I
ELLEN G WHITE 2
“When self is merged in Christ, love springs forth spontaneously. The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within–when the sunshine of heaven fills the heart and is revealed in the countenance.” E.G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, 384.
The converts do not renounce their pride, and love of the world. They are no more willing to deny self, to take up the cross, and follow the meek and lowly Jesus, than before their conversion. Religion has become the sport of infidels and skeptics because so many who bear its name are ignorant of its principles. The power of godliness has well-nigh departed from many of the churches. Picnics, church theatricals, church fairs, fine houses, personal display, have banished thoughts of God. Lands and goods and worldly occupations engross the mind, and things of eternal interest receive hardly a passing notice. The Great Controversy, 1911 edition, pp. 463-466.
I saw some who were not standing stiffly for present truth. Their knees were trembling, and their feet were sliding; because they were not firmly planted on the truth, and the covering of Almighty God could not be drawn over them while they were thus trembling.
Satan was trying his every art to hold them where they were, until the sealing was past, and the covering drawn over God’s people, and they left out, without a shelter from the burning wrath of God, in the seven last plagues.
God has begun to draw this covering over his people, and it will very soon be drawn over all who are to have a shelter in the day of slaughter. God will work in power for his people; and Satan will be permitted to work also. I saw that the mysterious signs and wonders, and false reformations would increase, and spread. The reformations that were shown me, were not reformations from error to truth; but from bad to worse; for those who professed a change of heart, had only wrapt
about them a religious garb which covered up the iniquity of a wicked heart.
Some appeared to have been really converted, so as to deceive God’s people; but if their hearts could be seen, they would appear as black as ever. My accompanying angel bade me look for the travail of soul for sinners as used to be. I looked, but could not see it; for the time for their salvation is past.” E.G. White, Review and Herald, vol. 1, p. 9, cols. 2 and 3.
“The plain straight testimony must live in the church, or the curse of God will rest upon His people as surely as it did upon ancient Israel because of their sins. God holds His people, AS A BODY, responsible for the [OPEN] sins existing in individuals among them.” Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 269.
“The members of the church triumphant–the church in heaven–will be permitted to draw near to the members of the church militant, to aid them in their necessity.” E.G. White, The Southern Watchman, Sep. 8, 1903.
“The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out–the chaff separated from the precious wheat….None but those who have been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony will be found with the loyal and true, without spot or stain of sin, without guile in their mouths….The remnant that purify teir souls by obeying the truth gather strength from the trying process, exhibiting the beauty of holiness amid the surrounding apostasy.” E.G. White, Selected Messages, vol. 2, 380.
“Had Adventists, after the great disappointment in 1844, held fast their faith, and followed on united in the opening providence of God, receiving the message of the third angel and in the power of the Holy Spirit proclaiming it to the world, they would have seen the salvation of God, the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts, the work would have been completed, and Christ would have come ere this to receive His people to their reward.” Selected Messages, book 1, 68.
“When Christ came to the world, his own nation rejected him. He brought from heaven the message of salvation, hope, freedom, and peace; but men would not accept his good tidings. Christians have condemned the Jewish nation for rejecting the Saviour; but many who profess to be followers of Christ are doing even worse than did the Jews, for they are rejecting greater light in despising the truth for this time.” Review and Herald, November 5, 1889
We are standing in the presence of the Lord God of Israel, and no one can stand before God in his own strength. Those only who stand in Christ’s righteousness have a sure foundation. Those who attempt to stand before him in their own righteousness, he will humble in the dust. Those who walk in humility will feel their own utter unworthiness. To such the Lord says, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Noah preached the righteousness of God; Jonah called the city of Nineveh to repentance, and there is a similar work to be done today.
There are now more than one Noah to do the work, and more than one Jonah to proclaim the word of the Lord. While discord and strife, crime and blood-shed are in the land, let God’s people love one another. Plagues and pestilence, fire and flood, disaster by land and by sea, horrible murders, and every conceivable crime exist in the world, and does it not now become us who claim to have large light to be true to God, to love him supremely and our neighbor as ourselves? 1888 673.2
The angels of God in heaven, that have never fallen, do His will continually. In all that they do upon their busy errands of mercy to our world, shielding, guiding, and guarding the workmanship of God for ages—both the just and the unjust—they can truthfully say, “All is thine. Of Thine own do we give Thee.” Would that the human eye could catch glimpses of the service of the angels! Would that the imagination could grasp and dwell upon the rich, the glorious service of the angels of God and the conflicts in which they engage in behalf of men, to protect, to lead, to win, and to draw them from Satan’s snares. How different would be the conduct, the religious sentiment! 1888 815.2
The idea of doing anything to merit the grace of pardon is fallacy from beginning to end. “Lord, in my hand no price I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.” 1888 816.2
Man can achieve no praiseworthy exploits that give him any glory. Men are in the habit of glorifying men and exalting men. It makes me shudder to see or hear of it, for there have been revealed to me not a few cases where the homelife and inner work of the hearts of those very men are full of selfishness.
