Beloved
members and staff at Loma Linda University Church,
beloved Brethren and Sisters within God’s true and
living Seventh-day Adventist church:
Abstract:
This letter is about cancellation of my formal membership on the church books based upon considerations that have to do with what I believe is forgotten, undervalued, or never discovered aspects, within our beloved SDA church, of, most especially, the first three commandments and the impact of that state of affairs upon the security of each of our families and each of our children.
I suggest that the solutions to this sad state of affairs is within the reach of each one of us, and, as well, for each one of our churches. However, the solutions will not come to any of us by remaining passive and doing nothing about it. We need to make ourselves aware and then do whatever God is guiding each of us to do. We also need to learn to respect the boundaries between ourselves, most especially the boundaries around each of our family units.
I am honored to be, and to remain, One among the real sentient living members constituting the Loma Linda University Church. The quality of that membership is, or should be, 100% under the control of our Creator and in that membership I can be, and feel, secure.
Conversing with Marvin
Ponder re my thoughts and my questions re my formal
membership at LLUC, as well as listening to the masterly, pertinent, and very down to
earth messages brought me from the preacher’s pulpit by Randy Roberts, makes me
love this church and to be ever more proud of much of what it stands for. Then
there are the Second Look Seminars with Paul Giem and the many other options of
Sabbath Schools on Sabbath mornings, which add to me even more value and
feelings of belonging. Not to mention oh so many other blessings within our
church. Thank you all for being you and
for doing what you do!
Being part of this church,
where I am allowed to be me and to do what I do while building upon the dreams
our Creator God is putting in my heart and upon my mind, makes my life
meaningful and rewarding beyond that which words can express. Walking along the
Way towards heaven together with each and all in God’s Seventh-day Adventist
Church is to me a thrilling, sometimes lonely, adventure. And yes, often enough
the thrills and challenges are not of a kind I would have consciously chosen
for myself had I only known well enough, and far enough, in advance in order to
make another choice.
At this point in my life I am ready to make what is to me a most important choice. I am ready to take the leap of faith across the chasm. I want to entrust my full weight upon the “green cord” referenced by our beloved pioneer and prophet Ellen Gould White:
I am transferring my formal membership to the books kept in heaven. I have no doubts that those
who keep the books of membership in heaven, God’s book of Life, knows what I am
doing and that they keep an accurate account of every step I take from day to
day. Accordingly, there is no need for keeping my name in any church roll, and
no need for sending my name anywhere at all. All I am asking you to do is to please cancel my formal membership at LLUC.
Why?
I am perceiving ever more
clearly the distinctions between me and between my names. I am not my name. My
names are my property. Just the same, God is not nature; nature is God’s
property. God created nature. It is His from the beginning. Ownership finds its
source at the beginning of each thing. Names are titles, and titles are names.
Before ownership there must be a title, a name.
Accordingly I find that the
very first words in the Hebrew Genesis may be translated: “In the beginning God
created the names and the substance.” Likewise: I am a living being, substance.
I see no reason for accrediting or entrusting anyone but my Creator with the
title to my name. Accordingly, I am whom I am, and I may be whom I will be, and
my name is written in heaven where it is no doubt also encoded in the DNA of my
every cell by the One who designed and shaped my physical being from the
beginning of time.
The name of mine that has been written in the church books by men and women has little or nothing to do with the reality of who I am. I feel honored though, having had my name listed as a formal member at Loma Linda University Church for more than thirty years at this time. Having first seen the light of day at the White Memorial Church, the Loma Linda University Church is in a very real sense like a mother church for me; a mother church within which I have remained, in a sense, for thirty years as an unborn baby.
But, it is now high time for me, I think, to move onwards, out, and to higher and firmer ground. It is time to exit my name, my formal memberships and citizenships, such that I may enter in through the real gates of Heaven, by taking my name out from under all intermediary trusteeships of men and of man made institutions that may otherwise feel that they may have a responsibility for whom I am, what I do, and for protecting me, and who would accordingly have an apparently lawful and reasonable need for controlling me (cf. Gen. 1:28; Ex. 20:2-7; and Deut. 5:6-11.) However, I find no lasting reason to trust anyone but our Creator with the awesome responsibility for such an intricate and highly valuable asset as is my name and its associated collateral, my being.
I believe that the time for
making important choices in life is always the present, even from the very
beginning of time (cf. Rev. 14:6: “Everlasting gospel… judgment is come…”
and Genesis 2:16 re man’s freedom and power of choice from the very beginning.)
