Introduction

As most of you know, the Creation 7th Day & Adventist Church has historically had a much easier time convincing worldlings and people of other Churches about the errors of the mainstream SDA organization than actual Adventists themselves.  It seems that, without a definite doctrine of a soon-to-come judgment, and straight teachings about lifestyle reform, and most of all the beliefs (straight from the Scriptures) about the lifetime walk of sanctification as an integral part of salvation, an atmosphere of Laodicea is a natural consequence.

This is the reason why the very first of the Three Angels’ Message, found in Revelation 14, is a call to awaken to the reality of these things in preparation for the “work” that humans are called to do under the next two divine messengers.

We have generally delineated the core messages of the three revealing angels as these:

1)    A call to worship Yahweh in Spirit and in truth because of His coming judgment, which is really the same as a call to an acceptance of the true Gospel, including the promise (not threat, as some seem to take it) of Victory over Sin.

2)   An announcement that Babylon has fallen, which we will be examining in some detail in this study; and we understand Babylon to be a symbol of both confusion (Jer 51:47) and an acceptance of false religions. (Dan 2:2 – in which the term “Chaldeans” signifies the people of Babylon)  That being the case, the second Angel is also an announcement of judgment, but not against individuals specifically; rather, it is a decree that false religions, and the confusion that results from them, are about to be destroyed.

3)   A warning about the Mark of The Beast, and the terrible consequences of receiving it.  So dangerous, and global in scope, is this Mark that it necessitates all with the love of Christ within them to take up the angel’s message and bear it to others, a message that requires both spiritual power (Zec 4:6) and unity (John 17:20-23) to properly convey.

But you might notice that, just now, I appeared to both praise and criticize non-Adventist religions, saying first that it was easier for them to understand our teachings about errors in mainstream Adventism (such as its union with the U.S. state government, and sometimes even their acceptance of the Trinity doctrine), and second that they had fallen into a Laodicean state due to their liberal nature.

While this appears to be a paradox, it really isn’t.  But it does raise the legitimate question, “Why does Laodicea see errors more easily?”  Unfortunately, that’s not really what is happening.  These other churches are seeing errors easily in a set of beliefs not their own.  If you try to convince a Laodicean church of its own shortcomings regarding the Scriptures, you will get a very different response. This is in accord with Christ’s own description of this condition: “thou sayest, ‘I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.’” (Rev 3:17)

There is nothing wrong with Laodicea’s vision when it comes to the errors and shortcomings of others, and so if you show from the Scriptures that a Christian is not to take others to court, and then that a particular church is suing other organizations and individuals at law, then of course – they can see the hypocrisy and evil of that system.  But if they themselves are members of that church… then no, it is not nearly so easy.

But the fact of the matter is that the true Christian disregards personal comfort and safety for the sake of truth.  All of us who worship with the CSDA Church have had to go through, or are currently going through, something that the flesh would describe as “uncomfortable” for the sake of this message.  Our lives are joyful, and not one of us would ever trade the life that Yahweh has given us for any other life; but at the same time the joy we receive is tempered by sorrow and trial. As it is even written, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Yahshua shall suffer persecution.” (2Tim 3:12)

For SDAs, the cost of admitting the present truth about the Beast and its Image is high, and we need to be sensitive to that.  An Adventist is heavily invested, by the very nature of this religion, in the community of the saints.  An Adventist understands, correctly, and to a greater degree than many Churches, the importance of membership in a congregation, the unity of the faith, and the importance of the worldwide organization in taking the message to the world.  These are all Biblical doctrines, and the SDA Church takes them seriously.  But for an Adventist to come to an understanding that the organization meant to represent all these things, upon which a great emotional and spiritual dependence is necessarily placed, is in error… that is a great trial.  It’s a trial most of us know very well, having gone through it ourselves.  It is really quite a scary prospect, that even with the wonderful understanding of the Scriptures, and the accurate interpretation of prophecy, and the added blessing of inspired writings by people like Ellen White, even with all these things… if the Church could still fall into such an irredeemable state, what hope can there be for ANY Church to be “right” before Heaven?

If you have been “burned” by a bad history with another church, can you really afford to trust another movement again?  This is a barrier we encounter quite often in calling people to Christ. But the fall of the mainstream Adventist Church did not just “happen.” It was a slow process, and a subtle one, but it is not as if there were no signposts, no warnings.  And furthermore, it was a very specific process, and one that can, and must, be understood, so that we who seek to finish the work of the Three Angels may never repeat the sins of the past.  That is why it is always beneficial to go over the teachings of our people from the past (such as the Christ the Beast and the Corporation video we saw yesterday) and at the same time to seek new and greater light for the path still before us.