The What, the How, and the Who

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” (Gal. 6:15).

“But brother, don’t you mean that the What is ‘righteousness by faith’? Because, if you will connect the What with the How, and your How will probably be ‘by faith’, then you get your answer. ‘Righteousness by faith.’”

No, I mean righteousness because my confusion is not on righteousness, but on righteousness by faith. I know that righteousness is obedience to the Law of God. I know that righteousness is doing the will of God out of the right motive. But, frankly I don’t understand righteousness by faith in practice, and I think neither the Seventh-day Adventist church nor any denomination, knows it by experience. Just because people lay claim to understanding righteousness by faith, just because they explain it, that doesn’t mean they understand it. Just because they think they know the How, it doesn’t mean they explain it right. Just because they claim to have “a relationship with Jesus”, that doesn’t mean they have one. We are repeating a two thousand year old history of the Jews, as we were told we would. And we need to be wary of this because that means many will fight the Spirit of Christ and the gospel, like the Jews did, when it returns before He comes visibly in power and great glory.

Righteousness by faith has become a cliché, a misnomer in many minds. It is a point of great confusion to such a degree that every man believes it differently, just like anciently. “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Jdg. 21:25). But, if righteousness by faith actually were understood, then the special work of purification, which makes the cleansing of the sanctuary literally possible, would be happening among us. I’m not trying to be critical, but pragmatic. If righteousness by faith were truly comprehended then the special work of purification would be successfully finished, and there would be 144,000 Enochs walking around our churches. But instead we see 20 million doing what is right in his own mind. And no Enochs.

Enoch walked perfectly with God for 300 years. During those three centuries his new creation gift from God never failed. Daily his youth was renewed like the eagle’s. Like his Lord, the people could say, “Thou has the dew of thy youth.” He raised up Methuselah in the perfect atmosphere of righteousness by faith in Jesus. Methuselah did not depart from his upbringing. And Enoch was taken once his son was perfectly grounded in righteousness, so that he could maintain that rare possession in a perverse generation.

We know that the Who must be the great centerpiece in order for righteousness to be had. But, where is the Who being preached? Where is He made the single great centerpiece? Where, since Morris Venden passed away, are pictures painted of Jesus presented in sermons across the Adventist world?

That leaves us the How. How do we really get righteousness? Question: Shouldn’t the How be simple? We all know the answer has to be Yes. Then, why haven’t we conquered the problem of mass confusion and ignorance on the How? Book after book has been written about 1888, yet the clarity has not been forthcoming. Why haven’t we obtained the victory, as we know we must from Early Writings, p. 270-271?

“Said the angel, “List ye!” Soon I heard a voice like many musical instruments all sounding in perfect strains, sweet and harmonious. It surpassed any music I had ever heard, seeming to be full of mercy, compassion, and elevating, holy joy. It thrilled through my whole being. Said the angel, “Look ye!” My attention was then turned to the company I had seen, who were mightily shaken. I was shown those whom I had before seen weeping and praying in agony of spirit. The company of guardian angels around them had been doubled, and they were clothed with an armor from their head to their feet. They moved in exact order, like a company of soldiers. Their countenances expressed the severe conflict which they had endured, the agonizing struggle they had passed through. Yet their features, marked with severe internal anguish, now shone with the light and glory of heaven. They had obtained the victory, and it called forth from them the deepest gratitude and holy, sacred joy.”

How do we get from here to there? That’s a fair question. Just like the Jews who were striving for the righteousness of God, we Adventists have been at best half-heartedly striving to be among the 144,000 who will agonize with “the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans”. But what happened to ancient Israel instead? Did all their striving result in obtaining victory over their sins? They murdered their own long sought for Messiah. Then the Jews personally went after their Messiah’s children. They murdered Him and His children because He, first in person and later by His Spirit in His followers, had attained to natural, happy righteousness, and the Jews hadn’t. And the Jewish leadership were continually reminded of that every day. Jesus, and the children He birthed, had the dew of His youth, His butter and honey diet, and the Jewish leadership had only thorns and briers.

