Issue: 1996 August

Reporting from Switzerland – Contend for the Faith

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It was in July 1991 that we came in personal contact with Steps to Life for the first time. We met pastor Marshall and John Grosboll at the first International Campmeeting in Hengelo, Netherlands. This was the very first time that we saw so many people who believed like my wife and I. We met people from Hartland, Hope International, David Kang, Ty Gibson, Russel Standish and others. The reason we were at this campmeeting was to take the opportunity to be baptized together. During the meeting, when I was listening for the first time to Marshall Grosboll’s sermon, I was very happy that we had found people who believed the same as we did. He was preaching about Christ’s nature and all the sermons from Marshall and John were real blessings to all the people. This campmeeting will ever be in our mind. On Sabbath, my wife and I were baptized with ten other people by Pastor Russel Standish. Before we went home, I asked Marshall Grosboll if it would be possible to invite him to come to Switzerland some time.

A few weeks after we were back home, we heard the sad news of the death of the Grosboll family. I had a very hard time understanding why this happened. The last booklet of Marshall’s was sent to me, and after I read it, I was convinced that this booklet should be given also to German speaking people. I spent many hours translating it. In August 1992, 10,000 copies of Somebody Cares in German were printed. Now this booklet is also translated into the Romanian and Hungarian language.

In November 1992 we had our first campmeeting with John Grosboll in Melchnau, Switzerland. The second campmeeting was in May 1993 with John Grosboll, Ron Woolsey and Jakob Gnanakkan. People from Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland were attending. In the same year we had a campmeeting with Norman Hopkins from England and Venita Marcussen. Walter Tschoepe was visiting us and was speaking to us on Sabbath one year ago.

Since February 1993, I went, for the first time, with Ron and Claudia Woolsey to Romania. I spent now about 30,000 kilometers and 3 months for the supporting of our “Historic Adventists” friends during my eight times travels. 5,000 copies of “Somebody cares” in the Romanian language, 350 sacks with clothes and shoes, 1,300 kilograms of rice, 2 copy-machines, 10 bicycles, 1 power-saw, 5 wheel chairs, complete equipment for a dentist and many other things were brought by a VW-Bus with a trailer. I am happy that every time I was also able to bring them financial help as well, so that they can work fulltime for the gospel.

After the campmeeting in Hengelo in 1991, we attended the international meetings every year. Because of the lack of translators, I was asked to help translate for the speakers and was invited to speak as well. I decided to distribute the sermons from these different meetings and from the meetings in Switzerland. The tape ministry now has a list with over 100 sermons from speakers from all over the world. I offer also 10 different music tapes, like “Scripture Songs I-IV,” “He Will Carry You,” “Set Free,” “Heartsongs,” “Quietly Await,” “If That is Not Love” and others. The book Steps to Christ is recorded on audio tape and some parts from Christ’s Object Lessons and the book Somebody cares. Also available are some tapes recorded from the Bible, like the gospel of John, some letters of Paul, the book of Revelation, and parts of the Psalms. Since I started with this, I have duplicated more than 2,700 audio tapes.

With the computer and the copy machine I was able to make tracts in many different ways. Some of these tracts are translated articles from Ellen White or compilations. Some are different chapters of the larger books like Great Controversy, Desire of ages, Patriarchs and Prophets, and Acts of the Apostles. I also have my personal experience on paper in the form of a tract, with an advertisement at the end, where people can ask for one free copy of the books Steps to Christ, Desire of Ages or the Great Controversy. The title of this is No more Sunday, because when I accepted the Sabbath, I decided to keep the right day in the future. 25 different tracts are now available.

Two years ago, before we moved in the house we are living in now, we sent out 25,700 leaflets with a coupon (in every household around the region) for the Great Controversy by mail. The result was 85 orders. In the same time we started homeschooling two of our tree children. We did find a nice place out in the country side, were we live now surrounded by fields and forests. We have our own spring water and wood for heating the house. The children are happy with the two dogs, two rabbits, three cats, three goats and some chickens. The first winter, we had for two months, more then one meter of snow. The last 300 meters we had to walk to the house, because it was impossible to reach the house by car, even with 4 wheel drive and snow chains. But the spring time is a wonderful time with beautiful flowers on the fields and with the beautiful songs of the birds in the morning.

The LORD has helped us many times to overcome difficulties and troubles. I would like to take this opportunity to give thanks for this and to encourage His people all over the world to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” The LORD will help us to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” I am sure that we have the truth, but “Man’s advantages for obtaining a knowledge of the truth, however great these may be, will prove of no benefit to him unless the heart is open to receive the truth, and there is conscientious surrender of every habit and practice that is opposed to its principles.” Desire of Ages, 455, 56.

Only through His strength and love can we conquer and through faith we see the heavenly home. Sister White wrote many, many lines, and I did learn very much through her writings. One sentence I decided to take heed of: “The unstudied unconscious influence of a holy life is the most convincing sermon that can be given in favor of Christianity” Sketches From the Life of Paul, 331. It would be a great joy for us, if you would remember us in your prayers.

May the LORD bless you and help you to live for Him, because He died for us.

Reporting from Tanzania, East Africa – The Simplest Means

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In what is called the “African Bush,” millions of acres are home to hundreds of various tribes of native African people. Today’s true story comes from the bush of Tanzania, East Africa. How will the Lord get the Three Angels’ Messages to these extremely remote and unentered areas?

