SDAs Are NOT Ready For Jesus’s Return! Here’s why…

Now Pastor if you don’t know the SDA Church’s official stated position is that alen White’s writings are divinely inspired and that they correct inaccurate interpretations of scripture they are on record documenting that her interpretations are an infallible interpretation of the infallible book so this being one of those cases which by the way is in and of itself heresy given what the scriptures say about the scriptures hey there so I got a question for you are you prepared for the return of Christ that is the question in Focus today Central to SDA theology is the

Belief that part of their movement’s mission is to prepare the world for the return of Christ as SDA Theologian PG D notes in his foundations of the 7th Day Adventist message and Mission during the formative years of 7th Day adventism when the theological foundations were ironed out a system of doctrines was developed which became an integral part of their Theology of Mission the apocalyptic eschatological aspects of this theology indicated by The Three Angels messages were Central in the unique Mission proclamation to prepare humankind for the second Advent so the

SDA Church believes that they were raised up by God to prepare the world for the second Advent they have a unique message and Mission that only they have and it’s by believing and practicing that message that will have one prepared for the return of Christ but what’s fascinating about this is the amount of people within adventism that are experiencing Advent fatigue and do not feel prepared they’re left asking themselves things like is the return of Christ really imminent why hasn’t Jesus returned yet and am I actually prepared which is why I sat down to have a

Discussion regarding these important questions with none other than my own Pastor Dr George Grant Dr Grant is the senior pastor edus of Parish Presbyterian Church director of Kings Meadow study center founder of both Franklin classical school and banck bur college and coordinator of the chers fund he is the author of dozens of books in the areas of History biography politics literature and social criticism and he’s written hundreds of essays articles and columns with a particular strength in history and eschatology I thought he might be the perfect guest to

Join me to discuss the central component of the SDA movement is believing and practicing 7th Day adventism really what will have one prepared for the second coming let’s find out well Pastor thank you for sharing some of your time with us this is a discussion that uh I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time and that’s because it’s something that I heard you talk about a fair amount prior to you actually being being my pastor um I’m not sure if I’ve ever shared that with you but you have helped influence my understanding in this area and that

Is an optimistic view of the end times now some people are going to hear this and think I’ve never even heard of such a thing the default understanding seems to be that things will get worse and worse the Bible makes that clear uh we seem to be in a particularly saturated period of History where pessimism abounds and to many the thought of things Contin continuing much longer is almost unbearable let alone that things will tend toward getting better um and you are a wealth of knowledge in this regard so I’m hoping that we can address some of that thinking why there’s a

Biblical warrant to be optimistic about the future and what the Glorious Rule and reign of Christ means for our Outlook and involvement in the world sound good that sounds great perfect so let’s start here what is optimistic eschatology and why the clarifier of optimistic well optimistic eschatology is simply looking at last things through the lens of the Gospel uh the victory of Christ over sin and death eschatology is typically the study of last things and historians and theologians have always divided it into seven component parts death the intermediate State the second

Coming of Christ the resurrection of the dead the Day of judgment hell and the new heavens and the new Earth so actually es eschatology is the study of all of those things an optimistic eschatology is looking it all of those things with the hope of the Gospel the ultimate victory of Christ over every obstacle difficulty sin and affliction including death itself so optimistic eschatology isn’t just about world affairs and world events it is a perspective of the whole of the gospel and all of the claims of the Gospel excellent so the clarifier then optimistic is uh in contrast then

To a uh uh obviously pessimistic view yes of of the future so we’re what we’re going to be talking about is having an optimistic View of the things to come as you point out most modern Evangelical Christians would have a pessimistic eschatology which seems to be a contradiction I would assert it is a contradiction of Our Hope in the gospel yeah which I’m hoping that we’ll kind of get into some a little bit later I want to read something from Lewis burkoff Systematic Theology which is on the Shelf behind me uh right there yeah um and then I want to get your thoughts so

In his uh section on eschatology he writes this under objections to postmillennialism which is what we’re talking about here in terms of optimism there are some very serious objections to the post-millennial theory and then he lists a number of points this is the first point he says the fundamental idea of the doctrine that the whole world will gradually be one for Christ that the life of all Nations will in course of time be transformed by the go gospel that righteousness and peace will reign supreme and that the blessings of the spirit will be poured out in richer

