Chapter 21

David Lin

UNLIKE the "alpha" apostasy, the "omega" is taking on a new turn. Reports say that "Good News Unlimited" is drawing in a sizable net, and the General Conference is worried. In 1980, after Des Ford was defrocked, President Wilson assured us that tithes were still flowing in regularly, and there was no cause for alarm. But developments have not been as expected. Ford continues to draw away our people, so the General Conference hopes to patch up relations with him.

Conditions existing in the General Conference headquarters today make me think of the hectic days in 1951, when I was secretary of the China Division and new problems plagued its executive committee in rapid succession. We were a group of men dazed by unending committee sessions. We had little time to wait on our knees for divine guidance or to study what counsel could be found in the Testimonies. The result was the bungling of important matters.

Looking further back in history, we recall how Joshua, the divinely appointed successor to Moses, once made a mistake because he failed to "enquire of the Lord." He was fooled by the crafty Gibeonites and concluded an ill-advised pact with them. Today most loyal Adventists have faith in church leadership, and can sincerely say to them, "According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto you: only the Lord thy God be with you, as He was with Moses." Yet the fact remains that when our modern Joshuas make a wrong move, the whole constituency is bound to feel its effects. When some well-meaning souls say we should not criticize our leaders--I would say that to help our leaders see things clearly and avoid serious mistakes is our sacred duty. We take no delight in criticizing anyone, but we do feel a deep concern for the welfare of our cause, and should speak up, praying that God will give clear minds and strong hearts to all who have something to do in leading the Advent movement. It is not right to stand by idly when the church is heading for disaster.

What is the proper criterion for evaluating our work as a people? We have been in the habit of looking at our rate of growth and tithe and mission offerings, but have not been much concerned with our standing before God. When PREXAD recommended the withdrawal of Des Ford's credentials, they were chiefly concerned over the fact that he was proving to be a divisive factor. It was believed that his influence could be arrested by removing him from the ministry. This move provoked such a screech and howl of protest from Ford sympathizers that the General Conference was hesitant to follow up with a thoroughgoing purge, for it was seen that we had cut off only the head of a hydra, after which a plurality of heads emerged. Now, two years later, we find ourselves on the defensive and ready to parley again with this foe who has continued to pursue his divisive activities and threatens to draw away more than "the third part of the stars of heaven."

Our decision in 1980 to dismiss Ford, and our recent move again to bargain with him, both sprang from a materialistic philosophy in operating a church enterprise and evaluating our success in terms of membership growth and financial income. We first imagined that with Ford gone, we could preserve our unity and end the dispute over the sanctuary doctrine. Now we feel we must sit down again and negotiate, because we hope it will keep more of our people from flocking to the Good News Unlimited, and funds from being bypassed into Ford's coffers. But we have been working by a wrong standard of values.

If there is one word that can epitomize the life and work of our Lord, it is "truth." He declared Himself to be the Truth, and that He came to bear witness to the truth. See John 14:6; 18:37. He told the people that they would know the truth, and the truth would make them free. He prayed that we should be sanctified by the truth--God's word. See John 8:32; 17:17. This one term can also serve to epitomize the work of God's own people. We rightly call our beliefs "the truth," because we have examined the evidences and are convinced of the fact that He who is the Truth initiated this movement and will carry us through to the end. If we were not so convinced, we would not have cast in our lots to begin with. And now the only safe and sure way to work is to continue making truth paramount. All else must be made secondary and tributary. If we lose sight of this primary object and keep our eyes on our numbers and tithe receipts, making them the index of our prosperity, and stand ready to compromise truth for the sake of peace and unity, we will find ourselves in a dangerous position.

Here is the primary issue: we stand or fall with the truth. If we hold on to the truth which the Lord has committed to us, refusing to yield one inch of ground, He will remain with us, and we will make it to the kingdom, no matter how many heartaches and disappointments we may still have to go through. But if we lose our devotion to the truth and permit strangers to come in and scatter our jewels amid a heap of rubbish, how shall we render an account to Him who has made us His trustees?

It is indeed discouraging to see so many Adventists attracted by the Good News Unlimited. But if we orientate ourselves properly, we won't get panicky, much less imagine we might keep these members by "enhancing relationships" with Des Ford. Study.that first defection in Galilee. Jesus had reached the peak of popularity, and the disciples, led by the sagacious son of Iscariot, took full advantage of the enthusiasm of the people who had just been fed, by agitating for a political uprising--to hail Jesus as the long-expected Messiah. If Jesus permitted Himself to be carried away by that wave of political fervor, His life mission would have been defeated. The crisis called for resolute action. He peremptorily ordered the disciples to depart and the multitude to disperse. Jesus resisted the temptation to be a popular demagogue. He had one prime purpose:

To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world: that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice. John 18:37

Here is an important lesson for our leaders. Like Jesus, we must never lose sight of our divine commission: to bear witness to the truth of the three angels' messages. So long as we keep our eyes on this primary task, what may appear (to Judas-like elements) to be a wonderful chance to gain popularity will be spurned as a threat to the successful prosecution of our work. It was to teach this lesson that Jesus dashed the ambitious hopes of His disciples again and again. The morning following that disappointment, many of the people who had partaken of the loaves and fishes came again to Jesus. Fresh hopes were again kindled in the disciples' breasts. Their Master's popularity apparently remained unimpaired, despite His "lack" of political acumen in having failed to make hay while the sun shone. Even now, if He would rally the scattered supporters, He could still win the day.

But another disappointment awaited the disciples. Jesus not only failed to capitalize on His popularity, but also seemed bent on offending His admirers. He bluntly told them that they had come just for more loaves and fishes, which He now refused to give them. Then He dwelt at length on the theme of the Bread of Life, of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. People became exasperated and said, "This is a hard saying, who can hear it?" Finally Christ clarified His theme by saying, "It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." This declaration repulsed people. They saw they could expect no more material benefits from this stranger. Then "from that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him." Thus in one day, a following of five thousand dwindled to twelve. And even of the twelve not all were sure they wanted to follow Jesus all the way. Jesus kept the door open and asked, "Will ye also go away?"

"Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe, and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." "Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" By this He meant to say, Peter, you have spoken well, but not for all twelve. One disagrees with you, though he has not spoken.

Thus we have before us the mind of Jesus and the mind of Judas. One stands for truth, the other yearns for popularity. Today the Judas mentality prevails among the worldly churches: streamline the gospel to give it popular appeal; make Christianity an easy religion. This tactic is also the genius of Desmond Ford. We should not, says he, make people worry about the judgment. We should say, "Eternal life is yours for the asking. So take it easy and enjoy yourselves. It is easier to be saved than to be lost. Widen the narrow path into a six-lane freeway!" That is Fordism in a nutshell.

Moreover, Ford stakes the success of his "new theology" on popular scholastic support. He claims that a large number of influential Adventist scholars agree with his teachings. Note that he appeals to his peers, not to the Word of God or to the Testimonies of His Spirit. Who are the peers to whom Ford appeals? They are men steeped in the wisdom of this world. But mark you: "the world by wisdom knew not God." In Paul's day, the theme of Christ crucified was to the Greeks foolishness. Now the doctrine of the two apartments and the investigative judgment is foolishness to the wise theologians of our day. "But unto them which are called, it is the power of God, and the wisdom of God." 1 Corinthians 1:23-24. The everlasting gospel was not designed to provide comfortable passage to heaven. No, it was designed to prick the hearts of all who hear it and call them to repentance. But Ford proposes to remove the pricks.

Needless to say, the overtures the General Conference brethren are making to "enhance relations" with Ford and arrive at a "better understanding of each other's doctrinal positions" are motivated not by a desire to uphold the truth, but to win popularity. Instead of challenging every member with the question, "Will you also go away?" we are crying to the departing multitude, "Wait, don't go away. Let's talk it over and work out a compromise."

The attempt to hold discussions for a "better understanding" leaves no one guessing as to the true intentions of the men who urged such a step. It is a virtual truce with the devil--the first step toward capitulation. In God's name let us cry out: Stop it before you pull us all into the abyss! Do you remember the instruction the Lord gave to Ellen White in 1903 regarding a man who was already confirmed in his rebellion? It was to have no interview with him. See A.L.White, EGW, Early Elmshaven Years, 241. We have a very good understanding of Ford's doctrinal positions, and he cannot possibly understand our positions any better. To work out a compromise with him will be tantamount to a betrayal of the truth. The only safe course to follow is to obey God's orders:

If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed. For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. 2 John l0-11