“What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the Law of righteousness, hath not attained to the Law of righteousness.” (Rom. 9:30,31).

The believing Gentiles not only attained to righteousness, those Gentiles were sealed.

“That we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.” (Eph. 1:12-14).

How are we Adventists doing on the victory and the sealing? Who are we becoming more like, the Jewish nation or the believing Gentiles? Aren’t we more like the ancient Jews than the Gentiles who were humbled by their totalitarian dictator overlords? Are we going to find non-Adventists succeed at what we have been stressing over, maybe even some feigning to agonize over, for almost two centuries now, and in the end we be left in the Gentile’s dust? Will Romans 9:30, 31 be our death warrant? The saved children of God, “them whom I reserve” (Jer. 50:20), “the people which were left of the sword… Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:2,3), have always been a remnant, whether among the professed people of God or outside of His professing movement. Paul helps us see a little more clearly this issue.

“Wherefore [or, Why did the Gentiles attain to righteousness but Israel did not]? Because they [Israel] sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the Law. For they stumbled at that Stumblingstone; as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” (Rom. 9:32,33).

Where was the focus of either group? The Jews “followed after the Law of righteousness”. The Greeks and Romans and barbarians “followed not after righteousness”.

How could, why did, focusing on the Law of righteousness lead to such a severe penalty when Jesus told Ezekiel that eternal life comes from them?

“Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. 

And I gave them My statutes, and shewed them My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. 

Moreover also I gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them. 

But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness: they walked not in My statutes, and they despised My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and My sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out My fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.” (Eze. 20:10-13).

Focusing on the Laws of Jehovah lead to such a severe penalty because they did not seek Jehovah in His scriptures and His sabbaths and His statutes. This failure is made clear by His message from Jeremiah and from Himself personally. “Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.” (Jer. 9:24). “[You] search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” (John 5:39, 40).

This is why Paul, in Galatians 3:12, sounds like he is mocking Ezekiel 20:11, 13 by expecting the divine life to come from doing the laws of God. They would not know the God of life by knowing His character by His laws.

“But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 

And the Law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” (Gal. 3:11-13).

And Israel also went wrong by following after the Law of righteousness that their fathers had corrupted and that they blessed.

“Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.” (Deut. 4:2). 

But they did illicitly add to and amend the Law.

“Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men.” (Isa. 29:13).

Jesus was bolder.

“Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you keepeth the Law? Why go ye about to kill Me?” (John 7:19).

“He [Jesus] saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.” (Matt. 19:8,9).

“But He answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? 

For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. 

But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It [my financial holdings] is a gift [to the temple], by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by [receive support from] me; 

And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. 

Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 

This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. 

But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matt. 15:3-9).

So what caused the demise of the Jews? They changed the Law to suit their own selfish natures. They added and diminished from it with apparent impunity as if the Law was theirs to modify. But that sense of impunity came as a result of pagan atheism that they brought into the Hebrew religion during their pagan captivities. It became known as, “holding the tradition of the elders.”

Their extra-biblical scriptures, which they most heavily depended on, were not the word from God; they were not the inspired words from prophets. It was rubbish, chaff and floor sweepings that Satan mixed with the purity of rich divine truth. It was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was the devil’s foothold into God’s kingdom, that would eventually become his strongholds of strife and debate, forced compliance and murder, for Satan to divide the people and conquer them for his kingdom of darkness. This Satan would repeat later within Christianity. “But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.” (Dan. 11:38,39).

The additions and diminutions of truth would end in an elaborate show of papal-pagan sacraments to replace and to prove an inward piety that didn’t exist. “For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.” (Mark 7:3,4).

“For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the Law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.” (Gal. 6:13).

So, back to Paul’s declaration that we began with, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” And what should we do with our own modern traditions of the elders? Perhaps Jesus’ recommendation give us advice regarding this question.

“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” (Matt. 5:13).

