Christ's Followers Will Be Hated by the World

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

Christ's Followers Will Be Hated by the World

Today's Text: If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.... because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. John 15:18, 19

The Message:      The followers of Christ should bear in mind that all the evil speeches made against Christ, all the abuse that He received, they must, as His followers, endure for His name's sake. The piety of the church may professedly be of a high order, but when the truth of the Word of God is brought to bear upon the heart, and when conviction of truth is rejected and despised so that they may keep in friendship with the majority, they place themselves ... as rejecters of truth and light, on the side of the enemy. Satan stirs them up by a power from beneath, with an intensity that reveals his enmity to God and His laws. They enact human laws that are oppressive and galling....      As Christ was hated without cause, so will His people be hated without cause, merely because they are obedient to the commandments of God and do His works in the place of working directly contrary to them. If He who was pure, holy, and undefiled, who did good and only good in our world, was treated as a base criminal and condemned to death without a vestige of evidence against Him, what can His disciples expect but similar treatment, however faultless may be their life and blameless their character? Human enactments, laws manufactured by satanic agencies under a plea of goodness and restriction of evil, will be exalted while God's holy enactments are despised and trampled underfoot....      We see how professedly righteous people can act out the spirit of Satan to carry their wicked purposes through envy and jealousy and religious bigotry.... There is no warfare between Satan and the sinner, between fallen angels and fallen humans. Both possess the same attributes, both are evil through apostasy and sin....      The prediction given in Eden refers in a special manner to Christ, and to all who accept and confess Him as the only begotten Son of God. Christ has pledged Himself to engage in the conflict with the prince and power of darkness and to bruise the serpent's head. All who are the sons and daughters of God are His chosen ones, His soldiers, to war against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. It is an unwearied conflict of which there is to be no end until Christ shall come the second time.-Manuscript 104, 1897.

Commentary: My friend, persecution will come to those who follow after Christ; who accept and confess that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God.  "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (2 Timothy 3:12).  In the remnant church today, there does not seem to be much persecution except in countries which deny Christianity.  The reason why the remnant church is not being persecuted is because it is in harmony with the rest of the Christian world. Since the message of 1844 was rejected by the Protestant churches, they remained under the influence of Rome, and the spirit that guides those churches is the spirit of the enemy of souls.  As the true followers of Christ followed Jesus into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, the rest of the churches refused to follow, and Satan came in and breathed an unholy influence upon them.  They believed that it was the Spirit of God, but in reality it was the spirit of Satan. From the beginning of the Seventh-day Adventist church, we have been seen as peculiar, and different from the rest of the Christian world.  Not just because of the day of worship, but also because of the sanctuary message, and the God that we worshiped.  Since the time of 1844, the whole of the Christian world, under the influence of spirit of Satan, have accepted the doctrine of the trinity, and through the ecumenical movement, are now in harmony with Rome. Our church pioneers were decidedly non-trinitarian, and were at odds with the rest of the Christian world.  They were seen as peculiar and were despised by many.  In the beginning there was persecution because of their beliefs, but today the church for the most part is in harmony with the rest of the Christian world.  Through the adoption of the trinity, Adventists have been accepted as a Christian denomination and are no longer seen as peculiar. The message that we are to take to the world is not a message of peace, but a message of separation.  The three angels message is to have an affect upon the world that will cause them to choose between worshiping the One true God and the beast.  How is it that the message that we have been giving has not had the affect spoken of in Revelation?  The answer is that the message has been changed by our adoption of the trinity.  Rather than calling the world back to worship the One true God, we are not calling the world back to worship the triune god on the seventh day of the week.  The trinity has separated the message from its true power and thus it does not have the desired effect. The message to the church of Laodicea is to bring the remnant of God back to worship the Creator of heaven and earth.  The church is in this dreadful condition because it has forsaken the One true God for the god of the trinity.  They are "... wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." (Revelation 3:17), because they have rejected the Son of God and He is depicted as on the outside seeking to gain entrance into the hearts of His people (Revelation 3:20). The remnant church must be purified and made white before it can give the last message of hope to the world.  The church must be shaken, and what causes this shaking is the message of the Faithful and True Witness of God.  Those who give the straight testimony from God that the church is in the Laodicean condition because they have rejected Jesus as the Son of God, are ridiculed, persecuted, and disfellowed from the church.  Their message is not acceptable to them and they resist is with all of their strength.  This causes the shaking and separation within the church.  Those who accept the rebuke of God and repent, are prepared to give the true three angels message to the world. When the remnant people come back to worship the One true God through Jesus Christ, they are purified and made white, prepared to expose the trinity as false, and call the world back to worship the One true God.  This message given with the power of the Spirit of God, will bring out the hatred of the world upon the messengers.  Of this Jesus said "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." (Matthew 24:9).  At this time the persecution will be severe, and many will be killed for their faith, but the promise of God to us is "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." (Matthew 24:13). My friend, persecution is coming.  As we proclaim the message of the One true God to the remnant church we will be persecuted by our brethren, but the real persecution comes as we bring this important message to the world.  Jesus said "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33). May you turn from your worship of the trinity unto the One true God through Jesus Christ, that you may be at peace with God. God bless,

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