“If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?” Jeremiah 12:5
Recently I spent two hours listening to a video tape, which, as nearly as I could tell, came from the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists. Four speakers spent two hours explaining how, when, and why they are going to bring celebration worship into the whole North American Division. The voices were soft and gentle; the faces were smiling; but the message was unmistakably clear: If you do not like it, get out. There was no credence whatsoever given to the idea that those who object to celebration worship might have a valid reason for doing so. The whole discussion was based on the assumed principle that the people who do not want celebration worship just have a psychological problem and cannot handle change. You are to be patient with them as long as you can; but if you have tried everything else and they just will not accept it, then you just say to them very kindly, “We want you to be ministered to so we are going to find some place where you can go.”
As I understood, they had not decided yet whether it will be on Sabbath or Sunday; but for two hours every week, you will be able to phone in to an 800-number and they will tell you how to handle anybody resisting your attempts to bring celebration worship into your church.
Jeremiah Challenges God
In Jeremiah 12, the Lord is being challenged by Jeremiah. Very carefully Jeremiah is presuming to cast a little bit of reflection on the Lord because he does not understand what He is doing. “Righteous art Thou, O Lord, when I plead with Thee: yet let me talk with Thee of Thy judgments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?” Jeremiah 12:1. In other words, Jeremiah is saying, “Lord, I am not criticizing You, You understand. I am not finding fault with You, but I certainly do not understand what You are doing. May I ask a question or two?”
The Lord looks on the heart and understands what is going on inside. He did not enter into any disputation with Jeremiah about his understanding. But if you look carefully at the words that follow, what He is really saying to Jeremiah is, “Jeremiah, you have a problem. You are putting understanding ahead of trust. If I were to try to explain the whole plan of salvation to you, you could not understand it. You could not wrap your head around all of that. You have to learn to trust Me whether or not you understand.”
We are going to be very deeply puzzled by things that we see taking place. Even though they are puzzling, perplexing, and bewildering, they must never affect our trust in God. We must never put understanding ahead of trust. We must learn to say with Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” Job 13:15. The Lord is not worrying about the swelling of the Jordan. He knows what He is going to do. We are told that not one single cloud has ever risen over the church that He has not prepared for. Clouds are no problem to Him.
I want to review quickly and briefly with you just a little bit of what does lie ahead of us.
“The days are fast approaching when there will be great perplexity and confusion. . . . Every wind of doctrine will be blowing.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 80. Ellen White might have said it would be like a hurricane.
“God will arouse His people; if other means fail, heresies will come in among them, which will sift them, separating the chaff from the wheat.” Ibid, 707. I had a struggle with this statement. I had to get down on my knees like Jeremiah and say, “Lord, I am not criticizing You, but I have a question. Why are You letting heresies come into the church?”
“Before the last developments of the work of apostasy, there will be a confusion of faith. One truth after another will be corrupted.” Signs of the Times, May 28, 1894. Those who seek to confuse our faith begin with criticizing the sanctuary doctrine. But anyone who criticizes the sanctuary doctrine has to deal with the Spirit of Prophecy which strongly affirms that truth, so they end up taking a position against the Spirit of Prophecy; one thing comes right after another and you can see what is happening; one truth after another is being corrupted.
“In the very midst of us will arise false teachers giving heed to seducing spirits whose doctrines are of Satanic origin. These teachers will draw away disciples after themselves.” Ibid, January 7, 1904. This is a hard thing to understand, too. Why are people deceived and confused? Sometimes literature comes to my desk; and I look at it and think, How in the world can anybody be deceived by something as crude and clumsy as that? But people are being deceived.
“Many will stand in our pulpits with the torch of false prophecy in their hands, kindled from the hellish torch of Satan.” Testimonies to Ministers, 409, 410. Now a man does not walk in off the street and step into a Seventh-day Adventist church pulpit, does he? He has to be placed there by authorities that are higher. So what does this tell us about what will be happening in offices of authority, positions of authority? They will be assigning false teachers to the pulpits of Seventh-day Adventist churches.
