The Touch of God on Our Mouths

Elder David Bauer

*From Silver Lake, CA Camp Meeting

It is too bad that we are so crowded, is it not? Or do you like to get close together? We hate to get a bigger place because we do not want a bigger crowd. I will tell you why we do not want a bigger crowd. If you get a big meeting, you get a mixed multitude. I do not know if we have a mixed multitude here today or not, but you see, we are all of different stations in life and in our Christian experience.

And therefore, if we get a big group and we have a lot of people coming in, it will be like one of the meetings I had at Keene, Texas, where they put a notice in the paper. We did not have a big crowd. We did not have near this many people but we got a mixed multitude. We had Fordites there and Shepherd Rods and we have good moral General Conference-ites and then we had a few faithful who knew what was going on.

It was too bad because I was the speaker and as I spoke, one group would get up and walk out. Finally the Fordites could not take it any more, so they got up and made a little speech and then they walked out. We do not want to open it up and have everybody coming in and all types of people. We only want the people who are really interested in the condition of the church and the condition of the world.

Sometimes I think that we have a tendency to forget. So I would like to have you, if you have room to open your Bible, turn with me to Jeremiah, the first chapter. We find here that God has some plans. And Jeremiah was told in the fifth verse, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Now, I believe that God has a work for every one of you, every single one of you. I do not care how old you are. I do not care how young you are. I believe that God has a place for you and He has a work for you. And I know a lot of you believe that about yourself because I listen and I talk and many of you that come feel that you are called to do a work. And I believe it!

This is an awfully big world, is it not? There are a lot of people in it and we need everybody that we can possibly get out working. But sometimes you have some problems; you come to your work later on. Now reading on in Jeremiah. What kind of a job, the first chapter, verse five, is what I just read? We will go down to about verse eight now.

He has told Jeremiah, Look, you are going to be a prophet and if you are gong to work for God, I will tell you that you are going to run into trouble, lots of it. So what does he tell Jeremiah? He says, "Be not afraid of their faces:" Even out there in the world, be not afraid of their faces. You cannot go out and work for God if you are scared. So "Be not afraid of their faces: (why?) for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord."

Now Who are you working for? That is right, you are working for God, friends. We need to get that straight. We are not working for each other. We are not working for a corporation. You are not working for a church. I have spent too many years working for a church instead of for God. Well, I got a little work in for God now and then, but most of the time I was busy raising money to pay the bills.

That is what a pastor spends most of his time doing, really. The rest of the time I spent trying to settle the squabbles between the church members. Now, really, I mean it and I am telling you that it is a pity that you come to a meeting like this and I am called on to settle squabbles between you people, right here, today! That is a shame, friends.

I do not know but this has been about, maybe, the first Silver Lake meeting that nobody had any squabbles to be settled. But if I remember correctly, we had a few people that had squabbles that wanted settling at that time at these meetings. It is a pity, friends, leave your squabbles at home. We do not come here for that. Differences of opinion, people get their feelings hurt.

People want this, and they want to do this and that and the other and, well, it is a pity, friends. We would like to think that you are better than the people that did not come, but sometimes I wonder. I really do. I wonder if we have really progressed much further. Maybe our eyes are open a little wider. Maybe we see some things that the people that are sitting in the other churches, these Laodiceans, as we like to think of them.

Maybe we see a little bit more. Maybe we have read a little bit more and maybe we know a little bit more, but what about our Christian experience? Are we not supposed to be in harmony? Are we not supposed to be brethren? I would like to read a quotation to you from Testimonies, vol. 5. I had not planned to talk on this subject.

When somebody asked me what I was going to talk on, I said, Well, after Wednesday night, I do not know what I am going to talk on this afternoon. Because Wednesday night I had a program planned and I was going to show slides and then God stopped the generator, so I had to give the sermon I did. (From the audience: "Praise the Lord!") I think it was correct, too. You know, when God stops you, you do not get around Him.

I could tell you some other experiences, too. The fruit of the Spirit, friends, is what? Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Discord and strife are the work of Satan. We do not want any of Satan's work around here, do we? Do we? (Audience: No!) Kick him out of the camp. I do not want him here. Discord and strife, friends, are what? The work of Satan and the fruit of sin.

"If we would as a people enjoy peace and love, we must put away our sins and we must come into harmony with God, and then we shall be in harmony with one another." Testimonies, vol. 5, 169. Now I think this should be printed on one of your cards, Brother Nicolici, and passed around. I am going to read it to you again. "The fruit of the spirit is love, joy and peace." Remember that. Is that what you have today? We all love each other, do we not?

Discord and strife, where do they come from? They come from Satan. Now whenever we make a statement and we read a quotation like this, we need to remember one thing. This is one thing that is wrong with the Church Manual of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and that is if anybody causes division, it is wrong.

Now the Bible only says that those who cause divisions contrary to the faith are wrong. If you cause a division by standing up for truth, you are O.K. but it is contrary to think that discord and strife amongst God's people, friends, that should not be. That is the work of Satan and we ought to throw him out of the camp. We should have left him at home before you came or somehow or other kept him out.

The secret, friends, of harmony and peace and love and joy among brethren is that we must get in harmony with God. "If we would as a people enjoy peace and love, we must put away our sins; and we must come into harmony with God." Testimonies, vol. 5, 169. That is the only thing that counts. That is the only thing that I am interested in. You know, I am not the least bit interested in getting in harmony with all of you people because I know you enough or enough of you to know that if I were to be in harmony with all of you, that is an impossibility.

One of you is pushing this and somebody else is pushing that and somebody got a thought over here and somebody else has got an opinion over here, and then--it is impossible for me to be in harmony with all of you. So I am going to get in harmony with God and then if you will get in harmony with God, then there will be perfect harmony between the two of us.

Now, I am not asking, friends, for you to be in harmony with me. That is the last thing that you should concern yourself with. It is God that can save you, friends. It is God that has eternal life. He is the only One. It is God that will give us all these gifts. It is God that can protect you. It is God that will save you. It is God that has called you and it is God you are working for, not anybody else.

This is what we have to keep in mind and when we know our standing with God, then we can be at peace because since I know my standing with God, I do not worry about my standing with the rest of you people. I figure that God can take care of that. And if God thinks I need to be kicked in the shins, then you had better kick me in the shins. And sometimes I need it, brothers.

If God thinks I need some help, then He can send some help. Let us leave a few things in God's hands. You know, the biggest problem we have down here is that everybody is trying to run everything and we do not give God a half of a chance to do anything. It is a pity and it was a hard lesson for me to learn. But it was easier for me than most people because it is my makeup, not to go around pushing and grumbling and doing all that type of things.

But, really, friends, let us leave a few things in God's hands. You may say, Well, how much can I leave in God's hands? Well, everything He has not already told you, it is your business and Sister White says what a victory you will gain when you quit trying to do God's job and tend to what He has given you to do. And you know, God has never given me the job of running anybody but me.

