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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Mark Howard: Last Generation Theology

Mark Howard

01 LGT: A Recantation

Father in heaven, we are so thankful and undeserving of your great love and mercy, the privilege of knowing you and Jesus Christ whom you have sent, of knowing your last warning messages to this world, Lord, that so desperately needs to hear it.

And Lord, I pray this evening that the Spirit of God would be with each 1 of the viewers and listeners, that you would help my frail words to Communicate the truth that it's your desire that we hear and learn tonight Father again, we thank you for the Sabbath hours We ask that your Holy Spirit would help us to receive the fullness of the blessing of the Sabbath in our time with you.

For we ask and pray these things in Jesus' name.

Now I wanted to start with a brief introduction For those who don't know who I am, I mentioned I've been to Advent Hope a number of times.

But Dinda had already shared that for those who don't know me, my name is Mark Howard.

I work with the Michigan conference currently as the Associate in the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Department, and I work with Pastor Cameron DeVasier.

Some of you I know are familiar with our Talking Points program that we have been doing for the purpose of helping people to better cover their adult Sabbath school lessons.

At any rate, that's the department I work in.

We are also associated with that department is the Emmanuel Institute.

I've been the director of the Emanuel Institute now since 2009, which is a late training arm, if you will, of the Michigan Conference and has been pulled into the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Department.

I have 20 years of experience now in pastoral ministry in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

I am married 34 years as of this last May to my wife Stephanie.

Caleb just started law school a week ago in Chattanooga.

He started it in Chattanooga, but he's taking the classes online from a school in Alabama.

She is a senior this year in Great Lakes Adventist Academy.

As for myself, I was raised in the Adventist church, but my mother and father were first generation Seventh-day Adventists, And they received Bible studies, actually, when they were newlyweds and became Seventh-day Adventists.

My mother got divorced and remarried, and my mother and my stepfather left the Seventh-day Adventist Church when I was 15 years old.

And I didn't give my heart to the Lord until I was 26 years old.

I was not baptized as a Seventh-day Adventist, but I was baptized by a Seventh-day Adventist minister.

Kind of a long story, but I just refused to agree to what Seventh-day Adventist Church taught.

To date, I was never, I have never been baptized as a Seventh-day Adventist.

I was, I joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church on profession of faith in 1996.

All of that fits in a little bit with where we're going to go this weekend, but that's a little back history on me.

And now I want to give a little bit of history on what we're looking at this evening.

LGT stands for Last Generation Theology, and in February of 2016, I presented a series at Advent Hope, in which I touched...

There were going to be 3 topics and ended up being 2, because it took 2 parts to cover the nature, the human nature of Christ.

And I covered the human nature of Christ and last generation.

Well, what I called it was it's time someone finally told you the truth about the last generation, a little bit of tongue in cheek there.

Now, 1 of the reasons I did that was, first of all, I thought I knew the implications of last-generation theology, and you're gonna hear more of that this evening.

But what I did know is, and I think probably most of our viewers are familiar with the term now that we use, cancel culture.

Cancel culture is the term that's being used.

You can look it up in the Urban Dictionary and dictionary.com.

Basically, we cancel out generally via social media people that we disagree with.

So in other instead of being a free speech society, if somebody's saying something we don't like, we just group up on them and gang up on them and bully them into submission and silence.

And this has been going on for longer than some of the current, you know, secular situation.

These subjects of the nature of Christ and last-generation theology are subjects that have been off limits for discussion for a long time now in the church, and I felt it in my own personal ministry, to the point where I just shied away from even talking about, discussing about them.

And it was in 2016 where I said, this is ridiculous.

We can't pretend to be Christians and not be willing to openly study and discuss some things.

And so I presented that series at Advent Hope in 2016.

And As for myself, I probably, I don't have an exact time for this, but I probably learned of last generation theology.

It's not something that I was like, oh, last generation theology, that's me.

When I heard it, I knew where people got it from when they started talking about it, because there was a book called The Sanctuary Service written by M.L.

Andreessen, and he has a chapter called The Last Generation, which is primarily where that term came from, last generation theology, it was Andreessen's theology.

Well, here's the thing, I had formed my own understanding of Character perfection in the last days long before I ever knew the name ML Andreessen And it wasn't by people in my church When I joined the Adventist Church, I told you I was baptized in 1996.

I mean, technically a Seventh-day Adventist pastor isn't supposed to baptize somebody who doesn't agree with Seventh-day Adventist beliefs.

And I was clear, I don't believe in LNY, I don't believe in church's lifestyle standards, I don't believe in...

Pastor said, I'll just baptize you into Jesus.

