adventism

Touched With Our Feelings

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Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad! A distinguished, Seventh-day Adventist scholar, Dr. Jean Zurcher, whose spiritual and academic credentials are impeccable, has conducted a full and complete investigation of the origin and progress of a totally false teaching about the nature of Christ (Christology) in the Seventh-day Adventist church, and has reported his findings in the book Touched With Our Feelings. This is only one of his notable achievements. In a second, and no less impressive achievement, he has succeeded in getting his book printed by the Review and Herald press, which has rejected all such manuscripts for years.

Dr. Zurcher has taught in various Seventh-day Adventist colleges, and is presently the chairman of the Biblical Research Committee of the Euro-African Division. He has written a previous book on the nature and destiny of man which is widely acclaimed as the best treatment of that subject by an Adventist writer.

In the present volume, he carefully chronicles the historical data and analyzes the Christological positions reached in the unanimous testimony of all Seventh-day Adventist witnesses for a period of one hundred years (1850–1950). He then turns his attention to the false Christology that was introduced in the 1950s, and the incredible actions and arguments of those who introduced it. This makes his work the most exhaustive and comprehensive treatment of the subject that has yet appeared. The results are, in a word, devastating to the false Christology, which teaches that Christ came to earth in the human nature of unfallen Adam, rather than in man’s fallen nature, as our church has always believed and taught.

This book is not to be read and laid aside. It is a veritable library, containing a wealth of information that needs to be studied and restudied. The idea that the subject is unimportant, or is of interest only to theologians, is firmly rejected. Zurcher maintains, with full documentary support, that the subject of the human nature of Christ is of vital importance to every Christian.

The truth that Christ came to earth in the fallen nature of man was described as vitally important by a host of Seventh-day Adventist witnesses before the 1950s. This group consisted of Adventism’s first line of leadership. It included:

General Conference pesidents

James White, A.G. Daniels, C.H. Watson, W.H. Branson and J.L. McElhany;

General Conference vice presidents

W.W. Prescott, I.H. Evans and H.L. Rudy;

Division presidents

E.F. Hackman, W.G. Turner, C.B. Haynes, J.E. Fulton, A.V. Olson and L.H. Christian;

General Conference secretaries

G.B. Thompson and F.C. Gilbert;

Union presidents

R.A. Underwood and E.K. Slade;

Union secretaries

A.W. Semmens and J. McCulloch;

College presidents

R.S. Owen, H.E. Giddings, W.E. Howell and M.L. Andreason (who was also a seminary professor);

Conference presidents

S.N. Haskell, C.P. Bollman, J.L. Schuler, A.T. Robinson and C.L. Bond;

Review, Signs and Bible Echo editors

A.T. Jones, Uriah Smith, F.M. Wilcox,
J.H. Waggoner, E.J. Waggoner,
E.W. Farnsworth, W.H. Glenn,
M.C. Wilcox, F.D. Nichol, A.L. Baker,
O. Tait, C.M. Snow, G. Dalrymple,
R. Hare, M. Neff and G.C. Tenny.

All of these illustrious leaders of Adventism published, in articles and books, their strong convictions that Christ came to earth in the human nature of fallen man. In addition there were many writers who did not hold high positions in the church, but who did have enough stature to be considered eligible to write the same thing in our publications a total of 1200 times, before the 1950s. (See The Word Was Made Flesh by this author.) And all of them were contemptuously dismissed by L.E. Froom, the leading promoter of the false Christology in the 1950s, as Adventism’s “lunatic fringe”!

How he would dare to publish such a monstrous misrepresentation is an incredible mystery. How he could get so many Seventh-day Adventists to accept the misrepresentation as fact is an even greater mystery. It would appear to be a classic case of putting blind confidence in a leader. Froom was, at this time, enjoying the confidence of most church members because of the six volumes that had appeared over his name on The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers and The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers. This had apparently led many to accept anything he wrote without question.

In any case, did Adventism ever have a lunatic fringe? Unfortunately, the answer is “Yes.” And that lunatic fringe believed exactly what Froom believed about the nature of Christ, that Jesus came to earth in the human nature of unfallen Adam! This group was first identified as the “holy flesh” movement of Indiana. You may read about these people in Selected Messages, vol. 2, 31–39. The movement began in Indiana, in 1889. When Ellen White, who was in Australia, was informed about it, she returned and strongly denounced it at the General Conference of 1901. She described it as “cheap, miserable inventions of men’s theories, prepared by the father of lies.” The conference discussed and condemned the teaching as false. (Zurcher, 276.)

And Froom’s cohorts were too small a group to even be called a fringe. Their names have been, and still are to some extent, a closely guarded secret. But in various ways that secret has been “leaked,” so that we now understand that a group of four persons entered into conversations with certain non-Adventist theologians, and then took upon themselves the awesome responsibility of changing our Christology. This was a challenging task. It meant that the uniform testimony of our cloud of witnesses, for one hundred years, had to be set aside, and an alien interpretation had to be placed on the writings of Ellen White, forcing her to say what she actually never said. Why would such a thing be attempted?

To gain the favor of the world. More specifically, to gain the favor of certain Calvinistic theologians who were threatening to describe us as a cult, if the changes were not made, and offering to “accept” us as true Christians if the changes were made. This still leaves us gasping. Since when have we submitted our doctrines for approval to theologians who hold false doctrines on the Sabbath, the law of God, the immortality of the soul, hell fire, baptism, health reform and so on? Nevertheless, it was done. As nearly as we can ascertain, through the curtain of secrecy that was employed, the four Adventists who made the fateful decision were L.E. Froom, Roy Alan Anderson, W.E. Read and J. Unruh.

Roy Alan Anderson was then secretary of our ministerial association and editor of Ministry magazine. If Froom’s description of virtually all of our leaders before the 1950s as a “lunatic fringe” is stunning, Anderson’s contribution is no less stunning. He published to all of our ministers in Ministry magazine that Ellen White had written only three or four statements that could be understood to mean that Christ had come in fallen human nature, but that these were “strongly counter-balanced” by her many other statements that He had come in unfallen human nature. (Zurcher 158, 159.) This statement is the precise opposite of the truth in both of its parts. Her statements that Christ came in fallen human nature actually number more than four hundred. And the “counter-balancing” statements simply do not exist. Anderson’s reference to them is pure fiction. Ellen White never wrote even a single time that Christ came to earth in unfallen human nature.

W.E. Read made an equally facile contribution in proposing that Christ took our fallen human nature vicariously, in the same way that He paid the price for our sins. But this argument collapses on its own weight. Another person can pay a debt for you, but he cannot take a drink of water for you. If something is done for you vicariously, that means that you do not have to do it. Christ has paid the price for our sins, so we do not have to pay it. If Christ had taken our human nature vicariously, we would not have to take it. But alas, we still have it. Many more serious problems could be pointed out, but I refer you to Zurcher.

So, the false Christology has made its way into our church through monstrous representations, misleading manipulation of evidence and ludicrous puerile propositions. Tragically, those who have tried to defend this monstrosity have not departed far from the methods of its originators. The misstatements, the false reasoning and the self-contradictions still continue. Witness the writings of Adams, Ford, Heppenstal, Ott, etc.

These grim revelations confront us with two difficult questions. First, how should we relate to the appalling misrepresentations of the originators of the false Christology? Intellectual integrity permits only one choice. We must repudiate them. To defend such methods would be utterly unthinkable.

Second, how should we relate to those among us who are continuing to promote false Christology? Zurcher, although he is clearly appalled by what he has found, carefully refrains from bringing railing accusations against anyone. We must follow his good example. We cannot judge motives, but we must judge actions. Those who defend the false Christology may not be aware of the methods they are defending. We must seek to inform them. If the Lord should stir the heart of any of you to give this book to a pastor of your acquaintance, that would be a good beginning. And if the Lord should lay a larger burden upon your heart, so be it. In any case, praise God for this book and praise God for our truth!

Ralph Larson has retired from forty years of service as a pastor, evangelist, college teacher and seminary professor. He writes from his home in Cherry Valley, California.

Why Home Churches – Part III

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Ellen White tells us that prior to 1888 the church had been looking to man. (Testimonies to Ministers, 91–93.) The message of 1888 was sent to direct the eyes of the church back on Jesus and away from men.

In 1901, Ellen White and other leaders attempted to change the situation in Adventism, and a change was made. In fact the constitution of the General Conference (GC) was re-written at the GC session that year. Under the new constitution there was not to be a president, but instead a committee was to oversee the affairs of the GC, and this committee was to elect a new chairman each year. At the end of that conference, Ellen White said, “The angels of God have been walking up and down here.” God approved of what had been done.

Within a matter of days, Ellen White wrote some strong words about what had happened However, as we have studied before, the new constitution was never put into effect. Two years later, at the 1903 General Conference, the reorganization of the 1901 General Conference was reversed.

From Saint Helena, California, April 21, 1903: “Our position in the world is not what it should be. We are far from where we should have been had our Christian experience been in harmony with the light and the opportunities given us.…In the balances of the sanctuary the Seventh-day Adventist Church is to be weighed. She will be judged by the privileges and advantages that she has had. If her spiritual experience does not correspond to the advantages that Christ, at infinite cost, has bestowed on her, if the blessings conferred have not qualified her to do the work entrusted to her, on her will be pronounced the sentence, ‘Found wanting.’” Testimonies, vol. 8, 247.

“One who sees beneath the surface, who reads the hearts of all men, says of those who have had great light: ‘They are not afflicted and astonished because of their moral and spiritual condition.’…The heavenly teacher inquired: ‘What stronger delusion can beguile the mind than the pretense that you are building on the right foundation and that God accepts your works, when in reality you are working out many things according to worldly policy and are sinning against Jehovah?’ Oh, it is a great deception, a fascinating delusion, that takes possession of minds when men who have once known the truth, mistake the form of godliness for the spirit and power thereof.” Ibid., 249.

“Unless there is thorough repentance, unless men humble their hearts by confession and receive the truth as it is in Jesus, they will never enter heaven.…Who can truthfully say: ‘Our gold is tried in the fire; our garments are unspotted by the world.’ I saw our Instructor pointing to the garments of so-called righteousness. Stripping them off, He laid bare the defilement beneath. Then He said to me: ‘Can you not see how they have pretentiously covered up their defilement and rottenness of character? How is the faithful city become an harlot!’” Ibid., 250.

“For this cause there is weakness, and strength is lacking. Unless the church, which is now being leavened with her own backsliding, shall repent and be converted, she will eat the fruit of her own doing until she shall abhor herself.” Ibid.

The Self-Supporting Work

The very next year, 1904, with the approval of the Lord’s Prophet, there was a new development in Adventism—the self-supporting work. I believe, that if we had accepted the 1888 message, and not reversed the 1901 re-organization, we would never have needed the self-supporting work. We would have all been working together in unity and harmony as God intended.

Last month we studied several points about the self-supporting work in the Spirit of Prophecy:

  1. It was authorized by God.
  2. It was not to be owned or controlled by the Conference.
  3. It was not to be broken up or stopped.
  4. It was fully authorized by God, not only for its existence but also to solicit funds from God’s people.
  5. It would be involved in the closing of God’s work. The self-supporting work came into existence because it was impossible for Sutherland and Magan to introduce the needed educational reforms into the schools under the control of the “regular lines.” The home-church movement came into existence for similar reasons.

Apostasy Follows the Rejection of the Message in 1888

There were other consequences to our rejection of the message in 1888. Because the church trusted in man, instead of looking to Jesus, moral confusion resulted and the devil brought in heresies to mislead minds. Ellen White called this the “alpha of apostasy” or the “alpha of deadly heresies,” and it was sweeping through Adventism by 1902. It gained control of most of our leading men, not just physicians but many of our leading ministers, and it is another of the great reasons for the home-church movement.

Ellen White predicted that the alpha of apostasy would soon be followed by the omega, and she said, “I tremble for our people.” (Sermons and Talks, vol. 1, 341.) The alpha was just the beginning of a series of heresies that would end in the omega. They are directly connected and the omega is simply the final outcome of the same apostasy that was at work in the alpha.

In order then, to understand how and what is going to happen with the omega, we must understand what happened during the alpha. Notice carefully the following quotations about the alpha apostasy:

“The experience that was given us at the General Conference held in Battle Creek early in 1901 was of God. Had Doctor Kellogg at that time done thorough work, the terrible experience through which we are now passing would never have been.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 6, 217.

“God has permitted the presentation of this combination of good and evil in ‘Living Temple’ to be made to reveal the danger threatening us. The working that has been so ingeniously carried on, He has permitted in order that certain developments might be made, and that it might be seen what a man can do with human minds when he has obtained their confidence as a physician.” Series B, 242. In other words, if they had accepted what God was trying to do in 1901 they would not have been attacked by the alpha of apostasy.

Characteristics of the Alpha

Let us look now at several points that were involved in the alpha.

  1. It came into existence within the church, not outside the church. It arose among Seventh-day Adventist leaders.
  2. It almost gained control of the church.
  3. It was both atheistic and spiritualistic. “I was instructed to call upon our physicians and ministers to take a firm stand for the truth. We are not to allow atheistic, spiritualistic sentiments to be brought before our youth.” Special Testimonies, No. 7, 38.
  4. It involved a controversy over the nature of God and the nature of the Godhead. “It is something that cannot be treated as a small matter that men who have had so much light, and such clear evidence as to the genuineness of the truth we hold, should become unsettled, and led to accept spiritualistic theories regarding the personality of God.” Ibid., 37.
  5. Ellen White said that if these doctrines were followed to their logical conclusion it would sweep away the whole Christian economy. (Evangelism, 601.)
  6. It involved a removal of the foundation pillars of the Seventh-day Adventist faith. “The heavenly messenger turned to those professing to be medical missionaries, and said, ‘How could you allow yourselves to be led blindfold? How could you so misrepresent the name you bear? You have your Bibles. Why have you not reasoned from cause to effect? You have accepted theories that have led you away from the truths that are to stamp their impress upon the characters of all Seventh-day Adventists. Your leader has been moving the foundation timbers one by one and his reasoning would soon leave us with no certain foundation for our faith.’” Special Testimonies, No. 7, 39.
  7. This alpha of apostasy involved a rejection of the Spirit of Prophecy.
  8. Ellen White said that we are not to enter into discussion on these theories. “The more fanciful theories are discussed, the less men will know of God and of the truth that sanctifies the soul.” Ibid., 51. “I knew that I must warn our brethren and sisters not to enter into controversy over the presence and personality of God.” Ibid., 53.
    • That is how Lucifer himself began his downward track. There were some things he wanted to know that he could not know. In the chapter in The Great Controversy, “The Snares of Satan,” Ellen White says that the devil tries to get men to ask questions that God will never answer through all eternity. There are some things that you and I will never know. Are you willing to let God be God? Hasn’t He given us sufficient revelation of Himself so that we can know that He has infinite love and mercy for us and that we can trust Him? But that does not mean that we are going to be able to explain and know everything.
  9. This apostasy led men to “sanctify” sin and make it appear less serious. “The difficulties that have arisen have been very hard to meet, and they are far from being settled yet. One, and another, and still another are presented to me as having been led to accept the pleasing fables that mean the sanctification of sin. Living Temple contains the alpha of a train of heresies.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 11, 247.

A Time for Silence?

We are living in a day of political correctness, and many are afraid to even preach or teach the Three Angels’ Messages because they fear that they will hurt someone’s feelings. However, compare this common attitude to how God’s prophet told us we are to deal with sin. “…When men standing in the position of leaders and teachers work under the power of spiritualistic ideas and sophistries, shall we keep silent, for fear of injuring their influence while souls are being beguiled? Satan will use every advantage that he can obtain to cause souls to become beclouded and perplexed in regard to the work of the church.” Ibid.

“When men stand out in defiance against the counsel of God, they are warring against God. Is it right for those connected with such ones to treat them as if they were in perfect harmony with them, making no difference between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not? Though they be ministers or medical missionaries, they have dishonored Christ before the forces of the loyal and the disloyal. Open rebuke is necessary, to prevent others from being ensnared. To believe that evil must not be condemned because this would condemn those who practice the evil is to act in favor of falsehood…The enmity that God has put in our hearts against deceptive practices, must be kept alive, because these practices endanger the souls of those who do not hate them.” Ibid.

“All deceptive dealings, all untruthfulness regarding the Father and the Son, by which their characters are presented in a false light, are to be recognized as grievous sins…It should now be clearly understood that we are not really helping those who are determined to do evil, when we show them respect, and keep our words of reproof for those with whom the disaffected one is at enmity. A grave mistake has been and is being made in this matter. Shall the servants of Jehovah, into whose heart He puts enmity against every evil work, be assailed as not being right when they call evil evil, and good good? Those who feel so very peaceable in regard to the works of the men who are spoiling the faith of the people of God, are guided by delusive sentiment. There is to be a constant conflict between good and evil.” Ibid., 26, 27.

