Adventist Frontier Mission president calls for parachurch organization for tithe diversion
19 August 2024 |
At a camp meeting this past week, Conrad Vine, president of Adventist Frontier Missions, advocated for the establishment of a parachurch organization that would withhold tithe and release it only to those organizations that resist “cultural Marxism” and uphold freedom of conscience in matters of vaccinations and climate change.
His August 16 sermon at a Maine camp meeting was a reaction to an October of 2021 “reaffirmation statement” by the General Conference (GC) Administrative Committee (ADCOM) on using the religious liberty argument to refuse COVID vaccinations. The ADCOM statement said that
“…claims of religious liberty are not used appropriately in objecting to government mandates or employer programs designed to protect the health and safety of their communities.”
Vine says that this leads to a “techno-dictatorship” that aligns the church with the papacy.
Vine seemed eager to open a church rupture. He says that “Adventism today faces a potential split along two lines:
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- “Adventists who reject the GC ADCOM’s assumed authority over their consciences, who hold true to Scripture and our Fundamental Beliefs and thus reject the onrush of cultural Marxism in SDA institutions, and among SDA leaders, professors and pastors.
- “Adventists who accept the GC ADCOM’s assumed authority over their individual consciences, and are either afraid to contend for the faith passed on to us, or actually support the abandonment of Scripture in favor of cultural Marxism.”
He added that
“It appears to many members today that our hierarchy exists primarily for the financial benefit of the hierarchy and its functionaries through the preservation of federal income streams to our institutions—and the concerns and consciences of members are no longer of concern to our senior administrators.”
One suggestion, which would be implemented first:
“If the GC supports future mandates over the consciences of members, establish a para-church movement within Adventism.”
This organization would withhold tithe and release it to conservative conferences, and “that way, the conferences that go woke, will go broke.” If that fails to work, ultimately faithful Adventists may have to “Migrate to an underground house-church movement, led by bi-vocational elders or pastors.”
Of those in the church who would accept LGBTQ people, he says they are “no longer Seventh-day Adventists, but sodomite Adventists.”
He demands that the General Conference
- “At the 2024 Annual Council, to rescind and apologize for the 2021 Reaffirmation Statement.
- “To establish a fund to compensate Adventists who have lost their livelihoods or who have suffered physical harm from the side-effects of the vaccines they were forced to take because of the 2021 Reaffirmation Statement.
- “To publicly affirm that members and employees can be vaccinated or not as the Holy Spirit impresses them through their conscience, and thus the GC will defend the good conscience decisions of all Adventists (members and denominational employees) vis-à-vis any and all future vaccination mandates.
- “To rehire wherever possible on previous terms and conditions those denominational employees who were fired for living in accordance with the convictions of the Holy Spirit.”
Vine’s other major concern is Adventist institutions taking federal money, which is indicative of satanic influence.
“As the US Federal government turns from God, it turns to Satan, to his rulership, and to its end-time role as the war-making, persecuting, conscience-denying 2nd Beast power of Revelation 13. Satanic policies are being imposed by the Federal government, e.g., the new Title IX rules on gender identity. The SDA Church cannot be the prophetic voice God has raised her to be while she is financially dependent on the 2nd Beast of Revelation 13. Therefore, I appeal to the Wilson administration to add to the agenda of the GC 2025 Session the question of divesting all institutions that receive US Federal funding from the SDA Church.”
In this connection he mentions Medicare and Medicaid payments to Adventist health care institutions.
The Northern Maine Camp Meeting appears to be a ministry of the Caribou, Maine, Seventh-day Adventist Church. It isn’t clear whether it is considered an official initiative of the Northern New England Conference, or whether the conference has any influence over who speaks there.
Vine’s fellow speakers at the camp meeting were popular conspiracists Walter Veith and David Gates.
