adventism

The Pride and Fall

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Seventh-day Adventism in the mid 1800s had become well-known particularly for the health work that had begun. The state of health of people in America at that time was deplorable. In those early years of Adventism the believers also were not living very healthful lives, most being meat eaters. A common practice among the regular medical practitioners of the time was recommending the use of tobacco smoke as a treatment for people with lung conditions. Another treatment often used was bleeding with leeches, a treatment brought about due to the belief that there was too much bad blood in the body. The first U.S. president, George Washington, underwent this treatment toward the end of his life and it was possibly the cause of his death. Opium and heroin were common ingredients in popular remedies. Such was the state of medical education in America at that time.

Around 1863, Ellen White received a vision from God which became known as the health reform vision. In it God showed her many truths regarding our bodies and proper care of our health. This message of health reform was desperately needed in the world and certainly also in the church. Shortly after receiving the vision, Mrs. White established the Western Health Reform Institute which operated around 1866–1877. In the early days there was no medical doctor to head up the work there so its beginnings were humble—just a house where sanitarium work was conducted. Ellen and James White felt the need for a medical doctor to head up the work. There was one promising young man whom they had kept their eyes on, John Harvey Kellogg. As a young man he had shown promise of a very sharp mental aptitude and they encouraged him in his study of medicine. James White had taken him into the printing work and given him work on the printing presses. John Kellogg was a hard worker and he had very fine dexterous fingers which made him exceptionally quick at putting the typeset together. The White’s personally financed a portion of his tuition for medical school and, upon completion, he came back to the Western Health Reform Institute and headed the program there. Under his leadership the health work started to expand, adding to the hydrotherapy, medical, and surgical treatments.

Very soon he realized that the facilities they had were not adequate for the work the Adventist church wanted to accomplish so a fundraising campaign was begun to raise $25,000 to build a new facility. Later on from its humble beginnings it developed into the Battle Creek Sanitarium which became the center of the Adventist health work for many years.

Dr. Kellogg was a tireless worker doing up to three times as much as any others. God had given him tremendous talent. He was very long-winded and dictated to his secretaries twenty five to fifty letters each day. It was not uncommon for these letters to be eighteen to twenty pages long. He worked tirelessly from early morning to late evening. It is said that he could keep several stenographers busy at the same time, each writing different letters and could go from one to another without forgetting his thoughts on each separate letter.

He had the ability to multi-task, dictating letters while reading patient reports from other workers. He never wasted a moment while he was traveling around the country doing lectures and tours. On a three-hour train trip he would dictate scientific papers to be published in one of the journals being produced by the church. He dictated all of this information from memory. He did not have available to him the resources available today like the Google search engine. All the information he needed for these papers was stored in his mind.

While traveling he would carry a piece of material with him and practice stitching tiny little stitches to keep his fingers nimble for his surgeries. Even up into his seventies he worked around fifteen hours each day. Sometimes he went up to 48 hours with only a couple of two-hour naps in between. This was normal practice for him. Ellen White cautioned him against this, and told him that as a health educator he should practice what he was preaching. In reply he insisted that the Lord had given him a work to do and he must do it. He felt he was putting out fires and could not stop to spend more time on himself; he had so much to do. He believed that God had given him the work and he had to keep preaching and teaching. Amazingly, with the schedule he kept, he lived to be 91 years old.

Dr. Kellogg would regularly gather all the patients together and give lectures. Often there were scoffers, but because of his quick brain he was always able to answer any objections so well that the questioners often became embarrassed and left or kept quiet. The patients loved these sessions where they could hear Dr. Kellogg speak about healthful living.

He and his brother, William, developed the product cornflakes, which today still has the name Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. The kitchen of the sanitarium became Dr. Kellogg’s laboratory where amongst all of his other activities he would take time to do experiments with food. During his early days as a medical student, he cooked his own meals and kept careful records of the money and time he spent. Wishing there was a ready-made cereal available to purchase, he began experimenting with recipes. Cornflakes actually came about accidentally. In an attempt to make flakes, he cooked up a batch of wheat berries and put them through a roller which turned them into mush. Unsatisfied with the taste and texture, he continued in his attempts without pleasing results.

One day as he was cooking up a batch of wheat berries, he had an emergency call which did not allow him to get back to his experiment until 2-3 hours later. When he came back, he thought his mixture was ruined, but instead of throwing it away, he put it through the roller just to see what would happen. It came through like thick flakes—not what he wanted but it was better than before. Another time he and his brother William were experimenting and he was called away and unable to get back for a whole day. By that time the batch had molded. They decided to put it through the roller though and finally they had nice thin flakes. By regulating the humidity, the flakes would not mold and they had fine, thin flakes able to be baked. This was the start of the cereal industry.

Dr. Kellogg was encouraged to patent and market his discoveries; however, he did not like to make anything as a business. He had a very kind, generous heart and he thought if anyone wanted to have that recipe they could have it. Of course William, his younger brother, thought very differently and urged Dr. Kellogg to make money with it. This resulted in a disagreement that caused a lifelong division between William and John Kellogg. William went on to form the Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Company that has continued to this day to make millions. Dr. Kellogg, adverse to making a business out of health, would teach his patients in his own kitchen to cook healthfully for themselves. In this way, these people would be able to put healthy habits to practice in their own homes.

Peanut butter was another one of his inventions. Dr. Kellogg experimented with a lot of nut butters and protein foods, but it was peanut butter really that caught the attention of the American people. Once more he was encouraged to patent his discovery, and once more he refused. Peanut butter has become one of the most popular foods in America. Later he suggested that roasted peanut butter was hard on the digestive system. As a solution he began boiling the peanuts for the peanut butter used by the sanitarium. Incidentally, most people still preferred to eat roasted peanut butter because the flavor was better despite the health ramifications.

Dr. Kellogg and his wife never had children of their own. They adopted seven and also took care of 35 other needy children whose parents were not able to care for them. They raised 42 children in their large house. Dr. Kellogg was a very generous, hardworking man whom the Lord greatly blessed with many talents. He invented many medical apparatuses to aid in healing. He took great care to implement the eight laws of health into his medical practices which influenced his medical ingenuity. Because Michigan does not have a lot of sun through the winter, he advocated the use of electric lights and invented the electric light sauna bath. He had banks of light baths so people could come in the winter to receive the benefits of light therapy.

Dr. Kellogg was well-known as a very skillful surgeon. A highly acclaimed surgeon once came from the lauded John Hopkins Medical Center and spent a day observing Dr. Kellogg perform five gastric surgeries back to back, which took a period of ten consecutive hours. After witnessing this surgery marathon he said, “Today I have observed some of the most skillful surgery I have ever seen.” Dr. Kellogg continued with his surgeries and performed his last operation when he was 81 years old.

Once a patient went to the Mayo Clinic—a clinic whose medical prowess was as great then as it continues to be to this day. Dr. Mayo, noticing a scar on the gentleman, observed that Dr. Kellogg had operated on him. The patient was surprised that the doctor would know this, given he had not divulged any of his medical history. When asked how he could tell, Dr. Mayo replied, “That’s easy; the scar is small and neat, just like a signature.”

In addition to his medical abilities, Dr. Kellogg possessed God-given leadership skills that prompted him to head up the health work in the Adventist Church. Ellen White said, “The Lord Jesus has sent his angel to your side to tell you what to do. A hand has been laid upon your hand, Jesus, and not you, has guided your instrument. At times you have realized this, and a wonderful calmness has come over you. You dared not hurry, yet you worked rapidly, knowing that there was not a moment to lose. The Lord has greatly blessed you.” Battle Creek Letters, 32, 33. This was written in 1899 to the medical superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

As they saw the results of Dr. Kellogg’s surgeries, doctors from the Mayo Clinic and John Hopkins Medical Center said, “This is astounding.” This was because angels placed their hands over Dr. Kellogg’s hands. Jesus, Himself, guided Dr. Kellogg’s hands as he performed these surgeries. “As you looked to God in your critical operations, angels of God were standing by your side, and their hands were seen as your hand performing the work with an accuracy that made the beholders surprised.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 285.

It is said that when Dr. Kellogg knew just one millimeter to the left or to the right could cost the patient his life, he would bow down with all his staff and pray for God’s hands to guide his. Before all surgeries he would kneel with the surgery staff and pray, a practice for which his patients were very grateful.

The fame of Battle Creek Sanitarium became worldwide, and in the early 1900’s, all manner of patients were coming in, many of them very wealthy. But something happened during the peak of Dr. Kellogg’s career at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. About the turn of the century, his relationship with the Seventh-day Adventist Church began to change. Although he enjoyed a wonderful relationship with James and Ellen White during the early years, later he questioned the prophetic gift of Ellen White.

In his book, John Harvey Kellogg, Swartz quotes from George Butler, a president of the general conference, who said: “Most everybody believes the Testimonies very strongly as long as they favor them, and sustain them, and stand up for them, and fight their battles. The time when they become questionable about the Testimonies is when the Testimonies begin to reprove them, and present before them certain faults, and wrong courses, or methods, or motives of action.” George Butler said that most people in the Adventist Church agree that Ellen White has the prophetic gift as long as they agree with the testimonies. But as soon as the testimonies of Ellen White say something that pricks their conscience, that is directed toward them, then they question the authenticity of her gift. This is what happened with Dr. Kellogg.

Dr. Kellogg had enormous power over the medical work in Battle Creek Sanitarium, which, by this time, had become quite large. Ellen White was opposed to the idea of having one large sanitarium saying, rather, that smaller institutions all across the country should be erected outside every large city. Dr. Kellogg successfully encouraged medical students to receive their training at Battle Creek. Upon enrollment as medical students, their contract required them to work with his society for a certain number of years post graduation. The facility was becoming a directorship.

