War Crimes
Romans 1:18-32
If God abhors one sin above another, of which His people are guilty, it is doing nothing in case of an emergency. Indifference and neutrality in a religious crisis is regarded of God as a grievous crime and equal to the very worst type of hostility against God.
—3T 280.3—
INTRODUCTION
The Bible tells us twice in 1 John 4 that God is love. But what we often seem to forget is that God will not forever put up with sin. In Romans 1:18-32, the apostle Paul tells us about the wrath of God, what He manifests His wrath against, and why.
WHAT IS GOD ANGRY AT?
God’s wrath is revealed from Heaven. Romans 1:18. The Greek word for wrath in this text also means justifiable abhorrence. What is God justifiably angry at? Sin. Sin is what destroys peace and happiness. It steals eternal life. God gave us His law for a reason, to preserve our eternal life and joy.
Therefore, when movements come in that threaten these things, God sends us warnings to avoid these things. These movements, cherished sins, and other unrighteousness that come in divert the attention of the church members away from God. Therefore, God justly condemns these things.
Romans 1:18 tells us one reason that God’s wrath is revealed. It is revealed against “all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” There are many people in the church who claim to be teachers of the truth, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. They hold the truth in unrighteousness. They speak many beautiful sounding words, but they are designed to deceive.
Whether these people realize it or not, they are working for none other than Satan himself. When these people appear before God in the second resurrection and the final phase of the judgment, they will have to answer for these sins. Consider this:
Some have died in their sins, and will in the judgment confront with reproaches of their guilt those who might have saved them, but who did not. Unfaithful ministers, what a retribution awaits you! {2T 506.1}
Indeed, God is angry at sin. He loves the sinner, but He cannot forever wait for us to repent. If He did that, sin would be eternal, because there will never come a time when all of sinful humanity will repent. Many who teach the truth to the unconverted are themselves unconverted. Again consider this:
Not all who profess to keep the Sabbath will be sealed. There are many even among those who teach the truth to others who will not receive the seal of God in their foreheads. They had the light of truth, they knew their Master’s will, they understood every point of our faith, but they had not corresponding works. These who were so familiar with prophecy and the treasures of divine wisdom should have acted their faith. They should have commanded their households after them, that by a well-ordered family they might present to the world the influence of the truth upon the human heart. {5T 213.2}
You see, God has revealed Himself to us through His Word, the Bible, as well as the Spirit of Prophecy, aka, the writings of Ellen G. White, and nature. Yet these are often downplayed. Because of this hypocrisy of fake Christians, God’s wrath will one day fall upon them if they do not repent. We have no reason to misrepresent God; none. We have His character written about in these books and the Bible. We see more of Him through those who truly love Him, as well as His created works. (Most definitely not in the pantheistic sense, of course.)
God has revealed Himself to us to the point that we are without excuse if we believe anything about Him that is not the truth. And as Seventh-day Adventists, we are even more without excuse than any other group of people on the planet. We have the most light out of any faith group in the world.
We are the last movement that God has called into existence. No other church teaches the whole truth, because no other church has the whole truth. Various denominations have bits and pieces, but God has entrusted the whole thing to us, with the mission to go share it with the whole world.
And yet there are movements that Satan is working through to effectively try to destroy who we are as a people. Satan has succeeded so much to the point that he hasn’t pushed the Sunday law into enforcement yet. Why? Because he has filled the church with sinners. When Satan decides to enforce the global Sunday law, he puts himself on death row.
However, God is going to bring things to a point that the sinners in Zion will be sifted out. His church will once again be the pure bride that she once was. When that happens, satan will resort to persecution and the Sunday law to try and wipe these faithful few off the face of the earth.
Many within the church know who God is, yet they refuse to render obedience. And yet they dare to think that their mere attendance at church for 1 to 3 hours week will earn them a spot in Heaven. These people, as Romans 1:21 say become “vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart” will be “darkened.”
Paul picks this line of thought up again in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12:
“they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
These profess themselves to be wise, but in their rejection of God, in rejecting any modicum of the Truth, they become fools. These take their false ideas and shape then into idols, albeit not physically shaped idols as it used to be anciently. However, it is just as possible to make an idol out of an idea as it is to do so out of a rock.
