Issue: 2003 July

Will Thou Be Made Whole? Part I

by

One concept that is essential to the principles of health is the intimate relationship between the spiritual and the physical. Those who are in medical missionary work need to understand this.

Owner’s Manual

The Bible is the greatest medical book that has ever been written. “Know ye that the Lord he is God: [it is] he [that] hath made us, and not we ourselves; [we are] his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” Psalm 100:3. There are two schools of thought in this world upon which hinge all other philosophies, thinking, and modalities—either creation or evolution. We believe that there is a Creator God. At the same time, since we believe that God is the author, the manufacturer, the producer, and the inventor of this fearfully and wonderfully made body of ours, then we realize also that He has given us an owner’s manual.

Every automobile that comes off the industrial line contains an owner’s manual. Would you think it logical for the Ford manufacturers to ask General Electric to produce the owner’s manuals for their automobiles? No, because General Electric did not make the product. The one who made the product is more knowledgeable about the product than anyone else. So if your car broke down, you would not consult General Electric. The same logic applies with the body. Since God made the body, He knows more about the body than anyone on the face of the earth. Those with whom He entrusted gifts of ministry should get their direction from Him.

Do you trust the preacher or anyone else with your salvation? No. So why should you trust anyone else with your health? Even though God raises up men and women to preach, to do Bible work, and to work in the medical field, He has not given them authority, absolute power, over you. We have a personal responsibility for our own lives. God has given us an owner’s manual. Its purpose is to give us instruction on how to operate the product—even how to troubleshoot the product if something happens.

Read the Instructions

Before I became a Christian, the hardest thing I had ever done was learning how to dribble a basketball. I did not know how to use a hammer; I thought beans grew in a can, until God thrust me into this work, out in the country. Then I told my wife that we were going to build a house. She looked at me like I was crazy, because we had never done anything like that before.

Once we built our house, I began to learn a little bit about electricity. I did not know too much, but I began to install some electrical apparatus. This particular product had an instruction sheet with numbered steps. I assumed that I knew how to put a red wire with a red wire, so I saw no need to read the instructions. I thought I did not have time to go through all of the fine print, and that I was intelligent enough to put it together, until I began to blow out circuit breakers and so forth. There is an old saying, “When all else fails, read the instructions.”

We have tried everything else, except God. God has given us an owner’s manual, and in that manual He has given us some very basic instructions. “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.” Psalm 119:73. It is one thing to have knowledge, but we also need understanding—the ability to apply what we know. Sometimes we get a lot of knowledge, but we become spiritually constipated. We get overloaded, and we are not able to share that which we have received. Once we get knowledge, we need to learn how to make the right application of that which we have received. If we do not do that, it is all wasted.

God has given us principles, laws, and with those He wants to give us understanding. These principles are trust, air, exercise, sunshine, rest, water, temperance, and nutrition. All of these anyone in this world can afford. They are so simple that we do not see their impact. In my 25 years as a medical missionary, these principles have been all that I use.

As Thy Soul Prospereth

There is a favorite text of many Christians that is quite significant. It says, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” 111 John 2. Notice the phrase, “even as.” What does that mean? It means to the same extent, proportionate. That text tells us that, as we grow spiritually, our physical awareness and willingness to preserve the integrity of these bodies will develop proportionately. No one who walks in the Christian life and grows in grace will neglect the house that God built for the dwelling of His Holy Spirit. If we say we are spiritual yet we are not conscious of our health and the house in which we live, then there is something wrong with our spirituality. This text tells us that, as we learn to know God, we will become more conscientious about our bodies. Health is not an option; it is an integral part of our walk with Jesus. Keeping the Sabbath, eating the right things, drinking the right things, or wearing the right clothes will not save us, but these are evidences of our love for Jesus, of our relationship with God. If anyone says that health is just a matter of fact, something is wrong with his or her spiritual barometer!

Mental, Spiritual, Physical

You cannot separate the gospel from the health message. No ministry or church can be successful without the health message. The health message does not take the place of the gospel. It is the very means by which the gospel finds entrance into the heart. God wants us to become awakened to this health message. The Bible tells us that since we grow spiritually and our health grows proportionately, then we need to know what God wants us to be like.

God took dirt, and He exalted that dirt by making it into His image. From that dirt He formed a man into a specimen of Himself. We are nothing but dirt, but we have been exalted by God’s grace. With the molecules and the atoms that God placed into the earth, He constructed a house. “And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2:7. Man is made up of three aspects: mental, spiritual, and physical. The social and emotional are inclusive in those three aspects.

Made Whole

Do you want to be made whole? That sounds very inviting. The Bible says, “There was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep [market] a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time [in that case], he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?” John 5:1–6.

What does it mean to be made whole? The Bible answers that question: “[Jesus] saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Mark 2:17. Wholeness is the very opposite of being sick. This wholeness not only involves the physical aspect, but the spiritual, because Jesus is associating repentance with wholeness. Most medical missionaries focus primarily on the physical, but no one can be physically well unless they realize what Jesus is saying in Mark and in Deuteronomy 6:5: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart [that is mental], and with all thy soul [that is spiritual], and with all thy might [that is physical].” Again the Bible validates that man is physical, mental, and spiritual.

We can define whole as being complete, entire, and total. The word salvation means to save—to preserve from destruction, to heal. “That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.” Psalm 67:2. To heal, to make whole—Christ came to restore the whole person.

The Blueprint

There is a wonderful book that transformed my life 25 years ago, before I even knew who wrote it. Some of you are familiar with the book—it is called The Ministry of Healing. Another title for it is Health and Happiness. If you do not have the book, please get it. If you have it, blow the dust off of it and read and study it. It is the blueprint. Inspiration says that that book contains the wisdom of the Great Physician. (See Testimonies, vol. 9, 71.) On the very first page of the very first chapter in that book, we are given our example. Christ came to restore the whole man, to bring him health, to bring him peace, and to bring him a moral regeneration. Christ came to restore the whole person.

Whole or Holistic

“They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” Matthew 9:12. Again Jesus raises the question, wilt thou be made whole? True health is wholeness. The New Age community uses the word wholeness too—they say holistic. The devil does not come up with anything original; he always counterfeits. He speaks enough truth mixed with his error to make it all error. In the New Age philosophy, we find that they believe man is a unity, that he is departmentalized—his spirit is over here, his mind is over there, and his body is somewhere else. God says man is not a unity, man is a unit; he is complete.

If the world has mental problems, they consult a psychiatrist. When a person is physically sick, they see a physician. When they have a spiritual problem, they go to a preacher for counsel. We know, in a general sense, people trust their minds to psychiatrists, their bodies to physicians, and their spirituality to preachers. Do these professionals agree with one another? No, not usually. That is why people are still sick, because they put their minds in one area, their bodies in another, and their spiritual lives in another. The doctor does not agree with the preacher, and the preacher does not agree with the doctor; the psychiatrist does not agree with either one—and we wonder why we are still incomplete.

A true minister will be a medical missionary. A true physician will be a preacher. “The minister will often be called upon to act the part of a physician. He should have a training that will enable him to administer the simpler remedies for the relief of suffering. Ministers and Bible workers should prepare themselves for this line of work; for in doing it, they are following the example of Christ. They should be as well prepared by education and practice to combat disease of the body as they are to heal the sin-sick soul by pointing to the great Physician.” Medical Ministry, 253. “The presenting of Bible principles by an intelligent physician will have great weight with many people. There is efficiency and power with one who can combine in his influence the work of a physician and of a gospel minister. His work commends itself to the good judgment of the people.” Counsels on Health, 546. Any preacher who is not a medical missionary cannot be as effective as he should, and a physician who incorporates the gospel in his work is more effective than without it.

Do you think that God would lead me to give you a Bible study only, when you are sitting there with a headache, or with tumors? No! Jesus is the primary example. His ministry was more involved with teaching and healing than with preaching. Preaching is only the beginning for a minister. His work is outside of the pulpit; it is with the people; it is in their homes. Jesus is our example.

Humanism

Let us return to the pool of Bethesda (John 5). Here was a pool of water with impotent folk lying around it. Think of yourself in this position. You are lying beside this pool with a debilitating disease, and you know that if you get into that pool you might be healed, if you are first once the angel stirs the water. If that were a reality, would you do it? Yes, many of you would. So if there were 1,000 people around that pool, it would mean that only the strongest survived. Because we are so desperate, when we take our eyes off of Jesus, the world presents something that we think is better. The pool of Bethesda is what I call the pool of human philosophy and the pool of human message.

