The last chapter of Special Testimonies, Series 8, No. 2, entitled, "The Foundation of Our Faith," reveals what would have been, had the Alpha of apostasy been accepted. (pp. 54-55) It is also interesting to observe that the advocates of the apostasy referred to their objectives as a "reformation." The messenger of the Lord asked - "Were this reformation to take place, what would result?" Then follows a list of ten things that would occur:

1) "The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church, would be discarded."

2) "Our religion would be changed."

3) "The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the last fifty years would be accounted as error."

4) "A new organization would be established."

5) "Books of a new order would be written."

6) "A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced."

7) "The Sabbath, of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it."

8) "Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement."

9) "The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice."

10) "They would place their dependence on human power."

These things did not take place in the time of the Alpha, however, it is written - "The omega will follow, and will be received by those who are not willing to heed the warning God has given." (Ibid., p.50) Thus the very things which the enemy sought to introduce in the time of the Alpha at the turn of the Century will be realized in the Omega. The evidence is clear that with the introduction of "books of a new order" following the Seventh-day Adventist - Evangelical Conferences in 1955-1956 (See Facsimile Documents on this Conference), the Omega of Apostasy settled down upon the Church. (For full presentation of this evidence obtain Cassette Tape - "The Alpha & Omega of Apostasy.") Now we are beginning to see the fulfillment of the "bottom line" resulting from the acceptance of this apostasy - "Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure." (Spec. Test. Series a, No. 2, p. 55)

There is another descriptive prophecy in connection with the time when "Jesus is about to leave the mercy seat of the heavenly sanctuary, to put on garments of vengeance,. . ." (5T:207-208) Faithful ones were sighing and crying over the departure from the historic faith which took place as a result of the compromises made with the Evangelicals, and the fraternizing with leaders in the World Council of Churches. But in all of this sighing and crying concerning what could only be discerned by finite eyes, there were other sins which seen by God were as yet unrevealed. The persons committing these felt secure because of the long suffering of God. In their hearts they said - "The Lord seeth not, and then act[ed] as though He had forsaken the earth. But He [detected] their hypocrisy, and [opened] before others those sins which they were so careful to hide." (5T:211-212) The revelation of the Davenport Financial Empire has brought to light manipulations of monies devoted for sacred purposes. Whether these funds were "surplus," "trust," or tithe funds, it matters not - for all funds given were devoted by the giver to the service

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of the Lord - and not for speculation!

God has now brought to light these hidden things of darkness, and has displayed them as it were with a pen of fire for all to read in the public press. With the crumbling of the Davenport Financial Empire, cracks in the foundations of the Church built upon the sand are beginning to appear. No longer protected by the mercies of the God of heaven, the leadership now turns to an outside PR firm to seek to daub the creaking edifice with a whitewash. But the words of God through Ezekiel to the spiritual leadership of Israel apply with equal force today. They read:

Because they lead my people astray, saying, "Peace," when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth. When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, "Where is the whitewash you covered it with?"

Therefore this is what the Sovereign lord says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury. I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the Lord. So I will spend my wrath against the wall and against those who covered it with whitewash. I will say to you, "The wall is gone and so are those who whitewashed it, those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Sovereign lord. Eze. 13:10-16 NIV

God has promised to sweep away the refuge of lies with which the spiritual guardians of the people have sought to lull the laity of the Church back into the fatal slumber of death. (See Isa. 28:17-18) A case in point is the attempt of the president of the Potomac Conference of Seventh-day Adventists to cover the investment of that Conference of $45,000 in 1972 with Dr. Davenport. Writing in a "Constiuency Letter" dated, Summer, 1981, Elder Ron M. Wisbey stated: "As far as Potomac is involved, it is a relatively small amount ($45,000) and is totally secured, recorded, and liquid to the point that we already have a buyer for the mortgage. . . The money invested in 1972 with Dr. Davenport and secured as mentioned above, was done with earnings received from regular investments with trustor monies and in accordance with Church policy. However, the reserve from surplus earnings is more than adequate to cover this $45,000 investment should the worst happen and the entire amount be lost, which at this time does not seem likely." (p. 2) No doubt the laity of the Conference, thus reassured by their "spiritual leader" returned to their slumber. However, the Los Angeles Times Staff Writers were doing their own investigation of this particular investment with Davenport. Here is what they found:

A title search performed by Title Insurance and Trust Company, in Riverside for the Times found, for example, that Davenport had conveyed a first trust deed of $45,000 to the Potomac Conference Corp. of Seventh-day Adventists in 1972. Yet another apparent first trust deed for the same piece of Riverside property was conveyed by Davenport to the Adventist-affiliated Collegedale Credit Union for $95,714 in 1976. The title search on the sample property in Riverside also revealed the doctor secured loans with deeds to property he did not own.

