This treatise
covers some aspects of extreme importance that Bruce Bivens’ book does not
cover in regard to the serious relationship between the Trinity Doctrine
and the Omega of Apostasy.
Most SDA’s I have dealt with regarding Selected Messages, Book 1, pp. 204-5,
are under the impression that because Ellen White dealt with the Alpha of
apostasy by forthrightly “meeting it,” that the new movement statement was
fully dealt with forever and does not apply to the apostate circumstance
the church finds itself in today. That could not be further from the truth.
Every specification of the following statement can by proven to be fulfilled
and/or fulfilling today.
Ellen White prophesied that the omega
would soon follow and be so bad that she trembled for our people. She said
that nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement
should it develop in the future by saying that the omega would surely come
and wax stronger until Jesus comes.
"The enemy of souls has sought to
bring in the supposition that a great reformation was 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, and engaging in a process of reorganization.
Were this reformation to take place, what would result? The principles of
truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church, would be
discarded. Our religion would be changed. The fundamental principles that
have sustained the work for the last fifty years would be accounted as
error. A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would
be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The
founders of this system would go into the cities, and do a
205
wonderful work. The Sabbath of course, would be lightly regarded, as also
the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new
movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but
God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which,
without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and
storm and tempest would sweep away the structure. {1SM 204.2}
Who has authority
to begin such a movement? We have our Bibles. We have our experience,
attested to by the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit. We have a truth
that admits of no compromise. Shall we not repudiate everything that is not
in harmony with this truth? {1SM 205.1}
I hesitated and
delayed about the sending out of that which the Spirit of the Lord impelled
me to write. I did not want to be compelled to present the misleading
influence of these sophistries. But in the providence of God, the errors
that have been coming in must be met. {1SM 205.2}
An
Iceberg! "Meet It"
Shortly before I
sent out the testimonies regarding the efforts of the enemy to undermine
the foundation of our faith through the dissemination of seductive
theories, I had read an incident about a ship in a fog meeting an iceberg.
For several nights I slept but little. I seemed to be bowed down as a cart
beneath sheaves. 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. The passengers were violently shaken by the force
of the collisions, but no lives were lost. The vessel was injured, but not
beyond repair. She rebounded from the contact, trembling from
206
stem to stern, like a living creature. Then she moved forward on her way.
{1SM 205.3}
Well I knew the
meaning of this representation. I had my orders. I had heard the words,
like a voice from our Captain, "Meet it!" I knew what my duty
was, and that there was not a moment to lose. The time for decided action
had come. I must without delay obey the command, "Meet it!". {1SM
206.1}
That night I was
up at one o'clock, writing as fast as my hand could pass over the paper.
For the next few days I worked early and late, preparing for our people the
instruction given me regarding the errors that were coming in among us.
{1SM 206.2}
I have been
hoping that there would be a thorough reformation, and that the principles
for which we fought in the early days, and which were brought out in the
power of the Holy Spirit, would be maintained." {1SM 206.3}
Ellen White's Statements on the Omega
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.--Letter 263, 1904, p. 4. (To Our Leading
Physicians, July 24, 1904.) {7MR 188.2}
Omega of Apostasy to Wax Stronger Until Jesus Comes
Wax stronger "One
thing it is certain is soon to be realized, the great apostasy, which is
developing and increasing and waxing stronger, and will continue to do so
until the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout. We are to hold fast
the first principles of our denominated faith, and go forward from strength
to increased faith. Ever we are to keep the faith that has been
substantiated by the Holy Spirit of God from the earlier events of our
experience until the present time. We need now larger breadth, and deeper,
more earnest, unwavering faith in the leadings of the Holy Spirit. If we
needed the manifest proof of the Holy Spirit's power to confirm truth in
the beginning, after the passing of the time, we need to-day all the
evidence in the confirmation of the truth, when souls are departing from
the faith and giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
There must not be any languishing of soul now." (E.G. White, Special
Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, p. 57).
Context of the above
statement below:
February 7, 1906
Standing In the Way of God's Messages.
One thing it is certain is soon to be
realized,--the great apostasy, which is developing and increasing and
waxing stronger, and will continue to do so until the Lord shall descend
from heaven with a shout. We are to hold fast the first principles of
our denominated faith, and go forward from strength to increased faith.
