General Conference Bulletin, vol. 4

OUR DANGER

H. E. OSBORNE

Reading for Wednesday, December 25.

History repeats itself. The same tendency to depart from God’s word; the same slowness to heed his message; the same stubbornness of heart rising up against God, bring about, over and over again, the same experiences in this history of the great controversy between Christ and Satan. When we can see in the light of God’s word these repeated cycles of history, see what led to these experiences, and what delivered God’s people from these experiences, we may learn lessons for the present. GCB October 1, 1901, page 574.1

We shall now consider three occasions when the same set of circumstances have led to the same experiences, and we shall note what has been the nature of the message that has been delivered in every case. GCB October 1, 1901, page 574.2

The three occasions are these:— GCB October 1, 1901, page 574.3

1. That period in the history of God’s people and work just previous to the time when his people were carried down into Babylonish captivity. GCB October 1, 1901, page 574.4

2. That period of time just before the destruction of Jerusalem. GCB October 1, 1901, page 574.5

3. The present hour. GCB October 1, 1901, page 574.6

In the thirteenth chapter of the book of Acts, we have, at least, a brief outline of a talk which Paul, the apostle, gave at Antioch in Pisidia, on the first missionary tour. He began with the experience of the children of Israel in being called out of Egypt, called attention briefly to some points in history, then brought them down to the first coming and the teaching, the death and resurrection of Christ; and he closed with these words (vs. 38-41): “Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.” GCB October 1, 1901, page 574.7

By what prophets was this spoken?—First by the prophet Isaiah 29:13, 14: “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.” GCB October 1, 1901, page 574.8

Now when was this prophecy given? and what events were facing God’s people when Isaiah the prophet came to them with this message? It was about 712 B. C. when this prophecy was given, and this was a little over a century before the people were carried into Babylonish captivity, in the time of Daniel; and the causes which led to that Babylonish captivity were working then. The people had departed from the true worship of God, although keeping up with great tenacity all the forms and ceremonies. But God rebuked them through this same prophet, and said that their sacrifices, and oblations, and prayers, and services were a burden to him, and he was weary with bearing them, and would have no more of them. And why?—Because while clinging to the outward ceremonies, they had left out of those ceremonies the only thing that made them of any value in God’s sight. GCB October 1, 1901, page 574.9

What did the sacrifices mean if they were not the sacrifices of a broken and contrite heart? What did the oblations mean if they were not giving themselves? God has not changed. The heart is what he seeks for. He will be king, and will rule even the thoughts of the heart. When the heart is far from him, outward forms, motions of the body merely, are a mockery in his sight. GCB October 1, 1901, page 574.10

This is why he began these messages. And in this first message through Isaiah more than a century before the captivity of Babylon, he simply said, “I will work a work; and it will be a marvelous work; and the reason of it will be because this people’s heart has departed from me.” And yet the people went on in the same way, and heeded not these messages of warning and reproof. And nearly a century later, about twenty years before the overthrow of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the carrying away of the people into captivity, Habakkuk, the prophet, takes up the same strain. GCB October 1, 1901, page 574.11

After the prophet has inquired of the Lord why it is that he brings before him scenes of violence and strife, and keeps these pictures before his mind, the Lord replies: “Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously; for I will work a work in your days.” GCB October 1, 1901, page 574.12

Now the message is that it will come in the days of the very people to whom he is speaking. GCB October 1, 1901, page 574.13

“Behold.... I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.” GCB October 1, 1901, page 574.14

What does he say that work is?—“For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.” Habakkuk 1:5, 6. GCB October 1, 1901, page 575.1

Only twenty years from the time of this prophecy, Jerusalem was taken captive, and part of the vessels of the house of God were carried down to Babylon; some of the princes also, Daniel and his companions among them. GCB October 1, 1901, page 575.2

Then Nebuchadnezzar took control of the affairs in Jerusalem; and that was speedily followed by a further steady downfall, until in the time of Zedekiah, when the city was destroyed, the temple was burned, and the vessels were taken away from the house of God, and the people were carried off to a strange land. And why?—Just for one simple reason: They had lost their religion; they had lost the message God had given them; that message of heart working, that message of life working within; and they had come to look upon Jerusalem, the city and the temple and its outward services, as religion. Then they multiplied forms and ceremonies; then they prided themselves on the tenacity with which they held to those forms, while the life, the power, the religion, had all gone out of them. GCB October 1, 1901, page 575.3

