Broken Bride II – Trampling on Conscience

and it's my privilege to come and joinwith you here this beautiful afternoonhere in northeastern Maine I bring briefgreetings from My Wife and our familyand my home Church The Village AdventistChurch in beran Springs and um it's myjoy and privilege to come and share withyou this afternoon uh what God has laidupon my heart so when I was asked tocome here to Caribou um I was thinkingwhat am I going to preach about andactually um I've got a bunch of speakengagements coming up through the restof the year and so uh when you'relooking at these things um you're kindof saying oh Lord what am I going totalk about and then you ask the Lord togive you a topic and then when the Lordgives you a topic you say no Lord Idon't want to talk aboutthat and that's how it works and it'smuch nicer if they say could you comeand preach on the fruit of the HolySpirit or something because then youknow okay that's what I'm supposed totalk on that's what I'm going to prepareon but when they say it's just uh youknow four or five talks off you go youhave to pray much more about it and sayLord what am I going to talk about sothere's a four-part series we're goingto conclude on Sabbath evening talkingabout God as a divorce so for those ofyou who've gone through the trauma ofdivorce um this is a sermon for you andfor those of you who are in the bride ofChrist we are now betrothed to theHeavenly bridegroom awaiting the weddingsupper of the Lamb Sab Sabbath nightwill be for you on Sabbath morning I'mgoing to be speaking about um themystery of godliness and the Mystery ofiniquity in the scriptures I'm going tobe talking about uh the rise ofantichrist what or who is the Antichristand I'm going to be talking about Theecumenical movement as discussed not byAdventists but by Vatican 2 in theofficial statements of the of theCatholic Church on the question of Theecumenical movement and uh how does thatrelate to us as Adventists tomorrow umI'm going to be speaking about theconsequences of what I'm going to bespeaking about this afternoon and so umI just want to preface this by making afew comments here um I'm not discussingthe safety or of or the efficacy of anytreatments anybody may or may not havetaken in the last fouryears I'm not discussing the safetyefficacy nor am I saying anything aboutthe spiritual state of those who did ordid not take those shots uh we're allBrothers and Sisters in Christ we canall have our names written by the graceof God in the Lamb's Book of Life we arenot here to discuss whether taking it ornot taking it is somehow a moral failureor not okay and so whether you havetaken certain medications or not isreally immaterial as far as I'mconcerned um what I'm more concernedabout is the precedent that has been setbecause more mandates are coming and ifyou look at the news we've already giventhe federal government over $170 millionto madna to produce an mRNA shot for umthe bird flu um the hospital codingsystem are having their codings changedto allow for new mRNA shots under newemergency use authorizations to beissued um I got a call from a doctor uma very senior physician on a large boardthis week um discussing with me and hewas fully he has a t taking all thetreatments discussing with me how hesees the framework being put in place inthe hospital systems in America for thenext pandemic to roll out and so we knowthat more mandates are coming and it'stime for to reflect and just catch ourbreath and in this moment of peace andquiet here in Maine to ask ourselvessome pretty searching questions so I'veentitled this the series is calledbroken bride this is part two I thinkpart one is tomorrow the part one willbe on Sabbath morning and part fourSabbath evening and part three will betomorrow evening so if you can rememberthat praise the Lord okay it's just atest of your knowledge but we're goingto start out with part two uh before weget to part one of on Sabbath so umbefore we begin let's bow our heads andask for the presence of the HolySpirit Heavenly Father we come into yourpresence uh here today as your peopleLord we come as the Sheep of yourpasture we come before you as the GoodShepherd the only Shepherd we wish tofollow and father we would hear youspeak today Lord as we go through thiscamp meeting and through thesepresentations father whoever ispresenting at the front we simply askthat it be your Holy Spirit who isspeakingLord I ask that our hearts and our mindswill be open to the convictions on ourconscience of how and where you wouldwish us to live father I ask that as Ispeak today that I'll be also listeningto your Holy Spirit I pray that thewords I share will be from your throneof grace and father what we say todayand tomorrow and on Sabbath may beuseful for the building up of the bodyof Christ Lord we know we are living inmomentous times when hard decisions aregoing to come upon each one of us Lordwe know there is coming a time when wewill look almost in vain to find afriendly face father we know we arecoming to an Era when the governmentswill think it is their moral duty towipe out the true followers of JesusChrist Lord we know these things arecoming so while we have this moment ofpeace and quiet father may we store upenough spiritual reserves and may we putdown deeper roots of Faith so that inthat final crisis as the darkness ofpersecution gathers the witness thelight from our witness will shinebrighter and brighter and brighter soLord I pray your blessing upon me now asI speak upon on those who are PRgathered here in present here in Cariboucamp meeting father for those watchingonline I pray the internet will holdstrong and they will be blessed by thehearing of these words in the name ofJesus I humbly askamen okay so um this is going to be ourjourneytoday and um I'm hoping this thing canwork we're off to an or spicious startalready uh so it is switched on and um Ialways like to tell people the journeywe're going on so you can mentally kindof check it down as we go through umthis isn't moving it at all could we askum somebody to kind of uh sit near thethe um thing here then we can um if itdoesn't work I'll somebody can press thethe button okay so I set up a YouTubechannel just a few weeks ago I have thegrand total I think of 38 subscriberswhich is it's sh shaken the interinternet world so it's very for um thereason I did that was because we nowhave the arrival of deep fake videos andum I I was ASI a couple of weeks ago andI was learning about Ai and I learnedthat I can actually put together anavatar of myself to look and sound likeme in about 10 minutes very veryeffective and all I need to do is I needto drag and dra drag and drop a Worddocument into a box online and then Isay something I never said and Irealized well this is incredibletechnology that that's now out there soI decided I better start my own YouTubechannel so that um if people want to seethe original me and not an avatar me uhyou you can go to that particularchannel so it's @ conradine um I'd liketo invite you to subscribe to it it'snot monetized I'm not making money outof this but if you want to see my videosas and when they appear um I'm I'mtrying my best to put them up on thatparticular site so um next slide so ourjourney today we're going to go througha basic introduction because some of youknow the B the backgrounds there some ofyou do not I just want want to set thecontext we're then going to look at theoriginal purpose of the GeneralConference why it was established backin 1863 we're going to look at theoriginal Constitution and what thepurpose of the members of the AdventistChurch were back then we're going tolook at the issue of administrativeboundaries because uh whenever somesomebody says to you that's anadministrative issue we dealt with itadministratively that sounds crediblebut nobody knows what administrativeissue actually is and so I thought wellwe're going to discuss today