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“Sleepless in America” Andrews University Receives Gifts Totaling $10 Million Unemployed Grace 7 9 14 February 19, 2015 “Not by Might nor by Power” EARLY ADVENTISTS AND THEIR ATTEMPTS AT REVIVAL www.adventistreview.org

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F e b r u a r y 1 9 , 2 0 1 5

Vol. 192, No. 5

“sleepless in america”

andrews university Receives Gifts Totaling $10 Million

unemployed Grace

7914

February 19, 2015

“Not by Might nor byPower”eaRly advenTisTs

and TheiR aTTeMpTs aT Revival

www.adventistreview.org

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It’s what maps our path.

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“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.

18 “Not by Might nor by Power”Michael W. caMpbell

Nearly 150 years ago re-vival was on the minds of our Adventist forebears.

14 Unemployed GraceMurray Miller

Whether conversion or sanctification, it’s all grace.

22 The One Who Sits on the ThroneSylvia ScholtuS

Despite a planet ap-parently in chaos, order reigns in God’s universe.

26 When the Body Isn’t Wheatheidi aShton

Food allergies have to be taken seriously.

4 Letters

7 Page 7

8 World News & Perspectives

13 Give & Take

17 Cliff’s Edge

25 Journeys With Jesus

30 Etc.

31 Reflections

18 22 12 6

A (Missed) Moment of Spiritual PossibilityWe may use different words when we talk about spiritual growth, but we all want the same thing.

The quest for spiritual de-velopment is as pervasive and elusive as ever.

ARTICLES DEPARTMENTS 6 Stephen chavez

Body Talk

7 Sandra blackMer“Sleepless in America”

COVER FEATURE EDITORIALS

ON THE COVER

NExT WEEk

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, News Editor Andrew McChesney, Coordinating Editor Stephen Chavez, Online Editor Carlos Medley, Features Editor Sandra Blackmer, Young Adult Editor Kimberly Luste Maran, KidsView Editor Wilona Karimabadi, Operations Manager Merle Poirier, Financial Manager Rachel Child, Editorial Assistant Marvene Thorpe-Baptiste, Marketing Director Claude Richli, Editors-at-Large Mark A. Finley, John M. Fowler, Senior Advisor E. Edward Zinke, Art Director Bryan Gray, Desktop Technician Fred Wuerstlin, Ad Sales Glen Gohlke, Subscriber Services Rebecca Hilde. To Writers: Writer’s guidelines are available at the adventist review Web site: www.ad-ventistreview.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. E-mail: [email protected]. Web site: www.adventistreview.org. Postmaster: Send address changes to adventist review, P.O. Box 5353, Nampa, ID 83653-5353. Unless 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 prominent photos are © Thinkstock 2015. 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 Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1350 North kings Road, Nampa, ID 83687. Periodical postage paid at Nampa, ID 83687, and additional mailing offices. Copyright © 2015, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists®. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. Vol. 192, No. 5.

Subscriptions: Thirty-six issues of the weekly adventist review, US$36.95 plus US$44.00 postage outside North America. Single copy US$3.00. To order, send your name, address, and payment to adventist review subscription desk, P.O. Box 5353, Nampa, ID 83653-5353. Orders can also be placed at Adventist Book Centers. Prices subject to change. Address changes and subscription queries: [email protected]. OR call 1-800-447-7377 or 208-465-2548.

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J a n u a r y 1 5 , 2 0 1 5

Vol. 192, No. 2

Feature Film May Tell

desmond doss story

enlightenment Woes

In This Might of Yours

112128

January 15, 2015

Through the Valley of Death

ReFlecTIons

on The loss oF

a loved one

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Letters From our readers

inbox

In the Valley of Death » I appreciated Floyd Green-

leaf’s article “Through the Valley of Death” (Jan. 15, 2015). In our old diseased world, nearly everyone has cancer in their family. My sis-ter died of leukemia in our sister’s house four months ago. She’ll be healed in the morning when Jesus Christ wakes her up!

PAM CROSS

Altamont, Tennessee

» The January 15 cover article “Through the Valley of Death” came just two days after my husband passed away from cancer. Hospice supported us physically and emotionally, and my hus-band was able to go to sleep peacefully at home, the way he wanted it. Thank you so much to Floyd Greenleaf for sharing his story about the loss of their daughter. Only one who has gone through this can truly understand what another is going through.

It seems to us that God timed this story to arrive when our family needed it most.

GINNy FROST

Merlin, Oregon

» Thank you for Floyd Green-leaf’s poignant story of parental loss. The author is dubious about “closure” after the loss of one’s child; I am dubious too. Our son died decades ago, and I still do not claim closure. I do claim comfort. The Lord was with me in the dark and has brought me at last into a brighter place. Should the need for comfort arise even now, He’s still there.

ANN BURkE

Yucaipa, California

Three Letters in One » The January 8, 2015, Ad-

ventist Review came today. The change (“Change. Is. Good,” p. 5) has already begun. When I picked it up, I imme-diately felt that the paper was different. The feel was more like newsprint (rough) and less like National Geo-graphic (glossy). Maybe it’s better paper, as the blurb says; I don’t know. But it’s different, for sure.

In her Give & Take item (p. 13) Fern Boismier writes from Houston, Texas: “We lived in Michigan, and our son, Jim, lived in California. We decided to meet at his place in Houston . . .” I did a double take on that one.

Whose place was in Hous-ton? “We drove . . . He flew in . . .” Both came from afar. I remain confused.

I enjoyed Michael Pear-son’s article “Running on Empty” (pp. 21, 22). I’ve driven over some of those same roads myself, visiting Zimbabwe when I taught at Helderberg College and my brother taught at Solusi College.

What caught my eye was the picture accompanying the article. Photoshopped, I would guess. The speedome-ter indicates 98 mph (or 158 kph) while the tachometer indicates about 1450 rpm. In no car on the planet do those two numbers go together! (Oh, and the lights on the dash indicate that the seat belt is not fastened and a car door is open!)

GERALD REyNOLDS

Fresno, California

We decided that lengthening the Give & Take story to explain that the son lived in California but also had a residence in Hous-ton (more centrally located for family to visit) would detract from the point—unfortunately, this omission has caused readers to stumble.

In addition, that photo did require a lot of Photoshop work. The image had to be flipped while the instrument panel had to still read correctly. The speed on the speedometer was changed and the scene out the window and the side-view mirror were changed to be accurate to the region where the story took place. We did, however, overlook the tachometer and the indicator lights.

We’ve also been advised (smile) to publish the following disclaimer: “The Adventist Review in no way endorses driv-ing 98 mph without a seat belt and/or with a door open.” —Editors.

Hard to Understand

» When Bill Knott began his editorial “Rehearsing a Divorce” (Jan. 8, 2015), I expected him to perhaps launch into Elijah’s episode on Mount Carmel, after Eli-jah personally chopped to pieces 450 prophets of Baal, or one of the many battles of the Israelites where they slew thousands, including women and children. Or the story of Achan, where they stood around slinging rocks and killed him and his little children, even the cattle. Or maybe David’s last words to his son to be sure to kill one of his enemies because he had not gotten it done.

I agree heartily that we should not be watching vio-lence. As an old mother, I have spent my life trying to protect and save the lives of my family and anyone else who comes in my path. But a person certainly cannot read the Old Testament without encountering so much vio-lence, described pretty clearly. I know God was the judge and ordered it, but it is hard for me to understand all the violence described there.

RAMONA TRUBEy

Arcadia, Indiana

The Secret of Our Faith

» I’m writing in reference to Andy Nash’s article “The Secret of Our Faith” (Dec. 25, 2014). I agree with Nash that

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Egypt May Classify Adventist

Church as Non-Christian

The Good Samaritan

Running on Empty

111520

January 8, 2015

To Educate Is

to RedeemAN AdvENTiST

EduCATioN ThAT

GoES bEyoNd

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mission service to Taiwan in the late 1950s.

I appreciated Jimmy Phil-lips’ article “Between Suicide and Salvation” (Dec. 11, 2014), especially when I [think of visits to] my younger brother’s grave at old Eastwood Cemetery in Lancaster, Massachusetts.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading almost every article in the Review for decades. Please keep up the good work!

DONALD WRIGHT

Sun City, Arizona

Adventist Couple, Wed 65 years, Dies Holding Hands

» Thank you for sharing Andrew McChesney’s article “Adventist Couple, Wed 65 Years, Dies Holding Hands” (Nov. 27, 2014). May our lov-ing heavenly Father be praised for this wonderful couple’s love and devotion to Him and to each other. What an outstanding testimony to the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit!

JUNE HOSEA

via e-mail

» God desires our families to be that way: where Christ is the center and His love will bind the family. I admire Ital-vino and Diva Possa.

FRIDAH OMBATI

Nairobi, Kenya

if our future depended on lifestyle, then Buddhism has much going for it. But I dis-agree with his conclusion that the important difference between Christianity and other religions is worship. Buddhists, Hindus, and oth-ers certainly worship. Wit-ness the multitude of stupas, temples, etc., throughout Southeast Asia and else- where.

No! The difference is that they have no Savior. Christi-anity is unique in this respect. We have a Savior who is more than worthy of our praise and thanksgiving, our worship.

kATHLEEN kING

Park Ridge, Queensland, Australia

On Death, Dying, and Life Experiences

» I was impressed by Dick Rentfro’s article “God Hears Our Cries” (Dec. 18, 2014).

Having recently spent 60 days in the hospital and end-ing up with a filter, stent, and pacemaker, I quickly realized I’m living on bor-rowed time. I used to preach for decades that, barring an untimely death, I would live to see the Lord come. I still enjoy looking up at Orion frequently and realize more than ever that a thousand years are as a day in the sight of our Lord (see 2 Peter 3:8). And even though I’m in my mid-80s I especially appreci-ated William G. Johnsson’s “fessing up” on health issues, although I have never knowingly eaten meat or drunk tea, coffee, or caffein-ated beverages.

I was saddened to hear of the death of Herbert E. Doug-lass, former associate editor of Adventist Review (see www.adventistreview.org/church-news/herbert-e.-douglass,-leading-theologian-and-author,-dead-at-87), who was baptized by my father, Orville Wright (named after the aviator who piloted the first controlled aircraft in the history of humankind at Kitty Hawk). I fondly remem-ber spending our last Sab-bath on the West Coast with the Douglasses before departing for five years of

We Need Both » I appreciated Bernadine

Delafield’s “Branded! Are We Marked for Life?” (Nov. 20, 2014). It reminded me of an illustration my husband, a seminary professor, has often used: The physical body is made up of two essential but different parts, the flesh and the bones. If it were made up of the flesh only, it would stand for noth-ing and would crumple in a moment. If it were made up only of the bones, it might stand rigidly, but you wouldn’t want to meet it on a dark night. Thus, both are needed. And both are needed also in the spiritual body, the church. It needs people who firmly hold to truths of old, yet it also needs people with the flexibility to stretch and grow.

MADELINE S. JOHNSTON

Berrien Center, Michigan

“The Lord was with me in the

dark and has brought me at last into

a brighter place. Should the need for

comfort arise even now, He’s still

there.” —ANN BURkE, Yucaipa, California

2015 General Conference Session

Official notice is hereby given that the sixtieth session of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists will be held July 2-11, 2015, in the Alamodome in San Anto-nio, Texas. The first meet-ing will begin at 8:00 a.m., July 2, 2015. All duly accredited delegates are urged to be present at that time.

Ted N. C. Wilson, Gen-eral Conference President

G. T. Ng, General Confer-ence Secretary

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Editorials

Stephen Chavez

Editorials

Body talkFOR THE PAST FEW MONTHS READERS OF AdventIst RevIew HAVE received previews of issues likely to come up at this year’s General Conference session. In most cases these issues are not new; the church has been grappling with them for years, even decades.

