Self-Fulfilling Prophecy & The Coming SDA Church Split

I’m going to open my heart to you today and share some convictions that I have about the church specifically about the church that I love the Seventh Day Adventist Church questions are being raised today will the church survive will it be broken up into independent organizational structures and will it be divided and fragmented serious questions are being raised about whether the church is going to survive some people are asking is it necessary for faithful Believers to leave the church is he leading people to be part of some movement that is separate from

The organized body to be faithful to scripture I’m going to present the evidence from both the Bible and the writings of Ellen White now I recognize very well that if a person has already made up their mind if they’re a severe critic of the church not much that I can say is going to influence them so critics and Skeptics are not my target audience my target audience today are honeste hearted people that are asking serious questions that want biblical answers well hey there so glad that you could join us especially if this is your first time with us Adventist or

Otherwise you know a lot of times I’ll hear from Adventists that I am allegedly evidence that Ellen White was a legitimate Prophet because she claimed that naysayers would come along partly those of us that once believed her to be legitimate and that we would then come up against her the sort of self-fulfilling prophecy was a favorite move of most false prophetic leaders throughout history but utilizing that same faulty standard I predicted that before beginning answering adventism that the division and confusion within the movement would only worsen and the

Self-fulfilling prophecy has been Vindicated once again the writing has been on the wall for quite some time which is precisely the problem time the end of the world should have come by now such that one shouldn’t even be here to even read the writing on the wall anymore but here we are nevertheless new drama has sparked within the Adventist Universe prompted by the cancellation of an SDA Pastor by the name of Conrad Vine particularly with some statements that he has made regarding the SDA Church’s handling of the covid-19 pandemic this little Kur fuffle has led to a variety

Of prominent SDA voices taking their sides in what appears to be a cancellation campaign however what has come from all of that buzz is uh the topic and discussion of an SDA Church split it’s important to understand the LoveHate relationship between three key Adventist doctrines when discussing this subject namely the shaking The Remnant in Babylon I like to think of this Trifecta as an inescapable cycle of finger pointing and self-fulfilling prophecy something we will be talking about throughout the night generally speaking the shaking is their teaching

Around there being a falling away period before the return of Jesus where the posers within the movement will fall away the doctrine on the remnant entails the fundamental concept that they are united in ways that protestantism is not such that they are a distinct and separate people called out from all of that confusion and their belief on Babylon is intimately connected with this Babylon supposedly representing protestantism which the SDA Church sees as their focus to call people out of to come join them as the remnant otherwise the wrath of God is stored up for them

And they won’t be prepared for the second coming this Trifecta produces a never-ending cycle of division fueled by fear that keeps many Adventists locked into the system despite how obviously false it is based on the organization’s own standards but despite this glaring fact the SDA Church’s concept of the shaking then swoops in with its Cape to keep an Adventist Who Dares question leaving from doing so lest they fall away from God’s last day Remnant people thus the cycle never ends but why is this Trifecta an inescapable cycle of finger points and self-fulfilling

Prophecy because adventism is steeped in division and every time something divisive gets the spotlight the focus becomes shifted to who is the remnant some Adventists going so far as to claim that there is a Remnant within the remnant which only further heightens the division leading to both sides pointing at each other as the subjects of the shaking and then simultaneously using that as proof that the shaking is happening but at the same time adventism is supposed to be immune from doctrinal division and finger pointing part of their core identity and evidence that

They are the chosen end times people of God as the Adventist inspired Penn tells us in her conflict of the AG of series quote the term Babylon derived from Babel and signifying confusion is applied in scripture to the various forms of false or apostate religion but the message announcing the fall of Babylon must apply to some religious body that was once pure and has become corrupt it cannot be the romish church which is here meant for that church has been in a fallen condition for many centuries but how appropriate the figure as applied to the Protestant churches

All professing to derive their doctrines from the Bible yet divided into almost innumerable sects the unity for which Christ prayed does not exist instead of one Lord One Faith one baptism there are numberless conflicting Creeds and theories religious Faith appears so confused and discordant that the world know not what to believe as truth God is not in all this it is the work of man the work of Satan now now despite the somewhat comedic irony of this quote it allows one to see that there isn’t supposed to be doctrinal disagreements and division within adventism that’s

Supposed to be relegated to all those Babylonian Protestants and there definitely isn’t supposed to be splitting or splintering that’s supposed to be foreign to the movement’s unique identity as the remnant and while the division around Conrad Vine isn’t directly doctrinal it has bubbled the doctrinal trifecta that I mentioned back up to the surface which is why I want us to listen to SDA Pastor Mark Finley discuss some of these divisions and more closely analyze the SDA Church’s identifying claims about itself as well as test the SDA Church by their own

