On the weekend of August 16, 2024, Elder Conrad Vine, president of the quasi-independent ministry Adventist Frontier Missions based in Berrien Springs, Michigan, gave a series of presentations at the Caribou Seventh-day Adventist Camp Meeting in Maine. The more controversial of these was titled, “Remnant, Respectable, or Regime Church?” and used words comparing official statements of church leadership during COVID to heavy-handed papal declarations.
In these presentations, based on church actions during COVID, Elder Vine looked ahead to a time when such actions, in line with what he called “wokeness” or secular leftist influence, could conceivably become more common and even more out of touch with a significant segment of church membership—wholly objectionable to a great many members.
In view of such a threat, in his view no longer theoretical after what we saw during COVID, Elder Vine proposed a plan for use in the event that actions of leadership increasingly fell outside the range acceptable to many if not most of the church’s more conservative members, and were to do so without reconsideration or reversal of course. (See Methodist Church.)
As this writer understands it, Vine’s plan of action involves not a schism or offshoot, as some have maintained, but rather Seventh-day Adventists with like values meeting in home gatherings for spiritual support. It involves not the withholding of tithe, as others have accused, but a method of directing one’s tithe at some future point within the church so as to still be faithful to the Bible yet not endorse or financially support conferences or church entities that are seen as having sold out to secular, anti-biblical influences.
In response to those sermons and Vine’s overall message, on September 3rd, 2024, Elder Jim Micheff, President of the Michigan Conference, issued a letter that effectively banned Elder Vine from speaking in any Michigan Conference SDA churches. While many Adventists have cried foul, and a number of churches and individuals have written letters in support of Elder Vine, to date and to this writer’s knowledge, the ban has not been rescinded. [See Update-1 at end.]
Mark Finley, Speaker Emeritus of It Is Written Ministry and now a part-time consultant to the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, still speaks around the country and maintains an active website. On September 14, 2024, Elder Finley preached a widely-accessed sermon that appears to respond to Elder Vine’s Maine talks. Upon an emailed request for comment, Elder Finley acknowledged he preached his sermon with Vine’s messages in mind, though not Conrad Vine himself.
This sermon addresses a fear Finley apparently perceives in rank-and-file membership that the SDA Church might not survive. Indeed, his sermon is titled, “Will the Church Survive?”
Finley’s answer in that sermon is a resounding, “Yes!” He marshals a number of Bible texts and Ellen White quotes to make his point that God’s remnant church will survive. While the church may have “defective members” in it who aim to “criticize” and “divide,” such regrettable elements would not be successful; the church will survive them and, in fact, ought not try to rid itself of them.
Interestingly, Finley does not elaborate as to what he means by “survive.” Could a divided yet still extant SDA church be said to have survived? Could a church with much Biblical error in top leadership and official documents, unrepented and unretracted, be said to survive? Has the Methodist Church “survived,” even though it has split in two, with members who believe themselves to be Biblically faithful separating from the larger group which has decided to endorse and perform same-sex marriages? Both groups still have names containing “Methodist” in them (the UMC—United Methodist Church and the now-split-off GMC—Global Methodist Church), just as some SDA groups with varying beliefs and practices have retained the name “Adventist.”
The problem some have had with Elder Finley’s sermon is that he went further, hammering home over and over choice words for the kinds of people he would find to be dividing the church.
Since Elder Finley had Conrad Vine’s sermons in mind when he preached his sermon, it is difficult if not impossible to hear Finley’s sermon as other than having Conrad Vine in his crosshairs.
Here is a list of some of the pejoratives used in Mark Finley’s 37-minute sermon:
“So-called” called-out ones
Unfaithful
Compromising
Sinners in Zion
Chaff
Tares
Dross
Defective members
Sharks
Spurious uprisings
Disorderly elements
Critics
Skeptics
Offshoots
The virus of criticism
The malignancy of divisiveness
Were Elder Finley now to publicly deny he was thinking of Conrad Vine personally with at least some of this labeling, even though he had Dr. Vine’s sermons in mind, to some this would beggar belief. It might come across as rather like the child who acknowledges she did have her hand in the cookie jar, but she didn’t intend to take out any cookies.
In any event, it is quite clear Elder Finley’s message hardly aimed to defend Dr. Vine from the censure and outright censorship that has been laid upon him by his church. Quite the opposite.