Abundance than before so that the church will experience a season of unexampled prosperity just before the coming of the Lord is not in harmony with the picture of the end of the ages found in scripture this is probably the most common objection to optimistic eschatology it seems so clear that the Bible presents things as getting worse and worse and worse so my question for you why are you optimistic about the future when the Bible seems to portray things as getting worse as we approach the return of Christ well the answer to that is simply because I believe what

The Bible says and I believe that the gospel is true uh I think it’s one of the great ironies in our day that Christians can pray thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven and actually mean nothing but by it indeed it’s a stunning Paradox that we can live and believe as if such a prayer could not be answered even worse we live as if such a prayer probably should not be answered if Christians have come to believe contrary to all of our Creeds confessions and prayers that the will of God is actually irrelevant to our culture and to the Nations is it any

Wonder that our culture and the Nations have come to believe that the transforming power of the Gospel is just a myth um and as a result our our culture takes up all of the Zeal of a new convert uh in opposing the good news of the Gospel this is a bizarre twist um that disconnects Christianity from civilization and from history and from all of the fruits of civilization and history and is contrary therefore to everything that Christians have ever believed before us now Jesus explained to his disciples just how the principles of the curse with its inherent

Destructiveness uh and Grace with its inherent constructiveness are manifested throughout all of history let me read this little passage from Matthew Chapter 13 the Kingdom of Heaven he said may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field but while men were sleeping his enemy came and SED tears also in his field when the enemy went away the wheat began to sprang up and bore grain but then the tears became evident also and the slaves and Servants of the ma Master the land owner came and said to him sir did you not s good seed in your field then how does it have

Tears and he said to them an enemy has done this and so the servant said to him do you want us then to go and gather them up and he said no no lest while you are gathering up the tears you may root up the wheat with them allow them both to grow together until the Harvest and in the time of harvest I will say to the Reapers first gather up the tears bind them into bundles and burn them but gather up the wheat into my barns now explaining the parable later Jesus said this now the one who s The Good Seed is the son of man the field is the world and as for

The good seed these are the sons of the Kingdom the tears are the sons of the evil one and the enemy who s them is the devil and the Harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are the Angels therefore just as the tears are gathered up and burned with fire so it will be at the End of the Age the son of man will send his angel forth and they will gather out of his kingdom all the stumbling blocks and Those who commit lawlessness and they will be cast into the furnace of fire and in that place there will be weeping and nashing of teeth then righteousness will shine

Forth as the son in the Kingdom of their father he who has ears to hear Let Him hear now s ually what Jesus was teaching his disciples is that as history moves along the wheat and the tears will grow up and mature together and other words the basic principles of wickedness and the basic principles of righteousness are worked out more or less consistently evil matures and becomes ever more evil uh ever more distinctive but likewise godliness matures and becomes ever more Godly ever more distinctive tear maturation will result uh in um more and more

Self-consciously Antichrist behaviors the curse becomes more and more evident uh they persist in their Rebellion uh and and uh gnawing their tongues and calling for rocks to fall on them as Revelation 6 says uh but the same time there is progress in the kingdom and there is wheat maturation now if we know nothing more than this perhaps there might be still uh some warrant for pessimism but we know more than this the biblical perspective of increasing and encroaching wickedness in history comes with a very clear and forthright caveat But realize this the Apostle Paul wrote

That in the last difficult times there will be trouble and it will come for men will be lovers of self lovers of money boastful arrogant revilers disobedient to parents ungrateful Unholy unloving irreconcilable malicious gossips without self-control brutal haters of good treacherous Reckless conceited lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God holding to a form of godliness but denying its power avoid such men as these but for among them are those who enter into households and Captivate weak women weighed down with sins LED on by various impulses always learning never

Able to come to a knowledge of the truth just as Janice and jam bra opposed Moses so these men also opposed the truth men of depraved mind rejected as regards the faith but Paul said they will make no further progress and their Folly will be obvious to all as also that of those two Janice and JRA came to be now here’s the point Jesus was saying that as history moves along as it moves toward its consummation evil will become more and more consistently evil the tears will mature but notice the adamant caveat they will make no further progress and

