Why the Adventist reticence to YouTube testimonies?
“…the LORD saw it, and it
displeased Him that there was no judgment. And He saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore His arm brought salvation
unto Him; and His righteousness, it sustained Him.” (Isa. 59:15,16).
This happened to the early
church, and it is happening again—Jesus is stepping in personally the save the
modern Gentiles, publicans, and sinners. During the past century, if we, His Remnant
church, had kept truth and grace uplifted, interceding between God and souls
who have been involved in witchcraft, atheism, drug abuse, gender confusion,
New Age Satanism, the occult, etc., Christ would need not have gotten directly
involved. Nevertheless, although Jesus is now directly involved He has not put
us out of His great commission. We should expect Him to make a way open for us,
to get us up to speed with His salvation so that we can help His angels finish
the work of this gospel of the kingdom. Our stance toward the lawless children
of creation should be that of the apostles.
“There was a certain man in
Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,
A devout man, and one that
feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed
to God alway.
He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth
hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him,
Cornelius.
And when he looked on him, he
was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and
thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.
And now send men to Joppa,
and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter.” (Acts 10:1-5).
The Jewish Christians weren’t
evangelizing the unclean Gentiles. Rather, their focus was on the clean Jews.
In the minds of the Jewish Christians, the Gentiles were beyond conviction,
guilt, repentance, and salvation. Therefore, to preempt the impenetrable Jewish
prejudices, Jesus sent Peter a vision.
“And [Peter] saw heaven
opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet
knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth:
Wherein were all manner of
fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls
of the air.
And there came a voice to him,
Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.
But Peter said, Not so, Lord;
for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.
And the voice spake unto him
again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
This was done thrice: and the
vessel was received up again into heaven.” (Acts 10:11-16).
Peter understood the message
from heaven. He went with Cornelius’ men and the first thing Peter said to the
group gathered to hear him teach the gospel was, “Ye know how that it is an
unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of
another nation”—for us, the apostate Protestant denominations—“but God hath
shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.… of a truth I
perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation”—or
denomination—“he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him.”
(Acts 10:28,34,35).
And later, as Peter testified to that awesome
demonstration of God’s blessing on those Gentiles, he told the church, “And as
I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then
remembered I the word of the Lord, how that He said, John indeed baptized with
water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Forasmuch then as God gave
them the like gift as He did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ;
what was I, that I could withstand God? When they heard these things, they held
their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles
granted repentance unto life.” (Acts 11:15-18).
“But there rose up certain of the sect of the
Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and
to command them to keep the law of Moses.
And the apostles and elders
came together for to consider of this matter.
And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up,
and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God
made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the
gospel, and believe.
And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness,
giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us;
And put no difference between us and them, purifying
their hearts by faith.
Now therefore why tempt ye
God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers
nor we were able to bear?
But we believe that through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.…
For Moses of old time hath in
every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath
day.…
Forasmuch as we have heard,
that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting
your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave
no such commandment:
That ye abstain from meats
offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from
fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.”
(Acts 15:5-11,21,24,29).
We, Adventists, are repeating
the history of the Jews, exactly as the Spirit of Christ told our prophet that we would
repeat their history. I believe we have interpreted the high standard wrongly
in many things because we didn’t have humbled, circumcised hearts when
interpreting the Spirit of Prophecy. I believe that is the reason it has been
so difficult to interest Adventists to watch the YouTube testimonies. Below are
listed 1) some of the Adventist self-justifications for discounting the YouTube testifiers, and 2) some contrasting words of
scripture:
The Adventist reply against born-again
rock musician, Alice Cooper: “But he still has long hair.” (I.e., “He still has
the old look of devil possession. We don’t see a transformation of life. He
must still be devil possessed.”)
But the Bible defends these non-SDA Gentiles,
“What shall we say then? That
the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to
righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which
followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of
righteousness. Wherefore? [or, Why?] Because they sought it not by faith, but
as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that Stumblingstone.”
(Rom. 9:30-32).
“Only the LORD had a delight
in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above
all people, as it is this day.
Circumcise therefore the
foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
For the LORD your God is God
of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which
regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:
He doth execute the judgment
of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving
him food and raiment.” (Deut. 10:15-18).
The Adventist defense against ex-atheists, ex-porn addicts who Christ pursued and delivered: “They will bring bad influences into the church.”
But the Bible says of them,
“We are the circumcision,
which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no
confidence in the flesh.” (Phil. 3:3).
“Wherefore, my brethren, ye
also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be
married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should
bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins,
which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held;
that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the
letter.” (Rom. 7:4-6).
“Knowing this, that our old
man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that
henceforth we should not serve sin.…
For in that He died, He died
unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.
Likewise reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ
our Lord.
Let not sin therefore reign
in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as
those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God.…
Know ye not, that to whom ye
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether
of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
But God be thanked, that ye
were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of
doctrine which was delivered you.
