“Cross the Jordan, Don’t Retreat” Theme of Wilson’s Sabbath Sermon
By AT News Team, July 12, 2015: “We must go forward, not backward, because we are almost home! I am more convinced than ever that Jesus’ return is near, even at the door,” Pastor Ted Wilson declared in his Sabbath sermon (July 11) at the close of the denomination’s General Conference (GC) Session. More than 60,000 Adventists gathered in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, to hear Wilson’s theme-setting sermon after being voted a second five-year term as the denomination’s president.
The focus of the sermon was moving forward to cross the Jordan River into the promised land. Wilson retold the story of Moses and Joshua during this pivotal transition in the history of God’s people in the Old Testament, drawing a parallel with the Adventist movement today. He urged Adventists around the world to unite in the mission of Christ.
A video of Wilson speaking in Israel appeared to be filmed at the same time as footage used in a presentation earlier in the week. In the video clip used in the sermon, Wilson stood on Mount Nebo, speaking about the significance of the mountain for Moses. Clearly, he anticipated being re-elected since the final sermon of the session is reserved for the newly elected president.
Wilson asked why Adventists, who have believed fervently in the soon return of Jesus for 160 years are still here. “For some time, Jesus has longed to come back. We have no more time prophecies. Those ended in 1844 with the beginning of the investigative judgment. At this very moment, Christ is ministering for us in the most holy place of a real sanctuary in heaven. He wants to pour out the latter rain of the Holy Spirit upon His people to finish His work on this earth. He longs for us to humble ourselves before Him and lean completely upon His everlasting arms. He wants us to share His good news of salvation that we are saved by grace,” he said.
Mirroring the passing of the torch from Moses to Joshua in the Bible story, Wilson shared how his own father and grandfather—both leaders in the Adventist denomination—had influenced and encouraged him. To honor them, Wilson had their Bibles on the podium along with his own Bible. His grandfather served as president of the North American Division (NAD) and the Southern Asia Division, and his father as president of the Columbia Union Conference, the NAD and the GC.
Wilson stressed the importance of reading the Bible and the writings of Ellen White, often referred to as “the Spirit of Prophecy,” and emphasized interpreting the “plain reading” or “plain language” of Scripture. “If you haven’t read much from either one for a while, pick up the Bible and read it. Pick up Steps to Christ, The Desire of Ages, The Ministry of Healing, The Great Controversy, Patriarchs and Prophets, the Testimonies or any other Spirit of Prophecy book and read it. See what God will do for your heart and life.” He continued, “As Seventh-day Adventists, we fully accept the Bible as God’s inspired Word. We understand the Spirit of Prophecy to be the lesser light, inspired by that same heavenly inspiration that leads to the greater light, the Bible.”
Continuing to highlight the importance of the Bible, Wilson declared, “God’s Word is sure and foundational.” Echoing a topic delegates had debated earlier in the week—the doctrine of creation—Wilson stated, “Yes, God actually created this world recently in six, literal, consecutive days and rested on the seventh-day Sabbath and asks us to do the same as an eternal sign of our allegiance to Him.” He went on to list other stories from the Bible, stressing that “God’s Word is accurate and true and can be understood just as it reads.”
Repeatedly, Wilson exhorted listeners to not retreat but to press on. For courage to move ahead toward the “Jordan River and the promised land,” he said Christians need to remember how God has led in the past.
Wilson listed dangers that he hopes Adventists will not move to—legalism, mysticism, superficiality, meaningless emotionalism, worldly or unbiblical contemporary ideas about theology, carelessness in Christian living, skepticism, higher criticism, fanaticism, and formalism. The audience enthusiastically applauded this warning.
Instead, Adventists should focus on positive efforts, Wilson said, not only the mechanics of the church—the focus of the GC Session—but private and public witness. “Become involved in the greatest evangelistic and mission outreach possible—take time to read and pray about the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist strategic plan, Reach the World.” He continued, “I appeal to all our administrators, pastors and lay people everywhere, become involved in personal and especially public evangelism even if you think it won’t work where you live. Adapt your methods, but reach out. Evangelism is not dead! It is more alive than ever before!”