At the same time righteousness is making its own progress and it’s becoming more and more mature the wheat is coming to harvest and so the whole point that Jesus was making is if you have eyes only to see the bad you will think everything’s just getting worse and worse and in one sense it is evil is becoming more and more consistent but the evil cannot Prevail over righteousness godliness and truth and in the end it will collapse like a house of cards under the weight of its own absurdity they will make no further progress as a result we can steadfastly hold on to the fact that

The gospel is good news it’s good news just not just for our hearts not just for our individual salvation uh it’s good news for every broken thing it’s good news for the restoration of every sin tainted thing in the world it is the promise of a new heavens and a new Earth and a restoration of the glories of God’s original creation the new heavens and the new earth that is Gospel optimism yeah that’s good I mean you you hit it on the nail there with what it was that convinced me of this um it was studying Jesus’s own teaching of the kingdom and realizing that I was a bit

Anemic in that area I had a very um and I think this is common for a lot of people I had a very like out there somewhere else type of view that like that’s not really like here and right now um I know Christ said he has all authority in heaven and on Earth but it’s still kind of relegated and separated from the here and the the now that’s kind of Satan’s domain and then it’s just going to keep getting worse under his domain to where Jesus will then eventually come and and put an end to that um now you hit one spot there we’re going to end up coming back to the

Topic of the kingdom here in a little bit but before then what are some of the strongest exegetical arguments out outside of what you’ve just shared in Matthew for an optimistic view of the future well there are a whole host of places we can go to Psalm 24 the Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it the world and all who live in it for he founded it upon the Seas and established it upon the waters we can go to the Book of Revelation uh where we see that the kingdoms of this world are the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ but one of the places I like to go is U one of

Those passages that is a favorite of those who hold to a pessimistic eschatology which is the olivate discourse in Matthew chapter 24 uh here Jesus attempts to calm his disciples speculative fears um he tries to show them that eschatological pessimism is not consistent with uh faith in the gospel and in his kingdom following his prediction that the Temple of Jerusalem would soon be destroyed his very nervous disciples began to ask him a series of questions uh what when will these things be what will be the sign of your coming what will be the sign of the end of the

Age they ask him and Jesus responds by telling them that they have nothing to fear Matthew 24:6 they were instead to be on guard against those who would unduly alarm and deceive them Matthew chapter 24 verse4 in spite of uh the fact that there will be a Spate of wars and rumors of wars of famines pestilences earthquakes tribulations persecutions they were to be assured he said that the end was not yet in sight in fact he told them these signs were just the beginnings of Mankind’s long and T tortured struggle through history he called them birth

Pangs now as any woman will tell you birth pays are not the beginning of the end birth pains are the beginning of the beginning instead of focusing on these subjective and often misleading signs of the times Jesus directed their attention to the great work of preaching the gospel to All Nations so although his discourse is filled with specific portending prophecies as the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD ultimately proved the primary thrust of Christ’s message to his disciples was that eschatology is primarily ethical and only secondarily predictive what I mean by that is that

These things are revealed in the good Providence of God to provoke God’s people to to undertake their responsibilities to do their job to Faithfully carry out the Great Commission to diligently build up the church to pray without ceasing to engage in spiritual warfare to serve the hurting uh to care for the needs of the poor and the Brokenhearted and the despised and the rejected and the innocent to walk in Holiness to live with one another in faith hope and love in short eschatology is a prod in the hands of God to incite the church to do right

When the rest of the world seems to do wrong the progress of the powers and the principalities in this world is are no match after all for the empowered people of Christ Jesus for as scripture asserts his Dominion is an everlasting dominion and it shall not pass away go to any of the so-called eschatology passages and one of the things that you’ll see is the kind of message that the disciples received following the Ascension as they were staring up into heaven the angel came and said to them men why are you gazing up into heaven do as the master

Has said go to Jerusalem and await the coming of the spirit so you mentioned a number of of good places there you mentioned the Salter for example the other one I always think about is Isaiah um and you know these when people ask about things like peace increasing Etc it’s uh we read the Old Testament prophets on what they say that the kingdom is going to look like not just what the New Testament says but if you look at both in harmony um there seems to be a clear indication of peace increasing the rule of his governance will no no ends um righteousness will

Prevail Etc and so uh I I agree with you there now the million-dollar question with that hang on just one so far we’ve addressed this exegetically uh expositionally We’ve looked at the scriptures but one of the other things that we oftentimes fail to look at is just history itself uh which would you rather live in the 14th century or the 21st century right yeah we think of everything that we have both of us uh we corrective eyear um but you know both of us have enjoyed the incredible benefits of Modern Dentistry yeah um even though we’ve got immediate access to all of the global

