After 4 weeks with still no contact at all from David Gates, the man who personally invited me to come volunteer at Gospel Ministries International, i sent him a email requesting information. He said i could call him, which i did just a little over an hour ago.
We talked for around 10 minutes, and the first half was cordial. His problem with what i had done was said to be with the posting of his replies to my emails which can be seen on the “Converging Crises Review” blog post. He believes they should be confidential, like this telephone call today, while i do not. Also, i do not believe his problem is really with his replies being posted, but with the content of my review pointing out problems in his sermon, as that is what Jon Wood was writing against in his first email to me about this.
When we are offended personally, or someone has done something bad just to ourselves, then of course, we follow the Matthew 18 counsel, and take it to them privately. However, the errors espoused in the Converging Crises sermon are open to the whole world. They have been spread by dvd, by youtube, by all the methods commonly available. So, to meet the error, the warning against it must be just as wide.
Written by Ellen White, in Notebook Leaflets:
When men endanger the work and cause of God by their own wrong course of action, shall they hear no voice of reproof? If the wrongdoer only were concerned, and the work reached no farther than him, he alone should have the words of warning; but when his course of action is doing positive harm to the cause of truth, and souls are imperiled, God requires that the warning be as broad as the injury done.
I read this paragraph to him, but there was no direct response.
Does my personal expulsion from GMI fit into this? – only as it shows that there are serious spiritual problems there with the leaders. About 7 minutes into the call, it was obvious that there was no hint of admitting of wrong-doing, and i said: “Please repent”. This created quite a firestorm, with a flurry of words explaining to me what a great work he is doing, and how you cannot condemn someone who has done 90% or more good things, and how many orphanages are being run, and how i cannot be the Holy Spirit for someone else (?!), how i’ve hurt other men of God (probably referring to Jeff Reich) and and and. Over the last 3 minutes of the call i probably repeated these 2 words 10 times, and then closed with a “good bye”.
This showed clearly the main reason why God led me here – to lift up my voice against sin. In the 5 months i’ve been back in America (longest in 12 years) i’m struck again and again by the arrogance of us Seventh-day Adventists, and the refusal to call sin by its right name. I believe this is why the Lord is allowing us to go off into all these errors, like conspiracy theories, unconditional love, don’t judge, etc. We don’t like it when we are told we have sin. Believe me, it isn’t pleasant for the reprover either! I would much rather just smile and say “that’s good, that’s nice” rather than do such an unpleasant task, but then, i wouldn’t be faithful to God, would i? Why should the stones get the glory of doing the work that God gave me to do, because he says even the stones will cry out if we don’t cry out against sin?
Testimonies to the Church #21:
But, as an ambassador of Christ, you are required to be faithful, to correct wrong in love, and meekness, and your efforts will not prove unavailing.
Soon after the telephone call ended, my thots were:
1. Luke 12:3 “Because whatever you said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you spoke to the ear in private rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.
2. The pope is probably around 90% right too, and he is in charge of thousands of orphanages, so should we stop pointing out his sins?
After sleeping on this overnite, i have this to add:
SPTA12, A Message to Our Physicians:
A man standing in the high position of a leader, and yet setting an example of wrong-doing, advancing principles that God repudiates, will be taken in the snare of Satan. He may say wonderful things. He may visit the sick, help the poor, and go through the entire list of activities, and yet never bring honor to God.
When the ambitious leader empties himself of self-glory, when he repents and confesses his sins, when he brings himself into subordination, then there will be hope of him. Until he gains this experience, the Lord has no use for him. Self must die. The character that he has been forming for years must be changed; for his own purpose has been to gain his own way and carry out his own purposes.
Brother David, there is hope for you – please repent.
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