Tradition must give way to the clear statements of the Scripture

This message came to me concerning Edom: Someone from Edom keeps calling to me, “Watchman, how much longer until morning? When will the night be over?” The watchman replies, “Morning is coming, but night will soon return (1 Thess. 5:1, 2, 5, 6). If you wish to ask again, then come back and ask.” Isaiah 21:11–12   The Bible unanimously declares that now is the time of salvation. In the Old Testament, on the basis of Israel’s redemption from Egypt, every succeeding generation was to respond in loving obedience to the laws issued at Sinai by God their Savior (Deut. 11; Ps. 95:7–8). The injunction “it is time to seek the LORD” (Hos. 10:12) was to be Israel’s perpetual desire.  In the New Testament, Jesus’ coming as the Messiah inaugurated “ the year of the Lord’s favor ” (Luke 4:19, 21). The time interval between the incarnation and the second coming appears symbolically as a jubilee year (Luke 4:19/Isa. 61:1–2; cf. Lev. 25:10), a time...

For Thou, O God, didst widen my heart,                but they straiten it with affliction                and hedge me about with darkness.            I eat the bread of wailing                and drink unceasing tears;            truly, my eyes are dimmed by grief,                and my soul by daily bitterness.            [Groaning] and sorrow encompass me                and ignominy covers my face.            My bread is turned into an adversary                and my drink into an accuser;            it has entered into my bones                causing my spirit ...