Conflicts instantly through social media the truth is is that the world is better today just on a sociological level than it ever has been ever in history there are fewer Wars people live longer diseases are being tackled poverty is um at a lower level globally than it ever has been before when there are famines and and distressing um earthquakes or volcanoes erupting the world immediately responds uh Aid is is quick to arrive on the doorpost um in terms of the Ecology of planet Earth uh our environment is actually healthier now than at almost any time since the Roman era um you know

I I am old enough to remember when uh the Great Lakes were essentially cesspools uh and uh the cleanup of places like Pittsburgh and buffalo and Chicago has been astonishing uh so just on a sociological level even though we have immediate access to all of the horrors of wars in places like Ukraine and Yemen and Gaza um in Nigeria you know all of the things that are happening right now in the world uh the possibility of war between Venezuela and gu uh the the Border difficulties and Papua Nini all of those things we we have immediate access to those but the number

Of those conflicts is so much lower than at any other time in history so on a sociological level we’re living in the best days that man has ever known and I in that same vein I always think about um you know if we could bring the apostles today time machine hologram whatever it is and we were able to explain to them you can get a piece of plastic and metal that’s fused together and with your thumbs you can tap on it a couple times and take the gospel to the other side of the planet amen it’s their minds would be blown yeah it’s astonishing an airplane you can get in a metal thing in

The sky and in a matter of hours what you guys used to have to do by foot and boat you can do in a matter of hours and take the gospel to the other side of the world um so it is really all about what you’re saying regarding um looking at things in the the totality of perspective that um have some things seemingly gotten worse sure but you showed where scripture is clear and Jesus even taught that that’s going to be the case as we are approaching a time where in our view um as things do progressively get better we’re kind of assuming here that there’s going to be a

Little a little bit more history ahead of us um we’re going to talk about that here momentarily but I know that the thing that’s on everybody’s Minds how do you think things will get better and what role does the sovereignty of God play in that well one of the things that I believe uh is happening around the world is that um the the numbers of people who are coming to Christ are unprecedented uh the fastest growing churches in the world are in places like Saudi Arabia and Iran uh it’s it’s astonishing to to consider that uh in the midst of Ukraine

There is an enormous Revival taking place in Israel today in the Galilee region churches are beginning to explode uh with new converts and um you know you have an enormous growth of the church in Subs in Africa you’re beginning to see Evangelical revivals all across the north of Latin America and now in Argentina so Ju Just on the the level of the growth of the Kingdom uh we’re seeing an astonishing Ascent even as Europe and the church in America seem to be uh declining and headed into disarray one of the the things that is happening is that the old wine skins of the national

Churches are being discarded and vibrant Evangelical churches are springing up uh when Karen and I are in London we love to go to St Helen Bishop’s gate an Anglican congregation in the heart of the city that has five uh services on Sunday simply because they don’t have room to contain all of the people they have Outreach Ministries all over the city they’re planting churches it’s growing uh with uh a faith enthusiasm and passion they’re studying the word of God in substance so how do I expect the future to look better well I expect it to look better because people are going

To believe the gospel and then they’re going to live those beliefs out in the wider culture amen and I I don’t feel like we hear enough about these sorts of things and I think it kind of is just the the nature of media that it tends to have to be focused on negativity that’s what kind of sells that’s what get gets clicks even kind of bleeding over into Christian Media as well we hear a lot about um martyrdom in places like Nigeria Etc um but we don’t hear a lot of Buzz about the things that you just said and I think that that’s an important aspect in this discussion for

Why we should be optimistic we’re talking about 12 men which has grown into billions of people right um that has totally shaken the world exactly and one of the reasons why in Pakistan in Nigeria in Syria uh in Iraq and in Iran uh we’re seeing a rise in the number of Martyrs is simply that the authorities realize that the explosion of the church is now a threat yeah the church is dangerous uh to totalitarian regimes uh the the gospel brings freedom and in places like Niger Syria where many of the islamists want to have absolute control the idea of freedom is

