The message by Ted N.C. Wilson, president of the Adventist world church, at the 2014 Annual Council on Oct. 11 in Silver Spring, Maryland.

<p>The message by Ted N.C. Wilson, president of the Adventist world church, at the 2014 Annual Council on Oct. 11 in Silver Spring, Maryland.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Ted N.C. Wilson

God’s Prophetic Movement, Message, and Mission and Their Attempted Neutralization by the Devil

We could actually have the benediction and the message will be clear.

I ask Carla to sing that simple plea, Not I but Christ, as we enter into the continued deliberations of our annual council for 2014, and also the sober subject that we will look at this morning from the Word of God.

I want to welcome all of you again to this very important gathering.

The annual council just prior to the general conference session, at which time we will be looking at many things that will be forwarded on to the session.

May all that we do be representative of Christ.

In particular, I would like to again welcome Pastor Paulson, our past president and his wife here in our midst.

I also wish to praise God and thank him for the presence of Pastor and Mrs.

And we're grateful that God has brought them through a very difficult situation.

Munger for being with us and your daughter is with you.

Munger experienced a very serious cardiac problem this past week, but through intervention he's here this morning and we praise God for that.

You know there's so many things to be thankful for.

Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

And now a quotation from Patriarchs and Prophets, a magnificent book that has brought many to the foot of the cross as it focused upon the origin of sin and the great plan of salvation.

Pages 503 to 504, Satan is ever at work endeavouring to pervert what God has spoken, to blind the mind and darken the understanding and thus lead men into sin.

This is why the Lord is so explicit, making his requirements so very plain that none need err.

God is constantly seeking to draw men close under his protection that Satan may not practice his cruel, deceptive power upon them God's prophetic movement, message, and mission, and their attempted neutralization by the devil himself.

The Seventh-day Adventists at this 2014 Annual Council, we affirm without hesitation that God has given us a special mission for these closing hours of Earth's history.

We see this vividly portrayed in the book of Revelation.

Chapter 10 of Revelation foretells the experience of our advent pioneers as they look forward to Christ's return.

After the disappointment in 1844, an experience described as bitter in the stomach, their attention was turned to Christ's work in the heavenly sanctuary and the divine mandate to prophesy again to many people, nations, tongues and kings.

This prophetic movement described in Revelation 12, 17 as God's remnant people who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus, is constituted by 1 body of faith today.

And I don't say this with personal egotism or pride.

Only 1 body of faith today, the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Thus, it is no surprise to see Satan warring against us with unbridled fury.

Chapter 13 outlines Satan's twofold war plan to destroy God's last day people.

Number 1, an ideological war of lies and errors challenging the truth.

And number 2, firefights, outright persecution culminating in a death decree against all who defy Satan's presumed authority.

Yes, God's people are not merely victims of Satan's assaults.

Revelation 14 reveals God's counter-offensive, His remnant people demonstrating His character and proclaiming His final, last warning and appeal to the world, the 3 angels' messages.

The powerful truth of these unique messages, found in Revelation 14, would break completely the deception of Satan if proclaimed as God intends.

The message of the first angel gives the gospel to the world, announces that we are living in the time of the pre-advent investigative judgment, and calls upon every nation, tribe, tongue and people to honor God as their Creator by keeping holy his seventh day Sabbath, the very day on which we are assembled here in this auditorium and millions of Adventists around the world.

Well finally the third angel warns us in language too plain to misunderstand, not to worship the beast, the image of the beast, or receive the mark of his rebellion, which is a sign of disloyalty to God's Word.

It is little wonder then that Satan is doing everything he can to attack the Seventh-Day Adventist movement in an attempt to neutralize our influence in the territory that Satan claims is his own.

As we pray for the converting power of the Holy Spirit, for a revival of reformation and true genuine godliness, The devil opposes every 1 of us every step of the way.

In the great controversy, page 396, we're told the following.

The prince of evil contests every inch of ground over which God's people advance in their journey toward the heavenly city.

In all the history of the church, no reformation has been carried forward without encountering serious obstacles.

