Entropy: Standing Firm in a Time of Institutional Decay

A Sermon Blog Post

Introduction: A Word for Such a Time as This

The law of entropy—the second law of thermodynamics—is a simple but profound principle. A kettle of boiling water left alone will cool. A fire untended will burn out. A wound-up watch will eventually stop. Every closed system, whether physical or organizational, winds down over time unless fresh energy is infused from the outside .

As I flew into Spokane this weekend, I met a young Adventist woman who serves as a senior advisor to RFK Jr. in the federal government. For four and a half hours, we talked about how God has placed her like Esther in a pagan court. She told me, “They all know about the Sabbath. They all know that I stop work at 4:00 every Friday.” It was a reminder that God is still raising up faithful witnesses in the highest places .

But as I look at our beloved Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America, I see a different reality. I see entropy—institutional decay that has crept in through our pastors, our conferences, our General Conference, and our institutions. This sermon is not born of anger, but of sorrow. It is a call to recognize where we are, so that we can find the healing we desperately need.

The Nature of Institutional Entropy

All human movements throughout history experience entropy . Most movements begin with a positive vision, energy, passion, and warmth. But over time, they can degrade into cold, institutionalized systems that lose sight of their original purpose. Leaders become more authoritarian; followers become more passive. That is institutional entropy .

I have been watching this happen within our church. It is evident before our eyes.

Four Dimensions of Entropy

1. Members and Pastors: Shepherds or Employees?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who stood against Hitler, sailed back to Germany in 1939 because he understood that sheep need a shepherd. “I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war,” he wrote, “if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.”

Something changed during the pandemic. Many of our pastors refused to write letters of support for members seeking religious waivers. Their primary loyalty was to the conference, not to the flock. When an old Catholic priest wrote a support letter for an Adventist lady—and her own pastor would not—she asked the question: “Who exactly is the beast of Revelation 13?”

Sheep need shepherds. Shepherds stick with their flock in hard times, not just good times. When the mark of the beast comes, there will be no paid pastor. Every congregation will be led by volunteer elders who cannot be bought or silenced .

Ellen White wrote: “Men who should be standing as faithful guardians of God’s law have argued till policy has taken the place of faithfulness, and sin is allowed to go unreproved. When will the voice of faithful rebuke be heard once more in the church?” (Prophets and Kings, 141).

2. Members and Conferences: The Rise of Absolutism

In Michigan, we live under what I can only call ecclesiastical absolutism. Members are told: Christ is the head of the church. If there is a problem, Christ will fix it. Therefore, no member, no pastor, no elder can stand up, reprove, or exhort reformation. You must sit down, shut up, and pay up.

But why did we establish conferences in the first place? For practical reasons—to hold property, to credential ministers, to keep wealthy members from blackmailing congregations. Yet now, some conferences are quite happy to coerce congregations: “Do what we say, or you won’t get insurance for your property.”

Let me put it plainly: If the government withdrew the legal registration of the SDA conference in Michigan, would the SDA church cease to exist? No. The members would remain. The elders, Sabbath school teachers, deacons, and deaconesses would remain. The legal infrastructure is a tool in the hands of the body of Christ. We should never confuse the tool with the body itself .

The result of this entropy? Discouragement, disillusionment, and disengagement. A silent exodus is taking place as members move financially and emotionally away from conference leaders.

Ellen White warned: “No man’s intelligence is to become a controlling power… In no line of work is any one man to have power to turn the wheel. God forbids” (4MR, 4th edition). God is no respecter of persons. All gifts are equal in His eyes.

3. Members and the General Conference: The Betrayal of Liberty

In 1985, General Conference leadership signed up for consultative NGO status with the United Nations (ECOSOC). To have this status, you must legally agree to support the goals and objectives of the UN .

Twice in the last 50 years, we have issued official statements affirming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 18 says everyone has the right to choose or change their religion. But Article 29 says those rights are subject to “the just requirements of morality, public order, and the general welfare in a democratic society.” In plain English, you have liberty of conscience only so long as the government thinks it serves the general welfare .

When we signed these documents, we sold our spiritual birthright—liberty of conscience. We declared that our freedom is not a God-given right but a temporary permission from government.

Then came the pandemic. In October 2021, the GC issued a reaffirmation statement that told Adventists worldwide that their deeply held, prayerful convictions did not provide a legitimate basis to object to mandates. The GC was asserting the authority to override the convictions of the Holy Spirit upon individual consciences .

What does Scripture say? “The doctrine that God has committed to the church the right to control the conscience and to define and punish heresy is one of the most deeply rooted of papal errors” (Great Controversy, 596).

When I said, “We entered the pandemic as Protestants and left it with a papal spirit,” it was true. If you don’t like what I’m saying, change the facts and take the statements away.

The GC justified this action by citing Section 4.1 of their administrative powers: “Administrative issues as they arise.” But vaccination mandates from private employers are not internal administrative issues of the General Conference. The GC has no jurisdiction over private sector employers. The reaffirmation statement was not issued to “world church entities” (entities within the Yearbook) but to the entire world, including every government and employer. This was a power play—a deliberate assertion of control over the bodies and consciences of Adventists worldwide .

I have a close friend, a flight surgeon in the Navy for 20 years, who was in the Pentagon in October 2021. He watched the Pentagon download vaccination statements from all Protestant denominations. When they found the “General Conference” statement from the Adventists, every Adventist service member’s religious waiver request was presumptively denied. The statement was used as a weapon against our own people.

