Spring 1990, “Like Adam or Like Us?” While letters of concern and total disagreement were coming to the "Review"regarding the six-part series which ended on February 22, another series of similar articles was already in the pipe line and announced in the April 5 issue.
This three-part series from March 29 to April 26 was authored by one of the "Review" editors. It presented the same theology that church members had complained about. These articles were a reprint of a series that had gone to the Canadian church membership as printed in the "Canadian Adventist Messenger" in April and May 1988, and with the same title, “Like Adam or Like Us?” Thus the church is again urged to accept a view opposing the 1888 view while the “Appeal for Unity” urges the church to lay aside this subject of Christ’s human nature.
Fall 1990, ‘Time to Press Together.” This editorial in the November 1 "Review" focuses on a serious need of the church: “It’s time to press together in the North American Division. It’s time for us to put aside our carping and criticism, our pettiness and crankiness, and join hands in a common message and a common mission.” Amen!
The problem according to the editorial is theology. The church is being fractured because “some Adventists seem to want to change the rules. Some want to ignore or delete part of the 27 fundamentals; some want to add to them. … As an example, take the human nature of Jesus. Our fundamental beliefs make clear that Jesus, God’s eternal Son, became fully human, was tempted in all points but remained sinless. But they do not attempt to spell out His nature beyond this.”
For some reason the Evangelical view of the nature of Christ continually gets “spelled out in print, while the “most precious” view that “the Lord in His great mercy sent” to us in 1888 is labeled as an offending doctrine which inhibits unity, is not “essential,” and even attracts the adjective “satanic.”
Fall 1991, “Tithe” and the Nature of Christ. The November 7 issue of the "Review" included an unusual supplement as a tract in the center spread. This 16 page document is perhaps unique in Adventist history; it brings into focus a growing problem in the church. Only about fifty percent of the church membership return to the Lord that which is called tithe, but in many cases is not a faithful tenth. Therefore this is a subject of great importance. It is the sacred duty of every Christian to return the tithes and offerings to the Lord.
But this tract on tithe becomes a promotion piece on the subject which the “Appeal for Unity” has urged us to lay aside—the human nature of Christ. How could this be?
The question arises as to whether a church member should return tithe to the church if such a one believes the church “is in apostasy.” This leads to the question, “What is apostasy?”
The dictionary defines apostasy as the “renunciation of a religious faith,” or the “abandonment of a previous loyalty.” No Seventh-day Adventist can renounce and forsake the teachings of this church and remain a member in good standing. It would seem the question is wrong.
The question should be, “What is heresy?” The dictionary defines heresy as “an opinion, doctrine, or practice contrary to truth or to generally accepted beliefs and standards.
”By this definition we have “heresy” in our ranks, for we are not willing to acknowledge the “generally accepted beliefs” regarding righteousness by faith as the Lord “sent” them to us. Increasingly the message is under dispute and rejected. Why? Because, it is said, the 1980 set of 27 beliefs did not articulate this in a clear statement.
The tithe tract diverges from its announced topic to strike a blow in this forbidden area of the nature of Christ. It tells the world church that we have three views:
1992 and Onward. The theological issues facing the church will not go away. Meanwhile, the latter rain blessing is a vain hope until there is a true heart unity. Error is never harmless. It never sanctifies but always brings confusion and dissension. This peril is vividly portrayed in a "Review" article of January 7, 1993.
It is observed that “history has shown that the church’s fragmentation has always resulted from some important or exaggerated theological dispute. The question for us now, therefore, is whether there exists among us any theological controversy of suficient magnitude to generate a schism in the church.”
That the remnant church in the end-time should face such a quandary is foreign to its mandate. However, the page 21, senses there is grave danger. Again this serves as a pretext to agitate the forbidden topic: “One theological issue, however, has that potential. It centers on the nature of Christ, righteousness, and the absolute sinless perfection of the final remnant.” The author goes on to say, “I seriously doubt the likelihood of an outright schism in the church on their account.” May the powers of heaven prove him right that no schism engulf this church. But the potential remains.