what is anadministrative issue and are thereboundaries to what an administrativeissue that can be taken care of byadministrators really is we're thengoing to look in more detail at theclaim to administrative Authority beforewe come to our conclusions today now youmay say why is he talking about thiswell because more mandates are comingand number two I want to know and youwant to know that we as members are notgoing to be thrown under the bus in thenext round ofmandates too many people lost their jobslost their careers lost their educationwere fired having just completedAdventist colleges from Adventist employlost their child custody battles etc etcetc because employers around the worlduse the general conference a statementagainst them and we want to know this isnot going to happenagain so I'm speaking up not because wewant to rub Walt suit salt in the woundsof the past but because we know thatthis is coming again and we need to beprepared for it so in terms of theintroduction uh our next slide here umI'm going to look at the 2015 statementthank you so much Dr Wayne next slidepoter okay thank you thank you all rightso all right there we are so in 2015 forthose of you who do not know uh this wasa statement issued by the generalconference Adcom and um if you followthese statements over 50 of them havebeen issued since 1980 you'll noticethat there is they're coming out withincreasing regularity and the amount ofpeople involved in the production ofthese statements is getting fewer andfewer and fewer and just as we've hadthe growth of the administrative statein the United United States um since thechevron case back in the early 1980sgave administrative agencies theauthority to basically create lawindependent of Congress so what'shappened with our general conferenceover the last 50 years is that thegeneral conference Adcom and theofficers have felt the ability to keepissuing more and more statements thatDefine normative theology for Adventistswith no input from the memberswhatsoever and so this statement wasissued in 2015 and it says this the 7thAdventist Church places strong emphasison health and wellbeing the AdventistHealth emphasis is based on biblicalRevelation The Inspired writing of EGwhite a co-founder of the church and onpeer-reviewed scientific literature assuch we encourage responsibleimmunization vaccination and have noreligious or faith-based reason not toencourage our adherence to responsiblyparticipate in protective and preventiveimmunization programs we value thehealth and safety of the populationwhich includes the herd immunity themaintenance of herd immunity and the bitin red is the final sentence says we arenot the conscience of the individualchurch member and recognize individualchoices these are exercised by theindividual the church the choice not tobe immunized is not and should not beseen as a Dogma nor the doctrine of the7th Day Adventist Church so that was astatement issue by Adcom back in 2015that basically said Adventists as a bodyhave no theological objection tovaccinations it was interesting to methat they slipped in there the fact thatour health message is based onpeer-reviewed scientific ificliterature now peer-reviewed scientificliterature is based on the scientificmodel the scientific model precludes asa prior assumption the very possibilityof the existence of God so why we areincluding peer-reviewed scientificliterature in the basis for our healthmessage when such literature denies thepossibility of the fruit of the HolySpirit or the converting power of theholy spirit is beyondme it's um peer-reviewed scientificliterature is Thoroughly atheist in itsfundamental worldview and why we haveatheism ining the health message um itjust raises a lot of questions in mymind um peer-reviewed scientificliterature says there was noResurrection there was no virgin birththere is no second coming there was no7-Day creation um so why we why we saythat peer-reviewed scientific literatureis a source of Authority for us um isfranklyridiculous then in in October21 this statement came outand um I'm having a lot of trouble withthese gadgets heretoday and um there we are thank yousister so next one please AR we havesome IT issues here andum all right and um so this was it sothe reaffirmation statement came out inOctober 21 um President Biden signed hisvaccine mandate order in September of 21and uh in response um the AdventistChurch came out with this statement herewhich said this is page one this is partof it it says since our bodies are theTemple of the Holy Spirit and we areGods by creation and Redemption weshould personally seek God's will aboutcovid-19 vaccinations it is a matter ofpersonal choice we firmly believe thatin matters of personal conviction wemust be guided by the word of God ourconscience and informed judgment so isthe choice to be vaccinated or not is amatter of conscience yes or no yes doesthe church recognize that yes or no yesit is so if everybody says it's it's amedical issue and not a matter ofconscience or religious liberty issuethe church actually recognizes that howyou treat your body Temple is a matterof conscience the statement goes on tosay on the second page and this is thethis is the the one sentence that dealswith mandates so in general vaccinationis a matter of conscience it's betweenyou and the Holy Spirit but then when itcomes to mandates the church says thisthe SDA Church in consultation with thehealth ministries and public affairs andreligious liberty Departments of theGeneral Conference of 7 Adventists isconvinced that the vaccination programsthat are generally been carried out areimportant for the safety and health ofour members and the larger community soin this sentence here the churchpresumes to be able to read the heartand mind of people like fou and tounderstand his motivations only God canread the heart if we are basing astatement on our presumed ability toknow the intentions of perhaps the mostcorrupt industry in America are bibiopharmaceutic IAL in complex thenwe're going to have problems thereforethis is the conclusion claims ofreligious liberty are not usedappropriately in objecting to governmentmandates or employe programs designed toprotect the health and safety of theircommuni so on page one vaccination is amatter of conscience between you and theHoly Spirit in page two there is acaveat that says but as soon as thefederal government or the CDC issuesmandates then the Holy Spirit can nolonger give you re reason to have anobjection to it the holy spirit isoverridden and we the church have theright to say that when there are nomandates it's between you and God butwhen there are mandates then God must beum set put to one side and you mustlisten to the word of the government souh in this statement the CH GeneralConference unilaterally assume the rightto determine denominational beliefs onbehalf of every Adventist worldwide theyassume the authority to override theconvictions of the Holy Spirit uponevery Adventist worldwide causingimmense pain and suffering to Adventistall throughout the world at the 2022General Conference session there was amotion made to add the question of thevaccine statement to the agenda and ElElder Wilson the general conferencepresident stood up to squash thatparticular motion and this is what hesaid some of you are familiar with thisvideohere on site andonline in reference to the issue thathas been brought up by a delegregardingvaccinations uh since it has beenseconded it is fair enough for us tovote on[Music]that but I want to strongly urge and Ihave the consent andagreement ofmy fellow officer Ertonker my other fellowofficer PaulDouglas that we standUnited in asking thisbody not to put that issue on theagenda for the reasons that have alreadybeen enunciated by ourchair first ofall it is not a constitution and bylawsitemsecondly it is not a church manualitem thirdly it is not a fundamentalbeliefitem now