Internet Dialog on the First and Second Angel's Messages as They Relate to the Gospel

Click to go to our Home Page


 

Original Message -----
  From: Karl
  To: SDAIssues@yahoogroups.com
  Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2006 2:59 PM
  Subject: [SDAIssues] Re:
Pre-Advent Kingdom of Peace

 
Ron,


I just realized that at no time have I ever heard you give the first angel's message. You focus on the survival of the little remnant and the calling of Adventists out of the church, but never have I heard you give the message we are to be giving to the world in these last days.


Karl 

Ron responds: 

--- In SDAIssues@yahoogroups.com, "Ron Beaulieu" <rsbeauli@
 wrote:
 
  Karl,
  

I mention the three angel's messages all the time!  Sorry you missed that!  I say that the church has violated the first and second angel's messages and the Midnight Cry all the time!  Have in the last few days!  Fear God and worship Him, for His judgment is come, in lieu of men church leaders who are leading to destruction, Isaiah 9:16.  I figure SDA's should know what the first angel's message is! 

 
Ron 

----- Original Message -----
 From: Karl
 To: SDAIssues@yahoogroups.com
 Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2006 5:30 PM
 Subject: [SDAIssues] Re: Pre-Advent Kingdom of           Peace
 
 
If all you're teaching is " Fear God and worship Him, for His judgment is come", then you're missing the whole context of the first message. It is not complete.  In fact, the first message is in context of worshipping the true creator God in the time of judgment. The hour of his  judgment "is." It's in the aroist tense. The word "come" is not in the original Greek, it is inserted.


Karl 

----- Original Message -----

From: Karl

To: SDAIssues@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2006 11:34 PM

Subject: [SDAIssues] Re: Pre-Advent Kingdom of Peace 

Can't give the second until you've given the first. Can't give the first until its understood. Yeah, I'll major in the first angel's message, because its what gives the other two meaning. 

Karl 

Ron responds:

Karl,

 

I am so glad that you made your charge against me concerning the first angel's message; that I have not taught that message.  I want to have a fireside chat with you Karl Wagner.  I plumbed the depths of the first angel's message deeper than you will ever plumb it when I discussed the Godhead a year ago.  You have consistently denied the deepest revelation concerning God the Father that man will ever conceive of this side of heaven.  I covered all of the following concepts of everything I say herein over a year ago on your forum.  You did not discern it then and you will not discern it this time around.

 

In the Great Controversy, God was charged by Satan with not being subject to His own Law.  Being all knowing, God the Father knew the end from the beginning. He knew man would sin.  The Son existed forever with the Father, but was brought forth from His bosom at the Incarnation.  He knew that His only BEGOTTEN Son would volunteer His life to pay the death penalty for man's sins.  But the Father also knew that He, as the ONE AND ONLY GOD, could not die for any second and leave the Universe void of His control for it depends on His upholding power.  As Ellen White said, Divinity cannot die.

 

In the first angel's message the time of God's Judgment is come.  Is He impervious to His own Law?  No.  Essentially, because He is omniscient, He experienced every pang of suffering that His Son experienced.  The first death of His Son at His Incarnation was just as painful to the Father, as the Second.  Why?  Because both the Father and the Son, sharing the same ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT saw and felt the consequences of the great sacrifice of the Son from the foundation of the earth.  Thus, they BOTH were crucified and slain from the foundation of the earth.

 

Rev 13:8 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.

 

Ellen White had it right Karl Wagner, when she said that the Holy Spirit is the life and soul of Christ.

 

"Christ declared that after his ascension, he would send to his church, as his crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take his place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit,--the soul of his life, the efficacy of his church, the light and life of the world. With his Spirit Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin.

In the gift of the Spirit [HIS LIFE--THE SOUL OF HIS LIFE], Jesus gave to man the highest good that heaven could bestow....

The Spirit was given as a regenerating agency, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail....

It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the

believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given his Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress his own character upon the church." E.G. White, Review and Herald Articles, May 19, 1904, vol. 5, p. 42.

 

"Cumbered with humanity Christ could not be in every place personally, therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them to go to His Father and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit.” E.G. White, (Manuscript Releases Volume 14 (No’s 1081-1135) MR No.1084.

