We heard the messenger, but did we miss the message?
After a deeper review of brother Conrad Vine’s message to the church — and I refer to the church body as a whole, not just leadership — did we miss something that God wanted us to hear?
In the sermon, Remnant, Respectable, Regime Church? three keywords were mentioned,
1) if
2) para-church
3) tithe
We don’t need to dig into the details, you have probably already listened or re-listened to the sermon and you know what it said. Hopefully, you are not among those who are merely taking other people’s word for what was in the sermon. Hopefully, you did what I did, and listened to it yourself.
This sermon (Vine’s) created a firestorm. It was the spiritual shot heard round the 7th Day Adventist Camp and the long knives came out, slashing, and burning. The Armor of God was off and the Devil had a time. But did we miss the message God was trying to convey to his remnant? “The love of many will wax cold” and “you will know them by their fruits.”
If this controversy going on right now is an example of Christian love and the fruits thereof, we want to distance ourselves from it, and pray for forgiveness of sin. Forgiveness for offending the Holy Spirit and seek a new consecration of heart to God in the work He has given us.
“Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: [with] flattering lips [and] with a double heart do they speak. The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, [and] the tongue that speaketh proud things: Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips [are] our own: who [is] lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set [him] in safety [from him that] puffeth at him. The words of the LORD are pure: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.” (Psalms 12:1—8).
So where are we in prophetic time? We read this is Pamphlet 117 Pg. 62:
“If all that appears to be divine life were such in reality; if all who profess to present the truth to the world were preaching for the truth, and not against it, and if they were men of God, guided by his Spirit, --then might we see something cheering amid the prevailing moral darkness. But the spirit of anti-christ is prevailing to such an extent as never before. Well may we exclaim, "Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men." I know that many think far too favorably of the present time. These ease-loving souls will be engulfed in the general ruin. Yet we do not despair. We have been inclined to think that where there are no faithful ministers, there can be no true Christians; but this is not the case. God has promised that where the shepherds are not true he will take charge of the flock himself. God has never made the flock wholly dependent upon human instrumentalities. But the days of purification of the church are hastening on apace. 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.”
There was another aspect to Conrad’s sermon that that seems to have been passed over. Freedom of conscience. Free will to choose. The bedrock, the foundation of the present truths that we hold most dear as a Church. We are going thru the sifting time, so that God can better measure the “Strength of Israel.”
Let us read Brother Millers dream “ The Man With the Dirt Brush” from Early Writings Pg. 81,
“I dreamed that God, by an unseen hand, sent me a curiously wrought casket about ten inches long by six square, made of ebony and pearls curiously inlaid. To the casket there was a key attached. I immediately took the key and opened the casket, when, to my wonder and surprise, I found it filled with all sorts and sizes of jewels, diamonds, precious stones, and gold and silver coin of every dimension and value, beautifully arranged in their several places in the casket; and thus arranged they reflected a light and glory equaled only to the sun.
I thought it was not my duty to enjoy this wonderful sight alone, although my heart was overjoyed at the brilliancy, beauty, and value of its contents. I therefore placed it on a center table in my room and gave out word that all who had a desire might come and see the most glorious and brilliant sight ever seen by man in this life.
The people began to come in, at first few in number, but increasing to a crowd. When they first looked into the casket, they would wonder and shout for joy. But when the spectators increased, everyone would begin to trouble the jewels, taking them out of the casket and scattering them on the table.
I began to think that the owner would require the casket and the jewels again at my hand; and if I suffered them to be scattered, I could never place them in their places in the casket again as before; and felt I should never be able to meet the accountability, for it would be immense. I then began to plead with the people not to handle them, nor to take them out of the casket; but the more I pleaded, the more they scattered; and now they seemed to scatter them all over the room, on the floor and on every piece of furniture in the room.
I then saw that among the genuine jewels and coin they had scattered an innumerable quantity of spurious jewels and counterfeit coin. I was highly incensed at their base conduct and ingratitude, and reproved and reproached them for it; but the more I reproved, the more they scattered the spurious jewels and false coin among the genuine.
I then became vexed in my physical soul and began to use physical force to push them out of the room; but while I was pushing out one, three more would enter and bring in dirt and shavings and sand and all manner of rubbish, until they covered every one of the true jewels, diamonds, and coins, which were all excluded from sight. They also tore in pieces my casket and scattered it among the rubbish. I thought no man regarded my sorrow or my anger. I became wholly discouraged and disheartened, and sat down and wept.
While I was thus weeping and mourning for my great loss and accountability, I remembered God, and earnestly prayed that He would send me help.
Immediately the door opened, and a man entered the room, when the people all left it; and he, having a dirt brush in his hand, opened the windows, and began to brush the dirt and rubbish from the room. I cried to him to forbear, for there were some precious jewels scattered among the rubbish. He told me to "fear not," for he would "take care of them".
Then, while he brushed the dirt and rubbish, false jewels and counterfeit coin, all rose and went out of the window like a cloud, and the wind carried them away. In the bustle I closed my eyes for a moment; when I opened them, the rubbish was all gone. The precious jewels, the diamonds, the gold and silver coins, lay scattered in profusion all over the room.
He then placed on the table a casket, much larger and more beautiful than the former, and gathered up the jewels, the diamonds, the coins, by the handful, and cast them into the casket, till not one was left, although some of the diamonds were not bigger than the point of a pin.