“Those who are enlightened by the Holy Spirit’s power are to strive with every power of their being to snatch the prey from the seductive influences of men who refuse to obey the word of God.” Ibid. And this is happening through the home-church movement today.

In the context of the alpha of apostasy Ellen White wrote, “We are to unify but not on the platform of error.” There is to be no union with the alpha or any part of this apostasy. “It will be said that Living Temple has been revised. But the Lord has shown me that the writer has not changed, and that there can be no unity between him and the ministers of the gospel while he continues to cherish his present sentiments. I am bidden to lift my voice in warning to our people, saying, ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked.’” Selected Messages, Book 1, 199. “I am instructed to say that those who would tear away the foundation that God has laid are not to be accepted as the teachers and leaders of His people.” Battle Creek Letters, 82.

If there was to be no union with the alpha, should there be union with the omega? We have a home-church movement today, because people cannot unify on a platform of error (apostasy). They know that they cannot allow these apostate leaders to teach their children nor is it safe to listen to their preaching.

Another Shaking?

When the apostasy gets bad enough, there comes a separation, or shaking. During the shaking, God’s faithful children will be forced to separate from the apostasy, from the omega, just as they had to separate from the alpha. The alpha began when there was an attempt to unite Adventism with other churches who did not accept the Spirit of Prophecy or keep all the commandments, and there is every indication that the omega will involve the same thing.

In Manuscript 30, 1889, God’s prophet wrote: “I told them a little of how matters had been carried [on] at Minneapolis, and stated the position I had taken, that Pharisaism had been at work leavening the camp here at Battle Creek, and the Seventh-day Adventist Churches were affected; but the Lord had given me a message, and with pen and voice I would work until this leaven was expelled and a new leaven was introduced, which was the grace of Christ. I was confirmed in all I had stated in Minneapolis, that a reformation must go through the churches.” (This reformation involves men taking their eyes off other men and placing them on Jesus, as their example and guide.)

“Reforms must be made, for spiritual weakness and blindness were upon the people who had been blessed with great light and precious opportunities and privileges. As reformers they had come out of the denominational churches, but they now act a part similar to that which the churches acted. We hoped that there would not be the necessity for another coming out. While we will endeavor to keep the ‘unity of the Spirit’ in the bonds of peace, we will not with pen or voice cease to protest against bigotry.” 1888 Materials, 356.

Is there a possibility that there might have to be another coming out? “The Lord is soon to come, and the end of all things is at hand.…I see perplexities on every side. As character develops, men and women will take their position, for varied circumstances brought to bear upon them will cause them to reveal the spirit which prompts them to action. Everyone will reveal the character of the bundle with which he is binding himself. The wheat is being bound up for the heavenly garner. The true people of God are now bound up for the heavenly garner.” 1888 Materials, 995.

During the shaking, we all reveal what is inside. “The true people of God are now pulling apart, and the tares are being bound in bundles ready to burn. Decided positions will be taken. Satan will move upon minds that have been indulged, upon men who have always had their own way, and anything presented to them, in counsel or reproof, to change their objectionable traits of character is considered fault finding, binding them, restraining them, that they cannot have liberty to act themselves. The Lord in great mercy has sent messages of warning to them, but they would not listen to reproof. Like the enemy who rebelled in heaven, they do not like to hear, do not correct the wrong they have done but become accusers, declaring themselves misused and unappreciated. Now is the time of trial, of test, of proving. Those who, like Saul, will persist in having their own way will suffer, as he did, loss of honor and finally the loss of the soul. God has a people, and they will be a tried people, but the people will be humble. They are under the guidance of the Holy One in thought, in word, in deed. Can any of us find a path more pleasant than that in which the Eternal One leads the way? Self must die.”

“Satan will work with his masterly power to separate the soul from God. We hear the different voices sounding from every quarter that our attention shall be taken from the true issue in this time. The end is near and let there not be a confusion of voices to misguide and mislead some astray. To say, ‘Peace, Peace,’ to these souls who have long resisted the voice of the true Shepherd, who have contended long against Omnipotence, is to quiet his conscience to the sleep of death.…Dark hours of trial are before the church because they have not obeyed the warnings and reproofs and counsel of God. What a bewitching power comes upon human minds to do contrary to the oft-repeated will of God, and close the eyes and stop the ears, when Jesus is calling to them to hear His voice. He says, ‘My sheep hear my voice.’…Before the great trouble shall come upon the world such as has never been since there was a nation, those who have faltered and who would ignorantly lead in unsafe paths will reveal this before the real vital test, the last proving comes so that whatsoever they may say will not be regarded as voicing the true Shepherd. The time of our educating will soon be over. We have no time to lose in walking through clouds of doubt and uncertainty because of uncertain voices.” Ibid.

Who are we following? The one and only Guide? Or are we listening to uncertain voices? If we are, they will lead us to the sleep of death. And what is the sleep of death that she refers to? It is when a person, who is living in sin, thinks that he can keep on living in sin because sin has been “sanctified” in his eyes. How very dangerous it is to think that you are saved, when you are really lost. Many will finally realize that they are in this condition, but only when it is too late! It is dangerous to go to a church or to attempt to have any unity or harmony with people who are teaching “uncertain words.”

The home-church movement became necessary because God is getting ready a group of people to be translated, and there must be churches where this is the focus. Every time you go to church you should be learning more about what it takes to be ready for Jesus to come; and what we can do to get the Three Angels’ Messages to the whole world! If your church loses sight of either one of those goals, you are in the wrong church—no matter what name it claims. Do you want to be ready to meet Jesus when He comes? And is it the focus of your life to help others prepare to meet Him also? May God help us to never lose sight of the reasons for our existence.

The Final Atonement, Part I

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We are engaged in a mighty conflict, and it will become more close and deter mined, as we near the final struggle,” Ellen White warned. “We have a sleepless adversary, and he is constantly at work upon human minds that have not had a personal experience in the teachings of the people of God for the past fifty years.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 102.

Satan knows that if we forget “the way the Lord has led us,” and especially if we should forget “His teaching in our past history,” (Life Sketches, 196,) then it would be easy to introduce heresy into the greatest movement of truth the world has ever known. What did Ellen White mean by “His teaching in our past history?” Before we can proceed with our research and find the correct answer to this question, we must first understand the correct method to follow in our study of Scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy.

The Bible answer to the proper method of study is that “precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” Isaiah 28:10. Does it not follow that we should use the very same method to interpret passages in the Spirit of Prophecy? Yes, indeed.

“The Spirit of the Lord will be in the instruction, and doubts existing in many minds will be swept away. The testimonies themselves will be the key that will explain the messages given, as scripture is explained by scripture.” Letter, 73, 1903, Selected Messages, Book 1, 41, 42.

There is one more important aspect that must be remembered in the study of the Spirit of Prophecy — time and place must be considered. “Regarding the testimonies, nothing is ignored, nothing is cast aside,” Ellen White wrote, “but time and place must be considered.” Paulson Collection, 9.

This inspired counsel on how to study the Testimonies is simple.

  1. Do not cast aside any part of the Testimonies.
  2. Compare all that is written on a subject.
  3. Time and place must also be considered.

This is sound and logical advice, is it not?

The Past Fifty Years (1844–1900)

Ellen White warned many times that some in the Church would bring in “new strange doctrines, for something odd and sensational to present to the people.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 41. The safeguard, of course, is to remember “the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.” Life Sketches, 196. Not only that, but Ellen White was very specific about what she meant by the phrase, “His teaching in our past history.” Many times she stated, writing at the turn of the century [again keeping in mind time and place] that “the value of the evidences of truth that we have received during the past half century, is above estimate.” Review and Herald, April 19, 1906.

“Study the Bible truths that for fifty years have been calling us out from the world.” Ellen White counseled. Ibid.

In other words, noting time and place (1906) when this testimony was penned, the truth that pioneer Adventists taught from 1844 to the turn of the century was, and still is, the Three Angels’ Messages. The pioneer Seventh-day Adventist message, given this people in the past century, is the true end-time “gospel” to a perishing world. God does not change. His message does not change. Any message that is not in harmony with this “most precious message” is what Ellen White called “strange fire,” what we know today as “new theology.”

Strange Fire

“For all in responsible positions I have a message spoken by the mouth of the Lord,” Ellen White wrote. Testimonies to Ministers, 357. And what was this message from God to the leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church?

“He [those in responsible positions] will represent the sacredness of the work, he will magnify the truth, and will ever present before men and angels the holy perfume of the character of Christ [the law of God]. This is the sacred fire of God’s own kindling. Anything aside from this is strange fire, abhorrent to God, and the more offensive as one’s position in the work involves larger responsibilities.” Ibid.

There are one hundred and fifteen references to the phrase “strange fire” in the writings of Ellen White. We have learned that false doctrine is “strange fire” presented to the Seventh-day Adventist Church by “those in responsible positions.” We will now learn what is the “sacred fire of God.”

The Sacred Fire of God

“When the power of God testifies to what is truth, the truth is to stand forever as the truth.…The truth for this time, God has given us as a foundation for our faith. He Himself has taught us what is truth.…And while the Scriptures are God’s Word, and are to be respected, the application of them, if such application moves one pillar of the foundation that God has sustained these fifty years, is a great mistake. He who makes such an application knows not the wonderful demonstration of the Holy Spirit that gave power and force to the past messages that have come to the people of God.” A Call to the Watchmen, 14.

Notice that, “He [God] Himself has taught us what is truth,” and, “when the power of God testifies to what is truth, the truth is to stand forever as the truth.” Ibid. Could anything be more plain? An application, or interpretation, of Scripture that “moves one pillar of the foundation that God has sustained these fifty years, is a great mistake.” Ibid. In this statement Ellen White emphasized that it was “the Holy Spirit that gave power and force to the past messages that have come to the people of God.” Ibid.

“The past fifty years have not dimmed one jot or principle of our faith as we received the great and wonderful evidences that were made certain to us in 1844, after the passing of the time.…Not a word is changed or denied. That which the Holy Spirit testified to as truth after the passing of the time, in our great disappointment, is the solid foundation of truth.…” The Upward Look, 352.

“Not a word is changed or denied,” of the Advent truth for “the past fifty years,” and this truth that was laid down after the great disappointment in 1844 “is the solid foundation of truth.” The emphasis again and again is stated to be the truth that was held by Seventh-day Adventists for “the past fifty years.” Gospel Workers, 1915, 307.

“[The] pillars of truth were revealed, and we accepted the foundation principles that have made us what we are—Seventh-day Adventists, keeping the commandments of God and having the faith of Jesus.” Upward Look, 352.

Notice that, “the pillars of truth were revealed,” and pioneer Adventists “accepted the foundation principles” of truth. They were truly the remnant who were “keeping the commandments of God and having the faith of Jesus.” Notice Ellen White said “having” the faith of Jesus. They possessed the faith of Jesus. Pioneer Adventists were people of obedience to all of God’s commandments. Their lives were in harmony with the law of God because they possessed faith like Jesus. Thus the apostle Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:13. This is righteousness by faith, obedience by faith.

Again, about the pillars of our faith, Ellen White stated, “And while the Scriptures are God’s Word, and are to be respected, the application of them, if such application moves one pillar of the foundation that God has sustained these fifty years, is a great mistake.” A Call to the Watchmen, 14.

Old Landmarks and Pillars of Adventism

What are the “pillars” and “old landmarks” of truth? According to the Spirit of Prophecy, there are really only three pillars of Adventism. Notice carefully the description of these three pillars, also known as the old landmarks.

“The passing of the time in 1844 was a period of great events, opening to our astonished eyes the cleansing of the sanctuary transpiring in heaven, and having decided relation to God’s people upon the earth, [also] the first and second angels’ messages and the third, unfurling the banner on which was inscribed, “The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

  1. One of the landmarks under this message was the temple of God, seen by His truth-loving people in heaven, and the ark containing the law of God.
  2. The light of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment flashed its strong rays in the pathway of the transgressors of God’s law.
  3. The non-immortality of the wicked is an old landmark. I can call to mind nothing more that can come under the head of the old landmarks.…” Counsels to Writers and Editors, 30, 31.

The Sanctuary, the Foundation Pillar of Adventism

The first “pillar” or “landmark” that Satan would attack is the foundation pillar of the Advent movement. This landmark is the First Angel’s Message, the message that the remnant people were commissioned to give to a perishing world. The sanctuary truth is the one doctrine held only by Seventh-day Adventists. For Satan to attack the second pillar, the Sabbath truth, or the third pillar, the state of man in death, would be too obvious for alert Seventh-day Adventists. Satan must be more clever than to attack the obvious. If Satan attacked the sanctuary truth outright, by stating “there is no sanctuary in heaven,” the Advent people would detect the deception immediately. Too many testimonies had been written against that kind of an assault upon this foundation pillar of Adventism.

A Most Subtle Deception

History reveals that Satan would shrewdly concentrate his assault on the most important “phase” of the sanctuary truth. Satan would cleverly attack, and try to negate, the “final atonement” and the “blotting out of sins” work of Jesus Christ, our heavenly High Priest. Satan would introduce into the Seventh-day Adventist Church the false concept held by the fallen churches of Babylon, that the atonement was final, completed and finished on the cross. This false concept would lead the people to feel secure in their sins. This most subtle deception would at the same time do away with the truth of the 1844 message—that the final atonement is being completed in heaven by our High Priest, Jesus Christ, the true Lamb of God.

To complete his masterful deception, Satan, after establishing the erroneous “complete and final atonement on the cross” concept, would then introduce into the Seventh-day Adventist Church a false concept of the human nature Christ assumed while in the flesh. This second false concept would give the people a false “assurance” and lead them to believe that Christ is their substitute only. This deception would lead the people to accept the false doctrine of “free grace” held by all so-called “contemporary Christians.” This would be Satan’s most cunning and subtle deception, for it would lead the people to be lost in their sins! This overwhelming deception the Spirit of Prophecy describes as “the Omega of apostasy.”

“The Omega would follow in a little while,” Ellen White warned. “I tremble for our people.” Sermons and Talks, 341.

Jesus warned that in the last days Satan’s battle strategy against the remnant people of God would be so deceptive that “if it were possible, it should deceive the very elect.” Matthew 24:24b. Thus Paul stated, “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light, therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness.” 2 Corinthians 11:14, 15a.

Ellen White cautioned, “One will arise and still another with new light which contradicts the light that God has given under the demonstration of His Holy Spirit.…We are not to receive the words of those who come with a message that contradicts the special points of our faith.” A Call to the Watchmen, 14.

How can we know what is truth? How can we identify heresy in these last days? How can we avoid being deceived by our cunning adversary?

“When the power of God testifies to what is truth, the truth is to stand forever as the truth. No after suppositions, contrary to the light God has given, are to be entertained.” Ibid.

A Safeguard and A Bulwark Against Heresy

“A few are still alive who passed through the experience gained in the establishment of this truth. God has graciously spared their lives to repeat and repeat till the close of their lives, the experience through which they passed even as did John the apostle till the very close of his life. And the standard bearers who have fallen in death, are to speak through the reprinting of their writings. I am instructed that thus voices are to be heard. They are to bear their testimony as to what constitutes the truth for this time.” Ibid.

Notice the words, “I am instructed.” The instruction came directly from heaven. The instruction from heaven was that “voices are to be heard.” Whose voices are to be heard? “The standard bearers [pioneer Adventists] who have fallen in death, are to speak through the reprinting of their writings.” Not only that, but, “They are to bear their testimony as to what constitutes the truth for this time.”

So that is the key, the doctrinal rock we should hold on to — the truth in our past history! “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. This statement was published in 1915. We must go back to the beginning of the Advent movement, the first “fifty years” of our past history, to discover what was the truth that was endorsed by “the wonderful demonstration of the Holy Spirit that gave power and force to the past messages that have come to the people of God.” A Call to the Watchmen, 14. Then we must compare any new teaching, any “new theology,” to the teachings of pioneer Seventh-day Adventists from 1844 to the turn of the century.

“The doctrine of the Sanctuary was enunciated soon after the Great Disappointment of October 22, 1844,” Leroy Froom wrote. “The earliest declaration of this doctrine was the published statement written out by O. R. L. Crosier — but representing the joint studies of Hiram Edson, Crosier, and Dr. F. B. Hawn — which studies took place in Port Gibson and neighboring Canandaigua, New York, in the week or months following the crisis in October.” Leroy Edwin Froom, Movement of Destiny, 111, 112.

“Published first in 1845 in the local Adventist paper, The Day-Dawn, in Canandaigua,” Froom continued, “it appeared in fuller form in The Day-Star Extra of February 7, 1846, printed in Cincinnati, Ohio.” Ibid., 112

Froom went on to state that, “Concerning the published results of these studies, Ellen Harmon White wrote this statement in a letter to Eli Curtis, dated April 21, 1847, and published the same year in one of our earliest pieces of denominational literature, A Word to the Little Flock.” Ibid., 111. Froom then quoted the statement of Ellen White. However, Froom omitted an important part of the Ellen White endorsement of the article by adding ellipses at the end of the first sentence as follows:

“The Lord shewed me in vision, more than one year ago, that Brother Crosier had the true light, on the cleansing of the Sanctuary…; and that it was His will, that Brother C, should write out the view which he gave us in The Day Star Extra, February 7, 1846.” Ibid.