What to do with our own traditions of the elders? What to do with our interpretations of Ellen White that have lost their savour? Throw them out. When toxins have entered the body, what do we do? We cause some form of ejection. The toxin must vacate. When a toxin enters the digestive tract we use vomiting, or pump out the stomach. If the toxin has passed the duodenum we give an enema to cause a bowel movement. (I’m not a health professional, but these are general principles.) Somehow the toxin must be removed from the body, or disease and death will ensue.

What should we do with toxic theology? What should we do with toxic righteousness that are destroying all hopes for seeking Christ’s face? Throw them out! And start all over again. Back to the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy drawing boards. “Oh, but I’ve invested years in my personal theology and rule of morality. I can’t just abruptly toss them!” Yes, you can if you prefer the new creature from the holy Spirit of Jesus. The humanism and traditions of men are good for nothing. Worthless! They will kill you and your loved ones. Their power of death will be your slow torture. The less than obvious the mixture of poison the more insidious and slower, and more miserable and ignominious, the sure death.

What did Paul declare that determines the life-changing truth? “A new creature.” The new creature is the target. Get there or be lost forever. Everything else, even theology, may be a contender for peace with God that then adds to “the care of this world” (Matt. 13:22), and which leaves us with only briers and no fruit when our course ends. “Neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” Let the new birth be your only target, and the laws for right-doing be placed around the new birth, to be used solely for the new access with Jesus, to be helpers towards the new life in the bosom of His Spirit.

Are you conservative or liberal? In view of eternal life or eternal loss, does either matter? No. Do you boast of your conservativeness, or your liberalness? “Neither...availeth any thing”; neither matters in the least. Do you wear a suit and tie to church, or shorts and a t-shirt? Does God care? No, according to Paul. To God, if there is no new creature both are filthy rags. Is your religious life something to publish the secrets of your success or has it been a huge exercise in futility? The new creature is our salvation. Are you soaring in “the Spirit”, or sullen in your reverential doldrums? Neither is important; the new creature in Christ is all important. None of these matters matter. Throw them all out, and go back to the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy drawing boards, refinding the biblical truth and the new creature. The one and only truth, according to Paul and our Moses Ellen, is that the “new creature [availeth everything]”. Will our new creature wear certain things and boast of certain things and say certain things? Yes, of course. Enoch in his new creature preached of Christ second advent and the destruction of the wicked. Our new creature will do and say things that are potentially dangerous. But those actions will be inspired by the Spirit of Jesus who will be working in our new creature. And more times than not our new creature will be in opposition to both opposing “traditions of the elders” who “wash their hands oft... And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups….” etc., and “the will of the Gentiles... lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries”. The new creature’s portion in this world will be double persecution and ostracism. But a double portion of Jesus the Comforter will be his perfect compensation.

So, let’s receive again the new creature. And let’s maintain the new creature. And as we continuously examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith, and, in all honesty, find that we’ve lost the new creature and that our salt has lost its savour, then what do we do with our theology and personal religious practices that have led to our lost new creature? We throw them out and go back to Jesus in deepest regret and repentance for following after the blind leaders of the blind who have never had a new creature from Jesus. We seek His face for mercy and fumble around in the dark until we, humbled, find Him again.

We haven’t yet committed the unpardonable sin, or we would not be convicted of the great sin of losing our new creature. Miriam and Joseph hadn’t committed the unpardonable sin when they lost their new creature in Christ for days. But they suffered three long eternities of self-recriminations until they found Him again in the holy place. If they had been lackadaisical they would have lost Him for weeks or months, and the work of regaining Him, and the chastisement for being irresponsible, would have been much more painful. It might have resulted in total rebellion and eternal loss of their new creature in Christ.

So when our table is piled high with the chaff and wood and hay traditions that will not stand the day of judgment, and our new creature from Jesus has languished, we must pull that whole mountain of humanism off the table and onto the floor! Trample it underfoot! And pay no heed to any investment we’ve made, or pride ourselves in what we’ve garnered from that worthless, good-for-nothing, waste-of-everyone’s-time, venture!

