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October 17, 2013 

Adventists Lauded by 

Humane Society 

Building Bridges 

Willing Hearts 

8 

14 

26

“Behold, I come quickly . . .” 

Our mission is to uplift Jesus Christ by presenting stories of His 

matchless love, news of His present workings, help for knowing 

Him better, and hope in His soon return. 

16 14 9 6 

COVER FEATURES 

16 What on Earth 

Happened in 1844? 

Arthur Chadwick and 

Ingo Sorke 

When disappointment 

turned into a spotlight on 

Jesus and His ministry 

20 The Prophetic 

Rendezvous of 1844 

Elijah Mvundura 

If Christ’s ministry in the 

heavenly sanctuary seems 

overlooked, consider what 

it competes against. 

ARTICLES 

14 Building Bridges 

Steve Cinzio 

We know what we 

want others to think 

of us, but how do we 

make sure they do? 

26 Willing Hearts 

Denise Cheshire 

It’s all God wants. 

DEPARTMENTS 

4 Letters 

7 Page 7 

8 World News & 

Perspectives 

13 Give & Take 

2 3 Journeys With Jesus 

2 5 Back to Basics 

28 Etc. 

29 The Life of Faith 

EDITORIALS 

6 Mark A. Finley 

From Disappointment 

to Triumph 

7 Mark A. Kellner 

Go and Make . . . 

Just Friends? 

ON THE COVER 

On October 22, 1844, some 

Millerites awaited Christ’s return on 

“Ascension Rock” on the William 

Miller farm near Hampton, New 

York. Photo by Betty Knickerbocker. 

31 Reflections 

Next Week 

Happy Birthday, Guide 

For 60 years Guide magazine 

has been reaching and keeping 

our preteens interested and 

engaged in Christ’s church. 

Publisher General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists ® , Executive Publisher Bill Knott, Associate Publisher Claude Richli, Publishing Board: Ted N. C. Wilson, chair; Benjamin D. Schoun, 

vice chair; Bill Knott, secretary; Lisa Beardsley-Hardy; Daniel R. Jackson; Robert Lemon; Geoffrey Mbwana; G. T. Ng; Daisy Orion; Juan Prestol; Michael Ryan; Ella Simmons; Mark Thomas; Karnik 

Doukmetzian, legal adviser. Editor Bill Knott, Associate Editors Lael Caesar, Gerald A. Klingbeil, Coordinating Editor Stephen Chavez, Online Editor Carlos Medley, Features Editor Sandra 

Blackmer, Young Adult Editor Kimberly Luste Maran, KidsView Editor Wilona Karimabadi, News Editor Mark A. Kellner, Operations Manager Merle Poirier, Financial Manager Rachel Child, 

Editorial Assistant Marvene Thorpe-Baptiste, Marketing Director Claude Richli, Editor-at-Large Mark A. Finley, Senior Advisor E. Edward Zinke, Art Director Bryan Gray, Design Daniel 

Añez, Desktop Technician Fred Wuerstlin, Ad Sales Glen Gohlke, Subscriber Services Steve Hanson. To Writers: Writer’s guidelines are available at the Adventist Review Web site: www.adventistreview.org 

and click “About the Review.” For a printed copy, send a self-addressed envelope to: Writer’s Guidelines, Adventist Review, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600. 

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otherwise noted, Bible texts in this issue are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Unless 

otherwise noted, all photos are © Thinkstock 2013. The Adventist Review (ISSN 0161-1119), published since 1849, is the general paper of the Seventh-day Adventist ® Church. It is 

published by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists ® and is printed 36 times a year on the second, third, and fourth Thursdays of each month by the Review and 

Herald ® Publishing Association, 55 West Oak Ridge Drive, Hagerstown, MD 21740. Periodical postage paid at Hagerstown, MD 21740. Copyright © 2013, General Conference 

of Seventh-day Adventists ® . PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. Vol. 190, No. 29 

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www.AdventistReview.org | October 17, 2013 | (931) 3

inbox 

Letters From Our Readers 

www.adventistreview.org 

September 19, 2013 

Vol. 190, No. 26 

September 19, 2013 

Theological Seminary 

Insta ls New Dean 

Unleashing the Word 

The God of the Gap 

Two Great Articles 

»» 

I’m just sending a note of 

thanks for two great articles 

that were printed in the September 

19, 2013, Adventist 

Review. I was saying “Right 

on!” to myself all the way 

through Andrew Kerbs’ “A 

Memorial to Salvation” and 

Bill Knott’s “Habits of the 

Heart.” 

In regard to Kerbs’ piece, 

I’m glad to know the under- 

40 generation is hearing the 

gospel the way Christ 

intended it. And to put 

thoughts together from both 

articles, indeed, when in the 

solitude of the study of 

God’s Word we become certain 

of our redemption, we 

can relax (rest? feel 

“strangely warmed”?) in 

gratitude for so great a 

salvation. 

Ed Karlow 

Walla Walla, Washington 

Habits of the Heart 

»» 

Bill Knott’s “Habits of the 

Heart” (Sept. 19): What an 

enlightening and soul-stirring 

article he has shared 

with the Adventist Review 

readership! I have taken an 

unusually long time to read 

it because of the need to 

10 

14 

17 

pause frequently to contemplate 

and pray. 

The virtues in this article I 

hold dear, but I never could 

articulate to such meaningful 

extent their importance 

to my life as a Christian. How 

I praise God for this 

encounter! 

As I read each thought, 

each sentence, many people, 

including the entire congregation 

at the church I attend, 

raced to the forefront of my 

mind. Surely, given the 

opportunity to read this article, 

they too will long for 

such solitude, certitude, and 

gratitude to be their very 

own experience. 

So I shall share, as is my 

custom, as widely as possible 

this particular article, reiterating 

again the richness and 

worth of the readings in the 

Review. 

As for me, I plan to revisit 

this reading with great frequency 

so that I never forget 

why solitude, certitude, and 

gratitude are, and ought to 

be, the habits of my heart. 

May God continue to work 

through your editorship to 

bless you and your readers. 

Althea White 

via e-mail 

A Memorial to 

Salvation 

»» 

Regarding the article by 

Andrew Kerbs, “A Memorial 

to Salvation: Do Works Matter?” 

(Sept. 19): 

I came from reading the 

article with the perception 

that works do matter, but 

because they do not save, 

they do not matter that much 

when it comes to salvation. 

They are more of a memorial 

we observe to celebrate 

God’s saving grace and love 

for us. 

Ellen White writes, “Our 

good works alone will not 

save any of us, but we cannot 

be saved without good 

works” (God’s Amazing Grace, 

p. 309). If we cannot be saved 

without good works, they 

must matter very much to 

our salvation. 

Kerbs writes, “The Lord 

saved them not by works, but 

by faith in the blood of the 

Passover Lamb.” If they had 

not killed the lamb, put the 

blood on the doorposts and 

stayed in the house, works 

all done in answer to belief 

and faith in the God who had 

instructed them, salvation 

would not have been theirs. 

The author continues, “We 

live holy, consecrated lives 

not so that we may be saved, 

but because we are saved!” It 

might be better said, “We can 

live holy, consecrated lives 

and will do good works, 

because we are saved!” 

Works, good works, are 

not a source of salvation, neither 

are they a memorial to 

it; they are the result of living, 

walking, and working 

according to the faith we 

have in the One who is the 

source of our salvation. 

Ray Hickman, Sr. 

Midlothian, Virginia 

No One Close 

»» 

In his September 19 article 

titled “No One Close: The 

Finest Adventist Author,” 

Andy Nash writes that “Ellen 

White’s work is not Scripture. 

She grew in her understanding 

of the grace and 

love of God. It’s OK to disagree 

with her, to point out 

her mistakes. It’s OK to limit 

her counsel.” 

I agree with Nash’s first 

and second statement, but I 

question his statement 

about it being appropriate to 

disagree with White and 

point out her “mistakes.” If 

he is referring to grammar or 

syntax or spelling, that’s one 

thing; but I don’t think he 

meant error in the content of 

what she wrote in her published 

writings. 

John Blake 

Lacombe, Alberta, Canada 

»» 

I would like to elaborate on 

Andy Nash’s article. We Adventists, 

of course, must 

believe the Bible—it indicates 

there will be prophets 

in the last days. And we must 

use the Bible to test the 

prophets as to whether they 

“It’s time we prepare for the 

unthinkable! 

” 

—lorRaine hudgins-olson, Fletcher, North Carolina 

4 (932) | www.AdventistReview.org | October 17, 2013

Thank You 

»» 

After being baptized in 

prison, my entire life 

changed. It changed at such a 

fast clip that the speed itself 

was a miracle. Every day my 

day is blessed by His presare 

true prophets: “Beloved, 

believe not every spirit, but 

try the spirits whether they 

are of God: because many 

false prophets are gone out 

into the world” (1 John 4:1, 

KJV). What we mean by “true 

prophets” is that they get 

messages straight from God. 

In Ellen White’s case, there 

were “supernatural experiences” 

witnessed by others. 

“Supernatural experiences” 

only prove that the person’s 

messages, which are attributed 

as coming from God, 

are either from God or from 

Satan. Understanding this, it 

is important to “test” the 

prophets by the Bible, and 

come to the conclusion that 

our church was either 

founded by God or founded 

by Satan. 

Once we determine that a 

prophet (or messenger) is 

from God, we then have to 

believe that the messages, 

which are attributed as coming 

from God, are from God. 

If they are from God, then 

they cannot be of less importance 

than those of the former 

prophets. God doesn’t 

deliver two different levels of 

messages. Ellen White’s 

major work was to explain 

portions of the Bible that 

have been abused in the past. 

Jesus said to the scribes 

and Pharisees, as recorded in 

Luke 11:50: “That the blood 

of all the prophets, which 

was shed from the foundation 

of the world, may be 

required of this generation” 

(KJV). He said this because of 

their unbelief in the prophets. 

We do not want to 

receive the same 

condemnation. 

Fred Ellis 

Vale, Oregon 

Thinking the 

Unthinkable 

»» 

Kudos to Arthur F. Blinci 

and Adventist Risk Management 

for the well-thoughtthrough 

article “Thinking 

the Unthinkable” (Sept. 12, 

2013). I am a fourth-generation 

Adventist and have been 

a faithful churchgoer the 

entire 92 years of my life, and 

only once during those years 

have I ever experienced a fire 

drill in church. 

Our family lived in Oklahoma 

City during the 1960s, 

and we experienced frequent 

tornadoes. I especially 

remember one ripping 

through our city and the surrounding 

area on Sabbath 

morning. Before going home 

after church, we toured the 

devastation. We drove by a 

church (not ours) where the 

roof was completely gone 

and seats were piled and 

scattered everywhere. We 

spotted the church roof, 

intact, a block away. I wonder 

what would have happened 

to the members of that Sundaykeeping 

church if they 

had been worshipping on 

that Sabbath morning. 

It’s time we internalize 

this article and prepare for 

the unthinkable! 

Lorraine Hudgins- 

Olson 

Fletcher, North Carolina 

“Works, good works, are not a 

source of salvation. 

” 

—ray hickman. sr., Midlothian, Virginia 

Comfort and Trust 

»» 

The Adventist Review is so 

nice to read! 

I was raised as an 

Adventist, but went the other 

way when my parents 

divorced. I was 13 years old. 

I am now 45 years old and 

in prison. I just about cried 

the other day when I got 

hold of a mirror after a few 

months without looking at 

myself. What I saw was an 

older man with tattoos, scars 

from fights and IV drug use, 

missing and broken teeth, 

etc. I also saw mental, physical, 

and spiritual pain. Since 

then, I’ve been praying 

more—and reading the 

Adventist Review and The Great 

Controversy. 

God has been sending me 

little signs here and there. 

One sign that came to me 

was in the August 15, 2013, 

Review, in a poem on the Give 

& Take page entitled “Trust 

Me,” by Erin Burke. God 

talked to me through this 

poem—I cried. 

