One false religion, one true religion

Since the apostasy of Cain, there exists and has ever existed but only one false religion throughout the world, the second oldest religion in history. And, there has been the oldest, the one true religion, “the everlasting covenant”, “the everlasting gospel” (Isa. 24:5; Rev. 14:6). The one and only true religion is likewise the same through all time since Eden (see Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8, 20), with a few added details in the New Testament and greater power to overthrow strongholds of sin and to obey the Law of God. But, both old and new covenants of the one true religion embody the requirements of God from eternity past and future ―that is, childlike dependence on our Creator, acceptance of His love and redemptive grace, and His empowered, happy, and natural obedience to His laws that are holy and just and good. This is all obtained through a transforming relationship with His Son by receiving His Son’s humbling and faith through His Spirit (see Isaiah 41:8; Isaiah 64:8; Romans 7:22-8:9; Galatians 4:6).

 

The one false religion has been from the beginning. “In process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD” (Gen. 4:3). All the pagan deities have originated from Cain; and after the flood, they were resurrected by Ham, Cush, Nimrod, and Semiramis, who substituted worship of themselves for Elohim. “Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before [in place of] the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter [in place of] the LORD” (Gen. 10:8, 9).

 

Coming down from time immemorial we find “altars” to Baal and “groves” to Ashtoreth (Isa. 17:7, 8) that idolize wealth, ease, and natural beauty. “And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him [Gideon], … throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove [‘āsherah, derived from “blessed, happy”] that is by it” (Jdg. 6:25). “And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the LORD only” (1 Sam. 7:3, 4). Ashtoreth [Ashtaroth, Asherah] and Baalim are the groves and the gods, respectively. Both Ashtoreth and Baalim are still the focus of religion everywhere in the world.

 

Ba’Alim, under its many aliases, was Satan’s impersonation of Jehovah Elohim, the Lord God Creator of the heavens and the earth. Ba’Alim means “the Lords”, Satan and his hosts of darkness. He is the substitute saviour that stood up against the “Prince of princes” (Dan. 8:25) or “Lord of lords” (Rev. 17:14). He “opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven” (Rev. 13:6). He stands in the place of the true God; and thus, he is Antichrist, “who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thess. 2:4). He is the destroyer king over the fifth and sixth trumpet locusts which have tormented and killed the peace of God in the hearts of Protestants, as seen in Revelation 11:7-12.

 

Whether it was the original worship of Babylonian Nimrod and Semiramis, or Egyptian Osiris and Isis, Canaanite Baal and Ashtoreth (Ashtaroth, Asherah, Ishtar, Easter, Eastern Star), Greek Zeus and Diana, Roman Jupiter and Venus, Brazilian Exu and Pomba Gira, and other occult and New Age personalities, or today within Christianity, the worship of the “Jesus” of the Mass and Mary, the “mother of God”, each culture for all time has had the same two male and female inventions of Satan.

 

Throughout history, the dictatorial, male deity “ruled the nations in anger,” and “smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke” (Isa. 14:6), while the female god in each religion, which everywhere was called the mediatorial “Queen of heaven”, alone could propitiate the male god’s implacable, explosive wrath with her all-powerful seductions. Through depravity to her husband, the calculating Mother Queen of gods was more powerful than the self-indulgent King of gods, and pleased the carnal conceptions of priesthood and people, alike. Contemplating and spreading these perverted fictions manipulated the lowest animal passions into the minds and characters of the priests and the unredeemed masses.

