Ezekiel 33:6, commentary and pictures

The watchman who sees destruction coming must sound the alarm and warn the people, and if he stays silent and anyone is swept away unwarned, that one dies for his own sin yet his blood is charged to the negligent watchman. If the warning is given faithfully, the one who refuses it bears his own guilt while the one who heeds it saves his life, and the faithful watchman is clear and has saved his own soul even if the wicked will not turn. Ministers and leaders of the flock stand as watchmen on the walls, and so does every believer, every one who knows the truth, and parents over their households, all accountable for the souls brought under their influence. The danger to be proclaimed is the nearness of God's judgments and the day of the Lord, centered in the final message of mercy to prepare a people by obedience to God's law and faith in Christ's righteousness. The trumpet must give a clear, certain, united sound by watchmen who stay awake at their post, for the sleepy, silent watchman is charged with the blood of souls and loses both himself and those he should have warned.

Core Duty Declared

The one who stands as watchman and sees the sword approaching is placed under obligation to blow the trumpet and warn the people, and failure to sound the alarm leaves the people unwarned. Those appointed as spiritual watchmen must hear the word from God and speak it, staying alert day and night to dangers threatening God's people and giving warning in love, reproof and truth. When the warning is given it still fulfills the watchman's duty even if people despise it and are misled, and the urgency of that duty forbids putting ease or self-convenience first but requires zeal, courage and perseverance. Watching for souls in this way is an account rendered before God, for the chapter sets out the faithful work He approves in those entrusted with sacred responsibility.

If the sword comes and takes any person who was not warned, that person is taken away in his own iniquity and remains responsible for his own sin, yet God requires his blood at the negligent watchman's hand. The people's guilt does not remove the watchman's responsibility, and a neighbor's neglect does not excuse neglect of one's own duty. God holds His messengers responsible for warning those in peril, so failure to warn when danger comes makes the watchman accountable for the resulting deaths.

If the watchman blows the trumpet and the people are warned, then whoever hears and refuses warning bears his blood upon his own head, while he who heeds and takes warning delivers his soul. The faithful watchman who reproves and warns the wicked to turn from wickedness and from his way is clear even if the wicked refuses to listen and dies in his iniquity, for in warning he has delivered his own soul. Unfaithfulness and carelessness can contribute to souls being lost, while self-sacrificing faithfulness can help bring many to salvation, and faithfulness in delivering what God has revealed, even when it brings suffering, avoids guilt and leads to the promise of life.

The watchman's duty is to warn faithfully, not to determine whether people will heed the warning. Each person is responsible for his own duty, so another's failure does not excuse one's own failure to warn.

Seeing the sword come includes seeing the same course and traits that have before imperiled souls and that God has already reproved, so the duty to warn the house of Israel when God has said the wicked shall surely die remains even without a fresh direct showing of each individual case. Treating such a warning as mere human opinion because the particular case was not directly seen does not free either the one who must warn or those who must heed. The same duty requires speaking encouragement to timid souls who feel their imperfections yet faithfully strive to do what God says is right.

The verse holds God's truth, not a pleasing fable, for those living in the last days, and it must be read and studied with the utmost stretch of understanding, calling God's people to make straight paths for their feet so the lame are not turned out of the way. The chapter is to be studied in connection with the work Christ commanded His followers to do, including medical missionary work as part of His commission and commanded mission.

Watchmen Called Today

Ministers, conference leaders, conference presidents and shepherds of the flock stand as watchmen on the walls of Zion, accountable for backsliders and sinners around them and for guarding the church and the cause of truth. Everyone who takes up preaching and ministers in the churches must search the Scriptures prayerfully, preach a plain Thus saith the Lord, warn the people and help them obey the Word, and must warn every man and teach every man in all meekness and wisdom, rightly understanding and explaining the word, contending for the faith once delivered to the saints and not conforming to the practices of the world. As spiritual physicians they must have skill to treat souls diseased with sin, to warn sinners and to weep over them and plead with them, and not sleep insensible to the work of a gospel minister, for neglect leaves souls past all cure and dying in their sins. Leading men in conferences must give a clear, certain warning of coming danger and move at once into action upon the message sent by God, giving everyone along the line opportunity to echo it and get ready. Those entrusted to warn God's people are responsible for giving the warning concerning God's ownership through creation and redemption and people's duty to God, and if through neglect, error, false doctrine, hindering obedience, indifference, hesitancy, counseling against haste, or warning against doing what God commanded, people perish in sin, their blood is charged to the watchman and found upon his garments and head, with condemnation proportionate to influence, with greater responsibility today because present light, privileges and opportunities are clearer and greater than in the prophet's day, and with retribution and confrontation by the lost in the Judgment for the unfaithful.

