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HopeLives365

Mark Finley

Will the Seventh-day Adventist Church Survive?

I'm going to open my heart to you today and share some convictions that I have about the church, specifically about the church that I love, the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Will it be broken up into independent organizational structures?

Serious questions are being raised about whether the church is going to survive.

Some people are asking, is it necessary for faithful believers to leave the church?

Is he leading people to be part of some movement that is separate from the organized body to be faithful to Scripture.

I'm going to present the evidence from both the Bible and the writings of Ellen White.

Now, I recognize very well that if a person has already made up their mind, if they're a severe critic of the church, not much that I can say is going to influence them.

So critics and skeptics are not my target audience.

My target audience today are honest-hearted people that are asking serious questions that want biblical answers.

Is there apostasy in the church, or is the church in apostasy?

There's a big difference between those 2 things.

Obviously, there's apostasy in the church.

The wheat and tares are going to grow together till the harvest.

But if you say the church is in apostasy, then you are akin to saying that the church is Babylon and you invite people to leave it.

Now there are 4 great truths that we're gonna take a look at.

First, an understanding of how God will purify his church at end time.

Secondly, an understanding of God's view of church organization.

Thirdly, an understanding of the difference between apostasy in the church and the church being in apostasy.

And fourthly, an understanding of God's plan for finishing his work.

If you look throughout history, God has always called out faithful believers.

God called out Abraham from the nations around him so that Abraham's family would not be infected with the heresy of idolatry.

God called out the Jewish nation to be his own special people, according to Deuteronomy, from Egyptian bondage.

After God called them out, he worked within the Jewish community, giving them the 10 Commandments to lead them, again, from false gods and idolatry and lead them back to Sabbath observance.

And he gave them specific laws that would govern and guide the Jewish community.

As the Jewish nation drifted from God's original purpose, God called out the New Testament Christian Church.

In fact, the word church is ecclesia in the Greek language, ec meaning out and ecclesia meaning called.

So God called out the New Testament Christian Church.

As the church grew large, it entered into apostasy.

God has always had faithful men and women in every phase of church history down through the centuries.

But as the Christian Church grew large, Church and State United, you know the story well.

Shortly after the days of Constantine, by the time you come to 538 AD, we have the medieval church, the Roman Catholic Church, a church that during the Middle Ages persecuted the people of God, a church that was in apostasy.

He called out of the medieval church the Protestant Reformation.

The Protestant Reformers were the called out ones.

You have the Waldenses, you have Hus and Jerome, obedience to God was their motto.

Faithfulness to scripture, Martin Luther.

Martin Luther with salvation is by grace through faith.

And you have the Baptist and the Anabaptist movements, Baptism by Immersion, and the Methodists that talk about holiness, and the Millerite movement that talks about the advent of Christ, and Sabbath keepers.

God called out of the larger body of Protestantism, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, to restore the truths of Scripture that had been lost sight of down through the ages in the medieval church, the Union of Church and State, but some of which were recovered by the reformers.

So the Seventh-day Adventist Church is a called-out body.

Now, the devil hates the Advent movement.

Make no mistake, the devil will do everything he can to destroy the Advent movement.

The dragon, Satan, was enraged with the woman, the church.

He goes to make war with the rest of her offspring, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

So the devil is making war with God's church.

So the question is, will God keep calling out like he did in the days of Abraham, like he did in the days of Israel, like he did in the New Testament, like he did with the Reformation, like he did with the early Advent movement?

Is God going to keep calling out a movement?

There is no remnant of a remnant in the Bible.

Revelation 12, 17 says, and the dragon went to make war with the woman.

And the remnant, that is those who remain faithful and loyal to God of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the gift of prophecy.

There's not 1 shred of a text in the Bible that talks about God calling out of the remnant, another remnant.

In fact, if you look at the 7 churches in Revelation 2 and 3, you've got Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamos and Thyatira and Sardis and Philadelphia and Laodicea.

Some people say it means lukewarm, not at all.

That is the condition of the Laodicean church, but the word Laodicea means a people are judged, the people of the judgment hour.

And remember in Revelation chapter 3, when the Church of Laodicea is introduced, God says, this is the Amen.

In fact, let's take a look at that in Revelation chapter 3, when God introduces the seventh of these churches, there is no eighth, There is no movement called out of the Laodicean church.

In fact, in Revelation chapter 3, we look there at chapter 3 and introducing the Revelation 3 verse 14, to the angel of the church of Laodiceans write, for these things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

Amen, you put it at the end of the prayer.

So Laodicea, according to God is the amen.

So we wanna be where God is knocking so that we can open our hearts to God.

Laodicea is the church of the judgment hour.

There are 4 chapters in the book of Revelation that have to do with the true church.

Revelation chapter 10 is the historic rise of the true church.

Revelation chapter 12 is the identifying characteristics of the true church, keeps the commandments of God, has the testimony of Jesus.

Revelation 14 is the message of the true church and Revelation 3 is the spiritual condition of the true church.

But wait, if indeed there's not a calling out, how will God purify his church at end time?

It won't be a calling out of the faithful, it'll be a shaking out of the unfaithful.

And this is the key to understanding why God is not going to establish another movement, an offshoot movement, a parachurch movement.

Because he's not going to call out the faithful, He's going to shake out the unfaithful.

Now let's look at the biblical evidence for this.

See that you do not refuse him who speaks.

For if they did not escape, who refused him who spoke on earth, much more shall we escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth, but now he's promised, yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.

Now this yet once more indicates, don't miss this, the removal of those things that are being shaken as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Verse 28, therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.

Now notice the things that cannot be shaken remain.

Those who are shaken are the world-conforming class.

They are indeed the evildoers within the church.

They indeed are the tares within the church.

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Will the Seventh-day Adventist Church Survive?

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