INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY - SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST REFORM MOVEMENT

The concept of eternity is one which the human, finite mind can hardly comprehend. And yet it is important for us to think hard about such things that relate to our eternal salvation. For example, if you knew you were going to live forever with one person and you could choose who that would be, would you merely leave the choice to chance or to some other acquaintance? Would you like to have a blind date for eternity? The Bible very clearly states that anyone who wants to have a blind date for eternity will not obtain eternal life at all. "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee he only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." John 17:3. "And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me,..." Jeremiah 31:34.

"Shortsighted mortals do not comprehend the ways and works of God. Their eyes are not directed upward to Him as they should be. They do not have exalted views of eternal things. They only look at these things with a clouded vision. They take no special delight in contemplating the love of God, the glory and splendor of heaven, the exalted character of the holy angels, the majesty and inexpress-ible loveliness of Jesus, our Redeemer. They have so long kept earthly things before their vision that eternal scenes are vague and indistinct to them. They have limited views of God, heaven, and eternity." -Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, p. 258.

So as to broaden our views of God somewhat and thus make sure that we do not have a blind date for eternity, let us study a little bit more deeply than we usually do into the character of God.

What is God?

"But the Lord is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King: at His wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation." Jeremiah 10:10.

The Bible is full of God. This is only natural, for "In the plan of redemption Christ is the Alpha and the Omega-the First and the Last." -Ellen G. White, Pa-triarchs and Prophets, p. 267. Never in our lives here on earth will we be able to comprehend who and what God is. Nevertheless, it is our privilege at least to give this monumental endeavor at comprehension a good try.

Taking Jeremiah 10:10 as one descrip-tion of God, let us see if we can broaden our views just a little bit.

The true God

The Hebrew renders this phrase as "the God of truth." When we think of Him in these terms, we immediately think of the great contrast between our true God and the multiplicity of false gods that man has invented. The Greeks were especially great at this. When the apos-tle Paul was in Athens, he attempted to show the Athenians how narrow their thinking was. It seems they wanted to cover everything in nature by hav-ing a god for each part of nature, from Neptune of the sea to Zeus of the skies. Then being afraid they might have for-gotten one, they erected a shrine to the Unknown God. Paul declared to them that there was truly a God whom they had forgotten-the Creator of heaven and earth. They had not seen the forest for the trees. Seeing many unexplained phe-nomena in nature, they had stereotyped hem and pictured a god over each. With

nature so fractionated hey could not see the God of nature and worshipped the creature in His place.

Tradition was their religion, and it is no different today. That which their fa-thers had decided was true was accepted without deciding or proving for them-selves that it was true. Many accept the experiences of past generations as their own without deciding or proving for themselves that it was true. Many accept the experiences of past generations as their own without making a personal experience with God themselves. Their religious service becomes an end in it-self rather than a means to an end, and the worshipper loses sight of Him who ordered all things.

But when we seek to understand our true God for ourselves, we find the whole universe opened to us-from the minutest electron to the whole expanse of space. In nature and the Word of God we can delight in discovering the Supreme Being who controls flawlessly he physical and spiritual forces He has set in motion. We owe our existence to

Him, and yet He does not consider us mere toys with which to play. Rather He delights in calling us His children. Unlike the mythological gods created by man, He deals fairly and righteously and mercifully with His creation.

It is true that God is revealed in His creation and His Word. And yet we still must see Him through the eye of faith-in fact, the greater our faith develops, the more we will be able to see God. He is a subject that can be studied eternally without ever reaching full knowledge. As Sister White writes, "Divine inspi-ration asks many questions which the most profound scholar cannot answer. These questions were not asked that we might answer them, but to call our at-tention to the deep mysteries of God and to teach us that our wisdom is limited; that in the surroundings of our daily life there are many things beyond the comprehension of finite minds; that the judgment and purposes of God are past finding out....

"Skeptics refuse to believe in God be-cause with their finite minds they can-

not comprehend the infinite power by which He reveals Himself to men. But God is to be acknowledged more from what He does not reveal of Himself than from that which is open to our limited comprehension. Both in divine revela-tion and in nature, God has given to men mysteries to command their faith. This must be so. We may be ever searching, ever inquiring, ever learning, and yet there is an infi nity beyond." Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, p. 261.

