Gods Sabbath

AF INAL O PPORTUNITY

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Despite these repeated failures, God’s promise that some will enter into His rest still remains today. Paul makes this clear in the book of Hebrews . By Paul’s day, the church had failed to ap propriate God’s offerings, but while the recurring failure sug gested that none would ever enter in, the guarantee remains that some will finally achieve what might have been experienced by all. Paul states this in very positive terms: “Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.” Hebrews 4:1. “It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, call ing it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’” Hebrews 4:6, 7. These Scriptures declare that, no matter how many failures may occur in the meantime, or how long it takes for the vital les sons to be learned and the correct procedures adopted, some will at last be found who will enter into God’s rest. Meanwhile, in His forbearance, the Lord has arranged anoth er, seventh opportunity. In the 1950’s He gave His plans to an other messenger, gradually building up a new movement. The early stages of strict obedience to His plans and learning His ways of working began auspiciously. For over 50 years the work has grown, the main workers clinging to His general and specif ic orders. Some have died meanwhile; others taken their places. How vitally important is it that they never depart from strict ad herence to God’s procedures in the future! It is essential that we grasp the simple truth that the reason why every movement in the past has failed is because its mem bers permitted Satan to divert them from following their divine Head in all things. The enemy was able to induce them to at tempt the building of God’s kingdom through human plans and procedures. Through this means, while imagining that they were rendering acceptable service to God, His people were actu ally building antichrist—the fruitless effort to do God’s work man’s way. This cannot happen among the Lord’s last army if it is to finish the work.