Editorial – The Future of Babylon and Jerusalem

The destruction of the ancient city of Babylon is a symbol of the coming destruction of the entire world. The destruction of the city of Jerusalem and its stately temple is also a symbol of the destruction of the world. In the New Testament, Jerusalem and the Jews are used as a symbol of the professed Christian church and Babylon is used as a symbol of the entire religious world. And yet both of these—Babylon and Jerusalem—are portrayed as objects that will be totally destroyed (see for example The Desire of Ages, 743, 816; The Youth’s Instructor, December 29, 1890).

Why is the world going to be destroyed at the end?—because of its wickedness. “The destruction of Babylon pictures to some degree the final destruction of the world [see Isaiah 13]. Babylon is a symbol of the world at large. … When the doom of a nation is fixed, it seems that all the energy, wisdom, and discretion of its former time of prosperity, deserts its men of position, and they hasten the evil they would avert. Outside enemies are not the greatest peril to an individual or a nation. The overthrow of a nation results, under the providence of God, from some unwise or evil course of its own. But the people who fear God, who are loyal to His laws, who carry out the principles of righteousness in their lives, have a sure defense; God will be the refuge of those who trust in Him.” The Signs of the Times, December 29, 1890

“Could the curtain be rolled back before the youth who have never given their hearts to God, with others who are Christians in name, but who are unrenewed in heart and unsanctified in temper, they would see that God’s eye is ever upon them, and they would feel as disturbed as did the king of Babylon. …” The Youth’s Instructor, May 26, 1898

“We are never alone. We have a Companion, whether we choose Him or not. … Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, God is there. To your every word and action you have a witness,—the holy, sin-hating God. Nothing that is said or done or thought can escape His infinite eye. … In the deepest darkness and solitude He is there. No one can deceive God; none can escape from their accountability to Him.” Ibid

The Alpha & the Omega of Apostasy, Part II

Editor’s Note: Last month we looked in detail at the Alpha of apostasy, as Ellen White described it in her day, and also at the inspired predictions of what the Omega apostasy would be like. This month we will look at how these predictions are being fulfilled in our day.

Babylon, the Ecumenical Movement and the Three Angels’ Messages

Among Adventists, the clear understanding of the term “Babylon” is diminishing more and more and is giving way to confusion. A conference leader told me years ago that “Babylon is in us.” My question, of how would it be possible under these circumstances to follow the call to leave Babylon, remained without an answer. Some other definitions, from Adventist publications, are that Babylon is the “wickedness of my city,” “evil influences” and to “attempt to gain salvation through one’s own works.” Adventist Review, December 31, 1992; Signs of the Times, June 1992; Adventist Review, December 31, 1992.

Here in Germany, “Babylon” is a hot topic. The reason for this is the membership of both of the Adventist German unions in the ACK (confederacy of Christian Churches), the national ecumenical council. This membership was brought about secretly, and the people were only informed afterwards. Discussions were forbidden.

To cover themselves, the Adventist leadership, here in Germany, has tried to show that our historic definition of “Babylon” cannot be true. R. Nickel, a high-ranking minister, said this about the Adventist’s membership in the ACK, in a sermon at the Adventist theological seminary of Friedensau. “In the classic exegesis of our denomination “Babylon” means the following: the mother whore of Revelation or the Roman Catholic Church. Her corrupted daughters are the fallen Protestant organizations of the different churches of Protestant faith. . . . The question is, Is what was once valid and present truth still valid? I want to come back to the discussion about the ACK, because here it can be shown: If the Protestant churches are truly a part of Babylon, how can one possibly unite with them and obtain membership in the ACK? If we would take the classic interpretation seriously, all of us would have to be against the ACK.” R. Nickel in a sermon held in Friedensau on November 2, 1996.

It is a fact that (nearly) all the ministers and leaders are in favor of an ACK membership. The logical conclusion therefore is that we cannot hold to the historic interpretation of “Babylon” and at the same time be a member in the ecumenical alliance. (See Luke 16:13; 2 Corinthians 6:14.) The content of the Three Angels’ Messages is opposed directly to the ecumenical movement, because we are warned explicitly of the image to the beast. The proclamation of this message is contrary to the rules of ecumenism, because no church is allowed to proselytize members of other churches. How then is it possible to proclaim, “Come out of her, my people!” if one is a member of that alliance?

Of one thing we can be assured: neither Catholics nor Protestants accepted Adventists as a member in the ecumenical ACK without a prior confirmation from them that the historic understanding of the Three Angels’ Messages had been rejected. And that is precisely what happened. In the ACK meeting, where the recommendation was given to accept the SDA Church as a member, the Adventist representatives were asked directly whether the historic interpretation of the Three Angels’ Messages was still valid.

The protocol documents of the ACK meeting, on June 3 and 4, 1992, in Arnoldshain gives this report. “On request of the Roman-Catholic representative, Dr. H.J. Urban, it was asked concretely, whether the traditional Adventist interpretation of Revelation 13, to identify the beast as being popery, which was equaled with the Antichrist, was still held as true. The answer to that question was that this was a case of tradition which dated back to the Reformation and doubtlessly would still exist, but that they were for the most part cured of institutionally identifying the office of the pope with the Antichrist. Rather it is held that the Antichrist is characteristics, which possibly could also be found in the Adventist denomination. Therefore the traditional critique of Revelation 13 could, in principle, also be directed against the Seventh-Day-Adventist Church. This explanation satisfied the Catholic side. After that the leadership of the ACK decided to recommend the application of the Adventists approvingly to the united members to be voted upon.” 54 Fragen, Document 3, 3. [Emphasis supplied.]

The president of the Northern German Union, Mr. Rupp, also denied our God-given message in his letters to the president of the ACK, Bishop Held, and in his personal communication with him. Babylon was only identified as a condition of things that could also be found in the SDA church. Bishop Held obviously interpreted the opinions in the union president’s letters as not a mistake, as can be seen in his answer:

“Dear Mr. Rupp. . . . Above the views are explicitly confirmed that you—as speaking at least for the leadership of the SDA Church—told us that SDA’s no longer believe that ‘in the historical development of the religious-political power of popery is seen the fulfillment of Biblical prophecies. (Daniel 7, Revelation 13 and 17.)’ ” Document 1. [Emphasis supplied.]

K. Schwarz, a high-ranking official of a Protestant Church in Germany writes: “For the guest-membership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the ACK, it is understood that . . . the tensions you mentioned [the Adventist belief that the pope is the antichrist] . . . no longer exist as a part of SDA doctrines.” (In Kobialka, M. 1994. Ecumenical Movement and World Government, 100.)

The leaders of the SDA Church have always said that the affiliation with the ecumenical movement is a wonderful occasion to witness for our faith. They say that in that way the Advent Message can be given much more effectively to other churches. What a mockery and hypocrisy! Membership in the ecumenical movement is a betrayal of our message and means crucifying Christ anew. (“I saw that as the Jews crucified Jesus, so the nominal churches have crucified these messages.” Early Writings, 261.)

There are many inspired instructions concerning alliances with unbelievers or believers of a different faith. I just want to point you to two quotations from the pen of Ellen White: “The wicked are being bound up in bundles, bound up in trusts, in unions, in confederacies. Let us have nothing to do with these organizations. God is our Ruler, our Governor, and He calls us to come out from the world and be separate.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 4, 87.

“Let the watchmen on the walls of Zion not join with those who are making of none effect the truth as it is in Christ. Let them not join the confederacy of infidelity, popery, and Protestantism.” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol.4, 1141.

We should realize what the ACK really is and how the pope sees this ecumenical entity. While visiting Germany, Pope John Paul II declared in Paderborn on June 22, 1996: “Good ecumenical connections have been formed to the churches in this country. They work actively together with the ecumenical committees, especially in the ‘Alliance of Christian Churches in Germany’ (ACK). By that, some helpful suggestions for the formation of church community came to Germany. . . . The unity we aim for has to grow step by step. . . . Therefore, it is our duty to reduce barriers and to seek for a greater amount of communion, trusting firmly that the Lord will lead us to that glorious day when full unity of faith is accomplished and we are able to celebrate harmoniously the holy Eucharist of the Lord together.Verlautbarungen des Apostolischen Stuhls, 126, Bonn 6/1996, 22ff.

What are Adventists looking for in the ACK? Do they want to celebrate the Eucharist together with the Catholics? The Omega is already here. May the Lord help us to see it and to act accordingly.

What is to be Done?

How do we need to respond to this situation? Many Adventists are confused and do not know what to do. It seems as if no one expected the vast dimensions of apostasy, although Sister White wrote: “The omega will be of a most startling nature.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 197. As Adventists we have heard about the soon coming test and talked about it ourselves, but now it is present and only a few are aware of it.

The question of how we are to deal with the Omega crisis is answered clearly in the inspired writings concerning the Alpha crisis. In the Omega crisis the same principles have to be applied, for history is repeating itself.

What advice did Ellen White give during the Alpha crisis? Here is one example:

“Elder and Mrs. Farnsworth have been requested to spend some time in Battle Creek, laboring for the church. I encourage them to do so, and shall counsel them how to labor. It will be well for Elder Farnsworth and Elder A. T. Jones to stand shoulder to shoulder preaching the Word in the tabernacle for a time, and giving the trumpet a certain sound. There are in Battle Creek souls who need bracing up. Many will gladly hear and distinguish the note of warning. But Elder Farnsworth should not remain in Battle Creek long. I write these things to you, because it is important that they should be understood. God would have men of talent who will not deviate from the principles of righteousness to stand in defense of the truth in the tabernacle at Battle Creek. One man should not be stationed in Battle Creek for a long time. After he has faithfully proclaimed the truth for a time, he should leave to labor elsewhere, and some one else be appointed who will give the trumpet a certain sound.” Paulson Collection, 108.

In this testimony the inspired pen gives us an exact description of our duty in both the Alpha and the Omega crisis. Two aspects are explicitly emphasized. On the one hand we are called to give the trumpet a certain sound to warn our brothers and sisters. On the other hand we are warned not to expose ourselves to the influence of apostasy for too long.

The first aspect, giving the trumpet a certain sound, should be our first step if we are part of a church infected with apostasy. Over and over again Ellen White called for decided action during the Alpha crisis. Here are some quotations:

“I was shown a platform, braced by solid timbers—the truths of the Word of God. Someone high in responsibility in the medical work was directing this man and that man to loosen the timbers supporting this platform. Then I heard a voice saying, ‘Where are the watchmen that ought to be standing on the walls of Zion? Are they asleep? This foundation was built by the Master Worker, and will stand storm and tempest. Will they permit this man to present doctrines that deny the past experience of the people of God? The time has come to take decided action.’ ” Selected Messages, Book 1, 204.

“The battle is on. . . . Where are His watchmen? Are they standing on the high tower, giving the danger signal, or are they allowing the peril to pass unheeded?” Ibid., 194.

“Will the men in our institutions keep silent, allowing insidious fallacies to be promulgated to the ruin of souls? . . . Is it not time that we asked ourselves, Shall we allow the adversary to lead us to give up the work of proclaiming the truth?” Ibid., 195.

“Vigilant action is called for. Indifference and sloth will result in the loss of personal religion and of heaven.” Ibid.

“If God abhors one sin above another, of which His people are guilty, it is doing nothing in case of an emergency. Indifference and neutrality in a religious crisis is regarded of God as a grievous crime and equal to the very worst type of hostility against God.Testimonies, vol. 3, 281.

To help us really understand the horrible danger of this emergency we are in, God gave Ellen White a vision of an iceberg. “One night a scene was clearly presented before me. A vessel was upon the waters, in a heavy fog. Suddenly the lookout cried, ‘Iceberg just ahead!’ There, towering high above the ship, was a gigantic iceberg. An authoritative voice cried out, ‘Meet it!’ There was not a moment’s hesitation. It was a time for instant action. The engineer put on full steam, and the man at the wheel steered the ship straight into the iceberg. With a crash she struck the ice. There was a fearful shock, and the iceberg broke into many pieces, falling with a noise like thunder to the deck.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 205.

“I am instructed to speak plainly. ‘Meet it,’ is the word spoken to me. ‘Meet it firmly, and without delay.’ . . . In the book ‘Living Temple’ there is presented the alpha of deadly heresies. The omega will follow, and will be received by those who are not willing to heed the warning God has given. . . . I have an intense longing to see them standing free in the Lord. I pray that they may have courage to stand firm for the truth as it is in Jesus, holding fast the beginning of their confidence unto the end.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 200.

“They have seen wrong transactions and heard wrong words spoken, and seen wrong principles followed, and have not spoken in reproof, for fear that they would be repulsed. I call upon those who have been connected with these binding influences to break the yoke to which they have long submitted, and stand as free men in Christ. Nothing but a determined effort will break the spell that is upon them.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 197.

How possibly can a call to decided action be more urgent? Everyone who perceives the apostasy has the duty to protest against it without compromise. If there ever was a time to sit and keep silent and to listen to an erroneous sermon up to the end (which I doubt), so that the pernicious error can be addressed to the whole congregation, that time is over. It is not enough just to talk to the minister afterwards, privately, when error has made its way to the minds of the people.

“Let every man now arouse, and work as he has opportunity. Let him speak words in season and out of season, and look to Christ for encouragement and strength in welldoing. . . . My message to you is: No longer consent to listen without protest to the perversion of truth. Unmask the pretentious sophistries which, if received, will lead ministers and physicians and medical missionary workers to ignore the truth. Every one is now to stand on his guard. God calls upon men and women to take their stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. I have been instructed to warn our people; for many are in danger of receiving theories and sophistries that undermine the foundation pillars of the faith.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 195, 196.

Save Our Youth

Ellen White many times warned that the young people should not be sent to the college in Battle Creek. She feared for the Adventist youth because of the pernicious influence prevailing there. “Those who have crowded into Battle Creek, and are being held there, see and hear many things that tend to weaken their faith, and engender unbelief.” Paulson Collection, 109.

But what about our colleges and seminaries today? Is the condition any better than it was then in Battle Creek? I do not have that much information about the condition of Adventist schools in the U.S., but I know something about the German seminaries. In these schools, the historical Adventist sanctuary teaching is rejected, Bible criticism is taught, the seven-day-creation period and the expectation of the imminent second coming of Christ are denied, etc. These things are well documented and confirmed by students of the German seminary.

What is the professed purpose of such a school? It is to pass on the truth of our faith to the next generation? But, if the school imparts error to the students today, the ministers of tomorrow will impart these errors to their churches. In this manner the truth is torn down and the people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

This situation is very dangerous, especially for our young people. What is the condition of the Adventist youth today? I remember one night, when my wife and I had a season of prayer in which she prayed for the Adventist friends she had during her youth. Thinking about them, my wife sat down and cried and cried and could not stop. Very few of her old friends were still in the truth. Almost all had gone into the world; some as members of the SDA church, others having completely rejected their profession.

But is that surprising to anyone? What are the young people doing when they gather together on Sabbath afternoon? I have seen it so often: after an obligatory short devotion (if at all) they begin to play basketball, table tennis or whatever. Once I met a minister who gathered the young people of his church for a night session to watch videos. They watched movies with sex and crime scenes till morning.

I wonder how many Adventists think that they have fulfilled all their duty when they trust their children to ministers and Sabbath schools for religious education. How few consider how their children are effected by the influence of the church they go to every Sabbath?! Even in the Alpha crisis Ellen White warned over and over again that we should not expose ourselves to such a faith-destroying influence. That applies in a special way to the moldable youth. She wrote: “I would say, be careful what moves are made. It is not God’s design that our youth should be called to Battle Creek.Battle Creek Letters, 4.

We protest in the name of the Lord God of Israel, against the calling of our youth into a place to which the Lord declared they should not go.Battle Creek Letters, 4, 5.

“The light given me by the Lord—that our youth should not collect in Battle Creek to receive their education—has in no particular been changed. The fact that the Sanitarium has been rebuilt in Battle Creek does not change the light. All that in the past made Battle Creek a place unsuitable for our youth exists today, so far as influence is concerned.” Battle Creek Letters, 4.

When the faithful Elder Haskell and his wife received a call to come to Battle Creek, Ellen White counseled: “That you should receive an invitation to go to Battle Creek, and give Bible lessons to the nurses and medical students, is not a surprise to me. I have been instructed that an effort would be made to obtain your names as teachers to the nurses at Battle Creek, so that the managers of the Sanitarium can say to our people that Elder and Mrs. Haskell are to give a course of lessons to the Battle Creek Sanitarium nurses, and use this as a means of decoying to Battle Creek those who otherwise would heed the cautions about going there for their education.” Paulson Collection, 108.

Some say that Ellen White’s calls to leave Battle Creek were given only to prevent centralization at that place. But this is only part of the truth. The following statement to Brother and Sister Haskell may sound incredible to many easy-loving souls: “There is a little hope in one direction: Take the young men and women, and place them where they will come as little in contact with our churches as possible, that the low grade of piety which is current in this day shall not leaven their ideas of what it means to be a Christian.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 12, 333.

If your protest against the apostasy is unheeded you have the choice: either you stay and tolerate the apostasy or you leave and save yourself and your family from these influences. The influence you allow to affect your soul will decide your eternal destiny. “Every one will reveal the character of the bundle with which he is binding himself.” 1888 Materials, 995. Ellen White brings this point home to us: “‘Out of Battle Creek’ is my message.Paulson Collection, 111.

