Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Cindy Tutsch
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000379
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00:01 Hi, I am Shelley Quinn. Please join us today
00:03 On Issues and Answers as we talk about wonderful 00:06 stories of the Adventist Heritage. 00:30 I don't care how old you are. We all seem 00:32 to enjoy stories of the past. 00:34 Stories that - have to do with something about 00:36 our heritage and you know the Bible even tells us 00:39 in Jeremiah at 31:21 "Set up for yourself road signs 00:43 look back and turn your heart toward the highway 00:47 that you came on and this is what we're going to 00:50 do today, is retrace our steps of Adventist Heritage 00:54 with our very special guest Dr. Cindy Tutsch. 00:58 And Cindy, so glad to have you back again. 01:00 Now you are the Associate Director for the 01:04 Ellen G. White Estate. That's right. 01:06 Its located at the general conference 01:08 which is Adventist World Headquarters 01:10 in Silver spring, Maryland. 01:11 And Ellen White was one of, I mean she is probably 01:14 the most translated female author. 01:17 I think in the world I thought. 01:18 Yes, indeed. In fact, her her's book Steps to Christ; 01:21 The devotional book, "Steps to Christ" 01:22 has been translated in over a 150 languages. 01:25 How wonderful? Now she was also one of the 01:28 founders for the Adventist Church. 01:30 That's right. As a group of people, 01:32 interdenominational people came together in 01:34 Bible study and then started the advent movement. 01:37 Now Tell me before we get started here 01:40 how long have you been with the 01:42 Ellen White Institute now. 01:45 I've been there for 01:46 eight and half years already. 01:47 Alright. And you came from? 01:48 I came from Washington State where I was 01:51 Youth Director that means I was the Director for 01:54 youth activities for the Seventh-day Adventist Church 01:56 around the Seattle area. The Washington conference 01:59 we called it which was about seven-day Churches 02:01 there and I directed youth activities and before that 02:04 I was a Pastor and before that I was a Bible teacher. 02:07 Wonderful. So you always had, I know you have 02:10 three children of your own and you've always been 02:12 drawn to youth ministry, haven't you? 02:13 That's right. That's wonderful. 02:15 I love kids. So tell us a little bit 02:17 about our heritage as Adventist. 02:20 You know I love these stories because I think 02:22 they kind of help us identify 02:24 with a very special spiritual pioneers and 02:28 the heritage that we have - 02:29 I think of Joshua 4, where after the God had 02:33 Miraculously part of the Jordan River and 02:36 Israelites had gone through it, 02:37 then the Lord instructed them to take twelve stones 02:41 out of the River and build an alter 02:42 and every time they saw that alter it reminder 02:46 to them of the wonder that God had done 02:48 in helping them to get across that river 02:50 and into the promise land. 02:51 And so these stories I think I just 02:53 reminders to us that what God has done for 02:56 our people for our denomination to bring us 03:00 together to be Herald of the good news 03:02 that Jesus is coming soon. 03:03 Amen. And which story do 03:05 you want to start with today? 03:06 Well, the story that I think I would like to begin with 03:09 happened probably around 1845, before they are even 03:13 was a seventh-day Adventist Church. 03:15 It was after the great disappointment of 03:17 October 22, 1844. When the -- had 03:20 preached that Jesus would come on that date 03:22 He had not come and so the Adventist were 03:25 a little bit distress. There were no 03:26 Seventh-Day Adventist at this time. 03:28 These were groups of people from many different 03:30 denominations who would look forward to the 03:31 coming of Jesus. And about two months after that 03:34 great disappointment, young 17 year old Ellen Harmon 03:38 had a vision, a special message from God 03:41 in which he told her about this path 03:42 going from earth up to the New Jerusalem 03:45 and the believers were walking on this path 03:47 and some were falling off into the dark road below 03:50 And after she came out of that vision 03:54 that message from God. About a week later 03:56 God called her to a special ministry for him 03:59 And as a prophetic minister for God. 04:02 But of course, you know, she is 17 years old 04:05 she is weak. She is a woman and the day when woman have 04:08 little credibility. She is uneducated. 