God's Character and the Final Generation

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Sacramento Central SDA Church

Last Generation for Christ 2019 Weekend

Norman McNulty

Why Jesus Waits

The presentation for this evening that I will be sharing with you is entitled, Why Jesus Waits.

It's hard to believe that we as a people have been here since 1844, 175 years.

The pioneers who were alive on October 22, 1844 surely could never have dreamed that we would be here on this planet 175 years later.

And the question we need to be asking ourselves is why is Jesus waiting?

And why are we still here as Seventh-day Adventists when we have been given a commission to take the gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.

And I want to take you to Matthew chapter 25, a very familiar parable.

And in this parable, Jesus actually prophesies of the reality that there would be a delay prior to his coming.

In Matthew chapter 25 verses 1 through 6 we read this powerful parable in which Jesus describes the condition of seventh-day Adventist just before he comes back.

Starting in verse 1, then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto 10 virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

Now I'm going to go through this quickly, but it's pretty obvious what Jesus is describing here.

His kingdom describes his church, which is described as a virgin or 10 virgins, meaning that there are more than 1 person in this church, and it's a pure church, and they took their lamps, meaning they have the Bible, they believe in the truths of Scripture, and based on their study of Scripture there is an expectation that the bridegroom, Jesus, is coming again.

So they believe in the second advent and they are seventh day Adventists And we see in the following verses that some are wise and some are foolish Those who are wise have the Holy Spirit those who are foolish do not the wise are converted the foolish are unconverted.

Pretty basic and we understand that, but notice verse 5.

It says, while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

Now in the Greek, the word for tarried is the Greek word chronizo, which means to be delayed.

So Jesus actually prophesies in this parable that there will be a delay before his coming and he says that his church will be asleep.

You know so many times we say it will be so nice when Jesus comes back, we'll get away from this world of sin, suffering, and pain, and yet sometimes we don't look at it from God's perspective that maybe it's us that are delaying him, rather than he just sitting there waiting for no clear apparent reason.

Here we see from Scripture that there is a delay.

Some have suggested that Jesus will come at an appointed time, and when he decides to come, he will come and there is no delay, but scripture makes it very clear there is a delay.

Now, I want you to go to James chapter 5 verses 7 and 8, which tells us very clearly what Jesus is waiting for.

Be patient therefore brethren under the coming of the Lord.

Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for until he receive the early and latter rain.

Be ye also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." Now notice the husbandman here is Jesus and he is waiting for the precious fruit of the earth.

He's the 1 that's waiting for the fruit to ripen.

And in order for the fruit to ripen, there needs to be the outpouring of the early and the latter rain.

Now we understand prophetically that the early rain was poured out at Pentecost, and the latter rain will be poured out just before Jesus returns.

Now I'm gonna take you now to Jeremiah chapter 3, to a verse that is not often discussed when describing God's last day people relative to the outpouring of the latter rain.

And in Jeremiah chapter 3, and actually we'll start in verse 1, it says, they say, if a man put away his wife and she go from him and become another man's, shall he return unto her again?

But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, saith the Lord.

So God says, you've been out in the world, you profess to follow God, but you're actually out in the world playing the role of a harlot, but he says, return again to me.

And then verse 2, lift up your eyes into the high places and see where thou hast not been lying within.

The ways hast thou sat for them as the Arabian in the wilderness, and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

Therefore the showers have been withholden and there hath been no latter rain.

Thou hast a horse forehead, thou refuses to be ashamed.

In other words, God's people profess to be his followers, but we have been playing the role of a harlot.

And it's interesting when Jesus describes the Laodicean church in Revelation 3, he says that you have this shame of your nakedness.

And in Jeremiah 3, it says God's church refuses to be ashamed, therefore the latter reign has been withheld.

And the fruit cannot be ripened if God's church is spiritually naked, playing harlotry with the world.

And so God is waiting with longing desire to come for his people, but could it be that we are playing this spiritual role that is preventing the latter rain from being poured out upon us as God's people?

Now notice there's some clear statements that describe this delay as well.

This is Testimonies for the Church, Volume 6, page 450.

Had the purpose of God been carried out by his people in giving to the world the message of mercy, Christ would, ere this, have come to the earth and the saints would have received their welcome into the city of God." That was written in 1900.