This account relates how God can use very simple ways. Our story begins on perhaps an ordinary day in the African bush. Although no one really knows exactly how it all happened, many facts remain to tell the story. A literature evangelist was faithfully going about his duties selling Seventh-day Adventist literature to village people in Tanzania. A number of folks from the Roman Catholic belief became very alarmed as the evangelist’s literature exposed false religion.

As has been the case in ages past, it was determined by them that this man must be stopped at all costs. So a plan was conspired and at a certain place in the bush, the evangelist was attacked as he passed that way. With weapons raised high, the villains slew this dear man of God and fled, leaving him unburied beneath the hot African sun. The ants quickly did their fearful work and soon nothing but bones remained!

The evangelist’s friends never heard from him again nor did they know his whereabouts. Week after week, month after month passed by. Then almost one year later, a dog from the nearby village happened to come upon the area. He eagerly sniffed among the sun-bleached, white bones of the evangelist, and came across a leather satchel that belonged to the evangelist. He heartily began to chew on the corners, but not content to remain there, the canine gracefully carried the leather satchel in its mouth and headed for his master’s mud hut.

Upon arriving he resumed his activity of gnawing at the hardened leather treasure he had found. Little did the dog know that someone in the family also noticed the cargo that he had carried home. So the master of the house came to inspect what his dog had and carefully opened the hardened, weather-beaten leather case and to his surprise, out came some message books still in fairly good condition. The messages were eagerly read, shared with others, and accepted.

Unkind men instigated by evil angels had sought to prevent God’s Word from reaching those in the darkness of error and superstition but they all failed. The Three Angels’ Messages must go through and God used an ordinary village dog to bring the glad tidings.

Today in that region of Tanzania, there is a large company of believers who assemble each Sabbath and worship the Creator. Many wonder in awe as God used this simple means to enlighten His people. How much more can God use us if we place our wills on His side. “O ye of little faith.” Some say, “I can’t preach or talk with people very well,” neither could this dog, but God used it to accomplish His purpose.

“There is no limit to the usefulness of the one who, putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart and lives wholly consecrated to God.” Desire of Ages, 250.

“It is not alone the most talented, not alone those who hold high positions of trust, or are the most highly educated from a worldly point of view, whom the Lord uses to do His grand and holy work of soul-saving. He will use simple means; He will use many who have had few advantages to help in carrying forward His work. He will, by the use of simple means, bring those who possess property and lands to a belief of the truth, and these will be influenced to become the Lord’s helping hand in the advancement of His work.” Letter 62, 1909.

Reporting from Illinois, USA – By God ’s Grace

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I’m a fifth generation SDA, but I fell in love with dear Jesus when I was eighteen years old. My first craving was to learn more of Him. My heavy college load of pre-med at a public college sank into nothingness as I read books like Desire of Ages. I got a D in French, a D in History, and an F in Algebra. My dear mother thought I was ruined. But God did not let those grades hurt me one bit because I had done what he wanted me to do. I had gotten to know Him. For the next 6 ½ years my grades were fine.

My second craving was to share this lovely Jesus with as many as I could, and I prayed that He would help me do it. Although I did not realize then, that is just the kind of prayer that God delights to answer. That craving led me to read Great Controversy, give Bible studies, start an SDA gospel ministry, and write the book National Sunday Law as a soul-winning tool to reach the modern TV minds of today with God’s Three Angel’s Messages. Our kind Father has pushed them out around the world with 8.6 million in print. God gets all the credit. He gets all the praise, for we can do nothing. It just gives us a lot of joy. Why not pray that God will use you to reach many souls for Him? Then He will use you to inspire others. I dare you to pray it. He will answer that prayer!

I used to look in church basements to try to find a soul-winning tool that could grab people’s curiosity, lead them to Jesus, to the cross, His love, His law, His Sabbath, and give them the warning against the mark of the beast, and the Three Angel’s Messages, all in one simple setting. This tool would need to penetrate the modern TV minds, be small enough for busy people, and be wrapped up in Jesus, yet give them God’s last warning message. I could not find such a thing.

Since I finally found such a book, I am using it along with many SDA people. National Sunday Law is calculated to arouse their curiosity to read Great Controversy, which most TV minds will not read today. Now we get orders for hundreds of the Great Controversy. After they receive it, we enroll them in the Bible course through the mail. We have over 100 now taking Bible studies that way.

Then, there’s the satellite TV program once a week, on which we are going through the book of Revelation, and through the life of the lovely Jesus. We also send this program on video to hundreds each month who have no satellite dish.

I speak in many SDA churches in the USA and other countries. The dear SDA people need to learn how to be true historic Seventh-day Adventists. If you or I don’t teach them, who will? Their pastors? They need to be awakened out of a stupor to see that Rome is attacking God’s church and trying to turn it into a Roman Catholic clone. They also need to wake up to really know dear Jesus, and to know their duty to reach the world with the very message that God told us to give.

I have a special video series exposing Rome’s attack. I make it plain that as an ordained SDA minister, I’m standing in loyal defense of God’s SDA church against that attack.

At our church, we have SDA campmeetings once per year, and a one week soul-winning school every two months. It lasts one week so that those who work can take a weeks vacation and come to it without losing their jobs.

