H.M.S. Richards

Voice Of Prophecy

How the Sabbath Began

Lift up the trumpet and loud let it ring, Jesus is coming again.

Cheer up you pilgrims, be joyful and sing, Jesus is coming again.

This is the voice of prophecy, a voice crying in the wilderness of these modern days.

Coming again, coming again, Jesus is coming again.

From our Voice of Prophecy Studios in Los Angeles, California, we welcome you to this half hour of inspiration and music with the King's Heralds, Del Delker, Brad Braley, and the voice of prophecy speaker, HMS Richards, a Seventh-day Adventist minister.

When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more, and the morning breaks eternal bright and fair, When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore, and the roll is called a pionder, When the roll is called a pionder, When the roll is called a pionder, I'll be there.

Let us lay before the Master from the dawn till setting sun.

Let us talk of all his wondrous love and care.

Then when all of life is over and our work on earth is done, and the role is called a Pionder, I'll be there.

When the role is called a Pionder, When the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.

Our Father in Heaven, we pray that Thou wilt bless this broadcast to every listener.

We pray for religious freedom throughout the world.

Guide, we pray, all who are in authority that they may open the doors to preaching the gospel in all lands.

There is a place of quiet rest Near to the heart of God a place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God.

The first step in obtaining help from God is to feel in need.

In the well-known hymn, the King's Heralds now express for us all the prayerful confession of our daily need.

I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord.

No tender voice like thine can peace afford.

Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to thee.

0 make me thine indeed, thou blessed Son.

Here now is HMS Richards, the Voice of Prophecy speaker.

I will begin by telling how the Sabbath was kept in our home when I was a boy.

My brother and I always looked forward to the coming of the Sabbath.

It was a very enjoyable and happy time for us.

Let me say right here that we observed the original seventh-day Bible Sabbath which begins not at midnight but at sunset.

For you know the Bible says in Leviticus 23 32 from even unto even shall you celebrate your Sabbath.

As far as the Sabbath is concerned, even means sunset, as written in Mark 1.32.

It's so much easier to welcome the Sabbath at sunset than midnight.

Of course, some of the neighbors looked upon us as rather strange people because we observed the Bible Sabbath the seventh day of the week instead of the first as most of our friends did.

Nevertheless, Sabbath was a happy time for us.

You know it's called the preparation day in the Bible, Mark 15, verse 42.

It was the day when all Sabbath keepers prepare for the Sabbath.

Mother would get everything ready on that day.

She would do all the cooking and plan for something special and extra good for the Sabbath meal, then we children would have to be ready too.

Shoes polished, clothes clean, everything spick and span as though we were preparing for a king.

And we were because God's presence is in his Sabbath.

Then just at sunset or a few minutes before possibly, we would gather together and sing our favorite songs for the opening of the Sabbath.

We all knew them by heart and enjoyed singing them together as the western sky turned gold, then crimson, and the last rays of the sun sank behind the Rocky Mountains.

Is dying in the West, Heaven is touching Earth with rest.

The night is giving glimpse of life through all the sky.

God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of thee.

Heaven and earth are praising thee, O Lord, most high.

When forever from our side, When from our side, Pass the stars the day, the night, Pass the stars The day, the night, and the sound of angels on our eyes, and the morning bright, and shadows end.

Holy, holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts.

And after singing our Sabbath songs, father would read from the great book of God.

Sometimes he would make a few comments so that things would be clear to us boys.

Then we would all kneel in prayer, each 1 of us taking part, not to close, uniting in the Lord's prayer.

After we rose from our knees we would sing another song, usually number 655 in our songbook, that beautiful hymn by Henry F.

Fast falls the even tide, the darkness deepens, Lord with me abide.

When other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless.

Each member of the family had a favorite verse in that song.

Mother's favorite, I need thy presence every passing hour.

What but thy grace can foil a tempter's power?

And father would always choose a third verse.

Not a brief glance, I ask, nor passing word, but as thou dwellest with thy disciples, Lord, familiar, condescending, patient, free.

Memories of those wonderful hours together will never fade from the mind, nor die in the heart.

Think of it, there are now over a million Christians around the world keeping the Sabbath in this way every week when it begins at sunset.

1 time Father explained to us how the Sabbath began.

He said that although Jesus was born as a little baby in Bethlehem and grew to be a man here on this earth and died on the cross for our salvation, he was actually with the Father in heaven before the world began.

Then he explained to us by reading the first chapter of the Gospel of John, those words where we're told that he was with the Father and that all things were created by him, that Jesus himself was actually the active agent in the creation of the world.

What a surprise it was to us to know that the blessed Savior about whom we had heard in Sabbath school and whom we had learned to love was the 1 who really created this world.

Then Father read other texts too especially, Colossians the first chapter and 13th verse, where we read that all things were made by him.

That he is before all things and by Him all things consist or hold together as Father explained it.

Not only did Jesus make everything, but He keeps everything going and holds it all together.

Then the last text he read to us clinched forever this great truth in our minds.

