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Is It True?

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 16, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 50.

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Is It True?

By I. H. Evans

Recently a brother who claims to have “new light” declared that he thought Seventh-day Adventists were growing cold in spiritual things, and some were losing their zeal in the cause of God; and gave as his reason for this opinion the fact that about all the truth set before the people nowadays is the old hackneyed doctrines preached for years, but which now fail to interest or benefit the people. The people, he said, demand something new; and when something new is preached, they become interested, and receive help.
Does this condition really obtain among us as a people? Is it true that Seventh-day Adventists are becoming listless to the truths we hold? Do our churches tire of hearing the pillars of our faith expounded, while their ears itch for some new exposition of the Word? Has the Athenian spirit so possessed our hearts that our chief desire is for something new and novel? Is it true that we no longer are charmed by the story of Calvary? Do the life and ministry of Christ fall as an idle tale upon the ears of the church? Do the life-giving truths of the atonement and the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary cloy the spiritual appetite till the listener turns away unfilled and unsatisfied? Does the good news of the “second advent” cease to thrill the hearts of God’s people as they hear of the “signs that mark his coming near”? Is there truly no longer any hope and inspiration for the remnant people in the triumphant doctrine of the resurrection from the dead, and the promise of eternal life and immortality at Jesus’ coming? Is it an unchallenged fact that the promised “inheritance of the saints and the glory of the world to come,” if preached, must fall upon unwelcome ears in all our churches, because the people are hungering for some “new theology”? Can it be truly said that our pulpits no longer welcome a sermon on the “law of God”? and shall we no more hear the “binding claims of the fourth commandment”?
Seventh-day Adventists have never believed that they had all the light God had for them. Again and again they have insisted that the path of the just “shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” They expect light from God’s Word; they expect clearer interpretations of obscure texts, and additional light on unfulfilled prophecy. But Seventh-day Adventists are not palled with the doctrines which have made the remnant church a peculiar people.
Are the plain and natural teachings of the Scriptures powerless to stimulate our hearts into loving service for our fellow men? Is it only the new and novel and fanciful that has the power to excite our people to faith and activity in the work of God?
If this be so, what means the persevering activity of our churches in missionary work? What lesson are we to learn from the rapidly increasing annual tithe paid by this people for the advancement of the Lord’s work? If the doctrines of the church are threadbare and spiritless, how are we to interpret the almost unparalleled activity of the denomination in contributing means for the support of foreign missions? Does the giving of hard-earned money for mission work betoken paralysis and stagnation? Does the selling of denominational literature filled with the very doctrines of the church afford evidence that the church is weary of the old lines of faith, and is hungering for “something new”?
Let us look at some figures as published by the statistical secretary of the denomination, and see what they teach. Figures are facts. They have lessons we will do well to study. Here is a report by years for the last seven years:—
Can it be truly said of a people that annually have made the steady growth that Seventh-day Adventists have made for the last seven years, “They are tired of their faith and demand something new”? With an increase in membership of over twenty-four per cent, with an increase in tithe of over seventy-one per cent, with an increase in offerings to foreign missions of more than two hundred thirteen per cent, and with an increase in the sale of denominational literature of more than one hundred ninety-nine per cent, while in all other lines of denominational work we have kept pace with the items shown above, does it appear that the denomination is wearied with its work, or pines for some new doctrine to stimulate it into activity?
Why are the denominational schools overcrowded with students, why are there more than ten thousand Seventh-day Adventist children in their own denominational schools where the doctrines of the church are taught every school-day to every child, if it be true that the people are weary of the old paths, and are hungering for something new? Does it appear that the people that do such things are tired of their faith?—Surely not.
What the people are doing, and what they are planning to do, in extending their denominational work is evidence of their faith. It is not “New Theology” nor fanciful interpretations of Scripture the people are hungering for, but their hearts’ desire is for the pentecostal blessing, and their daily prayer is, “Come, Lord Jesus, and come quickly.”
I. H. EVANS.