The Promise

God’s Call to Modern Apostates

Picture: God’s Call to Modern Apostates 2TC 88.1

Through long centuries the record of Elijah’s lifework has brought inspiration and courage to those who have been called to stand for the right in the midst of apostasy. For us it has special significance. History is being repeated. Our age is one of idolatry as truly as was the one in which Elijah lived. No outward shrine may be visible, yet thousands are following after the gods of this world—riches, fame, pleasure, and the fables that permit people to follow the inclinations of the unrenewed heart. Multitudes have a wrong concept of God and are as truly serving a false god as were the worshipers of Baal. Even among those who claim to be Chris tians, many have allied themselves with influences that are firmly opposed to God and His truth. 2TC 88.2

The prevailing spirit of our time is one of unbelief and apostasy. People exalt human theories and place them where God and His law should be. Satan tempts men and women with the promise that in disobedience they will find freedom that will make them as gods. We see a spirit that exalts human wisdom like an idol above divine revelation. People seem to have lost all power to tell the difference between light and darkness, truth and error. They believe that the opinions of a few philosophers, so-called, are more trustworthy than the truths of the Bible. They think that faith such as actuated Paul, Peter, and John is old-fashioned and unworthy of the intelligence of modern thinkers. 2TC 89.1

In the beginning, God gave His law to humanity as a means of their attaining happiness and eternal life. Satan’s hope is to lead men and women to disobey this law. He constantly tries to misrepresent it and belittle its importance. His master stroke has been to attempt to change the law itself, so as to lead people to violate its instructions while they profess to obey it. One writer has compared the attempt to change God’s law to an ancient mischievous practice of taking a signpost where two roads met and turning it in a wrong direction. This often caused great perplexity and hardship. 2TC 89.2

God set up a signpost for those journeying through this world. One arm pointed out willing obedience to the Creator as the road to life, while the other indicated disobedience as the path to death. But in an evil hour for our race, the great enemy of all good turned the signpost around, and many people have mistakenly taken the wrong way. 2TC 89.3

Through Moses the Lord instructed the Israelites, “Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.” “It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.” Exodus 31:13, 17. 2TC 89.4

The Lord clearly defined obedience as the way to the City of God, but the “man of sin” has changed the signpost. He has set up a false sabbath and has caused men and women to think that by resting on it they are obeying the command of the Creator. When “the heavens and the earth ... were finished,” God exalted the seventh-day Sabbath as a memorial of His creative work. “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.” Genesis 2:1, 3. 2TC 89.5

At the time of the Exodus God brought the Sabbath prominently before His people. In Egypt their taskmasters had tried to force them to labor on the Sabbath by increasing the amount of work required each week. But God delivered the Israelites from slavery and brought them to a place where they could freely observe all the instructions of the Lord. At Sinai God spoke the law and delivered a copy of it to Moses on two tables of stone, “written with the finger of God.” Exodus 31:18. And through forty years of wandering the Israelites were constantly reminded of God’s appointed rest day because every seventh day the manna did not fall, but the double portion that fell on the preparation day was miraculously preserved. 2TC 90.1

The Lord intended that by observing the Sabbath command, Israel would be reminded of Him continually as their Creator and Redeemer. While they kept the Sabbath in the proper spirit, idol worship could not exist; but if Israel set aside the claims of this divine instruction, they would soon forget the Creator. Yet “they rejected My ordinances and did not observe My statutes, and profaned My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.” Ezekiel 20:16, NRSV. 2TC 90.2

In calling the attention of Judah to the sins that finally brought the Babylonian Captivity on them, the Lord declared: “You have ... profaned My Sabbaths.” “Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads.” Ezekiel 22:8, 31. 2TC 90.3

When Jerusalem was restored in the days of Nehemiah, he challenged the people’s Sabbathbreaking by asking them, “Did not your fathers do thus, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” Nehemiah 13:18. 2TC 90.4

How Christ Upheld the Sabbath

During His earthly ministry, Christ emphasized the binding claims of the Sabbath. He showed reverence for the institution He Himself had given. In His days people had so perverted the Sabbath that their observance of it reflected selfish human character rather than the character of God. Christ set aside the false teaching that had misrepresented Him. Although the rabbis followed Him with merciless hostility, He went straight forward, keeping the Sabbath according to the law of God. 2TC 91.1

In unmistakable language He testified of His regard for the law. “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets,” He said. “I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:17-19. 2TC 91.2