In this case, title records indicate that Davenport only leased the land on which he had given deeds to the Potomac Conference and the Collegedale Credit Union. According to tax and title records, the property is owned by La Sierra College, an Adventist institution. (LA Times, Aug. 9, 1981, VI, p. 1)

(May God have mercy on the mortgage buyer which Elder Wisbey states he has found for Potomac's trust deed from Dr. Davenport.)

With the filing of the Bankruptcy Petition by Donald J. Davenport, M. D., in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California on July 13, 1981, and the Exhibits submitted with the Petitions, plus the release by the Adventist Review (Sept 10, 1981, p. 24) of the amount invested by different church entities with Dr. Davenport, certain questions have been raised which remain as yet unanswered, besides those questions which raise grave concerns and doubts.

Exhibit "A" of the Bankruptcy Petition lists "the ten largest unsecured creditors." (It appears the emphasis is on the word, "unsecured.") On this list besides certain banks, some of which loaned Davenport over One Million dollars, are certain institutions of the Seventh-day Adventist Church - the North Pacific Union Conference, and the Layman Foundation of Madison, Tennessee, the Foundation which has underwritten the self-supporting units in the South. However, the amount of monies involved as listed in Exhibit "A" for the NPU does not correspond with the amount of funds as noted in the Adventist Review. Davenport reports only $100,000, while the Church paper indicates over Six Million dollars. Then the

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Georgia-Cumberland Conference which the Adventist Review lists as having over Three Million involved is not listed by Davenport, yet documents published in the "green" issue of the SDA Press Release place serious doubts upon the security of the loans made by that conference. Why was not the full disclosure of the amount invested by the North Pacific Union Conference and the investment of the Georgia-Cumberland Conference given by Davenport in Exhibit "A", when monies invested by these two Church entities separately exceeded the amount of the highest figure of any bank loan listed? And how can we believe that banks would loan from one half million to well over one million dollars without security?

Behind the Georgia-Cumberland and the North Pacific Union Conferences investments are two men whose names have appeared in the SDA Press Release - Elder Desmond Cummings, who at the time of the investments was president of the Ga-Cumb. Conf., and Elder Wayne Massengill, who served as Trust Officer of the NPU. These two men with their wives are also listed as individuals creditors by Davenport. (See SDA Press Release, Vol 1, No. 6) This raises another question - Since it was indicated that only "trust funds" were used, and the laity of the various entities were urged to place their money through the trust department of the Church so that the cause of God would benefited, why didn't these men do likewise? Did they obtain special favors because they used their office to secure other's involvement, or the involvement of the conferences in the Davenport Financial Empire?

Another interesting aspect of the release of names of the creditors - albeit the amount of each individual's involvement has not yet been made known - is the fact that in the case of Elder Massengill, some of his old cronies from Indiana days are listed among the creditors - Elder D. A. Caslow; Wilbur E. Wasenmiller, plus another worker who served in Indiana at the same time - Dr. Jonathan G. Penner. Then, there are two Indiana self-supporting institutions involved - Bethel Sanitarium, and the Adventist Retirement Center, both of Evansville, Indiana. Those who know the roster of the Southern Union Conference can find similar parallels between individual creditors, and Elder Desmond Cummings.

Besides the relationship between these men, and their respective conferences is the fact that other presidents are likewise listed as individual creditors where their conferences are involved. For example; - Elder Donald M. MacIvor, now of the Manitoba-Saskatchewan Conference, but who served as president of the Montana Conference; Elder George Liscombe, president of the South Dakota Conference; and Elder E. S. Reile of the Mid-America Union Conference. Only a forthright disclosure by these men of their dealings either with Davenport directly, or their connections with either Elders Cummings or Massengill will suffice to clear the clouds of doubt and suspicion. In connection with this is to be found a vital statement from Manuscript Release #55 by the E. G. White Estate - " Men who are controlled by selfish desires should not remain connected with our institutions, and their course of action had better be exposed, that every church of Seventh-day Adventists may know what principles govern these men."

