The Straight Testimony | Dr. Conrad Vine

I'm saying oh Lord, speak through me, but I know you're already speaking tonight. Uh because the music is going on. And I heard the Lord speak to my heart this evening. I will cling to the old rugged cross. So, thank you very much sister for that beautiful rendition.

So, uh it's a privilege to come and share with you here on this warm and muggy and humid and sweaty evening in Alabama. I left home this morning in Michigan about 6:00 and it was nice and crisp and cool and you needed a jacket and a cap and thought how what a wonderful day. And then the plane got delayed and the plane got delayed and the plane got delayed and eventually I got in about 4 hours late in Huntsville, Alabama. And I walked out of the the baggage claim thought man it is really hot down here. And so I think Michigan is one closer one step closer to heaven honestly than Alabama.

The heat here is just terrible. So, you may not think so because it's still spring here, but for a Michigander like myself this is hot and humid. Uh so anyway, but the war the welcome here is just as warm as well and I want to thank you for your warm welcome. And it's just I just sit here watch the pianists play. These people are gifted by God.

You know, they did the music just flows. It's just incredible to watch and so I want to say thank you to our musicians as well for letting the Holy Spirit to work through you. So, um the sermon I'm going to share tonight is kind of like a two-part series. I wrote these last week down in South Africa. I was there for a mission convention.

And I'm actually an introvert and I don't like speaking with people. That sounds strange, doesn't it being a preacher? But I'm really an introvert and whenever I get a chance after like 6 hours of talking in the day, somebody guides you back to your room like a zombie and you lock yourself in and you pull the curtains and you keep the lights down cuz you don't want people to knock on your door. And I sat down and thought I've got sermons to write for Dr. O.

So, I sat down and I I beavered away on these sermons for the couple of nights down there. And so this is my humble offering for you tonight. And tomorrow morning two-part series and it's going to end up with a call for reform, but we've got a journey to make until we get to that call, all right? So, let's bow our heads and invite the presence of the Holy Spirit once again. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the freedom we have together here at the Stateline 7th Day Adventist Church.

Father, we thank you that you are a God of love and a God of grace and a God of mercy. Thank you Lord that you do not treat us as we deserve. But I thank you Lord that you treat us on the basis of our need and our faith rather than our merit. And so Lord as we gather here tonight in your house at the start of your day, may your Holy Spirit fall upon us. I pray you will speak through me and for me, Father.

I ask that the words I speak will will encourage each one of us to a closer and a deeper and a more meaningful walk with our Lord and Savior in Jesus Christ. So Lord as we share these moments together, may you be supreme. May you reign sovereign. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

All right. So, our sermon tonight is entitled 1 2 3. And so as Dr. O said, I'm still technically the president of AFM, although my last day is Monday. My my last responsibility is to attend a meal in honor of my departure.

And that's basically it. So, I've basically I handed everything over already. And it's been 14 incredible years. 14 years some of the best years of my life actually. We've got to see God at work in so many incredible ways around the world.

And yet I've decided to step aside um because I've come to realize that we are in Earth's closing hours and I want to be able to preach freely. Um and like all of us, I think the gifts that God has given us we need to be using them to the fullest extent possible. Whether it's music or encouragement or teaching or preaching or prophesying, we need to be asking ourselves what are the gifts that God has given me and how can I position my life so I can make the most and greatest use of those for God's kingdom. And so that's a logical conclusion of what I believe and so it's a step of faith step out. It's called as the needle to the pole.

Um I'm not an employee yet. Maybe by January next year I'll become an employee of A and 2 P. Um but it's a step of faith and you see my contact details up on the screen there. But I'm convinced that we're living in Earth's last hours and so this is our journey today. We're going to this is very imaginative sermon as you can see.

1 2 3. And we're going to first of all cover a point number one and then we're going to cover point number two and then we're going to cover point number three. All right. So, we're all on the same page here. And then we're going to come to our conclusions which is going to look at what point four may or could look actually look like when we get to point four.

So, but I want to talk first just for our introduction about the fact that the gift of prophecy is given to God's church throughout all the ages from Adam to the second Adam. From the creation of Adam the first Adam through to the coming of Jesus the second Adam, there's always the prophetic voice among God's people. And the gift of prophecy abides all the way through human history. There's a very famous book in Adventism called the abiding gift of prophecy. If you've never read it, I'd encourage you to read it.

I think it was by F.D. Nichol or somebody else, but God has blessed his church in Earth's closing hours with a prophetic gift to guide us through Earth's last convulsions. And this gift is manifest in the ministry of Sister Ellen G. White. And so tonight, I'm going to look at some history and some prophecy in the light of her writings and see how this has come about.

And so I want to talk first about just a couple of quotes here. And this was written just prior to World War I. And Sister White said this. She said a great a great crisis awaits the people of God. A crisis awaits the world.

The last moment the most momentous struggle of all ages is just upon us. You can find that's in Testimonies to the Church volume five. And she goes on to say in volume nine that was written in 1909 the time is nearing when the great crisis in the history of the world will have what? Come. And so she doesn't realize this yet, but we know with hindsight that she's writing these words just before the onset of what we now call World War I.

And World War I arose and she goes on to say this. This was in Testimonies to the Church volume nine. She said fearful tests and trials await the people of God. The spirit of war is stirring is stirring the nations from one end of the earth to the other. Now she wrote this near the close of the American Civil War.

Although there was Civil War in America, the nations of the world were not stirring for war at that time. But we know that within one lifetime they were in in the the cauldron of World War I. And the second quote there is from 1913. She said God calls upon those who willing to be controlled by the Holy Spirit to lead out in a work of thorough reformation. I see a crisis before us and the Lord calls for his laborers to court to come into line.

And so before the outbreak of World War I, Sister White was speaking about a crisis that was to come upon the world. And that quote there from 1913 was given to the delegates at the General Conference session held in 1913 just before the outbreak of World War I. And then you have this quote here from the Testimonies to the Church volume one. It was written in 1862. And it says there other nations are intently watching this nation as the world is watching America.

For what purpose I was not informed and are making great preparations for some event. I was shown the inhabitants of the world in the utmost confusion. War, bloodshed, privation, want, famine, and pestilence were abroad in the land. My attention was then called from the scene. There seems to be a little time of peace.

Once more the inhabitants of the earth were presented before me and again everything was in the utmost confusion. Strife, war, and bloodshed with famine and pestilence raged everywhere. War caused famine. Want and bloodshed caused pestilence. And then men's hearts failed them for fear and for looking after these things those things which are coming upon the earth.

