For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ...smyrna.org/op/pdf/2018/op18_03.pdf · we dare not, or we are not to be bold enough to, try to compare ourselves with ourselves

Vol. 27, No. 3 Straight and Narrow March 2018

Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16

The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant. Psalm 25:14

For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring

themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. (2 Corinthians 10:12)

Old Paths – 2 – March 2018

The Dunning-Kruger “Christian”A former girlfriend wrote a note in my high school year-book, which said, “All the advice I could ever give you would be lost in your ego.” At the time my ego was big. I was a good student and on the honor roll, school chess champion, athletic enough to wear a letterman’s coat, and liked by the faculty enough to belong to the National Hon-or Society. I thought I had a right to have a higher opinion of myself than of others. Little did I realize how ignorant and deficient I was. I was very deceived about my condi-tion.

When we fail to recognize our own weaknesses in think-ing, we are sometimes displaying a cognitive bias known as the Dunning-Kruger effect.1 This inability is cogni-tively based and is not due to a neurological disorder. The Dunning-Kruger effect can be present when we think we have the upper hand in intelligence or knowledge but actu-ally do not, or when we think the person to whom we are speaking is the one lacking in intelligence, when it is actu-ally us. We understand there are times when we do know more on a given matter than the other person, but in a Dun-ning-Kruger scenario, the person who thinks he is in the know is not, and this person cannot understand that it is he who lacks intelligence or competence in a given field. As Dunning and Kruger would say, one’s incompetence pre-vents one from perceiving he or she is incompetent. This is self-deception.

Self-deception exists not only on the personal level but also on a church level. This happens when the individual or the church body fails to face up to their sin, their spiritual state, or their future with any realism. Paul writes:

For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend them-selves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. (2 Corinthians 10:12)

1. Named after Dr. David Dunning and Dr. Justin Kruger

As we begin looking at this verse, there are a couple Greek words from which this text is translated that should be considered. The first Greek word is translated dare. Dare is translated from τολμῶμεν (tolmōmen), which comes from τολμάω (tolmaō), and it means to have cour-age or to be bold. We see a form of tolmaō translated in this way in the following two passages:

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare (tolma)to die. (Romans 5:7)

Dare (tolma) any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? (1 Corinthians 6:1)

The following translation ring show how tolmaō is translated in the King James Version of the Bible:

We see that tolmaō is translated as dare, durst, and bold or boldly. Durst is an Old English word for dare. For example, we read in Mark 12:34 the result of Christ’s an-swering the question from a scribe about the greatest of all commandments:

Vol. 27, No. 3 – 3 – http://www.smyrna.org

And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question. (Mark 12:34)What the text means is that no person dared, or was bold

enough, to ask Jesus a question after the answer he had given.

Tolmaō is translated as boldly in Mark 15:43:Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counseller,

which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Je-sus.And in 2 Corinthians 10:2, we find tolmaō translated as

bold.But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am

present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.So in our text in 2 Corinthians 10:12, Paul is saying that

we dare not, or we are not to be bold enough to, try to compare ourselves with ourselves. He says that to do this would not be wise. Interestingly, the word translated wise is not σοφός (sophos), from which we get the word sophia (wisdom), but rather συνιοῦσιν (sinuousin) from συνίημι (sunēimi). Sunēimi means to understand and in twenty-four of its twenty-six usages in the New Testament it is trans-lated as some form of understand, as in Matthew 13:13:

Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.It is also translated as considered in Mark 6:52:

For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.

In this verse sunēimi does not mean that the disciples did not consider the miracle in the sense that they did not think about it, but, rather, that they did not understand it.

Paul, writing to the Corinthians, said that there are peo-ple who were complimenting and praising themselves. They claimed to be rich and increased in goods; however, Paul says that we dare NOT classify or compare ourselves with them. When such measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

Those to whom 2 Corinthians 10:12 applies

Those who are deceived over their sinSecond Corinthians 10:12 especially applies to those who claim to have no sin.

While the Bible clearly teaches the Christian is to have victory over sin,2 perhaps most deceptive is to feel that one has arrived to Christian perfection, to the place where one boasts he is not sinning. To claim to have no sin is to prove that our boasting is false. Job noted:

If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: If I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me per-verse. (Job 9:20)

John wrote:

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. . . . If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:8, 10)

Jeremiah wrote:

Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these. Yet thou sayest, Because I am inno-cent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned. (Jeremiah 2:34, 35)

Another translation reads this way

Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor. You did not catch them breaking and entering. But in spite of all these things you claim, “I am innocent. His anger is sure to turn away from me.” But I will certainly judge you because you have said, “I have not sinned.” (Jeremiah 2:34, 35; Holman Christian Standard Bible)

Ellen White beautifully and clearly explains it this way:

None of the apostles and prophets ever claimed to be without sin. Men who have lived the nearest to God, men who would sacrifice life itself rather than know-ingly commit a wrong act, men whom God has honored with divine light and power, have confessed the sinful-ness of their nature. They have put no confidence in the flesh, have claimed no righteousness of their own, but have trusted wholly in the righteousness of Christ. So will it be with all who behold Christ. The nearer we come to Jesus, and the more clearly we discern the pu-rity of His character, the more clearly shall we see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the less shall we feel like exalting ourselves. (Acts of the Apostles, p. 561)

Those who are deceived over their spiritual state

The quintessential of one deceived over his or her spiritual state is represented by the church of Laodicea. Jesus tells Laodicea:

2. See Matthew 5:48; 1 John 3:7–9; Jude 24; etc.


I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: (Revelation 3:15–17)Jesus says that if we remain in this condition we will be

vomited out of his mouth. This means to be rejected with the most extreme disgust.

Others will not let this message to the Laodicean church have its weight upon them. They will glide along, much after the same manner as before, and will be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. Those only who zealously repent will have favor with God. (Ellen White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p. 144)Yet, as fearfully deceptive as the position of the La-

odicean is, there is hope for those who will receive the counsel of the True Witness. Jesus also said, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Revelation 3:21). We are also told:

Those who come up to every point, and stand every test, and overcome, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and they will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation. (White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p. 187)What a blessed promise and praise for the power of

God. Our Father is able to take the Laodicean who is self-conceited, and fit him or her to receive the latter rain and to even be translated!

The Jewish leaders in the time of Jesus were also greatly deceived over their spiritual state. They thought that they were the children of Abraham and, by extension, the chil-dren of God.

They answered him [Jesus], We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Ver-ily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. (John 8:33, 34)Jesus told these Jewish leaders that they were so far off

from being the children of Abraham that they were, in fact, the children of Satan and that Satan was their father!

They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye

would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:39–44)Concerning these Jews, Ellen White noted:

The Jewish people cherished the idea that they were the favorites of heaven, and that they were always to be exalted as the church of God. They were the children of Abraham, they declared, and so firm did the founda-tion of their prosperity seem to them that they defied earth and heaven to dispossess them of their rights. But by lives of unfaithfulness they were preparing for the condemnation of heaven and for separation from God. (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 294)Beloved, we as individuals and as a church need to eval-

uate our spiritual position. Do we feel we are the cherished people of God, the favorites of heaven? Could we defy earth and heaven to take our position away from us, even if our works do not match our profession? To be a Christian we must be one, in profession and in life, with Christ. Our actions must agree with our profession. We must be more than mere hearers of the word but doers also. James notes:

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. (James 1:22–26)

Those who are deceived concerning the future

Tied into a misconception about one’s spiritual state will be a deception about one’s future. We may think we have tomorrow figured out and yet be very deceived. This may happen concerning our temporal and/or our spiritual lives. Concerning our temporal lives James writes:

Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a va-pour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth


away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. (James 4:13–16)James here describes those who believe that they have

the time and ability to plan their future, but this is clearly only as the Lord wills. Jesus taught a parable about a man who was rich and without sufficient storage for all of his goods:

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast pro-vided? (Luke 12:16–20)The first two words of God’s reply are chilling: “thou

fool!” “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:1). Inspiration declares that this man feels that God does not exist or, at minimum, he does not expect God to interfere in his life. But God sees all and cannot allow the selfish person to continue in his or her ways forever. The Bible informs us that there will be a judgment time and a reckoning of the person’s life. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (He-brews 9:27).

Those familiar with Evangelical Christianity, especially that found in the southern United States among Baptists, will often hear professed believers speaking about being saved. Many believe a doctrine called the eternal security of the believer, perhaps better known as once saved always saved. What they mean is that they have accepted Christ and no matter what were to happen in their lives from that point onward, they have the assurance of heaven and eternal life. Nothing can take their salvation away from them. As we noted earlier, the Jews felt that they would always be the favorites of heaven. Today, like the Jews of Jesus’ time, La-odicea feels so rich and increased in wealth that she must be the favorite of God. After all, it is triumphantly stated, There is no eighth church. The ship is going through. The church appears about to fall, but it will not. This, however, is not the complete picture. Professed modern-day spiritual Israel feels just like the Jewish position that nothing can change their status, and they believe the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy back up this position. But they should read:

In the balances of the sanctuary the Seventh-day Adventist church is to be weighed. She will be judged

by the privileges and advantages that she has had. If her spiritual experience does not correspond to the advan-tages that Christ, at infinite cost, has bestowed on her, if the blessings conferred have not qualified her to do the work entrusted to her, on her will be pronounced the sentence: “Found wanting.” By the light bestowed, the opportunities given, will she be judged. (Ellen White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, p. 247)

If the moral character and spiritual state of God’s people do not correspond with the blessings, privileges, and light which have been conferred upon them, they are weighed in the balance, and angels make the re-port, WANTING. (White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. xxx1, p. 406) God could say to the modern false prophets today what

was said in Jeremiah’s time:For from the least of them even unto the greatest of

them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. (Jeremiah 6:13, 14)In the time of Ahab and Jehoshaphat, when they were

going to war against the king of Syria, all the false proph-ets predicted a great triumph, but the one true prophet told the truth and he was put in jail for telling the truth! Oh what a lesson for us who think we are so spiritually sure of the ship we are sailing on, trusting it to take us into the heavenly harbor! Will Jesus have to say to this class that which is recorded in Matthew 7?

