GYC 2018: To The End

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Every Wind of Doctrine

Norman McNulty

1. The Everlasting Son

2. The Third Person of the Godhead

3. Confusion on Prophecy

4. Confusion on Ecclesiology and Church Authority

5. From Questions on Doctrine to Desmond Ford

6. Gospel Clarity for the Last Days

This message was presented at the GYC To The End in Houston, Texas.

For other resources like this, visit us online at GYCweb.org.

We thank you that you have given us a more sure word of prophecy.

I pray that we would give heed to the light that shines from prophecy into the dark place of this world but may we not be led into confusion by a false understanding of prophecy.

So be with us and guide us through this presentation I pray in Jesus name, Amen.

You know we are a prophetic people and prophecy is really 1 of the key elements that drives the engine of Adventism.

The Seventh-day Adventist movement was started based on an understanding of prophecy.

And so obviously the study of prophecy continues to ignite widespread interest for study among Seventh-day Adventists And I encourage you to continue to study prophecy, but what I'm going to share with you in the next few moments are some areas that have led to confusion.

And some recent date setting trends have emerged in the last few months and even years.

Although I will have to say as someone who's now 41 that I've seen date setting for most of my Adventist life.

And as can be expected, these dates come and go, and the date setters move on to the next prediction.

Well, 1 of the latest predictions that's come around is that sometime around March or April of 2019 a national Sunday law is going to be passed which obviously that raises the antenna of all Seventh-day Adventists because we know that once the national Sunday law comes that's the trigger for the end of all things.

So others are claiming that probation is going to close for Seventh-day Adventists on November 9, 2019.

I'm going to get into who are saying these things as we go along here, and these are all a violation of the plainest statements from Ellen White on time setting.

We are not to be time setters of Seventh-day Adventists.

So other issues include the so-called 2520 prophecy, I've put it in quotation marks because it's not really a prophecy.

There's advocacy of feast keeping on Lunar Sabbath, there's been reapplication of the 7 trumpets which have been fulfilled in the past into the future.

Some are saying that the end of Daniel 11 is somehow a Middle East conflict that will lead to the close of probation.

So these are some of the things that we are going to look at, that's where we're headed in our presentation today.

Now, as respect to current confusion, on October 17, 2018, David Gates, who is a missionary pilot in South America, lives here in the United States but often goes down to South America and around the world, released a video on YouTube entitled Even at the Door.

Now David Gates is a well-known person of influence within certain circles of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and to date this video has over 220, 000 views.

Now I certainly believe that Brother Gates is sincere in what he is saying but I believe he's sincerely wrong and I'm going to show you why.

So I'm not questioning his integrity, I'm just saying that I believe that he is deceived in what he is saying.

He points out that at the 2015 general conference session in San Antonio, the Seventh-day Adventist church voted a change in its belief about the writings of Ellen G.

White that constitutes a rejection of her writings, and he says that the general conference, quote, at least considers her writings not to be inspired anymore.

So David Gates is saying that the general conference in session considers the spirit of prophecy to not be inspired anymore.

And on that basis he promotes the idea of 3 and a half years from the rejection of the testimony of Jesus to something momentous happening after that.

He says that 3 and a half years from the death of Jesus, we have the stoning of Stephen.

And 3 and a half years from the initial surrounding of Jerusalem, then we have its destruction.

There were 3 and a half years from the death of Jesus to the stoning of Stephen, and there were 3 and a half years from the initial surrounding of Jerusalem to its destruction.

However, he is making a big idea about what happened in the change in the wording of the fundamental beliefs about Ellen White's writings and then uses that to start a 3 and a half year time period.

So interestingly the vote on this change of wording for the Spirit of Prophecy was in July of 2015.

However, he starts his 3 and a half years from September 23, 2015, which was the Day of Atonement according to the Jewish calendar in the year 2015.

Now he claims in the video that this is also the day that the Pope addressed Congress.

He was in America that day but he didn't address Congress until September 24 the day later.

So Pope Francis a joint session of Congress on September 24, 2015, David Gates claims that Rome invaded America on this date in history.

As best as I can understand from prophecy, Rome will not invade America until America forms an image to the beast through a Sunday Law where we pay homage to the papacy.

Now certainly Rome is gaining influence but to say that Rome invaded America, that's an arbitrary claim without any clear prophetic backing.

So these are some of the claims that he's making and then he goes on to say, so rather than starting his 3 and a half year timeline from the date of the vote at the general conference session, he starts it on September 23 when the Pope addressed Congress, it was really the 24th, and he says if you go 3 and a half years from that date, that takes you to March or April of 2019.

Now if you do some simple math, I could give you the date that you could get to 3 and a half years later.

He just simply says it's March or April of 2019.

However, he is promoting a video from a former pastor now who has a specific date in that time range.

Now David Gates says that he is not time setting and when there was a response to his video he says you're confused I'm not time setting.

Well that's his sincere thought but when you say there's 3 and a half years from 1 point to the next and at the end of that 3 and a half years there's going to be a national Sunday law I fail to understand how that's not time setting I mean time setting is time setting.