Ever we are to keep the faith that that has been substantiated by the Holy
Spirit of God from the earlier events of our experience, until the present
time. We need now larger breadth, and deeper, more earnest, unwavering
faith in the leadings of the Holy Spirit. If we needed the manifest proof
of the Holy Spirit's power to confirm truth in the beginning after the
passing of the time, we need today all the evidence in the confirmation of
the truth, when souls are departing from the faith and giving heed to
seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. There must not be any languishing
of soul now. {NYI, February 7, 1906 par. 1}
Ron's Commentary: Note
the date, 1906, right after she had met the Kellogg and
company apostasy of 1900-1905.
If ever there was a period of time
when we needed the Holy Spirit's power in our discourses, in our prayers,
in every action proposed, it is now. We are not to stop at the first
experience, but while we bear the same message to the people, this message
is to be strengthened and enlarged. We are to see and realize the
importance of the message, made certain by its divine origin. We are to
follow on to know the Lord, that we may know that his going forth is
prepared as the morning. {NYI, February 7, 1906 par. 2}
Our souls need the quickening from the
Source of all power. We may be strengthened and confirmed in the past
experience that holds us to the essential points of truth which have made
us what we are,--Seventh-day Adventists. {NYI, February 7, 1906 par. 3}
The past fifty years have not dimmed
one jot or principle of our faith as we received the great and wonderful
evidences that were made certain to us in 1844, after the passing of the
time. The languishing souls are to be confirmed and quickened according to
his word. And many of the ministers of the gospel and the Lord's physicians
will have their languishing souls quickened according to the word. Not a
word is changed or denied. That which the Holy Spirit testified to as truth
after the passing of the time, in our great disappointment, is the solid
foundation of truth. Pillars of truth were revealed, and we accepted the
foundation principles that have made us what we are--Seventh-day
Adventists, keeping the commandments of God and having the faith of Jesus.
{NYI, February 7, 1906 par. 4}
Have not the hearts of Christ's
disciples burned within them as he has talked with us by the way and opened
to us the Scriptures? Has not the Lord Jesus opened to us the Scriptures,
and presented to us things kept secret from the foundation of the world?
Some have heard the reading of the evidence of the binding claims of the
law of God, and the enjoined obedience to his commandments, and have felt
their characters to be in such contrast to the requirements that had they
been placed in circumstances similar to Jehoiakim, king of Judah, they
would have done as he did. A special message was sent to him to be read in
his hearing, but after listening to three or four pages, he cut it out with
a penknife, and cast it into the fire. But this could not destroy the
message; for the word of God will never return unto him void. The same Holy
Spirit who had given the first testimony, which was refused and burned,
came to the servant of God, who caused the first to be written in the roll,
and repeated the very message that had been rejected, caused the latter to
be written and added a great deal more to it. {NYI, February 7, 1906 par.
5}
Those who are willing to have the
straight, plain messages of God consumed, to get them out of their sight,
will only give increased publicity to, and confirmation of, the messages
that they dismissed and repulsed. When the Lord sends a message to any man
or woman, and they refuse to be corrected, refuse to receive it that is
not the end of the message by any means. All the transaction is
recorded, and those who took part in it, by their refusal to be corrected,
pronounce their own sentence against themselves. {NYI, February 7, 1906
par. 6}
When God sends a message to any
person, minister or doctor, if men pursue a course to make of no effect the
message sent, a course that destroys the influence of the message that God
designed should make a change in the principles of the one corrected, and
turn his heart to repentance, it would be better for these men if they had
never been born. Wickedness and deceit remain in the one to whom the Lord
in mercy sent his message, but they, through Satan's devising, took it upon
themselves to justify and vindicate the one whom God had corrected, and he
took it upon himself to refuse the message given, and went on, sustained by
men who claimed to be the ministers and doctors of the Lord. The one who
ought to have realized his sin and corrected his evil, was presumptuous,
and turned from the messages of God to follow his own course, until sin, in
deception, in falsehood, in unprincipled working, in underhand dealing,
became current. Whether there is any hope of a change, we know not. But all
who have built that man up in his crooked course of action, which they know
was not justice and righteousness, will suffer with the transgressor,
unless they shall humble themselves before God, and show that repentance
that needeth not to be repented of. {NYI, February 7, 1906 par. 7}
Thus saith the Lord, I am the high and
holy One who inhabiteth eternity. The Lord God will be vindicated in the
interest he has taken to bring men to repentance, that they should see
their crooked ways and turn and be converted. But ministers and doctors
have stepped in between God and men reproved, and made of no effect the
reproofs he has sent, notwithstanding that the warning was to save erring
men, and turn them from their wrong course of action, that their usefulness
should not be destroyed. {NYI, February 7, 1906 par. 8}
The Spirit who asked Zechariah,
"What seest thou?" to which he answered, "I see a flying
roll," also caused an angel to fly in the midst of heaven,
"having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the
earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying
with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him [let no glory be given
to erring, sinful men]; for the hour of his judgment is come." Many
indeed will not understand, but will stumble at the words contained in the
roll. Ellen G. White. Sanitarium, Cal., Dec. 4, 1905. {NYI, February
7, 1906 par. 9}
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. 1SM 197.