Humanism leads us to believe that we can solve our own problems. We go to human beings; we can solve our financial problems; we can solve our marriage problems; and when we have children who are going astray, we do everything we can to try to solve their problems. We cry; we weep; and we wonder what we have done to fail them, instead of trusting them to the Lord. Wipe those tears away. If you have given them to God, He knows how to care for them. He had a child who went wild, so God can relate to us. The pool of Bethesda is humanism—trusting in self, trusting in man, trusting in man’s inventions.

The Bible tells us, “For thus saith the Lord, Thy bruise [is] incurable, [and] thy wound [is] grievous. [There is] none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.” Jeremiah 30:12, 13. Man has no healing medicines; even in the medical field there are no healing medicines. The medicines may give some temporary relief, but there is no true, healing medicine.

At our lifestyle center in Tennessee, the majority of our guests are cancer cases. Prior to a recent session, a friend of mine was desperate to attend. Over a year before she had been diagnosed with cancer. She had had a year to come to the lifestyle center, but she chose not to come; she decided to go the traditional medicine route. Yes, sometimes surgery might be necessary, but she went through chemotherapy and radiation, and now she was dying and wanting to come to the center. If we do not seek God, before we take human action, things do not work out; then we want God to perform a miracle for us. If He does not perform a miracle, then we say that His Plan did not work. There are no healing medicines.

“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black;”—He is touched with the infirmities of every suffering soul—“astonishment hath taken hold on me. [Is there] no balm in Gilead; [is there] no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” Jeremiah 8:20–22.

God Heals

Who makes you whole? “Peter said unto him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole.” Acts 9:34. “I [am] the Lord that healeth thee.” Exodus 15:26. Keep this in mind, no matter what—God is the one who heals you.

I used to be a professional athlete. God had to get my attention, because I would not listen to Him, so He allowed King Arthur to rule my life. King Arthur is arthritis. I was diagnosed at the age of 17, and it lasted until I was 27. It ruined my career, but it kept me out of the United States Army during the Vietnam War, for which I am eternally grateful. I could not have lasted a week in boot camp. My knees and joints were so bad, even steroids did not work anymore, and I began to take street drugs just so I could continue playing basketball.

My team physician looked in my eyes and said, “Tom, you are a good basketball player, but you will never be able to overcome arthritis.” He was a medical doctor, so I accepted what he said. He told me, “You are going to be on drugs the rest of your life.” He also told me there was no known cause for it. As I look back on this I ask, How do you prescribe a remedy for something you do not understand? Sometimes the remedy is worse than the cure.

Different Team

But God got my attention, and He told me He wanted me to trade my basketball for a Bible. Instead of going down the hardwood court, He coached me to go up and down the earth court, to be on a team that will never lose. For 25 years I have been on that team, and I have the best Coach. The pay is wonderful, and the retirement plan is out of this world.

When I picked up the Word of God, I was not a Christian. I grew up in a single-parent Baptist home; and I had a very loving, Christian mother who instilled biblical principles in me. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6. The child may go out of the way, but when he is old, he will return. My mother saw her youngest child return back to the Lord. I am 54 years of age; it has been 27 years, and I have no traces of arthritis. I realized that it was Jesus who had the answer to every disease, to every cause, when man did not know. I went first to the Word of God.

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and [I pray God] your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23. What does that say? Spirit, soul, and body. When we are talking about holy flesh, about this flesh becoming perfect, we are talking about this body becoming a fit vessel so that it can run the race. We are not going to get new bodies until Christ breaks the clouds of glory, but at the same time, that final church, the 144,000, will be health reformers. Each one of us has the privilege to be part of that elite group, whether we are young or old. God’s grace is sufficient. God said, “As thy days, [so shall] thy strength [be].” Deuteronomy 33:25.

No Healthy Sinners

Man is made up of three aspects—mental, physical, and spiritual. Jesus asks, “Wilt thou be made whole?” We cannot enjoy true physical health without mental and spiritual health. Many medical missionaries might do a little praying and talk a little about Jesus, enough to say they are Christians, but their whole focus is on the physical. Why is it that a man will gain the whole world and lose his soul? Why is it that a man can be healed of cancer of the body but still have cancer of the soul, so he dies, to just die again? God is not in the business of producing healthy sinners. I am not in the business, as a medical missionary, to get you well so that you can turn a gun on me. My point is this: The business of a medical missionary is to prepare people for eternity, and a Christian should not fear dying. If I have cancer, I am going to go God’s way, and if I die with cancer in the Lord, I have been victorious, because healing continues in the resurrection. If my focus is only on giving the person the physical therapy apart from the spiritual and mental, I have done nothing but contribute to Satan’s army.

Only God can teach us His true message. I thank God for the way that He led me. Before I read any other man’s book on health, I read the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. I challenge every medical missionary to spend more time studying the principles from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, for then you have a barometer by which to interpret or decipher all of the other things that you read from other books. I challenge every medical missionary to go back to the Manual.

To be continued . . .

Thomas Jackson is a health evangelist and Director of Missionary Education and Evangelistic Training (M.E.E.T.) Ministry in Huntingdon, Tennessee. He may be contacted by e-mail at godsplan@meetministry.org or by telephone at 731-986-3518.

Unity Among God’s End-Time People

by

From the beginning of time, it has been God’s ideal for His people to be united. It is one of the most important teachings of the Scriptures, being the paramount concern of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, even as He shrank from the horrors of the cross, just moments away. (See John 17.) But as we near the close of time, unity assumes more critical significance because of the perils confronting God’s true church. Here is how Inspiration states it: “As we approach the last crisis, it is of vital moment that harmony and unity exist among the Lord’s instrumentalities. The world is filled with storm and war and variance. Yet under one head—the papal power—the people will unite to oppose God in the person of His witnesses. This union is cemented by the great apostate.” Testimonies, vol. 7, 182.

It is therefore clearly essential for all who claim to be God’s children to earnestly consider how they might achieve the unity for which Jesus prayed. This is the purpose of this study. It is not designed to be exhaustive by any means but merely to stimulate thought and, hopefully, action in the right direction.

They May Be One

The first point we must consider, as we look at this topic, is what exactly is comprehended in the prayer of Jesus. What did He have in mind for His disciples when He prayed “that they may be one, even as we are one”? John 17:22. The Holy Spirit offers a clue through Ellen White: “In these first disciples was presented marked diversity. They were to be the world’s teachers, and they represented widely varied types of character. In order successfully to carry forward the work to which they had been called, these men, differing in natural characteristics and in habits of life, needed to come into unity of feeling, thought, and action. This unity it was Christ’s object to secure. To this end He sought to bring them into unity with Himself.” The Acts of the Apostles, 20.

Here we have a brief, yet profound, insight into God’s mind. All three levels of one’s character are comprehended in Jesus’ prayer for His people! He desired that they be united at the deepest level of thought and feeling, so they could demonstrate genuine outward unity of action. Anything short of this would be a counterfeit from the workshop of the enemy. It is alluded to in the first quote from volume 7 of the Testimonies above and is sometimes referred to as “confederacy,” which is a forced, superficial alliance binding otherwise incompatible parties, often for a very narrow objective. Once the objective is attained, the alliance usually breaks down. Commonly the domain of the political arena, such leagues are also seen in every apostate system of religion as well.

With Christian unity encompassing the very thoughts and feelings of individuals, it is not surprising that it is unattainable without perfection of character. This is why we are told:

“Unity is the sure result of Christian perfection.” The Sanctified Life, 85.

Now we have an explanation for the chaos we observe among God’s professed people. Perfection of character is still a distant, elusive goal for most of us! The reason for this sorry state is suggested in The Acts of the Apostles quote on the previous page—we are not united to Christ! No matter how spiritual we may appear to others, our separation from one another is an undeniable indicator of our separation from Jesus!

Unity not Uniformity

This excerpt also refers to another important point: Unity of thought, feeling, and action does not mean uniformity in every respect, as if we were clones of one another. The disciples of Jesus “presented marked diversity . . . [and] represented widely varied types of character.” The Acts of the Apostles, 20. Their unity was to be in spite of their differences. This may seem paradoxical, but it is in the study of this seeming inconsistency that we will find the solution to our own unity here at the end of time. Inspiration explains: “The unity that exists between Christ and His disciples does not destroy the personality of either. In mind, in purpose, in character, they are one, but not in person.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 5, 1148.

“The branches in the True Vine are the believers who are brought into oneness by connection with the Vine.

“The connection of the branches with one another and with the Vine constitutes them a unity, but this does not mean uniformity in everything. Unity in diversity is a principle that pervades the whole creation. While there is an individuality and variety in nature, there is a oneness in their diversity; for all things receive their usefulness and beauty from the same Source.” Ibid., 1143.