What makes them so important now is that some people are predicting dire consequences if the votes don’t go their way.

Perhaps it’s time to step back and remind ourselves what the church is all about. I suspect that in this age of extreme partisanship and rancor in nearly every arena of society, some have forgot-ten that the church is about service, not conflict; it’s certainly not about getting one’s own way.

The body, the image Paul used to describe the church, is one with which I resonate. “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many” (1 Cor. 12:12-14). Three points:

First, the body, Christ’s body, has many parts, obviously. The notion that in Christ’s body every-thing moves in uniformity is patently ridiculous. Hands do what hands do, lungs do what lungs do, and the appendix, well, it doesn’t do anything. There is sublime unity in the body. But the body works best when feet aren’t telling ears what to listen to.

Second, the body, Christ’s body, is a living thing, obviously. It grows and matures. A body that doesn’t grow is not well. Just as a teenager isn’t the same as an adult—physically, emotionally, or spiritually—the church has to keep growing and developing; that’s what living things do.

Third, Christ is the head of the body, obviously. I know it’s tempting to look to some building, committee, or session to make decisions relative to how an organization should function. But buildings, committees, and lines of authority are for institutions, not living bodies. A committee doesn’t tell your finger to move when it touches a thorn; the head takes care of that.

In addition to the confusion about whether the church of Christ is primarily a body or an insti-tution is our understanding of the Holy Spirit and its role in the church. Jesus told Nicodemus, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

Translation: We don’t control the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit controls us. Even if I disagree with the way the Holy Spirit is leading someone else, I have no right to say they are not being led. We

seem to have developed an unhealthy obsession with evaluating who is called by the Holy Spirit, and under what circumstances. The unstated implication: You are not called by the

Holy Spirit until we say you are.Think about it: All around the world, at this very moment, countless millions of Christ’s

followers are using their spiritual gifts to build up His kingdom. In most cases they don’t have permission from an institution; they’re just carrying out the mandate placed on them

by Christ, the head of the church, using gifts provided by His Holy Spirit.Now is not the time to attempt to restrict the activity of the Holy Spirit by insist-

ing that some are not qualified to serve because they don’t meet some human requirement. Rather, it is time for us to be more open to the Holy Spirit than we’ve ever been before; not just as an institution, but as individual members of the body of Christ.

“You are the body of Christ,” wrote the apostle Paul, “and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Cor. 12:27). While leaders, committees, and institutions will always be necessary, God forbid that any of us should try to prevent any others from using their spiritual gifts for the glory of God and the expansion of His kingdom. We’re not primarily an institution; we’re Christ’s body, the church. Obviously. n

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“sleepless in America” NOT GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP? IF SO, APPARENTLy yOU’RE NOT ALONE.

According to the recently aired National Geographic Channel documentary titled “Sleepless in America,” almost everyone in the U.S. is sleep-deprived. And the consequences, it seems, are worse than we might think.

Experts in the film say that chronic sleep deprivation—fewer than seven to eight hours sleep a night—increases risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, mental ill-ness, and possibly even cancer. Sleep-deprived adolescents have lower test scores, and the top cause of high-severity car accidents is fatigue. This is serious stuff—“as important as good nutrition, physical activity, and wearing your seat belt,” according to the documentary. National Transporta-tion Safety Board member Mark Rosekind goes even further in the film when he says that “every aspect of who you are as a human, every capability, is degraded, impaired, when you lose sleep.”

The culprits cited for such lack of sleep in today’s “overstimulated culture” are technology and gadgetry, as well as overwork. And we’re paying a high price.

As Adventists, we too are not immune. Sometimes, it seems, we even feel a sense of “spiritual pride” for chronic overwork and “compete” over who has worked the most extra hours. The schedules of some who are busy doing the Lord’s work—at every level of our church—are daunt-ing. But is working ourselves to exhaustion really what the Lord is asking us to do? At times, in certain situations, maybe it is. But as a lifestyle choice? I’m not so sure.

Being temperate in all things is a biblical mandate. Perhaps it even includes getting enough sleep. n

Sandra Blackmer

In the United States during February we honor our U.S. presidents, especially George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We thought it appropriate to remember some of our General Conference (GC) presidents. Can you match the fact with the president? Each president has multiple facts, so will have multiple answers. Write your answer on the line beneath their name.

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Presidents’ Day

A. First president born outside the United States B. Baptized into Adventism at age 54 in a river in New YorkC. At the end of his second term as GC president he switched

jobs with his successor, becoming a union president.D. Overcame a speech impediment in his late teensE. Became GC president at age 38F. Volunteered to fight during Civil War for the Union side at

age 17, eventually becoming a prisoner of warG. Served as president three times, but not consecutivelyH. Was baptized by a man who would later serve as GC

presidentI. Regularly read 10 chapters of the Bible and portions of Ellen

White’s Testimonies each dayJ. Served two terms, but not consecutively

K. Longest serving GC president—spanning five U.S. presidentsL. Did not go to school until age 16M. Proposed, planned, and issued a new hymnal during his

presidencyN. His brother-in-law (Uriah Smith) was elected to serve as GC

secretary at the same timeO. Wasn’t in attendance at GC session when he was elected,

and did not take up his duties for five monthsP. Was president when the GC moved to Takoma ParkQ. Turned the job of GC president down the first time it was

offered, but accepted it two years laterR. Baptized a 10-year-old during one of his evangelistic series

who would become a future GC president S. First camp meeting occurred during his presidency

john byington

_______________james white

_______________john andrews

_______________george i. butler

_______________ole olsen

_______________george a. irwin

_______________arthur daniells

_______________

answers: b, i (byington); g, q, l (white); e, n, s (andrews); h, j, m, r (butler); a, o (olsen); c, f (irwin); d, k, p (daniells)

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n N e ws co m m e N ta ry

threatened Closure of Adventist Academy serves as Wake-up CallThe world has changed drastically over the past century; Adventist boarding schools need to adapt.By ROBERT E. LEMON, General Conference treasurer

THE OLDEST Adventist boarding academy has decided that it must raise $3 million or shut down, making a pain-ful ultimatum that should serve as a wake-up call on the future of these schools in the U.S.

The world has changed drastically since the school, Mount Vernon Acad-emy in Ohio, opened on Ellen G. White’s advice in 1893, and we need to adapt accordingly.

The 340 constituents of the indebted Mount Vernon Academy agreed at a spe-cial meeting on January 11, 2015, to accept a recommendation from the Ad-ventist Church’s Ohio Conference, which operates the academy, to seek the $3 mil-lion by March 10 or close at the end of the current school year. The $3 million represents the size of the academy’s annual budget, and securing the amount would allow the school to start the 2015-2016 school year debt-free.

After the meeting the Ohio Confer-ence called on local church members to engage in “more prayer, study, idea sharing, and conversations” on the future of Adventist education.

“Together we need to figure out how to make Adventist education viable—

now and in the future,” the conference said in a statement.

Perhaps local church leaders wonder what Adventist Church cofounder Ellen White would say today. In 1893 White wrote in a letter that the church should open the academy in buildings once used by Mount Vernon Sanitarium, which closed in 1891.

“Let the building be converted into a seminary to educate our youth in the place of enlarging the college at Battle Creek,” she wrote. “I have been shown that there should . . . be located, school buildings in Ohio which would give character to the work.”*

Adventist Education Is Worth It

It hurts deeply every time I hear about an Adventist boarding academy closing or finding itself in serious financial trouble. Adventist schools are not per-fect, and no amount of Christian influ-ence can save all our children. After all, Christ in a perfect world lost Adam and Eve and one third of His angels because He valued freedom of choice so much.

But when it comes to the only thing that really matters—our eternal destiny

and that of our children and those we love—the worst Adventist school is bet-ter than the best the world has to offer.

I am a proud product of our Ad-ventist education system. Back when I was in academy in the 1960s, most of our boarding academies had enroll-ments of 200 to 400 students and the dormitories were full. For many Ad-ventist families, life centered on acade-mies and colleges. Giving children an Adventist education was of utmost importance. Parents sacrificed current wants for the most important things in life, the salvation of their children.

These days Adventist secondary schools are experiencing significant growth worldwide, with 522,596 stu-dents studying at 1,969 schools in 2012, according to the latest figures from the church’s Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research. That’s in comparison with 257,937 students in 1,126 schools in 2000 and 60,952 students in 398 schools in 1970, about the time I gradu-ated from academy.

But U.S. boarding academies are fading away. Enrollment has dropped steadily over the years, dorms are emptying out, and several academies have closed.

Adventist education as a whole faces many challenges, but the challenges fac-ing boarding academies are unique. At one time the majority of Adventists in the U.S. lived in the countryside or in small towns, and the boarding academy was the only option for their children. But, as with the general U.S. population, this has changed, and the majority of Adventists now live in cities. Day acade-mies should be thriving.

Although schools are still needed for academy-age students, we probably don’t require as many boarding acade-mies as we once did. The current situa-tion is basically one boarding academy per U.S. conference. However, one board-ing academy per union or trio of confer-ences probably would be sufficient.

It is difficult to consider change because we have such emotional ties to the conference-operated academies we

World News & PerspectivesP

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attended. Still, we need to look at the new reality and find a way to once again maintain a system of thriving boarding academies.

A Lesson From the Postal Service

The U.S. postal system faces a similar challenge of needing to adapt to reality. The sprawling network was built on revenue from letters, bills, and other first-class mail. The revenue has all but disappeared with the emergence of e-mail and electronic bills. Without a change in its business model, the postal system will not survive on its own. But it insists on keeping numerous small local post offices and daily delivery to every home rather than restructure to focus on post offices that serve larger territories and maybe deliver mail three days a week rather than daily.

Adventist education is expensive, but it always has been. It will remain that way as long as education is based on a low student-teacher ratio, which is best for learning. The average cost of a new car in 1967, when I was in academy, was $2,000, compared to $20,000 now. The average new house cost $25,000, compared to more than $250,000 now. Boarding acad-emies, however, have always remained very expensive compared to the average income. Still, Adventist parents put needs above wants and found a way to keep us in Adventist schools.

Boarding academies are owned and operated by conferences, and this is important for the sense of ownership and commitment of the conference con-stituency to the school. But changing U.S. demographics have left fewer Ad-ventists in rural areas who require boarding academies. Would it not be better to look at having two or three conferences operate and support a boarding academy, leaving one or two strong boarding academies per union?

As a church, we don’t have a good record of jointly operating institutions. The perception lingers that the institu-tion basically serves the territory where

it is located and that other territories are not well served.

But when it comes to boarding acade-mies, none of us are well served by declining or failing schools. Having served as a conference and a union trea-surer, I know the financial pressures and the difficulty of getting constituency agreement and long-term support of jointly operated institutions. But it can be done. The real expense of running a boarding academy is the operating cost, not the cost of the physical plant. As with any other business, the overhead

costs will eat you up unless you have a sufficient number of students.

The size of Adventist families has shrunk, but overall church membership has grown. So the church still has plenty of academy-age young people to fill Ad-ventist schools.

Options are available to us. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and with good planning, we can establish a robust and thriving boarding academy system if we are willing to work together. n

* Ellen G. White, Ellen G. White Manuscript Releases (Sil-ver Spring, Md.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1990), vol. 3, p. 219.

n N o rt h a m e r i c a

Andrews University Gets two Gifts Worth More than $10 MillionDonations will go toward student scholarships and a new endowed chair.By AdventIst RevIew STAFF

ANDREWS UNIVERSITy has received two major donations worth more than $10 million.

Douglas Benson, a retired physician and Andrews alumnus, has handed over 1,000 acres (405 hectares) of lakeside and woodland property that will be used to provide student scholarships, while Adventist Health System has given $2 mil-lion to endow a new academic chair.

