The Great Controversy: The Foundation: Pastor Paul Penno.mov

"Keeping the Church Faithful"

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

1 and 2 Thessalonians

Lesson 13: "Keeping the Church Faithful (2 Thess. 2:13-3:18)"

In closing his letter to us that we have been studying for the past quarter, Paul writes to the "brethren beloved of the Lord" that "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation" (2 Thess. 2:13). Does this mean that God has only chosen "believers" to be saved? Elsewhere Paul writes Timothy that it is God's desire for "all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). But is God's choice for salvation based on one's own sanctified good works? "Sanctification" is understood as our obedience to the law, and God's "choice" is seen to depend on it. Does this mean that we are saved by grace and our good works of obedience? Is there a hidden catch here, some "fine print" that excludes some people from this Good News?

No. Instead of predestinating certain ones only to be saved, God predestinated to eternal life every one who was to be born.

Elsewhere Paul writes [1] that whom He predestinated He also called, and whom He called, He also justified, and whom He justified, He also glorified, and then proceeds to point out that this free-handed bestowal of the fulness of the Divine blessing upon everybody is in keeping with the gift of a Saviour. If God has predestined all men to life, how is it that any are lost? Certainly it is not God's fault. It is because men choose death rather than life, and salvation from sin has no attraction for them. But God not only calls men; He also justifies them and glorifies them, and He does not revoke His gifts and calling.

Paul simply assumes that his readers join him in responding to this wonderful love (agape) of God (2 Thess. 2:13, 16; 3:5). If we don't resist, we are included in the family. The happy thing is that those who respond are "predestined" to be changed into absolutely beautiful people "conformed to the likeness of his Son!" His predestination is progressive in the sense that sanctification by faith is a deepening repentance in view of Christ's one righteous justifying act on the cross.

Paul's emphasis on sanctification (2 Thess. 2:13, 17; 3:4) reminds us that we hear a lot about how after initial conversion to Christ, we must seek the second phase of salvation which is sanctification. The impression is left that once Christ has launched us with the new birth, then we must do all we can throughout the rest of our life in pursuing holiness. Some evangelicals call this the second blessing theology. The initial phase of forgiveness and justification is Christ's work, the next phase is our work for Christ.

What rejoiced Ellen White's heart most in hearing the more mature Gospel presented in our 1888 history was the union of justification by faith with sanctification by faith. [2]

What she heard was the unique understanding of Seventh-day Adventists regarding the sanctuary cleansing as justification by faith. The heavenly sanctuary can only be cleansed when the hearts of God's people are cleansed through the atonement message ("sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth," 2 Thess. 2:13). [3]

The third angel's message is, "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" (Rev. 14:12). In other words, it is the sanctuary message.

Referring to the message of Jones and Waggoner she said: Justification by faith is the righteousness of Christ manifest in obedience to all the commandments, which is the sanctuary message. [4] There is a union of justification with sanctification.

The evangelicals do not see this union because they do not understand the sanctuary message. They want to keep justification and sanctification separate or distinct. They view justification as the work of Christ in the past when He died on the cross. Christ atoned for our sins. When you believe that perfect work of Christ, you are legally set free from sin.

However, there is no experiential reconciliation of the alienated heart with God through believing this doctrine. If Christ atoned for our sin, then, in the strictest sense of the word, atonement means reconciliation and harmony with sin. Sin becomes a separate entity from the sinner, which God is OK with now because of the cross. Justification legally takes care of all past, present, and future sinning.

The atonement in this view of salvation is God's wrath against sinners being appeased by an offering which Christ makes to Him on behalf of sinners. In other words, God needs the atonement. The emphasis is not on man's need of atonement. There is nothing in this about alienated human hearts being reconciled to God. [5]

There are two phases in the plan of salvation, not three. The first phase was the legal work which was Christ's building the bridge of atonement by faith between the feeling of God-forsakenness and God hears. This was His sacrifice of Himself on the cross for the whole world. By this sacrifice He legally justified the whole race of sinners.

The second phase in the plan of salvation is when you hear this good news of Christ's gift of love and appreciate what it cost the dear Saviour, then you experience the heart-melting atonement of a reconciled heart. Justification by faith is the experience of the atonement with God. Sanctification is but the continued deepening appreciation for the cross. Moment by moment, day by day, self is crucified with Christ. One is justified by faith as Christ continues to impart His righteousness to the receptive sinner. There is no room at all for once-save-always-saved in the marriage of justification and sanctification.

