The Three Angel’s Messages as They Relate to Corporate Responsibility for the Apostasy of the SDA Church

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Dear Reader,

 

In the 1950’s, two Seventh-day Adventist ministers submitted a large manuscript to the leaders of the church on its corporate responsibility for the 1888 crisis.  The leaders rejected that serious study proving the principle of corporate responsibility.  That act only emboldened the leaders to go further into acts of gross apostasy by venturing upon strictly forbidden commands of God in Scripture. 

 

Many other SDA laymen have spoken against God and truth by saying that Scripture does not in any wise teach the principle of corporate responsibility.  As Joshua 6 and 7 clearly portray, the entire camp of Israel was held corporately responsible and cursed until the sin of Achan and his family was searched out and removed from the camp. 

 

18 And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. 19 But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.  Joshua 6:18.

 

1 But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.

 

12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.

 

Clearly, the entire camp was cursed until the sin of one man and his family was removed from the camp.  That is corporate responsibility!  The Lord showed me that is why Ellen White made the following statement:

 

"The gospel makes no compromise with evil. It cannot excuse sin. Secret sins are to be confessed in secret to God but, for open sin, open confession is required. Desire of Ages, p. 811.

 

 

 "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.

 

 

Corporate responsibility: "For evils that we might have checked, we are just as responsible as if we were guilty." Desire of Ages, p. 44.

 

 

"We are just as responsible for evils that we might have checked in others by exercise of parental or pastoral authority as if the acts had been our own." Patriarchs Prophets, 578.2

 

 

Ellen White’s commentary on the story of Achan:  https://omega77.tripod.com/achan1.htm

 

"True confession is always of a specific character, and acknowledges particular sins. They may be of such a nature as to be brought before God only they may be wrongs that should be confessed to individuals who have suffered injury through them or they may be of a public character, and should then be as publicly confessed. But all confession should be definite and to the point, acknowledging the very sins of which you are guilty." Steps to Christ, p. 38.

 

Ellen White Says we are Under God’s Theocracy

 

Israel was a theocracy. Ellen White says that the SDA church is a theocracy.  In a theocracy, corporate responsibility accrues.  Why?  Because a theocracy is a form of governing whereby the entire church is subject to the ruling authority under a hierarchical system of governance.  Especially is the laity responsible in the SDA hierarchy system of government because the people elect their officials and are thus corporately responsible for their actions and the way they steer the church. 

 

the·oc·ra·cy   
n. pl. the·oc·ra·cies

1.     A government ruled by or subject to religious authority.

2.     A state so governed.

 

The Three Angel’s Messages, Theocracy and Corporate Responsibility

 

The following commission was given to corporate Israel.  In 1844, it was given to professing Seventh-day Adventists.

 

Gospel Commission "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: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Matthew 28:19, 20.

Theocracy -- "God's people have been called out of the world, that they may be separated from the world. It is not safe for them to take sides in politics, whatever preference they may have. They are ever to remember that they are one in Christ. God calls upon them to enter their names as under His THEOCRACY. He cannot approve of those who link up with worldlings [and churches which cannot be distinguished from the world, Early Writings, 273]. We are entirely out of our place when we identify ourselves with party interests....

God has chosen a people who are to proclaim the third angel's message to the world. They are to be a separate and peculiar people in this world of churches who are transgressing His commandments." E.G. White Manuscript Releases Volume 3, 40, 41. 

 

In the above statement may be clearly seen the corporate responsibility of the mission and commission of the three angel’s messages.  We were called out of the fallen churches and as a body, as a church, were given the responsibility, the mission, the commission of the three angel’s messages and obeying the second by being a separate and peculiar people, separate from all who do not keep the commandments of God.  The very fact that a person has become a Seventh-day Adventist, is acquiesced confession to the principle of corporate responsibility, for it we were not responsible for the sins of Babylon if we were joined to them, we would not be called out of Babylon.

 

"It was to separate the church of Christ from the corrupting influence of the world that the first angel's message was given. But with the multitude, even of professed Christians, the ties which bound them to earth were stronger than the attractions heavenward. They chose to listen to the voice of worldly wisdom and turned away from the heart-searching message of truth...When the churches spurned the counsel of God by rejecting the advent message, the Lord rejected them. The first angel was followed by a second...This message was understood by Adventist to be an announcement of the moral fall of the churches in consequence of their rejection of the FIRST MESSAGE." E.G. White, Story of Redemption, p. 364.