Every believer, the church as a whole, Sabbath keepers, and all who know the truth or have contact with others are set as watchmen accountable for every soul thrown under their influence and must warn, pray for, seek and rescue the lost. Those who have knowledge of the Scriptures must search out the sheep hungry for truth and bear the message to all, so those not fed with pure provender may hear and understand for themselves, lifting the voice as John the Baptist did to proclaim warning and prepare the way for Christ's second coming. Those who know the truth but neglect to warn people perishing for lack of light and knowledge, failing to pray for them or make earnest efforts to present the truth, leave blood on their garments, and if through carelessness, pride, selfishness, vanity, love of pleasure and indifference they fail to warn and lead souls to Christ, especially in social gatherings, and those souls die out of Christ doubting the reality of truth because of frivolous influence and disgraceful profession, the blood of the lost is upon them and they must meet those souls at the bar of God. Professed Christians are watchmen over unbelievers they associate with and must not rest day nor night without arousing them to see their lost condition, making them sensible of their state and pointing them to the only One who can save, and if instead they flatter and seek company for vanity, the lost will at last accuse them for never being told and never being warned. God will require the blood of perishing souls at the hands of the church as watchman when dissension and confusion cause souls to be lost by precept or example perplexing ideas of Christian life, and Sabbath keepers bear responsibility when disregard of God's will and harmful example leads others astray, for God will not leave His people in darkness to be led by shepherds who war against His commandments and oppose the messenger and message rather than examine the Word.

Parents are watchmen over their children and households, accountable to restrain, correct and guide them, with their children's blood upon them if neglect leaves them unsaved. A watchman who fails to warn leaves people exposed to destruction, and the same principle makes parents answerable at the judgment when failure to restrain and correct contributes to their children's destruction and spiritual loss. A shepherd of God's flock must warn those in his care or their blood will be charged to him, and every person must prepare for judgment and not leave the blood of the flock or of his children upon himself. A spiritual leader entrusted with duties to protect and guide a church and household acts as watchman, and neglecting those duties can leave them in a demoralized condition that takes years of labor to remedy.

Physicians, medical missionaries, medical missionary leaders and men in prominent positions in sanitariums and institutions are the Lord's watchmen standing on the high tower who must discern spiritual danger and raise the danger signal. Their duty is to be quick and wide-awake to see evil stealing into the ranks, to discern the approach of the enemy and the dangerous character of fables stealthily finding place among God's people, including teaching contrary to God's Word as in Living Temple, and to lift the barrier of a Thus saith the Lord against evil, falsehood, pleasing fables, deceptions to take souls captive, skepticism, infidelity, discord, unbelief, confusion and insidious fallacies carried out by mischievous tongues and acute minds sharpened by long practice in evading the truth. They must not be asleep and let peril pass unheeded, must not keep silent and allow souls to be ruined, must not wear a yoke of human manufacture but be co-workers with Christ wearing His yoke, must arouse and work as they have opportunity, speaking in season and out of season and refusing to give up proclaiming truth as channels of gospel blessing and a current of life, looking to Christ for encouragement and strength. Ministers and medical missionary leaders who fail to recognize and warn against threatening spiritual errors are asleep on the walls of Zion and under God's rebuke, and when foundations of faith are torn away by those departed from the faith and adrift without an anchor and false doctrines are taught, silence is unfaithfulness. Every physician and every minister must speak, warn and teach the same truth taught for the past half century without changing one jot or tittle, helping others discern clearly between loyalty and disloyalty, and ministers entrusted with instruction must heed warnings themselves, pray with the erring and labor to turn them from schemes the Lord has no part in, lest disregarding the Holy Spirit's counsel confirm the wrongdoer in blindness, cloud the watchman's perceptions, grieve the Spirit and leave him a false watchman with blood-guilt remaining.