04:11 And so there were some persons who wondered 04:14 that you have too much pickles and ice cream 04:16 the night before. Did she really have a message from God? 04:20 And my story today concerns establishing 04:25 Ellen White's credibility, not by feelings and 04:28 emotions, that by the word of God. 04:30 And you know I want to just point out 04:32 because many of our viewers, and our audience are not 04:36 Seventh-Day Adventist so I do want to 04:37 point out that Seventh-Day Adventist based all of our 04:40 doctrines on the Bible. And one think that 04:43 we appreciate about Ellen White as one of the 04:45 founders of this Church is that, she did as well 04:48 And she wrote believe we were talking about 04:50 this earlier today that she wrote about Jesus Christ 04:54 most and then the Holy Spirit was her second 04:57 That's right. Most favorite topic, 05:00 That's right. And she always pointed 05:01 back to the scriptures. And she never wanted to 05:03 elevate her writings above the scriptures 05:05 Oh! it's called herself a lesser life 05:07 pointing into the greater life. 05:09 Exactly, the Scriptures, even her 05:11 language in which she writes is just 05:15 seeped in scripture because she was such a 05:16 student of the Bible. Yes, Amen. 05:17 Well, this certainly after Ellen White was called to this 05:21 Prophetic ministry a group of Adventists 05:24 in the Boston area developed some 05:26 Fanatical teachings. They believed that they were 05:28 holy and sinless and that they could not sin because 05:31 they had been set apart and they were beyond the 05:34 power of temptation. And they also believe 05:36 that the year of jubilee had come which meant 05:38 that the men could do no work during that year. 05:41 So you know, wouldn't this to be kept? 05:43 The women do it. You know, they couldn't 05:45 go out and get jobs. And people were saying 05:46 how can we do this? How will we support our 05:49 families? And they said, well they are the 05:51 rich. So, just sell everything they have and give 05:53 to the rest of us and we can all go for 05:55 whole year without working. So, there is ahead 05:58 of the Adventist believers there just 06:00 South of Boston named Mr. Nichols who 06:03 thought may be Ellen Herman could be helpful in 06:05 counter-acting and combating some of this fanaticism. 06:08 So, he invited her and one of her sisters, Sara to 06:11 come to his house. 06:13 The name of these leaders of this fanatical 06:15 movement was Mr. Sir- John and Mr. Robbins. 06:18 And they had always said, Ellen Herman because 06:20 that was her maid name. Right. 06:22 They had always said that her visions were devil. 06:25 And she were in their presence then she could not 06:27 possibly had a vision. And they also said that 06:31 they were the, called to be the leaders of this 06:33 movement. But this said that if they ever had the 06:36 opportunity to see her, they would be very grateful 06:38 because they knew that she can have never have a vision 06:40 in their presence because they were of the God 06:41 and she was of the devil. Well, here they are 06:44 sitting in the living room, visiting and they ain't 06:46 Mr. Nichols sees the carriage coming down 06:48 the lane and here it is this Mr. Sir John 06:50 and Mr. Robbins and he thinks oh great, 06:52 you know Ellen Herman is here. We can all visit. 06:54 We can talk. We can say the Bible together. 06:55 And may be we can, you know, work out some of these 06:57 difficulties. So, he went out to meet them. 07:00 And they said, ohh yeah we're So glad to be here with 07:02 we could spend the night at your house, 07:03 and he said great. He said, you will be glad to know 07:05 that Ellen Herman is here. Mr. Robbins looked to 07:08 Mr. Sir John and Mr. Sir- John looked to Mr. Robbins 07:11 and he said, we just remembered that we have 07:14 another appointment down the roadways 07:16 And Mr. Nichols said, what's up with that? 07:18 You know, I thought you wanted to come in. 07:19 I thought you're going to spend the night. 07:20 Oh! No, no. I wouldn't come in for lot more 07:22 many. So he said, when are you going to meet 07:24 this Ellen Herman who later became known Ellen White. 07:26 They said, well, just have her come up to Boston 07:29 this next Sunday. And she can speak to all of the 07:31 Adventists that are gathered together 07:33 at that time. And he said, alright. 