And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
We know that we are of God, while the whole world lies in the evil one, under Satan's control and the power of a leader at enmity with God. Nearly the whole world lies in this state, which is spiritual darkness and death, sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death under almost universal sway through temptation. That knowledge gives confidence and assurance that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us and we have the petitions we desire of Him. Because the world is sunk in wickedness, God's people are called to come out from it and stand separate and distinct as His peculiar people, with no fellowship with the works of darkness. That dark, perishing condition makes the salvation of souls urgent, calling Christians to use every means to turn people from destruction to life and to proclaim the warning message before the end.
Wording and Condition
The whole world lying in wickedness means lying in the evil one, held under Satan's control and under the power of a leader at enmity with God. In that state the authority of God is scarcely recognized by His created beings, while the mystery of iniquity works with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish and leaves the world in darkness that calls for work to enlighten it.
Nearly the whole world lies in this wickedness, which is spiritual darkness and death. It is sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death and facing death, and those in it need the light of the gospel and instruction in what it means to believe God's word. Those who belong to God are distinct from it and have words of hope to bring, for Christ brings hope and light to those in that darkness and believers in Christ are called to teach the truths of the gospel to them.
Those who do not know God are held by the prince of darkness and stand exposed to God's wrath. The prince of darkness works actively to defend his cause under the power of evil, and his willing subjects unite in promoting transgression and sin. This condition calls for love for souls that seeks to save the erring and win them to Christ, with a Christian zeal that is not mere casual emotion but deep, earnest and strong, a settled principle pervading the entire being with the whole soul aglow with love to God, and such zeal is greatly lacking.
Lying in wickedness is lying in deception and delusion, asleep in the very shadow of death. The world in that sleep is in spiritual darkness and in peril, in darkness that needs the light of truth and the gospel shared with its people. It is marked by evil practices from which those to be fitted for heaven must separate themselves, and by growing wickedness under Satan's increasing influence set against the accepted evil teachings of the world.
Satan's Rule and History
By transgression man became Satan's captive, and man's kingdom was betrayed into the hands of the arch-rebel. The whole world lying in wickedness is the earth thus brought under Satan's control. With that betrayal the way was opened for him to establish an independent kingdom in defiance of the authority of God and His Son.
Since the fall sin has brought moral darkness and misery upon the fallen world under the power of wickedness. Through temptation Satan has exercised almost universal sway over humanity in that fallen state. At the time of Christ's first coming he was doing about as he pleased in the world. He was reigning in the hearts of men and filling the world with disease and woe and human misery. Christ came to break the power of the enemy and to redeem man as His purchased possession.
The world lying in wickedness is a world lying in darkness and under the power of evil. Its guilt and sins weighed heavily on Christ as He faced the final conflict with Satan and bore the consequences of sin. The prince of darkness works actively to defend his cause. His willing subjects unite with him in promoting transgression and sin.
The world lies in spiritual darkness under Satan's rule, but righteousness will prevail in a better day. Through the plan of salvation man can be brought again into harmony with God in obedience to His law. Both man and the earth will finally be redeemed from the power of the wicked one. God's people should therefore value and share the light so that people may be brought out of darkness.
Belonging to God
To know that we are of God is possible because the Son of God has come and has given understanding to know Him who is true and to be in Him who is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. That knowing carries confidence and assurance that if anything is asked according to His will He hears, and that those who ask have the petitions desired of Him. It is as acceptable as Solomon's prayer and as certain as the promises to answer prayer offered in His name by those who love Him, keep His commandments, and abide in Him.
Those who are of God belong to Him and to His kingdom and stand distinct from the world lying in wickedness. They are set apart from millions who remain under Satan's undisturbed domination. There are only two places in the universe where treasures can be placed, in God's storehouse or in Satan's.
God's children stand in contrast to a world increasingly under Satan's influence and marked by growing wickedness. Against the world's accepted evil teachings, Christ's teachings are to be seen in the lives of converted men and women. Those counted as true men in God's sight and recorded as His in heaven prove it by cultivating every faculty as Daniel did, so as best to represent God's kingdom within that evil world. They become men of thought and principle who constantly grow in understanding and discernment, for progress in knowledge is essential and knowledge employed in God's cause is a power for good.
