The picture shown above is misleading.

Jesus did not exercise judgment by physically beating people. You will find absolutely no record of that in the story. But our carnal reasoning puts in that kind of interpretation because we naturally tend to think that flesh is the greatest force.

Matthew 21
¹² And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves.

How did He cast them out? It doesn’t exactly say. But we tend to read into it what our flesh counts as the only effective force: carnal strength.

But in the kingdom of God, flesh counts for nothing:

2 Corinthians 10
⁴ The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

Any man who has struggled against sin, and tried by will power, promises, resolves, self-denials, and personal torments, to overcome sin, knows in himself that these fleshly methods all fail in the end. But simple surrender and unyielding faith, prevail.

The patriarch Jacob, after many long years of consequences, learned to forsake his fleshly ideas and schemes to further God’s work. He returned to the land of promise under God’s direction, but was concerned about his brother Esau, whom he had unjustly tricked out of the birthright many years before.

As he prayed during the night, he felt the touch of an unknown person, and assuming it to be an assailant or robber, wrestled with him. Though he believed himself to be trusting God’s power wholly, his actions in this case revealed that there was still some confidence in his own ability to deliver himself.

So the divine visitor allowed Jacob to struggle. Finally, as the daybreak came, the Angel touched his thigh and it was immediately crippled. Jacob finally realized he was wrestling with a divine agency, and clung to him, pleading his great need:

Genesis 32
²⁶ I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.

He refused to relent, and because he came in the right attitude, as one feeling his desperate need, and seeing help in none other but God, he was blessed. At that point, Jacob knew he was safe against his brother. If God was with him, no earthly power could work against him.

The Christian battle is spiritual. It is a fight against unbelief and the sin which flows from it, and must be won within the human.

1 John 5
⁴ This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

A man who has nothing between himself and God, is secure to do whatever God wills. He cannot be overcome so long as he maintains his trust in God, and obedience to God’s commands. He wins others to God’s kingdom not by physical force or fear, but by bringing them the same experience of inward victory that he has experienced. The power which attends him is the power of the Holy Spirit, who convicts people of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8).

We have already noted that with the fall of the fourth world power, there was a change in the pattern of the rise and fall of nations. A single sovereign state ruling the world was to give place to miscellaneous strong and weak powers as symbolized by the mixture of iron and clay.

Daniel 2
⁴¹ Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay.
⁴² And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.
⁴³ As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.

Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p. 360
We need not, and cannot, expect union among the nations of the earth. Our position in the image of Nebuchadnezzar is represented by the toes, in a divided state, and of a crumbling material, that will not hold together.

What an accurate picture that is of the state of the nations since the fall of the last power to rule the world, the Romans. We note that this situation remains despite the repeated attempts on the part of men to unite themselves under a single head. In their aim to achieve these restorations of single world powers, various devisings have been employed. Alliances and treaties have been drafted and signed into law. Some have attempted union through marriage, and others have used military might. Every one of them represents man’s attempt to build a stable, enduring world empire in which its citizens will hopefully find peace and prosperity. Each in turn was a failure. The mixture of iron and clay points to the human efforts by which men will attempt to achieve this objective.

However, the iron and clay have a double symbolism. They not only represent the nations, they also represent the mingling of churchcraft and statecraft.

The S.D.A. Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 1168-1169
We have come to a time when God’s sacred work is represented by the feet of the image in which the iron was mixed with the miry clay. God has a people, a chosen people, whose discernment must be sanctified, who must not become unholy by laying upon the foundation wood, hay, and stubble. Every soul who is loyal to the commandments of God will see that the distinguishing feature of our faith is the seventh-day Sabbath. If the government would honor the Sabbath as God has commanded, it would stand in the strength of God and in defense of the faith once delivered to the saints. But statesmen will uphold the spurious Sabbath, and will mingle their religious faith with the observance of this child of the Papacy, placing it above the Sabbath which the Lord has sanctified and blessed, setting it apart for man to keep holy, as a sign between Him and His people to a thousand generations. The mingling of churchcraft and statecraft is represented by the iron and the clay. This union is weakening all the power of the churches. This investing the church with the power of the state will bring evil results. Men have almost passed the point of God’s forbearance. They have invested their strength in politics, and have united with the papacy. But the time will come when God will punish those who have made void His law, and their evil work will recoil upon themselves.