God has also provided a beautiful large building, which by God’s grace will be used as a “health resort” with health classes, and a health restaurant, to help save souls by way of medical missionary work. Our work in the building is not finished yet, but we appreciate your prayers that our kind Father will help us, and will bless.

May God richly bless you as we all work together with Him for souls, so that they, with us, can soon be home in that wonderful land where Jesus is.

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Reporting from California, USA – Healing the Sick

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“Christ, who created the world and all things that are therein is the life and light of every living thing . . In Him is life, that is original, unborrowed, underived.” Medical Ministry, 7. Because Christ loved the life He gave to each in the human family, He came to restore that life to its fullness. His requirement for all of us is to do our part in the restoration and reconciliation of fallen man to Himself. Jesus says to all that follow Him, “Heal the sick.” Matthew 10:8. This is the work the Lord gave us to do through the health ministry. Specifically what we do is teach health principles to those who are ill and point them to a better way that they may be healed. Our programs are always Christ centered. Our main object is to introduce fallen man to his Creator.

In California we offer a ten day detoxification program. This is a thorough cleanse of the entire body. During the ten days the participants stay with us in our seven bed facility. Each day we teach and put into practice the eight laws of health as found in Ministry of Healing, 127. We encourage sunbathing with moderate exposure, adequate exercise, much needed rest, along with the proper use of water, etc. Each day a lecture is given teaching health principles, the nature of disease, and how to overcome disease. The highlight of the day seems to be the afternoon steambath. Our guests range from the terminally ill to those just wanting to improve their health. No one is turned away because of finance. We want to share with all as Jesus did.

We are located on the eastern slope of the San Bernardino mountains, 4,500 feet above sea level. The air is relatively clean and hiking abundant as we border a protected wilderness area. No neighbors are near, giving privacy to do the Lord’s work in peace and quiet.

We are frequently asked to speak and teach the health message. We also conduct training programs on how to be a medical missionary, give massage therapy, perform hydrotherapy, and the preparation needed to do all this work. The Lord has blessed as we see healing taking place in the physical man. More importantly, souls are being won for the Lord. “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.” Matthew. 9:37. Won’t you be a part of the final harvest and help with the needed work-force to finish this work so we can go home?

Everyone is to be engaged in the service of the Lord. We think you will agree we are at the end of time. “Those who have a knowledge of the truth as it is revealed in God’s word must now come to the front. My brethren, God requires this of you.” Medical Ministry, 22.

“Christ, the great medical missionary, is our example. Of Him it is written that He ‘went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.’ He healed the sick and preached the gospel. In his service, healing and teaching were linked closely together. Today they are not to be separated.” Review and Herald, September 21, 1905.

As we can see, God has a plan to spread the gospel which is to include the medical missionary work.

“Christ stands before us as the pattern Man, the great medical missionary—an example for all who should come after. . . We are to do the same work that the great medical missionary undertook in our behalf. We are to follow the path of self-sacrifice trodden by Christ.” Medical Ministry, 20.

We are frequently asked, “Why did you become a medical missionary?” This question can be answered best by relating a recent experience.

Recently we were at Steps to Life when a man some 1,500 miles away called. He said, “I was told about you by an acquaintance who said you might possibly help me. My wife, whom I love dearly, has terminal cancer. (He was crying as he related this to us.) The doctor gives no hope. I love her so much! I want her to live. Please help my wife.” At that moment we felt the weight and responsibility of what it means to be a medical missionary.

Two weeks later we visited this precious couple in their home. We suggested a natural food diet designed to bring healing to the body. More important we prayed with them and directed them to the Great Physician. Both now have hope and are closer to Jesus than before. She has decided to attend our next program this summer. We all have faith that, if it is God’s will, and she follows the health laws God has given us, restoration of health will come.

Why not pray for a miracle, some people may ask? Wouldn’t this be easier and faster than going through so much trouble? Today, in most cases, lifestyle needs to be changed for healing to come. Part of medical missionary work is to educate on true health principles. Then the Lord can honor prayers for healing. We are told: “The way in which Christ worked was to preach the word, and to relieve suffering by miraculous works of healing. But I am instructed that we cannot now work in this way; for Satan will exercise his power by working miracles. God’s servants today could not work by means of miracles, because spurious works of healing, claiming to be divine, will be wrought.

“For this reason the Lord has marked out a way in which His people are to carry forward a work of physical healing combined with the teaching of the word. . . The time is at hand when Satan will work miracles to confirm minds in the belief that he is God. All the people of God are now to stand on the platform of truth as it has been given in the third angel’s message.” Medical Ministry, 14, 15.

Another aspect of our work is sending Bibles and Spirit of Prophecy books to Africa. Nearly six years ago we inherited “Inspiration Books, Inc.,” a California non-profit organization proclaiming the Three Angel’s Messages mainly to Africa. Many thousands of books are sent each year to hungering souls because of donations of used books or money for new ones which comes to us from faithful Historic Adventists. Many more could be sent if we had the funds. We wish space was permitted in this article to share some of the thrilling testimonies we receive from precious souls who have found the Sabbath and our message through these books. Many home churches are being raised up all over the world as apostasy is growing, and faithful Seventh-day Adventists, along with those who are hearing the name of Jesus for the first time, are meeting together—some just under a tree.