Nothing but my own preconceived ideas, my misunderstandings, my errors, has
been, or are, stopping me from going forwards upon the Way. At this point in
time my source, my creator, my God, my Father in heaven is lifting some veils
within my own mind that has thus far been stopping me from going forwards in
this particular re formal membership.
Being a formal member in any
formal church, or a citizen in any State, necessarily means to me, to some
extent at the very least, that I am a subject under the control of other men
and women. But, being a blind or powerless subject, under the control of other
created things, be they living or dead, is to me the very same as having “other
gods before me,” that is “other powers between me and the Creator, between me
and the ultimate source,” a specious of “Vicarius
Filii Dei” even in regards to any particular at all. I see no need for
that.
I do not need to identify
myself, or my name, in terms of another, in terms of anything under the control
of men, be it church or State. When, in the past, I have been using an ID of
such a nature, I have found that, to me, this is very much the same as to “make
unto [me] a graven image…” and to “bow down [my]self to [it, and to] serve
[it.]” I do not want to do that, since by so doing I am likely to inherit the
preconceived ideas and veils of those intermediaries. Being schooled too much
into the thinking and dogmas of other men and establishments will by necessity
hamper my growth in life and stop me from understanding things beyond that
which such intermediary authorities have thus far been able to perceive and
comprehend. Beyond that of course, I and my family are continually suffering
the severe and unavoidable consequences of so doing, yes, even “unto the third
and fourth generation.”
Also, submitting my name,
that is, one of the names belonging to none but the Creator God, under the
custody of any trusteeship controlled by men and women is for me very much the
same as “tak[ing a] name of the Lord [my] God in vain” and making my pursuit
towards heaven, in a very real sense, a useless and fruitless pursuit subject
to the control of others “besides me,” that is, besides the Creator and source
of all, my Father in heaven, the Source of my proper Names.
Why should I delegate my
burdens unto others? Aren’t my burdens and my responsibilities mine and mine
alone? Should I not feel honored, and trusted, by the Creator of all, when He
grants me various challenges in life? Why should I delegate such honor and
trust unto others who are most likely not even perceiving the needs and
challenges I am seeing and experiences? And how can anyone ever resolve issues
they do not even perceive?
During the Second World War the SDA leadership in northern Germany were being put in a very difficult spot. Difficult, even impossible, choices and decisions had to be made. Were they going to side with their fellow Sabbath keepers, the Jews, who were being sent to the concentration camps, or were they going to side with the civil authorities in order to protect their own lives and those associated with the formal membership of the SDA church? It may be easy to perceive, from a distance in time and space, that wrong choices were being made. Did those leaders really have a choice? Weren’t their hands largely tied already by decisions made years before; decisions pertaining to separation of church and state? Wasn’t the SDA church formally registered under the trusteeship of the German State? Doesn’t such well defined legal bonds, as any trusteeship necessarily is, effectively marry church and State into one body? Were the SDA leadership in those days aware of the real reasons for what was happening to them? And how aware were they of what was in fact happening to those who were being evacuated? If neither the church nor its members had ever given their support to the destructive powers of the German State by being formal members and citizens under the trusteeship of that State, wouldn’t that have put them in a much less vulnerable situation and in a position of much more control over their own lives and those of others?
What
valuable lessons may we learn from the very honorable confession, albeit a bit
belated, recently made by the North German SDA Church leadership as published
at www.advent-verlag.de/adventecho/neu/ae05-05.htm?
Will I also wait with my confessions, wait with changing my heart, delay
changing my ways – and let my own sons and daughter, even unto my own great
great grand children, and men, women, and children today on the other side of
the planet, deal with the consequences of my actions and my choices? Should
they be the ones confessing my errors? How much can they do to change my errors
from then and there? Am I not in a much better position to change my ways in
the here and now? Or do I have a true and solid basis for believing that I have
no responsibility for whatever time, effort, means, and other powers I
contribute to my society in the here and the now? Do I have a true and solid
basis for believing that our formal societies are not at all responsible for
untold suffering in the here and now? Is there no power inherent in formal
memberships and citizenships? If not, then why not scrap them altogether? Or is
it impossible for me to contribute things of real value to real living beings -
without being formally a member of any hierarchy created and controlled by men
and women?
