Runaway Train II

Extracted Verses and Quotes from the Sermon

Biblical Verses

John 15:15

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

2 Corinthians 6:15

“What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?”

Proverbs 3:5-6

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Proverbs 3:9-10

“Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”

Revelation 10

“God calls out a people.”

Revelation 11

“God restores the primacy of scripture.”

Revelation 12 and 13

“Those who honor the seventh-day Sabbath will be pressured to switch to Sunday worship and follow the mark of the beast.”

2 Thessalonians 2

“The parousia (coming) of the evil one will precede the coming of the Son of Man, and the evil one will be destroyed by the Lord.”

Great Controversy (Ellen G. White, quoted in sermon)

“Satan himself will appear in the character of an angel of light. Through the agency of spiritualism, miracles will be wrought. The sick will be healed, and many undeniable wonders will be performed. Satan works through the elements also to gather his harvest of unprepared souls… The great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils.”

Memorable Quotes

“Truth is worth standing up for and because people outside the Adventist church recognize truth when they hear it.”

“The entire struggle in our Adventist worldwide church today comes down to one simple question: Does the General Conference president have the spiritual right, the biblical right, or the ecclesiastical right to override or determine the convictions of the Holy Spirit upon any individual Adventist or all Adventists worldwide? Absolutely not.”

“If the answer is yes, then we are no different than the Ayatollahs of Shiism or the papacy. If the answer is no, then that 2021 October reaffirmation statement needs to be set aside, and liberty of conscience needs to be restored to every Adventist worldwide regardless of the individual health choices they have made.”

“Whether you are vaccinated or not does not mean you are in or out of the Lamb’s Book of Life. We support liberty of conscience for every person.”

“We are still brothers and sisters in Christ regardless of what we did in the last 2 years. And we are to work together for unity within our local congregations, but we must also speak up to make sure that our consciences are never denied to us again with tragic consequences for Adventists worldwide.”

“Truth matters. If we are not willing to stand for truth today, we’re not going to stand for truth tomorrow. Truth is not relative. It is not situational. It is not subjective. It is absolute and it is pure and it belongs and it resides within the person of Jesus Christ.”

“Oh, that we might be men and women who do not fear to call sin by its right name. Oh, that we might be men and women whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle is to the pole. Oh, that we might be men and women who stand for the right though the heavens fall.”

“We are to be the most solid and determined Adventists affirming that people can act according to their conscience.”

“Administration is a ratchet effect. Once this has been established that it can be done once, then they’ll say, ‘Well, we did it back then. There was a precedent. We’ll do it again.’ And we don’t want it to happen again.”

“As we look back on that pandemic, we must be honest about how we did during the pandemic. Really, I think we came up with a failing grade.”

“We are to love one another, forgive one another, pray for one another, and affirm that whatever choices were made, we can still be in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”

“We are not calling for anybody to be fired or disciplined. We’re simply saying, ‘We, the members, want that statement set aside. We do not accept that one man has the right to override our conscience.’”

“God has given us this pandemic as an opportunity to reflect on the extent to which the world has its grip over each of our lives, the extent to which we’re vulnerable financially to the dictates of godless governments.”

“Now is the time to reflect on whether the choices we’re making today make us more vulnerable or less vulnerable to the inevitable pressure that’s going to come on those who are faithful to God in the final crisis of conscience before Jesus comes again.”

“We want everybody to be in the Lamb’s Book of Life. We don’t want anybody to be lost regardless of the decisions that they made during the last 2 years.”

Other Quotations

Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy

“Satan himself will appear in the character of an angel of light. Through the agency of spiritualism, miracles will be wrought. The sick will be healed, and many undeniable wonders will be performed. And as the spirits will profess faith in the Bible and manifest respect for the institutions of the church, their work will be accepted as a manifestation of divine power. Through spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race, healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new and more exalted system of religious faith. But at the same time, he works as a destroyer… Satan works through the elements also to gather his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows… The great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils… It will be declared that men are offending gods by the violation of the Sunday Sabbath, that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced, and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troubles of the people preventing their restoration to divine favor and to temporal prosperity.”