A conspiracy of silence: Power for missions today (Part 2 of 2)

The Adventist Church has not been entirely left out in the discussion on the need for the power of the Holy Spirit in the experience of the church. Church historian LeRoy Froom, writing more than 60 years ago, stated, “The church is up to date. She has a wonderful organi­zation. She has a marvelous machinery. The wheels are adjusted to a nicety. But she lacks power. In spite of all our facilities, we do not have the power of conversion, which should mark the remnant church. We are faltering in the conflict with worldliness, unbelief, and unrighteousness. While the church is evangelizing the world, the world is secularizing the church. Thus her efforts are neutralized.”¹

 Froom warns, “We are in the gravest peril of depending on men, methods, and money, instead of on Him who alone can raise up men, direct and vitalize them, equip them with right methods, and release and bless the money needed.”²

Ron Clouzet, writing more recently, comments on the mighty works of the Holy Spirit prefigured in Acts 1:8, stating, “Just as Jehovah performed mighty miracles on behalf of the Israelite community, the church of God would demonstrate the power of God through signs and wonders.”³ Comparing conventional Adventist teaching and expectations of the Holy Spirit with that of Pentecostalism,Clouzet says,“Charismatics tend to seek for signs, non-Charismatics tend to disavow signs. Both err by not letting the Holy Spirit be sovereign in these matters.”⁴ Also, commenting on the lure of Pentecostalism, to which Adventist members are not immune, he states, “Babylon is rising to the height of its power. Behind her is the mastermind, the prince of this world. So very many have found in Pentecostalism the answer to a dead church experience, as well as to a Christianity steeped in tradition and becoming increasingly irrelevant to people’s personal issues. Pentecostalism offers healing from disease; a real spiritual high when gathered for worship; and a powerful experience such as speaking in tongues or warm “presence” which makes expe­rience the gauge against which religion can be measured. In addition, there is a happy religion and one that does not worry much about doctrinal differ­ences. It means getting close to God, and that is all anyone ever needs. Isn’t it? Everyone likes miracles.”⁵

Another well-respected voice in the church, Jan Paulsen, former president of the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, attempts to present a balanced per­spective on this subject by explaining, “The Charismatics’ position is wrong, as ours would be were we to opt for the other extreme, which holds that the gift of healing has been withdrawn. God heals today as in the days of the early believers, but His choice of means may differ with time and place.”⁶ Paulsen rejects the suggestion that Christianity is presently in a spiritual drought that will pass, that spiritual gifts are not presently with us but that we shall have a revival of them in the future. He states that “this kind of thinking to justify our own spiritual decay is without the least shred of biblical support. God is alive and well. He is acting in His church and for His people now as He has in the past. And He will continue to do so as long as we are here. Failure in this area lies with us and not with God.”⁷

Signs, wonders, and the Adventist Church

There is an obvious, delicate ten­sion in the Adventist Church over the issue of signs and wonders. On the one hand, there are several counsels from Ellen White warning against the decep­tions that Satan shall bring on the earth in the last days through lying signs and wonders (2 Thess. 2:8–10; Rev. 13:13, 14).⁸ This may serve to explain the apparent disinterest in spiritual power evident in the lives of church leaders and members. On the other hand, her writings clearly state the impossibility for the work of the gospel to end in a manner less glorious than it began in the days of the apostles.⁹ She states that “prayer and faith will do wonderful things. The Word must be our weapon of warfare. Miracles can be wrought through the Word; for it is profitable for all things.”¹⁰

Decrying the condition of the church, she said, “I saw that if the church had always retained her pecu­liar, holy character, the power of the Holy Spirit which was imparted to the disciples would still be with her. The sick would be healed, devils would be rebuked and cast out, and she would be mighty and a terror to her enemies.”¹¹ Commenting on how the gospel task will come to a close in the last days, she declared, “Miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers. Satan also works with lying wonders, even bringing down fire from heaven in the sight of men. Thus the inhabitants of the earth will be brought to take their stand.”¹²

Froom adds, “It is most improb­able that the staid, rational Adventist people would be deceived into the wild vagaries of the cults. Our peril is that we may be tricked into the devil’s conspiracy of silence, either through non-investigation of the true or through disgust engendered by extremes of the false.”¹³

This conspiracy of silence keeps us from addressing the power needs in the lives of members in Africa struggling with issues such as witchcraft, sorcery, and demon possession. This silence has created a void largely responsible for dual allegiance reported in the churches in Africa, resulting in members sneaking stealthily to prayer houses and charismatic churches that promise to address these fears and needs the Adventist Church has ignored. The silence also makes us impervious to the needs of teeming populaces around the Muslim, and other religions, worlds, trapped in folk religious practices, in need of a fresh revelation of God’s glory and power.

