The Great
Controversy- Chapter XXXVI- The
Impending Conflict— CONTINUED
Mat_24:24 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.
Mar_13:5 And
Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you:
Mar_13:6 For
many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
Isa_5:20 Woe
unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and
light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
The vilest of
criminals, when thrown into prison for their offenses, are often made the
recipients of gifts and attentions, as if they had attained an enviable
distinction. Great publicity is given to their character and crimes. The press
publishes the revolting details of vice, thus initiating others into the
practice of fraud, robbery, and murder; and Satan exults in the success of his
hellish schemes. The infatuation of vice, the wanton taking of life, the
terrible increase of intemperance and iniquity of every order and degree,
should arouse all who fear God, to inquire what can be done to stay the tide of
evil.
Courts of justice are corrupt. Rulers are
actuated by desire for gain, and love of sensual pleasure. Intemperance has
beclouded the faculties of many, so that Satan has almost complete control of
them. Jurists are perverted, bribed, deluded. Drunkenness and revelry, passion,
envy, dishonesty of every sort, are represented among those who administer the
laws. “Justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity
cannot enter.” [Isaiah 59:14.]
The iniquity and
spiritual darkness that prevailed under the supremacy of Rome were the
inevitable result of her suppression of the Scriptures; but where is to be
found the cause of the widespread infidelity, the rejection of the law of God,
and the consequent corruption, under the full blaze of gospel light in an age
of religious freedom? Now that Satan can no longer keep the world under his
control by withholding the Scriptures, he resorts to other means to accomplish
the same object. To destroy faith in the Bible serves his purpose as well as to
destroy the Bible itself. By introducing the belief that God’s law is not
binding, he as effectually leads men to transgress as if they were wholly
ignorant of its precepts. And now, as in former ages, he has worked through the
church to further his designs. The religious organizations of the day have
refused to listen to unpopular truths plainly brought to view in the
Scriptures, and in combating them they have adopted interpretations and taken
positions which have sown broadcast the seeds of skepticism.
Clinging to the
papal error of natural immortality and man’s consciousness in death, they have
rejected the only defense against the delusions of Spiritualism. The doctrine
of eternal torment has led many to disbelieve the Bible. And as the claims of
the fourth commandment are urged upon the people, it is found that the
observance of the seventh-day Sabbath is enjoined; and as the only way to free
themselves from a duty which they are unwilling to perform, popular teachers
declare that the law of God is no longer binding. Thus they cast away the law
and the Sabbath together. As the work of Sabbath reform extends, this rejection
of the divine law to avoid the claims of the fourth commandment will become
well-nigh universal.
The teachings of religious leaders have opened
the door to infidelity, to Spiritualism, and to contempt for God’s holy law, and
upon these leaders rests a fearful responsibility for the iniquity that exists
in the Christian world. Yet this very class put forth the claim that the
fast-spreading corruption is largely attributable to the desecration of the
so-called “Christian Sabbath,” and that the enforcement of Sunday observance
would greatly improve the morals of society. This claim is especially urged in
America, where the doctrine of the true Sabbath has been most widely preached.
Here the temperance work, one of the most prominent and important of moral
reforms, is often combined with the Sunday movement, and the advocates of the
latter represent themselves as laboring to promote the highest interest of
society; and those who refuse to unite with them are denounced as the enemies
of temperance and reform. But the fact that a movement to establish error is
connected with a work which is in itself good, is not an argument in favor of
the error. We may disguise poison by mingling it with wholesome food, but we do
not change its nature. On the contrary, it is rendered more dangerous, as it is
more likely to be taken unawares. It is one of Satan’s devices to combine with
falsehood just enough truth to give it plausibility.
The leaders of the
Sunday movement may advocate reforms which the people need, principles which
are in harmony with the Bible, yet while there is with these a requirement
which is contrary to God’s law, his servants cannot unite with them.
Nothing can justify them in setting aside the
commandments of God for the precepts of men.
Through the two
great errors, the immortality of the soul, and Sunday sacredness, Satan will
bring the people under his deceptions.
While the former
lays the foundation of Spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with
Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their
hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of Spiritualism; they will reach over
the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this
threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on
the rights of conscience. As Spiritualism more closely imitates the nominal
Christianity of the day, it has greater power to deceive and ensnare.
Satan himself is
converted, after the modern order of things. He will appear in the character of
an angel of light. Through the agency of Spiritualism, miracles will be
wrought, the sick will be healed, and many undeniable wonders will be
performed. And as the spirits will profess faith in the Bible, and manifest
respect for the institutions of the church, their work will be accepted as a
manifestation of divine power.
The line of
distinction between professed Christians and the ungodly is now hardly
distinguishable. Church-members love what the world loves, and are ready to
join with them; and Satan determines to unite them in one body, and thus
strengthen his cause by sweeping all into the ranks of Spiritualism. Papists,
who boast of miracles as a certain sign of the true church, will be readily
deceived by this wonder-working power; and Protestants, having cast away the
shield of truth, will also be deluded. Papists, Protestants, and worldlings
will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they will see in
this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world, and the ushering
in of the long-expected millennium.
Through
Spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race, healing the diseases
of the people, and professing to present a new and more exalted system of
religious faith; but at the same time he works as a destroyer. His temptations
are leading multitudes to ruin. Intemperance dethrones reason; sensual
indulgence, strife, and bloodshed follow. Satan delights in war; for it excites
the worst passions of the soul, and then sweeps into eternity its victims
steeped in vice and blood. It is his object to incite the nations to war
against one another; for he can thus divert the minds of the people from the
work of preparation to stand in the day of God.
Satan works through
the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the
secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the
elements as far as God allows. When he was suffered to afflict Job, how quickly
flocks and herds, servants, houses, children, were swept away, one trouble
succeeding another as in a moment. It is God that shields his creatures, and
hedges them in from the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world have
shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what he has
declared that he would, he will withdraw his blessings from the earth, and
remove his protecting care from those who are rebelling against his law, and
teaching and forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all whom God does not
especially guard. He will favor and prosper some, in order to further his own
designs, and he will bring trouble upon others, and lead men to believe that it
is God who is afflicting them. While appearing to the children of men as a great
physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster,
until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation.
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