Friday: Further Thought – Standing _for the_ Truth
Daily Lesson for Friday 26th of April 2024
“God permitted great light to shine upon the minds of these chosen men, revealing to them many of the errors of Rome; but they did not receive all the light that was to be given to the world. Through these, His servants, God was leading the people out of the darkness of Romanism; but there were many and great obstacles for them to meet, and He led them on, step by step, as they could bear it.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
They were not prepared to receive all the light at once. Like the full glory of the noontide sun to those who have long dwelt in darkness, it would, if presented, have caused them to turn away. Therefore, He revealed it to the leaders little by little, as it could be received by the people. From century to century, other faithful workers were to follow, to lead the people on still further in the path of reform.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 103.
“In another letter, to a priest who had become a disciple of the gospel, Huss spoke with deep humility of his own errors, accusing himself ‘of having felt pleasure in wearing rich apparel and of having wasted hours in frivolous occupations.’ He then added these touching admonitions: ‘May the glory of God and the salvation of souls occupy thy mind, and not the possession of benefices and estates. Beware of adorning thy house more than thy soul; and, above all, give thy care to the spiritual edifice. Be pious and humble with the poor, and consume not thy substance in feasting. Shouldst thou not amend thy life and refrain from superfluities, I fear that thou wilt be severely chastened, as I am myself.’ ”—The Great Controversy, pp. 105, 106.
Discussion Questions
- What is “progressive light”? Why does God reveal truth gradually? How do these principles apply to God’s church today?
- How do new discoveries of truth relate to previous truths that God’s people have understood? Why must new light never contradict old light?
- No matter where you live, your culture is going to promote values, ideas, and moral codes that in some way conflict with what the Bible teaches. After identifying these areas of conflict, how do you see yourself and us, as a church, dealing with these challenges? How do we remain good citizens while at the same time not succumbing to whatever warped values our culture proclaims?
- How does John Huss’s letter impact your thinking today? What impresses you about this letter?
(13)
I have been away for a week, so I am asking our readers to let me submit a longer comment that usual to finish the week. I had a great time by the way, walking in the bush, photographing nature, and even going on a rather special train ride behind a steam locomotive in a train carriage identical to the one where I proposed to Carmel in July 1967. But that is another story, and I will keep it until in matures into a good illustration.
The persecution of Christians during the Christian Era is a strong storyline particularly for Seventh-day Adventists. However sometimes we view this history from a very narrow perspective, and it is useful for us to see persecution in a wider view, particularly if we want to learn lessons from this period that apply to us today. What follows is a necessarily brief summary of my reading over a number of years.
The early Christian Church suffered persecution at the hands of Pagan Rome mainly because they did not take part in ceremonies that treated Roman rulers as deities. They were also blamed for calamities and natural disasters. There are three or four well-defined periods of persecution in that time separated by periods of tolerance and acceptance. During that period Christianity was not a cohesive religion. Heresies developed considerable traction as I indicated in a comment last week. Sometimes these lead to persecution and even bloodshed between Christian groups. The arguments were often over the nature of Christ and the irony of that is that we still find acrimonious differences between Christians and even Seventh-day Adventists on that topic today.
The period of papal dominance from its commencement through to the reformation is characterised by the use of persecution against those who did not defer to the papacy. It should be pointed out that while independent Christians were persecuted, so too were Jews and Muslims. It was during this period that antisemitism grew and it is also the era of the crusades where was essentially a holy war to stop the Muslim advance into Europe. Both of those groups have a legitimate claim that they were persecuted during the dark ages. It was towards the end of this era that South America was colonised. Many of the inhabitants were given the choice: convert or perish.
During the reformation period, while we applaud that efforts of the reformers to point out the failings of the papacy by returning to a Bible-based religion, even within the lifetime of the reformers the Protestant movement was ambushed by nationalism and we see Lutheranism, Presbyterianism, and The Church of England becoming instruments of coercion in their area of influence. In fact, some of the most brutal of all persecution was done by these protestant churches.
What is the point of all of this? Am I trying to destroy the Seventh-day Adventist story about persecution? No. What happened to Bible-believing Christians is essentially true, but at the same time there were others who suffered for their faith and beliefs as well.
Persecution defines who is wrong. Once coercion and persecution become methods of control, the true values of Christianity are lost. If we think that persecution defines who is right, we are on dangerous ground.
Now we skip to the modern era. There are occasions within the scope of my lifetime where Seventh-day Adventists have persecuted other Seventh-day Adventists. Sometimes that has led to bloodshed. I need to be careful what I say here because we have an international readership, and it is highly likely that some readers have raw first-hand experience of this. It is not the purpose of this forum to determine the rightness or wrongness of sides in these circumstances, but I want to reiterate that once we use coercion of any description to force the membership of a church “fit in”, we have forsaken Christianity. Seventh-day Adventists are in danger of losing sight of the love of Jesus in our effort to have a pure church. We still have a long way to go in sharing the love of Jesus as a free-choice invitation.
[Readers, please note that this is not the forum to discuss who is right and wrong, so I do not want to see any, “they did this inour church” comments.]