Among the Church entities listed in the Adventist Review was the Southwest Estate Service as having invested $420,000. This is the organization of the Southwestern Union Conference which gives guidance to the conferences and the laity in regard to trust funds. In Onward Oklahoma, Elder Robert D. Rider, President of the Conference, told the laity of Oklahoma that the Conference made a $300,000 investment in the Davenport Financial Empire through the Southwest Estate Service. The claim is made by Rider that this $300,000 was a single irrevocable trust "that required investment." If there was a condition attached to the trust, the possibility of it being revoked was ever present. But another question arises. If the Southwest Estate Service had only $420,000 invested with Davenport, this leaves only $120,000 for the other four conferences of the Union. Why did the Oklahoma Conference carry the brunt of the involvement? Or are the figures released by the Southwest Estate Service to the General Conference inaccurate? Only a full disclosure to the Bankruptcy Court in California will permit this last question to be answered.

The most perplexing question arising from the disclosures is yet to be addressed. The Pacific Union Record (July 27, 1981) in the column - "We're Glad You Asked" -stated - "No General Conference moneys of any kind are invested with Donald J. Davenport, M. D." This is also noted in the Los Angeles Times (July 24, 1981, CC, Part II) in quoting Charles E. Bradford of the North American Division. The report read - "The General Conference did not invest any money through Davenport." However, the filing of the creditors by Davenport lists - "The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Inter-American Division." (SDA Press Release, Vol 1, No. 6) Unless the Inter-American Division is a self-sustaining Division, appropriations are made to this division by the General Conference. This Divisions's investments with Davenport were not disclosed by the Treasurer of the General Conference in his report in the Adventist Review (Sept. 10, 1981, p. 24) Why? Then another far more serious question - why are monies available to this mission Division used for such questionable investments, when the needs - if we are to believe the mission stories - are so great?

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There is one final observation. Elder L. L. Butler, Treasurer of the General Conference, stated in his report in the Adventist Review, before listing the conferences and church entities and the amount of the involvement with Davenport - "In each case listed the following amounts may consist of funds due to various lenders (e. g. trust funds, pooled funds, or church entities), and the loan may have been made by various persons, (e. g., trust officers, trustors, or officers of church entities.)" This statement requires careful analysis. We understand the term, "trust funds" and the concept of "pooled funds" which could represent a grouping together of "trust funds" into a common investment account held by a Union Conference in behalf of the local conferences. But funds owed to "church entities" could involve more than trust funds. This was left unexplained. Then in regard to who could invest monies with Davenport - "trust officers" are listed. Does this mean that Massengill in the North Pacific Union was free to invest monies entrusted to him at will, and at his own discretion? Then there is the word, "trustor," or the one giving the money. Were the laity advised by trust officers to give their money with a stipulation that it be invested in the Davenport Financial Empire? If so, what accountability now rests on these ministers of the conference for the losses to be sustained by the ill advised laity?

The financial structure of the Church built upon the sands of human economics is beginning to reveal for all to see the cracks in its foundation. Turning from the truth and faith in God, all that is left are human methods and resources - only shifting sands. The end is not yet, but a full disclosure is not far distant. This is only the beginning of the judgments of God upon an "unfaithful city."

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PERTINENT PRESS COMMENTS

(The news releases appearing in the American Press come primarily from three major sources; namely, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and a source designated as "Walla Walla (AP)." From these sources we glean the following pertinent comments.)

Los Angeles Times (August 9, 1981, Part VI)

Worried creditors of Donald J. Davenport, once called the "king of post offices" because of his vast investments in post-office buildings, are uncovering evidence that the creditors say shows Davenport mortgaged properties beyond their worth and offered lenders trust deeds on properties he did not own.

The evidence provides some hints as to why Davenport's once-massive real estate empire is crumbling, and why he had to file last month for protection under the bankruptcy laws.

Moreover, the case is particularly interesting because Davenport drew substantial backing from fellow members of the Seventh-day Adventist church and from church officials and church sponsored entities. His bankruptcy filing has brought into the public eye disputes that actually have been. festering for years between Davenport and his critics within the tightly knit, conservative religious denomination. (p. 1)

Davenport's investors as listed in court records included more than 20 church employees and officials, some of whom held positions of responsibility in church organizations whose funds also were loaned to the real estate developer.

