Minneapolis : 1888 Exactly What Happened
Alexander deNuefville Snyman
Contents Chapter 1
inneapolis 888: e essage nd ts essengers xactly hat appened 2 Chapter 2
ne ittl ittlee ord—ut ord—ut t urned urned e orld orld pside own 2 Chapter 3
ighteousness by aith and the leansing o the anctuary 38 Chapter 4
our obe: oven in e oom o eaven 59 Chapter 5
hy it is ard to e ost and asy to be aved 75 Chapter 6
hrist and the ovenants 90 Chapter 7
Questions and nswers 07
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Chapter 1
Minneapolis 1888: The Message And Its Messengers Exactly What Happened
eventh-day dventism begins with a man named illiam iller arly in the nineteenth century iller century,, ater a lie alternately as a armer, an army ocer, and a eist, he decided to begin to study the ible in earnest e determined determined to allow the ible to be its own interpreter, using no helps other than ruden, a concordance is study led him to the book o aniel and a ascination with the prophecy o the 2300 days o aniel 8:4: “nto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” rom this he concluded that hrist would return to this earth at the end o this time to “cleanse this earthly sanctuary sanctuary” e calculated the time ti me o the prophecy as ending in 843, which date was later changed to 844, when it was realized that there was no zero years between the and dates ime was calculated on the “day-or-year” principle or some twelve years he and others who believed his message preached vigorously that hrist would return to earth in 844 n time an exact date o ctober 22, 844, was set or the econd oming o hrist course, hrist did not return as expected, which resulted in what came to be known as the “reat isappointment” urther study o the ible revealed that this very disappointment was prophesied prop hesied in the tenth chapter o evelation (0:7-) illiam iller died soon ater 844, and the indications are he never understood why hrist did not come as he had predicted or so long ut o this “illerite” movement arose the eventh-day dventist hurch ts early beginnings were marked by the visions
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which came to llen armon, later rs llen hite, and the enthusiastic spreading o the message by these early believers, who distributed tracts and other literature by hand, by horse and buggy, ible studies in the home, open air meetings, and camp meetings and evangelistic campaigns in tents and similar places n this way the message o the ree ngels o evelation continued to be preached as ar and wide as human limitations would permit, so that the date 844 was a oundation stone in the entire eventh-day dventist structure and the establishment o its prophetic origins e come now to the next great date in eventh-day dventist history at was the date o the eneral onerence which met in the city o inneapolis, innesota, in the year 888 t has turned out that this was the most important eneral onerence session ever held in the history histor y o the eventh-day dventist hurch y the the standards o such eneral onerences as those held in allas, ew rleans, and ndianapolis, with their attendances o 20,000 or more, the inneapolis eneral onerence o 888 was inauspicious ut it will be seen s een that what actually actu ally took place there at the time made it a great highlight in the story o dventism e institute institut e meetings began beg an on ctober 0, 0, 888, 888 , a ednesday ednesday,, and continued until the evening o ednesday the 7th, when the eneral onerence proper began e session ended unday, ovember o vember 4 uring the conerence llen hite spoke a total o ten times, once by proxy, proxy, when another delivered her written wri tten message ne unday she spoke twice rom the very beginning begin ning o the nstitute meetings two young men gave a series o studies at the morning meetings on the subject o ighteous and ustication by aith, and these continued on through the entire eneral onerence eetings were held in the eventh-day dventist hurch in the city o inneapolis, situated at the corner o ake and ourth e church no longer exists, having long since been torn down and replaced ut the original pulpit used by llen hite and the 888 messengers is still in use in the church which stands today about a mile rom the original site picture o the delegates and 3
others was taken at the time and can still be seen ome have been able to recognize a relative rom long ago in the group ess than 00 00 delegates were in attendance at the session y coincidence happened to be conducting a seminar in the present church in inneapolis just one hundred years years ater the original session began s mentioned earlier, the eneral onerence session o 888 began on ctober 0 was in the inneapolis church or my seminar on riday and abbath, ctober 8 and 9, 988 ne day later would have been exactly one hundred years rom the beginning o the original session session lso, had the use o the pulpit which was in use at that session o 888 ot that this matters one particle, but it was, to me, an interesting coincidence hile there asked one o the elders o the church i he would take me m e to the site o the original church in which the 888 session was held e gladly agreed to take me there, saying it was barely a mile rom the present church hen we came to the site at the corner o ourth and ake, noticed a building standing there on which saw the word, , in large letters written on it asked him what it was used or, and he told me it was a place where they produced pornographic literature and motion pictures o an immoral kind hat a sad commentary, when we remember what actually took place on that very spot a hundred years beore nd now to the messengers who actually presented the studies during the morning meetings, both during the nstitute sessions and also the eneral onerence itsel eir names were lonzo revier ones and llet oseph aggoner aggoner e latter latt er was a medical doctor as well as a keen ible student o no ordinary ability abil ity ones had a military background, and was also a talented student o the criptures eir presentations made an immediate and lasting impression on rs llen hite he was, in act, elated as she listened to the message which she recognized as the one she hersel had been trying to give to the people or many years, but had not articulated it as ones and aggoner aggoner were doing riting riting o this later she said:
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e ord in is great mercy sent a most precious message to is people through lders aggoner and ones t presented justication through aith in the urety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness o hrist, which is made maniest in obedience to all the commandments o od is is the message that od commanded to be given to the world t is the third angel’s angel’s message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice and attended with the outpouring o is pirit in a large measure (estimonies to Ministers , pp 9-92)
articularly notice the words, “is is the message that od commanded to be given to the world” ere ere there has been identied or us the very message that od intends the world wor ld to receive rom us is immediately cancels out all the many variations o ighteousness ighteousn ess and ustication by aith which are heard among us today urely, i these words are true, we have no business paying attention to anything else except that message: studying it, assimilating it, and spreading its good news to the ends o the earth lder aniels, president o the eneral onerence or longer than any other, wrote an interesting little book concerning this message, in which he said: n 888 there came to the eventh-day dventist hurch a very denite awakening message t was designated at the time as “the message o ighteousness by aith” oth the message itsel and the manner o its coming made a deep and lasting impression upoon the minds o ministers up ministers and people and the the lapse o time has not not erased that impression rom memory o this day, many o those who heard the message when it came are deeply interested in it and concerned regarding it ll these long years they have held a rm conviction, and cherished a ond hope, that some day this message would be given great prominence among us, and that it would do the cleansing, regenerating work in the church which they believed it was sent by the ord to accomplish (Christ Our Righteousness , p 23) 5
nd later in the same book lder aniels says again: e message has never been received, nor proclaimed, nor given ree course as it should have been, in order to convey to the church the measureless blessings that were wrapped within it (p 47)
robably no more signicant statement relative to the 888 eneral onerence and the message which was there proclaimed was ever made by llen hite than this one which describes so graphically what really took place at the time and with what results n unwillingness to yield up preconceived opinions, and to accept this truth [here she was reerring especially to the act brought out at the time that the ‘law’ in the letter to the alatians is especially the moral law], lay at the oundation o a large share o the oppositio oppo sition n maniested at inneapolis [888] against the ord’s ord’s message through the rethren [ ] aggoner and [ ] ones y exciting that opposition atan succeed in shutting away rom our people, in a great measure, the special power o the oly pirit that od longed to impart to them e enemy prevented them rom obtaining that eciency which might have been theirs in carrying the truth to the world, as the apostles proclaimed it ater the day o entecost e light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory was resisted, and by the action o our own brethren has been in a great degree kept away rom the world (Selected Messages , book , pp 234-235)
ay very careul attention to the last sentence in the above quoted paragraph “e light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory” is clearly a reerence to evelation 8:, which text has been understood by eventh-day dventists rom the very rst as being a prophecy o the nal outpouring o the atter ain nd this “light,” we are told, “was resisted,” and “in a great degree, kept away rom the world wo rld”” ther statements rom rom the pirit o rophecy conrm that what took place at the eneral onerence session o 6
888 was actually the beginning beginning o the atter ain and the oud ry r y o the ird ngel otice this one: “e time o test is just upon us, or the oud ry o the third angel has already begun in the revelation o the righteousness o hrist, the sin-pardoning edeemer is is the beginning o the light o the angel whose glory shall ll the whole earth” ( Ibid ,, p 363; emphasis supplied)
gain the reerence to evelation 8:, and the “oud ry” o the third angel is is what took place in 888 ones understood this all too clearly ere is a sample o his preaching some our years later: ow brethren, when did that message o the righteousness o hrist, begin with us as a people? (ne or two in the audience: “ree or our years ago”) hich was it, three? or our? (ongregation: “our”) es, our here was it? (ongregation: “inneapolis”) hat then did the brethren reject at inneapolis? (ome in the congregation: “e loud cry”) cr y”) hat is that message o righteousness? e estimony has told us what it is; the loud cry—the latter rain en what did the brethren in that earul position in which they stood, reject at inneapolis? ey rejected the latter rain—the loud cry o the third angel’s message ( 1893 General Conerence Bulletin, p 83)
ejected esisted esisted ad comments on what could have been such an outpouring o the oly pirit as would have prepared a people or translation translatio n during the 890’s 890’s n act, our years would wou ld have been enough or the world to hear the message o warning (see the 1893 General Conerence Bulletin, p 49) tatement tatement upon statement rom llen hite tells us that hrist could have come back to earth beore 900 had od’s purpose been ullled ter her return rom ustralia, and the entire drama o the 890s had been completed, 7
the ord’s essenger summed up the position in these words: “e disappointment o hrist is beyond description” (Review and Herald , ecember 5, 904) ese are not dark and hidden secrets which are being revealed here ey are matters o clear and open record otice this item taken rom the Adventist Review o a ew years ago: n commemoration o the 888 eneral onerence session, which led to the dventist hurch hurch’’s rst emphasis on the righteousness righteo usness by aith doctrine, delegates to the nnual ouncil voted to hold a special centennial convocation in early ovember, 988 “is was the only eneral onerence session where llen hite was publicly deed,” said obert lson, director o the llen hite state “ter “ter that meeting came three years o revivals conducted by ones and aggoner, coeditors o Signs O Te imes imes , and llen hite” ( Adventist Adventist Review , ctober 30, 986)
umerous publications made their appearance during duri ng the 988 Materials centennial era mong these were the llen hite 1888 Materials o our volumes, a total o more than 800 pages, containing all that the ord’s essenger had ever written on 888 is meant that, nally, the whole story o the 888 session and the message which came to od’s people at that time was there or all to see in its ullness ere was a companion volume to these entitled, Manuscripts and Memories o Minneapolis 1888 , a collection o various materials rom those who were present at the time and who have let us their recollections ere was also an interesting book entitled, What Every Adventist Should Know About 1888 , written by r rnold allenkamp, which clearly sets out the story o the giving o the message and its rejection o that the entire history o the 888 essage and its background and atermath is now available availabl e or all to read and understand ne question kept cropping up ater the 888 eneral onerence and that was the matter o the relationship between 8
the ree ngels’ essages and the oten discussed teachings on ighteousness and ustication by aith ere we not supposed to be giving the ird ngel’s essage to the world? en why all this never-ending emphasis on ustication by aith? llen hite dealt with this about eighteen months ater the inneapolis session when she wrote: “everal have written to me, inquiring i the message o justication by aith is the third angel’s angel’s message, and have answered, ‘t is the third angel’s message in verity’” ( Review and Herald , pril , 890)
is statement has been reproduced in Selected Messages, book , page 372 hat, in eect, is the ird ngel’s essage, or, as we are accustomed to say in dventist terminology, the ree ngels’ essages (which are the same thing)? e answer in brie summary is ound in evelation 4:6, where w here we are told that the rst angel had “the everlasting gospel” to preach to the world is is the essential content o the ree ngels’ essages, the “verlasting ospel” ur conclusion, then, is that the message o ighteousness and ustication usti cation by aith, aith, or the 888 message mes sage o hrist’ hrist’ss ighteousness ighteo usness (llen hite’s avorite expression), or the ird ngel’s essage, or the verlasting ospel, all are one and the same vidence such as we have compiled thus ar emphasized emphas ized strongly that exact exactly ly what happened in inneapolis, innesota, at the eneral eneral onerenc one rencee o 888, was actually the beginning begin ning o the long-expected outpouring o the oly pirit in the orm o the atter ain is was no spectacular display o some kind o celestial brilliance, the way many think o the outpouring o the oly pirit, but the giving o a message o ruth n act, had it not been or the presence o an inspired essenger among us at the time, probably no one would have known that what was taking place was the atter ain and the oud ry
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robably or the rst time in history a eventh-day dventist publication o a ew years ago recognized the truth o this, that in 888 at inneapolis there actually began the outpouring o the oly pirit known as the atter ain is publication was the book by r room, entitled, Movement o Destiny. ome signicant paragraphs rom this book will establish the point: ere was thus, in the nineties, not only an exposition but a maniestation o the power o ighteousness by aith that was an earnest o the power o the crowning oud ry climax destined to come, samplings o which were then given rs hite expressly stated that what was taking place was actually the beginning o the atter ain” (p 345) e who denies that the oud ry began to sound in 888 impugns the veracity o the pirit o rophecy e who asserts the atter ain did not then begin to all challenges the integrity o od’s message relayed to us (p 667) s all students o these backgrounds are aware these truths o 888 have not yet come c ome to their ull tide, tide, as we are are told that that they must must and will beore and as we enter upon the nal phase o our witness to the world ey will yet denitely become the throbbing, allpervasive heart o our nal presentation to the world e “nal movements” will be “rapid ones”—pirit-lled, hrist-centered, ull-message, ighteousness-by-aith-surcharged movements e glorious truths o 888 will triumph (p 52)
ost eventh-day dventists dventists are amiliar with the statement that “the nal movements will be rapid ones” t is ound in estimonies volume 9, page ut many, have ound, are not as amiliar with what consider to be a much more spectacular description o o the last movements t is one which appears on the last page o volume ve th e Church: o estimonies or the
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n zekiel’s zekiel’s vision, od had is hand beneath b eneath the wings o the cherubim e bright light going among the living creatures with the switness o lightning represents the speed with which this work will nally go orward to completion (p 754)
apid movements, yes ut more than this, the nal movements will be like “lightning” or switness hen the message o 888 goes on its last mission under the power o the oly pirit and the atter ain, the world will be warned in an incredibly short time e have been told that the message will go “like re in the stubble” uring the years immediately ollowing the inneapolis meetings there was, among the people o od, a “translation awareness,”” which motivated them in all that they did awareness, di d ey believed that they would soon meet their ord on the clouds o glory is conviction can be seen in such statements as this one by ones: rethren, that is where we are et us act like it et us thank the ord that e is dealing with us still, to save us rom our errors, to save us rom our dangers, to keep us back rom wrong courses, and to pour upon us the atter ain, that we may be translated at is what the message means —translation —to you and me ( 1893 General Conerence Bulletin, p 85)
ones laid emphasis em phasis upon upo n this thought t hought more than once, as we nd in this next statement also rom the same source: rethren, is there not a lot o good cheer in the thought that the latter rain is to prepare us or translation? ow, where is the latter rain to all, and when does it? ow is the time or the latter rain, and when is the time or the loud cry? (oice: “ow”) hat is it to prepare us or? (oice: “or translation”) t brings good cheer to me that the tests that the ord is giving us now, are to t us or translation nd when e comes to speak to you and me, it is 11
because e wants to translate us, but e cannot translate sin, can e? en, the only purpose that e has in showing us the depth and breadth bread th o sin, is that e may save save us rom it i t and translate us en, shall we become discouraged when e shows us our sins? o; let us thank im that e wants to translate us, and e wants to do this so much that e wishes to get our sins out o the way as soon as possible” (1893 General Conerence Bulletin, p 205)
nd urther, urther, this awareness o the act that the ord would soon return, and that tha t is people then living would be translated to heaven, and leave leave this this world without without seeing death, had the eect o bringing about a corresponding awareness o the importance o healthul living is point received emphasis by both the 888 messengers irst, here is ones: ow another thing right there e e are living in view o another an other earul act, that is, i that message which we are now to give, is not received, it has attached to it the earul consequences that the wine o the wrath o od will be received nd the work which is to bring all ace to ace with that act, as it is there recorded, is now begun ereore, will not that give a power to the health reorm that it has not yet had ? hen the health reorm was given to the people o od, it was dened as that which is to t the people or translation ut we have to go through the seven last plagues beore we are translated; and i a man’s blood is impure and ull o gross material will he be able to pass through that time, when the air is sick with pestilence? ndeed, he cannot (1893 General Conerence Bulletin, pp 88-89)
aggoner aggoner also laid emphasis emp hasis upon this important imp ortant aspect o o the ird ngel’ n gel’ss essage ere are his words: ow when we come to the matter o healthul living, or that is all in this, we see it is not giving up this thing, and it is not giving 12
up that thing, and the other thing, as though every joy o lie had to be given up; but it is getting our eyes xed on the ord esus hrist ow when we get hold o that, we have healthul living livi ng in mortal esh, and sinless lives in sinul esh; and we shall glory glor y in inrmities; we shall take pleasure even in temptations, in inrmities, inrmi ties, that the power o od may rest upon us hile we cannot do anything to bring the pirit o od into us, we can do a great many things to keep im out; so that when somebody says to me as talk health reorm and healthul living they say, “e “e are not saved by works” o, but we are lost by works at is why this health reorm is presented presented to us: it is the the lie o od maniested: it is or us to behold od in all is works ( 1901 General Conerence Bulletin, p 407)
ranslation awareness is is what lled the people o od in the early 890’s ad they been told that one hundred years later eventh-day dventists would still s till be preaching their message in this world o sin they would never have believed believed it requently asked by many is the question which deals with the many prophesied events which were to take place shortly beore the econd oming o hrist, most particularly the ark o the east prophecies and the matter o the unday aws which would precipitate this nal, ultimate test upon the people o od “ow,” they asked, “could the ord have returned in the 890s when all these prophecies were still unullled?” ctually, a national unday law was on the verge o being enacted during the height o the 888 era t was, in act, in 888 that senator lair introduced a bill into the nited tates ongress enorcing unday as a day o worship mmediately ater the 888 inneapolis session ses sion ones was called to ashington to oppose the bill o well did he present his case that the bill was never passed t is my personal conviction that had od’s people been ready to play their part ully in the nal acts o the great drama o the ages, it would not no t have been the senator senator,, lair, who would have suered suered deeat, deeat, but but ones 13
ore than this, it is a act that in those early 890s, there were cases in such states as ennessee, where live, and in others like eorgia, labama, ississippi, and even rkansas, where eventhday dventist armers were in chain gangs because they plowed their elds on unday unday laws were being enorced, and with a vengeance t the time when the message o warning should have gone to the ends o the earth the stage was set or the ulllment o every prophecy having to do with the last-day events emember, od is not waiting or unday laws to be enacted so that esus can return to earth e is waiting or a prepared people peo ple unday laws are atan’s concern od’s people are expected to believe the message which has in it the power so to transorm human beings everywhere that they can be prepared or translation translation into the the kingdom kingdom o heaven hat message can accomplish accomplish this? t is, is, o course, cour se, the t he 888 8 88 message o hrist’s ighteousness, which has lain virtually dormant or centuries rom the time o the reormers like artin uther and others there has been a steady and certain growth in the recovery o that ospel which virtually turned the world upside down in the rst century otice these words rom the en o nspiration: reat truths that have lain unheeded and unseen since the day o entecost, are to shine rom od’s word in their native purity o those who truly love od the oly pirit will reveal truths that have aded rom the mind, and will also also reveal truths that are entirely entirely ne new (Fundamentals o Christian Education, p 473)
ere the time and the setting o this statement clearly means that llen hite was writing with the ones-aggoner message in mind hen this message goes to the arthermost reaches o earth under the power o the oly pirit in the atter ain and the oud ry o the ird ngel, “like re in the stubble,” the “prepared people” concept will become a reality, and then the ord will come again, “in the glory o is ather with the holy angels”
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ever mind the unday laws have said repeatedly that i all the ord is waiting or is the enactment o unday laws to make it possible or esus to return to this earth, my suggestion is that we all climb on the unday-law bandwagon and put the unday legislation into eect as soon as possible so that esus can return to earth without urther delay is, o course, is ridiculous, and it is said acetiously, but it does illustrate the utter utility o looking to unday-law legislation to point the way to the nearness o the econd oming emember, od is not waiting or unday laws, but a prepared people s r erbert erbert ouglas said to me on the telephone telep hone years ago: “lex, i we can only o nly get across to t o eventh-day dventists everywhere the ‘prepared people’ concept, we will have won probably ninety percent o the battle” ow right he was ink o it prepared people bride in readiness t’s going to happen, because we are told this in evelation 9:7: “et us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to im: or the marriage o the amb is come, and is wie hath made hersel hersel ready ready” t is as i it has already happened happ ened e only onl y question is, hen? e answer rests with the people o od robably no more puzzling question is asked concerning the 888 message and the messengers than that which deals with the personal history o ones and aggoner “e hear that they lost their way way s this true? nd i it is, does this not virtually vir tually negate their entire message?” is is the question so oten asked t is one which must be addressed oth ones and aggoner lost their way, it is true oes this indeed negate their message? e answer is “o,” and this will be demonstrated irst o all, it seem that llen hite was given some kind o indication that something o the sort would take place he wrote as ollows: t is quite possible that lder ones or aggoner may be overthrown by the temptations o the enemy; but i they should be, this
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would not pro would prove ve that that the theyy had had no message rom od, or that the work they had done was all a mistake (etter -24, 892)
is was clear warning in advance he did not say that it would happen he only mentioned the t he possibility possibility ut there is a signicant undercurrent, or tone, o suggestion that such a tragedy would w ould occur t comes across to many as a prophecy otice this, penned in the same year: hould the ord’s messengers, ater standing manully or the truth or a time, all under temptation, and dishonor im who has given them their work, will that be proo that the message is not true? o in on the part o the messenger o od would cause atan to rejoice, and those who have rejected the message and the messenger to triumph; but it would not at all clear the men who are guilty o rejecting the message o od (etter -9, 892)
nd again rom the same letter: ill the ord’s messenger bear the pressure brought against him? so, it is because od bids him stand in his strength, and vindicate the truth that he is sent o od
roughout all o the above statements one central point o emphasis stands out clearly clear ly ny alling away rom their earlier earl ier position and the truths which they had taught, must not be interpreted to mean that the message they had borne could be discarded as untrue lders aggoner and ones had presented the truth, and quite regardless o what happened to them later, or what they did or said subsequently,, the message they gave remained what it had been rom subsequently the beginning: unassailable truth onsider or a moment the ollowing statement made by an earlier preacher o the dventist message mess age e is explaining the moral law o the en ommandments and its importance: 16
eader, i this law were strictly observed in this community, would it not produce an excellent state o society? ere would be no idolatry, proanity, abbath breaking, disobedience to parents, murder, adultery, stealing, or lying ho would not wish to live in such a community? is is the law or which we plead ese principles havee always hav always existe existed d since od made man upon the earth ey were as binding upon the antediluvians as upon the Jews, and they are as obligatory now as then
urely no one would disagree with the sentiments here expressed ey speak or themselves ow notice this: e could conceive o no nation, generation, or individual that could violate these precepts with impunity Tis law is as eternal and unchangeable as the Creator
gain am sure it would be hard to conceive o anyone’s disagreeing disagr eeing with the above statement ven ven hard-bitten hard-bitten antinomianists should be able to see light in these sentiments ut now consider the ollowing: “ow, under hrist, we are delivered rom the law; that law is dead” “is letter o the law is not binding upon hristians as a coercive code” “e have something better than the decalogue”
ese last three statements could hardly go unchallenged n the eventh-day dventist hurch we would nd severe opposition to anyone expressing such ideas ut, as you might have guessed by now, all the statements quoted above, the rst two as well as the last three, were made by the same individual is name, o course, was anright t the height o his career as an dventist preacher he articulated the eventh-day dventist message with talent and eloquence eloqu ence which which has has probably never been matched by any among amo ng us nd yet he apostatized apo statized e rst two statements quoted above above reect 17
his teaching while he still still walked with us e last three appear in his book, Seventh-day Adventism Renounced, written, o course, ater he let the church hat we are trying to emphasize, and this is the point o it all, is that what he said ater a ter he let the church in no way w ay changes the truths o those things he articulated so eloquently in earlier years e may still believe heartily all that he taught while preaching the ird ngel’s essage as only he could, because it is still truth is later departure rom the aith, brought about by conicting orces within himsel which are hard to understand, ailed to make any change in the truth o the dventist message ey remained as true ater his separation rom the church as beore ny changes were those in anright, not in the message o dventism ere is where we see the parallel with the message o ones and aggoner eir later alling away did not alter the truth o the message they bore to the church, as llen hite so clearly explained, anymore than did anright’s alling away change any o the truths o dventism esides all that has been said above there is a urther point which needs to be emphasized e have every reason to believe that both ones and aggoner aggoner will be b e saved in the kingdom o od oth gave indications toward the end o their lives that whatever mistakes and sins had marred their careers they had made every possible eort to make wrongs right, and had shown deep contrition as they aced the end o lie’s journey aggoner wrote a long letter near the end o his lie which brought this out e daughter o ones wrote in a letter, which read many years ago, that she was with her ather on the day that he died, and that his aith in esus hrist hris t as his ord and edeemer was as strong as it could be ould it not be tragic i there are those who are eternally lost because they rejected the 888 message or the reasons o the alling away o the 888 messengers, when ones and aggoner themselves will be there? is could happen otice this complete quotation o an earlier statement we gave about the messengers:
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t is quite possible that lder ones or aggoner may be overthrown by the temptations o the enemy; but i they should be, this would not prove that they had no message rom od, or that the work that they had done was all a mistake (etter -24, 892)
is is as ar as we quoted earlier ut notice how the etter continues: ut should this happen, how many would take this position, and enter into a atal delusion because they were not under the control o the pirit o od
ere is a solemn warning here irst o all, there is the use o the word ‘atal’ is word, o course, always denotes death in some way or another ut it is obvious that in this case the death which is implied is not the result o a heart attack, or physical death by accident, or example learly, what is implied is being eternally lost, or eternal death deat h n other words, those who “take this position,” that is, reject the message mess age o ones and aggoner aggoner because they ell away at one time, are running r unning the risk o being eternally lost ey could lose their salvation as a direct result o rejecting the message o 888 urthermore, the words, “ecause they were not under the control o the pirit o od,” has overtones o the unpardonable sin henever anyone persists in rejection o the oly pirit, he immediately places himsel in a dangerous position, because such persistence can lead to a place where the tender voice o the oly pirit is no longer heard: the oly pirit has been grieved away ne does not play ast and loose with the tender, pleading voice o the oly pirit o od, without running the risk o dangerous and eternal consequences nother question asked sometimes is why ones and aggoner did not remain aithul to their od-appointed task when someone like artin uther, or example, aced the might o the church o ome and never ailed in his mission ut it is not really air to 19
compare ones and aggoner aggoner with w ith artin uther u ther uther had come co me to understand the prophecies o aniel and evelation as they reerred to the papal antichrist hen this church excommunicated him, it was, to artin uther, something to be expected t was probably an evidence that he was on the right track ut ones and aggoner aggoner had every reason to believe that the eventh-day dventist hurch was a movement raised by od to give the last message o warning to a dying world, and when this church turned against them in the way that it did, it was more mo re than they could co uld bear e e do not excuse them in their ailing to ulll their mission, but we do need to understand the circumstances under which they gave their message, and the bitter opposition they encountered t the height o their ministry, llen hite was sent to ustralia in what was subsequently revealed to be an exile, and aggoner was sent to ngland under conditions o “extreme privation” ones was let in the to carry on the giving o the message on his own is must surely have seemed to them to be a nal and complete rejection o the work they had been called o the ord to do: a “slap in the ace,” we could say inally, remember the words quoted earlier rom estimonies to Ministers, page 92: ay od grant that we all will soon have a part in the nal triumph o is church
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Chapter 2
One Little Li ttle Word— Word— But It Turne Turned d T he Worl World d Upside Upsi de Down Do wn
n understanding o the subject we are presenting today is undamental to our understanding o the gospel ithout such a grasp o ew estament teachings we cannot hope to appre appreciate ciate the vital elements o ighteousness by aith, or understand the subject in its ullness e are dealing with the oundation stone o gospel truth ne little word—but it turned the world upside down e thought is taken rom cts 7:6, where we read that the ollowers o esus were accused o turning the world upside down ut to be accurate, it needs to be recognized that what really turned the world upside down was one little word, and that one little word was the great “love” word o the t he ew estament estament nd n d it is this word to which we shall be turning our attention in this study e reeks had dierent words or “love” during their long and colorul history ome ve hundred years beore the time o hrist, the time o the heyday o reek philosophical thought, the reek philosophers, ocrates, lato and ristotle, had conceived o the ultimate o human emotions in terms o a “love” which they called eros ut the problem was that this word was the product o a human mind, and because it was o human origin, the word eros had nowhere to go but down, and down it went, until by ew estament times it had gathered or itsel an aura, or meaning, almost o unpleasantness, and was thus completely unsuitable u nsuitable or o r ew estament estament use, which is why we do not nd the word used u sed even once in the ew estament e word “erotic” in the nglish language comes rom the reek
A
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word eros ere were other words or “love” which the reeks used ne was the word storgē , a word with a very narrow meaning, implying close clannishness, such as the “natural aection” one would nd among the hill olk o lk o some areas o entucky and ennessee, ennessee, where amilies have been known to carry on quarrels and euds among themselves, but should anyone rom outside try to stick his nose into their business it would get bent out o shape in a hurry Storgē appears only twice in the ew estament, and then only in its combinative orm o astorgous , in omans :3 and 2 imothy 3:3, where it is translated “without natural aection” ut then there is another word which appears in the ew estament, and that is the word philía ere is a very beautiul, warm, and tender word which is best expressed in the love ound among close riends and amily members e meaning o warmth and tenderness which it conveys makes it an important im portant word o the ew estament, estament, where it is ound some 00 to 50 times nd yet these are not the central “love” word o the ew estament which we would like to consider consider at word, wo rd, the theme o our discussion, was quite obscure in ew estament times, but the writers o o the ew estament estament took too k this word and an d raised it to heights where it transcends in meaning every other word in the human language e e have about six thousand languages in the world today today,, and one thousand o these are spoken in rica alone n none o these languages, including nglish, can we nd a match in meaning or this little word we are discussing now ere are places in the world where missionaries have gone where people do not understand the meaning o love as we know it ome o them do not even have a word or “love” “love” n such cases the missionary missionar y either has to learn the language and then try tr y to nd a way to describe what he is trying to say, or, working with the leaders o the group, invent a new word in that language, one which will convey the same meaning as the word in the reek ew estament is once obscure word wo rd about which we are talking is the reek 22
word agápē is is the word which has been raised rom an obscure place in human language to a place where it stands on a level ar exceeding any other word in the whole world today is word is one which describes a love which is ultimately seless, depicting the very essence o od t is used in the ew estament between 300 and 350 times e postle aul reached his highest point o linguistic expression when he wrote what is known as his “ymn o o Agápē” in orinthians 3 s you read this chapter remember this word and what it means evertheless, it was not aul the apostle who reached the highest rung o the ladder o linguistic expression, but the apostle ohn, who penned the ormula, “od is Agápē,” in ohn 4:8 is is as high as anyone can go arly in hristian history histor y a man named ugustine, regarded even today, among atholics at least, as the greatest o their theologians, tried to come to grips with the “love” theme o the ew estament e had a problem with this word agápē e ound himsel in an area with which he was completely comp letely unamiliar luent luent in reek, steeped in ellenistic thought, he knew about eros ut this word agápē caused him to become conused n his wrestling with the problem he tried to bring about a usion, or synthesis, between the words agápē and eros e result was a word which he called caritas is is the word rom which we get the word “charity,” in the ew estament e meaning o agápē is completely distorted dist orted by this word, and especially is this true today to day,, when the word “charity” “charity” conveys a meaning meani ng to most mo st people to which they do not react avorably suggestion: when you read orinthians 3, read “love” or the word “charity,” in the ing ames ersion, or, better yet, read “agápē,” as you begin to understand it is synthesis between agápē and eros , which ugustine produced, actually continued or more than a thousand years, until there came a man who began to unravel it, and restore the original meaning resently, we shall deal with this more ully ome ew estament passages bring out interesting dierences between agápē and philía, 23
or example onsider this passage beginning with ohn 2:5, describing an interesting conversation between esus and the apostle eter otice: otice : “o when they had dined, esus saith to imon eter, imon, son o onas, lovest thou e more than these? e saith unto im, ea, ord; thou knowest that love ee e saith unto him, eed y lambs” is conversation was repeated three times ut what does not come out clearly in the nglish translation is that when esus asked eter, “o you love e?,” e actually asked, “o you love e with the supremely seless love o agápē ?” ?” owever, when eter answered he actually said, “es, ord, love ou with the warm and tender philía” e second time it was the same, but on the third love o philía occasion esus came down to the level l evel o eter, eter, as it were, and asked, “o you indeed love e with the warm and tender love o philía?” ere it was that eter elt hurt, and answered, “ord, ou know all things ou know that love ou” hy, it may be asked, was eter unwilling to say that he loved his ord with the seless love o agápē ? ne possible explanation is that eter eter had recently denied his ord, which may have knocked all the sel-condence out o him, making him unwilling to say that he loved his ord with the ultimate love o agápē hen we look at another interesting comparison compariso n we nd that in the ew estament whenever the love o esus or azarus azar us is described des cribed it is always philía emember, philía indicates a warm, tender, closeness e can picture esus coming to azarus, putting his arm around him, and saying, “azarus, y riend, how is your courage today, how strong is your aith?” at sort o thing ut whenever the love o esus esus or ary or artha is described it was always agápē hy? learly, that the motives o esus be not misunderstood onsider now the background o agápē and eros ere we nd some most striking contrasts wedish utheran bishop, whose name was nders ygren, wrote a book entitled “ Agape and Eros ” ” t is a classic in its eld, and i you ever want to wade through a mass o heavy but interesting material and gain an understanding o these 24
vital essentials as you never have beore, get that book and read it, and give yoursel plenty o time n this book the contrasts between agápē and eros are clearly considered and tabulated et us touch on some o them essentiall y sel-centered ere is a love which Eros is a love that is essentially operates wonderully when there is an under-the-table kickback, as we would say, when there is a return in real benets s an example, eros is capable o loving a beautiul object, because there is pleasure and reward in such love ow dierent is agápē Agápē not only loves the unlovely, but actually creates beauty in the object it loves or example, there is this description o humanity in saiah :6, where we are told how od sees us: “rom the sole o the oot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putreying putre ying sores: so res: they the y have not been b een closed, neither bound up, neither mollied with ointment” hat a revolting picture nd into this seething mass o ugliness od sent is on nd with what result? otice this in saiah 3:2: “ will make a man more precious than ne gold; even a man than the golden wedge o phir” Agápē not only loves the unlovely but actually creates beauty in the object it loves Eros is an acquisitive desire and longing, where as agápē is sacricial giving otice the sel-centered motivation here Eros , grasping or itsel, but agápē giving itsel away Agápē is extra-centric, hristo-centric Eros is always climbing climb ing up t is essentially an upward movement t is constantly seeking its own betterment is is the very essence o all heathen religions, and even some hristian religions or example, consider the “salvation-by-works” idea which is ound in one ater another o such religions as uddhism, induism, slam, udaism, and many more e uddhist raises himsel up rom one plane o spiritual attainment, by a series o mental eorts, to an ever higher level e oslem goes through many kinds o spiritual exercises in seeking his nal reward ere is the indu who lies upon a bed o nails, walks through throu gh a bed o white-hot coals, has esh hooks hoo ks placed into his body by which he draws a cart containing an idol, and 25
so on, all in an eort to attain some high spiritual goal Agápē , by contrast, is a love which comes down t is a descending movement ore on this presently hereas eros seeks to gain its lie, “a lie divine, immortalized” (see ygren, p 20) Agápē , by contrast once again, lives the lie o od, and thereore “dares to lose it” (ygren, p 20) Eros is primarily man’s love, whereas agápē is primarily od’ od’ss love od is Agápē omans 5:7-8 brings out a lesson in contrasts on this very theme o sel-centered and hrist-centered loves omans 5:7 reads: “or scarcely or a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure or a good man some would even dare to die” ough was amiliar with this text or many years, never knew its background or some time en one day learned that the apostle aul evidently had in mind a well-known reek legend e story is that o lcestis and dmetus ccording to this legend dmetus, who was an exceptionally ne example o young reek manhood, was condemned by the gods to die, unless someone could be ound who would be willing to die in his place rantically, the reeks in that community sought to nd someone who would be willing to do this, but without success, as not even his parents were willing to give their lives or him inally, when all seemed lost, a beautiul young maiden, named lcestis, said that she loved dmetus so much that she would die or him nd the people were ecstatic ere, they said, was true love, a willingness to die or someone else nd the story has it that even the gods were so moved by this example o the devotion o lcestis, that they t hey removed the condemnation o death rom dmetus and he did not have to die nd so dmetus and lcestis nally got married and lived happily ever ater owever, the apostle aul viewed this matter in a dierent light ontrasting ontra sting this this with od’s od’s love or o r us he said, “ut od commendeth c ommendeth is love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, hrist died or us” (omans 5:8) Agápē again, a love or the unlovely, not just or someone beautiul and good like dmetus “hile we were yet
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sinners ,” aul said, lost in a mire mi re o iniquity iniq uity revolting revolt ing sight s mentioned earlier, there is a descending movement about agápē , the very opposite o eros , which “seeks its own” by constantly climbing up to higher levels o attainment is concept o a love which comes down rom od to lost humanity was a avorite theme o the apostle aul, as we learn rom such passages as Acts o the Apostles, p 333 and Te Ministry o Healing, p 50 is avorite sermon o aul’s appears beautiully in hilippians 2:5-8, where he traces the descent o hrist rom the lotiest heights o glory to the lowest depths o humiliation in seven steps hilippians 2:5-6 describes the rst o these steps, where we see esus on the same level as that o the ather, ather, as high as it is possible to go in this universe: “et this mind be in you which was also in hrist hr ist esus, who, being in the orm o od, thought it not robbery to be equal with od” od” en comes the second secon d step, in verse 7: “ut made imsel o no reputation” ow e was regarded by those unallen beings, who worshipped and adored im, we can only imagine, but here we nd that e “made imsel o no reputation” is was the second step nd then verse 7 again: “and took upon im the orm o a servant” e who had been joyully served or untold eons o time by loving angels and other created beings now imsel is willing to become a servant, to serve others is is the third step en verse 7 continues: co ntinues: “and was made in the likeness o men” ere we imagine the on o od reaching this earth in is journey to a lost world, becoming one with humanity e word “likeness” here is the same word used in omans 8:3, “the likeness o sinul esh,” which in the original reek is “ homoiomati ,” ,” and means “likeness or sameness,” not “unlikeness” e actually became “one with humanity” is was the ourth step e read now in verse 8: “nd being ound in ashion as a man, e humbled imsel” is next step takes im to an even lower level e do not nd esus saying to the people around im, “ow understand this, you people, may look like one o you, but in act am the only begotten on o the living od, so let us have some 27
respect around here” is was not the way o our ord, the on o od e are told that “e humbled imsel” is was the th step ee now come to the very important i mportant sixth step erse erse 8 continues: co ntinues: “and became obedient unto un to death” urely urely,, we would w ould be tempted to say, this is as low as e could go e, the ie-iver, now is willing to be “obedient unto death” ut aul tells o one nal step erse 8 continues: cont inues: “even the death o the cross cross ” is later portio p ortion n o the verse needs to be examined more closely clos ely eath by crucixion, or by being hanged upon a tree, or any part o a tree, was no ordinary death to the ewish mind otice this very important verse in alatians 3:3: “hrist hath redeemed us rom the curse o the t he law, law, being made a curse or o r us: or it is written, wr itten, ursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” e apostle aul here quotes rom euteronomy 2:22-23, where we are told that one who is hanged is accursed o od ver present in the minds o the ews o hrist’s day was the memory o the death o bs-alom, who died while suspended by his neck rom the branches o a great oak tree as the mule upon which he was riding passed under it oses described anyone who died in such a manner as being “accursed o od” hen esus was accused by the religious leaders o is day, o what was it that they accused im? learly lear ly,, e was charged with the sin o blasphemy xamples are: uke 5:20-2, where esus said to the man who had been let down through the roo, “an, thy sins are orgiven thee” nd the scribes and the harisees present exclaimed, “ho is this which speaketh blasphemies? ho can orgive sins, but od alone?” nd also ohn 0:33, where, ater esus had asked the ews or which o is good works they wished to stone im, they replied, “or a good work we stone ee not; but or or blasphemy; and because that ou, being a man, makest ysel od” nd, most signicant o all, ohn 8:57-59 ter a long conversation with the ews, they said to im: “ou art not yet ty years old, and hast thou seen braham? esus said unto them, ‘erily, verily, say unto 28
you, eore braham was, ’” t this the anger o the ews reached a boiling point, and they took up stones to stone im, but we read that e escaped t was the same at the trial o esus esus (see, (see, or or example, atthew 26:65 and ark 4:64) ow according to the law, the penalty or blasphemy was death by stoning (see eviticus 24:6) ut in the case o esus, the ewish leaders did did not want a stoning, and they had their thei r reasons reaso ns n all al l o the plottings and conspiracy which went on behind the scenes, careul plans must have been laid to ensure that esus would be brought beore ilate, and, when that happened, that ilate would get the message that it was the will o the people and the religious leadership that esus esus be crucie crucied d nd this undoubtedly meant that certain ones had been schooled to incite the mob to shout “ruciy im, cruciy im,” when the time came is is exactly what happened ilate, too weak to resist the demands o the mob, washed his hands o the matter, and gave esus over to be crucied s those who had been responsible or this travesty o justice slowly ollowed ollo wed the tragic procession pro cession up the hill toward olgotha there must have been serious doubts in their minds ey had heard strange accounts o the words and works o esus, and even that e had raised people rom the dead ndoubtedly they examined careully various witnesses ey could have explained, at least to their own satisaction, the raising r aising o the daughter o airus, or the widow’s widow’s son, as due to the act that they were not really dead, but only in some kind o temporary sleep or coma ut the raising o azarus must have presented a dilemma learly, here was one who had been in the tomb or our days, and witnesses were there who would testiy not only to his burial but to his resurrection resurrectio n our days later ertainly there must have been deep concern in the minds o these religious leaders ere ere they making the biggest mistake, mis take, not only o their own lives, but o all time? ut when they saw esus nailed to the cross, and the cross raised, and esus hanging there upon that cross, they must have breathed a sigh o proound relie, because they reasoned that, i this man, 29
esus o azareth, had been the essiah, od would never have permitted im to be hanged on a tree e imagine that they must have taunted is ollowers, as they pointed to im hanging upon the cross, and saying, “ere e is, your essiah, hanging on a tree, under the curse cur se o od” e e can only imagine how the disciples dis ciples and others must have elt during those terrible moments emember, they were themselves ews, and had the same understanding o what it meant to be hanged on a tree henever you see pictures o esus on the cross e is always depicted as appropriately draped rtists always do this in the interest o modesty n actual act, however, when a man was crucied in those days, he would be stripped completely, hung stark naked upon that cross, to extend his humiliation to the ultimate s we read in estimonies or the Church, vol 9, p 90: “hrist laid l aid aside is royal robe, is kingly crown, and is high command, and stepped down, down, down, to the lowest depths o humiliation hu miliation”” n saiah 53:4 we are told: “e esteem im stricken, smitten o od, and aficted” you understand all this, then you are beginning to understand the meaning o the word agápē , a love so great that it is willing to be ultimately sel-negated little prior to this, in ethsemane, as esus prayed, he elt the weight weig ht o the the sins o the world w orld pressing down upon im with a orce o rce so great that is lie would have been crushed out had e been permitted to die ut esus was prevented rom dying, and was thus subjected to a orce greater than anything you and could ever be called upon to endure e actually endured an agony beyond the experience o death, as part o the answer to the charges o atan when he rst began his rebellion in heaven, that od makes laws, and exacts a penalty or disobedience to which e would never subject imsel us the on o od not only took upon imsel the entire imsel ent ire weight o the sins o the whole world, but in eect went beyond the experience o death in bearing the penalty or these sins n agony which would have killed you and me in seconds, and would, in act, have killed im had e been permitted to die, e endured without 30
being permitted the sweet release o death t was like being trapped between the jaws o a giant vice, on one side the weight o the sins o an entire world pressing upon im, and on the other o ther the act that e was denied the relie o death nder this tremendous pressure something had to give, and what gave nally was the railty o the human esh t was as i the blood was actually squeezed out o is system e e are told that is sweat was as it were great drops o blood b lood alling to the ground an we ever understand this? hat is it which causes a reator-od to descend to the lowest depths o humiliation in order to redeem a lost humanity? t is a thing called agápē ove ltimate love love ltimate selessness mall wonder wo nder that we shall spend eternity in wonder and study o this exhaustless theme we call the lan o alvation and still not plumb to the ull its shining depths emember that in the arden o ethsemane esus was no longer l onger beore is heavenly ather as a eloved on, but as a condemned sinner nd e elt to the ull is ather’s wrath against sin is is what e elt, even though thou gh in act is ather’s ather’s love through all o this was as deep and great toward im as it had ever been e had to drink the cup to its last bitter dregs ome time ater this, on a hill called olgotha, exactly what happened? hat happened was that a man died there, on a oman cross between two criminals, and that death is the only real death which the universe has witnessed to this point o time is point needs strong emphasis n all the history o this vast universe we call the ingdom o od there has, to date, been only one real death, and that was w as the death which esus, esus, the on o od, experienced on the cross o alvary alvary at death was the equivalent o what the ible calls the “econd eath” (see ev 20:6 and 4; 2:; 2:8) ne who experiences this death eels the horror o eternal separation rom od, as will those who ater the thousand years, nd themselves outside the oly ity, and realize that od has nothing to say to them ey spurned is every oer o mercy and e cannot help them ll they have beore them is the horror o eternal blackness e death which comes to them and reduces them to nothingness is 31
actually an act o mercy on the part o od s ones stated in his Consecrated Way to Christian Perection, page 9, “t is not the way o the ord to continue men in lie when the only possible use they will make o lie is to heap up more misery or themselves” nd it is the equivalent o this death which will come to the lost ater the thousand years, that esus experienced on the cross o alvary graphic description o alvary o what e experienced is given or us on page 753 o the book, Te Desire o Ages. t reads as ollows: ll is lie hrist had been publishing to a allen world the good news o the ather’ ather’ss mercy and pardoning love alvation alvatio n or the chie o sinners was was is theme theme ut now with the terrible weight o guilt guil t e bears, e cannot can not see the ather’ ather’s reconciling reconcili ng ace e withdrawal o the divine countenance rom the aviour in this hour o supreme anguish pierced is heart with a sorrow that can never be ully understood by man o great was this agony that is physical pain was hardly elt
atan with his erce temptations wrung the heart o esus e aviour could not see through the portals o the tomb ope did not present to im is coming orth rom the grave a conqueror, or tell im o the ather’ ather’ss acceptance acceptance o the sacrice sacri ce e eared that sin was so oensive to od that their separation was to be eternal hrist elt the anguish which the sinner will eel when mercy shall no longer plead or the guilty race t was the sense o sin, bringing bri nging the t he ather’s ather’s wrath wrat h upon upo n im as man m an’’s substitute, that made the cup e drank so bitter, and broke the th e heart o the on o od
s we begin to grasp the stupendousness o this demonstration o agápē then truly we “may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love o hrist, which passeth knowledge,” and “be lled with all the ulness o od” t is one thing or one who has spent a ew paltry years in this world to eel the terrible anguish o eternal separation rom od, bad as this is, but or ne who has been with 32
the ather ather rom all eternity to sense such s uch eternal separation separ ation is beyond description arlier we mentioned that the synthesis between agápē and eros which ugustine introduced early in history, continued or more than a thousand years, until one man appeared who began to unravel this usion at man was artin uther e understood the iblical teaching in regard to the condition o man and the alse teaching o the mmortal oul doctrine, and so was in a position to understand the truth regarding the tonement nyone who believes in the doctrine o the mmortal oul cannot appreciate the act that hrist died the equivalent o the second death on the cross o alvary o such hrist did not really die on the cross that day day,, but enjoyed a glad reunion reunio n with is ather in heaven that very evening, and, so they say, did the thie n most ibles uke 23:43 has been printed with a misplaced comma, which w hich should come c ome ater at er “today” “today” instead o ater a ter “thee,” “thee,” making the text say that esus and the thie would both be in heaven that very day ad uther’s uther’s ollowers continued cont inued to understand this truth about the mmortal oul the synthesis introduced by ugustine would have been unraveled compl completely etely,, and the tonement could have been presented clearly and ully ut this was not to be, because utherans immediately went back to the previously held belie o an immortal soul onsequently, the only people today who are in a position to explain this aspect o the ospel ully are the ones who have been entrusted with the truth regarding the “poisonous drats o abylon abylo n” (the mmortal oul doctrine and unday sacredness) and the ree ngels’ essages hat a tremendous responsibility rests upon our shoulders ome may eel that such a wonderul demonstration o agápē would be possible or esus hrist, who was the on o od, but not or anyone who has allen in sin n act, the ospel is powerul enough so as to transorm human beings who have allen in sin that they, too, can come to the place where true agápē can be revealed in them onsider the example o oses in xodus 32:32 e people 33