Jesus is coming very soon! We are told, “Get ready! Get ready! Get ready!” Early Writings, 64. Let us follow this instruction and get ready.
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Reporting from the Philippines – Pressing Forward Despite Difficulties

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The work in the Philippines is going forward and we are very busy. There are currently eight historic Seventh-day Adventist pastors and we have plans to increase that number to 10 very soon. Their work is mainly evangelism and also visiting and strengthening and organizing the home churches. In April we had a month long training session for the young people which was followed by a month long evangelistic series in Roblon. They learned how to go door to door and sing for the people and give health talks and Bible studies in their homes.

At first the meetings in Roblon were in the open air but when rain interfered we rented a very old condemned school building and completed the series there. Our evangelistic meetings could be helped with a tent and a good PA system. The young people were active in visitation in the villages during the day and assisting the ministers with the meetings each evening. There are about thirty-five young people who are involved in Bible work. But after we trained them we have no more funds to support them in their work. All of the pastors have given up good jobs to go into full time gospel work and they and their families often suffer want as they sacrifice for the work.

We recently held a campmeeting on Palawan. There are two home church groups there who have been constructing church buildings. We are thankful to the supporters of Steps to Life for assisting financially so that these buildings could be completed.

We have been receiving many urgent calls from groups of Catholics (the Philippines is 80-85 % Catholic) who are asking to hear our message. Brother Jun Mendoza and Brother Willie just returned from meeting with a group in Urdaneta Pangasinan in central Luzon. This was a group of Catholics, mostly professional people, who have been studying the Bible and have their own chapel. They were very open to the health message and some became vegetarians immediately. They also enjoyed the messages of prophecy. They asked us to give a series of studies. Hopefully we will be returning soon.

Some of the pastors have been requested by conference SDA churches to give presentations on health and prophecy topics and we have seen some changes with a growing openness. They have learned that Elder Ralph Larson has helped our work and they are more open since he is highly respected here because he taught here in the seminary for many years. Also, we have been explaining about historic Adventist. They know the older conservative Adventists don’t cook on Sabbath and are health reformers and they know that we believe these things and they ask if we are “original” and we say yes we are original or historic Adventist. One young lady from a home church was asked to give health lectures during the first half hour of a radio broadcast sponsored by a conference church and this is working well. We are slowly able to present the Spirit of Prophecy to them. We are praying for a reformation.

One pastor in Palawan has been asked by a group of SDA students in the public university to start a study with them. This is a group of several hundred young people. This will involve a great deal of travel which is costly.

We are moving forward with organizing the home churches with each group electing elders, deacons, a treasurer and clerk. We have been having meetings to decide on the best way to organize for the improvement of the evangelistic work so that we work like a team. We have read of the organization in Ghana and see that it benefits their efforts to have organization.

We have difficulty visiting the many home churches scattered throughout the provinces. Some of the young people are studying under the pastors and are visiting some of the remote home churches. The young people are learning to carry some of the pastorial duties of the pastors.

Brother Willie will be traveling to Mindanao soon to meet with the home churches and to visit the home church school on that island. Workers on this island have a vegetarian restaurant and bakery and often give Daniel and Revelation seminars in cottage meetings. They also have a radio broadcast.

The headquarters for the Philippine work will be in Mindoro on a property which has been donated. This property is in need of some repairs but it includes a large home which can house the offices and a building which was once a shoe factory which can be used for a training center and possibly contain a publishing work in the future. Renovations and office equipment are needed to furnish this facility.

Plans are being made for a program of medical missionary training for the many young people who have requested this training. The curriculum is being prepared now. They will be learning the eight laws of health and also hydrotherapy and simple home remedies. This training will be held in the old shoe factory on Mindoro during the month of August.

We continue to have a radio broadcast in Manila which has one half hour of health lectures and one half hour of evangelistic Bible sermons. The funding for this broadcast will end in a few months. There have been many calls and requests for literature through this broadcast but the supply of books is inadequate.

There is so much work that we are not able to answer all the calls. The people are open when we go door to door and we can always find interested people who wish to study. We have willing workers but limited funds which keep us from doing all that we want to do.

There are workers who wish to start a Bible Correspondence school and others who want to open a sanitarium. When there are funds to copy tracts and literature this is used quickly to meet requests. Many home churches are active in literature distribution.

We want to thank the supporters of Steps to Life for the assistance with books and child evangelism materials, for help to complete construction of the chapels and also for your prayers.

 

Editor’s Note: This report is from Willie Manipol, Dave Matudan, Jr., and other pastors and workers in the Philippines. It contains excerpts from recent phone conversations and letters, which have been edited for this publication.

Reporting from Zaire, Central Africa – A Spiritual Revival Movement

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A Specific Case of a Spiritual Revival Movement with the Zaire Union Mission of Seventh-day Adventist Church Full Member of Historic Seventh-day Adventist Family.

How the SDA General Conference Church in Zaire Central Africa Contributes Greatly to Delay the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As Historic Seventh-day Adventists, we believe in the holiness of the Good News contained in the Holy Bible. We truly trust in the Spirit of Prophecy and we are proclaiming the message of the Three Angels. We humbly think that any ecclesiastical movement which does not confess such a goal should change its name instead of claiming to be Seventh-day Adventists.

In 1972 the General Conference Church of SDA joined a national ecumenical movement called “The Church of Christ in Zaire” (L’eglise du Christ au Zaire) as the forty-second member.

We will never forget this year during which we, as former members and/or workers of the GC church in Zaire, were informed about the affiliation of the church to the ecumenical movement.

