The President of the General Conference, Ted Wilson, posted a message today asking for “urgent prayers” for St. Helena Hospital, Pacific Union College and Elmshaven, Ellen White’s home from 1900 until her death in 1915. Apparently, these church-owned entities are in danger due to the “Glass Fire” that is spreading quickly in Napa County, CA.
Friends, prayers are urgently needed after a fire named Glass Fire broke out in the early morning in St. Helena, California and is headed toward Elmshaven, Ellen White’s last home. Pacific Union College and the St. Helena Hospital area are being evacuated. Photo: Caroline Garcia pic.twitter.com/bwwU3VPsgZ
— Ted Wilson (@pastortedwilson) September 27, 2020
Napa County, CA is the heart of California’s wine country and contains over 400 wineries. What President Ted Wilson forgot to mention is that there is a more urgent need to pray for the “strange fire” that has already decimated our Seventh-day Adventist faith and witness in St. Helena, CA. There is a more urgent crisis in California that is far greater than the wildfires. Seventh-day Adventists in California are profiting from the sales of intoxicating drinks. They are receiving millions of dollars from the alcohol industry, the same industry that is currently up in flames.
Adventist Health St. Helena Hospital Annual Gala Event – Dr. Steven Herber, President & CEO of Adventist Health St. Helena Hospital & Board Member of St. Helena Hospital Foundation (center) is standing “TOGETHER” with the wine-makers. See the bottles of wine in the right hand corner.
Adventists in St. Helena, California have also partnered with the alcohol industry. Its leaders and have been sponsoring drinking parties in the wine fields. This is not a joke or fake news. This is not a parody or an exaggeration. In this report, you will see how official, church-owned and church-operated entities have been selling tickets to events where you have to be at least 21-years old in order to get in (no kids allowed), and you must bring identification because alcohol will be served.
Adventist Health St. Helena Hospital [1] and St. Helena Hospital Foundation [2], the hospital’s fundraising arm, are housed in the same location at 10 Woodland Rd, St Helena, CA 94574. They are basically the same. The members of the foundation’s board are also the directors of the hospital. Most of the fundraising for the hospital is done through the St. Helena Hospital Foundation. They have been receiving millions of dollars from Napa Valley Vintners (NVV), a wine trade association. [3] [4] Sometimes local wineries donate directly to the hospital (Adventist Health St. Helena) without going through the foundation. [5]
The Adventist Health St. Helena Hospital Annual Gala Event is sponsored by Seventh-day Adventists. All proceeds from the wine auctions go to benefit our institutions.
Wine in America is a $200 billion business. [6] The wineries are giving millions to charity, and Adventist Health St. Helena Hospital is right in the middle of all the wineries. Any charity or church that is receiving millions of dollars from alcohol dealers does not need our money. God calls the funds that come from the alcohol industry “blood money.” He will not sanction their dirty money, and any effort to take blood money for the use of His work is mixing the profane with the sacred, the unholy with the holy. This is not how God will finance His work.
“The liquor interest is a power in the world. It has on its side the combined strength of money, habit, appetite. Its power is felt even in the church. Men whose money has been made, directly or indirectly, in the liquor traffic … many of them give liberally to popular charities. Their contributions help to support the enterprises of the church and to sustain its ministers. They command the consideration shown to the money power. Churches that accept such members are virtually sustaining the liquor traffic.” (Ministry of Healing, p. 340).
“But above the tribunal of the church is the tribunal of God. He who declared to the first murderer, ‘The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground’ (Genesis 4:10), will not accept for His altar the gifts of the liquor dealer. His anger is kindled against those who attempt to cover their guilt with a cloak of liberality. Their money is stained with blood. A curse is upon it” (Ministry of Healing, p. 340).
Honoring the alcohol makers? David Duncan is the President and CEO at Silver Oak Cellars, a winery in St. Helena, CA. He is being honored at the Seventh-day Adventist event. [7] He is pictured with his family.
“The liquor seller may be termed by the world a good businessman; but the Lord says, ‘Woe unto him.’ He will be charged with the hopelessness, the misery, the suffering, brought into the world by the liquor traffic. He will have to answer for the want and woe of the mothers and children who have suffered for food and clothing and shelter, and who have buried all hope and joy. He will have to answer for the souls he has sent unprepared into eternity. And those who sustain the liquor seller in his work are sharers in his guilt. To them God says, ‘Your hands are full of blood.’ ” (Ministry of Healing, pp. 341, 342).