And in order that their eyes and their experience might be turned from the outward and the visible, in which there is no power to save, to the inward life, the power within, God let a train of circumstances follow that resulted in the overthrow of the city and the temple, and put a stop to all the outward service, and allowed the enemies of God’s people to carry off the very vessels consecrated to divine service in God’s temple; and the people themselves were carried away as captives, because they had lost the freedom of the gospel of salvation, and because they had been for a long time captives of sin. GCB October 1, 1901, page 575.4

And what is the message that was to deliver them?—The same message that Paul preached in his day, and the same message that is to be preached in this day. Let us look at the next step. GCB October 1, 1901, page 575.5

After Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple burned, the vessels carried away, the people made captives by that visitation, because of their sins, they returned unto God with repentance and confession. And Daniel’s prayer in the ninth chapter of Daniel is the breathing out of the confession of the people in captivity. And God sent them a message of deliverance, and they were delivered. GCB October 1, 1901, page 575.6

The city was rebuilt, the temple was restored, the service went on again, and a new cycle of history began; and now we have come to the time of the first advent; and what are the circumstances?—The very same thing over again. Forms and ceremonies, the outward temple beautifully decorated, the service very elaborate, the people like whited sepulchers. GCB October 1, 1901, page 575.7

And when Christ came to teach the people the truth, when he swept aside their traditions, their human inventions, they looked upon him with horror, and they thought he was overthrowing all religion; but he was doing nothing of the kind. They had lost religion out of their hearts, out of their experiences. They were trusting in forms and ceremonies, saying, This is God’s temple. Had he not wrought for its rebuilding? Had he not prophesied concerning it? And so right in the very courts of the temple, they practiced robbery, and deceit, and fraud, and built themselves up in it, because it was done within the precincts of the temple. GCB October 1, 1901, page 575.8

Christ came to do his work of teaching the truth, sweeping aside these things that were of no account whatever, to bring men back to the one simple thing,—faith in a personal Saviour from sin; that no form, no ceremony, no kind of ritual, no building—nothing—could take the place of the personal, individual faith in the forgiving grace of Jesus Christ. GCB October 1, 1901, page 575.9

Now see how their rejection of his message is stated in this thirteenth chapter of the book of Acts, twenty-eighth verse and onward: “And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulcher. But God raised him from the dead: and he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God has fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again: as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. GCB October 1, 1901, page 575.10

“And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: but he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. GCB October 1, 1901, page 575.11

“Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” GCB October 1, 1901, page 576.1

And upon what does it all turn?—Upon the power of the endless life to deliver from corruption; so that he saw no corruption, in that he was raised from the dead. And so he said, Because of this,—because of this power of the endless life revealed in this man Christ Jesus, there is justification to every one who believes in his power to justify from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. GCB October 1, 1901, page 576.2

Then what was the warning?—“Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which was spoken of in the prophets,”—lest that same experience be repeated. When was this spoken?—About A. D. 40. What was looming up then before the history of that people?—It was the overthrow of Jerusalem again. And the nation, as a nation, as a people, heeded not the warning, did not take to heart the lesson of this history, and A. D. 70 Titus came with the Roman army, and Jerusalem was again destroyed, the temple was again burned; everything outward and visible was taken away from that people, and that nation was scattered abroad. GCB October 1, 1901, page 576.3

That same cycle of history has been repeated. Now we are dealing with Jerusalem just the same, and we are dealing with Babylon just the same. But to make the distinction, we are dealing with the Jerusalem of which ancient Jerusalem was the type, and we are dealing with modern Babylon, of which ancient Babylon was the type; and to-day we stand in the same place; this third time now, and the last time, God’s people are brought face to face again with these same set of circumstances, and he has preserved this warning for us, and he sends it to us now: “Beware, lest that come upon you which was spoken of in the prophets: Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.” GCB October 1, 1901, page 576.4

The building up of Jerusalem, and the building of the temple, is simply the gathering of the people. “The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.” Psalm 147:2. The same truth is more fully stated in the record of the first conference at Jerusalem. “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, ...who doeth all these things.” Acts 15:14-17. GCB October 1, 1901, page 576.5

The building up of ancient Jerusalem was simply the object-lesson of history. The building up of the temple again was simply the object-lesson of history, to teach us the truth, the reality, of these things. GCB October 1, 1901, page 576.6

