Sighing and Crying Versus Criticism and Judgment

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Dear Reader,

A very prominent SDA pastor and apologist in Adventist circles, A. Leroy Moore, wrote the following quip on a popular Internet forum. He was responding to a person who had expressed mere sorrow for the publicized compromised health care and sale of the SDA Paradise Valley Hospital in Southern California. See the following articles. I have misplaced one public report link that described how healthcare had become mediocre and compromised at Paradise Valley. Since the Spirit of Prophecy stated that the health message is the right arm of the Everlasting Gospel, Adventist should be the head and never the tail in such an important venture.

http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2006/10/30/daily14.html

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061031/news_1n31hospital.html

A. Leroy Moore’s Quip:

“Hi Jeff, I didn’t mean to direct my concern at you—or anyone in particular. But it is my burden that we learn to examine our own selves (with faith in Christ our righteousness) rather than remain ready to judge others or the church, even though we might well sigh and cry (not sigh and criticize). I am always distressed to hear negative expressions involving such expressions or implications such as “We Adventists” …. Judging others or even ourselves corporately both reflects and intensifies the very self-righteousness which Christ exposes in the Laodicean message.”

The above words by an SDA pastor, constitute one of the biggest peace and safety speeches I have ever heard from a professing SDA. His words truly fulfill Isaiah 56:10-12[RB1] . A. Leroy Moore is now semi-retired (2006), and functions as the principle of an independent SDA school in northern Alberta, Canada, not far from where I live. His teachings are not in compliance with those of a true reformer which is what Christ and Ellen White said we all should be[RB2] .

It is always distressing to see or hear sighing and crying for all the abominations in the church as mere criticism or judging. SDA’s sigh and cry about the abominations of the other fallen churches and do not regard that as mere criticism or judging. Why is it that any reproof for SDA apostasy is categorized as mere criticism? This is a device used by many professing Seventh-day Adventists to deny that the church is in apostasy. Since when is it “criticism or judgment” to weigh a church according to Isaiah 8:20?

And the pastor certainly perverts the real meaning of the Laodicean Message which faults Laodicea for feeling rich, increased in goods, in need of nothing—not for being cognizant of all the abominations for which God instructs us to sigh and cry per Ezekiel 9[RB3] ! We have good instruction from God and the Spirit of Prophecy as to a correct course in response to apostasy. SDA pastors and laity are turning the Laodicean message on its head by implying that those who obey God’s command to sigh and cry for all the abominations are self-righteous Laodiceans!  It is not a middle of the road, lukewarm position, to sigh and cry for ALL the abominations of apostasy as imbibed by church leadership corporately, and individual members alike.

The Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy on Unmasking Apostasy

This document is not intended as an exhaustive study on all the statements of the Bible and the SOP on apostasy and our duty regarding such, but I am including some of the more important instruction by God and Ellen White:

My message to you is: No longer consent to listen without protest[RB4]  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 call 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.” Ellen G. White, Series B, No. 2: 29.

Judgment by God’s Word is certainly essential to obey the following counsel:

Regular lines - “So often the same old difficulties arise and are presented in regard to disturbing the ‘regular lines.’ But God will work in some way to make His people understand that THE REGULAR LINES HAVE BECOME FULL OF IRREGULAR PRACTICES…God alone can make men understand that working on REGULAR LINES has led to IRREGULAR PRACTICES.  God alone can make men’s minds as they should be.  The time has come when we should hear less in favor of the REGULAR LINES.  If we can GET AWAY FROM THE REGULAR LINES into something which, THOUGH IRREGULAR, IS AFTER GOD’S ORDER, it may cut away something of the IRREGULAR WORKING which has led away from Bible principles.”  E.G. White, Manuscript Release, #1450, p. 3, 4, 1901. 

When we see the regular lines are altered and purified and refined, and the God of the heavens mold is upon the regular lines, then it is our business to establish the regular lines.  E.G. White, Spaulding-Magan Collection, p. 162-168. 

The present showing is sufficient to prove to all who have the true missionary spirit that the regular lines [organization] may prove to be a failure.  E.G. White, Spaulding-Magan Collection, p. 175.  Written to Brother Daniels, June 28, 1901. 

The regular lines had need to be broken as a potter’s vessel is broken, and reconstructed. Ms. 29, 1903. pp. 1, 3 (General Manuscript, The Southern Work, undated.

In reference to the Omega of Apostasy New Movement SDA Church, Ellen White advised: 

Who has authority to begin such a [NEW] movement? We have our Bibles, we have our experience, attested to by the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit. We have a truth that admits of no compromise. Shall we not repudiate everything that is not in harmony with this truth? E.G. White, Selected Messages, Vol. 1, 204, 205.  

