The Trademark Problem
What Is A Trademark?



A trademark distinguishes the products or goods of one company from another. A trademark mark may consist of a word or group of words, a person’s name, symbol(s), a phrase, a picture, or any combination of these. There are two types of trademarks; A strong trademark and a weak trademark. The strong trademark consist of a word with no recognizable meaning, such as, Sears. The weak trademark consists of words that are common, have definition or suggests the product’s characteristic. Strong trademarks, by law, receive stronger protection than weak trademarks. A company doesn’t have to register its trademark to receive protection by the law. That protection automatically falls under the law of unfair competition. Trademarks may be registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Washington and the owner of a trademark may sue in federal courts for trademark infringement. The General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists has already trademarked the name SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST(S) and has already sued fellow believers who disagree with some of their practices and form their own congregations using that name. Such lawsuits lead to the sad case of

The Commercializing Of The Gospel And The Second Crucifixion Of Christ

The General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists by the afore-mentioned action and many other unchristlike actions, which will be greatly dealt with later in this paper, has brought the three angel’s messages down to a mere product, to be bought and sold by whomsoever they choose. Can you trademark the Gospel Message? This action is an attempt to bring the divine down to a common thing. How can they treat God’s holy message like something to be bought and sold off a stock market? Never in the annals of church history have Christ’s true followers, neither Christ Himself, attempted such outright and unbelievable actions, uniting with lawyers to shut down churches that disagree with wrongs taking place in the church. One becomes a true Seventh-Day Adventist by believing in the Three Angel’s Messages and living up, fully, to what the message teaches, not just by being a member of the church!

"I have stated before them [Seventh-Day Adventists] that, from what was shown me, but a small number of those now professing to believe the truth would eventually be saved-- not because they could not be saved, but because they would not be saved in God's own appointed way." Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 2 p. 445.

The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, spear headed by The General Conference, has become so cross-linked with the world that one wonders if this is a business organization or religious one. The leaders and ministers enjoy all the benefits of the organization, hospitals, sanitariums, rest homes, etc. while the people enjoy none. The fact of the matter is that our Seventh-Day Adventist organization is more concerned about dollars and cents than the straightness of the gospel. Compare Jesus Christ and the church He established at the outset of the Christian era to this organization; you will see a vast difference. If their main concern was truth, they would not be angry if another was preaching truth even though that other is using their name and is not with them. Jesus did not take to court or rebuke those who were teaching in his name, even though they were not with Him and His disciples. He was well aware that "we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth." 2 Cor. 13:8

"And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name; and we forbad him because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us." Luke 9:49, 50.

Would to God that the General Conference was like Jesus!

Speaking to the General Conference of His time, Christ emphatically declared who was inspiring their actions as well as the deeds of today's Sanhedrin: "Ye do the deeds of your father… ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do." John 8:41, 44.

If they want to take others to court for suit to force them to stop using that name, be sure to know that it is business, commercialism, money, and competition they want to protect, not souls! Should not they be more concerned that somebody is preaching the truth rather than somebody is using their name? If they are more concerned about somebody using their name then know for sure they fear losing tithes, offerings, and gifts, not souls.

What is going to happen when the world finds out what the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists is doing? What influence will we have over organizations like the Lord's Day Alliance of the United States, who has been attempting for over one hundred years to use the courts and Congress to pass a national law enforcing the observance of Sunday. How will we be able to condemn what they are doing, while we are doing worse AGAINST OUR OWN BRETHREN? Brethren and sisters, persecution has begun where we least expected it, right in our own church!

“When troubles arise in the church we should not go for help to lawyers not of our faith...They show that they have chosen the world as their judge...Christ is crucified afresh, and put to open shame.” 3 Selected Messages, p. 299:1,2

“Matters have been presented before me which have filled my soul with keen anguish. I saw men linking up arm in arm with lawyers, but God was not in their company. Having, many ideas regarding the work, they go to the lawyers for help to carry out their plans. I am commissioned to say to such that they are not moving under the inspiration of the spirit of God. ‘Is it not because there is not a God in Israel , that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub the God of Ekron?’. Men in responsible positions are uniting with those in the church and out of the church, whose counsel is misleading.” Testimonies, Vol. 8 p.69

Here we have it. The leaders have openly misrepresented God and crucified Christ by their actions.