Thank you! 

Saulo Hernandez 

California 

ence in my life. In learning 

the deep meaning of His 

Words, my faith and understanding 

grow immensely. 

Thank you for the [New 

Believer] subscription to 

Adventist Review. I did not 

even know such a publication 

existed. 

It is always beneficial in 

the violent prison setting, 

ruled by gang members, that 

His Word is able to shine 

through; and I have the 

strength to share. Without 

Him in my life I would be 

devastatingly afraid of my 

environment. He gives me 

strength and soothes my 

fears. 

The Review is such a help! 

You are in my prayers. 

Thanks again. 

Scott Smith 

Walla Walla, Washington 

We welcome your letters, noting, 

as always, that inclusion of a letter 

in this section does not imply that 

the ideas expressed are endorsed by 

either the editors of the Adventist 

Review or the General Conference. 

Short, specific, timely letters have 

the best chance at being published 

(please include your complete 

address and phone number—even 

with e-mail messages). Letters will 

be edited for space and clarity only. 

Send correspondence to Letters to 

the Editor, Adventist Review, 12501 

Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 

20904-6600; Internet: letters@ 

adventistreview.org. 


Editorials 

Mark A. 

Finley 

From Disappointment to Triumph 

Their hearts were heavy. Their thoughts were troubled. How 

could so many prophecies be wrong? They had spent two long, sleepless nights. Cowering in fear, 

these weary, confused believers huddled in a crowded room in Jerusalem. The cross had dashed 

their hopes, crushing their dreams. 

Suddenly the resurrected Christ appeared. Everything changed. Hope revived; faith was 

renewed. Christ explained that He was returning to the Father, but that He would send His Holy 

Spirit to empower His fledgling church to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. 

Following Christ’s ascension, the disciples waited, prayed, believed, and received the mighty 

outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Filled with the Spirit, the disciples unashamedly proclaimed 

everywhere the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Lord. 

These early believers had misinterpreted the Old Testament prophecies and misunderstood 

the nature of Christ’s first advent. They confused His kingdom of grace with His kingdom of 

glory. They thought the Messiah would vanquish their enemies and set up an earthly kingdom. 

But once they understood the true meaning of His mission their lives were transformed. Jesus 

led them from disappointment to triumph. 

Fast-forward 1,800 years. Listen to the sobs of another small group of disciples. Imagine their 

deep disappointment. They too enthusiastically studied the prophecies of the Messiah’s return. 

They too believed He would soon set up His kingdom. They too were bitterly disappointed. 

This was not A.D. 31 and the disappointment of Christ’s first-century church. It was A.D. 1844 

and the disappointment of His last-day church. They looked to their ascended Lord in heaven’s 

sanctuary to discover the meaning of their disappointment. There they discovered that the hour 

of their disappointment was an hour of divine appointment. No longer business as usual, the 

longest time prophecy in the Bible—2300 years—had run out. They were living in the judgment 

hour. They believed that Christ was coming soon, and they had an urgent, end-time message that 

the world must hear. 

Some see the disappointment of 1844 as an embarrassing chapter in Seventh-day Adventist 

history. One evangelical scholar went so far as to call the doctrine of the heavenly sanctuary and 

pre-Advent judgment “a colossal face-saving device.” 

Seventh-day Adventists understand it totally differently. We see our prophetic rise chronicled 

in Revelation 10. Here the apostle John, exiled on the Isle of Patmos, saw in vision “another mighty 

angel coming down from heaven” with “a little scroll, which lay open in his hand”; a universal 

message for all humanity. With a solemn oath the angel cries out that there should be “no more 

delay” and that “the mystery of God will be accomplished” (Rev. 10:1, 6, 7). 

The angel was obviously not talking about literal time. His message was declaring that prophetic 

time would run out at the conclusion of Daniel’s longest time prophecy, the 2300 days or 

2300 years. According to the angel, the study of the “scroll” in his hand that had been closed 

would be “sweet” in the mouth but “sour” in the stomach (Rev. 10:9, 10). The only book in the 

Bible declared to be closed was the book of Daniel (Dan. 12:4, 9, 13). 

As those early Adventists pored over Daniel’s prophecies, they were elated with what they had 

discovered. Daniel’s revelations were sweet in their mouth. They believed the cleansing of the 

sanctuary was the cleansing of the earth by fire. Jesus was coming. And when Christ did not come 

on that October morning in 1844, they were bitterly disappointed. 

What would happen to these disappointed, faithful Advent believers? Would they simply die 

out in insignificance? The angel declares, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, 

languages and kings” (Rev. 10:11). 

This prophecy has been powerfully fulfilled. Today Seventh-day Adventists work in more than 

200 countries, with nearly 25 million attending Adventist churches. With an urgency borne of a 

divine mandate, Seventh-day Adventists are totally committed to fulfilling the mission of Christ 

and carrying the message of a crucified, resurrected, soon-coming Savior to the world. 

Once again God has carved a divine movement of destiny out of disappointment. n 


Go and Make . . . Just Friends? 

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing 

them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey 

everything I have commanded you.”—Matthew 28:19, 20. 

The imperative for the Christian is clear, if we are to believe what Jesus said at the end of Matthew’s 

gospel: we’re to “make disciples” from “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,” 

as the King James Version renders Revelation 14:6. 

There are some who assert our job is done, or at least well begun, if we merely sidle up to 

folks and become friends with them. Friendship is important, to be sure; we as Christians are 

to live peaceably with others, and Seventh-day Adventists have an obligation, based on our history 

and understanding of prophecy, to support religious liberty, which includes respecting 

others’ views and beliefs. 

But what kind of friend would I be to someone obviously ailing if I withheld the only guaranteed 

cure? Every person we encounter is suffering from an “incurable disease,” namely sin and 

its consequences: “For the wages of sin is death,” we’re warned in Romans 6:23, “but the gift of 

God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

Ezekiel records a solemn charge: “When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and 

you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their 

life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood” 

(Eze. 3:18). 

A true friend would warn me if I were about to walk off a cliff. Shouldn’t we be faithful 

friends in a sick and dying world? n 

Mark A. 

Kellner

World News & Perspectives 

■■WORLD CHURCH 

Unlikely Source Gives Kudos to GC Stewardship 

Humane group lauds Adventist message of creation care. 

By SANDRA BLACKMER, features editor 

The recent April-June 2013 edition 

of Dynamic Steward, 1 the quarterly journal 

produced by the General Conference 

Stewardship Department, brought high 

praise from an unlikely source: The 

Humane Society of the United States 

(HSUS). 2 HSUS Faith Outreach associate 

director Karen L. Allanach described the 

issue as “beautifully [capturing] the 

importance of caring for God’s creation—including 

the animals,” and 

requested 200 copies to distribute to 

other faith organizations and volunteers 

interested in promoting humane 

treatment of God’s nonhuman creatures. 

They’re also noting the publication 

in their Humane Steward 

e-newsletter, which is distributed to 

about 17,000 subscribers; and including 

a link on the Seventh-day Adventist 

■■World Church 

“Enter Cities” for Mission, 

Ng Urges at Urban 

Mission Conference 

Necessity of urban work clear from 

need, Ellen White’s counsel 

By MARK A. KELLNER, news editor 

As scores of world leaders of the Seventh-day 

Adventist Church gathered in 

the General Conference headquarters in 

Silver Spring, Maryland, on Sabbath, September 

28, the executive secretary of the 

General Conference urged increased ministry 

in the world’s cities. 

“While Ellen White is emphatic about 

the evils of city living, she is equally 

emphatic about the critical need for 

urban missions,” G. T. Ng said in a plenary 

address to delegates at the church’s 

Urban Mission Conference. He drew 

Mark A. Kellner/Adventist Review 

Church information page on the HSUS 

Web site. 3 

The magazine issue titled “Our 

Dominion: God’s Domain” focuses on 

“the privilege and accountability of 

our stewardship for all of God’s creation.” 

Writers include Washington 

Adventist University Christian ethics 

professor Zdravko Plantak, Geoscience 

Research Institute director James Gibson, 

and author and retired church 

administrator Reinder Bruinsma. It 

also features an interview with Seventh-day 

Adventist Theological Seminary 

professor Jo Ann Davidson, 

articles for children and youth, and a 

list of applicable resources. 

“Our role as stewards of the earth 

came both as a gift and as a responsibility 

from our Creator,” says GC Stewardship 

associate director Larry Evans, also 

Dynamic Steward editor. “Unfortunately, 

much of the world’s focus is on consuming 

rather than enhancing and protecting 

what God has made, whether it 

be plant, animal, or the environment. As 

Seventh-day Adventists we have an 

important role to play in raising global 

awareness of these issues.” 

He added, “We’re very appreciative of 

the work of HSUS and their sharing of 

our mutual interests with their subscribers. 

Together our voices can 

become a megaphone to a world that at 

times appears to be insensitive to God’s 

creation.” n 

1 

www.adventiststewardship.com/ 

2 

www.humanesociety.org 

3 

www.humanesociety.org/about/departments/ 

faith/facts/statements/seventh_day_adventist_church. 

html 

VOICES RAISED:The award-winning Aeolians from Oakwood 

University in Huntsville, Alabama, an institution of 

the General Conference, praise the Lord in song during 

the Friday evening, Sept. 27, 2013, opening of the Urban 

Mission Conference. 

extensively from the writings 

and addresses of 

White, a cofounder of the 

Seventh-day Adventist 

movement, to illustrate his points. 

Ng urged that the church needs to 

resolve its “love/hate” relationship with 

cities and with urban ministry. Many 

Seventh-day Adventists point to Ellen 

White’s statements about the perils of 

urban environments, but Ng reminded 

the audience of 200 leaders that White 

spent decades urging Adventist leadership 

and laity to enter urban areas in 

order to perform evangelistic work. 

He quoted White: “We are far behind 

in following the light God has given 

regarding the working of our large cities.” 

1 “When I think of the many cities yet 

unwarned, I cannot rest. It is distressing 

to think that they have been neglected so 

long. For many, many years the cities of 


America, including the cities in the 

South, have been set before our people as 

places needing special attention.” 2 

Noting that White also called for a 

great diversity of methods to reach 

urban dwellers with the gospel— 

health ministry, vegetarian restaurants, 

home visitation, and smallgroup 

Bible studies, among others— 

Ng smiled and observed to a room 

filled with preachers, “I have a feeling 

we preach too much!” While most 

efforts to launch city ministries have 

focused on large public evangelistic 

events, Ng urged his hearers to plan 

numerous lower-key activities. “When 

we go fishing as Jesus told us to, we 

have to use many types of methods.” 

The four-day Urban Mission Conference 

was designed to raise and address 

issues of entering cities for evangelism, 

said Mike Ryan, a general vice president 

of the world church, who greeted 

attendees at the meeting’s start. 

“We have come to this conference to 

look at this issue and to see what we can 

do to reach the cities,” Ryan said. 

After Ng spoke, the award-winning 

Aeolian choir of Oakwood University, a 

General Conference institution in 

Huntsville, Alabama, presented several 

worship songs, including a dramatic 

rendition of “How Great Thou Art.” 

The Urban Mission Conference continued 

through October 1, 2013, and featured 

several Seventh-day Adventist 

Church leaders, including General Conference 

president Ted N. C. Wilson, 

church education director Lisa Beardsley- 

Hardy, general vice president Ella Simmons, 

longtime evangelist and Adventist 

Review editor-at-large Mark Finley, Washington 

Adventist University urban ministries 

professor Gaspar Colon, and Ministry 

magazine editor Derek Morris. n 

1 

Ellen G. White, Evangelism (Washington, D.C.: 

Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1946), p. 33. 

2 

Ibid. 

■■NEW MEXICO 

Adventists Sue Over 

Church “Registration” 

Measure mocks First Amendment, attorney says. 

By ELIZABETH LECHLEITNER, Adventist News Network 

The Seventh-day Adventist Church 

has filed a lawsuit against the city of Las 

Cruces in the U.S. state of New Mexico 

over an ordinance church lawyers say 

violates religious expression and 

unfairly targets pastor-led faith groups, 

especially Latino churches. 

