Baal-worship and The
Long Delay
The 1888 Message Destroys Baal-worship
The temptation to
look upon Adventism as just another religious option, simply a church
among many churches, is to degrade the truth we have been given. Such an
attitude unconsciously affirms that Baal-worship is good enough for us,
whereas we have been told that "so long as time shall last, we are
to cherish the sacred, denominational distinction placed upon us. … In
a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as
watchmen and lightbearers." 23
Our view of the
popular churches grows out of a misunderstanding of the 1888 message.
Because of "preconceived opinions" and "opposition
manifested at Minneapolis against the Lord’s message," a vacuum
was created which we tried to fill with our methods, and borrowed plans.
The result is, "Satan has succeeded in shutting away from our
people in a great measure the special power of the Holy Spirit that God
longed to impart." The enemy has prevented us "from obtaining
that efficiency which might have been [ours] in carrying the truth to
the world."24
There is no way that research, Madison Avenue techniques, growth
seminars, or any other man-made programs can ever replace the
"power" and "efficiency" the Holy Spirit would bring
to God’s people.
For years, and
especially since the 1950 General Conference session there has been much
talk of the Latter Rain. But in the 1888 message we were to have been
given the ability to carry the gospel to the world, "as the
apostles proclaimed it after the day of Pentecost."25
Why did this not happen? Almost unbelievably, we get the answer:
"The light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory was
resisted, and by the action of our own brethren has been in a great
degree kept away from the world."26
It is terrible to
think that Baal-worship has infiltrated modern Israel as it did ancient
Israel, but the Lord’s servant insists it is true. Our tendency has
been the same as our ancient kinsmen—to assimilate and imitate the
thinking and customs of the people around us. The rejection of the 1888
message set the pattern for nearly a century of such assimilation,
beginning with the exposure of counterfeit ideas at the 1893 session
that purported to be the same as genuine righteousness by faith. 27
Over the years we have turned again and again to the popular churches
and their leadership for ideas and inspiration which we have assumed was
the true message, not discerning fundamental distinctions. Already in
the 1890's there were tendencies to confuse Roman Catholic justification
by faith with the genuine. 28
More recently Froom’s Movement of Destiny, boasts that the 1888
message was essentially the same as a vast array of Evangelical
preachers were teaching.29
This is not to
suggest that there are not countless good, sincere people and ministers
in the popular Sunday-keeping churches. They are happy, loving, zealous,
devoted and in some cases more missionary-minded than we. Their success
in church growth outstrips ours in many cases. But they do not have the
three angels’ messages because "we" have kept it away from
them, from the world Ellen White says, and the vacuum we have filled
with Baal-worship. When we understand our situation, our relation to the
"most precious message" the Lord sent, Baal-worship will be
destroyed.
The
Long Delay Must End |