The Lord had blessed John Kellogg with many talents to accomplish wonderful work. However, no one is exempt from pride and must guard carefully against it or suffer the results—results which can affect more than just the individual. Ellen White reproved his actions. Again and again she pleaded with Dr. Kellogg to branch out from Battle Creek and help the other sanitariums and correct the issue of autonomy. Each should be able to make decisions independent of Dr. Kellogg or the Battle Creek Board. Though her reproofs met with a congenial answer, Dr. Kellogg chose not to reform his practices.

In a conversation with Willie White, Dr. Kellogg stated that his faith in Ellen White’s teachings were based on his belief in the fundamental principles she taught rather than on any natural disposition or trust in the supernatural. Dr. Kellogg asserted that his belief in Willie’s mother’s being under God’s direction was due to her doing and saying what he also believed to be right, rather than a result of the supernatural power affecting her.

Dr. Kellogg’s is a dangerous stance to take. When any one person feels himself adequate to judge the spirit of prophecy or even become his own standard for right and wrong, trouble is imminent. This is what Dr. Kellogg was trying to do around the turn of the century and after many warnings from Ellen White, in 1902, the sanitarium burned down. Mrs. White and many others of the General Conference thought this was a sign from God and that Dr. Kellogg would come to understand and begin expanding the medical work into other areas.

Dr. Kellogg received the news of the fire in the sanitarium during a medical tour and immediately began drawing plans for a new sanitarium. The General Conference agreed to rebuild but decided it must be downsized. They started laying the foundation in 1903, but no one saw the whole blueprint of the new sanitarium except for Dr. Kellogg. By the time the foundation was laid and the conference checked the work, they saw the new foundation for the sanitarium would be even larger than the one that had burned down. The next sanitarium was a huge complex, and in 1928 a 14 story addition was added. Dr. Kellogg spared no expense in building his new sanitarium. The materials included marble imported from Italy, tiles imported from Europe, a fountain inside the cafeteria, and crystal chandeliers from Europe. Inside, the building was magnificently done to encourage upper class patronage.

Dr. Kellogg became the driving force behind the sanitarium, and through his vigorous efforts the Sanitarium was raised to national prominence as a “place where people learn to stay well.” The rich and famous frequently made annual trips, sometimes several weeks in duration. They were pampered while being restored to health by eating a healthy diet and scientifically planned exercises. Patients poured in internationally to indulge in the medical luxury. Even presidents came to Battle Creek Sanitarium for treatments.

At present the building is a federal building, the only one of which has a fountain in the cafeteria.

Dr. Kellogg continued teaching the laws of health, but there was a gradual shift. Mrs. White had said to exercise in the open air, out in nature. Although Dr. Kellogg kept the basic teachings, there was a subtle change in all of his practices. For example, the exercises now conducted on the rooftop of the sanitarium more resembled dancing. In his early years as a student, the medical institution he attended used dancing as a form of recreation, something that Dr. Kellogg never advocated. As a violinist, he was frequently asked to play music for some of the dances, which he did with great discomfiture. In the new sanitarium, the social events were vastly different than the Western Health Reform Institute.

Ellen White had spoken against having sports competitions in the schools, but Dr. Kellogg incorporated many of these things in his sanitarium, even including a billiards room in the new sanitarium. Many of the principles he once stood by slowly began to disappear. Strange things started happening at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Dr. Kellogg formed an association called the Race Betterment Foundation. The goal of the foundation’s “Eugenics Registry” was “to make an inventory and record of the socially important hereditary traits and tendencies of the individual” and “to assist in the maintenance and increase of natural endowments and to combat race decay.” They felt the need to keep the gene pool pure in order to increase the health of the human race. The gene pool registry has John Harvey Kellogg listed as the secretary of the association. In order for a person’s name to go on the registry, the individual was required to divulge family lineage, hereditary weakness, and diseases. From these lists, marriages were arranged to obtain the best genes in an attempt to better the human race. The concept of eugenics was the primary idea behind the holocaust carried out by the Nazis, the superior race.

Such was the nature of John Harvey Kellogg’s medical leanings later in his life. While he was still working within the church, many worldly physicians would broach him on how he chose what treatments to incorporate into his sanitarium. He replied, “When new research comes along, I compare that research with what I have studied from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophesy [sic] and if the principles agree with the Bible and the Spirit of Prophesy[sic] I immediately take it in and study more about it and incorporate it into our practice at the sanitarium. If there is anything not according to the principles of the Bible and the Spirit of Prophesy [sic], I immediately throw it out, that way I can sift through much quicker all the research happening in science.”

The medical profession estimated that Dr. Kellogg was nearly a decade ahead of the medical practices of his day. This gift was due to his practice of comparing every new idea with the principles of the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. As soon as he threw out the Spirit of Prophecy, and the things he had previously learned, the Spirit of God was not able to bless the things that he did.

Proverbs says that “pride goeth before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18.) John Harvey Kellogg was no exception. The Battle Creek Sanitarium eventually experienced some financial difficulties and one of the buildings was sold to the Federal Government. Later a sanitarium was established in Florida, but never succeeded as Battle Creek had. Dr. Kellogg credited his talents and his skills for the success in Battle Creek, but the failure in Florida proved otherwise. Only the Spirit of God was able to cause success. Unfortunately, however, the fall that is taken does not affect just the proud, but also everyone with whom that person is associated. This is especially the case with persons of influence and renown. Pride affects ourselves, people in our care, colleagues, businesses we are associated with, friends, family, and wonderful works that would be accomplished when dedicated to working for God’s glory and not our own.

“Believe in the Lord [your] God, and so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, and so shall you prosper.” (II Chronicles 20:20.) Putting faith in God and His abilities is the only hope of accomplishment. The purpose of a Christian is not to glorify self—there is no glory in humanity except in the presence of God.

No matter how blessed you may be of God, no matter how many talents God may have given to you, by trusting to self there is no way we can carry on any good work. Dr. Kellogg is a good example of that. Without constant dependence upon God, for His wisdom, for His spirit, there is nothing we can do. Whatever work the Lord has given to you, always keep a spirit of humility and dependence upon God, for we know that without Him we can accomplish nothing.

Dr. Kinjo is a Naturopathic physician practicing in Edmonds, WA. He is director of Restoration Natural Health and is dedicated to helping people achieve optimal health of body, mind, and spirit using the principles found in the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy. He can be contacted by email at: drmark@restorationclinic.org.

News Update from the South Pacific

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Burning, Killing, and Going to Court

The following [except for comments in brackets] is taken by permission from the January 1997 issue of The Anchor. This is only a small portion of the account.

Pastor Ahomed and Brother Jonathan Gray were set upon by a group of local men in Madang, Papua New Guinea. A group began stoning Jonathan, as the blows came he prayed that God would help him and as the men dropped their stones Jonathan picked up his bag and walked straight through them returning to the airport building to find that Pastor Ahomed was under attack. A group of men began poking, slapping and threatening to kill him. Jonathan Gray was told by this group that if he ever returned to PNG they would kill him too. Jonathan Gray asked if this person was an SDA to which he replied that he was. [It should be remembered that according to Great Controversy, 628, these professed Seventh-day Adventists will be held guilty of murder in the judgment if this is not made right. Please continue to pray that Jonathan Gray will suffer no permanent injury to his vision from the broken blood vessel in one of his eyes.]

About 300 kilometers from Madang Pastor Kul and the laymen were asked by conference church elders, deacons and others to come out to the main road and tell them more of their work. Hoping for another chance to witness, they accepted this invitation. But it was a trap. The moment Pastor Kul and his laymen were clear of the safety of the house, more Conference supporters materialized from the surrounding bush area, and commenced a vicious attack upon them. Pastor Kul and the laymen were punched, kicked, beaten and chased. One was struck unconscious, and had to be taken to a hospital. Several laymen received gashes to their faces, bleeding noses, and significant bruising all over. Some could not afterwards eat because of painful jaws and teeth, and swollen lips.

Pastor Kul was the central focus of this assault. Throwing sticks at him, they chased him into the little laymen’s church. There around the pulpit, they punched and kicked him to the floor. [In the House of God!] Several laymen rescued him and carried him to the house for safety. By this time, the whole village, including numerous non-Adventists, had gathered around. While the crowd watched, one Conference attacker stood and, pointing to the laymen’s church, defiantly announced, “My name is . . . I am going to burn down this building.” Even the non-Adventists pled with him not to do it, but to no avail. He lit a match, and the church burned to the ground. Many cried, including a host of non-Adventist onlookers. “It is very clear,” they said, “who is on God’s side.” They were not referring to the Seventh-day Adventist Conference church leaders. [If its obvious to non-Adventists, why isn’t it abundantly clear to Adventists?]

Pastor Kul called all who had been attacked to join in prayer and ask God to forgive their persecutors.

[If you have read the letters in last month’s magazine and the one in this magazine you know that the structure (General Conference and subsidiaries) are threatening believers of whom they disapprove with lawsuits.] The plot has been completely lost: The spirit exhibited by our Savior in Mark 9:38-42 is not seen; the registered title deeds holding Association is NOT the “Church.” It is a faceless entity supposedly holding in trust the assets of all Seventh-day Adventists. God recognizes as a church, a congregation of believers from two or three to any number having Jesus in the midst. How dare these hired servants claim the exclusiveness that was one of the mistakes of the Jewish organization at the time of the first advent? Their actions do not exhibit any faith that God can and will provide for the needs of His work! Or do they know the agenda so intimately that they recognize that God is no longer in the house, that He is knocking at the door of individual hearts (Revelation 3) and as in the days after Christ’s ascension, a program of persecution and destruction is in place.

What is a Harlot Church?

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When a church becomes what the Bible describes as a harlot, that church cannot go to the kingdom of heaven. The Lord gives it opportunity, but if that opportunity is not taken, it will be shut out from the kingdom of heaven unless it repents and stops its fornication.