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:21–23)

Those who presume on their own abilityWhen we presume on our own ability and believe we are spiritually superior to others, we will certainly be heading towards a spiritual fall. Galatians 6:3 says, “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he de-ceiveth himself.”

The apostle saw the working of the human mind, that self-pride would come in and hinder this plan of operation. And he exhorts, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.” How many have altogether too


high an opinion of their own ability! lifting up them-selves, extolling self, while they censure and condemn their brethren, in the place of following the Bible rule in dealing with the erring. They feel sufficient to dictate, look upon themselves as wise, and capable of accomplishing great things, able to tell others what to do, full of confidence in their own ways and wisdom, when the genuine truth is, they are not acquainted with themselves, and do not know half as much as they should know or as they think they know. They are really elevating themselves. While such deceive others by ex-alting their acquirements and their self-sufficiency, they deceive their own souls, and will meet with the great-est loss themselves. They are not free from blunders or mistakes, and fall under temptations while they self-confidently think themselves standing securely. (Ellen White, The Review and Herald, June 28, 1887)The apostle Peter thought his faith in Jesus to be unmov-

able. He would never fail Jesus. But Jesus told Peter and all the apostles, “All ye shall be offended because of me this night” (Matthew 26:31). Peter, trusting in his ability to stand boldly, declared:

Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. (Matthew 26:33)Jesus then informed Peter that before the cock would

crow, Peter would vehemently deny Jesus three times. Pe-ter responded:

Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. (Matthew 26:35).While Peter gets most of the attention here, it should be

noted that Jesus prophesied that all the apostles would be offended, and the rest of verse 35 states that they all, like Peter, so avowed: “Likewise also said all the disciples.”

Beloved, if all of earth’s history were to be searched, I am sure this story would express each professed believer at one time or another. We have all been a traitor to Christ and heaven at some time and have denied Jesus in a vari-ety of ways. Maybe we, too, have outright spoken against him. Perhaps we have denied Jesus by our timid actions or silence, when Christ or the gospel was being maligned and have said nothing about it. Maybe we denied Jesus when we performed a crooked deal, trying to gain an unfair and unChrist-like advantage over someone else. Inspiration warns:

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12)

Those who deceive themselves about the acceptability of their worship

Worship is one of the most fundamental interactions be-tween God and his creatures. We are to “worship the LORD

in the beauty of holiness” (Psalm 29:2). Worship is to be a sacred event and not a bedlam of noise and confusion! We might think God is a hip-hop kind of being and wor-ship him accordingly, but we would be very mistaken. Our worship and the form it takes reflects our view of God and what is acceptable to him. In many parts of Adventism today there is what has been called celebration worship. This worship is a modern-day type of celebrating with excitement and noise. It is a quasi-pentecostal system of worship. But you might ask, does not the Bible say, “from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath” (Leviticus 23:32)? Yes it does but the Hebrew word translated cel-ebrate, תבש (shabath), means to rest or cease or desist. It is the root word from which we get the Hebrew word, shab-bath, which we translate as sabbath. The celebration of the Sabbath that the Bible speaks of is in no way connected to the modern concept of a loud, excited celebration!

In the celebration movement we find a rebirth in Adven-in Adven-tism of the holy flesh movement.

In the 19th century, sporadic outbreaks of emotion-ally expressive and body-centered worship styles occurred in various branches of evangelical Protestant-ism. The Holiness movement in particular spawned dozens of these, each with unique doctrinal content and associated personalities. An Adventist version, the so-called “holy flesh movement,” followed the teachings of A. F. Ballenger (1861–1921), who was in turn influ-enced by the Holiness movement and who advocated an emphasis on the Holy Spirit in Christian thought and life. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Flesh_move-ment)

This worship included shouting and loud music set to a heavy rhythm produced by drums and tambourines. El-len White and the leading brethren of the church quickly understood the dangerous nature of this worship and its included theology and worked to swiftly stop it. Writing about the happening at Indiana where this movement was taking place, Ellen White gave a chilling prophecy:

It is impossible to estimate too largely the work that the Lord will accomplish through His proposed vessels in carrying out His mind and purpose. The things you have described as taking place in Indiana, the Lord has shown me would take place just before the close of probation. Every uncouth thing will be demonstrated. There will be shouting, with drums, music, and danc-ing. The senses of rational beings will become so confused that they cannot be trusted to make right deci-sions. And this is called the moving of the Holy Spirit. (Ellen White, Selected Messages, bk. 2, p. 36)


Is this not an accurate description of the celebration church of today? We are told this is not the way that the Spirit of God works:

The Holy Spirit never reveals itself in such meth-ods, in such a bedlam of noise. This is an invention of Satan to cover up his ingenious methods for making of none effect the pure, sincere, elevating, ennobling, sanctifying truth for this time. Better never have the worship of God blended with music than to use musi-cal instruments to do the work which last January was represented to me would be brought into our camp meetings. The truth for this time needs nothing of this kind in its work of converting souls. A bedlam of noise shocks the senses and perverts that which if conducted aright might be a blessing. The powers of satanic agen-cies blend with the din and noise, to have a carnival, and this is termed the Holy Spirit’s working. (Ibid.)

Those who have a misplaced trust in their own righteousness

Finally we would consider those who have a misplaced trust in their own righteousness. Jesus said:

No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves be-fore men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. (Luke 16:13–15)“All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6),

and the righteousness such as that of the Pharisees is an abomination to God.

In the parable of the Pharisee and publican (Luke 18:9–14), Jesus taught that the one who thinks very highly of his own righteousness is not the one justified.

What is justification by faith? It is the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself. (Ellen White, Testimonies for Ministers and Gospel Workers, p. 456)God express man’s self-righteousness in another way to

show its disgust to him:I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebel-

lious people, Which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; That sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick; Which remain among the graves, And lodge in the monuments, Which eat swine’s flesh, And broth of

abominable things is in their vessels; Which say, Stand by thyself, Come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, A fire that burneth all the day. (Isaiah 65:2–5)God calls the people a rebellious people, a people who

are claiming to be holier than others. He says this is like a smoke in his nose that never stops. Beloved, if we ever wish to be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus, we must first understand how filthy our garment is and how utterly unable we are to do anything to correct it. But if we surrender to his workmanship, we can be molded into his divine image.

ConclusionSelf-deception is a terrible thing. We can think we are al-right and even very well spiritually. Our experience with sin is like Eve’s, when she first ate of the forbidden fruit:

When she “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat.” It was grateful to the taste, and as she ate, she seemed to feel a vivifying power, and imagined herself entering upon a higher state of existence. (Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 55)At first disobedience may seem to profit a person, but

it does not. Eve did not feel a vivifying power, it only seemed that way to her. She did not enter a higher state of existence, but she clearly imagined herself to have done so. We may think we are smarter than Satan and can fool him, but we are not.

The Dunning-Kruger effect may live the most in the pro-fessed remnant church. We may be deceived over: our sin, our spiritual state, the future, our relationship with God, our own abilities, the acceptability of our worship and our lack of self-righteousness. But we do not have to be de-ceived. We are told to “examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves” (2 Corinthians 13:5). But how can we do this when we are so self-deceived? Jeremiah tells us:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desper-ately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)With a deceitful heart how can we know if we are in the

faith or prove ourselves? God has given us the answer in verse 10:

I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:10)Are you thinking now, this study certainly does not ap-

ply to me? If you are, it most certainly does.

Allen Stump


Exercise, Stress, and the BrainThou wilt keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on thee: Because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever. (Isaiah 26:3, 4a)The expression “perfect peace” is from two words

written by Isaiah—shalom, shalom. It is a double peace, a perfect peace, and we experience it when our minds are stayed on God. Even so, stress still manages to invade our lives—through relationships, through the things we eat and the places we go, through finances, by driving during rush hour, with unasked-for health issues, etc. Stress is everywhere, and all of us have to manage it, and fundamental to managing it is understanding the physical effect stress has on the brain. Being a military point person day after day and knowing that the next step could be your last is enough stress to cause a lifetime of aftereffects. Continual thinking about an innocent child in prison can cause debilitating stress. Trusting in God, as our text advises us, will relieve stress, but the person serving on point still has to be vigilant, and the suffering child still remains on the mind of a loving parent, and this kind of continual stress, unless controlled by the Spirit of God, will alter how the brain works.

Our brainsAn adult brain has about 100 billion nerve cells, or neurons, about the same number as the number of stars in the Milky Way. A baby’s brain contains most of the neurons it will ever have. The number of neurons remains very nearly the same from the time we’re born until we’re well past sixty-five years old. But the newborn brain weighs only about one quarter as much as the adult brain. What grows, what changes?

Neurons grow, and that accounts for some of the difference, but mostly what changes is the wiring, the intricate network of connections between cells. . . .

This intricate wiring depends on activity and experience. Think of it this way. Cells grow in different parts of the brain. In order to influence one another, these cells have to talk to one another. . . .When we want to talk to people far away, what do we do? We have to make some long-distance connection—like a telephone call. Neurons do the equivalent of growing telephone wires that allow them to communicate with and influence one another . . .

Making these permanent connections is what brain cells live for. As a cell matures, it sends out multiple branches trying to make contact with other cells. Some branches (called axons) send information out of the cell, and others (called dendrites) send information into the cell. The object is to connect one cell’s axon to another cell’s dendrite. The connection between the two is called a synapse. . . .When two neurons form a synapse, chemicals can flow between them and the connection is complete: the calls can go through. (Gopnik, Meltzoff, and Kuhl; The Scientist in the Crib, pp. 184, 185)

But injury to the brain, disease of the brain, and stress can block the flow of information between neurons.

