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Editorial

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 2, 1903

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 22.

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Editorial

By Editor

Our Message

THERE is a message to be given to the world in this generation, and the Lord has raised up a people to give it. This denomination has been called out in the providence of God to do a distinct work, a work which is not being done by any other denomination. We should not be surprised if the enemy of God’s work should make an effort to confuse this people concerning their work, and to turn them aside from their specific mission in the world. He has attempted this more than once in the past. From the study of the Word of God we should be just as sure of our specific message for this generation as was John the Baptist in his time. He knew both his own place in prophecy and the message which he was to declare: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.”

Our Aim

JOHN the Baptist was a type of the people who should give the closing message of the gospel, in the generation just preceding the coming of the Lord, and our distinctive aim should be just what his was, “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” This aim being kept clearly before our minds should give great definiteness to our work. When our Lord returns, there is to be a people who are expecting him. They will not be in darkness so that that day will overtake them as a thief, and they will not be found with sins unconfessed and unforgiven. In that day the true church of Christ will be “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” There is a special work of preparation to be done that the church may be ready for translation. We should hold this steadily in mind as the distinctive aim in giving our message.

Our Work

As the forerunner of the Messiah, John the Baptist had a special work to do to prepare the way for the coming One. This was clearly set forth in the prophecy of his father Zacharias: “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins.” When we remember that the one purpose of this message is “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord,” we can readily see that the same prophecy which described the work of John the Baptist also describes our work. His work was to prepare the way of the Lord, and he was to do this by giving knowledge of salvation unto his people in the remission of their sins. It is sin which separated man from God in the first place. It is sin which has delayed for so many centuries the return of our Lord. It is the remission of sin which will prepare a people to meet the Lord face to face at his coming. And so in doing the work of preparation John the Baptist preached, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. . . . Then went out unto him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about the Jordan; and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” The same work is to be accomplished in this day of preparation by saying, with a loud voice, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” This is a call to repentance, for no one can give glory to God without confessing and forsaking his sins. Our work therefore is to minister salvation from sin,—a complete salvation from sin and sinning, that at the coming of Jesus there may be a people “found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.”

Seeing Jesus

JESUS is the sinner’s only hope. The one way of salvation for sinners from Adam to the close of probation is to look to Jesus. This was the hope held out in the promise of the seed of the woman who should bruise the head of the serpent. This was the lesson taught by lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. “And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon the standard: and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived.” “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life.” And so the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah, “There is no God else besides me, a just God and a Saviour; there is none besides me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.” But in the time of John the Baptist the people had lost sight of Jesus. They had so perverted the very forms of worship which God had established, and which were designed to reveal Christ to them as the sin-pardoning Saviour, that these same services had become the means of hiding Jesus from them. They did not look to Jesus in their temple service, and so they did not receive from him the blessing of forgiveness and righteousness. Then the Lord sent them a message pointing out Jesus to them as the only hope of salvation from sin. “Behold,” said John the Baptist, “the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” John prepared the way of the Lord by preaching repentance and the remission of sins, teaching the people of One who was to come, mightier than he. The condition of the people in this day, just before the second coming of Christ, is similar to the condition of the people in John’s day, just before the first coming of Christ. There is the form of godliness without the power. Outward ceremonies have taken the place of heart religion. There is little genuine faith in Jesus as the Saviour from sin, and consequently there is little of the genuine experience of being kept from the power of sin. There is need that the message of John the Baptist should be renewed among the people, and that there should be heard again the voice saying, “All flesh is grass. . . . Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come.” “Behold, the Lamb of God.”“Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.” This message must point out Jesus as the living Saviour, and must teach the people how to believe in him for all that they need in view of the things which are now coming upon the earth. And this is the message which is committed to us for our own salvation and for the salvation of the people. We are to see Jesus as he is, our Sacrifice, our Substitute, our Surety, and then we are to help others to see him. We are to accept him as “The Lord our Righteousness,” and then we are to help others to accept him. Thus the way of the Lord will be prepared, and there will be a people on the earth looking to Jesus and ready to hail him with joy when he comes. Blessed truth! Blessed Saviour! “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.”