Now we must try and answer the difficult question, Where is the line where diversity becomes incompatible with unity? We turn again to the words of Inspiration. “Our minds do not all run in the same channel, and we have not all been given the same work. God has given to every man his work according to his several ability. There are different kinds of work to be done, and workers of varied capabilities are needed. If our hearts are humble, if we have learned in the school of Christ to be meek and lowly, we may all press together in the narrow path marked out for us.” Ibid., 1148.

“There is altogether too little of the love of Christ in the hearts of those who claim to believe the truth. While all their hopes are centered in Jesus Christ, while His Spirit pervades the soul, then there will be unity, although every idea may not be exactly the same on all points.” Counsels to Writers and Editors, 82.

These passages indicate that legitimate diversity may exist not only in the realm of responsibilities, abilities and talents, but in ideas as well. Unfortunately it is in accepting another person’s ideas that many Christians balk. They feel their own ideas superior, and if things are not according to their liking, they would rather not participate at all. For such individuals the Lord has strong counsel: “The spasmodic, fitful movements of some who claim to be Christians are well represented by the work of strong but untrained horses. When one pulls forward, another pulls back, and at the voice of their master one plunges ahead and the other stands immovable. If men will not move in concert in the great and grand work for this time, there will be confusion. It is not a good sign when men refuse to unite with their brethren and prefer to act alone. Let laborers take into their confidence the brethren who are free to point out every departure from right principles. If men wear the yoke of Christ, they can not pull apart; they will draw with Christ.” Testimonies, vol. 9, 258.

Unity Not Possible

However, we have not yet defined the line where diversity is so great that true unity is impossible. Again we must turn to the words of Divine Inspiration for counsel in this sensitive area. We find help in the history of the church of The Dark Ages. “There is no union between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness, and there can be no union between their followers. When Christians consented to unite with those who were but half converted from paganism, they entered upon a path which led further and further from the truth. . . . None understood so well how to oppose the true Christian faith as did those who had once been its defenders; and these apostate Christians, uniting with their half-pagan companions, directed their warfare against the most essential features of the doctrines of Christ.

“It required a desperate struggle for those who would be faithful to stand firm against the deceptions and abominations which were disguised in sacerdotal garments and introduced into the church. The Bible was not accepted as the standard of faith. The doctrine of religious freedom was termed heresy, and its upholders were hated and proscribed.

“After a long and severe conflict, the faithful few decided to dissolve all union with the apostate church if she still refused to free herself from falsehood and idolatry. They saw that separation was an absolute necessity if they would obey the word of God. They dared not tolerate errors fatal to their own souls, and set an example which would imperil the faith of their children and children’s children. To secure peace and unity they were ready to make any concession consistent with fidelity to God; but they felt that even peace would be too dearly purchased at the sacrifice of principle. If unity could be secured only by the compromise of truth and righteousness, then let there be difference, and even war.” The Great Controversy, 45.

Here we have an example of legitimate separation due to incompatible diversity. The church in the wilderness found it impossible to unite with those who were seeking to overthrow “the most essential features of the doctrines of Christ.” This is where they drew the line, and defended their stand with their blood. What is the lesson for us here? We must determine again “the most essential features of the doctrines” that define us as Seventh-day Adventists and be willing to die in their defense if necessary.

Essential Features

It is in the area of “the most essential features of our doctrines” that the wily devil has a trap laid out for the unwary. This trap explains the chaotic landscape of historic Adventism to date. It lies in the understanding of “the most essential features” of our faith. Each little group has its own list of doctrines, which it considers non-negotiable. Having convinced themselves that they are in the center of God’s will, they are smug in their isolationism. Numerous examples of deceptive reasoning may be cited that result in driving a wedge between brethren, creating division and discord. Clearly, this cannot be from God.

The question now is, How shall we solve the dilemma of this unfortunate standoff between members of the same faith? With each party claiming Spirit of Prophecy support, and refusing to budge, the task is daunting. It is the opinion of this author that harmony will never come about until two necessary criteria are fulfilled.

United With Christ

First, and most importantly, we must all be united with Jesus, as the following quote emphasizes:

“The secret of true unity in the church and in the family is not diplomacy, not management, not a superhuman effort to overcome difficulties—though there will be much of this to do—but union with Christ.” The Adventist Home, 179.

The need for this vertical union with Jesus all would readily agree to and even fervently pray for. But somehow horizontal unity still proves elusive, because consciously or otherwise, the blame for the lack of unity always seems to lie with those who happen to be outside an arbitrarily drawn circle. Rightly or wrongly, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” provides the universal justification for every separation. Amos 3:3.

Clearly, then, we need a more objective method of delineating the proper sized circle. This is the second criterion that must be fulfilled before God’s people can come into harmony. The circle must include everybody whom God, from His infallible perspective, would consider His true son or daughter, and exclude everyone else.

Elevated Importance

Where can we look for help in this regard? Surprisingly, to the experience of the church in 1888. Here, hidden beneath the surface, we find the divine solution to our dilemma. It will be recalled that the law in Galatians was at the heart of a contentious debate between A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner on the one hand, and the senior leadership of the church on the other. The leadership was decidedly of the opinion that if the new views were adopted, it would mean the end of the doctrinal orthodoxy of our faith. The old landmarks, they demurred, were in jeopardy. Fortunately, however, there was a living prophet around to give heaven’s assessment of the matter. The remark was made, about that famous dispute, “ ‘If our views of Galatians are not correct, then we have not the third angel’s message, and our position goes by the board; there is nothing to our faith.’

“I [Ellen White] said, ‘Brethren, here is the very thing I have been telling you. This statement is not true. It is an extravagant, exaggerated statement. If it is made in the discussion of this question I shall feel it my duty to set this matter before all that are assembled, and whether they hear or forbear tell them the statement is incorrect.

“The question at issue is not a vital question and should not be treated as such. The wonderful importance and magnitude of this subject has been exaggerated, and for this reason—through misconception and perverted ideas—we see the spirit that prevails at this meeting, which is unchristlike, and which we should never see exhibited among brethren. There has been a spirit of Pharisaism coming in among us which I shall lift my voice against wherever it may be revealed.’ ” Selected Messages, Book 3, 174, 175.

Notice that the leading brethren had elevated the importance of their views on Galatians to that of a “most essential feature” of our faith, even tying them with the third angel’s message. They had in effect constructed a circle so tightly that Jones and Waggoner, and Mrs. White too, were excluded. A major crisis was in the offing, threatening to split the church down the middle. But the Lord, speaking through His prophet, dismissed their fretting as mere hyperbole. They had seriously erred, not only in their understanding of Galatians, but as well in defining the old landmarks. These alone could properly constitute the line of separation.

Most Essential Features

Mrs. White then enumerated for us “the most essential features” of our faith, which were to demarcate true Adventism till the end of time. Here is that most important passage: “In Minneapolis God gave precious gems of truth to His people in new settings. This light from heaven by some was rejected with all the stubbornness the Jews manifested in rejecting Christ, and there was much talk about standing by the old landmarks. But there was evidence they knew not what the old landmarks were. There was evidence and there was reasoning from the word that commended itself to the conscience; but the minds of men were fixed, sealed against the entrance of light, because they had decided it was a dangerous error removing the old landmarks when it was not moving a peg of the old landmarks, but they had perverted ideas of what constituted the old landmarks.

“The passing of the time in 1844 was a period of great events, opening to our astonished eyes the cleansing of the sanctuary transpiring in heaven, and having decided relation to God’s people upon the earth, [also] the first and second angels’ messages and the third, unfurling the banner on which was inscribed, ‘The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.’ One of the landmarks under this message was the temple of God, seen by His truth-loving people in heaven, and the ark containing the law of God. The light of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment flashed its strong rays in the pathway of the transgressors of God’s law. The nonimmortality of the wicked is an old landmark. I can call to mind nothing more that can come under the head of the old landmarks. All this cry about changing the old landmarks is all imaginary.” Counsels to Writers and Editors, 30.

The lesson for us is unmistakable: Not even an understanding of the law in Galatians, important as it may be, is to separate brother from brother, so long as each stays within the bounds circumscribed by the landmarks of our faith, of Adventism. The corollary is likewise equally clear: Not one peg of the landmark truths God has given us as a people, “the most essential features” of our faith, is to be moved or altered. This would constitute treason against heaven and provide legitimate grounds for separation.

God has thus spoken in language that we can understand. Woe to us, therefore, who are separating over the most trivial of matters. Matters that pose no threat whatsoever to the landmarks of our faith. We have been deceived by the enemy—a disgrace to God, and a laughing stock of the devil. How shall we stand in the judgment, and defend our decision to hold at arm’s length brethren who differ from us merely on a nonessential point?

