I want to draw your attention to a well-known text in Revelation.
Actually, well I am at it, I will show you all four of them. Here they
are, read carefully:
Re 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the
Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Re 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What
thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are
in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto
Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
Re 21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the
fountain of the water of life freely.
Re 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and
the last.
Now the reason I am drawing your attention to these texts is a little
different than we usually associate them. Only recently a fact was drawn
to my attention by another faithful sister, that led me to the conclusion
that many Adventists, yes Historic ones as well, seem to have missed some
important information, that God wanted us to have, regarding the apostasy
that surrounds us today.
We are all well acquainted with the expression, ‘The Alpha’ and ‘The
Omega’. But somehow it seems we have missed a clue here. The general
concept is that way back at the turn of the twentieth century, an isolated
event occurred called ‘The Alpha Apostasy’, and that was all taken care
of, and the denomination sailed on after that in perfect order, heading
for the heavenly shores.
But we also heard that there was to be an "OMEGA". And so for years the
idea has prevailed that sometime in the future there will come a terrible
apostasy, and that will be the ‘Omega’. But in the mean time all was well
and nothing to worry about.
In this we are very much like the mainline Protestant world, that has
their ‘seven year tribulation’ under some terrible antichrist figure
pushed off somewhere into the future. They are missing their clues badly,
and will be doomed to a very rude awakening.
Are we also ‘missing our clues’?
When we read the above texts, do we have in our minds that Christ as
the Alpha is a completely different person than Christ as the Omega? Is
Jesus telling us here that He is two completely separate persons?
"Of course not!" you say, "That would be silly!" We see Jesus here as
clearly saying that He is a continuum - he was
there in the past, He is here in the Present and He will still be around
in the future. He is One Being and He is involved with us from beginning
to ending and everything in between as well.
Any one who would put forth the idea that the ‘Alpha Christ’ was back
then, but He is gone now and we have to look somewhere into the distant
future for the ‘Omega Christ’ to come, would surely be a very mixed up
individual.
So why when we read the references that tell us that the ‘Alpha’ of
spiritualism was started and there would be an ‘Omega’-
why do we see this as two separate and unrelated events with a long,
undetermined space in between when nothing bad is happening? I am sure
that if the Lord wanted us to see it that way, he would have used entirely
different words to describe the two events.
To use the term Alpha and Omega is to refer to a continuum, a process
that was then beginning and would go on and on, until the end it would
finally reach - caused the Lord’s messenger to
tremble for our people!
I want to show you another way in which the terms ‘Alpha’ and ‘Omega’
are used:
"The Alpha and Omega of Scripture.--[Rev. 22:13-17 quoted.] Here we
have the Alpha of Genesis and the Omega of Revelation. The blessing is
promised to all those who keep the commandments of God, and who cooperate
with Him in the proclamation of the third angel's message" (RH June 8,
1897).
Now, when we use this, is it being inferred that there is only Genesis
over there and then down here we have Revelation and nothing in between?
Of course not; the whole Bible is in between. She is referring to a
complete whole that begins with Genesis and ends with Revelation.
Now I would ask you to read a few of these well known references to the
Alpha and Omega of apostasy. I would ask you to rearrange your thinking
into harmony with the other inspired statements using the terms Alpha and
Omega. Then re-read them and please substitute the term Starting and
Finish, or Beginning and End and see if you get the picture.
"Living Temple contains the Alpha of these theories. The Omega would
follow in a little while. I tremble for our people. These beautiful
representations are similar to the temptation that the enemy brought to
Adam and Eve in Eden." {1SAT 341.3}
"Be not deceived; many will depart from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. We have now before us the alpha
of this danger. The omega will be of a most startling nature." {1SM 197.4}
"In the book Living Temple there is presented the alpha of deadly
heresies. The omega will follow, and will be received by those who are not
willing to heed the warning God has given." {1SM 200.1}
"When I first left the State of Maine, it was to go through Vermont and
Massachusetts, to bear a testimony against these sentiments. Living Temple
contains the alpha of these theories. I knew that the omega would follow
in a little while; and I trembled for our people. I knew that I must warn
our brethren and sisters not to enter into controversy over the presence
and personality of God. The statements made in Living Temple in regard to
this point are incorrect. The scripture used to substantiate the doctrine
there set forth, is scripture misapplied." {1SM 203.2}
What is being conveyed to us here is that a process was beginning, a
terrible process of corruption of true doctrine with the sentiments of
spiritualism. It was entering amongst God’s people at that period, but it
wasn’t going to end there. It was going to continue. The misapplication of
scripture would be part of it.