had sinned a great sin, and od was asking oses to stand aside, so that the people could reap the results o their transgression and be destroyed od promised oses that he would be the ather o a new generation o od’s people ut oses would not stand aside nstead, and notice noti ce this in the verse, oses pleads, p leads, “et “et now, now, i thou tho u wilt orgive their sin—;” t this point there is a punctuation mark which is ound nowhere else in the entire ing ames ersion o the ible, a dash ollowed by a semi-colon ere must be a reason why the translators used it here learly, the context demanded it, and this the translators understood oses must have broken down is big, manly rame shaken with sobs, he could not continue hen he nally recovered, he said, “nd i not, blot me pray thee out o thy book” book” can imagine im agine od saying, oses you are a man ater y own heart e apostle aul reached the highest point in his linguistic expression in orinthians 3 es, the postle aul knew about agápē omans 9: and 3, “y conscience also bearing me witness in the oly oly host … or could wish that mysel were accursed rom hrist or my m y brethren, my kinsmen according to the esh” esh” e, like oses, was willing to die that is riends might be saved eternally at, my riends, is agápē es, you say, two men, but what about us living now e last end o the human race, how can we ever be ull o agápē love? ully believe all those who are ready or translation, will be an agápē motivated people ey will reect hrist ully, which means that they will be motivated by love, agápē , in all that they do ere are those, or example, who will go through the time o acob’s trouble ater probation has closed ey are in an agony o concern as to whether every sin has been conessed and put away any think that this concern is because they will be lost i there are unconessed sins in their lives l ives ut the act is, that their concern is not no t that their own poor little souls might not be saved, but something altogether dierent t is that an unconessed sin would cause the
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holy name o od to be reproached ey are motivated, not by sel-centered concern, but by a hristo-centric concern or the holy name o od (see Te Great Controversy, p 69) gain, on page 46, we are told o the great revivals o the nineteenth century, when many souls sorrowed unto repentance, and there were deep and genuine conversions ut these degenerated degenerat ed into so-called revivals which played upon the emotions and gratied the love or the sensational and the startling evertheless we read on page 464 o a revival among od’s people toward the close o time, when there will be seen again that primitive godliness which has not been seen since apostolic times, and that there will be a great outpouring o the pirit o od atan, we are told, will attempt to prevent this revival by introducing a countereit, during which it will appear that od’s special blessing is being poured out sually, people measure such blessings by the standard o accessions to the churches hen large numbers are added to the church this is taken to mean that od is blessing the church wonderully wonderul ly atan knows this, and will be only too to o happy to help the churches increase their memberships i, o course, they will cooperate with him and not be too particular as to whether the new additions to the church are converted or not hen churches become obsessed with numbers, this makes or a ertile eld or atan’s plans ould it be that this alse revival could inect the eventh-day dventist hurch? ew ew will deny that an obsession obs ession with wit h large numbers number s and statistical accession has become ever more characteristic o our church program lease do not misunderstand me am not against baptisms n my time have baptized hundreds o people into the dventist hurch and hope that beore b eore this is all over will wil l baptize baptize many more ut the problem, as see it, is this: s it possible that, with all o this emphasis emphasi s on “baptize, baptize, bap tize, baptize,” that ministers, who are ater all only human beings, may be tempted to baptize people into the church who are not ready to become eventh-day dventists? an the many pressures under which so many ministers work today
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bring about just such a situation? et me pose a question we were to baptize every man, woman, and child in the world today into the t he eventh-day dventist dventist hurch, would that mean that the ord would be ready to return on the clouds o glory? is question answers itsel e answer is, o course, o ll we would end up with would be a eventh-day dventist aa e would still be ghting wars, but o course not on aturdays, and we would be eeding the armies on ittle inks and ig ranks it should happen that there is a great inux into the church as a result o atan’s eorts to deceive us, someone will have to sound the warning llen hite, on page 464 o Te Great Controversy, warns that “ultitudes will exult that od is working marvelously or them, when the work is that o another spirit” hoever sounds such a warning will have to point out that what is thought to be the work o the oly pirit is actually the work o atan nd this is where there is a serious problem isten careully were to say that the work o atan is the work o the oly pirit, then would be a ool, and can always be orgiven or being a ool ut, on the other hand, i were to say that the work o the oly pirit is the work o atan, then what? s understand atthew 2, this would be committing the unpardonable sin e harisees accused esus o casting out devils by eelzebub, the prince o devils olemnly esus warned them that they could be orgiven or speaking against the on o man, but speaking against the oly pirit was something som ething or which they never never could be orgiven ereore, i anyone is about to warn the church that what they think is the work w ork o the oly pirit is really the t he work o atan, he must know that i he is wrong, he would wo uld be committing committin g the unpardonable sin ne who is motivated only by sel-centered concerns would probably say to himsel, “is is i s dangerous won won’’t take any chances on this one ’ll just keep my mouth shut” nd so he lets the devil win ut an agápē -motivated -motivated individual will not hesitate to sound 36
the warning even though he knows his eternal salvation is on the line t is this kind o challenge which aces od’s people in these last days e are told about the very, very last message soon to go to the world is message will not be a spoken message, some new revelation about the abbath or the anctuary anctuar y, or some related topic top ic is last message is going to be a demonstration o od’s character Christ’s’s Object Lessons, Lesson s, p 45) od is actually waiting or o love (see Christ or a people who will reveal is character to the people o this world od owes it to the people o earth to give them one last look at esus beore e comes on the clouds o glory, and e will do this through is people in whom is character o love has been perectly per ectly reproduced (see ibid p 69) ccording to atthew 24:4 this “ospel o the ingdom” will be preached to all peoples and nations o the earth, “and then shall the end come” uch a recovery o the gospel as came to this people toward the end o the nineteenth century contains within it the power to prepare a people or translation, and this is the reason why “this is the message that od commanded to be given to the world” estimonies ( estimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, p 92) t the very center o this message is the agápē theme, and this message will be demonstrated to the peoples o earth ear th through those who have been transormed by its power t will be od’s last appeal to humanity beore the doors o mercy will be orever closed or the human race ermit me to ask you one last question you knew that you could put an end to sin by surrendering your hope o eternal lie, would wou ld you do it? it? is, dearl dearlyy beloved, is what esus esus did ecause ecause e is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipotent, and omnipresent, od could have h ave dealt deal t with the sin problem in some other way erhaps e could have blotted atan and all his ollowers out o the universe, and then removed all memory o what had happened rom the minds o every other being in is kingdom, and made a resh start ut, in another sense, od really was not able to do this hy? imply because “od is Agápē ” nd because, b ecause, nally nally,, “ ” ” 37
Chapter 3
Righteousness by Faith and the Cleansing of the Sanctuar Sanctua r y
hen sin came into this world, back in the beginning, man was expelled rom the garden o den, but he was not let without hope promise o restoration was given to him is rst unolding o the gospel is recorded in enesis 3:5: “and will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise is heel” is was the rst promise o the cross, which was in eect rom the very beginning o restore lost humanity was the purpose o the lan o edemption oday we shall come to grips with this plan or restoration in a special way way ere are three books which deal with the subject o ighteousn ighte ousness ess by aith, each o which is a little gem e rst o these these is Steps o Christ , by llen hite e second is Christ And His Righteousness , by aggoner, and the third is Te Consecrated Way o o Christ Christian ian Perec Perectio tionn, by ones e e shall shal l be quoting rather extensively rom the last two o these, and also rom hite in her other writings hat is important about ab out these three books is that they approach this aspect o the gospel rom three dierent points o view, and end up giving a beautiul total picture o ighteousness and ustication by aith ey always seem to put me in mind o the ercedes enz tar with which am sure you are all amiliar ere are three arms to the emblem, one pointing straight up vertically, and the other two pointing down like two legs o a tripod any years ago ottlieb aimler, who ounded the aimler-enz company, was asked about
W
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a star which hung on the wall o his home e replied, in erman o course, “rom this place a star will go orth, and it is hoped that it will bring blessings to us and our children” e explained that the vertical arm pointed toward heaven, the source o all o blessings, while the other two reached rom one end o the earth to the other, indicating his plans or an undertaking which would extend all over the world ow very much like the ospel ommission e receive rom heaven the light and truth od unolds unol ds to us through is oly ord and the ministry o the oly pirit, and then, under heaven’s power, take the glorious good news o the lan o alvation to the ends o the earth onsider rst o all the book by aggoner, Christ And His Righteousness , where we nd, in the very rst paragraph, page 7, a nutshell denition o ighteousness by aith ere it is: n the rst verse o the third chapter o ebrews we have an exhortation which comprehends all the injunctions given to the hristian t is this: “hereore, holy brethren, partakers o the heavenly calling, consider the postle and igh riest o our proession, hrist hrist esus” esus” o o do this as the ible enjoins, en joins, to consider hrist continually and intelligently, just as e is, will transorm one into a perect hristian, or “by beholding we become changed”
ere, then, is righteousness by aith in a nutshell eholding hrist constantly, continually, intelligently, will transorm one into a perect hristian n the occasion when ilate presented esus to the multitude, mu ltitude, he said, speaking atin o course, “ Ecce Homo” (“ehold, the an”), an”), even though he did not realize that he was preaching one o the greatest sermons ever heard through the centuries “ehold, “eh old, the an” indeed is is the very essence o ighteousness by aith eholding hrist is the means by which human beings are transormed or many years ollowed ol lowed the “gimmick-ormula” “gimmick-ormula” or obtaining ob taining the victory over sin am sure you know what am talking about 39
ings like: “ree teps to eaven,” “even ssentials o oly iving,” “en “en ecrets o ictory ictor y in hrist, hrist ,” “iteen ital ita l lements lem ents o o the rue ospel,” “wenty mportant ings to nderstand bout eing aved,” and on and on t is not that these tabulations o ible truths are wrong, or bad, or even worthless wort hless ey are not any good lessons have been learned rom them ut when we look at the ible itsel, to learn rom that source what it is we are asked to do, what do we nd? omething quite simple and uncomplicated e ible simply says “ook,” or “ehold” ere it is that aggoner’s simple ormula, the rst paragraph o his book, Christ and His Righte Righteousne ousness ss , which we examined earlier earlier,, takes on a vital signicance onsider some o these criptural passages passa ges ere is ohn ohn 2:32, or example: “nd , i be lited up rom the earth, will draw all men unto e” eople cannot possibly ail to be drawn to hrist as they behold im upon the cross nd another: saiah 45:22: “ook unto e, and be ye saved, all the ends o the earth; or am od, and there is none else else”” otice the simple invitation, invit ation, “ook” at is all we are asked to do arvelous and yet heart-rending is this verse in amentations :2, clearly a essianic prophecy: “s it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see i there be any sorrow like unto y sorrow, which is done unto e, wherewith the ord hath aficted e in the day o is erce anger” t is the intelligent knowledge o that blood so reely and lavishly shed upon the cross o alvary or us which melts these sin-hardened hearts o ours t is, in act, the only thing that can tatements rom the en o nspiration harmonize completely with the criptural passages quoted above otice these rom Te Desire o Ages , page 66: “ooking upon the crucied edeemer, we more ully comprehend the magnitude and meaning o the sacrice made by the ajesty o heaven e plan o salvation is gloried beore be ore us, and the thought o alvary awakens living and sacred emotions in our hearts raise to od and the amb will be in our hearts and on our lips; or pride and sel-worship cannot ourish in the soul that keeps in memory the scenes o alvary” e cross acts as a wall 40
o deence against sin in any orm e expression “pride and sel worship” embraces sin o every kind t is not by ollowing a cleverly worded ormula, but by allowing the emotional impact o the “scenes “scenes o alvary” to eect that change o heart which will make complete victory over over all sin a reality in our lives avid, heart-broken hear t-broken because o the terrible sin he had committed, prayed, “reate in me a clean heart, od; and renew a right spirit within me” (salm 5:0) rom Te Desire o Ages , page 66 again: e who beholds the aviour’s aviour’s matchless love will be elevated e levated in thought, puried in heart, transormed transorme d in character character e will go orth to be a light to the world, to reect in some degree this mysterious love e more we contemplate the cross o hrist, the more ully shall we adopt the language o the apostle when he said, ‘od orbid that should glory, save in the cross o our ord esus hrist, by whom the world is crucied unto me, and unto the world’ alatians 6:4
otice particularly the recurring use o the word “transorm” “transorm” in many o these passages pass ages ere we see the crux o the matter, matter, the nittygritty, the bottom line t is the contemplation o that cross which was raised on olgotha’s hill nearly two thousand years ago which today can perorm that incredible miracle o the transormation o a human heart hardened by sin riend, hope you are reading careully e are dealing with the vitally important subject o ighteousness and ustication by aith, and the only possible way to understand the subject ully is to recognize the centrality centra lity o the cross o alvary throughout the the entire entire spectrum o these vital elements elements o the ospel is is the reason why we are admonished to make the consideration o the cross a daily experience in our lives otice: t would be well or us to spend a thoughtul hour each day in contemplation o the lie o hrist e should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones 41
s we thus dwell upon is great sacrice or us, our condence in im will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall more deeply be imbued with is spirit we would be saved at last, we must learn the lesson o penitence and humiliation at the oot o the cross” (Te Desire o Ages , p 83)
ontemplation o the cross e very essence o ighteousness by aith aggoner aggoner was equally clear on the importance o the cross e said: esus was set orth beore the alatians, when aul preached to them, as openly crucied beore their eyes o vivid was the presentation that they could actually see hrist crucied t was not only skillul word painting on the part o aul and imagination on the part o the alatians rough aul the oly pirit enabled them to see im crucied (Te Glad idings , p 5)
aggoner is here emphasizing the importance o making the cross central to the preaching o the gospel nd just how important is the cross to this understanding under standing o the gospel? gospel ? otice urther: “ot until one has seen hrist crucied beore his eyes, and can see the cross o hrist hrist at every ever y turn, does one know the reality o the gospel” (ibid ) ) ithout question, this is the reason the ord’ ord’ss messenger messeng er was so elated when she heard the presentations o ones and aggoner during the 888 era e are now in a position to understand what true ew estament aith is e texts and statements we have encountered thus ar have set the stage or us in this regard e e have learned about abo ut the importance o the cross, and the contemplation o that cross, in our study o the gospel nd now we will learn how this brings us to a deep and clear understanding o the important ew estament denition o aith e shall start with a priceless denition o aith which comes to us rom the Review and Herald o uly 24, 888 42
llen hite wrote as ollows: ou may say that you believe in esus, when you have an appreciation o the cost o salvation ou may make this claim, when you eel that esus died or you on the cruel cross o alvary; when you have an intelligent, understanding aith that is death makes it possible or you to cease rom sin, and to perect a righteous character through the grace o od, bestowed upon you as the purchase o hrist’s blood
otice here the important word “appreciation” ased on this, we can dene “aith” as “a heart appreciation o the love o od as revealed on the cross o alvary” hen we consider the wonderul story o ary agdalene, and how she lavishly poured that priceless alabaster jar o ointment on the head and eet eet o esus (uke 7:36-5 7: 36-50) 0) we hear esus speaking to her and saying, s aying, “y aith hath saved thee; go in peace” (vs 50) 5 0) as as anything said s aid in this account o “trust,” or something similar, which is the usual understanding o what aith is? othing at all en what did esus mean when e said, “y aith hath saved thee”? ary did something which welled up rom inside her he could not keep rom doing what she did, and neither could she explain her actions he was expressing, in spite o hersel, her heart appreciation o what the ord had done or her in saving her rom sin sually we hear aith dened as “trust” ut this is essentially a sel-centered concept o aith e trust the re department to come with lights blazing and bells ringing when our house catches re e trust the policeman to be on hand when we get mugged e trust the insurance company to be ready with a check when we are in a car accident, and so on n the same way we “trust” esus to x our tickets in heaven when we get into trouble down here on earth ut true aith, as it comes to us in the ew estament, is dierent ere is our denition again:
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A HEART APPRECIA AP PRECIATION TION OF THE LOVE OF GOD AS REVEALED ON THE CROSS OF CALVARY. careul study stu dy o the ible’s ible’s most amous text, tex t, ohn 3:6, brings out the same thought aving now come to understand the aith part o ighteousness by aith, we now need to know just what righteousness is gain we turn to the 888 messenger messenger,, aggoner aggoner,, and his book, Christ and His Righteousness n page 55 he quotes rom saiah 5:7: “earken unto e, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is y law; ear ye not the reproach o men, neither be ye araid o their revilings” nd then continues as ollows: hat do we learn rom this?—at they who know the righteousness o od are those in whose heart is is law, and thereore that the law o od is the righteousness o od is may be proved again as ollows: “ll unrighteousness is sin” ( ohn 5:7) “hosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; or sin is the transgression o the law” ( ohn 3:4) in is the transgression o the law, and it is also unrighteousness; thereore sin and unrighteousness are identical ut i unrighteousness is transgression o the law, righteousness must be obedience obedi ence to the law r, to put the proposition into mathematical orm: — nrighteousness = sin ( ohn 5:7) ransgression o the law = sin ( ohn 3:4) ereore, according to the axiom that two things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other, we have: — nrighteousness = transgression o the law law hich is a negative equation e same thing, stated in positive terms, would be:—
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ighteousness = obedience to the law ( ibid p 55-56)
ighteousness is measured by the standard o the law, according to aggoner’s analysis as indicated above ome years ago, two scholars were discussing this matter o the law ne was a eventhday dventist e other one was saying, “ou dventists are constantly emphasizing the law, the law, not realizing that the law cannot possibly possib ly save you” you” nd the dventist replied, “ince you are talking about the law as a method, or means, o salvation, couldn’t agree with you more ut our emphasis upon the law stresses law as a standard o righteousness, not as a means o salvation nd that is what you do not seem to understand” e dventist scholar was right, o course aggoner continues his analysis on page 56 as ollows: ow what law is it obedience to which is righteousness and disobedience to which is sin? t is that law which says, “ou shalt not covet,” or the apostle aul tells us that this law convinced him o sin om 7:7 e law o the ten commandments, then, is the measure o the righteousness o od ince it is the law o od, and is righteousness, it must be the righteousness o od ere is, indeed, no other righteousness
anctication is the revealing o righteousness in the lie, and can be equated with good works, or obedience to od’s law o en ommandments anctication is necessary, but does not qualiy us or heaven ather it is the evidence o salvation t is our tness or heaven (see Messages to Young People , p 35) hat qualies us or heaven is our justication, justication by aith, eected in and through the cross is is our title to heaven ee again the same reerence ighteousness revealed in sanctication is by aith, and aith alone ot aith plus works or aith and works, but aith, period t is a aith which works eeping these points clear in our minds is o the utmost importance e need to keep in mind that 45
there are two aspects to the one justication eected at the cross o alvary orporate, or orensic, or legal justication was granted to all the inhabitants o earth at alvary e other side o the coin is ustication by aith, our heart appreciation o that love there revealed ones explains another ano ther aspect o this righteousness r ighteousness by aith in Te Consecrated Way o Christian Perection, pages 87 and 88: n is coming in the esh—having been made in all things like unto u nto us, u s, and havin havingg been tempted in all points like like as we are—e has identied imsel with every human soul just where that soul is nd rom the place where every human soul is, e has consecrated or that soul a new and living way through all the vicissitudes and experiences experien ces o a whole who le lietime, and even through through death and and the tomb, tomb, into the holiest holiest o all, at the right hand o od od or evermo evermore re nd this “way” e has consecrated or us e, having become one o us, has made this way our way; it belongs to us e has endowed every soul with divine right to walk in this consecrated way; and by is having done it imsel in the esh—in our esh—e has made it possible, yea, e has given actual assurance, that every human soul can walk in that way, in all that way is; and by it enter ully and reely into the holiest o all e has made and consecrated a way by which, in Him, every believer can in this world, and or a whole lietime, live a lie holy, harmless, undeled, separate rom sinners, and as a consequence be made with im higher than the heavens
ood news, do you think? ones again is is rom the book, Lessons On Faith; a compilation by r ohn ord o articles by ones and aggoner t is ound on page 9, and is part o an article entitled, “inul lesh”:
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onversion, then, you see, does not put new esh upon the old spirit; but a new pirit within the old esh t does not propose to bring new esh to the old mind; but a new mind to the old esh eliverance and victory are not gained by having the human nature taken away; but by receiving the divine nature to subdue and have dominion over over the human—not human—not by the taking away o the sinul esh, but by the sending in o the sinless Spirit to conquer and condemn sin in the esh
otice now these next two paragraphs otice p aragraphs which so beautiully sum up the central idea e cripture does not say, et this fesh be upon you, which was also upon hrist; but it does say, “et this mind be in you, which was also in hrist esus” hil 2:5 e cripture does not say, “e ye transormed by the renewing o your fesh;” but it does say, “e ye transormed by the renewing o your mind ” om 2:2 2 :2 e e shall be translated by the renewing o our fesh; but we must be trans ormed ormed by the renewing o our minds
ones is here making m aking the point po int that our ou r old sinul s inul nature is something somet hing which will be with us us until hrist comes ere ere is no way by which whic h we can be rid o that sinul sinu l nature, this allen all en esh, until then ut what od does or us in the meantime is to give give us a sinless Spirit to subdue the allen nature, to have dominion over sinul esh, to conquer and condemn co ndemn sin in the esh is expression, “condemne condemned d sin in the esh” esh” is rom omans 8:3, 8 :3, and appears in the t he 888 message perhaps more than any other criptural passage ere is ound all through rica what is considered the world’s most dangerous snake, not only because o its highly toxic venom, veno m, but also because o its aggressiveness and incredible speed n ustralia we nd what is probably the world’s most venomous snake, the nland aipan, but it is not considered as dangerous as the rican snake, which is known as the lack amba, not so much because o 47
its outer coloring but probably because the inside o its mouth has a distinctly blackish appearance ctually, most o the our hundred snake-bite deaths which occur in rica each year are caused, not by the dreaded black mamba, but by the pu adder, which has what herpetologists regard as the most advanced venom injecting system o all snakes ere is a lesson or us here et us suppose that somewhere on the ast rican coast there is a convention o uslims, o whom there are are many in this this part o the world, which is being conducted in an area close to the thick bush n expert on o n snakes, anticipating the possibility that someone might be bitten by a snake, takes with him a snakebite kit containing all that would be needed to treat a snakebite victim ow let us say that one o the uslims gets bitten e man with the snakebite snakebite kit rushes over to him and says, “eep calm can save your lie am well prepared” ut this uslim, who, shall we say, say, is a very ver y atalistic sort o person, replies, “o, no, it is the will o llah et me die” nd no matter how much muc h the snake expert tries tries to save his lie, the uslim reuses help, help, and he dies nd now comes the question: hat is it that kills this man? s have asked this question many times o dierent people, the most popular answer has been, “is reusal o the antidote,” or “his own choice,” or “lack o aith” ut this is not what kills him hat kills him is the snake venom ere is no way to reason around this ut i should ask a urther question, “hat is the reason the man dies?” then most people say, correctly, his reusal o the antidote is is important or us to understand hat actually kills the atalistic uslim is the snake venom, but the reason he dies is that he reused help ou see, this world o ours has had injected into it the deadliest venom o all, sin, and the one responsible is that old serpent, called the evil, and atan rdinarily, nothing would be able to save the people o this earth, but od ound a way to save humanity e sent is only-begotten on into this world to provide the remedy, but it cost im alvary ere an antidote or sin was given ames :5 48
tells us: us : “in, when it is nished, bringeth orth death” death” ut then we imes o ecember 30, 889, “e blood o read in the Signs o the imes hrist is the eternal antidote or sin” a man is lost at last and dies eternally, what kills him nally is sin, but the reason he dies is that he reused the salvation so reely given Te Desire o Ages , page 480, tells us that, “t is not the ear o punishment punis hment,, or the hope o everlasting reward, reward, that leads the the disciples o hrist to ollow im ey behold the aviour’s matchless love, revealed throughout is pilgrimage on earth, rom the manger o ethlehem to alvary’ alvar y’ss cross, and the sight o im attracts, att racts, it sotens and subdues the soul ove awakens in the heart o the beholders ey hear is voice, and they ollow oll ow im” im” hat priceless admonition we nd here o many who seek the solace o a religious aith do so rom wrong motivations s indicated in the statement just quoted they either want to escape punishment or they seek eternal reward in heaven, when the only true motivation should be the love awakened in the heart by the contemplation o alvary’s cross oo many preachers and religious leaders take advantage o this by holding up the carrot o eternal bliss, bl iss, or, as in too many cases, painting horriying pictures o everlasting torment n the latter case, it is the principle o ear-motivation n example o this is the ollowing: isten to the tremendous, the horrible uproar o millions and millions o tormented creatures mad with the ury o hell h, the screams o ear, the groanings o horror, the yells o rage, the cries o pain, the shouts o agony, the shrieks o despair o millions on millions ere you hear them roaring like lions, hissing like serpents, howling like dogs, and wailing like dragons ere you hear the gnashing o teeth and the earul blasphemies o the devils bove all you hear the roaring o the thunders o od’s anger, which shakes hell to its oundations ut there is another sound ere is in hell a sound like that o many waters t is as i all the rivers and oceans o the world were pouring themselves with a great 49
splash down on the oor o hell s it then really the sound o waters? t is re the rivers and oceans o the earth pouring themselves into hell? o hat is it then? t is the sound o oceans o tears running rom the countless millions o eyes ey cry night and day ey cry orever and ever ey cry because the sulphurous smoke torments their eyes ey cry because they are in darkness ey cry because they have lost the beautiul heaven ey cry because the sharp re burns them
hat can never understand is why all this water ails to put the re out ut there’s there’s more mo re “ittl “ ittlee child” chi ld” at’s at’s right is entire ent ire portrayal o horror was written or little children ut let us continue ittle child, it is better to cry one tear o repentance now than to cry million millionss o tears tears in hell ut what is that dreadul, sickening si ckening smell? ere are some diseases so bad, such as cancers and ulcers, that people cannot bear to breathe the air in the house where they are ere is something worse t is the smell o death coming rom a dead body lying in the grave e dead body o azarus had been in the grave only our days, yet artha, his sister, could not bear that it should be taken out again ut what is the smell o death in hell? t onaventure says that i one single body was taken out o hell and laid on the earth, in that same moment every living creature on earth would sicken and die uch is the smell o death rom one body in hell hat then will be the smell o death rom countless millions and millions o bodies laid in hell like sheep?
