Details

Hits: 1926

“When God is worshipped in any way other than that which He commands His jealousy is provoked, because the commandments of men (who say, “This is what we will do in worship”) are substituted for the doctrines and the commands of God. Sadly, man’s sinful heart is always more jealous to pursue its own designs than it is to obey God’s word. “Hence…our God and Savior has excluded from His Church every invention of man; has stamped upon every institution and ordinance the impress of His own sovereign authority. He has left us but the office and privilege of studying His Word, that we may ascertain His will, and then, follow it with a jealousy and vigilance like His own.” (Comin,3)

Details

Hits: 1970

“It sounds simplistic and old fashioned but it has God's stamp of approval. It is a return to the Bible. Our pulpits need to return to the unabashed exposition of Scripture. Our Sunday school classes and Bible studies need to toss the manuals and guides written about the Bible and open the Bible itself. In our local church we have dropped all commercial Sunday school curriculum -which has been watered down to the point of uselessness-and simply teach the Bible. Our 4-5 years old are being taught selected Bible stories. Ages 6 -7 will go through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation in those two years. Ages 8-9 will go through the Bible yet again. Ages 10-11 are being taught hermeneutics and Bible study methods and applying those methods to the study of the epistles. Ages 12-13 are taught Bible- college- level courses on systematic theology. High school students are taught the Bible with emphasis on biblical discernment. At this level many of them begin to teach children as well as their peers. All adult courses are focused on the study of scripture along with classes on church history, theology, and biblical living. All sermons are verse- by- verse expositions of the Word. Certainly our teachers use commentaries and Bible study aids but is it is the Scriptures themselves that are studied.”
(Gary Gilley, This Little Church Went To Market, 113-114)

Details

Hits: 1949

“All idolatrous worship is essentially self- worship and the attributing of glory to the creature (man) rather than the Creator (God). This is why the subject of worship is so absolutely essential for the Christian to understand rightly. Man's activities in worship either attribute glory to God, or they deflect glory to man. In the one case, God is greatly pleased. In the other case He is seriously offended. Furthermore… ‘man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.’ Since this is our main purpose in life-that for which we were created-it concerns us above all else to strive to know how to glorify, God especially in the area of worship.” (Comin, 2)

Details

Hits: 2060

“Especially in 1888 and subsequent years, Adventists received special light on the richness and matchless love of Christ that was designed to enable them to present ‘more prominently before the world the uplifted Savior, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. [TM 91]. This light was designed to help the believers who ‘needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits and His changeless love for the human family’ so that they would become fully aware that ‘all power is given into His hands that He may dispense rich gifts unto men imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel’s message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure [Ibid., 92]. If Adventists had deeply studied and embraced this message, putting all their energy into proclaiming the matchless love and righteousness of Christ, the world would have witnessed the loud cry of Revelation 18: 1 and been informed of how to be ready for Christ’s return.”
(G. Damsteegt, Objectives and Limitations of Interpreting The Bible: Principles from the Works of Ellen G. White, Art. in The Word of God for the people of God, A Tribute to the Ministry of Jack J. Blanco, p. 30)

Details

Hits: 2190

Details

Hits: 1995

“Recognizing this fact, the papacy controlled the education of the Middle Ages and is today seeking to do the same thing. Luther and other reformers, also recognizing this fact, sought to overthrow the tyranny of the papacy by establishing new schools where freedom of thought would be fostered through faith in God's Word.

Protestants today, looking upon the system of education as it now exists, and tracing there the same long courses in the classics and the sciences; the same degrees granted in a manner similar to the Dark Ages, the textbook containing the same theories, the same terms, the same doctrines of philosophy; the same tendency towards monarchism or the monopoly of education by certain universities, and through them by the same power that has borne sway, should, for the sake of their government and for the sake of their faith, establish schools of their own. As the papacy, by the subjection of thought, builds up a monarchy in place of democracy; as she in the same way overthrows faith in God, substituting faith in man or the church, so Protestant schools should educate children in the pure principles of that gospel freedom which recognizes the equality of every man in the sight of heaven, and makes it possible for the government to be of, for, and by the people by developing the Christian character through faith in Jesus Christ.”
(E. A. Sutherland, Living Fountains and Broken Cisterns, 212-213)  

Details

Hits: 2057

“But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him.” Jn. 4:23

“All false worship is spiritual adultery. “ (EGW, Sermons & Talks, Vol. 2, p.184)

Rev.13: 11-18 and Rev. 14: 6-12 together highlight the decisive end-time importance of worship. And this will be our focus throughout this last quarter of 2022, drawn exclusively from the source below.

“In this modern age most Christians give little thought to the idea that there may be an “acceptable” and an “unacceptable” way to worship God. Worship, for most modern believers, is a matter of personal preference. This only highlights how far the Church has fallen since the great attainments of the Reformation. The preferences of men are highly regarded but no one stops to ask the all -important questions: What is the preference of God? What does God find acceptable in His worship? What does He regard as unacceptable? How can we know it.” (Douglas Comin, Worship: From Genesis to Revelation, p.1)

Details

Hits: 2034

“America will follow in the footsteps of the papacy and dishonor God and persecute his faithful followers on earth. How can a nation blaspheme God? The word ‘blaspheme’ means to speak of God in an irreverent and impious manner, and in the extreme, to revile and execrate. To blaspheme God's name is to usurp the title and prerogatives of God (See John 10:33). When a people repudiates the concept that the Creator is the source of all rights, then their government steps in and acts in the place of God.

To blaspheme God's tabernacle is to set up a counterfeit system of worship on earth that diverts man's attention from the ministerial work of Christ in the heavenly Tabernacle. Today America refuses to acknowledge that God is at the foundation of the principles on which the nation was founded. We have passed laws to banish the memory of God from our schools and public institutions. In reaction to this trend of immorality, the Bible predicts that America will turn around and enforce a form of morality. The very use of force in the area of worship is to usurp the place and prerogative of God, who designed that men should be free to worship Him according to the dictates of their conscience. America will look to the example of the historical papacy in adopting laws to coerce worship.”
(James Henderson, Evangelical Civil War, 296-297)

Details

Hits: 1996

“Many modern scholars classify the blue Biblical stories of Creation, the Fall and the Flood as myths by which a primitive people sought to explain their origins. Because of similarities between the Genesis account and the Babylonian creation myths, some have assumed that the Hebrews copied their account from the Babylonians. This assumption overlooks the possibility that both the Hebrew and Babylonian accounts may have been derived from an older common source. But the Babylonian and other Pagan creation myths invariably deal with the ordering of a pre-existing world, while the Genesis saga relates the creation of the earth and its order from nothing (exnihilo). What is most important from a Christian standpoint, Genesis introduces us to the Creator and to the present human predicament, the moral problems associated with human relations and the continuing struggle between right and wrong. It is significant that the story of Cain slaying his brother Abel anticipates the demonic violence which has characterized much of the lamentable record of mankind.”
(Richard Goyne, Roots and Branches of Christian Belief, 1)