History only repeats itself because humans repeatedly fail to learn from it. Godâs former SDA champion against Sunday Laws in America, Alonzo Jones, was also an avid student of history. He was also an avid student of Christ. So, he would have recognized this latest move to enforce religious liberty for what it is. That is, the beginning of the end of religious liberty in the U.S. because, this is a âcall it what it ainâtâ world.
Years ago, when an insurance company in my state got caught repeatedly throwing away claims, my republican governor at that time appointed a chief executive of that corporation to be in charge of insurance regulation.
So, Jones would have recognized this apparent âebbâ in opposition to religious liberty as merely the calm before the âtideâ rushes back in against it. Bait in the trap. If âlibertyâ is âenforcedâ, then how does it remain âlibertyâ ?
Read what Jones told the SDA General Conference in 1895 regarding this principle:
âNow I lay it down as a principle that the aim of Christianity is not to civilize anybody.
Christianity aims alone at Christianizing men.
And it is better, a thousand times, to have one Christian savage,
than to have a whole nation of savage Christians.
This appears paradoxical, I admit.
Therefore allow me to explain, for it is correct. . . .â A.T. Jones, 3rd Angelâs Message #4, 1895
And, from 3rd AM # 5:
âThis illustrates the principles which we are studying: That Christianity, if held faithfully by those who profess it, will exert upon those who are not Christianized by it, upon those who make no pretensions to Christianity at all, an influence for good, that will elevate them above savagery and above the base principles and ways of civilized paganism.â {February 11, 1895 ATJ, GCB 84.1}
âMacaulay discovered the principle, too, and expressed it in a sentence that is one of the most powerful human statements there is in literature in favor of Christianity. In writing of India, in a certain place he makes this remark: âA man needs not to be a Christian to desire that Christianity should be spread in India.â That tells the whole story. Now a Christian wants Christianity spread in India for Christâs sake, for the sake of souls who will be Christianized. The man who is not a Christian can well wish for Christianity to be in India, for the sake of the poor heathen that would be elevated, even if they do not become Christians. That is the thought.â
{February 11, 1895 ATJ, GCB 84.2}
âBut the mischief has always been and it is yet that Christianity is not taken and held for what it is by those who profess it; God is not given large enough place in the profession of it by those who profess it, and by not being given large enough place, He does not have any chance to demonstrate the real power of Christianity in these people who do not give him the place that belongs to him in which He would demonstrate the divinity of Christianity with power that would convince.â
{February 11, 1895 ATJ, GCB 84.3}
âThen men finding the loss of that divine power and influence they go about to do by themselves and by human power the things that would be done by the Lord if only they would give him the place that belongs to him in their profession. That is why professed Christians must put themselves forward and propose to legislate or get into office or manage and dictate to those who do legislate or are in office. And all to give things âa Christian mold,â and make it influential in elevating the people and bring cities, states and nations around to the right way. But that is putting themselves in the place of Jesus Christ; that is putting themselves in the place of God. And that is the papacy over again; that is the beast or his image one or the other, as the case may be, wherever you find it.â
{February 11, 1895 ATJ, GCB 84.4}
âLet those who name the name of Christ do it in such integrity, in such absolute surrender to God, as will give to God all the place and Him alone all the place that belongs to him. Let the influence all be His; let the power all be His; let Him alone be looked to and depended upon to do all in all. Then Christians will see the power of God so manifest that they would be ashamed to put themselves forward to give mold or shape to the influence of Christianity.â
{February 11, 1895 ATJ, GCB 84.5}
âWhen people do not give the Lord the place which belongs to Him and therefore do not see what they expect to see, it is very natural that they should begin to think that they are better than the Lord and could do better than He does and so they must take hold and do the thing their Christianity fails to do. But that, I say again, and you see it plain enough, is only to leave God out, and put themselves in His place. And by leaving God out, they leave out His power, and by putting themselves in His place, they put into exercise their own power, and that is worldly, earthly, sensual, and at the last devilish.â {February 11, 1895 ATJ, GCB 84.6}
So, no, this is somber news. And no less so because there is a âSeventh-day Adventistâ, âRepublicanâ, and member of âThe Horatio Alger Societyâ serving in the cabinet of the current President of the U.S. . . .
