church

The Tares

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Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matthew 13:24–30.

Later Jesus explained the parable to His disciples. He said, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world [the spiritual world, the church], the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.” Notice, the tares are not part of the kingdom of His grace—they are the sons of the wicked one. “The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.” Matthew 13:37–40.

The Planting of the Tares

In this field, the church, the devil comes to plant seeds. He does this by bringing unconverted people into the church. They are not the children of the kingdom—they have not been baptized with the Holy Spirit, they are not part of the body of Christ,—but they are planted in the same field. They make a profession. From a human point of view, you cannot tell any difference. Ellen White calls them false brethren, and pretended believers.

The idea that you can profess to be a Christian, but not keep the law, and still be saved is the great deception of the last days. If your character does not harmonize with your profession, your profession is worthless.

It is too close to the end of time to be playing games of pretend. If you have been making a profession, but your religion is not real—if you have not really been baptized by the Holy Spirit; if you are not joined to the Lord as one spirit with Him; if you do not have a missionary spirit; if you do not have any sense of urgency to finish God’s work in the world—you need to go to your closet and pray, and say, “Lord, please take away this pretended religion and baptize me with the Holy Spirit. I want a real experience.”

The Tares and the Wheat Grow Together

The question that arises is: “How am I to deal with the tares around me in the church?” Some are quick to answer, “We just have to let the tares and wheat grow together, we know there is all this wickedness in the church, but Jesus said you have to let the wheat and the tares grow together, so you just have to put up with it.” Is that ever one of the Devil’s lies! The parable of the wheat and the tares does not apply to open sin. A tare illustrates a pretended believer who is counted with the true. You cannot tell the difference on the outside, but in his heart there is something that is not right.

One example of a tare is Judas. Was Judas numbered with the rest of the disciples? Yes. On the outside he was a follower of Christ. Was he a criminal? Not on the outside—his sins were secret, but on the inside his heart was not right. Did the rest of the disciples know what a mess he was in? No, they did not. Jesus did tell his disciples in John 6 that one of them was a devil, and John says he was speaking of Judas; but if Jesus told His disciples, “Now one of you is not converted, please get him disfellowshipped,” they would probably have disfellowshipped Peter! They did not know which one was not converted. It was something inside the heart. That is a tare. On the outside they are living according to all the commandments of God, but inside there is something that is not right. For example, could you tell me tonight if I am proud? No you cannot. And I cannot tell if any of you are proud, that is something of the heart.

Open Sin

What about open sin? Friend, we must never use the parable of the wheat and the tares to excuse open sin in the church! God forbid! That is a terrible perversion of the Scriptures. Where did we get such an abominable idea! Ellen White says if we permit open sin in the church it will crowd out the wheat, and destroy the whole crop!

Paul had the following to say about open sin: “I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother.” Who is a brother? That is a church member. Now here is the problem—one is being called a brother “who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner.” Paul says, “not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore ‘put away from yourselves the evil person.’” 1 Corinthians 5:9–13. The apostle Paul says to disfellowship the person who is living in open sin.

Another text that shows what the Bible says about dealing with open sin is 2 John 7–11: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.” Then a person who does not have apostolic doctrine—the doctrine that Jesus came in the flesh just like you and I have, and overcame the Devil—do not invite them into your house and do not even greet them. If you do, you are partaking of their evil works. Open sin is to be put out, but we cannot disfellowship the person who is good on the outside, but whose heart is evil, because we cannot read his heart.

Disfellowshipping the Faithful

We have come to such a sad day of gigantic apostasy in Adventism, that we see people being disfellowshipped who are keeping God’s commandments. The people who are to be disfellowshipped, according to the Bible, are those who are living in open sin—commandment breakers. There are just two sides. A commandment keeper is on God’s side. If people get together in a church business meeting, and decide to disfellowship one who is a commandment keeper, they have just told the whole universe that they are not on God’s side of the great controversy. That is very serious, friends!

Following a desperate attempt to silence the true and faithful by disfellowshipping them, the former brethren will, no doubt, turn them into the authorities—the government authorities. The wheat will be cast out as evil; and those that believe that the organization is the church will say, “Yes, we are going through the shaking time, and we have to allow these sinners to be sifted out of Zion; because they are rebellious to properly constituted authority, they won’t submit to the council of the community of faith.”

What is really happening is that those who are casting out their former brethren, are separating themselves from those who still believe the three angels’ messages and practice the truth. They are the ones who are being sifted out of Zion by their actions in disfellowshipping their faithful brethren.

When the Tares Have Full Control

When Jesus was on the earth the tares had taken control of the professed people of God, and they had gone to seed. They were living in open sin. Ellen White says the office of the high priest was sometimes acquired by murder—that is living in open sin, isn’t it? The Lord showed Ellen White over and over again that the experience of the children of Israel just before the first coming of Christ would be similar to our experience just before the second coming. (Selected Messages, vol. 1, 406–407.) People are coming to me now, saying, “Brother John, I can see that what you are saying is true, but please tell me, I am mixed up and confused. Tell me how should I relate to church organization?” I tell them to relate to it the way Jesus did. We are living in very similar times, so we relate to church organization just the way Jesus did.

How did Jesus relate to church organization when the tares had control of the church? Matthew 15 is talking about the tares. “Then His disciples came and said to Him, ‘Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’ But He answered and said, ‘Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted [a tare] will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.’” Matthew 15:12–14. “Let them alone.” Jesus did not go and get permission for what He was going to do, neither did John the Baptist. They did not even let the leaders know what they were going to do. It was too dangerous. Jesus said, “Let them alone.” You can spend your whole life time in dialog over all kinds of problems in the Adventist Church. If that is what we do, when is the gospel going to be given to the world? Jesus and John the Baptist could have been dialoging with the priests, Levites, scribes and lawyers, and if that would have happened, we would have been eternally lost.

When the tares had control of the church Jesus said, “Let them alone.” It is time today friends, the hour is late. It is time to organize with the faithful, loyal, and true, wherever you are, and say, “Lord, show us what to do to finish Your work here in our area.”

“I was shown the necessity of those who believe that we are having the last message of mercy, being separate from those who are daily imbibing new errors. I saw that neither young nor old should attend their meetings; for it is wrong to thus encourage them while they teach error that is a deadly poison of the soul and teach for doctrines the commandments of men. The influence of such gatherings is not good. If God has delivered us from such darkness and error, we should stand fast in the liberty wherewith He has set us free and rejoice in the truth. God is displeased with us when we go to listen to error, without being obliged to go; for unless He sends us to those meetings where error is forced home to the people by the power of the will, He will not keep us. The angels cease their watchful care over us and we are left to the buffetings of the enemy, to be darkened and weakened by him and the power of his evil angels; and the light around us becomes contaminated with the darkness.” Early Writings, 124–125. Oh, friend, if there are tares all around who have gone to seed, and if they are in control of the church, teaching false doctrines, Jesus says, “Let them alone.” Join with the loyal, faithful, and true, and ask the Lord to show you what to do to get the work finished.

Ripened for the Harvest

There is coming a time when everyone’s true character will be revealed—the harvest. But before the harvest, everyone will go through situations that will ripen them for the harvest, that will show which side they are on. Just before the close of probation, God sends a message of purification to the Seventh-day Adventist church for the last time, to give one last chance to be purged of all dross. This message is called the straight testimony, and it will result in a terrible shaking. Concerning the straight testimony, Ellen White says, “Some will not bear the straight testimony. They will rise up against it, and this will cause a shaking among God’s people.” Notice, it is not the straight testimony itself that causes the shaking—it’s those that rise up against it! “I saw that the testimony of the True Witness has not been half heeded. The solemn testimony upon which the destiny of the church hangs has been lightly esteemed, if not entirely disregarded. This testimony must work deep repentance; all who truly receive it will obey it and be purified.” Early Writings, 270.

Friends, the straight testimony, through the revival and reformation movement, has been going to the entire Seventh–day Adventist church for a number of years. It has gone all around the world; and has caused a division, and people have risen up against it. This division is often seen as the tares being shaken out of the church; but the question is, “Who and what is the church that they are being shaken out of?” Those that believe the inspired definition of the church see that multitudes have been shaken out of the truth; therefore they have been shaken out of the church.

“Those who separate from God and lose their spirituality, do not fall back all at once into a state which the true Witness calls lukewarm. They conform to the world little by little. As its influence steals upon them, they fail to resist it and maintain the warfare. After the first step is taken to have friendship with the world, darkness follows and they are prepared for the next. At every step they take in the downward course darkness gathers about them, until they are enshrouded. As they conform to the world they lose the transforming influence of the Spirit of God. They do not realize their distance from God. They think themselves in good case because they profess to believe the truth. They grow weaker and weaker, until the Spirit of God is withdrawn, and God bids his angels, Let them alone! Jesus spues them out of his mouth. He has borne their names to his Father; he has interceded for them, but he ceases his pleadings. Their names are dropped, and they are left with the world. They realize no change. Their profession is the same. There has not been so glaring a departure from the appearance of right. They had become so assimilated to the world that when heaven’s light was withdrawn they did not miss it.” Review and Herald, November 26, 1861. [Emphasis in the original.] Notice that even though they are spued out of Jesus’ mouth, they realize no change and their profession is the same.

Two Groups

Here is how Ellen White describes the two parties that the shaking produces. The first party—company A, is the people that are shaken, but they are not shaken out. “I saw some, with strong faith and agonizing cries, pleading with God. Their countenances were pale and marked with deep anxiety, expressive of their internal struggle. Firmness and great earnestness was expressed in their countenances; large drops of perspiration fell from their foreheads. Now and then their faces would light up with the marks of God’s approbation, and again the same solemn, anxious look would settle upon them. Evil angels crowded around, pressing darkness upon them to shut out Jesus from their view, that their eyes might be drawn to the darkness that surrounded them, and thus they be led to distrust God and murmur against Him. Their only safety was in keeping their eyes directed upward. Angels of God had charge over His people, and as the poisonous atmosphere of evil angels was pressed around these anxious ones, the heavenly angels were continually wafting their wings over them to scatter the thick darkness. As the praying ones continued their earnest cries, at times a ray of light from Jesus came to them, to encourage their hearts and light up their countenances.” That is the group that is not shaken out; but they are going through a terrible shaking struggle.

The group that is shaken out is company B: “Some, I saw, did not participate in this work of agonizing and pleading. They seemed indifferent and careless. They were not resisting the darkness around them, and it shut them in like a thick cloud. The angels of God left these and went to the aid of the earnest, praying ones. I saw angels of God hasten to the assistance of all who were struggling with all power to resist the evil angels and trying to help themselves by calling upon God with perseverance. But His angels left those who made no effort to help themselves, and I lost sight of them.” Early Writings, 270.

Notice, company A is mightily shaken, and where are they when they are mightily shaken? In the church! They are shaken as a result of company B rising up against the message that they bare. Again we see opposition to the message of truth—to the straight testimony. This straight testimony results in a shaking by those people that rise up against it.

As a result of the earnest message to the Laodiceans by God’s faithful people, plus the Sunday law pressure, the shaking sifts the church. Some members who had been true and faithful are shaken out. Most people think that this means that they leave the organization of the Seventh-day Adventist church, but this quotation does not say that. The subject matter is not the organization of the Seventh-day Adventist church, but the straight testimony of the true witness. It is a controversy not over whether you belong to a certain organization, but over the truth! That is what it is all about. Some of the true and faithful who at first accepted the testimony of the true witness are shaken out. When they are shaken out, who do they join? They join company B who are already shaken out; but they still profess to be part of the true church. Company B was the largest group, and as they receive more of those who are shaken out from the true and faithful, eventually it is going to appear like the true and faithful are just some little lunatic fringe, some fanatical offshoot sect. They will be the offscouring of all things.

Here is the way the Lord purifies the church: “God purifies His people through the voice of warning and reproof.” What if I will not listen to warning and reproof? I am stuck! By these very words of warning and reproof the chaff is separated from the wheat.

Here is the description of this purification process: “He [God] brings them up to different points calculated to manifest what is in the heart. Some endure at one point, but fall off at the next. At every advanced point the heart is tested and tried a little closer. If the professed people of God find their hearts opposed to this straight work, it should convince them that they have a work to do to overcome, if they would not be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. Said the angel: ‘God will bring His work closer and closer to test and prove every one of His people.’ Some are willing to receive one point; but when God brings them to another testing point, they shrink from it and stand back, because they find that it strikes directly at some cherished idol. Here they have opportunity to see what is in their hearts that shuts out Jesus. They prize something higher than the truth, and their hearts are not prepared to receive Jesus.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 187.

Do you love Jesus more today than you did yesterday? Are you spending time in His Word? Are you growing up spiritually? Friend, you and I are going to come to maturity one way or the other! We can become tares or we can become wheat, but we are going to grow to maturity to be one or the other. What kind of spiritual maturity are you coming to? What group will you be numbered among. Let us pray that we can each be faithful to the end, and will be guided by the Holy Spirit so that we will not be deceived and be sifted out during the shaking.

The End

An Unconditional Promise?

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Is every individual and every church, living at the risk of failure? Do God’s promises give us such an assurance of salvation that no matter what—we are predestined to life eternal? Are there certain promises given to certain individuals and certain churches that are absolutely unconditional? That no matter what they do, they are predestined to eventually triumph? The Jews believed that they had just such a promise. They believed that in spite of their mistakes, the following verse proved that they would eventually triumph: “Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.” Jeremiah 31: 35–37.