What was left out by the ellipses in Froom’s quotation? Here is the statement as written without the ellipses: “The Lord shewed me in vision, more than one year ago, that Brother Crosier had the true light, on the cleansing of the sanctuary, et cetera; and that it was His [God’s] will that Brother C. should write out the view which he gave us in The Day Star Extra, February 7, 1846. I feel fully authorized by the Lord to recommend that Extra to every saint.” A Word to the Little Flock, 12.

Froom purposely left out the “et cetera,” that Ellen White had written. Why? Was it because the “et cetera,” implied that Crosier had published the complete truth on all aspects of the Sanctuary truth, especially the “final atonement” phase of the Sanctuary truth? Notice Ellen White stated that, “The Lord shewed me in vision,” and that “Brother Crosier had the true light, on the cleansing of the sanctuary, et cetera and that it was His [God’s] will that Brother C. should write out the view which he gave us in The Day Star Extra.” Ibid. Unquestionably a solid endorsement from the Lord through the Spirit of Prophecy of O. R. L. Crosier’s The Day Star Extra, article. If Leroy Froom, contemporary historian of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, could not agree with all the aspects of truth in Crosier’s article, then he also could not agree with the Spirit of Prophecy which endorsed the article. We will show that most contemporary Adventist historians, writers and scholars are also out of harmony with pioneer Seventh-day Adventists and with the Spirit of Prophecy on the teaching of the “Final Atonement” phase of Christ’s ministry in the heavenly sanctuary.

Crosier’s Message

What had Crosier written that Froom and contemporary Adventist leadership could not agree with? It was Crosiers’ “final atonement” emphasis—that the atonement was not finished and completed on the cross, but that, as our High Priest, Christ is now making the “final atonement” in the heavenly Sanctuary.

While doing research for this manuscript, the author placed a call to the James White Memorial Library at Andrews University to purchase a photocopy of Crosier’s original article as it appeared in The Day Star Extra, February 7, 1846. The photocopy of the article arrived, minus the “atonement” portion of the article! Another letter was mailed, with the required funds, requesting that the full article be sent, including the “atonement” portion of Crosier’s Day-Star, Extra article. As of this writing two years have passed, and no further correspondence has been received. Is there something that the corporate Seventh-day Adventist Church is trying to hide? Thanks to the faithful work of Adventist laymen, the complete article was published on the Adventist Pioneer Library CD-ROM disk. (Adventist Pioneer Library, P. O. Box 1844, Loma Linda, CA 92354-0380, usa). Here, then, is the complete “atonement” portion of Crosier’s article in full. This is the true position on the “final atonement” phase of the heavenly Sanctuary as it was endorsed by the Spirit of Prophecy: “But again, they say the atonement is made and finished on Calvary, when the Lamb of God expired, so men have taught us, and so the churches and world believes; but it is none the more true or sacred on that account, if unsupported by Divine authority. Perhaps few or none who hold that opinion have ever tested the foundation on which it rests,” Crosier suggested. He then explained the “Final Atonement” phase of Christ’s ministry in the heavenly sanctuary in the following six areas:

  1. If the atonement was made on Calvary, by whom was it made? The making of the atonement is the work of a Priest. Who officiated on Calvary? Roman soldiers and wicked Jews.
  2. The slaying of the victim was not making the atonement; the sinner slew the victim. (Leviticus 4:1–4, 13–15), after that the priest took the blood and made the atonement. (Leviticus 4:5–12, 16–21.)
  3. Christ was the appointed High Priest to make the atonement, and He certainly could not have acted in that capacity till after His resurrection, and we have no record of His doing anything on earth after His resurrection which could be called the atonement.
  4. The atonement was made in the Sanctuary, but Calvary was not such a place.
  5. He could not, according to Hebrews 8:4, make the atonement while on earth, “If He were on earth, He should not be a Priest.” The Levitical was the earthly priesthood, the Divine, the heavenly.
  6. Therefore, He did not begin the work of making the atonement, whatever the nature of that work may be, until after His ascension when, by His own blood, He entered His heavenly Sanctuary for us.

“Let us examine a few texts that appear to speak of the atonement as past,” Crosier continued. ‘By whom we have now received the atonement [margin, reconciliation].’ (Romans 5:11.) This passage clearly shows a present possession of the atonement at the time the apostle wrote, but it by no means proves that the entire atonement was then in the past.

When the Savior was about to be taken up from His apostles, He “commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,” which came on the day of Pentecost when they were all “filled with the Holy Ghost.” Luke 24:47; Acts 2:4. Christ had entered His Father’s house, the Sanctuary, as High Priest, and began His intercession for His people by “praying the Father” for “another Comforter,” “and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost,” He shed it down upon His waiting apostles. John 14:16; Acts 2:33. Then, in compliance with their commission, Peter, at the third of the day began to preach, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” Acts 2:39. This word remission signifies forgiveness, pardon or more literally sending of sins. Now, put by the side of this text, another on this point from his discourse at the ninth hour of the same day. Acts 3:18, “Repent ye therefore; and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”

Here he exhorts to repentance and conversion (turning away from sin), for what purpose? “That your sins may be [future] blotted out.” Every one can see that the blotting out of sins does not take place at repentance and conversion; but follows, and must, of necessity, be preceded by them. Repentance, conversion, and baptism had become imperative duties in the present tense; and when performed, those doing them “washed away,” (Acts 22:16) remitted, or sent away from them, their sins, and of course are forgiven and have “received the atonement.” Romans 5:11. But they had not received it entirely at that time, because their sins were not yet blotted out. How far then had they advanced in the reconciling process? Just so far as the individual under the law had when he had confessed his sin, brought his victim to the door of the tabernacle, laid his hand upon it and slain it, and the priest had with its blood entered the Holy and sprinkled it before the veil and upon the alter and thus made an atonement for him, and he was forgiven. Only that was the type and this the reality. That prepared for the cleansing of the great Day of Atonement, this for the blotting out of sins “when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and He shall send Jesus.” Acts 3:19, 20. Hence, “by whom we have now received the atonement” (Romans 5:11) is the same as by whom we have received the forgiveness of sin. At this point the man is “made free from sin.” Romans 6:22.

The Lamb on Calvary’s cross is our victim slain; “Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant” (Hebrews 12:24), in the heavens, is our intercessing High Priest, making atonement with His own blood by and with which He entered there. The essence of the process is the same as in the “shadow.” First, convinced of sin; second, repentance and confession; third, present the Divine sacrifice bleeding. This done in faith and sincerity, we can do no more, no more is required.

“In the heavenly Sanctuary our High Priest, with His own blood, makes the atonement, and we are forgiven,” Crosier concluded. He then quoted 1 Peter 2:24; “‘Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.’” (See also Matthew 8:17; Isaiah 53:4–12.)

“His body is the ‘one sacrifice’ for repenting mortals, to which their sins are imparted and through whose blood, in the hands of the living, active Priest, they are conveyed to the heavenly Sanctuary. That was offered, ‘once for all,’ ‘on the tree;’ and all who would avail themselves of its merits must, through faith, there receive it as theirs, bleeding at the hands of sinful mortals like themselves.”

“After thus obtaining the atonement of forgiveness we must ‘maintain good works,’ not the ‘deeds of the law;’ but ‘being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness,’ This work we will understand to be peculiar to the Gospel Dispensation.” Owen R. L. Crosier, The Day Star Extra, February 7, 1846.

The Position of the Pioneers

This article makes it clear that pioneer Adventists did not believe in a “completed and final atonement on the cross.” Indeed, the “Fundamental Principles of Beliefs” written by James White and published in the Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook [1874–1914] stated almost the very words of Crosier on the final atonement. Note carefully the statement by James White: “That there is one Lord Jesus Christ…that He…died our sacrifice, was raised for our justification, ascended on high to be our only Mediator in the sanctuary in heaven, where, with His own blood, He makes the atonement for our sins; which atonement, so far from being made on the cross, which was but the offering of the sacrifice, is the very last portion of His work as priest, according to the example of the Levitical priesthood, which foreshadowed and prefigured the ministry of our Lord in heaven.” James White, 1874 Fundamental Principles, op. sit. The Living Witness, “Significant Articles From the Signs of the Times,” 1874–1959, Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1959.

Did Ellen White agree with this “Fundamental Principles” statement on the final atonement? In one of Ellen White’s earliest visions she was shown the concept of the sanctuary truth symbolized by the First Angel’s Message:

“I saw a throne, and on it sat the Father and the Son.…Before the throne I saw the Advent people—the church and the world. I saw two companies, one bowed down before the throne, deeply interested, while the other stood uninterested and careless. Those who were bowed before the throne would offer up their prayers and look to Jesus; then He would look to His Father, and appear to be pleading with Him. A light would come from the Father to the Son and from the Son to the praying company. Then I saw an exceeding bright light come from the Father to the Son, and from the Son it waved over the people before the throne. But few would receive this great light. Many came out from under it and immediately resisted it; others were careless and did not cherish the light, and it moved off from them. Some cherished it, and went and bowed down with the little praying company. This company all received the light and rejoiced in it, and their countenances shone with its glory.” Early Writings, 54, 55.

Ellen White stated that only a “few would receive this great light” and that only a few would join with “the little praying company.” God’s true people are always a small company. (See Luke 12:32; Mat-thew 7:14.) Indeed, did not Jesus say, “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:37. What was the most important fact about the days of Noah?

“When once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” 1 Peter 3:20b.

Christ and the Father Enter the Most Holy In 1844

Evangelical Christians and contemporary Adventists state that Christ entered the most holy place at His ascension. This teaching is heresy and is not the teaching of pioneer Adventists. Note carefully the following statement from the Spirit of Prophecy:

“I saw a throne, and on it sat the Father and the Son,” Ellen White began. “I gazed on Jesus’ countenance and admired His lovely person. The Father’s person I could not behold, for a cloud of glorious light covered Him.” Early Writings, 54.

I saw the Father rise from the throne, and in a flaming chariot go into the holy of holies within the veil, and sit down. Then Jesus rose up from the throne, and most of those who were bowed down arose with Him. I did not see one ray of light pass from Jesus to the careless multitude after He arose, and they were left in perfect darkness.…Then a cloudy chariot, with wheels like flaming fire, surrounded by angels, came to where Jesus was. He stepped into the chariot and was borne to the holiest, where the Father sat. There I beheld Jesus, a great High Priest, standing before the Father.…Those who rose up with Jesus would send up their faith to Him in the holiest, and pray, “My Father, give us Thy Spirit.” Then Jesus would breathe upon them the Holy Ghost. In that breath was light, power, and much love, joy, and peace.” Early Writings, 55.

There are five important facts that must be acknowledged in this vision given Ellen White. Note carefully the time-frame of the vision.

  1. The time of the vision was at the “End of the 2300 Days.” The end of the 2300 days was October 22, 1844.
  2. In vision Ellen White saw God the Father arise from His throne in the holy place, or first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, and move into the holy of holies, “within the veil,” and sit down. (See Daniel 7:9, 10.) God the Father moved “through the Veil” into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary in 1844.
  3. Jesus also arose from His throne in the holy place, or first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary in 1844 and “stepped into the chariot and was borne to the holiest, where the Father sat.” (See Daniel 7:13.) There Ellen White saw Jesus our great High Priest, “standing before the Father.”
  4. Those who by faith entered the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary with the Father and the Son received “light, power, and much love, joy, and peace.”
  5. Ellen White did not see even “one ray of light” pass from Jesus to the careless multitude after He had arisen and entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. Further, she stated that the people who did not enter the holy of holies by faith “were left in perfect darkness.” Mark this point well. The fallen churches of Babylon have not one ray of light and are in total darkness! “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. Do the Sunday-keeping churches believe in the Law and the Sabbath? No, there is no light in them. “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” Proverbs 28:9.

“I turned to look at the company who were still bowed before the throne; they did not know that Jesus had left it. Satan appeared to be by the throne, trying to carry on the work of God. I saw them look up to the throne, and pray, ‘Father, give us Thy Spirit.’ Satan would then breathe upon them an unholy influence; in it there was light and much power, but no sweet love, joy, and peace. Satan’s object was to keep them deceived and to draw back and deceive God’s children.” Early Writings, 56.

Again, pioneer Adventist doctrine points out that the Sunday-keeping churches became Babylon because they refused to follow by faith the Father and Son into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary in 1844! They refused the First Angel’s Message! There are two other important facts that must be acknowledged in this early vision given to Ellen White.

  1. Satan appeared to be by the throne in the first apartment, or holy place, “trying to carry on the work of God.”
  2. Satan breathes upon the fallen churches of Babylon “an unholy influence,” and in this unholy influence there is “light and much power.” We see this unholy influence and false power in the erroneous faith healing and counterfeit joy and peace of the contemporary Evangelical and Pentecostal churches. We also see this “unholy influence” and false “joy and peace” in the “Celebration” movement within the contemporary Seventh-day Adventist Church. Only a delay of the Lord’s coming will reveal the acceptance of “tongue-speaking” and “divine healing” in public services of apostate churches.

The Two Locations of God’s Throne

Was God the Father’s throne in the holy place, the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, at the ascension of Christ, and the years prior to 1844? Did pioneer Adventists believe in a “moving throne?” Was Ellen White correct about the location of God’s throne prior to 1844 when she saw in vision the Father and the Son move from the holy place, the first apartment, through the Veil, into the holiest, or second apartment in 1844? The answer to these three questions is an absolute, indisputable, definite yes!

To be continued…

Easter Eggs, Bunnies & Religious Freedom

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For some reason, there is great confusion among God’s professed people today about some very fundamental principles. If you study sacred history, you will find that God’s people have a poor track record in recognizing when prophecy is fulfilled.

Jesus got into great difficulty with God’s professed people in His day because He said to them, “This day is this word fulfilled in your ears.” And a little bit after He said that, they decided to kill Him. You see, I think all churches have a tendency to do one of two things with prophecy. We tend to say it was fulfilled in the past, or it is going to be fulfilled in the future. Is there no prophecy being fulfilled today? Is all prophecy either in the past or in the future? Very often prophecy is being fulfilled right in front of our eyes but we do not recognize what we see.

We want to look at Easter eggs, Easter bunnies, and religious freedom. Have you ever wondered how Easter eggs and Easter bunnies came into the Christian Church? Have you read anything about it in your Bible? I never have.

Here is a more difficult question. Have you ever wondered how a worldwide Virgin Mary Cult got into the Christian Church? Did you know that the images of the Madonna and her son are over four thousand years old, yet Jesus was not born until two thousand years ago? It is a documented fact. If you would like to see pictures of some of those images, look at The New Illustrated Great Controversy and you will see pictures of the Madonna.

The Son of the Sun

It started back in Genesis, a short time after the flood, with Nimrod and his wife, Semiramis. Nimrod died a violent death. After he died, Semiramis became pregnant. She was the queen and wanted to retain her power, so she told the people her dead husband had gone up into the sky. He was now the sun god and she was carrying his child. She bore a son, the “son of the sun,” she said, and he was named Tammuz. You can read about Tammuz in the Old Testament. Those images of the woman and the child, are actually images of Semiramis and Tammuz, and they were taken into the Christian Church. There were people in the Christian Church who had been taught by the followers of the apostles. These people had been taught both the Old and the New Testament, and they knew about idolatry. So the people who wanted to bring these things into the church, had to figure out a way to get them accepted. Do you know what they did? They changed the names of the images! They no longer called the woman, Semiramis, or the queen of heaven, they called her the Virgin Mary, and the son, of course, would no longer be Tammuz, but Jesus Christ.

The symbol for Tammuz was a cross, and all the Pagan people had crosses. They also had fertility gods and goddesses, and these things came into the Christian Church, too. That is where we got Easter. The egg was a symbol of fertility, and the rabbit, being prolific, was also a symbol of fertility, so the Easter egg and the Easter bunny were also brought into the Church.

“That which Satan has led men to do in the past he will, if possible, lead them to do again.” Review and Herald, November 22, 1892.

Pagan Christians?

Let me ask you a question, and remember, we are studying fundamental principles here. We want to understand the significance of what happened then and its relevance for us today. What did they do in the past? In the past they combined Paganism and Christianity. They took Pagan philosophy and combined it with the Christian Church.

Have you heard the theory that is in many Christian Churches today concerning the immortality of the soul? They teach that man has an immortal soul and that when you die, your immortal soul goes on living forever. Of course, if it can live forever, it can burn forever.

Do you know where that idea came from? It did not come from Scripture! It came from Plato! Plato was a Greek philosopher, and he believed that man had an immortal soul. Plato got his theory from the Egyptians, and he taught others that man had an immortal soul, and when man died, he had some entity that went on living forever. The Bible does not say that. According to the Bible, only God has immortality! (See 1 Timothy 6:15, 16.) But Plato’s teachings came into the Christian Church. And so, all of these Pagan ideas were joined to the Christian Church and they made it all one.

