Sabbath School Today, Volume 9 - Paul E. Penno

his advantage. This is the condition in which those must be found who shall
stand in the time of trouble. It is in this life that we are to separate sin from
us, through faith in the atoning blood of Christ. ... None can neglect or defer
this work but at the most fearful peril to their souls." [1]
At the prompting of Satan, Christ went through great trials and
temptations while on this earth, which intensified at the end of His life as He
went to the cross. This persecution of Christ continues in the person of His
holy people, and like Christ's life, will intensify at the end of human history.
But, God will seal His people so He can demonstrate to the angels and
watching universe that He can, through the mystery of the indwelling Holy
Spirit, write His law in their hearts and His law therefore can be kept.
This is the essence of the 1888 message. It is not through our own works
that we are perfected because God has "shattered" the power of His holy
people. It is entirely by faith that they are purified in God's refining fire.
After their faith is sealed, God's final judgments will fall in the form of
the bowl "plagues" of Revelation 16. These literal plagues have not yet
fallen, because they are declared to be the last plagues. They cannot fall until
the world has been warned, and the work of salvation has closed. And that
work cannot close as long as there is one human soul somewhere who will
yet respond to the Good News of the grace of Christ.
As long as the Holy Spirit has been working in the earth, judgments and
disasters have brought many people to think and to repent. But before the last
plagues can be poured out, the Holy Spirit will have been driven finally from
the earth by the rejection of the wicked. It will then be demonstrated that
troubles will not bring to repentance those who have rejected God's
goodness, for only "the kindness of God leads you to repentance" (Rom.
2:4).
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