There was a great disappointment in Jesus’ day. The Jews thought their organized nation (denomination) was the church. They believed that in order for Old Testament prophecy to be fulfilled it was necessary to stick with that denomination and it was necessary for their denomination to be cleansed and to triumph—otherwise, they thought prophecy would be proved false.
They said, “Yes, we know that there is corruption of all kinds in the organized church structure.” The office of high priest was often acquired by murder. The educational institutions had been taken over by those who had a Hellenistic education. False theology had taken over Judaism. See Desire of Ages, 35, 36. They were actually the representatives of Satan rather than representatives of God. But they said, “The prophecies have been given to this organized structure and the prophet says that God is going to shake all nations and the church is going to be cleansed and purified.” They believed that the Messiah was going to cleanse the church from all this corruption and that the structure of Judaism, purified, was going through to the kingdom. They believed that prophecy assured this and they knew that their condition demonstrated their need of it. They believed that the vindication of God’s honor required it, and that without question God was going to do it.
Anybody who did not follow the pattern of life marked out by their church structure was looked upon as suspect at the least, and probably a heretic, because the voice of the church leaders was looked upon as the voice of God. The Jewish leaders had marked out a path that all must follow—all must not only attend worship service in the organized structure church but they must also attend the schools that this structure operated. It was because he did not follow this pattern that John the Baptist was not accepted by the Jewish leaders. This was a preparatory step in the destruction of the organized Jewish structure and most of God’s professed people of that time.
When what you believe cannot happen, happens, you are in for a great disappointment. The Jewish leaders specified how God had to fulfill prophecy and when divine providence did not follow their specifications, they rejected God in the person of His Son.
Are we not in the very same danger today? Do we have a right to say that God’s promises to His remnant are unconditional? “The promises of God to Abraham and his posterity, and through Christ to the nations of the earth, may appear to have been unconditional. But such was not the case. Whether Abraham would share in their fulfillment, was determined by the course which he pursued.” Signs of the Times, May 19, 1881. [Emphasis supplied.] Do we have a right to specify to God and to everyone else exactly how prophecy must be fulfilled? If we say that prophecy must be fulfilled by this or that organization being purified and going through to glory, we are on the same uncertain ground as the Jews were in the time of Christ.*
Concerning the controversy over the definition of the church, the only safe course is to stick with the definition statements in the inspired writings. Revelation 12 is sufficient to show who and what the church is. “In holy vision, John saw the remnant church on the earth, in an age of lawlessness, and he points them out in unmistakable language: ‘Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.’ ” Signs of the Times, February 3, 1888. When Ellen White talks about the Seventh-day Adventist church as the true church it is because they keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, not because they have an organization: “Let all be careful not to make an outcry against the only people who are fulfilling the description given of the remnant people, who keep the commandments of God, and have the faith of Jesus, who are exalting the standard of righteousness in these last days. God has a distinct people, a church on earth, second to none, but superior to all in their facilities to teach the truth, to vindicate the law of God. God has divinely appointed agencies,—men whom he is leading, who have borne the heat and burden of the day, who are cooperating with heavenly instrumentalities to advance the kingdom of Christ in our world. Let all unite with these chosen agents, and be found at last among those who have the patience of the saints, who keep the commandments of God, and have the faith of Jesus.” Review and Herald, September 12, 1893.
“There is but one church in the world who are at the present time standing in the breach, and making up the hedge, building up the old waste places; [seventh-day Sabbath reform] . . . those who keep the commandments of God, and have the faith of Jesus?” Review and Herald, September 5, 1893.
Who is the Organized Body?
When the church at Rome decided to keep Sunday and abolish the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath, there were a few Christians which would not go along with the lawbreaking program. These Christians were anathematized by the Council of Laodicea in about 364 A.D. Suppose that one of these Christians would not go along with the Sunday-keeping program. He was forced out of the congregation of the lawless, but professed true church of Christ. One day he met a former brother who had decided to break the fourth commandment. This former brother said to him, “Why did you leave the church?” What should the Sabbath-keeping Christian say? (Remember that those who chose to begin breaking the law of God were in the majority; they had the church organization, the pastors, most of the money, and to all outward appearances, the whole church. But the pertinent fact is that when they began to countenance the breaking of the law of God they were not the true church anymore. They were the professed true church but not so in reality.) So the Sabbath-keeping Christian could justly say in answer to the question why did you leave the church, “Why did YOU (the Sunday-keeper) leave the church—even though you have the building, the organization, the money, the pastors, and all the appearance, you are not the true church anymore.” The true church never never countenances the breaking of the law of God. When that was insisted on (the New Theology of those days) then, “after a long and severe conflict, the faithful few decided to dissolve all union with the apostate church if she still refused to free herself from falsehood and idolatry. They saw that separation was an absolute necessity if they would obey the word of God. They dared not tolerate errors fatal to their own souls, and set an example which would imperil the faith of their children and children’s children. To secure peace and unity they were ready to make any concession consistent with fidelity to God; but they felt that even peace would be too dearly purchased at the sacrifice of principle. If unity could be secured only by the compromise of truth and righteousness, then let there be difference, and even war.” Great Controversy, 45.
