Our scattering and gathering again

“Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be teachers of the Law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.” (1Tim. 1:5-7).
The unpalatable Law of God becomes palatable to the honest, earnest seeker for peace with the God of truth and grace, the Prince and Messiah, “a just God and a Saviour.” (Isa. 45:21). The corruptible nature is transformed while under the influence of Christ’s divine charms. Through the Law of God and the grace of Christ, the converted soul finally has what it sought for so long: “charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” (1Tim. 1:5).

But, everyone who dodges the thrust of the Law of God loses the blessing that comes from it bringing to them an exceedingly deep need of Christ for His grace. They are left with a downward tailspin which sends them into some strange practices. They chose to not come to the light of God’s Law; now Satan drives them into darkness.

Isaiah represents them as lying insane in the middle of the streets of Jerusalem.

“Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of His fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up. These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee? Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.” (Isa 51:17-20).

They forsook the Lord, and partook of Satan’s devices; and he took them straight into bondage. They wanted to copy the religion of the other nations. They didn’t want to live under the requirements of Jehovah. So, He gave them what they wanted, and their new master scattered their faith, their blessed self-possession, and their freedom.

This scenario is represented in Revelation 11 by the two witnesses who had stood so valiantly for the truth during the 1260 years of papal darkness. But, they finally succumb to false religion in the end. They are seen reliving Isaiah’s description of Jerusalem’s demon-possessed children “that peep, and that mutter” (Isa. 8:19) whose “speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.” (Isa. 29:4). They speak in tongues, but not to Jehovah; they mutter their gibberish to Baal, the one false lord with a thousand uncontrollable personalities and a thousand disguises.

Baal will not let them go; they are under the control of another whose vicious nature plays cat and mouse with their heart and mind. They cannot see the beauty of Jehovah to release their hold on idolatrous worship.

They drink the wine of the wrath of God, the wormwood and gall of which He had warned them.
“Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; and it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: the LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven. And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law: so that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it; and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in His wrath.” (Deut. 29:18-23).

“Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of His people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: but I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over. Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.” (Isa. 51:21-52:3).

Revelation 11 indicates that the experience of ancient Israel will be the same for Protestantism and Adventism. We are repeating their history.

We see celebration and Spiritual Formation moving in to supplant an Advent movement that by and large has abandoned the “special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God's people upon earth.” Great Controversy, p. 425. As a group we never did humble ourselves to the Law of God and the voice and pen of His servant, Mrs. White. So, Protestantism has for a while now given in to the New Age, and we also have no barrier against the new Adventism of grace without condemnation, of seeking God’s voice apart from reproof and instruction. It’s the one false religion of, “God, who are You to condemn Me?”

Satan is scattering our power. When imaginary Spiritual Formation and celebration have taken complete control of the Advent movement, then we will be prostrated and killed, laying in the streets of the great city, Babylon the great. We will be full of the wrath of God and our church will be a “habitation of devils, …the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” (Rev. 18:2).

But, after a period of judgment when some can admit to their great sin of following the world’s religion, God will raise them up again, by the straight testimony of the True Witness, and they will live in His sight (Rev. 11:11,12; Hos. 6:3).

“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power. He is not his own. He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery. He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan. While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness. Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul. ‘If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.’ ‘The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’ sets us ‘free from the law of sin and death.’ Romans 8:2.” Desire of Ages, p. 466.