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“God has raised up the Seventh-day Adventist church for a special mission in these last days of earth’s history. Our purpose is to not just share a message of forgiveness that saves people. There are many beautiful Christian people in all churches that will be saved.

There is something about the last message to be given to the world that does more than present God’s forgiveness and save people. God meant for the Seventh-Day Adventist church to present not only a message of God’s forgiveness, but a message of God ‘blotting out sin,’ in relation to Christ’s righteousness, that a people could stand alive in the presence of the ‘consuming fire,’ and thus be ready for the second coming.

Many have lost sight of why we exist today as a church, and what our special mission is. Many believe that we were raised up to share about the Sabbath, the state of the dead, and the 2300 day prophecy (only as it points to the idea that we are living in the last days). Yet, have we understood, and do we include, how the 2300 day prophecy relates to God’s need of preparing a last generation that is ‘cleansed’ from all sin? If not, why not?” (Debbi Puffer, Earth’s Final Generation, 2011, p.70-71)

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“Human life and sexuality have become the watershed moral issues of our age. Every day, the twenty-four- hour news cycle chronicles the advance of a secular moral revolution in areas such as sexuality, abortion, assisted suicide, homosexuality and transgenderism. The new secular orthodoxy is being imposed through virtually all the major social institutions: academia, media, public schools, Hollywood, private corporations, and the law.

It is easy to get caught up in the latest controversy or breaking news story. But current events are merely surface effects, like waves on the ocean. The real action happens below the surface at the level of worldviews. These are the tectonic plates whose movements caused the roiling surface waves... Dissenters to the politically correct orthodoxy are accused of intolerance and discrimination, branded as bigots and misogynists, and targeted for campaigns of shame and intimidation. Want proof? In its 2013 Windsor decision the United States Supreme Court ruling struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) a federal law recognizing that marriage is between one man and one woman. The majority opinion accused DOMA supporters of being motivated by ‘animus’ (animosity, hostility, hatred). It claimed that their purpose was to ‘disparage,’ ‘injure,’ ‘degrade,’ ‘demean,’ ‘humiliate,’ and ‘harm’ people same- sex unions… to brand them as ‘unworthy,’ to ‘impose a disadvantage, a stigma’ and to ‘deny them equal dignity’. In short, the Court did not just say people who support men- woman marriage are mistaken. It denounced them as hostile hateful and mean spirited.

Those who disagree with the prevailing secular ethos plead a right to religious liberty. But the chairman of the US Commission on Civil Rights wrote disdainfully that the phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain codewords for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any other form of intolerance.’ Notice that the phrase religious liberty is put in sneer quotes as though it were an illegitimate claim instead of a foundational right in a free society.

The next stage will be to deny citizens their religious liberty -and it has already begun. Those who resist the secular moral revolution have lost jobs, businesses, and teaching positions. Others have been kicked out of graduate school programs, lost the right to be foster parents, been forced to shut down adoption centers, lost their status as campus organizations… and the list of oppression is likely to grow.

The same politically correct orthodoxy is being aggressively promoted around the globe through the State Department, the United Nations, the European Union, private foundations and the media. Wealthy nations are pushing poorer nations to change their laws on abortion and sexuality as a prerequisite for aid. The sexual revolution is going global.” (Nancy Pearcey, Love Thy Body, 2018, p.9-10)

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“Back in the days of the exodus, and later in the days of the prophet Samuel, and still later in the time of Elijah and beyond, there was a prominent and pervasive form of idol worship known as Baalism. Baal was a God of the Canaanites, whose land Israel conquered. But there's far more to the story than that.

The Hebrew would baal means simply ‘lord’ or ‘master’ (even husband in some cases). It was the name not only of the primary Canaanite deity but also the God of Tyre (who was also called Melqart), the god of Mount Peor, and the God of the Akkadians (also called Hadad).

This god, Baal, could be found nearly everywhere in ancient society in one form or another. He seemed easily to infiltrate differing cultures including Israelite culture. Baal worship seemed to hold on stubbornly and return regularly in spite of frequent and courageous attempts to expel him.