Mission to Dark World
The dark, wicked condition of the world makes it a field in need of saving, a broad field for labor beyond churches already ahead. It is a perishing world in need of God's last warning message, yet many places remain unwarned and neglected. The whole world lies in sin and many have never heard the truth, so the warning message must be proclaimed to it.
That condition makes the salvation of perishing souls urgent, calling Christians to use every means to turn people from destruction to the path of life. People who do not know God stand exposed to His wrath and held by the prince of darkness, and the whole world lying in wickedness stands exposed to God's wrath. This calls for love for souls that seeks to save the erring and win them to Christ, with a zeal that is not mere casual emotion but deep, earnest and strong, a settled principle pervading the entire being with the whole soul aglow with love to God, and such zeal is greatly lacking. The whole world lies in wickedness under the perils of the last days now present and must receive the warning message. The whole world lying in wickedness is lying in deception and delusion, in the very shadow of death, asleep, and this calls for travail of soul to awaken sinners and for a voice that can reach them before the coming of the Bridegroom.
God's workers are to represent His kingdom in that wicked world and spread the truth to every nation and people. That condition is the setting in which workers cultivate their abilities to represent God's kingdom, through cultivated abilities, knowledge, and discernment. God's followers witness for Him in that world by faithfully serving Him and seeking the salvation of souls.
Those who are of God belong to the kingdom of God while the whole world lies in evil, and they prove it by cultivating every faculty as Daniel did so as to best represent God's kingdom inside that evil world, becoming men of thought and principle who constantly grow in understanding and discernment. They are to use intellect and the press to speed truth to every nation, tongue, and people and send clear, bright light to those in the darkness of error, for knowledge employed in God's cause is a power for good and men are needed to use the press to the best advantage so truth is given wings. Ministers must not hover over the churches but go forth into new fields, adding new territory to the Lord's kingdom and planting the standard in towns and cities that have never heard the truth.
Nearly the whole world lies in wickedness in spiritual darkness and death, sitting in darkness and under the shadow of death, and people in this state need the light of the gospel. Those who know the way of life are to teach them what it means to believe God's word, giving gospel instruction and bringing the hope and light Christ gives and words of hope to those facing death. Every child of God must receive truths and reveal them to the wicked world, and those truths are contained in the sanctuary.
The condition of an ungodly church and world burdened the true watchmen, and that burden moved them to endure hardship and call people to repentance and salvation. The world's wickedness and the church's worldliness likewise called William Miller to preach the gospel with toil and endurance.
The church is called to work with the Lord to awaken people to their danger, for the world lies in spiritual darkness and is in peril. Human effort alone cannot draw anyone to Christ, but the light of the uplifted cross draws hearts toward heaven, so believers must receive Christ's indwelling light and the Spirit of truth. Sanctification through God's Word equips them to overcome the powers of darkness and win souls. Meeting the need for the warning message requires the missionary spirit and the true working of the Holy Spirit upon individual character, which vivifies workers against stagnation, narrowing up, Pharisaical rules, and lax methods that confuse the spiritual senses and blind spiritual eyesight.
Those who are of God must not dishonor the Lord by living to please and gratify self, for He cannot work through such to represent Him to those ignorant of the truth. They must not hinder proclamation to the wicked world by unwise expenditure of means, but must study economy, cut personal expense to the lowest figure, meet the necessities of God's cause, put away fostered pride and selfish gratification lest blessings be removed, and gladly accept the truth heard so it saves them and works in life in growth in grace and in knowledge of God. There are only two places in the universe in which treasures can be placed, in God's storehouse or in Satan's, and those who are of God are set apart from millions who remain under Satan's undisturbed domination. For want of means God's work moves slowly so that workers are not able to enter new fields.
