ARE SDA,SDARM,SHAPHERD ROD,SABBATH REST, ETC. SPEAKING OUT? WHERE IS THE WATCHMEN?
We are to be established in the faith, in the light of the truth given us in our early experience. At that time one error after another pressed in upon us; ministers and doctors brought in new doctrines. We would search the Scriptures with much prayer, and the Holy Spirit would bring the truth to our minds. Sometimes whole nights would be devoted to searching the Scriptures, and earnestly asking God for guidance. Companies of devoted men and women assembled for this purpose. The power of God would come upon me, and I was enabled clearly to define what is truth and what is error.{GW 302.2}
As the points of our faith were thus established, our feet were placed upon a solid foundation. We accepted the truth point by point, under the demonstration of the Holy Spirit. I would be taken off in vision, and explanations would be given me. I was given illustrations of heavenly things, and of the sanctuary, so that we were placed where light was shining on us in clear, distinct rays.{GW 302.3}
I know that the sanctuary question stands in righteousness and truth, just as we have held it for so many years. It is the enemy that leads minds off on side-tracks. He is pleased when those who know the truth become engrossed in collecting scriptures to pile around erroneous theories, which have no foundation in truth. The scriptures thus used are misapplied; they were not given to substantiate error, but to strengthen truth.{GW 303.1}
*****
We must learn that others have rights as well as we ourselves. When a brother receives new light upon the Scriptures, he should frankly explain his position, and every minister should search the Scriptures with the spirit of candor, to see if the points presented can be substantiated by the Inspired Word. “The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” [2 Timothy 2:24, 25.]{GW 303.2}
Every soul must look to God with contrition and humility, that He may guide and lead and bless. We must not trust to others to search the Scriptures for us. Some of our leading brethren have frequently taken their position on the wrong side; and if God would send a message and wait for these older brethren to open the way for its advancement, it would never reach the people. These brethren will be found in this position until they become partakers of the divine nature to a greater extent than ever they have been in the past.{GW 303.3}
There is sadness in heaven over the spiritual blindness of many of our brethren. Our younger ministers, who fill less important positions, must make decided efforts to come to the light, to sink the shaft deeper and still deeper in the mine of truth.{GW 304.1}
The rebuke of the Lord will rest upon those who would bar the way, that clearer light shall not come to the people. A great work is to be done, and God sees that our leading men have need of more light, that they may unite with the messengers whom He sends to accomplish the work that He designs shall be done. The Lord has raised up messengers, and endued them with His Spirit, and has said, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” [Isaiah 58:1.] Let no one run the risk of interposing between the people and the message of Heaven. This message will go to the people; and if there were no voice among men to give it, the very stones would cry out.{GW 304.2}
I call upon every minister to seek the Lord, to put away pride and strife for supremacy, and to humble the heart before God. It is the coldness of heart, the unbelief of those who ought to have faith, that keeps the churches in feebleness.{GW 304.3}
"The Roman Church now presents a fair front to the world, covering with apologies her record of horrible cruelties. She has clothed herself in Christlike garments; but she is unchanged. Every principle of the papacy that existed in past ages exists today. The doctrines devised in the darkest ages are still held. Let none deceive themselves. The papacy that Protestants are now so ready to honor is the same that ruled the world in the days of the Reformation, when men of God stood up, at the peril of their lives, to expose her iniquity. She possesses the same pride and arrogant assumption that lorded it over kings and princes, and claimed the prerogatives of God. Her spirit is no less cruel and despotic now than when she crushed out human liberty and slew the saints of the Most High.{GC 571.1}
The papacy is just what prophecy declared that she would be, the apostasy of the latter times. 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4. It is a part of her policy to assume the character which will best accomplish her purpose; but beneath the variable appearance of the chameleon she conceals the invariable venom of the serpent. “Faith ought not to be kept with heretics, nor persons suspected of heresy” (Lenfant, volume 1, page 516), she declares. Shall this power, whose record for a thousand years is written in the blood of the saints, be now acknowledged as a part of the church of Christ?{GC 571.2}
It is not without reason that the claim has been put forth in Protestant countries that Catholicism differs less widely from Protestantism than in former times. There has been a change; but the change is not in the papacy. Catholicism indeed resembles much of the Protestantism that now exists, because Protestantism has so greatly degenerated since the days of the Reformers.{GC 571.3}
