Michigan Camp Meeting 2019: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Every Wind of Doctrine

Norman McNulty

Every Wind of Doctrine - Part 1: The Everlasting Son

I'm going to start with a statement from Testimonies, Volume 5, page 707.

And this is a familiar statement to us, but it's certainly pertinent to the time in which we are living in now.

If other means fail, heresies will come in among them which will sift them, separating the chaff from the wheat.

The Lord calls upon all who believe his word to awake out of sleep.

Precious light has come appropriate for this time.

It is Bible truth showing the perils that are right upon us.

This light should lead us to a diligent study of the Scriptures and a most critical examination of the positions which we hold." So I have no difficulty taking this opportunity to use the Bible to give a critical examination to the position we hold on the issue of the Godhead, but what we see here is that before the Lord comes back, God is going to allow heresy to come into the church because we as a people have been sleeping.

Now some of you may say, you know, what's the big deal about heresy?

If someone has a different view on who God is than what I do, what's the big deal?

Well, first of all, you may have noticed that those who agitate, whether it's the Trinity Godhead issue or any other issue that we're going to talk about this week, it tends to become an all-consuming idea that the whole church needs to accept, and if you don't accept this idea, you're going to be lost, you won't receive the Lot of rain, you won't receive the seal of God, and all of those kinds of things.

And so they turn it into a testing thing even.

If you have your Bibles with you, turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 5.

Now we know Galatians chapter 5 as the chapter in which the fruits of the Spirit are defined, which we like to talk about.

Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against such there is no law.

But before that we have the works of the flesh starting in verse 19.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, and notice the last item in verse 20.

And then Paul goes on to say, he lists a number of other things, then he says, which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

So those who are advocating heresy are controlled by the flesh, not by the Spirit.

Those who advocate for false doctrine and false teaching in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, that which goes against the Word of God are actually being motivated by the flesh, even though they don't realize it.

Now, you may have seen sometimes debates or dialogues on social media such as Facebook where people will debate these things, And I certainly am not saying that those who hold to the position that the church teaches always use a Christlike method, but I can tell you the few times I have entered into dialogue with those who promote anti-Trinitarian teaching, I mean, I've been labeled a Jesuit and under the control of Catholics and all sorts of things just for posting a Bible verse without even making any commentary on it.

So it's not always been a good spirit that I've been exposed to from this movement.

So heresies are defined as a work of the flesh.

Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now, when it comes to truth versus error, those who promote error make plain statements seem complicated.

And this is the pattern that I have always noticed with those who promote heresy or fanaticism, and that is this.

They'll have 50 Ellen White statements and 50 or 100 Bible verses and they go through all of them and by the time you come to the end you're just as confused as you were at the beginning of the presentation And then it's urged upon you that you must accept this teaching or you're not going to be saved.

And the Bible truth is very clear and plain.

So if you're walking out confused, there's probably a reason.

Now I'm just going to hit briefly some of the fundamental beliefs that address the God of the Trinity.

And this is fundamental belief number 2, which says, there is 1 God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a unity of 3 co-eternal persons.

God is immortal, all-powerful, all-knowing, above all and ever-present.

He is infinite and beyond human comprehension, yet known through his self-revelation.

God, who is love, is forever worthy of worship, adoration, and service by the whole creation." And then there's a number of Bible verses that you can look up to validate that.

You see Matthew 28 19 where Jesus is baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

So those are just some verses that are out there.

Now when we come to fundamental belief number 4 with respect to the Father, it says, God the Eternal Father is the Creator, Source, Sustainer, and Sovereign of all creation.

He is just and holy, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

The qualities and powers exhibited in the Son and the Holy Spirit are also those of the Father.

There are more Bible verses that you can look up.

And then fundamental belief number 4, I have 2 slides for this.

It says, God the eternal Son became incarnate in Jesus Christ.

The salvation of humanity is accomplished and the world is judged.

Forever truly God, He became also truly human Jesus the Christ.

He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

He lived and experienced temptation as a human being, but perfectly exemplified the righteousness and love of God.

His miracles, he manifested God's power and was attested as God's promised Messiah.

He suffered and died voluntarily on the cross for our sins, and in our place was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven to minister in the heavenly sanctuary in our behalf.

He will come again in glory for the final deliverance of his people and the restoration of all things." So that's the Seventh-day Adventist's fundamental beliefs.

This was voted by the General Conference in session in 1980 at the Dallas, Texas, General Conference, 1980.

