WWN XXV - 11(92) Excerpt “Watchman, what of the night?” "The hour has come, the
hour is striking and striking at you, CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY Part 2 Even as there can be corporate repentance,
so there is corporate guilt. Unless there is guilt, there would be no need to
call for repentance. When therefore, judgment is executed because repentance
has not followed the act of transgression which brought the guilt, how does God
relate to the corporate identity involved? Does He separate the individuals who
are not directly involved from the leaders who have led the people into sin? In
other words - to put it plainly - will the laity and the rank and file of the
ministry be spared the judgments of God upon the hierarchy who have led in the
apostasy from the truth of God? In seeking an answer to this question, we shall
consider the God of the Old Testament, the God of the New Testament, and the
God revealed in the Writings. The God of the Old Testament In the days of ancient Moses spoke to the congregation saying: Depart, I pray you, from
the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs lest ye be consumed
in all their sins. So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram, on
every side: and Dathan and Abiram
came out, and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their
sons, and their little children. (Numbers 16:26-27) [The little children had
not joined in the manifesto which their grandfathers had sent to Moses. See
Numbers 16:12-14] Here were two families - corporate identities - standing together.
Two men had sinned - the heads of the households. Here were ties of loyalty,
kinship - and there was the command which had been uttered but a little while
before from And Moses said...If the Lord make a new thing,
and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto
them, and they go down quick into the pit then ye shall understand that these
men have provoked the Lord. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of
speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them:
and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up,...
They and all that appertained to them, went down alive
into the pit, and the earth closed upon them. (Numbers 16:28-33) While the families of Dathan and Abiram fell together under the judgment from God, because
they refused to separate themselves from their corporate identity, the record
also notes that the sons of Korah did not die.
(Numbers 26:10-11) They did not appear with their father and the two hundred
and fifty princes who had assembled at the door of the sanctuary to challenge
the leadership of Moses and Aaron. The sons of Korah
chose to exercise their individual responsibility, and refused to be identified
in the corporate entity which initiated the rebellion, and thus they escaped
the judgment of God. The God of the New Testament On the Day of Pentecost - at the time of the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit as promised by Jesus - there were assembled in Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by
Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know;... ye have taken, and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain. (Acts 2:22-23) Those who had not been present at the feast of the Passover were
not moved. They had no part in the crucifixion of Jesus - they were not
anywhere near. Those who might have come for both feasts knew that the Romans
had done the act. It was their hands that were "wicked"
not theirs. So they continued to listen, very sure they had no accountable
guilt. Then Peter returns to them again, and brings it home. Note: Let all the house of Strong conviction took hold of them. Whether present or not,
whether a part of the mob which shouted - "Crucify Him!" - or not,
and definitely not a Roman soldier, still they were being charged by God as
guilty of the blood of Jesus Christ, and accountable as participants in the
crucifixion because of their corporate identity. Pricked in their hearts, they
cried out to Peter and to the rest of the disciples - "Men and brethren,
what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37) Their response to Peter's counsel would
determine whether they would be included in the judgment of God upon the nation
of The God of the Writings There are those among the professed people of God who would have us
believe that the God with whom we have to do today is not the same God as
yesterday. They vainly hope that the God who declared - "My Spirit shall
not always strive with men" (Gen 6:2) - no longer holds to this dictum,
but will grant unlimited time to an insubordinate people for them to repent of
their apostasy. The laity are told that God is too
merciful to visit His people in judgment. Look, they are advised, at all the
great and wonderful institutions which God has permitted to be built as
monuments to His glory. Will He forsake such a people, and such an
organization, they are asked? The reasoning goes - God is different today. Times have changed. He
may have called into account the Jewish people who "cherished the idea
that they were the favorites of heaven, and they were always to be exalted as
the
Here we see 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.... 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
voices 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 one
who feel the just vengeance of an offended God. (5T:211)
As we read this, we say, "Amen, Lord, let it be." Those
who betrayed their sacred trust should suffer the just vengeance of an offended
God. BUT, this is not all of the prophecy. There is one more sentence. It reads
- and as you read - tremble for yourselves, and weep for the others:
Men, maidens, and little children, all perish together. Why? Because they are identified corporately in
the guilt of their leaders, and have refused to exercise their individual
responsibility. The God who held the sons, the son's wives, and their
little children guilty with Dathan and Abiram; the God who held the "devout men" of
Israel equally guilty with the "wicked hands" who crucified the Lord
of glory, is the same God who will visit in judgment, not only the leadership
who have "betrayed their trust," but also the laity - the men, women
with their families - who by their corporate identity have supported that
leadership by acquiescing to the apostasy, and who have upheld their hands by
theirs and the Lord's means. Is it not time for an awakened laity, pricked by
the Holy Spirit as were the devout men of Israel on the day of Pentecost, to
cry out - "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" "What Shall We Do?" When convicted of the reality that God does hold individuals
accountable for the actions of leaders and officers in a corporate identity,
"devout men" of the House of Israel realizing that they had shared in
the crucifixion of the Son of God, cried out from an anguished heart -
"Men and brethren, what shall we do?" In response to this heart cry,
Peter outlined certain steps to be taken by which they could escape the
judgment of God. He said - "Repent, and be baptized everyone
of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38) Peter closed his counsel with the admonition - "Save yourselves from this untoward [crooked] generation."
