GOD’S ORGANIZATION

DAVID BAUER

SILVER LAKE CAMPMEETING 1981

The topic I am bringing to you this morning, I am not bringing to you because I think you people need it in particular; but I am bringing it because what I say here today will probably be played in Australia and across the United States and even in Europe and other places and I think it is what the Seventh-day Adventists, both Reformed and unreformed, if you want to call it that way, the ‘Regular Church’, as they call it, need. And perhaps you need it to? I know I needed it!

And the sermon I am going to give you this morning, I could not give when I started in the ministry, because the material that I am going to present to you was not available in the Seventh-day Adventist church. I don’t think that the young people today realize how fortunate they are and what a wealth of information they have available to them which was not available to me nor to the Adventist ministry even twenty-five years ago and particularly thirty years ago. I don’t think you people realize how fortunate you are.

When I started in the ministry we did not have the Review and Herald Articles available to us. And I can remember how thankful I was to sister Tarbell, her name wasn’t that at that time; her husband brother Everett at that time, his Father had saved the Review and Herald articles, and she loaned them to me! Nobody else had them, friends.

The Signs articles were not available, the recorder articles were not available, the Australasian articles were not available, the Spaulding Magan Compilation was not available, Selected Messages was not available; Shall I continue? That’s the way it was when I started in the ministry, friends. This material was not available; and consequently because it was not available the Seventh-day Adventists made grave mistakes! Series B was not available, Series A was not available. Now you people stand to answer for a lot more than the Adventist’s who lived back in the twenties and the thirties and the forties did. Because you have this material available and you cannot go back and say, “Look, whatever was good for those people back then is good for me,” because, dear friends, they could not read these things and they did not know these things. I did not know these things. In fact “Testimonies to Ministers” friends was made available the church after I was born and I’m not real old, I hope.

So we are living, friends, in a day and an age when we cannot judge ourselves by any past generation of Seventh-day Adventists, Reformed or regular. Where we cannot gauge ourselves by anything that has gone in the past because we have, available to us, information which they did not have.

Now if somebody really wanted it, I suppose they might have gotten it, but I know I wrote to the White Estates and I asked them for ‘Series B’ and they said, “No. There is nothing in it worth reading, it’s all in the past, there is nothing for us today in series B.”

And I know it has frightened the brethren when this book was published, (Splauding-Magan Compilation) and this is one of the originals, published at Mc Quamy-Hills. Incidentally, I’d like to say right now, I am not going to answer questions this morning. So don’t raise your hands because I am not going to recognize your hands, because if I start answering questions it will be like it was last year; I never got through with the sermon, and I want to finish it today.

OK; We’re sitting in a special relationship to God in the information available to us.  One that was not available to anybody else and one that we better take advantage of; and I am going to ask you right now, I want to know how many of you have the Spaulding and Magan Compilation? How many of you have read it through? That’s too bad, only about a third of those who have it have read it.

I got this, when I called Mc Quamy-Hill and found out about this book; I called them long distance from Seattle and he had four copies left and I said, “Are you going to print any more?” and he said, “No. Under threat of the General Conference lawsuits, and a lot of other things, I do not dare print any more.” I said,  “Send me two of the last copies.” I wanted one for myself and one for my father, who was the union conference president at that time in this union conference. So I bought the two copies.

I read it; and it acted like yeast in my mind. This is back in the fifties. When I first read it I couldn’t digest it, it was so foreign to what I had thought, what I had taught, what I had done and I had seen done, I couldn’t digest it. In fact I still cannot digest and really comprehend everything that is in this book.

And I would suggest that all of you get this book; I don’t care if you have to pay fifty dollars for it, or a hundred, it’s worth it; IF you’re going to be part of the final closing work of God! But if you don’t want to be a part of it, then don’t spend your money for that, spend it for candy or something else, go to Disneyland. That’s how vital I think the information in this book is.

Now I am going to come to my text; I was forced to give this talk at Oshawa, Canada last month. And I hadn’t intended to and I hadn’t planned on it. Because I allowed people to ask questions back there and there was one man in particular who was extremely antagonistic although he was fairly nice about it, and I had to answer his questions and because he asked the questions, I have a talk that I am going to give you this morning.

The text I’m starting with is Romans 8: 14 and you know what it says don’t you? ‘As many as are led by what? ‘the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.’ Now that is a definition of a child of God, friends. ‘As many as are led by the Spirit’ those are the people who are the children or the sons of God. Now if you are not being led by the Spirit you do not qualify. I don’t care what church you belong to, or what you position in that church is. Or how many good works you’ve accomplished or how strict you are in your life; if  you are not led by the Spirit, you are NOT a son of God.

 Now the problem that we have faced in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist church is one that we don’t like to talk about and a lot of people don’t like to hear about. But we’ve done something in this church, which is a tragedy. Is. 63 chapter verse 10 and I’ll give you time to find it because I want you to be sure I’m reading it right. “But they rebelled and vexed the Spirit of God, (His Holy Spirit) therefore He...What? was turned to be...What? Their ENEMY, and He fought against them.” And you say “well, now, where do these verses come in?” Friends this is absolutely something that you must give some thought to and make a decision upon because my talk is on how the Adventist church has vexed the Spirit of God; and how all Christians have vexed the Spirit of God; and how God’s people, beginning clear back when they left Egypt have vexed the Spirit of God and God has turned to be their enemy.

God turned and became the enemy of the Children of Israel when they got up there at mount Sinai and they were dancing around the golden calf and He slew a lot of them, didn’t He? And they vexed the Spirit of God when they murmured when they were supposed to go into the land of Canaan, didn’t they? And He became their enemy and thousands of them died; and they vexed the Spirit of God when they were ready to cross the Jordan river into the promised land and they joined with the Midianites in worldly pleasures and Pagan customs and He slew a lot of them, right? And they vexed the Spirit of God when Achan took those garments and those wedges and hid them in his tent and they went up to Ai and God turned and delivered them into the hands of the people of Ai, right?  And David vexed the Spirit of God when he numbered Israel and there were a lot of people died, right?