As the Protestant churches have been seeking the favor of the world, false charity has blinded their eyes. They do not see but that it is right to believe good of all evil, and as the inevitable result they will finally believe evil of all good. Instead of standing in defense of the faith once delivered to the saints, they are now, as it were, apologizing to Rome for their uncharitable opinion of her, begging pardon for their bigotry. {GC 571.4}
A large class, even of those who look upon Romanism with no favor, apprehend little danger from her power and influence. Many urge that the intellectual and moral darkness prevailing during the Middle Ages favored the spread of her dogmas, superstitions, and oppression, and that the greater intelligence of modern times, the general diffusion of knowledge, and the increasing liberality in matters of religion forbid a revival of intolerance and tyranny. The very thought that such a state of things will exist in this enlightened age is ridiculed. It is true that great light, intellectual, moral, and religious, is shining upon this generation. In the open pages of God’s Holy Word, light from heaven has been shed upon the world. But it should be remembered that the greater the light bestowed, the greater the darkness of those who pervert and reject it.{GC 572.1}
A prayerful study of the Bible would show Protestants the real character of the papacy and would cause them to abhor and to shun it; but many are so wise in their own conceit that they feel no need of humbly seeking God that they may be led into the truth. Although priding themselves on their enlightenment, they are ignorant both of the Scriptures and of the power of God. They must have some means of quieting their consciences, and they seek that which is least spiritual and humiliating. What they desire is a method of forgetting God which shall pass as a method of remembering Him. The papacy is well adapted to meet the wants of all these. It is prepared for two classes of mankind, embracing nearly the whole world—those who would be saved by their merits, and those who would be saved in their sins. Here is the secret of its power.{GC 572.2}
A day of great intellectual darkness has been shown to be favorable to the success of the papacy. It will yet be demonstrated that a day of great intellectual light is equally favorable for its success. In past ages, when men were without God’s word and without the knowledge of the truth, their eyes were blindfolded, and thousands were ensnared, not seeing the net spread for their feet. In this generation there are many whose eyes become dazzled by the glare of human speculations, “science falsely so called;” they discern not the net, and walk into it as readily as if blindfolded. God designed that man’s intellectual powers should be held as a gift from his Maker and should be employed in the service of truth and righteousness; but when pride and ambition are cherished, and men exalt their own theories above the word of God, then intelligence can accomplish greater harm than ignorance. Thus the false science of the present day, which undermines faith in the Bible, will prove as successful in preparing the way for the acceptance of the papacy, with its pleasing forms, as did the withholding of knowledge in opening the way for its aggrandizement in the Dark Ages. {GC 572.3}
In the movements now in progress in the United States to secure for the institutions and usages of the church the support of the state, Protestants are following in the steps of papists. Nay, more, they are opening the door for the papacy to regain in Protestant America the supremacy which she has lost in the Old World. And that which gives greater significance to this movement is the fact that the principal object contemplated is the enforcement of Sunday observance—a custom which originated with Rome, and which she claims as the sign of her authority. It is the spirit of the papacy—the spirit of conformity to worldly customs, the veneration for human traditions above the commandments of God—that is permeating the Protestant churches and leading them on to do the same work of Sunday exaltation which the papacy has done before them.{GC 573.1}
If the reader would understand the agencies to be employed in the soon-coming contest, he has but to trace the record of the means which Rome employed for the same object in ages past. If he would know how papists and Protestants united will deal with those who reject their dogmas, let him see the spirit which Rome manifested toward the Sabbath and its defenders. {GC 573.2}
Royal edicts, general councils, and church ordinances sustained by secular power were the steps by which the pagan festival attained its position of honor in the Christian world. The first public measure enforcing Sunday observance was the law enacted by Constantine. (A.D. 321; see Appendix note for page 53.) This edict required townspeople to rest on “the venerable day of the sun,” but permitted countrymen to continue their agricultural pursuits. Though virtually a heathen statute, it was enforced by the emperor after his nominal acceptance of Christianity.{GC 574.1}" The Great controversy, 571#1 - 574#1
MOST INCREDIBLE EVENT TO TAKE PLACE IN THE US! ARE THEY ALL DECEIVED?
