Provision for Its Restoration by J. O. Corliss

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 7, 1911

Provision for Its Restoration

By J. O. Corliss

Tracings of the Prophetic Gift — No. 18

Provision for Its Restoration

J. O. CORLISS

The very first promise of the Bible is that the seed of the first woman should finally bruise the serpent’s (Satan’s) head. Gen. 3:15. The meaning of this is made plain in the one hundred tenth psalm. There the Lord Jesus is introduced as the Melchizedek priest who is to judge the heathen, and wound the heads over many countries. While Christ is the Seed by whom this work will be done, he will accomplish his purpose through his church, which carries his name, and is commissioned to carry on his work in the earth.

But the present state of world affairs reveals that the head of the old serpent (Rev. 12:9) has not yet been broken, but that he still reigns among men, leading them to push his plans of opposition to God’s work. He does not, however, employ the apparently worst characters among men to carry on his warfare, but when possible, he seeks out and inspires those for his designs who profess to be followers of Christ. It was through the church of the dark ages,—the one claiming to be Christ’s representative on earth,—that he did the most appalling work of persecution recorded in the history of the world.

And yet this did not satisfy the dragon’s wrath. We learn that he has reserved his strongest efforts in this direction to be visited upon the closing generation of men. Thus we read: “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Rev. 12:17. In this scripture we not only have portrayed the predicted raid to be made against the last of the woman’s seed, but the very reason for such an attack is openly announced; namely, that the offending remnant keep the commandments of God, and have the “testimony of Jesus Christ.”

But why should these particular attainments so stir the wrath of the dragon?—Simply because the practise that these acquirements set in motion are opposed to Satan’s earliest and continued efforts to pervert knowledge of the true God. It is of general understanding that the unity of God is the one doctrine upon which revelation lays the greatest stress. To guard this point was the principal object of the Jewish religion. This doctrine prefaces every important utterance of the Old Testament, from the speaking of the ten commandments to the outlines of minute ceremonials. Every prophetic warning kept this particular aspect in mind. The Lord Jesus always presented his Father in the forefront of all his teachings. The apostle Paul was careful to say that while there were in his day lords many and gods many, to him and his associates there was but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him. 1 Cor. 8:5, 6.

The delivery of the law from Sinai, amid awful thunderings and lightnings, was a great tidal movement in human life. But as no wave can remain indefinitely uplifted at its height, the prophetic order there came in to repeat in the ears of those Hebrew refugees the oneness of God, which was so wonderfully demonstrated to them while at the base of Sinai, but the impressions of which, as the sense of the occasion should pass, would gradually wane away. Their work then was, as was the Saviour’s in a later day, to fulfil the law, by magnifying it and making it honorable.

The provision was one which boded divine foresight. Without this display of foreknowledge, God’s people would have been required to meet their common enemy with only blank moral cartridges, which are ever impotent to subdue the mob of social passions. Indeed, man at his best state realizes the need of high spiritual backing, and looks to the “beyond” for that which he does not find in any stratum of human society. One popular writer has truthfully remarked that the church has never the right to lose the spirit of prophecy, because to keep it, and humbly to exercise it, is one of the first conditions of progress.

This thought, if all knew how to express it, would be, from the very nature of things, repeated by the majority of lips, because of the helplessness of the human mind to grasp the intent of Heaven-inspired words. Because many in every age have waited for saint or prophet to lead their way, advantage was taken of the situation; and that religio-political combination known as the Papacy met the humanizing demand by setting up the head of its organization as the prophet of God.

Having succeeded in being thus recognized, instead of directing minds to the one God, the Creator of heaven and earth, as the source of comforting hope, this pseudo-prophet abolished the observance of the Sabbath instituted for the sole purpose of establishing the unity of God, and thus turned men from the worship of Jehovah to see in himself an object of adoration.

But when the remnant, or last end, of the woman’s seed is due,—when the hour of judgment arrives,—then the call is for all nations to break away from this false adoration, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the only true God. Rev. 14:6, 7. This is what renews the conflict of the ages. It is this that introduces a world contention such as never was to that time, because it is the closing of the age-lasting contention.

In the bitterness of such a controversy, intensity will take possession of every earthly element. Old disputes will be renewed, which were thought to have long ago been hushed; and new and subtle ones will spring to the front. Amid all this will be needed a knowledge of Jehovah’s will. But how may one know this when surrounded by so many clashing sentiments and so much angry discourse? Will God leave his people then to battle alone with the surging elements? How could he, and be the same God who always responded to the appeal of his old-time people?

In view of the fact that the judgment hovers near, and that every case must receive the scrutiny of both law and prophets (Rom. 3:21), each individual seeks the direction of the law as laid open by the “testimony of Jesus,” which is the spirit of prophecy, knowing that only by the most careful walk can any one pass the solemn test to be encountered. The hostility to be met from the dragon’s wrath becomes so galling as to drive the faithful few to their only refuge, the ever sure promise of protecting power. In response to this expression of confiding faith, messages of comforting hope come through the prophet of God, infusing courage into the patient upholder of the commandments of God. Rev. 14:12.

Through this one method, victory is to be gained over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name. These will “sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” Rev. 15:2, 3. Thus will close the long-continued controversy, with the saints standing in the very presence of him who has so diligently sought to keep in close relation with men, by “rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place.” 2 Chron. 36:15.

Mountain View, Cal.