HAVING returned from the General Conference session in Detroit, we now find ourselves well into the first year of a new quadrennium. What should guide us in plotting the future and directing God's work in all the world divisions? Shall we chart our course in keeping with the Gallup polls, the Dow-Jones Industrial Index, the war and peace plans of various nations, or the grand rush toward ecumenicity? Or shall we restudy and realign all plans and activities with the great evangelistic commission: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matt. 24:14)?
Shall We Quit?
From its inception the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been under orders to evangelize. Its schools, institutions, and churches have only one reason for existence and that is to evangelize the cities, towns, villages, and hamlets of the planet. Are the divine orders less urgent because we live in an affluent society, with a knowledgeable culture, dominated by urban man who, while not hostile toward the church, is wholly indifferent to the appeals and claims of the gospel? Shall we fold up and quit before these secularistic and materialistic obstacles, or shall we gear ourselves for the task? We who claim to see in our domestic and international upheavals an inexorable movement toward the climax of human history need to sense anew that it would be tragic to soften the thrust of evangelism in this fateful hour.
None Left Out!
An evangelist is a "bearer of good news." Who in the church is not obligated to evangelize? There may be evangelists who are not conference presidents, treasurers, institutional administrators, or departmental secretaries; but every president, treasurer, administrator, teacher, medical worker, pastor, and layman is called to evangelize. There is no substitute for every-member evangelism. Whether we labor in the medical department, the educational department, the publishing department, the welfare, Sabbath school, youth, religious liberty, or public affairs departments, the task is one—evangelize!
In describing our day, Jesus painted a terrifying picture. False christs will arise and deceive multitudes. Wars and rumors of wars will increase. World famine will strike suddenly. Earthquakes will devastate many places. Disturbances will jar the solar system. Wickedness and immorality will increase. Hatred will intensify. Racial difficulties will multiply. Traitors will spring up. Love will grow cold. God's people will suffer persecution. In the midst of all this the gospel is to be preached to every nation. Here is our command and guideline.
Best Yet to Come
Therefore, it is for us in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and particularly its leaders and ministers, to raise our heads, look up, and move forward—for our redemption lies beyond this world of terror. Meanwhile, we need to get on with the job of pressing the gospel home to men everywhere. The most compelling sermons have to be preached. The most successful efforts are yet to be held. The best in the preparation and distribution of truth-filled literature has yet to be realized. The finest in the composing and performing of soul-stirring gospel music is still before us—and the same is true in every area of denominational activity.
This is no time to be beguiled by doubt or unbelief, or by those who disown God's Word and the coming of His Son; it is rather a time for us to match belief with Spirit-filled evangelism on a wider scale than ever before. Whatever evangelistic method we choose, let us use it to tell the world of God's saving, keeping, and redeeming love.
Few though we may be, we are not left to evangelize in our own strength. As the disciples of old, we have the promise of the Holy Spirit as the divine motivation and compulsion for the task. Time races on. The apocalyptic tempo is accelerating. In the language of Churchill, never have so many depended on so few. Thin-ranked though we be, this coming quadrennium, under God, could be our finest hour as ministry and laity unite in proclaiming the third angel's message to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people around the circle of the earth.
Let us get on with the job!
