XXXIV - 3(01)

“Watchman,

what of the night?”

"The hour has come, the hour is striking and striking at you,
the hour and the end!"          Eze. 7:6 (Moffatt)

 

THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY -3-

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A "DECREE" ILLUSTRATED

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Editor's Preface

 

This issue of WWN continues the critical analysis of Dr. Knight's book, A Search for Identity. However, not only will we note some questionable conclusions drawn by Dr. Knight, but also some salient points that should be of vital concern to every segment of Adventism today, especially to those proclaiming themselves “historic” Adventists. Our pioneer ministers were men of the “Book!”

Knight holds, and rightly so, that Adventism was not born in a vacuum. We were inheritors from the Millerite Movement, as well as other religious traditions. There was one factor in the transition from the pre-October 22, 1844 theological perceptions to the post-October 22, 1844 perceptions that have not been given due consideration. The Millerites, believing that Jesus would return to earth on October 22, 1844, logically concluded that all last-day prophecies would be fulfilled before that date. They applied to their time some major prophecies which today are being applied, in current Adventist thinking, to events since that date. However, no correction has been made due to the error resulting from the faultiness of their logical conclusion. Here is where Knight could have demonstrated his original premise of the “dynamic nature of present truth,” but he didn’t! We might ask, would such an adjustment be too painful? Possibly so, as it would raise questions and present problems which certain sections of the Adventist community are not yet ready to encounter. But if not now, when?

The final article and editorial, “Let’s Talk It Over” cover personal items involving our Sabbath worship on campus, and experiences of the editor in his own confrontation with the dynamic nature of present truth and the resultant pilgrimage.

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A Search for Identity -3-

Concluding his first chapter thesis on the dynamic nature of "present truth," Knight quotes a colleague on the Andrews University Seminary staff, Robert M. Johnston, who wrote in the Adventist Review, that Adventists "are still pilgrims on a doctrinal journey who do not repudiate the waymarks, but neither do they remain stopped by any of them" (Sept. 15, 1983, p.8). This declaration is subtle. On a journey, yes. But are "waymarks" roadblocks, or are they guideposts? Are they walls to be breached, or do they guide us in the narrow way of the doctrinal journey to be taken? Then Knight writes:

It is to that progressive journey that we now turn. But before coming to the story proper we need to look at the context in which Adventism emerged. After all, nothing originates in a vacuum" (p.28).

Seventh-day Adventism had a beginning. From what religious background did the men and women who founded the Movement come? Knight observes that James White and Joseph Bates, two of its founders, had been members of the Christian Connection, as well as Joshua V. Himes, the second most influential leader of the Millerite Movement. This Connection was decidedly anti-Trinitarian. Then Knight states that "Ellen White brought the Wesleyan/Methodist emphasis on sanctification and perfection into Adventism" (p.33). To justify this conclusion, he cites a reference from the book, Christ's Object Lessons, first published in 1900, some fifty years after its beginnings. While it is true that Ellen White and her family had been members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, they were disfellowshiped from that church when Ellen was only 16 because of their adherence to the teachings of William Miller. It is highly doubtful that at 16, Ellen White was learned in the theological tenets of Methodism so as to effectuate those teachings on the early Adventist pioneers. She herself stated that during the time that "the principal points" of the faith were being studied by the early pioneers, her "mind was locked, as it were," so that she "could not comprehend the meaning of the scriptures" being studied (Series B, #2, p. 57). This was not bringing a "Wesleyan/Methodist emphasis ... into Adventism"! However, this does turn on the caution lights that one must ever be alert to what Knight is writing and the agenda he is seeking to substantiate.

Inasmuch as the Seventh-day Adventist Church arose out of the Disappointment experienced by the Millerite Movement, it is reasonable and logical to note these roots in any search for identity. This Knight does in chapter three - "The Millerite Theological Foundation." A point often overlooked in such a relationship is the viewpoint from which those involved in the Millerite Movement looked at prophecies relating to the Second Advent. Believing that Christ was going to return to earth "about the year 1843," and then finally settling for the date, October 22, 1844, the Millerites perceived that all prophecies of the end times would be fulfilled prior to that date. This was a logical assumption. Thus the prophecy of Revelation 14, for example, was connected with the messages they were themselves giving, as well as the fulfilment of the prophetic parable Jesus gave of the Ten Virgins. This, Knight sets forth in his book (pp.45-49). It is over this perception and the application of it that the dynamic nature of present truth could have been applied, but was not, and has not been.