Canvassers, teachers, college workers, pastors and workers in Battle Creek and experienced church workers are watchmen whose influence, teaching and example must awaken and guard the young and carry salvation to a sleeping world. Canvassers act as watchmen by awakening people to danger and carrying the message of salvation through Christ and obedience to God's law to a spiritually sleeping world, and if the watchman sees danger and fails to sound the alarm, those who perish remain accountable for their own iniquity but God requires their blood at the watchman's hand. Teachers who influence young people must give a clear warning through faithful conduct and teaching and be faithful to their trust, because their actions can lead many souls astray and one thoughtless act may prove the ruin of many. Every worker in the college is a watchman whose influence has no limit, making impressions on minds of the young that are borne away to be reproduced in others, and must keep always in view the aim of preparing every youth under care to be a blessing to the world. Faithful pastors, teachers and other workers in Battle Creek must sound a clear warning and actively help protect young people and others from spiritual danger rather than stand by passively while souls are exposed to temptation, and those who profess to work for Christ yet sometimes turn to do Satan's work do not give the trumpet a certain sound and cannot be pronounced good and faithful servants.

God's churches as guardians of the flock, Zion's watchmen and instruments like the Sentinel as a trumpet are charged to make God's warnings known to church and world and to pass light onward. God's people are as a city under threat, and Zion's watchmen must recognize the danger and give a clear, united warning, while God's churches and all placed as guardians standing on the high tower must give the danger signal and not let peril pass unheeded. Those who stand in positions of trust in the cause of God are under heavy responsibility in time of fearful peril to see threatening danger and not keep silent but warn the people, carrying forward the proclamation of the third angel's message in the power of the Spirit, for sleepy watchmen who cannot see danger and do not warn are of no use. The Sentinel sounds as a trumpet to make people aware of danger and present duty, and those who receive light must pass it on and support it so its warning reaches church and world, for when watchmen give no clear trumpet call people are not aroused or watchful. Faithful watchmen raise clear trumpet notes to show the people their transgressions and the house of Israel their sins, while unfaithful sentinels give up their watch, recline at ease and stay inactive while the foe enters and tears down what God commanded to be built up, seeing Satan deceive the inexperienced yet taking it quietly as if it does not concern them, apprehending no danger, thinking all is well, seeing no need for alarm, and resenting plain reproofs as uncalled for, severe and harsh while wanting smooth things and peace preached so all can rest in quiet.

Warning Message Proclaimed

The sword seen approaching is the impending conflict over the Religious Amendment, and in Washington, D.C. it is the busy, persevering, active work of the powers of darkness and the mystery of iniquity stirred from beneath to bring a crisis that will compel the churches to honor the spurious sabbath through secret meetings, secret councils, and framed plans and devices. The trumpet against it is a clear, certain warning that gives everyone along the line opportunity to echo it and get ready for the conflict, made in haste to let light shine forth and by circulating the Great Controversy all through the city. Giving a certain sound means accepting the message sent by God and moving at once into action, while hesitating and counseling against haste for fear of a mistake or a false alarm, saying not to get excited or alarmed and that the agitation is exaggerated and will die down, is crying peace and safety and virtually denying the message from God. Through such hesitancy and delay the warning fails to stir the churches and the people do not prepare for the battle, and if souls are left to perish and the churches suffer great loss God holds the watchman responsible for their death. Watchmen who see only gain and see no real necessity for this work have eyes but see not because they have no vital connection with God, and in following a stubborn course of their own devising in pride of their own wisdom they neglect their God-given duty and leave the people unwarned, for which neglect they will have to answer in the day of God.

The warning concerns the approaching judgments of God, the nearness of the day of the Lord, and the swift coming judgments that spiritual guardians placed on Zion's walls must stay awake to recognize and raise. It includes movements preparing the way for the plagues God will permit, and the duty to warn cities and to carry truth to people in the cities so they are not left in darkness and later able to ask why they were not warned, before opportunities to spread the warning are obstructed by danger. Those who know judgment is coming and fail to warn others bear responsibility for the lives lost, for those left unwarned perish in their own iniquity but their blood is required from the silent watchman, and the uninformed reproach them for keeping silent. If that duty had been done the world would already have heard the message of warning, but unfaithfulness and disunion have left the work years behind, and those who retard the work by failing to warn must render an account to God for the delay.