“You see the sun in the sky,” pointed out Mr. Rabbi. “And do you see the moon and the stars every night?” asked the scribe. “Yes,” said the priest, “We know we’ve made mistakes, but God has promised that whatever we may have done, He will not cast away the children of Israel. You can be sure of that promise every time you see the sun, moon and stars; and hear the waves of the ocean. Because the Word of the Lord is sure.” Then came John the Baptist.

“John declared to the teachers of Israel that their pride, selfishness, and cruelty showed them to be a generation of vipers, a deadly curse to the people, rather than the children of just and obedient Abraham. In view of the light they had received from God, they were even worse than the heathen, to whom they felt so much superior. They had forgotten the rock whence they were hewn, and the hole of the pit from which they had been digged. God was not dependent upon them for the fulfilling of His purpose. As He had called Abraham out from a heathen people, so He could call others to His service. Their hearts might now appear as lifeless as the stones of the desert, but His Spirit could quicken them to do His will, and receive the fulfillment of His promise.” The Desire of Ages, 106, 107. [All emphasis supplied.]

There is a sentence in that paragraph that Seventh-day Adventists would do well to study. “God was not dependent upon them for the fulfilling of His purpose.” I wonder if God is dependent on us today for the fulfilling of His purpose. If we are not willing and obedient could He possibly raise up others to do His service and finish His work? It seems, that today, we need to hear the message of John the Baptist again.

“‘And now also,’ said the prophet, ‘the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.’ Not by its name, but by its fruit, is the value of a tree determined. If the fruit is worthless, the name cannot save the tree from destruction. John declared to the Jews that their standing before God was to be decided by their character and life. Profession was worthless. If their life and character were not in harmony with God’s law, they were not His people.” Ibid.

Did John the Baptist’s teaching set aside the scripture that the rabbis were using to prove that they were unconditionally God’s people? Absolutely not! Rather he gave Jeremiah 31:35–37 its true import. By drawing attention to Jesus as the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world, he was teaching them how to really be a part of Israel. “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29. It is through Jesus that we receive power to obey God’s law. Obedience was the condition to the promise in Jeremiah 31: 35–37. “The Jews regarded their natural descent from Abraham as giving them a claim to this promise. But they overlooked the conditions which God had specified. Before giving the promise, He had said, ‘I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people . . . For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.’ Jeremiah 31:33, 34.”

Predestination?

Today as then, obedience to God’s law is the condition to being one of Abraham’s children. But today, as then, many are emphasizing the wonderful promises of God without pointing out the conditions to those promises. This false teaching is deceptive, but very effective. Multitudes are reading promises like the one the Jews read in Jeremiah and consoling themselves that in spite of the “little” sins in the church, God is going to take it through. They reason that in this singular instance God has predetermined the triumph of a group of people no matter what, and that because God started and ordained this church that it will always be His. This seems like a hybrid union of “predestination” and “once saved always saved” theology. Understood in its context, it is true that God’s church is going through to glory. However, we must remember that when Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was here, the shaking and sifting got so severe that once it shook out all but eleven men and a few women. ” ‘He that is not with Me,’ said Christ, ‘is against Me.’ It is wholehearted, thoroughly decided men and women who will stand now. Christ sifted His followers again and again, until at one time there remained only eleven and a few faithful women to lay the foundation of the Christian church.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 130. God will not be trifled with. We will be saved in His appointed way or not be saved at all. Let God be true and every man a liar before one of His words fall to the ground.

“Oh,” but someone says, “Today, we have promises to the ‘organized church.’ Those eleven men and few women were not the ‘organized church.’” They weren’t? Then who was the “organized church” when those eleven men and few women were the only followers of Jesus? Those eleven men had been ordained and organized for service by Jesus Himself. Most people would not consider this ordination to have gone through the “proper channels,” and to some they seemed like such a small band of workers. Oh, that our spiritual vision could be quickened! Could we once see the King in His glory, we would understand “the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” Ephesians 1:23.

Upon this Rock

Today some are quoting Matthew 16:18 as an unconditional promise that the General Conference, which was started by God, is going through. “. . . upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” This is a wonderful unfailing promise, just as the one in Jeremiah 31. But it has conditions built into it. Before Christ said those most striking and confident words, He asked Peter this question: ” ‘Whom say ye that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ ” Matthew 16:15, 16. There is the condition. A certain future is freely opened to ALL—independent and conference ministries alike—IF through righteousness by faith we behold Jesus as the Son of God, and through that power live a godly life. But, if our actions show that we are not confessing Him as the “Son of the living God,” we cannot claim the promise. The greatest manifestation of His power is to take sinners and freely forgive them and give them power to obey the law of heaven. That is how Jesus is confessed to the world.

Ellen White writes on this very verse in Desire of Ages, in the chapter, “The Foreshadowing of the Cross,” 410–418. “The truth that Peter had confessed is the foundation of the believer’s faith.” Confessing Him to the world is the sublime privilege and responsibility of beholding Jesus. That makes us a part of the church that the gates of hell cannot prevail against.

“Jesus continued: ‘I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ The word Peter signifies a stone,—a rolling stone. Peter was not the rock upon which the church was founded. The gates of hell did prevail against him when he denied his Lord with cursing and swearing. The church was built upon One against whom the gates of hell could not prevail.

“Centuries before the Saviour’s advent Moses had pointed to the Rock of Israel’s salvation. The psalmist had sung of ‘the Rock of my strength.’ Isaiah had written, ‘Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.’ Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalms 62:7; Isaiah 28:16. Peter himself, writing by inspiration, applies this prophecy to Jesus. He says, ‘If ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious: unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house.’ 1 Peter 2:3-5, R. V.

“‘Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.’ 1 Corinthians 3:11. ‘Upon this rock,’ said Jesus, ‘I will build My church.’ In the presence of God, and all the heavenly intelligences, in the presence of the unseen army of hell, Christ founded His church upon the living Rock. That Rock is Himself,—His own body, for us broken and bruised. Against the church built upon this foundation, the gates of hell shall not prevail.

“How feeble the church appeared when Christ spoke these words! There was only a handful of believers, against whom all the power of demons and evil men would be directed; yet the followers of Christ were not to fear. Built upon the Rock of their strength, they could not be overthrown.”

Let us look at another aspect of this unconditional promise theology. When Jesus came here, did He come at the risk of failure and eternal loss? Or was He guaranteed triumph over temptation by an unconditional promise? “Our Saviour took humanity, with all its liabilities. He took the nature of man, with the possibility of yielding to temptation. We have nothing to bear which He has not endured.” The Desire of Ages, 117. “He [God] permitted Him to meet life’s peril in common with every human soul, to fight the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk of failure and eternal loss.” The Desire of Ages, 49. “He not only became an exile from the heavenly courts, but for us took the risk of failure and eternal loss.” The Desire of Ages, 131. That is so plain that it cannot be disputed. Jesus came at the risk of eternal loss if He yielded to temptation.

Where does this idea come from that somehow there is a particular group of people who are predestined to triumph because they think they have an unconditional promise? It comes straight from the evil one. While we are to have unwavering faith in God’s promises, we will be lost if we have the devil’s counterfeit of faith, which is presumption. “But faith is in no sense allied to presumption. Only he who has true faith is secure against presumption. For presumption is Satan’s counterfeit of faith. Faith claims God’s promises, and brings forth fruit in obedience. Presumption also claims the promises, but uses them as Satan did, to excuse transgression. Faith would have led our first parents to trust the love of God, and to obey His commands. Presumption led them to transgress His law, believing that His great love would save them from the consequence of their sin. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven without complying with the conditions on which mercy is to be granted. Genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scriptures.” The Desire of Ages, 126.

Notice that both faith and presumption use the promises of God. Claiming God’s promises does not prove anything. Even the devil quoted a promise of God to tempt Christ. Friend, we can be fooled by thinking that if we just trust in the promises, that we have a guarantee of salvation. Not only can individuals be fooled, but whole churches can be deceived. Presumption will lead such a one, or such a group, into thinking that they can go ahead and transgress God’s law in little areas, believing that God’s great love will save them from the consequences of sin. But this is not true faith, and has nothing to do with salvation. Rather, this false assurance, leads straight to destruction. True faith always wants to comply with the conditions, so it can receive the unshakable kingdom.

Promises or Warnings

God does have unfailing promises, but to be unfailing for us, we must fulfill the condition. The reality of our situation is that if we do not have a righteousness by faith experience which results in overcoming sin—keeping God’s law, we will not obtain the promises. God has sent warnings also. Here is a sample of God’s warnings. “Of those who boast of their light, and yet fail to walk in it, Christ says, ‘But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum [Seventh-day Adventists, who have had great light], which art exalted unto heaven [in point of privilege], shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.’ At that time Jesus answered and said, ‘I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent [in their own estimation], and hast revealed them unto babes.’” Review and Herald, August 1, 1893. [Comments in brackets in the original.]

The End

The Wheat and The Tares

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The conflict is to wax fiercer and fiercer. Satan will take the field and impersonate Christ. He will misrepresent, misapply, and pervert everything he possibly can, to deceive, if possible, the very elect. Even in our day there have been and will continue to be entire families who have once rejoiced in the truth, but who will lose faith because of calumnies and falsehoods brought to them in regard of calumnies and falsehoods brought to them in regard to those whom they have loved and with who they have had sweet counsel. They opened their hearts to the sowing of tares; the tares sprang up among the wheat; they strengthened; the crop of wheat became less and less; and the precious truth lost its power to them. For a time a false zeal accompanied their new theories, which hardened their hearts against the advocates of truth as did the Jews against Christ. Testimonies to Ministers, 411.

I am instructed that the Lord, by His infinite power, has preserved the right hand of His messenger written out as He bids me write it for publication, in periodicals and books, Why?—Because if it were not thus written out, when the pioneers in the faith shall die, there would be many, new in the faith who would sometimes accept as messages of truth teachings that contain erroneous sentiments and dangerous fallacies. Sometimes that which men teach as “special light” is in reality specious error, which, as tares sown among the wheat, will spring up and produce a baleful harvest. And errors of this sort will be entertained by some until the close of this earth’s history. This Day With God, 126.

They are of Satan’s sowing, and if left unchecked, will spoil the wheat by their rank growth. Counsels to Parents, Teachers and Students, 189.

If the attributes of Satan are not expelled from the soul, the wheat crop will be stunted. The tares will come to be the crop, and will kill out the wheat. Testimonies, vol. 3, 114.

The thorns of sin will grow in any soil. They need no cultivation. But grace must be carefully cultivated. The love of the world in the divided claim to believe the truth, but do it not. They wish the crown, but refuse the cross. Testimonies, vol. 3, 114.

Through disobedience man gave Satan opportunity to sow in the human heart the seeds of evil. The ground that in the beginning produced only good began to produce tares, and their growth called for continual warfare. This Day With God, 12.

When truth is received into the heart, the tares growing there are uprooted. Youth’s Instructor, August 16, 1900.

If persons are as deserving of being separated from the church as Satan was of being cast out of heaven, they will have sympathizers…They turned from the Father and from His Son, and united with the instigator of rebellion. Testimonies, vol. 3, 114-115.

The tares and wheat are now co-mingled, but then the one Hand that alone can separate them will give to every one his true position. Those who have had the light of truth, and heard the warning message, heard the invitation to the marriage supper,—farmer, merchant, lawyer, false shepherds who have quieted the people, unfaithful watchmen who have not sounded the warning of known the time of night,—all who have refused obedience to the laws of the kingdom of God, will have no right therein. Those who have sought as excuse to avoid the cross of separation from the world, will, with the world, be taken in the snare. They mingled with the tares from choice. Like drew to like in transgression. It is a fearful assimilation. Men choose to stand with the first rebel, who tempted Adam and Eve in Eden to disobey God. The tares multiply themselves, for they sow tares, and they have their part with the root of all sin—and they have their part with the root of all sin—the devil. Special Testimonies for Ministers and Workers, 6.

The world is leagued against the truth, because it does not desire to obey the truth. Shall I, who perceive the truth, close my eyes and heart to its saving power because the world chooses darkness rather than light? Shall I bind myself up with the bundles of tares because my neighbors refuse to be bound up with the wheat? Shall I refuse light, the evidence of truth which leads to obedience, because my friends and relatives choose to follow in the path of disobedience which leads away from God? Shall I close my mind against the knowledge of the truth because my neighbors and friends will not open their understanding to discern the truth as it is in Jesus? Shall I refuse to grow in the grace and knowledge of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ because my neighbors choose to remain dwarfs spiritually? God’s Amazing Grace, 6.

The time of the judgment is a most solemn period, when the Lord gathers His own from among the tares. Those who have been members of the same family are separated. A mark is placed upon the righteous. “They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels.” Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 234.

A new life is coming from heaven and taking possession of all God’s people. But divisions will come in the church. Two parties will be developed. The wheat and the tares grow up together for the harvest. Selected Messages, vol. 2, 113.

Trials are to come upon God’s people and the tares are to be separated from the wheat. Review and Herald, March 19, 1895.

God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. But Satan is a vigilant, unsleeping foe, ever at work upon human minds, seeking a soil in which he can sow his tares. If he finds any whom he can press into his service, he will suggest ideas and false theories, and make them zealous in advocating error. The truth not only converts, but works the purification of its receiver. Jesus has warned us to beware of false teachers. From the beginning of our work, men have arisen from time to time, advocating theories that were new and startling. But if those who claim to believe the truth would go to those who have had experience, humble spirit, and examine their theories in the light of truth and with the aid of the brethren who have been diligent Bible students, and at the same time make supplication unto God, asking, Is this the way of the Lord, or is it a false path in which Satan would lead me? they would receive light, and would escape out of the net of the fowler. Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 54, 55.