We need to take a careful look into the problem of prophetic application created by the original logical assumption. It is a part of a search for identity and involves the development of Seventh-day Adventist Beliefs. Let us consider the first angel's message of Revelation 14. Documenting how Miller and his followers understood this message, Knight rightly concludes:

Thus the Millerites saw the "hour of his judgment" as an advent rather than a pre-Advent judgment. As a result, they began to equate the "loud voice" of the first angel with the midnight cry and the message of the cleansing of the sanctuary. All three pointed to the same event - the second advent of Jesus Christ in the clouds of heaven (p.47).

But Jesus did not come on October 22, 1844. How then were these Biblical prophetic events, grouped together as one by the Millerites, to be understood now? Knight does not attempt an answer, except for one aspect from the parable of Matthew 25, but leaves them merely a part of the "Millerite theological foundation," with the conclusion:

"Disorientation" and "disarray" are two words that help us capture the mood and structure of Millerite Adventism after October 22, 1844. Whereas once the movement knew exactly where it was going and had fair ideas of how to reach its goal, now it was in a state of uncertainty. The scattering time had arrived. Millerism in the period after October 22, 1844 found Adventists in a search for identity, a task they had never thought they would have to undertake, and one for which in many ways, they were ill-equipped (p.54).

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All aspects of the prophetic parable of the Ten Virgins, as well as an analysis of the Three Angels' Messages of Revelation 14 need to be carefully reviewed. There is a relevancy for today when accurately applied and textually defined.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

The parable, as Jesus told it within the setting of His eschatological discourse recorded in Matthew 24 and 25, begins with a movement on the part of ten virgins. They "went forth to meet the bridegroom" (25:1). This is stated in the aorist (past) tense in the Greek text -εξηλθον - indicating an act which was to precede the main action of the parable Jesus was about to relate. They were together in a common objective. But the bridegroom tarried, and while he tarried, "they all slumbered and slept" (v. 5). Then the tense of the text changes. Suddenly at midnight a voice from outside of the sleeping virgins is heard declaring, "Behold the bridegroom, be going out (εξερχεοθε- present imperative) unto a meeting of him" (v. 6, lit.). All ten arose and "trimmed" their lamps, but five virgins discovered that their lamps were "going out" (v. 8 margin). The events of the parable follow in quick succession closing with the admonition, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh" (v. 13).

It should be obvious to the most casual reader, that there are two "coming outs," one when the Ten Virgins were first gathered together, a past event prior to the time when the main action of the parable is to transpire. The second coming out results from a cry at midnight by a voice outside of the ten virgins. Further, this second "coming out" produces a division and separation among the previously united ten. It might even be suggested that the parable indicates that the foolish return to the vendors from whom all had received their oil originally. But it is clear beyond question that those who do not respond to the cry at midnight on them the door is shut, and to them it is said, "I know you not" (v. 12).

How is this parable to be understood now? This should be a part of our search for identity. Interestingly, an application of this parable, as well as the Second Angel's Message as understood prior to October 22, 1844, was made at the time of the 1888 crisis. Of that meeting, Ellen White wrote in retrospect in 1889:

I was confirmed in all that I had stated in Minneapolis, that a reformation must go through the churches. Reforms must be made, for spiritual weakness and blindness were upon the people who had been blessed with great light and precious opportunities and privileges. As reformers they had come out of the denominational churches, but now they act a part similar to that which the churches acted. We hoped that there would not be the necessity for another coming out. (Ms. Release #1216, pp.5-6)

Observe carefully the context in which the expression, "another coming out" - is used. She noted that the very attitude which was being manifested by those opposed to the 1888 Message, as it was being given by Jones and Waggoner, had been manifest in the pre-1844 Millerite Movement to the message given then. It produced a coming out from the denominational churches, and Ellen White hoped there would not be a necessity for a second coming out, this time from the Adventist Church.