there may be individuals whowill disagree with me andothers saying it is my fundamental rightto be able to make achoice as to whether or not not Iwish to receive the vaccination avaccination somevaccination ornot and the general conference has verymuch stood on theposition that everyone should make theirowndecision the general conference has madea statement in regards tovaccinations in fact I have to tell youthat the country that I served in foralmost 9 years in West Africa I wouldnot have been able to serve there had Inot had a particularvaccination in fact there are probablyabout 15 countries in Africa and perhapselsewhere with that single vaccinationwhere you would not even be able toenter so the debate may contain allkinds of ramifications Pati s it hasbecome particularlyacute with the recent covid-19pandemic and the resulting vaccinationsthat weredeveloped which are not exactly likeother vaccinations but arevaccinations so it depends on whatvaccinations you're talking about as towhat responses people givebut the general conference has notmandated that people take thevaccination it has given people achoice so rather than for us to becomeembroiled in something which is not anagenda item for a general conference itis an administrative item it has beendealt with some people don't like theway it has been dealt with and that istheir right but rather than for us tobecome EMB roiled in something that isnot an item for a general conferencesessiondiscussion werespectfullykindly and very much in a determinedmanner ask thatyou thedelegates vote no on placing this itemas an agenda item thank you it is inyour handsthank you all right so that was what ourGC president said the vaccine he wasreferring to in is when Africa it's theyellow fever vaccination but that'scomparing apples with oranges is notcomparing apples withapples uh so uh in that statement he heessentially falsely misled the delegatesinto believing that the pandemicstatement should not be added to theagenda because it did not involve anagend an amendment to our constitutionbylaws Church manual or fundamentalbelief he was misleading the WorldChurch in that moment and I say thatexplicitly multiple lawyers have lookedat that the the text was shared with ageneral conference and the video of twoor three weeks before it went online andthey simply will not discuss it thegeneral conference has lawyered upagainst its own members because theyknow they're on a Sticky Wicket they'rein indefensible position viav thisquestion but in that statement ElderWilson he stated this he said so ratherthan for us to become embroiled insomething which is not an agenda itemfor General Conference which wasmisleading he then said it is anadministrative item it has been dealtwith so the question is what is anadministrativeitem how who defines what is anadministrativeitem because this uh if we don't knowwhat an administrative item is then thiskind of play may happen all overagain and we as members need to beinformed we need to be intelligent abouthow our church operates beyond theboundaries of our local localcongregation so we can understand whatis happening and when things areappropriate when they're not appropriateso the question is does the generalconference Adcom have administrativeAuthority do they have jurisdiction overwhat you put in your body they ask thequestion and that's what we're going tobe talking about here so let's look atthe original purpose of the GeneralConference next slide so we go back toum 1863 the 3rd of May the Adventistreview in Sabbath Herald um you can ifyou go to Andrew's University go downinto the James White M research libraryin the bottom and once you go down thereyou look along the Shel the dustyshelves and there's the 1863 files forthe Aventure review in the SabbathHerald it's worth going down into theseDusty libraries and looking their stuffup all right because knowing this stuffis important and there you can see foryourself the original constitution ofthe General Conference as voted by thedelegates who met on the 3rd of May1863 and so this is what you read thisis the official record of the foundingof of our church and so this is going tobe 5 minutes of administrative umdetails please stick with me it's notthe most of interesting stuff but um ifyou work in in a nonprofit or for aconference executive committee you'llyou'll realize that a lot of this isvery similar to what we say today sowe're going to quote it says theconstitution of the general conferencewas voted by the delegates for thepurpose of securing unity and efficiencyin labor and promoting the generalinterests of the cause of present truthand of perfecting the organization ofthe seventhly Adventists we thedelegates from the several Stateconferences hereby proceed to ororganize a general conference and adoptsthe following constitution for thegovernance thereof article thisconference Shall be Called article onethe General Conference of 7th DayAdventists article two the officers ofthis conference shall be a presidentsecretary treasurer and an executivecommiss committee of three of whom thepresident shall be one the English isjust appalling there article three theduties of the president and thesecretary shall be SE respectively asusually pertain to these officersarticle four it shall be the duty of thetreasurer to receive and disperse um themeans under the direction of theexecutive committee and keep an accountof the same and make a report thereof tothe regular meetings of the conferenceArticle 5 section one it shall be theduty of the executive committee to takethe general supervision of allministerial labor and see that the sameis properly distributed and they shalltake the special supervision of allmissionary labor and as a missionaryboard shall have the power to decidewhere such Le labor is needed and whoshall go as missionaries to perform thesame Article 5 section 2 means formissionary operations may be received bydonation from the state conferenceschurches or individuals and thecommittee are authorized to call formeans whenneeded Article 5 Section 3 it's veryinteresting isn't it somebody please sayyes out there all right it's veryinteresting stuff allright when any state conference desiresministerial labor from a minister notresident within the bounds of suchconference their request shall be madeto the general conference executivecommittee and ministers said by sendsent by saidon committee uh shall beconsidered under the jurisdiction of theconference committee of such states thatmeans a conference can requestadminister from another state and it hasto go through the general conference exexecutive committee that's the origin ofour missionary call process and servicerequest system within the churchprovided point one that if such Ministerconsider the state committee inefficientor their AC so far wrong as to renderhis labor ineffectual he may appeal tothe general conference executivecommittee that is not to make the moveprovided to that if such State committeeconsiders such Minister ineffinefficient they may appeal to thegeneral conference committee who shalldecide on the matter of complaint andtake such action as they think properokay General article six says this umevery state conference shall be entitledto one delegate in the generalconference and one additional Delegatefor every 20 delegates of the stateconference such delegates to the generalconference be chosen by the stateconferences or their committees providedthat the delegates to such Stateconferences be elected according to theratio to it each member each Church thenumber of 20 members or under shall beentitled to one delegate and oneDelegate for every additional 15 membersarticle 7 the officers shall hold theiroffices for the term of one year andshall be elected at the regular meetingsof the conference article 8 uh article 8section 1 the regular meetings of theconference shall be held annually andthe time