Martin Luther, part XVI – Emperor Charles V

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Editor’s Note: This is the final article in a sixteen-part series on the life and times of Martin Luther. As we pause to meditate on the lives of Martin Luther and Charles V, what a striking contrast can be seen. Can we have the slightest doubt who was the greatest? The one, sitting in his closet, sent forth words which shook into ruin ancient systems of superstitious religion, rending the shackles from the consciences of men, and saying to the slave, “Be free.” He gave sight to the spiritually blind, raised up the fallen, and cast down the mighty. He led hearts captive, and plucked up and planted kingdoms. It was a God-like power which he exercised, because he trusted not in the arm of flesh, but in God’s Word.

When we look at the emperor in his magnificent palace, we find a totally different and far inferior set of forces at work. Before Charles V could achieve anything, he had to gather an army, collect great sums of wealth, blow his trumpets, and beat his kettle-drums; yet how little of real importance did he obtain from all of his bloodshed! Cities and provinces called him master, but waited for the first opportunity to throw off his yoke. What truth did he establish which can mold the lives of men and be a blessing in ages to come? It is now that we can see which of these two men exercised real power and which of the two was a true monarch. See The History of Protestantism, part 1, page 568, by J. A. Wylie.

The Schmalkald League

The Augsburg Diet ended in September 1530. On November 19, 1530, the emperor “issued a decree, addressed to the Protestant princes, States and cities, commanding them, under peril of his displeasure, to return to their obedience to the See of Rome, and giving them till the next spring (15th of April) to make their choice between submission and war.” The History of Protestantism, part 1, book 12, 95.

“The edict of the emperor forbade from that hour all further conversions to Protestantism, under pain of forfeiture of goods and life; it further enacted that all which had been taken from the Roman Catholics should be restored; that the monasteries and religious houses should be rebuilt; that the old ceremonies and rites should be observed; and that no one who did not submit to this decree should sit in the Imperial Chamber, the supreme court of judicature in the Empire; and that all classes should assist with their lives and fortunes in carrying out this edict. The edict of Spires was directed mainly against Luther; the ban of Augsburg was wider in its scope; it fell on all who held his opinions in Germany—on princes, cities, and peasants.” Ibid.

Melancthon was filled with dismay and Sleidan describes him as “drowned with sighs and tears.” Luther’s faith rose to the occasion and he faced the obstacles and produced a publication that foretold the failure of the edict. He declared that the emperor’s sword, though strong, could not extinguish the light and bring back the darkness.

Luther’s spirit fired the princes who met at Christmas, 1530, at Schmalkald to decide on the necessary action. They decided that their religion and liberties must be defended at all costs and that it was necessary to form a League. Known as the League of Schmalkald, the princes decided to join together to resist with military might any attempt to carry out the Edict of Augsburg. Their religious liberty was not the only question, since Charles was also involved in schemes that were dangerous to the constitution and civil liberties of Germany as well. The League was renewed the following year at Christmas, 1531, with many cities and princes joining. The Swiss Protestants were repulsed because of their views on the Lord’s Supper. Not long after this, Zwingle died in battle.

Luther was not pleased with the League. He shuddered at anything that would bring the Gospel and war into contact. He was assured that the League was for defensive purposes only and meant to exercise unity and their natural right to self-defense, and so he acquiesced in the League of the princes. It was political entanglements that Luther feared. “He foresaw the League growing strong and beginning to lean on armies, neglecting the development of the religious principle in whose vitality alone would consist the consolidation, power, and success of their federation.” Ibid., 98.

Spring came, but Charles was unable to carry out his threats. The Turks were again threatening war in eastern Europe and in addition, Charles’ old enemy, Francis of France, was making preparations for war against him. He had angered the Popish princes by making his brother Ferdinand, King of the Romans, and he could not turn to them for assistance. “It must have seemed, even to himself, as if a greater power than the Schmalkald Confederacy were fighting against him.” Ibid., 99.

He was forced to make peace with the Protestants and “after tedious and difficult negations, a peace was agreed upon at Nuremberg, July 23rd, and ratified in the Diet at Ratisbon, August 3rd, 1532. In this pacification the emperor granted to the Lutherans the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion, until such time as a General Council or an Imperial Diet should decide the religious question.” The Protestants promised to aid the emperor in war against the Turks, and Charles enjoyed victory over them. Charles then went on to other military projects in his dominions and the Church had rest, which lasted for close to a decade and a half.

The years that followed brought steady growth to the Protestant dominions. Wurtemberg, Brandenburg, and Brunswich were added to the League. By 1542, the whole of central and northern Germany was Protestant. Only Austria, Bavaria, and Palatinate remained with Rome, but great advances were made by Protestantism in these areas also.

Death and Burial of Luther

“The man of all others in Germany who loved peace was Luther. War he abhorred with all the strength of his great soul. He could not conceive a greater calamity befalling his cause than that the sword should be allied with it. Again and again, during the course of his life, when the opposing parties were on the point of rushing to arms the Reformer stepped in, and the sword leapt back into its scabbard. Again war threatens. On every side men are preparing their arms: hosts are mustering, and mighty captains are taking the field. We listen, if haply that powerful voice which had so often dispersed the tempest when the bolt was ready to fall shall once more make itself heard. There comes instead the terrible tidings—Luther is dead!” Ibid., 107.

The Counts of Mansfield had requested that Luther come in January of 1546, to arbitrate a boundary dispute. Luther did not care to meddle in such matters, but, since the matter was in the province of his birth, he consented to go as it would enable him to see his old birthplace once more. He was taken ill on the journey but recovered. On entering the province he was received like a prince.

After settling the dispute to the satisfaction of the counts, he occasionally preached in the church and took Communion, but he had many signs that warned him that he did not have long to live. ” ‘Here I was born and baptized,’ said he to friends, ‘what if I should remain here to die also?’ He was only sixty-three, but continual anxiety, ceaseless and exhausting labour, oft-recurring fits of nervous depression, and cruel maladies had done more than years to waste his strength.” Ibid.

On the 17th of February, after having dinner, he withdrew to pray as was his custom. Pain in his stomach caused him to go to bed early and he awakened in the night with an oppression in his chest and knowing that his life was soon to end. Three times he prayed, each time his voice more faint, confessing his faith and thankfulness to God. ” ‘Into thy hands I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O God of truth!’ He in a manner gently slept out of this life, without any bodily pain or agony that could be perceived.” Ibid., 107.

“Luther’s career had been a stormy one, yet its end was peace. He had waged incessant battle, not with the emperor and the Pope only, but also with a more dreadful foe, who had often filled his mind with darkness. Yet now he dies expressing his undimmed joy and his undying trust in his Saviour. It is also very remarkable that the man whose life had been so often sought by Popes, kings, priests, and fanatics of every grade, died on his bed. Luther often said that it would be a great disgrace to the Pope if he should so die . . . During the last twenty-five years of his life—that is, ever since his appearance at the Diet of Worms—the emperor’s ban and the Pope’s anathema had hung about him; yet there fell not to the ground a hair of his head . . . To be rid of him Rome would have joyfully given the half of her kingdom; but not a day, not an hour of life was she able to take from him.” Ibid., 109.

John, elector of Saxony, commanded that he should be laid to rest in Wittemberg. The procession grew with each town it passed through. The multitudes sang psalms and hymns. He was buried in the Schloss-kirk of Wittemberg where he had nailed his Theses.

The Schmalkald War and the Defeat of the Protestants

For two years, while Luther was yet alive, war had threatened but was withheld. Now it moved on rapidly as Charles hastened to arrange all of his affairs so that he might deal with the Protestants. He recruited soldiers and made a treaty with Pope Paul III. The Pope payed large sums of money and supplied a great number of soldiers for the battle in Germany.

“Another step toward war, though it looked like conciliation, was the meeting of the long-promised and long deferred Council . . . There had assembled at the little town of Trent some forty prelates, who assumed to represent the Universal Church, and to issue decrees which should be binding on all the countries of Christendom, although Italy and Spain alone were as yet represented in the Council . . . The Council, in its third session, decreed that the traditions of the Fathers are of equal authority with the Scripture . . . and that no one is to presume to interpret the Scriptures in a sense different from that of the Church . . . The Protestants affirmed that the one infallible authority was the Word of God. They made their appeal to the tribunal of Holy Scripture; they could recognize no other judge. The sole supremacy of Scriptures was in fact the corner-stone of their system, and if this great maxim were rejected their whole cause was adjudged and condemned.

“This was another way of saying, ‘you must submit to the Church.’ . . . They were told that they must accept their opponent for their judge . . . The first decree of the Council, then, embraced all that were to follow; . . . thoroughly Popish decisions . . . It was clear that the Fathers had assembled at Trent to pass sentence on the faith of the German people as heresy, and then the emperor would step in with his great sword and give it its death-blow.” Ibid., 113.

While he made great preparations for war, the emperor made even greater claims that he meant only peace. In a meeting with Phillip of Hesse, this prince, who held him most suspect, came to believe that he was indeed intent on peace, and the Protestants were lulled to sleep. It was the Pope who revealed the truth when he published a bull announcing his league with the emperor and their true intent and calling on all the faithful to concur in it. This caused Charles to let down his disguise but he still succeeded in convincing many Protestants that his warlike preparations, though they were indeed for Germany, were not meant to interfere with its religious opinions but to put down the Schmalkald League. Which was, he said, an empire within an empire and so it could not be tolerated by imperial supremacy.

“The pretext was a transparent one, but it enabled the timid, the lukewarm, and the wavering to say, ‘This war does not concern religion, it is a quarrel merely between the emperor and certain members of the League.’ How completely did the aspect the matter now assumed justify the wisdom of the man who had lately been laid in his grave in the Schloss-kirk of Wittemberg! How often had Luther warned the Protestants against the error of shifting their cause from a moral to a political basis! The former, he ever assured them, would, when the day of trial came, be found to have double the strength they had reckoned upon—in fact, to be invincible; whereas the latter, with an imposing show, would be found to have no strength at all.” Ibid., 115.

“On the 20th of July the blow fell . . . The war, now that it had come, found the League neither united nor prepared . . . The campaign, from its commencement in the mid-summer of 1546, to its close in the spring of 1547, was marked, on the part of the League, by vacillation and blundering. There was no foresight shown in laying its plans, no vigor in carrying them out.” Ibid., 116. One of the three leading princes in the League sided with the emperor. The war ended with the remaining two princes, John Frederick and Landgrave Phillip, in prison. Charles stripped them of their title and power, destroyed their castles, confiscated their lands, and lead them about from city to city as a spectacle to their former subjects.

“If, instead of stepping down into the arena of battle, they had offered themselves to the stake, not a tithe of the blood would have been shed that was spilt in the campaign, and instead of being lowered, the moral power of Protestantism thereby would have been immensely raised . . . No greater calamity could have befallen the Reformation than that Protestantism should have become, in that age, a great political power. Had it triumphed as a policy it would have perished as a religion.” Ibid., 117.

The Interim—Reestablishment of Protestantism

Charles then proceeded to frame a creed meant to let Lutheran Germany down easily. Styled as a halfway between Wittemberg and Rome, the “Interim taught, among other things, the supremacy of the Pope, the dogma of transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, the invocation of the saints, auricular confession, justification by works, and the sole right of the Church to interpret the Scriptures; in short, not one concession did Rome make.” Ibid., 118. Protestants were offered two paltry boons. Married clergy would not have to put away their wives, and where the Sacrament was being offered in both types, it could continue to be tolerated.

This document was presented to a Diet at Augsburg on May 15, 1548, where not a single dissenting voice was raised against it. They sat silent before the emperor’s soldiers amassed around the city. “The Interim was straightway promulgated by the emperor: all were to conform to it under pain of his displeasure, and it was to remain in force until a free General Council could be held.” Ibid.

But Charles was to find that his Interim had no friends. The Vatican was sore displeased. “That the emperor in virtue of his sole authority should frame and promulgate a creed was not to be tolerated; it was to do the work of a Council; it was, in fact, to seat himself in the chair of the Pope and to say, ‘I am the Church.’ Besides, the cardinals grudged even the two pitiful concessions which had been made to the Protestants.” Ibid.

There were some areas of Germany where there was open resistance to the Interim while in others everything Protestant was removed. Old rites were restored, Protestant magistrates replaced, and Protestant pastors and their families forced from their homes. Those who did not escape were lead about in chains by their enemies.

“There is one submission that pains us more than all the others. It is that of Melancthon. Melancthon and the Wittemberg divines, laying down the general principles, that where things indifferent only are in question it is right to obey the commands of a lawful superior, and assuming that the Interim, which had been slightly manipulated for their special convenience, conflicted with the Augustan Confession in only indifferent points, and that it was well to preserve the essentials of the Gospel as seed-corn for better times, denied their Protestantism, and bowed down in worship of the emperor’s religion.” Ibid., 119.

“But amid so many prostrate one man stood nobly erect. John Frederick of Saxony, despite the suffering and ignominy that weighed upon him, refused to accept the Interim. Hopes of liberty were held out to induce him to endorse the emperor’s creed, but this only drew from him a solemn protestation of his adherence to the Protestant faith.” Ibid.