Earlier this year, city officials threatened 

to take legal action if the Las Cruces 

Spanish Seventh-day Adventist 

Church failed to comply with the 

requirements of the business registration 

ordinance. 

Las Cruces Ordinance No. 16-131 

defines a business as “any profession, 

trade or occupation and all and every 

kind of calling,” including the work of 

pastors, priests, rabbis, bishops, imams, 

and other religious leaders. 

The ordinance ostensibly requires all 

pastor-led churches within city limits to 

register with the city, pay a registration 

fee, and pass a discretionary review process 

before gaining approval to conduct 

worship services or provide pastoral 

care. Faith groups that are lay-led rather 

than clergy-led are not subject to the 

requirements, lawyers said. 

According to a complaint filed by the 

church in the U.S. District Court of New 

Mexico, there is no time frame for an 

approval and no avenue for appeal if the 

city denies an application. 

“I’ve never seen anything like this. It 

blatantly goes against the First Amendment 

of the U.S. Constitution,” said 

Todd McFarland, an associate general 

counsel for the Seventh-day Adventist 

world church. 

Further troubling church lawyers, the 

ordinance requires separate registrations 

for each location that business is 

conducted. Lawyers said this stipulation 

could require pastors to obtain 

special permission before visiting sick 

members, providing off-site counseling, 

or conducting evangelism. 

“Such religious speech and activities 

frequently occur in private homes, public 

meeting places, hospitals, and 

funeral homes as a result of regularly 

occurring life events with very little if 

photo: Sue Hinkle 

CHURCH REGISTRATION OPPOSED: The 

Seventh-day Adventist Church has sued 

the city of Las Cruses, New Mexico, over an 

ordinance that requires pastor-led churches 

to register and pay fees. Church lawyers say 

the ordinance violates the First Amendment 

of the U.S. Constitution. The Texico 

Conference headquarters, shown here, is 

located in Corrales, New Mexico. 

any advance notice,” the complaint 

stated. “It is impossible for an applicant 

subject to the ordinance to provide 

accurate information because many 

pastoral activities are a response to 

unpredictable events.” 

Church lawyers also said the ordinance 

is “impermissibly vague” because 

it fails to specify what actions fall under 

the definition of “calling,” thus requiring 

separate advance approval. 

A list of exemptions to the requirements, 

including certain athletic 



officials and artists, “favor nonreligious 

speech over religious speech,” the complaint 

stated, noting that the ordinance 

“overturns” protections provided by 

Article II, section 11, of the New Mexico 

Constitution. 

According to the complaint, “these 

protections were intended to provide 

religious speech with more, not less, 

protection than speech related to a ball 

game or a portrait of a family pet or 

other ‘art’ product.” 

Meanwhile, Las Cruces city officials 

maintain that the ordinance is meant to 

benefit citizens. 

“The City of Las Cruces believes that 

its requirements to have businesses, 

including churches, within city limits 

have a business license meets the city’s 

obligations to provide its citizens with 

fire and police protection and comply 

with the Constitution,” William Babington, 

Jr., deputy city attorney for Las Cruces, 

said by e-mail. 

“The city trusts that the courts will 

agree with its position,” Babington 

added. 

There are more than 100 churches 

within Las Cruces city limits, but the 

ordinance, Adventist lawyers said, has 

been applied to only a small percentage 

of these churches and, according to 

the complaint, “disparately applied to 

single out Hispanic and Latino 

churches.” 

In June the Las Cruces Spanish Seventh-day 

Adventist Church was first 

notified that it had seven days to comply 

with the requirements or face “court 

action,” according to a letter from the 

city’s Codes Enforcement Department. 

However, the Las Cruces Central Seventh-day 

Adventist Church, a majority 

non-Latino congregation, received no 

such notice. 

“This problem came to us; we didn’t 

go looking for it,” said McFarland, who 

is representing the Las Cruces Spanish 

Adventist Church and the Texico 

Conference. 

The U.S. District Court of New Mexico 

has not yet set a trial date. 

The Seventh-day Adventist Church’s 

Texico Conference oversees church operations 

in west Texas and New Mexico, 

where it maintains 80 churches and 

supports a membership of 12,000. n 

■■GEORGIA 

Adventist “Home Church” 

Destroyed by Fire 

Building declared a total loss; 

congregation to weigh options 

By MARK A. KELLNER, news editor 

Photo: GCSDA 

TREMENDOUS LOSS: The house, set 

back several hundred feet from a main 

road, sustained heavy damage. 

A small Seventh-day Adventist church, the Griffin 

Hilltop Seventh-day Adventist Church, had its building 

destroyed in an early-morning fire on Sunday, September 

22, 2013, the Georgia-Cumberland Conference reports. 

The building is “a total loss,” officials there said. 

The church, once 

a physician’s home, 

had been located in 

the former residence 

since 2008. 

The building was 

on the top of a 

small hill, several 

hundred feet from 

a roadway, making 

it a challenge for 

firefighters to get 

water to the structure. 

It took several 

hours to bring the 

blaze under control 

and to keep it from 

spreading, according 

to media 

reports. 

Dan Hall, pastor 

of the Griffin 

church, said the 

congregation 

is now left to 

Photo: GCSDA 

SCENE OF DESTRUCTION: Ruins of the 

Seventh-day Adventist Church in Griffin, 

Georgia, after a fire destroyed the former 

residence turned into a church. 

decide where to go from here. In the meantime, neighbors 

in the community have offered assistance. 

“Three local congregations have offered us the use of 

their facilities,” Hall said. “All three offers were very generous, 

and we will have a board meeting to decide on which 

location.” 

Conference officials offered their condolences to the 

members. 

“Any time there is pain, we hurt as well,” said Ed Wright, 

conference president. “And we pray for God’s healing to 

touch those in pain at this difficult time.” n 

—with information from Tamara Wolcott Fisher, communication 

director, Georgia-Cumberland Conference 


■■North America 

Christian Record Creates Solarpowered 

Player for Vision-impaired Vets 

Audio books feature Bible, Ben Carson, Barry Black, other authors. 

By RAJMUND DABROWSKI and DORIS BURDICK, Christian Record Services for the Blind 

InSight4Vets, a unique thankyou 

gift initiative for blinded veterans, 

was introduced on Tuesday, 

September 17, 2013, by an organization 

building on a century-plus 

of innovative service to individuals 

who can’t see. 

“Together we saw a need. It connected 

perfectly with what we do 

best. Now it’s our privilege to 

share this gift with those coming 

home from military service without 

sight,” Larry Pitcher, president 

of Christian Record Services 

for the Blind (CRSB), told the 

CRSB board of directors at their 

recent meeting. 

Sparked by news reports of the 

prevalence of eye wounds from 

the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, 

the initiative caps months of 

research, collaboration, audio 

production, and planning. Eye 

trauma—from penetrating 

wounds and traumatic brain 

injury (TBI)—has been identified 

as the second most common 

injury among active military. Serious 

eye wounds have accumulated at 

almost twice the rate as wounds requiring 

amputations. Traumatic eye injuries 

have accounted for upwards of 16 percent 

of all injuries in Operation Enduring 

Freedom and Operation Iraqi 

Freedom. 

“What could we do about it? . . . 

Something to show we care? . . . Something 

to encourage?” asked Pitcher, 

then elaborated, “Unfortunately, an 

unseen wound of war—the inner 

anguish of sight loss—often becomes 

greater than the physical injury itself.” 

Then he explained, “It’s to address 

these emotional, social, spiritual, and 

Photo: CRSBå 

SENATORIAL INSIGHT: U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry C. 

Black, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor and retired Chief of 

Naval Chaplains, receives an inSIGHT4VETS audio player 

from Rajmund Dabrowski, at the time communication 

advisor to Christian Record Services for the Blind, an 

Adventist ministry. 

moral injuries that inSight4Vets was 

developed. Including noncombat vision 

loss or loss in earlier conflicts, about 

157,000 blind veterans and 1 million 

partially sighted vets are spread across 

our country, and we care about every 

single one of them.” 

Available exclusively to these blinded 

veterans, at the heart of inSight4Vets is 

a pocket-size solar audio player preloaded 

with a special collection of 

books. “The books were chosen for their 

interest and inspiration. It’s a mix of 

lighter and heavier reading, to see veterans 

through perhaps the most difficult 

season of their lives, adjusting to their 

‘new normal,’ ” Pitcher said. “The 

audio player’s filled with stories; 

stories about overcoming during 

the worst possible circumstances, 

stories of survival, stories 

of hope, and stories of 

transformation.” 

“When I received the player, 

my first reaction was this: Such a 

small device but so much goodness 

in it!” says George Haley, 

blind veteran from Dowagiac, 

Michigan, and a consultant for 

the project. “In a small package I 

can carry with me a great amount 

of material that’s encouraging, 

entertaining, educational, and 

inspiring.” The audio player, 

smaller than an iPhone, is packed 

with seven complete audio 

books, about 100 hours of listening. 

It can be charged by the sun 

or other light source, through 

USB cable, or with the plug-in 

charger provided. 

“As grateful as we are, and as 

much as we would like to, we 

cannot restore sight to veterans 

who have lost it. But we can give them 

insight and hope as rays of inner light 

through this ‘library in your pocket’ 

player,” comments Dick Stenbakken, a 

retired U.S. Army chaplain whose bestselling 

book, The Centurion, is included 

in the player. “This unique initiative will 

change lives,” he adds. 

The “contents list” for the inSight- 

4Vets player also includes Take the Risk, 

by Ben Carson; Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand; 

The Blessings of Adversity, by U.S. 

Senate chaplain Barry Black; Hope 

Unseen, by Captain Scott Smiley; The Book 

of Job: When Bad Things Happen to a Good 

Person, by Rabbi Harold Kushner; and 



No Greater Glory, by Dan Kurzman, as 

well as offering portions of Scripture— 

the four Gospels, Psalms, and Proverbs. 

“By providing such an important service, 

Christian Record is contributing to 

mending a hole in a social safety net by 

reaching out to a small—yet so very 

important—group of people,” commented 

retired U.S. Army chaplain Gary 

Councell. Christian Record envisions 

cooperation with a number of organizations 

whose mission is to serve blind 

veterans. 

Summing up Christian Record’s 

motivation for developing inSight4Vets, 

Pitcher states: “All of us benefit from 

the strength, courage, and talent of 

those who invested in military service. 

Many did so at great sacrifice. As an 

inSight4Vets digital player reaches a 

blinded veteran, we hope it will bring 

with it our love, appreciation, and 

encouragement.” 

Initial start-up support for the 

inSight4Vets project came from individual 

donors and a Versacare grant. 

Among cosponsors of inSight4Vets is 

the Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries 

(ACM) in Silver Spring, Maryland. Innovation 

to meet specific needs has been a 

hallmark of Christian Record Services 

for the Blind since 1899. That same year 

Austin Wilson, a blind man in his early 

20s, took a hand-cranked clothes 

wringer like his mother used on washdays, 

then fed through it a handembossed 

metal plate and a sheet of 

heavy paper to produce the first page of 

a braille magazine he titled The Christian 

Record. Today as one of 10 braille, largeprint, 

and audio magazines produced by 

Christian Record for blind and partially 

sighted readers, it holds the record as 

the longest continuously produced 

braille magazine in the world. 

To access more information about inSight- 

4Vets, including how to donate to the project, 

go to: www.insight4vets.org. n 

■■North America 

Adventist Health President, CEO, to Retire 

Robert Carmen to end 44-year career in 2014 

Robert G. Carmen, president 

and CEO of Adventist Health, has 

announced his retirement, according to 

Ricardo Graham, chairman of the board. 

On April 1, 2014, Carmen will conclude 

a 44-year career with the health system, 

which spans the states of California, 

Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. 

The board of directors for Adventist 

Health regretfully accepted Carmen’s 

decision and has initiated a process to 

select his successor. That decision is 

expected before the end of the year. 

