We have been told that what we are about to study is one of the most important subjects that we can study. Ellen White says, “A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, March 22, 1887.
This is both the greatest need that we have and the most urgent. “The most urgent” means that we need it right now. In fact, it says in that statement, that to seek this should be our first work. That was written in 1887.
The Revival Is to Come Among Us
Now let us look at a little two-letter word in that first sentence. It says, “A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.” There is a little word there in the center, it is spelled u-s. Who is the us? Now maybe I should give you a hint. This statement was written in the Review and Herald. What is that? That is the church paper of who? The Seventh-day Adventist Church. So who is the “us?” It would be Seventh-day Adventists. So what is the greatest need of the Seventh-day Adventist Church? I am not talking only about home churches or the historic Adventist movement worldwide, but about every person who professes, anywhere in the world, to be a Seventh-day Adventist—all the conference churches, all the institutions, the General Conference—everything. What is our greatest need? A revival of true godliness is our greatest and the most urgent of our needs.
What Is Godliness?
Have you thought recently about what godliness is? We are not going to look so much at what, as we are going to start looking at how. However, if you want to understand more about it, read the first chapter of 1 Peter very carefully and you will understand what godliness is. Godliness is Godlikeness. What is God like? Peter explains it there. He quotes from the Old Testament where the Lord says to His people, “Be holy, for I am holy.” Leviticus 11:45; 19:2; 20:7. God and His law are holy. See Romans 7:12. A life in harmony with that law will be a holy life.
How Will This Revival Occur?
What we want to take a look at is how. It does not do you any good to know what needs to happen unless you start to understand how it happens. How is this revival of true godliness supposed to happen in Adventism? People are asking the question, will the Seventh-day Adventist denomination or structure go through to glory? There are a number of different answers that are being given to this question. Within the last year or so there has been an increasing number of people who have given a resounding “No” to that question. What they are saying is, “No, the Seventh-day Adventist Church structure is not going through to glory, because it is Babylon and it is just waiting to be destroyed.” There are also other people that believe very similar to that, but they say that it is not Babylon quite yet, but that it is on the verge and then it will become Babylon. They are not sure that the actual decree that it is Babylon has been pronounced. The whole issue that some people believe that the structure is Babylon has to be addressed because there are people all over the world starting to say that, and the question is, “On what basis are they saying it?” Where is the theological evidence?
Spiritual Babes
Before we go on to some other answers that are given to that question, I want you to see a few texts of Scripture. “Whom will He [that is the Lord] teach knowledge? And whom will He make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts?” Isaiah 28:9. That is, those who are spiritual babies. The Bible talks about spiritual babies—people who have just accepted the Christian faith. Peter addressed people who had just accepted the Christian faith and he says; “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” 1 Peter 2:2.
If you were in trouble in your financial life, or in your business life, or in your marriage, would you go to a baby to find a way out of your trouble? Why not? That is what people do spiritually all the time! People that have been Christians for two or three years feel that they know enough about the Christian religion that they should solve the theological problems of the Christian church. See 1 Timothy 3:6, 10. You do not go to a baby Christian to find out the answers to the difficult problems you have. There is nothing against being a baby; we all love babies. We want them to grow, but we do not go to them to get the answers to hard problems.
No Lie is of the Truth
Let us look at another principle. “I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.” 1 John 2:21. What does it mean that no lie is of the truth? “All truth, whether in nature or in revelation, is consistent with itself in all its manifestations.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 114. You can look up all the texts in the Bible, you can look up all the passages in the Spirit of Prophecy about Babylon, and if you know the truth, you will be able to see that they all agree. If they do not all agree, there is something the matter with what you believe. You have not studied it out enough. The truth is always consistent with itself, no lie is of the truth. If two things are the truth, they will not contradict.
Is the Probation for the Church Just About Over?
There are a lot of people today who are being asked, “Do you believe that the Seventh-day Adventist Church structure is going to go through to glory?” An answer that is given is that the structure is in the same position that Israel was in just before the crucifixion.
Do you remember when Jesus came into Jerusalem? It talks about it in the book Desire of Ages, 578. It says, “When the fast westering sun should pass from sight in the heavens, Jerusalem’s day of grace would be ended.” It was not yet too late. Right at that time they could have turned around, they could have accepted the Messiah. The door was still open for them to do it, but they would not. Some people say they believe that the structure is in that kind of a situation. It is just about over, it is just about too late, but there is still time to turn around.
What is the day of grace all about? What is salvation all about? It is about having my sins taken away. Salvation from sin involves two things. First, Jesus delivers me from my guilt. Secondly, He delivers me from the power of sin in my life. That is what salvation is about. That is what primitive godliness is about. That is what our greatest and most urgent need is.
If your besetting sin is beating your wife, Jesus does not save you so that you can go on beating your wife. He wants to save you from that so that you do not do it anymore. A person is not saved from beating his wife, if he is still beating his wife. He is not saved yet. Jesus came to save you from your sins. Are people saved from alcohol if they are still drinking? No! That is the gospel according to antichrist, that you can be saved while you are still going on living a life of sin. That is taking such a large hold over much of the Christian world that there are actually people today that are killing people and they believe that they are saved because they go and confess it to their priest. But friend you are not saved while you are living in sin. Nobody will be taken to heaven who has sin in their life. To be saved from sin means you are pardoned for the guilt of your past sins and you overcome so that you do not go on sinning. See Romans 6 and 8. The church that goes through to glory must give up all sin, repent of it, confess it and forsake it; and by the power of the Holy Spirit practice righteousness.
