07 - SECURITY AMID INSECURITY

How can we have spiritual security amid the widespread insecurity found in today’s world? There in none outside of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus made this clear in His story of the two house builders, which He told in His sermon on the mount. Having laid down principles of discipleship, He observed that the man who heard those truths and did not obey them was kike a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. When a storm came, his supposed security became utter destruction.

The man who heard Jesus words and obeyed them was like a wise man who “built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock” (Luke 6:48). He had real security amid insecurity.

Every person who understands the truths we have set forth in these pages will be like one or the other of these two men. The most essential thing for you and me is that we be obedient to these truths to the en and so maintain eternal security.

When you are on your way to a particular destination, you want to have the certainty of being on the right road, when you put your money in a bank, you want certainty that the bank is sound. You want certainty concerning your exact balance. You want certainty in the title to land you purchase.

As eternal life is more important than temporal life, so certainty in or religious beliefs is much more important than certainty in our temporal concerns. But how can we have this needed certainty in the religious way we choose to follow?

Those who accepted the message of John the Baptist, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” Matt. 3:4), had accepted a message settled I the highest possible certainty and security. Why? Because they had accepted the very message the god of all truth had appointed in Isaiah 40:3 to be preached, believed, and obeyed at that time. In that, they had the highest authentication and endorsement from God.

Even so, those who accept the threefold message we are discussing, and identify themselves with those who are bearing it, have the highest possible grounds for certainty and security for their decision. This is so because they have accepted the very message that the God of all truth has appointed to be preached, believed, and obeyed at this time.

While clinging to Christ’s timeless truths from former generations, we must guard against neglecting to obey His truths for our day. It was thus that the vast majority of God’s professed people made a serious mistake at that crucial hour when the Messiah was to be manifested. They clung to truths from former times, as they interpreted them, but refused to accept God’s truth for their time, as foretold in Isaiah 40:3 and proclaimed by John the Baptist. In so doing they “rejected the counsel of God against themselves” (Luke 7:30).

What a sad fate! What a warning to the millions of Christians today who stand for Christ’s timeless truths but make a serious mistake in failing to heed Christ’s truths for our day, as set forth in His threefold message.

Suppose it is the time when John is sounding the message “Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” and you live in Judea. You go to ten of the most learned theologians in Jerusalem and ask them, “It there any real connection between the preaching of John the Baptist and the message he is using from Isaiah?”

You get a series of negative answers. They cannot see the fulfillement of Isaiah 40:3 in the message of John, or if they do, they close their eyes to it.

Even so today, if you were to ask many theologians, “Is the preaching of the Adventists a fulfilment of Revelation 14:6-12?” there would doubtless be a series of negative responses. It is as Jesus prayed, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so. Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Matt. 11:25-26).

In the preaching of John and Jesus and His apostles, and of Seventh-day Adventists, the people heard, or are hearing, truths fulfilling what Christ had appointed to be preached and believed and obeyed in their respective times. Yet, the pattern is that the vast majority of God’s professed followers do not accept these truths.

Are the words of Jesus, applying a prophecy of Isaiah to the Jews of His day, being fulfilled in the lives of professed Christians today? “In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaies, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest ant any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear” (Matt. 13:14-16).

The disciples of Jesus were not just another religious sect, such as the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, or the Essenes. They were God’s appointed messengers for the times, despite their appointed messengers for the times, despite their apparent feebleness and unpopularity, and the opposition they received. Even so, Sevenht-day Adventists, who are proclaiming the God-appointed message of preparation for Christ’s second advent, are not merely another denomination. They represent God’s last-day, threefold-message movement of Revelation 14. The threefold message is not merely interdenominational, but supradenominational it is for “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (verse 6).

Becoming an Adventist is not like joining some club or society. It is becoming a part of God’s last-day movement. Seventh-day Adventists are organized as a world church, its focus being the communicating of Revelation’s threefold message to all the world.

If the Jewish religious teachers in the time of John had preached “Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” there would have been no need for John’s special mission. Similarly, if the Protestant churches had preached the timely truths of Revelation 14:6-12, there would have been no need for a church called Seventh-day Adventists.

If the prophecies of Isaiah 40:3 and Malachi 3:1 – “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me” – had not been in the Old Testament, john would not have come preaching his message, for God always paves the way for His messengers. So, if the prophecy of Revelation 14:6-12 had not been in the Bible, the Adventists would not be here preaching these distinctive truths. There in no justification for their existence as a separate people aside from this last-day, world-wide, threefold-message movement, as God foretold many centuries ago in Revelation.

It was no mere coincidence that preceding 1844 there was a great awakening concening the impending return of Jesus. In early March, 1844, about forty Christians in Washington, New Hampshire, began to observe the seventh-day Sabbath. As the years went by, other Christians followed their example. For about sixteen years they were not organized and had no official name.

In October, 1860, these Sabbathkeepers adopted the name Seventh-day Adventists. A year later the Sabbathkeepers in Michigan were organized into a conference. That first group on New Hampshire Adventists has grown into a worldwide church of more 20 million Sabbathkeepers scattered in practically every nation.

This Advent Movement, as it is sometimes called, is not something that originated with men – it was heaven-born. It is not here by happenstance or accident. It is here because the prophecy of Revelation 14 called for such a movement in this end-time, and “the scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). When the time comes for a certain prophecy to be fulfilled, it never fails.

Note one example: When Christ made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem, even the children shouted for joy, “Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (Matt. 21:9). Some, objecting to this shouting, asked Jesus to command the people to stop. But He said, “If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:40).

That event had to take place at that time because, five hundred years before, the prophet Zechariah had foretold that when the Messiah would make His entry into Jerusalem, the people would shout for joy (cap. 9:9). The hour for the fulfilment of the prophecy had come. The shouting had to be done, prophecy had come. The shouting had to be done, event if by a miracle the stones should do the shouting.

The prophecy of Revelation 14:6-12 includes a call to “worship him that made heaven and earth” (verse 7). These words echo Exodus 20:11, and are a clear call to honor the Creator and to worship Him on the day He hallowed. This is a major reason why that company of Sabbatkeepers who came into existence in 1844 in an obscure New Hampshire village has grown into a worldwide movement.