Now, anti-Trinitarians are saying that these statements are wrong, that they are unbiblical, and some are even saying that they constitute the omega of apostasy.

And what I'm gonna do now though is rather than saying in my words what anti-Trinitarians are saying, I'm gonna read to you what anti-Trinitarians actually say.

Because 1 thing I don't wanna do is to build up a straw man and tear it down and teach something that even they would say isn't something they believe.

So this is what they, and 1 other thing I should also say is that there are some variations within this anti-Trinitarian camp, but there are some commonalities.

So here's some of the things that they say.

So this is an anti-Trinitarian, I'm just quoting him now, he says, and again this is not what I believe, This is what they say.

They say Jesus is referred to as God in Hebrews 1a and John 1.1.

Also, all things were created by Him, John 1.3.

This absolutely establishes His divinity and His preexistence, but the terms God and Son of God establishes the relationship between 2 beings.

So you'll notice that they'll say, see, He is divine, it establishes His divinity, but they don't want to say, yes, He is God.

He's referred to as God, but they don't want to come right out and say that.

Then they go on to say, the best way to understand the usage of the term God is by the name Adam.

When taken in the strictest sense, Adam is the name of a single individual.

The term Adam, man, can also refer to mankind, a race of beings, or to both Adam and Eve.

Scripture that is, says in the image of God, so it is the Father speaking to the Son.

They go on and quote some Bible verses, Genesis 127, God created man in His own image, and the image of God created He Him, male and female created He them.

Many read into Genesis 1, 26 and 27 at Trinity, but there is only 1 being in all the scripture that is in the image of God, they say that's Christ, in 2 Corinthians 4, 4.

So they say it's the Father speaking to the Son.

And they say that Ellen White, and again this is what they say, not what I believe, they say that Ellen White backs this interpretation in early writings 145 where she says, when God said to his son, let us make man in our image, Satan was jealous of Jesus.

What is significant, they say, is that there were not 3 beings that were created, but only 2 beings.

We believe that this is because God was illustrating on the creation of man the relationship between the Father and the Son.

Adam was first, and then Eve was brought forth from his substance, or rib, in the same way the Father is God, and that he was first.

So they're acknowledging that there's a time that Jesus was not, and then they go on to say, the Son is not God in the strictest sense of personality, but is God in substance and nature, even though his personality had a beginning in eternity.

Jesus is God in nature, so he's divine, but God is a reference primarily to the Father.

So that's in their words what they're saying about Jesus, that he is a divine being, he's God in substance and nature, but not in personality.

There is a statement where Ellen White does say that something similar to that, but again there's plenty of other statements that we're going to look at that establish that Christ is God, And here's what ends up happening, and I'm going to show you a video next if the sound works.

If you say that the Father, and of course they quote John 17, 3, that the Father is the 1 true God and Jesus is the Son of God, what you are doing here is that you are placing Jesus as lower than the Father because he is not in personality God, he's the Son of God, And God is the Father, Jesus is the Son, and so Jesus is less than the Father.

Now I'm going to play a video here, we'll see if the sound works, of 2 prominent teachers who promote the idea that the Father is God and Jesus is the Son of God, and you see how far the teaching takes you when you start to say that Jesus is less than the Father.

So That's really all you need to see there, but that's really a shocking assertion that these teachers are making that worshiping Jesus as God is idolatry.

Philippians 2 says that a day is gonna come that every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

So there's a lot of problems with where they're going.

And just to even mention what they were talking about in the video, I mean, Scripture says that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

So there's a lot of things that they misconstrued from Scripture.

But here's some, just to summarize some of the things that they teach.

They teach that the Father is the 1 true God.

They call themselves the 1 True God Movement based on John 17, 3, where Jesus says to the Father that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

So they teach that we have 1 Lord, Jesus Christ, who's the Son of God.

He's a divine being who is the Son of God but not God.

They say that Jesus was begotten or brought forth from the bosom of the Father in the distant past, and they say that the Holy Spirit is not a distinct being.

Every Wind of Doctrine - Part 2: The Third Person of the Godhead

Father in heaven, we thank you for bringing us here this afternoon.

Lord, I pray that you would bring clarity to this topic and that we would understand who the third person of the Godhead is.

We thank you for the Holy Spirit, and we pray that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth, especially as we come to an understanding of who the Holy Spirit is.

So today is part 2 of our six-part seminar.

Yesterday The title was The Everlasting Son.