Charles believed that Roman Catholicism was the basis of his power and through thirty years of intrigues and wars he held fast to his determination to strike a fatal blow to Protestantism. This blow he had struck. “It was at this moment, when his glory was in its noon, that the whole aspect of affairs around the emperor suddenly changed . . . Not a friend or ally had he who did not now turn on him.” Ibid.

The Pope was alarmed at Charles’ conquests and feared that the Papacy was about to receive a master. He was also offended that he had received none of the spoils of their war. Paul III recalled his army and moved the Council of Trent to Bologna.

The Germans had lost many liberties and they felt deceived. They had been told that the war was not over religious questions and yet their pastors were banished, their churches taken over by mass-priests, and filled with burning tapers and chants and prayers in an unknown tongue. This all told of a promise unkept and to deception was added insult.

Prince Maurice, a professed Protestant who had sided with the emperor for ambition’s sake, now came to know that his defections would cause him to be swept away in the gathering storm. He determined to “atone for his betrayal of his Protestant confederates by treachery to the emperor.” Ibid., 120. He succeeded at length to convince the princes to join him in his schemes to win back the liberties of Germany. He yet had a sizable force in his charge which he was using in Charles’ service to besiege Magdeburg, which was brave in its resistance to the Interim. He was able to convince the citizens of that city to sign the Interim, in order to deceive Charles, while he secretly promised that they would never be deprived of their religious freedoms, and he convinced King Henry of France to move in from the south. All of this was done with masterly skill and secrecy.

At Innspruck, Charles was lulled into security by Maurice’s artifices. His campaigns had exhausted his money-chest and he had only a handful of guards at his side when the revolt broke out in March of 1552. He was hemmed in on every side. The Turks were watching by sea, the French to the south, before him was the angry Pope and behind was Maurice “pushing on by secret and forced marches, ‘to catch,’ as he irreverently said, ‘the fox in his hole.’ And probably he would have done as he said, had not a mutiny broken out among his troops on the journey, which, by delaying his march on Innspruck, gave Charles time to learn with astonishment that all Germany had risen, and was in full march upon Innspruck. The emperor had no alternative but flight.” Ibid., 121. The emperor was suffering from gout and had to be carried on a litter over rugged mountain paths by light of torches. Maurice entered Innspruck just hours after his prey had escaped. “The emperor’s power collapsed when apparently at its zenith.” Ibid. He was forced to sue for peace.

“There followed, in July, the Peace of Passau. The main article in that treaty was that the Protestants should enjoy the free and undisturbed possession of their religion till such time as a Diet of all the States should effect a permanent arrangement, and that failing such a Diet the present agreement should remain in force for ever. This was followed by the Treaty of Augsburg in 1555. This last ratified and enlarged the privileges conceded to the Protestants in the pacification of Passau, and gave a legal right to the Augustan Confession to exist side by side with the creed of the Romish Church. The ruling idea of the Middle Ages, that one form of religion only could exist in a country, was abandoned . . . The members of the Reformed Church, the followers of Zwingle and Calvin, were excluded from the privileges secured in the treaties of Passau and Augsburg, nor was legal toleration extended to them till the Peace of Westphalia, a century later.” Ibid., 122.

So Charles was unable to extinguish the light of Protestantism. “Hundreds of thousands of lives had he sacrificed and millions of money had he squandered in the contest, but Protestantism, so far from being extinguished, had enlarged its area, and multiplied its adherents four-fold.” Ibid. And Charles, with a nearly empty treasury, his prestige diminished, and revolt on every side of his dominions, chose to abdicate in favor of his son Phillip. He retired to a Spanish monastery and ended his days nearly friendless in a sparsely furnished apartment spending his time in gardening and trying to reconcile the differences in his clocks which he was never able to make strike together.

The End

Are There Tares in Your Field?

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Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ” Matthew 13:24–30.

Jesus taught in parables to help us understand the unknown by explaining something we understand. Jesus describes the spiritual world in terms of the physical world. He takes us from what we understand to what we do not understand.

“Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.’ He answered and said to them: ‘He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!’” Matthew 13: 36–43.

The field is the world and the wheat and tares are both being planted in this field. In the Middle East there is a weed that looks like a wheat plant when it first springs up. There actually were people in Jesus’ day who took the seed of this weed, or tares as it was called, and scattered it in their enemies wheat field. Although the weeds could not be seen at first, as they grew you could see them all through the wheat. The weeds take nutrients and water and if there are too many of them they can actually choke out the wheat. The presence of tares represents a very dangerous situation.

The Field of the Mind

Here Jesus is talking about the spiritual world and illustrating it with the natural world. The field is the world—the spiritual world. What is the spiritual world? It is the world of the spirit working on the minds of men. God’s spiritual field are those who claim to be His children, or His professed church. “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field.” 1 Corinthians 3:9. [All emphasis supplied.] Each one of us who is part of God’s professed church, is part of this field. Our spirit, our mind, is part of this field. The aggregate of all the minds of all who profess to be God’s people in the whole world is the whole field.

The field is the world—the spiritual world. Then what is the good seed Jesus came to plant? The good seed is the gospel, the truth of the Bible. Jesus came to plant the gospel, the truth, in the minds of those that choose to follow Him. As this good seed grows up and matures in your mind, eventually it becomes an integral part of your character so that you are called the good seed. Jesus said the good seed are the children of the kingdom.

The Battle Over the Mind

What are the tares? Or what is the seed that produces the tares? The tares are spiritual ideas that are implanted in the mind by the devil. If this seed grows up and matures in a person’s mind, even though he professes to be a child of God, in reality, he is a child of the devil.

The devil cannot force himself on you, but you can open up your mind to him, and that is very dangerous. There are some statements by Ellen White on this subject. “If there is any way by which Satan can gain access to the mind, he will sow his tares and cause them to grow until they will yield an abundant harvest.” Adventist Home, 402. Notice that your mind is the field. If the devil can gain access to your mind, he is going to sow tares. “In no case can Satan obtain dominion over thoughts, words, and actions, unless we voluntarily open the door and invite him to enter. He will then come in and, by catching away the good seed sown in the heart, make of none effect the truth.” Ibid.

The devil is out there, friends. There is a battle going on in the world today and the battle is for your mind. What are you reading? What are you listening to? What are you looking at? The devil has gone all over the world sowing seeds. “Satan is their chosen leader. It is while men sleep that the enemy sows his tares in the heart.” Manuscript Release, vol. 10, 323. Satan is seeking access to your mind to sow these spiritual plants. They are poisonous plants and if they grow up, you will lose your soul. We want to study what these tares are that the devil plants in the minds of God’s professed people.

Safety in the Spirit of Prophecy

We are living in the time of the end when there will be all manner of deceptions. It is the most treacherous time in the history of the world. God knew and foresaw thousands of years ago that perilous times would come. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Malachi 4:5. This special reformation prophet is one of the two identifying marks by which you can identify God’s people in the last days. 1. They keep all of God’s commandments and 2. have the testimony of Jesus, the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 12:17; 19:10.

If we follow and stay close to the spiritual gifts God has given to His people in these last days, we will not be tripped up. The Lord has revealed to us what the tares are that the devil plants in people’s minds. If our minds were strong enough to understand everything that was in the Bible, we would not need the Spirit of Prophecy. But most of us do not understand our Bibles very well, and the Lord has given us some special help.

“The good seed represents those who are born of the word of God, the truth. The tares represent a class who are the fruit or embodiment of error, of false principles. ‘The enemy that sowed them is the devil.’ Neither God nor His angels ever sowed a seed that would produce a tare. The tares are always sown by Satan, the enemy of God and man.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 70. The tares are false spiritual principles, or teachings.

Let us look at some statements which will make it more specific. “The warnings and the messages that the Lord has graciously given me to correct the errors that would come in, and to set things in order, the people should have, for the enemy will continue to work to bring in false theories and to mingle with the truth strange suppositions. These appear as light to those who receive them, but they are deceptive theories that will be brought in as tares sown among the wheat.” Paulson Collection, 6. False theories are one kind of tare.

False Doctrine is Dangerous

“Satan has sown plentifully the seed of dangerous heresies, that will produce a harvest of corruption, and will be as tares among the wheat.” Signs of the Times, July 11, 1895. Dangerous heresies––another kind of tare. Is doctrine important? Have you ever met someone who said, “I don’t think doctrine is too important as long as you are sincere.” Martin Luther and all the rest of the Protestant Reformers thought doctrine was important. The apostles thought doctrine was important. Wrong doctrine can lead you straight to destruction.

Jesus, the great teacher, taught His disciples how to distinguish truth from error, how to distinguish a tare from the wheat. “He weeded life of its vanities and follies, distinguishing between the tares and the wheat.” Signs of the Times, March 28, 1895. That is why we need to be studying the Bible. The apostle Paul, writing to people who had just become Christians, told them to desire the sincere milk of the word. Then they needed to grow so they could understand the solid food of the Word. 1 Corinthians 3:1–4. One reason you need to attend church, is to associate with mature Christians and learn to tell the difference between truth and error, between the tares and the wheat.

I have observed that people who are fifty or sixty years of age and have been diligent students of the Word of God for thirty to fifty years, go and seek counsel from someone else when they find something new in their studies. They ask, “I found this in the Bible, what do you think about it?” The anomaly, the paradox of the situation, is that so often when someone who is around eighteen to twenty-two years of age and has been a Christian for five or ten years, finds something in the Word of God they have never seen before, they are ready to tell it to the whole world without going for counsel to anyone. One of the reasons God placed elders in the church was to be spiritual guardians of the flock, especially of those who are new Christians. Now an elder is not someone to lord it over another, but isn’t it nice if you need advice to have someone you can go to who is a mature Christian and can help you when there is a text in the Bible you wonder about. That is one of the reasons for the church, to help people so they will not be confused between the tares and the wheat. Heresy is dangerous. It is planted by the devil.

Coarse Manners

There are a lot of other things the devil tries to plant in the mind of God’s professed people so they will be ruined before the harvest comes. “They persist in carrying with them their objectionable traits of character. [She is talking about professed church members.] They have vulgar sentiments, coarse manners, low habits. They carry these to others through their school association, and through life they sow tares instead of precious wheat.” Signs of the Times, October 13, 1909. Vulgar sentiments, low habits, coarse manners––that is part of what the devil is sowing in the human mind. Jesus was a refined, courteous person. There was never any coarse or low talk that escaped out of His lips. He did not even think that way, so He did not talk that way. Those kinds of things––cheap foolish talk, coarse talk, vulgar thinking and acting in speech—are part of the tares the devil plants in the human mind that destroy so much peace and happiness in the family. If the tare grows to maturity, it prevents a person from having eternal life.

Unbelief and doubt––these are popular tares that the devil has scattered throughout the professed people of God all over the world today. Some people believe it is a good thing to be able to doubt, but Jesus never commended anyone for doubting, He rebuked them for it. Unbelief or doubt will be one of the special sins that develop among people in the last generation. 2 Peter 3:3–6.

Remember, tares are people who profess to be part of God’s people. “They do not love the truth, and it has not a sanctifying, refining influence upon them. The time will come when the sensual, the proud, the careless in heart, those who are opposed to the truth, will have to be separated.” Bible Echoes, September 18, 1899. The sensual, proud and careless––these things are tares the devil plants in the human heart.

Reap What You Sow

“It is anything but wise, my young friends, to seek your own pleasure, to sow a crop of tares in foolish, sinful actions, which will not only lead others to do the same but will bring forth a bitter harvest.” That I May Know Him, 236. Young friend, I want to ask you, What kind of seed is being sown in your mind? “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” Galatians 6:7. What you are sowing today, you are going to reap tomorrow.

Jesus summarized what all the tares were like in Matthew 13. He said the time is going to come when the tares are taken out of the field. “The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness.” verse 41. Those who break God’s law will be separated out. That is a summary statement that covers all the different kinds of tares. All the weeds the devil plants in the human mind lead people to break God’s law—lawlessness.

The devil is the one who plants the tares. When did he plant them? While people were asleep. “It is while the husbandman sleeps that tares are sown; while the shepherds are neglecting their duty, the wolf finds entrance to the fold.” Sketches from the Life of Paul, 201. It is when the spiritual leaders are neglecting their duty that the tares are planted. How is it in your home? God wants parents to be the spiritual leaders of their family. Are you spiritually asleep? Is the devil planting tares in the minds of your children? “It is not by force that Satan takes possession of the human mind. While men sleep, the enemy sows tares in the church. While men are spiritually sleeping, the enemy accomplishes his work of iniquity. It is when his subject ‘understandeth it not’ (Matthew 13:19) that he catcheth away the good seed sown in the heart.” Selected Messages, vol. 2, 353. What is happening in your church? Are the pastor, the Sabbath School teacher, the elder, the father, the mother, spiritually asleep? If they are, the enemy of all good is out to plant tares in the minds of your church, your family and your young people. Parents, we need to know where our children are and what they are doing. If we were more alert, the devil would not have so much opportunity to plant tares. There are some young people growing up in whose minds the devil is planting more tares than in others.

Planted While Asleep

“If faithfulness and vigilance had been preserved, if there had been no sleeping or negligence upon the part of any, the enemy would not have had so favorable an opportunity to sow tares among the wheat. Satan never sleeps. He is watching, and he improves every opportunity to set his agents to scatter error, which finds good soil in many unsanctified hearts.” Testimonies, vol. 3, 113. If you are asleep, there is someone out there who is planting tares in the minds of your family and church members. The more tares planted, the bigger the job in getting them out. Those tares have to come out if your family and friends are going to be saved.

