Is Adventism essential or is it just an. other variation of an old theme under a new label? This much is sure: The world needs another religion as badly as it needs a hole in its own head. The religious isms are prevalent and universal. On one street of an American city there are seventy-five churches. In some instances the city fathers have capitulated to sheer weight of numbers and called the thoroughfare Church Street. If Adventism is not absolutely essential, then it has no right to exist. If it is, then the world must know about it.
Be it understood at the outset that there will be heathen in the kingdom of God who never had total exposure to the gospel of Christ. Romans 2:14, 15 would indicate that God has manifested Himself in a measure to all men, even the heathen, and has implanted within the human conscience a limited revelation of Himself.
Second, it should be noted that within the various religious communions around the world there are honesthearted men and women who are sincere lovers of God and are living according to the light that is theirs. These are also candidates for the kingdom of God, and if faithful to what gospel knowledge they already have and will receive, they surely will be saved.
More than fifty years ago the messenger of the Lord wrote that the larger portion of the body of Christ was still outside the Adventist fold. This being true, then it is obvious that the Holy Spirit is at work among men and women who have never known exposure to the message preached by Seventh-day Adventists. It is at this point that a vital question projects itself. If a man can be saved by being faithful to the light that he has, why increase his liability and responsibility by taking him more light? This is the very crux of the matter. Let us here acknowledge that there are some unfruitful saints among us because they have not pursued this very question to its logical and true conclusion. For to do so is to become inspired and to prosecute to the very limits of one's ability the work of spreading our message to the world.
Also central to this question is the question of the necessity of the Reformation. If there are even today large numbers of born-again Christians in the Catholic communion, why would such men as Huss, Jerome, Zwingle, Wycliff, Luther, and Calvin be raised up to thunder the judgments of God against an apostate system? The answer to this question provides the answer to the main question posed in our thesis; namely, that of the essentiality of Adventism, for Adventism is the continuing reformation.
It should be understood that the first-century saints operated under a perfect doctrinal umbrella. This made possible the fullest development of their spiritual selves. Men could be furnished through and through unto all spiritual good works. This pentecostal blessing came in consequence of the perfect revelation of God that the world would see in the thirty-three years that our Lord walked the earth. In the intervening years, in spite of the faithful record of the Scriptures, that impression became blurred, and under the influence of the Roman church, men began to see "through a glass, darkly."
Today we stand on the threshold of the second coming of Christ. Under the influence of the latter rain there must occur a restoration of the perfect doctrinal umbrella under which men may reach their fullest potential in Christ. By recapturing the cardinal truths that are held by all faiths and embracing present truth with a mind open to any future truthful revelation, Adventism harks back to the first century and provides man in this, his last generation, the same doctrinal cover that was enjoyed by those who lived under the era of apostolic innocency and power. You see, my brother, it stands to reason that before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, a people must be "made ready." The way of the Lord must be prepared. Rough places must be made plain and the crooked places straight. The glory of the Lord must be revealed doctrinally or men will not be prepared to see it in reality, for the doctrinally unreceptive will be struck dead at the brightness of His coming.
It is also reasonable at exactly this point in time prior to His second coming that God would want to provide a perfect example of what the gospel is to accomplish in the hearts and lives of men. Adventism provides that opportunity of development. Adventism also is essential to the physical health of man here and now. We have been the beneficiaries of the most advanced health program ever committed to man. And furthermore, the direct relationship between body, mind, and spirit was communicated to this people through an inspired messenger years before the world caught the first glimpses of this precious truth. Men are now discovering that man is an entity and that his happiness in this life is dependent upon the symmetrical development of body, mind, and spirit. Adventism provides the impetus for this balanced growth of man.
Simply reading the book The Ministry of Healing opens up to the human mind a depth that cannot be probed. To follow its principles is to make mental health a most likely experience.
Therefore, Adventism is essential to the fullest enjoyment of life here and insurance of the life to come. Can we have such glad tidings and hold our peace? Wonder of wonders that men may know what we know and sit in idleness while the world suffers in this life and .jeopardizes its chances of the life to come. Perhaps it is because some do not realize how essential their mission really is.
Come with me to a village on a far-off continent and witness the change that has taken place in the lowly mud but of a Christian, and by contrast note the smelly conditions existing in huts where heathenism still holds sway. Or follow me to the four-laned boulevards of a modern city, to the mansion standing where formerly a person with every material advantage threatened to blow out her own brains because of her unhappiness. See her finally come to the conclusion that happiness depends not upon material things, and see her now as she sits subdued and at peace with God and man, worshiping on the Sabbath day, sustained by the blessed hope of the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or let us climb the rickety steps of tenement flats in a large modern city. Evidence of neglect is everywhere, human and material, but suddenly we stand before a door. We knock and it is opened, and there is a little bit of heaven in that large building which is evidence of human neglect. The apartment is clean. There are drapes at the windows, a rug on the floor. The sound of sweet Christian music emanates from the record player: "There is a place of quiet rest, Near to the heart of God, A place where sin cannot molest, Near to the heart of God." To see this is to see the necessity of Adventism, and we have hereby confined ourselves to a lifetime of preaching its glorious claims and provisions.
E. E. C.
