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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Eugene Prewitt

A History of Adventist Revivals

There are many more of you here than there were 10 minutes ago.

I was thinking tonight during psalm service that it would be very ironic to be speaking about Adventist church history in the past while Adventist church history was being made right here, right now, on this place, and just totally ignore it.

In other words, it doesn't seem fitting to me to ignore what's going on this weekend and to start telling you about things that happened a long time ago.

Does that make any sense to you, what I'm saying?

And yet that is what I was brought here to do.

So what I want to do is give about a ten-minute introduction of a Bible study.

Do you know the excellency of Bible as opposed to history?

I mean, in Bible you can know that it's true because the Word of God is certain and you can read it and know.

Even I, I love history, I study history, but when I pull out a history book and I read it and I learn something to tell you, don't think that I take 5 or 6 hours to go to some library and look up on a micro fish to make sure all the references are accurate.

And so I try to be careful the history books I choose, but I know that there's a decent chance that something that I'm teaching about history just isn't so.

Does that make any sense to you what I'm saying?

So does it make any sense to you why I prefer to give you a Bible study than a history study?

Yeah, and look for several references perhaps.

Yeah, I mean I think the outline I'm going to give you is solid.

I think everything I'm going to give you is solid, but I'm trying to help you understand that history is not the same thing as the Bible.

Just some pertinent Just some pertinent advice.

It says, Now I beseech you, therefore, brethren, Mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and what does it say?

If it was a human, it could be a very narrow-minded statement, but it is the Bible.

The Bible is the word of God, and does God have an opinion about how you relate to people that cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine that you've learned?

So would it be appropriate, for example, for me to try to seek out and meet Dr.

It would be a direct violation of what God has said to do.

However much it might gratify my curiosity, it would not be appropriate.

0.2, turn with me to your Bibles to Daniel chapter 12.

The question that we want to ask is, how is it, I don't know how to ask the question, so we'll just read the answer and then find a question from it.

Daniel chapter 12, and we're looking at verse 9.

And he said, go thy way Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." So here are ideas in the book of Daniel.

They're going to be sealed until a certain time, and then when they're unsealed, will everyone understand them when they're unsealed?

And this is interesting because we're told the words are sealed at the time of the end, And then you get the idea that people are going to understand them, but will everyone understand them?

There is an implication in the next verse that those who are being purified are the ones who will understand.

I think it's stated more clearly at the end of the verse, but the wicked will do wickedly and none of the… what does it say?

None of the wicked will understand, but the wise will understand.

So whether or not you correctly understand the book of Daniel, for example, is not a product of how well you know Aramaic or Hebrew, nor of how many years you've spent in university.

It is a product of whether or not you're purified, of whether or not you're wise.

And if you're wicked and very, very knowledgeable, still, how many of the wicked will understand according to Daniel 12?

It said none of the wicked will understand.

Our first point was that we should avoid people who cause divisions and offenses.

Romans 16, and we're going to look this time at verse 18.

Speaking of those that cause the divisions, it says, "'For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus, but their own belly.'" Belly being a beautiful way to summarize the serving of self, our appetites, our passions, our desires.

And by good words and fair speeches, they deceive the hearts of the simple.

Does it make good sense to you why we should avoid these men?

It's because there are a class of people who are easily deceived by them.

And if you think you're not in that class, that sounds like pride.

And if you are in that class, you should know better than to go.

Who is it that they deceive according to the passage?

Simple-minded people are deceived by them and they're deceived by good words and fair speeches.

So I know 1 thing for certain, I cannot tell an error teacher from a truth teacher on the basis of how good and how sweet his words are or even how logical and put together they are.

I can't tell it by how much academic acumen He has.

Really, the only key we have so far is by whether he's wicked or not, and I can't read his heart.

But didn't we just find in Romans 16 that we know 1 class that doesn't serve our Lord Jesus?

We can't read their heart, but we can read their actions.

What action in particular reveals a heart that's not serving the Lord Jesus?

It's an action of causing divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which we have learned.

I can show this in 1 more passage and I probably should drop it.

1 Corinthians 11 and we're looking at verse 19.

This is probably only forward 7 or 8 pages in your Bible.

It says, for there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made – what's the word?

I think I am going to go up here because we're spreading out and we're kind of long and I can't see them back there too well.

Heresies are a benefit to the church Because they show which people are, what's the word?

Now if you think that through, you would realize that it would be very backwards to try to decide which teacher is a good teacher and then believe what he says.

That you'd really have to go the other way and see what he says to decide if he is a good teacher.

Why does God allow false doctrines to be in the church?

They are little red tags, like the ones they put on abandoned vehicles beside the road that say he might look good, he might sound good, he might be smart, he might be knowledgeable, but this man is not approved.

And what is the tag that says he's not approved?

If you haven't seen it, you should look at it again, the passage we looked at, but we're not going to do it right here.

What's in the bulletin, if those bulletins exist already, for tonight, is that we're talking about the history of Adventist revivals.

Revival is the greatest of all our needs, and if you understand something about Adventist revivals, that's a beautiful gift.

I want to talk to you first about the Millerite Revival.

I mean, the Millerite Revival was an amazing experience.

If you read about the experience or the testimony of some of the men that were there, it was the brightest time of their life.

What was interesting is that there were many revivals going on at the same time as Miller's revival.

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A History of Adventist Revivals

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