“And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:1-4).
Seventh-day Adventists have long held that Revelation 18 refers to a time when God's people are called out of apostate churches so they do not partake of the sins endorsed by these fallen churches and do not receive the plagues intended for the apostate. Those who break their long standing religious ties to follow a conscience bound by God's will as expressed in His word are deserving of support, friendship and encouragement by all Seventh-day Adventists. When reviewing current trends, one must wonder if this exiting of Babylon has begun, and if so what can we as Adventists do to help our brothers and sisters in other denominations who are seeking to be failthful to the Scriptures.
We start by looking at recent developments in the Anglican Communion. Rather than rehash facts that others are more acquainted with, we quote two sections from The Kigali Commitment released by the Global Anglican Future Conference. Reading the entire document is recommended to individuals interested in understanding more details than we repeat here. The term "Instruments of Communion" essentially referrs to the organizational structure of the Anglican Communion
Despite twenty-five years of persistent warnings by most Anglican Primates, repeated departures from the authority of God’s Word have torn the fabric of the Communion. These warnings were blatantly and deliberately disregarded and now without repentance this tear cannot be mended.
The latest of these departures is the majority vote by the General Synod of the Church of England in February 2023 to welcome proposals by the bishops to enable same-sex couples to receive God’s blessing. It grieves the Holy Spirit and us that the leadership of the Church of England is determined to bless sin.
Since the Lord does not bless same-sex unions, it is pastorally deceptive and blasphemous to craft prayers that invoke blessing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We have no confidence that the Archbishop of Canterbury nor the other Instruments of Communion led by him (the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates’ Meetings) are able to provide a godly way forward that will be acceptable to those who are committed to the truthfulness, clarity, sufficiency and authority of Scripture. The Instruments of Communion have failed to maintain true communion based on the Word of God and shared faith in Christ.
All four Instruments propose that the way ahead for the Anglican Communion is to learn to walk together in ‘good disagreement’. However we reject the claim that two contradictory positions can both be valid in matters affecting salvation. We cannot ‘walk together’ in good disagreement with those who have deliberately chosen to walk away from the ‘faith once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3). The people of God ’walk in his ways’, ‘walk in the truth’, and ‘walk in the light’, all of which require that we do not walk in Christian fellowship with those in darkness (Deuteronomy 8:6; 2 John 4; 1 John 1:7).
Successive Archbishops of Canterbury have failed to guard the faith by inviting bishops to Lambeth who have embraced or promoted practices contrary to Scripture. This failure of church discipline has been compounded by the current Archbishop of Canterbury who has himself welcomed the provision of liturgical resources to bless these practices contrary to Scripture. This renders his leadership role in the Anglican Communion entirely indefensible.
The Archbishop of Cantebury doubled down on the practice of forcing acceptance of heresy by releasing a statement calling for agreement that "differences and disagreements can be held together in unity and fellowship." This enforced tolerance for significance departure from God's will as revealed in His word has caused leaders representing 85 percent of global Anglicans to reject their denomionational leadership.
A similar schism is has been roiling the United Methodist Church, with many faithful congregations leaving the United Methodist Church to join the Global Methodist Church. The scoundrels now in control of the United Methodist Church voted in May 2022 to not allow faithful conferences to leave the United Methodist Church for the Global Methodist Church. Instead, only individual churches who vote to remain faithful to Scripture would be permitted to change their affilliataion.
When the backslidden leaders of the United Methodist Church discovered how many churches wished to remain faithful to the Holy Scriptures, they began throwing up roadblocks in the disaffiliation process that had previously been agreed to. Just this past month, a judge ordered the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church to proceed with the disaffiliation of two churches that had been halted since last December. A separate lawsuit regarding the disaffiliation of 180 other churches from the North Georgia Conference is still in progress.
How should Adventists respond?
There are a number of good responses to this situation. First, we should praise God that there are still 7000 knees who have not bowed the knee to Baal. We should support and encourage those who have formed new church organizations in order to stay faithful to the Scriptures. As Seventh-day Adventists, we are uniquely able to help these new bodies of believers in tangible ways. As the heretics are seeking to prevent churches from departing the deepening corruption that they embrace, it is quite likely that there are faithful individuals and congregations some of which may lose the facility in which they currently worship.
Seventh-day Adventists are in a unique position to help these groups. As we have accepted Sabbath as the day of worship enjoined by God in the Ten Commandments, our churches are largely vacant on Sunday. Wouldn't it be wonderful if local churches and conferences reached out to their local counter parts in the faithful Anglican and Methodist organizations and offered them church facilities at a very modest cost? And wouldn't it be wonderful for us to make friends with people willing to take a stand for Scripture? The person who may someday make a stand for the Bible Sabbath may today be called to stand against the LGBT heresy.
Secondly, we must address the same heresies that led to the split in the Anglican and Methodist churches. Both of these churches have been discussing the LGBTQ heresy for years; their willingness to discuss error on the same level as truth has led to disaster. As recent events have shown, there are organized efforts being made to bring these heresies that have corrupted the Anglican and Methodist churches into the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
It is saddening to note that that all individuals involved with the recent outrages in Germany and at Columbia Union College are still employed by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Furthermore, a number of professors at Adventist Universities and pastors of Adventist churches have publicly signed their names to a petition calling for the church to abandon its Biblical position with regards to LGBT perversions. The church and its institutions should be relieved from the burden of paying the salaries of these individuals.
Additionally, university, conference and union leaders who have not taken substantive action to oppose the promulgation of these heresies should be removed from their leadership position.
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John Napier