If you had been living back then, what would you have done? Here you are, going to church, and you come to church one Sabbath morning and there stands an image of a woman and child, right in the church. You might say, “What is that? I am a Christian, I don’t worship images,” and the response would come back, “Oh, that is just to remind us of the Virgin Mary and her Son, Jesus.” What would you have done? Do you think there were any people back then who saw those images in the church and said, “I cannot go to a church that is worshipping images. I am getting out of here?” There were a few, but not very many.

Why were there not very many? Because most of the people said the same thing they are saying today. They said, “Jesus Christ said that the gates of hell will not prevail against My church. So all I have to do is stay here and I will be saved.” That is what the majority said.

The Faithful Few

There were a few who felt they could not stay in a church that was worshipping idols, because that really was not the true church. It could not be! We can find out who the church is by turning to Scripture. The apostle Paul writes to a young minister, and he tells him who the church is: “But if I am delayed, I write so you will know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15. Notice the house of God is the church, and it is “the pillar and the ground of the truth.” That could also be translated, “the foundation, the ground or the foundation of the truth.”

The Foundation, the Rock, on which the church is built, is the truth. That is what it says, and that is what Jesus said. “On this Rock (that is Himself) I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” The church is built on the truth. There were a few people who knew from the Scripture that the church is built on the truth, and the church cannot go into idolatry and keep being the true church. That just cannot happen.

There was something else that happened about the same time that all of this was going on. “That which Satan has led men to do in the past, he will, if possible, lead them to do again. The early church was deceived by the enemy of God and man, and apostasy was brought into the ranks of those who professed to love God; and today, unless the people of God awake out of sleep, they will be taken unawares by the devices of Satan.” Ibid.

The Day of the Sun

At the same time that they were bringing these images into the church, people noticed that the Pagans got together to have a wild solar holiday on the first day of every week, and that is where the name Sunday comes from, it was the day of the sun.

Monday was the day of the moon, Wednesday, the day of Wardes [a German Pagan god], Saturday, the day of Saturn. All of our days of the week are named after the Pagan gods of that day. So the Pagans worshipped different heavenly bodies and different Pagan gods every single day of the week. But the greatest of all, was the sun god and Sunday. The Christians wanted to incorporate this into the Christian religion along with everything else they were bringing in, and they found a ready excuse to remember Sunday; it was the day that Jesus came out of the tomb. The Pagans worshipped the sun at sunrise on Sunday morning, and they worshipped toward the east. You will find, when you study the Sanctuary, that when God had the Sanctuary erected, He told Moses which direction it was to face. When you entered God’s Sanctuary, you were facing west. This was God’s instruction because the whole Pagan world faced east and worshipped the sun. (See Ezekiel 7, 8, 9.)

That had been going on for thousands of years, and it was going on by the latter part of the second century. So much so, that by 200 a.d. there were Pagan philosophers who told the Christians they were no different than them! The Christians claimed they were different, even though it was true that they were worshipping the rising sun on Sunday, they claimed they were actually worshipping the “Son of righteousness.”

The Shaking Has Begun!

Remember, that which Satan did before, if possible, he is going to do again. I want to tell you, he is doing it right now! He is doing it in Adventism; and Seventh-day Adventists are looking into the future saying there is going to be a national Sunday law sometime, and then everything is going to be shaken out. What they do not realize is, the shaking out has already begun, and the national Sunday law is the end of the shaking, not the beginning.

What would you do if you came to church some Sabbath and there was an image standing in your church? Pray to God that we will never have images in our church! That is why we do not have crosses in our church. Not because the cross itself is wrong, but it is wrong when people start worshipping it. You cannot find any place in the Bible where we are instructed to worship a cross. Of course, people claim they are not worshipping the cross, they are worshipping the Son of God, Who was on the cross. Be careful!

The Name of the Game is Compromise

What would you do if you came to church and found that the majority of the people had gotten together and decided to compromise to have more influence in the community?

This is the way it happened in early times. They wanted to have more influence with the Pagan world, thus they would have more converts, more influence. “We are going to have more converts if we accommodate ourselves to the customs of the people,” they said. It is not wrong to accommodate yourself to a culture or custom, if it does not involve the violation of the Word of God. But they decided to accommodate themselves to the Pagan world by doing what the Pagan world was doing. They were still going to worship on Sabbath, but they would join the Pagans in the customs of their sun day. If you study history, you will find that it was very insidious the way Sunday-keeping came into the Christian Church. It started really early in Alexandria [in Egypt], and in Rome. But for most of the Christian world, Sunday-keeping took hundreds of years to become established.

Ten years ago, I was in one of the largest Seventh-day Adventist Churches in the Midwest, and I listened with astonishment as the pastor announced that they were going to start having services on Sabbath and Sunday, because they would be able to get the community to come on Sunday. I was amazed!

The reason I was so astonished was that I had read a little bit of history. Some people do not like history, but when you do not know history, you can make the same mistakes made fifteen hundred years ago and not even know what you are doing.

That is what the early Christian church did. There were churches in the Roman Empire that kept both Sabbath and Sunday for hundreds of years. You could not tell them they were breaking the Sabbath, because they kept the Sabbath. But eventually the time came when Sunday was elevated more and more, and the Sabbath was pushed down. It took a long time, but it finally happened, and it is happening again!

People were saying this is God’s church and Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. So if you stay in here, you are going to be all right and are going to wind up on the heavenly shore. The fact of the matter is, the great majority of those people lost their souls. (See Early Writings, or The Great Controversy.)

“There is no union between the Prince of Light and the prince of darkness, and there can be no union between their followers.” The Great Controversy, 45.

Who were the followers of the Prince of Light and the followers of the prince of darkness? Remember they all called themselves Christians, so you could not divide them that way. How do you tell the difference between a follower of the Prince of Light and the prince of darkness? Is it what church they go to? Is it what organization they belong to? Absolutely not!

“When Christians consented to unite with those who were but half converted by Paganism, they entered upon a path which led further and further from the truth.” Ibid. They consented to unite with those who were not totally converted, they would become one church. They would baptize people who were not yet converted. In this way, they brought into the church a mass of “professors” of Christianity who were still worshipping idols and doing things contrary to the Bible.

Has that happened in Adventism? Yes, it has! What does that do to the church? It takes you on a path that leads farther and farther from the truth, but you do not realize it because it is only one step at a time.

The Majority is Never Right

There were a few people who decided that they were not going to go along with this program. There is no question that they tried to persuade their brethren against this move because they knew it was not in harmony with the Word of God. They tried, but they could not persuade them because they were in the minority. If you study religious history, you will find that there has never been a time recorded in the Bible, since Adam and Eve sinned, when the majority was in the right. That just never happens.

“It required a desperate struggle for those who would be faithful to stand firm against the deceptions and abominations which were disguised in sacerdotal garments and introduced into the church.” Ibid., 45. What happened to those who decided to stand firm? It required a desperate struggle.

Have you ever been involved in a desperate struggle? Have you ever seen someone involved in a desperate struggle? Have you ever seen anyone who is about to drown, flailing around trying to get out? That is a desperate struggle, and it required that same kind of struggle for those who would stand firm against these deceptions. We are in that kind of struggle again today.

Deceptions are flooding into the churches all over the world, including the Adventist Church. What has happened? “The Bible was not accepted as the standard of faith. The doctrine of religious freedom was termed heresy, and its upholders were hated and proscribed.” Ibid.

Just think that over. First, the Bible was not the rule of faith. The same thing is happening today with the Spirit of Prophecy. Secondly, they did not believe in the doctrine of religious freedom. Where did the religious freedom go?

The Pagans had a custom that was thousands of years old, and as the church combined with Paganism, this custom applied to them. You can read about it in Scripture, and in early Christian history. The ruler of the country dictated what religion you were going to follow, and you had to comply.

That is what Nebuchadnezzar did. It is what the Medo-Persians did. That is why Daniel got thrown into the den of lions. It is what the Greeks did. That is why forty thousand Jews were killed in Egypt during the time of the Greek wars. During just one war, forty thousand Jews were killed. Read the Macabees, the history of God’s people during that period.

How about the Roman Caesar? The Roman Caesar was called the personification of the sun god, and they would build an altar in the center of the city. They had town squares in Roman times, and they put an altar right in the middle of it. They would light a fire on the altar and burn incense there. The people of the town were required to walk by, take a pinch of incense, throw it in the fire and say, Caesar es corius. Meaning, Caesar is lord. They did this to find out who the Christians were. Can a Christian say that? No! When a Christian would come by, he would not take the incense, because that would be offering incense to the sun god, but he would say, Cristos es corius, meaning, Christ is Lord. We will never know, until the Day of Judgment, how many were martyred on that one point alone, just because they would not acknowledge Caesar as lord.

You see, in the Pagan countries, you had a state religion and you had to be of the same religious persuasion as the president or the king, or you could lose your head. As you study religious history, you find this went on in Europe all during the dark ages. In England, in the sixteenth century, when the Protestant ruler died and a Catholic Queen came to the throne, over a three-year period they burned at the stake, or got rid of, almost all of the Protestant leaders in the country.

When Elizabeth became queen, all of a sudden the Protestants could exercise their religion without getting killed any more. What was it that they took from Paganism? The idea that the state could dictate in regard to religion. Is that happening today? Yes! And it is not finished yet. It is going to get worse.

Clasping the Arm of the State

When you go into a court and ask them to make a ruling on something about religion, you have done the same thing they did back there. We are doing it, and we have been for several years.

When it gets so bad that you no longer have religious liberty, what should you do? The same as they did. The majority went along with it, but there were a faithful few that said we are not going to go along with this, no matter what, because it is wrong.

Do you believe that there are, in God’s government, moral absolutes? A moral absolute is a principle that is always wrong to violate—no matter what. It is even wrong to violate it to save your life. The world today does not believe in moral absolutes. The thing that made America a great nation was, as late as World War II, most of our population still believed in moral absolutes. But since World War II, the majority in our country have changed their minds.

In 1967, I was listening to a religious radio program. The speaker said, “In front of every one of the Ten Commandments you should put the word ‘ordinarily.’” Now if you put the word ‘ordinarily’ in front of every single one of the Ten Commandments, what does that do to them? It takes away their moral absolute character. It makes them say, you can do it most of the time, but you do not have to do it in certain situations. Today, we call this ‘situation ethics.’

People are living in fornication and adultery. When a Christian pastor goes to plead with them, they say things like “God does not expect me to be unhappy all my life and live in loneliness.” Do you see? Once you put the word “ordinarily” in front of any one of the Ten Commandments, you have no idea where you are going to end up.

Today there are people who are professional killers, claiming to be Christians. They go to confession, confess their sins, and would tell you they expect to go to heaven. But I want to tell you that, according to the Bible, they will not. (See Revelation 22:15.)

What do people do, who decide to resist this “after a long and severe conflict?” Has it been going on in Adventism? Yes, it has. I meet people all the time that have been going through a long and severe conflict for years and years in their churches. And the church is going into more apostasy and worldliness, and they cannot stop it. Notice what Christians did in the past. “After a long and severe conflict, the faithful few decided to dissolve all union with the apostate church if she still refused to free herself from falsehood and adultery.” Ibid., 45.

A Harlot Church

The apostate church decided to unite with the state. Read this carefully. What I am telling you now is something that I have thought through for many years and I do not expect to back down on this, because I know from history, and God’s word, it is so. When any church decides to unite with the state, that church has become a harlot church. That church is in apostasy. And it is not something to happen in the future, it is happening now.

Let me explain that for someone who has not thought that through before. Do you believe in marriage? Does the Bible teach that marriage is holy? Yes, it is so explicit in the Bible: “Marriage is holy in all things and the marriage bed is not defiled.” Hebrews 13:4. But in regard to marriage, Paul said, “What I am really talking about is Christ and the church.” (See Ephesians 5:32.) “The two [quoting from Genesis 2:24 where God instituted the marriage relationship] shall be one flesh.” Ephesians 5:31. So if the two are one flesh it is holy. But what if it is three? Is it holy then? No, it is not holy any more. It is wicked. Now let us think this through. Paul says, what I am really talking about here, when I talk about the two being one flesh, is Christ and the church.

The church is the bride of Christ. Is that what the Bible says? Yes, and Paul says, I have espoused you to how many husbands? One. God gave Adam only one wife and He gave Eve only one husband. Now the church is to be espoused to Christ and Christ says, “My kingdom is not of this world.” John 18:36. What if the church that is to be espoused to Christ, instead of having her relationship totally with the Lord, develops a relationship with a civil government in this world? What then? The church has two husbands. Can you have two husbands and be holy? No. Would you agree that a woman who has two husbands is a harlot? So, anytime any church develops a union with the state, that church has become a harlot because the church is to be united with the Lord only.

Jesus is very clear about this. (See Matthew 22:21.) “They said to Him, ‘Caesar’s.’ And He said to them, ‘Render therefore to Caesar.” Who is Caesar? He is the state government. In those days it was the government of the whole world. Caesar had a world empire and Jesus said, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” In other words, it is lawful for you, as a Christian, to pay your taxes and to abide by the laws of Caesar. However, did Jesus make it clear that there are some things that do not belong to Caesar? Look at what the end of the text says, “And to God, the things that are God’s.” Ibid.

Are there some things that belong to God, that do not belong to Caesar? God does not forbid you, but He tells you to render to Caesar those things that belong to him. The New Testament spells out exactly what is due to the state government. (See Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2.)

As Christians we attempt to follow the Word of God and so we are loyal citizens—as long as the state government does not interfere with what belongs to God. You see, when a church unites with, and starts working through the government to get her way, she has become a harlot church. If you are in such a church and you cannot get that church to stop doing what it is doing, you are going to have to get free, or you are going to be a member of a harlot church too. You are going to be part of the harlotry, the spiritual adultery. That is the problem in the last days. (See Revelation.) The whole world is gone after this thing and the kings of the earth have committed fornication. It is not talking about physical fornication, even though there is plenty of that going on, it is talking about spiritual fornication. Spiritual fornication is when you claim that you are united with the Lord, but you are united with something else—a state government. It is union of church and state.

Separate—Dissolve all Union

“After a long and severe conflict, the faithful few decided to dissolve all union with the apostate church if she still refused to free herself from falsehood and adultery. They saw that separation was an absolute necessity if they would obey the Word of God.” The Great Controversy, 45.

“Oh, no,” someone says, “you are teaching separationism!” I just quoted it from The Great Controversy. I never cease to be amazed at how frightened people are of what they call separationism. If the early Christian church had been afraid of separationism, they would have stayed in the organization and would have wound up being part of Babylon.

When a church becomes a harlot church, you cannot stay in it, participate, support and fund it, and not be contaminated. It is like living in a commune with a group of men and women who are living together in sin. You may think you will just live there, and not participate, but you will be taken by surprise after a while.

“They saw that separation was an absolute necessity if they would obey the Word of God.” Ibid. Are you and your family obedient to the Word of God? If you want to stay that way, if you want to be ready for Jesus to come, you have to separate from apostasy and not participate in it.

“They dared not tolerate errors fatal to their own souls, and set an example which would imperil the faith of their children and children’s children.” Ibid. Praise the Lord there were people like this. They were from all nations. Rome became the center, and in Italy those people who could not tolerate this went into the northern part of Italy, into Milan, and later on to Deuteron, and even later into what we call the Waldensian Valley. They became the Waldenses.

The Waldenses were a group of people who actually came from many different nations, part of the true church, but they were not the only group. There were the Albagenses and Paulicians. We do not know how many Paulicians there were, but we do know, from historical records, that in the middle ages, the Paulicians were farther up in the eastern Roman Empire. We also know that during the reign of just one queen, she had one hundred thousand of them killed. So we know there were a lot of them. But they were not very many in proportion to what the whole church was, because the whole church was in the many millions.

Peace at the Sacrifice of Principles?

“To secure peace and unity they were ready to make any concession consistent with fidelity to God; but they felt that even peace would be too dearly purchased at the sacrifice of principle.” Ibid.

Oh, friend, do you have some moral principles based on the Word of God that you are not going to sacrifice, no matter what happens? I hope you do. Because if you do not, if you are willing to purchase peace by compromising, you are on a downhill run and will end up in Babylon and not even know what happened.

You may not think you will ever do that because you are part of Zion, but remember that is what all those people, who called themselves Christians, thought, and the great majority lost out. What we are talking about has caused the loss of billions of souls.

This idea of trying to keep peace by compromising your principles a little bit is dangerous. As time goes on, you have to compromise a little bit more, and a little bit more, until there is no end.

You may think that the Lord is going to sort it out when the National Sunday Law comes. The Lord is going to sort it out, all right. Do you think the people who are compromising a little bit here and there right now will, all of a sudden, turn around and go the opposite direction when the National Sunday Law comes?

