Ganoune Diop Showered Praise on Bert Beverly Beach during a Special Tribute

On December 22, 2022, Ganoune Diop, the current Director of the Public Affairs Department and Religious Liberty at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, published a tribute to his predecessor, Bert Beverly Beach. In his tribute, Ganoune Diop called Dr. Bert Beach “a gift to the world of faith and beyond.” Diop expressed that Dr. Bert Beach brought “legitimacy and credibility” to Adventism in the eyes of the other “Christian denominations.” He called Beach a “towering figure” for “significantly” shaping the “reputation” of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. [1]

Ganoune Diop said that Dr. Beach came to us through “divine providence” and that he possessed “exceptional capacity” and the “ability to discern the real issues underlying the course of events in human history.” According to Diop, Beach was a “pioneer” who displayed “exemplary tenacity, refusing to be molded by popular opinion.” Diop concluded by saying that both “the political and religious worlds owe him (Beach) a debt” and that we are all “grateful to God for giving us a gift in the person of Bert Beach.” [1]

At times it seemed that Ganoune Diop was paying tribute to himself, because he stated that he would “continue” in the same work that Dr. Beach “so brilliantly promoted.” [1] Diop has undoubtedly surpassed Bert Beverly Beach in the work of ecumenism and in bringing us to Rome. Below, we will publish Diop’s entire tribute to Dr. Beach, along with our commentary.

Ganoune Diop: A Tribute to Dr. Bert B. Beach – God chose Dr. Bert Beach to build the SDA Church foundation of interchurch and interfaith relations, God being the architect of such construction. The distinct contributions of Dr. Beach are threefold. First, to have positioned the church to a standing legitimacy and credibility before leaders of other Christian denominations.

Comment: To begin with, our credibility and legitimacy are not derived from the world, nor do they depend on whether or not the world approves of us. This is the mindset of those who value man’s approval before God’s (John 12:43), and who believe that in order for us to be legitimate, the world must sanction what we do. Our credibility and legitimacy will only come when we begin to carry out the mission that God has given us:

“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.” 5 T p. 83.

We seek to honor God. We don’t need the President of the United States or the Pope of Rome to say, “What a great job Seventh-day Adventists are doing,” because, unfortunately, they themselves don’t know what God expects of them. God’s word alone gives us the assurance that if we obey His word, we will be acknowledged by Him:

“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31, 32.

“If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.” John 14:15-17.

Ganoune Diop: Second, to have articulated terms of reference by which seventh-day Adventists can meaningfully relate to other Christians, and partner with them to make a difference in making the world a better place for millions while ultimately keeping alive the blessed hope of the restoration of all things at Jesus’ Second coming.

Comment: We are not called to relate to or partner with others; we are called to preach the final warning message to the entire world. We don’t need anyone to reinterpret the mission on how to get people ready for Jesus’ second coming. God has already told us:

“Christ is coming the second time, with power unto salvation. To prepare human beings for this event, He has sent the first, second, and third angel’s message. These angels represent those who receive the truth, and with power open the gospel to the world” (Letter 79, 1900).

Ganoune Diop: Last, to have modeled how to genuinely mingle with other Christians in a personable way, and develop friendship and mutual respect without losing or compromising the SDA church identity, mission, and message.

Comment: “The professed Protestant world will form a confederacy with the man of sin, and the church and the world will be in corrupt harmony.” Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, p. 975.

These are the words of God. This corrupt harmony is not in the future; it is now. Ganoune Diop doesn’t oppose this. He doesn’t speak out against this “corrupt harmony.” He doesn’t warn anyone about the union between the Protestant world and the man of sin; instead, he is a part of this confederacy that is evident in the modern ecumenical movement. [2]

True Seventh-day Adventists will fearlessly and compassionately proclaim our distinctive message to this doomed world. Revelation 14:8 and 18:4 are God’s answer to the fallen churches. That is the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist people. It is a call to sever their relationships and come out of those fallen religious assemblies. God is not in them. This divine imperative is to be given today. It is to be heeded now. Diop doesn’t have a clue about our mission or our message.