Evangelism, page 695, had Adventists, after the Great Disappointment in 1844, held fast their faith and followed on unitedly in the opening providence of God Receiving the message of the third angel and in the power of the Holy Spirit Proclaiming it to the world they would have seen the salvation of God the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts, the work would have been completed, and Christ would have come, ere this, to receive his people to their reward.

So again, you see, Christ could have already come.

It wasn't his purpose for us to still be here in 2019.

This is written in 1883, manuscript 4, 1883, found in the book of Angelism, 696.

For 40 years did unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion shut out ancient Israel from the land of Canaan.

The same sins have delayed the entrance of modern Israel into the heavenly Canaan.

In neither case were the promises of God at fault.

It is the unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife among the Lord's professed people that have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years." Wow, we could have a whole sermon just on unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion.

But just think about that for a minute for yourself.

Don't think about People out there who don't believe in the Bible and the spirit of prophecy, think about yourself as 1 of the 10 virgins who's going forth to meet the bridegroom with an expectation that Jesus will come again, and yet, could it be that it is your unbelief or lack of faith in the promises of God and your murmuring and your rebellion that is contributing to the delay in the coming of Jesus.

A lot of times we shake our heads at the children of Israel, but what are you like when things aren't going the way you want them to go?

Do you murmur and complain just like they did?

Those are the sins that have delayed the entrance of modern Israel into the heavenly canon.

And then we see strife among the Lord's professed people, rebellion, we see this as an issue in Adventism today, and we're not gonna go off on that issue per se right now, but clearly we can see strife and rebellion in the midst of God's people.

We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years as did the children of Israel, but for Christ's sake, his people should not add sin to sin by charging God with a consequence of their own wrong course of action.

The reason that we are here on this earth is not because of God's fault.

And you look at a lot of people in the world today and in the church today, and people are saying, I'm going to put my personal conscience over what the church says.

Even if they can back it up from the Bible, my opinion trumps what they say the Word of God says and I'm gonna move forward the way I think.

And it's that kind of mentality that is contributing to keeping us as a people in this world for many years.

Now, let's go to the Bible and see what this world will be like at the time that Jesus comes back.

Because thankfully, prophecy tells us that someday, God will have a people that will be ready for Jesus to come and he will come to harvest his people.

Revelation chapter 14, reading verses 14 through 16.

And I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and upon the cloud 1 sat like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, thrust in thy sickle, and reaped.

For the time is come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped." The Son of Man here is Jesus.

This is the same person as the husbandman in James chapter 5 who's waiting for the precious fruit of the earth.

Revelation 14 tells us there is going to come a time where the harvest of the earth is ripe, which means that the latter rain has been outpoured.

Now, some may wonder, well then, is the harvest ripe?

Maybe Jesus is just sitting up in heaven and for the last 150 years, he's looking at the Adenos church and saying, wow, what a beautiful ripe harvest.

I'm just gonna let that harvest stay ripe for 150 years and enjoy How beautiful that harvest looks.

Notice this is describing what happens at harvest time.

For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself.

First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

Now in the marginal reading of the King James, it says, when the fruit is ripe, immediately he putteth in the sickle because the harvest has come.

In other words, when there is a ripe harvest, Jesus isn't going to wait a moment longer.

Immediately he will put in the sickle and he will harvest the ripened fruit because the latter rain has been poured out.

And in the book of Acts it says that the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey him.

And it's amazing to me that obedience has become a negative connotation in God's church today because The devil knows that obedience from a loving, willing heart is what will allow God to pour out the Holy Spirit and latter rain power for a ripened harvest.

God is not going to pour out the latter rain on disobedient fruit.

God is going to pour out the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him, because the reality is, we kind of have a pride problem in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and you'll have to admit to this, a lot of people want to be centers of influence.

They want to be driving the current and setting the agenda, whatever you want it to be, and they want to be the person that is in that cycle of influence.

Dennis Priebe

God at Risk

The word atonement may be the most important word in all of the Bible because its real meaning is at-one-ment.

Something has gone tragically wrong in this universe.

What was once in harmony and peace and unity has been split apart so completely that it seems totally impossible for it ever to be put together again.

But that is exactly what the word atonement means, to put together what has been torn apart.

If free choice has always been and will always be the way God relates to his created beings, then the atoning process has to be complicated and lengthy if it has any chance of restoring the harmony that once existed.

If we do not know how this at-one-ment is being accomplished in the most holy place and what it will take to complete it, then we will never understand why we as a Church exist and what lies ahead in our future.

