Our Bible Reading

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 1, 1910

Our Bible Reading

The Great Threefold Message

1. What great healing message is God sending out to this generation?

“And I saw another angel flying in mid heaven, having eternal good tidings to proclaim unto them that dwell on the earth, and unto every nation and tribe and tongue and people.” Rev. 14: 6.

2. What is the burden of that healing message?

“And he saith with a great voice, Fear God, and give Him glory; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.” Rev. 14: 7.

NOTE.—There are three important points in the above message applicable to the very age in which we live. Remember it is the Gospel message, but the Gospel message has special burden and special present truth for every generation. The three points emphasized in this message are

(1.) “Fear God and give Him glory.” The fear and worship of humanity are to be abjured. Men are to turn from giving glory to men, from worshiping the works of their own hands, from exalting mere human science above the Word of God. To God are they to give glory. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments.” God will not give His glory to another; He demands that men shall honor Him, and the truest honor that men can render to God is to listen to what He has to say.

(2.) “The hour of His judgment is come.” Paul preached of a judgment to come, and this message goes to the world that judgment is impending. “The hour of His judgment is come” is the last great message which goes to the world.

(3.) Worship the Creator. The world has gone mad after evolution, human attainment, human salvation. God calls men away from all this; pleads with them to yield themselves to Him who made the heaven and the earth, the sea and the fountains of waters; brings men back to God’s creative power, to His holy law, for the highest worship is service—Matt. 4:10—and to the Sabbath a memorial of His creative power. That message if accepted would have healed every division in Christendom; would have obliterated church creeds, broken down the unholy idols which men have erected in the place of God, and would have presented to a darkened and sin-loving world such a majestic front of righteousness and power that nothing could have stood before it.

3. How did ancient Babylon respond to God’s message?

“We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.” Jer. 51: 9.

4. How does modern Babylon respond to this healing message?

“And another, a second angel, followed, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, that hath made all nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Rev. 14: 8.

5. What does God call those who unite with the world, and what is their attitude to Him?

“Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God.” James 4: 4.

6. What is the duty of the Christian in the Christian church regarding the world?

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” 1 John 2:15-17.

7. To whom alone is God’s church lawfully united?

“Return, O backsliding children, saith Jehovah; for I am a husband unto you.” Jer. 3:14.

“I espoused you to one husband that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” 2 Cor. 11: 2.

8. What does God call a union of His church with the world?

Answer: “Fornication, adultery.” See Jeremiah 2 to 4; and Ezekiel 16.

9. What has always been the tendency of a church backslidden from God?

“Wo to the rebellious children, saith Jehovah, that take counsel, but not of Me; and that make a league, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; that set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at My mouth.” Isa. 30:1, 2.

“Wo to them that go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek Jehovah! . . . Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit: and when Jehovah shall stretch out His hand, both he that helpeth shall stumble, and he that is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.” Isa. 31:1-3.

NOTE.—Egypt and Assyria are types of civil powers. The principle is always the same whatever the nation or government; and history is one constant demonstration of the fact that when God’s church departed from Him and refused His healing messages, she has always united herself with the world, or committed spiritual fornication.

10. What will be the final result of such union?

“Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.” Isa. 30: 3.

11. What will inevitably follow when modern Babylon chooses her own way instead of God’s way?

“After these things I saw another angel coming down out of heaven, having great authority; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold [a prison, literally] of every unclean and hateful bird. For by the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations are fallen; and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of her wantonness. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, My people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: for her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Rev. 18:1-5.

NOTE.—Never were sadder words penned than the messages of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and John, depicting the awful fate of God’s children who departed from Him. It is infinitely sadder to think of a church of God to whom has come great light and privilege, through whom God has worked mightily in the salvation of souls, turning from her trust, her opportunities, her privileges, from the great message which made her all that she is, and trusting in herself and her own charms, her own riches, her own beauties, in union with the world, go down to destruction. When that time comes God’s plea comes not to the church but to each individual alone. “If any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with Me.”