And the Jews vexed the Spirit of God when they crucified Christ and they have lost their homeland, now they’re trying to get it back and the dissension they have down there friends, I’m glad I don’t live there! They’ve had a terrible time even trying to get a government the last month. And the early Christians vexed the Spirit of God; and Ananias and Sapphira vexed the Spirit of God and what happened to them?  Read it, Acts the fifth chapter, they came in a lied about their pledge and what happened to them? And who was it that Peter said they lied to? Well lets just take a look at it and see what it says, “And it was about the same space, three hours afterwards that his wife came not knowing what was done, and Peter answered her and she said the same thing and Peter said unto here “How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?” And I’m going to tell you friends, it is a serious thing to vex the Spirit of God by rebellion against God and rejecting the Holy Spirit and by lying to the Holy Spirit and attempting to deceive the Holy Spirit and slighting the Holy Spirit because in Isaiah it says when you do that what does the Holy Spirit become? Your ENEMY! And what does He do? He fights against you!

Now this text I would like to have these people who believe that God does not destroy or punish explain. I would like to have them explain it. It says the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, friends, becomes your enemy and fights against you. And they say, “Only the devil does that,” And in doing that, friends, they make the devil the Spirit of God. I won’t say more on that, that’s another sermon. Because that is what a great many people have done in the world today, they have turned the devil into the Holy Spirit in more ways than one.

Now friends how have the Adventist church vexed the Spirit of God? Now friends this is where we have vexed the Spirit of God. Would you like to have me read it to you? Spaulding and Magan Compilation and I’ll tell you there is so much material in here on this subject that if I were to cover or try to cover it all we’d be here till about four o’clock this afternoon. There is so much material on that in Testimonies to Ministers we’d be here another hour; there is so much more in Series A and Series B, we’d probably be here another hour. On the vexing of the Spirit of God on the part of the Seventh-day Adventist church. And how have we done it?

Page 311 is where I am going to begin.  "For years I have been instructed that there is danger, constant danger, that our brethren will look to their fellow men for permission to do this or that, instead of looking to God.” Now I am going to let you think about that for a few minutes and I am going to read the rest of the paragraph, “Thus they become weaklings,” Do you want to become a weakling? A good for nothing weakling, friends?  in God’s work? Then you go around asking men permission. I’ll read it again, “For years I have been instructed that there is danger, constant danger, that our brethren will look to their fellow men for permission to do this or that, instead of looking to God. Thus they become weaklings”

And I’m going to tell you friends, I worked for the Seventh-day Adventists for almost 30 years and there are an awful lot of weaklings on the payroll. And I’ve talked to ministers and employees of the Adventist church in recent years and this year and there’s STILL an awful lot of weaklings on the payroll. And some of them sit in the Conference president’s job. And they sit in a lot of different places because they are scared to turn around without asking permission from men. They have no unction from God to do anything. And they permit themselves to be bound about with man-made restrictions disapproved by God.

And again I’m going to bring out, in my lifetime friends, we have as a Seventh-day Adventist church, adopted almost 600 pages of by-laws. In my lifetime we published our first church manual to rule and to regulate the church. And we are so burdened with rules and regulations and so many committees and so many people to get permission from, that most projects die before they ever get through the rigmarole. And consequently we have a bunch of weaklings on the payroll.

Now I know that the brethren are going to get a copy of this tape and they are going to listen to it and they are going to know I called them weaklings. And I hope they do.

But really friends, this is the problem, of the Adventist church, and it’s part of the reason why we are at Silver Lake 7. Because you people still don’t go to God for your orders. You still don’t go to God for your instructions; you still don’t go to God to find out what He wants you to do. Because you people, too many of you, now I’m not saying you people here in particular but too many people write to me to find out what to do. And they talk to me to find out what to do. And they look to somebody else and this, that and the other person.

 Now here is where I believe, and I stand, and I will stand, and I continue to stand and I hope every one of you will stand and believe this; “The Lord can impress minds and conscience to do his work under bonds to God, and in a spirit of fraternity that will be in accordance with his law. . . . “ Now there is another thing that is stressed through this book and that is ‘all ye are brethren!’ No Bosses up here and Peons down here in the Lord’s work. Everybody is a servant of God.

And you say, “With equal rank and standing? Well how about Moses? and didn’t the children of Israel need somebody to guide them out of Egypt?” Well if you want to be in the condition the children of Israel were than you need it too! If you want to be a Laodecian, then you need somebody to boss you around and tell you what to do too. And frankly, I find no fault with this marvelous Laodecian machinery which the Seventh-day Adventists and Reformed Seventh-day Adventists have set up because it’s exactly what they need for the condition they’re in. And frankly the Adventists have done a masterful job of setting up a wonderful Laodecian machinery to run a Laodecian church which is not God’s church, it is in a backslidden condition and He’s going to reject it!

And as our brother said when he was making a little plea before I began speaking, we’re not here to start a new church or to organize a movement and there’s nothing to join. The only thing that I am here for is to get every one of you to go to work for God! And that’s the only place you better be working and the only Person that you better be working for!

Well that’s page 311, let’s go back to the back part of the book. I tell you, when I read these things I almost want to weep, because it seems so difficult for people to do what it says to do here. “When men engage in the labor for the souls of others”.. Now isn’t that what we are supposed to be doing? Isn’t that what a church is for? OK, Isn’t that what you’re supposed to be doing? . “When men engage in the labor for the souls of others they are not to be made amenable to the will of their fellow laborers.”

Do you understand what I am reading to you? If you go out to work for the Lord, you are not accountable to me or other brethren or anybody here. And I have no right to make you accountable to me. Because if I do, I am then vexing the Spirit of God and He will become my enemy and He will fight against me. Because when I put myself in that place, to guide and direct the servants of God, I am then trying to shoulder out the Holy Spirit and take His place. And I am putting myself between you and God.

Continuing the same paragraph,  “When men engage in the labor for the souls of others they are not to be made amenable to the will of their fellow laborers. God is well able to direct the course of action of those who work for Him.”

I say most of  the Seventh-day Adventists do not work for God, they work for the church. Do you believe that God is well able to direct the course of action of those who work for Him? Do you believe God is able to do that?

You want the Later Rain, you want to give the Loud Cry, why friends, we need the early rain! We need to quit working for human beings, quit working for man-made organizations, quit working for churches and start working for God.

