p. 3 | The Scoffers by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 5, 1902

The Scoffers

By Editor

Editorial

The Scoffers

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?” It is not necessary to put this inquiry into words in order to be a scoffer. He who in this last generation plans for money making and money keeping just like any worldling, although he professes to believe in the soon coming of the Lord, is to all intents and purposes a scoffer. If anything, he is worse than the ordinary scoffer, because he stands before the world as a hypocrite as well as a scoffer. There is no room for scoffers in the ranks of the believers. Let them be converted to the message of a soon-coming Saviour.

Plenteous Redemption

THE Lord forgives freely and fully. The provision which he has made is sufficient to meet the case of every one who is willing to be forgiven. “Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.” When the devil cannot keep one in a state of carelessness concerning his sins, and he is really aroused to turn to the Lord, then the enemy urges upon him the thought that he has been too great a sinner to expect forgiveness. Then some one who knows the Lord should be near to repeat the gracious assurances, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy.” The name of the Lord is a pledge of forgiveness. “And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. . . . The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” The faithfulness and righteousness of God, his very being and character, are involved in the forgiveness of sin. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Let each one adopt the prayer of David: “Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily. Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.”

Coming Quickly

THE prophecies concerning the coming of the Lord are plain and definite. He who is willing to know the truth will not be left in doubt and darkness. Line after line of prophecy has been given in which those events and that condition of the world which indicate the approaching end have been plainly described. When the last generation is reached, the remaining time is measured by the word “quickly.” Thus in the prophecy of the seven trumpets, after the sixth angel, the second woe trumpet, had sounded, we have the statement, “The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.” The period covered by the sixth trumpet, the second woe trumpet, ended Aug. 11, 1840, when the Ottoman empire ceased to be an independent power among the nations. The prophecy declares that the third woe, or the seventh trumpet, will come “quickly” after the sounding of the sixth trumpet. “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which he declared to his servants the prophets.” “And the seventh angel sounded; and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ: and he shall reign forever and ever.” Over sixty years have already passed of a period measured by the word “quickly.” “For yet a little while, how short! how short! the Coming One will be here, and will not delay.” Are you ready to say, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation”? “Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

Heaven upon Earth

THE love of God reigns supreme in heaven. His angels that excel in strength, “do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.” His ministers do his pleasure. Every being in the heavenly host delights to do the will of God. When Jesus came to earth, the same purpose actuated him in his daily life among men. The prophecy declared of him, “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” While engaged in his ministry he said, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” He taught his followers to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Where the will of God is done as it is in heaven, there the principles of the kingdom of heaven are established. It was thus that heaven was brought down to earth in the person and work of Jesus, and thus is it made possible for us to have a heaven upon earth in which to live and work while journeying toward heaven. Far was it from the purpose of Jesus to change or abolish the eternal principles of truth as expressed in God’s law, or to do a work for man which would excuse him from doing the will of God as expressed in that law. To do this would be to adopt principles which are entirely foreign to the kingdom of heaven. The work of Jesus made it possible that the same heavenly principles should be followed here upon the earth, even under the curse of sin and while we abide in sinful flesh, as are the security and the joy of heaven. Only in this way could the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall “stand forever.” “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” “He that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”

God’s Fellow Workers

IN carrying forward his work upon the earth, the Lord uses human instrumentalities as the visible agencies for the ministry of his grace and mercy. Through humanity he reaches humanity. He uses the testimony of forgiven sinners as the message of hope to those who are still in the bondage of sin. In making known his goodness to us, we are laborers together with God in the extension of his kingdom in the earth. “All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” This privilege does not belong to the few, but to every one who is “in Christ,” who is “a new creature,” with whom old things have passed away, and to whom “all things are become new.” When we thus work with him, he works with us. The Lord himself on the throne in heaven directs men on the earth, and works with them in the carrying out of his purposes. Thus it was in the early church. “And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.” Thus it should be in the church to-day. Such testimony should be borne to the love and goodness of God, and his power to save from sin, and such works should be wrought through the faith of the believers, that those who stand by should be constrained to say, These persons have been with Jesus. It is our privilege to be God’s fellow workers, intimately associated with the God of wisdom and power in the accomplishment of his purposes of grace and mercy for the lost. “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.”