Jill TaylorJill Taylor is a neuroscientist, and on the morning of December 10, 1996, she awoke with a pounding pain behind one eye. She continued her normal morning routine, however. She exercised and took a shower, but then she noticed her arm was paralyzed, and she realized she was having a stroke. It took forty-five minutes of


drifting in and out of alertness for her to find the number to her office (she could not remember it). She struggled to dial it many times before she finally reached someone at the other end, and all she could say was woo-woo-woo, but the office workers understood she needed help, and an ambulance was dispatched. She was diagnosed with a large hemorrhage of the brain, and it took eight years to completely recover, but she did recover.

Jody MillerJody Miller was six years old when she underwent surgery to remove the right half of her brain. She was suffering from a rare defect which caused her life-threatening sei-zures and caused the left side of her body to be paralyzed. No treatment had helped, and the only choice left was sur-gery, but no one could be certain of the outcome. If she survived, would she be able to function with half of her brain missing? It was the last option for the young girl who was already facing possible death from a terrible disease.

Jody did survive and now lives a normal life. She is without seizures and has received a college degree. Her left hemisphere was able to take over the role of the missing right hemisphere, a remarkable example of the phenom-enon known as neuroplasticity, the astounding ability of the brain to heal and to make new connections, as well as to remember new skills, to break old habits, etc.

NeuroplasticityNeuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change, based on the experiences it goes through. When you memorize something, for example, your brain changes, and this is due to its plasticity, but plasticity is more than just memory. It is the wiring process (the forging of neural pathways) that goes on in your brain when you learn a new skill. It is also the wiring process that occurs when your brain recovers from a damaging injury or disease or that occurs as you adapt to changes in your environment, such as changes in relationships or changes in your own body when you become ill. This all happens due to brain plasticity, and it is a truly superb process. How it happens can be summarized in the slogan, Neurons that fire together wire together, and we can see this illustrated in the process of making memories.

Memories are coded into brain cells in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center. If our memories were not written into those cells, they would not be available for later, long-term recall, and every brain would be . . . memory-challenged . . . (Gretchen Reynolds, “How Exercise May Help the Memory Grow Stronger,” The New York Times, February 21, 2018)1

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/well/move/how-exer-cise-may-help-the-memory-grow-stronger.html?mabReward=CBMG1&recid=10sYjuBTDBoarBtvoIBoGT9GS8E&rec

The memory of a grandmother or other relative is composed of data—the sound of the voice, the taste of special meals, the comfort of the person’s home and possessions, etc.—gathered from different parts of the brain. All these scattered pieces of information are funneled down to the hippocampus and, having been wired together in God’s amazing way, are stored, to be recalled (if the memory is strong enough) whenever something, perhaps a photograph, triggers it. Each part of the memory becomes stronger the more the neurons sending the information fire together, for this increases the strength with which they are wired.

An important question to ask is: Is there anything that can be done that can strengthen the formation of a memory or that might enhance the healing of brain trauma? And the answer is: Yes, there is!

#1 Get a good night of sleep!I want to tell you about an experiment that was done

at MIT about ten years ago by Matt Wilson. He was studying the hippocampus as the rat was learning the maze . . . [and] the experiment ends. He closes up the apparatus. The animal [is] sitting in the vestibule of the maze now, not in the maze, and he starts to write up his lab notes. [But] He’s still listening to all these neurons. . . . You can hear them on loudspeaker. The animal’s running through the maze. How could that be?

. . . He looks at the animal. The animal is asleep, but the hippocampus is still running through the maze while the animal is asleep. And there is now overwhelming evidence that what actually happens at night, every night, after you learned stuff during the day, is that during sleep you replay and rebroadcast the memories of the day back out from your hippocampus to the rest of your cerebral cortex, rehearsing those memories again, strengthening the association among all those points of light.

So what’s my advice? If you want to improve plasticity, get a good night’s sleep. It’s very important. (Max Cynader, “Enhancing the Plasticity of the Brain,” TEDxStanley Park, April 26, 2013)2

#2 Engage in physical exercise!Here’s another thing you can do if you want to

improve your memory capabilities and your brain plasticity, and that is do physical exercise. Do physical

p=3&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=CColumn&module=Recommendation&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine

2. Dr. Max Cynader is Director of the Brain Research Cen-tre, and the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health at Vancouver Coastal Health and The University of British Columbia (UBC). You may view his presentation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chr3rQ6Vpcw


exercise. It used to be thought that we already had all the brain cells we’re ever going to have. That’s not true. We’re actually making thousands of new brain cells every day, and you can double or triple the number of brain cells that you make next week by doing physical exercise. (Ibid.)Dr. Cynader also studied the impact of cognitive stimu-

lation and physical exercise upon brain plasticity. He found that physical exercise was more important than engaging in the popular brain games designed to strengthen cognitive abilities.

Here’s an experiment which we did, again, in rats, where we can paint the new baby brain cells red, the ordinary cells are green. We take animals, we put them in an enriched environment. We have other animals in an impoverished environment, we find the enriched environment animals make more cells . . . we consider social cues, cognitive stimulation, physical stimulation. What’s important? Physical exercise. More important than having friends, more important than playing Sudoku, more important than all that stuff; do physical exercise. (Ibid.)As we get older, the brain naturally shrinks, including

the hippocampus, but Cynader’s research found that for those who engaged in regular physical exercise, the volume of the hippocampus did not shrink but, in fact, grew. What kind of exercise accomplished this? Stretching exercises did not help, but cardiovascular and resistance-training exercises did!

So what’s my message? Do exercise. . . . cardio is important, but actually doing weights is also surprisingly important. So do both cardio and resistance training because that will actually enhance your cognitive performance. (Ibid.)We recommend that you check with your doctor

before you begin an exercise program and that you begin exercising at a low intensity, gradually increasing your pace.

Exercise will help lower your chances for developing dementia at a certain age, according to Dr. Wendy Suzuki:

Here’s what we know: There is an enormous amount of data in humans showing that there’s really these striking correlations—the more you exercise the lower your chances are for developing dementia at a particular age. So by 60 you’re much less likely to develop dementia if you have been exercising. That does not mean exercise is a cure for dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, it just strengthens your brain.

And we know from animal studies how it strengthens the brain—it stimulates the growth of new brain cells in a key structure that is targeted or attacked in dementia,

which is your hippocampus, which is important for long-term memory. Exercise also increases levels of really helpful growth factors in your brain.

I should also say we know an awful lot about exercise in the elderly population, because that is the population that has been studied the most. From that we know, [exercise] is helping attention function, to be able to focus and shift attention. That’s what we know. There’s strong correlative evidence that it’s helping overall. There’s strong direct evidence that exercise can help executive functions in people that are aging and memory functions for people with dementia. (Dr. Wendy Suzuki in an interview with Bret McCabe, “For neuroscientist learning how exercise affects the brain has been a life-changing experience,” April 11, 2016, at https://hub.jhu.edu/2016/04/11/wendy-suzuki-brain-exercise/)

Brain traumaPlasticity is also involved in the brain’s repair after an injury or disease. Though the repair may only be partial, the brain’s plasticity will aid in the process, and cardiovascular and strength-building exercises, in turn, will aid the plasticity.

During brain repair following injury, plastic changes are geared towards maximizing function in spite of the damaged brain. In studies involving rats in which one area of the brain was damaged, brain cells surrounding the damaged area underwent changes in their function and shape that allowed them to take on the functions of the damaged cells. Although this phenomenon has not been widely studied in humans, data indicate that similar (though less effective) changes occur in human brains following injury. (https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/plast.html)

StressStress and adversity weaken the brain’s ability to learn and retain information . . . [but] regular exercise can counteract those effects by bolstering communication between brain cells. . . .

The connections between neurons, known as synapses, are composed of electrical and chemical signals that move from cell to cell, like notes passed in class. The signals can be relatively weak and sporadic or flow with vigor and frequency. In general, the stronger the messages between neurons, the sturdier and more permanent the memories they hold. (Reynolds, Ibid.)And this is the physiology of how perfection occurs.

Old, sinful habits and desires, which have formed strong connections between neurons and which have filtered down to the hippocampus and have been stored as memories, are triggered by a thought, a scent, a place, etc.,


and they cry out for attention. We must train ourselves to turn to Jesus every time our old ways call out (and even before they do), and, when we plead for strength to live holy lives, new neural pathways are forged, and the more those connections are utilized, the stronger they become. So, when temptation comes to you, stop everything you are doing. If you have enough time to be tempted, you have enough time to, at least for a few seconds, stop in your tracks mentally and plead with God for strength, and he will supply your every need. He is faithful to his promises. The problem is we like the old ways. They are strongly connected to us, and we don’t like to leave them, but if we value the beauty of holiness, we must. What we need to learn (and this is memory work) is to ask right then and there, and to also ask often through the day, for help. When we do this, the neural pathways that remind us to turn to God for help will grow and will connect with other like-minded neurons, and the network will increase. This is plasticity at its best, and this is how physiologically we grow in grace and how we become children of God. It is not a strength of will alone that breaks old habits and creates new ones. A will with a backbone is needed, but your brain and God are on your side! We just have to make the choice, and that, amazingly, is the hard part. Just like saying I’m sorry can be difficult and just like taking that first step to God is often hard, making the choice to turn from temptation is also hard but will become easy after the first step is taken, for God will walk with us as soon as he is asked. Each time we make the choice to turn from evil, the neural connections maintaining the memory of that choice strengthen, for repetition strengthens the signals between neurons. A definite interdependence of the mind and the brain exists. We need the strength of the will (the mind) to make choices for righteousness, and we need the strength of the brain (the memory) to remind us to turn to God for help and to remind us to have faith that help will come. With the mind we pray and choose, and with the brain itself we are reminded, if memories have been stored, to trust God and to choose righteousness, but the wiring of the brain to trust God and to love righteousness has to have already been woven into the synapses and interconnected with similar synapses for the memories to be strong enough to be relied upon in the time of need. Another consideration is that we can undermine the good way the mind and the brain work together by an unhealthy lifestyle.