Think! If we cannot stand up and not compromise the truth in a relative time of peace, what do you think we are going to do when the pressure is put on us?

Let There be Difference—Even War!

Ellen White writes about the feelings of this small, faithful few. “If unity could be secured only by the compromise of truth and righteousness, then let there be difference, and even war.” Ibid.

Do you mean a Christian would say, “Let there be war?” That is exactly what it said. “Well would it be for the church and the world if the principles that actuated those steadfast souls were revived in the hearts of God’s professed people.” Ibid., 46.

What were the principles that actuated these steadfast souls? They decided that they were going to absolve all union with an apostate church and would not listen to anyone that was united with the world. They would not be part of it.

Do you know what the apostate church called them, and has been calling them for over fifteen hundred years? They called them separationists!

In Vatican II, the Pope called them “separated brethren.” The Papacy is still calling them that, and they are not going to be content until they get them all back.

Who Really are the Separationists?

All Protestants are separationists according to the Pope. Who really are the separationists?

“Romanists have persisted in bringing against Protestants the charge of heresy and willful separation from the true church.” In other words, they accuse Protestants of being separationists because of willful separation from the true church. Now look at the next sentence. “But these accusations apply rather to themselves.” The Great Controversy, 51.

Who were the separationists? It was the majority, not the minority. The majority kept the church building, the pastor, the organization, the finances, the name, the collusion with the government, everything. They had worldly peace and prosperity, but Inspiration says they were the separationists.

How do you know that they were the separationists? There are two things that make a person a separationist. If these apply to you, or me, then we are separationists. But whoever they apply to, they are separationists.

“They are the ones who lay down the banner of Christ and departed from the ‘faith which was once delivered unto the saints.’ Jude 3.” Ibid.

They did two things. They laid down the banner of Christ! They did that by accepting Pagan customs and teachings. They laid down the truth and picked up Pagan ideas and brought them into the church. They laid down the banner of Christ and “They departed from the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints. Jude 3.”

That is why I personally like the term Historic Seventh-day Adventist, because I want the historic Seventh-day Adventist faith that the saints of all ages knew, what the pioneers of Adventism, who understood the judgment hour message, accepted.

Our Pioneers said, “We do not have any creed. The Bible is our creed.” When I was a young boy, I was taught this in the Adventist Church, and as a young preacher, I used to tell people, when I was studying the Bible with them in their homes, the Bible is the only creed that I have, and I am very sincere and I can say it in public today. I am still sincere when I say it. If you could show me anything in the Bible that is contrary to the way I am living, I am willing to change, starting today.

I want to live according to the Bible. The faith once delivered to the saints is in the Bible. The separationists are the people that lay the banner down and start following other teachings, customs, or traditions of philosophy. The separationists are the majority. The faithful few, who keep the faith that was once delivered unto the saints, are not the separationists, they are the true church.

The Future Brings the End of the Shaking

The same thing that happened back there is happening right now. Do not let somebody fool you and tell you it is going to happen some time in the future. It is going on right now. The future will not bring the beginning of the shaking, it is going to bring the end of the shaking. Are you ready?

There were a faithful few back then, and we know through prophecy (See Revelation 12:17,) there is going to be a faithful few again at the end. It says so. “The woman fled into the wilderness.” (See verse 6) It was the faithful few that fled into the wilderness.

At the end there is going to be a faithful few again, just a small group in proportion to the world’s population. Although, it will be a large group in terms of total numbers. I want to be part of 1the remnant that is talked about in Revelation 12:17, who still keep the commandments and have the testimony of Jesus. If that is what you want, and you want to dedicate your life to the Lord today, say, “Lord, whatever it takes. I am willing to go through the desperate struggle. I am willing to be called a separationist. I am willing, whatever people want to call me, I want to be part of the remnant that keep the commandments and have the faith of Jesus.” Pray and ask Him to help you be part of that group today.

Editorial – He Sits as God, Part III

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In our first two editorials on this subject, we pointed out how, for over 100 years, Adventists have revealed the identity of the antichrist power; this power, which is spoken of in the last days, and whom Bible prophecy warns us so plainly about.

While we have confidently shown the identifying marks of the antichrist power (it is easy from just Daniel 7, II Thessalonians 2 and Revelation 13 to list over 60 identifying, or descriptive, marks of the antichrist power) we have not suspected that we could ever get in such a situation ourselves. We thought that we understood Bible prophecy and we would never acknowledge any part of antichrist.  The Spirit of Prophecy does not give us such an optimistic picture, however.

“If all that appears to be divine life were such in reality; if all who profess to present the truth to the world were preaching for the truth and not against it, and if they were men of God guided by His Spirit,–then might we see something cheering amid the prevailing moral darkness. But the spirit of antichrist is prevailing to such an extent as never before. Well may we exclaim: “Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.” I know that many think far too favorably of the present time. These ease-loving souls will be engulfed in the general ruin. . . .the days of purification of the church are hastening on apace. 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 signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord will manifest that His fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 79.

What is this spirit of Antichrist that is prevailing to such an extent as never before? The spirit of antichrist includes man’s desire to be as god (This was the issue at the 1901 General Conference. Study the library speech.) The Greek work anti means, first of all, someone who is in the place of someone else, or in this context, another who stands in the place of Christ and receives that which only Christ can lawfully receive, such as worship. Any such person obviously would have become a god because only God can lawfully receive worship.

The things that the Spirit of Prophecy specifies will eventually make many in Adventism a part of antichrist are the following:

  1. Worldly policy
  2. Presuming to judge the motives of others
  3. Idolizing human wisdom and setting the opinions of men above the revealed wisdom of God
  4. Rejecting the prophets and holding to the traditions of men.
  5. Skepticism
  6. Spiritualism
  7. Molding ourselves (getting our own way)
  8. Following human nature (not dying to self).
  9. Manifesting a love for supremacy.

These brief quotations support these statements:

“Worldly policy is taking the place of the true piety and wisdom that comes from above, and God will remove His prospering hand from the conference. Shall the ark of the covenant be removed from this people? Shall idols be smuggled in? Shall false principles and false precepts be brought into the sanctuary? Shall antichrist be respected?” Counsels to Writers and Editors,

“Whoever presumes to judge the motives of others is again usurping the prerogative of the Son of God. These would-be judges and critics are placing themselves on the side of antichrist, Lift Him Up, 335.

“All that have refused to be taught of God hold to the traditions of men; they at last pass over on the side of the enemy against God and are written antichrist.” General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 18, 1897.

“There are rank infidels, those who believe in the lying wonders of Spiritualism, and those who reject the claims of divine truth. All these are placed among the class that John has written of, and are controlled by the spirit of antichrist.” Manuscript Release, vol. 20.

“Those who will not practice the lessons of Christ, but keep themselves in hand, to mold themselves, find in antichrist the center of their union. While the two parties stand in collision, the Lord will appear.” Ibid., 113.3.

“The crisis is just before us. The fierce conflict of mind with mind, of principle with principle, of truth with error, which is fast approaching, and which has already begun, calls for constant vigilance. . . .the walls of antichrist shall fall.”  Ibid.

“The spirit of antichrist is developing rapidly. Soon there will be a time when those who follow their own human nature, who manifest a love for supremacy, will be found to be on the losing side.” Ibid., 176.

Why Apostasy Must be Exposed

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Just to sit and contemplate what has happened in the last several years and what tomorrow will surely bring, is enough to make one mentally exhausted.

We will be sorely tempted to just throw our “helpless” hands in the air and give up. In fact, this is exactly what the majority are being programmed to do and what they will do. In reality our very continued existence depends on how we deal with the issue of apostasy both in our calling to Adventism and the question of eternal life or death. As we understand this, we will better appreciate what Jesus meant when He had John write, “Here is the patience of the saints,” in Revelation 14:12, and why He had this verse placed at the end of the Three Angels’ Messages.

Over the last several years, I have heard it all—all the reasons why we should not even talk about the apostasy that has become thick. Even more I have heard why it is “sin” to expose it, especially if it is in high places, although the Bible plainly tells us that we must. I have heard statements made, as have all those who are standing firm, such as “Jesus never offended anyone.” This not only demonstrates the point, but exposes the success of the very apostasy that most are unwilling to deal with on any level. The majority which claim to be Adventists are actually and factually defending apostasy, knowingly or unknowingly, both in word and action. It is difficult to put into words the mental anguish this causes the few leaders who are trying to stay the poisonous tide of confusion and apostasy, as wave after wave continues to break upon the house which has been built on the Rock. Many times, the passion and pity displayed in the messages of warning by these messengers, are labeled hate and anger. The deception perpetrated on them is so deep that many do not realize that there is appropriate as well as inappropriate types.

The good and everlasting news about Adventism and the house built on the Rock is that it may appear as about to fall, but it does not!! In these few words lies the key, the secret, the hidden treasure which promotes health, happiness, peace and salvation, in the context of exposing apostasy. And although God knows that the overwhelming majority (yes, even in the Adventist community) will be lost, He has set these truths forth for the few who seek and shall find them.

These truths invite and warn us that we must understand our calling to Adventist Christianity in the total sense, and we must be willing to accept it in its total sense, or be lost. We must realize that what we are facing in the experience of Adventism, as it pertains to apostasy, is perhaps shocking to our generation, but certainly nothing new. In fact, what is happening, in and to this movement, is a continuation of a six thousand year history.

My brothers and sisters, we have the golden opportunity to witness the victory that all the Bible writers spoke of for the last generation in these final hours. Whether we realize it or not, we are writing history as it pertains to the eternal record both individually and collectively. Those who make a profession of Adventism, who will be saved in the end, will come to the realization and understanding of the necessity of dealing with the apostasy. They will end up being most appreciative that Jesus and all heaven have untiringly worked to bring us the “eyesalve,” or spiritual discernment, we must have in this final great struggle, in the controversy between Christ and Satan.

As our understanding is sanctified by our Lord, the mighty Captain of the Lord’s host, we will become aware that this study and the reality it portrays is both horrible and fascinating. Dear friends, we will also realize what it means to be a Seventh-day Adventist, the price paid, and the extreme privilege given to us who have been called, which none deserve or merit. We must understand by that experimental knowledge which builds the faith of Jesus. We must understand and experience the hymns, “Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross,” “Onward Christian Soldiers,” and “Soldiers of Christ Arise,” not just sing them. This must become who we are, and not just a fanciful wish or hope, but a Christ empowered reality. We do not “do” Adventism, Adventism is something we become, it is who we are.

Motives

The motive for dealing with apostasy, in the way that Christ did, and with the same intent, is the love of souls and the hatred of sin. The passion generated both in Christ and in His followers does not come from a hatred of people, but rather a proper understanding of, and hatred for, what sin did to our Lord and His creation, the human race.

In dealing with the subject of apostasy and the principles surrounding it, we are obliged to be straightforward and accurate. But also, rightly understood, the same unwavering principles dictate that our motive must be one of salvation, not destruction. Here is where many are deceived from two different points of view. One group believes that we can hate the enemy along with the apostasy he is promoting. This is totally false, but the dilemma lies in the fact that we can only come to understand this in practical terms as we give ourselves over to the One who loves us even when we are wicked. It is very natural to hate the enemy. Why? Because he does not agree with us and is working to undermine what we believe and who we are. But one who is caught in this trap, although perhaps in “the work of the Lord,” is in reality in the business of using the Word of God to further his own cause. This has and will continue to prove to be fatal. Clean water poured into a dirty glass pollutes the water, it does not clean the glass. Right words out of a hateful heart will bring undesirable results and will not save the unclean vessel.

The other conclusion is just as deadly, both to the one who is infected and to those who are influenced wrongly by the polluted witness which follows. This comes from one who wrongly believes that because we are to love the sinner, then we are obligated to accept and tolerate (in the spiritual sense) open sin and apostasy in the church, and we are “sinning” if we expose this wrongdoing. Herein lies one of the biggest problems of Christianity in general, and certainly the plight of current Adventism. Our people are so immersed in the deception of this satanic mind set that much of their energy is used to defend wickedness and our “right” to do as we please instead of witnessing for God’s honor and defending His pure law and character.

To add to this, we have been set up to fail on all fronts since birth, through an agenda which is almost universally demonstrated in those who hold the power in the structure—the recognized organization of Adventism. This agenda surfaced in the mid-fifties, and I believe, for the last time, is coming into full bloom, not only in the Adventist movement, as we will discuss later. It will bring the whole world into the reality of what was once prophecy, now fact, found especially in the books of Daniel and Revelation and in the Spirit of Prophecy. These are the reasons we see a unified open war on God’s Word and the writings of Ellen G. White within the organized structure of Adventism today.

Sick of Hearing About Apostasy

With all of this in mind, with much more to come, we humbly, but seriously and most sincerely invite all who will, to take a hard, critical look, based on a thus saith the Lord, with much prayer and the spirit of a true student of God, and to join us in this study, of why we must deal with and expose apostasy until the job is finished and the battle over.

Frankly, it does not matter that “we are sick of hearing about apostasy.” We neither write the rules of the warfare nor does it matter how we feel, but it is eternally important to understand that the value lies in what God says and how He directs. May we be compelled through our love for Jesus, the love of His truth, and the sanctification this brings, to stand properly in our lot as Seventh-day Adventists.

We plan not only to retrace our past to establish a foundation and platform for why exposing apostasy is vital, but we hope, along the way, to keep demonstrating with clear evidence that the agenda to tear every waymark of true Adventism down is fully alive and at work in the ranks of the leadership within the structure.

We will also make the bold assertion, define, and prove, that the power of the structure has been captured by these leaders who are promoting and pressing their agenda of apostasy. Included will be some of the reasons why these leaders are not really Adventists at all, and how this complicates the warfare from the perspective of the true Adventist.

In doing this delicate but bold work, the writer is aware of what many will say. This very work is what caused the death of Christ, and virtually all those who stood firm, that we would know by name, either in the Biblical account, or the historical time of the dark ages. But this is to a large degree why we must investigate it! For if Jesus and His followers thought it worthy of dying for, and if the rejection of this aspect of the work (exposing the apostasy among the professed people of God) drove the majority to become their murderers, then we must know why and be in the right relationship with the facts, no matter how it makes us feel.

May the Holy Spirit attend every writer with love, clarity, boldness and balance; and every reader with honesty, discernment, a love for the truth, and the mind of Christ, is our prayer.

Who Can Contain God? When Probation Closes for the Church

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Two Camps of Belief?

It has been stated that there are two camps of belief among historic Seventh-day Adventists today.

The first group calls the church Babylon, because of the terrible apostasy within its ranks, and calls people to separate from it and remove their membership.

The second group recognizes the apostasy in the conference church, but believes that it is still God’s” one and only true church“, and that it is not Babylon until it teaches the immortality of the soul and Sunday worship. They believe the structured church will be rejuvenated by faithful preachers, and that the Latter Rain will fall only upon those in the structured church who have been sighing and crying at the abominations done therein.

There is a Third Group

In reality, the largest group of all has been excluded. In essence, it is very similar to the second group. This group also recognizes the ever-expanding evil in the church, but it does not call the church Babylon nor tell people to remove their membership, despite some of these dear folks being disfellowshipped for exposing error and standing for truth. However, this group does not believe that God’s Latter Rain will be restricted to the faithful few in the conference structure. They believe that God can work with whomever He sees fit, both in the structure, and out of the structure. They believe that God did not give any unconditional promises. The Jewish structure of old was never given an unconditional promise by God, whereby it could do as it pleased.

This is clearly seen by the fact that Christ raised up an independent church from among the common people before probation had expired on the structured conference church in Jerusalem. (See Acts 2.) He did not, however, call the doomed and disobedient structured church Babylon. This clearly shows that for a period of time, before the destruction of the structured church, there was a God-ordained overlapping of these two groups. Both groups were considered to be part of the church, for it would be a brave man who said that Christ’s little independent ministry was not part of the church, even though He was holding unauthorized campmeetings, speaking strongly against the ordained leadership, preaching the truth, and collecting tithe money.

Did God Make a Mistake?

The church leaders had the fatally narrow idea that God could only work through them and their structured church organization, because their probation had not expired. The next fatal step was to conclude that Christ’s independent ministry was outside their structure and, hence, of Satan. The final step was to kill Christ and members of His new independent ministry, in God’s name. Could Christ, who was disfellowshipped from the structured church, be used of God to further the gospel truth? Did God make a mistake by missing the structured church (whose probation had not expired) and giving the Former Rain to an independent ministry critical of the conference church?

Could this have a type and anti-type warning for God’s end-time church? “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Corinthians 10:11.

Is the present conference church repeating the history of old Israel? “I have been shown that the spirit of the world is fast leavening the church. You are following the same path as did ancient Israel.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 75, 76.

In Testimonies, vol. 1, 129, the angel said that we are worse than old Israel.

“The trials of the children of Israel, and their attitude just before the first coming of Christ, have been presented before me again and again to illustrate the position of the people of God in their experience before the Second Coming of Christ.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 406.

“Satan is working that the history of the Jewish nation may be repeated.…” Ibid., Book 2, 111.

