“These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh when whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me. But there things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.” John 16:1-4.
The truth of these words of Christ has become a reality in the experience of those who have been loyal and true to the God of heaven, according to the light received. “If they have persecuted me,” He said, “they will also persecute you; if they have kept my sayings, they will keep yours also.” John 15:20. “All who will live not merely profess godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution.” 2 Timothy 3:12. “And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known by experimental knowledge the Father nor me.” John 16:3.
As Christ was hated without cause, so will His people be hated without cause, merely because they are obedient to the commandments of God and do His works in the place of working directly contrary to them. If He who was pure, holy, and undefiled, who did good and only good in our world, was treated as a base criminal, and condemned to death without a vestige of evidence against Him, what can His disciples expect but similar treatment, however faultless may be their life and blameless their character? Human enactments, laws manufactured by satanic agencies under a plea of GOODNESS and RESTRICTION of EVIL, WILL BE EXALTED, while God’s holy enactments are despised and trampled under foot.
And all who prove their loyalty by obedience to the law of Jehovah must be prepared to be arrested, to be brought before councils that have not for their standard the high and holy law of God, but have made stringent laws inspired by him whose attributes were manifested at the trial of Christ. “We have a law,” these men said, “and by our law he ought to die.” John 19:7.
“Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment, and it was early.” John 18:28. The night was the most appropriate hour for their works of darkness. In these religious zealots we have a sample of what humanity will do when they have the Word that lighted every man that cometh into the world, and work directly contrary to it, irrespective of the consequence, the future retribution upon their neighbors or themselves. “We have a law,” they say, “and by that law, he ought to die.” John 19:7.
But these priests, scribes, and rulers were so exact in regard to their own maxims and traditions that they would not enter the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, so they might not eat the passover. The passover was a ceremony instituted by Christ Himself before His incarnation, but He who was the foundation of the whole Jewish economy was in their midst, His divinity clothed with humanity. Type was meeting antitype. And they had done unto Him as Satan had worked upon their deceived, deluded, hardened hearts to do.
The kingdom of darkness is extending over the world, and is embracing every sphere of action of men. There are evil spirits working effectually upon every mind that can be led into apostasy through any cause whatever. The spirit of evil energizes the children of rebellion.
These evil agencies were at work with Cain when he slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” “And to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.” Hebrews 11:4; 12:24, 25.
The same spirit that was moving the priests and rulers had moved the heart and mind of Cain to slay his brother. It is the apostasy from truth that worketh in the children of disobedience to silence the voice of those who are calling them to obedience, and provoke the loyal to become disloyal as Cain tried to provoke Abel.
A demoniacal spirit takes possession of men in our world. They combine the perverted animal life with the perverted human animal, intelligence making them human demons, detestable in the sight of God in proportion as they manifest the attributes of the satanic.
Demon intelligence, by culture, will rend and destroy man formed in the divine similitude because he man cannot control the conscience of his brother and make him disloyal to God’s holy law, because he himself is unrighteous like Cain, who was disobedient.
Satan was not a rough specimen of humanity. He had been one of the highest angels next to Christ.
All his beauty and intelligence and excellence was derived from God. But he misapplied his powers, broke his connection with God, and apostatized. And by practice he has an ever increasing knowledge of transgression. He has an ever increasing energy in using that acquired knowledge.
Thought is poisoned, and the force of wickedness, the abuse of his powers to hurt and destroy God’s heritage, will measure the daring of humanity, and their cruel satanic treatment of man against his fellow man. The more pain they can cause, the more complete is their work in destroying God’s heritage, and the more joy they give to the fallen apostate.
The world is represented in the apostate churches who are trampling upon the Word of God, transgressing His holy law. They know not what spirit they are of, nor the end of the dark tunnel through which they are passing. They are hastening forward, deceived, deluded, blind, to the first and second death.
The vast tide of human will and human passion is leading to things they did not dream of when they discarded the law of Jehovah for the inventions of man, to cause oppression and suffering to human beings. They have exalted phantoms, and eternal realities are naught to them. 12LtMs, Ms 104, 1897, par. 4 – 12LtMs, Ms 104, 1897, par. 13
#adventistangelswatchmanradio
#TidingsOfTheEast
#tidingsfromtheeast
#wiseshallunderstand
Adventist Angels Watchman Radio 