Standard of Babylon in light of the current infighting as Mark made clear in that intro clip his message is not for critical thinkers but for those that want their security in the organization to be reinforced and coddled either way it provides us with a perfect opportunity to test some of these theological claims at the heart of all of this to show what the way of escape from the trifect of deception is now here’s a fundamental question is there apostasy in the church or is the church in apostasy there’s a big difference between those two things

Obviously there’s apostasy in the church the wheat and tears are going to grow together till the Harvest but if you say the church is in apostasy then you are akin to saying that the church is Babylon and you invite people to leave it all right so that’s exactly correct if the SDA church is in apostasy then they would be a part of Babylon according to their prophet’s alleged inspired definition of what Babylon is without getting into the nitty-gritty about how the SDA church is absolutely an apostate organization that preaches a false gospel a false god all

Filtered through the worldview given to them by a false prophet very clearly by Church mark means the SDA organization the wheat and the tears are supposed to be representative of their movement since the rest of us are Babylon and outside of the fold but like I said earlier despite the SDA church so obviously fitting the bill for their own definition of Babylon Mark recognized that if this is true then you open the door to invite people to leave adventism this is also exactly correct because this is supposed to be one of the selling points for being a 7th Day

Adventist quote of Babylon at this time it is declared her sins have reached to heaven and God hath remembered her iniquities Revelation 18:5 she has filled up the measure of her guilt and destruction is about to fall upon her but God still has a people in Babylon and before the visitation of his judgments these faithful ones must be called out that they partake not of her sins and receive not of her plagues hence the movement symbolized by the angel coming down from heaven lightening the Earth with his glory and crying mightily with a strong voice announcing

The sins of Babylon in connection with his message the call is heard come out of her my people as These Warnings join the third Angel’s message it swells to a loud cry close quote this is to say Protestants are allegedly partaking in the sins of the wicked world and the SDA movement feels it is their duty to call people out of that and join them before it’s too late which is precisely what’s found on the SDA Church’s website as their mission to proclaim the Three Angels messages of which the call to come out of Babylon is a part so if part of their organizational Mission and

Unique identity is to call people out of what’s supposed to be Babylon then it means that they can’t in any way fit the bill for such or that mission becomes null and void which is ultimately what Mark Finley is getting at and why this critical area deserves a particular significant focus when analyzing the validity of this movement now there are four great truths that we’re going to take a look at first an understanding of how God will purify his church at end time secondly an understanding of God’s view of church organization thirdly an understanding of

The difference between apostasy in the church and the church being in apostasy and fourthly an understanding of God’s plan for finishing his work so let’s Dive Right into our topic God’s method of purifying his church if you look throughout history God has always called out faithful Believers God called out Abraham from the Nations around him so that Abraham’s family would not be infected with the heresy of idolatry God called out the Jewish Nation to be his own special people according to Deuteronomy from Egyptian bondage after God called them out he

Worked within the Jewish Community giving them the 10 commandments to lead them again from false gods and idolatry and lead them back back to Sabbath observance and he gave them specific laws that would govern and guide the Jewish Community God called them out as the Jewish Nation drifted from God’s original purpose God called out the New Testament Christian Church in fact the word church is Ecclesia in the Greek language EC meaning uh uh out and accacia meaning called so God called out the New Testament Christian Church as the church grew large it entered into

Apostasy God has always had faithful men and women in every phase of church history down through the centuries but as the Christian Church grew large church and state United you know the story well shortly after the days of Constantine by the time you come to 538 ad uh we have the mideval church the Roman Catholic Church a church that during the Middle Ages persecuted the people of God a church that was in apostasy so what did God do he called out of the medieval Church the Protestant Reformation the Protestant reformers were the called out ones you

Have the wenes you have hus and Jerome obedience to God was their motto faithfulness to scripture Martin Luther Martin Luther with salvation is by grace through faith and you have the Baptist and the anabaptist movements baptism by immersion and the methodists that talk about Holiness and the millerite movement that talks about the Advent of Christ and Sabbath Keepers God called out of the larger body of protestantism the Seventh Day Adventist Church to restore the truths of scripture that had been lost sight of down through the ages in the medieval church at the union of

Church and state but some of which were recovered by the reformers so the Seventh Adventist Church is a called out body so the fundamental thesis of the discussion around adventism being the remnant is predicated upon error and historical revisionism which is exactly what the great controversy worldview does it distorts and rewrites to try and support a pretextual narrative none of the Protestant reformers none of them had this view of history that Mark is trying to associate them with none of them believe that the church went into apostasy during the Middle Ages and that

