Some of you no doubt have read the experience of Eddie Rickenbacher during World War II.  As he took off from an island with some very sensitive military information, one of the navigational instruments was not properly secured, and it fell off onto the floor of the airplane.

The crew did not think too much about it, but when that happened, that instrument was not properly calibrated any more.  As a result, several hours later, when they were supposed to be at their destination, they were not there.  They were over the open Pacific Ocean, and they only had about three hours of fuel left.

So, they flew the four directions of the compass.  They flew for 45 minutes in each direction.  Even though they were going between 200 and 300 miles an hour, so they had covered hundreds of square miles, they could not sight any land.  They ran out of fuel and had to ditch the plane in the Pacific Ocean.

They wrote a book about their experience called, We Thought We heard the Angels Sing.  They were in eight-foot rafts on the Pacific Ocean for 24 days before they were rescued.  That is a very vivid illustration about what can happen when you do not have proper navigational instruments.

If you have been in the major airports and watched pilots or copilots of the airlines coming and going, you may have noticed they always have a catalogue case that they carry with their other roll-on luggage.  That catalogue case has all kinds of charts and plates and associated things like that, so if they are in an emergency situation, they could take appropriate action.

I have been on airplanes when they had a few emergencies.  One time I was on an airplane going to Dallas, Texas, from California; my daughter was with me.  There was a thunderstorm in Dallas, and they had to close down the airport where we were supposed to be going.  They told us we would have to wait to land, but the pilot said we did not have enough fuel to wait for that long, so we would have to go to another airport.

In a pilot’s catalogue case is an approach plate for every single airport in the United States, so if you have to fly somewhere that you are not planning to fly, you have an approach plate and know how to land there.  In this situation, we went to Lubbock, Texas.

It is very important that we have charts, that we have navigational tools, so we know where we are going.  I want to read to you about the importance of this.  I have entitled my few remarks to you Without Chart or Compass,

because that is the way that Ellen White described it.  She wrote, “Spiritual death has come upon the people that should be manifesting life and zeal, purity and consecration, by the most earnest devotion to the cause of truth.  The facts concerning the real condition of the professed people of God, speak more loudly than their profession, and make it evident that some power has cut the cable that anchored them to the Eternal Rock, and that they are drifting away to sea, without chart or compass.”  Review and Herald, July 24, 1888.

That is the way that Rickenbacher was out there in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  He did not have any compass; he was there in a raft, and he just went wherever the wind blew him.  He did not know where he was; he did not know where land was; he did not know where he was going; he did not know if he was going to live or not.

And this is the picture that Ellen white draws of God’s people.  Can you imagine something more depressing?  If you are on an ocean and you have no chart and the cable that is to anchor you to the eternal rock has been cut, you are just drifting along.

Before we look into this, let us see what the different symbols mean.  First of all, what is the cable?  We read from the Spirit of Prophecy that “The Lord has taught us how safe is the cable that anchors us to the living Rock.  Here is an opportunity to labor for those who have truth on some points, but who on other points are not safely anchored.”  Ibid., June 18, 1908.  What is it that anchors you?  It is a knowledge of the truth.  If you have a knowledge of the truth, that knowledge anchors you.  Your anchor is within the veil, Paul says.  (Hebrews 6:19.)

What is the chart?  “The Lord has preserved this Holy Book [the Bible] by His own miraculous power in its present shape—a chart or guidebook to the human family to show them the way to heaven.”  Selected Messages, Book 1, 15.  The Bible is a chart, a guidebook to show you the way to heaven.

What is the compass?  Ellen White wrote, in 1885, “The faith of the believer is like the ship’s compass . . . .”  (D. A. Delafield, Ellen G. White in Europe,  Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington, D.C., 1975, 28.)

So the chart is the Bible; the compass is the faith of the believer in the Bible.  The Bible does not do you any good if you do not have faith in it.  It is like if you have a map and you say,  I am not sure if that map is right or not.  Is that map going to do you any good?  No!  It is not going to do you any good at all.

