G. C. President Robert H. Pierson’s Final Appeal to God's
People
The following message was presented in 1978
by Elder Robert H. Pierson to hundreds of people-Including the entire
church leadership attending the Annual Council, the General Conference
staff, and the employees of the Review. He saw that our denomination was
rapidly moving toward liberal and new theology errors, and, in this
retirement speech, he pled with the church's leaders not to let It happen.
That was nearly two decades ago. The terrible fruits that he predicted, we
now live with. vf
By ROBERT H. PIERSON
This will be the last time that in my
present role I shall stand before the world leaders of my church, your
church, our church, and I have a few words to leave with you.
I take my thoughts from something that
Elder and Mrs. Ralph Neall have written describing how typically a sect
evolves into a church. They say a sect is often begun by a charismatic
leader with tremendous drive and commitment and that it arises as a protest
against worldliness and formalism in a church. It is generally embraced by
the poor. The rich would lose too much by joining it, since it is
unpopular, despised, and persecuted by society in general. It has definite
beliefs firmly held by zealous members. Each member makes a personal
decision to join it and knows what he believes. There is little
organization or property, and there are few buildings.
The group has strict standards and
controls on behavior. Preachers, often without education, arise by inner
compulsion. There is little concern about public relations.
And then it passes on to the second
generation. With growth there comes a need for organization and buildings.
As a result of industry and frugality, members become prosperous. As
prosperity increases, persecution begins to wane. Children born into the
movement do not have to make personal decisions to join it. They do not
necessarily know what they believe. They do not need to hammer out their
own positions. These have been worked out for them. Preachers arise more by
selection and by apprenticeship to older workers than by direct inner
compulsion.
In the third generation, organization
develops and institutions are established. The need is seen for schools to
pass on the faith of the fathers. Colleges are established.
Members have to be exhorted to live up to
the standards, while at the same time the standards of membership are being
lowered. The group becomes lax about disfellowshiping nonpracticing
members. Missionary zeal cools off. There is more concern over public
relations. Leaders study methods of propagating their faith, sometimes
employing extrinsic rewards as motivation for service by the members. Youth
question why they are different from others, and intermarry with those not
of their faith.
In the fourth generation there is much
machinery; the number of administrators increases while the number of workers
at the grass-roots level becomes proportionately less. Great church
councils are held to define doctrine. More schools, universities, and
seminaries are established. These go to the world for accreditation and
tend to become secularized. There is a reexamination of positions and
modernizing of methods. Attention is given to contemporary culture, with an
interest in the arts: music, architecture, literature. The movement seeks
to become 'relevant" to contemporary society by becoming involved with
popular causes. Services become formal. The group enjoys complete
acceptance by the world. The sect has become a church!
rb: The Waldensians proved that the
cycle described above does not necessarily
follow. They taught their
children to be faithful to death. Parents watched their children being
drowned before their eyes, as they refused to consent to the Catholic
priests that the wafer symbolizing the body of Christ was not His actual
body—the Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation.
What a rebuke to parents today
who indeed do not even teach their children end-time events for fear of
scaring them! What a wimpish
lot we have become!
Brethren and sisters, this must never
happen to the Seventh-day
Adventist Church!
This will not happen to the
Seventh-day Adventist Church. This is not just an other
church-it is God's church!
rb: Notice the words: “THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN TO THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH!” It is such a teaching by the leaders
that has made the members of the church smug and Laodicean. They feel that the church cannot
fail because their leaders say so!
They forget that Israel
of old was also God’s “chosen” people, and they failed as
a corporate body church. They
failed and fell to a horrible destruction, except for a remnant that was
gathered out from A.D. 27-66, and fled to the mountains of Pella, three and
one-half years before the apostate corporate church was destroyed in 70
A.D.
“This
will not happen to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”
What a blind and ignorant
statement from the outgoing General Conference President of the professing Seventh-day Adventist Church. Surely, Isaiah 56:10-12, was fully
applicable to him and all G. C. Presidents since that time. The SDA church had already committed
gross apostasy by accepting the world’s Accreditation Standards in
its educational facilities, and had adopted the central doctrine of Roman
Catholicism, the Trinity Doctrine, which totally denies the true identity
of the Holy Spirit as being the pre-Incarnated Son of Christ. That is Ellen White’s definition
of the Holy Spirit, and her definition coincides with Scripture. See our many documents on the true
identity of the third person of the Holy Spirit and the GREAT SACRIFICE the
Son made at His Incarnation even before the cross.
