The Seventh-day Adventist Church has passed a new milestone and are very proud of it as reported in the latest issue of the Review and Herald.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church’s official membership has topped 19 million for the first time in history, and the number of local churches has doubled worldwide to more than 80,000 in just two decades, according to newly released figures.
And the church leaders are very happy to proclaim that this is the marvelous work of the Holy Spirit.
“Praise God for the wonderful growth,” said Ted N.C. Wilson, president of the Adventist world church. “It tells me that even with the appropriate and careful auditing of membership records worldwide that Secretariat has initiated in the last few years, God’s Word is going forward in a marvelous way through the power of the Holy Spirit, and God’s work is expanding.”
Elder Wilson goes on to proclaim that this continued growth in church membership is a result of proclaiming the three angel’s messages and the leading of the Holy Spirit. And soon the church will soon receive the latter rain to amplify this work even more.
The spurt in church growth indicates that Total Member Involvement is alive and well, Wilson said.
“It shows that Total Member Involvement is a reality since church members and pastors have been extremely active in soul winning and reaching into new, unentered areas,” he said. “The fact that we have over 69,000 companies in addition to the organized 81,551 churches is a sign of a tremendous, proactive proclamation of the three angels’ messages and the leading of the Holy Spirit.”
But, he said, church members should only give God the glory for this growth, realizing that “He is preparing His people for the soon-coming latter rain of the Holy Spirit when He will amplify what His people are doing.”
“With 7.4 billion people on the Earth, it would appear that 19.1 million Seventh-day Adventists is a small amount,” he said. “However, when the latter rain falls, God’s people and His Bible truth will be propelled into prominence so that all can make a decision for the Lord and the three angels’ messages that point people to Christ, His righteousness, and the true worship of God.Is is possible that this continued growth in church membership is not the work of the Holy Spirit but actually the work of the enemy to flood God’s remnant church with tares in an effort to destroy the true teaching of the three angel’s message, a judgment hour message which includes the soon coming judgment of the living?
If Elder Wilson and the church leaders where aware of the correct understanding of the vision in Revelation chapter 12 and the sealing of the 144,000 in chapter 7 they may not be so enthusiastic about calling this rapid growth in church membership the work of God. Does God really need 19+ million people to proclaim the Loud Cry under the latter rain power of the Holy Spirit? Not according to what the Bible teaches. In fact, only 144,000 who are to be sealed alive from the Seventh-day Adventist church are going to be the ones who will receive the latter rain power of the Holy Spirit to gather in a Great Multitude (Rev. 7:9) from the fallen churches constituting Babylon (Rev. 18:4). Below are links to prior posts on this website which plainly teach lessons from Revelation chapters 7 and 12 that directly contradict this ambitious program of continued church growth.
The woman and the dragon of Revelation chapter 12
The sealing of the 144,000 as found in Revelation chapter 7.
How is it possible that the church leaders could be so wrong in their understanding of Bible prophecy? Is the situation any different than in the days when Christ came to His beloved church and found them in total darkness regarding the many prophecies foretelling of His first advent? Unfortunately not, the church leaders today who reject the true message of revival and reformation coming from the original Shepherd’s Rod message are in a state of complete blindness as evidenced by their belief that they must continue to add members to the church roles without considering that God wants quality, not quantity and that the repetition of the three angels messages with power and force (Early Writings, p. 277) must include the judgment of the living which first begins at the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17) and results in the sealing of 144,000 future evangelists who will then proclaim the final gospel message to the world. Perhaps our church leaders should consider the consequences of rejecting the message of present truth God has sent into His last day church to prepare a people to receive the latter rain power of the Holy Spirit according to God’s plan, and not that of man.
“Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” — Matthew 15:12-14
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