Not only does the prophetic parable of the Ten Virgins indicate a second coming out, but the Millerites, believing that Revelation 14:8 and 18:1-5 needed to be proclaimed before the Advent of Christ, called for a coming out. Charles Fitch preached in July, 1843 what became one of the most famous Millerite sermons, "Come Out of Her, My People." Knight reports this historical data and Fitch's position:

Fitch [proclaimed] that "to come out of Babylon is to be converted to the true scriptural doctrine of the personal coming and kingdom of Christ." He saw no way one could avoid the Advent truth and be a Christian. Thus he appealed, "if you are a Christian, come out of Babylon! If you intend to be found a Christian when Christ appears, come out of Babylon, and come out NOW! ... Dare to believe the Bible." (p.49).

Specifically relating to the parable of the Ten Virgins is a comment found in a report of the first campmeeting held in Tasmania. Ellen White noted, when she spoke at the first Sabbath afternoon meeting from Luke 21, that her "mind was carried into the future, when the signal will be given, 'Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him"' (R&H, Feb.11, 1896) This clearly indicates that she perceived the fulfilment of the parable of Jesus relative to the "is" time of that prophecy to be yet future in 1896. The tragedy is that this application of the parable of the Ten Virgins was not incorporated into the revision of The Great Controversy in 1911. Rather, the understanding of the Millerites was allowed to stand as the valid interpretation, thus ignoring the dynamic nature of present truth. This could chalk up another illustration as to why W. W. Prescott could write to W. C. White in 1915 voicing his concern as to the way Willie was handling his mother's writings, and that a crisis was

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impending over the matter. (See Letter dated, April 6, 1915)

The Three Angel's Messages

The textual analysis of Revelation 14:6-12 reveals the same tense differences between the first two and the third Angel's message as was noted in the parable of the Ten Virgins.

The first angel proclaimed - "The hour of His judgment is come (ἦλθεν- aorist [past] tense). This clearly indicates that when this angel would begin to sound with "a loud voice," the judgment would have commenced. Thus the giving of this message would follow the fulfilment of Daniel 7:9-10; 8:14, not precede it. Another indication that the first angel began sounding after 1844 is found in his call to "worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of water" (v. 7) This call is to worship according to the fourth commandment (Ex. 20:8-11). Such a call was never a part of the Millerite Movement, but became a part of the message of those who perceived that the "sanctuary" to be cleansed was not this earth at the Second Advent, but involved indeed a pre-Advent judgment.

Often it is necessary to translate the Greek aorist (past) tense by the English perfect - "is come - as is done in verse 7. The same is true also of the Second Angel's message (ver. 8) - "Babylon is fallen, is fallen" (πεσεν, ἔπεσεν -aorist [past] tense). This angel was to follow the first, thus pressing its fulfilment further down in time, and revealing that the "fall" involved two things - 1)   the rejection of the true meaning of the "sanctuary," in contrast to the Millerite perception; and 2)   the seventh day Sabbath. If this is understood in its full significance, it casts light on the terrible betrayal of the sanctuary truth at the SDA-Evangelical conferences of 1955-56, and has broad implications.

The tense changes in the Third Angel's message to the present. "If any man worship (προσκυνεῖ - present indicative active) the beast and his image, and receive ( λαμβάνει - present active indicative) a mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, ..." (9-10, lit.). Verse 9 could read, emphasizing the force of the Greek present tense, "If any man is worshipping the beast and his image and is receiving a mark in his forehead or in his hand ..." It is a continuing process, the worship and the reception of a mark. It will be revealed not only in act - the "hand," but also in thought - the "forehead."

Further, the timing of the message is revealed in the worship of "the image." The image is made of the beast "which had a wound by a sword, and did live" (13:14). In other words, not the slain beast (13:3 margin), but a resurrected beast. While we look to the event in 1929 in the signing of the concordant between Mussolini and the Papacy as a "healing of the wound," it was in reality only the beginning, and had reached an astonishing climax in the present pontificate. The fact remains that much study needs to be done in this area of prophecy. The principle enunciated by Knight in his book, "the dynamic nature of 'present truth"' needs to be applied to such a study.