07:35 So when Mr. Nichols told Ellen Herman, and she said 07:38 fine. We all will be happy to do this. 07:40 and so everything was good, but that night 07:43 Ellen Herman had a very short vision in which 07:47 God told her not to go North to Boston 07:50 but to go South about 20 miles to a town 07:54 called Randolph. But when she told 07:56 Mr. Nichols about this the next day 07:58 he was really perplexed because they had already, 07:59 you know, made the commitment that they were going 08:02 to go up to Boston. And he thought all the people think 08:05 you know, if we just don't show up you know, 08:06 no cell phones and no internet, no way, 08:08 no telephones, no way to let people know 08:09 you are not coming. But he believes that 08:12 Ellen Herman's visions were of God because 08:14 they had been tested by the word of God. 08:16 And he thought well, may be God has 08:18 purpose in this. So on Sunday they went 08:22 down to Randolph and as they approached 08:24 the door of Mr. Thayer, where they were going 08:27 to meet. They heard singing and the singing 08:30 was quite loud and they opened the door just as 08:35 Mr. Robbins was telling all the people who were now 08:39 gathered in this town South of Boston 08:41 that Ellen Herman's vision were of the devil and he 08:44 looked at with great surprise to see them because he; 08:47 This was the very man that had agreed to meet her in Boston. 08:50 Exactly. And he had gone Southway, 08:52 right; so this just a little prank, you know, this is 08:54 going to be very funny he thought that she and her 08:56 little entourage, would go up to Boston and nobody would be 08:58 there. So, he of course was very startled to see her there 09:02 in Randolph and all the people wanted to hear 09:04 her speak and to hear about her visions and her communications 09:07 that she had had from God and to give them a scriptural study. 09:10 Of course, Mr. Sir John and Mr. Robbins were not eager to 09:14 have this happen at all. So he said, okay, after lunch, 09:17 after lunch. Well, after lunch as Ellen Herman got up 09:20 to speak. She was carried off into vision and it turned 09:24 out to be the longest vision that she ever had lasted 09:27 four hours. And some of her visions were just a few 09:30 moments but this one was 4 hours, but Mr. Robbins 09:33 and Mr. Sir John were so eager for it to not happen 09:36 that they tried to leave the congregation in singing 09:38 they would talk louder then they could so that no one 09:41 would hear her speaking because sometimes when she 09:43 had a vision she would describe that she was seen. 09:46 And here the people were wanting to hear that so much. 09:49 The Robins and Mr. Sir John, they were trying to read from 09:53 scriptures until their voices has got hoarse, but they 09:56 didn't drowned out her voice and the people were saying 09:58 my, you know that she is speaking with a hope and faith 10:01 and courage and talking to us about the Lord and quoting 10:04 from scripture and why could you say that this is 10:06 of the devil, you know, by your fruits you shall know them. 10:09 And you know she is not speaking anything as 10:11 contradictory to Scripture. Now then this Mr. Thayer 10:15 whose home they were in. He wasn't quite sure, 10:18 you know, what to think and he had heard that if he put 10:21 an open Bible on someone who was in a vision that 10:24 if it was of the devil they would come out of immediately. 10:27 So, he suggested to Mr. Sir John that he do that, 10:30 but Mr. Sir John would have nothing of it. 10:32 So, Mr. Thayer went over 10:33 and he put the open Bible on Ellen Herman who was 10:36 kind of reclining in a chair that moment and describing 10:38 the things that she was seeing as God portrayed them to her. 10:42 And when you put this big heavy family Bible like 10:45 we have in those days. On her, she picked it up, 10:49 stood up and she was Freya woman. Her health was not good 10:53 she weighed about 80 pounds. She held this Bible up over 10:58 her head for her granddaughter says, over an 11:02 hour we don't know if that's the case but at least there 11:04 was a very long time. And was quoting from the 11:08 scripture as she turned the page but she couldn't see 11:11 the Bible because it was up above her head. 11:13 So you know what the folks did, they grabbed chairs, jumped 11:16 on the chairs, looked over, and peep down to see if where 11:19 her finger was and where she was quoting was actually 11:21 what the scripture said and sure enough it was. 11:24 And she talked about the wonder of heaven and the richness 11:28 of salvation, through faith in Christ alone and then she 11:32 started talking about the judgment of the in time, 11:35 you know, when those who were doing wicked things would be 11:37 called to judgment. And of course this made Mr. Robins 11:41 and Mr. Sir John extremely uncomfortable and you know, 11:44 when she came out of that vision, the people 11:47 expected Mr. Robbins and Mr.