Gods Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

to stand firm against the leaders’ efforts to bring him under their jurisdiction. In no way whatsoever, was he to yield to their re quirements by accepting their solutions to the problems in the church. He was to look to his divine Head and none other, just as he had been doing up until that point in time. When Paul, standing before the leaders in Jerusalem, pre sented them with the liberal offerings from the Gentile believers and testified to the wonderful things the Lord had done, the powers of light and darkness had come into direct confrontation. The mystery of God and the mystery of iniquity stood face to face. It was a critical moment in history, for the future of the church was hanging in the balance. The first option Of the several possibilities that could happen, the most desir able was that under the Holy Spirit’s convicting power, the eld ers would humbly acknowledge their wrong, and unify with Paul and the other workers. They should have abandoned for the sec ond and final time the Babylonian principles of church members dictating to other church members. Instead, they should have left this work to God alone, as He is the only one who can give specific orders. They should have immediately and thoroughly repented of the evil and told Paul that from there on, they would never again interfere with his divinely-appointed mission nor concern themselves with the consequences to the church of Paul’s preaching what God gave him to preach. This would have constituted a resounding defeat for Satan and his forces, spell ing death to the mystery of iniquity in the church and eventual ly throughout the world. Swiftly would the work have been fin ished and Christ would have returned. These men were given every opportunity to take this step. The mighty presence of the Holy Spirit was able to reveal to them the real nature of their position and to convict them of their need to repent and forsake their sin. They were left with no excuse for not adopting a right course. This would have been the golden opportunity to confess frankly that God had worked wondrously through Paul and that they had been in the wrong. With great love and skill, God had brought the leaders this op portunity to obtain full deliverance from the shackles of sin which