Pope Francis to become first pope to address Congress ...
http://nypost.com/2015/02/05/pope-francis-to-become-first-pope-to-address-congress/
Pope Francis to Address a Joint Meeting of Congress - See more at: http://www.speaker.gov/press-release/pope-francis-address-joint-meeting-congress#sthash.HdnZohox.dpuf
In Milestone, Pope Francis Will Address Congress This Fall
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/boehner-pope-francis-address-congress-sept-24-28748865
NOW IT IS THE TIME TO: "Build on a Sure Foundation
The story of a crucified and risen Saviour is the great central theme of the Word of God. In the Psalms, in the prophecies, in the gospels, and in the epistles, God has by revelation made prominent the vital truths concerning the agreement between the Father and the Son in providing for the salvation of a lost race.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 1}
Christ was crucified to save the world. For his enemies, for a race in rebellion against God, our Saviour suffered the most excruciating agonies that human flesh could endure. He has made ample provision for sinners, that they need not perish. In the light of his death-agony on the cross, we may know that whosoever will truly repent and receive him as a personal Saviour will receive everlasting life.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 2}
Our highest privilege is to honor Jesus Christ. We need now, in this year 1908,[iS IT ANY BETTER TODAY?] a continual spirit of submission to the will and requirements of God. His Word is plain. If we will seek for a personal experience in submitting to its requirements, we may appropriate the promise, “The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.” As we study the Word prayerfully, with an obedient heart, the Holy Spirit will be with us to make upon our minds the correct application.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 3}
This is a privilege that the world can not receive or understand; for they have not the “Spirit of truth, whom,” Christ declared, “the world can not receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.” But to his disciples he says, “Ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” You have the mind of Christ.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 4}
In the parable of the marriage of the king’s son, Jesus relates how, after earnest efforts, “the wedding was furnished with guests.” He continues: “When the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding-garment: and he said unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding-garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.”{RH September 24, 1908, par. 5}
It has been repeatedly revealed to me that many professing Christians will, in the time of the final test, be greatly disappointed. Many, many will fail to provide themselves with that righteousness of Christ represented in the parable by the wedding-garment. They have trusted in their own righteousness, and have not manifested the humility of Jesus Christ. They may be seated at the supper table with others, but Christ will recognize them, and will say to them, “How camest thou in hither not having on a wedding-garment?”{RH September 24, 1908, par. 6}
Unless those who profess to be Christians become sanctified through the truth, and learn to reveal the likeness of Christ in words, in deeds, in spirituality, in their relation to their fellow men, the great day of test and trial will find them unprepared to enter through the golden gates into the city of God. And unless they can now be made to feel their great need, they will not have a spirit to seek for the essential righteousness of Christ.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 7}
When called before King Belshazzar to explain the mysterious writing on the wall, Daniel reminded the king of matters with which he was familiar, but which had not taught him the lesson of humility that might have saved him. “O thou king,” said the prophet, “the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honor: and for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down. But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: and he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.”{RH September 24, 1908, par. 8}
Then the enormity of Belshazzar’s guilt was thus emphasized: “And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knowest all this; but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them, and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy ways hast thou not glorified: then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 9}
“And this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Tekel; Thou are weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Peres; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”{RH September 24, 1908, par. 10}
The Lord does not suffer wicked practises to go on without sending reproof and warning. There are men in high places who know of the reproofs, of warnings, of judgment sent, who know the example of God’s dealings with others who have been disobedient, yet who have not sought to correct their ways before God. They have endeavored rather to make of none effect the messages that God has sent. They have continued to exalt themselves, and to carry out their own ways in defiance of the words of God. They have not been ignorant of the right way, but they have allowed their eyes to be blinded. In pronouncing judgment upon these, God will say, as he said to the wicked king, “Thou ... hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this.”{RH September 24, 1908, par. 11}