In these respects Baal (the false god of ancient Canaan) is much like money, a modern American Idol. This idol takes many forms -not only dollars, but also gold, silver, yen, pounds, francs, deutsche marks and more. It is pervasive: one needs only to read the Wall Street Journal or Fortune magazine; scan the daily stories of merger, scandal and economic conquest; read ads promising strong yields, quick returns, and fail- safe schemes; attend gatherings promising a piece of the action. And this modern Baal has infiltrated the church itself, where it holds on stubbornly and returns easily despite efforts to expel it.

When Jesus said, in the Sermon on the Mount, ‘You cannot be slaves of God and money,’ (Matt. 6:24), he could have used a half a dozen Greek words for money:

Argurion (Matt. 25:18, 27; Luke 9:3)
chrema ( Acts 4:37; 8: 18, 20)
chalkos (Mark 6:8; 12:41)
stater (Matt. 17:27)
nomisma (Matt. 22:19)
philarguria (1 Tim. 6:10)

But he used none of these terms. Instead he used the word mamonas or mammon. That single word puts his comment in a different light. Richard foster writes;

‘When Jesus uses the Aramaic term mammon to refer to wealth, he is giving it a personal and spiritual character. When he declares ‘You cannot serve God and mammon (Matt. 6:24), he is personifying mammon as a rival God.’” (Bob Hostetler, American Idols, 2006, p. 189-190)

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“The reason a worldview message is so compelling today is that we are still emerging from the fundamentalist era of the early twentieth century. Up until that time, evangelicals had enjoyed a position of cultural dominance in America. But after the Scopes trial and the rise of theological modernism, religious conservatives turned in on themselves: they circled the wagons, developed a fortress mentality and championed ‘separatism’ as a positive strategy. Then in the 1940s and 50s, a movement began that aimed at breaking out of the fortress. Calling themselves neo- evangelicals, this group argued that we are called not to escape the surrounding culture but to engage it. They sought to construct a redemptive vision that would embrace not only individuals but also social structures and institutions.
Yet many evangelicals lack the conceptual tools needed for the task, which has seriously limited their success. For example, in recent decades many Christians have responded to the moral and social decline in American Society by embracing political activism. Believers are running for office in growing numbers; churches are organizing voter registration; public policy groups are proliferating; scores of Christian publications and radio programs offer commentary on public affairs. This heightened activism has yielded good results in many areas of public life. Yet the impact remains far less than most had hoped. Why? Because evangelicals often put all their eggs in one basket: they leaped into political activism as the quickest shortest way to make a difference in the public arena- failing to realize that politics tends to reflect culture, not the other way around.” (Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, 2005, p.18)

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“As the Mediterranean apostasy deepened during the early ages, the prophetic interpretation of Jesus and the apostles, as well as of the New Testament church was abandoned and, with it, the biblical teaching about last things. The Protestant Reformation, by restoring- to a considerable extent- a more correct understanding of Bible doctrines also reinstated much of what the early church had taught about prophecy. But afterwards, in the nineteenth century, when wrong attitudes towards the Bible and its doctrines set in, sound prophetic interpretation was again increasingly given up. More and more Protestants apostasized, through skepticism about the Bible, under the impact of higher criticism, and Darwin's ideas. They also refused new light, as represented by the Remnant Church. Instead, in the nineteenth century, they began and in the twentieth as well as the twenty-first continued their fateful walk along the path of ecumenism. And at the same time, they increasingly adopted Futurism, which itself represents a return to Romanist ideas.” (Edwin de Kock, The Use and Abuse of Prophecy, 2007, p.8)