This also keeps us from exploring the depths of the riches of God’s grace to respond to the growing apathy with the gospel in the West. Clouzet states, “Many churches in North America barely exist. They are reminiscent of the valley of dry, dead bones in Ezekiel 37. They have good decent people in them, but they are devoid of the Spirit.”¹⁴ Unfortunately, we still keep seeking for the best human strategies for accom­plishing an assignment that is divine, and which can only be accomplished through the power of God. Perhaps the truest need in our world today is for a fresh vista of a God powerful enough to respond to all the soul needs of His children. In this regard, I find no better way to sum this up than to restate, “Perhaps the most balanced conclusion is that any biblical theology of mission must put God’s power at the center of effective mission and must emphasize that prayer and dependence on God are foundational to the missionary task.”¹⁵

In the great controversy between the forces of good and evil, signs and wonders play a very crucial role. As has been observed, “The secularism of the modern Western worldview tends to deaden Christ’s followers to this ongoing but unseen spiritual struggle, leading to ‘practical athe­ism’ and a sense that all problems are psychological, social, physiological or circumstantial.”¹⁶ Adventist under­standing of the great controversy, a cosmic spiritual battle between God and Satan involving every person in the world, should provide the church a vantage point in engaging decisively with spiritual and power issues. These issues lie at the base of the signs and wonders debate. We, therefore, need to come to Jesus for grace and power to live lives patterned after our Model and Example and to contend against the unseen spiritual kingdom of darkness, as we seek to advance the kingdom and prepare the world for His return. As the early church did, confronted by opposition and persecution, perhaps the time has come to pray so that the Lord of signs and wonders may quicken and empower the church for effective missions (Acts 4:29–31). He answered then, and He can answer now.

Conclusion

Realizing the enormity of the task before us—the task of combatting spiritual hosts of wickedness; breaking down spiritual ancient strongholds; opening eyes blinded by prejudice, cynicism, and unbelief; and finishing our divine mandate—we can only con­clude that supernatural intervention is the church’s greatest need.

Some 14 years ago when similar challenges regarding the validity of signs and wonders in the ministry of the church faced the World Council of Churches, a Lausanne consultation on spiritual conflict was set up, titled “Deliver Us From Evil” and con­vened in Nairobi, August 16–22, 2000. Participants included theologians, missiologists, and ministry practitio­ners from around the world, including non-Western contexts.¹⁷

Perhaps the time has come for the Adventist Church to do something similar to the 2000 Lausanne consulta­tion. Bible conferences could be held in various regions of the world field, where careful study can be done like the early Adventist pioneers did, on the subject of signs and wonders and other contextually relevant matters. In addition, local conference organiza­tions could convene prayer conferences where classes on prayer for special situations such as healing and deliver­ance are taught, including lessons on devotional piety, to enable members to live spirit-filled lives.

For any of these suggestions to be carried out, there must be collaboration between the missiologists, theolo­gians, pastors, and administrators of the church to identify and respond to mission-related issues in the context of the lives of church members of a particular region. Biblically appropriate models of healing and deliverance should also be designed and taught to pastors at the frontlines and to missionaries by appropriate agencies of the church, resulting from the col­laboration between theologians and missiologists. There is also a need for continual review of evangelism and dis­cipleship curricula in order to respond to the contemporary challenges of animism, spiritual warfare, secularism, postmodernism, and the surge of other established religions.

As the church proceeds on this all-important issue, may we all prepare to behold our God who is the same, yes­terday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8) and to break forth again in a mighty outpouring of His divine power—in visions, theophanies, healing, and miraculous interventions—to finish His work in the same manner with which it began, with mighty signs, wonders, and total submission to the leading of the Holy Spirit.