Because God Said Not To

Content Advisory: While all of the material on this blog is written from an unapologetically Adventist perspective, the following speaks particularly from Adventists to Adventists regarding Adventist worldviews. All are welcome to read and consider it, but if you don’t happen to be Adventist you may find this post “exclusivist.” If that bothers you, we recommend that you stop reading now.
There may be some who are wondering what the subjects of Babylon and the second angel’s message, which were presented in Advice from the Spirit of Prophesy, Pts. 29 & 30, have to do with church governance. We have put up the materials in these two posts for two reasons. First, they provide some historical and theological background for the territory we are about to get into in the series, Our Roots. Second, they also provide a historical and theological basis to respond to the question with which many of our concerns about governance have been shrugged off. That question is, Why shouldn’t we borrow good ideas from other denominations?

To answer this question we must begin by reviewing the historical background. God’s original instrument for evangelizing the world was the ancient Israelite nation. When it became corrupt and rejected Him God raised up the Christian church to do the work instead. When the established Christian church also became corrupt and refused to heed the calls for reformation given in the Great Reformation, it too was rejected as God’s chosen instrument for evangelism, and that responsibility was passed on to the various Protestant denominations which were formed in response to the Reformation. During the Great Awakening of the 1830s and early 1840s this cycle started all over again because the Protestant denominations had likewise lost their way spiritually. When they too rejected the call to awakening and reformation which was sounded by the Millerites during this time God once again let go of the institutions that were unwilling to follow Him and raised up a new institution composed of the few faithful believers that had heeded the call. That institution was the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

“Many look with horror at the course of the Jews in rejecting and crucifying Christ… But many who professed to love Jesus, and who shed tears as they read the story of the cross, derided the good news of His coming. Instead of receiving the message with gladness, they declared it to be a delusion. They hated those who loved His appearing and shut them out of the churches. Those who rejected the first message could not be benefited by the second; neither were they benefited by the midnight cry, which was to prepare them to enter with Jesus by faith into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. And by rejecting the two former messages, they have so darkened their understanding that they can see no light in the third angel's message, which shows the way into the most holy place. I saw that as the Jews crucified Jesus, so the nominal churches had crucified these messages, and therefore they have no knowledge of the way into the most holy, and they cannot be benefited by the intercession of Jesus there. Like the Jews, who offered their useless sacrifices, they offer up their useless prayers to the apartment which Jesus has left; and Satan, pleased with the deception, assumes a religious character, and leads the minds of these professed Christians to himself, working with his power, his signs and lying wonders, to fasten them in his snare. Some he deceives in one way, and some in another. He has different delusions prepared to affect different minds. Some look with horror upon one deception, while they readily receive another. Satan deceives some with Spiritualism. He also comes as an angel of light and spreads his influence over the land by means of false reformations. The churches are elated, and consider that God is working marvelously for them, when it is the work of another spirit. The excitement will die away and leave the world and the church in a worse condition than before” (Early Writings, pp.260, 261).

The Spirit of Prophesy tells us that when the various Protestant denominations rejected the warning that was given, God’s Spirit left those churches and they became the domain of Satan. We should be clear at this point that this withdrawal of God’s Spirit was from these churches in a corporate sense, not from individual believers. Although God has abandoned the Protestant denominations as institutions, He has not categorically rejected the sincere believers within those denominations.
“I saw that God has honest children among the nominal Adventists and the fallen churches, and before the plagues shall be poured out, ministers and people will be called out from these churches and will gladly receive the truth. Satan knows this; and before the loud cry of the third angel is given, he raises an excitement in these religious bodies, that those who have rejected the truth may think that God is with them. He hopes to deceive the honest and lead them to think that God is still working for the churches. But the light will shine, and all who are honest will leave the fallen churches, and take their stand with the remnant” (Early Writings, p.261).

Satan uses his power over these churches to effect a powerful deception: he creates the allusion of godliness and reformation in order to make people think God’s Spirit is still present so that he can get them to accept the lies he presents as truth within these churches. Naturally, in order to maintain the allusion of godliness and make it harder to identify the lies, he mixes in small fragments of truth, which is one of the many reasons why we are told point-blank not to seek out even what seems wise in what these denominations have to say:

“The different parties of professed Advent believers have each a little truth, but God has given all these truths to His children who are being prepared for the day of God. He has also given them truths that none of these parties know, neither will they understand. Things which are sealed up to them, the Lord has opened to those who will see and are ready to understand. If God has any new light to communicate, He will let His chosen and beloved understand it, without their going to have their minds enlightened by hearing those who are in darkness and error.

“I was shown the necessity of those who believe that we are having the last message of mercy, being separate from those who are daily imbibing new errors. I saw that neither young nor old should attend their meetings; for it is wrong to thus encourage them while they teach error that is a deadly poison to the soul and teach for doctrines the commandments of men. The influence of such gatherings is not good. If God has delivered us from such darkness and error, we should stand fast in the liberty wherewith He has set us free and rejoice in the truth. God is displeased with us when we go to listen to error, without being obliged to go; for unless He sends us to those meetings where error is forced home to the people by the power of the will, He will not keep us. The angels cease their watchful care over us, and we are left to the buffetings of the enemy, to be darkened and weakened by him and the power of his evil angels; and the light around us becomes contaminated with the darkness” (Early Writings, pp.124, 125).

