-2-
GENERALLY
CAPTURED AT THE FIRST MEETING
First,
we will see how men and women are captured by the traveling agents of LOR
at that first meeting, later we will learn what happens to those poor
creatures after they have become bound mind and soul to their new
masters.
In
order to explain to you what that first meeting is like, we will now go
through a lengthy conversation this writer recently had with a family in
eastern U.S.A. that narrowly escaped a great tragedy.
We
will intersperse it with our own comments and analyses. The result
should be a fairly good picture of the type of dangers involved, as well
as the keys to recognizing them. We have changed names and locations,
because the LOR leaders have issued death threats against those that speak
or write against them. (However, elsewhere in this study we will give the
actual names of several LOR leaders, and their speakers the Lorite
agents that travel around holding house meetings and capturing Adventists.
For those are the names you need to know.) In this next conversation, we
will call the husband, Howard, and his wife, we will name Jill. Howard
does the speaking:
A
neighbor, Jan, went to Arkansas to visit friends. While there, she met
these folk. They were holding meetings, and they claimed to be members of
the 144,000, and no one else was. They use Bible and Spirit of Prophecy
Quotes, and the Quotations sound very good. When Jan came back from
Arkansas, she had a changed personality. It wasn't hers! Her ways, her
inflections of speech, and all the rest; it was just not her anymore.
When
a person becomes an earnest Christian, he puts away his sins, but he
does not change personality! When she came back, she said that she now
had the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that she was one of the 144,000, and
that she had no more sin or temptation to sin in her life. When she first
arrived back, my wife, Jill, wasn't interested in the group. But she became
intrigued with the change in personality that Jan had undergone. So she
wanted to learn more about it for herself. Just about that time, I had to
go to Atlanta on business. While there, she began studying with them. When
I spoke to her on the phone, the sound of her voice was different! I asked
her if everything was all right, and she said that everything was okay.
But
then I began receiving word from friends back home that I had better
return quick or I would have no family to go back to! So I cut short the
business trip and went home right away.
There
I found that my wife was different. Everything was so smooth and calm, but
it just wasn't her anymore. They had told her that they wanted to meet
with me as soon as I arrived home. But I did not want to see them that
evening, so I told my wife to tell them that I had arrived home after
being gone for some time and wanted to be with my family that night, but
that I would meet with them another night. I remained in another room
when they arrived and she went out and told them what I said. I was
listening at the door and heard the leader reply in a half-disgusted tone,
"Well, if he doesn't want to listen to us, we might as well
leave." That comment, given in reply to my simple request, didn't
seem very Christ like to me.
Talking
with my wife later that same night, I learned that she thought she had no
more sin in her life. Before the evening was over, I pointed out to her
something that showed that that was not true, and she was quite impressed
with the discovery.
You
will note that Jill thought that she no longer had to resist sin; there
was no more sin or temptation to resist! She was perfectly insulated from
both. That is a significant departure from Bible-Spirit of Prophecy
truth. We must resist temptation; it is not automatically taken from us.
More on this later.
Later
in this conversation, Howard mentioned a significant point: During the
time he was away, his wife had become locked into this cult (through a
conversational pattern in the initial meeting, which we will describe
shortly). The cult leader and his associates then urged her to leave her
husband and get out of town before he returned from his business trip to
Atlanta! You, the reader, should be able to see the importance of this
point. This is a typical Moony-cult device to deepen the brainwash: remove
the controlled ones from their friends and loved ones as soon as possible.
In this particular case, the only thing that saved Jill was the fact that
she kept quoting to them the Scripture that we should not leave our
unconverted spouses, especially since he had not so far had an
opportunity to learn these "new truths" that she had learned. Because
of her firm stand on that ONE point alone, she was still there when her
husband returned, and she was open-minded enough to consider his words.
Fortunately, he knew the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy well. If he had not
been 50 fortified, he might not have been able to save his wife.
She
later told her husband that, at a certain point in her conversations with
him, it seemed as if something happened in her mind and she came out
of it. Thereafter she was herself again. The next night Howard and Jill
met with the Lorites. It just so happens that this family does not yet
have electricity to their country home, So they normally use oil lamps in
the evening. But, arriving for the meeting, the cult speaker demanded
that the gas generator be turned on. Asking why, he said that he had to
have eye contact with them during the meeting. "It is very
important that we have eye-to-eye contact during this meeting, " he
said. Hypnotists generally cannot do their work effectively without such
close eye contact. They are very anxious that you look at them as they
speak, as this spokesman demanded throughout the meeting that night. .