Application and Conclusion

Some might say: “In my church there is no pantheism being taught. I cannot apply these statements to my local situation.” Maybe you are right. Praise God for every local church that is still standing on the fundamental truths of the Three Angels’ Messages. There are still some of them, but their number decreases day by day. Remember, however, when you are evaluating your church, that pantheism alone is not the topic of the Omega crisis, it embodies many more principles. Ask yourself the question, How do they treat the Spirit of Prophecy? Is it upheld as the inspired and infallible word of God given to us through His last time prophet? How did the church leaders react when you tried to correct them? Did they understand and repent?

Of those who are constantly working to undermine faith in the message God is sending to His people, I am instructed to say, ‘Come out from among them, and be ye separate.’” Review and Herald, July 23, 1908.

Is your church part of an ecumenical organization? How did the men in responsible positions react when you stood up to protest against it? Did they understand and repent?

Maybe you can agree with me on being separated from the ecumenical movement, but not on being separated from professed Adventists who approve and uphold an ecumenical membership. You would do well to consider the example of faithful Nehemiah. “When those who are uniting with the world, yet claiming great purity, plead for union with those who have ever been the opposers of the cause of truth, we should fear and shun them as decidedly as did Nehemiah.” Prophets and Kings, 660.

Is strange fire offered in your church in the form of theater performances, worldly or charismatic music? Does your minister use NLP or anything similar? How did your church react as you protested against it? Did they understand and repent?

“As the men of Israel witnessed the corrupt course of the priests, they thought it safer for their families not to come up to the appointed place of worship. Many went from Shiloh with their peace disturbed, their indignation aroused, until they at last determined to offer their sacrifices themselves, concluding that this would be fully as acceptable to God, as to sanction in any manner the abominations practiced in the sanctuary.” Signs of the Times, December 1, 1881.

Will we learn our lessons from the past? Will we recognize the time of our visitation? Will we act upon right principles? May the Lord help us in this most crucial hour when our eternal destiny, and that of our families, is being decided.

The Road to Persecution, Part I

When I was growing up, my parents used to receive sermon tapes from Elder W.D. Frazee in Wildwood, Georgia. My parents had worked with Elder Frazee in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in evangelistic work before I was born so they were well-acquainted with him and he had visited in our home when my Father was working for Madison Sanitarium and hospital in Madison, Tennessee.

One of the tapes that we listened to from Elder Frazee was entitled “The Road to Persecution.” Back in those days, many things that were written in the Spirit of Prophecy, we understood as only applying to the churches in “Babylon.” But as you will see, decades ago, even most of a century ago, there were leaders in Adventism who foresaw the situation today in Adventism and tried to warn the church of the very things that we are now experiencing. The experience of true and faithful Adventists, who are censured or disfellowshipped by the majority in Seventh-day Adventist churches, was foreseen by godly leaders decades ago as you will see in this article.

The subject which Elder Frazee developed in that sermon is applicable today and is screaming in siren tones to warn us of what we are about to experience in the very near future from Seventh-day Adventists. The major points from that sermon are included in this article.

In those days, we did not perceive (perhaps in the mercy of God) that many of the prophecies about faithful Adventists being persecuted would be fulfilled not only in Babylon, but also in the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. But as these prophecies have been in the process of fulfillment, and we read the inspired statements again, we have found over and over that the prophecies were not all directed at Babylon. Some have been given specifically to God’s professed remnant in these last days; for example:

“He [Dr. Kellogg] is working under the advice of the one who talked with Eve. Through this subtle reasoning the future of the cause is imperiled. I shall now have to be far more explicit than I have been in the past. I shall be compelled to make statements that I have not wanted to make, but I must be more explicit in order save the flock of God from deceptive influences.

“Every movement made now is to be carefully guarded, for the forces of Satan have minds under their control, and will strive through them to unsettle faith in the experience of the past, which bears the signature of Heaven. The delusive influences working upon human minds are of a character to unsettle the faith of the people of God in the experience of the past, which has borne the signature of Heaven.

“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, vol. 13, 378, 379.

“We want to understand the time in which we live. We do not half understand it. We do not half take it in. My heart trembles in me when I think of what a foe we have to meet, and how poorly we are prepared to meet him. The trials of the children of Israel, and their attitude just before the first coming of Christ, have been presented before me again and again to illustrate the position of the people of God in their experience before the second coming of Christ—how the enemy sought every occasion to take control of the minds of the Jews, and today he is seeking to blind the minds of God’s servants, that they may not be able to discern the precious truth.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 406.

Compare with this statement the following: “The people whom God had called to be the pillar and ground of the truth had become representatives of Satan.” Desire of Ages, 36.

“Satan’s skill is exercised in devising plans and methods without number to accomplish his purposes. He works to restrict religious liberty and to bring into the religious world a species of slavery. Organizations, institutions, unless kept by the power of God, will work under Satan’s dictation to bring men under the control of men; and fraud and guile will bear the semblance of zeal for truth and for the advancement of the kingdom of God. Whatever in our practice is not as open as the day belongs to the methods of the prince of evil.” Testimonies, vol. 7, 180, 181.

“The work which the church has failed to do in a time of peace and prosperity, she will have to do in a terrible crisis, under most discouraging, forbidding, circumstances. The warnings that worldly conformity has silenced or withheld, must be given under the fiercest opposition from enemies of the faith. And at that time the superficial, conservative class, whose influence has steadily retarded the progress of the work, will renounce the faith, and take their stand with its avowed enemies, toward whom their sympathies have long been tending. These apostates will then manifest the most bitter enmity, doing all in their power to oppress and malign their former brethren, and to excite indignation against them. This day is just before us. The members of the church will individually be tested and proved. They will be placed in circumstances where they will be forced to bear witness for the truth. Many will be called to speak before councils and in courts of justice, perhaps separately and alone.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 463.

We know that persecution is coming because Revelation 13:15–17 says, “He had power to give life unto the Image of the Beast, that the Image of the Beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship him, should be killed. And he causeth all both small, and great, rich, and poor, both free, and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark, or the name of the Beast, or the number of his name.”

A great persecution is coming. There will be a boycott against those who will not receive the mark of the Beast or worship the beast or his image. They will not be able to buy or sell and eventually a death decree will be issued against all those who honor all the commandments of God.

Jesus predicted that this persecution would come from organized religion—from those who call themselves God’s people: “These things have I spoken to you that you shall not be offended. They shall put you out of the Synagogues, yes the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he does God service.” This persecution is not going to be carried on simply by pagans or infidels. The men who lead out in this persecution will think that they are doing service for God. How do men come to a point where they can persecute the people of God and think that they are doing Him a service? Is there any possible danger that you and I, or that Seventh-day Adventists or those who claim to be the remnant of God could do such a thing. There most definitely is. But it does not happen in a moment, rather it generally takes a generation or longer. There is a road that leads men to the place where they will finally persecute their former brethren in the name of God. This is the road to persecution.

Revelation 13 speaks about the image to the Beast. We know that the Beast, in Revelation 13, which God warns us is a union of church and state, is the Papacy or Roman Catholicism. She became the greatest persecuting power of all times. And that is why she is pictured there in Revelation as drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

But now the issue that is ahead of us here in the United States, according to Revelation 13, is the issue of making an Image to the Beast or an Image of the Beast—both expressions are used. Now, what is an image anyway? An image, by definition, is a likeness of something else. So, there is to be formed, or should I say there is already being formed before our eyes, a likeness of that Roman power, which was drunken with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And, as the Beast was formed, so the Image is being formed. The likeness is striking. That is one of the great reasons why God, in His providence, gave us this wonderful book The Great Controversy.

Rome was Christian in its beginning. There was a church at Rome. Peter was there and Paul was there. Those are facts of church history. However, that very city eventually became the headquarters of that vast persecuting system which filled the earth with blood, in the name of Christ.

How did Rome begin its work and how will that Image be formed today? The Great Controversy, 289, 290 reads, ” The very beginning of the great apostasy was in seeking to supplement the authority of God by that of the church. Rome began by enjoining what God had not forbidden, and she ended by forbidding what He had explicitly enjoined.” Now this is one of those wonderful statements in the Spirit of Prophecy which shine out like a great beacon. Let us ponder these things.

The great apostasy began when men started to supplement the authority of God with that of the church. When Jesus left this world, He gave His church a commission and told them what they were to teach. Matthew 28:18–20 says, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Was that enough? Rome did not think so.

Rome did not begin by taking away from what God had said. Rome began by adding to what God has said was necessary. For example, it took centuries to accomplish the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. First the Christian world remembered the death and resurrection of Christ every year at passover time—we can well understand how those who witnessed this most awesome event of all the ages would especially remember it every passover season, for Jesus died during that time.

The Christians wanted to avoid being associated with the Jews, who the apostles stated were contrary to all men. Thousands and thousands of their heathen neighbors paid particular attention to the first day of the week which bore the name of the sun god. And they noted that Jesus Christ had arisen from the dead on the first day of the week. That was, no doubt, in their mind a happy coincidence. And, it appeared to be good public relations, to take advantage of the honor that was given to the Sun god, on the first day of the week, and connect with it the historical fact that Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, had risen on the first day of the week, And so, over decades and decades, there gradually came to be a certain honor attached to that first day of the week, and the Christians in some places began to meet on that day every year to celebrate the resurrection.

In fact, by the middle of the second century, the Bishop of Rome decreed that the resurrection should be celebrated not on passover day, but on the Sunday nearest to passover day. And, if Passover day fell on a Sunday, then it was to be celebrated not on that Sunday but on the next Sunday, thus being as much unlike the Jews and as much like the Sun worshippers as possible.

The time soon came when it was decided not to celebrate the resurrection just one Sunday a year but every week. Since there is no commandment for any of this in the Bible, this is “enjoining what God had not forbidden.” But, for hundreds of years, even in churches that met on Sunday, the Sabbath was also kept. But gradually the honor given to Sunday was increased and the honor given to the Sabbath was decreased. Finally, the Roman Catholic church, in the council of Laodicea (over three hundred years after Jesus went back to heaven) dared to come out in the open and officially abolish the observance of the Sabbath and substitute Sunday. Three hundred years. That is a long time, but that is how long it took from when Rome began to enjoin what God had not forbidden, until she ended by forbidding what He had explicitly enjoined. And from then there were still more steps to the point where she began to persecute dissenters who were determined to be true to their conscience. A few martyrdoms occurred before the end of the fourth century, but later tens of thousands were put to death because they chose to obey what Christ had said instead of what the church said. That was the issue.

The setting of these sentences we have been studying from The Great Controversy, 289, 290 is very interesting. They appear in the middle of that book, in the chapter called The Pilgrim Fathers. In the paragraphs around this sentence, Sister White discussed the days of the reformation and the distinction of two types of reformers, those who were willing to come only part way out of Rome and those who felt that they ought to come all the way out of Rome. I encourage you to read the entire chapter.

Now, I want to study with you a little more on the point of adding to or supplementing Divine Authority. Remember, “Rome began by enjoining what God had not forbidden, and she ended by forbidding what He had explicitly enjoined.” In doing this, Rome set herself against the word of God. God foresaw the results of all such things and He told us in advance not to put our feet on this forbidden ground. In Deuteronomy 4:2 we read, “Ye shall not add unto the word that I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it. That ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I commanded you.” You must not do what? You must not add. What else must you not do? You must not diminish. If you do the first you are bound to do the second.

No one ever added anything to what God said, who did not eventually turn around and cut off something else that God had commanded. Do you know why that is? It is because there is only so much room. There is just four quarts in a gallon, just sixteen ounces in a pound, just twelve inches in a foot, and because there is only so much room there is only room for so much. Whenever you add something that God has not commanded, you crowd out something that He did command. That is the way Rome sank into apostasy.

That is the issue today. Did you know that Jesus did not go to the schools of His time for that reason? In Education, 77 we are told, “The schools of His time with their magnifying of things small and their belittling of things great, He did not seek.” What was the problem? They magnified the little things and, as a result, they had only time to belittle the big things.

Oh, that we might understand the implications of this. Thousands, not only in Babylon but thousands in Adventism, are traveling the road which Rome has traveled before us, and we are so far down the road that persecution already began several years ago. But it is going to get worse, much worse. We will learn even better, before it is over, that we have much more to fear from within than from without and that our worst enemies will come from the same direction that Jesus’ worst enemies came from—God’s professed people. We do well to ponder what road we are traveling before we come to the end of it.

There is a gradual change, which starts with the apparently innocent, and ends up with the image of Satan. It starts by calling evil good. In Isaiah 5: 20-23 we read: “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink. Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!”

Those against whom the wrath of God is announced are those that call evil good and good evil. The two things inevitably are joined together and they come—watch the preciseness of the Scripturein this order. How did the verse start out? “They call evil good” and then they call “good evil.” I wonder why they would do that. Notice in the 23rd verse it says, “they justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.” Again it is the same sequence. Here is a bad man but they say he is a good man. And inevitably, when they start in to do that, they are forced to call the good man bad.

That is exactly what happened in Rome. Rome first opened her doors and let in a whole multitude of image worshipping idolaters. But as the inevitable result, they came to the point that they were able to kill the true saints of God. And so it is happening today. “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil.”

Every man who gets so broad minded–watch this point–so tolerant, so kind, and so charitable that he can put his arms around iniquity and fellowship with sinners who defy the law of God, is preparing himself, whether he knows it or not, to come to the place where he can persecute the men that God calls righteous in this world.

This is what is happening in the United States as she prepares to set up an image to the Beast. “As the Protestant churches have been seeking the favor of the world, false charity has blinded their eyes. They do not see but that it is right to believe good of all evil, and as the inevitable result they will finally believe evil of all good.” The Great Controversy, 571. Oh, friends, what a warning against false charity.

What is false charity? Charity, in the sense that it is being used here, means to be tolerant of sin or to tolerate wrongdoing. It is said today that we should not blame the sinner because Jesus said, “he that is without sin among you let him cast the first stone.” Reproof and rebuke of sin is termed criticism and faultfinding. Toleration of sin is excused by saying that we must allow the wheat and the tares to grow together until the harvest. As a result of this type of thinking, there are people in the church, even in leading positions, who have been divorced and remarried without Biblical grounds and who attend social gatherings, fairs, and parades etc. on the Sabbath and buy food on the Sabbath. (Some call it witnessing.) We have people, even leaders in the church, who have deceived church members about business matters or the relations of the church to other churches and the ecumenical movement. A person may break the Sabbath, lie, kill, steal, commit adultery, go with the world and be worldly, but God is merciful, and “we ought to be all things to all men and be kind and be charitable and not be hard on people.” All that sort of talk, with the many variations and adaptation we hear today, is false charity.

The Protestant churches of our time, with their false charity, have opened up the doors and let all kinds of sinners into the church. The drunkard, the profligate, the lawbreaker, the grafter, the politician who gets caught in some great scandal, may be members of the church. Right? Today this type of person may not only be a member of the church, he may be the leader or the president of the church, but everyone thinks that it would be highly uncharitable if he received just discipline for his behavior. He must simply be transferred to some outlying district until people have forgotten the past scandal and then he may even be promoted and the same sins repeated again. Any careful observer has seen this happen in Adventism.

We are living in a time when the scandal of leading clergymen of different churches is frequent news. Today, as I am editing this article, national news is reporting about the leader of a Protestant church who might receive up to five or more years in prison for, what the church leaders say, is the result of some failed business ventures. The reports do not say he has been disfellowshiped however, or even had his credentials taken away for these crimes. It is thought that that would be absolutely uncharitable. The way to get your ministerial credentials taken away or to be disfellowshiped from a church today is to stand up and protest the iniquity and preach and teach the straight testimony and attempt to fulfill the gospel commission. That is happening all over the world today.

False charity blinds the eyes of all churches that allow it and the inevitable result of accepting, as good, that which is evil, is to soon begin believing evil of all good. They will take the very people who stand for truth, who stand for law keeping, who stand for God’s standards, and will make them the mark of the most bitter persecution that this world has seen.

There is no middle ground in this issue. Every soul in this world is either going down the road of false charity and will end up persecuting, or he is going to stand with God against iniquity and end up being among the persecuted. Out of the two there is no middle ground.

continued…

The Three Mother Churches

In this article, we are going to study the three mother churches. If you are a member of a Christian church, one of these three mother churches is, no doubt, your spiritual mother. By the end of this study, you should be able to identify whose child you are.

Babylon—The Mother of Harlots

Revelation 17 tells about the first mother church we will study. Notice the characteristics of this mother church. “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, ‘Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and the abominations of theearth.” Revelation 17:1–5.

In Bible prophecy, a woman represents a church. (See Jeremiah 6:2; Isaiah 51:15; 2 Corinthians 11:2.) There are whole books of the Bible, such as the Song of Solomon, that are written with this symbolism. In the book of Hosea, and in Ezekiel 23, an unfaithful church is represented as a harlot.

What is spiritual harlotry or adultery? Let me give an example to help us understand. When you get married, a part of your marriage vow is not only that you will cling to your husband or wife, but also that you will forsake all others. What if you do not forsake all others? Then, you commit adultery. It is this simple; if you have only one husband, then it is holy. But, if you have two or three husbands or two or three wives, then it is not holy any more. It is wicked!

When you become part of the church, part of God’s family, you claim to be joined to one husband—Christ. (See 2 Corinthians 11:2.) If you are “espoused to one husband,” and then you take your affection and you pour it out on people, places or things of this world, what have you done? We can read about it in Ezekiel 23:35, 38. “Therefore thus says the Lord God. ‘Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, therefore you shall bear the penalty of your lewdness and your harlotry.’ The Lord also said to me, ‘Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations. For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their sons whom they bore to Me, passing them through the fire to devour them. Moreover they have done this to Me: They have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and profaned My Sabbaths.’”