Doing Satan’s Work

We might call to mind many points of difference, which have all been blown out of proportion to divide brothers. Each, boldly willing to battle and die for the same Advent message, is yet strangely unwilling to embrace the other. God forgive our hard spirits. Our frigid Pharasaism must be a stench in His nostrils. Notice how precisely we have fulfilled the following description of the work of Satan, who must surely be exulting in his unqualified success: “By our unity we are to bear strong, indisputable evidence that Christ came to this world to save sinners. Satan works with all his ingenuity to prevent human beings from bearing this evidence. He wants them to develop an unsanctified individuality so that they shall not love one another. Too often professing Christians yield to him, and then the merest trifle causes a difference to spring up among them. Men and women professing godliness build walls of separation between them and their fellow workers, because not all think in exactly the same way, or follow exactly the same methods. Those who stand apart, refusing to harmonize, dishonor God before the world.” The Upward Look, 271.

The challenge before us is inarguable: Shall we set aside our self-made differences, come into line and unite on the foundation God has laid for true Seventh-day Adventists? Or will we remain the pawns of Satan, and go our separate ways? How much greater would be the glory to God if we came together now, voluntarily, in times of relative quiet, than later when we are forced by circumstances to link arms for our very survival! From the perspective of the time of trouble it is hard to imagine that there will be a seperate cave for each group and their nonessential points! Assuredly, this is when only “the most essential features” of our faith will matter. Every other consideration will be swept aside as a nonessential. Let us today adopt the mindset of the time of trouble to aid us in rightly applying Amos 3:3. For too long we have dishonored God by loosely using this text to build unwarranted barriers. God grant us grace to this end for His own name’s sake! Amen.

[All emphasis supplied.]

Sudhir K. Pandit is a full-time physician in Hot Springs, Arkansas, specializing in internal medicine and cardiology. He is also leader of a home church in Bismarck, Arkansas, and with the help of faithful believers, operates the Madison-style “Green Pastures Home School and Orphanage” in India under the ministry name “Salute Ministries.” He may be contacted by e-mail at sudpan@earthlink.net.

Gospel of Liberty

by

We are told, in the book of Revelation, that someday soon, just before Jesus returns, religious intolerance will once again bear sway—not only in this country, but throughout the world. Liberty will be gone. The only liberty that will be left on the face of this earth is the liberty that God has put in the hearts of His people.

How does God liberate us? God wants to give us the liberty of the eagle. There is nothing more free than a bird flying, and God wants to help us experience that spiritually. Jeremiah 13:23 asks the question, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? [then] may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” The answer to that question is inferred—No! If the leopard cannot change his spots, nor the Ethiopian his skin, neither can we become good of ourselves. We see here the predicament of all humanity.

David illustrates the predicament that we see in Jeremiah 13. He illustrates it with a solution. Praise God, there is a solution! The Bible says, “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, [and] established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, [even] praise unto our God: many shall see [it], and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.” Psalm 40:1–3.

The predicament, in which we find ourselves, is sin. It is illustrated here as a horrible pit. There is no hope for us without some outside help. Does this illustration bring to view the solution to the predicament? Oh, yes. “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock, [and] established my goings.” In these verses, who is doing all of the work? God is! But before we are through with our study, we will see that a cooperation needs to take place before we are lifted out of the horrible pit.

Crying out for Help

The psalmist says that he “waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.” He was seeking deliverance, and he took the first step—crying out for help.

The Bible gives us a true-life experience depicting the predicament that man is in and from which he cannot, in and of himself, help himself. This is an experience of Jesus: “And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes. And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, Saying, Let [us] alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine [is] this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.” Mark 1:21–27. This situation was taking place right in the church! Here was a man in the church, crying out to Jesus, saying, Let us alone! It was really an unclean spirit crying out.

What a predicament! This man could not help himself; he was demon possessed. There was no way he could help himself, but outside help from Jesus relieved him from the demon. Praise God!

Self-possession

“The demoniac partially comprehended that he was in the presence of One who could set him free [he wanted to be un-possessed, and he recognized in Jesus someone who was able to help him]; but when he tried to come within reach of that mighty hand, another’s will held him, another’s words found utterance through him.

“The conflict between the power of Satan and his own desire for freedom was terrible. It seemed that the tortured man must lose his life in the struggle with the foe that had been the ruin of his manhood. But the Saviour spoke with authority and set the captive free. The man who had been possessed stood before the wondering people in the freedom of self-possession.” The Ministry of Healing, 91, 92.

Self-possession is self-control. That is what God wants to give to all of us. Prophecy tells us what the Messiah would do when He came, and what we have just seen in Capernaum tells us that Jesus was doing everything that prophecy foretold He would do. Jesus is the Son of the living God. He fulfilled the prophecy: “The Spirit of the Lord God [is] upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison [to them that are] bound.” Isaiah 61:1. This same message is recorded in Luke 4:18: “The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor . . . .” It is only the meek, the poor, those who sense their need, that are going to receive the help of the gospel of Christ to set them free.

Greatest Obstacle

What is one of the greatest obstacles that Jesus had to meet here in this world, while seeking to save humanity from the predicament they were in regarding sin? “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?” John 8:31–33. It is an amazing thing that humanity finds itself in this horrible, miry pit of sin, yet the majority of humanity does not sense their need. They do not recognize that they are in bondage. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” John 1:11. Why? Because they did not recognize that they had a need. The greatest obstacle is that humanity is not aware of the predicament which they are in and from which they cannot, of themselves, get out.

Jesus tells the people what causes the bondage from which He came to deliver them: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” John 8:34. Sin brings us into bondage and keeps us from doing what God intends for us to do. It is as simple as that.

Awaken to Righteousness

God wants to awaken us to righteousness, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:34, that we might not sin. The apostle Peter says, “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” 11 Peter 2:19. Being overcome by sin brings us into bondage and keeps us from doing God’s will.

Let us look at what Jesus wants to do for us and what He is able to do for us. “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: [but] the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:34–36. What a wonderful promise! There is a solution for the predicament, and it is found in One person by the name of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ, the creator of this world, has become the Saviour of this world for those who are willing to wake up to their needs and choose to be saved in the manner that He has devised. He wants to save us from sin. He says the servant does not abide in the house forever. That is a warning. If we are only servants, servants to sin, God is telling us that we will not abide forever, but the Son abides forever. That is why God wants to make us His sons and daughters. He wants us to live through eternal ages with Him. That is why He created us. He loves us that much! He loves us so much that He gave us His Son to stand in our place and pay the penalty for our sins. Marvelous love!

“None have fallen so low, none are so vile, but that they may find deliverance in Christ.” The Ministry of Healing, 93. That is a marvelous, wondrous promise. No matter what your case is, no matter how bad you perceive yourself, and no matter how bad you really are, God wants to lift you out of that horrible pit. He wants to establish your feet on a Rock—Himself. Is He able to do it? Yes! He says, If the Son shall make you free, you will be free indeed! That word indeed means truly! You will truly be set free. God wants to help us fly spiritually; He wants us to be lifted up to His glory, honor, and praise.

Truth = Freedom

What is one of the means that Jesus uses to set His people free from sin? Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32. This is only one means by which Jesus sets us free, because truth needs a catalyst, if it is going to work in our heart. We can receive the truth of God in our mind, but that is not where God wants it to end. He wants the truth in our hearts. Jesus is talking more than theoretical truth, when He says we will know the truth, and that truth will make us free. God wants to set us free from sin so we will not be in bondage that keeps us from doing God’s will.

Our Choice

Upon what is our freedom from bondage ultimately dependent? The Bible says, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Romans 6:16. Ultimately, friends, for us to be set free from the bondage of sin, it is by our choice. If we do not make the choice, it will not happen. It has to be a constant, determined choice—it cannot be an occasional choice—to allow God to do the work that will set us free.

“In the work of redemption there is no compulsion, no external force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve. In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom. The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself. True, we have no power to free ourselves from Satan’s control; but when we desire to be set free from sin, and in our great need cry out for a power out of and above ourselves, the powers of the soul are imbued with the divine energy of the Holy Spirit, and they obey the dictates of the will in fulfilling the will of God.” The Desire of Ages, 466.

Paul said it well, in Philippians 2:13: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure.” It is up to us to submit to His will and His doing. When we submit, the expulsion of sin from our lives will take place. We will no longer be in bondage; we will be set free.

Law of Liberty

Being set free from sin is the same thing as being brought into obedience to God’s will. Obedience is what we see in Romans 6:16: “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”

We saw, in John 8:32, where Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” We noticed that if we choose to have sin expelled from us, it is only going to happen by way of obedience to God. Psalm 119:142 says, “Thy righteousness [is] an everlasting righteousness, and thy law [is] the truth.” So what is truth? It is the Law of God. When we refer to God’s Law, we are talking about the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20, upon which God runs His whole universe.

