2012-02-07 12:39Z

QOD: How We Got Here

Presenter: David Qualls

Location: Three Angels SDA Church - Owasso, OK, USA

Delivery: 2008-02-02

Publication: GreatControversy.org 2008-02-20 16:33Z

Type: Sermon

URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/ser/qua-qod-ser.php

The Bible gives an urgent call to faithful Christians:

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3).

But to contend for the faith, we must know something about the issues that are being contended, especially as they relate to our time and place.

Bible Example

First, let us look at an example from the OT that pertains to our discussion.

Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee (Exodus 34:11, 12, emphasis supplied throughout).

³And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai, ⁴They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up; ⁵And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy. ⁶And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us. ⁷And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league with you? ⁸And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye? ⁹And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the Lord thy God: for we have heard the fame of Him, and all that He did in Egypt, …. ¹⁴And the men [of Israel] took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁵And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them. ¹⁶And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, and that they dwelt among them (Joshua 9:3-16).

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come (1 Corinthians 10:11).

It is good to remember that history has a way of repeating itself.

Transition to Modern Times

The book of Revelation depicts a group of people in the end-times who are called of God. Revelation describes this group in a very specific way, “Here are they,” it says. It pictures them as:

those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus
those who have the testimony of Jesus, which is the Spirit of Prophecy
those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes
those who have no guile in their mouths

Revelation describes this people as a remnant.

How did we get to where we are today? Let us begin the journey.

God led a people out of the midnight of the dark ages. The great Protestant Reformation broke out of the gloomy shadows of the middle ages into the sunshine of God’s truth. But before long, progress began to slow, and the Protestant Reformation began to suffer its own malaise. It settled for the truths already revealed and became satisfied with the status quo. Little advancement was taking place.

Thus God had to call out another movement to complete the restoration of all things before His coming the second time. That was the great Advent movement in the mid-1840s. That movement proclaimed the Bible truths especially needful for the end-times:

the nearness of the coming of Christ in a literal, pre-millennial return
the arrival of the judgment hour of God
the sacredness and immutability of God’s law including the seventh-day Sabbath
the truth about the sanctuary, the 2300 days prophecy, and the day of atonement
the truth about fallen spiritual Babylon and a call to come out of her
the truth about end-time events
the everlasting gospel with its victory over sin, the impending close of probation, and how to avoid the mark of the beast
the real truth about Jesus and His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary

In summary, God raised up a movement to prepare a people to meet their God face-to-face without seeing death.

This was a calling no one else in history has ever given; no one ever needed to give this message before. It is unique to all times. Though there are parallels that share some similarities, nothing like it found elsewhere in sacred history. It is distinctively for the end-times.

The devil hates this movement and message with a passion. All the dark forces of hell have been marshaled to get you and me off track so that we won’t understand this message; so that we won’t live it; so that we won’t proclaim it.

We are living in awesome times. But most of us don’t comprehend it. And Satan would have it that way. The devil has most of us either so happy with life that we don’t have any desire to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes. Or he has us so discouraged and bound down that we can scarcely hang on to the edges of our faith.

God would have us awaken and take firm hold of His promises, to see our condition, cry out to Him and allow Him to heal and restore us.

But continuing the story, what happens next?

The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 12:17).

Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time (Revelation 12:12).

How did we get to where we are today?

God gave this message to a small remnant in the mid-1800s. By 1863, this movement had organized into a formal denominated church. The great time prophecies of the Bible had all concluded by 1844. The 1260 years, the 1290 years, the 1335 years, and the 2300 year prophecy had all reached their fulfillment. The time of the end spoken of in Daniel had finally arrived. The judgment hour had commenced. From a biblical standpoint, the next major event to happen would be the Second Coming of Christ to take His bride home and to put an end to the sin and suffering of the long 6,000 years of rebellion.

All that needed to take place now, was for God’s people to finish preparing the way; to vindicate God’s name before a watching universe and to carry the gospel to every land.

God was preparing a people with whom He could entrust this mighty mission. It was God’s intention that He be able to return in that generation.