 

Son of God in a New Sense

 

"Christ brought men and women power to overcome. He came to this world in human form, to live a man amongst men. He assumed the liabilities of human nature, to be proved and tried. In His humanity He was a partaker of the divine nature. In His Incarnation He gained in a NEW SENSE the title of the Son of God. Said the angel to Mary, 'The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God' (Luke 1:35). While the Son of a human being, He became the son of God in a NEW SENSE. Thus He stood in our world--the Son of God, yet allied by birth to the human race." E.G. White, Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 226.

 

"The Power of God in the Third Person.--The prince of the power of evil can only be held in check by the power of God in the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.-- Special Testimonies, Series A, No. 10, p. 37. (1897).

 

Bible text

Act 3:26  Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

 

 

"But through the power of the incarnation of Christ, God manifest in the flesh, the strength of God is revealed in gentleness and beauty. To 'as many as received him, to them gave he POWER to become the sons of God.' By this POWER we may OVERCOME OUR EVIL TENDENCIES and so modify our imperfect dispositions that the will of God may be fulfilled in us."--Letter 79, May 7, 1903, to J.A. Burden and wife. The Upward Look, 141.  

 

"The statements and arguments of some of our ministers, in their effort to prove that the Holy Spirit is an individual as are God the Father and Christ the eternal Son, have perplexed me, and sometimes they have made me sad."  Willie White to H. W. Carr, 1939.

 

Willie White is right.  He knew what his mother taught on the Godhead.  The Holy Spirit is a third person alright, but not a separate individual in that the Holy Spirit is the life and soul of the Son's first estate that was bequeathed to us as a gift at His Incarnation.  So it is a third person, but the very person and ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT of the Son before His Incarnation.

 

Christ Offered Himself Through the One Eternal Spirit

 

Christ identified Himself with man's needs, interests, and concerns. He "became one flesh with us, in order that we might become one spirit with Him." (DA 388.) Jesus wants us to welcome into our hearts His Spirit so that He may share with us the oneness that exists between the members of the Godhead. Gethsemane tested this oneness to the uttermost.

 

Because the Father experienced everything the Son did, because of being of the same ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT, the experience and sacrifice of the Son was as if the Father had made the sacrifice Himself.  The Lesson:  The first angel's message, Fear (love and respect) God, for His judgment is come.  A deeper revelation of what He sacrificed is come.  Deeper than any revelation every conceived by mankind.  Deeper than that conceived of in the Reformation.  A deeper revelation of the Godhead and the great sacrifice of the Godhead that was all inclusively experienced by the Father, God, because of His omniscience.  Man cannot plumb the first angel's message any deeper than this, and to deny this truth is not to plumb the Godhead according to what has been revealed to us through the Holy Spirit gift to the church in the person of Ellen G. White.

 

Two Deaths -- Two sacrifices

 

Few consider the sacrifice that took place at the Incarnation in the heavenly Sanctuary.  They do not realize the great sacrifice concerning what the Son of God emptied Himself of there.

 

 "The darkness rolled away from the Saviour and from the Cross. Christ bowed His head and died. In His Incarnation He had reached the prescribed limit as a sacrifice, but not as a redeemer." E.G. White Manuscript Releases Volume Twelve, p. 409.

 

"The Incarnation of Christ was an act of self-sacrifice; His life was one of continual self-denial. The highest glory of the love of God to man was manifested in the sacrifice of His only-begotten Son, who was the express image of His person. This is the great mystery of godliness. It is the privilege and the duty of every professed follower of Christ to have the mind of Christ. Without self-denial and cross bearing we cannot be His disciples." E.G. White, Selected Messages, Book 2, p. 185.

 

Every act of the Son, Jesus Christ, is a manifestation of the Father.  Why?  Because they both consist of SPIRIT, THE ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT.  The Son offered Himself up through THE Eternal Spirit:

 

Hbr 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

 

The Son was offered up through THE eternal Spirit.  THE means ONE eternal spirit.  God is Spirit, and there is ONE SPIRIT.  That is what makes all three persons ONE GOD.  So in effect, God sacrificed Himself, and thus vindicated Himself of all of Satan's charges that He was not subject to His own law and the penalty for breaking that law.

 

Karl Wagner, you jumped through God's hoop when you accused me of not understanding and giving the first angel's message.  I did it long ago and to a depth you will never understand and agree with.

