We had better know God's
definition of the true church and how He dealt with unfaithfulness of His
first chosen people, because His second chosen people are following in
the footsteps of the first. Regarding all the accolades in the following
treatise on the church, one had better learn the reason for the following
statement along with God's definition of the TRUE CHURCH:
"In the very courts of the temple, scenes will
be enacted that few realize. God's people will be proved and tested, that
He may discern 'between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him
not.' Vengeance will be executed against those who sit in the gate,
deciding what the people should have and what they should not have. These
take away the key of knowledge. They refuse to enter in themselves, and those
who would enter in they hinder. These
bear not the seal of the living God. All who now occupy responsible
positions should be solemnly and terribly afraid lest in this time they
shall be found as unfaithful stewards." E.G. White, Manuscript
15, 1886, Paulson Collection, p. 55.
"The sin of ancient Israel was in
disregarding the expressed will of God and following their own way
according to the leadings of unsanctified hearts," Ellen White
wrote. "Modern Israel are fast following in their footsteps, and the
displeasure of the Lord is as surely resting upon them." (Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, page 94).
Worse
than the Jews:
“The same disobedience and failure
which were seen ion the Jewish church have characterized in a greater
degree the people who have
had this great light from heaven in the last messages of warning.” Testimonies,
Vol. 5, p. 456.
History repeats itself. “The thing that has
been, it is that which shall be: and that which is done is that which
shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecc. 1:9). In
other words, “The important
movements of the present have their parallel in those of the past.”
(G.C. 343).
That the Advent Movement is an important
movement of the present no one can deny and it has its parallel in the
history of Ancient Israel: “The remnant church is called to go through an
experience similar to that of the Jews.” (1 SM, 387). Not one of us can
afford to ignore the following warning:
“The
trials of the children of Israel, and their attitude just before the
first coming of Christ, have been presented before me, again and again,
to ILLUSTRATE the position of the people of God in their experience
before the second coming of Christ—how
the enemy sought every occasion to take control of the minds of the Jews,
and today her is seeking to blind the minds of God’s servants, that they
may not be able to discern the Precious Truth.” (1 SM, 406; 2 Cor 4:4).
The “precious truth” mentioned here is the light sent to the Seventh-day
Adventists in 1888.
"I have been shown that the spirit
of the world is fast leavening the church. You are following the same path as
did ancient Israel. There is the same falling away from your holy calling
as God's peculiar people. You
are having fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Your concord
with unbelievers have provoked he Lord's displeasure. You know not the
things that belong to your peace, and they are fast being hid from your
eyes. [The very words applied to fallen Israel on page 17 of The
Great Controversy] Your neglect to follow
the light will place you in a more unfavorable position than the
Jews upon
whom Christ pronounced a woe." Testimonies, Vol. 5, pp. 75-76.
"Like ancient Israel, the church
has dishonored her God by departing from the light, neglecting her
duties, and abusing her high and exalted privilege of being peculiar and
holy in character. Her members have
violated their covenant to live for God and him only. They have joined
with the selfish and world-loving. Pride, the love of pleasure, and sin
have been cherished, and CHRIST HAS DEPARTED. His Spirit has been
quenched in the church. Satan works side by side with professed
Christians yet they are so destitute of spiritual discernment that they
do not detect him." E.G.
White, Testimonies, Vol. 2, pp.
441-442.
"Among the professed followers of
Christ, there is the same pride, formalism, vainglory, selfishness, and
OPPRESSION, that existed in the Jewish nation." E.G. White, Sketches
from the Life of Paul, 251-252.
We
had better become most adept at recognizing key qualifying words and
phrases. We had better pray for keen spiritual discernment when studying
the favorable statements of Ellen White about the church militant and be
able to distinguish those which apply to the FAITHFUL CHURCH from
those that apply to the church militant. The church militant will
continue and the faithful wise virgins will be called out when the bride
awakens all ten of the sleeping virgins and calls them from all fallen
churches. But you friend, are being invited to be part of the bride
that awakens the ten virgins, Christ's
Object Lessons, 405-6. She is not defiled with women (fallen churches)
Revelation 14:1-4. To refuse that invitation is like one of the disciples
of Christ refusing to follow Him. We know the fate of all who refuse such
an invitation.