Adventist in Adventism

As Knight continues his historical review of the utter confusion in the wake of the October 22 disappointment," he asks the question, "What is Adventist in Adventism?" Certain facts and factors which he sets forth need to be carefully studied by every Adventist whether he professes to be a regular, an "historic," or a "progressive" Adventist. In others words, the whole community of Adventism needs to take note. Knight makes three important observations and/or findings:

1)   Divisions resulted from the disappointment based on the single question - Did anything happen on October 22? Those who held that nothing occurred, were termed "open door" Adventists, while those still convinced that the prophecy of Daniel 8:14 had meaning were called "closed door" Adventists. These designations were borrowed from the parable of the Ten Virgins, that when the Bridegroom came, those ready went in and the "the door was shut." These concepts governed each's sense of mission. Was there still a warning message for a doomed world, or had probation closed?

The "open door" Adventists were able to unify at a meeting in Albany, New York, in April 1845, chaired by William Miller and J. V. Himes as secretary. This meeting and its aftermath provoked a response from Joseph Bates five years later. In the first issue of The Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, published at Paris, Maine, in 1850, he designated that group, the Laodicean Church and called - "In the name of Jesus, I exhort you again to flee from the Laodiceans, as from Sodom and Gomorrah. Their teachings are false and delusive; and lead to utter destruction. Death! Death!! eternal DEATH!!! is on their track. Remember Lot's wife" (p.8).

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The "closed door" group soon became two groups - one known as the "spiritualizers" believed that Christ did come on October 22, but not visibly, but only to the hearts of the believers. According to Knight, "fanaticism and charismatic excesses plagued the ranks of the spiritulaizers" (p.57).

2)   From the smallest of the three divisions resulting from the confusion following the disappointment emerged the founders of Sabbatarian Adventism. United by the Sabbath truth, they believed that the prophetic interpretation of the historical data was correct in determining October 22, 1844 as the date of the fulfilment of Daniel 8:14. But what actually took place on that date was the question. Knight writes:

Only after they had arrived at a new insight on the cleansing of the sanctuary could they rid themselves of their faulty concept of the shut door. But ... that recognition came only gradually. It would be nearly a decade before they worked through the issue. (ibid.)

It is interesting that while apparently still united on the Sabbath, the various groups within the Adventist Community are still divided on the question of "the cleansing of the sanctuary" to the extent that it has become once more disruptive. Here enters the validity of Knight's premise, in the search for identity, as noted in his first chapter - "the dynamic nature of 'present truth."' It is not that one jettisons the original position, but that one clarifies and purges it from false assumptions. His #3 observation on "What is Adventist in Adventism" is vital to this search and discovery.

3)   Knight writes: "The most basic issue for any religious group is its source of authority" (p.58). To substantiate what this authority is in Adventism, Knight has written and documented some data that needs to be carefully considered in the light of the question which still divides the community of Adventism - "the cleansing of the sanctuary." He writes:

James White put it early in 1847, "the Bible is a perfect and complete revelation. It is our only rule of faith and practice" (A Word to the Little Flock, p.13; italics supplied).

As we will see ..., the Sabbatarians developed their distinctive beliefs on the basis of Bible study. That fact was not always obvious to their distracters. Miles Grant, for example argued in 1874 ill the World's Crisis (a leading first day Adventist periodical) that "' it is claimed by the Seventh-day Adventists that the sanctuary to be cleansed at the end of the 2300 days, mentioned in Daniel 8:13, 14, is in heaven, and that the cleansing began in the autumn of A.D. 1844. If any one should ask why they thus believe, the answer would be, the information came through one of Mrs. E.G. White's visions"' (World's Crisis quoted in Review & Herald, Dec.22, 1874, p.204).

Uriah Smith vigorously responded to their accusation. "Hundreds of articles," he stated, "have been written upon the subject [of the sanctuary]. But in not one of these are the visions once referred to as any authority on this subject, or the source from which any view we hold has been derived. Nor does any preacher refer to them on this question. The appeal is invariably to the Bible, where there is abundant evidence for the views we hold on this subject" (R&H, Dec. 22,1874, p.204; italics supplied).

