SDA Church History

Since 1985, many more testimonies have been released by the White Estates and subsequently published--most of these previously unknown to the Adventist laity. Many of these add significant insights as to what was occurring in SDA church history. Also substantially more beneficial and informative documentation of past church actions has become available. This additional information, coupled with the fact that nearly ten years has passed since the first publication, made it obvious that a second edition was definitely needed.

This enlarged, rewritten, and updated second edition still follows the year by year format with the writings of E.G. White to the SDA church up through 1915--or the first half of the book. The second half is largely made up of statements and documents from the SDA church itself, clearly showing how the church leadership have acted out "to the letter" the prophecies and predictions given against them should they refuse to follow God's revealed will.

This writer has no ax to grind against the SDA church, but is only interested that our SDA people are awake to, and knowledgeable about, the history of their church--from its beginning till now. This knowledge is the only way that our people may be able to avoid repeating the errors of the past, and also can know God's will for His people today.

God, at an infinite cost, sent His Son to die for us in order to save our freedom and protect our power to choose whom we are going to follow--Christ or Satan. Christ tells us to count the cost of following Him--in other words to become knowledgeable of what it means and what it takes to follow Him. This book is dedicated to those who choose to count the cost, becoming knowledgeable of what it means and will take to follow God's revealed will today and not to look back.

The phrases--"Abomination of desolation" and "Abomination that maketh desolate" are found in both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament it is found in Daniel 11:31 and 12:11. In the New Testament it is found in Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14. First, let us look at these parallel phrases and their meanings to ascertain what kind of abomination it is that brings the desolation.

In the Old Testament the Hebrew word for "abomination" is "shiqquts," meaning "disgusting, idolatrous or an idol, abominable filth, detestable."(1) In the New Testament the Greek word for "abomination" is "bdelugma," meaning "detestable idolatry."(2) Both these meanings apply to idolatry. But what kind of detestable idolatry is being spoken of? For this we need to look at how these words are used in the Bible, and then we can know what kind of idolatry is meant.

In the New Testament we find "bdelugma" used in Luke 16:15 and Revelation 21:27; stating that this detestable and disgusting "idolatry" is highly esteemed among men, but those who do such work will not enter heaven. In the Old Testament we find "shiqquts" used in 1 Kings 11:5-7 and 2 Kings 23:13 stating that Solomon worshipped Ashtoreth (the abomination of the Zidonians), Milcom (the abomination of the Ammonites), and Chemosh (the abomination of Moab).

Sister Ellen G. White states that God's chosen people today are considered to be His modern Israel.(3) As such we can pose the question: Is there any significance of these gods that Solomon worshipped to God's modern Israel of today--His Seventh-day Adventist people? To find the answer, let us first look at these false gods and what they stood for.

In ancient Babylonian times the sun and the constellation Orion represented Nimrod.(9) The moon, Venus (which was thought to be a star), and the constellation Cancer (the crab)(10) represented Nimrod's wife--Semiramis, who was also known as the "queen of heaven" and the "mother of the gods."(11) And the blazing star, as well as the constellation Aires (the ram) represented Tammuz,(12) the son of Semiramis--which was believed to be Nimrod reincarnated. Tammuz means "the purifying burner."(13) These three were the pagan trinity, and their symbols were also represented in the worship of Baal. The priests of Baal would sacrifice to the sun, moon, and stars.(14) But what did these symbols, especially the sun, symbolize? Lucifer! Nimrod symbolized Lucifer;(15) Tammuz--the son of Semiramis--represented Lucifer;(16) and, in fact, even Semiramis symbolized Lucifer--as Venus "the star of the morning"!(17)

The main symbol of Baal worship is the sun.(20) Sun worship has been around since the origin of Babylon and Nimrod. The main day to worship the sun is Sunday or Baal's day--the day of the sun.(21) We know that Solomon, the king of Israel, worshipped Baal and the sun. He was the wisest king that ever lived on this earth before Christ, and yet Solomon fell into idolatry. But how did he fall into sun worship, and under what circumstances?

"While Solomon exalted the law of heaven, God was with him, and wisdom was given him to rule over Israel with impartiality and mercy....But after a morning of great promise his life was darkened by apostasy....he who had led others to ascribe honor to the God of Israel, turned from the worship of Jehovah to bow before the idols of the heathen....

"In seeking to strengthen his relations with the powerful kingdom lying to the southward of Israel [which was Egypt], Solomon ventured upon forbidden ground....But in forming an alliance with a heathen nation...Solomon rashly disregarded the wise provision that God had made for maintaining the purity of His people....Solomon had begun to lose sight of the Source of his power and glory. As inclination gained the ascendancy over reason, self-confidence increased, and he sought to carry out the Lord's purpose in his own way....he entered into unholy alliance with nation after nation....The commands of Jehovah were set aside for the customs of surrounding peoples....

"So gradual was Solomon's apostasy that before he was aware of it, he had wandered far from God. Almost imperceptibly he began to put confidence in his own strength. Little by little he withheld from God that unswerving obedience which was to make Israel a peculiar people, and he conformed more and more closely to the customs of the surrounding nations....The money which should have been held in sacred trust for the benefit of the worthy poor and for the extension of principles of holy living throughout the world, was selfishly absorbed in ambitious projects....the king overlooked the need of acquiring the beauty and perfection of character....

"More and more the king came to regard luxury, self-indulgence, and the favor of the world as indications of greatness. Beautiful and attractive women were brought from Egypt, Phoenicia, Edom, Moab, and many other places....Their religion was idol worship...His wives exerted a strong influence over him and gradually prevailed on him to unite with them in their worship. Solomon had disregarded the instruction that God had given to serve as a barrier against apostasy, and now he gave himself up to the worship of false gods....

"Solomon's course brought its sure penalty. His separation from God through communication with idolaters was his ruin. As he cast off his allegiance to God, he lost the mastery of himself. His moral efficiency was gone....He mistook license for liberty. He tried--but at what cost!--to unite light with darkness, good with evil, purity with impurity, Christ with Belial....God can do little for men who lose their sense of dependence upon Him.

"During these years of apostasy, the spiritual decline of Israel progressed steadily. How could it be otherwise when their king had united his interests with satanic agencies? Through these agencies the enemy worked to confuse the minds of the Israelites in regard to true and false worship, and they became an easy prey....Refusing to follow the path of obedience, they transferred their allegiance to the enemy of righteousness....the Israelites rapidly lost their abhorrence of idol worship." Prophets and Kings, p 51-59.

"There is a lesson for us in the history of Solomon....He might have gone from strength to strength, from character to character, ever approaching nearer the similitude of the character of God, but how sad his history; he was exalted to most sacred positions of trust, but he proved unfaithful....Association with idolaters corrupted his faith; one false step led to another; there was a breaking down of the barriers which God had erected for the safety of His people; his life was corrupted...and at last he gave himself to the worship of false gods....

"All who occupy positions in our institutions will be tested. If they will make Christ their pattern, He will give them wisdom and knowledge and understanding; they will grow in grace and aptitude in Christ's way; their characters will be molded after His similitude. If they fail of keeping the way of the Lord, another spirit will control the mind and judgment, and they will plan without the Lord and will take their own course and leave the positions they have occupied. The light has been given them; if they depart from it, let no man present a bribe to induce them to remain. They will be a hindrance and a snare." Testimonies, vol 7 p 217-19.

The Hebrew word for "desolate" in Daniel 11:31 and 12:11 is "shamem," meaning "to stun, astonish, destroy, devastate, desolate."(22) The Greek word for "desolation" of Matthew 24:15 is "eremosis," meaning "despoliation, or desolation."(23) Websters states "despoliation" means "to strip, to deprive of something." The word "desolation" of Mark 13:14 is the Hebrew word "shimamah," meaning "devastation, astonishment, desolation."(24)

What were Christ's words to His true followers? "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand); Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains" Matthew 24:15-16. In Mark 13:14 He says; "standing where it ought not." In Luke 21:21 He says; "Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it [Jerusalem] depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance."

By putting these texts together we get a more perfect picture of Christ's words. He states that when the abomination of desolation stands where it ought not, in the holy place, then let His followers which be in Jerusalem and Judea come out and flee into the mountains, and let none return. "For these be the days of vengeance." These are strong words of warning from our Saviour. Yet this warning saved the lives of those Christians that escaped before Jerusalem was destroyed.

The Roman army, under command of general Cestius, surrounded Jerusalem in A.D. 66. But just before it fell, he unexpectedly withdrew his forces and, while retreating, he planted the abomination of desolation--the banner of Rome--in the holy ground. About three years later another Roman general named Titus resumed the assult, keeping up a siege until Jerusalem fell in A.D. 70. Thus there was absolutely no excuse for any of Christ's followers to lose their lives when Jerusalem was destroyed. The only people who did lose their lives were those who chose not to follow Christ's warnings but remained within Jerusalem. And it was only the mercy of God that Jerusalem was not destroyed sooner.

"Christ presented before them an outline of the prominent events to transpire before the close of time. His words were not then fully understood; but their meaning was to be unfolded as His people should need the instruction therein given. The prophecy which He uttered was twofold in its meaning: while foreshadowing the destruction of Jerusalem, it prefigured also the terrors of the last great day.

"Jesus declared to the listening disciples the judgments that were to fall upon apostate Israel, and especially the retributive vengeance that would come upon them for their rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah. Unmistakable signs would precede the awful climax. The dreaded hour would come suddenly and swiftly....When the idolatrous standards of the Romans should be set up in the holy ground, which extended some furlongs outside the city walls, then the followers of Christ were to find safety in flight. When the warning sign should be seen, judgment was to follow so quickly that those who would escape must make no delay. Throughout the land of Judea, as well as in Jerusalem itself, the signal for flight must be immediately obeyed....They must not hesitate a moment, lest they be involved in the general destruction." Great Controversy, p 25-26.

Many scholars believe that the standard or banner of Rome, which was set up in the holy ground of Jerusalem, was a lion-faced sun--its mane pictured as the alternating sun-rays. So the sign for flight was when the idolatrous standard of Rome--the banner of the sun--was set up or exalted in the holy place of Jerusalem. Christ's words of warning are also for us--His modern Israel. Since pagan Rome was replaced with papal Rome, what then is the idolatrous Roman standard of today? The banner of Roman Catholicism is undoubtedly the day of the sun--or Sunday worship. And what would be the abomination of desolation of today? It would be the setting up or the exalting of Sunday worship.

As the abomination of desolation--the banner of the sun--was set up in a holy place of Jerusalem, could it also be set up in a holy place of God's modern Israel--the Seventh-day Adventist church? Could Jerusalem prior to 70 A.D. be a representation of the SDA church today? Could the church repeat the same sins of Jerusalem that brought its destruction?

If the SDA church repeats the same sins of Solomon by disregarding the warnings and counsels of God, then they will also confound idolatry with our religion. And if they repeat the same sins of Jerusalem by refusing to walk in God's truth and rejecting His warnings, then the abomination of desolation, which is the exalting of Sunday worship in the holy place of God's Sabbath, will occur in the Seventh-day Adventist church. This would signify that the SDA church has departed from the worship of the true God, and are worshipping Lucifer instead. If this were to occur, then the sign for all of God's true SDA's to flee would be clearly seen.

"But the Israel of our time have the same temptation to scorn reproof and hate counsel as had ancient Israel....Neglect to repent and obey His word will bring as serious consequences upon God's people today as did the same sin upon ancient Israel. There is a limit beyond which He will no longer delay His judgments. The desolation of Jerusalem stands as a solemn warning before the eyes of modern Israel, that the corrections given through His chosen instruments cannot be disregarded with impunity." Testimonies, vol 4, p 165-67.

"If they will continue to disregard the reproofs He sends them, and act contrary to His declared will, ruin must follow; for God's people are kept in prosperity only by His mercy, through the care of His messengers. He will not uphold and guard a people who disregard his counsels and despise His reproofs." Testimonies, vol 4, p 176.

A serious question must be asked: Is the Seventh-day Adventist church following Christ and His teachings, or are they rejecting the truth and following the same path as did Solomon and Jerusalem--the path to ruin and destruction? The only way to answer this question is to examine the history of the SDA church.

The formal history of the Seventh-day Adventist church began in 1844. After the disappointment, God was leading our people ever closer to Himself and He greatly blessed us by giving us His messenger--Ellen Gould White. God gave, through her, the messages His people needed to hear and obey. Messages of great blessings and promises that all who remained faithful would share in. But there were also messages warning of the deceptive and seductive power of evil, and instruction on how to overcome it.

As the church was growing we kept our eyes firmly fixed on Christ, and we were greatly blessed. The message was extending far and wide, with the truth being presented in its pure, untainted form. God was working for and along with our people and we continued to prosper. There was no church organization or General Conference president, just ministers and people led by God's Holy Spirit. We prospered spiritually as well as physically because we allowed God to lead us and we were following His commandments and His biddings. Had we continued to do this, the whole world would have been warned to prepare and Christ would have come!(26) But we started to murmur. We gradually became less zealous and allowed ourselves to slow down in God's work. This is exactly what the devil was waiting for, so God sent a warning message to the church through Sister White.

"I saw Satan would work more powerfully now than ever he has before. He knows that his time is short...he will now work in every way that he can, and will try his every insinuation to get the saints off their guard and get them asleep on present truth, or doubting it, so as to prevent their being sealed with the seal of the living God...

"I saw that God wanted His people to be separate from the world; for wicked persons were the lawful prey of the enemy, and he would work through them in every way to perplex and destroy the saints, and if we were obliged to be in company with the wicked persons we must pray and watch every moment lest we should partake of their spirit; for they corrupted the atmosphere where they were and their very breath was darkness; and that the wicked would wax worse and worse, and we must cut loose from them and be free and free indeed. God does not want His people to mingle with the wicked more than they are obliged to....

"Could our eyes be opened, we should see forms of wicked angels around us, trying to invent some new and effectual way to annoy and destroy us; for I saw that God's watchful eye was over Israel, and that He would protect and save them, if they would put their trust in Him..." Manuscript 7, August 24, 1850, Last Day Events: from the Letters and Manuscripts of E.G. White, p 36-37. (See Manuscript Releases, vol 6, p 250)

God sent a message warning our people not to allow the devil to catch them off guard by their falling asleep or doubting the present truth which had made them God's people. They were also clearly instructed not to have any union with the world; they were to cut loose and be free from such darkness lest the church should partake of the world's wicked spirit and become corrupted. God also told our people that if they would continue to put their trust in Him only, His eye would be upon them to protect and save.

"...I saw that there was a great lack of faith with the servants of God, as well as with the church. They were too easily discouraged, too ready to doubt God, too willing to believe that they had a hard lot and that God had forsaken them. I saw that this was cruel....When they asked their Father in heaven for things which they thought they needed, and these did not immediately come, their faith wavered, their courage fled, and a murmuring feeling took possession of them. This, I saw, displeased God....

"...I was shown that God's people have been weighed down with clogs, that there have been Achans(27) in the camp. The work of God has progressed but little...God's frown has been brought upon the church on account of individuals with corrupt hearts being in it....Selfishness and exaltation have marked their course....The truth will take effect if the servants of God and the church will devote themselves to Him and His cause." Testimonies, vol 1, p 122 (June, 1855).

"I have seen an angel standing with scales in his hands weighing the thoughts and interest of the people of God...In one scale were the thoughts and interest tending heavenward; in the other were the thoughts and interest tending to earth....Oh, what a solemn moment! The angels of God standing with scales, weighing

the thoughts of His professed children--those who claim to be dead to the world and alive to God. The scale filled with thoughts of earth, vanity, and pride quickly went down, notwithstanding weight after weight rolled from the scale. The one with thoughts and interest tending to heaven went quickly up as the other went down, and oh, how light it was!...Said the angel: `Can such enter heaven? No, no, never. Tell them the hope they now possess is vain, and unless they speedily repent, and obtain salvation, they must perish.'

"A form of godliness will not save any....We are co-workers with Christ, or co-workers with the enemy. We either gather with Christ or scatter abroad. We are decided, wholehearted Christians, or none at all. Says Christ: `I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth' [Revelation 3:15]." Testimonies, vol 1, p 124-126.

"...I was shown in vision some things that concern the church...I was pointed back to the years 1843 and 1844. There was a spirit of consecration then that there is not now. What has come over the professed peculiar people of God? I saw conformity to the world, the unwillingness to suffer for the truth's sake. I saw a great lack of submission to the will of God....

"Jesus is coming; and will He find a people conformed to the world? And will He acknowledge these as His people that He has purified to Himself? Oh, no. None but the pure and holy will He acknowledge as His. Those who have been purified and made white through suffering, and have kept themselves separate, unspotted from the world, He will own as His.

"As I saw the dreadful fact that God's people were conformed to the world, with no distinction, except in name, between many of the professed disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus and unbelievers, my soul felt deep anguish. I saw that Jesus was wounded and put to an open shame. Said the angel, as with sorrow he saw the professed people of God loving the world, partaking of its spirit, and following its fashions: `Cut loose! Cut loose! lest He appoint you your portion with hypocrites and unbelievers outside the city. Your profession will only cause you greater anguish, and your punishment will be greater because ye knew His will, but did it not.'...

"God will have a people separate and distinct from the world. And as soon as any have a desire to imitate...the world, that they do not immediately subdue, just so soon God ceases to acknowledge them as His children. They are the children of the world and of darkness." Testimonies, vol 1, p 127-37 (May 27, 1856).

"...The Lord has shown me in vision some things concerning the church in its present lukewarm state, which I will relate to you. The church was presented before me in vision. Said the angel to the church: `Jesus speaks to thee, "Be zealous and repent."' This work, I saw, should be taken hold of in earnest. There is something to repent of. Worldly-mindedness, selfishness, and covetousness have been eating out the spirituality and life of God's people....

"I was shown that the testimony to the Laodiceans applies to God's people at the present time, and the reason it has not accomplished a greater work is because of hardness of their hearts. But God has given the message time to do its work. The heart must be purified from sins which have so long shut out Jesus. This fearful message will do its work....I saw that this message would not accomplish its work in a few months. It is designed to arouse the people of God, to discover to them their backslidings, and to lead to zealous repentance, that they may be favored with the presence of Jesus,(A) and be fitted for the loud cry of the third angel....

"God will prove His people. Jesus bears patiently with them, and does not spew them out of His mouth in a moment.(B) Said the angel: `God is weighing His people.'(C) If the message had been of as short duration as many of us supposed, there would have been no time for them to develop character....

"Said the angel: `God will bring His work closer and closer to test and prove every one of His people.'...If any will not be purified through obeying the truth, and overcome their selfishness, their pride, and evil passions, the angels of God have their charge: `They are joined to their idols, let them alone,' and they pass on to their work, leaving these with their sinful traits unsubdued, to the control of evil angels.(D) Those who come up to every point, and stand every test, and overcome, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and they will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation."(E) Testimonies, vol 1, p 186-87.

"The figure of spewing out of His mouth means that He cannot offer up your prayers or your expressions of love to God. He cannot endorse your teachings of His word, or your spiritual work in anywise. He cannot present your religious exercises with the request that grace be given you." Testimonies, vol 6, p 408.

"God is represented as weighing all men, their words, their deeds, their motives, that which determines character....Now read the claims of God upon every man and woman: `Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself' [Luke 10:27]. He will not release one atom of His claim; He will not accept half worship while half the heart is given to some idol....

"I was shown that if the people of God make no effort on their part, but wait for the refreshing to come upon them and remove their wrongs and correct their errors; if they depend upon that to cleanse them from filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and fit them to engage in the loud cry of the third angel, they will be found wanting. The refreshing or power of God comes only on those who have prepared themselves for it by doing the work which God bids them, namely, cleansing themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Testimonies, vol 1, p 619.

"I saw that many were neglecting the preparation so needful, and were looking to the time of `refreshing' and the `latter rain' to fit them to stand in the day of the Lord and to live in His sight. Oh, how many I saw in the time of trouble without a shelter! They had neglected the needful preparation; therefore they could not receive the refreshing that all must have to fit them to live in the sight of a holy God." Early Writings, p 71.

As we can see, the message that the SDA church is Laodicea is to bring repentance and purification. If the church does not accept the truth and repent of her backslidings and lukewarmness, then Christ's presence cannot return to the church. It will be found wanting. Its ministers will be led by Satan and will deceive our people, and they will not receive the latter rain which is to fit them to be part of the 144,000--to be translated to heaven. Truly this was a solemn and fearful message of warning and admonition to the SDA church in 1859.

"How many shrink from the purifying process! They are unwilling to live out the truth, unwilling to appear singular in the eyes of the world.(29) It is this mingling with the world that destroys our spirituality, pureness, and zeal. Satan's power is constantly exercised to stupefy the sensibilities of God's people, that their consciences may not be sensitive to wrong, and that the sign of distinction between them and the world may be destroyed....

"Those who profess to be Christians amid the perils of the last days, and do not imitate the humble, self-denying Pattern, place themselves in the enemy's ranks....The distance is widening between Christ and His people, and lessening between them and the world. The marks of distinction between Christ's professed people and the world have almost disappeared. Like ancient Israel,(30) they follow after the abominations of the nations around them....

"The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for Himself; this consecration to God and separation from the world is plainly and positively enjoined in both the Old and the New Testament. There is a wall of separation which the Lord Himself has established between the things of the world and the things He has chosen out of the world and sanctified unto Himself. The calling and character of God's people are peculiar, their prospects are peculiar, and these peculiarities distinguish them from all other people....

"Those who will be heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ to the immortal inheritance, will be peculiar. Yes, so peculiar that God places a mark upon them as His, wholly His. Think ye that God will receive, honor, and acknowledge a people so mixed up with the world that they differ from them only in name?...It is soon to be known who is on the Lord's side..." Testimonies, vol 1, p 274-87.

"I was shown that a most solemn work is before us. Its importance and magnitude are not realized. As I marked the indifference which was everywhere apparent, I was alarmed for ministers and people. There seemed to be a paralysis upon the cause of present truth. The work of God seemed stayed....In their present state of worldly ambition, with their lack of consecration to God, their devotion to self, they are wholly unfit to receive the latter rain and, having done all, to stand against the wrath of Satan, who by his inventions would cause them to make shipwreck of faith, fastening upon them some pleasing self-deception. They think they are all right when they are all wrong....

"Ministers should be ensamples to the flock of God. But they are not safe from Satan's temptations. They are the very ones whom he will seek to ensnare....Selfishness, hypocrisy, and every species of deception, Satan clothes with a garment of apparent truth and righteousness, and triumphs in his success, even with ministers and people who profess to understand his wiles....

"I saw that before the work of God can make any decided progress, the ministers must be converted....The ministers must be converted before they can strengthen their brethren....A reformation is needed among the people, but it should first begin its purifying work with the ministers. They are watchman upon the walls of Zion, to sound the note of warning to the careless, the unsuspecting; also to portray the fate of the hypocrite in Zion....

"There is a great work to be accomplished for Sabbath-keepers. Their eyes must be opened and they see their true condition, and be zealous and repent, or they will fail of everlasting life. The spirit of the world has taken possession of them, and they are brought into captivity by the powers of darkness." Testimonies, vol 1, p 466-69, 478-79 (December 25, 1865).

"...I was shown the state of God's professed people. Many of them were in great darkness, yet seemed to be insensible to their true condition....Men who stand in very responsible positions at the heart of the work are asleep. Satan has paralyzed them in order that his plans and devices may not be discerned, while he is active to ensnare, deceive, and destroy.