Now, there are some who say and I don't think quite convincingly that these prophetic writings of Sister White were fulfilled first in World War I which began in 1914. There was then a little period of peace from 1918 to 1939 during which the nations of the earth hoped to find peace and they established what we now call the League of Nations. It then became the United Nations after World War II. And then there was the cataclysm of World War itself. And so I want to talk about the the the transition as we go through these these time periods here.

So, number one, that's the what happened in World War I. And so this event here this is from the New York Herald. And on the 29th of June, 1914, the Archbishop Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo. There was an immediate domino effect as when he was killed one nation rose against another and because other nations had defense alliances one with another like NATO today, and they had pacts of mutual defense, what happened was one nation rose against another nation that nation then rose against that nation and there was a domino effect and before you know it, the entire world was at war. From one simple assassination.

During World War I, over 8.5 million soldiers perished. And as many as 13 million civilians perished. Now, in Europe, the European Adventist Division was based in Hamburg, Germany and they faced a terrible dilemma. Because from the American Civil War in the 1860s all the way up until the First World War, Adventists have been conscientious objectors. We held we were not going to bear arms and we were not going to kill.

But when World War I came, there was no provision in German law for someone to be a conscientious objector. War service involved the bearing of arms, the killing of people on the front lines. It also demanded labor on the Sabbath day when people were expected to work in arms factories or the armed forces or for the overall war effort. And so young men in Germany were forced to make a terrible choice. Loyalty to God and the Ten Commandments on the one hand or face the forced labor and ultimately torture and the firing squad for not obeying the conscription rules of the of the regime.

They had to submit to my military conscription, bear arms, and work on the Sabbath if they were to survive World War I. This was a dry run for the mark of the beast. The law of God was on the line. And young men in Germany had to choose, should I obey the law of God or the laws of men? Should I obey the Fourth Commandment and the Sixth Commandment or the honoring Sabbath day and thou shalt not kill or should I obey the government of of the Kaiser Wilhelm Kaiser Wilhelm or not?

It was a dry run for the final crisis of conscience that will involve loyalty to God on the Sabbath and that will once again, as in World War I Germany, involve economic exclusion and ultimately the death penalty. And so the German government threatens the Adventist European Division with the closure of every Adventist institution if the SDA European Division did not support the German war effort. And in response, the letter the following letter I show you on the screen was sent to the Ministry of War in Berlin on the 4th of August, 1914, just 1 week after the outbreak of World War I. And this is what the letter said. It came from the president of East German Union.

He wrote there and he said Most honorable Lord General and Minister of War, since often times our points of view concerning our duty toward the government, also our positions in general military military duty, and especially since our refusal to serve in times of peace on Saturday, that is the Sabbath, is regarded as fanatical, therefore I take the liberty, Your Excellency, to present to you in the following the principles of the German Seventh-day Adventists, especially just now in the present war situation. While we stand on the fundamentals of the Holy Scriptures and seek to fulfill the precepts of Christendom keeping the rest day, Sabbath, that God established in the beginning by endeavoring to put aside all work on that day, still, this is the kicker, in these times of stress, we have bound ourselves together in defense of the fatherland and under and under these circumstances will also bear arms on the Sabbath. On this point we take our stand on the scripture found in 1 Peter 2:13-17 which shall commands us to obey the emperor. And so the the German leaders, Adventist leaders in 1914, encouraged our our members to fight in the war of empire. This was not a war of self-defense.

It was a war of it was a clash of colonial empires. They encouraged our members to bear arms including on the Sabbath day. Now a further declaration was issued in March 1915 and this is a letter from the headquarters of the of the Adventist European Division, also based in Hamburg. It was written on behalf of the president of the East German Union and also the president of the Saxon Association in Southern Germany. And you'll see it on upon the screen there.

It says there But at the This was again to the German War Ministry. It says, "But at the outbreak of the war, the leaders of the Adventist organization in Germany, of their own accord, advised all their military service members in all the land, under the pressing circumstances and need of the fatherland, to do their duties required of them as citizens according to the scripture, and earnestly to do on Saturday, Sabbath, as other warriors do on Sunday. As proof, allow this enclosed copy of the document to serve the highly esteemed Prussian Ministry of War written on the 4th day of August, 1914." And that was signed by President Conradi for the European Division Headquarters, the president of the East German Union, Berlin Schubert, and the president of the Saxon Association or Conference, Paul Drinhaus. Now the result of the German church's position was that about 98% of the German Adventist church took part in the war effort. They sent their young men to bear arms on the front line.

Many of them died and they also committed to working on the Sabbath day in places like arms factories to to support the war effort. So the German Adventist church, you might say, fell short of the biblical definition of the remnant found in Revelation 12:17. That one of the signs of the remnant is that they keep the commandments of God. Now in April 2018 1918 the Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten, which means the Dresden Latest News, published this letter from an Adventist pastor. And he said this.

At the beginning of the war, our denomination divided into two parts. While 98% of our membership took the position on Bible grounds that it was their conscientious duty to defend with the the fatherland with weapons and that also on the Sabbath. And this united position of the leaders was at once forwarded to the War Department. 2%, that is 2% of the German Adventist church, however, did not submit themselves to this united resolution and therefore had to be what? Disfellowshipped because of their what?

Because of their un-Christian conduct. So it's an astonishing letter written by an Adventist pastor to the Dresden News saying that those Adventists who upheld the Sabbath had to be disfellowshipped because of their un-Christian conduct. And so this is what happened in World War I in Germany. Your entire congregations during World War I were disfellowshipped for adhering to the Ten Commandments rather than submit to military conscription or labor in in the factories. Those Adventist men who refused military service or refused to break the Sabbath were jailed.

Some were tortured beyond recognition. There are books written about this with personal testimonies. And some died from the impact of their prison executions and some were simply executed by the German authorities. Then it was discovered that some of the German church leaders were actively identifying those conscientious objectors for the German military authorities who were then subsequently arrested, tortured, and eventually executed. More than a dozen faithful young German Adventist men were executed because of the deliberate betrayal of the leaders of the German Seventh-day Adventist church during World War I.

Now the Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten, the Dresden Latest News, referred to that those 2% in the following way. And that pastor referred to those 2% and this is what he said. He said, "These unprofitable elements, that is the 2% who who upheld the law of God, set themselves up as preachers and with small results made propaganda for their what? Foolish ideas, that is keeping the Ten Commandments. They call themselves falsely preachers and Adventists.

They are not. They are deceivers. When such elements shall receive their merited punishment, that is torture, imprisonment, and execution, we regard it in fact a favor done toward us." That was an Adventist pastor writing in the Dresden News in 1918. Persecution of faithful Adventists by church leaders is nothing new. We saw it in COVID and we saw it in World War I.

