A Specific Case of a Spiritual Revival Movement with the Zaire Union Mission of Seventh-day Adventist Church Full Member of Historic Seventh-day Adventist Family.
How the SDA General Conference Church in Zaire Central Africa Contributes Greatly to Delay the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
As Historic Seventh-day Adventists, we believe in the holiness of the Good News contained in the Holy Bible. We truly trust in the Spirit of Prophecy and we are proclaiming the message of the Three Angels. We humbly think that any ecclesiastical movement which does not confess such a goal should change its name instead of claiming to be Seventh-day Adventists.
In 1972 the General Conference Church of SDA joined a national ecumenical movement called “The Church of Christ in Zaire” (L’eglise du Christ au Zaire) as the forty-second member.
We will never forget this year during which we, as former members and/or workers of the GC church in Zaire, were informed about the affiliation of the church to the ecumenical movement.
This national movement, created as a reaction to the Catholic denomination is composed of sixty-eight, Protestant churches. These churches no longer have individual names, but are part of a “Community.” The GC Church of Zaire is now called: “The Forty-Second Community of the Church of Christ in Zaire.”
This affiliation was not free, nor under the local church initiative for it was duly accepted and sponsored by the General Conference which paid the duties of affiliation, by sending the required amount to the Union which paid it to the Ecumenical corporation.
We were also very concerned and disappointed with the management of the SDA Church because it does not reflect the Spirit of Prophecy. Tribalism, underhanded dealings, vote catching, private and informal committees instead of official ones, lack of punishment of guilty persons because of their close relationship with some officials of the Union, lack of true social projects of development such as schools for the churches sake, led us to leave the ecumenical church of the GC. In short, we saw we must stay by the old land marks and organize our group based on the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy and the Message of the Three Angels.
We could not figure out how we could preach against the Beast if we made connection with those who are worshipping it. We realized that we could not spread the Three Angels’ Messages while being involved in a fellowship with Sunday Protestant Churches. And last, we could not imagine that it is possible to observe the Law of God in its wholeness while being in connection with an ecumenical movement who are law breakers, especially disregarding the fourth commandment, the sign of God’s people from the beginning to the end of time.
From this evidence, we arrived at the conclusion that we must be self-governing as well as self-supporting. But, we are not yet self-sufficient.Consequently we have to restrain our outreach for lack of funds. May you find here our origin, Seventh-day Adventist Independent Church. Thanks to God’s blessings we have friends and brothers all over the world. We also have partners who contribute to lighten the task we have to spread the warning message to our part of the world.
Organization, of Main Objectives, and Things that Handicap the Way
The Zaire Union Missions of Seventh-day Adventist Independent Church has existed since 1990. At the very beginning, it had only 5,000 members. Today we have 16,000 members out of a population of 45,000,000 people in Zaire. We have a lot of work to do, but we cannot do it without the Holy Spirit is guidance or the benefactors assistance and the prayers of our fellow believers.
We are active in the Kinshasa, Bandundu, and East-Kasai regions. The work in the Shaba and Kivu regions will be organized in the near future.
Evangelism
We are currently using the door-to-door method in our evangelism. We lack very much the French translations of the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy, and Hymnals, as well as Bible literature for witnessing. We would like to start a Bible Correspondence School as soon as we have means to print the lessons.
Communication
The problem of communication is one of the serious problems we are facing in our ministry. In a car it can take more than a day to travel thirty kilometers during the rainy season, because of the bad condition of the roads. On these roads bicycles are faster than cars!
We have 259 workers, that includes Pastors, Evangelists, Bible Workers, Teachers, Gardeners, etc., all work without salary,trusting that God will provide. We need assistance in this area.
We need a private ham radio in order to establish a regular link between Kinshasa, the headquarters of the mission in the country. The official Post Office in Zaire as well as the telephone system are unreliable. Only cellular phones can link the country to Europe and the USA. Here again is a big problem to resolve.
We would also like to broadcast our distinct message by public radio. May the Lord help us in this project. This is the way we can reach a lot of people who we can not reach personally. There are local Sunday churches and ministries that already have broadcasts.
We think we have the best message all over the country—the message of warning given by the Three Angels. Give us a hand so that we might be the co-labourers with the angels in our country and in all the French speaking countries in Africa. God bless all of our benefactors, and may we together hasten the glorious second coming of our King and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The End