Adventists who find Dr. Vine’s message unwelcome and divisive—especially if they support vaccine mandates—may agree with Finley’s judgment. Those who are in sympathy with Vine’s message and his overall concerns, whether they agree with every point, may find Finley’s rhetoric unjustifiably harsh. We can be fairly certain how Conrad Vine heard that sermon. (Neither man wished to comment publicly for this article when invited.)
By his sermons, his strength of character, and the record of his life’s work, one can see that Dr. Vine is clearly a man of God who loves this church as much as he loves anything. With his words, as I hear them, he is trying to save the significant portion of this church who may be thinking about leaving already, or cease tithe-paying altogether, due to how they felt the church acted during COVID, and how its actions affected them personally.
The question on the table is, Why would a highly esteemed SDA evangelist with the audience and influence of Mark Finley have done this? Does he really believe Conrad Vine is a tare or a piece of chaff in the church?
It would be helpful to have a public response from Elder Finley, as it appears hundreds of the commenters to Finley’s sermon (more than 2,200 to date on YouTube alone) heard it much the same way, and were concerned. To be fair, there are also many comments that are complimentary and grateful. With that in mind, and as one who has long valued the service of both of these dedicated ministers of God, it seems to this writer forgivable to wonder if Elder Finley’s message might not be considered at least as “divisive” as Elder Vine’s, which has drawn far fewer comments, with very few dissenting.
At the same time, this writer would never want a sermon preached that suggested, or could be taken to mean, that Elder Finley is a tare in our church. He appears to be a faithful servant of God who may have made a mistake, or preached a sermon better meant for another time and for a different purpose. Not everyone will agree with all that Conrad Vine is saying, and some could reasonably hold that he could have phrased certain things more artfully. But is he a “tare” creating a “spurious uprising”? He has clearly hit a nerve with a significant number of Adventists in his concern over what happened during COVID, members who largely felt ignored until Dr. Vine gave them a voice.
Let us pray for the reconciliation of these two dedicated men, and of our church with members and pastors who may at times question some of its leadership decisions. Questioning the powers-that-be and holding them to account has never been a sin, not to this writer’s knowledge. What we need now may be precisely a visionary who might see things we don’t see as yet, but who may have sound advice for the near future, for when his own voice may be fully silenced and a biblically-faithful church membership finds itself in extraordinary circumstances.
Let us also pray that we ourselves, whether leaders or lay members, will not too hastily judge anyone attempting to serve God, and—most especially—that we will never be found by God to be one of the tares inside His Church Invisible.
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UPDATE-1: While this writer does not know all the details, as of last week it appears as though the Michigan Conference is doubling down on its persecution of Elder Vine, and has now included in its seemingly incomprehensible purge Elder Ron Kelly, by all reports the much beloved and highly capable Senior Pastor of the Village Church of Berrien Springs, Michigan, where Vine is an active member. Let us keep this situation and Pastor Kelly also in our prayers.
UPDATE-2: It appears a young pastor or lay preacher in New Zealand named Trent Jackson has gone down the same pathway as Elder Finley, very possibly taking his cues from him. His sermons and timing are very similar to Finley’s, serving up much of the same harsh rhetoric, in his case quite repetitively. See here, here, and here. A listener going by the handle @plast117, apparently sharing my concern, has posted a comment beneath one of the sermons requesting clarification, and Jackson has responded.
Here is the comment posted: “Trent, your message raises several questions: (1) What specifically are you referring to w/r/t those calling for para-church entities, etc.? Are you referring to Conrad Vine? (2) Is Conrad Vine's message receiving a wide audience and having an impact on the SDA church in New Zealand? (3) Did you prepare your own message, or did you rely heavily on the work of others? Specifically, did you listen to the sermon on this topic by Mark Finley, and did you use key concepts from that sermon, including "there will be no remnant of the remnant"? (4) Have you listened to Conrad Vine's recorded sermons on this subject, or do you only have a second-hand account? Thank-you.” [3 replies]
You can see the comment and Trent Jackson’s responses at this link (scroll down to the handle @plast117).
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Janine Colburn is a retired RN and freelance writer who lives with her husband, Keith, in Loma Linda, California. She is editor of The C. S. Lewis Index, La Sierra Univ. Press (1995), Crossway Books (1998).