He wanted to make things clear and so strong, so solid that we would never doubt and we never did.

Here is the text he read, Hebrews 1, verses 1 and 2.

God, who at sundry times and in divers or different manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." It was the Son, yes by Him, that God made the worlds, and that includes our world.

So you see, Father said, when we read in the first chapter of the Bible that God made the world in 6 days, and then turn over to the first verse of the second chapter, and find that he rested on the seventh day and called it the Sabbath.

Therefore, the Sabbath made it the beginning of this world.

The seventh day Sabbath was the Sabbath of Jesus.

And of course, Every time we stood up in Sabbath school to repeat the 10 Commandments, the class would realize that we were talking about the work of Jesus.

Where Am I From?

Chris Holland

It Is Written Canada

Where Am I From?- Part 3

God's book, the Bible, still relevant in today's complex world.

It is Written, sharing messages of hope around the world.

Dear friend, thank you so much for joining us today on It Is Written.

We're in the midst of a series where we've been asking the question, where are we from?

Not a province, not our city, but where have we come from?

And helping me in this conversation has been Dr.

Standish, wanna welcome you to the program once again.

Well, thank you so much for having me back.

I hope that you're enjoying this as much as I am.

Standish, you work for the Geoscience Research Institute.

What does the Geoscience Research Institute do?

What are some of the things you're doing right now?

Well, basically, the Geoscience Research Institute has 5 scholars.

We're all trained and active scientists, and we fall into different categories of science.

There's a geologist, There's a paleontologist, there's a physicist and a biogeographer and then me.

I keep asking what exactly am I, but I'm a biologist.

I actually concentrate primarily in molecular genetics, which is the study of DNA and associated molecules inside cells.

What we're looking at is the way in which the Bible and science interface.

Now there are many people who think, oh well science, it is slowly and surely and progressively proving the Bible wrong.

It's quite surprising to see the agreement that exists between the very best science out there and the claims of Scripture.

Also it's probably necessary to have something like a biblical worldview to even do science in the first place.

You have to believe, for example, that nature will be the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And of course, what the Bible teaches is that God who sustains all of nature is the same yesterday, today and forever.

So when we find something like a law of physics, we can have confidence that it's going to be the same tomorrow.

The force of gravity is not going to change in our lifetime or a thousand years from now or a million years from now because God is the 1 who sustains his creation.

You have to believe something like that to actually do science.

So there are both philosophical aspects of the biblical worldview, and also discoveries that science makes in which science and the Bible actually are in remarkable harmony.

Now, that's not to deny that there are, in fact, areas of tension.

And that's Really what we've been talking about over these last few programs that Tension that exists and where it comes from is it really based on evidence or is it a philosophical?

Thing that's being that's being struggled through here.

Standish, over the course of the last several shows, we've been having this discussion.

We kind of began by just asking that broad-based question, where do I come from?

And we began with a discussion about origins and 1 of the most ancient documents recording what the origin of humankind is coming from the Bible, the book of Genesis, written by Moses.

But then we began to investigate and say, at some point, at some point in the ancient past, there was a departure from this worldview that God created everything in 6 days.

And we saw 1 of those departures actually taking place and we talked specifically about Indian philosophy and then we talked about Greek philosophy.

Now if you've missed any of those shows, you can go to our YouTube page, www.youtube.com forward slash IIW Canada.

You can pick up any of those shows and watch them to bring you up to speed in this discussion.

So as we explored that, we saw emerging the Epicureans, and then we talked a little bit about the Stoics, and then around the time of Jesus, about 2, 000 years ago, somewhere between probably 35 and 40 AD, we see this interaction with Paul and these philosophers.

And he blows their mind with this argument that the unknown God who you've built an altar to, I know who that God is.

And we ask the question why is this discussion even important?

I mean, why even worry about these things?

And where we ended last week was that not only is God the Creator, but He also sent His Son, Jesus, whom the Bible says through Jesus all things were made.

God sent his son to a planet that has fallen and not perfect any longer, and we're gonna talk about that in just a moment, And he sent his son with an eventual goal that he's going to make a new creation.

So that takes us all the way back to the beginning of that ancient document, Genesis.

Why is the Genesis account so important for this discussion on origins?

Well, even if you are just a historian and you are interested in these things, the Genesis account is absolutely fascinating.

Usually when we're talking about history, written accounts trump everything else.

And so, you know, if you happen to go into the middle of the desert in Egypt and you see some hieroglyphics that are there in the rock and those hieroglyphics say, I thought most the second pharaoh of Egypt was here.

Even though somebody could have come along last week and carefully chiseled those things in and then, well, maybe not in a week, but done everything they could to make that look old and it could fool us.

We believe written accounts, first-hand accounts of things.

When you think about other events in history that we believe actually happened.

For example, I believe that Julius Caesar invaded Britain.

He said, yes, I, Caesar, invaded Britain.

And we have far less reliable, you know, documents that we get that account from.

And by the way, we also can believe that as a politician, Caesar was being quite self-serving when he talked about all of his achievements like that.