We are Seventh-Day Adventist Church whose mission is to call God's people out of Babylon that has corrupted the word of God or the Bible. The challenge for us today is how to address those in our midst who are spreading or teaching those fall doctrines of Babylon in our churches. Light and darkness cannot coexist.
I have seen people try to purify the church and to be honest, it has resulted in unchristian behaviour. Every time it has happened I am reminded of the parable of the wheat and the tares.
Another issue is that those who want a pure church want the church to be like them. That is a very selfish judgemental standard.
Perhaps purity of teaching in less important that purity of action.
"By this shall all men know ..."
You hit the nail on the head. As a church we have to change our behaviour . We have be more Christ-like to each other, if we want to see Christ. Rightly said Maurice.
Let us know when you post photos of the birds and scenery. Looking forward to it.
Will do!
I have concerns for the thoughts of the author of Discussion Question 3. Surely there are many places where "your culture" does not conflict with what the Bible teaches, and therefore does not conflict with living a fulfilling and happy Christian life.
The question implies that society discourages Christian qualities of loving-kindness, befriending all and never discriminating against anyone - in other words, following the example that Jesus gave to us when he was on earth.
Should we as Christians be searching for reasons to have a persecution complex? Surely this is not the attitude the Bible teaches, when Jesus tells us to respect the government and love our neighbours. Are we too quick to demand that the time of trouble comes to us?
I don't recall that living a Christian life has ever yet caused me to be persecuted by anyone outside my church.
Today, I ask for prayers for the parents who lost their seven-year-old son who choked on a piece of bread in school. His name was David. We need Jesus to come back!
For me i have learnt that living by the promises and by the truth of God,,can open our eyes into having a deeper understanding of our duty as Christians ,,our duty is to worship God and spread the gospel ,,and with the stories of John Huss ,Jerome and Wycliffe we learn that we have to be strong in our faith ,, Ephesians 6vs10-12 tells us to put on the full amour and that we are in a spiritual warfare ,,so with these encouraging lesson i have learnt that we have faithful to Christ till the end ,no matter the circumstances we just had to believe that there is a crown waiting for us in Heaven
I learned that GOD, had gradually revealed the light, to the Romanism, that he couldn't not reveal all at once, that will help us, as we go through life challenges, that he will help us slowly by slowly and gradually. That he can't reveal & help us with everything all at once, but slowly by slowly and gradually he will help us with everything.
Russell,as recently as 2-3 years ago, the covid pandemic, people lost their jobs,placed in financial hardship when they did not go along with the government decree to take the shot.You could not travel abroad if you did not have a vaccination card.There was persecution.
Medical workers have to be up on their vaccines. I would not say that travel restrictions equate persecution.
Each country has its own rules for entry of foreigners. This is their sovereign right, and failing to comply with their legal requirements should not be equated with persecution. Most people on earth never travel outside their own country, because travel is not essential for life.
People lose jobs for many reasons, sometimes by their own choice, and sometimes for reasons outside their control. This has been happening at least as far back as Herod's Folly recorded in Luke 14:28-30. During my professional life there were often changing requirements and new standards to be met. Persecution could not be construed if at some point I had decided not to meet them.
When ‘Standing for the Truth’, I think it to be prudent to be prepared to expect all types of responses from non-Christians - Matt.10:16. Yes, the powers of darkness war against the Light of God's Truth by intimidation, though 'Standing for the Truth' can be expressed in all the various ways we love our fellow man - Gal.5:22-23.
If I understand the essence of Scripture correctly, our heavenly Father sent Truth through the prophets first. Then, when the time was right, He sent His Son, who taught us to know our heavenly Father personally and admonished all to love Him through loving our fellow man. If we stick to this calling, we will fulfill the His Truth which God communicated to man millennia ago – Matt.22:37-40.
Therefore, when under duress, I consider the believer’s greatest, most powerful testimony to come through our conduct. We cannot look to the government to set things right and help us in matters of our Faith; it has to come from the conviction of our heart and mind.
Our faith-based, moral and ethical conduct comes from the by the Holy Spirit born-again and redeemed heart. Like Huss, may we pray that - 'the Glory of God and the Salvation of souls occupy our minds' - loving our God's Truth more than life itself.
For me i have learnt that living by the promises and by the truth of God,,can open our eyes into having a deeper understanding of our duty as Christians ,,our duty is to worship God and spread the gospel ,,and with the stories of John Huss ,Jerome and Wycliffe we learn that we have to be strong in our faith ,, Ephesians 6vs10-12 tells us to put on the full amour and that we are in a spiritual warfare ,,so with these encouraging lesson i have learnt that we have faithful to Christ till the end ,no matter the circumstances we just had to believe that there is a crown waiting for us in Heaven
Happy Sabbath people of God.
In response to the third question:
Pray, pray, study the Word of God faithfully as if communing with Christ as His disciples did, serve others joyfully like Christ did, and don’t ever stop congregating with fellow believers, in spite of imperfection or mistakes. Also, shun people who cause division or discourage people in God’s church.