Saturday, January 19, 2008

A BETTER AND NOBLER WAY

A Better and Nobler Way

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well. Isa. 1:16, 17.


Ignorance, pleasure loving, and sinful habits, corrupting soul, body, and spirit, make the world full of moral leprosy; a deadly moral malaria is destroying thousands and tens of thousands. {Mar 26.1}

Many are sunken in sin. Many are in distress. They are pressed with suffering, want, unbelief, despondency. Disease of every type afflicts them, both in body and in soul. They long to find a solace for their troubles, and Satan tempts them to seek it in lusts and pleasures that lead to ruin and death. He is offering them the apples of Sodom, that will turn to ashes upon their lips. {Mar 26.2}

A terrible picture of the condition of the world has been presented before me. Immorality abounds everywhere. Licentiousness is the special sin of this age. Never did vice lift its deformed head with such boldness as now. . . . The iniquity which abounds is not merely confined to the unbeliever and the scoffer. Would that this were the case, but it is not. Many men and women who profess the religion of Christ are guilty. Even some who profess to be looking for His appearing are no more prepared for that event than Satan himself. They are not cleansing themselves from all pollution. They have so long served their lust that it is natural for their thoughts to be impure and their imaginations corrupt. It is as impossible to cause their minds to dwell upon pure and holy things as it would be to turn the course of Niagara and send its waters pouring up the falls. . . . Every Christian will have to learn to restrain his passions and be controlled by principle. . . . {Mar 26.3}

If lasciviousness, pollution, adultery, crime, and murder are the order of the day among those who know not the truth, and who refuse to be controlled by the principles of God's word, how important that the class professing to be followers of Christ, closely allied to God and angels, should show them a better and nobler way! How important that by their chastity and virtue they stand in marked contrast to that class who are controlled by brute passions! {Mar 26.4}

Maranatha, Ellen G. White, Page 26.

LORD, IN THE MORNING



Lord, in the Morning

1
Lord, in the morning Thou shalt hear
My voice ascending high;
To Thee will I direct my prayer,
To Thee lift up mine eye-

2
Up to the hills where Christ is gone
To plead for all His saints,
Presenting at His Father's throne
Our songs and our complaints.

3
O may Thy Spirit guide my feet
In ways of righteousness;
Make every path of duty straight
And plain before my face.

4
The men that love and fear Thy name
Shall see their hopes fulfilled;
The mighty God will compass them
With favor as a shield.
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s038e039pn.mp3
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Composer: Aaron Williams
Lyrics: Isaac Watts

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

THE 'TRIUMPH OF THE SOUTHERN' BAPTISTS

The Triumph of The Southern Baptists

The Origins of Cultural Captivity

Charles Lippy has written that "the Baptist presence" has so dominated "Southern mainstream Protestantism for more than a century, to such an extent that in some circles critics cavalierly refer to Dixie as the region 'where there are more Baptists than people.'" And yet, it is easy to forget that Southern Baptists were once a minority in the region. Nor is it easy to recall that there was a time when Baptists in the South did not see "themselves as a distinctively regional body."

The process whereby Baptists came to be identified with the South, and became the dominate religious denomination in the region began in 1861. When the Southern Baptist Convention met in Savannah, Georgia, the delegates clearly identified themselves with secession and everything Southern. They defended the right of the South to secede, pledged themselves to the Confederacy, and substituted the phrase "Southern States of North America" in the Southern Baptist constitution where it had formerly said "United States." It was during the war years, and the period of Reconstruction that Baptists living in the South became Southern Baptists.

The Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845, but it was not until Southern Baptists underwent a "baptism in blood" during the Civil War that their identity became clear. It was at this point in time, that the denomination became deeply enmeshed in the anti-Yankee, anti-modern spirit of the region. In the post-war period, in particular, Southern Baptists partook deeply in the norms and experiences of the emerging Southern nationalism. This became a unifying force in a denomination with multiple centers.

Prior to the Civil War, Southern Baptist life revolved around four major centers. Charleston was the focal point of those Southern Baptists who choose to emphasize a regular and orderly worship. Sandy Creek, North Carolina came to be the focal point for those Baptists who were separate and revivalistic. Georgia was the heart of Landmark and Primitive Baptists, while Texas where Baptists tend to be larger than life. Within these of these centers, there were numerous conflicting opinions about the correct content of doctrine, appropriate norms of piety, and best way to influence the culture. But once there was an identity as "Southern," there emerged a sufficient uniformity of belief and practice to keep the denomination united around the twin goals of evangelism and culture maintenance.

The process that started in the Civil War intensified when the War Between States ended, and Southern Baptist leaders grew more and more concerned that they might loose their separate identity. The issue which the denomination has split over was gone, and Southern Baptists had reason to fear they would be re-absorbed into the national convention. To combat this possibility, they worked hard to emphasize their separateness from the North. They were doing so at the same time as the broader culture of the South was trying to sustain a separate identity in the face of military defeat. If the South could not have a separate political identity, then it would have a cultural one. Perhaps the North had won the battle of arms, but the South would win the battle for the hearts and minds of its people. So it was not surprising that Southern Baptists embraced wholeheartedly the Religion of the Lost Cause. From this point on, both region and denomination would struggle together to remain distinctly Southern.

As we saw last time, Southern Baptists played a number of prominent roles in shaping the orthodoxy that prevailed in the region during the last three decades of the nineteenth century. J. William Jones, a Baptist minister, helped shape the cult of the Lost Cause, and wrote the definite biography of Lee, a work that made him into a revered saint. Thomas Dixon, another Baptist minster, did much the same for the Klan, making it into a heroic army fighting to preserve the Southern way of life. In 1872, Baptists refused to include black members in their official denominational statistics, and Baptists as a denomination were still passing resolutions justifying slavery as late as 1892. This close identification with the culture, did much to advance the denomination in the post-war period. Some have called this close identification of the denomination and the region a "cultural captivity," and they are probably correct. Clearly, Southern Baptists were unwilling to do anything that might run counter to the mainstream of contemporary Southern policy.

Explosive Growth

Southern Baptists deliberately set out to build a denomination that would be geographically based, and which would assume leadership in all of the benevolences that anyone might care to cultivate. During the 1890's, the number of benevolent agencies sponsored by Southern Baptists grew exponentially. And during the 35 years between the Civil War and the turn of the century, Southern Baptists also enjoyed phenomenal growth in membership, income, property values, and cultural influence. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Southern Baptists had blanketed the region. Furthermore, the denomination's quantitative growth was matched by a qualitative dominance of regional religious life, and beyond that to the accepted values and truth-claims of the society generally. It became normative, and probably no other institution typified the culture more accurately or influenced it more profoundly.

During this era, the Southern Baptist Convention expanded its efforts through establishing a press to publish Sunday School materials, strengthening the role of its colleges, developing a foreign missionary enterprise, founding theological seminaries and much more. White Baptists were quite conservative in theology and ideology. Where many of these evangelicals had been ecumenically oriented during the revivals of the Second Great Awakening, now they came to be rather provincial, and denominationally conscious. A competitive attitude developed on the subject of doctrinal teachings particularly with the Methodists over "infant baptism." Southern Baptists also boasted of Southern purity, a point of view which strengthened their appeal to the region.

Liquor and Race

Interestingly, there were only two areas where denomination and region seemed to be singing from different pages in the hymnal: the liquor question, and the place of the negro in Southern society.

The first issue was that of liquor. The making and consuming of alcoholic beverages had been routine in the colonial and antebellum South. As a matter of fact, these activities continued largely to be taken for granted down to the 1880's. Many have observed that the South was the heaviest drinking section of the country down to the Civil War, and celebrations of all sorts--including weddings and funerals--were marked by the loosening of inhibitions provided by whiskey and rum. Baptists and Methodists were just as apt to enjoy spirits as Episcopalians or Presbyterians. Similarly, no distinctions existed between the customs of the clergy and the lay people where alcohol was concerned.

But all this changed--owing to a complex host of factors--with the beginning of the Jim Crow Era in the 1880's. Complicity in the liquor traffic, whether as user, manufacturer or retailer, came to be regarded as a rank evil. One's position on this all-important moral issue went far toward identifying whether the individual was a Christian practitioner or not. Organized efforts to control or even outlaw the entire liquor business consumed a large portion of Baptist moral energies, a program which contributed a great deal to the achievement of statewide prohibition in most of the Southern states by 1919 when the 18th Amendment became law.

The racial question competed with the drinking issue for first place in the Baptist conscience. What to do with, about, and for the once enslaved people in their midst was an item white Southern society could not avoid in the post-war years. Southern Baptists began the post-war period with an acknowledgements of their "special obligations to the Negro." Even at this stage, however, "systematic efforts to facilitate the freedmen's religious reconstruction were almost negligible." With the passing of the next couple of decades, this stated obligation and the organized efforts of (or lack thereof) Southern Baptists diverged even more sharply. Work among the blacks was never altogether lacking, but little of consequence was begun, and even less endured.

Instead, Southern Baptist attention was focused elsewhere: the mission enterprise. One example of this can be found in the story of Miss Lottie Moon. She was a missionary who served from 1873 until her death in 1912. In terms of her statistical success, Miss Moon's achievements were not particularly notable. But her name was seized upon by the Women's Missionary Union of the Southern Baptist Convention for it's annual Christmas foreign missions offering which would soon generate 40+ million dollars a year. Why did this woman capture the imagination of a denomination? In part, it was because she was involved in a life that was interracial...an atonement for white racial crimes at home. Leslie Fiedler puts it this way: "all become wanderers...and find love and forgiveness in some exotic place, with a non-white race more palatable than...people sinned against at home. Such lovers also choose partners of their own sex and love them chastely, thereby conveying an impression more acceptable than the thought of any kind of interracial male-female affection."

This highly symbolic expression of concern about the problem of race was quite different from the more direct approach made to the question of drinking where it was thought easy and necessary to identify the Christian position. With reference to racial ethics, the ordinary mode of addressing "the negro problem" was more often political than ecclesiastical, although churches did act in a number of ways. One way they acted was by not acting to integrate congregations. Yet, another was to support Negro colleges and domestic missionary efforts. But most significantly, Southern Baptist Churches quietly encouraged their members to accept the cultural ethic that Negroes were inferior, that all institutions and facilities were to be segregated along racial lines, and that Negroes had a special need for personal services which compassionate white people should be sensitive to provide, in roughly the manner that adults treat children. In other words, Baptist churches "buttressed a conservative social philosophy with an orthodox theology."

