God's Controversy With Leaders
Click to go to our Home PageSome SDA’s offer the following E.G. White
statements as their evidence that we should not indict church leaders for
their apostasy: It is important to take notice of qualifying
words in the following statements, as well as TIME, PLACE AND CIRCUMSTANCE.
For example, the word DEFECTS is most qualifying in the first statement. As I
have pointed out ad infinitum, DEFECTS and "REAL BAD MISTAKES," are
not to be compared with gross apostate, open sin, because we all have DEFECTS
AND HAVE MADE SOME "REAL BAD MISTAKES," but open sinners are to be
reformed or removed from the church. Saints' Sins in the Bible. "Leading men
of Bible history have sinned grievously. Their sins are not concealed, but
faithfully recorded in the history of God's church, with the punishment from
God which followed the offenses. These instances are left on record for the
benefit of after generations, and should inspire faith in the Word of God, as
a faithful history. Men who wish to doubt God, doubt
Christianity, and the Word of God, will not judge candidly and impartially,
but with prejudiced minds will scan the life and character to detect all the defects
in the life of those who have been the most eminent leaders of Israel." Testimonies on Sexual Behaviour, p.
95.1} Even the church Triumphant has defects and
weaknesses among its members, but OPEN SIN gross Omega Apostasy is on a far
different scale than mere defects and mistakes. In regard to the following quote, we must
consider that Ellen White said very clearly that there was to be no KING; no
General Conference President, and the minority committee concluded that a
PRESIDENT would take the place of God in the church. There was to be a committee
of men. Jesus was to be KING of the church. Jesus is leader of the True
Seventh-day Adventist Church. "I write this that all may know that
there is no controversy among Seventh-day Adventists over the question of
leadership. The Lord God of heaven is our King. He is a leader whom we can
safely follow, for He never makes a mistake. Let us honor God and His Son,
through whom He communicates with the world." {8T 238.1} Also, we must consider the many statements of
how the leaders would change leaders and know it not. The following statement
was made in regard to the Alpha of Apostasy? Would it not apply so much more
to the Omega, which was to be far worse? ""My message to you is: No longer
consent to listen without protest to the perversion of truth. Unmask the
pretentious sophistries which, if received, will lead ministers and
physicians and medical missionary workers to ignore truth. Every one now is
to stand on his guard. God calls upon men and women to take their stand under
the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. I have been instructed to warn
our people; for many are in danger of receiving theories and sophistries that
undermine the foundation pillars or the faith."" Series B, No. 2:
29. "'And when men standing in the positions
of leaders and teachers work under the power of spiritualistic ideas and
sophistries, shall we keep silent for fear of injuring their influence, while
souls are being beguiled? Satan will use every advantage that he can obtain
to cause souls to become beclouded and perplexed in regard to the work of the
church, in regard to the word of God, and in regard to the words of warning
which He has given through the testimonies of His Spirit, to guard His little
flock from the subtleties of the enemy. When men stand out in defiance against
the counsel of God, they are warring against God. Is it right for those
connected with such ones to treat them as if they were in perfect harmony
with them, making no difference between him that serveth God and him that
serveth Him not? Though they be ministers or medical
missionaries, they have dishonored Christ before the forces of the loyal and
the disloyal. Open rebuke is necessary, to prevent others from being
ensnared.'" Series B, No. 2: 26. "...Let me tell you that the Lord will
work in this last work in a manner very much out of the common order of
things, and in a way that will be contrary to any human planning. There will
be those among us who will always want to control the work of God, to dictate
even what movements shall be made when the work goes forward under the
direction of the angel [the fourth angel] who joins the third angel in the
message to be given to the world. God will use ways and means by which it
will be seen that He is taking the reins in His own hands..." TM 300. Some maintain: "But this church has not
officially rejected God as their leader as did the nation of Israel and the
RCC." Ellen White said that the Omega of Apostasy would effectually
"REMOVE GOD." Selected Messages, vol. 1, 205. She said that when a