 

"The churches that would not receive the light of the first angel's message, and as they rejected the light from heaven they fell from the favor of God. They trusted in their own strength, and placed themselves by their opposition to the first message where they could not see the light of the second angel's message. But the beloved of God, who were oppressed, answered to the message, Babylon is fallen, and left the fallen churches." E.G. White, Spiritual Gifts, Volume 1, p. 140.

 

 

"In every part of the land, light was given upon the second angel's message, and the cry was melting down thousands. It went from city to city, and from village to village, until the waiting people of God were fully aroused. Many would not permit this message to enter the churches, and a large company who had the living testimony within them left the fallen churches. A mighty work was accomplished by the Midnight Cry." E.G. White, Spiritual Gifts, Volume 1, p. 141.

 

 

 Clearly, rejecting any of the three angel's messages, and/or the Midnight Cry, is to render a church in a fallen state called Babylon. SDA's have now violated everyone of those messages by Ecumenical Liaison with Babylon, via MEMBERSHIP in at least eight Nationals Councils of Churches in the world, and MEMBERSHIP in localized Ministerial Associations. A PhD. official at the Canadian Council of Churches told me personally over the phone that local Ministerial Association are a local subsidiary of the World and National Councils of Churches. Ellen White said that we are not to be linked in any way with the fallen churches.

 

 

"Babylon of Revelation 18 [Revelation 18:1-8 quoted].--The whole chapter shows that Babylon that has fallen is the churches (plural) who will not receive the messages of warning the Lord has given in the first, second, and third angel's messages. They refused the truth and accepted a lie. They refused the messages of truth. See 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12." E.G. White Manuscript Releases Volume One, p. 361.

 

 

"In every part of the land, light was given upon the second angel's message, and the cry was melting down thousands. It went from city to city, and from village to village, until the waiting people of God were fully aroused. Many would not permit this message to enter the churches, and a large company who had the living testimony within them left the fallen churches. A mighty work was accomplished by the Midnight Cry." E.G. White, Spiritual Gifts, Volume 1, p. 141.

 

 

Violate the Midnight Cry and the First and Second Angel’s Messages and it is IMPOSSIBLE to Get Back on the Path

 

 

 "While praying at the family altar, the Holy Ghost fell on me, and I seemed to be rising higher and higher, far above the dark world. I turned to look for the Advent people in the world, but could not find them--when a voice said to me, 'Look again, and look a little higher.' At this I raised my eyes and saw a straight and narrow path cast up high above the world. On this path the Advent people were traveling to the City, which was at the farther end of the path. They had a bright light set up behind them at the first end of the path, which an angel told me was the Midnight Cry. This light shone all along the path, and gave light for their feet so they might not stumble. And if they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the City, they were safe. But soon some grew weary, and they said the City was a great way of, and they expected to have entered it before. Then Jesus would encourage them by raising his glorious right arm, and from his arm came a glorious light which waved over the Advent band, and they shouted Hallelujah! Others rashly denied the light behind them, and said that it was not God that had led them out so far. The light behind them went out leaving their feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled and got their eyes off the mark and lost sight of Jesus, and fell off the path down in the dark and wicked world below. It was just as impossible for them to get on the path again and go to the City, as all the wicked world which God had rejected. They fell all the way along the path one after another, until we heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus' coming....

By this time the 144,000 were all sealed and perfectly united. On their foreheads was written, God, New Jerusalem, and a glorious Star containing Jesus' new name." E.G. White, Word to the Little Flock, p. 14.

 

 

How is it that SDA’s today can know and violate the Midnight Cry and the first and second angel’s messages by ecumenical MEMBERSHIP in Babylon’s Associations, Councils and Confederacies, and not leave the Midnight Cry lighted pathway?  How is it that all who did not obey the first and second angel’s messages in the summer and autumn of 1844, experienced a shut door on salvation and SDA’s can now reject that message by ecumenical liaison and retain an open door to salvation?  How is it that these messages do not NOW APPLY ALSO TO PROFESSING SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS WHO ARE VIOLATING THEM via God’s commands in Isaiah 8:9-20?  That is why the church will be broken in pieces.  That is the reason why another literal fulfillment of Ezekiel 9 is slated by God and Ellen White.  Ezekiel 5:9 refers strictly to the end-time, cf. Matthew 24:21.