Forty-four years after 1844, we come to the year 1888. In that year and the following decade, God was moving mightily through the messages of A. T. Jones, E. J. Waggoner, and Ellen G. White.

The great subject of righteousness by faith in the setting of the three angel’s messages was power-packed—ready to be unleashed on the church and the world. Had it been, it would have brought the world to a place where Jesus could have come in that era.

Inspiration tells us that God intended it to be the closing up of the work here on earth. Right at that time, a Sunday closing law was being debated in the United States Senate. It came very close to being passed and likely would have been were it not for the testimony of Brother A. T. Jones in December of 1888 before the US Senate committee debating the bill.

Sadly, the church by and large, did not fully accept the message God sent in 1888. Modern Israel was repeating the same mistakes of Israel of old when the spies returned from the land of promise and were met with unbelief.

Within a few short years, the holy flesh movement appeared with its new worship style complete with drums, shouting, and celebration. And with it came a new way of looking at the nature of Christ. It was said that Christ had the nature of Adam before the fall. Thankfully, Ellen White and the brethren met this crisis head on and it was quickly dealt with (Zurcher, Touched With Our Feelings, p. 107).

But soon another larger crisis developed—what Ellen White termed the alpha of apostasy. A new way of looking at God that attacked His character, His nature, and His office as Advocate and Judge in the heavenly sanctuary. This was followed by another direct attack on the meaning of 1844, the investigative judgment, and whether Christ had entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary in 1844 or at His ascension in AD 31. The sanctuary was under attack.

Why the sanctuary?

Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary (Psalms 77:13).

God’s way [Strong’s 1870: a course of life or mode of action, custom] is found in the sanctuary.

Jesus said:

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6).

The sanctuary is a revelation of Jesus Christ Himself. It is the way to God. It is where atonement takes place.

The sanctuary and all it entails is the truly unique contribution of Seventh-day Adventism to Christianity. It is Present Truth. No wonder Satan has made it the special object of his attack as we will soon discover.

During this time, in the after years of 1888 into the early 1900s, the Review and Herald publishing house, the largest in the state of Michigan, burned to the ground. A little later, the great Battle Creek Sanitarium burned to the ground. God was taking matters into His own hands. Many in the church had followed a wrong course and were in apostasy. But God was still in control.

At this time, Ellen White made a statement that is most interesting. She said that,

We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years, as did the children of Israel (Letter 184, 1901, Evangelism, 696).

She also warned that the alpha of apostasy was only the beginning. She warned of an even more startling future development which she termed the omega of apostasy within God’s remnant church. From A to Z, wave after wave of apostasy and error would blow through God’s church. But thankfully, God’s hand would be over His beloved church. It might appear as if it is about to fall, but it does not.

So we must ask, how did we get to where we are today?

Events of the 1950s

Fast forward to the 1950s.

Events were shaping up early in that decade of the 1950s that would impact the church in momentous ways. A young evangelical scholar by the name of Walter Martin was preparing to write a book about cults and non-Christian denominations. Martin was working on the staff of Eternity magazine at the time under the leadership of Dr. Donald Barnhouse. Barnhouse served as the editor of Eternity magazine and was a foremost leader of American Protestantism’s conservative wing.

Barnhouse commissioned his assistant, the young scholar, Walter Martin, to write a book about Seventh-day Adventism. Barnhouse had stated that in his opinion the teachings of Seventh-day Adventism on the nature and work of Christ were Satanic and dangerous.

However, Martin and Barnhouse approached the leadership of the Adventist Church stating that they wanted to dialog and get at the real facts—in essence to give Adventists a fair hearing.

The leaders of the church agreed to sit down and discuss the concerns of these evangelicals. So far so good.

But something went terribly wrong. What started as a wonderful opportunity to proclaim the profoundness and soundness of the three angel’s messages turned into something quite different. We’ve all heard of the law of unintended consequences?

For two years the small group met with their evangelical counterparts, hammering out the questions and answers put forth by Barnhouse and Martin. The evangelicals demanded that the Adventists publish a book to back up their claims of the Adventist position. You see, the evangelicals were finding it hard to believe that what these leaders were telling them was truly what Adventists believed. What they were being told at these conferences did not match up with past published beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists.

