Gods Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

their own course had been wrong, that they had been held in bondage by Jewish customs and traditions, and that the work of the gospel had been greatly hindered by their failure to recognize that the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile had been broken down by the death of Christ.” The Acts of the Apostles , 402.3.

The Imposition of Human Solutions

The Holy Spirit did not call upon the conflicting parties to meet halfway. Paul’s position was in full harmony with God’s ways, so the Lord required no concessions from him even though, with his truly Christian spirit, he had the greater disposition to submit. The leaders, on the other hand, with the spirit they had, showed no inclination to forsake their errors. This was proved by the fact that Paul did yield to their demands to a certain extent, while they showed no real willingness to respond to the convic tions generated within them by the Holy Spirit. The awful conse quence was disaster for the church and for the entire world. To whatever extent their work and position was the fruit of human devising, those leaders had no contribution to make to wards God’s work. On the contrary, they retarded and damaged the cause. Failure to comprehend this point generates problems of such magnitude that they deprive many of the kingdom, for no teach ing, practice, theory, or idea, has any place in God’s work if its origin is human devising. This is not because God has arbitrar ily reserved the position of Plan Maker for Himself alone, but be cause we are not possessed with the capacity to plan the Lord’s work for Him. Yet it is common practice for dedicated people to appoint themselves to the position of problem solver, and then strive to impose their solutions on others.

ARecurring Problem

The course of such a development in church history often runs as follows. During the decline of a movement, quite a few of its