Reformation Faith For The Final Crisis.
CHAPTER 3
Will Our Faith Survive the Crisis like the Faith of Jesus?
“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12.
“For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.” Heb. 3:14.
“For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them: but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mired with faith in those who heard it.” Heb. 4:2.
Revival and reformation motivated by the Spirit must take place in our homes, in our church and in our world — embracing missionary work. The prophecies of Daniel and Revelation speak of catastrophic events ahead and of a test that must be met with Christian courage and a firm reliance upon a “thus saith the Lord.” Only those possessed by the indwelling Holy Spirit will meet that test successfully. However, those in whom the Spirit dwells then, must have known His indwelling presence before the crisis comes. As we respond to the Spirit’s revival and reformation call, the Spirit prepares us for the last great test.
“God’s people will not endure the test unless there is a revival and a reformation.” 7T. 285.
Our victory in that crisis depends upon our response to the inner prompting of the Spirit NOW! No church ever had so much light, that is why God has required no church to lift the standard of piety higher.
“REFORM, CONTINUAL REFORM, must be kept before the people, and by our example we must enforce our teachings.” Counsels on Health, p. 445.
Reformation faith, courage and strength is what is needed to endure the crisis. Faith is OBEDIENCE, it is SUBMISSION, and SURRENDER to the naked truths of God’s word. It is a BOLDNESS and a WILLINGNESS to declare the whole counsel and will of God in areas where reformation is needed most.
But:
“It is the greatest and most fatal deception to suppose that a man can have faith unto lift eternal, without possessing Christ like LOVE for his brethren... there is no such thing as a loveless Christian.” 5BC. 1141.
So faith is also LOVING. As a matter of fact, “faith works by love and purifies the soul.” Therefore a person who is not loving is not FAITHFUL. Faith is also OVERCOMING.
“This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith.” 1 John 5:4.
“He who has not sufficient faith in Christ to believe that He can keep him from sinning, has not the faith that will give him an entrance into the kingdom of God.” R.H. March 10, 1904.
Faith is the YIELDING OF THE WILL TO GOD. By his own life and example Christ demonstrated how the victory was had in his final crisis. In the Garden of Gethsemane there were two wills - the Father’s and the Son’s. Would Jesus refuse the cup or offer the Father a surrendered will?
“Here the mysterious cup trembled in His hand the woes and lamentations of a doomed world come up before Him, and His decision is made. He will save man at any cost to Himself. “ Sufferings, p. 24, 25.
With the words, “Notmywillbutthine, bedone” Luke 22:42Christ offered the supreme sacrifice: A YIELDED WILL! The surrendered will constitutes the essence of obedience. When Jesus accepted God’s will, He sacrificed His own. Now only one will remained - God’s will!
This is the faith of Jesus, the Reformation faith needed for the crisis.
“The death of the Son of God made the death of Satan unavoidable.” R.H. Sept 7, 1897.
“Those who flatter themselves that God is too merciful topunishthesinner, have only to look to CALVARY assurance doubly sure that vengeance will be visited upon every transgressor of His righteous law.” R.H. Feb 1886.
With Gethsemane’s crisis past, our Lord Jesus Christ faced Calvary.
“Hanging upon the cross Christ was the Gospel.” MS 49, 1898.
But Christ’s suffering did not begin at Calvary, it is constantly in the present continuous tense.
“Few give thought to the suffering that sin has caused our Creator... that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God. Every departure from the right, every deed of cruelty, every failure of humanity to reach His ideal, brings grief to Him... Our world is a vast lazar-house, a scene of misery that we dare not allow even our thoughts to dwell upon....yet God feels it all.” Education p. 263,264.
The true people of God will feel about sin as God feels about it. They shall abhor it. They shall sympathize with the Father and the Son in their sufferings. The Father addressing the Son upon His ascension said, “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity.” Hebrews 1:9. Thousands like Herod who enjoyed the preaching of John the Baptist, approve the good and true but fail to hate iniquity enough to leave it. Other thousands, like Jehu, hated iniquity and work to destroy it, but they do not love righteousness. We are warned of the dangers of a “Jehu, religion” and “the spirit manifested by Jehu” (2 BC p 1038). In the shaking crisis both classes will leave the truth, together with many Esau’s, Balaam’s, Orpah’s, Jezebel’s, and Judases.
