Gods Sabbath

T HE R EAPPEARANCE OF THE P ROBLEM

443

Right

Wrong

Fellow worker giv ing specific directions

God gives specific directions

God gives specific directions

fellow worker

worker

worker

“These men had lost sight of the fact that God is the teacher of His people; that every worker in His cause is to obtain an in dividual experience in following the divine Leader, not looking to man for direct guidance; that His workers are to be molded and fashioned, not after man’s ideas, but after the similitude of the divine.” The Acts of the Apostles , 401.3. The loss of the leaders’ ability to assess the real nature of their work correctly did not diminish its evil. When a person drinks a glass of poison, the deadly effect is not canceled by ig norance of what is in the glass. Either way, that person dies in agony. So when those men introduced what would become the papal principles of men ruling over others in God’s place, they threatened the church with terrible danger. If the leaders would not repent once this stand was taken, the only hope for the church in general was to reject their rulership.

The Mystery of Iniquity versus God

Those leaders in Jerusalem had lost sight of the principles embodied in the mystery of Christ and were unwittingly work ing to establish in its place the mystery of iniquity. While they tried to do their best for the church and were not consciously at war with God’s cause, they were in fact fighting against the Head of their church. What they desired to do did not alter what