 

Ron 

--- In SDAIssues@yahoogroups.com, "Ron Beaulieu" <rsbeauli@...
wrote:

Karl,
 
If you want to major in the first angel's message while the church is in violation of the second angel's message and the Midnight Cry Light, go ahead. 

Ron to Jay:

 

Jay,

 

Quite awhile back now I discussed the Godhead and the great sacrifice of Christ in emptying Himself of His first estate life and soul as a bequeathed gift to us for the purpose of regenerating us back into the image of God.  That was very involved with the first angel's message which involves judgment of Christ and whether or not He was selfish or self-sacrificing.  He forfeited His former pre-Incarnated life and soul FOREVER that we might partake of His divine nature.  That is entirely implicated in the first angel's message but I guess Karl forgot all about that and/or he does not see the deep implications of that greatest of sacrifices the Son of God made for us.  Ellen White said it was the greatest gift that heaven could bestow, whereas mainline Christianity and the Trinity Doctrine denies that sacrifice and views the cross and Christ taking our death penalty as the greatest sacrifice.

 

But folk are not usually interested in how they can overcome by partaking of the Divine Nature of Jesus Christ, especially the gracers who want the gift of grace as it relates to pardon, but not as it relates to power as in the following verse.  The grace available for obedience, in the form of the Holy Spirit, the Divine Nature of Jesus Christ, is just as free and is just as much of the package of grace, but is not desired.  Folk want just pardon for on-going sin.

 

Rom 1:5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

 

Ron

 

Ron’s Post to Karl:

Karl, 

You are so perceptive that one cannot give the second angel's message FULLY, until he understands the first.  Here are the implications:

  1. Mainstream Christianity, Babylon, teaches the Trinity Doctrine, which is blasphemy as regards the Godhead.
  2. Because the SDA church adopted the Trinity Doctrine, in the early 1930's, it has taught Rome's central doctrine since that time.
  3. Rome is Babylon.  So since the 1930's the SDA church has taught her central blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and the Godhead, because God is Spirit--ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT.
  4. To teach as you do Karl, and as mainstream Babylon teaches, that the Holy Spirit existed as a third person from before the Incarnation, is to deny the greatest sacrifice and the greatest gift that heaven could bestow.  What is that gift?  The restoration of man back into the image of God.
  5. Paying our penalty for sin is secondary to His sacrifice that restores us to His image.
  6. That is why Ellen White said two important things about the Godhead:  the two MOST IMPORTANT things she said about the Godhead: 1.  The gift of the Son's life and soul, the Holy Spirit, is the greatest gift heaven could bestow.  2.  Without that gift the Son's sacrifice on the cross would have been to no avail.
  7. So first things first Karl Wagner.  If Christ's payment of our death penalty would have been to no avail, except to perpetuate sin and its forgiveness because there was no remedy, Ellen White is right!  Amazing!
  8. It was the gift of His life and soul, His first Estate's Holy Spirit Divine Nature, that made it possible for us to be restored to our original state.  That is the greatest gift says Ellen White, and it is obvious to the discerning student of the Word, because without that gift, all His death on the cross would have availed is continued FOREVER SINNING AND FOREVER PARDON.
  9. Man's loves the concept of FOREVER SINNING AND FOREVER PARDON.
  10. Satan love the concept of FOREVER SINNING AND FOREVER PARDON.
  11. Satan hates the concept of man being proffered the Son's DIVINE NATURE LIFE AND SOUL, HIS HOLY SPIRIT, bequeathed to man at His Incarnation!
  12. Satan's servants hate that concept!  Why?  Because Christ also proved in taking a likeness of our nature that man need not have sinned in the first place, EVEN IF HE HAD ALL THE SINS OF THE WORLD PLACED ON HIM, and we will never be tested to that length!
  13. So who has the advantage, Man or Christ?  We do!
  14. This is the first angel's message to its deepest level.
  15. Mainstream Christianity blasphemes this truth by saying that the Holy Spirit was always a third person, thereby denying the greatest gift at the first death of the Son, His Incarnation, when He bequeathed His life and soul Divine Nature to us.
  16. Karl Wagner makes the same blasphemy by denying all of the above.
  17. The New Movement SDA church commits the same blasphemy against the Holy Spirit since it adopted the Trinity Doctrine in the early 1930's!
  18. How long can one commit blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and be saved?
  19. I say the SDA church crossed another of God's lines in the sand the day that it embraced the Trinity Doctrine!
  20. I say that is how the church fulfilled Jeremiah 11:9-15, and returned to the iniquities of its forefathers, ROME, the central doctrine of BabylonRome got a lot of mileage out of that heinous doctrine, because if affords (teaches) sin forgive, sin forgive, sin forgive, sin pay money to buy your friends and relatives out of purgatory; sin and enrich the church.  There is no sacrifice of the Divine Nature Holy Spirit of God the Father and the Son that can keep you from sinning!
  21. You teach Satan's biggest lie Karl Wagner and so does your church.  You teach the biggest blasphemy against the Holy Spirit!  The bible says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit CONTINUED IN is unforgivable!  The church you support has continued in that blasphemy for about 75 plus years now Karl.
  22. Do I discern the first angel's message?  Do I know that YOU AND YOUR CHURCH CANNOT UNDERSTAND AND GIVE THE SECOND ANGEL'S MESSAGE BECAUSE YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE FIRST AND ARE BLASPHEMOUSLY VIOLATING IT?
  23. That is a questions every man will have to reckon to himself.