“We are grateful for the generosity of these donors to advance the mission of Andrews University,” David A. Faehner, vice president for university advance-ment, said in announcing the gifts on January 29, 2015.

The land is expected to generate $8 million to $12 million in proceeds from residential property development and its decades-old hardwood trees. Eighty percent of the income will support undergraduate students, while the rest will go to graduate students.

Meanwhile, the $2 million gift from Adventist Health System, which is based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, and operates 45 hospitals in 10 states, will be used to establish a chair for health-care administration at Andrews’ School of Business Administration.

Faehner said the endowment aimed to strengthen ties between Adventist edu-cation and Adventist health care.

Adventist universities have received several significant gifts in recent months. Washington Adventist University announced on January 21 a $1 million gift to build a planned Health Professions, Science, and Wellness Center.

Last year Pacific Union College announced a record $2.4 million gift in June, while Southwestern Adventist University received $500,000 in September. The largest single donation in the history of Adventist education was unveiled in July, when Loma Linda University announced a $100 million gift. It said the funds would be used to launch a $1.2 billion initiative to create a healthier world. n

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World News & Perspectives

John r. Loor, sr., Makes Case for Adventist educationLifelong church administrator leaves a legacy inextricably linked to his Adventist schooling.By ANDREW MC CHESNEy, news editor, Adventist Review

AT A time when financial turmoil at the church’s oldest boarding academy puts a new focus on Adventist schools, per-haps John R. Loor, Sr., offers a reminder about the reason to invest in Adventist education.

Raised in an impoverished family with an often-absent alcoholic father, Loor completed his first nine years of education in Adventist schools because of the sacrificial giving of an Adventist church led by F. D. Nichol, editor of the Review and Herald (now Adventist Review).

Loor later graduated from an Ad-ventist college and became a longtime church administrator, serving as presi-dent of the Indiana and Northern New England conferences, pastor of the Southern Adventist University church, and even a model for book illustrations that made him instantly recognizable among many Adventists.

Loor died surrounded by family in his home in Hendersonville, North Caro-lina, on January 13, 2015. He was 87.

Even before Loor reached the pinnacle of his career in the church, he was held up at a General Conference session as an outstanding product of Adventist education.

Nichol told the 1962 session in San Francisco how Loor had preached to 16,000 young people at a youth con-gress in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and how many in the audience had dedi-cated their lives to Jesus.

“He preached with power, cogency, and appeal,” Nichol said, Loor standing at his side, according to the biography His Initials Were F.D.N.

“For a moment we were there in the auditorium listening intently, and then again we seemed to be far away visiting a poor little home, broken and blighted

by drink, with a mother supported by a sacrificial church so she could send her boy to the church school,” he said. “It was a very great day for us.”

The state of Adventist education is the subject of a lively discussion on Ad-ventist news sites and social media in recent weeks after Mount Vernon Acad-emy, founded in Ohio in 1893, decided to close if it fails to raise $3 million (see p. 8).

Amid the discussion about Adventist education, few would likely dispute that Loor managed to touch many lives because of his schooling.

“I wish I had $5 for everyone who has come to me and said, ‘I remember the Week of Prayer your dad held at my academy or college. What a blessing his messages were to me,’ ” said his son, John R. Loor, Jr. “I don’t believe we will really know until heaven how many lives my dad touched for Jesus.”

Loor, Jr., 65, executive secretary of the Adventist Church’s North Pacific Union, said his father’s secret to touching lives was the time he spent with Jesus in daily devotions.

“As we all know, when you live with somebody, you get to know that person very well, and you get to see if their walk really matches their talk,” he said in prepared remarks for his father’s memorial service on January 31 at the Fletcher Seventh-day Adventist Church in Hendersonville. “The example my dad set when it came to spending qual-ity time every day with Jesus will live with me for the rest of my life.”

From Church Member to Church Pastor

John Robert Loor, Sr., was born on January 7, 1928, in Washington, D.C., to

Ernest Loor, a painter, and Edna nee Green, an office secretary and native of England who had immigrated with her parents to the United States.

When John was 2 years old, his par-ents and grandparents received an invi-tation in the mail to attend Adventist meetings in a nearby theater. The family, faithful Methodists, soon found that the presentations echoed a little book, Bible Readings for the Home, that they had pur-chased in England and brought with them to the United States. The mother and grandparents accepted the teach-ings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and were baptized into the newly organized Review and Herald Memorial church in Hyattsville, Maryland.

The United States was mired in the Great Depression. Ernest Loor struggled with alcoholism, and the young John lived with his grandparents much of the time. He was quickly taken under the wing of Nichol, the pastor of the church. At Nichol’s encouragement, church members raised the funds to send Loor to all eight grades at John Nevins Andrews Elementary School and one year at Takoma Academy.

Loor was forced to transfer to a public high school when his family moved, but he remained connected to the Adventist Church, marrying church member June

JOHN R. LOOR, SR.

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Howes on March 31, 1948. The pastor who married them, Russell Quacken-bush, recognized leadership and speak-ing skills in Loor and urged him to become a pastor. With that advice, Loor enrolled in Washington Missionary Col-lege (now Washington Adventist University).

One of the first churches that he pas-tored was his old Review and Herald Memorial church.

As pastor, Loor was invited to model for pictures at the nearby Review and Herald Publishing Association, and he was best known for posing as Adam and Daniel in the book Your Bible and You. Loor’s stint as a model made him a sort of church celebrity, but many Adventists who recognized him mistakenly associ-ated him with illustrations used in Arthur S. Maxwell’s The Bible Story, his son said.

“When asked about what he thought about his role in the book, he would just smile,” Loor, Jr., said.

Also at the Review and Herald Memo-rial church, Loor, Sr., unexpectedly was invited to participate in the popular television game show The Price Is Right.

He sold his winnings—a new car, an island off the coast of Maine, and an antique fire wagon—and had just enough money left after taxes to buy a small lot for his family’s first home. Church members built the house in their free time.

A Sermon With Marvin Ponder

After Maryland, Loor accepted an invitation to work as pastor of the Dallas Central church, the position he held when he made waves with his sermon at the youth congress. Loor built the sermon around the story of Marvin Ponder, a former teen rock-and-roll musician who earlier had attended a similar youth congress in the same auditorium in Atlantic City while studying at Southwestern Union College (now Southwestern Adventist University). In that auditorium he had given his life to Jesus and decided to become a pastor. Loor, at the end of his sermon, brought Ponder onto the audi-torium’s platform to sing the appeal song. Many people in the audience responded.

“It was one of those special times when one could feel the moving of the Holy Spirit in an amazing way,” said June Loor, his wife of 66 years.

Ponder currently serves as a pastor at the Loma Linda University church.

Over the years, Loor worked in various churches and conferences across the United States, including a memorable time as the ministerial director of the Michigan Conference when he stood by to preach for evan-gelist H.M.S. Richards at camp meetings.

“Conference administration always had John standing in the wings pre-pared to preach just in case Elder Rich-ards, who was always flying in at the last minute, did not get there in time,” June Loor said.

Loor, Sr., spoke at numerous camp meetings and Weeks of Prayer at Ad-ventist schools around the United States and abroad. He urged listeners to get to know Jesus better by spending time in private devotions.

“He really had a burden for Christian education,” his wife said. “That was the first love of my husband.” n

ADAM WITH EVE: John R. loor, sr., posed as adam in this well-known illustration from the book Your Bible and You.

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World News & Perspectives

n N o rt h a m e r i c a

teenie Finley runs First MarathonMark Finley’s wife raises funds for an evangelism center in Virginia.By ANDREW MC CHESNEy, news editor, Adventist Review

ERNESTINE FINLEy, wife of evangelist Mark Finley, has completed her first mar-athon at the age of 70, placing third in her age group and raising tens of thou-sands of dollars for an evangelism center that she and her husband are building.

Finley, known to many as “Teenie,” ran the 26-mile (42-kilometer) route in Celebration, Florida, in a little more than six hours, crossing the finish line a half hour earlier than she had planned and well within the seven-hour limit to qualify for a medal.

“My energy level throughout the race was strong,” Finley said. “I know God was with me each step of the way.”

Finley, author of the popular cook-book Natural Lifestyle Cooking and a health lecturer at her husband’s evan-gelistic meetings, decided to run her first marathon after reading an article in the Adventist Review last July about Moses Christian, an 82-year-old Loma Linda physician who has completed 237 marathons since the age of 62.

Finley started the arduous training for the January 25, 2015, race with three goals: to improve her health, to encour-age other people to discipline them-selves into achieving better health, and to raise $100,000 toward the construc-tion of the $4 million Life Hope church and evangelism center in Haymarket, Virgina, where she and her husband live.

With the marathon, Finley raised about $55,000 on the fund-raising Web site giving zone.com. Mark Finley said people also sent donations via the General Conference, and it would take a few weeks to tally the total.

“We are extremely thankful for those who have contributed to this project, and are deeply grateful for their confi-dence that God is moving to do some-thing special in the Haymarket area,” said Finley, editor-at-large for the Ad-ventist Review.

About $3.5 million was raised before the marathon, mostly from private donors, and Finley said he trusted that God would bring in the rest of the money so that construction could start as planned in March.

He and his wife will start training the first group of 25-40 pastors and laypeople next year. The four- to eight-day intensive classes will be offered at no cost. Attend-ees will be asked to pay only for optional class materials, meals, and lodging.

Teenie Finley completed the mara-thon in 6 hours, 2 minutes, and 4 sec-onds, placing 446th overall. The first-place winner, Adriano Bastos, of São Paulo, Brazil, finished in 2 hours, 42 minutes, and 46 seconds.

“Scores of people were amazed at a 70-year-old woman running her first marathon in such good physical condi-tion,” Mark Finley said.

People also have been encouraged from afar, including Robert Banks, pastor of the Finleys’ home church in Warrenton, Virginia. “It’s an inspira-

tion to me that our age doesn’t have to slow us down,” said Banks, 60.

Banks will serve as pastor of the new church in Haymarket and join the Fin-leys as a regular speaker at its evange-lism center. The Warrenton church, which has 60 members and about 95 regular attendees, will be sold in the coming months and its proceeds used to finance the new church.

Shortly before the marathon began, Peter Landless, director of the General Conference’s Health Ministries Depart-ment, called to pray with Teenie Finley and told her a story that she said lifted her spirits throughout the race:

A small boy was running a long-dis-tance race. He ran and ran and soon became tired. But he kept pushing on, with his little legs pumping and his mouth moving as if he were talking to somebody.

When he finished the race, he was asked, “Who were you talking to?”

The little boy said: “I was talking to God. I was praying.”

“Well, son, what were you praying?”“I was praying, ‘Lord, You

lift them up, and I will let them down.’ ”

Mark Finley said: “Throughout the race Teenie prayed, ‘Lord, You lift these legs of mine up, and I will put them down.’ And He did.” n

A PURPOSED RUN: ernestine “Teenie” Finley nearing the finish line of a mara-thon in Celebration, Florida, on sunday, January 25, 2015.

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NEW CHURCH: an artist’s impression of the life hope church and evangelism center.

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Sound BiTe

advenTiST Life

While driving home the other day, I saw a thought-provoking bumper sticker that read: “God Doesn’t Believe in Atheists.” Although amusing, the slogan would’ve been more accurate had it read: “God Wants to Believe—Even in Atheists.”

—Y. PRITHAM RAJ, portland, oregon

“we are the ‘privileged planet,’ and our message

is clear.From the cradle

to the cross, God came here!”

—PASTOR BOB FEkETE, WilSon,

north carolina, during a recent

SeaSonal SerMon

did You KnoW?

