The Facebook Experiment I recently decided to run a little test on Facebook to see where people’s priorities really lie, and the results honestly disgusted me. I made two different posts:

  • The Controversy: First, I posted a picture of a page from a book about the doctrine of the Trinity, noting how confusing I found it. It blew up immediately, getting tons of likes, shares, and comments [01:22].

  • The Practical Help: The very next day, I posted an announcement for a free 10-week devotional I wrote with my wife, Lori, called “Precious Promises.” It was about managing thoughts and feelings—practical, real Christianity. It got almost zero engagement [12:06].

The Problem with Online Debates This experiment highlighted exactly what is wrong with Adventism and social media right now. We are addicted to controversy, conspiracy, and debate, but we have almost no interest in the actual salvation of our children or practical godliness [13:25].

I saw people in the comments of my Trinity post who were so eager to argue, condemn, and “set me straight” that they completely forgot how to treat a human being. It made me realize that we are winning arguments but losing our souls. We think we are doing God a service by fighting for the “truth,” but in reality, we are displaying the character of the devil—pride, arrogance, and anger [21:03].

Character vs. Knowledge Here is the hard truth I’ve come to realize: You can have all the right doctrines—you can know for a fact who God is or isn’t—but if you don’t have His character, it means nothing.

  • The Mark of the Beast: I believe many people are actually grooming themselves to receive the mark of the beast by how they act online. The mark is about whose character you reflect (the beast’s), while the 144,000 will have the Father’s name (His character) written in their foreheads [23:43].

  • The Laodicean Condition: We are the definition of the Laodicean church—”rich and increased with goods” (intellectual truth) but “miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (lacking the love of Christ) [28:40].

My Call to Repentance I am sick of the endless debates. I deleted that Trinity post because I don’t want to be part of that toxicity anymore. I want to see a “revival of primitive godliness” [16:18]. We need to stop fighting on keyboards and go out and actually do good like Jesus did—healing the oppressed and ministering to people’s needs [31:09]. We need to repent of our pride and focus on transforming our hearts, not just our arguments.