Foolish Seventh-Day Adventists Know Not What They’ve Done
No other Christian denomination has been known to attempt such a bold, outright, devilish act. The leaders of this church may not realize that they’ve set a dangerous precedent. Their actions will arouse the religious world and put them on heightened alert because, as they see it, the more the Adventist Church gains civil power, the more of a threat that church becomes to them. Can you imagine the different ‘Baptist’ denominations suing each other for using the term ‘Baptist’? Or the different Catholic churches suing each other for using the term ‘Catholic’. As the word spreads as to what the leaders of the SDA church are doing, the whole religious world will awaken to defend their grounds regarding anything they deem defendable. By the General Conference using the court to force groups to stop using the name ‘Seventh-Day Adventist’ they have made it one step easier for religion in America to use the civil power to accomplish their means. One step easier for the Southern Baptists, The Christian Coalition, and other powerful church organizations to become more involved with the civil powers. The Adventist Church has really given these groups including Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and many others ammunition to use against them. There is a price to pay for doing evil and unfortunately the SDA church will pay that price because no one is going to let them walk away free with doing the evils mentioned in this paper. They thought they could do it under cover and escape but the Lord has chosen powerful agents to deal with this situation. No amount of money spent on lawyers will save the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists from losing out because God has stepped to bring justice to this matter. Their hypocritical stand for Religious Liberty is now being exposed and will soon reach all other churches, the senate, the House of Representatives and the whole world. This is war. Here is where Doomsday for the hypocrites begins.

"Hear ye now what the Lord saith; arise, contend thou before the mountains[powerful nations and churches], and let the hills[smaller nations and churches] hear thy voice. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the Lord hath a controversy with His people and He will plead with Israel." Micah 6:1,2.

"These persons come to feel secure in their deception and, because of His long-suffering, say that the Lord seeth not, and then act as though He had forsaken the earth. But He will detect their hypocrisy and will open before others those sins which they were so careful to hide." Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5 pp. 211, 212.



Who is Eligible To Take The Name Seventh-Day Adventist?
The answer to this question is those who live up to the three angel’s messages, observe the Seventh-Day Sabbath properly, and have, believe and obey the Spirit of Prophecy. The church does not belong to the General Conference and this will be fully realized when the Lord gives them a visitation of judgment in the ‘time of harvest’, the day in which he separates the hypocrites and spiritually dead(those who sit down and let anything happen in the church, and allow the conference do as they wish without protest), from His true and faithful followers(those who speak up against the wrongs of the leadership). The General Conference already has enough monetary and leadership problems. Recently the president had to resign and an investigation was about to be made by the authorities. These will be exposed in a soon-to-be revealed paper. Before they can judge others they need to live up to the religious liberty and freedom they preach, set a right example so that others may follow so that things may be better. But if they agitate this matter too far they will soon find themselves in incalculable problems and without a mechanism of escape. Who are they to decide who is and who is not a Seventh-Day Adventist when they themselves are not true Seventh-Day Adventists?

A Partial Summary Of The Situation



1987 - SDA's used their trademark to close down Congregational Church and its pastor

John R.Marik for using the name Seventh-Day Adventist.

1988 - SDA's are challenged by (1) The Bashan Group in Missouri (2) The Salem

Association in South Carolina (3) The Mountaindale Association in NewYork.

They filed an “Amicus Curie brief” in the United States Court of Appeals for the

Ninth Circuit.

1989 - Due to this challenge, the judgment against the Congregational Church was

Reversed and the cause was remanded to the district court for further proceeding.

1991 - Lawsuit brought against homosexual organization, The Seventh-day Adventist

Kinship International, Inc. The General Conference Corporation lost that case.

Court ruled kinship is a social not a worship group.

1993 - W. L. Perry (retired SDA) and Max A. Corbett (SDA attorney) argued against

the SDA Corporation’s trademark. Bro. Perry filed a petition for hearing to take

place in Virginia against SDA trademark. Leaders of some Davidian SDA

groups attended as well as representatives of the SDA Reform Movement.

1996 - In February Three judges of appeal board rendered decision. G. D. Hohein voted

in favor of Bro. Perry’s petition; R.F. Cissel and T.J. Quinn voted against

cancellation of trademark. The Davidian SDAs and the Reform SDAs were

told two weeks before deadline that the filing date for the appeal had to be

submitted by April 15, 1996! Lawyer Found in Florida to proceed with

appeal.

1996 - On December 16, General Conference Corporation won their trademark case.

1999 – The General Conference attacked the Eternal Gospel SDA for using the name

and persuaded the courts to force the Eternal GospelChurch to stop using the

name SDA.

Now remains to be seen the end result of the matter.



Religious Liberty


“In 1935, the denomination, through its religious liberty mouthpiece, the ‘Liberty Magazine,’went on record once again as to its position of ‘absolute religious freedom,’ its re-declaration reading in part: ‘The Liberty magazine believes in abso­lute religious liberty. We give no approval to the interference by the civil authorities in purely religious matters in any country. We stand firmly upon the fundamental American doctrine of complete freedom in all matters that pertain to the conscience, provided only that no man demands for himself a freedom that would infringe on the equal rights of others.’--’Liberty,’ 1935, Second Quarter.

