Church

Reverence in the House of God

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To the humble, believing soul, the house of God on earth is the gate of heaven. The song of praise, the prayer, the words spoken by Christ’s representatives, are God’s appointed agencies to prepare a people for the church above, for that loftier worship into which there can enter nothing that defileth. From the sacredness which was attached to the earthly sanctuary, Christians may learn how they should regard the place where the Lord meets with His people. There has been a great change, not for the better, but for the worse, in the habits and customs of the people in reference to religious worship.

The precious, the sacred, things which connect us with God are fast losing their hold upon our minds and hearts, and are being brought down to the level of common things. The reverence which the people had anciently for the sanctuary where they met with God in sacred service has largely passed away. Nevertheless, God Himself gave the order of His service, exalting it high above everything of a temporal nature.

The house is the sanctuary for the family, and the closet or the grove the most retired place for individual worship; but the church is the sanctuary for the congregation. There should be rules in regard to the time, the place, and the manner of worshiping. Nothing that is sacred, nothing that pertains to the worship of God, should be treated with carelessness or indifference. In order that men may do their best work in showing forth the praises of God, their associations must be such as will keep the sacred distinct from the common, in their minds. Those who have broad ideas, noble thoughts and aspirations, are those who have associations that strengthen all thoughts of divine things. Happy are those who have a sanctuary, be it high or low, in the city or among the rugged mountain caves, in the lowly cabin or in the wilderness. If it is the best they can secure for the Master, He will hallow the place with His presence, and it will be holy unto the Lord of hosts.

When the worshipers enter the place of meeting, they should do so with decorum, passing quietly to their seats. If there is a stove in the room, it is not proper to crowd about it in an indolent, careless attitude. Common talking, whispering, and laughing should not be permitted in the house of worship, either before or after the service. Ardent, active piety should characterize the worshipers.

If some have to wait a few minutes before the meeting begins, let them maintain a true spirit of devotion by silent meditation, keeping the heart uplifted to God in prayer that the service may be of special benefit to their own hearts and lead to the conviction and conversion of other souls. They should remember that heavenly messengers are in the house. We all lose much sweet communion with God by our restlessness, by not encouraging moments of reflection and prayer. The spiritual condition needs to be often reviewed and the mind and heart drawn toward the Sun of Righteousness. If when the people come into the house of worship, they have genuine reverence for the Lord and bear in mind that they are in His presence, there will be a sweet eloquence in silence. The whispering and laughing and talking which might be without sin in a common business place should find no sanction in the house where God is worshiped. The mind should be prepared to hear the word of God, that it may have due weight and suitably impress the heart.

When the minister enters, it should be with dignified, solemn mien. He should bow down in silent prayer as soon as he steps into the pulpit, and earnestly ask help of God. What an impression this will make! There will be solemnity and awe upon the people. Their minister is communing with God; he is committing himself to God before he dares to stand before the people. Solemnity rests upon all, and angels of God are brought very near. Every one of the congregation, also,who fears God should with bowed head unite in silent prayer with him that God may grace the meeting with His presence and give power to His truth proclaimed from human lips. When the meeting is opened by prayer, every knee should bow in the presence of the Holy One, and every heart should ascend to God in silent devotion. The prayers of faithful worshipers will be heard, and the ministry of the word will prove effectual. The lifeless attitude of the worshipers in the house of God is one great reason why the ministry is not more productive of good. The melody of song, poured forth from many hearts in clear, distinct utterance, is one of God’s instrumentalities in the work of saving souls. All the service should be conducted with solemnity and awe, as if in the visible presence of the Master of assemblies.

When the word is spoken, you should remember, brethren, that you are listening to the voice of God through His delegated servant. Listen attentively. Sleep not for one instant, because by this slumber you may lose the very words that you need most—the very words which, if heeded, would save your feet from straying into wrong paths. Satan and his angels are busy creating a paralyzed condition of the senses so that cautions, warnings, and reproofs shall not be heard; or if heard, that they shall not take effect upon the heart and reform the life. Sometimes a little child may so attract the attention of the hearers that the precious seed does not fall into good ground and bring forth fruit. Sometimes young men and women have so little reverence for the house and worship of God that they keep up a continual communication with each other during the sermon. Could these see the angels of God looking upon them and marking their doings, they would be filled with shame, with abhorrence of themselves. God wants attentive hearers. It was while men slept that Satan sowed his tares.

When the benediction is pronounced, all should still be quiet, as if fearful of losing the peace of Christ. Let all pass out without jostling or loud talking, feeling that they are in the presence of God, that His eye is resting upon them, and that they must act as in His visible presence. Let there be no stopping in the aisles to visit or gossip, thus blocking them up so that others cannot pass out. The precincts of the church should be invested with a sacred reverence. It should not be made a place to meet old friends and visit and introduce common thoughts and worldly business transactions. These should be left outside the church. God and angels have been dishonored by the careless, noisy laughing and shuffling of feet heard in some places.

Parents, elevate the standard of Christianity in the minds of your children; help them to weave Jesus into their experience; teach them to have the highest reverence for the house of God and to understand that when they enter the Lord’s house it should be with hearts that are softened and subdued by such thoughts as these: “God is here; this is His house. I must have pure thoughts and the holiest motives. I must have no pride, envy, jealousy, evil surmising, hatred, or deception in my heart, for I am coming into the presence of the holy God. This is the place where God meets with and blesses His people. The high and holy One who inhabiteth eternity looks upon me, searches my heart, and reads the most secret thoughts and acts of my life.”

Brethren, will you not devote a little thought to this subject and notice how you conduct yourselves in the house of God and what efforts you are making by precept and example to cultivate reverence in your children? You roll vast responsibilities upon the preacher and hold him accountable for the souls of your children; but you do not sense your own responsibility as parents and as instructors and, like Abraham, command your household after you, that they may keep the statutes of the Lord. Your sons and daughters are corrupted by your own example and lax precepts; and, notwithstanding this lack of domestic training, you expect the minister to counteract your daily work and accomplish the wonderful achievement of training their hearts and lives to virtue and piety. After the minister has done all he can do for the church by faithful, affectionate admonition, patient discipline, and fervent prayer to reclaim and save the soul, yet is not successful, the fathers and mothers often blame him because their children are not converted, when it may be because of their own neglect. The burden rests with the parents; and will they take up the work that God has entrusted to them, and with fidelity perform it? Will they move onward and upward, working in a humble, patient, persevering way to reach the exalted standard themselves and to bring their children up with them? No wonder our churches are feeble and do not have that deep, earnest piety in their borders that they should have. Our present habits and customs, which dishonor God and bring the sacred and heavenly down to the level of the common, are against us. We have a sacred, testing, sanctifying truth; and if our habits and practices are not in accordance with the truth, we are sinners against great light, and are proportionately guilty. It will be far more tolerable for the heathen in the day of God’s retributive justice than for us.

A much greater work might be done than we are now doing in reflecting the light of truth. God expects us to bear much fruit. He expects greater zeal and faithfulness, more affectionate and earnest efforts, by the individual members of the church for their neighbors and for those who are out of Christ. Parents must begin their work on a high plane of action. All who name the name of Christ must put on the whole armor and entreat, warn, and seek to win souls from sin. Lead all you can to listen to the truth in the house of God. We must do much more than we are doing to snatch souls from the burning.

It is too true that reverence for the house of God has become almost extinct. Sacred things and places are not discerned; the holy and exalted are not appreciated. Is there not a cause for the want of fervent piety in our families? Is it not because the high standard of religion is left to trail in the dust? God gave rules of order, perfect and exact, to His ancient people. Has His character changed? Is He not the great and mighty God who rules in the heaven of heavens? Would it not be well for us often to read the directions given by God Himself to the Hebrews, that we who have the light of the glorious truth shining upon us may imitate their reverence for the house of God? We have abundant reason to maintain a fervent, devoted spirit in the worship of God. We have reason even to be more thoughtful and reverential in our worship than had the Jews. But an enemy has been at work to destroy our faith in the sacredness of Christian worship.

The place dedicated to God should not be a room where worldly business is transacted. If the children assemble to worship God in a room that is used during the week for a school or a storeroom, they will be more than human if, mingled with their devotional thoughts, they do not also have thoughts of their studies or of things that have happened during the week. The education and training of the youth should be of a character that would exalt sacred things and encourage pure devotion for God in His house. Many who profess to be children of the heavenly King have no true appreciation of the sacredness of eternal things. Nearly all need to be taught how to conduct themselves in the house of God. Parents should not only teach, but command, their children to enter the sanctuary with sobriety and reverence.

The moral taste of the worshipers in God’s holy sanctuary must be elevated, refined, sanctified. This matter has been sadly neglected. Its importance has been overlooked, and as the result, disorder and irreverence have become prevalent, and God has been dishonored. When the leaders in the church, ministers and people, father and mothers, have not had elevated views of this matter, what could be expected of the inexperienced children? They are too often found in in the presence of God, and His eye is looking upon them, they are light and trifling, they whisper and laugh, are careless, irreverent, and inattentive. They are seldom instructed that the minister is God’s ambassador, that the message he brings is one of God’s appointed agencies in the salvation of souls, and that to all who have the privilege brought within their reach it will be a savor of life unto life or of death unto death.

The delicate and susceptible minds of the youth obtain their estimate of the labors of God’s servants by the way their parents treat the matter. Many heads of families make the service a subject of criticism at home, approving a few things and condemning others. Thus the message of God to men is criticized and questioned, and made a subject of levity. What impressions are thus made upon the young by these careless, irreverent remarks the books of heaven alone will reveal. The children see and understand these things very much quicker than parents are apt to think. Their moral senses receive a wrong bias that time will never fully change. The parents mourn over the hardness of heart in their children and the difficulty in arousing their moral sensibility to answer to the claims of God. But the books of heavenly record trace with unerring pen the true cause. The parents were unconverted. They were not in harmony with heaven or with heaven’s work. Their low, common ideas of the sacredness of the ministry and of the sanctuary of God were woven into the education of their children. It is a question whether anyone who has for years been under this blighting influence of home instruction will ever have a sensitive reverence and high regard for God’s ministry and the agencies He has appointed for the salvation of souls. These things should be spoken of with reverence, with propriety of language,and with fine susceptibility, that you may reveal to all you associate with that you regard the message from God’s servants as a message to you from God Himself.

Parents, be careful what example and what ideas you give your children. Their minds are plastic, and impressions are easily made. In regard to the service of the sanctuary, if the speaker has a blemish, be afraid to mention it. Talk only of the good work he is doing, of the good ideas he presented, which you should heed as coming through God’s agent. It may be readily seen why children are so little impressed with the ministry of the word and why they have so little reverence for the house of God. Their education has been defective in this respect. Their parents need daily communion with God. Their own ideas need to be refined and ennobled; their lips need to be touched with a live coal from off the altar; then their habits, their practices at home, will make a good impression on the minds and characters of their children. The standard of religion will be greatly elevated. Such parents will do a great work for God. They will have less earthliness, less sensuality, and more refinement and fidelity at home. Life will be invested with a solemnity of which they have scarcely conceived. Nothing will be made common that pertains to the service and worship of God.

I am often pained as I enter the house where God is worshiped, to see the untidy dress of both men and women. If the heart and character were indicated by the outward apparel, then certainly nothing could be heavenly about them. They have no true idea of the order, the neatness, and the refined deportment that God requires of all who come into His presence to worship Him. What impressions do these things give to unbelievers and to the youth, who are keen to discern and to draw their conclusions?

In the minds of many there are no more sacred thoughts connected with the house of God than with the most common place. Some will enter the place of worship with their hats on, in soiled, dirty clothes. Such do not realize that they are to meet with God and holy angels. There should be a radical change in this matter all through our churches. Ministers themselves need to elevate their ideas, to have finer susceptibilities in regard to it. It is a feature of the work that has been sadly neglected. Because of the irreverence in attitude, dress, and deportment, and lack of a worshipful frame of mind, God has often turned His face away from those assembled for His worship.

All should be taught to be neat, clean, and orderly in their dress, but not to indulge in that external adorning which is wholly inappropriate for the sanctuary. There should be no display of the apparel; for this encourages irreverence. The attention of the people is often called to this or that fine article of dress, and thus thoughts are intruded that should have no place in the hearts of the worshipers. God is to be the subject of thought, the object of worship; and anything that attracts the mind from the solemn, sacred service is an offense to Him. The parading of bows and ribbons, ruffles and feathers, and gold and silver ornaments is a species of idolatry and is wholly inappropriate for the sacred service of God, where the eye of every worshiper should be single to His glory. All matters of dress should be strictly guarded, following closely the Bible rule. Fashion has been the goddess who has ruled the outside world, and she often insinuates herself into the church. The church should make the word of God her standard, and parents should think intelligently upon this subject. When they see their children inclined to follow worldly fashions, they should, like Abraham, resolutely command their households after them. Instead of uniting them with the world, connect them with God. Let none dishonor God’s sanctuary by their showy apparel. God and angels are there. The Holy One of Israel has spoken through His apostle: “Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”

When a church has been raised up and left uninstructed on these points, the minister has neglected his duty and will have to give an account to God for the impressions he allowed to prevail. Unless correct ideas of true worship and true reverence are impressed upon the people, there will be a growing tendency to place the sacred and eternal on a level with common things, and those professing the truth will be an offense to God and a disgrace to religion. They can never, with their uncultivated ideas, appreciate a pure and holy heaven, and be prepared to join with the worshipers in the heavenly courts above, where all is purity and perfection, where every being has perfect reverence for God and His holiness.

Paul describes the work of God’s ambassadors as that by which every man shall be presented perfect in Christ Jesus. Those who embrace the truth of heavenly origin should be refined, ennobled, sanctified through it. It will require much painstaking effort to reach God’s standard of true manhood. The irregular stones hewed from the quarry must be chiseled, their rough sides must be polished. This is an age famous for surface work, for easy methods, for boasted holiness aside from the standard of character that God has erected. All short routes, all cutoff tracks, all teaching which fails to exalt the law of God as the standard of religious character, is spurious.

Perfection of character is a lifelong work, unattainable by those who are not willing to strive for it in God’s appointed way, by slow and toilsome steps. We cannot afford to make any mistake in this matter, but we want day by day to be growing up into Christ, our living Head.

Taken from Testimonies, vol. 5, 491–500.

 

Editor’s Note: We are not in the habit of publishing E.G. White writings that are easily accessible. We feel a burden however, to bring the topic of reverence before God’s people. We pray that this article will help each reader to worship God with the respect and reverence which He is due.

 

Ichabod, God’s Glory is Departed

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O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” Matthew 23:37, 38

These words of Christ to the priests and rulers struck terror to their hearts. Could it be that their magnificent temple would soon become a heap of ruins? As Jesus spoke these alarming words, in divine pity, He cast one more lingering look upon the temple and in a voice choked with anguish, Jesus exclaimed, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…how often would I have gathered thy children together…and ye would not.”

These words were part of the separation struggle of the long-suffering love of Christ. Israel as a nation had finally divorced herself from God. The natural branches of the olive tree were broken off. Jesus looking for the last time upon the interior of the temple, said with mournful pathos, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” God’s last day messenger wrote in 1882: “The glory of the Lord had departed from Israel.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 210.

In order to have a clear understanding of this statement, we need to first understand what “glory” is. God’s glory has always been equated with His character. In Eden, a glorious light enshrouded the holy pair, for they had been given a character pattern much like their Creator. They were to develop and improve their characters, to be fashioned like unto God’s character. But when they sinned, the glorious external light left and they were naked—a fit symbol of the loss of their God-like characters. But God did not forsake them. Immediately, the plan of salvation was activated and the work for character restoration was begun.

In Moses’ day, God proposed to visibly dwell with His people. This is why the Shekinah glory abode in the most holy place of the Sanctuary. Moses was so enraptured with this glory that he wanted to see God fully. He prayed, “I beseech Thee, shew me Thy glory.” Exodus 33:18. And God answered, “I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with My hand while I pass by.” Exodus 33:22. “I will make all My goodness pass before thee.” Exodus 33:19. God’s glory is equated with His goodness—His character.

When Eli was the priest, the spirituality of the nation and the priesthood had become desperately corrupt. Eli’s sons thought that the ark would win a war with the Philistines. But Eli’s sons were killed and the ark captured. When Eli heard this tragic news, he fell backward, broke his neck and died.

The wife of Eli’s son, hearing that the ark was taken, gave premature birth to a son. As she died,she called the child “Ichabod,” which means “The glory is departed from Israel.” And indeed it had. For God’s character was no longer mirrored in the character of His people, but He did not forsake them. He raised up Samuel to lead His people back into a Christ-like experience.

Over and over through the centuries, God’s people deserted Him. But God never deserted His faithful few. When Solomon completed the temple in Jerusalem, God again visibly filled the temple with His glory. “The glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.” 1 Kings 8:11. This glory remained in the Holy of Holies until the days of Jeremiah, when the glory of the Lord departed from the temple.