We looked at the divine nature of Christ.

We're going to look at the human nature later on this week, but we looked at the divinity of Christ yesterday and we saw very clearly that He is self-existent, as Ellen White says, he's the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God that in him is life original, unborrowed, underived.

He always has been, along with the Father.

And today we're going to look at the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead.

Now just briefly, I do want to mention again, for those of you who may be interested, I have written a book on the book of Daniel that's being published by Remnant Publications.

It should be coming out in the next few weeks.

It's a verse by verse commentary of the entire book.

Makes practical applications for the book as well as going into a verse by verse analysis.

So if you're interested in a deeper study of the book of Daniel, It's only about 150, 160 pages.

It won't be too long and it should give you plenty of information, so I want you to be on the lookout for that.

Others wanted me to mention again this book on the Trinity that I've made reference to, and this is the picture of the book, this is the title of the book, it's written by an Australian pastor named Glenn Parfitt, and it's entitled The Trinity, What Has God Revealed?

Now it comes out of Australia, but I believe it is available on Amazon.

So if you want a good resource on the Trinity, that is an excellent resource.

Okay, I'm going to get into the presentation.

I'm going to show a couple of slides that I shared yesterday.

Now, when I have done this presentation before, I've done the presentations back to back, so I didn't include the slides in both talks, but I am doing that here because I want to reiterate what I mentioned yesterday about the sinister nature of heresy and of every wind of doctrine and why God allows heresy to come into the church.

This is Testimonies, Volume 5 of the Testimonies, page 707.

And here, it says, God will arouse his people.

If other means fail, heresies will come in among them, which will sift them, separating the chaff from the wheat.

The Lord calls upon all who believe his word to awake out of sleep." So what I can say from this statement is that 1 of the reasons why the anti-Trinitarian heresy has come into the Seventh-day Adventist Church is because we've been sleeping as a people.

We just come to camp meeting year after year and hear good messages.

And we might even sing the song, I Surrender All.

And we might even come forward on an altar appeal, and then when we go back home, guess what happens?

And He allows heresies to come in so that we will go back to the Bible, we'll go back to the Word of God, and we will come to a deeper understanding of the time that we're living in.

And then she goes on to say, the precious light has come appropriate for this time.

It is Bible truth showing the perils that are right upon us, this light should lead us to a diligent study of the scriptures and a most critical examination of the positions which we hold." And as I mentioned yesterday, you know, some may say, what's the big deal about people bringing variant views into the church on various doctrines including the Trinity.

Well, first of all, the Trinity refers to the theology of the Godhead and of who God is.

So I would at least be in agreement with anti-Trinitarians that it is a big deal how we understand God.

How they define God, though, is the problem.

And Galatians 5, as we looked at yesterday, we're going to see that heresy is a big problem.

Galatians 5, 19-21, now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies.

And as I said yesterday, typically when a heresy comes to your church, the next thing that follows is strife.

Heresy and strife go hand in hand, and they are both manifestations of the works of the flesh.

Now, the other things on this list should be pretty obvious, like adultery and fornication.

Now, I find it amazing, I didn't mention this yesterday, how many churches in the Seventh-day Adventist church turned a blind eye to adultery.

Listen friends, if you have someone in your church that has committed adultery, that needs to be addressed.

And if heresy comes into your church, that needs to be addressed.

Souls will be lost if you just sit back and say, well, Boy, this isn't good, but I mean, they are sincere, and they are using the Bible and the spirit of prophecy.

I mean, I realize that they don't think Jesus is God, and they don't think the Holy Spirit is a person, but at least they're sincere, and I don't want to hurt people's feelings and rock the boat, So we'll just kind of see what happens.

And then it goes on to say in the end of verse 21, I told you tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

So a belief in heresy and an advocacy of heresy will lead souls to be lost.

And then you see the contrast after the works of the flesh with the fruits of the Spirit in verses 22 and 23.

So now I'm going to mention the Seventh-day Adventist fundamental belief on the Holy Spirit.

This is fundamental belief number 5, And this is how it is stated in the current fundamental belief statement of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

God, the eternal spirit, was active with the Father and the Son in creation, incarnation, and redemption.

He is as much a person as are the Father and the Son.

He draws and convicts human beings and those who respond.

He renews and transforms into the image of God.

Sent by the Father and the Son to be always with His children, He extends spiritual gifts to the church, empowers it to bear witness to Christ and in harmony with the scriptures, leads it into all truth.

Now you see a number of references up there.