Would the genocide in Rwanda have been at all
possible had it not been for the ID card system introduced 60 years, almost to
the day, prior to the mid-May 1994 genocide? And isn’t 60 years pretty much the
same as “three or four generations?”
What 60, 65, or 70-year prophecies, of equally or
more dire consequences as that which happened in Rwanda, do I perceive when
studying the Old Testament for myself? And wasn’t the US social security
identification system etc. introduced in 1935 or thereabouts? Do I have the
choice, or not, in participating in whatever may be the consequences of that
reality, whether here and now, or else far away in space or time? Do I want to
be responsible for contributing my current powers and support to whatever
destructive actions may be causing someone somewhere to suffer as an innocent
victim of my actions and my support?
Is what I am doing possible or not? Is it worth it?
Am I foregoing things of real and lasting value by doing my best to obey the
First, Second, and Third Commandments as I see them apply to the here and now?
Will my best efforts in adhering to the first five commandments cause my family
and future generations more suffering or less? Is Sabbath keeping an added
burden to life, or is it a blessing? Is tax and debt free property - in land
and tools of traveling - a blessing or a curse? Is freedom from the time
constraints and other obligations imposed by most every employer a blessing or
not? Is it a blessing or a curse to learn the laws of being securely in the
hands of none other but the One who designed and created me and mine and who sustains
our lives from moment to moment? How much time can I save by eliminating most
or even all expenses pertaining to debts, taxes, and insurance of any kind?
What are the options? Are the options granted me by my Creator better or worse
than that which may seem most expedient for me, or perhaps, the easy way out?
Who do I trust: My designer and creator, or my fellow men and their creations?
Does Psalms 118:8 teach me anything in this regards?
Psalms
118:8 KJV: “[It is] better to trust in the LORD than to put
confidence in man.”
What now?
I will, no doubt, remain an
active member of the living Loma Linda University Church body, and of the
Seventh-day Adventist church, much the same as I have in the past, perhaps even
more so. I am indeed very happy and proud to know that the staff
representatives at Loma Linda University Church are inviting me to participate
in the activities at LLUC regardless of formal membership. I thank you all for
that, and I see in that that you are realizing what I too perceive as the
meaning of God’s name: “I am whom I am” and “I will be whom I will be.” To me
those words may be expanded into “I am free to be myself, to build upon the
dreams my Creator has laid upon my heart and mind.” I am free to be different,
to think differently, to be “peculiar,” indeed “one among the peculiar People
of God.” One among the true Sons of God in the sense indicated by Matthew
17:26. A Prince as referenced in Ezekiel 44:3. “A royal priesthood” as
referenced in 1 Peter 2:9.
I believe that were it not
for the blessings of the Sabbath commandment, I would have never taken the time
for “remembering” the above referenced realities within my own life as they
relate to the first three among the Ten Commandments. I have already had a
foretaste of the many blessings I envision in consequence of forming my own
life ever more in accord with the First, Second, and Third Commandments as well
as with the remaining seven.
I thank you, each one among
you, for being you, for being yourself, for doing what you do within God’s true
church! I respect you. I adore you. I do not always understand you. What you do
may be beyond me. I may even at times in my ignorance perceive it as senseless,
stupid, or even evil, though I cannot ever really know that which is within your
boundaries and outside of mine. As long as you do not trespass upon the
boundaries of that trusteeship which the Creator has given to me and to me
alone I must respect you, and yours, and leave you alone. Yes, we may agree
jointly to share and cooperate in joint ventures for our common good. But let
us be careful, very careful, lest we overstep the tender and rarely visible
boundaries of that which belong to another, especially those boundaries defined
by each our family units.
Thoughts re each of our families being God’s true church:
Our creator created no
hierarchical structures greater than each our families. Families never have
more than a very few members within their membership. The greater the
membership, the less time there is for each member to know every other member.
God created our families for a reason. God created no hierarchy beyond that of
the family. He did that for good reason I believe. Let’s not forget that! Our
families, and the relationships within them, are very tender indeed. Let’s do
all we can, each of us, never to trespass upon the boundaries of each other’s
families; never to contribute one iota to such trespasses by church or state!