The trumpet call centers on the third angel's message as most solemn, fearful, and important, a sacred testing truth and God's final message of mercy to be proclaimed in the power of the Spirit in a time of fearful peril. The signal trumpet must be sounded and the word passed along the walls of Zion so the people are not left to stumble in darkness, ignorant of what is before them and unprepared for the great issues that are coming, but all hear the warning, repeat it, and act their part in fitting a people to stand in the day of trouble and in the day of the Lord. That fitness means being clothed with the righteousness of Christ as the only hope, fortified by the truth through justification by faith so that Satan's delusions will not be accepted as genuine manifestations of the power of God. Ministers and doctors everywhere must rouse themselves and not be stubborn in unbelief but speak in clear, decided tones under the Holy Spirit, declaring the morning cometh and also the night and guarding every outpost, for if they permit one soul to pass into the shadow of uncertainty and lead souls on in wrong so they never extricate themselves from the snare of the enemy and perish confused, God will require the blood of those souls at the watchmen's hands. Keeping the main issue before the people and not letting side issues hinder the truth or the saving of souls is what gives the trumpet a certain sound that should carry weight and receive attention, while standing in darkness, failing to recognize the Spirit, opposing what God sends, and barring the way instead of warning creates confusion, misunderstanding, stumbling, and disunity, leaves the churches without personal piety and without preparation, and opens the way for fanaticism and error and for Satan's strike. Those entrusted with this message are accountable to God for the way they handle it, so that if defects of character are left uncorrected and betray ministers into sins which repulse souls and turn them from the truth, the blood of those lost souls will be upon their garments, and sleepy watchmen who cannot see the danger and do not warn the people are of no use.

The warning must make clear that God owns people by creation and redemption and must warn people of their duty, obligations, and accountability to God, with special severity upon watchmen who fail to set out this obligation plainly. It carries the message of salvation through Christ and obedience to God's law and commandments to a spiritually sleeping world, awakening people to their danger rather than leaving them unwarned. If leaders responsible for warning God's people fail to warn people of their duty to God, they are accountable for the resulting loss, for those who perish remain accountable for their own iniquity but God requires their blood at the watchman's hand. Those entrusted with spiritual care, including canvassers acting as watchmen, must sound the alarm clearly, for failing to warn brings accountability for the harm that follows.

The dangers to be discerned and signaled include quieting fears with false assurances of peace that God has not given, falsely interpreting God's word, and hindering people seeking salvation from accepting the truth. They include falsehood, pleasing fables, and deceptions to take souls captive, skepticism, infidelity, discord, unbelief, confusion, insidious fallacies, and plans instigated by the enemy carried out by mischievous tongues and acute minds sharpened by long practice in evading the truth, with Satan and his angels working unceasingly to prevail against the truth, draw souls away from righteousness, and bring in confusion. They include teaching contrary to God's Word as in Living Temple, worldliness, selfishness, and subtle workings upon minds, met by raising the barrier of a Thus saith the Lord against evil and lifting the danger signal rather than keeping silent and allowing souls to be ruined. Religious teachers who quiet people with such assurances and hinder them from accepting the truth are unfaithful watchmen who bear responsibility for the souls they mislead, and ministers who quieted people's fears by promising peace and failed to warn them of the coming hour faced the people's bitter reproach and suffered even greater punishment.

The watchman must faithfully reprove and warn people to turn from wickedness and from evil, rebuke sin, uphold the standard, and show the people their transgressions, discerning and correcting wrongdoing and confronting harmful conduct and influences drawing minds from eternal things. Ministers as watchmen must warn, reprove, and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine, firmly meeting and rebuking the spirit of worldliness coming into the church, for those they neglect to warn will be ensnared by Satan's devices and overcome by his temptations, and the unfaithful watchman will not be guiltless because their blood is required at his hand. Faithful watchmen raise clear trumpet notes of warning and keep their watch when the enemy comes, and when they have faithfully warned, they are clear if people refuse to listen and the offenders bear responsibility for their own sins. Unfaithful sentinels give up their watch, recline at ease, and stay inactive while the foe enters and tears down what God commanded to be built up, and though they see Satan deceiving the inexperienced and unsuspecting they take it quietly as if it does not concern them, apprehend no danger, think everything is going well, see no need for alarm, are disturbed by plain reproofs and warnings, call them uncalled for, too severe and harsh, and want smooth things and peace, peace preached so all can rest in quiet. A person who ignores warnings and fails to raise an alarm is like a watchman asleep at his post, allowing the enemy to take unwary people captive.

