look at the context, John is addressing a problem occurring in the church at that time.

“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They [people teaching these false doctrines] are of the world. Therefore, they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.” Verses 2–5

A tremendous amount of confusion exists among Adventists concerning the meaning of this test, expressed not just in their sermons, but in their books and published materials.

Pleasing God

“So then, those that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:8. Did Jesus please God or not?

“When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ ” Matthew 3:16, 17

Matthew 3 chronicles the beginning of Christ’s ministry. Matthew 17 is near the end of His ministry and His life.

“While he [Peter] was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!’ ” Matthew 17:5

The Bible tells us that both at the beginning and at the end of Jesus’ ministry, God was pleased with His Son. So, how was He able to please God?

“And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.” John 8:29

Jesus always did what pleased His Father and as His children, this should also be our goal, our spiritual condition in this life. Only then can our guardian angels, our recording angels, write on our pages in the book of life, that we always sought to do and did do those things that please Jesus.

In the Flesh

The Father was well pleased with His Son. Jesus knew it. Jesus came to this world in human flesh, but not in the flesh Paul refers to in Romans 8:8.

In this context, Paul means that being in the flesh is having a carnal mind.

“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:7, 8

“Flesh” and “carnal mind” are used interchangeably in the Bible, meaning our natural, sinful nature. Those who have a carnal mind—those who are governed by their natural, sinful nature—cannot keep God’s law and therefore, cannot please Him.

“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” Verse 9

Did Jesus keep God’s law? Yes, He did. And by keeping the law, Jesus pleased God. Man, however, because of his sinful nature and inherent selfishness, cannot by himself keep the law, and so he cannot please God.

“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” John 15:10

Two Meanings: Carnal Mind or Mortal Body

The expression in the flesh can mean two different things. Romans 8 says that if you have a carnal mind, you are at enmity against God; you cannot keep the law of God, and therefore, do not please God. But the expression in the flesh can be used in a different way and Paul uses it in this way, too.

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell.” Philippians 1:21, 22

“For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.” Verses 23, 24

In this context, Paul’s living in the flesh is his human body, not a carnal mind; he is living in a physical, mortal body.

“Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Hebrews 2:14

In order for Christ to die as our Saviour, He had to have a mortal body, but what He did not have—what He never had—was a carnal mind. He came in a mortal body of flesh, but He did not have the mind of flesh (sinfulness) which is ours by heredity.

A Problem in the Church

A heresy arose in apostolic times, becoming a major problem in the early Christian church—Docetism and Gnosticism.

Docetism’s basic idea is that Christ only appeared to have a body. He was an illusion, a phantom, not a man at all. He was a purely spiritual being and therefore, could not have experienced human suffering nor could He die.

Gnosticism held that Jesus was only the literal son of Joseph, but that He was selected by God at His baptism to be the Messiah because of His piety and obedience to the law. Some gnostics believed He was just a mystical, spiritual figure, neither human nor divine, downplaying or outright denying His death and resurrection.

During his first imprisonment in Rome, Paul cautioned the believers in Colossi against docetic doctrine in Colossians 2:4, 8, 9, and 18.

Peter voiced an even stronger warning about it.

“But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.” 2 Peter 2:1–3

Jude 4 refers to the docetic heresy and the Nicolaitans of Revelation 2 were gnostics.

“When Jesus took human nature, and became in fashion as a man, He possessed all the human organism. His necessities were the necessities of a man. He had bodily wants to be supplied, bodily weariness to be relieved. By prayer to the Father He was braced for duty and for trial.” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Vol. 5, 1130

“In contemplating the incarnation of Christ in humanity, we stand baffled before an unfathomable mystery that the human mind cannot comprehend. The more we reflect upon it, the more amazing does it appear. How wide is the contrast between the divinity of Christ and the helpless infant in Bethlehem’s manger! How can we span the distance between the mighty God and a helpless child? And yet the Creator of worlds, He in whom was the fullness of the Godhead bodily, was manifest in the helpless babe in the manger. Far higher than any of the angels, equal with the Father in dignity and glory, and yet wearing the garb of humanity! Divinity and humanity were mysteriously combined, and man and God became one. It is in this union that we find the hope of our fallen race.” Ibid., Vol. 7A, 443, 444

Clearly, Mrs. White confesses that Jesus did come in the flesh, is a true prophet, and not a deceiver (see 2 John 1).

“There is no one who can explain the mystery of the incarnation of Christ. Yet we know that He came to this earth and lived as a man among men. The man Christ Jesus was not the Lord God Almighty, yet Christ and the Father are one. The Deity did not sink under the agonizing torture of Calvary, yet it is nonetheless true that ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ ” Ibid., Vol. 5, 1129, 1130

Be Warned

We have been warned not to set Christ before the people as a person who had the propensities of sin.

“Do not set Him before the people as a man with the propensities of sin. He is the second Adam. The first Adam was created a pure, sinless being, without a taint of sin upon him; he was in the image of God. He could fall, and he did fall through transgressing. Because of sin his posterity was born with inherent propensities of disobedience [we are born with inherent propensities of disobedience]. But Jesus Christ was the only begotten Son of God. He took upon Himself human nature, and was tempted in all points as human nature is tempted. He could have sinned; He could have fallen, but not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity.” Ibid., Vol. 7A, 447

Never at any moment was there in Jesus Christ an evil propensity. “He was assailed with temptations in the wilderness, as Adam was assailed with temptations in Eden.” Ibid.

Two Directions

There are two directions that theologians go and both end up in extremes.

Conservative Adventists tend to contradict what Mrs. White said. They say that Christ was born with sinful flesh, the propensity to sin, but He overcame anyway. That position is directly contrary to the previous Spirit of Prophecy quotations. These people however do believe that it’s necessary to overcome sin.

The other extreme is to say Christ wasn’t really like us and so we cannot be expected to be really like Him and so you’re saved by justification alone.

People tend to go from one extreme to the other and both extremes are directly contrary to what Mrs. White wrote. We need to have some clarity about this and Mrs. White has tried to give us clarity if we will study what she wrote very carefully.

“Avoid every question in relation to the humanity of Christ which is liable to be misunderstood. Truth lies close to the track of presumption. In treating upon the humanity of Christ, you need to guard strenuously every assertion, lest your words be taken to mean more than they imply, and thus you lose or dim the clear perceptions of His humanity as combined with divinity. His birth was a miracle of God; for, said the angel, ‘Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore, also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.’ Luke 1:31–35.” Ibid., Vol. 5, 1128

That Holy Thing

“These words do not refer to any human being, except to the Son of the infinite God. Never, in any way, leave the slightest impression upon human minds that a taint of, or inclination to, corruption rested upon Christ, or that He in any way yielded to corruption. He was tempted in all points like as man is tempted, yet He is called ‘that holy thing.’ ” Ibid.

Mary gave birth to that “holy thing.” Jesus was born holy [in nature and character] and in human flesh [a mortal body]. That cannot be said of any other human being.

“It is a mystery that is left unexplained to mortals that Christ could be tempted in all points like as we are, and yet be without sin. The incarnation of Christ has ever been, and will ever remain a mystery. That which is revealed, is for us and for our children, but let every human being be warned from the ground of making Christ altogether human, such an one as ourselves; for it cannot be.” Ibid., 1128, 1129

There are conservative Adventist preachers who want to make Christ just like us. This is dangerous rhetoric. Christ cannot be just like us and be that holy thing, too. It was necessary that He be that holy thing and it was necessary that Jesus had holy flesh. If He did not have holy flesh, He could not be our Saviour.