This threefold message is the ultimate answer to worldwide strife, confusion, crime, greed, and all troubles. The preaching of this present truth to all the world will bring the return of our blessed Lord. Then sickness, sorrow, old age, and death will be banished forever for all of God’s people. Then all the saved from all generations will stand triumphant before the throne of God. Close to the throne will be those who were true to the threefold message: “I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the best, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints” (Rev. 15:2, 3).

This group will have suffered trials, persecutions, hardships, imprisonment, and even death for obedience to God. But all of these things failed to turn them from the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

In this message are found new dimensions in righteousness by faith that are truth for this time. This aspect could not have been preached by Luther, Calvin, Knox, or Wesley, because in their day the time had not yet come for the preaching of what God calls for in His message of Revelation 14:6-12 for this end-time.

This is true for two main reasons. First, the dimensions of righteousness by faith in the light of the cleansing of the sanctuary and the arrived hour of God’s judgment were not due in any reformation of past centuries. Second, the truth of the seventh-day Sabbath had largely been lost sight of.

God is giving a new initiative to the preaching of truth in these last days and calls all to obey His commandments. This includes the keeping of Christ’s true Sabbath as an outward sign of the inner experience of righteousness by faith. Unless God’s judgement-hour message, including the truth of Christ’s mediatorial ministry in the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, is preached, and unless obedience in Christ to all the Ten Commandments, including the true Lord’s day, is presented, there is a lack in the message.

In the days of the apostles the acceptance of Christ’s truths for their day, plus adherence to Christ’s timeless truths in their application to that time, was “the way of the Lord” (Acts 18:25; cf. 24:14) and “present truth (2 Peter 1:12) for all people at that time. So today adherence to the timeless truths of the gospel from former times, plus the acceptance of Christ’s truths for our day in His threefold message, is “the way of the Lord,” “present truth” for all people. These truths are the unshakable foundation of the Adventist faith.

In the time of John the Baptist there was no other religious teaching that fulfilled Isaiah 40:3, and that showed the people what God wanted them to do. This presented to each Jew a most impelling incentive for making a decision to become one of John’s disciples in preference to belonging to one of the disciples in preference to belonging to one of the Jewish sects. What else could a truly honest follower Of the Lord do but respond to the call of God in the teachings of John?

So it is now. There is no religious group aside from Seventh-day Adventists that is proclaiming to every nation the truths of Christ’s threefold message of Revelation 14:6-12. This is a most impelling incentive for every honest-hearted person to make a decision to belong to this last-day-message movement. What else can he do but respond to the call of God to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus?

On Christmas night, 1978, an American radio and television network devoted a segment of its world news to the peril of the bizarre cults. It was reported that there are 3.000 of these cults ensnaring millions, which is a matter of real concern to the established denominations. The network interviewed certain leaders of Catholicism, Judaism, and Protestantism concerning the remedy. None had a decisive answer.

God’s threefold message of Revelation 14 is God’s answer to the errors in the religious teachings God’s answer to the errors in the religious teachings of our day. His last-day message is the best defence against the delusion of all the un-Biblical cults, and against the admixture of truth and error in the mainline churches.

In this time of uncertainty and swift change, many are looking for a religion that meets their needs. They are asking themselves, “Where can I find something secure that I can follow?”

This is a modern version of the question asked by King Zedekiah, of Judah, when the Babylonians were about to overthrow his kingdom: “Is there any word from the Lord?” (Jer. 37:17). Yes, there is the clear and decisive word for our day in the message of Revelation 14. wise and secure are they who take an unyielding stand upon that message – the keeping of “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (verse 12).

Are you one of these? In not, then take that step now. “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Heb. 3:15).

08 - WHO ARE CHRIST`S REMNANT?

Elijah offered a prayer that was not according to the facts. He thought that all of the professed people of God had forsaken Him for the worship of Baal. He told the Lord, “I am the only one left on Your side, and they are attempting to kill me.”

God said, “I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal” (Rom. 11:4). God had a remnant that was true to Him.

In the days of the apostles the vast majority of the Jews rejected Jesus as the true Messiah. However, Paul said that, as in the time of Elijah, God had a remnant that was true to Him (Rom. 11:5).

One of the messages of Revelations says, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen” (Rev. 18:2). This signifies that nearly all who profess to follow Christ are following the ways of the world, however, as always, God has a remnant that is true to Him.

If we can discover who makes up this remnant, we will know who represents the last segment of the true church of Christ. This is a most vital point if we want to be sure which way Jesus wants us to follow.

Dr. John Milner says in his book The End of Religious Controversy: “There is but one inquiry to be made, namely, ´Which is the rue church?´… By solving this one question you will at once solve every questions f religious controversy the ever has been, or that ever can be agitated.” P. 95.

In the book of Revelation, Jesus shows who are His end-time remnant: “The dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17).

This verse presents five terms – the dragon, the woman, the remnant, the commandments of God, the testimony of Jesus – that need defining. We must allow the Bible to do its own defining.

The dragon: “The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan” (verse 9).
Thus the Bible tells us that the dragon represents Satan.

The woman: “There appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” (verse 1).
The church of God is occasionally compared to a woman in both the Old and New Testaments. In Jeremiah 6:2 God declares that He has likened the daughter of Zion to a beautiful woman. (See Isa. 54:5, 6) The term Zion is sometimes used to denote God’s followers, or His church (see chap. 51:16).

In 2 Corinthians 11:2 the church of God at Corinthians 11:2 the church of God at Corinth is compared to a chste virgin.

In the Bible the relationship between Jesus Christ and His church is likened to the marriage relationship: Jesus Christ the bridegroom, the church the bride – Jesus Christ the husband, the church His wife. Thus, we may understand this pure woman of Revelation 12 as representing true believers in all generations. The symbolic reference to the birth and translation of Christ in Revelation 12:4, 5 and the subsequent reference to the 1260 years of the persecutions of the Dark Ages (verses 6, 13, 14), shown that this symbolic woman has special references to the true church in the Christian era.

The Remnant of her seed: The word remnant, when used in the Bible of people, generally denotes a small number of faithful souls among a large number of professed servants of God who have departed from Him (Isa. 1:9; Rom. 9:27; 11:4, 5). Since the woman of Revelation 12 represents the true church in the Christian era, “the remnant of her seed” must refer to the last segment of Christ’s true people in the end-time.

