CRITICISM
Those
who reject the apostasy will be severely charged with criticism because
they will protest against it. A great effort has been made for a long time
to eliminate “criticism.” It has been terribly condemned far and
near—in sermons, articles, conventions, institutes, camp meetings, and
conferences. Honest protest has been stifled and suppressed by branding it
“criticism” and then condemning it. A
distinction must be made between “protest” and “criticism,”
for if not, no voice can be raised against the wrong! Pernicious
criticism is a wicked thing, and ought to be confessed and forsaken.
Criticism of men is that bad. But there is another side to this question
of criticism. If
men have gone so far in criticism that they criticize the work of the
Spirit of God and the messages from the Spirit of God and denounce those
who are maintaining those messages as having the spirit of the devil, that
would come terribly close to being a sin against the Holy Spirit and would
call for alarm and utter humiliation and abasement before such men should
dare lift up their heads and ask God for the gift of His Holy Spirit in
the latter rain. This
criticism of the work of the Spirit of God is more heinous and disastrous
to ourselves and to the work of God than is criticism of men. If
leaders so criticize the Spirit of Prophecy that men are moved by the
Spirit of God to protest against such apostasy, there must be a
distinction made between such protest and evil criticism. When men are in
the wrong and do not see it and God sends them brethren to counsel them
and they persist in denouncing such counsel as unjust criticism, they are
indeed in a great delusion and it is most difficult for God to reach them. According to Inspiration, there will be various voices in the church from this time forward till after the shaking is over. There will be false reformations that will sweep in thousands; there will be great worldliness and there will be those who “sigh and cry” over the condition of the church as God sees it, and these will reprove and warn and “will not hold their peace to obtain the favor of any.” These are the ones who will be sealed. Notwithstanding their earnest efforts, they will be “powerless to stop the rushing torrent of iniquity” (Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 210), because the majority join in the general apostasy and refuse to heed the reproofs. They will be misjudged and denounced and “scourged” by men in “responsible position” (Ibid., p. 79), “guardians of the spiritual interests of the people” who have “betrayed their trust” (Ibid., p. 221), “destroyers” who have for many years been “training under the hand of Satan and only wait the departure of a few more standard bearers” like Elder _____ to bring the day “when holy hands bear the ark no longer” and when “woe will be upon the people” who are led astray by their unfaithful shepherds (Ibid., p. 77). These
true “protestants” will pass through a trying time—a “tarrying
time” (Ibid., p. 81)—and where “there are no faithful
ministers,” and “where the shepherds are not true, God will take
charge of the flock Himself” (Ibid., p. 80). These
“protestants” will hold to their trying position till there comes a
change of leaders—when “Those who have proved themselves unfaithful
will not be entrusted with the flock. In the last solemn work few great
men will be engaged. They are self-sufficient, independent of God, and He
cannot use them” (Ibid., p. 80). And then it will come to pass
that the true ones “may be the last to offer the gospel of peace to our
unthankful churches” (Ibid., p. 77); the true ones do the last
work for the churches, for “the Lord has faithful servants who in the
shaking, testing time will be disclosed to view.” They are “precious
ones now hidden” (Ibid., pp. 80, 81). It may be they are said to
be “hidden” because the leaders have sought to remove their contact
and so their influence from the people. While these faithful ones give the
solemn warnings, those who oppose it and rise up against it, the
“conservative class” (Ibid., p. 463), bear a message which God
denotes a “peace and safety” cry in the church. The reader will find a
peace and safety message and its opposite in such passages as Testimonies,
Vol. 5, pp. 83, 104, 211; Vol. 2, pp. 252, 254, 257; Vol. 8, p. 250. The
shaking, let it be noticed, is not said to be caused by the voice of the
prophet who is dead, but rather by the “straight testimony called
forth” from those who received the “counsel of the True Witness to the
Laodiceans.” This will have its effect upon the heart of the receiver,
and will lead him to exalt the standard and pour forth the straight truth.
Some will not bear this straight testimony. They will rise up against it,
and this is what will cause a shaking among God’s people” (Early
Writings, p. 270). These true “protestants” hold to their stand on
“the commandments of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ”—absolute
obedience to God and to His Voice in the Spirit of Prophecy; this is the
issue; this is the true standard; the departure from this standard is the
apostasy, and there never was and never will be any apostasy other than
such, because there can be no other, as that is what apostasy is. Those
who have been drawn into the apostasy through the process of time, and who
“rise up against” the “straight testimony” will depart from the
folds of the church when the persecution from the world becomes bitter
through the enforcement of Sunday laws. “In this time, the gold will be
separated from the dross in the church” (Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 81).
This will purge and cleanse the church from its “dross” and open the
way for the latter rain to come in its fullness (read Early Writings,
pp. 269, 271). But now “God’s displeasure is upon His people, and
He will not manifest His power in the midst of them while sins exist among
them and are fostered by those in responsible positions.”—Testimonies,
Vol. 3, p. 270. “A whole church may sanction the wrong course of some of its members, but that sanction does not prove the wrong to be right.”—5 Testimonies, 103. |