Separation and Faithful Service
Because the world is sunk in wickedness, those who are of God are called to be His special people in a much higher sense than many have realized. They must come out from the world and stand separate and distinct as His peculiar people, free from worldly customs and worldly habits and not according with worldly sentiments. They are to be earnest in all their service, having no fellowship with the works of darkness. Those to be fitted for heaven must separate themselves from the world's evil practices, overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. That overcoming is testified by good works, for faith without works is dead.
Since the world around lies in wickedness while those who are of God claim to be His sons and daughters, God-given time spent on unimportant things that give no spiritual strength separates from God and cannot be afforded. The world is under the power of a leader at enmity with God, so its direction is opposed to God's will, and God's people are not to use their powers in harmony with it. Those who are of God must give back all the powers He gave them in willing service to save the souls around them. That means living with the day of final reckoning in view, keeping His commandments, and following the rules He gave to regulate life so as to have His care and protection in this life.
The gospel stands in sharp antagonism to the spirit of the world because the whole world lies in wickedness, and those who handle sacred things must remember that divide. They must put Christ first and the world second, walk daily with God, earnestly seek heavenly direction, and receive the anointing of the Spirit to discern sacred and eternal realities and to give eternal and temporal matters their right importance. Keeping the business transactions of God's institutions under divine approval keeps a worldly mold from being placed upon God's work, a result Satan constantly works to produce and the Lord opposes. Workmen who separate from Christ and follow worldly business ways come under God's displeasure, exert a wrong influence, and give examples that can cause loss of souls. Staying on the gospel side means practicing noble integrity in every transaction, loving the neighbor as self, and representing Christ in spirit, temper, deportment, and honest dealing, while sharp bargains made to advantage self to the disadvantage of another violate God's law and belong to the world.
Believers have as yet scarcely been a light to the wicked world because they cling to sinful, corrupting practices and stay satisfied with only a twilight glow of heavenly enlightenment. They have only stepped over the threshold of the sanctuary without gaining the experience that will make them feel at home in heaven. Every child of God must receive the truths contained in the sanctuary and reveal them to that world.
We know that we are of God, while the whole world lies in the evil one, under Satan's control and the power of a leader at enmity with God. Nearly the whole world lies in this state, which is spiritual darkness and death, sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death under almost universal sway through temptation. That knowledge gives confidence and assurance that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us and we have the petitions we desire of Him. Because the world is sunk in wickedness, God's people are called to come out from it and stand separate and distinct as His peculiar people, with no fellowship with the works of darkness. That dark, perishing condition makes the salvation of souls urgent, calling Christians to use every means to turn people from destruction to life and to proclaim the warning message before the end.
Wording and Condition
The whole world lying in wickedness means lying in the evil one, held under Satan's control and under the power of a leader at enmity with God. In that state the authority of God is scarcely recognized by His created beings, while the mystery of iniquity works with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish and leaves the world in darkness that calls for work to enlighten it.
Nearly the whole world lies in this wickedness, which is spiritual darkness and death. It is sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death and facing death, and those in it need the light of the gospel and instruction in what it means to believe God's word. Those who belong to God are distinct from it and have words of hope to bring, for Christ brings hope and light to those in that darkness and believers in Christ are called to teach the truths of the gospel to them.
Those who do not know God are held by the prince of darkness and stand exposed to God's wrath. The prince of darkness works actively to defend his cause under the power of evil, and his willing subjects unite in promoting transgression and sin. This condition calls for love for souls that seeks to save the erring and win them to Christ, with a Christian zeal that is not mere casual emotion but deep, earnest and strong, a settled principle pervading the entire being with the whole soul aglow with love to God, and such zeal is greatly lacking.
Lying in wickedness is lying in deception and delusion, asleep in the very shadow of death. The world in that sleep is in spiritual darkness and in peril, in darkness that needs the light of truth and the gospel shared with its people. It is marked by evil practices from which those to be fitted for heaven must separate themselves, and by growing wickedness under Satan's increasing influence set against the accepted evil teachings of the world.
