Greetings MOL Family!

Will you commit to hide in Jesus; and not allow the deceptions of the enemy to toss you to and fro?

The Great Controversy

Here is a testimony that was written way back before Dr. Kellogg ever began his work:

[Satan] therefore transforms himself into an angel of light and works upon the mind to allure from the only safe and right path. The sciences of phrenology, psychology, and mesmerism are the channel through which he comes more directly to this generation and works with that power which is to characterize his efforts near the close of probation. – Testimonies for the Church, Volume 1, pg. 290

Then the Lord’s messenger directs our attention to 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12. Will you turn to that, please? Now, most people when they read 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12, they are thinking of the working of spiritualism, and that’s correct. This is talking about the working of spiritualism. As spiritualism unites the Papacy and the so-called Protestant churches into one grand movement, down here near the end of time, these mighty miracles will be worked that are spoken of here. You notice in the 9th verse, it says that satan will work with what?

…All power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness… – 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10

Here the prophet of God, the messenger to the remnant, applies this text also to a form of spiritualism which is usually not labeled spiritualism at all. She’s talking here about the sciences that have to do with the mind: psychology and mesmerism. (Mesmerism is another name for hypnotism.)

Satan has come unperceived through these sciences and has poisoned the minds of thousands… – Testimonies for the Church, Volume 1, pg. 290

What’s was our subject from last week? The pestilence-laden winds of heresy and apostasy. Oh, these winds are full of poison, my friends!

[Satan] is well pleased to have the knowledge of these sciences widespread. It is a plan which he himself has laid…Said the angel: ‘Mark its influence. The controversy between Christ and Satan is not yet ended.’ This entering in of Satan through the sciences is well devised by his satanic majesty, and in the minds of thousands will eventually destroy true faith in Christ’s being the Messiah, the Son of God. – Ibid

Now, do not misunderstand me, friends. There is such a thing as true psychology. The word ‘psychology’ refers to a study of the laws of the mind. And of course, every part of God’s creation has laws by which it works. There are laws that govern the working of the stomach, the liver, the lungs. So, there are laws that govern the working of the brain. And the study of the laws by which the mind works, provided it’s confined to truth, can be a blessing.

But notice that this says that satan has used, and is using, these sciences; and in the time when Volume 1 was written, the prophet pointed forward to the future as the greatest time of satan’s working through these sciences, that have to deal with the working of the human mind. This should put us on our guard. This should cause us to listen to the warning of Paul:

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy… – Colossians 2:8

It should lead us to listen carefully to what he told Timothy:

O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding…oppositions of science falsely so called. – 1 Timothy 6:20

Now, we cannot (in today’s lesson) go into this subject at any length. I can only call your attention to it. And please note that it was this kind of thing that led out from this glorious Third Angel’s Message, one of the brightest lights that ever shone in this denomination: Dr. John Harvey Kellogg.

There was another man who was very prominent in what we call the 1888 movement. His name was Waggoner. Have you ever heard of Elder E. J. Waggoner? He was associated with Elder A. T. Jones. He also became involved in philosophies that led him into heresies. If you’d like to read a personal testimony written to Elder Waggoner, you’ll find it in the book Medical Ministry, pages 100 and 101.

And friends, I speak of this in order to cause us to be alarmed. We have a dangerous foe that we’re dealing with. This man, Elder Waggoner, who had been such a bright, shining light in 1888 and through the early and middle 1890s (he, along with Elder Jones, gave the message of righteousness by faith), but as he delved into philosophies and scientific theories, he came up with some amazing interpretations of Scripture. You’ll find some of them pointed out here by the prophet of God. Among others, he was teaching in 1903 that there would be marriages and births in heaven, in the earth made new. The prophet of God laid bare the whole problem. He had become enamored of another woman other than his wife, and he was looking forward to the time in the earth made new when he could marry this one on whom his affections were set, and raise up a family by her.

You’d think that such a thing was impossible for a minister of God that had been used so mightily, wouldn’t you, friends? It shows that when we open our minds and hearts to these pestilence-laden winds of heresies, there’s no limit to what satan can do. Read what the prophet of God said to this man in Medical Ministry, pages 100 and 101.

Now, all this, as I say, is a prelude, because what happened back then with Kellogg and Jones and Waggoner, three great men in this denomination (if we may speak of men as great – I mean, they were used of God in a mighty way), when we see how they were led off in these various ways, we remember that this was called the what of apostasy? The alpha. And the omega will be of a most startling character. Then we read from Volume 1 that these sciences satan is going to use in a special way, just before the close of probation.

Oh, my friends, that God may help us to be alive and alert, and not be put to sleep by these germs that would give us sleeping sickness. What do you say?

How Do We Keep From Getting Sick?

Now I want to give you a very interesting statement concerning this very matter in the book Evangelism, page 623. This was written in 1904, right at the height of this battle. Here’s the Lord’s messenger writing:

I am instructed to say to you that it is not best to dwell upon the spiritualistic sentiments, the strange, misleading theories, which have for years been coming in among us.

 

It is not best to preach on the subject of Pantheism or to read quotations from authors who write on this subject, and the specious, deceptive errors, that lead to it. The statements made in Testimonies, volume 8, are sufficient to warn our people to avoid these errors. – Evangelism, pg. 623

Pay attention to the next sentence:

These statements will do more to enlighten minds than all the explanations or theories that our ministers and teachers may put forth concerning these matters. – Ibid

My dear friends, it’s possible to be so involved in the investigation of disease that we become diseased with the thing we’re investigating. This is exactly what happened with a number of them back then.