"Some who occupy the position of watchmen to warn the people of danger have given up their watch and recline at ease. They are unfaithful sentinels. They remain inactive, while their wily foe enters the fort and works successfully by their side to tear down what God has commanded to be built up. They see that Satan is deceiving the inexperienced and unsuspecting; yet they take it all quietly,(32) as though they had no special interest, as though these things did not concern them. They apprehend no special danger; they see no cause to raise an alarm. To them everything seems to be going well, and they see no necessity of raising the faithful, trumpet notes of warning which they hear borne by the plain testimonies, to show the people their transgressions and the house of Israel their sins. These reproofs and warnings disturb the quiet of these sleepy, ease-loving sentinels, and they are not pleased....

"These are the true feelings of many of our people. And Satan exults at his success in controlling the minds of so many who profess to be Christians. He has deceived them, benumbed their sensibilities, and planted his hellish banner right in their midst, and they are so completely deceived that they know not that it is he." Testimonies, vol 2, p 439-40 (October 2, 1868).

Before we continue with the above testimony, let us understand what we have just read. Satan has so deceived the SDA leaders and ministers that they have willingly allowed him to deceive our people! They have also allowed Satan to plant his hellish banner in the midst of the church, where God's banner should be.

Solomon followed after Baal until his candlestick was removed and Israel fell into apostasy. This did not happen all at once, but was a gradual departure from God and from His truth. Will the SDA leadership also follow after Baal, gradually putting custom and tradition above God's wisdom and truth? If they do this, then their candlestick will be removed, and apostasy will prevail. This can only lead to one end--the exalting of Sunday! This will happen only if the SDA leadership continues to depart from God's light and truth, continues to link up with Satan, and unites with the world.

"God's professed people are selfish and self-caring. They love the things of this world, and have fellowship with the works of darkness. They have pleasure in unrighteousness. They have not love toward God nor love for their neighbors. They are idolaters, and are worse, far worse, in the sight of God than heathen, graven-image worshippers who have no knowledge of a better way.(34)...

"Like ancient Israel the church has dishonored her God by departing from the light, neglecting her duties, and abusing her high and exalted privilege of being peculiar and holy in character. Her members have violated their covenant to live for God and Him only. They have joined with the selfish and world-loving. Pride, the love of pleasure, and sin have been cherished, and Christ has departed. His Spirit has been quenched in the church. Satan works side by side with professed Christians; yet they are so destitute of spiritual discernment that they do not detect him....

"But the Lord is dishonored and His cause reproached by His people's being in bondage to the world. They are in friendship with the world, the enemies of God. Their only hope of salvation is to separate from the world and zealously maintain their separate, holy, and peculiar character. Oh! why will not God's people comply with the conditions laid down in His word?...

"I have stated before them that, from what was shown me, but a small number of those now professing to believe the truth would eventually be saved--not because they could not be saved, but because they would not be saved in God's own appointed way. The way marked out by our divine Lord is too narrow and the gate too strait to admit them while grasping the world or while cherishing selfishness or sin of any kind....

"Seventh-day Adventists, who profess to be looking for and loving the appearing of Christ, should not follow the course of worldlings. These are no criterion for commandment keepers....Commandment-keeping Adventists occupy a peculiar, exalted position. John viewed them in holy vision and thus described them: `Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and have the faith of Jesus' [Revelation 14:12]." Testimonies, vol 2, p 440-46, 450.

"Consider, my brethren and sisters, that the Lord has a people, a chosen people, His church, to be His own, His own fortress, which He holds in a sin-stricken, revolted world; and He intended that no authority should be known in it, no laws be acknowledged by it, but His own." Testimonies to Ministers, p 16.

"Christ has a church in every age. Obedience to the commandments of God gives us a right to the privileges of this church. There are those in the church who are made no better by their connection with it. They themselves break the terms of their election. If we comply with the conditions God has made, we shall secure our election to salvation. Perfect obedience to His commandments is the evidence that we love God." Review and Herald, vol 4, p 202.

"God has a church. It is not the great cathedral, neither is it the national establishment, neither is it the various denominations; it is the people who love God and keep His commandments. `Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them' (Matt. 18:20). Where Christ is even among the humble few, this is Christ's church, for the presence of the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity can alone constitute a church." Upward Look, p 315.

"In taking upon themselves the solemn covenant of the church they have pledged themselves to receive and obey the word of God, to give themselves to God's service, but they do not do this. In profession they claim to be sons of God, but in life and character they deny(35) the relationship. They do not surrender the will to God. They are living a lie." Christ's Object Lessons, p 279.

"There are many who profess the name of Christ whose hearts are not engaged in His service. They have simply arrayed themselves in a profession of godliness, and by this very act they have made greater their condemnation, and have become more deceptive and more successful agents of Satan in the ruin of souls."(36) Review and Herald, vol 2, p 197.

"Those who profess to be Christians, yet do not act as Christ would were He in their place, greatly injure the cause of God. They misrepresent their Saviour, and are standing under false colors...When Christians do not reveal Christ of what value are they? Are they not like savorless salt, `good for nothing'?" Review and Herald, vol 4, p 343.

We can clearly see that those SDA's who make a profession alone are denying Christ, misrepresenting Him, standing under the false colors of Satan's black banner, living a lie, are good for nothing, and are not God's true people. Nor are they a part of His true church, but are successful agents of Satan in deceiving their brethren.

"Speaking to His church Christ said, `Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them' [Matthew 18:19-20]. The professing Christian who is not a Christian in practice, is not included in this promise." Manuscript 9, February 10, 1908, Manuscript Releases, vol 17, p 164.

"Either the evil angels or the angels of God are controlling the minds of men. Our minds are given to the control of God, or to the control of the powers of darkness; and it will be well for us to inquire where we are standing today--whether under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel, or under the black banner of the powers of darkness." SDA Bible Commentary, vol 6, p 1120.

"There can be only two classes. Each party is distinctly stamped, either with the seal of the living God, or with the mark of the beast or his image. Each son and daughter of Adam chooses Christ or Barabbas as his general. All who place themselves on the side of the disloyal are under Satan's black banner, and are charged with rejecting and despitefully using Christ. They are charged with deliberately crucifying the Lord of life and glory." Review and Herald, vol 4, p 148.

"Satan has a large confederacy, his church. Christ calls them the synagogue of Satan because the members are the children of sin. The members of Satan's church have been constantly working to cast off the divine law, and confuse the distinction between good and evil. Satan is working with great power in and through the children of disobedience to exalt treason and apostasy as truth and loyalty." Testimonies to Ministers, p 16.

"You think that those who worship at the saint's feet, [`the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie, behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee'] (Rev. 3:9), will at last be saved. Here I must differ with you; for God has shew me that this class were professed Adventists, who had fallen away, and `crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh,(37) and put Him to an open shame' [Hebrews 6:6].(38) And in the hour of temptation, which is yet to come, to show out every one's true character, they will know that they are forever lost; and overwhelmed with anguish of spirit, they will bow at the saint's feet." A Word to the little Flock, p 12 (April, 1847).

Sister White has extremely important testimonies dealing with God's church, and we must be able to distinguish which class that is being referred to--God's true people or those who say they are Adventists, and are not, but they do lie. Also remember that God's true church are those whose only authority is God. They keep His law, and have the faith of Jesus; while Satan's church are those professed SDA's who are the children of sin and disobedience, who confuse good and evil, and exalt treason and apostasy.

"I have waited anxiously, hoping that God would put His Spirit upon some and use them as instruments of righteousness to awaken and set in order His church. I have almost despaired as I have seen, year after year, a greater departure from that simplicity which God has shown me should characterize the life of His followers....

"But very few have an experimental knowledge of the sanctifying influence of the truths which they profess. Their obedience and devotion have not been in accordance with their light and privileges. They have no real sense of the obligation resting upon them to walk as children of the light, and not as children of darkness. If the light that has been given to these had been given to Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes, and would have escaped the signal wrath of God. It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for those who have been privileged with the clear light, and have had a vast amount of labor, but have not profited by it. They have neglected the great salvation which God in mercy was willing to bestow. They were so blinded by the devil that they verily thought themselves rich in the favor of God, when the True Witness declares them to be wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Testimonies, vol 2, p 483-84, 488-89.

"I have been shown that the greatest reason why the people of God are now found in this state of spiritual blindness is that they will not receive correction. Many have despised the reproofs and warnings given them. The True Witness condemns the lukewarm condition of the people of God, which gives Satan great power over them in this waiting, watching time....

"Those who are reproved by the Spirit of God should not rise up against the humble instrument. It is God, and not an erring mortal, who has spoken to save them from ruin. Those who despise the warning will be left in blindness to become self-deceived. But those who will heed it, and zealously go about the work of separating their sins from them in order to have the needed graces, will be opening the door of their hearts that the dear Saviour may come in and dwell with them. This class you will ever find in perfect harmony with the testimony of the Spirit of God....

"Some, in their tempted condition, charge the difficulties and perplexities of the people of God to the testimonies of reproof that we have given them. They think the trouble is with the ones who bear the message of warning, who point out the sins of the people and correct their errors. Many are deceived by the adversary of souls....They are doing the work of Satan, but think they have a zeal for God....They think that the people of God are not in need of plain dealing and of reproof,(41) but that God is with them. These tempted ones, whose souls have ever been at war with the faithful reproving of sin, would cry: Speak unto us smooth things....

"The people of God must see their wrongs and arouse to zealous repentance and a putting away of those sins which have brought them into such a deplorable condition of poverty, blindness, wretchedness, and fearful deception. I was shown that the pointed testimony must live in the church. This alone will answer to the message to the Laodiceans. Wrongs must be reproved, sin must be called sin, and iniquity must be met promptly and decidedly, and put away from us as a people." Testimonies, vol 3, p 254-60.

God's mercy is great towards the SDA people. SDA leaders, ministers, and people refused the warnings to repent from their sins, and still God did not send His judgments against them. In love He continues to send warnings. But how long can the professed church continue to refuse Christ and His warnings without consequences? As sins continued to grow, the testimonies became more pointed and blunt.

"The great heart of the work is at ______; and as the human heart throws its living current of blood into all parts of the body, so does the management at this place, the headquarters of our church, affect the whole body of believers. If the physical heart is healthy, the blood that is sent from it through the system is also healthy; but if this fountain is impure, the whole organism becomes diseased by the poison of the vital fluid. So it is with us. If the heart of the work becomes corrupt, the whole church, in its various branches and interests, scattered abroad over the face of the earth, suffers in consequence.

"Satan's chief work is at the headquarters of our faith. He spares no pains to corrupt men in responsible positions and to persuade them to be unfaithful to their several trusts....Satan is doing his utmost to deceive and allure them, that they may not only be destroyed themselves, but may influence others to do wrong and to injure the great work. He seeks by all the means in his power to shake the confidence of God's people in the voice of warning and reproof through which God designs to purify the church and prosper His cause.

"It is Satan's plan to weaken the faith of God's people in the Testimonies.(42) Next follows skepticism in regard to the vital points of our faith, the pillars of our positions,(43) then doubt as to the Holy Scriptures,(44) and then the downward march to perdition. When the Testimonies, which were once believed, are doubted and given up, Satan knows the deceived ones will not stop at this; and he redoubles his efforts till he launches them into open rebellion, which becomes incurable(45) and ends in destruction." Testimonies, vol 4, p 210-11 (January 5, 1875).

God has graciously warned His people about the future. If the heart of the work, the headquarters of the SDA church--or the General Conference, becomes corrupt then everything connected with the General Conference throughout the whole world will also be affected with the corruption. Not only this, but if this occurs, then the testimonies will be disbelieved, the pillars of our faith will be given up, the Holy Scriptures doubted, then incurable rebellion follows, bringing destruction upon the SDA church.

"God does not send judgments upon His people without first warning them to repent.(46) He uses every means to bring them back to obedience and does not visit their iniquity with judgments until He has given them ample opportunity to repent....To defy the words of the Lord, spoken through His chosen instruments, will only provoke His anger and eventually bring certain ruin upon the offender.(47) Indignation often kindles in the heart of the sinner against the agent whom God chooses to deliver His reproofs. It has ever been thus, and the same spirit exists today that persecuted and imprisoned Jeremiah for obeying the word of the Lord....

"There are many false prophets in these days, to whom sin does not appear specially repulsive. They complain that the peace of the people is unnecessarily disturbed by the reproofs and warnings of God's messengers. As for them, they lull the souls of sinners into a fatal ease by smooth and deceitful teachings. Ancient Israel was thus charmed by the flattering messages of the corrupt priests. Their prediction of prosperity was more pleasing than the message of the true prophet, who counseled repentance and submission....

"Those who seek to cloak sin and make it appear less aggravating to the mind of the offender are doing the work of the false prophets and may expect the retributive wrath of God to follow such a course. The Lord will never accommodate His ways to the wishes of corrupt men." Testimonies, vol 4, p 179-85.

"A sin-hating God calls upon those who profess to keep His law to depart from all iniquity. Neglect to repent and obey His word will bring as serious consequences upon God's people today as did the same sin upon ancient Israel.(48) There is a limit beyond which He will no longer delay His judgments. The desolation of Jerusalem stands as a solemn warning before the eyes of modern Israel, that the corrections given through His chosen instruments cannot be disregarded with impunity." Testimonies, vol 4, p 166-67.

"The religious life of the Jewish nation had become a pretense....The truth that should have been to them a savor of life unto life became a savor of death unto death....Their own stubborn hearts were the obstacle to their receiving the truth. They resisted the conviction of the Spirit of God....While professing to obey they refused to render obedience to God. They were not doers of the truth which they professed to teach....

"God called them to be co-workers with Him in blessing the world; but while in profession they accepted the call, in action they refused obedience....They refused to do the work which God had appointed them, and because of their transgression the Lord was about to divorce Himself from the disobedient nation....

"The warning was not heeded by the Jewish people. They forgot God, and lost sight of their high privilege as His representatives. The blessings they had received brought no blessing to the world. All their advantages were appropriated for their own glorification....The priests and teachers were not faithful instructors of the people....

"The guilt of these leaders in Israel was not like the guilt of the ordinary sinner. These men stood under the most solemn obligation to God....But the priests and teachers did not perform the work of their sacred office as if they were handling the property of God. They were systematically robbing Him of the means and facilities entrusted to them for the advancement of His work....

"The Jewish people cherished the idea that they were the favorites of heaven, and that they were always to be exalted as the church of God....But by lives of unfaithfulness they were preparing for the condemnation of heaven and for separation from God....They rejected the Light of the world, and thenceforth their lives were surrounded with darkness as the darkness of midnight. The doom foretold came upon the Jewish nation....Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple laid in ruins, and its site plowed like a field."(49) Christ's Object Lessons, p 276-96.

"In the Jewish nation it was the priests and teachers who, by misleading the people, had robbed God of the service which He claimed. It was they who turned the nation away from Christ....They had set human teaching above God's word,(50) and had turned the people away from His precepts. They would not give up their man-made commandments in order to obey the requirements of the word of God....When Christ came, presenting to the nation the claims of God, the priests and elders denied His right to interpose between them and the people....

"I plead with our brethren and sisters to make the most of their God-given opportunities. Christ, when weeping over Jerusalem, exclaimed, `If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes' [Luke 19:42]. Jerusalem's sin was in abusing past privileges, and she was sealing her doom in rejecting present mercies and warnings. The weak faith of our people today shows that past warnings and reproofs have not been heeded, and hardness of heart, and indifference, and unbelief are the result....

"The hour of probation is fast passing; the cup of God's indignation is fast filling. Will those who profess to be waiting for the appearing of their Lord from heaven be found wanting...? Must the fast westering sun of merciful probation set, and the sentence be pronounced, `but now they are hid from thine eyes'?...

"All such professed Christians are represented by the man who built his house upon the sand; while the hearers and doers of the Word are represented by the man who built his house upon the Rock, and amid tempest, storm, and flood, it remained unmoved. Thus the true foundation for every soul is represented by those who not only hear the truth but practice it." Review and Herald, vol 1, p 208-09 (July 10, 1879).

"Dishonesty is practiced all through our ranks, and this is the cause of lukewarmness on the part of many who profess to believe the truth. They are not connected with Christ and are deceiving their own souls. I am pained to make the statement that there is an alarming lack of honesty even among Sabbathkeepers....

"The Bible condemns in the strongest terms all falsehood, false dealing, and dishonesty.(51) Right and wrong are plainly stated. But I was shown that God's people have placed themselves on the enemy's ground; they have yielded to his temptations and followed his devices until their sensibilities have become fearfully blunted....The least departure from truthfulness and rectitude is a transgression of the law of God." Testimonies, vol 4, p 310-12.

"I saw that the very spirit of perjury, that would turn truth into falsehood, good into evil,(52) and innocence into crime, is now active, doing a work which savors of hell rather than of heaven. Satan exults over the condition of God's professed people." Special Testimony, p 80, July, 1881, Testimonies, vol 5, p 94-95.

As we have seen, SDA leaders and ministers did reject God's warnings. They were deceived and were leading God's people into Satan's trap. Faithfully Sister White gave repeated warnings from God to the church. Nevertheless, the truth continued to be turned into falsehood! How much longer could this continue before a crisis occurs?

"I knew that a crisis must come. God has given this people plain and pointed testimonies to prevent this state of things. Had they obeyed the voice of the Holy Spirit in warning, counsel, and entreaty, they would now enjoy unity and peace. But these testimonies have not been heeded by those who profess to believe them, and as a result there has been a wide departure from God, and the withdrawal of His blessing....Without Christ you can have nothing but a delusive hope, for He Himself declares: `If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned' [John 15:6].(53)...

"I tell you, in the fear of God, I have been shown that many of you will fail of everlasting life because you are building your hopes of heaven on a false foundation. God is leaving you to yourselves, `To humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart.' You have neglected the Scriptures. You despise and reject the testimonies because they reprove your darling sins and disturb your self-complacency....

"I had thought to remain silent and let you go on until you should see and abhor the sinfulness of your course; but backsliding from God produces hardness of heart and blindness of mind, and there is less and less perception of the true condition, until the grace of God is finally withdrawn, as from the Jewish nation....

"The class of professed Sabbathkeepers who try to form a union between Christ and Belial, who take hold of the truth with one hand and of the world with the other, have surrounded their children and clouded the church with an atmosphere entirely foreign to religion and the Spirit of Christ. They dared not openly oppose the claims of truth. They dared not take a bold stand and say they did not believe the testimonies; but, when nominally believing both, they have obeyed neither....This class are all professed Christians....

"God has given us, as a people, warnings, reproofs, and cautions, on the right hand and on the left, to lead us away from worldly customs and worldly policy. He requires us to be peculiar in faith and in character, to meet a standard far in advance of worldlings....The Lord is looking into every heart. He weighs our motives. He will try every soul. Who will bear the test?" Testimonies, vol 5, p 46-62 (March 28, 1882).

"Christ longs to work mightily by His Spirit for the conviction and conversion of sinners. But, according to His divine plan, the work must be performed through the instrumentality of His church; and her members have so far departed from Him that He cannot accomplish His will through them....Only those who trust wholly in God are safe now. We must not follow any human example or lean upon any human support. Many are constantly taking wrong positions and making wrong moves; if we trust to their guidance we shall be misled....

"The rebuke of the Lord is upon His people for their pride and unbelief. He will not restore unto them the joys of His salvation while they are departing from the instructions of His Word and His Spirit.(54) He will give grace to those who fear Him and walk in the truth, and He will withdraw His blessings from all that assimilate to the world. Mercy and truth are promised to the humble and penitent, and judgments are denounced against the rebellious....

"I counsel this church to give heed to the Saviour's admonition: `Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent' [Revelation 2:5]." Testimonies, vol 5, p 189-91.

"My heart aches day after day and night after night for our churches. Many are progressing, but in the back track. `The path of the just...shineth more and more unto the perfect day.' Their march is onward and upward. They progress from strength to strength, from grace to grace, and from glory to glory. This is the privilege of all our churches. But, oh, how different has it been with them! They need divine illumination. They must face square about. I know what I say. Unless they shall become Christians indeed,(55) they will go from weakness to weakness, divisions will increase, and many souls will be led to perdition....

If the professed SDA leadership continues to reject God's testimonies of warning and reproof, they will become just like the leaders of ancient Israel. They will be unsanctified in heart and life. They will lead our SDA people into error, deception, and finally, destruction. Did they continue to reject the testimonies?

"The minds of many have been so darkened and confused by worldly customs, worldly practices, and worldly influences that all power to discriminate between light and darkness, truth and error, seems destroyed. I had little hope that my words would be understood; but when the Lord moved upon me so decidedly, I could not resist His Spirit. Knowing that you were involving yourselves in the snares of Satan, I felt that the danger was too great for me to keep silent....

"That God who knows their spiritual condition declares: They have cherished evil and separated from Me. They have gone astray, every one of them. Not one is guiltless. They have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, and have hewed out to them broken cisterns that can hold no water....And they will not heed the testimony that I send them. They will not see their perverse ways and be converted, that I should heal them....

"While standing over the dying bed of my husband, I knew that had the church heeded the testimony given them, he would have been spared. Had others borne their part of the burdens, he might have lived. I then pleaded, with agony of soul, that those present might no longer grieve the Spirit of God by their hardness of heart....

"What voice will you acknowledge as the voice of God? What power has the Lord in reserve to correct your errors, and show you your course as it is? What power to work in the church? You have, by your own course, closed every avenue whereby the Lord would reach you. Will He raise one from the dead to speak to you?

"If you refuse to believe until every shadow of uncertainty, and every possibility of doubt is removed(58) you will never believe. The doubt that demands perfect knowledge, will never yield to faith....We must resist and conquer inclination, and obey the voice of conscience without parleying or compromise, lest its promptings cease, and will and impulse control. The word of the Lord comes to us all who have not resisted His Spirit by determining not to hear and obey. This voice is heard in warnings, in counsels, in reproof.(59) It is the Lord's message of light to His people. If we wait for louder calls or better opportunities, the light may be withdrawn, and we left in darkness....

"It pains me to say to you in Battle Creek that your sinful neglect to walk in the light, has enshrouded you in darkness....I can but exclaim, how could you do just what the voice of God forbade you doing? The Lord is testing and proving you. He has warned and counseled, admonished and entreated. All these solemn admonitions will either make the church better or decidedly worse....

"I have been shown that the spirit of the world is fast leavening the church. You are following the same path as did ancient Israel.(62)...Your neglect to follow the light will place you in a more unfavorable position than the Jews upon whom Christ pronounced a woe....But few know what our churches are to experience. I saw that at present we are under divine forbearance, but no one can say how long this will continue. No one knows how great the mercy that has been exercised towards us....

"I seldom weep, but now I find my eyes blinded with tears; they are falling upon my paper as I write. It may be that ere long all prophesyings among us will be at an end, and the voice which has stirred the people may no longer disturb their carnal slumbers....when holy hands bear the ark no longer, woe will be upon the people. Oh, that thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace. Oh, that our people may, as did Nineveh, repent with all their might and believe with all their heart, that God may turn away His fierce anger from them....