“Bob is a leader who has successfully 

navigated many challenges and shifts 

within this industry. Adventist Health 

has proved itself a dynamic organization, 

which has benefited from Bob’s 

lengthy tenure. He has made tremendous 

contributions to Adventist 

Health and to his credit has assembled an accomplished 

senior leadership team to continue this legacy of service,” 

states Graham. 

Carmen assumed his current position October 2007, after 

serving as executive vice president/COO for the Roseville, 

California-based system since 1999. Previously he was president 

of Adventist Health/Southern California, where he 

Adventist Health photo 

ADVENTIST HEALTH RETIREMENT: 

Robert G. Carmen, president and CEO of 

Adventist Health, has announced his 

retirement, effective April 2014. 

oversaw the operations of five hospitals 

and a medical foundation. Simultaneously 

Carmen was the president of 

White Memorial Medical Center and 

Glendale Adventist Medical Center, 

both in the Los Angeles area. Prior to 

that he was vice president of Region I, 

which encompassed Adventist 

Health’s Central California hospitals. 

He also served as president of Castle 

Medical Center in Kailua, Hawaii. An 

occupational therapist by training, he 

began his career in rehabilitation 

services. 

Carmen has played a direct role in 

many organizational milestones. During 

his six-year tenure as president, 

Carmen has championed rural health 

clinics, innovation, quality, and 

growth. However, the most visible legacy 

of Carmen’s leadership is the shift toward ambulatory 

services. This includes the formation of Adventist Health 

Physician Services and the clinics, as well as outpatient services. 

These sites, which are now in excess of 180, bring 

health-care and preventive services to hundreds of communities 

across four states. n 

—Reported by Adventist Health 


poem 

Jericho Road/ 

Anywhere Street 

I saw you— 

lying there, tossed aside like rubbish; 

abandoned, wounded— 

Everything you had was gone 

except your life—just hanging on. 

Others passed— 

I saw their hurried footprints 

to the other side—away from you. 

A man shorn of his possessions— 

What if you’d ask for some of theirs? 

What if— 

You asked for water or a morsel of 

their food? 

They dared not risk the time, 

the stigma, the means to help— 

They did not dare to care. 

And I? 

I looked at you and saw myself— 

Saw my father, my brother, my child. 

You were some mother’s treasure— 

Some other father’s son. 

I understood the risk, 

I knew the cost was great, 

yet before you even saw me 

I had named you— 

Brother; Friend. 

—Lois Pecce, Centerville, Ohio 

Sound Bite 

“There are griefs 

and pains that 

seemingly we 

cannot sustain, 

yet our true 

strength is the 

Lord our God so 

that, until the 

end, we can 

carry on.” 

—Larry R. Valorozo, a 

self-supporting missionary, 

during a Bible study in Penang 

City, Malaysia 

adventist life 

My 3-year-old granddaughter, Charlotte, recently 

asked her mother, “Mommy, where are your mommy 

and daddy?” Her mother, my daughter-in-law, hesitated 

in answering. While she was thinking of the best 

way to explain that her parents are deceased, Charlotte 

replied, “That’s OK, Mommy, you’ll see them 

again when Jesus comes.” 

—Joan Apigian Gebhard, California 

share with us 

We are looking for brief submissions in these 

categories: 

Sound Bites (quotes, profound or spontaneous) 

Adventist Life (short anecdotes, especially from 

the world of adults) 

Camp Meeting Memories (150 words or less) 

Jots and Tittles (church-related tips) 

Please send your submissions to Give & Take, 

Adventist Review, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver 

Spring, MD 20904-6600; fax: 301-680-6638; e-mail: 

marank@gc.adventist.org. Please include phone number, 

and city and state from which you are writing. 

© terry crews 


Story 

BUILDING Bridges 

BY STEVE CINZIO 

Knowing 

what to 

say, and 

how to 

say it 

I 

had just parked my car at a local 

shopping mall. Moments before 

hopping on the travelator I spotted 

my friend Jim. He was with someone 

I had not met. 

“G’day, Jim,” I said cheerily. 

“Hello, Steve. Great to see you!” he replied 

warmly. “This is my friend Barry. He’s with 

the Pentecostals,” Jim volunteered, putting 

his hand on Barry’s shoulder. 

Now it seemed my turn to disclose 

my denominational affiliation. What 

should I say? 

In the past, as a brand-new Christian, 

when asked what church I attended I 

used to say I was a Seventh-day 

Adventist. Before I completed the sentence 

I often recognized a look of unease 

on the face of individuals. Not that I was 

not proud of what I believed—it was 

just that the long title seemed to 

have the effect of downsizing the 

smile that had been there a 

moment before. 

Later in my Christian 

journey I began to understand 

that Seventh-day 

Adventists are generally 

not well known. And 

what was understood, or 

misunderstood, about us 

was that we don’t believe 

in blood transfusions. 

Then I modified my 

response by saying that I 

was Christian Seventh-day 

Adventist, only to realize that 

perhaps I was intimating that 

some Seventh-day Adventists are 

not Christians. 

The next step in my attempt to get it right 

came when I presented myself as a Seventhday 

Adventist Christian, identifying the fact 

that my church belonged to the greater 

Christian community. For a time I became 

quite comfortable with that approach. 

Then some years ago I had changed tac- 

tics, and when I saw Jim at the mall I was 

ready with a warm handshake, saying, 

“Hi, James, I’m a born-again Adventist.” 

James’ broad smile widened even 

more, and the way he shook my hand 

told me that he enthusiastically 

accepted me as a fellow Christian. 

As I have continued to brand myself 

as a born-again Christian I have discovered 

that doors of acceptance and 

understanding have opened, leading to 

some insightful and productive experiences 

during which I had the opportunity 

to share the gospel with others. 

Reaching Out 

My wife, Judy, and I printed about 100 

copies of a letter to our neighbors that 

we placed in their mailboxes during our 

morning walk with our border collie, 

Bug. The letter was an invitation to 

study the Bible together. We waited 

expectantly, praying that the Lord 

would move the hearts of the people on 

our street. 

Judy took the first call, and the caller 

was a woman who asked one question: 

“What religion are you?” 

When she learned we are Seventh-day 

Adventists, she hung up rather abruptly. 

I answered the second inquiry and 

immediately began to engage the caller 

by asking if she was a Christian, and 

how long ago she became a follower of 

Jesus. We had quite a lengthy conversation, 

but I purposely stayed away from 

mentioning any religious affiliation. 

Some people see such a move as 

almost denying the faith, or at least not 

being honest with others. Some say that 

not mentioning the name of our church 

means that we are embarrassed about 

who we are. Nothing could be further 

from the truth. 

Ellen White gave some wise counsel 

in this area: “Do not wise generals keep 

their movements strictly secret, lest the 

14 (942) 

| www.AdventistReview.org | October 17, 2013

enemy shall learn their plans, and work 

to counteract them?” 1 

“You need not feel that all the truth is 

to be spoken to unbelievers on any and 

every occasion. You should plan carefully 

what to say and what to leave unsaid. This 

is not practicing deception; it is to work 

as Paul worked. He says, ‘Being crafty, I 

caught you with guile [2 Cor. 12:16].’ You 

must vary your labor, and not have one 

way which you think must be followed at 

all times and in all places.” 2 

The “wise as serpents” approach may 

help open doors shut by the hand of 

prejudice. Working under the power 

and influence of the Spirit, God will 

help us to reach those who are open to 

genuine friendship. 

Pilgrims on a Journey 

The week following her call we met 

for the first time in our home. We got 

acquainted with each other, shared our 

journey about how we came to know 

Christ, and from that day on we have 

been exploring common truths that 

serve to strengthen our faith in God and 

in the Scriptures. 

Our weekly group has now been 

going for four months, and during that 

time I felt impressed to take the “discovery” 

approach to the Bible. I shared with 

her how the Lord called me through an 

industrial accident that almost killed me 

more than 40 years ago. I told how I was 

in a hospital in a prone position for two 

months with a crush fracture in the 

lower lumbar region. 

I told her that it was in the hospital 

that I felt the need for spiritual direction 

and that while I was there the Lord 

had spoken to me. 

I related how I had been visited by 

two young Mormons, and how after six 

months of study I told them I couldn’t 

believe some of their teachings. I mentioned 

that I also studied with Jehovah’s 

Witnesses, only to find that many of 

their beliefs were unbiblical. I told her 

that I had also had studies with the 

Roman Catholic Church via a correspondence 

course. This method allowed her 

to accompany me on my search for Bible 

truth, illustrating the importance allowing 

the Scriptures to speak to us. 

I stayed away from telling her that I 

was a member of the Adventist Church. 

If she had asked me, I would have told 

her; emphasizing that the idea of meeting 

together was not to share the teaching 

of my church per se, but rather our 

intention to search out truth from the 

Bible and compare these teachings with 

what was being taught in a range of 

Christian churches. 

I didn’t want to dominate our time 

together, so I invited her to share from 

the Bible things she had learned from 

her personal study. I did not want her to 

think I was the “fount of all knowledge,” 

and I encouraged her to share 

what she had learned with us. 

After about two months she mentioned 

in passing that she knew we were 

Seventh-day Adventists. She seemed to 

be learning that Adventists were good 

people, and she was happy to fellowship 

and learn from us and with us. 

Imagine our joy when during our 

study together she made a comment 

that warmed our hearts. She told us 

that she trusted us. Then I knew that 

with God’s help she had gained confidence 

in us and that confidence had, 

over time, developed into trust. 

About two weeks after our first meeting 

she brought her boarder with her, 

and this young man has been with us 

ever since. Then another two people 

joined us. What a joy it is to be together 

week to week with an open Bible teaching 

us God’s message of truth. 

May the Lord help us to be vigilant 

and keenly aware of the opportunities 

the Spirit opens to us, and may He help 

us learn and develop the skills we need 

in our approach to help others along 

the road to the kingdom. n 

1 

Ellen G. White, Evangelism (Washington, D.C.: 

Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1946), p. 125. 

2 

Ibid., pp. 125, 126. 

A clinical counselor, Steve 

Cinzio lives in Logan Village, 

Queensland, Australia. 


Cover 

Ascension Rock: 

On this spot near William Miller’s farm near 

Hampton, New York, Millerite Adventists 

waited for Jesus to return on October 22, 1844.

BY ARTHUR CHADWICK AND INGO SORKE 

Photo by Betty Knickerbocker 

The Seventh-day Adventist 

Church emerged in the midnineteenth 

century from a 

series of highly significant 

events. Millennial hopes 

culminated in the fervent expectation of 

Christ’s return on October 22, 1844. 

Similar to the experience of the early 

disciples after the cross (cf. Luke 24:21), 

the disappointment was bitter when He 

failed to return as the Millerites had 

hoped. Careful retrospection focused 

not on the date, which had been so 

meticulously vetted, but on the meaning 

of the phrase “then the sanctuary 

shall be cleansed” (Dan. 8:14). 1 Early 

Advent pioneers understood this “sanctuary” 

to be the earth; “cleansing,” then, 

would refer to the cleansing of the earth 

by Christ’s return. 

Intensive Bible study by these pioneers—and 

an inspired moment in a 

field—revealed the nature of their misunderstanding. 

The “sanctuary” 

referred not to the earth itself (which is 

never so designated in Scripture), but to 

the only structure in which the services 

associated with salvation and atonement 

were to take place, designated in 

Scripture as tabernacle, temple, or sanctuary. 

However, in the case of Daniel 

8:14, the reference is not to the earthly 

tabernacle originally built according to 

the plans God gave to Moses (and later 

replaced by other buildings), but to the 

sanctuary in heaven. Thus the earthly 

model was but a type or shadow (Ex. 

25:8, 40; Heb. 8:1-5; 9:23). 