Moreover, some Adventists - citing recent court cases involving other denominations - contend the church itself may ultimately be held liable for money loaned to Davenport that was being held in trust by the church for its members. (p. 3)

Interviews with a sampling of Davenport's lenders indicate that his $5.3 million estimate last month of what he owed his top 10 creditors barely scratches the surface of his debt. The Pacific Union Conference, American City Bank and the First Women's Bank of California, for example, are among the 10 largest creditors on Davenport's petition. Yet their loans alone total nearly $3 million. Church members say the total will be at least $40 million, and a Davenport attorney has been quoted in published reports as calling that number "a correct ballpark figure." However, the lawyer, Robert Shutan, now refuses to confirm or dispute the figure.

Among the creditors expected to scramble for a share of Davenport's assets are an estimated 20 banks and savings and loan associations, seven insurance companies, 14 Seventh-day Adventist regional conferences and perhaps a dozen assorted institutions of other kinds. The remainder of the 250-name list consists of individual investors, including presidents of four Adventist conferences whose funds were invested with Davenport. The list also included other prominent Adventists, such as V. Norskov Olsen, president of Loma Linda University near Riverside. (p. 3)

Davenport borrowed heavily against his properties - often encumbering them with loans far in excess of the value of the property itself. An examination of his 1972 divorce papers discloses, for example, that 19 of his 55 postal facilities were mortgaged for amounts greater than their fair market value. One Denver post office was used for collateral or mortgages on loans totaling $80,851 more than its $255,915 market value, the records indicate.

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Some critics of Davenport say that he sometimes fell behind in his interest payments, even in the early 1970s. Walter Rea was an Adventist pastor and a member of the committee that handled trusts and investments for the Adventists' Southern California Conference at the time when the conference had loaned money to Davenport, and he recalls delays in the interest payments. "Whenever some of us on the committee would mention it, nothing was ever done," recalls Rea, who was defrocked last year after he publicized extensive evidence that Ellen White plagiarized some "inspired" writings from other 19th-century authors. (p. 11)

By the late 1970s, lenders also were encountering difficulty recovering their principal on demand. Three such church members became so concerned that they took their problem to attorney Jerry Wiley, a professor of law and dean at the USC Law Center. Wiley, an Adventist with extensive experience structuring tax shelters, told The Times that he studied Davenport's investment system about five years ago and concluded it worked only as long as there was a constant influx of new dollars from new investors to cover the payments to old investors.

Because the rate of return on post office and telephone company leases was unlikely to cover those payments, Wiley says, he concluded that Davenport would become insolvent if his sources of money ever dried up. "It was a matter of waiting out the hand," Wiley says. The attorney says he took his concerns to top church officials.

At about the same time, internal church critics were also sounding the alarm. Rea wrote a biting letter to Robert Pierson, then president of the General Conference, about the propriety of the Davenport investments as early as June, 1977. John Adam, an Adventist layman in Tennessee, and Sidney Allen, a layman in Redlands, wrote letters warning church members that there were potential problems for church officials in being heavily involved in Davenport's financial empire. Then in 1979 - two years after Rea first complained to the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church about the Davenport investments - top church officials began issuing warnings. (pp. 11, 13)

Los Angeles Times, July 24, 1981, Part II, p. 1)

Faced with worried inquiries from its members as well as regional associations and financial institutions that have lent money to Davenport, the North American Division of the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has launched its own investigation, a church official said. Charles E. Bradford, vice president for the conference's North American division, said lawyers and accountants have been retained to "help us get the facts."

"It's going to take us a couple of weeks to find out the extent of the involvement," Bradford said Thursday. However, estimates run as high as $46 million, he added. The General Conference itself did not invest any money through Davenport. The funds turned over to Davenport by regional conferences in North Carolina, Georgia, Spokane and Southern California were "surplus" monies not needed for day to day operations of the church, Bradford said.

Walla Walla (AP) quoted in - The Sunday Oregonian, August 2, 1981, and The Seattle Times, August 2, 1981, p. A14.

The North Pacific Union Conference may have invested as much as $1.9 million with Davenport, a spokesman said. Other estimates range up to several million dollars for the conference, which covers most of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska.

Investments of the Upper Columbia Mission Society, an arm of the Upper Columbia Conference that covers Eastern Washington, northeastern Oregon and the Idaho Panhandle, are believed to be as least $2 million.

