cressj@gc.adventist.org

You’ll receive all power points

Not by their choiceBiological realityNothing they can do to changeTwo tried - One has not attempted any changeConcluded: must accept themselves as they areParents, friends, congregation all accept Guarantee: Jesus also accepts their reality

Three Friends who are Gay

Name / Not Sexual Orientation

• Family name = Gay

• Two changed their name to “Gray”

• One left his original family name “Gay”

Believe It or Not, Adventists Love a Hoax

James A. Cress

April Fool

• One day a year . . . • Fun to play hoax on your friends • Devise something clever and trick someone

into believing something different than reality • Because you quickly remind them that it’s an

April Fool joke• Then you’re on about life and on about reality

Sad Reality

• Some hoaxes are not limited to April 1• Some hoaxes are dangerous• Some hoaxes ensnare Christians• Some hoaxes utilized by Satan to deceive • Spiritual hoaxes are tragic• Spiritual hoaxes are soul destroying

Bigger the Hoax / Bigger the Lie

• First great hoax about Christianity attempted to foist a deception into people’s minds about the resurrection of Jesus

• Shared characteristics of all spiritual hoaxes• We can apply these lessons today when

charlatans attempt spiritual hoaxes.

Matthew 28:11

• Now while they were going, behold some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priest all the things that had happened.

Reported the Facts • They reported the resurrection of Jesus.

• Proclaimed everything that had happened

• They told . . . of mighty angel . . . stone moved

. . . Jesus coming back to life . . . empty tomb

• They had facts straight . . . but they changed

Matthew 28:12

• When they had assembled with the elders . . .

• Religious conspiracy – Spiritual wickedness

• Priests plus Elders = false religious leaders• Hoaxes motivated by intent to attack that which

is genuine, even by people who hold spiritual position – “of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things”

Matthew 28:12b

• When they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel . . .

• Intentional deceit – planned, plotted• Today’s vernacular: They put their heads

together, “What scheme can we cook up?”• “What can we accomplish if we just think about

this long enough?” So, they plotted hoax!

Matthew 28:12c

• When they assembled and counseled . . . they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers

• Most spiritual hoaxes involve money • Diverting funds and trying to persuade people

to send money to this or that venture

• This hoax involved paying off the soldiers.

Matthew 28:13

• Tell them his disciples came at night and stole him away while we slept . . .

• Hoax still had some basis in reality . . . there was no body in the tomb. Truth! Jesus was not in the tomb!

Integrity Compromised

• Military guard take pride in ethical work• Garrison at tomb = about seventy soldiers. • Embarrassing situation for these professionals

– “We let that little group of eleven disciples come and steal the body”

– “We fell asleep and they sneaked in while we dozed” Sleeping on guard duty = death!

Matthew 28:14

• . . . and if this comes to the governor’s ears we will appease him and make you secure

• We will buy him off too• We will cover and protect you

– “Low friends in high places!”• Result: Soldiers took the hoax to the streets

Matthew 28:15

• So they took the money and did as they were instructed . . .

• Some people will say anything for money • Hoaxes depend on cover-up.

– If you get in trouble, we’ll pay off governor, give you a secure job, take care of you.

– You lie . . . we will cover-up!

Matthew 28:16

• They did as they were instructed and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.

• Matthew written about 65 AD• 35 years later, some still repeating falsehood • Some deliberately tell lies to deceive• Others repeat the lie they’ve been told

Fascination with Falsehood

• Bad enough to deliberately tell a lie for money• Some people are so mindless they just babble

for the fun of gossip • If you want to spread a hoax, use the words:

“Did you hear?”• We always want to respond, “Tell me more!” • If tempted to gossip – pray for miracle!

Mindless Repetition

• Deliberately promulgated lie . . .• Picked up by other people who failed to check

the facts and continued to repeat the hoax • So much so that Peter later declared:

– “We have not followed cunningly devised fables . . . We were eyewitnesses to the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ”

Satanic Strategy

• At its very inception, Church had to answer the grand hoax that resurrection was faked

• Unfortunately, hoaxes foisted off onto these religious people didn’t stop there . . . repeated

• Reason? Satan is behind the lie. The ultimate liar wants the hoaxes to be believed

2 Timothy 4:3

• For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers. They will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables

Loving a Lie

• Desire something to tickle their fancy or scratch their ear . . . pursue even a fable, a hoax . . . something imaginary . . . anything other than the real truth

• They will heap up for themselves teachers . . .• I associate this phrase with “trash heap” • Heap up this trash and feed on it – instead of

feeding on truth.

Gnosticism

• Secret, special wisdom available only to the spiritually elite . . . privileged communication only few people comprehend:– inside knowledge– secret code– back channel information– wisdom no one else can understand– closeted revelations

Gnosticism Elevates Self

• Thus . . . I become more important than any-one else and I am elevated beyond others!

• This terrible heresy fosters spiritual pride.• Builds exclusivity.• Develops presumptive sin• Exalts self above all others – even God!

Sola Scriptura

• Adventists affirm that Scripture contains all we need to understand for salvation

• Heaven does not have some secret information – some cosmic DaVinci Code – that only a few disenfranchised folk off in a corner somewhere can comprehend

• Help understanding the great light of the Bible from the lesser light, Conflict of Ages series

Sincerely Gullible

• “Let’s circulate petition combating atheistic attempts to forbid religious broadcasting!”