"Then, at the General Conference Session in 1936, the denomination proudly paraded its re­ligious liberty principles in the following quo­tations, without reference, which it hung about the walls of the Religious Liberty booth:

‘In matters of conscience the majority has no power.’ (Diet of Spires, 1529.)

‘We should interpose the most effectual protest against measures to restrict liberty of conscience.’

‘Can we not call to the front those who have a regard for their religious rights and privileges?’

‘We are warned in the word of God, that sleepless vigilance is the price of safety.’

‘Satan is still working through every means which he can control to destroy religious liberty.’

‘The banner of truth and religious liberty which these (Protestant Reformers) held aloft, has in this last conflict been committed to us.’

‘The message of religious liberty ... is the very present truth which they need for this time.’

‘Awake the world to a sense of the value of the privilege of religious liberty so long enjoyed.’

‘The most momentous struggle of all the ages is just before us.’

. ‘The question of religious liberty is very important, and it should be handled with great wisdom and discretion.’

"Beautiful our profession of the above principles! But, 0, what our practice!

"The shameful truth is revealed in the expe­rience which is conservatively related in the following testimony, and which is typical of what have been the S.D.A. denomination's re­ligious liberty practices even since the ‘Shepherd's Rod’ message came to it in 1929, and its members began to accept it as a matter of conscience. A certain sister, having recently fallen a vic­tim in your hands which, sadly, are becoming so cruel, sends the following testimony:

‘For some time the brethren at our church have refused to admit inside anyone con­nected in any way with the 'Shepherd's Rod' message. But last Sabbath, I, as usual, pre­sented myself at church, and inasmuch as no one attempted to keep me out, I joyfully entered. In about ten minutes, the elders approached me with this urgent request, 'Sister ------------ you must leave church.'

‘As I called their attention to the paint­ing over the altar--Christ holding out His hands, and saying 'Come unto Me,' I asked to stay and listen to the sermon. They then left, but soon returned with a policeman, who is also a church member. He asked me to leave, and as I told him that this was the only church in this vicinity for me to attend on Sabbath, they went to the pastor, who told them to take me out. So for the third time, they threatened to remove me from church.

‘During this time, all eyes were centered on me, and when those who were present saw the attempts to take me out, some shouted: 'Let her stay!'

‘By this time, the policeman was quite angry. I asked him, 'Brother, would Christ do this?' He quickly retorted that he did not care about that, but that I was going out, and that was that!

‘Finally the pastor came down from the pulpit, and told them to let me remain, but they answered him, 'You said for us to take her out, and we're obeying your orders'!’

"My brethren, you are turning from bad to worse, and my prayer is that you may see your mis­take in your attempts without inspiration, to interpret the Scriptures and to weed out the tares with­out God's command, and we hope that as you read the following paragraphs you may realize that, as the ‘Spirit of Prophecy’ long ago in­dicated, you have surely stepped into the tracks of Romanism (‘Testimonies to Ministers,’ p. 363).

‘Finite man is likely to misjudge character, but God does not leave the work of judgment and pronouncing upon character to those who are not fitted for it. We are not to say what constitutes the wheat, and what the tares. The time of the harvest will fully determine the character of the two classes specified under the figure of the tares and the wheat. The work of separation is given to the angels of God and not committed into the hands of any man.’-Testimonies to Ministers, p.47

‘Notwithstanding Christ’s warning, men have sought to uproot the tares. To punish those who were supposed to be evildoers, the church has had recourse to the civil power. Those who differed from the established doctrines have been put to torture and to death, at the instigation of men who claimed to be acting under the sanction of Christ. But it is the spirit of Satan not the Spirit of Christ, that inspires such acts. This is Satan's own method of bringing the world under his dominion. God has been misrepresented through the church by this way of dealing with those supposed to be heretics.’--Christ's Object Lessons, p. 74

‘There can be no more conclusive evidence that we possess the spirit of Satan than the disposition to hurt and destroy those who do not appreciate our work, or who act contrary to our ideas.’--Desire of Ages, p. 487

‘In the future, men claiming to be Christ’s representatives will take a course similar to that followed by the priests and rulers in their treatment of Christ and the apostles...; those who are true to God will be persecuted, their motives will be impugned, their best efforts misinterpreted, and their names cast out as evil.’--Acts of the Apostles p. 431

"But ‘the more you are jostled, misapprehended, misstated, misrepresented, the more evidence you have you are doing a work for the Master, and the more closely you must cling to your Saviour. In all your difficulties be calm and undisturbed not rendering evil for evil, but good for evil --Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 8 p. 130

"As this letter is already lengthy, and as I must not weary you with more, I close with the prayer that you may awake and respond to God's call, for it is your life.

