@ Shirley, “In our time, we still struggle with Righteousness By …

Comment on What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist? by M. Shelton.

@ Shirley,
“In our time, we still struggle with Righteousness By Faith–which is the Third Angel’s Message “in verity.”

I agree with most of what you wrote, however, the above quote is the problem for our day as well as over one hundred years ago when Ellen White stated that pride of opinion and prejudice was the cause of our dear brethren in mostly rejecting Righteousness by Faith a “most precious” message which God sent from heaven. We, as yet, still struggle with the very same mindset. Now we find it easier to do so using the messengers losing their way (we need to study what she says was the reason for their downfall) and also what she says will be the result of using their later failure for our rejection today. If, according to her we would be in the kingdom today had it been “accepted as God intended”, says volumes as to whether we have the true “full-orbed” message or a watered-down version which has made it of “no effect”. The fact we are still here over 142 or so years later should resonate with us.

Then a comment on this statement:
“At the end is it going to be “just two classes of people” — Seventh-day Adventists,–and the rest of the world?NO!At the end there will be those who are willing to follow Jesus WHEREVER He leads–whatever further light God reveals in His WORD; and those who think they know better, rejecting God and truth–because THEY KNOW BETTER.”

If we are unwilling to accept what the Scriptures clearly teach and Ellen White spells out concerning “one fold and one Shepherd” with God bringing the Seventh-day Adventist church and it’s end-time mission into existance i.e. the call to Babylon, there is still a veil over our eyes that God must remove so that we may “see”, a promise of the eyesalve and one of the remedies of Rev. 3:14-22 to the church of Laodicea.

According to Scripture and Ellen White (I have read her writings for over 50 yrs. and know whereof I speak) there will most surely be only two classes of people at the end, faithful SDA’s not shaken out by “one pretext or another” and the majority of all God’s faithful Christians in Babylon who have heard the “last voice of mercy” to a doomed world and have opened their hearts to the truths that God has given to the Seventh-day Adventist Church to proclaim to “all the world”. They will gladly join with God’s church and together will make up His bride.

We do not know what form the church will have at that time but EGW says the denominated church will “endure to the end” so in whatever form it will endure in, we know that it will still be God’s denominated church. It is the seventh and last church and it will triumph, God will not come for a bride He must gather from the streets because His church has failed her mission. He is coming for a latter-day group of faithful, truly dedicated disciples such as the first were on the day of Pentecost. When we at last are willing to humble ourselves, as you have written, and become teachable by the Holy Spirit, we will, under the latter rain power, finally take the gospel of God’s character as He sent it to a world which desperately needs to hear who God really is and what He came to earth to accomplish. Again from COL p.415, “Those who wait for the Bridegroom’s coming are to say to the people, “Behold your God.” The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love.” This is the “most precious” message according to Ellen White that already has come and this will be the last message to a perishing world and will have the effect of calling God’s true children together into one body.

Many say that a knowledge of God’s love is not sufficient but Scripture says it is the “power of God unto Salvation”. We have all the truth we need, not all the truth there is by any means, and if we would seek God with all our hearts in humility, He will enlighten us so that we can spread the message of who God is, what He has done for us, and what He is now doing for us in the Sanctuary in heaven and by cooperating with Him, He can finally finish His work in us and He will come to take us home.

Thank you for your comments! God bless. .

M. Shelton Also Commented

What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist?
Sean Pitman:
I went back and read what you were saying about the teaching of creationism in our schools. Should have done this first as I see where I am not on track with your argument for empirical (got sp. right lol) evidence in our schools. That is, of course, the right thing to be done. I guess my difference with you would be that I find that much of Bible truths are faith-based, not proof-based. Much of the Bible seems like a fairytale without faith to believe, which is God-given. The difference between say believing in the Book of Mormon and the Bible alone is deep within the heart that no one but God can see and understand. It would not be sin to believe a lie if the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, were not available to every man to bring us into “all truth”. Anyway, thanks for your patience and courtesy.


What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist?
@Sean Pitman.
No, I do not believe in feelings versus what EGW calls “living faith”. Even the devils believe and tremble. And they have the greatest imperical evidence but it does them no good. Why, because it is not mixed with faith. And I would suggest that there are more scientists, biologists, geologists, etc. who lack living faith and are essentially non-believers. I had a teacher once who taught that “believing is seeing” not “seeing is believing”.