Terrifying so your friend oh go ahead sorry yeah we’re seeing we’re seeing more persecution precisely because the church is more of a threat why did X in communist China have to tear down every church and Scatter uh the church back into the underground well it was because the church in China was growing so fast uh that more than double the number of members of the Communist party uh more than double that were uh becoming Christians uh in in China and the church was larger than communism yeah your friend P Andrew sandin uh had something to say a couple

Weeks ago I think it was um that just really struck a chord with me that I was like you know it’s so easy to forget this and it’s in that same vein of what you’re saying here the church is a threat to these sorts of regimes because people forget that through the book of Acts part of the Christian message the followers of the way part of their message was that Jesus is Lord yes that means he’s Lord over you you’re going to need to Bow the knee to Jesus as Lord and uh you know Mr Salem was essentially saying you know we need to not forget that that the reason that they were

Hated was not just because they were uh a claiming the name of Jesus but specifically that Jesus is Lord he’s Lord over you and he has he has all authority in heaven and on Earth um the other thing I think about in the same vein just in terms of the word better um I guess this is the the the presuppositional vantian part of my brain um it always flashes by you know flashes and says by what standard do we measure better um I think if we could bring like I said the apostles back to the present day and show them some of these things that we we now have they

Would most certainly say that things have gotten better in some Regard in some fashion um now in many of the pessimistic views the hope uh is in that the return of Christ is imminent so they’ll say well of course things are going to get worse and worse and worse but we do have hope because Jesus is going to return quickly to put an end to it that tends to be a common uh sort of thinking um even though things will get worse and worse and worse Christ is going to return to resolve that we’re in what I believe to to be the reaping season of the influence of 19th century American

Fervor around imminency lots of fervor in this regards was swn during that period and now I think that we are in the reaping season of That So my question to you as we transition into this do you think the second coming is imminent if not why not I do not think that it is imminent although I say that with a caveat Jesus reminded his disciples that no man knows uh the time of the coming uh apart from the father and so we don’t set dates we we don’t set chronological benchmarks but we can uh look at a of things if Jesus were to come back today uh and he would gather us to

Himself uh he would have to say to us well done good and Faithful Servants you lost your culture you lost your family you lost your nation you lost the the world well done come into your reward I don’t think that that’s the picture that we’re supposed to see uh from the way scripture portrays uh the coming of Christ he comes as Christus Victor he comes as the Victorious One to reclaim the fullness of his inheritance from the father where as Psalm 110 says we can all visibly see that the Earth is his foot stol so um it seems to me that while the

Gospel is spreading to every corner of the earth we still have lots of work to do uh it seems to me that uh we have plenty uh to continue to look forward to the Millennium uh is only mentioned in six verses in a single chapter out of the whole Bible the battle of Armageddon is never actually fought uh there’s not a single Antichrist but there are many who have the spirit of antichrist uh the idea of a Rapture is not actually mentioned instead as uh it might be extrapolated from a handful of proof texts in first uh Thessalonians chapter 4 or Matthew

24 if anything the idea of plucking up and out is more applicable to the enemies of God than of the remnant of God and most of the Prophecies of imp end in judgment mentioned in the New Testament uh were slated for fulfillment very soon in that very generation thus much of the apocalyptic literature of the New Testament revealed the impending judgment on Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD um so while there is much for us to wrestle with eschatologically the message of Jesus over and over again was uh do not worry about these things instead do your job

Occupy until I come and this kind of gets back to what you were saying about Jesus’s teaching of the Kingdom um and you’ve got parallels like so as in the time of Noah which often times people point you to say well it was horrible and terrible and then he returned missing the fact that those that were taken were the wicked right not the righteous the wicked were taken and and what you said in in Matthew about Jesus’s teaching on the the kingdom when Christ returns is to throw the wicked out of his kingdom into outer Darkness right um not to necessarily whisk everyone else away um

Or or or that sort of imagery but in light of what you said regarding imminency now this is a really important topic for those that are in our audience we’re going to dive into this a little bit more here and we’re going to do so by looking at a couple of quotes uh I want to read a quote from Ellen G white with regards to imminency and then I will have a question for you as well as a follow-up quote after that with some other questions now in her in her book Spirit of Prophecy volume four she writes this when the churches spurn the Council of God by rejecting the Advent

Message the Lord rejected them the first Angel was followed by a second proclaiming Babylon is Fallen is Fallen that great City because she made all nations drink of the wine of her Wrath of her fornication Revelation 148 this message was understood by Adventists to be an announcement of the moral fall of the churches in consequence of the rejection of the first message so in SDA theology the Adventist message in reference here was millerism when the churches of the 19th century rejected William Miller’s false date setting and his belief in imminency