When you become part of God’s family, you have one Husband and you are to be faithful to Him. You are to obey Him and keep His commandments. But if you disobey His commandments, then you have forsaken Him for others.

Consider again the woman, which we see in Revelation 17. She is a harlot church, or a church that teaches people to break God’s commandments. (In fact, they break God’s commandments as a part of their religion.) We read in Revelation 18:2, that this same apostate power has “become the prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!” The devil is there, and through that system he teaches men to break the commandments. And if you stay there, if you are a part of Babylon, you will sin just by being part of the system. Revelation 18:4 says, “ ‘Come out of her, My people, lest you share in her sins and lest you receive of her plagues.’” If you stay in Babylon, you are going to share in her sins and then you are also going to partake of her plagues.

A Worldwide Persecuting power

This system of Babylon, described in Revelation, is a worldwide phenomenon. It is not something that just takes place off in an obscure corner of the world. We read in Revelation 18:3, “for all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” All the nations of the world are involved.

“The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of the bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery, all nations were deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.” Revelation 18:23, 24.

I remember about thirty years ago, when I first read this and tried to understand what verse 24 meant when it said that Babylon was guilty for the blood of all the saints. However, as I studied, I found that this was not the first time God has made this pronouncement. Jesus told the Jewish leaders: “Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Barechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.” Matthew 23:34, 35.

Here Jesus told the Jews that they would have to give an account for all the righteous blood that is shed upon the earth. How can that be explained? Because they rejected the Messiah. Do you realize that if the Jews had accepted Jesus, all of world history would have been different? (For an interesting study, take these verses in Matthew 23 and read what Ellen White says about them. It is very ominous for Seventh-day Adventists. What happened to the Jews could happen to Adventism if the devil’s plan is followed.)

Just as the Jews will be held accountable for the blood of all the righteous in their day, so God will judge Babylon as guilty for all of the blood of the saints. A careful look at history, behind the scenes, shows the truth of this statement. Very few people really know very much about the true facts of history. But, someday, the curtain will be removed, and it all will be distinctly seen as God has clearly recorded it for every eye to behold when the harlot is judged.

Another proof that Babylon is a worldwide power, is the fact that the Bible says, in Revelation 13:8, that every single person in the world, whose name is not written in the Book of Life, will worship this power for a short time. However, eventually, they will all unite to destroy her when they find out the truth that they are lost. Because God does not desire any to be lost, His message to each person is “Come out.” Those who do not answer this call will meet the same fate as the devil and all of his angels. And so God, in His mercy, wants you to be saved and says, “Come out!”

Have you ever tried to think through what this means when God says, “Come out”? Does coming out of Babylon involve mostly where your body is? Or is it more involved with where your mind is? Does it involve more what church book your name is written on? Or does it involve more where your heart is? Coming out of Babylon is much more involved than some people think. It is much more than just what church book your name is on and where your body is. It has to do with where your mind and your heart are dwelling.

When God called Lot and his family to come out of Sodom, Lot’s wife got her body out but she never got her heart out. Have you ever asked yourself the question, Am I totally out of Babylon? Or am I like Lot’s wife? My body is out of Babylon, but my heart is still there.

From Milk to Solid Food

What we have just studied is an elementary principle of the Bible. But we cannot always feed on the milk if we are going to grow up fully into Christ, and so I want to study, in the rest of this article, some deeper Bible principles which are necessary in order for us to understand the last two mother churches.

We have looked, so far, at the first mother church, Babylon, or the harlot church. The other two mother churches we find described in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. In Galatians 1:1, Paul makes it very clear that he is addressing his letter to the churches in Galatia. As Paul wrote this letter, he was in great agony of heart, because the churches were in a state of apostasy as the result of false teachers who had come in among them. Where did these false teachers came from? Did they come from Babylon, the center of the devil’s operation? No. They came from Jerusalem—the General Conference, or the world headquarters for the apostolic church.

In Galatians 4:8–16, Paul describes the apostasy these false teachers from Jerusalem had led the Galatians into. “But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. [Some people try to use verse 10 against Seventh-day Adventists, but we do not qualify. We do not observe days, we only observe the seventh day Sabbath. Nor do we observe months or seasons or years in Historic Adventism.] I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all. You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?”

The very ones who Paul describes as leading the Galatians back to the “beggarly elements,” were teachers that came from the world headquarters of the apostolic church. The situation was so serious that Ellen White says the apostle Paul had to stand alone in opposition to the twelve disciples of Jesus—the twelve that were with Jesus when He walked among men. Paul even had to openly rebuke Peter because he was Judaizing. (See Galatians 2:11–14; The Acts of the Apostles, 199, 120.)

Can you imagine what a difficult situation it must have been for the Galatians, when leaders from Jerusalem, with the support of the disciples, began teaching that they had to keep the ceremonial law. Many must have thought, “These men must be right because they come from the disciples, the very men who walked and talked with Jesus. The apostle Paul, he must be speaking a dangerous doctrine!”

The situation was still more complicated because Paul was not dealing with the Jews here, he was dealing with Christians from the church at Jerusalem who were still keeping the ceremonial law, even though it had met its complete fulfillment in the death and resurrection of Christ. Paul continued: “They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you. I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.” Galatians 4:17–20.

The Bondwomen and the Free

Now, notice his arguments starting in Verse 21: “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar—for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.” Galatians 4:21–25.

So Hagar, it clearly says, is a mother, for she is still in bondage with her children. So, who then does Paul use to represent the third mother church? “But the Jerusalem above is free. Which is the mother of us all. For it is written: Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what does the Scripture say, Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free. Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased.” Galatians 4:26–31; 5:1–6, 11.

“As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast of your flesh. But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” Galatians 6:12–15.

Let us consider what Paul was facing. Here were these false teachers coming from Jerusalem. But they were not Jews, they were Christians who were speaking the sentiments of the disciples, and they were teaching that the ceremonial law still had to be kept. Why did they believe it still needed to be kept? Ellen White is very specific that they kept the ceremonial law, not so much because they believed in it any more, but because they wanted to avoid persecution. (Have you ever heard anyone say, “It is not time yet to distribute The Great Controversy”? That reflects the same kind of thinking as these early Christians had.)

Children in Bondage

Paul repeats over and over again that Hagar, this mother church, is in bondage with all of her children. What does he mean that they are in bondage? They are in bondage to sin. That is the main difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant, a person had to come every year to the Most Holy Place for the Day of Atonement. Why did they have to come every year? Because they had not quit sinning. If you quit sinning, Paul says in Hebrews 10, then you would not have to come anymore.

In the New Covenant there is no Day of Atonement year after year after year. There is just one Day of Atonement period at the end of the world. Why, because a way has been opened that men do not need to keep sinning and confessing and sinning and confessing.

Did you notice that the people who are in Hagar’s church, who have the Old Covenant experience, want to avoid persecution so they are keeping the ceremonial law. But who are they actually persecuting in the process? Notice it says in Galatians 4:29, “He who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the spirit. Even so it is now.” Who were they persecuting? They were persecuting the true church. They professed to be the true church, but Hagar was their mother. They were still in the Old Covenant experience and they still had a yoke of bondage.

What is the yoke of bondage? The yoke of bondage is the law that you cannot keep. Theologians have tried to explain it by saying that the Jews made so many regulations that the people could not keep the law. (And that is true.) Other theologians have looked at the yoke of bondage and have said, “Well, the yoke of bondage is this ceremonial law.” However, when you look at the bottom line, all the evidence points to one thing: The yoke of bondage is a law that you cannot keep. But when you come to Jesus, friend, you are set free and then you can keep this law—the Ten Commandments. You are free. You have been made free and you do not have to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

There is another identifying mark that differentiates between the two mother churches. One is born according to the flesh and the other is born according to the promise or according to the Spirit. All throughout Paul’s writings these two antithesis are presented. For example, Galatians 5:16–18. “I say then: Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

The Children of Promise

We have now looked at Hagar, the second mother church, let us now turn our attention to the third mother church represented by Sarah and by the New Jerusalem. Here are the identifying marks. (You can find all of these right in the book of Galatians.)

This church is born free. The first time we are born, we are all born in sin, and thus sons of the devil. 1 John 3:8. However, Jesus told Nicodemus, If you want to go to the kingdom of heaven, you must be born again. And when you are born again, you are born free, your are born in the Spirit, not according to the flesh. This church is born free, that is, they are born again.

The headquarters of this church is in heaven, it is not in this world. It is not in Jerusalem, not in Takoma Park, not in Hagarstown. It is in heaven. That is what Paul says in Galatians 4:26: “But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.”

The children of the promise do not have an Old Covenant experience, they have a New Covenant experience. In the Old Covenant the conscience is never purged from sins, so you must keep coming back to the Sanctuary every year and have another Day of Atonement, but in the New Covenant you overcome sin and receive the victory over it.

In heaven, Jesus will not be serving as a Mediator or as your High Priest through all of eternity. No, that will all be over because all who go there will have overcome sin and will have no need of a Mediator anymore. In fact, God’s children, that live in this world during the time of trouble, are not going to have a Mediator. They will not need one because they will have overcome all sin. (See The Great Controversy, 425.)

These are the children of the promise, and their future is wonderful. But what will happen to Hagar’s spiritual children? They will be cast out and will not inherit the New Covenant promises. (See Galatians 4:30.) This is very serious. If Hagar is your mother, you are not going to heaven unless you receive the adoption of sons. You would be just as lost as if you were in Babylon.

Stand Up!

What was Paul’s instruction to the Galatian churches who were being brought into bondage? “Stand up in the freedom in which Christ has made you free.” And who were these people? They were just little independent churches scattered all over Asia and Europe. And they must have thought, “But we are just tiny groups and we do not have all the experience that the leaders back in Jerusalem have.” But Paul said, “Stand up! You are free and you must not allow these false teachers to lead you back into bondage again.”

I want to tell you, people have lost freedom in Adventism today. When I was a boy in Adventism, anyone was encouraged to go anywhere they could and start up a church. Now they want to close all the little churches down. They are afraid of anyone starting a church, because they are afraid it might not be under their control. What has happened to people’s thinking? Do you recognize that when people start to talk like that and think like that, they are not part of the church whose headquarters is in the New Jerusalem? Through Christ all are free, and all have been given the commission to take the gospel to every nation, kindred, tribe and people.

The apostle Paul knew that. He said, “We have hope of righteousness.” We expectantly wait for it. What is this righteousness? It is not a righteousness which you work out through certain religious rituals or political games. It is righteousness by faith—a faith that works through love. That is what counts in the sight of God.

What counts in your church, friend? Is it the equivalent of circumcision, religious rituals and political games, or is it faith that works by love? If your mother is the New Jerusalem, it is faith that works by love.

And what will we do if we are filled with this faith that works by love? Paul says, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh…But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the [condemnation] of the law.” Galatians 5:16, 18. If you are walking in the Spirit, overcoming the lusts of the flesh, you will also be bearing the fruits of the Spirit which Paul describes in Galatians 5:22, 23. You will become a new creation.

Who is the Israel of God? The Israel of God is not the children of Hagar who are in bondage to sin. I am not out to judge who is a member of what church but the fruit indicates that the great majority of Seventh-day Adventists, today, are children of Hagar, not Sarah. They are professors of Christianity, but everything in their system is down here in this world. They are in bondage. They have an Old Covenant experience. And not only that, they are persecuting the people who are seeking the New Covenant experience. They disfellowship them and get them out of their way. By the way, if you are persecuting people that do not think like you do on theology, that is absolute proof that your mother is Hagar. Anytime any person or any group of people decides they can disfellowship someone for non-Biblical reasons or stone them or take them to court or put them in jail or beat them up (all of those things have happened), that group of people does not belong to the New Jerusalem church. Hagar is their mother.

But the people, whose mother is the New Jerusalem, are born free. Their headquarters is not down here in this world. They have leaders and are organized, but their headquarters is not really down here. Their headquarters is in heaven. They are children of the promise. They stand in freedom and they hope for righteousness from the Holy Spirit that the Lord will give to them. They live by faith that works through love.

Who is your mother? Is she over in Babylon? Or does she dwell in earthly Jerusalem? Or have you been born free? Are you walking according to the Spirit? Are you a child of the promise? Are you receiving a righteousness that is not woven in any earthly loom? Are you operating on the principle of faith that works by love? Are you manifesting the fruits of the Spirit? Are you a new creation? I invite you to ask the Lord to work out this miracle in your life.

The “Star” of the New Evangelization of America

To begin, I would like to share a statement from the pen of inspiration that is most sobering and pertinent to the times in which we live: “Those who oppose the teachings of spiritualism are assailing, not men alone, but Satan and his angels. They have entered upon a contest against principalities and powers and wicked spirits in high places. Satan will not yield one inch of ground except he is driven back by the power of heavenly messengers. The people of God should be able to meet him, as did our Savior, with the words: ‘It is written.’ Satan can quote Scripture now as in the days of Christ, and he will pervert its teachings to sustain his delusions. Those who would stand in this time of peril must understand for themselves the testimony of the Scriptures.” The Great Controversy, 559. [All emphasis throughout the article is supplied.]

“Satan has long been preparing for his final effort to deceive the world. The foundation of his work was laid by the assurance given to Eve in Eden: ‘Ye shall not surely die.’ ‘In the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’ Genesis 3:4, 5. Little by little he has prepared the way for his masterpiece of deception in the development of spiritualism. He has not yet reached the full accomplishment of his designs; but it will be reached in the last remnant of time. Says the prophet: ‘I saw three unclean spirits like frogs…they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God almighty.’ Revelation 16:13, 14. Except those who are kept by the power of God, through faith in His word, the whole world will be swept into the ranks of this delusion. The people are fast being lulled to a fatal security, to be awakened only by the outpouring of the wrath of God.” Ibid., 561, 562.

The Two Great Errors

There are two doctrinal errors that nearly all Christendom has swallowed as part of the “wine of Babylon.” The first is the false teaching that Sunday, the first day of the week, is the Lord’s day; and the second, which is more deadly, is the hellish doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul and man’s consciousness in death.

Friends, do you realize that two of the pope’s last Apostolic letters deal with these two doctrinal errors? On July 7, 1998, the Vatican released the pope’s 104-page Apostolic letter entitled Dies Domini—On Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy. Point 67 of Dies Domini actually states: “Christians will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy….Sunday must be sanctified.” On the same day, The Denver Post quoted Rome as saying; “A violator should be punished as a heretic.” Has not prophecy warned us that “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 [“civil legislation”] to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image to the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters [heretics] will inevitably result.” The Great Controversy, 445.

Many Seventh-day Adventists are familiar with Dies Domini, but not many are aware of the pope’s Apostolic Exhortation that he gave to the Synod of Bishops, in Mexico City, prior to his historic visit to St. Louis, in January of 1999. It is called Ecclesia [Church] in America of the Holy Father John Paul II: The Way to Conversion, Communion and Solidarity in America. At the council of Bishops in Mexico, the theme of the event was to discuss new strategies for evangelism that the church in America must attain in the third Christian millennium (which begins with the year 2000). And will the Virgin Mary be a major player in the new evangelistic efforts of the Roman Catholic Church?

The Star of the New Evangelization

While in Mexico, the pope dedicated the Americas to the Virgin Mary. From the Exhortation, we read: “With the passage of time, pastors and faithful alike have grown increasingly conscious of the role of the Virgin Mary in the evangelization of America. In the prayer of the Special Assembly for America of the Synod of Bishops, Holy Mary of Guadalupe is invoked as ‘Patroness of all America and Star of the first and new evangelization. In view of this, I welcome with joy the proposal of the Synod Fathers that the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother and Evangelizer of America, be celebrated throughout the continent on December 12. It is my heartfelt hope that she…will by her maternal intercession guide the Church in America, obtaining the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as she once did for the early church (cf. Acts 1:14), so that the new evangelization may yield a splendid flowering of Christian life.”

Consequently, not only in Central and South America, but in North America as well, the Virgin of Guadalupe is venerated as Queen of all America. Furthermore, the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe near Mexico City draws 20 million visitors a year. It is regarded as the most sacred shrine outside of Europe. Mary, that is the spirit apparition of Mary, is the “Star” of the Roman Catholic Church’s new evangelization of the Americas.

Before I precede any further, I want you to know that the Catholic Church acknowledges the pagan origin of many of the shrines and statues of Mary. A Catholic publication stated the following: “Devotion to Mary began in the earliest years of Christianity, and she is revered in Christian literature as early as A.D. 150…Throughout the history of the world, sites associated with any one religion have often been re-used by its successor. To do so reinforces the new religion, but may also result in characteristics of deities of different faiths becoming intermingled. Statues of the Virgin…used to be paraded around the fields to ensure a good harvest. The moon and stars, symbols of Diana, Greco-Roman goddess of hunting were later associated with the Virgin, and Mary is frequently referred to as Stella Maria—Star of the Sea. Festivals, too, were assimilated [from paganism] into the new faith: the Festival of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin on 2 February was originally a Roman Festival of purification. And Christians often took over the pagan shrines of the ancient world’s goddesses and rededicated them to Mary. A good example is the shrine to Diana at Ephesus, which was re-established in the fourth century as a shrine to the Virgin.” Shrines of Our Lady, 6, 7.