Well, that's because the church I attended, at the time we called them celebration churches.

It's the first church I started going to.

They were down on character perfection, overcoming, Adventist lifestyle, Ellen White, all that stuff.

They talk very negatively about those things.

So, you know, sometimes people say, oh, well, you believe the way you did because somebody got ahold of you and brainwashed you.

I'm gonna share some of that tonight and through the weekend that brought me to where I am, what my current understanding with, I don't wanna say last generation theology and you'll see why in a minute, but I certainly wasn't influenced by my legalistic church full of LGTers in my belief system.

I never considered myself an LGT guy until I heard someone describe it as the belief that the last generation living on the earth will be total overcomers through the righteousness of Jesus and thus a final demonstration of the power of the gospel.

Again, not knowing everything that was packaged with it.

Now I don't intend to do a 12-part series right here on to explain all the nuances, but I will share just a few statements that I read in my own study that helped me to come to the conclusions I have.

The first 1 I'm going to share with you, and if you have the notes you can look along at this, from the book Great Controversy, page 623, paragraph 1, it says, Not even by a thought could our Savior be brought to yield to the power of temptation.

He had kept his father's commandments and there was no sin in him that Satan could use to his advantage.

This is the condition in which those must be found who shall stand in the time of trouble." Now that's, you know, I don't know what people do with that.

It's like, oh, you're taking it out of context.

You can get to change the plainness of that statement.

The time of trouble happens before glorification, before the close of human probation, and it says that as Jesus didn't sin even in a thought, this is going to be the condition of God's people that live through the time of trouble.

That was written in 1911, and I'm going to note that all these, I'm just sharing 4 statements here, all of them written after 1888.

I say that because there are people in the church today who say, well, Ellen White changed her theology after 1888.

And so all that behaviorally centered stuff that came before changed after it.

So I've taken all the statements after 1888, just to be clear.

She didn't change her theology, but if somebody wants to make that claim, these all came after that time period.

Now, here's a similar statement to what we just read from Great Controversy.

This 1 is from Desire of Ages, page 123, paragraph 3.

Ellen White says, there was in Christ nothing that responded to Satan's sophistry.

It's almost the same statement as we read in great controversy.

He did not consent to sin, not even by a thought did he yield to temptation.

So both statements, Jesus didn't sin even in a thought, this is possible for us, That's what it says.

She says, Christ's humanity was united with divinity.

02 The Present Truth

Father in heaven, again, we are so thankful for all of your goodness toward us, your blessings that we don't deserve, the greatest of which is the sacrifice of Jesus Lord and his continuing ministry in the sanctuary above in our behalf.

Father, we thank you for the Sabbath day, this time that you have set aside for us, and I pray that the Spirit of God would open our understanding as he did the disciples on the road to Emmaus today, that we may gain a clearer conception of the truth that you have for us to know and proclaim with no uncertain sound to the earth in these last days.

Bless us to this end for we ask it in Jesus name.

Now last night the message was called LGT, which stands for Last Generation Theology, a recantation.

And what I said in essence was this, and I'm reading from last night's notes, I publicly recant any association with last generation theology.

If you want to know what I believe about something, don't stick a label on me and say he believes that, because I probably don't.

Now I'm going to clarify a little bit this morning, and I'm going to be reading off my notes a little bit here.

It just helps me to make sure it's concise and articulate.

Sometimes it's easier to do that, and sometimes it's easier when we get into the scripture just to elaborate a little more, but you can follow along.

This morning I want to state clearly what I do believe, as opposed to what I said I didn't believe last night, and why the recantation in the first place, why this whole thing.

I do believe the following, that we can and even must overcome sin before Jesus comes.

Number 2, that perfection is possible in this life.

Number 3, that Jesus took our fallen nature.

And I've got a message on that, a two-part message on that on Audioverse.

Number 4, that the atonement was not completed on the cross.

I do not believe the atonement was completed on the cross.

I believe the sacrifice was completed on the cross.

And number 5, that God's people will be the means of the final vindication of his character in the great controversy, I believe that as well.

And as such, I'm easily labeled as an advocate of last generation theology.

The problem with this is that the label was created by people who don't believe these things.

And it was created for the purpose of marginalizing and maligning people who do.

And thus the label becomes a huge vortex that sucks in all kinds of crazy that Most of the people I know who would believe what I've just stated don't believe.

As I mentioned, and to clarify, somebody asked me after last night's presentation, so which of those books you mentioned, the book by the seminary and the book by George Knight, which of those is true and accurate?

They are one-sided and in some cases there's half-truths and in other, I don't want to call them lies, but in other cases just inaccurate information.