“The enemy will bring in false theories such as the doctrine that there is no sanctuary. This is one of the points on which there will be a departing from the faith.” Counsels to Writers and Editors, 53
Ellen White writes that there will be changes in our worship. (See Testimonies, vol. 5, 491.) I was attending a worship service in a church where they had a guest speaker who was a professor from some university. After the choir sang, he stepped up to the pulpit and said, “Now folks, if you were attending a concert and heard a musical number like that, would you not give some applause? Come on, give them some applause.” I thought, “Oh, dear Lord, this man has a doctor of philosophy, but he does not know the difference between the sacred and the secular. He does not know what worship is all about.” Things that might possibly be accepted some other place are not acceptable in church.
In Selected Messages, book 2, pages 36 and onward, Ellen White talks about worship with a bedlam of noise. She is addressing what had taken place in Indiana where a little group of people were doing some different things with worship services. They were using a big bass drum and lots of bedlam of noise, as she describes it. Writing to Elder Haskell, she said, “The things you have described as taking place in Indiana, the Lord has shown me would take place just before the close of probation. Every uncouth thing will be demonstrated. There will be shouting, with drums, music, and dancing. The senses of rational beings will become so confused that they cannot be trusted to make right decisions. And this is called the moving of the Holy Spirit.
“The Holy Spirit never reveals itself in such methods, in such a bedlam of noise. This is an invention of Satan. . .”
An Invitation to Demons
I want to point out to you something that you might overlook as you read this section. Notice that Ellen White said that the same music would be all right if it were conducted differently. It is the way it is being performed that she is objecting to. But in six places in three pages she points out that Satan is present there; demons are present there; Satanic agencies are present there. Seventh-day Adventists have been very well protected against spiritualism by our belief about the state of the dead. What Seventh-day Adventist would accept an invitation to go to a seance where the spirits of the dead are being called up from the grave, presumably? Why, you would not give that a thought, would you? Listen folks, you can forget about seances. You do not have to go to a seance to get into direct contact with Satan; all that you have to do is go to a celebration worship program. If you think that statement is too strong, go back and read what she says. You can get into direct contact with Satan by going to the wrong kind of worship service.
“Before the final visitations of God’s judgments upon the earth there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times.” The Great Controversy, 464. Do not give up your hope; something wonderful is just around the corner. “The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children. At that time many will separate themselves from those churches in which the love of this world has supplanted love for God and His Word. Many, both of ministers and people, will gladly accept those great truths which God has caused to be proclaimed at this time to prepare a people for the Lord’s second coming.” Ibid. That is the good news; but before this can take place, we read: “The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work; and before the time for such a movement shall come, he will endeavor to prevent it by introducing a counterfeit [a counterfeit revival]. In those churches which he can bring under his deceptive power, he will make it appear that God’s special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest. Multitudes will exult that God is working marvelously for them, when the work is that of another spirit.” Ibid.
Now, this is a little bit cynical perhaps, but I think it is realistic; I think it is practical. If you are a preacher and you would like to have an opportunity to visit camp meetings across the land and preach to people, let me tell you what to do. If you prepare some sermons which subtly, ingeniously, and cunningly undercut the Spirit of Prophecy and the sanctuary doctrine, you will receive invitations from all over the country. “Come to our camp meeting.” Conference presidents will call you. Is that too cynical? I think it is real.
On the other side of that, you cannot put all of the blame on the preachers, folks. I have another supposition, and this is a supposition; you take it for what you think it is worth. My supposition is this: I have observed that these preachers do not need to present good, solid evidence. Maybe this is a little extreme, but this thought has occurred to me as I watch what happens. I believe that those preachers who are trying to undercut our message could stand up in front of the people and say, “Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was white as snow. Now there you have absolute proof that you do not need to stop sinning;” and a lot of the people would say, “Ah, that is the great truth of God. That is what we have been waiting for.” They do not have to present strong, carefully researched evidence. Any garbage will work if you are appealing to the carnal spirits of human beings.