And He has never given anybody else that. That is what the whole chapter, the fourteenth chapter of Romans is about. It says, Who art thou that judgest another man's servant. Is that not it, friends? He says he is going to stand to his own master and who is he working for? If he is working for God, keep your hands off.

Some people say when they come to me, they say, Now Brother Bauer; you gotta put these people in their place. No way, that is not my job. You know, we always want to pick leaders, the boss, as long as he does what we want him to do. And then when he does not do what we want him to do, then he is a dictator and he is horrible.

Now, I have to laugh sometimes when people come to me, and they say, Elder Bauer, put that person in his place. So I get up and preach the sermon and I put them in their place and then I am meddling. You see, as long as I am running order and it is not interfering with what you want to do, I am a good guy. When I interfere with what you want to do, then I am a bad guy. We cannot think that way, friends, let us leave a few things in God's hands and let us not pick people to run things and be bosses around. We do not really need them, if we were all real Christians, we would not need any of those things.

I am going to tell you now what I wrote to a young man at Andrews. He was writing his doctor's dissertation on the development of education and organization in the Adventist Church. He was at Glacier View, I guess he was at Glacier View, or got some papers from Glacier View and in the discussion somebody mentioned that I was an expert on church organization. So he called up and talked to Doctor Veltman at Pacific Union College and Doctor Veltman said, Yes, Bauer does know a lot about it.

So the young man wrote to me and he wanted some material on church organization. He said, Send me all you have. Well, that is a stack about this high. I sent him a little bit and I said, I will tell you the secret of the whole thing here. The more apostate God's people are, the more regulation they need and the stronger the organization needs to be. If you want to take the testimonies and then take the development of church organization in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, you will find that as the church has denounced more and more of the writings of Ellen G. White, it needed more and more organization to keep it in some kind of an order.

So I wrote to this fellow and I said that the amount of organization is in inverse proportion to the amount of spirituality and that is just the way it goes, friends. If we were all truly Christians, we would not need any regulations or anybody to tell us what to do because we would all be getting our orders from God and He is not the author of confusion, is he? But of peace and joy and longsuffering.

What we need most of all, friends, is to get down on our knees and put our own lives in order and we need to develop the spirit, friends, of stepping back and following the Lord. Look, I am in Your hands; whatever You want me to do I will be happy to. Sister White says, follow the opening Providences of God. I could talk to you on this for a long time, but that is not really what I want to talk to you about.

One quotation and this is one of Christ's topics that He discussed quite a bit. He had a lot to say about Pharisees, did He not? Those Pharisees were horrible people, were they not? This is what it says in Mount of Blessing, 79. "The spirit of Pharisaism is the spirit of human nature." They were just plain human beings, showing their human nature. Pharisaism, friends, is so prevalent today it is pitiful. It is the biggest problem we face.

"The spirit of Pharisaism is the spirit of human nature." Now, I left out some things, let us flip down to another statement in the same paragraph. "And as the Saviour showed the contrast between His own spirit and methods and those of the rabbis, His teaching is equally applicable to the people of all time." Ibid. Pharisaism, friends, did not disappear and it is not confined to the people who are Pharisees and call themselves Pharisees. Well, it is just plain common human nature. That is why we, as we read this, Christ talking to the Pharisees was talking to unregenerated human nature,

When I go around and I go to different meetings and I will tell you that there are some places that I have gone to year after year, once in a while I skip, and I come away mentally depressed. Actually mentally depressed after I go to these places and have a meeting. It is almost as though the devil is right there. There is another place I go and every time I go there, I get laryngitis. I do not know what there is about it. It does not matter whether it is in the summer or the fall or the winter. When I go to that place and speak, I get laryngitis.

One time I had it so bad that I could not talk above a whisper. And the people sat there for two days and listened to me talk like this (squeaky voice). Really, friends, I meet all kinds of people and they are all together too human. Too human, friends. I cannot get down inside of your mind and see how you are thinking, but I still believe that in spite of all our humanness and all of our problems and all of our weaknesses and all of self and everything that is wrong with us that God has a job for us to do.

And I do not want that anybody should stand back and do nothing just because they are not perfect, because if that was true, I would sit down the next minute. I have not met the perfect person yet. Now, I am going to go on and we are going back to Jeremiah the first chapter and we are going to take verse nine.

"Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth." Jeremiah 1:9. Now, friends, we need the touch of God. If we are going to work for God, we need to have Him put his hand forth and touch our mouths. Do we not? And what will God do? "And the Lord said unto me, Behold I have put my words in thy mouth." Friends, we need to know that God has put the words that come out into our mouths.

We need to watch that. You know, at times when I have been preaching and I have said things and I almost stopped and said, Who said that? Because it was nothing that I had ever thought or planned. It was something brand new to me and I said it! That does not happen too often, but, friends, God will do that. I did not bring--I cannot bring all the Review and Heralds and like I said, I had not planned on talking on this and my references out here are not on what I am talking about.

But in 1903 Sister White wrote an article on Centralization. You can find an abbreviated, edited, weakened copy of it in Testimonies, vol. 8, 213 (See also 204). It is called "Centralization." In this article she says centralization is of the devil. Down at the corner of the page after you turn the first page and get over to the next page, down at the corner, she says that centralization is a perversion of organization.

And then you go down the next column and you get down to the bottom of that and there is a very interesting paragraph. And she says, "I who create the fruit of the lips, [Who is that? God says I] will put My message into the lips of those who will not be perverted." Review and Herald, December 10, 1903. In other words, those who will not bow to centralized authority. We need to think about that. Now, they left that out when they took this article out of the Review and Herald and put it in volume 8.

And you may say, Well, did not Sister White write volume 8? No, if you will read very carefully in Testimonies, vol. 8 and you have an old one, it tells you that it was compiled by Willie White. Well, when Willie White went through and took this article out of The Review and Herald, he deleted paragraph after paragraph in certain chapters out of it before he put them into volume 8.

This statement that centralization is perversion of organization is left out. The statement that God will only put His message in the lips of those who would not be perverted, on this centralization is left out. In fact, the first paragraph is so written and changed around, it says the same thing, but it is completely re-arranged. So we need to think about some of these things, friends. Now God needs to put His message in our mouths. Altogether too often, and I have done it myself, friends, I am as guilty as the rest of us, we get a message that did not come from God.

I can remember back in the fifties, I feel like a lot of you people feel. I was always scratching my head about where did Uriah Smith come up with the interpretation that he put on the prophecies, you know. Some of it is plain and some of it I just kept wondering and wondering. So one time I thought I am going to sit sown and I going to study this thing out. Because I just cannot go with Uriah Smith's interpretation.

So I got up in prayer meeting and I preached that, it was tape-recorded and then I prayed that the tape would not get around and it did not. You know the Lord is good. I am ashamed of it now because it was I and not God. And sometimes we do this, friends, we come up with crazy ideas. I come up with crazy ideas. I try them out sometimes on you people. I hope you have enough Christian courtesy to tell me I am wrong. Or at least try to prove it.