White Baptist churches had little to do with their black counterparts, and when there was intercourse between them it flowed one way, expressing itself in a structure in which white was placed over black. Black and white Baptists might share the same denominational label, but they developed into radically different communities.

Some Concluding Remarks

In this discussion of the two great moral issues facing the Southern Baptist people, we have really been reciting facts applicable to Southern church life in general. But it was the Southern Baptists who came to epitomize and shape Southern society. (The stories of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and Southern Presbyterians are similar.) Southern Baptists never expressed any serious or widespread interest in rejoining their co-religionists in the North, and they had little to do with other denominations even in the South. This denomination lived unto itself, and set out to be faithful to its own standards and vision. This attitude towards outsiders coincided with that of the region which was seeking to withdraw and create its own identity. Not surprisingly, the Southern Baptist faith and message proved attractive to proponents of the Lost Cause.

This attractiveness can be seen in the fact that 98 percent of the counties in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and Mississippi, Southern Baptists constitute the largest denomination. The same is true for 80 percent of the counties in Oklahoma, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky, and Missouri. A similar situation exists in 50 percent of the counties in Texas, Virginia, and New Mexico. In the remaining 32 states, there are only 13 counties where Southern Baptists are the largest denomination.

It would be difficult to close without some mention of the problems Southern Baptists are facing today. The roots of the divisiveness in Southern Baptist life today were laid in their past effort to identify with the region. The denomination's focus on Southern-ness has not served it well as it has grown into a national denomination. As the Southern Baptist Convention has grown and spread beyond Dixie, a growing cultural pluralism has been created. But perhaps more important is the theological diversity that has come about as the denomination has moved out from the Bible belt.

Much of the present divisiveness is a result of these cultural and theological tensions. Today, Southern Baptists are divided into two principle camps: moderates and conservatives, and are well on the way to being divided into two denominations. Both sides of this chasm claim to be the heirs to the Southern Baptist heritage. Moderates, for their part, argue that minor theological differences should be submerged for the sake of missions and outreach, while the Conservatives (Fundamentalists) claim they are simply trying to preserve the doctrinal integrity of the denomination. Both sides claim to be doing the Baptist thing in the Baptist way. And both may be right. But their problem may not be theological. It may be that the idea of Southern-ness is no longer a sufficient glue to hold them together. (It may be significant that many moderates trained in major Northern universities.)

Source: http://www.wfu.edu/~matthetl/south/thirteen.html

JESUS WARNED HIS DISCIPLES

1These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.

2They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

3And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

4But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.

John 16: 1-4.

CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY

CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY

Part 1

10(92) Page 3

Ever since the revival of interest in what took place at the 1888 General Conference session in Minneapolis, with its aftermath, there has been projected upon the Adventist consciousness, the concept of "corporate repentance." This was due wholly to the research, writing, and preaching of Elders R. J. Wieland and D. K. Short since 1950. Even though in recent years, these men have waffled over the meaning of "corporate repentance," if the experience these brethren called for in the beginning had occurred, then there would be no need for further consideration of other aspects of corporate accountability. While our God is a God of mercy, He is also a God of justice. His Spirit will not always strive with men. (Gen. 6:3) While the times and seasons remain at His discretion (Acts 1:7), there is no record in all Sacred Writ where He granted unlimited time in which to repent. Thus there comes a very real aspect of corporate accountability - corporate guilt - and what God will do about it. With this is involved our individual responsibility.

That we might understand what we are talking about, we should keep before us a clear definition of the term - corporate. This word comes from the Latin - corpus - meaning, body. To incorporate is to make into a body, a single unit composed of few or many members. Such a corporate body, religious in nature, is called a church. In Scripture, such a body is compared to the human organism. (1 Cor. 12:12) The legal aspects of a corporation is a body formed and authorized by law to act as a single person although constituted of more than one person, and legally endowed with the right of succession. This right of succession, while legally recognized in its provision for corporations, is a fundamental Scriptural teaching regarding the church.

Over and above, and within a corporate concept, there is granted to every individual, the power of choice. In most instances, I choose to become a part of a "corpus," the only exception being my natural birth, with its gift of family ties, nationality, race, and citizenship. But even here, I can spurn my family; I can renounce my citizenship, or choose another. However, in the area of the corpus we call the church, I must choose what that church shall be. Then, what are my responsibilities by so choosing? What is my accountability because of that choice? What choices does one have, once he becomes a part of such a corpus?

There is and always has been tension between individual responsibility and corporate accountability. Man was created in the Image of God, and with this image came certain power - power to think and to do. It has been stated thus:

Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator - individuality, power to think and to do....It is the work of true education to develop this power; to train youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men's thoughts. (Education, p. 17)

Since "in the highest sense, the work of education and the work of redemption are one" (ibid., p. 30), the Church, though a corpus, to be true to its trust, must seek the development in the individuals composing the body, that restoration of the image of God, which gives them the power to think and to act. It is the object of this study to explore what God has to say about corporate accountability, so that we may know how to relate as individuals to the crisis of corporate identity at this present time.

God created the first corporation. Its formation is described in these words:

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: for they shall be one flesh. (Gen. 2:21-24)

Here we have two individuals, with individual responsibility, yet declared to be one in a corporate identity.

The next picture presented in the Scripture record is the seduction of Eve by the serpent to partake of that which God had forbidden. But the question comes - Did Adam have to sin because he was one with Eve? No! He had been created in the image of God with the power to think and to do as an individual. How God would have met the situation had Adam not chosen to eat of the fruit offered to him by Eve is a moot question. However, the Scripture does not state that by Eve sin entered the world, but

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by "one man." (Rom. 5:17) By his deliberate disobedience, Adam not only surrendered his individual responsibility, but joined corporately in passing death to the human race. "As in Adam all die." (1 Cor. 15:22a) Since a corporation has the power of succession, death passed upon all man because of their identity in that first corporation. Paul stated it this way - Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Rom. 5:12)

God has provided another corporation. There is the corpus of Adam; there is the corpus of Christ. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. 15:22) "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (Rom. 5:18) Since I by natural birth am involved in the corpus of Adam, how do I change corpora? To as many as receive the Word made flesh, "to them gave He power to become sons of God [not sons of Adam], even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13) With the coming of God into humanity - "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16) - the corpus Christi became as real as is the corpus of Adam. This new corpus
brought about by God, as was the first corporation in Eden, has likewise the power of succession. To that new corpus Christi, Jesus committed the great commission, and clearly stated that it was to endure to the end of the age. He would be with them by His Holy Spirit through all time. (Matt. 28:19-20; John 14:16-18) They were to become one spirit with Him, as He had become one flesh with them.

Is this succession organizational, or is it the succession of truth? In other words - Do we find the truth by submitting to the Church, or do we find the Church by submitting to the truth?

THE CORPUS CHRISTI

Jesus declared - "I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." (John 14:6) The only access back to the Father and to life - for "in Adam all die" - is through Jesus Christ. When alone with His disciples in the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus questioned them about whom the people perceived Him to be. The disciples had heard various comments as they mingled with the multitudes who came to listen and to be healed. Then Jesus asked them directly - "But whom say ye that I am?" (Matt. 16:15) To this question, Peter responded - "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." This perception of reality in contradiction to what He appeared to be - the Son of man - came only through revelation. It could not be comprehended through the insight available to "flesh and blood" but came from the "Father which is in heaven." Upon this revelation of truth - divine in origin, solid as a rock - Jesus declared He would build His Church. (Matt. 16:17-18) He, the very embodiment of Truth, became the head of that body - the Corpus Christi.

Paul perceived this nature of the Corpus Christi when he wrote to Timothy, stating:

These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the stay of the truth. (1 Tim. 3:14-15, margin)

The Corpus Christi is to be the pillar, the stay, the visible means through which truth is to be revealed to man. And only as it adheres to truth can it truly be the Church of the living God.

It is most informative, and also very revealing how the Apostolic Church viewed themselves and how they were viewed by the Jewish Church of which they were or had been a part depending upon their spiritual progression. When Paul, sought to apprehend heretics, dissidents, or whatever name they might have been called in the synagogues of Damascus, his letters of authority described these people as followers "of the way." (Acts 9:1-2, Gr.) Luke tells of an incident on Paul's third missionary journey which occurred at Ephesus and what he did about it. The record reads:

And he [Paul] went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of the way [Greek] before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples,...(Acts 19:8-9)

After this decision by the Apostle Paul, the word of God grew mightily and prevailed so that "there was no small stir about the way." (Acts 19:23 Gr) This concept of "The Way" was again used by Paul as he addressed the riotous Jewish mob from the stairs of the Tower of Antonia.

Speaking in the Hebrew tongue, he told of his education and training in Jerusalem "at the feet

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of Gamaliel, his zeal "toward God," and how he "persecuted this way unto death." (Acts 22:4) It is clear from the book of Acts, that while the disciples of Christ were first called "Christians" at Antioch (11:27), they were known throughout Jewry as simply Followers of The Way.

This concept of the way of truth which brings life is very interestingly projected in the New Testament. Christ presented the devil as a murderer - the one who brings death, and the reason given is that he "abode not in the truth." (John 8:44) Christ on the other hand is set forth as "the Prince of life." (Acts 3:15) He came to "destroy him that had the power of death." (Heb. 2:14) He, the Word made flesh, was "full of grace and truth." (John 1:14) Through the atoning sacrifice of Calvary, Jesus made it possible for the sons of Adam to become sons of God, thus changing their identification from the corpus of Adam to the corpus of Christ. This accomplishment of Christ, and the provision thus made for man, is spoken of as "the way out," or the "exodus." Luke, in telling of the coming of Moses and Elijah to Jesus at the time of the Transfiguration, states that they spoke of "His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." (Luke 9:31) The word translated in the KJV as "decease" is the Greek, exodos, or "the way out." Thus those who proclaimed Him as the only way to the Father, as the sole source of salvation (Acts 4:12) were dubbed by the Jewish religious leaders as "Followers of the Way." And to the Hebrew Christians, Paul could write of that "new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say His flesh." (Heb. 10:20)

The concept as to what constitutes succession in the Corpus Christi, whether it be organization, or whether it be truth, is vividly contrasted in the confrontation between Paul and the lawyer for the hierarchy of Jerusalem in his arraignment before Felix. When permitted to speak in his own defense, Paul declared, "I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets." (Acts 24:14) His basis of belief was the same that it always had been - he still accepted the truth of the Word of God. He still worshipped the God of his fathers. To Paul, he was merely continuing in the truth which the Lord had revealed - the revelation of the promised Messiah. But because Paul was willing to walk in that way, how was he viewed by the hierarchy of Jerusalem? Tertullus, advocate for the religious leaders, declared him to be "a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes." (Acts 24:5) What really was Paul's crime? He could no longer support the hierarchy, nor the program they projected for the people. To him, the leadership of Israel had rejected the Truth; they had betrayed the Trust committed to them. He with Stephen believed they had resisted the Holy Spirit to their damnation, and though they had received the law by the disposition of angels, they had not kept it. (Acts 7:51, 53)

These convictions form the basis for Paul's teachings as found in the book of Romans: "They which are the children of the flesh [the succession upon which the corpus of Israel was based], these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise [succession based upon the Word of God - truth] are counted for the seed." (Rom. 9:8) Therefore, "hath God cast away His people?" To this Paul answers - "God forbid." What then is the answer? Noting the history of Israel in the days of Elijah, Paul concludes - "Even so then at the present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." (Rom. 11:1-5) To Paul, this remnant is "the Israel of God." (Gal. 6:16)

What did Paul want those to see - those still attached to the succession of the flesh? "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Gal. 3:29) The inheritance would not come through the corporate structure of Israel, but by following The Way - truth that leads to life. To remain attached to the earthly Jerusalem was not the answer. Paul declared that church controlled by the hierarchy to be "in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." (Gal. 4:25-26) He wrote to the Hebrews that they had come "unto Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels [who still abode in the truth], to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all." (Heb. 12:22-23) And the only way - The Way - to that God with Whom we have to do, is by Jesus Christ, "the way, the truth and the life." The succession which God recognizes is not the way of organization, but the way of truth. Organization, though necessary, is only a vehicle, a means by which truth is carried. Loyalty is not to a vehicle, but to truth itself. Those who are thus loyal to truth constitute the Corpus Christi.

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Let us consider Paul's question - "Hath God cast away His people? - in the context of today - the "now time." Hath God cast away the Advent Movement? God forbid! How can He deny that which is the fulfilment of prophecy which He himself mandated? (Rev. 1:1; 14:6-12) But the Advent Movement and the Seventh-day Adventist Church are two different things. The latter is merely the vehicle God chose through which to carry forward His Movement. God never told His people that in the balances of the sanctuary the Advent Movement would be weighed. But He did declare, through His messenger to the remnant, that "in the balances of the sanctuary the Seventh-day Adventist church is to be weighed." (8T:247) Even at the present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

“Watchman,

what of the night?”

"The hour has come, the hour is striking and striking at you,
the hour and the end!" Eze. 7:6 (Moffatt)

Source: http://adventistlaymen.com/Documents/CORPORATE%20ACCOUNTABILITY%20Part%201.htm

MEGACHURCH LEADER CHARGED WITH PERJURY

Megachurch Leader Charged With Perjury
Monday, January 14, 2008

ATLANTA - An 80-year-old leader of a suburban megachurch who is at the center of a sex scandal has been charged with lying under oath for saying he had sex outside marriage with only one other woman, court documents show.

A warrant for the arrest of Archbishop Earl Paulk, co-founder of Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church, was issued Monday, according to court documents. Paulk was making arrangements Monday night to turn himself in, WAGA-TV reported.

His attorneys did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Former church employee Mona Brewer is suing Paulk, his brother and the church on allegations that Paulk manipulated her into an affair from 1989 to 2003 by telling her it was her only path to salvation. In a 2006 deposition stemming from the lawsuit, the archbishop said under oath that the only woman he had ever had sex with outside of his marriage was Brewer.

But the results of a court-ordered paternity test revealed in October that Paulk is the biological father of his brother's son, D.E. Paulk, who is now head pastor at the church. As part of Brewer's lawsuit, eight women have given sworn depositions that they were coerced into sexual relationships with Earl Paulk.

A judge ordered the paternity test at the request of the Cobb County district attorney's office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. District Attorney Pat Head declined to comment when reached at his home Monday night.

Paulk and his brother, Don, have been hit with lawsuits from former members alleging they were coerced into sexual affairs, but this is the first time criminal charges have been filed against the archbishop.

Monday, January 14, 2008

RESIGNATION OF PETER HANS KOLVENBACH


January 14 2008

Resignation of Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach


During the first formal session of the 35th General Congregation, held on the 7th of January, Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, addressed the electors with these words:


With the blessing of the Holy Father granted the 20th of June 2005 and after having obtained a positive vote from the Assistants for provident care and from the Provincials of the whole Society on the seriousness of the reasons to resign, I present now to the judgement of the General Congregation my resignation as Superior General of the Society of Jesus.

As stated in article 362 of the Complementary Norms: although the Superior General is elected for life and not for any determined time,- he may nonetheless in good conscience and by law resign from his office for a grave reason that would render him permanently unequal to the labours of his post. I feel that the Society of Jesus has the right to be governed and animated by a Jesuit in full capacity of his spiritual and corporal gifts and not by a companion whose energies will continue to diminish because of his age -soon 80 years old- and because of the consequences of that age, especially in the area of health. Even if the Constitutions and the Norms do not mention it, may I add that the election of a new General will give the Society God's grace of renewal, or to express it with the words of Saint Ignatius "una nueva devoción", "nuevas mociones".

The discussion and the vote on the resignation will take place at the eve of the four days of "murmurations" to be fixed by the deputation "de statu Societatis". In a less formal and a more fraternal way the decision of the General Congregation will be communicated to the whole Society. So much for the resignation.

The 14th of January was the day designated by the Steering Committee for the formal consideration and vote on Father General's expressed desire to resign. Father Valentín Menéndez as the chair, invited the electors to ask the four Assistants ad providentiam for clarifications regarding the reasons given by Father General for his resignation. At the end of the questions there was a brief period of silent personal prayer before ballots were cast.


After a pause, Father General, who had left during the voting, returned to the aula. Father Valentin Menéndez informed him of the ballot's result that manifested the respectful assent of the Congregation to the reasons which had moved Father General to present his resignation. Then Father Menéndez, on behalf of the Congregation of the Society, thanked Father Kolvenbach for his 25 years at the helm of the Society with the following words:


Now that General Congregation 35 has accepted your resignation, it is fitting that this same Congregation gathered here today express, in the whole Society's name, its profound gratitude to you for your crucial service, as missioned by the Lord, to the Church and to the Society.

First of all, we wish to tell you how edified we are with your manner of submitting your resignation, namely, in that freedom of spirit that frames the Gospel and the Exercises. The example you give us today, of course, is very different from what commonly is found in a world characterized by the clinging to, and fighting for, positions of power and prestige. Our charism and legislation are not good merely because they propose beautiful ideals, but precisely because there are people who know how to embody and live them.

We are most especially grateful to you for the way in which you governed the Society following the difficult 1981 Pontifical intervention. Since then, you have known how to navigate the Society with serenity, recognizing how to balance fidelity to the Church with fidelity to our way of proceeding as expressed in our Constitutions and the most recent General Congregations. The words we heard in Cardinal Rodé's homily, which represent the thinking of the Church, clearly express the Holy See's esteem for you and your leadership during these past years.

We also appreciate the charism of union that you and your governance have represented for us, especially in light of the Society's ever greater plurality and cultural diversity. While living that freedom of spirit typical of our manner of proceeding and in the midst of cultural diversity, of varied ways of feeling and thinking, and through different historical contexts, you have maintained the union of the Society's corporate body. You have kept that union by being respectful of others, by means of your wise and balanced counsel, and by your inspiring presence in every province.

The trust that you have shown through your governance, not only to your curial staff but also to all of the provincials, has created a fraternal and collaborative setting. This broad setting has indeed affected the entire body of the Society and expresses very well one of our ideals, namely, to be, all of us together, companions of Jesus.

May our Creator and Lord reward you for your faithful service during nearly a quarter of a century. Additionally, we ask that the Lord continue to bless you in whatever new ministry He grants you for His greater glory.

In GC 35's name and that of the whole Society, and with all of our heart, we say: thank you very much, Fr. Kolvenbach! We are proud of you and of your service during these difficult, but exciting years the Lord has seen fit to give us.

The last words of Father Menendéz were followed by a long and warm applause that all the Delegates, standing, dedicated to Father Kolvenbach.


With the humor which never seems to fail him, Father Kolvenbach thanked the Delegates "for the elegant way you have found to fire me." Then turning to more serious things, with the sobriety and clarity which we have become accustomed to, he spoke in this way:


Dear Fathers and Brothers,

Today the General Congregation has thought it well to accept my resignation as General Superior of the Society of Jesus. At the end of these nearly 25 years of service, I want first of all to thank the Lord, who - to use the words of Saint Ignatius - has truly been propitious to me at Rome, in leading a Society He has called into service for his greater glory.

I am also most grateful for the privilege of having met and accompanied so many friends in the Lord, who in their many diverse vocations have always shown themselves to be true servants of the Mission of Christ.

No single Jesuit should feel himself excluded from this profound sentiment of recognition. Nonetheless I would like to thank in a particular way those in the General Curia who have helped me day after day over many years in carrying out my responsibilities for the Society, as well as all the Major Superiors spread throughout the entire world.

Earlier I was able to express my great thanks to the Holy Father for his apostolic orientations which have allowed the Society to continue our mission "under the banner of the cross and under the Vicar of Christ on earth".

Let us be grateful to the Lord that despite a disconcerting diversity of persons and cultures, of desires and works, our union of minds and hearts has never failed, and, despite an increasing fragility, the Society retains the capacity of apostolic dialogue before the challenges of the modern world in proclaiming the one Good News.

On this eve of the election of my successor and of the many decisions that the General Congregation will have to make, I unite myself with the prayer with which Saint Ignatius finished his letters: "May God our Lord in his infinite and supreme goodness be pleased to give us his abundant grace, so that we may know his most holy will and entirely fulfill it."

And thus, the 24 year, four-month ministry of focused and single-minded care for and stewardship of the universal Society of Jesus by Father Kolvenbach has come to an end.


Source: http://www.sjweb.info/35/Special/102/index.cfm?PubID=12354

SAUDI KING TO HOST BUSH...

