Who Is Responsible ? by I. H. EVANS.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jan 19, 1905

Who Is Responsible ?

By I. H. EVANS.

WHENEVER God has had a message for the world, he has invariably used human agencies for its proclamation. Only once is there any record of God's dealing otherwise.

The warning of the flood was a world-wide message, and was to be given in one generation. God revealed his plan to Noah, who was to be the preacher of righteousness.

To Moses God revealed his plan for delivering Israel from Egyptian bondage, and it was the same man who must bear God's message before Pharaoh.

Nineveh was to be destroyed. The prophet Jonah was the instrument chosen by Heaven to warn the city.

When the herald of a coming Messiah must prepare the people of Judea for their King, it was John the Baptist who delivered the message.

When God reveals a truth or a message to an individual, it then becomes an individual responsibility with that one to deliver that message to those whom it concerns. If the destinies of destruction are pent up in the warning, how imperative that the message be delivered to those who must perish if it is not received.

If Jonah had failed to warn the people of Nineveh of their threatened doom, would he have been free, and all that vast city left to perish because he refused to deliver God's message of reproof?—Nay, verily. He must have perished, and God would have sent his warning by other hands.

Let God speak to us on this subject: “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. Again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.” Eze. 3:17-21.

Now note the responsibility of the one knowing the right, who understands the danger, but who fails to deliver the warning. He must answer for the soul of the lost. “His blood will I require at thine hand.” But if the message is delivered, and the warning given, and the soul will not receive the same, “thou hast delivered thy soul” though he perish.

To whom does this apply? Certainly not to any one class to the exclusion of all others. It can not apply to the ministry alone, nor to the missionary in foreign fields only. It must apply to each individual to whom God has revealed a special message.

The third angel's message is a special warning message. Turn to your Bible and read it in Rev. 14:9-12. No such denunciation of wrath as this can be found against any other people in all the Bible. The punishment is “without mercy,” upon those who worship the beast and his image, or who receive his mark.

Who is to give this warning? Angels?—No; for God always uses human agents to proclaim his messages. Then who must give this message?—Evidently those to whom God reveals this truth. The Methodists can not give it; for they know it not. The Baptists can not give it, nor the Congregationalists, nor the Presbyterians, nor any other organization that does not even pretend to believe its truth. Who, then, will give it? God will first reveal that message to some honest heart. Then the world warning must begin. That one soul must tell others, and they must tell others, and each receiving the message will carry it on to others, the circle ever widening as each new convert adds his warning voice to those already proclaiming the message.

Each soul receiving the truth must then become a proclaimer of that truth. His share in giving the warning message can not be neglected, or there will be the “blood of souls” to answer for.

Then who is responsible to God for seeing that the third angel's message goes to all the world?—Not the General Conference Committee, nor the Mission Board alone. They are responsible for

their trusts, and as individuals. But who is responsible before God for this work and its success? The answer must be, Each soul who receives the message of God is responsible to him for passing the same message on and on to the very limit of his ability.

Let us humbly ask, Are we faithful in our work? Are we doing all we can to advance the cause of God? To this end let us each labor and pray.

I. H. EVANS.