"What can I say to arouse our people? I tell you not a few ministers who stand before the people to explain the Scriptures are defiled. Their hearts are corrupt, their hands unclean.(64) Yet many are crying, `Peace, peace' [Jeremiah 6:14]; and the workers of iniquity are not alarmed. The Lord's hand is not shortened that He cannot hear; but it is our sins that have separated us from God. The church is corrupt because of her members who defile their bodies and pollute their souls.

"If all of those who come together for meetings of edification and prayer, could be regarded as true worshippers, then we might have hope, though much would still remain to be done for us. But it is vain to deceive ourselves....The prevailing spirit of our time is that of infidelity(65) and apostasy(66)...There is a spirit of idolatrous exaltation of mere human reason above the revealed wisdom of God.(67)

"God has promised that where the shepherds are not true He will take charge of the flock Himself.(70) God has never made the flock wholly dependent upon human instrumentalities. But the days of purification of the church are hastening on apace.(71) God will have a people pure and true. In the mighty sifting soon to take place, we shall be better able to measure the strength of Israel. The signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord will manifest that His fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor....

"The time is not far distant when the test will come to every soul. The mark of the beast will be urged upon us. Those who have step by step yielded to worldly demands, and conformed to worldly customs, will not find it a hard matter to yield to the powers that be, rather that subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death. The contest is between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. In this time the gold will be separated from the dross in the church....

"We cannot be half the Lord's and half the world's. We are not God's people unless we are such entirely. Every weight, every besetting sin, must be laid aside. God's watchmen will not cry, `Peace, peace,' when God has not spoken peace. The voice of the faithful watchman will be heard; `Go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her;(73) be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord' [Isaiah 52:11].

"The church cannot measure herself by the world, nor by the opinion of men, nor by what she once was. Her faith and her position in the world as they now are, must be compared with what they would have been if her course had been continually onward and upward. The church will be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary. If her moral character and spiritual state do not correspond with the benefits and blessings God has conferred upon her, she will be found wanting. The light has been shining clear and definite upon her pathway, and the light of 1882 calls her to an account. If her talents are unimproved, if her fruit is not perfect before God, if her light becomes darkness, she is indeed found wanting.(74) The knowledge of our state as God views it, seems to be hidden from us....We profess to know God, and to believe the truth; but in works deny Him. Our deeds are directly adverse to the principles of truth and righteousness, by which we profess to be governed." Special Testimony, p 41-66, June 20, 1882. (Edited version in Testimonies, vol 5, p 62-84)(75)

What a testimony of warning and a look into the future from our blessed Lord! We were clearly told that SDA's were following in the same path as did Israel--proving that Satan was leading the SDA church.(76) The SDA church was "corrupt," the heart of the work--the headquarters of the church--had a spiritual "contagious disease," her ministers were "defiled" and "corrupt," and "apostasy" was fast becoming prevalent.

If this wickedness would continue, the church would "be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary," would be "found wanting," and probation would close upon the corporate body--exactly like what happened with the Jewish church. Then God would have to purify His church by separating "the gold" from the "dross in the church," by having His faithful watchmen giving the message "Go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord."

"We have enjoyed great light and many privileges. Shall we turn away from all these blessings, and sacrifice the peculiar, holy character which should distinguish us as children of God? If we thus slight the mercy of God, the judgments against Capernaum will surely fall upon us. Our punishment will be heavier than if we had not enjoyed so great light. Thus the warnings, reproofs, and counsels, which, accepted and obeyed, would bring us untold blessings, become a curse when they are rejected....

"Can Christ say of His professed followers, These are peculiar people; I gave Myself for them, to redeem them from all iniquity, that they should show forth My praise, who have called them out from darkness into My marvelous light. Would not the Lord say, rather, How is the beautiful city become a harlot,(77) and My Father's house a place of merchandise. Because of your unbelief, I cannot do many mighty works among you. Review and Herald, vol 1, p 337-38 (November 7, 1882).

"Many are holding the truth only with the tips of their fingers.(81) They have had great light and many privileges. Like Capernaum they have been exalted to heaven in this respect. In the time of test and trial that is approaching, they will become apostates(82) unless they put away their pride and self-confidence, unless they have an entire transformation of character."(83) Letter 5, 1883, Selected Messages, book 3, p 414-15.

The SDA church is to be weighed and will be found wanting if the whole church structure and people do not wholly accept these warnings and truthfully repent! If this repentance does not take place, then rebellion, corruption, and apostasy will build up until the professed SDA church receives the same condemnation of God that fell upon Capernaum. God will be forced to denounce the SDA church as a harlot--or a sister to fallen Babylon, and eventually the whole false apostate structure would fall.

God in His mercy has revealed this startling possibility to His SDA people: if the church continues to follow the devil's plans of uniting with the world and repeating Jewish history of apostasy, then the SDA church will be denounced as a harlot--a sister to fallen Babylon, with the same harlot mother Rome! God would then be compelled to separate His true people from the apostate and corrupt SDA church in order to save them from destruction.

"Many of our people are backsliding from God....They are in danger of becoming like the Jewish nation, who know not the Scriptures nor the power of God....When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, his tears were for all who abuse present privileges. He wept that so many who profess His name fail to become what God designed them to be; that they continue in sin and weakness, while He is willing and able to save them if they will but come to Him. The Saviour says, `What more could I have done that I have not done in it' [Isaiah

5:4]? He has dealt with His people as a loving father with a wayward and rebellious child. But He sees grace resisted, privileges abused, opportunities slighted. Where He had a right to expect earnest, vital piety, He sees insincerity, hollow formalism, and Pharisaic pride.(85)...Vengeance will surely be visited on those who have had so great light, yet are so cold and unimpressible that no light shines from them to the world....

"The eye of Jesus, looking down the ages, was fixed upon our time when He said, `If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace' [Luke 19:42]! It is still thy day, O church of God, whom He has made the depositary of His law. This day of trust and probation is fast drawing to a close. The sun is fast westering. Can it be that it will set and thou not know the things that belong unto thy peace? Must the irrevocable sentence be passed, `But now they are hid from thine eyes'?...

"If ye are destroyed, it is yourselves alone that are responsible. Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life. `O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not' [Matthew 23:37]. I desired to save you, but ye would not be doers of My Word. The arm strong to save, is also strong to punish....unless there is in our churches a general arousing, and putting away sin...the words of Christ may at any moment be applicable to them: `Now they are hid from thine eyes.'

"Will our churches humble themselves before the Lord in this day of atonement?...The present is our day of visitation....but there is a point beyond which His forbearance will not reach. Shall the words be written over the doomed doorway, `Ephraim is joined to his idols: let him alone' [Hosea 4:17]?" Review and Herald, vol 2, p 89 (November 2, 1886).

"I have not been able to sleep for weeks after half-past three o'clock. My mind is deeply exercised in regard to our condition as a people....When we do practice the truth we are then following Jesus, who is the light of the world; and if we as a people are not constantly elevating, becoming more and more spiritually minded, we are becoming like the Pharisees--self-righteous--while we do not the will of God....

"I think of His great sorrow as He wept over Jerusalem, exclaiming, `O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent to thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not' [Matthew 23:37]! God forbid that these words shall apply to those who have great light and blessings. In the rejecting of Jerusalem it was because great privileges were abused which brings the denunciation upon all who lightly regarded the great opportunities and precious light that were entrusted to their keeping....Christ said, `Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe to thee, Bethsaida!(86) for if the mighty works which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes' [Luke 10:13].

"When Jerusalem was divorced from God(87) it was because of her sins. She fell from an exalted height that Tyre and Sidon had never reached. And when an angel falls he becomes a fiend.(88) The depths of our ruin is measured by the exalted light to which God has raised us in His great goodness and unspeakable mercy. Oh, what privileges are granted to us as a people! And if God spared not His people that He loved because they refused to walk in the light, how can He spare the people whom He has blessed with the light of heaven in having opened to them the most exalted truth ever entrusted to mortal man to give to the world?

"We are far from being the people God would have us to be...`Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people' [Proverbs 14:34]. Sin is a disorganizer wherever it is cherished--in households, in the church, in the individual heart--there is disorder, strife, variance, enmity, envy, jealousy, because the enemy of man and of God has the controlling power over the mind....

There would be neglect to bring purity and truth into practice that will grieve the Spirit of God and weaken them because God is not in their midst to bless.(89) Internal corruption will bring the denunciations of God upon this people as it did upon Jerusalem. Oh, let pleading voices, let earnest prayer be heard, that those who preach to others shall not themselves be castaways. My brethren, we know not what is before us, and our only safety is in following the Light of the world. God will work with us and for us if the sins which brought His wrath upon the old world,(90) upon Sodom and Gomorrah(91) and upon ancient Jerusalem,(92) do not become our crime.

"All the policy in the world(94) cannot save us from a terrible sifting, and all the efforts made with high authorities will not lift from us the scourging of God just because sin is cherished. If as a people we do not keep ourselves in the faith and not only advocate with pen and voice the commandments of God, but keep them every one, not violating a single precept knowingly, then weakness and ruin will come upon us....

"Satan will work his miracles to deceive, he will set up his power as supreme. The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains,(95) while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out--the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place. None but those who have been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony will be found with the loyal and true, without spot or stain of sin, without guile in their mouths. The remnant that purify their souls by obeying the truth gather strength from the trying process,(96) exhibiting the beauty of holiness amid the surrounding apostasy.(97)...Many of the ministers are half-paralyzed by their own defects of character....

"Salvation is not to be baptized, not to have our names upon the church books, not to preach the truth. But it is a living union with Jesus Christ to be renewed in heart, doing the works of Christ in faith and labor of love, in patience, meekness, and hope....Some have entered the work with a human commission rather than the divine. They have educated themselves as debaters and the churches under their care show the character of their work. They were not ready, they were not fitted for the work. Their hearts are not right with God. In short, they have a theory but not true conversion and sanctification through the truth.(98) The great issue so near at hand will weed out those whom God has not appointed and He will have a pure, true, sanctified ministry(99) prepared for the latter rain....

"I want to speak to the ears of our people in America in every church. Awake from the dead, and Christ will give you life....I tell you, a new life is proceeding from satanic agencies to work with a power we have not hitherto realized.(100) And shall not a new power from above take possession of God's people? The truth, sanctifying in its influence, must be urged upon the people....We must know, by the evidence of God's word for ourselves, whether we are in the faith, going to heaven or not. The moral standard of character is God's law. Do we meet its requirements?" Letter 55, December 8, 1886 (unedited version), Last Day Events: from the Letters and Manuscripts of E.G. White, p 143-47.(101)

Why does the church appear to fall? Remember there are two distinct classes of SDA's. God's true church consists of faithful souls, commandment-keeping SDA's, who stand upon the firm platform of eternal truth--the rock Jesus Christ. Those who cling to the truth as it is in Jesus will make up His true church, and this will never fall, because the truth will go through to heaven. The sinners are sifted out of this church of truth, as the chaff is separated from the wheat.

"This is an age of signal rejection of the grace God has purposed to bestow upon His people, that in the perils of the last days they may not be overcome by the prevailing iniquity and unite with the hostility of the world against God's remnant people. Under the cloak of Christianity and sanctification, far-spreading and manifest ungodliness will prevail to a terrible degree and will continue until Christ comes to be glorified in all them that believe. In the very courts of the temple, scenes will be enacted that few realize. God's people will be proved and tested, that He may discern `Between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.'

"Vengeance will be executed against those who sit in the gate, deciding what the people should have and what they should not have.(102)...They refuse to enter in themselves, and those who would enter they hinder. These bear not the seal of the living God. All who now occupy responsible positions should be solemnly and terribly afraid lest in this time they shall be found as unfaithful stewards." Manuscript 15, 1886, Paulson Collection, p 54-55.

"Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof....Slay utterly old and young...but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary." Ezekiel 9:4-6.

The only people to receive the seal or mark of God, and to escape the destruction of their church, are those who open their mouths and cry aloud--exposing all the abominations being committed in the sanctuary. The leaders of the people are the first to feel the wrath of God, and then the destruction continues with those who followed these 25 men in their rebellion against God and His Sabbath. But can this have any significance to us today?

"Each of the ancient prophets spoke less for their own time than for ours, so that their prophesying is in force for us....All the great events and solemn transactions of Old Testament history have been, and are, repeating themselves in the church in these last days." Selected Messages, book 3, p 338-39.

"These sighing, crying ones had been holding forth the words of life; they had reproved, counseled, and entreated....But the glory of the Lord had departed from Israel; although many still continued the forms of religion, His power and presence were lacking.(103)...They mourn before God to see religion despised in the very homes of those who have had great light. They lament and afflict their souls because pride, avarice, selfishness, and deception of almost every kind are in the church." Testimonies, vol 5, p 210-11.

"Here we see that the church--the Lord's sanctuary--was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God. The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, had betrayed their trust....they say: The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. He is too merciful to visit His people in judgment. Thus `Peace and safety' is the cry from men who will never again lift up their voice like a trumpet to show God's people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. These dumb dogs that would not bark(104) are the ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God....They were once faithful servants, favored with His presence and guidance; but they departed from Him and led others into error, and therefore are brought under the divine displeasure." Testimonies, vol 5, p 211-12.

The very heart of the work, with its leading men, were refusing God and His warnings. The professed SDA church was conforming to the world and following their own course--building upon their own foundation. Apostasy was increasing. The church was in danger of having her candlestick removed, becoming a harlot and sister to fallen Babylon! The end result of their continued rebellion would be corporate probation closing, separation of God's true people from the corrupt church, and finally the total ruin and destruction of the church.

"Let us confess and forsake every sin, that the way of the Lord may be prepared...We cannot prepare the way by gaining the friendship of the world, which is enmity with God; but by His help we can break its seductive influence upon ourselves and upon others....There can be and must be a withdrawal from conformity to the world, a shunning of all appearance of evil....

"There is nothing that Satan fears so much as that the people of God shall clear the way by removing every hindrance, so that the Lord can pour out His Spirit upon a languishing church and an impenitent congregation. If Satan had his way, there would never be another awakening, great or small, to the end of time....

"We are in the great day of Atonement, when our sins are, by confession and repentance, to go beforehand to judgment. God does not now accept a tame, spiritless testimony from His ministers. Such a testimony would not be present truth. The message for this time must be meat in due season to feed the church of God. But Satan has been seeking gradually to rob this message of its power, that the people may not be prepared to stand in the day of the Lord....

"Let the church arise, and repent of her backslidings before God. Let the watchman awake, and give the trumpet a certain sound.(106) It is a definite warning that we have to proclaim. God commands His servants, `Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins' [Isaiah 58:1]. The attention of the people must be gained; unless this can be done, all effort is useless; though an angel from heaven should come down and speak to them, his words would do no more good than if he were speaking into the cold ear of death....

God has stated that the whole church could never be revived, and that it is now an individual effort. The hindrance to success was from inside the church, not outside! SDA ministers were preaching a tame, spiritless testimony and not preparing our people to stand in the day of the Lord. Our people must be awakened. Yet were told that even if an angel should come down from heaven to the SDA church, he would be rejected. And this is exactly what happened!

"Now, it has been Satan's determined purpose to eclipse the view of Jesus and lead men to look to man, and trust to man, and be educated to expect help from man. For years the church has been looking to man and expecting much from man, but not looking to Jesus, in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. Therefore God gave to His servants a testimony that presented the truth as it is in Jesus, which is the third angel's message, in clear, distinct lines." Testimonies to Ministers, p 93.

"The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in the Surety;(108) it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ,(109) which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family....This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure." Testimonies to Ministers, p 91-92.

"Spiritual death has come upon the people that should be manifesting life and zeal, purity and consecration, by the most earnest devotion to the cause of truth. The facts concerning the real condition of the professed people of God, speak more loudly than their profession, and make it evident that some power has cut the cable that anchored them to the Eternal Rock, and that they are drifting away to sea, without chart or compass." Review and Herald, vol 2, p 231 (July 24, 1888).

This most precious message of the Righteousness of Christ of the third angel was presented to the delegate body at the General Conference Session held at Minneapolis, Minnesota, from October 17 to November 4 of 1888. Ellen White warned during this assembly that this precious message, so vitally important for the SDA church to accept in order to come back to Christ and escape being lost, must not be stopped or hindered in any way.

"What interpretation do they give to the passage which says `An angel descended from heaven, and the earth was lightened with his glory' [Revelation 18:1]?(110) This is not a time when we can be excused for inactivity. If this work, which was so essential, had been taken up by our ministers, there would be today a far different state of things in all our churches." Review and Herald, vol 2, p 266-67 (December 11, 1888).

"In 1888 in the General Conference held at Minneapolis, Minn., the angel of Revelation 18 came down to do his work, and was ridiculed, criticized and rejected.(111) And when the message He brings again, swells into a loud cry, it will again be ridiculed, spoken against and be rejected by the majority." Ellen G. White in "Taking up a reproach."(112)

"An unwillingness to yield up preconceived opinions, and to accept this truth, lay at the foundation of a large share of the opposition manifested at Minneapolis against the Lord's message through brethren {E.J} Waggoner and {A.T.} Jones. By exciting that opposition Satan succeeded in shutting away from our people, in a great measure, the special power of the Holy Spirit that God longed to impart to them.(113) The enemy prevented them from obtaining that efficiency which might have been theirs in carrying the truth to the world, as the apostles proclaimed it after the day of Pentecost. The light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory was resisted, and by the action of our own brethren has been in a great degree kept away from the world." Selected Messages, book 1, p 234-35.

This, sadly, actually occurred. Christ had everything all ready to pour out His Holy Spirit and finish His work--just waiting for the SDA church to accept this message, obtain the power to live it and to share it. Yet Satan accomplished his evil purposes through the General Conference leadership. They refused to accept, or to awaken our people to this extremely important message. And by this action they RESISTED THE LATTER RAIN which was to usher in our dear Saviour's second coming!

At that very time in 1888, a great push for Sunday observance was seen through the National Reform Movement. The third angel's message was to fit up and seal the people of God, through His Holy Spirit, so they could stand through the time of trouble. Once sealed, Christ would finish His work in the most holy place and come to redeem His people. By keeping this precious truth from our people, they could not be prepared for what was coming; their great test would soon be over, probation would close upon them and they would not be sealed--but lost!

"We as a people have not accomplished the work which God has committed to us. We are not ready for the issue to which the enforcement of the Sunday law will bring us. It is our duty, as we see the signs of approaching peril, to arouse to action....They are not awake to the situation and do not realize the threatened danger. They should feel now, as never before, their need of vigilance and concerted action.

"My brethren, do you realize that your own salvation, as well as the destiny of other souls, depends upon the preparation you now make for the trial before us?...The prophet saw `four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree' [Revelation 7:1]. Another angel, ascending from the east, cried to them, saying: `Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads' [Revelation 7:3]. This points out the work we have now to do." Testimonies, vol 5, p 713-17.

"Satan is now using every device in this sealing time, to keep the minds of God's people from the present, sealing truth; to cause them to waver. I saw a covering that God was drawing over His people, to protect them in the time of trouble; and every soul that was decided on the truth, and was pure in heart, was to be covered with the covering of Almighty God....

"I saw that Satan was at work in these ways to distract, deceive, and draw away God's people, just now in this sealing time. I saw some who were not standing stiffly for present truth. Their knees were trembling, and their feet were sliding; because they were not firmly planted on the truth, and the covering of Almighty God could not be drawn over them while they were thus trembling.

"I saw four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and were on their way to accomplish it. Jesus was clothed with priestly garments. He gazed in pity on the remnant, then raised His hands upward, and with a voice of deep pity cried--`MY BLOOD, FATHER, MY BLOOD, MY BLOOD, MY BLOOD.' Then I saw an exceeding bright light come from God, who sat upon the great white throne, and was shed all about Jesus. Then I saw an angel with a commission from Jesus, swiftly flying to the four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and waving something up and down in his hand, and crying with a loud voice--`HOLD! HOLD! HOLD! HOLD! until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.' I asked my accompanying angel the meaning of what I heard, and what the four angels were about to do. He shewed me that it was God that restrained the powers, and that He gave His angels charge over things on the earth, and the four angels had power from God to hold the four winds, and they were about to let the four winds go, and while they had started on their mission to let them go, the merciful eye of Jesus gazed on the remnant that were not all sealed, then He raised His hands to the Father and plead with Him that He had spilled His blood for them.--Then another angel was commissioned to fly swiftly to the four angels, and bid them hold until the servants of God were sealed with the seal of the living God in their foreheads." Review and Herald, vol 1, p 9-10 (August, 1849). (see also Early Writings, p 42-45, 36-38)

God forestalled(115) the time of trouble, the seven last plagues, and even the second coming, because His people were not ready. The light of the Righteousness of Christ that was to prepare them for the final conflict was not fully given nor received, but was rejected by the professed SDA leadership--thus God's people were not warned and prepared.(116)

"The rebuke of God is upon us because of our neglect of solemn responsibilities. His blessings have been withdrawn because the testimonies He has given have not been heeded by those who profess to believe them. Oh, for a religious awakening! The angels of God are going from church to church, doing their duty; and Christ is knocking at the door of your hearts for entrance. But the means that God has devised to awaken the church to a sense of their spiritual destitution have not been regarded. The voice of the True Witness has been heard in reproof, but has not been obeyed. Men have chosen to follow their own way instead of God's way because self was not crucified in them. Thus the light has had little effect upon minds and hearts.

"If you wait for light to come in a way that will please everyone, you will wait in vain. If you wait for louder calls or better opportunities, the light will be withdrawn, and you will be left in darkness. Accept every ray of light that God sends. Men who neglect to heed the calls of the Spirit and word of God, because obedience involves a cross, will lose their souls." Testimonies, vol 5, p 719-20.

"The enemy of God and man is not willing that this truth should be clearly presented; for he knows that if the people receive it fully, his power will be broken....Unless divine power is brought into the experience of the people of God, false theories and erroneous ideas will take minds captive, Christ and His righteousness will be dropped out of the experience of many, and their faith will be without power of life." Review and Herald, vol 2, p 330-31 (September 3, 1889).

"Satan takes the control of every mind that is not decidedly under the control of the Spirit of God. Some have been cultivating hatred against the men whom God has commissioned to bear a special message to the world. They began this satanic work at Minneapolis. Afterward, when they saw and felt the demonstration of the Holy Spirit testifying that the message was of God, they hated it more, because it was a testimony against them. They would not humble their hearts to repent, to give God the glory, and vindicate the right. They went on in their own spirit, filled with envy, jealousy, and evil surmisings, as did the Jews.(119) They opened their hearts to the enemy of God and man. Yet these men have been holding positions of trust, and have been molding the work after their own similitude,(120) as far as they possibly could....those who handle sacred responsibilities are ministers of darkness, blind leaders of the blind. `Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots' [Jude 12]." Testimonies to Ministers, p 79-81.

Sister White wrote that this satanic work began in Minneapolis by those who were holding positions of trust, who handled sacred responsibilities, and who were molding and shaping the work after their own satanic similitude. Who exactly were these leaders of the SDA church? She stated earlier; "in 1888 in the General Conference held at Minneapolis..." (see p 40). It is our "own brethren" (see p 40). These deceiving leaders are the General Conference leadership.

"We want to understand the time in which we live. We do not half understand it. We do not half take it in. My heart trembles in me when I think of what a foe we have to meet, and how poorly we are prepared to meet him. The trials of the children of Israel, and their attitude just before the first coming of Christ, have been presented before me again and again to illustrate the position of the people of God in their experience before the second coming of Christ--how the enemy sought every occasion to take control of the minds of God's servants, that they may not be able to discern the precious truth....