Smith, it should be pointed out, made a statement that any person willing to, go back into early Seventh-day Adventist literature' can verify or disprove. On the subject of the sanctuary Paul Gordon has done this in his The Sanctuary, 1844, and the Pioneers (1983). His findings verify Smith's claims. Whereas many later Adventists have tended to lean on Ellen White's authority to substantiate or at least help support their positions on various of their doctrines, the early Adventists were a people of the "Book." Current Seventh-day Adventists of all persuasions need to note that fact as they seek to discover the genuine Adventism of history. (pp.58-59)

The one sentence in the paragraph above, which needs to be read and reread gives the answer to the basis of the doctrinal authority in early Adventism - "the early Adventists were a people of the 'Book.'" How far those who now profess to be "historic" Adventists have wandered from "early Adventism" can be documented by publications coming from Virginia, Washington state, and Kansas. The tragedy is the resulting deception which is being practised on sincerely concerned Adventists. This is compounded because many who are sincere in their concern over what is taking place in Adventism, are as those who in Christ's day, "having eyes to see, saw not; and ears to hear, heard not."

Knight continues:

James White touched the unique role of the Bible in doctrinal formation in 1847 after claiming that Scripture is "our only rule of faith and practice." In the context of his wife's prophetic ministry he wrote that "true visions are given to lead us to God, and His written word; but those that are given for a new rule of faith and practice, separate from the Bible, cannot be from God, and should be rejected" (A Word to the Little Flock, p.13).

Four years later he again made that point explicit. "Every Christian," he wrote, " is therefore in duty bound to take the Bible as a perfect rule of faith and duty. He should pray fervently to be aided by the Holy Spirit in searching the Scriptures for the whole truth, and for his whole duty. He is not at liberty to turn from them to learn his duty through any of the gifts. We say the very moment he does, he places the gifts in a wrong place, and takes an extremely dangerous position. The Word should be in front, and the eye of the church should be placed upon it, as the

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rule to walk by, and the foundation of wisdom, from which to learn duty in 'all good works"' (R&H, April 21, 1851, p. 70; italics supplied).

This position taken by James White cannot be emphasized too strongly as one searches for the identity of the truth as it is in Jesus, the Living Word made flesh.

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A "Decree" Illustrated

(This is being written January 28, 2001)

Yesterday, we had a very interesting Sabbath School program, made so by the personal experience of the one conducting the program. Perhaps I should explain that each Sabbath we meet in the morning for two hours in the Chapel. The first hour begins with a Song Service followed by a program consisting of Thoughts from the Word, a lesson from nature, and sometimes a Bible Quiz. The second hour is devoted to the study of the Bible, chapter by chapter. This Sabbath, we completed the Book of Hebrews. The program is rotated among the staff, and those attending regularly.

Yesterday, the young man in charge of the program, in beginning his "Thoughts from the Word," asked that we read II Samuel 7:12-14. There Nathan delivered God's message to David:

And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son.

He pointed out that Solomon was by actual generation the son of David, but by a special act of God, he became His son, and He became to him his Father. This verse was followed by the application made of it in Hebrews 1:5 to Christ. Since Paul combined two verses in his application to Christ, we turned to Psalm 2:7, and noted that it was by decree, Christ became God's Son, even as Solomon became a son of God by a Divine decision.

I had noticed that on the desk, Travis Rohrich, the young man in charge, had placed some papers which I had not seen before. After reading some more verses, the content of the papers was revealed. Travis was born, Travis Shane Pledge, but now he was Travis Shane Rohrich. How was this done? One of the papers was an Order from the 4th Judicial District Court, County of Mora, State of New Mexico, which read:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED That Travis Shane Pledge be, and he hereby is, known as Travis Shane Rohrich from this date on.

As I sat there contemplating this young man's experience, and the prophetic revelation of the Scriptures, I thought how apropos the comparison. He who was the Eternal Word, both by decree and through the flesh became a Son of God (Heb. 1:2) By Him God has spoken unto us. The command is, "Hear ye Him" (Matt. 17:5). I, too, by hearing Him may become a son of God (John 1:12). And in the final decree of the judgment, I will be given a new name (Rev. 2:17). It will be so "ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED."

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Let's Talk It Over

Those who have read the preface to the Manuscript, The Hour and the End, know of my mother's first contact with Adventism. But between the time of the presentation at the Women's Missionary Auxiliary meeting by Bertha Jorgensen, a retired credentialed Bible Worker of the Adventist Church, and the decision to study the Bible with her in our home, some things happened in the local Baptist Church of which my mother and I were members.

