Are You A Protestant?

Christ was a protestant.

He protested against the formal worship of the Jewish nation, who rejected the counsel of God against themselves. He told them that they taught for doctrines the commandments of men, and that they were pretenders and hypocrites. Like whited sepulchers they were beautiful without, but within full of impurity and corruption.

The Reformers date back to Christ and the apostles. They came out and separated themselves from a religion of forms and ceremonies. Luther and his followers did not invent the reformed religion. They simply accepted it as presented by Christ and the apostles. The Bible is presented to us as a sufficient guide; but the pope and his workers remove it from the people as if it were a curse, because it exposes their pretensions and rebukes their idolatry. {Review and Herald June 1, 1886}

The Spirit of Prophecy quote above shows us the fruit of a true Righteousness by Faith experience. One who is truly in love with Christ will speak for Christ. Has the blood of Christ been placed on the door of your heart? If so, then you cannot and will not be silent to sin. For this is the reason why Christ came. To save his people FROM their sins. Not in their sins. And how can they be saved from their sins if you and I don’t tell them the truth? A heart where Christ dwells can never be silent to sin. My heart aches as I see how far removed we are from the Spirit of Christ.

Christ protested against sin in the church. Do you? Or are we more concerned with being politically correct or not offending anyone?

Was Jesus politically correct when he turned over the tables of the moneychangers and rebuked those who had turned the church into a den of thieves and robbers? Was John the Baptist politically correct by calling the Scribes and Pharisees a “generation of vipers”?

Faith doesn’t worry about being politically correct or offending someone. Faith is not concerned with consequences or results.

Faith bears fruit in action regardless of the end result. Because faith is solely based on obedience to the Word of God.

Notice the following quotation by the pen of Inspiration:

If God abhors one sin above another, of which His people are guilty, it is doing nothing in case of an emergency. Indifference and neutrality in a religious crisis is regarded of God as a grievous crime and equal to the very worst type of hostility against God. {Vol 3 Testimonies 280.3}

1 Timothy 5:20 says, “Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.” According to this scripture, public sin should be rebuked publicly. Private sin is to be rebuked privately.

Matt. 18:15 “Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone” Have you been faithful in fulfilling these scriptures?

The forerunner of Christ’s first advent was a very plain-spoken man.

He rebuked sin, and called things by their right names. He laid the ax at the root of the tree. He thus addressed one class of professed converts who came to be baptized of him in Jordan: “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance. . . . And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” {Vol. 1 Testimonies 321.1}

In this fearful time, just before Christ is to come the second time, God’s faithful preachers will have to bear a still more pointed testimony than was borne by John the Baptist. A responsible, important work is before them; and those who speak smooth things, God will not acknowledge as His shepherds. A fearful woe is upon them. {Vol. 1 Testimonies 321.2}

Didn’t John the Baptist fulfill the duty of a protestant when he told Herod that he was breaking the law of God by committing adultery in Matt. 14:3,4.

Didn’t Martin Luther fulfill his protestant duty when he nailed the 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenburg that began the PROTESTANT Reformation?

Jesus, John the Baptist, and Martin Luther protested sin no matter where they were. And we should do likewise. Whether you are in your home, in a church board meeting, or at work. We have a responsibility to be our brother’s keeper and to share the truth in love.

All over America we see protests happening for various movements such as abortion rights, the LGBT community, human rights, and political policy.

Are these protests to be our mission? No. Seventh Day Adventists are to be protesting to the world the sins of mankind that crucified a dead and risen Savior.

SDA’s are to protest against the man of sin and the consequences of breaking God’s Holy Law by pen, voice, and action. Are you PROTESTING ?

The question may come to mind, what is Protestantism? Or what does it mean to be a protestant?
Protestantism sets the power of conscience above the magistrate, and the authority of the word of God above the visible church. In the first place, it rejects the civil power in divine things, and says with the prophets and apostles, ‘We must obey God rather than man.’ {Great Controversy 204.1}

In its simplest form, Protestantism says the Bible is the one true authority in the church. It is above everything.