We read the experience of the Jewish church in Jeremiah 3:2, 3. It says, “Lift up your eyes to the desolate heights and see: Where have you not lain with men? By the road you have sat for them Like an Arabian in the wilderness; And you have polluted the land With your harlotries and your wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no latter rain. You have had a harlot’s forehead; You refuse to be ashamed.”

The Jewish church had become a harlot church, but they had not committed the unpardonable sin. They could still return. In verse 14 it says, “ ‘Return, O backsliding children,’ says the Lord; ‘for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.’ ”

What were they to do? They were to return. Verses 12, 13 say, “ ‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you: For I am merciful,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not remain angry forever. Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the Lord your God, And have scattered your charms To alien deities under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord.”

How did the Jewish church become a harlot and how does the Christian church become a harlot today? In James 4:4 it says, “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

It is by some type of friendship with the world that the church becomes a harlot or loses her virginity. How does the church become united with the world? Ezekiel 16:15 is talking about Jerusalem which was God’s people in his day. Ezekiel said: “You trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it.

“Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the traitor, Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied. ‘How degenerate is your heart!’ says the Lord God, ‘seeing you do all of these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.’ ” Ezekiel 16:29, 30.

It was by connecting with the Gentile nations that she lost her virginity. Look at Ezekiel 23:19–21: “She multiplied her harlotry In calling to remembrance the days of her youth, When she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. For she lusted for her paramours, Whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys, And whose issue is like the issue of horses. Thus you called to remembrance the lewdness of your youth, When the Egyptians pressed your bosom Because of your youthful breasts.”

By aligning herself and making alliances with the world—by connecting with the world, by using the powers of the world instead of depending on the Lord, she lost her innocence and became a harlot.

Ellen White describes it in The Great Controversy, 381, 382: “The unfaithfulness of the church to Christ in permitting her confidence and affection to be turned from Him, and allowing the love of worldly things to occupy the soul, is likened to the violation of the marriage vow. The sin of Israel in departing from the Lord is presented under this figure; and the wonderful love of God which they thus despised is touchingly portrayed: ‘I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest Mine.’ ‘And thou wast exceeding beautiful and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through My comeliness, which I had put upon thee. … But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown.’ ‘As a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord;’ ‘as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!’ Ezekiel 16:8, 13–15, 32; Jeremiah 3:20.”

In summary, “It was by departure from the Lord, and alliance with the heathen, that the Jewish church became a harlot.” Ibid., 382.

It was by departure from the Lord; the affections were weaned away from the Lord and placed upon the power and things in the world. How does the church use the power of the world? In The Great Controversy, 443, Ellen White says, “When the early church [the true church] became corrupted by departing from the simplicity of the gospel and accepting heathen rites and customs, she lost the Spirit and power of God; and in order to control the consciences of the people, she sought the support of the secular power.”

Notice what happened. By “accepting heathen rites and customs, she lost the Spirit and power of God.” Without the Spirit and power of God, she was powerless.

Concerning Christians in the fourth century, the pagans would say, Why would you want me to be a Christian? I know Christians who have lied to me and I have never lied to anybody. I know a Christian who has stolen goods and I have never stolen from anybody. I know a Christian who has been unfaithful to his matrimonial vow and I have never been unfaithful to my matrimonial vow. Why would the pagans become Christians when they considered the Christians not as good as they were?

Because they had accepted heathen rites and customs and had lost the Spirit and power of God, the early Christian church had no power over their own members and no power to influence the world. What does a church do when it is powerless? “When the early church became corrupted by departing from the simplicity of the gospel and accepting heathen rites and customs, she lost the Spirit and power of God; and in order to control the consciences of the people, she sought the support of the secular power.”

When the church has lost the Spirit and power of God, she does not have any power from within to help the people be good, and she resorts to the power of the state. “It was apostasy that led the early church to seek the aid of the civil government, and this prepared the way for the development of the papacy—the beast.” Ibid.

Apostasy in the church will also prepare the way for the image to the beast. It was apostasy in the church that resulted in the church seeking power from the secular government and the result was the development of the papacy. In a similar way, the image to the beast will be formed. “When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result.” Ibid, 445.

Notice it says, “shall influence the state”; the church will use the power of the state. “When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the state …” The church uses the state.

It was the church using the power of the state that caused Jesus to be crucified. The Romans would have never crucified Jesus, but it was the church that used the power of the state to kill Him and it was that same church that had the apostle Paul beheaded and the apostle James martyred.

How does a church lose its virginity and become a harlot church?

The first thing that happens for a church to lose its virginity and become a harlot church is that they accept heathen rites or customs and go into apostasy because they have withdrawn their affections from the Lord and begin to love something in the world.

In the 4th century the church could not get the people to attend church so they made a law to help the people to be good. The first Sunday law was passed in 321, but it was not strong enough because it merely required that people not go to work. When the people could not work on Sunday, they went to the circus so a law was then made that would close down the circus so that the people could not go there on Sunday. The people then just stayed home on Sunday. Finally, a whole series of laws were made stating that not only must you stop working or conducting business on Sunday, but you had to go to church as well.

Why did that happen? When heathen rites and customs are accepted into the church it loses the spirit of God and the church has no power. If the church is devoid of power, why would anybody want to go? If nobody wants to go, the church will die. Then the church has to do something to keep it from dying and in order to do that she needs to get some help from the state and pass laws. In this way the Christian church used the state to enforce her teachings. These laws progressively became stricter over the following 100 years.

First the Jewish church, and then the Christian church lost its power by departing from God and relying on the world.

Any time a church begins to use civil power to enforce her laws or her institutions, her will or her teachings, that church has become a harlot church devoid of the Holy Spirit because of her apostasy and cannot go to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Remember that Christ is the High Priest and only a virgin—a pure church—can become His bride.

In this world, once a woman has become a harlot she can never again become a virgin. But Jesus is able to take a sinner, take away all of the guilt and the power of sin so that the person who was a sinner becomes as though he had never sinned. Jesus can take away the sin and recreate a pure person again. That same thing can also happen to a harlot church if she repents. A church can begin to use civil power to enforce her laws and institutions in three ways:

Appealing to the king or the president to enforce her will. This has been done thousands of times in past history.

Using the civil power to enforce her will by going to the legislature—the congress—appealing that specific laws be passed to enforce her teachings.

Ellen White states that when the churches go to the state to enforce her will, they will have made an image to the beast. See The Great Controversy, 445.

Those alive in Nebuchadnezzar’s day could have watched his image being formed, first the feet and then the legs until the whole image was completed. They may have felt very safe and secure watching it go up, but once it was completely finished, the people were commanded to worship it or be killed.

That same thing is happening today. The image to the beast is being formed right now before our eyes. We may be living in America, the land of the free, but when that image to the beast is completed, everyone will be commanded to worship it.

Appealing to the court system

Any time a church goes to the courts to enforce her will, that church has already become a harlot church and will never go to the marriage supper of the Lamb unless there is repentance and her sins are forsaken. That act is religious harlotry. The Seventh-day Adventist church has been doing this now for many decades. To make it plain, the Seventh-day Adventist church is not going to the marriage supper of the Lamb in her present condition, unless there is repentance, and she stops taking people to court.

There is a principle in Revelation 18:4. It says, “I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.’ ” For over 150 years the truth about the Bible Sabbath has been proclaimed and rejected by the Sunday keeping Protestant churches of the world. These churches are referred to in Revelation as Babylon, and the Lord says that you are going to have to get out of there because if you stay in there then you are participating in their sins.

One lady who attended our prophecy seminar said she believed everything we taught, including the Sabbath. She said she was going to keep the Sabbath, but she was also going to continue going to the Baptist church because that was where her friends were. She planned to keep the Sabbath at home without really understanding the principle involved that if you attend the church on Sunday, you are supporting that church in her sin with your presence, your influence and your money. You are participating in the sin by even going there. The Lord says that if you stay there, you are going to receive the seven last plagues. If you do not want to receive the plagues, then you cannot participate in the sin and obey the command to “come out of her My people.”

This principle must apply to any harlot church. I do not want to be misunderstood, and I did not call the Seventh-day Adventist church Babylon. I have never done that, but at the present time it is a harlot church and no harlot church is going to the marriage supper of the Lamb unless that harlotry is confessed, repented of and forsaken.

People have a difficult time getting around this. Some people say that the organization is doing this, but I am not part of it. If you are a member and you are supporting it with your influence, your time and your money, you are a part of it. In the books of heaven you are accounted as part of it. The sins that they are doing, you are part of if you are supporting it. Look at the following example.

“The trades unions and confederacies of the world are a snare. Keep out of them, and away from them, brethren. Have nothing to do with them. …

“We are not to unite with secret societies or with trades unions. …

“These unions are one of the signs of the last days. Men are binding up in bundles ready to be burned.” Notice—they are binding up into a bundle—what is the bundle? It is the trade unions and secret societies. They say, I am not part of it, but when that bundle is burned, they will burn right with it because they are bound up with it. She then says, “They may be church members, but while they belong to these unions, they cannot possibly keep the commandments of God; for to belong to these unions means to disregard the entire Decalogue.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 142, 143.

Then is quoted the following text in Luke 10:27: “So he answered and said, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ” These words sum up the whole duty of man. They mean the consecration of the whole being—body, soul, and spirit—to God’s service. How can men obey these words, and at the same time pledge themselves to support that which deprives their neighbors of freedom of action? You cannot love God with all of your heart, soul and mind and your neighbor as yourself and belong to an organization which is deliberately depriving others of freedom of action. That is impossible, and in the books of heaven you are accounted as a commandment breaker, not as a commandment keeper—even if you call yourself a Seventh-day Adventist.