At
this point, let us go back to those studies they had with Jill, while her
husband, Howard, was away on that business trip. You will now learn
how they lock you or your loved ones into this trancelike state, prior to
removing the locked-in one temporarily or permanently from relatives and
friends:
First,
they talk about the need to get rid of sin, and they read Bible and Spirit
of Prophecy Quotations; short quotes from here and there. The Quotes are
Good ones. It all sounds good.
Stage
One: there is nice introductory sermonic material, interspersed with many
Bible and Spirit of Prophecy quotations. This material will be as good
as you would find in any worthwhile Bible-Spirit of Prophecy
presentation. This is because it is about our condition and our need, and
the ideals God holds before us in His Written Word. Then comes Stage Two,
which is really a complete switch!
Since
the hearers have found the initial quotations and concepts to be
compatible with historic Adventism, they listen with deepening confidence,
to now learn from the speaker the solutions he offers to the problem. But
his solution is NOT a Bible-Spirit of Prophecy solution! Many of the
hearers do not recognize the changeover, because of the emotional turmoil
that quickly develops, which catches them off guard and helps them say
things and make decisions that lock them into servitude to the LOR
speaker. They get you to admit that you haven't overcome sin yet, all
the while telling you that they have. They ask you, "Would you like
to be part of the perfect church?" He boldly claims that he has
overcome all sin, both hereditary and environmental, and that he is now
living without sin, and that he will never again sin! He uses questions
to catch you. He gets you all emotionally involved so that you cannot
think straight, and then hooks you.
The
speaker asks you questions directly and gets you personally to admit
before the small assembled group that you still struggle with temptations.
These personal admissions begin the emotional turmoil for in public
meetings we are not generally addressed personally and then
emotionally besieged by the one in charge of the meeting! Keep in mind
that the Lorites pack the meeting with their own traveling companions,
which are Adventists captured in other localities. So when the Lorite
leader bears down on you in the meeting, he has many approving people on
his side.
He
gets you to admit that you still struggle with sin; then he quotes the
text about, 'If ye love Me, keep My commandments."
The
speaker then urges upon you, personally, the importance of confessing
your sins. Bible and Spirit of Prophecy texts are used. Again, we have
here the mingling of truth with error, as Satan did at the tree with Eve.
There is no doubt as to the importance of confessing our sins. They are
to be confessed directly to God, and we are told in Scripture that this
is generally to be done in the privacy of our own closets. But the speaker
now comes to a key point in the lock-in procedure:
He
explains that Christ is in heaven and we are on the earth, and that
everything that Christ does in heaven, His true followers here on earth
are to do also. Just as he forgives sin, so we are forgive sin; just as He
mediates for sinners, so we are to mediate for them. Therefore, he says
You must now confess your sins to me! And you must do it right now!
Have
you every wondered exactly what is that strange power that the church of
the dark ages held over the minds of its converts? A reading in history
reveals two interesting qualities about them: (1) the strange grip that
the local priest has had on the minds of his parishioners, and (2) the
peculiar mindset of the rabid loyalist to the cause, who was willing
even to kill in order to obtain the objectives of the organization.
Could
human-to-human confessional be part of the answer to this riddle? What
pattern of worship can more fully separate a man from God than having him
make a human being his confessional and his forgiving atonement? If I
confess my sins to you, you have indeed become my confessional. And
when you pronounce over me the words "I forgive you ,"you
have become my atonement! The sanctuary in heaven has been again cast down
to earth. You have become my christ and my sanctuary! It is at this
point that the enchanted lock-in begins as a person confesses his sins
to the sinner standing before him, who in this case is a representative
of LOR.
At
this, my wife, Jill, answered and said, "Do I have to confess my sins
to you?" She did not bow down before him, then, and begin
confessing her sins. Instead he got them out by repeated Questions!
