The latest TIME Magazine, Beyond 2000 states in an article entitled What New Things are Going to Kill Me: “During the 1980s the Soviet Union used rudimentary genetic engineering to create incurable strains of Black Death, Bubonic plague, that were resistant to drugs. This biotech Black Death was loaded into missile warheads aimed at the U.S. As biotechnology becomes more supple and powerful and as the genetic code of more organisms is unraveled, biologists will learn how to mix genes of different bugs to create deadly, unnatural strains that can be turned into deadly, effective weapons. Scientists have found a type of bacterium that is virtually indestructible. It is called, Deinococcus radiodurans, terrible berry that survives radiation, this bug can live in a blast of gamma rays that is the equivalent of thousands of lethal human doses—radiation so strong it cracks glass.
Scientists have found ‘dead’ radiodurans spores in Antarctica that have baked in UV light for 100 years. Yet when placed in a nutrient bath, the bug’s DNA reassembles itself and proliferates. If radiodurans genes could be put into Anthrax, they might produce an Anthrax that is virtually impossible to kill.”
Strange, that human beings, who were created in the image and likeness of God, have this infatuation for annihilating one another. When I think of anthrax, when I think of germs that are going to be so strong that they can annihilate us, I realize that I need to get in harmony with natural law and follow some points of boosting and building the healthiest immune system that I can. I believe that is going to be my defense.
Dr. Richard Schulze is one of the foremost authorities on natural healing and herbal medicines in the world. He is widely recognized for his unequaled understanding of natural healing. On a recent radio show, Dr. Schulze listed sixteen steps to a healthier life and I want to share a few of these with you. He said: “Start with cleaning out your elimination organ, especially the colon. Stop eating animals and their by-products; buy a juicer and use it daily; move every day for one hour; sweat. Stop watching television, especially the news. Wear cotton and other natural fibers; eat more raw, fresh foods and cook only in stainless steel or glass. Drink only distilled, filtered, or reverse osmosis water; walk barefooted and breathe deeply. Begin and end each day by saying, ‘It is great to be alive.’ Help someone every day. Throw out and give away one-third of everything you own, your possessions can bury you. Pray and meditate. Laugh.” The last one says, “Love, love and love some more.” That is his strategy to protect mankind from annihilation.
Love One Another
The Bible tells us, in 1 John 4:8, that God is love. In John 13:34 we read, “I bring you a new commandment that you love one another, even as I have loved you.” I believe that the Bible emphasized love, and devotes a whole chapter to this subject, because it is the greatest virtue we can have; it is a description of God Himself. Jesus says, “This is My commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:12, 13.
But there is a greater love than this. You might ask, “How can that be? The Bible says, ‘Greater love hath no man than this.’ How can there be a greater love?” I, too, was confused on this point until the Holy Spirit directed me to Romans 5:7–10: “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
So the greater love is not man’s love, “Greater love hath no man than this.” John 15:13. But there is a greater love, it is a Godly love, and this is the love that will die for enemies. If we would look at people through the eyes of Christ, we would have that kind of love, and we would not need to assemble for a unity meeting.
Love and the Law
As a Seventh-day Adventist, I have learned much about the law of God, the Ten Commandments. I can quote them, I can defend them, I can emphasize them to the point that another Christian will walk away from me saying that I am a Jew, that I am stuck on the law of God, and I am trying to earn my way into heaven. They would say to me, “Brother, all you have to do is love.” And that nearly offends me, because I have to defend the law.
In their defense, they will even go to Scripture and point out things that I am quick to rebut, but today I want to look at things through their eyes. We can sit in church on Sabbath and be lost, and they can sit in their church on Sunday and be saved. So what is the difference? We are law-abiding creatures; they are loving creatures.
“Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying, ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law?’ Jesus said unto him, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’” Matthew 22:35–40. You see, if you had true love, if you had, not man’s love, but Godly love, you would not steal, you would not use the Lord’s name in vain. You would be obedient to the Commandments of God.
I am concerned that we are keeping the law without the love. Ellen White says, “Let us drink in this love, that we may know by experience what a real, tender, joyful, experience there is in a realization of the Fatherhood of God. Let brotherly love continue. By bearing one another’s burdens, we are fulfilling the law of Christ.” Spaulding Magan, 68.
You see, love works no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. What does that say to you? Have we been lopsided in our Adventist experience? Have we been emphasizing the law without the love?
“Greater love hath no man than this that he will lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13. There is a greater love. While we were yet enemies, Christ died for us. So the principle is to love, not only your friends, but to love your enemies.
Be Ye Therefore Perfect
We often turn to Matthew 5:48 and read, “Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” And that means we need to live a life of the law: obedient to every commandment, not sinning, victory over every sin. Has anyone attained it? Can we say every cultivated, every hereditary tendency in our life is gone? Paul said, “I press toward the mark.” Philippians 3:14. But the Holy Spirit showed me that we must also include Matthew 5:44–47, and that tells us if we want the perfection of God, then we must, “Love your enemies.”