“In the seventh month, on the twenty-first of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying: ‘Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying: “Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing? Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,” says the Lord; “and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,” says the Lord, “and work; for I am with you,” says the Lord of hosts: ‘according to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear.’ ” Haggai 2:1–5

“ ‘For thus says the Lord of hosts: “Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,” says the Lord of hosts. “The silver is Mine, and the gold in Mine,” says the Lord of hosts. “The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,” says the Lord of hosts. “And in this place I will give peace,” says the Lord of hosts.’ … Verses 6–9

“ ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Now, ask the priests concerning the law, saying, ‘If one carries holy meat [holy flesh] in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy?’ ” ’ Then the priests answered and said, ‘No.’

“And Haggai said, ‘If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean?’ So the priests answered and said, ‘It shall be unclean.’ Then Haggai answered and said, ‘So is this people, and so is this nation before Me,’ says the Lord, ‘and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.’ ” Verses 11–14

Mrs. White writes concerning these verses, “This is a parable. The sacrifice spoken of as holy flesh, was a representation of Christ, who was the foundation of the Jewish economy, and who is ever to be regarded as the One who makes possible the purification of man from sin.” Seventh-day Adventist Commentary, Vol. 4, 1176

Christ’s life was offered on Calvary as a holy, unblemished sacrifice. Being holy and unblemished is what made it possible for Him to be our Saviour. However, the devil tried to prevent Jesus from developing this perfected holiness that fit Him to be our sufficient sacrifice. Be mindful of the fact that every sacrifice in the typical service had to be perfect and unblemished. Had not Christ been holy and unblemished, His sacrifice could not have been sufficient to pay the debt for our sins.

“In every possible way Satan sought to prevent Jesus from developing a perfect childhood, a faultless manhood, a holy ministry, and an unblemished sacrifice. But he was defeated.” Ibid., Vol. 5, 1130

Christ’s Humiliation

“Think of Christ’s humiliation. He took upon Himself fallen, suffering human nature, degraded, and defiled by sin. He took our sorrows, bearing our grief and shame. He endured all the temptations wherewith man is beset. He united humanity with divinity: a divine spirit dwelt in a temple of flesh.” Ibid., Vol. 4, 1147

For the people who believe that Jesus had sinful flesh [sinful nature], the following is the most powerful statement found in the Spirit of Prophecy that they believe absolutely proves their case.

“He took upon Him fallen, suffering human nature, degraded and defiled by sin.”

But the context for this statement is found in the first part of the paragraph. It says, “Think of Christ’s humiliation.” So, let’s look at Christ’s humiliation.

“Throughout His life on earth He had walked in the light of God’s presence. When in conflict with men who were inspired by the very spirit of Satan, He could say, ‘He that sent Me is with Me: the Father hath not left Me alone; for I do always those things that please Him.’ John 8:29. But now He seemed to be shut out from the light of God’s sustaining presence. Now He was numbered with transgressors. The guilt of fallen humanity He must bear. Upon Him who knew no sin must be laid the iniquity of us all.” The Desire of Ages, 685

“Christ was now standing in a different attitude from that in which He had ever stood before.” Ibid., 686

Praying the third time in Gethsemane, “Jesus sought again His retreat, and fell prostrate, overcome by the horror of a great darkness. The humanity of the Son of God trembled in that trying hour. He prayed not now for His disciples that their faith might not fail, but for His own tempted, agonized soul. The awful moment had come—that moment which was to decide the destiny of the world. The fate of humanity trembled in the balance. Christ might even now refuse to drink the cup apportioned to guilty man. It was not yet too late. He might wipe the bloody sweat from His brow, and leave man to perish in his iniquity.” Ibid., 690

Christ could have wiped the bloody sweat from His brow, stood, and returned to His Father. He had holy flesh. Had He had sinful flesh, He would have been unable to return to heaven. But because He was holy and undefiled, He could have gone back to heaven right then.

“He might say, Let the transgressor receive the penalty of his sin, and I will go back to My Father. Will the Son of God drink the bitter cup of humiliation and agony?” Ibid.

Had Jesus turned His back on the world and returned to heaven, we would have been lost.

The Bitter Cup

Christ had no sin, no guilt of His own, but in order to save this world, it was necessary for Him to bear our sins. The sins of every man, woman, and child were laid upon Him like a dark, heavy coat. This is the bitter cup.

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:4–6

“Will the Son of God drink the bitter cup of humiliation and agony? Will the innocent suffer the consequences of the curse of sin, to save the guilty? The words fall tremblingly from the pale lips of Jesus, ‘O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done.’

“Three times has He uttered that prayer. Three times has humanity shrunk from the last, crowning sacrifice. But now the history of the human race comes up before the world’s Redeemer. He sees that the transgressors of the law, if left to themselves, must perish. He sees the helplessness of man. He sees the power of sin. The woes and lamentations of a doomed world rise before Him. He beholds its impending fate, and His decision is made. He will save man at any cost to Himself. He accepts His baptism of blood, that through Him perishing millions may gain everlasting life. He has left the courts of heaven, where all is purity, happiness, and glory, to save the one lost sheep, the one world that has fallen by transgression. And He will not turn from His mission. He will become the propitiation of a race that has willed to sin. His prayer now breathes only submission: ‘If this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done.’

“Having made the decision, He fell dying to the ground … .” The Desire of Ages, 693

Christ’s acceptance of my sin, your sin, the sins of the whole world was His humiliation, the bitter cup He must drink to the very dregs.

Power Given

“The worlds unfallen and the heavenly angels had watched with intense interest as the conflict drew to its close. Satan and his confederacy of evil, the legions of apostasy, watched intently this great crisis in the work of redemption. The powers of good and evil waited to see what answer would come to Christ’s thrice-repeated prayer. Angels had longed to bring relief to the divine sufferer, but this might not be. No way of escape was found for the Son of God. In this awful crisis, when everything was at stake, when the mysterious cup trembled in the hand of the sufferer, the heavens opened, a light shone forth amid the stormy darkness of the crisis hour, and the mighty angel who stands in God’s presence, occupying the position from which Satan fell, came to the side of Christ. The angel came not to take the cup from Christ’s hand, but to strengthen Him to drink it, with the assurance of the Father’s love. He came to give power to the divine-human suppliant. He pointed Him to the open heavens, telling Him of the souls that would be saved as the result of His sufferings. He assured Him that His Father is greater and more powerful than Satan, that His death would result in the utter discomfiture of Satan, and that the kingdom of this world would be given to the saints of the Most High. He told Him that He would see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied, for He would see a multitude of the human race saved, eternally saved. …

“A heavenly peace rested upon His bloodstained face. He had borne that which no human being could ever bear; for He had tasted the sufferings of death for every man.” Ibid., 694

We Are Responsible

Christ accepted the humiliation of mankind’s degraded, sinful nature and it killed Him. Yes, they drove nails into His hands and feet, pressed a crown of thorns deep into His brow, pierced His side with a spear; and as He hung on the cross, it became more difficult to breathe by the hour. All these things would have killed a mortal man, but they did not kill Christ. We did that. Our sin and guilt separated Him, just as it does us, from His Father and He died of a broken heart. He was slain by the sin of the world.

The devil claimed the human race as his own, saying that even God Himself could not take it back. But Jesus Christ came and did what the devil said could not be done. Mrs. White says that Christ’s incarnation in human flesh, a man, but still God, His ability to die and redeem all of mankind back from Satan was, is, and always will remain a mystery. A mystery that even the angels cannot understand or explain. A mystery that the righteous will study throughout eternity, but never fully understand, though its meaning will be opened to us more and more. (See The Signs of the Times, July 30, 1896.)

Jesus Christ came to this world in the flesh, in a human body, to be our Saviour, to live the life of humanity and to pay the price for our sins. Fallen, degraded, hopeless as we are, Jesus has provided the only way out of this world. He is able to save to the uttermost everyone who comes to God through Him.