It
is important that you understand this point clearly: Do not go where error
is being taught. If everything has seemed right so far, and then you learn
that error is beginning to be taught, DO NOT REMAIN one minute after you
learn that it is being taught! Jill should have FLED from the room at that
point! But she did not do so. She lingered at the tree and the serpent
continued to speak to her through his medium. "Hath not God said. .
?" Questions and answers continued onward, until another soul was
caught in a network of error.
God
does not require that you learn everything in the world, read everything
there is to be read, go to all the meetings that are held in your area or
anywhere else for that matter. Just because someone hands you a cassette
tape, does not mean you should listen to it. Far better it is that you
take time alone with your heavenly Father and with His Written Word, and
that you obey everything you read.
He
asked her, "Do you have sins you are struggling with?"
"Well, somewhat," "What about lust?" . . "What
about. . ?" "Is that all? Tell me more!" "What about
lying?" Let's dwell on that for awhile. . " "Have you had
guilt feelings about. . " "What about this? . . What about that?
. . " "Tell me more about your sins. . "
Howard
told me that, later after coming out of the bewitchment; his wife told
him that she had noticed that the Lorite speaker seemed to enjoy listening
to these recitals of sinful conduct by those he was querying about their
temptations. She should know, for she went through the experience of such
a confession herself, and later heard it repeated on others at later
meetings.
After
this business of confessing personal sins to a sinful man has continued
on for a time, the Lorite speaker goes to the next step in the
mind-takeover process. By devious reasoning, he gets Jill to voice his own
sentiments and say that she hates God! This is a concept she did not
before have; he serpentinely places it in her mind and then makes her
vocalize it. Having done so, the enchantment is nearly complete! In
publicly confessing her sins to a sinful mortal, and declaring her hatred
of her loved ones and God, she has repudiated Christ. Before she can
return to him, a devil takes control of her as great pride of
accomplishment is now placed within her for what she has just done. She is
told that she has just entered a new, higher sphere of attainment.
As
he does all this, he keeps going back to the text, "If ye love Me,
keep My commandments." Then he gets you to admit that you really have
hatred for everyone. He does this step by step. First, he told Jill that
since she wronged her children occasionally, therefore she really hated
them. He got her to say that this must be true. "Yes, it must be that
I hate them then." Then, he carefully went through the same step of
Questioning and admission with her regarding her husband, and then her
loved ones, and then her friends;-everyone. Then he went to the final step
and got her to say that she hated God. At that point in the meeting, he
proclaims the solemn pronouncement regarding her: "Now you have
overcome self; now you have the seal of God in your forehead. You have
now become one of the 144,000 and you cannot sin."
This
is fantastic, but true! He brings the novitiate to the point of declaring
a hatred for God, and then WITHOUT having reversed that position (without
having helped that person confess and receive forgiveness of God for that
hatred), he immediately proclaims the God-hater to be a perfected
saint! What condition is more sinful than having decided and declared
everyone and God to be an object of a deep, personal, and lasting hatred?
Hatred is far more deep and abiding than is anger. At the point of having
forced this admission of an attitude not before held, the medium
stops the process of confession with the announcement that full perfection
of character has been achieved by the wretched sinner!
NOW
YOU KNOW how the bewitchment process by the Lorites takes place! Warn
your loved ones at home and in other locations immediately! Talk to them,
write, send copies of this tract! These agents of LOR are traveling all
over North America. Soon they will be in Australia, New Zealand, and
Europe. The Lorites have the money to do all this traveling because they
operate like the Moonies; they work to get not only you but your
money as well. We will later discover that this is why they are so anxious
to push divided Adventist families into divorce.
He
says he has power to forgive sins; he says he is equal to God. He Quotes
the passage, "As we are one with the Father, so we are one in
Christ," and says that therefore he is equal to God. We are
"priests after the order of Melchizidek," he says, therefore
he says we are to do the same work on earth that Christ does in the
heavenly Sanctuary. We on earth are to have all power that Christ has in
heaven; power to hear confessions, forgive sins, and give blessings and
special gifts. After he forgives you, he says that he will bless you with
whatever you would like. Would you like to play the piano; would you like
to sing? He asks you what you would like to do, and then he blesses you
with that gift.