Elder A. T. Jones went to Sister White at St. Helena, when he was the president of the California conference. He said, “I want to go to Battle Creek and help Dr. Kellogg.” The prophet of God said, “Don’t go. Instead of your helping him, you will be involved in that net, in that deception.” And that’s exactly what happened, my friends. We have little idea of how deceptive the theories of the great master mind of satan can be.

Now there are two things that are necessary, dear friends, to keep from getting sick when there are disease germs around. One is to keep away from them as much as we can. Is that right? The other is to build up immunity. Both are important. And so in this matter of dealing with these pestilence-laden winds of heresy and apostasy, from whatever quarter they blow, again, two things are important: one is to keep away from them as much as possible; the second is to build up an immunity.

Let’s turn to Matthew, the 4th chapter, and I want you to see how, dear friends, we can get the help we need to build up this immunity. You remember in Matthew 4, we have the record of the temptation of Christ. satan brought to bear upon our Lord all the wisdom of his master mind. But I want you to notice how Jesus dealt with it.

What were the first three words of Jesus’ answer to the first temptation? “It is written.” What were the first three words of His answer to the second temptation? “It is written.” What were the first three words of His answer to the last one? “It is written.” (First, He told him “get thee hence, Satan, for it is written…”) My point is that in His answer every time, we find those three words: “It is written.” What was He talking about, “It is written?” It is written where? In the Scriptures.

Now, Jesus was the Son of God. He met satan as we are to meet him. And notice, He didn’t argue with him, not once. He did not (oh, please get this!), he did not get into a discussion of fine-spun theological or scientific theories. He did not begin to reason that what satan said could not be or that perhaps it was some other way. He simply quoted the Word of God.

Can you do better than that? Can you? Oh, friends, that we may understand the simplicity of faith! What is our theme text?

…A Man shall be as an hiding place from the wind… – Isaiah 32:2

Can we hide in safety from all these pestilence-laden winds? Can we be kept safe from the influence of heresy and apostasy? Yes, friends, if we’ll hide in Christ. Christ is the living Word. In the Scriptures we have the written Word. In the Word, as written in the Bible and as lived in the life of Jesus, here we find our security, my friends. The better acquainted we are with the Word, the more immune we will be to all the pestilence-laden winds of heresy.

Oh, I’m so glad, friends, that we don’t have to spend our time in a lot of investigation of all these heresies and scientific theories that lead away from the truth. I hope that this is made plain.

Notice this statement in Selected Messages, Book 1, and page 200, speaking of the apostasy of Kellogg:

I am instructed to speak plainly. ‘Meet it,’ is the word spoken to me. ‘Meet it firmly, and without delay.’ But it is not to be met by our taking our working forces from the field to investigate doctrines and points of difference. We have no such investigation to make. In the book Living Temple there is presented the alpha of deadly heresies. The omega will follow… – Selected Messages, Book 1, pg. 200

So you see, the answer is not delving into all the twistings and turnings of the serpent. Not a bit of it.

Sometimes people come to me concerning certain movements and messages, and they say, “I wish you would please explain this thing to me, and show me what’s wrong with it.” And I thank God, my dear friends, that the simple answer to that is this: if, as has been pointed out in what we’ve studied from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, we will learn the truth, we need not spend our time with all these meanderings of heresies.

Several years ago, the federal government conducted a training school for bank cashiers. They were having trouble with counterfeit money being passed. And they called together a large number of bank tellers to be instructed so that they would be able to instantly detect counterfeit money. For six weeks the federal government trainers put those men through a course which was designed to make them able to detect these counterfeits. Do you know how many pieces of counterfeit money they looked at during the six weeks? Not one.

Some people would say, “How in the world could you train men to detect counterfeit money and never look at it?” Ah, friends, they spent every day of those six weeks studying what? The genuine. Studying the genuine. They knew that if a man really understood the minutiae of the genuine bills – the $1 bills, the $5 bills, $10, $20, $50, and $100 and so on – if a man really knew every detail of those, his eye would pick up any deviation.

Oh, friends, let us fill our minds with the Third Angel’s Message, with the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. What do you say? Then, whether the winds blow from the scientific quarter or the theological quarter, whether they have to do with breaking down faith in the Sanctuary, or in the Spirit of Prophecy, or in the doctrine of creation, of which the Sabbath is a memorial; or whatever the heresy or the theory that leads away may be, Jesus is the hiding place – Jesus as a personal Saviour, Jesus in His Word. Let us fill our minds with the Word. What do you say?

Hide In Jesus

Shortly before his death, dear old Elder Luther Warren, one of our strong evangelists of the word, wrote the following: “Boil your folks in the third angel’s message.” What did he mean? Ah, saturate. Fill the mind, fill the soul with these glorious truths which God has given the remnant.

May I ask you, friends: how much time are you devoting to the study of the Bible and the study of the inspired writings of the Spirit of Prophecy? Are you taking time every day to be ‘boiled’ in these principles? Are you building up in your spiritual bloodstream the antibodies which will make you immune to the heresies and apostasies? Are you feeding on the living Word? Oh, may God grant it!

Would you commit to hide in Jesus, and instead of investigating these heresies and scientific theories that lead away from simple faith and the Word of God, just hide in Him? May God add His blessing.

Until next week – Invite a friend, and we’ll see you then… 

-Continue on to the next study-

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* This study has been adapted from classes taken by Elder W.D. Frazee.