Mingling or talking with people has never been a problem. Diop is trying to confuse all of Adventism with this issue. However, mingling is not what’s happening. Participating with Rome in Sunday Eucharistic worship services, getting trained in Roman Catholic institutions, and singing Catholic Mass songs in Latin is not mingling. This is worship and interfaith bridge-building. Israel didn’t apostatize because they were simply mingling with other people or having conversations with them. They sinned when they started engaging in pagan inter-faith worship services and festivities with the other nations:

“It was by associating with idolaters and joining in their festivities that the Hebrews were led to transgress God’s law and bring His judgments upon the nation” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 458).

Ganoune Diop: As a result of Dr. Beach’s specific contributions, the church is indebted to him, especially for his perseverance in building networks of cordial and meaningful relationships with people who now trust SDA and are exposed to what distinguishes us as an authentic restorationist movement, heir of the Protestant Reformation branch of Christianity.

Comment: Heirs of the Protestant Reformation? This is an incredible statement. It’s an insult to the true Protestant reformers. Diop, like many church leaders today, has no idea what a Protestant is. What exactly does the term “Protestant” mean? It means to declare publicly, to testify, to protest, and to oppose. Ganoune Diop doesn’t oppose anything. He doesn’t protest apostasy, heresy, or the errors of the ecumenical movement. So, what exactly is he talking about?

The Vatican has never abandoned any of its centuries-old teachings that Martin Luther and the other Reformers protested against. In all of Diop’s meetings with the Pope, the cardinals, the bishops, the priests, and the Jesuits, when has he protested the dogma of papal infallibility? Mary-idolatry? The Eucharist Mass? Sunday sacredness? The Healing of the deadly wound? What about Laudato Si’, which calls for the establishment of a global political order? What about Fratelli Tutti, which is creating a one-world church? All this is at the foundation of the modern ecumenical movement, and how can you claim to be a Protestant and not say anything to anyone about these gross distortions of biblical truth?

Today, there aren’t many true Protestants. We have a large number of apostate Protestants. That is the phrase Diop should have included in his tribute. He should have said that we have become “heirs of apostate Protestantism,” because Diop’s only protest is to attack Seventh-day Adventists who are not ecumenical and who question what he is doing. In our church’s publications, he attacks non-ecumenical Adventists. [3] He refers to them as “inquisitors, promoters of hate speech, and the wrath of the dragon.” Are you paying attention to who Diop refers to as inquisitors and the dragon? Not Rome, but faithful Seventh-day Adventists.

Ganoune Diop, if he had been a true Protestant, would have gone to the Vatican and said, “”I protest, I protest,” and he’d have been thrown out with the words, “Anathema! Get this heretic out of here!” That is exactly what Luther and the other reformers experienced. Sadly, Protestantism has changed today.

Ganoune Diop: We express our deep gratitude to such a towering figure for having significantly shaped the reputation of the Seventh-Day Adventist church and its championing of religious freedom for all.

Comment: “The banner of truth and religious liberty held aloft by the founders of the gospel church and by God’s witnesses during the centuries that have passed since then, has, in this last conflict, been committed to our hands” (Acts of the Apostles, pp. 68, 69).

We have been given two banners: the banner of truth, which bears the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and the banner of religious liberty, which will allow us to share the truth of Revelation 14:6-12 with the rest of the world. These two banners cannot and must not be separated because they are one and the same work. And when we raise both banners, we will never be accused of “patronizing popery,” but rather of denouncing that system as a threat to religious liberty:

“Protestants have tampered with and patronized popery; they have made compromises and concessions which papists themselves are surprised to see, and fail to understand. Men are closing their eyes to the real character of Romanism, and the dangers to be apprehended from her supremacy. The people need to be aroused to resist the advances of this most dangerous foe to civil and religious liberty.” GC 566

That is what God says, but today there are so-called theologians who believe they know more than the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name. Today, we have religious liberty directors who can’t see a threat to religious liberty when it’s right in front of them, staring them in the face:

“The Scriptures teach that popery is to regain its lost supremacy, and that the fires of persecution will be rekindled through the time-serving concessions of the so-called Protestant world. In this time of peril we can stand only as we have the truth and the power of God. Men can know the truth only by being themselves partakers of the divine nature. We have need now for more than human wisdom in reading and searching the Scriptures; and if we come to God’s Word with humble hearts, He will raise up a standard for us against the lawless element.” 2SM 367.