Somebody can say, Yes I know that I am in an organization that is in open sin, but I am not part of it, so I am all right. People use the parable of the wheat and the tares to excuse it and say they both grow together until the harvest. That is a gross distortion of the words of Jesus. Read the meaning of the wheat and tares in the book, Christ’s Object Lessons. Jesus never taught in the parable of the wheat and tares to just let all the good and the evil to go until the harvest. She explains that a tare is described as a person who appears, by human vision, to be keeping the commandments of God, but their heart is not right. However, when the tare goes to seed (meaning when open sin is involved), Christ taught that they were to be disfellowshipped from the church. You do not allow the wheat and tares to grow together when there is open sin.

I hear people say, “I know there is open sin in the organization, but I am not part of it so I am all right.” No, you are not all right. Do you want to go to the marriage supper?

Those who are serious about going to the marriage supper cannot voluntarily be a member of an organization that is in open sin without being accounted a commandment breaker in heaven.

When God asked Adam and Eve in the garden where they were, He knew exactly where they were, and He knows where you are too. Since God knew already where they were, why did He ask? He wanted Adam to think through the answer to the question just as He wants you to think through the answer to this question: Where are you? You can say, “I am not in Babylon”; then where are you?

If you support with your presence, your influence, your time, your money, a church that is involved in harlotry, you are part of it and you are not going to the marriage supper. Either you will have to persuade whatever church you are in to quit the harlotry business and repent, or you will have to get out if you want to go to the marriage supper.

Jesus is our High Priest and He is not going to unite Himself with a harlot. He will only unite Himself with a church that is pure, that has been made into a virgin.

Where are you? God wants you to figure out where you are. There are a lot of people who do not know where they are but only you can answer the question. The answer depends on where your sympathies and where your affections are. Where your heart is, that is where you are.

“As the storm approaches, a large class who have professed faith in the third angel’s message, but have not been sanctified through obedience to the truth, abandon their position and join the ranks of the opposition. By uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit, they have come to view matters in nearly the same light; and when the test is brought, they are prepared to choose the easy, popular side. Men of talent and pleasing address, who once rejoiced in the truth, employ their powers to deceive and mislead souls.” The Great Controversy, 608.

What a tragedy! These people have been in the Seventh-day Adventist church, but their sympathies and affections are in the world. When the test is brought, you will not go where your intellect tells you but you are going to go where your sympathies and affections are. That is why you need to ask yourself the question now. Where are your sympathies? Where are your affections? Wherever your sympathies and affections are right now can indicate where you are going to be in the future.

Pastor John Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: (316) 788-5559.

Bible Study Guides – The Extent and Implications of a Modern Captivity

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August 22, 2010 – August 28, 2010

Key Text

“Each of the ancient prophets spoke less for their own time than for ours. … their prophesying is in force for us. … Daniel, Isaiah, and Ezekiel … spoke of things that … reached down to the future, and to what should occur in these last days.” Selected Messages, Book 3, 338, 419, 420.

Introduction

In our last lesson we viewed a prophetic landscape of potential devastation for modern Israel. In this lesson we continue to examine in more detail whether or not these prophecies fit modern Israel, how they fit, and the extent to which they fit.

1 If this has really been happening in the Seventh-day Adventist church; if the same sins that led to earlier captivities have been practiced with persistence, should we expect a different result? Should we expect that the SDA organization is about to be cleaned up, or expect to find it in a captivity that leads to its destruction?

Recall that in Christ’s day, the church could not be refurbished! The true Gospel, like new wine, had to be put into new wine bottles; the true gospel in new believers—a new church.

Apply It:

“Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ … For if you thoroughly amend your ways … then I will cause you to dwell in this place … you trust in lying words … Will you … walk after other gods … and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? … But go now to … Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people.” Jeremiah 7:4, 5, 7––10, 12.

“O town full of commotion … All your leaders have fled together; They have been captured. … Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people. The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling … City of David had many breaches in its defenses; … You counted the buildings in Jerusalem And tore down houses To strengthen the wall. … But you did not look to the One who made it, … The Lord, the Lord Almighty, Called you on that day to weep and to wail, To tear out your hair and put on sackcloth. But see, there is joy and revelry. … The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: ‘Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,’ says the Lord, the Lord Almighty.” Isaiah 22:2—-–4, 9–12, 14. [Emphasis supplied.]

“… a sword is sharpened … polished … to make a dreadful slaughter. … Should we then make mirth?” Ezekiel 21:9, 10.

“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.” The Upward Look, 131.

“Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets Who make my people stray; Who chant ‘All is well’ … But who prepare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths: Therefore you shall have night without vision. … The sun shall go down on prophetic revelation … Now hear this, You rulers of the house of Israel [whose work is driven by money]. … They lean on the Lord, and say, ‘Is not the Lord among us? No harm can come upon us.’ Therefore Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins.” Micah 3:5, 6, 9, 11, 12.

Note:

Contemplate the duplicate warning found in Jeremiah 6:13–15 and 8:10–13.

“… prophets and priests alike, All practice deceit. They dress the wound of My people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace!’ they say. When there is no peace. Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No! They have no shame at all; They do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; They will be brought down when they are punished, says the Lord. ‘I will take away their harvest,’ declares the Lord. ‘There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree, And their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them.’ ”

2 If God’s people are in what seems like a captivity, has it been acknowledged, recognized, prayed about, and acted on?

3 If the Seventh-day Adventist church continued to follow the history of ancient Israel, what might be the next sign of their demise?

For ancient Israel, their last warnings came from Jesus (Matthew 23), the Apostles (Acts 2) and Stephen (Acts 7). Their final demise was not apparent to many Jews until years later when it actually happened; when the Roman armies destroyed their city and church.

In the meantime and without any comprehension by ancient Israel, God’s true church, His new Israel had already carried the gospel to “every creature under heaven” (Colossians 1:23). Since the destruction of Jerusalem is a picture in miniature of the destruction of the world—does it not seem plausible that the Three Angels’ Messages could be completed while many Seventh-day Adventists are oblivious to the happening?

4 What about the promises of the glory and redemption of Israel?

The prophetic warnings of complete destruction for God’s professed people are stark, and have been presented in the straightforward bleakness that Scripture presents them. The reader may ask, What of the promised glory of Israel; aren’t these texts to be balanced with promises of restoration? What about those promises of restoration that are hiding in some of the ellipses above?

Note:

The prophet Jeremiah phrased this same question:

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Surely You have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, Saying, ‘You shall have peace,’ Whereas the sword reaches to the heart.” Jeremiah 4:10.

There are indeed precious promises of restoration for Israel. But; question: how does one balance a prophetic warning of utter destruction if certain conditions are met with anything? We will continue to examine this paradox as we move through this study on captivity. For now, the student is left with this reminder from our study on the captivity of Israel in Christ’s time:

An understanding of the parallel mingling of triumph/tragedy for the professed Jewish church and tragedy/triumph of the Christian church is critical to an understanding of Old Testament prophecy. The Old Testament prophecies themselves are, on a large scale, a grand parallel mingling of stunning triumph in the face of disaster and monumental defeat in the face of misplaced confidence. This history of the church in Christ’s time gives us the tools to understand how these seemingly contradictory prophecies can be fulfilled simultaneously. [Emphasis supplied.]

5 What about historic Seventh-day Adventists?

Well, what about them? Who are they exactly? Perhaps these have skillfully evaded the effects of captivity. Let’s review our position as historic Seventh-day Adventists:

Review and Discuss:

  • There is almost no collective intelligence and action (in Ezra’s day, they rose up as “one man” to build).
  • There are almost no shepherds (where are the Pastors?)
  • Could the flocks be any more scattered?
  • There are multiple winds of doctrine, with no unified defense.
  • They possess multiple, disputed names.
  • There is no temple (no organized church and few buildings).
  • Despite many SDA schools, there are essentially none for God’s true remnant.
  • The captivity-like dilemma has not been recognized for what it is.
  • As in Jeremiah’s day, false prophesies abound.
  • We do not see “eye-to-eye” (see Isaiah 52:8).
  • As in Haggai’s time, we have left off building, turning our attention primarily to our country homes and gardens.

Apply It:

Let’s examine a few of these points:

Collective Intelligence:

God has appointed both individual and collective will to humans, and both are important. As historic Seventh-day Adventists, we have long exercised our muscle of individual will and action, while our muscle of collective will, intelligence, and action has nigh atrophied. In Heaven, the collective will to action is critical to success in the Great Controversy! What about our collective action? If we are to build, as God would have us build, we must have collective action and collective intelligence.

Let’s illustrate the importance of collective intelligence and action for God’s remnant by comparing our needs to evangelize and educate (rebuild the temple and the wall) with large scale projects in the secular world. There are millions of very talented, intelligent and industrious people in our world, but not a single one of them knows in full how to create and manage a major infrastructure project, build a jet plane or computer, or manage a monetary system. Nor can one person simply assign a specified amount of physical and mental energy to be expended by a group of people working separately and accomplish any of these projects. All of these projects require collective intelligence and action. If the secular world we live in was managed like our gospel work has been, we would all be hungry, tool-poor barterers the world over! The children of darkness are indeed wiser in their generation than the children of light on this point (Luke 16:8, 9).

God, in His infinite wisdom, has given to His church collective tasks in evangelism and education that simply cannot be met exclusively by exercising our talents individually! There are parts of our individual characters that simply cannot be properly developed unless we are at least attempting to work collectively. Unfortunately, many of us have been assuming otherwise. It is a key responsibility of each person in the church with secular employment to be a part of the collective intelligence and will to action that is needed so that gospel workers can be trained and hired!

Winds of Doctrine:

Let’s just focus on one area where the winds of false doctrine have been blowing: false prophesies; which are often coupled with nearly unbridled accusations against our governments.

Conservative Adventism, in general, is indeed ripe with prophesying today. Some truly have rushed in, where angels fear to tread. For example, we’ve been subjected to prophesying of dates for financial collapse, new money, martial law, and terrorism. Many within Adventism have thrown around specific prophetic predictions tied to years (and sometimes to specific dates) such as: 1979, 1981, 1987, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2009. At times we name drop worldly leaders to bolster the accuracy of our claims.

