Response to Holy Relics, Chapter 2
Chapter 2: The reasoning of the Pharisees
It is clear having known Ron Wyatt, and having sat down with him in his home, and traveled with him to the Middle East, that he was an approachable individual. He was attempting to piece together as well, all that God was presenting to him, and if there was one quality that he processed, it was a teachable spirit.
This statement here struck me as unusual; “Since we first learned of these claims, we have held reservations; reservations which have not been modified by the revelation of further claims. While we have frequently spoken to questioning individuals on this matter, we have never previous to February 1999, written on these subjects, nor addressed them in public forums. Initially, the reason for this reluctance on our part to meet publicly these claims was based upon no motivation other than our failure to see them as very significant.” What struck me was that as questions were apparently being raised, the authors did not follow biblical counsel from Matthew 18 and contact Ron Wyatt directly. I wish they had. Now they are trying to work from a tremendous disadvantage.
Apart from noticing sections and thought from Standishes’ other books, this spirit struck me with a haunting uneasiness. It reflected the same attitude possessed by the Pharisees when they heard the report of the shepherds about the birth of the Messiah. Something miraculous was taking place in our world then, and yet the dismissivness of the priests brought tragedy; from the book Desire of Ages p.63 we read:
The priests and elders of Jerusalem were not as ignorant concerning the birth of Christ as they pretended. The report of the angels’ visit to the shepherds had been brought to Jerusalem, but the rabbis had treated it as unworthy of their notice. They themselves might have found Jesus, and might have been ready to lead the magi to His birthplace; but instead of this, the wise men came to call their attention to the birth of the Messiah. “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” they said; “for we have seen His star in the East, and are come to worship Him.”
Now pride and envy closed the door against the light. If the reports brought by the shepherds and the wise men were credited, they would place the priests and rabbis in a most unenviable position, disproving their claim to be the exponents of the truth of God. These learned teachers would not stoop to be instructed by those whom they termed heathen. It could not be, they said, that God had passed them by, to communicate with ignorant shepherds or uncircumcised Gentiles. They determined to show their contempt for the reports that were exciting King Herod and all Jerusalem. They would not even go to Bethlehem to see whether these things were so. And they led the people to regard the interest in Jesus as a fanatical excitement. Here began the rejection of Christ by the priests and rabbis. From this point their pride and stubbornness grew into a settled hatred of the Saviour. While God was opening the door to the Gentiles, the Jewish leaders were closing the door to themselves.”
Could the same thing be happening today?
This next statement seemed to be the focus of the Holy Relics book, chapter 2: “It is too near the end of earth’s history for any of us to risk the grave consequences of deception. Today we need to determine whether we will establish our faith upon revelation, as presented in God’s Word, or return to the medieval practice of building faith upon the platform of holy relics.” Whereas I agree totally with the statement above, the inference is that the statement applies to the Discovery research, and then I couldn’t disagree more.
I’m looking for Ron Wyatt’s quote that says His Christian faith was built on the things He was seeing or presenting. That’s right, the Standishes can’t find it either (because it doesn’t exist)! As far as I could tell Ron Wyatt’s faith was in the only true God, who would consent to use a rough, timid, self-educated sinner as himself, one who was saved by amazing grace, through faith. I’m no judge, but Ron seemed to possess more faith than most anyone I have ever met. How can the Standishes, or anyone play the role of Holy Spirit, and suggest they could read his heart, that Wyatt was building His faith on the things and places God was revealing? I have to ask how they could discern these elements of his character when their face-to-face time was but a few hours. This is the most dangerous ground to be on, playing the role of anti-Christ (possessing omniscience).
Here again, misunderstanding of what is taking place is the culprit. God never provided the discoveries to replace faith, though it is an amazing confirmation of such, but He provided the discoveries as an asset, a tool, a testimony of the validity of His Word, a witness to the last generation, His own show and tell. The discoveries are ingenious revelations to not only get the attention of the world, but to confront the world with the validity of God’s Word, and the everlasting Gospel. And He asks us to unite our voices and lives with the rocks that are crying out.