Here we get to the heart of the matter. God tells us not to go and attend the meetings or accept the teachings of other denominations because they are teaching “error that is a deadly poison to the soul.” This instruction doesn’t come with any exceptions, qualifications, or limitations. That there are still sincere believers within these churches who have not yet been called out of them to join the remnant should not be used as an argument that there is value to be gleaned from these churches. God is working with those individuals to bring them out, not pointing to them as evidence that we ought to go in. We are told that God has blessed us with a fuller revelation and understanding of Himself than can be found in these churches. Further, we are promised that if and when even further revelation is ever needed it will be provided to us directly. If we ignore the warning not to attend the meetings or accept the teachings of these churches we are renouncing the spiritual protection God offers us and inviting Satan’s entrapments.

“I was shown that Satan cannot control minds unless they are yielded to his control. Those who depart from the right are in serious danger now. They separate themselves from God, and from the watch-care of the angels of God, and Satan, ever upon the watch to destroy souls, begins to present to such his deceptions, and they are in the utmost peril” (Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 4b, p.91).

Unfortunately, there are many Adventists, even pastors, who don’t seem to grasp this principle. The following is a short article that appeared in the bi-weekly e-newsletter for pastors of the North American Division, “Best Practices,” on September 10, 2008.

“Years ago I attended an Adventist-sponsored conference on leadership for pastors. One of the speakers - not of our denomination - was known to be somewhat controversial. We knew that going in.
“That's why the sponsoring organization invited him, and that's why I wanted to hear him. I wanted to experience the kind of ‘out of the box’ thinking we keep talking about, but rarely do.
“It was a mind-expanding presentation. Did I agree all of it? Absolutely not. But I was energized by his lectures. As a mature adult I had no trouble keeping my spiritual footing in spite of his occasional heterodoxies. And it was well worth the effort.
“The desire to root out heresy is strong among us: when a few of our Adventist folks (largely lay, but a few pastors, too) heard about the speaker, they hit the wall. I say about because they never actually heard him before the fur began to fly…
“How dangerous is it to listen to or read something you don't agree with 100%? I read books by Christian authors, books about the emerging church and new ways of thinking about pastoring and church life, and some contain ideas we'd not endorse. I'm pretty sure you do, too. I listen to preachers of other faiths, and I'm stimulated and uplifted by them. I'm not compromised just because I don't agree with everything they say.
“A conference president way back in my internship refused me permission to attend a seminar by another conservative Christian organization. ‘Why should we go to the gentiles to learn anything?’ he scoffed. Do we know all we need to know? Nothing to learn from other Christians? Our church fathers and mothers didn't think so: they read writers outside the Adventist community, even incorporating the writings into their own books.
“Said Paul, ‘Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free.’ There are those, often themselves spiritually insecure, who don't trust your judgment. They're frightened of freedom - yours, and their own.
“Except the freedom to criticize. That one, they believe in.”
The responses to this article which were printed in the next edition carried much the same flavor—touting the “virtue” of open-mindedness and dismissing as insecure (or worse) those who objected to such behavior. When this is the attitude proudly claimed by those whose profession is to proclaim the truth it is not surprising that this danger is not thoroughly appreciated. They forget (as was described above in Early Writings, pp.124, 125) that the freedom they claim is a freedom from darkness and error, which allows us to stand firm in the truth, not a freedom to peruse darkness and error for new and interesting ideas. “Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves” (1 Peter 2:16). Unfortunately, the attitudes described in this article are not an expression of open-mindedness, but rather disobedience, and the results are spiritually deadly.

“Just as long as men consent to listen to these sophistries, a subtle influence will weave the fine threads of these seductive theories into their minds, and men who should turn away from the first sound of such teaching will learn to love it. As loyal subjects we must refuse even to listen to these sophistries. Their influence is something like a deadly viper, poisoning the minds of all who listen. It is a branch of hypnotism, deadening the sensibilities of the soul” (Manuscript Releases, Vol. 10, p.163).

To recap, because of their rejection of prophetic warnings, God has rejected the Protestant denominations that were in existence at the time of the Great Awakening. By their own choosing they have been left to the delusions of Satan and the people of God are plainly and strictly instructed not to seek out their teachings or attend their meetings. This does not preclude having friendships with individuals of other faiths, or even collaborating with other denominations on community or civic projects of mutual interest, but it does insist that we not imbibe their thoughts and teachings. We are warned that their teachings are error and darkness and that any appearance to the contrary is the deceptive handiwork of Satan. Those who willfully ignore this warning are deliberately placing themselves in Satan’s hands. Such action is both spiritually dangerous and wholly unnecessary, as God has promised to directly provide His people with all the spiritual knowledge they need.

“Satan is Christ's personal enemy. He is the originator and leader of every species of rebellion in Heaven and earth. His rage increases, and we do not realize his power. If our eyes could be opened to discern the fallen angels at their work with those who feel at ease and consider themselves safe, we should not feel so secure. Evil angels are upon our track every moment. We expect a readiness on the part of bad men to act as Satan suggests; but while our minds are unguarded against Satan's invisible agents, they will assume new ground, and will work marvels and miracles in our sight” (Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 4b, p.92).

So why shouldn’t we borrow “good ideas” from other denominations? Because God said not to!