Then notice the immediate conclusion of the prophet: “Well would it be for the church and the world if the principles that actuated those steadfast souls were revived in the hearts of God’s professed people.” Great Controversy, 45.
Who Are the Real Separationists?
No doubt there were some people back then just as there are today who said, “Stay in there and confront those lawbreakers and defeat the apostasy. Truth is stronger than error—stay in the church and convert the apostate leaders or pastors or get them replaced with men who are faithful. Don’t separate from the church—Jesus has promised that the gates of hell will not overcome His church so just stay there and fight for truth and at the appointed time God will weed out the apostates and bring back a pure and sanctified ministry who will prepare the church and the world for the second coming of Christ.” Those who followed that course in the third and fourth centuries lost their own souls and the souls of their children, just as multitudes of Adventists are doing today.
Do you suppose that those Christians who insisted on keeping the commandments of God and were therefore forced out of the professed church were accused of leaving the church? Without question they were. They were accused of being separationists. But who were the real separationists? Those who accepted the New Theology and led the people to break the law of God. Do not ever forget that to condone or excuse sin is to perpetrate it. There is a time to stay in a church and protest. We cannot judge the conscience of a person who has chosen to do that, but the references already quoted show that there is a time when separation from evil in the church is absolutely necessary. Anyone who dares to be conscience for another, and attempts to persuade him or her to stay where error is being taught, will be held responsible in the day of judgement for the souls lost by that course of action. “Of all the crimes that God will visit, none are in his sight so grievous as those who tempt and encourage others in sin. God would have his ministers ever in all places show themselves decidedly on the Lord’s side, loyal and true to his commandments in a rebellious world, thus rebuking the disobedient however difficult or contrary to the natural feelings.” Signs of the Times, May 20, 1880.
The Bottom Line Question
The bottom line question is always the same—who and what is the church?
It is the body of Christ. Ephesians 1:22, 23; 1 Corinthians 12.
It is those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 12:17.
It is those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 14:12.
It is the people who are established upon the Rock against whom the gates of hell cannot prevail. Matthew 16:18.
It is the pillar and ground of the truth. 1 Timothy 3:15.
It is one body and has one faith and one baptism. Ephesians 4:4.
It is visible (although no human being can now see all of it at one time) because when there is a dispute among the members they can go to the church and tell it. Matthew 18.
It should be abundantly evident from the above Biblical definitions that the church is a spiritual thing. It is one of the things of God. (Surely nobody could argue against the “body of Christ” being one of the things of God.) Since it is one of the things of God it is never to be amalgamated with the things of the state—this is spiritual adultery or fornication. The church is to have one husband. 2 Corinthians 11:2. It is spoken of in the Bible as the kingdom of God, the holy city—Jerusalem, as the branches of the true vine, as the sheepfold and as the spiritual temple or sanctuary of truth. It is spoken of as the bride of Christ.
Ellen White agrees with these biblical definitions of the church. (The following quotation was written from Nimes, France in 1886 to faraway relatives who were not keeping the Sabbath—notice how clear Ellen White was to her non-Sabbath-keeping relatives that membership in no organization could make you a member of the church unless you loved God and were keeping the commandments of God. No matter how severely rebuked they may have felt by this letter she told them the truth. Do you believe it?)
“God has a church. It is not the great cathedral, neither is it the national establishment, neither is it the various denominations; it is the people who love God and keep His commandments. ‘Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.’ Where Christ is, even among the humble few, this is Christ’s church, for the presence of the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity can alone constitute a church. Where two or three are present who love and obey the commandments of God, Jesus there presides, let it be in the desolate place of the earth, in the wilderness, in the city, [or] enclosed in prison walls. The glory of God has penetrated the prison walls, flooding with glorious beams of heavenly light the darkest dungeon. His saints may suffer, but their sufferings will, like the apostles’ of old, spread their faith and win souls to Christ and glorify His holy name. The bitterest opposition expressed by those who hate God’s great moral standard of righteousness should not and will not shake the steadfast soul who trusts fully in God.” Manuscript Release, vol. 17, 81, 82.