 

The many forms of the two deities, Baalim and Ashtaroth, still facilitate the destructive and corrupting work in every person who attempts to propitiate the one true God of Abraham for His peace. Having chosen Ashtoreth, and by refusing the anointed Saviour of the world, humanity is left to stand before God without an Intercessor in Christ, and “the wrath of God abideth upon him” (John 3:36). And invariably, each individual indulges the many methods and substances of Ashoreth to alleviate the torment. A thousand other brands of modern pagan religion are all reproductions of that same ancient system of Ham, Cush, and Nimrod. No differently than Satan had done with the other religions since the beginning, in Christianity he parades God and Christ as King. But, according to the prophecy of Daniel 8:11, he usurped Christ’s office as our Intercessor before the Most High. Satan stole away our God of justice and mercy, and His Prince and Saviour Son, replacing each of Them with himself. He portrayed himself as a christened Baal and Ashtoreth. Satan gave the current Christian Ashtoreth power and a throne and great authority as his vicar of abundant antinomian grace. And that Christian Ashtoreth is granted the same titles that were given to ancient Ishtar, Isis, Ashtoreth, Astarte, Artemis, Diana, and Venus. By these complex schemes Satan obstructs the just mercy of God and righteous grace of Jesus to the human race. He disturbs, confuses, and manipulates the hearts and minds of almost the entire world who have not found it overwhelming repulsive.

 

But, these systems can provide for nothing of real redemption. They offer nothing more than creature propitiation, for Christ and His Spirit are not the inspiration. None of us can create repentance in ourselves. We cannot humble ourselves and make ourselves sorry for sin. Our own sorrow for sin isn’t sorry enough to stop committing the sin. If we try to use our own repentance, the problem just keeps coming back again even worse than before. Our nature was not changed; the source from which springs our thoughts and intents and motives is sitll polluted. The worshipers’ self-manufactured repentance flows from their own prideful, corrupted fountain. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one” (Job 14:4). Only an unholy, filthy god would encourage our own unholy, unclean repentance that needs to be repented of (see 2 Corinthians 7:10). Thus, the devil preempts true sorrow for sin and the way to true redemption from our Creator God and His Son (see John 5:21).

 

No one can have peace with God apart from His approved Propitiator ―the only Being who loves sinners infallibly and whose nature is supremely immaculate, the Almighty’s only begotten Offspring, Messiah the Prince. As much as “the Father Himself loveth you” (John 16:27), He cannot accept the presence of Satan who dwells in hearts not reconciled to Himself and His Law,. He cannot accept Satan’s voice which inhabits their praises and prayers. The Anointed One alone needs no mediator before the infinite Judge. He is the perfect, innocent, obedient Creator-Lamb, humbled by His Father to the infinite degree. The great Burnt Offering was slain to take away the sin of the world by the sanctifying influence of His inexhaustible determination to save us and to satisfy His Father. No one else has given the Father rest. On the cross, He alone carried the weight of rebellion that the Father has been carrying since sin began.

 

“To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:5). We can’t work up enough repentance and propitiation to satisfy a Father’s broken Law. Don’t even try to make yourself weep. God will give us that when He is good and ready. All we can do now is trust in His pre-approved Propitiator who will humble us and work His righteousness into us. Trusting the Lamb of God is all we can do toward our own salvation.

 

None but God can subdue the pride of man’s heart. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot regenerate ourselves. In the heavenly courts there will be no song sung, To me that loved myself, and washed myself, redeemed myself, unto me be glory and honor, blessing and praise. But this is the keynote of the song that is sung by many here in this world. They do not know what it means to be meek and lowly in heart; and they do not mean to know this, if they can avoid it. The whole gospel is comprised in learning of Christ, His meekness and lowliness.

 

What is justification by faith? It is the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself Testimonies to Ministers, p. 456.

 

We cannot propitiate the holy God; that is, we cannot move Him to accept our selfish characters. We have hated the self-sacrifice and purity that He and all of His Son’s inspired messengers have ever stood for. And all the self-centeredness and corruption, which we have ever stood for, the infinite God will never reconcile in His heart. He wants us to accept Him as He is; but we want Him to accept us as we are without any concession on our part. The stalemate has left both parties dying. Even though it strikes at our pride, our Creator does not consider our repentance good enough for us to approach Him for His pardon because it comes from our sin-filled heart. The only human that God can receive for our pardon is His Son Jesus, and those of Adam’s children who come to Him through His Son’s interceding Spirit, by their making use of His provision from Gethsemane and Golgotha.