This could well be the most important Bible subject for us to understand as completely as humanly possible.

Now if we have any hope of understanding how this drama will end, we must understand how it all started.

The greatest trial in history was brewing.

We're going to go to the time when the most majestic created being that God had ever created was filing suit against his creator God.

And remember, Lucifer was the five-star general of the heavenly host.

From early writings, page 145, but when God said to his son, let us create man in our image, Satan was jealous of Jesus.

He wished to be consulted concerning the formation of man and because he was not he was filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred.

So this tearing apart of God's harmonious universe began, believe it or not, over God's plans to create you and me.

Lucifer, his specific charge was that God did not include him in the planning committee and he deserved to be there.

Apparently the work that Christ and Lucifer did in heaven was so similar that Lucifer saw no real difference between himself and Christ.

To curb this brewing palace coup, the Father called an assembly of all the heavenly hosts, and He made it absolutely clear that His Son had from all eternity been 1 with Him in omnipresence, in omniscience, in power and authority." Apparently, even in heaven, angels did not completely understand the precise relationships between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so that God decided to make this crystal clear at this time so there could be no questions at all.

Up to this point, Lucifer had been raising questions, some legitimate questions, But it was at this point that the rebellion began, and the universe was being torn apart.

From Story of Redemption, page 17 and 18, Satan unblushingly made known his dissatisfaction that Christ should be preferred before him.

He stood up proudly and urged that he should be equal with God and should be taken into conference with the Father and understand his purposes.

God informed Satan that to his son alone, he would reveal all the family in heaven.

He would reveal his secret purposes, and he required all the family in heaven, even Satan, to yield him implicit, unquestioned obedience.

Then Satan exultantly pointed to his sympathizers, comprising nearly one-half of all the angels, and exclaimed, These are with me.

Will you expel these also, and make such a void in heaven?

Now it is at this point where scripture enters the picture of what happened in heaven in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 14 verses 13 and 14 For thou hast said in thine heart I will ascend into heaven.

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.

I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will be like the Most High." Now what happened next is extremely important to understand God's plan of at-one-ment.

Early writings, 146, after Satan and those who fell with him were shut out of heaven and he realized that he had forever lost all its purity and glory, he repented and wished to be reinstated in heaven.

Both he and his followers wept and implored to be taken back into the favor of God." Here we have repentance with weeping and tears and imploring.

Surely that would be enough for God to bring them back.

In the story of redemption, 25 to 27, Ellen White continues this tragic drama.

The loss he had sustained of all the privileges of heaven seemed to be too much to be borne.

Continuing, "'His mighty frame shook as with a tempest.

He called him and entreated an interview with Christ.

He then related to the Son of God that he repented of his rebellion and wished again the favor of God.

He was willing to take the place God had previously assigned him.

Christ wept at Satan's woe, but told him as the mind of God that the seeds of rebellion were still within him.

The last part of Story of Redemption 25-27.

When Satan became fully convinced that there was no possibility of his being reinstated in the favor of God, he manifested his malice with increased hatred and fiery vehemence.

Can we see why even angels had questions at this point of how God was handling this disruption?

They can't read minds any more than we can.

All they can hear are the words and the actions.

Only Christ could see inside Lucifer's heart and know what was really there.

And please notice, there is a huge, huge difference between outward repentance even with tears and genuine heart repentance of surrender.

If God is to restore the atonement, the at-one-ment to the universe, then he must set in motion a far-reaching plan to answer all Satan's legitimate claims against God's system.

I found this by Elder Jan Paulsen, past General Conference President.

In God's final and ultimate answer to the sin problem.

There are issues to be taken into account that are wider and larger than my personal salvation.

For the larger picture, namely for the eternal security of all creation, God will have provided a far-reaching answer that deals with the roots as well as the consequences of rebellion.

So my friends there's something way more important than your salvation or mine going on right here.

Even the salvation of all who will be saved for all eternity, there is something more important than that.

And that is found in Romans chapter 3 and verse 4, that as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged." Patriarchs and Prophets, page 68.

The plan of salvation had a yet broader and deeper purpose in the salvation of men.

It was not for this alone that Christ came to this earth.

It was not merely that the inhabitants of this little world might regard the law of God as it should be regarded, but it was to vindicate the character of God before the universe.

