Apostasy
at the Jordan
and
New Movement Adventism
There are very distinct parallels between
Israel’s apostasy at the Jordan and new movement Seventh-day Adventism. The Midianitish
women may
be likened to the fallen churches and their desire to amalgamate all churches
into one global church. I think of Dr. Walter Martin and Dr. Donald Grey
Barnhouse and their intrusion meetings with SDA leaders and the resulting antichrist
errors that were born into the church via their influence. I think of the
constant association with idolaters
and the confederacies that have been born due to that strictly forbidden
association with the fallen. This (below) is a very eye opening article by
Ellen G. White, that is very relative to the condition of God’s once chosen people today.
Chap. 41 - Apostasy at the Jordan
With joyful hearts
and renewed faith in God, the victorious armies of Israel had returned from
Bashan. They had already gained possession of a valuable territory, and they
were confident of the immediate conquest of Canaan. Only the river Jordan lay
between them and the Promised Land. Just across the river was a rich plain,
covered with verdure, watered with streams from copious fountains, and shaded
by luxuriant palm trees. On the western border of the plain rose the towers and
palaces of Jericho, so embosomed in its palm-tree groves that it was called
"the city of palm trees." {PP 453.1}
On the eastern side
of Jordan, between the river and the high tableland which they had been
traversing, was also a plain, several miles in width and extending some
distance along the river. This sheltered valley had the climate of the tropics;
here flourished the shittim, or acacia, tree, giving to the plain the name,
"Vale of Shittim." It was here that the
Israelites encamped, and in the acacia groves by the riverside they found an
agreeable retreat. {PP 453.2}
But amid these
attractive surroundings they were to encounter an evil more deadly than mighty
hosts of armed men or the wild beasts of the wilderness. That country, so rich
in natural advantages, had been defiled by the inhabitants. In the public
worship of Baal, the leading deity, the most degrading and iniquitous scenes
were constantly enacted. On every side were places noted for idolatry and licentiousness,
the very names being suggestive of the vileness and corruption of the people. {PP 453.3}
These surroundings
exerted a polluting influence upon the Israelites. Their minds became familiar
with the vile thoughts constantly suggested; their life of ease and inaction
produced its demoralizing effect; and almost unconsciously to themselves they
were departing from God and coming into a condition where they would fall an
easy prey to temptation. {PP 453.4}
During the time of
their encampment beside Jordan, Moses was preparing for the occupation of
Canaan. In this work the great leader was fully employed; but to the people
this time of suspense and expectation was most trying, and before many
weeks had elapsed their history was marred by the most frightful departures
from virtue and integrity. {PP 454.1}
At first there
was little intercourse between the Israelites and their heathen neighbors, but
after a time Midianitish women began to steal into
the camp. Their appearance excited no alarm, and so quietly were their
plans conducted that the attention of Moses was not called to the matter. It was the
object of these women, in their association with the Hebrews, to seduce them
into transgression of the law of God, to draw their attention to heathen rites
and customs, and lead them into idolatry. These motives were studiously concealed under
the garb of friendship, so that they were not suspected, even by the guardians
of the people. {PP 454.2}
At Balaam's
suggestion, a grand festival in honor of their gods was appointed by the king
of Moab, and it was secretly arranged that Balaam should induce the Israelites
to attend. He was regarded by them as a prophet of God, and hence had
little difficulty in accomplishing his purpose. Great numbers of the people
joined him in witnessing the festivities. They ventured upon the forbidden
ground, and were entangled in the snare of Satan. Beguiled with
music and dancing, and allured by the beauty of heathen vestals, they cast off
their fealty to Jehovah. As they united in mirth and feasting, indulgence in
wine beclouded their senses and broke down the barriers of self-control.
Passion had full sway; and having defiled their consciences by lewdness, they
were persuaded to bow down to idols. They offered sacrifice upon heathen altars
and participated in the most degrading rites. {PP 454.3}
It was not long
before the poison had spread, like a deadly infection, through the camp of
Israel. Those who would have conquered their enemies in battle were overcome by
the wiles of heathen women. The people seemed to be infatuated. The rulers and the leading men were among the first to
transgress, and so many of the people were guilty that the apostasy became
national. "Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor."
