Digging For Truth : Time of Probation (42)

Quotations from the writings of Ellen G. White with the phrase . . .

t i m e O F p r o b a t i o n ( 4 RELATED PHRASES )

The phrase 'Time of probation' appears 42 times in the published writings of EGW page not on Original site Related phrase: probationary time ( 204 ) - - period of probation ( )

Now, just now, is our time of probation, wherein we are to prepare for heaven. Christ gave his life that we might have this probation. But so long as time shall last, Satan will strive for the mastery over us. He works with power to lead men to become absorbed in money-getting. He invents many kinds of amusement, so that their minds may be engrossed with worldly pleasure. He would have them forget all about the inward adorning,—the adorning of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. He is determined that every moment shall be filled with efforts to carry out ambitious projects or to amuse and gratify self. He is determined that men shall find no time to study the Word of God, no time to realize that they have been bought with a price, even the blood of the Son of God. { RH March 10, 1904, par. 27 } and { HP 346.2}

The time of probation is given us that we may perfect a character fit for eternity. How solemn is the thought, parents, that your children are in your hands to educate and train that they may develop characters which God will approve, or characters which Satan and his angels can play upon as they choose! Jesus spoke from the pillar of cloud and of fire, and bade His people instruct their children diligently concerning the commandments of God. Who are obeying this instruction? Who are seeking to make their children such as God will approve? Who keep the thought in mind that all the talents and gifts of their children belong to God, and should be wholly consecrated to His service? { 1SM 318.4}

23 ( Genesis 15:16). Probation for the Nations — God is slow to anger. He gave the wicked nations a time of probation that they might become acquainted with Him and His character. According to the light given was their condemnation for refusing to receive the light and choosing their own ways rather than God’s ways. God gave the reason why He did not at once dispossess the Canaanites. The iniquity of the Amorites was not full. Through their iniquity they were gradually bringing themselves to the point where God’s forbearance could no longer be exercised and they would be exterminated. Until the point was reached and their iniquity was full, the vengeance of God would be delayed. All nations had a period of probation. Those who made void God’s law would advance from one degree of wickedness to another. Children would inherit the rebellious spirit of their parents and do worse than their fathers before them until God’s wrath would fall upon them. The punishment was not less because deferred (Manuscript 58, 1900). { 2BC 1005.6 }

But Satan flatters some, through his chosen servants, as he flattered Eve in Eden. Thou shalt not surely die, and tells them there will be a season for repentance, a time of probation, when the filthy can be made pure. The co-workers with Satan and his angels carry the light into the future age, teaching probation after the advent of Christ, which deludes the sinner, and leads the cold-hearted professor to carnal security. He is careless and indifferent, and walks stumblingly over the hours of his probation. The light is made to reach far ahead, where all is total darkness. Michael stands up. Instead of mercy, the deluded sinner feels wrath unmixed with mercy. And they awake too late to this fatal deception. This plan was studied by Satan, and is carried out by ministers who turn the truth of God into a lie. { 2SG 276.1 }

Vanity in dress as well as the love of amusement is a great temptation for the youth. God has sacred claims upon us all. He claims the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole affections. The answer which is sometimes made to this statement is: “Oh, I do not profess to be a Christian!” What if you do not? Has not God the same claims upon you that He has upon the one who professes to be His child? Because you are bold in your careless disregard of sacred things, is your sin of neglect and rebellion passed over by the Lord? Every day that you disregard the claims of God, every opportunity of offered mercy that you slight, is charged to your account and will swell the list of sins against you in the day when the accounts of every soul will be investigated. I address you, young men and women, professors or nonprofessors: God calls for your affections, for your cheerful obedience and devotion to Him. You now have a short time of probation, and you may improve this opportunity to make an unconditional surrender to God. { 3T 364.2}

