Detrimental influences from those who love us

Everyone who has surrendered to God and His Law, and to His Son and His cross, have received the Spirit of the Son (see Galatians 4:6) and have cried out to the Father. The reconciliation to God has brought His peace to their heart, establishing a new nature that provides the environment to obey the will of God. It is the duty to every privileged soul who receives the rare gift of surrender to preserve that power to obey God, and not let it slip away (see Hebrews 2:1).

The new pleasure to do righteousness is what such an individual sought for many years, and he will not easily lose the new power providing him the means for obedience to the Law. If he does begin to lose it many red flags and sirens will be sensed in his soul. The chastisement of peace that had tormented him will return as the blessed Spirit of the Son is pushed away. It is still possible to be eternally lost, but difficult for the one who possesses the genuine gift of surrender to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Because it is possible to lose surrender to Jehovah, it is our duty to ever watch for influences that win our hearts from Jesus and His Father, our Father. Friends, family, extended and immediate, co-workers and employers, the civil authorities and society’s elites, all compete with the God of heaven for our hearts. Even if they don’t know it, our love for fellow sinners can cause us to lose our love for Them who died to save us from sin—that is, both the Son of God who died among us and the Father on the throne who also experienced eternal death when He died with His only begotten, most beloved Son.

While we must love and serve our neighbor as ourselves, our highest love and service cannot be toward our neighbors. No human authority, however close to us, can ever surpass the authority God has over us. Therefore, no one should ever influence us to lose our faith in God. Many family members, whether unchurched or even churched, live for this world and care nothing for the faith in the heart of those who love God. The ungodly often have much love to give us. And we have a great desire to be loved and to see others loved.

The Lord has taken our heart of stone out of our flesh and given us a heart of flesh. The simplicity of the gospel is captured in the one great necessity of life—love. To love and to be loved is really what makes life what it is, and the newly converted one sees a new paradigm for this world, that is, that God’s love—not money—is what makes the world go around. Every aspect and doctrine of the gospel is about the simple effects of love. And love and service work outside of the church, too. There is no law against love, whether in the great moral Law of God’s kingdom, or in the laws of national, state, and local governments, or in the bylaws of organizations and civic groups.

We must jealously protect God’s gift of salvation to us. The new heart never comes easy. All our hearts are barely saved from sin and from this sinful world. “The righteous scarcely be saved.” (1Pet. 4:18). The gift of God does not easily find a home as He would love to see, especially at the end when the world so closely imitates the antediluvian world. Many, many sidetracks abound. Idols and parties and festivities and carnivals surround us. “When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).

In conclusion, the following quotation from Ellen White is very pointed, but on point as usual. In the place of the “false shepherds” who were standing in the way of present truth in the early days of the Advent movement, substitute your spouses, parents, siblings, children, and friends, who ignorantly or knowingly drive a wedge between your soul and your Saviour.

 

EARLY WRITINGS, PAGE 123-125

I have been shown that the false shepherds were drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. The truth of God is sealed up to them; they cannot read it. When they are interrogated as to what the seventh-day Sabbath is, whether or not it is the true Sabbath of the Bible, they lead the mind to fables. I saw that these prophets were like the foxes of the desert. They have not gone up into the gaps, they have not made up the hedge that the people of God may stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. When the minds of any get stirred up, and they begin to inquire of these false shepherds about the truth, they take the easiest and best manner to effect their object and quiet the minds of the inquiring ones, even changing their own position to do it. Light has shone on many of these shepherds, but they would not acknowledge it and have changed their position a number of times to evade the truth and get away from the conclusions that they must come to if they continued in their former position. The power of truth tore up their foundation, but instead of yielding to it they would get up another platform that they were not satisfied with themselves.

I saw that many of these shepherds had denied the past teachings of God; they had denied and rejected the glorious truths which they once zealously advocated and had covered themselves with mesmerism and all kinds of delusions. I saw that they were drunken with error and were leading on their flock to death. Many of the opposers of God’s truth devise mischief in their heads upon their beds, and in the day they carry out their wicked devices to put down the truth and to get something new to interest the people and divert their minds from the precious, all-important truth.

