| Very many people who consider themselves to be Seventh-day Adventist Christians will be surprised to find that they have never been Christians at all and that they are excluded from the marriage supper of the Lamb and from the heaven of bliss. In the judgment, they will be accused of being the children of the devil instead of the children of God as they claim. This sounds like a terrible indictment, but this is not a human indictment; it is the sure word of prophecy. We must all remember that, in the judgment, the way that we have treated our fellowmen will be accounted as the way we have treated Christ. The persistent use of civil power to enforce the will of the church is how the papacy has been formed. It is how the image to the beast is formed, and now those who profess to be God’s remnant people are engaging in this practice and have been doing so for about 20 years. “The minds of many are clouded with unbelief because those who unite with the church as the chosen of God do not reveal the virtues that are the fruits of the Spirit. Joining the church is not a sure evidence that a man has joined himself to Christ. The new birth is a rare experience in this age of the world. This is the reason why there are so many perplexities in the churches. Many, so many, who assume the name of Christ are unsanctified and unholy. They have been baptized, but they were buried alive. Self did not die, and therefore they did not rise to newness of life in Christ. “Thousands who claim to be religious are not Christians. Paul was very strict in carrying out his religion, but he was not a Christian until Christ revealed Himself to him and talked with him, showing him that he was persecuting his Master in the person of His saints. Then Paul was converted. He became one of the sect he had despised and hated; and for his love of Christ he received the same cruel treatment that he had once cooperated with others in giving. “The churches have an abundance of the religion and zeal that Paul had. Many persecute those who differ from them in religious matters. But no true Christian will persecute one who conscientiously differs from him in faith. Those who try to force the consciences of their fellowmen do it because Christ is not abiding in their hearts. They do not realize that they have the attributes of Satan, but he delights to make them his instruments to bear witness against God’s chosen ones. They strive to make them observe rites that have no foundation in the Word of God. When these persecutors have the Spirit of Christ, they will hear and receive the words of Christ ‘Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm’ (1 Chronicles 16:22). Christ and Him crucified will absorb the whole soul.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 12, 51, 52. “It is possible for men to offer the Saviour outward homage, to be Christians in profession, to have a form of godliness, while the heart, whose loyalty He prizes above all else, is estranged from Him. . . “Today Christ is looking with sadness upon those whose characters He must at last refuse to acknowledge. Inflated with self-sufficiency, they hope that it will be well with their souls. But at the last great day, the mirror of detection reveals to them the evil that their hearts have practiced, and shows them at the same time the impossibility of reform. Every effort was made to bring them to repentance. But they refused to humble their hearts.” The Upward Look, 301. |