The Great Controversy Between Christ and SatanWhite, Ellen Gould Harmon
ReligionComparative
The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan
White, Ellen Gould Harmon
Good and evil; Seventh-Day Adventists -- Doctrines; Spiritual direction
Governor Washburn, of Wisconsin, in his annual message, Jan. 9, 1873,
declared: “Some law seems to be required to break up the schools where
gamblers are made. These are everywhere. Even the church (unwittingly, no
doubt) is sometimes found doing the work of the devil. Gift concerts, gift
enterprises and raffles, sometimes in aid of religious or charitable
objects, but often for less worthy purposes, lotteries, prize packages,
etc., are all devices to obtain money without value received. Nothing is
so demoralizing or intoxicating, particularly to the young, as the
acquisition of money or property without labor. Respectable people
engaging in these chance enterprises, and easing their consciences with
the reflection that the money is to go to a good object, it is not strange
that the youth of the State should so often fall into the habits which the
excitement of games of hazard is almost certain to engender.”
The spirit of worldly conformity is invading the churches throughout
Christendom. Robert Atkins, in a sermon preached in London, draws a dark
picture of the spiritual declension that prevails in England: “The truly
righteous are diminished from the earth, and no man layeth it to heart.
The professors of religion of the present day, in every church, are lovers
of the world, conformers to the world, lovers of creature comfort, and
aspirers after respectability. They are called to suffer with Christ, but
they shrink from even reproach.... _apostasy, apostasy, apostasy_, is
engraven on the very front of every church; and did they know it, and did
they feel it, there might be hope; but, alas! they cry, ‘We are rich, and
increased in goods, and stand in need of nothing.’ ”(640)
The great sin charged against Babylon is, that she “made all nations drink
of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” This cup of intoxication
which she presents to the world, represents the false doctrines that she
has accepted as the result of her unlawful connection with the great ones
of the earth. Friendship with the world corrupts her faith, and in her
turn she exerts a corrupting influence upon the world by teaching
doctrines which are opposed to the plainest statements of Holy Writ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account