I saw that the priests who are leading on their flock to death are soon to be arrested in their dreadful career. The plagues of God are coming, but it will not be sufficient for the false shepherds to be tormented with one or two of these plagues. God’s hand at that time will be stretched out still in wrath and justice and will not be brought to Himself again until His purposes are fully accomplished, and the hireling priests are led to worship at the feet of the saints, and to acknowledge that God has loved them because they held fast the truth and kept God’s commandments, and until all the unrighteous ones are destroyed from the earth.

The different parties of professed Advent believers have each a little truth, but God has given all these truths to His children who are being prepared for the day of God. He has also given them truths that none of these parties know, neither will they understand. Things which are sealed up to them, the Lord has opened to those who will see and are ready to understand. If God has any new light to communicate, He will let His chosen and beloved understand it, without their going to have their minds enlightened by hearing those who are in darkness and error.

I was shown the necessity of those who believe that we are having the last message of mercy, being separate from those who are daily imbibing new errors. I saw that neither young nor old should attend their meetings; for it is wrong to thus encourage them while they teach error that is a deadly poison to the soul and teach for doctrines the commandments of men. The influence of such gatherings is not good. If God has delivered us from such darkness and error, we should stand fast in the liberty wherewith He has set us free and rejoice in the truth. God is displeased with us when we go to listen to error, without being obliged to go; for unless He sends us to those meetings where error is forced home to the people by the power of the will, He will not keep us. The angels cease their watchful care over us, and we are left to the buffetings of the enemy, to be darkened and weakened by him and the power of his evil angels; and the light around us becomes contaminated with the darkness.

I saw that we have no time to throw away in listening to fables. Our minds should not be thus diverted, but should be occupied with the present truth, and seeking wisdom that we may obtain a more thorough knowledge of our position, that with meekness we may be able to give a reason of our hope from the Scriptures. While false doctrines and dangerous errors are pressed upon the mind, it cannot be dwelling upon the truth which is to fit and prepare the house of Israel to stand in the day of the Lord.

 

We must cling jealously to the One who has brought usinto His marvelous light, yet also remember that everyone who divides us from our Lord, ignorantly or even knowingly, still does not know what they do. The Lord’s prayer can be ours, “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34).

Ever learning the mysteries

Babylon was the great mother of deep mysteries. “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT.” (Rev. 17:5). Deeply did the sorcerers search for new knowledge. And she trained the whole world to do the same.

“All the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.” (Acts 17:21). To them truth was an ocean that we sit before like a child playing at the beach. And it is true that the knowledge of God is like an ocean. But the library of error is also like an ocean.

If the fallen mind doesn’t love the truth of God and His ten commandments; if it doesn’t love Him, but wants to flee from His presence; if it hates to see Him in His world which is full of His glory, then the mind can ingeniously manipulate the glory from creation’s Creator that floods its soul and apply the glory to some blind force, such as the theory of Evolution. Or the mind can make creation’s beginning an imaginary event, such as the Big Bang (or the Big Boing) theory, which allegedly took place in the past, infinitely beyond the remotest possibility of human conceptualizing, or true scientific investigation. With Satan’s help, the mind can take the natural evidences of the truth and create its own theory of origins that excludes the God that it hates. Under the influence of the devil, the mind can lead itself to change “the truth of God into a lie, and [worship] and [serve] the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” (Rom. 1:25).

The rebelling mind can recreate the truth and call it truth. It can remodel the truth, and then drum up many arguments to prove its new truth. The unregenerate mind will study and study and study nature and revelation to hopefully stumble upon some evidence until it finds the missing link. Does not the Bible call us to “light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till [we] find it?” (Luke 15:8). Yes, but from the context of only true God.