But when these prophecies are left unfulfilled—when Atlanta still stands, where is the repentance, the humility, and the apologies! As each predicted event passes its time unfulfilled, new predictions take their place! The writings of the prophets do indeed tell us with certainty that disaster, of unimaginable proportion, looms. And we have already begun to see the omens of the complete fulfillment of this. But where are the dates? Ellen White tells us that after 1844 we have “no more message based on time.” When will we believe and act on what is said? (Note, for example, that Ellen White foresaw both the great San Francisco earthquake and the destruction of very tall buildings in New York City—but did not tie dates to either event!)

But even worse yet is the fact that some have even dared to tie together the most solemn, life and death issues of the Three Angels’ Messages with these predictions! How can we possibly convince the world of the unerring nature of God’s law, when we publish it side-by-side with political gossip, especially when these conjectures are subsequently found to be in error! And how can we hope to educate political leaders about the great controversy when our time is consumed in criticizing all that is done or attempted by them? We do not have capital to both endlessly criticize and educate; we will often have to choose! Please see Testimonies, vol. 6, 394–397 on this point.

This lesson series is not devoted to studying winds of false doctrine. Had it been, the above example could have been followed by an examination of false doctrines that challenge the divinity of Jesus, the sanctuary, the Holy Spirit and a host of others.

Identity:

Historic Seventh-day Adventists today have no unified identity.

Seeing Eye to Eye:

Note that Isaiah prophesied in chapter 52 that God’s people would see eye to eye when they were free from their captivity! Has that happened? Would this fact, alone, not indicate that we are in captivity?

Country Homes Come Before Church Building:

In Haggai’s time, God’s people had been called to return to re-build the temple. It was also their privilege to build their own homes, and cultivate their fields. But they had made their personal building and planting a greater priority than building the temple, and were severely rebuked for this. Their crops were cursed. We even find that God temporarily disowned them for this neglect. Today, I fear that many have placed the importance of preparing their property and gardens for the time of trouble ahead of plans to finish building the temple. This is not to say that this preparation is unimportant, but simply to say that we must understand the relative importance of these activities.

This is the message of the prophet Haggai: God’s people could have no success while the church was not complete, and they were not trying to do anything about it! God said that because of their slackness, they would continue to fail to receive rain and fail to produce fruit.

Summary:

While we certainly hope that it is accurate to state that, in general, historic Seventh-day Adventists have not been party to the basest sins, the fact remains that the effects of a seeming captivity are felt far and wide. All of God’s people seem to be profoundly affected. And if it is not a captivity that we are experiencing, it certainly carries many of the same features.

Studies prepared by John T. Grosboll, PE. John T. is a mechanical engineer living near Vancouver, Washington. His secular employment includes several years of experience in primary metals and transportation-related industries. He, along with his wife Teresa, is actively involved in the work of the Historic Message Church in Portland, Oregon. He may be reached at: grosbolls@yahoo.com.

Bible Study Guides – A Modern Captivity

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August 15, 2010 – August 21, 2010

Key Text

“Each of the ancient prophets spoke less for their own time than for ours. … their prophesying is in force for us. … Daniel, Isaiah, and Ezekiel … spoke of things that … reached down to the future, and to what should occur in these last days.” Selected Messages, Book 3, 338, 419, 420.

Introduction

In our last lesson, we saw clearly that the failure of ancient Israel to promptly see the temple through to completion, would be repeated by Modern Israel. In this lesson we investigate the implications should this situation be protracted. We conclude by drawing from the history of the church in Christ’s day to see where our current situation could lead.

1 Could God’s professed people return to captivity, as happened with the Jewish church in Christ’s time? How could it end?

Apply It:

The Scriptures that could be brought to bear on such large questions are indeed extensive. Below are Scripture excerpts, largely from Isaiah and Jeremiah, which provide a sampling of potential answers to these questions.

“… O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err … The Lord will enter into judgment With the elders of His people. … ‘For you have eaten up the vineyard’ … and she [Zion] being desolate shall sit on the ground.” Isaiah 3:12, 14, 26.

“What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then … Did it bring forth wild grapes? I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall … I will lay it waste; It shall not be pruned … I will also command the clouds That they rain no rain on it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. …Therefore my people have gone into captivity, Because they have no knowledge … Therefore as … the flame consumes the chaff, So … their blossom will ascend like dust.” Isaiah 5:4-–-7, 13, 24.

“… you have polluted the land With your harlotries … Therefore … there has been no latter rain. … Surely, as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, So have you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,” says the Lord.” Jeremiah 3:2, 3, 20.

“ ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours. Declare this in the house of Jacob … among My people are found wicked men; As a cage is full of birds … Shall I not punish them for these things?’ says the Lord. ‘ Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?’ … The prophets prophesy falsely … And My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?” Jeremiah 5:19, 20, 26, 27, 29, 31.

“My people do not know the judgment of the Lord … For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How we are plundered!’ “Jeremiah 8:17; 9:19.

“I have forsaken My house, I have left My heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies. … Many pastors have destroyed My vineyard … They have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. … No flesh shall have peace … be ashamed of your harvest.” Jeremiah 12:7, 10, 12, 13.

“Give glory to the Lord … Before He causes darkness. … If you will not hear it, My soul will weep … Because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.” Jeremiah 13:16, 17.

“I will bereave them [this people] of children; I will destroy My people, Since they do not return from their ways. … And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword.” Jeremiah 15:7, 9.

“Woe to you who are at ease in Zion … who put far off the day of doom … the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. … Israel shall surely be led away captive. … The end has come upon My people. … They shall wander … seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it.” Amos 6:1, 3; 7:9, 11; 8:2, 12.

“And many among them [both houses of Israel] shall … be snared and captured. … They will be driven into darkness.” Isaiah 8:15, 22.

“O daughter of Zion … you will go to Babylon.” Micah 4:10.

“In all the vineyards there shall be wailing … I do not savor your sacred assemblies … Take away from Me the noise of your songs … therefore I will send you into captivity.” Amos 5.

2 Based on history, what could the start of captivity look like? Should we expect the captivity to be widely recognized?

3 Has a return to captivity already commenced? How would you determine whether or not God’s professed people are in captivity?

4 Has the Seventh-day Adventist church participated in the sins that called for the ancient captivity of God’s people? Should SDAs expect to repeat these sins with different, more positive results?

Apply It:

  • It is united with the world formally and informally.
  • Its people are without knowledge because …
  • The prophets have been despised.
  • It is led by false shepherds, crying peace and safety while the judgment closes.
  • They have united with the state to persecute other Christians through courts of law.
  • Sins such as idolatry and Sabbath breaking are common, and unrebuked.

The full investigation and explanation of the above claims is left to the student. But as a guide to some of these claims, here are some facts that may be investigated.

  • 1 At least one of the official outreach entities of the SDA church is united legally in business under the auspices of a Roman Catholic institution.
  • 2 As with other corrupt religious institutions, the SDA organization has for years used legal and/or physical force in many parts of the world to further its plans.
  • 3 The SDA church has, in various places and at various times, formally and informally united with and supported a cacophony of religious organizations.
  • 4 In practice, the Elijah prophet (Ellen G. White) has been rejected, and the resulting ignorance has seen confusion enter on every biblical point, from the Creation story to the Mark of the Beast.
  • 5 In general, many churches have for years left unchecked open sins within their borders.
  • 6 In general, a message of peace and safety has been preached to heal slightly the wounded consciences of God’s professed people.

5 Does the Seventh-day Adventist church bear the hallmark characteristics of the captivity of the Jewish church in Christ’s day?

  • Does the SDA church, as the Jewish church in Christ’s day, continue to function, maintain real property, pursue converts, and maintain a system of education—despite the deep divisions of a conservative and liberal class?
  • Are there many pastors, and yet—are the sheep as without a shepherd?
  • Are there many schools, and yet—are there none where the child Jesus could attend?
  • As in Christ’s day, is the work of those outside the official recognition of the organization automatically viewed with suspicion, or even opposed?
  • As in Christ’s day, are people taught to place their trust in the temple (church organization) and that to be put out of the synagogue (disfellowshipped from a church body under the auspices of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists) is to be put out of the saving fold of Christ?

6 How does Ellen White compare the condition and outcome of modern Israel, Seventh-day Adventists, with ancient Israel, and the Jews in Christ’s time?

Apply It:

“In His word the Lord declared what He would do for Israel if they would obey His voice. But the leaders of the people yielded to the temptations of Satan, and God could not give them the blessings He designed them to have, because they did not obey His voice but listened to the voice and policy of Lucifer. This experience will be repeated in the last years of the history of the people of God, who have been established by His grace and power. Men whom He has greatly honored will in the closing scenes of this earth’s history pattern after ancient Israel.” Manuscript Releases, 13, 379. [Emphasis supplied.]

“Modern Israel are in greater danger of forgetting God and being led into idolatry than were His ancient people. Many idols are worshiped, even by professed Sabbathkeepers. … A blessing or a curse is now before the people of God. … The sins and iniquities of rebellious Israel are recorded and the picture presented before us as a warning that if we imitate their example of transgression and depart from God we shall fall as surely as did they.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 609. [Emphasis supplied.]

“The alliances made by the Israelites with their heathen neighbors resulted in the loss of their identity as God’s peculiar people. … No semblance of nearness to God, no assertion of connection with Him, will be accepted from those who persist in dishonoring Him by leaning upon the arm of worldly power.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 4, 1155, 1156. [Emphasis supplied.]

“My heart aches day after day and night after night for our churches. Many are progressing, but in the back track … They must face square about. I know what I say. Unless they shall become Christians indeed, they will go from weakness to weakness, divisions will increase, and many souls will be led to perdition … The sin of ancient Israel was in disregarding the expressed will of God and following their own way according to the leadings of unsanctified hearts. Modern Israel are fast following in their footsteps, and the displeasure of the Lord is as surely resting upon them.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 93, 94. [Emphasis supplied.]

