SDA News - President Wilson's Speech

And the dragon was wroth with the woman,

and went to make war with the remnant of her seed,

which keep the commandments of God,

and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 12:17

"Ted N. C. Wilson, leader of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, said Satan was using every means at his disposal to try to destroy the Adventist Church and neutralize its mission of proclaiming Jesus’ soon coming.

Wilson, speaking in a sermon that serves as his annual world pastoral address, said the devil’s tactics include ecumenism, charismatic worship approaches, and attacks on biblical prophetic understanding, and he said he had felt the blows personally in recent weeks with the death of a prematurely born grandson and the discovery that two other grandsons suffer serious health problems.

Wilson repeatedly pointed to the Scriptures and the writings of Ellen G. White, co-founder of the

Adventist Church, as the way to discern God’s will during the 70-minute sermon, which was punctuated with frequent “amens.” At one point he urged Annual Council delegates to make sure that they weren’t reading the Bible upside-down.

“When you read the Bible upside-down, you will get an upside-down understanding,” he said, citing an African saying that he heard on a recent trip.

He singled out the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation as undesirable, saying it clouded the themes and topics of the Bible.

Wilson, ..... listed a number of other ways that he saw the devil seeking to destroy the Adventist Church, including:

• Inspiring a belief that reformation within the church means giving up unique doctrines so that it is easier for people to become Adventists.
• Using tradition and philosophy to destroy faith in the Bible.
• Urging people to move independently of the main body of the church.
• Advancing charismatic and Pentecostal music and worship approaches that focus on church members and those leading out in services rather than on the true worship of God.
• Distracting people with secular activities such as competitive sports, the Internet, the media, financial deals, and materialism.
• Encouraging poor health habits and a lack of respect for God’s natural laws, thereby enfeebling the mind and benumbing the senses.
• Stirring skepticism about the veracity of the scriptural record of the origin of life and early history.
• Spreading spiritualism.
• Promoting ecumenism, or cooperation and better understanding among Christian faiths with the unattainable goal of universal Christian unity.

Wilson strongly cautioned against associating with ecumenical groups.

“Don’t succumb to the temptation to be so cozy with other religious organizations that you fall into the devil’s trap of neutralizing your own effectiveness through unbiblical ecumenical bonds,” he said." ANN