Those two things Ellen White says that God rejected them they will claim that William Miller was a reformer they’ll try and Tack him on the SDA Church will try and Tack him him on to the uh figures of the Reformation to say he was like a modernday reformer and God raised him up and when the churches of the day rejected what he was saying God then rejected them because this was a moral failure on their part the Presbyterian churches the Baptist Churches Etc so my question for you does God reject those who reject a belief in imminency and why is it okay to believe that there’s

Possibly a lot of history left a couple of things first of all if you know anything about church history you know that Miller and white were not the first ones to posit this kind of theology in fact it’s as old as the apostles themselves in the Book of Revelation uh we have in the first three chapters specific um condemnations of uh Millennial and utopian Christian beliefs that were in a sense cultic uh so this is nothing new uh one of the things that uh was really remarkable about uh the fear surrounding Y2K the year 2000 uh was that it was almost a

Complete duplicate of the hysteria and fears that surrounded y1k it must be don’t realize that in the year 999 uh most people in Western Christendom believed that the world was uh going to end uh that the coming of the end was imminent uh many of the wealthiest land owners uh sold off all of their possessions uh many moved to Rome uh so that they could crowd into Old St Peters uh for the final tolling of the of the end of of History uh the pope and all of the Cardinals they gathered in Old St Peters and waited for midnight uh they told the last few

Moments with the old bells of St Peter um and then they held their breath and waited for the end and nothing happened so uh Miller and white weren’t the first and they won’t be the last uh the truth is is that every single person who has ever trusted Christ has always been closer to their own death than they have been to the coming of Christ that’s just an historical fact and uh so we tend to have chronological um uh Supremacy uh we we think that our own time is the central time of history when all things uh will come to consummation it’s the height of

Pride and it is the height of h a lack of understanding of the whole of History um Jesus specifically warns his disciples about the speculation of the times um unbelief is failure to trust Christ it is not failure to trust in a system or a structure or a chronology so imminency is never ever listed among the chief virtues or or even the chief dogmas of the church ever it’s never been because the Bible specifically warns us against such thinking so there’s so much there that I could say just because again coming out of this world and knowing the mindset

That a lot of current Adventists but especially in our audience former Adventists have around this um for the SDA movement it runs so much deeper than a lot of maybe other groups like some dispensational type groups that may hold to a form of imminency because if it isn’t correct in the SDA Church’s context their Central claim to being God’s last day Remnant people with a final warning message that only they have right before the end of time that completely falls apart so for many in our audience the return of Christ is a subject that unfortunately has a lot of

Fear and anxiety around it some developing a sort of Despair if you will many have what you could call Advent fatigue um part of this is because of Ellen White’s commentary on Mark 4 26-9 now Pastor if you don’t know the SDA Church’s official stated position is that alen White’s writings are divinely inspired and that they correct inaccurate interpretations of scripture they are on record documenting that her interpretations are an infallible interpretation of the infallible book which by the way is in and of itself heresy given what the scriptures say

About the scriptures so correct but notice what she writes when the fruit is brought forth immediately he putteth in the sickle because the Harvest is come Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of himself in his church she means the SDA Church there when the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in his people then he will come to claim them as his own it is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Peter 3:12 were all who profess his name bearing fruit to his glory how quickly

The whole world would be swn with the seed of the Gospel quickly the last great Harvest would be ripened and Christ would come to gather the precious grains so by the gospel she means the SDA Church’s end times message that only they have and the reason that Jesus hasn’t returned yet is because not enough sdas have arrived at a condition where they perfectly mirror the character of Jesus what they will call character Perfection what we might call sinless perfectionism due to the view of what they believe sin is character flaws Etc in their system but this leaves lot

Of sdas as well as those that leave so people in our audience with anxiety and a feeling of inadequacy the coming and return of Christ is not a lot of times people think well the SDA church is all about the second coming but it’s not just that it’s that you’re not ready for the second coming because you don’t believe and hold to these special present truths that are for this period of time and if you don’t come and join God’s last day people you’re going to experience the wrath of God so you need to hurry hurry hurry he’s coming soon and you’ve got a lot of work to do so so