“Internal corruption will bring the denunciations of God upon this people as it did upon Jerusalem.” Ibid., 378.

Christ Had an Independent Ministry

Some conservative Adventists think they can turn the church around by their faithful preaching, but Jesus—the greatest preacher of all time—could not turn the church structure around in His day through His independent ministry. He could only save the ones in the structured church who would listen to Him. The prophet said we likewise, will not stop the flood of iniquity which is entering the structured church. “Are we hoping to see the whole church revived? That time will never come.” Ibid., Book 1, 122. The prophet also saw that the great apostasy in the church would wax more and more till the coming of the Lord. (See The Upward Look, 352.)

“Before the final visitation of God’s judgments upon the earth there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times.” The Great Controversy, 464.

God Takes the Reins

Just as God took the reins into His own hands, because of the apostasy in Christ’s time, He is also taking the reins today, because of apostasy in the church.

“The Lord will work in this last work in a manner very much out of the common order of things, and in a way that will be contrary to any human planning.…God will use ways and means by which it will be seen that He is taking the reins in His own hands.” Testimonies to Ministers, 300.

In Christ’s time there was the structured church, which was controlled by an apostate leadership, and there was Christ’s independent ministry of the common people, which received the Former Rain. (See Mark 12:37.)

There were two parties in the church in Christ’s time, and there are also two parties in the church today. (See Selected Messages, Book 2, 114.)

Intellectual Philosophy

Today, we have the new system of intellectual philosophy controlled by an apostate church leadership, which is bitterly opposing the Righteousness by Faith message—a prerequisite for those who would prepare for the Latter Rain. Nothing will be allowed to stand in this new system’s way, but storm and tempest will sweep away the structured church, just as it did in 70 ad. (See Ibid., Book 1, 204, 205.)

“Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for My name’s sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.” Isaiah 66:5.

Sighing and Crying Ones

We see that this new system would cast out the saints who are sighing and crying at the abominations in the conference church.

In apostolic times, the common people, who believed in Christ and attended His independent ministry meetings, were cast out of the structured church. The common people will be used again: “Words will come from the lips of the unlearned with such convincing power and wisdom that conversions will be made to the truth. Thousands will be converted under their testimony. Why should the illiterate man have this power, which the learned man has not? The illiterate one, through faith in Christ, has come into the atmosphere of pure, clear truth, while the learned man has turned away from the truth.” Maranatha, 252.

We all know that we must sigh and cry at the abominations in the church structure. Many have done this and been assaulted and disfellowshipped for their loyalty to God. God is greatly displeased when we knowingly go and listen to error (See Early Writings, 124). We only have to admonish them twice (see Titus 3:10), and then move on to areas where the gospel has not been preached, just as Jesus did. Parts of the world might be considerably different than others, so we cannot make a sweeping statement restricting God and the giving of His Latter Rain.

The Stigma of John the Baptist

In the South Pacific it is nearly impossible to get the leaders of the conference church to preach the Righteousness by Faith message. (See Gospel Workers, 301.) They are now attacking those who do preach God’s message. It is a big call to sweepingly state that these saints, who have been thrown out of the structured church for preaching God’s truth, cannot receive the Latter Rain. There are miracles happening all over the world among Seventh-day Adventists. It is another big call to play God and state that the miracles happening among conference Seventh-day Adventists are of God, and those happening among independent ministries are of Satan. That is the only conclusion you can come to, if you believe the Latter Rain will only fall on the conference church.

John the Baptist had an independent ministry outside of the church structure. The church members went to see him in the wilderness. It is just as difficult and humiliating for conference church members today to come to an independent ministry to receive the light of God.

Testimonies, vol. 5, 208–216 has been used to support the case that only those who remain in the conference church will receive the Latter Rain. If you read on just one more page, however, you will see that the prophet said, in essence, that the Holy Spirit had left the church.

In another attempt to prove the Latter Rain only comes upon the remaining saints in the conference church, the type and anti-type are used. In the type, the manifestation of both good and evil took place in the structured church in Jerusalem, so one could conclude that in the end time the manifestation of both good and evil would also take place only in the conference Seventh-day Adventist church. All those with a basic biblical knowledge know that while the evil manifested itself through the conference church at Jerusalem, the good was manifested through Christ’s independent ministry, which He started because of the apostasy in the structured church. As the anti-type to this interesting scenario, the evil would have to be manifested through the apostate conference church, and the good would have to be manifested through the independent ministries, as God takes the reins into His own hands to again bypass heresy. Will acceptance of wrong theology on this point prepare me to follow the church leaders of old, who ended up speaking evil of good and good of evil? (See Isaiah 5:20.)

Just Who Will Receive the Latter Rain?

When the Former Rain missed the disobedient structured church and fell upon the obedient followers in Christ’s independent ministry, great miracles were wrought all over the known world, because no one could contain God.

Miracles are also taking place today in many parts of the world, among those who have never heard of the General Conference in Silver Spring, Maryland.

In China, it was recently reported that two men had a vision from God. They preached, and two thousand precious souls were baptized. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” Acts 2:17.

A geologist friend of mine, who at that time kept the Sabbath, discovered a primitive native tribe in the jungle of South America. They were keeping the Sabbath day holy. They had found it for themselves in an old Bible, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. They also had never heard of the structured Seventh-day Adventist Church.

In the jungles of New Guinea, the saints are being bashed, stoned, and disfellowshipped by the unbelieving brethren in the structured Seventh-day Adventist Church. Angels have appeared to some of these poor, persecuted saints. Hundreds are responding to their preaching of the Righteousness by Faith message and are joining the independent churches. “The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.” Psalm 34:7.

“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for My name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.” Matthew 24:9, 10.

“There are persons in the church who are not converted.…We have far more to fear from within than from without. The hindrances to strength and success are far greater from the church itself than from the world. Unbelievers have a right to expect that those who profess to be keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, will do more than any other class to promote and honor, by their consistent lives, by their godly example and their active influence, the cause which they represent. But how often have the professed advocates of the truth proved the greatest obstacle to its advancement! The unbelief indulged, the doubts expressed, the darkness cherished, encourage the presence of evil angels, and open the way for the accomplishment of Satan’s devices.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 122.

In the Pacific Islands, some of the people, who do not understand Greek or Hebrew, are having wonderful dreams and visions which lead them to the independent ministries, where they are nourished by the Righteousness by Faith message. Some believe that this is a fulfillment of Acts 2:17.

Repeating the Sin of Old Israel

In conclusion, the apostate Jewish church tried to restrict the movings of God to their narrow thinking and, consequently, spoke evil of the work God was doing through His Son’s independent ministry, which received the Former Rain. Today, those who fail to learn from the past will try to restrict God’s Latter Rain to the conference church alone, and will likewise speak evil of the Holy Spirit’s workings, as it falls outside the conference structure. They are in danger of repeating the sin of old Israel, who attributed the wonderful workings of God to Satan because things did not happen just as they thought they should happen.

(See Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 106.) It was this crime which sealed their fate.

(See Patriarchs and Prophets, 405.)

If, as some believe, the Latter Rain will only fall on the conference church structure, then they restrict the love of God and make Him an arbitrary judge by having Him withhold the Latter Rain from the saints who have been disfellowshipped from the structure for trying to stop the flood of wickedness. Also, they must take the next logical step and believe that the miracles taking place outside the structured church can only be of Satan.

If we believe, however, the church is as the prophet said it was, then we can believe God can give the Latter Rain to whom He sees fit, as He did with the Former Rain.

“The Lord Jesus will always have a chosen people to serve Him. When the Jewish people rejected Christ, the Prince of life, He took from them the kingdom of God and gave it unto the Gentiles. God will continue to work on this principle with every branch of His work. When a church proves unfaithful to the Word of the Lord, whatever their position may be, however high and sacred their calling, the Lord can no longer work with them. Others are then chosen to bear important responsibilities.” Upward Look, 131.

“The Lord does not ask permission of those in responsible positions when He wishes to use certain ones as His agents for the promulgation of truth.” Review and Herald, July 23, 1895.

May all the honest saints, either in the structure or in the independent ministries, prepare for the Latter Rain, for God is no respecter of persons. Who can contain Him?

The Many and the Few in Adventism, Part I

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We are living in a world in which the real facts are not the same as what appears to be the truth. Ellen White says, “We are living in a most solemn time.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 608, 609. Do you believe that? I personally believe that it is even more solemn than when she wrote it.

We are living in that period of time that the Bible calls the time of the end. We have been in that period now for over 200 years, so people have become used to it. But we are not just in the time of the end now; we are in the end of time. We are living in a most solemn time, because we are living in that period of time when the plan of salvation is going to be completed.

A Solemn Time to be Living

It has always been very serious and very solemn to be alive in this world, because no one ever knows how long they are going to live. If you had talked to any one of the people who have died in recent tragedies, an hour and a half beforehand, they would have had no idea that they were going to die. When Ellen White says we are living in a most solemn time, she is talking about the time of judgment. When judgment is over and probation closes, your eternal destiny is fixed, and it cannot be changed.

In view of that fact, Ellen White said, “In the last vision given me, I was shown the startling fact that but a small portion of those who now profess the truth will be sanctified by it and be saved.” Ibid.

Who are the people who profess the truth? Seventh-day Adventists.

“Many will get above the simplicity of the work. They will conform to the world, cherish idols, and become spiritually dead. The humble, self-sacrificing followers of Jesus will pass on to perfection, leaving behind the indifferent and lovers of the world.” Ibid.

There are several interesting points in that statement. She said that she was shown the startling fact that but few who profess the truth would be sanctified by it and be saved.

But now she talks about the many, the many who will not be saved among those who profess the truth. Well, what is the matter? You know the message of truth, you know the truth for the last days, you know what the Three Angels’ Messages are, you know the Sabbath, you know about the law of God, you know that it is binding on all generations, and you know the times in which we are living.

Will You be Deceived?

A young man from a Seventh-day Adventist home said, “Oh, I will not be deceived! I know that when Christ comes, it is going to be a public event that everybody will see. I will not be deceived by a false coming beforehand.” Listen, even if you know the truth, if you are not sanctified by it, you are going to be deceived. You will be one of the many.

I want to come back to why and how it is that people who know the truth can be deceived. You would think that if you knew the truth, you could not be deceived. But it is not enough to know the truth, you have to be sanctified by it.

As we look at a few of these statements about the many, we find that the many, the majority of those who know the Three Angels’ Messages, will be lost. That is whom she is talking about. She says they will get above the simplicity of the work, and they will conform to the world. Conformity to the world is one of our most dangerous practices in Adventism today.

The Bible gives very specific instruction about this. It says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2.

The Bible says that people are like sheep. (See 1 Peter 2:25.) I knew a minister one time who said if one sheep finds the hole in the fence, the whole bunch will go through that one hole. People are like that. That is how people become conformed to the world. It is amazing what people will do if they believe that everybody else is doing it. Have you ever noticed that?

If everybody were not doing it, they would say, Well, I would never do a thing like that; I would be embarrassed to do a thing like that. But if everybody else is doing it, they will do it, and they will not even be embarrassed. People are like sheep, and people watch to see what other people are doing. Now, of course, this can be both good and bad. This is the way a child learns. Everything a child learns, he learns first by imitation. That is how a baby learns to talk. That is why, in just a few years, a baby can learn any language in the world. It just imitates what it hears. So this process of imitation is very, very strong through childhood.

Who Controls You?

When people get to be teenagers, they love to think that now they are grown up and they are independent, but they are not nearly as independent as most of them think. They are much more controlled by peer pressure than they have any idea. I have never seen a teenager who was totally independent. I am not saying that there are not any, but teenagers are controlled, to a very great degree, by what they see other people doing around them. The danger is, if everybody around you is doing something that is not right, then you become conformed to what everybody is doing. One time while talking with my son about a certain matter, he said, “But, Dad, everybody is doing it.” He was attending a Seventh-day Adventist school at the time.

I said to him, “If all the people who are doing that burn up in hell someday, do you want to burn up with them?

He said, “No.”

“Well,” I said, “then you had better not do it.”

The Bible tells us to not just look around and become conformed to what everybody else is doing. (See Romans 12:2.) This is what has happened to the morality of the society in which we live, even in the United States. There used to be a time when we demanded that civil servants, the leaders of the people, tell the truth. Not too many decades ago, we forced a President of the United States out of office because it was said that there was proof that he had committed perjury. What is perjury? It is telling a lie. Of course, it has a special definition. When you have given an oath that you are going to tell the truth and then you tell a lie, you have committed perjury. But have you noticed, we do not think perjury is nearly as bad today as we did 25 years ago. What has happened? Everyone is looking at each other, and they are becoming conformed to the world. Wickedness is increasing, and as wickedness increases, people become used to a lower standard of morality.

How Bad Can it Get?

I do not believe that any human being knows how bad it can, or will, get, but I know that Ellen White said that just before the end there are only going to be two kinds of people in the world. (See Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 1, 29.) There are going to be people who perfectly reflect the image of Jesus Christ, and there are going to be people who perfectly reflect the image of the devil.

They are going to be filled with demons, inspired by demons, speak, talk and act like demons. That is one of the reasons, Paul says, why the righteous are going to rejoice so much when they see the Lord coming to deliver them out of this evil world. (See Testimonies, vol. 9, 11; Great Controversy, 638.)

When Ellen White talks about the many who know the truth, who will not be sanctified by it, who will be lost, one of the first things she mentions is that they will conform to the world.

Becoming Conformed

Maybe you think you are totally independent, but you are not. You are becoming conformed, day by day, to something. You are either becoming conformed day by day to the world, or if you are spending enough time with Jesus, your mind will become conformed to something else. Notice what it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

What is this talking about? Ellen White mentions this in many places. One place is Patriarchs and Prophets, 91, but there are several other references where she said the same thing. She says that it is a law of the mind, that by beholding we become changed. (See Ibid., 596.) How can you be undeceived and understand the truth?

Let me tell you, friends, if we are spending our time studying, looking, watching, and listening to what is going on in the world, we are going to become conformed to it, because it is a law of the mind. By beholding we become changed. I am frightened, as I visit among God’s people, to find out how much time they are spending looking and watching what is going on in the world, in comparison with how much time they are studying their Bibles and religious books.

I am frightened because I know something. I know it is a law of the mind that by beholding you are going to become changed—period! God is not going to work a miracle to keep His law of the mind from operating. Have you noticed that God does not annul His laws, even if you get hurt by breaking them? He does not do it.

You cannot jump off a cliff and, on the way down, pray hard enough so that you will not get hurt. The law of gravity will still operate. God does not annul His laws. God does not change His laws. When He makes a law, it is in force, and it is a law of the mind that by beholding you will become changed.

Growing Up in Disorder

Why does Ellen White give us so much counsel about country living, about not living in the cities? (See Country Living, 5.) Why does Ellen White say that, if we have children, it would be good for us to have flowers around our home? Why is it important for a child to learn to keep his room neat? Why is it important for us to look trim and neat in our dress? (See Ibid., 531.) Why are all those things important?

One of the main reasons it is so important is because of this law of the mind. If your child grows up in the midst of disorder, what is going to happen when that child is grown? He is going to be used to disorder and not think anything about it. That is what he has beheld in his parental home all the time he was growing up. But it has a lot more parameters than just simple things like that.

I suppose most of you are aware of the fact that there are people in public life in the United States today, who, as a result of what happened in Littleton, Colorado, and in some other places recently, are very concerned about that which our young people are watching and looking. Let me tell you, if you are a young person and you would like to get out of this world and become a part of the 144,000, you are not going to be living the way everyone else lives.

Living Like the World

The 144,000 are going to have a completely opposite character from the characters that are being developed by the multitudes of this world. If you are going to have an opposite character, you have to be looking at something other than they are. What everybody is doing around you does not count. Let us face the absolute, painful truth. The painful truth is, that the people who are around you, doing all these different things, might all burn up in hell fire. That is the truth.

I remember several years ago when I was in the church in Keene, Texas, I was standing out in the hall, and I heard some of the leaders in the church talking about the young people and young people’s activities. I do not even know what they were talking about, except I did overhear a comment made by a very godly woman with whom I am acquainted. She said to the other church leaders in the group, “But, after they do these things, what good is it going to do if they burn up when Jesus comes? I believe that we are living in this most solemn time and we need to think very, very clearly about why we are doing what we are doing and what kind of lives we are living.

We have been told that the great majority, even of Seventh-day Adventists, are going to lose out. Why? Because they are going to be deceived.

I will introduce one of the most basic principles in regard to deception for you to think about.

Remember, the devil is a master deceiver. The focal point of the devil’s deceptions, today, is not the world at large. He already has them. Today, the focal point of the devil’s deceptions is Seventh-day Adventists and historic Seventh-day Adventists.

Deceived and in Darkness

There is one basic, fundamental, elemental truth about deception that you must understand, and that is that when you are deceived, you do not know it. Do you understand why that is true? Because, just as soon as you know it, you are not deceived anymore. Am I deceived about anything? Whatever I am deceived about, I do not know it. Are you deceived about something? Well, whatever you are deceived about, you do not know either, because as soon as you know, you are no longer deceived.

