By John Thiel, mp3, pdf

Scripture reading: Psalm 33:6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. … 9 For he spake, and it was [done]; he commanded, and it stood fast.

The understanding of assimilating God’s creative word is paramount to the doctrine that is taught and embraced within Seventh-day Adventism. Indeed, Seventh-day Adventism is distinguished among Christendom by the doctrine of law-keeping that it teaches– the keeping of the Ten Commandments, among which is the Sabbath. This is why they were given the name “Seventh-day Adventists”; because they taught the importance of the keeping of the law of God, including the Sabbath. The three angels’ messages; which distinguish Seventh-day Adventism, climax in the words of Revelation 14:12.

Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Keeping God’s Commandments

The doctrine of the three angels’ messages in the Seventh-day Adventist teachings is interconnected with law-keeping, that is, keeping the commandments of God. When Jesus was approached by the rich young ruler and was asked, What must I do to have eternal life? Jesus gave him this central answer:

Matthew 19:16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? 17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

This is the answer of Jesus to the question, What must I do to have eternal life?: Keep the commandments. The only people who have right to enter the city of God, the New Jerusalem, are, according to the original text of Revelation 22:14, those who keep God’s commandments. This is the Textus Receptus rendition, that the King James Version is based upon:

Revelation 22:14 Blessed [are] they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Here is the central condition that we must fill to be able to have eternal life, according to these inspired words. However, as we read in Revelation 14, there is something else needed besides the keeping of the commandments by these people; it is called “the faith of Jesus”. We are as much in need of emphasising that as we are of emphasising the keeping of the commandments of God, because the doctrine of the keeping of God’s commandments on its own will produce what the Spirit of Prophecy calls a legal religion, which is not sufficient. It produces a pharisaical condition among the believers. Before he became Apostle Paul, Saul was persecuting the church; and as a Pharisee he claimed to be a commandment-keeper.

Philippians 3:4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: … 6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

This is the mentality of the Pharisee. “I am keeping those Ten Commandments to the letter; I cross my t’s and dot my i’s. I am keeping the law.” But the apostle said that this is according to the flesh. And he describes it in Romans, where he speaks of Israel, his own nation:

Romans 9:31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.

They have not attained to the law of righteousness, even though they followed after the law of righteousness. You see, to have a doctrine that teaches that we must keep the law of righteousness, the Ten Commandments, doesn’t mean that you have it. Israel taught it, believed they had it; but they had not attained to the law of righteousness.

Romans 10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

So they are teaching that we are to keep the Ten Commandments for righteousness (and indeed, we have read that to have eternal life we are to keep the law); but they missed out on another segment, which we are in the same danger of doing as people who claim to stand by the doctrines of Seventh-day Adventism, especially of reformation.

Two Errors Lurking

There are two errors against which the children of God–particularly those who have just come to trust in His grace–especially need to guard. The first . . . is that of looking to their own works, trusting to anything they can do, to bring themselves into harmony with God. He who is trying to become holy by his own works in keeping the law, is attempting an impossibility. {LHU 151.5}

So here we are teaching the law, teaching that we are to keep it, and we come away with the thought, Well, I have to keep it, therefore I make the effort to keep it, and we don’t succeed. This is the struggle of so many, and it is what Apostle Paul himself writes about. This is a serious danger.

All that man can do without Christ is polluted with selfishness and sin. It is the grace of Christ alone, through faith, that can make us holy. {LHU 151.5}

The opposite and no less dangerous error is that belief in Christ releases men from keeping the law of God; that since by faith alone we become partakers of the grace of Christ, our works have nothing to do with our redemption. {LHU 151.6}

Here we have these two dangers: the first one, of being a legalist, trying to keep the law because we are told that if we want to have eternal life we must keep the law. I want to enter the city of God, I must keep the law, therefore I struggle to keep the law. And the other error is, Don’t worry about the law. This is also being taught. Just believe in Jesus, they say.

So there is a zeal that the Hebrews had, and that Seventh-day Adventists also can have; but it is a zeal not according to knowledge. What is the zeal according to knowledge? What really is that zeal that we are to embrace and to let churn zealously within us?