Nevertheless, they pressed forward. It was agreed that once the Adventist book was published, Martin would publish his findings in Eternity magazine and then later in a book, welcoming the Seventh-day Adventist Church into the brotherhood of orthodox, evangelical Christianity.

This is indeed what happened. In 1957, our church leaders published a book under the title, Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine, better known as Questions on Doctrine or QOD.

In turn, a little while later (1960), Walter Martin published his book, The Truth About Seventh-day Adventism.

QOD is probably one of the best systematic defenses of the Adventist message ever published. It contains much good material with which we would heartily agree.

But, within its 720 pages are the seeds of error, subtle error that have impacted the church in far reaching ways down to our time. Its authors claimed that the book contained no change in the Adventist position—that it was merely an explanation of what we had always believed. That was decidedly not the case.

Change in Direction

A seismic shift in the foundations of our faith was just beginning. And we have been living with the consequences to this very day. The issues have not been entirely resolved. We see today the results of the ambiguity and confusion introduced during that time.

Let us interject here that the Seventh-day Adventist Church and message is built on a solid foundation. When we talk about the church adopting error such as found in QOD, we are not talking about the entire church. We are talking about segments within the church. Thankfully, God has not allowed His remnant church to succumb to the wiles of Satan or men.

Furthermore, there is no safer place to be than within the body of the remnant church. It is a movement started and led by God and it will continue to the very end. But we must recognize that it is being shaken mightily and that you and I as individuals must find our ultimate grounding in the word of God.

After the publication of QOD, many church leaders recognized the danger of certain of its teachings. In fact, the church allowed the book die a quiet death a few years after it was published in 1957. The Pierson administration from 1966-1979 worked actively to overturn the damage it had caused. But Satan had already stolen the march on the church. The seeds of error had been sown broadcast and were fast growing in large segments of the church. A crisis could not be avoided.

In 1978 Elder Kenneth H. Wood, then chief editor of the Adventist Review, minced no words to PREXAD [the General Conference President’s Executive Administrative Council]. He said,

I believe that the evangelical dialogues and publication of Questions on Doctrine created a climate in the church favorable to criticism, suspicion, uncertainty, rumor, and a loss of confidence in leadership.
[Kirkpatrick, “Here Are They,” www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/rar/kir-mandsconferenceqod.php]

Dr. George Knight, perhaps the foremost historian of the Seventh-day Adventist Church living today, and who has done extensive research on the history surrounding this event, summarized it this way:

Questions on Doctrine easily qualifies as the most divisive book in Seventh-day Adventist history. A book published to help bring peace between Adventism and conservative Protestantism, its release brought prolonged alienation and separation to the Adventists factions that grew up around it. [QOD Annotated Edition, xiii].

Dr. Knight, who is not unsympathetic to many of the views of the QOD authors, recognizes they did not always deal honestly with the facts. Here’s a sampling of the wording he uses to describe their handling of the situation:

“Froom and his colleagues were less than transparent…hedged on the truth…manipulation of the data…[it] was a genuine revision of the position held by the majority of the denomination before the publication of [QOD]…The authors at times push the facts a bit too far... they even present their data in a way that creates a false impression on the human nature of Christ… supplied a misleading heading…neglected to present the evidence that would have contradicted the heading…were less than straightforward and transparent… misleading…Leroy Froom and his colleagues in the evangelical dialogue had not told the truth about the longstanding denominational teaching on the human nature of Christ…Unfortunately, there does appear to be elements of a betrayal in the manipulation of the data and in the untruths that were passed on to Barnhouse and Martin…”
[Kirkpatrick, Larry, “A Wind of Doctrine Blows Through the Church: The Alternate Hamartiology of Questions on Doctrine,” September 15, 2007, footnote 14, p. 49, www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/pdf/kir-qodconf2007amended.pdf]

Areas Controverted

There were four primary areas that the evangelicals had trouble with in our teachings. These included:

The atonement of Christ was not completed upon the cross.

That’s because of our teaching of the antitypical day of atonement beginning in 1844.
In response to the evangelicals, the small group of church leaders who authored QOD, put a spin on the meaning of the atonement that was not there before. We must remember that the evangelicals were blind to the meaning of 1844 and the truths of the sanctuary. “Unto two thousand, three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” meant nothing to them.
In the evangelical mind, the atonement is limited to the cross. To them it is heresy to say that more atonement is needed after the cross. To satisfy them, QOD said this:

When... one hears an Adventist say, or reads in Adventist literature—even in the writings of Ellen G. White—that Christ is making atonement now, it should be understood that we [Adventists] mean simply that Christ is now making application of the benefits of the sacrificial atonement He made at the cross; that He is making it efficacious for us individually, according to our needs and requests. (pp. 354, 355, emphasis in original).

But this is not correct. In contrast, here is what The Great Controversy says:

Now, while our great High Priest is making the atonement for us, we should seek to become perfect in Christ. Not even by a thought could our Saviour be brought to yield to the power of temptation... This is the condition in which those must be found who shall stand in the time of trouble. (The Great Controversy, p. 623).
There is a difference between a presently ongoing atonement and one that is finished.
The day of atonement is significant and central to the Seventh-day Adventist message. It gets at the heart of how God is working to cleanse the heavenly sanctuary and at the same time to cleanse our own body temples. The two are tied together. This is what allows Jesus to close up the sanctuary—the close of probation—and come to take His bride home.
Satan works feverishly to muddy the waters on this important teaching.

The second item the evangelicals had trouble with was their accusation that we believed that salvation is the result of grace plus the works of the law.

This stems from a misunderstanding of the place and purpose of the law of God and specifically the Sabbath.
Seventh-day Adventists teach correctly that we are saved by grace through faith.
But a saving faith is one that willingly obeys all of God’s commandments.
Law keeping by faith from a heart of love is a necessary co-requisite to continuing in salvation. It does not earn us merit or gain us salvation, but it is a necessary condition of salvation.
God rescues from sin with our willing cooperation.
He empowers us to keep His law, which we choose to do through His grace.
God’s righteousness covers our past and empowers our present
Thus it is entirely Christ’s righteousness that holds merit, not our own.
This is different from the evangelical view, which is that Christ’s righteousness covers us in our sinful state, past, present, and future. This incorrect view also holds that sanctification is not part of our salvation; but that it comes from already having been saved, past tense.
This may not seem significant, but there are huge implications when it comes to a Seventh-day Adventist understanding of the end-times, the close of probation, the closing up of the heavenly sanctuary, and the vindication of God’s character through His end-time people.

The third item the evangelicals raised was their accusation that we taught that Jesus Christ was a created being, not from all eternity.

Nothing was further from the truth. That was a misunderstanding on the part of the evangelicals regarding the teachings of the church.
Although some past members of the church had mistakenly thought that, it was never an official teaching of the church.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church believes firmly in the eternal divinity of Christ, the Son of God. Let there be no mistake about that.

The fourth item the evangelicals raised was their assertion that we taught that Christ partook of man’s sinful, fallen nature at the incarnation.

