Serious questions are being raised recently about whether the Seventh-day Adventist Church will survive.
Will it ultimately fulfill its mission? Is it necessary for faithful believers to leave the church? Is God calling for a parachurch organization? Is God leading people to be part of a movement that is more faithful to Scripture?
Here is a more fundamental question: How will God prepare His church for earth’s final events? Is there a remnant within the remnant? In this article, we will pursue answers from Scripture and the writings of Ellen White.
Four specific truths will guide us in our discussion of these topics.
- Understanding how God will purify His church at end time
- Understanding God’s view of church organization
- Understanding the difference between apostasy in the church and the church in apostasy
- Understanding God’s plan for finishing His work
God’s Method of Purifying His Church
Throughout history, God has purified His church by calling out the faithful few.
He called out Abraham from the idolatry of the nations around him. He called out the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. When Israel failed to fulfill God’s purposes, He called out the New Testament church, and in its initial stages it was composed of faithful Jews who accepted Jesus. In fact, the Greek word for church is ekklēsia, meaning those who are called out. God’s method of purifying His church has been to call out the faithful from the larger body.
When medieval Christianity under the auspices of Roman Catholicism compromised biblical truth and entered into apostasy, God raised up faithful men and women through the Protestant Reformation to champion biblical truth. Once again, people were called out.
When the Protestant Reformation failed to achieve God’s complete plan, He once again called out faithful believers in the Advent movement, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church was born as a called-out movement.
The crucial question is, Is it God’s plan for another calling out to form a “remnant of the remnant”? Is it the plan to establish a parachurch movement? If it is, we might ask, How many calling outs will there be? Does God keep calling the faithful out until the end of time? What happens as time lingers and the so-called called-out ones diverge from God’s plans?
Both the Bible and the writings of Ellen G. White teach something significantly different than a calling out at end of time. Rather than a calling out of the faithful, there will be a shaking out of the unfaithful or compromising class.
Hebrews 12:25-27 (NKJV) states it this way: “For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.’ Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.”
Ellen White adds,
The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out—the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place. None but those who have been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony will be found with the loyal and true, without spot or stain of sin, without guile in their mouths.…
The remnant that purify their souls by obeying the truth gather strength from the trying process, exhibiting the beauty of holiness amid the surrounding apostasy (Letter 55, 1886).
Notice carefully, the church may appear about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion are sifted out. So, where are they until the great shaking and sifting? They are in the church. Offshoots make great capital of the fact that there is apostasy in the church. We do not deny that, but we understand that the wheat and tares will grow together until the harvest, and at the end time there will be a great shaking.
The remnant remain—they do not shoot off. In the passage that we just considered, Ellen White alludes to Isaiah 41:16, where the chaff is carried away and the wheat remains. When a farmer sifts his wheat, the chaff, which is lighter, is blown away, and the heavier wheat kernels fall to the ground and remain. In the great shaking that is to come, the chaff is blown away with every wind of doctrine, and the compromising worldly ones who forsake the truth separate from God’s people.
In Testimonies for the Church, Ellen White adds, “Those who have step by step yielded to worldly demands and conformed to worldly customs will not find it a hard matter to yield to the powers that be, rather than subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death.… In this time the gold will be separated from the dross in the church” (vol. 5, p. 81).
Notice, the gold is separated from the dross in the church. The remnant remains. There is no evidence either in the Bible or the writings of Ellen White that God is going to establish a new movement or some parachurch movement.
Church Organization
In discussing God’s plan for His church, the apostle Paul states in Ephesians 5:25-27 (NKJV), “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”
Christ’s church is His bride, and He loves her. If Christ loves the church, should we not love the church? How do you feel if someone makes it a practice to criticize your wife or husband? You are pained. You are troubled and deeply hurt. Does this mean your spouse always does everything right? Not at all. The church leadership is fallible and at times makes mistakes. What we read above is a very balanced statement by Ellen White. It acknowledges two important truths:
- The church is not all that God wants it to be.
