This is an appeal to Seventh-day Adventist church members, pastors, and leaders. I speak not as someone of importance, influence, or authority within the church structure, but as a brother in Christ and as a committed Seventh-day Adventist who is doing my best to help fulfill this church’s prophetic mission and purpose.

Four years ago, on December 8, 2020, my father-in-law died on a hospital ventilator, killed not by a virus, but murdered by a system that many believed was there to protect them. Unfortunately, our family’s experience was not unique.

However, during that dark period of this world’s history, and in the years that have followed, Pastors Conrad Vine and Ron Kelly courageously defended the God-given right of liberty of conscience. Their voices were raised at a time when most remained silent. For many Seventh-day Adventists, their testimony and example, though at times no doubt imperfect, nevertheless modeled the spirit of true Adventism with clarity, force, and genuine concern for the church of Christ. Yet today, both of these men have been aggressively de-platformed, canceled, and silenced by the very church that they have given their lives to build up. To borrow a phrase from prophetic imagery, two witnesses for truth now lie dead in the streets.

On the screen is a painting created several years ago by artist Nathan Green, autographed “To my friend Pastor Ron Kelly.” The painting depicts Pastor Kelly on trial in a courtroom, with handcuffs around his wrists. Beside him stands Jesus, shackled, and covered in a bloody robe. In front of them stands a prosecutor with a Bible in his hands. May this church, the church I love, always be represented by the man next to Jesus Christ, in whose mind and heart the Word of God has been written—not the man who merely holds a Bible in his hands.

To my Seventh-day Adventist brothers and sisters, do not allow your faith in God to fail. Many of the Old Testament prophets were persecuted by those to whom they were sent, and Jesus received no better treatment during His life on earth. When we observe similar mistreatment today, don’t let it shake you out of the experience that God has already given you! There will be more things that will test and try our faith before Jesus returns. Now is the time to be settled intellectually and spiritually into the truth—and the truth, of course, is Jesus Christ. He ever has been, and always will be, our only example. Keep your eyes on Christ! Many of you, like me, believe on the basis of the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy that the Seventh-day Adventist church is the only place where we can be. What God has started in this church, He will finish! Do not be shaken out! In one of my father-in-law’s final text messages, sent while he was in the hospital, he wrote this statement of faith: “God has me right where He wants me, in His end time Most Holy Place laundry getting me cleaned up to see him coming soon! I have no uncertainty, no anxiety, no fear thanks to resting in His hands. There is no place safer or more comfortable to be and I am a blessed man. Praise the Lord.” May we all express that same level of confidence in God’s love and leading, especially during those times when it is most difficult to discern His will.

To pastors in the Michigan Conference, I know a number of you personally, and I also know that some of you are now in Michigan because you found it impossible to speak the truth in love in other places. Gentlemen, Seventh-day Adventists around the world, including those in your own local churches, are now relying on you to stand for the truth. Do it respectfully. Do it Biblically. But please do it. The day is fast approaching when obedience to God’s law and faithfulness to Jesus Christ will require complete trust in divine providence for everything, including our daily food. The same God that will provide for His people then will provide for you today as you stand for truth, and as you encourage your church members to do the same.

To the leaders of the Michigan Conference, and any other denominational leaders that may watch this, I believe I speak for many, many Seventh-day Adventists around the world when I say that we love this church, we want to support this church, and we are committed to both the message and the organization of this church. Because of this, we are willing to forgive and move past many perceived mistakes and missteps on the part of our church leaders. The Bible is clear that we are to respect and support those entrusted with leadership of God’s church, and we want to do this. However, in return, we ask for, and expect, the same spirit of forgiveness and repentance when the situation demands it. Be careful that in attempting to protect the organization that you love you do not end up sacrificing one, or two, men “for the sake of the nation.” That argument was made before, with disastrous personal and corporate consequences.

In 1903, Ellen White wrote in her book Education, “The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.” (p. 57) The Seventh-day Adventist church was raised up to prepare a generation of people who will do exactly this. Now is the time to speak. Now is the time to stand.

I will close with a poem written by Pastor Martin Niemoller. Initially an antisemitic Nazi supporter, his views changed when he was imprisoned in a concentration camp for speaking out against Nazi control of churches. I believe what he wrote is for us today:

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

May God be with each of us as we commit ourselves to speak, live, and, if necessary, die for Him.