The Seventh-day Adventist Church is the true church. It is very plain and easy to see from the Bible. It is also easy to see from the Bible that all other churches have fallen and are Babylon. But as the Adventist message is from God, like other churches, there are wheat and tares among its members.
It is true that God has set up the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists to organize, to set up churches, and to appoint pastors and missionaries. But is the General Conference the voice of God? Five reasons say otherwise.
1. The Same Message Repeated Over and Over
The same message has been repeated over and over again, and no new light has been given from the General Conference.
2. The Adventist Message Has Been Watered Down
The Seventh-day Adventist message — which is the only true church on earth — has been watered down. Especially when we compare how the Adventist pioneers preached the message, it is clear it is no longer given its full force, far from it. It is a very weakened Adventist message, and I believe God is not pleased at all, and is in fact very displeased.
3. The Health Message Has Been Reduced to the Basics
Only the basics are taught: be vegetarian, exercise, sleep well, get some fresh air — this is almost all that is taught as the health message. This is very sad.
When we compare this with Harvey Kellogg’s books, they were filled with incredible natural health practices, such as cold therapy, which boosts the immune system like nothing else can. In fact, some true doctors today call this “the remedy for incurables.” When nothing else works, giving the person very cold and then hot treatment can wake up the organs and bring someone who is nearly dead back to life. It boosts blood flow and the immune system.
4. Allowing Gangsters and Thugs in the Church
I love Adventist television; I watch it every day. But why are they now allowing people who talk like thugs onto Christian television? What is going on? Could it be that they are becoming blind to the truth? No Christian should speak with a proud, unloving, uncaring voice filled with selfishness and self-importance. If these people can speak on Christian television, why not invite Satan too? Adventist conferences and churches are becoming lukewarm.
Isn’t what makes a Christian their resemblance to Jesus? Qualities such as humility, gentleness, kindness, honesty, and sincerity? But these people who are invited are proud, selfish, uncaring, and unloving. They have nothing of Jesus but the name. The Adventist General Conference is sleeping and failing to give the warning.
5. Refusing to Work Together with Independent Ministries
It is interesting to see that nominal Adventists have always rejected independent ministries as if they were a plague. I remember when I was newly baptized — a few weeks later, I went to church with the lovely couple who had brought me into the church. There was a Jamaican sister there with a loudspeaker in the parking lot.
The church members made me see her as if she were crazy, yet inside the church, she gave me a tape. They told me to be careful with those messages. Looking back, I see they were referring to Branch Davidians, Jeff Pippenger, or other independent ministries. Some of their messages are not biblical, but at least they continue studying, and many of their messages are drawn from the Bible. The Seventh-day Adventist General Conference should not rest on its laurels, as these laurels can be taken away.
In fact, it is very possible that God sees those who continue to study and seek new light from the Bible favorably, while seeing the regular Seventh-day Adventist General Conference as sleeping and merely repeating the same messages over and over.
When I watch Adventist television, which I love and think is amazing, I ask myself: don’t they see that the same message is being repeated again and again? Don’t they have new light, new studies to bring forth?
The Bible is full of prophecies we do not yet fully know or understand — in Zechariah, Joel, Amos, and Ezekiel. Why not give more light to the people? I remember that in The Great Controversy, Ellen G. White wrote that when the Christians left Europe for America, the pastor on the shore told them to continue studying the Bible, as new truth would unfold. And we see one reason Babylon fell is that it became satisfied with the light it had and grew spiritually bland and dead. Yet the truth continues to be found in Ellen G. White’s writings. The Seventh-day Adventist Conference is not seeking new light.
Here we see that she says the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists needs to be listened to in matters of organization, but spiritually, it is no longer the voice of God. It tries to please people, countries, leaders, and organizations instead of preaching the plain truth of the Word of God.
ELLEN G. WHITE QUOTES
“It has been a necessity to organize union conferences, that the General Conference shall not exercise dictation over all the separate conferences. The power vested in the Conference is not to be centered in one man, or two men, or six men; there is to be a council of men over the separate divisions. In the work of God no kingly authority is to be exercised by any human being, or by two or three. The representatives of the Conference, as it has been carried with authority for the last twenty years, shall be no longer justified in saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we.’ The men in positions of trust have not been carrying the work wisely” (Manuscript 26, 1903).
