Harmony
With Apostate Powers a Sign of Enmity to God
Dear
Forum-- How apropos are these words of counsel!
June
18, 1894
Harmony With Apostate Powers a Sign of Enmity
to God
(Concluded.)
God has made
provision in Jesus Christ that we shall keep the commandments of God. In this
age of the world the powers of apostasy are seeking in every way to entice men
into disobedience. The very work that Satan did in Eden he is doing today. He
persuaded Adam and Eve that God had withheld some great good from them, and,
while insinuating that God had not their welfare at heart, he pretended to have
a deep interest in their advancement. Satan’s falsehood prevailed; he succeeded
in winning their confidence through promising them a greater breadth of
knowledge than they had yet attained, even declaring that they should be as
gods. God had placed upon them a very slight test. They were simply prohibited
from partaking of one tree in the midst of the garden. Yet a violation of this
one slight prohibition resulted in the fall of the human race. Though the
action might be accounted small, yet it was disobedience and transgression;
and; when weighed in God’s balances, it was seen to be a most heinous sin.
Adam’s disobedience to God was the result of unbelief and ingratitude, and led
him to take his position on the side of the great apostate, in giving credence
to Satan’s statements rather than to the word of God. {ST June 18, 1894, par.
1}
The history of
Adam’s transgression is before the human family, and is written for our
admonition and warning, that we may realize how terrible is the sin of
violating the least commandment of God. {ST June 18, 1894, par. 2}
We have full
light upon the fact of how the Lord regarded Adam’s transgression, and yet men
presume to violate the fourth commandment. After the Lord created the world in
six days, he rested on the seventh day, and sanctified the day of his rest, and
bade men observe the day of rest throughout all generations. And yet men are
repeating Adam’s transgression, and are entering into a confederacy with Satan
to war against God, in trampling upon the Sabbath institution. The church and
the world are choosing Satan for their god and sovereign, and setting aside the
God that made heaven and earth and all things that are therein. {ST June 18,
1894, par. 3}
Man lost his
righteousness through transgression, and “God so loved the world, that he gave
his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.” Through the righteousness of Christ, our substitute and
surety, our obedience to God’s commandments is made acceptable. Christ clothed
his divinity with humanity, and endured the test upon the point of appetite,
ambition, and love of the world, thus making it possible for man to keep the
commandments of God through his imputed righteousness. Through faith in
Christ, man becomes partaker of the divine nature, and is complete in him, as
long as he walks in the light. But when light has come to a soul that has
been in darkness in regard to the binding claims of the law of God, and the
transgressor refuses to walk in the light, he is guilty before God, and is
charged with apostasy. He chooses that sin shall have dominion over him, and
therefore the penalty of the law is upon him. By his continued transgression he
reveals the fact that he is at enmity with God, that his heart is carnal, and
not subject to the law of God. He repeats the transgression of Adam, accepts
the insinuations of the fallen foe, takes his place on the side of the man of
sin, and exalts Satan above God. In refusing the light, he becomes one with the
ranks of apostasy, and chooses to act with the confederacy of Satan.{ST June
18, 1894, par. 4}
It was
necessary that Christ should take upon him our nature, in order to prove the
falsity of Satan’s statements. The apostate cast contempt upon the law of God,
and declared that it was impossible for men to keep God’s commandment, which
had been preordained in the counsels of heaven. Therefore Christ became
man’s representative and surety, thus demonstrating to heavenly intelligences,
to unfallen worlds, and to the human race, that, through cooperation with
divine agencies, humanity could be pure and holy. By partaking of the
divine nature they could meet the demand of a perfect and holy law. Of Christ
it is written: “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an
high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
and made higher than the heavens.” {ST June 18, 1894, par. 5}
Adam failed to
obey the commandments of God. Shall the sons and daughters of Adam continue in
transgression, and also fail to obey? No one can enter into life who persists
in disloyalty, since Christ was given to our world that he might save his
people from their sins. When the young man came to Christ, saying, “Good
Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” Jesus said
to him, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” It was not
possible for the young man, or for anyone, to keep the commandments of God
except through the merit of Jesus Christ. Without the shedding of the blood of
Christ there could be no remission of sin, no imputation of the righteousness
of Christ to the believing sinner. Christ endured the penalty of sin in his own
body on the cross, and fulfilled all righteousness. The merit of the
righteousness of Christ is the only ground upon which the sinner may hope for a