and place of holding the sameshall be determined by the executivecommittee by whom due notice thereofshall be given by the review article 8section 2 special meetings may be calledat the option of the committee article 9this constitution shall be alter amendedby 2third votes of delegates present atany regular meeting provided that anyproposed amendment shall be communicatedto the executive committee and noticethereof given by them in their call forthe meeting of the conference and sothat's the original constitution of thegeneral conference and what you noticeabout thisis that the original Constitution wasprimarily focused on the fact that thegeneral the role of the generalconference is to coordinate missionaryOutreach that was their job their jobwas if one conference wanted a ministerfrom another conference let's sayMichigan wanted somebody from Illinoisit had to go through the generalconference executive committee toapprove that and to a certain extentthat still happens but through othermechanisms these days and their otherrole was to coordinate missionary workinto unreached parts of the world whichthen was anywhere outside the UpperMidwest and parts of the New Englandarea you'll also notice that there isnothing said in the originalConstitution about Liberty of conscienceor religious liberty that the membersnever gave to the general conference atits Inception any authority overreligious liberty or Liberty ofconscience it simply does not exist it'snotthere that was the purpose of theGeneral Conference to coordinatemissionary work into unreached parts ofthe world now over time thatConstitution has evolved but the onlystatement referencing religious libertyis found in the pile section of theGeneral Conference working policy manualPaul stands for public affairs andreligious liberty which seems to me avery strike odd combination ofdepartments you have religious Affairspublic affairs which is please be niceto us with religious Liberties which iswe don't care what you say we're goingto follow the word of God all meldedinto the same Department it's an odd wayof of putting things together okay umand so so anyway in the par section ofthe General Conference working policy wehave this statement here which I by nowI hope is familiar to many Adventistsaround the world and what we the membershave voted over the years is thisstatement here which says the use andforce and coercion is inimicable to lifeto dignity and to authentic religionreligious liberty deals with a person'srelationship with God the CreatorAdventists therefore view religiousliberty as the primordial human rightthat undergo undergirds all human rightspublic affairs and religious liberty oneof the original core Departments of thechurch was initially established topromote and maintain religious libertywith particular emphasis upon the mostintimate Freedom individual liberty ofconscience the department allegedlyworks for the religious Liberties ofindividual churchmembers so that's the only statement onreligious liberty in our generalconference working policy mind that iswhat our Representatives our delegateshave voted at the general conferencesession over the years so we can safelyassume that it was the intent of thedelegates 1863 and of sister whiteherself who was present for the generalconference's role and purpose being tocoordinate missionary work intounreached areas of the world it wasnever the intent of the delegates orsister white for the general conferenceto have jurisdiction over how memberstreat their bodies nor how the membershave their relationships with theirprivate employers nor how the HolySpirit might convict individual membersof individual decisionsince the gc's formation in 1863 if youlook through the records the GCAdministration executive committee andAdcom was never given the authority bythe general conference in full sessionto curtail deny or restrict anyindividual member's Liberty ofconscience to the contrary the membersvoted that the general conferenceofficers Administration and Adcom mustdefend Liberty of conscience forindividual members that's what we votedthat is exactly what did not happen inthe last four years quite the ithappened so let's turn to the questionof how do administrative boundariesoperate soum this we have a hierarchy in ourchurch we have an administrativehierarchy it's not a spiritual hierarchyit's an administrative hierarchy and sothis is how the church works so umimagine that the the main conference didnot exist now let's let's use Michiganbecause that's more obvious example sothe the the Adventists in Michigandecide that they want a legal entity toto own property and to issue credentialsso that these preachers on circuitRiders um they people would know thatthis is a legitimate Adventist preacherso the members in Michigan coales theyhave a session every Church sendsdelegates those are delegates that's akey word they're delegates and theyvoted many years ago to legallyestablish the Michigan SDA conferenceyou follow me on this now thatconference when they when they legallyestablished it they then voted anexecutive committee for that conferenceand they voted through officers apresident a secretary and the treasurerand this is what we do in all of ourconferences at every constituencysession about every four years now whenyou establish let's say Michiganconference the the executive committeehas legal jurisdiction over the Affairsof the conference itself not over themembers they have jurisdiction over whatI've put up on the screen there theyhave jurisdiction over any employees ofthe conference their salaries theirbenefits packages and their HR policiesthat's what goes into the conferenceworking policy manual they have legaljurisdiction over the dispersement anduse of all tithes and offerings that arereturned to the conference they havelegal jurisdiction over the buildingsand capital assets owned by theconference such as um such as um or Idon't know um a publishing house or umthe church buildings in the conferenceor a youth camp they have legalownership and legal jurisdiction overany and all institutions owned by thatconference such as an academy a foodfactory a Publishing House a youth campEtc that's what the conference executivecommittee has legal jurisdiction over doyou follow me on this CU they own itlegally do they have jurisdiction overwhere you live though no do they havejurisdiction over where where you whereyou live no do you have to ask theirpermission before you put any food inyour mouth no do you ask the conferencefor approval before you get married nocertainly not so the conference as as alegal entity has precisely zerojurisdiction over any aspect of yourlife as a member in fact the conferencecannot put you under any form ofdiscipline the only people who candiscipline you as your localcongregation and the conference cannotdetermine whether you can even me anAdventist or not because the decision toadmit you into Fellowship is thedecision of your local congregation thedecision to discipline you or withdrawmembership to disfellowship you is ofyour local congregation but theconference as a legal entity hasprecisely zero influence jurisdictioncontrol over any aspect of your privatelifeperiod and any conference president whostands up here and says we have somekind of jurisdiction over your lifeshould be removed forthwith you following this okay so thennext slid we have unions so every aboutfive years uh the conference you theNorthern New England conference Michiganconference we we'll say with Michigan umbecause it's easier as an as anillustration the Michigan executivecommittee V votes to send delegates to aunion constituency session and thosedelegates are sent to the unionconstituency session in order to electthe executive committee and officers ofthe Union which in our case in Michiganis the Lake Union now notice this theword that is used isdelegates can the Michigan conferencedelegate