Attention
• President Mark Johnson, Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada
• President Wesley Torres, Seventh-day Adventist Church in British Columbia, Canada
• President Mansfield Edwards, Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ontario, Canada
Calvary greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. As of January 7, 2022, “conversion therapy” in Canada has been criminalized. According to the Act named Bill C-4, Section 320.202, conversion therapy, as defined by the new law, is a practice, treatment, or service that is intended to:
(a) change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual;
(b) change a person’s gender identity to cisgender;
(c) change a person’s gender expression so that it conforms to the sex assigned to the person at birth;
(d) repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour;
(e) repress a person’s non-cisgender gender identity;
(f) repress or reduce a person’s gender expression that does not conform to the sex assigned to the person at birth. (Section 320.101)
The Act continues to state that:
Section 320.102: Everyone who knowingly causes another person to undergo conversion therapy — including by providing conversion therapy to that other person is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years.
And that:
Section 320.103: Everyone who knowingly promotes or advertises conversion therapy is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years.
And that:
Section 320.104: Everyone who receives a financial or other material benefit, knowing that it is obtained or derived directly or indirectly from the provision of conversion therapy, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years.
How will the new law against conversion therapy impact the Great Commission given to us in Matthew 28:19-20? Based on 2018 statistics, 75,000 Canadians aged 15 and above identify as transgender, and knowing the world we live in, that number will most certainly have gone up by 2022. According to the new conversion therapy ban, we, as Seventh-day Adventist Christians, have been prohibited from reaching out to at least 75,000 Canadians with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Based on the pure, unadulterated gospel, Jesus Christ cannot be preached to the transgender community without crossing the boundaries set by this law in question.
Questions
• Are we going to sit by and watch while the enemy comes in and scatters the flock by setting up a borderline beyond which we cannot reach out to people with the gospel?
• Are we going to neglect our dear Jesus Christ’s great commission to reach out to the entire world and make disciples of all nations (without discrimination)?
• Today, the prohibition currently applies to the transgender community, and I ask, what segment of the population will be next?
The following quotes crossed my mind while reflecting on and considering this subject in the light of the Law and the Testimony.
“We ought to obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:29.
“O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” Daniel 3:16-18.
“Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.” Judges 5:23.
“If God abhors one sin above another, of which his people are guilty, it is of doing nothing in a case of emergency. Indifference or neutrality in a religious crisis is regarded of God as a grievous crime; and equal to the very worst type of hostility against God” (Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 280.3).
“As soon as individuals cease warring against the spirit of the world they are Satan’s easy prey” (Review and Herald Nov. 26, 1861, par. 1).
“And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14.
“The Lord gives a special truth for the people in an emergency. Who dare refuse to publish it? He commands His servants to present the last invitation of mercy to the world. They cannot remain silent, except at the peril of their souls. Christ’s ambassadors have nothing to do with consequences. They must perform their duty and leave results with God” (Great Controversy, p. 609.1).
Request
I humbly request that you use your good office to make a bold statement for the Lord at a time such as this on the subject matter. You are going to have the support of a huge number of your membership and, most importantly, the approbation of God. Thanks for your kind and prayerful consideration of this request. God bless you.
Yours in the Lord’s service,
William Chukwu
williamcchukwu@gmail.com
CC:
Mark Johnson
Wesley Torres
Mansfield Edwards
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”I humbly request that you use your good office to make a bold statement for the Lord at a time such as this on the subject matter.”
Yeah right. Good luck with that. The only thing that elicits a response from Adventist leaders in NAD seems to be any issue that is framed by the news media as being one of racial injustice. Then no one has to petition them to respond because they issue a supportive response within days sometimes hours even before all the facts are known. And it’s not just Canadian leaders that should be addressing this law but also the entire GC leadership. To remain silent on the possibility that the gospel of Jesus Christ is powerful enough to convert even the most despondent, sexually enslaved sinner as has we have done for the past 50+ years on the legalized murder of unborn human beings may maintain SDA popularity among the popular cultural demagogues but it will demonstrate to the heavenly Watcher that our usefulness as ministers of that gospel is reaching it’s limit.
Sorry, but conversion therapy makes SSA people sicker, not healthier. It is purposely designed to harm Christians, not heal them.
The Bible itself forbids conversion therapy: It forbids the practice of falsely blaming parents for one’s problems, it forbids pseudoscience, and it forbids the shaming of Christians (especially youths) by Sadducees.
The Bible also forbids tempting the Lord thy God. You can’t force or beg God to “cure” people that God chooses not to cure.