- Sir John to probably go to 11:51 the front and confess that they had been wrong and this 11:54 was a beautiful gift of God, to kind of identify and 11:57 strengthen the fledgling movement. But none of that 12:00 they just gone to slunk out and left. But it was a real 12:04 crossroads in the early Adventist history because 12:08 it helped the people establish 12:09 their faith that God had actually 12:12 called this young woman to the prophetic ministry. 12:14 Not necessarily from the external phenomenon that 12:18 she didn't breath for instance Right. Like Daniel 12:20 didn't breath when he was in vision or the fact that 12:23 that her eyes were open while in vision and she could talk 12:26 but she didn't breath. Well, it wasn't that those physical 12:29 phenomena as striking as that was. It was did, what she 12:34 said harmonized with the way they thought. Amen, With the 12:37 scriptures. And you know, I went at the Ellen White 12:40 Institute and I have seen that the size of that Bible 12:43 and the idea of trying to hold it for minutes your 12:46 arm would be. Exactly. Absolutely, even I've 12:50 heard this is true but I've heard that, that they had 12:52 strong men try to do this who just couldn't even 12:55 hold it up for an hour. Right. Now that particular Bible 12:58 that you saw at the Ellen White Estate, that is not the same 13:01 Bible that she held when she was at this family's home. 13:04 That Bible was probably a little bit smaller still much 13:06 bigger than the Bibles that, you and I use, yes, but 13:08 probably not as big as the one that you saw at 13:10 the estate. That Bible that you saw was the very Bible 13:14 she did hold up in a subsequent vision. 13:16 And sure enough Mr. Miraca, who once came to the 13:19 Ellen White Estate was not able to hold it up like this 13:21 longer than two and half minutes. But again you know 13:24 those physical phenomena as striking and interesting 13:26 as they are. Right. Are not the most important thing 13:29 why? Because they can also counterfeit, 13:32 absolutely, miracled. That's good point. So it has to be 13:34 in conjunction with God's words. Absolutely. 13:37 That is the most important thing. So this little frank 13:39 that they pulled on her, trying to send Ellen White 13:42 to Boston while they went down to South to 13:46 discredit her. It totally backfired on them because 13:49 the Lord spoke to her in a short vision 13:52 telling her where to go. 13:53 Exactly. So, Amen. I hope those lunatics in that group 13:57 were eventually called out of the Church where they worked. 13:59 Actually I think they fell away because we don't hear 14:01 any more from them. The Adventist group continue to 14:04 swell and to strengthen of course ultimately 14:08 colonizing into a denomination in 1863. 14:11 Now you mentioned though Cindy, that they were meeting 14:13 on Sunday. Yes. And we all know that one of the things, 14:17 of course they were at that time just called Adventist. 14:19 Right. But we are now known today as a Seventh-Day 14:22 Adventist. How did the Seventh-Day, you have 14:25 the story on the Seventh-Day Sabbath and how this 14:28 actually began to come in and be embraced by the Church 14:33 as a true Bible doctrine. Right. 14:36 Well it happened in a little mountain village of Washington 14:38 New Hampshire. There was a group of Adventists 14:41 there who were looking forward to the coming of Jesus but 14:44 who were meeting on Sunday and the school teacher there 14:47 named, her name was Delight, and her mother 14:51 Rachel Oakes Preston came to visit. 14:53 Now Rachel Oakes Preston was a seventh day Baptist, 14:56 but there were no seventh day Baptist Churches there and so 14:59 she went with her daughter to this little kind of 15:01 Congregational Church there in Washington, New Hampshire. 15:04 And in the afternoon, the Pastor came to visit her 15:07 as the new person in town. Right. 15:10 And as she was sitting there in her rocking chair, 15:12 she said Brother Wheeler, his name is Frederick Wheeler, 15:16 brother Wheeler, while you were preaching I could 15:18 scarcley contain myself. You say that we should keep 15:21 all Ten Commandments, but you yourself constantly 15:24 break on of them. Now of course, he was indignant, 15:26 answered whatever do you mean and she said, well, 15:29 you know, she said, you keep the first day in 15:33 contradiction to the plain word of God which 15:36 clearly states that the Seventh-Day is the Sabbath 15:38 of the Lord Thy God. Well, you know, this really peaked 15:41 Frederick Wheeler's interest, so he went home and began 15:44 studying about this and as he was studying he would 15:47 come back to his little Sunday keeping Adventist Church 15:49 there and preach about what he was discovering. 