Month: January 2024

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
January 31, 2024

Satan’s Deceptions
Part 6

GOD’S TEST REVEALS THE TRUTH AND EXPOSES SATAN’S DECEPTIONS AND LIES

During His ultra-brief yet fully-finished, three and-a-half year mission and work on earth as the prophesied “seed of the woman” who would “bruise the head of the serpent” (Gen. 3:15; Gal. 4:4), Christ the Messiah, when replying to the accusations of the Pharisees and Jews against Him, also identified Satan and his character and works in these solemn words:
“Why do you not understand My speech? Even because ye cannot hear My word. Ye are of your father the DEVIL, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and ABODE NOT in truth, because there is NO TRUTH in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a LIAR, and the FATHER of it.” John 8: 43, 44, KJV. (Read the whole chapter for broader and proper context).

The first of all tests was administered by the Creator to the last and crowning act of His creative wisdom and power. Man was the only creature He made “in His own image and likeness.” This was because man, first named Adam, was divinely designed to be the Creator’s vicegerent on planet earth “and all that was in it,” was specifically created for him in six literal working days to be his kingdom. He was “to subdue and have DOMINION” over all the lesser creatures. (Gen. 1: 28, 26-31).

As the Creator’s designated vicegerent to eventually fully embody and reflect the glory of the character-image of the God “to the world, man, and angels,” man was created, formed from the pure dust of the ground in Eden by the Creator’s hands into a fully-formed man, not an infant, an intelligent, free moral agent, endowed with a conscience and a will, the God-endowed freedom, liberty, and power to choose intelligently, voluntarily, and willingly—the governing power in the nature of man.

At his creation man was sinlessly pure and perfectly innocent, yet had an undeveloped character slated to be developed by a simple test of obedience, activating his inherent power to choose intellectually and spiritually. (Note: “The thoughts and feelings combined make up the moral character”).

The transcript of God’s character—His law embodying His eternal and universal precepts and principles of love, wisdom, mercy, righteousness, and justice were written into their yet-sinless and uncorrupted hearts and minds.

God Creator’s first test was so simple as for a child to understand, as clear and distinct as day is to night, yet so all-encompassing in its divine diagnostic and prescriptive comprehensiveness that its results and consequences were instant, stark, and irreversible. At stake were God’s glory and man’s eternal interests. Awaiting to be revealed at the epochal moment in time were the great still-unknowns: the mystery of iniquity and the mystery of godliness. The destiny of man and the earth was to be decided by that first simple test in Eden.

And that test, the test of the ages administered in perfect love, wisdom, mercy, righteousness, and justice of Desire of Ages, who is the “same yesterday, today, and forever,” is still the the same simple test of OBEDIENCE—that obedience that is “constrained only by love;” driven only by the “fear” to offend the awesome God of love and mercy, and “to crucify Him afresh and put Him to open shame every time we sin;” that is produced by the divine “enmity” against “the world, the flesh, and the devil;” that springs from a longing desire to enter into that eternal covenant relationship of the church triumphant-bride with Christ the Bridegroom.

The first test of the Creator to the creature, then after the fall, the Savior to the sinner, the Redeemer to the redeemed, and finally the Bridegroom to the bride-to-be, contains the sum and substance of the everlasting covenant of God’s law, stated simply in Christ’s words : “If you love Me, keep [do, obey] My commandments” (John 14:15).

Thus, “the only question asked in the Judgment is, have they kept My Commandments.” So how much do you really love God in Christ through the Holy Spirit? There is only evidence and proof where God’s infallible Word is concerned. Any other is a deception and a lie.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:

Satan’s Deceptions
Part 5
January 24, 2024

ALWAYS CUNNINGLY DISGUISED IN MEDIUMS, SCHEMES, WILES, AND CRAFTY DEVICES

After starting the first war and failed rebellion in heaven, Satan’s strategies were first employed upon Eve and Adam in their Eden home on yet-unfallen earth.

“Had Satan revealed himself in his real character, he would have been REPULSED AT ONCE, for Adam and Eve had been WARNED against this dangerous foe; but he worked in the DARK, concealing his purpose, that he might more effectually accomplish his object. 