What Makes A Church?
In this statement Ellen White defines who and what the church is. It is those who love God and keep His commandments and it is where the presence of God is among them. The point that many are missing is that when Ellen White refers to Seventh-day Adventists as the church, the thing that makes them the church is the fact that they love God and keep His commandments. It is most emphatically not the fact that they have an organization that can be called the church. Ellen White makes a sharp distinction in her writings between the professed remnant church and the church which is actually the remnant church—those who love God and keep His commandments. The church existed before the organization just as it did before the existence of the medical work, even though that is the right arm of the message. The right arm could be cut off and the body still exist. That already happened once in the Kellogg apostasy. Although we are not saying that any organization will be severed from the mystical body of Christ as the arm was around the turn of the century, we still must recognize that this could happen. We cannot equate the body of Christ with church organization anymore than we can equate the medical missionary work with the whole body.
Of course, God’s people are organized, they are an organized body. But the thing that makes them the church is not because they are organized but the fact that they keep the commandments and the faith of Jesus.
Who is the Bride?
When people become confused over who the church is—thinking that it is the organization rather than the faithful people who love God and keep His commandments, they also become confused over who the bride of Christ is. They conclude that the organization is the bride of Christ and because of a wrong definition of who the church is, they proclaim all over the earth that the organization must become purified from all sin and false doctrine and every defect in order for prophecy to be fulfilled—otherwise in their view both prophecy and the church have failed. If this reasoning were actually true, it would be even more true of the apostolic church than of the remnant church, because it was to them specifically that the promise was given that the “gates of hell would not prevail” against the church. And so what was this apostolic church that has existed “through all the changing scenes of time to the present period, 1893?” Selected Messages, vol. 3, 18. If it was the organization, then a person should be trying to reform either the Greek orthodox church, or the Roman Catholic church, or the Nestorian church, or the Waldensian church. If this were so, then both the Apostle Paul and Ellen White were mistaken and the validity of divine providence in the whole second advent movement could be challenged. But of course, the Apostle Paul was not mistaken in his definitions of the church, neither was the Apostle John. Ellen White always agrees with them—the church is the people that love God and keep His commandments. Your entire thinking and conclusions are based on your definition of terms.
Adequate Facilities
At the time of the reformation, many people could not comprehend how God could leave the Roman Catholic Church and work through the tiny Protestant churches when the Roman Catholic Church had a worldwide network—such a perfect organization and such facilities as the Protestant churches could never boast even to the present day. A few years ago, and even more recently, it has been claimed, in effect, that God had to use the organization of Seventh-day Adventists because the self-supporting work and independent ministries did not have the facilities to finish the work. Do you remember the story of Gideon? Do you remember the story of Jonathan and his armor-bearer? Notice what the Spirit of Prophecy has to say.
“Whole conferences are becoming leavened with the same perverted principles. ‘For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.’ The Lord will work to purify his church. I tell you in truth, the Lord is about to turn and overturn in the institutions called by his name.” Special Testimonies Series A, 30.
“God will work a work in our day that but few anticipate. He will raise up and exalt among us those who are taught rather by the unction of His Spirit than by the outward training of scientific institutions. These facilities are not to be despised or condemned; they are ordained of God, but they can furnish only the exterior qualifications. God will manifest that He is not dependent on learned, self-important mortals.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 82.
“To stand in defense of truth and righteousness when the majority forsake us, to fight the battles of the Lord when champions are few—this will be our test. At this time we must gather warmth from the coldness of others, courage from their cowardice, and loyalty from their treason. The nation will be on the side of the great rebel leader.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 136.
The Shaking
Some say with great confidence that the sinners in Zion will be the ones who are sifted out while the church remains. The direct inference is that those who have been forced out of the church organization must be the sinners and those who are sifted out. Let us look at a few statements in Letter 55 where this quotation comes from. Letter 55 can be found in Manuscript Releases, vol. 12, 318-328.
“We ought to be far in advance of any other people on the earth because we have greater light and greater knowledge of the truth, which lays us under increased accountability to advance that light and not only profess to believe the truth but to practice it. When we do practice the truth we are then following Jesus, who is the light of the world; and if we as a people are not constantly elevating, becoming more and more spiritually minded, we are becoming like the Pharisees—self-righteous—while we do not the will of God.”