"As Christ sought to place truth before the people in its proper relation to their salvation, Satan worked through the Jewish leaders,(121) and inspired them with enmity against the Redeemer of the world. They determined to do all in their power to prevent Him from making an impression upon the people.(122)

"After the truth has been proclaimed as a witness to all nations, at a time when every conceivable power of evil is set in operation...and there is a removing of the landmarks,(124) and an attempt to tear down the pillars of our faith--then a more decided effort is made to exalt the false sabbath, and to cast contempt upon God Himself by supplanting the day He has blessed and sanctified." Letter 1f, 1890, Selected Messages, book 3, p 405-06.

"I am bidden to warn you that deceptive sentiments are entertained, a false modesty and caution, a disposition to withhold the profession of our faith. In the night season, matters have been presented before me that have greatly troubled my mind. I have seemed to be in meetings for counsel where these subjects were discussed, and written documents were presented, advocating concessions. Brethren, shall we permit the world to shape the message that God has given us to bear to them?...

"While engaged in earnest prayer, I was lost to everything around me; the room was filled with light, and I was bearing a message to an assembly that seemed to be the General Conference. I was moved by the Spirit of God to make a most earnest appeal; for I was impressed that great danger was before us at the heart of the work....

"In the weakness of human judgment, men were gathering into their hands the lines of control,(125) while God's will, God's way and counsel, were not sought as indispensable.(126) Men of stubborn, ironlike will,(127) both in and out of the office, were confederating together,(128) determined to drive certain measures through in accordance with their own judgment.(129)

"I said to them: `You cannot to this. The control of these large interests cannot be vested wholly in those who make it manifest that they have little experience in the things of God, and have not spiritual discernment. The people of God throughout our ranks must not, because of mismanagement on the part of erring men, have their confidence shaken in the important interests at the great heart of the work, which have decided influence upon our churches in the United States and in foreign lands.'...

"Those employed in any department of the work whereby the world may be transformed, must not enter into alliance with those who know not the truth....We are not to hear the counsel or follow the plans suggested by unbelievers....By accepting such suggestions, the counsel of Christ is set at nought....

"I was shown that the follies of Israel in the days of Samuel will be repeated among the people of God today(131) unless there is greater humility, less confidence in self, and more trust in the Lord God of Israel, the Ruler of the people. It is only as divine power is combined with human effort that the work will abide the test....

"In a vision in 1880 I asked, `Where is the security for the people of God in these last days of peril?' The answer was, `Jesus maketh intercession for His people, though Satan standeth at His right hand to resist Him.' `And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire' [Zechariah 3:2]? As man's Intercessor and Advocate, Jesus will lead all who are willing to be led, saying, `Follow Me upward, step by step, where the clear light of the Sun of Righteousness shines.'(133)

"The prejudices and opinions that prevailed at Minneapolis are not dead by any means; the seeds sown there in some hearts are ready to spring into life and bear a like harvest. The tops have been cut down, but the roots have never been eradicated, and they still bear their unholy fruit to poison judgment, pervert the perceptions, and blind the understanding...

"Infidelity has been making its inroads into our ranks; for it is the fashion to depart from Christ, and give place to skepticism. With many the cry of the heart has been, `We will not have this man to reign over us.' Baal, Baal, is the choice. The religion of many among us will be the religion of apostate Israel,(135) because they love their own way, and forsake the way of the Lord. The true religion, the only religion of the Bible, that teaches forgiveness only through the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour, that advocates righteousness by the faith of the Son of God, has been slighted, spoken against, ridiculed, and rejected....

"The light which God has given should be respected, not only for your safety, but also for the safety of the church of God. The steps now being taken by the few cannot be followed by the remnant people of God. Your course cannot be sustained by the Lord....We are not to make less prominent the special truths that have separated us from the world, and made us what we are; for they are fraught with eternal interests....

"The religion of Jesus is endangered. It is being mingled with worldliness. Worldly policy is taking the place of true piety and wisdom that comes from above, and God will remove His prospering hand from the conference. Shall the Ark of the Covenant be removed from this people? Shall idols be smuggled in? Shall false principles and false precepts be brought into the sanctuary? Shall antichrist be respected? Shall the true doctrines and principles given us of God, which have made us what we are, be ignored? Shall God's instrumentality, the publishing house, become a mere political, worldly institution? This is exactly where the enemy, through blinded, unconsecrated men, is leading us.

"Those who have a hold of the truth theoretically, with their fingertips(137) as it were, who have not brought its principles into the inner sanctuary of the soul, but have kept the vital truth in the outer court, will see nothing sacred in the past history of this people which has made them what they are...They will accept that which pleases their ideas, and will begin to manufacture another foundation than that which is laid. They will flatter their own vanity and esteem, thinking that they are capable of removing the pillars of our faith, and replacing them with pillars they have devised.

Sister White stated that the SDA church leaders were working to keep the truth away from our people so that no impression could be made upon them. At the great heart of the work, men were already taking the control away from God and confederating together with the world. The same evil spirit seen at Minneapolis was still active in the leadership. Infidelity and skepticism was in the church, and the religion of many Adventists would be apostate! Christ is not wanted, only Baal; and what did we discover Baal represented? The sun, and Lucifer! (see p 5).

Will Satan operate through the SDA leadership to destroy confidence in the foundational pillars of historic Adventism? If this occurs, our pillars would be replaced with false doctrines. The SDA leaders would begin to build a new foundation, and this devious work would continue on "as long as time shall last"!

"You will be left to make mistakes...you will continue to lack wisdom, and will call sin righteousness and righteousness sin. The multitude of deceptions that will prevail in these last days will encircle you, and you will change leaders, and not know that you have done so." Review and Herald, vol 2, p 448-49 (December 16, 1890).

"The Lord has seen our backslidings, and He has a controversy with His people. Their pride, their selfishness, their opening of the mind to doubt and unbelief, are manifest in His sight, and grieve His heart of love. Many gather darkness about their souls as a garment, and virtually say, `We want not a knowledge of Thy way, O God; we choose our own way.'...There is in the soul of man an obstacle which he holds there with stubborn persistency, and which interposes between his soul and God. It is unbelief. God gives sufficient evidence, but man, with his unsanctified will, refuses to receive evidence unless it comes in his own way, to favor his own ideas. With a spirit of bravado he cries, `Proof, proof, is what we want,' and turns away from the evidence that God gives.(138)

"Why is it that men do not believe upon sufficient evidence?--Because they do not want to be convinced. They have no disposition to give up their own will for God's will. They are unwilling to acknowledge that they have cherished sinful unbelief in resisting the light God has given them. They have been hunting for doubts, for pegs upon which to hang their unbelief....

"The displeasure and judgments of God are against those who persist in walking in their own ways, loving self, loving the praise of men. They will certainly be swept into the satanic delusions of these last days, because they received not the love of the truth....The professed people of God have this charge against them, `...remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.'...

"The displeasure of the Lord is against His people. In their present condition it is impossible for them to represent the character of Christ. And when the True Witness has sent them counsel, reproof, and warnings because He loves them, they have refused to receive the message; they have refused to come to the light,(140)

"In our largest churches the greatest evils exist, because these have had the greatest light. They have not a true knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ whom he has sent. The leaven of unbelief is working, and unless these evils which bring the displeasure of God are corrected in its members, the whole church stands accountable for them. The deep movings of the Spirit of God are not with them; the glorious presence of the King of saints, and His power to cleanse from all moral defilement, are not manifest among them....

"The Holy Spirit strives to make apparent the claims of God, but men pay heed only for a moment, and turn their minds to other things. Satan catches away the seeds of truth; the gracious influence of the Spirit of God is effectually resisted. Thus many are grieving away the Holy Spirit for the last time, and they know it not....

"The words spoken by Christ of Jerusalem are, `Your house is left unto you desolate' [Matthew 23:38]. What anguish of soul did Jesus feel when all His appeals, His warnings and reproof, were resisted!...Pride of heart prevented His hearers from humbling themselves before God, and confessing their sin in resisting His Holy Spirit, and reluctantly it left them.(143) On the crest of Olivet, as He beheld the city, He wept over it, saying, `If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!' Here He paused; He was loath to utter the irrevocable sentence. O that Jerusalem would repent! When the fast westering sun should pass out of sight, her day of mercy would be ended. Jesus closed His sentence, `But now they are hid from thine eyes.' On another occasion He lamented the impenitence of the chosen city: `O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.' The Lord forbid that this scene should now be repeated in the experience of God's professed people! `My Spirit,' He says, `shall not always strive with man.' The time will come when it must be said of the impenitent, `Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone.'(144)

"Will the church see where she has fallen?...A severity, an overbearing spirit, such as existed among the Pharisees, exists in our churches, and especially in those entrusted with sacred responsibilities. They are lifted up in self-esteem and self-assurance....Satan is watching, preparing his delusions to ensnare those who are filled with self-importance while they are spiritually destitute....He [Christ] declares, `I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent' [Revelation 2:5]. How long shall this warning be resisted? How long shall it be slighted?...

"Spirituality deadened, humility and childlike simplicity gone, a mechanical, formal profession of faith has taken the place of love and devotion. Is this mournful condition of things to continue? Is the lamp of God's love to go out in darkness? The Saviour calls; listen to His voice: `Be zealous and repent' [Revelation 3:19]. Repent, confess your sins, and you will be forgiven. `Turn ye, turn ye; for why will ye die' [Ezekiel 33:11]? Why will you try to rekindle a mere fitful fire, and walk in the sparks of your own kindling?(145)...

"The church is like the unproductive tree which, receiving the dew and rain and sunshine, should have produced an abundance of fruit, but on which the divine search discovers nothing but leaves. Solemn thought for our churches!(146) Solemn, indeed, for every individual! Marvelous is the patience and forbearance of God; but `except thou repent,' it will be exhausted; the churches, our institutions, will go from weakness to weakness, from cold formality to deadness,(147) while they are saying, `I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.' The True Witness says, `And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.' Will they ever see clearly their true condition?"

God, through Sister White, stated that the professed SDA church has fallen; and in 1886 we were told that when one falls they become a fiend (see p 32)! It was stated 4 times in the complete testimony that the candlestick would be removed from the SDA church unless repentance takes place. Surely they cannot remain impenitent for much longer without God's light being removed totally from the SDA structure and all of its churches.

The SDA church and its professed people are represented by the foolish virgins! Please read Matthew 25. The wise virgins--God's true people--are accepted by Christ into the wedding hall and are saved, while the foolish virgins are rejected by Christ, the door of probation shuts, and they are lost for eternity! Truly, the destiny of the SDA church hangs on the Laodicean message and repentance. But the professed leaders are rejecting repentance and the warnings of God.

"I saw that Jones and Waggoner had their counter part in Joshua and Caleb. As the children of Israel stoned the spies with literal stones, you have stoned these brethren with stones of sarcasm and ridicule. I saw that you willfully rejected what you knew to be the truth. Just because it was too humiliating to your dignity. I saw some of you in your tents mimicking and making all manner of fun of these two brethren. I also saw that if you had accepted their message, we would have been in the kingdom two years from that date, but now we have to go back into the wilderness and stay forty years." Written from Melbourne, Australia, May 9, 1892.

So we could have been in heaven sometime around 1890! But the SDA leadership rejected the message from heaven--Christ our Righteousness. They will continue to reject this precious message and along with it the latter rain, as long as they refuse to repent. No wonder Sister White stated: "Will they ever see clearly their true condition?"

Can this really be true? Could the SDA church really become Babylon? We were warned back in 1886 that there was a possibility of this occurring (see p 31)! But Sister White has statements about not calling the SDA church Babylon. Do these statements conflict with her other testimonies stating the possibility of the SDA church becoming Babylon? Is there a contradiction in her writings? NO! We must understand her definition of what constituted the SDA church not Babylon.

So we can clearly see that God's true SDA people--His true church--will not and cannot constitute Babylon. But the other group of SDA's who profess to be God's true church but who refuse to walk in God's light, who reject God's rule over them, and who unite completely with the world, will constitute Babylon!

"Through association with the world our institutions will become unsubstantial, unreliable; because these worldly elements, introduced and placed in positions of trust, are looked up to as teachers to be respected in their educating, directing, and official position, and they are sure to be worked upon by the spirit and power of darkness; so that the demarcation becomes not distinguished between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not....

"The world is the chief enemy of religion. The satanic forces are constantly at work through the world, and those who are professed Christians, yet associated with the world in close fellowship, are so much one in spirit, aims, and principles of working, that they cannot discern between him who serveth God and him who serveth the world....

"Elder Haskell, our testimony must be clear cut--there must be no daubing with untempered mortar. Sins of a grave character are cherished in our borders, and unless there is an awakening such as we have not seen for some time, which will convict and convert professed Sabbath keepers, they will die in their sins. The punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah will be light in comparison with that of those who have had great light and precious opportunities, and have been earthly minded, corrupt in thoughts and practices, and have not purified their souls by obeying the truth....

"Now, those who have had years in this same experience, know not God nor Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and should such go forth as representatives of Jesus Christ? These men will never give the right mold to other minds; they have not grown up to the full stature of men and women in Christ. They simply have the name of Christians but are not fitted for the work of God, and never will be until they are born again, and learn the A.B.C. in true religion of Jesus Christ. There is a little hope in one direction: Take the young men and women, and place them where they will come as little in contact with our churches as possible, that the low grade of piety which is current in this day shall not leaven their ideas of what it means to be a Christian." Letter 16f, May 9, 1892, Manuscript Releases, vol 12, p 332-33.

"The Lord will soon come. There must be a refining, winnowing process in every church, for there are among us wicked men who do not love the truth or honor God. There is need of a transformation of character. Will the church arise and put on her beautiful garments, the righteousness of Christ? Soon it is to be seen who are the vessels unto honor.

"`And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, 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' [Revelation 18:1-2].

"Here are plainly brought to view those who will be vessels unto honor, for they will receive the latter rain. Every soul who, in the light now shining upon our pathway, continues in sin will be blinded and will accept the delusions that come from Satan. We are now nearing the close of this earth's history. Where are the faithful watchmen on the walls of Zion who will not slumber but faithfully declare the time of night?...How painful it is to contemplate that the Lord Jesus is being kept in the background!...

"The history of the rebellion of Dathan and Abiram...will be repeated till the close of time. Who will be on the Lord's side? Who will be deceived, and in turn become deceivers? Everything is to be shaken that can be shaken, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain." Letter 15, June 25, 1892, Last Day Events from the Letters and Manuscripts of E.G. White, p 61. (See Manuscript Releases, vol 1, p 176; Review and Herald, vol 3, p 239)

"As character develops, men and women will take their positions; for varied circumstances brought to bear upon them will cause them to reveal the spirit which prompts them to action. Everyone will reveal the character of the bundle with which he is binding himself. The wheat is being bound up for the heavenly garner....The true people of God are now pulling apart, and the tares are being bound in bundles to burn. Decided positions will be taken....

"To say, `Peace, peace' [Jeremiah 6:14], to these souls who have long resisted the voice of the True Shepherd, who have contended long against Omnipotence, is to quiet their consciences to [the] sleep of death. Will man in his pride forsake his own interests by cherishing thoughts or doing deeds opposed to the mind and spirit of God? God has been pleased to show me that men [who] ought to know the voice of the True Shepherd will be more ready to accept the voice of a stranger and follow in unsafe, forbidden paths because of the stubbornness of their human nature.

"Dark hours of trial are before the church because they have not obeyed the warnings and reproofs and counsel of God. What a bewitching power comes upon human minds to do contrary to the oft repeated will of God, and close the eyes and stop the ears, when Jesus is calling to them to hear His voice. He says, `My sheep hear My voice' [John 10:27]....

"Before the great trouble such as has never been since there was a nation shall come upon the world, those who have faltered, and who would ignorantly lead in unsafe paths, will reveal this before the real vital test, the last proving comes, so that whatsoever they may say will not be regarded as voicing the True Shepherd." Letter 12, August 22, 1892, 1888 Materials, p 995-1003.

"The only hope for our churches today is to repent and do their first work. The name of Jesus does not kindle the heart with love. A mechanical, formal orthodoxy has taken the place of deep, fervent charity and tenderness to one another. Will any give heed to the solemn admonition, `Turn ye, turn ye; for why will ye die' [Ezekiel 33:11]?...Well may the people fear and tremble under these words: `Except thou repent, I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place' [Revelation 2:5]. What then? `If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness' [Matthew 6:23]!...

"Shall the candle that once burned brightly, sending its light amid the moral darkness of error, gradually go out, until it is quenched in darkness?...If ever a people needed true and faithful watchmen, who will not hold their peace, who will cry day and night, sounding the warnings God has given, it is Seventh-day Adventists. Those who have had great light, blessed opportunities, who, like Capernaum, have been exalted to heaven in point of privilege, shall they by non-improvement be left to darkness corresponding to the greatness of the light given?...

"The flock of God is in need of help from Heaven, and the sheep and lambs are perishing for food. But let those who would have a deep and living experience in the things of God, cease to depend upon men, even upon their own pastors and teachers, and put their trust wholly upon God using their God-given ability to His glory....

"If the rays of light which shone at Minneapolis were permitted to exert their convincing power upon those who took their stand against light, if all had yielded their ways, and submitted their wills to the Spirit of God at that time, they would have received the richest blessing, disappointed the enemy, and stood as faithful men, true to their convictions....But self said, No....In the books of heaven they are registered as wanting...

"The time will come when many will be willing to do anything and everything possible in order to have a chance of hearing the call which they rejected at Minneapolis. God moved upon hearts, but many yielded to another spirit....The sin committed in what took place at Minneapolis remains on the record books of heaven..." Letter 19d, September 1, 1892, Manuscript Releases, vol 16, p 102-113.

God has mercifully promised His people that those who obey the great and precious light that fills the earth with the glory of God, will become vessels unto honor--wheat--children of the Kingdom of righteousness, showing forth fruits of righteousness, and will receive the latter rain. But those who continue to disobey and reject this most precious message will become blinded, and will accept Satan's strong delusions to believe a lie. Thus they will become vessels unto dishonor--tares--children of the kingdom of Babylon, showing forth fruits of unrighteousness.

So the SDA church was plainly being told that she can accept the message of the Righteousness of Christ and arise and shine for God, receive the latter rain and be an instrument in proclaiming the loud cry of the third angel; or she can continue to resist and finally totally reject this message, be in league with the devil, become a cage of every unclean and hateful bird--or Babylon, and lose her candlestick. Then the message of the loud cry of the third angel would come against the SDA church!

Truly the shaking was taking place. And the shaking refers to the truth--not to church membership! To be shaken out does not mean that you have left the church, but that you have left the truth. Thus this message of the Righteousness of Christ will enable us to "discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth Him not."

But these extremely plain warnings were not all. Because of the SDA church's continued rejection of this precious third angel's message, which began at Minneapolis, the true people of God were beginning to "pull apart" from those SDA churches whose ministers and leaders had rejected this most precious message.

In fact God, through Ellen White, directed His SDA people to keep their children and young adults "as far away from our churches as possible," so that their spiritual life would not become contaminated with the lack of Christianity revealed within the church. And this was called "a little hope in one direction." But this "one direction" was separation from the SDA church! Though limited in scope, it was still a warning of what the future would hold if the church continued on in rebellion. This warning was not just predicted, but was being acted out before their eyes!

Did the professed SDA leadership realize these severe warnings that were being given to the people? Did they even realize the solemn warnings of the past? Did they repent and turn back to God who alone could save them? Or did they corrupt their ways even further and cause even greater and more fearful testimonies to be given against them?

Several SDA churches had whole-heartedly accepted the message of the Righteousness of Christ, and were receiving a limited outpouring of God's Holy Spirit--enjoying a season of refreshing from the Lord.(154) A movement of righteousness, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, was beginning to move through various SDA churches and having great effect with the local membership. This Satan could not stand for, because if it would spread throughout the whole church, his power would be broken.

The devil then called for some of his agents--a brother Stanton and others--to rise up and proclaim that the whole SDA church had gone too far, and had become Babylon fallen. This forced God through Sister White to meet this error head on, and expose these agents of Satan as being deceived and deceiving others.

Sister White wrote in this year of 1893 that no one was to call the SDA church Babylon, or any part of Babylon. But did these statements say that the SDA church would "never become Babylon"? Was it a guarantee that the SDA church could never become Babylon no matter how far into apostasy and corruption she chose to go? No.

Sister White wrote during this year that the SDA church was "at the present time" not to be called Babylon.(155) This statement is definitely present tense terminology and not unconditional. Hence, are all these 1893 statements to be interpreted as unconditional promises of God's eternal favor to the SDA church? No, because God has never given any unconditional promises of His eternal favor to any group of people!

The Jews were told by God that as long as the sun, moon, and stars were in the sky, that they would be His church and chosen people (see Jeremiah 31:35-37, 33:20-22). Yet the sun, moon and stars are still in the sky; but the Jewish temple was destroyed, and the Jews are no longer His chosen people! It was not the promise of God that was at fault; the Jews refused to obey God and His truth, and hence the promise could not be granted them. They forgot the "IF." If the Jews would obey God, then they would be His people, but if they continued in disobedience, then God would be obliged to set them aside and choose others to take their place and crown--which sadly is exactly what happened. The same with the SDA church and people!

"...why is it that the judgment of God fell upon them [Jews] in so signal a manner? It was because they rejected the great light which had been given them from the time of their delivery from Egyptian bondage. It was because the Lord had revealed to them, through His prophets, and through holy men of old, His will, and they chose to walk in their own ways, and to follow their own will. Calamity overtook the Jews because they failed to keep the commandments of God. God had told them if they did not keep His commandments, He could not fulfill His covenant of promise, for this covenant was to be fulfilled only upon condition of obedience. The history of Israel should be to us a most solemn warning of the calamities that will overtake us if we are disobedient to God's commandments." Signs of the Times, vol 3, p 182.

Hence, these testimonies against calling the SDA church Babylon are conditional, not unconditional. As long as the SDA church would fulfill her part of the covenant promise with God, then she would never become Babylon. But if she would refuse to fulfill her covenant promise with God, and chose to unite herself with the world, if she continued to reject the message of righteousness, then there would be nothing to stop her from becoming corrupt, a cage of every unclean and hateful bird, and Babylon.

"The devotion and experience of the professed people of God are not in harmony with the light and privileges that God has given them. They are to be children of the light, children of the day, and yet many who have had exalted privileges fail to manifest corresponding faith and works. Jesus says to them as He said to the city wherein He had done mighty works, and they failed to appreciate the light and to conform their life to it, `Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida!(156) for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.'...

"Of those who boast of their light, and yet fail to walk in it, Christ says, `But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum [Seventh-day Adventists, who have had great light], which art exalted unto heaven [in point of privilege], shall be brought down to hell:(157) for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.' At that time Jesus answered and said, `I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent [in their own estimation], and hast revealed them unto babes' [Matthew 11:21-25].

"`And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto this place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.(158) And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim' [Jeremiah 7:13-15]....

"Shall the Lord be compelled to say, `Pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to Me: for I will not hear thee' [Jeremiah 7:16]? `Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain....Wilt thou not from this time cry unto Me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth' [Jeremiah 3:3-4]?...