When men and women reject any part of the truth, they become idolaters. For example, many reject the health message, teaching that it is no sin to eat and drink intemperately. They reject the idea that pork is Biblically forbidden, or that coffee drinking is a sin, as Ellen G. White tells us, or that eating meat doesn’t affect our spirituality or health.
Other examples include eating out on the Sabbath. How can a Seventh-day Adventist honestly think this is ok? Or how about music, books, movies, and video games? Do people think of Philippians 4:8 when they contemplate buying these things? If it does not glorify God, if it does not noticeably bring you closer to Him it needs to go into FILE 13.
Many people even go to non-Adventists for Biblical truth and light. How is this a good idea? Why do we go to preachers like TD Jakes, or Joyce Meyer? These do not know the truth, and therefore cannot impart the truth! Throw the books of these authors in FILE 13 Consider, if you will:
Just as long as men consent to listen to these sophistries, a subtle influence will weave the fine threads of these seductive theories into their minds, and men who should turn away from the first sound of such teaching will learn to love it. As loyal subjects we must refuse even to listen to these sophistries. Their influence is something like a deadly viper, poisoning the minds of all who listen. It is a branch of hypnotism, deadening the sensibilities of the soul. {10MR 163.2}
“Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:12-13.)
I was shown the necessity of those who believe that we are having the last message of mercy, being separate from those who are daily imbibing new errors. I saw that neither young nor old should attend their meetings; for it is wrong to thus encourage them while they teach error that is a deadly poison to the soul and teach for doctrines the commandments of men. The influence of such gatherings is not good. If God has delivered us from such darkness and error, we should stand fast in the liberty wherewith He has set us free and rejoice in the truth. God is displeased with us when we go to listen to error, without being obliged to go; for unless He sends us to those meetings where error is forced home to the people by the power of the will, He will not keep us. The angels cease their watchful care over us, and we are left to the buffetings of the enemy, to be darkened and weakened by him and the power of his evil angels; and the light around us becomes contaminated with the darkness. -{EW 124.3}
Why do we need to go elsewhere for Truth? Why do Seventh-day Adventists feel the need to go to those who do not know the truth? When we read these books from those who don’t have the truth, and when we go see their presentations, God cannot protect us, because we should know better, and we have placed ourselves in enemy territory. We are then in danger of being led astray.
Consider also:
There is another class of books—love stories and frivolous, exciting tales—which are a curse to everyone who reads them, even though the author may attach a good moral. Often religious statements are woven all through these books, but in most cases Satan is but clothed in angel robes to deceive and allure the unsuspicious. The practice of story reading is one of the means employed by Satan to destroy souls. It produces a false, unhealthy excitement, fevers the imagination, unfits the mind for usefulness, and disqualifies it for any spiritual exercise. It weans the soul from prayer and from the love of spiritual things. { CT 134.2}
Moving on to verses 26-27 of Romans 1, we see another reason that the wrath of God is revealed against sinners who know better. These verses speak specifically of homosexuality. Paul writes,
“Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” (Romans 1:24-27.)
Paul here is saying twice in the same chunk of Scripture, that those who persisted in idolatry, who preserved in forgetting God, these God gave over to their lustful desires. In fact, the Greek word for “gave them up” literally means to surrender. God never gives people over to sin just because. When people insist on living in whatever form of sin, God surrenders them over to their sinful desires, because they leave Him no other choice.
Paul also specifically says this sin God surrendered them to was impurity. When people refuse to give up sin, they eventually degrade themselves lower and lower until the sins they once hated, will become the supreme idols of their lives. Paul even goes so far as to say that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, much like the prodigal son of Luke 15, who traded the good life for the reprobate life.
Both main forms of homosexuality are mention in this text. Women with women and men with men. Paul says God gave these idolaters over to vile affections. Vile in the Greek means infamy, or disgrace, and the word for affection can refer specifically to sexual sin. Specifically this Scripture refers to women having practicing lesbian relationships with other women.
However, Paul also addresses the same sin of the men. The men of his day, and the many men of our day, abandoned proper sexuality and went after other men. These men, Paul says, burned in their lust for each other. There was a deep seated ungodly desire to do things with each other that ought not to be done.