 

Without Christ, we and the infinitely holy God could never co-exist. Thus, we could never have a Father in God; and our Father could never have us for children. This painful, impossibly deep chasm Jesus has bridged. By His victorious life and death, He paved the way to reunite us to His Father. Both sides looking through Christ, we, humbled and repenting, can meet with God who is already meek and relenting, together reunited in full acceptance, a new bond founded upon holiness.

 

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12:2).

 

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me (John 14:6).

 

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1).

 

This is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life (John 6:40).

 

“Looking unto Jesus” (Heb. 12:2). For the soul who has discovered his total helplessness to accept God and His holiness, or to gain His acceptance, this is very good news. We see Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, during His time with us as a charged dynamo of perfect, selfless service to God and man. In Jesus’ uncompromising, infallible, natural obedience to God’s Law, flowing out of a warm, human heart, we have Him who relished every moment of delivering fallen mankind from the grip of Satan and uplifting His people from the destruction of sin. He’s a Prince and a Savior, just and merciful. He is the perfect mediator between God and man.

 

As Prince who bore not His sword in vain, His immutable, unbending integrity to God’s Law and, as Savior, His permanent bond with us from whom He couldn’t let go, give Him the needed credentials and fitness to bridge the deep chasm between a world of sinners and the incomprehensible, holy Almighty. The Father’s own infinite dying that He laid on His Son could not loosen the infinite love for humanity that gripped Jesus, even under His Father’s immeasurably intense fires of divine rejection for clinging to us, an infinite rejection which the Law demanded. Through Jesus we see the infinite tension battling in the heart of God whether to keep us or His only begotten Son. No one else except Christ can close the gap between the holy God and unholy us because He created us, molding us each one with His own hands. No one else in heaven is our perfect comforter and helper. Not the holiest, strongest, wisest angel knew us like Him who made every part of us down to the most microscopic, yet undiscovered level, “upholding all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3). Hence, no angel understood our sinfulness well enough or could have been trusted to love us enough to pass through our eternal damnation. But, Jesus infinitely understood us and His love for us was equal to His infinite knowledge of our sinfulness. And He could not be intimidated by Lucifer. God sent His best to make our salvation sure and steadfast.

 

The lack of promised acceptance and guaranteed grace is traumatic to every child of Adam. Even if the damage is low level and escapes the multitudes’ notice, his nerves and brain is tormented and traumatized. Only trusting a love that can never change toward us settles our nerves and gives us blessed, health-giving rest. But, such all-encompassing, perfect, unchangeable love does not come from any other human being but one, the Son.

 

Cursed is the person that trusts in anything of this world for unending acceptance. He will find his soul wounded every day of his life. Contrariwise, blessed is the one who puts his trust in “Messiah the Prince” (Dan. 9:25), who proved His love for us to the very end.  He will use His past victories over the devil for a work in the present and future. He will work into us His truth and grace, as we cling to Him through His promises and His reproofs, His refreshing comfort and His strong convictions of our sins. He will put in us a hatred for sin, doing this for us because we cannot do it for ourselves. But, He can only give us His blessedness in exchange for our willfulness. Either we take the quicker, easier way or the long hard way; but, we must come to admit that God’s will is right and good, and our will is wrong and bad. Through His excellent working, we must hate the sin that wracked His whole body and soul in the agonies of damnation; we must surrender to His convicting and life-giving Spirit of love. These have ever been His terms.

 

Looking at Jesus. Jesus is the only way to reconcile the infinite divine-human impasse. God looks upon us through His Son who is Spirit of His Spirit, Christ’s divinity pristinely upholding His Father’s government founded upon the perfect Law of self-sacrificing love. And we must look at God through Jesus, who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. We are reconciled to God “by the body of Christ” (Rom. 7:4). We see His Spirit being poured out and His body succumbed to agony in order to get our heart and keep it forever. Then He can give us His Spirit toward His Father and His Father’s Law ―the Spirit of eternal life, “the eternal Spirit” (Heb. 9:14), which He constantly draws from His Father (see John 3:34). And we must daily eat from His expired body and drink from His poured out Spirit (see John 6:53, 57; Romans 7:4).