The great enemy of our happiness has made the Sabbath of the fourth commandment an object of special attack. Satan says, “I will work at cross purposes with God. I will set aside God’s memorial, the seventh-day Sabbath. I will show the world that the day God sanctified has been changed. I will obliterate the memory of it. In its place I will establish a day that does not bear the credentials of God, a day that cannot be a sign between God and His people. Through my representative, I will exalt myself. The first day will be praised, and the Protestant world will receive this false sabbath as genuine. I will be the prince of this world. I will so control minds that God’s Sabbath will be a special object of contempt. A sign? I will make the observance of the seventh day a sign of disloyalty to the authorities of earth. Human laws will become so strict that men and women will not dare to observe the seventh-day Sabbath. For fear of being without food and clothing, they will join the world in transgressing God’s law. The earth will be entirely under my dominion.” Through setting up a false sabbath, the enemy thought “to change times and law.” But has he really suc ceeded in changing God’s law? He who is the same yesterday, today, and forever has said this about the seventh-day Sabbath: “It is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations.” “It is a sign ... forever.” Exodus 31:13, 17. The changed signpost is pointing the wrong way, but God has not changed. He is just as jealous for His law now as in the days of Ahab and Elijah. 2TC 91.3

Elijah Is Needed Today!

But how that law is disregarded! Look at the world today in open rebellion against God. People neglect the Bible and hate truth. Jesus sees His law rejected, His love despised, His ambassadors treated with indifference. His mercies have gone unacknowledged, His warnings unheeded. The temple courts of the human soul have been turned into places of unholy commerce. Selfishness, envy, pride, malice—all are cherished. 2TC 92.1

Many do not hesitate to sneer at the Word of God. They ridicule those who believe it just as it reads. There is a growing contempt for law and order, directly traceable to a violation of Jehovah’s plain commands. Violence and crime are the result of turning aside from the path of obedience. 2TC 92.2

Just look at the nearly universal disregard of the Sabbath commandment. See also the daring wickedness of those who, while enacting laws to safeguard the supposed sanctity of the first day of the week, at the same time are making laws legalizing the liquor traffic. They attempt to force the conscience while lending their approval to an evil that destroys the beings created in the image of God. Satan inspires such legislation. 2TC 92.3

Almost the whole world is following after idols. But the Lord will not always allow His law to be broken and despised without consequences. Skepticism may treat the claims of God’s law with joking and denial; the cause of God may hold its ground only by great effort and continual sacrifice. Yet in the end truth will triumph gloriously. 2TC 92.4

In God’s closing work on earth, the standard of His law will be exalted again. False religion may prevail, people may lose sight of the cross of Calvary, darkness may spread over the world, and the popular current may turn against the truth. But in the hour of greatest danger the God of Elijah will raise up human instruments to bear a message that will not be silenced. In the places where people have gone to the greatest lengths in speaking against the Most High, the voice of stern rebuke will be heard. Those whom God has appointed will boldly denounce the union of the church with the world. They will call earnestly on men and women to turn from a man-made rite to observe the true Sabbath. “Fear God and give glory to Him,” they will proclaim to every nation, “for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth. ... If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation.” Revelation 14:7-10. The world will be arraigned in the courtroom of Infinite Justice to receive sentence. 2TC 92.5

Today, as in the days of Elijah, the line between God’s commandment-keeping people and the worshipers of false gods is clearly drawn. “How long will you falter between two opinions?” Elijah cried. “If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” 1 Kings 18:21. And the message for today is, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.” “Come out of her, My people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.” Revelation 18:2, 4, 5. 2TC 93.1

The Test That Will Come to All

The test will come to everyone. People will be urged to observe the false sabbath. The contest will be between the commandments of God and mere human laws. Those who have yielded step by step to worldly demands and customs will yield to the earthly powers rather than subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death. At that time the gold will be separated from the dross. The distinction will be clear between true godliness and the appearance and tinsel of it. Many a star that we have admired for its brilliance will then go out in darkness. Those who are not clothed with Christ’s righteousness will appear in the shame of their nakedness. 2TC 93.2

Scattered in every land are those who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Like the stars of heaven that appear only at night, these faithful ones will shine out when darkness covers the earth. In Africa, in Europe, in South America, in China, in India, in the islands of the sea, and in all the corners of the earth, God has many chosen ones in reserve who will yet shine brightly in the darkness, revealing clearly to an apostate world the transforming power of obedience to His law. In the hour of deepest apostasy, when Satan makes his supreme effort to cause “all,” under penalty of death, to receive the sign of loyalty to a false sabbath, these faithful ones, “blameless and harmless, children of God without fault,” will “shine as lights in the world.” Revelation 13:16; Philippians 2:15. The darker the night, the more brilliantly they will shine. 2TC 94.1

Elijah could count only one on the Lord’s side when he said, “I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” But the word of the Lord surprised him: “Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal.” 1 Kings 19:14, 18. 2TC 94.2

Then let no one attempt to number Israel today, but let everyone have a heart like the heart of Christ, a heart that reaches out for the salvation of a lost world. 2TC 94.3