In the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, 

I remain His servant by His full grace provision, 

Ron Beaulieu 

Jay,

 

You will find in my presentation of the Godhead, the deepest revelation of the first angel's message that man can plumb this side of heaven.  It has been on my Website a long time.  I gave it all on this forum a long time ago.  Karl rejected it. So he thinks I don't give the three angel's message.  He is dead wrong.  I take is as far and deep as man can take it by the grace of God and His Holy Spirit.

 

Ron

----- Original Message -----

From: Karl

To: SDAIssues@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 7:45 AM

Subject: [SDAIssues] Re: Pre-Advent Kingdom of Peace 

Ron,


For someone who has plumbed the depth of the first angel's message; who received his knowledge on it through direct revelation I can hardly take your statement at face value.
The Gospel is the very message of all three angels; but it’s your imitation gospel that is at odds with the true gospel of substitution. Jesus came to die in our place so we can live. Though Jesus is our example, His main purpose for coming was to "teach us how to swim" but to pull us out of the water.


Karl
 

Ron responds:

Karl, 

Your gospel is what Ellen White called "a legal religion coming in."

 

"Many are ignorant of the deception which palms off falsehood for truth. They entertain ideas that men may be saved by their own merit. A false religion has come in among us, a legal religion....

The message must go broadcast, that those who have been imperceptibly tampering with popery, not knowing what they were doing, may hear. They are fraternizing with popery by compromises and by concessions which surprise the adherents of the papacy." 1888 Materials, Vol. 1, p. 376-7.

 

Your gospel is that justification is a forensic LEGAL) pardon ONLY.  That's it Karl.  I have saved all your old posts!  That's what you teach.  What is a love religion?  What is the essence of the first angel's message?  A love religion is as follows:

  • Jhn 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
  • The word "believeth" does not mean mental consent.  The word believeth means to embrace ALL OF HIS WORD, because He is the Word.
  •  Why was the Son manifest:  Act 3:26  Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
  • "The Power of God in the Third Person.--The prince of the power of evil can only be held in check by the power of God in the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. -- Special Testimonies, Series A, No. 10, p. 37. (1897).
  • The Greatest Good Gift of God was the life and soul Spirit of His Son, His same ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT, for turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
  • That was the PURPOSE of the love.
  • Any Gospel that does not FOCUS on and make that REASON for God being made manifest through His Son, is a legal religion of forensic (LEGAL) justification only.
  • God says:  If ye love me, keep my commandments, and then He gives His live and Soul via His Son to make it possible.  Is that legalism?  Yes!  Legalism based on love.
  • Your gospel Karl Wagner is legalism based on pure, cold, forensic, legalism.  Folk are saved according to your gospel, not because they love God and obey Him, but because of a forensic, legal act.
  • The test of your gospel is "only believe" the gospel Doctrine of the Nicolaitans.  It is totally forensic and it says that justification is strictly legal and that works, even works empowered by the Holy Spirit, THE PURPOSE OF THE INCARNATION, are not meritorious toward our salvation!
  • That is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit if it ever existed in any form!  That is blasphemy against the very PURPOSE of the sacrifice of the Father of His Son, and thereby Himself, the ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT.
  • The greatest love act in the universe was God sacrificing Himself through His son.  That is love.  What did that love provide?  His very DIVINE NATURE as power for turning every one of us away from our iniquities.  That is the greatest love gift of God, without which, His death on the cross would have only provided for the proliferation of sin forever and the forgiveness of sin forever.  That is the essence of Catholic doctrine, sin forgive, sin forgive.  That is the essence of Satan's doctrine, that we cannot overcome sin,  that Jesus did not overcome as a man in our likeness.  If that is true, Satan is victor.