We
are here confronted with a powerful Satanic force. Yet in Christ we are
secure. But we must know what we are dealing with and avoid it! And we
must do all we can to warn our loved ones and acquaintances. Advent believers
are the ones especially being preyed upon by these people. Be on your
guard! Alert fellow believers and church members! We are told in the
Spirit of Prophecy that, under God, one good angel is more powerful than
all the hosts of darkness. But we also know that we are not to toy with
Satanic devices or listen to his messengers. Beware; beware!
Here
is more that this writer was told by Howard:
This
whole thing is mesmerism. Once a person comes under their control, he is
locked in, and it is hard to get him out. They teach that if you don't
accept their doctrines and them as well, you are eternally lost. And
their converts are not permitted to talk to you afterward. They are not
allowed to talk to you because you are lost.
This
makes it much more difficult to help those who have been taken over. As we
noted in the letter, quoted at the beginning of this study, the bewitched
ones are told to separate from family and friends and henceforth stay away
from them.
Women
are an especial object of their interests. They say they have a
"special 5-day school" for the women they catch. A woman
operates it. One of their workers told me, "She is the wisest and
most powerful woman that I know." If I hadn't gotten home when I did,
my wife wouldn't have been there. They wanted her to leave before t got
back-and attend the 5-day school. Then she never would have come back,
for they would have trained her into the idea that I was not safe to be
around. If I had refused to submit when they had tried a brain-changing
session of confession on me, then she would have been told to never
return at all.
Does
that sound like Christianity? It is New Age heathenism, for it is known
that the two founders of LOR have taken New Age course training, so they
could profit by its "mind expanding powers," as well as learn
how to better control the minds of Adventists. And each stopover across
the country to hold another set of meetings yields additional names and
places to visit, where more spells can be cast over unwary Adventists.
Afterward,
Jill told me that she had snapped out of it; sort of like a trance she had
been in. Then she studied the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy for hours,
and totally gave up the LOR church.
Later,
they came to our home one night and we went out to meet them. I told their
leader this: "We have decided that all we need is Jesus Christ, and
we don't need you." (An outstanding reply!] In high anger he said
loudly, "You are LOST!" I replied, "That's your opinion!"
He shot back, "You do not have Jesus Christ! -YOU ARE LOST, eternally
LOST!" Just then Jan, who was in their bus listening to our
conversation, started laughing derisively as he said that we were
eternally lost.
You
may recall that Jan was the girl that had visited friends in Arkansas and
who, upon her return home, seemed so different in personality that
Howard's wife, Jill, become more interested in learning what had happened.
Well, Jan stayed with the Lorite group. She continues to be locked into
it, and is now living and traveling with them, since they frequently take
the locked-in ones with them to insure that they will not be reconverted
to Christianity!
If
you had a close walk with Christ, such as Enoch had, would you laugh at
the thought that someone had just become eternally lost? Jan could do it
because she now has a devil controlling her life. She is no longer a
Christian. Is this an experience that you desire for your son, your
daughter, or another of your loved ones? If you would avoid such a
terrible tragedy, you had better warn your loved ones and every
Seventh-day Adventist you know while there is still time! You have no
way of knowing when these Adventist "moonies" will hold house
meetings in your area or where your relatives and close friends are
living.
While
I was away on that business trip, both my wife and son succumbed to him.
But, after initially meeting him, my teenage daughter refused to have
anything to do with it. Jill couldn't get her to attend any meetings. When
they arrived for a meeting, she would go to the neighbors. Because she did
that, the leader told Jill and my son, "She is an outcast."
Notice
that the daughter had a solid way to resist it all: She refused to speak
with them, listen to them, or have anything to do with them. That is a
lesson for many of us. Fortunately, to date, the Lorites always come in
their own name. They never pretend to be from or associated with
any other denominational or independent Adventist group. This greatly
helps in identifying them from the very beginning.
At
the meeting we had with them after I returned from Atlanta, he insisted
that we have good lighting so he could look into our eyes as he spoke. He
insisted on eye contact during the studies. While in this area, he
visited a nearby san. A man there told me afterward, "I could feel
the strange draw" in him. The man warned me against staring into his
eyes. And he had only seen him for a short time. The evening I returned
from the trip, I noticed that my wife was not doing something that we
had mutually agreed earlier that we would do in our home as a matter of
religious principle. When I asked her why she was not doing it, she
replied, "Oh, I don't need to anymore; I'm in Christ now. I'm
sanctified."