“I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father. And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.” 2 John 4–6.
I see the law, and I see love there. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. In fact, true love, loves his enemies.
One Spirit Binds Together
“The work of God’s people may and will be varied, but one Spirit is the mover in it all. All the work done for the Master is to be connected with the great whole. The workers are to labor together in concert, each one controlled by divine power, putting forth undivided effort to draw those around them to Christ. All must move like part of a well-adjusted machinery, each part dependent on the other part, yet standing distinct in action. And each one is to take the place assigned him and do the work appointed him. God calls upon the members of His church to receive the Holy Spirit, to come together in unity and brotherly sympathy, to bind their interests together in love.” My Life Today, 276.
We will never have unity until we have the love of God. When we are trying to glue something together, we have strife. Many of us still have carnal hearts, and unity will only come when we have true love.
“And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Romans 5:5. The love of God, not the love of man, the love that loves its enemies, the love that allows no strife, the love where perfect unity exists, this is the love we need.
If the only way we can be bound together is by perfect love, then we should be praying for that. There should be far less talking about our need of the Holy Spirit and far more praying for it!
“But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” Galatians 5:18. I believe that. I am not condemned by the law if I am in the Spirit, because I am walking in perfect love and perfect obedience. In fact, the first fruit of the Spirit is love. Is that an accident? It is the most critical thing that we need, and it is the super-glue of heaven.
Fruits of the Spirit
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22, 23. Do you not love that? Ellen White says we should talk more about the Spirit; it is not talked about enough in the church. The subject is neglected, and this is our only hope.
I believe that this “fruit of the Spirit” is a photograph of the heart of God, and it is His desire to see this mirrored in His people. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.” Ezekiel 36:26, 27. God is taking the active role here!
I received an Instruction Manual for the New Pictorial Aid, Science Publishing Company, 1987, Australasian Conference Association. It is a Bible study course, with all these pictures by Roy Hession, on the Fruit of the Spirit, the beautiful character of God, and it says, “Why does this fruit mean so much to us?” Because, “The things that God is most concerned about are our coldness of heart concerning Himself and our proud unbroken natures. That is why there is scarcely a church, a mission station or a committee undertaking a special piece of service for God that is without an unresolved problem of personal relationships, eating out its heart and thwarting its progress. This is because Christian service gives us opportunities of leadership and position that we could not attain in the secular world. And we quickly fall into pride, self-seeking, ambition. With these things hidden in our hearts, we have only to work alongside others and we find resentment, hardness, criticism, jealousy and frustration issuing from our hearts. We think we are working for God but the test of how little of our service is for Him is revealed by our resentment and our self-pity when the actions of others, or circumstances, or ill health, take it from us.
In this condition, we are trying to give to others an answer which we have not truly and deeply found for ourselves.”
Galatians 5:22, 23 contains that answer. Here lies the ultimate formula for success in human relationships. “And the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.”
We Have a Common Enemy
Follow an equation with me. We have a common enemy; it is Satan. We have a common Friend; it is Jesus. We have a common goal; the Three Angels’ Messages, the warning to the world, the salvation of souls. We have many things in common. The sanctuary message, Ellen White, the health message, the seventh-day Sabbath, righteousness by faith, victory over all sin, the beast and his mark, the image to the beast, sanctification, the state of the dead, the resurrection, the investigative judgment, a thousand-year millenium in heaven, that Christ is the Head of the church and the church is the body of Christ. We are in harmony on those things. But the touchy subject is who and what is the church? Yet, the Spirit of Prophecy tell us, “From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church [of God] on earth.” Acts of the Apostles, 11. “It is not the great cathedral, neither is it the national establishment, neither is it the various denominations;” for Christ’s presence alone can constitute a church. So where two or three are gathered together in His name, there am I in the midst of them.” (See Upward Look, 315.)
We all agree, but we have become like the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Somebody walks between us and says, “Is there a resurrection?” That lights the fuse and the fuse goes to two sticks of dynamite! Do you see the parallel? Is there a resurrection? Who and what is the church?
This must not keep us from working together. We must not make it our main issue. We want to make sure we are the church, that we are a new creature in Christ.
Do you realize how little time we have left to get out our literature? As you read the popular magazines of the world today, you constantly see articles concerning ecumenicalism and the workings of the Papacy. The Pope is shown on the cover of magazines every month. He is manipulating the religions of the world to go against us.
“We are made sad as we see in many places so much left undone that should be done. But the Lord will use in the accomplishment of His work means that we do not now see. He will raise up from among the common people, men and women to do His work, even as of old He called fishermen to be His disciples. There will soon be an awakening that will surprise many. Those who do not realize the necessity of what is to be done will be passed by, and the heavenly messengers will work with those who are called the common people, fitting them to carry the truth to many places. Now is the time for us to awake and do what we can.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 15, 312.