Neuroscientists have known for some time that the potency of our synapses depends to some degree on how we live our lives. Lack of sleep, alcohol, diet and other aspects of our lifestyles, especially stress, may dampen the flow of messages between brain cells, while practice fortifies it. Repeat an action and the signals

between the cells maintaining the memory of that action can strengthen. That is learning. (Ibid.)

Stress3 is anything that disturbs the body’s homeostasis. It can cause us to go into a fight or flight response. When this happens we get a surge of adrenaline, and our muscles get stronger, our senses heighten, and we can do things that normally we would not be able to do, such as lift a car off of an injured person. But such stress changes the balance of neurotransmitters in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for clear, purposeful thinking, making organized thinking more difficult. Stress shuts down the thinking part of the brain so that we respond to the stress instinctively and reflexively. We think more poorly when we are under stress, not just because our mind focuses on the threat but also because physiologically the brain is not working as it normally does. It has shifted gears to accommodate the need for fight or flight. After the threat has dissipated, the body, including the brain, returns to normal, but some people do not settle down. The stress response continues, although at a lower intensity, and becomes chronic stress. In chronic stress, the stress response continues to occur, and the adrenal steroid, cortisol, continues to flow in the system.

Dr. Stixrud (see footnote #3) has stated that the major cause of anxiety and depression is our experience, not our genetics, and that “the main aspect of experience that creates these mental health problems is stress” (Stixrud, Ibid.).

3. Some of the information in this paragraph is summarized from an interview of William Stixrud, Ph.D. by Linda Egenes, as published in “Four things you should know about stress: what it is, what is does, how to deal with it, and how to prevent it,” Enlightenment, Issue 4. This magazine pro-motes transcendental meditation, and while we do not adhere to or promote this thinking, we found the statements on stress and the brain to be helpful.

Continued on page 24, column 1

A human hippocampus alongside a seahorse Photo courtesy of Professor Laszlo Seress


2018 WV Camp Meeting June 12–16We are very pleased to announce that prophecy is the theme for the 2018 West Virginia camp meeting. We will especially be focusing upon the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation.

The camp will be scheduled in two parts. The evening meetings will be for the public, as well as for our believers. These meetings will focus upon the prophecies of Daniel 2, 7, 8 and Revelation 13. There will be an emphasis upon these prophecies as they highlight the second coming of Jesus and the Sabbath issue, leading up to and including the mark of the beast.

The morning and afternoon meetings will cover other various prophecies, and the topics can be seen in the accompanying table. We have been told:

The book of Revelation, in connection with the book of Daniel, especially demands study. Let every God-fearing teacher consider how most clearly to

comprehend and to present the gospel that our Saviour came in person to make known to His servant John—“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass.” Revelation 1:1. None should

become discouraged in the study of the Revelation because of its ap-parently mystical symbols. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.” James 1:5. (El-len White, Education, p. 191)

Concerning the book of Revela-tion, we also have this counsel:

The last book of the New Tes-tament scriptures is full of truth that we need to understand. (El-

len White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 133)

The unfulfilled predictions of the book of Revelation are soon to be fulfilled. This proph-ecy is now to be studied with diligence by the people of God and should be clearly understood. It does not

Time Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Sabbath

6:00–6:25

Camp Set-up

Health Expo

at Welch?

Prayer Band in the Chapel

6:30–7:30Chains of Prophecy and Biblical

HermeneuticsIsaiah 58 and Health Reform The Omega

Living in the Time of the Investigative Judgment

7:30–9:00 Break

9:00–10:15 Daniel 8:14; 9 Daniel 8:14; 9 Communion Signs of the Times

10:15–11:00 Break

11:00–12:15 Revelation 17 Revelation 18 Daniel 11, 12Ezekiel 8 & 9 – The Seal of God

12:15–2:15 Break

2:15–3:30 The Seven Seals The Seven Trumpets The Seven Plagues

Panel DiscussionBaptism

Testimonies3:30–4:00 Break

4:00–5:00 Youth Classes Youth Classes Youth Classes

5:00–6:30 Break

6:30–6:45 Song Service Song Service Song Service Song Service Song Service

6:45–7:20 Testimonies Testimonies Testimonies Testimonies Testimonies

7:20–7:30 Health Presentation Health Presentation Health Presentation Health Presentation Health Presentation

7:30–8:45 Daniel 2 and the 2nd Coming Daniel 7, 8 Revelation 13 The Golden Clasp The Mark of the Beast

Tentative Camp Meeting Program

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those

things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. (Revelation 1:3)


conceal the truth; it clearly forewarns, telling us what will be in the future. (Ellen White, Last Day Events, pp. 15, 16)

The solemn messages that have been given in their order in the Revelation are to occupy the first place in the minds of God’s people. (Ellen White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, p. 302)Some of the speakers will include Thomas Akens, El-

vis Alberto, Jean-Christophe Bolotte, Onycha Holt, S. T. Lewis, David Sims, Allen Stump, and Andy Whitehurst.

As always, we are planning meetings for the youth, and we encourage all to come. This will be the nineteenth camp meeting we have had at Smyrna, and each year we have said, Perhaps this will be the last before the work closes up. Perhaps this will be the last camp. We remember what Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth:

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (Romans 13:11)While we are planning to broadcast the meetings live

over the Internet, as well as by telephone conference, we encourage all who can possibly be here to attend in per-son. Last year we had broadcast problems on the very first meeting, and various types of problems still happen, so please do not trust the broadcasts to provide you access to the meetings. Furthermore, there is nothing like being here in person. We only have this camp meeting once a year and while there are other meetings worth attending, I know that these meetings will be meetings of truth, truth that will agree with the threefold witness of the Bible, the Spirit of Prophecy, and the pioneers.

It is important that the members of our churches should attend our camp meetings. The enemies of truth are many; and because our numbers are few, we should present as strong a front as possible. Individually you need the benefits of the meeting, and God calls upon you to number one in the ranks of truth.

Some will say: “It is expensive to travel, and it would be better for us to save the money and give it for the ad-vancement of the work where it is so much needed.” Do not reason in this way; God calls upon you to take your place among the rank and file of His people. Strengthen the meeting all you possibly can by being present with your families. Put forth extra exertion to attend the gathering of God’s people.

Brethren and sisters, it would be far better for you to let your business suffer than to neglect the opportu-nity of hearing the message God has for you. Make no excuse that will keep you from gaining every spiritual advantage possible. You need every ray of light. You

need to become qualified to give a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. You cannot afford to lose one such privilege. (Ellen White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, pp. 38, 39)There is plenty of camping space at Smyrna, and we

have showers and toilet facilities, as well. There will be a fellowship meal provided on Sabbath afternoon. Camp stoves are fine in the camping area, but open fires are not allowed.

Please bring your Bibles and all the temporal things you will need. We have a limited supply of sleeping bags and camping supplies for those who lack them and cannot acquire them. If you need some of these things, please con-tact us early to reserve them.

Almost each year we have from five to fifteen people who come early to help us set up camp and to get an extra weekend of spiritual blessing. If you would like to come to help, please let us know, and we will do all we can to make your stay as nice as we can.

Allen Stump

sinful thoughts, we know they recycle while we sleep, and, as we do this night after night, they are reinforced. Physically the brain changes; new pathways for evil are made, and temptation comes from within of our own lusts.

Kazil Shemkov was an Adventist pastor in Bulgaria during the time of communist control. He was arrested and sent to a concentration camp because he would not stop holding meetings and preaching, and at the camp he refused to work on Sabbath. Nearly every Sabbath he was brutally beaten by the guards because of his refusal, but he would not go to sleep with bitter thoughts on his mind:

Sometimes after being beaten and thrown in the dirt, I would return to my barracks and think, How can I re-store my spirit so that tomorrow I can resist once more? I knew that if I became angry and depressed I would not be able to resist over a long period of time. So I would begin to sing, As I sang—and sometimes it would take many songs—my soul would gradually become calm, and I would begin to feel peace filling my heart. Then I would just drift into sleep and sleep in peace. (Kazil Shemkov, as quoted by Rae Patterson, Frontline Bul-garia, p. 29)

May the peace of God fill your hearts, also, and may you rest each night without burdens. Cast all your care upon God and trust him, for he tenderly cares for you.

Onycha Holt

“Exercise, Stress, and the Brain” continued from page 24


Youth’s Corner — Our Work Begun on Many Islands(This is the first part of Chapter 7 of Cannibals and Head-Hunters of the South Seas by Charles H. Watson, published in 1926 by the Review and Herald Publishing Association.)

A very real interest associates with the visit of the “Pitcairn” to Tahiti and other places in the Society group. Not only was Tahiti the spot where missionary work was first undertaken for the South Sea Islanders, but it was also the place where the missionaries aboard the “Pitcairn” were to do their first work for the real South Sea Island native.

At Tahiti our ship was received with remarkable warmth, and there much good was accomplished. After some time had been spent in the group, the missionaries turned southward and sailed for Rurutu, 350 miles away. It was from Rurutu that the storm-driven canoe had brought the chief many years before to Mr. Williams on Raiatea in search of the gospel.

Here, too, it was that soon after his return the people brought their idols, and casting them into a boat, sent them to Raiatea with the message that the gods of Rurutu had been put away, and all the people were now the servants of the true God, Jehovah.

