And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. Revelation 17:12, 13.
As we approach the last crisis, it is of vital moment that harmony and unity exist among the Lord’s instrumentalities. The world is filled with storm and war and variance. Yet under one head–the papal power–the people will unite to oppose God in the person of His witnesses.
What is it that gives its kingdom to this power? Protestantism, a power which, while professing to have the temper and spirit of a lamb and to be allied to Heaven, speaks with the voice of a dragon. It is moved by a power from beneath.
“These have one mind.” There will be a universal bond of union, one great harmony, a confederacy of Satan’s forces. “And shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” Thus is manifested the same arbitrary, oppressive power against religious liberty, freedom to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, as was manifested by the papacy, when in the past it persecuted those who dared to refuse to conform with the religious rites and ceremonies of Romanism.
In the warfare to be waged in the last days there will be united, in opposition to God’s people, all the corrupt powers that have apostatized from allegiance to the law of Jehovah. In this warfare the Sabbath of the fourth commandment will be the great point at issue; for in the Sabbath commandment the great Lawgiver identifies Himself as the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.
Maranatha p. 187
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Prayer Requests
—–Feeling a deep need for prayers… Nicole
—–Please pray for Wendy and her family through the loss of her grandmother. Rose
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Dear Friends,
Esther commented the other day that when she was little, she felt like she would die before she was sixteen. When I asked her why, she began reminiscing about the time when she was six and got meningitis and felt that that was the reason. How well I remember that scary time. At first I had thought it was a cold or flu, but soon my little girl was much sicker than I had ever seen anyone before. She was stiff and gasping for breath and had wine-colored patches just under her skin. She remembered the scared look on my face and how I had rushed her to the doctor. As I brought her into the waiting room, the receptionist took one look at her and, although there was a room full of waiting people, hurried us right in. The exam was very painful to Esther and since she was only 6, she didn’t understand that the doctor was not trying to hurt her. She blamed him for her pain. From that time on, she did not like him at all and protested whenever she had to go to the doctor. She remembered only the pain and not the fact that he was able to give her the medicine she needed to get over meningitis.
How often we find ourselves in the same condition. Our heart is full of sin. We are as Isaiah describes in Isaiah 1:5,6: “the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” Our Loving Saviour bids us, “Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you.” Zech 1:3 “As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” Eze 33:11
We try to make ourselves well, but we cannot heal ourselves any more than Esther could get well without medicine. We need someone to save us: Someone Who is able to change our sin sick hearts and make us pure within; Someone Who can change our thoughts, our motives, our desires; Someone Who has promised, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Eze 36:26,27
Yet, how often this process of cleansing takes us through trials that go against all that we desire. How often the “exam” is unpleasant and we fight and cry out against the One Who is trying to help us. How often we blame Him for our misery, when it is really caused by our own sin-sick heart. Paul speaks of this honing process that we often must go through. “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” Heb 12:5-11
Praise God! Our Creator understands our pain and confusion. He soothes us, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” Isa 41:10 May we say as did the Psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.” Ps 139:23,24; 51:2,7,10-12 May we declare as did Job when he did not understand, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” Job 13:15 May we, this day, give ourselves completely to our Helper, our Saviour, our Redeemer, our King is my prayer.
Rose
Protestantism Unites with the Papacy