It's
nice to be curious and ever learning, but it is dangerous to be ever
learning and never coming to knowledge of the full truth and the full
responsibility accompanying the full truth. There is no more appeal after
one has heard and rejected the invitation of all invitations--to be the
bride of Jesus Christ. As the disciples were "gathered out"
first to prepare to make their call to the guests (Desire
of Ages, 232), so the bride of Christ is now being gathered out for the
same purpose. It is the voice of God and the voice of the bride that
awaken the ten virgins (COL 405-6) and Matthew 25 says that they ALL
slept.
According
to Eastern custom, God chooses the bride for His Son. It is God who
awakens and calls His bride first. COL, 405 and the following statement:
"Characteristics
of True Reformers.--Here are given the characteristics of those who shall
be reformers, who will bear the banner of the third angel's message,
those who avow themselves God's commandment-keeping people, and who honor
God, and are earnestly engaged, in the sight of all the universe, in
building up the old waste places. Who is it
that calls them, The repairers of the breach, The restorers of paths
to dwell in? It is God. Their names are registered [written--Heb. 12:22,
23] in heaven as reformers, restorers, as raising the foundations of many
generations." E. G. White, SDA
Bible Commentary, Vol. 4, 1151.
"To Meet the
Bridegroom"
Christ’s
Object Lessons, pp. 405-6
[This
chapter is based on Matt. 25:1-13.]
“Christ with His disciples is seated upon
the Mount of Olives. The sun has set behind the mountains, and the
heavens are curtained with the shades of evening. In full view is a
dwelling house lighted up brilliantly as if for some festive scene. The
light streams from the openings, and an expectant company wait around,
indicating that a marriage procession is soon to appear. In many parts of
the East, wedding festivities are held in the evening. The bridegroom
goes forth to meet his bride and bring her to his home. By torchlight the
bridal party proceed from her father's house to his own, where a feast is
provided for the invited guests. In the scene upon which Christ looks, a
company are awaiting the appearance of the bridal party, intending to
join the procession.
Lingering near the bride's house are ten young women robed in white.
Each carries a lighted lamp and a small flagon for oil. All are anxiously
watching for the appearance
Page 406
of the bridegroom. But
there is a delay. Hour after hour passes; the watchers become weary and
fall asleep. At midnight the cry is heard, "Behold, the bridegroom
cometh; go ye out to meet him." The sleepers, suddenly awaking,
spring to their feet. They see the procession moving on, bright with
torches and glad with music. They
hear the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. The
ten maidens seize their lamps and begin to trim them, in haste to go
forth. But five have neglected to fill their flasks with oil. They did
not anticipate so long a delay, and they have not prepared for the
emergency. In distress they appeal to their wiser companions saying,
"Give us of your oil; for our lamps are going out." (Margin.)
But the waiting five, with their freshly trimmed lamps, have emptied
their flagons. They have no oil to spare, and they answer, "Not so;
lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that
sell, and buy for yourselves."
While they went to buy, the procession
moved on, and left them behind. The five with lighted lamps joined the
throng and entered the house with the bridal train, and the door was
shut. When the foolish virgins reached the banqueting hall, they received
an unexpected denial. The master of the feast declared, "I know you
not." They were left standing without, in the empty street, in the
blackness of the night.
As Christ sat looking upon the party that
waited for the bridegroom, He told His disciples the story of the ten
virgins, by their experience
illustrating the experience of the church that shall live just before His
second coming.” COL, 405-6.
I have never met an SDA pastor or leader who understood the difference
between the bride and the guests in Christ's Object Lessons, 405-6, where it says that the voice
of God and the voice of the bride awaken the ten virgins. And Matthew 25
says that all ten virgins slept!
