Seventh-day Adventist Cancel Culture
“Jesus, lover of my soul.” Did you know that that was Ellen White’s favorite song? As I was scouring the Internet for a good rendition of this song I read the following story about the man who wrote these words and why he wrote them. It was Charles Wesley.
“Charles Wesley was preaching in the fields of Ireland, when he was attacked by men who did not approve of his doctrines. He sought refuge in a house located on what was known as the Island Barn Farm. The farmer’s wife, Jane Lowrie Moore, told him to hide in the milkhouse, down in the garden. Soon the mob came and demanded the fugitive. She tried to quiet them by offering them refreshments. Going down to the milkhouse, she directed Mr. Wesley to get through the rear window and hide under the hedge, by which ran a little brook. In that hiding-place, with the cries of his pursuers all about him, he wrote this immortal hymn.
Brother and sisters, it won’t be much longer until God’s faithful people will be pursued by the same kind of angry mobs as Charles Wesley faced (EW 56), and when that day comes, we better understand what “Jesus, the lover of my soul” means. James White also had a favorite song, and perhaps I’ll share that with you another time.
This morning we’re going to do something a little different. In a few minutes I’m going to play for you a talk given by a Seventh-day Adventist pastor about the stand the General Conference has taken regarding the Covid vaccine mandates that the federal government has imposed, and why the church has taken a wrong stand upon this issue and the sure consequences of such a stand.
It was on January 17th of this year, that Pastor Conrad Vine, at the Village Church in Berrien Springs, Michigan, first introduced his subject titled “An Appeal to the Adventist Nobility.” Perhaps you’ve already heard it, but if not, you can listen to it on YouTube by typing in “An Appeal to the Adventist Nobility.” But I’ll give you a brief summery just in case you haven’t heard it. In his remarks he makes it clear that it was wrong for the denomination to deny religious waivers for church members who requested a religious exemption not to be vaccinated based upon conscience, so as not to introduce anything into their bodies that they believed is a violation of their religious conviction, which Pastor Vine says, makes it a religious liberty issue, and I agree.
He also makes the point that thousands of Seventh-Day Adventists around the world have lost their jobs because of the churches refusal to give their employers a written exemption based upon their religious convictions, and he accuses the General Conference of totalitarianism and blasphemy and that they should revoke their statement regarding vaccinations and make restitution to those who have lost their jobs or experienced financial hardship as a result.
He says ADCOM, which stands for the administrative committee of the church, is the church body that issued the churches policy on vaccine mandates, which Pastor Vine claims only has authority to delegate in administrative decisions and not theological or freedom of conscience issues, and he gave proof of that from the churches own written policies.
He also says, when prompted by the Holy Spirit, what we allow into our bodies is a matter of conscience, which automatically makes it a religious liberty issue, and he’s right, because it’s dealing with spiritual matters. However, the church denies this and says it’s strictly a health issue and not a conscience issue at all, even though there’s no credible studies or evidence that masks and vaccines will keep you from contracting the Corona virus. In fact, natural immunity has proven to be better and lasts much longer, but you’ll have to make up your own mind about that, and you should be free to do so. Now don’t get me wrong, Covid is real, and it can be deadly, and crooked politicians are using it to control the populace.
And since we’re on this subject, let me inject one more thing while we’re talking about Covid. Please keep one thing in mind, because it’s very important. Covid has been and will be used to cause fear in the minds of the public as long as possible, because fear equals control. A fearful person can be controlled much easier than one who isn’t fearful, and this is what it’s all about, and besides this there’s billions of dollars being funneled toward big pharma and various other medical entities. And so, the current politicians in power today and the pharmaceutical companies have a conflict of interest to keep the fear going, and there’s also a conflict of interest within the Seventh-day Adventist church and its medical institutions, which we’ll get to in a few minutes.
But here’s what the Bible says about fear: in 1 John 4:18 it says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love (does what?) casts out fear: because fear hath torment (or punishment. The one who is afraid is allowing the devil to mentally punish them. John goes on by saying) He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” And what kind of love are we talking about here? Verse 19 says “We love him, because he first loved us.” And so, the love of Christ is the context here. As a Christian we shouldn’t fear anything, except the fear of allowing the devil to separate us from God’s love and protection.
And I know I need to move on if we’re going to have the time, we need to squeeze everything in, but I have to mention just one more thing. Those in the majority in the House and Senate today are authoritarians, that is, they are against individual freedom, they think of themselves as the elite class that knows better than the general public what’s best for them, and they want to control every aspect of our lives. That’s why they are working so hard to do away with the first and second amendments. If they can control our speech, which the major social media platforms are already doing, because if they don’t agree with what you say, you’re cancelled, and if they can take away the right to keep and bear arms so the public is unable to put down a tyrannical government if need be, then it’s free sailing for them to impose whatever their will is upon the people. We no longer have a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” And I hate to tell you this, but eventually a government gone bad will succeed, because Bible prophecy will be fulfilled as the image of the beast will cause as many as would not worship its dictates to be killed. Revelation 13:11-18 makes that crystal clear. And Testimonies for the Church, volume 5, page 451 tells us that every principle of our Constitution will be repudiated or rejected. And so, we are living in very serious times to say the least.