The precious time of probation is passing, and few realize that it is given them for the purpose of preparing for eternity. The golden hours are squandered in worldly pursuits, in pleasure, in absolute sin. God’s law is slighted and forgotten, yet every statute is nonetheless binding. Every transgression will bring its punishment. Love of worldly gain leads to desecration of the Sabbath, yet the claims of that holy day are not abrogated or lessened. God’s command is clear and unquestionable on this point; He has peremptorily forbidden us to labor upon the seventh day. He has set it apart as a day sanctified to Himself. { 4T 147.2}

Your life has been a failure. You have been a stumbling block to sinners. They have said of you: “If the religion which this man professes is indeed genuine, why is he so eager after this world? Why does he not in his own conduct show the spirit of Christ?” Hasten, my brother, before it is forever too late, to remove this stumbling block from the way of sinners. Can you look with pleasure upon your life or upon the influence you have exerted? Will you now consider your ways? Will you now make efforts to come into right relations with God? I do not believe your heart is unimpressible, and I know that the loving-kindness and tender mercy of God are marvelous. You have a little time of probation; will you improve it now while Jesus is pleading His blood before the Father? He has graciously spared your life; but it has been like the barren fig tree upon which year after year there appeared no fruit, nothing but leaves. How long will you continue to disappoint the Master? Will you compel Him to say: “Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever;” or, “Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground”? Oh, wait not for the Lord to put His hand against you and scatter the property which you have accumulated. Remember that all your wealth will not give you one moment of sweet assurance and peace upon your dying bed. { 5T 352.1}

Do not feel that the worst thing for you is to lose your credentials. You are not worthy to be entrusted with the care of the flock. You must know this without my telling you. A little time of probation is still granted you; make the most of it in searching the Word. Every lost blessing is a great loss to you, but if you come into a right position before God you may now receive forgiveness for the past, but do not let your future life have the dark blot of the past.... { TSB 128.1}

Man sinned, and death is the penalty of sin. Christ bore the penalty, and secured for man a period of probation. In this time of probation we are now living. We have been given an opportunity to prove ourselves of value in the sight of Him who gave His only begotten Son that we should not perish, but have everlasting life. { TDG 137.5}

This life is our time of probation. We are placed under the discipline and government of God to form characters and acquire habits for the higher life.... We shall be subject to heavy trials, opposition, bereavement, affliction, but we know that Jesus passed through all these. These experiences are valuable to us; the advantages are not by any means confined to this short life; they reach into eternal ages.... All the scenes of this life in which we must act a part are to be carefully studied, for they are a part of our education. We should bring solid timbers into our character building, for we are working both for this life and eternal life. And as we near the close of this earth’s history we advance more and more rapidly in Christian growth, or we retrograde just as decidedly.... { TMK 117.4}

Time is valuable. Now is our time of probation. There is an eternity of bliss to gain a perdition to shun. Do not, my young friends, fritter away your God-given opportunities. Up to duty and to work for the Master! Many of you have lessons to learn that you have not yet dreamed of. The books of heaven reveal many things that you can have blotted from their pages by coming to God with a truly repentant heart, and exercising faith in the blood of Christ as the atoning sacrifice. The life that was once lived in the flesh must now be lived by faith on the Son of God. Lie low at the foot of the cross. Give God a chance to work, and He will teach you precious lessons. { BEcho October 15, 1893, par. 4 }

Time is valuable. Now is our time of probation. There is an eternity of bliss to gain, a perdition to shun. Do not, my young friends, fritter away your God-given opportunities by trying to accomplish your own desires. Up to duty and to work for the Master! Many of you have lessons to learn that you have not yet dreamed of. The books of heaven reveal many things that you can have blotted from their pages by coming to God with a truly repentant heart, and exercising faith in the blood of Christ as the atoning sacrifice. The life that was once lived to the flesh must now be lived by faith on the Son of God. You may now be passing through a critical experience; but, I entreat of you, be not hasty, be not discouraged, but submit your case to God. Wait upon the Lord and do his will, and in this hour of trial he will work for you, and you will obtain a precious experience. Lie low at the foot of the cross. Give God a chance to work, and he will teach you precious lessons. { RH February 2, 1886, par. 15 }