What built up Jerusalem at the first? What delivered them from Babylon, and brought them there to carry out God’s instruction and to rebuild the city?—It was that message which was given to Habakkuk the prophet. And what was the message? “And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it: because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is filled up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” GCB October 1, 1901, page 576.7

And that was the message that was to be made so plain, engraved upon tables, that the object-lesson might stand out before the people. The one thing to be taught was this life, life; not place, not ceremony, not creed, but life, and that life through a personal faith in the Life-giver, and in him who is the life. And that was the message which was to call them up out of Babylon, and bring them into their own land again, that they might build the city, and they did it. GCB October 1, 1901, page 576.8

After the centuries of falling away, and of darkness, and of the losing of that message,—this period of the dark ages through which this world has passed,—there began to shine out, in the sixteenth century, a light that would lead the people out of darkness. And what was the keynote of that movement?—“The just shall live by faith.” This was the inspiration and the power of that movement. If that one simple truth had been allowed to hold its place, the Reformation which began then could have gone on with unstemmed tide, until the earth would have been lightened with its glory, and the kingdom of God would have come. But it went backward after a little. And why?—For the very same reason as of old. stead of facing, and walking in the light all the time, they became fearful, turned backward, inquired for the fathers, began to accept tradition, and lost the power of their message. GCB October 1, 1901, page 576.9

But God does not forget his people. And now, in this century, in fulfillment of the prophecies, this movement has been revived. What is the principle that is in it?—It is that we should discard creed, tradition, human invention, man-made teachers, the commandments of men, and should turn simply to the Word of the living God. That is the foundation of this work. GCB October 1, 1901, page 577.1

And the moment we slip from that platform, that we are to stand squarely upon, both feet planted firmly upon the simple Word of God,—when we slip from that, we have nothing. GCB October 1, 1901, page 577.2

So this reform movement, this third angel’s message, came in to accomplish this work and build up Jerusalem—to gather together the outcasts of Israel, to build up the ruins that are fallen down. The message to do this is just this one simple message, “The just shall live by faith.” Life, truth, reality, as opposed to any form. Power from on high ruling in these mortal bodies, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in this mortal flesh. When we leave that simple truth out of our teaching and experience, we have gone back to where they were in Isaiah’s and Habakkuk’s time and in Christ’s time; and the same message belongs to us which came to them. GCB October 1, 1901, page 577.3

Every one who knows the beginning of this movement, knows that there was wondrous power in it, not because they had all the truth which God proposed to reveal to his people before he came visibly in the clouds of heaven, but because they walked in all the light he gave them, rejecting nothing he sent them. Therefore he gave the witness to their message; and souls were converted, not by the power of eloquence, but by the power of the Spirit of God. GCB October 1, 1901, page 577.4

That experience will come again by facing toward him who is the Light, and opening the windows of the soul toward heaven, closing them toward earth, listening no more to man and putting the commandments of man in the place of the commandments of God. GCB October 1, 1901, page 577.5

There must come one of two things,—a heart conversion, a new experience in this message, or no further attempt merely in form and outward appearance to give a message that is not known in the soul. GCB October 1, 1901, page 577.6

How shall we attempt to give a message to a people, to save them from sin, to save them from Babylon, to prepare them for the coming of the Lord, if we ourselves do not know the message? God forbid it. The message is so simple. “The just shall live by faith.” “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” That is the message now. That is the message which came to this people thirteen years ago, and it has been held off, and held off, as if it were not the message; but it is the message, even though some who have been shutting their eyes to it, lo, these many years, may never see it clearly. How then can this work, and this people be led out of its present confused and discouraged condition? God must work. He must put the power on some one who is willing to receive it, who will stand forth and give the message with clearness and lead the way out of the confusion and darkness. GCB October 1, 1901, page 577.7

Do not think that it will come by a mere change of plan, by change of administration, by a new way of doing things. The change that is needed is a complete change of heart. GCB October 1, 1901, page 577.8

Is it not time for us to take God’s message to our own selves, and to know that he is speaking to us, and means us, and is waiting for a response from us? May God give us grace to respond to his message, that he may permit us to accomplish what he desires to accomplish with this people, and save us from this trouble into which we have fallen, and lead us out by a strong arm, conquering and to conquer, that the day of his coming may be hastened, and that we may see him as he is, and rest with him in his eternal kingdom. GCB October 1, 1901, page 577.9