Likewise, they do not realize that the bride must come out of any
defiled church as did the disciples while they were being taught to take
the gospel to the world. Can one choose to be one of the sleeping virgins
when he/she has heard the call of God to be His bride? Relate your answer
to that question to the fact that we are responsible for the knowledge we
know. Were the disciples called the bride of Christ? Yes. See Desire of
Ages, 179.
Can one say to God's call: "No Lord. I think I will be quite
satisfied to be a guest at your wedding supper." In so saying, one
would refuse the invitation of God the Father. See Great
Controversy, p. 427.
Could it be that the leaders do not receive the call to be the
bride of Christ, just as the apostate Jewish leaders did not receive the
call? Could it be that God the Father does not choose apostate leaders to
be His Son’s bride? Could it be that since the leaders are not called,
they don’t want you to be called and/or to accept the invitation to be
the bride of Christ? Could it be that they would not desire to come out
of the apostate organization in order to learn to be the bride any more
than the apostate leaders of Israel wanted to come out to be taught of
Christ?
Let’s permit Ellen White to answer the above questions:
"Jesus sends HIS PEOPLE a message of warning to
prepare them for his coming. To the prophet John was made known the
closing work in the great plan of man's redemption. He beheld an angel
flying 'in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach
unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and
tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to
him for the hour of his Judgment is come and worship him that made
heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters [Rev. 14:6, 7.].
The angel represented in prophecy as delivering this
message, symbolizes a class of faithful men, who, obedient to the
promptings of God's Spirit and the teachings of his word, proclaim this
warning to the inhabitants of earth. This
message was not to be committed to the religious leaders of the people.
They had failed to preserve their connection with God, and had REFUSED
THE LIGHT FROM HEAVEN therefore they WERE NOT of the number described by
the apostle Paul: 'But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day
should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the
children of the day we are not of the night nor of darkness' [1 Thess.
5:4, 5].
The watchmen upon the walls of Zion should be the first to catch
the tidings of the Saviour's advent, the first to lift their voices to
proclaim him near, the first to warn the people to prepare for his
coming. But they were at ease, dreaming of peace and safety, while the
people were asleep in their sins. Jesus saw HIS CHURCH, like the barren
fig-tree, covered with pretentious leaves, yet destitute of precious
fruit. There was a boastful observance of the forms of religion, while
the spirit of true humility, penitence and faith--which alone could
render the service acceptable to God--was lacking. Instead of the graces
of the Spirit, there were manifested pride, formalism, vainglory,
selfishness, oppression. A BACKSLIDING CHURCH closed their eyes to the
signs of the times. God did nor forsake them, or suffer his faithfulness
to fail but they departed from him, and SEPARATED THEMSELVES from his
love. As they REFUSED TO COMPLY WITH THE CONDITIONS, his promises
were NOT FULFILLED to them." E.G. White, The Spirit of
Prophecy, vol. 4, pp. 199-200 [The 1884 edition of The Great
Controversy, NOT TO BE CONFUSED as being Testimonies, Vol. 4].
"It is no argument against the truth that there are few who
are willing to accept it. Few accepted the world's Redeemer. Though the
multitude flocked around him, eager to receive temporal blessings, yet he
sadly declared: "Ye will not come to me that ye might have
life." Men are now no more favorable to practical godliness; they
are just as intently seeking earthly good, to the neglect of eternal
riches. And reformers of the present day will meet with the same
discouragements as did their Master. {ST, January 28, 1886 par.
3}
Indifference and Neutrality in a Crisis: "If God abhors one
sin above another, of which HIS PEOPLE are guilty, it is of doing nothing
in a case of emergency. Indifference or neutrality in a religious crisis
is regarded of God as a grievous crime and equal to the very worst type
of hostility against God." E.G. White, Review and Herald, vol. 1, p. 136. Also, Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 281.
Page 9
Chapter 1 Acts of the Apostles
God's Purpose for His
Church
The church is God's appointed agency for the
salvation of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is to
carry the gospel to the world. From the beginning it has been God's plan that
through His church shall be reflected to the world His fullness and His
sufficiency. The members of the church, those whom He has called out of
darkness into His marvelous light, are to show forth His glory. The
church is the repository of the riches of the grace of Christ; and
through the church will eventually be made manifest, even to "the
principalities and powers in heavenly places," the final and full
display of the love of God. Ephesians 3:10.
