The true understanding of the Laodicean message by A.T. Jones

[rainbowinthesky]

I would like to repost something I posted before. I believe with all of my heart that the Laodicean message has not been clearly understood. For so many years I myself have been exposed to so many interpretations as to what the Laodicean message is till I came across the following by A.T. Jones from the 1893 General Conference Bulletin. It was then that the light came on! I doubt we could find a better commentary of what the Laodicean message truly means except in the following. I believe this is, at the very least, a very important aspect of that message.

In imagination try to put yourself in that congregation of Seventh-day Adventists who in 1893 listened to the following speech by brother Jones. How strange it must have sounded to their ears and yet it was the message of God to them from Heaven.

"Why, brethren, the Lord does not save us because we are so good, (or good enough) but because He is so good. Do not forget that. He does not save us, nor bless us in the work of God at all because we are so good, but because He is good and we are bad. And the blessedness of it is that He will bless us so much when we are so bad. And the rejoicing of the whole thing is that He saves us and makes us to reflect His own image, as bad as we are. That is where the rejoicing comes in...

Well, about understanding that; I cannot understand it, but I know it is so, and that is all I care for. It will take eternity to explain it so we can understand it; but as long as I know that it is so, I am not going to trouble myself and worry about how the Lord can do it, or whether I can understand it. Are you? (Congregation: 'No.'" 1893 G.C. Bulletin,178.

Some have said they cannot see how a man can acknowledge himself to be wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, and don't know it, and at the same time be rejoicing in the Lord.

Well, I would like to know how any one else can! I would like to know how a man is going to rejoice in the Lord when he thinks he is all right himself. Can you tell? I can't imagine. Why, brethren, the Lord does not save us because we are so good but because He is so good. Do not forget that." 1893 G.C. Bulletin, 178.

"There is none good but one, that is, God." Mark 10:18.

"Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth." John 9:41.

Every moment that I do not see and confess that I am blind, and have not Him as my sight, I am in sin; He says so. 'Now you say you see; therefore your sin remains.' And every moment that I do not see and confess my nakedness and depend only and absolutely upon Him and His righteousness to clothe me, why so certainly I am ruined, utterly ruined, and every moment that I begin to say, 'Now I know so much,' no, I do not know that at all. Well, then, the thing that I am to do is to say, 'Lord, I do not know it; I depend upon You to teach me everything, even to teach me that I am wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, and that I need all these things. And when I tell Him all that, He will give all I need. He will do it. That is our situation." Ibid, 187.

And now about that thought last night--some thought that I was going entirely too far. They could say, it is well enough when He says, 'You are wretched,' I say I am wretched. When He says, 'You are poor,' I say I am poor. When He says, 'You are blind,' I say I am blind. When He says, 'You are naked,' I say, I am naked. And when He says, 'You don't know it, then I am to say, "I know it!'? No, no. When He says, 'You don't know it,' I am to say, 'I don't know it.' Do not go to putting constructions upon His way. When I say I am wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, and on top of it He says that I don't know it, I say, "Lord, I dont know it.' That brings us right to the text we started with that night,--'If any man thinks he knows anything, he does not know anything yet as he ought to know it.' 1 Cor.8:2. I do not know yet, as long as I have been acknowledging that thing, I know not how wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I am.

Just as certainly as we take that Laodicean message as He speaks it, we shall receive all He has in it for us. Then brethren, that is what it is intended for. That is just what the Laodicean message is intended to do. Let it do its own work in His own way." Ibid, 178,179.

"Are you in Christ, not if you do not acknowledge yourselves erring, helpless, condemned sinners." E.G. White, ibid,178.

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, who continually acknowledge themselves erring, helpless, condemned sinners.

Wonderful paradox!

And in order to be in Christ and Him in us we must daily apply to His merits. (F.W.86; T.M.93)

sky

"The message given by A.T. Jones and E.J. Waggoner is the message of God to the Laodicean church." E.G. White, Letter 5-24, 1892.

 

[rainbowinthesky]

"What is man that you are mindful of him? or the son of man that you visit him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honour." Ps.8:5.

A crown signifies a kingdom; therefore when God made man He made him a king. He wore a crown of glory, signifying a kingdom of glory. O, the whole earth was full of the glory of God undimmed.