Now, what do people do when the cable is cut, and they do not have an anchor, a chart, or a compass?  People say, We have a chart.  Yes, the whole Western world has a chart.  But you see the chart does not do you any good if you do not have a compass, if you do not believe in it.

What do people do when the cable is cut and they do not have an anchor or a compass?  Well, they think that the solution to their problems is to develop an alliance, a partnership with those who do not hold to present truth.  Now a church or any religious organization that is anchored to truth, that is following the chart, that has implicit faith in God’s Law and His instructions, will never do any thing like that because God’s Word forbids it.

Does God’s word forbid His people to develop alliances with unbelievers?  Does the Bible have something to say about this?  It has a lot to say about it. For instance, II Corinthians 6:14–18 or James 4 talk about not forming alliances or yoking with those non-believers in the truth.  In present truth, God is going to have a people that will not be linked up with unbelievers.  They are called, it says,  “they are called, and chosen, and faithful.” That is the way they are described in Revelation 17:14.  God is going to have a people like that. 

These people are not part of Babylon.  They are not yoked up with the three-fold union of Babylon described in Revelation 16.  They are not part of the beast in Revelation 13.  But, my dear friends, unfortunately the great majority of God’s professed people in the last days are going to become part of these international, worldwide organizations and eventually become part of Babylon.

Everyone that goes along with the coming Sunday law will most certainly become, by that very act, a part of Babylon, no matter what their name is.  And remember that the mark of Antichrist will come in more than one form.  It will be very deceptive.  People will be told that they are keeping the fourth commandment, if they receive the mark of Antichrist.  You can already read that, by the way, in an encyclical letter that was written by the Pope, in 1998.  They are teaching that, and people believe it, if they are not studying their Bibles.

Now I want you to notice the clear warning that Isaiah gave about what is happening today among God’s people.  Isaiah 8:9–20 says, “Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.  Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God [is] with us.  For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all [them to] whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.  Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and [let] him [be] your fear, and [let] him [be] your dread.  And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.  Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.  And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.  Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me [are] for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.  And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?  To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, [it is] because [there is] no light in them.”

Notice several main points in this Scripture. 

1.  The Lord says, Listen and take all the counsel you want to take; you are still going to be broken; you are still going to be destroyed.  Why? because God is not with them.  The cable has been cut, and they do not have a chart.  They do not have a compass.  They are disregarding inspired writings.

2.  The Lord says, Do not walk in the way of this people.  What people?  The house of Israel, His professed people.  He says do not walk the way they are walking.  Why?  Because God’s people are saying we need to confederate with somebody who is more powerful than we are.  They say that we need help; we need to confederate with somebody; we are not powerful enough ourselves.  So they went to Syria in the north to get help.  It is recorded in Isaiah 7 and 8.

They went to Egypt to get help from the south.  They went to the Philistines to get help from the west, and they worshiped the sun in the east.  But they did not seek to Jehovah, so He said, Do not walk in the way of this people.

3.  Verse 14 says that the Lord was going to be for a snare, a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence to the two houses of Israel, for a trap.

What is a snare?  What is the trap?  The trap is the idea that you can have success if you will join with Antichrist or with spiritualism or if you allow yourself to join up with so-called Protestants who are willfully disobeying the Law of God.  Remember Babylon in the last days has three parts: spiritualism, the Antichrist power, and those who profess to be God’s people, but they are called a false prophet.  They are willfully disobeying God’s  Law.

4.  If you take the snare, if you walk into the trap, what is going to happen to you?  You are going to fall; you are going to be broken; you are going to be snared.  You are going to be taken, captured.

5.  What is the answer to these things?  It says, in verse 16, “Bind up the testimony.”  What does the testimony have to bind up?  That is the testimony of the prophets, the testimony of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of Prophecy.  “Bind up the testimony, seal the law.”  What is the seal in the law?  It is the fourth commandment.  “Among my disciples,” it says, “I will wait for Jehovah, who hides His face from the house of Jacob.  I will wait on Him.”

