And that settles it.
Social Justice is the new gospel of choice, not only for liberalism in general but for progressive, ethnic, and millennial Seventh-day Adventists as well. For them it is a convenient replacement for the Everlasting Gospel, nestled between working-my-way-to-heaven and secular (political) leftism.
On Monday night (10-29-2018) three officers from the SECC held a Non-Compliance townhall meeting at the Rubidoux SDA Church in Riverside CA. The meeting was live-streamed. Excerpts from the meeting are listed below this video:
Excerpts from the Meeting
1:02 “As a church that believes in bringing justice (social justice)—we won’t comply” (applause). Off to a rebellious start.
7:05 — Sandy Roberts introduces herself as president of SECC – loud cheering and applause ensues.
7:20 — Robert Edwards – Vice President of black ministries. loud applause
7:35 – John Park – Secretary of SECC
8:50 – Roberts – “The Compliance Document is part mystery. It was put together by a committee. To be out of compliance is not extraordinary – most of us are out of compliance on many things.” Here, she seeks to justify herself, and the defiant actions of the SECC. Hey, we’re all sinners so we don’t have to abide by Church Policy.
17:10 – Jonathan Park – “This Compliance Document is not about love, it’s not people-centered – its about POLICY.”
18:00 – Edwards – “what leadership is attempting to do is undergird [undermine?] trust by having a fake news content. They are trying to gain sympathy from those who will believe them. The Holy Spirit does not take a time-out because of GC Session – it is papal to say that the GC Session is the highest authority on earth.” It is also papal to make void the Word of God.
21:40 – Sandra Roberts – “in our conference we treat all people with equality, in areas of gender and all areas. We are going to treat men and women equally in ordination.” Equally in what way? Do you want the local diesel mechanic performing abdominal aorta surgery? Do we invest children with the same authority as parents? The Bible doesn’t. The Bible defines creational complementary distinctions between men and women. These distinctions are from God and they are good.
26:35 – Edwards – “they have decided to make a POLICY about a spiritual matter – and that doesn’t stop us from going forward.” Forward to where? A Seventh-day version of the Episcopalian Church? Forward to where?
26:55 – Park – “in 2015 at the GC Session, the GC president made it clear that this is not a biblical matter. When he was chairing the vote, he said whatever the outcome was he and the GC would support it. If it was a biblical matter, why would he say that? It is not right to force people to vote on a matter of principle.”
30:50 – Roberts - “as conference president I have full voice and vote on the Union Committees. At General Conference meetings I have been snuck in, but I have no badge and I don’t get to speak to issues.” We don’t get to vote on them either. But we accept them.
33:50 – man – “I feel that it will take some legal [action] against the Church to move the General Conference towards the right spirit on this issue. I believe that our denomination is not going to move until some woman—some ordained president says….unintelligible…..you stop this nonsense.”
37:10 – Edwards – “in the words of Obama – Don’t bull, vote. We have business meetings where members don’t show up, but when an action is taken they complain about it. Vote, vote and show up. If you really want to make change – we need to get another GC President. You can make a difference by participating, beyond filing a lawsuit.” So Ted Wilson is to blame for the biblical convictions of the world Church in three separate GC decisions. He wasn’t president in 1990, or 1995.
39:40 – woman – thanks Sandra Roberts for “being a trailblazer for us women.” (applause). It’s starting to sound like a Price is Right show with all the applause.
41:00 – Sandra Roberts says that at Annual Council [2018] people kept coming up to her and saying “Pastor Roberts, you give us hope. Don’t quit doing what you are doing.” “These people are fearful for their jobs if they go on record saying that. That makes me more determined that we here at SECC can model a healthy and inclusive Church. (applause). We can make what we are doing contagious.” A healthy Church accepts the Word of God on matters of faith and life, in spite of what culture teaches.”
43:50 – Hugo F. Chinchay – “90% of the members in our church live outside NAD and Europe. The majority of them live in hierarchical systems with top-down government – this is who the Church is right now. The GC president [Wilson] is doing what he is doing because other divisions leaders don’t see that he is doing anything wrong. This is a human resource problem. We need to re-evangelize the world.” We need to repent, reform and be revived. That will make the Message sound with new power—not human efforts at political correctness.
47:40 – William G. Johnsson – “Why am I writing and speaking out?— because of justice [Social]. My church is in a situation of official discrimination against women. It is against the principles of Scripture. The Compliance Document is diabolical. They cannot stop women’s ordination because it is right. What can we do? There is one thing that the GC understands. Money. They do not understand theology because theology is against them—they do not understand ethics because the ethics are against them. But they understand money. What can we do? I’ll leave it at that (loud applause). I have a real problem in sending a cent to the General Conference when they are acting like this” (applause again). Wow. Where to begin? 1. Male leadership is both taught and prescribed in the Bible. 2. Diabolical? WDS (Wilson Derangement Syndrome) flashes its red paranoid eyes at us. 3. Johnsson is calling for a tithe embargo, because he didn’t get his way at the 2015 GC Session, and because he doesn’t like the Compliance Document. After all— it might hold Conferences accountable to decisions that they participate in.
54:05 – black woman – “withhold your tithe. If every person in here [SECC] withheld your tithe/money; if Pacific Union withheld their money from the GC, they would sit up and listen pretty quickly. We need to take direct action, we need to hit the streets. When they all dressed up in 1800 attire, we should have showed up looking the way we would have looked in the 1800’s. We need to stand up and take action.” We weren’t here in the 1800’s, and neither was she. Adventist activism borrowing a page from political leftism. Again.
