Two Minutes: An Appeal to the GC Delegates

Extracted Verses and Quotes from the Sermon

Biblical Verses

Luke 14:16-24

[The parable of the banquet, where after the guests declined their invitations, the master sent his servants out to “compel” them to attend.]

Revelation 3:20

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

Memorable Quotes

“We are now days from the 2022 General Conference session when the global Adventist family will meet to discuss, to pray, and to make decisions among the delegates.”

“I am a cancelled delegate.”

“Cancellation exists in totalitarian societies around the world. It exists to destroy any individual who does not bow to the dominant narrative within a given society.”

“Cancer culture’s totalitarianism is also growing within Western Adventism.”

“If you have the temerity to preach and uphold our 28 fundamental beliefs, for instance, if as a preacher you choose to defend biblical marriage versus same-sex marriage or biblical anthropology versus critical gender theory, vigorous attempts will be made to cancel you for fear of offending the post-biblical woke agenda on our college campuses.”

“Speaking the truth is no longer acceptable within the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”

“The General Conference leadership saw fit to issue a global condemnation of me via Adventist News Network in a statement entitled ‘Concerns regarding COVID-19, Church governance and Liberty of conscience’.”

“It would undermine Church Authority, create confusion, and lead to fragmentation.”

“It would lead to a lack of trust in God’s last day Church.”

“The affirmation statement of October 2021 claims that vaccination programs are important for the safety and health of our members and the larger community. Therefore, claims of religious liberty are not used appropriately in objecting to government mandates or employer programs designed to protect the health and safety of their communities.”

“The General Conference leadership effectively gave the green light to every employer, every government, every college, every university, every hospital system in the world to inflict whatever pain they might choose to upon innocent Adventists worldwide.”

“The General Conference AdCom has the right to ‘consider other routine administrative issues as they arise and give general counsel to World Church entities as requested.'”

“Under the new and illegitimate interpretation, the General Conference leadership assumed the right of denominational leaders to override the good conscience decisions of members worldwide relating to their bodies and personal medical treatment.”

“The conference president cannot tell you what medication to take, nor can the conference executive committee or the conference AdCom. Your personal medical decisions or where you live or where you bank or what you wear are your decisions.”

“The General Conference’s interpretation of its authority is entirely illegitimate. They do not have the authority to make statements like they did with the reaffirmation statement.”

“Augustine of Hippo said that heretics should be compelled by torture if necessary to enter the church where they would find true freedom and salvation.”

“Martin Luther said: ‘Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason, I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, because they have contradicted each other. My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. So help me God.'”

“The essence of the Protestant Reformation is that a man can come before God in confession and repentance and receive the gift of salvation by faith from God and the infilling of the Holy Spirit without the need for an ecclesiastical hierarchy to mediate or to interpret or to determine God’s will for the individual.”

“We have witnessed a stream of condemnation from current and former denominational religious liberty leaders … towards regular members who chose to honor their body, the temple.”

“Professor Nicholas Miller said: ‘I’m not arguing for mandatory vaccination, but I am saying that your choice not to be vaccinated will appropriately come with limitations on community participation, work and travel.'”

“Professor Nicholas Miller compared the anti-vaccination movement to the murderous and adulterous leader of the Branch Davidians, David Koresh, who perished along with many of his followers at Waco.”

“James D. Stanish wrote: ‘If we choose to believe the lies and spread them, someone we love may very well be the next Adventist to die a horrible, lonely, completely unnecessary death.'”

“My uncle, coming from a Roman Catholic background, said: ‘I recognize when an institution is overriding the conscience of its members. I’ve seen it in the atrocities perpetrated by the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Ireland. I recognize the same spirit being manifest by the General Conference leadership in the reaffirmation statement. Therefore, I want to be baptized in the body of Christ but never become a Seventh-day Adventist as long as these statements exist.'”

“When vitriolic condemnations of individual church members are posted on official church websites and magazines, while church leaders simultaneously preach that tithes and offerings must be returned by those demonized members to the storehouse, we are witnessing an abusive relationship.”

“I am calling on our General Conference Public Affairs and Religious Liberty leaders to immediately turn back from this abusive relationship that you are perpetrating on our members by withdrawing such condemnations and apologizing for the harm done.”

“As Adventists, we focus on the spiritual blindness, material wealth, spiritual self-sufficiency, and lukewarm nature of the Laodicean church, but we tend to overlook that the door is closed—and it is closed because those with leadership responsibilities assume the right to close the door so that the voice of Jesus via our conscience is stifled or denied.”

“My two minutes at the microphone as a delegate are almost up. As a condemned preacher and a cancelled delegate, I appeal to the delegates who survived the cancellation process: Rescind the 2015 AdCom vaccination and the 2021 reaffirmation statements.”

“Establish a fund to compensate Adventists who suffered immense personal loss due to the illegitimate statements voted by our current General Conference leadership.”

“Affirm the biblical right of all members to be vaccinated or not according to their conscience.”

“Never negatively entreat your colleagues in ministry who choose against the dominant narrative, the narrative of the second beast of Revelation 13.”

“Only elect leaders for our General Conference and worldwide church who will be champions of conscience.”

“To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. My conscience is captive to the Word of God and is not subject to any AdCom or any illegitimate statements by the AdCom or any ad hoc committee thereof. Revoke the statements and affirm that all of our consciences are captive only to the Word of God. Set us free. That is my plea to my fellow delegates in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Other Quotations

Martin Luther, Diet of Worms, 1521

“Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason I do not accept the authority of popes and councils because they have contradicted each other. My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. So help me God.”