A true prophet teaches that Christ came in the flesh to be our Saviour. Mrs. White tells us that even Satan will one day know that he is, and has been all along, powerless to destroy those who put their trust in Jesus Christ. Whatever the situation, go to Jesus. Confess that you cannot trust yourself, that you are powerless to overcome your selfishness and sinfulness alone. Place your complete trust in the One who saves “to the uttermost those who come to God through Him.” Choose to obey Him and to always do those things that please Him. Paul said that Jesus came into this world to save sinners. He came to save you and me.

“Our Redeemer made the greatest possible sacrifice for the human race. Thus, He has shown the estimate He places on us. Do you desire to work so as best to please him?” The Review and Herald, July 11, 1899

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

The Spark Plug Molecule

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Camping in a place surrounded by nature while relaxing our eyes, gazing at the horizon, and feeling the cool breeze caressing our faces has a calming physiological effect on the body, mind, and spirit. This is all thanks to an unseen, yet powerful agent: fresh air.

The atmosphere, which contains all the breathable oxygen for humans and the natural world living on the surface of earth, could be described as a less dense version of water. God called it the expansion of heavens. Genesis describes how God spoke and separated the water from the water, leaving a gap of air in the middle. This is the water form we breathe.

The oxygen present in the air we breathe is managed by life forms on Earth that break down water molecules and release oxygen as a gas. These oxygen managers are trees and plants.

Dr. Gary Samuelson tells us about his studies on this topic as follows. All plant cells that perform photosynthesis use the sun’s light energy to split water molecules. The sunlight captured by the plant cells provides the energy to separate two oxygen atoms from the water molecules and transform them into a free radical called superoxide (O2*-). The hydrogen atoms from the water are stored for later use. In a cascade of energy release, the superoxide is transformed into hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), or what we commonly know as oxygenated water, and finally into a molecule of oxygen gas (O2). The energy released from this cascade is used by plant cells to bond hydrogen atoms to carbon atoms to form carbohydrates (sugars), fats, and oils. These are stored and used as fuel. Note that superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, and the oxygen produced by photosynthesis are components of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which we call redox-signaling molecules. Plants also use these redox signaling molecules, almost exclusively, to help detect, repair, and replace their own damaged cells and tissues, and to power their immune systems. The resulting oxygen gas produced by plant cells is then released into the atmosphere.

Redox-signaling molecules produced in plant cells also help regulate the rate of sugar and fat production within these cells. Too much hydrogen peroxide, for example, is produced when plants are in full sun. This excess hydrogen peroxide is designed to deactivate the machinery and slow down photosynthesis, so as not to overwhelm the plant. In the shade, when the hydrogen peroxide level drops, photosynthesis speeds up again. Therefore, redox-signaling molecules are also used to regulate photosynthesis in plants.

When we eat and digest plants, our bodies use the sugars and fats we obtain from them as fuel. The metabolism of sugar within our cells, combined with the oxygen we breathe, performs the same chemical process in reverse to produce energy (ATP) and also produces ROS such as superoxide and hydrogen peroxide. These molecules recombine, and the end products are water and carbon dioxide (the building blocks for plants), completing the great cycle. In our cells, these redox signaling molecules also help regulate our metabolism and detect, repair, and replace damaged cells. The existence of redox signaling molecules in living cells is as old as oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere. Our bodies require the oxygen, sugars, and fats produced by plants.

In the field of medicine, therapies that utilize oxygen or other types of oxidants and oxidative processes are now emerging. Oxidative therapies include hypersaturation of the body with oxygen using hyperbaric chambers, ozone therapies, hydrogen peroxide, chlorine dioxide, or therapies that stimulate the production of ROS in cells, such as pulsed electromagnetic therapies and infrared light therapies. All of these therapies have the ultimate effect of increasing the amount of ROS produced within living cells. Practitioners are reporting high success rates with these therapies, especially in wound healing, tissue regeneration, and fighting infections. Muscle exercise also has the effect of increasing the amount of ROS created by muscle cells, with largely beneficial healing effects. James Watson, Ph.D. (who won a Nobel Prize for his work in discovering the structure of DNA) has dedicated his life to finding ways to stimulate the production of ROS in cells. He calls ROS “the elixir of life against stressed cells.” Cellular ROS holds the cure for diabetes, many types of cancer, and dementia.

The question has been raised: Is ROS an absolute requirement for tissue regeneration? In order to find out, researchers took a look at the regeneration of tadpole tails. Tadpoles have the ability to regenerate their tails if they are cut off. Tadpoles are also partially transparent. This allows ROS to be seen inside the tadpole when revealed with special fluorescent dyes. In experiments, it was observed that ROS is super-concentrated along the growth edges of the regenerating tail. When ROS was artificially removed by applying a strong antioxidant to the tail (vitamin C), the tail did not regrow.

We could also ask the question, is ROS an absolute requirement within living cells? It is now understood that in the place where proteins are manufactured within the cell (the endoplasmic reticulum), ROS is used to help fold and build proteins correctly. A lack of ROS within the cell has been shown to ultimately cause proteins to be incorrectly constructed, leading to disease. Proteins are the micromachines that make the cell function; they contain bonds (disulfide bonds) that can only be broken and reformed by the action of ROS. Without ROS, these micromachines cannot function.

The famous master antioxidant in the cell, glutathione (GSH), contains a hydrogen sulfide (SH) thiol that is sensitive to ROS. ROS can extract the hydrogen and cause the sticky sulfur bonds in two GSH molecules to combine to form oxidized glutathione (GSSG, the SS indicates the disulfide bond). The oxidation of glutathione when it’s in its super suit (called glutathione peroxidase) requires ROS. This is true for other important players in the cell, such as thioredoxin. Without ROS, these super machines cannot function.

Therefore, it turns out that ROS creates homeostatic balance and is absolutely essential for the proper functioning of the cell in many areas and on many occasions, especially in the machinery that repairs and regenerates cells and tissues. It was amazing to discover the power of ROS, which is important in all aspects of cellular life, from photosynthesis to sugar metabolism, the detection, repair, and replacement of damaged cells, tissue regeneration, immune activation, and protein production.

God is definitely wonderful and wise. He gave us water to drink and fresh air to breathe. Maybe we need a little spark jump to light up our day today.

Sources: drgarysamuelson.com

Temptation

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What is the toughest temptation you have ever faced? Or what was the worst temptation you yielded to?

When I was a young adult, I made a decision about how I wanted to live my life. It was neither a wise decision nor a spiritually-healthy one. Of course, God didn’t want me to live that life, so He reminded me of how my mother had raised me and the things I used to believe. Sadly, I was determined to live my life my way, and told God outright even if it meant losing heaven, it was my life to live and to leave me alone.

Thankfully, He didn’t listen to me. And even more thankfully, He gave me a God-fearing mother. I know that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, but the prayer of a mother is the most powerful force on this Earth. The strength of a mother’s prayer asking God for mercy and grace on behalf of her child can bring about miraculous change.

My mother not only prayed for me, but she asked all of her friends to pray for me. I had an entire army of prayer warriors with my mother as their captain. It is because of her unceasing prayers on my behalf—because God knows I wasn’t praying for myself—that I’m able to share this experience with you. So, mothers, take courage, your prayers are powerful and God hears them.