Here, they were correct. However, they misunderstood what it meant.
This misunderstanding on the part of the evangelicals stems from their false teaching that humans are born guilty and condemned right from birth. This teaching holds that we live our whole lives in a state of involuntary sin.
They believe (incorrectly) that this state of sin comes to us from Adam, via our ancestry; that we have no choice in the matter. This particular type of sin is a state and not a choice or an act.
Nothing removes that state of ongoing sin even after conversion, they say. This, despite the Bible describing that at conversion we are born again, given a new heart, a new mind, the mind of Christ, and that we should reckon the old man of sin to be dead, and that we can be partakers of the divine nature.
In their view, God either is unwilling or unable to change us in this life to remove this state of sin.
They are left with the false view that not until our spirits leave our bodies at death or at the rapture and go immediately to heaven are we then freed from the state of sin.
Thus, they reason, in this life, this state of sin requires an ever-present, over-arching umbrella of justification to cover over this state of sin.
This is none other than the Roman Catholic, Augustinian doctrine of original sin.
Roman Catholics had to invent the dogma of the Immaculate Conception to deal with this. It makes Mary, mother of Jesus, be born immaculate, pure, and undefiled from original sin. Thus, Jesus is also untouched by original sin.
Sadly, many Protestants have a somewhat similar view of things.
Prior to QOD, Seventh-day Adventists had always held the view that sin is a choice.
Yes, we are born with a sinful nature that strongly pulls us toward choosing sin, but that is not in and of itself sin.
James 1:14, 15 defines it for us: “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
James 4:17. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
Any state of sin we find ourselves in is due to our own choices.
But, remember, the issue is about Christ. Did He come as one of us with our nature or did He come with an advantage over us?
Let us recall that this idea that Christ came in the unfallen nature of Adam first appeared in Adventism with the holy flesh fanaticism in 1900. Remember the drums, shouting, and celebration worship styles? The leaders and Ellen White soundly rebuked this movement and it immediately stopped and its leaders repented. O, for leaders like that today!
But back to the issue of the nature of Christ. Let us be sure we understand that Christ never sinned. He was made to be sin for us, but He never chose sin.
But the Bible clearly teaches that He was made like His brethren.
“Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17).
“For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham” (Hebrews 2:16).
“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:3, 4).

(By the way, let it not be lost upon us that the supposed “gains” reaped through the Questions on Doctrine adventure never applied to the majority of Seventh-day Adventists. The evangelicals stated that they saw only the Adventists who believed as the few Seventh-day Adventist leaders had claimed they did, as being fellow Christians. [Kirkpatrick, “Here They Are”])

Notice something with me. Where are the attacks being directed? At Christ, His ministry in the sanctuary, at the sanctuary itself, at the gospel of salvation. It is an attack on the very heart and center of the Adventist message for this time.

You see, you can have the Ten Commandments and the Sabbath and still miss the point. You can teach about the state of dead, the truth about hell, the millennium, even about the anti-Christ, about tithing, the need for health reform, and all the rest, but if you don’t tie it all together and give it that cohesive, unified meaning found in the sanctuary and the ministry of Christ there in the most holy place, it becomes meaningless.

Revelation pictures the end-time people of God following the Lamb wherever He goes. When Christ moves from the holy place to the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary in 1844, the true believers follow His movements. They are working in cooperation with their Savior.

That is the message of Adventism. Satan was seeking to bring in confusion on these important points; to water down the effectiveness of the special message of God’s remnant church.

The Results

Thankfully, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has never officially accepted the false sentiments found in QOD. However, the influence of QOD and its offspring is seen and felt all around us.

Sadly, many of the sermons from our pulpits are tainted with the false ideas first seen in QOD. Many of the our publications carry these ideas. Many of our schools teach it. We see the results of the confusion in the lowered standards, the worldliness, the copying of the other churches in their mega-church lookalikes, church growth strategies, seeker-sensitive services, etc. We see it in the redefinition of the meaning of the investigative judgment and of 1844. We see it in the understanding of the gospel; moving it from a full, biblical gospel to a half gospel that is more about present assurance of salvation for myself than about victory over sin and the vindication of God’s name.

We could say that the typical gospel offered up in so many of our churches today is an AA gospel as opposed to a VV gospel. Whereas the gospel in classic Adventism provides a strong emphasis on victory over sin and vindication of God’s character (VV), the post QOD emphasis has now shifted to a present assurance and acceptance (AA) of the sinner. The truth of the matter is that the true biblical gospel, the gospel of classic Adventism provides both AA and VV in proper balance. Since QOD, that balance no longer exists, in all too many cases.

Satan has directed his attacks at the very heart and center of the distinctive message God gave this church. He seeks to neutralize our message. Oh yes, he allows us to keep the skeleton of the message intact, but the real meat of the message is all too often missing.

We are warned that,

Error is never harmless. It never sanctifies, but always brings confusion and dissension. It is always dangerous (Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 292).