The rest of the paragraph, “But when His laborers, instead of calling upon Him, seek first and regard as of first importance the counsel and advice of human minds He is dishonored. Pg. 413

Now think about it friends, it is a dishonor to God to ask counsel and advice first from your fellow servants. And friends there is nobody in this world who is not a fellow servant of yours who is working for Christ; there is nobody who is a boss. We are all servants of God or else we are not servants of God at all. We are all finding out from God what God wants us to do or we are not servants of God. We have become servants of men.

“ The method of sending one minister to another minister to learn his duty is a plan of working that should not be encouraged.” Can’t be any plainer. “Greater evils will result from this course than finite erring men can foresee. My brother, God lives and reigns,” Do you believe that? “Let your brethren have the right of way to the footstool of Christ.” Why? What was this poor man doing? Incidentally this was Elder George W. Reaser, president of the southern California conference. This is who it is addressed to. “Encourage them to carry their burdens to the Lord and not to any human being.” This man was a tyrant, but probably he wasn’t as bad as some of them we have right now.

Now friends; are you beginning to get the picture of what’s wrong? We’re going to be here for a million years unless you people go to work for God instead of for the church. And the Holy Spirit is going to turn and he is going to become our enemy friends, like he did the Children of Israel. The rest, well you ought to read this whole letter, it’s probably one of the plainest.

Alright now, you’re going to say, “Oh yes, but the Adventist Church, and I don’t know whether there are any Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, or Presbyterians here either but I’ll include all the churches together and I’m just using the term Adventist because I think that is what most of you people are; the Adventist church friends, let me read to you how God looks at the system under which we are currently operating. Top of the page, I’m just skipping around on this page. You can read the whole thing if you get the book. “ God will have nothing to do with the methods of working where finite man are allowed to bear rule over their fellow men.”

Now I am going to ask you, how much then does God have to do with the organization of the Seventh-day Adventist church? Well if you believe Ellen G. White, He has nothing to do with it. And frankly, I can say Amen to that. Because I believe it. And if you have listened to my other talks, I have the documents to prove that they make the ministers sign contracts of loyalty to the church! That they will abide by the church rules and in that contract, at least the copies that I have gotten hold of, that have been submitted; there is no mention in those contracts of either the Bible or the Spirit of Prophecy. Just the church manual and the Conference policy. Or Union conference policy or General Conference policy. That’s all that’s in there! No mention of the Bible or the Spirit of Prophecy!

Now I hope they have listened to the tapes and they have repented and they have put the Bible in there. But where one man bears rule over another man, “God will have nothing to do with the methods of working where finite men are allowed to bear rule over their fellow men. He calls for a decided change to be made.”

Now it is impossible for a committee, Friends, to make that change. It is absolutely impossible for the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, and incidentally, since I’ve been talking on organization, the brethren have been awfully busy. They’ve been re-organizing and re-organizing and they’ve got a committee going right now re-organizing some more and somebody smuggled me the minutes of the meeting last June. It is impossible friends, for them to straighten the mess out  because the very method they go about to straighten it out is wrong. Because they set up a group of men to set up a bunch of rules to straighten you out and that’s what wrong in the first place, a bunch of their rules!

There is only one way for it to get straightened out and that is for you individually, to say “Hey, I’m going to throw that yoke off and I am going to take Christ’s invitation and I am going to put His yoke on, and I am going to go to Him, and I’m going to get my orders from God and God alone.” But you may say, but people need direction. Yes, all the people who are not led by the Spirit have got to have a Laodecian organization or a Catholic organization or a Lutheran organization or a Presbyterian organization to tell them what to do.

Now you may say, “Aren’t you carrying it a little far?” Oh, I wish I had time to read all of this to you. I better finish this paragraph here. In other words God has nothing to do; “A decided change is called for. The voice of command must no longer be heard.” What? “The voice of command must no longer be heard.”

The first Sabbath in August, Friends, I spoke in a little church way out in Eastern Colorado. And that poor church, the people are struggling for their lives because the Conference President has come down there and ordered them this and ordered them that and ordered them something else and ordered them to disfellowship people and they won’t do it so he is out to destroy the church. The voice of command, friends, that’s your voice and mine or anybody else’s voice of command, must no longer be heard!

“The Lord has among His workers men of humility, from these should be chosen men who will conduct the work in the fear of God.” Now when a Conference President is elected, do you know what they do in the Adventist church if he can’t control his conference? First they ridicule him, and they make fun of him and they try to shame him into being a dictator. And if that doesn’t work and they still can’t get cracking the whip and getting the people in line, they remove him and give him some job like a general vice-president of a conference or assistant to the president of the conference or some job like that. He is expected, friends, to command and if he does not command, they don’t want him!

Yet here is the appeal, friend, now do you want the date on this? 1907! And I’m glad it’s 1907 because the brethren try to tell me all the time they straightened everything out in 1903! Don’t you believe them when they tell you that. They messed everything up in 1903; they had it almost straightened out in 1901. When they wouldn’t even elect any conference presidents to be bosses. Then they went back to that and we have gone down the drain friends, organizationally; and even since I quit working for them about 13 years ago the Adventist church has changed its organization so drastically that you people don’t even belong to anything that even resembles what it was like in the 50s! If you want to look at their constitution and by-laws.

I never had to sign a contract of employment with the brethren; they trusted me! They don’t trust each other any more friends, and that’s why they have a contract of employment. Now do you want me to read you that? Alright- Series A of the Testimonies page 148 # 3 page 16- I wasn’t going to read this one but probably I should. Now here is what it tells us here talking about church organization. Obstacles to the Work, now I am going to start in the middle of the paragraph- “They more readily express their own will than the will of God…” What?  “Yet they are very strenuous in having their will regarded as the will of God.” We better stop and let’s think about that one again. What is she saying? She says, “They more readily express…” Whose will? “Their will than the will of God.” And then she says, “They are very strenuous in having their will…” What? “Regarded as the will of God.” Now think that one through and memorize it.

“Satan is urging his attributes into the very midst of us. He is seeking to destroy our love for and confidence in each other. And the lack of confidence which brethren in the ministry repose in their fellow laborers is easily read in the rules and regulations concerning even the details of the work which they seek to impose upon them.”

