I am neither employed by nor do I speak for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, its administration nor agencies. I'm just one Adventist guy with a studied opinion - more of a watchman on the walls than a voice crying in the wilderness.
We've just about reached every corner of the Earth what with radio, TV, air, train, bus and auto travel, the Internet, the printed word and other media. My church has established missions on the ground in 212 out of the 235 nations of the world and by radio and Internet we've covered them all. It's getting close to the point that we can say with our fellow Christians that we've actually preached the gospel to the whole world.
Meanwhile, Satan has used those same tools to deceive multitudes, to create weapons capable of turning Earth into a molten lake of fire, something Revelation talks about. At one moment in history we stand almost ready to go home and almost ready to destroy the Earth utterly. This is the moment. Go tell it on the mountain folks. Not much time left.
AN AMAZING FACT: After World War I, leaders in Washington became
concerned about the state of the nation’s roads. The automobile was
still a relatively new invention, so most transcontinental travel
depended on a few train tracks spanning the country. The U.S. War
Department wanted to know if the nation’s roads could handle
coast-to-coast movements of Army units by road. As a test, the
Transcontinental Motor Convoy—some 80 military vehicles and 280
soldiers—took an epic road trip from Washington, D.C. to California. The
starting date was July 7, 1919.
Like the cavalry of old, Army scouts would ride in advance of the
convoy to check out the conditions that lay just ahead, except they were
mounted on Harley-Davidsons instead of horses. The convoy traveled over
dirt roads, rutted paths, winding mountain trails, and shifting desert
sands roughly along the route of present-day Interstate 80.
Many
areas were nearly impassable, and the men often had to push or pull the
heavy trucks along through the summer heat. The vehicles frequently
broke down, got stuck in quicksand and mud, and sank when roads and
bridges collapsed under them. In spite of the hardships, 62 days after
it left Washington, D.C., the convoy reached San Francisco. It had
covered 3,251 miles, averaging 58 miles a day at an average speed of 6
mph. The official report of the War Department concluded that the
existing roads in the United States were “absolutely incapable of
meeting the present-day traffic requirements.”
One of the Army
officers on the convoy was 28-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D.
Eisenhower, who later said the roads they encountered “varied from
average to non-existent.” Eisenhower never forgot this grueling
experience, and one of the most important things he did after becoming
president was to create the interstate highway system. Construction
began in 1956, and the entire interstate system now has a total length
of 46,837 miles. It’s the largest highway system in the world and the
largest public works project in history.
Did you know the Bible
speaks of an army of highway workers that will go before the Lord? “The
voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God’” (Isaiah 40:3). Not
only did John the Baptist fulfill this prophecy, but we too may help
make straight roads that guide others to heaven.
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people;
cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard
for the people.
Isaiah 62:10
Note from Tom: The Interstate Highway System is often cited as an example of socialism in action. It actually wasn't. It was Americans and their government fixing a problem together that everyone agreed needed fixing. Each state participates in maintaining the Interstates. We all contribute to it. We do this because it enables commerce in the national marketplace and contributes to making us all a bit wealthier in the process. The Interstates were primarily designed to help move troops in case of an invasion (we learned about the dangers of that in WWII. It had the added benefit of allowing commercial and private citizens to move easily about the the country. It was the sort of thing the Constitution said we were creating a government for - in this case to provide for the common defense.
I
recommended a book by SDA historian George R. Knight called "Ellen
White's Afterlife" in which he thoroughly discusses the issues the
anti-Adventist crowd has presented here on social media. Let me address some of the
points one by one.
1.
Ellen White never claimed to be equal to scripture much less greater.
She told pastors not to quote her from the pulpit as an authority. She
described herself as a messenger, not a prophet. Others later on made
that claim about her. She did not.
2.
Her writings always point to the Bible as the source of all truth. She
always sent people back to the Bible when she offered advice or a
message she received in vision.
3.
To outright reject her claim to having visions is to dismiss
scripture's prophecy (Acts 2: 17) that, "In the last days, God says, I
will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will
prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream
dreams." Bible says it will happen.
4.
Her use of sources credited and uncredited is described clearly in the forward to Great
Controversy. She followed what was common publishing practice in her day. When concern was
expressed about how her lack of written sources might be perceived, she
altered the book in later editions to include references. She was quite
frank that in many cases she found a passage in her reading that said
what she'd seen or wanted to say better than she could herself. She had
secretaries who edited her work and, as I said, she changed some things
in later editions, especially if she found better more accurate sources.
5.