Some have claimed that this remnant of Revelation 12:17 refers to those in all the various religions bodies who are true, born-again Christians. Doubtless many of them had belonged to such bodies, but they will have become part of the remnant of Revelation 12 who keep the commandments of God, (chap. 18:4). They join with the true Christians who keep God’s command to observe the seventh day.

Notice how Jesus identifies His remnant: They “keep the commandments of God.” What is meant by this? In the fullest sense those commandments include all that He, in the Holy Scriptures, directs His people to do. But in a preeminent sense they are the Ten Commandments, the only commandments God ever proclaimed with His own voice from heaven to His people, or wrote with His own finger on the two tables of stone (Ex. 20:1-17; 31:18). The keeping of these commandments will include the observance of the seventh day of each week.

Revelation 12:17 declares that Christ’s remnant is also distinguished by having “the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 19:10 says, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Here is another clue for finding the true church for our day (see chapter 7).

It is encouraging to note that just at the time the predicted remnant arose to preach the threefold message of Revelation 14, God set an additional seal, the gift is found in the work and writings of Mrs. Ellen G. White. From 1845 until her death in 1915 she did a great work in serving as a messenger for God to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

All the tests prescribed by the Bible for the gift of prophecy have been applied to Mrs. White’s work and experience, and every test has been met. Those who have carefully and critically, yet open-mindly and prayerfully, examined her life and writings, have found her gift to be a restoration of “the testimony of Jesus Christ” to be given for these last days, as predicted in Revelation 12:17.

The writings of Ellen White, generally referred to as the Spirit of Prophecy, in keeping with the words of Revelation 19:10, serve three principal purposes: (1) to call attention to the Bible, (2) to simplify Bible truths, and (3) to help us apply biblical principles to our lives.

In this study of the Word of God we have suggested six identifying marks for Christ’s remnant people in our day:
1- They are a Christian people who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus,” as called for in Revelation 14:12.
2- They keep the seventh-day Sabbath, or Saturday, which is included in the observing of commandments of God, called for in Revelation 12:17 and 14:12.
3- They teach the special truths of God’s threefold message set forth in Revelation 14:6-12.
4- They are a worldwide movement, as predicted in Revelation 14:6.
5- They arose in 1844, when the hour of God’s judgment began, in keeping with Revelation14:7 and Daniel 8:14.
6- They have the Spirit of Prophecy, as specified in Revelation 12:17 and 19:10.
Where can you find a Christian people who fit this six-point prophetic outline? Check the evidence and answer for yourself. There is no religious group aside form Seventh-day Adventists that fits the six specifications. This is why it is the only religious group specifications. This is why it is the only religious group to which I can belong.

As previously observed, the facto that only the Advent Movements fits the prophetic mold of Revelation 12:17 and chapter 14:6-12 does not mean that Seventh-day Adventists are the only true Christians. Il does not mean that they alone constitute the invisible church of God on the earth. It does not mean that none will be saved except those who belong to this church. God saves every soul who accepts the atoning work of Christ upon the cross, is born again, and lives up to the light of truth, seeking advancing light according to his opportunity.

There is a Seventh-day Adventist mission in the high Andes of Peru called the Broken Stone Mission. Years ago an Indian chief begged an Adventist missionary to send a teacher to his tribe. The missionary said, “I an sorry, but we have no teacher available to send at the present time.”

The chief pressed his request. He said, “Our people are dying, and they do not know the truth. We want someone to come and teach us the truth.”

“The best I can promise is that as soon as we have a teacher available, we will send him,” the missionary replied.

“That will be all right,” the chief responded. “But others are sending in teachers among the Indians, and we want the truth as you teach it. I an old, and a new chief may be in charge. How will my people tell when this teacher comes from you?”

The missionary picked up a piece of soft rock and broke it in two pieces. He handed one to the chief broke it in two pieces. He handed one to the chief and said, “Take this back home with you. I will give my teacher the other half of the rock and when he arrives with it you will know that he is the right teacher.”

This is why there is a mission in the Andes of Peru called the Broken Stone Mission.

In Revelation, chapters 12 and 14, we have noted six identifying marks of Christ’s true church for our day. These are, as it were, six notches in the broken stone God has given in His Word that help us to identify His remnant church. May I invite you to take those six points and find the church that has the other, corresponding half of the stone. I am confident you will fin the match only in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

When you have prayerfully and openheartedly made this discovery, the wise thing to do is to take your stand for the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and be true to the end. May it be that if you are not already connected with this remnant, you will now determine to come out and be one of this number.

09 - WHAT` IN A NAME?

An Episcopalians rector was travelling on foot through the mountains in a Southern State. Thirsty, he stopped at a cabin along the trail to ask for a drink of water. In the course of his conversation with the good woman of the house, he inquired whether there were any Episcopalians living in the neighbourhood. The woman took him to the back of the cabin, which was covered with the skins of many kinds of animals. Pointing to them, she said, Thar`s all the different kinds of critters the old man’s rifle has ever killed. Look them over and see if you can find an Episcopalian among them.”

Of course, the rector saw the humour of the situation. None who read this treatise are as ignorant as that woman was concerning Episcopalians. However, if you were to ask many church members why they belong to their particular denomination, we venture that no more than one in ten would have a thorough knowledge of the faith he professes. Only a very few could take their Bibles and point to certain Scripture texts to show why they are Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, or Episcopalians.

We need to remember that because one happens to be taught certain doctrines from the time he was little does not mean they are necessarily right. Instead of uncritically following the practices and opinions of men who lived two or three hundred years ago, we should make it our personal duty to examine them by the Bible to learn what is truth. Religion is a matter between each soul and his God.

We are not to read the Bible through someone else’s spectacle. When we study Scripture, we are prayerfully to judge for ourselves and to walk in the light as it shines upon our pathway. If we find our forefather’s beliefs to be in harmony with the Bible, them it is right for us to adopt them. On the other hand, is we find additional light and truth of which our forefathers knew nothings, we should obey those truths, also.

Every person should be able to give a scriptural reason for the faith he professes. “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15).

