Gods Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

these closing days. If we know the dangers that beset our path way, we will have fought and won more than half the battle. “When we think of Paul’s great desire to be in harmony with his brethren, his tenderness toward the weak in the faith, his reverence for the apostles who had been with Christ, and for James, the brother of the Lord, and his purpose to become all things to all men so far as he could without sacrificing princi ple—when we think of all this, it is less surprising that he was constrained to deviate from the firm, decided course that he had hitherto followed.” The Acts of the Apostles, 405.2. The purity and righteousness of Paul’s motives did not save him or the church from the dire consequences of his compromise. This is an important principle. Every believer needs to shake off the idea that good motives will sanctify wrong procedures, for they never can. The plan advanced by the leaders and followed by Paul was as full of human devising as the one formed by Israel at Kadesh barnea, and it was as doomed to failure. Neither Paul nor the leaders obtained their objectives. They only set into more vigor ous motion those forces which were ultimately to reduce the church to total apostasy and separation from God. “But instead of accomplishing the desired object, his efforts for conciliation only precipitated the crisis, hastened his predicted suf ferings, and resulted in separating him from his brethren, depriv ing the church of one of its strongest pillars, and bringing sorrow to Christian hearts in every land.” The Acts of the Apostles , 405.2. When this crisis fell on the church, the people concerned had no concept of the evil that would result. Looking back from the vantage ground of hindsight, we can see, as they could not, the inevitable outworking of the wrong decisions made. We have the opportunity to read aright and learn the lessons thus provided, just as they could have read the lessons correctly from their past. If they had, they would have understood the sure outwork ing of the wrong course they were following and stopped before making so terrible a mistake. The Consequences of Wrong-doing