 

In powerful petitions our policing Prince and sympathetic Savior calls to us to look to Him by faith and be delivered from sin. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (vs. 21). If we choose Christ’s offer, He will be our Judge, so that our insulted, contemned King doesn’t have to be Judge. To call Jesus my Lord is to call Him my Judge, and to thankfully have Him as such. In God’s great mercy, He has appointed His beloved Son as my Judge (see John 5:22), so that this sinner doesn’t have to perish in everlasting divine justice if the Father were to remain my Judge (see John 3:16-18, 36). By the forbearance of God, Jesus can say to us, “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Gen. 15:1).

 

This is God’s provision. This is His beautiful plan. He who “liveth for ever and ever” (Rev. 10:6) from the beginning foresaw the need for such a plan, and originated it. And, thankfully, His first begotten Son, “the Prōtotokos” (Col. 1:15) whole-heartedly and happily agreed to it. No one else but His Son, the Prince and Messiah, could God have trusted to establish the double-edged sword of truth and grace that wounds to heal. No one else except our just Lord and Savior can do justice like God ―who will keep us up to par with His Father’s requirements, yet lead on softly as His children can endure. For with God nothing shall be impossible.

 

The one true religion reveals a God who carefully goes in search of His children, children who are fleeing from Him to their destruction. The one true religion does not show a God who refuses the help we cry for until His weakened children initiate the process of reconciliation with Him. God must provide everything for our reconciliation, through His delegated advocate, His only-begotten Son. He loves His wayward human race and has made the way available to save each one from their natural tendency to rebel against Him. To end their alienation from Himself He promises to provide them everything for salvation, even repentance. We don’t have to create our own repentance; we don’t have to work it up. “All things are yours” (1 Cor. 3:21), Jesus says. Not alone the gift of forgiveness He provides ―but also His gift of repentance. As Prince, He must give our conscience His humbling wounds in order for us to need His forgiveness and get His repentance, a divinely empowered repentance without self or pride or any such thing. Powered by that heaven-sent gift of divine sorrow and hatred for our sinfulness, with all that we have within us, we pour out our heart, “I am wretched to the core! Lord, I need Your help! Please change me!” “Make me one of Your hired servants.” As new-borns, and oblivious to bystanders or intimidation, our faith and great need lock in on the Savior’s trustworthy goodness. And our deep repentance wakes up heaven! (See Psalm 32:1-5; Isaiah 62:7; Luke 5:8, 15; 18:5-7.) No one can cry out to God, no one can get the Ancient of days’ deafened ear like one of His begotten Samsons, male and female! (See John 1:12; Mark 3:17; 9:22-24; Genesis 48:5.)

 

“We know not what we should pray for as we ought”, but Jesus by His cross gives us the divinely inspired unfeigned faith and messy, unflattering broken-heartedness that moves the omnipotent One. Such a humbled, broken heart alone qualifies for our inclusion into the sons of God. God is a Spirit, and all who come to Him must do so imbued with the Spirit of His Son. They come crying, “Abba, Father”, “with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:26). Christ “hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel” (Acts 5:31). His Spirit in us makes intercession for our repentance and confession. “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus…and He is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1, 2). He “ever liveth to make intercession for” us (Heb. 7:25). The only Begotten of the Father must sprinkle our confession in order for it to be acceptable to His Father. He must mix His strong Spirit into our repentance to give it sincerity and whole-heartedness, “for without me,” says Jesus, “ye can do nothing” (John 15:5); and, “no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

 