The more rules you see drawn up to run the church, the less confidence the brethren have in one another. I they had confidence, friends, Listen if I believed that you were working for God and under the direction of the Holy Spirit, I would not dare make one rule for you! I wouldn’t need to. Right? And if I did, I would be interfering with the work of the Holy Spirit in directing your life. And I would be vexing the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit would become my enemy and fight against me!

But if I believe that you are not led by the Holy Spirit, and that you’re a Laodecian, and Christ is outside the door knocking and trying to get in, then I have to make some rules for you to keep you in line and make you look respectable and get you to do what I want you to do.

Now some people say I am anti-organization. I am not an anti-organization; I am 100% for God’s organization. And what is God’s organization? Well, we will read it in brief, Ephesians fourth chapter, verse 11, “And He,” Who’s the He? God; The Holy Spirit. “And He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers”- Who did it? The conference committee sat down? My friends are we like the Mormons? The Mormons elect twelve apostles. Are we like the Mormons? They elect a prophet. Are we like the Mormons? They elect all of these gifts of the Spirit, friends. The current prophet of the Mormon Church, I don’t even know what his name is, is the president of the Mormon Church.  The twelve apostles of the Mormon Church have been elected. When one dies, they elect a new one.

 Friends, that is the way the Adventists have been operating. The Bible says He, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, gives these gifts. Let’s turn now and read it in Corinthians- 1 Corinthians 12- “Now concerning spiritual gifts brethren I would not have you ignorant.” And then he goes on down and he says in verse 7, “But the manifestations of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.” Now everybody here should have a gift of the Spirit. It says it is given to every man. Or you should have two or three gifts. I don’t care whether you are young or old, whether you are man or woman, whether you are educated or uneducated, you should have a gift of the Spirit because Paul says they are given to every man, “the manifestations of the Spirit are given to every man to profit withal for to one is given the spirit of the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, by the same spirit to another faith by the same spirit, to another the gift of healing by the same spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another divers kinds of tongues to another interpretation of tongues but all of these worketh that one and the self-same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will.” Not the church.

Now friends, I’m for God’s organization, and I’m going to say one thing right now, we are never going to do what God wants us to do in this world until we join god’s organization and get out of men’s organization. And if you want to stay in a man made organization; go ahead! I’ve got nothing to urge. But if you want to go to work for God then you better get out of some man made organization, and you better go to work for God.

Now every one of you should know what your gift is, and if you don’t? Don’t come to me and ask. And don’t get a committee together to ask, and don’t get your family together.  You know, I have in my file at home a bunch of questionnaires that have been passed out in the Seventh day Adventist church and they borrowed them from the Presbyterians, the Baptists and the Methodists, and it’s a questionnaire, do you do this and that and the other thing then they turn it into the Pastor and he decides whether you are going to pass out literature or teach a Sabbath-school class and he decides from that questionnaire which of the gifts of the Spirit you have. That’s a bunch of malarkey! You should know which gift you have and go to work and forget the pastor. And he won’t be very happy, so what? You’ll have the approval of God Which would you rather have?

Then he goes on down and he says, Look he likens the church to the body and he says there’s feet and there’s hands and there’s eyes and mouth and all the rest of the parts of the body and he says every part is what? essential! Therefore if you don’t have one gift and somebody else has got another gift, don’t complain, you’re all just as vital and essential as any other part of the church and one gift is just as important to the  operation of God’s work as another. But you are very foolish if you try and exercise a gift that you have not received.

This is one of the problems that started out in the early Seventh-day Adventist church before we had all of this machinery you have today and questionnaires to decide who should do what. They had some people going around trying to exercise gifts they didn’t have. And the brethren had to call upon them and talk to them. Well is that alright?  Well there is a statement in here bottom of page 413, where Sister White says very plainly, “My brother, (and this is the conference president) God lives and reigns.” Do you believe that? “Let your brethren have the right of way to the footstool of Christ, encourage them to carry their burdens to the Lord and not to any human being. Never take the responsibility of becoming conscience for another. As brethren you may counsel together and pray together, and seek instruction from the source of all wisdom, but you are not to seek to direct another regarding his duty.”

And I say, friends, and I can say it and I dare anybody to challenge me, that you can go all the writings of Ellen G. White and James White and you will never find that they ever gave any conference committee, or G. C. Committee or any group in the church any more authority than counsel and pray together.  And that’s as far as it goes. We are to counsel together, we are to pray together and we are as fellow servants working for God, led by the Holy Spirit, to fellowship, to share, to encourage one another, to help one another, but we are never- What does it say here? “But you are not to seek to direct another regarding his duty. Let all work of this character be done away.” It can’t be any plainer, can it? “God forbids”- Who does? “God forbids that this spirit shall again come into the work while time shall last.”

All right now friends, we are not starting a new church. But what I want to start is a group of people who are working for God. Who will not tolerate this, which God forbids among them. Who are afraid to submit their direction to their fellow human beings because they want it only from God. Now when we can get a handful of people like that, we can get something rolling, I shouldn’t say we, God can. When God can get a handful of people who say “Look Lord, I’m going to serve you and you alone. I’m going to keep the first commandment. Thou shalt have no other God’s before me.”

When we can get a handful of people like that, you watch what happens. Now I’m not going to say it’s going to start out with the speed of lightning, because friends in Volume 5 of the Testimonies, last page,  it says in the closing work it’s going to go with the speed of lightning and we aren’t there yet. (Editor’s note- remember this was in 1981!) But if we will start friends, God will lead us along. He’ll test you; Oh, He will test you! You will go through trials and temptations and burdens and problems that you never dreamed existed. You may have to face sometimes the fact that you may loose ever friend you have if you obey God instead of them.

And you may have people abandon you and you will not be a great leader of a great multitude. And anybody that wants to be a leader of a great multitude cannot be the servant of Christ. Because He says, “whosoever shall be greatest among you let him be”- what? “Your servant.”  Then He says, they shall not, What? Have dominion over you. It’s not going to be like the gentiles friends. Now we have to do some radical thinking, the greatest obstacle to the finishing of God’s work today is the Seventh-day Adventist organization. The greatest obstacle to finishing God’s work is any church organization; Because it is in the way. And in series B she says it will be swept away by storm and tempest. The greatest obstacle to finishing God’s work is any church organization; Because it is in the way.

