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Out of the Cities—When?
Presenter: Kevin D. Paulson
Location: Internet
Delivery: 2005-10-06 13:19Z
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2005-10-06 13:19Z
Type: Article
URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/rar/pau-ootc.php
The counsel of Ellen White on leaving the cities has lately become a point of interest and discussion among faithful Seventh-day Adventists. Pastor Larry Kirkpatrick in our companion article helps us with a Out of the Cities—Reality Check. In this present article, we consider some of the inspired counsel as well as a current misinterpretation concerning when Seventh-day Adventists should leave the cities. Many are familiar, of course, with statements such as the following:
Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country, where they can raise their own provisions; for in the future the problem of buying and selling will be a very serious one. We should now begin to heed the instruction given us over and over again: Get out of the cities into rural districts, where the houses are not crowded closely together, and where you will be free from the interference of enemies (1).
The cities are filled with temptation. We should plan our work in such a way as to keep our young people as far as possible from this contamination.
The cities are to be worked from outposts. Said the messenger of God, ‘Shall not the cities be warned? Yes, but not by God’s people living in them, but by their visiting them, to warn them of what is coming upon the earth’ (2).As God’s commandment-keeping people, we must leave the cities. As did Enoch, we must work in the cities but not dwell in them (3).
When iniquity abounds in a nation, there is always to be heard some voice giving warning and instruction, as the voice of Lot was heard in Sodom. Yet Lot could have preserved his family from many evils had he not made his home in this wicked, polluted city. All that Lot and his family did in Sodom could have been done by them, even if they had lived in a place some distance away from the city. Enoch walked with God, and yet he did not live in the midst of any city polluted with every kind of violence and wickedness, as did Lot in Sodom (4).
Ellen White is especially clear that our institutions, especially sanitariums, are not to be located within cities:
Look for such places just out from the large cities, where suitable buildings may be secured, either as a gift from the owners, or purchased at a reasonable price by the gifts of our people. Do not erect buildings in the noisy cities (5).
My warning is, Keep out of the cities. Build no sanitariums in the cities. Educate our people to get out of the cities into the country, where they can obtain a small piece of land, and make a home for themselves and their children (6).
But as with every spiritual issue, we must consider all of Inspiration’s counsel before reaching a conclusion. When the totality of inspired counsel is brought to bear on this subject, it becomes clear that while God’s people are to leave the cities so far as is possible, the instruction to do so is not an absolute rule to be followed under every conceivable circumstance. At least not at the present time. Such hard-and-fast rules do exist, of course, in the counsel of both Scripture and Ellen White. But only the consensus of inspired counsel can determine whether or not a given rule is absolute or flexible.
Regarding the counsel to leave the cities, qualifying statements exist which are not always considered by those who address this topic. For example, we find such statements as, “Get out of the large cities as fast as possible” (7), and, “Whenever possible, it is the duty of parents to make homes in the country for their children” (8). Phrases like “as fast as possible” and “whenever possible” help us understand that certain considerations may render such a move, for a time, beyond the bounds of justifiable possibility.
The “Abomination of Desolation”?
More recently, an idea has circulated that the “abomination of desolation,” predicted by Daniel and repeated by our Lord (Matthew 24:15), met its modern fulfillment back in 1888 when an attempt was briefly made in the United States to pass a national Sunday law. The ancient fulfillment of this prophecy, of course, took place when the standards of the Roman army were briefly planted on the soil of Jerusalem by the commander Cestius, who soon thereafter withdrew his army and thus permitted the Christians to flee the city (Matthew 24:16) (9). The theory now being proposed is that the abortive Blair Sunday law proposal in 1888 is the modern parallel to the withdrawl of Cestius’ army in 66 A.D, and that, therefore, all Adventists since 1888 are as obligated to leave the cities as were the Christians in Jerusalem.
Let us consider what in fact Ellen White has written on this subject:
As the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman armies was the signal for flight to the Judean Christians, so the assumption of power on the part of our nation, in the decree enforcing the papal Sabbath, will be a warning to us. It will then be time to leave the large cities, preparatory to leaving the smaller ones for retired homes in secluded places among the mountains (10).
Notice carefully Ellen White’s use of such words as “the assumption of power on the part of our nation, in the decree enforcing the papal Sabbath.” Clearly she is not speaking here of a mere attempt at enforcing such a law, as happened in 1888. Rather, she is talking about the assumption of power by our nation in the decree enforcing Sunday observance. No such power was assumed, no such law was enforced, in 1888. This therefore cannot, on the basis of Ellen White’s own language, have been fulfilled during the brief Sunday law crisis of more than a century ago. Only when such a law is actually passed and enforced can the conditions described by the above statement be fulfilled.
Moreover, at least two other Ellen White statements, written after the 1888 Sunday law crisis, indicate that some of God’s people still have a work to do while living in cities:
We see the great need of missionary work to carry the truth not only to foreign countries, but to those who are near us. Close around us are cities and towns in which no efforts are made to save souls. Why should not families who know the present truth settle in these cities and villages, to set up there the standard of Christ, working in humility, not in their own way, but in God’s way, to bring the light before those who have no knowledge of it? (11).
It is not the purpose of God that His people should colonize, or settle together in large communities. The disciples of Christ are His representatives upon the earth, and God designs that they should be scattered all over the country, in the towns, cities, and villages, as lights amidst the darkness of the world (12).
The first of the above statements was written in 1891, the second in 1903. This clearly compromises the theory that Ellen White’s stand on city living after 1888 was uncompromisingly negative.