Jesus compressed the Ten Commandments into two commandments. (See Matthew 22:37–40.) Likewise, He can take the complexities of our lives and make them simple, if we are willing. If we allow Him to take the sin out of our lives, our lives will be much simpler than they are in the complexity of sin.

“But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth [therein], he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” James 1:25. God calls His Law a law of liberty, but it is only a law of liberty to those who choose to obey it. To all who choose to dis-obey, it is a law of condemnation. It is the same with our civil laws. If we abide by the law, we have freedom, but if we break the law, then we are under the law of penalty and condemnation. It is no different with God’s Law.

Perfect Law

God calls His Law the law of liberty, but He also uses an adjective to describe it. It is a perfect law of liberty! There is nothing we can do to improve upon God’s Law. We cannot add; we cannot subtract; we cannot make it any better, because it is perfect. The psalmist says, “The law of the Lord [is] perfect, converting the soul.” Psalm 19:7.

God wants to change us by His Law. Liberty from sin is found only in obedience to God’s will. “When one surrenders to Christ, the mind is brought under the control of the law; but it is the royal law, which proclaims liberty to every captive. [Satan has the majority of the Christian world believing that the Law of God is a law of bondage.] By becoming one with Christ, man is made free. Subjection to the will of Christ means restoration to perfect manhood.

“Obedience to God is liberty from the thralldom of sin, deliverance from human passion and impulse. Man may stand conqueror of himself, conqueror of his own inclinations, conqueror of principalities and powers, and of ‘the rulers of the darkness of this world,’ and of ‘spiritual wickedness in high places.’ Ephesians 6:12.” The Ministry of Healing, 131. Do you have any trouble with your passions? Do you have any impulsive desires that are contrary to God’s will? We are all tempted in that direction, but God is able to deliver us.

God wants to deliver us from the power of sin in this world. He is able; He is willing; He is waiting for us to make the decision to cooperate with Him. Liberty is found only in obedience to God’s Law. Nowhere else will you find liberty.

Two Ways

What are the two great objects in the center of the way that leads to life and liberty? In Matthew 7:13, 14, Jesus talks about two ways that we can choose to go. One way is broad, and everything that we want to do we can do in that broad way. Then there is a narrow way. We are talking about the narrow way that leads to eternal life, and we are asking the question, What are the two great central objects in the way that lead to life and liberty? Jesus tells us, in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Jesus says He is truth, but we read, in Psalm 119:142, that God’s Law is the truth. God places the two great truths of Jesus and His Law in the way that leads to eternal life.

The Law of God is the center of the issue in the plan of salvation. In fact, it is the basis of the controversy between good and evil in which we are involved. Jesus died on Calvary to uphold the Law of God. If the Law of God could have been changed, Jesus need not have died on Calvary. But God’s Law is as changeless as is He, so Jesus came and died for us, making a way by which we can experience the truth that will set us free from the bondage of sin.

Law in our Hearts

It is not enough to have God’s Law in our minds; God wants to put it in our hearts. “For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts . . . .” Hebrews 8:10. The law must first be in our minds. We must have an intelligent knowledge of God’s Word and of His Law before they are written in our hearts. When that happens, He says, “I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” Ibid. Friends, we will never be the people of God until we choose to allow Him to write His Law upon our hearts.

The Catalyst

We have all sensed ourselves, at one time or another, as being out of sorts with God, of being in that pit from which we cannot extricate ourselves. Jesus is the solution.

Truth is one of the great parts by which God will set us free, but there is a catalyst that is needed for truth to get from our minds to our hearts. We find it in the life of Jesus: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14.

There is the catalyst—grace! God wants us to walk in the light that proceeds from His Word that has been there for centuries, waiting for us to make a choice. Grace is the catalyst that will send God’s truth to our hearts. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8, 9. We can never merit or earn this grace that is so much needed.

Gifts of God

The gifts of God are two-fold. James 1:17 tells us, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” God has good and perfect gifts that He bestows upon His children in this world. Those good gifts are the physical gifts, the blessings that all humanity receives.

Do we merit the sun that shines upon us today? Do we earn the right to breathe the breath of air? No, those are gifts of God. Have we earned the right to eat the food that gives us strength? No, we have not earned that. God gives the blessings and good gifts to us, not because we have earned them or that we merit them, but because of His goodness. Jesus said that our Father sends the rain upon the just and the unjust. (See Matthew 5:45.)

Is God any different with His spiritual gifts, His perfect gifts? Can we merit a spiritual gift? Can we merit God’s grace? Can we earn God’s favor and His Holy Spirit? No, we cannot. We access the spiritual gifts by faith, by trusting and believing what God says. It is not by works; it is by faith. Works will not produce grace, but grace will produce works. Ephesians 2:10 tells us, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Many in Christendom today are trying to manufacture something in their own experience to get out of their bondage state. But no amount of works that we can do will manufacture God’s grace or merit it. None! We must come to God as He has ordained for us to come. There is a way, but if we do not follow the sequential order that God has laid out for us in the plan of salvation—faith and works, not works and faith—we are stuck in the pit. When we follow God’s order, we are going to experience the blessing, and we will be able to fly like the eagles.

Bottom Line

What is the bottom line? God wants to save us from sin, but He is not going to give us His grace when we are trying to work out our own salvation. He will honor us with His grace only when we choose to access the plan of salvation in the order in which He has designed it. When we come into harmony with the two great center truths of the plan of salvation, Jesus and God’s Law, we will receive the gift of grace and experience true liberty.

Craig Meeker directs the Bible correspondence school for Steps to Life Ministry. 

Freedom of Choice, Part I

by

Religious liberty, freedom of choice, is of the utmost importance to God. The very thing that makes our love valuable to God is the fact that we do not have to give it. When we choose to give it, it makes it very valuable to Him. He gave us that freedom, that choice.

1888 Sunday Law

As some of you that are familiar with history—especially Seventh-day Adventist history—know, a lot of interesting things were going on during the late 1800s. In secular history, Senator Henry William Blair introduced a national Sunday law in the United States Senate. This proposed law was being discussed, and was ready to be voted upon. In church history, God had sent to E. J. Waggoner and A. T. Jones what the prophet called “the most precious message” that was to prepare God’s people for translation. (See Manuscript Releases, vol. 14, 128.) Because the church did not accept this “most precious message,” the message of righteousness by faith, God stopped what was going on in the Senate. A. T. Jones went before the Senate and argued against Senator Blair’s Sunday law. His arguments were so effective that even Senator Blair decided that Sunday laws were a bad idea.

The next large event that happened in the church, after the 1888 General Conference session, was a camp meeting held at Ottawa, Kansas, in 1889. In those days, camp meetings were a big deal; thousands and thousands of people would attend. So many people attended that sometimes the railroad companies would actually run tracks to the campsite so the people could ride the train right to that area! It was also common for the media to report the news of the camp meetings. At this camp meeting in Ottawa, Kansas, the Topeka Capital-Journal (Topeka, Kansas) published in its newspaper every sermon that was preached. A. T. Jones was one of the main speakers, and of the 31 sermons he preached during that camp meeting, at least 15 of them were on religious liberty. Other presentations included the topic of righteousness by faith. The message of righteousness by faith and the message of religious liberty were closely tied together.

Today, some of the laws that are introduced by our government leaders may come from good intentions. At times it is possible to see the logic in them, but it is a bit confusing to understand whether the proposed law is a good law or whether it is a bad law, whether it is going to take away personal freedom, or whether it is going to enhance the situation for everyone. In this article, we will study some principles in God’s Word that will help us to be able to judge these laws, to see where they are heading and the principles behind them. We are going to look at the subject of government through God’s Word. We are going to see what God thinks about civil government. Does He approve of it, and if He does, how much authority has He given it? What is its purpose? What should it regulate, and what should it leave alone?

Civil Government

First, let’s answer the question, Does God approve of civil government? Paul had some strong things to say about this in Romans 13:1–4: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to [execute] wrath upon him that doeth evil.”

That makes it pretty plain that God definitely approves of government, does it not? He has ordained it and those who are in civil government, doing what they are supposed to do, He calls His ministers. But it seems that most of the governments in the world today are more evil than good. How can God condone that? As we look at history, perhaps we will find the answer to this question and others that have already been asked.

Self-government

To start with, at some point of time in this universe, there may have been only one creature. What fact is evident if only one creature exists? If there is one creature, there has to not interfere, not try to force each other into their own belief system.

So a second creature called for a second principle of government, and Jesus stated this as the second commandment: “And the second [is] like, [namely] this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:31.