The Bible is above the SDA church manual, General Conference church policy, your pastor, and the pope!
Why is this important? Because we are living in a time when Seventh Day Adventist representative B.B. Beach gave a gold medal to Pope Paul VI. This is recorded in RH, Aug 11, 1977.

Should protestants who believe the papacy to be the antichrist (little horn) of Daniel 7 and 8, the beast of Revelation 13 and 14, and Babylon, the mother of all harlots of Revelation 17 unite with Rome?

“It is a backsliding church that lessens the distance between itself and the papacy.” Ellen White, Signs, Feb. 19, 1894.

October 31, 2017 has been designated as the “Death of Protestantism”.

Professed protestants of the Lutheran church will be meeting with Pope Francis to sign a document to say that the PROTEST is over.

Are you going to allow the protest to end? Regardless of what the General Conference chooses to do, we have a responsibility to give the trumpet a certain sound and call sin by its right name.

Now is the time for us to revive the protest against sin in the SDA church and against Rome.

The first Amendment of our Constitution states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. This amendment will be repudiated by the “mark of the beast” in the form of a National Sunday Law.

This is still yet future, but we can see the stage being set by President Donald Trump. President Trump has stated that he wants to destroy the Johnson Amendment. The Johnson Amendment is a provision in the U.S. tax code that prohibits all 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates. If Donald Trump is successful in destroying the Johnson Amendment the union of church and state will be closer to completion, because church organizations will be able to financially support their desired political candidate which in turn can lead to his potential re-election since he has promised to stand side by side with catholics and promote catholic values. He has also promised evangelicals a voice on political policy.

While the Protestant world is by her attitude making concessions to Rome, let us arouse to comprehend the situation and view the contest before us in its true bearings. Let the watchmen now lift up their voice and give the message which is present truth for this time.

Let us show the people where we are in prophetic history and seek to arouse the spirit of true Protestantism, awaking the world to a sense of the value of the privileges of religious liberty so long enjoyed. {Vol 5 Testimonies 716.2}

Are you going to stand by and watch your religious liberties be taken away without taking action? These recent findings should startle every student of Bible Prophecy and should trigger a desire to engage in evangelism and soul winning efforts because time is almost up.

Are you ready to go to work for the master?

But how should we go about doing this work?

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 2 Tim. 3:5
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Ephesians 5:11

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. Romans 16:17

Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. 2 Thessalonians 3:6

Speaking of the 144,000 Revelation 14:4 says, These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.

Martin Luther was a priest and He resigned from His position in the church. Are you willing to follow JESUS wherever he leads even if you have to resign from your position in the church?

The Sanhedrin had rejected Christ’s message and was bent upon His death; therefore Jesus departed from Jerusalem, from the priests, the temple, the religious leaders, the people who had been instructed in the law, and turned to another class to proclaim His message, and to gather out those who should carry the gospel to all nations. {Desire of Ages 232.1}

As the light and life of men was rejected by the ecclesiastical authorities in the days of Christ, so it has been rejected in every succeeding generation.

Again and again the history of Christ’s withdrawal from Judea has been repeated. When the Reformers preached the word of God, they had no thought of separating themselves from the established church; but the religious leaders would not tolerate the light, and those that bore it were forced to seek another class, who were longing for the truth. In our day few of the professed followers of the Reformers are actuated by their spirit. Few are listening for the voice of God, and ready to accept truth in whatever guise it may be presented. Often those who follow in the steps of the Reformers are forced to turn away from the churches they love, in order to declare the plain teaching of the word of God. And many times those who are seeking for light are by the same teaching obliged to leave the church of their fathers, that they may render obedience. {Desire of Ages 232.2}

God calls for consecrated workers who will be true to Him–humble men who see the need of evangelistic work and do not draw back but do each day’s work faithfully, relying upon God for help and strength in every emergency.

