Religious Liberty
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being set on foot to enslave the consciences of those who would be
loyal to God. The law-making powers will be against God’s people.
Every soul will be tested.—
Testimonies for the Church 5:546
.
Men will exalt and rigidly enforce laws that are in direct opposition
to the law of God. Though zealous in enforcing their own command-
ments, they will turn away from a plain “Thus saith the Lord.” Exalting
a spurious rest day, they will seek to force men to dishonor the law of
Jehovah, the transcript of His character. Though innocent of wrong-
doing, the servants of God will be given over to suffer humiliation and
abuse at the hands of those who, inspired by Satan, are filled with envy
and religious bigotry.—
Testimonies for the Church 9:229
.
Religious powers, allied to heaven by profession, and claiming to
have the characteristics of a lamb, will show by their acts that they
have the heart of a dragon, and that they are instigated and controlled
by Satan. The time is coming when God’s people will feel the hand
of persecution because they keep holy the seventh day.... But God’s
people are to stand firm for Him. And the Lord will work in their
behalf, showing plainly that He is the God of gods.—
Testimonies for
the Church 9:229, 230
.
Every indignity, reproach, and cruelty that Satan could instigate
human hearts to devise, has been visited upon the followers of Jesus.
And it will be again fulfilled in a marked manner; for the carnal heart
is still at enmity with the law of God, and will not be subject to its
commands. The world is no more in harmony with the principles
of Christ today than it was in the days of the apostles. The same
hatred that prompted the cry. “Crucify Him! crucify Him!” the same
hatred that led to the persecution of the disciples, still works in the
children of disobedience. The same spirit which in the Dark Ages
consigned men and women to prison, to exile, and to death, which
conceived the exquisite torture of the Inquisition, which planned and
executed the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and which kindled the fires
of Smithfield, is still at work with malignant energy in unregenerate
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hearts. The history of truth has ever been the record of a struggle
between right and wrong. The proclamation of the gospel has ever
been carried forward in this world in the face of opposition, peril, loss,
and suffering.—
The Acts of the Apostles, 84, 85
.
The remnant church will be brought into great trial and distress.
Those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, will