The
Apostate SDA Church Will not be Blotted Out
that
it will not Exist
Part
III
Dear
Reader,
In
this Part III of deciphering the full meaning of the following statement by Ellen
White, we will answer some of the issues quickly and spend more time on others
that require such. There are going to be some surprises as we examine the
evidence in-depth. We will discover the resolution between the “apparent”
contradictory statements that appear as comments on the right hand side of this
document. The Ellen White statement we are studying was written in regard to
two men (Stanton and Caldwell) who were calling the church Babylon in 1893.
Here is the related article from Ellen White’s Review and Herald Articles:
https://omega77.tripod.com/newmovementjoin.htm
The Church Not to Be Broken Up Into Independent Atoms
"Again I say,
The Lord hath not spoken by any messenger who calls the church that
keeps the commandments of God, Babylon. True,
there are tares with the wheat; but Christ
said He would send His angels to first gather the tares and bind them in
bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into the garner. I know that the
Lord loves His church. It is not to be disorganized or broken up into independent atoms. There is not the least consistency in this; there is not the least
evidence that such a thing will be[R1] . Those who shall heed this false message and try to leaven
others will be deceived and prepared to receive advanced delusions, and they
will come to nought.
There is in
some of the members of the church, pride, self-sufficiency, stubborn unbelief[R2] , and a refusing to
yield their ideas[R3] , although
evidence may be piled upon evidence which makes the message to the Laodicean
church applicable. But that will not blot out the church that it will not exist[R4] . Let both tares and wheat grow together
until the harvest. Then it is the angels that do
the work of separation.
I warn the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be
careful how you receive every new notion and those who claim to have great
light. The character of their work seems to be to accuse and to tear down[R5] ." Selected
Messages, Bk. 2, p. 68.
Unless
we interpret so as to make God and Ellen White false prophets, we CANNOT
interpret the above statement to mean:
·
That the SDA church
militant would end-up keeping the commandments of God, because we are to sigh
and cry for all the abominations, and Ellen White plainly says that when the
danger and depression to the church is greatest, which would have to be the
time the National Sunday Law is ENFORCED by no buy and sell and/or a death
decree, that the MEMBERS of the church will be doing after the manner of the
world. 5T 209.
·
That there would
always be ONLY wheat and tares in the church. If the leaders will NEVER AGAIN
show the House of Jacob its sins, then we can safely and accurately conclude
that open sinners will be allowed to remain in the church. Ellen White and God
said that they should be separated from the church if they will not reform, and
God says that the Open Sinning (corrupt) Thorns make it IMPOSSIBLE for the
wheat to mature and become pure[R6] . It should not be a
stretch for most 12 year old children to reason that if the leaders will never
again remove open sin from the camp, one would have to unite with the corrupt
to be a member and it is impossible for the wheat to mature and/or remain pure
amongst open sinners.
·
What about the part that says “Christ said He would send His
angels to first gather the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but
gather the wheat into the garner.” Do you know who selects the wheat from the
tares? Do you know what the THIRD ANGELS SYMBOLIZES[R7] . Recall how
the disciples were told that whomever they bound on earth would be bound in
heaven? How did the “bind” or “seal” anyone? By straight truth, straight
testimony. If a person accepted and practiced the truth, he/she was sealed
(bound) for the heavenly garner, Heb. 12:22, 23.
·
The apostate church will not be disorganized or broken into
atoms any more than the apostate “chosen people” church of Israel was disorganized
and broken into atoms. There is not the least consistency in that notion,
because then apostate Jerusalem would not be around so that the Ezekiel 9
slaughter could BEGIN AT HIS SANCTUARY, spiritual, modern-day Jerusalem[R8] .
We need
to study the above statement very carefully and prayerfully. We need to look
for qualifying words and concepts. I am going to deal with such implications
as:
·
What type of weed
cannot grow with the wheat without killing (choking) it out?
·
Why the church was
not Babylon in Ellen White's lifetime?
·
How Ellen White said
the church could become part of Babylon?
·
What is worse than
Babylon?
