:: Chronicles of Laodicea :: A MUST READ! Toward the close of this great reformatory movement, there were those who would not cease their activities in presenting the straight truth, in spite of our demands and threats. They had a “Thus saith Yahuah” for everything, and we could not refute them. Upon these we heaped the most cruel and unjust treatment. We misrepresented their teachings and their motives. We blackened their reputations by the vilest slander and put forth almost superhuman efforts to destroy their influence or even their lives (5T 601; G.C. 609). For, were they not exposing our hypocrisy and deception? They even dug up our wrongs of the past that had never been acknowledged or corrected, and our departure form the plain testimonies of the Spirit of Yahuah. We thought we had covered these securely that they would never be found out, but Yahuah seems to have brought them to light (5T 211-12). Apparently it was time for the last movements before the “swelling” of the message of the “third angel” into a “loud cry.” The forces of both good and evil had awakened and the entire population of the earth were aligning themselves on either one side or the other. The Laodicean message in its strength and purity was again being proclaimed – for the very last time – to a sleeping and impenitent church. We, the “Ancient men” were not permitted to have a part in giving this message, for, how could we ? Lukewarm Laodiceans ourselves (2T 337), how could we give a startling “straight testimony” to a sleeping flock when we were in the same spiritual condition as they? Those of our number, either ministers or laymen, who did become aroused to repentance and action in this true reformatory movement, we denounced, cast out, and blackened in an effort to completely destroy their influence, lest through these enlightened souls our apostasy should be unmasked. We wanted nothing in our midst that would point out or rebuke sin (T.M. 411). But the vast majority of both leaders and members rose up against the message (5T 136), denouncing it as the work of Satan. Thus it was only a short while until the only voice of warning to be heard was coming from without the Laodicean organisation. The prophecy stated those who rejected this final appeal to the church were “lost sight of” and “left to the control of evil angels” (E.W. 270; 1T 187). So when this message had completed its work the judgment of the church was finished! They had been weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and had been found wanting (8T 247). Only a very “little company,” the “faithful few,” had humbly accepted the message and had repented and become purified (E.W. 270; 5T 207-16). As this work progressed and we saw a power which we could neither understand nor refute accompanying the message, we became desperate. We could plainly see that Yahuah had passed us by and was using agencies of His own choice in the closing work (T.M. 106, 300; C.O.L. 296-306). Our envy and jealousy knew no bounds. Elohiym could not treat us thus! We would renew our efforts, consolidate our forces, and become more violent yet more deceptive in our opposition against those whom we could not help seeing had been chosen by Elohim to bear the burden of the work in this solemn hour (5T 80). In a short while, we had set in motion throughout the field, propaganda that spread like fire in the stubble, turning men and women and even children bitterly against any and all who were even suspected of having any part or sympathy with those who would “raise the standard and pour forth the straight truth.” We would not permit any of these to have a hearing for we knew that an honest investigation would uncover vital truth, which we feared. So we adopted a regular procedure for any who would dare lift up their voice in rebuke of sin. We disfellowshipped these without a fair trial justifying our action from certain man-made precepts in the divinely unauthorised church manual. This wholesale disfellowshipping continued and increased until thousands of loyal, tithe-paying, consecrated church members had been cruelly cast out and disgraced by slander and misrepresentation. Their only offense was that they had studied the Word of Elohiym for themselves and had been aroused to a determined effort to bring their own lives into harmony with its teachings and to sound a warning to their brothers and sisters in the church before it should be forever too late. The fruit of this class bore the divine credentials – it was unto holiness (C.O.R. 44). The only grounds we could find for opposing or denouncing them was that “they didn’t come through us,” they did not recognise our authority nor consult us as to their work or their message. Their testimony was with power but the spirit that controlled us was violently antagonistic to the spirit that actuated them. And, these certain individuals seemed to be placed strategically all over the earth and the greatest marvel was that in their literature and teachings they all spoke the same things although they had not previously seen or heard of each other... As the conflict grew fiercer we found ourselves spending more and more of our time and effort in a futile attempt to counteract or put a stop to the work of these humble souls. We could not refute their message (E.W. 33), so we maligned and misrepresented their motives, attacked their characters, and blackened their reputation (G.C 458). We intensified our published propaganda against them (See R.H. from 1952-55) and circulated all manner of falsehoods regarding them and their work. We could not tolerate such an element as this in our midst, for their