To the world leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
To the Michigan Conference leaders
To the Oregon Conference leaders:
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Please take the time to read this entire letter.
I am a lifelong Seventh-day Adventist, the grandson of a Seventh-day Adventist minister, A.D. McKee. I have always believed the Seventh-day Adventist message and I believe it now more than ever.
However, during the past 5 years, my eyes have been opened to the egregious mistakes that have been made by us as a corporate church and by individual leaders who are commissioned to champion the cause of truth. How did we get here? Our past history reveals that we have too often followed in the footsteps of God's ancient people, Israel, in departing from the will of God.
My brothers and sisters, in these last days of earth’s history, it is time to take a stand for the truth, “stand for the right though the heavens fall” (Ed 57.3). There have been some among us who have been courageous enough to take a stand in faith for what is right.
My wife and I had to remove ourselves from a church family we loved very much because of their policies regarding the mandates in 2020-2021. We chose to move our membership to a church that took a stand for freedom of choice regarding members attending with or without masks, a smaller church that allowed freedom of choice regarding worship in song. We strongly believed then, and still do, that we should be free to worship according to the dictates of our conscience and according to the direction of scripture. God calls His people to come before him with singing and praise. He directs his people to not forsake the assembling of themselves together as the habit of some is; rather we are instructed by holy Scripture to gather together even more often as we see the day of Jesus’ Second Coming approaching (Hebrews 10:25).
I, along with many others in our worldwide church, have been dismayed and appalled at the stance our church took during the government mandates. More than that, my employer noticed, by researching, that our official church statement was in support of vaccinations. Therefore, he, knowing that I am a Seventh-day Adventist, understood that I would be willing to comply with the vaccine mandates. It was embarrassing that I had to explain to him that while I believe in the tenets of my faith as espoused by my church, I could not personally comply with the mandate due to freedom of personal conscience. Thankfully, he allowed me to have a religious exemption upon my request, but my own North Pacific Union Conference could not support me in requesting the exemption. My own church pastor refused to write the letter asking me to do it myself, but he was at least willing to sign it, probably at his own risk.
I am grateful to God that I was able to keep my position as a physical therapist. However, there were many faithful members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who lost their jobs because they refused to comply with the mandates and were unable to obtain religious exemption requests from their pastors or conference leaders. Many lost their homes, their businesses, and even their faith. Some lost their health, yes, I'm sure even their lives, because they complied, often reluctantly, with the pressure from the church to receive the experimental and harmful jab. This is a travesty. Yet, there has been no apology made to individuals who suffered these losses.
It is likely that you are all at least somewhat familiar with the case of Daniel Rosina in Australia. I recently listened to his parents tell the tragic story of his devastating vaccine injury. If you have not listened to it, I urge you to do so at this link.
Ted Wilson, Tear Down This Wall !! Domenic & Kristi Rosina Documentary with Arnie Suntag.
Why, why, why has not the church leadership in Australia or in the General Conference offered any apology or reparation to this young man and his family? To my knowledge, not even one leader has been willing to make amends. This is wrong. God calls upon His people, including leadership, to make wrongs right, to confess their sins and forsake them.
”If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:9-10 ).
Notice that it clearly states in verse 10 that if we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and His word is not in us. Are you leaders, by your silence, saying that you have not sinned against the Rosina family and thousands of other faithful members?
Could it be said of Seventh-day Adventist leaders that Jesus is looking “around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts”? (Mark 3:5 NKJV)
Please contemplate this statement,
“Many are zealous in religious services, while between them and their brethren are unhappy differences which they might reconcile. God requires them to do all in their power to restore harmony. Until they do this, He cannot accept their services. The Christian’s duty in this matter is clearly pointed out”—The Desire of Ages, p. 310.
Yet we have this wonderful promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14,
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
• It is time to humble ourselves, to pray, to seek God's face and to turn from our wicked ways.
• It is time to make wrongs right as far as possible.
• It is high time to “stand for the right though the heavens fall.” Ed 57.3
• It is time to heed the words of Jeremiah 3:13 (NKJV). “Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God, and have scattered your charms to alien deities under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the LORD.”
• It is time to disentangle ourselves from unholy government alliances.
• It is time to be about the business of sharing the three angels’ messages with the world.
Therefore, I call upon the General Conference leadership, the Michigan Conference leadership and the leadership of the Oregon Conference, of which I am a member, to lead the flock in righteousness. Confess and forsake past sins. Seek God's mercy.
Isaiah 55:6-11 NKJV — “Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
Jesus is coming soon to judge the earth, and all those who cling to sin will be destroyed with it. Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
I pray that Pastor Ron Kelly will be reinstated in his role as Senior Pastor of the Village SDA Church at Berrien Springs, Michigan, as requested by the church leaders and members.
I pray that Dr. Conrad Vine will be exonerated as a man who stands for the Truth as it is in Jesus.
And I pray that reparations will be made to Daniel and all the others who have been injured like he has due to bad church policy, even if it bankrupts the church. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, He can certainly provide for his people today just as well as he has for his people in the past.
It is time to revoke the 2015 ADCOM statement that includes the phrase, “peer-reviewed scientific literature”. This topic should be placed on the Agenda for the 2025 GC session.
“The Seventh-day Adventist Church places strong emphasis on health and well-being. The Adventist health emphasis is based on biblical revelation, the inspired writing of E.G. White (co-founder of the Church), and on peer-reviewed scientific literature. As such, we encourage responsible immunization/vaccination, and have no religious or faith-based reason not to encourage our adherents to responsibly participate in protective and preventive immunization programs. We value the health and safety of the population, which includes the maintenance of “herd immunity.”
“We are not the conscience of the individual church member, and recognize individual choices. These are exercised by the individual. The choice not to be immunized is not and should not be seen as the dogma nor the doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”
During the past 5 years, we, the corporate SDA Church, missed the opportunity to share our precious health message with the world. How many lives might have been saved had we pointed people to the laws of health and the wonderful remedies that we have known about for more than a century instead of encouraging members to take a substance into their bodies that has been proven not to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and has also been proven to have caused many injuries and deaths?
The Adventist Church doesn't depend on peer-reviewed scientific literature when it comes to the subject of creation versus evolution. If we do, we are in serious trouble. We, as the remnant Church of Bible prophecy, believe that the Bible is our only rule of faith and practice, therefore we reject the peer-reviewed science that says this earth is billions of years old and everything in it came from spontaneous evolution.
Over and over again in the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy we are warned against "science falsely so called". And it is obvious that the “science” of the COVID vaccines was based on a false narrative. A number of court cases are proving this point.
May we, as the remnant church of Bible prophecy, no longer depend on an arm of flesh, but on the everlasting arms of the living God.
“Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid nor dismayed before the king of Assyria, nor before all the multitude that is with him; for there are more with us than with him. 8 “With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah” (2 Chronicles 32:7-8).
I pray that we will be strengthened by the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah as we move forward in faith to the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
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Larry Davis
Westport, Oregon
“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so” (Psalm 107:2).