It was on this place, fifteen months later, that two gentle-men, finding their vessel driven by contrary winds a long way from her course, determined to land. They expected to find the island peopled with savages, but great was their astonishment when they observed them gathered in a large church building, plastered and floored, worshiping God, and with not a vestige of idolatry anywhere to be seen.

In this church were many evidences of the complete transformation of the people of the place, but none more convincing than that supplied at the pulpit, the balustrade of the staircase to which was made of the spears with which the warriors of Rurutu had but a short time before faced each other in battle.

As the “Pitcairn” neared the land, the picturesqueness became more pronounced. Out of the pleasant shadows of the green woods appeared neat, comfortable-looking

houses. The bright patches of golden green which seemed, when far off, to be like spots of burnished gold, became nut-laden palms. The blaze of white that banded the shore took the form of a beautiful coral beach, while all around it the long seas tumbled languidly on the reef — a scene of unexcelled tropical beauty rarely seen except in these wonderlands of the South Pacific.

Out in the shimmering blue of the great ocean the “Pitcairn” beat about while the missionary party prepared to go ashore. Their hearts were full of eager expectancy, for they were to meet a most interesting people on the shores of their own romantic little island.

The natives welcomed them with great warmth, and all through the day, in their picturesque houses or under the cool shade trees, the visitors were entertained right royally.

Next day they walked over the mountains to the home of the king, and spent a very happy time as the guests of is-land royalty. Five busy days passed by, all spent in earnest ministry, and so completely was the love of these simple people won that the party was implored by many to remain forever on Rurutu.

As they were preparing to leave, large quantities of yams, taro, oranges, bananas, limes, and cocoanuts were brought to them as gifts until two large boats were filled. When all was ready to row these out to the ship, it was dis-covered that the gifts included thirty live chickens.

Very touching and wonderfully impressive was the scene when these gifts were presented to the voyagers. The marvelous eloquence of the South Sea Island races finds its highest expression and takes its loftiest flights on such occasions, and this was no exception to the rule. They felt themselves to have been greatly honored and richly blessed by the presence and service of their visitors, and as their chosen orator spoke, his burning words expressed feelings that the tear-dimmed eyes and moist cheeks all about him betrayed. He begged the missionaries to keep fresh in their hearts the memory of Rurutu, and send to them a mes-senger of truth who would live with them always. Gladly

Rarotonga from the north (Photo courtesy of Thomei08)


indeed would these families have lingered, for the charm of the place was upon them, but they were bound for other lands.

Steering almost due west over 700 miles of blue Pacific, they found themselves at dawn of the third day out from Rurutu off the island of Mangaia. This is the most souther-ly of the islands of the Cook group. They soon discovered that the only way to land on Mangaia was to “jump the reef” in a canoe, and through this new and thrilling experi-ence they were soon taken.

Mr. Gates was the first of the party to go over the reef, and I will let him tell how it was done:

“As our boat came up close to the reef, our hearts almost stood still, for a moment, at the thought of going through those roaring billows. The great waves, rushing past us with terrific violence on to the edge of the reef, threw the spray and foam many feet into the air, while the roar was deafening. As we could not all go in the canoe at once, the pilot told me to get in and make the first trip. I did so, and the natives paddled off toward the reef. Watching for the favorable moment when there was a little lull, the men paddled with all their might to what appeared to be the sure destruction of our canoe, for the receding waves for a moment left bare the ragged edge of the reef beneath which were caverns of unknown depth.

“On the side of a long wave we seemed to be going down to that horrible chasm; but so well-timed was the movement that another wave rushing in behind, lifted us and carried us over the edge of the reef, where our canoe was caught up by the natives standing almost neck deep in the water. The other members of the party came through a little later.”

As they approached the shore, hundreds of natives were seen coming to meet them. Gladly welcoming them to their land and their homes, the Mangaians became deeply inter-ested in the gospel truths that were preached.

When the missionaries were once more ready to return to the “Pitcairn,” the natives brought out the largest and best canoe to take them over the reef. In the years of past savagery such canoes, filled with painted warriors, had leaped out over the edge of the reef, and swept down upon some unsuspecting shore, with cruel death and destruction following closely on their trail. The sea and the land seem now, as then, unchanged and unchanging, but the gospel of God had come to Mangaia, and the peace that passeth all understanding had settled over its green loveliness.

Many of the people, sorrowing at the early departure of the missionaries, accompanied them to the ship’s side, and once again the gifts of a grateful crowd were piled high on the deck of the vessel as her sails filled to the breeze and she swung out on a course that took her westward to the shores of distant Rarotonga.

Twenty-four hours later the peaks of Rarotonga were sighted, but it was not till the following morning that they were able to land. Their stay there was very brief, but it was made pleasant by the warmth of the welcome given them by natives and white people alike.

Rarotonga never fails to charm the visitor. Its rugged mountains and deep valleys all lie beneath dense tropi-cal shade. The hills are soft with every tint of green. The place is gorgeous with flowers and bright tropical shrubs. Beautiful palm-shaded flats extend clear around the island, and through these a gleaming white coral road has been constructed. This road is dotted throughout its entire circle with the picturesque villages of the island, and everywhere the happy-hearted, fun-loving people are to be met.

To step off the deck of an ocean liner and be whirled in an automobile through the cool shade of that round-the- island road, everywhere in the midst of the most delightful tropical scenery, and everywhere in full view of a most wonderful tropical sea, is one of the pleasant features of trans-Pacific travel.

The climate, too, is delightful all the year round, here on Rarotonga. The island seems to enjoy eternal summer, with the extreme heat and humid air of the tropics entirely extracted.

Recently it was the author’s privilege to make that trip round the island on their Thanksgiving Day. The people were gathered in the principal villages for the customary feasting and worship. At the noon hour the banquet was spread, the people were assembled, and the orators deliv-ered their addresses.

With telling effect those eloquent speakers rehearsed the evidences of God’s kindly dealings with them through the years, and implored their hearers to express in upright-ness of living a full recognition and appreciation of divine goodness.

It appears that in former times the island was almost an-nually visited by storms so destructive that the poor natives were frequently reduced to want, nuts, fruits, and gardens alike being destroyed. After a cyclone of more than ordi-nary destructiveness, the people fled to the Lord for help. Since that time they have kept up these thanksgiving sea-sons, honoring God with their substance, and their land has been free from these fearful storm visitants.

It was from this attractive spot that the “Pitcairn” sailed away only a few brief hours after her arrival. The gospel message which they then brought to the Cook Islands has now spread even to Bukabuka, an island of the group so distant that it is visited only twice a year by a trading schooner. To be continued


What Were the People To Do on the Day of Atonement?

by S. T. Lewis

I am going to attempt to paint a picture for you of an ex-perience that I had. This will be almost like a testimony, and hopefully you can learn some things that the Lord has shown me.

I had a stroke several years ago, and that was an experi-ence I had never had, but I have learned that many times we need an experience to learn by. Sometimes we can’t get what the Lord wants us to understand without an experi-ence. Why in the world did God let Jonah go down in the belly of the fish? For him to see and understand. He had to have that.

The Lord had to knock Paul off his horse and blind him to make him think and understand. And that was the way with me. The Lord had to place this stroke on me and say, Sit down. Stop and listen. Let me talk to you from my word. And now I am going to share with you some of things that the Lord shared with me.

Late at night, in my bed, I got to thinking, I have been preaching for fifty years, and I have been telling the folks, “Do this; do that. Don’t do this; don’t do that.” Then they forget what I have said, and I go through the same thing again. A lot of times people are discouraged. And they tell me, I have been doing this all along. I don’t understand what I am doing. I’m tired of doing it. I can’t do it. And I am just frustrated, and I am going to give up. I have bap-tized many people, and then they say to me, The brethren have hurt me so badly, I am just going to leave. I don’t know what to do. And that’s the way things go. So, the Lord has shown me, in a picture-type way, what I am going to share with you.

In the beginning, God made man, and man was in the garden. Man loved the Lord, and the Lord loved him. Sa-tan comes in, and he brought death. Everybody dies, so the Lord said, No, I want you back. I really want you back. You messed up, and the wages that you have put out brings that death. Before man was created, however, God had a plan from the foundation of the world that if man messed up, somebody, somewhere had to go and redeem him. Jesus comes forth, and he says, In that event, I will go down, and I will do what I need to do for man.

God, in his wisdom, found Abraham, and Abraham was called the father of the faithful. I have learned what is most important with God is our faithfulness and obedience and our trust in him. That’s what matters, and Abraham had that type of faith. He was a man who heard and understood

God and got up and went five hundred miles on foot, not knowing where in the world he was going. He took all of his camels and all of his family and just left. Now, the faith that man had in the word of God supersedes anybody else’s faith on earth that the Bible records. Now, that is amazing! And because of his faith, God said, I am going to make you a great nation. He made him a great nation, and it was like the sand of the sea. God did this, despite all of the mistakes that Abraham had made.

In God’s mercy, God forgave him, and Abraham’s fam-ily became a great nation. This great nation went down into Egypt, and that’s where they were for over two hundred years. And God in his mercy raised up Moses. God said, I have got to have my people back. I want my people back. So, God raised up Moses to lead them out. He said, Look now, I have to lay before them how they messed up and what they need to do to get back to me. So, God lays out his law. He gives them his law, and the law had to do with love for him and love for man. But, in your head, because Lucifer has done this, when you think about law, what do you think about it? Punishment!

Yes, you think about punishment with the Ten Com-mandments! But the law, in terms of the Jews, was also the first five books of the Bible. It was the Torah. It was the Pentateuch. And God instructed Moses to give them this so that they could get back in line with him because they had strayed away, and they couldn’t return with disobedience and without trust.

