p. 8 | The Crisis by Stephen Nelson Haskell

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · May 10, 1906

The Crisis

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

S. N. HASKELL

THAT there is a crisis before the people of God is evident. In Revelation 13 we have the final conflict brought to view. It is the beast and his image which are exalted by laws contrary to the law of God. The mark of the beast will be enforced on the people of God. This is from without. It will be a crisis that will come upon every soul who lives. “If any man,” says the message. This draws a line between the people of God and the world. But a fiercer conflict is within, in the church itself; and this is over the spirit of prophecy. “Prophecying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.” “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.” “And the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Here are two things that call forth the hatred of Satan—the commandments of God and the spirit of prophecy. This principle is not new, for it is the same principle that existed in the days of the apostles.

Paul’s epistles, which afterward were compiled in the book called the New Testament, were first sent around to individual churches. Some believed them, and some did not. It drew a line in the early church. But they remain, and now the Christian world acknowledges them to be inspired of God. The apostle Peter, in speaking of them, said, “Even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” 2 Peter 3:15, 16.

There were two points the brethren at that time questioned: first, the apostle was influenced by others; second, a position that always goes with criticism—that there was a distinction to be drawn between letters and epistles. As to this latter point a moment’s reflection will convince any candid mind that in the New Testament, as well as in the Old Testament, a testimony of God is the same as a letter. The terms are synonymous. 2 Cor. 3:1-3; Jer. 29:1, 4. In this last instance what Jeremiah calls a letter begins with “Thus saith the Lord,” etc.

The apostle distinctly declares, “It hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.” If some of the latter-day critics were there, they would say, It was this letter of Chloe that influenced the apostle to write this first epistle of Corinthians. And this was true. How strange that it was put in the Bible and comes down to us as if it were as much inspired as Daniel, Isaiah, or Jeremiah! Yet so it is. And the second epistle corrected this error on the part of the brethren at Corinth; for they were troubled in the same manner. It was really the private letters of the household of Chloe that showed the apostle that the state of things existed which he had seen in vision would exist. So the first epistle to the Corinthians was as much inspired as any other portion of the Bible; and those who were earnestly seeking light did not cast his epistle aside. The Lord had shown him the dangers and difficulties that would arise in the church. So it is, and ever has been. God shows his prophets what will be, and then when circumstances arise, or the prophet has his attention called to it by private letters, he writes what he has seen. It is the same among the people of God to-day who have drifted away from the old landmarks, and who follow their own understanding. The apostle referred to this in his second epistle, and said they called his writing letters. And then adds, “Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present.” 2 Cor. 10:9-11. See also “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. V, “Testimonies

slighted.” It is thus demonstrated by the Bible alone that Testimonies, letters, symbolic actions, and verbal statements of a prophet are all of the same force. We do not say by this that everything a prophet says is inspired of God; but when God has set his servants to watch over the church, he does not leave them, notwithstanding the criticisms that may arise. “Let God be true, but every man a liar.” It was the straight testimony that purified the church in early times, and it will be the same in the remnant church. The severest conflict, therefore, that the people of God will pass through, the most trying and heart-searching, will be over the Testimonies of the spirit of prophecy.

San Bernardino, Cal.