IAUA End Time Ministry
Preparing for the End of Time
The Lord is Coming! Are you ready?
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IAUA End Time Ministry |
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Preparing for the End of Time | |
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Dear Brothers and Sisters in
IAUA
(ee-ah-oo-ah) our Father,
I hope this newsletter finds you in good health and happy in the service of the Lord. A reader responds: ----- Just want to say hello and respond to some of the content of today's newsletter. How are things your way? Got any more certain plans for the near future? I already know the long range plans are for heaven! How many days do you have left? Do you know where you are moving? Anyway, responding to some of the ideas contained in the newsletter. We have talked many times about membership in the church and its importance (or the lack thereof) so I hope I am not resurrecting a dead horse. But I really believe that membership is about more than just "accounting" and I also believe that it is vitally important that we be members of God's church which I believe is the Seventh-day Adventist Church in these last days. I will be the first to stand up and say there are problems with our church. The Adventist church is not Babylon nor popery although there are clearly Babylonish thinking and influences as well as Papal thinking and influences slipping in. Jesus did identify Seventh-day Adventists correctly when He said we are poor, wretched, miserable, blind, and naked (Rev. 3:17). And there are people who think that as such God is going to spit us out of his mouth, as the King James Version of the Bible says. But the honest truth is that the NIV says more exactly what Jesus said that he is "about to spit us out." Or to paraphrase it the way I think Jesus would have said it in our modern language - "You guys make me so sick to my stomach I feel like throwing up!" The honest truth is that inspite of all of our problems, and there are many, far more than even most of the critics are aware of, God does not, and has not rejected nor abandoned Seventh-day Adventists. He has not changed churches nor has He given up on the organized church idea altogether. God's love is not like that. I fear that people who distance themselves from the church, because they believe God has forsaken it for all its problems, do not understand completely the forbearance, patience and forgiveness of God. I also worry that they really don't understand how His honor and glory really depends on His church "overcoming even as he overcame" (Rev 3:21). No matter how bad we are the good news is that the church can repent (vs 19) and we are counselled to make changes (vs. 18). And I believe that we will! For at least once in earth's history God deserves to have a people, an organized people who truly honor and glorify Him in every way. Unfortunately ancient Israel never did it. The history of the Christian church hasn't been much better. There are plenty of bright spots but nothing that lasted and is as complete as what God can do for us and in us. I will also have to ask for your forgiveness if this sounds judgmental, but I personally cannot help but think that behind all the theological arguments and finger pointing at the sins of the church as motivation to stay off the books and refuse church membership, there isn't some deep seated "holier than thou" attitude that thinks we are somehow better than the church. That we understand more, or understand better. For some reason it is important to make the us and them clear, and that I am not a part of them. Bitterness toward the church as I know you have experienced is in somewhat of a different category. The issue there has more to do with forgiveness. And there may also be a misunderstanding that by being members God will judge us as participating in the sins of the church leadership, etc. Or that by being members we are somehow condoning their sins and saying the church is OK. I also am annoyed by the fact that people will take Ellen White and try to quote her in support of not supporting the organized church. In spite of its problems, and more than anyone else she knew what was really going in the lives of all those men, she did not withdraw her support. I wish I had a reference ready, perhaps you will enjoy looking for it :). She said it was not the Lord's will for her to go to Austrailia when the brethren wanted to get rid of her post-1888. But we all know, she went anyway and the Lord blessed in marvellous ways inspite of the fact that she was exiled by the leadership. I like to compare church membership to marriage. Is it important for a man and a woman to get married or can they just live together? What really is the importance of having a ceremony? It is really the love that matters right? Maybe the people who are just "shacking up" are on the right track and got their priorities in the right place. Or is that ceremony/legal union very important for other reasons. (Apparently the gay movement thinks there is something important there.) Besides the legal recognition for taxes and other purposes, I think there is something very important up the public ceremony. My marriage was my public declaration not just before God, but before my family and friends that I am going to spend my life with this woman forever. I committed myself to her in the front of many witness that I am not going to giving myself to any other woman. I believe that public and legal commitment is very important. It is something that cannot be broken or changed without a great deal of effort and attention. The public committment to the church by baptism is a commitment to God. Again most people can see how marriage is an outworking of a commitment to God. In reality, church membership is the same way. In the same way that just living with my wife is not enough in God's plan, just attending and participating in the church is not enough either. He is looking for a public, legal commitment. Well, anyway. I came over here to clean up my classroom some before campmeeting next week. And so far I have spent all the time writing this email. But I think it is worth it. These things really are very important for us all to understand so that we understand and fulfill our duty to God. ----- The future is still filled with uncertainty. We are having difficulty locating a different home to move. We have already received an extension until July 20 on staying here. The lady buying our house lives in New York and actually isn't quite ready to move yet either. Doesn't the Lord do wondrous things? Only my deficit of faith and trust causes me to worry for the future. Your ideas that membership is about more than just "accounting" are very impressive. In fact your whole presentation is so good that I will be glad to share it in the next newsletter. I do not always agree completely with responses I repeat from others. I may be lax in not contradicting all ideas presented I don't agree with. I assume and hope that when I quote others verbatim that it is not assumed that I agree with all they say. Maybe I need to post a disclaimer: "I do not necessarily agree with all the viewpoints of reader responses in this newsletter. I feel it is best to quote them verbatim. Only personal discussion and comments is removed. My own thoughts are also subject to change as my studies continue." There is so much I have learned recently about the topic of church unity and disagreement. I have been studying Acts 15 and the The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials. I have had many new and changed thoughts and ideas. I have been incorporating some of these thoughts into the website. I may try a summary of my thoughts on this subject in the next newsletter. May we all find peace and unity in the soon coming of IAUShUO (Ee-ah-oo-shoo-oh) Messiah, the Son of God. Shabbat Shalom
Frank T. Clark
Next: 2005-06-17 Christian Unity - Conflict over the feasts and statutes |
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Revised 2005-06-17 |