We are living in a time when the great majority of Seventh-day Adventists, right now, are deceived about a number of things. I am not talking about in the future—I am talking about right now!

It is not because I can read their minds. I am not saying what is in the heart or what is the motive and character. I am not judging that. I do not have to. All I have to do is look at the fruit of the tree. Jesus said, by their fruits you can tell.
(See Matthew 7:20.) The fruit shows that the majority of our people are deceived, and they are deceived about some very basic issues.

There are people who think they can look at anything, read anything, watch anything, listen to anything, and still be all right. They say it is just entertainment. By beholding, the mind becomes changed. It does not matter whether it is entertainment or not, it is worldly conformity.

Now just so nobody will misunderstand, let me clarify one thing. We do not attempt to be different from the world on any point just to be different. If there is nothing wrong with something that the world is doing, we can do it too. If it is righteous, if it is in harmony with the Law of God, we can do it, and if the rest of the world is doing it, that is fine.

The Things on Which We Feed

The problem is, that is not the way it is. This is especially the case with young people—the younger you are, the faster your mind becomes changed into conformity with whatever you are viewing. Are you spending enough time studying inspired writings so that your mind is becoming changed into the image of Jesus Christ?

The Bible is the Word of God, the whole book. The last book in the Bible is called “The Revelation of Jesus Christ,” but the whole book is a revelation of Jesus Christ. Are you spending enough time in this book so that something is being changed in your mind?

You say, Pastor John, you do not realize how busy I am. Maybe I should say to you, You do not realize how busy I am. Did you know that the preachers and church elders also have to struggle to get time to study the Word of God? Did you know that we have to do the same thing you have to do? We are living in busy times.

At the beginning of every day I take a pen or pencil, and I write down on paper a list of the things that I need to get done that day. I almost never get them all done. We are all busy, but no matter how busy a person is, everybody takes time to eat, because they know that if they do not eat, they will die.

Spiritual Death

That is the way it is with your spirit. It is not enough to listen to the preached word on Sabbath morning or even in prayer meeting. It is not enough to simply hear the Word of God through the medium of a preacher or teacher. As good as that is, and God ordained that it should be done, that is not enough. If you do not take time to study the Word of God, you will die spiritually. Ellen White stated over and over again that it was God’s will for every single person to study the Bible for himself. (See Sabbath School Worker, December 1, 1892.)

There are so many aspects of world conformity that are happening in Adventism today. Let me just mention one. We are not even going to get into the things that are often mentioned in regard to diet, dress, entertainment, recreation and many things like that. Those things are all applicable. But we are living in a world where worldly philosophy is taking hold of a large number of God’s people, and the Bible has something very specific to say about this.

“Beware lest anyone cheat you [that is, plunder you or take you captive] through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” Colossians 2:8. It says, Watch out lest you be cheated. Cheated out of what? Cheated out of your eternal inheritance, because you have been learning the basic principles of the world—empty deceit and philosophy and the traditions of men.

What is this philosophy, the traditions of men, the teachings of the world? What is this? It has many aspects and, of course, it changes with time, to some extent.

We are living in a world today where, more and more, it is becoming the philosophy that nobody should say anything bad about anybody, no matter what they do. Reproof or rebuke is totally out of vogue today. Nobody is supposed to be rebuked or reproved for anything, and anybody who does this is told that they are not Christ-like. I have often thought, as I have heard such talk, if Jesus were here in person, He would be told that He is not Christ-like.

Are You Politically Correct?

Of course, that is precisely what He was told when He was here. They told Him, We know that you have a devil. (See John 8.) Let us think that principle through just a little bit. “I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.” 1 John 2:21.

Notice, the Bible teaches that there is such a thing as the truth and there is such a thing as a lie, and you cannot mix them together. So if I am deceived on some point, it does not matter what it is, when I hear the truth, it is not going to agree with what I formerly thought.

We are living in a time when we are not to hurt anyone’s feelings by telling them something that is different than what they think or believe. We even have laws and treaties about that. The day is coming, I believe very soon, when governments of the world, by means of these treaties, will make it illegal to preach the Three Angels’ Messages, because you are not supposed to say anything to which anybody could take offense.

This sort of thinking has greatly affected Seventh-day Adventists. I remember the first time I ran into this was over 20 years ago. A Seventh-day Adventist preacher and I were talking about Revelation 14:9–11.

He said, “Well, I just cannot preach that. Do you know what those verses say?”

I thought, this is very interesting. You are an Adventist preacher, and you cannot preach the Third Angel’s Message. That is the truth for which we stand. That is what we are all about. We are living in a time when, to be conformable to this world, we must not say anything that might hurt someone’s feelings.

Now, please do not misunderstand. Jesus was a Person who never gave needless pain to a sensitive soul, and we should practice that same principle. We should be sure that we have no unsympathetic spirit or hardness in our character or our voice when we teach people the truth, especially when it is a testing truth that is going to determine their eternal salvation. We should pray and ask the Lord for tact like the apostle Paul and Jesus had when we tell people the truth, so they will be attracted to the truth because of the way it is presented. We should do all of those things, but after we have done them, that does not give us permission to not tell the truth.

Unwilling to Proclaim the Message

We are living in a time when more and more Seventh-day Adventists are being conformed to the world to an extent that they are not willing to proclaim the Three Angels’ Messages anymore. Those who still have a conviction that they must proclaim these messages to the world are being persecuted by the organized Seventh-day Adventist Church today. It is quite a time in which to be living, when God’s professed people are persecuting the true church.

I started asking myself many years ago, Where is this going to end? I do not claim to be a prophet. I am not here to tell you exactly how it is going to end, but, if you want to be one of the few who is sanctified by the truth, who is ready to meet Jesus, and not lose your soul with the many in the Adventist Church, whom Mrs. White wrote about, you need to be studying day by day. You need to pray, Lord, help me not to be conformed to this world. When people become conformed to this world, they are afraid to proclaim the Three Angels’ Messages anymore. It is worldly conformity that has silenced the voice of the church so that the messages of the Three Angels are not being proclaimed with a loud voice to all the world, like the prophecy says is to be done. I want to tell you, friends, if we do not do it, the rocks will cry out, and the Lord will finish the work with somebody else. (See A New Life: Revival and Beyond, 62.) Worldly conformity has silenced the voice of the great majority of Seventh-day Adventists today.

When the papal visit occurred in St. Louis a few years ago, there were some people who were very upset that there were groups of Seventh-day Adventists going there to hand out literature. One of them sent a letter appealing to the General Conference to some way force the groups not to do what they were doing—a very interesting thing to do for someone who claims to be an historic Seventh-day Adventist. I was interested to find out what this person thought should be done. He thought the groups ought to pass out Steps to Christ, The Desire of Ages, or Ministry of Healing, but not The National Sunday Law or The Great Controversy.

I do not understand the human heart. I do not understand how people get all the different ideas about how to do what they think should be done. Incidentally, this same person was not in St. Louis passing out The Desire of Ages, Ministry of Healing or Steps to Christ. He thought that the people there should be doing that, but he was not there to do it.

Setting Up the Image

Friends, do you believe that the image to the beast is being set up in the United States today and that we are very close to the end of the world? Do you think that Seventh-day Adventists have more to do than teach people how to fix a good breakfast? I believe in good, healthful breakfasts, and I have taught a lot of people how to fix one, but that is not the sum and substance of our work. It is very similar to what happened in the days of Christ and the apostles. You can read about it in books like Sketches from the Life of Paul.

In the apostolic church there was a large Judaizing party. This party even had an influence with 11 of the 12 apostles. The one person they were never able to influence was the apostle Paul. It says in Acts of the Apostles, 199, 200, that the apostle Paul often had to stand alone. Mrs. White is talking about standing alone in relation to the other apostles. Now that is quite a position to be in, is it not?

The Many and the Few in Adventism, Part II

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It is very clear in Sketches from the Life of Paul that, when the apostle Paul was thrown in prison in Jerusalem, it was the fault of the leaders of the Christian church. Ellen White makes the following, unbelievable comment. She says that when the apostle Peter was thrown in prison, the church prayed, and the Lord answered their prayers for his release.

Then she says the Lord would have done the same for the apostle Paul, but the church did not pray for the apostle Paul to be released from prison. Why? Because they thought he was preaching dangerous doctrines. What were these dangerous doctrines? The dangerous doctrines were the doctrines that would set the church free from all Judaism, from all of their rules and regulations.

Since she is a prophet, Ellen White goes behind and underneath and lets you know the why. A prophet can say things that we cannot. She says these people believed the apostle Paul was preaching dangerous doctrines. Why? They were trying to go along with Judaism as much as they could. Do you know why that was? It was cowardice and their fear of facing persecution. That is the situation we are in in Adventism today. The vast majority are so afraid that we are going to face persecution, they will not proclaim the Three Angels’ Messages anymore, and they do not want to have anything to do with the people who do proclaim it.

In fact, Ellen White says that before the battle is fought and the victory won, we are going to learn a lot more about the situation that the apostle Paul was in, because we are going to be in a very similar situation. (See Sketches from the Life of Paul, 252, 253. You should read the latter part of this book, if you have never read it.

Persecution Will Come

More and more people are going to say, “Do not do that! We are going to sue you. We are going to put you in prison if you do that. We are going to stop you from doing that.”

“Do you not believe the same thing, too?”

“Oh, yes, we believe the same thing, too, but we just do not believe that you are doing it right.”

I believe in tact. I believe we should be gentle and tender in all of our presentations. We should never act like the devil and put acid in our words. I believe that we should be loving and kind. But the most loving and kind thing you can do is to tell people the truth to save them from hell.

There is a text of Scripture that has come to my mind as I have watched these things developing. I cannot tell you where it is gong to end, but I want to share a verse of Scripture that might tell where you will end. This Scripture has very great import to Seventh-day Adventists today. When people, because of worldly conformity, are afraid to proclaim the Three Angels’ Messages anymore, they are afraid they are going to be persecuted. “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 10:39. That has a great deal to say to Seventh-day Adventists today who are fearful.

There are so many ways that the devil is trying to destroy the work of God today. God’s people are being attacked from many different directions, and the most dangerous thing about it is that people do not even know they are being attacked. Of course, that is how deception works. If you knew you were being attacked, you would be in a much better situation.

The Fear Factor

We find this happening, not just in the United States, but in foreign countries as well, and it is having an absolutely devastating effect on God’s work. The historic Adventist ministers that I talk to all over the country are alarmed. I have a friend who recently went to the Philippines to try to work with this problem there. We have it in South America, and we have it in the United States. Adventists, just like the Jews and the Christians in the days of the apostles, are afraid they will be persecuted. The Jews were against Jesus because, as Caiaphas and the others said in John 11, they were afraid they would be persecuted by the Romans. Fear causes people to do many foolish and irrational things. Fear is deadly.

Have you ever noticed how often, when Jesus came to the disciples, He would open His remarks by saying, “Fear not?” When He came to them and they were frightened of the storm on the sea, He said, “Do not be afraid.” (See Mark 4:36–40.) Why was Jesus always telling them, “Do not be afraid”? A person who is afraid and fearful does irrational things. They do foolish things and they get themselves in a worse situation than they were in to begin with.

We have many Seventh-day Adventists today who are fearful because of what they see coming. First of all, they are afraid to preach the Three Angels’ Messages, because they are afraid they will be persecuted if they do. But they are even more fearful than that. They say, Do you know what? Persecution is coming. Sunday Laws are coming. We are not going to be able to buy and sell. They are going to come and get us. We had better run. We had better get where they cannot find us.

We saw this happen to large groups of people in the early 1990s. There was a great fear that the New World Order was going to come in and take over everything. We were going to lose all of our liberties immediately; people were going to be taken to concentration camps. I am not saying that any of that could not happen; I am saying that you cannot fly out of the world.

Country Living

People said, We are going to become invisible, and we are going to go where they cannot find us. I had a man from the state of New York call me a few years ago when this was all going on. He questioned me a little bit to see if I believed in country living. Yes, I believe in country living. I live out in the country myself.

He said he thought that he should sell his place and move farther out in the country, so I asked him where he lived. He lives several miles from a little, tiny town that has maybe a post office and a gas station in it, a long way from any city of any size. Right now he lives out in the country. He was thinking of moving to a place that was isolated, out in the mountains. There are lots of isolated mountains in New York. We have had people doing this sort of thing all over the world.

Some people in Central America were on fire for Christ just a matter of months ago. They wanted to get involved in getting the Three Angels’ Messages out to the whole country. A group of them would go into the city, and on Sunday mornings, when people came out of church, they would give them literature and talk to them about the Three Angels’ Messages.

They were doing a powerful work. They said, We need to get out printed material, we need to get the message all over. Then somehow, many people got scared. The people who were getting the message out decided they had better flee to some isolated, desolate area. They went to an area that is so isolated and so desolate that right now you cannot reach them by telephone. You could mail them a letter, and after a few weeks, they might get it. They are in a situation now where they are not doing much of anything to get the Three Angels’ Messages to the world.

This world is going to go on until we get the Three Angels’ Messages to all of the world, no matter how bad it gets. If you really want the Lord to come, you had better be sure you know what Ellen White teaches in regard to country living.

We are not living in the time when God’s people are going to be fleeing to the caves and the rocks and the mountains. That time is coming, and it could come very soon, but we are not living in that time right now. If you look up all the references where Ellen White talks about fleeing to these desolate places, to the rocks and the mountains, look at the context of the references. You will see that a large number of them are dealing with the time immediately following the death decree being passed. The death decree has not yet been passed.

Finish the Work First

You know, the Bible does say that everything is beautiful in its time and there is a time for everything. (See Ecclesiastes 3:1–8.) There will come a time when it will be time to flee. Do not worry about it. Do not think that it will not happen. It will happen, and if we are living close to the Lord, we will know when that time comes. Before we flee to a cave, we must take the Three Angels’ Messages to the world. That is our job. That is our responsibility as God’s people.

Five or six years ago, when this scare developed over the New World Order, there were many from the Pacific Islands living in the Los Angeles area who said, It is time to get out of here. It is going to be too dangerous to live here. So they quit their jobs. Some of them moved out so fast that they did not even have time to liquidate their assets and their possessions. They just figured time was too short, and they got on airplanes with their families and a few of their personal belongings, and they flew back to the Pacific Islands, like the Philippines.

There are over 7,000 islands in the Philippines, lots of desolate places. Those islanders and their families fled up to the mountains, because they thought that the New World Order was going to take over everything, and they would just subsist up there for a little while until the Lord came.

Year after year went by, and it began to be very difficult to live up there in the mountains. In the Philippines, they actually call them the mountain people, the mountain Seventh-day Adventists. The children were growing older, and they were living under very difficult and primitive conditions. Some of them decided they had made a mistake. You see, they were not getting the Three Angels’ Messages to either the Philippines or the United States while they were up there in the mountains.

They had no money to buy literature to spread the gospel, because they had no job, no income; they were just subsisting. Now, please do not misunderstand. I am not criticizing them for that. I believe that those people were very, very sincere, but you can be very sincere and make a mistake. In the last two or three years, some of them have been moving down from the mountains and coming back to Los Angeles. Now they have nothing, and they have to start all over again from scratch—find new jobs, find housing, and try to support their families.

Things very similar to this are happening in other parts of the world. Some of the most sincere and conscientious people, because of the delusion in thinking about the right time to do the right thing, have caused great injury to the proclamation of the Three Angels’ Messages.

What would you do? I do not know what church you go to, but suppose that you go to a 15-member home church. What would happen to your church if 60 percent of your members decided to flee to the mountains next month?

Matthew 10:39 says, “He who finds his life will lose it.” We are not to spend the bulk of our time trying to figure out how we can be in a safe place, how we can escape persecution, how we can avoid the trouble. I meet people all the time who are trying to figure out how to do these things. It is interesting to me the way we, as human beings, think. I am not trying to be critical of anybody, but I think we ought to think things through.

The Terrorist Problem

Now we are having the very same thing all over again. We had it with the New Age Movement in the early ’90s; we had it with the Y2K problem, and now we have it with the terrorist problem. There are Adventists all over the country who think the way to prepare and be ready for the time of trouble is to have a generator with a two-year propane supply!

Please do not misunderstand. I am not criticizing anybody who has a generator. I am not against having generators. I think emergency power generators are a good thing, but you can never be ready for the time of trouble just because you have a generator or because you have enough seed for the next two years. I am not against making preparations and being prepared for times of trouble. Over 20 years ago, when we were in Southern California studying public health, we were taught that every family should have an emergency water supply in case something like an earthquake or flood happened to contaminate the public water supply.

Everybody ought to have a little bit of emergency food, but the preparation that we are to make as Seventh-day Adventists is mainly a spiritual work. It is not figuring out a way to be totally self-sufficient and independent of all the rest of the world.