I could spend all day on this one page. But you may say, “Did she really mean this?” Well she gives a case in history here, starts on page 60 and runs for a lot of pages, she is trying to be nice and it is addressed to a man named Daniells, and Palmer and Colcord. You have probably never heard of Palmer and Colcord but you have heard of Elder Daniells haven’t you? And she was shown some very important things and I would suggest that you get this and study this letter very, very carefully. I’m only going to pick out a couple of paragraphs and try to get the meat of the situation.

“  I have been deeply moved. In the night season, as we were in a meeting where several were assembled, we were setting forth the present situation, and how few there were to do the work so important and essential to be done. One of commanding appearance, who had been listening to the description of the condition of things, arose, and said, (I have never found where the quotes end. Somebody in typing this- goofed.)  "Will you please to look carefully, and see if you are accepting the men that are waiting to do service for the Master?” Now what was the problem that they couldn’t find workers? They were looking for the wrong people. “Have you not mistaken your callings, and what it comprehends, in the positions you occupy toward one who has moved to another field of labor?”

Now we have the situation and to sum it up and give it to you without having to read pages and pages; A man by the name of  Hickox had packed up and moved from where the conference had told him to go to a place where they hadn’t told him to go and where there were already three or four preachers. And you can imagine what happens when that happens. And this poor fellow Hickox, was catching it. Now this person, or Being or whichever it was she saw says,  "All ye are brethren." To no one has the Lord given permission to rule over a brother.”

Now think about that one. Are all of you brethren? Then God has never given you permission to rule over your brother. When I was young, you didn’t call people Elders and this and that and the other thing in the Adventist church you just called them ‘Brother’. And we never called anybody Doctor; it was Brother. That was the highest title they were entitle to, and still is.

Now skipping over a few pages, this poor man Brother Hickox, whom they have a problem with because he packed up and went where they didn’t tell him to go and landed where somebody else was there whom they had told to go there. It says, “ The Lord has accepted men, and borne with them, when their brethren have treated them indifferently.” Skipping down through the paragraph. Talking about brother Hickox, “He is in God's service.” And I thank God for that. He was in the right service.

 He is in God's service. He is God's property.” Now I want you to think of yourself that way. You are in who’s service? God’s service. You are who’s property? God’s property.  

Talking again to the Conference president, A.G. Daniells, “You have no right to handicap him, as you have done.” They went so far that they wouldn’t send his paycheck to him where he was, they sent it to where he should be according to their books. And so the poor man went in debt. Well now what about this troublesome character? “By going to another field to work, without consulting his brethren”- What had he done? Boy this would be chaos wouldn’t it? Of course it would in the Adventist organization.

“ By going to another field to work, without consulting his brethren” At least you ought to call the conference president and tell him that you are going.

“ …do not understand just how God will bring about the accomplishment of the work he would have done. This very moving to another part of the field may be wholly in the Lord's order. Let men be delicate, and exercise their caution when it will tell for God's glory in the end.”

Now, you read through here and you’ll find that Sister White finally comes out and she says again, “Men may have become feeble by looking to men and trusting in men. they go when men say to go. They ought to look to God and trust in Him for wisdom… “ And they left the rest of the paragraph out and I sure wish I knew what it says.

Now then we come back to brother Hickox. “When he went to New Zealand, because Brother Daniells expressed the opinion that his course had been wrong, he was left with nothing to do. But ought men's opinions to be regarded as infallible?” Then it tells the condition and the problems he had and all the rest.

Then we go over to page 68 and it says, “God is the one who orders all things. (do you believe that?) Have you not had any idea that this movement made by Brother Hickox was under the ordering of God?”

Now I suggest you read the whole letter. I’m just bringing you out a situation which developed which occurred where a man, without consulting the conference brethren went, and he was employed by them, mind you, he was on the payroll, he went where God wanted him so they cut him off and they wouldn’t send him a paycheck  and Sister White said he went where God wanted him.

“ Did not the Lord see that you might not deal with his servant wisely? Did he not see that he needed to do service in some other part of his vineyard, just where he is?” and she ends up telling them to send the check where the man is. Now really, friends, this is God’s organization. And that is men go where God wants them and they don’t bother to ask permission from the brethren. And like I say, that would create chaos, and I admit it and the brethren tell me that would be chaos and I have their documents and I have the defense literature committee statement of the Seventh-day Adventist church saying that these principles of organization would create chaos in our world-wide work.

Yes, friends, they would destroy man-made organization! And frankly, that’s one of my goals. Is to help the Lord destroy man-made organization so the Lord’s organization can work. But of course if none of you are willing to join the Lord’s organization and you insist on remaining in a man-made organization why then, where are we going to be, friends? We’ll risk coming to Silver Lake a hundred years from now. Because the work of God cannot be done by human agencies.

Well there are a number of other things that perhaps we should take a look at. Page 307 in this book. I say get the book friends. I didn’t understand when my friend over at Mc Quamy-Hill printed this that the General Conference men came in, at least he told me this on the phone, and he says I never saw men bang the counter so hard and stamp their feet so hard and jump up and down and yell so loud as these men did when they found out I had printed this. They were scared, friends, that you folks would read it and act on it. and do you know what happened? The people read it and didn’t act on it.

I got this in the mid fifties, friends, and I didn’t really act on it until 1970. That’s how long it took me. Because I’d been so brainwashed the other way.

“I know that some have thought it advisable for the workers in our sanitariums to sign certain contracts. But I know also that it is not in accordance with God's plan for the workers to sign these contracts.” Now I am not talking about ministers now, I’m talking about janitors, and nurses and Doctors and hydro therapists and business managers. These are sanitarium workers, hospital workers. “They are pledged to God,” Who? Well if I am pledged to God what kind of a human contract do I need? None! And I better not sign one or I’ll vex the Holy Spirit. My friends, for me to sign a contract with a human being that I’m going to do this or that when I am supposed to be working for the Lord and I’m not talking about business, I’m talking about working for God. For me to sign a contract when I’m supposed to be working for the Lord is to take myself out of the employment of God and put myself in the employment of whoever I signed the contract with.

 Then she continues, “They are pledged to God, and if he moves upon them to take the message to a certain place, shall they be bound by a pledge that hinders them from going? Never, never,” Read this book, friends, digest this book, absorb this book, and get your ideas straightened out!