God says, “Are you going to do the work I’ve given you? If not, I have a group that will. They are going to come to the front, they are going to see battle.”
“In the last solemn work few great men will be engaged.…God will work a work in our day but few anticipate. He will raise up and exalt among us those who are taught rather by the unction of the Holy Spirit than 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.” Last Day Events, 204.
God Takes the Reins in His Own Hands
“Let me tell you that the Lord will work in this last work in a manner very much out of the common order of things, and in a way that will be contrary to any human planning. There will be among us those who will always want to control the work of God, to dictate even what movements shall be made. God will use ways and means by which it will be seen that He is taking the reins in His own hands. The workers will be surprised by the simple means that He will use to bring about and perfect His work of righteousness.” Testimonies to Ministers, 300.
“…God will not be left without witnesses. The one-hour laborers will be brought in at the eleventh hour, and will consecrate their ability and all their entrusted means to advance the work…and shun not their duty to declare the whole counsel of God. When those who have had abundance of light throw off the restraint which the Word of God imposes, and make void His law, others will come in to fill their places and take their crown.” Review and Herald, June 15, 1897.
“The Lord will gather a large company out of the world to serve Him. There will be a converted ministry. Those who have had privileges and opportunities to become intelligent in regard to the truth, and yet who continue to counter the work God would have accomplished, will be purged out, for God accepts the service of no man whose interest is divided. He accepts the whole heart or none.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 20, 320.
The Lord gives a new heart. The Lord causes me to walk in His statutes. The Lord will choose ministers and pastors to guard His flock. The Lord is going to do a lot.
Faithful Souls will ‘Come Out’ to Proclaim the Message
“At the eleventh hour the Lord will call into His service many faithful workers. Self-sacrificing men and women will step into the places made vacant by apostasy and death.…With converted minds, converted hands, converted feet, and converted tongues, their lips touched with a living coal from the divine altar, they will go forth into the Master’s service, moving steadily onward and upward, carrying the work
forward to completion.” Youth’s Instructor, February 13, 1902.
I see this beginning to happen, and I am worried that the Loud Cry is going to go on and maybe we will not be in it. The Loud Cry may be going forward with people who have circumvented the Seventh-day Adventist organization, because God says I will call men of My own choosing; I will gather them in.
In 1844, people were called out of many different denominations to proclaim a message. God has true people in all denominations. Ellen White says in Prophets and Kings, 714, 715: “No longer have the hosts of evil power to keep the church captive.” Daniel was the church captive in Babylon. The church is captive to Babylon again, and these faithful souls are going to come out and they are going to proclaim a message.
These conversions to truth will be made with such rapidity that it will surprise us, and God’s name alone will be glorified. “There are many souls to come out of the ranks of the world, out of the churches—even the Catholic Church—whose zeal will far exceed that of those who have stood in rank and file to proclaim the truth heretofore. For this reason the eleventh hour laborers will receive their penny. These will see the battle coming and they will give the trumpet a certain sound. When the crisis is upon us, when the season of calamity shall come, they will come to the front…” Selected Messages, vol. 3, 386, 387.
Order and Harmony to be in Our Work
“God is a God of order. Everything connected with heaven is in perfect order; subjection and thorough discipline mark the movements of the angelic host…God requires order and system in His work now no less than in the days of Israel. All who are working for Him are to labor intelligently, not in a careless, haphazard manner. He would have His work done with faith and exactness, that He may place the seal of His approval upon it.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 376.
“Angels work harmoniously. Perfect order characterizes all their movements. The more closely we imitate the harmony and order of the angelic host, the more successful will be the efforts of these heavenly agents in our behalf. If we see no necessity for harmonious action, and are disorderly, undisciplined, and disorganized in our course of action, angels, who are thoroughly organized and move in perfect order, cannot work for us successfully. They turn away in grief, for they are not authorized to bless confusion, distraction, and disorganization. All who desire the cooperation of the heavenly messengers must work in unison with them. Those who have the unction from on high, will in all their efforts encourage order, discipline, and union of action, and then the angels of God can cooperate with them.” Christian Service, 75.
Revival Needed
Our most urgent need is revival and reformation. It must take place under the ministration of the Holy Spirit, shedding abroad in our hearts the true love of God. That is the glue for all human beings. “Revival and reformation are two different things. Revival signifies a renewal of spiritual life.… Reformation signifies a re-organization.” Christian Service, 42.
“Reformation will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless it is connected with the revival of the Spirit. Revival and reformation are to do their appointed work, and in doing this work they must blend.” Ibid.
We want a reformation. We want things to happen, but we need a revival in our own lives, a quickening of the power of mind and heart, a resurrection from spiritual death. Let us make a commitment to do everything we can to unify in truth, pray for the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts, to shed the love of God abroad, that we might go forward and get the work done.