"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" Isaiah 5:20.
Looking at a couple of scriptures and then taking inventory of the world’s current state is instrumental in unraveling how we, Adventists, got here. Are we hanging on the precipice of God turning us over to ourselves?
“For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;” 2 Timothy 3:2-4
That which we fail to contemplate under a biblical microscope is bound to overtake us.
Just as I arrived at adulthood, the sexual revolution was in full swing. At the same time, our church centered on a Righteousness by Faith message. However, we concentrated on rules and checklists, making it impossible to grasp the immense love conveyed in God’s “love in truth” message. We were focused on doing what was right.
We were to know the Adventist prophecy messages, be sure to be ready for the Sabbath hours lockdown. Don’t drink coffee. Don’t eat meat (at least no unclean meat). Don’t dance, don’t listen to rock music, and don’t go to movies.
Modesty was the closest we got to any discussion of sexual purity. To this day, we hardly dare to mention “intimacy” from the pulpit. And doesn’t that just please Satan? He knows how to take advantage of our weaknesses and the things we hesitate to discuss.
Sex before marriage, pregnancy outside of marriage and extramarital affairs, would sometimes surface in sermons. But what seemed most taboo, at least in a discussion, was same-gender attraction. It had to be the crowning sin of sins.
Even non-Christians nodded in agreement, that such a thought was unconscionable - until it was introduced on television. Satan’s captive audience. He began a mission to normalize the idea through sitcoms. Once people were laughing at gay people, he switched tracks with dramas, romanticizing, and eventually, normalizing it.
Today, nearly every family has someone in their family relational tree that identifies as LGBTQ+. Are Adventists sleeping through Satan’s clever wiles and counterfeit ways?
I grew up, learning about Jesus, and developing love and obedience toward Him. I also was one of Satan’s victims, due to physical injury by my birth mother, who insisted I was to have been a girl. This laid the foundation for same-sex attraction.
Unpopularity at school, not being sports-minded, and behaving in more feminine than masculine ways, also played right into the hand of the tempter.
Not knowing what else to do about my social anomalies, my Godly, adoptive parents consulted teachers, preachers, and counselors, trying to figure out how to help me through the challenge of being socially ostracized.
In the social alienation of my church and church school - and its silence about same-sex attraction and healthy social development - the emerging gay community of the seventies soon devoured me.
When someone is in their early teens, they are highly susceptible to sexual experimentation and sensual addictions. Puberty can blur the pages of Scripture. So can willful blindness by adults who think that rather than discussing God’s holy sexuality and His intentions, we’ll all just silently find our way.
But it just doesn’t work that way. The world, with its “Just be you” message, becomes very loud. Nice people start developing secret lives and habits. And because no one is the wiser, new norms begin to replace sacred truths.
While I worked in Adventist institutions, the Christ-focused framework of healthcare, began to disintegrate. Ministry, through our inspired health counsel disappeared, and we imported everything and anything to avoid appearing to be different than other world health institutions.
Case in point: Dr. Richard Hart and others at Loma Linda University Medical Center, and teaching institution, advocate for LGBTQ rights, rather than a Christ- commissioned, redemptive approach.
The baby boomers among Adventists, grew tired and bitter toward church life driven by rules. Most went through the Adventist school system and gained institutional employment. However, solid adherence to Bible beliefs and Adventist doctrine has fallen by the wayside, laying fertile ground for what was to come.
I was blessed to have had parents who never tired of following Jesus without compromise or straying down a “progressive,” liberal avenue. Those roads have led people to trying to develop a “God association,” rather than adhering to trusted, inspired counsel.
Instead of compromising with LGBTQ ideologies, my parents remained committed to God’s trusted “love in truth.” They were compassionate to me and my friends. However, they did not adopt the same ideologies or demands that come via “gay love,” or LGBTQ+ culture. God is stronger than cultural lies, adaptations and demands. Satan wants a two-for-one special - not only capturing the one he tempts, but their entire family.
Colin Cook
In the eighties, a man named Colin Cook announced he had the “gay cure.” At one time he identified as gay but was now married to a woman. He began to make educational efforts, while the church continued to be clueless about how to help someone who identified as “gay.” He appeared on the Phil Donahue Show and was making big news.
Colin Cook was hired by the General Conference, which, in its ignorance, failed to keep its eye on Mr. Cook’s “ministry approach.” Unfortunately, anyone leaving the LGBTQ+ world is open season for Satan and his angels. He will take you down in a heartbeat if you don’t have the Lord by your side. No one escapes, as he desperately seeks to invalidate any “change” from the Holy Spirit.
Colin Cook held retreats at the GC, which would sadly lead to sexual degradation. Eventually, victims spoke out. Colin ended up on the front of the National Enquirer. The GC let him go and vowed never to support another ex-gay ministry.
Are we really going to let Satan convince people that hope and restoration are impossible through Jesus? Scripture warns that attempts to undermine God’s ways will be prevalent in earth’s final days.