To seek peace with the enemy is an act of cowardice, an admission of defeat. When we see Des Ford enjoying popular support and worldly recognition, are we fearful that it might result in an avalanche of defections? No, not if we are determined to stand with the One with whom are the words of eternal life. Christ can accomplish more with twelve men who love the truth than He can with 5000 who follow Him just for the loaves and fishes. Let the 5000 go, as long as the twelve remain. In Gideon's day those who left him because of cowardice numbered 37,100. Only 300 brave souls remained. God purposely made it so when He said to Gideon:

The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. Judges 7:2-3

Did Gideon's heart sink when he saw those thousands turn their backs on him? Perhaps, but he knew it was God's doing, and so long as he obeyed God, God would be responsible for the outcome. Again we say to all His servants, Don't lose your nerve when you see fellow Adventists falling for Fordism. Only make sure you obey God and have the truth.

We must make sure we have the truth and nothing but the truth. Let us correct the doctrinal errors in our publications and thus repair our broken sword. Let us beware the Ford sympathizers and fifth columnists among us who have a way of engineering measures to receive him into our house and bid him Godspeed. Let us intensify our efforts to defend the truth and refute error, not to mingle the two and muddle up the issue. Our failure to correct the false teachings on the nature of Christ as published in Questions on Doctrine places us at a disadvantage. Unless we make the correction, we are in no position to talk with anybody on doctrinal questions. Only when we take our stand on a consistent platform of truth and are united on it, can we hope to carry our movement to a victorious consummation.

Our only guarantee of success is "God with us." And the secret for securing His presence is to love and obey the truth. We must earnestly long for God's presence as did Moses of old, who prayed:

If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. Exodus 33:15-16

So must every leader of God's people plead for His presence. However, to be sure of His presence we must obey His voice as heard in the testimonies of His Spirit. Ancient Israel lost their peculiarity when they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: so he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men; and delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand. Psalm 78:58-61

The history of Israel is being repeated today. They wanted to be like the nations around them; in like manner we are following the fashions of the day, hankering after the status of a big denomination, putting emphasis on quantity instead of quality, popularity instead of peculiarity. Can God be with us in our disregard of His will?

We need to know who are our friends and who are our foes. It would be disastrous to befriend our enemies and attack our friends. That was what Ahab did when he called Elijah a troubler of Israel and Ben-Hadad his brother. Some leading workers in Australia once committed this mistake by banning anti-Ford ministers from our pulpits and inviting anti-Adventist speaker Geoffrey Paxton to address our congregations. Today we are repeating the same mistake by sitting down to parley with Ford. If we continue in this direction, Fordites will eventually control the General Conference, and all who will not line up will be expelled as lunatics. That will be the sure result of courting worldly favor. Then our theologians will be striving not to enter the strait gate, but to remove the stigma of "theological illiteracy." Our leaders will stretch and strain to hobnob with the great ones of earth. Since Ford, Rea, and Company have succeeded in winning public acclaim by denouncing Adventism, then we too can be sure of worldly success by following suit. Even now some of our leading men respect their bravado, treat them as our guests and want to patch up past differences.

The gravity of the situation forebodes a heart-rending sequel. The very fact that the Eva-Ford talks were even placed on the agenda, not to say that they were passed by the General Conference Committee, already spells defeat for the anti-Ford forces as far as human factors are concerned. It takes no prophet to foresee serious developments ahead. What puzzles many observers is: How can our leading brethren consider Desmond Ford an amenable party to negotiations on doctrine when he has fully unmasked his true self by openly taking his stand with Walter Rea in a TV program downgrading Seventh-day Adventist beliefs? Moreover, he once gave himself out as having counted on the effect of Rea's White Lie to compel the General Conference to agree to a parley.

What is more alarming is that certain indications reveal that a number of men in the General Conference are working to prepare the way for a dramatic about-face to be effected through the Eva-Ford talks. Forces are at work to put Ford back in position which may possibly be more influential than the one he left. The Adult Sabbath School Quarterly for the first quarter, 1983, is giving our people a fair sampling of Ford's teachings: Emphasis on the "finished" work at the cross; negative remarks on the investigative judgment; words attacking "legalists" and comparing them to the builders of Babel, and so on. All these familiar Fordian thrusts amplified in Norman Gulley's book Christ Our Substitute comprise an artillery barrage to soften up the ground for a rapid advance by the Fordite forces.