But we believe written accounts from the past.

So even though I was just in Britain not that long ago and you know what?

Yes, it's it's it's it's simply a way in which scholarship works And so this account in Genesis is valuable, if for no other reason, than because it is a very, very early account.

But it also happens to be a very coherent account.

It makes an awful lot of sense because when we look around our world, most people agree, certainly most western people agree, that the evidence points towards some kind of beginning.

Now, it may have been a big bang, or it may have been God creating everything, but the universe appears to have a beginning.

And the fact that human beings are here tells us that human beings came from somewhere.

We don't believe that human beings are eternal.

So this account that there was a beginning, that makes an awful lot of sense.

When we look at the nature of things, the way organisms are put together, they look like they were designed.

They look like there was a plan there of some kind.

That's what the biblical account tells us occurred.

So there's this kind of coherence between what we observe and what the biblical account says.

Now, do we have a perfect correlation given the way that science works and our understanding of scripture and everything?

But even on the surface, the major characteristics make an awful lot of sense.

So from a scientific perspective, it makes sense.

But also from the perspective of our understanding of ourselves, it makes a huge difference in our lives.

And so we're coming back to that question then, you know, who am I, where am I from?

As a scientist, you've spent a lot of time studying science.

You have a bachelor's degree in biology, you have, or excuse me, a bachelor's degree in zoology, a master's degree in biology, a PhD in environmental biology and public policy.

You spent a lot of time in the sciences, which again, oversimplifying things, observing things.

Where Am I From?- Part 2

It is written, sharing messages of hope around the world.

Friends thank you so much for joining It Is Written.

I am thrilled to once again have my friend, Dr.

Standish is a senior scientist with the Geoscience Research Institute.

Standish, welcome to the program once again.

Standish, you are a senior scientist with the Geoscience Research Institute.

You are a, you're not a former professor.

You still teach, but you were an associate professor of biology for both Andrews University in Michigan and Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska.

You have a PhD in environmental biology and public policy, a master's of science in biology, a bachelor's of science in zoology.

Tell me, what do you do as a senior scientist for the Geoscience Research Institute?

I wake up almost every morning and ask myself that question as well.

There are a wide variety of things that we engage in at the Geoscience Research Institute.

We do try to keep current with our research.

Every now and again, I still try to publish a scientific paper in the regular peer-reviewed literature.

1 of the interesting things is I can teach classes not just in the United States where we're located, but in other countries as well.

So I teach a class at the Adventist International Institute for Advanced Studies in the Philippines and also for the Adventist University of Africa.

And I also have the opportunity to travel as a guest lecturer to various other universities, both Seventh-day Adventist universities, but also secular universities on occasion and universities that are run by other Christian denominations.

That is fabulous, and I am so glad that you've actually taken the time to come to Canada and to teach in this classroom, a classroom that's broadcast all across the nation.

Standish, just as a point of reference, what is the Geoscience, you talked about being current in its study, what is the Geoscience Research Institute dedicated to, What's its mission?

Well, obviously, our mission is ultimately to draw people to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer.

Now, in addition to that, we want to shed light on science and the way in which scientific understandings of reality work with biblical revelation.

And, you know, there are a wealth of resources at the Geoscience Research Institute website.

What's that website if somebody wants to go and visit that site and get to some of those resources.

And there you can find articles and all kinds of resources.

We put out blogs and you can get to those very easily through the website.

And of course we encourage people to join us on Facebook as well.

We have interesting things coming out continually on our Facebook page.

Standish, we kind of left everybody on edge with last week's program.

We had been talking about origins, where are we from, and we left off with Paul at Mars Hill in a showdown with the Epicureans and the Stoics.

Now before we get to what happened there, maybe it's just a point of reference and a little bit of review.

Who are these Epicurean philosophers and why are they important to this discussion on origins?

The Epicurean philosophers were followers of a philosopher named Epicurus.

And Epicurus had taken atomistic philosophy, The idea that change occurs around us as a result of atoms moving.

Not being guided by anything, It's just their nature to keep moving and rearranging themselves.

And just to hit a pause button there, and that is originating with another philosopher.

Democritus, and so Epicurus is a, maybe not a direct, is he a direct student of Democritus?

Okay, so this is, the Epicureans are following on this line of thinking of atomists, that atoms merely rearranged as how things come into being, which in essence means there's nothing new in the universe the universe is simply a Constant rearrange and I'm oversimplifying it but a constant rearranging of atoms.

Okay, so let's talk more about these Epicureans.

So they're these descendants of Democritus and Adamism, And so what else are they believing?

They believe that the only way to, or the best way to get knowledge is through our senses.

The only reality is what we take in through our senses.

That's why we associate them with hedonism, with good food and good drink and the good life, which is what the philosophers were seeking to talk about.

They believed in avoiding pain and seeking pleasure.

Paul shows up at Mars Hill and there are the Epicureans and there are the Stoics.

And we'll come to the Stoics in just a moment.

Back to Menu

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Where Am I From?- Part 3

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Where Am I From?- Part 2

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