Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic
Ezra and Nehemiah
Lesson 4: Facing Opposition
It seems like anything good in this sinful world can't happen without someone opposing it. Sometimes it's because they don't understand, other times there are people who are jealous of someone else being successful, and they enjoy making trouble for others.
Ezra and Nehemiah were faced with just these kinds of people in their mission to rebuild Jerusalem. In spite of their God-given task, He didn't smooth out all the details even though He provided the financial backing and approval of several different kings back in Babylon. There was opposition from Jerusalem's neighbors almost immediately. You know the story: Ezra, Nehemiah, and the prophets Haggai and Zechariah had to refuse help from the mixed group in Samaria. Because of resistance, they needed a police force to protect the construction workers. They even placed families who were willing to protect the wall that was being built to live in the wall for night protection. Naturally, the result served to frighten and discourage the people doing the building.
We consider these men to be heroes of the Bible. We admire their courage and fortitude in resisting a group that wanted to insert themselves into the people of God, the Jewish nation. The Samarians would have introduced their pagan ideas about God to a nation that had just come out of heathen captivity and might have been easily influenced to compromise. Paganism always finds it easy to influence God's people if there is a "mixture" of pagan ideas with the true gospel.
We as the Seventh-day Adventist Church have been specially warned by the third angel's message to avoid compromise. Unfortunately in the events that lead up to and especially after the 1888 General Conference the disagreement among church leadership confused people and they didn't know what to believe. Nehemiah as part of the leadership had the confidence to firmly believe that he was doing a "great work." Therefore, the people stood behind him and could do their part in restoring Jerusalem. The confusion after 1888 continues to this day.
How will this confusion be cleared? "How can a worldwide lethargic, lukewarm church be transformed into the living fulfillment of those prophecies and prepare to receivethe multitudinous 'woman at the well'? Ellen White has said the Lord will only 'work to bring ... in' His 'My people' of Revelation 18:4 when the church is beyond infecting them with the popular disease of lukewarmness." [1]
"The cleansing of the sanctuary can never be complete until the 1888 incident of our history is fully understood and the underlying spiritual problem solved. That particular segment of our history is specially significant. This is implied in a statement Ellen White wrote to the General Conference, O. A. Olsen, four years after the Minneapolis conference:
"The sin committed in what took place at Minneapolis remains on the record books of heaven, registered against the names of those who resisted light, and it will remain upon the record until full confession is made, and the transgressors stand in full humility before God." [2]
"Her later writings indicate that 'full confession' was never made and the experience of 'full humility before God' eluded most of them. Those brethren have all died, but that does not mean those 'record books of heaven' are automatically cleansed. They record corporate sin as well as personal sin. The foundation truth that has made Seventh-day Adventists a unique people is that death does not cleanse the heavenly record books. The cleansing must occur in 'the investigative judgment,' a corporate and final Day of Atonement. ...
"The body is lukewarm, ill with spiritual disease that can be traced to 1888. A new generation must now correctly interpret what happened in a past generation because of the profound implications for our spiritual state today. Christ's message to His last-day church implicitly demands a re-examination of our history which underlies our 'rich-and-increased-with-goods' complex (Rev. 3:14-21).
"A failure to do so invokes upon ourselves the guilt of previous generations. We are being tested as truly as they were. Like Calvary, 1888 is more than a mere historical event." [3]
Like Ezra and Nehemiah, the 1888 messengers were given "divine credentials." Speaking of Jones and Waggoner, Ellen White warned that "These men whom you have spoken against have been as signs in the world, as witnesses for God. ... If you reject Christ's delegated messengers, you reject Christ. [4] The present message ... is a message from God; it bears the divine credentials, ... [5]
"Some may feel tried over the idea that Minneapolis is referred to [in these meetings, 1893]. ... But let it be borne in mind that the reason why anyone should feel so is an unyielding spirit on his part. Just as quickly as we fully surrender, and humble our hearts before God, the difficulty is all gone. ... If we fail at one time, the Lord will take us over the ground again; and if we fail a second time, He will take us over the ground again; and if we fail a third time, the Lord will take us over the same ground again. ... Instead of being vexed over the idea that the Lord is taking us over the same ground, let us thank Him, and praise Him unceasingly, for this is God's mercy and compassion. Anything else than this is our ruin and destruction. [6]
The argument is often made that the concept of corporate repentance is unfair. After all, how can we repent of the sins that other people committed long ago. Ellen White explained that "God knows every thought, every purpose, every plan, every motive. The books of heaven record the sins that would have been committed had there been opportunity." [7] Those sins "that would have been committed had there been opportunity," which we have not repented of, represent our unrealized guilt.
Often, we look at some leader that committed horrible atrocities and are thankful we have not been pressured sufficiently by temptation to do such things. But Luther wisely says that we are all made of the same dough. At heart we are all sinful by nature, and if sufficiently pressured, we would do the same. That includes the crucifixion of Christ. It therefore follows that corporate repentance is repenting of sins that we would have committed had we had the opportunity. This goes rather deep. It takes God given humility to accept this concept
It doesn't matter if it is ancient Israel trying to rebuild after captivity or our church trying to return to the most precious message given to us in 1888, God remains patient with His church. Let us praise Him for His patience with us.
--Arlene Hill
Endnotes:
[1] What Is the 1888 Message? Is It Biblical?Ten Bible Studies, Nov. 1998 & May 1999, p. 73; cf. Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, p. 371; vol. 4, p. 68.
[2] Ellen G. White, Letter O19, 1892; quoted in Robert J. Wieland, 1888 Re-examined, p. 92.
[3] 1888 Re-examined, pp. 4, 5.
[4] Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers,p. 97.
[5] Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, Sept. 3, 1889.
[6] O. A. Olsen,1893 General Conference Bulletin, p. 188.
[7] Ellen G. White, The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 1085.
Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df-G-3aqwro
"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm
| RR |