 

 

All SDA Members are Responsible for Crucifying Christ Afresh

 

Scripture says that we can crucify Christ afresh by sinning.  The Bible says that Babylon is fallen in sin and error.  All who are in Babylon or in any way linked to Babylon, are corporately responsible for that error or they would not be labeled collectively as Babylon.  Thus, if corporate responsibility was not a principle involved with Babylon, we could remain there and grow with the tares there.  Remember, the wheat and tares grow together for the harvest!

 

When Wheat and Tares are Not to Grow Together

 

Did you ever wonder why SDA’s had to leave the fallen churches if the wheat and tares grow together until the harvest and the harvest is at the end of the world?  Did you ever wonder why Luther and the Protestant Reformers left the Roman Catholic Church?  And more importantly, did you ever wonder why Jesus left the apostate church of His day and gathered out all who would give the gospel to the world?

 

The point at which the wheat and tares are not to grow together is when a church betrays sacred trusts and violates the commandments of God and the three angel’s messages.  The reason there must be a separation at that time is because of the principle of corporate responsibility for the sin if one is a member of an apostate church.

 

The Difference Between Tares and Open Apostates

 

Ellen White defined tares as insincere believers whose motives we would have to judge in order to uproot them.  Open sinning apostates are quite another matter.  They are considered as thorns who will choke the wheat and make it impossible for the wheat to mature.

 

"Christ has plainly taught that those who persist in open sin must be separated from the church..."  Christ's Object Lessons, 71.

 

 

But what to do when the church will NEVER AGAIN show the House of Jacob its sins, Testimonies, Vol. 5, 211?

 

 

Then God gives the church a time of probation to play out its iniquitous character and when it does, we must separate or be corporately responsible for its apostasy.  That is why Jesus separated.  That is why Paul separated.  That is why in ever succeeding generation since Christ, faithful reformers have had to separate from the church of their fathers.

 

 

 "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.

 

 

"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.

 

 

 "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.

 

Consider if you will, if you were a member of the Church of Satan in San Francisco, California, and paid tithe to it, would you be corporate responsible for its teachings?  Of course you would be!  And it works no differently in the SDA church or any church in the land.

 

Did you Know That the Professing SDA Church is Linked to the Church of Satan?

 

Ellen White says in Early Writings, p. 273, that Satan controls the fallen churches as a body.  That means that Satan is controls them corporately.  What if it can be proven that the SDA church is linked by MEMBERSHIP in Babylon’s Associations, Councils, and Confederacies, in disobedience to the second angel’s message and Isaiah 8:9-20?  Here is the proof you need that the SDA church is so linked with Babylon:

 

https://omega77.tripod.com/sdaecumenical2.htm

 

Here is what God says about such unscriptural alliances with the Synagogue of Satan:

 

https://omega77.tripod.com/ecusolomon.htm

 

"Any connection with infidels and UNBELIEVERS which would identify us with them is FORBIDDEN by the word. We are to come out from them and be separate. in no case are we to link ourselves with them in their plans or work." E.G. White,  Fundamentals of Christian Education,  482.

 

 

"The people of God are not to stand upon common ground, but upon the holy ground of gospel truth." E.G. White, Review and Herald Articles, August 1, 1893, col. 2.

 

 

The Foundation of my Warning Message to Professing Seventh-day Adventists

 

 

Some who are disparate of spiritual discernment have attacked corporate responsibility, thinking that is was the “spine” of my warning message.  Though corporate responsibility is linked to the three angel’s messages per our duty as our brother’s keeper and the corporate mission and commission of the church to warn the world, the two are inextricably united.  One cannot attack the one without attacking the other if one is aware of the nature of both.

 

 

"The peculiar work of the third angel has not been seen in its importance. God meant that His people should be far in advance of the position which they occupy today. But now, when the time has come for them to spring into action, they have the preparation to make. When the National Reformers began to urge measures to restrict religious liberty, our leading men should have been alive to the situation and should have labored earnestly to counteract these efforts. It is not in the order of God that light has been kept from our people--the very present truth which they needed for this time. Not all our ministers who are giving the third angel's message really understand what constitutes that message. The National Reform movement has been regarded by some as of so little importance that they have not thought it necessary to give much attention to it and have even felt that in so doing they would be giving time to questions distinct from the third angel's message. May the Lord forgive our brethren for thus interpreting the very message for this time." {5T 714.2}

 

The three angel’s messages are a corporate responsibility mission and commission accruing to the SDA church.  Any violation of them involves like corporate responsibility.  Just as Israel of old was given the gospel commission to the world, they faltered, and God gave that commission to others.  Here is how the principle of transference works:

 

"The Lord Jesus will always have a chosen people to serve Him. When the Jewish people rejected Christ, the Prince of life, He took from them the kingdom of God and gave it unto the Gentiles. God will continue to work on this principle with every branch of His work. When a church proves unfaithful to the work of the Lord, whatever their position may be, however high and sacred their calling, the Lord can no longer work with them. Others are then chosen to bear important responsibilities.  But, if these in turn do not purify their lives from every wrong action, if they do not establish pure and holy principles in all their borders, then the Lord will grievously afflict and humble them and, unless they repent, will remove them from their place and make them a reproach.