And so there's all kinds of things that, well, for example, when you get within the last generation theology label, you get a whole basket of crazy, such as people who believe in last-generation theology, this is what is said, don't really believe in justification.

They don't think Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was enough.

They believe the last generation will reach a point where they no longer need the righteousness of Christ.

They're always obsessed with trying to be perfect, and thus they're either pharisaically proud, or they're always clinically discouraged and depressed.

But that's just a handful of the kinds of things you read over and over and over from people who have attached this to the label of last generation theology.

So, and then in trying to defend the label and say, no, no, no, that's not what it's about, that I didn't even create, That people who don't believe in a holy last generation didn't even create.

In attempting to defend the label, you end up addressing more error than truth.

And it simply makes more sense to me to distance myself from the label others have created for me and to rebuild on the sure foundation of the Word.

And so that's where I intend to go this morning and this afternoon.

And I wish I was going to show 1 other thing.

If you on our website, if you go to resources and you go to that Sabbath School Personal Ministries page, the Talking Points page, 1 of the points under that will take you to our Emmanuel Institute YouTube channel.

And on that channel, I have a number of videos.

There's a series on there that I go over salvation from the standpoint of steps to Christ kind of as a basis.

It's called, you go to the playlist and it's called, oh I just had it on the tip of my tongue, it may come back to me.

But anyway, I have a whole series on that.

But there's places where I treat some topics that I can't just...

We have this morning's presentation, this afternoon.

So I can't get into the depths of justification and sanctification and some of those elements that I cover better in that series.

Okay, so today's topic is called the present truth.

We're taking it from 2nd Peter 1 and verse 12.

I don't remember if the Sabbath School lesson has been on this yet, or it will be, because we do our talking points ahead of time, and they all start to jumble together.

But if you go to the book of 1 Peter, sorry, 2 Peter 1 and verse 12, this is what he says, and this is where the language is taken from, the concept present truth.

2 Peter 1 and verse 12, Peter says, for this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth.

Now this concept of present truth, in fact, the the New American Standard Bible says the truth which is present with you.

The Good News Bible says, the truth you have received.

And the idea of present truth is present is modifying the word truth is that it's something that is especially applicable and relevant to you now.

Okay, for example, an example that we always use is the story of Noah, right?

The flood was present truth And you know 1 of my favorite pastors, the late pastor Tony Sirigliano used to tell the story or give the example of, you know, Noah preaching out in front of the boat and he says, imagine Noah's standing out there and the masses of people and he gets up and he says, today we're going to start a 12-part series on the family.

And he says nothing about the boat and somebody in the crowd says, hey Noah, what about that big boat behind you?

It wouldn't be present truth for Noah to ignore the boat.

That was the thing that was especially present and relevant at that time.

And so to early Seventh-day Adventists, in fact, Matthew 24, Jesus talks about servants giving, or yeah, his servants giving meat in due season.

Well, that would be present truth, something that's timely, that's applicable, applicable and relevant.

And to Seventh-day Adventists, early Adventists, present truth was understood to be our message.

And we, if you do a search in the Ellen White app, it also includes the writings of the pioneers, just check that on when you do your search and type in in quotes present truth and I mean it's just loaded because that was their understanding was that's our message.

Jan Loughborough in the book the church its organization order and discipline page 115 called our cause the cause of present truth.

Our publishing houses were established to spread the present truth.

In fact, 1 of the early periodicals that James White himself started in Middletown, Connecticut in July of 1849 was actually entitled the present truth and and James White in his autobiography autobiography life incidents, which if you haven't read his phenomenal book Life incidents by James White he says in Peter's time there was present truth or truth applicable to that present time.

The church have ever had a present truth.

The present truth now is that which shows present duty and the right position for us who are about to witness the time of trouble such as never was." So understand that James White understood that our message was to help prepare us for the time of trouble that never was and it was needful and present and applicable now.

He continues, present truth must be oft repeated, even to those who are established in it.

And it's probably because there's so many voices that try to disestablish us.

This was needful in the Apostles' day, and it certainly is no less important to us who are living just before the close of time.

For months I have felt burdened with the duty of writing and publishing the present truth for the scattered flock.

That was our understanding, present truth.

Now, the reason I'm bringing this up is that While present truth used to be understood by Adventist to refer to our message in in recent years that concept is not nearly as shared across Adventism as it once was.

In fact, I know a Seventh-day Adventist who recently here, probably in the last couple years, they had a new Adventist minister came to their church, and he started his ministry with a prayer meeting series on the present truth, all of which to try to make the point that our message is not present truth.

The present truth is just the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well, the gospel of Jesus Christ is always present truth because present truth is encapsulated in it.

