A TRUE STORY............
PART ONE
Dear Friends
"There is another class of literature, more defiling than the leprosy, more deadly than the plagues of Egypt, against which our publishing houses need unceasingly to guard. In accepting commercial work, let them beware lest matters presenting the very science of Satan be admitted into our institutions. Let not works setting forth the soul-destroying theories of hypnotism, spiritualism, Romanism, or other mysteries of iniquity find a place in our publishing houses. 7T 166.2
Let nothing be handled by the employees that will sow one seed of doubt in regard to the authority or purity of the Scriptures. Upon no consideration let infidel sentiments be placed before the youth, whose minds so eagerly grasp anything new. At the very highest figures that might be paid, such work could be published only at infinite loss. 7T 166.3
To allow matter of this character to pass through our institutions is to place in the hands of the employees and to present to the world the fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge. It is to invite Satan to come in, with his bewitching science, to insinuate his principles in the very institutions that are set for the advancement of the sacred work of God. To publish matter of this character would be loading the guns of the enemy and placing them in their hands, to be used against the truth. 7T 166.4
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When we were living at CUC in 1974, and I was in my final year of Theology and would graduate in June, the following events happened in our life.
I was working in the Book Bindery as Shipper and Receiver. I enjoyed my work very much as I had done this work at the Federated Co-op Warehouse in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and also for The International Harvesting Company in the same city. That was back in about 1961.
At the Book Bindery they were repairing books from public libraries and from different schools in Alberta. As I packed and unpacked these books for shipping or for repairs, I began to notice some of the "titles" and the "pictures" on the covers. I did not pay too much attention at first but the longer I worked there, my mind began to be troubled by the many kinds of books, some of which were just plain evil.
For several weeks I struggled with the thought of, why are we handling this kind of material at a Seventh Day Adventist School. Should I talk to the manager, should I just give notice and quit my job?
One Friday when I arrived home for dinner, I sat on the sofa while Joyce was getting the meal ready and at the end of the sofa was a little bookshelf and in the book- shelf were the volumes of The Testimonies. I reached over and just randomly took a book. I opened the cover and began to read a section called; The Publishing Work, beginning on page 138.
As I browsed through the pages I came to the section titled: ""Demoralizing Literature"" beginning on page 164. Here was presented the warning not to handle or publish books containing deeds of violence, crime, warfare, Roman Catholic books, etc; one part says:
"Let not works setting forth the soul-destroying theories of hypnotism, spiritualism, Romanism, or other mysteries of iniquity find a place in our publishing houses. 7T 166.2
Now I knew exactly what I must do if I was going to obey The Spirit of God. I went to the bindery, approached the manager and showed him what I had read. He was a few years older than me, but very easy to talk with. His response was when he read this section; "If it is wrong, don't you think the leaders would see it?" "Well" I said, "they do not see it and we are repairing these very kinds of books.! I'm sorry, I enjoy this type of work but, I can not disobey God, I will not be able to continue in this position."
I received instructions to appear in the president's office. I went and the man tried to convince me that we were, "Just providing a service" and that, "The students were not reading these books! I said, "Would you deliver beer just to provide a service, but you would not drink it so it would be ok to deliver it "? I left his office with that word.
In a couple of days I was called upon to appear before the Chairman of the Theology Department. He tried to convince me that I was making trouble for nothing and that I needed to apologize to the student body in the next assembly! I told him I believed in obeying God's instruction and that if I could not do so just to be accepted as an SDA minister, then there was no point in continuing my classes. I was only one month from graduating after a four year Theology course! I withdrew from my classes, went home thinking about what to do next. I had training in several areas of work so, that was no problem, but just where would God have us go!
Shortly after this encounter with the Chairman of The Theology Department, the minister of the College Church came to my home. He said, "Br. Weber, I have been informed of your circumstance and have come to encourage you to finish the year and graduate, we need more men like you in the ministry". He suggested I write a letter to the ADD Council saying that it was not my intention to create a problem, but I did not feel that I needed to apologize to the student body as I had not said anything to any students but had only spoken to the manger of the bindery.
However; I would like to finish the course and graduate."
ADD Council met every Wednesday morning. Just as we were about to begin dinner, the man in charge of student workers came to our door, huffing and puffing, as he was overweight and said, "Richard, that was the hottest ADD Council I have ever attended, but we have decided you can continue your classes and graduate.”
I thanked him for that and re-instated my enrollment, and graduated with a BTH in Theology and a Minor in History in 1974.
The Conference presidents who came to interview the graduates for possible hiring had heard all about what happened and I did not receive a call from any of them except one.
The day I went to the business office to arrange for final payment of my account, I met the President of the Alberta Conference in the hallway in front of the business office window. He stopped and said, "Brother Weber, I heard about your experience at the bindery, and he said I told the brethren, you leave Br. Weber alone, we need more men like him in the ministry." And then he said, "I have accepted a call to British Columbia to be president there, and when I get settled I will give you a call to work in B.C."
