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God’s Call to Modern Apostates
89
The Test That Will Come to All
The test will come to everyone. People will be urged to observe
the false sabbath. The contest will be between the commandments of
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God and mere human laws. Those who have yielded step by step to
worldly demands and customs will yield to the earthly powers rather
than subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment,
and death. At that time the gold will be separated from the dross. The
distinction will be clear between true godliness and the appearance
and tinsel of it. Many a star that we have admired for its brilliance
will then go out in darkness. Those who are not clothed with Christ’s
righteousness will appear in the shame of their nakedness.
Scattered in every land are those who have not bowed the knee to
Baal. Like the stars of heaven that appear only at night, these faithful
ones will shine out when darkness covers the earth. In Africa, in
Europe, in South America, in China, in India, in the islands of the
sea, and in all the corners of the earth, God has many chosen ones
in reserve who will yet shine brightly in the darkness, revealing
clearly to an apostate world the transforming power of obedience
to His law. In the hour of deepest apostasy, when Satan makes his
supreme effort to cause “all,” under penalty of death, to receive the
sign of loyalty to a false sabbath, these faithful ones, “blameless and
harmless, children of God without fault,” will “shine as lights in the
world.”
Revelation 13:16
;
Philippians 2:15
. The darker the night,
the more brilliantly they will shine.
Elijah could count only one on the Lord’s side when he said, “I
alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” But the word of the
Lord surprised him: “Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel,
all whose knees have not bowed to Baal.”
1 Kings 19:14, 18
.
Then let no one attempt to number Israel today, but let everyone
have a heart like the heart of Christ, a heart that reaches out for the
salvation of a lost world.
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