Ellen White warned, “The church has turned back from following Christ her Leader and is steadily retreating toward Egypt… yet few are alarmed or astonished at their want of spiritual power” (5T 217.2).
That was in her day. What would she say now, seeing the Church not merely cooperating with others in humanitarian or religious-liberty work, but formally aligned with the United Nations (UN) itself, and bound in official relationship with the UN Department of Global Communications (DGC)?
The role of organizations in association with the UN DGC includes:
“Continue to raise public awareness, in particular at the grass roots level, about key issues on the UN agenda, including the priorities of the UN Secretary-General and in line with the UN Charter;
“Collaborate with or support UN Information Centres or Services or other UN entities on advocacy campaigns or other promotional public information activities;
“Submit yearly an online Annual Review report. This is the process by which organizations associated with our Department report back to the Civil Society Unit on their work and public information activities in support of the United Nations, and are evaluated;”[1]
When the GC aligned with the UN, it was presented as a means to expand the Church’s global influence for the gospel. But has it? Evangelism has not kept pace with population growth. A revival of primitive godliness is absent. Christ has not returned. If the world had truly been reached, these would be the fruits.
What was truly gained by union with the UN? Only the things of this world—treasures that moth and rust corrupt.
ADRA may have gained funding and recognition in the humanitarian world, but without the freedom to evangelise or proselytise, what true gain is there?
Religious liberty workers may have gained access to international forums to debate man’s laws on conscience, but without the Bible, can religious liberty ever be rightly defined, let alone truly granted?
AdventHealth may have been able to host joint conferences and form partnerships with the WHO, but what is the value of healthcare that does not place the true Healer, Jesus Christ, at its centre?
What the UN offers is nothing compared to the riches of heaven. We have been sold for nothing. In exchange, we have surrendered what is of eternal worth—the work of evangelism, biblical religious liberty, and exultation of the true Healer, Jesus Christ.
However, if we are willing to admit how far we have strayed. If we are willing to recognise our deep need of God, then we can be redeemed from our current wretched situation.
As Jeremiah 51:1 says,
“Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.”
This passage inspired the title of the recently released book The Captive Bride: Be Loosed from Thy Chains. The book is the culmination of year-long research and numerous presentations examining the present condition of God’s church. If there is any doubt that something must be done about the relationship between the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the UN, that doubt will not survive a careful reading of this work.
You can read, download, print and share it for free. It, along with a petition to protest against the UN alliance is hosted on Faithfuladventist.org
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[1] “How Do We Apply for Association?” United Nations, accessed December 9, 2025, https://www.un.org/en/civil-society/page/application.