Heaven-born Zeal

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

We want to get ready for Jesus to come; we want to keep the commandments, and so on. But the apostle mentions here Jesus Christ, and he says about Him:

Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

The Hebrews, the Pharisees, were zealous of good works; so what is the difference? What is this zeal in comparison to the legalistic zeal? It is for those who receive Jesus who gave Himself for us, so that as we receive Jesus He might redeem us from iniquity, which is the breaking of the law, and purify unto Himself these people. Through Him the zeal is a zeal according to knowledge. This is what is mentioned in Revelation, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

How in practical terms do true Christians come to the position which is expressed by Jesus in the following words?

Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

How do we come to such a condition? It is God who comes to the answer:

Isaiah 51:7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart [is] my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.

How do Christians come to such a position? He is saying, Hearken unto Me, you that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My law. How do we come to that position of being perfect as God is perfect, of having the law in the heart? The answer is:

Their Righteousness Is Of Me

Isaiah 54:17 …This [is] the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness [is] of me, saith the LORD.

Their righteousness is not the Pharisees’ righteousness, which is of their own selves – seeking to keep the Ten Commandments, reaching righteousness by their works of keeping the commandments. That is a righteousness that they could not attain to. God says, Their righteousness, the righteousness of those who have the law in their heart, is of Me. And He describes this work of putting the law into their hearts as being of Him:

Jeremiah 31:33 But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Their righteousness is of Me, He says; I will write the law in their hearts; I will put it there. Not their trust in their ability to keep that law; no; that is not the righteousness according to knowledge. The righteousness according to knowledge is by a knowledge of God who is able to do that which if we do on our own we are attempting an impossibility. Just look at your past life, where you can say nothing good about yourself. No matter how hard you try, you don’t keep it the way God wants you to keep it. There has to be another way. So He says something very important in reference to this covenant, which is basically enlarged in Ezekiel:

By the Water of the Word

Ezekiel 36:24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do [them].

I will cause you; your righteousness will be of Me. The keeping of the law in your hearts will be My work, He says. We are here speaking of the God who can do it. But consider verse 25, because we want to know how God is going to do it so we can actually understand. He says: I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. What has water got to do with it? I can sprinkle myself; the Catholics actually sprinkle babies, don’t they? What difference does it make? What is He speaking of? “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and I will give you a new heart.” In the following passage the apostle is speaking of Christ, who gave Himself for us, His church,

Ephesians 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

To be holy is to keep the commandments perfectly. So what is meant by the water which He said He would sprinkle us with? He will wash us in the water by the word. He has connected the water and His word as one item. He is going to sprinkle what upon us to cleanse us? His word. And this is the way it is written in Deuteronomy 32. It says that His doctrine will fall upon us like the rain, like the former and the latter rain, as the dew distils upon the grass. The water, the word, will fall upon us and it will do its work. So in our work of gaining the keeping of the commandments, it is His word that is effective to that end. The water that is connected with the word produces something.

1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed [not of dirty water], but of incorruptible [by clean water], by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

The word. So for me to come to the keeping of God’s commandments, which are also God’s word, there are other aspects of God’s word that God has told us produce and provide the condition that we are to be in – righteousness. The word of God is the word that produces; it creates. How did God bring this planet into existence? How did He bring life and human beings onto this planet?

The Creative Power of His Word

Psalm 33:6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. … 9 For he spake, and it was [done]; he commanded, and it stood fast.

In our quest of understanding that the righteousness that is going to get me to heaven is to be the keeping of the commandments, we are now touching the most important segment of this message. How do we get to the position of perfect commandment-keeping, perfect righteousness? The most important part of this meditation is not only to know that I have to keep the commandments, but to know how it is going to happen that I am going to keep these commandments. If God’s word is so powerful that it creates, why is not this whole world righteous? Why doesn’t God just say to the whole human race, Be righteous; and it happens? Why not, if His word is so powerful? The apostle Peter helps us to understand this:

1 Peter 1:24 For all flesh [is] as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

The inspired suggestion here is that, if God’s word is going to create the keeping of the commandments in us, it will come to us by the word. God can present the word to every dead person and create life. This is what God can do. In the book of Ezekiel He tells the prophet to go and preach to the dead bones; and as the prophet does so, the dead bones start to form bodies; and as he continue to preach, the bodies shape up; and then he preaches again, calling the wind of the Holy Spirit, and the bodies come alive. The gospel is the word of God that creates the keeping of the commandments of God in the heart – the preaching of the word by the gospel. God in the beginning created by speaking into existence all that we now see in the universe. From what source did He speak it into existence? Was there anything there?