Saudi king to host Bush at desert playground
Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:38pm EST


By Matt Spetalnick

RIYADH, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah hosts George W. Bush at his desert playground on Tuesday when the U.S. president will get a taste of how the royals live in the world's richest oil-producing monarchy.

Setting aside serious talk of Middle East peace, Iranian challenges and controversial arms deals that dominated day one of his visit, Bush will trade in his business suit for more casual attire and stay the night at the sprawling tent-like structure with walls made of silk.

Even the Arabian stallions the king raises at his Al Janadriyah "horse farm" near Riyadh lead lives of luxury. They are kept in climate-controlled, air-conditioned stables and are treated to aqua-therapy.

The special hospitality is for a U.S. president who hosted Abdullah as crown prince in Crawford, Texas, in 2002 and 2005.

When Bush walked arm-in-arm with Abdullah at his ranch nearly three years ago, oil cost $54 a barrel, a level the Saudi government admitted then was "clearly too high."

Oil is now hovering near $100 a barrel and many Americans are griping about their tax dollars helping to underwrite the defense of wealthy Gulf allies, so the issue may come up again.



SAUDIS' REASON TO BE PLEASED

Bush will spend Tuesday sightseeing, meeting Saudi entrepreneurs and visiting with U.S. embassy staff, and he has already given his royal host good reason to be pleased.

Trying to counter Iran's growing military clout in the region, Bush made clear on Monday his commitment to go ahead with a major arms sale to Saudi Arabia.

Just hours after his arrival in Riyadh, the U.S. administration said it notified Congress of its intention to offer the Saudis a package of advanced weaponry as part of a multibillion-dollar deal with Gulf Arab allies.

The deal, covering 900 precision-guided bomb kits worth about $120 million, has raised concerns in Israel and its U.S. supporters about the military balance of power in the region.

The sale is part of Bush's effort to persuade Saudi Arabia to help contain Iran, a strident U.S. foe.

Bush also wants Saudi Arabia to cajole other Arab states into bolstering the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that he hopes, in the face of deep skepticism, will yield a final deal before he leaves office in January 2009.

Mindful of Saudi Arabia's strategic importance, Bush has avoided direct criticism of its human rights record during his trip. His last stop will be Egypt on Wednesday before heading home to Washington.

Abdullah is viewed by many Saudis as a supporter of modest reform including letting women drive. Diplomats say his room for manoeuvre is limited by clerics and senior royalty.

The Saudi government has been a close U.S. ally since the 1950s although relations hit a low after the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001 when 15 Saudis were among 19 suicide-plane hijackers.

The Bush administration has praised the Saudis for battling al Qaeda-inspired insurgents, though some democracy activists say the security crackdown has been used as an excuse to smother a nascent reform movement. (Additional reporting by Andrew Hammond; editing by Robert Woodward)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN14318018

RON PAUL THE REAL CANDIDATE FOR CHANGE

Ron Paul is the Real Candidate for Change, Not Barack Obama

Paul-Democrats

By Dana Gabriel http://www.newworldordermustbestopped.com/DanasBlog.html

Going into the New Hampshire primaries, polls showed that Barack Obama would win again for the Democrats, and Ron Paul was posed to finish third or fourth for the Republicans and improve his showing in the Iowa caucuses. It has been reported that both may have been cheated in NH by voting machines and hand count fraud. As a result there, will be a recount for both parties. Many fear that if no problems are found, it could further legitimize the electronic voting machines and hurt future recounts. Ron Paul does not endorse a recount, and instead has chosen to focus on the primaries to come. It was disappointing to finish in fifth place in NH, and I would have felt a lot better if he had finished ahead of Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani. The good news is that there still isn't a Republican front runner. Giuliani failed to break into double digits in NH, finishing with 9%, only one percent more than Paul. Regardless of what happens, Paul is the true candidate for change. Others like Obama talk about it, but what are they saying would really change? There is a difference between calling for change and actually having a proposed plan to bring it about.



First I'd like to say that I have no axe to grind with Obama, and find some of the allegations brought against him petty and ridiculous. That having been said, for someone whose campaign is based on change, he is pretty vague on exactly what and how he would change things. Saying you are going to change things is mere words and empty promises. Real change requires plotting an entirely new course with ideas, specifics, firm policy initiatives, and it doesn't always come quickly. The truth is that behind all the rhetoric, Obama represents the status quo, and there is very little difference between himself and Hilary Clinton. Obama's two years in the Senate and thin resume means that he doesn't have that much political baggage. One can hardly dispute the fact that he lacks experience, is unproven, untested, and lacks critical wisdom and policy knowledge. Paul, on the other hand, has been advocating real change to our foreign policy, monetary policy, and the corporate welfare state for thirty years. He is well read, and there is no other candidate who studies political philosophy and economics more than he does. He has a distinguished voting record, upholds the constitution, and has been likened to the founding fathers. One's gender or race does not mark significant change, and I believe that Paul is the only candidate who can restore America.



There are definitely some similarities between Paul and Obama. Both are promising change, enjoy huge support on the Internet, have grassroots appeal, and have struck a chord with young voters. After that, most of the similarities end. Obama is young, charismatic, smooth, and a great communicator whose words are captivating and intoxicating. He makes you feel good about yourself. For the most part, he has been a media darling, and some reporters have admitted bias on reporting about him objectively. It will take more than a certain look, an image cute phrases and catchy slogans to change things. The contrast is that Paul is a humble 72 year old constitutionalist, and is a model of consistency. He admits that he has limitations, but his message of freedom does not. For the most part, the mainstream media has tried to ignore and misrepresent Paul, his message, and his supporters. Paul has always championed civil liberties and voted against the Patriot and the Real ID Act. Meanwhile, Obama voted for the Real ID and to renew provisions of the Patriot Act. Paul doesn't sugarcoat things, and is one of the few politicians who acknowledges our overspending, the weak dollar, and the evils of the Federal Reserve. He also wants to eliminate income taxes and abolish the IRS. There is little doubt that there is an appetite for change. Ron Paul addressed this issue and said, “To me that means the only significant change we ought to have is get enough people in Washington that read the constitution, obey the constitution, do only things that we are allowed to do.”



Ron Paul admits that there is very little difference between the mainstream candidates, Democrat or Republican. He said, “Foreign policy never changed. Domestic fiscal policy, the welfare entitlement system never changes.” For years, both parties have been double teaming the American people. One gets in power and further advances the New World Order agenda, and then falls out of favor and passes the baton to the other. Both parties are supported by special interest groups, and many are waking up to the fact that the Democrats aren't going to save us either. Paul's support is diverse and transcends party lines. We don't have to choose the lesser of the evils, because with Paul we have the right man with the right message. He is shattering the fake left-right paradigm and dismantling the establishment. While most candidates including Obama grovel to AIPAC, Paul is not bought and paid for by any special interest groups, corporations, or countries. He is the only one of the top candidates in either party that doesn't have any connections or affiliation to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Obama gives speeches to CFR members and at CFR sponsored events. His top foreign policy adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, has intimate ties to both the CFR and co-founded the Trilateral Commission. Obama has tried to paint himself as an outsider, but has surrounded himself with consummate insiders and political heavy weights. It's always the same people behind the scenes.



Both Obama and Paul are receiving the most contributions from military personnel for their respective parties. Out of the two, only Paul can be considered an anti-war candidate. Paul was against the Iraq war from the beginning, and wants to pull our troops out of Iraq and the whole middle east almost immediately. He advocates a foreign policy of non-intervention. Obama says he would have voted against the Iraq war if he were in the Senate at the time, but has voted for continued funding of the war. He talks about a timetable for withdrawing main-combat forces in Iraq, but would then send more to Afghanistan. He has talked about possible missile strikes against Iran and military action against Pakistan. He would continue to expand the war on terror, and he supports preemptive strikes, increasing the size of our armed forces, and further militarization of the middle east. It is impossible to label Obama as an anti-war candidate, but it might be unfair to say that he is a warmonger. He is pro-military, and has demonstrated his willingness to maintain the U.S. as the world's police force. Obama as president would not bring about any radical shift in foreign policy.



Barack Obama would bring about artificial change, and he is like window dressing to make something old and broken appear new and fixed. Ron Paul is like a big wrecking ball, with the words change on it. He understands the role of government, and would limit its size and scope. Limited government would bring about more liberty, and that is what America was founded on. We would return a more constitutionally-sound monetary and foreign policy. There would be no more nation building, foreign entanglements, and trying to police the world. Hillary Clinton is still the anointed one, and will probably win the presidential nomination for the Democrats. There is a good chance that Obama will be on her ticket. A woman president and a black vice-president, with the Democrats back in power, that might be the only change we get. Maybe Obama is the insurance policy in case Paul wins the Republican nomination, or runs as a third-party candidate. Ron Paul is the real candidate for change, and Barack Obama is a tool of the elite.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

(BEFORE) THE FLOOD

Before the Flood God sent Noah to warn the world, that the people might be led to repentance, and thus escape the threatened destruction. As the time of Christ's second appearing draws near, the Lord sends His servants with a warning to the world to prepare for that great event. Multitudes have been living in transgression of God's law, and now He in mercy calls them to obey its sacred precepts. All who will put away their sins by repentance toward God and faith in Christ are offered pardon. But many feel that it requires too great a sacrifice to put away sin. Because their life does not harmonize with the pure principles of God's moral government, they reject His warnings and deny the authority of His law.

Of the vast population of the earth before the Flood, only eight souls believed and obeyed God's word through Noah. For a hundred and twenty years the preacher of righteousness warned the world of the coming destruction, but his message was rejected and despised. So it will be now. Before the Lawgiver shall come to punish the disobedient, transgressors are warned to repent, and return to their allegiance; but with the majority these warnings will be in vain. Says the apostle Peter, "There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning." 2 Peter 3:3, 4. Do we not hear these very words repeated, not merely by the openly ungodly, but by many who occupy the pulpits of our land? "There is no cause for alarm," they cry. "Before Christ shall come, all the world is to be converted, and righteousness is to reign for a thousand years. Peace, peace! all things continue as they were from the beginning. Let none be disturbed by the exciting message of these alarmists." But this doctrine of the millennium does not harmonize with the teachings of Christ and His apostles. Jesus asked the significant question, "When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8. And, as we have seen, He declares that the state of the world will be as in the days of Noah. Paul warns us that we may look for wickedness to increase as the end draws near: "The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." 1 Timothy 4:1. The apostle says that "in the last days perilous times shall come." 2 Timothy 3:1. And he gives a startling list of sins that will be found among those who have a form of godliness.


