[EDITOR'S NOTE: This message was given by the writer at the recent General Conference Ministerial Pre-session in Atlantic City.]
IT IS said that while revolution was raging in Petrograd in 1917, the Russian Orthodox Church was in session a few blocks away having a hot debate about what color of vestments their priests should wear! Today, revolution of every type is taking place, not here or there but every where. Our world, shrunken by the communications revolution, is not nearing the edge of the precipice; rather it has fallen off. Only seconds remain until the final crash. We who line up so beautifully the events to take place before probation closes could be greatly mistaken as to pin pointing where we stand today. It just could be that many signs we have looked for have already passed us by.
The point is, we are virtually out of time and yet there is a world out there that is ignorant of our message. Our global neighborhood sits in terrible darkness. We lament the social and economic conditions of our world, especially when we consider the fact that the inhabitants of this planet spend fifteen times more money on creating weapons to destroy one another than on efforts to cooperate for social and economic improvement. Yet, in considering our own dearly beloved church, how much more are we spending of our yearly budget to improve ourselves at the expense of leaving multitudes in darkness?
Ten thousand people die daily because they do not have enough to eat. But think of the hundreds of thousands that die daily in spiritual starvation with no knowledge of Christ and His cross. Eighty percent of this world's wealth is controlled by only 20 percent of its inhabitants. From the Adventist spiritual standpoint, could we say that close to 100 percent of God's wealth in the form of truth is in the hands of a half thousandth percent of earth's inhabitants? If we could sit where God sits today, if we could view the world as He views it, how would we feel and what would we do? Would we be tempted to think, if we were in God's place, that Adventists have quarantined our message to a few localities? Would we be tempted to think that we who live in our comfort-laden sanctuaries have become spectators of the signs of the end rather than participants in pulling men and women from this blazing inferno of a world?
Call for a New Direction
Let us pray, brethren, that as the result of this General Conference session, our time, our energies, and our attention will be riveted more on people than on policies, more on revival than on resolutions, more on preaching than on promoting, more on getting this truth to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people than on getting position or place. There's a world out there waiting in ignorance, living in darkness, dying in blindness, which needs our help.
We need some muscular Christianity. So when we wend our way through the lovely decorated General Conference booths downstairs and read the four-color brochures that tell about our work here and there, please don't be fooled into thinking that the work is about finished. Further more, when you get outside Takoma Park, Wahroonga, Loma Linda, Pitcairn Island, Berrien Springs, and a few other Adventist centers, remember that the world's majority haven't the faintest idea of the existence of a Seventh-day Adventist Church.
A recent Gallup poll survey of our church indicated that in the United States, 35 percent of the people have never heard or read anything about Seventh-day Adventists. This is the national average. Worse still is the survey of the Eastern part of the United States. Forty-five percent have never heard or read about us. Furthermore, many who have heard of us have confused us with Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses. We have no statistics for the rest of the world, but I have the uncomfortable feeling that the world's majority know nothing about our truth. In talking with men in Djakarta, Hong Kong, Bombay, Egypt, and in Africa I have met many who have never heard about Jesus Christ much less the three angels' messages. Then I think of the world's largest nation, China. We weep over our ghettos, we agonize over our big cities, and rightly so, but save a few tears and a few prayers for a nation 750 million strong with virtually no outside witness. How I wish Adventists owned and operated a radio station that would beam our message twenty-four hours a day to China and other countries that we are unable to enter at the moment.
A World Task!
Yet we have promises, mighty promises that the work of letting the world know about the gospel will be done before the end of time. Take our beloved first angel's message, which claims that the everlasting gospel will be preached "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" (Rev. 14:6). I think this means more than just a handful of people in each of these categories. Surely we cannot accept the early interpretation of this text made by some of our leaders prior to 1874 when we sent out our first overseas worker. You will find that some interpreted this as meaning a few individuals of the different nationalities living on the North American continent would accept this message. There was no urgency or need of going overseas simply convert one or two people in each language group right here in the United States! None today would subscribe to this theory.