I know I preached a sermon here and afterwards a bunch of people came to me not a bunch but several, some of them of experience. And they told me what they thought of what I had just preached. So I said okay would you please sit down with me and show me that I am wrong. Right because you get discouraged sometimes. It is a lot better to go two and two than go all by yourself.

But really, friends, let us stay with the things that we know are sure. You can wander around; you can speculate all you want to. But let us not begin to push and urge the thing. I have quotations on that too. Sister White says that we should study out the truths of God's word. And after we have studied them out she says do not concentrate and concentrate and urge it on everybody else, she says to keep studying. Go on do not stagnate on that.

We do that all the time. I have a tendency sometimes to do it. But really, friends, let us get a more rounded attitude and view. And let us remember we have to speak God's word. We have to get the message from God. People come to me and they hand me a manuscript, Brother Bauer, what do you think of it? What difference does it make what I think of it?

Really, I asked one man, he handed a big thick manuscript and he said, Now, Brother Bauer, I want to know what you think of it. Let me ask you a question, did you pray about this? Yes. Did you get it out of the Bible? Yes. Do you believe it is truth? Yes. Well then, what are you asking me for? He has his mind already made up. If I disagree with him, his feelings would be hurt. I know it is good to counsel together. But let us counsel with God. Let us get such a relationship with God, friends, that we know where we stand and we know in Whom we have believed, and we know what He can do, and we have, well, how will I put it? We feel secure in our belief and our convictions.

Remember, get the message from God. Make it a thus saith the Lord. And please, please, friends, do not take one Spirit of Prophecy quotation and build a doctrine. Please do not take one text and build a doctrine, or even three or four. You read them all. I tell you, I read some of these manuscripts and they are excellent and they are convincing. The only trouble is I know the quotations that they did not put in. I know what they left out and it changes the picture, friends.

But if you do not know what they left out, you will believe it. That is why I keep urging each one of you, please, take the books down and read them. Do not just use the Index and look up all the texts on faith and then put a talk together. I want you to read that book clear from page one, word one, down to the end of that book's last word. I tell you for years I was one of these people that took the Index and looked up a bunch of quotations and I would put a sermon together. Then the Lord convicted me to read them, page one to the last page, and I did and I have done it three or four times on these books.

It was not until then, friends, that I got a rounded picture. Because I can tell you something, some of the best quotations are not in the Index. Usually the ones that I need the most are not in the Index. Read those books, friends, so that you will, you will have a. . . I read Dr. Martin, Walter Martin. You know, we heard him last night. I read his attempt to bring the evangelical position on the nature of man and the Adventist position on the nature of man together.

If you did not know your Bible, he was extremely convincing. Then I also read Dr. Kellogg's attempt to bring the Seventh Day Baptist position on the nature of man and the Adventist position together. And if you did not know what these men left out, they sound like they are quoting the Bible right down the line. And this is the tragedy, friends, we have to know what they leave out. And this is the only way.

My brother-in-law is a minister and has just retired. He made the comment, he said, When the brethren wrote Questions on Doctrine and they started the change and they opened the floodgate. And he says; Now every wind of doctrine is blowing in the Adventist church. But the people do not know their Bibles and the Spirit of Prophecy well enough. And so they are carried about like Paul said, Every wind of doctrine. I see some of you people here and some of you have been over here and some of you have been there and some of you back there. Do not do it. Read your Bible first. Read your Spirit of Prophecy first before you read all of these things that are coming out.

All right next verse, tenth verse, Jeremiah one. Now we get the idea and I find too much - and we concentrate and we have a message just for Adventists. But let us read the text. "See, I have this day set thee over the nations." Now if you have God's message, friends, you have a message for the world. It is for Baptists, and Methodists, and Catholics, and Buddhists, and Hindus and Shintoists, and Communists. And sometimes I think we close our view in. I know there is one man that preaches and he is well known to you people, he has even spoken here, and he says that his message is only for the Adventists and the rest of the world is over and their probation is closed. He believes that.

He does not preach it publicly but I have talked to him privately. But, friends, Jeremiah was not just a prophet to the children of Israel. "See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms (To do what?) to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy." Man what a job! There is nothing positive about that, is there? No we want to build up, do we not? And we want to strengthen in this, and God says, Look, Jeremiah; your job is "to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down." And then what? After you have done that then what comes? "To build, and to plant."

Friends, you have to get the trash out of the way before you can build up God's work and God's program. Some people have wondered why I am so absolutely against the type of organization the Adventists have. Friends, it is the biggest obstacle to God's finishing His work in the world today is the Seventh-day Adventist organization. It is the biggest obstacle. Sister White runs smack into it time after time. If you have read her writings through, you know that the biggest obstacle she kept meeting was the brethren.

The people that tried to proscribe her and stop her and tell her what to do. And when they could not control her they shipped her off to Australia to get her out of the country. And with her gone, friends, things got so bad that about five years later they wrote begging the prophet to come back and stand with the priests. And she wrote something real nasty back to them. Do you want me to read it to you?

Testimonies to Ministers. Well I do not know whether they will or not they told us that they were not going to reprint it back in the fifties and they did. So maybe they do not mean it this time either. They begged her to come back. And she wrote back to them. Testimonies to Minister, 396. The date on this is February 6, 1896, "To my brethren in America," and they are asking her to come back and she says. "Oh, if I could have the joyful news that the will and minds of those in Battle Creek who have stood professedly as leaders, were emancipated from the teachings and slavery of Satan" Now if you had a testimony saying that the General Conference men were under the slavery and teachings of Satan you would lose your confidence in them, would you not?

Well, that is what she wrote in 1896. Then she says, "Whose captives they have been for so long, I would be willing to cross the broad Pacific to see your faces once more. But I am not anxious to see you with enfeebled perceptions and clouded minds because you have chosen darkness rather than light." Now that is what she thought of the General Conference men in 1896. But she stayed in Australia and she would not come back.

Now, friends, this is why I say that what we have built up in the organization of the Adventist church is the greatest obstacle to the finishing of God's work. And being down at General Conference this last time, I am just that much more convinced of it than I was before I went down there. It is the greatest obstacle, friends, because we have so much machinery and we have so many, oh I will not go into it.

God has not a chance to do anything. We have it all cut and dried and poor God is clear out of the picture, clear out. We have all the programs, I tell you I keep referring to this camp meeting and I probably should not have gone to it, but it was right in my own backyard, you know. I live in South Lake Tahoe and they moved the camp meeting to South Lake Tahoe and I kept telling my wife that I should go down there and she said Aw, stay away.

But I went on Sabbath anyway. I went on Thursday and they were having a baseball game so I went back home. But really I went down there and I looked on Thursday. I just figured, well, let us get the, I went into the Book and Bible House, they had some nice books there for sale but I did not have the money to buy them with me at the time so I still do not have them. But really, I looked around and I went into the big tent and here was a big chart and a thermometer, ever see those before?

