Category: Daily Manna

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Daily Manna Devotionals

‘THE HOUR OF TEMPTATION’ THAT IS COMING UPON THE WORLD

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

‘THE HOUR OF TEMPTATION’ THAT IS COMING UPON THE WORLD

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write;. . . . Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” Rev. 3: 7,10, KJV.

What is this “hour” of global “temptation” that will “try” or test mankind? No, it isn’t the Covid pandemic or any other coming prophesied various types of cataclysms and disasters. It is much worse but we need to know what it is so we are intellectually and spiritually prepared to meet it.

I thank God for the Spirit of prophecy, which is the testimony of Jesus.” Rev. 19:10. It is also “the Spirit of truth.” John 14:17. Without this last prophetic gift given to the remnant, they would be deceived by Satan’s “subtility,” by which he convinced one third of the angels in heaven to join his rebellion against the government of God, and “deceived the woman,” Eve, the type of the church.

So read this and consider yourself blessed to be warned, thus forearmed:

“JUST BEFORE US is ‘the hour of temptation,’ which shall come upon the world to try them that dwell upon the earth.’ All whose faith is NOT FIRMLY ESTABLISHED upon the word of God WILL BE [not maybe it might] DECEIVED and OVERCOME.

Satan ‘works with deceivableness with unrighteousness’ to gain control over the children of men; and his deceptions will continually increase. But he can gain his object ONLY as men VOLUNTARILY YIELD to his temptations.

Those who are EARNESTLY SEEKING a knowledge of the truth, and are STRIVING TO PURIFY their souls through obedience, thus doing what they can to PREPARE for the conflict, in the GOD OF TRUTH [versus ‘the father of lies’], a sure defense. ‘Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I will also keep thee,’ is the Savior’s promise. He would sooner send EVERY ANGEL out of heaven to protect His people, than leave one soul that TRUSTS in him to be overcome by Satan.

“The prophet Isaiah brings to view THE FEARFUL DECEPTION [not disease] which will come upon the WICKED, causing them to count themselves SECURE FROM THE JUDGMENT OF GOD. [Isa. 28:15 quoted. Read it please!].

In the class here described are INCLUDED those who in their STUBBORN IMPENITENCE comfort themselves [not the Holy Spirit doing the ‘comforting’] with the assurance that there is to be NO PUNISHMENT FOR THE SINNER; that all mankind, it matters not how corrupt, are to be EXALTED TO HEAVEN, to become as ANGELS of God. [Ever heard that today? Indeed!].

“But still more emphatically are those making a covenant with death and an agreement with hell [how?]- who renounce the truths which Heaven has provided as a DEFENSE FOR THE RIGHTEOUS IN THE DAY OF TROUBLE, and accept ‘THE REFUGE OF LIES’ offered by Satan in its stead,—-the DELUSIVE PRETENSIONS OF SPIRITUALISM.

“Marvelous beyond expression is the BLINDNESS of this generation. Thousands reject the word of God as unworthy of belief, and with eager confidence receive the deceptions of Satan.” – Great Controversy, 1911 ed., p. 560.

Heads up, dear brethren! While the climax of this “hour of temptation” is yet ahead, the major deceptive doctrines included in it are already in place:
1. That there is no more judgement; once saved-already saved
2. That regardless of one’s moral character at death, he immediately goes to heaven and even becomes an “angel” or even a “guardian angel,” etc.

Make sure you know what the climax of this “hour of temptation” will be, lest assuming and presuming in Peter-like self-confidence, you fail to fully arm your minds NOW, TODAY with a clear and definite array of scripture weapons of “It is written,” “Thus saith the Lord.”

(More follows tomorrow). Bless all, NMF.

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Daily Manna Devotionals

HOW TO PRAY

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

HOW TO PRAY

“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the [Holy] Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” Eph. 6:18, KJV.