“Employing as his MEDIUM the serpent, then a creature of FASCINATING APPEARANCE, he addressed Eve, ‘Hath God said, Ye shall NOT EAT of every tree of the garden?’ (Gen. 3:1). Had Eve REFRAINED from entering into ARGUMENT with the tempter, she would have been SAFE; but she VENTURED to PARLAY with him, and fell a victim to his WILES.

“It is thus that MANY are still overcome. They doubt and argue concerning the REQUIREMENTS of God; and instead of OBEYING the divine commands, they accept HUMAN THEORIES, which but DISGUISE the devices of Satan. 

‘The woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the MIDST of the garden, God hath SAID, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye TOUCH of it, LEST YE DIE. And the serpent said unto the woman, YE SHALL SHALL NOT SURELY DIE: for God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your EYES shall be opened, and ye shall be as GODS, KNOWING GOOD AND EVIL.’ (Gen. 3:2-5). 

“Satan declared that they would become like God, possessing GREATER WISDOM than before, and being capable of a HIGHER EXISTENCE. 

“Eve YIELDED to temptation; and through her INFLUENCE, Adam was LED INTO sin. They accepted the words of the serpent, that God did NOT MEAN what He said; they DISTRUSTED their Creator, and IMAGINED that He was RESTRICTING THEIR LIBERTY, and that they might obtain GREAT WISDOM AND EXALTATION BY TRANSGRESSING HIS LAW.” - E.G. White, Great Controversy, 1911, pp. 531, 532 (All emphasis and bracketed words mine). 

NOTE: In addition to the words I highlighted with caps, ponder the following:
The only guarantee of Eve and Adam from falling into sin were not:
1) their sinless natures “made in the image and likeness of God,” thus free of any propensities of disobedience or sin
2) the “citadel” of their garden Eden home that was exclusively designed-and-made by their Creator for them
3) their 20/20 vision for Eve’s eyes did not see Satan, disguised as the serpent, hidden among the branches of the forbidden tree till she approached it
4) then, mysteriously did not even stop to think that the lesser creature of animals do not talk,much less converse in intelligent human discourse
5) that the dazzling serpent she begun parleying with was actually Satan, who God had warned them of earlier.

It was and always will be love and trust that results in unquestioning and unhesitating obedience to all of God’s commandments and requirements.

Satan’s power to tempt is completely neutralized each time the tempted refuses to yield unconditionally, and resists by empowering grace. “God giveth more grace to the humble.

SUBMIT yourselves therefore to God. RESIST the devil, and he will FLEE from you.” (James 4: 7, KJV). Satan’s diabolical power to deceive is rendered impotent when the humble sinner relies exclusively on “it is written,” not on feelings, senses, human institutions and mortal wisdom.

Looks can deceive and have deceived from the beginning until its prophesied climax of Satan’s final “overmastering delusion” just before Christ’s return.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
January 17, 2024

Satan’s Deceptions
Part 4

THE FIRST GREAT DECEPTION

“With the EARLIEST history of man, Satan began his efforts to DECEIVE our [human] race. He who had incited rebellion in heaven, desired to bring to the inhabitants of the earth to UNITE with him in his WARFARE [enmity] against the GOVERNMENT of God.

NOTES:
1) Inciting is one of many forms and stratagems of deception.
2) The eternal foundation of God’s everlasting government is His immutable covenant law of Ten Commandments, the transcript of His character and the revelation of His love, wisdom, mercy, righteousness, and justice.

“Adam and Eve had been PERFECTLY HAPPY IN OBEDIENCE to the law of God, and this fact was a constant TESTIMONY against the CLAIM that Satan had urged in heaven, that God’s law was OPPRESSIVE, and OPPOSED to the good of His people.

“And furthermore, Satan’s ENVY was excited as he looked upon the BEAUTIFUL HOME PREPARED for the SINLESS pair. He determined to cause their fall, that, having SEPARATED them from God and brought them UNDER HIS OWN POWER, he might gain POSSESSION OF THE EARTH, and here ESTABLISH HIS KINGDOM, in opposition to the Most High.”