“The power of a mother’s prayers cannot be too highly estimated. She who kneels beside her son and daughter through the vicissitudes of childhood, through the perils of youth, will never know till the judgment the influence of her prayers upon the life of her children. If she is connected by faith with the Son of God, the mother’s tender hand may hold back her son from the power of temptation, may restrain her daughter from indulging in sin. When passion is warring for the mastery, the power of love, the restraining, earnest, determined influence of the mother, may balance the soul on the side of right.” The Adventist Home, 266

“The strongest temptation cannot excuse sin. However great the pressure brought to bear upon the soul, transgression is our own act. It is not in the power of earth or hell to compel anyone to do evil. Satan attacks us at our weak points, but we need not be overcome. However severe or unexpected the assault, God has provided help for us, and in His strength, we may conquer.” Amazing Grace, 254

I know that God allows us all to make our own choices, and sometimes those choices, like mine, go completely against what He intends for our lives. We must be vigilant, because the devil knows just how to tempt us to sin. We must reach out to God for the strength to resist not only Satan’s temptations but the willfulness of our own nature.

“If you cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire, you can control the will, and thus an entire change will be wrought in your life. When you yield up your will to Christ, your life is hid with Christ in God. It is allied to the power which is above all principalities and powers. You have a strength from God that holds you fast to His strength; and a new life, even the life of faith, is possible to you.” Mind, Character, and Personality, Vol. 1, 123

Glaucus Atlanticus – Blue Dragon Sea Slug

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The glaucus atlanticus or the blue dragon sea slug is a brilliant blue with silver color and a potent sting. More commonly known as the blue dragon, it is a soft-bodied marine mollusk, approximately 1.2 inches long. It lives in the warm temperate, tropical waters found in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, but can also be sporadically found along the coasts of South Africa, Australia, Bermuda, and the Gulf of Mexico.

It lives in the open ocean, often found floating upside down on the ocean’s surface. It remains buoyant by swallowing air bubbles which are stored in a gas-filled sac in its stomach. It is camouflaged against the surface of the water using a process called countershading. Its blue blends with the ocean surface when viewed from above. The silver blends with the light from above. It is not a strong swimmer, depending on winds and ocean currents. A group of blue dragons is called a blue fleet. If found stranded or deceased on the coast, it can still be a hazard to touch or pick up.

The blue dragon’s main diet is venomous creatures like the Portuguese man o’ war. Amazingly, it is immune to the venom of its prey. It absorbs the stinging cells from these organisms and stores them in specialized sacs. This enables the blue dragon to deliver a potent sting and makes it dangerous to touch. Its sting is extremely painful and causes nausea and vomiting along with symptoms that affect the skin at the point of the sting. In areas where the dragon is sighted, authorities prohibit swimming to protect swimmers.

The blue dragon is a stunning creature to the eye, but like so many things in this world that attract us, it can end in pain and suffering.

Sources: biologyinsights.com/blue-dragon-sea-slug-where-do-they-live; wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaucus_atlanticus

Instituted at Creation

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“And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.”

Genesis 2:2, 3

The great Jehovah had laid the foundations of the earth; He had dressed the whole world in the garb of beauty, and had filled it with things useful to man; He had created all the wonders of the land and of the sea. In six days, the great work of creation had been accomplished. And God “rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.” God looked with satisfaction upon the work of His hands. All was perfect, worthy of its divine Author, and He rested, not as one weary, but as well pleased with the fruits of His wisdom and goodness and the manifestations of His glory.

After resting upon the seventh day, God sanctified it, or set it apart, as a day of rest for man. Following the example of the Creator, man was to rest upon this sacred day, that as he should look upon the heavens and the earth, he might reflect upon God’s great work of creation; and that as he should behold the evidences of God’s wisdom and goodness, his heart might be filled with love and reverence for his Maker. …

God saw that a Sabbath was essential for man, even in Paradise. He needed to lay aside his own interests and pursuits for one day of the seven, that he might more fully contemplate the works of God, and meditate upon His power and goodness. He needed a Sabbath, to remind him more vividly of God, and to awaken gratitude because all that he enjoyed and possessed came from the beneficent hand of the Creator.

When the foundations of the earth were laid, … then was laid the foundation of the Sabbath. Well may this institution demand our reverence: it was ordained by no human authority, and rests upon no human traditions; it was established by the Ancient of days, and commanded by His eternal word.

A Holy Memorial

“He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.” Psalm 111:4

In Eden, God set up the memorial of His work of creation, in placing His blessing upon the seventh day. The Sabbath was committed to Adam, the father and representative of the whole human family. Its observance was to be an act of grateful acknowledgment, on the part of all who should dwell upon the earth, that God was their creator and their rightful sovereign; that they were the work of His hands, and the subjects of His authority. Thus, the institution was wholly commemorative, and given to all mankind. There was nothing in it shadowy, or of restricted application to any people.

All things were created by the Son of God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. … All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” John 1:1–3. And since the Sabbath is a memorial of the work of creation, it is a token of the love and power of Christ.

The Sabbath calls our thoughts to nature, and brings us into communion with the Creator. In the song of the bird, the sighing of the trees, and the music of the sea, we still may hear His voice who talked with Adam in Eden in the cool of the day. And as we behold His power in nature we find comfort, for the word that created all things is that which speaks life to the soul.

God … has given man six days in which to labor. But He sanctified the day of His rest, and gave it to man to be kept, free from all secular labor. By thus setting apart the Sabbath, God gave the world a memorial. He did not set apart one day and any day in seven, but one particular day, the seventh day. And by observing the Sabbath, we show that we recognize God as the living God, the Creator of the heaven and the earth.

Had the Sabbath always been sacredly observed, there could never have been an atheist or an idolater.

A Special Sign

“Moreover also I gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifies them.” Ezekiel 20:12

As the Sabbath was the sign that distinguished Israel when they came out of Egypt to enter the earthly Canaan, so it is the sign that now distinguishes God’s people as they come out from the world to enter the heavenly rest.

The observance of the Sabbath is the means ordained by God of preserving a knowledge of Himself and of distinguishing between His loyal subjects and the transgressors of His law.

It [the Sabbath] belongs to Christ. … Since He made all things, He made the Sabbath. By Him it was set apart as a memorial of the work of creation. It points to Him as both the Creator and the Sanctifier. It declares that He who created all things in heaven and in earth, and by whom all things hold together, is the head of the church, and that by His power we are reconciled to God. For, speaking of Israel, He said, “I gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them”—make them holy. Then the Sabbath is a sign of Christ’s power to make us holy. And it is given to all whom Christ makes holy. As a sign of His sanctifying power, the Sabbath is given to all who through Christ become a part of the Israel of God. …

To all who receive the Sabbath as a sign of Christ’s creative and redeeming power, it will be a delight. Seeing Christ in it, they delight themselves in Him. The Sabbath points them to the works of creation as an evidence of His mighty power in redemption. While it calls to mind the lost peace of Eden, it tells of peace restored through the Saviour. And every object in nature repeats His invitation, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

The Sabbath is a golden clasp that unites God and His people.

Preparing for the Holy Day

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Exodus 20:8

At the very beginning of the fourth commandment the Lord said, “Remember.” He knew that amid the multitude of cares and perplexities man would be tempted to excuse himself from meeting the full requirement of the law, or would forget its sacred importance. Therefore, He said: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

All through the week we are to have the Sabbath in mind and be making preparation to keep it according to the commandment. …

When the Sabbath is thus remembered, the temporal will not be allowed to encroach upon the spiritual. No duty pertaining to the six working days will be left for the Sabbath. During the week our energies will not be so exhausted in temporal labor that on the day when the Lord rested and was refreshed we shall be too weary to engage in His service. …

On Friday let the preparation for the Sabbath be completed. See that all the clothing is in readiness and that all the cooking is done. … The Sabbath is not to be given to the repairing of garments, to the cooking of food, to pleasure seeking, or to any other worldly employment. Before the setting of the sun let all secular work be laid aside and all secular papers be put out of sight. Parents, explain your work and its purpose to your children, and let them share in your preparation to keep the Sabbath according to the commandment.