In addition to a verbal witness, Wilson also highlighted efforts to show practical compassion for people in need. “Thank God for the work of ADRA,” he declared. He also encouraged Adventists to “always show interest in groups with special needs. Take time for those in special situations with whom you can share Christ.” Furthermore, Wilson instructed the audience to use “comprehensive health ministry in reaching people in … cities and in the rural areas.”
In summary, Wilson stressed that in order to reach the world with the message of Christ’s return, Adventists should read both the Bible and Ellen White, and participate in personal and public outreach which includes providing health care and community development. Wilson concluded his remarks with the exhortation, “Reach the world with the extraordinary good news of ultimate victory through the blood and grace of our Creator, Redeemer, High Priest, Coming King and Best Friend, Jesus Christ! Arise! Shine! Jesus is coming.”
It was a quite traditional Adventist sermon which warmed the hearts of many from around the world. Adventist ministers have been preaching that the Second Coming of Jesus is “at the door” from the very beginning of the denomination. Ellen White believed and wrote many times that “the end is near.” Seven generations of Adventists have been born, lived, and died. Ellen White passed to her rest 100 years ago this summer.
Adventist preachers are in good company in their proclamation of a “soon return.” They are simply concurring with the views of New Testament writers who believed Jesus would soon return—at least within their lifetimes. More than 2,000 years have and gone since those writers lived, and the “end” is still in the future. This reality is the basis of much of the anxiety and spiritual dissonance felt by Adventist believers.
Almost no one, particularly the president of the denomination, wants to look squarely at the problem of the delay, although it permeates the feelings of second and subsequent generations of Adventists. Perhaps it is too much to ask Wilson to rethink what “soon” means to 21st-century Adventist Christians. The question is not an easy one to ask, and it is even more difficult to conceive of good answers. So, the easy thing to do is to cling to the past. Which leads to the conflicts that were so clearly expressed all week during this 60th GC Session.
The sermon can be read in its entirety here – https://news.adventist.org/all-news/news/go/2015-07-11/full-text-cross-the-jordandont-retreat/
A great political speech to close the convention rally. Nothing we accomplished except the fact the church will simply maintain the statis quo.
Wilson is a politician like his dad. No discipline stated concerning rebellion with a refusal to admit there is any. A “rah rah, sis boom bah” speech to rally the deluded church members and place the church over and above the bible.
None the less, in spite of all the pontificating speeches, God will yet create a community of believers who not only advocate the bible, but actually know what it teaches. That will be a real novelty unknown to the SDA church of today.
The Plea to avoid legalism is almost comical in view of the actions of the session.
I had an interesting conversation with a well respected, solid member of my dads generation who decried the sabbath presentation of “lets find common ground” (well done I thought); this respected elder statesman of the church was very distressed at the negative comments directed toward our GC President as a result of the negative ordination push by the President. He described them as inappropriate as the “GC IN SESSION is the VOICE OF GOD on EARTH.” (move over Pope Francis)
Just an additional note: The prayer at our Potluck was led by a wonderful devoted spiritual female ordained pastor.
Pastor Wilson was preaching on Christ return and how soon it will be. Yes!!!! The soon coming can be at any second when we have died. We need to be ready every moment of our life. When our life is over that is His soon coming for me.
So when we say Jesus will be coming soon, then WHY are we building big churches, spending all the money for the General Conference that has just finish. That Conference cost a PRETTY PENNY. That money could have gone to programs in churches here in the US and other country’s who do not have the money for outreach.
