Have We Forgotten?
“Nothing to Fear for the Future, Except As We Shall Forget ...”
“We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.”—Ellen G. White, Letter 32, 1892, published in the Daily Bulletin of the General Conference, January 29, 30, 1893, pp. 22-24.
It’s a wonderful quote, but what is it talking about? It’s specifically talking about church organization, because it contains 22 instances of “organization,” “organizations,” “disorganization,” “organized,” and “disorganized.”
If you’ve heard of the quote before but didn’t know it was talking about church organization, could it remotely be possible that we’ve forgotten something?
Here is one intriguing excerpt from this letter:
“Let none entertain the thought, however, that we can dispense with organization. It has cost us much study and many prayers for wisdom that we know God has answered, to erect this structure. It has been built up by His direction, through much sacrifice and conflict. Let none of our brethren be so deceived as to attempt to tear it down, for you will thus bring in a condition of things that you do not dream of.”
People who join the Seventh-day Adventist Church pledge acceptance to a thirteen-part baptismal or membership vow. Number 9 states in part the following:
9. Do you believe in Church organization?—Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual, 2015 edition, p. 46.
But there are aspects to church organization that aren’t well known. Take for example these New Testament verses quoted by James White in 1854 in an editorial entitled “Gospel Order”:
“Yea, all of you be subject one to another” (1 Peter 5:5).
“Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God” (Ephesians 5:21).
“In honour preferring one another” (Romans 12:10).
“In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Philippians 2:3).
“And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” (1 Corinthians 14:32).
Nowhere are we told that we must submit to a single authoritarian figure in the church, but we are to submit to the collective decisions of the entire church, as long as they do not conflict with the Bible itself. This simple concept was endorsed by no less than Jesus Himself: “And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican” (Matthew 18:17).
We can see this concept playing out in Acts 15, when a council was held at Jerusalem to determine whether Gentiles had to be circumcised in order to be saved. The council’s decision was that they did not have to, which definitely agreed with Scripture since circumcision for Gentiles in the Old Testament was always voluntary, never required.
In the church at Antioch the consideration of the question of circumcision resulted in much discussion and contention. Finally, the members of the church, fearing that a division among them would be the outcome of continued discussion, decided to send Paul and Barnabas, with some responsible men from the church, to Jerusalem to lay the matter before the apostles and elders. There they were to meet delegates from the different churches and those who had come to Jerusalem to attend the approaching festivals. Meanwhile all controversy was to cease until a final decision should be given in general council. This decision was then to be universally accepted by the different churches throughout the country. ...
The four servants of God were sent to Antioch with the epistle and message that was to put an end to all controversy; for it was the voice of the highest authority upon the earth.
The council which decided this case was composed of apostles and teachers who had been prominent in raising up the Jewish and Gentile Christian churches, with chosen delegates from various places. Elders from Jerusalem and deputies from Antioch were present, and the most influential churches were represented. The council moved in accordance with the dictates of enlightened judgment, and with the dignity of a church established by the divine will. As a result of their deliberations they all saw that God Himself had answered the question at issue by bestowing upon the Gentiles the Holy Ghost; and they realized that it was their part to follow the guidance of the Spirit.
The entire body of Christians was not called to vote upon the question. The “apostles and elders,” men of influence and judgment, framed and issued the decree, which was thereupon generally accepted by the Christian churches. Not all, however, were pleased with the decision; there was a faction of ambitious and self-confident brethren who disagreed with it. These men assumed to engage in the work on their own responsibility. They indulged in much murmuring and faultfinding, proposing new plans and seeking to pull down the work of the men whom God had ordained to teach the gospel message. From the first the church has had such obstacles to meet and ever will have till the close of time.—Ellen G. White, Acts of the Apostles, pp. 190, 196, 197.
It is these Bible passages and simple concepts upon which the Seventh-day Adventist teaching is based, that “the General Conference Session, and the General Conference Executive Committee between Sessions” is “the highest ecclesiastical authority, under God, among Seventh-day Adventists.”—Church Manual, p. 29. A representative council of the entire world church must logically be a higher authority than a representative council of only a region of the church.
Didn’t know this before? Sound foreign? Not totally comfortable with these New Testament ideas? Well then, just maybe we have forgotten how the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history. Just maybe we do have something to fear after all.
Keep reading. Make sure you’ve at least read how the above concepts are a safeguard against fanaticism, and “Eternal Purpose, Grand Design.”