As Christ was our high priest in the 

heavenly sanctuary (Heb. 8:1, 2), it followed 

that the yearly services of the 

earthly sanctuary must mirror greater, 

one-time services in the heavenly sanctuary 

(Heb. 9:24-26). The pioneers discovered 

that the annual service of the 

Day of Atonement involved the cleansing 

of the earthly sanctuary. Here the 

sins of the penitent were transferred 

from the physical building to the scapegoat 

(Azazel; cf. Lev. 16:10), representing 

Satan. They reasoned that a parallel 

event must have been initiated in the 

heavenly sanctuary on October 22, 1844. 

It was to this great event that Daniel’s 

prophecy pointed, an event centered on 

the beginning of the act of judgment 

depicted in Daniel 7:9, 10 and elsewhere 

in Scripture as taking place before the 

return of Christ for His people. The 

realization that the final act of judgment 

was underway gave urgency to the 

message of this fledgling group of 

Advent believers; they remained faithful 

to the vision in spite of their 

disappointment. 

Sweet, Yet Bitter 

In retracing their steps, the pioneers 

realized a particular aspect they had 

missed. Revelation 10 discloses that 

God had known all along that the study 

of Daniel’s prophecies would lead to 

great enlightenment. Conversely, 

its misapplication 

spelled agony and disappointment. 

This 

chapter opens 

with a mighty 

angel standing on 

the sea and the 

land with a little 

book in his hand 

(Rev. 10:1, 2). This 

little book, now open, 

is the book of Daniel. 

After all, it was Daniel who was 

told to seal up his little book until the 

“time of the end” (Dan. 12:4, 9). Advent 

pioneers pinpointed this prophetic 

milestone as the end of the 1260 days/ 

years (given in various forms in Daniel 

7:25; 12:7; Revelation 11:2, 3; 12:6, 14; 

13:5), pointing to the end of the French 

Revolution in 1798. 

Daniel 12:4 adds that when this book 

is opened, “many shall run to and fro 

and search anxiously [through the 

Book], and knowledge [of God’s purposes 

as revealed by His prophets] shall 

be increased and become great” (Amplified). 

2 However, the Second Great Awakening 

was not only a North American 

phenomenon. All around the world 

God’s Word and the prophecies of Daniel 

were being proclaimed during the early 

part of the nineteenth century. Adventist 

pioneer Ellen White confirms this: “In 

the Revelation all the books of the Bible 

meet and end. Here is the complement of 

the book of Daniel. One is a prophecy; 

the other a revelation. The book that was 

sealed is not the Revelation, but that portion 

of the prophecy of Daniel relating to 

the last days.” 3 Additionally she wrote, 

“The words of the angel to Daniel relating 

to the last days were to be understood 

in the time of the end.” 4 

Such parallels between Daniel and Revelation 

are difficult to miss. Note the 

nearly identical language describing the 

oath in Daniel 12:7 and Revelation 10:6. 

Furthermore, Millerites saw the culmination 

of the Bible’s longest prophecy, the 

2300-day prophecy of Daniel 8:14, as parallel 

with Revelation 10:6 (“there should 

be delay no longer”). 

This brings us to 

October 22, 1844, the 

Great Disappointment. 

John is told 

to take the book of 

Daniel from the 

hand of the angel 

and to “eat it.” The 

angel warns John 

that “it will make 

your stomach bitter,” 

but that it would also 

“be as sweet as honey in your 

mouth” (Rev. 10:9). John obeys and finds 

the angel’s words fulfilled. Puzzled, he 

looks to the angel for understanding and 

is told: “You must prophesy again about 

many peoples, nations, tongues, and 

kings” (verse 11)—the prophetic mandate 

par excellence of the Advent movement. 

The messenger offers no hint of the content 

of that message, and with that solemn 

announcement, John’s vision in chapter 

10 ends. It is not until we reach Revelation 

14 that we learn the rest of the story, the 

reason for the Great Disappointment that 

John experienced in vision. 

In Revelation 14:6 we pick up the trail 

of chapter 10 with a clearly identifiable 

repetition. Both Revelation 10:11 and 

14:6 are directed to a global audience. 5 

The three angels’ messages that follow 

are the global commission to the rem- 


nant of those who experienced the disappointment 

of 1844 and later went on 

to found the Seventh-day Adventist 

Church. The message begins with a loud 

voice saying, “Fear God and give glory to 

Him, for the hour of His judgment has 

come” (Rev. 14:7), the judgment that 

heralds the soon return of Christ and 

gives rise to the Adventist part of our 

name. So an event beginning in mid- 

October 1844 in heaven is a vital part of 

the “everlasting gospel” we are chartered 

to proclaim loudly on the 

earth today! Thus, we can trace 

the ending of a prophetic 

period, make sense of the 

pioneers’ misunderstanding 

of the event that terminates 

this period, detect 

God’s foreknowledge of those 

events, and apply them to our mission 

and message today. 

Worship the Creator 

However, one final aspect of the first 

angel’s message in Revelation 14 cannot 

be tied to an event in heaven in mid- 

October 1844, but it is just as important 

to our origin as a church. The angel 

admonishes to “worship Him who 

made heaven and earth, the sea and 

springs of water” (Rev. 14:7). This statement, 

a call to worship the Creator with 

language reflective of the Sabbath commandment, 

is the reason for the first 

part of our name, Seventh-day. 

How does this connect with the prophecies 

of Daniel? Did anything happen on 

earth in 1844? Modern geology and evolutionary 

thought traces its roots to a 

Scottish physician, James Hutton, who 

became deeply engrossed in the study of 

the earth. Hutton wrote a three-volume 

work entitled Theory of the Earth, completed 

in 1795. Its 2,100 pages were 

hardly read in his lifetime, but before 

long the data was taken up and popularized 

by others. His first volume ends with 

the following significant passage: “But if 

the succession of worlds is established in 

the system of nature, it is in vain to look 

for anything higher in the origin of the 

earth. The result, therefore, of our present 

enquiry is that we find no vestige of a 

beginning—no prospect of an end.” 6 

This passage reflects strikingly a quotation 

of the text recorded in 2 Peter 3:4. 

“Where is the promise of His coming 

[“no prospect of an end”]? For since the 

fathers fell asleep, all things continue as 

they were from the beginning of creation 

[“no vestige of a beginning”].” Peter precisely 

sets the time frame for this event 

when he explains that “there shall come 

in the last days scoffers, walking after their 

own lusts” (2 Peter 3:3, KJV). 

Thus the time frame of 2 Peter 3:3-6 is 

identical with the time frame of Revelation 

10, the “time of the end.” The passage 

goes on to identify the willing 

ignorance of people who will choose not 

to believe in a fiat creation by God or in 

a worldwide flood. While this is intriguing 

as a fulfilled prophecy—what does 

it have to do with 1844? 

Revelation 10:6, the key verse relating 

to the 1844 date in that chapter, contains 

an element not present in the parallel 

passage in Daniel 12:7. The biblical 

text describing the angel, who speaks 

now to the remnant of God’s followers 

living on earth in the time of the end, 

includes the following important addition: 

“[The angel] swore by Him who

lives forever and ever, who created 

heaven and the things that are in it, the 

earth and the things that are in it, and 

the sea and the things that are in it, that 

there should be delay no longer.” 

Creation as an eschatologically critical 

theme is introduced as a new element in 

the same verse that proclaims the fulfillment 

of the longest Bible time prophecy 

and the beginning of judgment. It therefore 

promises to play an important role 

in the subsequent history of the Advent 

movement. But was there a significant 

event that took place on earth in mid- 

October 1844 that would justify including 

this most significant reference to 

God’s creatorship in the same verse? 

Evolution and 1844 

In mid-October 1844 a Scottish bookseller, 

Robert Chambers, published 

anonymously a book with the title Vestiges 

of the Natural History of Creation. 

Chambers offered a comprehensive 

account of the origin of the universe, 

life, and even the origin of humans 

within a completely naturalistic framework 

(i.e., without God’s involvement). 

The book was an instant success, selling 

more than 20,000 copies in 10 editions 

during its first 10 years. It was 

widely distributed on the continent as 

well as abroad and was read by major 

poets, statesmen, scientists, and philosophers 

on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Lincoln and Queen Victoria read the 

book. Physicist Sir David Brewster 

warned that Vestiges stood a “fair 

chance of poisoning the 

fountains of science, 

and sapping 

the foundations of 

religion.” 7 Darwin, 

who himself in July 

of 1844 had included 

provisions in his will 

to have his then 230- 

page manuscript on origins 

published, was 

devastated by Vestiges, thinking 

he had lost his chance to get 

the credit he thought he deserved 

for ideas he presumed to be his own! 

Modern historian James Secord 

recently wrote a treatise on Chambers’ 

book. He spells out his sense of the 

importance of this work in changing 

people’s minds about evolution: “How 

did evolution gain this pivotal role in the 

public arena? The answer turns out to 

have little to do with Darwinian biology 

or big bang astronomy. Instead, the critical 

period is the first half of the nineteenth 

century, and the turning point is 

the response of readers to Vestiges.” 8 

The insidious seeds of evolution cast 

by Hutton at the beginning of the “time 

of the end” took root, and sprang forth 

in the writings of Robert Chambers, 

published in mid-October 1844. They 

subsequently sprouted in the writings 

of Charles Darwin, ripening a harvest of 

seed that has infested the entire world 

with the spawn of Lucifer’s rebellion in 

heaven: “I will be like the Most High” 

(Isa. 14:14). In the absence of the ability 

to create life itself, Lucifer’s desire to 

supplant God and have creatures worship 

him could be realized only if he 

made God’s creatures think that God 

was not the Creator (cf. Isa. 29:16). None 

can doubt that he has been successful. 

Paul spells out the consequences of 

rejecting God as Creator in Romans 

1:22-25: “Professing to be wise, they 

became fools, and changed the glory of 

the incorruptible God into an image 

made like corruptible man—and birds 

and four-footed animals and creeping 

things. Therefore God also gave them 

up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their 

hearts, to dishonor their bodies among 

themselves, who exchanged the truth of 

God for the lie, and worshiped and 

served the creature rather than the Creator, 

who is blessed forever.” 

Sabbath and Creation 

This brings us right back to the second 

half of the first angel’s message, and the 

first part of our church’s name, Seventhday—“and 

worship Him who made 

heaven and earth, the sea and springs of 

water” (Rev. 14:7). The Sabbath is the 

memorial of Creation, and God is calling 

us back to true worship, an act due only 

to the Creator (cf. Rev. 4:11). 

It is interesting to note that the editors 

of the most commonly used Greek 

New Testament included Exodus 20:11 

as a cross-reference for Revelation 

14:7—a reasonable inference based on a 

simple comparison of the terminology 

used in both references. 

God has given the Seventh-day 

Adventist Church the mission and privilege 

of proclaiming the good news to 

the whole world. It is the news that 

Christ, the Creator-God, is coming soon 

for His people. He originally created the 

world in six days, and is ready to recreate 

His saved people and this earth 

following His second coming. What a 

privilege it is to participate in this great 

mission! Surely Satan will do anything 

in his power to prevent the spread of 

the truth about the Creator-God. Yet, 

there is comfort: “Here is the patience of 

the saints; here are those who keep the 

commandments of God and the faith of 

Jesus” (Rev. 14:12). n 

1 

Unless otherwise noted, Bible texts in this 

article are from the New King James Version. 

Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, 

Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. 

2 

Bible texts credited to Amplified are from The 

Amplified Bible, Old Testament copyright © 1965, 

1987 by Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New 

Testament copyright © 1958, 1987 by The Lockman 

Foundation. Used by permission. 

3 

Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles (Mountain 

View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1911), p. 

585. 

4 

Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Mountain 

View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1940), p. 234. 

5 

Revelation 10:11 refers to “many peoples, 

nations, tongues, and kings” while Revelation 14:6 

employs a different sequence and points to “every 

nation, tribe, tongue, and people.” 

6 

James Hutton, Theory of the Earth (transactions 

of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1788), p. 166. 

7 

David Brewster, “Review of the Vestiges (4th 

ed.),” North British Review 3 (May-August 1845): 471. 

