I fear Dave Weigley,
President of Columbia Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
I had recently come to Northern Virginia when he ended his tour as
President of the Potomac Conference. I
attended the campmeeting the summer that he left Potomac Conference for his
promotion to the larger Columbia Conference. At that campmeeting he had invited
Sean Boonstra to attract the constituents of his conference to celebrate his
departure and to be introduced to the next Potomac Conference president,
William Miller.
It was at that campmeeting
that I experienced a couple of stomach turning disappointments, of which I have
written in a past post. Upon the high stage was a blue board with words in
white, “It’s All About Jesus.” I got excited because it had been years, even
decades since I had heard a sermon on Jesus, and I expected to have a whole day
with new views of Jesus! Wow! Sean Boonstra was going to give us all a real
treat! It would be something well worth driving 100 miles for!
But…sad to say on that
Sabbath day, Jesus was not preached. The Sabbath School was on whatever the Adult
Quarterly covered, which was normal and expected. The Sabbath morning sermon
was on decision making. The visiting pastor who preached looked very sad and
even depressed. Sometimes I wonder if Dave Weigley told him to give such a
non-gospel oriented sermon. Anyway, Jesus was not preached, His name never even
mentioned from the podium.
Then we went to eat and have
a long siesta, and after that from 2 pm to 4 pm a famous Adventist singer sung
to us. Interspersing his baritone vocals were stories of his singing
travels where on a flight he met this celebrity and on another flight that
celebrity. And he told these accounts with subtlely, so as to promote swoons and
applause from the sin loving multitudes who knew and worshiped those
celebrities. Is that reaching people with the gospel? It was worldly and far from all about Jesus, and certainly not commandment-keeping.
It was so disappointing and heart-sickening that I walked across the campus and
wait until I knew the concert was finished.
At 4 pm I went back to the
big tent and met with friends. While having a Sabbath related conversation, a
pastor got up onto the platform and, looking down at us with a condescending
scowl, he declared through the mike, “See this sign behind me?” (That was the
blue sign that read, “It’s All About Jesus”.) Then the pastor gave his
commentary on the sign. He said, “It’s not about you.” Then, satisfied with his
rebuke, he walked away. And my only thought was, “That ‘It’s not about you’ is not
the gospel.” It definitely wasn’t about Jesus. Apparently the pastor didn’t
have anything to say about Jesus. Maybe the seminary doesn’t teach it. Maybe he
had never really sung the words,
Tell me the story of Jesus
Write on my heart every word.
Tell me the story most
precious,
Sweetest that ever was heard....
Tell of the years of His
labor,
Tell of the sorrows He bore,
He was despised and afflicted,
Homeless, rejected, and poor.
So, until that point the much
anticipated sermon on Jesus had eluded me, but there was still hope because
Sean Boonstra was slated to preach at 7 pm. Finally I would hear a message
worthy of campmeeting.
Finally, 7 pm came and Sean
Boonstra came forward to speak. What did he preach about? Jesus?? No. He
preached on how he learned to preach! An hour or so of sermonizing on Sean Boonstra,
instead of on Jesus Christ! And when he finished preaching about himself, he
led his thousand people audience to re-dedicate their lives to Jesus Christ! Finally,
after every other more important business is taken care of and we only had a
few more minutes, its all about Jesus!
I don’t necessarily fault
Pastor Boonstra on his topic for his sermon. I can’t imagine why he would
choose that topic for his talk. I believe Dave Weigley chose that topic.
So, all day long and not a
sermon on Jesus—not even a single mention of Jesus or Christ or the Son of God, or even God! It would seem eerie if it weren’t so utterly disgraceful. Instead
the real highlight was after the low-grade Sabbath morning sermon on
decision-making, Elder Weigley and his wife received their going away presents—nice bouquets
and an escort around the large white tent amidst applause and praise.
So, Elder Weigley moved on and he left William Miller to take up where he left off in the Potomac
Conference. What did William Miller do? He began to push Spiritual Formation
(SF) upon the pastors, elders, conference workers, conference teachers, etc. He
has held SF retreats at Camp Blue Ridge where he has introduced and trained conference
thought leaders and pastors how to do SF and how to be spiritual guides in it at their home churches.
A few years ago I thought I would spend a week at the camp. I called the camp director
who told me about the conference president’s scheduled group that week and of certain
restrictions that would result. The director informed me that breakfast would require
me to not speak with the SF retreat people because they would not answer me. Each morning they would have a vow of silence, where no one speaks until lunch time.