In the same book, on page 341, Ellen White quotes the following Bible verses and applies them to the alcohol industry as a warning to Christians not to defile themselves:
“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith the Lord … When ye come to appear before Me, Who hath required this at your hand, to tread My courts? Bring no more vain oblation … When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you: Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: Your hands are full of blood.” Isaiah 1:11-15.
Wine-drinking at the Annual St. Helena Hospital Foundation’s Wine Auction
But the situation is much worse. It’s bad enough taking blood money to do God’s work. Seventh-day Adventists in St. Helena, CA are also promoting alcohol in their community. Each year Adventist Health St. Helena, the organization that President Ted Wilson calls us to pray for, hosts an annual fundraising gala through live wine auction sales. Bottles of fine and expensive wine are sold to the highest bidder and all sales are donated to Adventist Health St. Helena. [8]
“Why do they not advocate reform by planting their feet firmly on principle, determined not to take alcoholic drink or use tobacco? They are poisons, and their use is a violation of God’s law” (Gospel Health, March 1, 1898 par. 5).
Seventh-day Adventists in St. Helena are holding alcohol auctions for money. We are glamorizing and romanticizing alcohol with formal dinners, fancy clothes, fancy bottles and expensive wine auctions. [8] What is the message we are projecting? Wine is fun. Why don’t we take homeless alcoholics and winoes from off the streets and bring them to these fancy auctions as a warning to everyone?
Wine-Drinking at the Annual Neighborhood Table Event
In addition to these glamorous auctions, Seventh-day Adventists in St. Helena, CA are also sponsoring drinking parties in the streets for over 500 people. The St. Helena Hospital Foundation is a co-sponsor of the Annual Neighborhood Table Event. This is an event that takes place in the wine fields. According to the local newspaper, Napa Valley Register, the Neighborhood Table Event is described as follows:
“Hosted by a joint effort between the St. Helena Hospital Foundation, St. Helena Chamber of Commerce and Nimbus Arts, this dinner was wholly focused on enjoying a lovely evening, listening to live music and having dinner and a glass or two of wine with friends and family. Proceeds, if any, from the modest $75-per-ticket sales and sponsorships will benefit the St. Helena Hospital Foundation.” [9]
Dr. Steven Herber, president of Adventist Health St. Helena Hospital and also a St. Helena Hospital Foundation board member, spoke at the Annual Neighborhood Table Event:
“Addressing the gathering as they sat for dinner, Steven Herber, M.D., president of Adventist Health St. Helena and also a St. Helena Hospital Foundation board member, reminded people to have fun and also the benefits of having a strong community. ‘We know that communing together can have seriously positive health outcomes,’ he said. ‘A strong community is a healthy community.’ Herber then thanked the organizers, the guests and the many sponsors and pointed to recent studies that show distinct health benefits achieved through social interactions. [9]
Church leaders not only fail to warn people of these dangers, they encourage them to have fun and drink.
“Alcohol or tobacco in any form must not be recommended, lest some soul be led to imbibe a taste for these evil things. There will be no excuse for the liquor-dealers in that day when every man shall receive according to his works. Those who have destroyed life will by their own life have to pay the penalty. God’s law is holy and just and good” (Loma Linda Messages, p. 317).
https://www.facebook.com/sthelenahospitalfoundation/posts/2746489995393036
In the above post from the St. Helena Hospital Foundation, a table with 500 people can be seen on the streets next to a wine field. Drinking wine was the main event, along with music, dancing and food.
https://www.facebook.com/sthelenahospitalfoundation/photos/gm.415266912598046/2714062601969109/
In the above post, you will see St. Helena Hospital Foundation, a Seventh-day Adventist Church organization, telling you to bring your own alcohol, or if not, you can purchase wine for $40 to $60 dollars a bottle. Unbelievable! What’s even more shameful is that Adventists have to remind people that no one under 21 is allowed. Why? Because alcohol will be flowing! This is a church-owned social media page reminding people that identification will be required to attend to prove that the attendees are over the drinking age limit.
https://www.facebook.com/sthelenahospitalfoundation/photos/a.986629644712422/2688121764563193/
What are parents with small children to do? How can they attend? Well, don’t worry? Our members in California have got you covered. They have made arrangements with a local organization to watch your kids while you attend the drinking party. They put a lot of planning and sophistication into this apostasy.
https://www.facebook.com/sthelenahospitalfoundation/posts/2597444496964254
Once again, Seventh-day Adventists in California are praising and promoting the leaders of the alcohol industry. We are giving them a voice and a platform. We are trying to sanitize the industry and legitimize something that God says He will not do. The man pictured above is the General Manager of Brasswood Cellars, a state-of-the-art winery located in St. Helena, CA. [10]
Prayer for St. Helena Hospital?