Many have continued in a wicked course of action, until the Lord Jesus can not accept their services unless there is a genuine conversion. His people today have no excuse for turning away from the counsels of his Spirit. In his Word, he has given us examples that should be warnings to us, yet although we have known all this, many of God’s people have not taken heed to the warnings of God.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 12}
“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 13}
“Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 14}
“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”{RH September 24, 1908, par. 15}
Among the many discordant elements, some have been unable to discern the voice of God in the messages of warning and reproof that have been sent for the guidance of the church.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 16}
Men who have refused to walk in the plain counsel of the Lord, are not the ones who should be entrusted with the care of his sheep and lambs. Those who, while professing to believe the truth, resist the Holy Spirit, making light of the message from heaven, will surely be punished for their transgressions. They will not in the future have greater evidence of the truth of these messages than has been given in the past. The Lord forbids that they should be entrusted with responsibilities that they might have borne, had they heeded the messages that the Lord in mercy sent them.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 17}
The angel of the Lord instructed me, “Go, stand before my people, and speak to them the words that I will give you for church-members and for unbelievers. I will give you tongue and utterance. You have been called from the needy field in Australia to bear a living testimony that, if heeded, will be the salvation of many souls. New agents must occupy the field you have left. I have a work for you among a people, many of whom have followed their own evil course, and refuse to come to the light.”{RH September 24, 1908, par. 18}
Christ was the greatest missionary this world has ever known. The Word has been made flesh, and dwelt among us as a minister of healing to both soul and body. His work is to be carried forward in the earth today. The only work worthy of our attention in this world is the advancement of the kingdom of God. To those who will unite as agents of Christ in the carrying forward of his work in the earth, the promise is sure that they shall receive souls for their hire.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 19}
The salvation of fallen and sinful humanity is a grand co-operative work, in which every being from the loftiest angel to the lowliest saint has his appointed place. The innumerable company of angels are united with us, in co-operation with God and Jesus Christ, in the work of saving souls. Think of this, you who feel no burden to be united with Christ, that his church may be revealed as a body of laborers together with God.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 20}
Let all draw together in unity, their dependence placed upon Christ Jesus. “Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” The truth is a sanctifying, unifying power. We are baptized into one body, and united through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. In carrying forward the work of the Lord, there will not be one indifferent member. If one member suffers, all the others will suffer with him. If one member receives a rich blessing, all the members will rejoice with him.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 21}
The Lord of heaven and earth is the strength of his people. He is the light and life of every truly converted soul. His Spirit, working with its quickening power, will be recognized by its inspiration, and its abiding influence. Christ our Lord identifies himself with the members of his church. It is this union of the human and the divine that convicts the world. Through the blessed union of those who are sanctified body, soul, and spirit, the truth is magnified. All are to blend in keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 22}
To the principalities and powers in heavenly places is made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. Were all who profess to be church-members truly converted, what a power for truth and holiness would be manifested. They would be laborers together with God in leading souls to Christ. There can be no repining when Christ is formed within, the hope of glory.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 23}
The message I have to bear is that a much higher standard must be reached by God’s people. I entreat all to heed this warning. I dare not cease to “cry aloud,” and “spare not,” and show God’s people “their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” It is time that we all understood our true position, and that we give, in righteous characters, the evidence that we possess the truth.{RH September 24, 1908, par. 24}" REVIEW AND HERALD - September 24, 1908 #1-24
No comments:
Post a Comment