title to eternal life; for Christ hath given himself for us, an offering and
sacrifice to God, as a sweet-smelling savor. An infinite price was paid for
man’s redemption, not that he might be saved in his sins, not to make void the
law of God. Paul says: “Do we then make void the law of God through faith? God
forbid; yea, we establish the law.” For though “by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight,” yet the righteousness of God, which
is by faith of Jesus Christ, is witnessed by the law and the prophets. {ST June
18, 1894, par. 6}
How strange
it is that the church and the world are joined together in a confederacy to
do a work that God has especially prohibited! They disobey the commandments of God with
impunity. The prohibition of God in the Garden of Eden was disregarded by Adam
and Eve, and the most terrible consequences resulted. The Lord is placing the
same test upon the human family today, and proving them by bringing to their
attention the Sabbath, which is a memorial of God’s creative power. In this
memorial God testifies to the world and to heavenly intelligences that he made
the world in six days, and rested—on the first day?—No, but on the seventh day.
The same instruction comes to us today as when the Lord spoke to the children
of Israel, saying, “Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between
me and you throughout your generations.” {ST June 18, 1894, par. 7}
The Lord sends
messengers of truth to the people; but when he brings words of stern truth to
bear upon their consciences, there are many who are in no way pleased or
grateful. The message of truth disturbs them in their ease- loving service
of God, and they do not like the rugged, thorny path that is pointed out to
them. They do not wish to separate from the world, to practice
self-denial and self-sacrifice, and to attain unto the likeness of Christ. They desire
to live at peace, and glorify self, and do not wish to identify their interest
with that of Jesus Christ. They count that separation from the pleasures of the
world, separation from the world’s careless neglect of piety and devotion, is
too heavy a cross for them to bear. {ST June 18, 1894, par. 8}
In rejection of
light the hearts of men are hardened, and they finally unite with the agencies
of apostasy in a work of compelling the conscience of those who do not agree
with them, in persecuting and putting to death those who love God and keep his
commandments. But the Lord says to his chosen people: “Behold, I send you forth
as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless
as doves. But beware of men; for they will deliver you up to the councils, and
they will scourge you in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before
governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for
it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye
that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the
brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child; and
the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to
death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake; but he that
endureth to the end shall be saved.... And fear not them which kill the body,
but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell.... Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,
him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.” {ST June 18,
1894, par. 9}
The remnant
people of God are to endure persecutions. “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.” They are to give the warning message against the power represented by
“the beast.” The prophet says of this power, which represents the Papacy:
“There was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and
power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his
mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and
them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the
saints, and to overcome them; and power was given him over all kindreds, and
tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him,
whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world.” The remnant church of God are to give the warning of
the third angel to the world: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and
receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the
wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of
his indignation.” {ST June 18, 1894, par. 10}
The church of
God, despised and persecuted by the world, are educated and disciplined in the
school of Christ. They walk in narrow paths on earth; they are
purified in the furnace of afflictions. For Jesus’ sake they endure opposition,
hatred, calumny. They follow Christ through sore conflicts; they endure
self-denial, and experience bitter disappointments; but their painful
experience teaches them the guilt and woe of sin, and they look upon it with
abhorrence. Being partakers of Christ’s sufferings, they are destined
to be partakers of his glory. In holy vision the prophet saw the triumph of
the people of God. He says: “I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire;
and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and
over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass,
having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God,
and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God
Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” {ST June 18, 1894,
par. 11}
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