Issues
The Seventh-day Adventist Church and Private Ministries
Copyrighted with no date listed, "Issues" is produced by the North American Division Officers and Union Presidents. This is one Division of the world field; it is not the General Conference in world business session. "Issues" therefore cannot be accepted as authorized by the world church, even though it is certain to create repercussions throughout the denomination as it implies the full approval of the General Conference.
But why such a book? Will it bring unity to the church? Will it help prepare a people for the final issues and the coming of the Lord? Its promoters hope so.
The stated purpose of "Issues" is to demonstrate how certain church members “are out of harmony with God’s plan for His established church” and “to determine if they are loyal to the church… or if they are divisive.” And what will determine this? Both "Issues" and the tract which went to the world field agree specifically: ‘These differences are grounded in theology.”
This is the crucial issue. Theology is “the study of religious faith, practice, and experience; the study of God and his relation to the world.” That a problem of this nature and magnitude should engulf the remnant church portends beyond question that we have already entered into the “shaking.”
"Issues" says it does not propose “to provide a theological rebuttal to the views held by members” of these certain “dissident” groups. It claims that the “issues of the confict over the nature of Christ and righteousness by faith are not nearly as straightforward as [some] would have them appear.” It goes on to say: “Both Scripture and Ellen White contain statements that seem to support varying viewpoints, and these must be held in tension with each other.” This repeats what the “Tithe” tract of November 7, 1991, described as “certain acknowledged ambiguities.” If these “tensions” and “acknowledged ambiguities” do exist, it should be a simple matter to list even a few of them. This would enable every conscientious Seventh-day Adventist to compare and see wherein the Bible is not clear and wherein Ellen White speaks in uncertain terms.
Instead, "Issues" tells the church to study the series of six articles that ran in the "Review", January and February 1990. This is the series entitled, “Model or Substitute? Does It Matter How We See Jesus?” which is based on the theology of "Questions on Doctrine", the root of our present confusion. This is the series that caused consternation in the hearts of many Adventists at the time it was published. Yet now it is set forth as the touchstone of orthodoxy.
If as "Issues" claims, there is no official church action regarding the nature of Christ, it is equally true there is no church action to alter one word of the truth we have held from our beginnings.
The integrity of the church cannot be established nor maintained by force of hierarchical authority contrary to the faith of the world church. Confidence in the ministry and leadership of the church can and will be sustained by strict adherence to truth. In this environment only fawless theology will stand. Unity at the cost of compromise sustained by false theology is delusive. The peril surrounding the church now in this final hour is that the mystery of godliness and the mystery of iniquity mature simultaneously.
The process is hastening on apace
History at Issue Must Become History Understood, Which Will Become History ClimaxedIn the decades since 1950 the church has drifted deeper into Baal worship. We have required about the same time that ancient Israel needed to reach their depths in the days of Elijah, yet they did not know their true condition. The seventh church is now in the same situation.
Each refusal to repent has only deepened our guilt and prevented the Holy Spirit from working. No perversion of the gospel could be more perilous than the false elation of supposed progress while we actually know not the Word that “became flesh and dwelt among us.” The explosion of baptisms in Russia and the ever increasing numbers in the Third World constitute a membership that must soon wrestle with the same theological issues now fracturing the leadership church in the home base. Truth must be settled in the home base before schism affects the world church.
Statistics will do nothing to bring the latter rain and loud cry to the corporate body of the church. Glowing reports may feed our ego, but such will never prepare a people for the final crisis. What the Lord wanted to do for His people 100 years ago, He still wants to do, but even omnipotence cannot prevail over individual or corporate rejection of the “gold,” the “white raiment,” and the “eyesalve” which the True Witness has waited to give us.
For years we have talked much about the latter rain but we have failed to understand that the Lord sent it 100 years ago when we “insulted” the Holy Spirit. Our Lord has feelings too, like the children He created, and He is waiting for us to see and know what we did to Him and how our opposition allowed Satan to succeed in shutting away from us the “special power of the Holy Spirit. ”Notwithstanding the millions we may spend to fulfill our plans for a global strategy, “the light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory was resisted, and by the action of our own brethren has been in a large degree kept away from the world.”
When did this happen? It happened when the Lord sent to His people a “most precious message.” As we enter our second century since heaven tried to finish the work, how much longer will it take for us to “know” what needs to be known, and then repent? After 6000 years of waiting, the Saviour makes His earnest plea to the seventh church.