Because of these sins, and sexual sin in general, the human race has been degraded faster than because of any other sin. Healthy sexuality will actually improve the health of a husband and wife. But anything outside of that damages health, which has been scientifically proven. Think of all the STDs; of all the abortions because of casual sex; of the health problems that result from masturbation… Speaking of sexual sin, specifically Israel’s experience with the apostate prophet, Balaam, Ellen G. White says this:
“It is these sins more than any other that have caused the fearful degeneracy of our race, and the weight of disease and misery with which the world is cursed. Men may succeed in concealing their transgression from their fellow men, but they will no less surely reap the result, in suffering, disease, imbecility, or death. And beyond this life stands the tribunal of the judgment, with its award of eternal penalties. “They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God,” but with Satan and evil angels shall have their part in that “lake of fire” which “is the second death.” Galatians 5:21; Revelation 20:14.” (Patriarchs and Prophets, 461.)
You see, sexual sin has become one of the most popular sins of this age. It has also become one of the most popular sins of those who claim to be Christians, even Adventists. More and more young Seventh-day Adventists are committing more and more pre-marital sex, or indulging a pornography addiction, or any other sexual sin, yet we never hear about these things from most Adventist pulpits.
There are people within the Adventist church trying to force the rest of us to accept the sinful lifestyles of the sexually deviant. More on these people in a bit. It has been estimated that some 50% of pastors within just Christianity in general have a problem with pornography. What about Adventist pastors? What about Adventist members? And we wonder why many of our churches aren’t growing. We are counseled that God does not work to bring in many people because of all the unconverted members. You see, just because your name is on the church books, doesn’t mean it’s in Heaven’s books. Coming to church for 3 hours a week, then living like the world the remaining 168 hours doesn’t guarantee you salvation.
The natural result of keeping God out of the memory, out of the affections, out of life’s plans, is He will eventually be forced to let you go your own way. God is a gentleman, and will not force anyone to follow Him. If we persist in our sins, and refuse to repent, it will one day be said of us, He or she “is joined to idols: let him alone.” (Hosea 4:17.)
This is what happened to the people Paul was describing, and is what is happening to many in today’s world, including many in the church. This chunk of Scripture describes what the world was like before the Flood, and what the world is like now. Jesus said today’s world at the end of time would resemble what it was like before and at the Flood, and in the time of Lot.
God gave these people, and is doing this today as well, to a reprobate, or a morally worthless lifestyle. Why? Because they rejected Him. They wanted nothing to do with Him. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians that those who do not receive the love of the truth will be left to believe a lie.
For example, ancient Israel had sunk quite low into apostasy. This was, of course, the result in their persistent rejection of God. As a result of this, they fell into disrepute with even the heathen nations around them, who were practicing gross immorality as well. Israel fell into idolatry time and again, and in their continued apostasy, they removed every barrier against sin. Satan was therefore able to control them, leading them down the path of perdition.
Much the same, many today are caught up in the sin of idolatry. Sure, we rarely see actual idol worship, but idolatry is far deeper than this. Many make idols out of false ideas and false doctrine. Others make idols out of fashion, or diet. Still others are bent on the idolatry of leading church members astray towards the false gods of deception and licentiousness.
The natural result of these things is what Paul describes in verses 29-31, which are sins that break every one of the Ten Commandments.
“Being filled with all unrighteousness (1-10), fornication (7, 10), wickedness (1-10), covetousness (10), maliciousness (1-10); full of envy (6, 10), murder (6), debate (5-10), deceit (8), malignity (1-10); whisperers (5-10), Backbiters (5-10), haters of God (1-4), despiteful (5-10), proud (1-10), boasters (1-10), inventors of evil things (1-10), disobedient to parents (5-10), Without understanding (1-10), covenantbreakers (1-10, especially 7), without natural affection (5-10), implacable (1-10), unmerciful (1-10)…” (Romans 1:29-31.)
The end result of these things is the judgment of God. This is not a pleasant thing to talk about, nor is it something that most Christians, and even most adventists, want to hear about. But it must be talked about.
Paul tells us that those who commit such sins are worthy of death. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. However, as we already stated, God does not force the will power. He will force nobody to accept Him. He lets us make our own choices for or against Him. And let us make no mistake: refusing to give up sin that we know is sin is rejecting Him.
