Persecution by Jurisprudence in West and East for Adventists

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD) Visiting Professor, Kyungpook National University, Sangju Campus, South Korea, Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College, Australia

In a long document accepted in 2002 the General Conference understood Ellen White correctly that funds from any State should not be accepted by church institutions at all. Great Controversy warns against the slightest attempts of the State to approach the Church on page 297. Funds from the government, however noble the offering is, do have strings attached. If those strings are invisible there comes a time when others will take up the helm and they will go back to he archives to focus and even enlarge their contributions to the Church so that they can use it as a leverage to force the Church into uncomfortable anti-biblical jurisdiction positions.

That is what happened to the Esther 6 when Xerxes could not sleep and during the night he studied the archives about Mordechai and how he saved the king’s life (Esther 6:1-2). Of course this reinvestigation of archives helped Mordechai but the reverse is also possible. And the reverse did happen.

It is reported in full by Adventist Today 3^rd of July 2016 by advocate Michael D. Peabody that the Judiciary Committee of the California Assembly passes a law called SB 1146 by a margin of 7 to 2 in favor of the class of people one may term: LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transsexual, queer). Any participant in any part or all parts of this anocrym is in essence against the Word of God. There is not permission by the Word of God in any text to this kind of lifestyle.

The law stated that those colleges and universities and schools that accepted from the government funds in California, may not discriminate against any LGBTQ student and even give same sex housing for those in such a choice.

Paul advocated in 2 Timothy 1:8-11 that the law of God is made for the lawless, rebellious including the homosexual. Prof. dr. Richard Choi from the New Testament Department at Andrews University categorically declared in a Youtube lecture, that homosexuality is not a biblical way of life. He would not waste his time to talk about it.

So on the one side there are journals like Adventist Today who is pushing for the acceptance of the position of LGBTQ as did also the blogs of Arthur Patrick from Avondale College reveals with names and scholars leaning towards this permissive de-theologically confused positions and on the other, people at Loma Linda that went with the Catholics and other denominational institutions to object against this decision of California Assembly. To no avail.

So in essence the LGBTQ anti-biblical agenda and movement opens up persecution of the faithful at Colleges and Universities in California. Persecution in the USA. Almost unthinkable, many would say, but it is predicted.

The subject of Persecution of Religion is not over yet. Any attack by ISIS anywhere in the world is done on the basis of religious intolerance and a high view of Quran Eschatology. The online Dictionary of Islam written in English in the late 1890’s at the article: Resurrection reveals exactly the agenda that ISIS is trying to follow. About 100 years ago the fall of the Ottoman-Turkish empire happened which was a period between 1517 until 1917 of Islammic rule all over the Levant. It is possible that ISIS is not “past-orientated” or “Romanticizing the past” as some would think, but “Future-orientated” in order to prepare the way for the 12^th Imam, an eschatology that all informed Muslims knows about. ISIS is an organization that wants to make prophecy of the Quran work. If the situation does not peacefully unfold in an evolutionary way, they will “push the hand” to make it happen.

Many similar thinkers were in Christianity in the Roman Periods and in the Middle Ages. The Christian sects would read eschatological passages of the prophets, calculate times and then come to the conclusion that the Antichrist had come and that the Second Coming is near. So they would organize resistance movements or militia to fight their perceived “Antichrist”. As a result the emperors made Books like Daniel and Revelation illegal and should be confiscated and burnt. Daniel 7 for example pinpointed the Roman Empire as the fourth beast and it as to come to its end.

Churchfathers Eusebius, Jerome and Augustine designed also the theology of anti-eschatology thinking. Anyone who tried to write books on this topic would be persecuted by the church. It was taboo. In the 11^th –the 13^th centuries the Books by Alexander Minorita on Revelation and those Franciscan eschatological historicists, were either burnt or confiscated to be taken to a secret “upper-room” by the Vatican.

Emperor Justinian became converted and accepted the primacy of the papacy and also wrote in his letter to pope Johannes in 535 that the papacy is the primary chief of the state church with a seat in Rome and that it was the Catholic church. He supported what popes Leo, Gelasius, and Hormisdas (518) already said before him. When Justinian thus took off his soldier clothes and traded it in for the cross in the hand and theological garment in 538 as his coins are showing, the Fall of the Roman Empire became a total reality. Justinian was known for his caesero-papism and this frustrated the popes. He was according to R. Landes (1983) against homosexuality. He persecuted the heretics including the Samaritans and Jews and pagans on behalf of the papacy and the State Church. Special favors were given to the State Church by the State.

We are days away from Putin to sign off a law that will persecute Adventists and other Protestants as well as Islam and other religions from proselytizing and evangelizing. They are not allowed to have meetings in their houses or in public. One would say it would be a safer way to force them to be only public in the street so that any “ear” can hear and evaluate whether it is dangerous or not. But, seemingly the sloppy worded document designed the end of June 2016, according to Russian experts, does not care whether international law or freedoms of conscience is respected or not. What is at hard in this upcoming persecution, is a clamp down of Islam, Adventist Today journalist is saying.

In the west (California) the church is persecuted by democracy the freedom way as a result of the impact of the LGBTQ anti-biblical stance and self-inflicted persecution due to the acceptance of funds from the government against the explicit counsel of Ellen White in the Spirit of Prophecy not to do so. In the east (Russia) potentially seemingly the church will be persecuted by a Putin-to-sign document that takes away the freedom of religious meetings in the houses.

Justinian made it illegal for religious groups to meet in houses. “No heretic shall, under any circumstances, have a house of worship, or a place of prayer” (Justinian Novella XXXVII date is not clear but ca. 535-537).

The State was preparing the persecution time by the Antichrist (papacy as Papal-caesar) around 538 by creating laws forbidden worship in houses. They also had their excuses and rationalizations to coerce rebellious groups from taking “eschatology” in their hands and create a potential revolution or disaster. But the fact remains, what Eusebius, Jerome and Augustine did to eschatological thinking also affected all true “Advent thinking” through the ages and led to their persecution. That is why Daniel 7 and Revelation 12 talks about this period of papal persecution as 1260 years starting in 538. If Justinian is a Caesaro-papist then pope Gregory could be called the first Papal-caesar. Starting to reign in 590 he thought the end of time is near and that the Antichrist will be in the Catholic Church (Vincent P. Micelli, Antichrist 1981). Pope Gregory did not know how correct he was!

Isaiah 24:18 describes the Time of Trouble mentioned in Daniel 12:1-2 also as “terror and pit and snare confront you, o inhabitant of the earth.” All this is not humanly designed because the “windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake”. The weed in the remnant will suffer during the Time of Trouble but God promised that the destroyers and devastators “will depart from you” (Isaiah 49:17b-c). We do not want to create a misunderstanding. Maybe the true people will also suffer but with the appearance of Christ the evil will depart. It could be also the other way, since many texts do indicate that the true remnant has nothing to fear during the Time of Trouble.

Dear God

As persecutions are “kicking off” in West and East, we pray for Your guidance of our souls, fully dedicated to Your Word and Your Worship. Let the coming Latter Rain Spirit filling event also be ours. Amen.

Source:

Justinian Novella XXXVII.

Adventist Today 3^rd of July 2016

https://www.adventist.org/en/information/official-statements/documents/article/go/-/church-state-relations/