--Paul E. Penno

Endnotes:

[1] "Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified" (Rom. 8:30).

[2] "I have had the question asked, What do you think of this light that these men are presenting? Why, I have been presenting it to you for the last forty-five years--the matchless charms of Christ. This is what I have been trying to present before your minds. When Brother Waggoner brought out these ideas in Minneapolis, it was the first clear teaching on this subject from any human lips I had heard, excepting the conversations between myself and my husband. I have said to myself, It is because God has presented it to me in vision that I see it so clearly, and they cannot see it because they have never had it presented to them as I have. And when another presented it, every fiber of my heart said, Amen" (Ms. 5, p. 10, Sermon, Rome, New York, June 19, 1889; The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, pp. 348, 349).

[3] She was asked, "What is justification by faith?" "Several have written to me, inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angel's message, and I have answered, 'It is the third angel's message in verity'" (The Review and Herald, April 1, 1890, quoted in Selected Messages, book 1, p. 372).

[4] "This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God" (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, pp. 91, 92).

[5] Note what Ellen White wrote about the counterfeit view of the atonement and the true view of the atonement. "The atonement of Christ was not made in order to induce God to love those whom He otherwise hated; and it was not made to produce a love that was not in existence; but it was made as a manifestation of the love that was already in God's heart ... We are not to entertain the idea that God loves us because Christ has died for us ... The death of Christ was expedient in order that mercy might reach us with its full pardoning power, and at the same time that justice might be satisfied in the righteous substitute" ("Christ Our Complete Salvation," Signs of the Times, May 30, 1895).

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SS 13 Keeping the Church Faithful: Pastor Paul Penno.mov

“The Antichrist”

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic 

1 and 2 Thessalonians

Lesson 12: “The Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:1-12)”

The Apostle Paul’s apocalyptic prophecy (2 Thess. 2:1-12) is an exposition of Daniel’s “little horn” and “daily” prophecy (Dan. 8:8-13). In fact, Paul helps us to understand the controversial “daily” issue.

The occasion for the Thessalonian apocalypse was a misunderstanding about the coming of the Lord created by some “unscrupulous person” [1] who had written to them under Paul’s byline creating confusion (“by letter as from us,” 2 Thess. 2:2). Although the full understanding of Daniel’s prophecies could not be known until these last days in which we live now, it is clear that the apostolic church understood that Christ’s second coming could not take place until Daniel’s prophecies of the great “falling away” came first. Jesus knew, and Paul knew, that the church needed that information (Matt. 24:15)!

Who can this power be? This Antichrist is that famous “man of sin,” that opposes the true God by exalting himself above God. The great masterstroke of Satan was to realize that the Roman Empire persecuting Christianity would not retard it. So “the son of perdition” takes up his place inside the “temple of God,” a great church that professes to follow Jesus and assumes the name of “Christian.” He claims to be God on earth.

Various efforts were made to bring reformation within the Roman Catholic Church, the most successful being known as the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. The Reformers came out of darkness into a clearer understanding of the pure teachings of Jesus. They wanted to return to the pristine purity of the apostolic church which He originally established. Yet even they did not abandon all the false teachings of Rome, bringing with them such Rome-invented errors as: Sunday observance; the eternal torture of the lost; the natural immortality of the soul; the idea that a mere man can be the “Vicar of Christ,” a Pope; the union of church and state so that the religion of the majority becomes an oppressive power to deprive others of their religious liberty. This always leads to persecution. The papal Institution cannot be restored (2 Thess. 2:8).

Paul said that this evil Antichrist was beginning to work even in his day, but was kept back by some other power. When Paul was with them he had already told them “what withholdeth [the pagan Rome Empire] that he [the papacy] might be revealed in his time” (2 Thess. 2:6). “The mystery of iniquity”--the spirit of self-exaltation--that was institutionalized in the papacy “doth already work: only he [the Roman Empire] who now letteth [hinders] will let [hinder] until he [the Roman Empire] be taken out of the way” (2 Thess. 2:7). Paul is referring to the prophecy of Daniel 8 which he taught the people to understand. In those prophecies this Enemy of Christ is unmasked. The early followers of Jesus lived under the pagan Roman Empire. They prayed that that Empire might continue to exist, for they knew that when it passed away, a more dreadful power would arise that would persecute the true children of God.

How did the great Antichrist develop? The faith of Jesus was widely proclaimed in the time of the apostles and soon after. It overthrew the entrenched ideas of Roman and Greek paganism. Multitudes lost confidence in their former objects of worship and eagerly embraced the faith of Jesus. By the fourth century of our present era, even the emperor of Rome professed to be a Christian, and outlawed pagan persecution.

