QUESTION 10 OF 12:
Prepared for What?
By all means, do not miss the word "prepared"; it doesn't just say that they choose the easy way out-it says that "they are prepared to choose the easy, popular side". How are the majority of professed SDA's being prepared to receive the mark of the beast? Actually, there are several ways; the most basic of which is that they are not being prepared to receive the seal of God. Read the section titled "The Seal of God" (5T 207-216), and you will know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that very few if any of the Conference churches are preparing their members to receive the seal of God. However, there are two very specific ways that the masses within Seventh-day Adventism are being prepared to fail when the test comes, and both of them are mentioned in the prophecy of GC 608.
The first one comes from the rejection of sanctification. Attending a church building on Saturday has no more spiritual significance in and of itself, than did literal circumcision during Old Testament times-these are both merely "signs" or "tokens" of an experience. What experience is the seventh day Sabbath a sign of? Sanctification: "Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." (Ezek 20:12; see also Ex 31:13); "the Sabbath is given to all who through Christ become a part of the Israel of God." (DA 288; see also this entire chapter, "The Sabbath" 281-289). "The sanctification of the Spirit signalizes the difference between those who have the seal of God and those who keep a spurious rest day." (7BC 980). So we find that the rejection of sanctification is also a rejection of the seventh day Sabbath-regardless of which day you sit in the pews-and when the Sunday laws are enforced, those who have not been experiencing sanctification through victory over all sin will fail the test and receive the mark of the beast.
Satan has gotten the majority of the Christian world to believe that the fourth commandment is the only one that we don't have to obey; but he's also got the majority of SDA's believing that it is the only commandment that we DO have to obey-that somehow the "seventh day" part of the commandment is more important than the "keep it holy" (by being holy, DA 283) part of it, and more important than the other nine commandments.
The second way is outlined here: "Those who are uniting with the world are receiving the worldly mold and preparing for THE MARK OF THE BEAST." (5T 216). Notice how perfectly this quote harmonizes with and verifies the proper interpretation of GC 608: "By uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit... they are prepared to choose the easy, popular side."
So, the nail is in the coffin; there can be absolutely no mistaking the fact that the corporate structure of Seventh-day Adventists is preparing its members to receive the mark of the beast, and therefore to receive of the seven last plagues (Rev 18:4)-they are most definitely leading towards perdition; without question, that organization has crossed the "line", and fully qualifies as Babylon!
However, in God's eyes, they not only have joined Babylon-but they are worse than the other harlot daughters, and even the Mother of harlots: "Of those who boast of their light, and yet fail to walk in it, Christ says, 'But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum [Seventh-day Adventists, who have had great light], which art exalted unto heaven [in point of privilege], shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.'" (RH 08-01-93; comments in brackets added by E.G. White).
"In the balances of the sanctuary the Seventh-day Adventist church is to be weighed. She will be judged by the privileges and advantages that she has had. If her spiritual experience does not correspond to the advantages that Christ, at infinite cost, has bestowed on her, if the blessings conferred have not qualified her to do the work entrusted to her, on her will be pronounced the sentence: 'Found wanting.' By the light bestowed, the opportunities given, will she be judged." (8T 247).
The bottom-line question is whether SDA's should be called out of the Conference at this time; anyone with a trace of spiritual discernment will agree that people should come out of a system which is preparing its members to receive the mark of the beast: "those who fear God today are heeding the message to withdraw from spiritual Babylon" (PROPHETS AND KINGS p. 715).
Bob De La Torre