Thank yo Advent Messenger! Don’t know much about what conversion therapy entails, but no matter it should be left up to the individual; the Canadian government should not usurp the individual’s right to make his own decision in the matter, just as governments should not have usurped the individual’s right to invoke sovereignty over his own body and make his own medical decisions. I appreciate this website very much as it keeps us informed on rapidly fulfilling Bible prophecy.
Did you consider the broad the meaning of Conversion Therapy as defined in hte act?
conversion therapy, as defined by the new law, is a practice, treatment, or service that is intended to:
(a) change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual;
(b) change a person’s gender identity to cisgender;
(c) change a person’s gender expression so that it conforms to the sex assigned to the person at birth;
(d) repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour;
(e) repress a person’s non-cisgender gender identity;
(f) repress or reduce a person’s gender expression that does not conform to the sex assigned to the person at birth. (Section 320.101)
Do you really believe the above activities are harmful?
Do you really believe it is harmful for one to pray for and with someone for God to help the one to accept the God given sex which God assigned at birth?
Did you consider the broad the meaning of Conversion Therapy as defined in the act?
e.g (c) change a person’s gender expression so that it conforms to the sex assigned to the person at birth;
Do you really believe the above activities are harmful?
Do you really believe it is harmful for one to pray for and with someone for God to help the one to accept the God given sex which God assigned at birth?
Good Luck with a Church that is a Harlot. Church Leaders who will Never Show the People their Sins will Never Stand for Right Against Human Government and Leave Consequences with God. It is Right for Advent Messenger to Protest these Abominations. However It will Never Change a Church that is a Harlot and Whose Husband is Satan. True Reformation and Revival Cannot come from a Harlot Church that Embraces and Excuses the Homosexual Lifestyle in its Members. It will Condone and Excuse such a Gross Violation of the Law of God in the World Also. Folk the G.C SDA Church’s Leprosy of Apostasy is From the Head to the Toes [ Isaiah 1 ] and God has Decreed it Incurable. He Divorced the Church in 1960 After it Rejected the Entreaties of M.L Andreasen Gods Last Messenger to It. It cannot be Otherwise with a Just and Holy God, and a Church that once Knew the Truth and has Become a Harlot.
ML Andreasen was and is not God’s last messenger. His perfectionism was contrary to Righteousness by faith. The perfectionism of the 1960’s was very damaging to the church because It was more of a horizontal spirituality and not a vertical one. We are not the focus, Jesus is.
Where are the True Messengers to a Harlot Church since 1960? From Learning Church History all I have Seen Since Andreasen is False Prophets. You Falsely Accuse Andreasen of Perfectionism. Is is not Possible that the Jesuit Leaders, Leroy Froom and Roy Allan Andersen twisted what he what was Actually Teaching and taught a Lie that that We could Achieve Sinless Perfectionism by our Own Power? That was Damaging to Adventists, because my Parents embraced the Froom – Andersen Doctrine of Sinless Perfection by Self Effort in the 60’s. It made them Tyrants because the Advent Faith became a Legal Code of do’s and don’t s and they are in Bondage to it to this Day!! Also would a false Prophet [ which is What you Accuse Andreasen of Being ] write a Book called THE SANCTUARY SERVICE? Who is the Misguided Fool, Andreasen or Yourself?
KJV Matthew 16:12
Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
KJV 1 Timothy 1:9-10
9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
Bills like this are a one way street, always in the direction of alphabet people (LGBTQI++). But consider how this bill affects the growing number of people with transgender regret. Laws like this actually prohibit professionals from helping them come back to the truth of their own God-given biology. These very people who want help to de-transition back to their former selves are prohibited from doing so by the LGBTQ lobby. Look at this aspect of the this terrible bill:
“Bill C-4, Section 320.202, conversion therapy, as defined by the new law, is a practice, treatment, or service that is intended to: (c) change a person’s gender expression so that it conforms to the sex assigned to the person at birth;”
So why not allow people to seek the help they want? Could it be that the LGBTQ lobbyists are actually the real bullies, afraid that more people might come out of their camp? Apparently this is the case.
Will such bills ultimately prohibit laypeople and friends of those trapped in this form of bondage from even giving words of affirmation of the truth to those who need it? This one way road is outright censorship of free speech, and ultimately freedom of thought.
The good news is that Christ is reigning, and “His will” will be done, regardless of such evil laws. Evil men and evil laws have existed since the fall, but God’s Kingdom pushes forward in a give and take fashion, slowly churning the kingdoms of this world into the kingdoms under His feet.
Hebrews 10:12-14 “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
1Cor 15:25-28 “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.