to its delegates Authority thatthe Michigan conference does not have inand ofitself no the most they can do isdelegate Authority that the M Michiganconference has within itselfif Michigan conference conference canvote on 1 through 10 they cannot givetheir delegates authority to vote on 1through 12 because it's going BeyondMichigan's own authority themselves youcannot give delegates Authority that youdo not have yourself so those Unionthose delegates from the Michiganconference go to the lake Unionconstituency session and they vote onthe the administrators and the executivecommittee of the Lake Union and onceagain we see the same system paralleledfrom Michigan conference Lake Union yousee on the screen there the Unionexecutive committee has legal oradministrative authority over thefollowing areas the the employees of theUnion who they are their salaries theirbenefits and the HR policies the tithesand offerings of the return to the unionthat's the finances the buildings andcapital assets owned by the union anyinstitutions owned by a union such as acollege let's say Union College for theMin America Union and they also haveadministrative oversight of constituentconferences but notice this the unionexecutive committee or administrativecommittee they respond to to routineadministrative queries from theirconstituentconferences but they have no authorityover any aspect of the members livesonce again so what union are you in herein in Northern New England Atlantic theAtlantic Union okay so at the risk ofbeing pedantic the Atlantic Unionexecutive committee and officers haveprecisely zero influ zero legal uhcontrol over any aspect of your lifezero they cannot determine anything foryour lifethe conference can't do it the unioncan't do it because it's never beendelegated to them we the members havenever given them the right to determinewhat we marry where we live what we wearwhat we spend our money on um what we doon Sabbath evening and etc etc etc thechurch has no authority over any aspectof your life you are accountable beforea living holy God Amen for how you liveyour lives you are not responsible tosome remote committing next slide every5 years the union send delegatesdelegates uh that word is used againthey are called delegates to a generalconference session and once again theyvote a general conference executivecommittee they vote the officers of theGeneral Conference they listen to thereports from the departmental leaders ofthe general conference and uh they theythey vote changes in the generalconference working policy manualfundamental beliefs and Constitution andbylaws and you see upon the screen thereit's almost the same kind of Slide thegeneral conference has administrativecontrol over the institutions owned bythe the GC such as Andrews and Lolindathey have oversight over the 13divisions in the world they haveoversight over the attached Fields suchas the Israel field the Middle EastNorth Africa Union Mission and the ChinaUnion and now Ukraine are directlyattached fields to the generalconference um but the general conferenceexecutive committee and the Adcom onceagain they have no legal jurisdictionover any aspect of any member's lifeworldwideperiod so your conference has noauthority over any aspect of your lifeyour union has no Authority over anyaspect of your life the generalconference in full session cannotdisfellowship you it cannot welcome youinto membership they cannot pass anyresolution that affects you in any wayshape or form as a privatemember now I mentioned in theintroduction I've mentioned about theChevron principle are you familiar withthe Chevronprinciple some of you are some of youare not okay so about 40 years ago therewas a Supreme Court decision it's knownas the chevron case the EPA theEnvironmental Protection a gency arguedbefore The Supreme Court that ifCongress votes a b CDE e then thethree-letter agency in government thatsupposed to administer it such as theCDC or the NOA of the FBI or the um FAAEtc or the FDA they can go they canImplement ABCDE but if Congress onlywent as far as ABCDE then thethree-letter agencies can projectforwards to fghhJK and that's known as a Chevronprinciple and that's given rise in thelast 45 years in America to the theadministrative state where theseadministrative bodies say this was votedby Congress and we're going to projectforward this is how Congress should havevoted for all these other cases and soin the last 45 years we've seen themassive out growth of the the power ofthe administrative state in the UnitedStates U the OSHA vaccine mandates thatwere issued in 21 were issued under theChevronprinciple OSHA never had that delegatAuthority from Congress but they assumedit and then by the grace of God in Junethis year the US Supreme Court struckdown the the Chevron principle and theybasically said if Congress didn't voteit it ain't law and if Congress doesn'thave the courage to vote something thenthe administrative State cannot imposeit upon the citizens it was one of thebiggest strikes for individual freedomin American history happened with theChevron decision just came out aboutfive or six weeks ago well in June thisyear and what's happened in ourAdventist Church is that we havesubcontracted the thinking processes toour administrators for the last 45 yearssince our the general conference Adcomstarted issuing statements and now ifthere's let's say the question oftransgenderism everybody says well whatdoes the GC say about it rather thanwhat does the Bible say about it and weneed to figure it out for ourselves andwe have subcontracted thedecision-making processes to the to thegeneral conference leadership andadministration in such a way that now 45years later just as the Americanthree-letter agencies have gotten out ofcontrol and are issuing out ofc controlregulations and the Supreme Court had tochop them down to size this June whenthey overturned the Chevron principprinciple so we now have a generalconference Administration that assumesin this statement here on the screenthat little red text there when it comesto mandates that there is God up hereand there is man down here and MartinLuther was told by the church at thediet of VMS he had to recount that isthere is God and there is man but thechurch has the only and exclusive rightto tell you what God wants for you andif you want to come to God you must gothrough the church so there is God thechurch and man and Luther says no andthere I'm convict Ed by the word of Godalone so God will speak directly to mewithout the need for an ecclesiasticalhierarchy to interfere in theprocess and in this statement here thegeneral conference essentially saysthere is God up there and there is mandown here and God can speak to themembers on however which way he pleasesbut when it comes to employer mandateswe as an administrative body have theright to determine what God is allowedto say to you and that is a fundamentaloverturning of the ProtestantReformation we entered the pandemic asProtestants and we left it with a Papalsystem where our church members believethey have the right to override theconvictions of the Holy Spirit upontheir members so I would State heretoday that what a member puts into theirbody is not an administrative issue forthe general conference administratorsand so when elder Wilson States I'mquoting his words it is anadministrative item it has been dealtwith he is fundamentally wrong it is notan administrative item how you treatyour body and the general conference hasnever been given the right ever to makethat kind ofdecision so the only responsibility wethe people have delegated V ourdelegates to the GC Administration interms of Liberty of conscience is todefend it at an individual level levelfor every member not to unilaterallysuspend it when it's politically correctfinancially inconvenient for them to doso so let's come to the question ofadministrative Authority in a bit