Michigan Camp Meeting 2024: As For Me and My House

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

True and False Religious Liberty

Jonathon Cherne

01 The True Image

02 The Counterfeit Image

03 Pray for America Again - True Revival

04 Make America Pray Again - Counterfeit Revival

05 Current Religious Liberty Issues in America

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2024 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

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

Father in Heaven, Lord, we thank You for another day, Lord.

Thank You, Father, that we can be here, that we can look at some of the prophetic events that are taking place in our world right now, Lord.

And it's just a reminder to us to look up and behold that our redemption draws nigh, Lord.

So help us to stay faithful to You, Lord.

We ask that Your Holy Spirit be here and be present, Lord, that it guide my words, Lord, and Lord that it that our hearts and ears are open as well.

Okay, everyone have their glasses with them this morning?

Okay, so we didn't get into too much yesterday, but we're going to dive in today.

And so we've got to have those prophetic glasses on all right now I'm probably not going to surprise anyone by saying that you know it's the when you look at you know events and the news headlines and things happening in this country, it's the political right that is catering more to Christianity.

And because of this we'll be talking about different things and events, probably more that the political right is doing than the left, you know, just because of the nature of prophecy and that the image of the beast is the apostate Protestantism, right, which unites with the United States of America.

And so that isn't to say, you know, just because we're looking maybe more so in an unbalanced way at the political right, isn't to say that the political left isn't just as dangerous.

So you know the political left wants to suppress Christianity whereas the political right wants to exalt Christianity to a place it shouldn't be.

And so you see that both have their errors, right?

But really, there is 1 party that's more dangerous than the other.

It's the 1 that you identify most closely with.

That's the political party that's most dangerous because that's the 1 that could sweep you in to their ideas, right?

Because you align with their thinking more and so it can, if you're more closely aligned with the left, you're more likely to be swept away by the left.

And if you're more closely aligned with the right, you're more likely to be swept away by the right.

So you have to be very careful, you know, be very careful.

But in reality, we need to be more closely aligned with Christ, right?

You know, we shouldn't be caught up in politics.

Anyways, really, in fact, there's a great statement by Ellen White.

It says, the Lord would have his people bury political questions.

1, you're talking with your neighbor, your co-worker about politics, you're not talking to them about the gospel.

You're missing an opportunity right there to talk to them about the gospel.

So you have that going against you, but the other reason why silence is eloquence is because if they have an ideology that's on the other side of the aisle, you're going to lose the opportunity to be able to witness to that person, most likely.

You know, they're gonna think, oh man, this person's way out in left field or way out in right field.

I guess my right's over here, my left's over there.

And I'm not gonna listen to them about politics or about the Bible, right?

And so we don't want to alienate anybody from being able to share the gospel.

And so Ellen White says, silence is eloquence.

It's not to mean that we don't have our own values and that we should vote those values, but as far as spreading political questions, silence is eloquence.

It finishes, Christ calls upon His followers to come into unity on the pure gospel principles which are plainly revealed in the Word of God." We cannot with safety vote for political parties, for we do not know who we are voting for.

So we're not supposed to just go down the party line and check, check, check, right?

Because we are supposed to be part of the heavenly party.

We don't know what's going on behind the scenes.

We cannot with safety take part in any political schemes?

You know Satan has his hands in politics right both sides of politics and so you know we We don't know all that's going on behind the scenes.

And so he's saying we cannot with safety just vote for political parties.

So this is a Letter 95, 1899, paragraph 2.

I was going to take questions at the end, but is it something unrelated to the topic?

Yeah, I remember reading about her saying where the alcohol problem took over on Sabbath that we had.

Yeah, so, he said that, Elroy talks about voting on issues, not people, the whole alcohol prohibition.

So yeah, it's important for us to vote our convictions, but not to just vote down party lines.

Okay, so we've been talking about the images, the 2 images that are forming, and the true image is the image of Christ, right?

And that's the image that we all want, and it's formed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the chief attribute of that image we saw in Colossians 3 is love, and it's a love that obeys.

And so the true image is Christ's faithful bride.

She's obedient to God, and she's reflecting His image of love and gentleness and kindness and long-suffering.

Hosea 2.19 says, I will betroth thee unto me forever.

Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, in judgment, in loving kindness, and in mercies.

So God wants to betroth his people, his true bride to him, in righteousness and judgment and loving-kindness and mercies.

That's the image of Christ that we are to have and that we will have when we spend time with Him and get to know Him.

Now the counterfeit image looks like it, that's why it's a counterfeit, right?

It looks just like it, but it's the image of Antichrist, The image of the Papacy, also known as the Sea Beast in Revelation chapter 13.

And this image is formed by might and power, not by the Spirit.

The might and power of the United States of America, as we see there in Revelation 13.

And the chief attribute of this image we saw from the Great Controversy is love.

But it's a love that disregards God's judgments, disregards His commandments.

And we saw yesterday about the men of lawlessness, right?

Okay, so we're going to be talking more about this counterfeit image, this unfaithful bride, which is the apostate Protestant churches, Ellen White told us there in the Great Controversy, that unite with the United States government to form this image of the papacy where government and church are uniting.

And so the unfaithful bride, she leaves the protective arms of Christ and she goes into the powerful arms of the state, right?

And so you can imagine the imagery, you can picture the imagery there, you know, leaving the arms of Christ and going into the arms of the state.

Now when did the Protestant churches in America start to apostatize?

There's a whole chapter in Great Controversy called A Warning Rejected.

A Warning Rejected, and here's a quote, it's page 380, it says, "...in refusing the warning of the first angel, they rejected the means which heaven had provided for their restoration.

They spurned the gracious messenger that would have corrected the evils which separated them from God.

And with greater eagerness, they turned to seek the friendship of the world." What does the Bible say the friendship of the world is?

James Ford says, here was the cause of that fearful condition of worldliness, backsliding, and spiritual death which existed in the churches in 1844.

And so when the Protestant churches rejected the midnight cry in 1844, it resulted in their spiritual death.

And so then they turned to the world, They lost the power of the Holy Spirit because God's Spirit was moving with those who accepted the message, accepted the sanctuary message, and then became the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as we know, who have the testimony of Jesus and keep His commandments.

And when they rejected that and turned to the world, it corrupted their faith.

It says, "...many of the Protestant churches are following Rome's example of an iniquitous connection with the kings of the earth by their relation to secular governments and by seeking the favor of the world." And so this is why we have to be careful about our church and our relation with secular governments and also with seeking the favor of the world.

Series

True and False Religious Liberty

03 Pray for America Again - True Revival

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

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