Pastor Vine says ADCOM is made up of Church employees who are essentially living off federally funded tithe, and therefore have a financial conflict of interest in issuing their vaccine policy the way they did, because government monies go to medical institutions like Loma Linda hospital and to the Adventist educational system to the tune of many billions of dollars every year from government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and these of course, are some of the government institutions pushing the vaccine mandates.
And so, Pastor Vine asks, how long can the Adventist church feast on federal funds before they’re stuck in a federal rut they can’t get out of, because when the church feeds on federal funds it must dance to the federal tune. And so, in essence he’s saying when the church accepts federal funds they have to do what the government says, or they will lose their funding, and when they receive billions of dollars every year, you can see that they certainly do have a conflict of interest to keep the money flowing into the various institutions, which in turn help fund the various branches of the church as a whole, including the salaries of the employees of the ADCOM committee who penned the churches policy on vaccine mandates.
And so, here’s my thought: since the General Conference has caved on this point, what will they do when Sunday becomes an issue? You see, the church has become so dependent upon federal funds, that to take a position contrary to the government who’s funding them, would mean that they would not have the means that helps pay the salaries of church leaders from the top of the hierarchy right on down to the bottom, because tithe that comes in from members alone is way less than what they receive from federal funding, and without it they would not be able to employ their church workers.
Then Pastor Vine quotes from Acts of the Apostles page 432 where it says, “When secular rulers unite with ministers of religion to dictate in matters of conscience, then it will be seen who really fear and serve God.” And we are seeing this right now! Then Pastor Vine insinuates that the churches caving to the secular powers regarding vaccine mandates is an act of blasphemy and that they are in bed with the second beast of Revelation 13, and he is exactly right.
Now, what you are about to hear is not the talk Pastor Vine gave at the Village Church in Berrien Springs, Michigan on January 17th of this year, but one he gave on June 6 of this year, just as the General Conference was about to take place between June 6-11 in St. Louis, Missouri, which was just a couple weeks ago. He titles this talk “An Appeal to the General Conference Delegates 2022.”
Now, before I play Pastor Vines speech I want to make it clear that I do not agree with everything he says, because he’s still a conference pastor and supporter of the church through his tithes and offerings, but it will be interesting to see how much longer this will be the case, because the General Conference is not going to back down from its position since they believe themselves to be the voice of God to the people, and how can God be wrong, you see? It’s much like the papacy that we’re told about in Great Controversy, page 57, that has “never erred, nor would it ever err.”
Now understand, Ellen White made it clear in 1898 that it had been some years since she considered the General Conference to be the voice of God. She said, “That these men should stand in a sacred place, to be as the voice of God to the people, as we once believed the General Conference to be—that is past.” (Last Day Events, page 51) Now, I have read widely in the Spirit of Prophecy over the past 50 years, and I have never read an inspired statement from the pen of Ellen White that would reverse what she wrote earlier about the General Conference, and so that statement is still in force today.
This speech you’re about to hear is a little over 30 minutes long, and at the end I’ll have a few more comments before we close. So please stay tuned to the end. Before I hit the play button, let’s pray that the Holy Spirit will give us wisdom as we consider these things.
[No sermon notes for Pastor Vine’s presentation included here. Here is the link to the actual presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhzyq1FdFTs]
Now I want to break in right here for a minute to say that after all the evidence Pastor Vine has given so far, he says he is not telling people not to support the church through tithes and offerings and that he himself will continue to do so, which is hard for me to understand given what he has said and how the church is in the process of cancelling him, but it will be interesting to see how he views these things in the coming days and months when he comes to the realization that the church leaders are not going to change their minds or rescind their decision on mandates or making restitution to those church members that have been financially hurt. At this point, the only hope I see for Pastor Vine to be held in the good graces of church leadership once again is for him to recant, but the better choice would be for him to continue to speak the truth and join those of us who have already separated from the apostasy. Now I’ll hit the play button once again and let it go to the end.
[Remainder of Pastor Vine’s presentation]
For many decades now the devil has been setting the Seventh-Day Adventist church up, through the means of federal funding, to be able to make it very difficult to say no to these funds when things like government mandates are issued, and when you think about it, wouldn’t the enforcement of a national Sunday law be a federal mandate? Indeed, it would!
Revelation 13:15 states that, “he (the papacy) had power to give life unto the image of the beast (apostate Protestantism in America), that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” It’s coming friends, and I don’t think it’s too far off. Just think about the changes in America that we’ve seen within just the past two years. We’ve been told that the last movements would be rapid ones, and I believe it’s going to become even more rapid in the coming days and months. We have seen things develop which seem like they just came out of nowhere, but in reality, the devil has been laying his groundwork for America, just like he has for the church, for many years, and for over 100 years now the Seventh-Day Adventist church leaders have been fast asleep through creeping compromise.