How sad it is that so many spiritual leaders have been asleep, and in God’s professed church all over the world, tares have been sown and terrible delusive heresies have infiltrated. It is causing the loss of millions of souls.

We have a responsibility. You yourself can make a decision to open your heart and let the devil plant tares inside. Some people do that. For every new doctrine and teaching they say, “I want to find out about that!” They allow these new theories to get a foothold before they have carefully studied God’s Word. “There have been and will continue to be entire families who have once rejoiced in the truth, but who will lose faith because of calumnies and falsehoods brought to them in regard to those whom they have loved and with whom they have had sweet counsel. They opened their hearts to the sowing of tares; the tares sprang up among the wheat; they strengthened; the crop of wheat became less and less; and the precious truth lost its power to them. For a time a false zeal accompanied their new theories, which hardened their hearts against the advocates of truth as did the Jews against Christ.” Testimonies to Ministers, 411. There are some who receive lying reports, slander, against the messengers of God. If you receive a lying report against a true minister, a messenger of God, and turn your back on them, you have no promise in Holy Writ that God is going to send you someone else. It is very dangerous to reject a messenger of God. Spreading evil reports is one of the ways the devil sows tares and causes people to lose their souls. Some just live on these reports. Someone will say, “Do you know about this?” and they will say, “Is that so!?” Then they believe it. That is very dangerous.

Books of the Pioneers

We need to be opening our minds to the truth and find books that have been written by people who are mature and experienced Christians and love the truth. In the nineteenth century there was a man named J.N. Andrews. He knew several other languages as well as biblical languages. He made the comment one time to someone he knew that if the New Testament was lost, he could reproduce it from memory. He was an outstanding biblical scholar. He was also a student of history and wrote the History of the Sabbath, a fascinating book.

“I am instructed that the Lord, by His infinite power, has preserved the right hand of His messenger for more than half a century, in order that the truth may be written out as He bids me write it for publication, in periodicals and books. Why?—Because if it were not thus written out, when the pioneers in the faith shall die, there would be many, new in the faith, who would sometimes accept as messages of truth teachings that contain erroneous sentiments and dangerous fallacies. Sometimes that which men teach as ‘special light’ is in reality specious error, which, as tares sown among the wheat, will spring up and produce a baleful harvest. And errors of this sort will be entertained by some until the close of this earth’s history.” This Day With God, 126.

What are you reading? When we open our mind and read religious books, we need to know we are reading something by someone who has been born again and believes all the Bible and is following it. I have observed among new Christians, that when someone reads a book or magazine and they become confused, it takes a Bible worker weeks or months to help them to see again what the Bible says. There is a lot of that happening today. The devil is sowing all kinds of tares.

What Do We Do About Tares?

There is a lot of confusion in the Christian church today on the tares. Whenever you talk about this subject there are some people who say, “Well, they are just supposed to be left.” Notice what Jesus said about the tares when the servants of the owner asked if they should gather them up: “No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them . . . Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.” Matthew 13:29, 40.

We need to understand who and what a tare is. When a tare is just growing up, you and I cannot tell the difference between them and the wheat. Who is the tare? It is someone who professes to love Jesus and be a part of His professed people, but his heart is entertaining sins you and I cannot see. We cannot judge someone’s heart. Consequently, we cannot disfellowship or separate them from the church. You cannot interpret what Jesus said in a manner to make Him contradict the rest of the Bible.

In I Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul is very clear that if a tare grows up in a persons life to the point where they are living in open sin––if they are lying, stealing, committing adultery, taking their brethren in the church to court––we are to put them out from among us. But can you tell when someone is proud or covetous? You might guess, but you can not tell. Only God knows for sure.

Tares Kill Out the Wheat

No one can be uprooted or disfellowshipped from the church because of a motive or a sin of the heart, but they can and should be disfellowshipped if they are living in open sin among God’s people. Do you know why? Because, if you have too many tares and they grow too much, they will destroy the wheat. That is one of the greatest dangers in the church today. There are people who want to say, “Let’s keep all the tares in!” Friends, the Bible says when a tare gets to the point where the person is living in open sin, you had better get that tare out. If you do not, it will destroy the whole church. In the Christian church today, people who are living in open sin are allowed to be members of the church and it is destroying the whole crop.

“Tares have a lesson to teach. They are of Satan’s sowing, and if left unchecked will spoil the wheat by their rank growth.” Counsels to Teachers, 189. Have you ever had a garden and the weeds got away from you? “If the attributes of Satan are not expelled from the soul, the wheat crop will be stunted. The tares will come to be the crop, and will kill out the wheat.” Review and Herald, October 3, 1899.

Do you want the wheat crop to be destroyed? That is what will happen if the tares grow up and go to seed and become mature, and are not disfellowshipped from the church. If this is done the tares will destroy the whole crop. “The thorns of sin will grow in any soil; they need no cultivation; but grace must be carefully cultivated. The love of the world in the heart leaves no room for Christ. Those whose hearts are divided claim to believe the truth, but do it not. They wish the crown, but refuse the cross.” Ibid.

We would not be in as much trouble in the Christian world today if we had always been awake so the devil could not have planted so many tares in the church, but we have been asleep. “The earth was cursed because through disobedience man gave Satan opportunity to sow in the human heart the seeds of evil. The ground that in the beginning produced only good began to produce tares and their growth called for continual warfare.” This Day With God, 12. If there are tares in my mind, what am I to do? I have to fight a continual battle against them. If there are tares in my family, among my children, I have a battle to fight to help them to get those tares out; otherwise souls will be lost.

Getting Tares Out

How do you get the tares out? “When truth is received into the heart, the tares growing there are uprooted.” Youth Instructor, August 16, 1900. That is why we need to be studying the Bible. If I have the tare of impatience, as I study the Bible I find how I am supposed to talk and I can change. It takes work, but the Holy Spirit will help me to change my habits. No one in heaven will lose their temper. If I am going to heaven, I have to be that way, too; that tare has to come out of my life. I need to help my children get the tares out of their lives. If a child has Christian parents, they can help that child so that it will actually be easier to be saved. Help your children so there are not so many tares that get planted in their lives when they are young. If the tare is something in the heart, we are not to disfellowship, but people need to be warned about the tares so they can work to get them out of their life.

When you get involved in this warfare, to help people get the tares out of their life, an interesting thing happens. If you are a pastor in a church and begin preaching sermons to help people get the tares out of their lives, there are always some who do not like that kind of preaching. They have some darling plants they are growing in their minds. “If persons are as deserving of being separated from the church as Satan was of being cast out of heaven, they will have sympathizers. There is always a class who are more influenced by individuals than they are by the Spirit of God and sound principles; and, in their unconsecrated state, these are ever ready to take sides with the wrong and give their pity and sympathy to the very ones who least deserve it. These sympathizers have a powerful influence with others; things are seen in a perverted light, great harm is done, and many souls are ruined. Satan in his rebellion took a third part of the angels.” Testimonies, vol. 3, 114, 115. Can you imagine that, one-third of the angels! They were in a perfect place. There was no pain or trouble like there is here. Why were they deceived? It was because of sympathy. One of the problems pastors get involved in is when a parent comes and says, “I want to help my son or daughter overcome this bad habit. My spouse does not want to.” It is a big problem. “Satan in his rebellion took a third part of the angels. They turned from the Father and from His Son, and united with the instigator of rebellion” Ibid., 155. False sympathy is a problem to contend with when you want to help someone get the tares out of their life.

The reason we are interested in helping people get the tares out of their life is not because we want to be hard–hearted––we want them to have eternal life! None of us can have eternal life if any tare remains and goes to seed in our character. The tare will spoil and kill out the wheat. There is a danger of mingling voluntarily with tares. There are some who, when they casually read this parable of the wheat and tares, say, “They are all going to grow together anyway so we just won’t worry about it.” Have you ever noticed what happens to a wheat plant if there are tares planted all around it? It gets choked out.

We need to be thinking very clearly in our minds about the responsibility we have as to who we associate with. If you voluntarily associate with tares all the time, God will not work a miracle to keep them from having an influence upon you. “The tares and wheat are now co–mingled, but then the one Hand that alone can separate them will give to every one his true position. Those who have had the light of truth, and heard the warning message, heard the invitation to the marriage supper,––farmer, merchant, lawyer, false shepherds who have quieted the convictions of the people, unfaithful watchmen who have not sounded the warning or known the time of night,—all who have refused obedience to the laws of the kingdom of God, will have no right therein. Those who have sought an excuse to avoid the cross of separation from the world, will, with the world, be taken in the snare. They mingled with the tares from choice. Like drew to like in transgression. It is a fearful assimilation. Men choose to stand with the first rebel, who tempted Adam and Eve in Eden to disobey God. The tares multiply themselves, for they sow tares, and they have their part with the root of all sin.” Special Testimonies for Ministers and Workers, 6.

Are We In the Harvest?

The focal point in the parable about the wheat and the tares is about the harvest. What is the harvest? Jesus said it is the end of the age. Today we are still living in the age of grace. No matter how bad you have been you can be forgiven and God wants to help you take all the tares out of your life. He wants the seed of the gospel to grow up in your life. But there is a time when the age of grace will be over. That will be the harvest. When you watch someone harvesting a wheat field with a combine, you notice the harvest does not happen instantly. It takes a period of time; and that is the case with the spiritual harvest, too.

The spiritual harvest takes some time. There are two harvests mentioned in the parable. “Let both grow together [that is both the tares and the wheat] until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares.’ ” Matthew 13:30. The tares are harvested first. They are bound up in bundles to burn. After the tares are harvested, then the wheat is harvested. Notice, in the time of the harvest a separation takes place. All have professed to be the children of God, to be part of His church, but now a separation is going to take place. The angels are going to do that separation. When the harvest time comes the tares and wheat no longer look alike because now the plants are mature. Whatever plant has been growing up in the mind, will then be evident to the whole universe. The wheat and the tares are going to be fully distinguished and differentiated.

The tares are harvested first and are bound in bundles. This binding in bundles is happening right now! Here are some ways people are being bound into bundles today. “The world is leagued against the truth, because it does not desire to obey the truth. Shall I, who perceive the truth, close my eyes and heart to its saving power because the world chooses darkness rather than light? Shall I bind myself up with the bundles of tares because my neighbors refuse to be bound up with the wheat? Shall I refuse light, the evidence of truth which leads to obedience, because my friends and relatives choose to follow in the path of disobedience which leads away from God? Shall I close my mind against the knowledge of the truth because my neighbors and friends will not open their understanding to discern the truth as it is in Jesus? Shall I refuse to grow in the grace and knowledge of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ because my neighbors choose to remain dwarfs spiritually?” God’s Amazing Grace, 6. There are many people who say, “Oh, my husband is not doing it, so I am not going to do it either.” They are binding themselves in bundles with their friends and associates who are going to perdition.

“The true people of God are now pulling apart [that is when a separation takes place], and the tares are being bound in bundles ready to burn. Decided positions will be taken. Satan will move upon minds that have been indulged, upon men who have always had their own way, and anything presented to them in counsel or reproof to change their objectionable traits of character is considered faultfinding, binding them, restraining them, that they cannot have liberty to act themselves. The Lord in great mercy has sent messages of warning to them, but they would not listen to reproof.” 1888 Materials, 995. If God sends me a warning, a reproof, and I will not listen and just go on my way, I am binding myself in a bundle with the tares.

This binding in bundles in our age of the world is happening with very rapid speed. There are large groups of Christians today that are already bound up in bundles. “Can we not see how earnestly Satan is at work binding the tares in bundles, uniting the elements of his kingdom, that he may gain control of the world? This work of binding up the tares is going forward far more rapidly than we imagine. Satan is opposing every obstacle to the advancement of the truth. He is seeking to create diversity of opinion and to encourage worldliness and avarice. He works with the subtlety of the serpent and, when he sees it will do, with the ferocity of the lion. The ruin of souls is his only delight.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 383.

There are many ways people are binding themselves up in bundles today. At His trial, Jesus said He did not do anything in secret but in the open. Today people are binding themselves in bundles in secret societies with other people who do not believe the Bible. People are binding themselves with other associations which cause them to break the law of God. We need to be careful we do not bind ourselves with those who are preparing themselves to be lost. It is happening all over the world. People are being bound in bundles.

The Shaking and the Harvest

There is another figure of speech used in the Bible to describe this separation process where the tares and the wheat are separated. In the Bible it is called the “shaking.” When you see the shaking taking place in the church, you know we are in the time of the harvest––and the tares are bound in bundles first. “The time of the judgment is a most solemn period, when the Lord gathers His own from among the tares. Those who have been members of the same family are separated. A mark is placed upon the righteous. ‘They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels.’” Testimonies to Ministers, 234. Members of the same family are separated in the time of judgment.

“A new life is coming from heaven and taking possession of all God’s people. But divisions will come in the church. Two parties will be developed. The wheat and tares grow up together for the harvest.” Selected Messages, vol. 2, 113. When you see division coming, two parties developing in the church, where are you in the history of the world? You are at the harvest, the end of time. What we see happening in the Christian church today, in the Seventh–day Adventist Church today, should cause us to wake up and realize where we are. We are in the time of the harvest. The shaking is the beginning of the harvest.

“Trials are to come upon God’s people and the tares are to be separated from the wheat.” Review and Herald, March 19, 1895. The final separation is coming sooner than we expect. The signs of the times in the religious world and in the Seventh–day Adventist Church show us clearly we are in the time of the harvest when two parties are being developed. Don’t you hear everyone talking about it? There is a division in the church. The tares and the wheat are being separated. Soon the final separation is going to take place. Are you going to be bound in bundles with a group of people who may claim to be Christians but are going to lose eternal life, or are you going to be part of the wheat? Is the truth going to grow up to full maturity in your heart?