June 22, 2014 @ 3:51 pm
I first met Ron Wyatt in 1989, then I spent 10 years helping Ron publish his material, and in 1994-1996 Ron appointed me the manager of his first Museum of God’s Treasures in Gatlinburg, TN — before I met Ron I had also visited Hartland and met Colin Standish, which wasn’t all that far from where Ron lived in Nashville — yet Colin NEVER invited Ron to come speak at Hartland in the 20 years between 1977-1998 — Colin NEVER spoke with Ron Wyatt, and Russell Standish only talked face-to-face for 4-hours with Ron while Ron was touring Australia in September of 1998. I had HUNDREDS of opportunities to talk with Ron and ask him questions, hear his answers, and pray about those things — Colin & Russell’s mere 4-hour talk in my opinion was NOT them spending sufficient time with Ron to really understand what was happening with Ron Wyatt’s ministry.
Chapter 2 printed a list of 92 individual things that Ron has claimed to have found — and I spent 2 1/2 years running Ron’s Gatlinburg Museum and showing the documentation of most of these things to literally thousands of people. I told people to notice that we don’t use “fuzzy pictures” like the people who say that they’ve found Noah’s Ark on Ararat in the snow — we had over 90 large photoboards on the walls featuring 300+ photos that clearly showed the documentation of Ron’s 7 main biblical discoveries! Yes, there was ONE “fuzzy photo,” and that was of the Ark of the Covenant because GOD does not want us to see it yet! Only ONE fuzzy photo!
The Standishes point out that they see “numerous defects and deficiencies” in Ron Wyatt’s work, and they constantly reprimand him for not being more professional — but that was what GOD wanted, He wanted to use someone “simple to confound the wise”! If Colin & Russell lived back in the early days of Ellen White, they’d probably complain that GOD had picked a young woman who was “too simple” to be the one to be given 2,000 visions…
“…the leaders of God’s people are to guard against the danger of condemning the methods of individual workers who are led by the LORD to do a special work… God can and will use those who have not had a thorough education in the schools of men. A doubt of His power to do this is manifest unbelief;…Oh, for less of this uncalled-for, distrustful caution!” -(Ellen White, 9T259; page 22b in Jonathan Gray’s DISCOVERIES: QUESTIONS ANSWERED)
The Standishes’ book HOLY RELICS is motivated by their zealous desire to “protect” Adventism — but their zealousness caused them to react negatively to everything Ron claimed to have found — common sense should tell everyone that there is NO WAY that Ron Wyatt can be “totally wrong” about “absolutely everything” he’s ever claimed to have found, not when I’ve sat in a museum showing the evidence and documentation of all of these things to thousands of people, and people like Dr. Lennart Moller and Tim Mahoney have written and produced their professional-quality books & films featuring and supporting Ron Wyatt’s discoveries!
I did my best to share a positive witness to the Standishes about Ron’s discoveries, I mailed them a package of materials in March 1999 — they mentioned me 8 times in their book — and when Ron passed away on August 4th, 1999 I informed Russell that it had happened.
I can only conclude that Colin & Russell Standish were demonically inspired to find fault with ALL of Ron’s work, and it was such a shame to see them go down this path.
August 17, 2014 @ 3:06 am
PLEASE tell me WHO is “Colin & Russell Standish”, mentioned in the article by Jim Pinkoski.
I’m from Nashville, TN, but now live in California, and to think, ALL THOSE YEARS I NEVER had an opportunity to meet this amazing man! And I TOO was a licensed Scuba Diver back in 1980, and would have done ANYTHING *almost!* to have gone on ONE of the trips he made together with him as an assistant, etc. Keep up the good work. We haven’t got a lot more time to be in this horrible world. Someday, it will be my pleasure to meet this man. W.D.S.
October 9, 2014 @ 1:08 am
I must chime in here to amplify one of the points of Mr. Pinkoski. The Standishes are unwilling to place themselves in Wyatt’s place to consider what they would do if God had used them to find these discoveries. Now here you have been led to find and document seven, major, incredible evidences of Gods word along with many supporting discoveries, how do you make them public? Would you start a museum to display your evidence? Would you provide multiple sources of documentation? Would you use every scientific tool available and share the results? Would you try to spread the knowledge of these discoveries by newsletter, books, the internet, going on national television and doing personal presentations? Oh, that’s right… Ron Wyatt did ALL those things. How can these brothers say that his discoveries are unverifiable or undocumented?