Page 308, another letter addressed to A.G.Daniells, he was the greatest dictator we ever had in this denomination. He stayed in for twenty years, longer than anybody else stayed in the presidency.

“The Lord must be given an opportunity to show men their duty and to work upon their minds.” Now it comes down to the church members, “Let our churches be guarded. Let our people work intelligently,

not under the rule of any man, but under the rule of God.” That’s the whole church, friends. When you go back to your local churches, if you are still a member of the Seventh-day Adventist church, You exert

and insist that you are employed and you are a church member working for God.   They will probably throw you out.

Bottom paragraph, “ Let our churches be guarded. Let our people work intelligently, not under the rule of any man, but under the rule of God. Let them stand where they can follow the will of God. Their service belongs to Him.” A few years back one of the members of the Lake Tahoe church was going to pass out the chapter in Volume 5 on the Sealing. The Pastor came out and forbid her to do it. She did it anyway. So he then said, “If you do it again, I’m going to call the sheriff.”

At the Sou-Cal camp meeting this last year a friend of mine called me up and he went down there and he went down there to pass out material regarding our relationship to the National and World Council of Churches. And they sent the Adventist police on the campground and they got on either side and they escorted him off. And they said, “ You cannot pass this literature out on the campground.” So he waited ‘til they disappeared and he walked back on and he didn’t pass any more out, he just stopped people and showed it to them, he didn’t hand it to them. Then they came and threw him off again and said, “This time we’re calling the State Highway Patrol”, so they called the State Highway Control and the Highway Patrolman came out there because he was standing at the gate passing it out. And they say, “Arrest this man.” And he gave them a bawling out. He said, “Wait a minute. This man has every right to stand here at the gate and pass this literature out and don’t you lay a hand on him!”

Now, friends, that type of thing would never happen in God’s organization. God’s organization would never forbid anybody to pass out anything. And people have criticized us here at Silver Lake because we allow anybody to come and set their literature back there and we allow anybody to be free to pick up whatever they want and read it, and that’s God’s way of doing things, friends.

When we in any way shape or form, seek to restrict free access to the minds of the people on the part of anybody, we are outside and acting in the way the devil would act and not God. And you may say, “Hey, wait a minute. We got to look after the sheep.” Well where do you read in the Bible friends, that we have to look after the sheep? We have to run God’s work. According to James White, he says, when it was his last appeal for him to straighten out the organization, he says, “Christ does not drive the sheep. He leads them.” And that’s the only way you can look after the sheep, friends, you’ve got to lead them. Any time you start driving them, then you are not working for God. 

When I was a kid, I used to go visit my grandfather in Michigan and he had about 40 sheep. And they are pretty hard to get anywhere leading or driving. Well friends, I hope that we are not sheep, I hope we are fellow servants I hope we are brethren. Because that’s all we are friends; that’s the position we have to occupy.

And of course again the question on page 308 is contracts. Now we heard some talking about the Loud Cry. We heard talk about the latter rain. You wonder why it isn’t coming? Well I’ll tell you friends, it isn’t coming because we haven’t gone to work for God yet, most of us. It isn’t coming because most of us don’t even know what gifts of the spirit we have. You better get down on your knees and find out from God what your orders are and what talents He has given to you. You know, in God’s organization, there are no square pegs in round holes. There are no misfits. Everybody in God’s organization is given exactly abilities from God to do exactly the work He wants them to do and they are successful.

“Under the showers of the Later Rain the inventions of man, the human machinery will at times be swept away. The boundary of man’s authority will be as broken reeds.” Selected messages book 2 Page 58, bottom of the page, And who’s going to take over? “And the Holy Spirit will speak through the living human agent.”

Why don’t you volunteer friends? And don’t come to me, you can’t volunteer to me. It’s between you and God.

Now at the top of page 59, “And the Holy Spirit will speak through the living human agent with convincing power.” No conference committee can ever give you that, friend. No human organization can ever give anybody that. “No one will then watch’… And listen very carefully. You folks say, well wait a minute, I am not fluent and I murder the King’s English and I do all of these things, and I’m going to tell you something, friends, there was a lady known as Ellen G. White who murdered the King’s English right up to her dying day. All you have to do is get some of her unedited manuscripts. She did. She got her words mixed up and used the wrong tenses and everything else right up to the end of her life. But you may say, I’m not a fluent speaker and I can’t do this and I mumble and I get my sentences jumbled and I get prepositions in the wrong place and all the rest. All right, when you are working for God, with the power of the Holy Spirit, “No-one then will watch to see if the sentences are well rounded off or if the grammar is faultless.”

Now think about that, you haven’t got an excuse for sitting home and not opening your mouth. I don’t care how you slaughter the language or the grammar, friends, you go to work for God and He’ll give you the convincing power, and He doesn’t worry about how you said it.  And He doesn’t worry about the faultless grammar, it says so right there. “The living water will flow in God’s channels.” So don’t give me the excuse, I’m not educated, I don’t know the grammar, I mix things up and all this type of thing, you just go to work and do what God wants you to do.

Page 300 Testimonies to Ministers and this the main thing that I have and this is why I am calling for a re-organization, I’m calling for a New Organization, God’s organization. “Unless those who can help in ___ are aroused to a sense of their duty they will not recognize the work of God when the Loud Cry of the third angel shall be heard. When light goes forth to lighten the earth instead of coming up to the help of the Lord,” What will these people be doing? “They will want to bind about His work to meet their narrow ideas.” And friends, that is exactly what the Adventist organization does.

They came around to me and they said, “Look, you can’t preach on certain texts”, and I said, “Paul says ‘All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.’” Well they didn’t know what to do with that, they said, “ Well it would be better if you didn’t.” and I said, “Just forget it, you  have never been given the authority to tell me that there is any text in the Bible I cannot preach on.” So I continue to preach on Jeremiah 17 verses 5 & 7 and do you know what they say? “Cursed is the man that maketh flesh his arm” and “Blessed is the man that depends on God.” And they told me I couldn’t preach on that. That was 25 almost 30 years ago. Well I continue to preach on it.