The message is to be taken up by those who love and fear God. Lay not your burden upon any conference. Go forth, and, as evangelists, in a humble way present a “Thus saith the Scriptures.”–Letter 43, 1905. {Evangelism 24.3}

It is time that church members understood that everywhere there is a work to be done in the Lord’s vineyard. No one is to wait for a regular process before they make any efforts. They should take up the work right where they are.

There should be many at work in what are called “irregular lines.” If one hundred laborers would step out of the “regular lines,” and take up self-sacrificing work, such as Brother Shireman has done, souls would be won to the Lord. And the workers would understand by experience what it means to be laborers together with God. {Spalding and Magan 195.5}

Ellen White refers to “IRREGULAR LINES” as self supporting workers and “REGULAR LINES” as conference workers.

She states that 100 workers should step out of conference lines and into self-supporting lines. Clearly, this is due to apostasy and ungodly men retarding the progress of God’s work. Notice the following:

The voice from Battle Creek, which has been regarded as authority in counseling how the work should be done, is no longer the voice of God.–17MR 185 (1896). {Last Day Events 50.2}

It has been some years since I have considered the General Conference as the voice of God.–17MR 216 (1898). {LDE 50.3}

That these men should stand in a sacred place, to be as the voice of God to the people, as we once believed the General Conference to be–that is past.–GCB April 3, 1901, p. 25. {Last Day Events 50.4}

Ellen White lost confidence in the leading men in her day and have things gotten any better? There is work to be done, but in order to accomplish this work free from Jesuits and free from men who have no respect for the for the work of God.

It is wise to follow the order of Christ and John the Baptist in self-supporting work. Now is the time to separate from sin and apostasy, which can mean separation from the church you grew up in or have been attending if they are in apostasy, even if it is a Seventh Day Adventist.

There is need of more self-supporting workers, self-supporting ministries, and self-supporting churches. So that “man” cannot get in the way and retard the progress of God’s Work.

Jesus first public sermon was outside of the synagogue as were many of His sermons. Jesus had a self-supporting ministry. John the Baptist had every right to go to the school of the rabbis, but did not because of the corruption of the priesthood in His day. John had a self-supporting ministry.

The work of John the Baptist, and the work of those who in the last days go forth in the spirit and power of Elijah to arouse the people from their apathy, are in many respects the same. His work is a type of the work that must be done in this age. Christ is to come the second time to judge the world in righteousness. The messengers of God who bear the last message of warning to be given to the world, are to prepare the way for Christ’s second advent, as John prepared the way for his first advent. In this preparatory work, “every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain;” for history is to be repeated, and once again “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” {Southern Watchman, March 21, 1905 par. 10}

Now is the time for God’s people to show themselves true to principle. When the religion of Christ is most held in contempt, when His law is most despised, then should our zeal be the warmest and our courage and firmness the most unflinching. To stand in defense of truth and righteousness when the majority forsake us, to fight the battles of the Lord when champions are few–this will be our test. At this time we must gather warmth from the coldness of others, courage from their cowardice, and loyalty from their treason. {Vol 5 Testimonies 136}

The greatest want of the world is the want of men–men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are 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 will stand for the right though the heavens fall. {Education 57.3}

The true people of God, who have the spirit of the work of the Lord and the salvation of souls at heart, will ever view sin in its real, sinful character. They will always be on the side of faithful and plain dealing with sins which easily beset the people of God.

Especially in the closing work for the church, in the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand who are to stand without fault before the throne of God, will they feel most deeply the wrongs of God’s professed people.

This is forcibly set forth by the prophet’s illustration of the last work under the figure of the men each having a slaughter weapon in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side. “And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.”

A true protestant will be “sealed” because he/she will sigh and cry (PRAY & PROTEST) for the abominations that are done in the church.

Will you be sealed?

The answer as to whether you will be sealed is partially determined by whether or not you will sigh and cry for the abominations in the church?

Will you sigh and cry?