Satan's Rule and History
By transgression man became Satan's captive, and man's kingdom was betrayed into the hands of the arch-rebel. The whole world lying in wickedness is the earth thus brought under Satan's control. With that betrayal the way was opened for him to establish an independent kingdom in defiance of the authority of God and His Son.
Since the fall sin has brought moral darkness and misery upon the fallen world under the power of wickedness. Through temptation Satan has exercised almost universal sway over humanity in that fallen state. At the time of Christ's first coming he was doing about as he pleased in the world. He was reigning in the hearts of men and filling the world with disease and woe and human misery. Christ came to break the power of the enemy and to redeem man as His purchased possession.
The world lying in wickedness is a world lying in darkness and under the power of evil. Its guilt and sins weighed heavily on Christ as He faced the final conflict with Satan and bore the consequences of sin. The prince of darkness works actively to defend his cause. His willing subjects unite with him in promoting transgression and sin.
The world lies in spiritual darkness under Satan's rule, but righteousness will prevail in a better day. Through the plan of salvation man can be brought again into harmony with God in obedience to His law. Both man and the earth will finally be redeemed from the power of the wicked one. God's people should therefore value and share the light so that people may be brought out of darkness.
Belonging to God
To know that we are of God is possible because the Son of God has come and has given understanding to know Him who is true and to be in Him who is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. That knowing carries confidence and assurance that if anything is asked according to His will He hears, and that those who ask have the petitions desired of Him. It is as acceptable as Solomon's prayer and as certain as the promises to answer prayer offered in His name by those who love Him, keep His commandments, and abide in Him.
Those who are of God belong to Him and to His kingdom and stand distinct from the world lying in wickedness. They are set apart from millions who remain under Satan's undisturbed domination. There are only two places in the universe where treasures can be placed, in God's storehouse or in Satan's.
God's children stand in contrast to a world increasingly under Satan's influence and marked by growing wickedness. Against the world's accepted evil teachings, Christ's teachings are to be seen in the lives of converted men and women. Those counted as true men in God's sight and recorded as His in heaven prove it by cultivating every faculty as Daniel did, so as best to represent God's kingdom within that evil world. They become men of thought and principle who constantly grow in understanding and discernment, for progress in knowledge is essential and knowledge employed in God's cause is a power for good.
Mission to Dark World
The dark, wicked condition of the world makes it a field in need of saving, a broad field for labor beyond churches already ahead. It is a perishing world in need of God's last warning message, yet many places remain unwarned and neglected. The whole world lies in sin and many have never heard the truth, so the warning message must be proclaimed to it.
That condition makes the salvation of perishing souls urgent, calling Christians to use every means to turn people from destruction to the path of life. People who do not know God stand exposed to His wrath and held by the prince of darkness, and the whole world lying in wickedness stands exposed to God's wrath. This calls for love for souls that seeks to save the erring and win them to Christ, with a zeal that is not mere casual emotion but deep, earnest and strong, a settled principle pervading the entire being with the whole soul aglow with love to God, and such zeal is greatly lacking. The whole world lies in wickedness under the perils of the last days now present and must receive the warning message. The whole world lying in wickedness is lying in deception and delusion, in the very shadow of death, asleep, and this calls for travail of soul to awaken sinners and for a voice that can reach them before the coming of the Bridegroom.
God's workers are to represent His kingdom in that wicked world and spread the truth to every nation and people. That condition is the setting in which workers cultivate their abilities to represent God's kingdom, through cultivated abilities, knowledge, and discernment. God's followers witness for Him in that world by faithfully serving Him and seeking the salvation of souls.
Those who are of God belong to the kingdom of God while the whole world lies in evil, and they prove it by cultivating every faculty as Daniel did so as to best represent God's kingdom inside that evil world, becoming men of thought and principle who constantly grow in understanding and discernment. They are to use intellect and the press to speed truth to every nation, tongue, and people and send clear, bright light to those in the darkness of error, for knowledge employed in God's cause is a power for good and men are needed to use the press to the best advantage so truth is given wings. Ministers must not hover over the churches but go forth into new fields, adding new territory to the Lord's kingdom and planting the standard in towns and cities that have never heard the truth.
