Germantown Seventh-day Adventist Church, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is currently participating in Ignite Revival 2024, a 31-day event that involves “worship, fasting, and prayers.” [1] According to the church’s website, Pastor Corey Johnson will be leading this “revival,” who is described as “one of the most dynamic speakers and innovative leaders of this generation.” [2] Innovations refer to something new and original, but unfortunately, if you look at the worship style for Ignite Revival 2024 [3], it’s not new.
Although the Germantown Seventh-day Adventist Church may be branding itself as innovative, they are actually just repackaging Pentecostal styles of worship that have long been established. The so-called “new” approaches are nothing more than the reintroduction of the bedlam of noise and celebration-style worship that Satan attempted to bring into Adventism in 1898 through the “Holy Flesh Movement” in Indiana.
Despite the fact that our pioneers rejected this type of worship that was filled with the same emotional, loud, and repetitive patterns that characterized the Pentecostal churches, today we still have pastors and leaders who are seeking to mislead our people once again with practices that do not align with our teachings, values, or mission.
Ellen G. White was in Australia when Pentecostalism started making its way into the church, and she decided to leave Australia and attend the General Conference Session in 1901 to speak about this matter. Sister White didn’t remain inactive or neutral in the midst of grave apostasy. No, she took action to prevent these errors from developing further into Adventism. Leaders from Indiana who had accepted the bedlam of confusion and were attempting to spread it under the guise of the Holy Spirit were present at the 1901 General Conference Session. Ellen White gave the following scathing rebuke during the session:
“In the period of disappointment after the passing of the time in 1844, fanaticism in various forms arose … One could not tell what was piped or what was harped. Some appeared to be in vision, and fell to the floor. Others were jumping, dancing, and shouting. They declared that as their flesh was purified, they were ready for translation. This they repeated again and again. I bore my testimony in the name of the Lord, placing his rebuke upon these manifestations” (General Conference Bulletin, April 23, 1901).
“The manner in which the meetings in Indiana have been carried on, with noise and confusion, does not commend them to thoughtful, intelligent minds. There is nothing in these demonstrations which will convince the world that we have the truth. Mere noise and shouting are no evidence of sanctification, or of the descent of the Holy Spirit. Your wild demonstrations create only disgust in the minds of unbelievers” (General Conference Bulletin, April 23, 1901).
“The Lord desires to have in his service order and discipline, not excitement and confusion. We are not now able to describe with accuracy the scenes to be enacted in our world in the future; but this we do know, that this is a time when we must watch unto prayer; for the great day of the Lord is at hand. Satan is rallying his forces. We need to be thoughtful and still, and to contemplate the truths of revelation. Excitement is not favorable to growth in grace, to true purity and sanctification of the spirit.” (General Conference Bulletin, April 23, 1901).
“The Holy Spirit never reveals itself in such methods, in such a bedlam of noise. This is an invention of Satan to cover up his ingenious methods for making of none effect the pure, sincere, elevating, ennobling, sanctifying truth for this time … A bedlam of noise shocks the senses and perverts that which if conducted aright might be a blessing. The powers of satanic agencies blend with the din and noise, to have a carnival, and this is termed the Holy Spirit’s working” (Selected Messages, Vol. 2, p. 36).
Because the prophet confronted these changes head-on, the “bedlam of noise” was kept at bay. Unfortunately, Pentecostalism once again is steadily infiltrating Adventism, seeking to reshape our worship services, camp meetings, and spiritual experiences in ways that will fundamentally undermine the distinct spiritual foundation of our movement. If this trend is not met with strong, decisive action, it threatens to erode the very core of our faith, replacing sound biblical teaching with superficial expressions of worship.
Satan is still at work to destroy our distinctive witness by making us just like all the other churches, and this will result in many of our people receiving the counterfeit spirit.
“I was told that men will employ every policy to make less prominent the difference between the faith of Seventh-day Adventists and those who observe the first day of the week. In this controversy the whole world will be engaged, and the time is short” (Selected Message, Book 2, p. 385).
“Before the final visitation of God’s judgments upon the earth, there will be, among the people of the Lord, such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon his children … The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work; and before the time for such a movement shall come, he will endeavor to prevent it, by introducing a counterfeit. In those churches which he can bring under his deceptive power, he will make it appear that God’s special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest. Multitudes will exult that God is working marvelously for them, when the work is that of another spirit. Under a religious guise, Satan will seek to extend his influence over the Christian world” (Great Controversy, p. 464).
Sources
[1] https://www.germantownsdachurch.com/
[2] https://www.germantownsdachurch.com/pastor-johnson
[3] https://www.youtube.com/live/XA3pF83CmV0?si=xj-9wm5IhmEoSp1J
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What we see is like gangrene affecting the body of our Church 😥.
I do not believe that leaders who allow this to happen do not understand what is happening to the Church.
They understand everything.
they do it either for money, like Judas Iscariot, or because they are Jesuits who have infiltrated the Church 😥
Lord protect from this plague those who may come to this and similar communities
This so called worship style needs to be Rebuked from leadership,
where’s Mark Finley, Bohr and Ivor Myers when they are actually needed?
I posted part of this article as a google review on their church.