Again,
we come across something that is highly significant. Throughout this life,
I must resist temptation, guard my health, get my proper rest, eat correctly,
avoid junk food, do the work that needs to be done even when I may not
feel like doing it. Life is full of such requirements. All of this would
be impossible without the help of Christ and a determination to maintain
high standards. It is easy to lower one's standards; hard to bring
them back up. You know this as well as I do.
But
then along comes a man who tells me that the battle of obedience and
maintained standards and resisting sin is over! All that is past. I am
perfected now, he informs me; all I need do is just float along wherever
the current of life and my chance impulses may carry me. Henceforth,
whatever I do will be right, for I can never again sin. Such a concept is
destructive DYNAMITE to the Christian experience of one who once was a
humble child of God! It means the demolition of right living in his
thoughts and conduct within a very short time! For he has been taught that
whatever he does naturally will be right. But those are the very
concepts taught by Satan! Carefully read Great Controversy, page 555-556,
and 557:1.
He
says we don't have to follow any kind of dress reform. I asked him
specifically about this, since many of the women with him had dresses
above their knees when seated. He said that was only a test for the early
Adventist Church but it isn't for us today.
He
also said, "Christ is my righteousness now; conduct doesn't matter as
much." I asked him about the health message. His reply was,
"It's all in the mind, so it's not important. "
He
likes to quote a Spirit of Prophecy statement that in the last days the
true people of God will be called "the Lord our Righteousness,"
and therefore this is why they call their church by this name. They also
quote the Jeremiah passages on the same phrase.
Since
they left here, they have already broken up several families. They most
often get the wives and leave the husbands behind. Then Howard told me the
experience of another individual who also came to the meetings. We will
call him Fred:
While
they were here, a young man, Fred, and his fianc went to the meetings.
She became hooked, and nothing he could do could get her out of it. He
studied his way out with the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy, but his fianc
was caught.
So
Fred decided to pretend that he was caught and go along with them for
awhile, still in the hope of rescuing her. So he went to their bus (this
particular Lorite group travels around in a reconverted bus, and the men
and women live in it together], and told him, 'I want to be a part of your
perfect church."
Now,
if these men have any doubt as to whether their followers are all under
their hypnotic influence and fully loyal, they spring a little test on
them every so often. So, in front of all the women standing there in the
bus and out of it, the man suddenly told Fred to take all his clothes off.
Fred decided to brave it through, so he started to do it, and before he
had taken off his shorts, the man told him he could stop; that he had been
sufficiently tested. Then he was allowed to join the group.
That
is an unusual way to determine who is eligible for church membership, is
it not? And to do it in front of the women standing there! If you were a
Christian man or woman and the pastor of your church did this, would you
not immediately quit the church? OF COURSE YOU WOULD! The LOR is not a
Christian organization, and these people, once captured, are no longer
Christians or they would not submit to such indecent suggestions. They
have become enslaved to their LOR leader, and his bidding they will do.
Fred later gave up trying to get her back, and she is still captured along
with the other women in the Lorite group.
A
couple years ago, in one of their church services, one of their
'elders" got up and as a test "to see if all were obedient to
the Holy Spirit and to the church," told them all to strip. You have
to understand that in the LOR church, everyone MUST be obedient to the
will to the church! So they all began to do it with the exception of one
man who refused. And when the women were down to their slips, he said.
"Okay, you can put your clothes back on." That one man who
refused to rake off his clothes in front of the women; what happened to
him? He was kicked out of the church!
Keep
in mind that in the LOR church to obey is to be instantly perfected;
to disobey is to be lost forever. This, plus the power of the enchantment
and the pleasures to be gained by remaining with the Lorites, keep many
from wandering away.
In
contrast, what are the experiences of deep and earnest Christians? Only in
the Word of God can we be certain as to what these experiences should be.
At the entrance to the cave, Elijah fell on his face before God; on the
mount, Moses did the same. The closer that men come to. God, the more
they feel the sinfulness of their own nature. They may, as in the time
after probation closes, live without sin. BUT THEY ARE NOT AWARE OF IT!