Notice, in the opening paragraph of the letter Ellen White draws a sharp distinction between the professed church and the true church—those who are living what they profess.** This concept is emphasized again in the third paragraph: “I think of how many who profess the truth are keeping it apart from their lives. They do not bring its sanctifying, refining, spiritualizing power into their hearts. I think how this grieves Jesus.”
In the fourth paragraph she hopes that what happened to Jerusalem (Luke 13:34) will not happen to Seventh-day Adventists as a people (to the professed church).
In the sixth paragraph she says, “When Jerusalem was divorced from God it was because of her sins. She fell from an exalted height that Tyre and Sidon had never reached. And when an angel falls he becomes a fiend. The depth of our ruin is measured by the exalted light to which God has raised us in His great goodness and unspeakable mercy. Oh, what privileges are granted to us as a people! And if God spared not His people that He loved, because they refused to walk in the light, how can He spare the people whom He has blessed with the light of heaven in having opened to them the most exalted truth ever entrusted to mortal man to give to the world?”
Notice, it is possible for the same thing that happened to Jerusalem to happen to us. In the seventh paragraph again the difference between profession and character of life is dwelt upon.
“We are far from being the people God would have us to be, because we do not elevate the soul and refine the character in harmony with the wonderful unfolding of God’s truth and His purposes. ‘Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people’ [Prov. 14:34]. Sin is a disorganizer. Wherever it is cherished—in the individual heart, in the household, in the church—there is disorder, strife, variance, enmity, envy, jealousy, because the enemy of man and of God has the controlling power over the mind. But let the truth be loved and brought into the life, as well as advocated, and that man or woman will hate sin and will be a living representative of Jesus Christ to the world.”
Again, in the eighth paragraph, she contrasts the professed church or believer with the real or true church or believer saying, “the people claiming to believe the truth will not be condemned because they had not the light, but because they had great light and did not bring their hearts to the test of God’s great moral standard of righteousness. The people who claim to believe the truth [professed church] must be elevated by living it out [the true church].” She does the same in the ninth and tenth paragraphs by saying that we are to be “living representatives of the truth” we profess.
In the eleventh paragraph, she shows that no matter how high our profession is, internal corruption, especially the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, will keep us from receiving the power of God and instead, bring us under His denunciation.
Again in the thirteenth and fourteenth paragraphs we are cautioned that in spite of our profession of righteousness (profession of being God’s true people), if the camp is not cleansed of aggravating sins, God cannot work with us and all our policy cannot save us from a terrible sifting. Because of sin and cherished weakness, ruin will come upon us.
It is abundantly clear over and over again that Ellen White is drawing a sharp distinction between those who make a profession of being God’s last remnant people—Seventh-day Adventists (the professed church)—with those who not only make the profession but live out what they believe (the true church). She makes this distinction in different language several times.
The Coming Great Disappointment
Then comes this statement: “Satan will work his miracles to deceive; he will set up his power as supreme. The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out—the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place. None but those who have been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony will be found with the loyal and true, without spot or stain of sin, without guile in their mouths. We must be divested of our self-righteousness and arrayed in the righteousness of Christ.
“The remnant that purify their souls by obeying the truth gather strength from the trying process, exhibiting the beauty of holiness amid the surrounding apostasy. All these, He says, ‘I have graven . . . upon the palms of my hands’ [Isa. 49:16]. They are held in everlasting, imperishable remembrance.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 12, 324, 325 (Letter 55, 1886).
Who is this church that appears to fall but does not fall? It is clearly those that purify their souls by obeying the truth. The great sifting is going to separate those who profess the truth (but do not live it) from the faithful souls who have always constituted the true church of God on earth—those who not only profess the truth but live it out. God will have a pure, true, sanctified ministry prepared for the latter rain. They will not be those who just profess the truth and have a “nominal interest” Ibid., 328, but those who, by the power of God, meet God’s moral requirements. (The person who has a nominal interest is the person who takes the name of the faithful but does not live out his profession.)
There is another great disappointment coming friends. Multitudes of Adventists are getting prepared to be sifted out from the truth. When you leave the truth, you have been separated from the church even if you go to church every week and are on the earthly church books. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth, and when you leave the truth, you have left the Author of truth and are not accounted as part of His body in the registry in heaven.