Call the whole thing lost ventured capital. Down the drain, and never to be seen again. If money was required and expended, let it be lost forever. Let it go, and then go to Jesus with a heart full of repentance for wasting His resources “and He will have mercy...; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (Isa. 55:7). If it was much time, it is unrecoverable weeks, months, years, decades that are wasted. If it was much energy, call it expended vitality, and go get your new creature again, in all the agonizing and hopelessness and unworthiness it takes to get the new creature. The lost money was worse than lost, it funded the kingdom of Satan. The lost energy was worse than lost, it built up Satan’s kingdom against your loved ones, and we are born with only so much vitality. The lost time must be docked from the end of your lifetime. No one can stave off death by undoing past mistakes. We all only get a finite span of time, to glorify God or Satan. Once used up, we must be finished with our course, and lay in the dust or ashes awaiting our eternal reward. But in the meantime before we pass away, we can return to the Lord and seek to redeem what time is left.

And let’s not forget that many find the new creature later in life. Many find it earlier, but lose it and regain it later, like the lost sheep and prodigal son. But their repentance brought rejoicing in heaven. Although the prodigal had been a son before his “many offences” (Rom. 5:16), afterward he was a son for real forever afterward. He was the son his father always wanted. So, don’t let lost time, money, vitality, stop you from turning your back on the world once and for all, if only to have peace with God and “the Spirit of His Son in your hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. (Gal. 4:6).

I don’t write about unrecoverable money and time and strength to get anybody’s goat or because I like to get on your case. Who am I? Just another sinner striving for the way to life—that is through the elusive new creature from the bosom of Christ. I say these things because they might minister to the deep repentance that is required to regain the new creature. Read Daniel’s prayer for mercy in chapter 9 of his book. It is filled to the brim with self-recrimination, both personally and corporately. But without the affliction of soul and self-blame and self-recriminations, it is impossible to please God. Modern psychologists, secular and religious, would get into an uproar over the Bible’s requirement for self-abasement before self-improvement, or for the cross of humiliation before the crown of peace with God. But because they can neither see the new creature from Christ nor know it, the multitudes of Babylon’s prophets today have never had the new creature, without which no man shall see God. So who are they to advise in these last days?

The new creature from Christ must prevail, not the psychologist associations of Baal. The newborn children of God, the born-again, humbled and contrite, Spirit of Christ abiding in the heart, will win the battle against the beast and his image, his number and name. The “kings of the east” will cross the dammed up, flood stage river symbolizing the final wicked generation, and blow their trumpets against Babylon and Jericho, and a great earthquake will make all high walls unto heaven, the fortifications, and the strongholds fall, never to rise again.

The new creature from the Lord, that took so much examination and re-examination, so much repentance on top of repentance, a lifetime of justification after justification, failure and conviction and humiliation to receive again the Creator’s new creature, warm and without confidence in the flesh, will finally be strong enough and sealed, that it will withstand all the fury Satan can bring against it. And nothing else will finish the course. With that new creature that grew into “a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children” (Eph. 4:13, 14), “a deep sense of ... unworthiness and ... entire submission to the will of God” Early Writings, p. 272, we will have the obedience that needs no repentance, unlike the group’s self-exams that use low human standards instead of high divine standards. “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” (2Cor. 10:12). Only the sealed new creature in Christ—and not those who seek after only the principles and descriptions of character deformations—will ultimately utterly renounce and abandon Satan’s wicked world forever. Everyone who evades the crosses of humiliation and contrition of soul when facing so many certain rejections by their great Friend, all of which make for the new creature—and the ultimate sealed new creature—will not succeed at the final agonizing.

Only the daring, desperate searchers in the dark, seeking His mercy for their failures, seemingly innumerable times, definitely too many times, in the end will obtain the victory over the beast. The victory will have a righteousness that is not made of self’s filthy rags by self-made self-inspired agonizing and human traditions, but comes fully from the Spirit of the Son by faith interceded for by heaven. Then the character of Christ will be perfectly reproduced in His children and He can come to reclaim them as His own. “In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Jer. 23:6).

Finally, the Who.

“Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” (Rom. 7:4). This introductory Romans 7:4 is Paul’s declaration to his final discovery of how to “serve the Law” and not the flesh, after his terrible struggle throughout the rest of Romans 7. Paul’s preliminary Romans 7:4 statement prepares the seeker of righteousness to bridge the mystery gap between Romans 7:24 and 25. Romans 7:4 explains Paul’s transition into the Romans 8 victory in Christ. This is how the true agonizing will arise for the 144,000. The Law, that is, the whole Spirit of Prophecy, the third angel’s message, the straight testimony to the Laodiceans, will be the first force that actuates the 144,000 to profoundly grieve over their need for God’s quickening. This is not a force to be contended with. Now is not the time to abrogate our Law, which Jesus has given to His people through His last days’ prophet, her message perfectly suited for the delusions that are pouring down upon us from the spiritualistic, Spiritual Formation astral planes. Until the very last second prior to Christ’s arrival, during this Day of Atonement pre-advent judgment, He will use the whole library of His testimony to keep us honest with our new creature.

But the equal and opposite force of the knowledge of the infinite mercy of Christ, which the 144,000 will have experience in because of their many failings and convictions, His tender mercy that they have so many times seen in Jesus’ limp body hanging between heaven and earth, between the wrath of God toward man and the wrath of man toward God, will empower those 144,000 warriors because they have already been obtaining His justification and renewing His new creation in them, and maintaining it. They alone will, in the end, be able to manage the stretch and strain to press for the mark of perfection in Christ.

The superhuman conviction of their sinfulness, which the 144,000 could never of themselves have even desired to look at, combined with a superhuman hope in mercy upon what seems to them unpardonable sins, a hope that they could, of themselves, never have produced, altogether brings them to the sealing victory over their past sins, branch and root. The empty of all life and hope corpse of their Lord, abused by heaven and earth, and hanging for all of heaven and earth to behold, is the only means to agonize, so sufficiently deeply and whole-heartedly that God is glorified and satisfied, so to give even the 144,000 the victory over the corrupting power of Satan. All the immeasurable Spirit of eternal life and hope that vacated the corpse of Christ on the cross has been passing to the new creatures in the bosom of Christ, and it will continue to pass to all who will keep their eyes on the new creature instead of on the traditions of the elders. For “the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15), is the same God-sent “Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Gal. 4:6). 

That same Spirit of His Son also helps their infirmities, for the 144,000 know not what they should pray for as they ought. “The Spirit itself maketh intercession for [the 144,000] with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Rom. 8:26). This Spirit of Christ intercedes in the 144,000 with as much power as He did in the apostolic church, to give them the necessary “strong faith and agonizing cries”, the “pleading with God”, “their countenances... pale and marked with deep anxiety” and “expressive of their internal struggle”. The “supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:19) in them strengthens them for the “large drops of perspiration” that “fell from their foreheads”, their “solemn, earnest, anxious look”, their “firmness and great earnestness”. Christ’s intercession by His presence and power working in them provides them the hope for “struggling with all their power to resist the evil angels” and for “trying to help themselves by calling upon God with perseverance”. They even need Jesus’ help to prize “victory and salvation enough to perseveringly plead and agonize for it”. All of this could never have arisen in them had they not received and kept from permanently losing, steadfastly to the end, the new creature gift of God to their soul.

“Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His [the Father’s] sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Heb. 4:13) “And He [the Father] that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit [of His Son], because He [the Spirit of Christ] maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rom. 8:27).

Not the Roman co-opted Corpus Christi in the papal Eucharist to the sun god, which is a paganized form of denying the new creation offspring of Christ, the devastated Mother of all living who died in hard labor for us. But, the real Corpus Christi, the utterly exhausted, limp carcase of the incarnated God, the antitype of the Red Heifer sacrifice that was burned to ashes is our single source of hope for mercy and intercession in our deepest woes and darkest hopelessness for mercy. Then those purified ashes that were sprinkled on flowing water for the typical purification of the flesh, will pass His eternal Spirit, divested of all personality of humanity, from His non-existent, previously incarnated soul, to antitypically wash away our guilt and fears, and cleanse our stained life. His Spirit is His real presence and power. His Spirit is Himself in the realest sense, even as our spirit is essentially us, more that our face or our body or our voice.

