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Four Seventh-day Adventist Sins That Prevent the Advent,
Pt. 2:
Unbelief
Larry Kirkpatrick, Mentone Seventh-day Adventist Church, April 22, 2005.
First, from last sabbath. We read these four paragraphs and realized that there are four special sins that have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow for so many extra years. Remember,
God had committed to His people a work to be accomplished on earth. The third angel's message was to be given, the minds of believers were to be directed to the heavenly sanctuary, where Christ had entered to make atonement of His people. The Sabbath reform was to be carried forward. The breach in the law of God must be made up. The message must be proclaimed with a loud voice, that all the inhabitants of earth might receive the warning. The people of God must purify their souls through obedience to the truth, and be prepared to stand without fault before Him at His coming.
Had Adventists, after the great disappointment in 1844, held fast their faith and followed on unitedly in the opening providence of God, receiving the message of the third angel and in the power of the Holy Spirit proclaiming it to the world, they would have seen the salvation of God, the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts, the work would have been completed, and Christ would have come ere this to receive His people to their reward. But in the period of doubt and uncertainty that followed the disappointment, many of the advent believers yielded their faith…. Thus the work was hindered, and the world was left in darkness. Had the whole Adventist body united upon the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, how widely different would have been our history!
It was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be thus delayed. God did not design that His people, Israel, should wander forty years in the wilderness. He promised to lead them directly to the land of Canaan, and establish them there a holy, healthy, happy people. But those to whom it was first preached, went not in ‘because of unbelief.’ Their hearts were filled with murmuring, rebellion, and hatred, and He could not fulfill His covenant with them.
For forty years did unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion shut out ancient Israel from the land of Canaan. The same sins have delayed the entrance of modern Israel into the heavenly Canaan. In neither case were the promises of God at fault. It is the unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife among the Lord’s professed people that have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years (Ellen G. White, Evangelism, pp. 695, 696).
Thus, one of the four main reasons why Israel failed at the borders of the promised land was the topic we lay our special emphasis upon today: “unbelief.” What is it, in what way did Israel indulge it, in what ways might we indulge it, and how can we take concrete steps to prevent its deadly manifestation in one’s own personal experience?
What is Unbelief?
What is unbelief? Remember, at the Fall of man, the enmity between himself and sin was lost. But God said He would work to “put” that lost enmity back into him, that He would help him stand in the spiritual battle, that He would help him take the side of truth. If we will allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, if we, in the power of God, die to self, this inward perverseness, this brokenness, this misinforming compass, can be overcome.
There is a certain willfulness in unbelief, a perverse determination not to go in God’s way. There is an unnecessary refusal. Apart from our allowing a divine intervention, we find in ourselves an obstacle which we hold there with stubborn persistency, and which interposes between our soul and God. It is the obstacle of unbelief. We allow ourselves to distrust God, to be filled with anxiety, and that is a kind of unbelief. Doubt and fear may be indulged in such a way that they become unbelief.
There is a doubting and fear that is not Heaven-born; it is unbelief. Persons who are affected by it will go this way and that, until they are confused, and do not know when they are right, and when they are wrong. Small things take their minds, and keep them in a constant fever and unrest. Some matter which does not belong to them attracts their attention, and they keep agitating it, as though that were the all-important matter to be considered (Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, December 10, 1885).
So we notice that unbelief bends the discernment until it can no longer discern. Left to run away, unbelief will rip out all the vitals and leave nothing behind. We must stand as Christians and seek to arrest the manifestations of unbelief rather than let them do their baleful work.
Moses’ Analysis of the Wilderness Unbelief
In Deuteronomy 1:26-36 Moses speaks directly to their unbelief as it happened in the desert:
Ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God: And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, He hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there. Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The LORD your God which goeth before you, He shall fight for you, according to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes; and in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God, who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day. And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD.
Notice carefully what the Bible says. It was rebellion. It was unfairness. Imagine them, in their tents, speaking these gross untruths about God. God brought us up out of Egypt because He hated us? He brought us out of bondage to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites? He delivered them to destroy them?