I can not believe that with all the know how that is available at this time, the Conference could have planed these meetings less costly. What did they accomplish? All the wording that was change in the 28 beliefs, and the vote on the WO, which they knew it would not go thru, and all the rest of the little things. I know that Christ is coming soon, should we not put all the money into programs that we can tell the world about the Love of Christ? We are to have unity with each other, but unity goes two ways. I can have unity with my fellow church members but then they need to have unity with me too. It is to bad that we can not have UNITY with each other. We have to many members that think they are RIGHT and can not except someone else point of view. I pray that Christ gives us the courage to let others think their own way. We have forgotten the command that Christ gave us many many years ago, and that is the GOLDEN RULE.
We did vote to take many steps backward! Evangelism surge will work better with all hands officially on deck! I am so disappointed at the waste of time and money and energy and speeches. A sad sad day for our church and very embarrassing. What unchurched person is going to want to belong to a church that discriminates against groups of people?
Cherry, what unchurched person wants to join a church fellowship that has no identity?
I have always been puzzled by the idea that our church delays Christ’s second coming. That’s not only a burden but also insinuating that we are the only ones preaching the Gospel.
Mt 24:36 says only the Father knows the time. Maybe some know the text that says something like He waits that more can be saved. We can see in events that the end can be near. It’s the first time in history we have had ways of reaching the whole earth.
The Father sees beyond time, and that we can change Him sounds strange. It is only in our human perspective we think we can change the future. None of us would be alive or ever born if Christ had come a hundred years ago.
To me it seems a bizarre concept.
It is not unusual for prophecies to not come true. The amazing accomplishment is that the prophet was able to successfully shift the blame for failure to the church, and they continue to agonize in guilt over it. Did not do enough, did not become holy enough. How much man-made “secret sauce” is needed to bring about the eschaton? I would argue the answer is none.
Patrick
On Wednesday the spies took a vote about entering the promised land. The vote was ten to two against going. Three days later our fearless leader announced we are on our way into the promised land. My Bible says it was some forty years between these two events. Did I miss something?
Didn’t story include some Israelite warriors trying to take the promised land by force after being told they couldn’t and then being beaten back?
I think Wilson’s sermon was based on the crossing AFTER the 40 years in the wilderness.
Following God’s order to flee Egypt and cross the Red Sea they became “God’s Chosen People.”
An improvement on the speech of five years ago. The members at large are not being called to hold the feet of their ministers to the fire. We only need to look out for our women folk, now.
I believe the church should not be compromising to the world. advocating what the world promotes might not be God will for the church. Well, truth is always hard.
On the other hand, what effect will it be to the women folks, does it mean if women are not ordain they can not be part of finishing the work? (evangelism). Must one be ordain before he becomes part of sharing the everlasting gospel. I believe, reaching the world has nothing to do with ordination. So many of us are involve in mission activities and are not pastors talk more of ordain ones, and the missions are always fruitful to the glory of God. I think I concern should be shifted to the commision which I believe is for all of us regardless of whether you are ordain or not.
Why do we pray “Thy will be done”, if we don’t accept the outcome? My guess is that most of our 18 million members have been praying for the Lord’S will to be done in all that took place at the G.C. session in San Antonio. I guess we don’t have enough faith to believe that that happened. Who’s church is it anyway? Get off “Face Book” and tell someone what Jesus has done for you. gca
It is going to be passed at some future time as generations change. I think that is a given. Does that mean God’s will wasn’t done this time but will be at another time? Maybe the wait is needed, but none should claim they know God’s will for the future other than what the Bible has told us it will be like, and He says nothing about women taking part in a Catholic ritual in the SDA Church. He does talk about equality.
We want Jesus to come soon, but we can’t force it. Only the Father knows.
Excellent question: “Whose church is it anyway?”
Under the “leadership” of the current GC President, it is no longer the church of the vast majority of educated members in the Northern Hemisphere. Simple fact.
‘Jesus is coming soon’ should be interpreted in terms of our individual life span, which is not very long even if we live beyond 80s. And ‘very soon’ to that of the terminally ill, who know they do not have long to go. Such an explanation would remove doubt and confusion from among us, for we know there is no consciousness in the grave. It would also minimise wrong emotional decisions some people make, in fear, at an altar call, only to leave the church when they realise five year hence that Jesus has not come.