What more can God do? He has given the SDA church all the light, warnings, and reproofs necessary to draw them back to Him. Unfortunately the SDA leadership has rejected Him, along with His light, warnings, and reproofs. Because of this, THERE HAS BEEN NO LATTER RAIN! They rejected the LATTER RAIN in 1888 (see p 39-40), and are still rejecting it now!

God had even warned the SDA church that the judgments against Capernaum would fall on them, and now they surely will. God has again, graciously shown His professed SDA people the future of their course. They will be brought down to hell, because they refuse to repent. Their house--the whole professed SDA church structure and organization--in which they trust, will fall and become utterly ruined, as Shiloh if they continue on in defiance to God's will.

"America, and especially Battle Creek [then General Conference headquarters], where the greatest light from heaven has been shining upon the people, can become the place of greatest peril and darkness because the people do not continue to practice the truth and walk in the light. What was the meaning of the movement last winter?...The present manifestation is strikingly inconsistent with that movement...May the Lord help His representative men to turn their influence into channels which He can approve....

"The more nearly we approach the closing scenes of this earth's history, the more pronounced will be the work of Satan; every species of deception will take the lead to divert the mind from God through Satan's devices....If at the great heart of the work the pulse beats are violent and erratic, the peril to spiritual life affect the whole body.

"It is time that there was a different order of things in Battle Creek, else the judgments of God will surely fall upon this people....When the church has had great light, then is her peril if she does not walk in the light, and put on her beautiful garments, and arise and shine; darkness will becloud the vision, so that light will be regarded as darkness, and darkness as light." Letter 23c, July 20, 1894, Pamphlet #84, p 2-5. (See Last Day Events from the Letters and Manuscripts of E.G. White, p 40-42; Selected Messages, book 3, p 387)

With the movement of righteousness (that was taking place within some SDA churches) quenched to a great degree, the eyes of our people were not being directed upward to Jesus for their help and the place for them to find rest. Then where were our SDA people being pointed and directed to for help and rest?

"How can the truth be laid out before our people that they will everyone arouse from the lethargy which has been upon them, and come to a realization of the times in which we are living?(161)...the testimony of the True Witness applies to our cases its rebuke, `And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked' [Revelation 3:17]....

"What is it that constitutes the wretchedness, the nakedness of those who feel rich and increased with goods?--It is the want of the righteousness of Christ. In their own righteousness they are represented as clothed with filthy rags, and yet in this condition they flatter themselves that they are clothed upon with Christ's righteousness. Could deception be greater? As is represented by the prophet, they may be crying, `The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we' [Jeremiah 7:4], while their hearts are filled with unholy traffic and unrighteous barter....Discernment seems to have departed, and they have no power to discriminate between the light which God sends them and the darkness that comes from the enemy of their souls....

"The people of God have educated themselves in such a way that they have come to look to those in positions of trust as guardians of truth, and have placed men where God should be.(162)...Christ has sounded the invitation, `Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest' [Matthew 11:28]; but instead of carrying their perplexities and difficulties to Jesus, as He has told them to do, they have laid their burdens upon human souls, and they have received accordingly; for God removes His wisdom from men who are looked up to be as God....Men must not be educated to look to men as to God. While it is necessary that there be a counseling together and a unity of action among the laborers, one man's mind and one man's judgment must not be the controlling power.(163)...

"The president of the conference is not to do the thinking for all the people. He has not an immortal brain, but has capabilities and powers like any other man. And to every man God has given his work. When men place the president of the conference in the place of God...they are doing that which is exactly opposite to what Christ has told them to do....Is not this the one reason that the people of God are destitute of the fruits of the Holy Spirit? Is not this the one reason why their religious experience is of so dwarfed a character?(164)

"Spirituality will wane under an influence of this kind, and the knowledge of God's will, will become more and more indistinct, while the sayings of men become of more and more importance in the eyes of the people. In this way God is dishonored, and spiritual discernment is lost. The sacred and the common become intermingled, until nothing is looked upon as sacred. God is not exalted, but is put in the shade by human inventions and by those who may be so deceived as to think that they are doing God service....

What did our people expect would happen since a majority of their leaders and ministers were continuing to reject the message of the Righteousness of Christ? We read earlier that it was Satan's purpose to lead men to look to man instead of to Jesus (see p 38). This was the very reason why God sent this precious message to our people in the first place--to get their eyes off of man and onto Christ! But since the majority of SDA leaders were continuing to reject this message and Jesus, the only other area where they could look for all their help, was to man and their SDA Temple. And the SDA leadership was beginning to teach this to our people!

Sister White warned that men were beginning to "place the president of the Conference in the place of God." For the SDA president to be the "god" of our people, to have all institutions, churches, and people follow his directions and plans, we would be greatly backslidden from God, and would be following in the path of Rome! Yet God had already warned us of this very thing earlier in this year:

"The fact that a man has been selected to be the president of a conference does not mean that he shall have authority to rule over his fellow workmen. This is after the practice of Rome, and it cannot be tolerated, for it restricts religious liberty, and the man is led to place himself where God alone should be....

But in order for the president of the SDA church to rule as a god or pope, all SDA institutions must be brought together under the control of one institution--the General Conference--which was in Battle Creek in this year. Was the SDA leadership really trying to consolidate all SDA interests under the control of one central governing body--to make the General Conference the great head of the work, thus enabling the SDA president to rule as a pope?

"The present is a time of special peril. In 1890 and 1891 there was presented to me a view of dangers that would threaten the work...Propositions which to their authors appeared very wise would be introduced, looking to the formation of a confederacy that would make Battle Creek, like Rome, the great head of the work...This is not God's wisdom, but human wisdom." Letter 71, 1894, Pamphlet #149, p 22.

With the SDA church and leadership growing in rebellion against God and lessening the distance between the church and Rome--especially in trying to make the General Conference president the "god" or pope of the SDA church and people, and with a confederacy being formed to make the General Conference the great head of the work, God again warns His people about being under probationary time.

"God has given us probationary time in order that it may be made manifest whether we will be loyal, obedient children, rendering obedience to His commandments, His statutes, and His laws, or whether we will persist in following a course of disobedience, and prove ourselves unworthy of eternal life....

"God has waited long, and He is waiting still, to have the beings that are His by both creation and redemption, listen to His voice, and obey Him as loving, submissive children, whose desire is to be near His side, and to have the light of His countenance shining upon them." Review and Herald, vol 3, p 191 (October 9, 1894).

So the SDA church is not guaranteed heaven as her home, and the SDA people are not granted salvation by having their names on the role books of their church: both are granted "probationary time" to see who they will give obedience to--either God or the devil. If they choose to obey God till the end, then salvation is theirs in God's kingdom of righteousness; but if they choose to disobey God, then destruction will be theirs in Satan's kingdom of Babylon.

"It was the world that crucified the Lord of life and glory. Jesus was put to death to gratify the malice of the Jews, who were filled with the spirit and principles of the world. They hated the spotless Son of God, because the principles He presented did not harmonize with their ideas." Review and Herald, vol 3, p 233 (February 26, 1895).

"Just as soon as a man separates from God so that his heart is not under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit, the attributes of Satan will be revealed, and he will begin to oppress his fellowmen. An influence goes forth from him that is contrary to truth and justice and righteousness. This disposition is manifested in our institutions, not only in the relation of workers to one another, but the desire shown by one institution to control all others. Men who are entrusted with weighty responsibilities, but who have no living connection with God, have been doing despite to the Holy Spirit. They are indulging the very same spirit as did Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and as did the Jews in the days of Christ. (see Matt. 12:22-29; 31:37). Warnings have come from God again and again for these men, but they have cast them aside and ventured on in the same course....

"Jesus said, `Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city' [Matthew 23:34]. This prophecy was literally fulfilled by the Jews in their treatment of Christ and of the messengers whom God sent to them. Will men in these last days follow the example of those whom Christ condemned?

"These terrible predictions they have not as yet carried out to the full; but if God spares their lives, and they nourish the same spirit that marked their course of action both before and after the Minneapolis meeting, they will fill up to the full the deeds of those whom Christ condemned when He was upon the earth.

"The perils of the last days are upon us. Satan takes the control of every mind that is not decidedly under the control of the Spirit of God. Some have been cultivating hatred against the men whom God has commissioned to bear a special message to the world. They began this work at Minneapolis. Afterward, when they saw and felt the demonstration of the Holy Spirit testifying that the message was of God, they hated it the more...They opened their hearts to the enemy of God and man. Yet these men have been holding positions of trust, and have been molding the work after their own similitude, as far as they possibly could....It is time that there was a change....

"But unless the truth is enthroned in the heart, and a thorough transition takes place from darkness to light, those who handle sacred responsibilities are ministers of darkness, blind leaders of the blind. `Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots' [Jude 12]....

"I inquire of those in responsible positions in Battle Creek, What are you doing? You have turned your back, and not your face, to the Lord....What is the message to be given at this time? It is the third angel's message. But the light which is to fill the whole earth with its glory has been despised by some who claim to believe the present truth....I know not but some have even now gone too far to return and to repent....

"The Spirit of God is departing from many among His people. Many have entered into dark, secret paths, and some will never return. They will continue to stumble to their ruin. They have tempted God, they have rejected light....These men are parties to the ruin of souls. They have interposed themselves between the heaven-sent light and the people. They have trampled upon the word of God and are doing despite to His Holy Spirit.

"I call upon God's people to open their eyes. When you sanction or carry out the decisions of men who, as you know, are not in harmony with truth and righteousness, you weaken your own faith and lose your relish for communion with God....`There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel.' `Neither will I be with you anymore, except ye destroy the accursed from among you' [Joshua 7:13, 12]....

"What does God say in regard to His people? `But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses; they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, restore' [Isaiah 42:22]. These are prophecies that will be fulfilled.

"I would speak in warning to those who have stood for years resisting light and cherishing the spirit of opposition....There is salvation for you, but only through the merits of Jesus Christ. The grace of the Holy Spirit has been offered you again and again. Light and power from on high has been shed abundantly in the midst of you. Let me prophesy unto you: unless you speedily humble your hearts before God, and confess your sins, which are many, you will, when it is too late, see that you have been fighting against God. Through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, no longer unto reformation and pardon, you will see that men whom you have spoken against have been a sign in the world, as witnesses for God. Then you would give the whole world if you could redeem the past, and be just such zealous men, moved by the Spirit of God to lift your voice in solemn warning to the world; and like them, to be in principle firm as a rock.(166) Your turning things upside down is known of the Lord. Go on a little longer as you have gone in rejection of light from heaven, and you are lost. `The man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation' [Numbers 19:20].

"I have no smooth message to bear to those who have been so long as false guideposts, pointing the wrong way. If you reject Christ's delegated messengers you reject Christ. Neglect this great salvation, kept before you for years, despise this glorious offer of justification, through the blood of Christ, and sanctification through the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, and there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation." Letter 57, May 1, 1895, Manuscript Releases, vol 14, p 116-134. (Edited version, Testimonies to Ministers, p 77-97)

What a powerful testimony! If the SDA leadership would continue in rejecting the third angel's message, they would then be blind leaders of the blind. Also, they would begin to persecute those who accepted this precious message, because these would refuse to follow them in rebellion against God and His truth.

"Christ was a protestant. He protested against the formal worship of the Jewish nation, who rejected the counsel of God against themselves. He told them that they taught for doctrines the commandments of men, and that they were pretenders and hypocrites. Like whited sepulchers they were beautiful without, but within full of impurity and corruption. The Reformers date back to Christ and the apostles. They came out and separated themselves from a religion of forms and ceremonies. Luther and his followers did not invent the reformed religion. They simply accepted it as presented by Christ and the apostles." Review and Herald, vol 2, p 48.

"The Sanhedrin had rejected Christ's message and was bent upon His death; therefore Jesus departed from Jerusalem, from the priests, the temple, the religious leaders, the people who had been instructed in the law, and turned to another class to proclaim His message, and to gather out those who should carry the gospel to all nations." Desire of Ages, p 232.

"But O sad picture! Those who do not submit to the influence of the Holy Spirit soon lose the blessings received when they acknowledged the truth as from Heaven. They fall into a cold, spiritless formality; they lose their interest in perishing souls: they have `left their first love.' And Christ says unto them, `Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent' [Revelation 2:5]. He will take His Holy Spirit from the church, and give it to others who will appreciate it.

"There is no greater evidence that those who have received great light do not appreciate that light, than is given by their refusal to let their light shine upon those who are in darkness, and devoting their time and energies in celebrating forms and ceremonies. Thoughts of the inner work, the necessary purity of heart, are not entertained. The absence of harmony with God becomes apparent. The light grows dim, goes out; the candlestick has been removed. There is much exercising of man-made authority by those to whom God has not given His wisdom because they did not feel the need of the wisdom from above....

"The Spirit is poured out upon all who will yield to its promptings, and, casting off all man's machinery, his binding rules and cautious methods, they will declare the truth with the might of the Spirit's power. Multitudes will receive the faith and join the armies of the Lord....The safeguards which false shepherds have thrown around their flocks will become as naught; thousands will step out into the light, and work to spread the light." Review and Herald, vol 3, p 272-75 (July 16 & 23, 1895).

Did the SDA leadership listen to the warning, accept the rebuke, and change? Or did they reject this also, and continue on in their rejection of God and His light? Are they truly lessening the distance between themselves and Rome, and bringing all SDA institutions and churches under the control of the General Conference and its god-president? The following two testimonies in the same month, spell it out clearly.

"For years a spirit of oppression has been coming into Battle Creek. The human agents are lifting up themselves unto selfishness and domination....And when every institution is merged into the one that is greatest--that is, measured by her power of control--that one will be the ruling power, and if the principles of action in the most powerful institution are corrupted, as is now the case, and as has been in the history of the past, every other institution must follow the same path...

"There must be a cleansing of the institutions similar to Christ's cleansing of the temple of old. `It is written,' saith the Lord, `My house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves' [Mark 11:27]. There are in our institutions today transactions similar to those that took place in the temple court in Christ's time; and all heaven is looking on....

"It has not been after God's order to center so much in Battle Creek. The state of things now exists that was presented before me as a warning. The Lord gave warnings to prevent this demoralizing condition of things, but they have not been heeded. `Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men' [Matthew 5:13].

"I appeal to my brethren to wake up. Unless a change takes place speedily, I must give the facts to the people; for this state of things must change; unconverted men must no longer be managers and directors in so important and sacred work. With David we are forced to say, `It is time for Thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void Thy law' [Psalms 119:126]." Letter 4, September, 1895, Paulson Collection, p 410-16. (see also The Publishing Ministry, p 133)

"I think we will institute, at least once a day, a season of prayer for the Lord to set things in order at the center of the work. Matters are being shaped so that every other institution is following in the same course.(167) And the General Conference is itself becoming corrupted with wrong sentiments and principles....

"I have been shown that the Jewish nation were not brought suddenly into their condition of thought and practice.(168) From generation to generation they were working on false theories, carrying out principles opposed to the truth, and combining with their religion, thoughts and plans that were the product of human minds. Human inventions were made supreme.

"So it is today...and it is time to call a halt....The holy principles God has given are represented by the sacred fire: but common fire has been used in the place of the sacred.(169) False propositions have been assumed as truth and righteousness, and everything has been managed in such a way as to carry out these propositions, which are a misrepresentation of God's character. Plans contrary to truth and righteousness are introduced in a subtle manner(170) on the plea that this must be done, and that must be done, `because it is for the advancement of the cause of God.' Men have taken unfair advantage of those whom they supposed to be under their jurisdiction. They were determined to bring the individuals to their terms; they would rule or ruin. This devising leads to oppression, injustice, and wickedness....There will be no material change for the better until a decided change is made to bring in a different state of things....

"If man resists the warnings the Lord sends them they become even leaders in evil practices; such men assume to exercise the prerogatives of God--they presume to do that which God Himself will not do in seeking to control the minds of men. They introduce their own methods and plans...They weaken the faith of others in the truth, and bring in false principles that will work like leaven to taint and corrupt our institutions and churches....

"The spirit of domination is extending to the presidents of our conferences. But if a man is sanguine of his own powers, and seeks to exercise dominion over his brethren, feeling that he is invested with authority to make his will the ruling power, the best and only safe course is to remove him, lest great harm be done and he lose his own soul and imperil the souls of others....

"A man's position does not make him one jot or tittle greater in the sight of God; it is character alone that God values....The high-handed power that has been developed, as though position made men gods, makes me afraid, and ought to cause fear. It is a curse wherever, and by whomsoever [it is] exercised....When men who profess to serve God, ignore His parental character, and depart from honor and righteousness in dealing with their fellowmen, Satan exults; for he has inspired them with his attributes. They are following in the track of Romanism. Those who are enjoined to represent the attributes of the Lord's character, step from the Bible platform, and in their own human judgment devise rules and resolutions to force the will of others....Rule, rule, has been their course of action: and Satan has had an opportunity to represent himself through them....

"Satan's methods tend to one end,--to make men the slaves of men....Age after age Jesus has been delivering His goods to the church. At the time of the first advent of Christ to our world, the men who composed the Sanhedrin exercised their authority in controlling men according to their will....but when men are separated from God, and their own wisdom is made a controlling power, the souls for whom Christ has given His life to free from the bondage of Satan, are brought under bondage to him in another form....

"The words of Christ are spoken just as verily to presidents of conferences, elders of churches, and those occupying responsible positions in our churches, `Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God' [John 3:3]." Letter 55, September 19, 1895, Pamphlet #80, p 25-45. (Altered version, Testimonies to Ministers, p 359-73)

"We cannot be safe in trusting to any other word except `It is written.' We cannot float with the current; we cannot build our faith on any human theory, lest we come under condemnation as did the Jews. `Ye teach for doctrine the commandments of men' [Mark 7:7], said Christ to them. And this statement is made decidedly plain to us in these last days.

"In Sunday observance the commandments of men are made supreme. Human authority and church pretensions are made as the word of God, to which all must bow.(171) Should we do this, we would be laborers together with the man of sin, who thought to change times and laws, and who exalted himself above God and all that is written in the word of God." Letter 8, 1895, Manuscript Releases, vol 13, p 22-23.

If the SDA leaders make their wisdom supreme, instead of God's wisdom, requiring the obedience of all SDA's, then a union would be formed with Satan who exalts Sunday in place of God's Sabbath. As this was already being accomplished, Sister White warns that the voice coming from the General Conference is not from God!

Will the SDA leaders continue on this sure road to destruction and risk being denounced as an harlot of Babylon? Are they still continuing to cherish the spirit of rebellion which began at Minneapolis? Are they still rejecting the message of the Righteousness of Christ, and thereby rejecting Him; while all the time claiming to be the remnant people of God? Are they still trying to stop our people from accepting this precious message? Are they still trying to control the minds of our people, and set themselves up as lords over the flock?

"The Lord has a controversy with you....The lifting up of the soul and speaking vanity, and the lifting up of men to manage their fellow-men, body and soul, is all open before God, with whom we have to do. There is no man or set of men that can manage men. `All ye are brethren' [Matthew 23:8]. The Holy Spirit of God alone can do this....Truth, honor, and integrity have been compromised to gain certain advantages. Justice hath fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

"Religious principles have been corrupted. We will either make more pure, noble, and holy the principles held by God's heritage, or else we will mislead by false proposition, unholy schemes, saying, `The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we' [Jeremiah 7:4]. The work and cause of the Lord is sacred. There is to be no mingling of human, common, unholy fire with God's offering. This has been and is still being done....The question is, Shall those who are called from place to place act a part in the sacred work of God, use the fire of God's own kindling, or shall they use the common fire, of which not one spark should be used, to kindle the incense upon the censors which are offered to God?...

"...the Lord's holy purpose has been grieved. Heaven has manifested its purpose to impart power to those who believe; and the Holy Spirit has been revealed....The Comforter is to reveal Himself, not in any specified, precise way that man may mark out, but in the order of God; in unexpected times and ways that will honor His own name. Those who are unbelievers do not receive the richest endowment of grace...God cannot do His mighty works for them because of their unbelief.

"Now, just now is our day of mercy and salvation. The Lord God...sees every soul that shows contempt for the manifestations of His Holy Spirit. God has revealed Himself again and again in a most marked manner in Battle Creek. He has given a large measure of His Holy Spirit to the believers there....This blessing extended to large numbers, but why was not this sweet, holy working continued upon hearts and minds? Some felt annoyed at this out-pouring, and their own natural dispositions were manifested. They said, This is only excitement; it is not the Holy Spirit, not showers from heaven of the latter rain....

"On many occasions the Holy Spirit did work, but those who resisted the Spirit of God at Minneapolis were waiting for a chance to travel over the same ground again, because their spirit was the same....They stood like a rock, the waves of mercy flowing upon and around them, but beaten back by their hard and wicked hearts, which resisted the Holy Spirit's working. Had this been received, it would have made them wise unto salvation; holier men, prepared to do the work of God with sanctified ability. But all the universe of heaven witnessed the disgraceful treatment of Jesus Christ, represented by the Holy Spirit. Had Christ been before them, they would have treated Him in a manner similar to that in which the Jews treated Christ....

"There is much that needs to be set in order in every institution that is in operation in our world. Finite men are not to make themselves lords, and seek to govern men's minds and principles, when their own minds, and their own principles, are very shaky. This uncertainty is being communicated to the churches by men in prominent positions. Unbelief goes in the very atmosphere. Everything is to be shaken that can be shaken, that those things that cannot be shaken may remain....

"Let the oppression of human minds forever cease, and let the Holy Spirit have a chance to work....This lording over God's heritage as though the endowment of the talents of the mind, the soul, the principles of men, are to be under the jurisdiction of men, is permeating our churches with a spirit after the same order....

"Who will now understand these things that I write?...The Lord is coming, but those who ventured to resist the light that God gave in rich measure at Minneapolis, who have not humbled their hearts before God, will follow on in the path of resistance, saying, `Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?' [Exodus 5:2]. The banner all will bear who voice the message of the third angel, is being covered with another color that virtually kills it. This is being done. Will our people now hold fast to the truth?" Letter 6, January 16, 1896, 1888 Materials, vol 4, p 1476-86.

The church leaders were virtually killing this message of the third angel by coloring it with another color. And what was this color? Men were controlling their fellow-men, lording it over God's heritage, oppressing other minds, seeking to govern the minds, souls, and bodies of our people, and seeking to take the place of God to our people--just like the pope of Catholicism. They were seeking to form the General Conference into the great central controlling institution of all SDA interests--just like the Vatican is to Catholicism. They were continuing to place men between the working of the Holy Spirit and our SDA people, and will continue on in this same path of resistance.

"That men should keep alive the spirit which ran riot at Minneapolis is an offense to God.(173)...He will visit for these things. A voice has been heard pointing out the errors and, in the name of the Lord, pleading for a decided change. But who have followed the instruction given? Who have humbled their hearts to put from them every vestige of their wicked, oppressive spirit? I have been greatly burdened to set these matters before the people as they are. I know they will see them. I know that those who read this matter will be convicted." Letter 38, May 30, 1896, Testimonies to Ministers, p 76-77.

"The enemy has been given an opportunity to control men, and to manage the work which God has shown should be kept pure and sacred...When men entrusted with responsibilities, neglect to cherish that which is sacred, and use common fire in God's service, God will despise their offering to Him. This has been, and is still being done.