Absolutely no alleged or imagined restricting circumstances, inappropriate occasion or place, intolerant person, or religious liberty suppressing religious or civil authority, can disable you from praying. They can, and will take away the inalienable right to “assemble for worship,” including who to pray to as in the days of Daniel and his three young friends but the prayer channel is open 24/7. Here’s why:

“There is no time or place in which it is inappropriate to offer up a petition to God. In the CROWDS of the street, in the MIDST OF BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT, we may send up a petition to God, and plead for divine guidance, as did Nehemiah when he made his request before King Artaxerxes.” SC 103.

“We may speak with Jesus as we WALK BY THE WAY, and He says, I am at thy right hand. We may commune with God IN OUR HEARTS; we may walk IN COMPANIONSHIP with Christ [through the Holy Spirit in the word]. When engaged in our DAILY LABOR, we may BREATHE OUT OUR HEART’S DESIRE, INAUDIBLE TO ANY HUMAN EAR; but that word cannot die away into silence, nor can it be lost. Nothing can DROWN the soul’s desire. It RISES ABOVE the din of the street, above the noise of machinery. It is GOD [not man] to whom we are SPEAKING, and our prayer is HEARD..” GW 258.

“It is NOT ALWAYS necessary to bow on your knees in order to pray. CULTIVATE the habit of TALKING with the Savior when you are ALONE, when you are WALKING, and when you are BUSY with your daily labor.” MH 510, 511. (NL 122).

For any Christian to claim or complain that they are just too busy to have the time to pray, reveals a sad and fearful ignorance of what Biblical prayer means, and must have been relying on tradition, the way of the world, the sayings of men, and false doctrines. Help them by first helping yourself understand this matter clearly and put it to work for you.
Bless all, NMF

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Daily Manna Devotionals

SABBATH-KEEPERS ACCUSED AS ‘RELAPSED JEWS’

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

SABBATH-KEEPERS ACCUSED AS ‘RELAPSED JEWS’

Of the Roman Catholic Inquisition in India, some have thought that the Sabbath-keepers were relapsed Jews [or some kind of off-shoots of Judaism). But Dellon declares:

“Of an hundred persons condemned to be BURNT AS JEWS, there are scarcely four who profess that faith at death; the rest exclaiming and protesting to their last gasp that they [Sabbath-keeping] CHRISTIANS, and have been so during their whole lives.’ -‘Account of the Inquisition at Goa,’ p. 58, London:1815.

‘The prisoner, who was entirely innocent, would be given over to the CIVIL ARM to be BURNED, unless he confessed the very crimes of which was [falsely] accused, and signed his confessions, and also NAMED SIX OR SEVEN of his accusers. But, not being told who they were, he might have to name many before striking the RIGHT ones, and, as his accusers were supposed to have been EYEWITNESSES to his Sabbath-keeping, they MIGHT BE Sabbath-keepers, who, like himself, were in the CLUTCHES of the Inquisition.

His ONLY HOPE, therefore, WAS TO NAME SOME OF HIS BRETHREN, who would be taken by the Inquisitors, and FORCED TO REPEAT the same experience to FREE THEMSELVES. Thus the prison would be filled with people who were tortured for guilt of which they were innocent, or to remain in solitary confinement and terrible suspense and agony of mind until the AUTO DA FE, or public burning [alive], which took place every two or three years.’ – ‘ibid., pp. 53-60, 67.

And whether they were released or executed, their property was confiscated to the Inquisition. [Another way Romish Church enriched herself through the blood of martyrs].

‘When the power of the Portuguese [Catholics] became sufficient for their purpose, they INVADED THESE TRANQUIL CHURCHES, and seized some of their Clergy, and devoted them to the death of HERETICS.

