Experts in Leading Folks to Christ
When men and women really want to find Christ and to enter into the saving provisions of the gospel, they should be able to turn instinctively to Adventist ministers for such help. We should be known everywhere as vibrant Christians, able to lead men to experience repentance, remission of sins, and conversion. and to give a knowledge of the signs of the times, the doctrines, and the prophecies. But do sinners with troubled hearts instinctively turn to the Adventist ministers when they really want to find Christ? We should be able to lead them definitely to experience spiritual regeneration, justification before Cod. sanctFcation through the Spirit, and full adoption into the family of Cod, as truly and as ably as we explain the doctrinal articles of the remnant faith. Anything short of this is failure to meet God's expectancy of us as ministers of the remnant church. We are to be preachers of the full, saving gospel of Christ, not simply lecturers on the special tenets of our faith.
It is not to our credit that we are generally regarded as legalists, attempting to aid in our salvation by our own works, in other words, not saved solely by grace. Unfortunately, we are not without blame in this misconception.
When we are aware of a misunderstanding we should bend backward to avoid any justifiable misconception. We should go out of our way to prevent any misunderstanding of our real position. Yet, to read the list of subjects on some evangelistic handbills, one would get the idea that we are scarcely other than cold doctrinarians and hard legalists. We have been responsible for this regrettable impression. We should publicize and preach the saving gospel as the heart of every evangelistic series. There has been distinct improvement on the part of some, but there is still a long way to go for others.
We faced a crisis over this back in 1888. The • solemn charges against the methods and emphasis into which we had drifted were brought sharply before us, and are matters of record—preaching the law until we were as dry as the hills of Gilboa, without clew or rain. And the unsatisfactory response of many was likewise set forth. There has been improvement, we repeat; but it is not yet as it ought to be. We should all restudy that crisis as set forth in the documented Christ Our Righteousness. And the pattern has been set for us in Evangelism, which should be sedulously followed. Christ is to be the heart and center of every sermon. He is to stand out in the forefront of our every message. We should be the foremost preachers of Christ in the world. "Christ is Christianity." Without Him our mere message is nought; indeed, it may lead to false security, and even to ultimate loss of the soul.
The Spirit of prophecy is itself an exemplification of this basic principle. The full gospel of God is set forth gloriously through these heaven-ind;cted writings. They are surcharged with the ideals that are set before us. Think of Steps to Christ. The predicted preaching of the Sabbath "more fully" has reference to a new and fuller emphasis, not simply to a greater extent. The assurance that righteousness by faith is the third angel's message in verity, indicates the same emphasis that heaven is waiting for us to stress in our preaching.
We are to be truly spiritual men. We all know preachers to whom we would not go for spiritual counsel, or when needing help to get right with God or man. Light and trifling, jokesters and cheer leaders, they seem fairly successful in leading the church in its "works." But they are barren of spirit. Or, argumentative and critical, they attempt to straighten out theological quirks and tangles. When one is approaching the valley of the shadow, no mere jokester, businessman, or efficiency expert is wanted, but a man who lives in close communion with God. When one has a vital spiritual problem he wants a spiritual man with whom to consult: We should be such men.
Theoretical Line Easiest to Follow
One reason why many preachers have drifted into theorizing sermons and philosophizing lectures is that such are much easier to prepare and to present. They do not take so much out of the preacher. Moreover, he cannot truly lead a soul to Christ unless he first knows the way himself. He cannot teach others how to live the triumphant life if he is not living victoriously himself—unless it is to be but a mocking theory. Many, to their credit, are unwilling to play the hypocrite, but those inhibitions should not be upon us.
We have been like Martha—cumbered with many secondary things to the neglect of the primary business of our ministry for God. It is obviously far easier to talk on the prophecy of Daniel 2 than to prepare- the hearer effectually for full citizenship in the glorious coming kingdom of holiness. It is far easier to discourse on the prophecies concerning the first advent of Christ—time, date, place, circumstances, and all—than to lead a sinner to full acceptance of that Saviour born in Bethlehem, who died on Golgotha to provide our redemption, and who ascended to the Father's side to minister that grace. But that is what is needed to make the rest of the knowledge effective to the saving of the soul.
This all has a very practical aspect in the functioning and fortunes of the church. One of the real reasons for so many losses from our church membership is that all too many are intellectually convinced but not spiritually converted when they come into the Adventist Church. That is why so many of our stanchest members are to be found among those who come to us from other communions, and who were already stalwart Christians when they accepted the fuller message of the Advent faith. That very fact should give us concern. We need above all things a soundly converted membership, and soundly converted accessions. We are responsible for the condition of the church.
This whole issue is illustrated by a hypothetical tale that is going the rounds, of two intelligent men who had been attending an evangelistic series regularly some time ago. They were persuaded on the binding obligation of the law, convinced as to the seventh-day Sabbath, won over on the conditional immortality of man, persuaded on immersion, and so forth. But neither one was a Christian, never having accepted Christ or joined any church.
Suddenly they stopped coming to the meetings. The workers were distressed, for they had seemed such fine prospects. They were absent a full week. Then they reappeared and announced that they now wished to join the Adventist Church. They explained that they had gone to some revival meetings conducted by an earnest spiritual preacher in the neighborhood, and had been soundly converted. And now, having been convinced of the truth on the points of faith they had heard at our meetings, and having found Christ in the other revival meetings, they wished to join our church. What a tragic rebuke this tale affords. Let us think this whole principle through, and act as God expects us to act.
L. E. F.