But you are the men and women sitting in
this sanctuary this morning on whom God is counting to assure that it
does not happen.
rb: The laity is truly corporately
responsible for they elect the leaders of the church, but they seldom rise
higher than the caliber of leadership.
Already, brethren and sisters, there are
subtle forces that are beginning to stir.
rb: The subtle forces were not merely
BEGINNING to stir in 1973-74.
They had more than “stirred” in 1930, when the church
adopted the Accreditation Standards of the world, and adopted the central
doctrine of the Catholic Church, the Trinity doctrine. Don’t misunderstand me. I AM NOT saying that there are not
three persons to the Godhead. I
am saying that the second person to the Godhead is not correctly identified
by the Trinity doctrine and that denial denigrates the great sacrifice of
that Person to the Godhead.
Also, the “subtle
forces” had more than stirred in the 1950’s, when church
leaders held conferences with the Evangelicals and sold out on serious
doctrines and beliefs held by the pioneers of Adventism.
As a result of that
sell-out, the church joined ecumenical Associations, Councils, Girdings and
Confederacies in the early 1960’s, which constituted a total
violation of Isaiah 8:9-20, Jeremiah 11:9-15, and the three angel’s
messages! The three
angel’s messages have since been watered down in order to qualify for
said ecumenical involvement.
This constitutes traitorship to the very mission and commission of
the church.
These are all things Robert
Pierson was either ignorant of, or did nothing about! He is guilty for such sins either
way, for he should have been aware if he was ignorant of such gross
apostasies, and/or should have done something about these betrayals of
sacred trust if he did know about them. Either way, Robert Pierson remained
a guilty man—an irresponsible leader of the professing Seventh-day
Adventist leader, what God has referred to as an ignorant “dumb-dog”
watchman that would not bark, Isaiah 56:10-12, and Testimonies, Vol. 5,
211.
Regrettably there are those in the church
who belittle the inspiration of the total Bible, who scorn the first 11
chapters of Genesis, who question the Spirit of Prophecy's short chronology
of the age of the earth, and who subtly and not so subtly attack the Spirit
of Prophecy. There are some who point to the reformers and contemporary
theologians as a source and the norm for Seventh-day Adventist doctrine.
There are those who allegedly are tired of the hackneyed phrases of
Adventism. There are those who wish to forget the standards of the church
we love. There are those who covet and would court the favor of the
evangelicals; those who would throw off the mantle of a peculiar people;
and those who would go the way of the secular, materialistic world.
rb: If Robert Pierson witnessed such
trends in the church, he should have enforced measures to deal with such
open thorn sinners in the church.
They should have been reformed or removed from the church. He skirted and shirked his
responsibility.
Fellow leaders, beloved brethren and
sisters-don't let it happen! I appeal to you as earnestly as I know how
this morning-don't let it happen! I appeal to Andrews
University, to the Seminary, to Loma Linda University
- don't let it happen! We are not Seventh-day Anglicans, not Seventh-day
Lutherans-we are Seventh-day Adventists! This is God's last church with
God's last message!
rb: Robert Pierson let it happen by
doing nothing to curb it! As
his term was over, he became just brave enough to pass the buck of responsibility
to the next G. C. President.
That is a very prevalent tactic now regarding retiring SDA
leaders. They wait until they
retire to “show the House of Jacob” their sins, and then they
do not deal with ALL of them and the most serious of them!
Two classic examples of what
I speak of are: Hidden Heresy,
by Elder Thomas Mostert, President of the Pacific Union Conference. Also, Here We Stand, by Samuel
Koranteng-Pipim.
You are the men and women, the leaders,
whom God is counting on to keep the Seventh-day Adventist
Church God's remnant
church, the church God has destined to triumph!
rb: If God had destined the SDA church
to triumph, the implication is that the church could never fail, and
Scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy testify otherwise! So Robert Pierson
gave a false testimony to the SDA church.
