If Gods professed people would receive the light as it shines upon them from His word, they would reach that unity for which Christ prayed, that which the apostle describes, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is, he says, one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Ephesians 4:3-5. {GC 379.2} Such were the blessed results experienced by those who accepted the advent message. They came from different denominations, and their denominational barriers were hurled to the ground; conflicting creeds were shivered to atoms; the unscriptural hope of a temporal millennium was abandoned, false views of the second advent were corrected, pride and conformity to the world were swept away; wrongs were made right; hearts were united in the sweetest fellowship, and love and joy reigned supreme. If this doctrine did this 380 for the few who did receive it, it would have done the same for all if all had received it. {GC 379.3} But the churches generally did not accept the warning. Their ministers, who, as watchmen unto the house of Israel, should have been the first to discern the tokens of Jesus coming, had failed to learn the truth either from the testimony of the prophets or from the signs of the times. As worldly hopes and ambitions filled the heart, love for God and faith in His word had grown cold; and when the advent doctrine was presented, it only aroused their prejudice and unbelief. The fact that the message was, to a great extent, preached by laymen, was urged as an instrument against it. As of old, the plain testimony of Gods word was met with the inquiry: Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed? And finding how difficult a task it was to refute the arguments drawn from the prophetic periods, many discouraged the study of the prophecies, teaching that the prophetic books were sealed and were not to be understood. Multitudes, trusting implicitly to their pastors, refused to listen to the warning; and others, though convinced of the truth, dared not confess it, lest they should be put out of the synagogue. The message which God had sent for the testing and purification of the church revealed all too surely how great was the number who had set their affections on this world rather than upon Christ. The ties which bound them to earth were stronger than the attractions heavenward. They chose to listen to the voice of worldly wisdom and turned away from the heart-searching message of truth. {GC 380.1} In refusing the warning of the first angel, they rejected the means which Heaven had provided for their restoration. They spurned the gracious messenger that would have corrected the evils which separated them from God, and with greater eagerness they turned to seek the friendship of the world. Here was the cause of that fearful condition of worldliness, backsliding, and spiritual death which existed in the churches in 1844. 381 {GC 380.2}
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 04:07:32 +0000
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