·
When Ellen White
advised remaining away from the church in the Alpha of Apostasy.
·
Does Ellen White’s
Statement about the church not being broken-up into independent atoms give the
church an UNCONDITIONAL approval by God to imperviously commit whatever
apostasy it wishes?
·
What Ellen White
would be forced to do today in order to be consistent with God's Word and her
teaching concerning apostasy? Where did Ellen White draw a line in the sand?
Why?
·
What commandments of
God go beyond playing the harlot as ancient Israel and modern Israel have so
done?
·
What it means to
MARRY into Satan's confederacy.
·
What constitutes
God's church?
·
When God no longer
considers a professing church as a valid church.
·
Did God close the
probation of some generation(s) of the world before the general close of
probation in A.D. 34, at the stoning of Stephen and the end of the 70 weeks of
Daniel 9:24?
·
Why Ellen White
called the church a harlot at least four times but did not leave the church.
·
Why the church did
not commit unpardonable apostasy in Ellen White's tenure in the church.
·
Did anyone leave
apostate Israel centuries BEFORE its general close of probation in A.D. 34, and
if so why?
·
Were there
independent home churches BEFORE the general close of probation for Israel? Did
these home churches break the true church up into independent atoms?
·
Was the SDA church
broken up into independent atoms in the Kellogg Alpha Apostasy when Ellen White
said to keep the youth as far away from the churches as possible?
·
Did faithful Jews
leave the precincts of the Temple to worship at home centuries before the
general close of probation for Israel and why? Did their action break the
church up into atoms and/or make it so that it did not exist?
·
Did Jesus and the
disciples leave apostate Israel BEFORE its general close of probation? If so,
why?
·
Did Jesus’ gathering
out of His disciples BEFORE the general close of Israel’s probation, break up
the “church” into independent atoms?
·
Did the home
churches established by the disciples of Christ, break up the “church” into
independent atoms?
·
Did Paul break up the
church into independent atoms when He left the apostate Jewish church AFTER
THREE MONTHS?
·
Was the example of
Christ, His disciples evidence that the same thing might occur in the SDA
church?
·
Did God ever give
ancient or modern spiritual Israel UNCONDITIONAL status as a “chosen people” no
matter what apostasy they should imbibe?
·
Can members of the
church be responsible for corporate unpardonable sin of its leaders? When and
how does such a serious situation accrue?
·
Was there evidence
in 1882, in Testimonies, Vol. 5, p.
207 and the remainder of the chapter, that Laodicea would ultimately fail, and
if so, what is the meaning of Ellen White's statement below that there was not
the least evidence that such a thing would be?
·
Who are the angel’s
who do the work of separation?
·
What causes the
separation?
All
of the above are serious issues that we must explore in-depth lest we be taken
in a snare. We must consider time, place and circumstance and every implication
the Holy Spirit can shed light upon. I will continue by responding to all these
issues.
By
way of a short summary, in Part I and II we learned:
·
We learned that
there are more to consider than just the TARES and the WHEAT.
·
That THORNS are open
apostasy sins in the church that CHOKE out the wheat and make it impossible for
it to mature. Thus, they are different from tares which consist of insincere
believers whose motives one would have to judge in order to pluck them out of
the church.
·
We learned that the
church was not part of Babylon in Ellen White’s lifetime.
·
We learned that the
true SDA church will indeed continue and will not be broken up into atoms.
·
We learned that the
apostate SDA church will indeed continue and will not be broken up until it
experiences a literal fulfillment of Ezekiel 9 slaughter and destruction.
·
We learned that the
SDA professing church militant could not be keeping the commandments of God,
because of the very abominations that we are counselled to sigh and cry for.
Abominable violations of God’s Word, His commands, do not constitute
commandment-keeping. The two are incompatible.
·
We learned that
sighing and crying for all the abominations in the church is not classed with
accusing and tearing down IF WE LIMIT OUR SIGHING AND CRYING TO THE GROSS
ABOMINATIONS THAT CONSTITUE FORBIDDEN APOSTASY.
