In His all-knowing, all-seeing omniscience, God foresaw from the beginning the sons of Cain destined not to be saved, not because of their being predestined to be lost (God forbid) but because of their not obeying God to avoid destining themselves to self-destruction. Neither man on earth nor God in Heaven can save the millions of earth who, in one way or another, have made themselves impervious to “the gospel of Christ” which “is the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16), and thus have brought themselves under the condemnation of the law of God to suffer the destiny of the damned. While the gospel is the power of God unto salvation “to every one that believeth” (Rom. 1:16), it is damnation to all who destine themselves to be lost and destroyed. “All are by their own choice deciding their destiny.”-PK 536:2.
“What the people [who believe unto salvation] want is instruction. What shall I do that I may save my soul?”-CWE 25:2.
What must each do to save his soul? In each succeeding generation, countless brothers and sisters of Abel have found salvation, by grace through faith, in obedience to the requirements of “the present truth” (2 Pet. 1:12). By the power of Divine grace, Abel through faith built and placed all on the true altar of worship; Noah “found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8) in building the ark; Abraham, in quitting Ur, and upon Mount Moriah; Moses, by forsaking all and obediently using his rod; the Apostles, by taking up their cross and following Christ; the early Christians, by accepting martyrdom; the Reformers, by faithfully bearing the progressive truth committed to them; E. G. White, by a life of consecrated ministry in bearing reproof, rebuke, and instruction in righteousness; V. T. Houteff, undaunted by years of relentless opposition from the angel(leader) of Laodicea, by unflinchingly heralding through the Rod of God the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and now the developing 144,000 first-fruit servants of God, by hearing the Rod, by sighing and crying for all the abominations, and by following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
(If you want to know the writings of V. T. Houteff, just click below and search or try it(1 John 4:1). But if you like to continue in reading this articles just go forward. ==>Micah 6:9 (By V. T. Houteff).
Never have the terms of salvation, bringing one “into the bond of the covenant” (Ezek. 20:37), been static, but ever only in overcoming by grace through faith, and thus by retained justification-the imparted righteousness of sanctification by obedience to the present truth.
Look at my friend, the penitent thief on the cross: Not only was he instantly justified by his instant faith, he was sanctified by his continuing faith that retained justification moment by moment till his last breath, last heartbeat, last thought. Had at any moment his faith faltered and failed, justification would have fled, and sanctification-salvation, would have been lost.
The present truth for this poor dying thief, insofar as we can perceive and reasonably infer, was simply to know and accept Jesus Christ and Him crucified, He was spiritually and emotionally slain with the all possessing, all-consuming conviction that the dying man next to him, Jesus of Nazareth, dying as He lived as never man lived or died before, was truly the Christ, the very Son of God.
Though writhing in the throes of dying, wonder-working grace piercingly fixed his attention, opened his eyes, fired his brain, melted his heart, stabbed his conscience, and flooded his soul with conviction, supreme faith, love, and peace. Where sin did abound, grace did now much more abound unto justification unflawed, retained, sanctified.
So passionate and all-pervading, so saturated and awash with grace, was his soul, that his fast-flowing, cascading stream of mentation, perception, and emotion was overflowing with whole-souled penitence, and with profound acceptance and adoration of Christ his Saviour. The electrifying currents of wonder-working grace, “the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16), had purged him of the carnal mind, the old man, the servant of sin, and begotten in his totally renovated, regenerated soul that “mind,., which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). That overwhelming, transforming consciousness of Divine Love and Mercy so charged his soul as to sustain unwavering, unfaltering, perfect faith and thus unbroken, retained, saving justification.
A life abounding in sin had nailed him to the cross. An eternal moment infinitely more abounding in grace had f-reed him from condemnation justified him through the imputed righteousness of Christ-his title to Heaven, then sanctified him through the imparted righteousness of Christ-his fitness for Heaven. Sin put him on the cross, grace in the covenant took him down and put him in the Kingdom to come. Lawlessness in his being made him a sinner; grace in the covenant made him a saint-a truly born-again son of God.
To the other poor thief, dying in excruciating pain, with calloused, unrepentant heart saturated with sin, hatred, and fear, destined to perdition by his own determination, the Gentle, Merciful One, Who, stretched out beside him in the nameless, suffering grief of God-forsakenness, longing to save him, was but another malefactor like himself; while Jesus’ death-friend, dying with Him, expired with his being flooded with depthless sorrow and love and hope and peace.
What was his destiny?—Eternal glory! And how attained? Through unwavering faith in the perceived Present Truth to him that his dying Friend beside him Was indeed the Son of God.
How vibrates your soul with the dying of the three on Calvary? You and I–DESTINED—how and for what?
M.J Bingham, Bashan Tidings, January 14, 1985, pp.12, 13.