15:51 And ultimately two young men in his congregation 15:56 Cyrus and William Farnsworth stood up in front of the 15:59 people that they had known all of their lives and said, 16:01 we want to keep the Seventh-Day Sabbath of the 16:04 Fourth Commandment. Well, in the mean time a man named 16:08 Thomas Preble, wrote a very strongly worded tracked based 16:12 on scripture and supporting Seventh-Day Sabbath observance 16:16 and this tract fell into the hands of Joseph Bates. 16:19 Now Joseph Bates was a man of action. He was formerly 16:23 a sea Captain. He owned his own little shipping business. 16:26 But he sold that retired and put all of his money into 16:30 the cause of God, I mean he was zealous, you know, 16:32 the Lord is coming. We want people to know that. 16:34 We want people to give their hearts to Christ, while theirs 16:37 yet time and I mean he was an Evangelist on fire for God. 16:41 And he was a prominent leader in this group of Adventist, 16:45 no Seventh-day Adventist remember. But he came into 16:48 this tract that Thomas Preble had written, read it 16:53 through and as he is reading this track, and studying this 16:55 track, he becomes convicted of the validity of the 16:59 Seventh-Day Sabbath. And he knew that this little group over 17:02 Washington, New Hampshire had adopted the Seventh-Day 17:06 Sabbath and he thought, well, I want to talk to them. 17:07 So he just took up from his little town of New Bedford, 17:11 Massachusetts. We don't know how he got there, 17:12 may be on foot, may be above on horse back, may be 17:15 partially by boat. He meets the Farnsworth there and 17:19 the biographer tells us under a stand of maple trees 17:21 there are in a little village I have been there 17:22 several times in Washington, New Hampshire. 17:24 He talked with him about the Sabbath all afternoon. 17:27 They stayed up half the night talking about the Sabbath, 17:29 and by the end he 17:31 was committed to keeping the Seventh-Day Sabbath holy. 17:35 Alright. So, he finishes visiting with these new 17:38 Adventist believers, remember there is no organized 17:41 denomination of Seventh-day Adventist that in a sense we 17:43 can call them the first Seventh-day Adventist because 17:45 they looked forward to the coming of Lord 17:46 and they also kept the Seventh-Day Sabbath. So, he 17:49 gets home by whatever means and he was walking across 17:52 the bridge that spans the river that goes to his 17:54 little town of New Bedford and a man named Mr. Hall, accost 17:58 and he says, what's the news Captain Bates, and of course, 18:02 Joseph Bates being overly the Evangelist 18:04 said the news the Seventh-day is the Sabbath of 18:07 the Lord Thy God and Mr. Hall, goes, what you know, 18:11 and so of course here Mr. Bates, Joseph Bates gives him a 18:14 Bible study about the Sabbath right there on the bridge 18:16 and Mr. Hall, becomes Joseph Bates first convert 18:21 to the Seventh-day Sabbath, the of the sanctity of the 18:23 Seventh-day Sabbath. In the meantime Joseph Bates went 18:28 home and thought, you know, I can only be here and here 18:31 and here, but if I write something like you, shall I 18:35 when you write books they go everywhere and he thought if 18:38 I write a little pamphlet or a little book on the 18:40 Seventh-day Sabbath that could go many places that 18:43 I couldn't go. The problem was 18:45 he know, he spent all of his money. 18:47 So, he is sitting there, trying to figure this out and 18:50 starting to study and think how he is going to put 18:52 together this book when his wife, Puddins, comes in 18:56 and she says, I need some flower Joseph, 18:59 I have to finish out my baking, 19:01 and he said, how much do you need and she said ohh 19:03 probably about 4 pounds. So he went into the kitchen 19:06 and picked up a six quote milk pan and toss off down 19:10 to the store to get the flower comes back she was out, 19:13 so he just let it there on the counter in the kitchen and 19:15 goes back to a study and he is sitting there, beginning 19:17 this little book. He is going to write on 19:19 Seventh-day Sabbath, and pretty soon she comes 19:21 and you know hands on hips and she says, Joseph, 19:25 where did the flower come from? He said, 19:27 well, I bought it and she said, well you bought 19:31 four pounds of flower. You who have been all over 19:34 the world on the shipping industry and you used to 19:37 buying a 100 barrels of flowers and you bring just 19:40 this little pile of flowers. Little did she realize? 19:43 She didn't realize. She didn't know that he had 19:45 put their whole fortune into the gospel. And so then 19:49 he confided to her. You know, I spent my last 19:52 Shilling, a York Shilling, was worth about 19:55 twelve and half cents in those days. 19:56 He said, I spent my last Shilling on this flower. 