Amazing! Rome blinds the eyes of ignorant souls worldwide, and once loyalty to their pagan statues is gained, they empty the pockets of their victims. In Acts 19:24, 25, we read: “For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen; Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth.”

The Love of the Truth or Strong Delusion

Beloved, as a former Roman Catholic and Mary devotee, I am amazed and saddened by the lethargy of Seventh-day Adventists, who have been entrusted with the Three Angels’ Messages, and their silence on this issue! Who is sounding the trumpet? Who is warning our people that spiritualism will soon break upon us with a magnitude that may deceive the very elect! The Bible warns us that the day is near when “miracles” and “lying wonders” will deceive those that “love not the truth.” I believe the warning in 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12 is written for every professed Christian who has either not heeded or even has rejected the light sent from heaven, regardless of his church affiliation, and especially for Seventh-day Adventists.

Paul writes: “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie [including the devil’s first lie that “Ye shall not surely die” Genesis 3:4]: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thessalonians 2:8–12.

What denomination has been given the truth? And please notice, not only do many of the professed Christians whom Paul refers to “love not the truth,” but also they do not love it because they have “pleasure in unrighteousness.” Certainly, the majority of professed Seventh-day Adventists today are enjoying the pleasures of the world, and this is most evident by the celebration worship services they have adopted from Rome—a product of Vatican II!

And what will be the “strong delusions” that will deceive, if possible the very elect? In 1 Timothy 4:1 we read: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”

The Alpha and the Omega

Nearly 100 years ago, Ellen White gave the following warning: “Be not deceived; many will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. We have now before us the alpha of this danger. The omega will be of a most startling nature.…I knew that the omega would follow in a little while; and I trembled for our people.” Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 2, 16, 53. At the time she wrote this statement, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, in his book The Living Temple, was promulgating the doctrine of [New Age] pantheism—that God is in everything in the material world—“the flower, the tree, the atmosphere, and even the sinner, and in each one of us, as virtually ‘doing away with God,’ and therefore seriously undercutting the sanctuary truth.” Manuscript Releases, 760, 1. This leaves you with an impersonal god, not one who is ministering in your behalf in the heavenly sanctuary, but one that is diffused through nature. Such teachings will lead to the worship of the creature, or to creation, rather than to the Creator. After all, is it not Satan’s ultimate goal to rob God of the homage due only Him by whatever medium he himself chooses!

Dear reader, let it be understood that pantheism, the alpha of apostasy, is a form of spiritualism! In fact, the prophet linked pantheism and spiritualism together on a number of occasions. On one occasion she wrote: “Let the world go into spiritualism, theosophy [mysticism], and pantheism, if they choose. We are to have nothing to do with this deceptive branch of Satan’s work.” Battle Creek Letters, 109. Webster’s College Dictionary gives several definitions for the word spiritualism, one of which is: “The belief that all reality is spiritual [pantheism].” Ellen White labeled Kellogg’s teachings as “fascinating, spiritualistic science of Satanic origin.” And she goes on to say: “That these beautiful representations are similar to the temptation that the enemy brought to Adam and Eve in Eden.” Ibid., 103; Sermons and Talks, vol. 1, 341.

In Eden, Satan spoke through the medium of a serpent. Pantheism teaches that God is in everything, even animals. Have not even animated, talking animals, such as Disney characters, been used as a form of spiritualism to prepare millions of innocent children to drink of the devil’s future master delusions? In fact, I just learned that a Hollywood movie, called The Sixth Sense, has been the number-one moneymaker for seven weeks in a row! It is about a young boy who is communicating with the dead. Spiritualism, just like pantheism, is a spiritualistic science of Satanic origin! In the last days, in his grand efforts to deceive, Satan will again speak through mediums, but this time expanding “familiar spirits” to include, not only human-like agencies, but also well-known deceased Christians. The world, with the help of Hollywood, is quickly being primed to accept the demon Mary and other imposters that shall appear.

I believe Ellen White saw that spiritualism and its influence upon God’s people would not cease, but, to the contrary, would culminate in the omega of apostasy: “I am instructed to speak plainly. ‘Meet it,’ is the word spoken to me. ‘Meet it firmly, and without delay’.…In the book Living Temple, there is presented the alpha of deadly heresies. The omega will follow, and will be received by those who are not willing to heed the warning God has given.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 200. No wonder she “trembled” for our people, for Satan is determined to sweep “all into the ranks of spiritualism”!!! The Great Controversy, 588.

Spiritualism Will Imitate Nominal Christianity

Revelation 13 warns us that the United States will experience “great wonders…on the earth in the sight of men. And which will deceive them that “dwell on the earth, by the means of those miracles, which he had power to do in the sight of the beast.” Revelation 13: 13, 14. “The time is coming when Satan will work miracles right in your sight, claiming that he is Christ; and if your feet are not firmly established upon the truth of God, then you will be led away from your foundation. The only safety for you is to search for truth as for hid treasures. Dig for the truth as you would for treasures in the earth, and present the word of God, the Bible, before your heavenly Father and say, ‘Enlighten me, teach me what is truth’.…You should store the mind with the Word of God; for you may be separated, and placed where you will not have the privilege of meeting with the children of God. ” Review and Herald, April 3, 1888.

Picture the day when supernatural events, such as Mother Teresa, the Virgin Mary, or the Apostles of Christ walking on this earth, strengthen the efforts of the religious teachers who are urging Americans to obey the altered ten commandments, which include the worship of the Sunday sabbath. “As Spiritualism assimilates more closely to the nominal Christianity of the day, it has greater power to deceive and ensnare. Satan himself is converted, after the modern order of things…Through the agency of Spiritualism, miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and many undeniable wonders will be performed. And as the spirits will profess faith in the Bible, and express regard for Sunday, their work will be accepted as a manifestation of divine power.” Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, 406. This will be a time when violators will be threatened with civil fines and imprisonment if they refuse to obey the laws of the land and the words of Satan’s “familiar spirits.” What will you do then, beloved? In the exhortation given at the Synod of Bishops in Mexico City, Pope John Paul II saved his best for the last. In Article 73, entitled The Challenge of the Sects, he states: “The proselytizing activity of the sects [historic SDAs?] and new religious groups in America is a grave hindrance to the work of evangelization….The success of proselytism by sects and new religious groups in America cannot be ignored.” Indeed, the end is upon us!

Celebration 2000—The Grand Jubilee

In case you are not aware, Rome is planning a great celebration or jubilee to welcome in the third millennium—the year 2000, a Marian year—and the holy doors will be opened Christmas, December 25, 1999—the starting date of the Grand Jubilee celebration. The Vatican plans a series of masses and other celebrations to mark Christianity’s third millennium, and 20 million people are expected to flock to Rome. John Paul II has declared 2000 a jubilee year—a time of pilgrimage and celebration.

Pope John Paul II, in his new book, Celebration 2000, tells us who in the spiritual realm is in charge of leading the church to Christ in the year 2000. He states: “I entrust this responsibility of the whole church to the maternal intercession of Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer: She, the Mother of fairest love, will be for the Christians on the way to the Great Jubilee of the third millennium the star which safely guides their steps to the Lord.” Celebration 2000, 268.

Malachi Martin, author of The Keys of This Blood, said that the pope is anxiously awaiting a potent worldwide Marian Vision—“an event that will fission human history….It will be an event on public view in the skies, in the oceans, and on the continental landmasses of this planet. It will particularly involve our human sun….But on the day of this event, it will not appear as the master star of our so-called solar system. Rather, it will be seen as the circumambient glory of the Woman whom the apostle describes as ‘clothed with the sun’ and giving birth to ‘a child who will rule the nations with a scepter of iron.’” The Keys of This Blood, 639.

If you doubt this could happen, research what occurred in Fatima, Portugal, on October 13, 1917. The “Miracle of the Sun” took place. “The sun seemed to flicker on and off, first one way and then another. It shot rays in different directions and painted everything in different colors, the trees, the people, the air and the ground. The sun did not hurt the eyes. Everything was still and quiet, everyone looking upwards. At a certain moment, the sun seemed to stop and then begin to move and to dance until it seemed that it was being detached from the sky and was falling on the people. Thousands of the people present saw this phenomenon and the newspapers wrote about it.” Our Lady of Fatima Web Site.

Interestingly, Malachi Martin, ex-Jesuit, died July 27, 1999, and reports are varied on the cause of his death. The Sunday Visitor, August 22, 1999, featured an article by Greg Erlandson, Editor in Chief, in which he labeled Malachi Martin as “half brilliant, half loon, given to incredible conspiracy theories.” Perhaps, he revealed too much!

The Vision

Will the pope’s expected vision be cataclysmic and bring the normal activity of the world to a standstill? Some are praying that Mary—“the Star of the new evangelization”—will walk through the holy doors of the Vatican on Christmas 1999, the inauguration of Jubilee 2000. If the vision occurs, I believe it could be what the pope needs to exalt him as the head of the New World Order. Would world chaos and calamities precede this expected vision? Could it validate the global reign of Pope John Paul II, a Marian pope, who credits Mary with saving his life, and establish him as the spiritual judge of the planet and the Roman Catholic Church as the only true church and this pope as God’s ordained leader? Compare this thought with E.G. White’s conclusion on page 588 of The Great Controversy: “Satan determines to unite them [professed Christians and the ungodly] into one body and thus strengthen his cause by sweeping all into the ranks of spiritualism. Papists, who boast of miracles as a certain sign of the true church, will be readily deceived by this wonder-working power; and Protestants, having cast away the shield of truth [and who believe in the immortality of the soul], will also be deluded…and they will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium.” The Great Controversy, 588, 589. It has been said that those who are involved in the New Age movement will also accept a worldwide Marian (goddess) vision preceding the appearance of the false Christ—the lord Maitreya.

The New Age, Mother Earth, and the Goddess

In his most blasphemous book, The Armageddon Script, The Power of Prophecy and the Secret Life of Jesus, New Ager Peter Lemesurier writes enthusiastically about the worship of the “Great Mother Earth.” He writes as if he is an astronaut in a spaceship in orbit around the earth. “As they rounded the barren lunar globe for the…last time, and the resplendent half-earth once again rose behind that now familiar curved and rocky horizon, what they saw coming up to meet them was strangely familiar….A god out of the world of the archetypes. It was none other than the rounded form of the Great Mother, earth herself, clad in the same flowering robes of shining blue and white that had been those of mother-goddess of earth and sky throughout history—and not least his most recent mother-goddess, the Virgin Mary herself.” The Armageddon Script, 245, 246.

Peter Lemesurier, as a pagan worshipper, has no difficulty recognizing the truth that the worship of the Virgin Mary is ancient pagan idolatry. Therefore, non-Christian Pagans the world over will have little difficulty accepting the worship of “the Virgin Mary,” which is actually an evil spirit impersonating Mary. (See 2 Corinthians 11:13–15.)

Spiritualism and the Unification of Churches

The prophet has warned us that spiritualism is the means by which Satan will “unite the churches,” and Rome will use spiritualism to “validate” that she is the true church! I believe the demon Mary will play a critical role in the accomplishment of this goal, and not only Protestants, but also New Agers, will fall for it, because they all believe Rome’s false doctrine of the devil’s first lie—the immortality of the soul. Remember, “The whole world will be swept into the ranks of this delusion.” The Great Controversy, 562.

The world is ready and ripe for this almost overpowering deception. In fact, the December, 1996, issue of Life magazine featured, on its front cover, a picture of a statue of Mary and the caption: “Two thousand years after the Nativity, the mother of Jesus is more beloved, powerful, and controversial than ever. The Mystery of Mary.” The ending of this article was especially of interest to me. It stated: “Mary…might lead to an ecumenical reunion of Christian churches [see The Great Controversy, 445.] It might lead to a closer understanding of the teenage girl who gave birth in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago….Can we ask this simple girl to guide what has become not a cult but a huge and passionate congregation, a movement requiring a hero, a world-wide flock that has long demanded more of her? That has demanded, in some instances, that she deliver her message herself? I wonder: If Mary became merely human—if people could truly touch Mary—would Mary be enough?” After all, Rome makes the assertion that not only is the pope the Spiritual father of all Christians, but Mary is their mother! A quote from A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, 27, states: “The Blessed Virgin is our Mother also because, being the brethren of Jesus, we are the children of Mary.”

Will She Deceive the Very Elect?

And will SDAs also be overcome by this wonder-working demon? Please, study the prophecies of Ezekiel 8 and 9. Ellen White alludes to Ezekiel 9 in Volume 5 of the Testimonies in the chapter called The Seal of God, 207–216. Here she likens the destruction of apostate SDAs to the destruction by the slaughtering angels of Ezekiel 9, which begins in the sanctuary, or the church. “Here we see that the church—the Lord’s sanctuary—was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God. The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interest of the people, had betrayed their trust….Thus, ‘Peace and safety’ is the cry from men who will never again lift up their voice like a trumpet to show God’s people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. These dumb dogs that would not bark are the ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God. Men, maidens, and little children all perish together.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 211. And for what reason will the Lord destroy the people called by His name? Because the “abominations” in Ezekiel 8 are being practiced in the Lord’s house—His church—one of which is the worship of the “image of jealousy.” “The faithful few… lament and afflict their souls because pride, avarice, selfishness, and deception of almost every kind are in the church.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 210.

Historian Alexander Hislop tells us in his book, The Two Babylons, that the “image of jealousy” is that of the Babylonian Madonna, the “queen of heaven.” Therefore, what provokes the wrath of God today is that “the child she [Modern Babylon] holds forth to adoration is called by the name of Jesus, His son.” (The Two Babylons, 88). With “Satan himself” being “converted after the modern order of things (see The Great Controversy, 588),” the image would be that of “Babylon, The Great” [Roman Catholicism’s] Madonna, or the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus [who really would be Tammuz (see Ezekiel 8:14)], set up in the church that claims to worship the true God. The Lord commanded: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath….Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God.” Exodus 20:4, 5. Is it any wonder why the Catholic Church removed the second commandment from the moral law?

Furthermore, Jeremiah records that God’s people obeyed not “the voice of the Lord, nor walked in His law, nor in His statutes, nor in His testimonies,” for they were burning “incense to the queen of heaven.” Jeremiah 44:23, 25. Is this another example of “the sure word of prophecy?” 2 Peter 1:19. Ellen White was shown in vision many years ago that “Modern Israel are in greater danger of forgetting God and being led into idolatry than were His ancient people.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 609.

“It is to be remembered that the greater the light bestowed, the greater the delusion and darkness of those who reject the word of God and accept fables.” Signs of the Times, November 8, 1899. After all, was it not the leaders of the Jewish nation that had Christ murdered with the aid of the Roman power! Will history be repeated? “However high any minister may have stood in the favor of God, if he neglects to follow out the light given him of God, if he refuses to be taught as a little child, he will go into darkness and satanic delusions and will lead others in the same path.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 214.

Early Ecumenical Aspirations

The message of the second angel of Revelation 14 is that the churches of the last days have fallen. Has spiritual Babylon always been fallen? No. At some previous time these churches must have been in an unfallen condition in order to become fallen! Why have they fallen? Because in 1844 they rejected the First Angel’s Message—the truth about Christ’s work in the heavenly Sanctuary.

“The Second Angel’s Message had its initial sounding early in the summer of 1844 in the call to the Advent believers to come out of the nominal churches that had rejected the proclamation of the First Angel’s Message.” Appendix Note, Early Writings, 304. (See also, “The Final Warning,” The Great Controversy, 603–612.)

A Closer Look At Modern Babylon

The message of the fourth angel of Revelation 18, which adds power to the message of the second and third angels of Revelation 14, is that the Church of Rome and her harlot daughters have fallen, and the angel fervently calls God’s people to come out of the fallen churches of the last days. Indeed, the angel cries aloud that these churches have “become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” Revelation 18:2b. The fourth angel comes down from heaven “having great power; and the earth is lightened with his glory.” Revelation 18:1b. Notice that this special angel “cried mightily with a strong voice.” Revelation 18:2a. This, beyond question, is a vivid description of the Latter Rain of the Advent message. Indeed, do not Seventh-day Adventists know the Latter Rain as the “Loud Cry” of the message?

“The message of the fall of Babylon, as given by the second angel, is repeated, with the additional mention of the corruptions which have been entering the churches since 1844. The work of this angel comes in at the right time to join in the last great work of the Third Angel’s Message as it swells to a loud cry. And the people of God are thus prepared to stand in the hour of temptation, which they are soon to meet. I saw a great light resting upon them, and they united to fearlessly proclaim the Third Angel’s Message.” Early Writings, 277. [All emphasis supplied throughout unless otherwise noted.]

“For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,” the fourth angel cries aloud, “and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.” Revelation 18:3.

Habitation Of Devils

Let us more carefully analyze Revelation 18, verses 1 and 2. The fourth angel states that because the modern churches of Babylon have fallen they have “become the habitation of devils.” What does this mean? The contemporary Roman Catholic and Sunday-keeping churches are now filled with spiritualism in the form of false healing, false speaking in tongues, casting out demons, and using hypnosis in the practice of so-called “Christian psychology.” Rock music, inspired by demons, is now used in the worship service of most contemporary denominations, including the Roman Catholic Church. All of Christendom is rampant with the modern spiritualistic techniques of “Self-Esteem,” and “Neuro-Linguistic Programming,” known as NLP. This, without question, is spiritism in its most subtle and deceptive form!

“When Satan has undermined faith in the Bible, he directs men to other sources for light and power.…Criticism and speculation concerning the Scriptures have opened the way for spiritism and theosophy—those modernized forms of ancient heathenism—to gain a foothold even in the professed churches of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Desire of Ages, 258.