Faithful Manner Required

The trumpet must give a certain sound, clear and united and loud enough to be heard, so that all along the line may take it up, echo it, and repeat it and get ready for the conflict. Opposing teachings give an uncertain sound that leaves the people confused and unprepared, while discerning the danger and sounding clearly and loudly fulfills the charge to bring the light God has given before the people and not leave them to meet the momentous issue unwarned. To give the certain sound is to accept the message God sends and move at once into action, and hesitating and counseling against haste for fear of mistake or false alarm, telling the people not to get excited or alarmed and that the agitation is exaggerated and will die down, is to cry peace and safety and virtually deny God's message so the churches are not stirred and do not prepare for the battle. If through such hesitancy and delay souls perish and the churches suffer great loss, their blood is required at the watchman's hand, and stupidity and careless indifference cannot be excused when breakers and hidden rocks on every side will dash souls in pieces and leave them helpless wrecks unless they make God their refuge and help.

Watchmen must be wide awake day and night at their post of duty, watching with eagle eye for the approach of danger and lifting the voice of warning in this hour of peril, most active and vigilant of all. As sentinels anciently stationed on eminences stayed awake and called to one another and sounded warning or good cheer day and night when danger was apprehended, so spiritual guardians on Zion's walls must stay alert to approaching judgments and remain silent no longer when they see danger threatening God's people. The work is to be done with alacrity and promptness and earnest energy and unwavering fidelity in the short allotted time, with every soul distrustful of self and of its own ways and plans and ideas, keeping the way of the Lord to do His will, making God counselor, and then working in faith away from self.

Faithful warning requires clear spiritual eyesight to see danger as God sees it and to work as Christ worked, for without the divine touch men see men as trees walking and frame plans after the order of the world. Those entrusted with truth stand under most sacred responsibility and must have Jesus enthroned within with self dead and be baptized with the Holy Spirit, live very near to God to hear His word and be impressed by His Spirit, and then awake to see the sword coming upon the earth and blow the trumpet so men and women will not through ignorance pursue a course they would avoid if they knew the truth. Unity for which Christ prayed gives that sight and ends the long controversy kept up through satanic agency so the watchmen are united and the warning is given as Christ worked, and a true watchman feels the burden to save fallen men and labors earnestly and perseveringly, willing to go into new and hard fields without distinction of states or fields or peoples and without selfish interest, energized by the vital power of truth and taking hold of God by faith. Sitting unconcernedly with folded hands saying what is to be will be and prophecy must be fulfilled, or quibbling over matters of minor importance while at ease, leaves blood-guilt unremoved, for those enlightened about what is coming are enlightened in order to enlighten others and are clear only by giving the warning.

The warning must be spoken with zeal and courage and perseverance, without putting ease or self-convenience first, for God appoints the watchman to hear the word at His mouth and warn from Him. It is the minister's duty to warn every man and teach every man in all meekness and wisdom, to rightly understand and explain the word of God, to preach according to a plain Thus saith the Lord, to warn, reprove, and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine, and to help the people obey the Word of the Lord rather than conform to the practices of the world. Warnings are to be given in love and reproof and truth, firmly meeting and rebuking the spirit of worldliness coming into the church, and even when despised and men are misled the faithful warning still fulfills duty, while close connection with God is needful lest Satan gain advantage to break down the strongholds that bar him from souls.

Faithfulness requires not exalting self or calling attention to self, but humbling the heart before God, seeking Him earnestly and seeking His help, living in purity and obedience to the truth proclaimed, and reflecting the Saviour's example in what must be and be done in order to be saved. Watchmen are to be co-workers with Christ wearing His yoke rather than a yoke of human manufacture, raising the barrier of a Thus saith the Lord against evil, falsehood, pleasing fables, and deceptions, and refusing to sleep and let peril pass unheeded or to keep silent and allow souls to be ruined. They must arouse and work as they have opportunity, speaking in season and out of season, refusing to give up proclaiming the truth, serving as channels through which the blessings of the gospel flow to the world as a current of life, and looking to Christ for encouragement and strength in well-doing.

