Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic
Ezra and Nehemiah
Lesson 12: Dealing With Bad Decisions
As we read through the sad narrative of the Jews' abandonment of God's plans for the reestablishment of His temple and its services in order to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, we find parallels to our situation in the condition of today's church.
In Ezra and Nehemiah's day it was the leadership of the church--the priests and Levites--who were disregarding God's strict prohibition of mixing paganism and the truth. The sure result of such commingling was spiritual decline and apostasy. "These unlawful alliances caused great confusion; for some who entered into them were persons in high position, rulers of the people and men connected with the service of God, to whom, in the absence of Nehemiah, the people had a right to look for counsel and correct example. God had carefully excluded the heathen from uniting with his faithful worshipers; but the divinely erected barriers had been broken down, and as a consequence of mingling and intermarrying with other nations, the Israel of God were fast losing their peculiar, holy character." [1]
Through their disregard of God's command concerning paganism, the leadership of the church gave an uncertain sound to the message God intended them to preach to the world, and it caused the laypeople to become confused and lackadaisical in their spiritual life. They were the Laodiceans of the fifth century B.C., content to build their houses and farm their lands without much interest in what was going on in Jerusalem. In our efforts to accommodate the world's ideas and methods we are losing our distinctive Adventist character and message. We should not be afraid to being a "peculiar people"--that's precisely what God has called us to be! (1 Peter 2:9, 10). God promised us that if we will follow Him, He will make us "kings and priests unto God and His Father" (Rev. 1:6; 5:10).
By seeking to be like the world, adopting the world's methods in evangelism, worship, and church organization, we are "breaking down divinely erected barriers," and laying ourselves wide open to spiritual decline.
In 1888 God sent a message that was intended by Him to develop a remnant people who would proclaim the earth-shattering message of Christ and His righteousness that would prepare the world for the second coming of His Son. Instead of heeding that message, there was a great resistance to the truth, especially among the leadership of the church. [2] A debate was opened at that time concerning the fundamental elements of righteousness by faith, which is the fulfillment of God's everlasting covenant. That debate has continued and over the last thirty-five years, strengthened as resistance to the message of overcoming sin through the power of the Holy Spirit, intensifies among the leadership of our church.
"The position taken at Minneapolis was apparently an insurmountable barrier which in a great degree shut them in with doubters, questioners, with the rejecters of truth and the power of God. When another crisis comes, those who have so long resisted evidence piled upon evidence will again be tested upon the points where they failed so manifestly, and it will be hard for them to receive that which is from God and refuse that which is from the powers of darkness." [3] Note: at Minneapolis in 1888 there were "rejecters of truth and [rejecters] of the power of God." Because our church continues to resist the truth and power, when crisis comes "those who so long [have] resisted evidence piled upon evidence" will find it hard to "refuse that which is from the powers of darkness."
Could this be the underlying reason that we now are finding pagan influences creeping through many cracks in the wall and into the church? We have resisted truth and God's power for so long that the elements of darkness are not discerned as the dangers that they really are to the spiritual condition of God's remnant people.
A "shaking" is coming and its work will be a terrible ordeal. "The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out--the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place." [4]
"I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen and was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans. This will have its effect upon the heart of the receiver, and will lead him to exalt the standard and pour forth the straight truth. Some will not bear this straight testimony. They will rise up against it, and this is what will cause a shaking among God's people. I saw that the testimony of the True Witness has not been half heeded. The solemn testimony upon which the destiny of the church hangs has been lightly esteemed, if not entirely disregarded. This testimony must work deep repentance; all who truly receive it will obey it and be purified." [5]
"Deep repentance." For some in the church, repentance is irrelevant and needs to be downplayed. After all, we are the chosen people of God, His remnant and the "apple of His eye." But the True Witness tells us otherwise. We are "wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked" and we don't know it.
In Ezra's day, he called the people of the church together in Jerusalem to join with him in his corporate repentance, and putting away spiritual confusion. He prayed and fasted and pleaded with God because of the sins of the leadership of the church in marrying strange women (spiritual infidelity). Then he called everyone to join with him in corporate repentance. Those who would not join with him were to be "separated from the congregation"; they were to be "shaken out" (Ezra 10:8).
Some willingly left God's congregation. "Many who had married idolaters chose to go with them into exile; and, with those who had been expelled from the congregation, they joined the Samaritans, a heathen people who had combined with their idolatrous worship many of the customs of the Jews. Hither some who had occupied high positions in the work of God now found their way, and after a time they cast in their lot fully with them." [6]
"The time is not far distant, when the test will come to every soul. … In this time, the gold will be separated from the dross in the church. True godliness will be clearly distinguished from the appearance and tinsel of it. Many a star that we have admired for its brilliancy, will then go out in darkness. Chaff like a cloud will be borne away on the wind, even from places where we see only floors of rich wheat. All who assume the ornaments of the sanctuary, but are not clothed with Christ's righteousness, will appear in the shame of their own nakedness." [7]
We see men and women in high and important stations at universities, and in conference level leadership positions, lauded pastors in large and influential churches, and we admire these people because of their scholarly attainments and powers of speech and pen. But if their message is not in accordance with the message "that God commanded to be given to the world." [8] they will soon be blown away in the winds of strife. "When I see men exalted and praised, extolled as almost infallible, I know that there must come a terrible shaking." [9]
What does corporate repentance really mean? It is not a committee action. It is not a gathering together of the leadership of the church and then their making a "corporate confession" and taking a committee vote on the action. That would be only a superficial work that had little effect in remedying the problem that stands between God and His people. "The word 'corporate' has nothing to do with the organization of the hierarchy. Repentance is a gift of the Holy Spirit, not a constituency vote. The work of repentance is always individual and personal. … Corporate repentance is personally repenting of the sins of others as though they were our own, feeling the pain and guilt of other members of the body, which we realize would be ours but for the grace of Christ." [10]
One of the last connecting links and personal witnesses to the 1888 Minneapolis conference died more than 65 years ago. J. S. Washburn was interviewed by Robert J. Wieland in 1950 for the purpose of establishing what actually took place at that General Conference Session. Elder Washburn confirmed that the crisis concerned the matter of righteousness by faith and the rejection of the message of A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner.
You and I were not in attendance at that fateful experience in Minneapolis in 1888, but as we continue to resist the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing repentance and reformation, we are corporately guilty of the same sin.
It is past time for the debate to come to an end concerning the message of righteousness by faith that has disturbed God's church for 131 years. It is past time for God's remnant people to get off the fence and fall on our faces in "deep repentance" for rejecting the only message that will save us from our sin and prepare a people for translation at the second coming of Christ.
--Ann Walper
Endnotes:
[1] Ellen G. White, Southern Watchman, July 5, 1904; compiled as Lessons From the Life of Nehemiah, p. 55.
[2] See Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 234, 235.
[3] Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 14, p. 110, January 9, 1891.
[4] Selected Messages, book, 2, p. 380, 1886.
[5] Ellen G. White, Early Writings, p. 270.
[6] Southern Watchman, July 5, 1904; compiled as Lessons From the Life of Nehemiah, p. 56.
[7] Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, pp. 80, 81.
[8] See Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, pp. 91, 92.
[9] Ellen G. White, Manuscript Release 15, 1886.
[10] Robert J. Wieland, Lightened with His Glory, p. 121.
Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyI9T4iir9k
"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm
| RR |