Changes in our theology are already here. There are changes in our worship, but they are going to get worse. There is going to be a great false revival, and the result is going to be the forming of two parties. You hardly need to go beyond a Sabbath School class in any church on a Sabbath morning to observe that there are two schools of thought working there; two parties are forming in the church.
Two Parties to Develop
“As trials thicken around us, both separation and unity will be seen in our ranks.” Testimonies, vol. 6, 400. Well, how can this be, both separation and unity? There is a separation into two parties, and the individuals within the two parties are drawing closer and closer to each other.
“Two parties will be developed.” Selected Messages, book 2, 114. People sometimes say to me, “Ralph, I see three parties out there.” Well, that is true in a sense; but in a sense it is not true. Kenneth Sample, the Calvinistic theologian who inherited the work of Walter Martin when Walter Martin died, looked at our church; and he saw three parties also. He said that in the Seventh-day Adventist Church today you have Calvinists, Liberals, and Historics. Well that is true enough. You see, the Liberal says that nothing is important anyway, so what do standards matter. The Calvinist says, “The Bible guarantees me the right to sin and nobody is going to take my right to sin away from me.” So they meet on the ethical platform, or should I say, the unethical platform. They come to it from different sides, but that is where they get together. I have seen this happen.
I watched a church business meeting where a nominating committee report was being discussed in which the question was, “Are we going to let some conservative Historic Adventist people be put into church office?” It was very, very obvious there that the Calvinists and the Liberals ganged up against the Historics. It was just as clear as could be.
“The wheat is being bound up for the heavenly garner. The true people of God are now pulling apart, and the tares are being bound in bundles to burn.” Letter 12, 1892. When somebody accuses you of pulling apart, show them this statement.
And then we have the final separation, the mass exodus. It will not be small. Remember that we read in Testimonies to Ministers, 409, “Many will stand in our pulpits with the torch of false prophecy in their hands, kindled from the hellish torch of Satan.” Many, not a few. Again the word many in Testimonies, vol. 5, 81,
“Many a star that we have admired for its brilliancy will then go out in darkness.”
“The light given me has been very forcible that many would go out from us, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils..” Evangelism, 363
“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.” The Great Controversy, 608
“Standard after standard was left to trail in the dust as company after company from the Lord’s army joined the foe and tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy united with the commandment-keeping people of God.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 41. During the General Conference in Texas, years back, Elder H.M.S. Richards, who was still alive at that time, read this statement to the delegates from all over the world and then posed the question, “What is a company? What is she describing as a company here? We have our own definition today. A company is a Sabbath School group that grows and grows until it finally becomes a church. Is that what she is talking about or is she talking about something else? Is she talking about a conference? Is she talking about a union conference? A division?” My observation is that any of these definitions could be appropriate.How do we cope with these things? First of all, do not despair. “But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, ‘Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour; I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.’ ” Isaiah 43:1–3
Let the Jordan overflow, who cares? “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.” The Lord is perfectly able to take us through the troublous times ahead in the way that He sees best.
Trust Before Understanding
Now let us go back to where we started, folks. Our situation is pretty much like Jeremiah’s. The things ahead of us could be put in the same category as what was ahead of Jeremiah, with a little adaptation of course. It is a pretty gloomy picture. In the midst of all this, poor Jeremiah is saying, “Lord, I am not criticizing You; I am not telling You that You are making any mistakes; but would You please let me ask? I have some questions, Lord.” And the Lord’s response to him: “Jeremiah, I understand your questions, and I sympathize with your condition; but, Jeremiah, you have to put first things first. Do not put understanding ahead of trust. You must trust Me, Jeremiah.” Let us take that message given to Jeremiah as a message for every one of us. May God bless you.
The End