moredetail on the 26 26th of January 2022was kind of funny on the 15th of JanuaryI preached a sermon called an appeal toadmin nobility some of you maybe sawthat sermon and as they Ser as they saidpreaching changes lives and that sermonchanged my life forever um it maybechanged yours hopefully by the grace ofGod well two weeks later the GC issued astatement on Adventist News Network andit was called concerns regardingcovid-19 Church governance and Libertyof conscience it looked to me like itwas written by a committee of attorneysthat put that particular statementtogetherand um that it was basically acondemnation of preachers like myselffor having the temerity to question notwhether the vaccinations were right ornot not whether the general conferenceum can make that kind of decision butthe fundamental issue in that statementwas uh nobody can question the authorityof the church which is exactly whenCardinal e was Saints Luther submitsubmit and recant recant it's that samekind of spirit of papalism that says themembers must submit to our decisions andyou can never question our decisionsthis is what they said preaching such asmine will undermine Church Authoritycreate confusion lead to fragmentationand lead to a lack of trust in God'slast day church he will undermine thelegitimacy and authority of the GeneralConference each of its world's divisionsthe unions the local conferences and Ein the local church the potential impactis an erosion of confidence that couldresult in people leaving the churchorganizing a movement of independentworship groups or creating offshootmovements that would view the church ina osty it all came down to one one ortwo things money and power not what wasright or wrong it was about nobody canquestion the authority of the GeneralConference as I said last night I thankthe Lord for the fact that for last 10years Elder Wilson has like a laserfocus on missions and he has done moreto reinvigorate Adventist missions thanmany General Conference presidents and Ithank the Lord for his leadership inthat area I thank the Lord for how howthe fact he's been a bullwark againstmany of the Godless ideologies thatwould otherwise have swept our divisionhere in North America I thank the Lordfor that and I praise him that I praiseGod that Elder Wilson is office for sucha time as this however in this issuehere a terrible mistake has been madeand many people repeatedly tell me onthe back channels who are not supposedto tell me that we recognize that amistake has made but nobody knows how torectify it without fear of class actionlawsuits from those who lost everythingbecause of those statements so in thisstatement here the general conferenceclaim they have the authority to issuesuch a statement based on this clause inthe Adcom terms of reference and this isthe Adcom terms of reference fromOctober 2015 this statement here givesthe World Church allegedly the authorityto override your conscience it saysgeneral administrative items they havethe power to act number one considerother routine administrative issues asthey arise and give general counsel toWorld Church entities asrequested so I hope you guys can readthat I think it's better for everybodyshould shift over here actually fortonight or tomorrow it'll really helpyou so on the left side column you'vegot the Adcom to terms of reference Ijust put the words there consider otherroutine in the middle I've given you aroutine interpretation in AdventAdministration and on the rights I'vegiven you the new what I considerillegitimate interpretation that cameout during thepandemic and you can judge foryourselves whether what I'm saying isreasonable or not so in the terms of theAdcom terms of reference it says thatthe can consider other routine end quotenow routine relates to questions of theinterpretation of the General Conferenceworking policy manual as it applies tospecific situations relating todenomination employees or institutions Iwas once a secretary treasur of theMiddle East Union I know what anadministrative item is a missionary isdue to go on Furlow in June but his kidis graduating in May can we shift hisfur home a month earlier so they can goto the kids graduation that's a routineadministrative issuea routine administrative issue is um wehave um half a million dollars too muchtithe in this Union right now for ourbudget for this year and but we don'thave enough non non-tie funds can wearrange with the local division for usto swap some tithe and non-tie fundswith another Union that has a surplus ofnon- tithe and a deficit of tithe sothey can meet their tithe obligationsand we can they can meet their theirnon-tie obligations this is known astithe exchange it happens all the timethat's a routine administrative processokay when you're in the system you knowwhat a routine administrative issue isbut according to the general conferencein their in their statement there the Pthe co pandemic which was a once in A-lifetime event or let's let's put itthis way it's it's whenever presidentTrump is on the ballot event impactingevery person worldwide not justnomination employees or institutions ascenario for which the generalconference working policy man will makesabsolutely no provision is nowconsidered a routine event that fallswithin the delegated decision-makingAuthority of the Adcom I would suggestthat's an entirely illegitimate readingof the General Conference terms ofreference the second then the phrasegoes along the they can consider otherroutine and administrative issues astheyarise now look at that boringadministrative textthere terrible I look at this I thinkwho ever wrote this stuff it was meactually but I I've got to I've got to Wmy way through this so please stick withme okay um what I wrote there is thatchurch members formed congregations thatin turn form conferences we've alreadydiscussed that pulled FinancialResources T tithes and offeringsproperties institutions are entrusted tothe administrative oversight of theelected administrators who havedelegated and have legal authority overthe tithes and offerings thedenominational employees and theinstitutions be administered of theowned by the conference in such a waythat meets the goals of the members ofthe conference thus Administrationrefers only to the legal and accountableoversight over the employees the tithesand offerings and the the buildings andcapital assets of the conference but theadministrators have no authority overthe bodies finances or privateEnterprises of members anywhere in theworld that's a routine administration ofadministrative items as they arise thenew interpretation as of the pandemic isthat in the co pandemic thereaffirmation statement assumes theright of denominational leaders toSimply override and cancel theconvictions of the Holy Spirit upon themembers worldwide relating to theirbodies and medical treat treat M neverbefore in advent's history has anygeneral conference session executivecommittee Adcom or subcommittee thereofever assumed or being delegated theright to make decisions that overridethe personal conscience decisions ofmembers in private medical matters asthe GC has no such Authority it cannotdelegate any such authority to asubcommittee like the Adcom that votedthe reaffirmation statement thereforetheir interpretation of the Adcom termsof reference is illegitimate and thenthe final part of that little phrasethat they claim gives them the authorityis this they can give General Council toWorld Church entities as requested anduh maybe your eyes kind of glaze overlike what is a World Church entity wellthis is a very specific term and we needto know what it means next slide pleaseso if you go to the Adventistyearbook.org have you heard of theyearbook yeah some of you have some ofyou haven't okay so um the the generalconference every year publishes ayearbook and the Yearbook has thegeneral conference and all of itsdepartments listed by name and theaddress