They seized the Syrian Bishop Mar Joseph, and sent him prisoner to LISBON: and the convened a Synod at one of the Syrian churches called Diamper, near Cochin, at which the Romish Archbishop Menezes presided. At this compulsory Synod 100 of the Syrian Clergy appeared. They were accused of the following practices and opinions:

‘That they had married wives; that they had owned [kept] but two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper [not the Passover]; that they neither invoked Saints, nor worshipped Images, nor believed in Purgatory; and that they had no other orders of names of dignity of the church, than Bishop, Priest, and Deacon.’

These tenets they were called on go abjure, or to suffer suspension from all Church benefices. It was also decreed that all Syrian books of ecclesiastical subjects that could be found, should be BURNED, ‘in order,’ said the Inquisitors, ‘that no pretended APOSTOLIC monuments may remain.’ – ‘Christian Researches in Asia,’ p. 60.

“The papacy had adopted the policy that all remains of the PURE, APOSTOLIC CHURCH [established by the first apostles after pentecost at Jerusalem], whether persons or books, should be carefully eradicated, so that NO TRACE of them might BETRAY the sad fact that the Roman Church had fallen away from the apostolic purity [apostatized from Bible truth]. And she has also tried to destroy all accounts of her PERSECUTIONS during the Dark Ages, so that her tracks would be covered up.”- C. Edwardson, ‘Facts of Faith,’ pp. 157, 158.

But by diligently studying Biblical prophecy, God’s people will know the truth and expose the real enemies of truth as part of the Third angel’s message of Revelation 14. This is a most sacred and difficult message and work of the everlasting gospel entrusted to those who truly “love Jesus and keep His commandments.” John 14:15.

Are we numbered among them, as recorded in the books of heaven? This is God’s unconditional love of righteousness and perfect hatred for sin, in action.

Ponder upon this, NMF.

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Daily Manna Devotionals

THE JESUITS GO AFTER THE WALDENSES OF HINDUSTAN

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE JESUITS GO AFTER THE WALDENSES OF HINDUSTAN

“When the Jesuit, Francis Xavier, and his co-laborers, were sent to India, they displayed the TRUE SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. ‘The INQUISITION was set up at Goa, in the Indies, at the instance of Francis Xavierus, which signified by letter Pope [also addressed as King] John III, Nov. 10, 1545, that ‘the Jewish wickedness spread every day more and more in the parts of the East Indians, subject to the kingdom of Portugal, and therefore he [Xavier] earnestly be sought the said King [Pope John III], that to CURE so great an evil, he would take care to send the office of the Inquisition into those countries. (Accordingly the Inquisition was erected there).

“The first Inquisitor was Alexius Diaz Falcano, sent by Cardinal Henry, March 15, A.D. 1560. . . . The language of F. Xavier, used in this occasion, is truly suspicious, and that under the mask of correcting ‘the Jewish wickedness,’ is rather to be construed an avowed design AGAINST THE LIBERTIES, the INDEPENDENCE, and the FIRMNESS of the native Christians of Malabar, who refused to acknowledge the Pope’s supremacy, and with a TRUE PROTESTANT ZEAL BRAVELY RESISTED THE CATHOLIC TYRANNY.’ -Thomas Yeates, ‘Indian Church History,’ pp. 139, 140. London:1818.

“The ‘Jewish wickedness’ of which Xavier complained was evidently the SABBATH-KEEPING among those native Christians, as we shall see in the next quotation. When one of these Sabbath-keeping Christians was taken to the Inquisition, he was accused of ‘having JUDAIZED; which means, having conformed to the ceremonies of the Mosaic law; such as not eating pork, hare, fish without scales, etc., of having attended the solemnization OF THE SABBATH.’ – ‘Account of the Inquisition at Goa,’ Dellon, p.56. London: 1815.” – Facts of Faith, p. 156.

(To be continued). Bless all, NMF.

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Daily Manna Devotionals

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ‘HINDUSTAN WALDENSES’?

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ‘HINDUSTAN WALDENSES’?