God has sacred claims upon us all. He claims the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole affections. The answer which is sometimes made to this statement is, “Oh I do not profess to be a Christian!” What if you do not? Has not God the same claims upon you that He has upon the one who professes to be His child? Because you are bold in your careless disregard of sacred things, is your sin of neglect and rebellion passed over by the Lord? Every day that you disregard the claims of God, every opportunity of offered mercy that you slight, is charged to your account, and will swell the list of sins against you in the day when the accounts of every soul will be investigated. I address you, young men and women, professors or non-professors. God calls for your affections, for your cheerful obedience and devotion to Him. You now have a short time of probation, and you may improve this opportunity to make an unconditional surrender to God. { BEcho September 19, 1898, par. 1 }

The precious time of probation is passing, and few realize that it is given them for the purpose of preparing for eternity. The golden hours are squandered in worldly pursuits, in pleasure, in absolute sin. God’s law is slighted and forgotten; yet every statute is none the less binding; every transgression will bring its punishment. Love of gain leads to desecration of the Sabbath; yet the claims of that holy day are not abrogated or lessened. God’s command is clear on this point; he has peremptorily forbidden us to labor upon the seventh day. He has set it apart as a day sanctified to himself. { RH June 9, 1885, par. 8 }

It is in this time of probation that we are to prepare either for eternal life in glory, or for perdition. It is here that we are engaged in the work of character-building; and if we succeed, we shall merit from the Master the welcome, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Christ has gone into the most holy department, and has left us word to watch and pray, lest he return suddenly and find us sleeping. The character which we are now making will come in review before God before Christ leaves the sanctuary. Here God will see what characters we have been building for time and eternity. How shall we stand before the great Eternal? How many sheaves will we have brought to the Master through our earnest efforts? { RH August 18, 1885, par. 9 }

When the wicked dead are raised from the grave, they come up with the tastes, habits, and characters that they formed in the time of probation. A sinner is not raised a saint, neither is a saint raised a sinner. The sinner could not be happy in the companionship of the saints in light, with Jesus, with the Lord of hosts; for on every side will be heard the song of praise and thanksgiving; and honor will be ascribed to the Father and the Son. A song will be raised that the unsanctified, unholy ones have never learned, and it will be out of harmony with their depraved tastes and desires. It will be unbearable to them. The apostle John heard this song. He says, “I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments;... And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.” It is impossible for the sinner to enjoy the bliss of heaven. { RH February 17, 1891, par. 5 } also { RH October 24, 1912, par. 5 }

David exclaimed, “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee!” Nothing is hidden from the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. When we realize the fact that our sins are all to be revealed in the day of Judgment, does it not make you tremble? No one but he whose heart is calloused with sin can reflect upon this terrible truth without serious forebodings. If we do not awake to repentance in this time of probation, and make our peace with God now, we shall awake to it when fear shall come like a desolation, when the cities of men, with all their splendid architecture, shall be overthrown, and the heavens depart as a scroll when it is rolled together. { RH September 22, 1891, par. 3 }

The has Lord graciously given man a time of probation in which to perfect a character for eternal life; but those who are selfish, those who exalt self by seeking to abase another, making the most of every mote and defect in his character, prove that there is a beam in their own eye which unfits them for an entrance into the abode of life. The principles of divine goodness must dwell in the heart, in order that pure, generous, kindly thoughts and actions shall be manifested in the life. Everything like secret working, like deception, like anxiety to discover a mote in our brother’s eye, like officious effort to remove the mote when a beam is in our own eye, is abhorrent to God. Until the accuser discovers the evil of his own heart, and feels sincere repentance for his sin, and makes confession of his wrong, he can have no clear vision to pull the mote out of his brother’s eye. It is easy to deceive ourselves, but we cannot deceive God, to whose ears smooth words and fair speeches, which are only pretensions to piety, are as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Unless the principles of heaven are in-wrought in the heart, all outward profession is pretension and deception. God measures every man’s piety by the character of his motives. In the prayer of Christ for his disciples he utters these words: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one [not biting and devouring one another]; as thou, Father, art in me, and I thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” { RH August 16, 1892, par. 8 }

