The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

The same temptation under which the professed Church fell was presented by Satan to
our Lord. The object was to seduce Him from His love for the Church, that was to be
redeemed by His own precious blood. That which was offered to Him was, "all the
kingdoms of the world and the glory of them." "All these things will I give thee if thou wilt
fall down and worship me," was the alluring prize set before our Lord by Satan. This very
prize that Satan offered was in God's due time to be given to Christ. But the Divine
program was that He should first suffer and then reign; that after He had suffered, He
should first for a time appointed, sit upon His Father's throne, "till His enemies be made
His footstool." The Savior, however, resisted the temptation: "Get thee behind Me, Satan,"
were His words. On another occasion, when He had spoken of His going up to Jerusalem
to be rejected and suffer death, Simon Peter, doubtless having the thought of a reigning
Messiah, and not understanding that He must first suffer, said to Him, "Be it far from Thee
Lord: this shall not be unto Thee." (Matt. 16:23.) The Savior recognized immediately the
old temptation, and resisted it with the same rebuking words, "Get thee behind Me,
Satan." Thus was the Savior true to His vow of consecration unto death, and true to His
Church, for whom He was to pour out His life's blood; thus "accepting a present cross and
rejection, instead of a present crown and dominion; choosing to be cast out by a world that
knew Him not, until after the 'times and seasons which the Father hath put in His own
power should be fulfilled' and the announcement made, 'The kingdoms of this world are
become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.'" Thus the prospective Second Adam
resisted the temptation, of the old serpent.
Pergamos yields to fatal temptation
The Church, which had passed through the terrible sufferings of the Smyrna period, was
now to have another, and in many respects a more severe trial--a test of her loyalty to her
Divine Master. It was at this time that the primitive hope, the Lord's Second Advent,
which had for some time been growing dim to the vision of many of the professed
followers of the Lord, suffered an eclipse, and even many of the true followers of the Lord
were, for a time at least, deceived by the Arch-enemy. The Historian Gibbon, in referring
to the effect the belief in Christ's Second Advent had upon His followers for two centuries,
said that "it was productive of the most salutary effects on the faith and practice of
Christians, who lived in expectation of that moment when the globe itself and all the
various races of mankind should tremble at the appearance of the Divine Judge." The
terrible persecutions which the Christians underwent in the long period from Domitian to
Diocletian had the effect of keeping alive this hope of the Second Advent; particularly was
this so on the part of the truly consecrated--"earthly disfranchisement making heavenly
citizenship more real and dear." When the political controversies and wars in the empire
were finally settled, and Constantine ascended the throne, the more perilous trial of peace
was encountered. Constantine, influenced largely no doubt by worldly policy, became the
patron of the professed Church of Christ, and sent forth an imperial decree that all
persecution, should cease. The true followers of Christ, for a time at least, enjoyed, with
the nominal Church, this cessation of persecution. Now came the great test: Would the
Church "endure the test of imperial patronage as she bore the test of imperial
persecution"? This was the chief test or trial that came to believers in Christ during this