Since the beginning, the Father would one day say to Christ, our Propitiator, “Your carcases^H6297 [H6297 peger From H6296; a carcase (as limp), whether of man or beast, a corpse, dead body; H6296 pâgar to relax, that is, become exhausted] shall fall in this wilderness... which have murmured against Me.” (Num. 14:29). 

It was at Kadesh Barnea that Jesus shows us not only how His Father’s mercy requires His Son to mediate for every human without any respect of persons, (as Moses mediated before Him for his whole nation). Moses pleaded that Christ’s mercy be as powerful as His justice. This shows that Jesus’ powerful mercy for sinners is equal to His greater Father’s powerful sense of justice against sin. And this equality isn’t because the Son has been co-eternal and co-equal by virtue of being a god who was identical to the god portraying “the Father”, and to the god portraying “the Spirit”, as the papal Trinity superstition glories in.

The Son of God is equal to His Father in the sense that His infinite mercy took all the infinite power of His Father’s justice all the way down into eternal death. It was the Son’s infinite destruction, His eternal loss of His beloved Father’s Spirit; it was His total emptying Himself of His own will that so much desired to be forever in the bosom of His Father, that satisfied His Father’s Law of infinite righteousness. The only begotten Son’s infinite demise was seen to be equal to the Father’s eternal self-existence. The only begotten Son is equal with His Father because His Father made Him equal by Their joint effort of giving and receiving the infinite wrath of God. “Even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever...” (Heb. 6:20). “Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great” (Isa. 53:12), Elohim being “the great”. And the Son revealed His Father in a way that had never before been known throughout the kingdom, or that could ever be surpassed by another government and Law of another kingdom. Neither Satan, nor all unlikely future potential Satans, could ever match such an eternal power and demonstration of love.

No other rebel could ever arise to attempt such a foolish venture. The holy intelligent universe now had riveted in their hearts and minds that God is eternally true, eternally the only faithful God of love. None other could take His place. Revelation 5:12-14 shows that forever, throughout the illimitable realms of space and time, from one sabbath to another and from one new moon to another, from the deepest realms of the universe, will the rounds of worship of ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands repeat “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.”

The third temple

“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” (Matt. 24:24).

“And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” (Rev. 13:14).

“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.” (2Thess. 2:9,10).

What would you think if you heard the news say that the third temple was beginning construction in Jerusalem? Would you think, “I better hear what all the Adventist preachers, who speak on the signs of the time, have to say about this”? Then would you start surfing the plethora of Adventist cable channels? But, what would you hear? Nothing different than what they already have been saying, but with much more vehemence?

You might hear that that the whole seven year tribulation began in 1590 as a Jesuit construct created to take the finger of accusation away from the pope as the Antichrist. This was the initial purpose of it during the Reformation era. You might hear that the seven year tribulation is all a deception to the Evangelical churches who have accepted it as biblical truth. And these Adventist preachers are appealing to any evangelical Christian who might have stumbled upon their sermon, or were invited to listen by a concerned Adventist layman. These reasons are right and will reap a harvest of good one day.

But, what if this Adventist preaching doesn’t go far enough with the truth, since truth advances with time? Certainly they need to show our Sunday brethren that the Daniel 9 Messianic prophecy is plain as day that the last prophetic week of that prophecy makes room for only Christ’s ministry, death and the last 3 ½ literal years of the apostles’ ministry to the Jewish people. “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8).

First to the Jews, and then the Gentiles. The last seven year period of Daniel 9, the final prophetic week, was to give one last appeal to the people of God. This was in order to show whether they had passed the test that introduced the Daniel 9 Messianic prophecy, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” (Dan. 9:24). And if they wouldn’t pass the test, then “for the overspreading of abominations He shall make it [the sacrifice and the oblation] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” (vs. 27). The whole nation, with its temple sacrifices would receive the retribution of Jehovah.