But we are not the first people to have misunderstood a message that God sent. The ancient Jews brought grief to the Messiah because they were certain they understood. The heartbreak the Saviour suffered then cannot compare to the grief pressed upon Him by the lukewarm, unknowing response He has received from the last of the “seven churches.” The High Priest is waiting to rise up and proclaim, “it is done.”
How much longer will He have to wait?
Some readers of this documentary may feel depressed at the almost constant evidence of confict in this extended correspondence, decade after decade, now even beginning to approximate century after century. “How long, O Lord?” is the cry for ages, of anxious hearts. The authors have experienced in their lifetime (so far) 43 years of constant misunderstanding, resistance, opposition, and often condemnation. There may be some readers oh this documentary who have also had to endure similar trials within the church and who are tempted to abandon the church and seek fellowship in an offshoot. To such the counsel must be: re-read the Book of Jeremiah. He too endured more than 40 years of constant rejection, yet remained loyal to the “church” of his day. And these authors have not given up hope that the Lord still has resources by which He can bring all of us in the Seventh-day Adventist Church to a knowledgeable repentance and reconciliation with Christ.Again, the message of Job brings encouragement. Job thought it was the Lord who was opposing him when in reality it was Satan. The essential question to be settled is whether it is the Lord who opposes the 1888 message of Christ’s righteousness, or is it someone else. We join Job on his dung-heap. Although we ask “Why?” yet still we trust.
For the first time in Seventh-day Adventist history, in the 1888 episode almost the entire leadership of the church ranged themselves solidly against the Holy Spirit. Ellen White has truthfully said that since then the Lord has a controversy with His people. The terrible fires that consumed our greatest institutions at the old Battle Creek headquarters were the outcome of more than a decade of constant resistance of the 1888 message. Mercifully, there was no loss of life. The Lord’s servant has left on record an awe some warning for the future:
Brethren, God is in earnest with us. I want to tell you that if after the warnings given in these burnings the leaders of our people go right on, just as they have done in the past, exalting themselves, God will take the bodies next. Just as surely as He lives, He will speak to them in language that they cannot fail to understand ("The Publishing Ministry", p. 171; 1903).
The honor and vindication of Christ require the repentance of the Seventh-day Adventist Church leadership and membership. If it seems an impossible achievement, please remember that the sacrifice of the Son of God on His cross requires it. The Scriptures project a prophecy yet future in support of this, for the Lord declares:
“I will pour on the house of David [church administration] and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem [church membership] the Spirit of grace and supplication: then they will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem. … In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. It shall be in that day, says the Lord of hosts, ‘that I will cut of the names of the idols from the land, they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land. …
“And someone will say to him, ‘What are these wounds in your hands?’ Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends,’ …And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem.” (Zechariah 12:10, 11-13:1, 2; 14:8, NKJV).
The authors of "1888 Re-examined" believe that He did not receive those “wounds” in His hands for naught. In due course His “friends” will know what they have done to Him and how they insulted His Holy Spirit; then they will indeed “grieve for Him” with a repentance supreme in all history. His love will be seen and be appreciated to accomplish what judgments by sword and fire have not accomplished.
We do not need to wait for another generation to requite His sacrificial love. We do not need new and strange reinterpreting of the time prophecies of Daniel and Revelation to set dates for His return. God’s people can in this generation, now, fulfill all that heaven is waiting on—”Be zealous therefore and repent.” The grateful receipt of that magnificent blessing will be the sign before the whole universe that at last the “Bride” is willing to accept the hand of the Divine Lover.
While the Bridegroom is forced to tarry there are signs that His Bride-to-be is making herself ready. Stirrings in the church give positive hope.
Three outstanding articles have appeared in recent issues of "Ministry" magazine. There is a refreshing candor evident. In the April 1992 issue the editor stirred the Adventist conscience:
Is it possible that underneath all the optimism, all the euphoria, all the movement, all might not be as well as we would like? Is it possible that we are making progress without much light? Is it possible that church growth in the statistical column is not matched by growth in the character department?…
One campaign … resulted in 1,000 baptisms. One year later [there were] only 57 people out of the more than 1,000 who had been baptized. The other 943 were still listed on the church books—and will probably remain there for years to come. …
One field president … talked to a local chief and promised him seven bales of clothing if he could deliver 1,000 people for baptism. By the end of the year his tally of 953 people was close enough to get the clothing.
