A FAITHFUL WARNING by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 23, 1907

A FAITHFUL WARNING.

By Editor

It would naturally seem in the light of what God has said in His word—"Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets," and that the "more sure word of prophecy" is "a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn"—that He would give faithful warning to the world concerning the evils of this Church-and-State movement which is now sweeping over all the earth, threatening the liberties of all; and He has done this, in Rev. 14: 6-14. The first part of that message brings to us the everlasting Gospel, inviting men to fear God and give Him glory and serve Him; the second, that "Babylon," by which is meant all the various human institutions which would substitute their own ways of salvation for that of God's, is fallen; and the third is a warning to all souls everywhere not to worship the beast or his image, or receive its mark.

The beast power is symbolical in the word of God of Church-and-State government, whether Catholic or Protestant. For ages this has ravaged and cursed the world until the rising star of the great Republic of the West and the influence of a free and unfettered Christianity swept back the darkness and enlightened the world. But failing to appreciate the liberty,—God-given,—men are turning back to the old order of things, are making an image to the beast power, in the very nation which led the world from its darkness, and are demanding its worship and the reception of its mark.

Note also that God does not give this last warning for the salvation of His people. Nor is this issue of this paper published in the interests of those who will be persecuted. They have their rights, and those rights are worth pleading for; but the worst sufferers after all, those upon whom utter ruin will at last come, are those that will give themselves to this order of things, and mold their characters after the persecuting elements which are involved in it. Honest-hearted men who may differ from the law will suffer, but if they suffer for God they need not be ashamed; even so suffered their Master. Beyond the suffering, if faithful, lies eternal triumph; but those who cause the suffering enslave themselves. That we may at least lift a kindly warning voice to save them from this, this paper is published. But we entreat all who wish to know what God has to say in regard to all phases of the question to study His great threefold message in all its fulness of meaning.