What It Means to Afflict Your Soul and Be Cut Off

To afflict your soul means to engage in deep heart-searching, humble yourself before God, and seek pardon through confession and the control of your appetite, while being cut off signifies a final separation from God's people and the blotting of one's name from the book of lifeHS 213.3+2.

What it Means to Afflict the Soul

Living in the antitypical day of atonement requires a specific spiritual work of preparation and consecrationGCB July 1, 1900, page 183.1+1.

• Heart-Searching and Confession: You must diligently search your own heart for sins that shut out Jesus, making an individual work of confession and self-abasement12MR 320.3+1. This is a time to humble the heart before God and trust in the efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice5MR 446.2+1.

• Control of Appetite and Fasting: Anciently, the affliction of the soul embraced an entire fastGCB July 1, 1900, page 183.1. Today, this teaches the lesson of maintaining complete control over your appetite and resisting the use of stimulants that pervert reasonGCB July 1, 1900, page 183.1+2.

• Practical Godliness: True affliction of the soul involves more than just internal feelings; it requires lopping off the bands of wickedness, dealing bread to the hungry, and satisfying the needs of the afflicted Isaiah 58:6-10COL 370.1+1.

• Personal Responsibility: Each person must work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, as the purity of one will not offset the deficiency of anotherHS 213.3+1.

• Simplicity in Life: This work includes laying aside pride of appearance and jewelry, which are associated with self-exaltation, and instead putting on a "meek and quiet spirit" 1 Peter 5:5-6BDOC 1.34.

What it Means to be "Cut Off"

The term "cut off" carries the weight of a final judicial decision regarding a person's eternal destinyCIS 221.2+2.

• Separation from God's People: Anciently, anyone who did not afflict their soul on the day of atonement was literally removed from the congregationHS 213.3+2. In the antitypical sense, failing to participate in this work means one is no longer considered part of God's peopleCIS 221.2+1.

• Blotted from the Book of Life: Those who ignore the spiritual requirements of this time will find their names removed from the record of the living Psalms 69:28+1CIS 221.2+1.

• Loss of Eternal Life: To be cut off is to be deprived of the residue of one’s years and to face everlasting destruction or "eternal punishment," which is an eternal deprivation of life rather than conscious suffering 2 Thessalonians 1:9RH May 6, 1915, par. 10+2.

• The Result of Presumptuous Sin: While sins of ignorance can be atoned for, the soul that sins "with a high hand" or stays unrepentant is cut off because they have reproached the Lord Numbers 15:30SBD Sin offering.3.

• Judicial Judgment: Being cut off is the penalty for those who continue in evil practices, such as manufacturing intoxicants or refusing to change a rebellious course, leading to being disfellowshipped or rejected by the church Titus 3:10-118MR 219.3+1.

We are currently living in this solemn hour of the great day of atonement, where our cases are soon to come in review before GodRH March 25, 1884, Art. A, par. 10+2. It is vital to use this time for sincere repentance so that we may stand in the courts of heaven3MR 417.3+2. 🙏✨