One charged by God to warn is accountable if he does not speak and withholds the light given him, and must state the facts according to God's instruction without entering controversy over who told him, neither admitting nor denying such charges. He may defer speaking until the time of danger makes it necessary to speak in order to prevent wrong plans from being carried further, and when he speaks he must always speak truth based on a Thus saith the Lord whether his words are received or rejected. He is to remain silent only when instructed by God to be silent, for to please men by calling darkness light and light darkness imperils souls and leaves him answerable for their ruin.

Consequences of Unfaithfulness

The watchman who sees danger coming and stays silent, sleeps at his post, or neglects to warn is charged with the blood of souls, and that blood is found upon his garments, his skirts, and his head. Hiding any part of the truth from those ready to perish leaves their blood on the one who hides it, for the whole message must be given to those perishing for lack of light and knowledge. Willfulness and lack of consecration put the blood of souls upon the garments of those joined to the work when self is not dead and the will is not swallowed up in the will of God, when the question is where self wills to go and stay rather than where God wants service and where united labors will best glorify Him and do the most good. That guilt falls also through ministers' companions who by their influence drag ministers down and prejudice their minds, so that usefulness is lost in despondency and strong testimony on the duty and wrongs of the church fails because the ministers' own households needed the straight testimony and the reproof comes back upon the ministers themselves, with the true source of injury close at home.

Souls left unwarned and unprepared are ensnared, left past all cure, and die in their sins, and in the Judgment those lost ones confront with reproaches of guilt the ones who could have saved them but did not. Ministers who profess a call yet feel no burden and are indifferent to salvation, sleeping insensible to the work of a gospel minister instead of warning, weeping over sinners, pleading with them, and treating souls diseased with sin with the skill of spiritual physicians, will face retribution. Souls lost through an unfaithful, fitful, impulsive and unconsecrated minister who indulges self at the expense of spiritual strength, builds up and then tears down, and disheartens and discourages the very souls converted through the truth he presented until he loses their confidence, will rise up in the Judgment to condemn him, a result he will never fully understand until he sees as God sees. Ministers who quieted fears by promising peace and failed to warn of the coming hour faced the people's bitter reproach and suffered even greater punishment, and those who know judgment is coming yet keep silent will be reproached by the uninformed for keeping silent while the unwarned perish in their own iniquity.

Unfaithfulness loses both the watchman's own soul and the souls of those who hear him, while faithful warning delivers the watchman's own soul even if the wicked does not turn. The responsibility of watchmen today is as much greater than in the days of the prophet as present light is clearer and present privileges and opportunities are greater, for God set the prophet as a watchman to hear the word at His mouth and warn the wicked from his way, so that silence leaves the wicked to die in his iniquity with his blood required at the watchman's hand. Every soldier and every watchman must give the trumpet a certain sound in warning the world of swift coming judgments, and if that duty had been done the world would already have heard the message, so those who retard the work by unfaithfulness and disunion and leave it years behind must render an account to God for the delay. While ministers are not spiritually minded and do not connect closely with God, the advantage is given to break down the strongholds that bar souls from ruin, and the watchman is held accountable for his success in warning every man and teaching every man in meekness and wisdom, rightly understanding and explaining the word, not conforming to the world but contending for the faith once delivered to the saints.

Guilt comes through failing to warn and lead the young, so that if unwarned youth die in their sins their blood is required at the unfaithful watchman's hands. It comes through neglecting to warn against robbing God and to educate every member, rich or poor, to give as God has prospered him, when many souls are in danger of eternal ruin through selfishness and worldliness. It comes through neglecting oppressed people by making no effort to bring them spiritual life and truth, so that they perish in their sins with their blood upon those who failed to help them, and through neglecting to warn cities and neighbors about coming judgments when someone is lost. It comes through defects of character that repulse souls and through willfulness, lack of consecration, and companions who drag ministers down, as already set forth.