Question: How does one repudiate EVERYTHING that is not in harmony with truth if he can make no value judgments and/or sigh and cry for the abominations of apostasy in Jerusalem, the professing SDA church? 

What Does Sighing and Crying Involve? Is it Mere Sighing and Crying to Ourselves in the Closet? 

     The command is: “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” These sighing, crying ones had been holding forth the words of life; they had reproved, counseled, and entreated. Some who had been dishonoring God repented and humbled their hearts before Him. But the glory of the Lord had departed from Israel; although many still continued the forms of religion, His power and presence were lacking. {5T 210.2} 

 

     In the time when His wrath shall go forth in judgments, these humble, devoted followers of Christ will be distinguished from the rest of the world by their soul anguish, which is expressed in lamentation and weeping, reproofs and warnings. While others try to throw a cloak over the existing evil, and excuse the great wickedness everywhere prevalent, those who have a zeal for God’s honor and a love for souls will not hold their peace to obtain favor of any. Their righteous souls are vexed day by day with the unholy works and conversation of the unrighteous. They are powerless to stop the rushing torrent of iniquity, and hence they are filled with grief and alarm. They mourn before God to see religion despised in the very homes of those who have had great light. They lament and afflict their souls because pride, avarice, selfishness, and deception of almost every kind are in the church. The Spirit of God, which prompts to reproof, is trampled underfoot, while the servants of Satan triumph. God is dishonored, the truth made of none effect. {5T 210.3} 

 

     The class who do not feel grieved over their own spiritual declension, nor mourn over the sins of others, will be left without the seal of God. The Lord commissions His messengers, the men with slaughtering weapons in their hands: “Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.” {5T 211.1} 

 

The pastor in mention obviously regards the Spirit of God, which prompts to reproof as mere Laodicean self-righteousness. This is a sham and shame and it is commonplace among members of the New Movement SDA church. 

Isaiah 58:1 and the Omega of Apostasy “The fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah contains instruction for TODAY. ‘Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show MY PEOPLE their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sin....” The work would not have been hindered as it has been for the past several years if Dr. Kellogg were a converted man. “Come,” I call, “come ye out and be separate from him and his associates whom he has leavened.” I am now giving the message God has given me, to give to all who claim to believe the truth: “Come out from among them, and be ye separate,’ else their sin in justifying wrongs and framing deceits will continue to be the ruin of souls.” E.G. White, SpTB07, Testimonies for the Church Containing Messages of Warning and Instruction to Seventh-day Adventists, pr. 02, p. 64. 

In the Alpha of Apostasy, involving J. Harvey Kellogg, only he and a few leaders were involved. Ellen White called for being separate from him and his cronies in spiritual crime. However, in the Omega of Apostasy, the leaders of the church have led the church into apostasy by linking them to Babylon’s associations, councils, girdings and confederacies around the world, which is strictly forbidden by the Word, Isaiah 8:9-13. What would Ellen White say about being separate from that apostasy which she said would be far worse than the  Alpha?! Would not the same counsel be apropos? If not, why not? 

Repeated for emphasis:  

“Come,” I call, ‘come ye out and be separate from him and his associates whom he has leavened.’ I am now giving the message God has given me, to give to all who claim to believe the truth: “Come out from among them, and be ye separate,’ else their sin in justifying wrongs and framing deceits will continue to be the ruin of souls.” E.G. White, SpTB07, Testimonies for the Church Containing Messages of Warning and Instruction to Seventh-day Adventists, pr. 02, p. 64. 

The great apostasy is working to a point, and will develop into darkness deep as midnight, impenetrable as sackcloth of hair. This is the time to employ any system that can be devised to discover and counteract the leaven of error. Let there be light. There should be one hundred light bearers in our world where there is one today. Darkness will become more dense in human minds after the truth has penetrated and been rejected. But there are some minds where the darkness will be removed. They recognize the light. Ellen White, 19MR 382. 

Who do we believe? Ellen White, or A. Leroy Moore? According to him, any system or attempt to discover and counteract the leaven of error is undue Laodicean criticism and judgment. 

It would be well to review Ellen White’s counsel on apostasy as set forth in the following document: https://omega77.tripod.com/apostasybyegw.htm 

Friend of mine, if you have any doubts about sighing and crying being the same as criticism and judgment, consider that nearly the entire Old Testament prophesying against Israel’s apostasy would be mere criticism and judgment rather than God ordained reproof and instruction of His first chosen people! And for those of you who believe that sighing and crying is to be done in the closet, in quiet, read and heed the following if you are interested in salvation, for only those who sigh and cry for ALL the abominations of the church are sealed with the seal of God. 

