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Appetite and Its Results

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 11, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 41.

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Appetite and Its Results

By Albert C. Anderson

ALBERT C. ANDERSON
MAN must overcome on the points where he was overcome; that is, upon appetite and the desire for unlawful knowledge. These are the two points upon which God’s people are sorely tempted to-day, and this pernicious seed sown by the arch rebel in Eden must be completely uprooted.
I wish to call the reader’s attention to the instruction found in the book “Christian Temperance:” —
“Infinite wisdom immediately devised the scheme of redemption, which placed man on a second probation, by giving him another trial, with the great Redeemer to help him in the work of forming a perfect character. And to say the very least, it is reasonable to suppose that, in the second probation, men would be tested just where God tested our first parents in Eden, and that the indulgence of the appetite and passions would be the greatest moral evil in this world during the period of human probation.”
“In the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking,” that is, giving loose rein to appetite, thus allowing Satan an opportunity to work upon the carnal passions. And the Saviour’s warning to his people living just prior to his second advent is, “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting [overeating], and drunkenness, and cares of this life [what we shall eat and drink, etc.], and so that day come upon you unawares.” It is true that the Bible speaks about the eating of clean meats, but God now, once and forever, desires to bring his people back to the original diet given at creation; and by the light given us through the spirit of prophecy we know we are going contrary to his will if we refuse to come back. God has plainly told us, through the spirit of prophecy, “that no longer are we to be a mixed multitude, and that now, just now, we are passing through the crisis that will bring deliverance to the people of God.”
By refusing to come back to the original diet which God gave man at creation, we confess that we do not believe that God will again restore our Eden home. In the new earth God will not permit us to take the lives of his beautiful animals to gratify our lustful appetites. It was by yielding to appetite that man lost his Eden home, and it is by a complete victory over this desire and all other evil desires that we shall be reinstated in our Eden home again. Then the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the young lion and the fatling shall lie down together, and none shall make them afraid; and furthermore, a little child shall lead them. Even the lion will then have no desire to live on a flesh diet; this carnivorous desire will have left both man and beast. See Hosea 2:18; Isa. 11:6-9.
When the Lord was leading Israel out of Egypt to the promised land, he chose for them the bill of fare which he saw was best for them; and they were a type of modern Israel who are going into the heavenly Canaan. “But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.” And every one who had greater love for the flesh-pots of Egypt, with the cucumbers, leeks, and onions, than for the prize set before them, fell in the wilderness. 1 Cor. 10:5, 6; Ex. 16:2-4; Num. 11:4-6. The man who striveth for the mastery must be temperate in all things, and “yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.”
The Redeemer began his work on the very point where man failed. He was not surrounded with all manner of good things which it was lawful to eat, but he was in the wilderness, and “when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.” Then is when the tempter came to him, and said, “If thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” Think of it,—he, the Lord of all creation, could turn the stones into bread immediately, yet he hungered; was not this a temptation? May we, like our Saviour, prove that we are his children, by living up to all the light given us.
“Again and again I have been shown that God is trying to lead us back, step by step, to his original design,—that man should subsist upon the natural products of the earth. Among those who are waiting for the coming of the Lord, meat eating will eventually be done away; flesh will cease to form a part of their diet. We should ever keep this end in view, and endeavor to work steadily toward it. I can not think that in the practise of flesh eating we are in harmony with the light which God hasbeen pleased to give us. . . . All who profess to be health reformers should for this very reason live it, at home and abroad, lest they become like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. May God help us to subdue our perverted appetites that we may enjoy the food originally provided for man at creation, and which will be his diet in the earth made new.”
If our bodies are “the temples of the Holy Ghost,” and we have dedicated them to high and noble uses, should we not watch and guard them from anything that would profane their holy character? Daniel understood this, and thus he “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” Dan. 1:8-12.
“The indulgence of lustful appetite wars against the soul; it is a constant hindrance to spiritual advancement. Those who yield to their lower impulses bear an accusing conscience; and when straight truths are presented, they are ready to take offense. They are self-condemned, and think that these subjects have been purposely selected in order to reprove them. They feel grieved and injured, and withdraw themselves from the assemblies of the church. Then the conscience is not so disturbed. Thus they soon lose their interest in the meetings, and their love for the truth. If these will crucify fleshly lusts, the arrows of truth will pass harmlessly by them. But while they indulge lustful appetite, and thus cherish their idols, they make themselves a mark for the shafts of truth; if the truth is spoken at all, it must wound them.”
God permits us to encounter obstacles, persecution, and hardship, not as a curse, but as the greatest blessings of our lives; and every temptation resisted, every trial bravely borne, gives us a new experience, and advances us in the work of character building. All are given for a purpose, and God desires that we should get the blessing out of every experience.
We can also compare our life to a voyage, and our body to a ship. We can all imagine how careful a wise captain would be that his ship should be built of strong timbers, well framed together, thoroughly seasoned, and best adapted for safety and speed; he would also make sure that no barnacles are hanging to the hull to slack her onward progress. How much more care, wisdom, and discretion we need who are voyagers on life’s tempestuous sea, and who have but this one ship, and but the one chance to sail between time and eternity.
Shall we, like many, linger, and drift with the human tide? or shall we make use of both the right and the left arm of the message? It requires neither oar nor sail to drift with the multitude, but it does demand both oars and undaunted nerve with unfailing courage to stem the tide in this degenerate age. And the Saviour’s words are: “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”