So as we pray for lives and property to be saved from the fires burning in St. Helena, CA, we must also pray for God’s people to rise up and speak His truth with power. May we say what God says about wine:
“Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.” Proverbs 23:31, 32.
“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” Proverbs 20:1.
Some will argue that these versus are talking about getting drunk and that social drinking is okay. But it’s good to remember that every homeless drunkard begging for money on the street with bloodshot eyes was also at one time a “social drinker.” Sin is deceptive, and those who claim they would never go that far need to acknowledge that people in jail, in the cemetery or in some insane asylum never intended to be where they are today. Notice what inspiration says about the popular argument that people use when they say: “A little wine cannot hurt me.”
“Many, as they read this, will laugh at the warning of danger. They will say: ‘Surely the little wine or cider that I use cannot hurt me.’ Satan has marked such as his prey; he leads them on step by step, and they perceive it not until the chains of habit and appetite are too strong to be broken. We see the power that appetite for strong drink has over men; we see how many of all professions and of heavy responsibilities, men of exalted station, of eminent talents, of great attainments, of fine feeling, of strong nerves, and of good reasoning powers, sacrifice everything for the indulgence of appetite, until they are reduced to the level of the brutes; and in very many cases their downward course commenced with the use of wine or cider” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 358).
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived .. nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10.
So if drunkards go to hell, can the person who sold him his drink go to heaven? If drunks go to hell, will the people who provided the tables and chairs and set up the drinking event go to heaven? If God allows Seventh-day Adventists to sponsor wine auctions for money (which is basically selling alcohol), if God allows us to promote alcohol, market alcohol, dignify alcohol, sanction alcohol and dress it in a garb of sanctity; if God allows us to go to heaven while drunkards go to hell, then on the day of judgment every lost drunk person will have enough sense to shout “Unfair!”
And it would be unfair to send them to hell and us to heaven. If we profit from the dirty business of alcohol or partner with them, we will meet their same fate, along with those we have helped enslave in the pits of drunkenness.
Prayer for Elmshaven
President Ted Wilson also calls us to pray for Elmshaven. This is the historic home where Ellen White lived from 1900 until her death in 1915. So once again, we must pray for the preservation of the home in which the prophet lived. But what about praying for the preservation of the faith? How about praying for obedience to what the prophet said? Are we also building monuments to dead prophets while ignoring their prohibitions and warnings? Will we sneer, scoff and laugh at her injunction against receiving money from the alcohol industry? Will we for the sake of receiving blood money become partners with the gang of murdering thieves in the alcohol industry? We already have.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” Matthew 23:29-33.
“Satan gathered the fallen angels together to devise some way of doing the most possible evil to the human family. One proposition after another was made, till finally Satan himself thought of a plan. He would take the fruit of the vine, also wheat, and other things given by God as food, and would convert them into poisons, which would ruin man’s physical, mental, and moral powers, and so overcome the senses that Satan should have full control. Under the influence of liquor, men would be led to commit crimes of all kinds. Through perverted appetite the world would be made corrupt. By leading men to drink alcohol, Satan would cause them to descend lower and lower in the scale.” (Review and Herald, April 16, 1901 par. 7).
Sources
[1] https://www.adventisthealth.org/st-helena/about-us/
[2] https://shhfoundation.org/about-us/our-history-and-mission/
[3] https://napavintners.com/press/press_release_detail.asp?ID_News=3621598
[4] https://www.hospitalcouncil.org/article/napa-valley-vintners-grants-250000-workforce-healthcare
[6] https://www.winespectator.com/articles/how-much-is-americas-wine-industry-worth
[8] http://www.napavalleylifemagazine.com/st-helena-hospital-foundation-benefit/
[10] https://brasswood.com/brasswood-wine
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