So, the Lord said, I am going to give you this law now because I want you back, and I want you to abide by the law, and the law is going to bring you to me and to oth-ers, so you can be back in a relationship with me. And Moses gave them the law, but they didn’t see what God was doing. Watch this, now. God gave them the law, and they said, “All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Exodus 24:7), but they couldn’t do it.

So, the Lord said, Listen, I love the whole world. Now, we think that the Lord only loves a certain people because they’re Christians, or because they are Adventists, but Je-sus loved the whole world, and he said, Look now, I want the whole world back, but the law has to be kept. They curse; they hate me; they don’t obey me. So, when you read the Old Testament, that is God telling man what they did, how they did it, and what they have to do to get back into a relationship with him. God said, You strayed from


me. You left me alone. You leave me behind. You mistreat people. You are unkind. But, I am going to send you my Son, and he is going to redeem you back. And even after all that, they still strayed away.

God sent Jeremiah. They didn’t like Jeremiah. They said, Listen we don’t want to hear what you are saying. We are God’s people, and we are going to do what we want to do. We are going to put you in the dungeon because Nebu-chadnezzar is not going to come and take us. We are going to stay here. We are sick of you telling us to straighten up and be right.

This is, in reality, just like what we do today. Always going after somebody, when you don’t like what you hear. You nag. God in his mercy let Israel go into captivity, and they didn’t like it. Nobody likes captivity, including us. But God is always merciful.

Satan has come to the earth and has framed how you think about God. He has done it through institutions, among other things. Satan has also tried to frame your thinking against what God says, his word. That’s what Sa-tan does, and we follow right down that line.

Let me read you something about God. God proclaimed his name to Moses and revealed his character:

And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. (Exodus 34:5, 6)Now, does that sound like God to you?

Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. (v. 7)Now, that is how God described himself in the Old Tes-

tament. He is merciful, he is gracious, he is kind, and he is loving. He is longsuffering and not willing that anybody should perish, even though many folks do not think so. Satan tried to make them think that God didn’t mean this. You see, that is where Satan comes in. He tells us that God hates us, that he doesn’t like us, and that he wants to kill us; but God wants to save us because it is his very nature and character to do so.

Now, in being willing to save us, before we knew any-thing, Paul tells us that the Lord did something else. Let us go to Ephesians. He gives us a gift.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8)So, here we are lost, now. We need saving, and what do

you do to get saved? You believe! Where does belief take

place? In your head. God gives you this gift, and, if you believe, you can be saved. But, what had I been teaching folks? You have got to do something! You have got to go there. You have got to join something. Join the Adventist Church. The Bible says that eternal life is a gift. Now, a gift is something that somebody gives you that you don’t earn. Paul says we have earned a debt, which brings death, and so we are supposed to die. But Jesus comes along, and he gives us a gift. But now, we as ministers, talk about working to get it. You got to do this; you got to do that. Got to keep the commandments. There’s always something that you got to do, and people get tired of that.

Jesus was the promised of God. The priests in Christ’s day were telling the people that when the Messiah comes, he is going to set up his kingdom so that there can be kings and rulers again in Israel.

Jesus, the Son of God, in his mercy, when the time was ripe (Galatians 4:4), comes into the world. But because the priests had told the people that when he is going to come in he is going to come in like a king, they were not looking for him to come like he came.

It was revealed centuries before to Daniel and to other prophets the time he was going to come, how he was going to come, and where he was going to be born, and all that information went right over their heads. Just like the things that are in the Scriptures go over your heads. And I am go-ing to show you what goes over our heads in a minute. The priests were saying that when the Messiah comes, he’ll be king and that they are going to make sure they got the right team beside him. They didn’t read what the Scripture said on how he was going to come—born in Bethlehem, exactly right on time, when the fullness of time showed up. One of the big reasons why he came, along with the reason why he died, is because he came to fulfill the law that Moses had given them, to keep them in line with the Lord.

Fulfill is one of the most important words in Hebrew and in Greek. It means to make visible, so it can be seen. One of the reasons for Jesus to come into the world was to show that man could see what God was like.

Jesus comes into the world, so the law can be seen, ful-filled. He comes in like a baby. That is not him, they said. He grows up and didn’t go to their schools. That really bothered them. Today you have to go the academy; you have to go to Andrews or to one of the other schools. Jesus didn’t go to their schools, but he stunned them by being wiser than their preachers in the synagogue. They didn’t know how to take it. And the reason is because they didn’t believe what the prophets had said about the Messiah, just like us today. The prophecies have been given to us, and we don’t get it and don’t believe them. Please consider, the whole point is the law of God, and Jesus came and fulfilled that law. He says, All right, I am going to fulfill the law. I


want you to see what my Father is like. He is loving, he is gracious, he is kind, and he is long-suffering. And I am trying to show you that the most important thing that he is interested in is our having faith in and believing in him. That is what I want you to get—the belief, the true trust, the faith, the loyalty, and the obedience. Now, that is what is most important to him! But to man, the most important thing is to do something. You know, go to church, pass out literature, go do this, and go do that, equating all that doing as making you worthy of eternal life. But Jesus said salva-tion is a gift. So, if it is a gift, you can’t get it by works. It comes because of your faith.

Jesus came to this earth to show and to teach humanity what salvation is really about. There was a time the disci-ples and Jesus were on a boat, and a storm came up (Mark 4:37–41). So, he says, Where is your faith? Faith is right there with him, but they didn’t see him. They were looking right at him, but they did not see him.

A nobleman’s son is sick, so he comes over, with his entourage, to see Jesus:

So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. (John 4:46, 47)

And Jesus says, Listen, don’t worry. He is already well.

Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. (John 4:48–50)

Just as soon as he said that, he got well. Jesus was trying to show his disciples that the most important thing was to believe! To believe in God and in whom he had sent. And amazingly, we as human beings do not get it. We just do not get it. We are constantly worrying about this, that, and the other thing.

Now comes the time for Jesus to die. He has sent the prophets, he gave them the law, and he then comes himself, and they still do not get the gift that he is trying to give them. Just like us. We just do not get it. (Now, I am also talking about myself and other mature-in-age folks. As we get older, we want to be sure we are getting it right.)

You wonder, Am I going to make it? What is going to happen? But you just need to go have a little talk with Je-sus and believe his word. You see, Jesus is what the world needs. And I am not saying that as a cliché. I am telling

you that as a fact. Let us read, now, some of the Scriptures that record what Jesus said.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. (John 14:1)This is Jesus talking.

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:2)Now, he is telling them this because he is getting ready

to die, and then, after a while, he is getting ready to go back to his Father. He has been here for over thirty years, and it appears like it doesn’t matter what he says or does because even his closest disciples were not getting it! Just like we all don’t get it!

Oh, I have been in the church for twenty years! Oh, I have been following the Lord for fifty years! But, we do not get it! You see, there is no substitute for taking the Bible and sitting down quietly and prayerfully and let-ting the Holy Spirit tell you what Jesus is telling you. Not me, as a preacher, but you. See, we are too used to letting somebody else spoon feed us the gospel! Preaching is fine. Christ commissioned the disciples to preach and teach the gospel (Matthew 28:18–20), but you need to see the truth for yourself. And when you read it for yourself, the Holy Spirit talks to your head. See, that is what is missing.

We want to read now about the experience of three of Christ’s disciples because in them we can see ourselves.

Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? (John 14:5)Now, who is Thomas? Doubting Thomas. He was a dis-

ciple! He was a follower! The disciples were followers of Jesus that lived with him, watched him, saw him, ate with him, and saw the miracles that were wrought. And even with all that, even with seeing with their own eyes, there was still something missing. Just like you! You can sit there and read your Bible, go to church every Sabbath day, and there is something missing. You don’t get it! Thomas, who had spent so much time with Jesus, now says that he does not know the way!

Now, he had been following Jesus for years, and he is now worried about where he should go! Now, you have been going to church for years, and you are not looking at Jesus. You have been looking at your preacher, the dea-cons, the members, somebody, but you do not know which way to go! Are you are sitting there worried, praying, Lord what do I need to do? You are like Thomas.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way. (John 14:6a)The way is not the church, not the organization. Now,

that has gotten through to my head. Where do you belong? To whom do you belong? I belong to Jesus. Who are you following? I am following Jesus! Jesus said he is the way.


So, if I want to walk, or live, or die, or whatever it is, I want to follow Jesus. He said, “I am the truth.” There is no falsehood in him.

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6b)

Are you going to heaven? If you are going to heaven, you have to follow Jesus! Now, the devil has framed it so he wants you to follow an order or a denomination. You have to belong to a denomination. Are you an Adventist? Are you asking where you should go? To which denomi-nation should you belong? Jesus has a church. In fact, you must be a member of his true church, but that church has Jesus as its head and not a man. We are to follow Jesus! He is the way, the truth, and the life. The life that you have, Jesus gave it to you! The breath that you breathe, he gives it to you. He is all in all. He is the way; he is the truth; he is the life! Jesus! You want to live? Follow Jesus! Another brother to consider is Philip.

Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. (John 14:8)

Philip had also been with Jesus, and he didn’t know who Jesus was. Just like us. I had been reading about Je-sus for fifty years and didn’t know who he was. I had not seen him. Listen, do we call ourselves disciples? Now, this brother was right in Christ’s presence and couldn’t see him. Now, what do you think about us? See, that is how sleek the devil is. If you do not know Jesus, Satan will fool you.

Now, Jesus is nearing his end on this earth. He is dy-ing, and he is on his way to the cross. Christ has given the Scriptures, he has sent his people angels, and he gave them the prophets; but here he is at the last stretch, and his disci-ples ask him about who he is. I know that must have made him so sad. His disciples wanted to know who the Father was, and he had been showing them who the Father was in his kindness, in his mercy, in his justice, in his longsuffer-ing, in how he treated people, in how he cared for people, and in how he loved people. And they are just looking at him, thinking, Who are you?