We're going to hit some of these as we go through the presentation today.

So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to briefly review some of the things that anti-Trinitarians are teaching about the Holy Spirit.

Yesterday we talked about what they say about Christ, how that they say he's not created, but they say he's begotten, that he came out of the substance of the Father and eternity passed and we had ample evidence to show from the Bible that Jesus is God and that he has always been.

And there were some clear statements from Ellen White as well.

Here's what anti-Trinitarians say about the Holy Spirit.

So again, just so it's very clear, this is not what I believe, this is what they teach, just so we're clear on this.

They say that the Father and the Son are distinct beings, while the Holy Spirit is not a being.

Now this becomes a little bit confusing because they can't deny Ellen White's statement about there being 3 living persons or personalities of the heavenly trio.

So what they say is that there are 3 persons or personalities, but only 2 beings.

You know, we're not talking about calculus or physics or anything like that.

So that becomes a bit challenging to explain.

But that's what at least some of them say.

Now, there is a bit of a difference between some of the camps about how they define the Holy Spirit.

Some believe that the Holy Spirit is the spirit that exists between the Father and the Son.

Others believe that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of Jesus Christ who is limited in bodily form now.

So the Holy Spirit is actually Jesus in spirit form.

And then Jesus in bodily form is up in heaven.

So some 2 different views there, but They agree that the Holy Spirit is not a being, it's just a presence of either the Father and the Son combined or of Jesus in spirit form.

They believe that the current view in the Seventh-day Adventist Church on the Holy Spirit, and the Trinity is Roman Catholic and unbiblical.

Now, I should probably mention that the Catholics teach that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead, but they teach that the Holy Spirit emanates out of the Father and emanates out of the Son.

So ironically, that's actually closer to what anti-Trinitarians believe than what Seventh-day Adventists believe.

Because Seventh-day Adventists, as a church body, we do not believe that the Holy Spirit emanates out of the Father and out of the Son the way Catholics teach.

We believe that the Holy Spirit is its own distinct being.

And then what they say is the Ellen White that this is again anti-trinitarians They say that Ellen White warned that dr.

John Harvey Kellogg's teachings in the book Living Temple contain the Alpha of heresies And we agree with that.

That's true The the Living Temple contained the Alpha of heresies we call it panentheism That God was in everything They believe that the current view in the Seventh Diademus Church on the Holy Spirit is the Omega of apostasy because they believe that what Kellogg taught in the book Living Simple led to where Seventh-day Adventists are today, and so it's the Omega of apostasy, and they urge a return to the pioneer view of the Godhead.

So, let's just look a little bit at some history here and some of this I got from a really helpful article at vindicate.com.

It was written July 30, 2017 by Lemuel Sapien.

Every Wind of Doctrine - Part 3: Confusion on Prophecy

Father in heaven, we thank you for bringing us out today.

We thank you for the beautiful weather outside and for the opportunity to study from your Word.

And I pray that as we go through the presentation this afternoon, the message would be clear and we would have an understanding of the prophetic message you've given us for this time.

So again, our message today is entitled Confusion on Prophecy.

Just a brief reminder for those of you who have been coming, I've been mentioning that I do have a book coming out on the book of Daniel entitled Daniel practical living in the judgment hour.

It's going to be put out by remnant publications and it should be available in the next few weeks.

So if you're interested in a verse by verse commentary with practical applications on the book of Daniel and encourage you to check that out.

Now we're going to talk a little bit about confusion on prophecy here And there's a variety of topics that we're going to cover.

Some recent date setting trends have emerged.

Now, date setting is actually not a new item in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

There are people who like to set dates for the Sunday law or the close of probation or even for the Second Coming, despite the counsel we've been given against doing so.

There were some who were pointing to March or April of this year, they were saying so last October.

So as of today, those of you who listen to this recording later will see.

Others are claiming November 9 of this year, November 9, 2019.

We are going to get into the details of those who are saying these things and why they are saying it.

These are all a violation of the plainest statements from Ellen White on time setting.

And it's amazing to me that people continue to try setting dates and they're so convinced that they're right this time.

Other issues that we'll talk about include the so-called 2520 prophecy.

And I put that in quotation marks because it's not really a prophecy.

We're going to look at advocacy of feast keeping and lunar Sabbath.

We're going to look at those who try to do a reapplication of the 7 trumpets into the future And we're going to look a little bit at the issue of Daniel 11.

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Every Wind of Doctrine

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