"For years a degree of Phariseeism has been springing up amongst us...Much pride and loftiness and a spirit which desires to rule has been manifested...Human inventions(174) and human plans are eclipsing sacred things, and excluding divine instruction.(175) Men are taking the place of God by seeking to assume authority over their fellow-men. But they rule with a vestige of the authority of God...and others are becoming leavened by this wrong influence....`Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees' [Mark 8:15], Christ said, guard against the influence which they exert....

"I shall never, I think, be called to stand under the direction of the Holy Spirit as I stood at Minneapolis. The presence of Jesus was with me....The manifestations of the Holy Spirit were attributed to fanaticism....The scenes which took place at this meeting made the God of heaven ashamed to call those who took part in them, His brethren....He who rejects the light and evidence God has been liberally bestowing upon us, rejects Christ; and for him there is no other Saviour....

"The same work that has been done in the past will be carried forward under the guise of the General Conference Association. The sacred character of this association is fast disappearing. Who will then be respected as pure, holy and undefiled? Will there be any voice that God's people can respect as a voice to be respected? There certainly is nothing now that bears the divine credentials....

"As things now exist in Battle Creek, the work of God cannot be carried forward on a correct basis....The enslaving of the souls of men by their fellow-men is deepening the darkness which already envelops them. Who can now feel sure that they are safe in respecting the voice of the General Conference Association? If the people in our churches understood the management of the men who walk in the light of the sparks of their own kindling,(176) would they respect their decisions? I answer, no, not for a moment.(177) I have been shown that the people at large do not know that the heart of the work is being diseased and corrupted at Battle Creek. Many of the people are in a lethargic, listless, apathetic condition, and assent to plans which they do not understand. Where is the voice, from whence will it come, to whom the people may listen, knowing that it comes from the True Shepherd? I am called upon by the Spirit of God to present these things before you, and they are correct to the life...

"If those connected with the work of God will not hear His voice and do His will, they should be separated entirely from the work. God does not need the influence of such men. I speak plainly; for it is time that things were called by their right name....those who have separated their souls from God, should themselves be separated from the work of God, which is so solemn and so important." Letter 81, May 31, 1896, 1888 Materials, p 1558-73.

God, through Sister White, has warned that the General Conference Association is being diseased and corrupted, and will continue to bear the same evil spirit that was manifested at Minneapolis. The divine credentials were no longer with the leaders, they were not safe to trust, and should be removed from office. But they were not.

"The sacred character of the cause of God is no longer realized at the center of the work. The voice from Battle Creek, which has been regarded as authority in counseling how the work should be done, is no longer the voice of God; but it is the voice of--whom? From whence does it come, and where is its vital power? This state of things is maintained by men who should have been disconnected from the work long ago. These men do not scruple to quote the word of God as their authority, but the god who is leading them is a false god....

"A great crisis is coming upon us. If men still yield to men, as they have been doing for the last fifteen years, they will lose their own souls, and their example will lead others astray. God's soldiers must put on the whole armor of God. We are not required to put on human armor, but to gird ourselves with God's strength....

"Your religion cannot be in any other man's keeping. Honor the cross of Christ, and the cross will honor you. Let every man stand in God, not to be bought, not to be sold, but to reveal a Christian fortitude. Serve no man through fear of what that man can do to you that is disagreeable. Christians you cannot be if you depend on any other man's conscience. Christ died to give men moral independence, freedom to exercise their God-given ability....

"God has given us all that we possess. It all belongs to Him, and we are not to sit at the footstool of any man to obey his orders, for God has made us free moral agents. He requires us to preserve our moral independence, and not be bound about by any man. Our consciences are to be controlled by no power on earth....

"God's servants are to resist sternly any deviation from righteous principles. Nehemiah took his stand decidedly against the first encroachment of man's rights. He had his own brother officers to meet, but he separated himself from them, and rebuked their plans to obtain control of everything. He stood as a reprover, frowning down their course which was contrary to the Bible standard of righteousness. When urged to confederate with them in their course of injustice, he gave a decided testimony. `So did not I, because of the fear of the Lord' [Nehemiah 5:15]." Letter 4, July 1, 1896, Manuscript Releases, vol 17, p 184-94.

God sent a plain warning that the leadership were not the voice of God, that they were not to try and consolidate all the interests of the work under one institution--the General Conference. And if they continued on in their plans, then just like Nehemiah, a separation of God's faithful from the reaches of the Conference would have to take place.

Just a few days later, God sent a warning to our SDA state conferences and churches, telling them not to allow the General Conference to control them: it could not, must not, become the center of the work. He also revealed to them, especially through Bible texts, what would be the end result of allowing the General Conference to be a controlling power, and thus allowing the General Conference president to be the "god" or pope of the SDA people.

"State conferences may depend upon the General Conference for light and knowledge and wisdom; but is it safe for them to do this? Battle Creek is not to be the center of God's work. God alone can fill this place....The Lord is the only One upon whom we can safely depend, and He is accessible in every place and to every church in the Union. To place men where God should be placed does not honor or glorify God. Is the president of the General Conference to be the god of the people?...`Cease ye from man' [Isaiah 2:22].

"The Lord has a controversy(178) with His people over this matter....Mercy and love and wisdom are to be found in God; but many who profess to know Him have turned from the One in whom our hope of eternal life is centered, and have educated themselves to depend upon their erring and fallible fellowmen....Just as soon as man is placed where God should be, he loses his purity, his vigor, his confidence in God's power. Moral confusion results, because his powers become unsanctified and perverted. He feels competent to judge his fellowmen, and he strives unlawfully to be a god over them.(179)

"`Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever: that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppressions and perverseness, and stay thereon: therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.'

"`Whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall He make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: for with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people. To whom He said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall overflow the hiding place.'

"`Thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.' `And in that day shall the deaf hear the words out of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought. Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. But when he seeth his children, the work of Mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify My name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine' [Isaiah 30:8-13, 28:9-17, 30:15, 29:18-24].

"Will these warnings be passed by as of no account? The Lord calls upon every teacher, every minister, everyone who has received the light of His truth, to mark well his spiritual standing. They have had great light, and if they would secure eternal life, they must no longer make finite men their dependence, but build upon the sure foundation.

"No council of men can with safety remove God's principles, and set up their own; for the word of God declares, `Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.'" Testimonies to Ministers, p 375-84 (July 5, 1896).

"...what did the brethren in that fearful position in which they stood, reject at Minneapolis? They rejected the latter rain, the loud cry of the third angel's message....the Spirit of the Lord was there to tell them that they were doing it, was it not? But when they were rejecting the loud cry, the teaching of righteousness; and then the Spirit of the Lord, by His prophet, stood there and told us what they were doing, what then? Oh! Then they simply set this prophet aside with all the rest." 1893 General Conference Bulletin, p 183.

So if the SDA leadership would continue in their rebellious plans, then the only SDA people that God will be able to teach His knowledge and doctrine to would be those who would fulfill these two conditions: those SDA's that would wean themselves from receiving all their knowledge and doctrine from human sources, are able to do their own study and thinking for themselves (relying upon God to enlighten their minds through the Holy Spirit as to what is truth), and those SDA's who are drawn from, or separate from, the SDA church! Those who would obey God and fulfill these conditions, would no longer be deaf, but would hear and understand God's word of truth, and would no longer be blinded by the obscurity and darkness of the church, but would see clearly.

"The prophet Isaiah brings to view the fearful deception which will come upon the wicked, causing them to count themselves secure from the judgments of God: [Isaiah 28:15 quoted]. In this class here described are included those who in their stubborn impenitence comfort themselves with the assurance that there is to be no punishment for the sinner; that all mankind, it matters not how corrupt, are to be exalted to Heaven to become as the angels of God. But still more emphatically are those making a covenant with death and an agreement with hell, who renounce the truths which Heaven has provided as a defense for the righteous in the day of trouble, and accept the refuge of lies offered by Satan in its stead--the delusive pretensions of Spiritualism." Spirit of Prophecy, vol 4, p 377-78. (also Great Controversy, p 560-61)

"But as God has left him [king Saul], he seeks a woman with a familiar spirit, who is in communion with Satan. He has forsaken God, and at length seeks one who has made a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell, for knowledge. The witch of Endor had made agreement with Satan to follow his directions in all things; and he would perform wonders and miracles for her...

"Saul knew that in this last act, of consulting the witch of Endor, he cut the last shred which held him to God. He knew that if he had not before willfully separated himself from God, this act sealed that separation, and made it final. He had made an agreement with death, and a covenant with hell. The cup of his iniquity was full." Spirit of Prophecy, vol 1, p 375-77.

As utterly impossible as this may sound, God has revealed to His people that if the SDA church and its leadership continue on in their plans of rebellion and rejection of God and His precious message of righteousness; if they renounce the truths from heaven as being error, and accept the doctrines of Spiritualism; if they seek after and unite themselves with other women (or churches) who are in league with the devil, then they will have made a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell, and their cup of iniquity will be full. Their separation from God will be final--and probation will have closed upon the corporate church!

The SDA church and its followers would go, and fall backward, be broken, snared, and taken. The breaking of their wall, or structure, would come suddenly and at an instant. The judgment of plagues would come against them with the hail overflowing their hiding place. They and their church would be brought to naught, be consumed, and cut off from God's mercy!

God forbid: but if the SDA leadership would continue on, then Ellen White and the testimonies will continue to be set aside and rejected, the truths from heaven will be accounted as error and given up. They will seek to be united with the other fallen women or churches, and probation will close upon them and their church. God will then be obligated to separate His true SDA people out of the church, and in the end the SDA church and those who continue in her will be destroyed by the plagues.

"The Sabbath is God's memorial to His creative work, and it is a sign that is to be kept before the world.(180) There is to be no compromise with those who are worshipping an idol sabbath.(181)...I was told that men will employ every policy to make less prominent the difference between the faith of Seventh-day Adventists and those who observe the first day of the week....

"A company was presented before me under the name of Seventh-day Adventists, who were advising that the banner or sign which makes us a distinctive people should not be held out so strikingly; for they claimed it was not the best policy(182) in securing success to our institutions. This distinctive banner is to be borne through the world to the close of probation.(183)...I saw some reaching out their hands to remove the banner, and to obscure its significance....

"The figures on the side of iniquity are rapidly reaching the sum of corruption which was reached by the Amorites, and by the Jewish nation, once the elect of God. In the days of Christ they made void the law of God, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, and this led them to reject the Son of God. When the people accept and exalt a spurious sabbath, and turn souls away from obedience and loyalty to God, they will reach the point that was reached by the people in the days of Christ....Then the commandments of men will be clothed with sacred garments, and will be pronounced holy.

"When the law of God is being made void, when His name is dishonored, when it is considered disloyal to the laws of the land to keep the seventh day as the Sabbath, when wolves in sheep's clothing,(185) through blindness of mind(186) and hardness of heart, are seeking to compel the conscience, shall we give up our loyalty to God? No, no....The zeal of those who obey the Lord will be increased as the world and the church unite in making void the law." Manuscript 15, 1896, Manuscript Releases, vol 13, p 69-71.

"Says the great deceiver: `We must watch those who are calling the attention of the people to the Sabbath of Jehovah; they will lead many to see the claims of the law of God; and the same light which reveals the true Sabbath, reveals also the ministration of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, and shows that the last work for man's salvation is now going forward.'...

"`The people accept their ministers' explanations of Scripture, and do not investigate for themselves.(187) Therefore by working through the ministers,(188) I can control the people according to my will....We will thus lead them to conclude that the requirements of Christ are less strict(189) than they once believed...Thus they will separate from Christ; then they will have no strength to resist our power'....

"`I will have upon the ground, as my agents,(190) men holding false doctrines mingled with just enough truth to deceive souls. I will also have unbelieving ones present, who will express doubts in regard to the Lord's messages of warning to His church. Should the people read and believe these admonitions, we could have little hope of overcoming them....If we can keep souls deceived for a time, God's mercy will be withdrawn, and He will give them up to our full control.'" Spirit of Prophecy, vol 4, p 337-40.

God has mercifully shown Satan's plans to His people. If the SDA church follows Satan and not Christ, then they will unite with the world and exalt Sunday as the Sabbath. They will also repeat the history of the Jewish nation, and will occupy the same positions as did the Jews. Thus through blindness of mind, wolves in sheep's clothing (false SDA ministers) will seek to compel minds to worship on Sunday.

"The people of God who understand our position in this world's history, are with ears open and hearts softened and subdued pressing together in unity--one with Jesus Christ. Those who will not practice the lessons of Christ, but keep themselves in hand, to mold themselves, find in Antichrist the center of their union." Letter 73, October 12, 1896, Manuscript Releases, vol 20, p 113.

"My soul is made very sad to see how quickly some who have had light and truth will accept the deceptions of Satan, and be charmed with a spurious holiness. When men turn away from the landmarks the Lord has established that we may understand our position as marked out in prophecy, they are going they know not whither.

"I question whether genuine rebellion is ever curable. Study in Patriarchs and Prophets the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. This rebellion was extended, including more than two men. It was led by two-hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, men of renown. Call rebellion by its right name and apostasy by its right name, and then consider that the experience of the ancient people of God with all its objectionable features was faithfully chronicled to pass into history. The Scripture declares, `These things...are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come' [1 Corinthians 10:11]. And if men and women who have the knowledge of the truth are so far separated from their Great Leader that they will take the great leader of apostasy and name him Christ our Righteousness, it is because they have not sunk deep into the mines of the truth. They are not able to distinguish the precious ore from the base material....

"Is not Satan the life and soul of every species of rebellion which he has instigated?...`By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned...thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick' [Ezekiel 28:16, 18]. In this place `traffick' is the emblem of corrupt administration." Letter 156, April 8, 1897. (see Manuscript Releases, vol 7, p 178; SDA Bible Commentary, vol 7A, p 47, 173-74)

"Satan is moving with intensity from beneath and is bringing all his forces to bear to unsettle those who have once been established in the truth which they have once advocated, [these] can do the greatest harm to the cause of God. Quite a large number will enter this path because the truth they once believed has not been brought into their life-practice. But those who depart from the faith and refuse to give the last message of warning to the world will walk in paths in which the Lord does not lead. Satan goes before them as an angel of light. They will follow on in false paths until they shall discern what is comprehended in the wrath of the lamb." Letter 98a, April 9, 1897, Last Day Events from the Letters and Manuscripts of E.G. White, p 52.

"In our experience we have seen some who although they apparently believed the truth, were not in the truth, and the truth was not in them. Some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, and when once they open the heart to unbelief, Satan comes in to possess the soul....

"Unsanctified ministers are arraying themselves against God. They are praising Christ and the god of this world in the same breath. While professedly they receive Christ, they embrace Barabbas,(193) and by their actions say, `Not this Man, but Barabbas' [John 18:40].(194)...Let the son of deceit and false witness be entertained by a church that has had great light, great evidence, and that church will discard the message the Lord has sent, and receive the most unreasonable assertions and false suppositions and false theories. Satan laughs at their folly; for he knows what truth is.

"Many will stand in our pulpits with the torch of false prophecy in their hands, kindled from the hellish torch of Satan. If doubts and unbeliefs are cherished, the faithful ministers will be removed from the people who think they know so much. `If thou hadst known,' said Christ, `even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes' [Luke 19:42]....

"God gives men counsel and reproof for their good. He sent His message telling them what was needed for the time--1897. Did you accept the message? Did you heed the appeal? He gave you opportunity to come up armed and equipped to the help of the Lord. And having done all, He told you to stand. But did you make ready? Did you say, `Here am I; send me' [Isaiah 6:8]? You sat still, and did nothing. You let the word of the Lord fall unheeded to the ground...

"These rejecters of light will remain barren deserts, where no refreshing, healing waters flow, and their ministration as barren of moisture as were the hills of Gilboa, where there was neither dew nor rain. They are not clothed with divine unction and convey no blessing to others." Manuscript 92, August 12, 1897. (see Testimonies to Ministers, p 409-13)(195)

God forbid that all the faithful ministers shall be removed from the pulpits of SDA churches. But if doubts and unbeliefs are cherished, then eventually the only ministers that will be left in SDA churches will be those who are unsanctified, who reject God and His pure truth, who will be stumbling blocks to those who want to follow God. These "barren deserts" will hold in their hands false prophecies and satanic doctrines kindled from Lucifer's torch with which to deceive our people.

"We are living in the last days of this earth's history, and we may be surprised at nothing in the line of apostasies and denials of the truth.(196) Unbelief has now come to be a fine art which men work at to the destruction of their souls. There is constant danger of there being shams in the pulpit preachers, whose lives contradict the words they speak; but the voice of warning and of admonition will be heard as long as time shall last; and those who are guilty of transactions that should never be entered into, when reproved or counseled through the Lord's appointed agencies, will resist the message and refuse to be corrected....The Lord's word will come to them; but if they choose not to hear it, the Lord will make them responsible for their own ruin.

"The voice of John was lifted up like a trumpet. His commission was, `Show My people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins' [Isaiah 58:1]....To the Pharisees and Sadducees he said, Flee from the wrath to come....You turn from God's requirements and follow your own perverted ideas...He reproved the Pharisees of the Sanhedrin because their religion consisted in forms and not in righteousness of pure, willing obedience....

"The message we bear must be as direct as the message of John....The Lord will not leave His church without reproofs and warnings. Sins have become fashionable; but they are none the less aggravating in the sight of God. They are glossed over, palliated, and excused; the right hand of fellowship is given to the very men who are bringing in false theories and false sentiments, confusing the minds of the people of God, deadening their sensibilities as to what constitutes right principles. Conscience(197) has thus become insensible to the counsels and the reproofs which have been given. The light given, calling to repentance, has been extinguished in the clouds of unbelief and opposition brought in by human plans and human inventions....

"When men endanger the work and cause of God by their own wrong course of action, shall they hear no voice of reproof?...God requires that the warning be as broad as the injury done. The testimonies will not be hindered. The words of rebuke and warning, the plain `Thus saith the Lord,' will come from God's appointed agencies; for the words do not originate with the human instrument; they are from God, who appointed them their work....

"Many have tried neutrality in a crisis, but they have failed in their purpose. No one can maintain a neutral ground.(199) Those who endeavor to do this will fulfill Christ's words, `No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon' [Matthew 6:24]. Those who begin their christian life by being half and half, whatever may be their intentions, will at last be found enlisted on the enemy's side.

"Doubleminded men and women are Satan's best allies. Whatever favorable opinion they may have of themselves, they are dissemblers. All who are loyal to God and the truth must stand firmly for the right because it is right. To yoke up with those who are unconsecrated and yet be loyal to the truth, is simply an impossibility. We cannot unite with those who are serving themselves, who are working on worldly plans, and not lose our connection with the heavenly Counselor....

"When a man loses the shield of a good conscience, he knows that he has lost the cooperation of heavenly angels. God is not working in him. Another spirit inspires him. And to be an apostate, a traitor to the cause of God, is much more serious than death, it means the loss of eternal life." Manuscript 87, August 19, 1897, This Day With God, p 240.

"Christ shows that without the controlling power of the Spirit of God humanity is a terrible power for evil. Unbelief, the hatred of reproof, will stir up Satanic influences. Principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places, will unite in a desperate companionship. They will be leagued against God in the person of His saints. By misrepresentation and falsehood they will demoralize both men and women who to all appearances believe the truth. False witnesses will not be wanting in this terrible work.

"As men throw off all restraint, make void His law themselves, as they establish their own perverted law, and try to force the consciences of those who honor God and keep His commandments to trample the law under their feet, they will find that the tenderness which they have mocked will be exhausted."(201) Manuscript 40, 1897, Selected Messages, book 3, p 416-17.

"If the people of God had walked in His counsel, the work of God would have advanced, the messages of truth would have been borne to all people that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Had the people of God believed Him and been doers of His Word, had they kept His commandments, the angel would not have come flying through heaven with the message to the four angels...crying, `Hold, hold the four winds, that they blow not upon the earth, until we have sealed the servants of God in their foreheads' [Revelation 7:3]. But because the people are disobedient, unthankful, unholy, as were ancient Israel, time is prolonged that all may hear the last message of mercy proclaimed with a loud voice. The Lord's work has been hindered, the sealing time delayed." Letter 106, May 14, 1897, Manuscript Releases, vol 15, p 292-93.

God has told His people that if they had chosen to obey God and had done the work given them to do, then the work would have been finished, Christ would have already come, and we could have been in Heaven! But instead rebellion was increasing, and unbelief and apostasy were beginning to take hold of our people. This rebellion and apostasy was not yet out in the open for all to see what was really going on behind the scenes in the SDA church. But God had allowed it to enter into the midst of the church so that His people would learn not to depend upon man, but to look only to Him.

The General Conference was becoming corrupted, and strange methods and principles were being brought into the work. If this would continue, SDA ministers would become unsanctified, they would begin to preach doctrines of devils from SDA pulpits, and those SDA ministers who would remain faithful to God and His truths would be searched out and removed from their churches. The removal of these faithful SDA ministers would be through a variety of methods: which would surely include being placed on probation until they change their beliefs; being sent back to seminary to re-educate them; or being totally removed from the ministry.

If the rebellion and apostasy continues to grow, then the SDA leadership will begin voicing the words of the dragon, will make void God's law--believing that the Sabbath does not amount to much, and will exalt Sunday and lead our people into Sunday worship. Satan would be exalted in the place of "Christ our righteousness." The irrevocable sentence would be pronounced "now they are hid from thine eyes"--thus closing corporate probation. The SDA church would become Babylon fallen, and this great apostasy would continue on until the plagues begin to fall upon them and their apostate church!

The Jewish church leadership believed that their church could never become Babylon the harlot, yet, because of their continued rebellion against God and His will, they did (see Isaiah 1:21)! They had forgot the "IF." If they would be obedient to God they would never become Babylon; but if they refused to obey God, then God would choose others through whom to work and would not prevent the church from falling and being cast away.

"Jerusalem is a representation of what the church will be if it refuses to walk in the light that God has given. Jerusalem was favored of God as the depositary of sacred trusts. But her people perverted the truth, and despised all entreaties and warnings. They would not respect His counsels....Christ turned from them, saying: `O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,' how can I give thee up? `How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!' Matthew 23:37.

"So Christ sorrows and weeps over our churches, over our institutions of learning, that have failed to meet the demand of God. He comes to investigate in Battle Creek, which has been moving in the same track as Jerusalem....The publishing house has been turned into desecrated shrines, into a place of unholy merchandise and traffic.(202)...

"When Christ looked down from the crest of Olivet, He saw this state of things existing in every church. The warnings come down to all that are following in the tread of the people of Jerusalem, who had such great light. This people is before us as a warning. By rejecting God's warnings in this our day, men are repeating the sin of Jerusalem. The Lord sees what the human agent does not see and will not see--the outcome of all the human devising in Battle Creek. He has done all that a God could do. He has flashed light before the eyes of the people, that their sins might not reach the boundary where repentance cannot be felt. But by a long process of departure from just and righteous principles, men have placed themselves where light and truth, justice and mercy, are not discerned....

"Those who receive Christ by faith as their personal Saviour cannot be in harmony with the world. There are two distinct classes: One is loyal to God, keeping His commandments, while the other talks and acts like the world, casting away the word of God, which is truth, and accepting the words of the apostate, who rejected Jesus.

