Corporate Repentance

Corporate Repentance
By the Elijah Messenger

New movement leaders such as Roy Adams and a host of other leaders and laymen teach that there is no such thing as "Corporate Repentance." As I have pointed out in the tract, "the Catholic Infiltration of Adventism" the Jesuits also deny this doctrine. Adventists too deny corporate repentance because by confessing this important truth they will have to confess their evil deeds which they have done in the past and also in the present. This is one of the testing messages for this time; the test begins with individuals and then if this proves successful it will work its way up to a corporate repentance.

Corporate Repentance Built In the Organizational Structure

Ellen White states that we are responsible for the leaders we choose. Allow me to quote Mrs. White addressing the church on this topic.

"Every member of the church has a voice in choosing officers of the church. The church chooses the officers of the state conferences. Delegates chosen by the state conferences choose the officers of the union conferences, and delegates chosen by the union conferences choose the officers of the General Conference. By this arrangement every conference, every institution, every church, and every individual, either directly or through representatives, has a voice in the election of the men who bear the chief responsibilities in the General Conference." Testimonies vol. 8, p. 236-237.

Some might say that it does not work this way today, well if it does not, you are in a new movement. And if it does then the church should be held corporately responsible for retaining such corrupt leaders. Again Mrs. White states,

"In our largest churches the greatest evils exist, because these have had the greatest light. They have not a true knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ whom he has sent. The leaven of unbelief is working, and unless these evils which bring the displeasure of God are corrected in its members, the whole church stands accountable for them. The deep moving of the Spirit of God are not with them; the glorious presence of the King of saints, and his power to cleanse from all moral defilement, are not manifest among them." Review & Herald, vol. 2, Dec. 23rd, 1890

"The headquarters of our church, affect the whole body of believers. If the physical heart is healthy, the blood that is sent from it through the system is also healthy; but if this fountain is impure, the whole organism becomes diseased by the poison of the vital fluid. So it is with us. If the heart of the work becomes corrupt, the whole church, in its various branches and interests, scattered abroad over the face of the earth, suffers in consequence." Testimonies vol. 4, p. 210.

Corporate Repentance Denied by the Leaders

According to Roy Adams, associate editor of the Adventist Review, in his book, The Nature of Christ, (which the highest leaders in Seventh-day Adventism endorse) he blatantly ridicules and denies that the New Testament offers no support for the teaching of Corporate Repentance.

"Corporate repentance who demands it of us, I make bold to say it. Not the Lord! And is there any significance to the fact that the New Testament offers us not a single authentic example of general corporate confession?" Ibid. 112,104.

New Teachings For a New Movement

This teaching is recent in nature, it started with the downhill apostasy, which began in 1956-57 and has no support from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. The New Testament Act of the disciples in the upper room experience is a distinct example of general corporate repentance! The three angel's messages of Revelation chapter fourteen is a corporate and individual call to repentance. The first angel's message sounded in 1844 and the corporate church repented not. But God's people, as few as there were individually repented and left the churches. Ellen White said,

"when the churches spurned the counsel of God by rejecting the advent message, the Lord rejected them. The first angel was followed by a second, proclaiming, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."[1 REV. 14:8] This message was understood by Adventists to be an announcement of the moral fall of the churches in consequence of their rejection of the first message. The proclamation, "Babylon is fallen," was given in the summer of 1844, and as the result, about fifty thousand withdrew from these churches." Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, p.232.

In Matthew 23: 29-35, Christ denounced the scribes and the Pharisees on the behalf of their hypocrisy, rejection of the truth and seeking to kill him. By doing this they continued in the course of their four-fathers sins. They were corporately responsible which should have led them to corporately repent. Consider Exodus 20:5 and the following statement from Ellen White.

"Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me."

"It is inevitable that children should suffer from the consequences of parental wrongdoing, but they are not punished for the parents' guilt, except as they participate in their sins." Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 306.

Today the SDA church has taken the relay stick, which is the false gospel of the Evangelical's, and the Catholic's and they have almost completed the race to Rome. For all those who boast about the growth of the church since Net 96', remember that the Pharisees were zealous proselytizers.

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than." yourselves." Matthew 23:15.

The State of the Church

"From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." Isaiah 1:6.

"For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed." Isa. 9:6.

"Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." I Th. 5:6.

"Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." Mark 13:36,37.

"Shake off your spiritual lethargy. Work with all your might to save your own souls and the souls of others. It is no time now to cry, "Peace and safety." It is not silver-tongued orators that are needed to give this message. The truth in all its pointed severity must be spoken." E.G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 187.

"Here we see that 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. They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God's power as in former days. 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 voice 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 ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God. Men, maidens, and little children all perish together." E.G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 211.

May God bless all that read this information with a sincere and devout heart!
The Elijah Messenger
siracus@idirect.com

.

Source

.