The Safety of the Wilderness
TimeWatch Editorial
June 22, 2016
There is a text in scripture that for the most part has been ignored, or overlooked. That text is Revelation 12; 6 and 14. The identifier is the “Church in the Wilderness.”
Revelation 12:6 - And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days.
Revelation 12:14 - And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Benjamin George Wilkinson was born in 1872. His biography describes him as was a Seventh-day Adventist missionary, educator and theologian. He was also the Dean of Theology at the Seventh-day Adventist Washington Missionary College (now known as Washington Adventist University) which is located in Takoma Park, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. Wilkinson died in 1968. His book Truth Triumphant is a work that begins with the concept of the Church in the Wilderness.
“The Church in the Wilderness did not arrive at the truth by opposition to prevailing dogmas and heresies. Its faith was not a faith newly received. The religious beliefs of its members were an inheritance from the days of the apostles. To the men owe the preservation of the Bible. Contrary to almost universal belief, the Church in the Wilderness embraced the true missionary churches during the long night of the Dark Ages. It held aloft the torch of education while the rest of the world about it was falling into the darkness of ignorance and superstition. Its territory was not circumscribed. On the contrary, its influence penetrated into all parts of the known world.” Benjamin George Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, page 8
During the time of persecution, when the Papacy held dominant control, there was a church, a group of individuals who maintained their fealty to the truth and was the custodian of righteousness. Listen to how Wilkinson further describes the difference between the nominal and the apostolic.
“The history of nominal Christianity is the record of bitter theological controversies, and, at times, even of bloody encounters to achieve its aims; it is a record of incredible activity to secure political power. The history of the Church in the Wilderness is a stirring revelation of consecrated, evangelical labor in continent-wide leadership for the salvation of the hopeless and benighted. It did not, as its rivals did, claim intellectual logic in doctrine; it did not attempt to enforce its views by political cruelty. It severed all territorial and family ties which might have held it to the world and to the rapacious churches of empires, thus successfully preserving its scriptural doctrines and its apostolic organization.” Benjamin George Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, page 8
Wilkinson’s description of the church in the wilderness is profound. Not only from a theological standpoint does this church stand out, but its entire existence is based upon the example of the ministry of Christ and the apostles. Notice what the above paragraph says. “It did not, as its rivals did, claim intellectual logic in doctrine; it did not attempt to enforce its views by political cruelty. It severed all territorial and family ties which might have held it to the world and to the rapacious churches of empires, thus successfully preserving its scriptural doctrines and its apostolic organization.” The incredible protection that was provided by that church in the wilderness, at times today seems quite the opposite. We do not see that the persecution and ostracizing of that church, as harsh as it seems in retrospect, was in fact a wall of protection against the intrusion of error.
“The Church in the Wilderness, surrounded by savage tribes and battling against barbaric darkness, has been painted by its enemies without its victories. Driven often by opposition to mountain retreats, it was saved from the corrupting influences of ecclesiastical and political power. In many parts of the world, all the way from Ireland in the west to China in the east, there were centers of truth. The leaders in these centers were united in their desire to remain in the faith, and to perpetuate from generation to generation the pure truths of the gospel handed down from the days of the apostles. Their records have been systematically destroyed.2 Remoteness and obscurity, however, could not entirely conceal these heroes, because the fires of their persecution have continued to light up the scenes of their sacrificing labors.” Benjamin George Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, page 10
The safety of the wilderness has always been overlooked, and will be again, but God has certainly prepared a place for his church, his true church, those who have given themselves completely to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and to the task of declaring the Third Angel’s Message to the world.
Cameron A. Bowen
