Beginning of the End

Who Prays for “Sodom” Today?

The spirit of Abraham was the spirit of Christ, who is the great Intercessor in the sinner’s behalf. Christ extended a love toward the sinner that only infinite goodness could imagine. In the agonies of the crucifixion, burdened with the awful weight of the sins of the whole world, He prayed for His murderers, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). BOE 60.4

The testimony of God is, “Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws. ... I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” It was a high honor to which Abraham was called—to be father of the people who were the guardians of the truth of God for the world, through whom all nations would be blessed in the coming of the Messiah. Abraham would keep the law and deal justly and righteously. In addition, he would not only fear the Lord himself but would teach his family in doing right. BOE 60.5

Abraham’s household numbered more than a thousand people. Here, as in a school, they received instruction that would prepare them to represent the true faith. He was training heads of families, and they would follow his methods of government in their own households. BOE 60.6

It was necessary to unite the members of the household together, to build up a barrier against the widespread idolatry. Abraham worked to guard all those who were with him against mingling with the heathen and seeing their idol worship. He took care to impress the mind with the majesty and glory of the living God as the true object of worship. BOE 61.1

God himself had separated Abraham from his idolatrous relatives so that he might educate his family apart from the evil influences in Mesopotamia and preserve the true faith in its purity through his descendants. BOE 61.2