Being then made free from
sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
I speak after the manner of
men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members
servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your
members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
For when ye were the servants
of sin, ye were free from righteousness.…
But now being made free from
sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end
everlasting life.” (Rom. 6:6,10-13, 16-20,22).
Ex-New Agers won by the love
of Jesus: “But they speak in glossolalia, they keep Sunday, they love praise
music. They prophesy.” “They are part of the counterfeit revival.”
There needs to be a
redefinition of the Corinthian prophesying. It wasn’t pagan hysteria and glossolalia.
They weren’t doing as the modern Pentecostal and Charismatic Evangelicals do
today. The Corinthians, “called…saints” (1Cor. 1:5), were doing the same as the
prophets who were coming down from the hill of God in the days of Saul, when
Samuel commanded him to join them. They
were praising and rejoicing in the goodness and mercy and love of God,
“with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp” (1Sam. 10:5). That is what
we hear from the YouTube praises. That was the Corinthians’ prophesying. As those
Israelites came down from dwelling in the presence of Jesus, their faith and
testimonies to the gentleness and mercy of Christ triggered the new heart that
God had given Saul, and he prophesied with them in the same spirit of joy and
peace with God. Later Saul’s new spirit and heart inspired the same in others.
“And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and there went with him a band of men,
whose hearts God had touched.” (1Sam. 10:26).
David was a prophet (Acts
2:29,30), yet his prophecies were psalms—songs of praise to the Lord God who he
rejoiced in above all else. That was the prophesying that Saul heard and made,
and that prophesying was what the Corinthian believers had that could cause an
unbelieving visitor to be convicted by all the evidence of God’s character
heard from the consecrated Corinthian hearts and flowing gladly from
consecrated lips. “And so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report
that God is in you of a truth.” (1Cor. 14:25).
This is the true, biblical
prophesying, which is wholly unrelated to the corrupted imaginary prophecies practiced
by the modern Charismatic prophets. “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the
priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so: and what
will ye do in the end thereof?” (Jer. 5:31). As in Jeremiah’s day, couldn’t the
current glossolalia also be a pagan corruption of true, biblical speaking in
tongues, preaching “the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:11)? But that isn’t
what we hear from the YouTube testifimonies. We hear the wonderful works of God
and earnest entreaties to others still enslaved by Satan. Does this
characterize the Adventist praise and testimonies? Some of the YouTube
testifiers do practice the pagan corruption of the truth. And they need to
learn the truth from Acts 2. And their honest souls will learn it, eventually.
“And they were all filled
with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave
them utterance.
And there were dwelling at
Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
Now when this was noised
abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own
language.
And they were all amazed and
marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak
Galilaeans?
And how hear we every man in
our own tongue, wherein we were born?
Parthians, and Medes, and
Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in
Pontus, and Asia,
Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in
Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and
proselytes,
Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the
wonderful works of God.” (Acts 2:4-11).
“He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church….
Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear Me, saith the Lord.
Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.
If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?
But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all:
And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.” (1Cor. 14:4,19-25).
“All scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be
perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (2Tim. 3:16,17). This is the YouTube converts’ big need. And they are hungering for it.
Of the ex-witches saved by
the grace of Christ: “They are suspicious. We should keep them at arm’s length
and keep them away from our children.”
But, the Bible says about
these strangers and foreigners,
“Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers
in the land of Egypt.” (Ex. 22:21).
“Also thou shalt not oppress
a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in
the land of Egypt.” (Ex. 23:9).
“And if a stranger sojourn
with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born
among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the
land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” (Lev. 19:33,34).
The Sunday denominations have ostracized us and branded us as a cult? We’ve been treated badly. So why shouldn’t we treat these new-born Christians that we long to be treated? That is what they yearn for.
“Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in
the land of Egypt.” (Deut. 10:19).
Of ex-gays delivered from
that galling yoke: “They aren’t just like us.”
To that the Bible says,
“But when I saw that they
walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter
before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and
not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? We
who are Jews by nature, and not sinners
of the Gentiles.” (Gal. 2:14,15).
To ex-drug addicts and
ex-porn addicts whose weapons of warfare against self were mighty through God
to the pulling down of their strongholds of sin: “They can’t be part of us
until they are completely cleaned up.”
“The last shall be first, and the first last.” (Matt. 20:15,16).
“In that ye have brought into
My sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to
be in My sanctuary, to pollute it, even My house, when ye offer My bread, the
fat and the blood, and they have broken My covenant because of all your
abominations.
And ye have not kept the
charge of Mine holy things: but ye have set keepers of My charge in My sanctuary
for yourselves.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; No
stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into My
sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel.” (Eze.
44:7-9).