2.
Issue #2 Our next point of consideration will be the issue as to what Ellen
White meant when she said:
“I know that
the Lord loves His church. It is not to be disorganized or
broken up into independent atoms.
There is not the least consistency in this; there is not the least evidence
that such a thing will be. Those
who shall heed this false message and try to leaven others will be deceived and
prepared to receive advanced delusions, and they will come to nought.
There is in some
of the members of the church, pride, self-sufficiency, stubborn unbelief,
and a refusing to yield their ideas, although evidence may be piled upon
evidence which makes the message to the Laodicean church applicable. But
that will not blot out the church that it will not exist. Let both tares
and wheat grow together until the harvest. Then it is the angels
that do the work of separation.”
Do the words: “I know that the Lord loves His church.
It is not to be disorganized or broken up into independent atoms. There is not the least consistency in
this; there is not the least evidence that such a thing will
be” mean:
·
That there
would never be another coming out of the SDA church militant and/or that it
could not ultimately fall?
·
That there
would never be any possibility that there would be another coming out of a
faithful remnant from the SDA church militant?
·
That there was
no prior EVIDENCE stated by Mrs. White that would necessitate another coming
out?
·
Mrs. White’s
PRIOR (1882) statements that Ezekiel 9 will BEGIN AT HIS SANCTUARY, demand
another coming out?
If anyone
interprets Ellen White’s statement to mean any
of the above, they make Ellen White a self-contradictory false prophet as soon
as they chose to so interpret! All of the following statements by Ellen White
would be patently false if her statement is interpreted to mean that the church
could never fall and that there could never be another coming out. Ellen White
said that all the ancient prophets wrote more for us than the Jews, and their
prophesies are in force for us.
·
Isaiah 37:31, 32, says there will be one more coming out. 31 And the
remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward,
and bear fruit upward: 32 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a
remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts
shall do this.
·
Isaiah 4:1-4 says
that seven women (God’s all inclusive number) and women symbolizes all formally
organized churches in Scripture, will be eating their own bread (their own doctrines
and commandments of men, and wearing their own apparel, their own robes of
self-righteousness. That condition demands another coming out.
·
Ellen White
reapplies Matthew 22:1-20 in Sermons and
Talks, Vol. 1, pp. 4-9. Those verses are exactly what happened in Israel, a
TYPE of what happened to God’s servants when giving the truth to the Jews.
Verse 7 is the same event as Ezekiel 9:6. These verses DEMAND another coming
out.
The Resolution to Mrs. White’s Statement so
that Nothing Contradicts
Most SDA’s
(especially the leaders) have read far too much into Ellen White’s statement to
the point that if they are correct, she obviously would be a false prophet.
First, how have leaders and laity alike read too much into Mrs. White’s
statement?
1) They are
errantly deduced that the SDA church militant (wheat and tare co-ed church) has
always been the commandment-KEEPING people of God. Is that true? No it is not. Why?
Because Ellen White said that if the church became Laodicean it would be no
more in the favor of God than the fallen churches that are called Babylon, the
cage of every unclean and hateful bird[R9] .
2) The first
statement indicting the church as becoming Laodicean was written by Ellen White
in 1852[R10] . We need to note a number of items of importance from the two
statements (comments 1 and 2):
(a) The first statement obviously applies to the
corporate church becoming Laodicean.
(b) The second statement appears to apply to
individuals. So it is apparent that the entire church can become Laodicean or
it can retain individual Laodiceans. Individual Laodiceans would be insincere
Christians and the church would have to judge their motives in order to remove
them from the church. They are tares.
