Do God’s people have the power, through active cooperation with divine grace, to hasten or delay the coming of Jesus?

A recent online article in a theologically liberal Adventist magazine purports the need for a “critique” of the classic Adventist understanding of the three angels’ messages of Revelation, claiming the church’s original perspective on these issues is no longer relevant in the twenty-first century. Is there any credibility to this claim—-Biblically or otherwise?

Not all conspiracies are bad. Indeed, the Bible talks about one that took place on a Sabbath morning, and which resulted in a great revival and reformation among God’s people.

The Bible says that Jesus “ever liveth to make intercession” for His people (Heb. 7:25). Does this mean Ellen White contradicts the Bible when she speaks of Christ’s intercession coming to a close before His second coming?

If a pastoral employee or candidate refuses to acknowledge one or more of the church’s Fundamental Beliefs, if a speaker is invited by a local church whose public witness denies one or more of these (e.g. the Trinity, the investigative judgment, Ellen White’s prophetic authority), local Conference officials are fully within their right to forbid such a person to occupy any pulpit within its territory.  Beyond these official limits, such prohibitions are out of bounds and injurious to the unity of the church. 

The distinction is as wide as eternity when it comes to the church’s retention of believers and the imperative of making one’s faith one’s own.

At one point in 1878, Ellen White found herself traveling by boat from California to Oregon.  An incident occurred during this voyage which speaks with powerful, sobering relevance to the continuing controversy in the Seventh-day Adventist Church over whether human beings can keep God’s law through God’s power here on earth.

Weakness and indecision in addressing spiritual rebellion are never justifiable.  But too often, in the struggle against apostasy in the church, it is assumed that because ungodly leaders at times overstep their rightful authority and use bullying tactics against the godly, that godly leaders are therefore justified in using the same tactics against the ungodly.

Despite the fear so dominant just now in many conservative Christian circles, even some Adventists, the inspired pen never predicts a coming dominance of the church by secular government. 

Despite their inadequacy, labels are unavoidable.  But when in the spiritual realm we find ourselves using them, it behooves us to employ grace, understanding, and a listening ear.  If at all possible, labels which offend should be avoided.  What is most imperative for the Christian to understand is that while compromise and the quest for a middle ground may be prudent in the play of secular ideas—politics in particular—such a quest is most unwise when faithfulness to the inspired Word is at stake.

Unless transcendent divine revelation is the basis of kindness, the latter can become little more than a passing fad, subject to the slings and arrows of life and culture like any other expression of the human spirit. 

Giving up too soon is often a problem for would-be reformers. Understanding the role of testing truths in the experience of the faith community, together with the imperative of maximum effort and total trust in God to aid in the pursuit of revival and reformation, must inform and attend the work of the striving faithful in God’s last-day church.

Key decisions just announced by the U.S. Supreme Court go far in putting the lie to the notion, so popular just now among religio-political conservatives in America, that the legal establishment of this country is on a rampage to persecute Christians.

It doesn’t seem to have occurred to a good many “progressive” Adventists that with the world in so much chaos just now, with natural disasters multiplying and humanity giving increasingly paltry evidence of any ability to solve its own problems, that literature showing the hand of God in history and the latter’s trajectory toward a triumphant climax holds an appeal that their personal grievances against the faith of their upbringing prevent them from acknowledging.