“What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” Deuteronomy 12:32.
In an effort to be inclusive, Seventh-day Adventists are becoming ever more reliant on the worldly standard for gender identity. We are fast becoming a religious community that actively recognizes all gender expressions, particularly those who identify as transgender, non-binary, non-conforming, and gender queer. One by one, institutions, churches, and church leaders are rejecting biblical truth and embracing dangerous heresies and worldly propaganda. The notion that we can somehow embrace the Bible and at the same time affirm the ever-growing list of gender identities is a fatal delusion that is dragging many down.
Sanitarium is a health food company owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which has operations in Australia and New Zealand. [1] [2] Part of its mission is to promote healthy lifestyle choices. Sanitarium has been hosting sporting events for children in both nations. [3] [4] The events are advertised on Race Roster, a company that provides event management services and online registration. For parents wishing to sign up their children for the various sporting venues, Race Roster claims that all their events come with a standard registration form that only offers two sex options, male and female. However, the event’s organizers, who are also its sponsors, are free to include more gender options. Race Roster explains their gender designation policy as follows:
“The Race Roster platform offers the ability for event organizers to ask their participants to provide their personal information regarding sex and gender in a variety of ways. By default, Race Roster will display the options for sex (male, female), but can also be toggled to display alternative options for gender identity as well (man, woman; non-binary, gender fluid, gender non-conforming, or gender queer; or ‘prefer not to disclose’).” [5]
So when you look at the registration interface options for the Adventist-sponsored athletic competition event for kids, ages 6–15, our church institutions are giving people the option to register their children with alternative gender identities as parents click on the “Enter Now/Create a School Group” button. [6] Our Adventist people are choosing to do this. They are not being forced to provide alternative gender options by Race Roster. In fact, Race Roster’s default setting only gives male and female choices. In other words, Seventh-day Adventists are the ones who are promoting the false gender ideology agenda among children.
It is God’s worldview of truth upon which His church is established. It is God who defines what sin and disobedience are. What good is having an Adventist institution if it cannot express the biblical position on sex? We become just like any other secular institution, pushing the same godless agenda. Once we take this path, our adherence to Christian morality and the biblical witness become meaningless.
Seventh-day Adventists are welcoming, and we want to welcome all people. We want to welcome them into heaven. We want to welcome them to become part of the body of Christ and part of the “commandment-keeping” church. (Revelation 12:17; Revelation 14:12; Revelation 22:14.) But we will never welcome people into hell with a false, inclusive gospel that is so fixated on ignoring the moral teachings found in God’s word.
As a church, we cannot affirm or endorse sin. That is not love. True love will call others away from the path of sin. The early church spoke “truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). Tragically, this is not happening. Worse yet, we justify, affirm, and encourage the LGBT+ lifestyle. Sexual immorality, in any of its manifestations—premarital, extramarital sex, same-sex relationships, or even self-abuse—is not to be tolerated in the churches. Like Jesus, we are to work to restore and redeem broken lives (John 4:15-23; John 8:10, 11). Sexual immorality is not to be promoted, endorsed, excused, celebrated, or affirmed.
We believe in the value and human dignity of all people, but we also believe in the equally important biblical truth of the redemption of the soul for all people. Yes, God loves all people. God also loves thieves, murderers, hypocrites, backstabbers, cheaters, fornicators, adulterers, drunkards, and liars because they are all humans too. But the scriptures also teach us that if we continue living in any kind of sinful lifestyle, we will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9–11). At what point do we actually begin to teach people what God says about all these things?
It’s one thing to stand in solidarity with sinners and another to stand in solidarity with their sin by providing a platform to promote a sinful lifestyle at an official church-sponsored event. We are to love the sinner, but why are we promoting a godless ideology in what is supposed to be a biblically-based Adventist institution? There is no justification for encouraging the pro-LGBT+ agenda and values in young kids.
This is how an entire generation becomes lost. We are watching the demise of our own people right before our very eyes. We are seeing the enemy gain a strong foothold in the church while a clueless, helpless administration does nothing to stop this. It is painful to have to see what is taking place today, and nothing is more cruel than to speak lies to sinners and withhold from them the life-changing power of the gospel.
“The church cannot measure herself by the world nor by the opinion of men nor by what she once was. Her faith and her position in the world as they now are must be compared with what they would have been if her course had been continually onward and upward. The church will be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary. If her moral character and spiritual state do not correspond with the benefits and blessings God has conferred upon her, she will be found wanting” (Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 83).