is entire passage is taken rom Spiritual Readings , written by, and get this, the Reverend Furniss any statements similar to this have been made by ministers o the large and popular churches over the centuries ne even tells us that i the res o hell were to be extinguished it would put an end to a great part o the joy and happiness o the redeemed is kind o
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thing is the inevitable result o the ear-motivation to which too many man y preachers resort in order to keep people coming to church ere is only one true motivation worth anything, and that is the love which od revealed to the world on the cross o alvary onsider now this vitally important subject o the “anctuary” e as a people have, or the most part, approached the study o the sanctuary largely rom the descriptive point o view view ere is nothing so terribly wrong about this e e have to start somewhere, and this is an excellent place to begin b egin t is important that t hat we understand clearly the physical aspects o o the anctuary, anctuary, the dimensions, materials, and so on, and the many articles o urniture, and their meaning and most particularly what they symbolized owever,, there is a message or the people owever peo ple o od rom a study o the anctuary which goes ar beyond the elementary elementar y stages t was in the presentation o the 888 message that concepts arising rom such a study came to be more ully appreciated t t is to some o these concepts that we shall now turn our attention Evangelism, page 22, contains this statement: “e correct understanding o the ministration in the heavenly sanctuary is the oundation o our aith aith”” any have tried to depreciate the importance o the work to which the dvent ovement is dedicated by telling us that artin uther preached the ree ngels’ essages this is true then there is indeed no need or eventh-day dventism, but the whole idea is without oundation uch doctrines as the abbath and the nvestigative udgment ound no place in the teaching o artin uther uther,, which does not detract one iota rom the greatness o the man or the exceedingly important contribution he made to the cause o hristianity hristianity ut the truths we have mentioned, and others, all o which carry tremendous eschatological signicance, were not taught by uther e was a man or a dierent time nd he had no understanding o the sanctuary, without which he could not possibly havee given hav given the ree ngels’ ngels’ essages e doctrine o o the sanctuary is uniquely eventh-day dventist ones identied the cleansing o the sanctuary with the 51
nishing o the mystery o od and the ending work o the ospel (see Te Consecrated Way , pp 5, 9, and 20) is central point o emphasis was that, parallel with the work o our igh riest in the oly o olies in the heavenly sanctuary, was the work o the cleansing o the hearts o od’s people down here on earth otice these statements: e nishing o this work o the sanctuary and or the sanctuary was, likewise, the nishing o the work or or the people or in that day o the cleansing o the sanctuary, which was the day o atonement, whosoever o the people did not by searching o heart, conession, and putting away o sin, take part in the service o the cleansing o the sanctuary was cut o orever us the cleansing o the sanctuary extended to the people , and included the people , as truly as it did the sanctuary itsel (pp 5-6) e nishing o the mystery o od is the ending o the work o the gospel nd the ending o the work o the gospel is, rst, the taking away o all vestige o sin and the bringing in o everlasting righteousness—hrist ully ormed—within each believer od alone maniest in the esh o each believer in esus; and, secondly , on the other hand, the work o the gospel being nished means only the destruction o all who then shall not have have received the gospel (2 ( 2 ess :7-0); or it is not the way o the ord to continue men in lie when the only possible use they will make o lie is to heap up more misery or themselves” (p 9) e service in the earthly sanctuary sanctuar y shows also that in order or the sanctuary to be cleansed and the course o the gospel service there to be nished, it must rst be nished in the people who have a part in the service e sanctuary itsel could not be cleansed so long as, by conessions o the people and the intercessions o the priests , there was pouring into the sanctuary sanctuar y a stream o iniquities, transgressions, and sins nd this stream must be stopped at its ountain in the hearts 52
and lives o the worshipers, beore the sanctuary itsel could possibly be cleansed (p 20)
o many have the idea that the reason hrist has not returned to this world in the clouds o glory is because e is waiting or the word rom the heavenly ather, the nal countdown, as it were nd this, they believe, is something which depends entirely upon just when od will decide the time has come: a heavenly “whim” as it were od nally deciding that e has had enough o all the sin and sorrows and endless tragedies o the people on earth is is simply not so hy e waits is because the “bride” “b ride” is not yet ready ready s long as sins are continually ascending up to the sanctuary the work is not yet nished, and esus esus has to wait until that wonderul time is realized am well aware that this is a mind-boggler was simply stunned when it rst came home to me nd yet it makes simple sense e details and many other related actors are too complicated or our little minds to understand, understan d, and yet the principle is not only valid but so clearly given to us in these statements by the 888 messenger, ones n idea which suggests that esus will say s ay,, one o these days, when is ather gives im the nod, “eady or not, no t, here come, com e,”” is ar rom the truth otice these urther statements: ereore the very rst work in the cleansing o the sanctuary was the cleansing o the people at which was preliminary and essential to the cleansing o the sanctuary itsel, to the nishing o transgression transgress ion and bringing in everlasting righteousness, there, was the nishing o transgression, and the making an end o sins, and making reconciliation or iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness in the heart and lie o each one o the people people themselves hen the stream that owed owed into the sanctuary sanctuary was thus stopped at its source, then, and then alone, could the sanctuary itsel be cleansed rom the sins and transgressions which, rom the people, by the intercession o the priests , had owed owe d into the sanctuary sanctu ary (ibid pp 20-2)
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ones explains now that these principles brought out in the earthly sanctuary are all a type o the nal ministry in the heavenly sanctuary otice now how he applies what he said about the ministry o the earthly sanctuary to the work o the igh riest in the heavenly: nd all that “was a gure or the time then present”— a “gure o the true” ereore by this we are plainly taught that the service o our great igh riest in the cleansing o the true sanctuary must be preceded by the cleansing o each one o the believers, the cleansing o each one who has a part in that service o the true igh riest in the true sanctuary t is plain that transgression must be nished, an end o sins and reconciliation or all iniquity must be made, and everlasting righteousness must be brought in, in the heart’s experience o every believer in esus, beore the cleansing o the true sanctuary can be accomplished nd this is the very object o the true priesthood in the true sanctuary e sacrices, the priesthood, and the ministry in the sanctuary which was but a gure or the time then present, could not really take away sin, could not make the comers thereunto perect hereas the sacrice, the priesthood, and the ministry o hrist in the true sanctuary does take away sins orever, does make the comers thereunto perect does perect “orever them that are sanctied” ( ibid p 2)
aggoner and ones both stressed that the making righteous o the believers is not our work but bu t that o our ord imsel ur part is to believe e has guaranteed this righteousness to us under the provisions o the everlasting covenant ones brings out the thought in these passages on pages 22-23 o Te Consecrated Way aggoner says this in Te Glad idings , page 72: “emember also that since only righteousness will dwell in the new heavens and the new earth, the promise includes the making righteous o all who
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believe” ighteousness by aith y aith alone emember the denition o aith: heart appreciation o the love o od as revealed on the cross o alvary y this we obtain righteousness lorious promise lorious good news gain here is ones: nd just listen to the vibrant good news verlasting righteousness, remember ot a righteousness or today and sin tomorrow, tomorrow, and righteousness again and sin again Tat is not everlasting righteousness verlasting righteousness is righteousness that is brought in and stays everlastingly in the lie o him who has believed and conessed, and who still urther believes and an d receives this everlasting righteousness in the place o all sin and all sinning is alone is everlasting righteousness; this alone is eternal redemption rom sin nd this unspeakable blessing is the gracious git o od by the heavenly ministry which e has established in our behal in the priesthood and ministry o hrist in the heavenly sanctuary (ibid., p 25)
aggoner also taught that the blotting out o sin in the inal tonement was not merely the erasing o the heavenly record Herald ald o eptember 30, 902: e wrote in the Review and Her ough all the record o all our sin, even though written with the nger o od, were erased, the sin would remain, because the sin is in us ough the record o our sin were graven in the rock, and the rock should be ground to powder—even this would not blot out our sin e erasing o sin is the blotting o it rom our natures, so that we shall know it no more “e worshippers once purged” (ebrews 0:2)—actually purged by the blood o hrist—have “no more conscience o sins,” because the way o sin is gone rom them
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e should mention here that aggoner was not teaching the eradication o the sinul nature ther statements he made around that time clearly reveal that he did not believe this riting o the end-time experience o od’s people in Lie Sketches o James and Ellen White , which is quoted in Ransom and Reunion, page 9, ames hite hite makes this statement: nd what a thought robation closed; the priestly work o hrist orever ended; and the time o trouble to be passed through e mass o people think that i a person is prepared to die, he is prepared or the coming o the ord ut they do not consider the dierence between dying, and standing alive to meet the ord at is appearing t is one thing to die in hrist, to yield our spirits to im while e is pleading or us beore is ather’s throne, and quite a dierent thing to stand in the time o trouble, ater esus has ceased to plead in man’s behal; ater is priesthood is closed, and e is preparing to come to redeem is own, and to take vengeance on is oes
ere are those who say occasionally: “ust what ’ve always said would much rather the ord would lay me to rest gently some time beore the close o probation en would not have to go through the time o trouble and the seven last plagues, but rest quietly in the grave and, when the ord returns, be raised to meet im in glory” ese people want to go to heaven by the underground route ey think selshly selshly any times through the t he centuries our ord has asked is people to die or im, but in the nal hours o the history o our earth e is going to ask is people to live or im, in a nal demonstration o the power o the gospel to save completely rom sin, and to reveal is character to the world beore e comes onsider now some o these nal statements rom ones in Te Consecrated Way o Christian Perection, pages 26 and 3 ey summarize these thoughts beautiully
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nd beore e comes thus, is people must be in that condition eore e comes we must have been brought to that state o perection in the complete image o esus phesians 4:7, 8, -3 nd this state o perection, this developing in each believer the complete image o esus—this is the nishing o the mystery o od, which is hrist in you the hope o glory nd the blotting out o sins is exactly this thing o the cleansing o the sanctuary; it is the nishing o all transgression in our lives; it is the making an end o all sins in our character; it is the bringing in o the very righteousness o od which is by aith o esus esus hrist, to abide alone everlastingly everlastingly (p 26)
Now o the things which we have spoken this is the sum. We have such an High Pries Priest, t, who is set on the right hand o the throne o the Majesty in the heavens; a Minister o the sanctuary, and o the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. (ibid. p 3) “HAVING THEREFORE, BRETHREN, BOLDNESS TO ENTER INTO THE HOLIEST BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS, BY A NEW AND LIVING WAY, WHICH HE HATH HATH CONSECRATED FOR US, U S, THROUGH THE VEIL, THA THATT IS TO SAY, SAY, HIS FLESH; AND HAVING AN HIGH PRIEST OVER THE HOUSE OF GOD; LET US DRAW NEAR WITH A TRUE HEART IN FULL ASSURANCE OF FAITH, HAVING OUR HEARTS SPRINKLED FROM AN EVIL CONSCIENCE, AND OUR BODIES WASHED WITH PURE WATER” AND “LET US HOLD FAST THE PROFESSION OF OUR FAITH WITHOUT WAVERING; FOR HE IS FAITHFUL THAT PROMISED” PROMISED” (p 3) 3)
erhaps now we can begin to appreciate how powerully the message o the sanctuary came into the 888 message o hrist’s ighteousness ighteousness by aith is a reality to one who genuinely genuin ely,, and tru truly ly,, believes nd “he “hen n the characte characterr o hrist hrist shall be perectly reproduced in is people e will come to claim them as is own” (Christ’s Object Lessons , p 69) nother: “e who has not sucient aith in hrist to believe that e can keep him rom sinning, has not the aith that will give him an entrance into the kingdom o 57
Herald ald , arch 0, 904) od” (Review and Her erhaps this next statement will explain why there is so much keen opposi opposition tion to to the 888 message peaking o this message in the Review and Herald o eptember 3, 889 llen hite said: “e enemy o man and od is not willing that this truth trut h should be clearly presented, or he knows that i the people receive it ully, his power will be b e broken” ur rst quote in this presentation was the opening paragraph in the book, Christ and His Righteousness , by aggon aggoner er e e shall sha ll mention only that sentence taken rom ebrews 3:: “onsider the postle and igh riest o our proession, hrist esus” o consider esus as igh riest riest can only be done as we turn our o ur attention to the oly o olies in the heavenly sanctuary is we have tried to do e mentioned that this was ighteousness by aith in a nutshell e close now with another beautiul summary o ighteousness the Church, vol 4, p 625 by aith aith which comes to t o us in estimonies to the ere it is: e precious blood o esus is the ountain prepared to cleanse the soul rom the delement o sin hen you determine to take im as your riend, a new and enduring light will shine rom the cross o hrist true sense o the sacrice and intercession o the dear aviour will break the heart that has become hardened in sin; and love, thankulness, and humility will come into the soul e surrender o the heart to esus subdues the rebel into a penitent, and then the language o the obedient soul is, “ld things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” is is the true religion o the ible verything short o this is a deception
ontemplation o the ross ighteousness by aith aith M
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Chapter 4
Your Robe: Woven in The Loom L oom of Heaven
dam in the garden o den was made in the image o his maker e was holy ut was he righteous? et us think about this or a minute Steps to Christ, page 62, tells us that “t was possible or dam, beore the all, to orm a righteous character by obedience to od’s law” dam had been righteous beore the all it could hardly have been said that he “could orm a righteous character” hy bother to orm a righteous character i he already had one? otice now how this passage continues
A
ut he ailed to do this, and because o his sin our natures are allen, and we cannot make ourselves righteous ince we are sinul, unholy, we cannot perectly obey the holy law e have no righteousness o our own to meet the claims o the law o od
rom this we can conclude that “righteousness” is something which is ours or comes to us as a result o acing temptation in a allen or sinul nature and overcoming is is why our ord had to come to our world and “take” or “assume” our allen, sinul natures, and by living a sinless lie while thus encumbered, make it possible or us to receive rom im the righteousness we cannot produce or ourselves Te Robe of Righteousness Christ’s Object Lessons, pages 30-32, gives us a beautiul basis or our study
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e white robe o innocence was worn by our ou r rst parents when they place placed d by od in holy den den ey lived in perect perect conormity conormity to the will o od ll the strength o their aections was given to their heavenly ather ather beautiul beauti ul sot light, the light o od, enshrouded the holy pair is robe o light was a symbol o their spiritual garments o innocence ad they remained true to od it would ever have continued to enshroud them ut when sin entered, they severed their connection with od, and the light that had encircled them departed aked and ashamed, they tried to supply the place o the heavenly garments by sewing together g leaves or a covering
otice in this passage the expressions “robe o innocence, i nnocence,”” “robe “robe o light” ere is no mention o losing los ing a “robe o righteousness righteousnes s”” e passage continues: is is what the transgressors o od’s law have done ever since the day o o dam and an d ve’s ve’s disobedience ey have sewed together g leaves to cover the nakedness caused by transgression transgressio n ey have worn wo rn the garments o their own devising, by works o their own they have have tried to cover their sins, and make themselves acceptable with od ut this they can never do othing can man devise to supply the place o his lost robe o innocence o g-lea garment, no worldly citizen dress, can be worn by those who sit down with hrist and angels at the marriage supper o the amb nly the covering which hrist imsel has provided can make us meeting to appear in od’s od’s presence is covering, the robe o is own righteousness, hrist will put upon every repenting, believing soul “ counsel cou nsel thee,” e e says, “to buy o e white raiment, that
thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame o thy nakedness do not appear” evelation 3:8
ow ollows the key passage in this study study otice the ollowing: “is robe, woven in the loom o heaven, has in it not one thread
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o human devising hrist in is humanity wrought out a perect character, and this character e oers to impart to us” e know what the “robe” is t is the white robe o hrist’s righteousness ut what about the “loom o heaven”? e thinking about that that e e shall have the answer presently present ly e e continue: conti nue: y is perect obedience e has made it possible or every human being to obey od’s commandments hen we submit ourselves to hrist, the heart is united with is heart, the will is merged with is will, the mind becomes one with is mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to im; we live is lie is is what it means to be clothed with the garment o is righteousness
othing could be clearer than that complete union with hrist can transorm any individual who has been lost in sin and made him a “doer o the law” is is what the apostle aul tells us in alatians 2:20: “ am crucied with hrist; nevertheless live; yet not , but hrist liveth in me: and the lie which now live in the esh live by the aith o the on o od, who loved me, and gave himsel or me” me” ere again is righteousness by aith, simply and clearly ere is a passage rom Te Glad idings, page 6, by aggoner: any say o hrist, “ “ee will not have this an to reign over us,” and thrust the blessing o od rom them ut redemption is or all ll have been purchased with the preciou preciouss blood—the blood—the lie—o hrist, hrist, and all may be, i they will, ree ree rom sin and death death y that blood we are redeemed rom ‘the ‘the utile ways inherited i nherited rom your athers’ a thers’ eter eter :8 top and think what this means et the ull orce o the announcement impress itsel upon your consciousness “hrist redeemed us rom the curse o the law”—rom our ailure to continue in all its righteous requirements e need not sin anymore
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o you get that? o you believe it? r are you wondering i you heard right? emember, this is the message llen hite endorsed at least three hundred times as was ecstatic over it it is not n ot the truth we have all been deceived ut i it is the truth trut h we have here a packa package ge o nothing but glorious good news nd remember, i it is not good news, it is not the gospel aggoner continues: e has cut the cords o sin that bound us so that we have but to accept is salvation in order to be ree rom every besetting sin t is not necessary necessary or us any longer to spend our lives in earnest longings long ings or a better lie and in i n vain regrets or desires unrealized hrist raises no alse hopes, but e comes to the captives o sin, and cries to them, “iberty our prison doors are open o orth” (ibid)
preacher’s son said to his ather one day, “ad all this news is so good it simply cannot be true” nd his ather replied, “ou’ve got it wrong, son is news is so good it cannot be anything else but true” aggoner has a little more or us: hat more can be said? hrist has gained the complete victory over this present evil world, over “the lust o the esh and the lust o the eyes and thee prid th pridee o o lie lie’”( ’”( ohn ohn 2: 2:6), 6), and our ai aith th in im mak makes es is vic victor tory y ours (ibid ) )
aggoner aggoner tells us u s more about righteousness righteo usness and justication justic ation idings, page 58 e views presented here take our ideas in Te Glad idings, o righteousness and justication to some pretty loty heights, but this is to be expected, since the message presented to us in 888 was actually a recovery o the gospel which had lain “unseen and unheeded since the ay o entecost” ( Fundamentals o Christian Education, p 473) ese “great truths” are what we are asked to give to the world at this time otice now:
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hen we read the requent statement, ‘e who through aith is is righteous shall live,’ it is necessary to have a clear idea o what the word ‘righteous’ means e ing ames ersion has it, ‘e just shall live by aith’ o be justied by aith is to be made righteous by aith ‘ll unrighteousness is sin’ sin’ ( ohn 5:7 ), and ‘sin is the transgression o the law’ ( ohn 3:4 ) ereore all unrighteousness is transgression o the law, law, and o o course all righteousness righteousness is obedience to the law law o we see that the just, or righteous, man is the man who obeys the law, and to be justied is to be made a keeper o the law
is view o justication justicatio n is the one that those who are steeped in alvinism have such a hard time believing ey see justication as only declaring a man righteous, while in act he is still unrighteous, which makes od tell lies, which is impossible ere is where the 888 messengers introduced an aspect o justication which is a radical departure depar ture rom the popular evangelical evangel ical view view aggoner aggoner stated imes o ay , 893: the same truth in the Signs o the imes o be just means to be righteous ereore since the just man is the one who does the law, it ollows that to justiy a man, that is, to make him jus just, t, is to mak makee him h im a doer d oer o the law law ein eingg just justie ied d by by ait aith, h, th then, en, is simply being made a doer o the law by aith
xactly how did od propose to accomplish this miracle o turning a man lost in sin into an obedient doer o the law? e answer is, by sending is on into this world to become one with humanity, and, through is lie on earth, and death on the cross, and resurrection rom the dead, provide the ultimate answer to the sin problem (read omans 8:3-4): or what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the esh, od sending is own on in the likeness o sinul esh, and or sin, condemned sin in the esh: that the righteousness o the law might be ullled ullle d in us, who walk not ater the esh, esh, but ater the the pir pirit it 63
hrist becoming one with humanity was not make believe t was wonderul reality e word “likeness” in the text means exactly that, the idea o “sameness,” “sameness,” certainly certainl y not “unlikeness,” “unlikeness,” which is what many would like to have it say say ones had this understanding understan ding o the word “likeness,” “likeness,” clearly expressed in the ollowing ollowing passages taken rom Te Consecrated Way , pages 48-50: nly by is subjecting imsel to the law o heredity could e reach sin in ull and true measure as sin really is ere is in each person, in many ways, a liability to sin, inherited rom generations back, which has not yet culminated in the act o sinning, but which is is ever ready, ready, when occasion oers, to blaze orth orth in the actual committing o sins there must be met and subdued this hereditary liability to sin this hereditary tendency that is in us, to sin our liability to sin was laid upon im, in is being made esh us e met sin in the fesh which He took , and triumphed over it , as it is written: “od sending is own on in the likeness o sinul fesh, and or sin, condemned sin IN THE FLESH” to keep us rom sinning is righteousness is imparted to us in our esh; as our esh, with its liability to sin, was imparted to im us, both by heredity and by imputation, e was laden with “the sins o the world” nd, thus laden, at this immense disadvantage, e passed triumphantly over the ground where, at no shadow o any disadvantage whatever, the rst pair ailed nd by condemning sin in the fesh, by abolishing in is fesh the enmity, e delivers rom the power o the law o heredity; and so can, in righteousness, impart is divine nature and power to lit above that law, and hold above that law l aw,, and hold ho ld above, every soul that receives im
ones concludes with an inspiring appeal: od sending is own on in the likeness o sinul esh, hrist taking our nature as our nature in its sinulness and degeneracy, and od dwelling constantly with im and in im 64
in that nature—in this od has demonstrated to all people orever, that there is no soul in this world so laden with sins or so lost that od will not gladly dwell with him and in him to save him rom it all, and to lead him in the way o the righteousness o od nd so certainly is is name mmanuel, which is, God with us ”
idings, page 58: e turn again to aggoner, Te Glad idings, ight doing is the end to be obtained, and the law o od is the standard sta ndard “e law l aw worketh wrath,” wrath,” because “all “all have sinned,” sinned,” and the “wrath o od cometh on the children o disobedience ” ow shall shall we become doers o the law, and thus escape wrath, or the curse? e answer is, “e who through aith is righteous shall live” y aith, not by works, we become doers o the law “ith the heart man believeth unto righteousness ” ” omans 0:0 at no man is justied by the law in the sight o od is evident ow? rom this, that “the just shall live by aith ai th”” righteousness came by works, then it would not be by aith; “i it is by grace, grac e, it is no longer on the basis basi s o works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace” omans :6 “o him that worketh is the reward not reckoned o grace, but o debt debt ut ut to him that worketh not, but believeth on im that justieth the ungodly ung odly,, his aith is counted or righteousness righteo usness”” omans 4:4-5, 4: 4-5,