Now 1 of Satan's charges was very legitimate and needs and demands even today a clear answer.

We find it in Testimonies, Volume 5, verse 74.

The people of God have been in many respects very faulty.

Satan has an accurate knowledge of the sins which he has tempted them to commit, and he presents these in the most exaggerated light, declaring, Will God banish me and my angels from his presence, and yet reward those who have been guilty of the same sins?

Thou canst not do this, O Lord, in justice.

Thy throne will not stand in righteousness and judgment." And from Patriarchs and Prophets and Kings 588, he pronounces them just as deserving as himself of exclusion from the favor of God.

Are these, he says, the people who are to take my place in heaven.

In other words, justice demands that if I am excluded from heaven, then all sinners must also be excluded.

But if you can forgive them for the very same things that I did, then you have to take me back also.

A very legitimate charge against God's plan.

If God is going to vindicate his plan of at-one-ment, He has to resolve this problem of justice versus mercy.

We find in Psalm 85, verse 10, mercy and truth are met together.

Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

And so God takes the initiative in this all-out war.

We find it in Genesis 3 15, And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, And between thy seed and her seed, It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This was the first promise of at-one-ment, the very beginning of our scriptural record.

In Satan's attempts to dethrone God, His own efforts would destroy him.

God's counterattack is seen most clearly in Philippians chapter 2, verses 6 to 8.

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." You see, God's answer to Satan's charges would not be arbitrary force, but humbling himself to take the same human form as those who have to live under Satan's rule constantly, you and me, to allow Satan to attack Jesus Christ, his Son, in the same way he attacks all of us.

The supreme evidence of the difference between God's way and Satan's way we find in John 12, 31 and 32.

Now shall the prince of this world be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." You see, God's way is not driving or forcing.

God humbles Himself to our level of functioning and thinking and allows Satan to do whatever he can to discredit God's way.

Luke 10, verse 18, And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

After living a life of total obedience to God in spite of Satan's all-out attempt to get Christ to rebel just once, Satan then takes it upon himself to destroy the life of his Creator.

Larry Kirkpatrick

New Books, Old Error

Institutional, Seventh-day Adventist presses haven't addressed last-generation theology for about 20 years.

But suddenly in 2018, last year, several new books came off the press.

And so we had God's character in the last generation with, I think, 12 seminary professors.

And then we have George Knight, end time events in the last generation, the explosive 1950s, and we have Salvation.

I think this was 19 authors from the seminary, and Soteriology, the study of salvation, And this 1 came out last year.

And then, in all humility, saying no to last-generation theology was another volume that came out.

Suddenly, after 20 years of basically nothing, Suddenly 4 books at 1 time.

Trees were manufactured into paper so that these books would exist, and so time was only going to give us a brief opportunity here to share from, really from 1 of the books, and so we're going to spend most of our time we do have here addressing this book, God's Character in the Last Generation, which is a pretty familiar title after yesterday evening until now.

Now along with George Knight's book, this book have been… these 2 books have been distributed all across the North American division.

They've been given to many of the pastors in many of the conferences haven't been able to confirm that it's been given to every single of the 59 conferences in North America, but it's gone to many of our workers.

And so, we have a widespread stirring that's come from this.

So now the issues set forth in God's character in the last generation, they fall into 2 categories.

This, we would call disagreements and misrepresentations.

Now before we consider that book, though, I think we need to double-check something.

Why are we wearing a pair of glasses that we don't even know we have on?

So our pastors and church school teachers go through denominational schools.

They're assigned what's called required reading about Adventist history.

And for decades, the church's understanding of Adventist history has been especially shaped by the writings of George Knight and Woodrow Wyden.

In fact, I have a couple of their many volumes here.

This is George Knight's book about the life experience of A.T.

And then we have – by the way, I'm not recommending all these books, just, you'll know the difference.

This book is Woodrow Whedon, and the title of this 1, this is another biography.

This is From Physician of Good News to Agent of Division.

And so those are a couple of books, just samples out of the many books that Woodrow Whedon and also George Knight have written.

Now the years from 1957 to the publication of Questions on Doctrine, from that time to the 1980 dismissal of Desmond Ford set up a changed theological landscape.

Characteristic Adventist views about Jesus, obedience, overcoming, the close of probation, and the sealing didn't fit well in this new atmosphere, and it was within this milieu that what I would call the knight-widden narrative, the knight-widden narrative arose.

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