They told me I couldn’t do a lot of things. And I said, “Look, its in these books, it’s in the Bible and I’m going to go through it, I am going to do it anyway. I am going to take a stand against it and I got the constituency organized and we voted against GC policy, friends.  And then they came to me and they said, “You will never, ever pastor another Seventh-day Adventist church to teach them the things you’ve taught to Lake Tahoe and Carson City.” I said, “What are you going to do with me?” And they were willing to pay me a salary for doing nothing. And I said, “No thanks, I’m not interested.”

So I quit working for them and then they still ordered me around and the first Silver Lake meeting they called me into the conference committee and they said, “We forbid you to go to Silver Lake meetings.”

And I’m going to tell you something; the first Silver Lake meeting, was put on by members in good and regular standing of the Nevada- Utah conference. And it was organized by them; and I asked the conference president “Are you going up there to look after your sheep?” and he said, “No.” And I turned to the conference committee and I said, “any of you men going up there to find out what’s going on?” “Nope.” And I says, “Well then I care enough about these people to go up and find out what’s going on. I’m going up there.” And I came up and spoke and they kicked me out of the Conference church for ‘disobedience’.

That kind of tyranny vexes the Holy Spirit and He- What? Becomes their enemy and fights against them and the poor man that did that is dead. I mean dead and buried! And he wasn’t much older than I am. And the man who preceded him who harassed in that way is also dead and for the last few years of his life he was so mentally confused friends, the brethren did not know what to do with him. And all he had to do was see a member from Lake Tahoe or Carson City and he launched into uncontrollable tirades. Friends, you cannot vex the Holy Spirit and have the peace of God in your heart. You pay dearly for it. And these men who set themselves up in the Adventist Church to be dictators pay dearly for it! In ulcers, and rheumatism, and arthritis, and all kinds of degenerative diseases and they tell me now that the men engaged in the Davenport scandal every single one of them is a very sick man. Including the man who for a little while was president of this conference. He had to retire because of his health.

 Friends you do not do that, you believe the Bible and don’t you dare vex the Holy Spirit by getting in the way. Don’t you dare insult the Holy Spirit by going to your fellow men to find out your duty. Don’t you dare ignore the Holy Spirit, friends, you go to work for God and with God behind you, I’m going to tell you something, you will be amazed at what is accomplished and I won’t say what you accomplish because you don’t do it. You will be amazed at what is accomplished. Things that you didn’t dream would happen will happen. Battles that you saw no way out of will be won. And God’s church will become what it’s described at in Volume 5 “An army terrible with banners striking terror and fear to the hearts of sinners.” That day is ahead of us, friends, and it’s only ahead of us because we have been working for the wrong organization.

Going to Evangelism page 700, we find some very interesting things, well, let’s start on the other page, “As the time comes for it (the message of the third angel) to be given with great power, the Lord will work through human instrumentalities leading the minds of those consecrating themselves to His service.” Who’s going to lead friends? “The laborers will be qualified rather by the unction of  His Spirit” By What? “Than by the training of literary institutions. Men of faith and prayer will be constrained to go forth with holy zeal declaring the words which God gives them.”

You better get your message from God, friends, not from somebody else. What’s going to happen? “The sins of Babylon will be laid open.” Oh-Oh! That is a very unpopular task. You want trouble, you start that. A young friend of mine up in Toronto, Canada, got some material together and I helped him get some of it together and encouraged him to do this so I am probably a little bit responsible. All he did friends, was put in a pamphlet the stand of Martin Luther when he started the reformation and tried to reform the Catholic church and got thrown out for his trouble. And that is that the Papacy is the Beast of Revelation 13. And then he put in some modern updating to it and he passed it out among Seventh-day Adventists in Oshawa, where our college is and in Toronto where we have some large churches. And a little while later the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were knocking on his door saying he had been turned into them as a possible threat to the upcoming visit of the Pope. And they were putting him under surveillance.

It scared the poor young fellow and you need to pray for him because he wrote me a letter and he said- and he called me and he said, “I got into real trouble for doing that. There must be some way to do the Lord’s work without getting into trouble.” Now let me tell you friends, I wrote back and I said, “No way is there any way of doing the Lord’s work without getting into trouble!”  Absolutely, you do not fight the devil without getting the devil to fight back. And I could read you a lot of statements about that.

Now to continue- “ The sins of Babylon will be laid open, the fearful results of enforcing the observance of the church by civil authority, the inroads of spiritualism, the stealthy but rapid progress of the Papal power, all will be unmasked.” That’s your job and your message, friends, under the unction of the Holy Spirit. Do you know what the leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist church are telling the ministers today and laymen? Don’t talk about these things. Don’t preach about these things. A friend of mine recently even went to Tucker and said, “Why don’t you talk about these things?” and he said, “Do you want me put off the air?” And Tucker, friends, I admire him, he does really a good job.

“All will be unmasked by the solemn warnings the people will be stirred. Thousands upon thousands will listen who have never heard words like these.” Now you go out with the right message you’re going to get somebody to listen to you. You go out with what they’re preaching in all the churches, why should they listen to you?

And I’m going to say something, I try to attend the Adventist church every once in a while, and most of what I hear in the Adventist church I can hear in the Baptist church, the Methodist church, and even the Roman Catholic church, the Lutheran church and the Presbyterian church. And when I went to Lake Tahoe the first Sabbath of this year, the Elder of the church came to me and he said, “Brother Bauer, we never hear a sermon on last day events, we never hear a sermon on Revelation and prophecy here, would you, if I can arrange it come and give us a study like that at Lake Tahoe?” and I said, “If you can arrange it, yes.” I haven’t done it yet.

Friends, it’s a famine in the Seventh-day Adventist church for hearing the Word of God. This is what I hear everywhere. I have a letter here from Australia; the people are starving to death down there. This is only about the fifth letter that was waiting for me when I got back from my trip about 10 days ago. I wasn’t going to read this but this is what he says, “We feel like not going to our churches because we are not getting fed. Things have reached that stage; only a few people in each church   seem to be in touch with the issues. Where are we as a people? Now the pulpits are being used to attack God’s true people who are speaking the truth. Soon persecution will break upon us from within. It is very hard to wake people up to the hour in which we live; people just don’t want to know the truth! And those who are trying to present it. We know that you are warning God’s people with your tape ministry”  (I have no tape ministry, I make no tapes, I distribute no tapes, but I do not forbid anybody to tape me. If you want tapes, don’t write to me, I haven’t got them, I turned that business over to God a long time ago.)

