PRESENT TRUTH and THE Snares of Satan
E.G. WHITE - Snares of Satan - excerpts
"The great controversy between Christ and Satan, that has been carried forward for nearly six thousand years, is soon to close; and the wicked one redoubles his efforts to defeat the work of Christ in man's behalf and to fasten souls in his snares. To hold the people in darkness and impenitence till the Saviour's mediation is ended, and there is no longer a sacrifice for sin, is the object which he seeks to accomplish." GC 518.1
"When there is no special effort made to resist his power, when indifference prevails in the church and the world, Satan is not concerned; for he is in no danger of losing those whom he is leading captive at his will. But when the attention is called to eternal things, and souls are inquiring, "What must I do to be saved?" he is on the ground, seeking to match his power against the power of Christ and to counteract the influence of the Holy Spirit." IBID, 518.2
"Satan well knows that all whom he can lead to neglect prayer and the searching of the Scriptures, will be overcome by his attacks. Therefore he invents every possible device to engross the mind. There has ever been a class professing godliness, who, instead of following on to know the truth, make it their religion to seek some fault of character or error of faith in those with whom they do not agree. Such are Satan's right-hand helpers. Accusers of the brethren are not few, and they are always active when God is at work and His servants are rendering Him true homage. They will put a false coloring upon the words and acts of those who love and obey the truth. They will represent the most earnest, zealous, self-denying servants of Christ as deceived or deceivers. It is their work to misrepresent the motives of every true and noble deed, to circulate insinuations, and arouse suspicion in the minds of the inexperienced. In every conceivable manner they will seek to cause that which is pure and righteous to be regarded as foul and deceptive." IBID, 519.2
"The position that it is of no consequence what men believe is one of Satan's most successful deceptions. He knows that the truth, received in the love of it, sanctifies the soul of the receiver; therefore he is constantly seeking to substitute false theories, fables, another gospel. From the beginning the servants of God have contended against false teachers, not merely as vicious men, but as inculcators of falsehoods that were fatal to the soul. Elijah, Jeremiah, Paul, firmly and fearlessly opposed those who were turning men from the word of God. That liberality which regards a correct religious faith as unimportant found no favor with these holy defenders of the truth." IBID, 520.2
"The vague and fanciful interpretations of Scripture, and the many conflicting theories concerning religious faith, that are found in the Christian world are the work of our great adversary to confuse minds so that they shall not discern the truth. And the discord and division which exist among the churches of Christendom are in a great measure due to the prevailing custom of wresting the Scriptures to support a favorite theory. Instead of carefully studying God's word with humility of heart to obtain a knowledge of His will, many seek only to discover something odd or original." IBID, 520.3
"In order to sustain erroneous doctrines or unchristian practices, some will seize upon passages of Scripture separated from the context, perhaps quoting half of a single verse as proving their point, when the remaining portion would show the meaning to be quite the opposite. With the cunning of the serpent they entrench themselves behind disconnected utterances construed to suit their carnal desires. Thus do many willfully pervert the word of God. Others, who have an active imagination, seize upon the figures and symbols of Holy Writ, interpret them to suit their fancy, with little regard to the testimony of Scripture as its own interpreter, and then they present their vagaries as the teachings of the Bible." IBID, 521.1
"Whenever the study of the Scriptures is entered upon without a prayerful, humble, teachable spirit, the plainest and simplest as well as the most difficult passages will be wrested from their true meaning. The papal leaders select such portions of Scripture as best serve their purpose, interpret to suit themselves, and then present these to the people, while they deny them the privilege of studying the Bible and understanding its sacred truths for themselves. The whole Bible should be given to the people just as it reads. It would be better for them not to have Bible instruction at all than to have the teaching of the Scriptures thus grossly misrepresented." IBID, 521.2
The Bible was designed to be a guide to all who wish to become acquainted with the will of their Maker. God gave to men the sure word of prophecy; angels and even Christ Himself came to make known to Daniel and John the things that must shortly come to pass. Those important matters that concern our salvation were not left involved in mystery. They were not revealed in such a way as to perplex and mislead the honest seeker after truth. Said the Lord by the prophet Habakkuk: "Write the vision, and make it plain, . . . that he may run that readeth it." Habakkuk 2:2. The word of God is plain to all who study it with a prayerful heart. Every truly honest soul will come to the light of truth. "Light is sown for the righteous." Psalm 97:11. And no church can advance in holiness unless its members are earnestly seeking for truth as for hid treasure." IBID, 521.3
JAMES WHITE - Present Position and Work and Present Truth.