When
Moses was aroused to perceive the evil, the plots of their enemies had been so
successful that not only were the Israelites participating in the licentious
worship at Mount Peor, but the heathen rites were
coming to be observed in the camp of Israel. The aged leader was filled with indignation,
and the wrath of God was kindled. {PP 454.4}
Their iniquitous
practices did that for Israel which all the enchantments of Balaam could not
do--they separated them from God. By swift-coming judgments the people were
awakened to the enormity of their sin. A terrible pestilence broke out in the
camp, to which tens of thousands speedily fell a prey. God commanded
that the leaders in this apostasy be put to death by the magistrates. This
order was promptly obeyed. The offenders were slain, then their bodies were
hung up in sight of all Israel that the congregation, seeing the leaders so
severely dealt with, might have a deep sense of God's abhorrence of their sin
and the terror of His wrath against them. {PP 455.1}
All felt that
the punishment was just, and the people hastened to the tabernacle, and with
tears and deep humiliation confessed their sin. While they were thus weeping before God, at
the door of the tabernacle, while the plague was still doing its work of death,
and the magistrates were executing their terrible commission, Zimri, one of the nobles of Israel, came boldly into the
camp, accompanied by a Midianitish harlot, a princess
"of a chief house in Midian," whom he
escorted to his tent. Never was vice bolder or more stubborn. Inflamed with
wine, Zimri declared his "sin as Sodom,"
and gloried in his shame. The priests and leaders had prostrated themselves in
grief and humiliation, weeping "between the porch and the altar," and
entreating the Lord to spare His people, and give not His heritage to reproach,
when this
prince in Israel flaunted his sin in the sight of the congregation, as if to
defy the vengeance of God and mock the judges of the nation. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the
high priest, rose up from among the congregation, and seizing a javelin,
"he went after the man of Israel into the tent," and slew them both.
Thus the plague was stayed, while the priest who had executed the divine
judgment was honored before all Israel, and the priesthood was confirmed to him
and to his house forever. {PP 455.2}
Phinehas
"hath turned My wrath away from the children of Israel," was the
divine message; "wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him My covenant of
peace: and he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an
everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for His God, and made an
atonement for the children of Israel." {PP 455.3}
The judgments visited
upon Israel for their sin at Shittim, destroyed the
survivors of that vast company, who, nearly forty years before, had incurred
the sentence, "They shall surely die in the wilderness." The
numbering of the people by divine direction, during their encampment on the
plains of Jordan, showed that "of them whom Moses and Aaron the priest
numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai,
. . . there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun." Numbers 26:64,
65. {PP 456.1}
God had sent
judgments upon Israel for yielding to the enticements of the Midianites; but
the tempters were not to escape the wrath of divine justice. The Amalekites, who had attacked Israel at Rephidim,
falling upon those who were faint and weary behind the host, were not punished
till long after; but the Midianites who seduced them into sin were speedily
made to feel God's judgments, as being the more dangerous enemies. "Avenge
the children of Israel of the Midianites" (Numbers 31:2), was the command
of God to Moses; "afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people."
This mandate was immediately obeyed. One thousand men were chosen from each of
the tribes and sent out under the leadership of Phinehas.
"And they warred against the Midianites, as the
Lord commanded Moses. . . . And they slew the kings of Midian,
beside the rest of them that were slain; . . . five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor
they slew with the sword." Verses 7, 8. The women also, who had been made
captives by the attacking army, were put to death at the command of Moses, as
the most guilty and most dangerous of the foes of Israel. {PP 456.2}
Such was the end of
them that devised mischief against God's people. Says the psalmist: "The
heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is
their own foot taken." Psalm 9:15. "For the Lord will not cast off
His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance. But judgment shall return
unto righteousness." When men "gather themselves together against the soul of
the righteous," the Lord "shall bring upon them their own iniquity,
and shall cut them off in their own wickedness." Psalm 94:14,
15, 21, 23. {PP 456.3}
When Balaam was
called to curse the Hebrews he could not, by all his enchantments, bring evil
upon them; for the Lord had not "beheld iniquity in Jacob," neither
had He "seen perverseness in Israel." Numbers 23:21, 23. But when through yielding to temptation they transgressed God's
law, their defense departed from them. When the people
of God are faithful to His commandments, "there is no enchantment against
Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel." Hence all the
power and wily arts of Satan are exerted to seduce them into sin. If those who profess to be the depositaries of God's law become
transgressors of its precepts, they separate themselves from God, and they will
be unable to stand before their enemies. {PP 457.1}
The Israelites,
who could not be overcome by the arms or by the enchantments of Midian, fell a prey to her harlots. Such is the power that
woman, enlisted in the service of Satan, has exerted to entrap and destroy
souls.
