October 30: THE PURITY OF GOD’S WORD
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37
Sincere love for the God of all creation is the most intolerable affront to Satan’s rule upon the earth. During the long period of gloom that settled over the world known among Bible readers as a time, times, and half a time * or forty two months ** or one thousand two hundred and sixty days *** the truth of God’s Word was never extinguished. Though they occupy little space in the human historical record, the names and acts of God’s faithful are written in heaven.
The actions that accompanied their supreme love for God included honoring His Commandments. The refusal to bow down to images and the hallowing the true Sabbath were visible acts that were not to be tolerated by the Church of Rome. Men who cherished faith in Christ as the only mediator between God and man, and honored the Bible as the only rule for living were branded as heretics. The purity of their faith is a sacred legacy to the world. Our Lord has never left our world without witnesses.
It was standard policy of the Roman Church to obliterate any trace of opposition or dissent from her decrees and dogmas. Persons or writings deemed heretical were to be utterly wiped out. Papal councils convened over the Church’s record-keeping of her persecutions and cruelties toward dissenters; it was decreed that all such records were to be burned. Before the days of the printing press, this was easily carried out.
Even as one church after another across Europe fearfully submitted to papal supremacy, the two witnesses**** continued faithfully, clothed in sackcloth (Revelation 11:3). The true church of the wilderness (Revelation 12:6,14) held on to the primitive, apostolic faith. One example from the 600s: Rome had fixed her eyes upon Britain, determined to force submission to the pope. She “baptized” the barbarian Saxons into Catholicism and used them as leverage, sending the message: if you want to live in peace, you will declare allegiance to Rome, but if not, we will send you war!
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Jude 3
Your word is very pure; Therefore Your servant loves it. Psalm 119:140
*Daniel 7:25; 12:7; Revelation 12:14
**Revelation 11:2; 13:5
***Revelation 11:3; 12:6
****Two witnesses: a familiar name for the word of God, reflecting a dual nature found therein: the power to convict and the power to comfort. See Isaiah 8:20; Matthew 22:40; Luke 16:31; 24:27; John 1:45; Acts 24:14; 26:22; 28:23; Romans 3:21; Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12; the Old and New Testaments