The Holy Spirit Helps Discern Truth From Error

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

Today's Text:

For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. 1 Thessalonians 1:5

The Message:

It is the truth as it is in Jesus that quickens the conscience and transforms the mind, for it is accompanied to the heart by the Holy Spirit. Without the enlightenment of the Spirit of God, we shall not be able to discern truth from error, and shall fall under the masterful temptations and deceptions that Satan will bring upon the world. We are near the close of the controversy between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness, and soon the delusions of the enemy will try our faith, of what sort it is. Satan will work miracles in the sight of the beast and deceive "them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast." [Revelation 13:14.]

But though the prince of darkness will work to cover the earth with darkness, and with gross darkness the people, the Lord will manifest His converting power. A work is to be accomplished in the earth similar to that which took place at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the days of the early disciples, when they preached Jesus and Him crucified. Many will be converted in a day, for the message will go with power. It can then be said: "Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost." [1 Thessalonians 1:5.] It is the Holy Spirit that draws men to Christ, for He takes of the things of God and shows them unto the sinner. Jesus said: "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." [John 16:14.]

The work of the Holy Spirit is immeasurably great. It is from this source that power and efficiency come to the worker for God; and the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, as the personal presence of Christ to the soul. Any person who looks to Christ in simple, childlike faith is made a partaker of the divine nature through the agency of the Holy Spirit. When led by the Spirit of God, Christians may know that they are made complete in Him who is the head of all things. As Christ was glorified on the day of Pentecost, so will He again be glorified in the closing work of the gospel, when He shall prepare a people to stand the final test in the closing conflict of the great controversy. The prophet describes the enemy's plan of battle, saying:

"I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, but he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by thr sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." [Revelation 13:11-15.] "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for he is Lord of lords and King of kings; and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful." [Revelation 17:14.] "And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. ... And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." [Revelation 18:1, 2, 4, 5.]

The people of God are to be called out from their association with worldlings and evildoers to stand in the battle for the Lord against the powers of darkness. When the earth is lightened with the glory of God, we shall see a work similar to that which was wrought when the disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaimed the power of a risen Saviour. [After] the light of heaven penetrated the darkened minds of those who had been deceived by the enemies of Christ, the false representation of Him was rejected, for through the efficiency of the Holy Spirit they now saw Him exalted to be a Prince and Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel, and remission of sins.

Then said one to another, "This is the very one who was accused of gluttony, of eating with publicans and sinners; the one who was bound, and scourged, and crucified. We believe in Him as the Son of God, the Prince and Saviour." The revelation of Christ by the Holy Spirit brought to them a realizing sense of His power and majesty, and they stretched forth their hands unto Him by faith, saying, "I believe." Thus it was in the time of the early rain; but the latter rain will be more abundant. The Saviour of men will be glorified, and the earth will be lightened with the bright shining of the beams of His righteousness. He is the Fountain of Light, and light from the gates ajar has been shining upon the people of God, that they may lift Him up in His glorious character before those who sit in darkness.-Manuscript 143, 1901.

*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. These parts are underlined.

Commentary:

My friend, as we enter into the events of the last days we need the holy Spirit of Christ living within us that we may discern truth from error. Satan's great weapon against the people of God is his ability to deceive. Jesus warned the disciples of this in Matthew 24:24 saying "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." In these last days there has arisen a false representation of Christ in the church that has deceived the majority of the church.

By the introduction of the trinity, the church by and in large has been deceived into worshiping a false god in place of the One true God through Jesus Christ. It has elevated the Son of God to be God the Son and has taken the Spirit of God and made it God the Holy Spirit, a separate being from the Father and the Son, creating a trinity of god-beings called God. This is the great deception that has blinded the church and has led her into the Laodicean condition. The church has forsaken Christ as the head of the church and has harkened unto false god of Babylon in the trinity.

The trinity presents a false Christ called God the Son which on the outside looks like Christ, but in reality is not. God the Son is not truly the Son of God but is only a metaphor or a title that one of the god-beings has assumed for the salvation of man. The trinity claiming that the Son of God is co-equal and co-eternal cannot truly be a son for to be a son He must have a beginning, and to be God He cannot have a beginning. But in doing this it not only denies the literal sonship of the Son, but also denies the Father as well, for to be a father one must have a son. Of this the apostle John calls the spirit of antichrist. "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).

The Son of God is truly a son for King Solomon, the wisest man that has ever lived, declared under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit saying "The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:" (Proverbs 8:22-25). Of this the Father has declared "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17). To deny that Jesus is not truly the Son of God, both pre-incarnate and incarnate, is to call the Father a liar. To do so is the spirit of antichrist.

In like manner the trinity presents another deception that separates us from God. That deception separates the Spirit of God from God making it a being unto itself called God the Holy Spirit. In the Scriptures the Spirit of God is also the Spirit of Christ, for He shares the same spirit as the Father because He was brought forth from the Father and as such is the only begotten Son of God. The apostle Paul reveals this in his letter to the Romans saying "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." (Romans 8:9-11).

In the passage above, the Spirit, the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Christ are all used interchangeably and is not talking about another spirit, but is talking about one Spirit, and that Spirit is the Holy Spirit of God manifested in His Son. The Comforter spoken of by Jesus in the book of John says that the Comforter is the Holy Ghost, and in 1 John 2:1 the Comforter is Jesus Christ the righteous. The reason why so many people miss this point is because the Greek word for comforter used by John to describe the Comforter is the same word used in 1 John 2:1, but was translated as advocate. So the text reads in Greek "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate [Comforter] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:"

The trinity by teaching that the Holy Spirit is a different being from the Father and the Son and as such introduces another mediator between God and man, while the Scriptures declare "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;" (1 Timothy 2:5).

My friend, by presenting God as a trinity, it destroys the gospel and the image of God in Jesus Christ. It is a false god and as such is the very spirit of antichrist. This is the reason why the church is in the Laodicean condition, and unless we heed the warning of the Faithful and True Witness of God, He will spew us from His mouth.

May your eyes be opened to the deception that has taken hold of the elect of God.

God bless,

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

The Trinity is the foundational teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, by it comes all of her doctrines, to include Sunday sacredness. While the Seventh-Day Adventist Church states that their trinity is different from the Catholic trinity, why does the Catholic Trinity look the same as the Seventh-day Adventist trinity?

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