It started out one thousand, four thousand, six thousand, ten thousand, twenty five thousand dollars. Now I have sat on committee meetings And I know enough, friends, the brethren figure that camp meeting is the best place to raise money that they can get. I have sat on the Nevada-Utah camp meeting committees and how many of you people are not members in Nevada-Utah and some places in California? Let me see your hands. You are members out in California and in Nevada-Utah? And they have it in Tahoe because you Californians will come up there and they expect to get their hands down in your pockets and they talk this way on committee.

They say we are a poor conference over here and these wealthy Californians have more money than they need. We will entice them up to Lake Tahoe and we will get the thousands of dollars out of their pockets for evangelism. And I am going to tell you something, when the brethren say evangelism that covers church schools, it covers everything that is in their eyes, anything the church does is evangelism. When you give for evangelism you are giving into a potluck thing that they will use and it is all evangelism.

Now I have said that enough in Nevada-Utah that they tried to assure the people that that is not what that offering was for. And they got just short of twenty-four thousand dollars there from the people. That camp meeting was considered a huge success. That is why we will not take up an offering in these meetings. Friends, we do not want you to come together and go away feeling that you have done your part by giving money because that is not what we want and that is not what God wants. He wants you.

That is what He wants. And we ought to leave funds and the fund-raising in God's hands. Now I know there were problems in the early Adventist church. Sister White went around and sometimes they were practically destitute in the early days. But that is not the way it is anymore and it was not that way for very long, even in the case of Ellen White and the pioneers. We have a job to do. And now I am going to come to the part of the job that Adventists do not think about very much.

I mentioned Wednesday night and I mentioned Friday night, I do not believe I mentioned Wednesday, this little pamphlet here, Warning, A Constitutional Convention maybe hazardous to your religious freedom. We may have a Constitutional Convention soon, friends, I do not know. I pray God that we do not ever have one. The last thing that I want is tampering with our Constitution.

The last time they were having and talking about a Constitutional Convention and constituted a Christian amendment Sister White had some things to say and she had some instruction on what we should do. And you will find it in these green books. And I hope you all have a set of these, you cannot get them now. And you need to take these books down and you need to read them because right here, friends, she says some pretty strong things about our responsibility when our government is talking about amending the Constitution. And you have a direct political responsibility.

I hope you do not mind my mentioning the word political on Sabbath. You should not be voting for people; you have a responsibility, friends when it comes to that. And so she writes to these people and she takes the statements in Revelation 13 and 14, you know what they are. The country is going to talk like a dragon. I do not want to live in a country that is going to talk like a dragon.

I tell you I went to Australia and New Zealand, it is a lovely place to live. It is a nice sub-tropical country. The worst part of it is; it is about like Southern California except for the big inside that is all desert. But it is a beautiful place to live. And there are nice people down there. I would not trade our government for the Australian government for anything, I really would not. In New Zealand it is a nice place to live. It is all English speaking people, just as clean and nice and modern as the United States of America. But I would not trade the New Zealand government for our government.

I want to read you something. I got this letter recently. It says "Constitutional Amendment 1985." How long ago is that? Then it goes through the legal procedures. You have to have all this kind of stuff down and all these titles, short titles and Sunday observance. "An act to amend the Constitution enacted by the parliament of the Cook Islands in session of the assembled by the authority of the same as follows:"

Number one, short title and commencement, "This act may be cited as the Constitutional Amendment 1985 and shall be read together with the Dean's part of the Constitution of the Cook Islands as set forth in the Second Schedule of the Cook Islands' Constitution Act of 1964 of the Parliament of New Zealand. As amended by the Acts of the Parliament of the Cook Islands herein after referred to as Constitution. This Act shall come into force on the date on which it is assented to by the Queen's representative."

Next paragraph, "Sunday Observance; The Constitution is hereby amended by inserting after article 76d as inserted by section 13 of the Constitution amendment number 9 act 1980, 81, the following new article. 76e Sunday Observance, number 1, It is hereby recognized and required that in the Cook Islands Sunday shall be observed forever as the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, holy and sanctified for a day for rest and worship according to one's religious belief. 2. On each and every Sunday and subject only to the exceptions ministering the Word of God or worshiping God or providing religious services and instruction of in case of emergency or necessity or charity."

Then number one subheading, "All Trading, All commercial and industrial activities shall cease. 2, All aircraft traffic and other Ariel vehicular traffic or conveyance shall cease operating. 3, All fishing, hunting, sailing, boating and other marine and maritime activities shall cease. 4, All organized sports shall cease."

I tell you there is danger having a Constitutional convention that just such an amendment will be put in the Constitution of the United States of America. In fact there is good evidence that the prime reason that they are calling for a Constitutional convention in the United States is to put this kind of an amendment in your Constitution. Now what should we do about it?

This is what Sister White tells you to do and you will find it in Review and Herald, December 18, 1888 when there was a push for a Constitutional Convention and an amendment called "The Christian Amendment." Do you folks realize that Congress in 1892 voted that this was a Catholic country? It is in the Review and Herald, 1892 that is the correct date. In the Review and Herald it is reported as a news item that we were declared by Congress as a Catholic nation.

I tell you, we do not have any idea how far things had gone back there at that time. Are we as far now as then? We do not know and I will tell you why. Sister White said that the Sunday movement the next time would make its way in the dark. And right now they are making their way in the dark. But when they were making it in the open she makes some interesting statements. So I am going to read it, and this is now December 18, 1888. It is talking to the Seventh-day Adventists.

She says that in Revelation our country is about to speak like a dragon. And so what should we do? "We see that efforts are being made to restrict our religious liberties." Now, friends, there have been repeated bills brought up in the U. S. Congress to prohibit the mailing through the mail of anything that says anything wrong about anybody's religion or his background or his race or anything else. The first time that I was aware of such a bill was under Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The next time that I was aware of such a bill was under Kennedy. And they got one right now, pushing it.

And if they do that, friends, that is restricting your liberty. Now I will skip down the page. I am just picking out a few statements. "And now this nation,--the greatest nation of earth,--under whose government we are blessed with every religious and temporal advantage; which has been the recipient of unrivaled mercies; which Providence has watched over and shielded; by which the standard of liberty and religious freedom has been lifted,--Will it follow the course of the papacy, and make void God's law?

Now that is exactly what they were doing and here is the question that Sister White put to the Adventists at that time and I put it to you today. "And shall we sit with folded hands, and do nothing in this crisis?" And that is what she asked the Adventist church because that is exactly what the Adventists were doing during this period. Now the American Sentinel was mentioned here today.

It did a marvelous work, friends, but do you know that the Adventist Church, A. T. Jones and the American Sentinel, never cooperated with him? And if you do not believe it, just get the books down and turn over a few pages in 1888 and Sister Whites writes an article and says exactly that. All right now, "And shall we sit with folded hands, and do nothing in this crisis? Shall we let this Religious Amendment movement come in, and shut us away from our privileges and rights, because we keep the commandments of God? God help us to arouse from the stupor that has hung over us for years! There are more souls to be saved, and a far greater work to be done." Ibid.