Now after World War I the disfellowshipped Adventists actively sought for reconciliation. There was a meeting in Friedensau in 1920, the Adventist seminary near Berlin, that failed to resolve the impasse. The two sides didn't come any closer. Finally, at the 1922 session General Conference session San Francisco, multiple appeals were made to the GC leadership for the matter to be discussed by the delegates, but no answer was given. Finally, when confronted directly by representatives of the persecuted Adventists, the General Conference president, A.

G. Daniels, shut down all discussion. These are the words he used. He said, quote, "We could never permit these questions to come up before the whole delegation of the General Conference. That would cause the greatest disturbance we ever had." End quote.

I want you to think about that. Exactly 100 years later in St. Louis at the General Conference once again no discussion was possible on the main issue facing the Adventist church. As in St. Louis 2022, so in San Francisco in 1922 the GC president denied the members any possibility of discussion.

As in San Francisco 1922, so in St. Louis 2022 the General Conference leadership assumed the right to override the consciences of their members. As in St. Louis 2022, so in San Francisco 1922, liberty of conscience would remain denied and trampled upon by the leadership. And as in San San Francisco 1922, so 100 years later in St.

Louis 2022, the GC leadership would not allow any possibility for any discussion for the redress of of legitimate grievances by the members. History does repeat itself. And we need to know our history in order to avoid the mistakes of the past. Tragically, we are making the mistakes of the past. So that's number one.

So we're going to to number two. And this is World War II. Now, the interwar years from 1918 to 1939 were very painful across most of Europe, including in Germany. In Germany, they had the burden of war reparations. And war reparations really made no sense.

The Ruhr industrial park in Western Germany was required to send coal and steel to France as reparations for the war. The net effect of this was that the import of free coal and steel from Germany to France caused mass unemployment among French miners and steel workers. So, it really didn't do them any good. It also starved the German industry of coal, so people were freezing in the winters and there was no steel for reconstruction. So, war reparations really were hurting everybody.

There was the collapse of the German currency and then the Weimar Republic. There was mass unemployment. And if you read the history of Germany 1920s, 1930s, there was a mass turning away from from from Protestantism and from Catholicism and there was a huge increase in increase in the occult. And there were all kinds of speculations. Once they abandoned God, you read the story of the the Nazi imagining their worldview, you realize they were they had all kinds of speculation about how life began on Earth and they they imagined that there were links from previous worlds and previous existences and they imagined that there were links between the the northern India and and and the Nazis and the the swastika symbol is actually from Hinduism.

It's not a German symbol whatsoever. And and so, there were the the Nazis were exploring the occult in many ways possible to legitimize their claim that they were the master race. And the rise of Adolf Hitler in the early 1930s represented a traumatic 20-year period for the German Union. German nation. Now, within Adventism the leaders met in Switzerland to discuss how to reconcile with the disfellowshipped Adventists.

And they issued this statement. This is from 1923. It says, "In peace and in war we decline to act in act we decline to participate in acts of violence and bloodshed. But we grant to each of our church members absolute liberty to serve their country at all times and in all places in accordance with the dictates of their personal conscientious convictions." This was an astonishing statement because in this in this statement, the church leaders implicitly recognized that they should not have disfellowshipped those who acted in harmony with their consciences to uphold the fourth and sixth commandments in World War I. They claimed after the war that they uphold liberty of conscience for every member, but during World War I, they disfellowshipped those who exercised their liberty of conscience.

Now, this position of the church in in of January 1923 was not filed with the appropriate authorities in Germany. So, in December 1927, the German military command wrote to the Adventist church leaders in Germany affirming that there was no change in their understanding of the Adventist position from the original letters sent at the start of World War I in August 1914. Once again, the German authorities expected that the Adventist young men would be considered as having no objection to bearing arms or working on the Sabbath in the defense of the fatherland should another war arise. And this is the problem we have is that when the church issues statements that that contradict the word of God or the spirit of prophecy, those statements come back to haunt you. And they haunt the members in particular.

Those statements are used by governments against members in ways that maybe the leaders never anticipated. We saw that in the pandemic. The reaffirmation statement that said that religious liberty is not used appropriately in objection to government mandates was used by employers nationwide and around the world to deny Adventist religious liberty waiver requests. And so, when the church issues statements that are inconsistent with scripture, this always results in problems for the membership. So, when Adolf Hitler rose to power the disfellowshipped Adventists from World War I were declared enemies of the state on 28th of February 1933 and they were publicly outlawed on 29th of April 1936.

All their property was confiscated. Meanwhile, the official German church Adventist church, after an initially difficult period with new Hitler regime, came around to publicly supporting the new fascist government. An SDA nurse known as Hulda Just, who knew Hitler personally, intervened on behalf of the Adventists. And as a result of that, the Adventist churches across Germany remained open, but they were now compromised. At Friedensau, the Adventist seminary near Berlin uh the ministerial students would line up in Nazi uniforms when government officials came to inspect them.

It was declared by Friedensau, quote, "Friedensau belongs to those communities which have voted 100% for the Führer." End quote. Official Adventist newspapers at the time of the rise of Adolf Hitler to power promoted the Nazi regime and the leadership of Adolf Hitler. This is written in 1939. This is after the rise of World War II. This is Adventbote.

Um this is the official Adventist newsletter of the German Unions. It says there, "We are now in the midst of a great storm of worldwide moving events." That's the rise of World War II. Note this quote, "A great age must find a great man." They're speaking about Adolf Hitler. Therefore, we not only willingly submit ourselves, but also gladly perform every required service. Those who shall lose their life in so doing the words may be repeated, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Let us remember all our fighting men and especially our brethren who are willing to risk their life for the fatherland and for those who are left behind.

Let us also pray for the Führer and his co-workers. This was a quote from the Advent Herald 1st of October 1939. Now, many faithful Adventists refused to accept Hitler's regime. They were imprisoned in concentration camps. They were worked to death and some were executed.

But why was there such apostasy among the regular Adventists and our leaders? Well, uh many of our members followed their leaders rather than search the scriptures for themselves. That is always the easiest path, but it is never the safest path. To go against conscience is never right. To go against the word of God is never right.

It is easier as Adventists to say, "Well, what does the church say about this?" than to figure these answers out for ourselves. And I have noticed this as a pastor over the years. Whenever a new issue arises, let's say transgenderism, you hear the request from members, "Well, we need a statement from the world church." And why do we need a statement? Because we need to be told what to believe. Rather than searching the scriptures for ourselves and coming to our own conclusions, we're always looking for somebody else to do the hard thinking for us and then we're just going to fall in line like obedient sheep.

And that becomes our problem. When we as Adventists yield our minds and our consciences and we and we no longer think for ourselves, but we say, "What do other men think?" and we'll be reflectors of their views rather than what the Holy Spirit is teaching us through the word of God. And this is a problem All right, can you hear me? All right, you can hear me. So, this is a problem that we face as Adventists.