Nearly the whole world lies in wickedness in spiritual darkness and death, sitting in darkness and under the shadow of death, and people in this state need the light of the gospel. Those who know the way of life are to teach them what it means to believe God's word, giving gospel instruction and bringing the hope and light Christ gives and words of hope to those facing death. Every child of God must receive truths and reveal them to the wicked world, and those truths are contained in the sanctuary.
The condition of an ungodly church and world burdened the true watchmen, and that burden moved them to endure hardship and call people to repentance and salvation. The world's wickedness and the church's worldliness likewise called William Miller to preach the gospel with toil and endurance.
The church is called to work with the Lord to awaken people to their danger, for the world lies in spiritual darkness and is in peril. Human effort alone cannot draw anyone to Christ, but the light of the uplifted cross draws hearts toward heaven, so believers must receive Christ's indwelling light and the Spirit of truth. Sanctification through God's Word equips them to overcome the powers of darkness and win souls. Meeting the need for the warning message requires the missionary spirit and the true working of the Holy Spirit upon individual character, which vivifies workers against stagnation, narrowing up, Pharisaical rules, and lax methods that confuse the spiritual senses and blind spiritual eyesight.
Those who are of God must not dishonor the Lord by living to please and gratify self, for He cannot work through such to represent Him to those ignorant of the truth. They must not hinder proclamation to the wicked world by unwise expenditure of means, but must study economy, cut personal expense to the lowest figure, meet the necessities of God's cause, put away fostered pride and selfish gratification lest blessings be removed, and gladly accept the truth heard so it saves them and works in life in growth in grace and in knowledge of God. There are only two places in the universe in which treasures can be placed, in God's storehouse or in Satan's, and those who are of God are set apart from millions who remain under Satan's undisturbed domination. For want of means God's work moves slowly so that workers are not able to enter new fields.
Separation and Faithful Service
Because the world is sunk in wickedness, those who are of God are called to be His special people in a much higher sense than many have realized. They must come out from the world and stand separate and distinct as His peculiar people, free from worldly customs and worldly habits and not according with worldly sentiments. They are to be earnest in all their service, having no fellowship with the works of darkness. Those to be fitted for heaven must separate themselves from the world's evil practices, overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. That overcoming is testified by good works, for faith without works is dead.
Since the world around lies in wickedness while those who are of God claim to be His sons and daughters, God-given time spent on unimportant things that give no spiritual strength separates from God and cannot be afforded. The world is under the power of a leader at enmity with God, so its direction is opposed to God's will, and God's people are not to use their powers in harmony with it. Those who are of God must give back all the powers He gave them in willing service to save the souls around them. That means living with the day of final reckoning in view, keeping His commandments, and following the rules He gave to regulate life so as to have His care and protection in this life.
The gospel stands in sharp antagonism to the spirit of the world because the whole world lies in wickedness, and those who handle sacred things must remember that divide. They must put Christ first and the world second, walk daily with God, earnestly seek heavenly direction, and receive the anointing of the Spirit to discern sacred and eternal realities and to give eternal and temporal matters their right importance. Keeping the business transactions of God's institutions under divine approval keeps a worldly mold from being placed upon God's work, a result Satan constantly works to produce and the Lord opposes. Workmen who separate from Christ and follow worldly business ways come under God's displeasure, exert a wrong influence, and give examples that can cause loss of souls. Staying on the gospel side means practicing noble integrity in every transaction, loving the neighbor as self, and representing Christ in spirit, temper, deportment, and honest dealing, while sharp bargains made to advantage self to the disadvantage of another violate God's law and belong to the world.
Believers have as yet scarcely been a light to the wicked world because they cling to sinful, corrupting practices and stay satisfied with only a twilight glow of heavenly enlightenment. They have only stepped over the threshold of the sanctuary without gaining the experience that will make them feel at home in heaven. Every child of God must receive the truths contained in the sanctuary and reveal them to that world.