The Euro-Asia Division spans 11 time zones across northern Asia. Adventists worship at almost 2,000 churches in this division, which is comprised of 13 countries. In a population of about 280 million it has about 140,000 church members, more than 45 percent of whom live in Ukraine. In Russia the division operates Zaoksky Ad-ventist Seminary, located about 80 miles south of Moscow.

The Adventist Church in Euro-Asia has emerged from years of Communist rule. Beyond church membership growth, the Ad-ventist Church has been able to establish schools, a publishing house, and a media center.

—inforMation gathered froM WWW.

adventiSt.org/World-church

foR YouR HeaLTH

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Agave nectar is a sweetener that has gained in popularity in recent years. But where does it fall nutritionally in the list of common sweeteners? It’s about 1.5 times sweeter than sugar and grows from the southwestern U.S. through the northern part of South America.

Most agave sweeteners come from the blue agave plant, but not as raw nectar. It must be highly processed before it can be added to foods and drinks.

Agave has about 60 calories per tablespoon, compared to 40 calories for the same amount of table sugar. To save on calories, less should be used, which is possible because agave is sweeter. In theory, agave is high in fructose and low on the glycemic index, making it a better option than refined sugar. But according to WedMD writer Jenn Horton, there’s not a lot of research backing this, and one of the studies tested lab animals, not people.

According to Horton, the American Diabetes Association lists agave as a sweetener to limit, along with regular sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, and all other sugars. The American

Heart Association recommends limiting sweeteners to no more than six teaspoons for women and nine tea-spoons for men per day, on average. That includes all sources, whether it’s agave, sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, or anything else (including fruit sources).

—inforMation gathered froM WWW.WebMd.coM/diet/featureS/the-truth-about-agave

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40 Below By MURRAy MILLER

The line seems to be pro-gressing at a snail’s pace. Some are anxiously waiting to have their résumé perused by the clerk before

being sent to the computer that may hold the key to their financial survival. Others are just going through the motions so that they can say they “looked” for work and draw a check from the government.

Those who are actually looking for work seem to have an aura of shame about them: they glance around period-ically, but mostly have their faces down-cast as they keep their eyes focused on their shoes. These are not people who shy away from work. The weather has turned, and their jobs have ceased. Now they are left wondering how they are going to make ends meet during the cold and looming winter. It is one of these hardworking individuals that the clerk calls next.

He submits his résumé to the expres-sionless clerk who looks it over, hands it back, and tells him to proceed to the computer. He proceeds to a computer, pulls out a chair, and logs on to the job-search database. Refining the list’s sev-eral postings by selecting different filters, he notices that there are not many jobs left for which he qualifies. All that’s left is a janitorial posting at highway rest areas. He applies with very little enthusi-asm, then visits nearby stores that have Help Wanted signs in their windows. They tell him to post his résumé online and wait for a reply. He goes to a com-munity library, logs on to its computer, and applies. After a day of job searching, he heads home to wait. Not only does he wait, but so does his family. Thoughts come: Will I get the job? Will the income be enough to survive the coming winter?

Grace UnemployedThese scenes are not isolated occur-

rences. As I write this, some 9.1 million individuals in the United States are unemployed.1 Many of them long to be of use, to work hard, and to feel that they have earned their wages. They come from various backgrounds with a plethora of stories to tell. But they all

Unemployed Grace God’S GRACe CHANGeS

uS—if we let it.

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have a similar need: for their skills to be used, to be employed.

Something about the human experi-ence craves the feeling of usefulness. Such a desire hearkens back to Creation, when Adam and Eve worked in the Gar-den of Eden (see Gen. 2), not for pay, but for pleasure in a perfect balance humanity has not experienced since.

Humanity has longed to return to this state of affairs since the Fall. Scrip-ture points to the inadequacy of humankind and the need for Someone to labor for humanity. One would come whose skills would be impeccable and His work perfect. He has, in fact, fin-ished the “job” He was sent to do, and now endeavors to show each human being the full magnitude of His kind-ness (see John 19:30).

As the world presses on to meet its impending fate, Christ tries to reveal to as many as possible the labor He has performed for them. Unfortunately, it seems that He is barely noticed, that His work is not even wanted, or perceived as needed, by many. He stretches out nail-pierced hands that were fastened to a rugged, wooden cross, but many do not like His résumé. After all, He tells them they can be forgiven. But they do not feel they have done anything wrong. He tells them they can have eternal life. But they seem happy with life the way it is. Yes, they may turn to Him when they are in dire need, but not right now. So grace stands by, unemployed.

While some see no need of Jesus and His sacrifice, others feel they are doing quite well on their journey to heaven. They feel that they are sanctifying them-selves every day, and eventually they will tell God all the wonderful works they have done, displaying these works on their résumé so that He may give them the right to enter into heaven (see Matt. 25:41-46).

Among Christians, the sentiment is that eternal life is something in the future. So they go to church or religious gatherings mainly because it is “the right thing to do,” and render service not out of gratitude but out of grudging obligation. Instead of allowing Christ to work in their lives, they subconsciously

tell Him to go elsewhere to find a place to do His task, for they are doing quite well on their own.2 Once again, grace is unemployed.

Another group wants the gift of God’s grace, but not the new life. They can be heard saying, “I was saved years ago, and I feel secure in His presence.” When questioned about the victorious Christian life, they may reply, “That is not an issue of salvation,” or “I do not think God is that particular.” They believe in the fact of Jesus’ death, but do not allow that reality to change their lives. So grace stands by unemployed.

I imagine Jesus bowing His head and wondering: Who will receive My grace today? Who will allow Me to work in their lives? But in Scripture we are told that both the gift of the Holy Spirit and the new life that follows are brought to us when we ask Jesus to take control of our lives (Eph. 2:8-10). It is both that Jesus holds out as He shows us His nail-pierced hands—His résumé. If we have received His kindness, then we have received His gentle touches that change the way we live.

Grace EmployedGrace is God’s kindness to us.3 Jesus

provides grace without limit. It is meant to do a powerful work in us—a work that changes our lives. Yet I’d say that more than 9.1 million fail to employ this grace in their lives. In fact, an estimated 140 million people in the U.S. are not claimed by any church.4 And there are likely millions more who do not attend church, even though they are on the membership record. Are they allowing Christ to work in their lives? I hope so.

For those who attend a congregation, there may be at least two inaccurate viewpoints about grace. Those in one group think they must do all the right things in order to be OK with God. Those in the other say, “Believe and be saved,” while ignoring what God’s Word describes as a victorious Christian life. To all classes, both in and out of the church, a text comes to mind:

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in

transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:4-10).

We can do nothing to deserve eternal life, regardless of how hard we work for it or how badly we want it. Since the only wage we can earn is death (Rom. 3:23; 6:23), eternal life is a gift, some-thing we cannot earn. Such a gift has a way of changing our lives.

The text goes on to say that we are “God’s handiwork” (Eph. 2:10). God wants us to accept what He has done to save us, but we should not stop there.

When we choose to accept the gift, we are also choosing to accept the One who wants that gift to re-create us. The lowly Carpenter lays aside His résumé and picks up His tools of change. As Chris-tians we now have new motives, new ways of thinking. All of this is ours because of God’s kindness, His grace.

Daily Doses of GraceOnce we have acknowledged and

asked Christ to work in our lives, we must prayerfully continue to focus on Christ in order to become more like Him (see 1 Thess. 5:17). Jesus indicates how to have life eternal: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3, NKJV).5

How do we “know” Him? Jesus goes on to point to the need for us to be sanc-tified by the truth, which is God’s Word (verse 17). We must spend time getting to know Jesus through God’s Word.

I know it sounds simple with all the Bibles we have on our shelves, comput-ers, and gizmos, but I am not referring to studying the Sabbath school lesson, a yearly goal of reading through the Bible,

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large circle, from the edge of which are many lines all running toward the cen-ter. . . . The closer we come to Christ, the nearer we shall be to one another.”6

Could unity and kindness in our homes and churches be as simple as spending time focusing on Christ? Yes, for as we focus on His kindness (grace) we cannot help becoming more like Him, eventually finding ourselves act-ing like Him and ministering as He did. This changes our relationships in our homes, the church, and society.

The challenge then is to keep focused on Christ and His résumé, rather than on ourselves and our pet sins. In a world filled with infomercials and scenes of unkindness we are called to behold Jesus’ kindness. In a world in which it is common to tear people down, we are called to encourage one another for Christ’s sake.

Such an endeavor takes determina-tion. We must be determined to not reject our gift or prevent Him from working in our lives. We must keep

looking to Jesus and freely choose to serve Him.

May we never let Him stand by idly. May God’s grace never be unemployed in our lives! n

1 See www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm for more information.

2 See George Barna, The State of the Church: 2005 (Ven-tura, Calif.: The Barna Group, 2005), p. 37. Barna notes that 54 percent of the 1,003 adults sampled nation-wide during January 17-31, 2005, believe that “they can earn a place in heaven either by ‘being good’ or by ‘doing enough good things for other people’ during their life.”

3 See http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/5485.htm; the word charis can mean “grace, favor, kindness.”

4 See www.thearda.com/mapsreports/reports/US_2000.asp for more details.

5 Texts credited to NKJV are from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

6 Ellen G. White, The Adventist Home (Nashville: Southern Pub. Assn., 1952), p. 179. (Italics supplied.)

MURRAY MILLER WRITES FROM

CALIFORNIA, WHERE HE PASTORS

THE ANDERSON SEVENTH-DAy

ADVENTIST CHURCH. HE IS

PURSUING A DOCTORATE IN

MINISTRy FROM ANDREWS UNIVERSITy.

or hours of listening to a favorite preacher—though these have their place. I refer to a more specific focus: looking for Jesus throughout the Scrip-tures. And doing it daily.

Ambassadors of GraceGod’s grace does not stop with our

spiritual disciplines. Jesus has worked in us; now He wants to work through us (see Gal. 2:20). The apostle Paul goes further by stating that we have a “ministry of rec-onciliation” that he refers to as an ambas-sadorship (2 Cor. 5:18-20). Not only are we employed, but He sees us as represen-tatives of heaven to our fallen world. That is quite a job title and responsibility.

But some do not want this experience on their résumé. In fact, some stand by and keep God at a distance because they feel they must do this work themselves. Sanctification is the work of a lifetime. Our part is to allow His grace to be applied to our record in heaven and allow His resurrection power work in our lives today. Thus, the Lord’s Prayer comes true for us: “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10, KJV). God’s perfect will and righteous-ness begin to work in and through us. As a result, our lives on earth begin to be more and more like His perfect example; we begin to act like His ambassadors of grace.

Grace Brings UnityChrist stands before us, wanting to

work wonderfully in our lives. If we take time to focus on Him and ask Him to guide us, many problems would be taken care of, not only in our homes and society, but also in the church. I came across a quotation that stresses the need for us each to focus on Christ so we can have happier homes and churches.

Ellen White wrote: “The cause of divi-sion and discord in families and in the church is separation from Christ. To come near to Christ is to come near to one another. The secret of true unity in the church and in the family is not diplomacy, not management, not a super-human effort to overcome difficulties—though there will be much of this to do—but union with Christ. Picture a

Here are questions I’ve personally considered as I’ve set my goal to look daily at/for Jesus in Scripture: Why not focus

especially on the last scenes of His ministry and life? Practi-cally, would a daily dose of Jesus help me be kinder? Would it help me treat others the way Jesus would want me to treat them?

I began an experiment. I developed a simple devotional guide that would focus my thoughts on Christ each day.

First, I begin each devotional time with a song about the cross, such as “The Old Rugged Cross” or “Christ Is Enough” (access a video clip with lyrics at www.youtube.com/watch? v=V9fTw9MLKAo).

