[This article reflects back on a meeting that occurred five years ago and asks, how have the decisions and indecisions of that event impacted us today? We held the article (which was similar to several others at the time) until now, allowing the passage of time to put into perspective the disciplinary slothfulness of the GC Executive Committee.]
The October session of the Autumn Council of 2017 had raised some high expectations with many conservative church members. Many prayers had ascended that God would over-rule in the proceedings so that rebellion and apostasy might be firmly met and dealt with.
But the results of what happened on October 9, 2017 were a big disappointment. Especially disturbing was the demonstration of how pervasive the apostasy is in the leadership of the church. Watching the proceedings, it became obvious that a great number of the executive committee members are not valiant for the truth and upholding its principles. Many chose to walk in the sparks of their own kindling rather than seeking to know the way of the Lord.
“For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed “ (Isaiah 9:16).
By putting off the proposed action to deal with the rebellious, non-compliant Union Conferences, they have in essence buried the festering sore in committees and subcommittees, allowing the apostasy to strengthen and proliferate. We are seeing the fulfillment of what was predicted in 5 Testimonies 77, where it states,
“Who knows but that the preachers who are faithful, firm, and true may be the last who shall offer the gospel of peace to our unthankful churches? It may be that the destroyers are already training under the hand of Satan and only wait the departure of a few more standard-bearers to take their places, and with the voice of the false prophet cry, ‘Peace, peace,’ when the Lord hath not spoken peace. ... When God shall work His strange work on the earth, when holy hands bear the ark no longer, woe will be upon the people. “
We also have the prediction that,
“The glory of the Lord had departed from Israel; although many still continued the forms of religion, His power and presence were lacking“ (5 Testimonies 210 ).
Now that the Autumn Council has failed to arrest the fearful downslide, what will our church look like in the days ahead? We know from Inspiration that,
“Organizations, institutions, unless kept by the power of God, will work under Satan's dictation to bring men under the control of men; and fraud and guile will bear the semblance of zeal for truth and for the advancement of the kingdom of God“ (Testimony to Ministers 494 ).
And we are also told,
“In the balances of the sanctuary the Seventh-day Adventist church is to be weighed. She will be judged by the privileges and advantages that she has had. If her spiritual experience does not correspond to the advantages that Christ, at infinite cost, has bestowed on her, if the blessings conferred have not qualified her to do the work entrusted to her, on her will be pronounced the sentence: ‘Found wanting.’ By the light bestowed, the opportunities given, will she be judged…” (Last Day Events 59).
“Jerusalem is a representation of what the church will be if it refuses to walk in the light that God has given. Jerusalem was favored of God as the depositary of sacred trusts. But her people perverted the truth, and despised all entreaties and warnings. They would not respect His counsels“ (8 Testimonies to the Church 67).
At such a time as this, many are asking,
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?“ (Psalm 11:3). David was facing similar problems to what we are facing, and it almost destroyed his faith. He writes how perturbed he was when he saw the wicked succeed in their ungodly schemes “Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end“ (Psalm 73: 2-17).
David began to understand how God works because “They have seen thy goings, O God; even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary “ (Psalm 68: 24). There we find the answer to the question, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?“ It is given in the next verse. “The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth“ (Psalm 11: 3-5).
In this time when apostasy seems to be coursing through the church, we have this encouraging passage from Inspiration,
“Amid the strengthening of infidelity and apostasy, amid the pretended illumination which is the blindest presumption and delusion, there will be a light from the sanctuary above shining upon God's people. The truth of God will triumph“ (Upward Look 262).
But what will we see as we look through the open door of the sanctuary? It will reveal Jesus, the supreme Judge and our Advocate, who has been judging the dead since 1844, soon to pass to the cases of the living. When that happens, then it will be that,
“The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?“ (Isaiah 33:14).
Ellen White was given a view of what will happen when Christ begins to cleanse the temple in this end time. The following is from Special Testimonies for Ministers and Workers, No.7, 1897,
“Consider the cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Christ's ministry, and at the close of his life, his personal labors in the guise of humanity. Whom did he find intent on gain? The Jews had made the courts of the temple a scene of sacrilegious traffic. … But Christ came suddenly into the temple courts; divinity flashed through humanity, and, raising a whip of small cords in his hands, with a voice that they will hear again in the execution of the judgment, he said, ‘Take these things hence.’ ‘It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.’ These priests and rulers saw as it were an avenging angel with a flaming sword, such as guarded the way to the tree of life.
Today this sacrilegious work is being more than repeated. There will be messages borne; and those who have rejected the messages God has sent, will hear most startling declarations. The Holy Spirit will invest the announcement with a sanctity and solemnity which will appear terrible in the ears of those who have heard the pleadings of infinite love, and have not responded to the offers of pardon and forgiveness. Injured and insulted Deity will speak, proclaiming the sins that have been hidden. As the priests and rulers, full of indignation and terror, sought refuge in flight at the last scene of the cleansing of the temple, so will it be in the work for these last days. The woes that will be pronounced upon those that have had light from heaven, and yet did not heed it, they will feel, but will have no power to act.“
The great test of the mark of the beast coming at the same time that the judgment passes to the living, (see 5T 473 ) will effect a mighty sifting so that what remains will be “… a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing “ (Ephesians 5:27). Then the church will “... look forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners“ (Song of Solomon 6:10).
We are told that before this time, “... many whose minds were impressed, have been prevented from fully comprehending the truth or from yielding obedience to the truth“ (Great Controversy 612). The church has not been a safe place for God to bring in His other sheep not of this fold. However, when the sifting has done its work and God’s people are filled with the Spirit, these other sheep will respond to the loud cry message and eagerly take hold of the truth in spite of all opposition. The course that we take in this present crisis will determine whether we will be among those who will have a part in the glorious work of the loud cry or be passed by.
In 2 Selected Messages 16 we read,
“But I speak not my own words when I say that God's Spirit will pass by those who have had their day of test and opportunity, but who have not distinguished the voice of God or appreciated the movings of His Spirit. Then thousands in the eleventh hour will see and acknowledge the truth. . . . These conversions to truth will be made with a rapidity that will surprise the church, and God's name alone will be glorified.“
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Floyd Sayler
[Editor’s note & update. The 2018 Annual Council in Battle Creek passed a Compliance Document that outlined disciplinary steps for wayward rebellious Seventh-day Adventist Unions. On November 5, 2018 Dan Jackson, then President of the NAD, delivered a divisive outburst at the NAD Year End Meeting (the ‘Hooey’ speech). Some of the 2018 Compliance measures, though perfunctory, were brought up at the 2019 Annual Council. The GC Executive Committee lacked the courage to condemn (reprimand) the rebellion of these wayward Unions.]