The Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) of Seventh-day Adventists, under the heavy hand of Mic Thurber, voted to ordain women against the voted will of the Seventh-day Adventist Church last Sunday. Not only that, the RMC leaders warned their members that if they opposed their rebellion, they would be regarded as actively divisive, and dealt with. Huh?
The Blame
Who to blame? There’s plenty of blame to go around.
The North American Division (NAD) presides happily over such congregational rebellion, so they get a good dose of the blame.
The Mid-America Union, under Gary Thurber is in lock step with the NAD agenda, so they get a dose of blame.
Mic Thurber, who lacks the leadership ability (and courage) to biblically stand up against the rebellious Division and Union, gets big blame.
We do credit him however for demonstrating the parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18. You recall the story. Jesus told it, so it’s important.
A certain servant was shown mercy by the King. It’s not too much of a stretch to loosely compare the GC with the ‘King’ in this story. The GC has done nothing to mitigate the rebellion of the NAD, Unions, and now Conferences. They stood by leisurely while these wayward SDA entities showed the entire world church that GC Session votes mean nothing unless the liberals like them. They did nothing, while the rebellion of the NAD was replicated in their offspring church leaders and syndicates. So the Adfeminist NAD and Unions and Conferences were given a pass, MUCH to the dismay of the entire church who longed for the GC to bring discipline and respect back into the church on this issue.
Back to Matthew 18. The servant who was shown mercy (in our case he was shown fecklessness) grabs another guy by the throat and says “Pay me what you owe me!” Here’s what went down on Sunday.
The RMC Constituency Meeting
The motion to ordain without regard to gender was brought up. A husband & wife delegate team appealed to the RMC delegates remain in harmony with GC votes and policy. It was also stated that liberal conference officers tend to deal harshly with pastors and members who do not support their agenda, thus an amendment to the motion to not discriminate against pastors who biblically oppose WO was made. The parlimentarian said that this amendation needed to be a separate agenda item. So it was moved and seconded.
The WO motion passed by a 59/41 split.
The non-discriminatory item was brought up for discussion. It was then that Thurber said he would like the latitude to deal with people who are ‘actively divisive—at the very moment that he is being "actively divisive" against the GC and world church. The nerve.
That motion was referred to the Executive Committee, who will deal with it this coming week. May the Lord‘s will be accomplished with that motion to protect conservative pastors.
Let’s Recap
The rebellious Rocky Mountain Conference leaders and 59% of the constituents thumbed their collective nose at the entire world SDA church on Sunday, August 20, 2022.
Then these bastions of rebellion turn to their constituents and say (in essence) ‘If any of you actively oppose us, we will consider you “divisive.” And discipline and fire them if they are church employees. “How dare these peons oppose my rebellion”, sniffs the haughty rebel.
The Bible says give respect to those who are due it (1 Peter 2:17). The RMC gives ZERO respect to the General Conference and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Then they say to their pastors and constituents, if you don’t show us respect, we will come after you!
Yep. Matthew 18: 23-35. This is what happens when the entity tasked with church oversight (the GC) does nothing. Eli begets Absalom.
On the plus side, this sad saga demonstrates that the Bible is true. “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). So there’s that.
Have a wonderful Sabbath anyway!
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