Revelations 12:17 -- "And 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." Life Incidents by James White, 326-1 [1868].
"The woman is a symbol of the church, and the remnant of the church represents the Christians of the last generation of men living just prior to the second advent. The dragon makes war on these for keeping the commandments of God, Sabbath and all, and having the testimony of Jesus Christ, which according to the inspired definition of chap. 19,10, "is the spirit of prophecy." Here, then, are the causes of the dragon's warfare upon the remnant. They teach the observance of the ten commandments, and the revival of the gifts, and acknowledge the gift of prophecy among them. When the Devil got one foot upon the fourth commandment, and the other upon the gifts planted in the Christian church by Jesus Christ, then his satanic majesty was filled with revengeful delight. But when the remnant, whom God designs to fit for translation to Heaven without seeing death, "ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein," then the dragon is wroth, and makes war on them." IBID, 326-2
"The true spirit of the dragonic host, which is already being somewhat developed, is vividly described in Isa. 30,8-13, as being manifested just prior to the sudden destruction of those who hate the pure testimony, and love smooth and deceitful things." IBID, 326-3
"Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever [margin, `the latter day']; that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord; which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits; get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause
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the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant." IBID, 326/327
"Mark this: In "the latter day" men will not hear the law of the Lord, the commandments of God; and they will say to the seers, those who have the spirit of prophecy, See not. They will receive neither. They war against both. See also Mark 16,15-20; Matt. 28,18-20; Eph. 4,4-13; 1 Cor. 12,1,28; 13,8 -12; 1,4-8; Rev. 19,10; 1 Thess. 5; Matt. 7,15-20; Isa. 8,19,20; Jer. 14,14; 23,16,17; 8,10,11; 5,30,31. For a full exposition of the subject of the perpetuity of spiritual gifts, as held by Seventh-day Adventists, see their works upon the subject." IBID, 327-1
"But it is objected that since the volume of inspiration was completed, spiritual gifts have not been needed. Who knows this to be the case? The disciples of Jesus had the law and the prophets, yet needed the manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We have both Testaments, and who knows that we do not also need the gifts of the Spirit of God? IBID, 327-2
"The great design of the sacred Scriptures was to give man a perfect rule of faith and practice. God purposed that his people should follow this rule and by it develop characters perfect before him. Said Paul to Timothy, "Thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation." There is no fault in the Scriptures that makes it necessary that the gifts of the Holy Spirit should be manifested. The necessities in the case exist in the imperfections of the people of God, in the fact that they do not follow their perfect rule." IBID, 327-3
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"We now see the gifts of the Spirit occupying their proper place. They are not manifested to give a rule of faith and practice. We already have a rule that is perfect in the Sacred Writings. But in consequence of the errors of God's people, and their deviations in faith and practice from this perfect rule, God in mercy manifests the gifts to reprove their errors, and lead them to a correct understanding of the holy Scriptures. This is the position of the gifts. They were not designed to take the place of the Scriptures. And they are not given because the Scriptures are an imperfect rule of faith and practice. But in consequence of the errors of God's professed people, in departing from the perfect rule, which he has given them, the gifts are manifested to correct the erring, and point them to the Bible as their lamp and guide." IBID, 328-2
"God designed that his people should be one. This was the burden of the prayer of Jesus. John 17. Hear him as he prays in agony, "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Paul exhorted the Corinthians in the name of the Christ to be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment. Read 1 Cor. 1,10; Rom. 15,5; Phil. 2,1,2; 1 Pet. 3,8; 5,5. But do we see this unity in those who profess to take the Bible as their rule, and reject the gifts? We see divisions, and with many, confusion to the utmost. The fault, however, is not in the Bible. It is in those who fail to follow the teachings of the sacred Scriptures. And God in mercy and condescension infinite purposes to help them by the gifts. But many of them refuse to be helped in this way, because that in the Bible they have a perfect rule. If they obeyed the sacred Scriptures,
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and walked in unity, both among themselves, and with God, they would not need the gifts. But in their confusion, and their distance from Christ, while still rejecting the gifts, there is no help for them in God." IBID, 328/329.