But the idea of present truth is what is applicable or relevant at the time you are living.

And it's more specific than a general, the gospel, because the gospel covers, spans all the great controversy time period.

03 The Harvest of Life

I'll invite you to bow your heads while I pray.

Father in heaven, Father, we do thank you again for your Holy Sabbath day.

Oh Lord, we thank you for your long suffering and mercy toward us.

I pray Lord for more of the spirit of Christ, a spirit of investigation, a spirit of meekness and humility, the spirit of a learner, that we would each be kind to 1 another, even in our disagreements, and that underneath it all we would have a sincere desire to know what is truth, so that we can practice what is true.

Now, Father, you promised the Spirit of truth to guide us into all truth.

And so I ask for the Holy Spirit this evening.

You've promised that when we ask for the Spirit, you're more willing to give the Spirit to us than we are to give good gifts to our children.

So I claim that promise, and we pray these things in Jesus name.

Amen All right, Our message this evening again is the harvest of life and I want to pick up with the third Angel's message and I'm not going to go to Revelation 14 right at the moment, but we talked about a little bit of this earlier, and I'm going to get back into it.

The essence of the third angel's message, the essence of it, the warning against the mark of the beast and what have you, the essence of it is righteousness by faith.

And I like to put it this way, and I'm going to share an Ellen White statement you're probably familiar with in a moment.

The third angel's message is a warning against receiving the mark of the beast.

In other words, if I tell you a storm is coming, that isn't the solution to being prepared for the storm.

The warning helps you, but you might have to drive out of town might be the preparation for preparing for the storm.

And the storm that's coming with the mark of the beast, there's only 1 way out, and that only that way is the righteousness of Christ.

That's why the righteousness of Christ, righteousness by faith, is the essence of the third angel's message.

Ellen White said in the Review and Herald of April 1, 1890, several have written to me inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angel's message.

And I have answered it is the third angel's message in verity." Now, the interesting thing about the context of this is This was during the the the aftermath of the 1888 message and just a quick caveat here.

There are people who say that the 1888 message came and went in 1888 that and there was no transcript of the meeting like we had for after meetings and and because of that we really don't know totally what the 1888 message was.

And then after that, Wagner and Jones went off the rails.

And so everything they said afterwards was erroneous.

You will not find that supported in the writings of Ellen White, who repeatedly endorsed the message of Jones and Wagner into the 1900s.

And even when Jones apostatized, she encouraged him to go back and read his own sermons that he presented at the 1893 and 1897 general conference sessions that would get him back on track.

And she said those messages were of the Holy Spirit's framing.

It was in the context of that, as they were preaching this righteousness by faith or justification by faith message, that people were writing to Ellen White and saying, hey, wait a minute, this is, we should be talking about the last days.

We should be talking about present truth.

And so they wrote to her and asked her, is this the third angel's message?

It was almost a snarky way of saying these guys are preaching the wrong stuff.

And she responded by saying, yes, it is the third angel's message in verity.

It is the essence of the third angel's message.

Now she says the message of justification by faith.

Illinois often use the term justification by faith rather than righteousness by faith, although she used both.

Both justification and righteousness come from the same root word in the Greek.

And to clarify that a little bit further, there's a fascinating statement in the book Faith and Works.

Now, I want to pause here and say that if there is any book that Seventh-day Adventists need to read in these days.

And it's 1 of those books that I'd go over my shelf and get it, but it's a thin book.

It's not 1 of these overwhelming, like read this book.

Well, you should read this book, but you know, some big thick book.

It's a concise and beautiful book on righteousness by faith, the balance of faith and works, and what have you.

In that book she says this, page 14, many commit the error of trying to define minutely the fine points of distinction between justification and sanctification." Now listen, into the definitions of these 2 terms, they often bring their own ideas and speculations.

So she's warning against people trying to be too particular, like justification is this and sanctification is this, even though she talks about them in different ways, she cautions because she says that people tend to bring their own, they say, oh, justification is this, And then they bring into their own ideas.

And she continues to ask, why try to be more minute than is inspiration on the vital question of righteousness by faith?

An interesting aside from that is that I did this series I mentioned on the book Steps to Christ, and when I did it, it was the first time, this is 2018, and it was the first time I realized as I did a word search that the word justification does not appear anywhere in the book Steps to Christ.

The word sanctification does not appear anywhere in the book Steps to Christ.

The word justify appears once I think and so and I think it's because Ellen White did not want to get targeted or tagged out for using 1 of these terms that somebody read differently.

Series

Mark Howard: Last Generation Theology

02 The Present Truth

Transcript

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