This departure is described by God’s prophet as similar to Christ’s ascension to heaven after His resurrection. “As the place of His ascension, Jesus chose the spot so often hallowed by His presence while He dwelt among men. Not Mount Zion, the place of David’s city. Not Mount Moriah, the temple site was to be thus honored. There Christ had been mocked and rejected. There the waves of mercy, still returning in a stronger tide of love, had been beaten back by hearts as hard as rock. Thence Jesus, weary and heart burdened, had gone forth to find rest in the Mount of Olives. The holy Shekinah, in departing from the first temple, had stood upon the eastern mountain, as if loath to forsake the chosen city; so Christ stood upon Olivet, with yearning heart overlooking Jerusalem.” Desire of Ages, 829.

Jeremiah records why the temple was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar. “Thus saith the Lord; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.” Jeremiah 17:21, 22. At that time they were totally disregarding the Sabbath. They were carrying on business as usual.

“But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear,nor receive instruction . . . If ye will not hearken unto Me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” Jeremiah 17:23, 27.

Jeremiah sensed the coming destruction because of the apostasy in breaking the Sabbath. He removed the ark of God from the Sanctuary, hiding it in a cave. “Among the righteous still in Jerusalem, to whom had been made plain the divine purpose, were some who determined to place beyond the reach of ruthless hands the sacred ark containing the tables of stone on which had been traced the precepts of the decalogue. This they did. With mourning and sadness they secreted the ark in a cave, where it was to be hidden from the people of Israel and Judah because of their sins, and was to be no more restored to them. That sacred ark is yet hidden. It has never been disturbed since it was secreted.” Prophets and Kings, 453.

God called Ezekiel to be a prophet among the captives in Babylon. He describes the various stages through which the glory of the Lord passed as it left the doomed temple and the city of Jerusalem. In chapter one, Ezekiel was given a vision of God’s throne room in heaven where he saw “the likeness of the glory of the Lord.” Ezekiel 1:28.

Again in Ezekiel 3:23 he sees “The glory of the Lord.” Then in Chapter 5, he is given a message concerning the sins and abominations of God’s people and of the Jewish leaders who were defiling God’s earthly sanctuary in Jerusalem, so that he might understand why Jerusalem had been destroyed. In Chapter 8, Ezekiel beholds the glory of the Lord (verse 4). In spite of continued abominations, God had not taken His glory fully out of the sanctuary. But in Ezekiel 9, you read that God’s glory started to leave the sanctuary (verse 3). “And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub.”

Then in Ezekiel 10, the glory now stands over the threshold of the door. Then looking down over the courtyard, it passes over the doomed city. “And the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.” Ezekiel 10:19.

God is patient and merciful; reluctant to remove His glory from His rebellious people. Nevertheless, slowly and surely, the glory of God was removed. In Ezekiel 11, God shows Ezekiel why the glory of God was departing. In chapter 8, he saw twenty-five priests worshiping the sun right within the sanctuary of God.

“And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.” Ezekiel 8:16.

“And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountainwhich is on the east side of the city.” Ezekiel 11:23. This is exactly how Mrs. White describes it in The Desire of Ages, 829. The glory of God departed from the temple, and then the city, and finally from the people, never to return. Still, God did not utterly forsake this wayward people.

“Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine divinations; for I will deliver My people . . .and ye shall know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel 13:23. Thus God delivered His faithful, a small remnant out of the hands of the oppressors. After the captivity, the temple was rebuilt. Some of the old men who had seen the glory of God displayed in the Most Holy temple, now wept at the lesser grandeur of the second temple, and because the Ark of the Covenant was missing. However, a greater glory had been promised. “The Shekinah had departed from the sanctuary but in the child of Bethlehem was veiled the glory before which angels bow.” The Desire of Ages, 52. Thus was fulfilled the words of Haggai 2:9: “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former.” But so few recognized the glory, in Jesus Christ, veiled in human flesh. He came to His own, but His own received Him not.

Once again the glory of God was to depart from His people and the city was again to be destroyed. As with the first temple, the second withdrawal of God’s glory was not abrupt but gradual, conducted in patience and in reluctance. “Alas for those who knew not the time of their visitation. Slowly and regretfully Christ left, forever, the precincts of the temple.” Ibid., 626. And the angel of mercy was about to fold her wings, never to return to the doomed city.

“Israel as a nation had divorced herself from God. The natural branches of the olive tree were broken off. Looking for the last time on the interior of the temple, Jesus said with mournful pathos, ‘Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.’ Hitherto He had called the temple His Father’s house; but now, as the Son of God should pass out from those walls, God’s presence would be withdrawn forever from the temple built to His glory. Henceforth its ceremonies would be meaningless, its services a mockery.” Ibid., 620.

After Christ’s crucifixion and His resurrection, He led His disciples to the crest of Olivet. Jesus lingered before departure, as did the Shekinah of old. Once again, the divine glory departed gradually. “The holy Shekinah in departing from the first temple, had stood upon the eastern mountain, as if loath to forsake the chosen city; so Christ stood upon Olivet, with yearning heart overlooking Jerusalem.” Ibid., 829. Christ will stand on the Mount of Olives when He returns after the thousand years of the millenium. “And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south . . .And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee.” Zechariah 14:4, 5.

Now that we have a better understanding of what God’s glory is, we can move on to see how it applies to our day. According to inspiration, what is God’s glory in our day? “The glory of God is the piety of its members for there is the hiding of Christ’s power.” Review and Herald, March 24, 1891. Will piety totally depart from the people of God in the end time? “A new life is coming from heaven and taking possession of all of God’s people. But divisions will come in the church. Two parties will be developed.” Selected Messages, vol. 2, 114.

One group will contend for the faith and the other party will depart from the faith. “God never forsakes people or individuals until they forsake Him. Outward opposition will not cause the faith of God’s people, who are keeping His commandments, to become dim. The neglect to bring purity and truth into practice will grieve the Spirit of God and weaken them because God is not in their midst to bless. Internal corruption will bring the denunciations of God upon this people as it did upon Jerusalem . . . The least transgression of God’s law brings guilt upon the transgressor, and without earnest repentance and forsaking of sin he will surely become an apostate. If as a people we do not keep ourselves in the faith and not only advocate with pen and voice the commandments of God, but keep them every one, not violating a single precept knowingly, then weakness and ruin will come upon us.” Selected Messages, vol. 2, 378.

“The little company who are standing in the light,” Testimonies, vol. 5, 209, remain faithful to God. They are like the five virgins who alone had the inward piety. We have been cautioned over and over, “Do not be content with superficial piety.” Sons and Daughters of God, 317.

“It is with reluctance that the Lord withdraws His presence from those who have been blessed with great light.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 212. “From those who have rejected truth, the light [the glory] of God has departed.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 17, 18. Spiritual declension in modern Israel has been long in developing. Today we express concern over ecumenism, but it was making inroads a hundred years ago. (See Testimonies, vol. 5, 76.) God has always had His faithful few. There is no scriptural evidence that He has withdrawn His glory from them.

In the days of the first temple there were Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and a small group of others, who were faithful. They lived amid the glory of God in their piety. So it was in the days of Christ and in the days of the martyrs during the dark ages. And God will have a little company today who will become evident in His church triumphant. God’s light and glory will never depart from them. But this is not so with the majority. “When the religion of Christ is most held in contempt, when His law is most despised, then should our zeal be the warmest and our courage and firmness the most unflinching. To stand in defense of truth and righteousness when the majority forsake us, to fight the battles of the Lord when champions are few—this will be our test. At this time we must gather warmth from the coldness of others, courage from their cowardice, and loyalty from their treason.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 136.

“Those who have been regarded as worthy and righteous prove to be ringleaders in apostasy.”Ibid., 212. How sad!

Seventh-day Adventists correctly recognize Ezekiel 9 as describing the sealing of God’s people, soon to come. Few have studied chapter 8, describing the abominations which Ezekiel saw taking place in Jerusalem, God’s church. This was just prior to the departure of God’s glory.

The following is from a letter I received. “In my early years I can never remember hearing the word ‘Easter’ mentioned from the pulpit. Yet last Sabbath Pastor _________ announced, ‘This is the beginning of the Passion Week. And we must remember ‘Good Friday.’ There were Easter lilies and a wooden cross on the platform and some of the children marched down the center aisle with palms and placed them at the foot of the cross. Today our pastor was in the height of his glory with his two sessions of the pageant that he supervises each year in which the group of people wander about the neighborhood to places depicting various aspects of the Passion Week.

“Pastor ____________ sent out a letter to his members several weeks ago informing them that on April 5, noon to 2:00 p.m. the various pastors of the local churches, including a Catholic Priest would be at the ______ SDA Church to celebrate Good Friday and requested all the members to be present.”

Not only is Good Friday being celebrated in Adventist churches, as we see here, but many Adventist churches are even promoting Easter sunrise services. Many are in the out of doors, where the people await the rise of the sun over the horizon to begin their worship service—like the pagans as they worshipped the sun.

There are theologians among us who claim that they are not honoring the Sun god. They believe that they are honoring the resurrection of Jesus at the very moment that He arose from the grave. However, they have failed to read their Bible, which teaches that Jesus arose very early, while it was yet dark, and that the women who reached the tomb at sunrise, learned that He had already risen and departed. “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth,and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid Him.” John 20:1, 2.

Sunday sacredness is to be our final test. How sad to see Seventh-day Adventists joining in this form of ecumenism. This is nothing but modern Baal worship. Books now are being published on our presses preparing God’s people to keep Sunday. Such is the book, Beyond Belief, by Jack Sequierra, which states, on page 185, that the Sabbath-Sunday issue is not the final test: “The issue then in the final conflict will not be between two groups of Christians or even between two rest days, but between two opposing methods of salvation.” Of course, he is talking there about the New Theology against “legalism,” what he calls keeping God’s law.

The General Conference President teaches the same false concepts as Jack Sequierra. “If we consider Sabbath-keeping a requirement for salvation, we have turned the commandment on its head.” We Still Believe, 64, by Robert S. Folkenberg. Sabbath keeping is a requirement of God’s salvation. The New Theology is constantly avoiding the word “obedience” and preaching instead unconditional love. In the plan of salvation there is no such thing as unconditional love. The condition for eternal life is perfect obedience. (See Steps to Christ, 62.) “There will be, even among us, hirelings and wolves in sheep’s clothing who will persuade the flock of God to sacrifice unto other gods before the Lord. Youth who are not established, rooted and grounded in the truth, will be corrupted and drawn away by the blind leaders of the blind; and the ungodly. The despisers that wonder and perish, who despise the sovereignty of the Ancient of Days and place on the throne a false god…. These will be the agents in Satan’s hands to corrupt the faith of the unwary.” Selected Messages, vol. 3, 398.

“The Sabbath would be lightly regarded.” Testimony B, no. 7, 40. “The Lord has shown me clearly that the image to the beast will be formed before probation closes; for it is to be the great test for the people of God, by which their eternal destiny will be decided. This is the test that the people of God must have before they are sealed.” Selected Messages, vol. 2, 80.

God will allow deceitful Hazeals to come in our midst to be a scourge to His people. (See Testimonies, vol. 5, 79.) “But He will also not entrust the keeping of His flock to the proud andunfaithful shepherds.” (See Ibid., 80.) “The time is not far distant when the test [the Sunday law] will come to every soul. The mark of the beast will be urged upon us.” Ibid., 81.

These events are just before the Loud Cry and the beginning of the judgment of the living. This is when the glory of the Lord will have left the unfaithful majority of God’s people. Many leaders that we have looked up to for their brilliance will then go out in darkness and clouds of chaff will be blown away from the church when we thought all along that we were looking at piles of rich wheat. (See Ibid., 81.)

Multitudes of false brethren will be cut down as cumberers of the ground. (See Ibid.) The end result of all of this cleansing (shaking) will be that a little company of faithful will remain. God will not withdraw His glory from His pious ones. There will be no united church composed of wheat and tares during the outpouring of the seven last plagues. For the unfaithful will hardly be hiding within the purified church!

The slaughter depicted in Ezekiel 8 and 9 is wholly symbolic. No swords or guns will be used. When one receives the mark of the beast, it will be the sentence of eternal death. It will begin with the ancient men, the guardians of God’s people. They are likened to dumb dogs that would not bark to warn the people of the coming danger.

Three times the Bible records that there has been weeping over Jerusalem (which represents God’s church). First, Jeremiah, weeping over Jerusalem shortly before its first destruction. Second, Jesus wept over Jerusalem a few years before its second destruction. The third weeping over Jerusalem [God’s remnant church], will take place in our day in accordance with the sighing and crying foretold in Ezekiel 9, just before the sealing of God’s people. It will be done by a faithful few. (See Ibid., 210.)

The seal of God, we read, will never be placed upon the foreheads of those who are not ready. “The seal of God will be placed upon the foreheads of those only who sigh and cry for the abominations.” Ibid., 212. And where is this sighing and crying to take place? “Those that sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the church.” Ibid., vol. 3, 267.

“The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out—the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place.” Selected Messages, vol. 2, 380. The chaff will be sifted out, leaving but a little company as a nucleus for the church triumphant. But God’s glory will not be with the majority. The majority forsake us.

Company after company will drop the standard of truth to desert the Lord’s army. (See Testimonies, vol. 8, 41.) But the small remnant does not fall. We have seen the promise that if we constantly behold God’s glory we can become changed into the Son’s image from glory to glory, from character to character, till we become like that which we adore. (See Manuscript 8A, 1888.)

“And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun.” Ezekiel 8:16. This will happen again in our church.

“The Lord reads the heart as an open book. The men who are not connected with God have done many things after the imagination of their evil hearts. The Lord declares concerning them, ‘They have turned unto Me their back and not their face, though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them; yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.’ We are amid the perils of the last days, the time will soon come when the prophecy of Ezekiel 9 will be fulfilled . . . to the very letter.” 1888 Materials, 1303.

Let us have nothing to do with the ecumenical movement being encouraged by church leaders. “In churches and in large gatherings in the open air, ministers will urge upon the people the necessity of keeping the first day of the week.” Review and Herald, March 18, 1884. ahead for God’s remnant, be sure that you are living within the glory of God and keeping His commandments by His grace. Let it not be said of any of us, “Ichabod.” The glory of God has departed.

 

From Mourning to Celebration

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The Vatican II Council and the Celebration Movement

 

Have you ever wondered why, in recent years, people have begun to celebrate in Adventist churches at funeral services? When I was a boy, people mourned at funeral services. But of late we find Adventist clergymen and Adventist relatives of the deceased talking about celebrating the life of their loved one. Where and when and how did people get indoctrinated that they should celebrate at a funeral?

To delve into the answer to this question we must go back almost forty years. After Pope Pius XII died in 1958, a man was chosen to be pope who was elderly, and many people thought he would be more or less a stand-in pope for a few years until his death. However, Pope John XXIII convened the second Vatican council in 1962 and, in this council, Rome planned the beginning, growth and development of the celebration style of worship. The documents of the Vatican II council were published and the 1975 edition was analyzed by Elder Bob Trefz. It contained the following major points or objectives:

  1. Introduce celebration terminology and the celebration concept into all churches so that every function of the church becomes a celebration.
  2. Get the churches accustomed to a new style of worship. Through the celebration service obtain reduction of inhibition and vastly increase congregational participation verbally and through physical gestures and bodily attitudes of movement.
  3. Promote in the celebration service dialogue between the celebrant (that is the pastor or priest) and people as external signs of celebration in common and to engender and foster unity between celebrant and people.
  4. Use as much variation as possible in these celebration services to encourage active and willing participation.
  5. Use music in celebration services as a most effective celebration utilizing popular religioussongs and relating the music to the various cultures and temperaments of the people.
  6. Narrow the gap between eucharistic celebration and the Lord’s supper, soon to be called communion celebration in the other churches. Educate the people that this service forms the basis of all Christian unity and fellowship.
  7. Demonstrate the inextricable tie between the eucharistic celebration as the foundation of all unity and the Lord’s day, or Sunday celebration.
  8. Perform any endeavor necessary to promote Sunday observance involving rest from work.

As we look around today, we find that almost all of these eight points have been introduced and implemented in various Protestant churches of the world and in many Seventh-day Adventist churches. The fact that these eight points from the Vatican II documents have been largely implemented in many Seventh-day Adventist churches should cause the serious reader to ask a number of questions. First of all, we can ask if it would be possible for such a thing to happen by chance? And the answer is no. It would be impossible that within a 25 year period the very objectives outlined in the Vatican II documents would spontaneously develop in Seventh-day Adventist churches if there were not people in these churches, leaders or laity, who were promoting these concepts. However, there are more serious questions than this to ask. What is the final objective that the Vatican has in introducing this worship style in the various Protestant churches? By promoting a universal worship style, Rome can strengthen ecumenical ties among Protestants and between Protestant churches and herself so that eventually, either through direct or indirect influence, she can influence all the Christian churches in the world. According to these Vatican II documents it is evident that it is the intent of Rome that all churches should be gathered together ecumenically under one leader, namely the pope of Rome. It is also their purpose that these concepts should be introduced into all institutions of higher education including Adventist colleges and universities.

When the time comes that most of the Christian churches in the world have accepted the same liturgical format it will be easy to suggest that since we are all one in practice why not join together as one. That development would exactly fulfill the prophecy in Revelation 13. Evangelicals and Pentecostals were some of the first to embrace these celebration ideas from Rome. Adventists, in turn, pattern their celebration formats after these Protestant churches. It is openly admitted by our leaders that they have gone to Pentecostal or other Protestant churches to learn this new science of celebration worship all in the name of church growth. The garden of prayer ceremony, which includes walking from person to person during prayer and the laying on of hands, is a charismatic ceremony of Roman Catholicism.