Isaiah 58:1 and the Omega of Apostasy “The fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah contains instruction for TODAY. ‘Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show MY PEOPLE their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sin....” The work would not have been hindered as it has been for the past several years if Dr. Kellogg were a converted man. “Come,” I call, “come ye out and be separate from him and his associates whom he has leavened.” I am now giving the message God has given me, to give to all who claim to believe the truth: “Come out from among them, and be ye separate,’ else their sin in justifying wrongs and framing deceits will continue to be the ruin of souls.” E.G. White, SpTB07, Testimonies for the Church Containing Messages of Warning and Instruction to Seventh-day Adventists, pr. 02, p. 64. 

     The command is: “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” These sighing, crying ones had been holding forth the words of life; they had reproved, counseled, and entreated. Some who had been dishonoring God repented and humbled their hearts before Him. But the glory of the Lord had departed from Israel; although many still continued the forms of religion, His power and presence were lacking. {5T 210.2} 

 

It does not sound like a matter of sighing and crying to oneself in the closet to me. And SDA’s sure sigh and cry out loud—even a Loud Cry, over the abominations of the other fallen churches! What makes that O.K.? Is the three angel’s messages, which define and disclose Babylon’s fall to the world, only criticism and judgmental opinion? 

 

Is gross, abominable apostasy mere faults and defects such as we all have? If so, why did we leave the other churches if gross apostasy is in the same classification as “tares” which dwell together until the harvest? Fact is friend, open sin is “thorns,” not tares, and was always supposed to be separated from the true church. When the church refuses that obligation, then we must separate from any such church. That is the reason Christ left the apostate organization of His day. That is why Reformers left Catholicism in the Reformation. That is why SDA’s left apostate Protestantism in 1844. That is why God continues to work on that principle because open sin defiles and corrupts all who are joined to it in any way and it is impossible for the wheat to mature amongst thorns—open sinners. 

The Lord Jesus will always have a chosen people to serve Him. When the Jewish people rejected Christ, the Prince of life. He took from them the kingdom of God and gave it unto the Gentiles. God will continue to work on this principle with every branch of His work. When a church proves unfaithful to the work of the Lord, whatever their position may be, however high and sacred their calling, the Lord can no longer work with them. Others are then chosen to bear important responsibilities. But, if these in turn do not purify their lives from every wrong action, if they do not establish pure and holy principles in all their borders, then the Lord will grievously afflict and humble them and, unless they repent, will remove them from their place and make them a reproach.

God is not ‘worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing’ (Acts 17:25). E. G. White, The Upward Look, 131.  

God bless, 

Ron Beaulieu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 [RB1]10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.

11 Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.

12 Come ye, say they , I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.

 

I don’t question the intelligence of A. Leroy Moore or any other SDA leader who is a minister (watchman). I merely believe God as to their ability as watchmen. Ellen White updates Isaiah 56:10-12 to our time, in the following statement:

 

Begin at My Sanctuary -- "Here we see that the church--the Lord's sanctuary--was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God. The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, had betrayed their trust. They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God's power as in former days. Times have changed. These words strengthen their unbelief, and they say: The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. He is too merciful to visit His people in judgment. Thus 'Peace and safety" is the cry from men who will never again lift up their voice like a trumpet to show God's people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. These dumb dogs that would not bark are the ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God. Men, maidens, and little children all perish together." E. G. White, Testimonies, Vol. 5, 211.

 

 [RB2]"Characteristics of True Reformers.--Here are given the characteristics of those who shall be reformers, who will bear the banner of the third angel's message, those who avow themselves God's commandment-keeping people, and who honor God, and are earnestly engaged, in the sight of all the universe, in building up the old waste places. Who is it that calls them, The repairers of the breach, The restorers of paths to dwell in? It is God. Their names are registered [written--Heb. 12:22, 23] in heaven as reformers, restorers, as raising the foundations of many generations." E. G. White, SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 4, 1151.

 

 [RB3]Though we are to sigh and cry for our own declensions, that does not preclude our duty to sigh and cry for all the apostate abominations of the church which we are not to be aligned with. It is “dumb-dog” stupidity to conclude that because we all have faults and defects, that because of such, we are not to sigh and cry for open sin apostasy, and put it from our ranks.

 

"The class who do not feel grieved over their own spiritual declension, nor mourn over the sins of others, will be left without the seal of God" (Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 211).

 

 [RB4] "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.