Hartland Winter Convocation 2019: That, Knowing the Time

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Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Phil Mills

The Government of God and Discipline

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

Does the Seventh-day Adventist Church take Christ's commission seriously?

When individuals are baptized, they become part of a worldwide movement that proclaims the gospel message, not to limited regions, but to the entire earth.

With church membership, my voice is added to a united worldwide church voice.

How is the voice of God described in Revelation 115?

How is the voice of the church described in Revelation 19.6?

And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude as the Sound of many waters.

Both the voice of God and the voice of the church triumphant are depicted as the sound of many waters, for they are to be the same voice.

God desires His voice to be heard through the words and the lives of the members of the church from every nation, tribe, and people speaking in every language around the globe.

Notice Revelation 22, 17, the Spirit and the bride say, come, but those who are here are to do what?

Man's words of any value echo the words of God.

Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 423.

Notice how Peter says the same thing, if anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.

Notice how Paul says the same thing, you are our epistles written in our hearts, known and read by all men.

And Ellen White says in every 1 of his children, Jesus sends a letter to the world.

If you are Christ's followers, follower, He sends in you a letter to the family, the village, the street, the dorm room.

That's not in there, but it is where you live.

Jesus dwelling in you desires to speak to the hearts of those who are not acquainted with him.

And he wants you to be the medium of delivering his message.

See, Mary, filled with the Holy Spirit, had Jesus born in her, and she's a sample of every Christian.

The filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus is born in us, and we deliver Jesus, His Word to the world.

If you've ever had the privilege of singing in a mass choir or listening to a mass choir, you know the beauty and power of thousands of voices.

I was going to play a recording, but It can't be captured by electrical devices.

1 Corinthians 1.10 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment.

Leading this choir, this grand mass choir, is Jesus.

How do each of us have an important voice in this choir?

At the height of the Kellogg crisis in 1904, the General Conference president, A.G.

Daniels, was being accused of kingly power.

Ellen White wrote an important article, Notice how I am a part of the worldwide choir.

Every member of the church has a voice in choosing officers of the church.

So my voice is heard in selecting officers for the church.

This is how our constituents work in select leaders.

How careful we should be in selecting our church representatives to conference constituencies.

The church chooses the officers of the state conferences.

Delegates chosen by the state conferences choose the officers of the union conference.

And delegates chosen by the union conferences choose the officers of the general conference.

By this arrangement, every conference, every institution, every church, and every individual.

Every individual, either directly or through representatives, has a voice in the election of the men who bear the chief responsibilities in the general conference.

Dear folk, if you're a Seventh-day Adventist, you have a voice in selecting every leader of this church.

Let's compare this to the way God organized the church in both the Old and the New Testament.

What was the theocratic model of selection of government leaders established by Moses in the Old Testament?

How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints?

Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.

They were to select the leaders of their local leaders and then Moses would confirm that selection.

What was the church government model established by the apostles in the New Testament?

Therefore, brothers, select from among you 7 men of good reputation, full of the spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty.

So they were to select from among themselves.

They would take 7 men of good reputation, full of the spirit and wisdom.

These were the criteria from which they were to select their leaders and Then the disciples would confirm that selection.

Chapter 15, verse 2, But after Paul and Barnabas had engaged them in serious argument and debate, the church arranged for Paul and Barnabas and some others of them to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem concerning this controversy.

Now is this representative church selects, every member has a voice?

Is this representative church authority a top-down, hierarchical, or papal system of government.

It was through such representative government that our pioneers selected the name Seventh-day Adventist and adopted the biblical doctrines and biblical practices that are a precious legacy that we hold today, biblical legacy.

A few weeks ago, I received a call from a member of a church in another state.

The minister had called for an unscheduled church board the Sabbath immediately after that church service.

He said, we want to have the board meeting right after church.

The pastor had been studying with a former meth addict, and though the individual was still smoking cigarettes, had set a time for this individual's baptism.

His family and friends had been invited, and the pastor was seeking permission from the church board to baptize this individual who was still smoking cigarettes.

Should the church accept into its fellowship a member who was smoking but wanted to join the church by baptism?

Because the gospel is worldwide, The local church acts on behalf of the world church when it baptizes new members and welcomes them into the worldwide fellowship of Seventh-day Adventists, or if it becomes necessary, to disfellowship them.

Because the local church is acting on behalf of the world church, it is only authorized to accept candidates for membership or members for disfellowship based on the world church voted beliefs and criteria outlined in the church manual.

Since the local church represents the world church, it can't bend the rules to fit local members or pastors whims.

That protects you, but it also is a protection that somebody can't just willy-nilly remove you from the church, but it is also a protection that you can't just willy-nilly bring somebody in.

Furthermore, the local member represents the Seventh-day Adventist worldwide and is not free to do whatever the member pleases.

Let me read from the church manual 1 of the 13 questions that is to be asked of each person before accepting them into church membership.

Do you believe that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?

And will you honor God by caring for it, avoiding the use of that which is harmful, and abstaining from all unclean foods, from the use, manufacture, or sale of alcoholic beverages, from the use, manufacture, or sale of tobacco in any of its forms for human consumption, and from the misuse of or trafficking in narcotics or other drugs.

So That is what is necessary before a person can come into the Seventh-day Adventist worldwide fellowship and that's not subject to my vote or your vote except if it was taken to the worldwide church for worldwide church authorization or denial.

And here's what the manual says, also constitutes grounds for removal from church membership, the use, manufacture, or sale of tobacco in any of its forms for human consumption.

So when I become a church member, I am agreeing to unite with the world church and to act in harmony with the world body of believers.

Just as God has given parents the authority and responsibility to redemptively discipline their children, a church has been given the authority and responsibility to redemptively discipline recalcitrant members.

The local church has the authority and responsibility to discipline local members and local church entities, but they are not a law unto themselves.

They are to act in harmony with the Adventist church worldwide.

The core biblical beliefs and practices which unite the Adventist Church worldwide have been voted by wide margins in general conference sessions, which is our worldwide church business meeting and overarching authority for members and church institutions.

Now I want you to imagine a church with a member that rejects this church authority and effectively promotes false doctrines within the church.

And this member's ideas begin spreading flagrant apostasy within the church and to other area churches.

What if the local church at a church business meeting is unable to discipline the member and only a minority of concerned members recognize the danger?

What if the majority of a local church follow this individual in his apostasy?

How careful should churches be in the selection of their representatives to the wider conference constituency, for this has the responsibility to discipline local churches and conference institutions in harmony, again, with the world church.

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The Government of God and Discipline

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