Two = Ten

These two principles of government are just the simple dictates of reason and of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3–17). The Ten Commandments expand on these two principles, but they do not change them. The first four commandments basically tell us how to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We do not have other gods before Him; we do not set up idols in His place; we do not use His name in vain; and we remember His Sabbath to keep it holy. The Sabbath is a memorial to creation. If we remember the Sabbath, the memorial to creation, we do not forget our Creator.

The last six commandments tell us how to love our neighbors as ourselves. They tell us not to steal, not to kill, and not to commit adultery, not to lie, not to covet, and to honor our parents. They tell us how to handle this secondary relationship.

Original Government

These two principles are the original government. They are perfect government. They are the ultimate. People that live according to these principles live by self-government. Self-government does not mean that we let self do whatever it wants. Self-government means that we choose to be governed by reason—reason educated by the Word of God. That is the principle by which we live. God created all beings that He has ever made with freedom of choice. (Patriarchs and Prophets, 331, 332.) Men are free to choose. (See In Heavenly Places, 361.) God made us that way, and He always respects that freedom. When these created beings choose of their own free will to be in subjection to God, to His will and His design, then they are considered to be self-governed people. They choose it. It is a voluntary thing. It is government by the consent of the governed. It is a perfect government. It is self-government. The self-governed ones see the wisdom in God’s will, and they choose to be in subjection to it.

This perfect government ruled for an undisclosed period of time during eternity past. We do not know exactly how long it existed, but we know that the universe ran under this principle until the fall of Adam and Eve and that the rest of the unfallen universe—everywhere except this world—still operate under this principle. This planet is the only place where this principle is not in effect.

Everything went along fine as long as this principle governed. God did not use force to get His created beings to be in subjection to Him; it was voluntary. The beings saw the wisdom in it, and they submitted to Him and were governed by love.

Self-government Ends

But something went wrong. Someone chose not to give the Creator the love and honor that He deserved, and introduced a new and strange thing—selfishness—that led to rebellion, sin, and apostasy. It was the origin of evil. Any created being could have originated it, but Lucifer was the one who did. The important thing to realize is that everybody that follows his rebellion puts his or her stamp of approval on that type of government. A third of the angels changed rulers at that time and followed Lucifer. They put their stamp of approval on evil.

There would have been no way to ever return into God’s self-government, to choose Him as a ruler again, except He said to Lucifer, “I’m going to put enmity between you and the woman”—the woman being the church, and the church being those who choose self-government over rebellion. (Genesis 3:15.) God offered this enmity, but there was and is still the power of choice.

God had never before used force, but we are told that God had to use this new and strange thing that had never been used before in the universe. “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:7–9.

God does not believe in forcing anybody to do anything. He does believe in removing people from society when they threaten the lives of self-governed beings. That is how He handles such situations. He does not force them to behave; He does not force them to obey; but He does remove them from society. That is what civil government is supposed to do. That is what it has been ordained of God to do. Civil government’s purpose is to protect God’s self-governed people from the rebels who choose not to be self-governed. Only those who again learn self-government will be safe to save for eternity, because God is not going to allow rebellion to happen again in heaven.

God is very patient in His dealings with us. He has dealt patiently with the human race for 6,000 years, and He dealt patiently with Satan for an unknown length of time in eternity past. God gave Satan every opportunity to turn around, to repent, and to come back into line with the two original principles of government that we have studied. He has tried through many generations to bring us back. Some people have learned, but most have chosen to not be self-governed.

Dichotomy

In the lives of Cain and Abel, the first children of Adam and Eve, we see that one chose the way of self-government and the other chose the way of rebellion. We see the two principles at work in their lives. Abel, who chose self-government, worshipped God the way God had outlined. Cain did a thing that the Spirit of Prophecy calls partial obedience. He built the altar, kind of like what God said; he brought the sacrifice, kind of like what God said; but it was not right. (See Patriarchs and Prophets, 72.) He decided that he would do things his own way. Partial obedience is disobedience. That is what he chose. God accepted Abel’s worship, and He rejected Cain’s. Abel tried to persuade Cain to do things the right way. It is a good thing to try to persuade people; it is a bad thing to try to force people. Cain became very angry. He did not like being reproved. He became so angry that he killed Abel. That is the ultimate step in trying to force people.

It is interesting that people who do not want to obey God do not want anybody else to obey either. That may be hard for us to understand, but people are not satisfied just to be in disobedience themselves. They want everybody else to be disobedient, too. It seems that Cain did not want to govern himself—he did not want to be self-governed—but he wanted to govern others. That is another principle we notice. People that cannot govern themselves always want to govern other people. That is what Cain did. That is how sinful human nature works.

Anarchy Reigns

Adam and Eve had another son after Cain and Abel. His name was Seth, and he chose the way of self-government. They then had many other sons, and the majority of them chose the way of rebellion. The history of this world before the flood is mostly a history of no government at all. Everybody just kind of did what he or she felt like, except for the few, the little group of those who chose to be self-governed. There was no civil government; there was no law. You just did whatever you felt like—unless you were governed by God.

If all of Adam’s children had chosen self-government, there never would have been any kingdoms on this earth except God’s. There would not have been civil government; there would have been no need for it. Obviously that did not happen. Before the flood there was not any government. There were societies; there were enlarged families; there were tribes; but there was no organized government. Everybody pretty much did what he or she wanted. It was kind of the law of the jungle; the strongest survived. That is the way it went up until the flood.

God will put up with that kind of thing for a period of time, but after a certain point, He says, “No more,” and He puts a stop to it. Genesis 6:11–13 tells about that: “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; and all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”

So we are told that God will allow so much, and then He will quench it, and that is what He did. The first time God destroyed the earth because of anarchy; there was no government. In the end of time He will destroy it because of too much government and too much law, contrary to His Law.

Idolatry

God restarted the earth again with Noah and his family, eight people total. He started it again on the principle of self-government, but in spite of the awful demonstration of God’s wrath, it was not very long before the way of rebellion rose up again. Some chose the way of self-government, but the vast majority chose the way of rebellion. They even chose other gods and set up idols in God’s place.

Men would take the title of God and His authority and place it upon an idol, and they would make that idol their god and their king. But they had not gone so far in apostasy as to take that title and authority from that idol and put it on a man. The idol was god and king, and the people worshipped that idol, but they had not yet gone so far as to set themselves up in place of God.

An idol is nothing more than a reflection of the one that made it, the devotee. Therefore, it would follow that the idolater is really his own god. The idol is just a symbol of that. With each idolater being his own god, it becomes plain that all idolatry is more than just false worship, it is self-worship. The character of the false god is the character of the one that made it. Obviously it has no character of its own; it can only have what the worshipper gives it. Since its character comes from man, Mark 7:21, 22 tells us that “Out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.” So it only follows that this describes the character of the idol, because it came from man, and that is what is in the heart of men. In Psalm 135:18 we are told, “They that make them [idols] are like unto them.” Men, being evil, build evil gods, and because of the law of beholding, they become more evil. It is a downward spiral. On the other hand, self-government beholds God, so it leads upward.

Monarchy

What happens when you have organized idol worship disguised as Christianity? What happens when you combine paganism and Christianity, build an idol, and worship that idol? You have created an evil god in your own image. You think that this god is good, but this god is actually so evil that he would burn people forever and ever and ever, just because they messed up on this planet for 70 years, give or take a few years. This god is so evil that he would torture people throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. It automatically follows that as you create that kind of god, and behold that kind of god, that it is nothing for you to kill a few people to help him. That is why it says in John 16:2 that “the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” That is the result of organized idolatry disguised as Christianity.

If the idol is nothing but the representation of the one that made it, it is logical that eventually someone would take the authority and title from that idol and place it upon himself. Obviously an idol cannot make anybody do anything, so somebody has to become the executor of the idol’s will. Somebody has to take it upon himself to enforce what this idol, this fake god, wants done. In other words, he is going to enforce what he wants done, because he made the idol. That is the origin of monarchies.

One man did set himself up to be the executor of the idol’s will, to enforce what the idol wanted. He had to rule over men by force in order to accomplish that. The strongest man prevailed, ruled over others, and became the monarch. For a time, that monarch was not called god. He was called a viceroy; he was in place of a god. The idol was still the king for quite some time. They had not gone so far as to be bold enough to actually take the title and authority from the god and place it upon themselves. They were just kind of standing in place of this idol, doing its will.

Kingdom

It was not until Nimrod that somebody finally got bold enough to step up another notch in apostasy and actually take the title and authority from an idol upon themselves. Genesis 10:8–10 talks about him: “And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel . . . .” It says there that Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord. He was not just a hunter of animals and beasts, but he was actually a hunter and a pursuer and a crusher of the souls of men. That is the kind of hunter he was. From the time of the flood until Nimrod there had been tribes, but this thing that Nimrod set up was a whole new relationship that had never been done before—to have this man be in the place of God over all these people. Nimrod was the first to establish an organized kingdom. His kingdom was Babel, or Babylon. He became an overbearing tyrant. He crushed people and oppressed them, and he worked to enlarge his kingdom.

