Michigan Conference Campmeeting 2021: How Much More?

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

The Great Controversy to 2021

Dave Fiedler

01 The Core of War

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2021 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

Loving Father, what a privilege it is once again to come before the throne of grace.

And Father, we come boldly because we have such a high priest as our Jesus.

And Lord, we are so thankful that we can be covered by his blood, that we can live by the liveliness of the Spirit who dwells within us.

And Lord, as we're gathered here to be fed and to be taught, to be challenged, to be strengthened, to be encouraged once more, Father, we plead that you would just be with us.

It's your idea that we would come in such a convocation to honor and glorify you, to be filled that we might go out and fill others.

And so Father, I pray for our brother, Dave Fiedler, who will be sharing with us.

Ask that you would just fill him with your spirit, that the words that he shares would not be his own, but that they would come from on high.

May our minds be attentive, take away every distraction that we might be fed from your hand.

We ask these blessings and these mercies in Jesus' name, amen.

I'm more of a teacher than I am a preacher.

So, you know, if you're expecting a great sermon, Doug Batchelor's coming, and there are other qualified individuals, okay?

That's not what you'll probably get from me.

But perhaps the trade-off is that, you know, within reason I don't mind interruption.

So if you have a question, you wave a hand and, you know, I should repeat, remind me to repeat the question if there's a question that comes up, you know, so that the Video audience can understand what's going on, but Yeah, I'm just happy to be back.

I describe myself as a recovering educator and It's fun when I have the chance to to get out and do something like this Okay, well I have 5 sessions and they will build 1 on another.

And so we're beginning with this topic, the core of the war.

I'm kind of a cause and effect logical sort of a guy.

And that has its strengths and weaknesses, I'm sure.

And it unnerves me when I find people that don't even know what the controversy is over.

Trying to end a conflict and ignore its roots is doomed to failure.

God has given us a role in this conflict.

And as in light of that, I can't escape the conviction that it's a good idea to understand what's actually going on.

God calls for far more tact, more wise generalship than has yet been given him by his human agents.

There is need of sharp, sanctified thinking and keen work to counteract the ingenious plans of Satan.

Sometimes we operate with the idea that we are more or less simply along for the ride, and that's not true.

The Lord will not write as wise those who cannot distinguish between a tree that bears thornberries and a tree that bears olives." I don't know what kind of thornberry she had in mind when she wrote that, and I don't know much about olives.

They don't grow in BC or anywhere else I've lived.

But there are issues, and it takes a little thought.

It takes some digging to find the boundary lines of issues.

You know, I guess, you know, thornberries and olives, that may be above my pay scale.

So at the risk of dumbing the whole thing down, you know, can we at least tell the difference between an orange and an apple?

You will find that there are many steps in the Great Controversy that are categorical distinctions.

We're going to start where every good story starts, and that's the beginning.

Now if I, speaking biblically, said, in the beginning, you would probably have a thought that would come to mind, and it would likely be this 1.

If you thought a little bit more, you would probably think of another 1, and that's the first beginning.

We're actually looking for the 1 in the middle.

Jesus said, you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, for he is a liar and a father of it.

This is speaking of Lucifer, not at his creation, but at the inception of sin.

Not at the beginning of the creation of earth, it was prior to that.

There's an interesting time frame, and the Lord has given us no indication as to how long a time it was.

Well, on the time scale of heaven, what would that mean?

You know, are we looking at the equivalent of a year or a century I don't know But Lucifer was a liar from the beginning and a murderer from the beginning at the inception of the principle of sin he was a liar and a murderer now it's interesting there was war in heaven and nobody died they fought a whole war without a single casualty that's different it's a different kind of a war so let's just go on let's jump to a a passage that you're no doubt familiar with.

Satan signs and wonders and deceiving and all that sort of stuff and down about a little more than halfway down.

And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie that they all may be condemned who do not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." I am not a Greek scholar by any means, but those who are Tell me that actually this is this is the new King James if you're used to the original King James, which is great, too You'll note.