elieving elieving elieving urely the constant emphasis here cannot be lost on us otice how this receives even greater emphasis in the ollowing paragraph taken also rom Te Glad idings, page 56 o, then, they who are o aith are keepers o the law; or they who are o aith are blessed, and those who do the commandments are blessed y aith they do the commandments ince the gospel is contrary to human nature, we become doers o the law not by doing but by believing we worked or righteousness, we would 65
be exercising only our own sinul human nature, and so would get no nearer to righteousness, but arther rom it ut by believing the “exceeding great and precious promises,” we become “partakers o the divine nature,” (2 eter :4, ), and then all our works are wrought in od
ere’s your ospel, dear riends od has ound ere’s o und a way to bring br ing us back rom the mires o iniquity to a lie o obedience to od’s law o en ommandments nd this means peace “reat peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall shal l oend them” (salm (salm 9:65) onsider again omans 5:8: “ereore as by the oence o one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness o ne the ree git came upon all men unto justication o lie” ierent explanations o this text have been put orward through the centuries centuries since the eormation alvin alvin said that “all “all men” could only reer to those who were predestined or salvation niversalists said “all men” meant that nobody would be lost, everybody would be saved rminius taught that “all men” meant that only provision or salvation was made or all men, that now we also have to do something to initiate the salvation process s i od were saying: “’ve done everything can or you have even given my on to die on the cross or you ow it’s up to you hope you make it ost people don’t ut good luck anyway” nd rminianism is where eventh-day dventists have been bogged down or more than a hundred years ut now look at what w hat the 888 message m essage tells us us aggoner aggoner idings, pages 3 and 4: wrote in Te Glad idings, e will o od is our sanctication essalonians 4:3 e wills that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge o the truth imothy imothy 2:4 … “o you mean to teach universal salvation?” omeone may ask e mean to teach just what the ord o od 66
teaches—that “the grace o od hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men” itus 2:, od has wrought out salvation or every man, and has given it to him; but the majority spurn it and throw it away e judgment will reveal the act that ull salvation was given to every man and that the lost have deliberately thrown away their birthright possession
riend o mine read this statement many years ago, and he told me that when he rst read it, it about blew b lew his mind t had very much the same eect on me when rst encountered it is means that at the ross the whole world was set ree course, we have to learn about the good news nd when we learn about it, hear about it, we have to believe it ere’s ere’s that little word wo rd “believe” again we hear the good news and don’t believe it, it doesn’t help nother similar statement by aggoner appeared in the Signs o the imes, arch 2, 896: ere is no exception here s the condemnation came upon all, so the justication comes upon all hrist has tasted death or everyy man e has given ever gi ven imsel ims el or or all ay ay,, e has given imsel imsel to every man e ree git has come upon all e act that it is a ree git is evidence that there is no exception it came upon only those who have some special qualication, then it would not be a ree git t is a act, thereore, thereore, plainly plainly stated in the ible, ible, that the git o righteousness rig hteousness and lie in hrist has come to every man on earth ere is not the slightest reason why every man that has ever lived should not be saved unto eternal lie, except that they would not have it o many spurn the git oered so reely reely
vidences are being seen that among the large lar ge rotestant churches today changes in long held belies are taking place n example is the doctrine o eternal torment ome evangelical theologians are starting to raise serious s erious question questionss about this teaching en there is the case o eil unt, one o the evangelical theologians e wrote a book some 67
What’ss Good About Te Good News? hile years ago entitled, What’ hile or years the popular teaching had been that everyone is lost except those who do something about being saved, he turned the idea around, and began to suggest that, in act, everyone is saved, and the only people who will be lost are those who insist on being lost is man had theologians talking to themselves about this eil unt had begun to understand an important part o the ospel ere seems to be an understanding o the ospel which is beginning to reach many in hristianity s we saw in aggoner’ hristianity aggoner’ss article, artic le, so many spurn spur n the git gi t oered so reely idings, page 66, the same beautiul thought gain rom Te Glad idings, is expressed ere is powerul good news in all this, which desperately needs to be given to the world otice again: ank od or the blessed hope e blessing has come upon all men or “as by the oence o one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness o ne the ree git came upon all men unto justication o lie” omans 5:8 od, who is no respecter o persons, “has blessed us in hrist with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly place” phesians :3 e git is our to keep I anyone has not this blessing, it is because he has not recognized the git, or has deliberately thrown it away.
omans 5:8 in the ew nglish ible reads like this: this : “t ollows then, that as the issue o one misdeed was condemnation condem nation or all men, so the issue o one just act is acquittal and lie or all men” owerul good news ndeed ll the way through alatians 2:20 , , reads: “ have been crucied cr ucied with hrist; it is no longer who live, but hrist who lives in me; and the lie now live in the esh live by aith in the on o od, who loved me and gave imsel or me” aggoner says: ut unless we are crucied with im, is death and resurrection prot us nothing the cross o hrist is separated rom us, and 68
outside o us, even though it be by so much as a moment o time and an hairbreadth o space, it is to us all the same as i e were not crucied men would see hrist crucied, cr ucied, they must look upward; or the arms o the cross that was erected on alvary reach rom aradise lost to aradise restored, and embrace the whole world o sin e crucixion o hrist is not a thing o but a single day e is ‘the amb slain rom the oundation o the world’ evelation 3:8 nd the pangs o alvary will not be ended as long as a single sin or sinner exists in the universe ven now hrist bears the sins o the whole world, or ‘in im all things consist’ nd when at the last e is obliged to cut o the irreclaimably wicked in i n the lake o re, the anguish which they suer will be no more than that which the hrist whom they have rejected suered on the cross (Te Glad idings, p 44)
urther on in the same comment on alatians 2:20 there is this: ll any man in the world has to do in order to be saved is to believe the truth; that is, to recognize and acknowledge acts, to see things just as they actually are, and to coness them hoever believes that hrist is crucied in im, risen in im, and dwells in im, is saved rom sin nd he will be saved as long as he hold to his belie is is the only true conession o aith (ibid ,, p 45)
“ook unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends o the earth: or am od, and there is none else” (saiah 45:22) lder ashburn, a personal riend o llen hite, in an interview with with obert ieland, une 4, 950, made this statement: statem ent: “‘ aggoner can teach righteousness by aith more clearly than can,’ said ister hite ‘hy, ister hite,’ said, ‘do you mean to say that aggoner can teach it better than you can, with all your experience?’ ister hite replied, ‘es, the ord has given him special light on that question have been wanting to bring it out 69
more clearly, but could not have brought it out as clearly as he did ut when he brought it out at inneapolis, recognized it’” Te Loom of Heaven e return now to the subject o the robe Christ’s Object Lessons, page 3, has this statement we quoted previously: “is robe, woven in the loom o heaven, has in it not one thread o human devising” e shall turn our attention now to the matter o the “loom o heaven heaven”” hat is it, i t, this “loom “l oom o heaven heaven”? ”? e e have already studied about the robe, which whic h is, o course, the white whi te robe o hrist’s hrist’s righteousness, and how this becomes ours e have considered many varied and important aspects o this subject ones, in the 1893 General Conerence Bulletin, pages 207-208, presented a section on the weaving o the robe which is one o nest examples o sanctication symbolized that have ound et us take a look at this most ascinating portrayal ere is where we shall learn about the “loom” nd we have it urther, “uy o e gold tried in the re, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed” nd you remember the description that we already had o that raiment e gure is, it is, “that garment that is woven in the loom o heaven, in which, there is not a single thread o human making”
is obviously is taken rom Christ’s Object Lessons, page 3, but is slightly misquoted t should read “human devising” rather than “human making” nly a very small mistake e continue: rethren, that garment was wa s woven in a human body body e human body—the esh o hrist—was the loom, was it not?
ow clear ow could it be anything else? t was in this esh this allen, sinul esh, yours and mine, that our ord came down and assumed, in which e lived the perect, sinless lie, and wove a 70
perect, spotless robe or you and me to wear emember the quote rom Christ’s Object Lessons, page 3, which ollows the one about the “loom o heaven”? ere it is again: “hrist in is humanity wrought out a perect character, and this character e oers to impart to us” is should have told us right there what the “loom o heaven” was: is humanity, is esh e continue with ones’ description: at garment was woven in esus; in the same esh that you and have, or e took part o the same esh and blood that we have at esh that is yours and mine, that hrist bore in this world—that was the loom in which od wove that garment or you and me to wear in the esh, and e wants us to wear it now, as well as when the esh is made immortal in the end hat was the loom? hrist hr ist in is human esh hat was it that was made there? (Voice : e garment o righteousness) nd it is or all o us e righteousness o hrist—the lie that e lived—or you and or me, that we are considering considering to-night, that is the garment garm ent od the ather—od was in hrist reconciling the world to imsel “is name shall be called mmanuel”—that is “od with us” ow then, e wants that garment to be ours, but does not want us to orget who is the weaver t is not ourselves, but it is e who is with us t was od in hrist hrist is to be in us, just as od was in im, and is character is to be woven and transormed into us through these suerings and temptations and trials which we meet … t is the cooperation o the divine and the human—the mystery myster y o od in you and me—the same mystery that was in the gospel and that is the third angel’s angel’s message is is the word wo rd o the onder onderul ul ounse ounsellor llor … o we are led through these ery trials and temptations to be partakers o the character o hrist and these trials and temptations that we meet reveal to us our characters and the importance o having is, so that through these same temptations that e passed through, we become partakers o is character, bearing about in the body the righteousness o the lie o the ord esus hrist 71
… the beauty o it comes come s in that we are to have that garment as complete compl ete as a s e is i s e e are to grow up into hrist, hrist, until we all come in the unity o the aith t is the same message still, until we all come in the unity o the aith, and o the knowledge o the on o od unto a perect man, “unto the measure o the stature o the ullness o o hrist” ow tall are we to be in character beore we leave this world? world? s tall as hrist hat is to be our stature? at o hrist e e are to be perect men reaching “unto “unto the measure o the stature statu re o the ullness o hrist” ho is the weaver? (Voice : od) n whose eye is the pattern? od’s any times, brethren, the threads seem all tangled when we look at them e meshes seem all out o shape, and there is no symmetry at all to the gure, there is no beauty at all to the pattern as we see it ut the pattern is not o our making e are not the weaver lthough the threads become tangled, and the shuttle as it goes through gets all clogged, and we do not know how it is all coming out, who is sending the shuttle? od sends the shuttle, and it will go through ou need never mind, i the threads get tangled and you can see nothing beautiul in it od is the weaver; can e untangle the threads? ssuredly e will untangle them hen we look or the symmetry o the pattern and see it all awry and the colors intermingled and the threads drawn through this way and that, and the gure seems spoiled, who is making the gure anyhow? od, o course hose loom contains the pattern o the gure in its completeness? nd who is the pattern? hrist is the pattern, and do not orget “no man knoweth the on but the ather” ou and cannot shape our lives on the pattern e do not know im im e e cannot see clearly enough to discern the shape o the pattern, or to know how to shape it right even i we were doing the weaving rethren, od is doing the weaving e will carry that process on od sees the pattern in its completeness beore it is done t is in is eye perected, when to our eye it all seems tangled and awry
ones has beautiully described or us the sanctication process, in a masterpiece o symbolism e have learned how od 72
is doing the work o transorming our lives into is image patiently but with divine thoroughness ere is a wonderul weaving process being carried on in our o ur lives rom day to day, day, to weave, as it were, the spotless character o our ord esus hrist into our lives ow notice the next sentence: “BRETHREN, LET HIM WEAVE AWAY!” men nd now he continues: et im carry on is blessed plan o weaving through all our lie and experience the precious pattern o esus hrist e day is coming, and is not ar o, when the last shuttle will be shot through, the last thread will be laid on, the last point o the gure will be met completely, and sealed with the seal o the living od ere we shall wait only or im, that we may be like im because we shall see im as e is rethren, is e not a wonderul ounsellor? h, let us take is counsel to-night et us take the blessed aith that has been tried, and all that e tells us, or it is all our own od has given it t is mine t is yours et us thank im and be glad ( 1893 General Conerence Bulletin, p 208)
hrist in is humanity, in the same allen, sinul esh which you and have, which e assumed, wove a beautiul robe o perect righteousness, by living a spotless, sinless, lie and condemned sin in the fesh e condemned sin in the esh by proving that sin has no excuse or its existence, not even in a allen nature at esh which e took, that sinul nature which e assumed, that was the “loom” in which e wove that robe o perect righteousness which is oered o ered to us e esh, the humanity, the allen sinul nature which hrist assumed, was the “loom o heaven” ow it is possible or those who believe that hrist somehow took the sinless nature o unallen dam, to reconcile their belie with all we have been told about heaven’s precious loom, is beyond understanding ad hrist come in the nature o unallen sinless dam e would not have “condemned sin in the esh” e word 73
“esh” consistently reers to our sinul condition in the criptures ever does it apply to the sinless nature o dam beore the all ven the eminent theologian, arl arth, recognized this e stated, “lesh (sarx) is the concrete c oncrete orm o human nature marked by dam’ dam’s all ” is appears in his Church Dogmatics, vol , part 2, page 5 ee also arry ohnson’s doctoral dissertation, Te Humanity o the Saviour Saviour,, page 68 68 nd the ew estament estament tells tel ls us that “every spirit that conesseth not that esus hrist is come in the esh is not o od: and this is that spirit o antichrist ” ( ohn 4:3) ow do we wear that robe o righteousness? righteous ness? ow does it become ours? ere it is again, rom Christ Object Lessons, page 32: hen we submit ourselves to hrist, the heart is united with is heart, the will is merged in is will, the mind becomes one with with is mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to im; we live is lie is is what it means to be clothed with the garment o is righteousness
our obe: woven in the LOOM OF HEAVEN s ones told us, “t is mine t is yours et us thank im and be glad” men
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Chapter 5
W hy it is Hard to Be Lost and Easy to be Saved
romises abound in the ord ord o od o a salvation ull and ree or all people everywhere with absolutely no strings attached ere are those, however, who say, “es, but it’s so hard to be saved ou have to give up so much nd the constant struggle to overcome sin is so great that very ew people ever make it hat chance do have?” o such we would say, “riend, you haven’t been reading the ible very careully careully ake ake another look and you may just be surprised” surpris ed” or example, consider this: atthew :28-30: “ome unto e, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and will give you rest ake y yoke upon you, and learn o e, or y yoke is easy, and y burden is light” esus said, “y yoke is what?” EASY nd y burden is what? “LIGHT” o hear some preachers tell it, the words o esus might just as well not be in the ible e impression one gets is that the words o these texts are actually the other way around: that the yoke is hard, and the burden is heavy ut that is not what esus said otice these words o esus spoken spo ken to aul o o arsus arsus when w hen he was struck down by that light rom heaven while on his way to amascus to bring the hristians back in chains cts 26:3-4: “t midday, king, saw a light rom heaven, above the brightness o the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me nd when we were all allen to the earth, heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the ebrew tongue, ‘aul, aul, why persecutest thou e? t is hard or thee to kick against the pricks’” esus then
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identied imsel as the ne who was speaking learly aul had been “kicking against again st the pricks” pric ks” o conscience eep inside he must have known that the way he was ollowing was the wrong one esus told him this was the “hard” way way alatians 5:7 reads as ollows: “or the esh lusteth against the pirit, pi rit, and the the pirit against the esh: and these are contrary contrar y the one to the other: so ye cannot do the things that ye would” any times have asked the question: hat are these things that we cannot do? re they good things or bad things? n most instances, people think the answer is that we cannot do the good things this is the case, then it means that, in spite o the act that the pirit is constantly ghting against the demands o the esh, the pirit is quite unable to subdue the powerul demands o the esh, and it is possible to do only bad things ut this is bad news, not good news nd i it is not good news, it is not the ospel ctually this text is telling us good news, that the pirit is stronger than the esh, and can subdue the clamors o the esh, and thus we cannot do the bad things any more ook at the verse immediately beore this one: “is say, then, alk in the pirit, and ye shall not ull the lust o the esh” (vs 6) erses 9 to 2 tell us what these “works o the esh” are: bad things ese are the things we cannot do i we “alk in the pirit,” and that, o course, is good news hy do people instinctively say that we cannot do good things? ecause they are still rmly entrenched in omans 7, where the apostle aul aul says that he can do nothing but bad things nd then he exclaims: “ wretched man that am ho shall deliver me rom the body o this death?” nd he answers, “ thank od through esus hrist our ord” ord” nd then in the next ew verses he points out that when we are in hrist esus we walk in the pirit and not ater the esh nd when we walk in the pirit we cannot do bad things omans 7 is speaking in universal terms, and describes the condition o man prior to the time when esus comes into his lie omans 8:4 tells us o the change, and, o course, then we go to alatians 5:6, 5:6 ,
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where we are told that i we walk in the pirit we will not “ulll the lust o the esh” esh” e conclusion is that that the ospel has made m ade the t he yoke yok e o hrist easy alatians 5 describes a man who can do nothing wrong, while omans 7 describes a man who can do nothing right bviously, the one is the man beore the good news o the ospel operates in his lie, while the other is what happens to him ater hrist esus comes into his lie wonderul explanation o how the ospel operates to change human beings into the image o hrist was given by ones in the Review and Herald o eptember 8, 900 onsider the ollowing passages: hen a man is converted, and is thus brought under the power o the pirit o od, he is not so delivered rom the esh that he is actually separated rom it, with its tendencies and desires o; that same degenerate, sinul nature is there ut the individual is no longer subject to these e is delivered rom subjection to the fesh, with its tendencies and desires, and is now subject to the Spirit e is now subject to a power that conquers , brings under, crucies, and keeps under, the fesh Te fesh itsel is brought into subjection to the power o God , through the pirit (so that) all these evil things are killed at the root , and thus prevented rom appearing in the lie … is blessed reversal o things is wrought in conversion y conversion the man is put in possession o the power o od, and under the dominion o the pirit o od, so that, by that power, he is made ruler over the esh, with all its aections and lusts; and, through the pirit, he crucies the esh with the aections and lusts, in his ghting “the good ght o aith” ( Lessons on Faith, pp 33, 35)
ones has described or us the process by which od eects the miraculou miraculouss transormation known as conversion is can also be understood as sanctication sanctication ere ollows now a beautiul beauti ul paragraph in which ones shows how esus became one with mankind in order to give the perect example to human beings in the conquest o sin 77
esus came to the world, and put Himsel IN THE FLESH, just where men are; and met that fesh, JUST AS IT IS, with all its tendencies and desires; and by the divine power which e brought by aith, e “condemned sin in the fesh,” and thus brought to all mankind that divine aith which brings the divine power to man to deliver him rom the power o the esh and the law o sin, just where he is, and to give him assured dominion over the esh, just as it is ( ibid ) )
gain we nd in passages such as this how important it is that we understand that hrist came into this world, TOOK UPON HIM OUR NATURES, FALLEN, SINFUL, AND DETERIORATED, and, while thus encumbered, nevertheless proceeded to live a lie perect and spotless, and thus leaving us a shining example o what it is in the power o od to do or us, i we truly believe in is power to save us to the uttermost at is why e says, “o him that overcometh even as I overcame ” ” ad hrist overcome in a nature superior to ours, such as the nature o unallen dam, these words o evelation 3:2 would be meaningless t needs to be pointed out that, while there is a promise to the overcomer in every one o the seven churches, to only the church o aodicea is there this addition: “EVEN AS I ALSO OVERCAME” ere is some eschatological signicance here in this verse t seems that there will be a special kind o overcoming or the last church, the church which will be translated to heaven (see estimonies or the Church, vol , p 87) point to be considered is that the phrase, “even “even as also overcame overcame,,” seems to suggest, not only the victory over sin which aodicea nally experiences, but also an appreciation o the importance o the kind o nature which hrist assumed in the incarnation hen we realize ully that hrist’s overcoming was accomplished in a nature like ours, every bit as allen and sinul as ours is, we can look at the problem o our battle with sin in i n a dierent light e look no longer at any enemy who strikes ear into our souls, but at one who has been conquered, in every way ith this realization comes the knowledge that overcoming sin is no longer 78
the dicult task we have imagined it to be, but easy in every sense o the word mall wonder that aggoner wrote in the Signs o the imes, anuary 2, 889: hat wonderul possibilities there are or the hristian o what heights o holiness he may attain o matter how much atan may way against him, assaulting him where the esh is weakest, he may abide under the shadow o the lmighty, and be lled with the ullness o od’s strength e ne stronger than atan may dwell in his heart continually
ones has something or us on the question o whether it is hard or easy to t o do right is is rom the Review and Herald o uly 25, 899: hen grace reigns, it is easier to do right ri ght than it is to do wrong at is the comparison otice: s sin reigned, even so grace reigns hen sin reigned, it reigned against grace; it beat back all the the power o grace that od had given; but when the power o sin is broken, and grace reigns, then grace reigns against sin, and beats back all the power o sin o it is as literally true that under the reign o grace it is easier to do right than to do wrong, as it is true that under the reign o sin it is easier to do wrong than it is to do right (Lessons in Faith, p 49)
is is one o the many jewels o the 888 message e are citing these reerences so that you can read in the exact words o the messengers themselves, that message which we have been commanded to give to the world ere are those who are going around today claiming claimin g to have the 888 message m essage when, rankly rankl y, they wouldn’t know the 888 message i they tripped over it imply to say,, “’m say “’m preaching the 888 message, mes sage,”” and then continue to give all o the old legalistic doctrines which whic h have been with us or more than a hundred years without yet preparing a people or translation will 79
never nish the work t is this message which the world needs ones proceeds urther: t can never be repeated too oten, that under the reign o grace it is just as easy easy to to do right, as under the reign o sin it is easy to do wrong is must be so; or i there is not more power in grace than there is sin, then there can be no salvation rom sin (Lessons on Faith, p 82)
ecause grace is more powerul than sin, salvation rom sin can be a reality in our lives, now and evermore e are contending with an obviously deeated oe et us act like victors otice again: alvation rom sin certainly depends upon there being more power in grace than there is in sin en, there being more power in grace than there is in sin wherever the power o grace can have control it will be just as easy to do right as without this it is easy to do wrong [an’s] great diculty has always been to do right ut this is because man naturally is enslaved to a power—the power o sin—that is absolute in its reign nd so long as that power has sway, it is not only dicult but impossible to do the good that he knows and that he would ut let a mightier power than that have sway, then is it not plain enough that it will be just as easy to serve the will o the mightier power, when it reigns, as it was to serve the will o the other power when it reigned? ut grace is not simply more power than is sin is, good as it would be, is not all ere is much more power in grace than there is in sin “or where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (ibid ) )