Nimrod worked to expand his empire by conquering men. He conquered other of Noah’s descendants, and he sought to crush and oppress everybody with whom he came in contact. He wanted to take everybody. Everybody was to be under his control. But there was a problem. God placed in the heart of men a desire to be free, a very strong desire. Because of Nimrod’s efforts to crush and expand his kingdom by crushing men, and by men resisting, the history of the world is largely a story of war—war between oppression and the fight for freedom.

Assyria, one of the oldest kingdoms in the world, found that every year, for approximately 800 years, they would go out and conquer some territory, and the next year they would have to go back and re-conquer it. The conquered would be ready the next year to fight again, because of that strong desire for freedom that God has placed in the hearts of men. Tyrants have continued to try to control the world throughout history, and others have fought for freedom throughout history.

To be continued . . .

________________________________________________________________________________________

Steve Currey is a Bible worker for Steps to Life Ministry.

Four Old Things, Part I

by

This is a true story that happened to one of the most famous and out-standing sales trainers in the United States a few years ago. This man travels all over, teaching salesmen how to sell and how to be more successful. In a seminar on sales, the basic things of salesmanship are given, then some other things may be covered, but the basics are always provided first. Sometimes, after a person has been selling for a long time, they will say, “I don’t need to study that anymore. I know the basics already.”

In writing about his experience in one of the sales meetings, this trainer mentioned how people who are already in sales usually will not come to the seminar, but he noticed this one man who came to the seminar every year. He asked the man, “Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do? I notice that you come to the seminar every year; are there any of your colleagues with you?”

“No,” the man replied, “I am here all by myself.” He explained that his colleagues could not be convinced that they needed to come to the seminar. The man who was speaking revealed that he was the top producer in his organization, and he felt the need to attend; the rest of the salesmen did not. He continued, “I feel the need at least every year to review the basics about salesmanship.” You know, people who forget the basics, even when they have a lot of experience, make a lot of crazy mistakes.

Jesus, speaking to His disciples, said, “Do you understand all of these things? They say to Him, Yes. And He says to them, On account of this, every scribe who has been instructed in the things of the kingdom of the heavens is like a man who is a householder which brings out of his treasure things new and old.” Matthew 13:51, 52. As human beings, we have a natural tendency to want to hear the new, and that is not wrong, but sometimes we need to hear the old. We need to be sure that we do not forget the old things.

Who are you?

Who are you? How do you define yourself? If you are a Christian, if you believe the Bible, when someone asks who you are, the first thing that might come to your mind is what Genesis says. God and the Son had a conversation, and they said, “Let us make man in our own image and in our own likeness: . . . and so they created both male and female; they created man in the image of God.” Genesis 1:26, 27. Does it make a difference in your whole view of the universe and of yourself whether or not you think you are the son of God or the son of a monkey? Yes, it makes all the difference in the world. You see, in our educational system today, the children are being taught that they descended from animals. No wonder, then, that they act like animals!

More than this, it is not just that you have been created in the image of God, but if asked who you are, one of the answers that may come to mind is that you are a Christian. What is a Christian? A Christian is one who is Christ-like, who is following Jesus. Christians overcome the world. (See 1 John 5:4.) If you say that you are of Him, then you have to walk the way He walked, as John said. (See 1 John 2:6.)

In the Christian church, around the beginning of the fourth century, some people belonged to what they called the church universal—that is the Catholic Church. There arose a controversy between them and another group that were called the Donatists. The Donatists were a very interesting group of Christian people. The controversy with the Catholic Church centered on the point that the Donatists did not believe that the church should be associated with the state. They believed in separation of church and state, and they told the Catholic Church that they should not be using the Roman Government to try to get their way. The Catholic Church was in cahoots with the Roman Government of that day, and they actually arranged for the Roman Government to put pressure on the Donatists and to tell them that they could not call themselves Christians. You are Donatists, they said; you are not Christians. That has happened thousands of times since then, clear down to the present day.

Warning of Apostasy

As time went on, the early church fell away from the truth. This action was predicted in the New Testament. The New Testament writers repeatedly reminded the early church that the church was going to go into a terrible apostasy after the apostles’ death. Over and over again they repeated this warning. Peter told them point blank—all of 11 Peter is about the fact that apostasy was coming into the church after Peter died. In Acts 20, Paul told the elders from Ephesus the very same thing. After his departure, he said, grievous wolves are going to come in and not spare the flock.

Protestant Reformation

As time went on, people who were studying the Bible saw such a discrepancy between what the Bible said and what the church was doing that they said to the people in the church that they were not the church but were idolaters. The whole world became a spiritual battlefield for hundreds of years. Eventually, well over a thousand years later, we see the development of the Protestant Reformation, which took place over a 200-year period. When we study the Protestant Reformation, we usually start at the days of Martin Luther in the early sixteenth century, but Ellen White says that John Wycliffe was the morning star of the Reformation, and he lived in the fourteenth century. (See The Great Controversy, 80.)

I not only call myself a Christian, I call myself a Protestant. Are you a Protestant? What does a Protestant believe? A Protestant is someone who protests the apostasy. That is how they got the name Protestant—they protested the apostasy.

In the Protestant Reformation, there were three major beliefs that they could not harmonize with the Catholic Church.

Priesthood of Believers

The New Testament writer who explains most fully the concept of the priesthood of believers is Peter, the man whom Catholics say was the first pope. The priesthood of believers is the idea that Christ is our great High Priest, and we do not have to go through a human priest to talk with Him, because we are all priests. Peter distinctly taught that.

If that is the case, then when I have done something wrong, I do not have to practice auricular confession. Auricular confession is the idea that you must go to a human priest and confess your sins. The early Reformers said that did not have to be done. They taught that the people could go directly to the Lord and confess their sins.

You may not know this, but auricular confession is one of the great power structures on which the Roman Catholic Church is built. The Roman Catholic Church today has more and better intelligence as to what is going on in every country of the world than any secular government. How? Because of auricular confession.

Protestants do not believe in auricular confession. We believe in the priesthood of believers. We are all priests, and we go to Jesus directly as our great High Priest.

Sola Scriptura

Sola Scriptura is a Latin phrase that means Scripture alone; in other words, the Bible and the Bible only is our foundation of faith. The Protestant Reformation gave the Bible back to the common man. When people read the Bible before that time, they found so much that was different from what the Roman Catholic Church taught, that they accused the papacy, the church, of being an adulterer. The Catholic Church teaches that the Bible and tradition are the foundation of the Christian faith. But they essentially exalt tradition above the Bible. The church had to take the Bibles away from the people, or its foundation would have been destroyed.

When the Bible began to be printed, one of the vicars in London said, We will either have to destroy the printing press, or it will destroy us. But the Protestant Reformation gave the Bible back to the people in their own language. They determined that they would not have Bibles just in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, but that they would have Bibles in English and in German, and they translated the Bible in all of the different languages.

Sola Scriptura is still one of the basic differences between Protestants and Catholics. I have a very interesting Roman Catholic book, printed in 1999, which lists 21 points against Sola Scriptura. Unfortunately, most Adventists, even historic Adventists, do not know how to refute this book. We need to know why we believe in the principle of Sola Scriptura, which is the principle that the Bible, all by itself, can bring us to spiritual perfection and prepare us for the kingdom of heaven. From 11 Timothy 3:15 we know that the Holy Scriptures “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” The Roman Catholic book attempts to attack our position on this passage of Scripture, but the text still says the same thing. After being attacked, it is good to check to see if the Scriptures say exactly what we thought they said. This is how 11 Timothy continues: “Every Scripture is God-breathed [that is, given by inspiration of God] and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for discipline in righteousness, in order that the man of God might be complete, thoroughly furnished [or fully equipped] for every good work.” Verses 16, 17. So the Protestant Reformation gave the Bible back to the people. Without it we have no foundation.

Sola Fide

There is another principle in Latin, Sola Fide, which means by faith alone—we are saved by grace through faith alone. That was a major battlefield of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformers showed from Scripture that the seven sacraments and the various penances, fastings, pilgrimages, and other good works that the Catholic Church taught as necessary for salvation actually hold no merit with God. We are saved by faith in the blood of Christ, not by any good works we can do.

Sectarianism

I am still a Protestant. Not only a Christian, but also a Protestant. And I am not only a Protestant Christian; I am a Seventh-day Adventist Christian.

Have you ever heard anyone say to someone else, “You are not a Seventh-day Adventist”? That happened to one of my church members. An Adventist pastor said to her, “You are not a Seventh-day Adventist.”