So if you say March or April of 2019, that's setting a time for a Sunday Law.

He says it's not time setting but that is what it is.

So he believes, and this is what he says in the video, that we have been living in the judgment of the living since September of 2015.

Now He believes that around March or April of 2019 there will be a national Sunday law and probation will close for Seventh-day Adventists.

And he is sincere about this, excuse me, He is sincere about this but he expects us to believe him.

Now interestingly David Gates does not show the statement in his video, he does not show the statement for the change in wording of Seventh-day Adventist beliefs on the writings of Ellen G.

So he's making this major claim that Ellen White's writings are no longer considered to be inspired anymore by Seventh-day Adamus, but he doesn't show how the wording itself was actually changed.

So considering that he is basing his belief that this helped to trigger the end of all things for Seventh-day Adventists, I found that to be pretty irresponsible to release a video where you say Seventh-day Adventists don't believe Ellen White's writings are inspired anymore, but you don't give the updated statement to show what Seventh-day Adventist voted there to believe about her writing.

So again, he's sincere, but we are expected to take his word.

If you watch the video, he says several times, the Lord has shown me.

And I had a friend who had a dream, but again, when you have impressions or friends who have dreams and those dreams and impressions are not according to the word of God, it's because there's no light in them.

So we can't accept someone's word as authority if their word goes against the plainly revealed statements of inspiration, and I'm going to show you where things go off track for him.

White that ended up being changed in 2015.

So this is from the 2010 church manual, and notice how it reads, 1 of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy.

This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen G.

As the Lord's messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction.

They also make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested." So that's the statement on Ellen White's writings that the church had had for a number of years.

And in 2015, they changed it to say this.

The scriptures testify that 1 of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy, this gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church and we believe it was manifested in the ministry of Ellen G.

Her writings speak with prophetic authority and provide comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction to the church.

They also make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested.

Now I'll say this, I think you could have a fair discussion to say which statement is better, the 2010 statement or the 2015 statement, that would be a fair discussion, but here's what I don't accept.

I don't accept that this statement here constitutes a rejection of the ministry and writings of LNG.

Notice what it says, it says that this gift of prophecy is an identifying mark of the remnant church and we believe it was manifested in the ministry of Ellen G.

And then her writings speak with prophetic authority.

Now the previous statement said we believe her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth.

Here it says her writings speak with prophetic authority.

Well if you wanna just be clear here, if her writings speak with prophetic authority, that means they have authority to settle issues right?

So and as I understand this new wording it makes it easier to translate in some of the other languages so you can say you know I like it to say better that it's a continuing and authoritative source of truth rather than saying that her writings speak with a prophetic authority and fair enough I'll give you that.

But to say that this constitutes a rejection of her writings and based on that that starts a 3 and a half year time prophecy that's going to lead to the national Sunday law around March or April of 2019 and we're now living in the judgment of the living, that's a major stretch and I find to be irresponsible to say that the General Conference no longer continues, believes that her writings are inspired.

That's what he said, that her writings are no longer inspired, yet this statement says we believe that her gift is as manifest in the ministry of Ellen G.

White is an identifying mark of the remnant church.

So you have to be careful when you start to make claims like this.

So again he believes that the general conference does not believe Ellen White's writings are inspired anymore, yet the statement shows that Seventh-day Adventists affirm that her writings are an identifying mark of the remnant church and that her writings speak with prophetic authority and for those of you who heard Elder Wilson last night, I mean how many times did he quote from The Spirit of Prophecy?

And so to claim that they no longer believe her writings to be inspired is just not true and it's very unfortunate that someone of his influence would make such a claim, although I'm hoping that people won't take him as seriously now that he's released that video unless he repents of the things that he said.

So some further confusion, so David Gates shares a link on his video to Seventh-day Adventist who's now a former pastor, he just actually, this is common knowledge now, he actually was terminated by his conference for these teachings.

Series

Every Wind of Doctrine

3. Confusion on Prophecy

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

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GYC 2013 Seminar: The Composite Christian: Character Development

04-God vs. Satan: Patmos

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Making Sons of Hell? The Don’ts and Do’s of Soul Winning

Addressing Objections and Answering Difficult Bible Questions

1h 2m

GYC 2011 totalChurch

Total Church: Devoted to Prayer, Part 1

1h 16m

The Cross in Hebrews

6. Joining Jesus at the Cross (Hebrews 11-13)

55m

Mini-skirts, Mothers, & Muslims: On Being Called, Chosen & Faithful-Even to the Ends of the Earth

1. Risk Takers

59m

GYC 2012 Evening Devotional

The Highest Honor

48m

Laodicea Study

White Raiment Part 2

37m

A Call To Arms: How to Fully Engage In God's Church

6. The Moment of Truth: Helping Your Friends Make Decisions for Jesus

43m

Medical Mission Work

01 Won by One

57m

Missional Business

03 Breaking In: Christ’s Method of Marketing

58m

Health and Prophecy in the Light of Cutting Edge Science

5. Health, a Vision of What Could Be

1h 12m

Sound Doctrine