19:59 And that was all, the flower he could afford. Yeah. 20:02 So, she burst into tears and she goes. Oh! Joseph, 20:04 you know, whatever shall we do and. He says 20:07 the Lord will provide and she starts crying and said, 20:10 Oh, Lord! That's what you always say 20:11 the Lord will provide. Well, in the 20:14 meantime, he is thinking, he has an impression that 20:18 may be there is many for him waiting at the post office. 20:21 Just an impression that he thought came from the Lord. 20:24 So he goes down to the post office and asked if 20:27 there is mail and yes, there was a lot of from him. 20:29 But in those days you didn't have to pay a postage 20:32 you could pay it, 20:33 if you wanted or you could leave the postage off and 20:35 then the person who received the letter had to pay 20:37 the postage. So, he discovers that there is, the postage 20:41 has not been paid and he said to the post master, 20:43 well, I can't take the letter because I don't have any money 20:46 pay for it and I'm sure the post master just thought, 20:48 well he just left his money at home. I'm sure he didn't 20:49 realize because absolutely broke and he says no, just 20:53 take it, you can pay me next time you come in, but Joseph 20:56 Bates didn't want to go into debt and so he said, no 20:59 I tell you what? You open the letter and if there is 21:01 any money in it then you can take out the postage. 21:03 So, the post master opens the letter and sure enough 21:07 and here is $10. Which was a lot money 21:09 back then. Absolutely, a lot of money. 21:11 And so they took out the postage and Mr. Bates, thinks 21:16 I think I'll surprise my wife. 21:18 So, he goes back to the store and he orders all these, 21:20 this time a whole barrel of flower, a big bag of potatoes 21:23 and some sugar and you know all kinds of staples. 21:26 And he must had quite a sense of humor because he said, 21:29 to the delivery boy, he said, now you just take it to 21:31 my house and put it on the porch 21:33 and my wife is going to come with a answer 21:35 it doesn't belong to us but you 21:36 just put it there anyway. And then he 21:38 slid back into his study to keep writing on his 21:40 Sabbath document. So the, delivery man comes to the 21:43 door and the wife says, Oh! no, you know, 21:46 we don't do this. This is 21:47 not ours, we didn't pay for it, you know, 21:48 and she just can't imagine why 21:50 he leaves the stuff there and 21:52 she comes back to tell Joseph, you know, her husband look 21:55 at, look at all these stuff and she says 21:58 where did it come from? And he got a twinkle his eyes 22:01 and he said, well you know I told you, the Lord will 22:03 provide. Amen. So then he 22:05 told her the story of this, what seemed 22:07 to him to be a miracle that God had provided for their 22:10 needs and she too was a kind of ashamed of her lack of 22:13 faith and realized that, yes, God was going to give them 22:17 the courage and the faith and afford to keep pressing 22:20 on to carry out this mission that they believe that God 22:24 had given to them. And so Joseph Bates wrote the rest 22:29 of that tract he printed it, he published it and sent out a 22:32 thousand of copies of it on money that was sent to him from 22:35 various sources miraculously and that tract came into 22:40 the hands of Ellen and James White. And at first 22:44 they kind of resisted Oh! You know, how can this be, 22:47 you know, we have kept Sunday all of our 22:49 life. It's easy for anyone to resist truth that is contrary 22:55 to your foundational believe system. It's very 23:00 difficult because not growing up an Adventist. 23:02 I went through, of course the Lord was the one who 23:04 took me into a deep study. 23:06 It wasn't someone else trying to teach me but it was 23:09 something that, you know, when you have these pivotal 23:13 believes, it's like, Wow! These pillars I should say 23:17 believes. And somebody comes along says know what you've 23:20 known in recognize this truth all your life is not truth. 23:24 That's a difficult thing. You have to be really open to 23:27 the Holy Spirit. Absolutely. Because otherwise, 23:29 it's kind of, well, what did my grandparents do and 23:32 my great-grandparents. I know that when my father 23:35 became a Seventh-day Adventist there were no Seventh-day 23:37 Adventist in his entire family, none whatsoever. And his 23:41 father came to my dad and said, you know, you are 23:44 going to give up the religion of our ancestors because that 23:47 religion had gone back you know for many generations. 