One need not separate
from the church to depart from the faith! Apostate leaders who lead to
destruction (Isaiah 9:16) have certainly proven that fact.
"The
spiritualistic theories regarding the
personality of God [the Godhead], followed to their
logical conclusion, sweep away the whole Christian economy. They estimate as
nothing the light that Christ came from heaven to give John to give to His
people. They teach that the scenes just before us are not of sufficient importance
to be given special attention. They make of no effect the truth of heavenly
origin, and rob the people of God of their past experience, giving them
instead a false science." E.G. White, Selected Messages, Bk.1,
p. 204.
Personality of God and of Christ
Landmark/Pillar Doctrines GONE!
In 1SM 204-5, Ellen White said that the
new movement would give up the
doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith. That is
precisely what has occurred and regarding something so basic as the
personality of God which Ellen White and common sense dictates as a
landmark, pillar of our faith.
"Those
who seek to remove the old
landmarks are not
holding fast they are not remembering how they have received and heard.
Those who try to bring in
theories that would
remove the pillars of
our faith concerning the
sanctuary or concerning the personality of God or of Christ, are working as blind men. They are seeking to bring in
uncertainties and to set the people of God adrift without an anchor."
{MR760 9.5}
·
The Alpha of Apostasy had to do with the
personality of God/Christ.
·
Of course that would be BASIC to the
LANDMARKS/PILLARS of our faith.
·
Of course that would involve the
Sanctuary Service.
·
Of course that would involve the
Atonement which was/is part of the Sanctuary Service.
Ellen White saw
them both GONE in the Alpha of Apostasy
Sanctuary Gone
Atonement Gone -- "In a representation which passed
before me, I saw a certain work being done by medical missionary workers
[Kellogg and company]. Our ministering brethren were looking on, watching
what was being done, but they did not seem to understand. The foundation of
our faith, which was established by so much prayer, such earnest searching
of the Scriptures, was being taken down, pillar by pillar. Our faith was to
have nothing to rest upon--the sanctuary was gone, the atonement was gone." E.G. White, The Upward Look, 152.
The
Sanctuary/Atonement Service involves the death of the Testator of the
Everlasting Covenant. That death must be equal to man’s penalty for sin
which is eternal death for unconfessed sin. So the Testator must die to
something eternally, not just three days and nights on the cross, for while
the Testator lives, the Testament is of no
Hbr 9:16 For
where a testament [is], there must also of necessity be the death of the
testator.
Hbr 9:17 For a
testament [is] of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
The Alpha of
Apostasy rendered the Sanctuary and the Atonement GONE, and so does the Omega
of Apostasy. The Omega denies any eternal death to anything on the part of
the Testator. That is what the Trinity Doctrine denies. That most heinous
of Catholic doctrines denies that the Holy Spirit is the soul of Christ’s
former life, His Divine Nature, which He bequeathed to us for overcoming
all sins of the flesh and being remade in the image of God.
"Christ declared that
after his ascension, he would send to his church, as his crowning gift, the Comforter,
who was to take his place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit,--the soul of his life, the efficacy of
his church, the light and life of the world. With his Spirit Christ sends a
reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin.
In the gift of the
Spirit [HIS LIFE--THE SOUL OF HIS LIFE], Jesus gave to man the highest good that
heaven could bestow....
The Spirit was given as a
regenerating agency, and without this the sacrifice of Christ [on the cross] would have been
of no avail....
It is by the Spirit that the
heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given his Spirit as a divine power to overcome all
hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress his own
character upon the church." E.G. White, Review and Herald Articles, May 19, 1904, vol. 5, p. 42.
"Cumbered with humanity
Christ could not be in every place personally, therefore it was altogether
for their advantage that He should leave them to go to His Father and send
the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself
divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would
represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit.” E.G. White,
(Manuscript Releases Volume 14
(No’s 1081-1135) MR No.1084.