As late as 1906, Ellen White was clear that removal from the cities by God’s people was to be progressive:
More and more, as time advances, our people will have to leave the cities. For years we have been instructed that our brethren and sisters, and especially families with children, should plan to leave the cities as the way opens before them to do so. Many will have to labor earnestly to help open the way. But until it is possible for them to leave, so long as they remain, they should be most active in doing missionary work, however limited their sphere of influence may be (13).
In another statement—written the following year—she likewise is clear, by her use of the word “unnecessarily” when applied to city living, that it will be necessary for some to remain for a time in the cities:
In harmony with the light given me, I am urging people to come out from the great centers of population. Our cities are increasing in wickedness, and it is becoming more and more evident that those who remain in them unnecessarily do so at the peril of their soulŐs salvation (14).
Putting all these statements together, it becomes clear that while for the most part the cities should be worked from outposts (15), while as many as possible of God’s people should leave the cities for the country (16), not all are called upon to do this. Some will in fact be called both to labor and to live in the large cities. Until, of course, the passage of the national Sunday law in the United States. Then, for those among the faithful who have stayed in the large cities, the signal to finally leave those cities will have arrived.
In the wake of the Kellogg crisis, when some in Battle Creek were rushing to leave that city without adequate planning, the following counsel from the prophet was shared, which we do well to remember now:
Let everyone take time to consider carefully and not be like the man in the parable who began to build and was not able to finish. Not a move should be made but that movement and all that it portends are carefully considered—everything weighed…
There may be individuals who will make a rush to do something, and enter into some business they know nothing about. This God does not require…. Let there be nothing done in a disorderly manner, that there shall be a great loss or sacrifice made upon property because of ardent, impulsive speeches which stir up an enthusiasm which is not after the order of God, that a victory that was essential to be gained, shall, for lack of level-headed moderation and proper contemplation and sound principles and purposes, be turned into a defeat (17).
Once the final deadline to leave the cities arrives, Inspiration is clear what the consequences will be for those who remain in the cities:
The plagues of the last days are to be poured out on the inhabitants of the world who have shown marked contempt for the law of God. God’s people should seek to reach the people of the world, proclaiming the truth as it is found in His Word. But the time will come when they will have to move away from the cities, and live in small companies, by themselves.
If our people regard God’s instruction as of value, they will move away from the city, so that they will not be pained by its revolting sights, and that their children will not be corrupted by its vices. Those who choose to remain in the cities, surrounded by the houses of unbelievers, must share the disaster that will come upon them (18).
Elsewhere, Ellen White is clear that some of God’s people will still be living in the cities and villages of the world right up until the end, and that when honoring the final deadline to flee, they will be divinely protected:
In the time of trouble we all fled from the cities and villages but were pursued by the wicked, who entered the houses of the saints with a sword (20).
As the saints left the cities and villages they were pursued by the wicked, who sought to slay them. But the swords that were raised to kill God’s people broke and fell as powerless as a straw. Angels of God shielded the saints (21).
Though a general decree has fixed the time when commandment-keepers may be put to death, their enemies will in some cases anticipate the decree, and before the time specified will endeavor to take their lives. But none can pass the mighty guardians stationed about every faithful soul. Some are assailed in their flight from the cities and villages, but the swords raised against them break and fall as powerless as a straw. Others are defended by angels in the form of men of war (22).
These statements clearly disallow the paranoid assumption of certain extreme ones who claim that if people wait to leave the cities until the time of trouble, conditions will be so severe as to prevent them from doing so. The above passages plainly state that those who necessarily remain in the cities till the last deadline will in fact be protected by angels when they must finally flee.
Putting the above statement alongside the earlier one on the sign to leave the large cities (17), we can see that once the plagues begin to fall, God’s people will have left the cities, though until then it may be necessary for some of them to live there.
One must also remember that living in the city is no longer necessary in order to imbibe moral corruption. Not only the television set, but the networked world built by computer technology, provides the world’s decadence at the inquirer’s finger tips. The longer the controversy with evil continues, the more ingrained transgression will become in human culture, and the less likely it will be to physically remove ourselves from contact with it. Wherever our vocational or spiritual duties require us to live, the approach of the final crisis will necessitate a level of consecration and godly strength never before seen or required in sacred history.
Conclusion
The superior benefits of country living are beyond doubt for any careful student of Inspiration, and likely for others also. Certainly, as far as possible, faithful Seventh-day Adventists should relocate themselves away from large cities, securing country homes and quieter settings more conducive to sanctification and Christian growth. But if the full weight of inspired evidence is considered, we cannot insist that all without exception must leave the cities until the enforcement of the image to the beast in America ushers in the last of the closing events.
Endnotes
- Ellen G. White, The Adventist Home, p. 141.
- ________, Evangelism, p. 77.
- Ibid., pp. 77, 78.
- Ibid., p. 78.
- Ibid., p. 77.
- ________, Country Living, p. 10.
- ________, The Adventist Home, p. 139.
- Ibid., p. 141.
- ________, The Great Controversy, pp. 30, 31.
- ________, Testimonies, vol. 5, pp. 464, 465.
- ________, Christian Service, p. 180.
- ________, Testimonies, vol. 8, p. 244.
- ________, Review and Herald, September 27, 1906 (also in Country Living, p. 24).
- ________, Country Living, p. 9 (See also Last Day Events, p. 119).
- ________, Evangelism, p. 77.
- Ibid., pp. 77, 78; The Adventist Home, pp. 139, 141, etc.
- ________, Selected MEssages, vol. 2, pp. 362, 363 (see also Last Day Events, p. 120).
- ________, Manuscript Releases, vol. 17, p. 350.
- ________, Testimonies, vol. 5, pp. 464, 465.
- ________, Early Writings, p. 34.
- Ibid.
- ________, The Great Controversy, p. 631. GCO
Document history: reference added 2005-10-14.
Second revision on 2005-11-09.
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