Now if you think the work has been finished and the loud cry has been given, then you sit around and do not do anything. But if you do not do anything, friends, then you are going to have to work under the most severe restrictions and they will be based upon a Constitutional Amendment. And you will not have a chance. Going back to the previous article. She is talking about the same thing. Review and Herald, December 11, 1888. "For years many have sat in calm expectation of this event (passing of a national Sunday law)."

Now this is what she is talking about here. "…and they will not be working out the purposes of God if they comfort themselves with the thought that what is to come will come,…" Ibid. Now, friends, sometimes I think we think, Well, let it come. It is going to come sometime, what can I do about it? That is what the Adventists were saying back in 1888. They comforted themselves with the concept "that what is to come will come, and anything that they may do will not prevent it."

Can we stop the Sunday law from being passed? Essentially no, though they try, that is what the Adventists were saying in 1888. Then, here is what she says. This is December 11, 1888. "They should not settle down in an easy, comfortable indolence, thinking that God will shelter his own people in the day of this calamity. This is the time for action, not for indolence and spiritual stupor. Satan is preparing his forces with a power from beneath, and all heaven is in busy activity, ready to work in the interests of those who are awake to the condition of things,…"

Now, friends, all heaven is waiting to work with you, if you will wake up to the condition of things. You are not going to go out and do it by yourself. You have got heaven behind you. "All heaven is in busy activity, ready to work in the interests of those who are awake to the condition of things, and, like faithful sentinels, are doing all they can to arouse the people to avert, if possible, the threatened evil." Ibid.

The only reason God is going to have a Sunday law is so we can go out and work and tell the people all about it. And they will listen because it is an issue. He is going to probably let us have a Constitutional Convention because we are supposed to get out and tell the people the dangers of it and try to warn them and get the issue out. You can get all you want of these by writing to the address on the back, here.

Now, really, friends, we have got a job and a responsibility, not just to the church and not just to each other. We have got a responsibility to these people over here who are fishing and camped over here. And we have a responsibility to every American and everybody in the world beyond. Let me tell you what is going to happen to you if you do not rouse up and do something about it and try to warn the people and avert it.

"If our people continue in the listless attitude in which they have been, God cannot pour upon them his Spirit." Ibid. If you just sit back and do not do anything and do not warn your neighbors and not tell the Baptists, the Methodists, the Catholics and everybody around and point out the dangers and what is liable to be lost. She says, "God cannot pour upon them his Spirit."

Do you want the Latter Rain? Go to work. God will never give anybody the Latter Rain that is sitting around doing nothing. They probably will never even get themselves ready. You can pray yourself, friends, and you can praise yourself and you can waste all your energies praying and reading but if you never go to work, you are never going to get the Spirit of God.

God cannot help you do nothing. He is not even interested in helping you do nothing. It is only when you go to work that God says, Hey, let Us get behind this person. Let Us put the right words in his mouth. He is talking. You sit there with your mouth closed; God is not going to do anything for you. You are never going to get the Latter Rain. You gotta do something. Talk to your friends and neighbors. Talk to your church members. Talk to each other. Do something and you will be surprised. God will say, Hey, Let Us help him.

Put your plans out before God. Get the issue straight. Use the books. Know what you are supposed to do. "God cannot pour upon them his Spirit. They are unprepared to cooperate with him. They do not realize the threatened danger, and are not awake to the situation. They should feel now as never before their need of vigilance and well-concerted action." Ibid. Read the whole article, friends.

Go home and read it and then read the little things in between, because some of these articles by other people that are on these pages are dealing with this custom. She even goes so far as to say that the ministers in the Adventist Church thought that it was wrong for them to talk about the crisis in the American government and this problem. Do you want me to read that to you?

"It is not in the order of God that light has been kept from our people,--the very present truth that they needed for this time. Not all of our ministers, who are giving the third angel's message, really understand what constitutes that message. The National Reform movement has been regarded by some as of so little importance that they have not thought it necessary to give much attention to it, and have even felt that in so doing, they would be giving time to questions distinct from the third angel's message." Ibid.

Were they right? Well, let us read what she says. "May the Lord forgive our brethren for thus interpreting the very message for this time." Ibid. Friends, these citizens of the world and we have a responsibility to the world. But before we go off to do it, we had better get right with God. We had better know what God wants us to do. Well, then there is a little article in here by Maria L. Huntley and it is good.

"No one can understandingly entertain the idea that the present effort to secure legislation in favor of Sunday by a Constitutional Amendment party, will be temporary." Ibid. And he is warning and appealing to the people to go into action. Read that one. Go, over the page, "A Live Issue," this was by a fellow by the name of W. H. McKee. Read them, friends. There is a job for us to do. Now I think that probably one of the best things to wake us up and put us to work would be if they did start passing a national Sunday Law. Maybe you folks would do something. And maybe God would pour out His Spirit and maybe we would be able to go out and give the loud cry.

But we sit back in comfort, you know. Now here is the article entitled "'The American Sentinel' And Its Mission" and I cannot read the one word there and it is signed by E. G. White. And here is what she says. "For three years now warnings have been sounding forth to the world through the columns of the Sentinel and other publications." Review and Herald, December 18, 1888.

Friends, the only group that I know of that is sounding forth the warning to the American people today on what is going on in this country is this group here which is entitled "Americans United for Church and State." These are the people that filed the suit against the ambassador to the Vatican. These are the people that are fighting for your religious interests and your religious liberty in this country.

A tragic thing happened, history is fascinating, friends, and you need to sit down and ponder it a little bit. When the Seventh-day Adventists became involved with the National and World Council of Churches, we gradually backed off from our mission of religious liberty and separation of church and state. But you know God is not dead. And so Seventh-day Adventists joined with other concerned Protestants and organized this organization.

And we passed to this organization the responsibility of being the watchdog for religious liberty and the separation of church and state. And we began to keep quiet and to keep our mouths shut. And we are not doing too much now as a denomination. These people are doing it. These people are doing it and we need to cooperate. They will furnish you with ample information. All of you should be on their mailing list and get the paper Church and State. That will tell you what is going on and you will not get it in the Review and Herald or Liberty, or Signs of the Times.

We have a tremendous job. They will send you a list of their publications if you ask for it. But this one is warning that a Constitutional Convention may be hazardous to your religious freedom. I wrote to them and got a stack of these because I wanted to pass them out. They will send them to you. Send them a contribution. The address on the tape is Americans United for Separation of Church and State, 8120 Fenton St. Silver Spring, Maryland, 20910. Their phone number is 301-589-3707.

Now they asked me to go to work for them one time and I said, I will go to work for you on one condition that you will print in your paper how much the Seventh-day Adventist Church is taking in federal and state aid instead of just telling what the Catholics take. These people are human, friends, and the man looked at me and he says. But they are our biggest supporters. I mean the General Conference people give these people appropriations every year. The General Conference knows they are doing the job that we should be doing. So they give them, I do not know what it is. I think one year it was around the neighborhood of fifty thousand. I could be wrong on that. But it is not too much for what they are doing.