There's a little maybe a little different wording right anybody remember how the King James puts that Right there, What's the King James say?

Now 1 of the things I used to teach was English.

We've only got 3 in English, a, an, and the, or the, whichever way you want to pronounce it.

A and an are the same, it just depends on whether the next word starts with a vowel, basically, okay?

But the difference is this, if I look out the window and I say, oh there goes a car.

Say, well yeah, there's a road out there.

But if I say, there goes the car, It's the definite article.

And 9 times out of 10, it means that you're gonna know which car I'm talking about, somehow out of the context.

You know, that's the car that, oh I don't know, the bank robbers ran away in, or that hit the little puppy on the road, or the car that you were supposed to catch a ride with that you missed.

Somehow you know which car I'm talking about when I say the car.

There is a lie, a very, very fundamental lie that is at the heart of the great controversy.

We are familiar with this passage as well from Isaiah.

This is Lucifer depicted here at the time of his rebellion.

I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will be like the Most High." And we have a way of looking at that, and I want to kind of invert that almost a little bit.

Maybe both ways, both perspectives are accurate.

But at least 1 of the ways is that when Lucifer said, I will be like the Most high, what he's saying is, I will exalt myself.

And really, how hard would it be to entertain that notion?

Every time everybody got together in heaven for worship, they worshipped God.

You remember Lucifer was the choir director.

02 Showing Up the Enemy

Father in heaven, Lord, we are vessels standing before you today, and some of our personalities see ourselves as half full and some of us see us as half empty.

But however we see ourselves today, Lord, our vessels need to be filled with your spirit.

So, Lord, we're asking you to fill us with your Holy Spirit, because it is through the Spirit that we can discern the things that the Word of God shares in the Spirit of prophecy.

So bless us, Lord, with the fullness of your Spirit, and anoint the lips of our dear brother as he shares with us today from his heart.

And we thank you for it in Jesus name amen good morning okay there's supposed to be a title slide and I don't know why it's not showing up I guess we'll go without it the the title was supposed to be showing up the enemy Sometimes in some of my presentations I've used an illustration which not everyone catches as an illustration right off the bat.

It is entirely fictitious, so I'll spare you the necessity of figuring it out for yourself, but I'll explain to them.

I said, you know, you don't really know me because I'm a stranger here, but 1 of my little hobbies is weightlifting, and I can actually bench press 400 pounds.

And occasionally I get very naive people who say wow and occasionally I get more knowledgeable people who go because there's something about my physique that probably does not look like the kind of guy who can bench-press 400 pounds.

But if you laughed at my claim, wouldn't it be sweet to just do it?

There's nothing quite so satisfying, perhaps, as doing what they said you couldn't do.

It's a very convincing argument actually.

Okay so that's the idea of showing up the enemy and I don't mean that in a negative sense.

I don't think that Christ would enjoy the kind of human emotion of ha, ha, ha.

But nonetheless, the key word there is actually showing, showing up the enemy.

Okay, so we left off yesterday with this list of Satan's accusations and I left you with a question Suppose you were God, what are you going to do now?

If you study formal logic, they have what they call fallacies.

And for whatever reason, they've given some of these really cutesy little names.

And 1 of the cutesy fallacies is poisoning the well.

Let's just pretend for the moment that I am candidate A running for, I don't care, let's say Governor of Michigan.

And over here, I am candidate B running for Governor of Michigan.

And so we have 1 of these civic evening forum type of things, and we're gonna have a debate, see?

So candidate A gets to speak first and he says, ladies and gentlemen, I'm so glad that you came out.

It shows that you care about the welfare of your state.

But before we go any further, I have to tell you something.

Now when candidate B gets his turn to talk, what's the first thing he's gonna want to say?

Whereupon candidate A, who's supposed to be quiet right now, breaks the rules and says he just lied.

Once the question of honesty has been Tarnished the well has been poisoned and God's well had been poisoned Hence forward anything that God had to say was of limited value.

You know, we, like, I think I mentioned this yesterday, you know, God has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing, and yet when it came to his problem, there was only 1 way, and it was incredibly expensive.