Nature of Repentance
There will be multitudes of Adventists who will repent like Judas when it is too late to repent unto salvation. The entire church, the entire movement will never repent—there is no prophecy or prediction of that (unless you believe that the church is the organization, in which case, as already mentioned, you should be trying to get either the Roman Catholic Church, or the Greek Orthodox Church, or the Nestorian Church, or the Waldensian church to repent so that prophecy can be fulfilled.) Repentance, like baptism, is something that has to be done individually. Everybody must be baptized for himself and everybody must repent for himself. Now is the time to make your calling and election sure, to receive the divine gift of repentance that is unto the complete forsaking and overcoming of sin and salvation.
Many Adventists are expecting something to happen that there is no unconditional prophecy about it ever happening. Rather, there are many conditional prophecies for which we have now fulfilled the conditions which indicate plainly that organized Adventism is headed for a cataclysmic experience similar to what happened to the Jews. Here are prophecies which predict this:
In Selected Messages, vol. 1, 204, 205, is found a twelve point conditional prophecy. Eleven of these twelve conditions have already been fulfilled. The twelfth specification is the only one not fulfilled yet and this one is, “storm and tempest would sweep away the structure.”
“In His Word the Lord declared what He would do for Israel if they would obey His voice. But the leaders of the people yielded to the temptations of Satan, and God could not give them the blessings He designed them to have, because they did not obey His voice but listened to the voice and policy of Lucifer. This experience will be repeated in the last years of the history of the people of God, who have been established by His grace and power. Men whom He has greatly honored will in the closing scenes of this earth’s history pattern after ancient Israel.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 13, 379.
*For more information order our booklet on new organizations: Issues, Part 3: No New Organization.
**For more information order our booklet on the church: Issues, Part 2.
Appendix:
Prophecies to Israel are conditional
“The promises of God to Abraham and his posterity, and through Christ to the nations of the earth, may appear to have been unconditional. But such was not the case. Whether Abraham would share in their fulfillment, was determined by the course which he pursued.”
ST, 5/19/ 81.
Statements on the Voice of God
“Let those in America who suppose the voice of the General Conference to be the voice of God, become one with God before they utter their opinions. The Word of God is to be lived as well as preached. It is to be brought into every phase of the Christian work done in this world. The men God has appointed to do His work must be emptied of self. Let Jesus in. Open the door of the heart to the heavenly Guest. Let no man be looked up to as God. When those who come nigh [to] God in service are consecrated, cleansed, and purified, approaching nearer and still nearer the divine benevolence, they can voice the commission of God, and be respected.” MR, vol. 13, 291.
“Those who have not a living connection with God have not an appreciation of the Holy Spirit’s manifestation, and do not distinguish between the sacred and the common. They do not obey God’s voice, because, as the Jewish nation, they know not the time of their visitation. There is no help for man, woman, or child who will not hear and obey the voice of duty, for the voice of duty is the voice of God. The eyes, the ears, and the heart will become unimpressible if men and women refuse to give heed to the divine counsel, and choose the way that is best pleasing to themselves.” TM, 402.
“As I was made to understand something of the management of the work in this great center, it was all that I could bear. My spirit was pained within me, for I had lost confidence in that which I had ever presented before the people as the voice of God to His children. It has not been the voice of God. There has been a lording power exercised over God’s heritage in decisions which were not dictated by the Spirit of God. Unconsecrated men who were brought in connection with the work have exercised their own wisdom, and have woven into the work their own unconverted peculiarities. Their own principles have been counterworking the principles of truth and righteousness. We cannot therefore present before the people that the voice of the General Conference in its decisions must move and control them; for its propositions and decisions cannot be accepted. They are not in the right line of progress. God is cropped out of their counsels.” MR, vol. 17, 221, 222.
“Yet we hear that the voice of the conference is the voice of God. Every time I have heard this, I have thought that it was almost blasphemy. The voice of the conference ought to be the voice of God, but it is not, because some in connection with it are not men of faith and prayer; they are not men of elevated principle. There is not a seeking of God with the whole heart; there is not a realization of the terrible responsibility that rests upon those in this institution to mold and fashion minds after the divine similitude.” Sermons and Talks, vol. 2, 159.
“Over and over again men have said, ‘The voice of the Conference is the voice of God; therefore everything must be referred to the Conference. The Conference must permit or restrict in the various lines of work.’ As the matter has been presented to me, there is a narrow compass, and within this narrow compass, all the openings to which are locked, are those who would like to exercise kingly power. But the work carried on all over the field demands an entirely different course of action. There is need of the laying of a foundation different from the foundation which has been laid in the past. We have heard much about everything moving in the regular lines. When we see that the ‘regular lines’ are purified and refined, that they bear the mold of the God of heaven, then it will be time to endorse these lines. But when we see that message after message given by God has been received and accepted, yet no change has been made, we know that new power must be brought into the regular lines. The management of the regular lines must be entirely changed, newly organized. There must be a committee, not composed of half a dozen men, but of representatives from all lines of our work, from our publishing house, from our educational institutions, and from our sanitariums, which have life in them, which are constantly working, constantly broadening.” MR, vol. 13, 192, 193; 1888, 1727.
