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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Dave Fiedler

Christian Service and the Great Final Test

The truth for this time, the third angel's message, stop for just a moment.

The third angel's message set off with commas before and after.

Any grammarians tell me what kind of a construction that is?

That would work, but it's a particular kind of those.

Nobody really in English here so much, huh?

An appositive is a non-essential interruption that renames what was just named.

So what she's saying is, the truth for this time, which is the third angel's message, okay, that's the effect of that positive construction right there, okay.

The truth for this time, the third angel's message, is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, meaning with increasing power.

Now I spoke this morning about power and sometimes the lack thereof, right?

You're talking about trying to arrest the attention of 7 billion people.

Even if the Ebola thing gets out of hand and 50% of us die, that's still 3.5 billion people.

I've always thought that taking the gospel all over the world would be a lot easier if the population were brought down to about 10 million or so, but I'm not saying that's a good idea, I'm just thinking it would be easier to take the gospel that way.

Increasing power, she says, as we approach the great final test.

This test, this great final test, must come to the churches in connection with the true dot dot dot.

Now if you happen to know this statement, inside out, upside down, or backwards, you know what the next words are going to be.

If you know of a certainty what the next words are, please be quiet right now.

If you're just looking at this kind of for the first time and you're saying, well, I wonder what that would be?

Now then, you're the ones who can speak, okay?

So what do you think the great final test must come to the churches in connection with?

This would be the interactive portion of the discussion here, so...

Okay, Sabbath is probably the idea that Adventists would certainly probably dwell most on, but it's not the Sabbath.

With the true medical missionary work, a work that has the great physician to dictate and preside in all it comprehends.

Now that's a really puzzling statement and I've wrestled with that statement or pondered it.

I think the first time I ran into that, I still remember, I was writing an article and it was 1987.

So Not quite 30 years I've been working on this statement.

And my ideas have changed over time somewhat, but it's interesting.

I think I'm closer to having a more complete understanding of it now than I was 30 years ago type of thing.

But we would normally expect the Sabbath to be the great final test.

And you know, actually the statement, this is something, this thing we're talking about here, medical mission work, is in connection with the great final test.

So I think the Sabbath is still very much core, okay?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying, okay, after all this time, we don't need to worry about, I'm not saying that, okay?

But it's must, the test on the Sabbath, the test on the 3 angels' messages, the test on everything that's incorporated and involved in that must come to the churches in connection with true medical missionary work.

It's kind of like the statement we saw this morning.

It says, this must be done, I don't have it memorized, so I'm not sure I'm gonna quote it rightly, but this must be done in connection with healing with the body, right?

Remember that statement that this morning we had?

This must be done, I don't have it memorized, so I'm not sure I'm gonna quote it rightly, but this must be done in connection with healing with the body, right?

This must be done, I don't know if it said in connection, but with healing of the body.

There is a dual role of the evangelistic and the medical.

And this is why, I said, you know, when the medical workers and the evangelistic workers are not united, it places the worst evil on the church.

Not gonna go into that at great length, but I'll just give you a 25 cent explanation of what I think the worst evil is.

My guess, I won't be dogmatic about this, but my guess is that the worst evil that's placed on the churches when the medical and the evangelistic work are not united, I think the worst evil is thinking perhaps for your entire life.

You know, I mean, it's been 110 years since she wrote that, so a lot of people have born, lived, and died their entire life during that time span.

And I would guess that the vast majority of them, Seventh-day Adventists, were doing good works, whatever, and thinking that what they were doing was going to someday culminate in the Second Coming, when the fact is, there's no possible way.

The second coming requires this dual related thrust.

It's an absolute requirement for all sorts of reasons.

And so I think perhaps the worst evil is thinking all your life that you're doing something that's going to result in a given end when in fact you're not.

It's not to say that it doesn't result in some good, again, you know, during that 110 years.

It's not to say that everybody's lost or that nobody was converted or anything like that.

Just kind of like, you know, there were some good things that happened during the 40 years in the wilderness too, you know.

But it didn't get him into the Promised Land.

Now here it talks about medical missionary work, and just to be honest, medical missionary work is just another title for Christian service.

I almost wish we had never taken up the phrase medical missionary work.

That was imported into Adventism from other sources.

My 1 problem with that phrase is that it, in most people's minds, it places undue emphasis on formal medical practice and skills, okay?

Medical missionary work, as used by the Spirit of Prophecy, is very, very broad.

And I like to say, you know, it's everything from raking leaves in some little old lady's yard when she's, you know, too unsteady on her feet to get out there.

Before we picked up that phrase, the first time that shows up, by the way, in advanced publications was 1893, and before that we had other names for it.

We called it Christian help work, which means Christians helping people, right?

And sometimes we called it the benevolent work, which just means being nice to people.

And sometimes we call it Christian service.

So it's really all the same thing, at least in my book.

How tightly entwined is medical missionary work or Christian help work or Christian service with the Sabbath?

And I would argue that it is inextricably intertwined for a number of reasons.

But skipping all the reasons right now, I don't want to take the time.

We cannot keep the Sabbath holy unless we serve the Lord in the manner brought to view in the scripture, colon, what scripture do you think she's going to quote?

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Christian Service and the Great Final Test

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