p. 15 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 15. (4/13/1904)

Earlier text: The TRUTH

LESSON IV.—THE SEVEN CHURCHES—SARDIS AND PHILADELPHIA.

(Study for Sabbath, April 23.)

QUESTIONS.

1. What special period was covered by the church of Thyatira?—The days of papal supremacy.

2. What great event prepared the way for a new era in the church?—The Reformation. Note 1.

3. By what church of Asia was the next, or fifth, period of the history represented? Rev. 3:1, first part. Note 2.

4. How is this church addressed? Verse 1.

5. Would the Lord have His people rest satisfied in partial reformation? Verse 2.

6. What is the exhortation and warning? Verse 3. Note 3.

7. To what sad state had trust in high profession brought the church of Sardis? Verse 4.

8. Toward what event does the promise to the overcomer point in the Sardis stage of the church? Verse 5. Note 4.

9. What is still the call? Verse 6.

10. What name expresses the special characteristic of the next, or sixth, stage of the church? Verse 7. Note 5.

11. How is the speaker here described? Verse 7. Note 6.

12. What had He done for the church? Verse 8. Note 7.

13. What assurance is given the advent believers? Verse 10.

14. What is the hope held forth and the exhortation? Verse 11.

15. What is the ever-ringing call to every man? Verse 13.

16. What influence has the genuine advent hope upon the life? 1 John 3:3.

NOTES.

1. The full prophetic period in which the Papacy was to wear out the saints reached to 1798. But for the elect's sake those days were shortened. Matt. 24:22. The Reformation partially broke the power of the Papacy and brought the reign of wholesale persecution to an end. By successive reform movements the Protestant churches of Europe and America were developed. Thus, as we approach 1798, a new era, the fifth, develops in the history of the church—the era of the Protestant reformed churches.

2. "Sardis" means "song of joy," or "that which remains." "I will put upon you none other burden," was the promise made at the close of the preceding period of the church. Rev. 2:24. For nearly eighteen centuries the church had felt the hand of persecution laid heavily upon her, and many millions had fallen in death. At the close of the Thyatira church she was never again to pass through like scenes. This is truly cause for rejoicing.

3. Those who have started in reform and ceased to grow must take fresh hold of principles already learned and go on unto fuller knowledge and experience in the truth. The fatal weakness in the reformed churches was the tendency to stand still where the first reformers had left them. Growth is the law of spiritual life. See Prov. 4:18; John 12:35.

4. We are now in our study approaching the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary—the final blotting out of sins, beginning in 1844. Hence the promise to the overcomer directs attention to the final work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, the opening of the judgment hour. The proclamation of this grand event, in the years just preceding 1844, constituted the worldwide Advent movement which was to mark the next stage in the development of the church.

5. Philadelphia means "brotherly love." All the story of the early Advent movement leading up to the autumn of 1844, at which time the Advent people expected to meet their Lord, shows that believers were bound together in ties of fellowship and love like to that which reigns in heaven, which they expected soon to enter. Coming out from various churches and the world, they were made one by the "blessed hope."

Now, with the ministry in the heavenly sanctuary almost finished and the coming of the Lord at the very door, all hearts must again let in the love of heaven, which will make the true believers one and fit them to live with the angels. See the last rounds in Peter's ladder. 2 Peter 1:7, 11.

"Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love; The fellowship of kindred minds Is like to that above."

6. The time approaches for Christ to take the throne and kingdom as son of David. Luke 1:32, 33. He gives assurance that none may frustrate His final work for us in the heavenly sanctuary.