• So, what’s issue – even if Madeline Murray O’Hare never file a petition with the FCC?

• What would it hurt if I signed petition and at least stood up on the side of right. – After all, first-class letter only costs a stamp

and few cents for envelope/paper.

What’s the real cost?

• 30 million pieces of mail at 50 cents = $15 million Christians spent on hoax

• Satan delighted. God’s people squandered funds which could have relieved suffering or evangelized the lost

• Instead – they sent it off for a hoax• Plus, imagine extra taxes for employee costs

Neuro-Linquistic Programming

• Right wing extremists – “He is hypnotizing his church members.”

• PROOF – Study the church’s financial report– “If I was hypnotizing you, then you would be

giving a lot more money!”• Foolishness disappeared with the laughter!

P. T. Barnum was correct

– Computer in Belgium– Retired Pastor’s SS check– Hitch-hiker dates the Second Coming

• “It is often supposed that when people stop believing in God they believe in nothing. Alas, it is far worst than that. When they stop believing in God, they believe in everything.”

- G. K. Chesterton

Today’s Hoax?• Date setting• Financial collapse produces national apostasy and

Sunday laws now– “National ruin follows national apostasy!” EGW

• Your money worthless. . . Sell your land . . . Mortgage your property . . . Do it now!

Send all your money to me!

Why we want to believe hoax?

• We have such longing for the coming of Jesus that we want some secret, inside information to give us a leg up on everybody else.

• We have such fear about the coming of Jesus that we want some secret, inside information to give us a “last chance” for reform.

• And Jesus said, “Watch, you don’t know when the hour will come.”

Why Watch?

• Christians living in the last days are not to possess some secret knowledge.

• Believers are to live prepared every day.• Believers live in full assurance that when He

comes, Jesus will find His faithful anticipating His return, not panicked by it!

• This is the message for the last days.

What’s Your Info Source?

• National Enquirer sells more than NY Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal combined.

• Tabloid fodder unimpeachable barometer of nation’s appetites and passions.

• These are not “inquiring minds.” These are minds of the lost! Plus, rumors not relegated only to non-believers who do not know truth.

The Pope’s Medal

• Mimeographed material proving the church in apostasy. “GC President commissions medal to presents medal to the Pope in Rome.”

• Report pictured the medal in juxtaposition with photo of Neal C. Wilson and criticized church for spending all this money and energy.

• I must be just about as important as the Pope because I have had my medal since 1974.

Truth

• Medallion was a collector’s item produced by company in Vandalia, Ohio – series featuring various denominations.

• Nicely depicted 10 Commandments with the Sabbath highlighted and return of Jesus.

• The manufacturer produced a nice product and a friend gave me a very nice gift. Keep in my sock drawer. Don’t know where pope’s is!

Fiction Stranger than Truth

• When Pastor Folkenberg became President, the story changed that he was the one who presented the medal.

• Then, when Jan Paulsen became President, the story changed again!

• Never have so many medals been commissioned by so many GC Presidents!

Fascination with Falsehood• Gordon Bietz: A recent article in Pilgrim’s Rest

reported that Elder Folkenberg visited with the Pope. It’s amazing what people will print with-out even checking with the man’s office to see if it’s true. It isn’t true, and anyone who be-lieves what they read in that newsletter might also believe the stories about men from Mars and babies hatching from eggs as they are found in the grocery store tabloids.

Sunday Sacredness Plot

• Eleven years ago, GC Ministerial reprinted a book by a Baptist pastor – author’s denomination identified clearly – devotional on 10 Commandments.

• Baptist pastor mentioned Sunday as the day he goes to church and this becomes fodder for the hoax that our team is attempting to change the Sabbath to Sunday.

The Bible says

• Beloved, believe not every spirit, because there are false prophets that are gone out into the world. 1 John 4:

• We are commanded in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 to “test the spirits.”

Scripture’s Test

• And then the lawless one will be revealed . . .• We have always, appropriately, labeled this

as an identification of anti-Christ.• No more lawlessness to change, or to attempt

to change, the Lord’s day Sabbath to Sunday, than to bear false witness or to repeat the lie.

• Both are lawlessness

Diabolical plot to hate truth

• Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of His mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming . . . him whose coming is accord-ing to the working of Satan with all power, and signs, and lying wonders with all unrighteous deception among those who perish . . .

Falsehood Fastens upon Minds

• . . . Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

• NOTICE: God allows the falsehood to fasten upon their minds.

How does it happen?

• They love the lie so much.• They articulate the lie so well.• They repeat the lie so often.• They no longer distinguish between genuine

and counterfeit.• They no longer discern truth from error.• They reject the truth to embrace the falsehood.

Impact on Evangelism

• Unscrupulous individuals who come up with these hoaxes, prey upon weak and gullible.

• They target new believers particularly.• They discourage potential converts.• They exchange the good news for bad news

and, while pretending holiness, they serve as agents of darkness.

How shall we respond?

• Embrace the truth. Reject Satanic hoaxes.• Pray for discernment. Repent of foolishness.• Focus on essentials rather than peripherals.• Proclaim the blood-brought grace of Jesus.• Preach the soon return of our Saviour.• Emphasize the blessed hope.• Prepare people ready to meet the Lord.

Concluion

• You and I can minister more effectively as we follow the One who is The Way, The Truth, and The Life!

Pray with me!