Elder Richard Fearing, president of the North Pacific Union Conference, refused comment on the amount of money involved. "To us, this is very serious," he said. The conference has hired a secular public relations firm to help the church through the crisis.

We are facing a credibility crisis," said Elder Charles E. Bradford, vice president of the General Conference. "We'll have to prove to the people we've done our best and hope the people will understand."

The Washington Post, August 24, 1981, 87.

The massive health care, publishing, insurance and health food enterprises of the church's international governing body, the General Conference, have earned it a listing in Standard and Poor's, the only church to be included, according to a spokesman of this closely followed information service on big business. In 1979, the relatively small church reported total assets in excess of $4 billion.

In addition to tithes and offerings, which last year netted the church $425 million, the church has an extensive trust program. Virtually every regional unit of the church in this country employs full-time staff persons to persuade members to invest their savings in church-operated trust funds from which they will receive income as long as they live. On their death the amount reverts to the church.

Some of the money invested in Davenport's ventures came from these trust funds. The trust funds are

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operated by the separately incorporated Conferences and Unions of the Church. Recent court decisions indicating that a national denomination can be held responsible for the financial shortcomings of one of its parts has raised the Spector of multiple lawsuits against the General Conference in the Davenport affair.

. . .

For years, some in the church had warned against investing in Davenport's operation. Some in positions of authority did heed the warnings. More than two years ago, Kenneth H. Emmerson, then treasurer of the General Conference, wrote to a church official that he had warned Loma Linda University, the pride of the church's academic institutions, that it "should have nothing whatsoever to do with Dr. Davenport or any of his financial 'schemes.'" In his letter, which has since been widely circulated throughout the denomination, Emmerson promised that at a forthcoming meeting of treasurers of Adventist Conferences and Unions, "We are going to strongly urge, in fact we are going to do everything in our power to make it imperative that the brethren begin to liquidate any connection and investments they have with the doctor."

Why Emmerson's advice of April, 1979, went unheeded, why so many Adventist institutions still were listed as creditors of Davenport in his initial bankruptcy petition filed last month, remains a mystery. Church leaders remain close-mouthed. The General Conference has directed its Conferences and Unions not to talk to the press about the matter but to refer inquiries to the General Conference.

Neal Wilson, world president of the church, has refused repeated requests for an interview. His office refers inquiries to James E. Chase, an affable pastor who heads the communication unit. Chase's response to questions about the Davenport affair: "Testimony is being taken, work is going on. Beyond this I cannot comment."

Among the faithful there are growing indications of dissatisfaction. "The Adventist Church worldwide is not being told the true story by our church leaders," complained Dan Ipes of Columbia. Ipes, an Adventist pastor and son of a pastor, feels the church leadership is not being open enough. "A lot of local pastors are really sweating on this," he said. "I want the church to come clean. If we made a mistake, then let's say we made a mistake."

*******

Forbes Magazine, Magazine, (October 12, 1981, pp. 36, 38) carried an article entitled, "Bad Faith?" written about the Church's involvement in the Davenport Financial Empire. Go to the Library and read the article.

ANALYSIS OF KENNETH WOOD'S LETTER

In the Thought Paper for October, we published a letter written by Elder Kenneth Wood, Editor of the Adventist Review [See page 7). This letter was the culmination of correspondence - as outlined in the Thought Paper - which began because of an inquiry made by a brother in Australia in regard to the late Elder M. L. Andreasen - Did he recant, or did he maintain his position that the book - Questions on Doctrine - was a departure from the historic faith of the Advent Movement?

In 1968, Elder Wood had written to a lay person that the book - Questions on Doctrine - "in no way changes our fundamental beliefs. In fact it probably sets them forth more clearly than any publication that has been issued from our presses in many a year. I have been next to this whole program from the very beginning, and I have yet to hear any serious reader of this book offer a criticism that can bear investigation." Then in a letter written by Elder Eugene F. Durand, Assistant to the Editor, he stated that "Elder Wood disagrees with some positions taken by the book, Questions on Doctrine, particularly in the areas of the nature of Christ and the Atonement." It is obvious that these two positions are incompatible - they are poles apart! Yet in Elder Wood's letter to this writer, he wrote - "I stand by both of them." The first text that comes to mind is James 1:8 - "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." Then there are the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount - "But let your conversation be, Yea, Yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." (Matt. 5:37)

Moreover, the reason Elder Wood gave for this dual position is even more appalling. "It is important," he writes, "to recognize, however, that audiences vary." In other words, when he is writing to a lay person, he could take a position which he knew was not correct, because that person "would not have detected any deviation from historic Adventism if someone had not called it to their attention. Except for those who are extremely well informed on Adventist truths, people would read the book and be blessed." Then he adds- "In my letter [to the lay person] I was emphasizing this aspect."