Well, that was encouraging! As it turns out we were headed to B.C. to work for an Adventist couple who operated a logging and saw mill business in Fort St. John, B.C. and had given us financial help that year. We received a call from him a few weeks later and were invited to pastor the church in Lamming Mills. We had promised this couple that we would work for them for a year and so I said if you can still use us next summer call us again. He said, "Ok I will". He did call and invited us to go the Whitehorse, Yukon Territory as the first worker of the B.C. Conference to be sent to the north.
Volume 7 has more to say about the books we as S.D.A.’s handle and print, I pray you will take time to read it all.
As I read this counsel I read this:
"The managers of our institutions need to realize that in accepting their position they become responsible for the mental food given to the workers while in the institution. They are responsible for the character of the matter that goes forth from our presses. They will be called to account for the influence exerted by the introduction of matter that would defile the institution, contaminate the workers, or mislead the world. 7T167.2
If such matter is allowed a place in our institutions, it will be found that the subtle power of Satan's sentiments is not easily cast out. If the tempter is allowed to sow his evil seed, it will germinate and bring forth fruit. There will be a harvest for his reaping in the very institutions established by the funds of God's people for the advancement of His work. It will result in sending forth to the world, in place of Christian workers, a company of educated infidels.
7T167.3
In these matters a responsibility rests not only upon the managers, but upon the employees. I have a word to say to the workers in every publishing house established among us: As you love and fear God, refuse to have anything to do with the knowledge against which God warned Adam. Let typesetters refuse to set a sentence of such matter. Let proofreaders refuse to read, pressmen to print, and binders to bind it. If asked to handle such matter, call for a meeting of the workers in the institution, that there may be an understanding as to what such things mean. Those in charge of the institution may urge that you are not responsible, that the managers must arrange these matters. But you are responsible--responsible for the use of your eyes, your hands, your mind. These are entrusted to you by God to be used for Him, not for the service of Satan.
7T 167.4
“When matters containing errors that counteract the work of God are printed in our houses of publication, God holds accountable not only those who allow Satan to lay a trap for souls, but those who in any way co-operate in the work of temptation.
7T168.1
My brethren in responsible positions, beware that you do not harness your workers to the car of superstition and heresy. Let not the institutions ordained by God to send out life-giving truth be made an agency for the dissemination of soul-destroying error.
7T 168.2
Let our publishing houses, from the least to the greatest, refuse to print a line of such pernicious matter. Let it be understood by all with whom we have to do that from all our institutions literature containing the science of Satan is excluded. 7T168.3
We are brought into connection with the world, not that we may be leavened with the world's falsehood, but that as God's agencies we may leaven the world with His truth.
7 T 168
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I did not exercise the privilege that was mine as as a worker in the bindery to :
"If asked to handle such matter, call for a meeting of the workers in the institution, that there may be an understanding as to what such things mean."
I did not speak to other students about it, I simply asked to be excused from my position in obedience to the instruction of God's Spirit. However; Satan was not happy that his devices were being exposed and he moved upon those who are "tares" in the Lord's Field, to punish the one who dared to question their management and authority! But God gave us victory over the enemy! Praise His Wonderful Name!
There is another thing I read about this matter and it is this:
"We have no permission from the Lord to engage either in the printing or in the sale of such publications; for they are the means of destroying many souls. I know of what I am writing, for this matter has been opened before me. Let not those who believe the message for this time engage in such work, thinking to make money. The Lord will put a blight upon the means thus obtained; He will scatter more than is gathered."
7T 166.1
I did not know at the time of this event I was going through that the Book Bindery was already in financial trouble. A few years after I left it closed down for this reason as God said would happen to those who refuse to obey His warnings! A friend who later met the former manager of the bindery at a church told them that my stand had been the right one to take! God gets all the praise, I could not have done it without the help of His Holy Spirit!
There is another part of this Testimony regarding the printing and handling of books of Satan's devising. Many years later we received a letter from one of the students who was a worker in the bindery at that same time. He told us that he did read a lot of what he was handling and as a result lost his Christian experience and wandered away from Christ for some years; but praise God he found his way home again to his Heavenly Father's House and wanted us to know that he appreciated the stand we took that day, even though the leaders were against us!
But take warning, the devil never gives up and he has entered into the Lord's Sanctuary with his soul-destroying science of Hypnotism, through the teaching and practice of Roman Catholic Spiritual Formation!
And once again it is the leaders who are resisting the Testimonies of God's Holy Spirit! They decreed in 2001 that they were going to teach this evil Catholic Mysticism in every region of the world and they are doing it! You can purchase these, "soul destroying books" from ABC stores and the books of men and women who write and teach these "doctrines of devil's" are being advertised by the General Conference, Unions, and churches.
Seminars that teach this hypnotism are being held in Adventist Churches and schools!
Ted Wilson, the new GC president confirmed this in his first sermon!
We encourage all SDA's to purchase the book just out and promoted by the BC Conference this year at Camp Meeting written by a retired SDA minister by the name of Rick Howard.
His book is titled; "The Omega Rebellion".
Read it slowly and carefully with much prayer to understand, the depth of this danger which is the very heart of the OMEGA APOSTASY, God said would overcome the large majority of professing S.D.A.s!
And foremost of all, Read the Testimonies of Jesus, the apostasy of Dr. Kellogg and the dangers of HYPNOTISM!
Behold His Amazing Grace!
Love,
Rich
