"LET THERE BE LIGHT" Ministries
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January - February, 1997

"There are many precious truths contained in the Word of God, but it is `PRESENT TRUTH' that the flock needs now." Early Writings, p 63.


Elder: robert sessler
E-mail address:  lightmin@terragon.com


Dear brothers and sisters,
     1 John 3:1.

     As unbelievable as this may sound, it is becoming very obvious that SDA people and churches are becoming Catholic!  Seventh-day Adventists are not only being conditioned to accept Catholic thought and beliefs, but are even being openly told that they are Catholics!
     In the Spring of 1992, members of the Smithers SDA church in British Columbia, Canada, were engaged in a question and answer period with their Conference president Ron Watts.  During this period Harry Kurulak quoted two Spirit of Prophecy testimonies warning against Catholicism.  Harry relates what Conference president Ron Watts stated in response:
     "He attacked me by saying I was treading on very dangerous ground to go against the Catholic Church or its system.
     "He told us the word Catholic means universal, and then told us he was also a Roman Catholic and that we all are Catholic." Signed Statement by Harry Kurulak and Curtis Kurulak.

     This is not only happening in Canada, but especially in the United States.  On Sabbath, November 9, 1991, in the LaGrange SDA church in Georgia, pastor Gale Gabbert stated during his sermon:
     "But just think: if you were a Catholic, what time does Mass begin?  What?  6:00 a.m.  And Catholic means universal.  So you really are a Catholic--Adventist Catholic, a Roman Catholic..." Transcript of Taped Sermon by SDA pastor Gale Gabbert, November 9, 1991, p 1.

     Not only are SDA members being told that they are really Catholic, but the SDA church itself is being called Catholic as well!  In 1981 then President of the General Conference, Neal C. Wilson, stated:
     "There is another universal and truly catholic organization, the Seventh-day Adventist Church." Adventist Review, March 5, 1981, p 3.

     But this great change of the SDA church to image the Roman Catholic church should not be a great surprise, because we have already been warned of this very thing occurring!
     Sister Ellen White warned that the General Conference leadership were "pursuing a similar course to that of the Roman Catholics" (Manuscript Releases, vol 9, p 179--Letter 53, 1894); that they were trying to make the General Conference "like Rome, the great head of the work" (Manuscript Release #133, p 27--Letter 71, April 8, 1894); and that they were already "following in the track of Romanism" (Testimonies to Ministers, p 362).
     Not only was Sister White sounding the warning, but so did other faithful brethren--such as Percy T. Magan.  During the General Conference Session of 1903, before the new constitution was officially adopted, brother Magan obtained the floor and warned:
     "The proposed new constitution reverses the reformatory steps that were taken...in the constitution of 1901....but I want to say to you that any man who has ever read Neander's History of the Christian Church, Mosheim's, or any other of the great church historians...can come to no other conclusion but that the principles which are to be brought in through this proposed constitution, and in the way in which they are brought in, are the same principles, and introduced in precisely the same way, as they were hundreds of years ago when the papacy was made." 1903 General Conference Bulletin, p 150.

     For those who find this a little hard to believe, Sister White clearly wrote that "Our religion would be changed....A new organization would be established" (Selected Messages, book 1, p 204-05).  She also issued a warning to every SDA about the great changes that would take place in the SDA church.
     "I am charged to tell our people, that do not realize, that the devil has device after device, and he carries them out in ways that they do not expect.  Satan's agencies will invent ways to make sinners out of saints.
     "I tell you now, that when I am laid to rest, great changes will take place.
     "I do not know when I shall be taken; and I desire to warn all against the devices of the devil.
     "I want the people to know that I warned them fully before my death." Manuscript 1, February 24, 1915.

     Have these "great changes" taken place yet?  Has this "new organization" already been established?  Most definitely!
     In order for the SDA church to catholicize our people, they must adopt the same type of Catholic church organization--or a hierarchy.  Has the SDA church adopted this Catholic hierarchy or "new organization" of apostasy?  We will let the leaders of the SDA church themselves answer this question so that there will be no possible doubt.
     "The Seventh-day Adventist Church is essentially a hierarchical system..." Record, June 23, 1990, p 2.

     "The session [55th General Conference Session in 1990] has demonstrated the hierarchial nature of the church's administrative structure." Record, August 4, 1990, p 2.

     "Others have so identified structure with policy and the official hierarchy of the church that change is often viewed as unfaithfulness." Adventist Review, Special Edition, October, 1994, p 51.

