There has been a fearful neglect of duty on the part of leadership to address the inroads of rebellion within the SDA church.
Sin has not been called by its right name but rather has been embraced and welcomed into the church. I believe Jeremiah 44 can help us understand how we got here.
In reading Jeremiah 44, one discovers that the women/wives are leaders in the rebellion in the land of Judah in their persistence of pagan worship of the “Queen of Heaven.” Ezekiel in Babylon is also given a vision of the rebellion in Jerusalem with the women weeping for Tammuz as recorded in Ezekiel 8:14. In Isaiah 3:12 children are the people’s oppressors and women are ruling over them and “they which lead thee cause thee to err and destroy the way of thy paths.”
Isaiah is the prophet prior to the Babylonian conquest. It is interesting to note that women were attaining to leadership positions at this time. And what does it say?
“They which lead thee cause thee to err and destroy the way of thy paths.”
This is not about leadership positions in the world as in business or education but rather in the governance of the people with its attending moral implications as seen by the use of the word “err”. The groundwork is being accomplished for the rebellion that will occur during the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel: The idolatrous worship of the “Queen of Heaven” and Tammuz for they have rejected the God of Heaven.
False Gods
A quick search on the internet for the “Queen of Heaven” reveals that it is Ianna aka Ishtar who was the goddess of love, beauty, sex, desire, fertility, war, combat, justice, and political power (emphasis added).
Dumuzid the Shepherd which was later known as Tammuz was Ianna’s husband. Both of these pagan systems are reported as having elements of homosexual and transgender activities in their worship service.
The Israelites in Judah are involved in two systems of idolatrous pagan worship involving these two closely connected false gods. This is the reason that the Israelites have gone into captivity and have probably brought it with them to Babylon.
Upon further research into Ianna and the rituals involved in its worship, the student of Scripture can actually find in Jeremiah 44:19 three ways Ianna is worshipped: the baking of cakes, the burning of incense, and the pouring out of drink offerings.
According to Wikipedia the “cakes” were baked in a clay mold that depicted a naked woman with large hips clutching her breasts. This depiction of her shows her in her role as the goddess of love, beauty, sex, desire, fertility. Her attributes of war, combat, political power and justice will be addressed next.
Stories of Ianna depict her as moving from conquest to conquest and as constantly striving for more power than she had been allotted—just like modern day Eves.
This could very well explain why the Israelite women feel at liberty to lead out in the rebellion. They insist on having the political power of self-governance as evidence by their statement found in verse 16 and 17 of Jeremiah 44,
As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you! “But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble.
The justice and political power aspect of Ianna that she bestows upon her worshippers is one of the driving forces behind the Israelite women’s behavior. This is confirmed by the behavior of the women/wives in Jeremiah 44:9, 15-19. Note who is talking in verse 19…the women! The women are taking the lead in telling Jeremiah that they will certainly do whatsoever thing that goes forth out of their own mouth and they will not hearken unto Jeremiah. The men are not the leaders in this moment though they are consenting and joining in the rebellion. This is why Jeremiah confirms the women’s part in the rebellion against the Lord by explicitly including them in the rebuke found in verses 20, 24, and 25
Tammuz
Who was Tammuz, that the Israelites would think it necessary to include him in their worship at the exclusion of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Tammuz was worshipped for pastoral and agricultural blessing being the god of shepherds, fertility, and vegetation: An important thing to have living in an arid locality as Mesopotamia after having rejected the only true God and Creator. Ezekiel is shown in vision the women in Jerusalem weeping for Tammuz but unlike Jeremiah, Ezekiel is in Babylon and beyond the reach of the princes and leadership that was set up by the Babylonians in the land of Judah. They can’t silence him or stop him like they are trying to do with Jeremiah. This is the same leadership that was told to submit to God’s will by His prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah. And what did Jeremiah receive for his faithfulness? Persecution, death threats, a dungeon, a miry pit, and starvation.
Who, like Ezekiel, is beyond the reach of modern day princes and church leadership that are in apostasy? The answer is the faithful lay men and lay women who have not worshiped the goddess Ianna or wept for Tammuz literally or figuratively.
Who is the modern leadership defying in the personage of Jeremiah today in telling him that they will do whatever comes from their own mouth? The rebellious Conferences and Divisions are defying the General Conference (who voted in session against women’s ordination 3 different times) and have gone to war and combat over it.
What did the North American Division, the Pacific Union Conference, and other Conferences say to the world church leadership?
We are going back and ordaining more women to pastoral ministry and we are not removing those who have already been put into position. We will give “non-practicing” homosexuals the opportunity to hold any church position as well.
