p. 7 | THE GREAT TEST

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 11, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 19.

THE GREAT TEST.

We are now entering upon the time of this world's greatest test. When Satan appeared to Christ in the wilderness with his great array of temptations, he reserved his greatest till the last.

He first urged Christ to minister to His own wants by turning the stones into bread. This failed. He then sought to have Christ prove by a presumptuous act that He was the Son of God. This, too, failed. Then came the supreme test. Christ had come to this world to redeem it back from the usurper, Satan. He had come prepared to lay down His life for that purpose. Now comes the tempter—the very one out of whose hands Christ was to win this world and its willing inhabitants—with a scheme by which Christ could gain "all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them," without the necessity of His cruel death upon the cross. Satan's proposition is this: "All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me." Christ could have yielded, received what Satan promised, and then perished with Satan and his world. But the scheme failed; the redemption price was paid; and the earth and its inhabitants are redeemed from the hand of the enemy. Many will not avail themselves of their purchased rights, and so will be lost; but, nevertheless, the work has been done, and the world and the race have been redeemed.

But the great test comes, in the hour of greatest physical weakness, over the matter of worship. Christ's answer to the tempter was, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." As that was Satan's great test for Christ, we may expect to see a similar test brought upon the people of the last generation of this world. Christ, in His answer to Satan, has given us the proper ground upon which to stand: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." That admonition is needed to-day as never in the past.

How do we know this?—Principally by the fact that God's last great message to this world—to the people of this last generation—is based upon that very matter, the matter of worship. Hear Him: "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. Had we only this, we would be without excuse for yielding to the last powerful deception of the enemy; but the Lord does not leave it there. The warning continues (verses 9 and 10): "If any man worshipeth the beast and his image, and receiveth a mark on his forehead, or upon his hand, he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of His anger."

That is a solemn warning. It is not given without a cause. God foreknew that the most subtle deceptions this world has ever experienced would be practiced upon the world in the last days. He foreknew also that that deception would come over the matter of worship. So He not only tells the world who should be worshiped, but who must not be worshiped, and declares the penalty that will be visited upon those who will not heed. In that last punishment there is no mixture of mercy; for all that mercy could do it has done, and those upon whom that punishment is inflicted are those who will go down into eternal death.

The Word has directed our attention to that power which is to demand worship from the people of this age. The Revelator designates it by the term "beast."

"And they worshiped the dragon, because he gave his authority unto the beast; and they worshiped the beast. . . . And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, every one whose name hath not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain. . . . And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like unto a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the authority of the first beast in his sight. And he maketh the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose death-stroke was healed, . . . saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who hath the stroke of the sword and lived. And it was given unto him to give breath to it, even to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as should not worship the image of the beast should be killed." Rev. 13:4-15.

Here, then, we have two great powers whose principles are opposed the one to the other, and both having to do with worship. God is telling men their duty toward Him in the matter of worship, and warning them against the worship of the "beast" and his image, declaring to them that eternal death will be the penalty for disobedience. On the other hand stands the "beast" power and the "image," demanding the worship of men, and proclaiming sentence of death upon all who refuse that worship. Beyond question that "beast" power is the Papacy. An "image" to it in this hemisphere is now in the process of making; and the time is not distant when these will work as one in demanding the religious obedience, the worship, of the world, under the penalty which has been named. This will be accomplished by the influence which these powers will wield throughout the world. Plans are fast being consummated in this country which are to bring about that "image" of the Papacy, the union of church and state. With that accomplished, the road is easy and the distance short, to the accomplishment of all that the prophet predicts in this matter.

But there will be those who will stand loyal and true to God through all the days of this most fearful test and trial. Of them it is said: "Here is the patience of the saints, they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12. One of these commandments reads, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me;" and another, in part: "Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them;" and another reads, in part: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto Jehovah thy God." Those who yield to the "beast" power will be breaking these commands; for they will worship the beast and his image, and they will keep as a sabbath the day which that power has prescribed. But upon such will be poured out the unmixed wrath of God. Against the other class, who have refused to yield to the deception of the enemy, who have worshiped and served God only, stands the menacing decree of the "beast" power; but the prophet assures them that their names are written in the Lamb's book of life. They have stood the great test, and have triumphed in the name and power of Christ. To such is this promise of the Saviour: "He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His throne." Rev. 3:21. In the time of Christ's greatest physical weakness that greatest of Satan's temptations came to Him. Just so in the time of this world's greatest weakness come Satan's greatest deception and greatest demand. With "all deceivableness of unrighteousness" we may expect to see that deception worked and that demand insisted upon; but God has faithfully warned the world; and, when the great test comes, and the demand is made by that heaven-defying power for the worship of men, "see thou do it not," for the most priceless interests of the soul are at stake.