"She hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by
her." Proverbs 7:26. It was thus that the children of Seth were seduced
from their integrity, and the holy seed became corrupt. It was thus that Joseph
was tempted. Thus Samson betrayed his strength, the defense
of Israel, into the hands of the Philistines. Here David stumbled. And Solomon,
the wisest of kings, who had thrice been called the beloved of his God, became
a slave of passion, and sacrificed his integrity to the same bewitching power.
{PP 457.2}
"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." 1 Corinthians 10:11, 12.
Satan well knows the material with which he has to deal in the human heart. He
knows--for he has studied with fiendish intensity for thousands of years--the
points most easily assailed in every character; and through successive
generations he has wrought to overthrow the strongest men, princes in Israel,
by the same temptations that were so successful at Baalpeor.
All along through the ages there are strewn wrecks of character that have been
stranded upon the rocks of sensual indulgence. As we approach the close of
time, as the people of God stand upon the borders of the heavenly Canaan, Satan
will, as of old, redouble his efforts to prevent them from entering the goodly
land. He lays his snares for every soul. It is not the ignorant and uncultured merely
that need to be guarded; he will prepare his temptations for those in the highest
positions, in the most holy office; if he can lead them to pollute their souls,
he can through them destroy many. And he employs the same agents now as he
employed three thousand years ago. By worldly
friendships, by the charms of beauty, by pleasure seeking, mirth, feasting, or
the wine cup, he tempts to the violation of the seventh commandment. {PP 457.3}
Satan seduced
Israel into licentiousness before leading them to idolatry. Those who will
dishonor God's image and defile His temple in their own
persons will not scruple at any dishonor to God that
will gratify the desire of their depraved hearts. Sensual
indulgence weakens the mind and debases the soul. The moral and intellectual
powers are benumbed and paralyzed by the gratification of the animal
propensities; and it is impossible for
the slave of passion to realize the sacred obligation of the law of God, to
appreciate the atonement, or to place a right value upon the soul. Goodness,
purity, and truth, reverence for God, and love for sacred things--all those
holy affections and noble desires that link men with the heavenly world--are
consumed in the fires of lust. The soul becomes a blackened and desolate waste,
the habitation of the evil spirits, and the "cage of every unclean and
hateful bird." Beings formed in the image of God are dragged down to a
level with the brutes. {PP 458.1}
It
was by associating with idolaters and joining in their festivities that the
Hebrews were led to transgress God's law and bring His judgments upon the
nation. So now it is by leading the followers of Christ to associate with the
ungodly and unite in their amusements that Satan is most successful in alluring
them into sin. "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the
Lord, and touch not the unclean." 2 Corinthians 6:17. God requires of His people now as great a distinction from the world,
in customs, habits, and principles, as He required of Israel anciently. If they faithfully follow the teachings of His word, this
distinction will exist; it cannot be otherwise. The warnings given to the Hebrews against
assimilating with the heathen were not more direct or explicit than are those
forbidding Christians to conform to the spirit and customs of the ungodly.