She said to him, “Show me what there is in the doctrinal beliefs, in the baptismal vows, that I do not believe. I am a Seventh-day Adventist. I have been a Seventh-day Adventist since before you were born.”

The pastor said, “No, you’re not an Adventist.”

“Why then do you say that I am not an Adventist?” He reasoned that she did not belong to the same church organization to which he belonged.

Do you know, that is exactly the same thing that was going on in the early fourth century when the Catholic Church said to the Donatists, You do not have the right to call yourself a Christian. Why did they tell them that? Because the Donatists did not belong to their church organization. I do not know why it took me so long to get this figured out, but I was reading my Bible a few years ago and all of a sudden Mark 9:38 jumped out at me, and I said, Of course, why didn’t I know that all along! It says, “And John gave answer to Him, ‘Teacher, we saw a certain person casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.’ ”

There are some churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, that make a big thing about whether or not your church is apostolic. Was this church the apostolic church? Yes, this was the 12 apostles themselves. They saw this person casting out demons in Christ’s name and they told the man not to do it, that he was not part of them, that he did not have permission to work miracles because he did not belong to the right church! He was not part of the right organization. Jesus did not agree with them. “Jesus said, ‘Do not forbid him, for no one is able to do a miracle in my name and then is able quickly to speak against me or to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is on our side.’ ” Verses 39, 40.

That is what we call sectarianism—if you do not belong to our church organization then you are wrong; then you don’t have permission; you cannot call yourself a Christian; you cannot call yourself a Seventh-day Adventist; you cannot do this; and you cannot do that. The disciples had that problem, but the Lord corrected it. The Lord would still like to correct this problem.

What Name?

If you do not know who you are, the devil is going to blow you away with the storm that is coming. You need to know who and what a Seventh-day Adventist really is. You see, before the end, the devil might put all kinds of names on us, just like he put all kinds of names on Jesus. Jesus was called “that deceiver” (Matthew 27:63); they said “He is working miracles by Beelzebub” (Luke 11:15–19), and Jesus told His disciples, “If they call the Master of the house Beelzebub, what are they going to do to His followers?” (Matthew 10:25.) So they might call us all sorts of things. No matter what name they put on you, who you are is determined by what is inside.

Where are you from?

From where do you come? The people in the world say that we come from a church that started in 1863. “My church is 2,000 years old,” they say. Well, my church is 6,000 years old! Yes, we come from the Adventist movement; we still believe what the pioneer Adventist preachers taught and preached; we still believe what Ellen White wrote; but from where did they come? At that time, that was the extent of the development of the Protestant Reformation. You see, the Protestant Reformation kept going on after the sixteenth century reformers died. The Protestant Reformation eventually developed into the Second Advent Movement. We are the outgrowth of the Protestant Reformation, and the Protestant Reformation is the outgrowth of what the Waldenses taught and of what the people of God taught all the way back to the apostles. You see, the thing that determines whether or not you are apostolic is what you are teaching. It is not whether you can say you can trace the head of your church back so many years.

The Jews could trace their church all the way back to Abraham, and they told Jesus, “ ‘Abraham is our father.’ [We know where we come from.] Jesus said to them, ‘If you were the children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham, but now you seek to kill me, a man that has told you the truth, which I have heard from God. This Abraham did not do. You do the works of your father.’ Therefore they said to him, ‘We have not been born out of fornication; we have one father, even God.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If God was your father, you would love me, for I came out from God, neither did I come from myself, but he sent me. Why do you not know my speech? Because you are not able to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you wish to do. That one was a murderer from the beginning and did not abide in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie he speaks of his own, because he is a liar and the father of it.’ ” John 8:39–44. Jesus was teaching that our character shows where we come from. They said that they came from Abraham, but Jesus said, No, you did not; you came from the devil because you have the same character as the devil.

It is your character that determines your lineage, where you are from. The apostle John expressed it this way: “He who sins is of the devil.” 1 John 3:8. If I am living in sin, where am I from? Who is my spiritual father? The devil! Where is your lineage? There will be a group of people in the last days whose lineage will go all the way back to the beginning of time, and they will be called the sons of God, the children of God, because they keep the commandments of God and they accept and follow the testimony of Jesus (Revelation 12:17). Friends, I want to be in that little group. Over and over again we are told that this will just be a little group. Jesus said it, and the apostles said it. Almost all of the world will be deceived, but there will be a little group who will be saved.

Where are you going?

What is your future? The Bible does not teach that we are all going to the same place. It does not even teach that all Christians are going to the same place. Are all Protestants going to the same place? No, they are not. Are all Seventh-day Adventists going to the same place? No, they are not. Ellen White says, “I was shown the startling fact that but a small portion of those who now profess the truth will be sanctified by it and be saved.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 608. Startling statement!

Where are you going? “Well,” someone says, “I go to the right church!” Does that make you go to the right place? No. “I belong to the right church organization!” Does that make you go to the right place? No. “Oh, but I believe the right doctrines.” Does that make you go to the right place? No. Well, where are you going, and how do you know you are going to get there? Ellen White said that she saw in vision that many of those who were on the broad road had written on their garments that they were dead to the world and that they were headed to the New Jerusalem, but they were on the broad road. Ibid., 128. Scripture says, “Enter in through the narrow gate, because wide is the gate and spacious [or broad] is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are which enter in through it. Because narrow is the gate and restricted is the way which leads to life, and few there are who find it.” Matthew 7:13, 14. “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens; but the one who does the will of My Father who is in the heavens. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? And in Your name we cast out demons. And in Your name we did many powerful works [miracles]. Then I will confess to them, Never, at any time, did I know you: depart from Me, you who work lawlessness.” Verses 21–23. They thought they were going to heaven, but when they got to the end, they discovered that was not where they were going.

Do you know for sure where you are going? Are you praying to the Lord that you will not be deceived and have some kind of pretend religion? What determines where you are going? Your character determines your destiny. Jesus taught that over and over. The people who are not saved are the people who practice lawlessness.

[Bible texts quoted are literal translation.]

To be continued . . .

Pastor Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life Ministry and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas.

Editorial – Preconceived Opinions

by

In Jesus’ day, the Jews had many preconceived opinions about how prophecy was going to be fulfilled. They clung so tenaciously to these preconceived opinions (many of which were hundreds of years old—venerable with age) that, when prophecy was fulfilled in a different way than their pre-conceived opinions, they rejected the evidence of fulfilled prophecy. This was one of the reasons for the rejection of Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. One of the Jews’ preconceived opinions was that nobody would be able to tell where the Messiah was from, another was that the Messiah would appear at the head of armies for their deliverance from the Romans. The irony of all this is that nobody really could explain where Jesus was from, because the virgin birth could not be explained then or now. They rejected it, and accused Jesus of being born of fornication; they were sure that they were right because Joseph had been engaged to Mary at the time that she became pregnant. The Messiah would have delivered them from the tyranny of the Romans if they had accepted Him, but not in the way that they pre-conceived this to happen. Notice how clearly this is stated in The Desire of Ages, 576: “If Jerusalem had known what it was her privilege to know, and had heeded the light which Heaven had sent her, she might have stood forth in the pride of prosperity, the queen of kingdoms, free in the strength of her God-given power. There would have been no armed soldiers standing at her gates, no Roman banners waving from her walls. The glorious destiny that might have blessed Jerusalem had she accepted her Redeemer rose before the Son of God. He saw that she might through Him have been healed of her grievous malady, liberated from bondage, and established as the mighty metropolis of the earth. From her walls the dove of peace would have gone forth to all nations. She would have been the world’s diadem of glory.” [Emphasis supplied.]

How much they missed because they clung tenaciously to their preconceived opinions! Is there any danger of that today? Do we have preconceived opinions about how prophecy is to be fulfilled? If prophecy is fulfilled in a completely different way, will we recognize it, or will we reject the light and go into darkness? It has been my observation for many years that misinterpretation of prophecy is usually based on reading something into the prophecy that it does not exactly say, based on preconceived opinions that are widely held. This has been a reason for the controversy over who and what the church is—is it exactly what the Bible says, no more and no less, or not? (The book of Ephesians tells us exactly who and what it is.) The same is true in regard to statements in the Spirit of Prophecy—many of these statements were given in a specific context and cannot be given a universal or restricted technical application. (See Ellen G. White Volume 6 The Later Elmshaven Years 1905–1915, by Arthur L. White, Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington D.C., 1982, 384, 385.)

In future editorials we will look at some of these preconceived opinions by which we read things into inspired writings. We all need to ask ourselves the question, “Do I believe what the prophet actually wrote and no more, or do I believe what I think it means?”