You hear it every election time. Should we vote? Which way should we vote? When there is a new social issue the killing of George Floyd, the right of George Floyd and his death, the rise of transgenderism, the rise of same-sex marriages. Every time there is a social issue, we instinctively look to the church to tell us this is the official statement.

Now, we all think that's what we're going to believe. But 99.99% of members aren't actually searching the scriptures for themselves and asking, "What does the word of God say on this matter?" And when you subcontract your thinking and your conscience to men who are in positions of institutional authority and who are often then financially compromised because of that, you're on the way to you're on a This is a troublesome path. Then we just put these batteries in here. He says I should go on and speak. All right.

So this is what the spirit of prophecy says about this kind of thinking. This is taken from Desire of Ages, actually. God does not compel men to give up their unbelief. Before them are light and darkness. Truth and error.

It is for them to decide which they will accept. The human mind, thank you, brother, is endowed with the power to discriminate between right and wrong. God designs that men shall not design from impulse, but from weight of evidence, carefully comparing scripture with scripture. Many are deceived today in the same way as were the Jews. Religious teachers read the Bible in the light of their own understanding and traditions.

And the people do not search the scriptures for themselves and judge for themselves as to what is truth, but they yield up their judgment and they commit their souls to who? And this is a not a safe path for us. It happened in the time of Christ, it happened in World War I Germany, happened in World War II Germany. It happened during the pandemic actually. And every time the church issues a statement on the same-sex marriage or transgenderism, whatever the case may be, we are yielding our consciences and our minds to a group of men we've never met.

The preacher the statement goes on here. The preaching and teaching of his word is one of the means that God has ordained for diffusing light. But we must bring every man's teaching to the test of what? Scripture. Whoever will prayerfully study the scripture, desiring to know the truth, that he must obey it, will receive divine what?

And so that is God's promise to us. If we search the scriptures for ourselves, God will reveal to us what we need to know and understand for the times and the challenges in which we're living. If we don't learn to read the scriptures for ourselves and to prayerfully study the scriptures and to drill down into them, then we are going to be held hostage and and pushed around by whatever some distant committee thinks that we ought to believe. It says there, he will understand the scriptures, that is if you study the Bible for yourself. If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, John 17:17.

And she goes on to say this. This is a really striking statement. She says, those to whom the message of truth is spoken seldom ask, is it true? But by whom is it advocated? Multitudes estimate it, that is the message of truth, by the numbers who accept it, not by whether it's true.

Notice that. And the question is still asked, have any of the learned leaders or religious leaders believed? Men are no more favorable to real godliness now than in the days of Christ. It's very plain, yes? So when there is a social issue, when there is a moral issue, when the question comes before us in society, in your family, in your church, the question is not what do distant committees tell me I need to believe, the question is not what does the religious hierarchy tell me I must believe, the question is not what does my wife or husband or parents think I must believe, the question is what does the word of God teach me on this subject?

And as Protestants and the Adventists, we must always be able to give a reason from scripture for the faith that we hold. And too often we subcontract our thinking to distant committees because we've become spiritually lazy. And when we are spiritually lazy, when crises of conscience come upon our world, as another one will come before Christ comes again, we are likely to be caught napping, to be caught asleep, to be caught short, because we've forgotten how to drill into scripture and to find the thus saith the Lord on the matter. So as we go through our time here this evening, the question is not what does the church say, the question is what does the word of God say? And I have a responsibility, as we all have responsibility, to search the scriptures for ourselves.

And as we saw in World War and in World War the position of those German Adventist church leaders was diametrically opposed to the law of God. And the overwhelming majority of Adventists went along with their leaders rather than with the law of God. History repeats itself. Think of the final crisis that is coming, brothers and sisters. Wide is the road that leads unto destruction, there are many there in.

Narrow is the path leads to eternal life, there are few that find it. And we find the way that we find the path to eternal life by knowing Jesus who is the way, the truth and life for ourselves, and by knowing the scriptures for ourselves, and when the social questions arise, and whatever those questions may be, you know, and what whatever the issue is of the day, we need to be able to drill into the scripture for ourselves and say, thus saith the Lord. And so if you come away from one takeaway from tonight, it is this. From this day forward, we're going to learn and we're going to practice the the process of drilling into scripture to say, what does the word of God say on this topic? That is what a Protestant does.

A Protestant in the radical reformation teaches that we can read the scriptures as individuals, men, women, boys and girls, in our own language, the vernacular, and God will reveal to us sufficient light for us to have understanding necessary for salvation and necessary to win souls for Jesus Christ. And so this happened in World War and happened in World War the leadership trampled on the law of God, they trampled on on conscientious of them conscience of their members, and the church members paid a terrible, terrible price. Lesson comes number three. We're going to start here on Monday, 27th of January, 2020. It was a Monday.

Most people were focused on the death of Kobe Bryant the previous day in a helicopter accident in the hills outside LA. It was a tragic death, a number of family members died in that in that accident in the mountains. But people watching the newscast carefully, they also noticed there was a mysterious new disease coming out of China focusing on a previously little-known city of Wuhan, which actually has about 7 or 8 million people in it. It's not a little city, it's a huge metropolis. In that city, the hospitals were overflowing.

Social media was filled with pictures of men and women collapsing in the street, causing those Americans who were paying attention to the news to rush out to buy canned goods, detergents, and masks. In Washington, D.C., Dr. Anthony Fauci had now reached the pinnacle of federal power. He was the highest-paid government official in the United States, earning significantly more than the president of the United States. He controlled billions of dollars every year in grants of federal health care funding.

He rapidly became the face of American public health and global public health, and he became a national and a global celebrity. It seemed that hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people waited daily for his updates and his pronouncements. We now know this story to be true from multiple sources, and it's widely available on the internet. On the 27th of January, 2020, at 6:24 p.m., Dr. Fauci received an email from Dr.

Greg Folkers, his assistant at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIAID, warning that Fauci could be directly implicated in the origin of the looming pandemic. Why? Because his assistant told him Fauci's agency had funded illegal gain-of-function research on coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through grants it made to the EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit based in the USA. So Fauci was warned almost immediately that he was implicated in the COVID pandemic. His assistant shared a study from a virologist called Dr.

Ralph Baric warning that gain-of-function research on coronaviruses could create SARS 2.0. Now such research had been wisely banned by President Obama in 2014 precisely due to the risk and dangers of a lab leak of a weaponized virus. But Dr. Fauci had simply ignored the ban and passed the money through EcoHealth Alliance so the research could be could be conducted outside of US federal jurisdiction in China. In May 2016, two of his employees had alerted to the EcoHealth Alliance that their experiments, quote, appear to involve research covered under the pause, end quote.