The only way that the Holy
Spirit could be a separate and distinct person, and yet be the life and
soul of Christ, is that He EMPTIED HIMSELF of that DIVINE ONLY BEING, and
became combined with man forever. That DIVINE ONLY HOLY SPIRIT OF CHRIST,
then became the third person of the Godhead—the Holy Spirit. Did the Holy
Spirit always exist? Of course it did because the Son of Man always
existed. But it did not exist as a third person until the Son of Man was
slain from the foundation of the earth.
Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon
the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
So Christ was slain BEFORE
the cross, in a way that was eternal. He EMPTIED Himself of something—His
former life and soul CONSISTING OF A DIVINE ONLY BEING.
Phl 2:5 Have
this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
Phl 2:6 who,
though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing
to be grasped,
Phl 2:7 but emptied himself, taking the form
of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [RSV]
Emptied
Himself of what? His Divine Nature Holy Spirit soul of His life. That is
why He could not be omnipresent, omnipotent, and/or omniscient in His
humanity. His humanity cumbered those attributes of His personality.
The Alpha
involved pantheism with the personality of God--that the Holy Spirit was in
everything.
· The omega involves the personality of God by teaching that the Holy
Spirit always existed as a third person, so there was no Sanctuary
Atonement sacrifice of the Son of God, which gave to us the life that was His:
"He
(Christ) suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life
which WAS His." Desire of Ages, p. 25 1 Cor. 11:24-265, cf.
John 6:53, 54, Titus 3:5, 6.
· The omega of apostasy involves an SDA apostate new movement that is
in association, counsel/council/ girding, and confederacy with the World
Council of Churches and its subsidiary organization, the various National
Councils of Churches and their local Ministerial Associations. The World
Council of Churches members non-Christian churches that teach pantheism.
· The church has held New
Age Seminars at Loma Linda University which taught that we should look
within instead of looking to God; to be as gods and that we can sin and
live.
· Thus, the SDA new movement
church is joined to an organization that embraces pantheism and pays annual
dues to the WCC and its subsidiary organizations around the world. For such
acts, the SDA church is corporately responsible under the Achan principle
of Joshua, Chapters 6 and 7, as well as the following counsel:
· "The plain straight
testimony must live in the church, or the curse of God will rest upon His
people as surely as it did upon ancient Israel because of their sins. God
holds His people, as a body [corporately], responsible for the sins
existing in individuals among them." Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 269.
· 1Cr 6:16 What? know ye not that
he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be
one flesh.
The Trinity Doctrine is nothing more than
a man-made spiritualistic theory and it surely regards the personality
of God and the "highest good, crowning gift that heaven can
bestow!" That man-made theory denies the greatest sacrifice Christ
made--that of emptying Himself of His Holy Spirit life and soul DIVINE ONLY
BEING, forever, in order to become united with humanity FOREVER. He then
gave that Holy Spirit life and soul to all who accept it for the purpose of
regeneration back into the image of God. The Trinity Doctrine, denies that
EMPTYING SACRIFICE which occurred from the foundation of the earth, by
teaching that the Holy Spirit of the Son of Man never made any such
sacrifice which resulted in the Holy Spirit BECOMING a third person.
Advocates of the Trinity Doctrine teach that the Holy Spirit always existed
as a third person, and that is not true. That is the lie of Roman
Catholicism, and they brag that the Trinity Doctrine is their CENTRAL
DOCTRINE.
The Trinity Doctrine thus sweeps away the
whole Christian economy! It denies the Sanctuary Service at which THE
EMPTYING of the Son of Man of His Holy Spirit (ONLY) BEING occurred—at the
foundation of the earth. Scripture says that He was slain from the
foundation of the earth, long before the cross. So the Trinity Doctrine
renders the Sanctuary/Atonement GONE.
There could be no greater blasphemy than
Rome’s Trinity Doctrine because it denies the “highest good, crowing gift
that heaven could bestow.” I repeat for important emphasis:
"Christ declared that
after his ascension, he would send to his church, as his crowning gift, the Comforter,
who was to take his place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit,--the soul of his life, the efficacy of
his church, the light and life of the world. With his Spirit Christ sends a
reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin.
In the gift of the
Spirit [HIS LIFE--THE SOUL OF HIS LIFE], Jesus gave to man the highest good that
heaven could bestow....
The Spirit was given as a regenerating
agency, and without this the sacrifice of Christ [on the cross] would have been
of no avail....
