MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
July 5, 2023
God’s Saving Enmity
Part 26
PERSECUTION SPREADS AND MAGNIFIES THE GOSPEL
“There was great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad. . . and went everywhere preaching the gospel.” Acts 8:1, 3, KJV. Beginning with righteous Abel, murdered by his elder brother Cain, over the issue of worship:
“In every age God’s chosen messengers have been reviled and persecuted; yet through their afflictions the knowledge of God has been spread abroad. Every disciple of Christ is to step into the ranks, and CARRY FORWARD the same work, knowing that its FOES ‘can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth’ [2 Cor. 13:8]. God means that the truth [in its unvarnished purify and fullness] shall be brought to the front, and become the SUBJECT of examination and discussion, even through the CONTEMPT placed upon it.
“The MINDS of the people must be agitated, every CONTROVERSY, every REPROACH, every EFFORT TO RESTRICT LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE, is God’s means of awakening minds that otherwise might slumber [lulled with a false sense of security by the ‘peace-and-safety,’ ‘new theology,’ ‘once-saved-always-saved’ prosperity gospel’].
“How often this result been seen in the HISTORY of God’s MESSENGERS. When the noble and eloquent Stephen was stoned to death at the instigation of the Sanhedrin council there was NO LOSS to the cause of the gospel! The light of heaven that glorified his face, the divine compassion breathed in his dying prayer, were as a SHARP ARROW OF CONVICTION to the bigoted Sanhedrist who stood by, and SAUL, the persecuting Pharisee, became a CHOSEN VESSEL, to bear the name of Christ before GENTILES, and KINGS and the children of Israel. And long afterward, [now] PAUL the aged wrote from his prison-house at Rome: ‘Some indeed preach Christ even [out] of envy and strife. . . .not sincerely, supposing to ADD affliction to my bonds. . . . Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached’ [Phil. 1: 15, 16, 18].
“Through Paul’s imprisonment the gospel was SPREAD ABROAD, and souls were won for Christ in the very palace of the [pagan, sun-worshipping Roman] Caesars. BY THE VERY EFFORTS OF SATAN to destroy it [using his human agencies], ‘the incorruptible seed’ of the Word of God, ‘which liveth and abideth forever’(1 Pet. 1:23) is sown in the hearts of men; through the reproach and persecution of His children, the name of Christ is MAGNIFIED, and souls are saved.” E. G. White, Mount of Blessing, pp 54, 55, 57. Pacific Press Publishing Asso.. 1943. (All emphasis and bracketed words). To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.