Vessenger: It's Strengths and Weaknesses Editorial NOT STRONG ENOUGH
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11 r el in r OSOVO RECORD1 .1 U 2 4 1 9 9 9 In this issue Sanitarium looks for performance Taking liberties Atoffi outreach I stretches resources essenger of the LOrd The Prophetic Ministry Ellen G. White I HERBERT E• DOUGLASS Vessenger: It's strengths and weaknesses editorial NOT STRONG ENOUGH osovo. What has happened the church during the 1260 years and remains loyal in their allegiance there has shocked the world. known as the Dark Ages; and the to God. KThe full extent of the horren- devil's aggression at the end of time This account in Revelation 12 dous acts of brutality in the Balkans against those who, by their lives, assures God's people that goodness are only now beginning to unfold. demonstrate the "faith of Jesus." will triumph over evil. In the cosmic This has been a graphic demonstra- Despite the turmoil portrayed, this warfare in which God's people are a tion of evil and hatred in these sup- chapter underscores the "good news," part, Michael is on our side. posedly enlightened times. Once that the dominance of the devil was The time is coming when it will be again questions are raised about the to be challenged and broken. In spite demonstrated finally before the uni- nature of evil, of suffering and God's of his guile and power he is "not verse that the devil is not strong sovereignty and power. strong enough" to prevail (verse 8, enough to hold a single person who In a world where there is often lit- NIV). Instead he is overpowered and puts their trust in God. He is not tle justice; the innocent are defeated on each occasion when he strong enough to destroy those who oppressed; where natural disasters are mounts an attack against Christ and "keep the commandments of God responsible for the loss of hundreds His people. Notice the following: and have the faith of Jesus." and sometimes thousands of lives; • In the conflict in heaven, "At that time Michael, the great and where good people die in tragic "Michael and his angels fought prince who protects your people, will circumstances, it's well for us to against the dragon, and the dragon arise. There will be a time of distress remember that there will come a day and his angels fought back. But he such as has not happened from the when evil in all its insidious forms [the dragon] was not strong enough, beginning of nations until then. But will be utterly destroyed. and they lost their place in heaven" at that time your people—everyone The trauma and anguish that is so (verses 7, 8, NIV). whose name is found written in the much a part of this life are not the • The battle later transferred to book—will be delivered" (Daniel 12: footprints of a loving God, they are this earth. The devil was poised to 1, NN). the work of the enemy. "While men destroy Jesus as soon as He was What a wonderful assurance! struggle with one another for earthly born. However, the child was What a comfort and glorious I power, behind the scenes, and hid- snatched up to God and His throne hope to cling to as we approach den from human eyes, an even (verses 4-6), but not before He inflict- not only the third millennium, but greater struggle is going on of which ed a mortal wound on the author of the last great battle between good the ebb and flow of earthly affairs is a all evil (Genesis 3:15). and evil! reflection" (Bible Commentary, Vol 4, • Having been unsuccessful in his It's important to notice that this page 861). campaign to destroy Christ, the devil marvellous promise is based on a sim- While not providing all the then pursued the woman who gave ple proviso—your name must be in answers, Revelation 12 does give us a birth to the male child. However, the the book of life. (This, incidentally, is glimpse into the workings of evil. It woman—the church—escaped into not the same as the church roll.) For enables us to understand, to some the desert to a place prepared for her those who put their trust in Jesus, the degree, the opposing forces that are by God where she was taken care of devil is not strong at work in the world. More important- for 1260 days (verses 6, 14-16). enough to have any ly, it provides us with a framework • Finally, realising that the war is name blotted from that helps us to deal with the pain almost over, the devil mounts a fierce that book. and trauma that has become such an attack against the faithful followers of integral part of our lives. Jesus at the end of time. It's his last Revelation 12 describes four eras of desperate attempt to gain the ascen- Laurie Evans conflict: the origin of evil; the devil's dancy. But he finds there is a rem- President attack on Christ; the persecution of nant—a small group that perseveres South Pacific Division Next week Official Paper Manuscripts Should be sent to The Editor, RECORD, South Pacific Division Signs Publishing Company, Warburton, Victoria 3799. ACN 000 003 930 Manuscripts or computer disks will only be returned if SEVENIH-DAY ADVENTIST accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Editor Bruce Manners CHURCH Phone: (03) 5966 9111 Pacific Adventist Senior assistant editor Lee Dunstan Fax: (03) 5966 9019 Editorial assistant Brenton Stacey Email: [email protected] University Editorial secretary Meryl McDonald-Gough Senior consulting editor Barry Oliver Subscriptions South Pacific Division, $A40.00 $NZ73.00. All other regions, $A70.00. Air mail rates on continues to grow. application. Order from Signs Publishing Company, Vol 104 No 28 Warburton, Victoria 3799, Australia. Printed weekly by Cover photo: Signs Publishing Company. July 24, 1999 adventist life THE ULYSSES FACTOR by John Silver aken by the rough and cal- they had created themselves—be choose to let Him. loused hands of his own their own masters—invent some sort The Bible tells me that Jesus is Tcrew, he was bound to the of happiness for themselves outside coming again to rescue, from this mast of his ship. But this was no of God, apart from God. And out of self-destructing human race, those mutiny. that hopeless attempt has come who choose again—to choose Him. The Song of the Sirens was float- nearly all that we call human histo- Having heeded the counsel of ing across the still waters and its ry—money, poverty, ambition, war, Circe, Ulysses was the only invitation was disaster in disguise. prostitution, classes, slavery—the one of all his compa- Following the counsel of the god- long terrible story of man trying to ny who finally dess Circe, Ulysses had already find something other than God made it safely ) stopped the ears of his crewmen which will make him happy." back to his lest they yield to its compelling Unfortunately, the problem is big- beloved seduction. ger even than that. The problem is Ithaca in "What gave their song such the fallen nature of humanity. The Greece. potent power?" we may ask. "What event theologians refer to as The promise did it offer to warrant such Fall must have been something to measures?" Young and adolescent as which created beings could be sub- John Silver is I was when I first fumbled my way ject while still in their unfallen state. a retired pas- through Homer's Odyssey, I was The one thing common to both tor and surprised to learn that it was not natures—the nature of Adam before church administra- wealth, fame, power, feminine The Fall and the sons of Adam after tor living in charms or any of those things for The Fall—is their freedom of choice. Brooklyn, which we so often toil and plot. And that was the disguised New South The offer that Ulysses heard from melody in Satan's Siren Song: Wales. D the lips of the sirens as his ship "Choose to be as God" was his invi- ghosted past was, "Stay, 0 Pride of tation. "Choose to acquire Greece; stay and learn new wisdom that knowledge that God from the wise/ Stay and learn new desires to keep from knowledge of whate'er beneath the you." And so we made sun's bright journey lies." our choice. Not being It may be good poetry, but it is tied to the mast, we dangerous theology. The boon that responded to the bait the sirens offered from their "mead- and reached for the ow heaped with the bones of dead fruit; "Stay 0 Pride of men" was exactly the same as that Greece: stay and learn offered to Eve in the Garden of new wisdom from the Eden. As the Bible records it: "And wise." "Taste, and be like when the woman [Eve] saw that the God." tree [the forbidden tree of the But the fruit has turned knowledge of good and evil] was sour. Throughout history, D good for food . and a tree to be we have had to admit this desired to make one wise, she took over and over again. of the fruit thereof, and did eat and It cannot be anything else gave also to her husband with her, until we make another and he did eat" (Genesis 3:6). choice. Jesus said, "Figs do Both the Song of the Sirens and not grow on thistles" and, by the promise of Satan in the garden nature, we are thistles.