J.W. Massic says of these Indian [formerly called Hindustan] Sabbath-keeping Christians: ‘Remote from the busy haunts of commerce, or the popular seats of manufacturing industry, they may be regarded as the Eastern Piedmontese, the Vaudois [of Waldenses] of Hindustan, the witnesses prophesying in sack cloth [witnessing their faith in persecution] through revolving centuries, though indeed their bodies lay as dead in the streets of the city which they had once peoples.’ – ‘Continental India,’ p. 120.

Then Came Papal Persecution. “Mr. Massic further says of these Indian Sabbath-keeping Christians: ‘Separates from the Western world for a THOUSAND years, they were naturally ignorant of the many novelties introduced by the councils and decrees of the Lateran [of the Church of Rome]; and their CONFORMITY TO THE FAITH AND THE PRACTICE OF THE FIXED AGES laid them open to the GUILT OF UNPARDONABLE OF HERESY and schism, as estimated by ROME [not by Christ nor the Holy Scriptures]…..

We are Christians, and not idolaters,’ was their expressive reply when required to do homage to the IMAGE OF VIRGIN MARY…..LaCroze states them [numbers] as fifteen hundred churches and as many towns and villages.

They REFUSED TO RECOGNIZE THE POPE, and declared they had never heard of him; they asserted the purity and primitive [original apostolic] truth of their faith since they came, and their bishops had for thirteen hundred years had been sent, from the PLACE where the followers of Jesus were first called CHRISTIANS [ at Antioch at Paul’s time. Acts 11:26).” – ibid, Vol. II, pp. 116, 117.” – Facts of Faith, C. Edwardson, p. 155.

By knowing what happened to the first disciples and apostles
and all the faithful Sabbath-keepers of the past centuries, we will better understand what Revelation 13 and 14 warn of, and thus be better prepared for what lies ahead.

(To be continued). God bless, NMF

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Daily Manna Devotionals

THE ONCE ‘DOUBTING THOMAS’ BRINGS THE SABBATH TO CHINA AND INDIA

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE ONCE ‘DOUBTING THOMAS’ BRINGS THE SABBATH TO CHINA AND INDIA

“We shall now briefly trace the apostolic Christian Sabbath-keepers from Antioch in Syria to their farthest Christian stations in old China. Thomas Yeates in his ‘Indian Church History,’ (London: 1818), has collected from several sources statements that all agree on the points he presents, that the apostle Thomas travelled through Persia into INDIA, where he raised up many churches. ‘From thence he went to CHINA, and preached in the city of Cambala, [which is] supposed to be the same as Pekin[g], and there he built a church.’- ‘Indian Church History,’ p. 73.

“In the year 1625, there was found in a town near Si-Nguni-fu, the metropolis of the province of Shin-si, a stone having a figure of a cross, and an inscription in two languages…..Chinese and Syriac….as follows:

‘This stone was erected to the honor and eternal memory of the law of light and truth brought from Ta-Cin, and promulgated in China.’ [The inscription consists of 736 words, giving] a summary of the fundamental articles of the Christian faith.’- Ibid, pp. 86-88. That the missionaries who brought the truth to China were Sabbath-keepers can be seen by the following extract from the inscription:

‘On the seventh day we offer sacrifice, after having purified our hearts, and received absolution for our sins. This religion, so perfect and so excellent, is difficult to name, but it enlightens darkness by its brilliant precepts.’ – ‘Christianity in China,’ M. L Abbe Huc, Vol. I, ch. 2, pp. 48, 49, seq. NY: 1873.

“Returning to India we shall find traces of the Sabbath among those churches also. And they had retained the Bible in the ancient language used by the church in Antioch, where the name ‘Christian’ originated. (Acts 11:26).

“It was in these sequestered regions that copies of the Syriac Scriptures found a safe asylum from the SEARCH AND DESTRUCTION OF THE ROMISH INQUISITION, and were found with all the works of ancient [apostolic] purity.’ – Ibid, T. Yeates, p. 167.