"Again, I ask, Who knows that the gifts of the Holy Spirit have not been needed since the completion of the volume of inspiration? It is admitted that when completed it was a more perfect rule then when but a portion of it was given. But how does its completion take the place of the gifts? If they were given because of the imperfections of the people of God, their removal supposes perfection on the part of God's people. Do we find perfection in the church since the days of Paul, to that degree as to need no special manifestations of the Spirit, reproving sin and correcting deviations from God's perfect rule? The history of the church, setting forth her terrible apostasies and corruptions, her endless schisms, divisions and creeds, and her conflicting expositions of the plainest truths of the Bible, testifies too plainly of her imperfections. Her sad history and present wretchedness, show that necessity still remains, since the completion of the Book of God, for the manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit." IBID, 329-2
"The gift of prophecy is by the apostle classed with the callings of the Christian church in Eph. 4,11-13. He distinctly states their object: "And he gave some, apostles, and some, prophets, and some, evangelists, and some, pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." These were all given at the same time,
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all for the same purpose, all to cease at the same time. Do we recognize in the Christian church, evangelists, pastors, and teachers? Why not prophets? Does the church still need them? Why not the gift of prophecy? Will those continue till the church is perfected, ready to meet her descending Lord? So will the gift of prophecy. IBID, 329/330.
"Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, has spoken very definitely upon this subject of spiritual gifts. In 1Cor.xii,1, he says: "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant." He regarded this subject as one of the highest importance, and urges an understanding of it. In all he has said relative to it, he has not once intimated that the gifts were to cease before the perfect day of glory should come. But he does clearly point to the time when the gifts will cease. 1 Cor. 13,8-12: "Charity [agape - love,] never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known." IBID, 330-2
"The apostle here contrasts the mortal state with the immortal; the present imperfect, with that which will be perfect; the cloudy present while we walk by faith, with the open glory of the life to come. Here, we only know in part, prophesy in part; there, that which is in part, will be done away. Here, we see through a glass darkly; there, face to face. Here, we know in part;
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there, we shall know, even as we are known. Charity, or love, will never end. Here, it is the highest Christian grace; there, it will be the crowning glory of immortals for ever and for ever. In this sense love will never fail. But prophecies will fail, tongues will cease, and knowledge will vanish away. The light of Heaven through the dim medium of these, and the other gifts of the Holy Spirit,is represented as being only in part, to be superseded by the perfect day of glory when we may talk face to face with God, Christ, and angels, as our first parents talked with God in Eden before sin entered. But when? This is the vital question. When were the gifts to be done away? Let Paul answer: "But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." "And let all the people say, Amen." IBID, 330/331.
"God has had a truth in every age, by which he has tested the people of that age. This was true in the days of Noah, and at the first advent of Christ. It is especially true at the present time, as God is preparing to visit the wicked with judgments and the righteous with salvation. All revealed, practical, truth ever has been, and ever will be, a test of man's fidelity to God. He will have to give an account to the Author of truth how he treats it. If he obeys, he may be saved; if he rejects it, and violates its claims upon him, he must be lost." IBID, 331-2
"But the law of God, in an eminent sense, is a test to man. It is the highest authority in all earth and Heaven. If God's law is not a test, there is no such thing as a test. Seventh-day Adventists solemnly believe that God is proving and testing the people by his holy law. In point of sacredness and importance, they regard the fourth commandment equal to either of the other nine, and the sin of violating it, when as well understood,
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equal to that of breaking either of them. They believe that the present time, in the providence of God, during the proclamation of the third angel's message, is the period for the sabbath reform, and that in the last message, the Sabbath of Jehovah is to be the special test in the law of God for the people. The great question to be decided before the wrath of God shall be poured out upon a guilty and ruined world is, Who will be loyal to the God of Heaven? Such, if washed from their sins by the blood of Christ, become heirs to the future inheritance, and receive a crown of unfading glory at the second appearing of Jesus. Says Christ, "If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments."IBID, 332-1
"Seventh-day Adventists are charged with making the Sabbath a test. And some will have it that we denounce and reject all who do not believe as we do. It is true that we teach that God is testing the people by his law. But we deny the charge that we denounce and reject those who differ from us." IBID, 332-2
"Our course toward all men whom we can reach with our publications, our sermons and our entreaties, proves the charge false. We beseech all men, without respect to profession of religion, color, or rank in society, to turn from their sins, keep God's commandments and live. And we manifest a zeal and earnestness in this matter somewhat in proportion to the importance of the testing message we bear. And because our testimony is pointed and earnest, condemning those who choose to pass along with the popular current, and violate the law of God, some are disturbed, and with feelings of retaliation, falsely charge us. It is not our work to test, condemn, and denounce, the people. It is not in our hearts to unnecessarily injure the feelings of any. But with our present convictions of truth and duty, we should do great violence to our
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own consciences, and sin against God, should we cease to declare to the people the purpose of God in testing the world by his law, just before the day of wrath." IBID, 332/333.