These are administrators writing. That their experiments appear to involve, i.e., they breached the ban. They referred to President Obama's gain-of-function moratorium, and instead of enforcing the ban, Fauci's NIH had helped EcoHealth evade the restrictions of the ban. They rewrote EcoHealth Alliance's grant requests and updated their safety documentation so that the gain-of-function research could continue. Dr.

Robert Redfield, who was then the director for the CDC, he warned Fauci in writing that the virus appeared to have come from a laboratory. Why? Because Dr. Robert Redfield argued that the virus's furin cleavage site, that is the spot in which the virus's proteins can make it infect human cells more easily, suggested intentional laboratory manipulation. By late January 2020, other top US and UK scientists quickly came to the same conclusion.

Dr. Fauci panicked. He needed to cover up the fact that his illegal research had probably caused this pandemic. So what did he do? He worked round the clock with key colleagues to come up with what we now call to the proximal origins theory as the source of the pandemic.

This theory argued that the virus either spread from an animal, such as a pangolin, which nobody'd ever heard of before, to humans, or it was a natural evolution of a similar virus in humans. Both options in the proximal origins theory specifically excluded the possibility that Fauci's institute had knowingly funded banned gain-of-function research at a at a laboratory in the epicenter of the outbreak of a virus with unnatural characteristics. It's a remarkable coincidence that a coronavirus a coronavirus pandemic starts within about 1 km of one of the only laboratories in the world working on weaponizing coronaviruses, but the scientists just excluded that as a possibility. It's like living in a town that has Hershey's chocolate bar factory in it, and suddenly your water smells of chocolate. And Hershey's saying, no, this is not coming from our factory, there is a natural spring spring down the road that suddenly produces chocolate-smelling water.

It's about as credible as that. By late February 2020, the proximal origins theory was the publicly preferred option for the public health officials, and the lab leak theory was being publicly dismissed by the scientists and mainstream media as a fringe theory theory, a conspiracy, or simply driven by anti-Chinese racism. This was despite the fact that the private correspondence we now have access to among top scientists showed very strong support for the lab leak theory. And in the UK, the government's intelligence services provided daily um top secret things to the UK Prime Minister. Those have now been released to the public, and if you read them, they concluded in January 2020 that COVID came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

It was a weaponized virus. That was the private understanding of these governments, but the public narrative of these governments was this was a random event. Nobody wanted to accept responsibility for what was about to happen. And so the cover-up began. Public health bureaucrats seized the opportunity to expand their powers to reach into every aspect of our lives, and that's exactly what they did.

Civil rights disappeared overnight. Our amendments, the First Amendment religious freedom, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech disappeared overnight. Health officials launched interagency campaigns to coerce private actors. Senior scientists were literally bribed to retract their published opinions in favor of the proximal origin theory. Journalists were targeted who questioned the official the official about the false narrative.

Health officials in the US used burner phones, in-person meetings, and private email addresses to avoid federal record-keeping requirements and to delete any evidence of their collaboration and discussions. The Biden administration actively worked to dictate through social media giants what news people were allowed to read or post. And uh Facebook has now publicly admitted the censorship that was going on in from 2020 onwards. The chief censors were directly involved in the creation of the virus, so they now orchestrate the cover-up to guilt. They sought to end the discussion before it led to investigation and criminal culpability for Fauci and his co-conspirators.

Now, not only were the mainstream media, and our intelligence services, and our social media giants, and academia, and our hospital systems, and doctors worldwide pressed into service to protect the in- to protect the guilty and suppress our First Amendment religious liberty rights, denominations of every kind were co-opted into the cover-up and into the demonization of the truth-seekers and truth-speakers within their midst. And that includes our own General Conference. Now, the US Constitution First Amendment reads as follows: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances. So, that's the First Amendment to the US Constitution. It guarantees freedom to have a religion and the freedom not to have a religion.

It guarantees freedom of speech. It guarantees liberty of conscience. And all of these were suppressed by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. We participated in the suppression of the very rights we rely upon when the final crisis comes our way. So, it was a dry run for the final crisis.

The worldwide Adventist Church leadership actively promoted the COVID vaccines despite what they say about it now, and churches across the United States were turned into vaccination centers. Leading doctors and leading evangelists, I won't mention any names, but these are household names, actively promoted the vaccines in mid-2021 in an infomercial produced by the NAD and GC Health Ministries on the on the false basis that vaccines prevent transmission. Even though it was well known at the time among scientists, and even though the first emergency use authorization, which you can access on the internet, specifically stated that the vaccines do not prevent transmission. And yet our church leaders said, "You must take it because you must love your brother as yourself. You must protect the community by taking these shots even though the scientists knew from day one these shots don't prevent transmission, therefore they don't protect the community." So, we were actively pushing the lies of Fauci and the Biden administration.

Those pastors who questioned the COVID narrative, some were forced into early retirement. Some of them are here tonight. They were forced out of North American Division or out of their conferences. Official Adventist media promoted the false COVID narrative and repeatedly demonized any who questioned the COVID lies. Unvaccinated members were conferred were compared unfavorably in Adventist Review to Islamic terrorists killing aid workers in Afghanistan or to witch doctors in league with Satan.

Such members allegedly had the blood of innocent COVID victims on their hands. This was in the Adventist Review. Now, I wrote to Adventist Review and said, "We're all brothers and sisters. Whether you're vaccinated or not doesn't mean you're in or out of the Lamb's Book of Life. Why are you demonizing members in this way?" And no response was ever received.

So, every time I return a tithe check now, I have to do so with a prayer of forgiveness. Cuz I'm returning tithes to a system that tells me I'm worse than a terrorist and a Satan worshiper. In some countries, Adventist denominational workers were fired if not taking the shots. In other countries, they had restrictions placed upon them that had no basis in science. So, for instance, you could travel for work purposes, but if you're not vaccinated, you had to pay for the travel yourself.

Clearly, that financial regulation will inhibit the spread of the virus. Other rules said, "You can travel for work if you're a church employee, for instance, university employee, but if you're not vaccinated, you cannot travel more than 50 miles from your place of work." Clearly, the virus only goes kicks in after 51 miles. These rules by the church are arbitrary and without any basis in science or reason revealed to most people that the narrative was a basis of lies. The GC did not follow the science. They followed the lies.

They did not seek the truth. They sought massive federal pandemic funding. They did not bow before the convictions of the Holy Spirit upon the members' consciences. They bowed before the bullies of the mainstream media. They did not stand for the consciences of members, but they demonized members in their official media online and in print.