The man was a king of glory, and his kingdom was the earth. All things were put under him. There was nothing that was not put under him. Every living thing was put under him, and he was the ruler over all, and the earth itself was in subjection to him. But the power back of and in it all was God's power, for God alone has power. "Power belongeth unto God." Psalm 62:11; "All power is of God." Romans 13:1.

Man was made in the image of God, of the dust of the earth. "The Lord God formed man dust," literally, not formed him of the dust, but formed him dust. He then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. But the man was dust, and after he was crowned with glory and honor he was nothing but dust.

Now this dust that God took and formed into this shape, and crowned with glory and honor, he put over the works of his hands, put under all things, gave him dominion over all things and so it was dust that had dominion over all things. He was still dust; and how much more power had this dust that was formed into this figure than that dust that still lay on the ground?--It had no more power. And that is demonstrated in the fact that when the breath which God puts in there is gone, it is just as helpless as it was before, or as that other dust. Then the power is not in the dust; and here is just where the world,--all mankind--make the mistake. Man sees his face and form in the mirror, and admires himself, and he will not believe that he is dust; or, if he does acknowledge that he is dust, it is a different kind of dust than any other kind.

The failure to recognize this is what makes man assume lordship over another, to think himself better than another man; and the Lord wants us to keep to the first principles all the time. Man at the best is nothing but dust. We cannot dwell upon that too much, because the forgetting of it is what led to all sin in the beginning. Satan said to Eve that she would become like God. Now, if she had remembered the Word, and her origin, could she have supposed that that would be true?--No. It is the forgetting of it that lifts up man and makes him proud. Man in his highest state is nothing but dust.

What is the difference between that dust out there, and this here? God has chosen to use this dust in a little different way from what He uses that dust. God had a purpose in that dust; it is worth something; it will produce fruit. Here is dust that God has caused to bring forth another kind of fruit. How much more right has this dust that can walk about instead of being blown about by the wind, to boast of what it does than that dust out there in the field has? Out there you will see some beautiful, fine, rosy-cheeked apples. But it is not supposable that that dust in the field should begin to boast; Why, I am better that that dust in the road; that dust in the road does not do any good, but lies there day after day, and does not accomplish anything. See what I have done. And yet it has just as much right to do that as we have to boast of anything we have done.

Here is a lesson of encouragement of what God can do. Man, placed over the works of God's hands, crowned with glory and honor--only still dust--is an evidence of the power of God. When God made Adam by His Word, the Word was made flesh. There we see the Word manifested as flesh. The power by which this was done was God's power, and so God was in the Word, and the Word was in Adam, so that this power could be manifested in him, God dwelling in him and working in him; God taking this dust and using it to do these wonderful things. "It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do His good pleasure." Phil.2:13.

Now, if God is there, and I am here, that is altogether too far away. It is God that worketh in me. The Word was made flesh, and the life of Adam was the life of God. He has no other life. Acts 17:28. Now the blessedness of this is, when man fell, the word was made flesh. But suppose God had forsaken him, and had not been willing to make the Word flesh, what would have become of him?--He would have returned to dust. But God continues his life to man. So when man fell, God goes right down there with him. Is that so, or is it some fancy? Did God continue life to man, notwithstanding he had sinned? We are here, are we not? We are sinners. We are living, are we not? Whose life is it manifested in us?--It is God's life. Then God continues his life to sinful men. When sin entered, death came; so when man sinned, death came upon him. God stayed with him; therefore, in that he stayed with man, although man had sinned, God took upon Himself sinful flesh. And so He took upon Himself death, for death had passed upon all the world.

Now, let us see further. All creation is continued until now "by the same Word." Everything is this world is kept by the same Word. Although everything is cursed, and everybody can see that, it is yet a fact that everything continues; it is an evidence that God is there, Christ is there, the divine Word is there bearing the curse. Wherever there is sin, there is the Savior, bearing it. Wherever there is anything, there is the curse.

Nevertheless, wherever there is anything, there is Christ. But where Christ has the curse upon Him, He bears the cross. Then do you see the truthfulness of that statement which appeared about a year ago, that "the cross of Christ is stamped upon every leaf in the forest?" And a little later than a year ago there appeared another statement that the very bread we eat is stamped with the cross. There is something wonderful in that. Perhaps when you read that in every blade, and every leaf, there is the cross of Christ, some of us read it over without thinking about it, and some of us simply said, with Nicodemus, How can this be? How soon do we find Christ crucified, then?--Just as soon as there was any curse. And He is risen again as well, because if you preach Christ crucified, His resurrection necessarily goes with that.