“History is repeating,” Ellen White warned. “With the open Bible before them, and professing to reverence its teachings, many of the religious leaders of our time are destroying faith in it as the word of God.” Ibid. Like ancient Israel, modern Babylon has accepted spiritualism into their midst. “Side by side with the preaching of the gospel, agencies are at work which are but the medium of lying spirits.” Ibid.

Three Important Concepts Of Revelation 18, Verse 3

  1. “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” The nations have drunk from the wine of her false doctrine.
  2. “The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her.” The contemporary Roman Catholic and modern Evangelical churches have sought the power of the state to enforce their so-called Christian values, and to support their institutions.
  3. “The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.” The merchants of the earth have become rich from the sale of goods connected with the Christian faith. Christmas, Easter, Saint Valentine’s Day, All-Saints Day (Halloween), Saint Patrick’s Day, and other so-called Christian holidays reap millions in revenue for merchants and the churches.

The blasphemous movie productions, “Jesus Christ Superstar,” and the even more blasphemous “Godspell,” reaped millions and millions of dollars. Although the Bible says of Judas, “Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot” (Luke 22:3), in the production “Godspell,” Judas Iscariot is depicted as the hero. Also in this blasphemous production the disciples crawl around on the stage and bleat like sheep. Jesus is depicted as a clown. He has a contemporary “rock star” Afro hair style, a little red heart on his shirt, and eyes painted with large teardrops under them, like a circus clown.

It is sad that we have become so gospel-hardened that some of these things no longer shock us. However, we should not be surprised by these developments in the fallen churches of Babylon. Seventh-day Adventists have been warned that gross apostasy would increase in the end of time. “For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.” Isaiah 60:2. But what is most astounding is that these two blasphemous movie productions were endorsed by the major denominations as tools for evangelism among the youth. (See, Bob Larson, Rock and the Church, available at most Christian book stores.)

The False Doctrines Of Modern Babylon

The wine is the false doctrine of Roman Babylon and her fallen harlot daughters are apostate Protestantism. Let us now examine the false doctrines of modern Babylon.

“This is the same message that was given by the second angel. Babylon is fallen, ‘because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication’ (Revelation 14:8.) What is that wine?—Her false doctrines. She has given to the world a false sabbath instead of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and has repeated the falsehood that Satan first told Eve in Eden—the natural immortality of the soul. Many kindred errors she has spread far and wide, ‘teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’ Matthew15:9.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 118.

“The whole chapter shows that the Babylon that has fallen is the churches who will not receive the messages of warning the Lord has given in the First, Second, and Third Angel’s Messages,” Ellen White states. “They refused the truth and accepted a lie. Anyone who reads this chapter need not be deceived.” Manuscript Releases,
vol. 1, 302.

Notice that these fallen churches have “refused the truth and accepted a lie.” Are we to join hands with those who have accepted a lie?

The false leaders and teachers of modern Babylon will lead the masses of earth’s final generation to perdition. Only a few of earth’s billions will come out of Babylon. “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:14. From Egypt only two passed into the promised land. Only eight were saved in Noah’s day. After the flood they all apostatized into Babylon. A few followed when the Lord called Abraham. Fewer still stood at the cross. “And all His acquaintance, and the women that followed Him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.” Luke 23:49. Only one hundred and twenty in the upper room received the early rain of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. A small company believed William Miller. Fewer still accepted the Sanctuary and Sabbath truths, the Spirit of Prophecy, and became Seventh-day Adventists. Today many are living in the broad way. However, there remains a small remnant throughout the earth. “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh,” Jesus asked, “shall He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8.

A Link Between Church and State

“When the churches of our land, uniting upon such points of faith as are held by them in common,” Ellen White warned, “shall influence the State to enforce their decrees and sustain their institutions, then will Protestant America have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy.” Spiritual Gifts, vol. 4, 277.

“By this first beast is represented the Roman Church, an ecclesiastical body clothed with civil power, having authority to punish all dissenters. The image to the beast represents another religious body clothed with similar power. The formation of this image is the work of that beast whose peaceful rise and mild professions render it so striking a symbol of the United States. Here is to be found an image of the papacy.…Protestant churches that have followed in the steps of Rome by forming alliance with worldly powers have manifested a similar desire to restrict liberty of conscience.…Persecution always follows religious favoritism on the part of secular governments.” The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, 278.

Although God has given up on the Sunday-keeping churches of Babylon, He has not given up on the people in those denominations As in the days following the crucifixion of Christ, there was probation for the people—but there was no probation for the leadership of Israel! Jesus had declared, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” Matthew 23:38.

A Warning Against Fellowship With Modern Babylon

The early Christian Church apostatized in the rise of the Papal Church and her link with the secular State. The Protestant churches apostatized when they rejected the message of the first angel. Now, through the message of the second angel, and the amplified message of the special angel of Revelation 18, God is calling His people out of Babylon, out of these false churches. He warns that if they do not come out of Babylon, they shall be “partakers of her sins” and will receive of her plagues. (See Revelation 18:4.)

Again, the point cannot be over-emphasized that, the message of the second and fourth angels call people out of Babylon, and to reject the false teachings of the fallen Protestant churches of the end times. It is a message directly against the Ecumenical Movement, which champions the brotherhood of all Christian churches. We, as Seventh-day Adventists, should not turn toward the churches of Babylon, but should be calling people out of these false churches!

Why can we not have fellowship and brotherhood on all sides with these Christians of other denominations? Why cannot Seventh-day Adventists become members of the National and World Council of Churches? “There is as great a difference in our faith and that of nominal professors,” Ellen White replies. “as the heavens are higher than the earth.” Spiritual Gifts, vol. 2, 300.

“The world is against us, the popular churches are against us, the laws of the land will soon be against us,” Ellen White wrote. “God has committed to us the special truths for this time to make known to the world.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 236.

How can we fellowship with the false Sunday-keeping churches of Babylon when “the popular churches are against us.” Indeed, did not Jesus Himself say, “For he that is not against us is on our part.” Mark 9:40. If the modern churches of Babylon are no longer against us, perhaps we are no longer teaching and preaching the historic Advent truth!

James White also gave some wise counsel on the subject of ecumenism and fellowship with the Sunday-keeping churches of Babylon. Notice carefully his wise counsel: “Here is a man, for instance, who does not agree with us on the subject of the second coming of Christ. He believes that we are wholly mistaken in regard to this great truth. Can we feel union with such a man, and take him into our fellowship and communion? We cannot. We can but feel that he shuts his eyes to some of the clearest light of the Scriptures, and refuses assent to their most unequivocal testimony. We cannot therefore extend to him the hand of Christian fellowship. Just so with the Sabbath. Can we fellowship with the man who violates it? We cannot. On a vital point connected with the teaching of the word of God, we are at issue; and the union that would otherwise exist between us, is of course destroyed. So with the subjects of baptism, the sleep of the dead, the destruction of the wicked, etc. Where there is not agreement in theory, there can be, in the Christian sense, no real communion of heart and fellowship of feeling.” James White, “Fifty Unanswerable Arguments,” Review and Herald, January 14, 1861.

“Where there is not agreement in theory [theology],” James White states, “there can be, in the Christian sense, no real communion of heart and fellowship of feeling.” Can anything be more plain? Pioneer Seventh-day Adventists did not believe in ecumenicalism. They did not advocate joining in mutual fellowship with the churches of Babylon, or recognizing all those who lift up Christ, though they reject the truths of these last days.

“I saw that since Jesus left the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary and entered within the second veil, the churches have been filling up with every unclean and hateful bird. I saw great iniquity and vileness in the churches, yet their members profess to be Christians. Their profession, their prayers, and their exhortations are an abomination in the sight of God. Said the angel, ‘God will not dwell in their assemblies. Selfishness, fraud, and deceit are practiced by them without the reprovings of conscience. And over all these evil traits they throw the cloak of religion.’ ” Early Writings, 274.

Notice that it is the voice of an angel that says, “God will not dwell in their assemblies.” If God does not dwell with these assemblies (National and World Council of Churches), why do we wish to “dwell” with them when God does not?

Again, is it possible to have unity with modern Babylon? Can we have dialogue and goodwill between the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the fallen churches of Babylon? Pioneer Adventists did not believe so. The Spirit of Prophecy warns against it.

“After a long and severe conflict the faithful few decided to dissolve all union with the apostate church if she still refused to free herself from falsehood and idolatry. They saw that separation was an absolute necessity if they would obey the Word of God. They dared not tolerate errors fatal to their own souls and set an example which would imperil the faith of their children and children’s children.…If unity could be secured only by the compromise of truth and righteousness, then let there be difference and even war. Well would it be for the church and the world if the principles that actuated those steadfast souls were revived in the hearts of God’s professed people.” The Story of Redemption, 324.

Notice that Ellen White described the stand of the faithful during the Dark Ages by saying, “If unity could be secured only by the compromise of truth and righteousness, then let there be difference and even war.” Then she brings it home to the contemporary Seventh-day Adventist Church: “Well would it be for the church and the world if the principles that actuated those steadfast souls were revived in the hearts of God’s professed people.” In the hearts of God’s professed people? That is us, is it not? It would be well if these principles were revived in the hearts of Seventh-day Adventists.

Ecumenism—Modern-Day Deception of Satan

Before we can continue our study we must first understand the concept of “ecumenism.” Today we often hear the word ecumenical. What is ecumenism? The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Student’s Source Book and SDA Bible Dictionary give a clear answer: “At its most ambitious, the ecumenical movement aspires to heal the
thousand-year-old break between Rome and the Eastern Orthodox churches on the one hand, and the later breach between these and the Protestant denominations on the other.” Editorial, “To a Greater Christian Church,” Life, 49 (December 19, 1960), 24; op. sit., Seventh-day Adventist Bible Student’s Source Book, Art. “Ecumenical Movement,” Second Revised Edition.

“But despite these deep doctrinal differences, these three chief branches of Christianity are on much friendlier terms than they used to be,” the editorial stated. “Their spokesmen are able to meet in serious dialogue without thinking of each other as antichrists; they have learned to know what they believe in common and why they disagree.” Editorial, Life, December 19, 1960.

Notice the phrases, “the ecumenical movement aspires to heal the thousand-year-old break [wound].” Does that sound familiar? “And his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” Revelation 13:3b. “Their spokesmen are able to meet in serious dialogue without thinking of each other as antichrists.” Have you ever heard, dear reader, the phrase “beast bashing” in today’s Adventist thinking? But the most astounding fulfillment of prophecy is the phrase, “they have learned to know what they believe in common and why they disagree.”

“When the churches of our land, uniting upon such points of faith as are held by them in common,” Ellen White warned, “shall influence the State to enforce their decrees and sustain their institutions, then will Protestant America have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy.” Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, 278.

So Much In Common

In 1973, Bert Beverly Beach (later secretary of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department of the General Conference) co-authored a book with Lukas Vischer, Secretary of the World Council of Churches. The title of the book was, So Much In Common, the subtitle, “Between the World Council of Churches and the Seventh-day Adventist Church.” The book was published by the World Council of Churches, Geneva, Switzerland, in 1973. The title of the book alone tells the story, “So Much In Common, Between the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the World Council of Churches.” What do Seventh-day Adventists have in common with the World Council of Churches? How did Adventists ever come to the place where they thought they had something in common with the great assembly of the churches of Babylon, the harlot daughters of Rome?

In 1977, Bert Beach was President of the Northern Europe-West Africa Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. At that time Beach was also serving as Secretary of the World Confessional Families, the theological branch of the World Council of Churches. On May 18, 1977, as Secretary of the World Confessional Families, meeting in Rome, Italy, Beach presented a medallion to Pope Paul VI. (See Religious News Service (RNS), Foreign Service, May 19, 1977; W.D. Eva, Adventist Review, “Book, Medallion Presented to Pope,” August 11, 1977, page 23.)

The Goal Of Ecumenism

“As long as the Catholic is Catholic and the Protestant is Protestant, there is only one way to union—the conversion of one to the views of the other. If that should
happen, either Catholicism or Protestantism would disappear. There can never be a Catholic-Protestant Church, or even a Catholic-Protestant fellowship of churches. This is the basic fact.

“The Catholic must say to the Protestant that the [Catholic] Church was substantially right, and therefore any endeavor toward reunion will be a return to her unreconstructed, unreformed unity.” Gustave Wiegel, A Catholic Primer on the Ecumenical Movement, 50, 51, 64, 66. Copyright 1957 by The Newman Press, Westminster, Md.

Ecumenism Will Triumph

“Through the two great errors, [1] the immortality of the soul and [2] Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions,” Ellen White concluded. “While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome.” The Great Controversy, 588.

“The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.” Ibid.

—To be continued…

False Justification by Faith, Part II

Back in the Dark Ages, God began to prepare a people for the Second Coming of Jesus by using Martin Luther to start the great Protestant Reformation in the preaching of justification by faith. Then in 1844 God brought forth His Advent movement preaching the additional truth that the divine law of God, contained in the most holy place within the heavenly sanctuary, must be obeyed in order for us to fully receive the righteousness of Christ. Many within the church, in their zeal to preach the law, did so in a legalistic way forgetting that we need Jesus in our hearts before we are able to keep the law and live the Christian life.

Ellen White addressed this problem when she wrote, “As a people, we have preached the law until we are as dry as the hills of Gilboa that hath neither dew nor rain.” Review and Herald, March 11, 1890.

To help the servant of the Lord meet this legalistic problem, the Lord sent E. J. Waggoner and A. T. Jones to preach justification by faith with the law. But many within the church, especially its leaders, thought they were trying to do away with the law. This is why the Minneapolis Conference of 1888 rejected the message of justification by faith.

Today we are facing the imminent return of Jesus, and once again Satan has infiltrated God’s true church with the celebration of New Theology. This theology proclaims a false justification by faith by teaching that all that is needed for salvation is love and unity. No one need be concerned about the law, since Christ kept it for us, they say. As a result millions among us have been duped to believe the lie of Satan that the divine law of God cannot be kept, even in the power of almighty God.

We need to have our eyes opened that through an experience of the new birth, born of repentance, confession, forgiveness and obedience, we are clothed with Christ’s righteousness and thus fit for heaven.

False Justification Enters the SDA Church

How is this false teaching of justification by faith affecting the Seventh-day Adventist Church? From the Remnant Herald, No. 43, November 1998, I gleaned the following.

In 1975, Bill Hibbles began an interdenominational Pentecostal-styled church near Chicago focused on church growth. Today about seventeen thousand adults attend his weekend seeker services and six thousand attend the midweek believers services. By all human standards the Willow Creek Church is a great success. This church has formed the Willow Creek Association (WCA), and presently over two thousand two hundred churches have joined. At least fifty-six of those are Seventh-day Adventist churches. They are listed on the WCA’s web site.

The Willow Creek Association is an organization of a fallen church of Babylon. It is a charismatic, Sunday-keeping church. These conferences and churches have now gone to a fallen church of Babylon in order to be better Seventh-day Adventists. Just as well may they go to the witch of Endor. They have entered Babylon, it will be well nigh impossible to recover such denominational entities for they have done so in the full light of truth.

An article in the Adventist Review, December 18, 1997, promotes this association by stating:

  1. Adventists should give Willow Creek a fair shake.
  2. Adventists should continue gleaning from Willow Creek.
  3. Gleaning from Willow Creek’s message does not mean forfeiting our message.

How can we be so blind? “Adventists, both pastors and lay people constantly make up one of the largest groups at Willow Creek’s half dozen annual seminars.” Ibid.

God’s flock worldwide must be warned concerning this phenomenon within the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Work of the Omega

Elder Robert Pierson, former President of the General Conference, foresaw what was about to take place as a result of this new theology of a false justification by faith. In the October 1977, Ministry Magazine he wrote, “It would be well for every Seventh-day Adventist leader to prayerfully study the several plans of the apostate angel of light as he seeks to thwart the triumph of the Advent movement. Get out your Bibles and the Spirit of Prophecy, especially in Selected Messages, Book 1,193–205, and on your knees consider the startling facts faithfully chronicled by the Lord’s servant. Now note well what Ellen White, in this reference, warns could mark the work of the omega.

  1. The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church would be disregarded. (Ibid., 204.)
  2. The truth will be criticized, scorned and derided. (Ibid., 201.)
  3. It will make of no effect the truth of heavenly origin. (Ibid., 204.)
  4. The religion would be changed. (Ibid.)
  5. The Sabbath, of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. (Ibid., 205.)
  6. The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the past fifty years would be accounted as an error. (Ibid., 204.)
  7. There would be a supposition that a great reformation was about to take place among Seventh-day Adventists and that this reformation would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith. (Ibid.)
  8. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. (Ibid.)
  9. The new philosophy would ‘rob the people of God and their experience, giving them instead a false science.’ (Ibid.)
  10. It would seek to weaken the preaching of the second advent by teaching “that the scenes just before us are not of sufficient importance to be given special attention.” Ibid.
  11. Books of a new order would be written. (Ibid.)
  12. A new organization would be established. (Ibid.)
  13. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of this new movement.” Ibid., 205.

Now go back over these thirteen points. Study them carefully and prayerfully. You may have to meet them sooner than you expect. The seeds of such apostasy are in the churches of Christendom all around us. Before Jesus returns, the Seventh-day Adventist Church may well be confronted with a crisis that will exceed in magnitude the Kellogg alpha apostasy. It “will be of a most startling nature.” Ibid., 197.