An examination of various denominational names reveals that many of them are indicative of distinctive doctrines or of distinguishing features of the church’s policy. Take, for example, the Baptist denomination. It bears that name because from the beginning of its history as a church, the Baptists have rejected infant baptism and have held to adult baptism by immersion.

There is the Presbyterian Church. The word presbyter means “an elder.” The presbytery is “a body of elders.” One of the distinctive features of Presbyterianism is that their church government invests the body of elders with supervisory authority. On the other hand, the Congregational Church is so called because their system of church government vests all power in the assembled brotherhood of each local church.

Then there is the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The word Adventist comes form the word advent, which means “a coming.” When we speak of the advent of spring, we mean the coming of spring.

The word Adventist may be used in two ways. When written with a capital A it refers to the church that bears the name Adventist. But if it is written with a small a it refers to a person who lays special stress on the second advent of Christ. Dictionaries define adventist in this general sense as “one who makes the second personal coming of Christ a special feature in his doctrine.”

When we examine the writings of the holy men of old, we find that God’s prophets laid stress on the second coming of Christ (see Acts 3:19-21). Therefore, all the Bible prophets were Adventists. Enoch, who was born a little more than six hundred years after Creation, was the fires Adventist preacher of whom we have record. “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying. Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him” (Jude 14, 15).

All the apostles were Adventists, for they laid such emphasis on the return of Christ that they mentioned it more than 310 times in the 260 chapters of the New Testament. An average of one in every 25 verses in the New Testament points to the return of our Saviour. There are 20 times as many texts for the Second Advent as for the first. There is more said about the return of Jesus in the Bible than about any other singe themes. In al Paul’s epistles baptism is referred to only 13 times, while the coming of the Lord is referred to more than 50 times. So the Bible lays such emphasis on this subject that it is clearly an Adventist book.

All the early Christians, then, were adventists, because all the New Testaments churches are described as living in expectancy of Christ’s return. The Corinthians were said to “come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:7). The Thessalonians were waiting for the Son of God from heaven (1 Thess. 1:9, 10), as were also the Philippians (Phil. 3:20). Peter describes the early church as “waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2 Peter 3:12, R.S.V.).

The Lord’s Prayer is an Adventist prayer because it lays stress on the second coming of Christ. Every time we pray, “Thy kingdom come” (Matt. 6:10), we are praying for the return of Jesus, for the time to come when He will appear as King (see 16:28). The Lord’s supper is an Adventist ordinance, for when we participate in the communion service we show forth “the Lord’s death till he come” (1 Cor. 11.26).

Jesus Himself was Adventist. Over and over again He stressed His return to earth at the end of the Christian Age. To the high priest He said, “Hereafter shall we see the Son of man sitting on the right hand on power, and coming in the clouds of heaven” (Matt. 26:64). To His disciples He said, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I an, there ye may be also” (John 14:3).

How appropriate it is that a people preparing the way for the Second Coming should call themselves Adventists! They have chosen that name because it reminds all the world of the good news of the second advent of the blessed Saviour.

There is another part to the name of that people of prophecy. While other Christians generally keep the first day of the week, Adventists keep the seventh day as the Sabbath, as the Bible requires. Being distinguished from most other Christians by their observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, they call themselves Seventh-day Adventists.

There are several notable facts about the seventh day that forever prove that it is the only right day to observe as the Sabbath. It is the only day of the week God commanded man to rest on any other day; hence, no day except the seventh can ever be the divine rest day for man. It is the only day God ever blessed, or sanctified. It is the only day of the week ever given a sacred title.

The seventh day was sacredly observed by the prophets, the apostles, the early Christians, and by the Lord Jesus Himself. When, after he has accepted Jesus as his Saviour, a person takes his stand for the two great truths of the Advent and the Sabbath, he can encourage his heart with the thought that he is taking his stand on the side of the Lord Jesus and all these servants of the Lord, with all these on his side, why should he care how the world may ridicule him?

Some people think that Seventh-day Adventism is a relatively new idea in religion. But the two distinctive doctrines we have been discussing date back to the very beginning. The seventh-day Sabbath is as old as the creation of the world. The second coming of Christ is implied in Genesis 3:15 when God declared that in due time the woman’s Seed, Jesus, would “crush” (T.E.V.) the serpent’s head, referring to the destruction of Satan.

The Sabbath is like a rainbow extending from a perfect world in the beginning before sin entered (chap. 2:1-3) to the coming perfect new earth when sin is banished forever (Is. 66:22, 23). The second coming of Christ is a second rainbow, a rainbow of hope extending from Eden lost to Eden restored.

Seventh-day Adventists exist as a distinctive group of Christians because God wants the three angel’s messages proclaimed to Christians and non-Christians alike. Bible readers know why there was a Noah, who preached a distinctive message before the Flood. They also know why there was a John the Baptist, who preached a distinctive message before the advent of our Lord. So they can know, from Revelation 14:6-12, why the Adventists are here at this time with their distinctive message for all the world.

The Bible not only establishes clearly God’s day of worship, it also tells us specifically that the Sabbath is to be kept from sunset to sunset (Lev. 23:32; Mark 1:32), or from sunset Friday evening to sunset Saturday evening. In love for our Lord Jesus we gladly honor Him, our Creator – Saviour, by keeping the seventh day.

10 - THE WHEEL OF TRUTH

A certain automobile manufacturer uses the slogan “When America needs a better idea, - puts it on wheels.” When the time came for the last-day threefold-message movement to arise and begin its advance into all the world, God gave the people of that movement a wheel of divine truth. This enabled them to go into all the world and proclaim the everlasting gospel for this end-time.

Picture and old-time wagon wheel. It had three main parts-the hub, the spokes, and the rim. Let us use this to represent God’s wheel of truth.

Christ is the Truth of truths. He is the embodiment of all saving, sanctifying, transforming truth. Therefore. He is the hub of the wheel of truth.

Grist is the canter of everything. He is “all, and in all” (Col. 2:3). His fullness “filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:23). All the treasures of knowledge and wisdom are hid in him (Col. 2:3). Thus, true religious teaching has Christ in the center, because He is the center of all true doctrine.