There is another work that should receive attention on the preparation day. On this day all differences between brethren, whether in the family or in the church, should be put away. Let all bitterness and wrath and malice be expelled from the soul. In a humble spirit, “confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another.”

Before the setting of the sun let the members of the family assemble to read God’s word, to sing and pray.

We should jealously guard the edges of the Sabbath. Remember that every moment is consecrated, holy time.

Sanctified for Worship

“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Psalm 122:1

God has given us the whole of six days in which to do our work, and has reserved only one to Himself. This should be a day of blessing to us—a day when we should lay aside all our secular matters and center our thoughts upon God and heaven.

All heaven is keeping the Sabbath, but not in a listless, do-nothing way. On this day every energy of the soul should be awake, for are we not to meet with God and with Christ our Saviour? We may behold Him by faith. He is longing to refresh and bless every soul.

On Sabbath morning the family should be astir early. If they rise late, there is confusion and bustle in preparing for breakfast and Sabbath school. There is hurrying, jostling, and impatience. Thus, unholy feelings come into the home. The Sabbath, thus desecrated, becomes a weariness, and its coming is dreaded rather than loved.

The Sabbath is God’s time. He sanctified and hallowed the seventh day. He set it apart for man to keep as a day of worship.

We need to cherish and cultivate a spirit of true worship, a spirit of devotion upon the Lord’s holy, sanctified day. We should assemble together believing that we shall receive comfort and hope, light and peace from Jesus Christ.

All heaven was represented to me as beholding and watching upon the Sabbath those who acknowledge the claims of the fourth commandment and are observing the Sabbath. Angels were marking their interest in, and high regard for, this divine institution. Those who sanctified the Lord God in their hearts by a strictly devotional frame of mind, and who sought to improve the sacred hours in keeping the Sabbath to the best of their ability, and to honor God by calling the Sabbath a delight—these the angels were specially blessing with light and health, and special strength was given them.

Happiest Day of the Week

“If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.” Isaiah 58:13, 14

God’s love has set a limit to the demands of toil. Over the Sabbath He places His merciful hand. In His own day He preserves for the family opportunity for communion with Him, with nature, and with one another.

The Sabbath and the family were alike instituted in Eden, and in God’s purpose they are indissolubly linked together. On this day more than on any other, it is possible for us to live the life of Eden. It was God’s plan for the members of the family to be associated in work and study, in worship and recreation.

God’s holy rest day was made for man, and acts of mercy are in perfect harmony with its intent.

To relieve the afflicted, to comfort the sorrowing, is a labor of love that does honor to God’s holy day.

Since the Sabbath is the memorial of creative power, it is the day above all others when we should acquaint ourselves with God through His works.

During a portion of the day, all should have an opportunity to be out of doors. How can children receive a more correct knowledge of God … than in spending a portion of their time out of doors, not in play, but in company with their parents? Let their young minds be associated with God in the beautiful scenery of nature. … As they view the beautiful things which He has created for the happiness of man, they will be led to regard Him as a tender, loving Father. … As the character of God puts on the aspect of love, benevolence, beauty, and attraction, they are drawn to love Him.

The Sabbath—oh!—make it the sweetest, the most blessed day of the whole week.

To Be Kept in Eternity

“And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord.” Isaiah 66:23

How beautiful the earth was when it came from the Creator’s hand! God presented before the universe a world in which even His all-seeing eye could find no spot or stain. Each part of the creation occupied the part assigned to it, and answered the purpose for which it was created. Peace and holy joy filled the earth. There was no confusion, no clashing. There was no disease to afflict man or beast, and the vegetable kingdom was without taint or corruption. God looked upon the work of His hands, wrought out by Christ, and pronounced it “very good.”

The Sabbath was hallowed at the creation. As ordained for man, it had its origin when “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Job 38:7. …

The Sabbath was not for Israel merely, but for the world. It had been made known to man in Eden, and, like the other precepts of the Decalogue, it is of imperishable obligation. Of that law of which the fourth commandment forms a part, Christ declares, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.” Matthew 5:18. So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a sign of the Creator’s power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth again, God’s holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun. “From one sabbath to another” the inhabitants of the glorified new earth shall … “worship before Me, saith the Lord.”

God teaches that we should assemble in His house to cultivate the attributes of perfect love. This will fit the dwellers of earth for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for all who love Him. There they will assemble in the sanctuary from Sabbath to Sabbath, from one new moon to another, to unite in loftiest strains of song, in praise and thanksgiving to Him who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever. The Faith I Live By, 31–37

Story – Are You Ready?

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Suppose someone were to come running up to you right now and say, “It’s the end of the world!” How would you feel?

One girl said to me once, “I want Jesus to come, but I wish I knew I was ready.”

And this problem, I’ve noticed, is one that bothers many young people. How can we be sure we are ready for Jesus to come?

The first thing to remember is that Jesus wants to save us.

You may have been told that God is keeping a record in heaven so that in the judgment He can reveal who truly belongs to Him or who doesn’t. Now, it is true He is keeping a record. But He is keeping it so that someday He can point to it and say, “The record proves that this boy or girl gave his life to Me. He asked Me to forgive his sins. He is Mine, and no one can take him from Me. He shall live with Me forever.”

We know Jesus wants us in heaven, because He said so many times. He prayed to His Father, “I desire that these … may be with Me where I am.” He said to the people in Jericho, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” To the crowds who gathered to hear Him preach He said, “Come to Me, all of you.” John 17:24, NEB; Luke 19:10; Matthew 11:28. Jesus want to save us.

Another thing to remember is that when we ask God to forgive our sins, He forgives us. He doesn’t hold our sins against us anymore. We don’t need to be afraid that when Jesus comes He will hold up a long list of the sins we have repented of and tell us we can’t go to heaven. He has promised that if we repent and confess, He will be “faithful … to forgive.” 1 John 1:9. God keeps His promises. He forgives our sins and writes “pardon” next to our name in the books of heaven. He says, “I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:34

Well, now, if Jesus wants to save you, and if you have asked Him to forgive your sins, your record is clear. Why be worried and fearful about His coming? Look forward to His return with joy. Spend time every day reading about Him in the Bible so that you won’t get careless, talk to God often in prayer, and start planning now for the happy, joyful times you’ll have in heaven.

But perhaps you have never given your life to God. You have done things that were wrong and have not asked God to forgive you. In that case you ought to be worried, for the Bible makes it very plain that everyone who has not made things right with God will die when Jesus comes. They will be destroyed, Paul wrote, “with the brightness of His coming.”

It may be a struggle to admit you have been doing wrong. You may have to cancel some of your plans. You may have to break habits you cherish. You may have to give up things you enjoy doing. Some young people find this the hardest battle of their lives. They would rather do anything else than come to God and say, “I have been wrong. Please forgive me.”

Yet this is the best decision anyone ever made! If you have never surrendered your life to God, do so now. God is calling you. Stop for a minute and think of how kind Jesus was to come to earth to die for you. Remember the wonderful things He has promised to do for you in the future. Think how much you will lose if you reject His invitation.

Now bow your head and say,

“Dear God, forgive me for my sins. Help me to live like Jesus and be ready for Him to come.”

God will hear your prayer—and He will make sure you are ready when Jesus comes.

40 Favorite Children’s Stories, Lawrence Maxwell, ©2009, 129, 130

Good Men – Good Church

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“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.’

“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.”
 
Revelation 3:14-17

How could a people or a church ever become so blind that they are actually naked and think they are clothed? They learned to depend upon their own works and their own righteousness rather than the righteousness of Christ. And, though they thought themselves clothed, their own righteousness could not clothe them.

