DENYING GOD by L. A. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 29, 1901

DENYING GOD.

By L. A. S.

If we deny God, He also will deny us. So wrote Paul to Timothy. 2 Tim. 2:12. God will deny men in the same way that men deny Him.

How do men deny God? The atheist says, There is no God; but God is denied by church members as well as by atheists. In this same epistle to Timothy the apostle enumerates the evil traits which will be characteristic of men in the last days, one of which is that while men will have a “form of godliness,” they will deny “the power thereof.” The power of godliness is the power of God. It is the power which manifests God to the world; which declares that there is indeed a God of sovereign power in the heavens, whose kingdom ruleth over all, and who is working out His eternal purpose for the salvation of men in this world, according to the word which He has spoken. Whoever knows God must know the power of God; and whoever denies the power of God denies God himself.

The men of the last days have a form of godliness,

but deny the power thereof. They are lovers of self, covetous, proud, boasters, etc., exhibiting that which is directly contrary to the power of godliness. Thus they declare that they do not have the power of godliness, and do not know anything about it. So far as they are concerned, no such power exists. And thus they virtually say to the world by their lives, There is no God.

Peter denied his Lord by saying, “I know Him not.” Luke 22: 57. And all who know not the power of godliness, though their pretensions as followers of Christ may be great, bear the same testimony. “They profess that they know Him, but in works they deny Him.” But the sequel is that in the day of Judgment there is another denial made, this time on the part of God. “When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.” Luke 13: 25-27.

In his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul tells what it is to know the Lord: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.” Eph. 1: 17-20. We also, if we know that power, have been raised up together with Him to sit also with Him in the heavenly places. Eph. 2: 5, 6.

Do we know these things? or do our lives reveal no knowledge, no manifestation, of them? “If we deny Him, He also will deny us.” The Lord has introduced himself to us here; He will not do it in heaven. If we say to Him now, by word or act, I know you not, we shall hear an awful echo of these words in the Judgment day. L. A. S.