And those official articles are still up online despite requests for them to be taken down. The GC is still demonizing any Adventist today who is unvaccinated. They will not retract those statements. Think about that next time you return your tithe check. They did not align themselves with the spirit of prophecy or scripture, but with the recommendations of the WHO, with whom the most powerful member is the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party of China.

Most egregiously, the GC issued the October 21 reaffirmation statement in response to the Biden mandates of early September '21. On page one of that statement, which is still online, our GC leaders expressed their support for vaccination being a matter of individual liberty of conscience. That's nice and good. However, on page two, there was one paragraph that referred to the specific COVID context and the mandates spreading worldwide. And that paragraph assumed the right on the part of GC leaders to control or suspend the liberty of consciences of members worldwide.

That paragraph unilaterally denied Adventists worldwide before their governments and employers the possibility of claiming a religious liberty or liberty of conscience-based exemption. This is that paragraph. It says, "The Seventh-day Adventist Church, in consultation with the health ministries and public affairs and religious liberty departments of the GC, is convinced that the vaccination programs that are generally being carried out are important for the safety and health of our members and the larger community." Of course, the the these uh health measures are being carried out and and forced upon us by people like Fauci, who themselves are responsible for the whole mess in the first place. Therefore, the statement goes on, "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." We define in our GC working policy manual in the sect the depart- the chapter known as PARL, Public Affairs and Religious Liberty, we define religious liberty as the ability to act in harmony with the dictates of your conscience. So, when the church leaders said that religious liberty is not used appropriately, they were saying this: If the Holy If the Holy Spirit convicts you not to do something, but your employer tells you to do something, we stand with the employer and we stand against the Holy Spirit.

That's what they were saying. They were assuming the right to override the convictions of the Holy Spirit. Now, the General Conference ADCOM that issued the statement, the Administrative Committee, deals with administrative matters pertaining to the internal working of the GC and the GC employees. It has no jurisdiction over theological matters impacting all members worldwide. It has no institutional authority in its terms of reference to issue such a statement.

And thus, our General Conference leaders acted beyond their delegated authority in this statement with catastrophic impact on innocent members worldwide. In the legal world, that is known as culpable negligence. When you exceed your defined authority, you are you are negligent. That creates liability. That's probably why nobody wants to discuss this anymore.

Furthermore, in this statement, our GC leaders presumed the right to override the convictions of the Holy Spirit on the consciences of members. When I had my interview with uh Mitchev just before I got banned, minutes before I was banned, one of the things he was most upset with me was I said in one of my sermons we entered the pandemic as Protestants, we left it as a papal system. That really stung. And so I'm I'm going to share with you exactly why, from the Spirit of Prophecy, I made that statement. And Elder Mischev, if you're still watching, this is for you.

This is what Sister White says. No one has the right to control another's mind and judge for another, prescribing what is his duty. There are certain rights that belong to every individual in doing God's service. No man has any more right to take those rights from us than to take life itself. God has given us freedom to think, and it is our privilege to follow our impressions of duty.

We are only human beings, and one human being has no jurisdiction over the conscience of any other human being. Is that clear to everybody? No human being has jurisdiction over the conscience of another. It means in the final judgment you cannot say, "God, I did this because my husband told me to." Or because it seemed right unto my wife. No, we are morally accountable beings before our creator.

That means we are to act in harmony with our conscience now. It's all very well to say that yes, no man has authority over the conscience of another. That means I am morally responsible for all my actions. And that's a a heavy spiritual moral responsibility that we are to live in harmony with the light that God has given us, and to seek every day to live more in harmony with that light. And that if the Holy Spirit convicts us of something, we can't squish the Holy Spirit and and push away those convictions and hoping that um I may remember at more convenient time, but let me get on with my chosen sinful course of action now.

We are to live in harmony with the scriptures and the Spirit of Prophecy and the convictions of the Holy Spirit. So it's all very well for us to say, and I I agree with everybody, no man has jurisdiction over the conscience of another human being, but the implication is that I stand before God as a moral being, I'm accountable before God as a moral being, and I need to come before God not blaming everybody else for my actions, but accepting responsibility for my actions. God has promised, another quote here, letter 119 1895, God has promised his presence to every believer. And let those who are in positions of authority, presidents of conferences and board councils, and everyone who has to do with the human mind, respect the individuality of mind and conscience. Those workers are in co-partnership with Jesus Christ, and you may interpose yourself so as to interpose interfere with God's plans, for the human agent is under his special authority and dictation.

Then she goes on to say this. I put up on the screen a particular quote from letter 53, and underneath it is the GC quote, and you ask yourself whether the GC quote in red at the bottom is actually a practice of Rome. This is what she says in letter 53. The fact that a man has been selected to be the president of a conference does not mean that he shall have authority to rule over his fellow workmen. This is after the practice of what?

Rome. And it cannot be tolerated, for it restricts religious liberty. So it is a practice of Rome to restrict what? Religious liberty. Religious liberty.

And the man is led to place himself where God alone should be. So it is a practice of Rome to restrict religious liberty. Is that according to the Spirit of Prophecy, yes or no? Yes. Now look at what the statement says at the bottom.

This is the GC statement. Therefore, claims of religious liberty are not used appropriately. Is that restricting religious liberty, yes or no? Yes. Is that a practice of Rome?

Yes. Yes, it absolutely is. If the shoe fits, change the shoe, but don't shoot the messenger who's saying that the shoe fits. Great Controversy, page 100, next quote. Thus, by measures which appeal to the imagination, Rome essayed or attempted to control the consciences of men.

Does Rome attempt to control the consciences of men, yes or no? Yes. There's our General Conference statement once again. Therefore, claims of religious liberty are not used appropriately. Are they trying to control the consciences of men?

Yes. Does Rome try to control the consciences of men? Yes. Once again, the shoe fits. Here we go again.

The doctrine that God has committed to the church, Great Controversy, page 293, the right to control the conscience and to define and punish heresy is one of the most deeply rooted of what errors? Papal errors. And again, you have the GC statement at the bottom. Claims of religious liberty are not used appropriately. Is the GC assuming the right to override your conscience, yes or no?

Is that a papal practice, yes or no? Yes, it absolutely is. It goes on, another quote. God never forces the will or the conscience, but Satan's constant resort to gain control of those whom he cannot otherwise seduce is compulsion by cruelty. Take the shot or lose your job, lose your mortgage, lose your home, lose your business, lose your professional license, lose your social reputation, go bankrupt, lose your social security income, lose your unemployment benefits, lose custody battles.

The list goes on and on. The quote goes on. Through fear or force, he endeavors to rule the conscience and to secure homage for himself to himself. To accomplish this, he works through both religious and secular authorities, moving them to enforcement of human laws in defiance of the law of God. That's Great Controversy, page 591.

