Earth’s
Final Apostasy
An Epilogue
THE LAST DAY OF GRACE
Recently
I finished my trilogy entitled “Earth’s Final Apostasy.” Following the completion of the final essay,
I thought about a period of grace granted me by the District Court (after the
May 27, 2009 decree), during which I was to certify to the Court my compliance
with the Judge’s permanent injunction.
As the final day of this time-span approached, the Spirit spoke to me of
“The Last Day of Grace.” It was
referring me to June 17, 2009, the due date for my certification of compliance
with the following order: “Defendant and
his agents, servants and employees, and all those persons in active concert or
participation with them, are forever enjoined from using the mark SEVENTH-DAY
ADVENTIST, including the use of the words SEVENTH-DAY or ADVENTIST, or the
acronym SDA, either together, apart, or as part of, or in combination with any
other words, phrases, acronyms or designs, or any mark similar thereto or
likely to cause confusion therewith, in the sale, offering for sale,
distribution, promotion, provision or advertising of any products and services,
and including on the Internet, in any domain name, key words, metatags, links,
and any other use for the purpose of directing Internet traffic, at any
locality in the United States.” Of
course, I could not in good conscience comply in the least, for this injunction
meant, “no one [including me, my agents, servants and employees, and all those
persons in active concert or participation with me] should be able to buy or to
sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the
number of his name.” (Revelation 13:17; NASB, brackets supplied)
As I
pondered this “last day of grace” prayerfully, I was shown a simple and
applicable principle taught by the Savior.
This is what He said, “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be
judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”
(Matt. 7:2) “When we are brought to
account by the Lord, we shall receive the very same measure we have meted to
others, and eat the fruit of our own doings.” (Advent Review and Sabbath
Herald, August 16, 1892) I further
remembered, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)
This law of cause and effect is a terrible truth that none can rightly
deny.
It
suddenly struck me that, though the nation was effectively signing a “death
warrant” for the name Creation Seventh Day Adventist within the
jurisdiction of the United States, she was sealing “The Last Day of Grace” for
herself. What a solemn thought! It was then that the Spirit took me back
through the ages of Bible history, reminding me of how “history repeats itself.”
(The Signs of the Times, November 8, 1899)
“Jerusalem
[like the Seventh-day Adventist Church and American nation] had been the child
of His care, and as a tender father mourns over a wayward son, so Jesus wept
over the beloved city. How can I give
thee up? How can I see thee devoted to
destruction? Must I let thee go to fill
up the cup of thine iniquity? One soul
is of such value that, in comparison with it, worlds sink into insignificance;
but here was a whole nation to be lost.
When the fast westering sun should pass from sight in the heavens,
Jerusalem’s day of grace would be ended.
While the procession was halting on the brow of Olivet, it was not yet
too late for Jerusalem to repent. The
angel of mercy was then folding her wings to step down from the golden throne
to give place to justice and swift-coming judgment. But Christ’s great heart of love still
pleaded for Jerusalem, that had scorned His mercies, despised His warnings, and
was about to imbrue her hands in His blood.
If Jerusalem would but repent, it was not yet too late. While the last rays of the setting sun were
lingering on temple, tower, and pinnacle, would not some good angel lead her to
the Saviour’s love, and avert her doom?
Beautiful and unholy city, that had stoned the prophets, that had
rejected the Son of God, that was locking herself by her impenitence in fetters
of bondage – her day of mercy was almost spent!” (The Desire of Ages, pages
577, 578)
“Christ
came to clothe His people with his righteousness. But they would not receive Him, and with pale
and quivering lips and broken utterance He exclaimed, ‘If thou hadst known,
even thou at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!’
Then came a pause, for the Saviour was reluctant to pronounce the irrevocable
sentence–’but now they are hid from thine eyes.’ It was with a burst of agony that Christ spoke
these words. He was bearing a great
burden for the people of His care, but they knew not the time of their
visitation. The superhuman agony of the
Son of God was keenly felt in the heavenly courts, but those for whom He shed
bitter tears knew not their day of grace.” (The Signs of the Times, July
26, 1899)
Three and
one half years ago, I received demands from the General Conference of SDA
trademark attorneys requiring us to “cease and desist” any use of the term
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST. It was then that
YAH said, “And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy
a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.” (Revelation
11:3) We were in deep contrition and
obscurity during this period as we continued to herald the “three angels’
messages” in the power of the “fourth angel” of Revelation 18. The inspired pen comments on a past
fulfillment of this prophecy, “During the greater part of this period, God’s
witnesses remained in a state of obscurity.
The papal power sought to hide from the people the word of truth, and
set before them false witnesses to contradict its testimony.” (The Great
Controversy, page 267) It is further
noted that, “The saints then will be an obscure people, little known to the
Catholics; but the churches and nominal Adventists who know of our faith and
customs […] will betray the saints and report them to the Catholics as those
who disregard the institutions of the people.” (Spalding and Magan Collection,
page 1) Referring to the persecution of
saints in the first centuries, the prophetess writes, “It required a desperate
struggle for those who would be faithful to stand firm against the deceptions
and abominations which were disguised in sacerdotal garments and introduced
into the church. The Bible was not
accepted as the standard of faith. The
doctrine of religious freedom was termed heresy, and its upholders were hated and
proscribed.” (The Great Controversy, page 45) Because Creation Seventh Day Adventists “disregard
the [religious trademark laws] of the people” and regard “liberty of conscience”
as “a gift worth preserving,” they are “hated and proscribed” as heretics by an
apostate church and the sin-loving world.