As the time of their probation was closing, the antediluvians gave themselves up to exciting amusements and festivities. Those who possessed influence and power were bent on keeping the minds of the people engrossed with mirth and pleasure, lest any should be impressed by the last solemn warning. Do we not see the same repeated in our day? While God's servants are giving the message that the end of all things is at hand, the world is absorbed in amusements and pleasure seeking. There is a constant round of excitement that causes indifference to God and prevents the people from being impressed by the truths which alone can save them from the coming destruction.

In Noah's day philosophers declared that it was impossible for the world to be destroyed by water; so now there are men of science who endeavor to show that the world cannot be destroyed by fire--that this would be inconsistent with the laws of nature. But the God of nature, the Maker and Controller of her laws, can use the works of His hands to serve His own purpose.


When great and wise men had proved to their satisfaction that it was impossible for the world to be destroyed by water, when the fears of the people were quieted, when all regarded Noah's prophecy as a delusion, and looked upon him as a fanatic--then it was that God's time had come. "The fountains of the great deep" were "broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened," and the scoffers were overwhelmed in the waters of the Flood. With all their boasted philosophy, men found too late that their wisdom was foolishness, that the Lawgiver is greater than the laws of nature, and that Omnipotence is at no loss for means to accomplish His purposes. "As it was in the days of Noah," "even thus shall it be in the days when the Son of man is revealed." Luke 17:26, 30. "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 2 Peter 3:10. When the reasoning of philosophy has banished the fear of God's judgments; when religious teachers are pointing forward to long ages of peace and prosperity, and the world are absorbed in their rounds of business and pleasure, planting and building, feasting and merrymaking, rejecting God's warnings and mocking His messengers--then it is that sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape. 1 Thessalonians 5:3.

Patriarchs and Prophets, Ellen G. White, pp. 102-103.

Friday, January 11, 2008

THE DAY IS AT HAND

THE DAY IS AT HAND

EVANGELIST STEPHEN LEWIS

Father in Heaven, We thank you so much for the presence of your Holy Spirit. And we’re thankful for the type of control You have over Your presence. The ability to come into a room and visit us, and yet some have cherished and dear idols and You are not allowing us to be consumed; Thank You Lord. We pray that Your Holy Spirit would have a lingering presence in this place, but even more in our hearts. And as we open Your Word, we really need Your assistance, we really need You to speak to us. We don’t know how many of these opportunities we’ll continue to have. And it seems like, because things are not happening as outwardly as many believe that we become more and more relaxed. But please, speak to us today. In Christ’s Name – Amen.

Happy Sabbath!

Each night at the meetings we’ve been going through a series on how to trust in the Word of God. And it’s very important, brothers and sisters, because the day, in which we’re living in, is extremely unpredictable. We don’t know what will take place first of all on a day-by-day basis in our individual lives. We can’t predict it; we just don’t know. No matter how good things seem to be going we just don’t know when we’ll hear bad news.

I was speaking with and praying with a minister this morning on the telephone, and you know many have this ‘call waiting’ and he said ‘hold on a moment’, when he came back he told me of a death of someone in his family. And I said to him, “You know it’s interesting that we were just rejoicing in the Word of the Lord, and you were sharing some of the things that the Lord had given you to share with your church today and through the excitement you put me on hold and come back and your whole countenance, I can feel the change that has come over it; An ENEMY hath done this!”

And brothers and sisters, we don’t know what’s going to take place in our families. We don’t know which family member will come up with the next great surprise. We don’t know whether or not a family member will be tragically assaulted or hurt. We just don’t know. We don’t know what our children will go through when they are married. They start off happy and then one day you get a phone call; and that, all this way. This world is unpredictable.

But we have been taught and told in the Word of God that certain prophetic events will take place and I want to talk to the church for a moment today because I think it’s extremely important that we not be self centered in this day and hour and we get out and get people to these meetings. We are not going to be able to continue to have bold signs up on our major highways announcing prophecy seminars. We are not going to be able to continue to keep teaching what we believe without some type of consequences. It’s already being talked about everywhere and it’s being said and even in our midst, in our own ranks at least I’ve received two or three calls during my ministry saying, “Tone it down!”

I say, “Tone what down?” “Tone what down?”

Because I’m honest now, if it can be done more effectively I want to know, I don’t believe that I know it all. There have been men who have spent much more time on their knees and men who have fought to get us where we are today, but I need to understand- ‘Tone what down?’

“Maybe you don’t need to say publicly- who the Antichrist is.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well- well, get people who believe and pull them in the private corners and tell them, but don’t say it publicly because when you say it publicly it seems like we- we’re condemning someone.”

The Bible says, ‘I saw an angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach unto all them that dwell on the earth and every nation, kindred, tongue and people, saying in the back corner of a room of believers??

No! With a loud voice! ‘Fear God, give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment is come.’ And the message that we really have to give to the world is a message of hope! It is not a message of condemnation. It’s a warning from the pit of hell that Satan wants to drag people in to. And so when I look out in congregations today, the thing that frightens me most is Seventh-day Adventists don’t know what they believe!

In the second chapter of Desire of ages, it talks about how the Jewish system, prior to the coming of Christ no longer knew what they believed. They had toned down the preaching of the promised Messiah. They had gotten so caught up in the outward religion, and proud of their schools, and proud of all the riches and wealth of God had bestowed upon them, that the heathen nations started knowing more about that which was spiritual than they knew.

You are going to be called to give an account of what you believe. If you do not know what you believe, you’re not going to make it. I’m concerned that Seventh-day Adventists are more professional in their careers than in their knowledge of the Word of God. I’m concerned that Television is courting us and television is being imprinted in our minds to such an extent that we’re living the lifestyle of the screen, which is a life style that isn’t reality! And when things take place we’re surprised because it didn’t happen that way in the script. And scripts can be changed week after week, each sit-com can change drastically but not with us, brothers and sisters.

The things we’re putting in our minds. The things we’re putting in our minds are solemn and important. And I don’t know about you, but I have enough trash in my mind to last three or four lifetimes. It is horrible! To get on my knees and to start praying and submitting to God; get off my knees and study for an hour maybe, or maybe fifteen minutes but become immersed in whatever moments that is they are that I’ve spent with God. To become so immersed in His Word and then become convicted and when you lay down or prostrate yourself to say, “Lord, I want my heart to belong to You!” SONGS start coming up from the nightclubs! Movies, pictures, start coming to your mind, that you sat down and watched; and now you’re saying, “No, Lord, No!”

And some of us are still putting it in our minds! We have given the devil enough to work with. And the Bible says in the book of Romans chapter 13-

Oh God of Heaven, please make simple and clear to us today where we are in the prophetic drama that is soon to come to a close. In Christ’s name- Amen.

And brothers and sisters...We need to study to know how to make it when the time of trouble hits and it’s not something that we’re going to be able to cut on when it happens; we’re going to have to be in Christ. We’re going to have to be solid! You are not going to start all of a sudden coming up with childhood memory verses and thinking that that’s going to allow you to stand. You’re going to have to have an experience, which we do not now possess.

And I always think and I always pray and I think about what Ellen White says in Great Controversy about what we are about to experience. When she says that normally trouble in anticipation is much worse. You know, when I did something wrong as a child and I knew my mother found out about it, I said, “Oh, boy!” I would be scared when I would get home. But when I would get the spanking or whatever it would never be as bad as I anticipated. She said normally trouble in anticipation is much worse than in reality, she says but not so in this situation. She says the most vivid presentation cannot bring to our minds what we are going to have to go through.

I’m telling you, we’re living in a day and hour where we should rejoice when family members die. Why? When they die in Christ, I should say. We should be able to rejoice, if there’s any tears it should be because we are just so excited that they’re out of it and weeping because we’re still in it. Trouble is about to hit that the earth has never seen. The devil doesn’t even understand the fury that he is about to be able to put on this earth. And we must be ready!

The Bible puts it this way in Romans 13, beginning with verse 11, “And that knowing the time, now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand, let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, let us put on the armor of light.”

It’s ‘high time’ in other words it’s past time, we should have been awake long ago. We should have been studying long ago. We must start learning what we believe- number 1- as Seventh-day Adventists when it relates to salvation and victory. What do you mean- when it relates to salvation and victory? In other words, in the final analysis, there’re going to be two camps. Now we can’t come up with a new organization, brothers and sisters, what do I mean by a new organization?

Ellen White says in Selected Messages- she says that a ‘new organization’ is an organization that changes their teachings. That’s what she says. She says we can’t step off the platform now and change our teachings. I’m afraid that the majority of Seventh-day Adventists who have come up in my generation and under are already learning something that’s totally different. We’re not reading our books. Everything has been infiltrated in 1984, even when our Sabbath School lesson changed because it- quote- unquote “Had too much Spirit of Prophecy in it!” And yea, they may be good- but you see a little less quoted. And you see all the different versions being quoted of the Bible, and nothing wrong with reading Bible versions at home. I like to do a comparison too but brothers and sisters, the one that we promote, we need to make sure that that one will support everything we believe. An enemy has a planned assault against us, and we’ve been sleeping through the preparation.

We can go all the way back- let’s just back up- to 1984. That was a heavy year, for not only Seventh-day Adventists, but for all Christians. That was when the United States sent an ambassador to the Vatican. And I was just coming back into the church. And I never saw a church so excited at that time. Write your congressman, write the president. Warn them of what they are doing. Tell them this is not Biblical. And the church on a worldwide scale appeared to be very alarmed because something was transforming that was clear and prophetic. Well things had transpired way before then but know they could really see it. “We’re sending an ambassador to the Vatican??”

But what happened? You see if our Christianity is built on shock waves that seem to shock our neural system and all of a sudden get us alert for a minute; and emotional fear or scare- we’re not going to make it! If your religion is set up on seeing something prophetic happen and all of a sudden picking up the phone and getting serious and getting on your knees- you have a works religion and you believe that- “OK, I only have a little left to clean up before the sun sets” so I can kind of take my time and then I’ll look up at the clock and say “Oh, it’s an hour before the sun set ” and you can rush in and clean it up.

Well if your spiritual life is like that, where you think that once you see some sign of the times taking place, that you’ll get shocked into reality and you can work and fix your life up… And this is what we believe. Either we believe that OR we believe that our life really doesn’t matter and the way we live really doesn’t matter because Jesus in His crucified state and when He resurrected covered our life style as long as you choose Him.