8 

James A. Secord, Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary 

Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of 

Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (Chicago: 

University of Chicago Press, 2000), p. 2. 

Arthur Chadwick, Ph.D., is 

research professor in the 

biology and geology department 

at Southwestern 

Adventist University, Keene, 

Texas. Ingo Sorke, Ph.D., is an 

associate professor of religion 

at the same institution. 


Karl Marx 

Theology 

Charles Darwin 

Adventism 

and modern 

ideologies 

BY ELIJAH MVUNDURA 

Adventism was born in the 

mid-nineteenth century— 

the same century that saw 

the birth of movements 

and ideologies that have 

shaped the modern world: Romanticism, 

German idealism, French positivism, 

nationalism, Darwinism, Marxism, and 

Nietzscheanism. This shared chronological 

origin was not accidental but providential. 

The call to fear and worship the 

Creator-God (see Rev. 14:7) diametrically 

counters the self-deifying, heavenstorming 

passions, ideas, and themes at 

the heart of these radical ideologies. 

In interpreting Daniel 8:9-14 and Revelation 

14:6-12 we have often restricted 

ourselves to the activities of the little 

horn and Babylon. But we have not tried 

to apply the “present truth” to modern 

radical ideologies. Yet, if today the 

world is ignorant of Christ’s highpriestly 

ministry and despises the gospel, 

it is because nineteenth-century 

radical thinkers invented secular religions 

in which celebrity artists, intellectuals, 

scientists, and politicians are 

modern types of ancient pagan priests 

and gods. 

Indeed, we cannot appreciate the 

bewitching grip of radical ideologies on 

modern thought and consciousness and 

their challenge to the gospel unless we 

grasp their distinctively religious 

essence. Again, if they displaced God and 

Christianity in Western culture, elicited 

religious-like devotion, it is because they 

were deliberately fabricated as substitute 

religions, to replace Christianity. As Ludwig 

Feuerbach, one of Karl Marx’s intellectual 

godfathers, declared: “We must 

start to be religious once again; politics 

must become our religion.” 1 But a political 

religion recalls primitive society, its 

con-fusion of politics and religion, the 

divine and the human. 

Ideologies and Religion 

A whole primitive religiosity reappears 

in modern ideologies. The central 

figure in this reappearance was Jean- 

Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). Foremost 

among his ideas was that in the 

“state of nature” humans were naturally 

good, but had been corrupted by 


The 

Prophetic 

Rendezvous 

modern civilization. If this denial of 

human sinfulness swept away the truth 

of the Fall and the need of a Savior, it 

supplied the rationale for social sciences 

and the belief that education and 

social engineering can make us moral 

and whole. By shifting the source of sin 

from the self to society, Rousseau also 

shifted the theater of the great war 

between good and evil from the human 

heart to one between corrupt society 

and nature. In this new theater, salvation 

was in nature. And to restore corrupt 

society to pristine nature, he 

proposed the creation of a civil religion 

and a social contract, in which each person 

puts “all his powers under the 

supreme direction of the general will,” 

to form “an indivisible whole.” 2 

The adjectives he used to describe the 

social contract—indestructible, infallible, 

absolute, and sacred—evoked divinity. 

As Albert Camus acutely observed: “The 

will of the people [was] substituted for 

God himself.” 3 In this substitution 

Rousseau set a precedent later pursued 

by radical nineteenth-century thinkers, 

especially in Germany. As Robert Tucker 

pointed out: “The movement of thought 

from Kant to Hegel revolved . . . around 

the idea of man’s self-realization as a 

godlike being, or alternatively, as God.” 4 

Indeed, the German poet Novalis 

bluntly declared, “Now on earth Men 

must become Gods.” 5 And Goethe’s literary 

figure Faust, recalling the devil’s 

lie to our first parents, “dreams of godlike 

knowledge.” To realize these 

dreams, he resorts to magic in order to 

conjure the power of demons that rule 

the world. Then again, in Romanticism, 

a literary and artistic movement that 

amplified Rousseau’s ideas, demonic 

symbols were shifted away from evil to 

of 

1844 

good, with the devil depicted as a hero mediatorial ministry, and Romantics 

and God as “an evil tyrant.” 6 

knew it. “It’s only prejudice and presumption,” 

declared their literary jour- 

These deformations are rooted in 

occultism—a mix of Gnostic, Neoplatonic, 

hermetic, and Cabalistic ele- 

is only a single mediator [namely, 

nal the Athenaeum, “that maintains there 

ments—all of which originated in late Christ] between God and man.” 10 Artists 

antiquity and transmitted to the modern 

period by medieval mystics. German be mediators and prophets of God. They 

due to their creative genius could also 

idealistic philosophy flowed 

directly from German mysticism 

of the Middle Ages. 7 Hence, it 

was mythological at heart. “We 

must have a new mythology,” 

wrote Hegel, “but this mythology 

must be in the service of the 

Ideas, it must be a mythology of 

reason.” 8 Besides rationalizing 

mythology, German thinkers secularized 

biblical themes, especially 

from the book of 

Revelation, and spiced the mix 

with science, so as to create “a 

new mythology,” forged, as Schlegel 

said, “out of the uttermost depth of the 

Spirit.” 9 

Syncretism Galore 

The driving passion behind the syncretism, 

this mixing of mythology and 

theology, was to create metaphysical 

systems that would restore primal unity, 

a con-fusion of humans and nature, of 

the natural and the supernatural, of the 

individual and society. This endeavor for 

primal unity directly struck at Christ’s 

All nineteenthcentury 

radical 

ideologies were, 

in different ways, 

parodies of the 

gospel, monstrous 

spiritual 

deformations. 

were gods “in human form,” intoned 

Lavater, or “dramatic God,” said 

Herder. 11 Again, proclaiming himself a 

poet-prophet for his age with “an internal 

brightness” that is “shared by 

none,” 12 Wordsworth daringly declared, 

“I have no need of a Redeemer.” 13 

Behind this denial of a redeemer and 

the self-deification was pantheism, the 

religion that everything in nature, 

including humans, is divine. In a major 

innovation radical thinkers extended 

this pantheism to their artistic works, 


philosophical systems, and abstract 

ideas. If Romantics deified art, nature, 

and the nation, Hegel deified history 

and the state, while French positivists 

deified science; and Nietzsche, in spite 

of clearly discerning the lust for power 

behind these impious projects, deified 

“the will to power” itself. Again, with 

his typical candor he revealed the real 

force behind nineteenth-century radicalism. 

“The world,” he wrote, “has 

become skilled at giving new names to 

things and even baptizing the devil. It is 

truly an hour of 

great danger. . . . 

Yet they [men] 

are in no way 

disturbed by the 

discovery, but 

proclaim that 

‘egoism shall be 

our god.’ ” 14 

In the last 

sentence of his 

last work before 

going insane, 

Nietzsche 

declared, “Have I 

been understood? 

Dionysus 

against the Crucified.” 

15 In a noteworthy 

work on 

modern philosophy from Descartes 

(1596-1650) to Nietzsche (1844-1900), 

Michael Allen Gillespie argued that 

Nietzsche’s nihilism has been misunderstood. 

Far from pronouncing the “death 

of God,” it proclaimed the advent of the 

Greek God—Dionysus. 16 This all-toopagan 

trajectory of modern philosophy, 

“the metaphysical demand for unity, the 

impossibility of capturing it, and the 

construction of a substitute universe,” 17 

has all the hubris and demonic delusion 

of the archrebel, the devil, including his 

ambition to displace God as the sovereign 

of the universe. To be sure, there is 

a scarlet thread that runs from primitive 

paganism through medieval Christendom 

and mushrooms in modern radical 

ideologies. That thread is self-deification, 

humans displacing God, arrogating to 

themselves powers and prerogatives 

that belong to Him alone. 

Judgment and Hubris 

If this self-deification reached its apex in 

the nineteenth century, crowned by 

Nietzsche’s blasphemous declaration that 

“God is dead,” then the prophetic rendezvous 

of 1844, the beginning of judgment, 

as the Adventist pioneers proclaimed, 

makes perfect divine sense. Doom had 

burst forth, the rod had budded, and arrogance 

had blossomed (Eze. 7:10). 

Again, the explicit ambition by 

Romantic poets and artists to install 

themselves as “priests of the new dispensation” 

18 puts in sharp relief the 

divine imperative of highlighting the 

heavenly high-priestly ministry of Jesus. 

The crux of Daniel 8:14 and Revelation 

14:6, 7, as put succinctly in Colossians 

1:17, is that “he [Christ] is before all 

things, and in him all things hold 

together.” Paul continues in verses 19, 

20: “For God was pleased to have all his 

fullness dwell in him, and through him 

to reconcile to himself all things, 

whether things on earth or things in 

heaven, by making peace through his 

blood, shed on the cross.” 

The essence of “the eternal gospel” is 

the complete and matchless reconciliation 

achieved by Jesus, a reconciliation 

that radical ideologies impersonated. If 

Marxism was the most seductive, it is 

because it impersonated best. Its idea of 

primitive communism negatively mirrors 

the Garden of Eden; its communist 

utopia the New Jerusalem; its class conflict 

the great controversy between good 

and evil; and its mass killing of ideological 

enemies God’s end-time destruction 

of the wicked. All nineteenth-century 

radical ideologies were, in different 

ways, parodies of the gospel, monstrous 

spiritual deformations. Significantly, as 

Tony Judt, one of the twentieth century’s 

preeminent historians, pointed out, 

“the building blocks of the twentiethcentury 

political world” “were all nineteenth-century 

artifacts.” 19 

These “artifacts” are crumbling before 

our eyes. Communism was the first to 

collapse in 1989 under the weight of its 

own contradictions; and today capitalism 

is tottering on the precipice, with 

dwindling policy remedies and political 

paralysis on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Reflecting on the twentieth-first-century 

global tensions and challenges and the 

lack of solutions, John Lukacs, a distinguished 

historian, recently wrote: “We 

are at the end of an age: but how few 

people know this! The sense of this has 

begun to appear in the hearts of many; 

but it has not yet swum up to the surface 

of their consciousness.” 20 

What comes after the Great Recession? 

Only God knows. But in the midnineteenth 

century He raised the 

Advent movement to tell the world: 

“There will be no more delay!” (Rev. 

10:6). “Look, I am coming soon!” (Rev. 

22:12). Is it not time for us to awake, 

time to trim our lamps and give the 

trumpet a distinct sound? n 

1 

In Emilio Gentile, Politics as Religion, trans. George Staunton 

(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996), p. 30. 

2 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, trans. 

Maurice Cranston (London: Penguin Books, 1968), p. 61. 

3 

Albert Camus, The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt, trans. 

Anthony Bower (New York: Vintage Books, 1991), p. 115. 

4 

Robert Tucker, Philosophy and Myth in Karl Marx 

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961), p. 31. 

5 

In Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, The Emergence of Romanticism 

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 80. 

6 

Jeffrey Burton Russell, Mephistopheles: The Devil in 

the Modern World (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 

1986), pp. 173-213. 

7 

Ernst Benz, The Mystical Sources of German Romantic 

Philosophy, trans. Blair R. Reynolds and Eunice M. Paul 

(Eugene, Oreg.: Pickwick Publications, 1983), pp. 23-25. 

8 

In Glenn Alexander Magee, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition 

(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2001), pp. 87, 88. 

9 

In M. H. Abrams, Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition 

and Revolution in Romantic Literature (New York: W. W. 

Norton, 1971), p. 67. 

10 

In Liah Greenfeld, Nationalism: Five Roads to 

Modernity (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University 

Press, 1992), p. 328. 

11 

In ibid., p. 336. 

12 

In Abrams, p. 21. 

13 

In ibid., p. 120. 

14 

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Use and Abuse of History, 

trans. Adrian Collins (New York: Macmillan Pub. Co., 

1957), pp. 62, 63. 

15 

Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo, trans. R. J. Hollingdale 

(London: Penguin Books, 1979), p. 104. 