Sources
[1] https://www.sanitarium.com/au/about/sanitarium-story/profits-for-purpose
[2] https://www.sanitarium.com/amp/nz/about/sanitarium-story/profits-for-purpose
[6] https://raceroster.com/events/2024/79107/nelson-sanitarium-weet-bix-kids-tryathlon
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Has the story of Sodom and Gomorrah lost its meaning to our people?
Excellent & concise point.
Sodom & Gomorrah, Pompeii & Herculaneum… they didn’t know what hit them, just living their debauched lives until God had had enough. It’s coming soon again & the very ones who should be doing the warning will be caught up in the destruction. They didn’t preach the Health Message during “Covid” but wore masks & recommended/took the jabs, closed churches; they miserably failed that test & are being given over to their desire to be like the world. They learned nothing during the past 3 years.
KJV Isaiah 28:15, 17-18
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
KJV Proverbs 1:20-33
20 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
KJV 1 Samuel 2:30
30 Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities, and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure. – 1SM 204.2
A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities, and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath, of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure. – SpTB02 54.3
Who has authority to begin such a movement? We have our Bibles. We have our experience, attested to by the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit. We have a truth that admits of no compromise. Shall we not repudiate everything that is not in harmony with this truth? SpTB02 55.1
I hesitated and delayed about the sending out of that which the Spirit of the Lord impelled me to write. I did not want to be compelled to present the misleading influence of these sophistries. But in the providence of God, the errors that have been coming in must be met. SpTB02 55.2
Shortly before I sent out the testimonies regarding the efforts of the enemy to undermine the foundation of our faith through the dissemination of seductive theories, I had read an incident about a ship in a fog meeting an iceberg. For several nights I slept but little. I seemed to be bowed down as a cart beneath sheaves. One night a scene was clearly presented before me. A vessel was upon the waters, in a heavy fog. Suddenly the lookout cried, “Iceberg just ahead!” There, towering high above the ship, was a gigantic iceberg. An authoritative voice cried out, “Meet it!” There was not a moment’s hesitation. It was a time for instant action. The engineer put on full steam, and the man at the wheel steered the ship straight into the iceberg. With a crash she struck the ice. There was a fearful shock, and the iceberg broke into many pieces, falling with a noise like thunder to the deck. The passengers were violently shaken by the force of the collision, but no lives were lost. The vessel was injured, but not beyond repair. She rebounded from the contact, trembling from stem to stern, like a living creature. Then she moved forward on her way. SpTB02 55.3
Well I knew the meaning of this representation. I had my orders. I had heard the words, like a voice from our Captain, “Meet it!” I knew what my duty was, and that there was not a moment to lose. The time for decided action had come. I must without delay obey the command, “Meet it!” SpTB02 56.1
A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath, of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure. SpTB07 39.3
Who has authority to begin such a movement? We have our Bibles. We have our experience, attested to by the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit. We have a truth that admits of no compromise. Shall we not repudiate everything that is not in harmony with this truth? SpTB07 40.1
A mind trained only in worldly science fails to discern the deep things of God, but the same mind, converted and sanctified, would see the divine power in the word. Only the mind that is cleansed by the sanctification of the Spirit can discern heavenly things. SpTB07 40.2
The Scriptures, given by inspiration of God, are “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” Let us go to the Word of God for guidance. Let us seek for a “Thus saith the Lord.” We have had enough of human methods. Brethren, awake to your God-given responsibilities. Your judgment, unless perverted by a long practise of false principles, will discern the deep things of God, given by the Holy Spirit, and your hearts will be made susceptible to the teaching of the word. SpTB07 40.3
May God bring His people under the deep movings of His Spirit. The Spirit makes efficient the ordinary means of grace. God teaches that His kingdom is to be established in the earth, “Not by might, nor by power,” but by His Spirit. The Spirit is the efficiency of His people. SpTB07 41.1
I am instructed to say that those who would tear down the foundation that God has laid are not to be accepted as the teachers and leaders of His people. We are to hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Words of power have been sent by God and by Christ to this people, bringing them out from the world, point by point, into the clear light of present truth. With lips touched with holy fire, God’s servants have proclaimed the message. The divine utterance has set its seal to the genuineness of the truth proclaimed. SpTB07 41.2
Never should we expose either the general public or our kids to the radical LGBTQI agenda. We are demonstrating to the world that we support gender identities not sanctioned in the Holy Scriptures. Definitely very sad.