Something Out Of Nothing

Hebrews 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

What does that mean? They didn’t exist. God spoke and something that you didn’t see appeared. This is how God created in the beginning. But now He has before Him human beings that you can see, sinful intelligences who aren’t keeping His law, people bereft of holiness. If they try to keep His law they are attempting an impossibility. Before, He was speaking to the elements; it is written that He brought the elements together, things that are not seen. He brought them together and then you could see them. In that situation there were inanimate objects unseen that God was bringing together and bringing into existence. But now He is looking at sinful humanity, and His word must create something in them that isn’t there. Let us see how that word is to produce something in regards to the keeping of the commandments.

Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

So here is an object in front of God, a human being, who is an intelligent entity, and he is struggling around in the darkness of his inability to keep that law. He is attempting an impossibility; and God now has to verbalise to that person to produce righteousness. And His word is going to produce it. This sin-sick specimen, palsied in righteousness, can’t do it; he is just like the man at the pool of Bethesda. The palsied man at the pool was trying to get into the water because the water was supposed to heal every one who first walked into it. Here is this palsied man who is a symbol of us, and how can he come to keep those commandments? This is the whole issue. How will this person arise to keep God’s law?

Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Then he reemphasises the palsied condition:

Romans 7:25 …So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

What a hopeless case. “I’m not really succeeding.” So this is the example for us to study:

The Palsied Man

Jesus comes to the sick man lying on his mat, and He says, Wilt thou be made whole? This arrested the man’s attention.

Hope came to his heart. He felt that in some way he was to have help. But the glow of encouragement soon faded. {MH 83.1}

How many times has that happened to you? You think, “Oh wonderful, I can get somewhere now;” and then it all crashes down in your mind, “I’ve failed so many times already.” So it was with him.

He remembered how often he had tried to reach the pool, and now he had little prospect of living till it should again be troubled. He turned away wearily, saying, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.” {MH 83.1}

Here is the fallacy of the pharisaical effort to reach perfection. And the genuine person will recognise, I’ve tried that so many times before, it doesn’t work.

Jesus bids him, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” Verses 6-8. With a new hope the sick man looks upon Jesus. The expression of His countenance, the tones of His voice, are like no other. Love and power seem to breathe from His very presence. The cripple’s faith takes hold upon Christ’s word. Without question he sets his will to obey, and, as he does this, his whole body responds. {MH 84.1}

Every nerve and muscle thrills with new life, and healthful action comes to his crippled limbs. Springing to his feet, he goes on his way with firm, free step, praising God and rejoicing in his new-found strength. {MH 84.2}

Here is now the lesson:

Jesus had given the palsied man no assurance of divine help. The man might have said, “Lord, if Thou wilt make me whole, I will obey Thy word.” He might have stopped to doubt, and thus have lost his one chance of healing. But no, he believed Christ’s word, believed that he was made whole; immediately he made the effort, and God gave him the power; he willed to walk, and he did walk. Acting on the word of Christ, he was made whole. {MH 84.3} 

Did you pick up the lesson? The Spirit of Prophecy now brings it out:

By sin we have been severed from the life of God. Our souls are palsied. Of ourselves we are no more capable of living a holy life than was the impotent man capable of walking. Many realize their helplessness; they are longing for that spiritual life which will bring them into harmony with God, and are striving to obtain it. But in vain. In despair they cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?” Romans 7:24, margin. Let these desponding, struggling ones look up. The Saviour is bending over the purchase of His blood, saying with inexpressible tenderness and pity, “Wilt thou be made whole?” He bids you arise in health and peace. Do not wait to feel that you are made whole. Believe the Saviour’s word. Put your will on the side of Christ. Will to serve Him, and in acting upon His word you will receive strength. Whatever may be the evil practice, the master passion which through long indulgence binds both soul and body, Christ is able and longs to deliver. {MH 84.4}

Have you found yourself bound to certain attractions which you know are not doing you any good but you can’t come out from under that? Christ is able and longs to deliver.