I believe we are in the omega crisis now. This is none other than the work of spiritualism, which has invaded God’s true church. In Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, 405, we read, “Spiritualism is now changing its form, veiling some of its most objectionable and immoral features, and assuming a Christian guise. Formerly it denounced Christ and the Bible, now it professes to accept both. The Bible is interpreted in a manner that is attractive to the unrenewed heart, while its solemn and vital truths are made of no effect. A God of love is presented; but His justice, His denunciation of sin, the requirements of His holy law, are all kept out of sight. Pleasing, bewitching fables captivate the senses of those who do not make God’s word the foundation of their faith. Christ is as verily rejected as before; but Satan has so blinded the eyes of the people that the deception is not discerned.” Jesus gives a test by which false teachers may be distinguished from the true. (See Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 145.)

Vatican II and Celebration

The Vatican II Papal document stated that it is their objective, through the celebration movement, to bring the whole of humanity into one fold (meaning the Roman Catholic Church). According to this document, the objectives of the second Vatican Council are:

  1. Let there be a custom application [use] of the word celebration.
  2. Let there be a custom of revival in celebration worship in which the people will be involved directly with both verbal and physical participation.
  3. Let there be a custom of celebration worship dialog between the pastor and the people.
  4. Let us use as much variety in worship as is possible.
  5. Let music, while they worship there, be the most effective.
  6. Lessen, [narrow] the difference, between the Eucharist and the Lord’s Supper. Teach people that the Eucharist and the Lord’s Supper is the foundation of Christian unity, friendship and celebration of the Lord’s day [Sunday].
  7. Do your best to encourage observation of Sunday, including rest from work.

As a result of these Vatican objectives, celebration began in the Catholic Church and soon the Pentecostal charismatic churches followed. The old method of Jesuit infiltration of Protestant churches was suspended by the new infiltration of Catholic philosophy called love and unity. The second Vatican Council added its blessing by no longer calling the Protestant Churches heretics but brethren separated from the Mother Church.

The Vatican II Council then began to emphasize the Holy Spirit by holding revivals among its nuns and priests. The result was startling. Tens of thousands of priests and nuns began speaking in tongues. Now both the Catholic and the Protestant had something in common. They both spoke in tongues in the celebration movement.

Confronting Celebration

John Janiuk confronts the celebration movement with the Three Angels’ Message in his book, The Great Controversy Endgame, No. 2. He clearly differentiates between what is true and what is false justification by faith.

“The Three Angels’ Message is God’s call to leave Babylon. It is the message of separation.…The celebration movement calls for unity of all churches.

“The Three Angels’ Message is a warning message, but the celebration movement is the message of peace and security, love and unity. Sin and the law of God are treated lightly.

“The foundation of the Three Angels’ Message is the message of the everlasting gospel (true justification by faith).…The foundation of the celebration movement is a false gospel (a false justification)—salvation in sin—‘you will be sinning until the Second Coming of Christ.’ It is a gospel without power. If you sin before and after accepting the gospel, where is the power of the gospel? The truth is, if you accept a false gospel you have no power from God.…Satan demonstrated his power with great effect in Eden, and we are still affected by that same power today. Today he says that we cannot keep God’s commandments. If you believe his lies then you will not obey God’s law.

“The Bible says: ‘…here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.’ The pen of Inspiration says: ‘Christ left His heavenly home, and came to this world to show that only by being connected with divinity can man keep the law of God. In itself, humanity is tainted and corrupt, but Christ brought moral power to man, and those who live in communion with Him overcome, as He overcame.” Signs of the Times, December 10, 1896.

“‘He who has not sufficient faith in Christ to believe that He can keep him from sinning, has not the faith that will give him an entrance into the kingdom of God.” Review and Herald, March 10, 1904. (See also Acts of the Apostles, 523.)

A Call to Righteousness

“The Three Angels’ Messages are calling the whole of humanity to ‘Fear [reverence] God’ in complete surrender to God and His Word, and also His will, the Ten moral Commandments and the gospel. But the celebration movement depends on theology which ‘Is interpreted in a manner that is attractive to the unrenewed hearts, while its solemn and vital truths are made of no effect. A God of love is presented; but His justice, His denunciation of sin, the requirements of His holy law, are all kept out of sight.” Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, 405.

“The Three Angels’ Messages call to ‘Give glory to Him.’ Mrs. White says: ‘To give glory to God is to reveal His character in our own, and thus make Him known. And in whatever way we make known the Father or the Son, we glorify God.” SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 979. But the celebration movement does not preach this.

“The Three Angels’ Messages proclaim ‘For the hour of His judgment is come.’ This is the pre-advent, Investigative Judgment, which began in the year 1844. The celebration movement does not warn the people about this. However, if the subject is mentioned they say: ‘Do not be afraid of the judgment, if you believe in Jesus, don’t worry about it.’

‘Worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.’ God tells us to keep holy the Sabbath day as a special day in memorial of His creation and redemption. But the purpose, goal, and aim of the celebration movement according to Vatican II is to observe Sunday and recognize the Pope as the Vicar of Jesus Christ and submit to him.

Babylon is Fallen, Come Out of Her

“The Second Angel’s Message says: ‘Babylon is fallen.’ Why? Because Babylon rejected the Biblical truths. Revelation 18:2 describes the last day condition of Babylon. The fallen churches [Catholic and Protestant] attacked the Seventh-day Adventist church with the celebration movement. The Bible says ‘a habitation of devils.’ Of course, God still has, in these fallen churches, some individuals who are the children of God. Our message, especially in the time of the loud cry will be ‘Come out of her, my people’ Revelation 18:4.

“The Third Angel’s Message is the most fearful of any before. This message was proclaimed to mortal man, as a warning against receiving the mark of the beast (observance of Sunday as the Sabbath). According to the document of Vatican Synod II the purpose of the celebration movement is that the whole world shall observe Sunday and submit to the Papacy. It does not matter to them what else you believe so long as you submit to those two things. Do you see where this movement is leading us?

“The Three Angels’ Messages are summarized in Revelation 14:12 and describe what people will be like after they accept these messages. ‘Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.’ Here is presented the main characteristics and qualities of God’s people:

  1. The patience of the saints
  2. They keep the commandments of God
  3. They have the faith of Jesus

“But the celebration movement says: ‘We cannot keep the commandments of God.’ ‘Men who are under the control of Satan repeat these accusations against God, in asserting that men cannot keep the law of God.’ Signs of the Times January 16, 1896. (We must) ‘not only accept Christ as Saviour of the world, but as a personal Saviour from sin and sinning. Faith is nothing if it falls short of this.’ Signs of the Times August 26, 1889.” The Great Controversy Endgame, No. 2.

Music, Love and Praise!

The heart of celebration worship is found in its music, Contemporary Christian or Christian rock. Their message is love and praise for the most part. It does not call to repentance, appeal for sacrifice, or for prayer for sinners. The Second Coming is almost absent. Bible doctrines are not found.

Pioneering Seventh-day Adventists sang many hymns containing its message. They did so because they believed that God had called them to proclaim a message even in their singing. The current Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal has a topical index of hymns. Nearly every major doctrine is represented there: Salvation through faith in Christ, the Second Coming, the Sabbath, the judgment, the sleep of the dead, stewardship and even the sanctuary along with still others. God intended that the great hymns of faith should be used to teach His end-time message.

For example, No. 412 in the Hymnal illustrates this point. “Reconciled by His death for my sin, Justified by His life pure and clean, Sanctified by obeying His word, Glorified when returneth my Lord.” What a wonderful balance, a presentation of the gospel that is given in such songs. Preachers and laity would both be less likely to stray from the path of truth if they paid attention to the message of such songs.

“The great fear is that these contemporary songs are replacing the message songs entirely and are doing their part to produce a generation devoid of doctrinal certainty. A church’s music…is an essential part of its self-identity, its witnessing package, and even its survival kit.” Adventists’ Affirm, 1998, 8–21.

The ex-choir director of heaven uses his celebration music to charm people, to bind them to himself and to control them. He uses emotionally oriented religion that depends on feeling rather than on the word of God.

The Greatest Challenge Facing SDAs

Samuel Koranteng-Pipim, while at Andrews University, wrote in his doctorate thesis entitled, Receiving the Word, 38, the following, “The greatest challenge facing the Seventh-day Adventist Church does not come from the independent right, who operate from without, but rather from the liberal left, who are working from within. These moderate liberals seek to redefine historic Adventist beliefs according to their new views of the Bible. Indeed, as some of the Adventist scholars have begun using the historical-critical approaches of liberal theology, the church has been challenged in its distinctive truths, such as the prophetic significance of 1844, the necessity of Christ’s substitutionary atonement for sinners, and the self-understanding of the Seventh-day Adventist Church as God’s end-time remnant. At the same time the church has been thrown into turmoil over abortion, polygamy, divorce and remarriage and women’s ordination and homosexuality.”

Can you imagine an Adventist professor of religion who wrote in the Spectrum of May 1993 on page 46 an article entitled, “Apocryphy, Who Needs It?” In the beginning of this article there is a thought-provoking question. “How seriously should Adventists take apocalyptic books like Daniel, Revelation and The Great Controversy?” This theologian answers, “Perhaps we should replace them with the gospel of love, acceptance and forgiveness.” This is the central message of the celebration movement and its worship services.

Contrary Advice

Professor Steve Daily, who taught at La Sierra University and was also their chaplain, is one of the most liberal among us today. He suggests some practical things Adventists can do to contribute to this goal. Among these are:

  1. We can cease to think or speak of ourselves as the remnant church and see ourselves as a part of God’s larger remnant.
  2. We can take advantage of the special opportunities we have to attend other churches, since they meet on a different day, to befriend them and learn from them and share with them and affirm the good things we see in them.
  3. Each of us can make a special effort to maintain active membership in at least one non-Adventist community service organization to combat our natural tendency to isolation.
  4. We can involve ourselves in inter-denominational Bible study and a charismatic intercessory prayer group to broaden our spiritual perspectives.

(Excerpted from Steve Daily’s book, Adventists for a New Generation, 315, 316.)

Such advice is absolutely contrary to the Spirit of Prophecy. Is this the time for Seventh-day Adventists to seek such new light on worship, church growth and learning from others? (See Early Writings, 124, 125.)

Let us never forget that God will finish His work in His church and then He will finish His work in the world. But if we, as a church, reject true justification by faith and continue to proclaim a false justification, then true revival and reformation will not take place. We will not receive the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain and we will never finish God’s work in this world. We will lose our identity, our credibility and the purpose for our existence.

What a tragedy this would be! May God give us wisdom, understanding, knowledge and power to fulfill this for His honor and glory and also for the salvation of the people of the world. Then we will go home to praise Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. If you have discovered that the church you attend has become a celebration church in doctrine, in music and worship, may God grant you heavenly wisdom to know what you can do to help restore a worship service in which God can bless. It may be that the Lord will lead you to a nearby church with a historic Seventh-day Adventist pastor. Praise God, He still has many. And if need be, God may lead you to a nearby home church or have you begin a home church in which it can be truly said, “Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

Bible Study Guides – “To Every Nation”

May 21-27, 2000

MEMORY VERSE: “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Revelation 18:4.

STUDY HELP: Testimonies Vol. 8, 24–29.

INTRODUCTION: “Before the coming of the Son of man, the everlasting gospel is to be preached ‘to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.’ Revelation 14:6, 14. God ‘hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world.’ Acts 17:31. Christ tells us when that day shall be ushered in. He does not say that all the world will be converted, but that ‘this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.’ By giving the gospel to the world it is in our power to hasten our Lord’s return. We are not only to look for but to hasten the coming of the day of God. 2 Peter 3:12, margin. Had the church of Christ done her appointed work as the Lord ordained, the whole world would before this have been warned, and the Lord Jesus would have come to our earth in power and great glory.” The Desire of Ages, 633, 634.

“The Power of God unto Salvation”

1 What is the work that Christ has committed to the church? Mark 16:15.

NOTE: “The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people.…This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family. All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the Third Angel’s Message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure. The message of Christ’s righteousness is to sound from one end of the earth to the other to prepare the way of the Lord. This is the glory of God, which closes the work of the third angel. The last message of mercy to be given to the world is a revelation of His character of love. The children of God are to manifest His glory. In their own life and character they are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them.” Last Day Events, 200, 201.

2 How does Paul define the Gospel? Romans 1:16.

NOTE: See Sons and Daughters of God, 349.

“For the Hour of His Judgment is Come”

3 As the final generation of God’s people proclaims the Gospel, what warning must they also give? Revelation 14:6, 7.

NOTE: See The Faith I Live By, 211.

4 In view of the fact that the time has now come for God’s judgment, what three things are all men called to do? Revelation 14:7.

5 What does it mean to fear God? Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14. See also Psalm 34:11–14; Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 8:13.

NOTE: See The Great Controversy, 436.

6 What does it mean to give glory to God? What is God’s glory? Exodus 33:18, 19; 34:6,7. Compare John 17:4 and Matthew 5:16.

NOTE: “To give glory to God is to reveal His character in our own, and thus make Him known. And in whatever way we make known the Father or the Son, we glorify God.” The Signs of the Times, October 17, 1892.

7 How does God ask us to worship ‘Him that made heaven and earth’? Exodus 20:8–11.

NOTE: See The Great Controversy, 437.

“Babylon is Fallen, is Fallen”

8 What further message is the final generation of God’s people called to give? Revelation 14:8.

NOTE: “The term ‘Babylon’ is derived from ‘Babel,’ and signifies confusion. It is employed in Scripture to designate the various forms of false or apostate religion. In Revelation 17, Babylon is represented as a woman—a figure which is used in the Bible as the symbol of a church, a virtuous woman representing a pure church, a vile woman an apostate church.” The Great Controversy, 381. (See also Ibid., 389.)

9 What reason is given for Babylon’s fall? Revelation 14:8, last part. (To understand ‘fornication’, read Ezekiel 16.)

NOTE: “The great sin charged against Babylon is that she ‘made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’ This cup of intoxication which she presents to the world represents the false doctrines that she has accepted as the result of her unlawful connection with the great ones of the earth.” The Great Controversy, 388.

10 What call must be given to those of God’s people who are still in Babylon? Revelation 18:1–5.

NOTE: “Revelation 18 points to the time when, as the result of rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6–12, the church will have fully reached the condition foretold by the second angel, and the people of God still in Babylon will be called upon to separate from her communion. This message is the last that will ever be given to the world; and it will accomplish its work.” The Great Controversy, 390.

11 What will be the danger for those who choose to stay in Babylon? Revelation 18:4.

NOTE: “After the truth has been proclaimed as a witness to all nations, every conceivable power of evil will be set in operation, and minds will be confused by many voices crying, ‘Lo, here is Christ, Lo, He is there. This is the truth, I have the message from God, He has sent me with great light.’ Then there will be a removing of the landmarks, and an attempt to tear down the pillars of our faith. A more decided effort will be made to exalt the false sabbath, and to cast contempt upon God Himself by supplanting the day He has blessed and sanctified. This false sabbath is to be enforced by an oppressive law.” Maranatha, 189. (See also Prophets and Kings, 188; The Great Controversy, 464.)

“The Beast and His Image”

12 What warning is given to those who choose false worship? Revelation 14:9–11.

NOTE: “This symbol (the beast), as most Protestants have believed, represents the Papacy. The ‘image to the beast’ represents that form of apostate Protestantism which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas.” The Faith I Live By, 286.

N.B. “Christians will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy.… Sunday must be sanctified.” Pope John Paul II, Dies Domini, point 67, July 7, 1998.

13 What is the wine of the wrath of God? Revelation 16:1–21.

14 By contrast with those who persist in false worship, how are the people of God described? Revelation 14:12.

NOTE: “Not one who is abiding in Christ will fail or fall. His followers will bow in obedience to a higher authority than that of any earthly potentate. While the contempt placed upon God’s commandments leads many to suppress the truth and show less reverence for it, the faithful ones will with greater earnestness hold aloft its distinguishing truths. We are not left to our own direction. We should consult His Word with humble hearts, ask His counsel, and give up our will to His. We can do nothing without God.” Maranatha, 28.

Which Church is Going Through? Part I

The following statement appeared in the Review and Herald almost one-hundred years before my brother was dismissed from employment with the Kansas-Nebraska Conference; “A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, March 22, 1887.

In Christ’s day, the disciples (all of the church leaders) were out in a little boat. Think how dangerous it was for the Lord to allow all of the church leaders to get in a little boat and set out to sea. If they drowned, that would be it. Some of us would never have allowed that to happen. They got out there in the middle of the sea, and the devil tried to destroy them all by sending a big storm. Jesus came walking out on the sea. They thought it was a spirit, and they cried out in fear. Jesus said, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” Matthew 14:27. You see, if Jesus is near, you do not need to be afraid, no matter what you are going through. If you are going through a storm in the sea, in your life, in your marriage, on your job, or wherever you are, if Jesus is close and you are looking to Him and trusting in Him, you do not need to be afraid. He knows how to work out every problem that you have.

Our Greatest Need

We need deliverance from fear; we need to know our Bible better, but of all the things we need, Sister White says that “a revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.”

In life, some things are more urgent than others. This is true in our spiritual life as well. There are some things we have a great need for; they are very urgent and we need them right now! Our greatest need is a “revival of true godliness.” If this is our greatest need, and if it is our most urgent need, should we not try to figure out how it is going to happen? Yes, we should. In fact, it says in Mrs. White’s statement, “To seek this should be our first work.” Ibid.