One of the effects of these celebration services is to excite the participants into a more emotional state of mind and in this emotional excitement a person can more easily be led to make theological or experiential changes.

The purpose of promoting celebration services is simply to establish ecumenical ties. And it is one of the steps leading the various churches to a single worldwide church under the leadership of the papacy. For students of Bible prophecy, especially those who have become Seventh-day Adventists and are studying and attempting to follow the Three Angels’ Messages, this celebration worship has several apparent fatal flaws. Number one, the First Angel’s Message proclaims the fact that the investigative judgement is in progress. In the celebration style worship, nothing is taught about the judgement. People are taught about love, acceptance and forgiveness, but nothing is said about the judgement that is in progress and how to be ready for the Second Coming of Christ. No matter how much one worships, no matter how much one goes to church, no matter how much singing or praying a person does, if they are not ready for the judgement, their religion is all in vain.

Living in the time of the investigative judgement means that our lives are coming up for review before God. The criteria that decides the verdict in the judgement is not whether a person goes to church, nor is it even what church one belongs to, not his profession of faith—the verdict reached in the judgement is based on a person’s character. The Bible teaches, throughout, that we are judged according to our works in reference to God’s law. (See Revelation 20:11–15 and James 2.)

If a person has broken God’s law, of course he will be lost. But if, during the time of probation, he repents and confesses his sins, his guilt can be taken away by the blood of Jesus Christ. However, he is not then saved because he is forgiven; forgiveness is a necessary component of salvation, but it does not prepare you for the judgement. There are no texts anywhere in the Bible that say that the verdict in the judgement is based on whether our sins are forgiven. After a person’s sins are forgiven he must then be cleansed from his sins or, in other words, sin must cease to be a part of his life. He must not only be delivered from the guilt of sin (forgiveness, pardon, justification), but he must be delivered from the power of sin within (sanctification, holiness of life, purification of character). His life must come into harmony with God’s law.

This transformation is the proof that the Holy Spirit is working in his heart and his life, giving him a new heart and new mind. (See Romans 8:1–14.) If this does not happen and, as a result of this lack of a spirit-filled life there are no spirit-filled works and no spirit led living, then any profession of religion is vain. This has always been true. However, it is even more critical today because we are living in that time when probation will close not only for people who have died, but for people who are still alive upon the earth. The celebration style of worship does not at all address this most fundamental fact of the judgement, which is a central theme of the First Angel’s Message. That is just the beginning. The Second Angel’s Message, in Revelation 14:8, is a call to come out of Babylon. Babylon is a woman according to Revelation 17:1–5 and a woman is the Biblical symbol of the church. This church is a harlot church, or an apostate church, which commits spiritual fornication. (Revelation 17:1–5.)

God’s ancient people (His church), the Jewish people, were also referred to by this symbol of a woman, and when they taught people to break the commandments they were referred to as a harlot. We read in Ezekiel 23:37, 38: “For they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their sons whom they bore to Me, passing them through the fire, to devour them. Moreover they have done this to Me: They have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and profaned My Sabbaths.” Israel committed adultery by breaking the Ten Commandments. Babylon is a church, a mother church who has daughter churches who are harlots, churches that teach people to break God’s commandments. And these churches who are teaching people to break God’s commandments are world-wide in their influence. Revelation 18:23 says, ” The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.”

What is Babylon condemned for? Revelation 18:4 says, “And I heard another voice from heaven saying ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.’” Sin is the transgression of the law. (1 John 3:4.) Babylon, then, is a church that breaks God’s law, and her daughter churches also teach people to break God’s law. Those who will be saved from the last generation must all come out of Babylon. God does not give people a warning to do something if it is not important, and Revelation 14:8 says that Babylon is fallen and has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication and Revelation 18:4 says that all people are to come out of her lest they share in her sins and also receive of her plagues.

Since sin is the transgression of the law, sharing in her sins has to do with co-operating or participating with these churches in breaking one or more of the Ten Commandments. These churches which are teaching people to break the fourth commandment, the second commandment and other commandments, have been rejected by God and He is calling His true people to come out of them. But the celebration style worship service does not call people out of Babylon, rather it is derived from Babylon and leads the participants closer and closer to full fellowship with Babylon, making it impossible for them to be part of the group who will be saved from the last generation.

The Third Angel’s Message is a call to keep the commandments, as you can see in Revelation 14:12. It is a strict warning against engaging in image worship —worshipping the image to the beast. It is a strict warning against receiving the mark of the beast. The characteristics of the beast power are outlined in Revelation 13:1–10, in 2 Thessalonians 2 and in Daniel the seventh chapter. In Revelation 13, we see that this beast power is a religion, because people worship it. (Revelation 13:4.) We see that this beast power was not one of the nations of the earth, but rather a super-power which would have influence over all the nations of the earth, because it says that authority was given him over every tribe, tongue and nation. (Revelation 13:7.) Also we see that it has been a persecuting power, because it makes war with the saints and overcomes them. (Revelation 13:7.) It is a blasphemous power (Revelation 13:6) that blasphemes God, His name,His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.

The special mark of this power, given in Daniel 7:25, is that it would attempt to change times and laws. There is only one time in the Ten Commandments, and that is the seventh day Sabbath and this is the time that men have attempted to change. This attempt to change times and laws is the mark of Babylon’s authority. If a person accepts the authority of men, instead of the authority of God, in the last generation, they will receive the mark of the beast. The Third Angel’s Message includes a call to worship God by keeping His commandments, which would include the seventh-day Sabbath. By contrast, the Vatican II documents, with the celebration concept, were established to induce everyone to celebrate on Rome’s day—Sunday. We can clearly see that the foundational objectives of the celebration style worship are directly contrary to the most fundamental principles of the Third Angel’s Message.

A final objective of the Vatican II council was to unify liturgical functions and celebration and thereby focus attention on Sunday as the Lord’s day. When we study history, we find that the adoption of Sunday worship is not something that happens instantly. It is something that creeps in over a long period of time and there are many steps leading eventually to Sunday observance. That which took generations in the second and third century has been refined so that the same process can take place much more quickly in our day. It would be well, at this point, to review briefly some of the ways that Sunday keeping was introduced into the Christian church in the second and third centuries.

At the time of the Passover every year, it was common for Christians to remember the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ. It is natural and easy for us to see how that they would do this, because for 1500 years, in the Jewish system, the greatest feast of all the year, in the spring, was the Passover feast. It was at the time of the Passover that the real Passover—Jesus, the lamb of God—was sacrificed for the sins of the world. (See John 19.) It was on the third day, two days following this, that the wave sheaf was offered when Christ arose and took with Him to heaven a group of resurrected saints from every generation as the first fruits of the plan of redemption.

It has been the devil’s design, ever since the Garden of Eden, to mix good and evil together. It is in this way that the devil has succeeded, in every generation, to deceive most of the world’s population. The good is emphasized and applauded, but with it is mixed the evil. Jesus rose on the first day of the week and the devil discovered in this fact a way to mix good and evil in the Christian church. His purpose was to eventually persuade the professed followers of Christ to break the law of God, which commands worship on the seventh-day Sabbath. (See Exodus 20:8–11.)

The heathen nations, who were sun worshipers, had adopted the day of the Sun as a festival day and it is for that reason that the first day of the week was called Sunday. The devotees of the sun worshipped with their faces toward the east, at sunrise, on Sunday. Scarcely were the last of the apostles dead when certain bishops in the church, in order to make easier the conversion of the heathen and by this to increase their own influence and authority, began to adopt heathen customs and forms. One of these heathen customs and forms that was early mixed with the practice of Christianity was an imitation of Sun worship.

One of the church fathers defended the Christian’s practices around 200 A.D. in the following words: “Others again certainly with more information and greater verisimilitude believe that the sun is our god. The idea no doubt has originated from our being known to turn to the east in prayer, but you, many of you also under pretense sometimes of worshipping the heavenly bodies move your lips in the direction of the sunrise. In the same way if we devote Sunday to rejoicing from a far different reason than Sun worship we have some resemblance to those of you who devote the day of Saturn to ease and luxury.” His argument is in effect, “You do the same thing and you originated it so you have no right to blame us.”

As a result of the influence of Rome, the entire western empire adopted the practice of celebrating the resurrection of Christ on Sunday instead of the Passover day which would occur at different days in the week. The bishop of Rome ruled that the celebration of the resurrection of Christ must always be on a Sunday, the Sunday nearest to the Passover. If the Passover should itself be on Sunday, then the celebration was not to be held on that day but upon the next Sunday. This was the origin of Easter. Victor, who was bishop of Rome, A.D. 192–202, wrote a letter to the Asiatic Christian clergy commanding them to imitate the example of the western Christians with respect to the time of celebrating Easter. But the people in Asia declared that they would by no means depart in this manner from the custom handed down to them by their fathers. The result was that Victor, the bishop of Rome, broke communion with them and pronounced them unworthy of the name brethren; He excluded them from all fellowship with the church of Rome. This happened around the end of the second century.

It is evident, from a cursory examination of these facts from history, that the celebration worship style lies very close to the foundation of the development of Sunday observance by the Roman church. It was not a long time until the yearly celebration of the resurrection of Christ, on one Sunday a year, was replaced by a weekly celebration of the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the week. Adventists for several years have been taking the initial steps into Sunday observance. The fact that Adventists, for many years and in many places, have joined ecumenically with Sunday churches in worshipping on Easter Sunday, often out of doors as the sun emerges over the eastern horizon, is a replica of what was done in the early church when Sunday was introduced. When people take the first steps into Sunday observance, just as they did back in the second century, unless they repent and are converted, there is no question that eventually they will take the last steps and will receive the mark of the beast, maybe without even knowing what they are doing.

We are living not only in serious times, but in very deceptive times. We have been warned that the mark of the beast will come in some form to every institution and every individual. Many Adventists who receive the mark of the beast will not understand what has happened until it is too late. (Early Writings, 71.) Will you be in that group? It is a very solemn thought. May God help us to live by every word that proceeds out of His mouth and not to be deceived by the sophistries of the devil, even when they look harmless.

Next month we will look deeper into this topic and see some of the weighty spiritual issues that surround the celebration movement in Adventism.

Editor’s Note: Much of the material for this article was taken from the book Adventist Carnivals by Dr. Rosenvold. A much fuller description of the topic covered in this article is given in his book.

 

The Holy Spirit

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God in His divine wisdom foresaw that in the end time Satan would cause every wind of doctrine to blow upon His chosen people, to unsettle their faith. Today we are encircled by the lies of Satan, and some of these are even being taught by men whom we once trusted to be the servants of the Most High God. Thousands are bewildered, uncertain and deceived. We desperately need the Holy Spirit to guide us and give us heavenly discernment to see the difference between truth and error.

We need to be aware of Satan’s delusions and stand firmly on the pillars of truth. “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” 2 Thessalonians 2:7–11.

Now we learn that Satan will carry out his activities with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, to warp and twist and distort the truth so that many will believe a lie.

God foresaw that Satan would work to confound and bewilder even the very elect in the last days. He saw that His people would need the clear testimony of the Holy Spirit to pierce through this theological confusion, or they would flounder and be misled. This is why God gave the Holy Spirit in the gift of the Spirit of Prophecy that the church might prepare the way of the Lord.

While the Holy Spirit is being given to the faithful, it is being withdrawn from the wicked that have turned from the truth. No other spiritual gift could guard God’s people from this onslaught of satanic evil. Never in all past history has the Holy Spirit been so needed as it is in our day. “In ancient times God spoke to men by the mouth of prophets and apostles. In these days He speaks to them by the testimonies of His Spirit. There was never a time when God instructed His people more earnestly.” Testimonies, vol. 4, 147.

When the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt, God called Moses to lead them to the Promised Land. Of him we read, “And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.” Hosea 12:13. The exodus serves as a type of the final gathering of God’s people when they are gathering from the four-corners of the earth. For Isaiah said, “And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people.” Isaiah 11:16.

In order to accomplish this, God has placed the gift of prophecy amid His remnant, just as He foretold in Revelation 12:17: “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” And, “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Revelation 19:10.

Throughout history, God’s spokesmen often suffered mockery and derision and many have been reluctant to answer the call. When God called Moses to the prophetic office, he hesitated saying, “I am slow of speech.” Exodus 4:10. But God overruled. When God called Jeremiah, he said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.” Jeremiah 1:6. But God countered, “Thou shalt be as My mouth.” Jeremiah 15:19.

A reluctant Ellen Harmon, one of the weakest of the weak, pleaded her inadequacies. But God instructed her: “Exhort from the word. I will make My word open to you. It shall not be as a strange language. In the true eloquence of simplicity, with voice and pen, the messages that I give shall be heard from one who never learned in the schools. My spirit and My power shall be with you.” Review and Herald, July 26, 1906.

The Holy Spirit brings the gift of the Spirit. There can be no misunderstanding about this vital truth. Nehemiah stated “Thou testifiedst . . . by Thy spirit in Thy prophets.” Nehemiah 9:30.

And Peter explains, “Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently . . .searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” 1 Peter 1:10–12.

He added in 2 Peter 1:21: “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” Somehow the majority of our ministers today have failed to teach the remnant that the Spirit of Prophecy writings of Ellen White are indeed the breath of the Spirit.

Before Ellen White’s writings became available so that the source of their inspiration could be judged from Scripture, God provided open visions. These visions were tested by the Biblical precedent given in Daniel 10:16, 17, which shows that when Daniel was in vision he did not breathe. Careful examination of Ellen White on a number of occasions revealed that while she was in vision she did not breathe. But the brethren went much further than this. After checking to see if she breathed in vision, they followed Paul’s counsel found in 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21. “Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” And so they examined the contents of her messages to see if in any way they conflicted with the Bible. The brethren dared not accept or reject the visions without ascertaining their source. Some held that it was too good to be true, others found that the Bible provided guidelines which made it possible to distinguish between true and false prophets.

Let’s take a look at some of these Biblical tests of a prophet.

1) False prophets led away from the Bible. “If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and ye shall serve Him, and cleave unto Him.” Deuteronomy 13:1–4.

2) False prophets make false predictions. “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.” Deuteronomy 18:22.

3) False prophets teach things that are contrary to God’s law. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:20.

4) False prophets fail to turn sinners from evil. “In the latter days, . . . I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.” Jeremiah 23:20–22.

True prophets are known because, 1) They speak the truth without fear or favor. Consider the Prophet John who reproved King Herod. “But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him [John] for Herodias his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done.” Luke 3:19. This prophet of God dared to reprove a king and he lost his life for it.

2) True prophets declare that Jesus came in the flesh. “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” 1 John 4:1–3.

3) True prophets edify the church. “But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.” 1 Corinthians 14:3.

4) True prophets preach the gospel “with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” 1 Peter 1:10–12.

 

Ellen White’s Testimonies about Herself

 

Ellen White rarely spoke of her role as a prophet. Once a denominational leader became unsure of the need of this gift. She gave him a Bible study asking why the books of Nathan, Gad, Ahijah and Ido mentioned in first and second Chronicles and other inspired writings mentioned in the Bible, were not included in the sacred cannon?

She explained that the books of Scripture that had been preserved contain truths needed in every succeeding generation, but the books omitted from sacred cannon contained instructions for a particular time, needed then but not needed later. Then referring to her writings, she said that they could not have benefited any previous age, but were for the present end-time needs. As a result of the study, this leader rejoiced in the light and became a defender of the prophetic gift.

Ellen White always made it clear that her writings were not to take the place of the Bible. “I commend to you . . . the word of God as the rule of your faith and practice. God has, in that word, promised to give visions in the ‘last days’; not for a new rule of faith, but for the comfort of His people, and to correct those who err.” Early Writings, 78. (See also Experiences and Views, of 1851.)

She stated in Evangelism, 257: “The Lord has given a lesser light to lead men and women to the greater light.” Ellen White insisted in her introduction to The Great Controversy that, “The spirit was not given—nor can it ever be bestowed—to supercede the Bible.” The Great Controversy, vii. She exalts the Bible as the standard by which we must test all teachings: “The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as the authoritative, infallible revelation of His will.” Ibid. It is impossible that the teachings of the Spirit should ever be contrary to the Word.

Ellen White presents a full explanation of the nature of her work and the influence of the Testimonies in Testimonies, vol. 5, 654–672. She says that as the end draws near, it becomes most important for God’s people to understand the writings which are “linked with the Third Angel’s Message from its very rise.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 654. Then she lists steps leading to apostasy: “It is Satan’s plan to weaken the faith of God’s people in the Testimonies. Satan knows how to make his attacks. He works upon minds to excite jealousy and dissatisfaction, toward those at the head of the work. The gifts are next questioned; then, of course, they have but little weight, and instruction given through vision is disregarded. Next follows skepticism in regard to the vital points of our faith, the pillars of our position, then doubt as to the Holy Scriptures, and then the downward march to perdition. When the Testimonies, which were once believed, are doubted and given up, Satan knows the deceived ones will not stop at this, and he redoubles his efforts until he launches them into open rebellion, which becomes incurable and ends in destruction.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 672.