16 

Michael Allen Gillespie, Nihilism Before Nietzsche 

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). 

17 

Camus, p. 255. 

18 

Riasanovsky, p. 54. 

19 

Tony Judt, Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten 

Twentieth Century (New York: Penguin Books, 2008), p. 3. 

20 

John Lukacs, At the End of the Age (New Haven, 

Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002), p. 42. 

Elijah Mvundura is a former 

history and sociology lecturer 

at Solusi University in Zimbabwe. 

He now lives in Calgary, Alberta, 

Canada, and is a member of the 

Garden Road Seventh-day Adventist Church. 


Journeys With Jesus 

Growing Up 

I closed my eyes and began to count. One, two, three. Little stocking 

feet scampered away as boyish chatter receded. 

Four, five, six. The baby cried. I could hear my sister in the other room, as she soothed him. 

Seven, eight, nine. A childish voice broke into my count. “Caweb, here!” 

I smiled. Life was never dull at my sister’s house. I’d flown in for a week to help her just after the birth of 

her fourth son. The little guys ranged in ages from 6 all the way down to 3 days old. Hide-and-seek kept the 

older three busy for a while, so she could focus on the newest arrival. 

Ten! Ready or not, here I come! 

The older boys knew to stay quiet in order to remain hidden, but not Caleb. I opened the front closet door. 

“Caweb, here!” echoed down the hall. 

I peered behind the shower curtain. “Caweb, here!” drifted into the bathroom. 

I glanced beside the washing machine. “Caweb, here!” He was beginning to sound insistent. 

I stepped into a bedroom, and there he lay. Head tucked under the bed. Eyes screwed shut. Arms and legs 

and trunk sprawled out in plain view. Instead of walking toward him, I headed for the chair. “Maybe Caleb’s 

behind the chair.” Giggles erupted from under the bed. 

“No! Caleb’s not here. I wonder where he is.” More giggles. “Oh, I know. Caleb’s hiding in the 

closet.” 

I glanced his way. He beamed from under the bed. He was so proud of his hiding place, and 

the fact that Auntie Jill couldn’t find him. 

After checking every spot in the bedroom I could think of, I pounced on him. “Oh, there’s 

Caleb! Hiding under the bed!” 

He pulled his head out from under the bed, his little 2-year-old face wreathed in smiles. I 

grabbed him and squeezed him, but he soon wriggled free. Toddling off, he began to “hide” 

again. 

Sitting back, I pondered how often I had surrendered my all to Jesus, little realizing the 

greater part of my heart was still unconverted. Full of undiscovered sins sticking out into 

the room. And yet, Jesus had never scolded me. Not once. Not ever. 

He’d never said, “There’s a whole mess of you lying out here in full view. Don’t you think 

you could realize that and grow up?” Instead, He’d shown me my heart, bit by bit. First, there 

was some jealousy stuck over here. Ouch! I hadn’t even realized it existed! Thankful, I asked Him 

to cleanse my heart, to grant me the spirit of contentment. 

Next, He showed me the bitterness that lurked just beneath the surface. I dug for a while alone before I 

realized that it was spreading and that I was powerless to control it. In desperation I turned to Him for 

forgiveness and peace. 

Later He showed me where pride had taken root and had already begun reseeding itself with amazing 

rapidity. In shame I turned to Him for cleansing, for grace, for victory. 

How much of me was still sticking out from under the bed? Just my toes or feet? Or—please God, no—my entire torso? 

Shaking my head, I stood to begin once again. 

One, two, three. “Oh, God, thank You for not condemning me when I was still a child.” 

Four, five, six. “Thank You for showing me those places that are still sticking out from under the bed.” 

Seven, eight, nine. “Caweb, here!” I smiled. The game was about to begin again. 

Ten. Ready or not, here I come! After all, I am still His little daughter. Cherished and beloved. Growing—and, 

most important—still growing up. n 

Jill 

Morikone 

Jill Morikone is administrative assistant to the president of 3ABN. She and her husband, Greg, live in southern Illinois and 

enjoy ministering together for Jesus. 


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Back to Basics 

Another Look at the Gospel 

“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about 

that; I’m right, and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go 

first—rock ’n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them 

twisting it that ruins it for me.”* 

These controversial words were spoken in 1966 during an interview given by the late John Lennon, British 

musician and popular member of the Beatles. They raised the hackles of thousands of American Christians 

when they appeared in a teen magazine. Most believers were outraged and resented the sacrilegious 

nature of Lennon’s remark. But they missed an important point that is as true today as it was then: 

Christianity is not making the gospel come alive in the hearts and minds of the young as is mind-rotting, 

popular music. 

It’s been 47 years since Lennon threw down a gauntlet to Christians, who protested and called for 

a ban-the-Beatles campaign that apparently went no further than a few local churches. Yet things 

seem unchanged or have gotten worse when it comes to making the gospel attractive to young 

people. 

When Lennon’s words were made public, they seemed ridiculous to some, but in retrospect they 

were ominous. For today, according to presentations on YouTube that garner millions of hits, a 

majority of children and young adults in America, where at least 56 percent attend a conventional 

church each week, know secular music and musings better than John 3:16. In fact, many churches 

have sold their gospel birthright (John 1:13) for the gospel according to the American dream in values 

and ideas that not only are unbiblical, but contradict the biblical truths they claim to believe. 

We Adventists have to embody and proclaim an explicit commitment to the person of Jesus Christ 

as the essence of our message, even before, beyond, and above all doctrinal directives. For as Brennan 

Manning noted in Souvenirs of Solitude: “Beautiful liturgies; mass regional, national, and international 

meetings; crusades against immorality are good and have their place, but none of them is an adequate 

substitute for dying to self” so that one may live exclusively for Christ. When Jesus isn’t explicitly the 

center and circumference of our evangelism, people become confused about the commission of the 

church (Matt. 28:19, 20). 

My grandmother had a quip for every occasion. One immediately comes to mind. She warned, “To 

come see me and to come live with me are two different things.” In this context, I would say her words 

are a warning that people may be attracted by our powerful preaching and video illustrations when they 

come to “see us” in our evangelistic meetings. However, when they accept our unique brand of the “message,” 

are baptized, and “come to live with us” and realize that what we preach is not always what we practice, 

they quickly move out of their new home. 

Because of this, we cannot continue with business as usual in our lives as Christians or as a church. We 

must deny demands that keep the saints shiny and happy based on standards defined by the culture around 

us rather than the principles of Him who said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and 

take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their 

life for me and for the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:34, 35). 

Men and women around the world are risking their lives and fulfilling these powerful words to live and 

share the good news about Jesus. The Christian church in North America should, but we Adventists must 

avoid cheap caricatures of Christ and instead present Him as “the Alpha and the Omega . . . who is, and who 

was, and who is to come, the Almighty” (Rev. 1:8). 

The time for talking is over. That’s why I pray continually that my beloved church will wake up from the 

stupor of the Americanized gospel of material acquisition to consistently preach and teach Christ, and 

Christ alone, in these desperate last days. 

Hyveth 

Williams 

* 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/more_popular_than_Jesus. 

Hyveth Williams teaches homiletics at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. 


Adventist Life 

BY DENISE CHESHIRE 

Willing Heart s 

Small 

church 

makes huge 

impact 

at local 

prison 

A 

church congregation doesn’t have to be large in number to influence a 

community. Instead, it takes a heartfelt commitment to serve, as well 

as faith in the Holy Spirit’s power. 

The approximately 50 attending members of the Okeechobee, Florida, 

Adventist Church—my home church—have learned this firsthand. 

Although small in number, we currently are giving almost 270 Bible 

studies—more than five times our weekly church attendance. In November 2012 

we conducted a baptism for 54 new believers! 

So how could this happen? 

“When we opened our eyes to the mission possibilities that God had before us, our 

photo: Rafael Fernandez 

INSTRUCTORS: Some of 

the volunteer Bible study 

instructors grade lesson 

sheets together: (from 

left) Mel Kohltfarber, 

Linda Winner, Connie 

Rhoden, Vianney Fernandez, 

Denise Cheshire, 

Brenda Bellizio, and Connie 

Davis. 

lives began to change in ways we never 

imagined,” says church pastor Rafael 

Fernandez. “We found people who were 

literally waiting for an invitation to 

study the Word of God—and they were 

all housed at our local prison.” 

Getting Started 

Pastor Fernandez had been ministering 

to the local Okeechobee prison by 

leading out each month in a worship 

service at the prison’s chapel. What 

began as a program that only about a 

half dozen men attended, eventually 

grew to fill the facility’s capacity of 220. 

Several inmates began approaching Pastor 

Fernandez, asking for more material 

to read, more Bible studies, something 

to keep them fed spiritually in between 

his visits. At this point the pastor 

decided to recruit some help, so he 

called me and asked if I would be interested 

in assisting with a new project: 

offering prison inmates correspondence 

Bible studies using the Amazing Facts 

Bible Study Guides. Working with 

prison ministries sparked my interest. 

After much prayer and discussion, we 

decided to move forward in faith, trusting 

in the Lord’s leading. 

First we obtained a list of those who 

attended prison services each week, 

which totaled about 240 of the almost 

1,800 inmates. Our goal was to offer the 

inmates more than merely lessons to 

grade and send back; we wanted them 

to know there was someone on the 

other end of those lessons who cared 

for them, who was willing to share 


God’s Word with them and offer them 

encouragement. We realized that would 

take more volunteers than just me. 

Recruiting Instructors 

The following Sabbath Pastor Fernandez 

and I appealed to the church members 

to answer God’s call to minister to 

those in prison (see Matt. 25:36). Fifteen 

people immediately agreed to serve as 

Bible study instructors. Two weeks later 

we offered an orientation for the 

instructors, providing them with a 

small kit that included answer sheets 

for each lesson, extra stamps and envelopes, 

and a list of inmates with whom 

they would be working until the completion 

of the program. 

Each instructor remains with the 

same inmates throughout the program—this 

is a key point. The course is 

about more than Bible study; it’s about 

making a connection, building a relationship, 

offering the inmates assurance 

that there’s someone who cares about 

them and their walk with Christ. We are 

careful to keep our communications 

focused on them—their spiritual 

growth and leading them to a knowledge 

of Jesus Christ. We also retain anonymity 

for the instructors. 

I then wrote a letter to each of the 240 

inmates, inviting them to study the Word 

of God with us through these lessons. 

Included were the first two study guides 

and a self-addressed, stamped envelope in 

which to mail back the completed studies. 

Remarkable Response! 

More than 100 inmates responded to 

the first mailing! As director of the program, 

the prison officials send all the 

mail to me. I then disburse the letters 

and answer sheets to the instructors at 

church on Sabbath and prayer meeting 

during the week. After we grade the 

study sheets, we return them, along with 

the next two study guides and another 

self-addressed, stamped envelope. We 

always write words of encouragement 

on their answer sheets, and often 

include a small note with a scripture. 

I set up a database to keep track of 

each student’s progress. If we don’t 

receive answer sheets for a few weeks, 

the instructor will send the inmate a 

simple card, stating that we are praying 

for them and are looking forward to 

hearing from them. 

The response has been tremendous. 

Throughout the 18 months we’ve been 

involved in this ministry, inmates have 

sent us scores of homemade cards and 

letters thanking us for caring about them 

and being willing to minister to them. 

“This ministry has been a help to me 

from the beginning, and I pray it will 

never stop,” one inmate wrote. “We 

need the love that comes from you all, 

real love from men and women of God.” 

“You’ve shown me that God’s Word 

can be trusted,” another wrote. “God 

loves everyone, good and bad. All people 

are His creation.” 

These inmates are also spreading the 

word to fellow inmates, rapidly increasing 

the number of Bible studies. 

Blessed by Serving 

God is blessing not only the prison 

inmates but the instructors as well. Some 

20 church members are now enlisted in 

this ministry—more than one third of 

our attending church body! Other members 

have become prayer partners. Even 

more important, God has opened our 

eyes to see others as He sees them. He has 

given us a new perspective on those He 

died to save, which has changed our lives. 