He then called upon me to "come and see." I looked into the casket, but my eyes were dazzled with the sight. They shone with ten times their former glory. I thought they had been scoured in the sand by the feet of those wicked persons who had scattered and trod them in the dust. They were arranged in beautiful order in the casket, every one in its place, without any visible pains of the man who cast them in. I shouted with very joy, and that shout awoke me.
We are on the precipice of the great event spelled out in Rev. 13. Sunday is almost upon us. The parable of the 10 Virgins, the message to the Laodiceans , are going forth much more powerfully than at any other point of time in Adventist history. The church has awakened out of its slumber for a moment, but awakened to what? The council given that the church would go right back to sleep?
Is Isaiah speaking to us in Chap. 6 verses 8-13?
6:8 “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here [am] I; send me.
6:9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
6:11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
6:12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and [there be] a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
6:13 But yet in it [shall be] a tenth, and [it] shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance [is] in them, when they cast [their leaves: so] the holy seed [shall be] the substance thereof.”
R.H. Oct. 16.1888:
“In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah was permitted in vision to look into the holy place, and into the holy of holies in the heavenly sanctuary. The curtains of the innermost sanctuary were drawn aside, and a throne high and lifted up, towering as it were to the very heavens, was revealed to his gaze. An indescribable glory emanated from a personage on the throne, and his train filled the temple, as his glory will finally fill the earth. Cherubim were on either side of the mercy-seat, as guards round the great king, and they glowed with the glory that enshrouded them from the presence of God. As their songs of praise resounded in deep, earnest notes of adoration, the pillars of the gate trembled, as if shaken by an earthquake. These holy beings sang forth the praise and glory of God with lips unpolluted with sin. The contrast between the feeble praise which he had been accustomed to bestow upon the Creator and the fervid praises of the seraphim, astonished and humiliated the prophet. He had for the time being, the sublime privilege of appreciating the spotless purity of Jehovah's exalted character. While he listened to the song of the angels, as they cried, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory," the glory, the infinite power, and the unsurpassed majesty of the Lord passed before his vision, and was impressed upon his soul. In the light of this matchless radiance, that made manifest all he could bear in the revelation of the divine character, his own inward defilement stood out before him with startling clearness. His very words seemed vile to him.
Thus when the servant of God is permitted to behold the glory of the God of heaven, as he is unveiled to humanity, and realizes to a slight degree the purity of the Holy One of Israel, he will make startling confessions of the pollution of his soul, rather than proud boasts of his holiness. In deep humiliation Isaiah exclaimed, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips: . . . for mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts."
This is not that voluntary humility and servile self-reproach that so many seem to consider it a virtue to display. This vague mockery of humility is prompted by hearts full of pride and self-esteem. There are many who demerit themselves in words, who would be disappointed if this course did not call forth expressions of praise and appreciation from others. But the conviction of the prophet was genuine. As humanity, with its weakness and deformity, was brought out in contrast with the perfection of divine holiness and light and glory, he felt altogether inefficient and unworthy. How could he go and speak to the people the holy requirements of Jehovah, who was high and lifted up, and whose train filled the temple? While Isaiah was trembling and conscience-smitten, because of his impurity in the presence of this unsurpassed glory, he says, "Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me."
It was the “ sin of unbelief” (Heb.3:12-19) that kept Israel from entering the promised land. This is the same sin that is permeating the church at this time , holding it back from completing the work that has been commissioned to “God’s remnant church”.
The church at this time needs to have an upper room experience, a reconciling of differences, putting away all malice, removing all guile from conversation. A coming together in unity of faith. The Holy Spirit wants to pour out a blessing again, another “ Early Rain experience” to purify and seal, a settling into the Truth as it is in Christ. Ready to give a message to light up the whole world.
Are we ready to receive it? In the almost three months since this sifting message (Remnant, Respectable, Regime Church?) was given, some are still arguing and disputing.
Brothers and sisters we are in that great day of preparation, the eternal Sabbath is coming, the prophecy will be eventually fulfilled no matter who occupies the oval office. We are not ready, our eyes are truly off of Christ, like Peter walking on the water. We must not mind the waves, we must put the blinders back on. Are we ready to cross the Jordan? We need Jesus, our Ark of refuge.
Conclusion
God does have a group, we don’t know who they are (I’m not making reference to the 144k).
This group is co-operating with the Holy Spirit through Jesus’ enabling grace. They will go forward in His power to conquer the Devil’s 6000 years of lies. I’ll leave you with some verses to drive home the point (Isa. 8:16,20; Rev.12:17 ; Rev.19:10).
I am just a “Watchman “ on the wall of Zion blowing the trumpet in warning.
Are we ready to board the Ark?
Are we ready to co-operate with the Holy Spirit and finish the work? If not, we could end up like William Foy and Hazen Foss.
IF we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Let us not hate or trouble the Remnant but come alongside of the church in truth, honesty and righteousness. This is the para-church that God seeks.
Let us faithfully return ten percent of our increase as special to God, one seventh of our time, and most importantly let us give Him all of our hearts (Jeremiah 29:13; Acts 8:37).
Friends, we are almost home, let’s surrender to Him.
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Bruce Campbell