I have always looked at this parable as being in the future, but no longer. We are now in the harvest time. Divisions have come, two parties have been developed and the angels are doing a work that just a few years ago we did not understand. If there was ever a time to say, “Lord, I want all the tares out of my life and the plant of the gospel of truth to grow up to full maturity in my mind,” it is now.

I want to be gathered into God’s garner, in the harvest. It is time to get on our knees and say, “Lord, I want the Holy Spirit to take all the tares out of my life. I want the truth to grow up to full maturity in my life.” When we see Jesus, we are going to be like Him. The plant of the truth is going to have grown to full maturity in our lives.

The End

The Characteristics of the Remnant

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The remnant spoken of in the Bible is the last group of people living on the earth that God claims as His own. A remnant is exactly the same as the first piece; just so, God’s remnant, His last church, must have the same characteristics as His first church.

To be part of God’s remnant means far more than just making a profession of keeping the commandments and believing the Spirit of Prophecy. It is represented by a sanctified life and character. Those who make up the remnant will be faithful, as was their spiritual father, Abraham, and be part of God’s people, not just by profession and baptism by water but in heart and character by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Those consisting of the remnant are part of His flock, listening to His voice and following wherever He leads. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice” (John 10:27). They are part of the wheat harvest. In other words, they bring forth spiritual fruit in their lives. They have a vital connection with the True Vine and have become a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. They are faithful, love God and keep His commandments from their hearts, obtaining residence in the city of refuge and being saved from the second death. They become part of God’s fortress which He holds control of in this evil world.

Ellen White wrote,

“I was shown the necessity of those who believe that we are having the last message of mercy, being separate from those who are daily imbibing new errors.” Early Writings, 124.

Those imbibing new errors include many of the different Adventist groups after 1844. She continues, “I saw that neither young nor old should attend their meetings; for it is wrong to thus encourage them while they teach error that is a deadly poison to the soul and teach for doctrines the commandments of men. The influence of such gatherings is not good. If God has delivered us from such darkness and error, we should stand fast in the liberty wherewith He has set us free and rejoice in the truth. God is displeased with us when we go to listen to error, without being obliged to go; for unless He sends us to those meetings where error is forced home to the people by the power of the will, He will not keep us. The angels cease their watchful care over us, and we are left to the buffetings of the enemy, to be darkened and weakened by him and the power of his evil angels; and the light around us becomes contaminated with the darkness.” Ibid., 124, 125.

History repeats itself and the same will happen as in the days of John the Baptist when there was a shaking, a purging, a separating of the tares from the wheat and almost the whole Jewish church was shaken out, but their church organization still carried right on.

To be shaken out means to be shaken out of the truth. According to prophecy, something very similar to this is going to happen in Adventism before the end. “Oh, how many I saw in the time of trouble without a shelter! They had neglected the needful preparation; therefore they could not receive the refreshing that all must have to fit them to live in the sight of a holy God. Those who refused to be hewed by the prophets and fail to purify their souls in obeying the whole truth, and who are willing to believe that their condition is far better than it really is, will come up to the time of the falling of the plagues, and then see that they needed to be hewed and squared for the building. But there will be no time then to do it.” Ibid., 71.

“To the marriage supper of the Lamb will come many who have not on the wedding garment—the robe [Christ] purchased for them with His lifeblood. From lips that never make a mistake come the words, ‘Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?’ (Matthew 22:12). Those [thus] addressed are speechless. They know that words would be useless. The truth, with its sanctifying power, has not been brought into the soul, and the tongue that once spoke so readily of the truth is now silent. The words are then spoken, ‘Take them out of My presence. They are not worthy to taste of My supper’ (cf. Luke 14:24).

“As they are separated from the loyal ones, Christ looks upon them with deep sorrow. They occupied high positions of trust in God’s work, but they have not the life insurance policy that would have entitled them to eternal life. From the quivering lips of Christ come the mournful words of regret, ‘I loved them; I gave My life for them; but they persisted in rejecting My pleadings, and continued in sin.’ ” The Upward Look, 301.

Now is the time to ask, Am I joined to Christ and one with Him in spirit, learning to think, feel, talk, and act like my Saviour? If you are really joined to Christ, you are one spirit with Him. If you are not one spirit with Him, you are not His at all.

Have you asked yourself these questions: Do I have His word abiding in me, and do I have that vital connection with the True Vine? Do I really love God and keep His commandments from the heart and love my neighbor as myself? Am I faithful enough for God to depend on me to do His bidding and refrain from those things He says not to do? Have I entered into God’s covenant and put away all known sin?

As we approach the end times, the issues of contention will be the same as when the Waldenses had to answer to the Inquisition and the Protestant reformers had to answer to the courts of their time. God’s people will also need to know and be able to explain their beliefs in the courts one day.

Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” And they said, “Well, some say you are John the Baptist, some say that you are Jeremiah, Elijah, or one of the prophets.” And then He said, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter right away came up with an answer because he had believed ever since he met Jesus that He was the Messiah: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus then said something interesting to Peter. In the Greek Bible it says, “I say to you that you are Petros,” Latin for Peter. The Greek translation is the masculine word Petras. In other languages, every word has either a masculine, feminine or neuter gender with most words being masculine or feminine. Jesus said, “I say to you that you are Petros [like a stone], and on this Petra [a large boulder] I will build My church.” (See Matthew 16:13–18.)

The apostles understood what Jesus was talking about. Peter told us the identity of the Rock upon which the church is built in I Peter 2:4–10. Paul was every bit as clear as this in Ephesians 2:20: “It is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.” The Rock upon which the church is built is Jesus Christ.

Jesus told them, “Whoever falls on this Rock will be all broken up, but on whomsoever it will fall, he will be crushed to powder.” Matthew 21:44. He spoke of Himself as the Rock. Peter spoke of Him as the Rock. And Jesus said to Peter, “You’re a stone, but on this Rock I’m going to build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against her.” Matthew 15:18. It is in verse 19 where the trouble really comes, because it says, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” The authority given here is tremendous. It has to do not only with this life but also eternal life.

One of the reasons this text of scripture has been so difficult for many to understand is because we have not paid careful enough attention to whom and what is the church. This authority was here given to Peter, but later it was given to the whole church. In solving church difficulties, Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20. That is His church. Ellen White confirms that in The Upward Look, 315, “Where Christ is even among the humble few, this is Christ’s church, for the presence of the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity can alone constitute a church.” And in that context He says, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Verse 19. This authority is given not just to Peter, but it is given to the church.

Jesus, speaking to His disciples, said, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven, and if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” John 20:23. That is unbelievable authority. Jesus, speaking to the leaders of the Christian church, said, “If you forgive somebody’s sins, they are forgiven. If you retain somebody’s sins, they are retained.” It was these scriptures that were used by the bishops of Rome obtaining authority over the entire then known world during the Dark Ages. They claimed to have received this apostolic authority from Peter and could send dissenters to either heaven or hell.

The accused heretics were dressed in robes and had miters painted with demons, snakes, and devils. They were put to torture or burned at the stake and consigned to hell where they were told they would burn forever.

The people were kept in ignorance, and before the printing presses were invented, there were very few copies of the Bible in existence for a time. Because of this, the church could twist the meaning and context of this authority and bring kings and nations and entire continents under their control. Protestants were continually challenged with the authority of the church that claimed to be the successor of the apostle Peter with the keys to the kingdom of heaven. All who did not submit to the authority of the church would go to hell. Those who did not believe it were killed, resulting in most of Europe eventually submitting to the church.

We read that there are three prerequisites before receiving that authority. “He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ ” John 20:22. Only those who are filled with the Holy Spirit have divine authority in the church.

All must be taught by God. Jesus said to Peter, “Flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but My Father in heaven.” Matthew 16:17.

Instructions are given in Matthew 18:15 on how to deal with a disagreement or when wronged by another member of the church. Gospel order must be followed before you can have authority.

Millions of people have been enslaved or killed because of a misunderstanding of who has apostolic authority. Recent pronouncements by the papacy reveal that this theory is not dead. It is still proclaimed that Protestants cannot give eternal life because only the Catholic Church has authority on the basis of these scriptures and the way they are understood.

The apostles understood the meaning of how to bind and loose. When the gospel was preached, some people accepted it in repentance and were loosed from the chains of guilt and from the power of their sins and bound by an indissolvable union to Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. In that way they were both bound and loosed.

Paul spoke very clearly about those refusing to accept the gospel. (See Acts 13:40–50; 28.) He said, “You decided yourself that you are not worthy of eternal life, and we are going to the Gentiles.” These people ended up bound to both the guilt and the power of their sins and were held in slavery.

Jesus said, in John 8:34, that the one who commits sin is a slave of sin. The word dulos means bondservant, slave. When the gospel is preached, everybody who hears it will be bound and loosed. Some will be bound to Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, and they will be loosed from their sins, from the guilt and power of sins. Those who reject will be bound to their sins and receive the mark of the beast and be loosed from any certain hope of eternal life.

“The power of binding and loosing was, moreover, given to the Church, and not to any individual man, or body of men. Ministers exercise, he argued, their office for the Church, and in the name of the Church; and without the Church’s consent and approval, expressed or implied, they have no power of loosing or binding anyone. Much less, he maintained, was this power of excommunication secular; it was simply a power of doing, by the Church and for the Church, the necessary work of purging out notorious offenders from the body of the faithful.” Reverand James Aitken Wylie, LLD, History of Protestantism, Volume Second, ch 4, “Conference at Upsaler,” 1808-1890, Cassell& Company, Limited: London.

The Catholic Church claims that only those seated in continuous succession from the apostle Peter have apostolic authority. “This principle bears with equal weight upon a question that has long agitated the Christian world—the question of apostolic succession. Descent from Abraham was proved, not by name and lineage, but by likeness of character. So the apostolic succession rests not upon the transmission of ecclesiastical authority, but upon spiritual relationship. A life actuated by the apostles’ spirit, the belief and teaching of the truth they taught, this is the true evidence of apostolic succession. This is what constitutes men the successors of the first teachers of the gospel.” The Desire of Ages, 467.

The question of apostolic succession has agitated the minds in the Christian world for hundreds of years. And even today, if you read Roman Catholic literature, they can show you a diagram showing that the Catholic Church history goes all the way back to Jesus Christ, but the Protestant church only goes back to the sixteenth century, or the Adventist church only goes back to the nineteenth century.

So who is the true church and who are Abraham’s seed? Jesus acknowledged that the Jews were Abraham’s seed according to the flesh, but denied that they were Abraham’s spiritual children. To that they strongly objected, saying, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you want to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth. … You do the works of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We have one Father, we’re not born of fornication; we have one Father: even God.” And Jesus said to them, “If God was your Father, you would love Me, because I proceeded forth and came from God; neither did I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Why can’t you understand what I’m saying? Because you are of your father the devil.” John 8:37–44.

It was to the leaders of the Jewish church of God’s chosen people that Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil.” It is impossible to be a member of the church that God has called out, His chosen special ones, if you are a son of the devil.

In the Day of Judgment, profession must be backed up by character. The remnant people at the end of time will keep the commandments of God. The new theology says, “Just try to do it; do the best you can.” The Bible does not say that. It says, “They keep the commandments.” Only those who have received the Holy Spirit can keep the commandments; without the Spirit it is impossible.

Apostolic succession means the people who are successors of the apostles, those who teach and preach the same things that the apostles taught and have the same character that they demonstrated. A mere profession is worthless.

“From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church [of God] on earth.” The Acts of the Apostles, 11.

Nowhere in the Spirit of Prophecy does Ellen White say the church is both the faithful and the unfaithful. You may get your name on the church books and are professedly part of the church, but if you are not joined to Christ with one Spirit, you are not part of Him. (See Romans 8:9.)

Jesus called the Jews, who only made a profession, children of the devil. It is the character of a person that reveals to whom they belong. There are so many preachers, both in self-supporting work and in the conferences, publishing articles that say you just have to believe the truth and you are part of the remnant. But the Bible teaches that the remnant will be of a character in keeping with the commandments of God. Salvation is an inheritance, and it is a gift, but it is conditional on obedience to God.

The Waldenses understood this, as did the reformers who stood true to God and His commandments as they suffered terrible persecution. They knew that the church of that time had no power to commit them to either heaven or hell. The authority of the Bible is above the authority of the church. (See James 1:18.)

The reformers and the Waldenses had a correct understanding of who and what the church was. They believed that the true church consisted of only those who were righteous, just and holy. But today, people have decided that the church consists of both the faithful and the unfaithful, trying to prove this by the parable of the wheat and the tares. Incidentally, the Catholics do the same and have done so with their church for hundreds of years. Throughout the Spirit of Prophecy the word church is used to refer to all who make a profession of Christianity, all the Christian churches, and sometimes in regard to certain denominations, including the Adventist denomination. Sometimes it refers to the Catholic Church, and at other times it refers to the true church. Often these quotations are used out of context causing confusion, just as many other churches become confused about the law in the Bible, which refers to different things.

The common false conception of who the church is has caused Adventists to be confused about who make up the remnant. It is not whether your names are on the church books, but whether you have fully submitted and allowed the Holy Spirit to work in your life, making you a new creation.

“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 12:17. “The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.” Zephaniah 3:13. This is the description of those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb—the true remnant.