(c) How does one
identify a Laodicean (lukewarm) church? That is rather easy because Ellen White
said that the Laodicean message applies to all churches including the other
non-SDA churches[R11] . The reason it is easy to know whether or not a church is
Laodicean (lukewarm) or not is because gold tried in the fire is defined as faith that works by the self-sacrificing love of Christ. Then God tells
us that if we love Him and
the brethren, we will keep all of His commandments. Is it difficult
to tell whether or not a church is KEEPING THE COMMANDMENTS OF God? Are we
given license to JUDGE whether or not a church is keeping the commandments of
God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ? Yes, Isaiah 8:20 admonishes us to make
that JUDGMENT[R12] . Every person who has or ever will become a professing
Seventh-day Adventist makes that JUDGMENT. So a church that is not keeping His
commandments out of a motive of faith that works by the self-sacrificing love
of Christ in the heart is a lukewarm church.
(d) The SDA church
was in and out of the Laodicean state at least once from 1852, until Ellen
White’s death. In her letter to Stanton and Caldwell, the men who ran ahead of
the angel and called the church Babylon in 1893, were rebuked by Mrs. White’s
statement to them that the church was receiving a refreshing from the Lord at
that time. She said the church was then keeping the commandments of God and
heeding the Laodicean message. So those are the requisites for not being
Laodicean and the one is contingent upon the other.
(e) A church that is
not only disobeying God’s commandments but has formed a conspiracy or
confederation with God’s enemies, thereby becomes cold apostate. That is God’s
line in the sand. Jeremiah 11:9-15 defines such a condition and God’s pronouncement
against such a church, a people, is so final that He instructed Jeremiah not to
even pray for them. Did Ellen White say that there would be a COUNTERPART church
that paralleled the Jewish cold apostate church[R13] ?
(f)
Cold (alpha or omega) apostasy is not Laodiceanism or mere lukewarmness (neither hot or
cold).
So what is the
resolution?
Let’s apply the
same statement to fallen apostate Israel, God’s first “chosen people” and maybe
some lights will quickly turn on for you. Correct answers to these questions
should correct the thinking of every honest SDA concerning her statement:
·
God loved the Jewish church, His first “chosen people.”
·
Did that people KEEP His commandments?
·
Did Ellen White write in 1882, in Testimonies, Vol. 5, 211
that Ezekiel 9 would BEGIN AT HIS SANCTUARY, the House of Jacob and that
the leaders would teach only peace and safety and NEVER AGAIN show God’s
people their sins. Would that violate God’s command in Isaiah 58:1? [See the Table of Contents in the flyleaf
of Vol. 5 for the year the Seal of God chapter was written].
·
The Selected Messages,
Bk. 2 statement that we are studying, was written in 1893 to Stanton and Caldwell. Testimonies, Vol. 5, was written in 1882. Was that PRIOR
EVIDENCE that there would be another coming?
·
Ellen White called the words of Jesus to His disciples
concerning destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, a PREFIGURE that was twofold in
nature: 1. His words prefigured the destruction of Jerusalem [Josephus says
that the destruction began at the Temple and progressed to the city and then
surrounding areas]. 2. His words prefigured the destruction of the world at the
end-time.
·
If the words of Jesus to His disciples (Chapter 1, The Great Controversy), were a prefigure
(type), and there was a coming out to avoid the destruction and slaughter in
the TYPE, would that demand another coming out in a “to the letter” LITERAL
fulfillment of Ezekiel 9 at the end-time, as prophesied by Ellen White?
·
Did they commit abominations for which the Jews were to sigh and
cry?
·
How does the committing of abominations constitute the keeping
of God’s commandments? Is there any problem here?!
·
Did the tares dwell with the wheat in that church until it was
destroyed in A.D. 70, in an Ezekiel 9 slaughter and destruction of the Temple
first and then the city proper?
·
Did Jesus gather out His disciples in A.D. 27 as the first act
of His ministry, Desire of Ages, 232?
·
Did Paul leave to protect his followers?
·
Were home churches formed all over Judea?
·
Who bound the tares for burning? Were the disciples told that
whomever they bound on earth would be bound in heaven?
God certainly
loves His church. He loved the Jewish apostate church and gave them time to put
away their apostasy. He did the same with professing Seventh-day Adventism
before they crossed God’s lines in the sand which involve strictly forbidden
acts that constitute ASSOCIATION, COUNSEL/COUNCIL, GIRDING AND
CONFEDERACY/CONSPIRACY with His enemies which He has always referred to as
Babylon.