God, by His own laws, cannot save those who refuse to repent. God has given us many promises in His Word by which we can be over-comers. The apostle Peter tells us the following:
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1:4.)
There are movements in this beloved denomination whose teachings will result in making void the Law of God, whether they realize it or not. Having discussed the character to these movements, we are now going to expose a small selection of them. Each one of the following movements can be classed under the umbrella of spiritualism.
Interestingly, idolatry is, by default, a form of spiritualism. Anything that takes our worship away from God, and sets us to worshipping something else, is spiritualism. This includes atheism, which is worship of self. This is why Paul speaks so strongly against idolatry and gives us strong warnings of what will happen when we partake in it.
Anti-Trinitarianism
This one is a direct attack on the first two of the Ten Commandments. It claims two things. First, the claim is that Jesus was at one point, non-existent, that He somehow had a beginning. Second, it claims that the Holy Spirit is not a divine person, but instead something silly, like He is the mind of Christ, or the presence of the Father.
How is this spiritualism? J.H. Kellogg taught a very similar idea. He began teaching a pantheistic theology that said that God was in everything. Ellen White called his book and ideas what they really were: spiritualism. Then Kellogg changed his view a bit. He began saying that it was the Holy Spirit that was an impersonal force that pervaded everything.
To say that Jesus was created reeks of New Age ideas. In one new age theory, Jesus and Lucifer were both brothers, and Lucifer was the rebellious brother who fell, but who is really the good guy. You see this played out in gnostic themed movies such as The Truman Show.
It does gross insult to Calvary as well. To say that Jesus was created is to say that the Cross was a sham and that God is the greatest scam artist of all time, which is exactly what Satan wants us to think. A created being cannot be elevated to the position of deity. If that was possible, then wouldn’t Lucifer have had a basis to rebel against God? After all, if Jesus was created and promoted to divinity, why couldn’t Lucifer be as well? See how quickly this deception begins to fall apart.
When we reduce the Holy Spirit to an impersonal force, we do away with the vehicle of our sanctification. We are saved by the blood of Christ, but it is the Holy Spirit that makes the blood of Jesus effective in our lives. Consider:
In a letter to W.W. Prescott, October 25, 1903, Kellogg said this:
“The difference is this: When we say God is in the tree, the word ‘God’ is understood in that the Godhead is in the tree, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, whereas the proper understanding in order that wholesome conceptions should be preserved in our minds, is that God the Father sits upon his throne in heaven where God the Son is also; while God’s life, or spirit or presence is the all-pervading power which is carrying out the will of God in all the universe.”
Ellen G. White said this, in regard to Kellogg’s theories:
“The teaching regarding God that is presented in ‘Living Temple’ is not such as our students need. Those who seek to define God are on forbidden ground. We are to enter into no controversy regarding God,—what He is and what He is not. He, the Omniscient One, is above discussion. Those who express such sentiments regarding Him show that they are departing from the faith.” — PH095 39.3
The One Project
This movement is one of the most subtle and insidious within the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It downplays the uniqueness of the church, and the doctrines that show the beauty of who Jesus is. Some of these problems include, but are certainly not limited to: mocking the health message, downplaying doctrine with slogans like “Jesus All,” and saying that the Sabbath is no longer the seal of God, taking stabs at conservative Adventists calling them legalists, inviting known false teachers such as Leonard Sweet, which leads to the next one, that being the idea that it is ok to go to other streams, or sources for truth.
Downplaying Doctrine
How does the T1P downplay doctrine? The leaders downplay the health message by not living it themselves. They can be found making reference to drinking coffee as if it’s no big deal, when we are specifically counseled that “Tea and coffee drinking is a sin…” (CD 425.3.) And also,
“Those who are in the habit of using tea, coffee, tobacco, opium, or spirituous liquors, cannot worship God when they are deprived of the accustomed indulgence. Let them, while deprived of these stimulants, engage in the worship of God, and divine grace would be powerless to animate, enliven, or spiritualize their prayers or their testimonies. These professed Christians should consider the means of their enjoyment. Is it from above, or from beneath?” (Review and Herald, January 25, 1881.)
