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I recently heard about an SDA minister who
opined that if one believed and read Ellen White, he/she would not respect
the ministers who lead the flock. I have news for such ministers. Maybe,
like the Catholics in the middle ages, the ministers would not like their
patrons reading the Bible because of the things it teaches against the
leaders. Here are a few examples:
Isa 9:16 For the leaders of this people cause
[them] to err; and [they that are] led of them [are] destroyed.
Mat 15:14 Let them alone: they be blind
leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into
the ditch.
Eze 22:27 Her princes in the midst
thereof [are] like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, [and] to
destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
Zep 3:3 Her princes [leaders] within her
[are] roaring lions; her judges [are] evening wolves; they gnaw not the
bones till the morrow.
Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets [within
the church], which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening
wolves.
Mat 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as
sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and
harmless as doves.
Luk 10:3 Go your ways: behold, I send you
forth as lambs among wolves.
Act 20:29 For I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Mic 3:11 The heads thereof judge for
reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof
divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, [Is] not the
LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
Eze 13:9 And mine hand shall be upon the
prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the
assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the
house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye
shall know that I [am] the Lord GOD.
Webster’s defines a prophet as one who
claims to represent God. Do the leaders consider themselves prophets? Do
they “claim” to represent God? Dr. B.B. Beach told me over the phone that I
had better be careful how I speak to the prophets, referring to himself. He
lied to me saying that the church was not allied in any way with the World
Council of Churches, when I had written to the WCC and they sent me a
Directory to Christian Councils that lists SDA’s as FULL MEMBERS in at
least five countries of the world, and lesser participants in many
countries.
At the same time I spoke to Dr. Beach, the
church was embroiled in a major controversy in Hungary, because about 1500
SDA church members there were protesting the church’s MEMBERSHIP in the Hungarian Council of Free Churches,
which is a MEMBER of the WCC.
The Adventist
Review was confessing around the same time that it had been a member of
the Hungarian Council of Free
Churches for 30 years past. So as Mic 3:11 says, the leaders divine
lies. Virtual atheists don’t mind lying—they live a lie.
The last page of the Directory to Christian Councils says that the WCC is in working
relationship with the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
“The same disobedience and failure which were
seen in the Jewish church have characterized in a greater
degree the people who have had
this great light from heaven in the last messages of warning.” Testimonies,
Vol. 5, p. 456.
History
repeats itself. “The thing that
has been, it is that which shall be: and that which is done is that which
shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecc. 1:9). In
other words, “The important movements of the present have their parallel in
those of the past.” (G.C. 343).
That
the Advent Movement is an important movement of the present no one can deny
and it has its parallel in the history of Ancient Israel:
“The
remnant church is called to go through an experience similar to that of the
Jews.” (1 SM, 387). Not one of us can afford to ignore the following
warning:
“The
trials of the children of Israel, and their attitude just before the first
coming of Christ, have been presented before me, again and again, to
ILLUSTRATE the position of the people of God in their experience before the
second coming of Christ—how the enemy sought every occasion to take control
of the minds of the Jews, and today her is seeking to blind the minds of
God’s servants, that they may not be able to discern the Precious Truth.”
(1 SM, 406; 2 Cor 4:4). The “precious truth” mentioned here is the light
sent to the Seventh-day Adventists in 1888.
"I have been shown that the spirit of the
world is fast leavening the church. You
are following the same path as did ancient Israel. There is the same
falling away from your holy calling as God's peculiar people. You are
having fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Your concord with
unbelievers have provoked he Lord's displeasure. You know not the things
that belong to your peace, and they are fast being hid from your eyes. [The
very words applied to fallen Israel on page 17 of The Great Controversy]
Your neglect to follow the light will place you in a more unfavorable
position than the Jews upon whom Christ pronounced a woe." Testimonies,
Vol. 5, pp. 75-76.
So if the leaders of ancient Israel were
virtual atheists, then what does that say for current day leaders of
professing Israel?
"Like ancient Israel, the church has
dishonored her God by departing from the light, neglecting her duties, and
abusing her high and exalted privilege of being peculiar and holy in
character. Her members have violated their covenant to live for God and him
only. They have joined with the selfish and world-loving. Pride, the love
of pleasure, and sin have been cherished, and CHRIST HAS DEPARTED. His
Spirit has been quenched in the church. Satan works side by side with
professed Christians yet they are so destitute of spiritual discernment
that they do not detect him." E.G. White, Testimonies, Vol. 2,
pp. 441-442.
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