God was manifest in the flesh, in human flesh in the beginning, because the power that worked in Adam was God's power.

Then when man sinned, and repudiated God, God did not take him at his word, and leave him alone, but went down with him as low as he fell, and said, Poor man, I will help you; and He stayed with him. So "we see Jesus" lower than the angels; that is we see him as man. So in the pursuance of God's original plan, the dominion being lost by man, man must win it back, because if some other being than man wins it back, then the plan is not carried out. But we say it is God in man. Of course it is, because it was God in man in the beginning. It is God in man all the time. Who could rule the world in the beginning? Man could not rule it; dust could not lift iself up to do anything; but God in man could do all things.

So as by man came death, by man came also the resurrection from the dead. O, there is a wonderful honor God has placed upon man, but man must not think that He is God. He is dust, but God's presence in him glorifies him. "If anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing--but dust--he deceives himself." Gal.6:3.


Mark those words, "when he is nothing". It does not say that we should not think ourselves to be something until we are something. No; it is a statement of the fact that we are nothing. Not merely a single individual, but all nations, are nothing before the Lord. Isaiah 40:15.

If we ever at any time think ourselves to be something, we deceive ourselves. And we often do deceive ourselves, and thus mar the work of the Lord. Remember the law of Christ. Although He was everything, He emptied Himself. Philippians 2:5. He obliterated Himself, that the work of God might be done. "The servant is not greater than His Lord." Man is nothing--dust--and God is everything. When we acknowledge this, and live in consciousness of it, then we are where the Holy Spirit of God can fill us, and then God can work through us. The "man of sin" is he that exalteth himself. 2 Thess.2:3.

E.J. Waggoner, 1897 General Conference Buleetin; Studies in the book of Hebrews.

The child of God is the one who humbles himself.

"Before honor is humility." Proverbs 18:12;15:33. "He sets on high those who are lowly." Job 5:11.

"He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the beggar from the ash heap, to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory." 1 Samuel 2:8.

 

[rainbowinthesky]

So human beings are NOTHING you say? Christ died for nothing? Might be a tad of error there?

mel
__________

In and of ourselves we are nothing. And that is our hope because God makes everything out of nothing. "If any man thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself." Gal.6:3.

Whoever deals with God must deal with Him on His own terms, that is, on a basis of fact--that we have nothing and are nothing, and He has everything and is everything, and gives everything.

In Christ "All things are yours."

We give Him ourselves, that is, nothing, and He gives us Himself, that is, everything!

Please read 2 Cor.12:11.

"The creation belongs to God. The Lord could, by neglecting man, stop his breath at once. All that he is and all that he has pertains to God. The entire world is God's. Man's houses, his personal acquirements, whatever is valuable or brilliant, is God's own endowment. It is all His gift to be returned back to God in helping to cultivate the heart of men. The most splendid offerings may be laid upon the altar of God, and men will praise, exalt, and laud the giver because of his liberality. In what? 'All things come of Thee, and of Thine own hand have we given Thee.' 1 Chron.29:14." E.G. White, Faith and Works, p.22,23.

However, Christ passes no one by as worthless! This is a beautiful paradox! On the contrary, He sees in every human being a pearl of price.

"The parable of the merchantman seeking goodly pearls has a double significance; it applies not only to men as seeking the Kingdom of Heaven, but to Christ as seeking His lost inheritance. Christ, the heavenly merchantman seeking goodly pearls, saw in lost humanity the pearl of price. In man, defiled and ruined by sin, He saw the possibilities of redemption. Hearts that have been the battleground of the conflict with Satan, and that have been rescued by the power of love, are more precious to the Redeemer than are those who have never fallen. God looked upon humanity, not as vile and worthless; He looked upon it in Christ, saw it as it might become through redeeming love. He collected all the riches of the universe, and laid them down in order to buy the pearl. And Jesus having found it, resets it in His own diadem. 'For they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon His land.' Zech.9:16." C.O.L. p.118.