Jesus spoke of a similar situation found in Luke 18:10–14.

“ ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

“ ‘The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.”

“ ‘And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”

“ ‘I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’ ”

A Man Chosen and Ordained of God

Saul knew he had been ordained by God to lead His church. When he went out to fight God’s battles, God fought for him. But when God told him to destroy the Amalekites, he failed to do as he had been told. He reasoned, “Let’s take these animals and show our appreciation and gratitude for God. Instead of just killing them and wasting them, we will sacrifice them to God.” Look, however, at God’s assessment of what had taken place.

“So Samuel said, ‘When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, ‘But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.’ So Samuel said: ‘Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubborness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.’ ” 1 Samuel 15:17–23

Saul believed he was good, but in truth, he was blind. He thought he was clothed with righteousness, but he was absolutely naked. Look again at what verse 23 says. “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.” It is a solemn reality that the person God ordains for service, He can also remove. God ordained the children of Israel to be His people. Of them, He said, “Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (the Lord of hosts is His name): if those ordinances depart from before Me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever.” Jeremiah 31:35, 36. Even if the sun, moon, and stars should be removed, Israel would not be removed from being His people.

Man’s Reasoning

The children of Israel reasoned in Jesus’ day, that they were God’s people and nothing would change that. The tide still came in; the sun, moon, and stars still shone. But somehow, they forgot that what God establishes, He can also remove. Though God had established Saul, he also removed Him. As with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, God appointed them, but He also removed them. Thus, it was with the leadership in Jesus’ day, and thus it is today. When men begin to think that they are good because of position or works, they are absolutely blind.

There is no position or work in which we can engage that can make any one of us good. If there is any goodness in it, it is the goodness of Jesus that comes by faith in Him. But man believes that they can break the Sabbath and be held guiltless. The scribes and Pharisees believed they should not be found guilty when they lied and brought false charges against Jesus, because it would preserve the system for a good purpose.

Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were in the holy service of God. They had come out of Egypt and gone through the Red Sea; they had eaten manna and drunk the water from the rock. More than that, some of these leaders, possibly even Korah, Dathan, and Abiram themselves, had gone up on Mt. Sinai with Moses. God chose them, through Moses, to be representatives for Him. Moses, on the other hand, was not a representative of leadership; he was a prophet. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, since they were elected and had all of the evidence of God’s leading, came to the place where they became good in their own eyes, believing they were rich and needed nothing. Sadly, however, they were miserable, poor, blind, and naked and weren’t even aware of their true condition. They believed they could do things that God had never given them permission to do.

Leadership—Right or Wrong

In AD 364, the Council of Nicea declared that the sanctity of the Sabbath had been changed from the seventh day to the first day of the week. They did not do this by God’s authority but by church authority and church decree. They did so because they were leaders of God’s church.

In the 1890s, Mrs. White shows us how people studied the Bible and seemed to twist everything to their own wishes. The leadership was likening itself to Moses, and anyone who believed contrary to them was like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

In 1888, God chose A. T. Jones, E. J. Waggoner, and others to give the message of Christ our righteousness; but the leaders rejected the message because it did not go through them. What right do these people have to preach to the people something we have not sanctioned? Jones and Waggoner were not ordained by leadership. And the leadership’s authority was exercised against them. Read Mrs. White response.

“When you are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, you will see all that wickedness at Minneapolis as it is, as God looks upon it. If I never see you again in this world, be assured that I forgive you the sorrow and distress and burden of soul you have brought upon me without any cause. But for your soul’s sake, for the sake of Him who died for you, I want you to see and confess your errors. You did unite with those who resisted the Spirit of God. You had all the evidence that you needed that the Lord was working through Brethren Jones and Waggoner; but you did not receive the light; and after the feelings indulged, the words spoken against the truth, you did not feel ready to confess that you had done wrong, that these men had a message from God, and you had made light of both message and messengers.

“Never before have I seen among our people such firm self-complacency and unwillingness to accept and acknowledge light as was manifested at Minneapolis. I have been shown that not one of the company who cherished the spirit manifested at that meeting would again have clear light to discern the preciousness of the truth sent them from heaven until they humbled their pride and confessed that they were not actuated by the Spirit of God, but that their minds and hearts were filled with prejudice. The Lord desired to come near to them, to bless them and heal them of their backslidings, but they would not hearken. They were actuated by the same spirit that inspired Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Those men of Israel were determined to resist all evidence that would prove them to be wrong, and they went on and on in their course of disaffection until many were drawn away to unite with them.” The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 1066, 1067. What a tragedy.

It is shocking that today’s church committees believe they have been vested with an authority that disregards God’s commandments and laws. Are we not coming to the place where we think that we can go against God’s counsels and make our own decisions? When we follow the practices and policies of the world instead of those laid down in the word of God, are we not committing the sin of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram?

Mrs. White says that God will not hear the prayers of those who go against what the Bible strictly prohibits and condemns. When we do this, are we not committing the sin of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram? It is sin for anyone to decide that they are so good that they do not need to follow God exactly.

An Unnoticed Invasion

In Jesus’ day, the Jews had been sending their most promising young men to Alexandria in Egypt to attend the universities of Greece. Of course, they remained Jews, members of God’s true church; but they learned and brought home the Greek philosophy which is the basis of higher education.

The Greeks believed that the way to be truly educated was to reject everything until it could be proven. Incorporating that philosophy with the word of God is disastrous because the word of God must be studied by faith, not doubt.

I spoke with an ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister, an educator at one of our colleges, teaching according to the principles of Greek philosophy. He asked his students how they could know that God had really created the world in seven days. I asked him, “Why are you instilling doubt about the study of the Bible in your students’ minds?” He said, “I believe that the way we are educated is to doubt everything. That is the way we learn. This is true faith. Faith is when you doubt so much that you come to doubt your doubts and that is faith.”

I don’t know about you, but that hardly makes any sense at all. When this system of doubt is applied to the word of God, it destroys faith. You cannot study God’s word except by faith (Romans 10:17).

In Jesus’ day, the Jew who was not educated was looked down upon because it was the duty of Jewish parents to see that their children had a Christian education. The educational system, however, had been taken over by the Sadducees who, all the while claiming to be followers of God, rejected much of the Old Testament. What they could not prove, they reasoned away. It is interesting that there is not a single record of a Sadducee being converted or having accepted Jesus as his Saviour.

This liberal Greek philosophy is a deadly disease, causing people to doubt the word of God, placing human reason and logic above it. But a group of conservative Pharisees stood up, stating they did not believe this liberal philosophy. They believed the word of God simply because God said it. However, they became so conservative that they began to look at themselves as good people because they were doing everything the Bible said.

As time went on, they began to confuse conservatism with structuralism and to place more and more faith in a structured system, worshiping the church rather than God. In fact, the church was so sacred and so important that if anyone suggested that the church would be destroyed or said that the temple would be destroyed, as Jesus said it would be, that person was worthy of death and they sought to kill him because he was blaspheming God. Any criticism of the structure became criticism of God in their minds, so anyone who suggested that the system would be destroyed was executed.

How interesting it is that the Pharisees were the ones who became the bitterest enemies of Jesus, much more so than the Sadducees. In their minds, anything that did not go through the structure was wrong and was not of God.

John the Baptist was given the Elijah message to bring to the people in his day. (See Matthew 3:7–10.) This message was meant to prepare a people for Jesus’ first coming as well as His second coming.

“In this fearful time, just before Christ is to come the second time, God’s faithful preachers will have to bear a still more pointed testimony than was borne by John the Baptist. A responsible, important work is before them; and those who speak smooth things, God will not acknowledge as His shepherds. A fearful woe is upon them.” Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 1, 321

As Saul so sadly learned, what God ordains, He can also remove.