They were to confront it and resist it, but it would continue to be a
threat, changing faces and forms but eating away at the foundations until
a final climax would be reached. A climax that caused the messenger to
tremble.
Having the idea similar to the mainline churches that all our concerns
for the safety of the church are either in the past or in the hazy future,
has allowed us to be too much off our guard. God was warning us that a
process was beginning back then, a process that would continue and destroy
us if we did not stay alert and watch; if we were not quick to discern
spiritism in its subtle guises.
Notice in one of the above references that she refers to the deceptive
beauty of these subtle errors. Have you heard any ‘beautiful, sentimental’
ideas going around lately? It is a process, brothers and sisters, an
ongoing process. It is high time we stopped looking to the distant future
for something to happen, that is already all around us in full force. It
is time we apply the eye-salve of the Spirit of Prophecy and take a look
at what we are up to our necks in right now!
Friends, many of us point to the mid 1950s as the time when the church
turned her helm and new theology was born. No my friends, there has been a
lengthy process going on long before that to prepare the way.
Something prepared the way for a long time before this could take
place. What was it? Satan’s plans are not simple; they are convoluted and
subtle. Generation after generation he sows his seeds and waits for the
crop.
When you actually look into history and see the subtle ground-work he
has been laying in his plan to deceive ‘the very elect’, especially since
1798 when he saw the prophecy fulfilled that marked the end of the 1260
years and knew that the Great Advent Awakening that led to the end of the
2300 days was shaping up. It is scary and truly does make one tremble. I
have placed on the internet a very rare book written by an man who was
once himself an infidel and sought in every way to discredit the Word of
the Living God. Then the Word got to him and he was converted and spent
the rest of his days teaching and writing to show others the way.
Earle Albert Rowell, who fell asleep in Jesus in the early part of the
twentieth century, is well known for his wonderful book David Dare.
However in 1917 he put out a book called "The Bible in the Critic’s Den".
In this book he gives a wonderful rundown on the roots of "New Theology".
I bet most of you thought that "New Theology" was new to the last few
decades? No way; here we are shown its very roots way back then.
Did you ever notice the many warnings Sister White penned for us in
those early years of the 1900s, urging us to beware of ‘science falsely so
called’, and worldly education and encouraging all to ‘take the Bible just
as it reads’ and to put our trust in it? God did not send these urgent
messages just to pass His time; we needed them because the devil had
turned loose a barrage against us that was different than ever before in
the history of the church.
Nearly always before, the attacks had come from without the church,
(even the Alpha was resisted by leadership.) but now by subtly introducing
the ‘learned theologians’ into the very ranks of the remnant, through the
push for accreditation and striving to meet the world’s educational
standards, which we were warned not to do, the battle was brought into our
very schools and pulpits.
Many of the things we hear weekly from the pulpits of our denomination
today, had its roots in the movement that was underway big time in 1917
called ‘Higher Criticism’. Too many of God’s people today humbly bow
before these learned theologians because we feel that surely, the things
they speak must be based upon very good, sound and solid evidence, and who
are we to contradict such learned men. Remember that was how the Jews in
the time of Jesus felt also. And thousands, yea millions were lost because
of it.
But did the Priests and Rulers of Jesus’ day have solid scientific
evidence for rejecting Jesus?? No way! The only reason was ignorance and
greed coupled with the love to be acclaimed by the people.
Did the founders of the ‘Higher Criticism’ that gave us our ‘New
Theology’ and has permeated its roots of spiritualism into our very rank
and file; did they have solid scientific evidence for their spoutings? I
urge all to read this masterpiece and learn just what sinking sands and
shifting quagmire all this ‘wonderful New Theology’ is really built upon.
It is interesting that even he did not at this time recognize that the
movement by Wescott and Hort to promote their New Greek text based on the
corrupt Alexandrian Mss. was actually a branch of the same crooked tree he
was exposing. It was only later that this became apparent to the faithful,
and exposed by other watchmen, after this brother was laid to rest.
I was blessed to obtain a crumbling copy of ‘The Critic’s Den’ from
1917 and scanned it in for your benefit. My hope is the same as the
author, that it will strengthen your faith in the Living Word of God! We
have not followed cunningly devised fables!
Cast off the roots and branches of ‘Christian Skepticism’ and return,
oh return to the old paths, the safe way of faith and obedience.
"Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the
old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest
for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein." Jer 6:16.
Is my ‘theory’ backed up by the SOP? Indeed it is, please note the
following: