Gods Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

Had all those concerned carefully followed God’s way, a unit ed, triumphal, victorious church would have accomplished her mission and the end would have come quickly. But the leaders of the apostolic church were determined to have their own way in stead of God’s, despite His loving efforts to save them from their foolishness. When we discern the direct connection between the wrong de cisions made in the early Christian church and the dreadful, long-lasting consequences which inevitably accrued, we are com pelled to confess that the price of not following God’s ways is simply not worth it. It is imperative that we understand how the papacy was built. Craftily and successfully engineered by Satan’s master mind, it was an amalgamation between a fully developed Bab ylonian system (the Jewish church) and those apostates in the apostolic church who had departed from the holy covenant (see Daniel 11:28–30) and thus came to practice the same proce dures as were found in the parent organization. For his scheme to be successful, Satan must delude those in the church who were actually serving him, into thinking that they were Jeho vah’s true children. To achieve this, he diverted their attention away from their need to understand and follow God’s ways. In stead he encouraged them to focus on their zeal for God, their spirit of sacrifice, their desire to promote the cause, their dili gence in service, and the splendid results being obtained in in creased membership, greater financial power, and extending in fluence in the world. As the leaders considered these evidences, they were reas sured that they were truly serving God and that the establish ment of the kingdom would not be long delayed. Like so many others, they fell into the trap of permitting outward evidences to cancel the witness of God’s Word, which states that the Lord blesses only those activities that are in accordance with His pro cedures. Irrespective of the sincerity and sacrifice associated with all their other practices, they were but builders of Babylon. How the Papacy was Built