Perpetual War | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 27, 1883

Perpetual War.

SAYS our Saviour "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace but a sword." Matt. 10 : 34.

Our Lord here recognizes the fact that a large majority of mankind will not accept the truth, and the consequence will be perpetual war. But does not the prophet call the Christ the Prince of peace? Isaiah 9 : 6. Did not the angels sing at his birth, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good-will toward man"? The time of peace on earth has not yet come, nor need we expect it till all things are put under the feet of the Prince of peace. The great war between truth and error has long been raging, and the storm will continue until Christ our Lord appears.

Men cry, "Stop that preaching of immersion! Stop that denying of the immortality of the soul! Stop preaching, that 'the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God!' These things are non-essentials. You create divisions and bitterness. What difference does it make what we believe if we are sincere?" No, we cannot stop. Your efforts to gain peace by trying to suppress the truth will be unavailing. The word of God was intended for the dividing wedge between the lovers of truth and the lovers of error, and it is surely doing its work. It would be as easy to change the course of the planets as to overthrow the purposes of God. There have ever been, and will continue to be, those who "earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints." Jude 1 : 3. God will record these as his own. Those who love the error serve the father of the lie, and violate the first commandment. For God is the God of truth, and the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. John 14 : 16, 17. EPSILON.