This is the message of Daniel 9:24-27. It’s all about Jesus and His potential breaking off of His covenant with their fathers. Because of the overspreading of abominations, that is, a depth of rebellion that could never be redeemed. It went much further than Jeremiah’s message six centuries before, “For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.” (Jer. 30:12). This was not genuine rebellion that was fully incurable. The Jews in Jeremiah’s day were punished in such desolation that Daniel prayed, “He hath confirmed His words, which He spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. 

As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand Thy truth. 

Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all His works which He doeth: for we obeyed not His voice.” (Dan. 9:12-14).

“The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: He hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. 

For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed. 

Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them….

Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death. 

They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. 

Let all their wickedness come before Thee; and do unto them, as Thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.” (Lam. 1:15-17,20-22).

But even before the terrible of the nations wasted the Jews, they heard the promise of only a limited destruction.

“For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.” (Jer. 30:11).

But, not all Israel was promised to be saved, unless we define “all Israel” by Greek thought. However, we must define the promise by biblical standards. “At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people. Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.” (Jer. 31:1,2). Ellen White made this even clearer,

“The Jews had misinterpreted God’s promise of eternal favor to Israel: “Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is His name: If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever. Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.” Jeremiah 31:35-37. The Jews regarded their natural descent from Abraham as giving them a claim to this promise. But they overlooked the conditions which God had specified. Before giving the promise, He had said, “I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people.... For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:33, 34. To a people in whose hearts His law is written, the favor of God is assured. They are one with Him. But the Jews had separated themselves from God. Because of their sins they were suffering under His judgments. This was the cause of their bondage to a heathen nation. Their minds were darkened by transgression, and because in times past the Lord had shown them so great favor, they excused their sins. They flattered themselves that they were better than other men, and entitled to His blessings. These things “are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Corinthians 10:11….” The Desire of Ages, p. 106.

Only the Jews who could be humbled and could surrender to Jehovah would survive the Babylonian onslaught, and become the new nation that would be responsive to His Spirit. And we see that very result in the days of Ezra.

“And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. 

And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. 

And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: 

And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground….

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading…. all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.” (Neh. 8:1-3,5,6,8,9).

But, by the end of Nehemiah’s account, the revival was over and he had no more time to correct the apostasy. The last hope for Israel had been squandered. Nehemiah had to leave them in a free-fall into complete forgetfulness of God. And they remained in that free-fall until John the Baptist stood up to call the people one last time, before the Messiah would leave His final determination,

“Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? 

Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 

And whosoever shall fall on this Stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. 

And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard His parables, they perceived that He spake of them.

But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitude, because they took Him for a prophet.” (Matt. 21:42-46).

So, it wasn’t true that “all Israel”, humanly/ humanistically speaking, was to be saved. Only those who God called Israel, were saved. This applies to Romans 11.

“And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” (Rom. 11:26,27). Taken from its original promise, a whole different picture arises from what modern Evangelicalism has bought into.

“And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD. As for Me, this is My covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.” (Isa. 59:20,21). Who would receive His Spirit and word forever? This promise applied only to “them that turn from transgression in Jacob”. And these things are written to us Adventists and Protestants today, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

“...How often we misinterpret God’s blessings, and flatter ourselves that we are favored on account of some goodness in us! God cannot do for us that which He longs to do. His gifts are used to increase our self-satisfaction, and to harden our hearts in unbelief and sin.” The Desire of Ages, p. 107. We need to keep revisiting Early Writings, pages 269 through 273 entitled, The Shaking. That chapter spells out how to become one of the 144,000, the only ones who will survive the heaven-ordained Adventist onslaught.

So, back to the seventieth week of Daniel 9. Even though we need to open the eyes of the Evangelical brethren, we must open our eyes to the potential delusion that could land us in perdition because we joined in the Jesuits’ Baal-peor apostasy.

So, the third temple is built quickly. The Adventist watchmen on the walls of spiritual Jerusalem have nothing more to say than what they have always said, “It’s nothing to worry about because it’s not biblical.”

But, is it nothing to worry about? Has anyone asked, “Then why is the seven year tribulation agenda going aggressively forward?” Have we forgotten the other scriptures?

