Denominational or Undenominational?
By W. J. Stone
There have been times in the history of our work when persons have felt it would be an advantage to conceal the fact that the work they were doing was denominational, or was being conducted by a certain denomination, and in the interests of that denomination. I have heard some who were giving instruction to our canvassers teach that it was better to evade a direct answer to the question whether it was a denominational book they were selling. I have even known of some ministers who have felt in the past that in going into a new field it was better to keep in the background the fact that we were Seventh-day Adventists, carrying the idea that the truths we preach are general Bible truths. But I am glad there has come a change, and that there is inscribed upon the banner of those who are giving the third angel’s message, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” And this characteristic is distinctively denominational; it applies to no other denomination. And that which is true upon this point is equally true on many other points of our faith. The facts are that every phase of the work of Seventh-day Adventists is distinctively denominational. And whenever one attempts to take out from this denomination any special line of work connected with it, and tries to carry it forward disconnected from this body, and not in the setting that God has given it, that work becomes a failure, and sooner or later results in confusion, and comes to naught. This has been witnessed over and over in the history of this denomination, and should be a lesson to any who are tempted to carry forward, disconnected from this body, some special phase of the work committed to this people. The Spirit of the Lord—the testimony of Jesus—has brought out and developed every phase of the message which we hold as a denomination. It has placed every phase of this truth in a certain setting, and it is impossible for a person who does not believe the whole message to give any part of it, or carry forward any branch of the work entrusted to us, correctly or in harmony with the mind of the Spirit. For example: There are many people in the world who believe in and teach the soon coming of Christ; but this generation has, in the third angel’s message, the teaching that the hour of God’s judgment is come, that probation ends before Christ comes, that during the millennium the saints will reign in heaven. The true preaching of the second coming of Christ and of the gospel of the kingdom, as brought to view in Revelation, is distinctively denominational; and when taken from its proper setting, and where God has placed it, it is not preaching the truth, but the very opposite. Again: the true Sabbath is observed and taught by other people, yet not in the setting in which the Lord has placed it for these last days; consequently, there is no special power connected with it, and those who hear it are not moved to obedience. Thus every point of present truth, and every branch of our work,—educational, medical, or religious liberty,—has its special setting, and is distinctively denominational, and must go with the denomination. Separated from the denomination, it no longer serves God’s purpose in his present message to the world. Is the sanitarium work as conducted by Seventh-day Adventists denominational? What is its history? Has not God, by his Spirit, guided in the building up of the sanitarium work in this denomination? If Seventh-day Adventists had adopted these principles forty years ago, they would have stood at the head in these reforms in a greater measure than they do to-day. If this is true,—and it is,—the sanitarium work as given to this people, and as God intended it should be carried forward by this people in all the world, is distinctively denominational, and can not be carried forward in harmony with the mind of God, and as God intended it should be, when taken out of its proper setting in the denomination. God has ordained that our medical work should be connected with the evangelical work. None but consecrated persons, those who have the spirit of the Master and a love for souls, can properly minister to the afflicted and sin-sick, and point them to the Source of life, the One who heals all our diseases of both soul and body. The consecrated nurses are many times the instruments, in God’s hands, of ministering to afflicted souls the one thing needful, more than the physician, but both alike should be consecrated Christians, in order to perform the highest type of medical missionary work. So I say again that the more closely the medical work can be linked with the evangelical, the greater will be its efficiency. In “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, page 289, we read: “The medical missionary work should be a part of the work of every church in our land. Disconnected from the church, it would soon become a strange medley of disorganized atoms.” Take it out of its proper place, and it can not fulfil the purpose of God; it becomes a medley. The world may conduct hospitals, and do much in relieving the sick and the suffering, but it is not doing the work committed to Seventh-day Adventists. Neither can it do it, even though it might employ some of the same methods. And professed Seventh-day Adventists who conduct sanitariums for gain, and adopt the spirit of commercialism, disconnecting themselves from the body, can not meet the design or mind of God in this great work which is designated as the “right arm” of the message. Truly, the Lord has said, “Disconnected from the church, it would soon become a strange medley of disorganized atoms.” The truthfulness of this statement is being demonstrated at the present time; and it will appear more apparent as time passes. Every line of work carried forward by Seventh-day Adventists, and every point of our message as outlined and directed by the Spirit of the Lord for the past forty years, has been distinctively denominational, and, under the guidance of the Spirit, it has prospered, and accomplished much for God. Separated from the denomination, it has come to naught. Our work is one of reform, a fulfilment of prophecy, under God, to accomplish a special work which was not being done by any other people or denomination in the world. And this fact again designates our whole work as denominational. And, dear brethren and sisters, let us not try to get away from this idea; for if we do, we shall only pull away from the message; and that means our eternal loss. The Seventh-day Adventist denomination is the embodiment of the third angel’s message. Nearly two thousand years ago God permitted John to behold the closing scenes of this world’s history. He also inspired John to write what he saw. The word of God as10penned by John is being fulfilled before our eyes, and has become a living message, filling all the world, in the organization of the Seventh-day Adventist church. This church is the message, and God will never reject his church and people, but he will purify them, and in the process some will be shaken out. Not that the true Israel will be called out. There is a difference in being called out and in being shaken out. The Lord has shown the company mightily shaken, then others filling the ranks, and going forward to victory. The third angel’s message comprises a system of truth. Every phase of the message sustains the same relation to the message itself that the organs of the body do to the body. The eye is not the whole body, neither is the spirit of prophecy the third angel’s message, but an important part of it. The arm is not the whole body, neither is the medical missionary work the whole message, although an important part of it, even sustaining the same relation to it that the right arm does to the body. And it is intended by the Lord that it shall be a mighty factor in carrying forward this great message as a whole. But when any single phase of our work is pushed to the exclusion of other branches, and becomes the all-important thing, not only that branch of the work is in danger, but those connected with it are in danger of becoming one-sided, and not developing symmetrical characters. All phases of our work are important, and it is by the combination of the whole, without any schism, that the work is to be performed, and God’s purpose fulfilled. May the Lord give us all breadth of mind to take in the whole message.