Many and wonderful are the promises recorded
in the Scriptures regarding the church. "Mine house shall be called
an house of prayer for all people." Isaiah 56:7. "I will make
them and the places round about My hill a blessing; and I will cause the
shower to come down in his season;
Page 10
there
shall be showers of blessing." "And I will raise up for them a
plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the
land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. Thus shall they
know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the
house of Israel, are My people, saith the Lord God. And ye My flock, the
flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord
God." Ezekiel 34:26, 29-31.
"Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord,
and My servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe Me, and
understand that I am He: before Me there was no God formed, neither shall
there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no
Saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there
was no strange god among you: therefore ye are My witnesses."
"I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine
hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for
a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the
prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the
prison house." Isaiah 43:10-12; 42:6, 7.
"In an acceptable time have I heard
thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve
thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth,
to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; that thou mayest say to the
prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They
shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.
They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite
them: for
Page 11
He
that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water
shall He guide them. And I will make all My mountains a way, and My
highways shall be exalted. . . .
"Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O
earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath
comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted. But Zion
said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a
woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on
the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.
Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are
continually before Me." Isaiah 49:8-16.
The church is God's fortress. His city of
refuge, which He holds in a revolted world. Any betrayal of the church is
treachery to Him who has bought mankind with the blood of His
only-begotten Son. From the beginning, faithful souls have
constituted the church on earth. In every age the Lord has had His watchmen,
who have borne a faithful testimony to the generation in which they
lived. These sentinels gave the message of warning; and when they were
called to lay off their armor, others took up the work. God brought these
witnesses into covenant relation with Himself, uniting the church on
earth with the church in heaven. He has sent forth His angels to minister
to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail
against His people.
Through centuries of persecution, conflict,
and darkness, God has sustained His church. Not one cloud has fallen upon
it that He has not prepared for; not one opposing
Page 12
force
has risen to counterwork His work, that He has not foreseen. All has taken
place as He predicted. He has not left His church forsaken, but has
traced in prophetic declarations what would occur, and that which His
Spirit inspired the prophets to foretell has been brought about. All His
purposes will be fulfilled. His law is linked with His throne, and no
power of evil can destroy it. Truth is inspired and guarded by God; and
it will triumph over all opposition.
During ages of spiritual darkness the church
of God has been as a city set on a hill. From age to age, through successive
generations, the pure doctrines of heaven have been unfolding within its
borders. Enfeebled
and defective as it may appear, the church is the one object upon which
God bestows in a special sense His supreme regard. It is the theater of
His grace, in which He delights to reveal His power to transform hearts.
Note: Enfeebled and defective cannot mean cold apostate. God did
not consider apostate Israel as merely enfeebled and defective. Christ’s
disciples were certainly enfeebled and defective, but they were not
apostate. As faulty as they were, they were chosen to be the bride of
Jesus Christ, Desire of Ages, 179.
“All the disciples had serious faults when Jesus called them to
His service. Even John, who came into closest association with the meek
and lowly One, was not himself naturally meek and yielding. He and his
brother were called ‘the sons of thunder’. . Jesus reproved His
disciples, He warned and cautioned them; but John and his brethren did
not leave Him; they chose Jesus, notwithstanding the reproofs. The
Saviour did not withdraw from them because of their weakness and errors.
They continued to the end to share His trials and to learn the lessons of
His life. By beholding Christ, they became transformed in character.”—Desire
of Ages, 294-296.
It should be
obvious to the discerning reader that “serious faults” do not include
gross, strictly forbidden apostasy that “REFUSES TO COMPLY WITH THE
CONDITIONS, so that His promises were NOT FULFILLED to them.” (4 SOP 200). End note.