Christ speaks to us, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in
the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in
him." 1 John 2:15. "The friendship of the
world is enmity with God; whosoever therefore will be a friend of the
world is the enemy of God." James 4:4. The followers of Christ are to separate
themselves from sinners, choosing their society only when there is opportunity
to do them good. We cannot be too decided in shunning the company of those who
exert an influence to draw us away from God. While we pray, "Lead us not into
temptation," we are to shun temptation, so far as possible. {PP 458.2}
It was when the
Israelites were in a condition of outward ease and security that they were led
into sin. They failed to keep God ever before them, they neglected prayer and
cherished a spirit of self-confidence. Ease and self-indulgence left the
citadel of the soul unguarded, and debasing thoughts found entrance. It was the traitors within the walls that overthrew the
strongholds of principle and betrayed Israel into the power of Satan. It is thus that Satan still seeks to compass the ruin of the
soul. A long preparatory process, unknown to the world, goes on in the heart
before the Christian commits open sin. The mind does not come down at once from
purity and holiness to depravity, corruption, and crime. It takes time to
degrade those formed in the image of God to the brutal or the satanic. By
beholding we become changed. By the indulgence of impure thoughts man can so educate his mind
that sin which he once loathed will become pleasant to him. {PP 459.1}
Satan is using every
means to make crime and debasing vice popular. We cannot walk the streets of
our cities without encountering flaring notices of crime presented in some
novel, or to be acted at some theater. The mind is
educated to familiarity with sin. The course pursued by the base and vile is
kept before the people in the periodicals of the day, and everything that can
excite passion is brought before them in exciting stories. They hear and read
so much of debasing crime that the once tender conscience, which would have
recoiled with horror from such scenes, becomes hardened, and they dwell upon
these things with greedy interest. {PP 459.2}
Many of the
amusements popular in the world today, even with those who claim to be
Christians, tend to the same end as did those of the heathen. There are indeed
few among them that Satan does not turn to account in destroying souls. Through
the drama he has worked for ages to excite passion and glorify vice. The opera,
with its fascinating display and bewildering music, the masquerade, the dance,
the card table, Satan employs to break down the barriers of principle and open
the door to sensual indulgence. In every gathering for pleasure where pride is
fostered or appetite indulged, where one is led to forget God and lose sight of
eternal interests, there Satan is binding his chains about the soul. {PP 459.3}
"Keep thy heart
with all diligence," is the counsel of the wise man; "for out of it
are the issues of life." Proverbs 4:23. As man "thinketh in his
heart, so is he." Proverbs 23:7. The heart must be renewed by divine
grace, or it will be in vain to seek for purity of life. He who attempts to
build up a noble, virtuous character independent of the grace [Holy Spirit] of
Christ is building his house upon the shifting sand. In the fierce storms of
temptation it will surely be overthrown. David's prayer should be the petition
of every soul: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right
spirit within me." Psalm 51:10. And having become partakers of the
heavenly gift, we are to go on unto perfection, being "kept by the power
of God through faith." 1 Peter 1:5. {PP 460.1}
Yet we have a work to
do to resist temptation. Those who would not fall a prey to Satan's devices
must guard well the avenues of the soul; they must avoid reading, seeing, or hearing
that which will suggest impure thoughts. The mind should not be left to wander at
random upon every subject that the adversary of souls may suggest.
"Girding up the loins of your mind," says the apostle Peter, "Be
sober, . . . not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in . . .
your ignorance: but like as He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also
holy in all manner of living." 1 Peter 1:13-15, R.V. Says Paul,
"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be
any praise, think on these things." Philippians 4:8. This will require
earnest prayer and unceasing watchfulness. We must be aided by the abiding
influence of the Holy Spirit, which will attract the mind upward, and habituate
it to dwell on pure and holy things. And we must give diligent study to the
word of God. "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking
heed thereto according to Thy word." "Thy word," says the
psalmist, "have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against
Thee." Psalm 119:9, 11. {PP 460.2}
Israel's sin at Beth-peor brought the judgments of God upon the nation, and
though the same sins may not now be punished as speedily, they will as surely
meet retribution. "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God
destroy." 1 Corinthians 3:17. Nature has affixed terrible penalties to these
crimes--penalties which, sooner or later, will be inflicted upon every
transgressor. It is these sins more than any other that have caused the fearful
degeneracy of our race, and the weight of disease and misery with which the
world is cursed. Men may succeed in concealing their transgression from their
fellow men, but they will no less surely reap the result, in suffering,
disease, imbecility, or death. And beyond this life stands the tribunal of
the judgment, with its award of eternal penalties. "They
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God," but with Satan
and evil angels shall have their part in that "lake of fire" which
"is the second death." Galatians 5:21; Revelation 20:14. {PP 461.1}
"The lips
of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword." Proverbs
5:3, 4. "Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door
of her house: lest thou give thine honor unto others, and thy years unto the
cruel: lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labors
be in the house of a stranger; and thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and
thy body are consumed." Verses 8-11. "Her house inclineth
unto death." "None that go unto her return again." Proverbs
2:18, 19. "Her guests are in the depths of hell." Proverbs 9:18. {PP
461.2}