In an article describing his own experience at a T1P event, Jerrod Boling says this:
“The next speaker was Dena King whose message was titled “What Jesus taught about the trinity.” She began by saying that the Seal of God is no longer the Sabbath but is now the Holy Spirit filling us. She also talked about the family of God and how they should be understood. There was God the Father, Christ our brother or sister and the Holy Spirit — our heavenly mother.”
Are you kidding me?! This is new age spiritualism. Christ is nowhere referred to as a female, and in fact, the Bible says He came down to be our Messiah as a MAN. This is in no sense an attempt to downplay females or their importance, but to say Christ or the Holy Spirit are in any way feminine or female is heresy at its finest, errr, worst. In addition, the Holy Spirit is nowhere given a parental description at all. Rather, the Bible calls Him our comforter.
Drawing Water from Broken Wells
The T1P is also known for inviting non-Adventists speakers. This may seem harmless, but let us reminisce temporarily. Kellogg taught pantheism. The T1P has invited Leonard Sweet to be a speaker at their events, who is a known teacher of New Age ideologies and panentheism. One of the Adventist (so called) speakers of a past T1P event was heard saying how we must go beyond our denomination, as well as someone saying how we need to dip into other streams.
But what does the prophet of God have to say about this idea?
I was shown the necessity of those who believe that we are having the last message of mercy, being separate from those who are daily imbibing new errors. I saw that neither young nor old should attend their meetings; for it is wrong to thus encourage them while they teach error that is a deadly poison to the soul and teach for doctrines the commandments of men. The influence of such gatherings is not good. If God has delivered us from such darkness and error, we should stand fast in the liberty wherewith He has set us free and rejoice in the truth. God is displeased with us when we go to listen to error, without being obliged to go; for unless He sends us to those meetings where error is forced home to the people by the power of the will, He will not keep us. The angels cease their watchful care over us, and we are left to the buffetings of the enemy, to be darkened and weakened by him and the power of his evil angels; and the light around us becomes contaminated with the darkness. – {EW 124.3}
“Just as long as men consent to listen to these sophistries, a subtle influence will weave the fine threads of these seductive theories into their minds, and men who should turn away from the first sound of such teaching will learn to love it.” (10MR 163.)
The enemy of souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great reformation was to take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith, and engaging in a process of reorganization. Were this reformation to take place, what would result? The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church, would be discarded. Our religion would be changed. “The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the last fifty years would be accounted as error. A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities, and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure." {1SM 204.2}
This group also pushes Women’s Ordination, which also goes against the Bible. Paul tells us in more than one letter how the church is supposed to be run. The NAD official who came to speak at this Gurnee SDA Church was in error when he made it seem as if all it was about was simply sharing testimonies. It is so much deeper than that.
The Bible is very clear on who God has chosen to lead our church and congregations. The apostle Paul makes it clear (as does the apostle Peter) in at least four of his letters that God has chosen men as the spiritual leaders of both the family and the church. (1 Corinthians 11, 1 Timothy 3, Ephesians 5, Colossians 3, and Titus 1, and 1 Peter 3). If men are supposed to be the spiritual leaders at home, then they are supposed to be the spiritual leaders at the church. The family is a small church.
Husbands and fathers represent Jesus in the family. Isaiah 54:5. The wives represent the church, and the church is the wife of Jesus. Jeremiah 6:2. Revelation 21. To have a godly man as the pastor of a church, and to have godly men as elders of the church, is God’s design.
To have a woman as either a pastor or an elder puts her in the position of spiritual husband of the church congregation. This is spiritual homosexuality. Major historic denominations have experienced major membership loss after they voted to have women pastors and elders.
CONCLUSION
Simply put, the wrath of God talked about in Romans 1:18-32 is against those who know or knew the truth, who hold it in unrighteousness, as the movements talked about just now, and who do not obey or who ridicule it. God will one day rise to shake terribly the earth. Those who are not hid with Christ in God will not survive the ordeal.
Now is the time to get right with God. Now is the time for repentance. If you hear His voice today, harden not your hearts, but yield to His loving salvation. There isn’t much time left. Events are fast taking shape that will usher in such a time of trouble as never was. Let us hold fast to Jesus.
