Holding the Line - A Journey Into Hypocrisy

By Arnie Suntag

The truth is under fire as Amazing Facts presents its Holding the Line Summit, where Ted Wilson is a key speaker despite his duplicity at the last General Conference Session and the resulting harm to perhaps millions of Seventh-day Adventists.

It is time for all of us as Seventh-day Adventists to stop defending hypocrisy and deceit. The moniker for the Amazing Facts upcoming Holding the Line Summit, hosted by Doug Bachelor and the Granite Bay SDA Church, in which Ted Wilson is a featured speaker, is the epitome of pretension. It only serves to highlight the enormity of the rift in reality that has fragmented our church.

The aura surrounding Ted Wilson and the General Conference leadership, particularly since the start of the pandemic, may well be the biggest elephant in the room in Seventh-day Adventist history. While there may be some in the church who have spoken out on this subject, they did not take the gloves off, as it were, perhaps for fear of reprisal or censure. I am not going to follow their lead, even though it may garner denunciation and perhaps even sheer hatred for me as an individual. Nonetheless, the truth will stand undaunted despite the most vehement efforts by those who have been misled. "For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth" (2 Corinthians 13:8).

Far too many in our church have defended Conference leadership with the subliminal perception that the Conference is the voice of God. They portray Ted Wilson as being a "good man," just as they do others in the upper echelons of church administration. And while he may project to the uninitiated an image of virtuousness and honor, this surely cannot qualify him to be labeled a good man. Jesus said, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God" (Mark 10:18). Yet, I hear this statement about Ted Wilson and other Conference leaders in our churches all the time. I would not dare to call myself a "good man" despite years of devotion to the Gospel, as I know there is still work to be done in order to overcome sin in this life - a process that scripture attests to being fully achievable. Quite frankly, in reference to Ted Wilson, I would assert that a man like John MacArthur, the well-known pastor of Grace Community Church in California, has proven to be a more faithful servant of the Lord since he stood his ground in rejecting the pandemic mandates, even at his own peril and that of his church.

Ted Wilson and his cronies, on the other hand, have embraced government mandates, touted the dominant narrative, and promoted what we now unequivocally know to be flawed science-costing perhaps millions of Seventh-day Adventists their jobs, their homes, and even their lives. We need to tell it like it is without the sanctimonious rhetoric that has characterized today's General Conference in a way that is nothing more noble than being politically correct. To use the words of Ellen G. White, "We hear that the voice of the Conference is the voice of God. Every time I have heard this, I thought it was almost blasphemy" (April 1, 1901, Ms. 37, 1901). It is high time that we stop beating around the bush and start calling sin by its right name. By continuing to rationalize the indefensible, we are doing a terrible disservice to the millions who would otherwise find their way to the precious truths that have been bestowed upon us as Seventh-day Adventists. It is a hissing and a reproach.

How long are we going to promote duplicity? The illegitimacy of what Ted Wilson did at the last General Conference Session cannot be understated. In short, he lied in a televised forum seen by many in our church and those in the mainstream. It cannot possibly be more obvious or disconcerting. Now we are being accosted with a highly touted event, Holding the Line, which, under the circumstances, effectively renders the Seventh-day Adventist experience the equivalent of a three-ring circus. Perhaps there are good intentions underlying this upcoming event, but the intent inherent in its moniker, "holding the line", is bold-faced and offensive, unless one is completely oblivious to the events of these past couple of years. It begs the question, "Holding what line?" Ted Wilson and the General Conference betrayed our worldwide membership by kowtowing to the irreligious pronouncements of renegade authoritarians. They knowingly condoned the acquisition of funds from the government, placing themselves and the millions of Seventh-day Adventists worldwide in a vulnerable position as a result.

Are we to expect that Ted Wilson will recant his position on government mandates and so-called science in order to add legitimacy to this Amazing Facts event that endeavors to teach us how to take a stand in a morally declining world? Hardly. To this day, Ted Wilson and the General Conference refuse to remove ADCOM's 2021 Reaffirmation Statement-the illegal declaration that placed the lives of millions of Seventh-day Adventists in jeopardy. Yet, one of the key purposes of the Holding the Line event is purportedly to teach us "what to say or do when pressured to conform to the world's ideas." Enlisting Ted Wilson as a featured speaker is the ultimate paradox. He and his colleagues have not only embraced the world's ideas, but have also foisted them on the entire world church. Let's be honest about this.

If Seventh-day Adventists are going to be so deluded as to endorse the premise of this Amazing Facts event without even a whimper, it will be overwhelmingly apparent that we have been indoctrinated into the ideology of this world, rather than the principles that founded our church. Let's stop putting the blinders on. It's time to say enough is enough.

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This release was published on openPR.