Modern church leadership flaunts its political power in its pursuit of “justice.” They are even willing to go to war and combat with fellow believers.
E G White said that we have more to fear from those within than from those without the church:
“We have far more to fear from within than from without. The hindrances to strength and success are far greater from the church itself than from the world. Unbelievers have a right to expect that those who profess to be keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, will do more than any other class to promote and honor, by their consistent lives, by their godly example and their active influence, the cause which they represent. But how often have the professed advocates of the truth proved the greatest obstacle to its advancement! The unbelief indulged, the doubts expressed, the darkness cherished, encourage the presence of evil angels, and open the way for the accomplishment of Satan's devices.” {RH, March 22, 1887 par. 4}
Unbelief in the Bible that has been indulged and taught in our higher educational systems and from the pulpit. The denigration of the Spirit of Prophecy and the doubts expressed about the inspiration of both it and the Bible have been demonstrated by the action of the ordination of women. This is caused by darkness that has been cherished by people not wanting to hear the truth, but who desire smooth things spoken. These smooth things are women’s ordination and the LGBTQ+ agenda of acceptance in their sin.
And they use political power in the form of political correctness to achieve what they have declared with their own mouth what “justice” is. They refuse to hear what God has said or what is in His will.
It is not God’s will that anything that He declares abominable should enter His courts (Leviticus 18:22; Ezekiel 8:6, 13-17). Nor is it God’s will that women would usurp the authority over man (1 Timothy 2:12). Remember that the women of Jeremiah 44 are the leaders in this rebellion.
In Ezekiel 8, that which follows the women weeping for Tammuz is church leadership following after other gods. The 25 men seen in the temple between the porch and the altar with their backs to God’s holy place stand with their faces toward the east—worshipping the sun. These represent the 24 governors of the sanctuary, and governors of the house of God with the High Priest being the 25th person (1 Chronicles 24-27). We see this also in the 24 Elders in the heavenly courts above with Christ as the high priest (Revelation 4:4-10). These 25 men represent the leadership in Israel both ancient and modern. There truly is nothing new under the sun!
In an effort to boost church membership, some SDA Divisions, Conferences, and churches have embraced Ianna and Tammuz worship through their action in regard to political power and its definition and application of (social) justice.
Women’s ordination advocates and the LGBTQ+ agenda are making inroads into the SDA church, determined to “build” alongside the true and faithful Israel of God.
It is no wonder that there are Tobiahs living within the Temple precincts who are enemies of God’s people—who bring their way of living into the church and insinuate themselves into the church hierarchy by marriage, social connections, and deception.
In the end God will send a Nehemiah and an Ezra who will do His will in removing those who are no longer qualified for spiritual leadership. Due to their own apostasy, He will throw out the Tobiahs with their rubbish.
Nehemiah did not trust the current leadership to do the job of cleansing the Temple and he appointed his own servants to the task ( Nehemiah 13 and Ezra 9, 10). God will cleanse His church with a great shaking and women’s ordination and the LGBTQ+ are a part of that shaking.
God cleansed ancient Israel by a foreign government. The church in His day was cleansed by hard sayings that people did not want to hear nor understand. The early Advent movement was cleansed by the Great Disappointment. Modern Israel will be ultimately cleansed by the passing of Sunday law.
In the time interceding we are and will have shakings based on women’s ordination, LGBTQ+, and other issues like invitations to Jesuits to preach or have speaking engagements in our churches and institutions. The church will divide; it is only a matter of time.
In the meantime, there will be faithful Isaiahs and Jeremiahs who will call sin by its right name suffering the consequences of crossing the agenda of church leadership and the princes of modern Israel. There will be faithful Ezekiels who will not be within the grasp of church leadership and the princes and will also cry aloud and spare not, showing Gods people their transgressions and their sins (Isaiah 58:1).
Conclusions
The question begs asking: What have we brought with us of the idolatry of Ianna and Tammuz in our rebellion against God’s message? We cower to the political power of political correctness and social justice and allow the women and wives of modern Israel to go after conquest after conquest in their goal of acquiring more power than what God called them to which was to be helpers.
We are in a civil war and the combat zones are being identified. We embrace and make concessions for LGBTQ+ thus bringing the homosexual agenda of Ianna and Tammuz into the church.
The history of Israel was written for our admonition and instruction (1 Corinthians 10). Will we yet say, “We will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth,…as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes…”?
There is a fearful neglect of duty among us, and it will prove fatal—as it did of Israel of old.
Rose Durant
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“Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these” (Ezekiel 8:15).
Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumuzid
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tammuz-Mesopotamian-god