This is nothing new. It is what the Gnostics were about—the search for hidden knowledge. The church had lost their simple “first love” (Rev. 2:4) for the presence of their Friend Jesus, the love for Jesus that David had, a man after God’s own heart. “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Ps. 16:11). Therefore, the Christians who imbibed Gnosticism continued in a vain search for something intellectual to fill up the deep chasm of the soul caused by the lack of submission to God’s Law and by the loss of the presence of Jesus’ Spirit. What is better to the heart and soul, and healthier for the body and the mind than the simple pleasures of studying and knowing Jesus?

The flight from health of body, mind, and soul is exactly what happened at the beginning of the post-flood world, which spawned the apostasy of Ham, Cush, and Nimrod. It didn’t take much time. For any of us to leave the One who embodied the truth and the life of God, and access to God, and dive headlong into ignorance and spiritualism never takes much time; likewise the rejection of the Truth in person was a quick response by the Jews.

“Jesus had now given three years of public labor to the world. His example of self-denial and disinterested benevolence was before them. His life of purity, of suffering and devotion, was known to all. Yet this short period of three years was as long as the world could endure the presence of its Redeemer.” Desire of Ages, p. 541.

Divine truth is seen in the fruits of the Spirit as much as in the mechanics of the physical world. Spirituality, the character of God, reveals the natural world as much as science does. But, a glimpse of God’s holy character automatically implies condemnation on a sinful character. The image of God in the human conscience always recognizes its obligation to copy the beauty of holiness that it sees in its Creator. But, the soul in rebellion seeks to avoid God at all cost.

And the disdain of obedience to God and His holy Law, yet the continued drawing of the mysterious law of cause and effect seen throughout nature, leads the unregenerate soul to search nature for truth that excludes the laws of holiness and the purposes of God for making creation—that is, to always and forever keep Adam and his family learning of Him and loving Him.

That new mindset of searching nature without a yearning for divine acceptance creates an unholy curiosity which Satan encourages and develops. Hence, the godless scientific world of today in the National Academy of Sciences in the U.S. and similar organizations in other countries’ governments. They look for the “missing link”  of evolution, and have never found it. Many scientists have admitted the falsehood of evolution, but are still busy looking for another “truth” of origins while they dispense with all evidence that favors the biblical account. The unregenerate theologian can even search for an understanding of the Bible or of God. But having a mind of curiosity or an ambition to receive recognition for his scholarship or for applause from the Christian community leaves the church with a skewed truth.

“The wisdom of the divine purpose has shrouded in mystery the history of the early period of the life of Christ. Of the humble home at Nazareth, God has withheld all knowledge that would merely gratify a profitless curiosity. During the years of childhood, youth, and manhood, Jesus shared the common lot of humanity in all things except sin. For thirty years before he began his public ministry, he was unknown to the world. All this time he kept within his own heart the secret of his work and the character of his mission. His life was that of a servant, a toiler at the common duties of life; he was the least among the sons of men.  

     Jesus did not become a student in the schools of the rabbis; for this channel was corrupted with error, with false doctrines, with the maxims and traditions of men. This cost the Son of God much pain and sorrow; but by this very means he was learning the hard lessons of silence and patient waiting. His life was not one of indolence; these early years were spent in preparation for the life upon which he was to enter.

     Words cannot express the greatness of the love of God for man; but Christ has revealed it in his life in humanity. Only by himself assuming human nature, and reaching down to the very depths of human misery, could he lift the race from its darkness and despair. The cross of Calvary, the offering of himself upon the altar of sacrifice, reveals the humiliation to which the Son of God submitted.” Youth Instructor, August 5, 1897 par. 7-9.

Only the truth that springs from faith in the Creator and the self-sacrificing Redeemer will end with the truth. The unregenerate heart and mind will filter out all that convicts its conscience, and will end with a “truth” which is falsehood, a lifeless falsehood which brings a living death, a bewitching “light” which in reality is darkness.

This corrupted truth and light and life is the knowledge of good and evil. And it never arrives at pure truth and light from heaven. Neither does it possess life and strength to overcome sin. Such scholars are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2Tim. 3:7). Examples af this are the doctrines of Transubstantiation and the Trinity. These were invented not to arrive at truth, but to only appear to do so. The real intent was to involve the intellect or soul in feeble pursuits that would only burn up mental or emotional vitality while trudging on to imaginary heights of wisdom and spiritual bliss.