 

Ron

From: "Ron Beaulieu" <rsbeauli@...
 Date: Tue Apr 18, 2006  10:02 am
 Subject: Re: [SDAIssues] Re: Pre-Advent Kingdom of Peace 

Karl,
 
Will you clearly define your concept of the first angel's message in bulleted form because I follow that easier, rather than long rambling paragraphs and I mean my own as well. Please do it point by point like this if you will because I follow it much better that
way.  I appreciate any cooperation in helping me this way.


   a.. 1
   b.. 2
   c.. 3 etc.


 Thanks,
 
Ron 

Karl’s response: 

Ron,
 
First Angel's Message:


 14:6   And I saw another angel fly 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, 
 14:7   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.


   1.. Everlasting Gospel to be carried to the whole world

   a.. 1 Cor. 15:1-4 is the everlasting Gospel that Paul said he only preached to the church at Corinth.


   b..  15:1   Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 


     15:2   By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 


     15:3   For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 


     15:4   And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 
 in the context of...


   a.. The hour of judgment (the great anti-typical Yom Kippur-Daniel 7:9-12, cf: Daniel 8:14; Rev 4&5)


   b.. Call to worship the Creator God-as opposed to the false system of chapter 13 (this is the Elijah message)


 Karl 

Ron’s response: 

Karl, 

Ellen White said that different folk with see the glory from different facets.  I agree with your presentation also.

Ron


Karl responds:

 
Ron,


Whoa! Be still my beating heart! You mean we have unity here?


Karl

Ron responds:

--- In SDAIssues@yahoogroups.com, "Ron Beaulieu" <rsbeauli@...
wrote:

Karl, 

What you said about the three angel's messages I heard my father and SDA Evangelists teach for years.  You know, God's judgment beginning in 1844, etc., etc., etc.  No SDA would disagree with what you said!   But what I was giving is what I conceive of as a deeper revelation of the first angel's message as it relates to the greatest gift of God and why that gift was given; why we should love, fear (respect) and worship God the Father as much as the Son.  That God is being judged by us when we decide either to worship Him or worship Satan, and why and how God is the all fair and just choice.  I was demonstrating the great sacrifice of the Father and the Son via the Incarnation and death on the cross.  The Incarnation was the greatest gift that heaven could bestow, but myopic and dwarfed minded humans believe that substitutionary payment of their death penalty and fire insurance was the greatest gift. 

I tried to demonstrate how the Trinity Doctrine detracts from and denies the greatest gift sacrifice of the Son of Man by saying that He did not make any big sacrifice in giving us His Divine Nature and Holy Spirit life and soul; that such merely existed in the form of a third person from eternity and was really no different after the Incarnation than before!  No huge sacrifice involved!  That is blasphemy considering it involved the greatest good gift that heaven could bestow upon man.  Eternal death and fire insurance is secondary to that gift that restores us into the image of God.  Satan would have it thus.  The Trinity Doctrine is his central doctrine and the central doctrine of Rome. 

So mainstream Christianity denies the greatest sacrifice, the greatest gift that heaven can bestow.  How does that afford and enhance obeisance to the first angel's message?  The truth of the matter, as stated herein, would give far more impetus to mankind to truly love and worship God and His Son as the only true God.   

