FIREBALLS AND SOLAR ECLIPSES: RELIABLE PORTENTS OR FALSE ALARMS?

We don’t know what April 8, 2024 will bring.  None can be sure whether the path of the pending solar eclipse over towns named Nineveh and Jonah is anything but a coincidence.  And none can be sure when Ellen White’s prophecies of fireballs destroying buildings, in Nashville or elsewhere, will come to pass. 

But at the bottom line, God isn’t waiting on natural or man-made disasters so that Jesus can come.  Rather, He is waiting on the spiritual preparedness of His people, who through His grace will reproduce the character of Christ in their hearts and lives (I Thess. 5:23; II Peter 3:10-14; I John 3:2-3; Rev. 3:21; 12:17; 14:5,12). 

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THE BITTERNESS TRAP

Too many of the striving faithful in modern Adventism lost their way, not so long ago, through bitterness.  It is a path none dare traverse again.  It is a trap that will extinguish godly zeal, suffocate love for the erring, and obliterate the patient spirit which God’s Last Generation Christians must cultivate and possess (Rev. 14:12).

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CANCEL CULTURE OR COWARD CULTURE?

God’s heroes through the ages have risked everything, including their lives and those of their loved ones, for the sake of bearing public witness to Bible truth and the resulting contrast with error.  For people in the church today to hide in the shadows when rebuking wrongful teachings because they fear negative reputational or career consequences, is difficult if not impossible to justify. 

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PASSED BY

“Above the hills of Bethlehem are gathered an innumerable throng of angels. They wait the signal to declare the glad news to the world. Had the leaders in Israel been true to their trust, they might have shared the joy of heralding the birth of Jesus. But now they are passed by.”

Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 47.

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WHEN--AND WHEN NOT--TO FOLLOW THE LEADER

Neither popular culture, traditional values, formal scholarship, spiritual fads, nor one’s preferred experiential comfort level can carry any weight with the true Christian, in particular those called to leadership.  As with King Zedekiah of old, despite his persistent disobedience to the prophetic voice, the inquiry of all true leaders in God’s church must be, “Is there any word from the Lord?” (Jer. 37:17).

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"PROGRESSIVE" ADVENTISTS AND THE GIFT OF PROPHECY: WHY THEY STILL DON'T GET IT

A new appeal to reimagine the role of Ellen White in the church perpetuates the misunderstanding rampant among so-called “progressive” Adventists that it is possible to affirm one’s possession of the prophetic gift while simultaneously reserving the right to differ with a prophet’s counsel. But the Bible’s depiction of the gift of prophecy simply doesn’t allow for this option.

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