However, something worse soon developed. The leaders of the church began to dilute the pure teaching of Jesus by mixing into it the elements of Roman paganism. It was a gigantic process of syncretism. Thus they changed its total character, and the Medieval Church became a tyrannical power ready to persecute those who would not submit to her dictation. That persecuting power was not the true church of Jesus, even though it professed to be. It wrought havoc among the people, turning multitudes against the truth of Jesus. It gave them an entirely wrong idea of His faith.

The source of Paul’s prophecy derives from the “little horn” of Daniel 8:9 which represents Rome in its two phases (pagan and papal) until Christ’s coming “shall consume” “that Wicked” “with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thess. 2:8). “From him [the little horn--the papacy] the continual [paganism of the Roman Empire] was taken away [taken up, lifted up] and the place of his sanctuary [headquarters in Rome] was cast down. ...” (Dan. 8:11, Amplified Bible). John the Revelator confirms this sequence: “the dragon [pagan Rome] gave him [the beast, papacy] his power, and his seat, and great authority” (Rev. 13:2).

“The daily” was the continual principle of self-exaltation in paganism. [2] This God-defying hubris was a thread which ran through the sequence of kingdoms from Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greece, and Rome and was lifted up by the papacy with the passing of the Roman Empire (note the word “great” in these verses, Dan. 5:30; 8:4, 8, 9, 10). Ellen White declares that the papacy incorporated and absorbed paganism into itself. [3]

While the Institution itself is “that Wicked” filled with spiritualism that can only produce “unrighteousness” which is disobedience to the law of God, the good news is that individuals within it will receive “the love of the truth” (2 Thess. 2:8-10). [4] Error is deadly, but the truth saves.

In all the 6000 years of human history Christ is the one Man who has totally believed the saving truth. He is the one and only human being who has fully experienced what it is to be “forsaken” of God (Matt. 27:46). No one else has been capable of sensing to the full what that means; it was He alone who has been “made ... to be sin for us who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21). The 1888 message emphasizes that no one else has ever “tasted” lostness as fully as He did as He hung on that cross in the darkness. It was His faith that saved Him from eternal despair!

The faith that we are to exercise is therefore second-hand; we get it from Him! Rightly defined, it is a heart-appreciation of what it cost Christ to save us.

--Paul E. Penno

For Further Reading:1. E. J. Waggoner, “Pagan and Papal Rome,” The Signs of the Times, Nov. 26, 1885:http://1888mpm.org/articles/pagan-and-papal-rome

2. E. J. Waggoner, “The Spirit of Antichrist.” A series of sixteen articles published in The Signs of the Times from Nov. 24, 1887 to April 6, 1888: http://1888mpm.org/book/spirit-antichrist

Endnotes:[1] E. J. Waggoner, “The Spirit of Antichrist--No. 12,” Signs of the Times, March 9, 1888, p. 150.

[2] From 1844 until around 1900 Seventh-day Adventists were united in seeing “the daily” of Daniel 8 as paganism [the Roman Empire] “taken away” in order to set up the papacy which has been historically fulfilled. It was one of the key elements that enabled William Miller to resist the terrific pressure of his contemporaries to accept Antiochus Epiphanes as the preterist’s fulfillment of “the little horn.” See William Miller, Evidences from Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ About the Year 1843 (1836) pp. 50, 51, quoted in P. Gerard Damsteegt,Foundations of the Seventh-day Adventist Message and Mission, p. 22. See also E. J. Waggoner, “Pagan and Papal Rome,” Signs of the Times, Nov. 26, 1885.

Ellen White confirmed the pioneer’s view of “the daily” [Dan. 8:11, KJV] as paganism. “I saw in relation to the daily that the word ‘sacrifice’ was supplied by man’s wisdom and does not belong to the text and that the Lord gave the correct view of it to those who gave the judgment hour cry. When union existed before 1844 all were united on the correct view of the daily, but in the confusion since 1844 other views have been embraced and darkness and confusion have followed” (Early Writings, p. 74).

Now a more perplexing element of futurism is posed for the Restrainer found in 2 Thess. 2:6, 7. “... It’s possible that God Himself is the Restrainer described by Paul, holding the final events back until everyone has had a chance to hear the gospel.” 1 & 2 Thessalonians Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, July-Sept. 2012, (Tuesday, Sept. 18). Multiple fulfillments are proposed covering the spectrum from something bad in the past--the Roman Empire--to something good in the future--God Himself as the Restrainer. Jon Paulien, Letters to the Thessalonians (Pacific Press, 2012), pp. 141-143.

