Sunday, January 07, 2007
New old methods
Here's another thought (and there will be one more).
Most Adventists seem to have a basic knowledge of our history and a basic knowledge of prophecy. But it seem to me that most misunderstandings and mistakes in understanding our church and Ellen White’s writings come from not knowing our history and the circumstances surrounding her testimonies. It helps to understand them in the context of what the issues were at the time.
In our class there appear to be two ideas about preaching Christ to the world. One is presenting the 3 Angels’ messages and prophecy, and the second is presenting God’s love and the revelation of His character. These same issues have been around in our history. The reason Ellen White was so excited about the 1888 message of righteousness by faith is because she saw that Christ and His love and redeeming power were being left out of our prophetic message. When W.W. Prescott preached a series in Melbourne Australia while she lived there, a new terminology was born, it was called “Christology.” Here’s an excerpt from a biography of W.W. Prescott by Gilbert Valentine:
“Prescott even managed to turn traditional Adventist Saturday-Sunday polemic into a remarkable gospel presentation. Several weeks after the presentation on the Sabbath doctrine the seasoned but awed W.C. White was still marveling at what the professor had done. Prescott had preached ‘With clearness and power that exceeds anything I have ever heard in my life,’ he reported. He said Prescott had presented Adventist teaching ‘with freshness and brightness’ never seen before. White recalled that he had not even once heard the professor preach ‘what we are accustomed to call doctrinal sermons’ on ‘the old lines’…..He longed to see ‘every one’ of the ministers emulate Prescott in ‘preaching Christ and Him crucified.’ Ellen White too was ecstatic over Prescott’s sermons….She saw in Prescott’s Christ-centered evangelism a pattern for the whole church.” (pp. 114-115)
This is in reference to Prescott preaching the 3 Angels’ messages in a Christ-centered way--not just doctrinal, but everything leading to Christ. I think that is the balance between preaching the 3 Angels’ messages that we’ve been called to warn the world with AND lifting up God and His true character to the world. There’s nothing new under the sun--evangelism being Christ-centered is old ground, not a new idea.
I think we see both ideas together in Revelation itself. After all it's called "The Revelation of JESUS CHRIST" not, the beast, the antichrist, the papacy, etc.
So evangelism without Christ being lift up strongly misses the focal point of the book of Revelation. However, Rev 1:3 says, "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of THIS prophecy, and KEEP those things which are written in it; for the time is near." To abandon preaching the prophetic message we know, I believe, is to abandon a message God has for the time we are living in.
Most Adventists seem to have a basic knowledge of our history and a basic knowledge of prophecy. But it seem to me that most misunderstandings and mistakes in understanding our church and Ellen White’s writings come from not knowing our history and the circumstances surrounding her testimonies. It helps to understand them in the context of what the issues were at the time.
In our class there appear to be two ideas about preaching Christ to the world. One is presenting the 3 Angels’ messages and prophecy, and the second is presenting God’s love and the revelation of His character. These same issues have been around in our history. The reason Ellen White was so excited about the 1888 message of righteousness by faith is because she saw that Christ and His love and redeeming power were being left out of our prophetic message. When W.W. Prescott preached a series in Melbourne Australia while she lived there, a new terminology was born, it was called “Christology.” Here’s an excerpt from a biography of W.W. Prescott by Gilbert Valentine:
“Prescott even managed to turn traditional Adventist Saturday-Sunday polemic into a remarkable gospel presentation. Several weeks after the presentation on the Sabbath doctrine the seasoned but awed W.C. White was still marveling at what the professor had done. Prescott had preached ‘With clearness and power that exceeds anything I have ever heard in my life,’ he reported. He said Prescott had presented Adventist teaching ‘with freshness and brightness’ never seen before. White recalled that he had not even once heard the professor preach ‘what we are accustomed to call doctrinal sermons’ on ‘the old lines’…..He longed to see ‘every one’ of the ministers emulate Prescott in ‘preaching Christ and Him crucified.’ Ellen White too was ecstatic over Prescott’s sermons….She saw in Prescott’s Christ-centered evangelism a pattern for the whole church.” (pp. 114-115)
This is in reference to Prescott preaching the 3 Angels’ messages in a Christ-centered way--not just doctrinal, but everything leading to Christ. I think that is the balance between preaching the 3 Angels’ messages that we’ve been called to warn the world with AND lifting up God and His true character to the world. There’s nothing new under the sun--evangelism being Christ-centered is old ground, not a new idea.
I think we see both ideas together in Revelation itself. After all it's called "The Revelation of JESUS CHRIST" not, the beast, the antichrist, the papacy, etc.
So evangelism without Christ being lift up strongly misses the focal point of the book of Revelation. However, Rev 1:3 says, "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of THIS prophecy, and KEEP those things which are written in it; for the time is near." To abandon preaching the prophetic message we know, I believe, is to abandon a message God has for the time we are living in.
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