contact details and all of theentities legal entities owned by theconference so LOM Linda and Andrews areup there and then it has the divisionslet's say the North American Divisionand the name and address and the officesof the North American Division listedand then if you look on on this thiswebsite here you type in North AmericanDivision it will have all the unions inin the North American Division a littledrop- down menu and you click on thatlet's say the Atlantic Union then youclick on Atlantic Union it's got all thesub en in the Atlantic Union one ofwhich is the North New Englandconference and you click on the NortherNew England conference it has all thedetails of your conference listed therehow many pastors the officers thedepartmental leaders the buildings etcetc etc the point is the yearbook whenwhen Adventist administrators talk aboutWorld Church entities that meanseverything that's in theyearbook everything that is owned by thechurch every conference UnionAdministration um Academy PublishingHouse Health Food um store whateverwhatever it is everything that islegally owned by the church is in theyearbook and it's published it's it's apublic access um website anybody canlook at it and so the general conferenceAdcom has the authority to give counselto entities that are within theyearbook within the yearbook notice thatbecause a World Church entity is thatwhich is in the yearbook you followingthis but the general conferencestatement said that we can't object togovernment employer or governmentmandates now if you're employed by thestate of Maine does the generalconference have the authority under thisterms of reference to make a statementto the gates the state of Maine yes orno no because it's not in it's not aWorld Church entity it's Way Beyondbeing a way World Church entity the thegeneral conference does not have theauthority to make statements to everyemployer in the world regardless ofwhether they're in the yearbook or notthey can make internal statements to toconferences and unions and divisions butthose statements are never published onthe internet ever they're sent by emailthe general conference sends an emailfrom the Secretariat to the divisionSecretariat they take they had a fewcomments they pass it on to theoffending Union somewhere in the worldbut this statement from the generalconference was not sent through normaldenominational channels it was posted onAdventist News Network for everyemployer in the world to take a lookat now the statement says the terms ofreference says they can give Council toWorld Church entities that is to thepeople within the yearbook but they sentit to everybody in the world did theyexceed their terms of authority yes orno absolutely they did they may beconvinced that they're right in so in inissuing the statement I allow them thatbut a plain reading of the textindicates they do not have the authorityto issue a statement to every employerin the world and to every government inthe world we have never given them thatkind of authority therefore theirstatement is illegitimate or as I'vesaid before lawyers would say it isultra verz Ultra verz ver is a Latinword for man we get the word virile fromthat he's manly he's virile so Ultra isbeyond so Ultra verz means that it isbeyond their authority to make such astatement and the reason they don't wantto talk about it with the members thereason they're lawyered up about thisthe reason when propor Wilson goes topublic offense he won't discuss thismatter is because the moment the generalconference admits they don't have theauthority to make that kind of statementthey're terrified of class actionlawsuits from everybody who losteverything is going to say you acted umyou this was negligence you acted beyondyour delegated authority now I needdamages for that and so it's myconviction that the general conferenceis now hiding from the members nobody wecan't have a conversation about thisbecause of the liability that goes withit and that's a terrible place to be inas a WorldChurch my experience of talking withmembers around the world is that thereare some people who are hopping madaboutthis but we're a church and we can askfor forgiveness and we can makereconciliationtogether and if those who have causedsuch terrible offense those who havecaused such harm to the body of Christwould stand up and say In the Heat ofthe Moment we made a terrible mistakewould you please forgive us I'm more andmore convinced that more and moreAdventists would say praise the Lord andlet's move on from this but for as longas the World Church says we have theauthority to make this kind of decisionand you can't discuss it we will neverdiscuss it with you we have thisAuthority and you the members have nosay in thatwhatsoever then we can legitimately askthe question when the next set of pantmandates come along and they are comingare you going to do the same thing to usagain so let's come to our conclusionshere if you look at the the wider systemsituation in our worldtoday the who is actively seeking theglobal authority to declare actual orpotential pandemics potential pandemicsthey're seeking changes to theinternational Health regulations theyfailed to do it this year they're goingto come back for another um try nextyear they're seeking the legal rights toimpose vaccine mandates upon every humanon planet Earth overriding all nationalcivil rights legislation in theprocess that's what they're activelyseeking if you follow the world newscarefully you'll see thishappening we now have the uh thegovernment has issued $170 millioncontract to madna to make mRNA Aven foodvaccinations why would they be doingthis now we have this week the who hasdeclared some kind of emergency for theemergence of empx used to be calledmonkey pox and uh and their claims thatthis could end up in a global pandemicour globalist Elites are openlydiscussing the next pandemic they callit disease X this isn't originating fromworkingclass neighborhoods it'soriginating in the think tanks and amongthe polite chattering classes onCNN and we have every reason to suspectbecause in adventism precedent governsalmost everything else that should thenext set of mandates come out thatOctober 21 October the October 21reaffirmation statement will be used asa precedent by any future GC presidentrcom to once again strip Adventistsworldwide of their Liberty of conscienceobjections to who or employee mandatesonce again with catastrophic[Music]impact I'm not making any of this up thefact that the GC refuses any discussionof this does not give you confidence forthefuture the fact that no discussion ispossible and those who question them arecancelled and cancel culture isreal tells you that they have everyintent to pull the same trick againbecause it's financially expedient forour institutions to doso the entire struggle in adventismtoday comes down to a simple questiondoes a general conference president orthe Adcom have the spiritual thebiblical or the ecclesiastical right tooverride or determine the convictions ofthe Holy Spirit upon any individualAdventist or all Adventists worldwidethat's the essentialquestion if yes then we are essentiallyno differ the ayas of tan or theAntichrist of Rome where a single manclaims the authority to speak for Godand to determine what God is or is notallowed to say to individuals if no thenthe October 21 reaffirmation statementneeds to be set aside immediately andLiberty conscience restored to everyAdventist worldwide regardless of theindividual health choices that they havemade in my own family my wider familynot my immediate family but in my widerfamily I have people who I love dearlywho are vaccinated and some who are notand we still find ways to live togetherwe still love one another we care foreach other it's a personal choice weleave it as a personal choice andeverybody has to live with theconsequences of their individual choicesparticularly as the medication