Pastor David Jimenez
If any Old Testament prophet or New Testament disciple visited our churches or institutions today, they would be immediately rejected. They would be shown the door. They would be decisively rejected. Most of our places of worship today would not accept them.
They would be told that they are too critical, too negative, too dogmatic, too narrow-minded, and too intolerant. Many of our churches would consider the teachings of prophets such as Jeremiah, Elijah, John the Baptist, Paul, or even Jesus himself to be too conflicting and difficult to accept.
The Scriptures record that all faithful preachers of righteousness were constantly despised, rejected, ridiculed, and mocked by God’s own people. Some even lost their lives for being obedient to God and delivering His message. The only prophets who were really well received and were invited to speak at all the camp meetings and pastoral retreats run by the church were the false prophets. God, in His love and mercy, has warned of a serious time and situation that now prevails within our church:
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
These days, one rarely hears messages from the pulpit urging people to renounce the popular sin of the day and turn to Christ in obedience. Pastors who faithfully preach God’s word and show His people their sins are banned from speaking so that all that is heard are so-called “loving and uplifting” messages instead of critical messages needed for salvation.
What we are witnessing today is a movement that is based on leaving people “as they are” and preaching false and smooth sayings. The most important question that must be asked on the day of judgment is: who will be regarded as truly loving and faithful? Those who overlooked sin or those who faithfully spoke truth, pointed out sin, and made calls to repentance?
The Spirit of Prophecy reminds us that what is happening in our denomination right now is similar to what happened at Mount Sinai when the children rejected Moses’ faithful leadership in favor of Aaron’s corrupt and compromised leadership.
“When Moses, on returning to the camp, confronted the rebels, his severe rebukes and the indignation he displayed in breaking the sacred tables of the law, were contrasted by the people with his brother’s pleasant speech and dignified demeanor, and their sympathies were with Aaron. To justify himself, Aaron endeavored to make the people responsible for his weakness in yielding to their demand; but notwithstanding this, they were filled with admiration of his gentleness and patience. But God seeth not as man sees. Aaron’s yielding spirit and his desire to please, had blinded his eyes to the enormity of the crime he was sanctioning. His course in giving his influence to sin in Israel, cost the lives of thousands. In what contrast with this was the course of Moses, who, while faithfully executing God’s judgments, showed that the welfare of Israel was dearer to him than prosperity or honor or life” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 323).
This is what we are witnessing today: leaders and pastors who are being greatly loved and supported because they tickle people’s ears with soft words. These men preach feel-good, men-pleasing sermons and are doing the work of the devil.
“There is nothing in the popular ministry that stirs the wrath of Satan, makes the sinner tremble, or applies to the heart and conscience the fearful realities of a judgment soon to come. Wicked men are generally pleased with a form of piety without true godliness, and they will aid and support such a religion” (Early Writings, p. 273).
Even if much of the Seventh-day Adventist Church denies many of the unpopular truths of Scripture, at least some are standing strong. Pastor Conrad Vine has been urging the church to do the opposite of what all the famous Adventist celebrity pastors and leaders are doing and saying. He has been preaching all the counsel of God (Acts 20:27), even if they are not comfortable with it. And despite the fact that the majority are unwilling to face reality and deal with the problems that directly affect us, Pastor Vine addresses them and urges us to remain faithful to the Scriptures and stay on the right path. But like all the other faithful men and women of Scripture, he too is being rejected and canceled by the church today.
Sometimes, God’s faithful ministers will have to take the lonely, rejected, unwelcome, and unpopular path. But that is nothing new. When have God’s true prophets ever been popular? Why would we desire that? Paul said, “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).
On the other hand, too many of our leaders want to be popular, liked, and accepted by the world and a sin-loving church. But it is always better to be right than to be liked. It’s better to please God and risk the wrath of man than to please man and risk the wrath of God. And whenever we find ourselves on the path of scorn, rejection, and humiliation, praise God, for we are walking with Jesus.
“The truth and the work of God are unappreciated by a world-loving and compromising Christianity. Not in the ways of ease, of earthly honor or worldly conformity, are the followers of the Master found. They are far in advance, in the paths of toil, and humiliation, and reproach, in the front of the battle “against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12, R. V. And now, as in Christ’s day, they are misunderstood and reproached and oppressed by the priests and Pharisees of their time” (Desire of Ages, p. 508).
May the Lord help us to be faithful in standing for the truth, and may we resist all compromise and apostasy so that we can complete the task that God has given us as Seventh-day Adventists to be a light to this world.
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Very well said!
Amen
Such a sign of the times! Jesus please come soon! Get ready! Get ready!
Amen, Pastor Jimenez!
Amen.
Amen. Thank the Lord for men like you and Andy and Conrad. Praying for you.
OH it’s ok for our churches to invite guess from other denominations to come preach to us, and have a LBGT Pastor in the denomination in the East Coast, but when a person preaches the truth to our leaders you cancel him. It’s not just a shame of what is happening, but we have become a spectacle to the world. People from other believes are reading what’s happening in our churches. what example of christianity we are giving them. How can we share our faith with others, when they see the infighting inside our houses of worship.
I’m a fourth generation Adventist. I am a 50-year-old male. The Sharon SDA church in Charlotte, NC is the Church I attended since my birth. Unfortunately, I had to leave the Sharon Church seven years ago (which was difficult) due to the Church leadership teaching fatal error and apostacy. I went to several other local Adventist Churches and they were the same way, unattendable. I removed my membership with the Carolina Conference because I don’t want to participate in corporate sin. I definitely not going to fund it either with tithe/offerings. I would never bring new people into such churches and try to explain to them later that they are being taught evil and try to get them back on track; that is madness. The problem is way worse that the Conrad Vine/GC issue. I wish SDA people would realize, obviously, that the entire General Conference is run by the Jesuits as well as, SDA hospitals, Universities, the NAD, most if not all of the local conferences, and the evangelistic “stars” of Adventism.
Saved to Serve readily gave us an exemption for the Covid Vaccine, while the official SDA church did not give out exemptions. The vaccine is a kill-shot, a Papal inquisition and GC knows it.
My wife is a RN. During Covid, in her medical system, all the nurses were furloughed with only 24-hour work weeks for a long time. Even with the exemption, we would have lost our house due to the furlough. However, my wife was the only person out of 70,000 people in her medical system that was allowed to work 40 hours, plus overtime. God blessed us tremendously! And we had complete peace the entire Covid time. We are irregular line SDAs, and we will finish the work. Like Ellen White suggested as a possibility, the “regular lines” have proved to be a failure. Ellen White said entire conferences would go out and they have. Listening to the Holy Spirit and leaving churches where God is not there was one of the best things I’ve ever done.
This being said, most Independent SDA churches are a nightmare too. I suggest staying home on Sabbath and reading the Bible and Ellen White for your Sabbath Church until you’ve matured as a Christian and can recognize error, and meanwhile, trying to find home churches you can attend; your time is better spent.
Amen!! Very well stated.