Satan’s Attempt to Thwart Acceptance

Let us pause, for a moment here, to look at another side of the picture. Satan, the relentless opposer of every truth and provision of God, not only knows well these uniform operations of the past as regards the gift of prophecy,—such as have been traced through the pages of this volume,—but he has long known and hated God’s promised restoration of the gift to the remnant church. This bestowal by our heavenly Father was for the purpose of counseling, guiding, and steadying His loyal followers through the unprecedented perils and apostasies of the last hour.AGP 245.3

The archenemy of God is, alas, a keener student of divine prophecy than are most men—even many within the church. He knows and fears God’s power from of old. His is the fury of desperation. He uses this evil knowledge and long experience in an attempt to thwart the acceptance of God’s provisions, so far as lies within his power. This is attempted with the spirit of prophecy, for example, by anticipating its appearance according to promise, and producing preliminary counterfeits to deceive, if possible, the expectant ones. By extreme fanaticism and false manifestations, he seeks to disgust men generally, and thus to frustrate the purpose of the gift. In this way he causes disrepute to be cast upon all manifestations of the gift, true or false, andAGP 245.4

renders it difficult to credit the true when its appearance is made. It is his age-old scheme of opposition.AGP 246.1

Thus it came literally to pass in the days of the English advent movement. When the expectation of the Saviour’s appearance failed, a brilliant leader like Edward Irving, dissatisfied with the formalism of the nominal churches, and looking for the manifestation of the gifts, withdrew from the ecclesiastical body with which he had been connected. But he was faced with strange manifestations in his own congregation, so that he died in bewilderment and disappointment.AGP 246.2

But this enmity on the part of Satan, together with the object of his subtle attacks, and his final course of action, were not only all fully foreknown to God, but were foretold in prophetic outline for the knowledge and safeguarding of His people. Hence confusion or deception was neither necessary nor inevitable.AGP 246.3