7. The specific Philadelphia period of the church brings us to the autumn of 1844, when the long period of the 2,300 days ended, and the work of judgment was opened in the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary. "I was shown that . . . the time for the commandments of God to shine out on the Sabbath truth, was when the door was opened in the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary, where the ark is, in which is contained the Ten Commandments. This door was not opened until the mediation of Jesus was finished in the holy place of the sanctuary in 1844. Then Jesus rose up and shut the door of the holy place, and opened the door into the most holy, and passed within the second veil, where He now stands by the ark, and where the faith of Israel now reaches. I saw that Jesus had shut the door of the holy place, and no man can open it; and that He had opened the door into the most holy, and no man can shut it (Rev. 3:7, 8); and that, since Jesus has opened the door into the most holy place, which contains the ark, the commandments have been shining out to God's people, and they are being tested on the Sabbath question."—Early Writings.

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and The Seven Seals

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THE SEVEN SEALS AND THE SEVEN CHURCHES

By Editor

It is not the high profession we make, nor the large-sounding titles we bear, nor the official position in God's work we hold, which count; but it is the daily self-denial, the daily appropriation of Christ's life, which tells for God in this world.

The Spread of the Gospel.—The centennial celebration of the British and Foreign Bible Society was recently held in Royal Albert Hall, London. We give a report of that interesting occasion in our present issue, from our own representative, Mr. M. E. Olsen, who was present during the entire meeting.

Imprisoned Stores of Energy.—Among other things of interest in the Popular Science Monthly for April, Prof. R. A. Millikan has this to say: "The disintegration of a gram of uranium, or thorium, or radium, sets free at least a million times as much energy as that which is represented in any known chemical change taking place within a gram weight of any known compound substance. The experiments of the last eight years have, then, marked a remarkable advance in science, in that they have proved the existence of an immense store of subatomic energy. It seems highly improbable, however, that this energy can ever be utilized on the earth to serve man's economic needs, for thus far we know of but three substances which are disengaging it, and these are changing so slowly that the rate of evolution of energy is almost infinitesimal. Radium may possibly prove to be of some practical value in the cure of disease, altho it is too early yet to assert even this with certainty. But, even if no practical application of these discoveries should be found, radio-activity will nevertheless have served one of the most useful of all ends, namely, that of enlarging man's knowledge of the ways of nature, and of deepening his insight into the constitution of matter."

Mormonism and Polygamy.—Polygamy is not the main thing in Mormonism, the "tap-root" of Mormonism, as it has been expressed. The one thing which holds its sway over the people, if we understand it aright, is salvation for the dead. The idea is that if men and women are not saved here, they may be hereafter. Upon this is based their baptism for the dead, or proxy baptism. Many of the Mormons do not believe in polygamy, but the women are taught that if women live at all in the future life, a husband must raise them from the dead. Christ's resurrection awaits for men, but not for women. The woman's salvation depends upon the man's. And the whole system is the outgrowth of that first Edenic falsehood, "Ye shall not surely die; . . . ye shall be as God."

The Spirit and the Word.—He who would follow the Spirit of God and ignore His Word will be led by the spirit of darkness. One writer of this kind tells us that "to tell a saint not to lie or steal would be unbecoming and degrading;" yet Paul did both. See Eph. 4:25, 28; Col. 3:9. We are told: "Some cry back to the Bible. But to some that would mean back to water regeneration and infant damnation. Better say, Back to God, and Christ shall give thee light." But God is revealed in the Bible, and Christ gives light through the Holy Scriptures. Jesus said, "The flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." And again: "I know that His commandment is life everlasting." "I have kept My Father's commandments." The spirit which leads from the Bible is of the devil.

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Japanese Philosophy.—Mr. Colgate Baker, who was born in Japan and has lived there many years, in the Independent of March 24, thus speaks of the Japanese philosophy:—

It is my conviction that the Japanese character is the most insidious force that has ever menaced Christianity. The Japanese philosophy is diametrically opposed to Christian principles on all cardinal points. It is a philosophy which completely possesses those who believe in it, with a power almost hypnotic. One has only to observe the white men who have become Japanese to see how it wrecks the moral character of the Caucasian. The effect of the Japanese philosophy on the brain of the European or American is not unlike that of a subtle narcotic. It perverts all moral ideas and poisons the very source of every thought and action. To the white man who falls under the sway of this mystic power, Christian civilization, with its ideals, appears ridiculously Quixotic.

