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--- en:operating_principles:bible_sop:leave_the_city [2026/06/18 05:48] – created jpauldietrich
+++ en:operating_principles:bible_sop:leave_the_city [2026/09/21 23:58] (current) – jpauldietrich
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 ====== Leave the City ======
+===== The Call =====
+===== Dangers =====
+==== Environment of Temptation ====
+> A terrible picture of the condition of the world has been presented before me. Immorality abounds everywhere. Licentiousness is the special sin of this age. Never did vice lift its deformed head with such boldness as now. The people seem to be benumbed, and the lovers of virtue and true goodness are nearly discouraged by its boldness, strength, and prevalence. The **iniquity which abounds is not merely confined to the unbeliever and the scoffer**. Would that this were the case, but it is not. Many men and women who profess the religion of Christ are guilty. Even some who profess to be looking for His appearing are no more prepared for that event than Satan himself. They are not cleansing themselves from all pollution. They have so long served their lust that it is natural for their thoughts to be impure and their imaginations corrupt. It is as impossible to cause their minds to dwell upon pure and holy things as it would be to turn the course of Niagara and send its waters pouring up the falls. (2T 346.2).
+> There is **a power in the association of man with man**, and Satan uses this power for the carrying out of his principles. He strives to lead men to strive, as he did, for the supremacy, for preeminence, for recognition and power. Those who yield to these temptations will go over the same  ground that he did. He has cut himself away from God. He acts as though he were God to himself. He is his own king, his own ruler, his own sufficiency. Thus it will be with those who choose, as he did, to have their own way. (14MR 145.3).
+> As we near the end, **temptations will be stronger and more seductive**, but we need not yield to them, we need not open the door of the heart and  invite Satan to enter. There is no power in earth or hell to compel either of you to sin and dishonor your holy faith as you have done. (13MR 89.3).
+> Instead of the crowded city seek some retired situation where your children will be, so far as possible, shielded from temptation, and there train and educate them for usefulness. The prophet Ezekiel thus enumerates the causes that led to Sodom's sin and destruction: “Pride, fullness of bread, and  **abundance of idleness** was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.” All who would escape the doom of Sodom must shun the course that brought God's judgments upon that wicked city. (5T 232.3).
+> The cases mentioned are sufficient to show the **danger of corrupting the soul by mingling with God's enemies**. These examples are placed on record for the benefit of those who live amid the perils of the last days. The devices of Satan are no less now than in ancient times. Indeed, as we near the period of Christ's second coming, Satan redoubles his efforts to work with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. The youth especially are in constant and fearful danger of being overcome by his temptations. (ST July 1,  1903, par. 5).