With that in mind my question for you according to scripture why hasn’t Jesus returned yet are there still things that need to happen yeah first I would say part of the problem with all man centered systems all works righteousness systems is that they remove from the equation the sovereignty and Providence of God uh in a sense in the SDA system as in virtually every other um a Biblical or anti-biblical system uh is that uh man is in charge uh man and man’s doings will determine what God can or cannot do uh you know it’s uh it’s always astonishing to me when

Someone says Jesus you know yearns for this but he can’t have this until we do whatever we need to do um because what that’s saying is God is not God uh what that’s saying is that the authority and the power are ours our responsibility is to uh satisfy the desires of God rather than God satisfying his own purposes and will in the world uh the truth is that um that the sovereignty of God is the determining factor of all things the timetable is H his um you know as Peter tells us our our perspective of time is a skew because to the Lord uh a day is a

Thousand years a thousand days years is is as a day um we measure time entirely differently so why hasn’t Jesus come back yet well because God ‘s not done with us yet it’s not that we’re not done with God’s stuff yet it’s God’s not done with us yet God’s not done with history yet uh and when he is he will bring all things to pass but by his authority by his power according to his perfect plan the Eternal decrees uh set into motion from before the foundation of the world cannot will not shall not be frustrated God is God we are not and that should give us great

Relief uh the responsibility is not ours uh the the the mess that the world is in uh is uh part of our culpability as Sinners and as a weak and a feeble Church uh but God is the one who resolves those difficulties God is the one who provides the resources God is the one who opens the doors uh opens up the windows of heaven and pours out his Blessing uh so part of the the difficulty with most AB barent theologies is that they have a woefully deficient view of God and an over vaunted view of man man’s abilities and man’s responsibilities yeah and this kind of

Transitions here to perfectly to kind of what the next question is going to be um when I think about you know what what do the Bible put forth as to why Jesus hasn’t returned is it all just kind of ambiguous is there um is it as far as well the gospel hasn’t gone to All Nations or um is it these sorts of things um but when we talk about optimism and end times there’s something that I think that is at the foundation of that which I think is so key and you’ve mentioned it uh in passing earlier and I said we would come back to it um and I think a lot of the modern

Day is anemic in this area and that’s the kingdom of God Hebrews tells us that Christ is ruling and reigning while all of his enemies are being made his foot stol which is what the Salter said before the author of Hebrews and it speaks into what Jesus is presently doing and his active subduing of the earth perfectly like the first Adam failed to do but the bigger picture in all of that is the kingdom of God so Pastor what is is the kingdom of God is it a present reality or something still holy future the kingdom of God is simply the rule of Christ it is the application

Of the victory of Christ to every broken thing uh the kingdom therefore uh Has Come Just As Jesus proclaims it in uh the gospels uh over and over again he he proclaims the truth that the king om has come it has come with his presence with his Incarnation with his crucifixion his resurrection his Ascension he is now seated at the right hand of the father and he rules and Reigns uh with an iron Rod over all of the nations of the earth which is why uh in the Book of Revelation we see all of these scenes of of astonishing worship as uh the hosts of the redeem Through the Ages as the

Angels as the as the elders Before the Throne uh declare great and marvelous are your Deeds Lord God Almighty just and true are your ways oh King of the ages who will not fear you who will not worship and bow down before you for your righteous Deeds have been made known the Declaration is that the kingdom of Christ is the rule and reign of Christ has the rule uh of Christ uh completely uh resolved all of the wickedness and foolishness and Rebellion not yet um but it is an already and not yet reality now we don’t have time to do an exhaustive exam on all of scripture

On this subject but a common objection and question that people are going to have on this subject object is regarding John 1836 Douglas Wilson and I discussed this in passing a few weeks ago but it is a common objection to the sort of thinking that you are putting forth here what did Jesus mean in John 18:36 when he said his kingdom is not of this world uh it’s really simple uh the kingdom is not from this world it is not worldly it is not of the world instead it is good and perfect gift from above uh we are uh citizens of another kingdom uh and this other kingdom is now being

Brought into the present reality the circumstances of a fallen world but it is not of this stuff um when uh when we talk about uh where the stuff of this Earth comes from and what it produces none of that comports with the reality of the Kingdom so all Jesus was saying was I don’t derive Authority from say the consent of the governed I don’t derive Authority because I was born into a royal family I don’t derive Authority from anything that is in this world I am not of this world and my kingdom is not of this world instead it is altogether other it’s uh in part a clear

