We are all Fallible
In my ministry I have met people who claim the Adventist church is Babylon. I have also met people who think the Adventist church is infallible. Both ideas are wrong. The Adventist church is not Babylon, but it is not infallible either. Just because the Adventist church is not Babylon does not mean it does not make mistakes. Remember at the cross it was not Babylon crying out “Crucify Him!” It was God’s chosen remnant people. The commander of the Lord’s army realized the fallibility of God’s chosen people when He met Joshua one day.
When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and demanded, “Are you friend or foe?” “Neither one,” he replied. “I am the commander of the Lord’s army.” Joshua 5:13-14 NLT
“Neither one?” Seems like the Commander was taking a neutral stance on the situation. We can’t assume just because we are God’s chosen people that He is always on our side. Sometimes we are right. Sometimes we are wrong. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes our foes do the right thing. God loves everyone in the world, not just us. I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who is credited with saying, “The question is not if God is on my side but rather if I’m on His.”
Throughout history God had to punish His own people. Today when people tell me how “corrupt” the church has become, I ask them, when was the church ever perfect? When harlots got their business at the temple doors during Eli’s day? When God had to let Babylon destroy His holy nation because of their habitual apostasy and idolatry? When people tell me the Adventist church has strayed too far from what it used to be, and we need to go back to how it was in the days of Ellen White, I ask them, “You mean when God had to destroy the Adventist publishing house with fire because they would not follow inspired counsel?”
In Ezra’s day it was no different.
When these things had been done, the Jewish leaders came to me and said, “Many of the people of Israel, and even some of the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the other peoples living in the land. They have taken up the detestable practices of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. For the men of Israel have married women from these people and have taken them as wives for their sons. So the holy race has become polluted by these mixed marriages. Worse yet, the leaders and officials have led the way in this outrage.” Ezra 9:1-2 NLT
When the leaders and the majority of those in the church fall away from the truth no one detects it as apostasy because the apostasy becomes mainstream. Therefore apostasy looks normal. The only way to detect apostasy is to stop looking at the leaders and the majority, and look at the Word of God.
Are you reading your Bible?
Years ago I attended a health seminar, where a doctor told us that many Americans are obese and are close to having a heart attack. They don’t understand how unhealthy they are because they are no more obese than everyone around them, not realizing everyone around them is also on the verge of a heart attack. Just because obesity is mainstream in American culture does not make it healthy or any less deadly. It is the same with sin in the church.
In Ezra’s day there was a reformation as they stopped looking at those around them as role models and began comparing themselves to the Word of God. So today, we can have a reformation like never before as we compare ourselves to God’s Word instead of each other. In Daniel 9 Daniel confesses that his people have corporately sinned, and included himself as part of the sin problem. Nehemiah as well as Ezra brought about a great reformation, but even Nehemiah saw himself as part of the sin problem when he prayed,
Yes, even my own family and I have sinned! Nehemiah 1:6 NLT
While praying for reformation in the church we must confess our individual sins as well as the sins of the church. We can’t divide the church into camps and then say God is on my camp’s side, because God is not choosing sides today anymore than He was in Joshua’s day. Sometimes we are right. Sometimes we are wrong. That goes for all of us. We are all fallible. We all make mistakes. That is why Jesus never told us to follow Christian leaders. He told us to follow Him. For true reformation we must recognize our own guilt and apostasy. We must not set ourselves or anyone else up as an example to follow. We must follow Jesus and His Word alone.
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Good thoughts. It is so easy (and so destructive) to put ourselves in God’s place, especially when we judge those who have the burden of serving the body of Christ as leaders.
Stop judging, so that you won't be judged, because the way that you judge others will be the way that you will be judged, and you will be evaluated by the standard with which you evaluate others. Matthew 7:1-2, ISV.
Do not criticize each other, brothers. Whoever makes it his habit to criticize his brother or to judge his brother is judging the Law and condemning the Law. But if you condemn the Law, you are not a practicer of the Law but its judge. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge—the one who can save and destroy. So who are you to judge your neighbor? James 4:11-12, ISV.
How blessed are those who are merciful, because it is they who will receive mercy! Matthew 5:7, ISV.
I had another thought:
Do not let anyone deceive you in any way, for it will not come unless the rebellion takes place first and the man of sin, who is destined for destruction, is revealed. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship. As a result, he seats himself in the sanctuary of God and himself declares that he is God. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4.
When someone puts himself over someone else as their judge, he is puts himself in place of God and in rebellion against God, and is just like the man of sin (that is, the anti-Christ) the apostle Paul speaks of in his letter to the Thessalonians.
The scary thought is that I often catch the critical voice in my mind doing just that.
Richard Ferguson referring to Matt7:1-2 is a text that all of us should remember. The difficult application many of us would like to forget. Adventist are not only Gods chosen but some would like to think that they are. The stinging comments by William Earnhardt are difficult to swallow. As Ezra 5:9 states, who commanded you?. We might ask William the same question. True SDA are not perfect by any means,we are all sinners and fall short of the Glory of God and in need of forgivness.Romqns 3:23.
We are not qualified to judge any one. Love thy fellow man, with out judging them, very hard to do!, God will inspire his people no matter what church they belong to, by dreams and inspiration, not by us looking at each other, because we all have great faults and we need the guidence of the holy spirit just to make it through each day. Pray for the leadership of our church because weather we like it or not , it is being led by sinful people who God trust to carry it through. thanks for you posts William , always gives us something to ponder.
Nehemiah was humble and non-judgmental, but he still led out in a reformation which denounced sin. Today many of us are afraid to confront sin. We read Matthew 7:4 "How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?" And we think we should just leave sin alone because we too sin. We fail to follow through with Jesus' very clear command to remove sin from your own life and then help others to get rid of their sin. "Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye." Matthew 7:5. Too many of us are happy to leave the log in our own eye and the speck in our brothers eye, instead of dealing with sin.
"Jesus Himself never purchased peace by compromise. His heart overflowed with love for the whole human race, but He was never indulgent to their sins. He was too much their friend to remain silent while they were pursuing a course that would ruin their souls,--the souls He had purchased with His own blood. He labored that man should be true to himself, true to his higher and eternal interest. The servants of Christ are called to the same work, and they should beware lest, in seeking to prevent discord, they surrender the truth. They are to "follow after the things which make for peace" (Romans 14:19); but real peace can never be secured by compromising principle. And no man can be true to principle without exciting opposition. A Christianity that is spiritual will be opposed by the children of disobedience." Ellen White, Desire of Ages, Page 356
The word hypocrite that you mentioned, Jesus used when He addressed the scribes and Pharisees, Matt23:13.It made me wonder, could I be a hypocrite, unintentionally? In James 3:17 and a number of other texts,the word hypocrite is used, and we are told to avoid hypocrisy. Researching the word I determined how it is used. I would guess a number of people do not know or care.