This is happening today. God purposed that His last day mouthpiece preach end time distinctive truths, as a watchman on the walls of Zion. Sensing such dangers ahead, she stated: “Satan is working with everyone who is not under the control of the spirit of God. There is constant danger of allowing something to come into our midst that we may regard as the workings of the Holy Spirit, but in reality is the fruit of the spirit of fanaticism. The Holy Spirit always comes in a way that commends itself to the judgments of the people. Holiness of heart will never lead to impure actions. The Holy Spirit’s movings upon the human agent will keep the mind well balanced. If we are constantly looking unto Jesus and receiving His Spirit, we shall have clear eyesight.” Selected Messages, vol. 2, 60. (See also pages 51, 43 and 29.)

 

The Functions of the Spirit of Prophecy

 

Ellen White’s writings restate truths emphasized by Bible prophets in modern language that speaks to us today. She leaves no error untouched in the spectrum of human relations. She reveals the issues raised at Lucifer’s defection and exposes the depth of Satan’s malice in contrast to Christ’s amazing love. The sacrifice on the cross becomes so meaningful in her writings. Hearts are moved to visualize Christ dying in our place. I can personally testify that no other book has ever opened up my soul to salvation’s wonders as The Desire of Ages did when I read it.

The Spirit of Prophecy gives the remnant church an understanding of the work of Christ as our High Priest in the sanctuary above. This unique doctrine is not understood by any of the other churches in our world.

Her writings open up spiritual details of Christ’s Second Coming and what takes place following the millennial reign in heaven. She tells of the destruction of the wicked and pictures the earth made new as a place for the redeemed of all ages. She lets us, in anticipation, enjoy the delights of heaven here and now, as we read her works.

God led Ellen White to give invaluable counsel in establishing publishing, medical and educational institutions, guiding the brethren in opening up work in the great cities of the earth.

But more than any other gift, the Spirit of Prophecy brought a unity of faith to our church. “The Christ in us will meet the Christ in our brethren, and the Holy Spirit will give that union of heart and action which testifies to the world that we are children of God.” Testimonies, vol. 9, 188.

God’s messenger offers specific direction for the finishing of the work. She tells us that kindness, courtesy and tenderheartedness will produce hundreds of conversions where now only one occurs. (See Testimonies, vol. 9, 189.)

 

Our Need Today

 

Our great sin as a people today “is that they do not open the heart to receive the Holy Spirit.” Selected Messages, vol. 2, 57. We have many noted preachers of prophecy, but Ellen White tells us that we would understand the prophecies even better if we granted the Spirit more freedom. This messenger of God declared, “The rebuke of God is upon us . . .His blessings have been withdrawn because the testimonies He has given have not been heeded . . . The means that God has devised to awaken the church to a sense of its spiritual destitution have not been regarded. The voice of the True Witness has been heard . . . but has not been obeyed.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 719.

Disobedience always brings tragic results. God said, regarding our medical work, that we should build small institutions in a country environment and shun debt! But today we owe more than a billion dollars and are being forced to join other medical facilities.

Porter Hospital in Denver has joined hands with a Catholic Hospital. We are no longer free to operate our hospital according to Seventh-day Adventist beliefs. We are joined with Catholicism both financially and in management. This is but a preview of what will come to our other medical institutions.

Likewise we were instructed concerning how our educational systems should function. Worldly government agencies have marveled at the divine blue print as laid down in the book, Education. But again, the leadership decided to become like the worldly institutions by seeking accreditation for our schools.

The first statement made by the accreditation board, when we applied, went something like this: You do not want to do this because you will lose your identity and eventually discover it is impossible to teach your doctrine. But the leadership convinced themselves that they knew better and that this would never happen.

God said, “Be ye separate.” But the educational leaders said, “Join.” (I was there and heard that with my own ears when I was in the General Conference.) And so the sad results have revealed that God is always right.

Since we have received accreditation, we no longer have the right to dismiss a professor who teaches false doctrines, such as evolution or any other science contrary to God’s Word and to our beliefs. (One of our universities, even, no longer teaches that the world was created in seven days. This is not God’s institution!)

Many of our youth are led in the wrong direction. I tremble at the thought of what God soon will do when He takes the reigns into His own hands and separates the tares from the wheat.

King Jehoshaphat proclaimed the secret of how God keeps His church pure, when he admonished Judah, “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.” 2 Chronicles 22:20.

As the division becomes more pronounced within Adventism, between the liberals and those who choose the standards and instructions given by God’s mouthpiece, I see a major drive to turn the remnant from the writings of Ellen White to the New Theology of love and unity. New books are being written which teach that “the little old lady” was good for the church in its younger years, but now with all our doctors of divinity we no longer need to adhere to the Spirit of Prophecy.

This is exactly what Ellen White predicted. “The very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God. ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish.’ Proverbs 29:18. Satan will work ingeniously, in different ways and through different agencies, to unsettle the confidence of God’s remnant people in the true testimony.

“There will be a hatred kindled against the testimonies which is satanic. The workings of Satan will be to unsettle the faith of the churches in them.” Selected Messages, vol. 1, 48.

“There are men among us in responsible positions who hold that the opinion of a few conceited philosophers, so called, are more to be trusted than the truth of the Bible, or the testimonies of the Holy Spirit. Such a faith as that of Paul, Peter, and John is considered old fashioned . . .at the present day. It is pronounced absurd, mystical, and unworthy of an intelligent mind.

“God has shown me that these men are Hazaels to prove a scourge to our people. They are wise above what is written. “God will have a people pure and true. In the mighty sifting soon to take place we shall be better able to measure the strength of Israel.

“The days are fast approaching when there will be great perplexity and confusion. Satan, clothed in angel robes, will deceive, if possible, the very elect. There will be gods many and lords many. Every wind of doctrine will be blowing. Those who have rendered supreme homage to ‘science, falsely so called’ will not be the leaders then. Those who have trusted in intellect, genius, or talent will not then stand at the head of rank and file. They did not keep pace with the light. Those who have proved themselves unfaithful will not then be trusted with the flock. In the last solemn work few great men will be engaged. They are self-sufficient, independent of God, and He cannot use them. The Lord has faithful servants who in the shaking, testing time will be disclosed to view. There are precious ones now hidden who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

“The time is not far distant when the test will come to every soul. The mark of the beast will be urged upon us. Those who have step by step yielded to worldly demands and conformed to worldly customs will not find it a hard matter to yield to the powers that be, rather than subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death. The contest is between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. In this time the gold will be separated from the dross in the church. True godliness will be clearly distinguished from the appearance and tinsel of it. Many a star that we have admired for its brilliancy will then go out in darkness.

“The church cannot measure herself by the world, nor by the opinion of men nor by what she once was. Her faith and her position in the world as they now are must be compared with what they would have been if her course had been continually onward and upward. The church will be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 79–84.

But, lest we forget, the gift of prophecy promotes the means for the loud cry and constitutes a vital part of the loud cry message. Seventh-day Adventists need make no apology for Ellen White, but rather we need to apologize publicly because we have not given her works greater publicity.

Let us remember often the words of Holy Scripture, “Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” And may we remember Ellen White’s comments in Special Testimonies to Battle Creek, 6. “This is the message given by God to be sounded forth in the loud cry of the third angel. The faith of Jesus and the testimony of Jesus are blended. They are to be clearly presented to the world.” May we never forget how wonderfully God has blessed this people in giving us the Spirit of Prophecy.

The Door of the Sheep Fold

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In the Garden of Eden, after Eve was beguiled by the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit, God made a solemn pronouncement. Directly addressing the devil He said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Here God delineates the two groups that exist in the world today. One is the seed of the woman, the other the seed of the devil.

Who are the descendents (the seed) of Eve? All the world are her physical descendents, but, by far, not all are her spiritual descendents. Her descendents are those who follow in her steps, repenting of their sins, and keep God’s commandments. This is His church as represented by the woman in Revelation 12:17, whose seed “keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.”

Who then are the devil’s seed? John identifies them clearly in 1 John 3:8: “He who sins is of the devil.” Sin is breaking the law of God. If you are living in sin, you are proclaiming to the whole world that you are the devil’s child.

So, we see that this whole issue hangs on one principle. Do you keep or break the commandments of God? This is the dividing line between the two groups, and there is no mixing. You must either be the seed of the woman or the seed of the serpent. You can never be fifty percent the seed of the serpent and fifty percent the seed of the woman. It is one or the other. Ellen White said it this way: “There must be open and avowed enmity between the church and the serpent; between her seed and his seed.” Signs of the Times, August 26, 1889.

It looks very simple then; there are two groups, the woman’s seed—the church—and the seed of the devil. However, it can appear much more complicated than that. In John 10, Jesus illustrated this, using sheep to symbolize His people. The seed of the serpent are those who want to be in the church as part of the professed people of God, but do not enter through the door. Jesus said about them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” John 10:1.

What does the sheepfold represent and what is its function? In Heavenly Places, 324 says, “The Lord can carry forward His work without our cooperation. He is not dependent on us for our money, our time, or our labor. But the church is very precious in His sight. It is the case which contains His jewels, the fold which encloses His flock, and He longs to see it without spot or blemish or any such thing.”

The fold is the church, and its function is to protect the flock. But what happens when wolves, in sheep’s clothing, sneak over the wall and get in with the sheep? Do the sheep know that they are wolves? No, because they are in sheep’s clothing, and appear just like all the other sheep. These then are the tares. They are not part of God’s people (the wheat), but they are in sheep’s clothing, and so the sheep cannot tell any difference.

We need to learn a lesson from this. Just because you are in the house does not mean you are a member of the family. Take my home for instance. Each member of my family has a key to the door, and when we go in and out, we use the key to unlock the door. But, what if a burglar comes to my home, and crawls through the window to steal from us. Is he in the house? Yes, but is he a part of the family? Of course not, he is a robber and a thief. The same is true for those who enter the fold by climbing over the wall. They are thieves, robbers, wolves in sheep’s clothing and tares.

 

Wolves Take Over the Fold

 

It is a dangerous situation when wolves in sheep’s clothing get into the fold. They may have on sheep’s clothing, but they still bite. Here is how inspiration describes them: “All the way along in the history of the Third Angel’s Message there have been found among the believers men who have done much harm to God’s cause. These men are spots in our feasts of charity; tares among the wheat; wolves among the sheep, ready to bite and devour.” Review and Herald, May 12, 1903. The sheep in that fold are then scattered and the wolves take over the fold, or the tares take over the field.

That is what happened in Jesus’ day. In John 9, we can read the context in which Jesus told the parable of the sheepfold. It tells the story of how Jesus healed a blind man on the Sabbath. Because this man acknowledged Christ as his healer, the Pharisees disfellowshipped him—cast him out of the fold. Ellen White comments on this in Signs of the Times, December 4, 1893: “And in no gentle manner they thrust him out of the synagogue. The sheep was cast out of the fold for being a living witness to the power of Christ. Many have been cast out of the church whose names were registered upon the Book of Life. Wolves in sheep’s clothing were ready to cast out of the fold and devour one who was entitled to the Lord’s pasture . . . But Jesus, the true Shepherd, sought him, and gave him a place within the fold.” How did Jesus give him a place in the fold? Did He go to Caiaphas and say, “There is a man over here whose sight I restored and your subordinates disfellowshipped him. I want you to put his name back on the church books.” That is not the way Jesus gave him a place in the fold. We need to rethink who and what the church is, because it says here that Jesus gave this man a place within the fold.

This was not the last time someone like this was disfellowshipped wrongly. You and I have a responsibility to sheep that have been mauled by wolves and have been cast out of the fold. We need to care for them and give them a place in the fold. “With proper labor, many souls might have been added to the church who are driven from the fold into the wilderness of unbelief.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 2, 274.

 

Entering Through the Door

 

In the Day of Judgment, the only people who will be saved are those who entered through the door. The ones who climbed over the wall will be lost. What is this door? Jesus said, “I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” John 10:7–9.

It is important to belong to the church, to be in the fold, but it will not do any good to get into the fold unless you go through the door. If you go through the door, you will be saved. If you climb over the wall, you may be in the fold, but you will be lost. You are a thief and a robber. Jesus said, “I am the Door,” and then He says, “I am the good Shepherd and the Shepherd goes through the door.” (See verses 2, 11 and 14.) There is a double symbol here. Both the door and the shepherd represent Jesus. How does that work? Think it through carefully for a moment. If there is a door and the good shepherd goes through that door, then there must have been a time before the shepherd goes through the door and a time after he has entered the fold.

How can this be applied to the life of Christ? It cannot refer to His divinity, because Jesus assures us that there has never been a time when He was not in close fellowship with the Father—when He was not divine. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning . . . the Word was God.” You cannot go before the beginning.

The symbolism must then refer to the humanity of Christ. There was a time when Jesus left His throne in heaven and came to this world and became incarnate. He took upon Himself human flesh and human nature like ours, uniting His divinity with our humanity. This is a mystery that we will study throughout all eternity. He became one flesh with us, so that we could become one spirit with Him. He went through the door. He united His divinity to our humanity. That is how He became the good shepherd who could reach down to the bottom of the sin problem, pick up a lost sheep and take him back to the fold.

What does it mean for us to go through the door? Just as Jesus united His divinity with our humanity, so our humanity must be united with His divinity in order for us to be saved. We must become partakers of the divine nature and be born again. (See 2 Peter 1.) When you are born again, you receive the divine nature, receiving a new mind, and a new spirit. Paul said, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Ellen White describes this experience in these words: “The old nature, born of blood and the will of the flesh, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The old ways, the hereditary tendencies, the former habits, must be given up; for grace is not inherited. The new birth consists in having new motives, new tastes, new tendencies. Those who are begotten unto a new life by the Holy Spirit, have become partakers of the divine nature, and in all their habits and practices they will give evidence of their relationship to Christ.” The Signs of the Times, November 16, 1891.

Without this process occurring in your life, you cannot be saved. You may have been baptized with water, you may have your name on the church books, but if you have not gone through the door, you cannot be saved. You are just as lost as the people on the outside of the fold. If we have not entered through the door, then we must have climbed over the wall, and that is the problem in Adventism. Too many people have gone over the wall and they are the wolves in sheep’s clothing. It is because of this that there is so much backbiting and so many sheep are getting mauled and turned out of the fold.

 

Hearing and Following Christ’s Call

 

In John 10:2–5 we read, “But He who enters by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep. To Him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear His voice; and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. And when He brings out His sheep, He goes before them; and the sheep follow Him for they know His voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

Jesus calls His own sheep by name and they follow Him, because they know His voice. What alarms me is that there are so many people in Adventism that for one reason or another do not recognize the Shepherd’s voice. If you are one of His sheep, you will recognize His voice. When He speaks through the testimonies of His Spirit, sends special messengers to the remnant, and speaks through the prophets and the apostles, the sheep will recognize His voice.

Not only do the sheep recognize His voice, but He leads them out and they follow Him and not strangers. They will not even listen to strangers, but will flee from them. What voices are you and your children listening to? It is amazing to me, that some of our people listen to so many voices. They read different books and magazines, watch many videos and television programs, and listen to radio programs. When their children go out into the world, they come to us and ask, “What happened?” What has happened is that their children have been listening to the voice of a stranger for twenty years.

As I prayed about this, I said, “Lord, if I am one of Your sheep, I want to hear Your voice. Please help me to hear Your voice.” When I read the Bible and the writings of Ellen White, I hear His voice, but I have to do more than hear. The sheep hear His voice and follow. We must also obey the instructions that are given.

If we hear Christ’s voice and obey, we can have assurance that we will be saved. “My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” John 10:27–29.

“The soul that has given himself to Christ is more precious in His sight than the whole world. The Saviour would have passed through the agony of Calvary that one might be saved in His kingdom. He will never abandon one for whom He has died. Unless His followers choose to leave Him, He will hold them fast.” The Desire of Ages, 480.

The plan of salvation is simple. We do not have to be a theologian, have a high I.Q. or have a college education; we only need to hear His voice and obey Him. When we hear His voice speaking through the prophets and apostles, and the special messenger to the remnant, and we follow, He says, “I will put you in my hand. My Father who gave you to Me is greater than all and nobody can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” What a wonderful assurance!

 

Recognizing Christ’s Voice

 

How can we know that we are listening to Christ’s voice and not that of a stranger? By studying God’s Word and the Spirit of Prophecy, we learn the truth and are able to differentiate between it and error. Are you having your devotions every day? Are you praying and asking the Lord to help you to have His truth so implanted in your heart that you will not be deceived by the errors that you encounter every day?

There are a lot of people in Adventism that have not listened to the Shepherd’s voice enough so that they can tell the difference between His voice and a stranger’s voice. If we are in that situation, we will be lost. Deceptions will come that are so severe that we will not be able to stand unless we are firmly grounded in God’s Word. Truth and error will look so similar that unless our minds are guided by the Holy Spirit we will be led to accept error.

Friends, now is the time for us to choose to go through the door, to be changed, fully and completely, by the transforming power of Christ. You can, if you are willing to submit all. I invite you, today, to follow Christ through the door into the sheepfold. Enter the hand of Christ where you will be safe. Unless you choose to leave, He will hold you secure and nothing can pluck you out of His hand.