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“But now the word is, ‘Bread from heaven’…But then this heavenly food was of necessity a test of Israel’s condition, as we read, ‘ that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or no.’ It needed a heart weaned from Egypt’s influences, to be satisfied with or enjoy ‘bread from heaven.’ In point of fact, we know that the people were not satisfied with it, but despised it, pronounced it ‘light food,’ and lusted for flesh. Thus they proved how little their hearts were delivered from Egypt, or disposed to walk in God's law. ‘In their hearts they turned back again to Egypt’ (Acts 7:39). But instead of getting back thither, they were ultimately carried away beyond Babylon. (Acts 7:43). This is a solemn and salutary lesson for Christians. If those who are redeemed from this present evil world do not walk with God in thankfulness of heart, satisfied with His provision for the redeemed in the wilderness, they are in danger of falling into the snare of Babylonish influences.” (C M Mackintosh, Exodus, 1881, p.213)

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“… [S]ome authors do not grasp the true relationship between the papacy and the secular rulers during the 1260 years from 538 to 1798. This is a highly significant period, directly mentioned by seven prophecies. During those years, Catholicism dominated much of Western religion. It is not, however, accurate to say that throughout that time the medieval church also ruled the European nations in a secular sense.

Such, for instance, was the emphatic view of the Presbyterian minister Samuel J Cassels, more than 150 years ago. This notion is still being echoed by several present day writers of the Historical School.

One should therefore not overstress pontifical power to the extent of implying that for 1260 years the secular rulers of Europe were nothing more than papal puppets. It is true that the popes have persistently yearned for such domination and even made a dogma of it: Prima sententia est, summum Pontificem jure divino habere plenissimam postestatem in universum orbem terrarium, tam in rebus ecclesiasticis quam civilibus (‘The primary doctrine is that the chief pontiff possesses by divine right, plenary power throughout the whole world both in a ecclesiastical and civil matters).

Secular rulers have been only too aware of this claim and some like Germany's Bismarck and Britain's imperial Prime Minister W. E. Gladstone- have candidly stated it. The latter wrote in 1874 ‘individual servitude, however object, will not satisfy the Latin church. The State must also be a slave.’

But just like individuals, organizations are often thwarted in their designs and hardly any more so than the papacy. As several of our chapters will show, most of the time the popes were unable to dominate the secular rulers. Often it was the other way around. Emperors and kings appointed, ill treated, deposed and occasionally even killed the pontiffs who displeased them: for the European monarchs also claimed to rule jure divino (by divine right). When their political objectives clash with those of the pope, their armies not infrequently invaded and savaged the Papal State in Italy. At times their forces sacked and burned the city of Rome itself.” (Edwin de Kock, Christ and Antichrist in Prophecy and History, 2013, p.26-27)

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“The secularization of Adventist lifestyle extends to all areas of life. People travel (for business or vacation) on the Sabbath. Going shopping after sunset on Friday or during Sabbath hours is alright. Some feel free to change the oil, rotate tires, or wash the car on Sabbath, while waving to others going to Sabbath School. Watching secular television programs with ‘positive’ secular content seems to satisfy some conservative Adventists believers. Secularization also extends to dress and external adornment including jewelry, lack of modesty, and ‘sexy’ styles. Indiscriminate television watching, dance, premarital sex, and rock music are even encouraged in some parts of the world. Moderate alcoholic drinking and smoking is accepted and not required for baptism. This is a partial sample. Are these various secular lifestyles compatible with the Christian lifestyle? Are they acceptable Christian behaviors? How does the Christian life relate to salvation? The bottom line: Will God save me if I choose to live a secular worldly lifestyle?” (Fernando Canale, Secular Adventism?, 2013, p.24-25)

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“It is a serious mistake for Christian parents, teachers, or churches to dismiss young people's doubts and questions, or to think they can be overridden merely by cultivating a more intense devotional life. Because we are created in God's image, we are all endowed with a mind and a natural urge to make sense of life... Because we are created in God's image as rational and responsible beings, we all have a philosophy-not necessarily one learned out of a textbook, but an overall view of life by which we make sense of the world. The biblical view of human nature implies that we are ‘incapable of holding purely arbitrary opinions or making entirely unprincipled decisions,’ writes Albert Wolters. ‘We need some creed to live by, some map by which to chart our course.”

If we take the Bible's view of the human person seriously ,we need to take questions seriously.” (Nancy Pearcey, Finding Truth, 2015, p.57-58)