(Bible texts quoted are literal translation.)

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

Much to Learn, Much More to Unlearn

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Those who are on a quest for an infallible church will be sorely disappointed, for there is no such thing.

Often, we here at Steps to Life are criticized for calling ourselves historic Seventh-day Adventists and not believing all that our pioneers believed. Ellen White, writing to the church in the official publication of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, The Review and Herald, at a time when most of the pioneer Adventist ministers were still alive, said, “We have many lessons to learn, and many, many to unlearn.” Ibid., July 26, 1892.

The Lord led William Miller and the Adventist pioneers to understand the heavenly sanctuary, the law of God, the Second Coming of Christ, the judgment, and many other things, but that does not mean there has been no growth since that time. The pioneer Adventists were still using calamine, mercury, and all manner of dangerous drugs, and many were still eating pork in the 1850s before light was given on the health reform. Many of them were still using tobacco in 1844. In fact, it is recorded that in 1850 when J. N. Loughborough went to a physician he was prescribed tobacco for a medicine. So, when we say we are historic Adventists, it does not mean we are exactly the way they were. We should have growth as time goes on and that involves learning new things and unlearning others.

“God and heaven alone are infallible. Those who think that they will never have to give up a cherished view, never have occasion to change an opinion, will be disappointed. As long as we hold to our own ideas and opinions with determined persistency, we cannot have the unity for which Christ prayed.” Ibid.

There is no infallible church. I am happy to say that from my little research I have discovered that the Protestant churches in general have never claimed infallibility. The Roman Catholic Church alone makes that claim.

Ellen White never claimed infallibility for herself or even for the Bible. Now that comes as a shock to some Adventists, because there is a sense in which the Bible is infallible. She believed that if everybody would take the Bible and read it for himself or herself and study it, even if they did not have the opportunity to be where the word of God is preached, that not one soul would be lost. The Bible is an infallible guide to salvation, but it is not infallible in an absolute sense; neither is the Spirit of Prophecy nor does it claim to be. Let me give you some examples.

Speaking of the same event, in the Old Testament the Bible mentions that 24,000 people died in one day (Numbers 25:9), and in the New Testament, referring to the same event, it says that 23,000 died (I Corinthians 10:8). There are unbelievers who list all the contradictions of the Bible to discredit the message of salvation. At one time Ellen White referred to a sanitarium that had 40 beds. A physician went to that sanitarium and counted the beds. He then wrote to Ellen White telling her she was wrong; there were only 39. He was then tempted to conclude that the Spirit of Prophecy was not inspired because of her mistake in the count. Both the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy use rounded numbers of which there are many illustrations.

As a sophomore at Walla Walla College, Walla Walla, Washington, U.S.A., and in my second year of Greek, we had an assignment to translate the whole book of Revelation verse by verse from Greek into English. Some students were surprised to find that Greek was not the apostle John’s native language but a second language. The book of Revelation was written while he was banished on the isle of Patmos. It was written in Greek because it was the language that most people could read. His native language was Aramaic, and because he was alone without a secretary, it was found that there were some grammatical mistakes in the Greek text. That bothered some people, although there is nothing wrong with the message he presented. Later, after he had been set free, he wrote the gospel of John. At that time he had access to a professional secretary, and the gospel is in well-written Greek.

Ellen White had only a second or third grade education, and in her original writings she made quite a few grammatical mistakes. Her husband James corrected them for her. Some people have a real problem with that. The message in the Spirit of Prophecy, just like in the Bible, if read, studied and followed, ensures that person will not be lost.

No one will come to the Day of Judgment and say to the Lord they were not given the right version and now they are lost. These incidental grammatical mistakes will not cause you to be lost. We need to understand this so we do not take extreme positions on inspiration as many Protestants have done. Some believe that the word of God, the Bible, is infallible in the original text and that all mistakes are due to copyist errors. Well, if you understand how the Spirit of Prophecy came, you understand the fallacy of that argument.

Referring to the “so called” infallible church, Ellen White says, “It is one of the leading doctrines of Romanism that the pope is the visible head of the universal church of Christ, invested with supreme authority over bishops and pastors in all parts of the world. More than this, the pope has arrogated [been given] the very titles of Deity. He styles himself ‘Lord God the Pope,’ assumes [has been declared] infallibility [unable to make a mistake], and demands that all men pay him homage. Thus the same claim urged by Satan in the wilderness of temptation is still urged by him through the Church of Rome, and vast numbers are ready to yield him homage.” The Great Controversy (1888), 50.

“Another step in papal assumption was taken, when, in the eleventh century, Pope Gregory VII proclaimed the perfection of the Romish Church. Among the propositions which he put forth, was one declaring that the church had never erred (it is infallible) nor would it ever err, according to the Scriptures. But the Scripture proofs did not accompany the assertion.” Ibid., 57. There were no Scriptural proofs. Scripture does not teach infallibility of the pope or the church.

If the church was infallible, then the book of Galatians would never have had to be written. Paul had to rebuke Peter because of his faults (Galatians 2:11–14). How could Peter, who made many mistakes, pass on infallibility to his successors if it was something he did not have himself?

“The proud pontiff also claimed the power to depose emperors, and declared that no sentence which he pronounced could be reversed by anyone, but that it was his prerogative to reverse the decisions of all others.” Ibid. On what did the papacy base their claim for infallibility?

The Jews made their claim to infallibility and the infallibility of their organization on the basis of Jeremiah 31:35–37: “Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (the Lord of hosts is His name): ‘If those ordinances depart from before Me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever.’ Thus says the Lord: ‘If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the Lord.’ ” That passage was used over and over again to prove that they were the true church, and because Jesus did not accept them, He could not be the Messiah.

The papacy made its claim to infallibility also based on an inspired statement in the words of Jesus Himself. In Matthew 16:17–19, it says, “ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ ”

The keys to the Kingdom of Heaven are the words of Jesus. Those words were written down by the apostles and have been recorded in the New Testament. When the gospel is preached, everybody gets bound and everybody gets loosed. Let me explain how it works.

You hear the gospel and accept it. You are bound to Christ with cords; bonds that will never be broken. “Laying up treasure in heaven will give nobility to the character; it will strengthen benevolence, encourage mercy; cultivate sympathy, brotherly kindness, and charity. It will unite the soul of man with Christ, by links that can never be broken.” The Review and Herald, September 18, 1888.

In fact, your relationship to Christ will be closer than angels that have never fallen. “Because we believe and act out that we are members of the Royal Family, children of the Heavenly King, bound to Jesus.” Mind, Character and Personality, vol. 1, 175.

But, you will also be loosed. If you accept the gospel, you will be loosed from the slavery of sin. You will be loosed from your guilt and released from the power of sin in your life. “So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” Luke 13:16.

If you accept the gospel, you will be bound, and you will be loosed. But what if you hear the gospel and you reject it? You will also be bound. You will be bound with the cords of your sin so that you cannot get free. The Bible is very clear about this. But, you will also be loosed. If you reject the gospel, you will be released from any hope of everlasting life. Everyone that hears the gospel is bound and loosed.

But let’s look carefully at Matthew 16:18: “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” The Catholic Church claims this text as proof that their church is eternal—forever. I love the way that text is written, “the gates of Hades will never prevail against it.” The New Testament was written in human language. Hades is a word from Greek mythology. The Greeks did not understand the state of death and had been deceived just like the Egyptians. Ellen White stated that as soon as Adam and Eve sinned, the devil instructed his angels that they were to convince men that they had immortality. (See The Great Controversy, 534.) People had to be convinced that something within them still went on living after they died. The different nations had different names for it. In Egypt it was called Ra. It was the belief of immortality of the soul.

Hades was believed to be a place under the earth that is very hot where people go for punishment. During the last two hundred years before Jesus was born, the Jews had begun to study Greek Philosophy and Jesus used that very theory, wrecking it for them when He showed them that all their ideas about it were not going to work. The story He told was of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16.

The idea was that when you died you went to Hades to be purified. It was a precursor to the theory of purgatory that came along later. If you were really bad, instead of going to Hades, then you could be cast clear down to Tartarus, which in Greek mythology was lower than Hades. It is interesting that the word Tartarus is used once in the New Testament. The apostle Peter says that God cast the angels that sinned down to Tartarus; in other words, a place lower than the grave, Hades. Hades was a place of the dead, so when the New Testament uses Hades, it is talking about the grave.

When it says the gates of Hades are not going to prevail against Christ’s church, it means the grave is not going to prevail against Christ’s church, because Jesus is coming back and all of His people will be set free from the grave. That is going to be exciting. Though you may die, it is just a temporary sleep, for if you are in Christ, you will be raised up again.

The Catholic Church claims this text to prove she is infallible. However, there is a condition that somehow people forget. The church is built on the rock. Though the Catholic Church claims to be built on Peter and Peter is the rock, there is a problem. The New Testament was written in Greek. The Greek language is like Spanish and German and French that have masculine and feminine words.

A masculine or feminine word must also have a masculine or feminine adjective. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “I say to you that you are Petras [a stone, a Greek masculine word], and upon this Petra [a large boulder or rock, a feminine word] I will build My church.” The genders of the words do not agree. Petra is not the same word as Petras. The closest you could come to it in English would be: “I say unto you, you are Mr. Rock, and on this Mrs. Rock I will build My church.” Jesus did not mean that the church was built on Peter.

Peter himself recognized that. He said, “Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.’ Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,’ and ‘a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.’ They stumble being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.” I Peter 2:6–8.

Peter never taught that he was the rock on which the church was built. He taught that Jesus was that Rock. Paul also is very specific about this. He tells the people in Ephesus that they are members of the household of God; then describes the church: “Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being [joined] fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” Ephesians 2:20, 21.

The church, built on the Rock, Jesus Christ, is the only one that will not fall, and the gates of Hades or the gates of the grave will not prevail against it.

Jesus said, “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Matthew 7:24–27.

The church that is built on the Rock obeys the teachings, the words of Jesus. To the church claiming to be infallible based on a misunderstanding of Scripture, God says, “Another angel followed, saying, ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’ ” Revelation 14:8.

“He cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.’ And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, My people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.’ ” Revelation 18:2–4.

While the Christian world today is saying, “Let’s all get together,” God is saying, “Come out, because there is sin in the camp, and if you participate in the sin you are also going to participate in the plagues.”

God continually sends the church, through both the Old and New Testaments, a message of rebuke and reproof, appealing to them to forsake their sins and be saved. It is dangerous to be in a church that is in open sin, be aware of it, and get used to it so that it doesn’t bother you anymore. By supporting it with time, money and influence, you endorse the errors and share in its guilt.

Jesus says, “Come out!” It’s very interesting that in the Roman Catholic Bible, it says, “Go out.” In the Protestant Bible it says, “Come out.”

To participate in giving the last warning message to the world, you must understand that Babylon is fallen and what has caused her to fall.

“Thus the message of the third angel will be proclaimed. As the time comes for it to be given with greatest power, the Lord will work through humble instruments, leading the minds of those who consecrate themselves to His service. The laborers will be qualified rather by the unction of His Spirit than by the training of literary institutions. Men of faith and prayer will be constrained to go forth with holy zeal, declaring the words which God gives them. The sins of Babylon will be laid open. The fearful results of enforcing the observances of the church by civil authority, the inroads of spiritualism, the stealthy but rapid progress of the papal power—all will be unmasked. By these solemn warnings the people will be stirred. Thousands upon thousands will listen who have never heard words like these. In amazement they hear the testimony that Babylon is the church, fallen because of her errors and sins, because of her rejection of the truth sent to her from heaven.” The Great Controversy, 606, 607.

Babylon falls because of her errors and sins. Now we’re not talking about a sin of stumbling or a sin that’s committed by mistake. These are not sins of ignorance or a sin of stumbling but because of open sin of which she refuses to repent and forsake. The true church is to be organized, but the organization is not the true church. The organized body of Christ is the church of God by profession, but character determines whether that profession is true or not.

Martin Luther, John Calvin and all of the reformers who were at one time staunch Roman Catholics had been taught that their church was the spouse of Christ; it was infallible. Finally, they figured out that with all that was happening it could not be the true church. Then who and what is the true church?

Ellen White quotes what Melanchthon said: “In the days of the Reformation, the gentle and pious Melancthon declared, ‘There is no other church than the assembly of those who have the word of God, and who are purified by it.’ ” The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, 237. A profession is not enough!

“God has a church. It is not the great cathedral, neither is it the national establishment, neither is it the various denominations; it is the people who love God and keep His commandments.” The Upward Look, 315.

“From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth.” The Acts of the Apostles, 11.

And then this shocking statement about Adventists: “Those who become confused in their understanding of the Word, who fail to see the meaning of antichrist, will surely place themselves on the side of antichrist.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 949.

“Those who keep God’s commandments, those who live not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, compose the church of the living God.” Ibid.

You see, the issue is not if you make a profession, because the true church not only makes a profession but they have a character that is in harmony with their profession.

[Bible texts quoted are NKJV translation.]

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

Keys to the Storehouse – Trouble Him now, Don’t Lose God’s Favor

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There was a time when the church failed to maintain her favor with God. What a terrible thought! These were people like you and me, and it will happen again. Read the following:

“They [the martyrs] imitated the noble bearing of Christ when before His murderers, and many were convinced of the truth by witnessing their constancy, and the glory of God which rested upon them. Satan decided that he must come in a milder form. He had corrupted the doctrines of the Bible; and traditions which were to ruin millions were taking deep root. He restrained his hate, and decided not to urge on his subjects to such bitter persecution; but lead on the church to contend, not for the faith once delivered to the saints, but, for various traditions. As he led on the church to receive favors and honors of the world, under the false pretense of benefiting them, she began to lose favor with God. Gradually the church lost her power, as she shunned to declare the straight truths which shut out the lovers of pleasure and friends of the world.” Spiritual Gifts, vol. 1, 125, 126.

