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Lawrenceburg SDA Church

P. Gerard Damsteegt

Our Heritage of Truth

Thank you very much for the privilege of sharing here something that is close to my heart.

You know, if you go back here to the time of the Pilgrim Fathers, you're very glad that they came here and established this country of ours.

However, behind their coming is even much more, an old heritage of faith.

And Today, I'd like to reflect upon our heritage of truth, because 1 of the reasons that they came here was because of what?

It was the Church of England, at that time was very close to what church?

And if those who wanted to follow their own conviction, wanted to worship, you know what I mean, their liturgy, all the names and the Bible text.

But all the processes, the customs were very much Roman Catholic.

He said, hey, listen, I mean, we have a whole service based on Protestant words, but it seems as if we are in a Roman Catholic Church.

And so they had the Puritans, the Puritans said, no, we need to have exactly, not only the words, but also the practices need to be in harmony with the Word.

And then there are some that said, no, no, no, we don't get our permission.

We are separating ourselves and we have our own church service.

And they were called the separatists or the congregationalist.

And so they had no opportunity to in England so they went to Holland.

And they thought that is a country where it is freedom.

Yes, there was a freedom, and still a certain extent.

They realized that after a number of years, the children imitated the Dutch children.

And they said, oh my, if this continues like this, we lose our identity.

And so they went on a ship and they went back to England.

And then they look for another ship, the Mayflower, and where did it bring us?

So you can see now behind all those Protestants, they were reformers.

Luther, Calvin, Swingly, you know, John Knox, all of them there.

Now we go here to the events before Jesus returned.

Turn to 2nd Thessalonians, the first verse.

Second Thessalonians, second chapter, first 1.

Now here the Apostle Paul has a strong warning.

And let us just analyze what he says here.

Because those are all events before Jesus coming.

Now brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord, and I'm reading from the New King James, our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.

Let no 1 deceive you by any means, for the day will not come until what?

The falling away comes first, and the man of Sin is revealed, the son of perdition.

And not only that, but you know, about this son of perdition in verse 4, who opposed and excels himself above all that is called, what?

God or mate, or that is worshiped so that he sits as God in the temple of God.

The temple of God, you know, is the church.

So here is a power that comes in the church, showing himself that he's God.

He thinks he can do the same things as God.

And then in verse 5, do not remember, do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told him, do you these things?

And you know now what is restraining that he may be revealed in his own time, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

And only he who now restrains will so do so until he's taken out of the way.

And then the lawless 1 will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth." Wow!

Now at that particular time there is a power that stops him, but when the power is taken away, then he triumphs.

See, so there's something that is at work in Paul's day and goes all the way to what?

And so let us just see here our observations.

First of all, before the second advent there will come an apostasy.

Secondly, the man of sin is a power that opposes God by claiming the rights of the power of God and supreme obedience, wow, that must be a blasphemous power.

Paul's time, a power restrained the man of sin.

So he's not yet there, but it is already at work.

And it was not until this restraining power was taken out of the way that the man of sin would be fully revealed.

The man of sin would continue until the second advent.

And so that is now the projection in the future.

Now what do you think the early Christians believed about this?

Okay let's see here the view of the early Christians in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th century.

See, they didn't know about the papacy because it wasn't there.

This must be the 1 that is against Christ.

He opposes God and acts in the place of God.

So that is what they were looking forward to it.

Little horn of Daniel 7 and the harlot of Revelation 17.

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Our Heritage of Truth

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