AA - The Acts of the Apostles (1911)
The church is God's
appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was organized for service, and
its mission is to carry the gospel to the world. From the beginning it has been
God's plan that through His church shall be reflected to the world His fullness
and His sufficiency. The members of the church, those whom He has called out of
darkness into His marvelous light, are to show forth His glory. The church is
the repository of the riches of the grace of Christ; and through the church
will eventually be made manifest, even to "the principalities and powers
in heavenly places," the final and full display of the love of God. Ephesians 3:10. {AA 9.1}
Many and
wonderful are the promises recorded in the Scriptures regarding the church.
"Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people."
Isaiah 56:7. "I will make them and the places round about My hill a
blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season;
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there shall be showers of blessing." "And I will
raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with
hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. Thus shall
they know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the house
of Israel, are My people, saith the Lord God. And ye My flock, the flock of My
pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God." Ezekiel 34:26,
29-31. {AA 9.2}
"Ye are My
witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know
and believe Me, and understand that I am He: before Me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is
no Saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was
no strange god among you: therefore ye are My witnesses." "I the Lord
have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep
thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them
that sit in darkness out of the prison house." Isaiah 43:10-12; 42:6,
7. {AA 10.1}
"In an
acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped
thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to
establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; that thou
mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show
yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all
high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun
smite them: for
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He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the
springs of water shall He guide them. And I will make all My mountains a way,
and My highways shall be exalted. . . .
{AA 10.2}
"Sing, O
heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for
the Lord hath comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted. But
Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a
woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son
of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have
graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are continually before
Me." Isaiah 49:8-16. {AA 11.1}
The church is
God's fortress, His city of refuge, which He holds in a revolted world. Any
betrayal of the church is treachery to Him who has bought mankind with the
blood of His only-begotten Son. From the beginning, faithful souls have
constituted the church on earth. In every age the Lord has had His watchmen,
who have borne a faithful testimony to the generation in which they lived.
These sentinels gave the message of warning; and when they were called to lay
off their armor, others took up the work. God brought these witnesses into
covenant relation with Himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in
heaven. He has sent forth His angels to minister to His church, and the gates
of hell have not been able to prevail against His people. {AA 11.2}
Through centuries
of persecution, conflict, and darkness, God has sustained His church. Not one
cloud has fallen upon it that He has not prepared for; not one opposing
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force has risen to counterwork His work, that He has not
foreseen. All has taken place as He predicted. He has not left His church
forsaken, but has traced in prophetic declarations what would occur, and that
which His Spirit inspired the prophets to foretell has been brought about. All
His purposes will be fulfilled. His law is linked with His throne, and no power
of evil can destroy it. Truth is inspired and guarded by God; and it will
triumph over all opposition. {AA
11.3}
During ages of
spiritual darkness the church of God has been as a city set on a hill. From age
to age, through successive generations, the pure doctrines of heaven have been
unfolding within its borders. Enfeebled and defective as it may appear, the
church is the one object upon which God bestows in a special sense His supreme
regard. It is the theater of His grace, in which He delights to reveal His
power to transform hearts. {AA
12.1}
"Whereunto," asked Christ, "shall we liken the kingdom of
God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?" Mark 4:30. He could not
employ the kingdoms of the world as a similitude. In society He found nothing
with which to compare it. Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendancy of physical
power; but from Christ's kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of
coercion, is banished. This kingdom is to uplift and ennoble humanity. God's
church is the court of holy life, filled with varied gifts and endowed with the
Holy Spirit. The members are to find their happiness in the happiness of those
whom they help and bless.
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{AA 12.2}
Wonderful is the
work which the Lord designs to accomplish through His church, that His name may
be glorified. A picture of this work is given in Ezekiel's vision of the river
of healing: "These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down
into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea,
the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass, that everything that
liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: . . .
and by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall
grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit
thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months,
because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof
shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine." Ezekiel
47:8-12. {AA 13.1}
From the
beginning God has wrought through His people to bring blessing to the world. To
the ancient Egyptian nation God made Joseph a fountain of life. Through the
integrity of Joseph the life of that whole people was preserved. Through Daniel
God saved the life of all the wise men of Babylon. And these deliverances are
as object lessons; they illustrate the spiritual blessings offered to the world
through connection with the God whom Joseph and Daniel worshiped. Everyone in
whose heart Christ abides, everyone who will show forth His love to the world,
is a worker together with God for the blessing of humanity. As he receives from
the Saviour grace to impart to others, from his whole being flows forth the
tide of spiritual life.
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{AA 13.2}
God chose Israel
to reveal His character to men. He desired them to be as wells of salvation in
the world. To them were committed the oracles of heaven, the revelation of
God's will. In the early days of Israel the nations of the world, through
corrupt practices, had lost the knowledge of God. They had once known Him; but
because "they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became
vain in their imaginations, . . . their foolish heart was darkened."
Romans 1:21. Yet in His mercy God did not blot them out of existence. He
purposed to give them an opportunity of again becoming acquainted with Him
through His chosen people. Through the teachings of the sacrificial service,
Christ was to be uplifted before all nations, and all who would look to Him
should live. Christ was the foundation of the Jewish economy. The whole system
of types and symbols was a compacted prophecy of the gospel, a presentation in
which were bound up the promises of redemption.
{AA 14.1}
But the people of
Israel lost sight of their high privileges as God's representatives. They forgot
God and failed to fulfill their holy mission. The blessings they received
brought no blessing to the world. All their advantages they appropriated for
their own glorification. They shut themselves away from the world in order to
escape temptation. The restrictions that God had placed upon their association
with idolaters as a means of preventing them from conforming to the practices
of the heathen, they used to build up a wall of separation between themselves
and all other nations. They
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robbed God of the service He required of them, and they
robbed their fellow men of religious guidance and a holy example. {AA 14.2}
Priests and
rulers became fixed in a rut of ceremonialism. They were satisfied with a legal
religion, and it was impossible for them to give to others the living truths of
heaven. They thought their own righteousness all-sufficient, and did not desire
that a new element should be brought into their religion. The good will of God
to men they did not accept as something apart from themselves, but connected it
with their own merit because of their good works. The faith that works by love
and purifies the soul could find no place for union with the religion of the
Pharisees, made up of ceremonies and the injunctions of men. {AA 15.1}
Of Israel God
declared: "I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then
art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?"
Jeremiah 2:21. "Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto
himself." Hosea 10:1. "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men
of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard. What could have been
done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked
that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? {AA 15.2}
"And now go
to; I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away the hedge
thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it
shall be trodden down: and I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor
digged; but there shall come up briers and
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thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no
rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and
the men of Judah His pleasant plant: and He looked for judgment, but behold
oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry." Isaiah 5:3-7. "The
diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick,
neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again
that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but
with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them." Ezekiel 34:4. {AA 15.3}
The Jewish
leaders thought themselves too wise to need instruction, too righteous to need
salvation, too highly honored to need the honor that comes from Christ. The
Saviour turned from them to entrust to others the privileges they had abused
and the work they had slighted. God's glory must be revealed, His word
established. Christ's kingdom must be set up in the world. The salvation of God
must be made known in the cities of the wilderness; and the disciples were
called to do the work that the Jewish leaders had failed to do. {AA 16.1}
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