Dr. Desmond Ford, who seems to be the main patron of the new theology, has been teaching that perfect obedience to the law of God is impossible and that the saints will keep on sinning until the coming of Christ. Therefore, the “experience of justification and sanctification continues until glorification,” 2 according to a declaration made by Dr. Ford and a group of Adventist theologians.

Firm believers in the Spirit of Prophecy cannot accept this new teaching. Even if we did not have EGW’s writings, we would understand, by the Bible alone, that the saints must reach perfection of character now, while probation lasts, and that they must “be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” so that, at His coming, He may “find” them (not “make” them) blameless. Read 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Peter 3:14. Therefore, we are in great danger if we overlook the unique or distinctive Adventist belief concerning the close of probation. Read Luke 13:23–25. This should be our great concern now, while the door of mercy is still open:

“Now, while our great High Priest is making the atonement for us, we should seek to become perfect in Christ. Not even by a thought could our Saviour be brought to yield to the power of temptation. Satan finds in human hearts some point where he can gain a foothold; some sinful desire is cherished, by means of which his temptations assert their power. But Christ declared of Himself: ‘The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me’ (John 14:30). Satan could find nothing in the Son of God that would enable him to gain the victory. He kept His Father’s commandments, and there was no sin in Him that Satan could use to his advantage. This is the condition in which those must be found who shall stand in the time of trouble.” 3

And this is the condition in which Christ will “find” (not “make” but “find”) the saints at His coming. Historic Adventists will always bear in mind that (a) character perfection must be reached before the coming of Jesus, and even (b) before the latter rain can be poured out.

“Not one of us will ever receive the seal of God while our characters have one spot or stain upon them. It is left with us to remedy the defects in our characters, to cleanse the soul temple of every defilement. Then the latter rain will fall upon us as the early rain fell upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost.” 4

“When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.” 5

If we are perfectly aware of these things, there may still be a second problem: A theoretical belief of the truth is not enough. We must be sanctified by the truth that we profess. Unless we live up to the whole present truth that God has revealed to us, He cannot use us.

It is not enough for us to be SDAs, and to believe the truth and nothing but the truth, and to proclaim the threefold message enthusiastically through the mass media. We need an experience which we often overlook.

“God calls for a work to be done by Seventh-day Adventists that I need not define. Unless the work is first done in their own hearts, all the specific directions that might be given to point out their course of action will be labor in vain. Read the second chapter of James. Practice the truth in your daily life and you will know the work that the Lord has given you to do.” 6

The rebuke of the True Witness to the Laodiceans has to do more with our works than with our doctrines. Read Revelation 3:14–18 and Testimonies, vol 1, p. 128.

If we come short of meeting the conditions. . . .

“Christ longs to work mightily by His Spirit for the conviction and conversion of sinners. But, according to His divine plan, the work must be performed through the instrumentality of His church; and her members have so far departed from Him that He cannot accomplish His will through them. He chooses to work by means, yet the means employed must be in harmony with His character.” 7

To remedy this situation, the Lord sent a precious message to His people in 1888 (TM 91, 92). It was a message of reformation. If it had been received, Sister White would not have written three years later:

“The church has long been contented with little of the blessing of God; they have not felt the need of reaching up to the exalted privileges purchased for them at infinite cost. Their spiritual strength has been feeble, their experience of a dwarfed and crippled character, and they are disqualified for the work the Lord would have them to do.” 8

Should we expect the large SDA Church to call a halt to her steady retreat toward Egypt (5T 217), make a U-turn, and follow Christ toward heavenly Canaan? The prophetic picture does not permit such a conclusion.

It grieves us very much to read that, to the very end, apostasy and deception of almost every kind proliferate “in the church.” “The Spirit of God, which prompts to reproof, is trampled underfoot, while the servants of Satan triumph. God is dishonored, the truth made of none effect.” 9 Ezekiel 9 shows what will happen when the seven last plagues are poured out.

“Here [in Ezekiel 9] we see that the church—the Lord’s sanctuary—was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God. . . . The abominations for which the faithful ones were sighing and crying were all that could be discerned by finite eyes, but by far the worst sins, those which provoked the jealousy of the pure and holy God, were unrevealed. . . . Their wicked course [God] will tolerate no longer, and in His wrath He deals with them without mercy.” 10

This prophetic statement shows that, until the very end of probation, the large SDA church organization remains unreformed. Not a few good Adventists hope to see the church, i.e., the large body of Advent believers, purified during the Sunday law crisis, but we can see no such thing in the prophetic picture. Here is another Spirit of Prophecy explanation of Ezekiel 9:p>

“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 ... 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 slaughtering weapon in his hand. . . . Those who receive the pure mark of truth, wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost, represented by a mark by the man in linen, are those ‘that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done’ in the church. Their love for purity and the honor and glory of God is such, and they have so clear a view of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, that they are represented as being in agony, even sighing and crying. Read the ninth chapter of Ezekiel.