We’re now a church united in purpose, 

focused on reaching out to these forgotten 

people in our community. 

“The men have shown a true interest 

in learning about Jesus,” says volunteer 

Bible instructor Eric Cheshire. “It’s been 

an absolute joy to witness them being 

baptized, even behind prison walls. Now 

they are truly free.” 

“This ministry is forward-reaching, 

with unlimited growth potential,” adds 

instructor Cindy Bestol. “These men 

want to grow in the Lord, and their 

eagerness has sparked my own desire 

for spiritual steps forward.” 

The ministry indeed continues to 

grow. We have prayed for financial 

resources, and at each step the Lord has 

provided. There was no master plan for 

this outreach endeavor, yet the Lord has 

guided us each step of the way. And we 

continue to look for new approaches to 

reach out to even more of the inmates. 

Follow-up 

Although our goal is to lead the Bible 

students to a knowledge of Jesus Christ, 

we don’t want to leave them there. We 

also desire to nurture them in the faith, 

disciple them, and teach them to be spiritual 

leaders in the prison and in their 

homes and local communities when 

they’re released. So we’re now instituting 

a discipleship program for the Bible study 

graduates using a curriculum that Florida 

Conference has developed. This isn’t a correspondence 

program; rather, discipleship 

classes will be conducted for groups 

of inmates at the prison. Our church is 

excited about this new endeavor. 

Countless men and women in prison 

are searching for meaning to their existence, 

for hope, for something or someone 

who can lift them above their 

current circumstances. 

One of the individuals baptized last 

November will soon be released. He served 

more than 10 years in prison, but his attitude 

is positive. He explained to me that 

because in prison all distractions were 

taken away from him, he had an opportunity 

to review and reevaluate his life, and to 

develop a desire to search for something 

better. He found Christ in prison, he said, 

and he would not change that for anything. 

“All have sinned and fallen short of 

God’s glory—everyone,” Pastor Fernandez 

says. “Because of what Jesus is 

doing in our own lives every day, we are 

sharing His love with those in prison. 

And their reaction has been overwhelming. 

This ministry has been blessed 

beyond measure.” 

The Lord is the one who opens doors 

so we can touch people’s lives and bring 

healing and salvation. The only thing He 

requires is a willing heart. 

For more information about Okeechobee 

church prison ministries, e-mail Pastor Fernandez 

at sdapastor@gmail.com. n 

Denise Cheshire writes from 

Okeechobee, Florida, where she 

resides with her husband, Eric, 

and their two children. 


Bookmark 

Signs to Life: Reading 

and Responding to 

John’s Gospel 

Signs to Life: Reading and Responding to 

John’s Gospel, Kendra Haloviak 

Valentine, Signs Publishing Company, 

Victoria, Australia, 2013, 

151 pages, US$14.99. Reviewed by 

Stephen Chavez, coordinating editor, 

Adventist Review. 

Rare is the theologian who 

can effectively communicate 

the rich treasures of the 

Bible in language simple 

enough for everyone to understand. 

Never mind that the New 

Testament was originally written 

in common Greek—too 

many scholars seem so determined 

to demonstrate their 

“scholarliness” that readers are 

often left to muddle hip-deep in 

language and concepts they can 

barely understand. 

Such is not the case with Kendra 

Haloviak Valentine’s book 

Signs to Life: Reading and Responding 

to John’s Gospel. Valentine, an 

associate professor and chair of 

the H.M.S. Richards Divinity 

School at La Sierra University, is 

a theologian, a preacher, and, it 

turns out, a perceptive author. 

Signs to Life consists of Valentine’s 

exploration of seven “signs,” or stories, 

recorded in the first half of John’s Gospel, 

and sprang initially from a series of 

sermons preached at the world headquarters 

of the Seventh-day Adventist 

Church in 2004. 

The seven “signs” are familiar to 

everyone: the wedding feast at Cana, 

Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the 

well, the healing of the official’s son, the 

healing at the Pool of Bethesda, the 

feeding of the multitude, the healing of 

the man born blind, and the raising of 

Lazarus from the dead. 

But Valentine’s treatment of these 

stories isn’t just a retelling; don’t be 

surprised as you read them that it 

seems as though you’re reading them 

for the first time. Subconsciously we 

know how the stories end, but the 

author skillfully ties these stories to the 

past, and links them to future events in 

Christ’s ministry, such as His passion 

and His promise to return. Like me, 

you’ll often find yourself thinking, Why 

haven’t I seen this before? 

A real bonus of Signs to Life is in part 

two of the book, in which four 

authors—Carolyn Rickett, Daniel Reynaud, 

Jane Fernandez, and Nathan 

Brown—respond to Valentine’s chapters 

in a section entitled “Abundant 

Life: Readers Respond.” Each author is 

associated with Avondale College 

of Higher Education in 

Cooranbong, New South Wales, 

Australia; and they use Valentine’s 

chapters as a jumping-off 

place to share their own reflections 

about the effect of John’s 

Gospel on their lives. 

The purpose, according to Valentine, 

is to inspire “listening 

with the heart”; recognizing that 

whenever we read the Bible, we 

come at it with our own culture, 

background, and prejudice. It’s 

as important to listen to what 

others have learned as it is to 

share our own insights. 

A final bonus in Signs to Life is 

an interactive section entitled 

“Continuing on the Journey to 

Life.” It includes thought questions 

for each chapter, and an 

invitation to use the book’s 

chapters and the readers’ 

responses to investigate the Gospel 

of John with friends, fellow 

believers, and those with whom 

we study the Bible. 

Included with this volume is a 

compact disc of Valentine reading 

each of the seven “sermons.” They’re 

not real sermons; it’s like listening to an 

audiobook. The message is good, but 

the dynamic of public speaking is 

absent. 

Ever the professor, Valentine encourages 

readers to explore the stories, 

examine the great themes, and make the 

stories their own. “Our journey is never 

done,” she writes. “Instead, it continues, 

inviting ever-deepening understandings 

of Jesus, the focus of this gospel.” n 


In This Together 

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is 

not proud. . . . It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Cor. 13:4-7). 

The Life of Faith 

Though we often hear 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, read to a beaming bride and nervous groom, 

Paul’s poetic words were originally written for a different kind of bride: the body of Christ, the church. 

The little Corinthian church was struggling. And Paul’s singular purpose—now “I will show you the 

most excellent way . . .”—was to encourage these fragile believers to stick together, to love each other 

in spite of their struggles. 

Like 1 Corinthians, most of Scripture was written not to individuals but to groups of believers: 

Romans in Rome, Ephesians in Ephesus, Philippians in Philippi. Being a church member, Paul 

explained, is like being the member of a body. A member can’t function alone any more than a 

hand or foot can function alone. 

Yet today many believers have gotten away from a commitment to the body. We (1) abandon 

the body, (2) judge the body, (3) avoid intimacy with the body, (4) harm the body. Why? Because 

we tend to treat others as we have been treated. If we’ve experienced abandonment, we’re 

quick to abandon. If we’ve experienced judgment, we’re quick to judge. If we’ve experienced 

bad forms of intimacy, we avoid true intimacy. If we’ve been harmed, we harm. 

But the power of Christ is much greater than the power of our past. We are made into new 

creations by the Spirit of Christ who calls us into healthy relationships with the body of Christ. 

He calls us to (1) commit to the body, (2) love the body, (3) welcome intimacy with the body, (4) 

heal the body. 

At my local church our members have prepared the following “Statement of Commitment,” as 

well as an accompanying video. (See www.youtube.com/watch?v=sutusQ4x8AY&feature=youtu.be.) 

Perhaps your church would enjoy doing the same—a love letter not to a bride, but from her. 

“We’re committed to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to the teachings of Scripture. We’re also 

committed to the following principles that shape us in this particular time and place in which we 

find ourselves together: 

“1. We’re committed to loving each other the way Christ loves us. We recognize that the church, the 

body of Christ, is fragile. When one part of the body is hurting, the whole body suffers. We will not tear 

down each other through criticism and gossip. Instead, we will build up the body of Christ, recognizing our 

need for what each other brings, gently restoring those who hurt to full ministry, and helping new members 

see and experience their place in the kingdom of God. 

“2. We’re committed to being here together as often as possible, the way a family should be. We recognize 

that we can’t effectively welcome new faces when we don’t even know who the regular faces are. Church is 

not a building but people, and we’re committed to being here for each other: all ages, all backgrounds, all 

stages of the life of faith. 

“3. We’re committed to communicating the Living Word in a language that people understand—through 

a variety of worship expressions and learning styles. But we will not let the language be the end in itself. 

We recognize that only through the Spirit of Christ can a heart be transformed. 

“4. We’re committed to serving others with the abilities God has given us: answering the distress calls of 

other believers and attending to the basic needs and deeper hurts of people in our local and global community. 

We believe it is a nonnegotiable mandate of Christ to share His love and grace with those inside and 

outside our community. 

“5. We’re committed to the life of faith—not only on Sabbath mornings but all week long. We know that 

a worship service should not be the sole source of the life of faith, but should be the celebration of it. We 

commit ourselves to the life Christ calls us to, recognizing that despite our best efforts, we will fall short 

and continually rely on the love and grace of God.” n 

Andy 

Nash 

Andy Nash is a professor and pastor. He’s leading two tours to Israel in June 2014. Contact him at andynash5@gmail.com. 


Reflections 

Please Pray for Me 

I received an odd letter many years ago. Petitions and prayer 

requests were anything but unusual to me back then. In fact, they were quite usual. I worked in a 

religious publishing house at the time, and my job involved reading and answering the 

assortment of letters that came every day from all sorts of people. 

But I never forgot a letter containing a poignant request. A total stranger—a 

man I’d never seen in my life—begged me to intercede on his behalf for forgiveness. 

It was this man’s hope that perhaps God would listen to me. 

I didn’t know what kind of person this man was, or what kind of life he led, 

but it was obvious that he desperately needed a Savior. He knew God was aware 

of the kind of life he was leading, but believed God would not hear him or could 

forgive him. 

He yearned for forgiveness and an opportunity to get right with God. He knew 

he needed to live a different life, but though he tried, he couldn’t change. The reality 

of his sinfulness crippled his faith and left him feeling completely alienated 

from God. He knew of nowhere to go to ask for help, no other way of reaching out 

to God than through this letter—what he believed was his last hope for salvation. 

I remember how my heart ached for this man as I read his feelings of worthlessness 

and despair. 

He wasn’t alone. Thousands, if not millions, wander the world today bearing the 

burden of condemnation. Their burden drains them of peace and reduces them to living 

in constant shame and fear. If they only knew the truth. If they only knew that the Son of 

God died for them and is ready to intercede for them before the Father. I could only imagine 

how different this man’s life would be if he could only hear the Son of God praying for 

him. 

I am humbled by the thought that Jesus prays for me; that He asks His Father that I might 

not fall short of His glory. I imagine Christ looking through the pages that cover the millennia 

of human history. I imagine Him looking through the names written in the book of life, 

tracing them with His finger, making plans for eternity. Then He comes upon my name, His 

mouth curves up in a smile, and He speaks my name out loud. 

Jesus says that even before I was formed in my mother’s womb, He knew me and wanted me 

to be saved. “In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on 

your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me” (John 16:26, 27). 

Can you imagine Christ praying for you? If you find that hard to believe, take a look at John 17. 

There you will find the wonderful prayer He prayed for His people. 

Despite His agony in Gethsemane, Christ looked beyond the torture and death that awaited Him 

at Calvary. He fastened His thoughts on the destiny of humanity, and with a deep intensity of emotion, 

pleaded with the Father for our salvation. That prayer is saturated with the most pure form of 

love ever known. 

We don’t have to hesitate about coming to Christ, for He will never reject us. He intercedes for us as 

we are. As long as we can hear Him pleading for us, we need never fear that Christ will cast us out. n 

Olga Valdivia writes from Boise, Idaho.

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