So what we'd say in case number number one, in World War I, the German church authorities presumed the right to override the consciences of their young men and said, "We are happy to break the fourth and sixth commandments in defense of the fatherland." And uh 2% of the church approximately was disfellowshipped. Some of them were executed, tortured, and shot. And some of those young men were handed over by the church authorities. In World War II, once again we're faced with totalitarian demands, the German Adventist church co- collaborated with the Nazi regime. And the disfellowshipped Adventist from World War I were banned, and some of them were executed in the camps.

And once again, the German church supported Adolf Hitler and the German war efforts and encouraged them in to serve in in the war machine. Now this is not a criticism particularly of the German church leaders, because until we are faced with a monster such as Adolf Hitler, we don't know how we would behave. And at least to their credit, many years later the German unions did offer a formal apology and a recognition for the wrong that they had done. And there was a process of reconciliation. It came 50 years after the end of World War II.

Most of the people were dead who'd suffered, but at least there was a process of reconciliation. But in the current climate, the ongoing refusal by our General Conference leadership to engage in any discussion whatsoever, and the demonization and destruction of those who ask for a redress of honest grievance, is leading to dismay, disillusionment, and disengagement by members worldwide who no longer trust our leaders. So, what do we say in conclusion? The conclusion is a long conclusion, so don't give up hope on this sermon just yet. Cases one, two, and three that I presented you tonight.

In each case, we've witnessed profound betrayal by our leaders of the members. We've We've witnessed betrayal of our core beliefs in order to protect our institutions, to preserve our denominational income streams, and to curry the favor of dictatorial regimes. And in each case, case one, two, and three that we looked at tonight, faithful members were thrown to the wolves by our leaders. That happened in case one, case two, and case three. So what about case four?

What will happen in the last crisis before Jesus comes again? What does the Spirit of Prophecy say about this? This is an important question to ask ourselves. When the latter rain is poured out, this is what Sister White says will happen. She says, "Under the showers of the latter rain, or later rain, the inventions of man, the human machinery, will at times be swept away.

The boundary of man's authority will be as broken reeds, and the Holy Spirit will speak through the living human agent with convincing power." That's in Second Selected Messages. She goes on to say that the Lord will raise up men who will give people the message for this time. So what we find is that, as in the time of Christ, when the Holy Spirit uh was poured out upon Jesus, um it was like Jesus spoke about new wine into old wineskins. And when the latter rain is poured out again, um when there is no living experience with Christ anywhere in our lives, or anybody anywhere in our in our system, the the outpouring of the latter rain will be as new wine in old wineskins, and that will will wipe away large parts of our structure. That's what she says there.

She goes on to say also, and this is a a very sobering warning. She said this in 1875. She wrote this to the president of the GC, President Butler. He just resigned from the presidency of the GC when he wrote when she wrote this. She said that there was going to come a time when she believed the church would reject her prophetic gift.

And I only came across this quote recently in my studies. She says, "I am now of the opinion that the testimonies will not live among God's people. They will be removed. I have some light on this point, but cannot now give it. Said Christ, I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

So, this is a warning to us that not only will many parts of the structure be washed away when the latter rain is poured out, but that the testimonies themselves, um, which are a sign of one of the signs of the remnant church, will that may actually be rejected by many parts of the church. You might say you call it apostasy. And so, when the church appears about to fall, there will be a faithful remnant. And we're very familiar with this quote here from Second Selected Messages. She says, the church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall.

It remains while the sinners of Zion will be sifted out, the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless, it must take place. None of those who've been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony will be found with the loyal and true, without spot or stain of sin, without guile in their mouths. We must be divested of our self-righteousness and arrayed in the righteousness of Christ. And when you are filled and receive the righteousness of Christ, that is made manifest in obedience to the 10 Commandments of God and the upholding of the law of God, the message of 1888, you might say, to receive the righteousness of Christ.

Now, the the the idea that the church appears as if it's about to fall, but does not and will go through, it's a very common idea among Adventists, yes. So, what church is she talking about here? Is she talking about Stateline or my home church, Village? Is she talking about our conferences, our unions, our divisions, our General Conference? Is she talking about a faithful remnant within the wider Advent movement?

What exactly is she talking about? So, let's look at the context. Just before she writes this that the church appears about to fall, but it does not fall, this is what she wrote. She said, nations will be stirred to their very center. Support will be withdrawn from those who proclaim God's only standard of righteousness, the only sure test of character.

And all who will not bow to the decrees of the national councils and obey the national laws to exalt the Sabbath instituted by the man of sin, that is the national Sunday laws, to the disregard of God's holy day, will feel not the oppressive power of popery alone, but of the Protestant world with the image of the beast. That comes immediately before she says, the church may appear about to fall, but it does not fall. So, therefore, the church that appears as if it's about to fall, but does not and goes through to the end, are those faithful saints who under intense persecution at the time of the final coercion of conscience and worship encapsulated in the Sunday law crisis, who appear to be on the verge of letting go of all hope and capitulating in despair. It is that faithful group of members who will go through to the end. They're being faithful to the law of God rather than coercion of worship, the national Sunday laws at the end of time.

If you are going to be in that small group, those who go through to the end, it is these faithful individuals who finally press through the darkness by faith and overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony because they love not their lives unto death. And the next paragraph begins with these words, the remnant that purify their souls by obeying the truth gather strength from the trying process. That trying process is the national Sunday law crisis and the final coercion of conscience. They will exhibit the beauty of holiness amid the surrounding apostasy. Second Selected Messages, page 318.

Now, many conservative Adventists today argue that the visible corporate hierarchy is the church that will survive to the end. But that is not what Sister White is talking about in this passage. The church that she is talking about here is a remnant. But that will not be identifiable or known until the Sunday laws come about. Because it doesn't appear as an identifiable body of believers until the trying process comes upon them.

That church that survives is an identifiable body of believers that constitute a remnant of something that preceded it and who are faithful to God in the final crisis. So, we're not there yet. But as this church knows well, the national Sunday law crisis is coming. And then those who appear as the church will appear as if it's about to fall, but it will not. And that is incumbent upon each of us as individual believers to covenant before these crises come that I will stand for God no matter what.

I will uphold the law of God no matter what. I will live my life today in harmony with the law of God, so then it's not such a shock when I uphold the law of God tomorrow in the national Sunday law crisis. We respond to these the these counsels from Sister White about the coming crisis of conscience by making our calling and our election sure. She says, those who have not been in the habit of searching the Bible for themselves or weighing evidence have confidence in the leading men and accept the decisions they make. And thus, many will reject the very messages God sends his people if these leading brethren do not accept them.

