The Adventist Way of Life

The reformers have restored that which was lost but do we have
everything restored? Are we not to keep moving on…moving upward?
The sad state of the Christian church today is that it thinks that it
has “need of nothing” and she has thus stopped her protesting against
error and so has stopped growing.

How many Christians say things like; “I understand what I need to
know to be saved. I really need nothing to effect my Christian
understandings. I have need of nothing.” Does this not sound like the
modern Laodicean?

Jesus said to them; “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased
with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:”……”I
will spue thee out [spit you out] of my mouth!” [see Revelation 3:14-
22]

The reason why people have stopped going to church is because the
church has fallen asleep. Let us look at the ladder of progress;
First we remember Martin Luther, the true “father of the
reformation”. Luther’s cry was; “The just shall live by faith!”. He
helped point the church back to the only posible way that Christians could please God, through faith alone.

We then could look at John Knox. He pointed people back to the gifts
of the Holy Spirit. In order to facilitate the worship and service of
Jesus Christ, and trusting in the Holy Spirit, John Knox pointed
Christians to nurture the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Next there was John Wesley who pointed people to the grace of God.
Without God’s grace none would be saved, all would be lost. Wesley
pointed out; God’s grace is a wonderful gift to humankind. Grace is
God’s love freely offered to us. We do not do anything to “earn” it.

Then there was Alexander Campbell who pointed out the proper practice of water baptizm, by immersion. Campbell in The Christian System wrote: “While Protestant hatred to the Roman Pontiff and the Papacy continued to increase, a secret lust in the bosoms of Protestants for ecclesiastical power and patronage worked in the members of the Protestant Popes, who gradually assimilated the new church to the old. Creeds and manuals, synods and councils, soon shackled the minds of men, and the spirit of reformation gradually forsook the Protestant church, or was supplanted by the spirit of the world.”

The next and perhaps most contraversialreformer was the Baptist
minister, William Miller. Pastor Miller brought us the 2300 day prophecy spoken of in the book of Daniel. He pointed out the accuracy of of the famous “70-7’s” passage regarding the prophecies of Jesus Christ. William Miller pointed Christians to prophecy and the importance of understanding it.

All five of these reformers teachings were “put into one vessel”, so
to speak. The Seventh Day Adventist church moved with God’s Spirit in the reformation. Adding “light upon light”. The Christian church in
1844 was then moving right along, keeping up with the moves of the
Holy Spirit. Then came the restoration of the Holy Sabbath day.

Isaiah 58:12-14: “…and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the
breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot
from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call
the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt
honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure,
nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the
LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the
earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the
mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.”

But there are still some who argue; “No! No! We have all the truth.
We are surely right. The church is in need of nothing.”

Christian author Ellen White once said; “If God’s professed people
would receive the light as it shines upon them from His word, they
would reach that unity for which Christ prayed, that which the
apostle describes, “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace.” “There is,” he says, ” one body, and one Spirit, even as ye
are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one
baptism.” Ephesians 4:3-5. Such were the blessed results experienced
by those who accepted the advent message. They came from different
denominations, and their denominational barriers were hurled to the
ground; conflicting creeds were shivered to atoms.” - GC p.379

“The great obstacle both to the acceptance and to the promulgation of
truth is the fact that it involves inconvenience and reproach. This
is the only argument against the truth which its advocates have never
been able to refute. But this does not deter the true followers of
Christ. These do not wait for truth to become popular. Being
convinced of their duty, they deliberately accept the cross, with the
apostle Paul counting that “our light affliction, which is but for a
moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory;” with one of old, “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasures in Egypt.” 2 Corinthians 4:17; Hebrews
11:26.

Whatever may be their profession, it is only those who are world
servers at heart that act from policy rather than principle in
religious things. We should choose the right because it is right, and
leave consequences with God. To men of principle, faith, and daring,
the world is indebted for its great reforms. By such men the work of
reform for this time must be carried forward.

Thus saith the Lord: “Hearken unto Me, ye that know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is My law; fear ye not the reproach of men,
neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them
up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but My
righteousness shall be forever, and My salvation from generation to
generation.” Isaiah 51:7, 8.” - GC p.460

Written by, Eric William King [May 21,2007]

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