John the Baptist told the people of his day that God could raise up stones to make a church (Matthew 3:9), and God did it. He took the stony hearts of the Gentiles and fashioned them into the true church of Israel in the New Testament. Paul says in Galatians 3, Ephesians 2, and Romans 2, that the Gentiles had now become His true church. The church survived, but it was made up of different people.

John the Baptist said, “And do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father [we are the church].’ … And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Matthew 3:9

A Message of Love

Friend, the truth is going through. The movement God ordained for the last day, His true Seventh-day Adventist people will go through. God promised it would. The church is more than structure. In Jesus’ day, the church was so structuralized that God could not reach it through the system. He had to send John the Baptist as a minister independent of the system. Jesus was also an independent minister. But never having been sanctioned or ordained by the church, His people did not recognize Him as their Saviour.

It is interesting to note that even among those who were in an independent ministry, pride and self-sufficiency often came in. We find it in Peter and John. They, thankfully, eventually overcame these sinful traits. But not so with Judas. A member of Jesus’ independent ministry, the spirit of pride and self-sufficiency led him to betray his Master, the One who loved him the most, who gave him every opportunity to repent, and in the end, died for him even though he refused the gift.

The prevailing problem in Christ’s church in the last days, a problem that has been in His church throughout the ages, is self-righteousness, leading the way for error into the Christian church. The belief in their own righteousness makes a person feel so righteous that they no longer feel the need to obey God, believing that they know what is right and can decide for themselves what is right or wrong. That was Satan’s argument among the angels in heaven and it was his temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden. “God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good from evil.” Genesis 3:5. Eve would be so wise and so good that she would know for herself what she should or should not do.

God calls out a message of love to His church today. He says, “I love you too much to let you go. If you will accept Me as your Lord and Saviour, if you will simply come and follow Me, I will give you righteousness as a free gift of salvation. I will give you the power to obey every precept from a heart of love.” Salvation, righteousness, forgiveness, the power to obey—none of these are earned. They are gifts given to us by God Himself when we come to Him with contrition of heart, true repentance, and a willingness to be transformed into His image. All this is a gift to the obedient.

Pastor Marshall Grosboll, with his wife Lillian, founded Steps to Life. In July 1991, Pastor Marshall and his family met with tragedy as they were returning home from a camp meeting in Washington State, when the airplane he was piloting went down, killing all on board.

Worship of Men and Devils

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The tendency of the age is to “serve the creature more than the Creator.” The boastful spirit of men is described by Paul. He says, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man.” (See Romans 1:25, 22, 23.)

These statements were literally fulfilled in the heathenism of ancient times, and are being as literally fulfilled in the spiritualism of today.

In the worship of man, the first step in either age is to exalt and deify him, and the next is to worship his departed spirit.

In the worship of devils, the first step is to make them respectable, and the next is to adore them as gods.

About 6,000 years ago, Satan, the father of lies, told Eve that if she and her husband would only disobey God, and sin, “Ye should be as gods.” In our day, we find spiritualism teaching the same old lie.

Mr. Pope, at the National Convention of Spiritualists, at Chicago, said “that whereas the devil, in the garden of Eden, declared if man … would disobey the prohibition against eating of the tree, … he should become as God, knowing good from evil. That voice has gone on until, in the latter days, we hear it repeating, ‘Ye are Gods.’ We know that this divinity is in humanity, that this God is manifest in the flesh.”

The high spiritualist authority, Judge Edmunds, says,

“The soul is a god of itself.” Spiritualism, Vol. 1, 10

Another writer speaks as follows:

“The being called God exists, organically, in the form of the being called man.” The Educator, 303

Heathen mythology converted dead heroes into gods, and modern spiritualism revives the heathen custom, and offers worship to dead friends, great scholars, and noted philanthropists. With men transformed into gods, the next logical step is to worship and pray to their spirits after death.

The following is an extract from a prayer offered by E. S. Wheeler, in Music Hall, Boston, Sunday, March 5, 1871:

“Most holy angels, O ye great and good and beautiful souls, who have made earth and heaven it is fast becoming, hear our prayers. Unable to comprehend an Infinite Mind, we offer our supplications to you. Great souls that have blessed the world, condescend to bless us. Martyrs, heroes, patriots—ye who have inspired in all times the hearts of men, give us your sympathy, your love, your wisdom, in this hour.  Mighty ones of years gone by—Pythagoras, Zoroaster, Confucius, Budha—come to us. Socrates, Plato, Jesus, Mahomet, Ann Lee, Washington, Channing, Browning, Theodore Parker, hear us as we ask for strength and wisdom, and give, in answer to our practical prayer for help, that assistance which you well know is our necessity. Amen.”

This praying to the dead is not confined to avowed spiritualists, as evidenced by the following statement:

“Dr. George Adam Smith, in his ‘Life of Henry Drummond,’ mentions as a fact within his knowledge that certain persons habitually addressed prayers to Henry Drummond.” Living Church, November 14, 1899

The following is still more startling:

“Dr. Joseph Parker, of the City Temple, London, has openly declared that he prayed to his departed wife every day. He said that he ‘never came to the City Temple to preach without asking her to come with him.’ He further says, ‘I encourage my friend to pray to his wife, and to pray to God to ask her to come to his help. She will be more to him than twelve legions of unknown angels.’ ” Spiritism, 25, 26

Although not so outspoken, the following statement from the pen of General Booth, of the Salvation Army, is significant. Under the heading, “Communion with the Departed,” he says:

“Through all my history, my personal intercourse with the spirit world has been but limited. I have not been favored with many visions, and it is but seldom that I dream dreams that impart either pleasure or profit; and yet I have a spiritual communion with the departed saints that is not without both satisfaction and service. And especially of late the memories of those with whom my heart has the choicest communion in the past, if not the very beings themselves, have come in upon me as I have sat at my desk or lain wakeful on my bed in the night season. Amongst these, one form, true to her mission, comes more frequently than all besides, assuring me of her continued partnership in my struggle for the temporal and eternal salvation of the multitudes—and that is my blessed, my beautiful wife!” War Cry, November 27, 1897

The Devil is Their God and Father

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.” John 8:44

The following question and answer were given through the medium, Mrs. Conant:

“Question: Do you know of any such spirit as a person we call the devil?

“Answer: We certainly do. And yet this same devil is our god, our father.” Banner of Light, November 4, 1865

A.B. Child, another medium, says:

“What is called the devil is the spirit of god in nature.” Christ and the People, 167

In another work the same author says:

“It is the mission of the devil, yet unthought of by men, to carry them through the hell of earth, and prepare them for the heaven of the spiritual world.” Better Views of Living, 41

Spiritualism and Worshiping Devils

Concerning the origin of the heathen worship of demons, the author Gibbon writes:

“It was the universal sentiment, both of the church and of heretics, that the demons were the authors, the patrons, and the objects, of idolatry. Those rebellious spirits who had been degraded from the ranks of angels and cast down into the infernal pit, were still permitted to roam upon the earth, to torment the bodies and to seduce the minds of sinful men. The demons soon discovered and abused the natural propensities of the human heart toward devotion, and, artfully withdrawing the adoration of mankind from their Creator, they usurped the place and honors of the Supreme Deity. By the success of their malicious contrivances, they at once gratified their own vanity and revenge, and obtained the only comfort of which they were yet susceptible—the hope of involving the human species in the participation of their guilt and misery.” History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 1, 523

The nations of Caanan, when Israel came up from Egypt, deified the dead and worshiped them. In Numbers 25:1, 2, we read that the daughters of Moah invited Israel to “the sacrifices of their gods.” These occasions were celebrated with feasting and the most debasing orgies. David, referring to this very sin of Israel, said, they “ate the sacrifices of the dead.” Psalm 106:28. Hence the gods of Moab were deified dead men. Paul traces back such worship to its legitimate source. He says, “that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils.” 1 Corinthians 10:20. Hence, at Baal-Peor, Israel took part in devil worship. Likewise, all communication with so-called spirits of the dead is communication with devils, and the worship of spirits is no more nor less than heathen devil worship.