But I do believe there is plenty of “imperical evidence” in the Word of God and life itself for the humble seekers of truth. Pride and prejudice, however, bar any true faith to take hold in the heart and if evidence were enough the scientific world would be preachers of righteousness instead of teachers of a godless evolution theory, big bang theory, etc. Nature itself, our miraculous bodies that produce life are all evidence for believing in the God of Scripture. The older I get, the more I am overwhelmed with imperical evidence and the truths of God’s Word. And I am not a scientist on any level and I believe the same evidence is available for anyone. So if that is what you seem to be referring to, I agree wholeheartedly. If you are referring to faith based on the imperical evidence of an earth billions of years old and man evolving from something in the ocean or whatever, then I do not agree because I take the Word of God as it reads and I don’t need a scientist proving what the Bible does not plainly teach. Faith comes first and without it, no amount of imperical evidence will lead to the belief of the Bible which leads to everlasting life. And that is based on the acceptance of the Holy Spirit to guide us into “all truth”. Those who believe and are deceived such as you described are no argument against those who believe unto salvation. They just prove the Bible true because it plainly teaches, sadly, that the majority of earth’s population both deceived believers and unbelievers for whom Jesus died will not be saved. All because of unbelief, not a lack of proof of imperical evidence.


What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist?
@Sean Pitman:
“Even the babe in its mother’s arms may dwell as under the shadow of the Almighty through the faith of the praying mother. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his birth. If we will live in communion with God, we too may expect the divine Spirit to mold our little ones, even from their earliest moments.”

Seems to me this gets right into the nature of Christ, a fascinating and important subject and since it was brought up I will comment. The above quote by you indicates how Jesus was from birth in a sinless state though born with our sinful human nature. He did not have our “propensities” to sin because He took our sinful nature upon His sinless nature and therefore had no past sinful propensities. Our nature was not His by right, He merely assumed it. He was born filled with the Holy Spirit just as we can be by accepting the new birth. To say as some believe that we are born guilty is an Augustinian theory which resulted in the Catholic doctrine of an immaculate conception.

Although we inherited Adam’s sinful flesh we are not guilty until we deliberately, consciously choose to sin. If that were not so how could babies be saved who have not reached the age of accountability to repent and believe? But many will be. They need a Savior too, all sinful flesh needs a Savior, and praise the Lord, we have one!


Recent Comments by M. Shelton

NCSE Report: Adventist Education in the Midst of a Sea of Science
Bill,
I thought your reply made a lot of sense. The devil realizes he can’t change an event but he doesn’t need to if he can change the meaning such as the evolution theory. Genesis can stand but God’s seven-day creation falls exactly like the fourth commandment that is included in most faiths in the U.S. including Catholicism and there it will stay giving lip service but changing the meaning entirely. [edit]

“Association with learned men is esteemed by some more highly than communion with the God of heaven. The statements of learned men are thought of more value than the highest wisdom revealed in the word of God. . .The men who parade before the world as wonderful specimens of greatness. .robe man with honor, and talk of the perfection of nature. They paint a very fine picture, but it is an illusion. . Those who present a doctrine contrary to that of the Bible, are led by the great Apostate. . .With such a leader expelled from heaven–the supposedly great men of earth may fabricate bewitching theories with which to infatuate the minds of men. (YI Feb. 7, 1895; FE 331, 332)


NCSE Report: Adventist Education in the Midst of a Sea of Science
You can’t dance with the devil without at some point his follow will hijack the lead and you will dance to his tune.

“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” 2Cor. 6:14.

If we must dance with the world and their unbiblical philosophies to obtain accreditation, do we then decry the results? Maybe we should rethink. . do we base our beliefs on the Word of God alone or are we to compromise with the “foolishness” of man’s reinterpretation of the Bible?

Soon Job 42:5,6 will take on a fresh and relevant meaning. “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Something to think seriously about while it is “yet today”.


NCSE Report: Adventist Education in the Midst of a Sea of Science
Higher education can be a great blessing but it can be, and sometimes is, a greater curse. Jesus must have taken this into consideration when He chose His disciples, unschooled but teachable fishermen. Judas, the self-chosen disciple, had the “higher education” and it was he who thought he knew so much that sold the Master for thirty pieces of silver. It seems to me that evolutionary theories came into being for the purpose of degrading God’s creative power and doing away with the sign of that power, His holy Sabbath day. But the truly wise will not be fooled. No amount of machinations of man will succeed in perverting God’s Word to make it comply with their theories. The God who holds the sub-atomic particles and the universe together will have the last word and it will be the same as He wrote it in the Genesis creation account and signed and sealed it in His immutable Ten Commandments.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the “seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work; you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11 Blessings


Eugenie Scott’s Letter of Alarm – “Evolution Under Attack”
Eugenie Scott is going to be far more alarmed when Jesus comes! However, unless she invites the truths of His Word into her heart, she will have a lot of evolutionary company. The rocks and the mountains will have no answer in that day to the cry of despair from the godless who would make science their god. So sad. . .


NCSE Report: Adventist Education in the Midst of a Sea of Science
Actually there is only one Sabbath day and that is the seventh day Sabbath. Sunday is the counterfeit sabbath of Baal worship on which the sun was worshipped. You cannot celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday, however, you can choose to worship on that day or any other day but it will not be Sabbath worship. This, I believe, underlies the creation versus evolution controversy, however it may be protested, but a controversy between Sunday worship and Sabbath worship is on the way such as the world has never seen and the groundwork is being laid. Blessings