"Sincerely yours to follow the Lamb

Whithersoever He goeth;

V. T. HOUTEFF.”

The Symbolic Code, Vol. 3; No. 3-4; pp. 4-6 Bold and Italics ours



How Does The Church Deal With Dissenters?



We are sad to report that the Adventists’ church record of dealing with dissenters is horrible. In many cases they have dealt brutally with several brethren. They have even gone as far as to get restraining orders from the police station to keep certain brethren they do not like away from the church grounds. Here are just a few examples.

1933 – Victor T. Houteff though causing no disturbance of any kind was man handled and severely beaten at a Seventh-day Adventist church in Los Angeles California.

1933 – A certain brother was standing by a window listening to the Sabbath School class and had a glass of water dashed in his face.

1935 – One Sister Hendricks was punched in the stomach for asking for a basin to partake in the Lord’s Supper. Testimony found in Symbolic Code Vol. 1 No. 9 pp. 1,2.

1937 – Police called on sister quietly sitting in church after she refused to leave when they told her to get out.

1989 – Bro. Johnny was lifted up to be thrown over a six-foot fence after refusing to leave church grounds in Florida at the request of an elder.

1992 - Upon entering a church in Tallahassee Florida, a brother was grabbed by the neck in a "sleeper hold" and subsequently dragged from the building. The brother had not attended this particular church for five months prior to the incident.

2000 - One Bro. Eduoard was grabbed and choked at a Haitian SDA church near Pompano Beach, Florida. I heard this testimony given by the brother himself of what happened to him.

We have personally seen what the church is capable of doing. We have seen some violent and crooked things by this organization and we wouldn’t be surprised if some people start receiving death threats from them, directly or indirectly. The church in their blind rage may not know that they’ve left themselves open to heavy lawsuits because of the actions their leaders have inspired the people to commit. One brother Mueller cannot attend any church in the whole state of South Carolina because the General Conference persuaded an unsuspecting judge to issue a very unfair restraining order against him in court. May the church wake up and reverse their actions before this matter gets too far out of hand and their case becomes eternally fixed.



Our Appeal

"The conviction is gaining ground in the world that Seventh-Day Adventists are giving the trumpet an uncertain sound, that they are following in the path of worldlings." Testimonies to Ministers, p. 86.

Brethren, do not think that the world does not see the hypocrisy of our course. They see it as clear as the noon-day sun. The only reason that they have not arisen to crush this movement is because God has sincere people in our midst who are in complete darkness regarding these wicked activities and God's end-time servants, the 144,000, are not yet sealed (prepared, protected, and guarded-- study Revelation chapter 7). We believe that it is through this agency that God will awaken the honest in the church regarding these activities. Though we regret to do so, it may be necessary to make public these facts beyond our circles. Of course, this is not something that we desire, however, the General Conference has already paraded this issue before the world. We feel that it is necessary therefore, to launch a solemn public protest in regard to these proceedings no matter who hears it.

A public revelation of these proceedings may yet be stopped. The only way to prevent this is for the General Conference to meet the Lord's demands as listed in the following without delay: 1.) A public written confession and apology published in the Adventist Review and Signs of the Times magazines. 2.) A videotaped/live confession and apology on KSBN/Safe TV, and Three Angel's Broadcast Network. 3.) Immediate re-fellowshipping and monetary re-numeration (as far as possible) for all sued by the conference in regard to this issue (that remain faithful to the truths of the Three Angel's Messages).

There can be no negotiation of the Lord's demands. They must either be met, or completely rejected. Partial obedience equals complete disobedience and these times demand clear decisive action. The readers of this paper may stop this public revelation by pleading with the leaders in the name of the Lord to stop these proceedings. We believe that if a large enough protest is raised God's arms will move to halt these activities. We plead with you in the name of Jesus to arise and take your stand on the Lord's side against this violation of your conscience and civil rights. Be reminded that if you do not stand against these practices, when the world finds out, you will be numbered with the transgressors. God will also find you without His seal and be forced to slay you (study Ezekiel 9). Brethren, God is depending on you and wants your help. Therefore, we urge you to "come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty!" (Judges 5:23).



EXHIBIT A

Copy Of Seventh-day Adventist Trademark



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EXHIBIT B

Copy of Front Page of Church's Courtcase Against Pastor Marik



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EXHIBIT C

Copy of Tresspass Warrant The Church Procured Against A Brother



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EXHIBIT D

Copy of Tresspass Warrant The Church Procured Against A Brother and His Wife



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