Second, I have a short time of prayer during which I thank God for the sacrifice of Christ and ask Him to reveal, during my read-ing, what He has done for me. After this, I read in one of the Gospels, or a selected reading on the closing scenes of Christ’s life, taking notes on my computer or a notepad (a 12-week guide is available online: http://anderson.adventistfaith.org/assets/476969).

Once I finish reading/journaling, I close with singing the song about the cross again and pray to thank God for what Christ has done for me. As a result of this spiritual discipline, I’ve dis-covered that I’m usually calmer in situations. I even find myself asking, are you showing grace to this person? I also find that the concepts I learn from Christ echo throughout my day and are especially helpful for unexpected encounters.

Getting your

Daily Dose

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Creation and CompromiseHOW READILy CHRISTIANS COMPROMISE THEIR FAITH, ESPECIALLy WHEN IT comes to origins, the doctrine upon which their faith rests. After Jesus’ first advent, Christians sold out the sign of God as Creator, the seventh-day Sabbath, for the pagan day of the sun. Now, before His second coming, many Christians have replaced the biblical teaching of a six-day creation for billions of years of natural selection and random mutation. And if we thought the arguments for Sundaykeeping were spurious, listen to how the Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne incorporates evolution into the creation account.

“It has been,” he writes, “an important emphasis in much recent theological thought about creation to acknowledge that by bringing the world into existence God has self-limited divine power by allow-ing the other truly to be itself. . . . The gift of Love must be the gift of freedom, the gift of a degree of letting-be, and this can be expected to be true of all creatures to the extent that is appropriate to their proper character. It is in the nature of dense snow fields that they will sometimes slip with the destructive force of an avalanche. It is the nature of lions that they will seek their prey. It is the nature of cells that they will mutate, sometimes producing new forms of life, sometimes griev-ous disabilities, sometimes cancers. It is the nature of humankind that sometimes people will act with selfless generosity but sometimes with murderous selfishness . . . . They are the neces-sary cost of a creation given by its Creator the freedom to be itself.”1

Yes, humans were made in the image of God Himself, with the freedom to grow and develop their power and character. But Polkinghorne extends this freedom to what? Snow, lions, and cells (and, I guess, everything else animate and inanimate), all part of allowing each “truly to be itself”? Thus, a cell, given this freedom, will sometimes become cancer and kill an infant, just as snow, also given this freedom, will sometimes become an avalanche that crushes snowboarders. Far from being aberrations, or the result of the Fall, this suffering is the “necessary cost” of how God created our world.

“First must come the old creation,” Polkinghorne continues, “existing at some distance from the veiled presence of its Creator so that creatures have the freedom to be themselves and to make themselves, without being overwhelmed by the naked presence of infinite Reality. That world is an evolving world in which the death of one generation is the necessary cost of the new life of the next.”2

How a cell or snow or a lion might be “overwhelmed by the naked presence of infinite Real-ity,” Polkinghorne doesn’t say. What he does say is that these entities have been given the freedom “to make themselves,” even if this process means “the death of one generation” for the life of the next.

How does someone as smart as Polkinghorne, a mathematical physicist turned Anglican priest, accept a concept of creation so antithetical to Scripture? It’s easy. In the same way Christians centuries ago adopted Sundaykeeping: compromise. Though Polkinghorne is probably a fine Christian, he, along with so many others, compromising with the culture (this time under the powerful name of “science”), has accepted as true a teaching that opposes the biblical creation account in every way. Therefore, he has no choice but to jerry-rig this anti-biblical belief into the Bible.

The result? Snow and cells and lions (and, I assume, rocks, fish, and daffodils), being spared the “naked presence of infinite Reality,” are given the freedom to “make themselves,” even if it means killing, maiming, and crushing other parts of a creation that, in the Bible, God deemed in the beginning “very good” (Gen. 1:31).

The first angel’s message is a call to “worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water” (Rev. 14:7). However, with the symbol of that creation (the seventh-day Sabbath) and the creation account itself both usurped, it’s no wonder that much of the Christian world will worship “the beast and its image” (verse 9) instead.

How could they not? n

1 John Polkinghorne, Belief in God in an Age of Science (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998).2 John Polkinghorne, Science and Religion in the Quest for Truth (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2011).

CLIFFORD GOLDSTEIN IS EDITOR OF THE adult Sabbath School bible Study guide.

Cliff’s Edge

Cliff Goldstein

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Cover

By MICHAEL W. CAMPBELL

One of the best examples of revival in Seventh-day Adventist history is per-haps the least known. The late 1860s and early 1870s was both a formative yet tumultuous time for the denomi-

nation, officially organized in 1863. The fledgling “businessman’s revival” of 1857-1858 was just one of many examples of emo-tionalism that early pioneers predicted would fail.2 Adventists believed that these revivals were based upon appeals to emotionalism and therefore lacked substance. In contrast, early Adventists developed a unique theology of revival that they believed led to reformation and lasting change.

Crisis in Battle Creek“The Battle Creek church,” admon-

ished James White in 1872, “though large, is an unfortunate church.” Church members were poor, too busy, and, worst of all, suffered from a general spiritual apathy. Even the idea of starting a school at this particular juncture seemed like a bad idea to James and Ellen White. James wrote: “With its present feeble strength, it is simply preposterous to think of establishing a permanent school, which IM

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church, forged in the heat of early-nine-teenth-century revivalism, was racked by centrifugal forces that threatened to tear it apart.

Early Seventh-day Adventists had deep revivalist roots. William Miller, for exam-

ple, was famous for his ability as a revivalist to lead others to Jesus. The

rich evangelical heritage priori-tized the Bible, the cross, and,

most important, conversion. Preaching about the soon return of Jesus Christ only

heightened a sense of urgency for people to change their lives.

After the Great Disappoint-ment some Adventists, like many of their evangelical con-

temporaries, became skeptical—even

critical—of previous reviv-

als.1 The famous

THIRD MEETINGHOUSE: This church was erected in 1866 in battle Creek, Michigan, and was proba-bly the location of the meeting attended by ellen and James White in 1873.

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the Review and Herald. Some of the “picked men” viewed the editor, Uriah Smith, as an obstacle to reform. Ultimately Smith quit, which prompted General Confer-ence president G. I. Butler to mention to Ellen White: “I am sure there are whisper-ings all through the State [of Michigan] over Uriah’s case.”10 Rumors and gossip only accentuated this leadership crisis.

Change of PlansDuring the summer of 1872 the

Whites left for the mountains of Colo-rado to “winter” in California. This was a time of much-needed physical and spiritual renewal. A significant break-through occurred for James White in December 1872 when he spent a week in personal prayer, Bible study, and reflection. He described his spiritual struggle as one characterized by “deep mourning” and “repentance” because he had not heeded the warnings directed toward him through the “testi-monies” or visions from his wife.

Now he recognized his own spiritual peril and circulated a tract about his new spiritual resolve. In the wake of this spiritual awakening James sought to reconcile with those whom he had wronged.11 This particular event was a turning point, after which his theology became decidedly more Christ-centered.

At first the Whites had indicated to

might call hundreds of our dear young people to the place to be exposed to unsanctified influences.”3

Ellen White issued a strongly worded protest in Testimony 23, published in September 1873, warning church lead-ers about their spiritual peril.4 If changes were not made immediately, the toxic spiritual environment threatened to jeopardize the entire church. Ellen White urged for immediate and sweep-ing changes. In short, the church desper-ately needed revival and reformation. Ellen White also shared concerns about false revivals. These “sensational” reviv-als so common of this period were “deceptions . . . calculated to lead away from the truth” through “fluctuating religious excitement.” True revival, she believed, was more modest and leads to a more “determined, persevering energy and a fixed purpose.”5

Spiritual DarknessOn a personal level, the events lead-

ing up to 1873 were particularly chal-lenging for James and Ellen White. Both suffered health setbacks. Ellen suffered from a painful infection she believed was breast cancer.6 A visit to James C. Jackson’s water cure in western New York helped them realize that they urgently needed to change their life-style. They hoped that moving out of Battle Creek to a farm about 70 miles (113 kilometers) to the township of Greenville might help. Dr. Jackson pre-scribed rest, but Ellen was shown that her husband instead needed exercise.

The combination of rest and exercise outside of Battle Creek improved their

health. Occasional trips to church head-quarters caused stress as bills were left unpaid, along with subscription lists that were not updated. At one point the Whites found that the person left in charge of operations for the publishing house left on vacation without leaving anyone else in charge. It was no wonder that James White, after one of these vis-its, became extremely “discouraged and desponding.”7

On a deeper level Ellen White attrib-uted the spiritual darkness to a rejec-tion of the “testimonies,” or the prophetic counsels the Lord had given the church. The message of reproof was “slighted” and “repaid with hatred instead of sympathy.” By late 1873 it was apparent that both the prophet and her husband were each depressed.8

James White implemented a plan for a group of “select men” or “picked men”—spiritual leaders with business skills not under this spiritual blight—whom he called to relocate at Battle Creek. He reck-oned that if 20 such families moved to church headquarters, this would bring new spiritual vitality and lessen the lead-ership burden.9 Although these families helped for a time, in the end it appears to have only made matters worse.

A power struggle developed in late 1872 and early 1873 over how to conduct

a power struggle developed in late 1872 and early 1873 over how to conduct the Review and HeRald.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: uriah smith poses with his family in the 1880s. left to right: daughter, annie; wife, harriet; sons leon, Charles, uriah; uriah smith; and son samuel.

www.AdventistReview.org | February 19, 2015 |

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hurt, and a general sense of suspicion pervaded the congregation. Ellen White likewise admonished church leaders such as J. N. Andrews and Uriah Smith for their lack of good judgment and fail-ure to curb this criticism.17

The revival began in earnest as James and Ellen held daily meetings at the Bat-tle Creek church. They held simple Bible studies in which they recounted what God had done for them in their own

spiritual experience.While the talks by the

Whites are no longer extant, it seems likely that James, who had been striving to make things right with other church leaders, shared his own recent spiritual struggle. Based upon later testimonies, they also re-counted about what God had done for them as they rededicated their lives to the Lord’s work earlier that

summer while in Colorado. “We bore testimony before the crowded congre-gation,” James noted, “that our solemn convictions were that the time to favor Zion, so far as these words could apply to our time and our wants were con-cerned, had come.”18 The solemn biblical messages and testimony about God’s providential leading were combined into an urgent appeal to encourage oth-ers to seek God’s blessing too.

The revival meetings were reinforced by Ellen’s personal testimonies that emphasized the need for personal con-version.19 She believed that revival and reformation occurred when individual hearts soften through the subduing influence of the Holy Spirit. As the meetings continued, confessions were made. The hearts of these early believers were “melted” as they pledged mutual love and support for one another. J. N. Andrews observed that about 200 peo-ple, many of them young people, partic-ipated in this “significant revival.” The spirit was one of sacrifice and consecra-tion, along with a desire to save souls.20

Perhaps the most poignant aspect of the revival occurred when reconciliation took place between Uriah and Harriet

Smith and James and Ellen White. In particular, Harriet publicly confessed to her role in contributing to the crisis in the Battle Creek church over lifestyle standards.21

“The strongest union now exists,” observed James White, “between those who have not been able to see eye to eye. With this improved state of things has come a spirit of prayer, and of faith, and a large degree of the Spirit of God. Not a few who have been found in uncer-tainty, and held by the chains of unbe-lief in darkness, have been set free, and have been able to triumph in the par-doning love of Christ.”22 The message of revival had indeed culminated in genu-ine reformation as a newfound love for Jesus anchored the hearts of Adventist believers in Battle Creek.