Other publications will strike the same note. There will be a series of articles on justification by faith, condemning all who keep God's law as being "severed from Christ." Our people will also be conditioned to expect "change." It will be an "advance step" in understanding the Bible more fully. When the majority accept this "new light," it will be wrong to oppose it, for that would create dissensions and difficulties. Ellen White will be quoted in its support. They were able in 1956 to doctor her statements to teach the opposite of what she believed on the nature of Christ; they will do it again to buttress the "New Theology." But what she actually wrote on such apostasies is as follows:

The enemy of souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great reformation was to take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith, and engaging in a process of reorganization. Were this reformation to take place, what would result? The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church, would be discarded. Our religion would be changed. The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the last fifty years would be accounted as error. A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities, and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power which, without God, is worthless. Selected Messages Book 1, 204-205

It cannot happen, some say. But it is beginning to happen already. If the talks are not stopped, some day this summer we will see a document of agreement wherein many pleasant things will be said about unity in Christ,

brotherly love, and reconciliation. Perhaps there will not be a declaration of any radical change in fundamental beliefs (for that would be an invitation for more trouble), but it will be understood that differences have been narrowed, and inasmuch as Desmond Ford has declared his full support for the Dallas Statement of Fundamental Beliefs, he will be reinstated as a Seventh-day Adventist minister in good standing. The Chinese call it Yin lang ru shi--"Ushering the wolf into the parlor." Though this is only a conjecture, developments point in that direction. We pray it will not happen. If it does, all who protest will be treated as trouble-makers.

Where will God be in all this? If it is true that His church is the only object on earth on which He bestows His supreme regard, then we may be sure He is not a mere spectator. But according to what we know of His doings in the past, God consistently gives free rein to human initiative. Yet He does not leave us without His guidance. To aid us in our warfare against the prince of darkness, God gives us ample instructions in His written Word, resorting to direct intervention only when necessary. In fact it is amazing to see how God restrains Himself in order to bring men's moral motivations into full play.

Take the case of Hezekiah. "He trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him . . . and he rebelled against the king of Assyria."

Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. And Hezekiah . . . sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah . . . 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord . . . at that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah . . . had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria. 2 Kings 18:5-16

The Bible makes no comment about Hezekiah's rebelling against Assyria. Neither does it say whether his later submission was right. But we see a picture of a good king forced by circumstances to do a most shameful thing--scraping the gold off God's temple to appease an idolatrous power. If we were living in those days, we would have cried, "Ichabod! Have we come to this?" But the amazing thing is, God remained silent. As far as the record goes, Isaiah had no message for the king. What was God waiting for? He was waiting for things to come to a head. He wanted Hezekiah to learn a much-needed lesson: that it is useless to appease the enemy at God's expense. As things developed, Hezekiah learned to his utter remorse that all the silver and gold robbed from God failed to bring peace--the enemy was not half satisfied. Sennacherib sent Rabshakeh to demand complete surrender. When Hezekiah tore his garments and prostrated himself before God in humble repentance, casting himself entirely on His mercy, then only did God intervene--then only did He send Isaiah with a message of courage and command His angel to destroy the Assyrian wolf.

We are assured that "the Lord is perfectly able to take care of His cause." Today, as the adversary steps up his activities against us, God has given us a maximum of specific instructions in the Testimonies of His Spirit. With regard to the present theological crisis, His order is, "Meet it!" Not to dillydally with error and work out a compromise. As in the days of Hezekiah, God allows matters to come to a head, patiently waiting to see what every one of us, as well as our leaders, will do in this crisis. If we think we can appease the enemy by scraping the gold from off the sanctuary, or even scrap it altogether (for some have lost all sense of the sacredness of this precious truth revealed to us by the Holy Spirit), perhaps God will permit us to go that far and see what we will get for it. To be sure, Ford will not rest content. He will continue to work for the complete dissolution of the remnant church. Will we meekly submit? Or will we rend our hearts and cast ourselves on the mercy of God in humble repentance? If we do that, God will work wonders for us. Like Peter (who first "went out and wept bitterly") at Pentecost, we will see 3000 souls won in one day to fill the place of the those who have defected.

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him. 2 Chronicles 16:9

David Lin February 15, 1983

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