My brother, Marshall, and I talked about this many times. If this is what we need the most, and if it should be our first work, what do we need to do so it can happen? That is what caused Marshall to be dismissed from employment with the Kansas–Nebraska Conference. He was trying to figure out how to make this revival happen in the church.

Who Needs It?

Notice a little two-letter word in the first sentence. “A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.” There is a little word there in the center, spelled u s. It is not talking about the United States: it is talking about us. “A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.” Who is the us? This statement was written in the Review and Herald in 1887. That is a church paper. To which group does it belong? The Seventh-day Adventist Church. This paper has been in publication since the 1850s, and Mrs. White’s statement was printed in that paper, an official organ of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. If it says “A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.…To seek this should be our first work,” to whom does the term “us” refer? It refers to Seventh-day Adventists. So, the greatest need of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, (not just the home churches or the worldwide historic Adventist movement, but every person, anywhere in the world, who professes to be a Seventh-day Adventist, including the conference churches, all the institutions, the General Conference—everyone) is “a revival of true godliness.”

What is It?

The question, “What is godliness?” is something that you need to understand. Read 1 Peter 1:1–25 very carefully and you will understand what godliness (Godlikeness) is. More important, however, is the question How does this godliness come about? It does not do you any good to know what needs to happen, unless you understand how it is supposed to happen. How is this revival of true godliness supposed to happen in the Seventh-day Adventist Church?

One of the big questions that people are asking today is, “Will the Seventh-day Adventist denomination (or structure) go through to glory?” It is interesting to note that there are a number of different answers being given to that question. Within the last year or so, there have been an increasing number of people who have given a resounding “No, the Seventh-day Adventist Church structure is not going through to glory, because it is Babylon, and it is just waiting to be destroyed.” A lot of people are preaching that today.

There are other people who believe similarly, but they say “The structure is not Babylon yet, but it is on the verge of becoming Babylon. We are not sure that the actual decree that it is Babylon has been pronounced.”

The issue of some people believing the church is Babylon must be addressed,
because there are people all over the world who are saying that it is. We have an obligation to help other people find the meaning of the times in which we live and how to get ready for the future. That is why we hold Prophecy Seminars. That is why each one of us needs to be praying and asking ourselves, “To whom do I have a moral obligation to share what is going to happen?”

Newborn Babes

There is an interesting passage in Isaiah which says, “Whom will He (that is the Lord) teach knowledge? And whom will He make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts?” Isaiah 28:9. That is, those who are spiritual babies? The Bible talks about spiritual babies as being people who have just accepted the Christian faith. Peter addressed people who had just accepted the Christian faith and he says, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby.” 1 Peter 2:2.

If you were in trouble in your financial life, business life, or marriage, would you go to a baby to ask advice? No. But people do this spiritually all the time. People who have been Christians for two or three years feel that they know enough about Christianity that they can teach others. The apostle Paul gave some of the strongest rebukes in Scripture about this very thing. In fact, he told Timothy, “You do not ordain a new convert as an elder or a deacon until they have had time to become rooted and grounded in the faith.” (See 1 Timothy 3:6, 10.) You do not go to a baby Christian to find answers to your problems. They are babies. We all love babies, and we want them to grow, but we do not go to a baby to get answers to a hard problem. The same is true spiritually.

Infanthood

After a baby is three years old, would he then be able to help you solve your problems? No, he is still a baby! Yet people will do this spiritually. A three- year-old Christian knows enough to teach people who are not born into Christ yet, and can witness to them. If they have only known Christ for a month, they can share what they have learned about Jesus. But friend, if you are trying to find out who, when, and what is Babylon, you do not go to a three-year-old Christian. “Those just weaned from milk? those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept.” Isaiah 28:9, 10. You must compare Scripture with Scripture.

Have you ever met someone who knows two or three verses of Scripture, and they try to prove Bible doctrine by these few verses? I was in an interdenominational jail ministry where a man from another church said, “We know this because it says,”…and he quoted one verse of Scripture. In the verse of Scripture he quoted, the comma was in the wrong place. If you put the comma in the wrong place, it makes the meaning totally opposite of what is really being said. This man thought he knew something on the basis of one verse of Scripture. When people have a belief, and they only have one or two verses of Scripture to prove it, that is a sign of infanthood. They are not off the milk yet. Scripture says; “Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” Isaiah 28:10. If you want to know what the truth is about any spiritual subject, you need to know what all the inspired writings say on that subject.

Let us look at another principle. “I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.” 1 John 2:21. What does it mean that “no lie is of the truth?” “All truth, whether in nature or in revelation, is consistent with itself in all its manifestations.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 114.

You can look up all the texts about Babylon in the Bible, or all of the passages in the Spirit of Prophecy, and if you know the truth, you will be able to see that they all agree. If they do not all agree, there is something wrong with what you believe; you have not studied it thoroughly. The truth is always consistent with itself; “no lie is of the truth.” If two things are the truth, they will not contradict each other.

Is the structure Babylon?

There are people today who, when trying to answer the question as to whether the Seventh-day Adventist Church structure is going to go through to glory, respond that they think we are in the same position that Israel was in just before the crucifixion.

Jesus was entering Jerusalem, and He paused on the crest of the hill.… “When the fast westering sun should pass from sight in the heavens, Jerusalem’s day of grace would be ended.” The Desire of Ages, 578. It was not yet too late. Right at that time, they could have turned around; they could have accepted the Messiah. The door was still open for them to do it, but they would not. Some people believe that our church structure is in that situation now. It is just about over; it is just about too late, but there is still time to turn around.

Saved From Sin

I meet people who wonder whether they have committed the unpardonable sin. They look at their past and at their many sins, and ask, “What shall I do?” Let me tell you something; the worse sinner you are, the more you need Jesus. He came into this world to save sinners. If you are a sinner, you qualify for salvation. Paul said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” 1 Timothy 1:15. Think this through for just a moment. When Jesus saves someone, He saves them from their sins. (See Matthew 1:20, 21.) Isn’t that the most wonderful news there is? No matter how many times you have sinned, Jesus has come here to this world to save you from that sin. Jesus does not save you so that you can keep on sinning, because you are not saved if you keep on sinning.

If your besetting sin is beating your wife, Jesus does not save you so you can go on beating your wife. He wants to save you from that, so that you do not do it anymore. You see, if this person is saved from beating his wife, he is not saved if he continues beating his wife. The person who has a problem with alcohol, is not saved from alcohol if he is still drinking. Jesus came to save you from your sins. That you can be saved while you are still living a life of sin is the gospel of the antichrist. That gospel has taken a hold over much of the Christian world today. There are actually people who are killing other people; yet, because they go and confess to their priest, they believe that they are saved. Friend, you are not saved while you are living in sin. No one will be taken to heaven while they are living in sin down here. Sin has to be in the past. The Bible tells us that Jesus justifies us, or forgives us, from sins that are past. (See Romans 3:25, 26.)

What is the day of grace all about? What is salvation all about? It is about having sins taken away. Jesus’ salvation from sin involves two things. First, Jesus delivers us from guilt. Secondly, He delivers us from the power of sin in our lives. Because of sinful habits, sin has power in our lives, and Jesus is going to deliver us from that power. That is what salvation is about; what revival is about; what primitive godliness is about; what our greatest and most urgent need is, and it should be our first work to seek for a revival of true godliness. Godliness is holy living, living according to God’s law, instead of transgressing it.

We have looked at two positions dealing with “us.” We know this refers to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and our greatest need is for true godliness. One position is that this does not apply to us anymore because the Seventh-day Adventist Church structure is now Babylon; it is going to be destroyed. The other position is that we are like the children of Israel just before the crucifixion of Jesus. They could have turned around, but their irrevocable sentence was about to be pronounced.

Going Through to Glory

However, the traditional, or the most common, belief among the majority of Seventh-day Adventists today, is not that the denomination will be cast aside as was the Jewish nation, but that the Seventh-day Adventist Church will go through to glory; and if it will go through to glory, you had better stay with it. Let me tell you friend, we had better find out what is true, and we better find out from the Bible.

A few years ago, not by my choice, the local Seventh-day Adventist conference church, of which I was a member, disfellowshipped me. So I am no longer part of that structure. After that happened, a friend wrote me a letter and indicated, point blank, that I was not part of the church anymore. If that is so, I need to do something about it right away, because I want to go to heaven. I do not want to have a false hope and think that I am going to heaven and have the Lord come and say, “John, you are not part of the bride of Christ. You are not part of the church of Christ, you will have to stay here.” We really need to understand the answer to this question. If we do not, if we have the wrong answer, it could involve our eternal destruction, because when Jesus comes back to this earth again, He is coming to take His bride home, and His bride is the church. (See Manuscript Releases, vol. 16, 277.) If you are alive when Jesus comes, and you are not part of His bride, you are lost. You need to know whether you are part of it or not, and if you are not part of it, you need to become part of it right away.

The people who believe that the Adventist Church structure will not be cast aside, as was the Jewish church, but will go through to glory, are not naive enough to believe that every member of the church will be part of that triumphant body. They generally explain it with the parable of the wheat and the tares. They say, “We know that there is a lot of apostasy and corruption in the church now, but before Jesus comes, He is going to remove it. That is encouraging, but how is that going to happen?

Some people say the church is just about to become Babylon, and some people say it already is. Some people say the structure is going through to glory, and the Lord is going to clear the apostates out while the true and faithful remain.

Who Do You Say the Church Is?

Has it crossed your mind, as we have looked over these different positions, that if you are going to find the truth, it might be of vital importance for you to know who and what the church is? You see, these different teachings are based on different definitions of who and what the church is, and the conclusion a person comes to is based on who and what he thinks the church actually is.

Let me ask you a few simple questions.

  1. Do you think that God knows who the church is? I am not asking this irreverently, but I want you to think it through. Do you believe that God knows who the church is?
  2. If God knows who the church is, do you suppose that any time He wanted to, He could tell one of His prophets who the church is?
  3. If a prophet came to you and told you who the church is, would you believe them?

That is a hard question. For almost forty years I have noticed that when prophets come and tell people who and what the church is, they do not believe it. There are sermons (not only spoken, but in print) where people have read some of the plainest definitions in the Spirit of Prophecy, (the writings of Ellen White) about who and what the church is. Then they explain it all away.

The question is, what does the prophet actually say, not what do I think it means. That is not what counts. Do we not tell people that in our Prophecy Seminars? Of course! We say, “Don’t believe anything I say unless you can find it in the Bible.” That is a valid position to take. Is it enough if a prophet says this is what it is? Somehow, with this subject, it is not. We have such a deep prejudice that most people will not accept it. They have another definition, and they say, “Well, there are balancing statements.” Red is red. “Oh no it is not; there are balancing statements.” It is another way of saying that there are other statements that contradict it.

1 John 2:21 says, “No lie is of the truth.” If it is all true, does it all have to agree? Yes, and there could never be a balancing statement that would contradict the truth. When the Lord says, “This is the way it is,” you do not say, “Oh no Lord, there has to be a balancing statement.”

God Said It—That Should be Enough

“God will have a people upon the earth to maintain the Bible, and the Bible only, as the standard of all doctrines and the basis of all reforms. The opinions of learned men, the deductions of science, the creeds or decisions of ecclesiastical councils, as numerous and discordant as are the churches which they represent, the voice of the majority—not one, nor all of these should be regarded as evidence for or against any point of religious faith. Before accepting any doctrine or precept we should demand a plain, ‘Thus saith the Lord’ in its support. The Great Controversy, 595.

Every time I read that statement, it sounds so reasonable to me. If I am a Christian, and I profess to be serving the Lord, and He has all knowledge, if that is whom I serve, and if He tells me something, that should be enough evidence. Right? It seems so reasonable.

In the inspired writings [either the Bible or the Spirit of Prophecy], are there plain definition statements about who and what the church is? Yes, there are.

John Knox was talking to the Queen of Scots. She asked him how she was to know whom to believe? Should she believe him or should she believe the Catholics? John Knox said that the Bible meant one thing and the Catholics said the Bible meant something else, how was she to know whom to believe? John Knox told her to believe God, who speaks plainly. Go to plain evidence and take the plain statements. That is the Protestant position.

Line Upon Line

I cannot explain every verse in the Bible, and I have been studying it for years. So I will not take a verse of Scripture that I cannot explain and say, “This is the basis of my faith.” Look for the plain statements all the way through. ‘Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.’ I do not know why these statements are not accepted, but they are not. Here is a plain statement that defines who and what the church is. Just one sentence—”From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth.” Acts of the Apostles, 10. Does that sound to you like a plain definition of who and what the church is? In other words, the church is the people.

Some may say that they have many objections that I have not yet answered. I will. I have checked a hundred or so objections out, and every one can be answered from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy in plain English. But the biggest question is, can you simply believe what God says? Does God have authority in your life? Jesus is looking for the same thing today as He was looking for in the Garden of Eden. He just wanted to know one thing from Adam and Eve and it was this, “Can I trust you?” That was it. The word trust, the word faith, the word faithful, the word believe, in the Greek it is all the same word. So who are the faithful souls? They are the people that believe, who have made a commitment to the Lord. You may have all kinds of sin in your life, but Jesus came to save sinners, so you qualify.

Are You Really Part of the Church?

Have you made the commitment? Are you really part of the church, or are you just going to church? Jesus is looking for people on whom He can depend, and there is no question that He is going to find them. The question is, am I going to be one of them? When things happen that you cannot explain, and it seems like other people have let you down, maybe people in your family, maybe people in your church, can Jesus still depend on you? The angels are keeping a record to see who is trying to follow Jesus.

“Those who keep God’s commandments, those who live, not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, compose the church of the living God.” Manuscript Release, vol. 1, 296. God knows who His church is, and He tells us it is the faithful souls, the ones who do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of His mouth. These are the people who compose His church.

When Jesus comes, what is going to matter is not whether I have my name on a book down here, but whether He will recognize me as being part of His own. Jesus is coming to get a bride. He is coming to get a people that He knows belong to Him. Do you belong to him? You can know you belong to Him for He says, ‘You know it if you live by every word that proceeds out of My mouth.’

To be continued…

Which Church is Going Through? – Part II

Four Theories

When you ask the question, “which church is going through?” here are the answers that you get:

  1. One of the most popular, or traditional, views among many Seventh-day Adventists is that the church organization (structure) is going to go through to glory purified. There may be tares among the wheat, there are sinners in Zion and they are going to be cast out; but the structure is going to go through.
  2. A second view that has come to the fore in the last year or two, is the idea that the church structure is Babylon, or it is just on the brink of becoming Babylon. Therefore, it is just waiting to be destroyed.
  3. A third position is that the church structure is in the same position as the Jewish church was just before the crucifixion of Christ. Ellen White says, “When the fast westering sun should pass from sight in the heavens, Jerusalem’s day of grace would be ended. While the procession was halting on the brow of Olivet, it was not yet too late for Jerusalem to repent.” Desire of Ages, 578. Some people say that is the condition of the church right now. The structure could turn around. Something irrevocable could happen, just like it did to the Jewish nation.

Before I mention the fourth position, consider that we Isaiah 28:9, 10 tells us that we should look through the entire Bible if we want to learn the truth about any subject. We need to look at everything that inspired writings say about that subject, and if we do that, the Lord will lead us to the truth. “All truth, whether in nature or in revelation, is consistent with itself in all its manifestations.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 114. “…no lie is of the truth.” 1 John 2:21. What does that mean? It means, the truth always has to agree with itself. If it does not, if it contradicts, there is something that is not true.

  1. People who take this position say you must answer the question what is the church before you can answer which church is going through. How can you tell which church is going through if you do not have an inspired definition about what the church is? God knows what the church is and if God knows what the church is, He could tell one of His prophets. If one of God’s prophets told you what the church is, would you believe it? Some people do not believe it. “From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth.Acts of the Apostles, 11. That is the church militant; it could not possibly be the church triumphant because it says, “from the beginning,” and the church does not become triumphant until the end.

The Church is not Invisible

Someone might say it is the invisible church. Let us see if it is. The sentence we just read is right in the middle of a long discussion about the church. It says, “From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth. In every age the Lord has had His watchmen, who have borne a faithful testimony to the generation in which they lived.” Ibid. Were the watchmen invisible? No. Was the testimony invisible? No. Was the generation invisible? No. There is nothing invisible in that sentence. “These sentinels gave the message of warning; and when they were called to lay off their armor, others took up the work.” Ibid. Is there anything invisible in that sentence? Nothing invisible there. In all of these statements there is someone you can see. “God brought these witnesses into covenant relation with Himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in heaven. He has sent forth His angels to minister to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against His people.” Ibid.

Someone may say that we cannot tell who these people are. Look at the next paragraph. “Through centuries of persecution, conflict, and darkness, God has sustained His church.” This was hundreds of years of persecution. Can you tell who was being persecuted, or were they invisible? You could tell who was being persecuted. When somebody was burned at the stake, you could tell who it was. When you saw somebody taken off to the dungeon, you could tell who it was. Could you tell that there was a conflict going on where one person was on one side and one was on the other? Yes! This was something you could see. In fact, as you go through this chapter, there just isn’t anything anywhere about an invisible church. This is about people whom you can see, messengers bearing messages that you can hear. Even the wicked people can tell who is being persecuted. So it is not talking about the church triumphant, it is not talking about the invisible church; but it still says that the church is composed of faithful souls.

Every Word that Proceeds from God

Ellen White says that everyone who is faithful will be saved. That is good news. “Those who keep God’s commandments, those who live, not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, compose the church of the living God.” SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 949.