 

Christ or Caiaphas

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“Why should ye be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.” Isaiah 1:5–10.

Recently my eyes caught the following headline: “Time to close down the smaller churches.” Yes, the time has come. That is what the North American Division says in an issue of Plus Line Access, a special eight-page newsletter for Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders and pastors in the United States and Canada. The problems are spelled out and the solution is simple enough: Close the local churches. What are the problems? Any one of four is sufficient for the Conference President to close a church and pocket the key:

  1. Weekly attendance is low. The congregation does not have lots of members, and usually most of the members are aged. Such churches should be loosed so the pastor can dedicate his energies to more populous areas.
  2. Newly started churches do not get above thirty or forty members within a couple of years.
  3. The church is not sending in enough tithe to the conference office.
  4. A church becomes controlled by an independent ministry that is unsupportive of Seventh-day Adventist churches and its leadership. Such churches are like a cancer among other churches. The above four points include almost every small denominational congregation that is below thirty or forty members.

Why are the leaders so anxious to close down the small churches? The reasons are obvious, yet profound in their significance.

  1. It is invariably the smaller churches that will be the most conservative. They are the ones which stand as fortresses in defense of our historic beliefs and standards.
  2. It is the delegates from the small churches, which lead out in opposing apostasy at Conference constituency meetings.
  3. It is the delegates from smaller churches, which are the most dangerous to the agenda of getting worldly leaders elected and re-elected in the Conference.
  4. It is the smaller churches that want New Theology pastors transferred out.
  5. By eliminating the small churches, the way is cleared for the Conference leadership to more rapidly take its churches into modernism.
  6. By disbanding local churches, the members will have to join a larger church, where, because they are in the minority, they will have less influence over Board and Committee actions.

This Division-wide plan was disclosed in the January 1996 issue of the publication sent to church leaders and pastors throughout the North American Division. You were not supposed to know about this plan yet.

Our concern is the plan to close the churches of the faithful. Once these little flocks are scattered,leadership will have more control over that which remains. But there is an interesting question. What will be done with those padlocked buildings? In some incidences they will remain closed until a Conference evangelist comes along and brings in New Theology trained members.

But the temptation will be great to sell the buildings, which local church members in earlier years paid for. For over a decade Conference funds have been drying up, as the faithful have been crowded out by New Theology pastors. Throwing off these small churches will help subsidize Celebrations, Youth Congresses, Festivals and other activities intended to hold the shallow, who think more of entertainment than they do of serious study in the inspired books or in missionary work.

I must confess that as I read this amazing disclosure of what the North American Division plans to do, I felt a real heartbreak pain within me. This is what is called “institutional planning” and such a decision to close down the smaller churches demands an answer. Is such a plan ordained by God and baptized by the Holy Spirit? Or has Satan so infiltrated his leaders into God’s ranks that it is now possible to seriously wound the very small remnant that Isaiah saw that were left within God’s remnant church?

This article was taken largely from a sermon presented in 1963 by Elder Arthur L. Bietz, who was faced with a situation within his church regarding Conference leadership involved in institutional problems.

Please notice the parallel between then and now, and you decide where you should take a stand regarding such directives that are handed down from today’s structure.

I want you to be able to use your imagination to catch the meaning, the drama, the heart throb, the intensity of this situation for these are days of crisis, days of tremendous meaning.

In some ways, Caiaphas is one of the most tragic figures of the New Testament. Yet in another way he is a man of tremendous splendor. A man who was loved and probably in some respects greatly adored. The historical facts are that the people stood in awe before him, for he was indeed the symbolization of the great heritage of Israel. He embodied everything that Israel had fought for, all that Israel had prayed for, and theirs was indeed a glorious heritage.

Caiaphas had been chosen by the children of Israel as a “custodian,” of the great religious institution, but now something had happened.

Suddenly, the world, that then was, found itself polarized in two centers; on the one side stood Caiaphas, the high priest, on the other side stood Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The loyalties had congealed and the crisis was on.

This was a tragedy with a degree of splendor in it, for Caiaphas was a very notable person, with an impressive personality. Indeed, he was the most powerful man in Judaism at the time of Christ. He had not only the ecclesiastical power, but he also held the civil authority.

People have always responded to those who stand in authority. There is something splendid, something awe inspiring, about a man in this position. The children of Israel looked to Caiaphas for guidance.

Caiaphas was feared by some, greatly respected by others. Do not ever think for a moment that this man was despised, for he was not. He was the symbol embodying all religious leadership at that time. He had under him some twenty thousand priests over whom he was the absolute head and they moved under his command. They were the spiritual leaders of the nation who are now suddenly faced with a desperate situation.

Caiaphas, on the one side, leads a great religious institution with a marvelous religious heritage, while opposing him stands Jesus Christ. One or the other must go. Who shall be crucified? Can you feel the drama in your own life and heart? Where would you have stood before these two opposing powers? Would you have cast your vote with the recognized religious institutional authority? Or would you have accepted Jesus Christ?

Caiaphas who headed the religious parades in all the Jewish festivals and on the annual Day of Atonement caused all Israel to tremble before his presence. This was the high priest, their representative before God. It was to him that God would speak and bring His message of forgiveness to the people. He stood between God and the people as their representative.

When Jesus spoke to Caiaphas, He did not speak with the respect or the esteem that the people thought he should give a religious leader. This is why one of the very devout Jews struck the Lord in the face. That was a tense moment. This was a day of choice, a day of salvation. It was a day when human hearts and minds were hanging in eternal destiny. Where would you have cast your vote?

“And when He had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Him with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so?” John 18:22. Our Lord, the one whom we worship, is struck with a forceful blow. I can see our Lord weaving as the blow struck Him. Then came the words, “You do not speak to our religious leader like that.”

Caiaphas had only one purpose and that was to save the religious institution that he represented. He said, “We must save the church.” Yet, on the other hand there stood the Son of God, who also came to save the church. Two forces are represented; both want to help save the church.

But Jesus had often spoken concerning the heartlessness of the religious leaders of His time. He did not mince words. Jesus had said, “They make up heavy yokes and packs and pile them on men’s shoulders.” About Himself Jesus had said, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

On another occasion, Jesus said of Caiaphas’ institutional leadership, “You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces.” Can’t you just see the high priest stand up in disbelief and shout, “This is blasphemy, I am the high priest and I am the head of the religious organization that opens the kingdom of God to mankind. But this man Jesus comes and says that we shut the door in the face of the people!”

Christ had also said that Caiaphas and the religious leaders were more interested in power and prestige and status than in the shepherding of the flock. Although there were twenty thousand religious priests paid out of the temple taxes, Jesus said, “Look at the people. There is nobody interested in people. All are serving the religious institution, but they have no shepherds.” That really stepped on some toes. Preachers do not like to hear that they are not doing their job correctly.

There is an old Negro spiritual that goes something like this: “Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there? Oh sometimes it causes me to tremble, yes, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Were you? Are you there today contemplating that great sacrifice and following in the steps of Christ? We have before us the destiny of our souls.

Jesus revealed the motives of the Jewish leaders when He said, “Everything they do is done for show. Places of honor at the feasts and the chief seats at the synagogue are taken by your leaders and they do it for show.”

Jesus even dared to expose the corruption in the financial structure of their organization. He said, “You eat up the properties of the widows while you say long prayers for appearance sake. But you are going to receive a severe sentence.”

Jesus also had something to say about their mission program. He said, “You travel over sea and land to win one convert and when you have won him, you make him twice as fit for hell as you are yourselves.”

Such a situation could not go on any longer. This had to come to a showdown and everyone knew it. All the people in Jerusalem and the surrounding territories recognized the moment of destiny had come. And so we will have to stand before the Almighty God and before religious institutions and give an answer.

Christ said, “You are not at all ministers of spiritual insight or spiritual values. You are blind. You are blind guides of the blind. You are falling into the ditch and the people are falling into the ditch with you. You swear by the sanctuary. You swear by the gold. You swear by the altar. You strain at a gnat, yet you gulp down a camel. The organization of the temple is more important to you than God. You are tombs covered with whitewash, full of dead men’s bones.”

Was it any wonder that these two had to meet when Christ had said, “All of your religious organization, all of your twenty thousand priests ministering in the temple, all of your financial structure and your spiritual leadership is absolutely blind and your organization, house and institution has become desolate, for God is not in it.”

For the Jews, the temple symbolized their entire religious heritage. It was very dear to the people, yet Jesus said, “It is forsaken of God.” The temple house is needed but there needs to be a loving family within it. The institution, the organization is necessary, but only as a means in helping to shepherd the people. If you have lost contact with the needs of the hearts of the people, your house is desolate.

This is a terrible indictment. Finally the high priest speaks to those who have gathered to make a decision about this man who claims to be God. He says, “You know nothing whatsoever. You do not use your judgment. The trouble with you is that you do not have good judgment. It is more to your interest that one Man should die for the people than that the whole nation should be destroyed.” And thus, the decision is made. But where would you have stood? The decision has to be made. It was religious institutionalism versus a personal human being, Christ our Saviour. It was an organizational religionism versus the gospel. It was organization versus a Person. It was vested interest against Christ, for the earthen vessel had become more the object of devotion than the treasure within the vessel. And herein lies the universal tendency of human beings toward idolatry.

Man wishes to make himself secure within religious institutions and therefore he hides himself from the presence of God. Laodicea thinks that she has everything, but Jesus Christ stands outside the door and knocks and knocks. But the question is as alive today for you and for me as it was two thousand years ago, because Caiaphas is very much alive in every one of us.

The issue is before us today and you will have to make your own decision, if you have not already made it. Antiorganizationalism is of the rudest of follies, because we need order and organization. But when the organization becomes the means as well as the end of our devotion, then we have crucified once again our Saviour Jesus Christ. It can happen today just as verily as it happened then.

Tell me, what could have happened if Caiaphas, the high priest, had said, “Look, we are confronted with God. Let us accept Him?” What a help and inspiration for the repenting souls that could have been. If he could have only said, “Let us use this institution, this money, everything in order to glorify God, but let it be God who is the center.” Unquestionably this is what the Seventh-day Adventist Church needs now. All institutionalism becomes corrupt with itself. It begins to build and build until we have forgotten the purpose of its building and we seek security in everything except God Himself.

When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, let us remember that there will be a unity of our hearts, the binding of mind to mind, of heart to heart and spirit to spirit. Institutionalism can provide us with an outward uniformity, but only the baptism of the Holy Spirit can give us an interior union of our spirits.

Oh, that God would help us to understand that religious institutionalism can become the greatest tool of the devil. Dr. Henry P. Van Dolson who wrote in The United Church Herald, states, “The Holy Spirit has always been troublesome to officialdom and to institutionalism because He is unruly, unpredictable and radical. The call to the ministry is to be alert, to discover every moment of the living, confounding, uncontrollable Spirit of God in what someone has called His Sovereign Unpredictability. We want security but we do not want to be shaken out of our false securities. When our false securities are shattered and we stand helpless before a superior person who vitalizes our lives, suddenly we recognize ourselves to be under the guidance of the Spirit of God. When you are under the guidance of the Spirit, you cannot control it. And, of course, institutionalism is built on control. So there is an everlasting problem here.”

This is what Caiaphas had to face. How can you attack an institution and still retain it? How can you shatter that which you love? I happen to be one who has been reared in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and all my tenderest emotions and feelings are tied into Adventism. This can also become my greatest curse and damnation, because I begin to trust in it instead of the living God. If I begin to think that the structure is what makes me a Christian instead of a personal friendship with my God and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, my faith is resting on an institution instead of the Lord.

I think I can say concerning institutions that I love none better than Adventism. I was nurtured in it. I was cradled in it. I loved it. But this can also be my damnation unless I know that all of this is but for one purpose and that is to bow my head and my mind before the living Jesus and say, that unless Christ lives within the institution, it has become only desolation and hostility—nothing but empty institution.

Oh, that God would help us today to once again understand the issues clearly and make right choices. The people two thousand years ago had to make a tremendous choice and their choice was a devastating decision effecting their eternal destiny. If you have never gone through such an experience, you do not know what I am talking about. But those of you who know what I am speaking about realize the gravity of such a situation. It has shaken you completely until you have experienced a kind of death. The very thing in which you have trusted has been shattered before you and you will never be the same again, because the basis of your life now is Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ.

“God has a church. It is not the great cathedral, neither is it the national establishment, neither is it the various denominations; it is the people who love God and keep His commandments. ‘Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.’ Matthew 18:20. Where Christ is even among the humble few, this is Christ’s church, for the presence of the high and holy One who inhabiteth eternity can alone constitute a church.” The Upward Look, 315.

 

God Raises Up a Man to Meet a Crisis

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From the time of Jeroboam’s death to Elijah’s appearance before Ahab the people of Israel suffered a steady spiritual decline. Ruled by men who did not fear Jehovah and who encouraged strange forms of worship, the larger number of the people rapidly lost sight of their duty to serve the living God and adopted many of the practices of idolatry.” Prophets and Kings, 109. [Emphasis supplied.]

Did you notice the italicized words above? When was it that the Lord raised up Elijah the prophet? What were the leaders at that time teaching the people who professed Ancient Adventism?

The above statement, found in Prophets and Kings, makes it clear that as a direct result of the leaders directing the people into strange forms of worship they lost sight of their duty and adopted many of the practices of idolatry. Many might be surprised to find out that you do not have to worship a figure carved from wood or stone to be guilty of idolatry.

 

Following is Webster’s Dictionary definition of an idol:

  1.  A representation or symbol of an object of worship; broadly: a false god.
  2.  A likeness of something b: pretender, imposter.
  3.  A form or appearance visible but without substance.
  4.  An object of extreme devotion.
  5.  A false conception: fallacy.” Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition. [Emphasis supplied.]

 

So brothers and sisters, an idol worshiper can be someone who worships a false idea or a concept, just as much as someone who bows down to a carving of a false god. If this is true, it certainly says something about leaders who encourage others into strange forms of worship—celebration—and those who are willingly ignorant or defiant concerning the true worship of God.

It also makes it very interesting to note that it is at this time that we are told that God would send the Elijah message one last time. It will have the same effect as it had so many years ago. We are told, during this time of Earth’s last moments, that the church (God’s true people) will appear as about to fall, but it will not fall. This statement should give us courage and confidence in our Lord’s ability to save us. But it should also be a warning to all that times are going to get very difficult, and only through God’s help and plan—not man’s—do we have any hope of salvation.

There was a parallel to this in Elijah’s day. In the time of Israel’s great apostasy, the tribe of Judah had a king who served God. King Asa had stood firm during his reign and had led his people away from idolatry and false worship. Many years after King Asa began to reign, Zerah, the Ethiopian, invaded his kingdom. This warrior brought with him a host of a million soldiers, and three hundred chariots. (See 2 Chronicles 14:9.) This army could have easily wiped out the tribe of Judah and King Asa knew it.

During the years of prosperity, King Asa did not waste his time in idle amusement and pleasure, but spent the greater part of his time preparing for just such an emergency as he was now facing. He had used the times of peace to train an army for the conflict, which was now before him. He had bent his energies into educating his people in the faith of the true God and encouraged them to put their trust and faith explicitly in Him. Now the test of battle and trial of their faith was before them.

Because the King and his people had remained faithful to the Lord in times of peace they could now, with confidence, call upon Him in a time of crisis. The odds were unquestionably against them by all appearance. Their army, though well trained, was much smaller than their opponent’s, but the kingdom of Judah could rightfully claim the Lord’s promises of protection and this they did.

Their prayer was given to every Christian as well: “The prayer of Asa is one that every Christian believer may fittingly offer. We fight in a warfare, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and against spiritual wickedness in high places. See Ephesians 6:12. In life’s conflict we must meet evil agencies that have arrayed themselves against the right. Our hope is not in man, but in the living God. With full assurance of faith we may expect that He will unite His omnipotence with the efforts of human instrumentalities, for the glory of His name. Clad with the armor of His righteousness, we may gain the victory over every foe.” Prophets and Kings, 111.

The God of the Remnant (Revelation 12:17) is the true God. We can have confidence in Him as long as we are truly cooperating with Him. In fact, the only way we can claim the promises of God is by our willingness to obey what He asks of us. The very good news for Adventism is not that we do not have to fight—that is a lie that most professors of Adventism want to believe—but the good news is that although we have a battle to fight we will win! Not we can win, not we might win, but we will win! This is tremendous news and we need to invest our whole lives in the fulfilling of this eternal promise.

Just as the Lord answered the prayer of righteous King Asa for the salvation of his people against a humanly unconquerable enemy, so today He will answer the same prayer for help to overcome the spiritual wickedness in high places.

It was through the influence of wicked rulers (Ahab and Jezebel), that a gross spiritual crisis had come to the majority in Israel. These two rulers had brought the spiritual worth of Israel so low that only the message of the prophet Elijah could bring revival and reformation. It was their only chance for salvation and salvation would only come to those who accepted the message, with the whole heart, no matter how severe it seemed.

“Alas, how had the glory of Israel departed! Never before had the chosen people of God fallen so low in apostasy . . . Nothing short of the miracleworking power of God could preserve the nation from utter destruction. Israel had voluntarily separated herself from Jehovah, yet the Lord in compassion still yearned after those who had been led into sin, and He was about to send them one of the mightiest of His prophets, through whom many were to be led back to allegiance to the God of their fathers.” Prophets and Kings, 116. [Emphasis supplied.]