58:01 – man at mic – “The secret vote at Annual Council was roughly 60-40%. What are the demographics of the global church in regards to women’s ordination? How can we lobby the World Church to influence their votes?”
1:00:10 — Sandra Roberts – “elected leaders are split about 50/50 on this issue. When it comes to the members in the pew – I think there is a lot that we can do to influence them by leveraging our relationships that we have around the world.” Political activism right there.
1:05 – Edwards – compares the WO issue to civil rights. Says don’t quit! “Luther got chased out. We have been prophetically called for such a time as this. Some of us are not doing God’s will and justifying it by saying I don’t agree with our church in this issue.” That last point was actually a good one.
1:12 – woman- suggests activism, refers to the million man march by Louis Farrakhan. “Lets get everyone together, form a powerhouse group and stand in from of them [GC] and DEMAND something else. Asking doesn’t work. Demands will!” This is not pretty, and it’s taking a page right out of another liberal idol’s work—Saul Alinsky.
1:15 – Sandra Roberts – “We do need to leverage our influence among friends around the world to impact the Church beyond North America. In a few days, the NAD Year end meeting will occur and I believe that one area that will be discussed is NAD tithe going to other world divisions. Says that NAD pays nearly 7% of tithe on to General Conference and other Divisions pays 2%. We will have a better feel for where the NAD is going with regards to tithe after next week.” This is interesting. We will be watching the NAD year-end meeting for developments of this kind and reactions to the Compliance Document.
1:17:30 – pastor from Rubidoux – “does non compliance pertain to women who have already been ordained, or just to future ordinations of women?” Roberts answered that they don’t know, but says “It doesn’t matter because we are going to continue to ordain women” (applause). There you have it friends. The split has opened up in our Church and people are choosing which side of the widening chasm they will be on.
1:19:20 – Park – says churches in Korea are going downhill, like churches in America. “The reason churches are going downhill is because they aren’t involved in social justice. If the General Conference is allowing China to have woman pastors because of Chinese law, why do we have to get sued by somebody in order to do what is right? What can we do, we create a movement where we stand up for the weak. Social justice.” The new progressive Gospel of the Adventist Left — Social Justice.
1:25 – more discussions about tithe…some are uncomfortable withholding it, some are calling for it. More calls for Social Justice. This is a recurring theme in this meeting.
1:29 – Edwards mentions GYC and Natasha Dysinger. Says they need young adults in SECC who speak up.
1:35 – black man – There are struggles with blacks in the church – “we need Social Justice to become the head and not the tail. Our church should speak up on current political [liberal] social issues like black history month, gun violence, and immigrants at the border. More calls for social justice” [applause]. Close your eyes and you would think you were at a Democratic Convention of some sort. Seriously. How about we get out of politics altogether—as a Church. It would be more honorable.
1:40 – Sandra Roberts – “our number one goal in the SECC is to empower young people/millennials.” Ours is to “Fear God and give glory to Him because the hour of His judgment is come” and call the Remnant out of Babylon.
1:42 – young lady ask for a list of names of leaders to contact for social activism. Says “SECC is the richest Conference. If we kept our money here, we could pay our pastors more” (Loud applause).
1:44 – Robert Edwards — “if our government can put 18-years old in expensive airplanes [military], then we should look for ways to turn the Church leadership over to young people. Uhh, ok.
1:46:25 – young woman – “I like to go online and check things from both perspectives. There are those at one end of the spectrum saying that women should not be pastors at all (I wonder who that refers to). In a way, that position makes more sense than our current standard for the Church. How did we get to the place where we as a church say women can be pastors but they must be commissioned, they cannot be ordained?” This is an objective question—the first one of its kind in this meeting. Kudos to this young lady for thinking rationally, instead of emotionally. Our Church has created a weird dilemma by allowing woman to be pastors and denying them ordination. The solution is to go to the Bible and do as it directs. This requires us to have male elders and male pastors— and hold them to a high standard. We could find other places for our sisters to serve. By the way, the reason our church is in this dilemma is because we allowed liberals on executive committees to pry open the door of unbiblical leadership by allowing women elders. This to them, was just a point along a progressive line—aimed at eventually forcing the entire camel in the tent. This wrong needs to be righted.
Roberts answers and says that “there are books that deal with the question—can’t remember the name of them. There are been people who have affirmed where God’s anointing has been and that makes all the difference in the world.”
1:50 – black man – “A lot of times we run to the Bible to look for answers, and it’s right in front of us. Last week two black boys were shot in Kentucky because they were black. The good old boys club exists. It is misogynistic, it is white supremacist, it is RACIST. I am for Social JUSTICE. The three angels messages is about social justice also. “ Applause ensues at the mere mention of the new Progressive Gospel of the Adventist Left. With that the meeting ends.
Summary
For these individuals, social justice is clearly the animating spirit behind their demand for WO. This explains why so many of our American black congregations have jumped on the WO bandwagon—they long ago accepted social justice as the epitome of their worldview.
I don’t know if there were any conservatives at this meeting, if there were, they didn’t speak up. There was not one solitary voice calling for submission to the world Church decisions, and there was only one objective question (by the young lady at 1:46). This was essentially a throng calling for extended rebellion.
The World Church is right to place a restraint on this kind of madness. Whatever it is—it is not the spirit of Jesus Christ. I wish it were.
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“Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone” (Hosea 4:17).