Seventh Day Adventists, as the name indicates, is a denomination built on observing the Sabbath covenant which God created at the conclusion of creation week. Also to proclaim the restorative Gospel story at Earth’s final chapter, that of a soon returning Savior.
Our charge has been clearly articulated, our purpose is both relevant and remnant. Those accepting the call of membership in this movement, know that both the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy depict a series of events that few admittedly would desire to experience. The time of tribulation, leading up to Earth’s Advent, will attack God’s covenant on both the Seventh Day as well as those who have hallowed it.
As a means to both awakening and preparing recent generations, our denomination, including endless independent ministries, have devoted significant resources to the melding of Biblical eschatology and current events. Though the time of tribulation, as an exclusive event, is not a point in Earth’s history anyone would eagerly pursue, it is not the defining or concluding event. It is merely the indicator of our earthly terminus and of Christ’s second Advent.
For the mother who longingly awaits the birth of her offspring, the undesirable labor pains do not engulf the parental focus of maternity. The contemplations that typically fill the mind of expecting parents revolve around the joys, opportunities, and responsibilities that will present themselves at the conclusion of gestation. The pains of labor are an unavoidable reality to the miracle of birth, not a series of events for the mother to attempt to delay, avert, or obfuscate. It would be strange to learn of an expectant mother taking drugs to keep the labor pains from developing. Logic would reason that the prize of birth cannot arrive until the labor pains have run their course.
And yet multitudes of Adventists live in fear of the assumed possibility for over correcting religious extremism and thus attempt at combating the metaphorical labor pains of our end time events. By aligning with morally depraved secular movements that are agnostic to religion, family values, or freedom of conscience, many Adventists are ironically attempting to prevent tribulation. Adventist evangelicals regularly preach and debate in opposition to Christian Nationalism and Religious Conservatism. In essence, we so fear the labor pains of Earth’s final hours that we live to delay its event. The time of tribulation is inevitable. No individual, denomination effort, or world alliance will prevent the time of trouble. Like the expectant mother, the time we spend in preparing ourselves (and the world) for the impending trials will pay greater dividends that any effort to subvert them.
Martyrdom of Peter
At the conclusion of the apostle Peter’s restoration, Christ foretold to Peter that his reward for dedicating the rest of his life in spreading the Gospel would conclude in his martyrdom. For thirty plus years, Peter missioned for Christ knowing the agony that awaited him. Peter didn’t know when his life would conclude, but he clearly knew how. Had Peter emulated the mindset of 21st century ecumenical Adventists, his missionary journey may have looked significantly different. Obviously, evangelizing near Rome was off limits as that was the home of crucifixions. He might have even organized the early church to support the Polytheistic Party as they were distracted by pagan intersectionality and less likely to develop religious bigotry.
No, Peter saw his time was short, the workers were few and there was no time for self-interests. For him flesh would inevitably wither like grass, and the word of the Lord was our treasure (1 Peter 24, 25). To spend his foreshortened time on this earth in furtherance of Early Church tranquility and solvency, would have squandered Pentecost’s commission. The charge was to go forth, to proselytize to the Gentiles.
In this season of Religious Liberty emphasis, as Adventists around the country strategize what political movement, what ecumenical alliance, or sovereign partnerships may forestall or diminish our labor pains, ponder the early missionary, who knew his grievous demise would come at the hands of those he labored to save. Any self-preserving advantage would be but a labor in vain. The commission was not to endure, to pursue comfort and convenience, but to save a fallen civilization.
“But they must face the conflict, harness for battle, rise above human littleness, and not have thoughts of self-preservation detain them in the prospect of unmeasurable danger and peril. The world's Redeemer had given them in His life an example of what they must do and what they must be in order to win eternal life”—Manuscript 52, 1886.
The Greater Good
Under the guise of altruistic intent, masses are persuaded to actions and behaviors that might not normally align to their sentiments. Who would not want to save the environment, feed the planet, stamp out poverty, or eradicate a communicable disease? Our capacity to nurture enhances our motivation for humanitarianism. Coupled with our own egocentric interests of self-preservation, The Greater Good is a formidable motivator for aligning society. The Deceiver has mastery at shrouding lies in beneficial causes.
Citizens have little defense against sympathetic movements cloaked in benevolence. Individual liberties do not stand a chance against society’s desire for conformity to The Greater Good. The benevolence of the coercion desensitizes humanity from the consciousness of guilt. For it could be argued, that it was the exercise of free will in the first place that brought about the declining state of conditions. Thus, edicts seeking to eradicate our afflictions, at the sake of our liberties, are globally embraced.
