Chapter 5 — The Lord’s Most Serious Problem Of the Ages

The ultimate success of the plan of salvation depends upon its final hour. Never in 6000 years has the Lord had a greater problem to solve than now.

Are we involved in a genuine crisis? The greatest crisis of the ages involved the crucifixion of Christ. But that crisis overshadows us today.

Human sin, which began in Eden, finally blossomed into that murder of the Son of God. Those who crucified Him the first time were forgiven, for Jesus prayed for them, “They do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). Sincere as we are, could we repeat their sin, again not knowing what we do?

There are those who “crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:6). Is Laodicea’s sin related to this? How deep is the sin for which “the angel of the church of the Laodiceans” is called upon to repent?

Laodicea shares something in common with Israel of old—an ignorance of our true state. The Lord says, “You … do not know,” the same as He prayed of them, “They do not know” The remnant church is pathetically unaware of her actual role as she appears on the stage of the universe. “You are … naked,” Christ whispers to us, in alarm (Revelation 3:17). Could this be more serious than we have thought, more than mere shameful but innocent naiveté? Could it stem from a deep heart alienation from the Lord Himself, something that makes us akin to the ancient Jews?

The idea of nakedness surfaces again in the parable of the wedding garment. The deluded guest who thought that dressing up was optional was not only naive; he lacked respect for the host. An alienation deeper than his conscious understanding poisoned his feelings toward his host (Matthew 22:11-13). Laodicea improperly dressed but proudly attending the party is not only naive; there is something else involved: disrespect for the Host. Only the “final atonement” can develop proper reverence for the Host and can bring a solution to the problem.

Seventh-day Adventists are friends of Jesus and so would not knowingly crucify Him “again.” But being His friends doesn’t necessarily guarantee that we will treat Him right, for He says that He was once “wounded in the house of My friends” (Zechariah 13:6).

Many statements from the Lord’s messenger declare that the same enmity against Christ that characterized the ancient Jews has been manifested by leaders in our Seventh-day Adventist history. Further, this “just-like-the-Jews” syndrome has been the root of our basic spiritual problem for most of a century.

It is easy to suppose that Laodicea, being lukewarm, is not very bad and not very good, so that our sin must be a mild one. We have often acted and spoken as though Heaven is quite proud of us. But there is a problem. Our spiritual understanding has not kept pace with the tremendous increase of scientific knowledge in the world. No one of us in this computer age would want to live in a cave and count on an abacus by candlelight. But spiritually speaking, Christ represents His last-day church as virtually poverty-stricken, content with spiritual resources far behind our time. We are a pathetic sight to Heaven. We shall someday look back on our era as the dark ages. In a time of exploding knowledge in technology, God’s people have not broken through this spiritual barrier of “you … do not know.” The last unexplored continent is not Antarctica, but the inner depths of Laodicea’s soul. The enmity buried there is what Christ says we don’t know.

The Cross and the Pathology of Sin

Modern science has discovered that harmful bacteria and viruses produce disease. “While pathology can often identify these tiny enemy organisms, our understanding of what sin is and how it proliferates has not kept pace with the world’s knowledge of how disease works. Yet we are near the time when Christ’s intercession as High Priest must end, when the virus of sin must be forever annihilated. If any alienation from God or enmity against Him survives beneath the surface of our hearts at that time, it will proliferate unchecked into total rebellion against God. Armageddon will be the result— full scale, uninhibited enmity against Christ without the restraint now imposed by the Holy Spirit. No buried virus of sin must survive the final crisis.

In essence, all sin is a re-crucifixion of Christ, and its final display will be Armageddon. No one can deny that sin has abounded in our modern age; knowledge of much more abounding grace is the solution.

The master inventor of all fiendish schemes wants to embarrass Christ. If Satan can perpetuate sin among God’s people, he has his success made. This is his best way to sabotage Christ’s kingdom. Let’s face a reality: continued apathy now is sin. And as time goes on, it will be seen to be a re-crucifixion of Christ The enemy cannot at present use physical force. His strategy has been to take advantage of our ignorance of what sin is and thus induce in us a spiritual paralysis. Our singular lukewarmness is an enchanted-ground lethargy on the borders of Heaven.

What is the Pathology of Lukewarmness?

How do succeeding generations of Adventists get re-infected by it? How does it spread even to Third World churches? It must be caused by a sin virus. If so, what is the nature of that sin? Why haven’t we found healing for it?

Peter’s sermon at Pentecost unlocks our understanding. He shocked his listeners with the news that latent enmity against God had flared out in the crucifixion of their Messiah. The Holy Spirit used his sermon to press home to their hearts the conviction of how awful that previously unknown sin was. They cried out, “What shall we do?”

The apostle’s answer was, “Repent” (Acts 2:22-38). And they responded. They received the Holy Spirit in a measure that has never since been equaled. This is because they came to realize that their sin was of significantly greater dimensions than they had supposed. That blessing of the former rain will be surpassed in a final reception of the Holy Spirit known as the latter rain. As at Pentecost, the gift will depend on a full realization of our true guilt.

The Lord has in reserve a means of motivation that will be fully effective. What happened at Pentecost fueled the early church with extraordinary spiritual energy that flowed naturally out of their unique repentance. No sin in all time was more horrendous than that which those people were guilty of—murdering the Son of God.