The gospel commission is much more than baptizing; it is making disciples of people who are refecting the character of Jesus.
In the same year another serious challenge was given by the editor’s “Open Letter” to the General Conference president in the October issue. There were some noteworthy observations:
Ellen White first applied the Laodicean message to our church in the 1850s and during the course of her ministry never encouraged the church to consider that it had escaped this Laodicean condition. She said that we would never do the work that God really wants us to do until we wholeheartedly admit that we are in a Laodicean condition. … But there comes a time when we as leaders must stand up and be counted. We need to clarify the mission of the church. Why did God bring this church into existence? What are we preaching? …Why is it that after almost 150 years of existence our people do not understand the most basic of all doctrines [the assurance of salvation]? … Has Christ somehow become eclipsed by all our good works and distinctive doctrines? … We are at a critical juncture in the history of our church. … Let us preach the right gospel, that God might be glorified.
Early in 1993 the February issue brought another frank appeal from the editor to our denominational workers. He sets forth the call that has been shunned for years, but which is the plea of the ‘True Witness” to receive His gift of “corporate repentance.” The editor comes to grips with a pending decisive issue:
Ever since the 1850s we as individual Adventists have acknowledged our Laodicean condition, but is there a difference between individual recognition of this fact and corporate recognition? Some have tried to educate us in this area, but we have ignored their pleas. … We as church leaders need to spend much more time studying and applying this passage. …
If we seek the true remedies, then as church leaders we will make the burden of our committees, our councils, our gatherings, a study of and a seeking for the righteousness of Christ rather than a push for church growth. … Let us convene a world gathering of leaders and pastors whose only agenda is to study the message to Laodicea. … The message to Laodicea is not primarily a message to individuals, but to a church, to a corporate body. … The greatest proof that we have not repented as a church is the fact that … after almost 150 years we are still here.
Truly, to our shame, “we are still here.” And yes, this is “the foremost proof that we have not repented as a church.” But the very impotence and disunity of the church at this time are a great cause for encouragement, for this situation is a fulfillment of God’s warning to His people that means He is still leading!
Books of a new order "have" been published which sabotage the faith we have been given and defy our history; intellectual philosophy does attempt to usurp a “thus saith the Lord”; the Sabbath is lightly regarded; virtue is considered better than vice while we are told falsely that vice will prevail among the elect until the second advent; nothing seems “to stand in the way of a new movement.” But the Lord’s word will not return unto Him void; the sanctuary “shall be cleansed.” We are convinced that God believes that the basic heart of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is honest. The Church simply needs to know the full truth.
If God believes that His people will respond, shouldn’t we believe it too? And if we do believe as He does, shouldn’t we courageously tell the truth? That distilled pure message of truth which was sent to us 100 years ago and verified by the Lord’s messenger will yet do its work. The heart of Israel will be touched when the truth of our history is appreciated. Our Heavenly Father has staked the honor of His throne on the sure result of His people coming to know and accept His “precious message.” "These authors have staked their all on the same conviction". The Lord’s truth contains a compelling power to bring repentance.
While the Lord is waiting, He assures us: “’For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer.” “I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy. I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord’” (Isaiah 54:7, 8; Hosea 2:19, 20, NKJV).
For over a century the Lord has allowed us our wayward journey. For over forty years the reason for this long delay has been under serious discussion. Is this time enough to learn where the problem lies?
Or will these two authors join their colleagues of forty years ago in the grave, while some future generation comes to face our history for what it is? "There is no escape from facing the truth of how “we” have treated our Lord."
Whether the authors live or die, whether they are judged by this documentation as misguided fools or worse, God’s word must still be fulfilled. The record of the past four decades must be determined in judgment one way or another.
Meanwhile, the delay has only deepened the Lord’s unrequited love for His bride-to-be. He is determined to betroth her forever in “righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy,” as He says.
The Lord’s message to His people remains the pure gospel—the Good News—but infnitely more, it is the power of God unto salvation from sin.
We still believe it.