The Lord, speaking to this sin and its wages of death coming to Babylon and her votives, said,

“Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.” (Isa. 47:12,13).

Ever learning error simply used intellectual stimulation by doctrines of devils to fill the gaping hole in the heart made by the loss of the whole-being stimulation—body, mind, and spirit—by the Spirit of truth. It was a diversion from their Creator’s whole person redemption to self-stimulating one of the three components that make up a human being. But it never ended in life, but rather unending work and exhaustion.

It is so much easier to arrive at truth when we start with truth. The only sure way to find a solution to a problem or to find the truth of a mystery is to study a resource that is proven true. When Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was approached by his contemporaries about his almost 100% success rate for his health inventions as opposed to their utter failures, he answered that he read what Ellen White had to say about the body and health and then he worked in the direction that she pointed.

Contrariwise, to attempt to remake the laws of reality will end in failure. It may give a person a long career of never-ending work, but it will never arrive at a solution. It will not create his proposed new reality, except maybe in the perverted imagination of the bender of reality, maybe in the bender’s crooked financiers, and most probably in the populace who are bewitched by listening to the financiers’ multimedia monopoly.

Babylon’s ancient alchemy of warping reality, which was later brought into the church during the Dark Ages, can no more change pagan concepts into Christianity, or error into truth, than the alchemists could change lead into gold, their rods into serpents, or coal into diamonds. Yet, they tried over and over again. But, never arriving at a conclusive answer while eluding the evidences God has provided in the natural and biblical world. But, this is all right with Babylon’s scholars and scientists, so long as it doesn’t affect their careers, or end their nice incomes and comfortable standard of living. The enslavement of the masses has always existed in order to fund the mountainous financial burden of highly paid ever-learners at the fountain of less than nothingness. Then the highly learned establishment can keep the masses ignorant of truth. This is Satan’s plan perfected over many millennia.

The unconverted mind’s conclusions never square with all that the Bible teaches or the whole evidence that nature presents. The scientific community casts out all the evidences that dispute and overthrow their erroneous deductions. If an honest scientist cries out against the Big Bang and Evolution, he loses his job. The true theologian is called a heretic and disfellowshiped. Even though a child can see the fraudulent conclusions; even though the new Christian who has set his love on Jesus recognizes the overstepping of biblical evidences; nevertheless, the miscarriage of justice continues forever in the inadequate theories that men concoct.

“Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:

But 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.

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.

But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” (1Cor. 2:6-10).

Whether or not individual hearts respond to the love of God is the criteria that Jesus has always used to separate honest souls from the dishonest, worthy candidates of His coming kingdom from the unworthy. Though nobodies, they are lively stones with lively hearts and minds. They are anointed by Jesus and can discern the rejection of total evidence available. The Spirit of Christ will make it known to these nobodies.

“The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

That no flesh should glory in his presence.

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” (1Cor. 1:25-31).

Jesus inspired the Bible, and He created the world as it is. His voice comes through loud and clear to the soul from these means of truth. Through nature and revelation alike He would make the children of light distinct from the children of darkness. “For the Father…hath committed all judgment unto the Son…. And hath given Him authority to execute judgment.” (John 5:22,27).

“And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice.

And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers….

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me:

And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” (John 10:4,5,27,28).

“My kingdom is not of this world…. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice.” (John 18:36).

Are we following the voice of Jesus? Have we set our love on Him?

“Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known My name.

He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.

With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him My salvation.” (Ps. 91:14-16).

Do we love the truth of the Bible as the natural world reveals it? Do we love the truth of the natural world as the Bible reveals it? Do we love the principles of self-sacrifice and obedience to law that they both teach?

Or do we secretly love the pleasures of this life and trust in the teachings of men?

“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming:

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

And 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.” (2Thess. 2:7-12).