It is amazing that the vast majority, even many who claim to continue in the historical paths, do not seem to realize that the Elijah message, with all its seeming harshness, is the chosen method of redemption for certain levels of apostasy. It is incredible that many who support historic Adventism still want to change the methods of God, and either water down the message or do away with it all together, calling and treating it as something sinful.

Our need to be honest with the Elijah message is paramount if we will ever have any hope for salvation. First of all we should admit that it is God who is calling for the Elijah message and not men who have nothing better to do than go around shouting at everybody. We must understand that it is God’s plan to use men to give this message, men of His own choosing. These men will not find the job any more agreeable than did the prophet whose name the message bears. The job is so disagreeable that God has a hard time finding anyone who will do it and that is why there have been so few throughout the earth’s history who have taken on the task. After we have properly analyzed these truths, we must ask God to give us the conviction and the courage to support the message and the messengers that God Himself has raised up to give His message. We must not find ourselves fighting against God while professing to serve Him. To continue to do this would lead to self-deception so deep and so dark that one becomes eternally blinded to the light before him. The role of Elijah is the one of a man who fights the depths of apostasy head on and in the very strongholds of hell. He does this because he has been equipped to do so by the God Who is the author of the message he gives and because he wishes God’s people to live and not die. The reason the love of these messengers is so easily misunderstood is because it is not based on feeling but an abiding principle that most people have rejected.

“As Elijah saw Israel going deeper and deeper into idolatry, his soul was distressed and his indignation aroused.” Prophets and Kings, 119.

“To Elijah was entrusted the mission of delivering to Ahab Heaven’s message of judgment. He did not seek to be the Lord’s messenger; the word of the Lord came to him. And jealous for the honor of God’s cause, he did not hesitate to obey the divine summons, though to obey seemed to invite swift destruction at the hand of the wicked King.” Prophets and Kings, 120, 121.

Even though the words of Elijah were coming true before Israel’s very eyes, they would not repent of their apostasy. But can we truthfully say anything different about present day Israel? Although much evidence continues to come forth explaining and bringing the apostasy of modern-day Israel into clear focus, how many have allowed themselves to judge honestly the truth set before them. How many have repented of their stubbornness or rebelliousness toward the God of truth? We are repeating the same history as our ancient counterparts.

Those in power, those who were encouraging the “New Theology” and “Celebration Worship” of their day, not only refused the invitation of the Lord to repentance but went further into the depth of their apostasy agenda—an agenda to ruin Adventism from the inside out. It would be advantageous for us to recognize that when Jezebel could not kill the Elijah message by seeking out and destroying the one who gave it, she then set out to kill all those who supported it. Dear friends, do you realize that the Lord has been most gracious by giving us this true story from history? Why do you suppose He wanted us to have it? Could it be because He knows that we are repeating the history of man from the inside of “the church” and we are on a course that will bring the same results.

God has given us all the power and moral right of personal choice in all these matters. But having the right to make a choice should not be understood as having the benefit of choice without its corresponding consequences. We can, and most do, choose to ignore or willfully disbelieve that God means what He says. We can choose to believe that God loves us “too much” to destroy us in our sins. But this choice totally ignores the fact that God loves us and everyone too much not to punish sin. God has proven His love in a myriad of ways, not the least of which is giving His Son to die and giving us the freedom to choose our own way. But those who think that God would ignore what has happened over the last six thousand years with the sin problem that has >brought devastation to heaven and this earth, and killed His Son, are covered with self so heavily that they either will not or cannot think logically. Why would God sacrifice the safety of the entire universe because He loves us “too much” to get rid of sin and sinners who refuse the better life of victory? The only reason we sin is because we love it more than we love God. So, in reality, it is not God’s love which is in question but who or what the sinner loves.

The apostasy of ancient Adventists and modern Israel was and is so deep and so dark that the only way for people to have a real opportunity for life is through the Elijah message. If this were not so, then why would God choose it? It will serve its intended purpose, but far too many people look toward the unconverted among us and, because of a lack of response from the crowd, blame the Elijah message. This is not only a misguided conclusion but can be fatal if not discontinued. The apparent failure or division is never the fault of the truth, but of a rebellion against the truth! Even in the face of apparent failure, true faith dictates that the Elijah message will succeed.

“God had sent messengers to Israel, with appeals to return to their allegiance. Had they heeded these appeals, had they turned from Baal to the living God, Elijah’s message of judgment would never have been given. But the warnings that might have been a savor of life unto life had proved to them a savor of death unto death. Their pride had been wounded, their anger had been aroused against the messengers, and now they regarded with intense hatred the prophet Elijah . . . In the face of the calamity they continued to stand firm in their idolatry. Thus they were adding to the guilt that had brought the judgments of Heaven upon the land.” Prophets and Kings, 127–128.

“I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen, and was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans. This will have its effect upon the heart of the receiver, and will lead him to exalt the standard and pour forth the straight truth. Some will not bear this straight testimony. They will rise up against it, and this will cause a shaking among God’s people.” Testimonies, vol.1, 181.

Two things we can see in the above quotations for sure. The Elijah message, in the face of great spiritual darkness among God’s chosen people, and their hatred for truth, will fulfill its intended purpose. The Elijah message, the pouring forth of the straight testimony, will receive decided opposition from those that hate its exposure and this rebellion is what causes the shaking—not the truth.

Elijah was under a heavy burden for his people who he wished to see come to salvation. He did not want to see them die. He took on the terrible task before him because he knew that it was God’s message and not his own. He accepted the calling because he believed that the message would accomplish the purpose God intended it to and he was willing to leave the consequences with God.

Because God has seen fit to place this event in the written history of the Bible we can have confidence that He knows what He is doing. Just as the Elijah message met the crisis thousands of years ago it will have the same results today. There was nothing that anyone did or could do in the days of Elijah to stop the message given and today, when we find ourselves steeped in apostasy for one last time, is there anything that anyone can do to stop God from His work? It may be true that few who now call themselves Adventists will respond, and certainly the majority of those in the Adventist movement will end up being the most aggressive in seeing to it that the true and faithful are exterminated if possible. However, our faith must not be like that of the apostate or the half-educated infidel, but instead like that of the prophet who, with child-like faith, does what God asks of him even though it might be disagreeable.

Let us never forget that “we have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.” Life Sketches, 196. Let us remember that Elijah is now in heaven and represents those who with his message will be translated without seeing death. Let us be wise unto salvation and press toward the mark of our high calling, with confidence in the Author and Finisher of our faith.

 

Spiritism in the Adventist Church, part 1

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The close links of Spiritism with the New Theology are rarely perceived by most Seventh-day Adventists. Many have failed to recognize that the sin-and-live theology is the most pervasive form of Spiritism in the world and the church. It was the sin-and-live theology that was presented to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden by Satan. Eve was told that if she disobeyed God by eating of the tree, she would not surely die, but would still live. Today, using all the cunning and sophistries accumulated in six thousand years of experimentation, Satan is presenting, in the most winning and persuasive way, the same concept that men and women can continue to sin until Jesus comes, and still be saved in the kingdom of heaven. As he makes his presentations, he is able to express the majority of his sophistries in truly dramatic ways though his servants. The final deception will be “confirmed” through his own impersonation of Christ. He will pretend loving and winning sentiments that only the very elect will resist.

Satan cannot bring himself to acknowledge the law of God. This law represents the very character of God. It is the transcript of that character. This is the character that Satan has maligned and has claimed is arbitrary and unloving. Therefore it is on this point alone that we can tell the difference between Satan’s army and Christ’s ambassadors. While the servants of Christ will point men and women to the sacred law of God and to the power of victory over sin that Christ provides through His death and ministry, the ambassadors of Satan will deny the saving power of Christ.

“The prophet Isaiah brings to view the fearful deception which will come upon the wicked, causing them to count themselves secure from the judgments of God: ‘We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.’ In the class here described are included those who in their stubborn impenitence comfort themselves with the assurance that there is to be no punishment for the sinner; that all mankind, it matters not how corrupt, are to be exalted to heaven, to become as the angels of God. But still more emphatically are those making a covenant with death and an agreement with hell, who renounce the truths which Heaven has provided as a defense for the righteous in the day of trouble, and accept the refuge of lies offered by Satan in its stead—the delusive pretensions of Spiritualism.” The Great Controversy, 560–561.

One has only to walk through the cemetery of any churchyard in the Christian world to realize the truth of this statement. It is almost impossible to find a tombstone which reads “Gone to hell.” Most seem to have made their way to heaven. There are many such assurances as “At home with the Lord,” “With Jesus,” or “Resting in Peace” engraved on many gravestones. It would seem that death brings instant sanctification, and that somehow, irrespective of how profligate the life may have been, the individual is instantaneously ready for the kingdom of heaven. However, such thinking is truly a covenant with death. The idea of Universalism, that all will be saved no matter what abominations they committed, is a fatal deception. The vast majority of supposed Christians will be shocked when, in the second resurrection, they recognize that that resurrection is not unto life but unto eternal destruction. While most Seventh-day Adventists do not espouse Universalism, nevertheless, a casual attitude to occasional sin will result in eternal loss by many expecting to be saved.

We believe that it is impossible for human beings to recognize the preparation that Satan has put into the deception of mankind. That satanic preparation is at least partially unveiled in the book, The Great Controversy.

“Satan has long been preparing for his final effort to deceive the world. The foundation of his work was laid by the assurance given to Eve in Eden: ‘Ye shall not surely die.’ ‘In the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’ Little by little he has prepared the way for his masterpiece of deception in the development of Spiritualism. He has not yet reached the full accomplishment of his designs; but it will be reached in the last remnant of time. Says the prophet: ‘I saw three unclean spirits like frogs; . . . they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.’ Except those who are kept by the power of God, through faith in His word, the whole world will be swept into the ranks of this delusion. The people are fast being lulled into a fatal security, to be awakened only by the outpouring of the wrath of God.” The Great Controversy, 561–562.

Satan has made an all-out effort to take control of the minds of people through the use of alcohol, mind-expanding and destroying drugs, music, permissive sexual relations, and pornographic and sadistic literature. While some of these things are not used by most members of the church, many are trapped by television and the misuse of the computer. These are mesmerizing the minds of men and women, and driving them deeper and deeper into carnal security while they are moving headlong into eternal destruction. We must not ignore the efforts of Satan to control every form of education. It is almost impossible today to carry on any course in a secular institution, and often in the institutions of the church, which is not undergirded by paganistic, spiritualistic, humanistic, New Age or evolutionary principles, all designed to deceive, and to derail the lives of unsuspecting human beings.

Spiritism reaches its greatest subtlety when Satan seeks to deceive those who are dedicated to Christ, who are members of the remnant. “As Spiritualism more closely imitates the nominal Christianity of the day, it has greater power to deceive and ensnare. Satan himself is converted, after the modern order of things. He will appear in the character of an angel of light. Through the agency of Spiritualism, miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and many undeniable wonders will be performed. And as the spirits will profess faith in the Bible, and manifest respect for the institutions of the church, their work will be accepted as a manifestation of divine power.” The Great Controversy 588.

The above statement was written especially for the fallen churches of Protestantism. As Seventh-day Adventism is drawn deeper and deeper into the ecumenical web, it faces the same dilemma, and the same consequences. People who have not fortified their minds with the Word of God, who have not taken the Bible, and the Bible only as their basis of practice, and who have listened to the sophistries of men rather than the pure word of truth, are drawn unsuspectingly into the deadly web of Satan.

No matter how subtle the attempt of Satan, no matter how perfectly he has laid his plans, there is no excuse for being deceived, no excuse for failing to stand firm, for the power of God is available to every human being without exception. The power of Christ is able to destroy every attempt of the evil one to undermine the confidence of our faith, and to lead us from the fold of Christ. We have been promised that He will not allow us to be taken out of His hand against our will. (John 10:28.) We know that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), and therefore, with those assurances, and providing we never forsake Him, our victory is assured.

There has been no time in the history of the world when vigilance has been more necessary than in these last moments of probationary time. Our appeal is for every reader to daily consecrate himself to God and to the finishing of His work through witnessing to those who otherwise are moving in the pathway of death. The God of heaven patiently and longingly is waiting for His people to reflect His character so that Jesus might come to take us home to live with Him. “When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 69.

 

Spiritism and Celebration

 

Our first intimation of the movement now referred to as the “Celebration” movement within the Adventist Church goes back to the beginning of the 1980s when a pastor Eion Giller began what some people thought was an unusually Pentecostal type of worship form in the Hillview Church near Avondale College. Of course this association with the Pentecostal movement was denied, but nevertheless there were some of the evidences of it: the expressive activities commonly associated with that movement.

The next alarm was sensed by Colin when, on a tour of Europe in 1987, he was told of charismatic Adventists in France and then met about a dozen of them when the Hartland Bible Conference was being held in the Central Church in Rome. It was at that point that we wrote the chapter on Pentecostalism in the book, Keepers of the Faith, and in so doing we were able to get a warning out prior to the movement becoming an established movement within the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

But with the introduction of such churches as the Colton Church in the Southeastern Conference, and the Milwaukee Church, Portland, in the Oregon Conference, and the Buffalo Church in the New York Conference (by the way, initially under the leadership of Dr. Eion Giller), and of the Cherrybrook Church in Sydney, it was clear that not a small effort was going to be made to bring the elements of the charismatic movement and its sister, Pentecostalism, into the church.

We were alarmed when the church leaders at the General Conference level were to repeatedly declare they could not evaluate this form of worship; that they had to wait and see, for they did not have sufficient information to make a decision. It would seem that such was rather a means of allowing the movement to develop to such an extent that there would be no way of turning it back. Those with spiritual discernment saw from the very beginning that this was nothing short of the Pentecostal and spiritualistic movement that we as a church had fought against constantly over the decades. But now it was becoming more and more a part of the church. The usual denials began to flood in when churches began to move in this direction.

The pastors were urging their churches toward Celebration services, while assuring them that it wasn’t Pentecostal or charismatic, but those who looked at what was taking place had not the slightest doubt that this was the Pentecostal movement being subtly and not-so-subtly introduced into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Eventually, numerous churches began to be pressured in this direction. Some eagerly accepted this form of “worship”; others with some reservations accepted it. Still others were forced into it with many of the members clear on what was taking place, yet apparently impotent to do anything about it. The tragedy is that so many leaders, even perhaps somewhat opposed to it, keep denying the extent of this movement. There are hundreds of Seventh-day Adventist churches that have started on the pathway of the charismatic movement. Some have not reached the maturity that some of the early ones have, but they certainly have begun the pathway and we can be certain that Satan will bring them more and more into the full-fledged charismatic movement as he is able.

The whole presentation has been subtle. Colin overheard a dialogue at the General Conference session where men who were obviously supportive, and maybe leaders in the charismatic movement, were stating that the word “Celebration” had now acquired a negative connotation and that perhaps we should not use the term. This, of course, was meant to derail the efforts of faithful Adventists from identifying the charismatic movement when it came into the church. But no matter whether it is called Celebration or not, it is still the intrusion of Satan’s charismatic movement. Leaders and laity alike should have been forewarned. The counsel is clear.

“The things you have described as taking place in Indiana, the Lord has shown me would take place just before the close of probation. Every uncouth thing will be demonstrated. There will be shouting, with drums, music, and dancing. The senses of rational beings will become so confused that they cannot be trusted to make right decisions. And this is called the moving of the Holy Spirit.

“The Holy Spirit never reveals itself in such methods, in such a bedlam of noise. This is an invention of Satan to cover up his ingenious methods for making of none effect the pure, sincere, elevating, ennobling, sanctifying truth for this time. Better never have the worship of God blended with music than to use musical instruments to do the work which last January was represented to me would be brought into our camp meetings.” Selected Messages, vol.2, 36.

“I will not go into all the painful history; it is too much. But last January the Lord showed me that erroneous theories and methods would be brought into our camp meetings, and that the history of the past would be repeated. I felt greatly distressed. I was instructed to say that at these demonstrations demons in the form of men are present, working with all the ingenuity that Satan can employ to make the truth disgusting to sensible people; that the enemy was trying to arrange matters so that the camp meetings, which have been the means of bringing the truth of the Third Angel’s Message before multitudes, should lose their force and influence. . . .

“The Holy Spirit has nothing to do with such a confusion of noise and multitude of sounds as passed before me last January. Satan works amid the din and confusion of such music, which, properly conducted, would be a praise and glory to God. He makes its effect like the poison sting of the serpent.” Ibid., 37.

It will be noted from these statements that this movement is not under the power of the Holy Spirit, but under the power of another spirit—Satan. Therefore it is only right that faithful Adventists do not attend such churches. Our counsel is that such members look for churches where the pastors preach present truth and where they have the stirring, soul-searching messages that God has designed for this time, with the inspiring hymns of dedication, and they teach the members to lovingly serve their fellow men and train them to witness of the great message of salvation.