"On whose side are we?...We must all think candidly. Will you have this man Christ Jesus to rule over you, or will you have Barabbas?...Shall we receive a `Thus saith the Lord,' for the `Thus saith' of man? The papal power, the man of sin, decides that the Roman Catholic Church has changed the law of God. In the place of the seventh day, they have baptized and presented to the world a child of the papacy, the first day of the week, to be observed as a holy day of rest. The Protestant world has received this child of the papacy, has cradled it, and given to it the honor that God has placed on the seventh-day....

"Will you turn from a plain `Thus saith the Lord' after reading the history of Adam's sin and fall? He fell because he discarded the words of the Lord, and heeded the words of Satan. Will it pay to transgress?...By the transgression of God's commandments man will lose heaven, and an eternity of bliss. These are no idle tales, but truth. Again I ask: On which side are you standing? `If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him' [1 Kings 18:21]." Letter 31, January 12, 1898, Pamphlet #86, p 25-40. (see Notebook Leaflets, p 19-20; Testimonies, vol 8, p 67-68; Testimonies to Ministers, p 131-41)

"The Lord reveals to men their danger, and warns them to put away all selfishness, that they may have that faith which works by love and purifies the soul. Yet, notwithstanding this, Satan works upon human minds to do as Judas did....Those who sympathized with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram in their apostasy, brought blight and death upon themselves. So it will be in these last days. The cause of Christ will be betrayed. Those who have had the light of truth and have enjoyed its blessings, but have turned away from it, will fight down the Spirit of God. Inspired with a spirit from beneath, they will tear down that which they once built up, and show to all reasonable, God-fearing souls that they can not be trusted. They may lay claim to truth and righteousness, but their spirit and works will testify that they are betrayers of their Lord. The attributes of Satan they call the movings of the Holy Spirit." Review and Herald, vol 3, p 571 (May 24, 1898).

God had already warned the various SDA institutions in 1896 that they were to remain independent of the General Conference, and not allow it to control them. Now, God plainly tells them to come out and away from all control of the men in the General Conference! God was, in essence, trying to short circuit the papal plans of the leadership!

"In the General Conference the counsels of God have been set aside, and the counsels and wisdom of men have been relied upon. God has seen this, and He is displeased. The General Conference--what is it? What does it comprehend? Is it a General Conference, or is it something wrapped up and called by that name? With the exception of a limited number, the people who ought to know are not intelligent in regard to its workings....and the people at large know scarcely anything of what is being done at the heart of the work...

"As I was made to understand something of the management of the work in this great center, it was all that I could bear. My spirit was pained within me, for I had lost confidence in that which I had ever presented before the people as the voice of God to His children. It has not been the voice of God. There has been a lording power exercised over God's heritage...Their own principles have been counterworking the principles of truth and righteousness. We cannot therefore present before the people that the voice of the General Conference in its decisions must move and control them; for its propositions and decisions cannot be accepted. They are not in the right line of progress. God is cropped out of their counsels....

"The men who are guiding and planning, who carry large responsibilities, have separated themselves from God, and the righteousness of true principles is not in them; and if their plans are not counterworked they will cause ruin....at this stage of the work objectionable influences have come in to counterwork the work of God. The work of God has not been done according to His purpose....

"The man who magnifies his own office in working in any line to bind about the conscience of another, be he president of the General Conference, president of a smaller conference, or the elder or deacon or lay member of a church, he is out of God's line....God desires that men shall stand in their own individual responsibility, and while they are consecrated to Him there will be unity in diversity, as branches of the true Vine. But in the present condition of things, if one stands fast to his integrity, he is by some scorned, scouted, criticized, and dropped out if it can be brought about....

"Men who have been standing in stubborn resistance of the teachings of the Spirit of God have been honored as chosen men, as men qualified to run the work of God and to decide questions involving the highest responsibilities. They have been sent from place to place to give judgment in regard to matters which affect the future history of the work. But how can God look upon such a presentation as is now given at the great center of the work?...

"In your conference meetings there were heard pleasant presentations in regard to the consolidation of the Pacific Publishing House with the publishing interests at Battle Creek. This, it was proposed, should not interfere with their independence and rights, but that the General Conference should be to the interests on the Pacific Coast what fathers and mothers are to their children. These were very pleasant presentations; but I was carried into the future and was shown those who sanctioned these principles laying plans to control the work on the Pacific Coast....

"`Come out from among them,' God says, `and be ye separate,...and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty' [2 Cor. 6:17,18]. We all need a Father with whom to consult. The Holy Spirit has been refused by men who are puffed up with vain conceit and believe themselves capable of managing wonderful responsibilities....

"If our people were not blinded by deception they would see that these men are walking contrary to God. God has been speaking to them by His Word, through His testimonies, by His Spirit. Why do they not take heed? They have closed their eyes that they should not see, and their ears that they should not hear. They have rushed madly on in their uncontrollable spirit, unsanctified and separated from God; and yet they suppose that they can bring God's people to their terms and under their control....

"When the consolidation was first devised, it was represented as altogether another thing. But the enemy saw that this was his chance to work under human minds. He prepared a confederation that the Battle Creek institutions might be the power to bring under its control all other lines of work. It cannot be done. God will put a voice in the stones to cry out against it....

"The refuge of lies will fail. God will strike a blow to deliver His oppressed people....The Lord will not be slow to punish those who have had great light and yet have betrayed Him....Shall not God judge for these things? Is prosperity to come to God's institutions and work by building upon the ruins of truth, of righteousness, of justice, and all that is pure and holy?...

"I must speak plainly. We are reaching a time when a just standard of right and wrong, of honor and dishonor, of truth and error, is becoming a thing of naught. `Truth is fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter' [Isaiah 59:14]....The man who sits at the feet of Jesus and learns His lessons will say as did one of old, `Unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united' [Genesis 49:6]....

God instructed all the institutions of the church--especially the publishing interests--to separate from, and remain separate from, the control of the General Conference. And if the General Conference continues to gain control over our people and the interests of the church, then God would have to strike a blow against this building up of a new papal structure. And if these unrighteous plans of man continued past this blow, then God will be obligated to deliver His people from all union with the SDA church because its foundation would be built upon the sand, the refuge of lies will fail, and the church would be destroyed along with all who remained within.

"The enemy knows that if the church can be controlled by political enactments,(203) if she can be led to unite with the world, she virtually acknowledges him as her head. Then the authority of man-made commandments will work to oppose the rule of the government of heaven. Under the leadership of Satan, men will dispense with the righteous, holy enactments of God concerning the Sabbath, the observance of which is to be a sign between God and His people forever....

"Those who disregard a plain `Thus saith the Lord,' are casting off their allegiance to God, and exalting human power in His stead. By placing themselves in opposition to the God of heaven, men are failing to receive the mark, or sign, by which the people of the world are to know God's true followers. There is no justification for those who, having the light, close their eyes and their ears to a plain `Thus saith the Lord.' They have taken up the weapons of their warfare against God, and their guilt is made manifest." Signs of the Times, vol 4, p 77 (November 22, 1899).

"We have come to a time when God's sacred work is represented by the feet of the image in which the iron was mixed with the miry clay....The mingling of churchcraft and statecraft is represented by the iron and the clay. This union is weakening all the power of the churches. This investing the church with the power of the state will bring evil results. Men have almost passed the point of God's forbearance. They have invested their strength in politics, and have united with the papacy." Manuscript 63, 1899, SDA Bible Commentary, vol 4, p 1168-69.

If the SDA church and its leadership would indeed continue on, then the end result would be probation closing upon the corporate church, and the judgments of God would follow without pity. This possibility was already spoken about (see p 5, 10, 21, 22, 24, 29, 31, 32, 37, 38, 49, 50, 51, 59, 61, 63, 74, 76, 77). But on the very first day of this year, God more forcibly stated:

"The time is soon coming when the work of God's judgments will begin at His sanctuary. God Himself is now drawing the separating line. He says, `As for Me also, Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head' [Ezekiel 9:10]." Letter 3, January 1, 1900, Last Day Events from the Letters and Manuscripts of E.G. White, p 90-91.

The possibility of a separation of God's people from the SDA church had already been clearly revealed (see p 27, 29, 30, 31, 37, 55, 56, 57, 66, 73, 76, 88). God Himself was already beginning to draw a separating line between His true followers and Satan's followers within the SDA church. The General Conference leadership were trying to centralize the entire work of God after the pattern of Rome--taking the control of the work away from God and putting it into their own hands, so that the people would look up to them instead of God.

"When man has taken the lines in his own hands to guide and drive, he will be rewarded, for the work of God will reveal terrible mistakes. Reason becomes blinded, even with the greatness of light, unless that agency is under the yoke of Christ. Every day some plan will be devised when Satan thinks he can lend a hand to sow his tares among the wheat. Vice is not to be commingled with virtue, and the cry may have to go forth in no measured tones, even now while missionary work is being done, `Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you' (2 Cor. 6:17). God is now working for His people, but how many do not recognize the work of God from a strange work." Letter 171, January 9, 1900, Upward Look, p 23.

"The professed followers of Christ are no longer a separate and peculiar people. The line of demarcation is indistinct. The people are subordinating themselves to the world, to its practices, its customs, its selfishness. The church has gone over to the world in transgression of the law, when the world should have come over to the church in obedience to the law. Daily the church is being converted to the world." Christ's Object Lessons, p 315-16 (1900).

"The central power of the earth is a demon. His throne is in the midst of the world, where should have been seen the throne of God. He has been patronized by the church, for the church has been conformed to the world, and is living in transgression of the holy law of God." Letter 78, January 20, 1900, This Day With God, p 28.

"The church has taken the world into her fellowship, and has given her affections to the enemies of holiness. The church and the world are standing on the same ground in transgression of the law of God. The church prefers to assimilate to the world rather than separate from its customs and vanities." Manuscript 44, p 19, 1900, Last Day Events from the Lettes and Manuscripts of E.G. White, p 55. (see Signs of the Times, vol 3, p 102)

"It is a solemn and terrible truth that many who have been zealous in proclaiming the third angel's message are now becoming listless and indifferent! The line of demarcation between worldlings and many professed Christians is almost indistinguishable. Many who once were earnest Adventists are conforming to the world--to its practices, its customs, its selfishness. Instead of leading the world to render obedience to God's law, the church is uniting more and more closely with the world in transgression. Daily the church is becoming converted to the world." Testimonies, vol 8, p 118-19.

With unutterable sorrow God declared that the SDA church and its leadership had united with politics, with the papacy, and with the world. And so none of our people could have the excuse that they had no knowledge that these things were occurring in the General Conference leadership, God spelled it out clearly.

"In His dealing with ancient Israel God has given us an illustration of the result that will follow an unrighteous, disobedient course. He will punish all who make His glory to be reproached, even as He punished the children of Israel. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, even as Jerusalem, by her own course of action, was humiliated and brought low. Her people chose Barabbas, and God left them to their choice. They would not submit to God's way, and He permitted them to have their own way, and to carry out the purposes of their unsanctified hearts....

"When Christ saw in the Jewish people a nation divorced from God, He saw also a professed Christian church united to the world and the papacy....Will He be obliged to say to those who have had great light and great knowledge, as He said to the Jews, `O that thou hadst known, even thou in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace. But now they are hid from thine eyes' [Luke 19:42]?" Letter 98, July 10, 1900, The Kress Collection, p 153.

But how was the SDA church breaking the seventh commandment and committing adultery by just uniting with the world? The SDA church is supposed to be married to Christ. And if a married woman departs from her husband, and chooses to unite herself with other lovers, she commits adultery and harlotry. For the SDA church to depart from Christ her husband, choosing to unite herself with the world, and thereby uniting herself with the kings of the world, including Satan--Christ's enemy--she has committed adultery and become a harlot!

The SDA church and its leadership chose to unite with the world. Thus they have fulfilled the necessary conditions to be described as a cage of every unclean and hateful bird--or Babylon the harlot! But as God, in His great mercy, did not denounce the SDA church as being Laodicea until 1859 (see p 10), though two years earlier they had already fit the description, so God now gives the SDA church precious time to reconsider, and to thoroughly repent; dropping all connection with the world, before He is obligated to denounce them as a harlot of Babylon.

The SDA church is following the apostasy of Solomon! Re-read the story of his apostasy at the beginning of this book. We were informed that it was through Solomon's apostasy, that the "money which should have been held in sacred trust for the benefit of the worthy poor and for the extension of principles of holy living throughout the world, was selfishly absorbed in ambitious projects" (see p 2-3). Are the SDA leadership doing the same?

"The churches must arouse. The members must awake out of sleep and begin to inquire, `How is the money that we put into the treasury being used?' The Lord desires that a close search be made. Are all satisfied with the history of the work for the past fifteen years? Where is the evidence of the co-working with God? Where has been heard throughout the churches the prayer for the help of the Holy Spirit? Dissatisfied and disheartened we turn from the scene.

"The children of Israel beheld the awful semblance of God's presence in the mount; but before Moses had been forty days away from them, they substituted a golden calf for Jehovah. Things similar to this have been done among us as a people. Let us now return to God in penitence and contrition. Let us trust in Him, not in man." Manuscript 34, 1900, The Kress Collection, p 120.

"Christ speaks of the church over which Satan presides as the synagogue of Satan. Its members are the children of disobedience. They are those who choose to sin, who labor to make void the holy law of God. It is Satan's work to mingle evil with good, and to remove the distinction between good and evil." Review and Herald, vol 4, p 243 (December 4, 1900).

Will the SDA General Conference and its leadership have their candlestick removed? Will they cease to receive God's light and wisdom to give to our SDA people? If their candlestick is removed, if their voice to our people is no longer as the voice of God, then truly their light has become darkness. They will accept false theories and doctrines, confound idolatry with our religion, and urge and eventually compel our SDA people to follow Baal's day or Sunday!

"Yet we hear that the voice of the Conference is the voice of God. Every time I have heard this, I have thought it was almost blasphemy. The voice of the Conference ought to be the voice of God, but it is not, because some in connection with it are not men of faith and prayer, they are not men of elevated principle. There is not a seeking of God with the whole heart; there is not a realization of the terrible responsibility that rests upon those in this institution to mold and fashion the minds after the divine similitude.

"These things have kept my soul in great distress....I was referred to Achan. The entire congregation of Israel was affected by Achan's sin. Because of it God could not help them, and when they went out to battle they were beaten by their enemies. Joshua prostrated himself before the Lord and asked, `What does it mean that the children of Israel flee before their enemies?' God told him that there was an accursed thing in the camp...and that His blessing could not rest on the people till these things were cleansed from them....

"We have reached the time when the work cannot advance while wrong principles are cherished....In every field God has men of capability. He does not mean that these men, when they wish to take advance steps, shall send to Battle Creek [General Conference headquarters] in order to find out the best way in which to move. The Lord says, I will break up this plan of working. I will sever these connections. Every field shall bear its own responsibility." Manuscript 37, April, 1901, Sermons and Talks, vol 2, p 159-62.

God told His people that the voice coming from the General Conference is not the voice of God. It is accursed, and the entire congregation of SDA's are being affected by it. And because of this, God wanted all connections with the General Conference severed so that many of the institutions and fields of work of the SDA church would be independent of the Conference. But this was not anything new: God already warned of this.

The SDA leadership were taking a course directly opposite to what God had chosen for them to follow, and were betraying the cause of God into the hands of Satan. The leaders were tearing down the work of God--which they had once built up, and building up the cause of the devil--which they had once torn down (see p 87). Will God be obligated to remove the candlestick from the General Conference, or will they yet repent and follow the light and warnings that God has given?

In the General Conference Session of 1901, God sent a voice of decided and unmistakable protest trying to turn things around. This voice clearly and unflinchingly rebuked, and called for the removal of, the leaders who were following in the track of the papacy and molding the SDA church and its organization into the same image.

"God gave them clear light as to what they should do, and what they should not do, but they departed from that light, and it is a marvel to me that we stand in as much prosperity as we do today. It is because of the great mercy of our God, not because of our righteousness, but that His name should not be dishonored in the world....

"O, my very soul in drawn out in these things....That these men should stand in a sacred place to be as the voice of God to the people, as we once believed the General Conference to be,--that is past.(207) What we want now is a reorganization. We want to begin at the foundation, and to build upon a different principle.

"A line of distinction must be drawn between those who serve God, and those who serve Him not....The men that have long stood in positions of trust while disregarding the light that God has given, are not to be depended upon. God wants them to be removed....The Great General of armies, the Captain of the Lord's host, is our leader....

God had placed the candlestick in the hands of SDA leaders to hold God's light and truth out to our people, but they withheld it and put darkness in its place. For years the warnings have come that the candlestick would be removed unless they repented. But they chose to remain impenitent and to reject the warnings, and their voice is no longer as the voice of God--that time is past!

Out of mercy to God's true SDA people, He removed the candlestick from the General Conference. The candlestick now belongs, and will always belong, to those who look to God alone for leadership and guidance, who keep all His commands, who have the faith of Jesus, who exalt the standard of righteousness, who walk in the truth, and whose foundation is built on the platform of eternal truth!

"Let me tell you that the Lord will work in this last work in a manner very much out of the common order of things, and in a way that will be contrary to any human planning....God will use ways and means by which it will be seen that He is taking the reins in His own hands. The workers will be surprised by the simple means that He will use to bring about and perfect His work of righteousness." Testimonies to Ministers, p 300.

Since God was urging His people to look away from the General Conference and to begin to work independently of its control and leadership, was God still recommending that all the tithe and offerings should remain under their jurisdiction, or that it should be diverted from the control of the General Conference and used in building up the independent work?

"In the past one set of men have tried to keep in their own hands the control of all the means coming from the churches...They have taken upon themselves the grave responsibility of retarding the work where the work should have advanced. It has been left to a few supposed kindly minds to say what fields should be worked and what fields should be left unworked. A few men have kept the truth in circumscribed channels....

"God calls for a revival and a reformation. The `regular lines' have not done the work which God desires to see accomplished. Let revival and reformation make constant changes. Something has been done in this line, but let not the work stop here. No! Let every yoke be broken. Let men awaken to the realization that they have an individual responsibility.

"The present showing is sufficient to prove to all who have the true missionary spirit that the `regular lines' may prove a failure and a snare. God helping His people, the circle of kings who dared to take such great responsibilities shall never again exercise their unsanctified power in the so-called `regular lines.'...

"Shall the `regular lines', which say that every mind shall be controlled...at Battle Creek, continue to bear sway? The Macedonian cry is coming from every quarter. Shall men go to the `regular lines' to see whether they will be permitted to labor, or shall they go out and work as best they can, depending on their own abilities and on the help of the Lord...

"God grant that the voices which have been so quickly raised to say that all the money invested in the work must go through the appointed channel at Battle Creek, shall not be heard. The people to whom God has given His means are amenable to Him alone. It is their privilege to give direct aid and assistance to missions." Letter 60, June 28, 1901, Spalding-Magan Unpublished Testimonies, p 174-77.

This clear call was for a revival and a reformation away from the control of the General Conference. It was also a call for a reorganization of its structure--to build upon a new foundation based on biblical principles of righteousness, and to break away from any kind of a papal supremacy over our people. Did the SDA leadership heed this heavenly call, or did they reject it like they have done in the past?

But not all were satisfied with the progress of these reforms. Not all of the past wrongs were being corrected. Sister White had to counsel her son Edson to be patient, also not to use certain of her testimonies written prior to the 1901 Conference as applying after the Conference. Only two months after the General Conference Session, she wrote:

"Your course would have been the course to be pursued if no change had been made in the General Conference....It hurts me to think that you are using words which I wrote prior to the conference. Since the conference great changes have been made....I know that reforms are to be made....in pity to His people God has brought about changes....

"The course of action which before the conference might have been a necessity is no longer necessary, for the Lord Himself interposed to set things in order. He has given His Holy Spirit. I am confident that He will set in order the matters that seem to be moving wrong....Let them do what they will. We hope that they will so repent of the past that the Lord can blot it out of His book." Letter 54, June, 1901, Manuscript Releases, vol 19, p 146-50.

Sister White was elated that the General Conference was beginning to change. The SDA church was moving away from becoming the synagogue of Satan; it was moving away from becoming a harlot of Babylon; the danger of separation of God's people out of the SDA church was not as great; and God's judgments of the seven last plagues falling on the church and its members was not inevitable;--AS LONG AS CHANGES CONTINUED TO BE MADE, AND REFORMS CONTINUED TO OCCUR.

"...the backsliding of those who have been placed at the head of the work--the very men who through communications have been informed that they were out of place and in error in representing the voice of the General Conference president as being the voice of God. For many years it has not been thus, and it is not thus now; nor will it ever be thus again, unless there is a thorough reformation." Manuscript 124, December 9, 1901, Manuscript Releases, vol 17, p 240.

Although Sister White was delighted that the SDA leadership were beginning to reform the General Conference, she did not allow her joy to be as blinders to the past actions of the General Conference leadership. By her June testimony to her son Edson, "Let them do what they will. We hope that they will so repent of the past," she was telling him to wait and see if the Conference leadership would continue to reform, or if they would revert back to the wrong and wicked actions of the past. And in the December testimony, she was saying that the General Conference would never be the voice of God again UNTIL there was a "thorough reformation." Clearly, if the SDA leadership did return back to their past evils, then the course which Edson had followed would be the necessary course of action to pursue--meaning all the warnings of what the SDA church would become, what the course of God's true SDA's should be to the church, and what would happen to the church, would again apply.

On February 18, 1902, the Battle Creek Sanitarium burned down to the ground. God had warned earlier that He would soon send judgments against the church if the leadership continued on in their rebellion (see p 5, 21, 24, 31, 49, 59, 60, 61, 71). But did this judgment bring corporate repentance? Or was there the necessity of another judgment against the church? Was the SDA leadership, elected at 1901 General Conference Session, continuing in the same pathway of wickedness as the previous leadership? Were the same papal plans of centralizing the work under the head of the General Conference, and placing the yoke of man upon our people, still being nurtured and carried out? Were the righteous principles of our pure faith still being put out of sight?

"It is time for us to think soberly. Taking all things into consideration, we should read the providence of God in His movements. Was the Battle Creek Sanitarium consumed by fire in order that the plans might be enlarged, greater building erected, and more display made?...`There should have been more of an equalizing of facilities. The institutions in one place are not to embrace the whole land, swallowing up the means required for other places....God does not make such plans, and He can not endorse them. He has reproved and rebuked many for errors that they have made.'...

"We have been greatly humiliated as a people by the course that some of our brethren in responsible positions have taken in departing from the old landmarks. There are those who in order to carry out their plans have by their words denied their faith.(209) This shows how little dependence can be placed on human wisdom and human judgment. Now, as never before, we need to see the danger of being led unguardedly away from loyalty to God's commands....Let our people beware of belittling the importance of the Sabbath, in order to link up with unbelievers. Let them beware of departing from the principles of our faith making it appear that it is not wrong to conform to the world. Let them be afraid of heeding any man's counsel, whatever his position may be, who works counter to that which God has wrought in order to keep His people from the world.

"I pray that my brethren may realize that the third angel's message means much to us and that the observance of the true Sabbath is to be the sign that distinguishes those who serve God from those who serve Him not. Let those who have become sleepy and indifferent awake. We are called to be holy, and we should carefully avoid giving the impression that it is of little consequence whether or not we retain the peculiar features of our faith....The line of demarcation between those who keep the commandments of God and those who do not, is to be revealed with unmistakable clearness....To give the impression that our faith, our religion is not a dominating power in our lives, is greatly to dishonor God. Thus we turn from His commandments, which are our life, denying that He is our God and we His people." Letter 128, July 6, 1902, Battle Creek Letters, p 48-54.