All who cling to sin and war against the voice of Christ until the Spirit of conviction grows silent will ever be searching for meaning and purpose, and never be able to find it. They will never have Jesus’ Spirit of consolation or hear a word of grace from above; they will never have certainty of salvation. They will ever search for it, and never find it.

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.” (Amos 8:11,12).

The Lord God of the Old Testament is Jesus; and through His everlasting words, He is pleading to us today, “Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.” (Isa. 47:14,15).

Bewitching, intoxicating, mysteries of Babylon are alive a well today. But soon Babylon’s high walls of confusion and captivity will fall before the simple, clear cutting truth of our Creator and Redeemer.

“Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD.

A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:

Because the LORD hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered:

Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompences shall surely requite.

And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.” (Jer. 51:53-58). 

“Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

And 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.

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Rev. 14:7-11).

While the Babylonians have opportunity to have rest by entering the school of Christ to learn the heavy subjects of Edenic simplicity and heart righteousness, and leaving their unending search for imaginary truth, most remain in Babylon. But, it is there that the mark of the Beast is given because they do not stop working enough to allow the still, small voice of the Good Shepherd to make His way into the center of their thoughts. They will ever be learning until the high schoolhouse of the mysteries ends their temporal life and they are unprepared for the eternal life that is based on simplicity and love and faith—the essence of truth, as it had been in the Garden of Eden.

The dark and the bright

“And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great.

And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.

And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and [bright, margin]: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” (Rev. 19:5-8).

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12).

“But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.” (John 11:10).

While driving one day I noticed the black cloud formation in the photo above. It looked eerie because it was so dark compared to the other white clouds around it. The phenomenon grabbed my attention as I wanted to know what made the black cloud so unique. I wondered, Was it made of smoke from a furnace? But, I saw no factories nearby or other chimneys producing smoke.

Finally, I looked to the west and higher in the sky. I noticed a larger cloud above the black cloud. It was more to the west and was blocking the sunlight from the westering Sun, so that the black cloud was actually in the shadow of the higher, larger cloud. Maybe you can see part of the blocking cloud in the upper right-hand corner of the above picture.

The more distant clouds past the black clouds were white and bright because they were situated beyond the shadow created by the large cloud in the upper right corner of the photo. So the distant clouds were receiving the full light of the Sun, while the closer clouds were receiving no sunlight. It was the Sun that made the difference between the clouds which were white and which were black.

The sunlight shone onto and through the white clouds, reflecting back to me the light of the Sun. It became obvious by the black clouds that no cloud is naturally white. If it receives no light from the Sun it is naturally black. As beautiful as they could be when they are made white by the Sun, of themselves they are full of darkness and depression. They are eerie and foreboding, like the darkness which came up when the bottomless pit was opened during the fifth trumpet of Revelation. “And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.” (Rev. 9:2). Clouds without light have the dark hue of “jacinth” (Rev. 9:17); and human hearts without the light from God’s word eventually are full of the blackness of “smoke, and…brimstone” (Rev. 9:20), which indicates demonic control. This prophetic description of the locust plagues during the fifth and sixth trumpets are repeated in the third angel’s message.

“If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Rev. 14:9-11).

The fifth trumpet locusts torment the foreheads, or consciences, of “only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” (Rev. 9:4). And later the sixth trumpet locusts “slay” (Rev. 9:15) the same foreheads. In other words, the “fire, and…smoke, and…brimstone” (Rev. 9:20) are the symbolic effect of not having the Seal of God, which is the Son of God permanently affixed in their thoughts. Rather, they have the only other alternative, the defaulted darkness in the soul by the mark of the Beast.

“There is none righteous, no, not one:

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

Their feet are swift to shed blood:

Destruction and misery are in their ways:

And the way of peace have they not known:

There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Rom. 3:10-18).

Only with the Son can we be good; with the Son we go “about doing good, and healing all that [are] oppressed of the devil; for God [is] with [us].” (Acts 10:38).

“Behold, a virgin shall be with Child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God [is] with us.” (Matt. 1:23).

“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5).

“In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4).

“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1Jn. 5:12).