The rainbow above the throne is the bow of promise, testifying to the whole world that God will never forget his people in their struggle against evil. Let Jesus be our theme. Let us by pen and voice present, not only the commandments of God, but the faith of Jesus. This will promote real heart-piety as nothing else can. While we present the fact to men that they are subjects of a divine moral government, their reason will declare to them that this is truth, that they owe allegiance to Jehovah, and that this life is our time of probation. In this life we are placed under the discipline and government of God to form characters and acquire habits for the higher life. All the scenes in which we must act a part, are to be carefully studied; for they are a part of our education, a part of God’s great plan. We should bring solid timbers into our character building; for we are working both for this life and the eternal life. And as we near the close of this earth’s history, we either rapidly advance in Christian growth, or we rapidly retrograde toward the world. { RH December 13, 1892, par. 9 }

God granted them one hundred and twenty years of probation, and during that time preached to them through Methuselah, Noah, and many others of His servants. Had they listened to the testimony of these faithful witnesses, had they repented and returned to their loyalty, God would not have destroyed them. But warnings made an impression on them only for a time. Christ was their atoning sacrifice, their Mediator, but they had no faith in Him, and His intercessions in their behalf were unavailing. As the time of probation drew nearer its close, the service due to God from them passed entirely from their thoughts; and the word went forth, “The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” { RH April 23, 1901, Art. A, par. 10 }

All truly converted souls will exercise repentance toward God, because they have broken his law. How carefully and tremblingly sinful Israel sought the pardon of God, and to be taken into divine favor. It was not merely form with this people, but earnest pleadings. Were there in our day visible manifestations of God’s wrath, and sudden retribution following crime as when the punishment fell so heavily upon Israel there would be less bold presumption and defiance of God’s law. Many continue in transgression, flattering their conscience that grace is so free and abundant that they will never be called to an account. But the great God is just as jealous of his law as in the days of Moses; though he bears long with perverse hearts he will surely bring to account all transgressors of his sacred law. God gave the wicked nations a time of probation. He would give them evidences of the power of the true and living God, that they might see and understand the superiority of the God of Heaven to their senseless idols. According to the light given was the condemnation. If they chose their own way before God’s ways, and their own wickedness before the righteousness of God, when the decision was fully made then God’s time had come to punish them. { ST June 3, 1880, par. 8 }

The future of God’s people lies in the present. He has given us a time of probation in which our fidelity to him is to be tested. It is now that the test is being applied. Time, strength, means, light, and mental abilities are intrusted to us. What use are we making of these gifts? How are we standing the test? Do we realize that our eternal welfare is determined by our present course of action? If we fail to honor God here by making a right use of our trusts, we would not honor him if taken to Heaven. If we prove unfaithful to the lesser responsibilities, how can God put upon us those weightier, eternal responsibilities which every inhabitant of Heaven must bear? In those who are cleansed and renewed, the fruits will appear, not only in their confession of sins, but in their conduct toward others. If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Christ gave himself a sacrifice to save perishing sinners. He consented to poverty because he could thus best reach the poor and the oppressed; he could thus best understand their privations and sorrows. It was his great love for our souls that led him to renounce the enjoyments of Heaven, and even the comforts of this life; and if we have his spirit in our hearts, it will be manifested in a similar earnestness to save perishing souls. The measure of Christ’s love that we possess, will be evidenced by the course we pursue. God is testing us to see whether we have chosen Christ or mammon as our master. His word plainly declares that we cannot serve both. { ST January 28, 1886, Art. B, par. 3 }

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Time of Probation (42)

t i m e O F p r o b a t i o n ( 4 RELATED PHRASES )

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