MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN 

in the Bible, the mysterious riddle written by a hand on the wall at Belshazzar’s feast. These Aramaic words may be translated literally as, “It has been counted and counted, weighed and divided.” Daniel interpreted this to mean that the king’s deeds had been weighed and found deficient and that his kingdom would therefore be divided. 

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2001-05 Columbia University Press. 


An OPEN LETTER to the General Conference Seventh-day Adventists

"How is [Babylon] taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!" "How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!" "At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.” 

"Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed." "The spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the Lord God of recompenses shall surely requite. And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.” 

"I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the Lord. The Lord hath opened His armory, and hath brought forth the weapons of His indignation: for this is the work of the Lord [YAHWEH] of hosts in the land of the [Babylonians].” 

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go. Their Redeemer is strong; [YAHWEH] of hosts is His name: He shall thoroughly plead their cause, that He may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon." Jeremiah 51:41; 50:23, 46; 51:8, 56, 57; 50:24, 25, 33, 34. 


    "Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon,
      Sit on the ground: there is no throne. . . .
      Sit thou silent,
      And get thee into darkness, O daughter of the [Babylonians]:
      For thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.

     "I was wroth with My people,
      I have polluted Mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand:
      Thou didst show them no mercy; . . .

     "And thou saidst, I shall be a lady forever:
      So that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart,
      Neither didst remember the latter end of it.

     "Therefore hear now this,
      Thou that art given to pleasures
      That dwellest carelessly,
      That sayest in thine heart,
      I am, and none else beside me;
      I shall not sit as a widow,
      Neither shall I know the loss of children: . . .

     "These two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day,
      The loss of children, and widowhood:
      They shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great
           abundance of thine enchantments.
      For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness:
      Thou hast said, None seeth me.

     "Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee;
      And thou hast said in thine heart,
      I am, and none else beside me.
      Therefore shall evil come upon thee;
      Thou shalt not know from whence it riseth:
      And mischief shall fall upon thee;
      Thou shalt not be able to put it off:
      And desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.

     "Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast
           labored from thy youth;
      If so be thou shalt be able to profit,
      If so be thou mayest prevail.

     "Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels.
      Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators,
      Stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.
      Behold, they shall be as stubble; . . .
      They shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: . . .
      None shall save thee." Isaiah 47:1-15. 

“The [Seventh-day Adventist] church cannot measure herself by the world nor by the opinion of men nor by what she once was. Her faith and her position in the world as they now are must be compared with what they would have been if her course had been continually onward and upward. The church will be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary. If her moral character and spiritual state do not correspond with the benefits and blessings God has conferred upon her, she will be found wanting. The light has been shining clear and definite upon her pathway, and the light of [2007] calls her to an account. If her talents are unimproved, if her fruit is not perfect before God, if her light has become darkness, she is indeed found wanting.” [5T 83, 84] 

“In the balances of the sanctuary the Seventh-day Adventist church is to be weighed. She will be judged by the privileges and advantages that she has had. If her spiritual experience does not correspond to the advantages that Christ, at infinite cost, has bestowed on her, if the blessings conferred have not qualified her to do the work entrusted to her, on her will be pronounced the sentence: ‘Found wanting.’ By the light bestowed, the opportunities given, will she be judged.” [8T 247] 

“There are many who need now to consider the words, ‘Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.’ God's holy, everlasting, immutable law is the standard by which man is to be tried. This law defines what we shall do and what we shall not do, saying, Thou shalt, and, Thou shalt not. This law is summed up in the two great principles, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.’ 

“This means just what it says. O how few will be prepared to meet the law of God in the great day of judgment! If the work of individual preparation for which the Lord calls were carried on in the home circle and in the church, how much suffering, how much sin, would be avoided! 

“My brethren, day and night, and especially in the night season, this matter is presented to me. ‘Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.’ How do we stand before God at this time? We may be sincere, and yet greatly deceived. Saul of Tarsus was sincere when he was persecuting the church of Christ. ‘I verily thought,’ he declared, ‘that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus.’ He was sincere in his ignorance. But after Christ had revealed himself to him, he declared, ‘What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.’ 

“’My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.’” [Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, March 8, 1906, p. 8] 

“In the representations the Lord has given me, I have seen those who follow their own desires, misrepresenting the truth, oppressing their brethren, and placing difficulties before them. Characters are now being developed, and men are taking sides, some on the side of the Lord Jesus Christ, some on the side of Satan and his angels. The Lord calls for all who will be true and obedient to His law to come out of and away from all connection with those who have placed themselves on the side of the enemy. Against their names is written, ‘TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.’” [Letter 256, August 1, 1906] 

“The Lord does not suffer wicked practices to go on without sending reproof and warning. There are men in high places who know of the reproofs, of warnings, of judgment sent, who know the example of God's dealings with others who have been disobedient, yet who have not sought to correct their ways before God. They have endeavored rather to make of none effect the messages that God has sent. They have continued to exalt themselves, and to carry out their own ways in defiance of the words of God. They have not been ignorant of the right way, but they have allowed their eyes to be blinded. In pronouncing judgment upon these, God will say, as he said to the wicked king [Belshazzar], ‘Thou . . . hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this. [But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; . . .]’” [Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, September 24, 1908] 