Now friends, God needs people to go to work for Him and I don’t care whether you are young or old, man or woman, educated or uneducated, God wants you. And He wants you to go to work for Him, and take your orders from Him, get your message from Him, get your instruction from Him, and don’t go off until you’ve got them. And so what are you going to do? Well you better get the books down and you’d better get your Bible down, you better get down on your knees, until you have a conviction and you cannot keep the message in, you must speak it. And then go out and give it.

Back to the same page in Evangelism, “Many will be hurrying hither and thither constrained by the“ Conference committee? Is that what it says? “Constrained by the Spirit of God.” When are we going to do this friends? When are we going to have a relationship with God that we need? When are we going to let God tell us what to do? And when are we going to listen when God does tell us something to do?

 “Constrained by the Spirit of God to bring the light to others. The Spirit is poured out upon all who will yield to its promptings. And casting off all man’s machinery, and his binding rules and cautious methods, they will declare the truth.” Now the whole trouble is, everybody wants to listen and be guided by the Spirit without casting off man’s binding rules and cautious methods. They want to belong to some church and you can’t have it both ways.

Shall I read that again?  ”The Spirit is poured out upon all who will yield to its promptings. And casting off all man’s machinery, and his binding rules and cautious methods, they will declare the truth with the might and Spirit’s power.” Do you want the power of God behind you friends? Then you’ve got to reject the power of man. You want to speak the truth with convincing power? Then you’ve got to throw out all of man made influence and power. You can’t serve two masters.

Now I have had people come to me and they think I have something. I don’t know; they want to ride on something. No friends, that’s not right! That’s not right at all! You go to God, and let God take care of you and you fill the position God has for you and you may do a tremendous work in this earth. But if you try to ride on somebody else’s coattails, you try to be somebody by belonging to some group or coming to Silver Lake or get some endorsement or backing from anybody, me included by doing that, you have rejected God.

All you need is the backing of the Creator of the Universe, what more do you want? You can have the backing of the Ruler of the universe, the One who made the Milky Way and the sun and the moon and the stars; why would you want anything from any fellow human being? Let’s get our thinking straightened out. So when you are yielded to the promptings of the Holy Spirit you have to cast off these binding rules of man. You have to get rid of the machinery that man has set up. You have to throw out the cautious methods that man has made. 

Then it says, “They will declare the truth with the might of the Spirit’s power, multitudes will receive the faith and join the armies of the Lord.” Oh, friends, the greatest days are ahead of you if you will just volunteer and volunteer at the right place. And quit going to the wrong place to volunteer to go to work for God. The right place is on your knees talking to Jesus. And after you get your instructions, and your message, it’s alright to counsel with your brethren, who may have had a little more experience than you have. But if they ever give you an order- RUN! And don’t accept it. Including somebody you may have a lot of respect for, if he dares to give you an order, don’t you accept it.

There is a whole page in here on that written to the church in which she says how dare you let these men stand up and give you an order? She says those who do allow their fellow men to give them orders, have placed man where God should be. Now when you accept an order from a fellow human being, you have become an idolater in God’s sight. According to Spaulding-Magan compilation letters. There are a lot of other letters floating around I wish I could get my hands on.

Then you are all familiar with this one. “Servants of God with there faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration will hasten from place to place proclaiming the message from” –(the conference? No friends, from Heaven!) “By thousands of voices all over the earth,” How many? You better volunteer pretty quick. Because I’m telling you something, from the letters I’m getting from Australia the people down there are ready to volunteer. And some of the letters that I’m getting from some of the people in Canada, the people up there are ready to start volunteering. And you better get in.

 Why sit around and wait until the work’s over with and then what are you going to do? You’re going to be too late, friends, you’re going to be one of those people come knocking and the door is closed. And besides that, the work that we fail to do peace we shall have to do amid the most trying circumstances. Be smart. Go to work now, get the job done. Pass out the literature; see that the warnings are given, the stuffs printed. So what if the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or the State Highway Patrol or somebody else comes around and says, “Hey wait a minute. We don’t like what you are doing. Who are you working for?” “God” Do you have to worry? They threw Peter in jail and who let him out? An angel came down. They threw Daniel in the lion’s den and so what happened? So then they threw the men that conspired against Daniel in and they got out free too?  They got eaten up. They threw the three worthies in the fiery furnace friends, so what happened to them? 

Now friends, let’s get our heads on straight, let’s go to work for God and let’s realize that God has as much power today as He had when he did all of those things in the past. 

Ahab (Ahaziah) sends an army out to capture Elijah, and what did he do? Fifty men against one and the one man sat there on a hilltop completely calm and God burned up the fifty. Ahab, dumb as he was sent out another fifty. What happened to them? And finally he sent out another fifty, hey Ahab really was thickheaded, friends. This is the kind of people you’re going to be up against, thickheaded people. You can burn up their armies and everything else and they still stubbornly persist. So don’t expect them to be smart people you’ll be dealing with thickheaded people.

So he finally sends out the third fifty and what happens? And this poor man comes up and he begs for mercy from Elijah and he doesn’t get burned up. He was smart. Friends, when you go to work for God you don’t have to fear or tremble or worry or anything else; you go to work for God; you do what God wants you to do and you are safe. And the Bible guarantees your bread and water and guarantees if they try to poison you it isn’t going to hurt you and it guarantees everything right through. If you just live by faith. Friends, the just shall live by faith is the great message. These people are going to go out and the world is going to be warned and if you don’t volunteer and you don’t get in the army of God, you’re lost. You got a stake in this.

Now the reason why we have Silver Lake meetings is we’re trying to get this thing going. We’re trying to get people to work for God. We’re trying to get people who have some power and some backing who can go out and speak with the power of God behind them and give Bible studies that convict souls.  And we don’t count how many people there are or how few people there are and we don’t worry about that because nobody is working for us everybody’s working for God. And we don’t have any bosses we’re all brethren. And we don’t want to order anybody because that’s not my job.

I am going to read one paragraph from Education, “The greatest want in the world is the want of men; Men who will not be bought or sold; Men who in their inmost souls will be true and honest; Men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; Men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; Men who stand for the right though the heavens fall.” Pg 57

That’s what God wants.

BAUER TOC