Whenever an evangelist of the advent cause " begins a series of public meetings, the enemies of truth gird for a struggle to the end. In His day Christ condemned those who deliberately misrepresented or hindered the progress of truth: "Woe unto you, lawyers ! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." Luke II :52. The devil seems to take particular delight in raising up men and women to distort and misrepresent our various positions, to create false impressions and arouse bitter prejudices, thus attempting to hinder the entrance of truth. This problem is ever with us. And as the closing scenes settle upon a benighted world, the fury of the enemy's wrath upon God's people will increase. This is the definite picture of prophecy in Revelation 12:17. We can expect it, and we are experiencing its fulfillment. Some of the most bitter opposition originates from those who once shared this blessed hope, but who, like Peter, have taken their eyes off the Saviour and have gone down in the treacherous sea of speculation and bitterness.
It is our sacred responsibility as Adventist evangelists to endeavor to carry on our work in such a way as to allay the baser prejudices of our opponents as much as possible. It is not necessary deliberately to create quarrelsome situations in order to bring us prominence.
"Let us do nothing that will unnecessarily arouse op position."—Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 208.
"Let everyone bear in mind that we are in no case to invite persecution. We are not to use harsh and cutting words. Keep them out of every article written, drop them out of every address given. Our work is to study to weed out of all our discourses everything that savors of retaliation and defiance and making a drive against churches and individuals, because this is not Christ's way and method."—/bid., P. 244.
"Hold to the affirmative. . . . Keep always to the affirmative."—/bid., pp. 147, 148.
With this basic counsel in mind we planned our work accordingly in the preparatory stages of our evangelistic program here in Minneapolis, for we were invading the home territory of E. B.
Jones, whose works of opposition to the message are well known. By prayerful counsel and study with our conference president and the executive committee, we planned our work with the idea of deliberately disarming our opponents by laboring in such a way that their allegations would fall on deaf ears and not hinder God's cause.
First of all, the way was prepared for our public meetings by a series of radio broadcasts. We told the people that these programs were supported by the Seventh-day Adventist churches of Minneapolis, and were units of a great world wide effort for Christ. In doing this as our first step of public advertising, we began long before the actual opening of the effort to prepare the way in such a manner as to disarm our opponents. We considered this method of our initial advertising to be very important. We distributed by the thousands radio logs containing a statement that Seventh-day Adventists were sponsors.
Of course this drew the ire of our opponent, and he forthwith wrote a leaflet headed "Beware —Dangerous False Prophets Now Active in Our Midst." Thousands of these were distributed. We had started our advertising campaign far enough in advance of our actual opening date so we could work "affirmatively," and by completely ignoring this opposition we could present a courteous Christian approach.
Second, I personally called upon the author of this opposing handbill, and kindly appealed for his own salvation. I made it plain that we were interested not in a religious controversy, but in his salvation as well as that of the thousands in our city. Of course, our attempts were repulsed, but the fact that we sought to display a Christian attitude in dealing with opposition created a stabilizing influence upon our work.
Third, by announcing our meetings as supported by co-operating Seventh-day Adventist churches, we disarmed our opponents from hurling the charge of "deception" at us. By advertising on our first handbills that these public meetings were units of a world-wide effort for Christ, and that the Seventh-day Adventist churches of Minneapolis were supporting this program, we tied in very closely to our previous radio advertising the same technique of advertising our public meetings.
Usually, the first attack by our opponents is that we are working in a way deliberately calculated to deceive people as to our identity. Thus they succeed in arousing serious prejudices. By preparing the way for our campaign in this manner, we had to turn away hundreds from the door the opening night, as more than twenty-three hundred filled the theater to capacity. God had helped us win the first round of the struggle. Our opponents had failed in keeping the people away.
