Question: Pastor Delafield, Seventh-day Adventists everywhere are aware that something unique and important is going on every Wednesday night,in the Takoma Park church. The huge Testimony Count down class is awakening a tremendous interest among our people. Please explain for the benefit of our ministers and laity just what a Testimony Countdown class is.
Pastor Delafield: Testimony Countdown is a prayerful effort to bring into focus the message of the nine volumes of the Testimonies, using the class idea as an instrument of communication. The hour and fifteen minutes that we spend together each Wednesday night consists of a thirty-minute review of one of the nine volumes, a fifteen-minute question-and-answer period, conducted by Arthur L. White, and a fifteen-minute period titled "Discovery," in which Paul Gordon leads out and during which the audience-membership testifies to the excellence of the Ellen G. White quotations. Then a few moments is spent at the close of the class to preview the next volume.
Question: Are you satisfied with the Wednesday night turnout?
Pastor Delafield: Attendance has been tremendous fifteen hundred or sixteen hundred people every Wednesday night fill the church to capacity, and the keenest interest is apparent. At the time of this interview, the series is halfway through, and Adventists from all over the Greater Washington area are packing into the headquarters church.
Question: Pastor Gordon, do you men think of the Takoma Park church class as a pilot run?
Pastor Gordon: Yes, this is a pilot run. Because the important nine-volume Testimonies series is an unknown quantity to many Seventh-day Adventists, we felt the time had come to launch a program to familiarize our people with these inspired messages. This is just the beginning.
Pastor Delafield: Some of our ministers are not as familiar with these volumes as they might be. If attendance at our Count down class is any indication, there is a hunger on the part of our professional people as well as our laymen to know what these books teach. We have introduced this study plan to guide Seventh-day Adventists every where into a badly neglected area of instruction.
Question: Are there other reasons why you chose the Testimonies?
Pastor Gordon: Perhaps more than any other books by Ellen White, these books are for Seventh-day Adventists. Other books have a broader value, but these are for the church family. The inspired author of these volumes wrote in 1907 (Letter 292):
I am instructed to say to our churches, Study the Testimonies. They are written for our admonition and encouragement upon whom the ends of the world are come. If God's people will not study these messages that are sent to them from time to time, they are guilty of rejecting light. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little there a little, God is sending instruction to His people. Heed the instruction; follow the light. The Lord has a controversy with His people because in the past they have not heeded His instruction and followed His guidance.
Pastor Delafield: Notice, not only did Mrs. White urge us to "study the Testimonies," but she indicated that "if God's people will not study these messages that are sent to them . . . , they are guilty of rejecting light." She also urged that we should read these messages in the assemblies of our people. Here is a revealing statement:
"I advise that these directions and warnings and cautions be read to our people at some time when they are gathered together." --Ibid.
Question: Do you understand this to mean that on some special occasion, such as a Wednesday night series of meetings, the Testimonies, should be studied by our people?
Pastor Delafield: I think it is a statement that should be interpreted to mean that these messages should be read whenever Seventh-day Adventists are together seeking the Lord for a knowledge of His will but not necessarily during the Sabbath morning eleven o'clock hour.
Question: How long will this series continue?
Pastor Gordon: We started our meetings Wednesday, January 8. The meetings are scheduled to close March 12. There are ten meetings in all. We start each meeting at 7:30 P.M. and close promptly at 8:45. Question: How did you come by this idea? Who thought of this plan?
Pastor Delafield: It is the work of the White Estate to develop ideas and plans to encourage among Seventh-day Adventists a broader reading of the Spirit of Prophecy. The Testimonies are unique, you know. They come down to the "nitty-gritty" things; to real grass-root Christian experience. There is an X-ray quality to these prophetic messages that exposes the needs of church members and reveals also the adequacy of God's grace to fill these needs. The nearly five thousand pages of the Testimonies are challenging, stimulating, and arouse inquiry, even controversy. They stir up the people and invariably lead to changes in the way of living. I think that Testimony Countdown can very well be a part of the final great revival and reformation of the church.
Question: Why do you call this series Testimony Countdown?
Pastor Delafield: The Testimonies are a "countdown," a sort of spelling out of the meaning of the times in which we live; counting off as it were the period of time remaining until Jesus comes. As we read these nine inspired books we get the impression that we are near the final "lift off" and the translation of the saints to heaven.
Pastor Gordon: Again and again in the Testimonies Ellen White says, "The Lord would have come ere this," a statement indicating that the church today is living on borrowed time. Probation has been ex tended to give the church just a little more time to finish the work. The countdown idea suggests that soon Christ will come for His people.
Question: Tell me, will this plan work for a single local church just as well as in a joint series of meetings with a group of churches?