Since Elder Wood states that "he was next to the whole program from the very beginning" - that program which compromised the historic faith of the Advent Movement - why didn't he take his stand at that time by the side of Elder Andreasen? Was it not expedient to do so? Why could he tell this lay person that

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he knew of no serious reader of the book - Questions on Doctrine - who could "offer a criticism that can bear investigation," yet admit to this writer that he "wrote a 50-page paper" on the fact that the book did represent "a departure from historic Adventism"?

If the book - Questions on Doctrine - was so subtly written that the average lay person could not detect its heresy, unless it was pointed out to him, then Wood, who claims he knew this, should have been one of the first to awaken the laity of this treacherous betrayal of sacred truth. But why didn't he? In his own words - "I believe in the leaders of our work." This is simply placing one's trust in man, to follow man wherever he may lead - right or wrong! And the laity must also be kept in subjection to that leadership, even though one is a position of influence - with the true facts before him - has to lie to accomplish the objective. This is tragedy compounded! Then to suggest that the lay person who is not informed can be blessed by the reading of heresy, and teachings which advocate the departure from historic Adventism, creates a credibility gap which cannot be bridged.

Moreover, in the same letter, Elder Wood admits that he feels uneasy about - Movement of Destiny - the second book of the Omega series, because the same teachings are in it that were also in Questions on Doctrine, the first book of the Omega of apostasy. Yet I find nothing in the editorials of the Adventist Review alerting the laity of the teachings to be found in the book - Movement of Destiny. And a second edition of this book has been published, albeit, I am told, without the imprimatur of Elder R. H. Pierson, and this to his everlasting credit. Elder H. M. S. Richards' endorsement has been substituted for Pierson's. The reader can make his own verification. When are we going to hear the same message at all times come from men in positions of trust whether is be spoken to the laity, or behind closed doors of the committee room. There is only One God, and He hears both speeches - will He not judge for this?

The leadership of the Church - and this includes the Editor of the Adventist Review - profess to believe in Righteousness by Faith, and loudly proclaim that they accept the 1888 Message - BUT in their conduct, and public utterances, deny the message in reality. The reason is simply stated - "They are not willing to exchange their own righteousness, which is unrighteousness, for the righteousness of Christ, which is pure, unadulterated truth." (TM, p. 65)

CORRECTION - In the October Thought Paper (p. 6, col. 2, last paragraph, we attributed to Elder Kenneth Wood, a second letter which he did not write. It was written by Elder H. W. Lowe in behalf of Elder Pierson. We apologize to Elder Wood for attributing to him more letters than he actually did write.

ANOTHER LETTER

While on an extensive trip through the West and Northwest this past month and a half, I was given a copy of the following letter with permission to share it with the readers of the Thought Paper. It was written by a Lutheran pastor to a lady who was joining the local Seventh-day Adventist Church, and had notified the clerk of the Lutheran Church. The letter speaks for itself:

18 June 1981

Dear Sandy -

Thanks for the letter you sent to Ray Czech. I really appreciate that you notified us of the change you are making. I understand how difficult it was for you to do, and although I wish you could have stayed with the Lutheran Confession, we certainly understand your desire to be with your family.

Originally the Seventh-day Adventists were quite different from what they are today. I regularly receive the magazine, Ministry, designed for the pastors of 7th Day Adventist Congregations. I am constantly amazed at the changes in teaching that appear there. The Holy Spirit is at work leading us all closer to His truth.

We commend you to your new membership with a prayer for God's blessing on you and your family. Be assured of our love and concern, and I look forward to seeing you occasionally.

Sincerely,

Pastor Anderson

This letter echoes the same sentiments as Bishop Robert Terwilliger, of the Anglican Consultative Council, expressed at the 1980 General Conference in Dallas, Texas. He told the delegates - "As I have read the beliefs set before you for revision, I hoped to find some degree of disagreement. I had the most awful disappointment. I found increasingly that we are together in our faith." (Adventist Review, May 1, 1980) What spirit is at work? Read, Revelation 16:13-14.