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The Publishing Ministry
his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the
wine of the wrath of God.”
Verses 9, 10
.—
Testimonies for the Church
7:140
. (See also
Selected Messages 2:117, 118
.)
Make Plain the Issues in the Great Controversy—The great
conflict that Satan created in the heavenly courts is soon, very soon,
to be forever decided. Soon all the inhabitants of the earth will have
taken sides, either for or against the government of heaven. Now, as
never before, Satan is exercising his deceiving power to mislead and to
destroy every unguarded soul. We are called upon to arouse the people
to prepare for the great issues before them. We must give warning to
those who are standing on the very brink of ruin. God’s people are
to put forth every power in combating Satan’s falsehoods and pulling
down his strongholds. To every human being in the wide world who
will give heed, we are to make plain the principles at stake in the great
controversy—principles upon which hangs the eternal destiny of the
soul. To the people far and near we are to bring home the question:
“Are you following the great apostate in disobedience to God’s law,
or are you following the Son of God, who declared, ‘I have kept My
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Father’s commandments’?”
This is the work before us; for this our publishing institutions
were established; it is this work that God expects at their hands.—
Testimonies for the Church 7:141, 142
.
Accomplish “the Work of That Other Angel”—And in a large
degree through our publishing houses is to be accomplished the work
of that other angel who comes down from heaven with great power
and who lightens the earth with his glory.
Solemn is the responsibility that rests upon our houses of pub-
lication. Those who conduct these institutions, those who edit the
periodicals and prepare the books, standing as they do in the light of
God’s purpose, and called to give warning to the world, are held by
God accountable for the souls of their fellow men. To them, as well
as to the ministers of the word, applies the message given by God to
His prophet of old: “Son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto
the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth,
and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man,
thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from
his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I
require at thine hand.”
Ezekiel 33:7, 8
.