Pastor Delafield: Yes, we think it will. In fact, we anticipate that it will be used mostly in the local church. Let me emphasize that. But it lends itself nicely to the city-wide joint prayer meeting idea and to a sort of mass-class approach. The interest here at headquarters has demonstrated that the idea can work on a large scale.
Question: I have noticed that you use a guidebook to the study of the nine volumes. Just what is this guidebook?
Pastor Delafield: In the ninety-six page guidebook the principal feature is the quiz section of ten questions for each volume. This guidebook serves not only as a guide to the study of each of the nine books but also as a means of assigning specific pages for study and generally acquainting the student with the content. Students study the assigned Testimonies and fill in the answers on the quiz sheet.
Pastor Gordon: The guidebook also contains the general summary of the historical backgrounds of the nine volumes of the Testimonies, written by Arthur L. White. We use this as a principle feature in the first meeting of the class. This brochure also contains historical sketches of each of the nine volumes, "The Times of Volume One," et cetera, so that the student can know the historical situations under which the different Testimonies appeared.
In volume eight, for example, a great deal is said on the subject of pantheism. In the year 1904, when volume eight appeared, the church was confronted with this heretical teaching advocated by a leading Seventh-day Adventist physician. "The Times of Volume Eight" tells this story. A knowledge of this history makes it easier to understand just why Mrs. White wrote on the subject of pantheism as she did and why she wrote so convincingly on the nature and personality of God.
Pastor Delafield: These historical sketches first appeared in the 1948 printing of the Testimonies, but we have duplicated them in the guidebook for the benefit of those who have earlier editions of the nine volumes.
Question: Is there a charge made for the class?
Pastor Gordon: The student pays a fee of two dollars at the first class meeting. At that time he is registered. At our first class meeting here at the Takoma Park church each student received at the door a registration card and an application blank. At a given time during the class he was asked to place his name and address on the application blank. This was then folded and placed with the two-dollar entrance fee in one of the regular tithe envelopes and collected. The registration card is kept by the student. On this card he keeps a record of his own attendance and assignments completed. If he attends at least eight nights out of the ten and studies his assignment eight times out of ten, he receives a diploma and a gift book.
Pastor Gordon: I might add that the Book and Bible House manager has been present at all our meetings. He has offered the nine volumes of the Testimonies at an extraordinary price, and more than 2'50 sets already have been sold.
Question: Do you plan a graduation exercise?
Pastor Delafield: We look forward to graduating at least one thousand students on March 12, possibly more. A special certificate is being prepared to award to these students.
We also have auxiliary members; people such as nurses, who cannot come to the night meetings. These people pay one dollar for the guidebook and study at home. We want everyone to enroll as regular members of the class, however, so auxiliary membership is not emphasized until the regular class membership is established.
Question: Are all the materials going to be made available to our pastors and local elders?
Pastor Gordon: Yes; the guidebook will be made available later through our Book and Bible Houses and should be available for purchase by the middle of August of this year. Many of our pastors will want to begin Testimony Countdown classes in their churches in the fall. If they could be gin September 10 or 17 they would be through by November 5 or 12, before In gathering starts.
Not only will the guidebooks be made available, but packets consisting of special materials prepared in the Ellen G. White offices of the General Conference will be available for our pastors. There will be stories concerning the visions of Mrs. White and their application to specific people for specific times and situations. Historical documents provide the pastor with background needed to develop the ideas expressed in the Testimonies. And I wish to emphasize that the fifteen-minute portion of the program in which Brother White answers questions about the Spirit of Prophecy is being taped, and these tapes will also be available for use in the local program.
Question: I notice a real revival flavor to these class sessions. It seems to me an unusual thing, particularly in view of the fact that so many people regard the Testimonies as difficult and hard to read.
Pastor Delafield: I think it is because so many people have not discovered the Testimonies, They do not know how rich and full they are in insights to the personal needs of individual church members, families, and workers in the cause of God.
Pastor Gordon: I have never taken part in any program in my life that I have enjoyed more than this. Testimony Countdown has been like a huge camp meeting every Wednesday night. The pastors in the area are just as enthusiastic as their church members.
Pastor Delafield: I think our people sense that we are living near the end of time and that these books were written for us today. They are up to date, they are not out-moded, old hat. They apply now! Many of our people are beginning to recognize this.
Question: When can our pastors get this material?
Pastor Delafield: Any time after the middle of August they can secure the guide books at the Book and Bible Houses. They should watch for information from the White Estate office. It will appear in the printed sermon for Spirit of Prophecy Day, May 17. We invite all our pastors to join us in taking advantage of Testimony Countdown for the spiritual growth and development of their churches.