She never claimed to be infallible. Many things she wrote were for
individuals and not for public consumption. There was a doctor and his
wife (also a doctor) in Australia that Dr. Knight described as "dying of
health reform." Sister Ellen wrote them and told them to drink grape
juice and 2 raw eggs for breakfast each morning to recover their health.
They were doing health reform over-zealously and missing parts of the
message. She did not recommend this for all, but in this case it seemed
to have saved the couple's lives.
6.
Of course her health messages were similar to others ideas. If
something is good for you, it should be advised by more than one person.
She advised people to stop tobacco use a hundred years before doctors
finally weighed in on the subject. She preached temperance before AA.
She had a knack for getting it right even when it went against the ideas
of other health reformers at the time. At one SDA college where she had lunch in
the cafeteria, Mrs. White asked for a salt shaker. The waitress said the
school no longer provided salt because it was unhealthy. They didn't
even use it in cooking. Mrs. White told the waitress, "Please bring me
some salt. My Bible says it is good and I trust it's counsel over
man's."
7.
The final words of her final sermon shortly before her death were,
"Brothers and Sisters," she said lifting her Bible over her head, "Unto
you I commend this book." She advised pastors to teach from the Word
and not to quote Sister White. She once complained that it made her skin
crawl when she heard someone preface their remarks with "Sister White
says...." She got to where she had to almost quit giving people verbal
advice, specifically for that person alone, because she often heard it
repeated from the pulpit the next Sabbath. This she objected to
strenuously.
8
After her death, GC president AG Daniels, who knew her and her views,
called a conference of educators together to discuss how to use Sister
White's writing with students. Daniels was adamant that she never wanted
to be used as a club to enforce any idea for which there was not
thorough grounding in Scripture. When one conference president wrote her
demanding that she give the brethren advice on a hotly debated passage
in Galatians as to the meaning of "The Daily", she flatly refused. She
told them to go back and pray some more and that God would lead them
aright.
9.
There was a time in the 40s and 50s when a theologian named Andraeson
promoted something called Last Days Theology, which was the idea that
Christ's sacrifice was not a completed work, but that humans in the last
days would live perfect lives for a time without an intercessor and
that it was necessary for humans to prove that one could live perfectly
on his own hook. This is contradicted in scripture and comes primarily
from one misunderstood passage in a single book which was a compilation
which Sister Ellen did not like the idea of were she not involved in the
selection of the writings. Andraeson became disruptive with his
insistence on Last Day perfection being necessary to justify God
somehow, that the church had to withdraw his ministerial credentials. On
his deathbed he apologized for the disruption he caused. Unfortunately,
his influence was very widespread and it took some controversy within
the church in order to resolve the issue. The church now is united on
the idea that atonement for His children was completed at the cross. The
Sanctuary doctrine and the investigative judgment we believe is a final
closing of the books that takes place as Christ comes. The Sanctuary
doctrine has far more support in Scripture than the secret rapture
doctrine and the immortality of the soul.
10.
The Adventist Church can support it's theological doctrines from
Scripture. We don't have to explain to our members as to why we are
allowed to disobey the only commandment that says "Remember" as the
first word. We don't have to explain the absence of an immortal soul, an
ever-burning hell and a commandment to change the Sabbath to Sunday
anywhere in the New Testament.
11.
We Adventists do a healthy diet as far as possible. Not all of us eat a good diet
but in repeated studies, among all Adventists we live 9 or 10 years
longer than everyone else. We've taken much from the Old Testament
about diet going back to the Garden of Eden where the original diet was
fruits and vegetables with grains added after they got kicked out. We
reason that if our body is the Temple of the Lord, we should probably
treat it well.
You
can go to church anywhere you like. You may even find your way to
heaven without ever darkening the door of an SDA church. Adventists believe Jesus will take home people from all corners
of Christendom and beyond. We even believe that some will be saved that
never heard the name of Christ, but who searched for Him with all their
hearts. But there is no excuse for some Christians who seek to tear down
fellow Christians, calling them a cult, calling Ellen White a false
prophet and accusing us of a whole horde of things without evidence.
That's all I've got to say. If you don't like us, you are not required
to fellowship with us. Your salvation is between you and your God. You
preach what you believe about God's character and we'll do the same. I
frankly believe that when Jesus said the dead sleep, that he meant that.
I believe when Paul said "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at
the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" that that's exactly how
it works.
The
God I met while studying Scripture would not torture any one for all
eternity. Satan was the one who said "Thou shalt not surely die". and we
don't lop a week off the 70 weeks prophecy and move it 2000 years later
to hide the identity of the Beast power.