“The ‘time of trouble, such as never was,’ is soon to open upon us; and we shall need and experience which we do not now possess and which many are too indolent to obtain. It is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality; BUT THIS IS NOT TRUE OF THE CRISIS BEFORE US. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal. In that time of trial, every soul must stand for HIMSELF before God. ‘Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the land as I live, saith the Lord God they shall deliver neither son, nor daughter they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness Ezekiel 14:20. The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the long-standing controversy concerning the law of God... We should now pray most earnestly that we may be pre pared for the struggles of the great day of Gods preparation.” Our Father Cares p. 325; Maranatha p. l6l.
Since this is the case, then our focus and emphasis should be on our individual preparation. Each individual must comprehensively understand the message and the truths related to it and live a consistent life which will demonstrate to the world how a Christian should live, while they preach, teach and publish the gospel to others.
“The people of God.... must know that they do know what is truth.... God can teach you more in one moment by His Holy Spirit than you could learn from the great men of the earth TM. P. 119.
“It does not seem possible to us now that any should have to stand alone; but if God has ever spoken by me, the time will come when we shall be brought before councils and before thousands for His name’s sake and each one will have to give the reason for his faith. Then will come the severest criticism upon every position that has been taken for the truth. We need, then to study the word of God, that we may know why we believe the doctrines we advocate. We must critically search the living oracles of Jehovah.” R.H. Dec. 18, 1888.
“The members of the church will individually be tested and proved. They will be placed in circumstances where they will be forced to bear witness for the truth. They will be called to speak before councils and in courts of justice, perhaps separately and alone. The experience which would have helped them in this emergency they have neglected to obtain, and their souls are burdened with remorse for wasted opportunities and neglected privileges.” 5T. 463.
“Have you that intensity of zeal, that piety and devotion, which will enable you to stand when opposition is brought upon you? If God has ever spoken by me the time will come when we shall be brought before councils, and EVERY POSITION OF TRUTH WHICH WE HOLD WILL BE SEVERELY CRITICIZED. The time that we are now allowing to go to waste should be devoted to the charge God has given us, of preparing for the approaching crisis.” Review Dec. 11, 1888.
“They will be tried singly, and not in groups. Everyone must stand the test for himself.” Missionary Sketches p 158.
“The work which the church has failed to do in a time of peace and prosperity, they will have to do in a terrible crisis, under most discouraging, forbidding circumstances. The warnings that worldly conformity has silence or withheld, must be given under the fiercest opposition from enemies of the faith. And at that time the superficial, conservative class, whose influence has steadily retarded the progress of the work, will renounce the faith, and take their stand with its avowed enemies, toward whom their sympathies have long been tending. These apostates will then manifest the most better enmity, doing all in their power to oppress and malign their former brethren, and to excite indignation against them.” 5T. 463.
What strength and encouragement can we possibly draw from these end time prophetic events? God has revealed the events of the end time so that we can see the spiritual issues involved, develop a relationship with Jesus and thus be prepare to endure the crisis when it breaks. The combination of prophetic events and their spiritual implication is stressed in this statement.
“The student...should understand the nature of the two principles that are contending for supremacy, and should learn to trace their working through the records of history and prophecy, to the great consummation. He should see how this controversy enters into every phase of human experience; how in every act of life he himself reveals the one or the other of the two antagonistic motives; and how whether he willor not, he is even now deciding upon which side of the controversy he will be found.” Education p 190.
In other words, the choices you and I are making today, this very moment, will become the determining factors in -ultimate choices we make when the end time crisis breaks upon us.
It takes faith to see God’s involvement in the events of our lives. To those who have faith, certain events take on a whole new meaning. What is true of our personal lives is also true of history. We look back on certain events in history, and we say “God intervened there, and there, and there.”
The Exodus was one of those times in human history when we believe God intervene in the lives of His people in a most dramatic way. Moses said, “The Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance.” “Because he loved your forefathers and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by His Presence and His great strength.” Deuteronomy 4:20, 37. Forever after that, certain events burned into the minds of the Israelites as evidence of God’s leading — the ten plagues in Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, God’s appearance in thunder and lightning on Mount Sinai, water from the rock in the wilderness, the manna that fell every day for forty years, and the fall of Jericho, to name but a few. Pharaoh looked at the plagues and denied that God was at work, but the Israelites had no doubt.
Yet they did doubt. When the wilderness got hot enough and dry enough, they complained that he, not God, had brought them out there to die. Never mind the dramatic events — ten plagues, the Red Sea, and Sinai. WHEN THE ISRAELITES’ FAITH GREW WEAK, THOSE EVENTS TOOK ON A DIFFERENT MEANING.