“[Faithful witnesses] exert their God-given ability to set things in order in the church, whether it makes them friends or foes. When straight, solemn testimony is needed, in rebuking sin and iniquity, even though it be in those of high position, they will not hold their peace, but will heed the instruction of the God of truth, when he commands, ‘Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.’ They will stand as faithful watchmen upon the walls of Zion,–not to hide sin, not to flatter the wrong-doer, not to obtain the sympathy of their brethren, but to meet the approval of God. They will not suppress one syllable of truth that should be brought out, in reproof, or warning, or in vindication of the righteousness of the oppressed, in order to gain the favor and influence of any one. In a crisis, they will not be found in a neutral position, but they will stand firmly on the side of righteousness and truth, even when it is difficult to take this position; and to maintain it may imperil their prosperity, and deprive them of the friendship of those whom they love.” [Review and Herald, September 4, 1888] 

I say to you as would Ellen G. White, and by the Spirit of the Living God, “Take this case out of the lawyers' hands. It seems awful to me to think that you will go directly contrary to the plain word of God, and will open to the world your cruel work against God's commandment-keeping people.” [Letter 301, 1905] Please remember, “Every character is to be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary; if the moral character and spiritual advancement do not correspond with the opportunities and blessings, ‘wanting’ is written against the name.” [Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, March 19, 1895] Your name has been summoned before the “judgment seat of Christ” (Romans 14:10). What will His verdict be? 

“And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” [Revelation 18:1-5] 

“Then I was shown a company who were howling in agony. On their garments was written in large characters, ‘Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting.’ I asked who this company were. The angel said, ‘These are they who have once kept the Sabbath and have given it up.’ I heard them cry with a loud voice, ‘We have believed in Thy coming, and taught it with energy.’ And while they were speaking, their eyes would fall upon their garments and see the writing, and then they would wail aloud. I saw that they had drunk of the deep waters, and fouled the residue with their feet–trodden the Sabbath underfoot–and that was why they were weighed in the balance and found wanting.” [EW 37] 

You ask with perplexity, “How have we, the elect of God, ‘fouled the residue with [our] feet [and] trodden the Sabbath underfoot?’” How did the “church of God” in the days of the Savior do the same? Did you believe that to keep the Sabbath holy was to observe “the sabbath of the Jews?” Yes, it is observed by the same letter of law as “the Sabbath of the LORD.” However, what is the Spirit of this religious observance? As E. J. Waggoner aptly stated in his tract entitled “The Three Sabbaths,” “The Jewish sabbath falls on the same day of the week as the Sabbath of the LORD, but it is not by any means the same thing. It represents only the man himself, and his own work.” Your work of persecuting the saints has crucified afresh the Son of God, and “put Him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:6) time and time again. You divorced your “lawful husband” only to seek an “unholy union” with Caesar. Rather than rest in the security of God’s promises, you sought worldly fame and said, “let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4). 

“It is not the true church of God that makes war with those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. It is the people who make void the law, who place themselves on the side of the dragon, and persecute those who vindicate God's precepts.” [Signs of the Times, April 22, 1889] “The same spirit that in ages past led men to persecute the true church, will in the future lead to the pursuance of a similar course toward those who maintain their loyalty to God.” [Prophets and Kings, p. 605] “Christ declared the Jews of his time guilty of all the blood of holy men which had been shed since the days of Abel; for they possessed the same spirit, and were seeking to do the same work, with these murderers of the prophets.” [The Great Controversy, p. 627] 

“The Spirit of God, which prompts to reproof, is trampled underfoot, while the servants of Satan triumph. God is dishonored, the truth made of none effect. The class who do not feel grieved over their own spiritual declension, nor mourn over the sins of others, will be left without the seal of God. The Lord commissions His messengers, the men with slaughtering weapons in their hands: ‘Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.’ Here we see that the [SDA] church—the Lord's sanctuary—was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God. The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, had betrayed their trust. They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God's power as in former days. Times have changed. These words strengthen their unbelief, and they say: The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. He is too merciful to visit His people in judgment. Thus ‘Peace and safety’ is the cry from men who will never again lift up their voice like a trumpet to show God's people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. These dumb dogs that would not bark are the ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God. Men, maidens, and little children all perish together.” [5T 210, 211] 

Can you not see yourself in the perfect mirror of God’s holy law? Do you not sense the Master is one last time extending His healing Hand to save you from your treachery? “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:” (Deut. 30:19). “O [General Conference, nominal Seventh-day Adventists], thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Matthew 23:37, 38). However, you may individually “flee from the wrath to come” by obedience to the mighty Angel of Revelation 18. 

“When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the LORD is not equal. O house of Israel, are not My ways equal? are not your ways unequal? Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” [Ezekiel 18:26-32]

Creation Seventh Day Adventists cordially invite you to everlasting life.
April 2007