NOTES:
In the same manner that God Creator ‘prepared’ a beautiful home-the garden of Eden—for the first ‘sinless’ pair so is the Redeemer Savior ‘preparing a place’ for all whose characters have been washed from all defilement and stain of sin by “overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.”

They were rendered sinless by this process even while yet in their mortal nature and sealed in their foreheads as such. The “finishing touch” of immortality and the incorruptible, glorified body is conferred upon them at Christ’s glorious return for “the resurrection of the just” and the translation of the 144,000 living saints in order to present “her” to the Father as to His “purified bride” and church triumphant of the ages.

To them is rewarded the everlasting covenant and promised “inheritance of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” as “heirs with God and joint-heirs with Christ.” The earth made new is returned to them having been taken back from Satan “the prince of the earth”, by Christ “the promised Seed” and His “remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” that have the “Spirit of prophecy which is the Testimony of Jesus.”

They, together with all the saints of the ages, starting with Abel, “overcame the world, the flesh, and devil” by faith in Christ and His plan of redemption in the everlasting gospel. They loved God and faithfully obeyed His law and died keeping and defending it. “The blood of martyrs was the seed of the gospel.” And the “blood of Christ is what cleanses from all sin.”

(All paragraphs in quotes are from the Great Controversy, 1911 ed.. p. 531 bearing the same title, The First Great Deception. All emphasis, Notes and Comments mine).

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
January 10, 2024

Satan’s Deceptions Series:
Part 3

RATIONALISM IDOLIZES REASON AS BASIS OF RELIGION OVER INSPIRATION

“Satan is constantly seeking to DECEIVE men, and lead them to call sin righteousness, and righteousness sin. How SUCCESSFUL has been his work! [Here’s the evidence]:

How often censure and reproach are cast upon God’s FAITHFUL servants because they will stand fearlessly in DEFENSE of truth! Men who are but AGENTS OF SATAN are praised and flattered, and even looked upon as martyrs, while those who should be respected and sustained for their FIDELITY to God, are left to STAND ALONE, under suspicion and distrust.

“COUNTERFEIT HOLINESS, SPURIOUS SANCTIFICATION, IS STILL DOING ITS WORK OF DECEPTION. Under various forms it exhibits the same spirit as in the days of [Martin] Luther, DIVERTING MINDS from the Scriptures, and leading men to follow their own FEELINGS AND IMPRESSIONS rather than yield obedience to the LAW of God. This is one of Satan’s most successful DEVICES to cast reproach upon PURITY and TRUTH.

“Fearlessly did Luther defend the Gospel from the attacks which came from every quarter. The Word of God proved itself a WEAPON MIGHTY in every conflict. With that Word he warred against the usurped authority of the POPE, and the RATIONALISTIC PHILOSOPHY of the schoolmen [scholars, church theologians, etc.], while he stood firm as a rock against the FANATICISM [specifically the Munzer Movement] that sought to ally itself with the [Protestant] Reformation.

“Each of these opposing elements was in its own way SETTiNG ASIDE the Holy Scriptures, and exalting human wisdom. Rationalism idolizes reason [a prominent form of spiritual idolatry forbidden by the second commandment] and makes this the criterion for religion. . . .

“True Christianity receives the Word of God as the great TREASURE-HOUSE of inspired truth, and the TEST of all inspiration.” – E. G. White, Great Controversy, 1911 ed., pp. 192-3 (all emphasis and bracketed words mine).

When anyone who loves God undertakes the sacred and difficult work of exposing the deceptions ensnaring the churches and the world in these last days, he must be constantly aware that he is not confronting “flesh and blood” but “principalities and powers of spiritual wickedness in high places”—Satan himself and his host of evil angels. He must carefully “count the cost” first, then “make his calling and election sure” by knowing how to “put on the whole armor of God” and how to use it efficiently to secure the victory in and for Christ.

We are called to be courageous soldiers in God’s spiritual army. Have you willingly volunteered and enlisted?

To be continued, God willing. Bless all, NMF.