is is sort o spiritual overkill verkill is where you use a 500-pound anvil and a 20-pound sledgehammer to kill a cockroach et no one ever attempt to serve od with anything but the present, living power o od, that makes him a new creature; with 80
nothing but the much more abundant grace that condemns sin in the esh, and reigns through righteousness unto eternal lie by esus hrist our ord en the service o od will indeed be “in “i n newness o lie”; lie”; then it will be ound that is yoke is indeed “easy” and is burden “light”; then his ser servic vicee will will be ou ound nd inde indeed ed to be with wi th “joy “j oy unspeaka un speakable ble and ull o glory” (Review and Herald, ept , 896; Lessons on Faith, p 83)
aggoner said: e new birth completely supersedes the old “ any man be in hrist, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new nd all things are o od” e who takes od or the portion o his inheritance, has a power working in him or righteousness, as much stronger than the power o inherited tendencies to evil, evil, as our heavenly ather ather is greater than than our earthly parents (Te Everlasting Covenant, p 66; 900 edition)
onsider this text in Zechariah 4:6-7: “ot by might, nor by power, but by y pirit, saith the ord o hosts ho art thou, great mountain? beore Zerubbabel Zerub babel thou shalt become beco me a plain” plain” am reminded o the time a man was selling me a car e said, amongst other things, “is car will atten any hill in the country countr y” hat e meant was that this car would sail over the steepest passes as though they were not there nother text: “espisest thou the riches o is goodness and orbearance and longsuering; not knowing that the goodness o od leadeth thee to repentance?” (omans 2:4) aggoner comments on this text as ollows: nd we need not try to improve on the criptures, and say that the goodness o od tends to lead men to repentance e ible says that it does lead them to repentance, and we may be sure that it is so very man is being led to repentance as surely as od is good” (Signs o the imes, ov 2, 895; Waggoner on Romans , p 42) 81
ot all repent hy?—ecause they despise the riches o the goodness and orbearance orbearance and long-suering o od, and break away rom the merciul leading o the ord ut whoever does not resist the ord will surely be brought to repentance and salvation ( ibid ) )
ere are two quotes rom our Adult Sabbath School Quarterly o a ew years ago: t the cross, the price o sin or the whole world was paid ternal lie was guaranteed ut the sacrice o esus is meaningless and o none eect unless is git o salvation is accepted by the individual (7/23/988) is lesson deals with the experience o salvation o matter what hrist hrist has done to to provide salvation or or the whole world, none o us can enjoy the benets o is salvation until we accept and experience it ourselves (9/3/988)
ese two quotes present a problem, and we do not say this to be critical ey reect the rminian thinking in which we have been bogged down or more than a hundred years—that the cross means nothing unless we do something rst otice this rom Te Desire o Ages, p 660: o the death o hrist we owe even this earthly lie e bread we eat is the purchase o is broken body e water we drink is bought by is spilled blood ever one, saint or sinner, eats his daily ood, but he is nourished by the body and the blood o hrist e cross o alvary is stamped on every loa t is reected in every water spring
id you notice the contrast between this statement and the statements rom the Sabbath School Quarterly ? very one who ever came into this world has beneted beneted rom the cross o hrist hrist e very 82
act that they live, and have lived, shows that they have beneted rom alvary alvar y e worst tyrants who ever lived owed their lives to the cross e atrocities they perpetrated they were able to do because o the lie they had, which they had because o the cross o alvary is is why am uncomortable with the word “accept” ere is the subtle implication in the use o this word that od cannot help people until they decide to “accept” hrist ey are let with an uncomortable eeling that all that od has done or the world through hrist is on means nothing until they “do” something ut the truth is this: every loa o bread on their tables tabl es is there because o the cross o alvary ometime you can check this word “accept” “accept” in your concordance, conc ordance, and see how many times it appears, especially the ew estament, where it is ound only once ut the word “believe” is ound everywhere is is what od asks us to do, to believe is promises to us eople who are lost one day will experience that tragedy or no other reason than that they chose to be ere is a paragraph which tells this clearly (’ve numbered the seven points): () lie o rebellion against agains t od has untted them or heaven (2) ts purity, purity, holiness, and peace would be torture to rture to them (3) e glory glor y o od would be a consuming re (4) ey would long to ee rom that holy place (5) ey would welcome destruction, that they might be hidden rom the ace o im who died to redeem them (6) e destiny o the wicked is xed by their own choice (7) ere exclusion rom heaven is voluntary with themselves, and just and merciul on the part o od (Te Great Controversy, p 543) Consecrate ecratedd Way Way.. is is why ones wrote in Te Cons e work o the gospel being nished means only the destruction o all who then shall not have received the gospel (2 essalonians :70): or it is not the way o the ord to continue men in lie when the only possible use they will make o lie is to heap up more misery or themselves (p 9) 83
hile we are still here on earth the gospel works a transormation in our lives so that we lose interest in the things o earth, with all o its endless tragedies and sorrows and disappointments, and nd ourselves developing a love or heavenly things and a yearning to leave this world or a better place llen hite, ater a lengthy vision in which she had been given the opportunity to see something o the heavenly regions, returned rom that vision in a state o deep depression which remained with her or days, because she had seen a better land ll o which helps to explain why, as our knowledge o heavenly things grows, it becomes increasingly dicult to occupy our minds with the lust o the esh, the lust o the eyes, and the pride o lie t was the ord esus who said in i n ohn 2:32: “nd “nd , i be lited l ited up rom the earth, will draw all men unto e” t is the power o the cross to penetrate into the depths o the human mind, to transorm sin-laden human beings into glorious heroes who, i necessary, would die in torturing ames to give testimony to the hrist who has brought peace to their souls o Chris Christ, t, page 27: otice this rom Steps o hrist must be revealed to the sinner as the aviour dying or the sins o the world; and as we behold the amb o od upon the cross o alvary, the mystery o redemption begins to unold to our minds, and the goodness o od leads us to repentance n dying or sinners, hrist maniested a love that is incomprehensible; and as the sinner beholds this love, it sotens the heart, impresses the mind, and inspires contrition in the soul nd as hrist draws them to look upon is cross, to behold im whom their sins have pierced, the commandment comes home to the conscience e wickedness o their lie, the the deep-sea deep-seated ted sin o the soul, is revealed to them ey begin beg in to comprehend something o the righteousness o hrist, and exclaim, “hat is sin, that it should require such a sacrice or the redemption redemp tion o its victim? as all this love, all this suering, all this humiliation demanded, that we might not perish, but have everlasting lie?” 84
ow ollows the key paragraph in this passage otice: e sinner may resist this love, may reuse to be drawn to hrist; but i he does not resist, he will be drawn to esus; a knowledge o the plan o salvation will lead him to the oot o the cross in repentance or his sins, which have caused the suerings o od’s dear on
arlier when we gave the example o the atalistic uslim who was bitten by a deadly snake and reused help because he believed it was the “will o llah,” we pointed out that he was actually killed by the snake venom, but the reason or his death was his reusal o the antidote e e would like to carry this illustration illustratio n a little urther ur ther the would-be rescuer should call to some men near by and say, “Quick elp me with this man e venom must be aecting his mind old on to him while administer the antidote” ut let us say that this man is a airly powerul individual who, with his last remaining strength, ghts o his would-be lie savers, and then dies is is the only way anyone can be lost e must beat od out o his lie, as it were e must ght against od to the very last, la st, until the ord gives up in sorrow eing lost is hard mere proession o discipleship is o no value e aith in hrist which saves the soul is not what it is represented to be by many “elieve, believe,” they say, “and you need not keep the law” ut a belie that does not lead to obedience is presumption ( Toughts From the Mount o Blessing , p 46)
omans 0:0 reads: “or with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth conession con ession is made unto salvation” otice this inspiring articulation o a basic ospel principle by idings, page 00: aggoner in Te Glad idings, od never expected, and does not now expect, that any person can get righ righteou teousness sness by the law proclaimed proclaimed rom inai, inai, and everything connected connected 85
with inai shows it et the law is truth and must be kept od delivered the people rom gypt “that they might observe is statutes, and keep is laws” salm 05:45 We do not get lie by keeping the commandments, but God gives us lie in order that we may keep them through aith in Him. (emphasis mine)
llen hite wrote in Our High Calling, page 26: “‘hatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap’ alatians 6:7 od destroys no man very man who is destroyed dest royed will destroy himsel hen a man sties the admonitions o conscience, he sows the seeds o unbelie, and these produce a sure harvest” a man smokes cigarettes or twenty years or more and than dies, is it air to say that od killed him? o uch a man killed himsel lexander the reat inspired such condence and aith in his soldiers that they ought like wolverines when they went into battle, because they believed their t heir commander to be invincible invincib le o o them, as they aced the enemy, the battle was already over, and they were, as usual, victorious o see them ght as they engaged the enemy one would conclude that they had been given a hard task, perhaps an insuperably dicult task ut to them it was easy, “a piece o cake,” as we say similar situation is the one in which we nd ourselves ee are in the thick o o a tremendous conict, “the greatest battle that was ever ough ought, t,”” as the ord’ o rd’ss messenger tells us the battle against sel is, a constant conrontation with atan and temptation ut we have a truly invincible ommander, whose “yoke is easy,” and our victory is assured is matter o being lost: is it all that easy? onsider these words on page 39 o Toughts From the Mount o Blessing: et do not thereore conclude et co nclude that that the upward path is the hard and the downward road the easy way ll along the road that leads to death there are pains and penalties, there are sorrows and disappointments, there are warnings not to go on od’s love has made it hard or the heedless and headstrong to destroy themselves t is true that atan’ atan’s 86
path is made to appear attractive, but it is all a deception; in the way o evil there are bitter remorse remors e and cankering cankerin g care e e may think it pleasant pleasa nt to ollow ollow pride and worldly ambition, but the end is i s pain and sorrow sorrow elsh plans may present attering promises and hold out the hope o enjoyment, but we shall nd that our happiness is poisoned and our lie embittered by hopes hopes that center on sel n the t he downward road the gateway may be bright with owers, but thorns are in the path e light o hope which shines rom its entrance ades into the darkness o despair, and soul who ollows that path descends into the shadows o unending night
ould the situation have been more clearly or accurately, or more wonderully, wonderully, expressed? nd nd then there is this: nnite love has cast up a pathway upon which the ransomed o the ord may pass rom earth to heaven at path is the on o od ngel guides are sent to direct our erring eet e et eaven eave n’s glorious glo rious ladder is let down in every man’s path, barring his way to vice and olly e must trample upon a crucied edeemer ere he can pass onward to a lie o sin (Our High Calling, p ) ride and sel-worship cannot ourish in the soul that keeps resh in memory the scenes o alvary (Te Desire o Ages, p 66)
ith the image o that cross which was erected on olgotha’s hill nearly two thousand years ago rmly established in the mind, it is at rst dicult, and very soon impossible, to trample upon that orm o the aviour upon alvary, in order to commit the sin which beckons so enticingly rom the other side e statement we have just read about “heaven’s “heaven’s glorious glorio us ladder” is based, o course, on the dream o acob, who saw the ladder reaching rom heaven to earth Te Desire o Ages, pages 3 and 32, has more on this:
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hrist is the ladder that acob saw, saw, the base resting on the earth, ear th, and the topmost round reaching to the gate o heaven, to the very threshold o glory that ladder had ailed by a single step o reach the earth, we should have been lost ut hrist reaches us where we are e took our nature and overcame, that we through taking is nature might overcome ade ‘in the likeness o sinul esh’ (omans 8:3), e lived a sinless lie ow by is divinity e lays hold upon the throne o heaven, while by is humanity e reaches us e bids us by aith in im attain to the glory o the character o od
nd again rom Te Desire o Ages, page 73 hile the wind is itsel invisible, it produces eects that are seen and elt o the work o the pirit upon the soul will reveal itsel in every act o him who has elt its saving power hen the pirit o od takes possession o the heart, it transorms the lie inul thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility, and peace take the place o anger, envy, and strie oy takes the place o sadness, and the countenance reects the light o heaven o one sees the hand that lits the burden, or beholds b eholds the light descending descend ing rom the courts above e blessing comes when by aith the soul surrenders itsel to od en that power which no human eye can see creates a new being in the image o od
emember the words o aggoner in Te Glad idings, page 72, when he said: emember also that since only righteousness will dwell in the new heavens and the new earth, the promise includes the making righteous o all who believe is is done in hrist, in whom the promise is conrmed
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emember it always, and never orget it, that od has committed comm itted imsel to the seemingly seemingly impossible task o saving you to is kingdom e ound a way way,, but it was the way o the th e cross cro ss ere ere was wa s no way or or the odhead to bypass the cross ad there been such a way, od would have ound it ven hrist, in ethsemane, while e prayed, “ y ather ather,, i it be possible, poss ible, let this cup pass rom ro m e,” e,” knew that it was not possible i lost humanity were to be saved ere simply was no other way as it easy or im? o ut or us e has made it easy riends, it’s it’s easy to be saved eally ut to be lost los t orever, that’s that’s what is hard hen survey the wondrous cross n which the rince o lory died, y richest gain count but loss, nd pour contempt on all my pride —Isaac Watt atts s
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Chapter 6
Christ and the Covenants
ter dam and ve sinned in the garden o den and they had to be expelled rom rom their aradise home they were not let without hope e promise o restoration was given to them immediately, and they were given assurance o a coming edeemer who would one day make it possible or them to be returned to their lost estate owever, the cost o the restoration would be something beyond anything they could understand at the time peaking to the serpent, atan actually, od said: “nd will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise is heel” is was the rst unolding o the verlasting ovenant od was revealing to man is plan to redeem lost humanity no matter what the cost s we look at this verse, we are impressed with the act that there is much in the depths o its meaning which does not appear in a supercial reading e “enmity,” or example, indicates that somehow od counteracted the eects o sin in alienating man rom his reator lso, the expression, “bruise thy head,” would be better translated, “shatter thy head,” according to an ancient almudic understanding o the text od was telling our rst parents about is plan to save the world, a plan which had been ormulated eons beore s we read in Te Desire o Ages, page 22: “e plan or our redemption was not an aterthought, a plan ormulated ater the all o o dam t was a revelation o the ‘mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal’ omans 6:25 ” ulllment o this promise did not come until our thousand years later e story is told in atthew :2: “nd she shall bring
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orth a son, and thou shalt call is name JESUS: or e shall save is people rom their sins” n the manger o ethlehem was born the ne whose commitment to the cross had saved the world rom destruction, and who eventually would restore humanity completely to the glories o the new earth ixteen centuries went by, and as oah and his amily came out o the ark, and all the animals which had gone into the ark with them, od repeated the promise o the verlasting ovenant is time there was seen “the bow o promise” which symbolized od’s assurance to man that never again would the earth be destroyed by a ood ore centuries went by, by, and we come to the time o braham, b raham, the man rom r r o the haldees haldees e had grown up in the environment o heathenism, born and raised in a heathen home, but he had renounced the moon worship everywhere about him and chose to worship the true od od called him rom the land o his birth and promised to give him and his posterity the land o anaan or an inheritance mplicit in the promise was the promise o the new earth otice how od spoke the words o the everlasting covenant in enesis 7:-8: nd when bram was ninety years old and nine, the ord appeared to bram, and said unto him, am the lmighty od; walk beore me, me, and be thou perect nd will make my covenant between be tween me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly nd bram ell on his ace: and od talked to him, saying, s or me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a ather o many nations either shall thy name any more be called bram, but thy name shall be braham; or a ather o many nations have made thee nd will make thee exceeding ruitul, and will make nations o thee, and kings shall come out o thee nd will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed ater thee in their generations or an everlasting covenant, to be a od unto thee, and to thy seed ater thee nd will give unto thee, and to thy seed ater thee, the land wherein thou art 91
a stranger, all the land o anaan, or an everlasting possession, and will be their od”
nderstand clearly that this more detailed unolding o the everlasting covenant was not any dierent rom ro m the covenant od had given to dam and later to oah t this point we should mention that never had od any other plan or or the saving o a lost world than this one e had given to dam and oah and braham aggoner in his book, Te Glad idings, explains the covenants in a clearer manner than we nd anywhere else in the 888 message or or that matter, anywhere else in dventism et us begin by reading rom page 7: e covenant and promise o od are one and the same is is clearly c learly seen rom alatia alatians ns 3:7, where aul aul asserts that to disannul disannul the covenant would be to make void the promise n enesis 7 we read that od made a covenant with braham to give him the land o anaan or an everlasting possession alatians 3:8 says that od gave it to him by promise od’s covenants with men can c an be nothing promise od’s else than promises to them: “ho hath rst given to im, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? or o im, and through im, and to im, are all things” omans :35-36
alatians 3:7 and 8 read like this: “nd this say, that the covenant, cove nant, that that was conrmed beore beo re o od in hrist, the law, law, which was our hundred and thirty years ater, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise o none eect or i the inheritance be o the law, it is no more o promise: but od gave it to braham by promise” aggoner continues his comments on the covenants as ollows, page 72: o not orget as we proceed that the covenant and the promise are the same thing, and that it conveys land, even the whole earth 92
made new, to braham and his children emember also that since only righteousness will dwell in the new heavens and the new earth, the promise includes the making righteous o all who believe
ow this is good news ot only does od promise us the wonderul real estate o the new earth, but also the righteousness we need to live there ere is one o the beautiul promises o the 888 message which completely destroys all elements o legalistic thinking thinkin g as we try to overcome sin is cannot be done in our own strength e victory or o r which we yearn comes by aith and aith alone, and we have to remember that od has promised us that righteousness, but e does expect us to believe lso, e has to have our permission e read again rom Te Glad idings, page 76: “s the law then against the promises o od?” ot at all it were, it would not be in the hands o the ediator, hrist, or all the promises o od are in im 2 orinthians :20 e nd the law and the promise combined in hrist e may know that the law was not and is not against the promises o od rom the act that od gave both the promise and the law … ut all the same it is not against the promise and brings no new element in hy? imply because the law is in the promise e promise o the pirit includes: “ will put y laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts” ebrews 8:0 nd this is what od had done or braham when e gave him the covenant o circumcision ead omans 4:, 2:25-29; hilippians 3:3
ere is no conict here between the covenant, the promises, the law, and so on ey are all part o the same beautiul package is is the message which comes through so consistently rom these analyses aggoner makes on the covenant question isten urther: e law is righteousness, as od says: “earken to e, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is y law” saiah 93
5:7 o, then, the righteousness which the law demands is the only righteousness that can inherit the promised land t is obtained, not by the works o the law, but by aith e righteousness o the law is not attained by human eorts to do the law, but by aith ee omans 9:30-32 ereore, the greater the righteousness which the law demands, the great is seen to be the promise o od or e has promised to give it to all who believe (p 77)
anyone should protest that the righteousness which the law demands is so s o great that a man lost in sin in this world has no hope o ever reaching it, then od would simply say: “ course you cannot reach it at’s why am promising it to you as a git nd i you think the righteousness that the law demands is so terribly great, that goes to show how great these promises are” ood news? ere is none greater aggoner aggoner continues: co ntinues: es, e has sworn it hen, thereore, the law has spoken rom inai “out o the midst o the re, o the cloud, and o the thick darkness, with a great voice” (euteronomy 5:22), accompanied by the sounding o the trump o od and with the whole earth quaking at the presence o the ord and is holy angels, the inconceivable greatness and majesty o the law o o od was shown s hown o o everyone who remembered the oath o od to braham it was a revelation o the wondrous greatness o od’s od’s promise; or all the righteousness which the law demands e has sworn to give to everyone who trusts im e “loud voice” with which the law was spoken was the loud voice that rom the mountaintops proclaims the glad tidings o the saving mercy o od ee saiah 40:9 (ibid ) )
ow the children o srael misunderstood the experience o inai ey were so terried at the thunders and lightnings and the “loud voice” o od that they begged oses to plead with od never to speak directly to them again, but to communicate with them only through oses ctually, they were listening to good news, spoken 94
in tones o thunder, as only od can od was speaking to them words o the most wonderul “glad tidings” e same paragraph continues: od’s precepts are promises; they must necessarily be such, because e knows that we have no power ll that od requires is what e gives hen e says, “ou halt not,” we may take it as is assurance that i we but believe im e will preserve us rom the sin against which e warns us
ll we need to do is to believe that promise and to think o the law as beautiul and wonderul promises od’s law is not a series o harsh prohibitions hen od says, “ou shalt not take the name o the ord thy od in vain,” e is in actual act saying, “ am promising you that you will not take y name in vain nly believe” od says, “ou shalt not covet” hat e actually says is, “ am promising you that you will not covet, i you will truly believe” od says, “ou shalt not steal,” and someone protests, “ut grew up in the streets o ondon, and the only way know to make a living is picking pockets p ockets see a man in a crowd with his back to me and his his billold sticking two inches out o his back pocket, and take it, to me that is not stealing t’s simply accepting a git” od would probably reply gently, “at thinking o yours, which right now more closely resembles a corkscrew than anything else, is going to be as straight as an arrow by the time ’m through with you ut you must believe” od’s law is not an enemy, but a protective riend t is much like the trac light, which may hold you up or a ew seconds, but does so to keep you rom harm you decide to vent your rustration rustr ation by shooting out the lights and then barge into the intersection you do nothing but heap trouble or yoursel od’s od’s law does not deprive depr ive you o your reedom, but gives you the only o nly real liberty you can ever hope to know
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et it be made plain that the way o od’s commandments is the way o lie od has established the laws o nature, but is laws are not arbitrary exactions very ‘ou shalt not’, whether in physical physic al or natural law, law, implies a promise we obey it, blessings will wi ll attend our our steps od never orces us to do right, but bu t e seeks to save us rom the evil and lead us to the good (Ministry o Healing, p 4)
ere is a statement, well known by most o o us, and the reerence Christ’s’s Object Lessons, Les sons, p 333 is easy to remember remember,, Christ s the will o man cooperates with the will o od, it becomes omnipotent omnipot ent hatever hatever is done at is command com mand may be accomplished in is strength ll is biddings are enablings
eavenly beings do not render service in the spirit o legality hen atan rebelled against the law o od, the thought that there was a law came to the angels almost as an awakening to something unheard o t was as i they said among themselves, “ou mean we have been keeping a law all this time? hy didn’t someone tell us?” e love which the angels have or their reator makes their service a joy (see Ministry o Healing, p 09) aggoner aggoner proceeds urther to t o explain the covenants c ovenants in Te Glad idings, page 00, as ollows: e apostle when speaking o agar and arah says: “ese women wome n are a re two tw o covenants” covenants” ese two covenants exist today today e two covenants are not matters matters o time, but o condition conditi on et no one atter a tter himsel that he cannot be bound under the old covenant, thinking that its time has passed