You see these are the two things that are floating through Adventism. One is a strong conservative reform act that seems to hang on to their little darling sins and believes that if a crisis comes they could shake themselves and be ready. The other believes that they can just kind of live how they want to because God did it all. And BOTH are LOST. Both are lost.

Because our only hope for salvation, that we have always taught, and that we believe, and the doctrine that split this church wide open in 1888, was that our only hope for salvation is in resting in Christ. And in being so immersed in what He has done for us, that we allow Him to do it in us now. And so the standard doesn’t drop; we’re not working on ‘getting right’, we’re not trying to change ourselves, we are just allowing Him to live out His change in us. And that cannot be done overnight. This is a concept that you have to study and practice because it’s so simple it can be easily confusing.

So in ’84 the church got alarmed. People came to church that hadn’t been to church for a long time. But nothing happened. And then all of a sudden, we see the Iron Curtain going down. And we get excited, but not quite as excited as we were before. And now all of a sudden, and let me tell you, everything that happens, when we see the United States of America joining hands with Catholicism, everything is happening at a pace that appears to be slow, but it’s happening only because God is trying to tell His people to wake up. The only reason why it hasn’t happened even faster is God is setting these things in place, trying to give us time to wake up.

What would have happened in 1984, some of you remember exactly what I am talking about- what would have happened in ’84 had you really immersed yourself in the Word of God and started really studying and really teaching and really trying to prepare others for the coming of the Lord? Where would your spiritual life be today? You might be translated by now!

But the Bible says, because it seems like God doesn’t just immediately do something we become relaxed; or because judgment isn’t executed speedily, is what the text says in Eccl. 8- it says because it’s not executed speedily, we become relaxed and more engrossed in our sins.

And then some of you remember this statement, it was an alarming statement; “It is a big idea, anew World Order, where the diverse nations are drawn together in a common cause. Only the United States has both the moral standing and means to back it up.” You remember when George Bush made that announcement; At least when it first came out. It was quoted and handed out in all Adventist circles, saying, “Look- he has publicly announced the ‘New World Order!’ It’s about to take place!”

Listen to what Dan Quail says, he comes on and he says, “Under the courageous leadership of Pope John-Paul II, the Vatican State has assumed its rightful place in the world as an international voice. It is only right that this country show its respect for the Vatican by diplomatically recognizing it as a world State.”

So at first, this power that we are told in Revelation 13, that the world is going to follow; and it doesn’t say that the world is going to actually join ranks with it. It says,” and the whole world wonders- in other words their minds will be captivated by what it’s doing; and interested in its every move; and so interested that they will reverence it.

And so now, like any good soldier, who has won a lot of good battles, he lets others do his talking for him. So Ronald Reagan does the talking for him; George Bush starts talking for him; Dan Quail starts talking for him; and now it’s time for me to speak. They’ve invited me to the platform- you know how it is when someone’s being honored? They’ll get up and one person will say all these great things about him and then someone else will get up and say something and then someone else and then when everybody hears so many wonderful things, then they’ll say- “Listen, come on up, let us hear from you.”

So he gets up early one morning, two years ago, can you believe two years have passed? Two years ago, he gets up early in the morning and goes to a regular mass, and people who are gathered outside, he stands up and he announces, “It is time for us to re-establish the sacredness of the Sabbath. The world’s troubles are the result of the ignoring of God’s ten commandments and we must do al that we can to restore Sunday worship! The Sabbath is being desecrated.”

And he writes this thick letter. And he wrote two copies; the one that was supposed to stay inside, and the other that the world could look at. And I’ll never forget out of all the newspaper articles that I gathered and that came to my attention, the one was the Detroit news that now they will not even re-print or give you a copy of, and they’re trying to apologize for it. That was the one that said, “ It is time for Sunday sacredness and anyone who violates it should be persecuted, or treated as a heretic.” And if you don’t know what a heretic is treated like, then what you need to do is get the new illustrated Great Controversy or get brother Mole to give you a copy of the Jesuit order where they tell you what happens to so-called heretics.

And they pulled that paper! They said, “This was not supposed to go out. You put the wrong one!” And guess what brothers and sisters, you can call right now, I can give you an original copy of the paper, and you can call the paper and they will denounce everything about it.

“He announced boldly” Now why should that alert me more than anything? When I read that article brothers and sisters, I’m having a family talk, I’m concerned that as a family, we’re not ready for what is about to take place. And when there’s a crisis in a family, those who aren’t ready make it more difficult for the one who is. You know you always have that one family member that any body else in the family in trouble, that’s who you call. Every family has that person that is called when someone’s in trouble. Seems to be the loan agent for the family, or the co-signer for the family or the housing complex when you’re put out or maybe some of you have been so far removed from some of these situations.

And when the family’s not ready, pressure comes on everybody. And we’re not ready. And I know it because I don’t see you bringing people to meetings; non-members to learn this gospel. To learn this gospel, brothers and sisters, what we don’t do now, we’re going to be forced to do under the most difficult circumstances. And when I first read that letter, I opened up the Bible and I went to Revelation 13 and I started looking at verse 11 where it said this two horned image, notice what it says here; I’m talking about two years ago and I’m- believe me, I’m going to bring you up to where we are right now and make sense out of it all.

Oh God of heaven, please open my mind and allow my mind to touch the hearts of my brothers and sisters, by the power of the indwelling Christ. In Jesus’ Name Amen.

Revelation 13 verse 11, “and I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb and he spake as a dragon. He exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him and causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed.”

And I started thinking about this and I said, “Wait a minute, Lord, what does this mean?” The Lord said, “It means that the end is here!” It was just as clear, and I said, “What do you mean, Lord?”

And the Lord directed my mind back to ‘Patriarchs and Prophets’, the very first chapter. If you’ve never read the first chapter of ‘Patriarchs and Prophets’ you need to read it, because that chapter will help you understand every assault that Satan will throw on you. Because it shows everything that he did to deceive the angels and you’ll see that none of his tactics, none of his methods have changed. There all exactly the same, they’ve just been modified and perfected for our times.

And I read that chapter, and as always, I was convicted by that chapter, but I said, “lord, what are you really saying here?” And the Lord said When Satan spoke out in heaven, (and we don’t know how long he kept this rebellious spirit in his mind) but when he finally got to the point where he spoke out, was where he believed that he had enough support to conquer.

The Pope believes that he’s God. The Roman church does not hide the fact that they believe that he is the Vicar of Christ. The average member will tell you, “Oh, no, we don’t really believe that”, but if you read there’s a book that he just came out with, and on the third page he not only says that he is the Vicar of Christ, but on the third page he says, to be a Roman Catholic you must believe that he is the second Person of the Godhead. In HIS autobiography, coming out of HIS mouth, this is what HE says in a book HE wrote two years ago. And it’s on the third page. As a matter of fact, I believe I have that book and I’ll make copies and bring the copies of the direct quote.

So no matter what YOU try to say he believes, HE knows who he’s supposed to be. And the devil would never announce to the world before he knows that he can pull off what it is he’s talking about. He is not a fool to just utter something. No, not like many of us, we just splurt out or blurt out ideas and before you know it somebody grabs them and runs with them and when it’s time to execute them, they’re shut down. No, when he stands up and blurts something out, he knows that he has the full power and authority to finish it.

Well, what slowed down the progress? GOD! God. Now why did God slow it down? ME! Why? Me. Now I don’t know if you can say the same thing but when I reflected this morning and I started praying and saying, Lord, what can I..? and just reading and studying and the Lord said, “Talk to My people about getting ready. They’re not taking this thing called life serious. They don’t believe My Word; and all the obvious signs, rather than causing them to wake up, is allowing them to become desensitized.”

Me, Me; two years ago I didn’t understand what it meant to be in Christ. I knew all that we are supposed to do, understood clearly and became frustrated when I looked around and I see a church who has all the right teachings seemingly to be worse than some of the most paganistic people in the world. When I would look into certain churches and the type of worship that would be going on, would be worse than any nightclub I ever visited. The type of reverence towards God was were children playing and talking and chewing gum. One church, children in the back eating in church; just eating and the parents sitting down and people talking and the minister just talking and maybe two or three people listening to him; And his message coming directly from what he called and showed us, the latest issue of ‘Newsweek’. And after reading that article he just simply said, “Well, let’s pray and go home. By the way, there’s a pot-luck.”

This is where we are. And I knew this isn’t God’s plan, I knew that this is apostasy. But Lord, how do you perform what it is You’re asking us to do? And so two years ago, I would not have been ready! I would have caught myself trying to work on loving my enemy! Or cleaning things up. But now it’s even come closer to home. It’s come closer to home, brothers and sisters, do you understand what is happening in our world right now? Do you know what it means for the Pope to be able to make an announcement to the world that anyone who wants salvation must come through the Catholic Church?

Do you understand that every major denomination is supporting the Pope’s agenda? Not secretly; every major denomination has awarded him, even ours, we gave him a gold medal. And if somebody says, “Whew?” You’ve really been asleep because that’s been publicized and drug out and talked about; everybody is acknowledging him.

And now we have before our eyes, the United Nations trying to pull off a world government. It’s not a secret, brothers and sisters, now we have before our eyes, the United Nations trying to establish a presence by an United Nations army, which you all know exists, which you also know are on the borders of America. And I wonder well why would you need the United Nations army when we have such a mighty force? Because if certain laws change and certain things go down, it’s such a small world, and if I sent U.S. troops in they’re going to run into relatives, they’re going to run into friends, so they won’t do to an American what a non-American army would do because they don’t have the association.

You say, “What is he talking about?” I’m talking about realities, brothers and sisters, and every time the dear pastor Pope comes to America, often he stops and he speaks to the United Nations. Which should tell all of us that the worlds respect what he has to say. Has your Pastor ever been invited to speak at the United Nations? Has your Pastor ever been invited to speak at the United Nations? Have they ever sent any of the leaders of your church anywhere to be an ambassador? And I’m not talking about as a member; I’m talking about as a leader of your church to be an ambassador. And so now we have this thing coming right together, brothers and sisters, before our eyes and we’re not ready; and we’re not ready.