Shepherds who refuse to examine the Word for themselves and oppose the messenger and the message when God sends servants to warn the churches and open the truth stand under the condemnation of the unfaithful watchman, for God will not leave His people in darkness to be led by men who occupy the shepherd's place yet war against His commandments. Everyone who takes up preaching must search the Scriptures prayerfully, preach a plain Thus saith the Lord, warn the people, and help them obey, and if he neglects to search, entertains error, preaches false doctrine, stands in the way of obedience, or warns the people against doing what God told them to do, he brings ruin upon himself with condemnation proportionate to the influence his words and example had in leading souls into transgression. Religious teachers who quiet people with false assurances, falsely interpret God's word, quiet fears with peace God has not given, hinder seekers from accepting truth, or advance deceptive teaching are unfaithful watchmen accountable for lives lost, and the blood of souls they mislead and hinder will be required at their hand. Those who let themselves be deceived are still not excused for failing to search the Word for themselves, the unfaithful minister cannot pay the ransom for their souls, Christ gave His life to give them another trial to return to loyalty, and those who take the opposing side to justify sin must bear the penalty of sin.

Hesitating and counseling against haste for fear of a mistake or false alarm, saying not to get excited or alarmed and that the agitation is exaggerated and will die down, is crying peace and safety and virtually denying the message sent by God, so the warning fails to stir the churches and the people do not prepare for the battle. When through such hesitancy and delay souls are left to perish and the churches suffer great loss, God holds the watchman responsible for their death, for the sword coming is the impending conflict and the trumpet must give a clear, certain warning that everyone along the line can echo in immediate action. Unfaithful sentinels give up their watch, recline at ease, and stay inactive while the foe enters and tears down what God commanded to be built up, and though they see deception of the inexperienced they take it quietly as if it does not concern them, apprehend no danger, think all is well, see no need for alarm, and are disturbed by plain reproofs, calling them uncalled for, too severe and harsh, and wanting smooth things and peace preached so all can rest in quiet. Those who stand in darkness, fail to recognize the Spirit, oppose what God sends, and bar the way instead of warning create confusion, misunderstanding, stumbling and disunity, leave the churches without personal piety and without preparation, and open the way for fanaticism and error and for the strike of the adversary. Silence that supports wrongdoing makes Christians guilty of abetting that work and can result in lost souls, so preventable evil must be confronted and countered rather than tolerated at ease, appointed leaders must stay alert, protest and work against error and pray for God to act lest the enemy gain ground and harm the church, and disregarding given light while sanctioning misleading influences makes a leader an unfaithful watchman.

The false, sleepy watchman is marked by carelessness, pride, selfishness, vanity, love of pleasure, and indifference to salvation, failing to warn and lead souls to Christ especially in social gatherings, so that souls die out of Christ doubting the reality of truth because of frivolous influence and disgraceful profession and must be met at the bar of God. He flatters and seeks the company of the unsaved for vanity instead of feeling their peril, telling them of danger, arousing them day and night to see their lost condition, making them sensible of their state, and pointing them to the only One who can save, and at last the lost accuse him for never being told and never being warned, with parents and family sharing the guilt and with such neglect making him a pleasing servant of the adversary while professing to serve Christ. The church as watchman is not clean when its dissension and confusion cause souls to be lost, for though the unwarned still perish, their blood is charged to those who by precept or example confused their ideas of what constitutes a Christian life, so that none who did this can say at the judgment that he is clean of their blood. Watchmen who sleep under an opiate and do not recognize the true Shepherd's voice nor take up the warning are charged with the blood of souls, and stupidity and careless indifference cannot be excused when breakers and hidden rocks on every side will dash souls in pieces and leave them helpless wrecks unless they make God their refuge, distrust self and own ways, plans and ideas, keep the way of the Lord, make God counselor, and work away from self in faith. Disregarding the counsel of the Holy Spirit as though possessing superior knowledge, failing to warn and labor for the wrongdoer with prayer and every effort to gain spiritual influence to turn him from schemes the Lord has no part in, confirms him in blindness, clouds the watchman's own perceptions, grieves the Spirit, and leaves him a false watchman with blood-guilt remaining, for the alarm must be raised at once against harmful conduct and a wrong spirit discerned and checked before the unwary are taken captive.