is is where the 888 messengers went ar beyond the traditional teaching o the covenant question in dventism or so long, and even to the present time, we have taught that the verlasting ovenant covered the time rom den to inai, then od changed 96
is plans, or some reason, and introduced the old covenant, which lasted rom inai until the cross, and then decided to go back to is original plan, only now calling it the ew ovenant aggoner overthrew all this e showed that od never had more than one way to save the human race, and that was expressed in is original covenantt with man, the ve covenan verlasting rlasting ovenant, which we also call the t he ew ovenant today en what, someone may ask, is the ld ovenant? e ld ovenant is man’s way to save himsel alvation and righteousness by works, in all o its varieties, is always old covenantism onsider the example o ain and bel ere we have the ld and the ew ovenants side by side bel ollowed od’s plan and brought a lamb or the sacrice is was new covenantism; he believed the promises o od y contrast ain decided that, since he did not tend sheep but grew ruits and vegetables, an oering o garden produce would be just as good od, in all probability, reasoned with ain, trying to explain to him that his oering could not possibly symbolize the blood o the promised essiah, toward which such a sacrice should point, and that e could not accept such an oering as an oering oering or sin ain would not listen, and the result was the world’s rst murder clear example o new and old covenantism own to the time o oah oah believed od and built an ark, as od had told him to, to save him and any others who chose to believe ut multitudes o that time decided that i an emergency should arise they would handle it in their own way ld and new covenantism once again arah and agar are the classic examples o the covenants od had promised braham an heir through arah ut since neither neither arah nor braham believed that arah could possibly have a child at her age, they decided to ollow the law o the land is provided that, when it appeared that the head o the household would die without an heir, heir, it was the duty o the wie to provide rom among her servant ser vant women one who would give the heir is is how agar came into 97
the picture arah was od’s method o providing an heir agar was man’s man’s idea hat was w as the result? resul t? shmael was w as born o agar, and some time ater that saac was born o o arah nd the descendants o saac and shmael have been b een at one another’ another’ss throats ever since very iddle ast conict, rab versus ew, ew, can be traced back to the births bir ths o shmael and saac ll the innocent ones who suer in these wars, women and children, will they ever know that their troubles go back our thousand years, to a thing called old covenantism? inally, we come to inai ere we read in xodus 24:3: “nd oses came and told the people all the words o the ord, and all the judgments: and all the people peop le answered with one voice, and said, said, ll the words which the ord hath said will we do” do” nd again in verse 7: 7: “nd he took the book o the covenant, and read in the audience o the people: and they said, ll that the ord hath said will we do, and be obedient” obedient” od did not ask as k them to make these promises to im ere these promises worth anything? ardly had oses turned his back, when he returned rom receiving rom od the tables o stone, sto ne, the very ones who had made the promise o obedience to od were dancing around an idol o gold o much or man’s promises aggoner aggoner tell tel l us again in Te Glad idings, page 99: en did not od himsel lead them into bondage? ot by any means, since e did not induce them to make that covenant at inai our hundred and thirty years beore that time e had made a covenant with braham which was sucient or all purposes
hen men make promises to od they cannot keep, they are ollowing a course cour se which od never required hat od has done is ask is people to believe His promises to them ter the ood od made a “covenant” with every beast o the earth, and with every owl; but the beasts and the birds did not promisee anythi promis a nything ng in return return enesi enesiss 9:9-6 9 :9-6 ey si simp mply ly re rece ceiv ived ed th thee avor at the hand o od at is all we can do—receive od promises us 98
everything that we need, and more than we can ask or think, as a git e give im ourselves, that is nothing nd e gives us imsel at is, everything at which makes all the trouble trouble is that even when men are willing to recognize the ord at all they want to make bargains with im ey want it to be an equal “mutual” aair—a transaction in which they can consider themselves on a par with od ut whoever deals with od must deal with im on is own terms, that is, on a basis o act—that we have nothing and are nothing, and e has everything and is everything every thing and gives gives everything (ibid p 7)
emember what aggoner told us earlier: these two covenants exist today vidences abound o examples o old covenantism among us today good example is this one rom aggoner today aggoner o making promises promis es to od ow much is a promise today worth? ote this rom Steps to Christ, page 47: ou desire to give yoursel to im, but you are weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits o your lie o sin our promises and resolutions are like ropes o sand ou cannot controll your thoughts, contro thou ghts, your you r impulses, impuls es, your aectio a ections ns e kno knowl wled edge ge o your broken promises and oreited pledges weakens your condence in your own sincerity
nd yet, in spite o all al l this, there are cases where we are actually instructing the little ones in the abbath chool choo l divisions to make all manner o promises to od “romise me you will be true in every little thing you do” nd another, another, “ promise promis e that ’ll always take the paths that is commandments make” at sort o thing ese are all examples o old covenantism urthermore, there crops up constantly co nstantly the idea o “we do good things so that we can be in heaven one on e day day” is “salvation by works” theme is seen in such a rhyme as this: “ell, we can all see im one day, i is words we will obey” n other words, we obey so that we can receive a reward nd listen to this: “elping mother is lots o 99
un in getting all her housework done know that this makes esus glad; it helps make up or when ’m bad” listened to a riend o mine preaching about this once and he asked: “ow many dishes am going to have to wash in the kingdom o heaven one day to make up or all the bad things have done?” nd here do want to make it clear that am not trying to be unkindly critical o someone else’ else’ss work ese verses vers es were produced in a sincere eort to give the little ones in the abbath chool an incentive to be obedient and good e motive behind it all is simply beyond criticism am merely trying to point out that we have been bogged down in an “old covenant” mentality without realizing it is is the reason why there is this attempt to recover the 888 message in its ullness, which message is the perect antidote or old covenantism cove nantism in any orm have to admit that that mysel m ysel was w as completely comp letely immersed in old covenant c ovenant thinking beore coming to understand the 888 message am not any better than the one who wrote the little rhymes we have been discussing e only dierence between us is that he, or she, she, has the talent tal ent to write this kind o verse and don’ don’t ere is a diagram o the covenants as we have taught it more than a hundred years learly presented on the next page is the dispensational idea which has been with us or so long, in act, as mysel taught it or many years ere is shown the verlasting ovenant which covered the period rom den to inai (atriarchal ispensation) 2500 250 0 years, ollowed ol lowed by the ld ovenant which went rom inai to the ross, 500 years (aronic ispensation), and then nally the ew ovenant which takes in the period rom the ross to the end, 2000 years (ospel ispensation) o diagram the covenant truth correctly we would have to show two parallel lines rom den to the econd oming, the one representing the ew ovenant (or verlasting ovenant) and the other the ld ovenant
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id llen hite have anything to say about the covenant question,, especially question especially since it was a controversial issue issu e during the era er a o the 888 message? ost decidedly otice: ince made the statement last abbath that the view o the covenants as it had been taught by rother aggoner was truth, it seems that great relie has come to many minds ight beore last was shown that evidence in regard to the covenants was clear and convincing oursel, an ones, rother orter and others are spending your investigative powers or naught to produce a position on the covenants to very rom the position that rother aggoner aggoner has presented … e covenant question is is a clear question and would be received by every candid, unprejudiced mind, but was brought where the ord gave me an insight into the matter mat ter ou ou have turned rom plain light because bec ause you were araid that the law question o alatians would have to be accepted (etters to riah mith, 39 and 59, 890, Ellen G. White 1888 Materials , pp 623 and 604)
ere was an unwillingness to yield on this question just as they who opposed this message stubbornly resisted every aspect o it is understanding o the covenants has the complete backing o the pirit o rophecy rophec y 101
aggoner again in Te Glad idings, page 00: e dierence is just the dierence between a ree woman and a slave agar’s children, no matter how many she might have had, would have been slaves, while those o arah would necessarily be ree nd so the covenant rom inai holds all who adhere to it in bondage, bond age, “under the law,” while the covenant rom above gives reedom, not reedom rom obedience to the law, law, but reedom rom disobedience to it e reedom is not ound away rom the law but in the law hrist redeems rom the curse, which is the transgression o the law, so that the blessing blessing may come come on us nd the the blessing is obedience obed ience to the law law “lessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law o the ord” salm 9: Tis blessedness is reedom “ shall walk in liberty; or have sought y precepts” salm 9:45
aggoner has stressed the act that obedience to the law is what genuine liberty is ere is no reedom outside the law atan’s lie in the very beginning o his rebellion against the government o heaven was that od, whom he portrayed as a tyrant, had placed all o is creatures under a system o law which was in actual act a system o bondage atan told the angels that he proposed to set them ree n actual act the truth was the other way around rue liberty was what the unallen unal len beings had enjoyed up until then atan’ atan’s proposal would subject them to the worst kind o bondage that there is, an existence outside o od’s od’s law law od had no choice choic e but to allow all ow events to unold unol d which would woul d prove to all beings bein gs everywhere the lying l ying nature o atan’s atan’s deceptions rue liberty can only be ound within od’s law aggoner aggoner concludes his brilliant b rilliant portrayal o the covenant truths in a series o inspiring statements on page 04 here shall we stand? n the reedom o hrist imsel, whose delight was in the law o the ord because it was in is heart ee salm 40:8 “e law o the pirit o lie li e in hrist esus has set me ree rom the law o sin and death death”” omans 8:2 e stand only by aith aith 102
n this reedom there is no trace o bondage b ondage t is perect liberty libe rty t is liberty o soul, liberty o thought, thought, as well as liberty liberty o action t is not that that we are simply simpl y given the ability to keep the law, law, but we are given the mind that nds delight in doing it t is not that we comply with the law because we see no other way o escape rom punishment; that would be galling bondage t is rom such bondage that od’s covenant releases us o, the promise o od when accepted puts the mind o the pirit into us so that we nd the highest pleasure in obedience to all the precepts o od’s od’s word e soul is as ree as a bird soaring above the mountaintops t is the glorious liberty o the children o od, who have the ull range o the breadth, and length, and depth, and height o od’ od’ss universe
henever read about the bird “soaring above the mountaintops,” am reminded o the time when in the wilderness area o the acic orthwest, a man who patrolled a wide area to keep tack o animal and bird migrations, one day ound an eaglet which had been abandoned in the nest e took the little bird home and, or want o a better place put it in the chicken coop s the days passed it became increasingly clear that eaglet thought he was a chicken s he saw the chickens going scratch-scratch-scratch in the ground and peck-peck-pe peck-peck-peck, ck, he too did the same, scratching sc ratching and pecking away away ne day the man who had picked him up decide decided d he had enough o this, took him out o the coop and tossed him into the air, hoping to see him y away into the distance nstead, the eaglet gave a rightened squawk and promptly ell to the ground n a minute he was pecking and scratching away is went on or two weeks, until, early one morning mor ning the ranger got out o bed and began to dress is wie looked up rom the covers and sleepily asked, “ow what?” e replied, “oney, there’s a bird-brained eagle on this ranch, and intend to teach him about his destiny today i it’s the last thing ever do” e went outside, took an unwilling eagle (he was getting big now) out o the chicken coop, put him in his truck and headed or an escarpment where 103
there was a sheer drop o about 4,000 eet into a deep valley below e held this little eagle or a moment, saying, “ittle ella, it’s been wonderul having you with us, but you do not belong down here with us earthbound humans our destiny lies way up there” nd with this he threw the eagle into the air e eagle gave a rightened cry, and as he ell he instinctively spread his wings, and began to soar n seconds he was ying e swooped low, turned in a wide circle, and then came back swooping low over the man who had been watching him, and then disappeared into the horizon e ranger watched or a while, with a smile on his ace, and then turned toward his truck, and home any times as have thought about this story story,, have wondered how many hristians there are who are still down here with the chickens and going scratch-scratch-scratch and pecking away in the more and dirt o sin and bad habits when they should be, as aggoner aggoner said, “r “ree ee as a bird soaring above the mountain mount ain tops” aggoner continues this exciting conclusion o the covenants as ollows: t is the liberty o those who do not have to be watched but who can be trusted anywhere, since their every step is but the movement o od’s own holy law (ibid ,, p 04)
magine i you can enter the realms realm s o glory glor y, and nding out that a pair o watchul angels have been assigned to ollow you wherever you go, “just in case” because, ater all you have come rom the sincursed planet o earth ear th is will not happen hrist hrist has saved “to “to the uttermost,” and the redeemed “can be trusted tru sted anywhere” aggoner asks a signicant question: “hy be content with slavery when such limitless reedom is yours?” hy indeed e have been set ree arry oudini was a amous escapologist, one who could seemingly extricate himsel rom the most impossible situations russed up as securely as a chicken he could always get out o his 104
bonds, whatever they were n one occasion occas ion he was put in a sae and thrown into the bay in the vicinity o ew ork ity s the minutes went by and nothing happened, the people who were watching became alarmed and a diver was sent with the hook end o a crane in his hand to see what had happened e sae was recovered and opened, but no oudini e was in his hotel room ro om reading the paper ater he explained how he had been able to do this aes, he explained, were designed to keep people out, not in hen he was inside, he merely manipulated the levers inside the door and was soon ree e swam under water and escaped owever, there was one time when the great arry oudini almost ailed to make it t was when he went to ngland, and was scheduled to appear in Queen’ Queen’s all in ondon ondo n e ritish organizers organ izers o his program suggested that he allow himsel to be locked in a jail cell on the morning o his appearance, appearance, escape as usual, usual, and then t hen appear a ppear on stage that evening e was taken to the cell, the jailer pushed pu shed him in and rattled the key in the lock and let le t oudini immediately took a lock-pick rom the heel o his shoe where he always kept it, and went to work on the lock s the evening drew on and the hall lled and time or the perormance to begin arrived there was still no oudini ne minute beore showtime the master o ceremonies walked to the ront o the stage and said, “adies and gentlemen, it would seem that the great arry oudini has nally met his match—in a ritish jail cell” ardly were the words out o his mouth when in walked you-know who nd the applause was thunderous hat the people did not know was that t hat oudini had almost not made it ere’s what happened hen that wily ritish jailer pushed pretended oudini oudi ni into the cell cell and rattled the key in the lock, lo ck, he only o nly pretended to lock the door ctually he didn’t e let it unlocked nd as oudini struggled with the lock he ound he just jus t could not push the lever back course he couldn’t t was already as ar as it could go nd so or hours that day there was arry oudini desperately trying to unlock a lock that was not even locked ate in the aternoon he 105
gave up in disgust and aimed aim ed a rustrated rustrat ed kick at the door, and it ew open e rushed out, called a cab, and made it to the perormance in the nick o time never did learn what happened when he met the jailer later any times have wondered how many there are among sincere truth-seeking hristians who eel that, try as they might, victory victor y over sin is just beyond them ey need to be shown that victory is already assured or them because they have already been set ree e problem is they don’ don’t seem to be b e able to believe b elieve it ese are the ones who today toda y are sitting in the jailhouse o sin, dejected and despondent, ailing to realize that the door is open isten to aggoner’s next words ey are so appropriate: pri son doors are open! Walk Walk out into God’s reedom! ” “Te prison
emember what we were told in an earlier statement: is blessednes bless ednesss is reedom is is the promise o the verlasting verlasting ovenant od has ound a way, the way o the cross, to take us rom bondage to reedom ebrews 8:0 says: “ will put y laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and will be to them a od, and they shall be to e a people” raise the ord
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Chapter 7
Questions and Answers
IS YOUR INTERPRET INTER PRETAATION OF THE 1 MESSAGE THAT EVERY SOUL HAS BEEN SAVED AT AT THE CROSS BEFORE HE ACCEPTS BY FAITH JESUS CHRIST AS HIS SAVIOR? A es, in a sense ut this understanding o justication should be worded in a way that makes its meaning crystal clear hen esus died on the cross o o alvary alvar y, e set the human race ree ree hatever dam did when rst he sinned was cancelled cancell ed out by hrist, immediately, in is commitment to the cross e call this orensic, or legal, justication is concept was brilliantly explained by llen hite in the book, Ministry o Healing, page 90: “ith is own blood esus signed the emancipation papers o the human race” e use o the word “emancipation” here is signicant hrist’s dying on the cross is likened to the setting ree o the slaves hen braham incoln signed the emancipation papers declaring all slaves ree, every slave was immediately ree, legally course, there was a war still to be ought, but the eect was still the same owever, owever, even though the emancipation eman cipation papers paper s had been signed, we do not hear o slaves s laves walking o the plantations plantat ions immediately immediately hy not? ecause they had not yet heard the good news hen the news reached them they could immedia immediately tely walk away ree, but again, again, this may not necessarily necessarily have taken taken place in all cases ere was one more bridge to be crossed ey had to believe the good news ey may have heard that they were ree, but unless they believed the report, they were as much in slavery as they were beore t takes all three actors to make emancipation eective: the signing o the
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emancipation proclamation, hearing the good news, and nally, believing the good news hat has added to the problem is the constant use o the expression, “ou must accept hrist” se o the word “accept” has given people the idea that you have to do something rst beore you can be saved e truth t ruth o o the matter is that salvation is ours already already ee do nothing to initiate salvation ur part in all o this is to believe od is the ne who initiates the process t is here that we have been bogged down or so long e unwillingness to grasp this truth has been the stumbling block the people o od have yet to overcome e have just not understood the importance o the word “believe” hile in ustralia not too long ago encountered a man who had such a problem understanding under standing this or a long time he had been told that as long as a man believes everything is all right, then he can continue to sin and it doesn’t matter am sure that whoever told him this did not word it just this way, but this is the way he understood it, and he thought that was just rehashing the “new theology” idea all over again told him that there was a dierence, a big dierence ere is a big dierence between saying that all a man has to do is to believe and he can go on sinning, and saying that i a man truly believes he can walk away rom temptation and sin and overcome completely ere is a text which says this clearly: omans 0:0: “ith the heart man believeth unto righteousness” o believe “unto righteousness” is a long way rom the idea that a man can truly “believe” and continue to sin ometimes illustrate this by an experience had many years ago while was growing up on a outh rican arm y companions in this isolated area were all members o the otho tribe ey were the only pals had around there e used to spend much o the time hunting rabbits and pigeons and then roast them over a re or lunch course, that was long beore this health message came into my lie e problem was that was not as skillul at hunting these birds and animals as were my companions ey had grown up using us ing their 108
throwing sticks to bring down small prey, so was always a “tag along,”” as it were ut could along, c ould use a rie, and well, but did not own one, and how badly wanted one ut my parents at the time could not aord to buy me a rie ne day my mother took me on a train journey to the city o urban on the coast, the city where lived later or a long time beore leaving or the hile in the home o the people my mother had come to visit, we were all sitting in the living room one evening, and the adults were in deep conversation was the only young person hile the grown-ups were talking, my eyes were riveted on something in the corner o the room t was a rie nd how beautiul it looked to me uddenly a voice broke in on my thoughts t was the one who owned the place e asked, “o you like it?” said, “es, it’s beautiul” e took the rie rom its place in the corner and gave it to me and said, “ry it” o held it and sighted along the barrel and squeezed the trigger and elt its balance e man asked, “o you like it?” said, “es, it’s beautiul” nd he said, “ell, it’s yours” just smiled and gave it back to him, because, even though was only little, knew what he was going to do e was going to pretend to give me the rie, and then, just when thought had a rie, he would take it back and make me look silly in ront o all those people e tried again and again to get me to take the rie, but persistently reused inally he gave up and put the rie away in its place n the way home in the train mentioned that rie again to my mother “at’s a beautiul rie that man has back there” he replied, “ou mean its a beautiul rie he used to have” nd said, “ut it’s his isn’t it?” nd again my mother said, “t used to be, but he gave it to you, and now its yours” y now all this was getting to me said, “ “ ait a minute e didn’t didn’t give me m e that rie e was only pretending” ut again my mother said, “h no ’ve known him too long l ong e would never do anything like l ike that at’s at’s simply not his way e gave you that rie, and now it’s yours” thought about this some more, and then asked, “re you sure about this?” y mother 109
said, “ course ou’ve been bugging me or a rie or a long time, and now you have one given to you and you leave it behind” was let with my thoughts ome weeks later was sitting on a rock out on that arm and thinking about what had happened on that trip to the big city y thoughts were something along these lines: “hy don’t own a rie?” nd the only conclusion concl usion could come co me up with was that it was because would not believe that that rie had really been given to me nd this is exactly the problem so many have with od alvation ull and ree has been given to everyone on earth, but to get people to believe this is the problem od has with the human race t was exactly that way with od’s people in ancient times ecause o their pathetic unbelie they perished ustication usticat ion is what we are dealing with here hen our ord died on the cross o alvary e set the whole human race ree ree rom sin rom its penalty, rom its power, and, ultimately, rom its very presence e call this orensic, or legal, or corporate, justication t is our title to heaven (Messages to Young People, p 35) hen a man hears the good news and believes it, aith takes hold o this good news o justication and it changes his lie en he is justied by aith is sin-hardened heart is broken by the love o od that was poured out on the cross o alvary or him s mentioned earlier: “ith is own blood e has signed the emancipation papers o the race” orensic justication ustication by aith ere is only one justication, but there are two sides to the coin is is based upon omans 5:8 and itus 2: Q PLEASE EXPLAIN REVELA REVELATION TION : AND JOHN : IN THE LIGHT OF THIS BELIEF A evelation 3:20 reads: “ehold, stand at the door door,, and knock; any man hears y voice, and opens the door, will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with e” emember, the good news must be heard , and then believed e knocking at the door is the gentle but loving appeal o the ord esus to bring us to the place where we believe “ny man” is “ tis ” in the original 110
reek, and more likely means “a certain one,” the one to whom the message to aodicea is addressed, that is, the leadership o the church xactly the same idea applies to the leadership o the church as to the individual ohn 3:3 reads: “esus answered and said to him, erily, verily, say unto you, xcept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom o od” ere ere is no problem here and no contradiction to what we said previously about salvation’s being given to every man emember that while the cross set every man ree, the emancipation does not have ull eect until the good news is rst heard and then believed hen the sinner hears the good news he is led to behold the cross, and as he does this, and contemplates the love which was revealed there in the shedding o the blood o the ultimate acrice, his sin-hardened heart is broken, and he believes the good news is is justication by aith is is the other side o the coin is is beautiully expressed in estimonies or the Church, vol 4 page 625: e precious blood o esus is the ountain prepared to cleanse the soul rom the delement o sin hen you determine to take im as your riend, a new and enduring light will shine rom the cross o hrist true sense o the sacrice and intercession o the dear aviour will break the heart that has become hardened in sin; and love, thankulness, and humility will come into the soul e surrender o the heart to esus subdues the rebel into a penitent, pen itent, and then the language o the obedient soul is, “ld things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” new” is is the true religion o the ible verything short o this is a deception