Declaration of the distinction between the Creator and the creature um and so when we look at the creation ordinances of Genesis 1 and two we see that one of the very first principles that is laid down is the contradistinction between Creator and creature this is something that Cornelius till really hits on uh very uh articulately um and so Jesus is simply reinforcing that Truth uh the kingdom is not of this worldly stuff it’s not comprised by it it doesn’t derive its Authority from it um which you know runs counter to the notion uh that uh Ellen G

White was was declaring uh when she was really saying the Kingdom’s manifestation is dependent upon Adventists doing the right stuff yeah and I think a lot of times people take that verse and read it to be saying something about Jesus’s limiting of his domain or his the limiting of his influence um that kind of what I was getting at earlier with uh well the S Satan is the prince of the power of the air he’s the one that in charge down here and well God’s going to end up destroying all that at one point and then making a new thing later on and his

Kingdom will will kind of be that other thing sort of out there yeah and that’s neoplatonism that’s not Christianity you know neoplatonism argues that there is an upper Realm of the spiritual and there’s a lower Realm of the physical and that Jesus here is declaring you know I I’m the ruler of the upper realm and the lower realm is just a mess but that contradicts everything that Jesus says um you know in the Great Commission go into all the world and make disciples teaching them to obey everything that I command you and and he he specifically says go to all the nations of the world

So it’s not go to all of the individuals or go to all of the families it’s to bring the whole world in subjection to the principles of the Kingdom that they might be set free yeah that’s good and again there’s a lot of stuff that I could could say there but in the interest of time I have a final question for you and I think it’s something that is great to end on in this sort of of context what does one need to do to be prepared for the return of Christ this very simple trust him uh the uh the unforgivable sin is to not trust him for all that we are and all

That we have the U the thing that paralyzes Christians is when they fail to trust him for their circumstances so what do we need to do to prepare for Christ we need to trust him we need to walk in his in his ways uh we need to bind ourselves together with like Believers so that the means of Grace may be reinforced in our lives but we are saved by grace through faith this not of ourselves it is the work of God in Colossians chapter 2 we’re told in the same way that you receive Christ Jesus continue to walk in him how do we continue to walk in him by grace through

Faith this not of ourselves what do we do to prepare for the coming of Jesus what we do what we do every day with every breath and we trust him by grace through faith this not of ourselves amen I cannot add anything to that because that’s exactly what I would say um where can people access more of your materials in both written and digital forms well I have a podcast on the fight laugh Feast Network it’s called resistance and Reformation uh you can go to fight laugh feast.com um I also uh have a website of my own George Grant uh.org I have um sermons

That are available on the parish uh press.org website I have uh regularly contributed to liers uh magazine Tablet Talk you can go there and search out all of my articles for liger uh I also am a regular contributor to world uh and World magazine and World radio so you can go uh and check out my stuff there uh but uh my encouragement to everyone is uh go find yourself a good Bible teaching Church find faithful Believers to walk with um love your wife your husband raise up your children and trust the Lord in all things Pastor thank you again for being here you are a

Gift to the church we love you and I pray that God uses this uh as well as your continued efforts in your emirus status uh for his glory to Showcase more trophies of Grace in his trophy cabinet amen we love you too so will sth day adventism have you prepared for the return of Christ ironically no it won’t because the SDA church has a false Christ and a false gospel neither of which can save a person which means if one is found affirming official SDA teaching when the true Christ does return they will be appointed to his coming wrath that’s because Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians

1:8 that when the true Christ returns he will be pouring out punishment for those who do not obey the gospel the same Paul that tells us in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 that those who obey Jesus Christ’s gospel and know the true Christ will be spared from the Wrath to come if one wants to truly be prepared for the return of Christ they must know the true Christ and obey his gospel not a special end times present truth gospel that came onto the scene in the 19th century claiming to be the true gospel El but the same gospel that the apostles preached who received it from Jesus

Christ himself and it’s by believing the true gospel the one that Jesus gave to the apostles that one can know they are prepared for the return of Christ whether that be tomorrow or 5,000 years from now if you want to access more resources share your testimony with us donate or connect with us on social media the links to do all of that are in the description box down below as always until next time God

Bless