WYC 2008: Something Better

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GYC West

Don Mackintosh: Something Better -- Present Reality and Adventist History

Don Mackintosh

A Revival of Restoration (Health) Ministry

A Revival of Adoration Ministry

A Revival of Proclamation Ministry

Father in Heaven, we're thankful today we can just come together, we can study together, we're thankful for the setting that we can be in.

We pray for those that are struggling with fires here in California, that you would draw near to them, you would put the fires out, would light a fire in their heart though, this would remind them of their need of You.

And we thank You and we come in Christ's name.

Well, You know, I love going to WYC and SEYC and GYC and LNOP and QRS and TUV.

Truthfully I like, I really enjoy being with people like you And I feel a privilege and a responsibility to be able to talk about this subject that we're going to talk about.

And we're going to kind of look at some things in Adventist history and then go back to the future, so to speak, looking back and then forward.

And we're going to use a text to kind of guide us in terms of our subjects and you might want to look at that text with me in Matthew chapter 4 and verse 23.

In Matthew chapter 4 and verse 23, we have a text that's repeated again in Matthew 9, 35, and it's kind of like a text that's going to guide our different presentations.

Matthew 4, 23 says, Now Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness, and all kinds of disease among the people." So, this is an interesting text.

It tells us where Jesus was, what He was doing, and then what happened as a result of the next verse.

Then his fame went throughout Syria, and they brought to him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon possessed, epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them." So, a powerful text telling us exactly what Jesus did.

But before we come back to that text, which we will, it's going to provide us kind of a framework.

And 2 students that were students from Battle Creek, Battle Creek College way back in 1891.

And they were having this conversation, which of course the word conversation is interesting, it's the root word conversion, that's where it comes from.

When we talk to 1 another we kind of can convert each other to the way we're thinking or we might make someone, you know, turn away, convert them to the opposite, depending on how we talk.

So I'm going to talk a little more about those particulars of the conversation in a minute, but these 2 people, Percy McGann and E.A.

Now later on, these men would become key leaders at the College of Medical Evangelists, that being Loma Linda.

And Edward Sutherland would be the president, first president of, you know, ASI.

He would be the president of Madison College.

Now, they had this conversation and I'm going to tell you more about that in a minute, but the conclusion of their conversation I thought was interesting.

It was actually quite radical and maybe even seen as unwise and dangerous, which is something that young people I think would be interested, radical, unwise, and dangerous.

Maybe not you guys, but most young people.

So, this was their radical conclusion they came to.

They decided and declared, now you ready for this?

They said this, they said that they wanted to, and I quote, follow the Bible and spirit of prophecy explicitly in their lives and ministries.

Now you might be thinking, and I hope you are, that sounds pretty good.

I think most people should believe that, or at least you know I think that most people did believe that back then.

However, unfortunate as it may seem, it was not so basic even back then as far as the spirit of prophecy was concerned.

Because back then, you see, according to the historians of the period, and I quote from Warren Ashworth, who wrote his dissertation on Edward Sutherland, he said this, it was common belief among Adventists that the messages written by Mrs.

White and the testimonies were only for the people to whom they were specifically addressed.

So they look at it and they say, oh that's great, that's a great message because it's not for me.

And they would, They would say, you know, we don't need to listen to that.

So as a result, many took a dismissive approach to the testimonies, or at least we could say a cafeteria approach where, you know, they would select this or select that.

And long before the book titled, Selected Messages, was thought of, many were already creating their own.

They were selecting the messages they wanted to hear.

Now, as you might imagine, the simple decision that they made to follow the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy explicitly was bound to cause conflict, and it did.

How many of you are familiar with any of that kind of conflict?

No 1 is raising their hand, but I hope that you here are listening on the tapes, raising your hands.

From Walla Walla to Battle Creek and from Battle Creek to Berrien Springs, people really took issue with the simple stand and the implications made by these 2 young men.

Finally, after exhausting every opportunity, their circumstance that was being without a job in McGann's case, without a wife as she had died under the strain, well, without a job in Sutherland's case and without a wife in McGann's case.

It opened up a unique and radical opportunity for them to experiment in doing something very radical.

And that would be forming a school on the basis of their same principle, the Bible and the spirit of prophecy.

So, even though there were many detractors, some in very high places, there were also people who gave strong support.

And 1 of them had the last name of White, which helped.

So we're going to talk more about that in the second section here.

The second section I'm going to talk about, this first 1 I'm going to talk about restoration, that is health.

But they were going to start this school.

Now White believed that the role of the new school, that is Madison, and by extension all such work was to complement and even challenge the Laodicean status quo.

And the challenge was simply to follow the Bible and the spirit of prophecy.

You're not Laodicean if you follow the Bible and the spirit of prophecy explicitly.

Now if you choose not to, then you're fulfilling prophecy nonetheless.

So, there was another ASI member long before Southern Louisiana who had similar views.

You know, you may be familiar with this guy.

He didn't have a name tag, but now he does.

He would say things like, it is written, you know.

This was not George Vanderman or Mark Finley.

And he'd say things like, how readest thou?

Or like, you have heard it said, but I say to you.

So, when he said, you have heard it said, what does that mean?

He would point back to what had been written, and then he would say, but, I say to you, which is what?

It is written, that's the Bible, but I say to you, that's like fresh.

So it's kind of like the testimony, the testimony of Jesus, or the Spirit of prophecy, Right?

You have heard it said, but I say to you.

So long before there was Sutherland again he had decided, this person had decided to follow the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy explicitly.

He wanted to lead people to something better.

It says that we want something better and we want something better now.

And he turned the world upside down in 1 generation, or at least his stance did that.

And there's 1 text that we've already seen that aptly summarized how he moved, and that was Matthew chapter 4, verse 23.

And I think if we fully adopted this text as a WYC, it would equip us to effectively share Christ in the marketplace and in our scholastic and academic pursuits.

And I think that really, if we really, really adopted it, our next GYC or WYC conference would last about a thousand years.

I've got some Biblical proof, I've got questions about that.

So, this text and Jesus, Matthew 9, 35, went about all the cities and villages.

You know, in Matthew 4, 23, it says He first of all was in Samaria and Judea, but now He's going to all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people." So he went to all, about all the cities and the villages.

Series

Don Mackintosh: Something Better -- Present Reality and Adventist History

A Revival of Restoration (Health) Ministry

Transcript

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