The Great Deception of the
Shepherd's Rod Cult--Part 1
Click to go to our Home PageDear Reader, What follows is answers I gave in refutation to Kathryn's reply to Janine on an SDA Internet Chat Group: Janine and Kathryn, The "purified" "guileless" church is the Philadelphians from each generation (era) of the church. They are made pillars in the temple of God, Revelation 3:12. They are of the 144,000 who enter the temple on Mt. Zion, Early Writings, 19. Only the 144,000 overcomers enter that temple. They are the same remnant that Janine refers to. She has it totally correct. So do you Kathryn, but you seem not to see the Philadelphian connection and speak of another church to succeed the seven churches of Revelation. Those seven churches are the same as mentioned in Isaiah 4:1, except that a faithful remnant is represented as coming out of all the churches--all seven visible and formal representations of those seven, because they all have declined into Laodiceanism in every generation, just as the SDA church did. Isaiah 37:31, 32 is key. Matthew 13 depicts the same kingdom church as Hebrews 12:22, 23. That kingdom church is comprised of faithful Philadelphians from every era of the church--every generation. Every generation had all stages of the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3, (see the following statement): "The names of the seven churches are symbolic of the church in different periods of the Christian Era. The number indicates completeness, and is symbolic of the fact that the messages [plural] extend to the end of time, while the symbols used reveal the condition of the church [collectively and generally] at different periods in the history of the world." E.G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, 585. All the messages apply in any given generation, but the church in any given generation has been more like one of the seven churches than the others--generally and collectively speaking. However, all the messages apply in any given generation, such as ours, for example. God bless, Ron Beaulieu Now, another post in answer to Kathryn from Ron Beaulieu Kathryn, "Read the Third Chapter of Revelation.--In the message to the church at Sardis two parties are presented--those who have a name to live, but are dead; and those who are striving to overcome. Study this message, found in the third chapter of Revelation. [Rev. 3:1, 2 quoted]. Who are meant by those that are ready to die? and what has made them thus? The explanation is given, 'I have not found thy works perfect before God.' [Vs. 3-5 quoted.] To the church of the present day this message is sent. I call upon our church members to read this whole of the third chapter of Revelation, and to make an application of it. The message to the church of the Laodiceans applies especially to the people of God today. It is a message to professing Christians who have become so much like the world that no difference can be seen (vs. 14-18 quoted] (RH Aug. 20, 1903). SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 959. The church that comes out of Laodicea is the bride, or Philadelphia, and her children who are represented by other churches than Philadelphia. The bride cannot be confused with the guests--The Great Controversy, pp. 426-7 and p. 665. Even though the churches are more represented today as Laodicean, there are also churches which are representative of the other phases of the church in different eras of the church, eg. Sardis, Smyrna. etc. The purified church is the bride. She is translated without seeing death. The others--the guests, are martyred for their faith. They are seed for fruit. Not all who come out of any church are the bride--the 144,000. Not all who finally come out of the SDA church to be saved will constitute the bride, the mother. Some are her children, sons and daughters, Isaiah 62. Some of them will be faithful and be saved as martyrs, and not as the 144,000. "The people of God, symbolized by a holy woman and her children, were represented as greatly in the minority. In the last days only a remnant still existed. Of these John speaks as they 'which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." E. G. White, Signs of the Times, Nov. 1, 1899, and Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 972. "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." Galatians 4:26." The Mother is Zion, Isaiah 62, and she has sons and daughters. Those sons and daughters are guests at the wedding. Guests are not the bride and the bride is not the guests at any wedding. All who come out are not the bride or the Mother. Some are children, sons and daughters of the mother, the bride of Christ, the 144,000, who are the ONLY ones who enter the temple on Mt. Zion, Early Writings, p. 19. It is not correct to say that all who come out of SDA Laodiceanism are the 144,000 ONLY. That church also is constituted of Mother and children, (guests) [The Great Controversy, pp. 426-7], and some of those who come out are guests who will be seed for fruit martyrs, whereas the 144,000 will not be martyred. God bless, Ron Beaulieu |