He will impart life to the soul that is “dead in trespasses.” Ephesians 2:1. He will set free the captive that is held by weakness and misfortune and the chains of sin. {MH 84.4}

The sense of sin has poisoned the springs of life. But Christ says, “I will take your sins; I will give you peace. I have bought you with My blood. You are Mine. My grace shall strengthen your weakened will; your remorse for sin I will remove.” When temptations assail you, when care and perplexity surround you, when, depressed and discouraged, you are ready to yield to despair, look to Jesus, and the darkness that encompasses you will be dispelled by the bright shining of His presence. When sin struggles for the mastery in your soul, and burdens the conscience, look to the Saviour. His grace is sufficient to subdue sin. {MH 85.1}

It is the word, the water by the word. Jesus spoke, and the man arose. This is the object lesson. But there is also another object lesson on this, that of the impotent man who was let down through the roof of the house where Jesus was.

Christ and the Paralytic

The Pharisees were here questioning the words Jesus had just spoken to the paralytic, Thy sins be forgiven thee; but

Fixing His glance upon them, beneath which they cowered and drew back, Jesus said, “Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins,” He said, turning to the paralytic, “Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.” Matthew 9:4-6. {MH 76.4}

Then he who had been borne on a litter to Jesus rose to his feet with the elasticity and strength of youth. And immediately he “took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.” Mark 2:12. {MH 77.1}

Interesting language. Christianity has never seen it in this fashion.

It required nothing less than creative power to restore health to that decaying body. The same voice that spoke life to man created from the dust of the earth, had spoken life to the dying paralytic. And the same power that gave life to the body had renewed the heart. {MH 77.2}

Remember? I will give you a new heart, God says; I will place My law in your heart. That is the same power.

He who at creation “spake, and it was,” who “commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:9), had spoken life to the soul dead in trespasses and sins. The healing of the body was an evidence of the power that had renewed the heart. Christ bade the paralytic arise and walk, “that ye may know,” He said, “that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins.” {MH 77.2}

So when Jesus says, Your sins are forgiven you, what must you do with that? Recognise that He is the Creator who speaks and it is done; recognise that He is speaking to you and it is up to you and me whether we are going to take those words and let them into our hearts. Because if I will act on the word, trusting Christ’s word, trusting the power of creation, I move forward, and it will happen because God’s power creates. But did you notice? It required the listener’s response. The reason why God can’t make this whole world righteous, is because He speaks to them but they don’t respond. They don’t really take in God’s word as a creative power in their soul. But as we read before, the person who is in communion with Christ listens to His word and acts upon it. This is the all-important thing. In communion with Christ every word of God is life-giving. I must have that relationship with Christ, that trust in Him, that walk with Him, trusting Him to be the person who He is; not trusting my own abilities, because it will be impossible for me to achieve His righteousness this way. I am going to trust Him, I am going to walk with Him, and have communion with Him. What did Jesus say to the devil when he came to tempt Him? “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Are we doing that? Am I taking every word that God speaks and living by it, like the paralytic or the palsied man did?

The Entrance of Thy Words

This is a beautiful answer to our whole quest:

The soul that converses with God through the Scriptures, who prays for light and opens the door of his heart to the Saviour, will not have evil imaginings, worldly scheming, or ambitious lust after honor or distinction in any line. He who seeks for the truth as for hidden treasure will find it in God’s means of communication with man, His word. David says, “The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” This does not mean those who are weak in intellect, but those who, whatever their position, have a true sense of their need of conversing with God as did Enoch. The word of God will ennoble the mind and sanctify the human agent, enabling him to become a co-worker with divine agencies. {MM 124.1}

The word will enable us to become co-workers with divine agencies.

The elevated standard of God’s holy law will mean very much to him, as a standard of all his life practice. It will mean holiness, which is wholeness to God. As the human agent presses forward in the path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in, as he receives Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour, he will feed on the bread of life. The word is spirit and life, and if it is brought into the daily practice it will ennoble the whole nature of man. There will be opened to his soul such a view of the Saviour’s love as portrayed by the pen of Inspiration that his heart will be melted into tenderness and contrition. {MM 124.1}

What is required for this to happen? A relationship with the things that are written in the Bible, the Man Christ Jesus. That will make the entrance of His words meaningful. Who only will benefit from God’s creative word? If we want to benefit from God’s creative word, this is what we need to do – open our hearts to it.

The physical, mental, and moral powers are the endowments of God, and are to be appreciated and cultivated. {RH, November 9, 1897 par. 5}

This is ours; we have physical, mental, and moral powers, which are God’s endowments, and are to be appreciated and cultivated.