They are in court, friends, fighting for your liberties. They are in court fighting for the separation of church and state. We need to support these people but that is not all that we should do. I am saying read these articles here in 1888 because she says, (I never got to finish this one here). "The Sentinel and other publications, but these dangers have not" listen carefully, "have not influenced our people as they should have done." Ibid.

Poor A. T. Jones, I tell you he had a most frustrating job. We cannot be friends with the Catholics and friends of the World Council and friends with the National Council and then go to court and fight them. Can we? So the best thing to do is stay off in a neutral corner. I mean it is a pity. Now going down a few paragraphs in this article on the American Sentinel magazine. And I tell you, friends, get behind Marty Wold and get behind his paper. The world needs it. They need the Adventist viewpoint.

These people are not Seventh-day Adventists. They do not have do not have the Adventist viewpoint. They are fighting for your liberties and they are fighting for separation of church and state and they are fighting to keep the Constitution. But they do not have the Adventist viewpoint. Let us get a paper going. Help this man, back him. Now another paragraph about the American Sentinel, by Ellen G. White.

"There have been surprising indifference and inactivity in this time of peril. Truth, present truth, is what the people need; and if the startling transactions taking place in our country today, in regard to the religious Amendment, had been realized by our people in every church; had they seen the plain, decided fulfillment of prophecy, and aroused to the demands of the crisis, they would not now be under such stupor and deathlike slumber." Ibid.

You know the Adventist people are in a stupor and deathlike slumber. And what does she say would have gotten them out of it? Did they realize what is going on in the world? I go places and people know me, and they say, Brother Bauer, we have not had a sermon in our church for years on last-day events. We have not had anything on last-day prophecies for years around here in this church. And then they say something and I have to laugh every time they say, Would you come and give us one? And, of course, they are not going to let me in any Adventist church, at least not usually. I did preach in one in New Zealand.

This is the instruction that was given, I will tell you how far back. In 1943 when I was a student at Pacific Union College, we were told that it would be best if we did not preach publicly on the image to the beast, the mark of the beast and this type of thing. This should be done in a small meeting. No, this was from LeRoy Froom. He is the one that started this attitude in the Adventist church. After he had been in the Vatican for three months and studied with the priests in the Jesuit library and they had helped him in his research for Prophetic Faith of our Fathers; he came back and said they are wonderful men. We should not preach against them publicly.

All right now, the rest of this statement is, these people that are in a stupor and deathlike slumber. "But as long as the watchmen, [what is wrong?] As long as the watchman do not give the trumpet a certain sound, the people are not alarmed, and are not on the lookout for danger." And, friends that is what is wrong with the Adventist church today. I go to church every once in a while and you know right here I hear lovely sermons. I hear nice sermons. They are practical. There is nothing wrong with them.

But you could preach them in a Catholic Church, you could preach them in a Methodist church, or Baptist church, or Pentecostal church. You could preach them in any denomination that I know of, and they are lovely fine sermons. But they are not warning the people. The watchman are silent. Now we come to an article here and this is still December 18, 1888 Review and Herald.

This is another one by Ellen G. White. It is "Our Duties And Obligation." That is the title of it. Now here is what she says to them. This is 1888, friends. "A great work is to be done in a short time. There is power in the present truth; but Satan is working in every conceivable way to keep the light away from the people." And then she goes on down and she calls for people to spring into action, and they said, What shall we do? And if you will follow through, friends, and read these articles you will find out that the instruction that was given was that they were to go door to door warning the people about the danger.

She even sanctioned going door to door getting petitions signed in protest against the Sunday law. Really, friends, we are a part of this country. You are an American and you should fight for your religious and civil rights, she said so. Read these articles I do not have time to cover them all. Read them, friends then you will know what to do. The devil wants us to think that it is unchristian and that it is not our responsibility. And we should keep our nose out. I was just telling some of the men during the noon hour I was talking, Elder Vandeman was telling about the time he was invited to join a group of people in a protest march in Washington, D. C. When he counseled with the brethren, the brethren said, We should do nothing to influence the government.

Now that is straight from the devil. To neutralize the Seventh-day Adventist Church so that they would do nothing to influence the government is straight from the devil. The Spirit of Prophecy tells me exactly the opposite. It says that I should do everything to fight for and keep my religious freedom in this country. That it is my God-given responsibility to demand that the government not change its Constitution. And that we keep our religious freedom.

Now do not say that we are going to lose them anyway. Sister White actually quotes some of the people that are saying, Well the Sunday law is coming and the sooner it comes the quicker it will be over with so why should we try to prevent it. Do you know what she says about such people? If they do not change they are lost. And she says some of them comfort themselves and say, Oh, well God has promised to take care of us during this time anyway.

Do you know what she says? She says that if you do not do everything you can to fight it God will not protect you, not protect you. You cannot be an indolent servant and hear a, Well done. You cannot sit around and do nothing and have Christ say to you, Enter into the kingdom. You are in a war, friends, the great controversy between Christ and Satan. Are you in it or are you sitting on the sidelines.

You know, Americans are great sports spectators. They sit and watch these guys beat each other up on the football field. They sit and watch people play baseball. I hope they do not watch prizefights and wrestling matches and all the rest. We sit and watch them play tennis and we sit and watch them do this and we sit and watch that. And most of us are too lazy we do not even go down and pay to go to the game. We sit and watch it on television at home. Spectator sports, friends, that will not do in religion.

You cannot be a spectator. You have to get out there and you have to take part. I do not know how soon it is going to come. What is it, one more state and we have a Constitutional Convention? Just one more state, friends. We have to be participants, get in there, friends. Warn the world, tell the people, tell your friends and neighbors and that will open the door to tell them about the Sabbath and the truth.

You go door to door with a pamphlet like this, friends, and half the time you will be able to give them a study on Revelation 13 before you get out the door. Do you know what the Genocide Treaty is? They can take you to Soviet Russia and try you, friends. Now if the Senate amends the Constitution, it takes a two-thirds majority. This is a Constitutional Convention and once you get that Constitutional Convention going, friends; we probably will come up with a new Constitution entirely.

Now really, friends, does this have anything to do with the three angels' messages what I have been talking about? It is what the third angel's message is all about. It is a warning against the beast and the image to the beast, and his mark, and his name and his number, right? And there is a lot more involved, friends. A lot more. I tell you your rights are going to go down the drain until you become a slave.

You know, Sister White says that when it comes down to the time of the end some will be put in jail, others will be treated as slaves. And then there is another group that manages to escape and they are out in the mountains and are neither in jail nor slaves. That is where I want to be. Of course some of you are going to be in concentration camps and they have them all built, friends.

Now really, friends we have a lot at stake. Let us get this job done before it gets so hard. Let us go to work and fulfill our responsibilities before our liberties are gone. Let us wake up before we are thrown out of bed. Please, we have the truth, we have the message, we know what is going on more than any other people on the face of the earth. I will tell you, friends I got a letter from some ladies in Oregon. I mentioned it before. These two ladies went down to visit a friend in, I think it was Eugene or somewhere down in that area. I forget just exactly where.