An off-center automobile wheel is sure to make trouble until it is corrected. And religious teaching not centered in Christ as the Creator and only Saviour deviates from God’s appointed way.

Christ’s sacrifice as an atonement for sin is the great truth around which all other truths revolve. To be rightly appreciated and understood, every truth in the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the light that streams from the cross.

If truth is not rightly appreciated and understood, how much will it accomplish? O how much religious teaching – flooding the world by way of books, does not have Jesus Christ and the cross as its center. We should focus entirely on what is Christ-centered and cross-centered. Unless we do, our teachings are as unacceptable to God as was the offering of Cain.

Next to Christ, Paul was the greatest teacher of truth. His teachings, whether in oral or written form, were cross-centered. He told the Corinthians, “I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). His watchword was “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14).

In the days of the Caesars there was in the city of Rome a golden milestone from which highways went out to the provinces of the empire. Regardless of which road a man followed toward Tome, the ultimate marker would be that golden milestone. Thus it was said, “All roads lead to Rome.” So, regardless of what doctrine we expound, it must be presented in a way that will bring men to the golden goal – “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).

What are the spokes in this wheel of divine truth that proceed from Christ, the hub? They are the truths He taught, either in person when He was here or through the Holy Scriptures, which were inspired by His Spirit.

The truths of Christ as revealed in the Holy Scriptures are inexhaustible. Since this revelation is progressive, it is impossible to identify all the spokes in God’s wheel of truth. But some of these truths that can be identified are:
Jesus, the divine Son of God, Creator, and only Saviour. His incarnation, sinless life, atoning death, bodily resurrection, ascension, and priestly mediation. His literal, personal, visible second advent.

Conversion, or the new birth coming by way of conviction, repentance, restitution, faith, forgiveness of sin, receiving a new heart, acceptance with God, sonship, and baptism. The work of the Holy Spirit. The Ten commandments as God’s eternal standard of righteousness. The Sabbath. Conditional immortality, Christian living in all its phases, such as prayer, the daily crucifixion of self, healthful living, consecration, imputed and imparted righteousness, growing up in Christ, sanctification, perfection of character, and conformity to the image of Jesus. Glorification and eternal life in God’s eternal kingdom.

Make no mistake about this: Unless a doctrine is according to the Scriptures, it cannot be a spoke in God’s wheel of truth, regardless of how many preach it or believe it or how long it has been taught.

What is the rim of our wheel of truth? We find an answer in Revelation 14:6. The first of the three angel messengers described in this chapter had “the everlasting gospel to preach… to every nation … and people.” In preceding chapters we have shown from the Bible that this good news is the final phase of the one true gospel of the ages. This threefold message includes all the timeless truths of the gospel that have come from preceding generations plus the special truths announced by the three angels. Thus, the threefold message is the rim of the wheel of truth in which every truth (spoke) from Christ (the hub) is securely fastened.

The rim of a wagon wheel binds all of the spokes into a unit for the movements of the wagon. So the threefold message, the rim, binds all the truths into a harmonious unit of belief and conductor for making ready a worldwide people for the second coming of Christ.

Since that threefold message is the final phase of the gospel of the ages, it is a full-truth message. Il includes all the truths needed at the present time – all lost or neglected truths are restored in this message.

One may preach a Christ-centered message today without necessarily proclaiming a full message-the threefold message. There are thousands of ministers in the various denominations who are preaching excellent Christ-centered, cross-centered sermons.

This is good. But they need to go further and accept the special truths of God’s threefold message. Then their Christ-centered, cross-centered sermons will be in the proper setting for these last days, even as John the Baptist and the apostles preached in the setting of God’s present truth for their times.

The situation of these ministers is somewhat like that of Apollos, as described in Acts 18:24-28. a man mighty in the Scriptures, he preached the truth only as John the Baptist proclaimed it, not knowing the present truth for the time as it was in Jesus. So two Christian believers, Aquila and Priscilla, “expounded unto him the way of the Lord more perfectly” (Acts 18:26). Then he was used of God to bring many into the present truth in Jesus.

When you used to buy a ticket for a long railroad journey, perhaps from coast to coast, you travelled on line operated by a number of railway companies. There was a coupon in your ticket for each of these respective lines. Upon each coupon would be the notation “Not good if detached.” So in religious reaching for today, there is a double notation: “Not good if detached from Christ”; “Not good if detached from His threefold message.”

The figures of the wheel of truth illustrates Christ’s threefold message as it is in Him for our day. And those who, today, would preach the gospel must teach “the truth that is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21. T.E.V.) for today. There is a life-and-death difference between teachings in which people simply hear of Christ and rightly directed teachings by which he reader, and the hearer, is taught the full truth as it is in Him.

Look at Ephesians 4:20-32. Take note what the truth in Jesus does for the believer. It leads to a transformation of min- a radical change of attitude, of ambitions, impulses and interests. It causes a corrupt according to the putting on of “the new man, which after God in created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:24).

What are the results? The thief steals no more. The liar puts away his lying and specks the truth. The idles become diligent; they now have something to gives to one in need. Laying aside off-color stories and jokes, the impure speak that which is good and edifying. There is a putting away of bitterness, anger, clamor, evil speaking, and malice. All who experience the transformation become king, tender-hearted, and forgiving, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven them.

All this is the fruit of the preaching and receiving of the truth as it is in Jesus. It is this energizing by Christ that is needed to accomplish His purpose in the believer and in the world.

When truth is presented as it is in Jesus, every doctrine and practice comes in a Christ-attractive and Christ-compelling manner. The requirements for baptism come, not as a series of musts from a church, not merely as so many musts from the Bible, but leads to His heavenly home. As surely as we love Jesus, we gladly accept these respective truths and cling to them in preference to any other teaching.

What an incentive Christ’s wheel of truth is for becoming a Seventh-day Adventist, and remaining one to the end!

The truth as it is in Jesus, in a heart inhabited by the Holy Spirit, is the only safeguard against the masterful deceptions of Satan. He will work “with al power and sings and lying wonders” (2 Thess. 2:9). All except God’s remnant, who obey the truth, that they will think they are following the true Christ. So it is written: “all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the beast), whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8).