But this is only the refined heathenism of Buddhism, which we are now having as the result of the teachings of Theistic Evolution, Higher Criticism, Emersonianism, and New Thought. It seems wonderfully and transcendently pleasing and highly moral at first, but sooner or later it will degenerate into a religion of sensuousness, with the spirit of man the central duty, and with no law but self-love.

The Labor and Social War in Colorado.—We have no sympathy with the manifestations of violence and brute force which have been in evidence in Colorado, either on the part of the striking miners or on the part of the citizens who have run the miners out of the town, as in Telluride. The right to work or not work is as sacred to the union man as to the non-union man, and no more so. The right of residence, other things being equal, ought to be sacred to every man. If union men wish to strike, let them do so; but they have no right to intimidate or to violently assault others who may choose to work. The same is true of the non-union man if he be in the majority and in full control. The condition of things in the Rocky Mountain State are indicative of what may soon be seen almost everywhere. The Denver Post of March 16, thus sets forth the result of this reign of lawlessness:—

What thoughtful citizens must consider is that the ultimate evil development of this sort of thing will bring either civil war or despotism. There is occasion for neither. Law and order was not constituted for the purpose of having one set of men dominate another set of men. The failure of governors to realize their responsibility for equal and exact preservation of the public peace, and the equal and exact protection of all citizens in their legal rights, produces two evils that are rampant all over the country, namely:— A feeling that law was created to hold some men down. A feeling that the law is powerless. Therefore there are riots; therefore there are lynchings; therefore men are losing respect for the only way to obtain justice in a free country, that is, by agitation and organization and legislation and law; and, therefore, organization degenerates from its lofty purpose—that of convincing and educating—to the ignoble short cut of violence and reprisal and intimidation and intolerance.

A wise governor will not help this condition, as the Post seems to think; for howsoever he may act, he will be blamed by some element of society who wants it all, but who is prevented by governmental interference. In Noah's day, "the earth was filled with violence." Jesus tells us that the days of the Son of Man are to be similar. Who will heed the lesson?

The scheme of saving society in bulk rather than by the individual plan inaugurated by the Lord (John 3:36; Rev. 3:21), is on the principle that quantity counts more than quality. This is true in election returns, and in the attendance at the theater or circus; but it is not true in Gospel work. There is greater power for good in a small, consecrated, working church than in a large body of worldly professors of religion. This may be illustrated by Gideon's army. Thirty-two thousand were too many; ten thousand were too many; not that either number could not have been utilized to advantage had they been of the proper material. But two-thirds of the first number were confessed cowards, and all but three hundred of the remainder had too much regard for their personal gratification to be trusted in a great emergency where self-denial was essential to victory. A more recent incident is related of the pastor of a large church, who told of a great revival in his flock. On being asked how many were added to the membership, he replied that none were added, but about one hundred and fifty had been cut off.

Every man must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. At that court there will be but one standard—God's immutable, righteous law. There can be no change in the law, and the Court is unpurchasable. Soul, would you stand there at that time? You must have more than your own righteousness; you must have that of God. And you may freely, fully possess it by simply giving up your way and accepting His way in Christ Jesus. And then "the righteousness of God without the law," to which the law and prophets bear witness, will be manifested in you, "even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference." Rom. 3:21, 22. It will be too late to get it then; count yourself before that Court, and obtain it now.

The Bible has stood the shock of Evolution and Higher Criticism, and still stands. It will endure the perversions of Christian Science and New Thought. We may yield; we may turn from the sheltering rock, and declare it never existed; we may drink of the brackish waters till we lose our taste for the water of life; but the rock of God's truth abides, a sure foundation, a shelter in the time of storm, and the Fountain of life flows on, as ever, full and free. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked."

Death in One City by Accident and Suicide.—Between March 3, 1903, and March 9, 1904, there were 129 persons killed by gas in San Francisco. Seventy-seven of these were supposed to be by accident, fifty-two were suicides.