23:51 And my dad said, I am building on what I have 23:55 learnt as a child. Amen. Amen. And ultimately 23:58 his father acknowledged to my dad that yes, 24:00 I can see that the Seventh-day is the 24:03 Sabbath. We do acknowledge with that. 24:04 So, go ahead. I'm sorry didn't mean 24:05 to interrupt, but Joseph. Joseph Bates 24:08 wrote that article that that little booklet that he 24:10 distributed widely. Ellen and James White read 24:13 that pamphlet. They weren't quite sure about it. 24:17 Joseph Bates came up and studied with him and as 24:19 they studied it together and looked at those beautiful text 24:24 that commemorate the Sabbath throughout scripture. 24:26 And they saw that there was no injunctions to keep the 24:29 first day of the week. They too decided to become 24:32 Seventh-day Sabbath keepers. And they ended up founding 24:35 the Seventh-day Adventist Church. So it was Ellen White, 24:38 her husband James White and Joseph Bates, who were 24:41 the founders of our Seventh-day Adventist. 24:43 I love it. I think that's one of my favorite stories, 24:45 but you know, I just want to show one scripture with 24:48 our viewers because this is the scripture that's one of 24:50 my favorites about the Sabbath that he says, truly 24:56 you shall keep my Sabbath. This is Exodus 31:13. For it 25:01 is the sign between you and me that I the Lord your God 25:08 sanctify you. And you know, to be sanctified is to be 25:13 made Holy and I think a lot of us try to make our own 25:16 selves Holy. And we forget the Jeremiah 13:23 says, we can 25:20 change ourselves any more than Ethiopian can change the spots 25:23 over his skin or lipid change spots. And for me 25:27 coming into the truth about the Sabbath in the first time 25:30 I celebrated the Sabbath. This was that entering that 25:34 rest of really acknowledging, yes, Lord you're working in 25:38 me and willing to act according to your good 25:39 pleasure. It's you that you're gonna 25:42 scantify me. It's by your power that I'm kept. 25:46 It was such a beautiful thing to learn this. 25:48 And I've just loved that story and you know, 25:51 our keeping the Sabbath is not some means of legalism or 25:54 works righteousness. No. It's a response to the 25:57 wonderful grace of Jesus in saving us. And when 26:00 he says, if you love me. In John 14:15, keep my 26:02 commandments and we so eager to do that because he 26:05 has done everything for us and we want to follow his 26:08 in his foot steps. We want to do what he did. 26:10 It's kind a like when Pual told in Galatians 3:3, 26:14 where he said, You foolish, Galatians having begun in 26:16 this spirit or you now trying to justify yourself by works 26:21 of the foolish. Well, if all Christians are honest, 26:24 we kind of get into the demure, sometimes 26:27 and feel like we need to do 26:28 more for God, do more for God. And praise 26:30 the Lord the Sabbath is that set apart that when 26:34 you really are celebrating the Sabbath for the purposes 26:36 for which God setted apart that's what gives you that 26:41 aha, moment again reminding mind yourself and totally 26:45 depended upon the Lord my God. Yes, yes. And you know 26:49 I also think about I can not tell a lie. I have a workaholic 26:52 I try my best not to be, but if you were not 26:55 for the Sabbath and knowing that I, God gives me 26:59 permission to have that day off just, yes, to 27:00 celebrate my relationship with him. 27:02 I think worked myself right into it. So even says, 27:05 logically the Sabbath of benefit. One day and seven, 27:08 you just concentrate on a relationship with Jesus. 27:11 I think one think that I appreciate so much about 27:13 the Joseph Bates story is, his wife and you know, 27:17 it's so easy when you know, you got your last penny here. 27:21 You do spin it to think how I am going to do it, into help 27:24 somebody that whose faith is stronger at the moment 27:27 say that the Lord will provide it's so easy to 27:29 think how, but he always does. Amen. 27:32 Cindy we are already out of time. 27:34 You are a great storyteller. 27:35 I can tell you used to ministering the children but 27:38 that energy is so wonderful. Thank you so much again 27:41 for begin here. It's my pleasure. 27:42 We appreciate you will come back. Absolutely. 27:45 Oh! Wonderful. For those you at home I hope that 27:48 you've enjoyed this Adventist Heritage stories 27:51 and she has got more. We are going to have to tell 27:53 have her work that was into the other programs 27:55 here because it's so wonderful 27:57 to see the way in which we led and to 28:00 follow that highway. Now may the grace of 28:03 our Lord Jesus Christ, the loving the father at 28:06 the fellowship of the Holy Spirit 28:07 be with you today and always. Good Bye. |
Revised 2014-12-17