“But the general slaughter of all those who do not thus see the wide contrast between sin and righteousness, and do not feel as those do who stand in the counsel of God and receive the mark, is described in the order to the five men with slaughtering weapons.” 11

Again we must say that, in the main denomination, by the way that her condition at the close of probation is described, we cannot see the needed reformation that many believers hope to see.

There is to be a reformation in answer to God’s call, not in the main body of Adventists, but among a faithful remnant (2SM 380), where the tares are separated from the wheat. The distinction between these two groups, the church and the remnant, is clearly shown in the two statements that we just read. This distinction comes to view, again, in a parallel description of the two classes when the door of probation is about to close:

“The days will come when the righteous will be stirred to zeal for God because of the abounding iniquity. . . . But in the hour of the church’s greatest danger most fervent prayer will be offered in her behalf by the faithful remnant. . . . They will be jealous for the honor of God.” 12

“Thank God, all will not be rocked to sleep in the cradle of carnal security. There will be faithful ones who will discern the signs of the times. While a large number professing present truth will deny their faith by their works, there will be some who will endure unto the end.” 13

The two groups are described as going in two opposite directions. Read 5T 217 and 2T 594–596.

Here are a few more parallel descriptions of the two classes of Advent believers:

“If we refuse to let our light shine for the Master, if we do not do the works of God [compare with TM 125, 175; 5T 189], others will do that very work which we might have done and could have done, but refused to do. When we cease to fulfill our mission [compare again with 5T 189; TM 125, 175], when the candlestick refuses to reflect light, and the great truths committed to us individually in trust for the world, are not given to them, then the candlestick will be removed. . . . Another will be placed in his stead and will shine.” 14

“But, oh, sad picture! those who do not submit to the influence of the Holy Spirit soon lose the blessings received. . . . And Christ says unto them, ‘Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.’ He will take His Holy Spirit from the church, and give it to others who will appreciate it.” 15

“The Lord will give His message to those who have walked in accordance with the light they have had, and will recognize them as true and faithful, according to the measurement of God. These men will take the place of those who, having light and knowledge, have walked not in the way of the Lord, but in the imagination of their own unsanctified hearts.” 16

These are the true Seventh-day Adventists who will be qualified to give the final warning to the world.

“The world can only be warned by seeing those who believe the truth sanctified through the truth, acting upon high and holy principles, showing in a high, elevated sense, the line of demarcation between those who keep the commandments of God and those who trample them under their feet.” 17

“God still has a people in Babylon; and before the visitation of His judgments these faithful ones must be called out, that they partake not of her sins and ‘receive not of her plagues.’ Hence the movement symbolized by the angel coming down from heaven, lightening the earth with his glory and crying mightily with a strong voice, announcing the sins of Babylon. In connection with his message the call is heard: ‘Come out of her, My people.’ These announcements, uniting with the third angel’s message, constitute the final warning to be given to the inhabitants of the earth.” 18

The people who will give the warning are the “others” to whom the Spirit of God is transferred, as we just read in RH July 16, 1895, and it is the presence of the Holy Spirit in their midst that enables them, now, to carry on the work of revival and reformation (ChS 42), while the large class, from whom the Holy Spirit is withdrawn, remains unreformed. These “others” form the “faithful remnant” (5T 524) who are praying in behalf of the “church,” which, in this case, is the main denomination. This faithful remnant, at the end of the time of probation, is described as follows:

“The remnant church will be brought into great trial and distress. Those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will feel the ire of the dragon and his hosts. Satan numbers the world as his subjects, he has gained control of the apostate churches; but here is a little company that are resisting his supremacy.” 19

A comparison of 3T 266, 267 and 1T 210–212 with 5T 472–473 and PK 727–728 shows that prophecy visualizes two different but coexistent churches. The unreformed church which will be the first to be hit by the wrath of God cannot be the commandment-keeping church which will be protected against the wrath of God to be poured out in the seven last plagues. If we cannot see this evident and striking distinction, we would be inclined to think that Sister White contradicted herself.