This national movement, created as a reaction to the Catholic denomination is composed of sixty-eight, Protestant churches. These churches no longer have individual names, but are part of a “Community.” The GC Church of Zaire is now called: “The Forty-Second Community of the Church of Christ in Zaire.”

This affiliation was not free, nor under the local church initiative for it was duly accepted and sponsored by the General Conference which paid the duties of affiliation, by sending the required amount to the Union which paid it to the Ecumenical corporation.

We were also very concerned and disappointed with the management of the SDA Church because it does not reflect the Spirit of Prophecy. Tribalism, underhanded dealings, vote catching, private and informal committees instead of official ones, lack of punishment of guilty persons because of their close relationship with some officials of the Union, lack of true social projects of development such as schools for the churches sake, led us to leave the ecumenical church of the GC. In short, we saw we must stay by the old land marks and organize our group based on the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy and the Message of the Three Angels.

We could not figure out how we could preach against the Beast if we made connection with those who are worshipping it. We realized that we could not spread the Three Angels’ Messages while being involved in a fellowship with Sunday Protestant Churches. And last, we could not imagine that it is possible to observe the Law of God in its wholeness while being in connection with an ecumenical movement who are law breakers, especially disregarding the fourth commandment, the sign of God’s people from the beginning to the end of time.

From this evidence, we arrived at the conclusion that we must be self-governing as well as self-supporting. But, we are not yet self-sufficient.Consequently we have to restrain our outreach for lack of funds. May you find here our origin, Seventh-day Adventist Independent Church. Thanks to God’s blessings we have friends and brothers all over the world. We also have partners who contribute to lighten the task we have to spread the warning message to our part of the world.

Organization, of Main Objectives, and Things that Handicap the Way

The Zaire Union Missions of Seventh-day Adventist Independent Church has existed since 1990. At the very beginning, it had only 5,000 members. Today we have 16,000 members out of a population of 45,000,000 people in Zaire. We have a lot of work to do, but we cannot do it without the Holy Spirit is guidance or the benefactors assistance and the prayers of our fellow believers.

We are active in the Kinshasa, Bandundu, and East-Kasai regions. The work in the Shaba and Kivu regions will be organized in the near future.

Evangelism

We are currently using the door-to-door method in our evangelism. We lack very much the French translations of the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy, and Hymnals, as well as Bible literature for witnessing. We would like to start a Bible Correspondence School as soon as we have means to print the lessons.

Communication

The problem of communication is one of the serious problems we are facing in our ministry. In a car it can take more than a day to travel thirty kilometers during the rainy season, because of the bad condition of the roads. On these roads bicycles are faster than cars!

We have 259 workers, that includes Pastors, Evangelists, Bible Workers, Teachers, Gardeners, etc., all work without salary,trusting that God will provide. We need assistance in this area.

We need a private ham radio in order to establish a regular link between Kinshasa, the headquarters of the mission in the country. The official Post Office in Zaire as well as the telephone system are unreliable. Only cellular phones can link the country to Europe and the USA. Here again is a big problem to resolve.

We would also like to broadcast our distinct message by public radio. May the Lord help us in this project. This is the way we can reach a lot of people who we can not reach personally. There are local Sunday churches and ministries that already have broadcasts.

We think we have the best message all over the country—the message of warning given by the Three Angels. Give us a hand so that we might be the co-labourers with the angels in our country and in all the French speaking countries in Africa. God bless all of our benefactors, and may we together hasten the glorious second coming of our King and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Purified and Refined

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I want to study with you one of the mysteries of the Bible—when God swears. The highest form of taking an oath or judicial swearing is when a man swears by God. He swears that God is his witness, and that what he is saying is the truth. There are many instances in the scriptures where holy men swore by God concerning an important issue. See Genesis 24:3, 2 Chronicles 36:13, Nehemiah 13:25, Psalms 15:4.

Although it is awesome when a human being takes an oath with God as his witness, it is much more awesome when the Creator of the heavens and the earth decides to say something under oath. That is He decides to swear that He will do a certain thing. When God swears He swears by Himself. See Jeremiah 22:5 and Exodus 32:13.

Anytime God swears something exceedingly important is being communicated, and especially important when it is recorded that God swore not to a human being, but to another member of the Godhead. I believe that anytime you find in the scripture that one member of the Godhead swore to another member of the Godhead, something exceedingly important is being communicated that is far beyond my human mind to comprehend. But I want to comprehend it as much as possible.

One of these times is recorded in Zechariah 6:12,13. Another is recorded in Psalm 110:4. And another one very similar, probably the same as is recorded in Zechariah 6:12,13, is recorded in Desire of Ages, 834, where it says: “Before the foundations of the earth were laid the Father and the Son had united in a covenant to redeem man if he should be overcome by Satan. They had clasped their hands in a solemn pledge that Christ should become the surety for the human race.” In the same way that you go to a court and swear that something is exactly the way you describe it, God the Father and God the Son made an official agreement with each other concerning the salvation of the human race.

I would like to look more closely at another time that God swore, from the latter part of the book of Daniel. This time God the Son swore something in the name of his Father.

In Daniel 10 we see Daniel having a vision. Notice what he says in verse 6: “I lifted my eyes and looked and behold a certain man clothed in linen whose waist was girded with gold of Uphaz. His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude.”