The strangers and
uncircumcised the Lord GOD referred to here were pedigreed, Levitical priests, priests who
were “the people of the LORD” (Numb. 16:41) but whose hearts were serving Baal,
the King of heaven, and Ashtoreth, the Queen. The “sorcerers and…the
adulterers” (Mal. 3:5) were not the crude people, but the refined, proud, adulterous religious
leadership. On Judgment Day the first became the last, and the last became first.
“Behold, the days come, saith
the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the
uncircumcised; Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab,
and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all
these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised
in the heart.” (Jer. 9:25,26).
“Ye have heard that it was
said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall
be in danger of the judgment:
But I say unto you, That
whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the
judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of
the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell
fire.…
Ye have heard that it was
said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
But I say unto you, That
whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her
already in his heart.” (Matt. 5:21,22,27,28).
“Till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled…. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the
kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:18,20).
“Thou that sayest a man
should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest
idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
Thou that makest thy boast of
the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
For the name of God is
blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written…. For he is not a
Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in
the flesh:
But he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the
letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” (Rom. 2:22-24,28,29).
Paul was not ashamed of the ex-occult of his day, the ex-gender confused, and ex-drug addicts, or bashful about their membership in the family of God. “Inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office.” (Rom. 11:13).
Paul was not ashamed of the ex-occult of his day, the ex-gender confused, and ex-drug addicts, or bashful about their membership in the family of God. “Inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office.” (Rom. 11:13).
And neither was our Creator ashamed of His children. “And when he heard of Jesus,
he sent unto Him the elders of the Jews, beseeching Him that He would come and
heal his servant.... Then Jesus went with them.
And when He was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him,
saying unto Him, Lord, trouble not Thyself: for I am not worthy that Thou
shouldest enter under my roof.” (Luke 7:3-6).
Of all the ex-whatevers now happy
in Jesus: “Maybe the Jesuits are behind all these YouTube testimonies. Maybe
its just another deception.”
But, the scriptures says of them,
“What then? notwithstanding,
every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein
do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.” (Phil. 1:18).
“To the strangers scattered throughout...elect according to the foreknoweledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ...
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
Whom having not seen, ye
love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory:
Receiving the end of your
faith, even the salvation of your souls.
Of which salvation the
prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace
that should come unto you:…
Wherefore gird up the loins
of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
As obedient children, not
fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
But as He which hath called
you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
Because it is written, Be ye
holy; for I am holy.
And if ye call on the Father,
who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the
time of your sojourning here in fear:
Forasmuch as ye know that ye
were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain
conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
But with the precious blood
of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1Pet. 1:7-10,13-19).
So, let us learn the lesson
from the Jerusalem conference in the days of Peter and Paul. Let us apply the
basic requirements for the Gentiles to these YouTube ex-slaves to sin who Jesus
has set free and given to them His Spirit to love the Bible, and who love to
study it in order to know the God who saved them from Satan. Let us see the beautiful psychology of salvation that took the Gentiles from the basic introductory requirements in salvation to “sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus”. And let us follow suit for our own sanctification and obedience through the sprinkling of Christ’s blood. Let us emulate
their hearts’ consecration to the God who Rose the Muslim called “Love”. Let us
relive the experience of the Presence who with the one liner, “I am your God
who loves you”, instantly won the mind and melted the heart of Shayne the
atheist, who was entrenched in empty philosophy.
“And certain men which came
down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after
the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.
When therefore Paul and
Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined
that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem
unto the apostles and elders about this question.
And being brought on their
way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the
conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.
And when they were come to
Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders,
and they declared all things that God had done with them.
But there rose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to
circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
And the apostles and elders
came together for to consider of this matter.
And when there had been much
disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how
that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth
should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.
And God, which knoweth the
hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;
And put no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Now therefore why tempt ye
God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers
nor we were able to bear?
But we believe that through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.
Then all the multitude kept
silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and
wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.
And after they had held their
peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me:
Simeon hath declared how God
at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.
And to this agree the words
of the prophets; as it is written,
After this I will return, and
will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will
build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
That the residue of men might
seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith
the Lord, who doeth all these things.
Known unto God are all his
works from the beginning of the world.
Wherefore my sentence is,
that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
But that we write unto them,
that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from
things strangled, and from blood.
For Moses of old time hath in
every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath
day.
Then pleased it the apostles
and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to
Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas,
chief men among the brethren:
And they wrote letters by
them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto
the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:
Forasmuch as we have heard,
that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting
your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave
no such commandment:
It seemed good unto us, being
assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved
Barnabas and Paul,
Men that have hazarded their
lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have sent therefore Judas
and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.
Act 15:28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to
us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
That ye abstain from meats offered
to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from
which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.” (Acts 15:1-29).
“But now in Christ Jesus ye
who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
For He is our peace, who hath
made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Having abolished in His flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make
in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
And that He might reconcile
both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
And came and preached peace
to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
For through Him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
And are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief
corner stone;
In whom all the building
fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
In whom ye also are builded
together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:13-22).
posted by David | 6:10 AM
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