Not only those few statements just mentioned but many more prophetic references point out the distinction between the two coexistent Adventist companies in the last days. An important question may be asked: Will the two companies stay together, in one organization, until the door of probation is closed and the plagues begin to fall under the wrath of God? Prophecy gives a very clear answer—No! The separation must be completed before the seal of deliverance can be received.

The prophesied shaking to take place in the large SDA Church does not shake out the unfaithful or unreformed majority (see proportion in ChS 41); on the contrary: it removes the small, faithful remnant before the large class of professed Advent believers, still organized as a “church,” and still believing to be “the Lord’s sanctuary,” can receive the “stroke of the wrath of God” (5T 211). They will actually be separated even before the seal of God can be applied on their foreheads. Read again 3T 266, 267. This is what will happen to these sighing and crying ones:

“The angel is to place a mark upon the forehead of all who are separated from sin and sinners, and [then] the destroying angel will follow, to slay utterly both old and young.” 20

This small minority, among the 144,000 candidates for the seal of God, can only sigh and cry “for all the abominations that be done in the church” (3T 266, 267); but they are powerless to disfellowship the great majority. The minority cannot put out the majority. Therefore, they must withdraw from the church that they love while the judgment is still going on.

“The time of the judgment is a most solemn period, when the Lord gathers His own from among the tares [in this case not the tares but the wheat is removed from the field]. Those who have been members of the same family are separated. A mark is placed upon the righteous. . . . The tares and wheat are now commingled, but then the one hand that alone can separate them will give to everyone his true position. . . . The obedient are called the just; they are drawn to the holy magnet, Jesus Christ. . . . The righteous are those who keep the commandments of God, and they [being a small minority] will be forever separated from the [great majority of] disobedient and unrighteous who trampled underfoot the law of God. The pure ore and the dross will no longer commingle.” 21

“The time is not far distant when the test will come to every soul. The mark of the beast will be urged upon us. Those who have step by step yielded to worldly demands and conformed to worldly customs will not find it a hard matter to yield to the powers that be, rather than subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death. The contest is between the commandments of God and the commandments of men. In this time the gold will be separated from the dross [not the dross from the gold] in the church.” 22

Another important question may come up at this stage of our discussion: If there is to be a shaking which will remove the gold from the dross immediately before the seal of God is applied on the living saints, during the Sunday law crisis, why should we not all stay in the church, the main denomination, siding with the sighing and crying ones, and wait there until the final test comes and then separate?

Answer: There is a parallel be-tween the experience of the faithful ones in Babylon (the fallen churches) and the faithful ones in the unreformed SDA Church organization. As the true followers of Christ in Babylon will leave the fallen churches before the plagues are poured out (Rev. 18:4; GC 390), so will the honest ones who are sighing and crying in the Adventist Church leave the organization before the close of probation. But this is the end, the final stage, of the shaking process. The beginning for the faithful ones in Babylon was in 1844; and for the sighing and crying ones in the unreformed SDA Church, the sifting process begins a long time before the end of probation. The beginning of the shaking process in the Adventist Church is unrelated to the Sunday-decree/final test. E. G. White writes:

“The days are fast approaching when there will be great perplexity and confusion. . . . Those who have trusted to intellect, genius, or talent will not then stand at the head of rank and file. . . . The Lord has faithful servants, who in the shaking, testing time will be disclosed to view. . . . God will work a work in our day that but few anticipate. He will raise up and exalt among us those who are taught rather by the unction of His Spirit than by the outward training of scientific institutions. . . . The separation causes pain and bitterness to both parties. It is the variance which Christ declares that He came to bring. But the converted will feel a continual longing desire that their friends shall forsake all for Christ, knowing that, unless they do, there will be a final and eternal separation.” 23

How do we know that this is an early stage, or rather the beginning, of the shaking process? Well, the text says that this separation takes place at a time when it is not too late to seek repentance and conversion. At the end of the sifting process, under the Sunday-decree/final test, we will have no more chance to search our hearts and find acceptance before God if we have neglected to do that before (COL 412; 9T 97).

For this reason, the shaking described in EW 271, being caused by opposition to the Laodicean message or counsel, must come at the beginning of the sifting process, not at the end, because at the end, under the final test, this counsel or message has no application among those who have known the truth (9T 97; COL 412).