The living God

There are some people who believe that once God created the earth and every-thing else He was powerless to control it. This supposes that God provided all matter with self-perpetuating qualities so that once set in motion neither He nor anything else could stop it. God Himself says this is not so when He talks to Job about His creative and maintaining power: "Canst thou bind the sweet in-fluences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?" Job 38:31.

God's people today, having access to the knowledge that has been accu-mulated over the last 6,000 years, can have the deepest insight into the nature of the living God. All the discoveries of modern science prove His existence. "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth." Job 19:25. Within the last 100 years, by playing god, thinking he knew a way of life so much better than the natural way, man has placed the human being on the brink of anni-hilation. There is hardly a piece of earth or a drop of water that does not carry some form of side effect pollution as the result of man's technology. Now it is time for God to intervene before man destroys himself. What a blessing it is to know that He will do this. But He will not come merely to destroy the wicked and their works; He will come to give life to the righeous.thinking of the everlasting king-dom and the various parts composing it-King, city, people, and territory-we understand that it is not yet complete. Christ as our Kind has been crowned; He has also received the city; but He has yet to receive His people and His territory before His kingdom is complete.

The apostle Paul described Christ as "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords." Have you ever compared the Everlasting King to earthly kings-those who actually car-ried the title of "king"? The earthly kings seek to provide some way for their mem-ory to be retained in men's minds.

To insure that the job would be done well, Ptolemy employed Sostratus, the most famous architect of the day, to plan and When it was completed, the light-

house of Pharos won acclaim as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

"Ptolemy ordered his name inscribed in great letters upon the base of the lighthouse, and Sostratus dutifully car-ried out the orders. But the king's name was inscribed only in the plaster which overlaid the granite base, and before many years the wind and the waves had washed the plaster away. Beneath, for all to see, was the name of Sostratus, the real builder of the tower, carved for centuries to come in the time-defying granite." Inspiring Illustrations, by John W. Wade, pp. 44, 45.

In a physical sense, Ptolemy was rep-resentative of most of the kings of this earth, who are more concerned about their own image than they are about the welfare of their subjects. Such kings are remembered about as long as did King Ptolemy's name on the lighthouse.

Op-posite him, Sostratus worked quietly to build an enduring structure. Christ did likewise when He was on earth; He was so concerned about the welfare of His people that He put aside His kingly role and became a servant. As the result, He is remembered today, almost 2,000 years since He left this earth.

In a spiritual sense, the lighthouse might be said to represent Christ's true church. His name and character are everlasting, just as the granite of the lighthouse lasted for centuries. The plaster and engraving over the granite are like the things man has tried to add to Christ's original teachings. These er-rors, which bear the names of men and are placed on the foundation to glorify men, will be washed away and de-stroyed when Christ comes.

Our King will come soon; and what a glorious King He is! He is interested solely in the welfare of His subjects and thus is deserving of all our efforts to aid his cause, all our praise, all our obedience, all our love, and our entire Uves,

Since our everlasting King will soon be here, let us watch ourselves closely. Let us not take things into our hands and steal from Him His glory. Let us, instead, strive lawfully; then we will know the power and wisdom of Him who knows all things, and we will also be members of His kingdom.

The Judge

Many people in the world today-per-haps even most of the people-do not see God as one who will bring every work into judgment. Our text in Jeremiah 10: 10 says, "At His wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation." Why is it that such a vast majority of the world do not believe this text or any of the others that warn of God's judgments? These texts are very clear; for instance, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Ecclesias-tes 12:13, 14.
Because man denies the moral law of God and declares that it is not binding upon him, he also denies that God will judge him. Unfortunately for such peo¬ple, they do not have an ounce of infl u-ence over God. Regardless of what they believe, God will do just as He says. God will destroy all the works of darkness and the only people He will redeem as His subjects are those who humble them-selves and acknowledge God's law and His judgment.

God is perfect, and everything as-sociated with Him must also be per-fect-His law, His subjects, His cre-ation. Soon the last work of judg¬ment will be fi nished, and all that is imperfect will be wiped from the universe. Never again will a stain come upon God's created works for sin will be destroyed, nev¬er again to rise. Let us each do his part to spread the gospel. Let us work individually to achieve that perfection under the Holy Spirit that will work the cleansing of God's people. Time is so short! If our lives are not cleansed now, we will be cast out by God right along with all the other im¬perfect works.
But how can we be changed? We cer-tainly cannot change ourselves. This brings us back to our Saviour. "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Corinthi-ans3:18.