It is by the Spirit that the
heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given his Spirit as a divine power to overcome all
hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress his own
character upon the church." E.G. White, Review and Herald Articles, May 19, 1904, vol. 5, p. 42.
The Omega to Occur Soon After the Alpha
I did not read Living Temple, though I had it
in my
library. At last my son said to me, "Mother, you ought to read at
least some parts of the book, that you may see whether they are in harmony
with the light that God has given you." He sat down beside me, and we
read the paragraphs to which he referred. When we had finished I turned to
him and said, "These are the very sentiments against which I was
bidden to speak in warning at the very
beginning of my public work. When I first left the State of Maine, I was to
go through Vermont and Massachusetts, to bear a testimony against these
sentiments. Living Temple contains the Alpha of these theories. The Omega would follow in a little while. I tremble for our people.
These beautiful representations are similar to the temptation
that the enemy brought to Adam and Eve in Eden.
[Unpublished
Manuscripts, Volume 3 p. 124 para. 3] p. 571, Para. 3, [1904MS].
The omega of apostasy arrived in 1930-31, when
primarily ONE MAN, Leroy Froom, brought in the Trinity Doctrine. That was
but fifteen years after Ellen White’s death in 1915.
Why did Ellen White TREMBLE for our people in regard to the Omega?
Because she SAW that the church would end-up teaching the same lie that
Satan told Eve and Adam—that it could lie about something as important as
the Sanctuary/Atonement, and even do away with such and thus commit the
greatest sin and live.
Rome has always regarded the Trinity Doctrine with such sanctity
that it is anathema to disbelieve it. Apostate Adventism has followed Rome
in the most heinous apostasy that man could devise. This doctrine involves
unpardonable sin TO ALL WHO KNOW OF THIS APOSTASY and choose to
remain a member of a church that has committed it. Why? Because the Trinity
doctrine speaks against the Holy Spirit and the Bible says that is
unpardonable. It speaks against the sacrifice of the “highest good, crowning gift” that heaven
could bestow, the Holy Spirit Divine Nature of Christ’s former life and
soul.
Mat 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy [against] the [Holy] Ghost shall not
be forgiven unto men.
Mat 12:32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it
shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it
shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the [world] to
come.
"I
knew that the Omega would follow in a little while, and I trembled for our people."
Special Testimonies, Series B; Mimeographed
Edition, p. 49.
She trembled for “OUR PEOPLE”
collectively, not just as individuals.
It
should be clear as to why Ellen White trembled for professing Seventh-day
Adventists, for the omega involves the unpardonable
sin of speaking against the “highest good” “crowning gift” of the Holy Spirit to the church, by
teaching a Catholic doctrine that denies the eternal sacrifice of the
Divine Nature Holy Spirit for man, and that this sacrifice resulted in the
THIRD PERSON of the Godhead.
After
denouncing the Alpha of Apostasy which shook the very foundations of our
church, Sister White predicted:
"The
Omega will follow, and it will be received by those who are not willing
to heed the warning God has given." Special Testimonies, Series B, Mimeographed Edition p. 47.
Those
who are aware of the seriousness of the above data and who still choose to
remain members of a new movement formed within, “among” the church which we
were never to join, commit unpardonable sin. God says that he who is joined
to a harlot is one with her. Ellen White and Scripture are crystal clear on
corporate responsibility. The only way one is ever corporately responsible
is via membership in a corporate body.
Those
who claim they remain members of the apostate church in order to better
warn others, might just as well by the same logic join Babylon’s churches
to warn them, but that is forbidden by the Word. They thus violate the
following counsel as well:
"We should never give sanction to sin by our words, our
deeds, our silence or our presence." Desire of Ages, 152.
Isaiah 8:9-12 should be sufficient for the wise. Those
verses give one option for ignoring their counsel.
It should be well noted that Jesus “gathered out” those who
would make the two calls of Matthew 22 to the Jews, and then to the world,
3 ½ years BEFORE those calls were made after the stoning of Stephen:
"The Sanhedrin had rejected Christ's
message and was bent upon His death therefore Jesus departed from Jerusalem, from the priests, the temple, the
religious leaders, the people who had been instructed in the law, and
turned to another class to proclaim His message, and to gather out those who should carry the
gospel to all nations.