Further prophetic references to the early stage of the shaking, when we can still seek repentance and conversion, read as follows:

“O that all might repent and do their first works. When the churches do this, they will love God supremely and their neighbors as themselves. Ephraim will not envy Judah, and Judah will not vex Ephraim. Divisions will then be healed.” 24

“In these last days, there are arising strange fallacies and man-made theories which God declares shall be broken in pieces. . . . [Isa. 8:11–16] . . . Here are plainly represented two distinct parties, formed from a company that was once united. The members of one of these parties are in resistance to the will of God. They have taken themselves from the side of the loyal and true, and are now resisting the warnings of the Spirit of God. To the obedient the Lord will be ‘for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel.’ . . . Notwithstanding all their knowledge of the Word of God, all their light, and their position as expositors of Bible-truth, many shall ‘stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.’ The ruin of this class is certain.” 25

“The time will come when it must be said of the impenitent, ‘Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone.’ Will the church see where she has fallen?” 26

Opposition to the counsel of the True Witness to Laodicea (Rev. 3:18) seems to go hand in hand with the acceptance of false teachings to cause the early prophesied shaking. Sister White writes:

“God’s Spirit has illuminated every page of Holy Writ, but there are those upon whom it makes little impression, because it is imperfectly understood. When the shaking comes, by the introduction of false theories, these surface readers, anchored nowhere, are like shifting sand.” 27

“There will arise just such ones [as mentioned in 5T 295] all along, and many more of them, claiming to have new light, which is a side issue, an entering wedge. The widening will increase until there is a breach made between those who accept these views and those who believe the third angel’s message.” 28

We believe that we are living in the days of the early stage or stages of the prophesied shaking. The new position of the church toward the Law of God when absolute freedom of conscience to take part in war is now official, the New Theology with its doctrinal ravages, and the rejection of Christ’s counsel to Laodicea is causing a consequent lowering of Christian standards. These abominations demand a strong reaction on the part of all reform-minded Adventists.

The apostasy in the Catholic Church became so outrageous that it demanded a reformation. So, God aroused men and movements in different parts of Europe.

“The Waldenses witnessed for God centuries before the birth of Luther. Scattered over many lands, they planted the seeds of the Refor-mation that began in the time of Wycliffe, grew broad and deep in the days of Luther, and is to be carried forward to the close of time.” 29

Those reformers, and many others that are mentioned in The Great Controversy, did not form one united organization, yet God used them as instruments in His hands. They did not constitute an organic whole, but they sympathized with each other, and the Waldenses were glad to cooperate with them. They did not have a perfect understanding of the truth, and they could not see eye to eye on many issues, but they and the churches that they established were the light of the world in those days, although they were divided. Under those circumstances, each one of those reformers and each one of those reform churches was responsible for the light that each one had received. So, today, Christ’s followers in Babylon are responsible for the light that they have (GC 390); the sighing and crying ones in the Adventist Church are responsible for the light that they have (3T 266, 267); the self-supporting ministries that are trying, by the help of God, to uphold historic Adventism are responsible for the light that they have; and we, in the SDA Reform Movement, are doing our best to represent the light that we have received and for which we are responsible. This is one of the lessons that we should learn from the past. Read GC 343, first paragraph.

After we have read those prophetic statements (with reference to the shaking process, to the division among the Adventist people, and to the existence of two distinct companies or parties of Adventists,) the Reform Movement clearly sees the need to put into practice the reformatory aspects of Revelation 3:18, 19, Isaiah 58 and Joel 2.

“Though they [the people mentioned in Isa. 58:1] are called the people of God, the house of Jacob, though they profess to be linked with God in obedience and fellowship, they are far from Him. . . . With no words of flattery must the message be given them. ‘Show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.’ Show them where they are making a mistake. Set their danger before them. Tell them of the sins they are committing, while at the same time they pride themselves on their righteousness.” 30

As in Revelation 3:18–20 so also in Isaiah 58. There is a clear distinction between the bearers of the message and those to whom the message must be given. The bearers of the message are de-scribed as follows:

“Here [in verses 8–14] are given the characteristics of those who shall be reformers, who will bear the banner of the third angel’s message, those who avow themselves God’s commandment-keeping people. . . . Their names are registered in heaven as reformers, restorers, as raising the foundations of many generations.” 31

In our relationship with the brethren of the self-supporting ministries, perhaps we cannot now see everything in the same light, but we hope that God will send more light to all of us, and He will certainly bring together into one fold all honest and faithful believers in the threefold message.

“Like will attract like. Those who are drinking from the same fountain of blessing will draw nearer together. Truth dwelling in the hearts of believers will lead to blessed and happy assimilation. Thus will be answered the prayer of Christ that His disciples might be one even as He is one with the Father. For this oneness every truly converted heart will be striving.” 32

Let us all pray that this happy day may not be far off.