What's interesting is that when Ellen White talks about this, she actually spends more time talking about, I don't know, but that's literally true, but she spends quite a bit of time talking about what God couldn't do.

How shall the universe know that Lucifer is not a safe and just leader?

To their eyes, he appears right." Just stop and think about that for a moment.

They cannot see as God sees beneath the outward covering, they cannot know as God knows.

Then to work to unmask him and make plain to the angelic host that his judgment is not God's judgment, that he has made a standard of his own and exposed himself to the righteous indignation of God, would create a state of things which must be avoided.

God desired that a change take place and that the work of Satan be brought out in its genuine aspect but the Exalted angel standing next to Christ was opposed to the Son of God The underworking was so subtle that it could not Be made to appear before the heavenly host as this thing it really was Some things God can't do Satan could not be presented to the universe at once in his real character.

His crooked course must be allowed to continue until he should reveal himself as an accuser a deceiver a liar and a murderer God could not say Lucifer is an accuser a deceiver a liar and a murderer.

You know, that sounds pretty drastic, but you know what?

Because what it tells me is that God didn't create easily manipulated population.

He created a population, a universe full of thinkers.

Where the population seems to be, how would I put this politely, seems to be valued for its ability to be manipulated.

Satan had disguised himself in a cloak of falsehood, and for a time it was impossible to tear off the covering so that the hideous deformity of his character could be seen.

He must be left to reveal himself in his cruel, artful, wicked works." Now, look at that second line there, impossible.

That's not a term that we often associate with God.

Notice also the last line, or the last sentence, I guess.

That seems kind of weird, But that's the way it was.

God's purpose is to place things upon an eternal basis of security.

Just remember, before sin, it wasn't eternally secure, Because sin came up, right?

Time must be given for Satan to develop the principles which were the foundation of his government.

The heavenly universe must see work out the principles which Satan declared were superior to God's principles.

God's order must be contrasted with Satan's order.

The corrupting principles of Satan's rule must be revealed.

The principles of righteousness expressed in God's law must be demonstrated as unchangeable, perfect, and eternal." You've all heard these ideas before.

I'm sure this is nothing brand new, but notice these words.

And notice the nature of the requirements Satan had to develop his principles the universe must see the contrast right God's order must be contrasted Satan's rule must be revealed God's law must be demonstrated everything that needs to happen here falls into the category of I don't know I'd call it school education the universe needs to learn some stuff and some stuff you can only learn by experience or by by watching at least it's a it's a process of clarification of revelation of of making clear issues that is the nature of God's response to Lucifer's accusation.

All God can do, all God is trying to do, is to clear things up, let people see the reality.

The revelation of God's character, which is what Lucifer was impugning here, is in fact the only weapon in heaven's arsenal.

Everything is based on, stems from, flows directly out of the revelation of God's character.

And notice, as far as Satan is concerned, the damage was all self-inflicted.

Satan's failure, however, even if he completely embarrassed himself, would not necessarily himself would not necessarily mean that God was off the hook.

Have you ever listened to a political debate where each candidate is telling everyone that the other guy's terrible, miserable, rotten, no good for whatever reasons.

And have you ever stopped to wonder what if they're both right?

03 What Converted People Do

Gracious Father God, we simply want to say thank you.

Thank you that we can have this experience.

Thank you that We can have a time to come apart, but we can experience such a convocation as this.

Truly, Lord, there is a season for everything.

And in this season, we pause to recognize you, to praise you, to thank you.

Lord, we want you to be our special guest.

We've got our brother Dave here to continue teaching and sharing as you have laid upon his heart.

And Lord, I pray that we would not come simply as consumers.

But that we would come asking and seeking, Lord what can I gain that I might have something to share?

And so Father give us attentive minds, open hearts, willing spirits.

Hide him behind the cross that what he has to share would be from on high and that we would be filled and encouraged in Jesus name, Amen.

Okay, hey, this is Wednesday and that should be time for a quiz, don't you think?