“The same danger [reference to Jeremiah’s time] exists today among that people who profess to be the repository of God’s law. … They refuse to be reproved of evil, and blame God’s servants with being too zealous in putting sin out of the camp. A sin-hating God calls upon those who profess to keep his law to depart from all iniquity. Neglect to repent and obey his word will bring as serious consequences upon God’s people today, as did the same sin upon ancient Israel. There is a limit beyond which he will no longer delay his judgments. The correction of God through his chosen instruments cannot be disregarded with impunity. The desolation of Jerusalem stands as a solemn warning before the eyes of modern Israel.” The Signs of the Times, February 12, 1880. [Emphasis supplied.]

“The Lord sorely chastised his people Israel, revealing their hypocrisy and rebuking their presumption, and thus left upon the pages of history the testimony for all future ages, that the iniquities of his professed people will not go unpunished. The greater the knowledge of God’s will, the greater the sin of those who disregard it. God is not dependent upon men to cause his name to be feared and honored in the earth. He accepts the labors of those who walk in faithfulness and humility before him, but he will reject all who profess to serve him, and yet follow in the course of the unrighteous. God can carry forward his work in the earth without the co-operation of those who would pervert or disgrace it.” Ibid., December 22, 1881. [Emphasis supplied.]

“There is a deplorable lack of spirituality among our people. … I have seen that self-glorification was becoming common among Seventh-day Adventists and that unless the pride of man should be abased and Christ exalted we should, as a people, be in no better condition to receive Christ at His second advent than were the Jewish people to receive Him at His first advent. … Their history should be a solemn warning to us.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 727, 728. [Emphasis supplied.]

“I have been shown that unbelief in the testimonies of warning, encouragement, and reproof is shutting away the light from God’s people. Unbelief is closing their eyes so that they are ignorant of their true condition.

“I saw that the reason why visions had not been more frequent of late is, they have not been appreciated by the church. The church have nearly lost their spirituality and faith, and the reproofs and warnings have had but little effect upon them. Many of those who have professed faith in them have not heeded them.” Ibid., 674.

“Please read the third chapter [of Jeremiah]. This chapter is a lesson for modern Israel. Let all who claim to be children of God understand that He will not serve with their sins any more than He would with the sins of ancient Israel.” “Ellen G. White Comments,” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 4, 1154. [Emphasis supplied.]

Studies prepared by John T. Grosboll, PE. John T. is a mechanical engineer living near Vancouver, Washington. His secular employment includes several years of experience in primary metals and transportation-related industries. He, along with his wife Teresa, is actively involved in the work of the Historic Message Church in Portland, Oregon. He may be reached at: grosbolls@yahoo.com.

Bible Study Guides – Seventh-day Adventists and the Work of Rebuilding the Church and the Wall

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August 8, 2010 – August 14, 2010

Key Text

“Each of the ancient prophets spoke less for their own time than for ours. … their prophesying is in force for us. … Daniel, Isaiah, and Ezekiel … spoke of things that … reached down to the future, and to what should occur in these last days.” Selected Messages, Book 3, 338, 419, 420.

Introduction

Let’s summarize what we have seen thus far in our study of the history of the captivity of God’s people.

In last month’s lessons we have seen:

1 The purpose of God’s church on earth to bear His identity, be a refuge, and gain coverts.

2 The purpose of God’s church as described by trees and vines that bear fruit, and a married woman who bears children.

3 That this fruit of the tree and of the womb are symbols of purified character and converts intertwined.

4 That failure in God’s church is described by barren trees, vineyards, wombs and failed marriage.

5 The reasons for the original Babylonian captivity: union with foreigners, rejection of prophets and the requisite ignorance that follows, Sabbath breaking and the leadership of unfaithful pastors.

6 That Israel refused to acknowledge their captivity (Jeremiah 26–28, 42)!

7 Because of this rebellion, this physical captivity became much more extensive and severe than God intended, and led to the complete physical destruction of the church, wall, and city.

8 That the secular government opened the way for the church to be rebuilt after 70 years of captivity, but that few of God’s professed people heeded the call to return and rebuild.

9 That the first priority of Israel was to rebuild the church, and then the wall, and that God’s people were disowned when they did not make church restoration the first priority.

10 Specific reasons these tasks were successful (such as collective action), and reasons that they clearly were not (such as marriage with foreigners).

11 That in the time of Christ, God’s people were in captivity again. We focused on the spiritual nature of the captivity of the Jewish church, but saw that this captivity was both physical and spiritual in nature (John 18:31; 8:34–44).

12 That even though churches, schools and pastors were many in Christ’s day—that it was as though they had been destroyed. They effectively didn’t exist (Mark 6:34; John 9:34–39).

13 That once again, Israel refused to acknowledge this captivity (John 8:33).

14 That once again, because of this refusal to acknowledge their captivity, God’s professed people were led to the complete physical destruction of church, wall, and city.

15 The blossoming of a new and pure church along-side, but separate from the legacy church in rebellion (Luke 5:37–39).

16 That both of these churches, new and old, claimed the name of Israel.

17 That parallel promises of glory and destruction were fulfilled together to two different groups bearing the name Israel (Romans 9:6–8; 24–33).

18 That the final destruction of Jerusalem, the old church of Israel, happened after the gospel had already been taken to the entire world by the new Israel in the 1st century!

In the previous lesson, we have seen:

1 That the largest part of the Christian church, in name, returned to a Babylonian captivity during the Dark Ages.

2 That this captivity had broad physical and spiritual effects.

3 That once again, the church did not in general recognize the broad extent of the captivity.

4 That the rebuilding of God’s decimated church began in earnest with the Protestant reformation.

5 That the rebuilding work was halted (Revelation 3:1–6).

6 That through the religious liberty proffered by the civil government of the United States of America, the way was paved for church rebuilding to continue.

7 That the Protestants ultimately rejected their assignment to rebuild God’s church (Revelation 14:8).

8 That Seventh-day Adventists received the assignment to finish rebuilding the church and restore the wall, a symbol of God’s Law (Isaiah 58:12–14).

From here we pick up the story:

Notes:

From this point forward, the student should lean heavily on three groups of themes that have been explored extensively in the previous lessons:

  1. The terminology for the purposes of God’s church examined so closely in lesson one and referenced above (trees, vines, fruit, marriage, children, and offspring).
  2. The identifying characteristics of captivity, and the task of God’s people to rebuild His church following its destruction; as we studied in lessons 3, 4, and 5.
  3. The extension of the application of intertwining parallel prophecies of triumph and disaster that applied to two groups of people identified as Israel at the same time. This was the focus of our study in lesson five.

The author has made generous use of ellipses in these lessons. These perform two functions: they draw related thoughts together, and conserve time and space. The author believes that appropriate use of ellipses have been made, even at times over large spans of text, but invites the reader to examine the appropriateness of the editing for himself.

1 Has the Seventh-day Adventist denomination completed the rebuilding of God’s church?

In order to start to answer this question, we would have to have some sort of understanding of what the rebuilt church should look like, else how could we recognize its completion? There are many Scriptures to which we could refer. Here is a small sampling of verses to guide your thoughts and discussion:

John 17:19–23; Ephesians 2:18–22; Isaiah 52:8; Ephesians 5:25–27; John 13:35; 1 Timothy 3:15.

2 Has the Seventh-day Adventist denomination completed the rebuilding of the wall (repairing the breach made in God’s law)?

The reader is asked to consider this question in the context of the rest of the lesson.

3 Has there been a work stoppage?

Let’s now start to take an extensive look at what the prophets have to say about our situation, starting with Haggai’s time, chapter 1, verse 2. This chapter deals with the work stoppage on the temple. Of it, Ellen White says:

“The expression, ‘This people say,’ is significant. … Prompt obedience is expected of those whom the Lord chooses and leads. Pleas for delay are a dishonor to God. … Thus the Israelites declared that they … were broken off in their work because of the hindrances. … This is why, in a communication through his prophet, he referred to them not as ‘my people,’ but as ‘this people.’

“The Israelites had no real excuse for leaving their work on the temple. The time when the most serious objections were raised, was the time for them to persevere in building. But they were actuated by a selfish dislike to encounter danger by arousing the opposition of their enemies. … They hesitated to move forward by faith in the opening providences of God, because they could not see the end from the beginning. When difficulties arose, they were easily turned from the work.

“This history will be repeated. There will be religious failures because men do not have faith. When they look at the things that are seen, impossibilities appear; but God can lead them step by step in the course he desires them to take. His work will advance only as his servants move forward by faith.” The Review and Herald, December 5, 1907. [Emphasis supplied.]

Apply It:

Ellen White, writing in 1907, said that the history of work stoppage on the rebuilding church would yet be repeated. What exactly would a work stoppage on the temple look like? How would we know? What sign should we wait for to indicate a cessation of work has commenced? Does that mean that the Seventh-day Adventist church would run out of money to complete construction projects? Does it mean that Maranatha volunteers would cease volunteering? Or that evangelism projects would cease? Does it mean that fire or financial collapse would cripple institutions? Does it mean that individual work would completely stop, or collective work, or both? Does it mean that the organization of divisions, unions, and conferences would fall apart?

Or would the situation be more likely to appear as it did in Christ’s day? An organized church of Israel functions, despite deep divisions of conservatives and liberals. An imposing edifice (temple) on the outside, decaying on the inside (Matthew 23:27). While a motley group of disciples, at first unable to grasp the full significance of the church that Christ had founded and was raising up, and unable at times to collectively realize the full potential of unified action, forms the genesis of a modern Israel that took the gospel to the world—while the forms of the ancient church of Israel carried on.

“O Israel … You have not gone up into the gaps to build a wall for the house of Israel.” Ezekiel 13:4, 5.