A series of events occurred 2000 years ago that Christians and Jews interpret in opposite ways. Christians believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, that during His ministry He performed miraculous signs, and that He died on a cross to save us from our sins. We believe that the greatest event in all history occurred three days later, when He rose from the dead. Jews today admit that Jesus died on a cross, but they deny that God had anything to do with it.
We sometimes think back to the events surrounding the Exodus or the life of Christ and wonder what it would have been like to witness them. Moses said, “The Red Sea Split in half,” and we say, “WOW! I would like to have seen that happen!” It seems real to us because someone who saw it happen wrote it down and we can read about it.
Can you imagine what the events in the near future will be liked? God’s deliverance of the Israelites involved only one nation at a time in history when human technology was primitive by our standards. When God delivers us in the near future, on the other hand, it will be from a worldwide enemy that has the most sophisticated equipment ever available for communication, and persecution, when Satan will direct the battle in person. The most awesome events will take place in connection with our deliverance, and we will see and hear and feel them. The events will be the most dramatic in human history. They will be evidence on the grandest scale that God is at work. They will be truly exciting to live through — if you and I are spiritually right with God. But beware, the final events of earth’s history won’t come with a tag on them that says, ‘Final events.’ Scientists may be able to give a perfectly reasonable explanation of every one of them.
Brethren, it is not enough to KNOW about the final crisis and events of earth’s history or even to believe that they are coming. UNLESS WE HAVEDEVELOPED A PERSONAL FAITH RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST BEFORE THESE EVENTS OCCUR, WE WILL BE OVERCOME even while we recognize what is happening around us.
Does that sound strange to you? Think about the experience of the children of Israel for a moment. God delivered them from Egypt with ten terrible plagues He brought them through the Red Sea and appeared to them in thunder and lightning on Sinai He brought them bread from heaven and water from a rock Yet when the going got tough, the people said Moses why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness We wish we were back in Egypt!” (See Numbers 11:5, 18; Acts 7:39). They forgot all about God’s part in their escape from Egypt. Instead they reinterpreted those awesome events to MATCH THEIR UNBELIEF.
Or think about the Jews at Christ’s time. They knew the prophecies of His coming perfectly well. When He came, they saw the same miracles that everyone else saw, but only the disciples recognized the Messiah in those events. THE EVENTS WERE NOT ENOUGH TO CONVINCE PEOPLE WHO REFUSE TO BELIEVE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Jesus’ disciples and the Jews witnessed the miracles, signs and wonders, were impressed with Christ’s teachings and doctrines but seeing all these did not stop the disciples from forsaking Him and the Jews from rejecting Him when the crisis hour came upon them. Jesus said, “Theywill not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” Luke 16:31. To prove the point, He raised Lazarus from the dead, yet less than a week later the Jews were saying, “Come down from the cross and we’ll believe you.” (See Matthew 27:42). But they wouldn’t have.
Brethren, UNLESS OUR FAITH IS STRONG BEFORE THE FINAL CRISIS BEGINS, when the final events come, we like the Israelites, will blame God instead of thanking Him.
That’s why the parable of the ten virgins is so important. It really shows the necessity of being prepared. We must be ready before the bridegroom arrives. Once He arrives, it’s too late, no matter how eagerly we have anticipated His arrival. Prophetic events that we had formerly believed would be from God, will be reinterpreted to match the unbelief we have actually hadall along. In other words, the final events of this earth’s history will determine those who have true faith and those who do not; they will separate the genuine from the false. Unless we have a strongly developed faith before the final events happen, we will be sorted into the groups of unbelievers because we will be unbelievers, in spite of our prior claim to believe.
“It is in a crisis that CHARACTER is revealed.” C.O.L. p. 412.
“At that time the gold will be separated from the dross.”
O for a faith that will not shrink though pressed by many a foe!
“This is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith!” 1 John 5.4
“What kind of faith is it that overcomes the world? It is that faith which makes CHRIST YOUR OWN PERSONAL SAVIOUR — that faith which, recognizing your helplessness, your utter inability to save yourself takes hold of the Helper who is mighty to save, as your only hope. It is faith that will not be discouraged, that hears the voice of Christ saying, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, and my divine strength is yours” “…Lo, I am with you always” (and all the way).” Our Father Cares, p. 126; That I May Know Him, p.166.
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