Today, we are told that Rome has changed. God says it hasn’t. God says that Rome has only changed its face, not its system:

“The Roman Church now presents a fair front to the world, covering with apologies her record of horrible cruelties. She has clothed herself in Christlike garments; but she is unchanged. Every principle of the papacy that existed in past ages exists today. The doctrines devised in the darkest ages are still held. Let none deceive themselves. The papacy that Protestants are now so ready to honor is the same that ruled the world in the days of the Reformation, when men of God stood up, at the peril of their lives, to expose her iniquity. She possesses the same pride and arrogant assumption that lorded it over kings and princes, and claimed the prerogatives of God. Her spirit is no less cruel and despotic now than when she crushed out human liberty and slew the saints of the Most High. GC 571.

Ganoune Diop: A Gift to the World of Faith and Beyond – From time to time, under the effect of divine providence, men, and women demonstrate an exceptional capacity and ability to discern the real issues underlying the course of events in human history in general and in the people of Christ in particular. They display exemplary tenacity, refusing to be molded by popular opinion. Bert Beach was undoubtedly of this caliber.

Comment: Discern the real issues underlying the course of events in human history? Again, this is a major contradiction. The truth is that we have religious liberty leaders who are in the dark when it comes to real issues of persecution and tyranny:

“But Romanism as a system is no more in harmony with the gospel of Christ now than at any former period in her history. The Protestant churches are in great darkness, or they would discern the signs of the times. The Roman Church is far-reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her power in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world, to re-establish persecution, and to undo all that Protestantism has done.” GC 565.

Ganoune Diop: A Seventh-day Adventist who, without a complex of inferiority or superiority, displayed his loyalty to the restoration movement the Seventh-Day Adventist Church claims to be and this in line with the Reformation. Yet despite his strong sense of belonging to a restoration movement, and out of fidelity to the character of Christ and the mandate of the church inscribed in its constitution, Bert Beach remained open to genuine relationships not only with governments and politicians but also with brothers and sisters of other denominations who together form the body of Christ.

Comment: Diop says that Dr. Beach was loyal to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which is in line with the Reformation, while maintaining “genuine relationships” with political powers and other denominations. There is a “genuine relationship” between church and state that is being fostered today. In fact, God’s word tells us that the political world and the religious world are coming together for another holy crusade. Today we see a wholehearted cooperation between the church and government to address immigration, climate change, poverty, the LGBT+ agenda, oppressive health mandates, the Great Reset, the global digital economy, Sunday sacredness, and a whole list of other “common” points of interest. Who is leading these efforts? The two beasts of Revelation 13—President Joe Biden, head of the political powers, and Pope Francis, head of the religious powers—are coming together, and their common goals align perfectly.

Unfortunately, our religious liberty leaders are not warning us today that the world will once again tremble before the first beast of Revelation 13. The bold claims made during the Middle Ages are still with us, and once the new Washington-Vatican axis is established, the Roman hierarchy will make the United States the Vatican’s sword that will wage war against the faithful, commandment-keeping church.

Ganoune Diop: Bert did not allow himself to be intimidated by the incomprehension of those who think they have the exclusivity of the election and divine favors, nor by those who militate for a naive inclusivism open to all compromises and syncretism, relativizing the demands and responsibilities of covenant partners with the biblical God.

Comment: What a poor attack on non-ecumenical Seventh-day Adventists! What Diop fails to recognize is that Protestants, who once condemned Rome’s false dogmas and heresies that contradicted the Holy Scriptures, have compromised and betrayed the Protestant Reformation. Today, Protestants, including ecumenical Seventh-day Adventists, pay homage to the Catholic creed of climate change, ecumenism, wealth redistribution, the common good, and other social justice issues while completely ignoring Rome’s doctrine of communication with the dead, the mass, Mary worship, Sunday sacredness, God’s law change, papal infallibility, and other pre-Vatican II traditions.

Today, the ecumenical message of forgetting the past and seeking common ground has forged an unlikely alliance between Protestants and Catholics. Rome is now an ally on our side. The Vatican’s hierarchy and the Silver Spring hierarchy have become great buddies. Pope Francis is widely regarded as the new spiritual leader who works closely with the most powerful political and religious leaders. Ganoune Diop is working to hasten the healing of the deadly wound instead of warning people about this significant prophetic event.

Ganoune Diop: Bert knew how to navigate between the extremes without getting lost in the meanders of the confusion of naive ecumenism while working for the unity that Christ advocated. The antidote that preserved him from possible abuses was undoubtedly the religious freedom of which he was the pioneer and the architect in the Adventist world and elsewhere.