clear, simple teachings drawn directly from the inspired writings cut to the “quick” and laid bare our shame. We denounced their literature and held it up to ridicule – though we could find no fault with it, except that it spoke the unvarnished truth. We excited prejudice and in every conceivable way worked to convince our constituency that these people were dangerous and what they taught was falsehood and rank heresy. We accused them of “tearing down” the work of Elohiym, when we well knew that the only thing they were tearing down was the mighty bulwark of error, tradition, glorification of men, and the feeling of false security that Satan, over a period of many years, had insidiously brought into the church. It was the spirit of pride and worldliness that was being attacked by the cutting truths of the Word of Yahuah spoken by these servants of Yahusha. The divine standard was being presented and the temple, the altar, and them that worship therein were being measured (Rev. 11:1; 7T 219). Yahuah had given to His witnesses (Rev. 11:3) and they were beginning to prophesy in sackcloth. (4T 594). His true church – the “faithful souls” (A.A 11) – were coming into line and putting on the armour of Yahusha’s righteousness, as they entered upon their “final conflict“(P.K. 725). These earnest souls who had been favoured with the added light of present truth had not called anyone to “draw off into some new organisation,” as we had charged. They had already seen too much of corrupt dictator organisations. They realised that this was the closing work of the third angel’s message and that it was going forward “under the direction of the angel,” “contrary to any human planning” (T.M. 300) and they were happy to find that Elohiym had accounted them worthy to be a part of His great divine “organisation” as He took “the reins in His own hands” in the final phase of the Advent movement. Yahuah had declared, “ The Spirit is poured out upon all who will yield to its promptings, and casting off all man’s machinery, his binding rules and cautious methods, they will declare the truth with the might of the Spirit’s power” (R.H. July 13, 1895; Oct. 18, 1951). The “shaking” or “sifting” of the church was finally completed! Yahuah had demanded and promised a “pure church.” The rebels had been “purged out” (T.M. 372-3) and the true people of Yahuah – so very few in number – were a united people giving the final warning with power. Here was the nucleus of the “Remnant church” – with membership written in heaven and known only to Yahuah. Near the close of this period of witnessing in sackcloth (Rev. 11:3; 4T 594), “ a sudden and unlooked for calamity” (C.O.L 412) occurred... “A series of events revealing that Yahuah, was master of the situation” (9T 96). Thus commenced the “little time of trouble,” when “the Holy Spirit was poured out in the “latter rain” before the plagues began to fall. (E.W. 33, 85-6). This catastrophic occurrence inevitably involved the proper observance of the Seventh-day Sabbath of the Set-apart law of Yahuah – according to His Appointed Scriptural Calendar (Gen 1:14-18), as revealed in the Scriptures. Both wise and foolish virgins (C.O.L. 406-413), both Laodiceans and Philadelphians, were brought face-to -face with death in this supreme test over the question of whether they would obey Yahuah or man. Only those who had followed on in the light and who had gained an experience with Yahusha’s Set-Apart Spirit (C.O.L. 412), were able to endure the test and retain their position of loyalty to their Creator (E.W. 33, 85-6). We saw the issue and sensed the need. We began to see how far our apostasy had carried us in opposing Yahuah and His faithful servants, but we had no power now to act (Spec. to Min., No. 7, 54-5). So preserve our lives and retain our positions, we issued an order for our worldwide membership that, “just for the emergency,” all loyal Seventh-day Adventists were expected to comply with the demands of their governments in regard to their attitude toward Sabbath observance. We persuaded ourselves that in this act we would not be violating the Sabbath command, we would be but carrying out the inspired admonition to obey “the powers that be” (Rom. 13:1). We had staged a preview of this terrible drama at an earlier date in Samoa, at the shift of the International date Line. This was the crowning abomination of the “Ancient Men” seen by the prophet before the slaughter began. (Ezek. 8:16) Then through our malice and treachery and to save our own lives we betrayed our former brethren – even our closest friends and relatives, into the hands of the “State” to be abused, tortured, or even put to death for non-compliance with the laws of the land, contrary to the requirements of Yahuah (G.C. 608-610). Thus began the days of trial and persecution for the “feeble Remnant.” The members of the true “body of Yahusha” were drawn close together in tender sympathy and love, as souls in all the religious bodies responded to the “loud cry of the third angel” and came out and united with the little company who were in the light, and endured the persecution with them (6T 401). Meanwhile, the judgments of Yahuah were in the land and soon in a great blaze of power and glory – the final clash between the true people of Yahuah and the powers of darkness, was waged and the work of salvation for guilty man was finished! Human probation was ended and WE WERE SHUT OUT— To all our bitter agonising cries for mercy, we heard only the mournful words... “Too late! TOO LATE!
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 01:31:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015