After the report of the leaders that discouraged the otherwise ready-to-go people, now they asked, Why should we go up? The unbelief of their brethren had discouraged their hearts. They had reported that the inhabitants of the land were greater and taller than the Hebrews, their cities impregnably fortified. And of course, they kept talking about the giants, and as they talked about them, they became bigger and bigger, and they saw themselves smaller and smaller. Talk of God, of course, is hardly mentioned. There must not have been much.
Moses pointed them back to God. He pointed them to His watchcare through all the wilderness. He pointed them to how God led them as if they were His son, how He fought for them in Egypt and would fight for them in Canaan. “Yet in this thing [the final step, entry into the promised land], ye did not believe the Lord your God.”
All the chatter about the obstacles was unbelief, and it was extremely displeasing to the Lord. It counteracted all that He was seeking to do for them. Moses said, “The Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers.” But Caleb and Joshua were exceptions. Why? Because they had “wholly followed the Lord.”
Paul’s Analysis of the Wilderness Unbelief
Paul also gives us a detailed analysis of what happened in the wilderness in Hebrews 3:7-4:16:
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear His voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known My ways. So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, As I have sworn in My wrath, if they shall enter into My rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into My rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: Again, He limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus [that is, Joshua] had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Let’s think about this powerful passage. Paul reminds the Jews in his day that the Holy Spirit speaks, that the voice of God comes to us through His ministry. He is working. That is one side. But then there is the human choice of how to respond to that working. They hardened their hearts in the wilderness, they committed what Paul calls “the provocation,” and “the day of temptation.” If we, as a people, have been sent back into the wilderness for another lap, then must not we have committed our own willful “provocation,” our own “temptation” of God?
What was it? Could it be connected with certain key decision points in our history as Seventh-day Adventists? Could we have been given books like The Desire of Ages and Steps to Christ and Christ’s Object Lessons to cryogenically freeze the message and preserve it till we came back round to within sight of the promised land again?
But let’s continue with our passage. Paul reminds the Jews that their fathers tested God, proved Him, saw His miracles forty years. What of this generation that had to retreat back into the wilderness? God said of them that “They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known My ways.” Where do they err? In their hearts. Although He volunteered to be their God and to lead them, and although He gave them revelation concerning Himself and His character in His law and His guiding counsel, they refused to learn His ways and thus to know them. And what is this but the same concept as found in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 where He warns that those who receive not the love of the truth, but confirm themselves in their pleasure in unrighteousness, receive lies about the gospel resulting in no true heart preparation and thus leading to their final condemnation. Yes, He swore in His wrath that none like that would enter in.
Paul warns to beware lest in any one of his listeners there might develop an evil heart of unbelief, a heart that departs from the living God. With whom was God grieved those forty years? With those who sinned. And how else are exactly this group described? “To whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Unbelief, friends, was the ultimate reason, the ultimate blockade. It shaped the history of Israel and informed us where our own history would tend if we were not careful to learn lessons from those wasting, dead carcasses buried in the sands of the desert of Sin. They could not enter in because of unbelief.
So what lesson does Paul draw from this? Let’s go down to the ABC and buy the Purpose Driven Life by some Egyptian or Babylonian religious writer? No, but “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” Our response is to fear, yes, fear, that we will miss out at the fulfillment of the promise. It’s not, “Don’t worry, be happy,” it’s, “be careful and thus be happy.” We need to be careful.
Notice that while today all anyone wants to speak about is God’s part, what is the warning? It is that we are at risk of coming short. The warning is directed to us, us the listeners or readers of Hebrews. “For unto us was the gospel preached as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them.” What was the problem? It was not mixed with faith. No, because instead of mixing it with faith it was mixed with unbelief. The word was given from heaven, it was presented, but hearts refused to believe. The underlying Greek word for faith and belief is the same. To express unbelief is to express unfaith.