Note an inspired amplification of the gospel to all the world concept. "The power which stirred the people so mightily in the 1844 movement will again be revealed. The third angel's message will go forth, not in whispered tones, but with a loud voice." Evangelism, p. 693.
Now add to this another remarkable statement: "During the loud cry the church, aided by the providential interpositions of her exalted Lord, will diffuse the knowledge of salvation so abundantly that light will be communicated to every city and town. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of salvation. So abundantly will the renewing Spirit of God have crowned with success the intensely active agencies, that the light of present truth will be seen flashing everywhere." Ibid., p. 694. (Italics supplied.)
Note from a human standpoint, this will never take place unless there are "providential interpositions of her exalted Lord." But note very, very carefully that the providential interpositions will crown with success "the intensely active agencies." I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit but God will not work independently of the human agent according to this. Men, intelligent men, consecrated, dedicated men must lay and execute plans that will directly carry the whole message to the whole world. A witness to the whole world must give man a chance to accept or reject God's truth.
I want to be positive with my message, so I will be positively frank. Isn't it time for us to sit down and take a close look at ourselves and see just what we are doing to reach the whole world with the whole mes sage? If we did this, I believe under God's guidance some positive plans would be laid in bringing to the attention of the whole world our entire message.
An Embarrassing Comparison
I have mentioned this before and will mention it again. There are those such as Herbert W. Armstrong who are reaching the world in an unprecedented manner with a message, not of whole truth, but a strange mixture. (May I urge you to secure H. W. Lowe's new book on the Radio Church of God put out by the Pacific Press.) Regardless of this man's theology, you cannot help admiring his methods! I have to consciously look for one of our radio or TV programs but you can't miss Armstrong blaring away over the airwaves.
Consider his two journals, Plain Truth and Tomorrow's World. I have seen these magazines in the heart of Africa, in Singapore, and numerous other places. I have seen his tremendous advertising campaign in the London Daily Mail, in the Reader's Digest at home and abroad. His Plain Truth magazine has a circulation of around 2 million. His new journal, started about a year ago, has now reached a circulation that nearly exceeds the combined circulation of our three American evangelistic journals.
I ask you, can't Adventists lay plans to circulate our magazines by the millions and make a real impact upon the world? Some say our message is not popular. Neither is Armstrong's. He preaches the seventh-day Sabbath too. He preaches tithing. He preaches creationism in a most persuasive, dramatic way, plus some other doctrines that are loaded with error and most unpalatable. Yet his strange combination of unpopular truth and fantastic error is drawing the world's attention to his program.
Time for a Crash Program
Why can't the Adventist Church break loose and in a united way respond to the world's needs in a massive manner? Why can't we have a crash program that would keep our presses busy twenty-four hours a day? The resources of this church are virtually untapped when it comes to a united evangelistic front. There is no limit to what God could do with the thousands and thousands of our youth as well as adults if we by faith laid big, bold, dynamic plans that I know would rally our membership behind a massive program of disseminating; our message to the millions as never before.
This is the time for our hearts to break over our limited vision of the work before us. It is a time for us to weep rather than pat ourselves on the back for our accomplishments. Surely we should praise God for what He has done through this movement, but the pioneer spirit that propelled this church to the place it is today needs to grip us again. If our eyes could be opened to what we could and should have accomplished by now, I believe everyone in attendance at this meeting would cry out for mercy!
Let us pray that the spirit of God will come in such a magnificent way that we each will forget our vested interests, our little pet projects, and take a look at the world's needs and then take action!
Instead of seeking higher wages, let us demand larger programs That The World May Know. Instead of spending our energies on internal problems, shouldn't we spend our time on projects so That The World May Know. Instead of waiting until everything is clear before us financially and otherwise, let us lay plans and begin to execute them and step out by faith as our pioneers did.
Go home pastors, evangelists, and lay men and begin making broader plans to let every single soul in your area know this truth by every legitimate and honor able means. We are a part of a mission that is possible!