We come back to the original quotes we're using maybe half an hour ago. But it is not enough when there is a crisis simply to say, what does the worldwide church say about this? That is not the safe position to take. The safe position to take is to ask, what does the word of God say about this? And to ask for the conviction of the Holy Spirit so we know what we believe and we're not going to budge from what we believe unless the Holy Spirit says, go here or go there.

We are not to simply yield our minds and our consciences to any counsel of men, whoever, however exalted they may be. It is not important what your pastor may say, what your conference president may say, what your head elder may say. What's important is what the Holy Spirit has convicted you of from your study of the Holy Scriptures. And if the Holy Spirit convicts you of A, B, and C and you are honest to A, B, and C, then you do not fall under God's judgment in the final crisis. And so, what I want to challenge you tonight, I want to encourage you tonight, since those who've not been in the habit of searching the Bible for themselves, search the scriptures for yourself.

Know what the scriptures say. We have an incredible institution our church, we call it Sabbath school. Yes. We have great Sabbath school quarterlies. Are you studying your Sabbath school quarterlies?

Are you studying on a daily basis? Are you just coming to church on Sabbath to listen to what other people have studied or have you dug deep into the scriptures for yourselves? If you are getting into the habit of listening to what other people think, allowing your thinking and mind to be shaped by other men's thoughts, you are setting yourself up to fall in the final crisis. So, I I encourage you, be faithful in your study of the Sabbath school lesson, but beyond that, be studying the scriptures for yourself anyway. On topics that may be of interest to you, topics that relate to the issues of the day, topics that may be related to your past, topics that may relate to your fears or your hopes for the future, but get into the habit of studying the word of God for yourself.

So, you know the word of God for yourself. And so, your Bible contains passages with a repeated underlinings through it, like I have here. As you read through and every time you read through a different color pen each year, you God is convicting you of certain parts. And you're learning to live in harmony with the word of God. Those who've been in the habit, who've not been in the habit of searching the Bible for themselves or weighing evidence, or those who have confidence in leading men and accept the decisions they make, they will then thus, many will reject the message that God sends his people.

This is a warning to me. It's a warning to all of us to study the scriptures for ourselves. We are not saved by virtue of church membership alone. We are saved because our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. We are not saved because we belong to a particular congregation, but because we belong to Jesus Christ.

We are saved when we receive his righteousness by faith. And receiving his righteousness made manifest in obedience to his 10 Commandments and keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus every day. Those saints who survive to the end, who survive through the national Sunday law crisis, the final coercion of conscience, um, crisis of conscience, they learn to examine everything for themselves, to search the light that God has given us in the scriptures for themselves, to ask the Holy Spirit themselves to guide their understanding and to deepen their faith, to magnify their love, and to burnish their witness. We have gone through one, two, and three in some detail this evening. It's not a pretty history.

There is a fourth crisis coming. And the best preparation we can make for that tonight is to learn the word of God for ourselves and to walk in the light that God has given us and to know for ourselves what we believe and to base our daily decisions, our daily daily actions, every decision we make in our life upon the principles contained in the word of God. Obedience today to the word of God prepares you to be obedient when the final Sunday law crisis comes. And if we are happy to live in disobedience to the word of God today, then we're going to be happy to live in disobedience to the word of God when the final crisis comes. So, live in obedience to the word of God today.

Seek by the grace of God to live in harmony and to uphold the 10 Commandments. Follow the convictions of your conscience no matter how inconvenient they may be at the time. And in so doing, you are fortifying your soul and your spirit and your character for when everything is on the line and God is looking for a faithful few who will be his champions in in crisis. My prayer is each one of us will not just make it through that crisis, but but when Jesus comes in the clouds of glory, this will be the greatest show in cosmic history. And the the the the sky is torn apart and the and the myriads of angels appear in all their glory and at the center is the throne of God surrounded by a rainbow and the dead are being raised all around us and they're being raised up in the air and the cities are shaking and the earth is shaken beneath our feet and the elements are melting with fire.

It's not just global warming, it's global meltdown. And on that glorious day, those who are found safe in Jesus Christ, who fortified their souls through the study of the word of God and obedience to the scriptures before the final crisis, they will be caught up to meet our Lord in the air. So, be faithful unto that day. And don't just say I'll be faithful tomorrow. Be faithful today.

Make it the way you live your life and then it won't be a problem when the final crisis comes. The final crisis is coming, but so is Jesus. And I want to see that glorious day when Jesus comes again. I want to be among that group of people who see that that cosmic light and fire show. There's never been anything like it before and there will be never anything like it ever again.

I want to see it on that day. I don't I want to see it. I don't want to turn my back on it and say call the rocks to fall upon me and hide me from the face of the one who is seated upon the throne. I want to see that day. So, be faithful to scripture today.

There is a crisis of conscience, but if you're faithful today, God will guide you through tomorrow. Close. Benediction? Huh? If I do a benediction?

Yes, in just a second. Were you blessed? And we just want to let um we praise God for Dr. Vine coming back at such a unique time and it's going to be packed tomorrow and we're going to ask that you will come early. And if you are able to contribute to our fellowship dinner, we would love for you to do it.

It's vegan only and we would like for you to come and we're just going to be here all day and then this tomorrow afternoon from 4:00 to about 8:00 or so, we'll be having our Sunday law update. And we also have a we have a policy here at Stateline. It's called the straight testimony policy. If you don't preach it straight, you can't preach tomorrow. Amen.

Amen. I like that policy. Amen. And so we're going to stand for prayer in just a second, but we wanted to thank God for all of you that are here. So, let's all stand for prayer as Dr. Vine, Dr.

Vine gives us the benediction. All right, as I close, our heads about. Father, I thank you that as we enter these Sabbath hours, this is a foretaste of the gathering on that sea of glass. When every tear will have been wiped away and death and disease and sorrow will be no more. And we will dwell with you and you will dwell with us and the lights of the lamb will guide us day by day.

And so, Father, we look forward by faith that glorious day when there are no more crises of conscience, when nobody is placed in impossible position by sinful um world governments. I pray that Lord, until that day, each one of us will walk in the light that you've given us. That each one of us will search daily for light in the scripture. That you will so mold and shape and refine and remake our characters that day by day there is less of us and more of Jesus. So, that we will walk through the fiery furnace with him.

Lord, when we walk through that fiery furnace with Jesus as did those three Hebrews, I pray the world will see that we are with Jesus Christ. So, Lord, may we be faithful to the light you've given us. May we seek greater light on a daily basis. May we sing the praises of one who's rescued us from darkness to walk in the light. And may people see in us a manifestation, a representation of the beauty and the love of the coming King of kings and Lord of lords.

So, until that day, Lord, may we be found faithful. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen. And we want to