4. Administrators and Ideology: The Advance of Cultural Marxism

In the North American Division, we are witnessing the rapid advance of a progressive worldview antithetically opposed to the Word of God. This is cultural Marxism, rooted in the writings of Karl Marx—who was a Satanist. We are seeing the spirit of Satan take over some of our administrators and educators .

Consider the evidence:

September 2025: Central States Conference issued a statement about Charlie Kirk’s murder, quoting Galatians 6:7: “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked.” They were strongly implying his murder was divine judgment. We should never celebrate the death of anyone.
January 2026: Loma Linda University School of Religion hosted LGBTQ week, including a film called “Mama Bears” and a panel discussion encouraging LGBTQ advocacy. Loma Linda is owned by the General Conference, and its board includes the GC president, secretary, treasurer, and vice president—all paid by your tithes .
January 2026: Message Magazine published an article encouraging young people to become Marxist social justice warriors, urging rebellion against ICE and immigration enforcement.
February 2026: Pacific Union Recorder published an article titled “Honoring God through Science and Scripture” arguing that Darwinism honors God. They later retracted it, but the fact they published it at all is telling. Theistic evolution denies the plan of salvation—if there was death before the Fall, then the wages of sin is not death, and you don’t need a Savior.
April 2026: Spectrum published an article celebrating “Pioneering Gay Adventist Pastor Lee Flynn,” who has served in a same-sex marriage in an Adventist pulpit for 20 years. He was never banned. He was allowed to serve .
June 2026: La Sierra University hosted a “Lavender Graduation” celebrating the LGBT class of 2026. The chapel—paid for by faithful members’ offerings—was decorated with rainbow flags. The university also hosted discussions on “the religion of whiteness” and critical race theory .
June 2026: Adventist Health White Memorial Hospital celebrated Pride Month, declaring: “We believe that whole-person care starts with honoring what makes you uniquely you.”

What did former GC President Ted Wilson say at Annual Council? “If you cannot accept the word of God as it reads, I urge you to resign your position.” He knew there was a problem. And I agree with him. Tithe should not go to unsanctified workers .

Ellen White wrote in 1893: “Of those who boast of their light and yet failed to walk in it, Christ says: ‘It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.’ Seventh-day Adventists, who have had great light, which are exalted into heaven in point of privilege, shall be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day.”

God will bring judgment upon those parts of the Adventist movement celebrating the works of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Impact of Entropy

What is the result of all this?

An authoritarian spirit has taken over our administrative elites.
The Church Manual is applied selectively—always in favor of the conference, never to defend the members.
Bible-faithful pastors are fired or banned. GC delegates are deplatformed. Faithful members are demonized.
Present-truth preachers are smeared and vilified .
Petitions are ignored. Grievances are never acknowledged.

We are a house divided. We have two worldviews in our division—Bible-faithful Adventists and progressive Adventists—that are mutually incompatible. We have nothing in common other than the name. And the progressives now control the financial mechanisms, weaponizing them against the faithful .

What Can We Do?

First, heed the counsel of the True and Faithful Witness. The Laodicean church is lost unless she hears the voice of Jesus and repents (Revelation 3:14-21).

Second, pray for reformation. I believe we need:

The General Conference to withdraw from its partnership with the UN.
The reaffirmation statement to be revoked, with assurance it will never be issued again.
Our institutions to publicly pledge they will uphold scriptural truths and reject woke ideologies.
The cancel culture against Bible-faithful preachers to cease.
Our leaders to repent of authoritarianism and learn servant leadership .

Third, consider your tithe. I have tithed my entire life—on gross income, through good times and lean. But we must prayerfully consider where our tithe goes. The tithe belongs to the Lord, not to any conference or administrator. And God holds us responsible for supporting unsanctified workers .

Ellen White wrote: “I have myself appropriated tithes to the most needy cases brought to my notice. I have been instructed to do this, and as the money is not withheld from the Lord’s treasury, it is not a matter that should be commented upon.” She directly supported faithful gospel workers outside the denominational structure.

The former NAD treasurer, Randy Robinson, admitted in 2023: “The Adventist Church defines the storehouse within its own structure as the local conference. That definition is not a theological requirement. It is a polity decision we have simply agreed upon collectively.”

There is no theological basis for the local conference being the only storehouse. There are multiple storehouses—conferences, unions, divisions, and faithful independent ministries .

What are your options?

Return tithe to a faithful local conference.
Return tithe as in-kind donations (food) to a conference—it is still tax-deductible and inflation-proofs the tithe.
Return tithe directly to faithful gospel workers or independent Adventist ministries .

Tithe withholding is wrong—do not rob God. But tithe appropriation—directing your tithe to faithful workers—is biblically sound and practiced by Ellen White herself.

Conclusion: Stand Tall

I have spoken today with sorrow, not anger. My prayer is for reconciliation—not around the writings of Marx, but at the foot of the cross.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer could have stayed in America. He sailed back to Germany because he understood: sheep need a shepherd. Shepherds stick with their flock.

My loyalty to Christ must override my loyalty to any failing institution. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. To support with my tithe that which God condemns as an abomination brings me under God’s condemnation .

One day, there will be no denominational walls. We will be house churches, led by elders and deacons. The question is not whether you are inside or outside the walls today—because one day, those walls will be gone. The question is: Are you within the faith?

To faithful Adventists worldwide who are dismayed and discouraged: Be of good courage. You may think you’re on your own, but God has His 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. We are not fighting the church—we are the church. We are contending for the pure faith that has been passed on to us from the apostles onward .

Our numbers are not what matters. What matters is whether our cause is just and of God. The time has come to stand together, to stand up, and to stand tall for God.

If our cause is just, who can be against us?

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” — Revelation 12:10-11

“Entropy” | Dr. Conrad Vine