EVANGELISM is the fundamental task of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Everywhere and always we are to proclaim the everlasting gospel, giving special emphasis to the sovereignty of God, the judgment, and the call to worship the Creator.
The task calls for total mobilization. Each congregation, conference, department, institution, and individual member is involved. Undergirded by the sobering conviction that men who die in their sins without Christ are lost, the mobilized church must hasten to proclaim God's redeeming grace before they perish from the earth.
Use Any Effective Method
Any method, old or new, that effectively communicates the gospel must be used. When one method does not work, another must be tried. In particular, the special ministries of literature, radio, television, medicine, health education, welfare, Sabbath school, Christian education, lay and youth activities, are to unite with one another in effectively assisting the gospel minister in the evangelistic task. All in the church—educated and uneducated, rich and poor, young and old, male and female, ministry and laity—are called upon to support the divine mandate of Revelation 14:6-12.
The commission encompasses the whole world. No nation, kindred, tongue, or people can be bypassed. The cost and dangers involved are beyond comprehension, but the divine commission remains. Relentlessly, time is running on and out. The fields are white, ready to harvest. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision, living and dying without a saving knowledge of Christ. With apocalyptic doom hanging over us and probationary time closing, this is no time for Seventh-day Adventist ministers to consider the sky, explore differences, argue theories, or nurse personal preferences. If we are called upon to do anything, we are called upon to close ranks in a mighty and continuing evangelistic thrust until our blessed Lord returns in glory. Of a certainty, the task is ours and so is the victory.
No Time for Criticism
Lest the words of frail man be misunderstood, let us consider God's servant on the subject. We read:
The Lord lives and reigns. Soon He will arise in majesty to shake terribly the earth. A special message is now to be borne, a message that will pierce the spiritual darkness and convict and convert souls. "Haste thee, flee for thy life," is the call to be given to those dwelling in sin. We must now be terribly in earnest. We have not a moment to spend in criticism and accusation. Let those who have done this in the past fall on their knees in prayer, and let them beware how they put their words and their plans in the place of God's words and God's plans.
We have no time for dwelling on matters that are of no importance. Our time should be given to proclaiming the last message of mercy to a guilty world. Men are needed who move under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. The sermons preached by some of our ministers will have to be much more powerful than they are now, or many backsliders will carry a tame, pointless message, which lulls people to sleep. Every discourse should be given under a sense of the awful judgments soon to fall on the world. The message of truth is to be proclaimed by lips touched with a live coal from the divine altar. . . .
The ministers are asleep; the lay members are asleep; and a world is perishing in sin. May God help His people to arouse and walk and work as men and women on the borders of the eternal world. Soon an awful surprise is coming upon the inhabitants of the world. Suddenly, with power and great glory, Christ will come. Then there will be no time to prepare to meet Him. Now is the time for us to give the warning message.—Testimonies, vol. 8, pp. 36, 37.
