The Gospel and Separation From
Apostasy—Which Did Jesus Employ First?
Click to go to our Home PageDear Reader, It has been
suggested by some that we should pray for an apostate organization. It has
been suggested that I said not to pray for Laodicea, to wit: Laval Picard
said: "How many times Ron has said that we should not pray for
Laodicea." It is wise for those who are teaching and claim to be renewed
by the gospel to be very precise and accurate when making allegations
and accusations and not make statements that are not true. Ellen
White despaired the time she had to devote to correcting false accusations of
her and said she would have more time for more important things if she did
not have to engage that task. What I really
have said is that we should not pray for a new movement that has removed God,
but that we should pray for individuals in that new movement that they will
be awakened to its apostasy. Let's examine this in light of the Jewish
example God gave to us. Jer 7:16 Therefore pray not thou
for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make
intercession to me: for I will not hear thee. Jer 11:14 Therefore pray not thou
for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not
hear [them] in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble. The SDA Bible Commentary says that
Jeremiah's call to the prophetic office came about 627 B.C., in the 13th year
of Josiah's reign." SDA BC, Vol. 4, p. 344. So over 600
years before the close of Israel's probation, God was telling Jeremiah not to
pray for his people. In Jeremiah 11:9-14, there is no room for error in
concluding that probation had closed for that generation of Jews. So we have
a Bible precedent for probation closing on a generational basis for any
apostate church. Were that not true, then God would have been remiss in
destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. Ellen White Reapplied Jer. 7:16 and 11:14 to
SDA’s at the End-time: "The
Lord commanded one of his ancient servants, 'Pray not thou for this people
[Jer. 7:16 and 11:14], neither lift up cry nor prayer for them neither make
intercession to me for I will not hear thee.' The prophet thus describes the
sins which had called forth this fearful denunciation: 'The prophets prophesy
falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have
it so and what will ye do in the end thereof?' 'From the least of them even
unto the greatest of them, every one is given to covetousness and from the
prophet even unto the priest, every one dealeth falsely. They have healed
also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace,
when there is no peace.' The apostles
declare that this state of things will find its COUNTERPART in the last days.
Many have a form of godliness, but in their daily life deny the power
thereof. They have ceased to be convicted of their sins or alarmed at their
state. They say in their hearts, 'The church is flourishing. Peace and
spiritual prosperity are within her borders.' The words of the prophet may
well apply to these self-deceivers, 'They have chosen their own ways, and
their soul delighteth in their abominations. I also will choose their
delusions, and will bring their fears upon them." E. G. White, Second Advent
Review and Sabbath Herald, 11-07-82. Regarding
separation from the church, it gets even worse for those who claim we don't
have to separate until the National Sunday Law or some other future
time--even to the end of the harvest. In Jeremiah 11:15, God asks what His
beloved (bride) has to do in His house (church), since the church has wrought
lewdness with many. That means that His beloved bride had nothing to do in
the apostate church of Jeremiah's time. But like I said, it gets worse than
that as indicated by the following statement. "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. The above
statement applies way back to the time of Shiloh, circa 1517 B.C., during the
reign of Eli and his sons. Shiloh was the first place that the Israelites
settled after coming out of 40 years of sojourn in the Sinai desert. So that
far back before the final close of probation for Israel in A.D. 34, marked by
the Stoning of Stephen, faithful Jews were separating from the apostate
church Sanctuary. Why the separation of the wheat and tares are to dwell
together until the harvest and the harvest is the end of time? Evidently,
tares cannot be associated with gross apostasy. This is a lesson that every
professing Seventh-day Adventist should learn. The above statement gives some
hint as to why separation occurred hundreds of years before the close of
Israel's probation: 1.
The recreant priests were imbibing licentiousness which
polluted the tabernacle of the Lord. 2.
They were laden with and corrupted with sin. 3.
The people thought it safer for their families not to come up
to the appointed place of worship because of the sinful licentiousness of the
priests, the leaders. 4.
The faithful concluded that they could offer their sacrifices
themselves, and that this would be fully acceptable to God, rather than
sanction in any manner the abominations practiced in the Sanctuary. Recently, I was
called antichrist, a murderer, and a God hating slayer of His
people by Laval Picard, a trained SDA minister, because I advocate coming out
from an apostate new movement that is full of licentiousness and gross sins
of the priests, the leaders. The person who so accused me believes that the probation
for the SDA church is not over until the final Midnight Cry call, so in his
opinion, I should not be calling people out. The strange thing is that
Laval left the church years before I did, and does not attend church himself!