Who is this man that Daniel sees? Did you recognize this description as being similar to the descriptions of Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation? Ellen White says this in Sanctified Life, 49, 50, after she quotes Daniel 10:2–6: “This description is similar to that given by John when Christ was revealed to him upon the isle of Patmos. No less a personage than the Son of God appeared to Daniel.” So who was this? It was Jesus Christ.

Daniel received this great vision which describes and predicts what would happen from the time in which he received the vision, up until the time of the end, and even beyond. We read in Daniel 11:32–34, a description of the great Papal persecution. Notice what he says in verse 35: “And some of those of understanding shall fall, to refine them, purify them, and make them white, until the time of the end.”

This Papal persecution was to go on until the time of the end. This is not the end of time, but the time of the end—the last epochal period in earth’s history.

Daniel is told in Daniel 12:4: “Shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end.” In the time of the end, the book is going to be unsealed, but until the time of the end, these prophecies were not going to be comprehended, especially the prophecy in regard to time.

Let’s look at this vision more deeply starting with Daniel 12:5, 6: “Then I, Daniel, looked. And there stood two others, one on this riverbank and the other on that riverbank. And one said to the man clothed in linen, [This is Jesus Christ, as we saw earlier] who was above the waters of the river, ‘How long shall the fulfillment of these wonders be?’ ” Now let’s stop right there for a moment. What wonders is he talking about? He’s talking about all that has been described in this vision that started clear back in chapter 10 and goes all the way through chapter 11. He wants to know how long it’s going to be until the time of the end?

Now if you were Daniel, wouldn’t you have wanted to know that? Yes, of course. This is an important enough question that the Son of God answered it by taking an oath. He answered this way: “Then I heard the man clothed in linen, [Jesus Christ] who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time, and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished.” Daniel 12:7.

Notice what Daniel then says in Daniel 12:8, 9: “Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, ‘My lord, what shall be the end of these things?’ And He said, ‘Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.’”

Daniel understood chapters 10 and 11, but he did not understand about the three and a half times or three and a half years. But this period of time was important enough in the plan of salvation and in working out the mystery of God that the Lord Jesus swore in the name of His Father.

If it is so important, then we need to understand this time period, the 1260 day prophecy. In the Jewish calendar, a month had 30 days, and a year had 12 months. So a year was 360 days. Figuring that up, then three and a half years would be 1260 days.

This 1260 day period of time is so important that it is mentioned over and over again in the books of Daniel and Revelation. It is even referred to by Jesus Christ himself in Matthew 24 and in Mark 13. Without this time period, many of the prophecies in Daniel and Revelation would be impossible to comprehend or interpret. It is extremely important!

To begin our study of Bible prophecy, we have to understand something about this period of time. We are going to go over a number of facts concerning the 1260 day prophecy.

First of all this prophecy is in prophetic time because it was to extend until the time of the end. It could not possibly be literal days.

This period of time is an anchor point. If you study everything in Bible prophecy about this period of time you cannot be led astray by people who say that this happened a long time ago, or that it is going to happen way in the future. This period of time anchors the events in Bible prophecy, and it forces only one type of interpretation of Bible prophecy, the historical interpretation. If you understand the 1260, you cannot be led astray by futurism or by any of these other interpretations of Bible prophecy.

We are now going to look at a number of prophecies in which this time period of 1260 years appears. The first is in Daniel 7:25. In Daniel 7, Daniel has been enumerating and explaining the characteristics of the little horn power which makes war against the people of God. He says: “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.” Daniel 7:25.

Notice, this little horn power is going to have the power to persecute for three and a half times or three and one half years which would be 1260 days or 1260 literal years. For that period of time, for over a thousand years, the little horn power is going to have the power to persecute the saints.

Another characteristic of the little horn power can be seen in the prophecy of Daniel 7. Daniel has been describing the four world empires in the beginning of the prophecy—Babylon was represented by a lion, Medo-Persia by a bear, Greece by a leopard, and the Pagan Roman Empire by a great and dreadful beast.

These are the four great empires of the world, and the Bible teaches all the way through the book of Daniel, that there is not going to be another world empire. It teaches that the fourth kingdom would be divided or broken up. This is exactly what it teaches in Daniel 7, where this dreadful beast has ten horns. Notice what it says in verse 8: “I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.”

What does a horn represent? It represents a king or a kingdom. Daniel 7:17, 24. So the Western Roman Empire was to be divided up into ten kingdoms. This happened between A.D. 351 and A.D. 476. The Bible also predicted that a little horn was to arise that would uproot three of these ten kingdoms.

This little horn power could not arise until the ten kingdoms were in place which was not until A.D. 476. It is interesting to note that the little horn power could not possibly be Antiochus Epiphanes, as many believe. He existed 600 years before that time.

Well, somebody says, how then do you understand this power applying to the Papacy, because it existed long before the sixth century, or long before A.D. 476? That is not hard to explain. What is a horn? A horn is a king, someone that has civil, governmental authority. The papacy existed before these ten horns existed, but it did not exist as a horn, it did not have a civil government.

In the days of the apostle Paul, the bishop of Rome did not have a kingdom. Caesar was the king, and anyone else who claimed to be king would be crucified. The apostle Paul talks about this very thing in 2 Thessalonians where he talks about the Papal power, the man of sin. Notice what he says in 2 Thessalonians 2:6: “And now you know what is restraining, that he (the Papacy) may be revealed in his own time.” What was then restraining? The Pagan Roman Empire. The papacy could not develop its real power until the Caesar was taken out of the way. You see, 2 Thessalonians 2 agrees perfectly with Daniel 7. The mystery of lawlessness already existed, the anti-christ power was already there, but Paul says he couldn’t really be revealed yet.