     And Walter Scragg, president of the SDA South Pacific Division, admitted:
     "...the structure of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is essentially hierarchical...The pyramid of church organization maintains equilibrium and sustains growth as it reflects the people who comprise it." Record, June 23, 1990, p 4-5.

     But not only did the leadership admit that the SDA church structure is definitely hierarchical, but they also finally admitted that it resembles Roman Catholicism!
     Douglas Devnich, president of the SDA Canadian Union, stated:
     "The Seventh-day Adventist Church follows a model of organizational order in the church which is modified from the orders of Roman Catholicism, but it retains the same notions of clerical order which separates the members of the Church into two classes--clergy and laity." Messenger, December, 1993, p 2.

     But how could such a specious apostasy and departure from God be allowed to take place in a church which was one of the greatest "protesters" against Catholicism and the man of sin?
     "Although it is true that there was a period in the life of the Seventh-day Adventist Church when the denomination took a distinctly anti-Roman Catholic viewpoint, and the term `hierarchy' was used in a pejorative sense to refer to the papal form of church governance, that attitude on the church's part was nothing more than a manifestation of widespread anti-popery among conservative Protestant denominations in the early part of this century and the latter part of the last, and which has now been consigned to the historical trash heap so far as the Seventh-day Adventist Church is concerned." Equal Employment Opportunity Commission vs Pacific Press Publishing Association and General Conference of SDA, Civil Case #74-2025 CBR (1975), Reply Brief for Defendants, p 4.

     Has the SDA religion been changed since 1915?  Very definitely!  Every major principle of truth contained in the three angel's messages of Revelation 14 and 18 have been changed by the SDA church! (For proof of this amazing fact, please write for the booklet Transmutation of the Three Angels.  Or for a more in-depth study examining the history of the SDA church from its inception to the present day, including Spirit of Prophecy warnings of what the church was doing and would continue to do, please write for the book The Abomination of Desolation and Church History: Second Edition.)
     This changing of the SDA church system into another "catholic organization" and its membership into "Adventist Catholics" has been going on, slowly but surely, for decades.  And it is now to the point that even Catholic priests recognize the similarities!
     On September 14, 1996, "father" Benedict O'Cinnsealeigh presented a talk on Sabbath morning to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kettering, Ohio.  His talked centered on and was titled "The Similarities of Adventism and Catholicism."

     Not only do Catholic priests recognize that the SDA church is "another universal and truly catholic organization" but so do the people of the world!
     Judge William T. Hart handed down a decision against Derrick Proctor and in favor of the SDA church.  He stated:
     "Church documents that prescribe the church's structure and governance confirm that all parts of the church are parts of a single entity.  Next to the Roman Catholic church, the Adventist church is the most centralized of all the major Christian denominations in this country." Derrick Proctor vs General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist, case #81 C 4938, Findings of Fact, Section B, Church Objectives and Structures, p 22.

     In fact, this Ministry has compared the Roman Catholic Church with the Seventh-day Adventist church and has found 40 major similarities. (If you would like to obtain a copy, write for the booklet Image of the Beast).  Truly, "as is the mother, so is her daughter" (Ezekiel 16:44).
     The Seventh-day Adventist church is no longer the same church that it was raised up to be.  It has been taken over and changed into an image of the Roman Catholic Church--in fact the closest image of this beast of any church in America!  And God, ever merciful to His people, has already revealed this astounding possibility over 100 years ago!  Please read this amazing vision in Testimonies, vol 1, p 578.
     If the SDA church members cannot realize that their beloved SDA church is no longer the true church of God in any way or sense, but has become an image of the Catholic church, and if they don't do all they can to distance themselves from this corrupt apostate church, then they will be lost within the church they love and worship more than following the will of God!
     As every Catholic owes their spiritual allegiance to the Vatican and the Pope and not to Christ--by virtue of the fact that they belong to the Catholic church as members; and since the SDA church has been formed into "another universal and truly catholic organization," then every member of the SDA church owes their spiritual allegiance to the General Conference and not to Christ--by virtue of their continued membership in the church!  You say "impossible."  Yet read closely what your SDA church and General Conference leadership states under oath:
     "The General Conference, then is the Seventh-day Adventist church....the embodiment of the remnant church as a Christian denomination, in a unified worldwide organization, to which all baptized Seventh-day Adventists owe spiritual allegiance." EEOC vs PPPA, Civil Case #74-2025 CBR, p 17, Opening Brief.

