WALDENSIAN PARENTS ‘TRAINED UP’ THEIR CHILDREN ‘TO ENDURE HARDNESS AS A SOLDIER’

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

WALDENSIAN PARENTS ‘TRAINED UP’ THEIR CHILDREN ‘TO ENDURE HARDNESS AS A SOLDIER’

“Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. . . . Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth, entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” 2 TImothy 2: 1, 3. 4, KJV.

“Pure, simple, and fervent was these followers of Christ. The principles of truth they treasured ABOVE houses and lands, friends, kindred, even life itself. These principles they earnestly sought to impress upon the hearts [and the conscience] of the YOUNG.

“From EARLIEST CHILDHOOD the youth were instructed in the SCRIPTURES, and taught to regard SACREDLY the claims of the law of God. Copies of the Bible were RARE; therefore its precious words were COMMITTED TO MEMORY. Many were able to repeat LARGE PORTIONS of both the Old and New Testaments.

“Thoughts of God were associated alike with the SUBLIME scenery of nature [not the metropolitan glitter and glamor or Disneyland’s short-lived, spiritualistic fantasies, etc.] and the HUMBLE BLESSINGS of daily life. LITTLE CHILDREN learned to look with gratitude to God as the Giver of every favor and every comfort.

“Parents, TENDER AND AFFECTIONATE as they were, loved their children TOO WISELY to accustom them to SELF-INDULGENCE. [Why?] Before them [their real ‘future’] was a life of trial and hardship, perhaps a MARTYR’S death.

“They were educated from childhood to ENDURE HARDNESS, to submit to control [to genuine godly parents]. and yet to think and act FOR THEMSELVES. Very early they were taught to BEAR responsibilities, to be GUARDED in speech, and to understand the WISDOM OF SILENCE.[Reason?] One INDISCREET word let fall in the hearing of their enemies, might imperil not only the life of the speaker, but the lives of HUNDREDS of his brethren; for as wolves hunting their prey did the ENEMIES OF TRUTH pursue those who dared TO CLAIM FREEDOM OF RELIGIOUS FAITH.”- E. G. White, ‘The Great Controversy,’ 1911 ed.,p. 67.

Ask yourself, Am I an enemy of truth or an enemy of lies? There exists no “shared platforms” here for there are only two “Fathers,” the “father of darkness, “lies, and murderer from the beginning” and “the Father of lights [not lies], with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Thus there are only two kinds of spiritual children: “the children of light and obedience” and the “children of darkness and rebellion” against God’s law and authority. “Choose ye this day whom your ‘Father’ is!” Bless God’s humble family on earth, His household of faith. NMF