The
prophecy of Revelation 11 continues, “And when they shall have finished their
testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war
against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” (Revelation 11:7) “It had been Rome’s policy, under a
profession of reverence for the Bible, to keep it locked up in an unknown
tongue and hidden away from the people.
Under her rule the witnesses prophesied ‘clothed in sackcloth.’ But another power – the beast from the
bottomless pit – was to arise to make open, avowed war upon the word of God.
[…] This [beast] is atheism, and the nation represented by Egypt would give
voice to a similar denial of the claims of the living God and would manifest a
like spirit of unbelief and defiance. ‘The
great city’ is also compared, ‘spiritually,’ to Sodom. The corruption of Sodom in breaking the law
of God was especially manifested in licentiousness. And this sin was also to be a pre-eminent
characteristic of the nation that should fulfill the specifications of this
scripture.” The United States,
manifesting a spirit of atheism and maintaining a society of licentiousness,
qualifies as a “beast from the bottomless pit.”
The laws of the land now follow a course in harmony with atheism and in
defiance of the laws of YAHWEH. Allow me
to cite an example from my own trademark lawsuit.
Within the legal record we read, “This Court has
previously recognized that Pastor McGill chose the name of his church based on
a divine revelation and that it was not his intent to confuse the public into
thinking he was affiliated with Plaintiffs’ church.” [See Order Granting
in Part and Denying in Part the Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment, p. 22
(D.E. # 70).] The Court consistently
refused to acknowledge any aspect of conscience in this contest. One dictionary definition of conscience is
“the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives,
impelling one toward right action: to follow the dictates of conscience.” In the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights,
Americans are afforded the free exercise of religion, and that,
according to the dictates of conscience.
This Bill of Rights was based upon the express will of God and righteous
principles suited for the administration of a nation holding respect to “life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
The great reformer, Martin Luther, once wrote, “Liberty is the essence
of faith.” More than one hundred years
ago, the servant of YAH penned, “The time has come when judgment is fallen in
the streets, and equity cannot enter, and he that departeth from evil maketh
himself a prey. But the Lord’s arm is
not shortened that it cannot save, and his ear is not heavy that it cannot
hear. The people of the United States
have been a favored people; but when they restrict religious liberty, surrender
Protestantism, and give countenance to popery, the measure of their guilt will
be full, and ‘national apostasy’ will be registered in the books of
heaven. The result of this apostasy will
be national ruin.” (Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, May 2, 1893) “National ruin” is the state reached when the
nation has become a “beast from the bottomless pit.” “A time is coming when the law of God is, in
a special sense, to be made void in our land.
[…] When our nation, in its
legislative councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard
to their religious privileges, […] bringing oppressive power to bear against
those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, the law of God will, to all intents and
purposes, be made void in our land; and national apostasy will be followed by
national ruin. “ (Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, December 18,
1888)
In 1522,
almost 490 years ago, Luther delivered an address opposing compulsion (as
quoted in The Great Controversy, page 190), “I will preach, discuss, and
write; but I will constrain none, for faith is a voluntary act. See what I have done. I stood up against the pope, indulgences, and
papists, but without violence or tumult.
I put forward God’s word; I preached and wrote–this was all I did. And yet while I was asleep, . . . the word
that I had preached overthrew popery, so that neither prince nor emperor has
done it so much harm. And yet I did
nothing; the word alone did all. If I
had wished to appeal to force, the whole of Germany would perhaps have been
deluged with blood. But what would have
been the result? Ruin and desolation
both to body and soul. I therefore kept
quiet, and left the word to run through the world alone.” So, from that time of spectacular reformation
in the church of Christ, it is as if “Seventy weeks [of years had been]
determined upon [YAH’s] people and upon [YAH’s] holy city [the church], to
finish the transgression [of popery], and to make an end of sins [through the
victory resulting from righteousness by faith], and to make reconciliation for
iniquity [through the cleansing of the Heavenly sanctuary], and to bring in
everlasting righteousness [by the sealing of YAH’s servants, the close of human
probation, and the second advent of Messiah]; we find ourselves, as it were, in
the midst of the final week of years (all brackets supplied; review Daniel,
chapter 9). It was in the middle of that
seventieth and final week that Messiah was “cut off, but not for Himself.” And in a similar fashion, Creation Seventh
Day Adventists are “cut off” from the world and the bearing of their divine
testimony via a “death warrant” contrived by their “former brethren,” “seeing
they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.”
(Hebrews 6:6) The prophecy of Revelation
11 also applies, “And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great
city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was
crucified.” (Revelation 11:8) At the
time of Christ’s sacrifice, the Jewish nation was favored with an extension of
three and one half probationary years unto the stoning of Stephen, at which
time, “The kingdom of God [was] taken from [them], and given to a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof.” (Matt. 21:43; brackets supplied) At the close of time, the world is granted
another brief period of grace designed for their repentance prior to the
general destruction and declaration of Daniel 7:27, “And the kingdom and
dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given
to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.” “And after three days and an half the Spirit
of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great
fear fell upon them which saw them. And
they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither.
And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld
them.” (Revelation 11:11, 12; italics supplied) You may recall the Apostle’s words, “For the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise
first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with
the Lord.” (1 Thess. 4:16, 17; italics supplied) Notice also the vision of John the beloved, “Behold,
he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also
which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of
him. Even so, Amen.” (Revelation 1:7;
italics supplied)