We have taken the Adventist pioneers’ “old view” of “the daily” or “restrainer,” which is the historicist position, that it was fulfilled with the Roman Empire passing on the baton of paganism to the papacy. The “new view” of “the daily” which came into Adventist prophetic interpretation at the turn of the 20th century, featured the idea that the Roman papacy took away or obscured the “daily sacrifice” of Christ’s high priestly ministry.

The logical conclusion follows that “the cleansing” or “restoration” of the heavenly sanctuary would commence at the terminus of the 2300 year prophecy (Dan. 8:14). However, the pioneer dating of the beginning of the 2300 years in 476 B.C. would be severely called into question, because the Roman papacy at the earliest could not have “taken away” “the daily sacrifice” (Dan. 8:11) until the fourth or fifth century A.D. Hence, the termination date for the 2300 years would be somewhere around the year 2700 A.D. at the earliest. It can readily be seen that this would cast in doubt the Seventh-day Adventist movement based on the prophecy of the cleansing of the sanctuary truth. It would call into question the reason for the church’s existence.

The “new view” of the daily has caused some to doubt the prophetic credentials of Ellen G. White who endorsed 1844 as the terminus of the 2300 years. Others have left the church because of doubts regarding the historical fulfillment of the sanctuary time prophecy.

[3] “Paganism, while appearing to be vanquished, became the conqueror. Her spirit controlled the church. Her doctrines, ceremonies, and superstitions were incorporated into the faith and worship of the professed followers of Christ” (The Great Controversy, p. 49).

[4] John the Revelator “saw,” “Something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image, and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of gold” (15:2). John sees those who have gained the victory over the “beast” of Romanism; and “the mark of the beast” which is Sunday; and the “image” of the beast which is professed Protestantism. And “the number of his name,” which is the Roman Catholic headquarters, the heart of the papacy, the Curia. And the inspired prophecy declares that there will be some from this group who will respond positively to the “light” of that “other angel” of Revelation 18 whose message will “illuminate” the earth with “glory,” a final message of justification by faith that will startle the word and will call every honest-hearted soul now in “Babylon” to “come, out of her, My people” (18:4).

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SS Lesson 12: The Antichrist: Pastor Paul Penno.mov

SS Lesson 11 Promise to the Persecuted: Pastor Paul E. Penno Jr..mov

Promise to the Persecuted

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

1 and 2 Thessalonians

Lesson 11: “Promise to the Persecuted (2 Thess. 1:1-12)”

  

We have a rich history in what will bring spiritual revival and empower evangelism in our church. We can learn from this history what will bring revival from today forward. This should be our mission statement: “The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. This message [is] to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It present[s] justification through faith in the Surety; it invite[s] the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. ... All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel’s message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure.” [1] Paul knew this message both in his life and his ministry, and we study it again this week.

“Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess.1:1).* Paul makes a unique connection between the corporate church and their relation to God and Jesus. God as “our father,” whom we are “in” as a corporate church and as individuals, is nothing like our earthly fathers, as wonderful as they may be to some, are fathers of human limitations.

So to be “in the father and in Christ” is to realize your new status in God’s family, a member of the heavenly and divine family. This makes God our new parent with new spiritual and life experiences, which in God’s time, results in dramatic healing emotionally and spiritually. The verse that is most remarkable concerning our new standing in Him says, “He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-7).

In the original language, to be in the Father and the Son implies that we are deeply connected with our God and His Son, which interestingly enough brings us into conflict with the way the world functions. Paul and John wrote of an intimate kinship with God and Christ, which results in both power and blessing. Jesus spoke openly about this: “But if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father” (John 10:38; see also John 14:10).

When we receive our strength from the Father and Son through the ministry of the Holy Spirit we have embraced a greater understanding of who our Savior truly is. This magnifies and builds up our fellowship with God because we are being recreated and made new in God, and God is free to empower us and His church to do the works He prepared in advance for us. Notice where the power comes from! Jesus said; “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God” (John 3:21, emphasis added).

We have not yet fully understood this as a church. When it is embraced the result will be a greater experience, but we will expect to meet opposition, persecution, and rejection, not because of a set of behaviors, but because of a new heart and a mind full of God’s agenda and not our own. Unconditional love for God and our neighbor is not popular, but it is righteousness. When we embrace this gospel that is to go to the whole world, the world will take notice and put us on notice. Opposition will come from both directions, outside the body and inside the body of Christ.