God is not 'worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing' (Acts 17:25). E. G. White, The Upward Look, 131.

 

The Religion of Cain

 

When Seventh-day Adventist leaders in the 1950’s denied the principle of corporate responsibility, they then adopted the gospel of Cain, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

 

Gen 4:9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where [is] Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: [Am] I my brother's keeper?

 

You see friend of mine, we are indeed responsible for not only ourselves, but our brother’s and sisters.  That responsibility is portrayed in the following verse of Holy Writ:

 

“So far as his opportunities extend, every one who has received the light of truth is under the same solemn and fearful responsibility as was the prophet of Israel, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying: "Son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.  When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.  Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou has delivered thy soul. Eze 33:7-9 Great Controversy,  p. 391.

 

"Christ speaks of the church over which Satan presides as the synagogue of Satan. It members are the children of disobedience. They are those who choose to sin, who labor to make void the holy law of God. It is Satan's work to mingle evil with good, and to remove the distinction between good and evil. Christ would have a church that labors to separate the evil from the good, whose members will not willingly tolerate wrong-doing, but will expel it from the heart and life." E.G. White, Review and Herald, Dec. 4, 1900.

 

 

All Israel was held responsible for the crucifixion of Christ even though certainly ALL Israel was not present to cast their vote and say:  "His blood be upon us and our children."  For the sin of those who were present and said those words, the entire apostate church was held guilty.  That was sin in the camp just as surely as there was sin in the camp in the story of Achan.

 

I just so happens that God says that we can crucify Him afresh today:

 

Hbr 6:6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put [him] to an open shame.

 

The professing Seventh-day Adventist church has fallen away.  Appeals to the church have been made for decades now in an effort to renew the church to repentance.  Those efforts have proven totally fruitless.  That great falling away of the church, first prophesied by Paul, will continue until Jesus comes.  That great falling away God equates with crucifying His Son afresh.  In the same way that the Jews were held corporately responsible for the sin of the few who cried "Crucify Him, Crucify Him, give us Barabbas and let His blood be on us and our children:

 

Mat 27:25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood [be] on us, and on our children.

 

Luk 19:44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

 

Eph 5:6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

 

Corporate Responsibility as Taught by Jesus Himself

 

Many do not realize that Jesus taught corporate responsibility by testimony and by His example.  Here is His testimony:

 

Mat 23:34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and [some] of them ye shall kill and crucify; and [some] of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute [them] from city to city: 

 

Mat 23:35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

 

We hear a lot today about the impossibility of being righteous.  Did Christ consider Abel righteous?

 

Hbr 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

 

Some try to say that the above words concerning the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the time of righteous Abel to Zacharias, spoken by Jesus Himself, refer to sins of similitude, meaning that one would have to kill as Cain killed able to be corporately guilty of all the blood shed from righteous Abel on down.  So we will take them at their qualification and say that by the very same similitude, SDA’s are guilty of crucifying Christ afresh by committing gross sins of strictly forbidden apostasy, especially one that is unpardonable, the sin of re-joining Babylon in violation of the second angel’s message and the Midnight Cry.

 

Now I will put the conclusion I have cited above to the test of the Spirit of Prophecy.  Turn to the first page of Chapter 1 of The Great Controversy, and you will find the following words:

 

Mat 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not! 

 

Now turn to p. 25 of The Great Controversy, to find that the destruction of Jerusalem was a PREFIGURE of another destruction—the world, but it begins at His Sanctuary, just as it did in the TYPE of A.D. 70.

 

“The future was mercifully veiled from the disciples. Had they at that time fully comprehend the two awful facts--the Redeemer's sufferings and death, and the destruction of their city and temple--they would have been overwhelmed with horror. Christ presented before them an outline of the prominent events to take place before the close of time. His words were not then fully understood; but their meaning was to be unfolded as His people should need the instruction therein given. The prophecy which He uttered was twofold in its meaning; while foreshadowing the destruction of Jerusalem, it prefigured also the terrors of the last great day.”  The Great Controversy, p. 25.