And so what are we going to do? Are we going to keep sleeping? Are we going to be found like the disciples in Gethsemane when He woke them up and said, “Wake up but sleep on.” Wasn’t that interesting? That’s how He addressed them, He said, “Listen, Wake up but sleep on.” What do you mean, wake up but sleep on, in other words, physically you’re awake, but spiritually, you’re not going to have any idea about what really happens to Me. And every miracle that I’ve performed in your life, And every miracle that I’ve performed in your life, and everything that you have seen Me do to prove Who I am, you’re going to forget about.

You remember the disciples in that moment of trouble?

Oh God of Heaven, I pray right now; I pray for the Holy Spirit to come into this room in a mightier way. I pray that you would subdue our precious children, Lord. And I pray that you would remove those demons that are causing people to sleep. Please Lord, in this hour; we need you to arouse us to the importance of learning who we are and what we believe. In Christ’s Name we pray, Amen.

Brothers and sisters let me say this, none of these things are happening accidentally. Now how is it going to be played out? What are we going to see next? God forbid; but people have all these talk shows, it’s amazing if you listen to them because you’ll find yourself saying, “Wow, this is going to happen and that is going to happen.” They have a microchip coming out, and a world passport, and a world driver’s license, and these things are true but as Adventists we can’t get caught up in all that! We can’t get caught up in microchips and, yes, they may be able to put them in babies and use it and say, “well listen now, if your baby is kidnapped within ten minutes we’ll know right where the baby is.” The same way they can do an automobile, those ‘low-jacks’.

As a matter of fact, a friend of mine was jacked and they put him in the trunk of his Mercedes-Benz and they were taking him to kill him! He’s a rapper; popular rapper, and he yanked off his Rolex off of his wrist and his 30,000 dollar watch had a low-jack on it so the police traced and pulled the car over, an he was in the trunk so – good security ideas but it isn’t the Mark of the Beast.

But Adventists believe it. I was listening to one Adventist Pastor spend all this time about microchips and that- and that has nothing to do with the mark of the beast! It’s not it, brothers and sisters; do you understand that they’re not going to need a chip? You see when Christ says, “OK, let’s go.” In other words, He’s going to say, “Throw your final move, Satan. Throw your final one, I’m giving you permission.” Now remember, the devil, he’s been wanting to throw it, but he can’t. And when he throws his final move brothers and sisters, it’s going to be just like the destruction of Jerusalem, very few people just prior are going to get in a condition where they could be saved. That’s a surrendering condition. The rest are going to become very convinced that they’re strong enough to protect themselves.

And what is his final move? We talk about it all the time. The final move is not going to be microchips, they’re not going to need in any way to gather you up real quick and convince you. The final move is when Satan comes appearing like Christ. That’s about to happen; how do I know? Because if we read the prophecies that we have always taught brothers and sisters, everything has taken place except that last event. What must take place just prior to the personation of Satan? Let me show you- go with me to the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 11, this is what must take place, and this is why we must start praying!

Come on right now, if I start going through this congregation right now and start asking you how much time do you spend in personal prayer? Now we can judge people, we can talk about people, we can give our ideas of what we think about people and sermons but let’s get personal, how often do you get up and spend serious time on your knees talking to this God who you claim you love? How much studying do you do, not to preach, not to teach, not to become intellectually sound, but because you’re trying your best to acquaint yourself with God? How much time do you spend in this book that we say is the only for eternal life?

Because as I said last night we’re not going to get better. But if a doctor tells you that you have a certain ailment and you’re not going to get better and if you don’t take these every day you’ll die; guess what you’ll do? You’ll take them every day! I’ve seen people get sick because they haven’t taken their medication and get ready to fall out and they start telling people where the purse is. And they take it and even the medication hasn’t even worked yet, but psychologically once they get it in their mouth their body relaxes.

Now we’re told that if we don’t study this, we’re told that Satan invents ways to keep us from studying and praying. We’re told that he knows that all who don’t study and don’t pray are going to be lost. We’re told that by our prophet, and the Bible shows us that this is the reality. If you don’t study, if you don’t pray, you’re not going to make it! Because you’re not going to acquaint yourself with the One Who is to live in you and give you the power to make it!

So you know you’re dying, you know you can’t make it unless you take a certain medication, but- we’re not taking it. We don’t believe the True Doctor. We don’t believe Him. And so if we stopped and said and went through here, do you know how embarrassed everybody-? If that one point alone- if God said, “OK, everybody who spent at least one hour with Me a day really loves Me and can go to heaven.” If He said that, how many of us would be lost? And he’s not going to say that because your study habits is not the thing that saves you. You’re not saved by any outward act that you do. We’re saved by Grace. We’re saved by the power of God; but when this Grace comes into your life it wakes you up in the morning…

And 2 Cor. 11 notice what the word of God says beginning with verse 13, “For such are false apostles deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light, therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.”

Now, what am I saying? Prior to Satan transforming himself into an angel of light will be ministers that will represent him, that will be preaching the heresies of hell. Now brothers and sisters, whenever we read the Bible, when God gives warnings, when God gives instruction, when God talks about apostasy you find God dealing with the church, not with the world. When He said you’re sick from the head to the toe; when He said I’m sick of your offerings, I’m sick of your sacrifices, I’m sick of everything- you know God was talking to the church. In other words, if it was today, Jesus would be in here saying to the Seventh-day Adventist church what He was telling the Israelites of old.

Now for some reason we can’t get our minds set on the fact that the strongest rebukes were to the church! And so prior to Satan doing his grand act of deception, apostasy must not only come into the remnant church, but Satan must have preachers in the remnant church, preaching lies. Now let me read a quotation to you. Because some of you may say, “Oh-Oh!” I’m not picking on our church! But if we don’t believe the Spirit of Prophecy, then stop getting rich with the high- high prices that you’re selling it for, and take it off the shelves, and just stand up and say you don’t believe in it! Simple as that.

But if you claim that you believe in it, then don’t be embarrassed when anybody reads from it. I mean- it baffles me! How we don’t like to read from it. You take the Review and Herald of today and go and look at the Review and Herald of her day. You see a drastic difference! A DRASTIC difference!

The prophet says- “Unsanctified ministers are arraying themselves against God. They are praising Christ and the god of this world in the same breath. While professedly they receive Christ, they embrace Barabbas, and by their actions say, "Not this Man, but Barabbas." Let all who read these lines, take heed. Satan has made his boast of what he can do. He thinks to dissolve the unity which Christ prayed might exist in His church.” Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers -PG- 409

Now one of the key words is ‘unity’, ‘let’s work together’, Amen? Now if you’re in any type of corporation, the key is unity. If you’re in the Adventist ministry, the key is ‘unity’. When I’m in meetings all we hear about is, “pastors, we must work together. What can we do to work together?”

Well, what causes disunity? It is not the person who stands up and preaches what we say we believe; it’s the person who won’t teach what we believe! That’s what breaks the cycle. That’s what causes the division. Listen, now watch, I’m going to let it come out of the prophet’s mouth. She says, “He thinks to dissolve the unity which Christ prayed might exist in His church. He says, "I will go forth and be a lying spirit to deceive those that I can, to criticize, and condemn, and falsify." Let the son of deceit and false witness be entertained by a church that has had great light, great evidence, and that church will discard the message the Lord has sent, and receive the most unreasonable assertions and false suppositions and false theories. Satan laughs at their folly, for he knows what truth is.”

In other words, let a church play with truth; just play with it. And before you know it, I’ll be able to breath my spirit and you will find yourself accepting the most false suppositions, the most foolish theories. I mean brothers and sisters, we have circles where we have committees where we are paying money, and flying men in, to research on how to handle homosexuality in the church!

How do you handle it? You grab the homosexual, you take him in a room; you tell him that there is power to save! That there’s power to be delivered! And that there’s power in God to live a victorious life and that God wants to use your testimony to prove that other’s can be delivered and you pray over him and you bind those forces of evil and by the grace of God they walk out in Christ victorious! That’s how you handle it! What other way do we handle it?

Committees talking about what’s wrong with dinner wine! Well, ask the physicians what’s wrong with it if you don’t believe the Bible. It tells what one sip does to the brain. Committees! Even in our recent GC. When you get your new church manual that now they have voted is not optional. I don’t know whether you know that or not, but the church manual used to be an optional, instructional book that you use for instruction and if you didn’t use it- fine, but now it is the voice of the church!

And their going to have a whole section in the new manual telling you about its authority. This is why in the early 1900s when the General Conference met and the leaders got together and spent many days on the issue, they came out on one accord, unified saying we should never have one! Because they said, one of the points was, the time will come when men will look to it instead of the Word. They said, “We have the Word. We have the Spirit of Prophecy. That tells us what we should and should not do.”

But now it is- and by the way for years people have been living by it like it was the Spirit of Prophecy anyway. And so now they can add little things every five years, like it’s OK to put a ring on; it’s OK to wear this; it’s OK to do that. Suppositions! Theories that years ago people wouldn’t have even thought about. And in that same manual, when you read why divorce is permitted and what allows a member to be in ‘good and regular standing’- as a matter of fact, they wanted to drop- I don’t know if they did or not, but they wanted to drop the ‘good and regular standing’, I know they wanted to take it out. “What do you mean, ‘Good and regular standing’? We’re being too hard on people.”

And this is serious, brothers and sisters, you know, this is my church. And what they voted on adultery! And it’s not a secret to the world that they did it underhanded; they waited ‘til almost over a thousand delegates on the committee weren’t there to do it! North America, Europe and Australia did it when the rest of the world wasn’t there. Am I the troubler of Israel because you did this?

You see- and members are asleep snoring away- “It doesn’t matter; we’ll eat anything somebody gives us; just feed me more because I’m too busy during the week to study myself. And what difference does it make? God loves us, let’s be unified.” Falsehood breaks unity, brothers and sisters. And Jesus is about to come.

Why did we have someone from the United Nations address our church at the General Conference? And thank us for cooperating and supporting them? Do we understand what this is? You see brothers and sisters, the prophet said a hundred years ago that this would happen to us. Listen; let me finish the quote-

“Many will stand in our pulpits with the torch of false prophecy in their hands, kindled from the hellish torch of Satan.”

In our pulpits- many will stand in our pulpits, and it’s happening! You’ve got ministers who speak in tongues! Who speak in tongues! Who speak in tongues! Right now you can get a copy, at your camp meetings, you can get a copy of a video I saw, where your key-note speaker was talking about Peter and he stopped in front of all of you and spoke in tongues! And you guys were shouting Oh yes and didn’t even pick it up!