Some people are willing to admit that there was a Creator. Some will even ac¬knowledge that there is a force now
present. Even fewer are willing to make Christ their King, and fewer still believe that He will recompense evil for evil. Let us go all the way by fearing the Lord and giving glory to Him who made heaven and earth, for He shall bring every work into judgment. Then we will not have a blind date for eternity. Instead of God saying, "I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity," He will say to us, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you

The Physician within

Paracelsus was a German physician and chemist of the XVII century and probably the most revolutionary health professional after Galen. He also rejected many of the established beliefs and practices of medicine of his days. He is credited with saying:
“The art of healing comes from nature, not the physician...A man could not be healthy were there not already a physician hidden in him.”1
This internal physician was known to the Latin scientists
as “vis medicatrix naturae.” It literally means “vital natural
medicine.”
What does the Bible say? “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.” Deuteronomy 33:25.

The word of God teaches us that the body which God cre-ated has the ability to heal itself. Due to the fact that there is a vital force which promotes health, re-pair, and healing. This vital force or energy functions very much like an internal physician. It is "vis medicatriz naturae." In other words, it is like a microchip im-planted in each DNA and RNA strand of the cell of the body which functions as a „self-heal-ing program."

We can eas-ily prove the existence of this internal physician. For example, a per-son may cut his hand and with-out a doubt it will bleed. Naturally, the body will im-mediately start a repair mecha-nism to restore the affected tis-sues. Proteins (thrombin) which are mediated by vitamin K are secreted to coagulate the blood. White blood cells known as macrophages and lymphocytes are rushed to the site to fight infection and the temperature of the locality is raised to kill off the microbes and accelerate the process of healing.Ellen G. White often wrote of this vital force in humans. She called it "force" or "nature." She recognized it as a literal phenomena that is physiologically pres-ent in every human being.

"God has provided us with constitu-tional force, which will be needed at dif-ferent periods of our life. If we recklessly exhaust this force by continual overtaxa-tion, we shall sometimes be losers."

"Nature alone possesses restorative powers. She alone can build up her ex-hausted energies, and repair the injuries she has received by inattention to her fixed laws." "Nature alone is the effec-tual restorer."

"Nature bears abuse as long as she can without resisting, then she arouses, and makes a mighty effort to rid herself of the encumbrances and evil treatment she has suffered. Then come headaches, chills, fevers, nervousness, paralysis, and other evils too numerous to men-tion."

"All the credit should be ascribed to nature's restorative power."2

Jehova - Roph

Benjamin Franklin, the great elderly statesman, inventor and printer of Phil-adelphia who lived during the 1700's, wrote a book titled: "Poor Richard's Al-manac." In it he says: "God cures, and the doctor takes the fee."

God wishes all to understand that He is the great Healer. He is the Great Physician. To the children of Israel, He made Himself known in Hebrew as "Jehovah-Rophi." This literally means "I am the Lord who heals you." Exodus 15:26.

All disease is the direct or indirect result of sin. All healing is the work of God. Therefore, we need to learn to ap-peal to the Great Physician for a balm not only for the soul, but for the mind and body.

Spiritual healing agents

There are two types of primary healing agents: spiritual and natural. There are also secondary healing agents, but the primary healing agents are more effec-tive.

The primary healing agents are af-fordable, accessible to all, and relatively easy to administer. They require no so-phisticated tools, medical instruments or equipment, nor a doctoral degree. They have no side-effects, no after-effects, nor any contraindications. They are non-in-vasive, and can be self applied

How do the primary healing agents work? Both the spiritual and natural healing agents stimulate the "physician within."

An apparently slow process

The prophet Habakkuk wrote something regarding prophecy in the last days which could also be applied to using the spiritual or natural healing agents. "Though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come." Habakkuk 2:3.

The use of natural remedies seems to take longer than expected. Sometimes there are no immediate results and just a further deterioration of the health that is present which results in extremely slow progress.

For example, the great hydrothera-pist from Bavaria, Father Sebastian Kneipp, took two years to recover. James
White, Ellen G. White's hus-band took over six months to recover from a stroke.
"Nature 's process of healing and upbuilding is gradual and to the impatient it seems slow."3

Forgiveness in His wings
Forgiveness is the key to heal¬ing, it actually precedes it. Sickness dis-appears in the face of forgive¬ness. The Bible is clear on the healing role of forgiveness not only for the soul, but for the mind and spirit.