| Author | Message | ||
| Philharris Registered user Username: Philharris Post Number: 1798 Registered: 5-2007  |
At first, when reading this, I was reminded how this relates to the early history of the SDA church. But then the thought came; How does this passage apply our lives right now?
Phil | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 5415 Registered: 9-2006  |
Phil, How this speaks to me, is that our time is not to be taken up staring into the sky looking for the moment he returns to restore his kingdom, but to spend the time as wisely as we can,in another place he says look upon the fields, for the fields are ripe to harvest. Yet in another place he says pray to the lord of the harvest that he will send more workers into the fields. We have work to do, and our time is not to be taken up trying to figure out when will be his return, it is enough that he WILL return as he has promised. This is what threw the early Adventist,they raised their heads and began to stare into the sky, and when he did not materialize, instead of repenting and going back to work they acted in disobedience and rebellion they opened the door to a spirit of confusion and that spirit has ruled them since. What is happening in their churches is not of God, but is of that same spirit that rules over them, a spirit of confusion and blindness. Instead of the Holy Spirit coming upon them, confusion and blindness has come upon them. Having no guide they go about as brute beast. God meant what he said, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority." Instead of trying to be obedient to the plain writing of scripture, Whites bunch began teaching times and seasons and stood in rebellion, was discharged by the Methodist church of that time and refusing to work in the lords fields, began working in a strange field, a crazy making field in which there is no up or down. Adventist to this day try to present themselves as Christians by trying to look like Christians to the world, but what it looks like to me is a sow who covers herself in mud and proclaims herself to be a race horse. They try to cover themselves in the mud of deceit and then like a drunk, when challenged with the truth, they say, "Why do you beat me?", but it is they who beat themselves and bloody themselves over that stumbling stone, Christ Jesus, the God of our salvation, the God if Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Instead of throwing themselves on that stone, they lay down in the way of that stone, and that stone will grind them to powder. It does not pay to try to usurp the authority of God. It is no different today than it was then, he still has the same authority. River | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 10330 Registered: 12-2003  |
Good question, Phil, and powerful summary, River. I agree completely with your analysis. Jesus told us not to worry about the time of His return. He also told us that when we see certain signs, we can know things are progressing—but those signs were never meant for us to use as a means of calculating when. We are to do what God puts in front of us. I appreciated your use of the word "Rebellion", River. If we refuse to live these lives God gives us faithfully, offering ourselves as living sacrifices, but instead speculating and distracting ourselves with arguments and other cognitive dissonance-numbing exercises, we are in rebellion against God. God asks us to engage with life and to stand in truth/reality. This engagement means we anchor our lives in the certain hope of His return, but we live now as those who are alive from the dead, bringing the truth of resurrection life to those who still are dead. Colleen |