Did you notice where the problem comes? Not in God or heaven, not in the preacher, but in the heart of the listener or reader. Oh yes, to them was the gospel preached—to those supposedly backwards, legalistic Hebrews in the wilderness. But the gospel was preached before Numbers chapter 13, in the first three books of the Bible and those 12 preceding chapters of the fourth. The gospel was there, it is there. Before we ever get close to books like Romans or Galatians, it is there. Moses had it and presented it. So there was no excuse for the behavior of the Hebrews at the border of the promised land. But their hearts were filled with unbelief.
Paul urges us, almost paradoxically, to labor to enter into our rest. We must cease from trying to get to heaven by our own works, but realize that only obedience on God’s terms and empowered by His strength working in us, can transform us. Only belief, the active exercise of faith can bring us that rest that comes from trusting in God and experiencing in ourselves deliverance from the bondage of an unregenerate nature. How are we at risk of falling? By living down to their example of unbelief. We are given His word to search us through and pointed to Christ’s ministry in the heavenly sanctuary for cleansing.
Jesus lived the passage of the Hebrews through the wilderness and into the promised land. When the devil tempted Him, each time He answered with a quotation from a part of the testing of the 40 year wilderness journey of the Hebrews. They failed. Jesus was victorious. His example is for us. He is our great High Priest now. Now we can come boldly to the throne of grace through one who has taken our very own nature and conquered sin in it.
In Christ, God has provided means for subduing every sinful trait, and resisting every temptation, however strong. But many feel that they lack faith, and therefore they remain away from Christ. Let these souls, in their helpless unworthiness, cast themselves upon the mercy of their compassionate Saviour. Look not to self, but to Christ. He who healed the sick and cast out demons when He walked among men is the same mighty Redeemer today. Faith comes by the word of God. Then grasp His promise, ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’ John 6:37. Cast yourself at His feet with the cry, ‘Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.’ You can never perish while you do this—never (Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 429).
Unbelief and God’s Present People
What of us today? How are we manifesting unbelief today? Would this speaker dare to give examples? Would we dare today to step not only on toes, but torsos? We’ll be straight, but if you feel this is too strong, wait until we come to the last talk in this short series. After you have heard that, you can react as you will.
Unbelief, 2005 style. Do we know it when we see it? How about our schools? This was published on April 14 at one West Coast “Adventist” school. Is this unbelief?
Perhaps we too, can gain by looking to Pope John Paul II as a good example of what it means to be a Christian. I find it ironic that we criticize Catholics for looking to one man who they consider appointed by God to be a leader in their church. Do we not do the same with Ellen White? Were they not both godly individuals whom God used in a powerful way to lead His people through hard times? I imagine if they met each other and looked back at their respective churches, they might both shake their heads and say with a sigh, ‘Oh, those rowdy kids.’ May we live in such a manner as to meet them both someday.
Is the man who is the most central manifestation of antichrist on the planet today to be held forth as an ideal example of Christianity? This is insane. Further, to compare him to one we understand to be a prophet, and to suggest that we treat Mrs. White as they do the pope? Were they both godly individuals, Ellen G. White and Pope John Paul II? Are they on an equal plain, the CEO of antichrist, and the messenger sent to take us into the promised land? This is rank unbelief. This is poison. Heads should roll at that school. To put this in front of anyone is censurable, but to put it in front of our youth is to teach Israel to sin. It is unbelief in its most fetid form.
Why, last year none other than our General Conference President said, in so many words, and with a straight face before 1000 Seventh-day Adventist young people, that if they didn’t like what was happening at our denominationally-run schools, they should attend other schools, that he could do nothing about our schools. But that was not the truth. There are things he can do. But he won’t. We say our schools are prisoners of hope, but this is only the case for some of them. Many of them, Mrs. White would tell us today that if we cannot operate them as Christian, as Seventh-day Adventist, they should be sold to the world. Don’t believe me?
Our school was established not merely to teach the sciences, but for the purpose of giving instruction in the great principles of God’s Word, and in the practical duties of everyday life. This is the education so much needed at the present time. If a worldly influence is to bear sway in our school, then sell it out to worldlings, and let them take the entire control, and those who have invested their means in that institution will establish another school to be conducted, not upon the plan of popular schools, nor according to the desires of principal and teachers, but upon the plan which God has specified (Ellen G. White, Pamphlet 140, p. 11).