6.  The sixth point in this passage of scripture is to avoid the trap of spiritualism.  The trap back then was a three-fold temptation, and the trap today is a three-fold trap.  Remember Babylon has three parts.  What were they afraid of and entangled with?  Well they were afraid of the ten tribes; they were afraid of Syria; they were entangled with spiritualism.

Look at verses 19 and 20.  “When they say to you, ‘Seek the soothsayers,  those that invoke the dead, and the wizards, those that have the spirit of divination, should not our people seek their God rather than the living unto the dead.”  Verse 19.

7.  Verse 20 tells the only way that you can be anchored, if you do not want the cable cut between you and the living Rock, and you want to be anchored.  It says, “To the law and to the testimony!  If they do not speak according to this word, there is no light in them.”  That is where we should be getting our counsel.  Where are we getting our counsel today? 

I will never forget, in 1984, I was teaching in Southwestern Adventist College.  I went to Washington D.C. because the American Dietetic Association was having an annual convention there.  When I went to the convention, I stayed with my brother in his house; he was pastoring a church in the Washington D.C. area at the time.

Right at that time he was starting a Prophecy Seminar.  They had advertised.  They had sent flyers all over this area, and they had made the arrangements to have this Prophecy Seminar in the cafeteria of a large Seventh-day Adventist hospital in the Washington, D.C. area.  I was there in the cafeteria when they had the first meeting.

However, after they had the advertising all out, you know what happened?  The chaplain of this hospital said that they could not have meetings like this in the hospital.  Why? Because during the meetings the people would be told what the mark of the beast is.  In other words, the Three Angels’ Messages were going to be preached.  I said that I thought that is what Adventists are about.  I thought that is what we are supposed to do—tell people the Three Angels’ Messages.  They said no, that will hurt our image in the community.

After they had given the permission, this chaplain was successful in getting the permission withdrawn and forced the meetings out of there.  After the first night they had to transfer to the church.

Where are we getting counsel today?  Let us just look at the counsel that we are getting.  I have some printouts from the web site of Adventist Health System Midwest Region, and here is the counsel we are getting.  It says, “The Pull of Magnet Therapy.”  Do you know what Sister White says on that?  If you do not, you better study it out.  Then the next one is about Feng Shui for health and energy.  That is the Chinese method of health.  If I read to you some of these things, you would be aghast.  It is all about sympathetic remedies.  Again, in my opinion, it is just a form of spiritualism.

Then we go to the next printout from their health system, and this is on the practices of curanderismo.  What is that?  Well it is, it says, unusual by the traditional standards of Western medicine.  For instance, for the “Eye of the Drunk” [defined as “an illness that affects already weak or malnourished children between two and 12 months of age.  Caused by the gaze of an admiring person—perhaps a drunk or someone who has an astigmatism in their eyes—who ‘has the desire to hug and hold the child but does not carry through with the desire,’ the disorder results in an imbalance in the child’s normal thermal state.”  Cosentino, Barbara Williams, “Harmony and healing: the practices of curanderismo,” http://www.ahsmidwest.org, cited July 29, 2003.], it says the recommended treatment is “lifting the baby nine times in the air, hugging her, applying two crushed leaves of the herb rue to the forehead, then making the sign of the cross, followed by a bath in sugar cane liquor and a healing incantation.”  Ibid.

How do you like that?  Would you like for your child to be treated like that?

The curandera believe that their power to heal comes from a divine source.  Now these are professed divine healers, supposedly with divine energy being channeled through their bodies, which enables them to facilitate health and well being of others.  That is how they are going to tell you how to get well, from the Adventist Health System Midwest Region.

Here is a whole section on biofeedback.  We will just skip over that, and go to the next section, which is visualization.  Visualization is the belief that we can create our own realities in the physical world by creating images in the mind.

And then the last one we will look at quickly.  This is “Indian medicine: holistic healing through Ayurveda.”  Ibid.  Now if you look at this section on Indian medicine, it says recourses: Chopra.com.