They are not bragging about it or even suggesting the possibility that
they might be so living. Instead, they are pleading with God for help
from their enemies. Deeply involved in a Gethsemane experience, they are
not parading their own virtues. They have none, except as they have them
in and through Christ. The closer men come to God, the more they recognize
the sinfulness of sin, the weakness of their own natures, and the urgent
importance of guarding their thoughts and feelings. Trusting fully in the
merits of Jesus alone, they are steadfastly obedient to His Written Word.
Would you read about the personal lives of holy men? Read Isaiah 6 and
Daniel 9. They, who live so near to God, do they boast of their
sinlessness?
In
the life of the real man of God, the Inspired Scriptures are the standard,
not the sayings of men; Jesus is the way, the means, and the life,
not those around them; godliness in every aspect of life is the
standard and the goal, not what others tell them to do.
An
Adventist lady in the east central part of America telephoned this
writer recently and told him a little of her experience.
A
Lorite group had descended on her local Adventist community, and, as you
will note below, her concern was their message more than the attendant
incidents. We were given the name of this Lorite speaker, and it was
different than the one in the preceding narrow escape. Here is what the
present writer was told: They say they have the only true righteousness
by faith message, and that they are the only ones giving the three angels'
messages. They say they are giving the Jones and Waggoner message. And
they quote from Jones and Waggoner, and at first it all sounds okay.
"Jesus will keep you from falling," they say, and then quote
Scripture texts that say just that.
I
went to their meetings, and for a short time was caught by it. They
barrage you with Bible and Spirit of Prophecy texts usually just short
excerpts, and then come after you.
They
say that since Jesus will keep you from falling, you are never to sin
beginning right now. In the meeting they start after you and begin asking
you Questions in front of everybody else. They put the pressure on:
"Do you sin?" If you don't give a reply they want, they shake
their heads, and ask some more questions. Soon you are so emotionally
involved, you can't think straight, what with all those people there
looking at you, doubting you, listening to your words. That night [at
the meeting) they only give you a little time to accept their message,
and if you don't you are eternally lost!
They
say you only have to accept Jesus once for forgiveness of sins. From then
on, you never have to ask for forgiveness again for the rest of your life.
Once you have asked for forgiveness, you are kept from sin thereafter.
The one in charge said that he had not sinned for a certain number of
years; others there said they had not sinned for a certain number of weeks
since their conversion.
They
quote a lot from 1 John. One passage in that book says to watch out for
those who claim to be without sin. But they answer this one by saying they
have been sinners in the past, and therefore "they are sinners,"
but that they are now without sin and will never sin again, so they use
double-talk to answer plain Scripture.
They
quoted 1 John 3:4 and said that now they are no longer sinning because
they automatically keep the law. I told them that that only meant sins
of commission, and then asked them about the verse in James that speaks
about sins of omission (knowing to do right but doing it not). -There are
a lot of things they are omitting to do!
They
keep hitting you with questions. "Are you living without sin?"
"Is there anybody in your church that is having victory over
sin?" And if you don't accept what they have to say, then they cry
out, "You are LOST!"
Wayne
Bent is the head of this whole thing. I have heard one of his taped
sermons. In it he quoted from a lot of Bible and Spirit of Prophecy. He
is especially successful with those separated from the church, because he
says that it is time to drop your membership and get out, since the SDA
church is Babylon. He says the three angels' messages is a call to the SDA
church, and a call to get out of it. But he gets the regular church
members too. The trouble with those people is that they get Adventists
into their group with the message that they are safe and cannot sin.
Then, once in, those people let their guard down and they get into
trouble. Later those same people leave the LOR church, and leave all
religion and God as well.
I
looked up all the Spirit of Prophecy quotations that Bent Quoted, and
found that the context was often different than what he had said. One said
that to be redeemed was to cease from sin. I looked that up, and in the
middle of the paragraph it said that no one should claim sinlessness. I
found more discrepancies like that.
Another
thing is what he says about "propitiation," and the sanctuary,
and our priesthood. He makes himself our saviour from sin. A friend
reporting from the Northwest has collected several incidents that
happened to innocent Adventists in various parts of America. Here is what
he relates:
In
southern Oregon, a group gathered at a house to study together. During the
study those present are asked to give their testimonies. One stands up
and says: "I am the resurrection and the life." Another stands
and exclaims, "I am the bread of life." Still another says,
"No man cometh to the Father but by me. " Then the leader of the
group stands and says, "I AM THAT I AM!"