“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.” Ezekiel 22:30. [Emphasis supplied.]

Studies prepared by John T. Grosboll, PE. John T. is a mechanical engineer living near Vancouver, Washington. His secular employment includes several years of experience in primary metals and transportation-related industries. He, along with his wife Teresa, is actively involved in the work of the Historic Message Church in Portland, Oregon. He may be reached at: grosbolls@yahoo.com.

Where God is Working

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The third chapter of I Corinthians is rapidly becoming one of my favorite books in the New Testament. It is really one of the great chapters in the Bible about who and what the church is. Verse 2 of the first chapter says, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus.” We see that the church in Corinth were those people in that city who were sanctified in Christ Jesus. I Corinthians 3:9, I believe, is the most astounding verse in the whole Bible: “For we are God’s fellow workers.”

If you study the Spirit of Prophecy writings carefully, you will see that this verse is also one of Ellen White’s favorites and she used it over and over again to show how we become workers together with God. There is no higher privilege that any person could have than to actually be a fellow laborer—a fellow worker with God!

Ever since the beginning of time, God has been working. As you study the inspired writings, they always focus the attention on where God is working. It is important to know this to be one of His fellow workers.

When I studied ancient history, I found out that there were many things going on during Abraham’s time. Inspiration does not go into any of these things, but focuses all the attention on where God is working. Even though Adam had many children, inspiration focuses only on a holy line of men through whom God worked. Seth had a son named Enos, and in his time, the Bible says that men began to call on the name of the Lord. That is where God was working. Then, in the seventh generation from Adam, Enoch was born. That is where God was working, and the people who chose to be fellow workers with God worked in cooperation with Enoch. After Enoch, there was Noah; and if you had been living in Noah’s time and you wanted to be a fellow worker with God, you would be working with Noah.

By the time there had been twenty generations, the whole world had rejected God twice. God looked over the world and found a man whose name was Abraham. He said to Abraham, “I am going to fulfill the plan of salvation through you and through your seed [Christ].”

As you study the Bible record, you will find a certain characteristic in common among all those through whom God was working. In speaking of Abraham, God clearly identified what qualified a person to be a colaborer with Him. “Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” Genesis 26:5. Abraham was obedient.

When God brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, He made them a wonderful promise: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.” Exodus 19:5.

This promise had conditions. God made a covenant with them. He said, “If you do this, I will do this for you; you will be My special people.”

Some say that there are unconditional promises, so in checking this out in the inspired writings of Ellen White, she says all of God’s promises and threatenings are conditional. See Maranatha, 61.

Israel wandered in the wilderness for thirty-eight years longer than they had to because they were not obedient and they rebelled. Finally, when they entered Canaan, they went into apostasy again and started worshiping idols which lasted for hundreds of years. During this time the tabernacle was still with them, and they continued to keep the yearly feast days.

During the period of the judges, the tabernacle was located in Shiloh, in the land of Ephraim. Many people have almost forgotten that Ephraim was the center of Divine worship for over three hundred years and the people of that time thought that it would always be that way.

Look what it says about this in the Psalms: “Moreover He rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved.” Psalm 78:67, 68.

Why did God reject Ephraim and remove the tabernacle from Shiloh? “The ark remained at Shiloh for three hundred years, until, because of the sins of Eli’s house, it fell into the hands of the Philistines, and Shiloh was ruined.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 514.

As a result of the leaders of God’s people falling into apostasy and sin, the Lord told Eli, “You are not going to be a priest for Me. Your descendants are not going to be My priests forever.”

They were descendants of Aaron—God’s people; but the Lord said, “You are no longer going to be priests” and Ephraim was rejected as the religious center—something that was thought could not happen, happened. “The sanctuary service was finally transferred to the temple at Jerusalem, and Shiloh fell into insignificance. There are only ruins to mark the spot where it once stood. Long afterward its fate was made use of as a warning to Jerusalem.” Ibid.

A few hundred years later the people of Jerusalem thought the same thing. The temple there was the center of Divine worship, and they believed that this was where God was working. Hundreds of years after the worship had been transferred from Shiloh, the Lord, through Jeremiah, said, “ ‘Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, “We are delivered to do all these abominations.” ‘Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,’ says the Lord. ‘But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. And now, because you have done all these works,’ says the Lord, ‘and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, therefore I will do to this house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren—the whole posterity of Ephraim.’ ” Jeremiah 7:9–15.

As we look at history, we see that God cannot work with people who are living in sin. If you want to be a fellow worker with God, you cannot link up and work with people who are living and working in sin. With God, character is what counts; and God works with people who listen to His voice and who obey.

We are told of Israel:

“Their calamities did not come because they kept the law of God, but because they disregarded that law. God had told them that if they did not obey His commandments, He could not keep His covenant with them. The history of the Israelites is portrayed for our warning. They had great light and exalted privileges; yet they did not live up to that light nor appreciate their advantages, and their light became darkness. They walked in the light of their own eyes, instead of following the leadings of God. Their history is given for the benefit of those who live in these last days, that we may avoid following the same example of unbelief.” The Signs of the Times, July 19, 1899.

Where was God working in the time of Jesus? When Jesus was brought to the temple to be dedicated, Ellen White says that the priest did not recognize anything unusual. Commenting on this experience she says, “So it is still. Events upon which the attention of all heaven is centered, are undiscerned, their very occurrence is unnoticed, by religious leaders, and worshipers in the house of God.” The Desire of Ages, 56.

While the attention of all heaven was focused on Christ’s birth, in this world the people who claimed to be God’s true people did not even know it had taken place. How can you be a laborer together with God if you do not even know where God is working?

While on earth, God worked through His Son to bring salvation to a lost world. If you wanted to be a laborer together with God then, you had to connect yourself with Jesus and work with Him.

The New Testament writers predict that a terrible change is going to take place among those who profess to be Christians. Paul speaks, addressing the elders from the church of Ephesus: “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves [church leaders] men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.” Acts 20:28–30.

Speaking of this same great apostasy, Paul wrote: “Let no one deceive you by any means: for that Day [the day of Christ] will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” II Thessalonians 2:3, 4.

Peter talked about this apostasy, too. “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destructive ways … because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.” II Peter 2:1, 2. [Emphasis supplied.] The word blasphemy means to speak evil of something. As a result of this new teaching, the real way of truth will be evil spoken of.

Notice that both Peter and Paul say that false prophets will secretly bring in destructive heresies. Whenever you find a book that is written to which the authors do not want to put their name, you ought to remember these texts.

Paul identifies this element as the mystery of lawlessness. This apostasy will, therefore, involve the breaking of God’s law and result in the way of truth being evil spoken of. Did this happen?

“The history of God’s people during the ages of darkness that followed upon Rome’s supremacy is written in heaven, but they have little place in human records. Few traces of their existence can be found, except in the accusations of their persecutors. It was the policy of Rome to obliterate every trace of dissent from her doctrines or decrees. Everything heretical, whether persons or writings, she sought to destroy. … Before the invention of printing, books were few in number, and in a form not favorable for preservation; therefore there was little to prevent the Romanists from carrying out their purpose.” The Great Controversy, 61, 62.

If you were living in that time and you wanted to be a fellow worker with God, it made all the difference in the world whether or not you understood that God was working with people who were keeping His law. If you did not understand this principle, you could not be a fellow laborer with God. Do you realize, friends, that there have been millions of people who have believed that they were working with the Lord but were working with the devil the whole time?

We find that all of the sixteenth century Reformers upheld God’s law. They did not all understand the binding claims of the fourth commandment, but they did not reject it. There is a great difference between not understanding truth and rejecting it. Martin Luther, as well as John Huss, preached a great deal on the Ten Commandments and believed in them. God was leading a people on step by step.

When you study sacred history, you find that in the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth century, simultaneously, all over the world, God started raising up people from all the various Christian churches with the message that Jesus was coming soon. Out of that great Second Advent Movement emerged a group of people known first as Millerites. Later, they became known as Adventists and finally, Seventh-day Adventists.

As this group studied, they discovered the messages of the three angels of Revelation 14. Having learned the meaning of the sanctuary message in the books of Hebrews and Daniel, they realized that the Day of Judgment was to begin on October 22, 1844. This is not a message that the apostle Paul preached, because it would not have been true during his lifetime. The apostle Paul taught that the Judgment was still in the future. See Acts 24:25. Martin Luther did not preach it either. But here is a message that the hour of God’s Judgment has come. You cannot preach that the hour of God’s judgment has come unless you know it has started. But how do we know for sure that it has started? There is only one way that I know of how you know that the hour of God’s judgment has started, and that is from Daniel 8 and 9.

Now, do you understand why the devil has made our understanding of Daniel 8 and 9 a focal point of attack? If he can destroy a person’s confidence in that truth, that person can no longer preach the first angel’s message. Remember, the second and third angels’ messages are built upon the first. You cannot preach the third unless you preach the second, and you cannot preach the second unless you preach the first and if you do not understand Daniel 8:14 about the twenty-three hundred days, you are no longer a Seventh-day Adventist.

God is working today with the people who are proclaiming the Three Angels’ Messages. If you want to be a fellow laborer with God today, you have to join up with the people who are doing this.

The second angel’s message cannot be preached if you do not know who Babylon is according to Revelation 18:1–5.

The third angel’s message is a warning against the beast, his image, and his mark. Notice how the message concludes: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12. If you are not even sure that you can really keep the commandments of God, how can you be a fellow laborer with God and preach Revelation 14:12? Have you noticed that it does not say that here are those who are trying to keep the commandments? It says they keep them. You cannot be a fellow laborer with God and be involved in His last work for the world if you cannot proclaim the message, and you certainly cannot proclaim the message if you do not believe it is true. The idea that “you are going to keep sinning until Jesus comes” is very dangerous.