It is the studied plan of the devil to encourage us to contend for traditions and honors while neglecting to live up to the straight truth and lose the favor of God. Follow the Word!

“The church is not the separate and peculiar people she was when the fires of persecution were kindled against her. How is the gold become dim? How is the most fine gold changed? I saw that if the church had always retained her holy and peculiar character, the power of the Holy Spirit which was imparted to the disciples would be with her.” Ibid.

Stand! Don’t let your gold standard grow dim. Satan is very willing to have you think that you are a Christian—he is not at all troubled as he sees you grow dim. He loves it!

“I [Ellen White] saw that a very large company professed the name of Christ, but God does not recognize them as His. He has no pleasure in them. Satan seemed to assume a religious character, and was very willing that the people should think they were Christians. He was very willing that they should believe in Jesus, His crucifixion, and His resurrection. Satan and his angels fully believed all this themselves, and trembled. But if this faith does not provoke to good works, and lead those who profess it to imitate the self-denying life of Christ, he is not disturbed; for they merely assume the Christian name, while their hearts are still carnal; and he can use them in his service better than if they made no profession. Under the name of Christian they hide their deformity. They pass along with their unsanctified natures, and their evil passions unsubdued.” Ibid., 126, 127.

Be on your guard. Take your deformities to Jesus right now. Don’t continue to lose favor with God. Begin right now to trouble the devil by allowing the Holy Spirit to polish your character so your gold shines! Satan sits quietly waiting for your demise, so put on the armor of God and go forward! This life is all you have to live for Jesus and defeat the devil. Just do it now! You are not promised another minute. (All emphasis supplied.)

Heavenly Father: Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation. Replace my deformities with the righteousness of Christ, and let that gold shine so bright that it will blind the devil. Please restore me unto Thy favor, and by Thy grace I will stand for righteousness and truth. Amen.

Lives of Unfaithfulness

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There are hundreds of millions of people in the world today, and have been in times past, who believe there is an infallible church. But, there is no such thing.

The first church I have studied about in history that believed this was the Jewish church. “The Jewish people cherished the idea that they were the favorites of heaven, and that they were always to be exalted as the church of God. They were the children of Abraham, they declared, and so firm did the foundation of their prosperity seem to them that they defied earth and heaven to dispossess them of their rights. But by lives of unfaithfulness they were preparing for the condemnation of heaven and for separation from God.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 294.

The Jews were confident that they were the true church and always would be. They defied earth and heaven to deprive them of their rights. But heaven had a response to that kind of self-confidence and sent them a message and a messenger to shake them out of their self-complacency. You can read it from the Bible in a sermon that John the Baptist preached. This is what he said in Matthew 3:7–12: “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, ‘Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.” For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’ ”

The Jews were the descendants of Abraham and claimed the right to the covenant that God made with Abraham (Genesis 17). God promised Abraham that He would be God to his children and that they would be His people and He promised to Abraham’s children special blessings.

Some people would say that there is a lot of sin in the church. But even though that is the case, the church is going to go through, because the Lord has promised us, through the prophet Jeremiah that the church is going to go through no matter how much sin is in it. “Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (the Lord of hosts is His name): If those ordinances depart from before Me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever. Thus says the Lord: ‘If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the Lord.’ ” Jeremiah 31:35–37.

And they would read that and they would say, “Do you see here what the prophet Jeremiah said? He said, ‘As long as the sun is in the sky and the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, that long, the children of Israel are going to remain.’ ” So, is the sun still in the sky? Well, yes. Does the moon still come up at night? Well, yes. Are the stars still in the sky? Well, yes. Then if that is so, we are God’s people.

What they did not understand was, Who is the real Israel? I have been told, with great confidence by Adventist ministers, that the Jewish nation was God’s people right up until Matthew 23:38 and 39. This belief is contrary to the words of Jesus and the words of John the Baptist who told them not to even think they were Abraham’s children. It is no wonder so many Adventists have been deluded on this point, because many of our ministers have the very same delusion that the Jews had in the time of John the Baptist.

The Jewish leaders were so deluded that just before Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, in 70 A.D.,

“The leaders of the opposing factions at times united to plunder and torture their wretched victims, and again they fell upon each other’s forces and slaughtered without mercy. Even the sanctity of the temple could not restrain their horrible ferocity. The worshipers were stricken down before the altar, and the sanctuary was polluted with the bodies of the slain. Yet in their blind and blasphemous presumption the instigators of this hellish work publicly declared that they had no fear that Jerusalem would be destroyed, for it was God’s own city.” The Great Controversy, 29.

Ellen White goes on to say that right until the time the Romans came in and slaughtered them all, plowed and totally destroyed the whole city, they thought that Jerusalem could not be destroyed because they were God’s people and Jerusalem was God’s city. Over a million people lost their lives because of that delusion. They really believed they were God’s people and could prove it from the Bible.

In the book, The Desire of Ages, 107, Mrs. White explains very clearly what John the Baptist, who, according to Jesus, there was not anyone born of women greater than him (Matthew 11:11), was talking about. He clearly defined who the church is and who the people of God really are.

“ ‘And now also,’ said the prophet, ‘the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire’ [Matthew 3:10]. Not by its name [Israel], but by its fruit, is the value of a tree determined. If the fruit is worthless, the name cannot save the tree from destruction.” John declared to the Jews that their standing before God was to be decided by their character and life and not whether they could trace their genealogy. John the Baptist taught that profession was worthless, and if their lives and characters were not in harmony with God’s law, they were not His people. That principle is still true today.

God had called the Jewish nation and their mission was to represent Him on the earth. However,

“The people whom God had called to be the pillar and ground of the truth had become representatives of Satan.” Ibid., 36.

A very sober message was given to the church of today that in these last closing days of earth’s history ministers are going to have to give a message that is even straighter than that given by John the Baptist. One wonders how this can be possible when John the Baptist addressed the leaders of the Jewish church, calling them a bunch of poisonous snakes and not to even think they were children of Abraham. In other words, do not think that you are the church just because of your heritage.

Jesus said, “ ‘I know that you are Abraham’s descendants [according to the flesh] but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.’ They answered and said to Him, ‘Abraham is our father’ [the same argument they used with John the Baptist]. Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.’ Then they said to Him, ‘We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.’ ” John 8:37–44.

Notice what Jesus is saying here. He first acknowledges that they are the physical descendants of Abraham, but He says, “You are not really the children of Abraham.” Why? “You do not have the same character or the same religious experience that Abraham had; you don’t have the same connection with God that Abraham had, so spiritually, you are not the children of Abraham at all. Your spiritual father is the devil.” This is the same thing that John the Baptist said. It is character that counts and not profession.

Ellen White explains this same concept:

“The Pharisees had declared themselves the children of Abraham. Jesus told them that this claim could be established only by doing the works of Abraham. The true children of Abraham would live, as he did, a life of obedience to God. They would not try to kill One who was speaking the truth that was given Him from God. In plotting against Christ, the rabbis were not doing the works of Abraham. A mere lineal descent from Abraham was of no value. Without a spiritual connection with him, which would be manifested in possessing the same spirit, and doing the same works, they were not his children.

“This principle bears with equal weight upon a question that has long agitated the Christian world—the question of apostolic succession.” The Desire of Ages, 466, 467.

Apostolic succession is the theological theory that God gave the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven to the apostle Peter, and he was the first bishop of Rome, passing the keys on to the next bishop of Rome, right on down to the two hundred and sixty-fifth one we have today. The theory goes that the bishop of Rome has authority over the church because the keys given to Peter have been passed on right to this present day.

“Descent from Abraham was proved, not by name and lineage, but by likeness of character. So the apostolic succession rests not upon the transmission of ecclesiastical authority, but upon spiritual relationship. A life actuated by the apostles’ spirit, the belief and teaching of the truth they taught, this is the true evidence of apostolic succession. This is what constitutes men the successors of the first teachers of the gospel.” Ibid., 467.

The successors of the first teachers of the gospel are the people who have the same spirit that they had, those who teach the same things that they taught. The Jews misunderstood who it was that truly represented Israel. They thought that by making a profession and joining their church, then you were part of Israel. But John the Baptist said no, a profession without a corresponding character is nothing.

If what was true then is still true now, then a true Seventh-day Adventist is not just somebody who makes a profession of the Adventist faith; it is somebody whose character backs up his or her profession. “God is honored, not so much by the great number, as by the character of those who serve Him. He appreciates moral worth. He draws the dividing line between those who bear His name by profession, and those whose character shows them to be His children.” The Signs of the Times, June 30, 1881. That is an interesting statement. Let us think that through.

It says that God “draws a dividing line.” Now this dividing line, by the way, is drawn through every church. Every professing Christian is either on one side or the other of this dividing line. On one side are those who bear His name by profession, and on the other side are those whose character shows them to be His children. Jesus is coming soon, and there are many people who have been deceived into thinking that by their profession they will be saved. We do not believe that. We believe that a character that is in harmony with it must back up the profession. The New Testament is full of instruction on this point. Look for example in the book of Titus. Paul wrote to the young minister about problems they were having with some people who were professing to be Christians. Notice the problem: “They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.” Titus 1:16.

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly [that is, without being intoxicated], righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” Titus 2:11–14.

The message that the apostle preached was not a message that you could be saved by profession of faith alone when your character was out of harmony.

So who is Israel?

“But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called.’ That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God [those who make a profession]; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed [those whose character is in harmony with their profession].” Romans 9:6–8.

Let me repeat, God has drawn a dividing line in our church, and every single one of us who professes the Adventist faith is on one side or the other of that dividing line. Paul emphasizes this over and over again to the Roman church. “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.” Romans 2:28, 29.

Again, saying it about as plain as it can be said: “For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations’) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” Romans 4:13–17.

If you belong to Christ, you are Abraham’s seed, you are Israel. That is what Paul said to the Galatians, in Galatians 3. If you have been baptized into Christ, if you belong to Christ, you are Abraham’s seed. You are Israel, and even if you can claim a genealogy that goes all the way back to Abraham, if you do not believe in Christ, you are not Abraham’s seed.

“Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.” Galatians 3:7.

In Manuscript Releases, vol. 1, 204, there is a statement that was written to Seventh-day Adventist physicians, but it applies to all of us. It says, “A profession of Christianity is not sufficient to constitute us Christians. We must each have the character manifest by our divine Pattern.”

There is a dividing line in the Adventist church. If you profess the Adventist faith, you are on one side or the other of the dividing line. On what side are you? The Christian religion is the most attractive and spiritual of all religions. The reason is that in the Christian religion Jesus Christ makes decisions in your behalf on the basis of your choice, the decisions that you make in your mind, and not just by going through some ritual.

If you want to follow Jesus, not just by profession but actually learn how to live His life, to become like Him, God will hear that, and He will answer that prayer. John said, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” I John 3:2.

It will be a terrible disaster to come to the Day of Judgment and find yourself on the wrong side of the great divide. Choose today the right side; Jesus is waiting to answer your plea for help to save you.

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

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

Editorial – Harmony

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The Bible says that in the last days men will be proud and selfish (II Timothy 3:2). This results in strife and contention in the family, in the church and in God’s institutions. Contention comes by pride (Proverbs 13:10; 28:25). Disrespect results in contention (Proverbs 22:10) and the talebearer and the passionate man also engender strife and division (Proverbs 15:18; 26:20, 21; 29:22; 30:33).

Although we are saved as individuals (Ezekiel 14:20), nobody will be saved who cannot get along with others. This should give us cause for alarm. Are you really going to heaven?

“How long a time are you designing to take to prepare to be introduced into the society of heavenly angels in glory? In the state which you and your family are in at present, all heaven would be marred should you be introduced therein. The work for you must be done here. This earth is the fitting-up place. You have not one moment to lose. All is harmony, peace, and love in heaven. No discord, no strife, no censuring, no unloving words, no clouded brows, no jars there; and no one will be introduced there who possesses any of these elements so destructive to peace and happiness. …

“Forever cease your murmurings in regard to this poor life, but let your soul’s burden be, how to secure the better life than this, a title to the mansions prepared for those who are true and faithful to the end. If you make a mistake here, everything is lost. If you devote your lifetime to securing earthly treasures, and lose the heavenly, you will find that you have made a terrible mistake. You cannot have both worlds. …

“These trials of life are God’s workmen to remove the impurities, infirmities, and roughness from our characters, and fit us for the society of pure, heavenly angels in glory. But as we pass through these trials, as the fires of affliction kindle upon us, we must not keep the eye on the fire which is seen, but let the eye of faith fasten upon the things unseen, the eternal inheritance, the immortal life, the eternal weight of glory; and while we do this the fire will not consume us, but only remove the dross, and we shall come forth seven times purified, bearing the impress of the Divine.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 705–707.

When we are ready for heaven we will have harmony in the home, in the church and in the workplace with every other Christian who is also ready but right now, “Conversation has been protracted for hours between the parties concerned, and not only has their time been wasted, but the servants of God are held to listen to them, when the hearts of both parties are unsubdued by grace. If pride and selfishness were laid aside, five minutes would remove most difficulties. Angels have been grieved and God displeased by the hours which have been spent in justifying self.” Early Writings, 119.