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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Dave Fiedler

Christian Service:  A Religious System

Whatever it's worth by way of general information, recently I've put out a third book.

The title is Tremble and it's a, how would I characterize it?

It was not a book that I wanted to write, and it's not a book that I particularly enjoy.

But it's a book that needed to be written, and it deals with, oh, I suppose different ways that you might, different terminology that you might be familiar with.

It deals with the issues of the emerging church within Adventism or spiritual formation within Adventism or contemplative prayer or all these other different titles and things that, this is a serious sort of an issue, sort of a, I mean, it's a very serious issue.

That's why I felt I got roped into having to actually deal with it.

The Lord tricked me and got me into that 1.

I didn't really want to do it, but it was a complicated story.

But I would like to make 1 observation, and that is that all the problems and issues and challenges that I deal with in the book Tremble, I didn't realize it at the time that I wrote De Sozo, but De Sozo I am convinced, and I'll touch on this tomorrow afternoon a little bit, but I am convinced that the basic ideas of de Sozo are the only possible effective response to the problems that I deal with in Tremble.

They both come from the same time era, Dr.

Kellogg, the Alpha of apostasy, the Omega of apostasy, and all that sort of stuff.

And so it kind of makes sense that there's a connection, but more and more I'm convinced that that, though, you know, I'm as human as the next guy, and I'm sure I've got some things a little bit twisted and warped in De Sozo, but the basic premise of that book, I'm convinced, is the only possible effective response to the challenges that we are facing in the other book.

But that's not our primary topic tonight.

And I wanted to make really kind of a simple point.

I've never given this exact presentation before.

And I almost feel like I ought to apologize because it's very simple.

And yet at the same time, I almost feel like I ought to apologize because it's very simple.

And yet at the same time, I almost feel like I ought to apologize because I think it's going to be extremely pointed.

And by nature, I don't like trying to tell other people what to do.

You know, some people are really good bosses and other people just aren't.

But there's gonna be some free-pointed stuff I'm gonna say tonight, so anyhow.

But I want you to notice the subtitle down here, the religious system aspect.

There's a key point there that we'll get to and I want to just kind of alert you that it's coming, okay?

I was reading through the testimonies for the first time.

The Lord just is always tricking me into things because I'm too stupid to do what I ought to.

But I remember that a friend and I, we were discussing some fine point of theology, something or other, and we weren't coming up with an answer to it.

I don't even remember what the question was now.

So the 2 of us, we went to a mutual friend, a little older, a little more experienced, a little smarter, which wasn't hard.

And we said, what do you think about this?

And he said, you know, he says, I don't know what the answer is.

Off the top of my head, he says, but I'm pretty sure I know where to find it.

So he said, okay, so here's here's how you need to, you know, this is what you need to do to find the answer to that.

And I don't, I don't know exactly what page it's on, but get volume 1 and start at the beginning and just kind of keep reading.

And by the time you're done with volume 9, I'm almost certain you'll have found the answer.

Just a few weeks later, something like that, I actually moved into this fellow's home.

And so the 2 of us, we read through the testimonies.

We read privately, but we compared notes as we went along.

And I'd like to really recommend that to anyone that can possibly scrape together some time.

But there's nothing like reading through the testimonies for the church.

It's 1 of the big things that got me into advanced history because there's, I mean, it's a historical presentation because she starts writing volume 1, you know, and then it's volume 2 and volume 3 and whatnot.

And so it does a lot to establish your concept of the linear flow of time and development of the church.

And there's just an absolute wealth of information there that I would recommend.

But I remember, so I was all just in this little sales pitch for a good set of books.

But when I was reading through the books the first time, I remember that in volume 6, there was this 1, what's the word I want?

When you put 2 things right next to each other, it's not conjunction, but it sounds almost like it.

No, no, anyhow, it'll come back to me later.

But there were 2 sections back to back, and they just really struck me, just made a strong impression.

The first 1 comes up on volume 6, page 254, And it is, the title of it is The World's Need.

And there's a little section, about 3, 4 pages, something like that, maybe at the most, on the issue of the world's need.

Christ saw the sickness, the sorrow, the want, and degradation of the multitudes that thronged his steps.

To him were presented the needs and woes of humanity throughout the world.

Among the high and the low, the most honored and the most degraded, he beheld souls who were longing for the very blessings he had come to bring, souls who needed only a knowledge of his grace to become subjects of his kingdom.

They just needed a knowledge of His grace.

Somebody needed to tell them or perhaps better yet show them.

Now what I want you to catch out of this is the people he's talking about or El White's talking about here, the people of Christ ministered to.

The high, the low, the honored, the degraded.

Yeah, obviously that's both ends of like 2 spectrums, so to speak, or really 1 spectrum, whatever, but high, low, honor, degree, everybody in between.

When I scanned through this little three-page section, or maybe 4, or whatever, on the world's need, I just looked for the categories of people she was talking about, and came up with this list.

The neglected youth, the poor, the intemperate, we would call them alcoholics perhaps or drug users today, the honored, ministers, statesmen, authors.

And she spends more time than any other category on the wealthy, because we're not that good at reaching the wealthy.

And so she has quite a bit of counsel right there on how to deal with the wealthy.

And the biggest problem that she identifies, and it's really interesting what she says, When we approach wealthy individuals, she says they're in great danger.

They're in peril, I think she uses that word, if I remember right.

And the thing that makes them so vulnerable or so endangered is their wealth.

She says, in the world today, where selfishness, greed, and oppression rule, many of the Lord's true children are in need and affliction.

In lowly, miserable places, surrounded with poverty, disease, and guilt.

Many are patiently bearing their own burden.

I'm sorry, I've jumped tracks here on you.

It looks like I maybe missed 1 slide that I intended to get in.

But what she says, and I'll go back to the issue of the wealthy, because this is obviously moving on to something else, and I'm sorry I missed that up.

What she says is that when we approach the wealthy, we need to, in discreet, kind, compassionate ways, present them the opportunity to use their money to do good.

Some of them at least are looking for ways to do something good with their money.

I mean look at Bill and Melinda Gates, right?

Yeah, there are some who would question their motives, but nonetheless, they've made this big foundation, they give away lots of money.

Let's take it at face value for the moment and say they're looking for some way to do good.

And she says, it's the job of Christians to present to them the privilege of sacrificial service.

We tend to be, we tend to find ourselves kind of tongue tied in that regard sometimes.

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Christian Service: A Religious System

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