— 26th of Bul, 179 JE —
Last night I tuned in live to the Torah Life Ministries weekly fellowship, which is a Messianic Jewish group. I wept much of the time as could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit; I felt both conviction and joy, so I knew it was the Holy Spirit.
Why have I not had this kind of experience in Adventist groups? Is it because Torah Life is very special and pure, free from all error? Not at all. I thought about it afterwards, and I shall share my conclusion.
The problem is with us: Seventh-day Adventists. We have a lot of truth (though it has been marred much in the mainstream), so that is not the main issue. But there is one thing we lack: true expressive worship. We have replaced this with a mechanical religion with dry, mechanical forms of worship. This is done each Sabbath as follows:
Take a program and do everything it says, sit like a rock in a pew, rise up, sit down, rise up, sit down, put secular money in the dish, clink, clank, clink, clank, sing the programmed song, rise up, sit down, looking down to the earth every time prayer is made, with dead, folded hands, rise up, sit down, hear a sermon that may be entertaining but with little exhortation unto righteousness and often with the slant of a false, comforting gospel, rise up, sit down, say “hi,” go home.
Now, that may be exaggerated a bit, but you get the point. This is not how our pioneer Adventists had assembly services, nor how it was done in apostolic times. Having a program or a set schedule is a replacement for the Holy Spirit. I’ve read various accounts from Sister White, and each Sabbath seems to be different. It may have been planned who would speak, but exact lengths of sermons varied, when there were sermons (which was quite rare in most Adventist assembly gatherings); and the sermons seem to have not been planned out much. Instead, the Holy Spirit would speak through men to some degree, sometimes to a great degree. We have the same problem with our doctrines: make them into a list and teach that these are the things you must believe. It is programming instead of the Spirit teaching us from the Word.
But the sermon was not the main thing; the social meeting was. And this is what Torah Life has, and what every meeting-house gathering should have. At Torah Life, there is worshipful praise, thanksgiving, music, and sharing whatever the Holy Spirit may impress. The praise is key. Adventists generally don’t know how to worship. Adventists, like rocks, do not know how to shout ‘HalleluJAH!’ But some may shout for sporting events, which many sadly attend—pure idolatry.
Praise is part of what I mean to be expressive. We are not uttering what we’ve been told to utter, but we express ourselves according to the Holy Spirit’s moving on our hearts, in praises, testimonies, creative songs, etc. This scares some Adventists. They think people will turn into Pentecostals and start speaking in satanic tongues or something. Or there may be fear that people will share false teachings, or that there will be disorder. If fanaticism arises, which it did many times in the 1800s, when we were in our prime, GOD will take care of it. Adventists are just generally too afraid, and this segues into my next point.
Adventists are generally narrow-minded. We only believe and teach what has been prescribed to us. If it is not in our fundamental beliefs or Ellen White did not teach it, we are afraid of it. We’re too afraid to leave our box where we feel safe. But this is not of GOD; it is all man’s doing, inspired by Satan, who does not want us to have revival. We refuse to hear other Adventists who may have different views than us.
Thus, people remain willfully ignorant of truths such as (please don’t miss this): the 2520 (returning us to our Hebrew roots), holy days, a gospel that enables people to live by the Torah Law and not sin, a personal GOD and His only-begotten SON, a Holy Spirit that is the divine personality of JEHOSHUA the MESSIAH, women’s head coverings in public, dress reform that fully covers limbs, praying with holy hands, face-on-the-ground worship, regular missionary meetings (so that the Assembly is constantly organized for service in the community) an actual supper of the LORD (not a bite and a sip), abstinence from all worldly entertainment and images of heavenly things, social meetings, biblical times of personal and family daily worship (over two hours of truly connecting to GOD each day instead of mere readings)—essentially all of the most important biblical practices producing love for GOD and man, lost. Why? Because we are too afraid for our pride to be broken in finding that we were actually wrong and that we have been practicing harlotry instead of the remnant faith.
Our prideful narrow-mindedness, our Pharisaism, must end. I even watch videos featuring Jews, Muslims, and Plain People, because I believe we can learn from them. They can be very religious (knowing how to love and worship GOD); but we, who pride ourselves in being the remnant people of GOD, are not, but are instead very pathetic. The Jews know how to observe the Sabbath, resting from all creative work, but we who pride ourselves in knowing the Sabbath, do not. We are stuck on ourselves, when GOD is leading people in the Abrahamic religions and denominations. He is leading many of our brothers and sisters in Sunday denominations while most Adventists are not missionaries at all. Why? Because we are both too afraid of standing out (especially in dress) from the world and being ecumenical! What a strange, contradictory mindset we have! No wonder GOD wants to vomit us out!
We must abandon our Western worldly culture; it is totally anti-biblical. We must learn our history. World War I changed everything. Not only did mainstream Adventist become a sister to Babylon in allowing its members to break the commandments of GOD of the third angel’s message, but nearly all Adventists, including in the Reform Movement, have adopted worldly culture.
This means women baring the legs and heads—the covering suddenly abandoned after thousands of years since the fall of Eve—an unmarried man and woman being alone in the same room, couples touching each other before marriage, women giving men friendly smiles instead of shamefastness and modest reserve (and men likewise being friendly with women), materialism/modern idolatry (buying things that are unnecessary), various worldly entertainment, treating each other like trash by mimicking what we see on TV, women being disrespectful to men and taking the role of men, etc., etc.
Sister White warned us that “great changes” would come in her last words documented. We failed to heed the warning. We failed to discern the corrupting influences of the world. And now we think it is just normal to have no active Spirit of Prophecy among us since WWI. Brothers and sisters, we are in a deplorable condition. This is not normal. This world of sin is a blot in a pure universe, which is in constant communication with GOD. We are in a state of shame and, worst of all, we don’t even realize it! We don’t understand the significance of WWI and how the new Western culture—due to the separation of families in war and the unfaithfulness of husband and wife—converted us all into the world, including the Reform Movement, even though it embraced marriage reform (that only death can break the marriage vow).
We are a disgust to Heaven. Our worshipless, worthless religion and prideful narrow-mindedness is a disgrace to the whole onlooking universe. Our promise to newcomers that they are joining the pure remnant is a scam. We are dishonoring the Name of JEHOVAH before the world around us, cheapening His image into a nothingness before the world, which well notes our hypocrisy.
When Elijah comes—and he will, as Sister White alerted us—this rebuke I give will seem mild in comparison. But it is time for ministers and laypeople to speak up and show the Advent people our true condition, because we have been lying to ourselves, hiding our despicable character of scum beneath a thin, shiny veneer.
The year that began this past seventh month is a historical year. It is a new beginning for the Adventist world; and we can rejoice in this. The seventh month revival began, and it will become glorious. The glory of JEHOVAH will lighten the whole earth, especially through the Advent Festival of Tabernacles. He will be seen in all His majesty in the character of the 144,000.
Please do not leave Seventh-day Adventism; we hold the three angels’ messages—though in shame and not in practice. I will leave the last Torah Life video below, but that is not the solution, though I appreciate that they promote health and dress reform and expressive worship. We need to raise up new local assemblies that are revived from the very beginning, following all of the biblical principles. The truth does not have to be a curse to us. It can be proclaimed more fully than ever, with the increased light that GOD has been giving us on prophetic times and appointed times. The light will be very glorious—light that we will need to share with the Jews first all over the world, both Messianic and non-Messianic. But until we leave our prideful Western culture (that has even overtaken most previously eastern countries) we have adopted since WWI and return to biblical worship, our light is not light but a form, a curse of darkness.