God raised them up to essentially restore the church which is important in this discussion because the trifecta of claims is built upon this fundamental error as church historian Philip schaf notes in his book principles of protestantism quote to be true to its own idea a Reformation must hold its course Midway or through the Deep rather between two Extremes in opposition on the one side to Revolution or a radical and violent over overthrow of an existing system it must attach itself organically to what is already at hand and grow forth thus from the trunk of

History in regular living Union with its previous development in opposition to simple restoration on the other side or a mere repetition of the old it must produce from the womb of this the birth of something new and then he continues a couple Pages later where he writes in the first place we contemplate the Reformation in its strictly historical condition its Catholic Union with the past this is a vastly important point which thousands in our day appear to overlook entirely they see in the 31st of October 1517 when Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis it is true the

Birthday of the Evangelical Church and find her certificate of baptism in the 95 thesis of Luther but at the same time cast a deep stain upon the legitimacy of this birth Itself by separating it from all right relation to the time that went before in this way all interest is renounced in the spiritual wealth of the Middle Ages which however belongs to us of right as fully at least it does to the Church of Rome and what is worse still the LIE is given practically to the Lord’s promise itself lo I Am With You Always even to the end of the world so the Protestant reformers saw

Themselves as entirely attached to the medieval Church whether you agree with them or disagree with them is neither here nor there the point being they did not believe that the church was completely apostate and that starting with Martin Luther it needed to be restored the Church can be thought of as a tree Jesus planted this tree and over time some of the branches became diseased the diseased branches picturing doctrinal accretions that aren’t ultimately rooted in scripture these branches then needed to be pruned back but this is vastly different than

Thinking that the core trunk or root of the tree was diseased such that a new one needed to be planted or raised up and as scha importantly points out the Protestant reformers saw themselves as invested interested and rightful recipient of the spiritual wealth of the Middle Ages not that the Church of the Middle Ages was apostate what shof put forth is not compatible with adventism fundamental framework and it’s one of the key pieces of evidence that the SDA movement is not Protestant they have simply tried to cherry-pick certain things from those individuals by

Claiming they all had something to contribute to the whole but the systems that they themselves affirmed were still apostate adventism is supposed to be the entire collection of all of the correct restored truths from each varying group all housed in one place as the 100% doctrinally pure Remnant completely distinct and separate from Babylon as SDA historian George Knight documents in his book search for identity quote North American protestantism of the 19th century was a child of the 16th century Reformation many Adventists are aware of that fact but have mistakenly concluded

That their church is an heir of those branches of the Reformation initiated by Martin Luther John Calvin or R zwingley while it is true that Adventist concept of salvation by grace through faith comes through the mainline reformers the theological orientation of adventism really finds itself more at home with what church historians call the radical Reformation or the anabaptist this is a more accurate summation of adventism connection to protestantism which is why what Mark Finley presented is not accurate and it puts a crack in the foundational claims

That he is parting from the great controversy the SDA movement is more akin to the anabaptist radical reformers what Philip schaf referred to as radicalists not Protestant the Protestant reformers would have denounced William Miller and LG white as what they were false prophets and schismatics yet what Mark is saying here about history is necessary for their entire concept of the remnant in Babylon to be true and it’s built upon historical revisionism and error remember this as he begins to try and present a Biblical case for this now the devil hates the Advent movement

Revelation 12:1 17 make no mistake the devil will do everything he can to destroy the Advent movement Revelation 12 verse 17 the dragon Satan was enraged with the woman the church he goes to make war with the rest of her Offspring which keep the Commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ so the devil is making war with God’s church so the question is will God keep calling out like he did in the days of Abraham like he did in the days of Israel like he did in the New Testament like he did with the Reformation like he did with the early Advent movement is

God going to keep calling out a movement not according to the SDA Church’s Prophet as he’s not who claimed to be shown in Vision that God had rejected the wicked world and the time of their salvation was passed quote I saw that Jesus prayed for his enemies but that should not cause us to pray for the Wicked World whom God has rejected when he prayed for his enemies there was hope for them and they could be benefited and saved by his prayers and also after he was a mediator in the outer apartment for the whole world but now his spirit and sympathy were

Withdrawn from the world and our sympathy must be with Jesus and must be withdrawn from the ungodly close quote which is perfectly consistent with her first Vision in December of 1844 branded as the path Vision or should I say alleged vision where she also claimed that God had rejected the Wicked World the time of their salvation was passed probation was closed and no more Sinners could be saved and those millerites that gave up on the movement fell off the path down into the wicked world that God had rejected this same thing was being stated all the way up in

1851 and was allegedly confirmed both times in vision and for Adventists that want to rely on the defense that the Camden New York Vision was a forgery that wasn’t actually written by Ellen White take that up with pastors and olist within your own ranks such as Kevin Morgan who was on this platform and utilized that Vision to try and prove that Ellen White is a legitimate Prophet Mark asked if God is still calling people out to come join them as the remnant not according to his prophetess who claim to be shown by God that Jesus no longer sympathizes with