They are corrupt, polluted, vile; and nothing that comes from all their doings can elevate them with God for all that they do is an abomination in His sight. There can be no true conversion without the giving up of sin, and the aggravating character of sin is not discerned. With an acuteness of perception never reached by mortal sight, angels of God discern that beings hampered with corrupting influences, with unclean souls and hands, are deciding their destiny for eternity; and yet many have little sense of what constitutes sin and the remedy. 1888 817.1
When men learn they cannot earn righteousness by their own merit of works, and they look with firm and entire reliance upon Jesus Christ as their only hope, there will not be so much of self and so little of Jesus. Souls and bodies are defiled and polluted by sin, the heart is estranged from God, yet many are struggling in their own finite strength to win salvation by good works. Jesus, they think, will do some of the saving; they must do the rest. They need to see by faith the righteousness of Christ as their only hope for time and for eternity. 1888 818.2
The law of the human and the divine action makes the receiver a laborer together with God. It brings man where he can, united with divinity, work the works of God. Humanity touches humanity. Divine power and the human agency combined will be a complete success for Christ’s righteousness accomplishes everything. 1888 819.1
The reason so many fail to be successful laborers is that they act as though God depended on them, and they are to suggest to God what He chooses to do with them, in the place of their depending on God. They lay aside the supernatural power, and fail to do the supernatural work. They are all the time depending on their own and their brethren’s human powers. They are narrow in themselves and are always judging after their finite human comprehension.
They need uplifting for they have no power from on high. God gives us bodies, strength of brain, time and opportunity in which to work. It is required that all be put to the tax. With humanity and divinity combined you can accomplish a work as enduring as eternity. When men think the Lord has made a mistake in their individual cases, and they appoint their own work, they will meet with disappointment. 1888 819.2
It is the bewitching power of Satan that leads men to look to themselves in the place of looking to Jesus. The righteousness of Christ must go before us if the glory of the Lord becomes our reward. If we do God’s will we may accept large blessings as God’s free gift, but not because of any merit in us; this is of no value. Do the work of Christ, and you will honor God and come off more than conquerors through Him that has loved us and given His life for us, that we should have life and salvation in Jesus Christ. 1888 820.1
The absence of devotion, piety, and sanctification of the outer man comes through denying Jesus Christ our righteousness. The love of God needs to be constantly cultivated. 1888 820.2
“Vengeance will be executed against those who sit in the gate, deciding what the people should have, and what they should not have.” (The Paulson Collection of Ellen G. White Letters, page 55, emphasis supplied).
“When every specification which Christ has given has been carried out in the true, Christian spirit,” Ellen White wrote, “then, and then only, Heaven ratifies the decision of the church, because its members have the mind of Christ, and do as He would do were He upon the earth.” (Letter 1c, 1890; Selected Messages, Bk. 3, page 22, emphasis supplied).
“As surely as men in responsible positions become lifted up in their own esteem, and act as though they were to lord it over their brethren,” Ellen White commented, “they will render many decisions which heaven cannot ratify.” (The Home Missionary, February 1, 1892, emphasis supplied
“The Bible is God’s voice speaking to us, just as surely as though we could hear it with our ears.
If we realized this, with what awe would we open God’s word, and with what earnestness would we search its precepts! The reading and contemplation of the Scriptures would be regarded as an audience with the Infinite One.” T., v. 6, p. 393. “The scribes of God wrote as they were dictated by the Holy Ghost, having no control of the work themselves. They penned for literal truth, and stern, forbidding facts are revealed for reasons that our finite minds cannot fully comprehend.” T., v. 4, p. 9.
The Savior was fortified against temptation by the written word. He used nothing except what we have within our reach. D.A. 123-126; T., v.5, p. 434.
All the power of God is in His word. E. 254, 255.
“Whatever may be man’s intellectual advancement, let him not for a moment think that there is no need of thorough and continuous searching of the Scriptures for greater light. As a people we are called individually to be students of prophecy.” Testimonies, volume 5, 708.