At
a small independent campmeeting in Ohio, Brother L listens to the speaker
as he smoothly, melodiously tells the people that if they receive
"the gift" of Christ that they will never have to sin again, and
that he himself had not sinned for several years. After the sermon,
Brother L asked the speaker about the doctrines being taught Brother L
is asked to leave the grounds because he disagrees with the speaker. He is
told that he was not to come as a teacher but as one of the disciples to
sit at the master's feet.
When
Brother L would not leave, he was commanded to leave. Then the speaker
finally stated that God had called him, and the other speakers, to stand
between the mount and the congregation this he was making a direct
reference between himself and Moses. He also stated that if the glory of
God should pass through the camp, Brother L would be instantly consumed!
In
Western Montana two men came to share their faith with a small group of
Adventist believers. They told the people if they would accept
"the gift," leave the church, and join this new movement, they
too would never have to sin again. They stated that they were sinless and
ready for translation! When those present asked Questions, they were made
to sound as if they were making excuses for sin. When they would not
accept these messengers and their message, the people were told,
"This is the day of your visitation."
Similar
experiences have happened in California, Washington, Oklahoma, New York,
New Hampshire, Vermont. This was not fanaticism of yesteryear, but of
1988, by a group called "Life Supports" or also known as the
"Lord Our Righteousness Church." Claims are being made by this
group that we are now in the time of the latter rain, the judgment of the
living is now going on, that people at this present moment are either
receiving the mark of the beast or the seal of God, that we can receive
the "gift" and never sin again, that they are called to separate
the tares from the wheat, and the seven last plagues are now falling, and
that the whole world's probation will close before the coming of the
national Sunday Law.
This
group is headed by Wayne Bent with his northern Idaho based headquarters.
Another leader in this "gift" movement is David Mead of
California. As we examine Life Support Ministries, we will see a
striking fulfillment of the words of the Spirit of Prophecy, in which we
are told that this fanaticism would be repeated. It convinces me all the
more that we are on the very edge of the "eternal world." Time
is shorter than any of us realize 'and a world is to be warned. We have
seen that this fanaticism consisted of an extreme view of sanctification,
saying one was sealed, claiming to be sent as teachers and not learners,
and using mesmerism over the people. The warnings are found in many places
such as this one:
"After
the passing of the time in 1844, we had fanaticism of every kind to meet.
Testimonies of reproof were given me to bear to some holding
spiritualistic theories. . Among other views they held that those who were
once sanctified could not sin. Their false teaching was working great harm
to themselves and to others. They were gaining a spiritualistic power over
those who could not see the evil of these beautifully clothed theories. .
The experience of the past will be repeated. In the future, Satan's
superstitions will assume new forms. Errors will be presented in a
pleasing and flattering manner. False theories, clothed with garments of
light, will be presented to God's people. Thus Satan will try to deceive,
if possible, the very elect. Most seducing influences will be exerted;
minds will be hypnotized. "-8 Testimonies, 292-293.
A
Brother M, in the last part of 1988, sent us a letter relating his
experience while connected with life Supports. This man had over a year
of involvement with the men leading out in this group, staying at their
homes and traveling abroad teaching their doctrines, He reveals the
following:
"Because
of the fact that I was a person who hungered and thirsted for
righteousness from the start, and because I was deeply determined that I
would allow God to transform me into the perfect image of His blessed
Son-Jesus, I was attracted to everyone who claimed to have a message that
would facilitate this end in my life. But one after the other of these
men and groups I found, after examining them carefully for a time, that
they were frauds. They were false teachers who were calling disciples
after themselves.'
They
were men, in each case, who would think to usurp the place of Jesus Christ
Himself over His heritage and dictate what men should believe and do. As
this became apparent to me, I would begin to Question why they were
doing or teaching such and such when the Word of God plainly stated
another Position. As I would present my Questions, I would then find that
neither myself nor my Questions were welcome in their camp anymore.
'So
closely will the counterfeit resemble the true that it will be impossible
to distinguish between them except by the Holy Scriptures. By their
testimony every statement and every miracle must be tested." Great
Controversy, 593.
CONTINUE
PART 3