The blessed Spirit of Prophecy schoolmaster

The deep Sabbath rest comes from the deep comfort which comes from the deep repentance which comes from the strong straight testimony to the church of the Laodiceans. When Jesus gives us pointed and strong conviction we give Him whole and total repentance. Then He gives us whole and total forgiveness, and we give Him whole and total surrender and meekness. We are justified, reconciled to the Father. Then Jesus gives us His blessed Spirit as a witness that we are joined in Their perfect acceptance and fellowship, and we give Them perfect obedience. The straight testimony is utterly essential for the deep repentance for the deep comfort and deep Sabbath rest for the Most Holy sanctification, which is the blotting out of sin and the sealing. The footprint for this comes from Galatians 3:23-25, the apostolic template.

“But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under [‘the curse of’ (vs. 13)] the Law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

And just so that the apostolic church wouldn’t misunderstand Paul, he adds an illustration:

“Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.” (Gal. 4:1,2).

The apostolic church was the heir of God and joint-heir with Christ, under Jesus the governor/schoolmaster, and His angelic tutors for presenting to the saints the fearful judgments of God to deepen their sense of need. Finally, they were saved and sealed and reverent children of God, able and happy to obey His Law. 

The object lesson uses a real life situation. Either the father in the parable is a king or he is a wealthy landholder/president of a company. Nevertheless it is utterly essential that if his son or daughter is some day going to take over the operation/business they need to be taught all the ins and outs of that important leadership position. There is nothing worse or more shameful than for the children to undo all that their father did to build his business. Therefore, once they have been through business school and have had a period of internship alongside the father/president, or, as prince/princess, have received an education on the statutes of the land and royal etiquette, and co-reign with his/her father/king, then the president/king can trust his/her child to operate the family business/kingdom correctly.

Is it right, at that point, for the child to throw out all the training and do whatever is right in his own eyes? Is it OK to fly by the seat of his/her pants? Then neither is it true, that once we are justified by faith and then have no need for the schoolmaster, that it’s OK to throw out the Law because we are all children of God by faith in Jesus. We still need to obey the Law as much as the new presidents and kings/queens need to keep to his/her training. What we don’t need is the Law as our supervisor/authoritarian teacher (unless we lose our justification), because Jesus has facilitated our internalizing of the Law; we have fully conceptualized the Law, we live by it naturally, we obey by a new nature from the Spirit of Him who raised us from the dead. If a new prince threw out the law of the kingdom and Parliament, and then became an arbitrary dictator he/she would be immediately fired or assassinated by the people of the kingdom. If a newly sworn-in President of the United States immediately threw out the U.S. Constitution he would immediately be impeached. This is the assumption of Paul’s real life parable. Abrogating God’s Law is not part of Paul’s illustration, as many godless presumers upon God’s grace wish to make into church doctrine. And if we abrogate the authority of the Spirit of Prophecy we are just as godless and presumptuous.

The modern version of Galatians 3:23-25 in Adventism’s case goes like this:

“The Spirit of Prophecy hath concluded all under sin during this investigative judgment, that the blotting out of sin and sealing by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before the blotting out of sin and sealing faith came, we were kept under the doctrine, correction, reproofs, instructions in righteousness from the Spirit of Prophecy, shut up unto the blotting out of sin and sealing faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the Spirit of Prophecy was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might have the blotting out of sin and sealing by faith. But after that the blotting out of sin and sealing are come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For we will be all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” Once the blotting out of sin and the sealing have taken place we will keep on obeying and perfectly reproducing the character of Jesus because the Law will be permanently written in our hearts.

“And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: 

To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 

According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: 

In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. 

Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. 

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 

May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 

And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 

Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. ” (Eph. 3:9-21).

First the scripture calling all the world to be sinners, the condemnation of the whole world that all might become guilty before God. Then kept under that curse and shut away from the faith that would come out of the condemnation.

Eventually, as Paul also described in Romans 7:9ff, during the Jacob wrestling with the Angel, faith rubs off of Christ to Paul, and a final thrust by Christ and His angels (“God does not send messengers to flatter the sinner. He delivers no message of peace to lull the unsanctified into fatal security. He lays heavy burdens upon the conscience of the wrongdoer, and pierces the soul with arrows of conviction. The ministering angels present to him the fearful judgments of God to deepen the sense of need, and prompt the cry, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ Then the hand that has humbled in the dust, lifts up the penitent. The voice that has rebuked sin, and put to shame pride and ambition, inquires with tenderest sympathy, ‘What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?’” Desire of Ages, p. 76).

Once the pride is utterly laid in the dust of death, and the cry for mercy and blessing ascends to heaven, then Jesus lifts up the penitent and inquires with tenderest sympathy, “What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?”, then the dove of peace is sent as a witness from Jesus that the Father is satisfied and has received another trusting child of Adam.

Then the Sabbath rest begins. But, this rest is not only far beyond any rest that could come out of the Protestant salvation that abrogates the Schoolmaster, but is even greater than the new covenant’s condemnation of, and atonement for, sin, because the abundance of light for this sealing period of the investigative judgment atonement is greater than the first atonement under the propitiatory death of Christ during the past 1,813 years until His ministry began in the Most Holy. It’s the Sabbath rest that makes the sanctification happen. The rest that remained for the people of God during the Most Holy heavenly sanctuary time is a rest greater in proportion to the greater abundance of condemning light and resulting forgiveness that have been given the world through the Spirit of Prophecy compared to that which came from Moses and the prophets, and even from Paul and the apostles. Therefore the result from the deeper rest from the straight testimony is the most holy justification, i.e. the blotting out of sin, and the most holy sanctification, i.e. the sealing.

This greater condemnation and greater justification and sanctification help explain the final events in the following two statements from Early Writings, page 33, “...at the commencement of the time of trouble, we were filled with the Holy Ghost as we went forth and proclaimed the Sabbath more fully.” The time of trouble statement was clarified on page 85 of the same book, “‘The commencement of that time of trouble,’ here mentioned does not refer to the time when the plagues shall begin to be poured out, but to a short period just before they are poured out, while Christ is in the sanctuary. At that time, while the work of salvation is closing, trouble will be coming on the earth, and the nations will be angry, yet held in check so as not to prevent the work of the third angel. At that time the ‘latter rain,’ or refreshing from the presence of the Lord, will come, to give power to the loud voice of the third angel, and prepare the saints to stand in the period when the seven last plagues shall be poured out.”

This refreshing from the presence of the Lord is the finale of the Sabbath rest given for the final sweetening to the firstfruits that the Lord of the harvest will come for. Don’t you want to be there to say, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” (Isa. 25:9). Our Bridegroom wants a big crowd to hail Him in when He appears. Let’s not let Him down.