Friday, June 29, 2018

THE GREAT CONTROVERSY: Audio & Pull Quotes- Chapter 27

Modern Revivals

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/pVoz0Jk_u7s?list=PLA5C7629D1527F981

There is no evidence of genuine repentance unless it works reformation.
But many of the revivals of modern times have presented a marked contrast to those manifestations of divine grace which in earlier days followed the labors of God's servants.

Popular revivals are too often carried by *appeals to the imagination, by *exciting the emotions, by *gratifying the love for what is new and startling.
Converts thus gained have little desire to listen to Bible truth, little interest in the testimony of prophets and apostles. Unless a religious service has something of a sensational character, it has no attractions for them. A message which appeals to unimpassioned reason awakens no response.
The power of godliness has well-nigh departed from many of the churches. Picnics, church theatricals, church fairs, fine houses, personal display, have banished thoughts of God.
Notwithstanding there are true followers of Christ in these churches. Before the final visitation of God's judgments upon the earth there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children. At that time many will separate themselves from those churches in which the love of this world has supplanted love for God and His word.
Many religious teachers assert that Christ by His death abolished the law, and men are henceforth free from its requirements. There are some who represent it as a grievous yoke, and in contrast to the bondage of the law they present the liberty to be enjoyed under the gospel.
But not so did prophets and apostles regard the holy law of God.
---Said David: I will walk at liberty: for I seek Thy precepts. Psalm 119:45.
---The apostle James, who wrote after the death of Christ, refers to the Decalogue as the royal law and the perfect law of liberty. James 2:8; 1:25.
---And the revelator, half a century after the crucifixion, pronounces a blessing upon them that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:14.
---The death of Christ, so far from abolishing the law, proves that it is immutable. The Son of God came to magnify the law, and make it honorable. Isaiah 42:21.
*The law of God, from its very nature, is unchangeable.
*It is a revelation of the will and the character of its Author.
*God is love, and His law is love.