It’s clear for anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear, that the Seventh-Day Adventist church is following in the footsteps of the beast, and I think we ought to pray for Pastor Conrad Vine that the Lord would help him understand that this is a corporate accountability issue. Because of his position, he was obligated to sound the alarm as he has done, but because no course correction has been taken, nor will it be taken, the next step for this pastor is to “come out of her” or become responsible for what church leaders are allowing and teaching and doing.
You know, it was almost 30 years ago now that I left a church in apostasy, mainly because of the new theology teaching of salvation in sin, which is akin to “once saved always saved” with just a little twist, but there’s more reason today, much more reason to leave today than there was back then. Will the denomination cave to a Sunday law in order to secure its federal funding from being taken away when the mandate goes forth? Unfortunately, they will, and I know these are strong words, but they have already demonstrated that they will, by throwing their membership under the bus to secure federal funding by complying with the Covid vaccine mandates.
Read Early Writings, page 261 when you have the time, and you will see that this will be the case. In the end the nominal Adventist church will be in the same condition as the fallen Sunday churches, because they will have become a fallen Sunday church themselves. This will be the end result of the omega apostasy “which is developing and increasing and waxing stronger, and will continue to do so until the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout.” Special Testimonies, Series B, volume 7, page 57.
Since the church has already pretty much accepted the salvation in sin teaching of the Sunday churches, and they’ve done this in a variety of ways by teaching one can have a saving relationship with Jesus and still have ongoing sin in the life; by teaching that Jesus had an unfallen human nature; by teaching that perfection of character is not possible in this life; by teaching that Jesus is going to change our characters when He comes, and other kindred heresies. Because they are teaching these various errors, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg, it’s not going to be that difficult for them to trample the Sabbath in the dust when push comes to shove. If victory over sin and obedience isn’t all that important to our salvation, as many believe, then the idea will prevail that what difference does it really make if we keep the Sabbath or not? And if you doubt that all this is true? Let me read you one last quote from Review and Herald, March 18, 1884, because there’s much food for thought in this one. Inspiration says, “The Lord has a controversy with his professed people in these last days. (He has a controversy with who? “His professed people.” When? “In these last days.” Ellen White uses the term “His professed people” over and over again to describe Seventh-day Adventists, so we know who we’re talking about here) In this controversy (Another word for controversy is “battle.” The Lord is battling with church leaders in these last days over a particular issue. What is it?) In this controversy men in responsible positions (church leaders) will (future tense from when this was written. We’re given a glimpse into the near future here) will take a course directly opposite to that pursued by Nehemiah. (Was Nehemiah a Sabbath keeper who was into Sabbath reform? Yes he was? And he was dealing with other professed Sabbath keepers, wasn’t he? Yes) They (church leaders) will (again, future tense) will not only ignore and despise the Sabbath themselves, but they will try to keep it from others by burying it beneath the rubbish of custom and tradition. (just like Sunday preachers have done for years, because what other arguments are there since there is no Scriptural authority for Sunday? And perhaps their motive will be to secure federal funding, what do you think?) In churches and in large gatherings in the open air (camp meetings), ministers (what kind of ministers? Apostate Adventist ministers) will urge upon the people the necessity of keeping the first day of the week. (Now listen, because context is crucial here. Sunday preachers don’t have to urge Sunday upon Sunday keepers, they’re already observing Sunday. This is talking about former Sabbath keepers trying to convince other Sabbath keepers, and those Sunday keepers that are becoming convicted about the true seventh-day Sabbath. This same class of apostates are mentioned in The Great Controversy, page 608. Again, what could the necessity of keeping the first day of the week be? Could it be the necessity of cooperating with government mandates so the church can survive?) There are calamities on sea and land: and these calamities will increase, one disaster following close upon another; and the little band (could 22 million conference Adventists be considered a little band? I don’t think so) and the little band of conscientious Sabbath-keepers (the few who won’t take the bait and accept Sunday) will be pointed out (by former Sabbath keepers) as the ones who are bringing the wrath of God upon the world by their disregard of Sunday.” And shortly after this, friends, is when the mobs will come after us like they did for Charles Wesley.
Oh friend, may God truly open our eyes and ears as we approach the time of trouble that will soon break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise. May we not be a part of those who will say, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” (Jerimiah 8:20) Unfortunately, everything points to the fact that the larger portion of former Seventh-day Adventists will sing this lamentation. May it not be you, and may it not be me.
Would it be OK if I squeeze in just one more quote? I think we have the time, and I’ll end with this. It’s the one I mentioned a moment ago from The Great Controversy, page 608. “As the storm approaches, a large class who have professed faith in the third angel’s message, but have not been sanctified through obedience to the truth, abandon their position and join the ranks of the opposition. By uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit, they have come to view matters in nearly the same light; and when the test is brought, they are prepared to choose the easy, popular side. Men of talent and pleasing address, who once rejoiced in the truth, employ their powers to deceive and mislead souls. They become the most bitter enemies of their former brethren. When Sabbathkeepers are brought before the courts to answer for their faith, these apostates are the most efficient agents of Satan to misrepresent and accuse them, and by false reports and insinuations to stir up the rulers against them.”