On Friday, the Potomac Conference sent a two minute video to all of the churches in their conference, and instructed them to play it to their congregations on Sabbath (yesterday).
The video is titled Listening with Love. It seeks to accomplish three things in vague self-contradictory fashion,
To justify their (Potomac Conference) acceptance of LGBTQ affirming symposiums while blacklisting Stephen Bohr — director of Secrets Unsealed
To portray themselves as victims for their support of gay-affirming meetings and churches
To claim to be doing Christ’s work of shepherding the flock
Here’s the video:
Observations
Potomac: “We here at the Potomac Conference believe that Scripture is both our foundation and our guide.”
If so, your actions will be in harmony with the Word. The same applies to us.
“We must be clear minded in the reality of the flock that Christ has given us to shepherd.”
What does “clear minded in the reality of the flock” even mean? And who is the flock that Christ has given us?? Is Christ assembling an unrepentant LGBTQ flock for His Bride? Any shepherd who fails to make a distinction between sheep and wolves disqualifies themselves from being a shepherd of the flock of God (Ezekiel 34:17; Jeremiah 10:21; 23:1-3).
“The LGBTQ+ community is a population that exists within the Conference and the world. They are our members, our neighbors, our friends and family. They are our loved ones.”
There is a distinction between the world and the church that Tapp does not understand or acknowledge here (Ezekiel 22:26; 1 John 2:15; Psalms 97:10). It is true that there are many sexual deviants in the world; it is not true that Christ wants them as His Bride without repentance and overcoming (Revelation 21:7; 1 Corinthians 6:11).
Any shepherd who puts no distinction between sheep and wolves is not following the Good shepherd. An adulterer cannot be saved without repentance and turning from his wicked ways (John 8:11). Salvation will not come to a thief without repentance (Luke 19:9-10). LGBTQ+ people will not be saved in their sins (1 Corinthians 6:11). They will be saved by the gospel of Jesus Christ, and His gospel demands repentance from sin, not celebration of it (Luke 13:3-5).
“While we cannot agree with or endorse individual lifestyles . . .”
Why not? They are—by your own words—part of the flock that Christ has given you to shepherd and they are your members. If you can’t endorse the lifestyle of your members, why are they your members?
We cannot promote individual or political agendas
We must promote the Lord’s agenda, and His Word upholds righteousness and repentance from sin. It does not call us to worldly political partisanship. Please remind your Sligo church of this aspect.
“We are demonstrating His love to everyone”
How about to Steven Bohr, and conservative, committed Adventists?
“Showing Christlike love to someone doesn’t mean we condone their behavior”
Accepting them into church membership does.
At Fulcrum7, we sympathize with every person who desires to know the one true God. We know Him through Jesus Christ and His Everlasting Gospel is about repenting of sin, not celebrating it (Matthew 4:17; Luke 5:32; Matthew 12:41; Luke 1:3-5).
We further affirm that the image of God is expressed most fully and beautifully in human lives when men and women walk in obedience to their God given identity instead of sitting in the swine pen of axiological gender rebellion.
The Spirit of Prophecy Speaks
RH 5/12/1903 All the way along in the history of the third angel’s message there have been found among the believers men who have done much harm to God’s cause. These men are spots [blemishes] in our feasts of charity.
Satan Loves to Talk about Love
GC 553 He enlists the affections by his eloquent portrayals of love and charity.
Popularity of Counterfeit Love
RH 1/10/1888 The time has fully come when darkness is called light, and light is called darkness. We are living in an age when sham liberality is extolled; when those who scatter falsehood, false doctrines, and soul-destroying heresies are received and exalted by society, and the most terrible deeds of iniquity are glossed over and excused on the plea of charity. Even the voices from the pulpits of our land are saying, “It shall be well with the transgressor.” Sin is not dealt with as a thing of fearful consequence, destined to bring inevitable ruin upon those who persist in its indulgence. It is not pictured in its abhorrent character before the people of the world. Smooth things are prophesied by false teachers, and the multitudes are resting in their sin, unmindful of the solemn warnings and examples of the word of God. The time has come when we should “sigh and .. cry for all the abominations” that are done in the land.
Here’s an example of counterfeit love. This is where post-biblical Adventists are heading:
AA 504 Such are willing to listen to those doctrines only that do not rebuke their sins or condemn their pleasure-loving course. They are offended by the plain words of the faithful servants of Christ and choose teachers who praise and flatter them. And among professing ministers there are those who preach the opinions of men instead of the word of God. Unfaithful to their trust, they lead astray those who look to them for spiritual guidance.