• Covered Sin
• Churchcraft and Statecraft

For a long time we have emphasized that the difference between modern theologies all the way through the Protestant, Adventist and Brinsmead camps and our own position, is that while they teach that the old nature remains, we believe that firstly there must be the cleansing away of the old nature and then the infilling with the new. In their theology, they receive the new as a covering over the old.

Now, there appears in the Australasian Record, of August 9, 1976, the official organ of the Australasian Division of Seventh-day Adventists, an article entitled Joshua and the Angel. We cannot of course have any quarrel with the article because it is copied from the pen of inspiration. The original text can be found in Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 467 and onwards.

What does catch our attention though, is the presence in the middle of the text of an illustration in which Christ is pictured placing a beautiful white mantle around a man still wearing his very filthy garments. In another moment the man will be covered so that all that will be seen from the outside is the beautiful robe, while underneath, the dirty garments are still closest to the man.

This picture is inserted there to illustrate the message of the article, but it is the denial of what the prophet Zechariah and Ellen White wrote. The Scripture says,

Zechariah 3
⁴ Take away the filthy garments from him.

That is the first work done for the pleading sinner. The command cannot be misunderstood. It is impossible for this to be obeyed and, at the same time, for the filthy garments be left on the man. Yet this is precisely what the illustration portrays by leaving the original garments on him and wrapping additional garments over the dirty ones. The Scriptures then proceed to say,

Zechariah 3
⁴ Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.

There is sufficient in this sentence to make the point clear without having previously stated that the filthy garments were firstly to be taken away from him, so that he had them no more. The sufficiency is found in the words, “change of raiment.” It does not say, “I will give you an additional garment,” but that there would be a change of raiment. Everyone knows that when one changes his raiment, he firstly takes off the ones already being worn and replaces them with other clothes.

For the illustration to have been a true one of the words contained in the Scriptures, it would have shown the filthy garments being carried away by an angel, or perhaps laid in a heap at the sinner’s feet while the new garment took the place of the old. Only such a picture as this would have correctly illustrated the message of the text which reads,

Zechariah 3
4 Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him He said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.

WHAT DOES THIS PICTURE ILLUSTRATE?

…THIS…

Zechariah 3
⁴ Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.

…OR THIS…

Matthew 23
²⁷ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited, sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

We stand amazed at the blindness manifested by the human mind once it has rejected the truth. Here is the plain text which states that the filthy garments are taken away, and right beside it an illustration purporting to accurately depict and make ever clearer the message of the article, but showing the very opposite.

We wonder how this could be, yet, there it actually is. It is truly incredible.

Not only does this article illustrate the nature of modern gospel theology, but it shows too the prevailing tendency of man to make the ways of God the same as the ways of men. In all our study of the character of God, we have seen over and again that the misconceptions of God have arisen because man thinks of God as if He were a man. When they think of God’s wrath, they think of man’s wrath; of God as a Judge, His vengeance, punishing, destroying, sending trouble and disaster and so on, they think of Him in all these things as they know man to be.

Now here in the matter of dealing with the sinfulness of man, they again have God doing what they do. This is a sin for which the Lord reproves as the Scriptures say:

Psalm 50
²¹ These things thou hast done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

What is the way of man in regard to sin? His practice is to be filled with sin within and then to cover it all up with a pleasing exterior. He carefully chooses the darkness of the night and of secrecy to do his evil deeds while he represents himself as being virtuous and trustworthy without. This is the way of man and it is well known to us all. Jesus made His comment on this when He spoke thus to the Pharisees:

Matthew 23
²⁷ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited, sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

Those Pharisees were the epitome of false religion. No better illustration for it could be found than these men. Outwardly as you looked upon them, you could see only fine clothes and manners and the representation of purity and virtue, but underneath it all was every kind of evil. That is man’s way in the world of life and religion, but it is not the way of God. When men teach that Jesus wraps His beautiful robe of righteousness to cover the evil and the deformity underneath, then men are presenting God as being the same as man in his evil ways.

Such a religious concept is to be shunned and avoided. It is not of God but of the evil one and the end thereof is death eternal.

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