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From Here to Forever
Intemperance Has Beclouded Many
Courts are corrupt, rulers are actuated by desire for gain and
love of sensual pleasure. Intemperance has beclouded many so that
Satan has almost complete control of them. Jurists are perverted,
bribed, deluded. Drunkenness and revelry, dishonesty of every sort,
are represented among those who administer the laws. Now that
Satan can no longer keep the world under control by withholding the
Scriptures, he resorts to other means to accomplish the same object.
To destroy faith in the Bible serves as well as to destroy the Bible
itself.
As in former ages, he has worked through the churches to fur-
ther his designs. In combating unpopular truths in the Scriptures,
they adopt interpretations which sow broadcast the seeds of skepti-
cism. Clinging to the papal error of natural immortality and man’s
consciousness in death, they reject the only defense against the delu-
sions of spiritualism. The doctrine of eternal torment has led many
to disbelieve the Bible. As the claims of the fourth commandment
are urged, it is found that the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath
is enjoined; and as the only way to free themselves from a duty
they are unwilling to perform, popular teachers cast away the law
of God and the Sabbath together. As Sabbath reform extends, this
rejection of the divine law to avoid the fourth commandment will
become well-nigh universal. Religious leaders open the door to
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infidelity, spiritualism, and contempt for God’s holy law—a fearful
responsibility for the iniquity that exists in the Christian world.
Yet this very class claim that the enforcement of Sunday ob-
servance would improve the morals of society. It is one of Satan’s
devices to combine with falsehood just enough truth to give it plau-
sibility. The leaders of the Sunday movement may advocate reforms
which the people need, principles in harmony with the Bible; yet
while there is with these a requirement contrary to God’s law, His
servants cannot unite with them. Nothing can justify setting aside
the commandments of God for the precepts of men.
Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and
Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions.
While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter cre-
ates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United