God sent fire down from heaven in Elijah’s time to prove that He is the only God. In his final overmastering delusion, Satan will bring fire down from heaven to deceive nearly all into worshiping him (see Rev. 13:13, 14).

Thus it will be that only those who have fortified their minds with the truths of God’s Word will stand through the last great time of trouble.

“Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Rev. 3:10).

The Word of God tells us that Satan will work “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:10-12).

Every soul will be confronted with the inescapable choice of either obeying God’s truth and being saved or believing the devil’s lie and being lost. O how this underlines the supreme need to follow God’s message, which is the only way to escape Satan’s masterful delusions.

What a treasure Jesus has given us in the truths we have been discussing. They are “like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath , and buyeth that field” (Matt. 13:44).

Greater than all earthly possessions are a knowledge of and an adherence to truth. Obedience to it not only brings the assurance of an endless life and everlasting happiness but is a prescription for getting the most out of this present life.

The psalmist expressed his conviction this way: “The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver” (Ps. 119:72). It is better to know and obey the truth than to be, without the truth, the possessor of the entire world (Matt. 16:26). Every soul today should heed this counsel: “Buy the truth, and sell it not” (Prov. 23:23).

11 - A WOMAN WORLD RULER

Have you heard about the woman who made everybody in the world drunk? Is it possible for one woman to make the earth drunk? Not in a literal sense, obviously. However, Revelation 17 presents a symbolic harlot who has made the inhabitants a symbolic harlot who has made the inhabitants of the earth “drunk with the wine of her fornication” Revelation 17:2.

“Fornication” is used here in a figurative sense to denote the unfaithfulness of professed followers of God who depart from His way to follow the sinful Ways of the world. In the Old Testament the relationship between the children of Israel and Jehovah is likened to the marriage union. When the Israelites worshiped the false gods of the other nations and followed the ways of the heathen, they were guilty of spiritual adultery. God used the term harlot when referring to them. (Jer. 3:1-9, 20; Ezek. 23; Hoses 1:2). This is a key that unlocks the mystery of the world drunk with the wine of her fornication.

The relationship of the believer to Christ is compared to the marriage relationship (Rom. 7:4). The act of adultery by a married man or woman signifies unfaithfulness to the marriage vow. Likewise, professed Christians unfaithful to their Master are “adulterers and adulteresses” (James 4:4).

In the case of this symbolic harlot “the wine of her fornication” represents her false doctrines by which countless millions have been led astray. This wine also signifies her unlawful alliances with civil powers to enforce her false dogmas by civil law.

We have a reference to this portrayal in the second angel’s message: “There followed another angel, saying. Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (Rev. 14:8). The power represented by the woman has not yet made all nations drunk, because the work of apostasy has not yet reached its culmination. But the fateful moment is near for the final great delusion.

The apostle John describes the vision of the harlot: “There came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication” (Rev. 17:1-4).

In chapter nine it was shown from the Bible that the symbolic pure woman of Revelation 12 represents Christ’s true church throughout all generations. Since this symbolic woman of Revelation 17 is the opposite kind of woman, a harlot, it is clear that she represents a false church and a false system of worship.

The many waters upon which the harlot is represented as sitting symbolize the peoples and nations of the earth: “The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” (Rev. 17:15). The scarlet-colored beast upon which the woman rides represents the governments of the earth. Thus the figure of the woman sitting on many waters and riding upon a beast suggests that this false system of worship is supported by the nations and peoples of the earth.

The woman’s riding upon the beast denotes how this false church system influences governments to enforce certain of her false teachings by civil law. This is how the harlot Babylon will make all the nations drink of the wine of her fornication and so become, in certain respects, world ruler.

Any church or federation of churches that seeks to enforce its doctrines by civil law shows that it is not the Lord’s true church, but is a part of Satan’s false system.

Ever since Adam and Eve sinned there has been a continuing conflict between truth and error, Christ and Satan. And the two symbolic women of Revelation represent the two sides in this conflict of the ages. Let no person think that he is not involved in this conflict. The issue of truth versus error is of eternal import for every soul. Therefore, every person should have a true understanding of what is represented by these symbolic women. And since the harlot makes the inhabitants of the earth drunk with the wine of her false teaching, you and I should be concerned as to how we might escape being deluded.

The name of this harlot is of special significance. “Upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Rev. 17:5).

Some declare that this woman called Babylon represents the Church of Rome only, and has no application to Protestant churches. However, God says she is “the mother of harlots.” She has a group of impure daughters. These daughters represent the Protestant churches that do not follow the Bible, or follow some of the false teachings of Romanism. They are a part of Babylon the great. In fact, the book of Revelation indicates that this symbolic Babylon includes every religious teaching and denomination not in harmony with the truths of God’s threefold message (see Revelation 18:1-4).

12 - THE NAME BABYLON

The name Babylon has its origin in the term Babel (see Gen. 10:9, 10; 11:1-9). Babel means “confusions” (see Gen. 11:9). Hence Babylon is appropriately applied to the many apostate denominations that profess to derive their doctrines from the Bible, and to the various sects with teachings and creeds that conflict widely with one another and God’s Word. However, the great body of Christ’s true followers are still in these religious bodies.

The angel told John the revelator that this harlot, “Babylon the great” – “is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth” (Rev. 17:18). This great symbolic city has three main parts, which split at the end: “The great city was divided into three parts” (Rev. 16:19). These parts are the religious or religiopolitical powers symbolized by the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet (Rev. 17:13).

In Revelation 12:2-5 the dragon is identified as the power that attempted to destroy Christ as soon as He was born at Bethlehem. Bible readers know this power was pagan Rome in the person of King Herod; a Roman vassal. Hence the dragon of Revelation 16:13 is a figure of paganism.

The beast is the power that meets the specifications given in chapter 13:1-8. these can apply to no other than papal Rome.

A comparison of Revelation 19:20 and 13:11-17 shows that the false prophet is the same as the power that makes an image to the beast. It was pointed out in chapter seven that many Bible scholars believe this power is apostate Protestantism particularly as found in the United States of America.

Here, then, is the threefold union that constitutes Babylon: the dragon, symbolizing all forms of paganism and heathenism, including infidelity and atheism; the beast, representing all forms of Catholicism; the false prophet, symbolizing apostate Protestantism. All forms of spiritism are included under paganism or apostate Protestantism.