Paul experienced that opposition: “For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain, but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition” (1 Thess. 2:2). The opposition was not because of Paul’s Sabbath-keeping nor was it because he acted prejudicially toward the gentiles; it was because Paul wanted everyone to know the greatest news in the whole world. This clashed with the ways of the conservative and enlightened Jews, and the non-believing community itself. Paul introduced everyone to a new family in God and in Christ.

The persecution from within and without the church comes because of our complete surrender and belonging to this family that loves unconditionally, and extends the same grace freely to all the unlovely people of the world just as Christ Himself did! When we come to understand and personally experience being “in Christ” we will experience persecution. The world despises those who love others without conditions, who will speak of injustices, and will call the church to a greater experience in Christ, and will surrender their critical and judgmental spirit and walk as did Christ. The Bible says, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12).

“Our greatest trials will come from those who profess godliness. It was so with the world’s Redeemer; it will be so with His followers. … Those who are in earnest to win the crown of eternal life need not be surprised or disheartened because at every step toward the heavenly Canaan they meet with obstacles and encounter trials. ... The Savior knows what is best. Faith grows by conflict with doubt and difficulty and trial. Virtue gathers strength by resistance to temptation.” [2] Also consider the following thought: “The apostle Paul warns us that ‘some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.’ This is what we may expect. Our greatest trials will come because of that class who have once advocated the truth, but who turn from it to the world, and trample it under their feet in hate and derision.” [3]

We must be willing to remember our early history. We went through an experience in the early days of the formation of our church when the message of righteousness by faith came to the forefront as the message we are to give to the world. There was immediate persecution of those who were willing to preach what Jesus preached and what Paul proclaimed to the world of his day.

The phrase, “To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” describes a corporate church life that will create persecution. It is a strange thing but the persecution will be generated by those who live by faith in their performance of God’s law.

The new church in Thessalonica was on the road to approaching the second coming of Jesus, just as we are today. But there is an “umbrella” over us: we are in God and in Christ to see us through the journey, by trusting in them in their fellowship with us, and in empowering us as a church and as individuals.

--Stephen McCandless

* Bible quotations are from the New American Standard Bible.

Endnotes (Ellen G. White):

[1] Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, pp. 91, 92.

[2] Our High Calling, p. 361.

[3] Evangelism, pp. 624, 625.

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SS 10: Church Life: (1 Thess 5:12-28) Pastor Paul Penno.mov

"Church Life"

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic 

1 and 2 Thessalonians

Lesson 10: "Church Life (1 Thess. 5:12-28)"

How do you relate to a church that is sliding into apostasy? [1] How does the 1888 message call the church to its God-appointed destiny?

Paul reminds us that we are "to know them which" "are over you" (1 Thess. 5:12). Jesus says the "stars are the angels of the ... churches" (Rev. 1:20). As the stars of heaven are under God's control so are the ministers of God to bring the "sweet influences" of Christ's love into the church. [2] It's no wonder then that we are "to esteem them very highly" (1 Thess. 5:13).

We hold such men in the highest esteem and respect, short of according them any infallibility or inerrancy, while at the same time rendering supreme homage of conscience to God's revealed truth. Thus we shall love our leaders and cooperate with them loyally, recognizing the possibility that the Lord Himself can overrule their sometimes erring judgment; but ever anxious that we ourselves shall not presume to usurp an ultimate authority only the Lord Himself holds as Head of the church.

Not since post-1844 days has there been such a flood of fanaticism and professed "new light" as now inundates us from every side. Surely it is the "serpent's" idea to "cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman [the church], that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood" (Rev. 12:15). [3] How can we pilot our course safely through all the hazards of heresy and fanaticism in these treacherous last-day waters?

Look for a solid, clear "Thus saith the Lord." While it is true that we are to "prove all things," and "despise not prophesyings" (1 Thess. 5:21, 20), it is physically impossible for one human being to read or listen to all the "flood" of literature and audios going around, even if you spend 24 hours a day at it. The Lord is efficient when He answers sincere prayers. Five minutes are all you usually need to recognize that some items of "new light" are mere confusion. "Hold fast that which is good" (vs. 21).