“Yet we hear that the voice of the Conference is the voice of God. Every time I have heard this, I have thought that 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.” (Sermons and Talks, vol. 2, p. 159).
“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” (1888 Materials, p. 1745).
“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 would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith, 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 on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure” (Selected Messages, vol. 1, pp. 204–205).
“It has been some years since I have considered the General Conference as the voice of God.” — Manuscript Releases 17, p. 216, 1898; Last Day Events, p. 50.3
“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.” — Ellen White, The General Conference Bulletin, April 3, 1901, p. 25; Last Day Events, p. 50.
“I do not find rest in spirit. Scene after scene is presented in symbols before me, and I find no rest until I begin to write out the matter. I have not slept since two o’clock. I think we will institute at least once each day a season of prayer for the Lord to set things in order at the center of the work. Matters there are being shaped so that every other institution is following in the same course. And the General Conference is itself becoming corrupted with wrong sentiments and principles. In the working up of plans the same principles are manifest that have controlled matters at Battle Creek for quite a length of time.” — Ellen White, Letter 55, September 19, 1895, par. 2
“I have been shown that the Jewish nation were not brought suddenly into their condition of thought and practice. From generation to generation they were working on false theories, carrying out principles that were opposed to the truth, and combining with their religion thoughts and plans that were the product of human minds; human inventions were made supreme.” — Ellen White, Letter 55, September 19, 1895, par. 3
“At times, when a small group of men entrusted with the general management of the work have, in the name of the General Conference, sought to carry out unwise plans and to restrict God’s work, I have said that I could no longer regard the voice of the General Conference, represented by these few men, as the voice of God. But this is not saying that the decisions of a General Conference composed of an assembly of duly appointed, representative men from all parts of the field, should not be respected. God has ordained that the representatives of His church from all parts of the earth, when assembled in a General Conference, shall have authority. The error that some are in danger of committing, is in giving to the mind and judgment of one man, or of a small group of men, the full measure of authority and influence that God has vested in His church, in the judgment and voice of the General Conference assembled to plan for the prosperity and advancement of His work.” — Ellen White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, 260.2, 1909; General Conference Bulletin, May 31, 1909, Art. A, par. 12; Ms38a, p. 13 (published three times in 1909, once in 1915, once in 1949, once in 1992 with a slant to it in Last Day Events).
Manuscript 114, July 1894 — Diary entry about Willie White regarding O. A. Olsen, Granville, Australia
“I have had conversation with W. C. White. He was presenting before me the necessity of our people heeding the voice of the General Conference. Then I said, ‘WCW, it is time you should understand that, notwithstanding the opinion that has prevailed, the General Conference so-called is no longer the voice of God. It has become a strange voice, and they are building strange fire. God does not speak through them. The work that is being done in the General Conference is a strange work. Elder Olsen is not in the light. Had he stood in the light, he would not have allowed us to be separated from him and come to this country.
He has stood in a divided position in reference to the spirit brought from Minneapolis. He let the burdens fall upon me that never should have come upon me. Had he stood to his post of duty like a man after God’s own heart, the clouds would have broken and light would have come in clear and bright. But his half-and-half position was acting out the Aaron, and God was displeased. We were needed at the heart of the work all the years that we have been away from America.
There is being done in America, by the General Conference, that which the churches in the conferences know nothing about. You were not wanted in their councils. They wanted to get you out of the way. Elder Olsen was not fully in all their projects at first, but they — Harmon Lindsay and A. R. Henry — deceived him. Elder Olsen has betrayed the cause of God. He is not in union with Elder Ellet Waggoner, neither is he in harmony with A. T. Jones. He is yoked up and united with the men who are working at cross-purposes with God, and the churches are becoming leavened with the spirit that prevails at Battle Creek.
W. C. White appeared astonished when I told him that he was not wanted in Battle Creek councils and was crowded out, and meetings were held that he should have been notified to attend. But they took special pains that he should not know of these meetings. Elder Olsen could have wholly changed these things if he had stood free in God, bravely opposed to wrong, but he yoked up as a true yoke-fellow with A. R. Henry, who has carried things with a high hand. [They] would control everything upon the Pacific Coast if they could get their grasp upon it. I am instructed that the Lord will let these men have all they have worked for, and then will He punish them and mark their future.’” — Ellen White, Ms 114-1894, p. 1–3
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