"And God has greatly blessed such testimony. As a people, Seventh-day Adventists were heard of, as it were, but yesterday. As a people, they do not claim to be more than a score of years old. And yet in point of numbers and efficiency they have a little strength. And why? Because, when they have borne a pointed and earnest testimony, God has been with them, and added to their numbers and strength." IBID, 333-2
"But if the Sabbath is not a test, it is not worth our while to be to the trouble of teaching and observing it in the face of decided opposition. If we can be as good Christians while breaking the fourth commandment, as while keeping it, should we not at once seek to be in harmony with the rest of the Christian world? Why be so odd as to obey the commandment of God, if one can be as good a Christian while living in violation of it? And there are frequent inconveniences, and pecuniary sacrifices, to be suffered by those who are so particular concerning the observance of the fourth commandment. If the Sabbath is of so little importance as not to be a test of Christian fellowship and eternal salvation; if men who break the Sabbath should be embraced in our fellowship the same as if they observed it; and if they can reach heaven as surely in violating the fourth commandment as in keeping it; why not abandon is at once, and cease to agitate the public mind with a question of no real importance which is so unpleasant and annoying." IBID, 333-3
"Seventh-day Adventists believe that in the restoration of the Bible Sabbath, under the last message of mercy, God designs to make it a test to the people." IBID, 333-4
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"Hence many of them labor with earnestness to teach it, and are ready to make any sacrifices in order to observe it, and do their duty in teaching it to others. Convince them that it is not a test, and they will not trouble the people nor themselves longer with it. But should they give the people to understand that they regard the Sabbath of so little importance as not to be a test, "the sword of the Spirit'" on that subject at least, would become in their hands as powerless as a straw. They could not then convict the people upon this subject. Indeed their position before the people, in earnestly calling their attention to a subject that is of so little importance as not to constitute a test of Christian character, and which would subject them to a heavy cross, much inconvenience, sacrifice, and reproach, would be but little less than solemn mockery. With our present view of the importance of the subject, we have a sufficient reason for earnestly urging the claims of the fourth commandment upon our fellow-men." IBID, 334-1
"The remarks of Elder J. N. Andrews in reference to the Sabbatarians of England in the seventeenth century, have so direct a bearing upon this subject that I give the following from his History of the Sabbath, pp. 335,336:" IBID, 334-2
"The laws of England during that century were very oppressive to all dissenters from the established church, and bore exceedingly hard upon the Sabbath-keepers. Yet fine, imprisonment, and even capital punishment, would not have proved sufficient to suppress the Sabbath. It was in the house of its own friends that the Sabbath was wounded. In the seventeenth century eleven churches of Sabbatarians flourished in England, while many scattered Sabbath-keepers were to be found in various parts of that kingdom. Now but three of those churches are in existence. It was not the lack of
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able men among the Sabbath-keepers to defend the truth, nor the fierce assaults of their persecutors, that has thus reduced them to a handful. The fault is their own, not indeed for any disgraceful conduct on their part, but simply because they made the Sabbath of no practical importance, and lowered the standard of divine truth in this thing to the dust. The Sabbath-keeping ministers assumed the pastoral care of first-day churches, in some cases as their sole charge, in others they did this in connection with the oversight of Sabbatarian churches. The result need surprise no one; as both ministers and people said to all men, in thus acting, that the fourth commandment might be broken with impunity, the people took them at their word. Mr. Crosby, a first-day historian, sets this matter in a clear light:" IBID, 334/335.
