Review of Basic Principles in Approaching Non-Adventists: PART II—The Right Approach

IN THE story of the Transfiguration the climaxing sentence reads, "And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only." Those two words, "Jesus only," provide the answer. Those two words are symbolic of the spirit that actuated the early church, and are a prophetic symbol of the spirit of the last-day church. We are told in The Acts of the Apostles, page 64, "'Jesus only'—in these words is contained the secret of the life and power that marked the history of the early church." They had a similar message to ours, but through those two words every doctrine was channeled. It is not to be Jesus plus doctrine or an in­troduction to doctrine, or the appeal in doctrine, but every doctrine clustering around Him. We present the Sabbath only that we might exalt the lovely Lord of the Lord's day. All our doctrines must be Christ centered.

We are told that "Christ made plain the right way of approaching the people." Often in our way doctrine is important, fel­lowship is minimized. In Christ's way both are important. It is our responsibility to teach our people how to greet the stranger at the door. That is as important as doc­trine. Fellowship! How to reach over and warmly and sincerely shake hands with the stranger. The Sabbath school teacher will take time to introduce the visitor in his class.

A minister preached a sermon on "Will We Know Our Friends in Heaven?" A man wrote a note saying, "Please preach a ser­mon on recognizing our friends on earth. I have been here six months and no one has spoken to me."

For lack of a better name we labeled an­other principle "the law of soil prepara­tion," which demands that before doc­trinal seed is sown, the soil of the heart must be prepared. We build this on the parable of the Seed Sower. The kingdom was to be established not by force of arms but by the implantation of a new principle in the hearts of men. Christ came as a sower of seed, not as a military champion of force. Those who wish to force their re­ligion on people, employing the "ram-it, jam-it, cram-it" method, do violence to the kingdom. This is not God's way. They do violence to the divinely ordained laws of soul winning. We try to show our people that the heart must be opened before we present doctrinal truths. We have seen the disappointment of new members when they come into the church believing everybody will accept these new truths. They want to unload it all quickly and they are dis­appointed because their friends don't re­spond. The hearts were unprepared. Our people often make this mistake.

One woman got up at one of the services and said, "I love to give the message. I saw a man on the street the other day, and I told him about the Sabbath and about Ar­mageddon and the seven last plagues." She said, "I would not. let him get away." But he did get away. He was not ready for all of that. All through the Bible we are taught that men's hearts must be opened to receive the truth. How shall their hearts be opened? I mention three things. To my people I say that we must learn to really testify of Jesus. We need to return to the joyous testifying of what Christ really means to us. Christ crucified—talk it, pray it, sing it. It will break and win men's hearts! Then we must display the spirit of Christ. Many times in our own homes we are guilty of scarring hearts instead of keep­ing them open. Here is a wife with a non-Adventist husband. He brings home some pork. "If you are going to eat that stuff, you will have to cook it yourself." Does this open or close the heart? You know that we are scarring hearts many times with our ap­proach—sometimes of those nearest and dearest to us.

Here is a woman with a Methodist neigh­bor. She knows there are Christians in ev­ery communion, but she somehow has the idea that this particular Methodist must join her church to be saved; and she says in her most pious way and as kindly as she can, "You are in the wrong church." What will happen to that Methodist heart? The same thing that would happen to an Ad-ventist heart with such an approach.

We suggest that we must keep in the foot­steps of Jesus who went about doing good. We want a program of good-neighbor evangelism. If we could get every family in the Adventist Church to say, "We are going to cultivate the friendship of as many of our neighbors as we can and do as much good as we can" (take them a cherry pie, a loaf of bread, stay with the children, et cetera), these families would be placed under a certain obligation, and when the pastor announces a series of meetings they would come. We would not have to have expensive campaigns. They would come to the church, and they would pack the church. We explain the importance of Isaiah 58. That chapter is for the people of the Sabbath-reform message, but the important passage is verses 5-8 where our real work is outlined. We are to unloose the heavy burdens, clothe the naked, and feed the hungry. Good-neighbor evangelism!

After the soil of the heart has been opened we are ready to plant doctrinal seed, but it is important for us to remem­ber that this doctrinal seed must find lodg­ing in the heart. There are many who have it only in the head, but it has never really gotten into the heart. We are told in The Desire of Ages, page 309, "In all human ex­perience a theoretical knowledge of the truth has been proved to be insufficient for the saving of the soul."