Now let us go to that web site, and here is something you find out from this organization.  (Remember this is where the Adventist Health System Midwest Region web site is referring you.)  It says, “I would like to share with you the first of our video series, which will give you the opportunity to look through the window of science into a deeper reality and discover that we are all members of the same Being.”  http://www.chopra.com, cited July 29, 2003.  Does the Bible teach that?  The Bible teaches exactly the opposite.  We are not all members of the same being.  This is pure spiritualism.  You see, what Isaiah said in Isaiah 8:19, 20 is very applicable today.

Now here is another web site information.  Here is a publication that is published officially by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.  I want to read to you what the church’s official position is on something.  The official position, according to this publication by the General Conference, is that the followers of Christ should manifest true Christian modesty in dress and deportment and should shun all questionable amusements such as the theater and dance.  Okay, so we say that we are against the theater and dance.  Are we really?

Here is information from another web site about the Walla Walla College drama.  There are pages and pages about this.  I will read you just this paragraph.  “This year marks the fortieth year of drama at Walla Walla College.  Drama at Walla Walla College has since expanded [that is since 1961] to include two full-length stage productions and a student generated Festival of one act each school year.  The communications department now offers a drama minor, and a drama major is being developed.”  (See http://wwc.edu.)  According to this you are going to be able to get a major in drama at Walla Walla College. Can you imagine such a thing?

When I was a boy, I was taught in the Seventh-day Adventist church that drama was of the devil and that Adventists did not have anything to do with it.  We were forbidden to ever go to a theater.  There have been some big changes!  We could look at a lot of other things, such as what we are doing with clowns and puppets and our new ways of witnessing.

I recently opened the May 2003 Adventist Review North American Division to the center spread.  There I read a whole list of hospitals, one of them being Porter Adventist Hospital, and it says these are a part of Centura Health.  The whole center spread is about these hospitals that are a part of Centura Health.  Who is Centura Health?  Let us go to their web site and see who they are.

Centura Health’s web site says, “Centura Health is a joint operating agreement formed in 1996 between the Sisters of Charity Health Services Colorado, now part of the Catholic Health Initiatives, and the PorterCare Adventist Health System.  These two faith-based organizations have separately served the residents of Colorado for more than 100 years.

“The two health systems came together after realizing they could better fulfill their missions of serving the healing ministry of Jesus Christ by combining their strengths and resources.  It was the first joint venture in the country between two different religious-based health care systems and continues to thrive as one of the most successful.”  http://www.centura.org, cited July 29, 2003.  That is advertised in the centerfold of the May 2003 Review.

Now I have some questions to ask you.  Let us get to the point.  Let us ask some really serious questions.  Let us think.  Number one, who are you?  Do you believe that you are a part of the remnant people of God in this world, as described in Revelation 12:17 and Revelation 14:6–12?  Do you believe that?  Are you part of these people?  The next question is this.  If you believe that you are a part of this people, then do you believe in getting the Three Angels’ Messages out to all the world?  Do you believe that?  Then the third question is this: Do you know who Babylon is?  Do you believe that the remnant people of God are to call people out of Babylon?  Do you believe that?  Here is question number four.  Do you believe that you can yoke people with Babylon and call people out of Babylon at the same time?  The people that publish this magazine evidently do not believe that, because they have this as the centerfold.

Let me ask another question.  Do you believe that God’s remnant people can yoke up with those who believe completely contradictory doctrines and still finish God’s work?  Do you believe that?  Evidently some people believe that!

By the way, if you look at what they teach and what they believe, they have not changed.  They teach what they believe.  The Adventists have changed their religion; the Catholics have not.  Just read their material.  They still believe what they have always believed.  In fact, they are going back to what they believed even before Vatican II.  And they say they want to get back to the roots of Catholicism. They are not even accepting the liberal ideas that came in Vatican II.

Question number six.  Do you realize that the same history of the church that occurred between 313 and 538 a.d.—that was the time when the great compromises in Christianity were made, when Babylon was formed—are being repeated on a worldwide scale right now.  That is evidence of it right there [in the Review]; it is in the centerfold.  It is a compromise when people of completely opposite doctrines say, “Yes, we will work together.”  And let me tell you, when that happens, the church never converts the world; the world converts the church.