This is demonstrated by the fact that mainstream Christianity says we should love Him for being our substitute on death row (the three crosses), and for the fire insurance.  But if there is another and far greater sacrifice involved, and there is, a knowledge of that sacrifice should enhance the choice to obey the first angel’s message and worship God the Father and Christ.  It should enhance one's acceptance of this essence of the gospel.  It should enhance an acceptance of the FULL GOSPEL, that we can truly and really be a new, born again creature in Christ, not only by His substitution for our death penalty and lake of fire burning, but by the gift of His mind, life and soul living in and through us and being the greater gift of grace that is meritorious toward our salvation. 

Why is the substitution gift of grace meritorious and the gift of His Mind, life and soul is not?  How does that work Karl?  To summarize, I say there is a far more important reason for man to love God and His Son, the first angel's admonition, than is being taught by mainstream Christianity, and Satan's Trinity Doctrine subverts that important impetus.   

Ellen White taught that far more ADDITIONAL reason and it got lost.  Elijah will re-establish such important but lost impetus for loving and worshipping the true God.  Any impetus that turns the hearts of man to the Father and Son will turn the hearts of the sons and fathers of men to one another.  This is the greatest part of the Elijah message, a deeper revelation of the love and sacrifice of God for man.  If the greatest and fullest display of the love and sacrifice of God for man will not win mankind, nothing will. 

Luk 1:17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. 

But this is a still, small, and "forsaken," voice crying in the wilderness, and I mean in the wilderness.  It is mocked and derided by all who have not the spiritual discernment to see its beauty and importance.  Rejection of all the above is part and parcel of the Omega of Apostasy in the SDA church and mainstream Christianity, for neither are teaching the beauty of heaven's greatest good gift and sacrifice of grace for mankind.  To say that the substitutionary part is meritorious and the greatest gift of His Divine life, mind , soul and Spirit is not, is the greatest blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that one could advance. 

All of the above is the gift of Ellen White to mainstream Christianity.  All of the above is the gift of true Seventh-day Adventism to the Reformation.  All of the above is the gift of true Seventh-day Adventism to the world, for it involves God's greatest gift to mankind, His life, soul, mind and Divine Nature, for the purpose of overcoming sin and being regenerated back into the image of God.  That is the prime purpose of the plan of salvation.  All else was to make that prime purpose possible. 

Because our sanctification and return to the image of God, is the PRIME objective of the Incarnation, the plan of salvation, sanctification, and all that relates to it, and the greatest gift of grace associated with it, THE DIVINE NATURE MIND, SOUL AND SPIRIT OF THE SON OF MAN,  is the most fundamental basis of salvation.  All else is secondary, tertiary, etc., etc. 

I believe the full gospel of EXAMPLE and SUBSTITUTION.  I believe Jesus Christ came in the likeness of sinful man in order to prove by His example of moment by moment surrender to the Holy Spirit and His Father's will, that we can overcome in the same way He did. 

I believe He came not to teach us how to swim, but die daily, so He could swim in and through us.  His Holy Spirit does the swimming when we are fully surrendered to His Will as He was surrendered to His Father's will.  I believe that His first objective was to give His Divine Nature for overcoming sin.  I believe His second objective was to die in our stead.  If all that is necessary is belief, as you say, then why are the foolish virgins denied entrance?  They believe.  I know they believe.  Ellen White said they are not hypocrites. 

"The class represented by the foolish virgins are not hypocrites. They have a regard for the truth, they have advocated the truth, they are attracted to those who believe the truth; but they have not yielded themselves to the Holy Spirit's working. They have not fallen upon the Rock, Christ Jesus, and permitted their old nature to be broken up. This class are represented also by the stony-ground hearers. They receive the word with readiness, but they fail of assimilating its principles. Its influence is not abiding. The Spirit works upon man's heart, according to his desire and consent implanting in him a new nature; but the class represented the foolish virgins have been content with a superficial work. They do not know God. They have not studied His character; they have not held communion with Him; therefore they do not know how to trust, how to look and live. Their service to God degenerates into a form. "They come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as My people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness." Eze. 33:31. The apostle Paul points out that this will be the special characteristic of those who live just before Christ's second coming. He says, "In the last days perilous times shall come: for men shall be lovers of their own selves; . . . lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." 2 Tim. 3:1-5.