Let us speak to the intellect, all of us is endowed with some.
Albert, your comments make eminent sense— that at our death, consciousness evaporates, and the next cogent episode will be our resurrection, at Christ’s Second Coming.
So, since human lives are short, the coming of Christ is SOON for all of us.
In the last chapter of Revelation, (circa AD 60-80), John the Revelator quotes Christ as saying EMPHATICALLY: “I AM COMING SOON”.
Surely, in year 2015, we could perceive His promise to be an absolute falsehood, more particularly since we Adventists are the tiny minority on earth who believe that Christ enteried the Sanctuary in 1844?
The time frames of Christ coming soon, stated in AD 60-80, and our doctrine of 1844 are totally contradictory!
Your explanatory scenario is the only one which saves Christ from being caught in an outright lie!
Much more troubling to me, is EGW’s assertion that God needs to be “vindicated” by the “universe” before the “end can come”. By “universe”, I assume she means unfallen Angels plus beings on other planets.
While many liberal Adventists and most of our scientists were dismayed at the change in our fundamental beliefs to assert a six thousand year earth age, I ask, why does it take SIX MILLENIA, for God to convince his OWN Angels that he is
“Vindicated “?
Are beings on other planets, animalistic morons as depicted in the movie “Planet
of the Apes”? The Inquisition and countless atrocities should have been enough evidence, EONS ago to convince “the…
The problem is our SDA Pioneers expected a sprint to the end, when in fact they should have prepared for a marathon.
I thought it was a great message.
Reading these sad replies gives me fear that some Adventists
don’t realize Satan is very active in our world.
Couldn’t you have found more encouraging comments written by serious believers?
I salute Pastor TED here is the time where Adventist need to stand for Christ sake not selfish gain
The recent GC session have been emphasizing “Evangelism”. How can we evangelize the world when we the church don’t practice what we preach. We continue to practice gender discrimination in the church. In my opinion the place that needs evangelism is inside the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
God’s people have never been perfect nor agreed on everything. The wheat and tares will remain until the end. One could replace your “gender discrimination” with “Gentile discrimination” and we’d have the situation in the early Church. Yet it didn’t stop the early Church evangelising to great effect.
Gender discrimination is not the only discrimination in the church. The church discriminates against people of color in North America by continuing regional conferences and has the nerve to criticize the Mormons for denying equal membership to black people.
But more important is the leadership discriminating against the ordinary members in its policies of church office and local ownership of churches.
New members cannot hold church office until “proving” that they are sincere and trustworthy, including paying tithe to the organization. This is controlled by not electing nominating committees from the membership directly. Local churches pay nearly all of the cost of a church building but the ownership is with the local conference. If a local church wants to deviate from the policies, it risks losing the property that it paid for.
Robin: “Much more troubling to me, is EGW’s assertion that God needs to be “vindicated” by the “universe” before the “end can come”. By “universe”, I assume she means unfallen Angels plus beings on other planets.”
Robin what is wrong with that? Ellen White didn’t invent that idea – it is in some ways the punchline of the book of Job. The character Job thinks he is on trial and his friends think he must be guilty. But it turns out Job is actually the earthly counterpart of Satan – in accusing God. It turns out in fact that God is the one on trial.
You get this throughout the entire book but the trial motiff is especially big in Job chapter 7, where Job lays charges against God. The climax in Job 42 is Job deciding the drop the charges against God. In doing so, the charge against God by heaven (Satan) and earth (Job) don’t stick, as the Torah requires the accusations of two witnesses.
But the punchline is God continues to act as the guilty party. For example, God doesn’t correct Job’s family when in Job 42:11 they accuse God as the source of evil. God remains silent and never mentions Satan. God repaying Job twice everything lost is also a reference to Torah’s obligations on restitution.