(Acts 2:40) This Spirit-indited directive, if studied
in the setting of the time when given, can profit a professed people of God who
face the fast approaching hour when "the church - the Lord's
sanctuary" will be "the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of
God" because the leadership, "those to whom God had given great
light, and who stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, had
betrayed their trust." (5T 211) Peter told the "devout men" of "The Jewish people cherished the idea that they were the
favorites of heaven, and that they were always to be exalted as the The admonition of Peter carried the same theme as was sounded by
John the Baptist as he prepared the way for the ministry of Christ. John told
his hearers - "Bring forth therefore fruits answerable to an amendment of
life and begin not to say within yourselves, We have
Abraham to our fathers." (Matt. 3:8, margin) In other words, get this
theory out of your mind that you are and always will be the favorites of heaven
for God is able of "stones" to raise up "children unto
Abraham." (Luke 3:8) Peter preached with even greater conviction than
John, because he had heard Jesus Himself declare - "Your house [no longer
God's house] is left unto you desolate." (Matt. 23:38) The temple veil had
been rent, and the apartment of the Unseen Presence could be gazed upon by
human eyes with no fear of retribution because that Presence was no longer
there. (Matt. 27:51) It dare not be overlooked that similar language is used in
the present time concerning the Church: "The glory of the Lord had
departed from Besides changing their way of thinking - repentance - the
"devout Jews" were to make an outward confession which would publicly
declare their change of thought. Each one who changed his mind was to be
"baptized...in the name of Jesus Christ." Among those assembled to
hear Peter were "proselytes." (Acts 2:10) These had been baptized as
a symbol of their acceptance into Judaism so as to be numbered among "the
House of Israel." (8BC, article, "Baptism") NOW they were told
to be baptized again, and the other "devout Jews" who would also
change their thinking, would by this act change their identity from the corpus
of Israel to the corpus Christi.2 Only thus could they find
remission for the sin of the ages - the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, which
was in reality the crucifixion of truth - doing the desire of their father the
devil, who abode not in the truth. (See John 8:44) Peter concluded his advice and counsel by telling those convicted
to "save themselves from this crooked generation." (Acts 2:40) In so
advising, Peter was bringing together a concept from the Pentateuch and a
charge that both Jesus and John the Baptist had used in confrontation with the
Jewish hierarchy. Moses had written that God was "the Rock" upon
which Those who responded to the counsel of Peter were baptized -
signifying the passing from the corpus of In the final hour of human history, when the power of the enemy to
deceive the world would appear to be supreme - "It seemed the whole world
was on board; that there could not be one left" - the messenger to the
Remnant was advised to "look in an opposite direction" and she saw
"a little company traveling a narrow pathway. All seemed to be firmly
united, bound together by the truth, in bundles, or companies. Said the angel, 'The third angel is binding, or sealing them in
bundles for the heavenly garner.'" (EW 88-89) Thus the basis of the
final revelation of the 1. Concerning this very concept held by the Jews that they were always
to be exalted as the 2. Rebaptism of "devout" Seventh-day Adventists, when
truth is understood and experienced, is also called for. See Evangelism, p.
375. This does not mean a baptism back into so-called "historic"
Adventism under a false manifestation of the Spirit of God. |