The General Conference President can do better than this. Who is more responsible than this man to lead us to reform or to sell such schools? To teach our children unbelief is a tragedy of the first proportion. We are told that “If there is unbelief, there is danger that it will be expressed. The lips should be kept in as with bit and bridle, lest by giving expression to this unbelief you not only exert an injurious influence over others, but place yourselves upon the enemy’s ground” (Ellen G. White, Historical Sketches, p. 132). Far from holding our tongue as with bit and bridle, in many of our schools our children are being taught unbelief.
When a leader at that level says, in so many words, lump it or leave it, it is the same, the very same, as saying, the land eats up the inhabitants thereof, the cities are walled to heaven, the giants are there, the sons of Anak are in control of our schools and we are helpless.
Reform them or sell them. But don’t promote them until they are right with God. When they teach unbelief, they are doing the work of Satan. What does God’s Word say? ”Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper” (2 Chronicles 20:20).
Our schools are one part of our problem. Our publications are another.
Innumerable examples could be given. We’ll settle for just one:
It isn’t true followers of Jesus, but the careless and defiant who focus on the ‘delay’ in the Second Coming! …Nor does the Bible support the idea that humans can frustrate God’s plan. To the contrary: the Scriptures portray God as Lord of time and space, working out His sovereign will unchecked…. The Bible nowhere suggests that we can delay the advent (William G. Johnsson, The Fragmenting of Adventism, pp. 76, 77).
Did you get the gist of that? Did you really? “Special message from the editor of the Review: We are not in the wilderness. Repeat, we are not in the wilderness. Relax. Remain seated.”
We are doing worse than Israel. They at least realized they were in the wilderness! We are being told we are not even in the wilderness, that the sagebrush and the desert we see before us actually is the promised land. This is the very thinking that has kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years. It is past time for it to cease.
Now perhaps some are thinking, Why are you unsettling us? Why are you showing no confidence in our leaders? Friends, think of the 12 spies. All twelve were leaders; but the majority of that group taught unbelief, and Israel had to go round for another lap. A grave responsibility rests upon “leaders” today. But wait. Since our leaders are elected, not appointed, upon whom does the responsibility rest? Is it not us ourselves? We are responsible to hold them accountable. We’d better do it. But while we are holding them accountable, we need to be doing God’s work, we need to be going forward. We need to be willing to realize that we are not in Canaan, we are in the wilderness. We have not yet allowed our God to lead us into the promised land. We have not crossed Jordan. Bold steps need to be taken to bring things into an atmosphere where positive change can occur.
Preventing Unbelief in My Own Experience
On a personal basis, what can we do? We can feed our faith by actively living in accordance with our declared standards. We will talk more of this in the upcoming message on consecration. We can leave behind worldliness, and we will speak more of that next week. We should read our Bibles and Spirit of Prophecy books now, and forsake other reading that leads us to unbelief. Books by blind Adventist theologians can be first into the burn barrel. In the New Testament they went out and burned their books about magic. Some of us would do well to have our own personal burn party and throw out the books of a list of our “theologians” that are teaching unbelief.
I’m not here to make any list like that for you. But I am here, called of God to warn you. That’s what I am doing. Check all your facts. Learn what your faith is for yourself. Follow us as leaders only so far as we follow Christ. If I or any other leader begins to march you backwards toward Egypt, follow us no more. Give Caleb and Joshua your support. Beware of listening today to the Shammuas, Shapats, Igals, Paltis, Gaddiels, Gaddis, Ammiels, Sethurs, Nahbis, and Geuels among us. Most especially when they tell you that we are not even in the wilderness any more. Until now, brothers and sisters, Adventists have not entered in because of unbelief. Now it’s our turn. What will we choose?
Next week: Four Seventh-day Adventist Sins That Prevent the Advent, Pt. 3: Worldliness. GCO
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