Pelajaran 10 _ Ahad 28 Ogos_

Sunday
August 28
“Son of Man, Have You Seen . . . ?”
Apostasy does not happen overnight; whole peoples do not fall away in a day, a week, even in a year. The process is much slower; a little change here, a little compromise there; a little less rigidity in order to keep up with the times or to be relevant or to fit better with the trends of society and culture. Bit by bit, step by step, and before long, a whole nation is doing things that, perhaps a generation or two ago, would have been looked upon in horror. Such was the fate of ancient Israel and Judah; such was the fate of early Christianity. Such can be the fate of any church, including ours, which does not carefully and jealously guard the sacred truths and practices given to it by the Lord.
Read Ezekiel 8. As you read, realize that all this was taking place in the sacred temple that the Lord had instituted, the very place where the Lord had promised to place His name. How could the people, the spiritual leaders, have fallen into such apostasy? What lessons can we learn from this?
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The secret sins, indulged by priests and elders, were the abominable and repulsive worship practices of their culture. Those who should have been leading God’s people in true worship were adapting that worship to the sinful and corrupt customs of their time and environment, thus bringing the abominations of the surrounding culture into God’s holy sanctuary. How ironic that only the coming of the Babylonian army would bring an end to the desecration of God’s temple, and then only by destroying it.
Carefully read Ezekiel 8:12. What kind of logic and rationale were these elders using to justify their actions? What might have led them to such false conclusions?
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These people must have turned so far away from the Lord that they believed that He did not see them or that He did not care about their practices. The Lord, who again and again showed His care, His nearness, and His desire for obedience, now was deemed to have forsaken the land? How careful we need to be, because sin will harden our hearts and poison our minds until we rationalize even the most horrific practices.

Kemurtadan tidak berlaku 'overnight'. Ia berlaku secara perlahan-lahan mengikut trend semasa.
Kita umat SDA adalah pembaharu (reformer). Namun, gereja kita juga perlahan-lahan ikut trend semasa. Kita dikenali sebagai penegak hukum ke-4 yang sudah diinjak-injak. Akan tetapi apa yang kita lihat sekarang, sudah banyak perubahan. Dahulu kita benar2 mengamalkan 'hari persediaan' kerana kebanyakan keperluan harian bukan mudah untuk didapati. Tetapi lihatlah sekarang, ramai yang taking for granted disebabkan keperluan asas mudah perolehi. Air tidak perlu diangkut, kayu api pun begitu juga. Semuanya mudah dengan wang. Tetapi sedarkah kita, zaman ini lebih ramai yang gagal menyediakan semua kerperluan sebelum Sabat kerana kelalaian (dan mungkin juga kebiasaan). Dahulu tiada kenderaan tapi anggota gereja tiba di gereja tepat pada masanya. Sekarang semua ada kenderaan tapi lambat pula.
Kita perlu bangkit daripada kelalaian ini...