The church business meeting writing a letter to the church administration is the only mechanism that is inline with church manual recommendations. see: how to participate in church governance. Conference executive committees, unions, divisions, and the GC do not want 22 million letters from individual Seventh-day Adventists. Moreover, an individual sending a letter does not reflect the representative form of governance that our church has and is not reflective of the beliefs of the constituency (the members). If we were to all send an individual letter in on our particular understanding on a topic it might be noted with interest, but nothing more. If a church business meeting send in a letter, the letter will be reflective of the constituency's understanding on a topic and thus have credibility. The collective local church business meetings can lead to significant changes in leadership and practice at the conference level. The collective conferences then impact the Unions, the Unions then on the Division and the General Conference administration.
When we are baptized we have a public confession / profession of our faith, when we are re-baptized we do the same. If we have erred from our profession (such as departing from Sola Scriptura) we should have a public confession also.
These statements are in the public domain and are there through the error that we have all found ourselves being complicit in, in smaller or greater ways. Therefore they need to be addressed publicly.
Whilst individual repentance is necessary, God also wants a corporate repentance. Revelation 19: 7 tells us that the 'wife hath made herself ready.' This is not just referring to one church member, but to a collective. Every time Jesus intervenes in a major way to bring about deliverance for His people, He has waited for a corporate cry. We see this in Exodus 2, Number 25, Joshua 6, 1 Kings 18, Ezekiel 9 and elsewhere in scripture. Therefore, if we want to be delivered from this deep error, then we need to have deep corporate repentance and a unified cry unto God.
Ezekiel 3 makes it clear that we are to warn those who are in error, otherwise their blood is on our hands. The leaders of the church (such as the president and other vice-presidents) have had individuals speak to them. They have had other ministries speak to them on behalf of church laity. Now the whole church needs to come to them to warn them of their danger. The only way to effectively do this is by congregational business meetings voting to reject the statements on the basis they are not Sola Scriptura.
As we all stand in a corporate way and confess our error and profess our desire to abide by Sola Scriptura it has a unifying effect. It brings all those who stand under Sola Scriptura into the unity of the faith. This can not happen when individuals work in isolation.
As we stand in a unified way, not only does the cry go up to God, but the cry goes out to the world "to come out of her My people." Voices sounding by themselves will not be heard, a unified voice crying out WILL be heard.
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