Love Under Fire

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Belief Maintained

God's Spirit still stayed with those who did not rashly deny the light they had received and denounce the Advent movement. “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: ‘For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul” (Hebrews 10:35-39). LF 168.1

This counsel is addressed to the church in the last days. It plainly implies that the Lord would seem to delay His coming. The people addressed here had done the will of God by following the guidance of His Spirit and His Word, yet they could not understand His purpose in their experience. They were tempted to doubt whether God had indeed been leading them. The words, “Now the just shall live by faith,” were applicable at this time. Crushed by disappointed hopes, they could stand only by faith in God and His Word. To renounce their faith and deny the power of the Holy Spirit that had accompanied the message would be to go back toward being lost. Their only safe course was to cherish the light they had already received from God, continue to search the Scriptures, and patiently wait and watch for further light. LF 168.2