Jesus wanted to guarantee us salvation. He did not leave it to chance and because they did not understand, he said:

Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. (John 14:10)

So, since you cannot get a grasp of who the Father is, believe in him because of the works that you see me do. You saw me heal; you saw me raise the dead; you saw all that. The works testify to the truth.

Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. (John 14:11)Christ was on earth; the Father was in heaven, and yet

he said that he was in the Father and the Father was in him. He went on to say:

If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. (John 14:14–16)He said, Now, wait a minute, I am going to ask the Fa-

ther to give you something that you need, a helper. Christ has taught everything that you need to know while being here on this earth—taught you how to love, taught you how to get along with people, taught you how to keep his commandments, taught you what to do when you get ready to marry, taught you all you need to know—but he is go-ing to leave. Jesus says, I have shown you the law, and it appears that you cannot keep it, but I am going to ask the Father to send you something to help you keep that law. And I want to put it in your head.” Now, that is pretty good, because your head is the seat of activity. You cannot do it by yourself, so I am going to come and live in you. Now, when I used to read that, it used to go right over my head. Going to live in you? But the Spirit comes from the Father to Jesus to me, to live in me!

As long as we are here, Jesus has promised to send you a helper. What for? To make sure that you go to heaven. I need help, and you need help. You can’t go by yourself. So Christ is going to give you his Spirit, so you won’t violate his law, and so you will not be out of step with him. Isn’t that a blessing? That is a guarantee!

Even the Spirit of truth . . . (John 14:17)The Spirit of truth. No error. Jesus gives you the Spirit

in your head to know what truth is. So you do not have to wonder and think, Oh Lord, I don’t know what is the truth. The devil is doing everything to make sure you never get this truth.

I have a good friend to whom I gave a book explaining the truth about God. And he said, “Oh, you don’t believe in the trinity, do you?”

I said, “Do you believe in Sunday?”He said, “No! Sunday is not in the Bible.”I said, “Neither is the Trinity!”This brother’s mind had been framed by the devil to ac-

cept the trinity and to not understand the Godhead. That is how the devil is—he takes the truth and frames it the way he wants you think it, and the whole world follows that, including most of the Adventists. Jesus continues:

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him:


but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (John 14:17)Do you grasp that? This Spirit that Jesus sent to us

comes from the Father. And he said, I am going to put it in you, if you accept it. You have to accept it. And he sets it in your mind. It is a choice that you make between what the Spirit tells you and what your flesh tells you. Satan wants to control your flesh. He makes it big. He makes it strong. He makes it beautiful. But you cannot see the Spirit because the Spirit dwells in your head. He told Nicodemus that you have to be converted. In other words, stop listen-ing to your flesh and listen to the Spirit. That is the choice you have to make.

Now, when you make that choice, the Spirit will live in you to help you make sure that you are redeemed. Je-sus gave the illustration of the vine and the branches. He said that you can do nothing without him. Nothing! Here I am thinking that I am doing something by preaching. I am doing nothing. Here I am thinking I am going to run a tent meeting, thinking that that’s going to give me salva-tion. Not true, but that’s what they make you think. I am baptizing people, making them think that if they join the Seventh-day Adventist Church, it is their salvation. Have you ever heard that? We unconsciously think that if we just get in the church, we’ve got salvation, but Jesus is left out. It is never generally explained to anybody how you can receive the Holy Spirit to live within you. I used to get frustrated with all the lessons that we would share. Lessons on this, lessons on that, lessons on the other, but none of them explaining receiving the Spirit and living by the Holy Spirit. Continuing in John 14, we read:

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. (John 14:18)Now, if you are not comfortless, it is because the Spirit

is there to comfort you, so you do not need to worry! Don’t let your heart be troubled. Just let me come into your head, and I will give you faith.

Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:19, 20)Can you understand that? Jesus gets from his Father his

Spirit, but he turns around and gives it to you and puts it in your head, if you’ll believe. And if you listen to what he says in your head, his Spirit will send you to the word, and the word and what is in your head will match. And that is a guarantee for salvation. Now, that’s pretty good!

Now Judas (Thaddeus) enters the picture:Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it

that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love

me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:22, 23)

We? Who is we? The Father and the Son. He says the Father and the Son will come together and live in your head, if you will just let them! Now, that is as straight as you can get it! We will come and abide, not outside you, but within you! Everywhere you go, they will go! Anything you need, they will be there to help. That’s just great to me. All the worry and the concern that I have, I am not think-ing about because Jesus has promised this to me. Wait, Jesus is not through yet.

He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. He says, I am telling you now, I will tell you while I am here. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (John 14:24–26)

What remembrance? The things that he had done. He taught you everything you needed to know. You cannot re-member, and he knows you cannot remember. Whenever you need what he taught, if you read it in the word, he will bring it back to your head when you need it. Now, how are you going to beat that?

He laid the law out, made the law plain, came to the earth and showed you deliberately in your mind and in your head what it was, and then he says, I am getting ready to leave now, but to guarantee that I can redeem you, my Father and I want to come and live in you. And when you need me, I will be there to remind you of the things I taught you. Amen!

Satan tempts you to dress up in real fine clothes and spend a lot of money on your own apparel. Jesus reminds you to “consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Luke 12:27). Whatever you need, the Lord has taught and shown you in his word, whatever that might be.

Satan tempts you to get mad at somebody. I am going to give him a piece of my mind. What did Jesus teach?

But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. (Matthew 5:39)

Jesus reminds us that they got mad at him, slapped him, spit upon him, and what did he do? He said nothing. Jesus will teach you how to act and how to love people, even your enemies.


Everything you need to know in order to be saved, in order to keep God’s law, and in order to put trust and con-fidence in him, he provides it in you to make sure that you are redeemed.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)You need peace. Christ, living in you, can give you the

peace and satisfaction so that you need not worry about whether you are going to heaven or hell. Now, this is as good as it can ever get.

We have never seen Jesus with our eyes, but the Holy Spirit will testify about Jesus:

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: (John 15:26)The Spirit testifies about Jesus! The Spirit does not tes-

tify about the church, the elders, or the deacons, but about Jesus!

And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. (John 15:27)Now carefully consider John 16:1:

These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.Jesus does not want us offended or upset. In effect, he

says: I am telling you all these things because the world is going to put pressure on you. Jesus says, Do not be of-fended, do not be upset, and do not let that discourage you because I am going to abide with you. I am going to be in you, I am going to be with you, and I am going to direct you.

They shall put you out of the synagogues: (John 16:2a)Why? Because Jesus is with them and in them! Now,

when a man finds the truth, people get mad at him. They want to run him out. They will do the same thing to you! The reason why they have not pressed on you yet is be-cause they think you are one of them.

They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. (John 16:2)Remember, he is with you. He is going to abide with

you, both Jesus and his Father. Do not forget this because trouble is heading your way, and he knows that when this trouble comes, unless you abide in him and with him, then you will not be able to stand. The trouble is coming! IT is on its way! And the first thing you are going to decide to do is to save your hide, when the pressure comes. And unless the Father and Jesus, through the Spirit, are in your

head, you will give up and let go. Jesus says that they are going to run you out and not to be offended by that.

But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. (John 16:4)You are going to remember that I told you what is going

to happen.But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow

hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. (John 16:6, 7)Jesus says that he has to leave so that the Comforter can

be with them and lead and guide them into all truth.And when he is come, he will reprove the world

of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. (John 16:8–12)Jesus said that after he goes back to heaven he would

send his Spirit and that the same work of teaching truth that he had begun on earth he would continue through his Spirit. See, we have a way of thinking that (because you think a certain way) nobody can tell you anything. And you get an attitude.

When the Spirit comes back and is in you, it will al-ways testify about Jesus, and the Spirit will convict you of sin. You may be tempted to want to go and take a gun and shoot someone. You will hear something in your head, Do not do that! You want to get mad at somebody, yet the Spirit will tell you, Do not do that! Jesus would not do that. Whatever it is, if the Spirit is in you, whenever you go wrong, it will convict you. Convict to the point that it will make an impression, and the conviction will agree with the written word. In the word we find agreement with Jesus. Now, how in the world can you beat that? Jesus just wants you to change your attitude, to convict you of sin.

Let us now look at a challenging verse:Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities . . .

(Romans 8:26a)You think you have got everything going right and that

you know everything, yet we all have infirmities, or addic-tions, or problems.

. . . for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: . . . (Romans 8:26b)As the believer prays, he or she has the Spirit within. If

you say you want something that your flesh really wants, like Oh, I want this certain job; or Oh, I want this; or Oh,


I want that, but the Spirit says, No, you do not need that. Here is what you want right here, then that is pretty good, isn’t it? You see, everything that we need, God guarantees, if we believe him, all the way down to the prayers that we pray. Now, is that not good? He wants to save us that badly. God says, They are praying to me that they want this and that they want that, but what they really want is something else! Listen to what he says:

. . . for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. (Romans 8:26)The Spirit makes groanings for us, based on our connec-

tion with that Spirit. The person is praying, and he thinks what he is praying for is good, but the Spirit knows what he needs and presents that to the Father! Now, how in the world are you going to beat that? Think of the process of guaranteeing you your salvation. He says, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me because it is easy. See, we take the devil’s thinking and make it hard! We think, Oh, it is so hard. Oh, I cannot do anything that I want to do. Oh, I cannot do this. I cannot keep any commandments. I cannot keep any law. I cannot do anything! Why? Because we do not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our heads. Jesus wants us so badly that he has made every provision for salvation to be ours, if we just accept what he says and get out of our minds all the stuff that the devil has put in that frames how we think about salvation. He wants us to believe that we have to do some work or some kind of something to earn salvation.