God is calling His true followers out of all these false religions into His remnant, under His threefold-message movement. That call comes through clearly in Revelation 18:2-4: “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen…and I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

“Sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). God is calling His people out of Babylon, out of all other organizations that do not serve Him wholly, that they might separate themselves from her transgressions of His law. He is calling them to join His remnant, who keeps all the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

God is also calling His true followers out of this false system so that they will not receive of her plague – the seven last plagues (see Rev. 16). These are a part of His punishment that will fall upon all who are in spiritual Babylon. This smiting takes place during a little space of time before Christ’s Second Advent. Thus the call out of Babylon was not fulfilled in the work of Luther and the other Reformers.

This call to separate from the worldwide false system of Babylon is God’s last call. Il is now accomplishing its task. In the near future it will reach its full consummation. All the true children of God in Babylon will heed the cal of their Saviour. They will come out and take their stand with His remnant under His last-day, threefold-message movement.

Satan has led, and is leading, countless millions to accept his false doctrines under the misconception that they are following Christ. He makes the counterfeit to resemble the genuine so closely that it is impossible to distinguish between them unless we understand and heed the truths of God’s last-day message of Revelation 14:6-12 under the leading of His Holy Spirit. There is no escape from Satan’s threefold message.

God has given us a rule by which we can distinguish His true doctrines from the false: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. 8:20). Any religious teaching that is not in accordance with the law of the Ten Commandments and the rest of Scriptures should be avoided.

Obedience to God’s commandments and having the truth in us are inseparable. “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). God’s “law is the truth” (Ps. 119:142). The church of God is “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). The true church is built on the truth, and upholds the truth to the world.

In addition to one or more commandments of the Decalogue, there are five other commands in the Scriptures that are disregarded by the vast majority of professed Christian: Render to God all the tithes (Mal. 3:8-10), or one tenth of net income. Be separate from the world and its sinful ways (2 Cor. 6:17). Eat and drink to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31), which includes the abstinence from all alcoholic liquors (Prov. 20:1), tobacco, and pork and other unclean foods (Isa. 66:17). Refrain from wearing ornaments that suggest vanity and pride (1 Tim. 2:9; 1 Peter 3:1-4). Observe the ordinance of humility, or the washing of one another’s feet (John 13:12-15). Te remnant who keep the commandments will be obedient to all these requirements.

The impure woman, the figure of the false system, is “decked with gold and precious stones and pearls” (Rev. 17:4). The pure woman of Revelation 12, who is a figure of Christ’s true church, is not described as wearing of ornaments is to be avoided by the Lord’s true children.

The harlot called Babylon the great has a golden cup in her hand filled with wine, representing her false doctrines. Here is a list of some of the ingredients in this wine, by which nearly all are confused, befogged, and stupefied, and the truths they pervert: the first day, which is a man-made Lord’s day, instead of Christ’s true seventh-day Lord’s day (Luke 23:46, 54-56; 24:1-3); sprinkling or pouring for baptism instead of the true mode of immersion (Acts 8:38; Rom. 6:3,4); the natural immortality of the soul instead of the Biblical conditional immortality (1 Tim. 6:15, 16); confessing to a priest instead of confession to God (Jer. 14:20); the daily mass instead of the continual intercession of Christ, our true High Priest (Heb. 7:25, 26); the impenitent consigned to hellfire when they die instead of the Biblical doctrine that the wicked are reserved in the grave until the day of judgment to be punished (2 Peter 2.9); the heinous doctrine of eternal torment for the unsaved instead of the Bible doctrine that after the wicked are punished in the lake of fire for their sins they will be destroyed soul and body (Rev. 20:9; Mal. 4:1); the idea that the righteous go to heaven when they die, instead of the Biblical doctrine that the righteous are taken to heaven by way of resurrection or translation at the second coming of Christ (Acts 2:29; 34; 1 Thess. 4:13-18).

Consider how many people believe these errors and you will see how many of the inhabitants of the world have been made drunk from partaking of this particular wine of her fornication, as prophesied in Revelation 17:2. as for me, I do not, and will not, accept any of these errors from her golden cup. I will drink only from the pure Word of God. Will you say amen with me in this?

The night following the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg was a terrible one. Some fifty thousand dead and wounded were strewn over the battlefield. About nine o’clock a little light appeared on the field of battle. It was from a lantern carried by an old Quaker who was searching for his son, a soldier in the Union army.

Slowly the old man moved along, peering into the faces of the dead and wounded. Once in a while he would stop and call, “John Hartman, thy father calleth the.” Some poor boy nearby would say to himself. Would to God that were my father. A little farther on and the old man would hold up the lantern and call, “ John Hartman, thy father calleth thee.” He heard men groan. He heard men curse.

Suddenly he caught a response, barely audible. But the ears of love were keen. “Here, Father! Here Father” This way, Father.”

At last he found his son. Moving several dead bodies, he uncovered his wounded, blood-soaked son. Lifting him to his shoulder, he carried him home and to healing.

Whatever your name is, your heavenly Father is calling you. Have you accepted His call? He wants to carry you to His heavenly home. I invite you to accept His call and go home with Him.

13 - IS CHURCH MEMBERSHIP NECESSARY?

God has a universal, invisible church composed of all true Christians in every land. It is c called “the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven” (Heb. 12:23). Christ called it “my church” (Matt. 16:18). It is also referred to as the body of Christ (Eph. 1:23); Col. 1:18, 24).

The New Testament also uses the term “the church” to designate a local organized group of believers in a given place (Acts 11:26; 13:1; 14:26,27; 18:22; Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19).

Membership in God’s true, visible, organized church will not save any sou. Nothing we can do of ourselves will save us. Salvation is by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the question arises, When a true Christian is enrolled in God’s universal, invisible church, does this make it unnecessary for him to belong to the visible, organized church of God on earth? Some dedicated Christians say Yes. Even though they believe in the truths for which Christ’s remnant stand, they do not want to be members of the church that is taking the message for our time (Rev. 14:6-12) to the world.