What happened as the result of that, by the way?  There was 1,260 years of Babylonian captivity of God’s true people, and that is where we are headed again.  We are headed toward the final Babylonian captivity of God’s people.  It is an inevitable consequence of this kind of goings on.

Question number 7.  Do you want to be a part of the loud cry described in Revelation 18:1–4?  Would you like to be part of it?  (That is God’s final invitation of mercy to our lost world, and it is also a warning.)  If you do, do you realize that you cannot link up with any of the three divisions of Babylon and be used of God to call people out?

Can you link up with any of the three divisions of Babylon?  They say that they are going to teach you how to be healed by magnets; they will teach you about Chinese healing, about the positive, the yen and the yang.  That is what that was all advertising.  They are going to teach you about Indian therapy, where you lift a baby up in the air nine times and crush some leaves and put it on their forehead and put the sign of a cross and have an incantation then give them a bath in liquor.

Can you link up with that spiritualism, and still be used of God to call people out of that?  I will never forget, when I was a pastor in North Dakota, I had a church member who was on the local public high school board of the town near his farm.  He was telling me about an experience he had there one time.  They had a rule at this school (this was a long time ago) that the high school students could not smoke cigarettes on the school grounds.  They were having trouble with a boy smoking, so they got together and they singled out my friend to go and talk to this boy, to get him straightened out.  My friend told me that he started looking around, wondering why they wanted him to do this.  Why?  He was about the only one there that was not a smoker.  Here is all of the school board, and they want to enforce this rule that the students cannot smoke on the school grounds, but they had to ask my Adventist friend to do it because he was not a smoker!  If he said it, it would have some weight.  How can you tell someone, an 18-year-old, not to smoke, when you have a cigarette in your mouth?  How can you do that?  See?  It makes sense does it not?  They asked the right person.  There was only one person to ask to try to fulfill the rule.

Can God allow me to have a part in the final invitation of mercy found in Revelation 18:1–4?  It is a call to come out from the dragon—that is spiritualism.  Come out from the beast.  Come out from the Antichrist power.  Come out from the false prophet—which are Protestant churches that claim to believe the Bible yet deliberately break the Law of God.  These are the three divisions of Babylon in the last days.  And the Loud Cry is a cry to come out from that.  Read Revelation 18.  Can God use me to call someone out?  I say to a brother, “God wants you to come out,” and they say to me, “You are yoked up with them.”  Would that be a very affective call?  No!  Do you want to be part of the loud cry?  If you do, do you realize that you cannot be linked with any of the three divisions of Babylon and be used by God to call people out?

 You cannot tell somebody else to come out from Babylon, when you are linked up with Babylon.  You cannot tell somebody else to flee from Babylon when you are yoked up with it.  You say, Oh, I am not part of Babylon, I am an Israelite.  But you are yoked up with it.

Question number 8.  Do you realize that God requires accountability of His people?  The more light we have, the more accountable we are going to be held up to be.

Question number 9.  What is the Adventist Message?  The Adventist Message is not a message to yoke up with any form of spiritualism, with any form of the Antichrist power, or any form of the false prophet.  The Adventist message is not a message to yoke up.  It is a message to come out, and I cannot invite some body to come out unless I am out.

I worked with an evangelist who told me that the Roman Catholic Bible does not say to come out.  It says “go out!”  Very interesting is it not?  That is true.  Check it in the Confraternity Version.

Question number ten.  We must not participate in the sins, in the activities of Babylon.  We have people telling us, “Oh, Pastor John, it is really not wrong.”  Well let me ask you a question.  Let us take drama for instance.  If it is not wrong now, then all of our pioneers—including Ellen White—were mixed up.  You have to come to that conclusion.  She told the ministers they are not to have a thread of anything having to do with drama in their work.  She forbid the ministers to even have a theatrical style in their preaching.  (See Evangelism, 207, 640.)  If it is alright, then all of our pioneers up to at least the 1950s were wrong.