As the light and life of men was rejected by
the ecclesiastical authorities in the days of Christ, so it has been
rejected in every succeeding generation. Again and again the history of
Christ's withdrawal from Judea has been repeated. When the Reformers
preached the word of God, they had no thought of separating themselves from
the established church but the religious leaders would not tolerate the
light, and those that bore it were forced to seek another class, who were
longing for the truth. In our day few of the professed followers of the
Reformers are actuated by their spirit. Few are listening for the voice of
God, and ready to accept truth in whatever guise it may be presented. Often
those who follow in the steps of the Reformers are forced to turn away from
the churches they love, in order to declare the plain teaching of the word
of God. And many times those who are seeking for light are by the same
teaching obliged to leave the church of their fathers, that they may render
obedience." E.G. White, Desire of Ages, 232.
There is only ONE reason given in the above
statement for why all true reformers have in every succeeding generation
left the church of their fathers—and that is because the leaders would not
tolerate light! Were they wrong in leaving for that ONE REASON? Were
they cowards?! Was Jesus and His disciples? Should they have stayed and
warned their fellows? Did they remain joined to the apostate church for
that purpose or did they form home churches all over Judea?
Christ left
"Christ was a
protestant...The Reformers date back to Christ and the apostles. They came
out and separated themselves from a religion of forms and ceremonies.
Luther and his followers did not invent the reformed religion. They simply
accepted it as presented by Christ and the apostles." E.G. White, Review
and Herald, vol. 2, 48, col. 2.
Paul left
"And as they persisted in
their rejection of the gospel the apostle (Paul) went into the synagogue,
and spake boldly for the space for three months, disputing and persuading
the things concerning the kingdom of God. But when divers were hardened,
and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he
departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the
school of one Tyrannus." Acts, 19:8, 9.
"Fearing that the faith of
the believers would be endangered by continued association with these
opposers of the truth, Paul separated from them, and gathered the disciples
into a distinct body." E.G. White, Acts of the Apostles, p. 286.
"The recreant priests
added licentiousness to the dark catalogue of their crimes yet they still
polluted by their presence the tabernacle of the Lord, and, laden with sin,
dared to come into the presence of a holy God. 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." E.G. White, The Signs of the Times, vol. 1, p. 264, col. 3,
December 1, 1881.
"And as they persisted in
their rejection of the gospel the apostle (Paul) went into the synagogue,
and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading
the things concerning the kingdom of God. But when divers were hardened,
and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed
from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of
one Tyrannus." Acts, 19:8, 9.
"Even though you may not be
able to speak a word to those who are working on wrong principles, leave
them. Your withdrawal and silence may do more than words. Nehemiah refused
to associate with those who were untrue to principle, and he would not
permit his workmen to associate with them The love and fear of God were his
safeguard-Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone. Thus as did Moses, you
will endure the seeing of Him who is invisible. But a cowardly and silent
reserve before evil associates, while you listen to their devices makes you
one with them. Come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord,
and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a
Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord
Almighty." Review & Herald Vol. 4, p. 42.
Scripture on Home Churches
Act 16:32 And they spake unto him
the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
Act 16:34 And when he had brought
them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in
God with all his house.
Act 16:40 And they went out of
the prison, and entered into [the house of] Lydia: and when they had seen
the brethren, they comforted them, and departed.
Act 18:7 And he departed thence,
and entered into a certain [man's] house, named Justus, [one] that
worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.
Rom 16:5 Likewise [greet] the
church that is in their house. Salute my well beloved Epaenetus, who is the
firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.
1Cr 1:11 For it hath been
declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them [which are of the house] of
Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
1Cr 16:15 I beseech you,
brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of
Achaia, and [that] they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the
saints,)
1Cr 16:19 The churches of Asia
salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the
church that is in their house.
Ellen White on Home Churches
When the young men and women were
kept away from the Alpha of apostasy in the church, what did they do where
did they meet for worship?
Ellen White on Home Churches in
the Alpha of Apostasy:
"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." E.G. White, Manuscript Release #995,
p. 5.
"Brother and sister Haskell
have rented a house in one of the best parts of the city, and have gathered
round them a family of helpers, who day by day go out giving Bible
readings, selling our papers, and doing medical missionary work. During the
hour of worship, the workers relate their experiences. Bible studies are
regularly conducted in the home, and THE YOUNG MEN AND YOUNG WOMEN
connected with the mission receive a practical, thorough training in
holding Bible readings and in selling our publications. The Lord has
blessed their labors, a number have embraced the truth, and many others are
deeply interested." Review and Herald, September 7, 1905, Evangelism, p. 108.
—rwb
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