"Why the Delay?"

Chapter 17

Good News: Integrity Will Be Vindicated

Integrity will take its rightful place for the redeemed from among men will have "no guile" in their mouth--"they are without fault before the throne of God."

This remnant will understand that their Adventist history is as much a part of the sacred record in the war between truth and error as is the story of the crossing of the Red Sea by Israel and their descendants of many centuries later stoning Stephen. How long before the truth of our history will filter through to church leadership and be known clearly by the world-wide corporate body? We cannot escape the question, Will we accept the truth of our history, or will we again "stone" Stephen?

Our unbelief is as persistent and deep-seated in our hearts as that which plagued ancient Israel. Today modern Israel is as loth to face its history as the Hebrew people generally are loth to face the history of Calvary. They abhor and deny it.

But something must happen in the end-time that has never happened before. Millenniums of defeat must be reversed. Daniel's prophecy must be fulfilled and the sanctuary must be cleansed as it states--it "shall" be done (8:14).

God's work can be finished in an incredibly short time. But it will require the repentance of the ages, an understanding of the truth which shall make us free from old covenant bondage. God's people will truly hear the call of the True Witness to "be zealous therefore, and repent" Our imagined prosperity and success will be seen in its true light as a snare; and in its place there will be a genuine hunger and thirst for righteousness. Every vestige of theological confusion will vanish. Worldly policy and man-made strategies will be abandoned, to be replaced by a spirit-filled unity among leadership and laity that knows no defeat.

The church will be ready and willing to have by faith the ultimate experience which Christ went through at Gethsemane and she will take her place beside Him. He has staked the honor of His throne on winning the heart of His bride. When she accepts all the truth He has for her, she will "partake of Christ's sufferings" when He was on earth. That "short period of three years was as long as the world could endure the presence of the Redeemer"[1].

The power of Satan will be broken among God's people as they see and believe their history and appreciate true justification by faith. In this message is the power of the latter rain which, for over a century, we have been seeking. It is this message which establishes righteousness and consigns sin to annihilation. The unbelieving world will not be able to endure the presence of a people who overcome every temptation and who live in harmony with the mind of Christ.

There has been a delay but it need not continue. By the faith of Jesus the bride can know the full dimensions of her rebellion. There will be a separation and a unity:

"The Lord is coming; but those who venture to resist the light that God gave in rich measure at Minneapolis, who have not humbled their hearts before God, will follow on in the path of resistance, saying, 'Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?' The banner all will bear who voice the message of the third angel, is being covered with another color that virtually kills it. This is being done. Will our people now hold fast to the truth."[2]

When "the house of David" and the "inhabitants of Jerusalem" come to understand this history, by the grace of the Lord there will be a repentance of soul that fulfills the call of the True Witness as "his wife hath made herself ready." (Zech. 12:10; Rev. 3:19; 19:7).

This has to be true, for it is a divine prophecy--the word of the Lord to His people cannot fail!

Notes:

  1. Desire of Ages, p. 541
  2. 1888 Materials, pp. 1485, 1486, Series A, No. 6, p. 215, Jan. 16, 1896