The servant of the Lord says,
"Fearful perils are before those who bear responsibilities in the
Lord's work-perils the thought of which makes me tremble."-Selected
Messages, book 2, p. 391. And in Ezekiel 22:30 we read, '1 looked for
a man among them who could build up a barricade, who could stand before me
in the breach to defend the land from ruin" (N.E.B.).
rb: Would you like to see the complete
version of Ezekiel 22:30, quoted by Robert Pierson, above as it appears in
the King James Version? Sure
you would! Here it is:
Eze 22:30 And I sought for a
man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before
me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
I believe this morning, fellow leaders,
that God is looking for men and women, intrepid leaders, men and women who
love God's church and God's truth more than they love their lives, to see
that this church under God goes through to the kingdom. The task ahead of
us is not going to be easy. If I understand the Bible and the Spirit of
Prophecy aright this morning, ahead lies a time of trouble, a time of
challenge such as this church and this world have never before known.
rb: If Robert Pierson really believed
that God is looking for intrepid (fearless) men and women who love His
church more than they love their lives and pocketbook (their jobs teaching
for hire), why was he so indolent in taking measure to correct apostasies
that had existed since the 1930’s and 1950’s—forget the
“subtle stirrings” of the 70’s!
The servant of the Lord tells us, 'The
enemy of souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great
reformation was to take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation would
consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith,
and engaging in a process of reorganization. Were this reformation
to take place, what would result? The principles of truth that God in
His wisdom has given to the remnant church, would be discarded. Our
religion would be changed. The fundamental principles that have sustained
the work for the last fifty years would be ac counted as error. A new
organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A
system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this
system would go into the cities, and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath, of
course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing
would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would
teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human
power, which, without God, is worthless."-Ibid., book 1, pp. 204, 205.
rb: The above E.G. White statement
refers to the Omega Heresy. That
is the entire context of the statement if you read the back pages. Each of the above specifications by
Ellen White was fulfilled before Robert Pierson’s watch, but he
failed to see it and/or did nothing about it. Again, either way he was an
unfaithful, ignorant, dumb-dog watchman (Isa. 56:10-12), who fulfilled
God’s description of ALL the professing watchmen in the church, for
Ellen White updated Isaiah on the “dumb-dog” watchmen in
Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 211, and said that they would NEVER AGAIN show the
house of Jacob its sins and that because of this, men, maidens and little
children would all perish together.
SDA leaders have a lot of blood on their backs, and so do all who
support them in their apostasy and betrayal of the three angel’s
mission commission to the world.
The Seventh-day Adventist
Church had its alpha
years ago. You and I are the leaders who will face the omega that will be
of the same subtle, devilish origin. Its effect will be more devastating
than the alpha. Brethren, I beg of you, study, know what is ahead, then
with God's help prepare your people to meet it!
rb: Notice that Pierson speaks of the
Omega as something that “will be” in the future! He was either very ignorant and
negligent, or both, because the Omega was well in force since 1930. And since that time, at every
camp-meeting, SDA leaders have always risen to the podium to smilingly
repeat the arrogant and self-deceiving words: “What a privilege it is
to be a Seventh-day Adventist!,” to all the resounding Amens! From the
audiences.
Being a Laodicean is not
being a Seventh-day Adventist!
Did you know that? Ellen
White defined the condition of the church known as Laodicean as the foolish
virgin state, and being a “foolish-virgin” Seventh-day
Adventist, is not a privilege.
It is a curse! Why? Because they feel rich, increased
with goods, and in need of nothing!
They call that wonderful!
And one G. C. President, McElaney, is on record as saying that it is
Laoidicea that goes through to the Kingdom! That is another indication of the
great ignorance of the leaders.
For their very prophetess, Ellen G. White, said that Laodicea is the
foolish virgins, and foolish virgins are not saved:
"The state of the
Church represented by the foolish virgins, is also spoken of as the Laodicean
state." E. G. White, Review and Herald Articles, Vol. 2,
420.
"God calls for men who are prepared
to meet emergencies, men who in a crisis will not be found standing on the
wrong side."-Ellen G. White, in Review and Herald, Nov. 5,
1903.
rb: It is positively amazing to witness
how leaders can quote the truth while they are grossly violating it, and
not recognize that they are so doing.