This is the class that in time of peril are found crying, Peace and safety. They lull their hearts into security, and dream not of danger. When startled from their lethargy, they discern their destitution, and entreat others to supply their lack; but in spiritual things no man can make up

Page 412

another's deficiency. The grace of God has been freely offered to every soul. The message of the gospel has been heralded, "Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. 22:17. But character is not transferable. No man can believe for another. No man can receive the Spirit for another. No man can impart to another the character which is the fruit of the Spirit's working. "Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it [the land], as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness." Eze. 14:20.

It is in a crisis that character is revealed. When the earnest voice proclaimed at midnight, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him," and the sleeping virgins were roused from their slumbers, it was seen who had made preparation for the event. Both parties were taken unawares; but one was prepared for the emergency, and the other was found without preparation. So now, a sudden and unlooked-for calamity, something that brings the soul face to face with death, will show whether there is any real faith in the promises of God. It will show whether the soul is sustained by grace. The great final test comes at the close of human probation, when it will be too late for the soul's need to be supplied.

The ten virgins are watching in the evening of this earth's history. All claim to be Christians. All have a call, a name, a lamp, and all profess to be doing God's service. All apparently wait for Christ's appearing. But five are unready. Five will be found surprised, dismayed, outside the banquet hall.

At the final day, many will claim admission to Christ's kingdom, saying, "We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets." "Lord, Lord,

Page 413

have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works?" But the answer is, "I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me." Luke 13:26, 27; Matt. 7:22. In this life they have not entered into fellowship with Christ; therefore they know not the language of heaven, they are strangers to its joy. "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." 1 Cor. 2:11.

Saddest of all words that ever fell on mortal ear are those words of doom, "I know you not." The fellowship of the Spirit, which you have slighted, could alone make you one with the joyous throng at the marriage feast. In that scene you cannot participate. Its light would fall on blinded eyes, its melody upon deaf ears. Its love and joy could awake no chord of gladness in the world-benumbed heart. You are shut out from heaven by your own unfitness for its companionship.

We cannot be ready to meet the Lord by waking when

Page 414

the cry is heard, "Behold, the Bridegroom!" and then gathering up our empty lamps to have them replenished. We cannot keep Christ apart from our lives here, and yet be fitted for His companionship in heaven.  

Karl, I believe that Jesus came in our likeness for two purposes.

  1. First, to provide a remedy for sin that we might be restored to our original image.
  2. Second, to redeem us from the penalty of sin, as you cite.
  3. Your gospel is half the equation.

I kindly agree to disagree with you Karl, but if you have more on the first angel's message I will be glad to study it out.  

Mainline Christianity flatters itself that the greatest purpose for which the Son of Man was made manifest was to become their eternal life insurance policy.  That is to miss the real reason Christ gave Himself and the Father gave His only begotten Son:

     Christ gave Himself to ransom man from the power of the destroyer. By becoming the sin-Bearer He broke the power of Satan. He says, "I will become the Center of the redeemed world." ... {TDG 28.3}

     "All holy agencies," saith God, "will I set in operation to oppose the armies of the invisible foe, to destroy his power. The eternal agency of the Holy Spirit shall rescue man from the effects of sin, and restore in him the image of God." ... {TDG 28.4}

     The Lord will not let His human treasure with Christ, its Head, go into the enemy's ranks without every effort made in their behalf. Their only hope is to do the commandments of God. This is the gospel which has been sounding down along the lines of our time. {TDG 28.5}

Any other view is myopic and constitute "another gospel," which we are to accurse.  What was the fault of Adventists prior to 1888?  They believed that commandment-keeping on their own steam, especially Sabbath-keeping, would save them.  That same fault has accrued even after 1888.  So Satan swung the pendulum to the opposite extreme.  Karl teaches that extreme.  The Doctrine of the Nicolaitans.  Here is the tune of it:

Justification is a legal (forensic) act.  Commandment-keeping, EVEN WHEN EMPOWERED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, is not meritorious toward one's salvation.  That is a lie right from the mouth of Satan.  Why?  Because Christ was manifest to empower (rescue) man from the effects of sin, and restore in him the image of God.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit.  To say that work is not efficacious and meritorious toward our salvation is to say that the manifestation of the Son of God as a sacrifice for us is not meritorious toward salvation.  That is the utopian blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and my Bible says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unpardonable.  Better be very wise and careful before weighing in on this one friend.

Ron