During the meetings Uriah Smith drafted a “solemn covenant,” in which members of the Battle Creek church pledged themselves to “hold up the hands of those whom God has called [the Whites] to lead out in the work, . . . and that they would faithfully regard reproof, and be true helpers in the work of God.” Although the Whites soon afterward left for California, the Battle Creek church for the first time requested James to be their pastor. After some “impressive remarks” by Uriah Smith, he proposed “that the pen, the inkstand, and the paper to which they had attached their names should be laid up together as a memorial before God.”23 James, when he later preached at the Battle Creek church, remembered the solemn memorial that was housed in a box in front of the pulpit.24

True RevivalThe 1873 revival helps to illustrate

that early Seventh-day Adventists devel-oped a distinctive understanding of revival and reformation. A. C. Bourdeau, in an article titled “The Revivals of the Day,” juxtaposed a Seventh-day Ad-ventist view of revivals with popular revivals from the same period. “These revivals cannot effect any permanent good while they are based upon feeling and excitement, instead of being founded upon principle.”

church leaders that they would not return to Battle Creek for the upcoming General Conference session. They now felt it was their duty to be present. They arrived on March 4, 1873, but the strain was too much. James fell back into old habits of overwork and suffered another “shock of paralysis.”

After treatments at the Health Reform Institute, the Whites resumed their orig-inal plan of spending the summer in the

mountains of Colorado. While they were there the initial revival that flickered in James and Ellen White’s hearts burned into resolve and reformation. “In the Rocky Mountains,” James later reflected of their experience in the third person, “they gave themselves, their children, and their property to the Lord in a sol-emn covenant, praying that the Lord would . . . use them . . . in His cause.”12

The Whites considered this a per-sonal turning point in their lives.13 They now planned to return to California for the winter. On their way they felt “sol-emnly impressed” to return once again to Battle Creek. After “quietly praying,” they “felt a power turning our mind around, against our determined pur-pose, toward the General Conference [session] to be [held] in a few days at Battle Creek.”14 They arrived on Novem-ber 10, 1873,15 and remained until December 18, 1873.16

The Heart of Adventist Revival

As the Whites returned to Battle Creek there was a significant church struggle over lifestyle standards. Regardless of the issues, feelings were

true revival begins by dropping to our knees to wrestle with god.

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were very much part of, characterized by individual confession, repentance, and a general wrestling with God that led to deeper consecration. Yet they real-ized that any revival that would last must be anchored in conviction gained from Scripture, not emotional manipu-lation. True revival begins by dropping to our knees to wrestle with God.

While no revival can be fairly evalu-ated by statistics alone, as a historian I cannot help noticing some dramatic his-torical shifts. In the period leading up to 1873, church membership decreased by 15 percent; but in the three years after the 1873 revival, church growth swelled to between 15 to 25 percent, the highest denominational growth ever!27

Of course, I think the most tangible indicator that something significant had occurred was comments about a particularly meaningful celebration of the Lord’s Supper as the Whites pre-pared to leave. As believers washed each other’s feet and consecrated themselves anew, they remembered their individual need to partake of the sacred emblems of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.28 Clearly things had changed. Now the Whites supported starting a school in Battle Creek.29 Similar roadblocks about sending a missionary to Europe were also removed. Adventist education and

mission were thus birthed out of a dis-tinctive Adventist understanding of revival and reformation. n

1 James D. Bratt, ed., Antirevivalism in Antebellum Amer-ica: A Collection of Religious Voices (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2005), pp. xvii-xx.

2 Early Sabbatarian Adventists linked the 1857-1858 revivals to the rise of modern spiritualism. [James White], “The Recent Revivals,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald [hereafter RH], Apr. 21, 1859, pp. 172, 173, and “What Spiritualists Expect to Reap From the Revivals,” RH, Apr. 29, 1858, p. 192.

3 James White, “Statements and Suggestions,” RH, July 23, 1872, pp. 45, 46.

4 See “The Michigan Camp Meeting,” RH, Sept. 9, 1873, p. 100. My dating of early September corresponds with the publication of individual articles in RH, Sept. 16, 1873, p. 109; Sept. 23, 1873, p. 117; Sept. 30, 1873, p. 125; and Oct. 7, 1873, pp. 132, 133. See also Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1948), vol. 3, pp. 252-338.

5 E. G. White, Testimonies, vol. 4, pp. 73-75. 6 James White, in RH, Nov. 14, 1871, p. 172. 7 E. G. White, Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 261. 8 Ibid., p. 293. 9 See G. I. Butler’s appeal in response, “Moving to

Battle Creek,” RH, Oct. 15, 1872, p. 140; James White, “What We See in the Review,” RH, Nov. 5, 1872, p. 164.

10 G. I. Butler to Ellen G. White, Aug. 6, 1873, Ellen G. White Estate incoming correspondence.

11 James White, A Solemn Appeal to the Ministry and the People (Battle Creek, Mich.: Steam Press of the Seventh-day Adventist Pub. Assn., 1873).

12 James White, “Systematic Benevolence,” RH, Sept. 12, 1878, p. 92.

13 Cf. James White, “The Cause of God,” RH, Nov. 4, 1875, p. 140.

14 James White, “The Cause at Battle Creek,” RH, Dec. 30, 1873, p. 20.

15 For a description, see RH, Dec. 2, 1873, p. 196; Dec. 9, 1873, p. 207; Dec. 23, 1873, p. 12; and Dec. 30, 1873, p. 20.

16 The departure of the Whites from Battle Creek is noted in RH, Dec. 30, 1873, p. 20.

17 Cf. E. G. White, Testimonies, vol. 3, pp. 14, 15, 38, 39, 90, 104-116.

18 J. White, “The Cause at Battle Creek.” 19 Cf. E. G. White, Testimonies, vol. 3, pp. 85-104, 197-

201, 214.20 J. N. Andrews, “Meetings at Battle Creek Since the

Conference,” RH, Dec. 2, 1873, p. 196.21 Harriet N. Smith, “ ‘Down to the River and Back

Again,’ ” RH, Jan. 13, 1874, p. 39.22 J. White, “The Cause at Battle Creek.” 23 Andrews.

24 James White, “Eight Weeks at Battle Creek,” RH, June 1, 1876, p. 172.

25 A. C. Bourdeau, “The Revivals of the Day,” RH, Apr. 15, 1875, p. 125.

26 Cf. Joseph Clarke, “Latter-Day Revivals,” RH, Mar. 9, 1876, p. 75; J. H. Waggoner, “Modern Revivals,” RH, Mar. 25, 1875, p. 101.

27 Malcolm Bull and Keith Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctu-ary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream, 2nd ed. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007), p. 139.

28 J. White, “Eight Weeks at Battle Creek.” 29 James White, “The School,” RH, Dec. 9, 1873, p. 205.

MICHAEL W. CAMPBELL, PH.D.,

SERVES AS AN ASSISTANT

PROFESSOR OF ADVENTIST STUDIES

AT THE ADVENTIST INTERNATIONAL

INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES IN

SILANG, CAVITE, PHILIPPINES. yOU CAN FOLLOW HIM

ON HIS BLOG AT WWW.ADVENTISTHISTORy.ORG.

Bourdeau noted overhearing a con-versation on a train in which various opinions were given about recent reviv-als. Many who started on the path of revival afterward “quit religion” because “religion [was] driven into them merely through excitement, enthusiasm, or fanaticism, and who moved only from feeling and not from principle.”25 Bourdeau’s perspective was reinforced by numerous other early Adventists during the 1870s who struck fiercely antirevivalist cords.26

One of the most important lessons that James White discovered was that revival and reformation can never be dictated or coerced from church mem-bers. The simple act of replacing or add-ing new church members only made matters worse. Instead, the nucleus of revival strengthened with gradual con-viction as James White recognized his own personal spiritual need and hun-ger. As he wrestled with God, first in California and later in Colorado, he was then in turn able to lead others through personal confession and sharing about God’s leading led in his own life.

It is significant that early Adventists who warned against popular revivals were not thereby rejecting their evan-gelical heritage. Instead, they were cri-tiquing the same revivalist heritage they

ROCkY MOUNTAIN HIGH: “White’s Ranch,” a cabin much enjoyed by James and ellen

White, near Rollinsville, Colorado.

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deStiNed foR RoyAlty—witH JeSuS

Heart and Soul: Theology

the One Who sits on the throne

By SILVIA SCHOLTUS

Jesus reigns! This is the ultimate revelation of the book of Revela-tion. Sure, the book’s study is a challenge often surrounded by a multitude of concepts regarding

the interpretation of the message it con-tains. It seems that you have to be an expert in history or archaeology to understand it. Some talk only about conflict, strife, and persecutions.

A Positive OutlookBut what if we see it from a more

simple and positive outlook? John

praised God when he understood the purpose of the book. That purpose is to show that Jesus conquered history by His blood. He reigns. And purchased by the blood He shed and the victory of love thus gained, the redeemed are con-stituted into a kingdom of priests to serve God: Jesus reigns, and we reign with Him (Rev. 1:5, 6).

The book’s disclosures are best appreciated when we study them in the light of Christ’s mediatorial ministry. The context of the sanctuary/temple and God’s covenant of salvation are the lit-erary, historical, and theological back-drop to everything in the book.1 The book is a vision with several major sce-narios.2 But its goal is not to distract readers with exotic images, or bog down students striving to decipher obscure word pictures or ideas. Rather, it is to send a message of hope for those who await Christ’s coming in a world of intense conflict. The struggles of the saints may be great. The opposition of the enemy is strong. But Jesus’ victory is our hope. It is our guarantee. He reigns, and He will have us reign with Him. This is what we find as we tour the scenes of the book. Our exploration will take us through the following stages:

Stage TextStage I 2:1-3:22

Stage II 4:1-7:17

Stage III 8:1-11:18

Stage IV 11:19-14:20

Revelation ScenariosThe writers of the Gospels emphasize

the coming of the Messiah in His medi-ating role as a sacrifice. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

In the book of Revelation Christ appears conducting His mediatorial ministry in another phase, as high priest in the heavenly temple. This is precisely how He presents Himself in the messages to the seven churches: as a faithful go-between who knows His

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people and can represent them before God’s throne.

He surely knows His followers: to the Ephesian leaders He says, “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance” (Rev. 2:2);3 and to Smyrna, “I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich)” (verse 9); and to the angel of the church in Pergamum, “I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold fast My name” (verse 13); He knows Thyatira’s “love and faith and service and perseverance,” and that its later deeds are greater than its earlier ones (verse 19); He knows that Sardis has a name and fakes life, but is dead (Rev. 3:1); He knows Philadelphia’s faithfulness (verse 8); and Laodicea’s lukewarmness (verses 15, 16). He knows them all. He knows us all.

He knows and calls us to repentance; He is determined to take us higher. He wants the transforming power of His blood to act on us; He is bringing us up to the measure of the stature of His own fullness (see Eph. 4:13). He wants to apply to our individual and corporate experience His righteousness, made available by His substitutionary death on the cross (Rev. 1:9-3:22). He means to present us soon to Himself and His Father and the entire universe, “having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but . . . holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:27).

Given His perfect substitutionary sac-rifice, crucified with Him we may live; yet not we, but He in and through us, to the praise and glory of His name (see Gal. 2:20; Eph. 1). His reproof and chas-tening are not for the sake of condem-nation. Denunciation of Ephesus’ increasing coldness and Laodicea’s lukewarmness, of immorality in Per-gamum or heresy in Thyatira, is not an end in itself. He is revealing our true state to us, and reminding us of the hope of His calling, presenting to us “the riches of the glory of His inheri-tance” (Eph. 1:18). He want us, needs us, to experience the “surpassing great-ness of [God’s] power” “in accordance with the working of the strength of His

might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come” (verses 19-21). He reigns, and we shall reign with Him.

Every promise Christ makes to the victors in the conflict who are part of His church points to the very moment they will join Him in His functions of universal government in heaven. There is a growing progress from the promise made to the first church to that made to the last one. The last church, Laodicea, is the one that receives the promise that “he who overcomes, I will grant him to sit down with Me on My throne” (Rev. 3:21). God wants humans to be near Him in the government of the universe, as John notes in his introductory state-ment of praise.