It is of the greatest danger for us to go deliberately into Satan’s territory. Neither one of the authors is willing to attend, knowingly, a Celebration church because of the knowledge that these churches are of Satan. We should not even allow curiosity to lead us in that direction. If Celebration is coming to your church, you have a responsibility to speak out, to urge and to counsel. But if there is no response to your counsel, and the majority of the people are determined to go with it, or lock-step follow the recommendations of the pastor in that direction, you have no alternative but to leave that church and to look for another place to worship. If there are no churches in the area, you are forced into a branch Sabbath School if that is possible, or even into home worships. This is not denying your membership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. On the contrary, it is a very important indication that you will not move away from the truth and that you are being a faithful Seventh-day Adventist.

Those who are parents of children must be especially careful. They have a responsibility not to allow their children to go to such services, for they may be led away from salvation under the influence of Satan. Colin had the tragic experience the Sabbath before Christmas, 1990, to attend with his wife and family a church in Perth, Australia. The children were sent to the Primary and Kindergarten Sabbath School respectively. You can imagine Colin’s and his wife, Cheryl’s, consternation when the children of these divisions gave special music and they sang a rock Christmas carol with much jumping about and clapping and celebration-type behavior. Of course, their children had not learned this song, but as might be expected, they were trying to do what the other children were doing. How tragic such an experience is. Parents now must carefully evaluate that the Sabbath School to which they are sending their children is a fit place for them to learn the wonderful messages of God.

In August, 1989, Russell attended a church in Melbourne, Australia. He had known the church in earlier times and was surprised to find it only about one-third full.

The following week there was a transformation. The church was full. The difference was astounding. After Sabbath School a young man, dressed extremely casually, lounged on the lectern and invited the congregation to sing some choruses projected on a screen. After about ten minutes of singing, an elder came up and made an announcement. Thereafter another ten minutes of the singing of projected choruses ensued. At this point the “pastoral prayer” was announced. For the first time it dawned on Russell that we were already twenty minutes into the “divine service” and the song leader was the young pastor. The singing, interrupted once more by a children’s story and the offering, had a duration of fifty minutes. The final ten minutes of the service were devoted to a short homily by the pastor, a special item and benediction. Russell had received his first introductory lesson in Celebration.

At the conclusion of the service one senior member remarked to Russell, “It’s wonderful when this young pastor comes, he brings all these young people with him and fills up our church. They come from all over Melbourne and follow him wherever he preaches.” Some may have thought that these young people were being spiritually fed, but Russell concluded that they were on starvation rations.

We are spending large sums of money to train our ministers in the Celebration methodology. In the Ministries Department of the seminary there is a strong training program encouraging Celebration type services. Many of our pastors and leaders from Australia and New Zealand have been taken on tours to the United States where they not only visit the more “advanced” charismatic churches of Adventism, but they attend and dialogue with pastors from non-Adventist charismatic and Pentecostal churches. It is hard to imagine that God’s sacred money could be used to train our ministers away from the great purpose of God and towards the banner of Satan.

The tragedy is that few of the laity are rising up to ask for an absolute halt. In 1991 a four-day worship seminar was held mainly for ministers in the United States. Many pastors attended it, including some from Australia. There is only one answer to this. In spite of leaders frequently saying they are waiting to see the results, they are indeed supporting these changes in worship form. Do such leaders have a right to continue as the guardians of the flock? They have betrayed their trust and they have allowed their ministry to come under the power of another spirit.

Colin could not have helped but notice some of the seminars offered by the Potamac Conference in Convention ‘91, November 1 and 2, that were promoting New Age philosophy. For example, “What you see is what you are, Christians can use meditation and visualization for peak mental health—learn how!”

In the same set of seminars, participants could attend “Batman’s Action-packed perspective of Sabbath School programming. Action—one of Batman’s trademarks. Today young people need to learn by doing, not just hearing. What is active learning and how can you use it to reach your kids? In this seminar you will hear and do activities which you can use with your Juniors, Earliteens and Youth on the following Sabbath!”

Any faithful Seventh-day Adventist will be distressed by the use of a worldly television program such as Batman as a basis for training for Sabbath School class teachers. Is it any wonder then that one of the other seminars was, “How my Sunday School can help your Sabbath School.” Or that we have another seminar by a non-Adventist presenter, “Growing kids spiritually in an unspiritual world. How come young people of the Baptist Church have such strong denominational loyalty, faith and values? Why are they so much stronger than our kids?”

To every perceptive Adventist the reason is simple. We are no longer presenting the challenges of the Three Angels’ Messages to our young people; we are no longer training them in selfless service for God and man; we are presenting to them the egocentric concepts of the world, rather than the power of God. One is also alarmed to see our great university churches, whether it be Loma Linda University Church, Pioneer Memorial Church at Andrews University, or the Sligo Church at Columbia Union College, all moving at least in one service to the Celebration format.

For example, the Pioneer Memorial Church at Andrews University put out its little brochure, “Sabbath Sunburst Celebration Saturday mornings at 8:45 a.m. Come fellowship with the Son, let Him burst across your horizon. A new dimension for your Sabbaths. Praise. Music. Fellowship. The spirit of worship, the song of encounter, the simplicity of celebration. Or choose the 11:20 service and experience the grandeur of traditional worship—the same inspirational preaching at both.”

With tragic clarity our young people are being thrown into the arms of Satan’s counterfeit and few seem to know it. Colin was concerned at the report that he received while in Brisbane at the end of 1991, where the congregation had sung the pagan hymn, “Let us break bread together on our knees.” But as the people were leaving for foot washing the pastor continued to sing, according to some who were witnesses there, “Let us break God together on our knees.” Brother Lin Harmon made this comment, “At that juncture my wife and I segregated and went home as did some others.” What a tragedy that men and women are forced to go home because of the intrusion of erroneous Catholic doctrines within the church.

Nor can one remain unmoved by the service at the La Sierra University Church the end of October, 1991. Here the program contained the ecumenical words on the front of the program, “A liturgy celebration unity in diversity.” There is no such thing as unity in diversity. Unity is in truth, unadulterated and uncontaminated. After reading some good scriptures and singing some good hymns, the program tragically moved into human words. For example, “In Thee, in me,” translated from the Sanskrit by Mohandas Gandhi. The pantheistic spiritualism of Gandhi came through very quickly in the words used in this liturgical service. “In Thee, in me, in all persons, there dwelleth the one God.”

Any Christian knows that God does not invade humanity without their permission. Revelation 3 portrays Christ as standing at the door of our hearts and knocking, and if we open the door He will come in. But pantheism believes that God is in everything and in every human being. It was this pantheism of Kellogg that God declared to be spiritualism, and yet this liturgy could be presented. Other messages were presented from John Donne, the sixteenth century English poet, “No man is an island.” Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Strength to Love by Martin Luther King, Jr., the Peaceable Kingdom by Stanley Hauer was, but strangely no words from God’s end-time prophet. The folk who gave Colin the program left when a woman danced an extended liturgical dance during the divine service hour. How can it be that God’s church has fallen so far and so fully into these idolatrous practices? We are repulsed by the paganism of the Israelites and the Jews and yet we ourselves have walked headlong into the same paganistic practices.

Not only is the Celebration movement seen in the use of rock and hypnotic music, but it is seen in the entertainment that is flooding into our church with comedians holding services on Sabbath such as was held on the Friday evening at the Arco Center in Sacramento the end of October, 1991. Also “clown ministry” and “miming” are in common use today in church worship.

The spiritual becomes the profane; the holy becomes corrupted; the sanctified becomes secular. How tragic are the consequences of these activities. And yet many blindly move forward saying that this is the leading of God to help our youth stay in the church. Is it any wonder that we in the Western world are losing three-quarters of our youth from the Adventist Church? Is it any wonder that we are finding our youth growing up into self-centered, pleasure seeking young people who know not the principles of the truth and who are unready for the mighty work that God has called them to fulfill?

Now is surely a day to call our people back to true worship, the worship of the God of heaven, not the worship of the false god of Satan.

 

Present Position and Work

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Seventh-day Adventists are charged with making the Sabbath a test. And some will have it that we denounce and reject all who do not believe as we do. It is true that we teach that God is testing the people by His law. But we deny the charge that we denounce and reject those who differ from us. Our course toward all men whom we can reach with our publications, our sermons and our entreaties, proves the charge false. We beseech all men, without respect to profession of religion, color, or rank in society, to turn from their sins, keep God’s commandments and live. And we manifest a zeal and earnestness in this matter somewhat in proportion to the importance of the testing message we bear. And because our testimony is pointed and earnest, condemning those who choose to pass along with the popular current and violate the law of God, some are disturbed, and with feelings of retaliation, falsely charge us. It is not our work to test, condemn, and denounce, the people. It is not in our hearts to unnecessarily injure the feelings of any. But with our present convictions of truth and duty, we should do great violence to our own consciences, and sin against God, should we cease to declare to the people the purpose of God in testing the world by His law, just before the day of wrath. …

But if the Sabbath is not a test, it is not worth our while to go to the trouble of teaching and observing it in the face of decided opposition. If we can be as good Christians while breaking the fourth commandment, as while keeping it, should we not at once seek to be in harmony with the rest of the Christian world? Why be so odd as to obey the commandment of God, if one can be as good a Christian while living in violation of it? And there are frequent inconveniences, and pecuniary sacrifices, to be suffered by those who are so particular concerning the observance of the fourth commandment. If the Sabbath is of so little importance as not to be a test of Christian fellowship and eternal salvation; if men who break the Sabbath should be embraced in our fellowship the same as if they observed it; and if they can reach Heaven as surely in violating the fourth commandment as in keeping it; why not abandon it at once, and cease to agitate the public mind with a question of no real importance which is so unpleasant and annoying.

Seventh-day Adventists believe that in the restoration of the Bible Sabbath, under the last message of mercy, God designs to make it a test to the people. Hence many of them labor with earnestness to teach it, and are ready to make any sacrifices in order to observe it, and do their duty in teaching it to others. Convince them that it is not a test, and they will not trouble the people nor themselves longer with it. But should they give the people to understand that they regard the Sabbath of so little importance as not to be a test, “the sword of the Spirit,” on that subject at least, would become in their hands as powerless as a straw. They could not then convict the people upon this subject. Indeed their position before the people, in earnestly calling their attention to a subject that is of so little importance as not to constitute a test of Christian character, and which would subject them to a heavy cross, much inconvenience, sacrifice, and reproach, would be but little less than solemn mockery. With our present view of the importance of the subject, we have a sufficient reason for earnestly urging the claims of the fourth commandment upon our fellow-men.

The remarks of Elder J. N. Andrews in reference to the Sabbatarians of England in the seventeenth century, have so direct a bearing upon this subject that I give the following from his History of the Sabbath, pp. 335, 336:

“The laws of England during that century were very oppressive to all dissenters from the established church, and bore exceedingly hard upon the Sabbath-keepers. Yet fine, imprisonment, and even capital punishment, would not have proved sufficient to suppress the Sabbath. It was in the house of its own friends that the Sabbath was wounded. In the seventeenth century eleven churches of Sabbatarians flourished in England, while many scattered Sabbath-keepers were to be found in various parts of that kingdom. Now but three of those churches are in existence. It was not the lack of able men among the Sabbath-keepers to defend the truth, not the fierce assaults of their persecutors, that has thus reduced them to a handful. The fault is their own, not indeed for any disgraceful conduct on their part, but simply because they made the Sabbath of no practical importance, and lowered the standard of divine truth on this thing to the dust. The Sabbath-keeping ministers assumed the pastoral care of first-day churches, in some cases as their sole charge, in others they did this in connection with the oversight of Sabbatarian churches. The result need surprise no one; as both ministers and people said to all men, in thus acting, that the fourth commandment might be broken with impunity, the people took them at their word.”

Seventh-day Adventists have nothing to boast of. God has often reproved and chastised us for unfaithfulness. And when we have returned to Him, and humbly and faithfully battled for the truth, amid reproaches and persecutions, He has greatly blessed us. Nothing is so much to be dreaded as that calm which is the result of tempering unpopular, testing truth to the ears of the people so as not to offend. Rather let the reproach come, and the storm rage, if it be the result of speaking the truth of God in love.

As a people we have had our difficulties to surmount, our trials to bear, and our victories to gain. We are gathered from Methodists, Regular Baptists, Freewill Baptists, Seventh-day Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Dutch Reform, Disciples, Christians, Lutherans, United Brethren, Catholics, Universalists, Worldlings, and Infidels. We are composed of native Americans, English, Welsh, Scotch, Irish, French, Germans, Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Poles, and others. To bring together a body composed of such material, affected more or less by the religious sentiments, and forms of the several denominations, with all their national peculiarities, has called for much patient, and persevering toil. And it is by the grace of God that we are what we are. And let His name be praised that in our darkest hours, when we have humbled ourselves, He has ever come to our aid.

From their past brief history Seventh-day Adventists may learn much as to their present work and future prospects. When in humility they have borne a decided testimony in the fear of God, their labors have been signally blessed. When they have been willing to bear the cross of present truth, and sacrifice time, convenience and means to advance the work, they have shared the approving smiles of Heaven. They have seen that nothing can keep the body in a healthy condition but the plain and pointed testimony. This will do the work of purification, either by purging their sins, or separating from them the unconsecrated and rebellious. Let the result be what it may, such testimony must be borne, or this people will fall as others have fallen. And terrible would be their fall, after having so clear light, and having had committed to them so sacred a trust as the last message of mercy to sinners.

From the past we may also learn what to expect in the future, in the line of persecution. Satan has been angry because this people have been seeking for the “old paths,” that they might walk therein. He has been especially disturbed as they have plead for the restoration of the Sabbath, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. If the people be taught that God is testing them upon the Sabbath, and that they should listen to the testimony of Jesus, in the spirit of prophecy, which reproves their sins, and calls on them to consecrate themselves and what they possess to the Lord, we may depend upon it, the ire of the dragon will be stirred. This we have witnessed and suffered in proportion to our faithfulness in the work. When we have borne a pointed testimony, we have been the especial objects of the wrath of the dragon; but with it have also shared largely the blessing of God. When we have been unfaithful, the dragon has been comparatively quiet, but we have suffered leanness of soul. And thus we may expect it will be for time to come.

The position of suspense is not the most happy one. Those who wait for the return of the Lord in uncertainty as to the definite period of His second advent, are in danger of becoming restless. Hence the application of certain texts to this time, and to the people who are waiting for their Lord. “Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise” (Hebrews 10:36). “Be ye also patient, stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:8). “Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).

In such a position, how natural the often-repeated inquiry, “How long before the Lord will come?” But no definite answer can be given to this inquiry. And it is best that this question cannot be definitely answered. Definite time has answered the purpose of God. It brought the Advent people to the waiting time, requiring great patience. Throughout this entire period of the patience of the saints, the only safe position is to keep the coming of Christ ever before us, and to regulate all our acts in full view of the terrible realities of the Judgment. To put off the coming of the Lord, and view that event in the distance, and enter into the spirit of the world, would be dangerous in the extreme. It is true that there are prophecies to be fulfilled, just prior to the coming of the Lord; but their fulfillment is of such a nature that it can be realized in a short time. Unbelief may suggest that as the time has continued longer than the waiting ones expected, it may still continue many years. But saving faith takes the safe position, and views the event at the door. This fact should ever be borne in mind, that while we have no means of showing that the Lord will come at an immediate definite point, no one can prove that He may not very soon come. And while it cannot be proved that the Lord will not very soon come, I will call attention to the following facts which show that the second advent cannot be a distant event.

  1. The three messages constitute a solemn warning to the world to prepare for the coming of Christ. The closing division of this great warning is a test to the world and ripens the harvest of the earth. Those who receive the warning and prepare for the coming of the Lord, are ripened by it for immortality. Those who reject it, are ripened for the day of slaughter.
  2. The warning given by Noah, the manner his message was treated, and the wrath of God in a flood of water, illustrate the closing events of the present state of things (Matthew 24:37). God did not call this preacher of righteousness to warn the next to the last generation before the flood, but the very last. The very generation which drank the waters of the flood, saw Noah build the ark, and heard his warning voice. How absurd the supposition that Noah built the ark, and gave his warning message in the time of next to the last generation, so that those who heard his message and saw his work, passed into the grave, and the ark went to decay, and their children came upon the stage of action to witness unwarned terrors of the flood.
  3. The last great warning was to be given to the last generation of men. The very ones who hear it, receive it, obey it, and are waiting for the Lord, will exclaim, as the Son of man shall return with His angels down the blazing vault of heaven, “Lo! this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us” (Isaiah 25:9). And the very men who reject the warning, and justly merit the wrath of God, will also witness the second advent in flaming fire with terror and anguish. This warning is not given to next to the last generation, but to the very last. Then, as certain as the great warning, illustrated by the three messages of Revelation 14 has been, and is being given in our day, just so certain the generation that has heard the warning will witness the day of wrath, and the revelation of the Son of God from Heaven. One of two things is certain; either Seventh-day Adventists are wrong in the application of the messages, or Christ is very soon coming. If they are correct in their application of the great warning, then the very men who hear it will witness its terrible realities.