The following is an illustration of truth in the heart and truth in the head. If I were to present statistics today on the num­ber of houses that burn annually because of faulty flues and were to tell you the amount of money that is lost, the lives lost, and so on, those facts would be lodged in your mind. But if I were to say that there is a house burning right now, and say that it is your house, the announcement would in­stantly reach your heart and you would be motivated to action. When truth gets into the heart and touches the. emotions, the feelings, the wellsprings of desire, it begins to become saving truth. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to transfer from the mind to the heart what was only information; to transform what was once dry theory into living, vital truth. This provides opportu­nity to present the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit in gaining decisions and to show our people where their work ends and where the Spirit takes over. Many are trying to do what only the Holy Spirit is able to do.

The fundamental law of the government of God is love. Closely associated with this is the gift of choice. God will not and can­not compel anybody because of that very law. He says: "Choose you this day whom ye will serve." Shall I presume to do what God chooses not to do, what Christ will not do, what the Holy Spirit does not do? He brings to conviction, but it is the person who makes the choice. Well, you say, that law is self-evident; but sometimes we break that law. A wife had this problem: her hus­band's family wanted to hold a family re­union, and it was to fall on the Sabbath. He felt clear in attending, but she didn't. She felt she should go to church. She came to the minister very much agitated and ex­plained about the family reunion. The minister asked, "Are you going?" She re­plied, "No, but my husband is." "Well, let him go." "But he would be sinning," the woman remonstrated. "Doesn't he have a right to sin if he wants to?" the minister asked. She had not thought of that. "But he will be lost." "Doesn't he have a right to be lost if he wants to?" She had not thought of that either. God could have stopped Adam and Eve from disobeying back there, but He would not violate this principle of His government. He could not keep them from sinning and maintain that principle of love, with which is associated the right to choose. We must not forget that.

"The young are often urged to do duty, to speak or pray in meeting; urged to die to pride. Every step they are urged. Such reli­gion is worth nothing."—Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 162. "Having brought conviction of sin, and presented before the mind the standard of righteousness, the Holy Spirit withdraws the affections from the things of this earth and fills the soul with a desire for holiness."—The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 52, 53. That's the work of the Spirit. However, although we cannot choose for these loved ones (the Holy Spirit brings conviction) we can help people to make the right choice. From this point we move naturally into a study on the law of persuasion. A fundamental law of God's govern­ment is choice; and we can help them make the right choice. How did Jesus do it? He made truth attractive! You can get a bee into a jar several ways. You can get after him with a newspaper (you run some risks in doing it that way) or, if you are wiser, you can put a little honey in the jar and lure him in.

In The Desire of Ages, page 826, we find this sentence: "His blessings He presents in the most alluring terms. [I thought that word "allure" belonged to the devil for a long time. It belongs to the Lord too.] He is not content merely to announce these blessings. [That would be enough, if he merely announced the blessings of being a Christian.] He presents them in the most attractive way, to excite a desire to possess them." He makes them attractive so that people want to choose them. One of the big problems of Seventh-day Adventists is how to make their goodness attractive. We are to make truth attractive. The gospel is "tidings of great joy"; make the Sabbath a delight as it really is. The health message is to be presented attractively. One man said, "I will practice health reform if it kills me." Some have the impression that in order to tell the truth we must make it un­attractive.

A great auditorium is filled with people. Suddenly fire breaks out backstage. Now how to warn those people in such a way as to save as well as warn? (I would rather save a hundred than warn a thousand. I want to save as well as warn. We have a warning message, but it must be a saving message.) So the manager makes truth at­tractive. He says, "Ladies and gentlemen, I am sorry to interrupt this program. You know there is a law that we must have pe­riodic fire drills. [That was the truth.] And this is one of those times. [And that was the truth.] We are going to stand quickly. The mothers with babies will go out first, then the elderly women and men, and the young women and young men last." He looked at his watch. "We will take four or five minutes to empty this audi­torium." The building was quickly emptied. If some of us had been there, we would have stalked out on the platform and said, "I have a very solemn message, a warning message. Fire! Fire! Run for your lives! This building is on fire, and don't say I didn't warn you!"

(To be continued)