And the friend said I am going to the Synagogue tonight, do you want to come, we have a class. So these two Adventists went to the Synagogue and they sat and they listened and as they listened, their mouths dropped open. Finally the rabbi that was giving the lecture stopped and he looked at them and he says, I can see that you are not Jewish are you? These things are really, you cannot believe what you are hearing here tonight, can you?

They said, No, we did not know anything about these things, these plans and what is going to happen to the United States of America. Then the rabbi said, May I ask what church you belong to? They said, We are Seventh-day Adventists. And then the rabbi said something to them. He said, You are Seventh-day Adventists and do not know these things? Your prophetess knew exactly what was going to happen and what she has put in her books is exactly what is going to happen and that is what we are talking about tonight!

And then he bawled these ladies out for not reading these books that tell what is going to happen. Now I am trying to get the name of that rabbi, I want to go talk to him. I will tell you something else. A few years back the Jews figured out that there was such a thing as the Spirit of Prophecy and Testimonies to the Church. This rabbi is from Berkeley. He was in Eugene talking. They discovered that there was a Spirit of Prophecy. They discovered it at Scharffenberg's house at Riverside, not Doctor Scharffenberg, but his brother.

They were in his house and they were giving him a job to do for them, a research job. And while one of these men from a big corporation was telling what they wanted done, the other one was looking around and he came to the shelf that had Conflict of the Ages series, Testimonies to the Church, Spirit of Prophecy etcetera. And he gets curious and he is looking around. And when the deal was completed and they are both standing there, he turns to Scharffenberg and says, Those books over there, they intrigue me, it says Spirit of Prophecy, it says Testimonies to the Church. He says, That sounds like a prophet.

And Scharffenberg says, Well, yes, we consider that person was inspired. He said, This fellow, E. G. White, who was he anyway? Scharffenberg says, It was not a man, it was a woman. And the next question is, Is there anything said by this prophet about the Jews? And Scharffenberg says, Well, yes, there are some things. [He said, I was not about to tell him what she wrote about the Jews.] She has written two sets of things about the Jews. One is very bad and one is very good.

And Scharffenberg left it like that because he did not want to get into discussion. Within a year, friends, that Jewish scholar comes to Seventh-day Adventists, he takes Bible studies, he joins the Seventh-day Adventist Church and then the Jews put up the money and they made a lazar disc index to the writings of Ellen G. White and now the Jews know everything that is in there. I dare say, their scholars know it better than the Adventists.

That lazar disc, friends, was made and paid for by the Jews and it says so in the Recorder. And now I am beginning to see how the prophecies of Sister White are going to come true when she says, The merchant princes some of them will devote their fortunes to finishing God's work." Do you know that most of the merchant princes in the world today are Jews?

In another place she says, "A thousand Jews will be baptized in one day." The brethren leave out the word Jews and say, a thousand will be baptized in a day. She says, "Many of the Jews will join with us in finishing the Lord's work." Friends, today the Jews have found a prophet again--a true prophet--the first one since when? Since John the Baptist. And I read in my Jewish Encyclopedia that I have at home that the Jews want a prophet so bad and have for the last two thousand years. Actually as far as they are concerned it ended with, who was it, Nehemiah? Which makes it, they want a prophet.

It says in this Jewish encyclopedia printed in Jerusalem, friends, by the Jews for the Jews that is devoted entirely to the Jews. There is hardly a word about a Gentile in there, unless he helped the Jews do something. But any way, friends, in this Encyclopedia it says that the Jews want a prophet so bad that they are sitting ducks for anybody coming along claiming to be a prophet. And then it goes into the stories of Jews and people that have come along and how they have taken advantage of the Jews' desire for a prophet. And they have all proved to be false so far.

I tell you, friends, if we do not get to work, God is going to bypass us. He is going to bypass us. You cannot hold up the Lord's work. We are living in the last days and God is getting ready, friends, Are you getting ready? Are you ready? Do you realize what is happening and what is going on? Do you realize that socialism is going to take over this country, and under socialism you become the property of the state? And they will tell you where to live and what to work at. Do you realize that socialism is about like the army? If you are an electrician, they put you to work as a plumber. And if you are a typist, they will put you out fixing cars.

I mean, that is the way socialism works in these Communist countries. That is why they cannot keep up with the United States. And that is why they have shortages all the time, friends. What Brother Nicolici quoted this Romanian lady as saying this morning is very true. My wife took a trip down through Romania, and one of the things the guide brought out, and this guide was a staunch Romanian Communist, she says that Russia robs all the satellite countries of everything because they have to keep the Russian people fed and happy or they will revolt.

And so, all of the surplus and a lot of the food that these countries like Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Hungary need is taken to Russia to keep the Russians fed because Communism is a complete failure, friends. Absolute and complete failure. And the Jews have finally realized it. Incidentally, friends, Karl Marx was a Jew. Lenin and Trotsky were Jews. They were financed by Jews out of Wall Street.

And in this Jewish Encyclopedia they bragged that they invented Communism and sponsored Communism and that it was a success. But now they realize that it is a failure. And so, do you know what they have done? They are now backing the Roman Catholic Church and the U. S. government. And now they are counting on the Roman Catholic Church and the U. S. government to make the world Socialist.

It is a pity, friends. And the thing that makes me sad and makes me weep is that I look in Insight magazine and I look in our youth papers and I see Socialism taught. I mean Seventh-day Adventist youth papers, friends, are teaching Socialistic principles right straight from Karl Marx. Wake up, friends, our enemy, friends, is Socialism. Socialism is of the devil. The Socialist concept is that human life and the individual do not count.

I have at home in my files, maybe I have it out in my camper, speeches made by the people who run the Department of Education of the U. S. government in which individuality is a crime against society and needs to be stamped out. And the day is coming, friends, if they have this Constitutional Convention and you pass out Jones' book Individuality and Religion they will throw you in jail. Individuality is one thing that Socialism, Communism and the devil and his worshippers stamp out. What they want is rank lock step going to hell.

There are some Baptists fighting it now. The big Baptists sold out years ago. The Baptists that are fighting it are the Baptists who pulled out of their denomination when their denomination got involved with the National and World Council of Churches. That is one thing that I keep scratching my head about. Some Lutherans pulled out when their denomination got involved. Some Methodists pulled out when their denomination got involved. Some Baptists pulled out when their denomination got involved.

When I was in Everett, Washington, the local Presbyterian Church voted themselves out of the Presbyterian denomination when it got involved. But I have not heard of one single Seventh-day Adventist church that has even protested it when we got involved. We are more sound asleep than any other denomination in the country when it comes to this type of thing as Seventh-day Adventists.

We are so sound asleep, friends, that no Adventist church had even voted a protest against our getting involved with the socialistic National and World Council of Churches. And these organizations, friends are so socialistic. All you have to do is to get their Constitution and By-laws and working policies and read them. I have copies of them. And you know they line up the Communist objectives and they line up the National Council of Churches objectives and you know they are almost verbatim the same?

