THE APOSTASY IS TERMINAL!

From: webmaster@adventistlaymen.com [mailto:webmaster@adventistlaymen.com]

Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2013 2:42 PM

To: Voice of the Reformer

Cc: World Remnant Church

Subject: THE APOSTASY IS TERMINAL!

To Voice of the Reformer:

This response to your “Spiritual Formation & Jim Brauer” series has been “in the works” since I received that set of e-mails. Due to time constraints I have only just finished putting it together.

In the mass of information detailing facts and personalities involved in the apostasy of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, there appears to be nothing about the betrayal of the sacred trust committed to the Church by the repudiation of her foundation doctrines and method of Bible study:

(a)  Repudiation of the Dual Atonement of the Sanctuary Doctrine, and ultimately on the part of some, even the prophetic fact that the antitypical Day of Atonement began in 1844 (it is flatly stated that nothing happened.)

(b)  Repudiation of the Proof Text method of Bible study, upon which all sound Protestant Christian doctrine is founded,

(c)  Repudiation of the historical method of interpreting Bible prophecy, which is the tried and true Protestant method of identifying the papacy as the anti-Christ, and explaining the march of events that will culminate in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

(d)  A critically important set of facts relating to the Doctrine of God:

(1)  Failure to thoroughly study what the Bible reveals about the Godhead, leading ultimately to the official acceptance of the Roman Catholic dogma of the Trinity.

(2)  Compromise of the early Seventh-day Adventist Doctrine of the Incarnation, which taught that Christ took upon Himself the same flesh of sin that is inherited by every human being who is born into this world. On this Ellen G. White is very clear. The following is an excerpt from Watchman, What of the Night?, January, 2005:

“Ellen G. White on the Incarnation 1888-1915

He [Christ] united humanity with divinity: a divine spirit dwelt in a temple of flesh. He united Himself with the temple (Youth's Instructor, Dec. 20, 1900; 4BC:1147).

The nature of this "temple of flesh" is also clearly defined in this same article. It reads:

Think of Christ's humiliation. He took upon Himself fallen, suffering human nature, degraded and defiled by sin (ibid.)

Again:

Christ did in reality unite the offending nature of men with His own sinless nature, because by this act of condescension He would be enabled to pour out His blessings in behalf of the fallen race (R&H, July 17, 1900).

Lest it be misunderstood what she meant by the term, "human nature," or when she wrote that Christ became "flesh," she emphasized that it was "in the likeness of sinful flesh." In an article in the Youth's Instructor, "The Privileges of Childhood” (August 23, 1894), she counselled, "Let children bear in mind that the child Jesus had taken upon Himself human nature, and was in the likeness of sinful flesh, and was tempted of Satan as all children are tempted." [This should dispel forever the deception that Christ bore our fallen nature only at the time of the wilderness temptation, and then merely vicariously.] On another occasion, she wrote - (Christ) "was not only made flesh, but He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh" (W-106-1896). Some might quibble that because she used the language of Scripture, "likeness of sinful flesh," the use of "likeness" meant that the nature that Christ assumed was not really sinful fallen nature, but only something which physically resembled it. However, in two published sources it is plainly stated that "He took upon His sinless nature our sinful nature" (Medical Ministry, p. 181); and "He took upon Him our sinful nature" (R&H, Dec. 15, 1896).

While being specific as to the nature that Christ assumed in becoming incarnate, Ellen White was just as pointed as to the effect of such a union upon Him. She declared that "in His human nature, He maintained the purity of His divine character" (Youth's Instructor, June 2, 1898); and in taking upon Himself man's nature in its fallen condition, Christ did not in the least participate in its sin" (Signs of the Times, June 9, 1898). "No taint of sin was found on Him" (ibid., January 16, 1896).”

From the Apostle Paul we know that by His victory over sin in sinful flesh Jesus Christ condemned sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:3). The Seventh-day Adventist Church, following apostate Protestantism, has moved towards the Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception. This compromised the prevailing view of Justification by Faith, and it impacts the critical essential of preparation for Jesus’ Second Coming through the Final Atonement soon to be accomplished by Him as our High Priest.

The foregoing is not intended to be exhaustive, but these details of the apostasy indicate the enormity of the Church’s departure from Truth.

Here are two pertinent quotations from the Writings:

It is the rejection of Bible truth which makes men approach to infidelity. It is a backsliding church that lessens the distance between itself and the Papacy." (Signs of the Times, Feb. 19, 1894)

The Papacy is just what prophecy declared that she would be, the apostasy of the latter times. Shall this power, whose record for a thousand years is written in the blood of saints, be now acknowledged as part of the church of Christ?" (Great Controversy, p. 571; emphasis added.)

Would that the Church leadership had heeded these warnings in the decades since the 1950s!

Now, TRUTH versus ERROR is at the heart of the great controversy between Christ and Satan. As Jesus stood before Pilate, “Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” (John 18:37.) To certain of the Jews He said, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44.) To us Jesus has said, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.” (John 16:13.) He has also said to us, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32) In His prayer to His Father He said, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” (John 17:17-19.) TRUTH is what our commitment to Jesus Christ and the Father is all about. He who compromises Truth is influenced by the father of lies. (Cf. The Spirit Speaketh Expressly.)