This is how a Christian gets peace and spirituality? How is this any different
from a Catholic monastery, or a Buddhist or Hindu monastery? There is no
Jesus there. There is no Galatians 3:23,24.There can be no real spirituality received from above.
On another Sabbath, William
Miller came to our Sabbath evangelistic effort. He got very upset with me for approaching him with regard to his spreading SF in Potomac Conference. I
just wanted a few words to explain the spiritualism involved in SF. I wasn’t publicly rebuking him, though he may
have perceived it as such. My only guess is that I hadn’t been the only Adventist
to bring up a warning against SF. To this day, William Miller, the successor
to Dave Weigley, continues to work against the requirements of General
Conference President Ted N. C. Wilson against Spiritual Formation.
The problem with SF is that
it is far eastern spiritualism. It is lawless because it requires no wrestling with the
authority of God’s Law to condemn sin and sinner. The Law drives the sinner
away from communion with the Infinite One until the sinner has recognized his
pride and exceeding sinfulness, and has cried out to God for a Saviour from His
wrath. But He doesn’t bring him to Christ to be justified until the sinner
cries with all his heart in faith. Then the sinner comes to Jesus just as he is and
sees Christ’s infinite selflessness in comparison to his infinitely wretched
self-centeredness. And Jesus says, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to
Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37). No one
comes to Christ until the Father brings them. And He brings no one to Christ
for justification until the self-will is humbled and surrendered to the demands
of His broken Law. Then the penitent one bows low in shame and thankfulness for Christ’s
mercy. He is born again, justified, and converted.
Surrendered to and keeping
close with Jesus, now he can enter into God’s presence. Now the Father can hear them. “Wherefore He is able
also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.” (Heb. 7:25). But,
otherwise no one can come into God’s presence. No one can approach God without
Jesus in full faith, Jesus being
the great go-between.
But, SF abides by no Law. It
rejects Galatians 3:23, 24. Therefore, Christ’s requirement: “No man cometh
unto the Father, but by Me”, SF doesn’t abide by. With SF impenitent sinners need not wrestle with the will of God against their bent to sin, but only
wait in the silence and dark until God speaks with them. No wrestling with the authority
of God to rebuke sin and to correct sinners. No long waiting in the night with
tears until joy comes in the morning. The modus operandi of SF is the epitome
of rebellion. It’s sealing souls in rebellion by the “presence” that
comes to them. Yet its profession as spiritual is so subtle that millions
subscribe to SF because of its promises to form spirituality in us by bringing
us to God. Who wouldn’t want that? But, SF is diametrically opposed to the prophets
of the Bible and especially to the counsels of the last day prophet that are
found in the books of the Spirit of Prophecy.
Teaching rebellion is what
William Miller is doing for Adventism in the Potomac Conference, the conference
that encompasses the nation’s capital. It is his contribution to the ecumenizing
of Adventism. His name so highly regarded by our denominational history is actually a mockery to our future. And he was the handpicked anointed one to carry on after Dave Weigley’s
departure. Is this nothing more than continuing an agenda to first corrupt the Adventism around the capital and head quarters for the beast with the lamb-like horns?
My prediction is that when
Dave Weigley is chosen to be president of the North American Division, then
every conference office will be filled with men (and women) like William Miller.
Spiritual Formation will be pervasive, and the unhumbled, sin-loving multitudes
of Catholic, ecumenized Adventism will love to have it so. The dragon
“beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.” (Job
41:34).
“When ye therefore shall see
the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the
holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
Then let them which be in
Judaea flee into the mountains:
Let him which is on the
housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
Neither let him which is in
the field return back to take his clothes.
And woe unto them that are
with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
But pray ye that your flight
be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
For then shall be great
tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no,
nor ever shall be.” (Matt. 24:15-21).
Is almost time for the
abomination of desolation?
“With awed yet exultant
spirit he [John the Baptist] searched in the prophetic scrolls the revelations
of the Messiah’s coming,―the promised seed that should bruise the serpent’s
head; Shiloh, ‘the peace giver,’ who was to appear before a king should cease
to reign on David’s throne. Now the time had come. A Roman ruler sat in the
palace upon Mount Zion. By the sure word of the Lord, already the Christ was
born.” Desire of Ages, p. 103.
A Roman will rule in the
North American Division and soon thereafter in the General Conference. Within
Adventism and against the pure new birth into justification standing with God
there seems to be forming a human ladder of like-minded enemies whereby many
Jesuits will ultimately control the whole framework of the official Seventh-day
Adventist Church in North America and around the world.
By the sure word of the Lord,
Christ must already be born in the hearts of many who will soon give the Latter
Rain of His holy Spirit.