The lost and doesn’t pray for them because they can no longer be benefited and saved by his prayers and she implored the early Adventist to follow suit because God’s sympathy and spirit had supposedly withdrawn from the world and to disagree with this is to call into question the Adventist claim to being the remnant if Ellen White was wrong then she’s a false prophet and by their own definition they aren’t the remnant with the spirit of Prophecy if she was correct and they want to defend that then the answer to Mark’s question is no God isn’t calling people into

Their movement including Mark Finley or any Adventist today because God supposedly stopped sympathizing with and calling people out of the world in the 19th century quite the catch 22 God is calling people out of the World by way of his church his body of Believers all over the world who Herald the gospel given to the apostles by Jesus Christ himself this gospel transforms people and when they believe it by faith they are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light they are made citizens of Christ’s Kingdom and living stones in the body of Christ

Of which Christ is the head the Chief Cornerstone but this has nothing to do with adventism though Jesus Jesus Christ has been doing this long before the SDA movement existed and will continue doing so long after the SDA movement is scrapped to the scrap pile of History God is not calling people out of the world to join a sectarian movement that has a novel gospel foreign to the apostles in the Bible that’s prizz a different God than that of the Apostles in the Bible what Mark actually means by calling out is a whittling down something we will talk about a little

Bit later he asked if God is going to keep calling people out like he did in the days of Abraham like he did in the New Testament and like he did in the Reformation yet like I showed the Reformation wasn’t a separating act separation only happened when the papal office gave an ultimatum to either submit or be excommunicated to which Martin Luther exclaimed that his conscience was bound to the word of God thus sealing his fate but to acate this with what Mark is talking about regarding being called out is a totally foreign concept to the reformers and any

Of the other individuals in history that he mentioned they weren’t being called out to join a sectarian movement which wages war against the actual Body of Christ but he also said that the devil allegedly hates the Seventh Day Adventist movement even though he was the architect behind its schismatic efforts and bearing a false witness against the actual Body of Christ this is the same Mark Finley you might recall that told us that in his imagination he saw Satan holding a diabolical council meeting in outer space to conspire with his demons against the Seventh Day

Adventist Church and the seventh day Sabbath no seriously in my imagination in the outer darkness of this world I picture a diabolical scene some places in the far some place in the far reaches of space a rebel Angel meets with his demonic forces in a strategy session now the forces of evil and darkness are eager to be successful in their devilish scheme in my imagination I see this committee meeting if you please and the devil is discussing with his evil angels how best to undermine the authority of Christ now to do this they determine in that meeting to focus

Particularly on the Sabbath they’ll attempt to discredit destroy and demolish God’s symbol of creation the Sabbath in any way possible so they begin to discuss this and they in my imagination I hear them debating and they decide on at least five major objectives except as I showed in that presentation by his imagination Mark actually meant Ellen White’s conflict of the ages Series where she said this exact same thing something scripture obviously does not say anything about simply reading Revelation 12:17 for the 10,000th time and asserting that it’s

Referring to the SDA church does not prove it this is what the SDA Church wants to be true and believes to be true because they allegedly have a divinely inspired interpreter of scripture that tells them this but the SDA Church prizes a false god on that ground alone they can’t fit the bill of their own definition of the remnant and what’s actually fascinating about this fact in the context of the remnant Babylon and a future SDA Church split is that this is one of the key areas of division within the movement it’s not only one of the key reasons that evidence they are

Babylon based on their own definition but it also evidences that they’re not the Commandment keeping Church of Revelation 12:17 even if we did want to grant them that their interpretation is correct it’s been a 170 plus years and various Pockets exist within adventism regarding pro- Heavenly Trio Advocates and anti- Heavenly Trio Advocates the Heavenly Trio for those unaware is the unique God concept of the SDA Church three different beings that are united in a mission and a purpose which is supposed to make them one single God as SD historian and theologian Jerry Moon

Writes in his book about the Heavenly Trio quote more recently a further question has arisen with increasing urgency was the Pioneers belief about the godhead right or wrong as one line of reasoning goes either the Pioneers were wrong and the present church is right or the Pioneers were right and the present 7th Day Adventist Church has apostatized from Biblical truth and that is exactly correct one pocket of Adventists agree with the SDA Pioneers while the modernists in the the movement agree with the modern SDA Church which disagrees in a number of ways from their

Own pioneers and they can’t have it both ways yet they aren’t supposed to have doctrinal division like this as the remnant called out of Babylon they’re supposed to be immune from such which further demonstrates that they don’t fit the bill for their own interpretation of Revelation 12:17 now we will look at what the remnant in Revelation is in a little bit but it’s not looking very good for the SDA Church based on their own metrics and standards the situation with Conrad Vine and the further division that it is causing is really only a symptom of the root problem which

Is that the SDA movement was born out of division and has only beget more of the same thing as time goes on or begotten you get my point there is no remnant of a Remnant in the Bible Revelation 12:17 says and the dragon went to make war with the woman and the remnant that is those who remain faithful and LA to God of her seed who keep the Commandments of God and have the gift of Prophecy there’s not one shred of a text in the Bible that talks about God calling out of the remnant another Remnant in fact if you look at the seven churches in Revelation 2 and three you’ve got

Ephesus and Smyrna and pergamus and thyra and Sardis and Philadelphia and leoda what is what is the word Leia means some people say a PE it means lukewarm not at all that is the condition of the leian church but the uh word Leia means a people of judged the people of the Judgment hour and remember in Revelation chapter 3 when the Church of leoda is introduced God says this is the Amen in fact let’s take a look at that in Revelation chapter 3 when God introduces the seventh of these churches there is no eighth there is no movement called out of the lean Church in fact in

Revelation chapter 3 we look there at chapter 3 and uh introducing the re Revelation 3:14 to the angel of the Church of leans write for these things says the amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of God the things says the amen what does amen mean means so be it amen you put it at the end of the prayer so lead deia according to God is the amen and where is Jesus he is knocking on the door of lead DEA so we want to be where God is knocking so that we can open our hearts to God so there is no remnant of a Remnant there is no calling out of le le

Is the Church of the Judgment hour okay so he said there’s only one one Remnant and it’s those that keep the Ten Commandments and have the gift of Prophecy which they alleged to possess with Ellen White except as we saw earlier Ellen claimed to be shown multiple times in the 1800s that the time of Salvation was up and the defense that this took place before the SDA Church’s formal incorporation in 1863 does not provide her with prophetic immunity which means that once again utilizing their own definitions they can’t be the remnant because Ellen White

Was a false prophet but Mark the fact that you have people within your ranks claiming to be the remnant within the remnant further evidences that you guys are not as United as you want us to believe you’re not immune from doctrinal division and as a leader within the higher echelons of the movement it’s very clear that this message is about damage control not discovering the truth a few weeks ago we looked at the standard SDA claims regarding the leodan church in Revelation and how they abuse this to read themselves into the narrative I won’t rehash all of that

Here but for those that are interested the link to this is in the description box down below so before one can even navigate The Book of Revelation one must land on their school of prophetic interpretation to do such most Adventists are simply fed the SDA Church’s novel form of historicism and then they accept that as the plain reading of the Bible typically alongside the talking point that all of the Protestant reformers were historicists and Adventists are simply in line with that and as I have pointed out numerous times before no this is not true not all

Of the reformers were historicist but furthermore who cares even if they were were that’s not an argument that historicism is indeed the correct one the fact is all of the prophetic schools of interpretation have their strengths and weaknesses and when it comes to the remnant the weaknesses of the SDA framework make themselves most evidently seen as Dr GK Beal notes in his Revelation commentary before getting into the book itself he explains what the four primary schools of interpretation are and the strengths and weaknesses of each regarding historicism

He writes quote this view tries to identify his historical movements too specifically and limits the Prophecies of the Apocalypse to western church history leaving aside the worldwide Church proponents of this view living at different periods of church history cannot agree with one another since they limit the meaning of the symbols only to specific historical reference contemporary with their own times another weakness of this approach is that such a projection of future history would have had very little relevance to the first century readers of Revelation

And this is precisely what we see with the SDA handling of ration it is read in such a way that makes the book virtually irrelevant to the vast majority of Christian history let alone the original audience that John was writing to to make the remnant some small group of people beginning in the 19th century is to functionally make that part of Revelation meaningless to the original audience and it is for reasons such as this that I personally would align more with the modified idealist interpretation which can both understand the historical and present application

Of the text without favoring one over the other as Beal also notes regarding modified idealism quote a more viable modified version of the idealist perspective would acknowledge a final consummation and salvation and judgment perhaps it would be best to call this fifth view eclecticism accordingly no specific prophesied historical events are discerned in the book except for the final coming of Christ to deliver and judge and to establish the final form of the Kingdom in a consummated New Creation though there are a few exceptions to this rule the apocalypse

Symbolically portrays events throughout history which is understood to be under the sovereignty of the lamb as a result of his death and Resurrection he will guide the events depicted until they finally issue in the last judgment and the definitive establishment of his kingdom this means that specific events throughout the age extending from Christ’s first coming to his second may be identified with one narrative or symbol the majority of the symbols in the book are trans temporal in the sense that they are applicable to events throughout the church age therefore the

Historicist May sometimes be right in their precise historical identification but wrong in limiting the identification only as one historical reality the same verdict may be passed on the predus school of thought especially the Roman version and certainly there are Prophecies of the future in Revelation The crucial yet problematic task of The Interpreter is to identify through careful ex aesus and against the historical background those texts which pertain respectively to past present and future so from this Frame framework notice what Dr Beal notes about the

Remnant of Revelation 12:17 accordingly Revelation 126 and 13-17 portrays the devil as beginning his attack against the church in the church’s early stages in order to destroy it quickly and continuing the attack as long as the church exists the pictoral distinction between the woman and her seed could represent the distinction between the early Jewish church and the church’s subsequent Jewish and Gentile growth but there is no intention to distinguish between a Jewish Church church and a later Gentile church since the church continued to contain a remnant of Jews

Nor is there a distinction between an earlier Gentile church and a latter Jewish remnant of 144,000 living During a severe tribulation of the final few years of History nor is there a distinction between the whole nation and a Remnant in the nation existing during the same period the description of the seed as those who keep the Commandments of God and who hold to the testimony of Jesus is open-ended and points to including of Jews and Gentiles indeed there is no clear indication elsewhere in the apocalypse that John emphasized any national distinctions in the church

The description here probably connotes how all the Earthly Church throughout the ages withstand the devil’s attacks according to Lad and beckwith’s view though very possibly the verse depicts how the last historical stage of the church’s Offspring withstands Satan’s oppression the church gives the same testimony as Jesus we have concluded already in the comments on re Revelation 1:2 that the phrase testimony of Jesus is intentionally ambiguous including both the testimony from Jesus given to the church and the testimony to Jesus given by the church the focus of the

Phrase may be on Jesus’s testimony to God which the church is to reproduce so to properly understand Revelation one has to understand the overall thesis and framework of the book which was that John the Apostle was writing to the first century Church regarding the soon persecution they were about to and what we find is an overarching theme of Christ’s Victory and accomplishment of redemption serving as a reminder to them that Christ has overcome and will overcome all of his enemies as he rules and Reigns leading history to its eventual consummation state with the

Second coming and the union of Heaven and Earth and this is the same application that the book has for us today it serves as encouragement and a reminder that despite whatever may be going on in the world Jesus has overcome the world and his kingdom is advancing with the the devil being a defeated foe whose end is coming it is within this framework that one must understand the remnant of Revelation the ones that Satan makes war with is all of those who have been called out of the Beast system the kingdom of darkness the lost world and are made living stones in the

Edifice that is the body of Christ Christ has been building his church for thousands of years and Satan has been Waring against all of those individuals that make up that kingdom of God from the beginning to think that this took on some brand new meaning in the 19th centur Century beginning with the Seventh Day Adventist and that Satan all of a sudden started hating them and everyone else all of a sudden just became his subjects that he no longer needed to war with is rather Juvenile and it is a very self-centered reading of the Bible in my opinion this is one

Of the biggest weaknesses of the SDA Church’s interpretation of Revelation and it clouds their handling of every passage in the book The idealist or modified idealist understanding of this text allows one to make sense of how the text has both immediate application to the first Cent audience it was Penn to as well as the modern reader 2,000 years removed now Adventists are free to disagree with that and they absolutely will but at the end of the day they don’t have some special insight into Revelation that no one else does they have an interpretation just like

Everyone else there are four chapters in The Book of Revelation that have to do with the true church Revelation chapter 10 is the historic rise of the true church Revelation 12 is the identifying characteristic of the true church keeps the Commandments of God as the testimony of Jesus Revelation 14 is the message of the true church and Revelation three is the spiritual condition of the true church but wait if indeed there’s not a calling out how will God purify his church at end time it won’t be a calling out of the faithful it’ll be a Shak out of the

Unfaithful and this is the key to understanding why God is not going to establish another movement an offshoot movement a parachurch movement why not because he’s not going to call out the faithful he’s going to shake out the Unfaithful now let’s look at the biblical evidence for this Hebrews chap 12 verse 25- 27 Hebrews 12 verse 25- 27 see that you do not refuse him who speaks don’t refuse him who speaks God says for if they did not Escape who refused him who spoke on Earth much more shall we escape if we turn away from him who speaks from Heaven whose voice then

Shook the Earth but now he’s promised yet once more I shake not only the Earth but also heaven now this yet once more indicates don’t miss this the removal of those things that are being shaken as of things that are made that the things which cannot be shaken May remain verse 28 therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken let us have Grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire now notice the things that cannot not be shaken remain so what is it that can be shaken those who are shaken are the

