Confusion of face, Pt. 2, The problem with the ancient Jews is our problem

Our self-righteousness has wrestled in defense of our goodness against the righteousness of God, which is as high as heaven is above the earth, and we’ve had enough of the wrath of the great Judge against our self-exaltation. We are humbled, we submit to the righteousness of God, and we tremble before Him. The great Ancient of days has won His great war against our own righteousness. He has overcome our rejection of His assumed mistake concerning our own goodness. He has won the battle of the wills and we see the justice in His condemnation of us. He sees our trembling in wretched hopelessness and sorrow as appeals for another Judge. We need a merciful Judge, and He provides us One. According to John 6:37 and Galatians 3:24, our advocate Jesus steps in between us and God. Then comes true the words of Jesus, “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.… And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man.” (John 5:22,27).

 

The precious humbling before the righteousness of God is something the Jews would not allow for themselves. “For they…have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” (Rom. 10:3). Compounding the human problem of refusing to be humbled by the Spirit of truth, is the substitution of our own goodness in the place of the humiliating Law of God. “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness”, went “about to establish their own righteousness.” (Rom. 10:3). This was the plight of the whole pagan world. It always happens when Satan darkens the land of the knowledge of God, and then exalts the pride-building human morality in the place of God’s humbling Law.

 

“Through heathenism, Satan had for ages turned men away from God; but he won his great triumph in perverting the faith of Israel. By contemplating and worshiping their own conceptions, the heathen had lost a knowledge of God, and had become more and more corrupt. So it was with Israel. The principle that man can save himself by his own works lay at the foundation of every heathen religion; it had now become the principle of the Jewish religion. Satan had implanted this principle. Wherever it is held, men have no barrier against sin.” Desire of Ages, p. 35.

 

The Jews judged themselves holy, and that without a knowledge of God. If they had known God they would have recognized His Son.

“Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love Me.” (John 8:42).

“Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know Me, nor My Father: if ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also.” (John 8:19).

“We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1Cor. 2:7,8). If they had known the Law of God, which is the wisdom of God, then they would have known God. “Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill Me?” (John 7:19).

 

The human problem of trusting a self-judged assessment of our own righteousness, as it existed in the mindset of the pre-Babylonian Israel, caused God unending grief. He could not condemn them of sin because He couldn’t get past their high assessment of themselves. Pride dominated their thinking, and pride admits to no need of help. This is why Jesus raised up Nebuchadnezzar.

 

It was heathenism that caused the blindness of Israel. They couldn’t see their sinfulness because they had accepted the nations’ idolatrous service to Satan, and spiritualistic religion of Babylon that came through the pagan nations around them. Spiritualism will never accept conviction of sin. It refuses its votives to be sorry for sin. That was the cause of the nations’ big destruction; and that was the cause of the Jews’ desolation. Without conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come, there never is any warfare against sin and thus, no victory over sins. If there is no destruction of sins, there is not atonement with God.

 

The powerful Law of God is the only antidote to spiritualism’s pride before the face of God. “Now we know that what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Rom. 3:19). It was this power of the prophets as they set the holiness of God before Israel, that redeemed God’s people from the spiritualistic love for lawlessness that they kept falling into.

 

“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations He shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” (Dan. 9:26,27).

 

Satan will never accept conviction of sin. He imbues his servants with a sky-high pride and he refuses his worshipers to ever be sorry for sin.

 

“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.

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a Queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.” (Rev. 18:4-8).

 

“Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.

I was wroth with My people, I have polluted Mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand….

And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it.

Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:

But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.

For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.

Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.” (Isa. 47:5-11).

 

Today the religion and lifestyle of Satan comes to the world through his favorite earthly organization—the sworn enemy of Protestantism. When we follow the mystery of iniquity, we are following the most subtle devil himself. We have turned away from the God of our fathers and have followed after Baal.

 

But, with Israel obedience to Babylon didn’t appear the same as in the heathen nations. The Jews didn’t have the problem of devil-possession like the other nations had. Because the Jews couldn’t see the same manifestations of the subtle mysterious power of iniquity, they didn’t believe anything was wrong with their new religion. And they could not believe Isaiah’s and Jeremiah’s testimony against them.

 

“But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the Queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.

But since we left off to burn incense to the Queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.

And when we burned incense to the Queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?

Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to all the people which had given him that answer, saying,

The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye, and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and came it not into His mind?

So that the LORD could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day.

Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, nor walked in His law, nor in His statutes, nor in His testimonies; therefore this evil is happened unto you, as at this day.” (Jer. 44:17-23).

 

As long as the temple remained, they assumed that God was with them.
 

“Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these [lying words].

For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;

If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:

Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

Behold, ye trust in lying words [that they were blessed by God because of their temple built in His honor], that cannot profit.

Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;

And come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.

But go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel.

And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;

Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by My name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to Me: for I will not hear thee.” (Jer. 7:3-16).

 

The Jews could not be convinced of God’s wrath until He allowed His temple to be razed the ground. Then they finally woke up to the reality of their true, ill-favored standing before God.

 

Will we do the same? ISIS is the same power of Satan to destroy Protestant America, the home of Protestantism. They are gaining strength in the Middle East, and now they have spread to Europe. Soon, they will be in America, causing total pandemonium. Will God protect the SDAs? Not any more than He protected the Jews of old. We have not submitted to the righteousness of God. Now we are burning incense to other gods through Spiritual Formation and celebration worship. We are mocking God by celebrating a supposed regenerated heart. We are doing just like the Sunday denominations.

 

Why should God protect us from the power that He has raised up for our punishment? ISIS punishment is our due, just as Assyria and ancient Babylon were the punishment He raised up for ancient Israel and Judah. Will we heed the growing signs of God’s displeasure at our willful dismissal of His Law and Spirit of Prophecy rebukes of sin? Won’t we return to the condemnation of our sins from the Law and from the testimonies of Ellen White? Won’t we be condemned and our pride laid in the dust? Or, will He have to do to Protestant Adventism what He did to the Jews, and “make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Dan. 9:27)? Will we drink of the wine of the wrath of God’s indignation, as we have preached it to the non-Adventist world? When will we wake up to the self-manufacture of our own grievous self-made righteousness and let the Spirit of Prophecy grind us into humility?

 

Do we hear the fear which the Lord was trying to instill in His people to prevent their destruction?
 

“He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages: they are gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled. Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth. Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.” (Isa. 10:28-31).

 

“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.

They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:

Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.

They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:

And the LORD shall utter His voice before His army: for His camp is very great: for He is strong that executeth His word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil.

Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:

Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.

Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O LORD, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?” (Joel 2:1-17).

 

Do we hear the same as we watch the stead advancement of the enemy of Adventism march across the earth in Protestant America’s direction? Won’t we go to God, asking Him to open our eyes to our dreadful, self-sanctified condition? Or will we be so stubborn that we must see Adventism razed from the earth, before we realize that God is not for us, but against us? Before it is all too late, won’t we confess that Jesus does leave and forsake His people when they forsake Him for a religion that refuses to let them afflict their soul in this investigative judgment period?

 

“As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich…. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this? A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” (Jer. 5:27,29-31).