“But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (1Cor. 1:30).

“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).

“The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” (Prov. 4:18). But, “The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.” (Vs. 19).

We can be bright and pure children of God only as the glory of the Son is shining upon us and in us. None of us is inherently pure and bright. No sooner do we refuse the Son than we refuse the glory that brightens our life for others to experience, and we refuse the glorious life that shines all around us into our eyes. “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab. 2:14). When we stay away from His lovingkindness we cease to be kind and loving, pure and white. A dark hue covers our heart and fills our soul with the acrid smoke of our inherently evil, hellish nature.

But, when we have the light of the Son we receive power to become sons of God. We have and do what Jesus had and did, and what He still has and does. We have life to do His bidding toward others. He, His presence, keeps us from falling into selfishness and self-sufficiency and self-indulgence. “Selfish gratifications” (Great Controversy, p. 622) flee away from our heart.

This was all Christ’s desire, “The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” (John 17:22).

And one day we will have what “we ourselves groan within ourselves” to have, that is,“the redemption of our body.” (Rom. 8:23).

In that day, “the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire…from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.” (2Thess. 1:7-10). “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (Matt. 13:43). “They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” (Dan. 12:3).

“And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.

And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Rev. 21:23-27).

“And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.” (Rev. 22:3-5).

“And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;

Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped Him that liveth for ever and ever.” (Rev. 5:11-14).

LGBT to be or not to be, that is the question

“And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?” (1Pet. 3:13).

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” (Gal. 5:19-23).

There is no law against love, and there is no law against righteousness. Love works peace in the land. Righteousness works peace in the land. How can there be legislation against peace in the land? But, what happens when Satan convinces people to abrogate God’s Law? Then, there is no love in the land because all the commandments hang upon love. And love, the core of the government of God, and the cause of His peace, can no longer remain in the land because the commandments of love no longer remain in the hearts of the citizens. This isn’t rocket science or deep political science. It’s common sense. It isn’t a principle that is beyond our galaxy; it is in our mouth and intellect. Love, joy, peace are things that the littlest children understand and desire. But, we get more foolish and harder in heart as we get older.

Yesterday I was listening to YouTube as I painted a room. Pastor and attorney Ed Reid was speaking on the signs of the end. International signs, monetary signs, social signs, etc. The video must have been a year old because one of the signs he mentioned was the U.S. Supreme Court passage of same-sex marriage nationwide on Jun 26, 2015. As surprising as that decision was, what would Mr. Reid say today about the White House forcing transgender bathrooms on every public facility in America? Even the senator in charge of the military has reversed his mind against LGBT. The love-bath will result in a weakened military and the failure of “good order and discipline”.

I’m not trying to politick here against Republicans or against Democrats, nor do I desire to stand up piously and pompously preach jeremiads. Nevertheless, I am lining up behind Ed Reid with the signs of the times—the end of America, my beloved Protestant America. The country that I was born in, and that all my life I have sworn allegiance to, has turned on me and on many millions more than me. Transgender bathrooms will not free us, but enslave us. Pornography has already corrupted our Protestant hearts. Immodesty is everywhere, even hiding covertly behind respectable “art” and “advertising” and “real life” theater. “[Our] defence is departed from [us], and the LORD is [not] with us.” (Num. 14:9).

Our nation’s foundation compromised, now all that Protestant America needed to collapse the old Constitution and the moral fabric of our Law-based nation was a requirement from our commander-in-chief, our chief executive; all we needed was a decree from the highest power of our state who works for our good to ram our foundation with a dictatorial rule that opens restroom doors to pornography-ridden hearts, pernicious imaginations for bathroom rape and other mischief. What an insult to the American people from their highest voted official! Is this a civilized nation, or a nation on the brink of mass chaos and massive civil strife?

Is it opening the door to pervasive perversity? Will not minority transgender privileges put over the straight majority corrupt the last holy threads of this nation that was once blessed of Jehovah, and turn it into “the degenerate plant of a strange vine”?

“Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that My fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts. For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?” (Jer. 2:19-21)?