How, then, can SDAâs possibly âprotestâ against worldly âenforcementâ of âreligious libertyâ, now, no matter how anti-Christian and ugly that enforcement may become ?
The trap has sprung.
And the fact that our own SDA General Conference is also attempting to âenforceâ Adventist âChristianityâ on the organizations and, ultimately, the individuals, of our own church, shows that it chooses for us all to be caught in that trap. . . Double Whammy.
If ever their was a time to study SDA history, and to avoid repeating past mistakes,
itâs âyesterdayâ !
First there was the âBlair Sunday-Rest Billâ which developed from 1886-1888, or so.
Then there was the adoption of the Roman Catholic version of the Ten Commandments by Congress during the process of seeking to close the 1893 Worldâs Columbian Exposition in Chicago on Sundays.
Then from 1993 to today, there were, and are, the continuing efforts of âChristianâ organizations to declare the U.S. to be a âChristian Nationâ in order to bring in the false âMilleniumâ before Jesus will return, reversing the Biblical order of events, and âleaving behindâ the millions who will âbuyâ the lie. Christâs âkingdom isâ, still, ânot of this worldâ, but, âwithin youâ.
Jones and Waggoner, both, were in the front lines of Adventism to voice opposition to these repeated attacks on the âKingdom of Godâ, who rules human actions from the very motives of the heart.
In to out, not out to in.
Then, just before Ellen was exiled to Australia, she got sick and had a vision on the date of the second annual National Religious Liberty Association meeting held in Battle Creek, Nov. 3, 1890.
She was shown âconditions existing in Battle Creekâ, awoke â all well â the next day, but was unable to remember the vision regarding Battle Creek, except while writing in her diary. On December 7, 1890, at the final meeting of the NRLA, the voices of Jones and Waggoner were effectively silenced in the NRLAâs publication concerning religious liberty â American Sentinel â by the parliamentary maneuvers of their enemies within the SDA church.
By March 8, 1891 during the 29th Session of the SDA General Conference, and after being awakened by an angel, Ellen finally had a clear memory of her âSalamanca Visionâ, and surprised those attending the early morning ministerâs meeting. âSurprisedâ, not only by her presence, but by what she was able to tell them about the âsecretâ dirty business going on involving compromises being made in the content of American Sentinel in order to appease non-SDAs, and gain their support for âreligious libertyâ by removing âAdventistâ, âBiblicalâ and âSabbathâ rhetoric from that Adventist, Bible-Sabbath-keepersâ publication. And, Ellen was surprised, also, to see A.F. Ballenger hold up the latest edition of the American Sentinal, an edition which she had only ever seen in her vision, 4 months earlier. . . ! ? How does God do that ?
The same way He, Himself, governs from within the âheartsâ of His people, outward, just as Waggoner and Jones tried to begin teaching us SDAs. But our GC still refuses to listen, or to teach us that Gospel. Instead, we still look to other churches, and to the âworldâ, for ideas on how to build Godâs kingdom from the outside, in.
Under George W. Bush and Chief Justice John Roberts. corporations were given the legal status of âpersonsâ. So, if your employer is a âcorporationâ â which nearly all are â then that incorporated âpersonâ has rights of âconscienceâ, and since money always rules, employees will essentially have no rights to infringe on the conscientious religious freedom of their employers. . . . Thatâs how far it can go.
For a great documentary education on the diagnosis of corporations as âpsychopathicâ âpersonsâ â according to World Health Organization criteria â check out the link. The history of the rise of the corporation in the U.S. mirrors the history of the Advent Movement. I believe the French aristocrat, Alexis de Tocqueville even warned against the rise of the corporation as the greatest threat to âDemocracy in Americaâ, also the title of his famous book published in 1835 during the birth of the âAdvent Movementâ. So, when the union of church and state (Oedipus Complex) was rejected, the union of the corporate industrialized economy with science (Electra Complex) simply filled in, until now, the whole incestuous, idolatrous âfamilyâ is reuniting to bring âfamine, sword, and plagueâ upon the whole world. In 1982, Southern Missionary College changed its name to Southern College of Seventh-day Adventists, in order to give their graduates a better footing in âcorporate Americaâ, when the âflip sideâ of that cultural âcoinâ is âthe divine right of kingsâ and the âpapacyâ . . . OOPS !