“Ministers should present the sure word of prophecy as the foundation of the faith of Seventh-day Adventists.” Evangelism, 196.
“When we as a people understand what this book [Revelation] means to us, there will be seen among us a great revival.” Testimonies to Ministers, 113.
“Every principle in the word of God has its place, every fact its bearing. And the complete structure, in design and execution, bears testimony to its Author. Such a structure no mind but that of the Infinite could conceive or fashion.” Education, 123
The heavenly visitant now before the tomb was the one that had proclaimed Christ’s birth on the plains of Bethlehem. The earth trembled at his approach, and as he rolled away the stone, heaven seemed to come down to earth. The soldiers saw him removing the stone as he would a pebble, and heard him call, Son of God, Thy Father saith, Come forth. They saw Jesus come forth from the grave as a mighty conqueror, and heard Him proclaim over the rent sepulcher, “I am the resurrection and the life.” The angel guards bowed low in adoration before their Redeemer as He came forth in majesty and glory, and welcomed Him with songs of praise’ Ms 94, 1897
Let us keep the heart full of God’s precious promises, that we may speak words that will be a comfort and strength to others. Thus we may learn the language of the heavenly angels, who, if we are faithful, will be our companions through the eternal ages.—The Youth’s Instructor, January 10, 1901.
As he [a Bible student] studies and meditates upon the themes into which “the angels desire to look” (1 Peter 1:12), he may have their companionship. He may follow the steps of the heavenly Teacher, and listen to His words as when He taught on the mountain and plain and sea. He may dwell in this world in the atmosphere of heaven, imparting to earth’s sorrowing and tempted ones thoughts of hope and longings for holiness; himself coming closer and still closer into fellowship with the Unseen; like him of old who walked with God,
drawing nearer and nearer the threshold of the eternal world, until the portals shall open and he shall enter there. He will find himself no stranger. The voices that will greet him are the voices of the holy ones, who, unseen, were on earth his companions—voices that here he learned to distinguish and love. He who through the Word of God has lived in fellowship with heaven, will find himself at home in heaven’s companionship.—Education, 127.
In the world to come, Christ will lead the redeemed beside the river of life, and will teach them wonderful lessons of truth. He will unfold to them the mysteries of nature. They will see that a Master-Hand holds the worlds in position. They will behold the skill displayed by the great Artist in coloring the flowers of the field, and will learn of the purposes of the merciful Father, who dispenses every ray of light, and with the holy angels the redeemed will acknowledge in songs of grateful praise God’s supreme love to an unthankful world. Then it will be understood that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”—The Review and Herald, January 3, 1907.
They [the heirs of grace] have even a more sacred relationship to God than have the angels who have never fallen.—Testimonies for the Church 5:740.
By the power of His love, through obedience, fallen man, a worm of the dust, is to be transformed, fitted to be a member of the heavenly family, a companion through eternal ages of God and Christ and the holy angels. Heaven will triumph, for the vacancies made by the fall of Satan and his host will be filled by the redeemed of the Lord.—The Upward Look, 61.
“Cumbered with humanity Christ could not be in every place personally, therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them to go to His Father and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit.” E.G. White, (Manuscript Releases Volume 14 (No’s 1081-1135) MR No.1084
“We are in danger of becoming a sister to fallen Babylon… and will we be clear unless we make decided movements to cure the existing evil?” Later on in the same letter, she states it even plainer: “unless there is a cleansing of the soul temple on the part of many who claim to believe and to preach the truth, God’s judgments, long deferred, will come. These debasing sins have not been handled with firmness and decision. There is corruption in the soul, and, unless it is cleansed by the blood of Christ, there will be apostasies among us that will startle you.” TSB page 193
“When we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, we shall have no relish for sin; for Christ will be working with us. We may make mistakes, but we will hate the sin that caused the sufferings of the Son of God.” 1SM 360.
“As we behold Christ, pierced for our sins, we shall see that we cannot break the law of God and remain in His favour; we shall feel that as sinners we must lay hold of the merits of Christ and cease to sin. Then we are drawing night to God. As soon as we have a correct view of the love of God, we shall have no disposition to abuse it.” 1SM 312.
“While the investigative judgment is going forward in Heaven, while the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God’s people upon the earth. When this work shall have been accomplished, the followers of Christ will be ready for His appearing.” GC 425.
“The merits of Christ are the foundation of the Christian’s faith.” Great Controversy, p. 73.