‘Whatever may be the future use and importance of those manuscripts, one thing is certain, and that is, they establish the fact that the Syrian Christians of India have the pure unadulterated Scriptures in the language of the ancient church of Antioch, derived from the very times of the Apostles.’ – Ibid, p. 169.” – Facts of Faith, pp. 153, 154.

So what happened to these early Sabbath-keeping churches planted by apostle Thomas, one of the first Twelve?

(To be continued). Bless all, NMF

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Daily Manna Devotionals

SAINT PATRICK WAS NEITHER A ROMAN CATHOLIC, MUCH LESS A CATHOLIC SAINT

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

SAINT PATRICK WAS NEITHER A ROMAN CATHOLIC, MUCH LESS A CATHOLIC SAINT

Millions just celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by “greening,”’ as they have done for too long now, entertaining grossly mistaken idea of who is and what he stood for, like so many other errors of doctrine and beliefs. Let’s straighten the record, once and for all right here from these excerpts from the book Facts of Faith, revised ed., by Christian Edwardson, published in 1943:

“Patrick Not A Catholic. To those who have heard of Patrick only as a Catholic saint, it may be a surprise to learn that he was not a Catholic at all, but that he was a member of the original Celtic church [who kept the Bible Sabbath]. There is no more historic evidence for Patrick’s being a Roman Catholic saint, than for Peter’s being the first pope. Catholics claim that Pope Celestius commissioned Patrick as an Roman Catholic missionary in Ireland( but William Cathcart, D.D., says:

‘There is strong evidence that Patrick had no Roman commission in Ireland.’ ‘As Patrick’s churches In Ireland [to his day, he founded 365 churches], like their brethren in Britain, REPUDIATED the supremacy of the popes, all knowledge of the conversion of Ireland through his ministry must be suppressed (by Rime, at all cosr.)’- ‘The Ancient British and Irish Churches,’ W. Cathcart, D.D., p. 85.

“The popes who lived contemporary to Patrick never mentions him. ‘There is not a written word from one of them rejoicing over Patrick’s additions to their church, showing closely that he was not a Roman missionary…..So completely buried was Patrick and his work by popes and other Roman Catholics, that in their epistles and larger publications, his name does not once occur in one of them until A.D. 634.’ – Ibid, p. 83.

‘Prosper does not notice Patrick. He says nothing of the greatest success ever given to a missionary of Christ, apparently because he was not a Romanist.’ -Ibid, p. 84. ‘Bede never speaks of St. Patrick in his celebrated ‘Ecclesiastical History.’ – Ibid, p. 85.

“But, wring of the year 431, Bede says of a Catholic missionary: ‘Palladius was sent by Celestinus, the Roman pontiff, to the Scots (Irish) that believed in Christ.’ -‘Ecclesiastical History,’ p. 23. London: 1894. But this papal emissary was not received any more favorably by the church in Ireland, than was Augustine later received by the Celtic Church of Scotland, for he left ‘because he did not receive respect in Ireland.’ – William Cathcart, D.D.

“No Roman Catholic Church would have dared to ignore a Bishop sent them by the pope. This PROVES that the churches in the British Isles did not recognize the pope. Dr. Todd says:

‘The Confession’ of St. Patrick contains not a word of a mission from Pope Celestine. One object of the writer was to defend himself from the presumption in having undertaken such a work a the conversion of the Irish, rude and unlearned as he was. Had he received a regular commission from the See of Rome, that fact alone would be an unanswerable reply. But he makes no mention of Pope Celestine, and rests his defense altogether on the DIVINE CALL which he believed himself to have received for his work.’ – Ibid, pp. 81, 82. ‘Muirchu wrote more than two hundred years after Patrick’s death. His declaration is positive that HE DID NOT GO TO ROME.’ – Ibid, p. 88.