I had been baptized on an Easter Sunday night into the Baptist fellowship when but nine years of age. The pastor was a deeply spiritual man, and my mother was close friends with the pastor's wife. Then the pastor took a call to a church in Ft. Scott, Kansas. His ancestor was a recent graduate from a Northern Baptist Seminary. Things began to change, in the teaching from the pulpit to the conduct of the midweek prayer meeting.

The mid-week prayer meeting became a social occasion with a "box-supper" arrangement. The women would prepare a special lunch that could fit into an average sized box. The box itself would be covered by a decorative wrapping paper. These boxes would be auctioned off to the men. They would then eat with the woman whose box it was. As I recall at some point in the evening social fellowship the new pastor would give a short homily. With the continuing decline in spiritual emphasis, my mother decided that she could better meet the spiritual needs of my younger sister and me by teaching us at home. We withdrew from the Baptist Church.

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It was at this point that a series of circumstances led to Bible studies with Bertha Jorgensen. She gave us twenty-two studies using the Bible and the Bible only. At each study I would join with mother in reading the verses which sustained the doctrinal subject being studied. During this time, we also read, The Marked Bible, a story still worth reading today. We made a decision; we began attending the Seventh-day Adventist home church in Boone, Iowa, meeting each Sabbath at the Jorgensen residence. Elder Jorgensen, a retired minister, along with his wife, Bertha Jorgensen, conducted the worship services. These services were in the form of Bible studies with those in attendance taking part by reading the Bible texts. The pulpit was the dining room table, and it was from that table that I preached my first sermon before I was fourteen.

Then after high school, four years at Union College, and twenty-three years of active ministry for the Church we chose to unite with, because of the spiritual declension in the Baptist Church, we found it necessary to make another decision. When conditions today in Adventism are now worse than in the Baptist Church of 1932, some decisions must be made. We made ours - my wife and I - when the first evidences of apostasy from the truth were confirmed. The principle upon which a possible second "coming out" was to be based is clearly defined in Ms. Release #1216. (See page 3, col. 2) When the conditions become the same in the Adventist Church as were existent in the churches from which they came out of to become Seventh-day Adventists, then it becomes decision time for those who wish to stand "stiffly for the truth." The state of current conditions in the Church are too evident for anyone to miss today, unless one has become completely blinded by Laodiceanism.

whg

God has a church. It is not a great cathedral, neither is it the national establishment, neither is it the various denominations; it is the people who love God and keep His commandments. "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). Where Christ is, even among the humble few, this is Christ's church, for the presence of the High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity can alone constitute a church. Letter 108, 1886

The Laodicean's Lament

My hope is built on nothing less,

Than MY dear church, and its success!

No matter what MY church may do,

It cannot fall -- its going through!

My hope is built on nothing more,

For me its heaven's open door.

So I rejoice - let others wail;

It's going through - it cannot fail!

I do not need to watch and wait;

To me it stands as heaven's gate;

So I'll support her, come what may –

She'll see me through on that glad day!

0, could it be - and to my shame

GOD's church and mine are not the same?

GOD'S church fulfils His sacred plan;

My church reveals the stamp of man!

My church slept on - that day at last

Did come, and so the harvest passed.

I stuck with her at any cost –

God's CHURCH WENT THROUGH, but left ME lost!

(This poem was sent to me, and I placed it in a file with other poems received from various poets. This poem carried no author's name. The envelope may have, but I failed to make a transfer reference. If someone reading it, is the author, or knows who the author is, I will be happy to give the proper credit. I wish that I could take the credit myself. It is setting forth the facts concerning Laodicean blindness in a borrowed poetic form but is "pure, unadulterated truth.")

 

 

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Originally published by Adventist Laymen's Foundation of Mississippi/Arkansas
Wm. H. Grotheer, Editor

Adventist Laymen's Foundation was chartered in 1971 by Elder Wm. H. Grotheer, then 29 years in the Seventh-day Adventist ministry, and associates, for the benefit of Seventh-day Adventists who were deeply concerned about the compromises of fundamental doctrines by the Church leaders in conference with those who had no right to influence them. Elder Grotheer began to publish the monthly "Thought Paper," Watchman, What of the Night? (WWN) in January, 1968, and continued the publication as Editor until the end of 2006. Elder Grotheer died on May 2, 2009.