Four Horses...

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately...thinking about how to make Revelation more practical to my students and helping them see the significance of what the prophecies mean to us as SDAs. We just finished covering the seven seals of Revelation and the first four seals are the horses of Revelation. We spoke of the rapid decline of God's church from his pure church (the white horse) to a church in persecution (red horse) to a church in apostasy (black horse) to a church that was dead (pale horse). We spoke about God's viewpoint of his church and how he had to do some drastic measures to raise the church out of apostasy and restore it to the condition of his first church. He did this through each of the Reformers that presented a message that got the church back on track. Just as someone being in pitch darkness has to slowly be brought back into the light, God slowly brought his church out of error by introducing new messages through various people. Each message that the reformers preached was significant in both the message that was given and the order in which it was given. This is the sequence.

Waldenses -- The Bible and Bible Alone
Huss -- Obedience
Luther -- Righteousness by Faith/Grace
Calvin -- Spiritual Growth
Anabaptists -- Baptism
Wesley -- Holiness
Miller -- 2nd coming
God's Last Day church -- Sabbath, Sanctuary, Health, 2nd coming (deeper knowledge)

On a Bible test this week, I asked my students to string these messages together and show why the order in which they came was significant for God's church. Here is one student's response.

"The 1st message was the Bible and the Bible only. The Bible had to be the foundation of the church otherwise it could not grow. The 2nd message was obedience. You must obey what God says in His word. The 3rd message was salvation through faith. By having God's word you can see the sacrifice of Christ and that you do not have to earn your salvation but Christ paid for it. The 4th message is Christian growth. Once we have faith in Christ, we must continually walk with Him and we will grow close to Him. The 5th message was baptism. As we grow closer to Christ, we must make a public stand to show your allegiance to God. The 6th message is holiness. Once we make a stand for Christ and we continually grow, we will become like Christ. The 7th message is the second coming. Once God's people have become like Him, then He will come and take us home to live with Him forever. The 8th message is health, sanctuary, Sabbath, second coming, etc. This is the last truth. Now Christ can come as soon as His people are ready."

Another student concluded the last part by saying "...As it gets closer to the time when He will come, times will become harder and we need to have clear minds. Having a good diet will help with this. We have also been given a time of rest every week to focus on Jesus. We also have light as to how things will work and how things are going in the sanctuary. This progression helps paint a picture of a Christian walk. And shows how their messages, working together, help us to become the true church."

I love her last statement. All these work together to create God's last day church. God is so good to have used each of these Reformers and movements to bring His church around to the true message. One other question I asked on the test was why we see so many different denominations rising out of the Reformation period and what challenge this is to the SDA church. This was another student's response.

"What happened during the Reformation was that only so much light was given at a particular time to God's people. And what happened to many is that they would follow a new truth and go no farther. If later more truth was presented, they chose not to follow it. As was and is the case with the Lutherans. To Luther was revealed the truth of righteousness by faith and grace, not by works. This was revealed to Luther for him and for that time to reform the church as God saw fit in that period of time. Luther still kept to Sunday and many other Catholic beliefs only because at the time, light was not given to show those things were wrong. But when new light did come, the Lutherans decided it unnecessary I suppose to hold to that new light. This same type of thing happened with the sects that came out of John Calvin, Menno Simmons, and John & Charles Wesley's movements, which is how we ended up with so many different denominations. It's like the sun, if you stop moving with the light, you'll find yourself in darkness."

Another student concluded, "This can be a challenge for us today. God is still giving light to this world. His knowledge is unending. If we are not searching for his truths, the light will pass us by and we will only be pew warmers, not part of the remnant."

So my friends, are we as guilty as each of these different denominations that formed in the past? They became satisfied with the light they had and stopped progressing. But the light moved on and they were left in darkness. Jesus challenged his disciples in John 12:35, 36 "Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light."

I ran across a startling statement by Mrs. White while I was going over this topic with the seniors in the Philippines. She says:

"We shall not be held accountable for the light that has not reached our perception, but for that which we have resisted and refused. A man could not apprehend the truth which had never been presented to him, and therefore could not be condemned for light he had never had. But if he had opportunity to hear the message, and to become acquainted with the truth, and yet refused to improve his opportunity, he will be among the number of whom Christ said, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." Those who deliberately place themselves where they will not have an opportunity of hearing the truth, will be reckoned among those who have heard the truth, and persistently resisted its evidences" (RH April 25, 1893). (emphasis supplied)

This is a solemn thought. Many choose not to place themselves where they will hear the truth because then that will require them to change. They say that ignorance is bliss--as long as they didn't know, God couldn't hold them accountable. But this statement says that if we had the opportunity to know the truth and chose not to, then it will be as if we persistently refused the truth. So my friends, my challenge to you is twofold: 1) are you walking in the light and 2) have you placed yourself where you will have the opportunity to be acquainted with truth? My prayer is that you will.