Check the source. "Those that oppose themselves" have no business speaking to God's people, for they have been "in the snare of the devil" (2 Tim. 2:25, 26). New light is to be tested. Genuine light always leads to "the unity of the faith." (Eph. 4:13) Does it strengthen your confidence in God's leading of His church and His plan of salvation for the world? Does it impart a love for self-denial and soul-winning? Or does it encourage a holier-than-thou spirit of criticism and harsh divisiveness? Any pilot who is willing to see the ship sunk must not be entrusted with the wheel.

Is there a clear-cut message of truth that bears heavenly credentials today? [4] We are confident that when confusion is resolved, a Pentecostal "one accord" will again prevail among God's people, "not on a platform of error," [5] but in the "most precious" 1888 view which Ellen White endorsed so enthusiastically. [6]

The danger of accepting error is indeed frightful, but the danger of rejecting truth is even more so. If we accept error, we make fools of ourselves, but there is still hope for repentance. But if we reject truth, says Ellen White, we reject Christ. The Lord has promised to send "every angel from heaven" to save us from doing that, if we really want truth. [7]

But "we" as a people in our history have on occasion resisted precious truth that the Lord in His great mercy sent to us. And "we" have done worse: we have also "insulted" the Holy Spirit. [8] Paul warns us, "Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (1 Thess. 5:19-21).

"The third angel's message in verity" is not a newly refined old covenant legalism; it is the message of righteousness by faith. [9] It brought to view a "wider meaning" of the cross and the atonement. It transcended the thinking of our Adventist pioneers who did their best to build on biblical foundations they had rediscovered, but it eluded them; it still challenges us today.

What does Paul mean "sanctify you wholly"? (1 Thess. 5:23). Obviously, the initial experience of conversion or of justification by faith, is good in itself; but it must deepen and extend throughout the mind and heart until there is no hidden portion that is left unaffected, uncleansed. This is why sanctification is a daily work of the Holy Spirit, requiring a daily surrender to Him, until every nook or cranny of the heart is exposed to the merciless light that shines from the cross of Christ, and every egocentric motivation is made painfully distinct, so it can be repented of.

A person may die with that process of being sanctified "wholly" still uncompleted; and we trust that person's soul with the Lord's mercy in the final judgment. But how could any of us "stand" in the final "great day of the Lord" when Jesus returns if there are sinful dark secrets of evil still left in the heart not yet "sanctified wholly"? Wouldn't that bring shame on our Savior? Thank God we have a new day, "today"--a new opportunity to be sanctified!

God "calleth" you to "come out of her [Babylon] my people" (1 Thess. 5:14; Rev. 14:8; 18:4). You simply can't enjoy the opulence and arrogant pride of "that great city" if you appreciate the atonement of Christ. What it boils down to is that we are living in that unique time prefigured in the Israelite sanctuary services of long ago. It's the grand original, the antitypical, cosmic, real Day of Atonement. All "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" is given to all people, even those who don't deserve it--which really means, no one deserves it (1 Thess. 5:28). Do not receive that grace "in vain." Everybody receives it; but only a few appreciate it. Say "Thank You!" for it.

--Paul E. Penno

Endnotes:

[1] The church of ancient Israel in Elijah's day (1 Kings 18:21), Jeremiah's day (Jer. 23:1-4), and Jesus' day (Matt. 23:13-16) were fast approaching a critical mass of apostasy.

[2] Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers, pp. 13, 14.

[3] "Every conceivable power of evil will be set in operation and minds will be confused by many voices crying, ... 'This is the truth, I have a message from God. He has sent me with great light.' Then there will be a removing of the landmarks, and an attempt to tear down the pillars of our faith" (Ellen G. White, The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 985; 1892).

[4] "Amid the confusing cries, ... will be borne a special testimony, a special message of truth appropriate for this time, which message is to be received, believed, and acted upon. It is the truth, not fanciful ideas, that is efficacious. The eternal truth of the Word will stand forth free from all seductive errors and spiritualistic interpretations, free from all fancifully drawn, alluring pictures. Falsehoods will be urged upon the attention of God's people, but the truth is to stand clothed in its beautiful, pure garments, ... uncontaminated by the fallacies by which Satan seeks to deceive, if possible, the very elect" (Ibid., p. 984; 1904).

[5] "Testimonies for the Church Containing Letters to Physicians," Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 2. p. 47.

[6] Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, pp. 91, 92.

[7] Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 7, p. 17; The Great Controversy, p. 560. If we reject truth, we reject Christ, for He says He is the truth.

[8] The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, pp. 314, 418, 1043.

[9] Review and Herald (April 1, 1890; Nov. 22, 1892).

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