Child Salvation for the Childless
(Linda Rhoads)
Last year, my husband and I heard the child salvation message for the first time. To our amazement, we discovered the beauty of its application to everyone--the single, the newly married, those expecting the arrival of children, those with a young family, those whose little ones are no longer so little, and the childless. It was when we realized that child salvation is built on the establishment of the divine kingdom within individuals and families, that we saw its all-inclusive application to every believer in every situation. It is the answer to our earnest seeking for the fulfillment of Christ's prayer that we all may be one even as He and His Father are one. To be unified even as the heavenly Trio is unified is a very high calling and a truly elevated standard.
During the past year we have learned some wonderful truths. We have come to know the power and effectiveness of taking all our problems to the Almighty Problem-solver, and to use every disagreement as an opportunity to draw closer to each other. These effective, practical applications of the gospel are more than matched by the discovery that child salvation is meant for all the children of God, and is of perpetual necessity, for we are all His children forever.
We have learned to dig deeper, that two are better than one in making an acceptable confession. We have found that two minds in harmony can see the underlying spirit, or sad misconception that is causing the trouble, more clearly and more keenly than one mind in isolation. But most significant of all, we have gained more victories as adults becoming little children than there is space to tell.
Yet, in becoming little children in Jesus Christ, we still retain to some extent the role of the adult. This is necessary, for, only as we learn to successfully apply the principles of child salvation to the child that is ourselves, can we lead our natural offspring into the pathway of living victory. Thus the childless couple is not really childless, and needs the child salvation message as much as those who are blessed with children.
But we have also experienced frustration. We believe that there is a better way to train our animals than by the use of force as is usual among those who have not learned God's methods. We know that God's principles never change no matter what part of His creation He is dealing with. Yet, in our attempts to apply these principles in our dealings with these members of our family, we enjoyed initial success followed by what appeared to be total failure. A dear friend of mine advises me that she is having the same experience with her half-grown sons. She recently sat here in my living room questioning why this was happening and wondering what we are still doing wrong.
Picture: There must be a better way to train our pets than by the use of force.
So, what do we do? Do we let go of the message because of sight and circumstances? Certainly not! If we let go of child salvation, in a surprisingly short time we will let go of all the other truths that the Lord has given to us. This has to be, for child salvation is but the natural outgrowth of all that has gone before.
Child salvation is God's way of preparing the children for the kingdom. To give that up is to take on some other way, which is the act of rejecting the Sabbath Rest message. Every other way involves the use of force in one way or another. Anyone who identifies with the use of compulsion, denies the character of God, and accepts in His place the spirit and work of Satan.
What then do we do instead in order to successfully live up to this message?
The first precaution is to ensure that we do not give space to the slightest traces of unbelief. That is critical. Then we are to learn from our mistakes as well as from the truth.
So far, we have learned three great indispensable lessons from our failures. Firstly, we have learned to our chagrin how much of the spirit of the kingdom of force is still within us; how much we tend under pressure toward the old lie that might makes right. We have found that positive recognitions of the lurking evil must be followed by equally positive decisions to turn our backs on the attractive temptation to stamp out the rebellion by force, and walk in God's perfect ways. We see as never before, that, if we cannot learn to look away from the use of force under the relatively slight provocation of a disobedient child or animal now, when the threat of death is leveled against us we shall find ourselves looking for a superior counter-force to solve our problem, instead of resting in the Lord and His procedures.
Next we learned that the old habits and practices which were surfacing were not anger and the like, but frustration, self-preservation, and passions wrongly used. We found that trying to define the wrong spirit behind an animal's misbehavior, when he cannot advise you how he is feeling or the reasons for his repeating actions unacceptable to you, stretches one's thinking and analyzing powers enormously.
The third vital lesson learned is this: We have discovered that our animals and other people's children often mirror wrong spirits within ourselves. We found that when we expected our dog to wait patiently on the back seat of the car till we were ready to leave for the Sabbath services, he reached a limit to his patience. Becoming frustrated, he begins to tear things apart.
A careful examination of ourselves showed that we too were exhibiting a limited patience, that there came a point where our frustration was manifesting itself in words of impatience. We soon recognized a relationship between the appearance of this in ourselves and in the animal under our care. We have seen too that the children are very quick to mirror the mood and disposition of their parents. When we placed our problems in the sanctuary, our puppy's problems began to disappear. We are pleased that the Lord is able to show us ourselves through our children and animals.
I was especially interested to read in the August 31, 1985, issue of Child Salvation the question: "How then will the Lord bring forth the quality of person needed to stand successfully through the coming conflict with the powers of darkness without there being time for a generation with the proper start in life to grow to adulthood as Jesus did?" In the light of our failures, it seems that we have all wondered this. The answer impressed me.
"The answer to this question must involve the successful application of the child salvation message, though not necessarily the carrying through of it till the children reach maturity ... the Lord accepts our dedication to the task and our wholehearted entry into it as if we had gone all the way."
What this says to me is that we are not waiting for a race of superchildren but for ourselves to learn the mighty lessons involved in the child salvation message. By applying these lessons to our children, and our animals, and our relations to one another in families, and in this movement, we shall all grow up as children in the house of our heavenly Father.
We are the ones who are to become little children!
We are the ones who are to become one in our families and in this movement as Christ and His Father are one.
We are the ones who have been devoured by the locust of sin, to whom the Lord will restore all those years so that we shall be as if we had been born again from conception.
Yes! The message is for children!
But most of all it is for us!