- Ellen White clearly states there are evils in the church, but God will use His church to be a light to the world, and the church is Christ’s object of supreme regard.
Consider this statement:
Has God no living church? He has a church, but it is the church militant, not the church triumphant. We are sorry that there are defective members, that there are tares amid the wheat…. Although there are evils existing in the church, and will be until the end of the world, the church in these last days is to be the light of the world that is polluted and demoralized by sin. The church, enfeebled and defective, needing to be reproved, warned, and counseled, is the only object upon earth upon which Christ bestows His supreme regard” (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, pp. 45, 49).
Only God is infallible, but does that mean we leave the church or start some new organization because leadership makes a mistake? Not at all. Why not? Because, according to this passage, Christ is going to sanctify His church. He is going to cleanse it. He is going to purify it. I love the way Ellen White puts it: “There is no need to doubt, to be fearful that the work will not succeed. God is at the head of the work, and He will set everything in order. If matters need adjusting at the head of the work, God will attend to that, and work to right every wrong. Let us have faith that God is going to carry the noble ship which bears the people of God safely into port” (Selected Messages, Book 2, p. 390).
Yes, a storm is coming, relentless in its fury, but now is no time to jump off the ship into the water, where sharks abound. God is in control. He is at the head of the work. He will right the ship and purify His church.
But someone may say, “What do you mean by the church? Doesn’t Ellen White say in The Acts of the Apostles, page 11, that faithful souls constitute the church?”
This statement is sometimes used to imply that there is no need for a church organization. The statement, however, says nothing about church organization. Of course, faithful souls constitute the church, but that in no way implies that the church is some disorganized group of independent groups. Consider these powerful statements:
Oh, how Satan would rejoice if he could succeed in his efforts to get in among this people, and disorganize the work at a time when thorough organization is essential, and will be the greatest power to keep out spurious uprisings, and to refute claims not endorsed by the Word of God! We want to hold the lines evenly, that there shall be no breaking down of the system of organization and order that has been built up by wise, careful labor. License must not be given to disorderly elements that desire to control the work at this time.
Some have advanced the thought that, as we near the close of time, every child of God will act independently of any religious organization. But I have been instructed by the Lord that in this work there is no such thing as every man’s being independent (Testimonies to the Church, vol. 9, pp. 257, 258).
Could inspiration be any plainer?
Here is another clear statement: “We cannot now step off the foundation that God has established. We cannot now enter into any new organization; for this would mean apostasy from the truth” (Selected Messages, vol. 2, p. 390).
God’s Church Will Not Fail
God is going to use the remnant church of Bible prophecy to complete the mission He has called it to accomplish. His purposes will not fail. His people will rise to their destiny and fulfill their mission. There will be a great shaking. Multitudes will leave the church. We are told we must stand in defense of truth and righteousness when the majority forsake us. But God’s plans will succeed. God’s purposes will triumph. The earth will be filled with a knowledge of the glory of God.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s end-time people will proclaim His grace and truth to the ends of the earth. This is no time to join with the critics. This is no time to unite with the skeptics. This is no time to join with the offshoots. This is a time to unite with God’s faithful people and proclaim in the power of the Holy Spirit His end-time message, so the work of God can be finished and we can go home.
Satan will do everything he can to distract us from the mission of reaching lost people with the truths of the Three Angels’ Messages. Now is the time to unite as the people of God to proclaim to a confused and dying world the message of God’s grace, redemption through the sacrifice of Christ, the high priestly ministry of Christ, and His soon return. This is no time to be infected with the virus of criticism and the malignancy of divisiveness. This is the time to be on our knees praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit for the power to complete the task God has given us.
Will you join me and seek God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on your life and a greater desire to be a witness for our Lord in these climactic hours of earth’s history? Mark Finley is an evangelist, church planter, and assistant to the president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.