Second StageThe promise to Laodicea opens the

book’s second stage, Revelation 4:1-7:17, with a glimpse of the throne of God and the opening of the seals. It is remarkable how the scene shows beings who surround the throne in a concentric description. The first circle is made up of four living creatures. Christ is also at the throne as the sacri-ficial Lamb and the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Beyond the four living creatures come the seven Spirits of God, followed by elders, angels, and, in the last circle, the great multitude of all the redeemed from the earth (Rev. 7:9-17). The scene of the great multitude before the throne is a vision and a promise that God will keep.

God wants beside Him those whom the blood of the Lamb has redeemed. The Lamb has won. The Lamb reigns; and they will reign with Him. The fifth seal describes the closeness God main-tains with His brutalized witnesses. He keeps before the altar of His throne the memory of the blood shed by His faith-

ful servants (Rev. 6:9-11). This blood is crying out to God for justice, like the blood of the first martyr, Abel (Gen. 4:10). In the third stage God will answer the cry of “How long” that goes up from these silenced souls (Rev. 6:10).

Third and Fourth StagesThe third stage runs from Revelation

8:1 to 11:18, and presents the execution of the final judgment against those who persecute God’s faithful ones. Trumpets announce the approach of the final stage of Christ’s mediatorial ministry before the throne of God in response to the cry of the martyrs. The difficulties that trigger God’s judgments arise from humans’ rejection of God and His Word. The darkness is caused by the lack of the light.

God’s Word indicates that humans have moved away from God and are under the ruling power of dark forces that oppose the domain of divine gov-ernment. These difficulties increase with the sound of each trumpet.

The last trumpet is the opening of the fourth stage, which runs from Revela-tion 11:19 to 14:20. It is introduced with a scene in the sanctuary before the very throne of God (Rev. 11:19).

This scenario describes in more detail the tricks, deception, and persecution of the opponents of God against His faith-ful children. Under the symbolism of three signs,4 God shows the reasons to execute His judgments. But even in the heat of the conflict He again presents the beautiful security of redemption in Him.

He does this through a parenthesis that refers again to the 144,000 (Rev. 14:1-6), whom God acts to take to Him-self. Then, having presented the company of the saved and announced the message of their salvation, the chapter concludes with a description of the second coming of Christ, the action that will gather in the sheaves of the saved. That sequence and its climactic action underline the thrust of the book: Christ coming as con-quering king to vindicate His name and

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aspects of the trial that brings to an end the conflict between good and evil. We also receive more details about the bat-tle of Armageddon.

ConclusionAt the end of the book of Revelation

God has fully restored humanity as part of the family of His creation. The circle of those God wants to be near His

throne is complete. The redeemed offici-ate as priests and kings of God and Christ (Rev. 20:6), as announced in Reve-lation 1:6, 5:10, and 7:15.

God renews all things (Rev. 21:5)! And John is given the privilege to see in detail the wonderful moments that await the redeemed in the New Jerusa-lem prepared by God and coming down from heaven. There is no temple there, because God Himself is the temple (verse 22). He is the living tabernacle (verse 3) whose sacrifice, righteousness, and judgment provide the perfect medi-ation that redeems those whom the conflict had once separated from Him.5 Revelation 7:15-17 and 21:4 emphasize that the redeemed will no longer expe-rience any situations that cause pain: they will never know thirst; the sun will not bother them; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Thus God finally reveals to John all that He has done so that the great mul-titude of the redeemed might finally gather before His throne (Rev. 7:15) and rejoice in His presence with the rest of His creation.

EpilogueThe epilogue of Revelation concludes,

“The throne of God and of the Lamb will be [there], and His bond-servants will serve Him; and they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads” (Rev. 22:3, 4).

Revelation’s scenes all point to a final climax emphasizing the fulfillment of a promise of God: the “great multitude” of the redeemed of earth will stand before the throne of God; they will be kings and priests; they will serve in the universal government of God. Jesus reigns, and we shall reign with Him.

A most inspiring message! God is actively working to have with Him those He has redeemed from the earth: Jesus reigns, and we shall reign with Him. n

1 From its very beginning the Seventh-day Adventist Church has studied the sanctuary activities as a key doctrine to understand others in biblical revelation. Over the past decades, many authors have discussed this subject. See, for example, Alberto Treiyer, El día de la expiación y la purificación del santuario (Florida, Bue-nos Aires: Asociación Casa Editora Sudamericana, 1988); Richard M. Davidson, “In Confirmation of the Sanctuary Message,” Journal of the Adventist Theological Society 2, no. 1 (Spring 1991): 93-114; Alberto R. Timm, The Sanctuary and the Three Angels’ Messages: Integrating Factors in the Development of Seventh-day Adventist Doc-trines (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Adventist Theological Society Publications, 1995, 2002).

2 On the varied proposals for the division of the book based on analysis of the sanctuary scenes, the parenthesis between the scenarios, etc., see Ranko Ste-fanovic, Revelation of Jesus Christ (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press, 2002), pp. 43-45; Ekkehardt Müller, Microstructural Analysis of Revelation 4-11, Andrews University Seminary Doctoral Dissertation Series (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press, 1994), vol. 21; Kenneth A. Strand, “Book Reviews: Mysterious Apocalypse: Interpreting the Book of Revelation,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 34, no. 2 (Autumn 1996): 347, 348; Jon Paulien, Decoding Revelation’s Trum-pets, Andrews University Seminary Doctoral Disserta-tion Series (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press, 1987), vol. 11.

3 Except otherwise indicated, all Scripture quota-tions are from the New American Standard Bible, copy-right © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

4 A woman clothed with the sun (Rev. 12:1); a great red dragon (verse 3); and the angels of the seven last plagues (Rev. 15:1).

5 John 16:8-11 mentions the Holy Spirit’s role in relation to the three aspects of the ministry of Christ that are a synthesis of the sanctuary service: The Spirit will reprove of (1) sin, which is a function of the altar of sacrifice; (2) righteousness, which relates to the application of the perfect victim’s blood on behalf of the believer (the first compartment in the sanctuary); and (3) judgment, concerned with the final judgment (the second compartment in the sanctuary).

SILVIA C. SCHOLTUS, PH.D., IS

SENIOR EDITOR OF THE DEPART-

MENT OF PUBLISHING AT RIVER

PLATE ADVENTIST UNIVERSITy,

LIBERTADOR SAN MARTíN, ENTRE

RíOS, ARGENTINA.

claim His own. He reigns. And they will reign with Him (Rev. 14:17-20).

It Is FinishedThe result of Christ’s coming is shown

in an anticipatory scene: it is the “great multitude” of the redeemed, and it is presented alongside the vision of the third sign, that of the angels who will administer God’s wrath (Rev. 15:1-5).

The outpouring of the cups of the wrath proclaims that Christ ceases His media-torial work in heavenly places to return to earth.

The last of those plagues contains a conclusive statement: “It is done” (Rev. 16:17). The end of opposition to God is considered a fact. Brief mention is made of Armageddon, the last battle in the cosmic conflict. But in the next scene, God gives more details about this battle and the fall of His opponents.

The praises of the great multitude of the redeemed (Rev. 19:1-21:1) celebrate the happiness produced by the end of the conflict. These rejoicing ones are those who take part in the first resurrection (Rev. 20:4-6) and see fulfilled the promise that answers the earlier “How long” (Rev. 6:10). But like the exultant scene of Reve-lation 15:2-5, the joy that introduces Rev-elation 19 is in fact a glimpse that anticipates the end of the scenario.

That introductory glimpse inspires readers to follow confidently the description of scenes that must take place prior to that end. Heaven celebrates that Christ has come to reign. He comes and prepares to return for the third time, when He will put the ultimate and utter end to all conflict, and restore the full government of God in the universe.

He will reign, and we shall reign with Him. He is the Lamb, and we are His people (Rev. 19:7). In Revelation 19-21 we see the reviewing and executing

Jesus reigns! and we shall reign with him.

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AhmedTHE ALARM JARRED ME AWAkE. I GLANCED AROUND THE DARk ROOM. wheRe was I? Yesterday felt like a blur. Chicago to Istanbul. Istanbul to Tel Aviv. What would Greg and I encounter here? What lessons did God have for us in this land of the Bible?

I stepped onto our hotel balcony as the sky flushed a rosy hue. The city of Tiberias was waking up. Just to my east lay the Sea of Galilee, scarcely a ripple on its surface.

We ate breakfast as the sun rose over the Judean hills, then went outside. An olive-skinned man stood by the door of our bus. Middle-aged, perhaps 50, with salt-and-pepper hair. A cigarette hung between his fingers. He smiled at Greg and me as we boarded.

The ride began with prayer and a brief introduction of our guide and bus driver. I felt instantly comfort-able with our guide. He was incredibly knowledgeable as well as interesting, and possessed a great sense of humor. He was Jewish, and I was already friends with several Jewish people.

Our bus driver, however, was different. Ahmed was obviously an Arab, and I had never met an Arab before. Oh, I’d seen them in the store or at the airport, but they always seemed a bit mysterious, with different customs and culture, and definitely a different religion. What did I have in common with them? Probably nothing.

Days passed. We took a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, walked the streets of Capernaum, and saw the amphitheater where Paul made his defense before King Agrippa. By this time I had learned how to pronounce Ahmed’s name, but I knew little more about him. Ours was a cordial relationship.

One day we stopped at a Christian shop to purchase souvenirs. Just as I reached for my wallet, Ahmed appeared. He gave a hand-painted cooking-spoon rest to the salesclerk and spoke in Hebrew. The clerk wrapped it in a paper bag and handed it to me. Confused, I looked at Ahmed. “It’s a gift for you,” he smiled.

I opened my mouth to thank him, but he had already disappeared.I was touched. Why had he given me this gift? The next morning I spotted Ahmed at our hotel,

eating with the other bus drivers. “Ahmed,” I approached him hesitantly. “Would you mind autographing my spoon rest for me?”

He took the marker from me and extinguished his cigarette. “Do you want it in English or Arabic?”

“Oh, Arabic, definitely.”That day something changed in our relationship. No longer was Ahmed simply the bus driver. Neither

was he someone with a different heritage or a strange religion. He was becoming our friend. We spent time talking with him and saw pictures of his six kids. He told us about his early marriage to his wife, and about the death of his mom from lung cancer. Twice he brought us medjool dates from his own backyard in Jericho.

We began to feel an affinity with him. Gone was my fear of his nationality and religion. Each day Greg and I were amazed by the depth of Ahmed’s kindness, compassion, and unconditional love.

The last night arrived. Greg and I stopped to say goodbye to Ahmed. I reached out to hug him. “Goodbye,” I whispered. “We’re going to miss you.”

He squeezed me tightly. “Me, too. I hope I can see you both again.”I nodded as the tears spilled over.Why had God sent me halfway around the world? Was it to see the places Jesus walked? Perhaps. Was it to

become friends with others who joined us there? Maybe. Was it to break down my own prejudice and give me a picture of Himself as revealed in the life of a middle-aged Arabic man? Absolutely.

The dichotomy was that Ahmed, a man who had never called on the name of Jesus, had shown me what He was like. n

JILL MORIkONE IS ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT OF 3ABN, A SUPPORTING ADVENTIST TELEVISION NETWORK. SHE AND HER

HUSBAND, GREG, LIVE IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AND ENJOy MINISTERING TOGETHER FOR JESUS.

Journeys With Jesus

Jill Morikone

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| www.AdventistReview.org 26 (154)

do food AlleRGieS

pRoHibit CommuNioN?

