Not to Draw Apart

No advice or sanction is given in the Word of God to those who believe the third angel's message to lead them to suppose that they can draw apart. This you may settle with yourselves forever. It is the devising of unsanctified minds that would encourage a state of disunion. The sophistry of men may appear right in their own eyes, but it is not truth and righteousness. “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; ...that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross” (Ephesians 2:14-16).3SM 21.2

Christ is the uniting link in the golden chain which binds believers together in God. There must be no separating in this great testing time. The people of God are, “fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord” (Verses 19-21). The children of God constitute one united whole in Christ, who presents his cross as the center of attraction. All who believe are one in Him.3SM 21.3

Human feelings will lead men to take the work into their own hands, and the building thus becomes disproportionate. The Lord therefore employs a variety of gifts to make the building symmetrical. Not one feature of the truth is to be hidden or made of little account. God cannot be glorified unless the building, “fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.” A great subject is here comprehended, and those who understand the truth for this time must take heed how they hear and how they build and educate others to practice.—Manuscript 109, 1899.3SM 21.4