does notpreventtransmission and if you follow the legalside of things just this last month theUS 9th Circuit Court of Appeals umoverturned a mandate in the Los AngelesUnified School District because LosAngeles Unified School District claimedthey have the right to issue mandatesfor vaccines based on a 1905 law fromMassachusetts that was upheld by theSupreme Court for small pooxvaccinations and the ninth Circuit Courtof Appeals and listen to this they saidjust a few weeks ago none of the coshots meet the standard definition ofvaccines therefore they cannot bemandated by employers period it was astunningdecision and the village AdventistChurch on the 20th of September a coupleof Fridays time from now one of ourlawyers there is discussing all of thelegal challenges to mandates that arehappening right now and how there is a100% success rate of people challengingmandates because now the federal courtshave said that what was mandated in 2122 and 23 does not meet the legaldefinition of vaccine it's anastonishing turn of eventthe problem we have today is not withour theology our Fai our fundamentalbeliefs or our structure what is causingour problem today is a handful ofAdministrators at the general conferenceled by our general conference presidentwho have acted illegitimately beyondtheir delegated authority in assumingthe rights to override the holy spirit'sconvictions upon your conscience andupon mine so I'd appeal to generalconference today to the upcoming annualCouncil this October to ascend andapologize for the 21 reaffirmation Ststatement do I think they'll do it not achance but I still appeal anyway becausewe're not a business we're a church andspiritual values should triumph overbusiness and economic values two theyshould establish a fund to compensateAdventists who have lost theirlivelihoods or suffered physical harmfrom the side effects of the vaccinesthey were forced to take by theiremployers who denied them religiousliberty W for exemption requests becauseof the 21 reaffirmation statement numberthree when I would call upon the generalconference to publicly affirm at thisyear's annual Council that becausemembers and employees may be vaccinatedor not as the Holy Spirit impresses themthrough their conscience and the generalconference will from this day forwarddefend every Adventist and their goodconscience decisions Vis all futurevaccination mandates we need to knowthat the general conference is not goingto do the same thing again to us or wecan have no confidence in our WorldChurch leadership and fourthly I wouldto call upon them to rehire whereverpossible possible on the previous termsand conditions those denominationemployees who are fired for living inaccordance with the convictions of theHoly Spirit again do I believe any ofthis will happen humanly speaking not achance but we serve a mighty God and forGod all things are possible and whenwhen truth is on your side then thosewho hold to falsehood look more moreridiculous with every passingyear and in the man in the pandemic hadwe said something like this we respectthe public health authorities in everycountry but we also defend the goodconscience decisions of our members theentire world would have known about thead Adventist Church the entire world andpeople half of planet Earth who did notwant those shots would have taken a newmaybe the first time interest in theAdventist Church and the Everlastinggospel it was the single largestEvangelistic opportunity in ourlifetimes and we fell in line with thepapacy which is Antichrist the secondbeast of Revelation which is UnitedStates of America and we implementedtheir mandates to the the incredibledetriment of our members it was anincredible lost opportunity so in humanterms do I expect the general conferenceto do what was I'm appealing for to dohere todayno but we serve a mightyGod and mother uh time is the mother oftruth and the more that time goes by themore the truth is shining through andthe entire Co narrative has collapsedand that which was mandated in hundredsof countries in 2022 is now banned inhundreds of countries in 2024 because ofthe incredibly dangerous side effectsI'm not that's not a comment on my partthat's simply a statement of fact so Iwould appeal to you today as Adventiststo start praying for our generalconference leadership these men andwomen have incredibly tough roles tofulfill we live in a polarized world andwe live in a polarized Church issuessuch as critical race Theory criticalgender Theory um creationism andevolution the sexual Revolution um lgbtqissues are dividing our division likenever before our church leaders have analmost impossible task and they need thewisdom of Solomon to hold us togetherbut a Hold Us Together there needs to bea recognition that when things go rightwe say praise the Lord when things gowrong we say let's be open about thisand let's say we're never going to dothat again and we can move on in harmonytogether so pray for our world churchleaders and at the end of the day whenthose Sabbath mandates come out at theend of time and worship is coerced bythe same federal government that coercedyour conscience in the last 3 yearsthere is no earthly Cavalry coming totherescue those who endure to the end willbe saved amen just between you andGod so while you're at this camp meetingtake every opportunity to put downdeeper roots of Faith to have greaterunderstanding of what the Everlastinggospel really is to nurture a daily walkwith your lord and savior to learn torecognize the voice of the Holy Spiritswhen every voice on planet Earth issaying do this you recognize the stillsmall voice of God whispering do thisand you can follow that voice becauseyou know that throughout your life hehas done you no harm whatsoever so befaithful until Jesus comes again learnto listen to the voice of the HolySpirit do not quench the spirit and donot claim the Holy Spirit as a reasonfor objection to something when you'renot living in harmony with the scriptureon in other areas of your life we haveto be consistent in our Christian walkif I'm will destroying my body templewith Coca-Cola and french fries Ishouldn't be objecting to vaccinemandates okay we need to honor our bodyTemple every day of the week not justwhen it comes to vaccine mandates thatwe're not in favor of so may God give usthe courage to follow through with hiswill may God give us the grace to accepthis will may God give us the discernmentto perceive his will in our lives fromthis day and forever more amenand so why don't we close this sessionhere with a word ofprayer HeavenlyFather we we are living in momentoustimes father we know we're living in thetime of the seventh trumpet when thekind the time for judging the dead hascome Lord we know we are living in thetime of the pre-advent judgment and soonJesus will appear in the Clouds OfHeaven and his reward will be with himto give to every man woman boy and girlas his or her work has been father weknow we are living in in the the thetoes of the Statue of Daniel chapter 2and father we know that before Jesuscomes in the Clouds Of Glory there willonce again be a crisis of consciencelike this world has never seen beforebut Lord in this final crisis moment ofEarth's history for some mysteriousreason you did not call Abraham Isaacand Jacob to be lived in this time butwe are born into this timefather by your Providence we were bornfor this time amen Lord this is our timeto shine for you so father May the lightof the Gospel never be dimmed orquenched in our lives in our homes or inour marriages father May the light ofthe love of Jesus Christ May Grace andTruth be heard and seen in all that wesay and do may people know that we arecitizens of Heaven above from where weare expecting Our Savior the Lord JesusChrist so from this day forward fatherMay there be less of us and more ofJesus in each of our lives and each ofour homes this is our prayer in jesus'name amen