Practica Prophetica

BC – The Book of Ephesians

These are the complete studies from the camp meeting conducted by Fred Wright in Mission, BC, Canada, in 1988 (September 11 to September 17).

The main theme is a verse-by-verse study on the Book of Ephesians, although the first studies cover the topic of Importunate Prayer, and there are a few sessions devoted to a consideration of the use of killing in the sacrificial system (the Character of God), and a study on the topic of God as our Doctor.

About this camp, Fred later wrote (in the Messenger and News Review, October 1988):

The week’s studies opened with the consideration of importunate prayer, which reveals and emphasizes the need to pray so that we are changed to the point where every obstruction to the required answer has been removed and the capacity has been developed to receive the promised blessing. These principles were clearly seen and heartily accepted by all present.

We then moved on to the study of Ephesians, verse by verse and this too was well received.

One person was present to advance the view that, not the Lord, but Satan, authored the sacrificial system, and directed Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. The supposed logic of the argument is that God does not destroy, which is true enough so far. Therefore, it is claimed that, inasmuch as the sacrificial system involves much killing, God could not be the author of it.

The answer to this theory which is maintained in view of the many statements in the inspired word to the effect that God is the Architect of the sacrificial system, came through with force and clarity.

We saw that Satan indeed is the author of all killing, yet the Lord is the Author of the sacrificial system and He it was who instructed the Israelites to carry out the slaying of the animals. While this may appear to establish both Satan and God as killers, this is not so. To Satan alone this role remains.

What God did was to take something already existing, namely the ministration of death introduced by Satan, and then He used that to destroy the devil’s own work. Satan was both caught by surprise and enraged by this turning of his own work against him.

If this principle remains a little difficult to understand, think of it in other terms—the knowledge of good and evil. God was certainly not the author of the knowledge of evil, for it was Satan who introduced this into the universe, but He was the Author of the plan whereby the knowledge of evil is used to stamp out evil. Read The Great Controversy, 498-499. Throughout eternity, we shall study the nature of evil and its effects on both man and beast as a perpetual safeguard against the arising of this evil thing again. Thus He takes that of which He was never the originator, and turns it into an instrument designed by Him to destroy the very evil of which we have come to have the knowledge.

The same principle is true of the use He makes of the death of which the devil is the author. It is a masterpiece of divine problem solving which only the mind of the Infinite could have conceived and executed, and only the truly spiritually minded could discern and understand.

At this camp, Fred also experienced a miracle of healing from a sickness that threatened to keep him from conducting the studies. He writes:

I left Australia at the height of the annual winter influenza season very grateful that I had escaped the scourge unscathed, although there were people all around me who were afflicted by it.

But, on the Monday morning of the camp, I awoke with the plague really in command. My head felt like a football, my eyes were burning, and my whole body was in deep distress. To make matters worse, I knew that this was but the beginning. What was to follow would be far, far worse. It was clear that I would be bed bound for the remainder of the week. For me, camp was over.

But such a development was unthinkable. I had gone to great pains to make sure that I was traveling overseas at God’s command, and was sure that I was. I therefore knew that I had not come all that way to spend my time in a sick-bed in Canada.

So I addressed the problem to the Doctor, claimed His solution to the problem, laid hold of the blessing, and stepped forward by faith, knowing that the blessing would be realized when I needed it most–that is, when I stood to present the Bible study.

And so it proved to be. As I began the study presentation, the sickness faded away, and I never missed a study throughout the entire convocation. This may not seem so remarkable as you read it, but, believe me, it was a very real experience to me, and for it, I was truly grateful.

It was a repeating of the healing I experienced at the Bloemfontein camp, South Africa, in 1980.

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