"`If the seventh day ought to be observed as the Christian Sabbath, then all congregations that observe the first day as such must be Sabbath-breakers. . . I must leave those gentlemen on the contrary side to their own sentiments; and to vindicate the practice of becoming pastors to a people whom in their conscience they must believe to be breakers of the Sabbath.'"
IBID, 335-1
"The Seventh-day Baptists of America have done a good work in teaching the Sabbath. We should respect them, and regard them with peculiar interest for this. But had they been faithful to the sacred trust committed to them, their numbers and strength might have been a hundred-fold greater than they now are. They have had the reproach, the cross, and the inconvenience of the Sabbath, without that strength and force which teaching it as a test gives. For nearly two centuries, in their feebleness, they have been holding up the Sabbath, while, if they had been faithful in teaching it, in observing it, and urging it upon the consciences of the
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people, the Sabbath would have held them up, and been the strength of that people." IBID, 335/336.
"Seventh-day Adventists have nothing to boast of. God has often reproved and chastised us for unfaithfulness. And when we have returned to him, and humbly and faithfully battled for the truth, amid reproaches and persecutions, he has greatly blessed us. Nothing is so much to be dreaded as that calm which is the result of tempering unpopular, testing truth to the ears of the people so as not to offend. Rather let the reproach come, and the storm rage, if it be the result of speaking the truth of God in love." IBID, 336-1
"As a people we have had our difficulties to surmount, our trials to bear, and our victories to gain. We are gathered from Methodists, Regular Baptists, Freewill Baptists, Seventh-day Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Dutch Reform, Disciples, Christians, Lutherans, United Brethren, Catholics, Universalists, Worldlings, and Infidels. We are composed of native Americans, English, Welsh, Scotch, Irish, French, Germans, Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Poles, and others. To bring together a body composed of such material, affected more or less by the religious sentiments and forms of the several denominations, with all their national peculiarities, has called for much patient, and persevering toil. And it is by the grace of God that we are what we are. And let his name be praised that in our darkest hours, when we have humbled ourselves, he has ever come to our aid." IBID, 336-2
"From their past brief history Seventh-day Adventists may learn much as to their present work and future prospects. When in humility they have borne a decided testimony in the fear of God, their labors have been signally blessed. When they have been willing
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to bear the cross of present truth, and sacrifice time, convenience and means to advance the work, they have shared the approving smiles of Heaven. They have seen that nothing can keep the body in a healthy condition but the plain and pointed testimony. This will do the work of purification, either by purging their sins, or separating from them the unconsecrated and rebellious. Let the result be what it may, such testimony must be borne, or this people will fall as others have fallen. And terrible would be their fall, after having so clear light, and having had committed to them so sacred a trust as the last message of mercy to sinners." IBID, 336/337.
"From the past we may also learn what to expect in the future, in the line of persecution. Satan has been angry because this people have been seeking for the "old paths," that they might walk therein. He has been especially disturbed as they have plead for the restoration of the Sabbath, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. If the people be taught that God is testing them upon the Sabbath, and that they should listen to the testimony of Jesus, in the spirit of prophecy, which reproves their sins, and calls on them to consecrate themselves and what they possess to the Lord, we may depend upon it, the ire of the dragon will be stirred. This we have witnessed and suffered in proportion to our faithfulness in the work. When we have borne a pointed testimony, we have been the especial objects of the wrath of the dragon; but with it have also shared largely the blessing of God. When we have been unfaithful, the dragon has been comparatively quiet, but we have suffered leanness of soul. And thus we may expect it will be for time to come." IBID, 337-1.
"The position of suspense is not the most happy one. Those who wait for the return of the Lord in uncertainty
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ReplyDeleteMore on the exalted theme of the 2ND. Advent of Christ coming soon. I hope you all had the opportunity to read the previous "Present truth" articles on this blog. If not, why don't you take the time to do so right now? Lord bless!
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