“I could not entrust the light God has given me to the publishing house at Battle Creek. I would not dare to do this. As for your book committee, under the present administration, with the men who now preside, I would not entrust to them for publication in books the light given me of God, until that publishing house has men of consecrated ability and wisdom. As for the voice of the General Conference, there is no voice from God through that body that is reliable.” MR, vol. 17, 178.
Statements on the Professed Church
“The professed church of God may be possessed of wealth, education, and knowledge of doctrine, and may say by her attitude, ‘I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;’ but if its members are devoid of inward holiness, they cannot be the light of the world. The church is to reflect light into the moral darkness of the world, as the stars reflect light into the darkness of the night. These who have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof, do not reflect light into the world, and will not have power to reach the hearts of the unsaved. Without vital connection with Christ the value of truth cannot be made to appear in good fruit in the world; but if Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, his saving grace will be manifested in sympathy and love for perishing souls.” ST, 9/11/93.
“The Lord hath a controversy with his people, and, although in his great mercy he bear long with them, yet if they persist in living in transgression of his law, they will not stand in the day of his rebuke. He has seen the backsliding and iniquity of his professed people. He has noted the unbelief, the hypocrisy, the pride, the selfishness, the disobedience to his law, and he will punish for these things. God cannot be in harmony with the people who will not obey his commandments who are wickedly departing from his precepts and by their example of disobedience at leading their children and their neighbor in the way of transgression. The professed church of Christ is strengthening the hand of sinners in their evil work by making void through their traditions, the commandment of Jehovah.” ST, 3/1/94.
“Through paganism, and then through the Papacy, Satan exerted his power for many centuries in an effort to blot from the earth God’s faithful witnesses. Pagans and papists were actuated by the same dragon spirit. They differed only in that the Papacy, making a pretense of serving God, was the more dangerous and cruel foe. Through the agency of Romanism, Satan took the world captive. The professed church of God was swept into the ranks of this delusion, and for more than a thousand years the people of God suffered under the dragon’s ire. And when the Papacy, robbed of its strength, was forced to desist from persecution, John beheld a new power coming up to echo the dragon’s voice, and carry forward the same cruel and blasphemous work. This power, the last that is to wage war against the church and the law of God, was symbolized by a beast with lamblike horns.” ST, 11/1/99.
“The Saviour said to his professed people, ‘I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.’ If ever a people needed to repent because they had lost their first love, it is those who have had so great light, and have failed to live up to it. You can never understand what the loss means, until you repent of having given so little heed to the words of Christ. ‘Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.’ There is need of repentance, because there is a lack of love to God in his professed church. He has not been loved with the whole heart, with the whole soul. The affections have been divided, and the great commandment which says, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,’ has not been obeyed.” YI, 6/14/94.
“Satan has woven his spell even over the professed church of Christ, and many who claim to believe in Christ seem to be in the stupor of death. But the Lord has not left them to slumber on; He has sent them a message to arouse them from their carnal security. A part of these professors arouse and repent, and do their first works; but those who take comfort in their legal religion, in their form of godliness that is devoid of the power, feel that they have been personally rebuked and injured by the repentance of those who have aroused and returned unto the Lord. Instead of humbling their hearts and confessing their backsliding, they resist and oppose the message the Lord has sent. They oppose their finite wisdom against the wisdom of the Infinite. They allow their prejudices and passions to hold sway; they work on Satan’s side of the question. Thus the advocates of truth are brought into an unexpected conflict, and they are forced to bear witness to the truth, and to resist the hostility and hatred of those who would make the truth of God of none effect. Thus dissension comes in like a sword to divide believers and unbelievers.” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, March 29, 1894.
“The professed church of Christ has wandered from her privilege, her duty, and her God. Like ancient Israel, she has forsaken the covenant, and joined herself in harmony with the world. Pride, luxury, and pleasure are invited into the sanctuary, and her holy places are defiled. Those who have pledged their allegiance to God, enjoy the company and spirit of his avowed enemies. Their choice determines their character. Strong is the Lord God who judgeth them.” ST, 11/4/83.
The End