Now your tape sales will go up brother, turn and put your hand up so they know who you are- He got it on video- come on don’t be.. When somebody called me and told me I said, “No it’s not true!” I said, “I have to see it.” And when they sent me the video, I said, “My Lord! My Lord” I’m talking about- do you understand what the tongue-speaking movement is about? Do you know that in Volume 1 of the testimonies, she said, along with this Pentecostal music that we bring into our church will follow the tongues speaking movement?

People of God, these crusades are final crusades! Jesus is about to come- prior to His coming the false prophet must come to the remnant to get them secure in their carnal security. To get them relaxed and so that their trust is so full in man and then Satan’s going to pop up! Personating Christ! That’s going to be the final one. He’s going to pop up in nations and do you know what? It may not happen right now but it’s ripe.

Palestinians, they don’t believe in our Jesus; the Israelites, the Jews, they don’t believe in our Jesus. America believes in Jesus but doesn’t do what He says to do. So you got three forces right now, the one mediating is the one who is supposed to be the one who has established his principles upon God, which is us. That’s that image that comes up with the two horns, the lamb-like beast; it pretends to be like the lamb of God but inside it’s a dragon brothers and sisters.

And so what would happen, just what would happen- tongues speaking- and we don’t care; we don’t care, you know, we DON’T CARE! A leader could do anything. I’m so glad that God didn’t let me see things earlier- I mean anything- everything goes! I’m not talking about not forgiving people, I’m not talking about not loving people, I’m not talking about being kind to people, but I’m talking about certain things should not be tolerated! If this is your life-style and this is the life-style that you are projecting and it becomes publicized, you cannot be up in front of everybody. Why? Because we have a different standard.

I was in a meeting and they brought this beautiful proposal to all of us and they said, “Look. We want to implement spirituals and hymns and start having more concerts because our kids don’t know anything about our heritage.” They said. And they said, “We want to use, “ and they quoted two names, “And build scholarships in their names.” And I bowed my head and I said, “Lord you know, just when I’m in agree-ance and everything is going good, why me?” I said, “Let someone else say it, come on Lord, please?” and nobody else said it so I said, “OK.”

He said “ah- I know what you’re going to say, Pastor Lewis, because the Holy Spirit gave me a vision and showed me that you would be in this meeting and that you were going to be the one to object.”

And I said, “Well before you finish what the Holy Spirit showed you, because he may have showed you that I was going to be here because I travel so much nobody knew I’d be here, but the Holy Spirit didn’t tell you for us to honor those names. We can’t place two blatant homosexuals who have died of AIDS and everybody knows it, and put them up as a standard for all our young people!”

“Oh, you’re being harsh, you’re being- God forgives…” It has nothing to do with forgiveness, brothers and sisters, it has nothing to do with not loving. It has to do with the fact that our standards are that none of us are any good- but the bottom line is- we want to put our best foot forward- amen? And here we are where everything goes. And the false prophet is going forth and telling us we need to embrace the world.

Our logo has changed. From 3 angels, they say it’s still 3 angels, but why does our logo match perfectly some of these 1st day logos now? why do they look so similar to all these other logos? Because we want to embrace and we want to be included- it’s called ‘inclusive’, come on, we’re OK and we’re spending millions on public relations to prove that we love the world and it’s OK; and don’t you put a billboard up teaching what we believe! No-no-no-no don’t do that! Don’t you do it!

And the sad reality is the next step, which again as I said before could take place today. It doesn’t take a Bush or a Gore candidate to get in, it doesn’t take the Pope making another announcement, all it takes is God in His timetable saying, “OK, shoot your best shot.” And she says, and she says when he does it brothers and sisters, when he does it, it says “Satan is preparing his deceptions that in his last campaign against the people of God, they may not understand that it is he.” Spiritual Gifts. Volume 4B -PG- 100

It’s his last thrust. And she goes on to say he appears. Can you imagine? Him appearing over there? In Jerusalem? Saying, “Listen Arafat”- and she says that the splendor, because he’s going to look like Revelation 1 describes Him (Christ) she says that the splendor and his presence is going to be so beautiful it says more glorious that any eye has ever seen, it’s going to be glorious. And when he speaks it’s going to be melodious and it’s going to be beautiful. Can you imagine him healing and now saying peace- you’ve got it all wrong people?

And then he comes to America, which is the ones to make the key role, and she says in this same article that he’s going to work the organs of man. She says he’s going to plug into the mind of man. And he’s going to beguile them or work witchcraft on them; hypnotize you. and it says that everyone that is used to doing his bidding, is going to now serve him forever.

In other words, if we’re not in Christ, brothers and sisters, and this is why I spent this whole week dealing with the Word, and the Power of the Word, and how we must be submitted to the Word because our own works will never do it. And how Christ must be in us and must own us. Because if He doesn’t OWN us- I’m not talking about you saying “I’m a Christian”, I’m not talking about you manifesting the power to cast out demons, I’m not taking about you manifesting the power to do many good works, - this is the description of all those Christians who are lost. ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t I prophecy in Thy name? and didn’t I cast out demons in Thy name? And didn’t I do many wonderful works?

“I never knew you!” “I never knew you!”

“Why do you say you didn’t know me?”

“Well look at my Word, and look at your word. You see when My Word takes the precedence in your life, your word stops. You don’t have a voice when you surrender to Me. You allow My voice to become your voice. ”

And the problem is- too many of us have a voice, brothers and sisters, too many of us are doing what we want to do and not what God wants us to do and we’re finding ourselves in a condition in the final stages of earth’s history where it’s going to be too late! Too late! We won’t be able to bounce back! WE MUST WAKE UP RIGHT NOW! I’m not talking about putting it off; I’m not talking about you trying to think right now about meetings you need to cancel; or what videos you need to destroy; or what food you need to get out of your refrigerator; or what articles you need to take off of your body; or what you need to stop watching. No, no. I’m not talking about that at all.

What you need to do is focus right now on Lord, How? How- do I get You in my heart? What will stop me from allowing You to come in this heart? What will? Because once you let Him in there everything else is nothing, because he cleans it up for you. You will find your hand grabbing that video and throwing it in the trash and won’t think anything about it, because the power of God will be doing it through you.

And you will find yourself, IF things go another year, another two years, you will find yourself living the same victorious life, the same excited life and you’ll have more anticipation! But I don’t believe it’s going to keep going like that. It’s high time that we awake brothers and sisters, that we awake out of sleep. Now is our salvation, right now is our salvation nearer than we first believed. It’s time to surrender to God. Get off of this ‘self religion’ and surrender to God.

Father in Heaven, In the Name of Jesus I come before you. And Lord, my prayer is that You would please help us, right now help us, because we don’t know how to surrender. If you were anything like the IRS Lord, when it came to our tithing, when it came to our giving, when it came to our own handling of the finances that you have said we can keep, we’d be in trouble, Lord.

When it comes to our time dear God, some of us have acquainted ourselves with new sit-coms that are on their way out. Anticipating the next feature to come on, we’re hooked, Lord. Some of us are in relationships Lord, that have no business ever being started. Some of us feel like we are better than other people and it is easy for us to talk about the faults of other people. I mean- Lord, and normally the things that we see are not even the real problem. But I know that the real solution is that you want to take first place in our lives. I know that the real solution is that you want to forgive us for all of our sins; and you want to be able to bring us to a condition where sin will never be brought up again, where it will never be remembered.

As your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed- I want to see Jesus, brothers and sisters, but we must see Him here if we ever plan to see Him in His glory. We must ask God to teach us how to surrender to Christ so that Christ could work reforms in our life that will lead us to the tree of life. The prophet of the Lord talks about how, when we’re all on the sea of glass, how Jesus is going to lead Adam to the Tree of Life, and how we’re all going to watch and he’s going to eat from that tree; well, she goes on to say that we can begin eating from that tree by just simply reading the Word of God!

And God wants to take your hand personally today, and He wants you to just cancel your agenda right now, and surrender your heart to Him and then listen to Him, and then let HIM tell you what to do next. He wants desperately to have first place in your life. Prophecy is about to end. But Charity is going to be here forever. And that’s the true undeserved love of God. Don’t you want to be here with it? Don’t you want to live forever with the love of God?

What has Satan done so nice to you that will cause you to be so loyal? What has he done? He hurts our children-kills our children; he disrupts the peace in our home, our marriages; he kills our spouses; brings pain to our bodies; afflicts our finances; and you want to serve that kind of god??

The God of heave awaits the gift of your heart right now, just like it is. Somebody right now needs to give their heart to Jesus. You need to say, “Lord, yes, OK, I want to give my heart to you right now Lord, I want to take a stand and say Lord here’s my heart.”

And before you do it, I want to tell you something, once you do that, right after you do it, you can look Jesus in the face and say- “Now I hold you responsible for my salvation.” Because He takes personal responsibility for those who give Him their heart. It’s not up to you any more! And you tell Him, “Lord, here’s my heart, that’s all I can do is surrender it. I hold You responsible for building a devotional life in me; I hold You responsible for developing a prayer life in me; I hold You responsible for disciplining my ear and allowing me to understand when You speak. I hold you responsible for helping me to be kind to my wife or kind to my husband; I hold you responsible to help me get out of this situation that I’m in- I’ve been stealing on the job or I’ve been cheating… YOU are now responsible!”

And God says, “I’ll gladly take the responsibility, if you’ll give Me your heart. I’ll work out whatever situation is in your life but I can’t have you- and you keep it.”

This is serious, brothers and sisters. Let’s pray- Jesus is about to come, and He wants us to be ready. I’m telling you brothers and sisters, He wants us to lead and not follow, the head and not the tail. And the only reason that some of us are alive still is He wanted your heart today. He’s not anxious that anybody be lost. He wants us to be saved. He wants us to be saved.

Lord; I know I don’t study, I know I don’t pray, I know that I’m absorbed in the things of this world and I don’t steal and I don’t curse but I’m not right! And today I want to make it right. I want to say to you that you can take control, I need help, I am acknowledging that I can’t do it on my own. I admit, dear Father that the things of this world are attractive to me. I admit that sin is not only enticing but I find joy in participation. But today I ask that you would help me, regardless of what my life is like, I know that we really want a relationship that is bound in Eternal life with you and I recognize that the works of the flesh are nothing. And today I surrender those works and I accept the righteousness that comes by faith, believing that You can perform Your good will in my life. Forgive me for my sins, and help me Lord, Help me- in Jesus Holy Name I pray, Amen.