onsider this question: hen was the prodigal son converted? ost people say at the pigsty don’t think so hen he was at the pigsty,, and was pigsty w as about to eat the husks (carob pods) that the pigs were eating, he began to think about his home, and he remembered that even his ather’s servants had better to eat than the ood which was 111
ed to pigs e began to eel sorry or himsel and decided to go home ut when he approached home, even while still a long way away, he saw this old man running toward him, and he recognized his ather, and saw that his hair had turned white riends, that is when his heart broke; and that is when he was converted is is exactly what happens to us when we behold the love which was demonstrated or us on the cross o alvary alvary should never preach another sermon except the “agápē” sermon which centers on the cross o alvary al vary,, then will still be ullling my mission o preaching hrist and im crucied and nothing else onsider again the texts which tell o legal justication, or orensic justication: itus 2:: “or the grace o od that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men” men” e reads: reads : “or the grace gr ace o od has appeared, bringing salvation salvatio n to all men” nd omans 5:8 tells us that as dam’s sin brought condemnation to all men, so the righteousness o hrist hris t brought to all men the ree and unconditional git o justication o lie alvinists have given to this text the interpretation o predestination, saying that this reerence to “all men” is only to those “predestined” to have eternal lie niversalists interpret the text to mean that tha t all peopl peoplee will be saved and no one will will be lost rminianism, rminianism, which is where eventh-day dventists have been bogged down or more than one hundred years, teaches that od has only made “provision provision”” or the salvation o humanity, humanity, and now we have to do something also ut here is where the 888 message goes contrary to all this onsider this rom the book, Te Glad idings, by aggoner aggoner,, pages 3 and 4 ter pointing out that od wills that all men should be saved, the question is asked, “o you mean to teach universal salvation?” salvation ?” and he replies, repl ies, “e “e mean to teach just what what the ord ord o od teaches—that “the grace o od hath appeared bringi b ringing ng salvation to all men” (itus 2:)” nd aggoner aggoner continues, c ontinues, “od has wrought out salvation or every man, and has given it to him, but the majority spurn it and throw it away e judgment will reveal the 112
act that ull salvation was given to every man and that the lost have deliberately thrown away their birthright possession” onsider again the case o the slaves irst the emancipation paperss had to be signed en the good news had to reach the slaves paper en they had to believe it nd then they were ree nd that is the way humanity is saved in true hristianity Q WHY ALL THIS EMPHASIS ON RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUSTIFICATION JUS TIFICATION BY FAITH FAITH ARE WE NOT SUPPOSED SUPPOSE D TO BE PREACHING THE THIRD ANGEL’S ANGEL’S MESSAGE MES SAGE TO THE WORLD nterestinglyy, this same question came to rs hite A nterestingl in her day t was about eighteen months ater the 888 eneral onerence onere nce ession uring uring this time there was much preaching p reaching and teaching on the subject o ighteousness and ustication by aith rom every possible angle etters began coming in to rs hite rom dierent sources he was asked this same question on the ree ngels’ ngel s’ essages essages and ustication by aith er reply appeared the rst time in the Review and Herald o pril , 890, and was later reprinted in Selected Messages, vol , page 372 direct reply to the question came rom her pen he said: “t [a reerence to justication by aith, the 888 message] is the ird ngel’s essage in verity ” he could not have said it more clearly e ree ngels’ essages, or, as we more oten say, in dventist terminology, the ird ngel’ nge l’ss essage, essage , can be summed s ummed up as the “everlasting gospel, gospel ,” rom evelation evelati on 4:6 4:6 nd, rom what we have just learned, learned, the 888 message o hrist’s ighteousness, or ighteousness and ustication by aith, are the ird ngel’s essage in verity at is why we emphasize all our o these because they are one and the same thing Q WHA WHATT HAS BEEN THE RESPONSE TO THE 1 MESSAGE FROM THE CURRENT GENERAL CONFERENCE LEADERSHIP adly,, there has been a lot o misunder misunderstanding standing about this A adly message on the part o many in responsible positions , personally, along with others know, have been bitterly opposed in this work o taking this message across this country and to other countries around the world ome countries have visited two and three times, 113
and others again once, with the possibility o more such visits t is probably true to to say that have encountered opposition wherever an opportunity has opened up or me to preach n one country, it was published ar and wide that no church was to open its doors to me ut the doors seemed to open anyway ere was one minister who talked to his local president where happened happ ened to t o be at a t the time, and he said, probably teasing him, “ “ ou know, elder, we have a special speaker in our church this coming abbath” nd the president said, “h, is that right? ho is he?” nd the pastor told him it was me mmediately the president became excited and said, “ou can’t do that is man believes in a orensic justication as well as justication by aith, and he believes that hrist took the same allen, sinul, nature that we have, that we can overcome all sin—in act, that od will have a people who will conquer sin completely” nd the pastor said, “ou know, elder, have a problem here, because mysel believe exactly the same way” eore let that country countr y that same pastor had me speak in his church once again ese are the kind o evidences see that the ord is overruling is battle is not ours t is the ord’s any times have told people, “o not be araid o the 888 message it is not o od, and i it i t threatens the dventist hurch, it will come to nothing ou will never have to worry one little bit about it ut i it is indeed the ‘message that od commanded to be given to the world’ ( estimonies to Ministers, p 92), nobody’s going to stop it obody” nd this is exactly what amaliel told the council back in the days o the apostles e said, “erain rom these men and let them alone: or i this counsel or this work be o men, it will come to nought: ut i it be o od, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be ound even to ght against od” (cts 5:38-39) e loyally support our leadership in every way we can and in every place we go ot only in the message we preach, but in our tithes ti thes and oerings as well well ur own tithe is paid into the proper pro per channels, and we encourage others to do the same any times, where some 114
have wanted to give us their tithe, we have persuaded such to put their tithe into the proper channels o the church would not want to hazard a guess as to how much tithe and oering money mo ney has come back into the church because o our inuence e eventh-day dventist hurch leadership is composed o many good and dedicated men and women t is our hope that the time is not very ar away when all o these, and throughout the church, there will be a uniting upon the platorm o truth, the 888 message o hrist’s ighteousness, as we have never seen or known, and the stage will be set or those nal events which will herald the glad day o our ord’s return in the clouds o glory Q WHAT KIND OF GOSPEL OR THREE ANGELS’ MESSAGES ARE WE RECEIVING FROM OUR LEADERS IS IT THE ERRORS OF THE EVANGELICAL EVANGELICAL GOSPEL WHAT SHOULD BE OUR RESPONSE TO OUR LEADERS A irstly and oremost we need to show to our leadership all the loyalty and support we possibly can give them any have not come out strongly and clearly on just what their understanding o the gospel is, don’t think do read in the Review an occasional attack on the 888 message, which don’t quite understand think it is because o a sad misunderstanding on their part n the matter o which nature hrist assumed in the ncarnation there is a continuing and serious problem e have been told again and again, that the denomination denominatio n has never taken a denite, or clear, clear, position on this question o which nature hrist assumed rankly, nd this hard to believe, because, as read articles in the Review, get the clear impression that they are strongly emphasizing the position that hrist took the unallen nature o dam cannot conceive o a situation where someone would write no less than six articles establishing that hrist took our allen, sinul nature, and having these articles published in the Review. cannot see this happening ut, the reverse has taken place is is one area where believe we have a serious dierence o opinion enerally speaking, think we see the denomination adopting the “historic” dventist position, with the exception that there has 115
been a strong move away rom the position which this denomination held or more than a hundred years, namely, namely, that hrist hr ist assumed assum ed the allen, sinul, nature o man e new position, which is traced back to about 949, is that hrist took, or assumed, the sinless nature o dam beore the all ere has been a rm resistance to the 888 message concepts emember, it was this “historic” dventism which rejected the 888 message a hundred years ago, because those who resisted and stood against the message o ones and aggoner were all “historic” dventists standing by the “old landmarks” nd in this continued resistance to the 888 message o hrist’s ighteousness we see the obstacle which stands against the giving o the message to the world, as od intends intends that it should sho uld Q PLEASE EXPLAIN CORPORA CORPORATE TE REPENT REPENTANCE ANCE AND WHA WHATT IT MEANS TO THE CHURCH A is would take a long time, but ’ll tell you about some o the essential elements o this concept orporate repentance is simply an understanding o the oneness o the body o hrist e are part o the body o hrist hether it’s our leadership, whether it’s us as individuals, we recognize the sin that was committed a long time ago, even the crucixion o hrist, is our sin but or the grace o hrist was asked some months ago to give an example o this idea o corporate repentance rom the ible could have given a number o them, but told about abo ut ineveh t is the story o onah, am sure you all remember the story hen od commanded onah to go to ineveh and preach to them, he did not go there directly, but decided to take a more roundabout way hen he nally did get to ineveh he preached, orcibly, that ineveh would be destroyed in orty days, and he must have sounded as i he were happy about it e probably did not expect the result which ensued ere was an immediate response, not rom the street cleaner or the garbage collector, but rom the king and his nobles e king’s example was ollowed by all the people: they 116
repented in sackcloth and ashes, and gave every evidence that they were sorry or their sins, and it is clear that they were deeply aware o them is is an example o what we call “corporate repentance” nd the city was spared orporate repentance is no kind o disloyalty have said so or a long time, time, and and still say, say, that the only people peo ple who are in a position to understand true tr ue denominational loyalty are those who in the deepest sense, understand corporate, or denominational, repentance, because this concept is based upon an awareness o the oneness o the body o hrist is is described so clearly c learly by the apostle aul in orinthians 2:2-27 oyalty to the church is easy when it is based on regular receipt o a monthly check or some business concession, but let the check stop or the business concession be withdrawn, and out o the window goes the loyalty is will never happen to one whose loyalty is based upon this understanding o the corporate oneness o the body o hrist nd that is why we say that the only ones who can demonstrate true denominational loyalty are those who understand the principles o corporate repentance Q CAN AGAPE ALONE ALONE REBUILD CHILD ABUSE VICTIMS A say yes n appreciation o the agápē o the cross o alvary, which is agápē revealed in its ullness, the power o od unto salva salvation, tion, will make it possible or this this miracle to be accomplished accomplished nally and absolutely Q WHA WHATT DOES THE WORD “FOR “FORENSIC” ENSIC” MEAN judicial or legal hen we talk about about A orensic means judicial orensic justication we mean the judicial act o setting the whole world ree at the cross s we indicated earlier, there is another side to the coin, and that is when we hear the good news, and believe the good news is is when we are in act ree e call this justication by aith Q WHA WHATT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BREAKING THE LA LAW W AND TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW A o dierence at all
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Q DID CHRIST HA HAVE VE TO DIE TO DEMONSTRATE THE TERRIBLE CONSEUENCES OF SEPARA S EPARATION TION FROM GOD A eparation rom od is the result o sin and reusal o salvation od has given salvation to every man through the cross o alvary, but e will not orce it upon anyone owever, e will do everything e can to persuade persu ade every individual to make the right right choice and be saved Why esus died was to save a lost world ince e paid the ull price or our salvation, the agony e endured on the cross cros s was w as primarily the mental anguish o experiencing separation rom is heavenly ather to the ull is is called the econd eath in the ible is death will be experienced by all who have nally nall y and orever rejected the saving mercy o od, and it will come to them at the close o the thousand years (evelation 20) esus experienced thee equivalent o this death while on the cross th cross ecause e did this, the ull price or sin was paid ut the reason or is dying was to save lost humanity Q HOW DOES THE 1 MESSAGE DIFFER FROM THE MESSAGE BEING TAUGHT BY DR DESMOND FORD A s understand the teachings o r r or ord, d, the message which he is giving giving is essentially reormationist reor mationist theology t heology,, or alvinism n this we nd the teaching that justication is orensic only, and the teaching o aggoner, or example, that the other side o the coin, that justication by aith, makes a man an obedient doer o aith, ord does not believe e alvinistic belie is that the law by aith sanctication sancti cation is never never complete compl ete in this lie li e nd then, o course, there is the questio qu estion n o the th e nature natu re which hrist assumed in the ncarnation ncarnation ere r ord believes that hrist took the unallen nature o dam Q WAS THE SANCTUARY CLEANSED IN 1 A leansing o the heavenly sanctuary began in 844 when esus our great igh riest entered the ost oly is cleansing has not yet ended s ones explained it, the sanctuary sanctuar y can never be be cleansed as long as od’s people keep sending sins up there nd so the stream o sins which ows into the sanctuary sanctuary must be stopped at its source in the hearts and lives o the worshippers worshipp ers down here beore the 118
heavenly sanctuary can possibly be cleansed is understanding o the sanctuary sanctuar y is explained explai ned by ones in his book, b ook, Te Consecrated Way o Christian Perection, beginning with page 5, where he discusses the t he question o the cleansing o the sanctuary sanctuary suggest that you read this in order to get a clear understanding o the subject is nal cleansing cleansing o the hearts o the people o od will be accomplished when this message o hrist’s ighteousness is preached into all the world under the nal outpouring o the oly pirit Q WHAT IS HELL A ost o the time when using this word the ible is talking about the grave gr ave ere is no suggestion that the word reers to a place o continuous torment as is so popularly promoted Q WHA WHATT IS YOUR THINKING ON THE ELLEN WHITE UOT UOTAATIONS WHICH TELL US THAT SOME AMONG THE WICKED WILL BURN LONGER THAN OTHERS A omething o the sort is said about that will have to coness that do not understand the statement completely am sure that the ord’s ord’s messenger is not n ot trying to give the impression that t hat od is some kind o tyrant who will enjoy roasting some people longer than others in order to extend their suering t has something something to do with with the mind which has turned against od, resisting surrender sur render,, and now is consumed consum ed with guilt omehow atan will live long enough through all this this suering suering to see see the the nal outcome outcom e o all that he has done do ne in his rebellion against od, until he himsel will acknowledge on bended knee that od was right and just in all is doings is will be od’s nal vindication o thorough a work will od do in bringing about is ultimate vindication that sin will never arise again Q ARE THE 1, THE SAME AS THE FIRSTFRUITS A e text reads: “ese were redeemed rom among men, being the rstruits rst ruits unto od and to the amb” amb” (evelation (evelation 4:4, last part) ereore the answer is es e entire passage suggests to me that the 44,000 are those who are translated without seeing death at the econd oming o hrist also believe that the number is not literal but gurative, because the entire context is a gurative one 119
Q I HA HAVE VE FREUENTL FREUENTLYY BEEN GIVEN THIS PICTURE OF CHRIST PLEADING FOR FOR US BEFORE BEFORE HIS HEAVENLY HEAVENLY FATHER FATHER DOES THIS MEAN THAT T HAT GOD LOVES US LESS THAN JESUS DOES A o, it does not mean that at all e odhead is ne in love or the human race emember, “od so loved the world that e gave ”” s hrist suered s uered or us on o n the cross the ather was there suering with im, but was unable to reveal imsel because hrist had to drink the “cup” to its last bitter dregs Q IS IT NOT TRUE THAT SAT SATAN AN CLAIM CLAIMSS THA THATT WE ARE NOT WORTHY TO BE SAVED, WHILE JESUS DEFENDS US AND PLEADS HIS BLOOD ON OUR BEHALF, NOT TO CONVINCE GOD, BUT THE ONLOOKING UNIVERSE, UNIVER SE, THATT HE HAS A RIGHT TO TAKE THA TAKE US FROM THIS SIN-CURSED EARTH EA RTH INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD A at’ at’ss about it e unallen beings o od’ od’ss kingdom have a right to be guaranteed that their love and loyalty to od will not be jeopardized by the introduction into the kingdom o od o people who were at one time allen in sin e nvestigative udgment is a process by which esus establishes that e has the right to take onceettered men and women rom a sin-cursed planet into the unallen kingdom emember, the nvestigative udgment is not “nail-biting time” or od’s people t is a time o “vindication” Q PLEASE EXPLAIN JAMES 1:- A e text reads: “ut let him ask in aith, nothing wavering or he that wavereth is like a wave o the sea driven with the wind and tossed or let not that man think that he shall receive anything o the ord” is text warns us against agains t a lack o aith in our prayers ut there is also a delicate theological problem here e e may pray p ray in aith, “nothing wavering,” but what we pray or may not be the best or us nd so we pray “evertheless, may y will be done” en, when our prayers do not produce the desired result, we say, “t was not the ord’s will,” when in act the problem may have been our lack o aith rying to distinguish between the two is not always easy e should pray or strong aith, but also eel that we should always be willing to yield to the will o od 120
Q WHAT DOES PAUL PAUL MEAN WHEN HE SAYS HE DIES DAILY DAILY IS IT TO SIN A ssentia ssentially lly,, yes believe that aul is tryin tryingg to lay emphasis on the vital truth o justication “e just shall live by his aith,” he says, quoting abakkuk 2:4 e have learned that justication by aith is when we contemplate the cross and are so moved through an appreciation o that sacrice that we “die to sin” ur sin-hardened hearts are melted, broken, and sin becomes hateul to us is experience must be continuous, daily, and this, believe, is what the apostle is telling us Q TO SAY THAT IT IS HARD TO BE LOST AND EASY TO TO BE SA SAVED VED IS INDEED TRUE WHEN ONE IS CONVERTED, BUT CAN IT BE APPLIED TO THE PERSON WHO HAS REJECTED CHRIST A ccording to what ones ones tells us it is as easy easy,, under grace, to do right as it is easy, under the reign o sin, to do wrong hen someone rejects hrist would say that he puts himsel under the reign o sin nd in this case he nds it easy to do wrong, but hard to do right e man in this position can turn rom his wicked way and turn to hrist, in which case he puts himsel under the reign o grace, and then, o course, he will nd it easy to do right nd we can also say that the man who is outside o hrist, because because o his rejection o im, can still nd it easy to be saved i he will but believe and return to the old Q ACCORDING TO THE TITLE OF ONE OF YOUR PRESENT PRESENTAATIONS, THATT IT IS HARD TO BE LOST BUT EASY TO BE SA THA SAVED, VED, I WOULD CONCLUDE THAT THIS IS TRUE FOR EVERYONE, BUT YOU SHOWED ONE UOTE WHICH IMPLIED THAT IT IS EASIER TO BE LOST THAN TO BE SAVED A is is similar to our previous question et’ et’ss take a look at the exact words o the 888 messenger, ones ere are several such statements, but let me take take this one rom the Review and Her Herald ald o uly 25, 899: “ hen the power o sin is broken, and grace reigns, then grace reigns against sin, and beats back all the power o sin o it is as literally true that under the reign o grace it is easier to do right than to do wrong, as it is true that under the reign o sin 121
it is easier to do wrong than to do right” ones made several statements very much like this one e answer to your question is clear rom what he said e dierence is whether sin reigns or grace reigns EASY,”” WAS HE NOT REFERRING Q WHEN JESUS SAID, “MY YOKE IS EASY, ONLY TO THOSE WHO BELIEVED IN HIM A course, but unless you you believe, you won won’’t take is yoke hat esus said is true, regardless is yoke is easy, whether one believes or not nd once a man believes, and takes hrist’s yoke upon himsel, he will nd that it is easy et me add something here that might make things a little clearer t has to do with aith and works et’s go through a little drill e all believe that we are saved by grace through aith at’s phesians 2:8 ould you say that we are saved by grace through works? course not? ow many o you believe that we are saved by grace through aith all by itsel? ome o you do ow many o you believe that we are saved by grace through aith and works? Quite a number is dierence o opinion points up our problem ere is where we have been bogged down or more than a hundred years nce we say that we are saved by grace through aith and works we are saying that each contributes something to our salvation: aith 50% and works 50% perhaps, or aith 90% and works work s 0%, or aith 99% and works %, or whatever e truth is that works do not contribute one tiny iota to our salvation e best way to say it is the ible way: we are saved by grace through aith which works ead alatians 5:6: aith which works by love (agápē). hen the word “works” is a noun, we have it wrong, but when it is a verb, we have it right et us suppose, as an illustration, that there is a man in a little boat oating down the iagara iver and heading or the alls understand that there is a point called the “point o no return” beyond which one cannot be saved et us say that this boat is nearing this point man on the shore has a rope in his hand and a strong arm, and calls to the man in the boat, and shouts, “ou’re going over the 122
alls rab this rope and ’ll pull you out to saety” o he throws the rope, it snakes over the river and across the boat, the man in the boat takes hold o the rope, braces his eet against the side o the boat, and is pulled to saety is is the way used to illustrate the way hristianity works ut do not use it any more nd why not? imply because, in this illustration, the man who is being rescued has to contribute quite a bit o his own eort to being rescued e have works by the man on the shore, and works by the man in the boat o this does not really illustrate hristianity? o illustrate hristianity more correctly, let us say the man in the boat continues to oat down the river, oblivious to his danger n the shore stands a man who sees the danger, calls to the man in the boat, and shouts, “ “ ou ou’’re going to go over the alls all s old on and will try to save you” nd so the man on the shore, who, shall we say, is a very strong swimmer, dives into the river and swims toward the boat hen he reaches the boat he takes hold o it and, with powerul leg l eg strokes, moves the boat toward towa rd the shore and saety saety is is how hristianity works ow some would be tempted te mpted to say s ay,, “ell, “ell, i that th at is the case, case , you are saying that nobody can be lost” ot at all et us take the same illustration just a little urther uppose that as the would-be rescuer gets close to the boat, b oat, the man in the boat bo at says to himsel, himsel , “onestly, “onestly, it has actually gotten to the place where a man cannot even go or a boat-ride on a unday aternoon without some clown sticking his nose into someone else’s business” nd so, as the would-be rescuer nears the boat, the man picks up an oar and whacks him over the head, and says, “ow go away, and mind your own business” riend, that is the only way anyone can be lost e has to beat od out o his lie nd that is not easy od’ od’ss love or human beings is so great that e continues to plead, year ater year, or the sinner to repent, until at last, when the case is hopeless, od od has to give give up, is heart lled ll ed with sorrow so rrow t’s t’s hard to be lost, really really e act ac t that so many will be lost at last does not change that o be lost is still hard eing saved, that’s easy ncredible? erhaps ood news? bsolutely 123
emember now, genuine aith will always produce good works t is impossible or genuine aith not to produce good works ut those works which are the result o aith do not contribute the tiniest particle to our salvation llen hite makes a statement to the eect that while we cannot be saved save d by our works, we cannot canno t be saved without our works wo rks o o many this sounds like l ike one o those tho se “no “no win” win” situations which we encounter all too oten nd yet it is not hard to understand e works, as we have said, even the good works o aith, aith, do not contribute contribu te anything to our salvation, but i the works are not there, that shows that genuine aith, through which od saves us, is not there either o the works must be in evidence, and in abundance, to prove the genuineness o the aith which produces them, but at the same time they contribute contribute nothing to our salvation e works merely show whether the aith is genuine (see Christ Christ’s’s Object Lessons, p 32) ove, agápē, is what motivates us, the agápē o the cross poured out or each one o us nd aith is a heart appreciation o the love which od revealed on the cross o alvary is is true ew estament aith “ true sense o the sacrice and intercession o the dear aviour will break the heart that has become hardened in sin; and love, thankulness, and humility will come into the soul” (estimonies or the Church, vol 4, p 625) nd here is the power o the cross, the power o the ospel s the great apostle tells us, “ am not ashamed o the gospel o hrist: or it is the power o od unto salvation to every one that believeth” ur work is to tell this to the people o earth emember, is yoke is easy and is burden is light is is the good news we have been commanded to take to the hungering multitudes o earth M
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