Lucifer’s Ancient
Rebellion
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A Desperate Struggle
“It required a
desperate struggle for those who
would be faithful to stand firm
against the deceptions and
abominations which were disguised in
sacerdotal garments and introduced
into the church. The Bible was not
accepted as the standard of faith.
The doctrine of religious freedom was
termed heresy, and its upholders were
hated and proscribed.
Let There Be
Difference
“After a long and
severe conflict, the faithful few
decided to dissolve all union with
the apostate church if she still
refused to fee herself from falsehood
and idolatry. They saw that
separation was an absolute necessity
if they would obey the word of God.
They dared not tolerate errors fatal
to their own souls, and set an
example that would imperil the faith
of their children and children’s
children. To secure peace and unity
they were ready to make any
concession consistent with fidelity
to God; but they felt that even peace
would be too dearly purchased at the
sacrifice of principle. If unity
could be secured only by the
compromise of truth and
righteousness, then let
there be difference, and even war.
“Well would it
be for the church and the world if
the principles that actuated those
steadfast souls were revived in the
hearts of God’s professed
people. There is an alarming
indifference in regard to the
doctrines that are the pillars of the
Christian faith. The opinion is
gaining ground, that; after all,
these are not of vital importance.
This degeneracy is strengthening the
hands of the agents of Satan, so that
false theories and fatal delusions
which the faithful in ages past
imperiled their lives to resist and
expose, are now regarded with favor
by thousands who claim to be
followers of Christ.” GC 45,
46.
The Papacy: Built
on church Growth
“And an
host was given against the
TAMID by reason of
transgression, and he was cast down
the truth to the ground; and he
practiced, and prospered.” Daniel
8:12. (Hebrew)
The church existed to
increase its numbers, power,
prestige, and influence in the world,
until it was using armies to suppress
the faithful in crusades and to
destroy its opposers.
The Crucial
Distinction Between the Church and
Christ
To fail to comprehend
this great issue of the distinction
between the church and Christ is
to lose the gospel as well as to lose
the interpretation of Bible prophecy
about the man of sin, and who the
antichrist is. If Martin Luther had
never made the distinction between
Who Christ is and What the church is,
he never would have launched the
Reformation and he never would have
called the papacy the antichrist.
Christ is the Head of
the true church. The very same
Christ, Who, 2,000 years ago walked
the dusty lanes of Nazareth,
Capernaum, Jerusalem, and Galilee.
The very same Christ Who today is
ministering in the Most Holy Place of
the heavenly sanctuary.
To fail to accept
Christ’s terms of the conditions
of discipleship is to fail of eternal
life, to fail of comprehending
salvation, to fail to comprehend who
the Church is.
Jesus Said,
“Follow Me;” Of the
Hierarchy He Said, “Let Them
Alone”
“Follow
Me.” Matthew 4:19
“Let them
alone; they be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the
blind, both shall fall into a
ditch.” Matthew
15:14.
Single-minded
Discipleship
The issue of the call
to single-minded discipleship of
Christ is central to the gospel.
Jesus over and over called men to
follow Him alone. Nowhere do you here
him say, “Join the church.”
The Primacy of the
Call to Follow
Where should the
emphasis be put? The primacy matter
is to follow Christ. That
means knowing Him, for if one does
not know Him, one cannot follow Him,
one cannot learn from Him. That
involves meeting the conditions He
laid down-coming to Him hating
father, mother, wife, children,
brethren, sisters, and one’s own
psyche. Luke 14:26.
Following Him means
taking time to hear His voice,
distinct from all others. This is
where the devotional life comes in.
This is the great lesson of the life
of John the Baptist and Jesus
Himself.
Peace That Passes
Understanding
“And the peace
of God, which passeth all
understanding, shall keep your hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:7.
The great work of John
the Baptist and even more so of Jesus
is to reconcile the soul to God,
giving the wonderful peace that
passes understanding. That peace is
the sign, the token, of our oneness
with God, that all right and well
between our souls and God. This peace
is the third dimension of the fruit
of the Spirit. The fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace…
Individual,
Personal Focus on God
In reconciling men to
God, it is necessary to take
man’s focus off the Structure
and put the individual’s focus
on God. When Martin Luther made this
shift of focus from the church
hierarchy to God in the Sixteenth
Century, it ignited the mighty
Sixteenth Century Protestant
Reformation, an incredible outpouring
of the Holy Spirit.
Following Christ, Not
Strangers
“And a
stranger they will not follow, but
will flee from him: for they know not
the voice of strangers.” John
10:5.
Following Christ means
fleeing from strangers-from would-be
leaders of the flock who are not
aligned with His voice. It means
staying close, very close, as close
as one can, to Christ.
The Fatal Delusion of
Accepting “The Church” As
the Starting Point of Faith
In Jesus’ day,
the people accepted “the
Church” as the starting point of
their faith. “The Church”
held the monopoly on salvation. The
people feared terribly
excommunication, being cut off from
God’s professed people. That is
why the people were afraid to confess
Christ. The devil brought about the
same condition just before
Luther’s Protestant Reformation.
Those claims had to be broken. Break
every yoke. Over and over again in
salvation history, the yokes have to
be broken, and souls set free in
Christ.
The Structure Defined
the Faith of the People-Thus They
Rejected Christ
The temple, the
Structure of the priesthood, the
Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the
Scribes-the Church Structure defined
the faith of the people in
Jesus’ day. This is the reason
why the vast multitudes left Jesus
after His sermon on the Bread of
Life. That sermon was in conflict
with what they heard in the Structure
synagogue. They went with the tried
and true (they thought) Structure
instead of this innovative
Independent preacher, Jesus, Who,
though interesting to hear, stood
under the condemnation of the
Structure.
Structural Alignment
Meant Rejection of Christ
Because of this
acceptance of the Church Structure as
the determiner of their faith, they
rejected whatever the Structure
rejected, and accepted the
Structure’s assessment of
matters spiritual and religious.
The Only Ones Who
Could Break Free to Follow Christ
The only one who could
break free from the stranglehold, the
Babylonian captivity of the faith,
were those who accepted God and His
Word alone, interpreted by the
Holy Spirit to their soul directly,
and not through the Structure, as
the foundation of their faith. These
sought to know God, to walk in the
way of the Lord, and sought to accept
God’s verdict on matters
spiritual.
The Structure Declared
That It Spoke For God
The complexity of the
issue must not be underestimated. The
Structure declared that it spoke for
God, was the voice of God, and
sought to have a monopoly on the
understanding of the Word of God. The
Rabbis had worked out the precise
meaning of the text and had developed
their Mishnah, the Gemaras, and
eventually the Talmud.
A Comprehension of the
Word That Looks To God Alone For
Approval
Thus the person
wanting to break free to follow God,
to follow Christ, had of necessity to
cultivate a moral and spiritual
independence, and a comprehension
of the Word that was independent
of the Structure, and looked to God alone
for approval, for glory, for
acceptance. The walk with God
had to be distinctly separate,
completely separate, from the
worldview and assessment of the
religious leaders, or their faith
would be immediately corrupted. That
walk with God had to be under the
molding influence of the Father, the
Holy Spirit, and Christ alone. A
human-modulated faith would destroy
them.
The Father had to
plant His kingdom in the soul. “Every
plant which My heavenly Father hath
not planted, shall be rooted up.
“Let them
alone; they be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the
blind, both shall fall into the
ditch.” Matthew 15: 13,
14.
“The
religion that comes from God is the
only religion that will lead to
God.” DA 189.
“Protestantism
sets the power of conscience above
the magistrate, and the authority of
the word of God above the visible
church.” GC 203.
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