While the church did not minister to me, my parents’ prayers eventually came and got me. One day, I began contemplating my destiny relative to what I know about God’s Word. I was on a terminal path. God had gotten my attention. After three months of studying scripture and returning to church, I decided to give my life back to Him.
I founded Know His Love Ministries in 2010, focused on Jesus’ love, patience, and hope. Pro LGBTQ+ skeptics accused me of being another “Colin Cook.” Let me clarify: my return has not been without personal failure. Failure does not stem only from sexual behavior with another person. The enemy is content with any kind of sensual indulgence, straight or gay.
What I can tell you is that God’s Word is trustworthy and dependable. Proverbs 24:16 tells me a righteous man may fall,but Jesus will bring him to his feet.
Institutional Strongholds
I began sharing my testimony in Adventist churches around the world. God opened doors. Oddly, I began to recognize significant opposition to an LGBTQ redemptive message in churches and in institutional education venues.
In the church’s silence, Satan amplified his opposition through self-identified “LGBTQ+ Adventists” who have established a beachhead on every Adventist campus. Administration, all the way to the top, have nodded with accommodation and LGBTQ+ acceptance. So much so, that our North American Division headquarters contracted Bill Henson, outside of our denomination, to write, “Guiding Families of LGBTQ+ Loved Ones – Adventist edition.”
Jesus, reconciliation, redemption, restoration, and an identity in Him, are not the focus of Henson’s book, which bears our denominational seal of endorsement. What becomes obvious to a devoted believer of Jesus, is that the book attempts to redefine “love.” It is the only book I am aware of, published by our denomination, that conflicts with the Bible and Adventist doctrine.
While my testimony and those of my colleagues has not been welcome on most Adventist universities, pro LGBTQ+ seminary graduates have held faculty supported seminars on at least one Adventist university campus. What happened?!
2 Thessalonians 2:11, says: "And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie."
Support for the enemy’s deceptions is playing out before us. “Adventists” frequently that tell me that God does not condemn being LGBTQ+. However, no one to this day, has provided me with scripture condoning changing one’s gender, being sexually intimate with both sexes, being lesbian, or engaging in a sexual union with someone of the same sex.
“Of course, this resulted because of President Trump declared that we will revert to two genders. Male and female”
Conjectures and inventions prevail. I am often advised to look at science. However, science has not been successful in discovering a gay gene, or a single cause for homosexuality.
God preserves the right of every human to choose. Choose this day whom you will serve. And He pleads… Let it be the Lord (Matthew 11:28).
Today, spirituality and politics are being colluded. As a Christian, I cannot conceive of a political leader that is going to fully uphold the pure gospel and teachings of Scripture. Something peculiar is happening.
Satan is continually at work. Currently, I am reading many posts on Facebook by professed “Adventists,” who in their disgust of President Trump, are endorsing LGBTQ+ identities and ideations. One does not have to like President Trump to recognize some of his decisions have pointed us in the direction of common sense. For a Christian, these decisions should be good news. We must be soaked in the Word and pray for spiritual discernment.
Female Bishop Mariann Budde was to have presided over a traditional prayer sermon, the morning after the inauguration. Going rogue, she used the pulpit for an LGBTQ+ rights platform, telling President Trump that LGBTQ+ children now fear for their lives. Of course, this resulted because of President Trump declared that we will revert to two genders. Male and female. And he disposed of DEI, having largely been dictated by hundreds of LGBTQ+ activists and Joe Biden.
If Bishop Budde, or any representative of Christ is going to highlight the LGBTQ+ culture, shouldn’t it be with a loving, compassionate, invitation to leave that culture for the healing and reconciliation offered by Jesus?
“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).
Regardless of the politics, I believe a devoted Christian should be able to discern regarding messages disseminated by church leaders. Christ warns,
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:13).
Ending DEI, and years of LGBTQ+ diversion and indoctrination, opens the door for ministry and invitation, instead of ideological affirmation. Adventists should celebrate this opportunity. Where is our allegiance? Is it in Jesus, or riding the political roller coaster that keeps redefining “love?” Where is our invitation to come and follow Him?
I look at my denomination, and my heart aches. We are not recognizable as Adventists. Oh, churches might still have “prophecy seminars.” But do they engage a person to invest in developing an intimate relationship with Jesus that results in honor and obedience?
Where are the churches willing to hold seminars that educate, equip, and inspire its members with a Christ-centered invitation to live a new life in Him?
Will we be the fulfillment of Scripture, in letting sensuality rule, replacing God’s redeeming gospel with appetite and passion?
I challenge you to prove me wrong.
Invite me for a weekend seminar centered on reliable, inspired scripture. Let’s have the overdue conversations that will restore us in clinging to Jesus during these final days before eternity with Him.
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Brother Wayne
2knowhislove@gmail.com Know His Love Ministries – www.knowhislove.org