World conforming class they are indeed the evildoers within the church they indeed are the tears within the church they’re shaking now there’s a difference a little Nuance between the shaking and the sifting in the shaking let’s let’s just suppose I have a big jar and in that jar I walnuts and beans and I begin to shake shake shake shake shake what’s going to happen well the heavier beans are going to go where to the bottom the walnuts are going to go to the top so the shaking is a separation within we see that taking place now let’s suppose in

The bottom of that pan or jar I could put holes big enough for the beans to go through but too small for the walnuts and I’m shaking What’s Happening Now there’s a sifting and the beans going through so the shaking is a separation within the sifting is the corresponding leaving of the church or the going out from the church of those who have already had their hearts and Minds leaning or conforming to to the world so is that what Hebrews 12 is talking about or is this more isog jesis of the biblical text meaning meaning is it being read from the outside into the

Text Hebrews 12:1 18-29 is the author continuing his theme of the Lesser to the greater I’ve talked about this numerous times on this platform this time he is comparing and contrasting Mount Si over and against the Heavenly Mount Zion for you have not come to what may be touched a blazing fire and darkness and Gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hears beg that no further messages be spoken to them for they could not endure the order that was given if even a Beast touches the mountain it shall be stoned indeed so

Terrifying was the sight that Moses said I tremble with fear but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to innumerable angels in fesal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of a New Covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel and thus the reading of God’s holy word so he starts by explaining how the New Covenant believer has a better Mountain that they

Can actually approach and without fear if you recall in Exodus 19 which is what he’s referring to God presented himself to the Israelites by means of descending in a cloud that shrouded and covered the entire mountain and like the author of Hebrews notes anything or anyone that touched this mountain would experience death the scene was so terrifying that the people sought to have a mediator between them and God a role in which Moses filled by the time time we get to chapter 12 the author has already explained back in chapters 3 and 4 how Moses was a picture of Jesus Christ the

Better mediator and his point here is unlike Israel of old we can actually approach god with boldness that Chasm that existed between God and man at SI has been alleviated through the person and work of Jesus the better mediator of a better Covenant sprinkled with better blood and he says this as encouragement like he has been giving all throughout the book encouragement to approach the throne of God not with fear but with boldness and it’s after laying this out that we get to the verse that Mark Cherry Picked to try and read into the text the SDA

Church and their doctrine of the shaking see that you do not refuse him who is speaking for if they did not Escape when they refused him who warned them on Earth much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from Heaven at that time his voice shook the Earth but now he is Promised yet once more I will shake not only the Earth but also the heavens this phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken that is things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken May remain therefore let us be grateful for receiving a

Kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire and thus the reading of God’s holy word so the author is giving an exhortation like he has throughout the book a similar exhortation was made back in Hebrews 4 for example to not Harden our hearts to the gospel like Israel did in the wilderness and failed to enter into the promised land they had the good news preached to them and didn’t believe here we see him say a similar thing but this time with reference to Israel at SI not in the

Wilderness but the portion in focus is versus 26- 28 the author clearly refers to Exodus 19 regarding the shaking that took place in the terror of God’s presence as well as Hagi 26 notice speaking about the coming of the future Messiah Hagi says speak now to zerubabel the son of shatil governor of Judah and to Joshua the son of jehos the high priest and to all the remnant of the people and say who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory how do you see it now is it not as nothing in your eyes yet now be strong o zerubabel declares the Lord be strong oh

Joshua son of jehos the high priest be strong all the people of the land declares the Lord work for I Am with You declares the Lord of hosts according to the Covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt my spirit remains in your midst fear not for thus says the Lord of hosts yet once more in a little while I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea in the dry land and I will shake All Nations so that the treasures of all Nations shall come in and I will fill this house with Glory says the Lord of hosts the silver is mine and the gold is mine declares the

Lord of hosts the latter Glory of this house shall be greater than the former says says the Lord of hosts and in this place I will give peace declares the Lord of hosts now I know we’re doing a lot of reading but please track with me this is necessary to understand what Hebrews 12 is actually saying notice that there’s even a lesser to the greater mentioned in Hagi as well the greater temple of God would come Jesus Christ where the fullness of deity dwelt bodily but in that haggi foretold that when the Messiah comes there will be a shaking in the heavens and the Earth

That drastically changes things there will be a people brought in from all tribes tongues peoples and Nations to worship the true God not just National Israelites which means the shaking in Focus has to do with a radical change what I often talk about with regards to the new creation but that is what the author is referring to in the verses that Mark referenced the author is citing Hagi and talking about how Jesus came and shook all of heaven and earth once more but this time it brought about an unshakable Kingdom the Heavenly Mount Zion a kingdom that cannot be thwarted

