Who was the remnant before there was any seventh day adventists?

/Thomas

Thomas, I agree that God has faithful members in other church organizations. And in a sense they are part of His remnant people. They will respond to the call - Come out of her, My people. Where are they? Members of babylonian or non-SDA churches! So in another sense they are not remnant members.

I'm talking about a remnant church which God has entrusted with the 3AM's. Whether or not every baptized member of the remnant church is faithfully proclaiming the truth is another matter altogether. Clearly they are not. Thus technically they are not remnant members in the eyes of God. But neither are non-SDA's. Why? Because they do not understand the 3AM's.

God has had a remnant church since the fall of Adam and Eve. The SDA church is merely the last of the remnant church line. What constitutes the remnant church? In a word - the truth. Whoever God has entrusted the truth is the remnant church. Shortly after 1844 God chose the SDA church to finish the gospel commission. That's what I'm talking about.

The question arises, does this lead to the conclusion that everyone who believes like you or I or some mainstram SDA do is part of Gods special people and they who dont agree are lost until they change what they believe or add to it till differences are gone? Here we would need a huge red light and a beeping sound warning for "holier than thou" attitude and just general spiritual arrognce. Somehow quite close to what Jesus said would be the characteristics of laodicea. Might part of the problem be that people let this belief go to their heads and with lost focus on Jesus as result?

/Thomas

People who become puffed up and arrogant over the chosen status of the SDA church are not behaving like remnant people. They are tares in the church and will be shaken out during the MOB crisis if they ignore or refuse to comply with the counsel to Laodicea. The Loadicean attitude of the tares within the remnant church does not disqualify the remnant status of the church itself.

Romans
11:5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

1 Thessalonians
1:4 Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.

2 Peter
1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

Colossians
3:12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
3:13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also [do] ye.

1 Peter
1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

I think the history of Israel at the time of Jesus' first coming can be instructive to us here at the time just before His second coming.

"Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 1 Corinthians 10:11

Many of the Jews thought that by virtue of their nationality, they were guaranteed salvation, special favored status with God, etc. etc. A country-club religion. But they ended up crucifying God in the flesh!

We can (and do) make the same mistake if we think we're going to heaven just because we sit in an SDA church every sabbath. All the things Jesus said to the Pharisees, Sadducees, and other Jews 1970 years ago can apply equally to us today if we aren't careful. We have more light from God than any group of church people that's ever lived; so we have that much more responsibility to live as God would have us live. "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." Luke 12:48

We won't be judged as a group; when it comes time to be judged, our case is a one-on-one thing with God.

That's not to say that it's a bad thing to count the SDA Church as being God's remnant, and to be glad about being a member, about having the truth that we have. There's no other body on earth that comes even close to fulfilling the prophetic identifiers of the last-days remnant. I guess what I mean is that being an SDAINO (Seventh-day Adventist In Name Only) won't get the job done.

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." John 4:24

As for the question, who was God's remnant before the SDA Church showed up on the scene; there have always been groups of people throughout history who held true to the "faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3). The early Christians in the British Isles, the Waldenses, the Albigenses, the Syrian and Assyrian churches, and others all refused to bow the knee to Rome. These are symbolized by the woman who fled into the wilderness in Revelation 12:6,14. Dr. Benjamin Wilkinson's book Truth Triumphant is a great narrative on that subject -- online at

http://members.cox.net/jhowardjr/sda/Wilkinson_Truth_Triumphant.pdf

Solid Truth, there, John.

And "Truth Triumphant" is my all time favourite Adventist book, not written by Sister White. Should be owned by every sincere Adventist and read often. Talk about getting "God's eyeview"!!!

Great book indeed, Ikan -- and you're the one who originally 'turned me on' to it.

Thanks!

It's a super education about church history. The more we know about such things the better, IMHO.

I would like to answer this question while we're waiting for John. I hope you don't mind John?

When the various remnant believers fled into the "wilderness" during the 1260 years of papal persecution (Rev 12) I believe they gradually began to reappear during the protestant reformation and grouped together according to truths each found most important.

Then after the great disappointment in 1844 God began to gather together the remnant believers, which were and are dispersed here and there throughout the world.

This gathering eventually became known as the SDA Church, and has been commissioned to continue gathering the elect who are still in the many different babylonian churches. Jesus will return when all the world has either joined or refused to join the SDA Church.