Should God give
Adventists 490 years as He gave Israel to put away their sins? God will not
give us that long because we have the example of Israel.
There are other
factors that you should be aware of. God did not give all Jews 490 years. He
judged them on a generational basis as well in some cases. I think of a number
of examples:
·
Korah, Dathan and Abiram and party where about 14,700 were
killed.
·
The golden calf incident where about 3,000 were killed.
·
Jeremiah 11:9-15 where God said not to pray for that generation
of Jews, which was centuries before the probation of Israel ended in A.D. 34,
at the end of the 70 weeks and marked also by the stoning of Stephen.
Isaiah 8:9-13
makes it clear that there is only one option to violating that counsel that is
repeated there three times—“broken in pieces.” The professing SDA church has
violated that counsel in the following ways. After the Evangelical Conferences
between the SDA church leaders and Dr. Walter Martin and Donald Grey Barnhouse
in the mid-to latter 1950’s, the church was challenged by those men to
demonstrate their Evangelicalness and brotherhood with the other churches. The
SDA church then proceeded to:
·
Conduct joint Easter Sunrise services with Babylon.
·
Join Babylon’s Ministerial Associations, which are a
localized arm of the World Council of Churches. I called the National Council
of Churches in Canada to confirm that fact.
·
Join National Council’s of Churches around the world. The Adventist Review reported in the latter
1980’s/early 1990’s that it had been a MEMBER of the National Council of
Churches in Hungary, called The Hungarian Council of Free Churches, FOR 30
YEARS PRIOR! That would date its MEMBERSHIP from about the same time Martin and
Barnhouse were challenging the SDA church to prove their brotherhood with the
other churches, which Ellen White says are fallen; are led by Satan as a body,
and are indistinguishable from the world. Early
Writings, p. 273.
·
In the latter 1980’s I sent to the World Council of Churches for
its publication called Directory to
Christian Councils, (now out of print). I ordered 12 copies for my church
group. In that publication, the SDA church is listed as FULL MEMBERS in 5
different countries of the world, and the last page 244, says that the WWC is
in “working relationship with the General Conference of Seventh-day
Adventists.”
·
The church’s own publications have admitted to ecumenical
involvement at the following links:
https://omega77.tripod.com/sdaecunorway.htm
https://omega77.tripod.com/francesunlaw.htm
https://omega77.tripod.com/sabbathtrinity.htm
http://www.sdarm.net/northwestfield/publications/way/gws-10.htm
https://omega77.tripod.com/nonsdaecu.htm
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=3556
https://omega77.tripod.com/bbbeachreviewart2.htm
http://www.calltorepent.com/2003-booklet
https://omega77.tripod.com/germanapostacy.htm
http://www.eternalgospelherald.com/4.6.htm
https://omega77.tripod.com/sdaecuinvolvement2.htm
https://omega77.tripod.com/ecumenicalcoalition.htm
https://omega77.tripod.com/decadesecuinv.htm
https://omega77.tripod.com/ecumenicalcoalition.htm
https://omega77.tripod.com/sdareformonecu.htm
https://omega77.tripod.com/isaiahchap8.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_ecumenism
Tares Dwelling with the Wheat
There is in
some of the members of the church, pride, self-sufficiency, stubborn unbelief[R14] , and a refusing to yield their ideas[R15] , although evidence may be piled upon evidence
which makes the message to the Laodicean church applicable. But that will not blot out the church that it will
not exist[R16] . Let both tares and wheat grow together until the harvest. Then it is the angels that do the work of separation.
I hope I have
made it abundantly clear that tares dwelling and growing with the wheat is
totally different from wheat dwelling with open sin apostasy which makes it
impossible for the wheat to mature because such sin chokes out the wheat.
I pray that all
understand that the THIRD ANGEL, the angel that does the work of separation,
symbolizes faithful men who give a sifting, shaking message.
We will explore
additional issues in part 4.
May God bless
and awaken His people is my prayer,
Ron Beaulieu