Statistics tell us that the majority of the people of America are unchurched—that about seven persons out of ten, or two out of every three, make no profession of Christ, or affiliate in church fellowship of any kind. They, with few exceptions, do not worship God or accept Jesus as their Saviour, and, therefore, are woefully lost. Millions upon millions are in this state. All over this fair land of ours—this country of freedom and plenty, this land from which the light of truth and salvation blazes forth—men and women, boys and girls, are lost in the darkness of sin, superstition, idolatry, and selfishness, and know not how to find God and eternal salvation. They are heathen, living in a civilized land; enjoying its benefits ; but unconscious of their personal need of salvation or of the darkness of sin which binds them. They are lost, eternally lost, unless they find the Saviour.
Seventh-day Adventists need to become interested, tremendously interested in this great field of need. We spend millions of dollars every year to reach the heathen of foreign lands. Our foreign mission program is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, in modern Christianity. And so it should be. And yet all around us, up and down our streets and lanes, country roads and highways, among rich and poor, are lost souls just as pitifully without God and hope as any heathen Chinese or benighted Hindu.
Our home evangelism includes no definite plan to reach such people. If by chance, out of hearts weighted down with the worries and fears of these hectic days, they are attracted by some startling subject advertised for one of our evangelistic meetings, come to hear what we have to say, and become interested in the logic and clarity of our arguments, the majority seldom go further than to recognize that we are right. Their hearts are all too often not reached, and true conversion takes place all too rarely. Why?
Seventh-day Adventist preachers are trained both in college and in the field to preach the doctrines. They are past masters in reaching those who are already saved, or at least who have accepted Jesus Christ; but the unsaved are passed by, not intentionally but usually helplessly. This is a tragedy, a weakness of the first order.
Has the time not come, brethren, when we should put the emphasis more fully where it belongs—upon Christ and His salvation? Should we not teach our young ministers how to reach the unchurched and the unsaved? Should they not learn how to effectively answer the question, "What must I do to be saved?" and all kindred questions? Should they not know how to talk Christ, and His power to save, without having to fall back upon a form of legalism?
Some weeks ago I attended a series of meetings conducted by one of our young and promising ministers. The subject announced was "The Answer to the Greatest Question." I was interested and intrigued, for I have often longed to hear just such a subject discussed. I wanted to hear another Adventist minister give the answer to the most important of all questions, "What must I do to be saved?" Again, I was pleased when this young man took his text from Acts 16:30, 31. I listened intently to his introductory remarks about Christ and His power to save from sin, and was eager to hear and to learn more of this wonderful Saviour. But suddenly I awoke to the fact that the preacher had passed the Saviour by and was giving a discourse on the law and our duty to obey. Having introduced the subject, and Jesus Christ as the Saviour, he proceeded immediately to substitute for first consideration the law and our need for obedience. For forty and more minutes I listened to a clear, convincing discourse on the law of the Ten Commandments. When the talk was over, I had fully decided that his was assuredly not "The Answer to the Greatest Question."
A young and promising worker, a man of tact and a natural shepherd of God's flock, asked me a few days ago : "What shall I tell people when they ask me how to be saved? I don't know what to say. I've heard no sermons on the subject. They don't teach it in college. In fact, they seldom teach us how to deal with those who know not Christ, and how to save them. We are taught how to explain the doctrines, and that's about all." I listened and thought, How can we ever hope to reach the unchurched if we do not know how to lead them to Christ, how to create a desire in their hearts for salvation? Have we not too often considered members of other churches an easier field in which to labor, and from which to draw our members? Have we trained our young ministers and evangelists to present the message in a clear, convincing way, but left them without a positive appeal that will reach the lost?
Has not the time come when we, as a denomination, should take definite and positive steps toward reaching these millions of lost men and women in our own fair country? They are all about us. They neither cry out for, nor reach after, salvation. They are satisfied with sin and its pleasures—or if unsatisfied, they know no better way. And in the main, they are critical of Christians and their hypocrisies. What shall we do, brethren? Shall we go on and on in the same old way, or shall we stop right where we are now, and get down on our knees and seek after the "uttermost" salvation ourselves? And having found it in its grandness, go forth to tell the world of sinners about us that Jesus not only saves, but that He sets the sinner free.
How many of us today are looking to works, are talking works,. are thinking critically about works and obedience, and have forgotten the weightier matters? Many of us spend more time worrying about dress and health reform than we do about heart reform. We as ministers need to brush the cobwebs out of our thinking, and realize that what the world needs is Jesus. If vegetarianism will save or is an evidence of salvation, then the Buddhists will get to heaven; if the refusal of pork or other unclean animal food saves, then the Mohammedans will be in heaven; if the keeping of Saturday instead of Sunday will save, then the Jews will be in heaven; and if the belief in works for works' sake will save, then the Catholics will be in heaven. It is because the world needs Jesus, needs His love and tenderness, His compassion and grace, His longsuffering and goodness, and because He can only be found today exemplified in His disciples that I write to the ministry of God's church. We cannot reach the unchurched with doctrines alone; but "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
Whether we accept it as fact or not, the truth remains that we, the Adventist ministry, with few exceptions, have too often made doctrine first, and Jesus secondary in much of our preaching. Let us change the emphasis. Preach Christ and Him crucified, preach Him first and last, and the doctrines as secondary to Him who is the wonderful Saviour, the Prince of peace.
We ministers must study to show ourselves approved of our Lord, study to know how to seek the lost, the backslider, the agnostic, the doubter—the men and women who know not God, and do not know how to find Him. It is time that we took definite steps toward reaching this class of people in all our sermons and public utterances. It is harder to save sinners, far harder, than to reach Sundaykeeping church members. We are keenly conscious that the members of other churches know Christ, and in our approaches we unthinkingly appear to their shepherds as wolves in sheep's clothing. Are they not sometimes justified in thinking of us as enemies? We emphasize obedience.We stress the law. We lift high the Ten Commandments and magnify them. And such we should do, for that is important. But it is valueless without complete salvation in Christ.
No amount of lawkeeping will either save or keep one saved. Obedience will come as a natural result when Christ holds complete sway in the heart. Many ministers of other denominations know more about Christ and His power to save than some of us do. How often do we turn to them, through their writings, for spiritual help, for a better understanding of God's grace. How often, too, do we consider them as lost, blind leaders of the blind, when in reality they see, not in the same way, but better than some of us do, the great fundamentals of salvation. Let us awake to the task before us and bend our efforts toward reaching the unsaved, the unchurched, in this our homeland.
Evangelists must learn to bring men to Christ, not to Saturday. It is easier to preach doctrines, to lash out at the mistaken beliefs of others, to make men think that we think everyone is wrong but us. We must make friends, not enemies. We are largely responsible for the antagonism we meet from others. We do not like to be abused, berated, and told we are wrong and lost. Shall we not remember the golden rule? Should not our evangelists and pastors be kind to the erring, and while preaching a positive message, preach it in such a way that no one will turn back from hearing because of unkind, slurring, or abusive remarks, or anything that can be interpreted as such?
Why not preach in such a way that the ungodly and unbelievers will be attracted, not disgusted? Truly we must call men out of Babylon, but is that the only work given to us? No man is lost who truly believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. To deny this, or try to compromise, is to deny the greatest fundamental of Christianity. There are millions of lost, unchurched right here in America. Is not their salvation a part of our responsibility? What think you?