Sin has always been “enmity against God,” but no one fully understood its dimensions until the Holy Spirit drove the truth home to the hearts of Peter’s audience. The realization of their guilt came over them like a flood. Theirs was no petty seeking for a shelter from hell or for a reward in Heaven, nor was it a craven search to evade punishment. The cross of the ages was towering over them, and their human hearts responded honestly to its reality. No selfishness was involved.

A repentance like that of Pentecost is what Christ calls for from us today It will come, like a lost vein of gold in the earth that must surface again in another place. Hazy, indistinct ideas of repentance can produce only hazy, indistinct devotion. Like medicine taken in quantity sufficient to produce a concentration in the blood stream, repentance must be comprehensive, full-range, in order for the Holy Spirit to do His fully effective work.

Why Laodicea’s Repentance Must Now Be Different in Depth and Extent

This full spectrum of repentance is included in “the everlasting gospel” of Revelation 14. But its clearest definition has been impossible until history reaches the last of the seven churches. The original word “repentance” means a looking back from the perspective of the end: metanoia, from meta (“after”) and nous (“mind”). Thus, repentance can never be complete until the end of history. Like the great Day of Atonement, its full dimension must be a last-day experience To that moment in time we have now come.

Unless our veiled eyes can see the depth of our sin as identical to that of Peter’s congregation at Pentecost, only a veneer repentance can be possible, thus perpetuating the Lord’s problem for further generations. It is not enough that sin be legally forgiven; it must also be blotted out.

Not only are we frustrated by the long delay; Christ Himself is deeply pained. We can turn off the horrifying nightly news and find relief in sleep; but the Lord can’t do that. He can “neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4). The agony of a suffering, terrorized world weighs heavily upon Him. He cannot take a vacation to some remote corner of His universe and forget it. In our weakness, we can feel a little for the agonies of starving, homeless, despairing people when we know about them, yet Jesus is infinitely more sensitive and compassionate than the best of us. In ancient times “in all their affliction He was afflicted” (Isaiah 63:9), and He is still the same today.

Those who think of the result of hastening or hindering the gospel think of it in relation to themselves and to the world. Few think of its relation to God. Few give thought to the suffering that sin has caused our Creator. All Heaven suffered in Christ’s agony; but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God. Every departure from the right, every deed of cruelty, every failure of humanity to reach His ideal, brings grief to Him (Education, page 263).

Our Lord is not an impassive Buddha-like deity in a nirvana trance. Our prayers do not move Him to a pity that He would not otherwise feel. When we beg Him, “Please do something to help,” He responds hopefully, “Why don’t you do something?”

When the mind and heart of “the angel of the church” are truly at-one with Christ, the roadblock will be eliminated. Then He will employ His people effectively to do what He wants done for the world. It is especially of Seventh-day Adventists that Ellen White said, “The disappointment of Christ is beyond description.” How can we relieve that disappointment?

The Lord’s Problem Has Become The Crisis of the Ages

The Bible reveals God in a dimension unknown in the Qur’an, the Vedic Hindu, or Buddhist, scriptures. The world’s pain is God’s pain, only intensified. Think how a loving, sensitive father feels the pain of a wounded child; then multiply that over six billion times.

Revelation goes a step further and pictures Christ as an eager Bridegroom who longs for “the marriage of the Lamb” to come soon, but who is disappointed that His bride has not yet “made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7-9)- She has kept Him at arm’s length all this while. This means that as yet she cannot be truly reconciled to Him. When she is at-one with Him in heart and mind, every church will be pulsating with the life of the Holy Spirit, overflowing with Christlike love. Each member will be spiritually alert, radiant with a miraculous unselfishness that transforms him/her into a unique revelation of Christ.

Some inspired statements declare that this full-fledged revival will never take in the “whole church,” because there will always be tares among the wheat. But there are other equally inspired statements that say that “the whole church” is to be animated and pervaded by the Holy Spirit, overflowing with Christlike love. How can these apparent contradictions be harmonized?

God’s purpose in His people will be gloriously fulfilled in “a revival of true godliness among us,” “that the way of the Lord may be prepared,” “a great movement—a work of revival—going forward in many places. Our people were moving into line, responding to God’s call.” “The spirit of prayer will actuate every believer and will banish from the church the spirit of discord and strife. … All will be in harmony with the mind of the Spirit.” “In visions of the night, representations passed before me of a great reformatory movement among God’s people … even as was manifested before the day of Pentecost. … The world seemed to be lightened with the heavenly influence. … There seemed to be a reformation such as we witnessed in 1844. … Covetous ones became separated from the company of believers” (compare Testimonies, vol. 9, pages 20-23, 46, 47, 126; vol. 8, pages 247-251; Selected Messages, Book One, pages 116, 117, 121-128).

The apparent contradictions are resolved by that last sentence. There is a pre-shaking and a post-shaking church. The post-shaken church will fulfill these prophecies.

This grand finale of the work of God’s Spirit will be a work of extraordinary beauty and simplicity:

Those who wait for the Bridegroom’s coming are to say to the people, “Behold your God.” The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love. The children of God are to manifest His glory (Christ’s Object Lessons, pages 415, 416).

Committee actions, polished programs, high-pressure promotion, can never truly motivate. Truth must be the vehicle, reaching human hearts, for only truth, “the third angel’s message in verity,” can penetrate the secret recesses of the human soul.