Counterfeit love Defined
SpTA01b 30 Let each one feel, I must be an example in patience; I must do good whether others appreciate my motives or not; I must not stand allied with evil, or cover it with a mantle of false charity. Bible charity is not sentimentalism, but love in active exercise. To heal the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace, is called charity. To confederate together, to call sin holiness and truth, is called charity; but it is the counterfeit article.
True and Counterfeit Love Contrasted
RH 1/5/1886 Those who transgress God's law will have much to say about charity; and when the truth is spoken they talk of the liberality and license given in God's word. But love for Christ and for the souls for whom he died, will lead to the utterance of faithful warnings and appeals by the servants of God.
ST 1/24/1884 Those upon whom God has laid the burden of his work are not to hold their peace, and cover prevailing evils with a cloak of false charity. Men of courage and energy are needed to expose fashionable sins. Iniquity must not be palliated and excused.
Examples of Loving Rebuke
2 Tim 2:24-26 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
1 Cor 5:11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
PP 323 When Moses, on returning to the camp, confronted the rebels, his severe rebukes and the indignation he displayed in breaking the sacred tables of the law were contrasted by the people with his brother's pleasant speech and dignified demeanor, and their sympathies were with Aaron. To justify himself, Aaron endeavored to make the people responsible for his weakness in yielding to their demand; but notwithstanding this, they were filled with admiration of his gentleness and patience. But God seeth not as man sees. Aaron's yielding spirit and his desire to please had blinded his eyes to the enormity of the crime he was sanctioning. His course in giving his influence to sin in Israel cost the life of thousands. In what contrast with this was the course of Moses, who, while faithfully executing God's judgments, showed that the welfare of Israel was dearer to him than prosperity or honor or life.
PP 323 Of all the sins that God will punish, none are more grievous in His sight than those that encourage others to do evil. God would have His servants prove their loyalty by faithfully rebuking transgression, however painful the act may be. Those who are honored with a divine commission are not to be weak, pliant time-servers. They are not to aim at self-exaltation, or to shun disagreeable duties, but to perform God's work with unswerving fidelity.
PP 578 God held Eli, as a priest and judge of Israel, accountable for the moral and religious standing of his people, and in a special sense for the character of his sons. He should first have attempted to restrain evil by mild measures; but if these did not avail, he should have subdued the wrong by the severest means. He incurred the Lord’s displeasure by not reproving sin and executing justice upon the sinner. He could not be depended upon to keep Israel pure. Those who have too little courage to reprove wrong, or who through indolence or lack of interest make no earnest effort to purify the family or the church of God, are held accountable for the evil that may result from their neglect of duty. We are just as responsible for evils that we might have checked in others by exercise of parental or pastoral authority as if the acts had been our own.
Inevitable Consequences of Preaching Counterfeit Love
PP 361 Those who destroy the effect of the warning by blinding the eyes of sinners to the real character and results of sin often flatter themselves that they thus give evidence of their charity; but they are working directly to oppose and hinder the work of God's Holy Spirit; they are lulling the sinner to rest on the brink of destruction; they are making themselves partakers in his guilt and incurring a fearful responsibility for his impenitence.
GC 571 As the Protestant churches have been seeking the favor of the world, false charity has blinded their eyes. They do not see but that it is right to believe good of all evil, and as the inevitable result they will finally believe evil of all good.
Not an Issue of Tares
COL 71 Christ has plainly taught that those who persist in open sin must be separated from the church. [This is in the chapter on the wheat and tares]
Balance to maintain with extremes to avoid
RH 1/16/1900 We are not to go to an extreme in false charity, neither are we to follow a course of unbending severity in cases where kindness and mercy and love would have a telling power.
We Should Never Call for Indiscriminate Listening and Seeing
Isa 33:14,15 “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"… he who … stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil.
Isa 42:19 Who is blind but My servant, or deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is blind as he who is perfect, and blind as the LORD’S servant?
ApM 31 Those who would have that wisdom which is from God, must become fools in the sinful knowledge of this age, in order to be wise. They should shut their eyes that they may see and learn no evil. They should close their ears lest they hear that which is evil, and obtain that knowledge which would stain their purity of thoughts and acts.
PP 40 Still the loyal angels urged him and his sympathizers to submit to God; and they set before them the inevitable result should they refuse: He who had created them could overthrow their power and signally punish their rebellious daring. No angel could successfully oppose the law of God, which was as sacred as Himself. They warned all to close their ears against Lucifer's deceptive reasoning, and urged him and his followers to seek the presence of God without delay and confess the error of questioning His wisdom and authority.
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“And as for you, O My flock, thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats. “Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture—and to have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet? “And as for My flock, they eat what you have trampled with your feet, and they drink what you have fouled with your feet” (Ezekiel 34:17-18).