Writing upon “Demonology,” Farmer says:

“To some persons it may appear strange that possessions should be ascribed by many of the fathers after the time of Justin Martyr, to fallen angels.

“Several philosophers taught that the heathen demons were evil spirits of a rank superior to mankind, and that these demons personated the souls of the dead, gods, and genii, and procured themselves to be worshiped under their names.”

The gods of the Chinese are malignant devils. Prayers to them are to propriate these undesirable gods, and prevent them from doing injury to the worshipers.

Spiritualism has progressed backward toward heathenism in the matter of devil worship. Listen to this from a prayer offered by Miss Lizzie Doten, at the opening of one of her trance lectures:

“O Lucifer, thou son of the morning, who fell from thy high estate, and whom mortals are prone to call the embodiment of evil, we lift up our voices to thee.”

It has been seen that Satan is acknowledged as their god and father. It is, therefore, but natural that they should pray to him. And this worship is given with eyes open. In this prayer is the acknowledgment that their devil-god is the Lucifer who fell from his “high estate,” or, in the words of the Bible, was “cast as profane out of the mountain of God.” Ezekiel 28:16

We are informed, on good authority, that before the earthquake and fire destroyed San Francisco, there was in that city a temple devoted to the worship of the devil. And why not? We have read the prayers offered to the devil. Why should there not be temples for his worship?

In Everybody’s Magazine for March 1906, appeared an article by Vance Thompson, under the heading, “The Invisible World.” Perhaps we may be pardoned for quoting some of the earlier sentences from this article, and closing with his statements regarding demon worship in Paris. He says:

“A skeptical age; we do not believe in much of anything—unless, indeed, it bears the trade mark of science. The intellectual fashion is all for materialism. For the rest there is only an easy incredulity.

“And yet—the paradox is curious—never was the world so ghost-ridden. Never has it turned so wistfully to the occult. Never has it listened with an exception so painful at that closed door behind which mysterious silences stretch away—the door of the tomb.

“I dare say it is natural enough. Always in epochs of unbelief, when the conservative forms of faith are weakened, there is an immense growth of vague supernaturalism. It was in the cynical eighteenth century, when Voltaire had sneered religion out of fashion, that sorcerers, fortune tellers, magicians—all the Mesmers and Cagliostros—ruled the world.

“Our new century, quite as skeptical, is equally in love with the marvelous. Only the fashion in wizards has changed. The modern magician comes from the laboratory. He speaks in the name of science, for there is a science of the immaterial—a science of witchcraft—a science which has its professors and learned societies, its journals and magazines.

“The very ghosts that haunt the societies for psychical research have taken on a scientific air; they walk no more in windy corridors, clanking spectral chains; in a practical, modern way they exhibit themselves to scientific congresses.

“World over, psychic phenomena are being studied by trained scientists. Dismissing theories, they give themselves to the observation of scientifically established facts. Their labors range from the study of hysteria, of hypnosis and the transmission of psychic forces, to the time-old mysteries of enchantment and apparition. …

“Science recognizes the existence of an invisible world, wherein unknown forces flit to and fro; what ghostly things they are it knows not, but they are very real, very strong and terrible. They are not material; they are masters of matter. Occult forces, but no longer unknown; science has given them passports and names. …

“In Paris I had an opportunity of studying some of these dark exploits of modern magic. Among those who dabbled in it were men so eminent as Paul Adam—the greatest living novelist, were not Meredith alive—Laurent Tailhade, the poet Edouard Dubus, Jules Bois, Suzanne Gay, the actress, and Stanislas de Guaita.

“De Guaita risked his life and his reason in his conflicts with the unknown. His astral body was detachable, as the occultists say; that is, his soul possessed the power of leaving his body, without breaking entirely the fluidic cord that attached it to the body. This, by the way, was an accomplishment of the medieval sorcerers. This dangerous practice led De Guaita to madness and death; it led the poet Dubus to madness and death; and, at one time, Laurent Tailhade was cared for in a madhouse.”

Thompson speaks further of a known and named “sudden death” which overtakes those who dabble too deeply in occult lore. He speaks of the sudden death of Irving Bishop, Charcot, and “the blithe actress, Suzanne Gay, whom he [Charcot] married and led with him into the vertigo of sorcery and death.”

Thompson continues, “Would you look farther? I have come close to stormy and mystic adventures in this occult world of Paris; I have seen men die and men go mad in their attempts to explore the land beyond the frontier [the spirit land], that cloudy land of superstitions, of hopes and terrors, where the unknown forces flit to and fro. It is not well to adventure there. The practice of magic [the arts of spirits] is dangerous. It is the most perfidious of psychic intoxicants.

“The dark forces which science recognizes, but does not define, exercise marvelous attraction on minds of a certain order. In scores of temples they [“dark forces”—devils] are worshiped under different names. I know a little temple in Bruges where the followers of Lucifer gather, and not far from the Pantheon in Paris there is an altar to Pandœmon. This may seem grotesque; perhaps it is, but it is formidable.

“It need hardly be said that the rites wherewith Lucifer is worshiped are hid in much mystery. A couple of years ago I visited one of the ‘chapels’; it was in the rue Rochechouart. The black mass, which I have no desire to describe, was celebrated. It was Friday at three o’clock. Over the altar was a winged figure of Lucifer, amid flames; he trampled under foot a crocodile—symbol of the church.

“A few days ago, I found the chapel closed. Only after patient research did I find the new abode of the Satanists. Their chapel now is in a great new apartment house at No. 22, Rue du Ruisseau, within the shadow of the cathedral of the Sacred Heart on Montmartre. As of old, Satan is worshiped; every Friday the Luciferians gather. I could name many of them—men not unknown in the learned profession.

“Some of them have influence enough to secure now and then, a right of midnight entry to the catacombs; there amid skulls and bones, with orgies I do not care to describe, they have worshiped the spirit of evil—calling upon Baphomet, upon Lucifer and Beelzebub and Ashtaroth and Moloch, with cries and wailing hysteria. This attempt to reestablish the worship of the fallen archangel is, I think, the most remarkable manifestation of modern occultism.”

Connecting, in a measure, the manifestations of these occult forces with spiritualism, Mr. Thompson continues:

“Paris, the city of light and laughter, is dotted over with spiritualistic temples—there is a notable one in the rue Saint Jacques; another is in the rue des Martyrs. One and all they derive from the Fox sisters, who amazed New York a half century ago.

“Among the faithful are such men as Sardou—himself a medium—and Saint-René Taillandier, the French envoy to Morocco, and Camille Flammarion. If they are to be believed—and why not?—the ghosts are more active in unbelieving Paris than in any other city at the present moment.

“Jean Lorrain, the novelist, assures me that their activity is a menace to workaday life. For a long time, he called them and they came; now they come unbidden; cold hands are laid upon him in the dark. And Paul Adam, that great, serene man, was troubled for a year by the attacks of larvæ, which whispered disturbing suggestions to him.

“Spiritualism is the successor of the medieval occultism and of the older magic. Today science, without accepting its manifestations, studies them; and in these troubled waters almost all the facts upon which the new metaphysics is founded have been fished up.”

Past, Present, and Future, James Edson White, ©1909, 292–303