The Threat of Coercion
There should be little doubt that the blueprint for ushering in end times labor pains, is to convince a populace to forgo individual liberties and coalesce around popular demands. The constitutional propensity to exercise our liberties and conscience must be subverted en masse. How can we be so certain that the masses will either employ coercion, or succumb to it, at earth’s final chapter?
Every Adventist is well versed on the religious persecution at the time of tribulation—both the mandatory observance of Sunday as the false Sabbath and the fealty demanded for each to propagate the deception. How do we suppose the protections afforded by the First Amendment to our constitution will evaporate?
The First Amendment affords two protections to Religious Liberty
Establishment – Government may not establish a religion.
Free Exercise – Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
As our Religious Liberties are guaranteed by The Constitution, which will likely never be changed, threats to religious freedom must come by ways of coercion. That is the law of the land which affords our freedom of, and from religion, will not change and we are therefore always protected by the law. And yet we know we will lose our protections via opposition from Government and Public Consensus.
How can we reconcile that our country will transition from a position of established Law (constitutional Amendment) that the founding fathers of the United States of America established, protecting the citizens from state-imposed religion and freedom to practice religion… to violating both protections?
I would argue (as well would the masses that fought Covid mandates), that it is via the mechanism of coercion that such foundational principals will be attacked the easiest. Recent years have proven to us (2) primary principals are in play:
One, the Executive branches of Governments (State and Federal) have demonstrated a moral detachment from the obligation to carry out the laws of the land or even as interpreted by the superior Judicial Branches. Whether it is the result of executive discretion and purview or simply an executive order by fiat, Executive branches have wandered far outside the legislative confines they are afforded and the effort to reign it in is more challenging as lower courts are polarized along party lines. It can take years for judicial correction to occur and by then the damage has long been realized.
Second, as stated by Rahm Emanuel (circa 2008/2009), then President Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” Though he is not the author of that sentiment, he was the first prominent official to verbalize the strategy. Under the emotional fervor of a crisis, logic suspends, and mob rule can be manipulated. The Greater Good intentionally targets compliance by mob/societal coercion. Where nothing else matters and not seeking the Greater Good is an attack on all compliant civilians and their liberties.
During the Covid crisis, the Executive branches illegally took actions beyond their authorities, and it took years to roll them back. Those who stood in defiance of the vaccine mandates were not in vaccine denial or failing to understand the efficacy that vaccines have had to curtail diseases for over 200 years, but in opposition to the coercion being employed. Last I checked there is not a Biblical principle that aligns with coercion. In fact, Biblically, we are presented with an image of our Lord and Savior waiting at the door and knocking. Liberty of conscience is a moral construct, and to deny a citizen of such liberty is abominable.
“Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendancy of physical power; but from Christ's kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is banished” (AA 12.2).
During a lengthy meeting last fall, the statement made by a religious liberty director, “we don’t see vaccine mandates as a moral issue” still rings in my mind. How do Religious Liberty leaders parse the “non-moral” coercion from the “moral” as if the coercion apparatus has a moral compass and is capable to divert from invading the moral spiritual realm? If the One with all power, truth, and knowledge won’t use coercion to influence humanity, I am sure theologically we could argue ALL coercion is a moral issue.
“… then the followers of Jesus must prepare for a life-and-death struggle. The authority of the church, combined with the authorities of the nation, set themselves to work to cripple the conscience—to be themselves conscience for everybody” (Manuscript 52, 1886).
For some Adventists, the journey towards the end of time appears to be marked with hypersensitivity to possible sources of tribulation and tone deafness to the coercive efforts abounding in society. It is the natural tendency of self-preservation that leads one to avert calamity. Peter could have hidden in the seven hills surrounding Rome and lived out a life in anticipation of his returning Master. Yet he willingly walked into his ministerial envelopment, operating in the shadow of his antagonist. Accepting his mission included the destined tragedy.
Yet our march through eschatology need not be that of a blind martyr. Biblical precepts supported by the Spirit of Prophecy guide our discernment of the true Greater Good, that empowers the individual Spiritual development and growth of conviction. This is distinct from the Greater Good that seeks to benefit egocentric humanism. God has called our denomination to mission outside of comfort and convenience. However, we have had a clear sight of the Coercion Playbook. We should not fear the tribulation for it signals Christendom’s impending rebirth, but we also can’t claim ignorance to the mechanism of the impending calamity, Coercion.
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Daniel Bacchiocchi is an architect and builder. Today he operates an architectural and construction business in Michigan as well as a non-profit building mission organization, Master’s Builders, Inc., supporting Adventist efforts in financially depressed communities around the world.