What Organization Is Going Through to Glory?
Now I want to look at the traditional or the most common answer to this question. The majority of Seventh-day Adventists today do not believe that the denomination will be cast aside as was the Jewish nation. They believe that the Seventh-day Adventist Church denomination will go through to glory, and if it will go through to glory, you had better stay with it. We had better find out what is true from the Bible.
Some of you know that a few years ago, not by my choice, the local Seventh-day Adventist conference church of which I was a member disfellowshipped me. So I am not part of that structure anymore. After that happened, I had a friend that wrote me a letter and indicated that I was no longer part of the church. If that is so, I need to do something about it right away. I want to go to heaven. I do not want to have a false hope and think that I am going to heaven and have the Lord come and say, John, you are not part of the bride of Christ. You will have to stay here. We must understand the answer to this question really well. It involves eternal consequences. When Jesus comes back to this earth again, He is coming to take His bride back to heaven and those are the only people living upon the earth that will be going. We will be lost if we are not part of His bride. See Revelation 19:7, 8.
The Wheat and the Tares?
Now of course, the people that believe that the Adventist Church structure will not be cast aside as was the Jewish church, but will go through to glory, are not naive enough to believe that every member of the church will be part of that triumphant body. The way they explain that is generally with the parable of the wheat and the tares. They say, “We know that there is a lot of apostasy and corruption in the church now, but before Jesus comes, He is going to move it all out.” That is encouraging! Let’s see if we can figure out how that is going to happen. Remember that we are going to study how?
The Bottom Line
Has it crossed your mind that if you are ever going to find out the truth, it might be of vital importance for you to know who and what the church is? You see, these different teachings are based on a different definition of who and what the church is. Do you think that God knows who the church is? I am not asking this irreverently, but I want you to think it through. If God knows who the church is, do you suppose that any time He wanted to, He could tell one of His prophets who the church is? If a prophet came to you and told you who the church was, would you believe it? That is a hard question. I have noticed that when prophets come and tell people who and what the church is, they do not believe it. I remember hearing people read some of the plainest definitions in the Spirit of Prophecy about who and what the church is, and you know what they would do? They would explain it all away. Have you ever seen anybody do that?
Balancing Statements
The important question is, what does the prophet actually say, not what do I think? Is it enough if a prophet just comes right out and says this is what it is? Somehow with this subject, it is not enough for most people. There is such a deep prejudice, that most people will not accept it. They have another definition and they say, “Well, there are balancing statements.” Have you ever heard that expression? There are balancing statements. Red is red. “Oh, no, it’s not, there’s balancing statements.” What does that mean? It is another way of saying that there are other statements that contradict it. What did we read in 1 John 2:21? There is no lie that is of the truth. If it is all true, does it all have to agree? There could never be a balancing statement that would contradict the truth.
Faithful Souls Constitute God’s Church
In the inspired writings, are there plain definition statements about who and what the church is?
I am going to share two plain statements with you. I do not know why these statements are not accepted, but they are not. Almost every time I have heard anyone read them, they try to explain them away. But when I read them, they still say the same thing. This is a plain statement that defines who and what the church is. This is the first chapter in Acts of the Apostles, and the whole chapter is about the church. I will just read one sentence. It says, “From the beginning . . .” Is this talking about the church triumphant? When does the church triumph? It triumphs right at the end, just before Jesus comes. People say that it is talking about the church triumphant. Now wait a minute, this is talking about the church from the beginning, not at the end. “From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth.” Now does that sound to you like a plain definition statement of who and what the church is? Is this statement talking about a perfected church? No, a faithful soul can make many mistakes and have many defects of character not yet overcome. Peter and the rest of the twelve disciples are described in the Spirit of Prophecy as faithful souls but they certainly made many mistakes. And this statement is not talking about an invisible church either—look up the context.
Somebody may say that they have so many objections that have not been answered. I have checked out these hundred or so objections that people raise and every single one of them can be answered from the Bible and the Spirit of prophecy in simple language. The biggest question is, can you simply believe what God says, or does God have final authority in your life? Have you made the commitment? Are you really part of the church or do you just go to church? Jesus is looking for the very same thing today as He was looking for in the Garden of Eden. He wanted to know from Adam and Eve, “Can I trust you”? The root word for trust, faith, faithful and believe in the Greek, is all the same. The church is faithful souls. Who are they? They are the people that believe. They are the people who have made a public commitment with the Lord. See Matthew 10:32, 33. Jesus is looking for people that He can depend on and He is going to find them. There is no question that He is going to find them, but the question is, Am I going to be one of them? When things happen that you cannot explain and it seems like other people let you down, can Jesus still depend on you?
“Those who keep God’s commandments, those who live not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, compose the church of the living God.” Manuscript Release, vol. 1, 296. Who is it? God knows who it is. He tells us, This is who it is: it is the faithful souls, it is the ones that don’t live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of My mouth. They say, “Lord, whatever You tell me, by Your grace I will do it.” God says, “That is the people that compose My church.” When Jesus comes, what is going to matter is not whether or not I have my name on the books down here, it is whether He will recognize me as being part of His own. See Isaiah 66:5.
When you marry somebody, that person then belongs to you. Jesus is coming to get His bride—people that belong to Him. Do you belong to him? “Oh, yes,” somebody says, “I belong to him.” How do you know? Jesus says this is the way you know it. “If you live by every word that proceeds out of My mouth.” Do you want to be part of that group?
The End