If you want to know where God is working, look for a group of Seventh-day Adventists who really keep the commandments and do not play around and say, “Well, we are doing the best we can.” Listen, friends, the best you can do is not good enough, unless you are keeping the commandments by the power of God. If you give your life to the Lord, He has the power to give you so that you can keep them. If we fail to keep them when Jesus comes, He will be able to show us millions of people who had the same besetting sins that we had, and He will say, “I gave all of these people power to overcome.” There will be no satisfactory excuse then.

The people described in Revelation 12:17 not only keep the commandments but they have the testimony of Jesus. Revelation 19:10 says that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Seventh-day Adventists believe that Ellen White fulfilled this prophecy of giving the gift of prophecy to God’s remnant people. If you want to find the people through whom God is working, you want to look for a people who have, believe and obey the spirit of prophecy. That eliminates the large portion of those who make a profession of waiting for the Lord to come.

Revelation 14:12 points out that God’s people not only keep the commandments but they have the faith of Jesus. You will never find somebody who has the first qualification and does not have the third one because you cannot keep the commandments unless you do have the faith of Jesus. People who have the faith of Jesus will be a sanctified people.

There is another characteristic that, unfortunately, disqualifies many who qualify according to the first three characteristics. Revelation 14:6 tells us that God’s last people will be giving His last message to the world. “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.” If you want to find the people through whom God is working and if you want to be a fellow laborer with God, you need to find the people who are determined to take the Three Angels’ Messages to every single person in the world.

When you find those people, you will know what group to work with; you will know how to be a co-laborer with God, because that is where God is working. He is working with the people who have these four characteristics: they keep His commandments; they have the spirit of prophecy and live by it; they have the faith of Jesus; and they are out to take the gospel to every single person in the whole world.

The catastrophe that I see taking place in Adventism today is that the great majority of Adventists are going to destruction, and when given a warning they say, “You say that we are in total apostasy.” Looking at the destruction of Jerusalem, we get just a little idea of what is ahead for Adventism. The only way to avoid being part of that destruction is to be a coworker with God, working where God is working, obedient to his law.

The gospel is not a halfway business. Either you have to get into it all the way or you might as well get out. Soon time will be no more, and when it is all over, I want to know that I have given it everything I have. I want all of my money, my time, my talents, everything I have, to be in the finishing of God’s work. How about you?

Pastor John Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: historic@
stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: (316) 788-5559.

My Work in Historic Adventism

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What we do is closely related to what we are. It is said of Christ that His nature and His work are inseparably intertwined and interwoven with each other, and the same is true to a lesser degree of all of us. We are what we do and we do what we are. Consider my life span. I became a Seventh-day Adventist in the year 1936, when I was sixteen years old. Although I did not realize it at the time, I was a very fortunate and privileged person, because being baptized at this particular time gave me the privilege of living some thirty years during the Golden Age of Adventism, from 1936 to 1966. The tragic book Questions On Doctrine, which brought the Golden Age of Adventism to an end, was published in l956. It took about ten years for it to really have much influence upon the church. But by 1966 the dire influence of that fateful volume had become widespread, the precious unity and harmony of the church had been destroyed, and the Dark Ages of Adventism had begun, and have continued for thirty years (until 1996.) Thus my Christian life has consisted of thirty years in the Golden Age of Adventism and thirty years in the Dark Ages of Adventism. I am able to make comparisons.

What were the characteristics of the Golden Age of Adventism that I experienced from 1936 until 1966? Not the absence of problems. We had our share of them. Not the favor of the world. The world and the worldly churches cordially hated us and maliciously lied about us. Not wealth. The depression was still in force. But we had something far more precious than any of these things. We had unity and harmony throughout the entire church. We were one in faith and doctrine.

During those years you could travel to any foreign country, find the local Seventh-day Adventist church, walk in through the front door and say, “I am home. I have never seen these people before, but I know them. I know their beliefs and I know their life style. On all of the important matters of life, their hearts beat as mine.” This was especially true of church workers. When two of them met, anywhere, there was an instant bonding and a fullness of fellowship. How precious were those days, now known only as they are held in sweet remembrance. We would have treasured them even more had we known what was ahead.

Fidelity to the Bible and to the Spirit of Prophecy was taken for granted. Infidelity was neither glossed over nor excused. Not long after my baptism in 1936 I enrolled as a freshman at Walla Walla College. By the time a few weeks of the school year had passed, it had become apparent that three of the Bible teachers, including the chairman of the Bible department, were undercutting the Spirit of Prophecy. Careful investigations were conducted, and by the end of the first quarter, all three of these teachers were gone from the campus. Two quickly found their places in Sunday keeping churches, where they belonged, and the third retired to his hog ranch. Yes, his hog ranch. But none of the three were undercutting the Spirit of Prophecy nearly as much as is being done in many of our college Bible classes today, while church administrators look on indifferently or benignly.

Our week of prayer speakers ministered to our needs in a careful and conscientious way, always teaching us the joys of victorious Christian living. If any of them had announced to us that it is impossible to stop sinning, we would have heard him no further. And the administration would have replaced him, even before the week was over.

So that is where I am coming from, and that is who I am. I listen in astonishment to earnest young Calvinists among us describing those years as the “age of legalism.” They can’t kid me. I was there.

I was taught our faith and doctrines by dedicated men who were one hundred per-cent Seventh-day Adventists. I spent fifteen years of my ministry in full-time evangelism. (The other years were divided between pastoring and teaching in college and seminary classrooms.)In my evangelistic work I was required to closely examine the false reasoning, the sophistry, and the casuistry in the writings of the “Evangelical” ministers who were desperately opposing our message, and show their tricks to the new converts. You can imagine the pain I feel when I see the same sort of material being set forth by some Seventh-day Adventist ministers now. When they proclaim that “We are Evangelicals!” my response is, “You really didn’t need to tell me. I knew that already. The methodology of your writings makes it abundantly clear.”

So my present work is preaching to and teaching the historic Seventh-day Adventists in camp meetings and seminars. I am in the pulpit virtually every Sabbath, either near my place of abode, or in some other state. I answer innumerable theological questions, by mail or by telephone. For want of a better place to go, ministry leaders often come to me for counsel. And in between these activities, I try to find time for writing. I feel guilty because I am not writing more, but I run out of time.

But in it all, I am happy. I know that I am defending God’s pure and holy truth, and I have no moments of anxious foreboding such as the Calvinists among us must certainly have. The shaking time is moving in on us. By God’s grace, I will survive it, and live again in the happy fellowship of a purified church.

A Portrait of William Miller

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In September, 1842, Elders Himes, Miller, and others, held a meeting in the mammoth tent in Eastern Maine. In company with one Moses Polly, a Christian minister of my acquaintance, I attended that meeting. I there for the first time saw that great and good man, William Miller. His form and features showed great physical and mental strength. The benevolent, affable, and kind spirit manifested by him in conversation with numerous strangers, who called on him to ask questions, proved him a humble, Christian gentleman. Infidels, Universalists, and some others came to him with opposing questions. He was quick to perceive their designs, and with becoming firmness and dignity promptly met their objections and sent them away in silence. So long had he, even then, been in the field meeting opposition from every quarter, that he was prepared for any emergency.

In his public labors his arguments were clear, and his appeals and exhortations most powerful. The tent in which he spoke was a circle whose diameter was one hundred and twenty feet. On one occasion, when this tent was full, and thousands stood around, he was unfortunate in the use of language, which the baser sort in the crowd turned against him in a general burst of laughter. He left his subject with ease, and in a moment his spirit rose above the mob-like spirit that prevailed, and in language the most scorching he spoke of the corruption of the hearts of those who chose to understand hi to be as vile as they were. In a moment all was quiet and the speaker continued to describe the terrible end of the ungodly in a solemn and impressive manner. He then affectionately exhorted them to repent of their sins, come to Christ, and be ready for His appearing. Many in that vast crowd wept. He then resumed his subject, and spoke with clearness and spirit, as though nothing had happened. In fact, it seemed that nothing could have occurred to fully give him the ears of thousands before him, and to make his subject to impressive as this circumstance.

A Man for His Time

God raised up Paul to do a great work in his time. In order that the Gentiles might be clearly taught the great plan of redemption through Jesus, and that the infidelity of the Jews might be met, a great man was selected.

Martin Luther was the man for his time. He was daring and sometimes rash, yet was a great and good man. The little horn had prevailed and millions of the saints of the Most High had been put to death. To fearlessly expose the vileness of the papal monks and to meet their learning and their rage, and also to win the hearts of the common people with all the tenderness and affection of the gospel, called for just such a man as Martin Luther. He could battle with the lion, or feed and tenderly nurse the lambs of Christ’s fold.

So William Miller, in the hands of God, was the man for his time. True, he was a farmer, had been in the service of his country, and had not the benefits of an early classical education. And it was not till he had passed the noon of life that God called him to search His Word and open the prophecies to the people. He was, however, a historian from his love of history, and had a good practical knowledge of men and things. He had been an infidel. But on receiving the Bible as a revelation from God, he did not also receive the popular, contradictory ideas that many of its prophecies were clad in impenetrable mystery. Said William Miller: “The Bible, if it is what it purports to be, will explain itself.”

He sought for the harmony of Scripture and found it. And in the benevolence of his great and good heart and head, he spent the balance of his life in teaching it to the people in his written and oral lectures, and in warning and exhorting them to prepare for the Second Coming of Christ.

Much of the fruits of his labors are now seen. Much more will be seen hereafter. Heaven will be hung with the fruits of the labors of this truly great and good man. He sleeps. But if it can be said of any who have toiled and worn and suffered amid vile persecutions, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth, that they may rest from their labors, and their works to follow them,” it can be said of William Miler. He nobly and faithfully did his duty, and the popular church, united with the world, paid him in persecutions and reproaches. The very name of William Miller was despised everywhere, and Millerism was the jeer of the people from the pulpit to the brothel.