Jesus is exalted to be our Priest King. The promise was: “the Messiah the Prince” (Dan. 9:25), as a Saviour and a Prince “He shall be a priest upon His throne” (Zech. 6:13). And, nothing except our individual unwillingness could disrupt His ministry of wonderful counsel, His truth and grace for the whole human race. “The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee” (Zech. 3:2). Christ will be our Convincer of sin and our Comforter of consequences. Knowing His Father, He will give us what we must have in order to approach His Father in genuine sorrow for our sins. All we need to do is come directly to Jesus, God’s dear Son ―not directly to the Father, not to the Spirit or to a man― but, to the Prince and Saviour Son. In His presence is fullness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures for evermore. From His blessed Spirit comes every promised blessing. Jesus says, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Isa. 45:22; Matt. 11:28). And, “all the ends of the earth” means that every member of the human family can come to Jesus just as they are, sinful, helpless, and dependent. But, they must not delay to doctor themselves up first or to clean up their mess, in order to lessen the shame of their culpability. These are His requirements (see Genesis 3:7-10, 21; Isaiah 64:6). We must come to Him stripped of self-preservation and naked of self-importance. How can our great Physician with x-ray eyes give a diagnosis if we remain tightly bound about with our pretentious, insufficient fig leaves? “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Heb. 4:13). We must trust Him to accept us in all of our unworthiness because He promised He would. If we know we are a sinner, in His promises we have everything we need to hope that He will accept us. As He proclaimed to “all the ends of the earth”,

 

They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick…. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Matt. 9:12, 13).

 

Thus, we come forth from the womb of Christ’s justifying work humbled and delivered of self-focus. Thus, we are peaceful, happy, unimportant little people, and in our right mind. The long trauma of being delivered from Satan’s hold is behind us.

 

The Mother of all living will birth us and succor us (see Mark 1:25; Luke 4:35; Hebrews 2:18). As we earlier stated, in the great controversy we see that the Son of God is “the mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20). He created Adam kingly and with all power and authority, formed in the image of His beloved Father, made the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And, for the pinnacle work of Earth’s creation, Christ made Eve from His own spiritual image. He created Eve to help better reveal Himself before the angelic hosts and unfallen worlds. As mothers tend to the children’s immediate needs and fathers tend to their long-range needs, likewise have the two members of the Godhead. The Father of all has dealt with Earth’s rebellion in justice with some mercy because He had the needs and safety of the whole kingdom to remember. But, since the fall of man, He permitted His Son’s focus to be on our one race, our needs and issues. Thus, our issues had the Son’s undivided attention, but were also interwoven with the issues of the rest of the vast kingdom. For us the Son has dealt with us in justice, but also in visible grace and kindness. The law of kindness has been in His mouth. And all of His born again children rise up and call Him blessed.

 

We see God in every man, and Jesus in every woman. As we see how God exalted His Son because of His labor in our second birth, we should exalt women and say that the characteristics of Jesus, the Mother of all living, makes them all beautiful, no matter their race, color, or culture. Through Jesus, we can say that all women are beautiful, especially the mothers.

 

In their tendency to serve and minister in exchange for love and affection, every member of the female gender has revealed the Son of God, causing much joy and inspiration to the heavenly hosts ―and also great horror and wrath among the hosts of hell. Were it not for Satan’s vehement jealousy of the Son, every woman and girl would have reigned in the earth as queens and princesses, mothers and sisters. But, to efface all evidence of Christ from Earth, the devil has abused and trampled upon, subjugated and excluded from the councils of men the women’s advice of caution and tenderness as a great resource of balancing wisdom. Their counsel mimics that of Daniel’s godly counsel to King Nebuchanezzar’s harsh measures, “Break off thy sins by righteousness... by shewing mercy to the poor” (Dan. 4:27).

 

Thus, by Christ’s infinite wisdom and creativity, through the holy pair in Eden and their animal kingdom that stretched to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills, the Godhead and Their universe were displayed in a new and living way. As Christ is the Word of God, even so did He give women a voice closer to the frequency range of children and the special gift of communication to teach children their fathers’ will. The mother’s reactionary tendency also mimics the Son of God, who could not rest until the human race was safe at His home again. He ever lives to make intercession for His beloved children, to protect them and worry over them. Every woman we see, their gentleness and desire to please, surrounds us all with light from the throne of the Lord.

 

And, as “God…created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:9), so Adam would generate a race through Eve, and that without any pain. But, later after sin entered the world, the outcome of childbirth would mean much agonizing for women. “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (Gen. 3:16).