What do the Scriptures say about his? How was it with the 3.000 converts on the day of Pentecost? When they were baptized and received the gift of the Holy Spirit their names were enrolled in the book of life, and they became members of the “church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven” (Heb. 12:23).

Did this make it unnecessary for them to become members of the visible, organized church of Christ in Jerusalem? No. the record says, “The Lord added to the church daily such as should be save” (Acts 2:47), or “those whom he was saving” (N.E.B.).

“The church” to which they were added was a visible, organized church. According to this text, when the Lord bestows salvation upon a believer. He wants the Lord bestows salvation upon a believer, He wants him to become a member of the organized church. Since the Lord has not changed, His plan of adding members to the church still holds good. When we follow the Lord all the way, He will lead us to become members of the organized body that is bearing His threefold message to the world.

Paul went to Corinth and preached the Word of God. Many accepted the truths he taught and were organized into a visible church with a regular membership into a visible church with a regular membership and with officers in charge. After Paul left, he wrote letters to these believers. How did he identify the Christians there? Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he wrote, “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth” (1 Cor. 1.2; 2 Cor. 1:1). It is clear that it was God’s will that all in Corinth who accepted Christ should be connected with God’s church in that city.

Suppose some person at Corinth who had accepted Christ had taken this position: By accepting Christ I have become a member of His general church. My name is enrolled in heaven. Hence I do not need to be a member oh this local church.

Would this attitude have met with God’s approval? Not in the light of the Word of God. That Corinthian believer would not have followed the Lord all the way until he became a member of the Lord’s organized church.

The same holds true today. It is the will of God that all who accept His message be on the roll of the visible, organized church of God. Those who have been called out in any place by God’s threefold message, and organized by His messengers into a local church, constitute the church of God in that city or town.

Some people declare that church organization is a man-made arrangement and is therefore something into which the Lord does not want us to enter. But this is not the case, because the plan of the followers of Jesus being organized into churches was established by Christ Himself. As the apostles and their associates went from city to city preaching God’s message, converts were organized into church units in harmony with definite instruction from the Lord.

They must have had definite membership rolls, as this text indicates: “When they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27).

Here was a special meeting of believers in the city of Antioch. Paul and Barnabas, two ministers, had returned from their missionary journey. The record is that they “gathered the church together.” The fact that it was known whom to notify about this special meeting shows there was a definite membership roll.

In Matthew 18:15-17, Christ gave plain instruction that church members who persist in open sin are to be dropped from the membership list. It seems obvious that, since Christ laid down a plan for expelling unworthy members, it is certainly His will that His true followers should be registered on a membership list.

The word church in the New Testament is from the Greek word ekklésia, “called-out one.” For example, “the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38) was the nation of Israel, called out of Egypt and assembled in the wilderness of Sinai.

Christ’s true church today is made up of those who are called out of the world, out of Babylon. Those who are called out by His last-day, threefold message constitute His last church, or the remnant of Revelation 12:17.

The call of Christ for our day is, as we have previously seen, to “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (chap. 14:12). When we come out of Babylon and keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, we will recognize the need of joining the remnant church.

When Saul of Tarsus accepted the Lord Jesus he had only one question: “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6). The Lord instructed him to go into Damascus, and there he would be told what he must do. Then the Lord used Ananias to guide him into the present truth for that time. This indicates that the Lord had respect to the order that he had established in His church. So Paul came out of the Jewish religion to which he had belonged all his life. He was baptized and became a member of the church that followed the teachings of Christ.
This certainly tells us that when a sincere soul follows through on the question “Lord, what will Thou have me do?” he will be led by the Lord to become a member of His visible, organized church.

Suppose you had lived in the days of Noah. What would the Lord have wanted you to do? Clearly it would have been to accept His special message as preached by Noah, to turn from the worldliness around and enter the ark at the appointed time.

Perhaps some who heard Noah’s message said, “We love God and are living good lives, but we will not go into the ark.” They perished along with the mort rebellious sinners. So, the eternal welfare of those who hear God’s present truth for our day depends on their acceptance of this heaven-sent message.

Adherence to God’s message through John the Baptist involved accepting the message John preached, which acceptance called one out – separated one – as it were, from others and involved being baptized. The acceptance of God’s message through the apostles involved coming out from the Jewish religion or from heathen religions and entering into the visible, organized church units of Christianity.

So the acceptance of God’s threefold message for these last days involves a coming out from the world and the religions and churches of Babylon into one of the visible, organized units of God’s threefold-message movement. The acceptance of God’s message for our day includes membership in His remnant church.

It is evident that when God sends a special message for a certain time, following it is the right way for that time. Since the threefold message of Revelation 14 is what God has appointed to be preached, believed, and obeyed in these days, He is definitely calling us to be a part of that movement. This call must take precedence over all else in religion today.

When the teachings of this last-day message have been brought clearly before an individual, the issue confronting him is far more than his identifying himself with the Advents Movement. The real issue is: “Shall I accept or reject God’s message? Shall I respond to or disregard the call of the Lord to me?

When one is face with such an issue, the only wise course, the only safe way, is to accept the message and keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. But such an acceptance does include identifying oneself with the Advent Movement.

Some may be thinking, If I decide to do that what will happen if I am called to the office on Saturday? What about the opposition I have in my home? Friend of mine, if you will make your decision for God, He will make a way for you through all the opposition, the obstacles, and the difficulties. There are no problems too big for Him.

The experience of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-9) helps us to understand that no problem is too big for Jesus to solve. The man had not taken a step in thirty-eight years. But when Jesus told him to pick up his mat and walk, he decided to obey. When he did that, Jesus gave him the power to walk.

So it may be with you. Decide that you will live for God, and He will give you the power to move forward in obedience. If you will tell God that you will go ahead, He will make a way for you.

If it were possible for man to offer homes for sale in a subdivision where there were no taxes, no trouble, no sickness. Pain, or sorrow, and no death, would you be interested? Certainly. No matter how much such a home cost, you would be determined to have one if you could get the money.

God does have such homes in the New Jerusalem and in the new earth for those who choose to obey His truth. Why shouldn’t every soul gladly make his decision to come out and take his stand for God’s commandments and the fait of Jesus? If you have not done this, why not here and now tell the Lord you will respond to His call to obey Him?