“And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” (Rev. 13:14).

“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.” (2Thess. 2:9,10).

What about the move of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem? That was reported as a political move by the President, but he admitted doing it for the Evangelicals (for their dreams of Israel being great again?) (“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.” (Psa. 122:6). But, was the move for more than that? Could it be for more than the Evangelicals ever imagined? Could it secretly tie in with the secret rapture-seven year tribulation scenario? And remember the prophecy that the result of “those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast” the false prophet-second beast “deceiveth them that dwell on the earth ...saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.”

A previous director of It is Written a few years ago made it known in his series, The Appearing, that the secret rapture-seven year tribulation falsehood is setting up the whole evangelical community for Satan’s impersonation of Christ’s second coming. But, what he didn’t elaborate on was that if there has been this seven year fabrication of prophecy since 1590, and it is still around 430 years later and thriving with new life, then why wouldn’t the beginning and middle of the seven years have their own deceptive/fraudulent fulfillment, just like the end of the seven years? In other words, why wouldn’t the whole seven year formula be used for a huge deception? That would be something for Adventists to worry about! I believe we are in deep sleep with regard to this.

So, you look at your phone first thing some fair morning, and all the news apps are telling of thousands of people reported missing (including the pope?). As Adventists, still no big deal? We’ve been trained to disregard all the hype on the Evangelicals’ talk of the secret rapture. But, now you are forced to ask yourself, “What is this in all the news? Is this for real?” And even if it is no big deal for sleeping Adventists, wouldn’t it be a big deal for the Evangelicals, 99% of whom have come to believe the seven year pre-trib rapture? They’ve been waiting on pins and needles for this because they had been taught that nothing of Matthew 24 applies to Christians. Matthew 24, they’ve heard, is for the Jews only during the seven year tribulation. For Christians there are no signs leading up to the secret rapture. Wouldn’t the Evangelical churches suddenly realize that they are left behind and then scramble to create a unified voting block with one thing in mind? Their long sought Sunday legislation.

Then Kenneth Copeland might be heard on every televangelist channel, with his demonic demeanor, “Look folks, this is a real nightmare we are in. This is just as terrible for me as for you all. We have been left behind! And there is only one thing to do. Heed EVERYTHING the pope will tell us to do.”

And what would the pope have to say? Would it be a concern to protesting, Sabbath-keeping, Adventists? Are we prepared to become the 144,000? Are we prepared to give the 4th angel’s message? Or will the utter shock of it all throw us into such confusion that it causes us to bail out of the final movement to give the last preaching of “this gospel” (Matt. 24:14)? Shouldn’t the quiet coming together of the pieces and parts for the secret rapture agenda, going on right under our Adventist noses, give us pause to get serious about finishing the plan Jesus had for us since 1844? Or is it going to come as an overwhelming surprise, as in the warfare principle called “the element of surprise”?

Here’s another part of the deception. In many SDA churches there is a new painting of Jesus’ return. It’s brightly but nicely colorful, happy, beautiful. Infants and children being returned to their mothers, old friends reunited--just what we all look forward to. But, there are a few theological problems with this painting. The most glaring is that the background buildings on the sides are intact. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up…. the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat”. (2Pet. 3:10,12). In this painting the works of man aren’t burned up. Neither are the elements and heaven itself dissolved and in intense heat. Where will the heat come from? It will come from the brightness of Jesus coming in the power of His Father. But, Jesus’ face in this painting isn’t so bright that it is blinding and indistinguishable. This painting may actually represent Satan’s impersonation of Christ’s return. And the infrastructure of civilization remains in tact because Satan claims he will set up a millennium of peace. Therefore, the infrastructure of the world must not be destroyed. This painting, I’m believing, is in honor of Satan’s coming as Christ. And when I see the famed artwork I only see basically a square framed picture of “Christ” and “His” handsome angels without the buildings at the sides, while the buildings representing the works of man not burned up and destroyed, are cropped out of the original rectangular panoramic painting. It seems like another Jesuit machination to support Satan and all of his delusion that he will bring to humanity to deceive the whole world.