 

Likewise did the Son of God, the self-sacrificing “Mother of all living”, after His sorrows were greatly multiplied and His strength spent. He died in hard labor to give us a birth of a heavenly order and life eternal. By the consumed and fainting Son we were named “son of My sorrow”, but His victorious Father changed our name to “son of My right hand” (see Genesis 35:18, margin). “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” (Isa. 53:11). Through the perfect sacrifice, He could see His Son’s perfectly reconciled seed, and He brought Him back from the grave. And the Father’s plan of our salvation would prosper in the hands of His faithful High Priest, Michael, “the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people” (Dan. 12:1). As Eve could never forget her children after suffering their birth, after all the agony of the Son of God, He could never forget the children of His Gethsemane and Golgotha. Before the great God Christ’s intercession for us is guaranteed and our forgiveness is sure. Says the Mother of all living,

 

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee (Isa. 49:15).

 

Our Advocate, Jesus, is the real, mothering “desire of all nations” (Hag. 2:7), and the true mediatorial Queen of heaven (see Isaiah 40:11). The real, omnipresent “Queen of heaven” and the Mother of all living reveal Christ, the true ruler of the universe. These names expose the counterfeit comforter and mother queen of heaven who has usurped Christ’s office and titles that are due only to Him. In wonder David prayed to Jesus,

 

Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?

If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell [the grave], behold, Thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me (Ps. 139:7-10).

 

Striving to see “His star in the east” (Matt. 2:2), by the great cloud of His witnesses in the night sky (see Hebrews 12:1; John 5:39), we slowly make out the greater constellation of Christ through their characters found in His Bible, and we worship Him in spirit and in truth (see Romans 8:1, 2). There is no speech or language where His Spirit is not heard. And He promises to fix us into His cloud of witnesses and keep us from falling (see Isaiah 40:26). Far removed from the implacable, wild raging and gross doting of self-promoting Satan as “queen of heaven” (Jer. 7:18; 44:18; Dan. 8:11), Christ, whose Spirit “filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:23), is a Savior and a Prince. He always blends His justice with mercy, and His grace with truth. He will comfort and protect our hearts; but, He will also keep His Father’s standard high as He washes away our iniquities.

 

We can trust Him to accept us as we are, if we will accept Him as He is, a Prince and a Messiah, a just God and a Saviour. Christ’s children are reconciled to Him if they do this much. Jesus says to them, “Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me” (Isa. 27:5). Then, as His grace and truth are studied in His life and death, they “are new very morning” (Lam. 3:23, cf Isa. 50:4). His children will learn the beauty of His character in every scripture as they see His name in every verse (see John 5:39; 15:7). There is power in His name. If they recognize Him as Lord God in both the Old and New Testaments and reconcile His roles there, then He can catch their fleeting trust.

 

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:1, 2).

 

As He fixes their misunderstandings of Him and as they help correct misconceptions of Him in others, then He promises to keep up the work of their reconciliation with God and of His sanctifying them (see 2 Peter 1:8; Philippians 2:13), carrying them all the way into eternal life with Him (see Philippians 1:6; John 6:37). No one will be able to take them out of His hand (see John 10:28) unless they neglect to see in Him their only Mother. Where there is no vision of Him the people perish. But, beholding Him, He will keep giving them such powerful conviction and repentance through His image from His Spirit that they will expel all sin from their lives (see The Desire of Ages, p. 466, cf Psalm 101:3; 103:1; Romans 8:2).