But really, friends, we are in the last days. It is only by God's grace that we are having a meeting like this. It is only because God says, Hold back, hold back My people are not ready yet. So the four angels are holding these four winds. We have to get ready. Just because things are peaceable and we still have some freedom in this country, it does not mean that the devil has not gotten everything all set.

We are in California, right? Well when the Lake Powell church knew that they were going to be disbanded, we tried to sell the church property. So some people came up and they were going to buy the church property. And they were going to put in a daycare center. And they thought, Well, no problem because Seventh-day Adventists had been operating a church school here for years and years and years. So evidently all we have to do is buy it and just keep right on.

But I do not know why they went to Sacramento. And they got down to Sacramento and they said, Well, the Adventists are operating a church school there under a grandfather clause. Do you know what that means? That means they were operating before the laws were passed that would have stopped them. And so they are not required to meet the laws. And these men that were going to buy the property got a little curious and they began to ask questions.

And they got a copy, friends, they got a copy of the laws of the State of California governing private schools. And they brought it up and they showed it to me and they said, We cannot buy your property, because the State of California says that you are operating under a grandfather clause and we cannot. We would have to tear the buildings down and build new ones in order to meet the requirements. I said, Let me see those requirements. So I read the requirements.

Then I was down in Sacramento and I asked them about the requirements. And I said to the man, I says, You realize that if you enforce the requirements that it would close every Seventh-day Adventist church school, every Catholic Church school, every private school in the State of California? And he said, Yes. I said, How long have these laws been in effect? He said, I do not know. They have been on the books for years.

I said, Why are they there and on the books and the state is not enforcing them? And he gave me an answer that startled me. When the time comes we will enforce them. I am going to tell you, friends, the devil has so planned it that most of the laws that will take your liberties away from you are all ready passed. And in Los Angeles now it is against the law to have a religious meeting in a home. It is part of the fire code. You cannot have a religious meeting in a home but you can have a party. You can have as many friends as possible for a party and you can drink and do anything else in a party but religious meetings are against the fire code.

Think what is happening, friends, it is crazy I agree, but that is the way the devil is operating. And they sneak these laws in, friends, and they are on the books and they are not enforcing them because God is what? You can still go hold Bible studies in the home, do it! You can still go out and hold meetings, do it! You can still pass out literature, do it! Pretty soon when you do it, you will land in jail or you will be fined. Or they will confiscate your property. Let us go to work now.

By the way do you realize that the Adventist church passed out questionnaires? Do you know that is computerized and available to the world if you filled out those blanks? There were several types. There were medical ones; there was one on your aptitudes, what you liked and your skills. They were under the pretext of deciding who was fit to be Sabbath Schoolteacher and who should be this and who should be the other. And that is all computerized and in Washington D. C. and it is also available to other computers and to the Roman Catholic Church and to the Socialists and to the governments.

And besides that, I tell you, friends they are getting down and closing it down and closing it down and closing it down. I was not going to do this but I do not know, I got into this and maybe you are too. Some people say they are going to get rid of theirs after I tell them this. But if you have a credit card like AT&T to make phone calls and you have a black strip on the back. That is all about you. It tells all about you. And do you know how much is on there?

I went to a gas station, I forget where it was this summer, and they did not ask me any questions they just put this in here and it printed out the whole thing. I said, Say, that is something new, is it not? Yes, it tells us whether your bill is paid and it tells us what your credit rating is, it tells us everything here. If you buy anything over fifty dollars, they have to pick up the phone and sometimes it takes them five minutes to get through? Well, they have a new machine now and it puts this in. And they do not have to make a phone call any more because it is all on the back of this card, all about you. All of my credit cards have a black strip on the back and it tells them all about me.

Friends, Sister White says to learn to keep your mouth shut. I think we need a copy of that test. (Minnesota Multiphasing) It has been used in our colleges. It is used for the evaluation of our ministers. The intent of the questions is to profile the individual on a psychometric chart. You have two ways of getting one. But really, friends, when you want something, friends, do not resort to the devil's tactics and think, Well, we have to send somebody down and sneak a copy out. If you want a copy of a document like that, you get down on your knees and ask God for one. And the first thing you know you get one in the mail. I mean it, I mean it, friends.

We have a group in the Adventist church called the Association of Concerned Adventists. Now this is an underground fifth column organization. When I met some of them down in Loma Linda, I said, I am a concerned Adventist, I want to join. They said you cannot join. I said what do you mean? You have an association and no membership? Well, yes, we have a membership. Then I turned to the doctor that I was talking to and I said are you a member? And he said, Yes I am a member. I said, Well, how many members are there? And he said, Nobody knows. How many members do you know? He said, I know two other members and that is all. And they knew two other members and that is all. I says, Why is this? And he says, Because nobody is allowed to know more than two other members lest the list get into the hands of the General Conference.

I says, Well, tell me, What is the purpose of this organization and how extensive is it? He says, We have somebody in every office, every conference office, every school, every hospital, every organization of the Adventist church who will supply us with anything we ask for. And I said, What does it ever do for you? Well, he said, The elders in the Loma Linda University Church, we got some material together and we did not have a mailing list. So, he said, I contacted one man I knew and I said to him simply, I need a mailing list. He passed the word along and six weeks later I got in the mail a manila envelop without a return address and it had the Review and Herald mailing list in it.

Now that is using the devil's tactics, friends. Now when God thinks that Brother Nicolici or I need something, suddenly we get it in the mail. Like Brother Nicolici got all this data on the investment. John, did you write for that? No sir! I did not even know that it existed. I went down to the meeting that we had down here toward Jackson. And when I went to the meetings somebody came up to me and said, Here is an envelope that was sent to you from somebody down in southern California. And it was the minutes of the committee to study the reorganization of the Seventh-day Adventist church.

I tell you when God wants you to have something, go to the Boss and ask Him. Is there anything God cannot get for you? We never have to resort to the devil's tactics, friends. We are working for God. And with God all things are possible. Remember that. And remember; do not go to work for men. Go to work for God. Really, friends, we have a tremendous responsibility and God can use you in ways that you will never dream of. And He can do things for you that you never expected if you just go to work. If you just get busy.

And remember He will never give you the Latter Rain, never pour out His Spirit upon you while you are sitting doing nothing. He will not do it, friends. Really, friends, like I said, Sister White says, Why do you not keep your mouths shut? And she says that we should train our children so that they will not betray us by a word, even when they are under pressure. We need to train our children so that when persecution breaks they will not betray us. They will not betray the company that is meeting out in the woods.

Now really, friends, you have no idea what is ahead of you. I do not think we can really picture it. But with God, friends, you do not have to fear. "Fear not, little flock; for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you (What?) the kingdom." Luke 12:32. Now we need to bring this meeting to a close and I understand there may be some special music, Brother Jenkins, at this time? We will have our special music and then we will have our closing prayer.

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