Our Seventh-day Adventist Impasse
There is a neglected but essential
preparation to make before the final outpouring of the Holy Spirit in
the Latter Rain can possibly come. The solution to our problem may be
far more simple than we have supposed. That most necessary preparation
is a clear understanding of Christ’s special message to His people in
the last days — the Laodicean message addressed to the
"angel" of the seventh church of Revelation 2 and 3.
Although it is true that "the
Laodicean message … must go to all the churches" (6T 77), Ellen
G. White applies it primarily and especially to the Seventh-day
Adventist denomination over and over again. Further, when the
Seventh-day Adventist Church understands and receives that message, she
says, "the loud cry of the third angel" will no longer be
delayed. We acknowledge that the Latter Rain and Loud Cry have
been delayed for many decades. The only possible conclusion is that
there must be something in the Laodicean message which we have not
understood or received. Consider this significant statement:
I was shown that the testimony to the
Laodiceans applies to God’s people at the present time, and the
reason it has not accomplished a greater work is because of the
hardness of their hearts... When it was first presented, … nearly
all believed [correctly, it is implied] that this message would end in
the loud cry of the third angel. … It is designed to arouse the
people of God, to discover to them
their backslidings, and to lead to zealous repentance, that they may
be favored with the presence of Jesus, and be fitted for the loud cry
of the third angel. (1T 186).
If, after all these many decades of
praying for it, we are still not "fitted for the loud cry",
would it not be wisdom to turn our attention to the Laodicean message in
order to find the reason? Perhaps we have not grasped "this message
in all its phases" (7BC 964). Is it wise for us to assume that we
already understand the deep import of that message? The following points
to an experience still future:
The message to the Laodicean church
is highly applicable to us as a people. It has been placed before us
for a long time, but has not been heeded as it should have been. When
the work of repentance is earnest and deep, the individual
members of the church will buy the rich goods of heaven. (7 BC 961;
1894; emphasis added).
… There is a dead fly in the
ointment. … Your self-righteousness is nauseating to the Lord Jesus
Christ. (Rev. 3: 15-18 quoted.) These words apply to the churches and
to many of those in positions of trust in the work of God. (Ibid. 962,
963; 1899).
There is a profound and mysterious link
that relates the 1888 message to Christ’s appeal to His beloved
Laodicea, We see that times almost without number Ellen G. White tied
these two together. For example, consider the following taken from a
letter written in the context of the 1888 message and the reaction
against it (righteousness by faith is the subject):
The Laodicean message has been
sounding. Take this message in all its phases and sound it forth to
the people wherever Providence opens the. way. Justification by faith
and the righteousness of Christ are the themes to be presented to a
perishing world. (7BC 964, 1892)
The divinely appointed remedies for the
Laodicean condition of pride are "gold tried in the fire",
"white raiment" and
"eyesalve". These are the essential themes that made up the
1888 message. With the passage of time it becomes increasingly apparent
that the remnant church has never clearly understood the dynamics of
this message. Dare we deny that this pointed rebuke penned in 1890 is
applicable today?
How can our ministers become the
representatives of Christ when they feel self-sufficient. when by
spirit and attitude they say, "I am rich, and increased with
goods. and have need of nothing"? We must not be in a
self-satisfied condition, or we shall be described as those who are
poor, and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked.
Since the time of the Minneapolis
meeting, I have seen the state of the Laodicean Church as never
before. I have heard the rebuke of God spoken to those who feel so
well satisfied, who know not their spiritual destitution … like the
Jews, many have closed their eyes lest they should see, but there is
as great peril now in closing the eyes to light and in walking apart
from Christ, feeling need of nothing, as there was when He was upon
earth …
Those who realize their need of
repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ will
have contrition of soul, will repent for their resistance of the
Spirit of the Lord. They will confess their sin in refusing the light
that Heaven has so graciously sent them, and they will forsake the sin
that grieved and insulted the Spirit of the Lord. (R&H, August 26,
1890).
If the Laodicean message is designed
that the church "be fitted for the loud cry of the third
angel" (1T 186). and "the state of the Laodicean church"
"since the time of the Minneapolis meeting" is said to be
perilous "as never before" (op. cit.), it is obvious
that here is a field of study deserving our closest attention. In the
simple fact that the Loud Cry has not yet gone forth as it should,
history demonstrates that here is "present truth". Our present
concern for finding the real cause for the long delay
must lead us to a restudy of the message of Christ to the Laodicean
church.
If we feel "rich and increased
with goods" in regard to our understanding of "righteousness
by faith", and if we feel proud and satisfied because of our great
progress in proclaiming it to the world, we shall feel no heart-need to
study the Laodicean message. But the True Witness assures us that this
is precisely our greatest danger. The failure to realize — this
is our problem.
But if we sense a tremendous
"hunger and thirst after righteousness", if we have a deep
conviction that history has brought us to a place of great crisis
spiritually and that the Laodicean message provides the key to unlock
our present impasse, then the Laodicean message will surely be
reconsidered with open-minded candor. Perhaps then in answer to fervent
prayer, the Holy Spirit may be able to impress both reader and writer
and bring them into a common experience of discovery and enlightenment.
Surely this is God’s will for us all.
The expression "gold tried in the
fire" we have commonly understood to refer to the refining process
of personal trials experienced — individually. This understanding has
hidden the more direct application of this "counsel"
corporately to the church leadership, "the angel" of the
church.
Is it possible that the
"fire" is a reference to the "shaking", that
traumatic and cataclysmic event that will try our souls as no other
experience in our history? The True Witness has listed the
"gold" as the first remedy. Is it because the realization of
our doctrinal and spiritual poverty is the most difficult barrier in our
consciousness?
If this restudy of the Laodicean
message has any validity at all, we shall all find it challenging to
relate to these conclusions. Could it be that our Lord is kindly yet
firmly reminding us that experiencing the unprecedented opportunities of
the Latter Rain and the Loud Cry will involve trials and sacrifices as
severe as fire purging gold?
To Whom Is The Message
Addressed? |