Though large-scale persecution will certainly come.

Currently, Satan is trying to work from the inside to weaken the church through dissension, discord, and conformity to the world.

Now let me just tell you, I'm not just preaching at you, I'm preaching to my own heart.

You see, Testimonies, Volume 3, page 434 says, Satan is ever seeking to divide the faith and hearts of God's people.

He well knows that union is their strength, and division is their weakness.

It is important and essential that all of God's or Christ's followers understand Satan's devices and with a united front meet his attacks and vanquish him.

They need to make continual efforts to press together, even if it be at some sacrifice to themselves.

You see, Satan also tries to neutralize our efforts by secular diversions such as competitive sports, internet, social media, television, entertainment, and so many other distracting activities.

He seeks to absorb people in financial deals and materialistic matters.

He uses poor health habits and lack of respect for God's natural laws, as we talked about on Thursday evening in the lead conference.

And let me just say I praise God for the powerful way in which annual council has begun with the lead conference.

Thank you, Pastor Ng for your leadership in that.

And the Council on Evangelism and Witness which will continue this afternoon.

You see, the Lord wants us to have the special relationship with Him that will counter these activities of the devil but the devil uses all kinds of things to be numb our senses.

He uses skepticism about the veracity of the scriptural origin of life and early history.

He tries to bring in controversy and discord over Bible doctrine to sidetrack our evangelistic witness by getting us to distrust and fight each other.

He urges people to move independently from the main body of the Church, but the spirit of prophecy compares the Church to a victorious army that should move together in unison.

Manuscript 37 in the year 1886 reminds us that none must act independently of the center.

An independent action will do harm and bring in disorderly state of things.

We are even warned that at the end of time, Satan will inspire individuals who will preach that reformation within the church consists in giving up our unique doctrines in order to make it easier for others to join us.

Conformity to worldly customs converts the church to the world.

It never converts the world to the church or to Christ.

Familiarity with sin will inevitably cause it to appear less repulsive.

He who chooses to associate with the servants of Satan will soon cease to fear their master.

Brothers and sisters, our only hope is an abiding faith in the Word of God, trust in inspired counsel, fervent prayer, and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Without these heavenly compass points we would be most certainly susceptible to fall to Satan's misdirection.

The historical, critical and higher critical methods of Biblical interpretation negatively affect a clear understanding of the themes and topics of the Bible.

As we seek to know God's will through a study of His Word, We must not play strange interpretations and employ interpretive gymnastics to draw out conclusions that are not evident from a plain reading of the word.

On a recent trip to Africa, it was a great privilege about a year and a half ago to visit West Africa and to visit Monrovia, to visit the groundbreaking of our college there, which hopefully will reactivate, be reactivated soon.

But it's a great privilege to visit Africa.

I spent about 17 years of my life on that continent.

And I love those people in all parts of Africa.

I was on a trip recently back in March or so to Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, and South Africa.

I saw on this trip, on a trip there, a very interesting African saying.

When you read the Bible upside down, you will get an upside down understanding.

Great Controversy, page 598 says, the language of the Bible should be explained according to its obvious meaning, unless a symbol or figure is employed.

If men would but take the Bible as it reads, If there were no false teachers to mislead and confuse their minds, a work would be accomplished that would make angels glad and that would bring into the fold of Christ thousands upon thousands who are now wandering in error.

I have with me here 2 beautiful samples of Bibles, magnificent Bibles that have been produced for specific groups within our church, magnificent Bible here for Pathfinders.

I want to tell you thousands of Pathfinders are now finding tremendous help in this book which was produced by our General Conference Youth Ministries Department.

Beautiful helps in here, something that is precious to those Pathfinders.

It was a privilege to be at the great Pathfinder Camperee just a few days ago, Pastor Jackson, and others, many of you were there, 45, 000 plus people.

I want to tell you God is doing something special with our young people.

Well, they're both the New King James Version, so they didn't mess with the Bible.

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God’s Prophetic Movement, Message, and Mission and Their Attempted Neutralization by the Devil

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