"We are pressing on to the final
conflict, and this is no time to compromise. It is no time to hide your
colors. When the battle wages sore, Let no one turn traitor. It is no time
to lay down or conceal our weapons, and give Satan the advantage in the
warfare. "-Ibid., Dec. 6, 1892.
rb: Was Robert Pierson a traitor
watchman? God says yes!
And then I call attention to a vision the
Lord's servant had, in which she saw a ship heading toward an iceberg. She
said, "There, towering high above the ship, was a gigantic iceberg. An
authoritative voice cried out, 'Meet it!' There was not a moment's
hesitation. It was a time for instant action. The engineer put on full
steam, and the man at the wheel steered the ship straight into the iceberg.
With a crash she struck the ice. There was a fearful shock, and the iceberg
broke into many pieces, falling with a noise like thunder to the deck. The
passengers were violently shaken by the force of the collision, but no
lives were lost. The vessel was injured, but not beyond repair. She
rebounded from the contact, trembling from stem to stern, like a living
creature. Then she moved forward on her way.
"Well I knew the meaning of this
representation. I had my orders. I had heard the words, like a voice from
our Captain, 'Meet it!' I knew what my duty was, and that there was not a
moment to lose. The time for decided action had come. I must without delay
obey the command, 'Meet it!' "-Selected Messages, book 1, pp.
205, 206.
rb:
In the above statement, Ellen White was speaking of the Alpha of
Apostasy, and how she “met it.” Would you like proof that I am
correct and that the Omega would not be so “met?” Here is the proof, from page 205 of
the same reference:
“Nothing would be
allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach
that virtue is better than vice, but God
being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which,
without God, is worthless.”-Ibid., book 1, pp. 204, 205.
If NOTHING would be allowed
to stand in the way of the NEW MOVEMENT, then how could anyone “meet
it,” and stop it the way she put a stop to the Alpha of
Apostasy? Also, she said that
the “dumb-dog” watchmen would NEVER AGAIN show the House of
Jacob its sins. The people
follow their leaders, so the Omega will not be met! Further proof? Surely! Adventists like lots of
proof evidence, and even when they get it, most will not accept it.
"One thing it is certain is soon to be realized,
the great apostasy, which is developing and increasing and waxing stronger,
and will continue to do so until
the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout. We are to hold fast
the first principles of our denominated faith, and go forward from strength
to increased faith. Ever we are to keep the faith that has been
substantiated by the Holy Spirit of God from the earlier events of our
experience until the present time. We need now larger breadth, and deeper,
more earnest, unwavering faith in the leadings of the Holy Spirit. If we
needed the manifest proof of the Holy Spirit's power to confirm truth in
the beginning, after the passing of the time, we need to-day all the evidence
in the confirmation of the truth, when souls are departing from the faith
and giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. There must not
be any languishing of soul now." (E.G. White, Special Testimonies,
Series B, No. 7, p. 57).
The above statement is in the context of Ellen White’s
description of the Omega of Apostasy.
Fellow leaders, it may be that in the not
too distant future you will have to meet it. I pray God will give you grace
and courage and wisdom.
rb: Ironically, the Omega of Apostasy
was surrounding Pierson, but he apparently did not detect it. Dumb-dog watchmen have not the
discernment to detect the worst of the abominations that are engulfing
God’s people.
Finally, "what a wonderful thought
it is that the great controversy is nearing its end! In the closing work we
shall meet with perils that we know not how to deal with; but let us not
forget that the three great powers of heaven are working, that a divine
hand is on the wheel, and that God will bring His purposes to pass. He will
gather from the world a people who will serve Him in righteousness."-Ibid.,
book 2, p. 391.
What a wonderful assurance we have this
morning, brethren and sisters, that you and I are in God's work. This work
is not dependent on any man; it is dependent on our relationship with Him.
There is only one way for us to face the future, and that is at the foot of
the cross. A church with its eyes upon the Man of Calvary will never walk
into apostasy.
rb: Sadly,
Laodicean does not have her eyes upon the Man of Calvary. She has her eyes on herself and her
supposed achievements. She
views herself as rich, increased with goods, in need of nothing, and
nothing includes the Man of Calvary!
May God help us in awakening at least some in the church to their
serious condition is my incessant prayer. rb.
Thank you, brethren and sisters, for
giving me the privilege of serving you for the past 45 years, and may God
bless every one of you.
Robert H. Pierson
Review and Herald, October 26, 1978
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