We Are Accountable for the Light that We Have Been Given

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

We Are Accountable for the Light that We Have Been Given

Today's Text: Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:14

The Message:      The mild, beloved disciple [John] has said, "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:4). The Word of God is very plain and pointed. It is dangerous business to profess to be a follower of Jesus and in works deny Him by indifference to even one of His requirements.      The history of the Reformation teaches us that the church of Christ is never to come to a standstill and cease reforming. God stands at the head, saying to them as He did to Moses, "Go forward." "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." God's work is onward; step by step His people advance onward through conflict and trial to final victory. The history of the church teaches us that God's people are not to be stereotyped in their theories of faith, but to be prepared for new light, for opening truth revealed in His Word.      The past history of the advancement of truth amid error and darkness shows us that sacred truth is not cherished and sought after by the majority. Those who have advanced in reform, obeying the voice of God-"Go forward" have been subject to opposition, torture, and death; and in the face of gaping prisons and threatened torture and death, they deemed the truth for their time of sufficient importance to hold tenaciously, yielding their life rather than to sacrifice their faith. They counted not their life dear unto them if sacrificed for the truth of God. The truth in our day is as important as it was in the days of the martyrs.  We should cherish the principles of truth just as sacredly as they cherished the truth in their day, in face of the world and every specie of opposition.      What if in Luther's day people had taken a position to cover their disobedience to God's requirement with: "God is too merciful to condemn me for not taking unpopular truth. Our intellectuals and our religious leaders do not accept it. I will run the risk of transgressing God's law because the world rejects it.... I am satisfied with my religion; ... I will risk going with the crowd."      If I go with the crowd the Bible tells me I am in the broad road to death. Said the Majesty of heaven, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matthew 7:14. We are accountable for the light which shines in our day. Christ wept in agony over Jerusalem because they knew not the time of their visitation. It was their day of trust, their day of opportunity and privilege. Jerusalem's sin was her abuse of past privileges. The record of hundreds of years of privileges and blessings enjoyed by the Jewish nation was unfolded to the eye of Christ. The foul ingratitude, the hollow formalism, the hypocritical insincerity of hundreds of years called these tears of irrepressible anguish from His eyes.-Letter 35a, 1877.

Commentary: My friend, we are accountable for the great light that we have been given.  It must work within us a transformation of character equal to the light of truth shown upon us.  As we walk in the light of truth we will be guided to more light, that we may continually progress toward the perfection of our characters.  This light is not to be hidden, but is to be shared with the whole world.  Yet, today the church has become complacent with the light of truth, and have become the Church of Laodicea which believes that they are "...rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;" (Revelation 3:17). The truths that were given to us in the time of the Church of Philadelphia, have been slighted.  The wine of Babylon that remained in the Protestant churches; the doctrines that they would not let go of, has crept back into the remnant church of God.  Because we have not advanced in the light that we have been given, Satan has introduced error into the church and we have accepted it as new truth, when it is actually old error. How did the once pure church of Philadelphia become the Church of Laodicea which believes that they are rich and increases with goods, but in reality is "... wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:" (Revelation 3:17)?  We had stopped contending for the faith that was once given to us by God through the pioneers of the church.  "For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." (Jude 4). The church once believed in the One true God, but because the church sought to make peace with the Protestant churches they began to drink of the wine of Babylon.  Then certain men crept into the church and turned the grace of God into lawlessness.  They introduced to the people principals of the trinity which at its heart denies Jesus as the literal Son of God, and as such destroys the whole of the gospel.  The trinity is a false representation of God and is the central foundation of the Roman Catholic Church.  By sipping of the wine of Babylon, the church has adopted the false god of the trinity in place of the One true God of the Bible.  As such it is now in the Laodicean condition. My friend, it is time for us to sober up and shake off the darkness that has been presented to us as new light.  The trinity is not new light, but old darkness.  Let us study to show ourselves approved of God, rightly dividing His word, comparing Scripture with Scripture, that we may not be deceived.  Let us be zealous in our repentance, and worship the Father through His Son Jesus Christ today. God bless,

Video of the Week 3 of 6 - Sinful Flesh with Dustin Butler - SIN-posium Pioneer Health and Missions presented a series of six videos on the subject of sin and salvation to help inform and encourage others to study this very import topic.