There is Universal Truth. Examples are John 3:16 and Eph. 2:8, and there are numerous other texts that could be quoted. There is also Present Truth. John the Baptist’s message to the Jews in preparation for the ministry of Jesus Christ was Present Truth for that time. With the Jews’ rejection of Jesus and the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, the following message from the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews was Present Truth for that time:

Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. (Heb. 13:12-13.) [This is now  also Present Truth for the world community of Seventh-day Adventists.]

That same Apostle Paul sounded a warning to us about the essential of receiving the love of the Truth, and it relates directly to the delusive work of the Papacy:

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thess. 2:3-12; emphasis added)

THIS IS PRESENT TRUTH FOR THESE TIMES. There are other elements of the Present Truth for these times - too many to go into here; but included are the FINAL ATONEMENT, which is essential for our preparation to stand when Jesus Christ appears at His Second Coming, the warning against receiving the MARK OF THE BEAST, the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy in LUKE 21:24, and the developing fulfillment of DANIEL 11;45. Ellen G. White’s warning about a National Sunday Law has apparently been superseded by the following, which probably relates to Isaiah 2:2-3:

After the truth has been proclaimed as a witness to all nations, every conceivable power of evil will be set in operation, and minds will be confused by many voices crying, "Lo, here is Christ, Lo, he is there. This is the truth, I have the message from God, he has sent me with great light." Then there will be a removing of the landmarks, and an attempt to tear down the pillars of our faith. A more decided effort will be made to exalt the false Sabbath, and to cast contempt upon God himself by supplanting the day he has blessed and sanctified. This false Sabbath is to be enforced by an oppressive law. Satan and his angels are wide-awake, and intensely active, working with energy and perseverance through human instrumentalities to bring about his purpose of obliterating from the minds of men the knowledge of God. But while Satan works with his lying wonders, the time will be fulfilled foretold in the Revelation, and the mighty angel that shall lighten the earth with his glory, will proclaim the fall of Babylon, and call upon God's people to forsake her. (R&H December 13, 1892; emphasis added) (Cf. MAJOR ESCHATOLOGICAL PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE on Isaiah 14:12-14 & 2:1-22.)

The ONLY source of TRUTH is the Bible. What Ellen G. White wrote was intended to direct our attention to the Book:

God will have a people upon the earth to maintain the Bible, and the Bible only, as the standard of all doctrine and the basis of all reforms. (Spirit of Prophecy, IV, p. 413; emphasis added)

There is a method that should be applied to the study of the Bible:

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15; emphasis added.)

The Prophet Isaiah sheds further light on this method:

Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:(Isaiah 28:9-10)

These texts describe the “proof text” method of Bible study, and used to be the guiding principle for Seventh-day Adventists. A similar method applies to the use of the Writings:

Regarding the testimonies, nothing is ignored; nothing is cast aside; but time and place must be considered. . . .(1SM 57.2; emphasis added.)

Neither is all that is written in the Bible applicable to a specific time in history; nor is all that is written in the Testimonies applicable to THESE PRESENT TIMES. We must rightly divide both the Word of Truth in the Bible, and likewise the Testimonies of Ellen G. White. There is more than enough in the Writings applying specifically to THESE TIMES, without the need to set out reams of published writings and quotations in “scattershot” fashion. I have no doubt that you are very sincere in your use of the Writings; but what you are sending out tends more to confusion than enlightenment. I will say no more on this point.

I must not leave the matter of the correct method of Bible study without mentioning that decades ago Seventh-day Adventist undergraduates and scholars turned to apostate Protestant institutions for their theological education. The fatal result was that they followed apostate Protestantism in adopting Roman Catholic Higher Criticism and Futurism for interpretation (exegesis) of biblical doctrines and prophecies. This has destroyed true Bible study in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and undermined the prophetic foundation of the Advent Movement for far too many in the world community of Adventists. (Cf. The "Sanctuary Doctrine” Asset or Liability?) This is why this counsel from Ellen G. White is critically important:

We do not go deep enough in our search for truth. Every soul who believes present truth will be brought where he will be required to give a reason of the hope that is in him. The people of God will be called upon to stand before kings, princes, rulers, and great men of the earth, and they must know that they do know what is truth.  (Review and Herald, February 18, 1890; TM 119; emphasis added) 

This document, SOME ESSENTIAL SDA HISTORY, is excerpted from Wm. H. Grotheer’s The Hour and the End. It provides essential Information about the roots of the Church’s fall into harlotry and terminal apostasy. Ellen G. White has written the clearest possible predictions that the contemporary Seventh-day Adventist Church is beyond reformation. (Cf. ELLEN G. WHITE'S CHOICE OF WORDS TO DEFINE FINAL BETRAYAL OF THE SACRED TRUST.) The much vaunted “ark of safety” has foundered on the rocks of Romanism, and is too damaged by the apostasy to be dislodged and sail once again by the compass of TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS.

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