There is indeed another final Midnight Cry call TO ALL FALLEN CHURCH MEMBERS,
but we are responsible for apostasy and its effects when we learn of it. The
above examples prove that probation can close for a church in any given
generation. The above examples prove that we are not even to pray for a
corrupt, apostate church structure, but we must pray for individuals in that
structure. Jesus
"gathered out" those who would take the gospel to the world as one
of the first acts of His ministry in A.D. 27, 7 years before Israel's probation
closed at the stoning of Stephen in A.D. 34. Why did Jesus do that? Why did
He call the disciples out of the apostate church BEFORE He taught them the
gospel? The only answer I know to this question is supplied by God Almighty,
and it goes like this:
The person
who vilified me for calling folk out of an apostate system believes that
teaching the gospel to the church FIRST, will do the job. Not only him, but
many SDA's are saying that the only thing that matters is the gospel on a
personal, rather than a corporate level. This errant belief totally
defies the reality of corporate responsibility for apostasy in the church.
The prime reasons Jesus FIRST gathered out those who would take the gospel to
the world (DA 232) BEFORE He taught them the gospel, are: 1.
It is impossible for the wheat to mature amongst corrupt
thorns (open sinning apostates), for God's Word says that THORNS
(different from tares) choke out and kill the wheat. 2.
If it is impossible for the corrupt to remain pure while
united with the corrupt, it follows that corrupt sinners cannot become pure
amongst open sinning thorn types. This is what distinguishes thorns from
tares. Tares are insincere believers, but they are not open sinning
apostates. We would have to judge the motives of tares to remove them from
the camp, but we do not have to judge the motives of open sinning thorns in
order to remove them. All we have to do is see their apostasy. 3.
Jesus had to convince the disciples of the apostasy in order
to get them to leave the apostate structure. Once they knew of the apostasy,
if they did not leave, they would be corporately responsible for that
apostasy, to wit: "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. In gathering
out His disciples FIRST, before teaching them the gospel, Jesus was
only abiding by His own principles in II Corinthians 6:14, 15. Did the
disciples have serious faults and defects? Yes indeed! Notice: “All the disciples
had serious faults when Jesus called them to His service. Even John, who came
into closest association with the meek and lowly One, was not himself
naturally meek and yielding. He and his brother were called ‘the sons of
thunder’. . Jesus reproved His disciples, He warned and cautioned them; but
John and his brethren did not leave Him; they chose Jesus, notwithstanding
the reproofs. The Saviour did not withdraw from them because of their
weakness and errors. They continued to the end to share His trials and to
learn the lessons of His life. By beholding Christ, they became transformed
in character.”—Desire of Ages,
294-296. Weakness and
errors are quite different from gross, strictly forbidden apostasy. We all
have weakness and errors, but we all are not engaged in gross, omega heresy.
That is the crucial difference. Many point to the weaknesses of even God’s
messengers in an effort to discount their warning. These do not have the
spiritual discernment to see the difference between faults and defects,
versus gross apostasy. That is most unfortunate. "Thorns sprung up.--The thorns made it
impossible for the wheat to mature (see Luke 8:14). In the same way secular
interests prevent the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22, 23) from reaching
maturity. Religion is relegated to the subordinate position of being only one
interest among many. For lack of cultivation it withers and eventually dies.
That which the thorny-ground hearers lack is a moral transformation [E.G.
White, Christ's Object Lessons, p. 50] To them, justification is
the sum and substance of religion, and they fail to realize that the
Christian life consists essentially in the process known as
sanctification--the process by which evil traits and tendencies are replaced
by the perfect life-pattern of Jesus Christ." Seventh-day Adventist
Bible Commentary, vol. 5, 405. This is precisely what New Movement
Seventh-day Adventists (Selected Messages, vol.
1, 204-205), teaches. The person who vilified me for calling out
SDA’s from an apostate church, believing that they can be purified with the
gospel while in that church, is working against the very principles Jesus
employed for purging and purifying His bride. But it is impossible to teach
him anything, for, like most SDA’s, he feels that he knows it all already.
Getting back to the purifying of Christ’s bride, were the disciples His
bride? Read Desire of Ages, 179. "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. "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. "'They
that forsake the law praise the wicked.' Proverbs 28:4. 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. Such counsel is prompted by the enemy
of all good. It is the speech of timeservers, and should be resisted as
resolutely today as then. Whatever influence would tend to unsettle the faith
of God' people in His guiding power, should be steadfastly withstood."
E.G. White, Prophets and Kings, p.
660. The above teaching is directly
contradictory to Ellen White's teaching: "We ARE NOT saved as a sect no
denominational name has any virtue to bring us into favor with God. We are
saved individually as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ." E.G. White, Review and Herald Articles, vol. 2, p. 464. Paul left for the same reasons Jesus 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. —rb |