I studied this whole question of being self-sufficient many years ago, before we even had these crises. Did you know that it is impossible for any of us to be totally self-sufficient? Did you know that Ellen White said that the Lord has arranged things so that no man is totally independent of his fellowmen? God has arranged it so that we are all dependent. None of us are totally independent. (See Review and Herald, August 6, 1901.) If being self-sufficient has become the big goal of your life, read Matthew 10:39 again.

Willing to Take the Risk

God has to find somebody who is willing to risk his life to get the Three Angels’ Messages to the world. In the process of doing it, some of us may lose our lives, but we do not have to worry about that. Whether we lose our life or not is not our problem, because when Jesus comes, if we have been faithful to Him, even if we have lost our life for His sake, the One we serve is going to give our life back to us. That is what this text is telling us. If you lose your life for My sake, you will find it.

“Many will get above the simplicity of the work. They will conform to the world, cherish idols, and become spiritually dead.” She says, “The humble, self-sacrificing followers of Jesus will pass on to perfection, leaving behind the indifferent and lovers of the world.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 609.

According to this prophecy there are going to be some Seventh-day Adventist Christians, she calls them the humble, self-sacrificing followers of Jesus, who will pass on to perfection, and the others will be left behind. (See Ibid., 608, 609.) I believe that we are living in the time when this prophecy is in the process of being fulfilled.

Why is there so much division? Because there are some of God’s professed people who are going on; they are still going up the path, who say, I want to go up the path; I want to reach spiritual perfection. There are some who are being left behind; they want to be in conformity to the world; they want to cherish idols, and they become spiritually dead. Only those who keep going up the path will reach spiritual perfection and will be in heaven.

When I was about 19 years old, I read The Great Controversy through again. I came to the place, toward the end of the book, where Ellen White talks about heaven and what a wonderful place it is going to be, where we will be with those who had perfected their characters.

As I read, I wondered, What about those who have not perfected their characters? There is a reason why she left that out and did not say anything about them. The reason is, they are not going to be there. The people who are in that place are going to be people in whom God has perfected their characters. (See Testimonies, vol. 1, 705, 706.) They will pass on to perfection, leaving behind the indifferent and the lovers of the world.

What is the Number One Goal, or Objective, of Your Life?

Is your number one goal to have a character that will be accepted into the mansions of bliss above? Are you attempting to follow the instructions in God’s Book so you will be among that number?

This is part of what the great division in Adventism is about today, because there are some people who have adopted the new belief that God is going to save people in their sins—which is not so, the Bible does not teach that!

You have heard the story about a person who, in Jesus’ time, was considered one of the most wicked people around. Her name was Mary Magdalene. In fact, she was so wicked that the Bible says she had seven devils cast out of her by Jesus. Ellen White makes it very clear that it was not seven devils at one time, it was seven different times that Jesus had to cast the devils out of her. (See Desire of Ages, 568.)

She was such a great sinner that other people thought there was no hope for her. Even her relatives had just about given up on her. Jesus understood all about her situation, and He saw that she was a person who would accept the provisions of salvation which He had come to offer. He made plain to her not just what sin was but how sin could be forgiven and overcome.

She was one of the two people, when Jesus Christ was crucified, who understood what was happening. She was one of the two people who understood that Jesus was dying on the cross for her sins. She chose to forsake and to overcome her sins.

Has your family given up on you? Have you given up on yourself? Jesus has not given up on you, and He can save you, if you will yield your life to Him! You can have perfection of character, even if you are the worst sinner in the world. The Lord can give it to you, if you cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Perfection of character is not something that happens in an instant, it is a process that happens as we live day by day. You do not have to be one of the many. You can be one of the few who are sanctified by the truth and saved by it.

Will you pray to the Lord and say, Lord, I want my heart to be clean? I want, not only to have forgiveness of my sins, but I want to receive power from the Holy Spirit to be purified and to live a new life. I want perfection of character.

Jesus would never tell us to be perfect, as His Father in heaven is perfect, if He did not plan to work that out in our lives. Do you want that miracle to be worked out in your life? Multitudes of Adventists today are being left behind. They may still be going to church every Sabbath, but they are being left behind. Some are still going up the path.

I would like to appeal to you, that you make that commitment to the Lord in your heart. Say, Lord, I want to be one of the few whose character is sanctified by the truth so that I will be ready for Jesus to come. Work this miracle out in my life. He will do it, because it is a command, and every command is a promise.

Stones to Remember, Part II

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Last month we learned that when Joshua led the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, God instructed that one man from each of the 12 tribes carry a stone from the midst of the Jordan River to the shore of Canaan. There an altar was to be built as a reminder of the Lord’s leading. (See Joshua 4:1–9.)

Every one of us should know that the Lord has been leading us. We should also know that the Lord has been leading in the second advent movement and in the revival and reformation movement in Adventism. If God is leading us, He will always, without fail, be leading us in harmony with His law.

After Ellen White died, in 1915, did the Lord continue to lead the advent movement? Yes! Is He going to lead us until the end? Yes! So, we need to study and to remember—just as the children of Israel put up a memorial when they went across the Jordan River—how the Lord has led us, not just up until 1915 but up to today.

In the development, in the understanding, and in the proclamation of the three angels’ messages, the Lord has been leading. We should know how the Lord has led, and we need to recognize how the devil has attacked and what the Lord has done in return. Our faith, as Adventists, must be grounded in the Bible.

Dropping the Bombshell!

In 1979 I was invited to teach health science, food and nutrition at Southwestern Adventist College in Keene, Texas. Prior to that time I had been a pastor for the Seventh-day Adventist Church and had worked in public evangelism. My family and I arrived in Keene during the summer of 1979 for the beginning of the 1979–1980 school year. At the beginning of the school year a bombshell dropped on Adventism that has had repercussions around the world, and we are still affected by it.

In California at Pacific Union College at that time was a visiting professor from Australia by the name of Dr. Desmond Ford. He gave a lecture at an Adventist Forum, the essence of which was that, as a church, we were mistaken in regard to what happened in 1844. He also espoused that we were mistaken in regard to our concept of the investigative judgment.

Although I was not on the Theology Department staff, I obviously was mingling with people from all of the departments. As we mingled, we talked about these things, and I found out something shocking.

I learned that the faculty was divided. Some of the faculty thought that Desmond Ford was right! Some of them thought that he was dead wrong. A flurry of publications began to be issued. Some people, whom I had always thought were pillars in the Adventist Church, our theologians, were writing things like, “We cannot find anything about the investigative judgment in the Bible.”

Our Doctrines Still Stand

I was amazed! I can find things about the investigative judgment in the Bible! For example: “I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of days was seated; his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire; a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. A thousand thousands ministered to him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. [That is a hundred million.] The court was seated [or the judgment was set in place] and the books were opened.” Daniel 7:9, 10.

These verses are talking about a court, or a judgment. Notice that in the last sentence it says, “and the books were opened.” I do not know how much more plain you could write it. If you have a judgment and books are being opened, some kind of investigation is occurring.

If you look at the context of these verses, they take place while the little horn power, the antichrist, is still in existence. This is not talking about after the millenium, or after Jesus comes, because when Jesus comes, the antichrist power is going to be destroyed. (See 11 Thessalonians 2.) This takes place before the antichrist power is destroyed—check the context in your Bible. This is talking about a judgment which includes an investigation. You do not have to be a scholar to understand this. It is in plain language.

Revelation 14:6, 7 talk about a judgment that takes place while the gospel is still being preached. Is the gospel going to be preached after Jesus comes? No, the gospel is all finished being preached before Jesus comes.

If you study Revelation 14:6, 7 carefully, you will see, from the context of the verses, that your conduct is going to make a difference in regard to the decision made in this judgment. It says, “The hour of his judgment is come” and for that reason you need to “fear God and to glorify him.” The Bible is very clear—there is a judgment that takes place in heaven before Jesus comes, while the antichrist power is still in the world and the gospel is still being preached.

But in 1979–1980, we started to have all of these things dropped on us. In fact, it was such a bombshell that it was decided that all the leaders in the Adventist Church would gather the next year at Glacier View Camp in Colorado to study out this topic. After this gathering, many more than before of the scholars in the Seventh-day Adventist Church were even more convinced that Desmond Ford was right. But they decided not to say anything about it, because they were afraid they would lose their jobs. Many of those people are still teaching our ministers.

Checking it Out

The people said, “Well you just do not know. You cannot tell from the Greek text in Hebrews that Jesus went into the holy place instead of the most holy place in 31 a.d.”

I decided to check this out further. I thought I already knew what was truth—I had been teaching it for many years. I thought all Adventists knew. But some of the leading scholars in our church said that we were wrong and that we had been wrong since the beginning of the church. It was time to do some very diligent study.

It was said that if you looked in the Greek text at Hebrews or if you looked in the Hebrew text at Daniel, you would find out that we were wrong. In the providence of God, I had studied Greek at Walla Walla College (College Place, Washington) and at the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary in Berrien Springs, Michigan. At the Berrien Springs Seminary I had also studied Hebrew. In fact, I often preach from my Hebrew Bible.

I bought a new Hebrew Bible and secured some new Greek Bibles, and I determined to check out this teaching. If we had been wrong in Adventism for almost 150 years, it was high time that we found out what the Bible really said. If you have studied the history of Adventism and know where we come from, you know that Seventh-day Adventists are Protestants. A Protestant is a person whose faith is anchored in the word of God. So if the word of God should prove us wrong, we would have to just accept that we were wrong.

I determined to check every word. I was going to check the declension of every single noun. I was going to check the conjugation of every single verb in these disputed passages and I was going to find out if we were wrong. And, of course, if we were wrong, we would have to change; we would have to acknowledge that we were wrong. I spent a number of years checking all of those things out very, very carefully.

Our Anchor Holds!

Since I was working at a college, I had access to the Baptist Seminary Library in Forth Worth, Texas, which provided me access to historical and lexical aids. I checked out everything, and I want to tell you, the Adventist message that our pioneers taught is solidly anchored in the Bible. There is no mistake in it!

I am not saying that we know everything. I am not claiming that we can explain every verse of Scripture, but the message that Adventists have proclaimed about 1844 and about the investigative judgment and about the sanctuary is anchored in the Bible. The more deeply we study into it, the more solid we will find it to be.

When I started to study in 1980, I spent so many hours in my Hebrew Bible that I got a magnifying glass so I could enlarge the words and make it easier to read. I went down Daniel 8 word-by-word-by-word, over and over again, because that was one of the most disputed passages. There were people saying that they did not think that this passage even applies to the papacy; they thought that it applies to Antiochus Epiphanies. That is what other Protestant churches teach! Now church leaders claimed that what we had been saying for over 100 years was wrong.

Even a Child Can Understand

Let me point out some things.

  1. In the first part of Daniel 8 is the description concerning the ram. It says, in the Hebrew language, that the ram became great.
  2. It also talks about a he-goat with a horn between the eyes and about the ways that the he-goat became very great. The ram became great; the he-goat became very great. Daniel 8 tells us as well that the ram represents the kings of Medo-Persia; the he-goat represents Greece, and the great horn represents the first king.
  3. It then talks about the little horn becoming exceedingly great. That is more than very great! In the Hebrew language, it is very explicit and very clear. You cannot make a mistake. The ram became great; the he-goat became very great, and the little horn became exceedingly great, greater than Alexander the Great. Was Antiochus Epiphanes greater than Alexander the Great? No! That would be like saying that your state governor is greater than the President of the United States. It makes no sense at all. The little horn in Daniel 7 and Daniel 8 is exactly what the Adventist pioneers said—the papacy!

The 2,300 days are exactly what our pioneers said also. You can follow word-by-word-by-word in the Hebrew text, and you do not have to take anything out of context. When I was challenged about this, and when I saw theologians in our church saying that we did not know what we were talking about, I realized that what they were saying would not only make Ellen White wrong, but it would make us all wrong in our beliefs. If they were right, we would have to change.

People did change as a result of this theology. One of them, the associate pastor of the church that I had attended in Loma Linda, California, became the pastor of a Sunday-keeping church. That is where this theology led him.

God has led in the second-advent movement! There is not one Adventist in a hundred who knows how deeply this message is laid. The foundation goes deep; it is on the Rock. You cannot overthrow it unless you overthrow the Bible.

We have nothing of which to be ashamed when we talk to any person of any religious persuasion concerning what we believe about the prophecies in Daniel 7, 8 and 9. If we have studied it carefully, we can go through the verses word-by-word-by-word, in context, and they all fit together.

I did the same type of study in the book of Hebrews. I looked at the conjugation of every verb, the declension of every noun, and looked at every single word. They say that you cannot determine that Jesus went into the holy place in 31 a.d., but you most certainly can! You do not have to look at the writings of Ellen White to prove it, either. You can find it right in the Bible.

The Bible Alone—Our Foundation Stone

Our faith is based in the Bible. We should be able to teach every doctrine of belief that we have right from that Book. Now, please do not misunderstand me. I believe that Ellen White is a prophet. I do not have any question about that. But you and I should be able to prove everything that we believe from the Bible alone.

Ellen White told us that we should be able to do that. (See Manuscricpt Releases, vol. 2, 96.) The Adventist message came out of the Bible. That is why you do not need to take anything out of context. You do not need to twist anything. You just need to look and see what it says and what is the weight of the evidence.

What was the bottom line in all those new teachings that came to be called the New Theology? It all led to denial of 1844, to denial of the investigative judgment, and to denial of the sanctuary message. The people who accepted those new teachings, have been led from one heresy to another. A theology student came to me one day when I was teaching at Southwestern Adventist College. He said, “I have a theology teacher who told us in class that we are going to sin until Jesus comes.” That is the end result of this theology. The fact of the matter is, friend, that many, many Seventh-day Adventists as well as other people are going to sin until Jesus comes, but then they are going to get burned up.

The reason there has been so much opposition against what Adventists teach about the sanctuary is because of the devil’s hatred of that doctrine. That doctrine will lead you to understand that you and I must be purified to be ready for Jesus to come. Oh, friends, you and I cannot go to the kingdom of heaven the way we are right now. We have to be purified. We have to be cleansed. Our sins have to be blotted out.

Purified and Cleansed

Are you praying about this every day? Do you want to be purified and cleansed? Do not try to find some new message. The Bible teaches the Adventist message. Maybe I should say it the other way around—the Adventist message comes out of the Bible. The sanctuary message comes out of the Bible. The fact that we must be purified comes out of the Bible.

John said, “Everyone who has this hope in him [Jesus] purifies himself, just as he is pure.” 1 John 3:3. Do not look for a different message. We have the truth! I am not boasting. We have the truth because God gave it to us. Our spiritual forefathers searched the Bible through, and the Lord, through the Spirit of Prophecy led them to understand what these words mean.

You can go to those original texts in Hebrew and Greek, and you will find that they teach Adventism. God has led us. The big question is, are you and I going to come into harmony with what God wants to do for us individually and for us as a movement?

Before the end of time, one of two things is going to happen to every single person in Adventism, and eventually to every single person in the world, because this is the way that God is leading. We know it is going to happen because prophecy says so. There is going to be one group of people, a smaller group, who will come into harmony with everything in the word of God, every word!

Living by Every Word

Jesus said we should live by every word (see Matthew 4:4); that means that every word is important. I want to be among that group. That is the whole aim of my life. Those people are going to be purified; the Lord is going to blot out their sins. He is going to clothe them with the righteousness of Jesus Christ and take them to heaven.

But there is going to be a much larger group of people in Adventism, as well as in the world, who are not going to become purified. If you believe the New Theology, then you believe that you are going to sin until Jesus comes. Ellen White says, “Success in any line demands a definite aim.” Education, 262. If you are not aiming to overcome sin, you are not going to do it.

Have you ever seen an alcoholic who just quit drinking without even trying? Have you ever seen a chain smoker suddenly quit, and it just happened? You see, those things do not just happen. They do not happen unless a person decides they are not going to do those things any more. They decide to change.

A person does not quit sinning unless they decide, either, but you are not going to decide to stop sinning if you do not think that it is possible to stop. That is what is wrong with so much religious teaching today. People are not taught that it is possible. Even some Seventh-day Adventist preachers are telling their congregations to just do the best they can.

Not Good Enough!

I believe that it is good to do the best you can in all your activities all the time. But if you are talking about sin, you had better not just talk about doing the best you can, because God requires that we come up to a standard which He has set.

God is leading a people into a path of purification and holiness. The evidence for it is strong. The evidence is overwhelming that this is true. We know that He is leading because the deeper we study the Bible, the more evidence we find that this is what it teaches.

When it is all over, there will be only two groups. In which of those two groups are you going to be? The devil is attacking; he is trying to trip you up with any kind of heresy or false teaching that he can foist on you. The Lord is leading a people, and if you are willing for Him to lead you, He said, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. (See Hebrews 13:5.)

If you depart from the truths of our church pioneers, it is because you choose to believe error. It is not because God or His message have changed. We see the evidence from history that He has led us up to this point and He is going to lead us into the kingdom.