If you understand those inspired definitions and you understand who the church is, then when someone comes to you and says you must not leave the church, you must stay with the church, what does that mean? I believe in staying with the church. It means to stay with those faithful souls. It means to stay with the people who are living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God and who are keeping the commandments of God. That is what it means. Somebody might say, “You are getting mixed up. Matthew 13 says that there are tares in the church, and the wheat and the tares are all mixed up together. You cannot go and find a church where there is only wheat. The wheat and the tares have to be all together.” That is what people say.

Sinners in Zion

People also say that Ellen White said there are sinners in Zion. (By the way, that does not come from Ellen White, it comes from the Bible, but Ellen White does use it.) She says that right at the end these sinners are going to be sifted out, separated from the church. So, they say, the church is full of sinners. Let us take a look at that for a moment. First of all, let us find out who these sinners in Zion are. I like to make things simple, so here they are: “There are many sinners in Zion, and they are likened to tares among the wheat.” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, October 10, 1893. So these sinners in Zion are the tares. If we can figure out what Jesus was trying to teach us about the tares, we will understand about the sinners in Zion.

I just want to find out the truth. If the truth requires me to do something completely different than I am doing, then I want to do it. I have perfect confidence that if I find the truth, the truth will always agree with itself, and I will be on solid ground.

The Wheat and the Tares

First of all, let us look at a few points about the wheat and the tares. This is one of the few parables that Jesus gave where His explanation to His disciples is recorded afterward, and He said, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Matthew 13:36-43.

In verse 30 and 40 it says “at the end of the age.” The word “at” makes people think that a point in time is being referenced, which is not the case at all. In the Greek it says “in.” In other words, during the end of the age. The harvest time is during the closing period of earth’s history, and that is when the angels are going to gather out the tares.

In Christ’s Object Lessons, 70, Ellen White talks about the parable of the tares, which brings up several questions: First of all, we want to know who and what a tare is, because a tare is not to be uprooted. Now the way some people interpret that, you would think you could never put any wicked person out of the church. But that is not what Jesus was trying to teach. Let us see what Jesus was talking about.

“…it is in the church that we are to grow and ripen for the garner of God.” The wheat grows and ripens for the garner of God. Where? In the church. So is it important to know what the church is? If you are wrong about where you think the church is, could it result in you not having salvation? Is that possible? It most certainly is!

Where are the Tares?

Let us look at several facts about the tares. Who plants the tares? The devil. Where does he plant them? In the church. Let us notice how they are described. She calls them ‘those who bear Christ’s name while they deny His character.’ They bear His name; they are professed members of the church, but they deny His character. Are they connected to the church? In a way they are, and in a way they are not. But here are some descriptions of the tares. “Christ’s servants are grieved as they see true and false believers mingled in the church.” Ibid., 71. So a tare is a false believer. “The tares represent a class who are the fruit, or embodiment of error, of false principles.” They have false principles; they are false believers, but notice how she describes them on page 72. “The real character of these pretended believers is not fully manifested.” What does she call them? Pretended believers!

Notice three different descriptions of the tares. They are planted by the devil, and they are the embodiment of false principles. They are false believers, but they pretended to be believers. On the outside they look the same. And then on page 73 she gives another description and she mentions it twice. She calls them false brethren. So, a tare is a false believer, a pretended believer, and a false brother. Let us just think that through for a minute. Is a tare a true brother? No. Is it possible to be in a family, have the family name, but not be part of the family? Yes! But these false brethren are pretended brethren, and pretended believers. Now, let us take it one point further. A tare is a person who, on the outside, looks like a true believer until the time of the harvest. But when it becomes manifest that they are living in open sin, they are to be disfellowshipped, and people want to forget that. People want to think that if someone is a tare, you just have to let them be and the Lord will separate them at the Second Coming. Actually, the separation takes place before the Second Coming. Mrs. White had just been talking about the tares, stating that they are both growing together with the wheat until the harvest, then she says, “Christ has plainly taught that those who persist in open sin must be separated from the church.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 71.

Now let us just think this through so we know exactly what we are talking about. She says, “…He has not committed to us the work of judging character and motive.” Ibid.

An Open Sinner is Not a Tare

Open sin is a sin that involves an action that others can see. Let us be very plain in our speech. Adultery is an open sin if it is committed in the flesh. But if it is only committed in the mind, we do not know about it, and we cannot judge a person by what happens in the mind. That person is a tare, and God is going to judge them, but we cannot. At the time of the harvest, during the time of the end, the Lord is going to separate the people who have sin on the inside, that is not visible on the outside.

If a person covets something that belongs to somebody else, you cannot judge their character and motives. But if they actually rob or steal, that is an open sin. Christ has plainly taught that those who persist in open sin must be separated from the church. We find that in Matthew 18.
Paul also taught the same thing in 1 Corinthians 5. The apostle John taught it as well in 2 John.

When did the devil plant the tares? We know he planted them in the church, but when did he plant them? What time of day? While men slept. Have you read any warnings in the Spirit of Prophecy given to Seventh-day Adventists who are asleep? She tells us that we need to wake up! The more the church sleeps, the more tares the devil is going to plant. What would you do if you were in a church and the devil planted so many tares that the tares controlled the church? If there is somebody living in open sin, they should be disfellowshipped from the church. People who are living in adultery, incest, robbery, open liars, people who are openly breaking one of the Ten Commandments, are to be disfellowshipped.

When the Tares are in Control

But suppose they cannot be disfellow-shipped because the tares are in control of the church. The devil has planted so many, and people have slept so long, that the tares are in control. Suppose someone in your church has robbed a bank. You come to the church business meeting and some people are saying, ‘This man is disgracing the name of the church, and we must disfellowship him.’ However, another group of people are thinking, ‘If we disfellowship him, what is going to happen to me? I have done some pretty bad things myself,’ so there is no one willing to disfellowship somebody who is living in open sin because the tares are in control of the church.

What would you do then? Leave that church? Did you know that this has happened before? In fact, when Jesus was here the tares had control of the Jewish church. As you read the gospels, you can plainly see that. Why did they crucify the Lord? Because the tares were in control of the church.

Jesus gave very specific advice on what to do if the tares control the church.

“When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, ‘Hear and understand: not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.’ Then His disciples came and said to Him, ‘Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’” Matthew 15:10. The Pharisees were in control of the church in that day. There is no question about it, they were in the driver’s seat. Notice what Jesus said. “But He answered and said, ‘Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.’” Ibid., 13.

Who plants the wheat? The Son of man. But these are plants that God did not plant. So who planted them? The devil. They are tares. But these tares are in control of the church. You cannot get them out. Jesus said they are coming out. There will be judgments coming and these tares are going to come out, but you cannot get them out. So what should you do? Jesus tells us what to do. “Let them alone.” Some may say, “Oh no, Lord, that could not be possible. This is the true church, do you not understand that?” Well, is God God, or not? If tares are in control of the church, should you try to destroy and uproot them? Jesus said, “’Let them alone, they are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into the ditch.’” Ibid., 14.

Are you Being Led by Tares?

Now let us think that through. Not only did Jesus say to let them alone, but He warns you not to let those people lead you, or you are going to go into the ditch. “Oh, but Lord, these Pharisees, they are the leaders of the church, and I need to go to the synagogue and listen to them preach.” Well, if you do, Jesus says you are going to go into the ditch. People need to study Matthew 15:14. It always says the same thing.

Let us look at the harvest. During the time of harvest something is going to happen. “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest [that is during the time of the harvest] I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into My barn.’” Matthew 13:30. Notice, there is a two-fold harvest. At the harvest time Jesus said the first thing that gets harvested are the tares, the wheat harvest comes later. The tares will be bound in bundles, the wheat is not bound in bundles; but is harvested one at a time. If you are going to be in God’s granary, in His garner, you are not saved as a family, you must be saved as an individual. Who does it? Look at verses 40 and 41. “Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness.” So the first thing that happens is that the angels do a work of separation. This is one of the most fearful things that any Christian can think about.

“The looker-on may discern no difference, but there is One who said that the tares were not to be plucked up by human hands lest the wheat be rooted up also. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then the Lord sends forth His reapers to gather the tares and binds them in bundles to burn, while the wheat is gathered into the heavenly garner. The time of the judgment is a most solemn period. When the Lord gathers His own from among the tares, those who have been members of the same family are separated.” Testimonies to Ministers, 234.

Eternal Separation

When we say that those who have been members of the same family are separated, we are talking about an eternal separation. This is not a pleasant thing to think about, but it is reality. We are all going to have to face it sometime. In the time of the harvest, there is a separation of the tares from the wheat.

What is this separation? First, the tares are bound in bundles; and this binding of the tares in bundles is happening, and has been happening, for a long time. For example: Ellen White wrote a long time ago that the labor unions were one of the agencies by which people were being bound in bundles as the tares. (See Pamphlet to Sanitarium Workers in Southern California, 1905.) A lot of people do not know that. She also wrote that fearful is the work of the Third Angel. (See Early Writings, 118.) This is the Third Angel recorded in Revelation 14:9-12. His work is to separate the wheat and the tares. Whenever someone preaches the Third Angel’s Message, separations take place. Have you ever seen that happen in families? One person accepts the Third Angel’s Message, other people do not. What happens? There is a separation. The Third Angel separates the wheat and the tares. A mark is placed upon the righteous. “They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” Malachi 3:17. Those who have been obedient to God’s commandments, will unite with the company of the saints in light; they shall enter in through the gates into the city, and have right to the tree of life. The one shall be taken. His name shall stand in the Book of Life, while those with whom he associated shall have the mark of eternal from God.” Testimonies to Ministers, 234, 235.

Notice, this separation involves a mark. The righteous will have a mark and the wicked will have a mark. There will be a mark of deliverance and there will be a mark of destruction.

The harvest occurs during the end of the age. And of course, this harvest involves the purification of the church, because once you have all the tares out, you have a pure church. There are many statements in inspired writings about how the purification of the church takes place. What we want to understand is how the church is purified. How does it happen? It is very important to understand, because there are many people who say the organized church (the structure) is going to go through; it is going to go through purified. The next question is how is it going to be purified? You need to find out how it is going to be purified, and how the Lord is going to take it to glory. Is God going to take a church to glory that has sin in it? No. The church has to be purified before it can go to glory.

Purification of the Church

Next month we will look at how the tares are going to be separated from the wheat; how the sinners in Zion are going to be sifted out; how the purification of the church is going to take place. We will find that inspired writings are very, very specific about how this will take place.

1 John 2:19 has to do with this purification of the church. You see, the purification of the church has happened in other ages, too, not just at the end. It says, “They went out from us.” Now let us think that through a little bit. Who is “us”? The church. What church? Who is the church according to Acts of the Apostles, page 11? Faithful souls. It is those who keep the commandments of God and live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Is that the definition of “us” that John is using here? Oh, surely it is. Look back at the beginning of 1 John 2:3–5. He says that the way you can tell if you really know Him is if you keep His commandments. And the one who says that he knows Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar. He talks about the little children, the fathers and the young men, and these are the people who have overcome the wicked one. These are people who are overcoming, who love their brother as themselves, who are keeping the commandments. That is the “us”! It is very clear who “us” is. Who are “they”? “They” went out from us. Are they the wheat or the tares? They are the tares, they left. But notice how it says this. “They went out from us, but they were not of us.” (Verse 19.) They had the name. They were professed church members. They were apparently part of the church. They went out from “us”, but they were not really of “us”, even though they had the profession and they looked like they were part of “us.” They were not of “us”, he said, because they left. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” If they had really been the wheat, they would have stayed. “But they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.” Ibid. Very, very interesting text. You have to understand who and what the church is to understand that text. All the apostles understood this. The apostle John understood who the church was. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” Formerly they had the name. They came to church. It looked like they were part of “us” but they really were not, they were the tares, they were these pretended believers—these false brethren. Finally things developed so that they left.

Paul says the same thing, “But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel.” Romans the 9:6-8. Everybody who has a connection with the church is not really of the church. Only the faithful are really part of it. There are a lot of other people clinging to the skirts of Zion who are going to get shaken off. “Nor are they all children because they are of the seed of Abraham; but, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called.’ That is, those who are the children of the flesh.” Those are the people who say, “I am a descendent of Abraham, I am part of the church.” But making a profession does not make you part of the church. “These are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.”

Are You Planted in His Vineyard?

Ellen White says the same thing over and over again in Christ’s Object Lessons, 216. “Shall the words of doom erelong be spoken of you? How long have you received His gifts? How long has He watched and waited for a return of love? Planted in His vineyard [the church], under the watchful care of the gardener, what privileges are yours! How often has the tender gospel message thrilled your heart! You have taken the name of Christ, you are outwardly a member of the church which is His body, and yet you are conscious of no living connection with the great heart of love.”

Outwardly you are a member; inwardly you are not. Outwardly you are part of the church; inwardly you are not. Just like the parable of the vine and the branches in John 15, some had an outward connection, and some had an inner connection. Those who had only the outward connection were cut off and burned up. Those who had the inward connection bore fruit.

Profession Is Not Everything

“God called them (the Jews) to be co-workers with Him in blessing the world; but while in profession they accepted the call, in action they refused obedience.” Ibid., 279. In profession they claimed to be sons of God. They professed to be part of the church, but in life and character they denied that relationship. Their profession is one thing; their life and character is something else. “In taking upon themselves the solemn covenant of the church they have pledged themselves to receive and obey the word of God, to give themselves to God’s service, but they do not do this.” Ibid.

They profess something, but they do not live it out; it is not real. They have an outward connection, but the inner connection, by which the life of Christ flows into their life, is not there.

“The professed followers of Christ are on trial before the heavenly universe; but the coldness of their zeal and the feebleness of their efforts in God’s service, mark them as unfaithful. If what they are doing were the best they could do, condemnation would not rest upon them; but were their hearts enlisted in the work, they could do much more. They know, and the world knows, that they have, to a great degree, lost the spirit of self-denial and cross bearing. Many there are against whose names will be found written in the books of heaven. Not producers, but consumers. By many who bear Christ’s name, His glory is obscured, His beauty veiled, His honor withheld. There are many whose names are on the church books, but who are not under Christ’s rule . They are not heeding His instruction or doing His work. There they are under the control of the enemy.” Ibid 303, 304

They have the name, but whose control are they under? Satan’s! There may be those who say we should not worry about all of this because the Lord is going to straighten it all out. The Lord is going to straighten it all out! Next month we will see just how He is going to do it.

The church is going to be purified, but, as we look at this subject, about which church is going to go through, remember we are asking one question. The question is, how? Your understanding has to agree with all of the inspired statements. If it does not agree with all of the inspired statements, there is something wrong.

An Inner Connection to Christ

There is a church that is going through, and that church is going to be composed of people who are overcomers. They do not just take the name, but they actually have an inner connection to Christ through the Holy Spirit, and the divine power is coming into their lives to give them power to overcome.

If you cannot understand everything yet, can you understand that if you are going to remain with the church until it becomes triumphant, you have to be an overcomer? You cannot just be a professor of religion, and play church. There are a lot of people playing church today. Do you know what it means to play church? You go to church. Maybe you are a deacon; maybe you teach the Sabbath School lesson or the Sunday School lesson; maybe you are even a preacher, or an evangelist, or an administrator. Maybe you have a high position in the church. You can do all of those things and just be playing church. The Pharisees did all those things, and people thought that they were righteous because on the outside it looked like they were. Judas did it. He was a tare. Annanias and Saphira did it, and they are described as tares. Demas did it, and he was described as a tare. Simon Magus was baptized; yet he was a tare. In every single one of these instances, when the tares developed to the point where they were in open sin, they were removed from the church. Do not ever forget that. The important thing for you, as an individual, even if you cannot understand all of the theology and all of the questions that people may ask you, is to understand this: the only people who are going to go through to the end are the people who overcome their sins. Are you going to be one of them?

Some years ago one of our best-known preachers made the statement that in these final battles we might lose some whole divisions. We might lose more than whole divisions. We might lose the whole General Conference. But the church will still go through. The question is, are you going to be an overcomer and go through with it? The Lord has power to help you if you are willing to surrender all to Him, follow Him, and be faithful to Him.

Those Who Follow the Lamb

In vision John saw a group of people who will ‘follow the Lamb whethersoever He goeth.’ They are going to be taken out of this world alive and taken to heaven. Would it not be wonderful if some of you could be part of that group? It could happen if you are willing to be faithful—not just to be a professed believer, Paul said to the Corinthians, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.” 2 Corinthians 13:5. Jesus Christ is in you unless you are unapproved. Is Jesus Christ in you? Can you say like Paul, “For me to live is Christ?” That is what will make you a grain of wheat. The Lord has promised in this last great contest that not one grain of wheat will fall to the ground.

Whatever my responsibilities are in this world, I have a pastor’s heart inside. I have a shepherd’s heart inside. I want to see every person reading this article saved. I would like to see the whole world saved, but I cannot bring it about. Would it not be wonderful if there were a few churches around, where the whole church was saved? If everybody is going to be saved in your church, you have to be saved. Every single one of you can be saved if you are willing to surrender all to Jesus. Say, “Lord I am in this thing for real, for serious. Please come into my heart so You and Your love may be living inside of me. I want my religion to not just be a profession, but something that I look like, something real.” Do you want to have that experience? Do you want to be connected to the Lord Jesus so that He is in you? If that is your desire, make a commitment to Him and say, “Lord, I want you inside to transform my heart and my life, to make me a grain of wheat.”