E. A. Sutherland started Walla Walla College in 1890.  But the very first time they had a theatrical play at Walla Walla College was in 1961.  If that is such a good idea, it that is the way to finish the work, why did it take 70 years to figure out that that is what we should do?  The reason it took so long was that all the pioneers at Walla Walla College said, “That is wrong,” and they would not allow it.

I was on the faculty at Southwestern Adventist College when this was debated there in the 1980s.  I was there when the vote was taken.  I watched the debate, and it was clearly stated, by a man from the Theology Department whom I knew very well, that what they were getting ready to do was contrary to Adventist teaching, and it was contrary to the Spirit of Prophecy.  They decided to do it any way.

If we participate in the sins of Babylon, going directly contrary to what God has told us to do according to Revelation 18:4, what else of Babylon are we also going to participate in?  The plagues!

 I want to tell you that when the plagues fall—Ellen white says they will not be universal, but let me tell you it may look like they are universal for a while.  (See The Great Controversy, 628, 629.)  It is going to be the worst scourges that have happened in this world ever.  Ibid.

And finally, when the plagues fall, they will fall on every communicant of Babylon, and every person that has not fled from Babylon will have a part in her destruction.

In closing here are some statements from the Spirit of Prophecy for your encouragement.

“The mighty shaking has commenced and will go on, and all will be shaken out who are not willing to take a bold and unyielding stand for the truth and to sacrifice for God and His cause.”  Early Writings, 50.

“In the days of the Reformation, the gentle and pious Melancthon declared, ‘There is no other church than the assembly of those who have the word of God, and who are purified by it.’ ”  The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, 237.

In 1889, Ellen White wrote, “I was confirmed in all I had stated in Minneapolis, that a reformation must go through the churches.  Reforms must be made, for spiritual weakness and blindness were upon the people who had been blessed with great light and precious opportunities and privileges.  As reformers they had come out of the denominational churches, but they now act a part similar to that which the churches acted.  We hoped that there would not be the necessity for another coming out.  While we will endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace, we will not with pen or voice cease to protest against bigotry. . . .”  Manuscript Releases, vol. 11, 229.

Does the Spirit of Prophecy predict that there might be a time when there might be a coming out?  We just read it.  Now people have said that that is the only time she ever mentioned that.  No, that is not the only time.  She predicted that there was a time coming in Adventism when the wheat and the tares were going to pull apart from each other.  She predicted that.  (See The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 995.)  I am told that the wheat and the tares are going to stay together right up to Jesus’ Second Coming.  No, that is not what Jesus taught.  Just read the parable carefully (Matthew 13).  Ellen White did not teach that either.

I want to read you the prophecy that she predicted that is happening, I believe, right now.  She says the wheat and the tares are going to pull apart.  Here is what she said: “I see perplexities on every side.  As character develops man and woman will take their position, for varied circumstances brought to bear upon them will cause them to reveal the spirit which prompts them to action.  Every one will reveal the character of the bundle with which he is binding himself.  The wheat is being bound up for the heavenly garner.  The true people of God are now bound up for the heavenly garner.”  The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 995.

If we had time to read the context of this, you would see it is a prophecy.  It is not talking about something that was happening in her day.  Now notice what she says happens: “The true people of God are now pulling apart, and the tares are being bound in bundles ready to burn. Decided positions will be taken.”  Ibid.  Have you taken a decided position on these things we talked about?  I hope so; if not, I hope you take a decided position, because if you do not, she says you will be shaken out.

“Satan will move upon minds that have been indulged, upon men who have always had their own way, and anything presented to them in counsel or reproof to change their objectionable traits of character is considered faultfinding, binding them, restraining them, that they cannot have liberty to act themselves.  The Lord in great mercy has sent messages of warning to them, but they would not listen to reproof.  Like the enemy who rebelled in heaven, they do not like to hear, do not correct the wrong they have done but become accusers, declaring themselves misused and unappreciated.”  Ibid.