“There are three reasons why Patrick could not have been a Roman Catholic missionary:

1) Early Catholic historians and popes AVOIDED mentioning Patrick or his work; until later LEGENDARY histories represented him as a Catholic Saint

2) When papal missionaries arrived in.Britain, 596 A.D., the leaders of the original Celtic church refused to accept their doctrines, or to acknowledge the papal authority, and would not dine with them (Compare 1 Cor. 5:11; 2 John 8-11.) ‘They acted towards the Roman party exactly ‘as if they were pagans.’ – ‘Ecclesiastical Records,’ by Richard Hart, pp. viii, ziv.

3) The doctrines of the Celtic church of Patrick’s day DIFFERED SO WIDELY from those of the Roman church, that the latter could not have been accepted it as ‘Catholic.’ Patrick must have been a Sabbath-keeper, because the churches he established in Ireland, as well as the mother church in Scotland and England, followed the apostolic practice of keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, and of working on Sunday…But this was considered as deadly HERESY by the Papacy,” – Facts of Faith, Christian Edwardson, pp. 136, 137 Southern Publishing Asso. 1943.

Be properly informed. Save your soul from deception. God bless, NMF

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Daily Manna Devotionals

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL,’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Last of XII Parts)

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

WILL LIFE ‘RETURN TO NORMAL,’ IF AND WHEN THE COVID PANDEMIC ENDS? (Last of XII Parts)

The reader must bear in mind that this 12-part series, is based on the book, Great Controversy, entitled “The Impending Conflict,” that deals with specific changes and events of a combined religious and political nature that will gel around a specific religious and moral issue (not abortion nor LGBTQ rights) and morph into a national Christian movement in AMERICA, revealed in prophetic symbology in Revelation 13 as “the beast” that starts out with gentle and peaceful “lamb-like horns” but strangely changes into “one speaking like a dragon.”

What this unifying issue is, was revealed earlier in this extract from the same chapter (emphasis mine):

“As the work of SABBATH REFORM extends, this rejection of the divine law TO AVOID THE CLAIMS OF THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT, will become well nigh universal [the word catholic actually means “universal.”]. . . . Yet this very class [rejecting the law of God] put forth the claim the FAST-SPREADING CORRUPTION is largely attributable to the so called ‘CHRISTIAN SABBATH,’ and that the ENFORCEMENT OF SUNDAY OBSERVANCE would greatly improve the morals of society. THIS CLAIM IS ESPECIALLY URGED IN AMERICA, where the doctrine of the TRUE SABBATH has been most widely preached [since 1840-1844 when the first, second, and third angels’ messages of Rev. 14 began to be proclaimed successively to this very moment. It will soon “swell into the final loud cry of the fourth angel of Rev. 18]”- GC 567.

We end this series with his last paragraph:

“The dignitaries of CHURCH AND STATE WILL UNITE TO BRIBE, PERSUADE, OR COMPEL all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments.

POLITICAL CORRUPTION is destroying love of justice and regard for TRUTH [explains why lying appears to be order of the day everywhere, particularly in the venerated human institutions]; and EVEN IN FREE AMERICA rulers and legislators, in order to secure PUBLIC FAVOR [not the favor of a righteous God], will yield to the POPULAR DEMAND FOR A LAW ENFORCING SUNDAY OBSERVANCE. [Now mark this]: “LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE, which has cost so great a sacrifice, WILL NO LONGER BE RESPECTED.

“In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet’s words, ‘The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make WAR with the REMNANT of her seed, which [who] keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.’ Rev. 12:17, KJV.” – Great Controversy, E. G. White, 1911 ed., p. 582.

This ends this series but not our due diligence to study the prophecies in order to properly interpret current events and discern which is genuine or counterfeit to deflect our attention from the path forward laid out in the prophecies of the Bible, not the last-day “soothsayers and magicians” of “Mystery Babylon the Mother of Harlots and the Abominations of the Earth.”
God help us, NMF