If you were given pencil and paper and asked to draw a picture of Seventh-day Adventism, what would you draw? I was given such an assignment by the building committee of a congregation I pastored when we were designing stained-glass windows for a new church building. Not being particularly artistic, I struggled a long time in my search for the finest possible picture of Adventism. Finally, the building committee and I were convinced, as number less artists before and after have been, that Adventism is pictured best in Revelation 14. We designed the new windows around the three angels' messages.
Since Revelation 14 pictures the Adventist message, it seems logical to conclude that it also pictures the special bearer of that message—the Adventist minister. Let's draw a picture of the Adventist ministry from the first angel's message, Revelation 14:6, 7.
Revelation 14 is about commitment. Some of the people that it describes are committed to God's enemy, the beast. But the first angel's message depicts a ministry that belongs to God and that proves it by the things to which they're committed.
Committed to the Adventist mission
This angel's message, the Adventist message, goes "to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people" (verse 6). * As bearers of that message, Adventist ministers must be color-blind, completely convinced that "red and yellow, black and white; all are precious in His sight."
There are 6.3 million Seventh-day Adventists today. We ought to be pleased and proud that 88 percent of them are outside of North America, where the movement began. We have preserved our worldview.
If we were to become navel-gazers, if local pastors and their congregations were to lose their worldview, we would no longer be proclaiming the first angel's message. We would be following the pat tern of reform groups before us. And we would start to dry up.
Committed to the old message
Ours is not to be a new, but an old message—"the everlasting gospel" (verse 6). The same message as that of Jesus and John, of Peter and Paul. It's a creationist message, calling the world to "worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water" (verse 7). It's a prophetic message, proclaiming that "the hour of His judgment has come" (verse 7). If I as an Adventist minister am not totally committed to such a message, I ought to get committed or get out of the Adventist pulpit.
The people to whom we preach live in a very insecure world. They look to the church as one anchor they can count on. They want their preachers to speak with authority. Not as authoritarians, telling everybody what to think, but authoritatively, telling them about things they can depend on.
One of the complaints we hear most often about Adventist preaching is that it seems to be losing some of its certainty. Unfortunately, the more education we ministers get, the fewer things we tend to be certain of. But we must sincerely believe the basic Adventist message. Preaching can survive honest errors; it cannot stand insincerity. It cannot survive partial commitment. We must be to tally persuaded if we are to be persuasive.
Committed to new methods
At the heart of Adventism is "nowness," not "wasness." We preach the everlasting gospel, but in a very contemporary setting. Many churches teach that the judgment is coming someday—we say now. They teach that Christ is coming sometime—we say now. And so Adventist ministers ought to be committed to the now—learning to marry the old message to new methods, to apply it to present problems. We must not allow our instinctive conservatism to prevent the changes necessary to stay contemporary.
For generations, whole civilizations lighted their homes with oil lamps, but every generation carried that same old oil in new, distinctive lamps. This phenomenon was so well established that archeologists can date a civilization by the lamps dug up.
Let the oil represent our Adventist message. The basic message must not change. The old oil must not be diluted. The lamps represent the new methods by which the old message is carried to new generations. We need both old oil and new lamps.
May our older ministers be as willing to fight for the new lamps as they instinctively fight for the old oil. And may our younger ministers be as willing to fight for the old oil as they instinctively fight for the new lamps.
*Bible texts in this article are from the New King James Version.