church, no matter how high and sacred its calling, was unfaithful to its
mission, then God would choose others. Entire Divisions of the church have
rejected the first and second angel's messages and the Midnight Cry. The
church is held responsible for such OPEN SIN, because it functions AS THE
BODY OF CHRIST. That OPEN SIN APOSTASY should be reformed, or removed. But
Ellen White said that "nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of
the New Movement Organization." Selected Messages, vol. 1, 205. ELLEN WHITE SAID THAT WE MUST ALWAYS CONSIDER
TIME, PLACE CIRCUMSTANCE IN REGARD TO HER STATEMENTS: The Apple of God's Eye:
"I am so thankful at this time that we can have our minds taken off from
the difficulties that surround us, and the oppression that is to come upon
the people of God, and can look up to the heaven of light and power. If we
place ourselves on the side of God, of Christ and the heavenly
intelligence's, the broad shield of Omnipotence is over us, the mighty God of
Israel is our helper, and we need not fear. Those who touch the people of
God, touch the apple of His eye...." {2SM 373.3} Can we have our minds "taken off from the
difficulties that surround us," when we are committing the Omega of
Apostasy. It is a gross act of peace and safety apostasy to apply such a
statement as above, to the TIME OF THE OMEGA OF APOSTASY. Such persons are
unfaithful "sidewalk superintendents" giving peace and safety
adulation's, while the scaffolding is crumbling. To apply the example of Nehemiah to the church
in its Omega of Apostasy crisis, is like applying it to Korah,
Dathan and Abiram, and
saying that they were right. The dumb dogs are doing what Ellen White
predicted. They are crying peace and safety, and will NEVER AGAIN SHOW THE
HOUSE OF JACOB ITS SINS. Testimonies, vol. 5, 211. This is why Ezekiel 9
destruction begins at the house of God; at His sanctuary--same reference. I would acquaint you with God's controversy
with leaders. I would acquaint you with Ellen White's controversy with
leaders. Ellen White said that God should be the leader of the church, and
not a small group of men; especially one man in the form of a General
Conference President. "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. "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. Ellen White, in the Alpha of Apostasy,
instructed that the youth should be kept as far as possible from the
churches. What would she do in the Omega of Apostasy that was to be, and
indeed is, far worse: "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. "Worldly policy is taking the place of
true piety and wisdom that comes from above, and God will remove His
prospering hand from the conference. Shall the ark of the covenant be removed
from this people? Shall idols be smuggled in? Shall false principles and
false precepts be brought into the sanctuary? Shall antichrist be respected?
Shall the true doctrines and principles given us of God, which have made us
what we are, be ignored?.... This is directly where
the enemy, through blinded, unconsecrated men, is leading us." E. G.
White, Manuscript 29, 1890. We have God's warning in Isaiah 56:10-12,
which Ellen White reapplies in Testimonies, vol. 5, 211. We have Isaiah's
testimony in Isaiah 9:16. We have Ezekiel's testimony in Ezekiel 22:27. We
have Ezekiel Chapter 13. We have Christ's testimony and EXAMPLE concerning
blind leaders of the blind. "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. Any SDA who should teach his/her church
members that the church is corporately responsible for KNOWN SINS involving
the rejection of its very commission of the Everlasting Gospel to the world,
including the Midnight Cry message, would be FORCED out of membership. For
example, church leaders threatened the membership of Ron Spear and Our Firm
Foundation, as well as the Standish brothers and their Hartland Institute, if
they did not stop saying within one year, that the
church was in apostasy. In Hungary, 1500 true and faithful Seventh-day
Adventists were kept from entering their respective churches on Sabbath
mornings, because they protested the church's membership in the Hungarian
Council of Free Churches. They were FORCED OUT. I am saying that if the Omega
of Apostasy was properly protested, all such protesters would be forced out.
Christ protested the apostasy of His day in the right manner, but they tried
to throw Him into a crevasse. Jeremiah did it properly, but they tried to
kill him. Isaiah did it properly, but they put him inside a hollowed out log
and sawed him asunder. These are serious matters that every
Seventh-day Adventist should pray over every time they pray. May God awaken
His people to their gross sins of apostasy, which leaders and members are
minimizing and categorizing as mere defects and faults.
Ron Beaulieu |