     Why can't our people realize that their beloved SDA church is no longer the church God raised up and established in the beginning?  Why can't our people realize that their SDA church has apostatized and is working against God and the kingdom of heaven?  Why can't they realize that the leaders of their church have shut God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit out of the entire church (see Testimonies, vol 8, p 250; Battle Creek Letters, p 55-56)!  And why can't they realize that the church is just another deceptive Catholic system with the name Seventh-day Adventist on it?
     The third angel's message warns ALL people on the earth--including SDA's--not to be connected with the Roman Catholic church or any image of this beast, or they will "drink of the wine of the wrath of God," being a "partaker of her sins," and receive "of her plagues" (Revelation 14:9-11, 18:4).  And if any church members, especially SDA's, believe that they can remain connected to and part of their apostate church and yet still make it to heaven, they will find themselves suffering the plagues of the wrath of God, and thus wake up when it is too late for salvation!  Why?  Because God will never take to heaven those who rebel against His will because they stayed connected with sin--whether personal or corporate!
     Any who refuse to disconnect themselves completely from any Romanist church, whether the beast itself or one of its images--including the SDA church--will fall with their harlot church into the lake which burns with fire and brimstone suffering the second death!  While any who choose to separate from their harlot Romanist church will be gathered into the loving arms of Jesus who waits outside and calls His own sheep to Him (see Hebrews 13:12-13; John 10:4-5; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Isaiah 52:11).
     "The first, second, and third angel's messages are to be repeated.  The call is to be given to the church: `Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird....come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.'" Review and Herald, October 31, 1899 (vol 4, p 109, col 3).

     There are only two paths to choose from: the path of compromise and death with the apostate church, or the path of the cross of separation and eternal life with Christ.
     The choice is up to you and you only.

     WHICH PATHWAY WILL YOU CHOOSE?

Our next Newsletter will focus on "Our Necessity to be One With Christ and Each Another."



MINISTRY NEWS

     The Lord has graciously allowed us to begin publishing an all Spanish Newsletter!  This will be on the same bi-monthly schedule, and will begin this mailing (January-February).  Many Spanish brethren are not bi-lingual, and cannot understand our English Newsletter without it being translated.  So we are trying to fill this needed area.  If you know of any Spanish brethren whom you believe would benefit from reading our material, please send us their names and addresses--especially those brethren in other Countries.
     In the end of December, 1996, Warning! Last Call Ministry and "Let There Be Light" Ministries will be speaking at several meetings in the Philippine Islands.  It has been 4 years since this Ministry was there, and it will be good to speak in person with the brethren once again.
     Some of the home churches in Manilla, through the prompting of Steps to Life, have organized themselves into another General Conference--though not as hierarchial as the SDA church of today.  This is causing a big stir among our Philippine believers, and rightly so!  Thus we see the necessity of some of our meetings centering on this issue of church organization, and specifically on what type of Gospel Order organization does God want among His people which will be beneficial for the spreading of the Gospel.
     We would encourage and ask each of you to continue praying for the work in the Philippines; that God may become their all in all, His work being foremost in all their minds and hearts, and especially that they will abandon their wrong concepts of organization and also those who continue to promote such.  In our next Newsletter we will let you know how our visit went.
     We are so grateful to the Lord for all that He has done and is doing in spreading His truths far and wide.  His glory is definitely filling this earth in greater and greater measure, and soon it will entirely be ablaze with the knowledge of salvation from sin and sinners (Habakkuk 2:14; 5T 505)!  May we all become vibrantly active in spreading His precious three angel's messages while the freedom to do so is still available, for the time is upon us when it is beginning to get harder and harder to do so.  And soon, it will be against the laws of the land to speak these precious messages of life in the open!  Do not remain or become inactive now brethren, the promised land is in sight, and our redemption draweth nigh!



QUOTABLES

L Jesus died for us; and, in return, only asks us to live for Him.

L"In the final victory God will have no use for those persons who are nowhere to be found in time of peril and danger, when the strength, courage, and influence of all are required to make a charge upon the enemy." Testimonies, vol 3, p 327.

L There is no danger of growing poor by large giving.  The Lord is able to pour in, as we pour out.

L"Perfection of character is attained through exercise of the faculties of the mind, in times of supreme test, by obedience to every requirement of God's law." Series A#9, p 14.

L When you are swimming against the tide of custom and tradition in the church or the public opinion of the world, be assured that you are no dead fish; for they float along with it.