What does it all mean—the publication of QOD and its aftermath?

Today, we are living in a time within God’s remnant church where there is a battle raging for the hearts and minds of each one of us. Bible truth is under attack. The deceptions are masterfully crafty and subtle.

Almost worse than outright error, is the ever more popular view that it doesn’t really matter what you believe on these things so long as you love Jesus. But what does it mean to love Jesus? Let us let Him define what it means.

If you love me, keep my commandments.

There is no pluralism in God’s kingdom. No mutually exclusive sets of beliefs co-existing peacefully side-by-side. No. There is only one truth.

Yes, we may see that truth from differing perspectives and we must be tolerant of each other in our growth, but we must never settle for the peaceful coexistence of truth and error side-by-side in God’s church.

Today, the church grapples with many issues. We are confronted with differing worship styles, the lowering of lifestyle standards, an anything-goes attitude toward music, dress, adornment, diet, entertainment and recreation, and church growth methods. We even argue about academic freedom in our schools and whether we should allow professors to mix in some theistic evolution. The list goes on.

As someone has said, creeping compromise has become leaping compromise. We feel compelled to join Elder C. D. Brooks, when he says, “I want my church back.”

While you and I may not recognize it, many of these outward signs of fragmentation and decay within the body of Christ are an indirect result of the events of 50 years ago when a small group of leaders agreed to sit down and make a league with the other churches around them.

Ironically, instead of our warning Babylon against receiving the mark of the beast, we, the very ones commissioned to give that message instead were afraid of being branded with the label (mark) of “cult” from Babylon.

And thus we entered into dialog. We sat down with Gibeon and we did not seek counsel of God. And we were tricked. But thankfully, God will turn this all back on Satan in the end. God is still in control of His beloved church. He has not forsaken it.

Yes, it must go through a tremendous shaking. The sinners in Zion will be sifted out. There will be massive changes as the final showdown between truth and error escalates within God’s church. But, praise God, truth will triumph. And His church, this Seventh-day Adventist Church will triumph with it.

Our Calling

Just as the Israel of old wandering in the wilderness for forty years, survived apostasy after apostasy, ultimately God brought them over victorious into the promised land. He will do the same for this church. Let us remain with it. Let us remain loyal to it and to God.

But let us stand in defense of the truth. Let us contend for the faith that once was delivered to the saints.

We need to give the trumpet a certain sound in this time.

In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and light-bearers. To them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world. On them is shining wonderful light from the Word of God. They have been given a work of the most solemn import,—the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels’ messages. There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention.

The most solemn truths ever entrusted to mortals have been given us to proclaim to the world. The proclamation of these truths is to be our work. The world is to be warned, and God’s people are to be true to the trust committed to them. . . .

At this time, when we are so near the end, shall we become so like the world in practice that men may look in vain to find God’s denominated people? Shall any man sell our peculiar characteristics as God’s chosen people for any advantage the world has to give? Shall the favor of those who transgress the law of God be looked upon as of great value? Shall those whom the Lord has named His people suppose that there is any power higher than the great I AM? Shall we endeavor to blot out the distinguishing points of faith that have made us Seventh-day Adventists? (Evangelism, pp. 119-121).

God forbid. Let us rise to the occasion by the grace of God and arouse out of our slumbering. Let us put on the whole armor of God and go forth under the banner of God’s kingdom to conquer and help bring this great controversy to its final conclusion. Let us with courage and conviction contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

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David Qualls serves as lay pastor of a newly revitalized congregation, the Three Angels Seventh-day Adventist Church-Owasso, located near Tulsa, Oklahoma. Raised a Seventh-day Adventist by godly parents, he turned his back on God in his teens, but by the grace of God returned to the faith of his youth with a strong desire to serve God and to help others prepare for His soon coming. He has served in several self-supporting ministries and currently resides near Tulsa with his wife, Ruth. Having earned degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, he currently works in the software development field for a software consulting firm. Taking an active interest in current theological issues within the Remnant Church, he desires to let God use him to spread the true gospel and to help others avoid being blown about by every wind of doctrine.