Adventist Life

when the Body Isn’t Wheat

By HEIDI ASHTON

Mommy, when we get to heaven, I will be able to eat everything on the table,” an earnest 4-year-old voice broke into my

concentration. Recent blood tests had revealed that our daughter had 19 food sensitivities, and all the old favorites were suddenly off the menu. Gluten and gluten-containing grains, legumes, nuts, dairy, eggs, and rice were all unfriendly to her body, and we began the odyssey of discovering new foods and creating new recipes to be able to feed our child.

The “new normal” left us, as it were, on foreign soil. All the tradi-tional “Adventist” foods were out the door. All the quick-to-grab

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teacher came to me, astonished that my little girl did not want any pie. This time she heard me as I explained what I had tried to tell her the week before. She began to understand the “new” life we were dealing with every day.

In time, further blood testing showed that father and brother had many food sensitivities as well.

Through the years the children grew physically and spiritually. They watched as each Communion came and went. They questioned, as each child does, what the emblems represent. And they both realized, “I can’t eat that.”

Baking for the Bigger TableIn 2010 both children decided to be

baptized—an incredibly high moment for our family, but one that left me scrambling to create a Communion cracker that would be safe for them. I wanted them to come to the Commu-

nion table feeling the full importance of the service and the sense of community that it provides, if only once in their life-times. The thought of their first Com-munion excited the children, but they worried about not being able to partake.

That first Communion for the chil-dren was very exciting. I had created Communion crackers that they could safely eat, and they reminded me many times that morning not to leave the crackers at home. At church we put their special crackers into a glass bowl so the elders would know they were different from the rest of the crackers on the table, and I explained to all involved that no one must touch the wheat-free crackers after they had touched those made from wheat. As the children were served, you could see in their eyes the deep excitement that comes with a first life event.

Many Communions have come and

meals were gone. No more samples at the store or food at friends’ houses. Directions for babysitters had to be explicit.

Then there were the questions com-ing at us from every direction. And the advice; everyone had advice. Some of it was valuable; other times, when some-one who clearly had no experience felt a need to tell me how to feed my child, it was difficult to be gracious.

One week our daughter’s Sabbath school teacher announced that she and the other class leaders would be bring-ing pumpkin pie for all the children the following Sabbath. I tried to warn the teacher of my child’s sensitivities, but she didn’t really hear me. So during that week my 4-year-old and I practiced say-ing, “No, thank you.” We said it quietly, we sang it, and at times we shouted it at each other in cheerleader fashion. At the end of her Sabbath school class the

principles for Wheat-free BakingThere are some basic principles that should be fol-lowed when baking for individuals who have wheat sensitivities:

n Don’t bake with wheat on the same day, in the same place, as wheat-free crackers or breads are baked. Wheat flour can hang in the air for hours after baking, and when it settles, the counters and dishes in a kitchen are contaminated until they are washed. It is better to make wheat-free Communion bread in a kitchen that is normally wheat-free, if such a kitchen is available.

n Do not serve the wheat crackers and wheat-free crackers in the same dish.

n Do not touch the wheat-free crackers after you have touched the wheat crackers, since crumbs from the wheat crackers can be carried to the wheat-free ones. A pastor or elder who wants to break some of the wheat-free crackers should do that before breaking the wheat ones.

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Lessons From the Bigger Table

So why do I add that baking project to what is often a very busy Friday? My children are used to not being able to eat the food that others are eating. What is it that I want them to learn? It’s that:

Christ called all people to follow Him. The “whoever” in John 3:16 is open to everyone. He asked all the people to sit down when He fed the 5,000, and the bread and fish were passed out to all. He ministered to all types of people, to men from every walk of life, to women and children, to the physically whole as well as to those who were blind, lame, or dumb. His sacrifice was for all peo-ple, tribes, and nations.

The children of God come with many different backgrounds, natures, and styles, but they are all His children. When Paul said, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile” (Gal. 3:28), he meant that everyone who is in Christ gets to come to the table. There are no second-class citizens in the kingdom of God.

The body of Christ includes real humans with real problems and adjusts for the needs of all members. “The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,” and God Himself wants there to “be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another” (1 Cor. 12:22, 25, ESV).*

In our home we still dream of heaven and the healing that will take place. And we look forward to the honor of eating a full Communion with Christ at the long table where all will be included. Someday our family will sit down at that heavenly banquet and be able to eat anything on the table. But for now we include as many as possible in His sup-per here. n

* Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publish-ers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

HEIDI ASHTON IS A HOMEMAKER

AND HOME EDUCATOR IN CENTRAL

MARyLAND.

Wheat-free Communion bread

The following recipe works well with dif-

ferent flours. While most people find it

tasty, the crackers can be crunchier than

regular wheat crackers. The ingredients

can be found at most markets that carry

gluten-free flours.

Wheat-free Communion Bread

3/4 cup sorghum (or millet or teff) flour

3/4 cup corn (or arrowroot) starch

1/2 cup tapioca starch flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup oil (I generally use olive oil)

1/2 cup cold water

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl, and

mix all the wet ingredients in a separate

bowl. Form a hollow in the center of the

dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredi-

ents into it. Mix with a fork until the

dough is quite thick, then knead it until

all the ingredients are combined. Roll the

dough out very thin on a pan using wax

or parchment paper and score it with a

knife. Bake at 350°F for 20 to 30 minutes

(until it is lightly browned and the crack-

ers start to separate from each other),

and begin removing the crackers around

the edge as they finish baking. Continue

baking, and remove every five to 10 min-

utes until all are done.

gone since that first one, and we still faithfully take crackers that our family can eat. During announcements we let others know that there is gluten-free Communion bread available, and oth-

ers have also benefited. One visitor thanked me for making them available. It was the first time in years that she had been able to participate in that part of the service.

Page 29: adventist review

Your weekly breakdown

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Harold L. Lee with Benjamin Baker, C.D.: The Man Behind the Message (Hagers-town, Md.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2013), 239 pages + 12 pages index, $17.99 (paper), reviewed by Wilona Karimabadi, assistant editor, Adventist Review.

If you work in the General Conference office building, you often have the

privilege of seeing C. D. Brooks in the hallways or cafeteria, or walking through the parking lot. As chaplain for the North American Division, this kind-hearted man with a gentle but bright smile can always be found holding ele-vators open for fellow employees or offering a cheerful greeting, even if he doesn’t know you. His presence in the building is a welcome one, for if you are like me, you can’t help feeling a little lucky to share office space with such a giant of the Adventist Church.

While I knew that C. D. Brooks was a champion evangelist and world-renowned speaker, I admit to not know-ing much else about his life. Therefore, I was only too eager to snag a copy of Harold Lee and Benjamin Baker’s biog-raphy of him. I ended up reading the book in about two days.

As this book is extremely well researched, the narrative makes the reader feel like a fly on the wall during key moments of Brooks’s life. You can picture the hospital room where his mother lay ill, and hear the words she heard in vision instructing her to keep all the commandments—the starting point that led her to Sabbathkeeping and the Adventist Church. From there you are part of the story of Brooks’s life as a boy near Greensboro, North Caro-lina, to his days as a student at Oakwood

University, bucking all kinds of odds; to his romance and marriage to his beloved Walterene, through his struggles and triumphs as a young pastor, and then to the Christlike manner in which he dealt with the ugliness of racism during pivotal years of his career in ministry; then on through the founding and growth of the Breath of Life ministry. All these moments in the life of one of the great-est preachers our denomination has ever known point readers to the inspiration so evident in C. D. Brooks’s life: his deep love of his Savior, Jesus. It was certainly a privilege to learn more about this man who has done so much good for others in his mission to win souls.

From time to time we are all in need of a good read that boosts our personal relationship with Christ through seeing His power in the life of someone else. This book—from start to finish—testi-fies of exactly that. Through reading it I found myself reminded of God’s good-ness in my own life while marveling at how He moved giant mountains in Brooks’s life and ministry to accomplish amazing things for His kingdom. It’s a book that quite simply leaves the reader deeply impressed and inspired. That was certainly its effect on me.

World church president Ted Wilson’s comments in the foreword of the book reiterates that sentiment. “In this spe-cial book,” he says, “you will find thrill-

ing stories of God using this powerful preacher to blaze new trails in evangelism, church organization, and human relations. You will also learn to lean on God in various circumstances, bringing encouragement to your life and walk with Jesus. Ulti-mately, as you read about Elder Brooks’s life and ministry, you will be inspired to rededicate your life to Jesus and to tell others of His saving power.”

As the weather gets wintry in the Northern Hemisphere, take the oppor-tunity to stay indoors one Sabbath afternoon and curl up with this book. You’ll find your heart warmed and your faith strengthened in the story of the life and times of a servant of God, who has done great things just through his willingness to be used by the Lord. n

Bookmark

C.D.: The Man Behind the Message

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Reflections

saved by HopeSO VALENTINE’S DAy IS SADLy PAST, AND WE MUST GET BEyOND THE HEARTS and chocolates. After all, the hoped-for proposal never materialized; the date never showed; the bright engagement ring that fantasy had slipped on to your finger only faded to dull gloom. So it’s time to move on—to real life.

Think hard about it. Or just let the scientists tell you: you can’t be a good scientist and expect to function on hope. If you’re going to deal fairly with the data, and not be deluded by fantasy, distracted with specula-tion, and destroyed by disappointment, then you don’t want Cupid’s hit-and-miss arrows; you want control and measurement. Give me a laboratory or give me death! Everything worth its salt must include quantifi-able, measurable portions of sodium and chlorine, and in the right proportion.

Lo and behold, there’s a text against that: “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all” (Rom. 8:24). “Seen” here is not meant to distinguish between vision and touch and hearing and taste and smell. “Hope that is seen is no hope at all” signifies that if you can hold, inhale, or savor it, it’s not hope; if you can measure it, control it, and manipulate its values in your lab, it’s not hope. You know the claim—that what is real is only what you can chop and heat and chart in a lab! This truth you hold to be self-evident.

And based on it, while all the lovers sleep, you strive and toil forever upward through the night with your data analysis; restarting biological experiments because a blackout ruined all the samples in your refrig-erator, forcing you to dump them all, develop new cultures, and start again; rewriting programs because some virus invaded your computers and confounded everything; going down a completely different track because somebody said the work you were doing, of which you thought so much, would never be deemed to have sufficiency.

And yet, think hard again. For who does not know that in the end, only one thing can keep you and your conscientious, scientific siblings focused through all this? Something you cannot pocket, or save in test tubes or under glass slides; but it still keeps you trying. It’s precious. And you’ve got it. It’s called hope. And those who lose it in some trough of despond and depression slit their wrists and hang themselves in bathrooms or drown in intoxicants that you can drink or sniff or puff and go away.

Whether you are lover or scientist, hope must not die. Ask Thomas Alva Edison after 9,000 failed attempts to create an electric lightbulb. Someone asked if he felt like a failure and if he thought he should just give up. But Edison didn’t follow the questioner’s reasoning. “Young man,” he said, “why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric lightbulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp.” Shortly after that, and more than 10,000 attempts, Edison invented the lightbulb.*

What kept him going? What keeps unsuccessful scientists and frustrated lovers going? What keeps stum-bling Christians going? We are saved by hope: hope so powerful that it anchors our soul (Heb. 6:19). We don’t know our tomorrows, for God has not made us omniscient. But He gives hope to keep us until His tomorrow, for something infinitely better than Valentine’s Day 2016. And it keeps us going. We are saved by hope. n

* https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080423112831AAqgTG7

LAEL CAESAR, adventiSt revieW ASSOCIATE EDITOR, REJOICES THAT HIS CHANCE TO LIVE WITH HOPE INSTEAD OF FULL

KNOWLEDGE IS PART OF GOD’S SAVING MIRACLE.

Page 32: adventist review

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