We are here on probation, in training for the higher life. All heaven is waiting to co-operate with those who will be subordinate to the ways and will of God. {RH, November 9, 1897 par. 5}

What are they waiting for? For human beings, for you and I, to cooperate with the word that is creative. They are waiting for beings who are subordinate to the ways and will of God. Are we? In every respect? This is where we have to come – to the point where whatever God says I will be subordinate to in my relationship with Jesus. And as I am subordinate to it, God will give me the ability to do something which I cannot do because my passions, my palsied, sinful condition won’t allow me.

God gives grace, and he expects all to use it. He supplies the power if the human mind feels any need or any disposition to receive. {RH, November 9, 1897 par. 5}

The power is in the word. But why aren’t people benefitting by it? There needs to be a disposition to receive it, like the palsied man did.

He never asks us to do anything without supplying the grace and power to do that very thing. All his biddings are enablings. {RH, November 9, 1897 par. 5}

Because they are creative. And if my heart is softened and subdued by the creative word of God, then the changes will take place. We are to live by every word and place ourselves under the ways and will of God.

So who only will reach perfection? Are we waiting for some power of God’s word, something to happen? Who only will reach it?

Cooperation for Perfection

The heavenly intelligences will work with the human agent who seeks with determined faith that perfection of character which will reach out to perfection in action. {COL 332.4}

We are to seek with determined faith that perfection of character which will reach out to perfection in action.

To everyone engaged in this work Christ says, I am at your right hand to help you. {COL 332.4}

It is a work, Jesus says, and I am there to help you.

As the will of man co-operates with the will of God, it becomes omnipotent. {COL 333.1}

What does omnipotent mean? All-powerful. Yes, as my will is affected by God’s word, as I surrender myself to it and act on it because my relation-communion is with Him, and as I cooperate with God, my will becomes omnipotent.

Whatever is to be done at His command may be accomplished in His strength. All His biddings are enablings. {COL 333.1}

Who then will benefit? The reason why there are so many professed Christians today who are not keeping the Ten Commandments, and who think that they are saved when they are not at all, is because they are not submitting themselves to God’s ways and God’s will; they are not taking hold of the power of the word that is to create in them a softened heart, to take away the stony heart, and to let the Lord write His law on the heart. All that doesn’t happen. God’s creative word must be taken in cooperation with His word.

Let us take all of God’s word in all its different variations. Whatever we do, whatever our ways are, if those ways are not God’s ways, let us read and listen to God speaking to us on the things that He is requiring of us; and it will sometimes seem like taking the very life-blood out of your veins; but it’s God’s will, and God can do it, as we trust in Him. He will do it. Let us exercise this. Let us exercise our effort in response to His biddings; and His biddings will become enablings. O not to forget this. In this age in which we are living, this seems to be so hard for people to embrace in their minds.

As we near the time when principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places will be brought into warfare against the truth, when the deceiving power of Satan will be so great that if it were possible he will deceive the very elect, we must have our discernment sharpened by divine enlightenment, that we may know the spirit that is of God, that we may not be ignorant of Satan’s devices. Human effort must combine with divine power, that we may be able to accomplish the closing work for this time. {2SM 15.3}

How clear do we need it? We are living in this dark time, when Satan would if possible deceive the very elect. How realistic this is. We are living under a fairy tale religion that Satan has bequeathed to the Christianity of today. “God can do it. Just wait, trust Him; He’ll do it. Believe in Him.” Magic? No. This is the terrible reality that we are living today, according to the statement. The powers and spiritual wickedness in high places will be brought into warfare against that truth. When the deceiving power of Satan will be so great that if it were possible he will deceive the very elect, what must we have? We must have our discernment sharpened. This is what we have been trying to do here, to have our discernment sharpened as to how I am going to truly keep those laws. We must have our discernment sharpened by divine enlightenment, that we may know the spirit that is of God, that we may not be ignorant of Satan’s devices. And this is the answer contrary to Satan’s devices:

Human effort must combine with divine power, that we may be able to accomplish the closing work for this time. {2SM 15.3}

And what is the closing work? That I will be perfect, that I will be righteous, that I will be among the 144,000 who have no sin. This is what it’s about. I pray to God that we will embrace this and be among that number who will take God at His word and act according to His creative word.

Amen.

(Illustration by Good News Productions, International, used under CC BY)