Because Jesus is the king of kings and Lord of lords who defeated Satan sin and death and he will rule and Reign forever and ever as all of his enemies are being made a foot stol something the author has already talked about numerous times leading up to this chapter this passage has nothing to do absolutely nothing to do with the Seventh Day Adventist being shaken out of the SDA church so that what is unshakable in this case the SDA church can remain while the fake SDA converts are shakable and shaken out the Seventh Adventist Church isn’t the unshakable kingdom of God folks Mark

Simply engaged in word association fallacy he sees the word shaking in Hebrews 12 and then hitches the SDA concept of the shaking to the paropy which is supposed to prove it’s biblical this is a glorious portion of the epistle which is documenting down how Jesus’s kingdom is superior to that of any other because he came and redeemed creation and now rules and Reigns over it as king of kings establishing a kingdom that will never end and cannot be thwarted and we didn’t look at it but the same thing is said in Isaiah 11 that no one will hurt or destroy God’s

Mountain meaning it’s unshakable this is all being said in Hebrews as encouragement to the original audience who was tempted to return to the types and shadows of the old Covenant we have a better Mountain a better mediator better blood and a better Kingdom than simply National Israel did a kingdom that was indeed shakable and had imperfect Kings ruling over it now I could go on and on but I do want to close on another key observation that really strikes at the heart of what I’ve called the SDA Trifecta and that’s the character of Christ’s Kingdom the good

News of the Gospel folks isn’t simply that Jesus can forgive you of your sins this is absolutely true and it’s part of the good news but as Jesus himself taught the gospel is the good news of the Kingdom that’s what Jesus went about preaching that he was the foretold Messiah that all of the law and the prophets foretold of and those prophets spoke of a day when the Messiah would come and establish a kingdom that knows no ends that flourishes in growth and causes all of the Nations to stream up to it but that isn’t how the Seventh Day Adventist Church describes the kingdom

Of God we’ve listened before to numerous Adventist leaders describe how in Adventist theology the kingdom of God is only a people not a territorial reign as well as a Reign Over those people and that Kingdom people is supposedly the Seventh Day Adventist which makes sense why mark would have used Hebrews 12 the way that he did now there’s a lot we could look at regarding the kingdom of God but I want to look at one aspect from Jesus which really strikes a blow to the whole debacle going on in the SDA movement right now in Matthew 13 Jesus says he put another Parable before them

Saying the Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and Seed in his field it is the smallest of all seeds but when it has grown it is larger than all of the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches he told them another Parable the Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flower till it was all leavened Jesus gave multiple parables in this chapter about the kingdom of God after the parable of the wheat and the tears he says that the

Kingdom of God can be thought about like a small seed this small seed is planted in a field but over time it gives increase turning into something larger than all of the other plants growing into a fullon tree and this tree then attracts Birds to it which come and make nests within the tree in conjunction he also uses leaven in a lump of dough as another example just like dough that starts with a rather small lump it slowly and gradually Rises into something much bigger and Fuller both of these Parables parallel perfectly with what Isaiah tells us about the kingdom

Specifically in Isaiah 2 where he foretold that the messiah’s kingdom would be established and the nations would stream to it that’s the birds coming and making their nest in the tree the same Isaiah that says in chapter n that the kingdom of God would know no ends and the increase of Christ governance would continue forever while Division and Schism are brewing in the SDA Church leading to a whittling down and downsizing the actual kingdom of God is flourishing it’s expanding and growing people from all tribes tongues peoples and nations are hearing the gospel which is the means by

Which the kingdom grows and they are experiencing new life in Christ as living stones in the great edifice that is the Christian church with Christ as the Chief Cornerstone and head of the body the SDA Church isn’t what it claims based on simple analysis of the system’s own claims about itself using its own standards divisions like this will only continue to be a problem because 7th day adventism was born out of a time-based failed prophecy regarding the end of time and the longer time goes on the worse it gets for the movement and for their very grandiose claims so just like

Mark was making an appeal to Adventist I want to make one as well however he said that his presentation was not for Skeptics of adventism within their own ranks and mine is if you’re sick of all the division and the confusion that adventism has to offer and you feel like you’ve been sold a bill of goods that hasn’t uh manifested what it promises it’s because you have and that’s okay many of us had to come to this hard realization as well but there is a better Mountain that you can come to and we are on that mountain waiting for you to join us if this is you feel free to

Contact us at answering adventism tocom where you will find resources and a way to contact us don’t forget to smash that like button and subscribe and until next time May Christ richly bless you in the grace and peace won by him and his vicarious death on the cross for Sinners Hallelujah Mara until next time apostate did he say that come on man