Avoid Contention; Promote Harmony

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

Avoid Contention; Promote Harmony Today's Text: Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom. Proverbs 13:10 The Message:      The Reformation was greatly retarded by making prominent differences on some points of faith and each party holding tenaciously to those things where they differed. We shall see eye-to-eye erelong, but to become firm and consider it your duty to present your views in decided opposition to the faith or truth, as it has been taught by us as a people is a mistake and will result in harm, and only harm, as in the days of Martin Luther. Begin to draw apart and feel at liberty to express your ideas without reference to the views of your associates, and a state of things will be introduced that you do not dream of.      My husband had some ideas on some points differing from the views taken by his brethren. I was shown that however true his views were, God did not call for him to put them in front before his brethren and create differences of ideas. While he might hold these views subordinate himself, once [they are] made public, minds would seize [upon them,] and just because others believed differently would make these differences the whole burden of the message and get up contention and variance.      There are the main pillars of our faith, subjects which are of vital interest, the Sabbath, the keeping of the commandments of God. Speculative ideas should not be agitated, for there are peculiar minds that love to get some point that others do not accept, and argue and attract everything to that one point, urging that point, magnifying that point, when it is really a matter that is not of vital importance and will be understood differently. Twice I have been shown that everything of a character to cause our ministers to be diverted from the very points now essential for this time should be kept in the background.      Christ did not reveal many things that were truth, because it would create a difference of opinion and get up disputations. But young men who have not passed through the experience we have had would as soon have a brush as not. Nothing would suit them better than [to] have a sharp discussion.      If these things come into our conference, I would refuse to attend one of them; for I have had so much light upon the subject that I know that unconsecrated and unsanctified hearts would enjoy this kind of exercise. Too late in the day, brethren, too late in the day. We are in the great day of atonement, a time when we must be afflicting our souls, confessing our sins, humbling our hearts before God, and getting ready for the great conflict. When these contentions come in before the people, they will think one has the argument, and then that another directly opposed has the argument. The poor people become confused, and the conference will be a dead loss, worse than if they had had no conference.      Now when everything is dissension and strife, there must be decided efforts to handle, to publish with pen and voice, these things that will reveal only harmony.-Letter 37, 1887 (Manuscript Releases 15:20-22). *Note: I have added in the parts that were left out by the compilers for what ever reason, that the true sentiment of the author may be seen. Commentary: My friend, it is true that we are not to argue about minor points of faith that have little to do with our salvation, but on points of doctrine that are essential to our salvation we are to take a decided stand and warn others as well.  The truth about God is not a minor issue within the church, it is vital to our salvation.  "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3).  Our knowledge of who God is, is the very foundation of our salvation. In the beginning our church was founded upon the One true God and His Son Jesus Christ.  Then as the prophet of God was laid to rest along with the church pioneers, the teaching of the trinity began to make its way into the writings of the church.  These seeds of error began to take hold within the church until it came to full fruition in 1980, when it was accepted as one of the fundamental beliefs of the church. Today those who present the truth about God straight from the pages of Scripture, are ridiculed and called divisive, claiming that the church has received greater light from God on the subject.  Though the prophet of God is asleep in her grave, they claim that she came to believe in the trinity later on in her life and shared its principals in her writings.  But this is not so.  The principal of truth is that it does not change, it may be better understood but new light does not negate the light in the past.  The trinity is diametrically opposed to the One true God. The Scriptures declare that there is only one true God and that is the Father.  The only begotten Son of God at some time in eternity past came forth from the Father.  The Son of God is God because He came forth from the very substance of divinity, but He is not the One true God.  Coming from the Father He shares the same Spirit; the same nature of the Father, thus the Holy Spirit is not a separate being but is the very Spirit of God. The trinity teaches something that is very different from the Scriptures.  It teaches that God is made up of three co-equal, co-eternal beings who are all equally God and separately God.  Neither is greater than the other, but each has assumed roles that places God the Father as the head.  At its core it teaches that God the Son is not truly a son, but is only a role that He assumes for the salvation of man, therefore denying the literal sonship of the Son.  The Holy Spirit is claimed to be a separate being from the Father and the Son making it the trinity. When you compare each of these doctrines you will find that both cannot be true, for they contradict each other.  The trinity has the elements of God in that there is a Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit, but its nature is not of God.  The worship of God in the form of a trinity destroys the very foundation of the gospel which is "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16).  For God to give us His Son to die for our sins, He first must have a son to give. The trinity denies that the Son of God is truly a son and makes God out to be a liar.  Of this the Scriptures says "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also." (1 John 2:22, 23). My friend, the trinity is a false image of God and to believe in it is to believe in a lie.  Our salvation is grounded in knowing the Father through His Son Jesus Christ.  To believe otherwise is to believe a lie. May you look away from the false god of the trinity and unto the One true God through His Son Jesus Christ today. God bless, Video of the Week The Glory of Jesus - David Clayton A sermon from the 2018 Roan Mountain Camp Meeting