Later, in this same article, she writes, “Dark hours of trial are before the church because they have not obeyed the warnings and reproofs and counsel of God.”  Ibid., 1002.  We are going through those dark hours of trial right now that she said would happen.

She says, “The very men who through communications have been informed that they were out of place and in error in representing the voice of the General Conference president as being the voice of God.  For many years it has not been thus, and it is not thus now; nor will it ever be thus again, unless there is a thorough reformation.”  Manuscript Releases, vol. 17, 240.  That was written in 1901.

Has there been a thorough reformation since 1901?  No, there has not.

“Paul wrote to the Romans, ‘If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.’  But there is a point beyond which it is impossible to maintain union and harmony without the sacrifice of principle.  Separation then becomes an absolute duty.”  The Signs of the Times, March 22, 1910.

Here is the last one: “In His Word the Lord declared what He would do for Israel if they would obey His voice. But the leaders of the people yielded to the temptations of Satan, and God could not give them the blessings He designed them to have, because they did not obey His voice but listened to the voice and policy of Lucifer.”  Manuscript Releases, vol. 13, 379.  Now notice the next sentence; it contains a prophecy.  What happened to the children of Israel?  They did not listen to the voice of God; they did not obey.  They listened to the voice and policy of Lucifer.  She continues, “This experience will be repeated in the last years of the history of the people of God . . . .”  Ibid.  That is why we are seeing things like this.  Bare this in mind.  History is being repeated.  The perils that God’s people encountered in past ages they will encounter again intensified.  We are encountering it right now; we are going through a shaking worldwide that is intensified.  Unless you take a bold uncompromising stand for the truth, Ellen White predicts that you will be shaken out.

The reason I talk about this is because I do not want you to be shaken out, but you are going to have to study your Bible and see that the cable that connects you to the eternal Rock is not cut.  You are going to have to see that you have a Chart that you are studying and a compass that you are using.  This is necessary so you do not end up like Richenbacher ended up out in the Pacific Ocean, not knowing where you are and out of gas.

What is going to happen to you, friend?  Sometimes I have agony of soul and say, “Lord is there any way that every single member of our local church can be saved?”  I do not know; I cannot answer that question.  You have to answer that question.

Is every member going to be saved, or are some going to be shaken out?  You better pray about it.  You had better pray for yourself.  Say, “Lord, I do not want to be shaken out.”

When people are shaken out, they do not even know it.  You know what has happened in the past.  In 1995, there were people that were very staunch, who had stood for truth for years.  Then some things happened that they could not understand, and they got their feelings hurt, and they quit coming to church.  They have not been to this church since 1995.  My wife and I have visited them many times; my parents have visited them.  In fact, at my father’s funeral they came to us personally and said they were going to come back to church again.  Now my father has been dead for over three years, and they have not come to church yet.

I want to tell you, this is dangerous.  Friend, if you are discouraged, go to the Lord and say, “Lord lift me up that I do not get so discouraged about what I do not understand, so I do not just quit.”  If you just quit, you may lose your soul.

Do not say, “I am just going to heaven by myself.”  Where do you find that in the Bible?  Do you find that in the Bible?  That is not in the Bible.  You are not going to heaven by yourself, friend.  If you want to go to heaven, you need to be with the people of God, working together, preparing for heaven.  That is something to pray about.

I am not saying that to point a finger at anybody.  I am just saying that I do not want to see somebody that I love get lost.  I have seen it happen before.  I just described a couple that we love very much, and I would do anything in my power to help them to be saved.  But I cannot.  I am sorry for what they did not understand.  I do not know the future; they could still be saved—I am not saying they are lost.  Probation is still open, but they are not in a saved condition right now.  They are not ready to fulfill Revelation 19 right now.

Friend, do not let it happen to you.  Do not say, “Oh, it is so terrible.  That person did something so terrible, and he said something so terrible.  I just cannot stand this.  I am just giving up.”  If you give up, who loses?  You lose.  You lose your soul.