"Whereunto," asked Christ,
"shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we
compare it?" Mark 4:30. He could not employ the kingdoms of the
world as a similitude. In society He found nothing with which to compare
it. Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendancy of physical power; but from
Christ's kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is
banished. This kingdom is to uplift and ennoble humanity. God's church is
the court of Holy life, filled with varied gifts and endowed with the
Holy Spirit. The members are to find their happiness in the happiness of
those whom they help and bless.
Page 13
Wonderful is the work which the Lord designs
to accomplish through His church, that His name may be glorified. A
picture of this work is given in Ezekiel's vision of the river of
healing: "These waters issue out toward the east country, and go
down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into
the sea, the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass, that
everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall
come, shall live: . . . and by the river upon the bank thereof, on this
side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall
not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth
new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out
of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf
thereof for medicine." Ezekiel 47:8-12.
From the beginning
God has wrought through His people to bring blessing to the world. To the ancient Egyptian nation God made Joseph a fountain of
life. Through the integrity of Joseph the life of that whole people was
preserved. Through Daniel God saved the life of all the wise men of
Babylon. And these deliverances are as object lessons; they illustrate
the spiritual blessings offered to the world through connection with the
God whom Joseph and Daniel worshiped. Everyone in whose heart Christ
abides, everyone who will show forth His love to the world, is a worker
together with God for the blessing of humanity. As he receives from the
Saviour grace to impart to others, from his whole being flows forth the
tide of spiritual life.
Page 14
God chose Israel to reveal His character to
men. He desired them to be as wells of salvation in the world. To them
were committed the oracles of heaven, the revelation of God's will. In
the early days of Israel the nations of the world, through corrupt
practices, had lost the knowledge of God. They had once known Him; but
because "they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but
became vain in their imaginations, . . . their foolish heart was
darkened." Romans 1:21. Yet in His mercy God did not blot them out
of existence. He purposed to give them an opportunity of again becoming acquainted
with Him through His chosen people. Through the teachings of the
sacrificial service, Christ was to be uplifted before all nations, and
all who would look to Him should live. Christ was the foundation of the
Jewish economy. The whole system of types and symbols was a compacted
prophecy of the gospel, a presentation in which were bound up the
promises of redemption.
But the people of
Israel lost sight of their high privileges as God's representatives. They
forgot God and failed to fulfill their holy mission. The blessings they received brought no blessing to the world.
All their advantages they appropriated for their own glorification. They
shut themselves away from the world in order to escape temptation. The
restrictions that God had placed upon their association with idolaters as
a means of preventing them from conforming to the practices of the
heathen, they used to build up a wall of separation between themselves
and all other nations. They
Page 15
robbed
God of the service He required of them, and they robbed their fellow men
of religious guidance and a holy example.
Priests and rulers became fixed in a rut of
ceremonialism. They were satisfied with a legal religion, and it was
impossible for them to give to others the living truths of heaven. They thought their own righteousness all-sufficient, and did not
desire that a new element should be brought into their religion. The good
will of God to men they did not accept as something apart from
themselves, but connected it with their own merit because of their good
works. The faith that works by love and
purifies the soul could find no place for union with the religion of the
Pharisees, made up of ceremonies and the injunctions of men.
Of Israel God declared: "I had planted
thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the
degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?" Jeremiah 2:21.
"Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto
himself." Hosea 10:1. "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and
men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard. What could
have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it?
wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it
forth wild grapes?
"And now go to; I will tell you what I
will do to My vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall
be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden
down: and I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and
Page 16
thorns:
I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the
vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of
Judah His pleasant plant: and He looked for judgment, but behold oppression;
for righteousness, but behold a cry." Isaiah 5:3-7. "The
diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was
sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye
brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that
which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them."
Ezekiel 34:4.
The Jewish leaders thought themselves too
wise to need instruction, too righteous to need salvation, too highly
honored to need the honor that comes from Christ. The Saviour turned from them to entrust to others the privileges
they had abused and the work they had slighted. God's glory must be revealed, His word established. Christ's
kingdom must be set up in the world. The salvation of God must be made
known in the cities of the wilderness; and the disciples were called to do the work that the Jewish
leaders had failed to do.
—To be continued
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