 

His gentleness will change their will, infusing theirs with His. They will hate sin with a perfect hatred for what it does to Him, their best friend, and to everyone around them. All of God’s provisions for our redemption are sufficient through His Son. They break us down (see Matthew 21:44) baptizing us into a new life (see Romans 6:3-7). They translate us, current citizens of the new kingdom (see Colossians 1:13; Hosea 6:2; Philippians 3:20; John 6:47, 54; Romans 6:11; Hebrews 11: 27, 16; Revelation 14:1; Psalm 126:1; Zechariah 3:7; 1 John 5:13). And our citizenship is certified by the Son’s Spirit in us (see Romans 8:9; 1 John 3:20). Our testimony then is, I was in confusion and Jesus cleared my thoughts; I was hungry, and He filled me; I was needy, and He was good to me; a stranger to God, and He took me in and reconciled me; naked and ugly, and He clothed me with His beauty. I was sick, and Christ healed me; I was lonely, imprisoned in depression and self-indulgence, and He came to me.

 

The one true religion not only offers reconciliation with God, but freedom from the hated, old life. With the peace that comes through the restored Spirit of God, souls find in Christ’s love divine strength to wrestle against inherited and cultivated sin in the mind and the habits. They receive power to be worthy of the name Christian through the divinely successful warfare against self. The God of peace sanctifies them wholly, pulling down mighty, inbred fortresses of un-Christlikeness. Through the power of Jesus’ Spirit from His heavenly ministry (see Revelation 5:6), and through the cleansing of His written word (see Ephesians 5:26; John 14:21), they can mortify the old life and break away from the wrong habits learned from the traditions of their fathers. The attraction of their sins grows weaker as, imbued with faith in God’s love, their willpower gets stronger and stronger to overcome each horrid aspect of their former self. As their appreciation of Jesus and His goodness grows stronger, the hold that Satan’s unrighteousness has had on them melts away. Christ’s perfect holiness exalts them among their peers, and everything prospers due to the new Christian life. All of these blessed gifts come from Jesus ministering to us His truth and grace from His Father’s sanctuary.

 

The one false religion offers none of this. Baal has engineered his religion to prevent the humbling, and the new heart and life. In Baal’s religion, the sinner must create his own profuse ascetic repentance (see Malachi 2:10-13; 1 Kings 18:26-28), which he can only manufacture from a natural born, corrupt heart. The hopeless sinner must attempt to propitiate God for His mercy, yet he finds only an accuser impersonating God and he can never get past the evil one’s insurmountable adversarial, impersonal, and manipulating barrage of accusations and power to discourage (see Zechariah 3:1). Baalzebub’s legion voices and confusion ensure that his slave can never overcome his sinful past enough to ever hope for mercy. His worship of God is only empty, flattering appeasement and endless, impossible propitiation, “O Baal, hear us” (1 Ki. 18:26). The religionist spends his years serving Baal (Moloch), never to the satisfying of his soul. He never has peace with Baal’s pure justice, his loveless and merciless truth; he never knows the comfort of complete forgiveness that only the true, parental God will give, a God who will not dredge up the past (see Ezekiel 33:16). The great Physician and Counselor who wounds only to heal will never throw back at us the shameful past that we entrusted to Him. He will deal with it faithfully with truth and grace. But, He hates that past as much as we do. His enemy loves it.

 

A talebearer revealeth secrets: but [Jesus who] is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter (Prov. 11:13, cf Lev. 19:16; Matt. 1:19; John 8:9-11).

 

The servant of Baal can never learn the trustworthiness of God’s love that alone can expel sin from his heart, and bring it peace and rest. Thus, he cannot fall on the Stone and let his pride be broken beyond repair. Though He be not far from every one of us, the redemptive power of the Holy Spirit of God is never available to the worshiper of the one false god in the world and his impatient and violent religion. Self-sufficiency and self-propitiation, which are naturally occurring at birth in every child of Adam, give Satan an effective advantage over them; but the loving Spirit from Christ can quickly revive our weakened faculty of humility and hope. When the meek and lowly One comes into the ring, the 2,000 pound thug from beneath flees. Then the Champion is free to repair our wounds and bruises and sores from Baal.

 

And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose (Mark 9:26, 27).

 

And great multitudes came unto Him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and He healed them: insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel (Matt. 15:30, 31).

 

Serving Jesus, the perfect Father-Friend who taught His disciples to have faith in His Father God, is what has transformed sinners into saints since the beginning; and it will do the same for all who need and see Him today.