Now, when Jesus is in you, he says you will have fruit. Fruit means something that you can see, something that comes out. Paul says the fruit of the spirit is “love, joy, peace, longsuffering . . . ” (Galatians 5:22), all the attri-butes of God that I read in Exodus. That is the fruit! Oh, I have been trying to love you all of my life! Oh, I have been trying to love! Give us more love! Give us some more joy. Give us some peace of mind. Do you know what you have to do to get it? Open your mind, by choice, and let the Spirit come in and control all of that. And what comes out of you will be obedience! It will be love! It will be joy! It will be peace. The fruit will be there because he is in you and because that automatically comes out of you as fruit. An apple tree does not have to worry about produc-ing apples. That is what it automatically does! An orange tree does not have to worry about producing oranges; it automatically brings oranges! So, the Christian, who is converted and who lets the Spirit live in him or her, brings out the attributes of God! Salvation is guaranteed.

To day if ye will hear his voice . . . (Hebrews 3:7)Paul says the day that you understand what you can do

to receive this Spirit, that is the day you are to respond. Do

not put it off. Do not say, I am going to wait until tomor-row. I am going to wait until next week. I have to get my jobs together. No, respond on the day that you hear it:

Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: (Hebrews 3:8)Do not harden your hearts. Many who profess to be

Christians have an attitude, and you cannot tell them any-thing. Unless a person agrees with what you say, he or she does not want to hear it.

Now, if you do not have the Spirit, then you will not know if what you are hearing is the truth. Do not harden your hearts. You see, some people just harden their hearts about this trinity thing. They do not want to bothered. They do not want to be involved at all. Oh, no, we got it right the way we are. They do not even know where it came from. They do not even know why they believe the way they do.

You see, average church folks, including Adventists, do not even know why they do what they do. They go into the church, and they sit down. They sing a song, then they have the order of service. Now, where did the order of ser-vice even come from? They do not know! And the amazing thing is they do not think anything about why the sermon (which is supposed to be the heart of the whole gathering) is put way down at the end of the whole thing! They do not say anything about that! They go through the announce-ments and go through the singing and go through the testimonies and everything and by that time, they are dead asleep or their stomachs are churning, or they are ready to get up and go to the bathroom, and when the preacher gets up, no one is ready to hear anything. You know that I am telling you the truth.

You do not know where this idea of a corporate church comes from that you have to belong to it. The Scriptures state that Jesus went to the synagogue. Do you know what a synagogue was? A synagogue is a gathering or an assem-bly. You think it is a building! The devil told you that! That is what you believe. You think that Jesus went to a build-ing, which he did, but it was an assembly in somebody’s house. He got a scroll and began to read from Isaiah. They talked and prayed and sang and took up an offering, and they left! And when they left they got mad at him. That is not what the church is today. Churches raise money, pro-mote this, raise building funds, all kind of stuff, and the preacher preaches to that! You see, all that we do has been framed by the devil to fool you, to keep you away from getting the Spirit in you.

Now, when Jesus left, he could have said, Now, folks, you have to keep that singing, and if you don’t keep it like I told you to keep it, then you are not going to heaven. And he did not say, Listen, you have to keep paying that tithe. If you do not pay it like I told you to pay it, you are not going anywhere. No! In his mercy he said, Let me come and live


in you, and I will tell you exactly what I want, when I want it! When the Sabbath shows up, I will tell you what to do on it and how to live on it. When you get your money, I will tell you what to do. Let me tell you, but no, you have to let some man tell you! And I even tell you in Matthew 24 three times to let no man deceive you! Not the preacher man, the elder man, the deacon man, or the pope man. Let NO man deceive you.

Every time you turn around, you talk about somebody that did this, somebody did that. Tell me what Jesus said, that is all I want to know! Paul says, “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Now, going back to He-brews 3, we read:

Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. (Hebrews 3:8–10)Now, Paul gets this from David telling the people to

not keep messing with God. God had brought them out of Egypt, gave them his law, gave them Moses, and they just fooled around. The people would not believe what God said; they doubted what he said. Paul tells us to not do God like that. Do not put off what he is trying to get in your head until tomorrow or next week. Do not mess with him like that. Accept him that day!

So, my appeal to you is, if you do not know the Lord through the Holy Spirit, do not go to sleep tonight until you ask him to come and live in you and be with you. And when you tell him that, he will lead you right through the Scripture. And as you read the Bible, he will tell you everything that you need. And when you need it, he will bring it back to your remembrance. Jesus says, I am the way. If you want to get to the Father, just follow me, I will take you straight there. I have better sense than to compete with that. I am looking, by faith, to go back with Jesus when he comes because I took his advice. I have confessed to you tonight that I had not always seen it like that. I do not expect you to have always seen it like that, too, but if you let the Bible teach you, you will see what I see be-cause the Spirit is the same. It is the same with you, as it is with me. We have the same Bible. Jesus has not changed.

I am thankful that the Lord has given us a guarantee, and I can rest tonight in peace. God gave us the process. He gave us the ending process of our salvation in the sanctu-ary in the three angels’ messages, and he asks his people, in love and in wisdom, to please tell the world about these three angels. God gave the outline of three angels to Sister Ellen White. Now, sadly, some folks do not like it, just like they did not like Jeremiah and did not like Isaiah.

Our hearts are the same, and he sends us a certain mes-sage, but we do not want to hear it. We think it is all out of line. And now we come down to the end of things, and we do not ever hear of the three angels’ messages. We do not hear anything about them. Why? Because the devil, through the system, has turned your head, and you are looking and watching something else. See, the devil knows how to get to people who are interested in Christ by de-nominationalism.

God has given to us the medical missionary work to help us to get people’s attention, so they can learn the truth. The Lord instructed Ellen White with this message for us! But what did we do? We followed man! And man says, No. What we need to do is to organize and to list all of our doctrines. That is the way to get people to join. So, we list all of the doctrines and leave out the medical missionary work. Now, if you are going to list everything, why not bring the medical missionary work into play in what she is saying? But we do not want to listen. It goes right over our heads, and we miss out. It is sad. We are just like the children of Israel. We are just like the disciples. And we are just like sinful people. We do not get what God is try-ing to tell us to do. But when we get the Spirit, it will lead us and guide us into all truth and take us into the kingdom of heaven. ?

Editors Note: This message was presented at the 2017 West Virginia camp meeting. Elder Lewis is planning on attending the 2018 camp meeting but is currently suffer-ing from reduced kidney function. Please remember Elder Lewis in your prayers.

Elder S. T. Lewis


Old Paths is a free monthly newsletter/study-paper published by Smyrna Gospel Ministries, 750 Smyrna Road, Welch, WV 24801–9606 U. S. A. The paper is dedicated to the propagation and restoration of the principles of truth that God gave to the early Seventh-day Adventist pioneers. Duplication is not only permitted, but strongly encouraged. This issue, with other gospel literature we publish, can be found at our website. The url is: http://www.smyrna.org. Phone: (304) 732–9204. Fax: (304) 732–7322. Editor .... ............................... Allen Stump—[email protected] Associate Editor .................Onycha Holt—[email protected]

The Three Angels’ Video Series

During the last quarter of 2017, we presented at the Smyr-na Chapel a series on the three angels’ messages and the fourth angel of Revelation 18. These sermons were record-ed and the first group of presentations has been posted on the Internet (https://www.youtube.com/user/swiftkayak) and is also available on DVD and audio CD. The titles completed are:•The First Angel’s Message: A Historical Background

•The First Angel’s Message: The Pillars of Our Faith

•The First Angel’s Message: The 2,300 Days

•The First Angel’s Message: Worship Him

•The Second Angel’s Message: Come Out of Babylon

•The Second Angel’s Message: Coming All the Way Out of Babylon

We have been told:The messages of this chapter [Revelation 14] con-

stitute a threefold warning which is to prepare the inhabitants of the earth for the Lord’s second coming. (Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p. 435)More videos are being prepared at this time, and we

hope to have the complete series published very soon. ?

The brain under chronic stress operates at a low level of efficiency, and if it is stressed long enough, some of its cells will die and some parts of the brain important for thinking and learning will shrink.

For example, people who have been depressed or have had PTSD symptoms for many years usually have a smaller hippocampus, the brain’s major center for creating memories, and this places them at increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease and age-related dementia. You also see shrinkage in the prefrontal cortex resulting from chronic stress, whereas the amygdala, the part of the brain that detects threat, starts working overtime and actually gets bigger. Thus the more anxious and stressed you are, the more anxious you become. (Ibid.)The natural remedies of pure air, sunshine, exercise,

water, healthy diet, abstemiousness from harmful substances and practices, rest, and trust in divine power have a positive impact on the functions of the brain and of the mind. We have learned in this article that exercise and good sleep are especially helpful to the brain, and we also know that the peace that only God can give will help us cope with the chronic stress we may face.

The hippocampus, where memory is stored, is especially sensitive to physical exercise and will even grow at a time it is normally shrinking, if regular cardiovascular and strength-building exercises are performed. Good sleep allows the hippocampus to loop the experiences of the day back to the cerebral cortex, where they are re-experienced and then resent to the hippocampus. In this way, the experiences of the day are strengthened before being finally organized and stored in the hippocampus. Isn’t it wonderful to know that experiences are not just passing us by but are organized, strengthened, and kept in the infrastructure of the brain? This, however, puts a responsibility on us to partake of only holy, just, and kind actions and thoughts because holy and unholy experiences are retained by the brain. Ephesians 4:26 instructs us to not let the sun go down upon our wrath, and this is for good reason. When we go to bed with angry, negative, or other

“Exercise, Stress, and the Brain” continued from page 11

Continued on page 13, right column

Documents

For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ...smyrna.org/op/pdf/2018/op18_03.pdf · we dare not, or we are not to be bold enough to, try to compare ourselves with ourselves