We
must have something right or our fellow Christians would not be so
anxious to discredit us, I think. We hope you find your way to Him as we
too have that blessed hope. We'll see you there.
When I was working in Tyler, Texas during my nonprofit days, I saw a survey we did for a HUD grant of the local "demographic." In it, they included an item that identified people by religious affiliation. I was shocked to see that of the people who said they were Adventist, there were half again the number of professed Adventists as there were Adventists who were actually attending the 3 Tyler SDA churches.
Some likely listed themselves as SDAs because that was the last church they'd had anything to do with. I suspect many were maintaining their connection to the church through the 3ABN TV UHF ground station the local church maintained in the community. Others were occasional attendees but had never put their names on the books. It's a sad statistic that of the ninety and nine of our flock there were 50 more missing and wandering around kind of lost.
Sadly, ministry to the lost of our own flock is too often neglected these days in favor of evangelistic meetings that bring in new members. I wonder if some of the reluctance to seek after our lost members has anything to do with the fact that some of them were troublesome sorts of members in the first place and our church officials are not anxious to reignite old fires. Still, our displaced and isolated members are a fertile field for harvest.
Still that one lost sheep is by definition, a troublesome sheep, wandering off from the flock. With many of these lost sheep having caused the shepherds all sorts of trouble., the thought may be, "Better to let sleeping sheep lie."
Just as new technology has improved search and rescue techniques, so new tech has given us new tools for spiritual search and rescue. If Jesus' parable about the lost sheep is any indication of the relative importance of spiritual search and rescue, then it seems like it ought to be a ministry that is a fixture or our church programs. It seems there should be more of a focus on this neglected ministry.
Now with the Internet and the ability to inexpensively livestream our services we have a priceless opportunity to reach out to disconnected members, shut-ins and hereditary Adventists in the community who have slipped away.With texting, mobile phones in everyone's pocket and the means to use social media to keep in communication with one another, there are abundant avenues to woo back our lost lambs.
Being a shut-in myself has opened my eyes to the possibility of ministries to recover lost members and engage our shut-ins. Ron Halvorsen Sr did a thing at the Keene, Texas church when he was there, where he bought and had donated a small fleet of school buses. We fanned out through the countryside picking up kids for Wednesday night youth meetings and picking up elderly and disabled folk for prayer meeting and church. Through word of mouth and by direct mail we let people know that we would come for them to bring them to church. We put young people with guitars on the buses and sang our way through the hills and dales of Johnson County picking up kids and adults on Sabbath on on Wednesday night. The church was packed to overflowing. We went from an average 42 attendance at prayer meeting to over 1000. We went from one service to two.We trained the Academy and College kids to organize, plan and run the youth meetings. We taught classes in story-telling to young volunteers. Musicians just showed up anxious to help and to be a part of some wonderful music.
The church grew dramatically, much to the chagrin of some of the board members. There are always some that hate the idea of all those new and energetic members. I say new members, because in seeking our lost members, we wound up finding dozens and dozens of new ones who were swept up in our nets. Adventist kids often brought along friends and neighbors on the buses. The Wednesday Youth meetings were like an all year Vacation Bible School.
I think every SDA church needs a lost sheep ministry. The Graham church here in Washington did a thing where the deacons and board members and volunteers went round to take communion to our shut-ins. It was a lovely idea and a blessing to those of us who are isolated from our church family due to health, disability or transportation issues. Sometimes we think witnessing is going around passing out "literature" and throwing evangelistic meetings. But it's not. In all of scripture I have found only three things we have been told to do in order to find our way to heaven. Study, pray and then share what you've learned from the first two. In sharing what you've learned, you'll find that what you've learned is heavy on treating others the way you want to be treated, caring for the sick, the disabled, the widows, orphans and elderly. Witness means getting out your hammer and building your elderly friend a ramp so he can get his wheelchair out of the house, installing handrails in her shower, mowing someone's grass or repairing a sink.
The really beautiful thing is that doing all this outreach to our lost sheep and to our neighbors as well, we help save souls, including, surprisingly, our own. There's nothing so good for depression and unhappiness as turning your hand to helping another, especially if you do it with no thought of reward or payment. In these days when we see prophecy being fulfilled right and left, it will not be having the right politics that will bring us through these times of trouble. It will be how we build communities of faith, how we lift each other up, and how we pull together as sons and daughters of God.
Think about it. What can you do to find a lost sheep. It may be simply listening to someone's troublesd. It could be running an errand for someone. It might be as simple as inviting someone to go with you on an adventure. If each day you ask God to bring you to the witness stand that you may tell of your own experience with Him, God will guide you to His lost sheep that you might show them that He loves them through your own life.