In this way, God is vindicated but nevertheless accepts the blame and punishment anyway. Christ fullfils this idea. It a biblical idea emphasised by Adventists for good reason.
Robin: “I ask, why does it take SIX MILLENIA, for God to convince his OWN Angels that he is
“Vindicated “?”
Robin again to reflect on the book of Job, which comes closest to answering your question, that book says we don’t know the answer. Job is never made aware of the angels arguing before God in heaven. In the same way, we don’t know why we are still waiting.
However, if the universe is in fact billions of years old, not 6,000 years, then that may in fact mean this cosmic war is old, far older, than we first thought.
If instead the world is 6,000 years, that too is not very old really. One thing history has shown is wars can take a very long time – especially asymetric ones about winning hearts and minds.
Just look at our own world. Why could not the US Army and Government, with all its power, not win that asymetric war in a decade? Is it because it is very complicated with shifting factors, alliances and peoples? It because when it comes to convincing beings with free will, it isn’t a matter of sheer brute power?
Why then do we think a war in heaven would be easier to wrap up, involving trillions and trillions of beings with free will? Why do you think a God who respects free will would or could wrap this up easily?
In his sermon president Wilson said “[God] wants to pour out the latter rain of the Holy Spirit upon His people to finish His work on this earth.” It’s an interesting statement which refers us back to Pentecost as described in Acts 2:17-18. “In the last days, God says I will pour out my spirit on ALL people…even on my servants, both men and women.” I couldn’t help but wonder how our newly re-elected GC President relates to that passage, in light of the great or not so great WO debate we have just come through? Real leadership, it seems to me, is all about moving people from where they are to where they need to be. It’s not good enough to declare empty platitudes. We need more. God’s church needs more. The kingdom of God needs more.
Is disparaging Wilson’s speech really a mature reaction?
I have read no “disparaging” comments about Wilson II’s speech on this AT thread. What I have read are honest appraisals of his approach which is highly problematical and reflects essentially someone with a 19th century world view attempting to deal with 21st Century issues. That’s very difficult to do.
Given the commentary near its conclusion, this piece by the AT News Team should have been accompanied a by-line identifying who the writers and contributors to it were.
The very idea that the Lord has delayed His coming is Biblically prophesied, as is the skepticism that attends this notion. It’s is amusing when you think about it. In 1920, five years after EGW’s demise, or even more to the point, in 1940, 25 years after her death, do you think many people—particularly Adventists—thought that the Second Coming had been or was being delayed? (Of course so; it goes without saying.) The point being that no matter when Adventists or anyone else think that Jesus is returning, or when think He should return, or at what point they think He should have already returned—or when they perhaps therefore decide that He is not returning—it is all relative to their own brief lives; and if He was not to return for another 150 years, even the final 300 years of human history could then have been considered ‘the last days.’
However the prophetic warning that He’ll come just when we think He isn’t coming captures the irony of this skeptical approach.
It is disappointing that the AT News Team would give voice (via commentary) to the skeptical approach in a news piece that, for practical purposes, was anonymously written.
There is nothing wrong with analogizing the experience of Israel at the crossing of the Jordan–isn’t that what the Bible stories are for?–to provide encouragement to subsequent generations? In fact, what Wilson did not say is that only 2 of those that left Egypt actually entered the “promised land”–a remnant of the remnant.
North American Adventists who have promoted evangelism throughout the world are now dismayed that there are more Adventists outside of North America than inside and consequently cannot control the decisions of the church anymore. In fact, there are nearly as many ACTIVE SDA members in mainland China as there are in the NAD!
God has always used a remnant to carry forward His plans, beginning with Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samson, Gideon, David, Elijah, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Jesus, the 12 disciples/apostles, the Waldenses, Martin Luther and other reformers, and finally Adventists.
And maybe it will be another remnant of Adventists who finally are the ones to get it right. And maybe that remnant of Adventists will not be from North America, or even from the organization called the General Conference.
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