Why is Sister White warning our professed people to beware of belittling the Sabbath, and to beware of departing from the principles of our true SDA faith? Is it because the SDA leadership have again rejected the Spirit of God which He sent in 1901? Is it because the new General Conference leadership were again working to do away with God's principles of truth as the previous leadership were? Is the General Conference leadership still cherishing the same evil spirit that was revealed at Minneapolis when the latter rain was rejected?

"Had thorough work been done during the last General Conference at Battle Creek; had there been as God designed there should be, a breaking up of the fallow ground of the heart, by the men who had been bearing responsibilities; had they in humility of soul, led out in the work of confession and consecration; had they given evidence that they received the counsels and warnings sent by the Lord to correct their mistakes, there would have been one of the greatest revivals that there has been since the day of Pentecost.

"What a wonderful work could have been done for the vast company gathered in Battle Creek at the General Conference of 1901, if the leaders of our work had taken themselves in hand. But the work that all heaven was waiting to do as soon as men prepared the way, was not done; for the leaders closed and bolted the door against the Spirit's entrance. There was a stopping short of entire surrender to God. And hearts that might have been purified from all error were strengthened in wrong doing. The doors were barred against the heavenly current that would have swept away all evil. Men left their sins unconfessed. They built themselves up in wrong doing, and said to the Spirit of God, `Go thy way for this time; when I have a more convenient season, I will call for thee' [Acts 24:25]." Letter 123, August 5, 1902, Battle Creek Letters, p 55-56.

The SDA General Conference and church leadership had repeated their Minneapolis rejection of the Holy Spirit; only this time in a more deceptive fashion--by giving the pretense of following Him. They had not only rejected the Holy Spirit this time, but they had closed, bolted, and barred the door of the church so that the Spirit could not enter in. If they would have whole-heartedly followed the Spirit's guidance, and given in to His influence, the Spirit's power would have been poured out and Pentecost would have occurred! But this did not happen. This means that the SDA church and its leadership have REJECTED THE LATTER RAIN A SECOND TIME!!

"My soul is drawn out in the consideration of matters relating to the carrying forward of God's work....We are to enter into no confederacy with those who do not love or fear God. Those who are unable to endure the seeing of Him who is invisible, are surrounded with spiritual darkness that is as the darkness of midnight....

"The Lord calls upon men and women to unite with Christ by wearing His yoke. But He tells them that they are to refuse the yoke which human hands would place on them;(211) for this yoke would be galling and oppressive. There are those who refuse to wear the yoke of Christ, and yet would place upon others a yoke of human manufacture. What a terrible deception!...

"These words were spoken by our Instructor: `Some are reckless, insensible of the results of sin, heedless of warning. Soon the handwriting on the wall, now unintelligible to them, will be read. But it will then be too late for them to repent. Like Belshazzar, they seem unable to see their peril. A straight testimony must be borne to our churches and institutions, to arouse the sleeping ones.'...

"The cause of Christ will be betrayed. Those who have had the light of truth and have enjoyed its blessings, but have turned away from it, will fight down the Spirit of God. Inspired with a spirit from beneath, they will tear down that which they once built up, and show to all reasonable God-fearing souls that they cannot be trusted." (see p 87)

On December 30, 1902, the Review and Herald publishing house burned down to the ground! So in less than a year, two of the most important SDA institutions located at the General Conference headquarters of Battle Creek, were removed from the people who thought they knew more than God about how to run the church.

"Today I received a letter from Elder Daniells regarding the destruction of the Review office by fire. I feel very sad as I consider the great loss to the cause....But I was not surprised by the sad news, for in the visions of the night I have seen an angel standing with a sword as of fire stretched over Battle Creek. Once, in the daytime, while my pen was in my hand, I lost consciousness, and it seemed as if this sword of flame were turning first in one direction and then in another. Disaster seemed to follow disaster because God was dishonored by the devising of men to exalt and glorify themselves....God said: `My word has been despised; and I will turn and overturn.'

"At the General Conference, held in Battle Creek in 1901, the Lord gave His people evidence that He was calling for reformation. Minds were convicted, and hearts were touched; but thorough work was not done. If stubborn hearts had then broken in penitence before God, there would have been seen one of the greatest manifestations of the power of God that has ever been seen. But God was not honored. The testimonies of His Spirit were not heeded. Men did not separate from the practices that were in decided opposition to the principles of truth and righteousness, which should ever be maintained in the Lord's work." Testimonies, vol 8, p 97-98 (January 5, 1903).

"The results of the last General Conference [1901] has been the greatest, the most terrible sorrow of my life. No change was made....The spirit that should have been brought into the whole work as the result of that meeting was not brought in because men did not receive the testimonies of the Spirit of God. As they went to their several fields of labor, they did not walk in the light that the Lord had flashed upon their pathway, but carried into their work the wrong principles that had been prevailing in the work at Battle Creek.

"The Lord has marked every movement made by the leading men in our institutions and conferences. It is a perilous thing to reject the light that God sends. To Chorazin and Bethsaida heaven's richest blessings had been freely offered. Day after day the Prince of life had gone in and out among them. The Glory of God, which prophets and kings had longed to see, had shone upon them. But they refused the heavenly Gift, and of them the Saviour said: `Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you.'

"To-day God is watching His people. We should seek to find out what He means when He sweeps away our sanitarium and our publishing house. Let us not move along as if there were nothing wrong....God wants us to come to our senses. He wants us to seek for the meaning of the calamities that have overtaken us, that we may not tread in the footsteps of Israel, and say, `The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord are we' [Jeremiah 7:4], when we are not this at all. When we reach the mark of our high calling in Christ, the protecting arm of God will be with us." 1903 General Conference Bulletin, p 30-31 (printed April 1, 1903).

On April 3--just 4 days after Sister White spoke the above words, plans were introduced for a new constitution. These were contrary to the reformatory plans made and adopted during the 1901 General Conference Session, and were debated throughout much of the remaining Session, gaining the support of a majority of the church leaders present. But God raised up several strong voices of protest to these plans, delineating the outcome should they be adopted.

"It may be stated there is nothing wrong in this new constitution which is not abundantly safeguarded by the provisions of it; 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 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 (printed April 10, 1903).

Sadly, the 1903 delegate body voted the proposed new constitution in, although with barely a 3/4 majority. Now the beginning of a new foundation was laid--different than the one God had helped them to form in 1901. A new organization was taking shape--one which God had nothing to do with. This new foundation would gradually form the General Conference into another Vatican--the head of the entire SDA church! This new organization would also gradually form the governing structure of the General Conference into a pattern of Rome--a hierarchy; thus the General Conference president would eventually become the pope of the SDA church!

Our blessed Saviour has tried to prepare the way for His second coming TWICE--in 1888 and 1901, and each time it was the General Conference leadership that REJECTED His blessed offer and thus TWICE hindered His second coming! And now the SDA leadership have decided to continue on in their plans to gradually form the SDA church structure into an image of the beast or Roman Catholicism. They would thus completely shut God out of the work, and continue to bring men under the control of man.

What more could our blessed Lord have done that He has not already done? He mercifully sent light, truth, warnings, reproofs, rebukes, and judgments to the church and its leadership. He plainly exposed and laid open their secret wicked plans so none of His people need be deceived. He even showed the leaders what the future would be for the SDA church and its members should they continue on in their plans. But they utterly refused to listen. They rebelled against Him, united with the world and its king (the enemy of God), and continued to follow their own wicked plans.

"We are far from where we should have been had our Christian experience been in harmony with the light and opportunities given us, had we from the beginning constantly pressed onward and upward. Had we walked in the light that has been given us, had we followed on to know the Lord, our path would have grown brighter and brighter. But many of those who have had special light are so conformed to the world that they can scarcely be distinguished from worldlings. They do not stand forth as God's peculiar people, chosen and precious. It is difficult to discern between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.

"In the balances of the sanctuary the Seventh-day Adventist church is to be weighed. She will be judged by the privileges and advantages that she has had. If her spiritual experience does not correspond to the advantages that Christ, at infinite cost, has bestowed on her, if the blessings conferred have not qualified her to do the work entrusted to her, on her will be pronounced the sentence: `Found wanting' [Daniel 5:27]. By the light bestowed, the opportunities given, will she be judged....

"Why is there so dim a perception of the true spiritual condition of the church? Has not blindness fallen upon the watchmen standing on the walls of Zion? Are not many of God's servants unconcerned and well satisfied, as if the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night rested upon the sanctuary? Are there not those in positions of responsibility, professing to know God, who in life and character deny Him? Are not many of those who count themselves as His chosen, peculiar people satisfied to live without the evidence that of a truth God is among them to save them from Satan's snares and attacks?...

"One who sees beneath the surface, who reads the hearts of all men, says of those who have had great light: `They are not afflicted and astonished because of their moral and spiritual condition.' `Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before Mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.' `God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie,' `because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,' `but had pleasure in unrighteousness.' Isaiah 66:3,4; 2 Thessalonians 2:11,10,12.

"Who can truthfully say: `Our gold is tried in the fire; our garments are unspotted by the world'? I saw our Instructor pointing to the garments of so-called righteousness. Stripping them off, He laid bare the defilement beneath.(214) Then He said to me:`Can you not see how they have pretentiously covered up their defilement and rottenness of character? `How is the faithful city become an harlot' [Isa 1:21]! My Father's house is made a house of merchandise, a place whence the divine presence and glory have departed!...

God Himself, in His own unfailing wisdom and infallible judgment, has unerringly declared the SDA church to be a harlot of Babylon,(215) and that His divine presence and glory has departed from the harlot SDA church. But God did not pronounce the SDA church to be Babylon fallen at this time. You must first become Babylon, before you can become Babylon fallen!

"Jesus saw His church, like the barren fig-tree, covered with pretentious leaves, yet destitute of precious fruit....A backsliding church closed their eyes to the signs of the times. God did not forsake them, or suffer His faithfulness to fail; but they departed from Him, and separated themselves from His love. As they refused to comply with the conditions, His promises were not fulfilled to them." Spirit of Prophecy, vol 4, p 194-200.

"Babylon is also charged with the sin of unlawful connection with `the kings of the earth' [Revelation 17:2]. It was by departure from the Lord, and alliance with the heathen, that the Jewish church became a harlot; and Rome; corrupting herself in like manner by seeking the support of worldly powers, receives a like condemnation." Great Controversy, p 382.

The Protestant churches chose to unite themselves with the world, and had already become an harlot of Babylon before "the proclamation of the first angel's message," which began somewhere between 1833-1840. But these churches were not declared to be Babylon fallen until the summer of 1844. So for a number of years, these churches of God were already Babylon before they became Babylon fallen.

The first angel's message was given to these Babylonian Protestant churches to "separate the church of Christ from the corrupting influence of the world."(216) These churches had departed from the side of Christ, their first love, and had united or married themselves to the world--thus committing harlotry and becoming a harlot of Babylon. But God, in His infinite mercy, did not cast them off. Even though His presence and glory was not with them because of their harlotry, He sent them warnings and messages and gave them a period of time to repent of their great sin and come back to His side as His faithful bride once again. But they refused to repent, refused to break off their harlotrous love affair with the world, refused to obey the message from heaven, refused to come back to the side of Christ, and continued on in rebellion and apostasy. By the summer of 1844, their period of probationary time ran out. Corporate probation closed upon the Protestant churches, they were denounced as Babylon fallen, and God was obliged to call all of His faithful people to separate from them.

Did a literal angel come down from heaven and tell God's people that their Protestant churches, who were once the chosen church and people of God, were now Babylon fallen? No. Did the people have a plain and clear "Thus saith the Lord" that said in these words; "The Methodist church is Babylon fallen, come out?" or "The Lutheran church is Babylon fallen, come out?" etc. No. Then how did God's people know that their churches had fallen, and that God wanted them to separate?

God's people, through hours of prayer, study, and the enlightenment of God's Holy Spirit, examined the fruits being produced by their church. They then realized that their church had rejected the message from heaven, and, instead of the fruits of the Spirit, apostasy and corruption were growing within her.

They compared the fruits of their apostate church with the fruits which Babylon fallen produces, and realized that the fruits were exactly the same. They then were compelled by God's Spirit to raise the cry that their apostate and corrupt church had become Babylon fallen--the fruits proved it, and that it was now time for all of God's true and honest people to come out and separate from their churches.

In like manner, the SDA church has refused to follow God. She has departed from Him and united herself with the world. And now God Himself has declared the SDA church to be a harlot of Babylon, and that His divine presence and glory has departed from them. But God did not pronounce the SDA church to be Babylon fallen at this time. God still mercifully gave His church a period of time to repent of this great sin, and to come back to Him as His faithful bride once again.

God told His church that there was still a chance that she could "repent and be converted." But He also warned that if the SDA church and its leadership continued in their rebellion and apostasy, refusing to repent and be converted, that the church would be "found wanting," and that "she will eat of the fruit of her own doing, until she shall abhor herself." In other words, she would continue in her rebellion and apostasy, corporate probation would close, the SDA church would become Babylon fallen, and the fruits "of her own doing" would prove it. God has already clearly warned the SDA church of the possibility of her becoming Babylon fallen if she continued on in her rebellion (see p 31, 37, 53, 54, 55, 63, 64, 86, 90, 91, 92, 104).

"Then I was shown a company who were howling in agony. On their garments was written in large characters, `Thou are weighed in the balance, and found wanting' [Daniel 5:27]. I asked who this company were. The angel said, `These are they who have once kept the Sabbath and have given it up.'...I saw that they had drunk of the deep waters, and fouled the residue with their feet--trodden the Sabbath underfoot--and that was why they were weighed in the balance and found wanting." Early Writings, p 37.

"God gives men the light, but many are filled with a self-sufficient, masterly spirit; and they strive by carrying out their own ideas to reach a height where they will be as God. They place their mind first, as if God must serve them. Herein lies the danger in this: Unless God shall in some way make these men understand that He is God, and that they are to serve Him, human inventions will be brought in that will lead away from Bible truth, notwithstanding all the cautions that have been given.

"The Lord Jesus will always have a chosen people to serve Him. When the Jewish people rejected Christ, the Prince of life, He took from them the kingdom of God and gave it unto the Gentiles. God will continue to work on this principle with every branch of His work. When a church proves unfaithful to the work of the Lord, whatever their position may be, however high and sacred their calling, the Lord can no longer work with them. Others are then chosen to bear important responsibilities. But, if these in turn do not purify their lives from every wrong action, if they do not establish pure and holy principles in all their borders, then the Lord will grievously afflict and humble them and, unless they repent, will remove them from their place and make them a reproach." Manuscript 33, April 27, 1903, Upward Look, p 131.

"The Lord, He is God, and beside Him there is none else. When Satan can bring his craftiness to bear on human minds, deceptive influences are received [as] from heaven. If his deceptions are allowed to enter, many souls will be ensnared by them, before it is seen that they are not from God, but from the enemy of all righteousness.

"I assure you that it will be one of our perplexities to distinguish the genuine from the spurious. Deception steals in unawares, just as it stole into the heavenly courts. Satan sought to undermine the confidence of the angels in God's government. He desired the place occupied by Christ, having it in his mind, that if he gained this position, to make an effort to take the place of God....

"Those who take themselves out of the Lord's hands, and think themselves capable of managing the work, are not led by His Spirit, but by `another spirit.' Satan steps in, and they change leaders. Then comes the crookedness and subtlety of the serpent's guile." Manuscript 37, May 1, 1903, Upward Look, p 135.

"...among the men of Babel there were living some God-fearing men who had been deceived by the pretensions of the ungodly, and drawn into their wicked schemes. These men would not join this confederacy to thwart the purposes of God. They refused to be deceived by the wonderful representations and the grand outlook. For the sake of these faithful ones, the Lord delayed His judgments, and gave the people time to reveal their true character. They heeded not the counsel of the Lord, but carried out their own purposes. The great majority were fully united in their heaven-daring undertaking....

"This confederacy was born of rebellion against God. The dwellers on the plains of Shinar established their kingdom for self exaltation, and not for the glory of God. Had they succeeded, a mighty power would have borne sway, banishing righteousness, and inaugurating a new religion....Determined men, inspired by the first great rebel, would have [been] urged on by him, and would have permitted nothing to interfere with their plans, or to stop them in their evil course. In the place of the divine precepts they would have substituted laws framed in accordance with the desires of their selfish hearts in order that they might carry out their own purposes....He (God) defeated the purpose of the tower builders, and overthrew the memorial of their rebellion....

"False theories will be mingled with every phase of experience, and advocated with satanic earnestness, in order to captivate the mind of every soul who is not rooted and grounded in a full knowledge of the sacred principles of the Word. In the very midst of us will arise false teachers, giving heed to seducing spirits whose doctrine is of satanic origin....working upon false principles in a most specious, covert, deceptive manner, having endeavored to deceive, if possible, the very elect. They bind themselves up in their own fallacies. If they do not succeed, because their way becomes hedged by warnings from God, they will change somewhat the features of their work, and the representations they have made, and bring out their plans again under a false showing. They refuse to confess, repent, and believe. Confession may be made, but no real reformation takes place, and erroneous theories bring ruin upon unsuspecting souls, because these souls believe and rely upon the men advocating these theories." Manuscript 94, August 27, 1903, The Kress Collection, p 1-6.

"I am instructed that those who follow on in a wrong course, regardless of the lessons taught by the burning of the Sanitarium and the Review and Herald Office, are revealing the stubbornness of Pharaoh. They are refusing to be admonished by the judgments of heaven, and are pressing on without realizing that these things call them to search their hearts closely, and humble themselves before God. Unless they repent, the Lord will surely repeat His judgments, as He repeated them to the king of Egypt. God bears long with the perversity of men. He sends them decided reproofs and clear light, but if they will not receive the warnings of God, if they persist in following their own will, their own impulses, the Lord will send His judgments, and will not pardon their persistent determination to be like the people of the world....

"I am sorry, so sorry, that men will be willfully obstinate, as was Pharaoh the king of Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon; but so it is. Let all be warned by the messages sent from heaven, that when any man shall exalt his own ways and his own judgment as supreme, he will come under Satan's jurisdiction, and will be led blindfold by him, until his spirit and his methods will conform to the arch-deceiver, little by little, until his whole mind is under the influence of the spell. The serpent keeps its eye fixed upon a man, to charm him, until he has no power to go from the snare.

"I have a decided message to bear. Let all take warning. The enemy desires to have his controversy kept up in his way and after his plan, until the harvest is past and the summer ended, and the souls of those who have been leaders under him, lost, with those who have been deceived by him. God calls upon His people to take heed, and come out of this deceptive controversy....They are to separate from all that bears not the mark of the strictest justice and judgment....

"I call upon those who would have eternal life to break every yoke. The enlightening of the understanding must become a part of the experience. Sin has darkened the reasoning powers, and hell is triumphing. O, will not men cease to trust in human beings?" Special Testimonies, Series B#7, p 19-22 (August, 1903).

The SDA church voted for a new foundation and a new organization. This would eventually allow the church to usurp the place of God--just like the Golden Calf replaced God to the ancient Israelites (which we were already warned about--see p 92). This would make the General Conference president a god or a pope having authority over all the SDA people! God sent a warning that this was not to be.

"Perilous times are before us. Every one who has a knowledge of the truth should be awake, and place himself, body, soul, and spirit, under the discipline of God. Wake up, brethren, wake up. The enemy is on our track. We must be wide awake, on our guard against him. We must put on the armor of God. We must follow the directions given in the Spirit of Prophecy. We must love and obey the truth for this time. This will save us from accepting strong delusions. God has spoken to us through His Word. He has spoken to us through the Testimonies to the church, and through the books that have helped to make plain our present duty and the position that we should now occupy. The warnings that have been given, line upon line, precept upon precept, should be heeded. If we disregard them, what excuse shall we offer?...

"The pope claims authority over the practice of many who do not recognize Christ as our only Authority. He places himself in a position of God, and the weak and uninformed are kept from the knowledge that would reveal to them their privilege as children of God. We are to have no kings, no rulers, no popes among us. It is time for us diligently to heed the messages that have brought us out from the world." Letter 212, September 23, 1903, Spalding and Magan Collection, p 324-25.

The SDA leadership were warned in 1895 that unless they repented speedily, some of them would lose eternal life (see p 65, 69). Since that time they have not repented of their evil ways, but have united with politics and the papacy (see p 89), and the world (see p 91-92). They have put on a pretense of reform, while rejecting the latter rain (see p 98-102), and told God's Holy Spirit to go away (see p 100). They have also voted to begin a new foundation and a new organization which would eventually form the church into another Catholic organization.

"Today Christ is looking with sadness upon those whose characters He must at last refuse to acknowledge. Inflated with self-sufficiency, they hope that it will be well with their souls. But in the last great day the mirror of detection reveals to them the evils that their hearts have practiced, and shows to them at the same time the impossibility of reform. Every effort was made to bring them to repentance. But they refused to humble their hearts. Now the bitter lamentation is heard, `The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved' [Jeremiah 8:20]....

"But Christ says, `Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity [Matthew 7:23]. If you had been faithful to the warnings of the Word; if you had dismissed Satan, instead of linking your arm in his; if you had preserved untarnished the principles of right; if you had obeyed the commandments, broken with ungodly advisors, scorned their impious bribes, and followed Jesus in His self-denial, I could have welcomed you into My presence. But you have not cared for My society, and now you have no power to go from the snares.

"`I offered you My saving grace but you refused it, and chose the side of the enemy, even as the priests and rulers did. You refused My dying agony on the cross, and mocked at My humiliation. So will I refuse to acknowledge you. I weep for your future, but you have not cared to weep for yourselves. I was pledged to bear you and care for you, even as a father beareth and loveth his own son that serveth him. But you would not harmonize with Me.'...

"`You have caused many to follow your sinful ways, and now your punishment has come. You will receive as your works have been. You must lose everlasting life. You have chosen your own ways, such sentiments, such characters, you could not enter the gates of the Holy City.'" Manuscript 121, October 1, 1903, Pamphlet #58, p 1-4.

God also stated in the April 21 testimony that many will depart from the historic SDA faith and apostatize, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and will begin to build another foundation of truth other than the one that God has already laid. And in doing this, they would actually believe that God is leading them, when in reality Satan is leading them. When will this apostasy be seen? Just six months after this was written:

"The enemy of souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great reformation was to take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation(219) would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith,(220) and engaging in a process of reorganization. Were this reformation to take place, what would result?--The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church would be discarded. Our religion would be changed. The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the last fifty years would be accounted as error. A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath, of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built upon the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure.

"I am instructed to say that those who would tear down the foundation that God has laid(222) are not to be accepted as the teachers and leaders of His people.(223) We are to hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end....Those who turn from human foolishness and frailty, from man's seductive arts, from Satan's planning, to Christ, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, will stand upon the platform of eternal truth." Letter 242, October, 1903, Special Testimonies, Series B#7, p 36-42.

"Satan has laid his plans to undermine our faith in the history of the cause and work of God. I am deeply in earnest as I write this. Satan is working with men in prominent positions to sweep away the foundations of our faith. Shall we allow this to be done, brethren?" Manuscript 125, 1903, Review and Herald, vol 4, p 578 (November 19, 1903).