 

“Verily I say unto you,” says Christ, “this generation shall not pass away, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:34, 35). We do not believe that the word generation marks any definite number of years. The Lord designed to teach that the people who should live at the time of the fulfillment of the last sign mentioned (falling stars of 1833), and should hear the proclamation of the coming of Christ, based partly upon the fulfilled signs, should witness the scenes connected with His coming. God has raised up men to give the solemn warning to the world at the right time. The signs were fulfilled at the right time to give force to the warning. And the very generation of men that live after the three great signs are fulfilled, and who hear and reject the warning message, will drink the unmingled cup of the wrath of God. And those of this very generation who receive the message, suffer disappointment and endure the trails of the waiting position, will witness the coming of Christ, and exclaim, “Lo! this is our God, we have waited for Him.”

Dear reader, if watchful and faithful to duty, we shall very soon enter the harbor of eternal rest. Keep a good look-out. Oh, be not deceived, and overcome by the world, the flesh, and the Devil. True faith forbids your looking into the future, and laying plans for the benefit of the next generation. It shuts you up to the present. But it is to be feared that those who are employing their physical and mental forces to accumulate wealth for their children, while they are neglecting their duty to the cause of present truth, and do not give themselves and families time to seek and serve God, are making a terrible mistake. They not only fail to help the cause, and fail to walk with God, and fail to exert the best influence in their own families, but their influence in professing so solemn and definite a position as that the present is the period for the third and last solemn warning, while in works they deny their faith, is decidedly against the cause.

The world exhibits madness in grasping for wealth. A spirit of insanity has taken hold of men upon the subject of worldly gain; and many who profess present truth are more or less imbued with it. With those who do not fear God and keep His commandments, and are not looking for the soon coming of His Son, this is what might be expected. But with Seventh-day Adventists there is no excuse. With them it is insanity and madness. Why should they accumulate wealth for their children? Should the Lord remain away a hundred years, wealth handed down to them would be their almost certain ruin. Look to the history of truly good and great men. Have they sprung up amid wealth? Or have they come from families trained in the school of poverty and want? Read the histories of the early lives of Martin Luther and Abraham Lincoln. Both were poor boys. But they both became great men, by facing want, grappling with poverty, and overcoming those obstacles ever lying in the path of want. Such a struggle in early life gave them experience, and was the safeguard of their purity. While the names of these good men are embalmed in the memory and affection of the people, those of hundreds, who received riches from their parents, have rotted, because money was in the way of their doing what they should have done, and being what they might have been. Setting aside the coming of the Lord, there is no more certain ruin to the children than for them to look to, and lean upon, their parents’ wealth.

But what can be said of the influence of those brethren who profess to believe that the last great warning to the world is being given, yet devote their entire energies to accumulating wealth for their children? What can be the influence upon their children? Is it not to lead them to love this world? to put off the coming of the Lord? to neglect the necessary preparation? Are they not taking a course directly to shut them out of the kingdom of Heaven? And is there any hope of the salvation of either parents or children while pursuing such an inconsistent course? Without the faith of the soon coming of the Lord, they are pursuing a course to secure their ruin. With this faith, while pursuing a course to deny it in work, they are making that ruin certain.

The short period of probation remaining should be improved in laying up treasure in Heaven, and seeking that preparation necessary to its enjoyment in the next life. Parents, I entreat you, live out the precious Advent faith before your children. Lead them to Jesus, and teach them by your faith and works to secure a preparation for His coming. Let your influence in favor of truth and holiness extend to all around, that it may be said of you, “Well done, good and faithful servant; … enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:23).

Life Incidents in Connection with the Great Advent Movement, 332–342.

Thanks to Ecumenism

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For the past several months, we have looked at the long history of the apostasy, which has been with us since the earliest times. The majority, who were in apostasy in each generation, never wanted to face their own stubbornness and rebellion. Those who revealed their apostasy have always been mocked, insulted and rejected, because they wished to remain faithful to God’s plan and not man’s. As we continue to bring this history forward, we think it wise, along the way, not to let all the evidence of the present slip away as we look at the past. With this in mind we break from our progressive path and stand on present-day soil as we take a look at the lay of the land around us.

Thanks to Ecumenism we have a frightening drop in conversions. Thanks to Ecumenism the entire concept of the “Church Militant” has been practically obliterated. Thanks to Ecumenism we are one giant step closer to a One World Church. Thanks to Ecumenism we are one giant step closer to a One World Government. Thanks to Ecumenism we have the demonic New Age Movement making inroads into the Church, manifesting itself primarily in the absurd teaching: “Jesus did not know that He was God until He was baptized by John the Baptist and received the Christ consciousness.” Thanks to Ecumenism we have prayer gatherings with Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and Moslems, all who deny the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Thanks to Ecumenism we have downplayed the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ which acknowledges that all governments and all authorities ultimately receive their power of government and jurisdiction from Christ, and are therefore answerable to Him and His Divine Law. Thanks to Ecumenism we have practically every heresy that ever existed within the very bosom of the Church. Thanks to Ecumenism we may ask ourselves, how will our Church ever be in a position to condemn new errors when it has become so buddy-buddy with the old ones? Thanks to Ecumenism we have an “emperor’s new clothes” situation where fraudulent tailors have adorned the Church in the apparel of ecumenism, and there are no dignitaries to be found who will admit “the Church has been stripped naked.”

Before we move on I want you to know that the long paragraph above is not of my own creation. Certainly the words above are true and whoever wrote them is very concerned about what is going on within their church. Cathy and I have been making the claim for a long time that what is

happening within the structure of the Adventist movement and its devastating effects are felt now by all mainline churches around the world. We will continue with “Thanks to Ecumenism” for a further demonstration of this point. Hang on to your hat though, because the words will shortly give the secret of the source away, and you will be surprised!

Thanks to Ecumenism we have a Protestantized liturgy. Thanks to Ecumenism we have Protestantized sacraments. Thanks to Ecumenism we have more and more Catholics leaving the Faith to embrace Protestantism. Thanks to Ecumenism we have Communion-in-the-hand and lay-ministers of the Eucharist, both considered sacrilegious and totally unthinkable only twenty-five years ago. Thanks to Ecumenism we have our Church leaders holding “prayer-services” with non-Catholic religions of all sorts . . . baptizing and canonizing the predominant heresy that “one religion is as good as another,” and causing great scandal and bewilderment among the faithful. Thanks to Ecumenism we have the dilution of essential Catholic dogmas necessary for salvation. Thanks to Ecumenism we have the Charismatic Movement within the Church, having its roots in Protestantism and Spiritualism, and always considered antithetical to Catholics.

Thanks to Ecumenism we have Protestant ministers and Jewish rabbis lecturing from our once Catholic pulpits and universities. Thanks to Ecumenism by the devotion to our Blessed Mother has been discouraged. Thanks to Ecumenism devotion to the Saints has been down-played. Thanks to Ecumenism the Rosary and many other traditional Catholic practices of piety have been falsely labeled “outmoded,” clearly a trick of Satan to keep us from receiving the great graces these devotions acquired. Thanks to Ecumenism our Holy Church has become more Protestantized and secularized, along with the fact that the Protestants are as Protestant as always, and the secular are more secular than ever!

Thanks to Ecumenism we have a great crisis of Faith among our priests and laity. Thanks to Ecumenism we have the “Spirit of Vatican II,” an evil and deceptive spirit employed to turn the Catholic Church upside down. [I hope you are paying attention!] Thanks to Ecumenism we have the 1962 Vatican-Moscow Agreement, whereas in order to be assured that observers of the Russian Orthodox Church would attend the Second Vatican Council, an agreement was made between Rome and Moscow that the Council would contain “no explicit condemnation of Communism.” This policy of “no direct condemnation of Communism” is still in force to this day.

Thanks to Ecumenism we no longer have offertory prayers which stress the sacrificial nature of the Mass, but new ecumenical offertory prayers offensive to no non-Catholic, and bearing a closer resemblance to a Jewish table blessing. Thanks to Ecumenism we have removed the altar rails. Thanks to Ecumenism we now stand for Holy Communion. Thanks to Ecumenism there has been a change as to what is the Mystery of Faith, whereas in the Old Liturgy, the “Mystery of Faith” clearly referred to the Transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord. In the New Liturgy, however, the “Mystery of Faith” is proclaimed as “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again”. . . a doctrine, unlike Transubstantiation, which is acceptable to Protestants. In the new liturgy, there is actually a choice of five mysteries of Faith, all of which are a little different . . . is there any wonder there is now so much doctrinal confusion?

Thanks to Ecumenism the tabernacles in many of our Churches have been taken off the main altar and placed on the side. Is the Holy Eucharist only a sideline of our Faith? Thanks to Ecumenism we have voided the interiors of our Catholic Churches with the sense of reverence and awe, strikingly present in all Catholic Churches before Vatican II. Thanks to Ecumenism “the Church is in a state of auto-demolition.” Thanks to Ecumenism the Catholic church has been placed on the same footing with every false religion on the face of the earth.

Thanks to Ecumenism the dogma that Outside the Church there is no salvation has not only been ignored, but sometimes vehemently fought against by “Catholic” priests and theologians. Thanks to Ecumenism we have Diocesan bishops “lending out their cathedrals” for the installation of Protestant bishops. Thanks to Ecumenism we have the humanistic “religion of reason” infiltrating our Faith, manifesting itself in sad sermons and insipid catechisms. Thanks to Ecumenism we have widespread rejection of many Catholic teachings of Faith and Morals. If pluralism is condoned outside the Church, what then is wrong with it within the household of Faith? Thanks to Ecumenism faithful Catholics who rightly criticize the catastrophic effects of modern ecumenism are labeled “disrespectful,” “dissident,” “rebellious” and “disobedient.” Finally, Thanks to Ecumenism we have indeed very little to be thankful for in the devastated vineyard of the Post Vatican II Church.

Yes, friends, some of us have been bringing forth mounds of evidence that the face of organized churches are changing around the globe. The above article is quite surprising as you consider it comes from a fully Catholic source! This paper was written and distributed by the Benedictine Monks of Most Holy Family Monastery. I was totally unaware, and perhaps you are too, that there is a “Remnant” within the Roman Catholic community who are screaming their heads off about how ecumenism is nothing more than a deception to gut historical Catholicism! Did you catch that? Now take just a moment and think about what is going on here. The Historic Catholic Remnant is calling this new movement of “Christian unity” and contemporary church phenomena exactly what it is—a sham! They are making the claim that all of this pluralism and lowering of the standards and buddying up with the different religions is eroding “true” Catholicism!

I did not even know that there was this kind of split in the Catholic Church. However, in the last few months we have learned that there are Catholic Churches that are now independent and who have priests that are openly preaching that the Pope is the man of sin and the anti-Christ! I know, because one of these little churches is located just three miles from our ministry. I also know that the priest preaches to his congregation that Pope John Paul II is the anti-Christ and he tells them that it is the apostasy plan of Vatican II that brought in the apostasy and caused this whole mess. He openly says that Vatican II is the selling out of the true Catholic Church to the Protestant world.

Brothers and sisters, this is quite amazing! Although we as Adventists have more specific details through inspiration than this priest does, he has recognized many truths about what the Ecumenical Movement is designed to do. It is high time we understand that if Roman Catholics can see these deceptions for what they are, then maybe we had better start taking life very seriously and get fully into the business of salvation—not only for ourselves but for others as well. I praise God that He is trying to show His people through many different avenues of evidence that the agenda of apostasy is just what a few of the historic Adventist ministries have been claiming it is.

I must point out something here that is very important for your consideration. I will do it in the form of a question. If the agenda of apostasy is what we and others have claimed it is, then what will happen to those who are running back to the churches that have an unsanctified unity? We must realize that nothing lies at the end of that road, but a dead end, and I don’t mean the end of the pavement, I mean an end of life! God is trying to make it easy for us through the gift of the eye-salve and the multitude of evidences which have been and will continue to be brought forth. We must be willing to use that which God has given us and take Him at His Word. Nothing else can or will save us. All the knowledge in the world and in God’s Word will not save a single soul who is merely trying to escape the fires at the end of the millennium. It just will not happen. As in baptism, we must allow the Lord to fully immerse us in the life of His heavenly family. True Christianity, and true Adventism are not something we do, it is who we become.

“The Ecumenical Movement is basically the movement toward reunion of all Churches into a single Church, one in body, but not necessarily holding the same religious tenets . . . spotlighting things we have in common, hush-hushing those things which divide us. Should you ask, however, ten different theologians of ten denominations for a definition of ecumenism, chances are you would receive ten slightly different replies. This is the great weakness of ecumenism. It is a slippery, sloppy expression devoid of any solid orthodox definition. It thus avails itself of ambiguity and double talk—as do subversive movements in general. The Second Vatican Council had a great deal to say about ecumenism, without ever giving the definition of the word! “Prior to 1960, the Catholic Church had always kept the Ecumenical Movement at arms length from the mystical Body of Christ, now and then touching it with the proverbial ten-foot pole, but never taking an active part.

“Any student of ecclesiastical history will tell you that the Roman Catholic Church’s particular charisma was to clarify the truth in time of confusion and, to counter what was novel or erroneous by clinging to and defining what she has always believed since the time of the Apostles. Thus when Martin Luther denied so much of what the Roman Church held true, she took care of this problem at the Council of Trent . . . defining in detail each one of the Seven Sacraments, indulgences, justification, etc. The Church does not invent new doctrines at these councils, but defines and clarifies in a solemn and official manner what she has always believed. The Councils of the past took the Church and the world from a time of confusion, into a period of theological stability. Unfortunately, Vatican II is the first council in the history of the Church that did not help in this regard. As a matter of fact, we must regretfully admit that all evidence clearly shows she only made things far worse.” —Excerpt from the Catholic periodical “Crying in the Wilderness Newsletter.”

Brothers and sisters, do you realize what is being said in the few short words taken from this Catholic newsletter? It tells us plainly that Historical Catholics believe that the burning of heretics is part of the solution toward anyone who would cry against her dogma. This was in fact part of the solution at the council of Trent, but usurped by the hand of God to save Luther.

You can clearly see that true Roman Catholics believe that the Church is not to “invent” any new doctrine, but to continue to keep the sanctity of their established doctrines, which go back clear to the Apostles and “what she has always believed.” This is exactly what The Great Controversy says about the Roman Catholics. Sister White describes the mess we are in and the mess these Historic Catholics say they are in. They do not know the details as we do, but they do know that deception of every kind is taking place.

“The papal church will never relinquish her claim to infallibility. All that she has done in her persecution of those who reject her dogmas she holds to be right; and would she not repeat the same acts, should the opportunity be presented? Let the restraints now imposed by secular governments be removed and Rome be reinstated in her former power, and there would speedily be a revival of her tyranny and persecution . . .

“But Romanism as a system is no more in harmony with the gospel of Christ now than at any former period in her history. The Protestant churches are in great darkness, or they would discern the signs of the times. The Roman Church is far-reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her power in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world, to re-establish persecution, and to undo all that Protestantism has done. Catholicism is gaining ground upon every side. See the increasing number of her churches and chapels in Protestant countries. Look at the popularity of her colleges and seminaries in America, so widely patronized by Protestants. Look at the growth of ritualism in England and the frequent defections to the ranks of the Catholics. These things should awaken the anxiety of all who prize the pure principles of the gospel.

“The Roman Church now presents a fair front to the world, covering with apologies her record of horrible cruelties. She has clothed herself in Christlike garments; but she is unchanged. Every principle of the papacy that existed in past ages exists today. The doctrines devised in the darkest ages are still held. Let none deceive themselves. The papacy that Protestants are now so ready to honor is the same that ruled the world in the days of the Reformation, when men of God stood up, at the peril of their lives, to expose her iniquity. She possesses the same pride and arrogant assumption that lorded it over kings and princes, and claimed the prerogatives of God. Her spirit is no less cruel and despotic now than when she crushed out human liberty and slew the saints of the Most High.

“The papacy is just what prophecy declared that she would be, the apostasy of the latter times. 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4. It is a part of her policy to assume the character which will best accomplish her purpose; but beneath the variable appearance of the chameleon she conceals the invariable venom of the serpent. ‘Faith ought not to be kept with heretics, nor persons suspected of heresy’ (Lenfant, vol. I, 516), she declares. Shall this power, whose record for a thousand years is written in the blood of the saints, be now acknowledged as a part of the church of Christ?” The Great Controversy, 564, 565, 571.

My friends, there are some fantastic admissions in the articles above. If we observe what the Traditional Catholics are saying, then we can see that they are even (albeit from a different point of view then ours) giving testimony to both the deception of the great “revival” of the ecumenical movement and the validity of The Great Controversy in its claims that true Catholicism has never changed. It is obvious that Rome is even willing to give the appearance of selling out their own people, at least for a time, in order to regain the ecclesiastical power she has lost. This program of apostasy is so important to those in the Vatican that they have not even let some of their people know that it’s all a show in order to be of the utmost success in the end. But we, as true Adventists, have an advantage that none other has in the entire world! What precious and good news this is. Therefore, let us praise God, not only with our tongues, but with our whole beings through the acts of our lives. It is high time that we got on with the work that has been set before us. That work includes building the breach in the wall and tearing down the walls of hell that God’s arch-foe has erected. God has proven over and over that He can save by many or a few. Let us not search for the popular path which only leads to the DEAD END; let us no longer be willingly blinded by popular views and the dictates of men’s policies and creeds, but let us with the help of our mighty God, with the banner of His precious Son, Jesus Christ, take the battle on to victory!