Comment: For many years, Seventh-day Adventist leaders unanimously proclaimed boldly the events being developed in our world in relation to the prophecies of Revelation 13 and 17. This, according to Bible prophecy, is leading to totalitarianism and persecution. Now that these predictions are being fulfilled and are correctly being applied to the Papacy and the United States, Rome’s ecumenical movement tells us to forget about these things. The unity of the churches is no longer the healing of the deadly wound; it’s the “unity that Christ advocated,” Diop tells us this very thing!

We cannot attribute the Vatican’s struggle to unite the world, and America’s leadership role in assisting her, to Christ’s work to unite His church. We used to have a clear vision, position, and duty in Adventism. That was the work of defending religious liberty by warning people against the papacy’s aspirations to rule the world in both temporal and spiritual matters. The book The Great Controversy conveys this message.

“Popery is just what prophecy declared that she would be, the apostasy of the latter times. It is a part of her policy to assume the character which will best accomplish her purpose; but beneath the variable appearance of the chameleon, she conceals the invariable venom of the serpent. “We are not bound to keep faith and promises to heretics,” she declares. Shall this power, whose record for a thousand years is written in the blood of the saints, be now acknowledged as a part of the church of Christ?” GC 571.

Tragically, the passive, soft-pedaling, ecumenical attitude that we see today is taking us straight into the bosom of the beast, the papacy. Startling developments are taking place in our world today, and those who continue down the Rome-ward path of ecumenism will end up in a place called Armageddon, where the whole political and religious world will be gathered for the “battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:14).

Ganoune Diop: The political and religious worlds owe him a debt. We are all grateful to God for giving us a gift in the person of Bert Beach. For my part, by the grace of God, I will continue to bring bricks and lay them to the edifice of religious freedom that Bert so carefully erected and so brilliantly promoted. God be praised for what he has done through our brother Bert Beach in his success in bringing credibility and confidence to those Christians who are called Seventh-day Adventists. – Ganoune Diop, Ph.D., Director of the Public Affairs Department and Religious Liberty, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Churches.

Comment: Diop says that he will continue the work started by his predecessor, Bert Beverly Beach. No! We need religious liberty leaders who will follow in the footsteps of those who exposed the wine of Babylon and the fornication and entanglements of Rome with religious and political leaders as described in God’s word:

“The sins of Babylon will be laid open. The fearful results of enforcing the observances of the church by civil authority, the inroads of Spiritualism, the stealthy but rapid progress of the papal power,—all will be unmasked. By these solemn warnings the people will be stirred. Thousands upon thousands will listen who have never heard words like these. In amazement they hear the testimony that Babylon is the church, fallen because of her errors and sins, because of her rejection of the truth sent to her from Heaven” (Great Controversy, p. 606).

Our people must awaken. Storm clouds are rising. Under increasing pressure from certain religious leaders, the world is coming together. Thousands of voices are calling for solidarity and unity across denominational lines, while only a few are voicing opposition. We are getting closer to the end. We are supposed to point to the fulfillment of Bible prophecy as proof that Jesus’ return is imminent. All of the prophecies point to one great and glorious truth: Matthew 24, Luke 21, 2 Thessalonians 2, and Revelation 12-18. All of these prophecies will come to fruition in our time. The healing of the deadly wound between Protestants and Catholics, the call for the return of the Sunday law, the one-world political system, the digital economy—only a few years ago, all this seemed impossible. These developments show that we are in the final countdown of earth’s history.

The only thing needed is for the heaven-approved messages (Revelation 14:6–12) to be proclaimed to all the world. God wants this warning to go out so that people can have a chance to hear His final invitation to the world. May God help us do our best as we get closer to the close of human probation.

Sources

[1] https://www.adventistliberty.org/a-tribute-to-bert-b.-beach

[2] http://adventmessenger.org/ganoune-diop-is-a-member-of-the-programme-guidelines-committee-for-the-largest-ecumenical-event-in-the-world-which-advocates-for-one-holy-catholic-and-apostolic-church-sunday/

[3] http://adventmessenger.org/ganoune-diop-calls-his-critics-inquisitors-promoters-of-hate-speech-and-the-wrath-of-the-dragon/