I'm hearing things, I'm not sure I'm hearing the 1 I'm looking for.

What did he lose that started the cascade of the dominoes of faith.

Ask a qualified theologian and I think he'd agree with me.

What was the most severe limitation on Christ's ability to reveal the character of his Father?

And lest it be any surprise to you, I think maybe on Friday I'll have a statement that says that you can't either.

I found that the number of things that I can do successfully that Christ could not is very limited.

So if he could not reveal the Father through words alone, I'm just a hot tip, you probably can't either.

That may require some adjustment in our thinking.

We started with Lucifer's Rebellion, right?

We jumped 4, 000 years, roughly, to the life of Christ.

We're gonna jump, you know, not quite another 2, 000.

And we're going to be looking today at probably, well, hey, I'm in Michigan.

You guys should know about this fella, if anybody knows about this fella.

A guy by the name of John Harvey Kellogg used to hang out down in Battle Creek someplace.

You know, it's funny, with all my interest in advanced history, I've never yet made it to Battle Creek.

There's an important note I need to explain and then I'm gonna have to go pretty quickly because there's a lot of reading and be less talking today.

But 1 thing to understand is that in the time flow of events, different perspectives often overlapped, okay?

So to be honest, today we're going to be looking at the cheery side of things.

There won't be too much that will bring any frowns or tears.

That doesn't mean that there weren't some sad and unpleasant things happening at the same time.

1 of the things that is really fascinating is when you're reading through Ellen White's letters, especially, is the way that she did her very best to tailor a letter to the recipient.

And so you'll find that when she wrote to, for instance, Dr.

Kellogg, she often dwelt on the things where he needed to pull his socks up a bit.

But when she wrote to those who had a tendency to give Kellogg a bad time, she dwelt on all the good things he was doing.

There's no sense giving somebody ammunition, you know?

And when others made mistakes, you wouldn't find that in the letters to Kellogg, you'd find their good points.

You know, you could look at that and say, she's not being honest.

I think she was being smart, and I encourage the practice.

Let's not be bad-mouthing people too much, okay?

Kellogg is without doubt the most colorful character that Adventism has ever produced.

We can get distracted with a thousand different stories and I will resist that diligently because it's just too much fun and we have to get through this today, so I won't.

We'll be dealing with basically what I colloquially refer to as the good Kellogg years.

Okay so we have to have a starting point and here is the starting point for our purposes.

In October into November of 1888 there was a Ministerial Institute and General Conference session held at Minneapolis.

Now those of you who've dabbled in advanced history to any degree will recognize this as the famous 1888 Minneapolis General Conference, right?

Wagner, the 10 Horns, the Law and Galatians, G.I.

Butler, Uriah Smith, that whole deal, right?

Okay, 1888 message, That's what we're talking about.

That's probably the most discussed, debated, written about event in Adventist history.

1 overlooked major factor that came out of that is this little note.

Kellogg was a converted man, and we all knew it.

We could see the converting power of God working in his heart and life.

Well now, given my sometimes irreverent personality, I don't mean that in too serious a sense, but you know, I have a curiosity, right?

So the first thing I think of is what was different?

How could they tell the guy was converted now?

He'd been an Adventist pretty much all his life.

He'd been the medical director of the sanitarium for For 12 years already.

Well, to make it nice and simple, He started being nice to people.

And it fits very nicely with the Inspired Council.

When the believer is justified because of the merit of Christ, he is not free to work on righteousness.

Faith works by love and purifies the soul.

04 Under the Influence of Satan

Gracious Father God, we count it such a privilege to come before the throne of grace and to be able to do so in Jesus' name, because as we come in His name, we can come boldly, not in the strength of our righteousness, but His.

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Series

The Great Controversy to 2021

01 The Core of War

Transcript

Parent Series

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Parts

01 The Core of War

1h 3m

02 Showing Up the Enemy

1h 8m

03 What Converted People Do

1h

04 Under the Influence of Satan

1h 1m

05 Where the Battle Lies

1h 21m

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