A desire to flee from the wrath to come is the very beginning of a genuine religious experience. No one can be justified, much less sanctified, without it.
If in every case this desire shows itself by the fruits above specified, then it must follow that the vast army of jewel-wearing, novel-reading, cigar-smoking, money-grasping professors of religion, with which the churches are filled, cannot possibly be in a state of salvation!
They have not attained to the first stage of a truly religious life. Many of them will say that they do not feel condemned for these things. But those same General Rules say that all these “we are taught of God to observe, even in his written word.
And all these “ye know his Spirit writes on truly awakened hearts.” Then it must follow that those who have no conscience on these matters are not awakened. Oh, what a need there is everywhere of doing thorough work for God!
–B.T. Roberts
Recent Comments