Part V :: Jesuit Infiltration & Murder
When we returned from the coast, we were renewed and hopeful. Spending all this time away from what I saw as a growing toxic situation felt good. I longed deeply to be selected for this new missionary opportunity and I knew it was all in God’s capable hands.
It was now the height of summer, with the sun’s rays hitting down upon us as we ate lunch outside. As we sat down for a dish of Pad Thai my wife and I had cooked, I heard a vehicle approaching. Albert climbed out and made his way toward us as we wolfed down delicious noodles.
At first, the two men exchanged small talk.
“Are you hungry?” Freddy asked.
“No thanks, looks good though,” Albert replied.
“It’s something from Asia,” Freddy said. “But it’s good.”
Albert was silent for a moment but quickly broke that silence.
“I have some disturbing news,” he said.
“What is it?” Freddy asked. Darla gave a look of apprehension. She especially hated disturbing news.
“Pastor Harry has been using mind control with his hands during his sermons…
He’s been waving them all over the place,” Albert replied.
I continued to wolf down sticky noodly goodness while I intently listened. I
thought about how pastor Harry preached, and how it was natural for people to use hand motions while speaking. I remembered doing the same in my public speaking class.
“I have read a lot about pastors that use their hands to hypnotize their church. It goes all the way back to the Jesuits,” Albert added.
“Yes, I know that he does that,” Freddy said.
“But that’s not the disturbing part,” Albert said.
“What is it?” Freddy said.
“The truth is, well… I think he killed Eddy.”
Freddy was silent for a moment (which is incredibly rare for Freddy). Eddy was a long-time friend of Freddy's who had been going to Deer Park for many years. It had been previously mentioned that getting Eddy over to Countryside would be a good move. Eddy was quite old and had a lot of respect in the Deer Park Church. He had recently passed away from being sick.
“I was thinking the same thing. Eddy knew too much. We were so close to getting Eddy to come over to Countryside, and when the Deer Park pastor was made aware of that, this was bound to happen.”
Albert shook his head. “We are in solemn times. In times like these, the Jesuits will do anything to stay in power.”
I could not believe what I was hearing. Here was this idea that a Jesuit-controlled pastor murdered one of his elders because he wanted to go to another church. I was not the only person to witness this. My wife was next to me, as was Darla. This is perhaps a very embarrassing memory, and one that will be disputed by some, but the truth is that information was exchanged about the death of Eddy at the hands of Pastor Harry. A bold assertion.
“He’s a Jesuit. There’s no doubt about it.”
How I had grown tired of hearing the word Jesuit. I had never imagined that it would become such an obsession. Is this what living far out in the country and not having anything to do does to a person? Was I seeing the fruit of Auntie Ellen’s pastoral life message? It seemed that, in today’s modern life, there was nothing to keep one busy, so all sorts of strange beliefs could come up and there was time to dwell on them. I was not the most religious person previously. Was this religion? Was this what I had missed out on by being “in the world?” It was starting to seem like it. Is this what I really wanted my child to be raised in?
I thought back to my decision to leave Ukraine. I thought about the indecision I had. The intense sadness I felt at the airport when it was too late to go back. I thought about the plane flying over Kyiv, and the city below being obscured with clouds. Would I ever go back? Why did I leave? For this? Is this what I left for?
Watching television was one way to escape religion for a while. The family
enjoyed watching a variety of shows in the evenings, even some shows that Auntie Ellen would probably chafe under. The news was one family favorite, and it was good to “keep updated on the world” to be ready “to run to (or stay in) the hills.”
“The old Ellen White books are not safe either,” Freddy said during a commercial. “Anything printed after the 1950s has been tampered with by Jesuits. The Ellen White books you want are the old hardcovers. At the Deer Park church, they are only giving out the new stuff. And they have that Great Hope book.” Stephen’s ears perked up. All of the sudden, the look of a demon flashed in his eyes. His eyes grew large and his fists started to clench.
“The Great Hoax is a COUNTERFEIT” he snapped. “The Adventist church and Ted Wilson are going to have to answer for that in the judgment.”
“Why is that?” my wife asked.
“They took out all the important parts of the Great Controversy and are using that book to deny the fact that the Pope is the anti-Christ. It’s watered down. They had no business changing Ellen White’s words. But they changed what she said in the same way that the Jesuits have been changing the Bibles.”
He spoke with passion. There was deep anger—hateful rage—in his voice. This topic would now be off-limits.
The Great Hope and the Clear Word Bible* were now in Stephen’s sights and they would be brought up regularly from that point on. Even to this day, when I see a copy of “The Great Hope,” I read it as “The Great Hoax.”
*Note: The Clear Word Bible, later renamed “The Clear Word” (with Bible removed) is a controversial Seventh-day Adventist version/rewrite of the Bible. It is partly controversial as it was written by one single solitary person. Not a good look!
At the time, I wondered if The Great Controversy was a bit too big of a book for many to digest. The Great Controversy is a huge book with hundreds of pages that, frankly, many don’t have the time or inclination to bother reading. Even I had a hard time with it, as I found the subject matter quite dull. Yet, to a traditionalist Adventist, this is the greatest book ever written—NO CONTEST!
Sending copies of the Great Controversy* around the country is expensive
compared to the Great Hoax… I mean hope. The subject matter in the Great Hope is also a little less ominous and is, well, more focused on hope. Well, as focused on hope as any Adventist book can be.
*Note: Ellen White’s opus, the Great Controversy, was, and still is, used far more than the Bible during these sermons. Ellen White boldly claims that she had viewed the future and that the time of trouble such as the world has never known before would be upon the Adventist remnant, who would have to flee from the rest of the world, which would blame them for the final plagues falling. This kind of “us versus them” thinking seemed to lead to extremist churches like Countryside forming and telling people that the end is nigh.
Yet, what bothered me the most at this time was that passing out the Great Hope was looked down on, but passing out Bill Hughes’ The Secret Terrorists or Enemy Unmasked was somehow better? Another book they liked was “National Sunday Law” which had less to do with Jesus and a lot more to do with fear. While the Bill Hughes books are fringe, National Sunday Law can be found in almost every SDA church and is a manual for understanding what’s about to go down, if you know what I mean. Once I explained this, everyone nodded in agreement and we enjoyed American’s Got Talent. No… Once again I was completely silent and just listened. Good Christians just listen and don’t speak up, so that’s what I did. Of course one day I would leave Adventism and write a book about this time, but that comes later. As far as these people were concerned, my silence was a form of agreement, and I imagine they were happy to be molding me in such a way.
Darla looked up from her iPad the men went on about the book. She had been enjoying a game of Subway surfers, but I imagine that the heated discussion factored into her untimely death in the Subways of Cincinnati. A perturbed look was visible on her face. I wondered if she would say something. I hoped she would quiet them down. She used to say “tone it down,” but had been doing that less and less. It’s a shame because it really should have been shut down. It should have been shut down months ago. Yet, here we all were, and things were just starting to take off.
After a couple of months of waiting and almost losing hope, we received a phone call about going to the coast and working with the native people of the coast. I can’t even begin to say how thrilled we both were. It was time for a change, and change was coming fast! This was my chance to get out of this place and do something new.
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