Prior to entering Canaan, the children of Israel were given a high standard to follow. And if they chose to depart from that high standard and to do like the Canaanites, then the Lord would vomit them out of His land just as He had vomited out the Canaanites. And this is Jehovah’s answer to the freedom from Protestantism’s transgender agenda:

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God.

After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.

Ye shall do My judgments, and keep Mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.

Ye shall therefore keep My statutes, and My judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.

None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.

The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.

The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover.

The nakedness of thy son’s daughter, or of thy daughter’s daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thine own nakedness.

The nakedness of thy father’s wife’s daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister: she is thy father’s near kinswoman.

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister: for she is thy mother’s near kinswoman.

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt.

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son’s wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness.

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness.

Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.

Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness.

Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour’s wife, to defile thyself with her.

And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.

Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:

And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.

Ye shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:

(For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)

That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.

For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.

Therefore shall ye keep Mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 18).

Transgender restrooms, and the filth of Playboy and other like media, all of which have broken out like a public plague in America, will bring this once favored nation to be despised by heaven and earth. No doubt this apostate Reformation nation is the whore featured in Revelation 17 and the ten horn powers are the other nations of this world. “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” (Rev. 17:16-18).

But, regardless of what the sole adversary of the Reformation does against Protestantism, it cannot destroy Protestantism’s truth. All that our one earthly enemy can do is to prove the Reformation’s mission, which was that to receive His power to obey His laws and to obey the laws of God are the way to truth and life, and that to disregard Reformation Protestantism and its Bible is self-destructive. The laws of nature are pre-programmed to uplift the moral and spiritual Law of Jehovah. The natural laws are no respecter of persons. They are all as consistent and as rewarding as gravity. Jump off a building and you will have a sudden and permanent stop at the bottom. Jump out of the life of obedience into hedonistic oblivion, and disease and curses of every category will plague you forever.

“We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.” (2Cor. 13:8).

Just ask any STD recipient or substance abuser. Broken laws of God plague you forever, even for ever and ever. So, with all His heart our God pleads with us to not go there.

“See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;

In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;

I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” (Deut. 30:15-19).

Soon this once strong nation will be weakened by every imaginable vice and self-indulgence. We will repeat history—modern history. America will repeat a history that is not so old that it should have evaded us today. The Weimar Republic of Germany in the 1920’s. Was not the Weimar Republic identical to what is happening in all the former countries of Protestantism, throughout Europe and in America. Identical! And what was the result of Weimar Germany? What power swept into the corrupted, partying country? Totalitarian dictatorship over Protestant Europe and the revenge from their religious enemy of the Dark Ages, Lutheran Germany!

“Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and 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.” (2Thess. 2:9-12).

And Protestant America was also the target of the old enemy from the Dark Ages. We would be the next victims of Vatican vengeance. And now America too is ready to tip over and smash into a jillion smoldering shards. The Jesuits have planned our demolition as they did the World Trade Center.

“Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with His anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue as a devouring fire: and His breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err…. For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the King it is prepared; He hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.” (Isa. 30:27,28,30).

“The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.” (Isa. 19:14).

The words of Jeremiah are very fitting us:

“Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.…

So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.

And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;

Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.

And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:

And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary.” (Jer. 51:58-64).

“And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Rev. 14:11).

 

But, there will be a few Protestants left over.

“And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. 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.” (Rev. 12:15-17).

These wise virgins learned to dwell in the Spirit of God’s love through Christ, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2). They will walk in communion with Jesus for obedience to God instead of in empty, dead self-will from their own natural resources, “the law of sin and death.” (Rom. 8:2). The wise received victory over self, and over the devil and his temptation to sin. They “are without fault before the throne of God” (Rev. 14:5) because they received obedience to all the commandments of God. When the great whore, Babylon the Great fell, the wise virgins feared God and gave Him glory. “And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.” (Rev. 11:13).

“Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel. And the LORD shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of His arm, with the indignation of His anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will He fight with it.” (Isa. 30:29-32).

“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” (Rev. 14:12).