 

The Ezekiel 9 judgment of apostate Israel in A.D. 70, prefigured the terror of the last great day, but where does that PREFIGURE begin?  Literal Judgment begins at apostate Jerusalem, the SDA church.  Notice:

 

Begin at My Sanctuary -- "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 interests of the people, had betrayed their trust. They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God's power as in former days. Times have changed. These words strengthen their unbelief, and they say: The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. He is too merciful to visit His people in judgment. 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." E. G. White, Testimonies, Vol. 5, 211.

 

 

"Study the 9th chapter of Ezekiel. These words will be literally fulfilled yet the time is passing, and the people are asleep. They refuse to humble their souls and to be converted. Not a great while longer will the Lord bear with the people who have such great and important truths revealed to them, but who refuse to bring these truths into their individual experience. The time is short. God is calling will YOU hear? Will YOU receive His message? Will YOU be converted before it is too late? Soon, very soon, every case will be decided for eternity. Letter 106, 1909, pp. 2, 3, 5, 7. (To "The churches in Oakland and Berkeley, September 26, 1909.)" E. G. White Manuscript Releases Volume One, p. 260.

 

 

The Sealing of Ezekiel 9

 

 

Ezekiel 9 applies to every man who ever lived since it was written because it is God’s sealing chapter and only those who sigh and cry for all the abominations in the church (spiritual Jerusalem) will be saved.

 

 

Only those who are separated from sin and sinners, and sighing and crying for all the abominations in the church will receive the seal of God:

 

 

Ellen White’s Comments on Ezekiel Chapter 9

 

 

 2-4 (Eph. 1:13; 4:30). A Mark Which Angels Read.--[Eph. 1:13 quoted.] What is the seal of the living God, which is placed in the foreheads of His people? It is a mark which angels, but not human eyes, can read; for the destroying angel must see this mark of redemption (Letter 126, 1898). {4BC 1161.4}

 

 

The angel with the writer's ink horn is to place a mark upon the foreheads of all who are separated from sin and sinners, and the destroying angel follows this angel (Letter 12, 1886). {4BC 1161.5}

 

 

We are to separate from personal sin as well as separating from sinners and a church that sins corporately by violating God’s commands.  If this were not true, we might have remained in the other fallen churches.

 

 

(Rev. 7:2.) Seal Is a Settling Into Truth.--Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads--it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved--just as soon as God's people are sealed and prepared for the shaking, it will come. Indeed, it has begun already; the judgments of God are now upon the land, to give us warning, that we may know what is coming (MS 173, 1902). {4BC 1161.6}

 


The Prophesied Fall of The Professing Seventh-day Adventist Church



 "Jesus sends HIS PEOPLE a message of warning to prepare them for his coming. To the prophet John was made known the closing work in the great plan of man's redemption. He beheld an angel flying '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 for the hour of his Judgment is come
and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters [Rev. 14:6, 7].



The angel represented in prophecy as delivering this message, symbolizes a class of faithful men, who, obedient to the promptings of God's Spirit and the teachings of his word, proclaim this warning to the inhabitants of earth. This message was not to be committed to the religious leaders of the people. They had failed to preserve their connection with God, and had REFUSED THE LIGHT FROM HEAVEN therefore they WERE NOT of the number described by the apostle Paul: 'But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day we are not of the night nor of darkness [1 Thess. 5:4, 5].

 

 


The watchmen upon the walls of Zion should be the first to catch the tidings of the Saviour's advent, the first to lift their voices to proclaim him near, the first to warn the people to prepare for his coming. But they were at ease, dreaming of peace and safety, while the people were asleep in their sins. Jesus saw HIS CHURCH, like the barren fig-tree, covered with pretentious leaves, yet destitute of precious fruit. There was a boastful observance of the forms of religion, while the spirit of true humility, penitence and faith--which alone could render the service acceptable to God--was lacking. Instead of the graces of the Spirit, there were manifested pride, formalism, vainglory, selfishness, oppression. A BACKSLIDING CHURCH closed their eyes to the signs of the times. God did nor forsake them, or suffer his faithfulness to fail but they departed from him, and SEPARATED THEMSELVES from his love. As they REFUSED TO COMPLY WITH THE CONDITIONS, his promises were NOT FULFILLED to them."  E.G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, pp. 199-200 [The 1884 edition of The Great Controversy, [NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH Testimonies, vol. 4].



Ron Beaulieu