Question: Why did this movement (worldslastchance) break away from the SDA and formed there own group, yet they are using the books of the SDA church? Why do you reject the Holy Spirit. You are to me an OFFSHOOT movement which was establised to be critical of the SDA Church.
Answer: We would agree with you that truth is not found in a critical attitude. Our aim is not to look for fault, but to find truth. Once truth is found, we must of course maintain truth even if others deny it.
We were apparently not clear enough in regard to the Holy Spirit. WLC maintains belief in the Holy Spirit. Therefore the teachings of WLC are not faulty and questionable on that issue. Furthermore, WLC beliefs are merely copied from those published by the Seventh-day Adventist denomination in 1872. If WLC is faulty, then so was the denomination to which Ellen White belonged.
We agree with you that we should follow the example of Christ, who did not leave the Jewish religion of his time to form another group. That is one reason why WLC has not formed another group, church, denomination, or organisation. Ellen White maintained the authority of the General Conference session of Seventh-day Adventists at least as late as 1909 in 9Testimonies. That was conditional on two matters: faithfulness to the Bible, and representation of the entire world church. No new organisation is to be made. WLC adheres to that message, and to the denomination represented by the General Conference in session.
In practice, however, the General Conference in session ceased to have authority when it no longer represented the world church. Those Adventists who adhered to non-combatancy and Sabbath sacredness during World War I in Germany were disfellowshiped, and the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference supported that disfellowshiping. The result was a split in the denomination, with the General Conference supporting the administration which was at fault against faithful Adventists. Since those faithful Adventists were no longer represented in the General Conference session of 1915 and thereafter, the General Conference session lost its authority.
Instead of correcting the fault, the General Conference continued the same policy, disfellowshiping faithful Adventists in the Communist block during the first half of the twentieth century, thus creating a whole series of schismatic denominations of faithful Adventists not represented in the General Conference sessions. The General Conference in these measures supported Communist collaborators in suppression of Adventists. The situation continues with a splintered denomination. As long as all of these groups are not reconciled in the General Conference sessions, the General Conference cannot claim valid authority. They have become an offshoot along with all of the other schismatic organisations.
WLC refuses to participate in schismatic or offshoot organisation. It recognizes the validity of the authority of the General Conference sessions as noted by Ellen White, to represent the entire world church and to be submitted to the authority of Scripture. Thus WLC recognizes the main body of the denomination as represented by Ellen White up to the year 1915 and the organisation up to that time. The fact that the church property may have been usurped by offshoots is completely irrelevant. The Fundamental beliefs, the Spirit of Prophecy books, and the mandate to carry the three angels' messages to all the world remain. In order not to contribute to the temptation to create an offshoot, WLC encourages people to meet for worship in homes, and thus not generate property that would eventually lead to the establishment of another organisation or offshoot.
On the other hand, we deplore the term offshoot, as this is a term invented under the reigning situation of splintered disunity in order to demonize those of another faction. It is part and parcel of the spirit of fault-finding that you so rightly decried at the beginning of your letter. Ellen White used the term "independent atoms" for those who struck off in their own way. That applied to those who rejected the fundamental beliefs and brought in new beliefs of their own. That applies today to all groups which have produced new statements of Fundamental Beliefs. We are to press together on the foundation that was set. WLC almost alone maintains the beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist church as expressed in its Fundamentals of 1872 and 1889 and in the denominational books and periodicals published before 1915.
WLC encourages you to gather in a small group at home to worship God and maintain the true message of the Advent movement, rather than participating in any independent atom activity.