Even when the Roman Empire was divided up, and there were no more Ceasars, there was still someone who had civil authority in Rome. His name was Odoacer, and he ruled the kingdom of the Heruli, who were Arians. They controlled the whole country of Italy. No one could even be chosen as Pope without his permission. This power kept the papacy in check. The papacy was not the little horn power as long as Odoacer was in control.

Something had to be done to get Odoacer out of the way. So an alliance was made, and Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths came down with his army and he defeated Odoacer in A.D. 493. Actually though, that did not help very much, because Theodoric and the Ostrogoths were Arians too. The Pope still could not have his way, because he was still under the control of the Ostrogoth’s power right there in Rome.

One Down Two to Go

Now the Ostrogoths were in control. They had enemies in northern Africa, called the Vandals. These people built great ships and every year they would go to one of the court cities in the Roman Empire, and they would go through and loot the city, taking its wealth. One year they looted Rome. In fact they looted the city for 14 days and took all the wealth that they could find and many prisoners. Understandably this made the people in Rome very unhappy.

So we see that the papacy could never exert its power as long as the Vandals and the Ostrogoths were in control of Italy. Something had to be done. The papacy contacted Justinian, the head of the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople. They needed help and they got help. Justinian sent the armies of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Vandals were destroyed around A.D. 534.

There is still one kingdom left, and that was the Ostrogoths. They were driven from the city of Rome in A.D. 538 That was the earliest time that the papacy could exert civil power and authority and be called a little horn power.

Incidentally, that wasn’t permanent, the Ostrogoths came back. They were not driven out permanently until almost ten years later. But they were driven out for the first time in A.D. 538. And so that is the first time that the papacy can be called a horn power, called a little horn. It now had become the little horn that would persecute the saints for 1260 years.

From A.D. 538, if you extend the 1260 year period, you come to 1798. Many people around this time began to realize that something important was about to happen. One of those persons was John Wesley. A few decades before that, John Wesley was preaching the gospel, both in America and in England. He realized that something important was about to happen, and he wrote and taught that the time of papal persecution was about to end.

Persecuted and Broken

We have learned quite a bit about the 1260 year period from Daniel 7:25. We learned from Daniel 12:6, 7, that during this period of time, the power of the holy people would be broken or graphically translated, shattered, and destroyed.

Friends, this is the mystery that I cannot explain, and do not understand. Why would God allow His people to be persecuted, and broken? We won’t fully understand this until we get to heaven, but we have been given a few hints in the Spirit of Prophecy as to why and how God allowed this to happen. In Desire of Ages, in the chapter “It Is Finished,” Ellen White says that Satan was not then (at the cross) totally destroyed. She said, that both for the sake of angels and for men the devil must be allowed to live to more fully develop his principles so that both angels and men could understand what his character was like.

That is an incredible statement. The devil must be allowed to develop the true principles of his government, of his character. The 1260 year period of persecution was a period when that happened. The Bible says in Nahum 1:9, “What do you imagine against the Lord? affliction will not rise up the second time.” Why will affliction not rise up a second time? Because all humanity will have seen the consequence of sin, and it will be abhorrent to them.

We also cannot explain why it took so long. Daniel couldn’t understand it, neither could Adam and Eve. They thought that the Messaiah would come quickly. They didn’t realize it was going to take thousands of years. God knew that the people of past ages, could not bear to comprehend all of this, so He said, “The words are going to be sealed until the time of the end.”

Measuring the Temple

There is an amazing prophecy, which some people think is still in the future, which I would like to study with you. It is in Revelation 11. Notice, right in the middle of the prophecy, we are given some specifications. Revelation 11:1–3: “Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, ‘Rise and measure the temple of God.’ ”

What is the temple of God? Paul said over and over that it is the church. You can see that clearly if you study the following chapters: Ephesians 1, 2, 4 and 1 Corinthians 3, 6.

“Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there.” What altar is this? You remember Paul said in Hebrews 13:10: “We have an altar from which those who minister in the temple [that is in the earthly sanctuary] have no right to eat.” This is the altar of the New Covenant.

“But leave out the court.” In the New Covenant, where is the court? The court is this world, in the New Covenant. The altar was where the sacrifice was slain. Where was the sacrifice slain in the New Covenant? In this world. And then, after you come to the altar, before you come into the sanctuary, you come to the laver and the laver is where people are washed and purified.

Get this point: If you’re going to be purified at all, you must be purified in this world. You are not going to be taken up to heaven and be purified there, like some people think. If you’re ever going to be purified, you’re going to be purified right here. The laver is in the court. Don’t ever forget that. Only the pure will see God. Matthew 5:8. Only the sanctified, only the holy, will dwell in His presence. Hebrews 12:14.

You must be washed, you must be purified. “Everyone who has this hope in him must be purified even as He is pure.” 1 John 3:3. Friend, don’t let anyone talk you out of your birthright. Jesus died on the cross so that you could have eternal life, but He can not give it to you unless you are purified.

“Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles.” Who are the Gentiles? It is not talking about Jews and Gentiles by blood, it is talking about spiritual Israel, versus those who are not part of spiritual Israel.

Who are these Gentiles? They are professed Christians. They are professed Jews. Remember, a curse is pronounced twice in Revelation against those who say that they are Jews but they are really not. That’s in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9. They are the Gentiles spoken of here.

“It has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.” Here again you have the 1260 day period again. They will tread the holy city for forty-two months. What is the holy city? Oh friend, if you belong to Jesus, if you have given your heart to Him, your name is written down in a city already.

“They will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.” This holy city is the church. The holy city is a representation of the church. They’ll tread it down, persecute it, for forty-two months.

Verse 3: “And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.” As I said already, this is a mystery. I cannot tell you why God determined that it was going to take this period of time in order for the whole universe to see the full development of the character of Satan.

This is the period of time also when the woman would have to flee into the wilderness for 1260 days, prophesied in Revelation 12. We cannot explain the mystery of the 1260, it’s one of the great mysteries of Bible prophecy.

Daniel was told something about this mystery in Daniel 12:9, 10. “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.” None of the wicked shall understand these things that we are studying. But there will also be many people who despite the persecution and tribulation and the treading down of the city. They will be purified and made white and tried. Many people will have washed their garments in the blood of the Lamb.

It is a number that is so great that the Bible says it will be a number like the sands of the sea, like the stars of heaven. That number is not yet made up. God wants to use the young people of the present generation to help make up this number that will be as the sand of the sea and as the stars of heaven.

God wants to use you. Do you want to be a part of that group that will be purified and made white and tried? Do you want to receive an eternal inheritance, a birthright where there won’t be anymore tribulation or pain? Do you want to be part of that?

The End

Editorial – Are We Humble Enough to be Saved, part 2

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It was pride that caused the Jewish Nation to reject Christ

“The Jewish leaders discerned the truth that Christ presented, but they also realized that it meant the greatest humiliation to them to accept of the rich salvation brought to them through this humble teacher. To be saved through grace alone, to confess that in and of themselves they deserved no favors, was to acknowledge that which was contrary to their cherished ideas, and to lay in the dust their pride, vanity, and ambition. To receive the benediction that Christ pronounced, they saw that an entire change must take place in their lives, but this fact they did not relish.” Sabbath School Worker, August 1, 1895. See also Patriarchs and Prophets, 475.

Pride results in evil surmising and a spirit of accusation and criticism

“When the Spirit of God rests upon you, there will be no feeling of envy or jealousy in examining another’s position; there will be no spirit of accusation and criticism, such as Satan inspired in the hearts of the Jewish leaders against Christ. As Christ said to Nicodemus, so I say to you, ‘Ye must be born again.’ ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ You must have the divine mold before you can discern the sacred claims of the truth. Unless the teacher is a learner in the school of Christ, he is not fitted to teach others.” 1888 Materials, 534.

“Never have an idea that you know more than your brethren, but just keep humble. It was this spirit of evil surmising that brought all the weakness into the Jewish nation.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 11, 243.

It was pride that caused Adventism to reject the message that God sent to us in 1888

“The conference at Minneapolis was the golden opportunity for all present to humble the heart before God, and to welcome Jesus as the great Instructor; but the stand taken by some at that meeting proved their ruin. They have never seen clearly since, and they never will; for they persistently cherish the spirit that prevailed there, a wicked criticizing, denunciatory spirit…They will be asked in the Judgment, ‘Who required this at your hand, to rise up against the message and the messengers I sent to My people with light, with grace and power? Why have you lifted up your souls against God? Why did you not humble your hearts before God, and repent of your rejection of the message of mercy He has sent you?’ The Lord has not inspired these brethren to resist the truth. He designed that they should be baptized with the Holy Spirit, and be living channels of light to communicate the light to our world, in clear, bright rays.” Paulson Collection, 154.

“From this meeting decisions will be made for life or for death; not that anyone needs to perish, but spiritual pride and self-confidence will close the door that Jesus and His Holy Spirit’s power shall not be admitted. They shall have another chance to be undeceived, and to repent, confess their sins, and come to Christ and be converted that He shall heal them.’”1888 Materials, 277.

“If all the brethren at Minneapolis had been seeking the Lord with humility of mind, there would have been no conflict, no clashing, no uncourteous words, nothing unwise advanced. But men who were capable of being entrusted with great interests, desired to reveal their executive ability in guiding the vessel through the breakers to the harbor. They did not wait for divine guidance.” 1888 Materials, 1229.

Those who stumbled at Minneapolis had to overcome their pride or they could not be saved. Do you believe that God is the same in His requirements today? The most basic problems in Minneapolis were not theology. The most basic problems today are not theology. “Only by pride comes contention.” Proverbs 13:10. Even if our theology is all right if the condition of our heart is wrong then we have something to overcome—the old man must be crucified, a new creation must take place, a contrite and humble spirit must develop among us or we will be just as guilty as those in 1888 whether our theology is right or not.

Jockeying for position, pride of opinion, the war of words, the strife of tongues, the attempt to prove that we are just dealing with issues when the facts reveal that it is personalities that are being dealt with even more—all of this and more is evidence for our need to humble ourselves before God in dust and ashes and “pray to him, morning, noon, and night, to give you a meek and humble spirit, a mild temper, an affectionate disposition.” Youth’s Instructor, January 1, 1856.