Let’s learn never to contribute to any power that works towards the
diminishment of family bonds and family boundaries! Regardless of how black
such relationships may be painted by some Accuser! Let’s learn always to
respect and uphold the boundaries of, and the hierarchy within, each of our
respective families! Let’s focus each our powers upon building strength,
confidence, tender love, and respect between family members; while being
careful never to provide of our strength by showing “false sympathy” (cf. PP
361.2) that weakens trust and confidence between spouses or between parents and
their little ones. Remember, none among
us can ever possibly know the truth of the private relationships between
members of another family! What we hear from, or about, others is always rumor
that can never be trusted! What we think we see, hear, or understand is always
to at least some extent a projection of our very own experiences and can never
be relied upon when superimposed upon another! Family boundaries must remain
sacred, supreme, and untouchable! Remember Ussah in 2 Samuel 6:6-7!:
“Uzzah put forth [his hand]
to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook [it].
And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there
for [his] error; and there he died by the ark of God.”
Thanks for being my real
life church family! None among you is my authority. Nonetheless, I may learn to
perceive many items of truth through you. God may speak to me through any one
of you, like He does even through my very own sons and daughter, but that does
not make any one among you my authority. I must retain at all times the
responsibility for who I am, for what I think, say, and do. It’s all about
responsibility. I must be responsible for me and mine. I must not delegate my
responsibility to another. I must not point my finger to you to put the blame
on you – when all I am likely seeing is the mirror image of myself and my own
actions being mirrored in those of another as perceived through my own dark and
fuzzy glasses.
Thoughts suggesting “separation between [our SDA] church and [the]
State:”
This issue re formal membership would not have troubled me as much, by far, were it not for the fact that our local churches, and even the General Conference Corporation, and to that extent also the local church membership or at least the staff employees, are registered under the trusteeship and control of the State. By means of that registration and that State trusteeship over the church there is, in effect, no legal or factual reality in the words “separation between church and State.” [1]
Accordingly, when I, the husband and father within my family, take my responsibility seriously and do what I can to protect my loved ones from undue influence and control (from those neighbors who are controlled by the State and from the sins and worldly influence of the powers behind media control) I find my efforts being very powerfully counteracted even by members of our State controlled church, even by such dear Adventist church members and their leaders who may sincerely believe that formal membership is a necessary requirement for being granted entry into heaven.
A very real consequence of this situation, even in my own family, is that family bonding is being severely and continually weakened, even severed. Another very real consequence for all of us, and especially for our little ones, is lack of a sense of real security in life, a lack of that which a loving family securely anchored in a trust in Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters alone can provide. That lack of security will likely be the cause for a generalized sense of hopelessness in life, and there will be little confidence in the concept that with the help of God there is no problem too big to resolve; there will likely remain a lack of belief in salvation as a true reality.
And think about it!: How do you think children from such weakened families perceive the odds of being able to build and maintain a family of their own that lasts for life? How able will they be to deal effectively with relationship problems in their own lives? How will that affect their little ones, if they get any of their own? What about the words in the Second Commandment:
“…visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth[2]
[generation] of them that hate me,
And shewing mercy unto the families that love me and keep my
commandments”
Deut. 5:9-10 (TLT.)
May our Creator bless each and every One among us! Let each one among us be One walking in the right direction along the Way to Heaven. I am, here and now, in present time, transferring my name, and therefore also me and mine. Remember, the name, the title, must by necessity come first! There must be a clear title to the property! I want my Creator to hold a clear and unclouded title to each and every name he has entrusted under my care and my love.
In the name of Him who said, and whose name means: “I
Am, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Let us walk jointly with Him in the
direction He is leading.
Signed at ..……………..…… in ………………………………………… on the …….……….. Day of the week, on the ………….....…… Day of the ………………. Moon in the five thousand nine hundred ……….………………….. Year, more or less, after the beginning of the creation recorded in Genesis; and in the two thousand ……………………. Year after the beginning recorded in Luke, Chapter One, verses Twenty-six through Thirty-three [………………., …….. in the two thousand …………….. Year after the beginning of the reign of Caesar Tiberius (Gregorian calendar.)]
Attachments (To be supplied later: For additional
clarification re some of the ramifications of these issues:)
[1] Cf. attachment #1. Notice also that, as I am also proving in my own life, there is no need, even today, for registering any property under any State! All church property may remain entirely separate from the State. The Roman Catholic Church has been realizing this to a very large extent throughout history, which is most likely the reason why it is, and remains, so strong! And isn’t each One of our families, as instituted from the very beginning, the church of God?! If I can, under the guidance of my Creator, separate myself and all my property from under the yoke of the State; why not the SDA church, each and all of them?
[2] Notice, when the second or third generation fails to marry successfully, there will be no offspring beyond “the third or fourth generation.”