Christless Preaching

I believe I announced, a few weeks back, that I was asked to speak at the ASI National Convention next August. The topic is suppose to be Righteousness by Faith in relation to the Third Angel's Message. This is a bit backward, by the way. Usually, you hear of someone who has some wonderful insight into a topic and you invite him/her to come and share it. In this case, the speaker was chosen, and was told to get a wonderful insight. A bit more difficult.

In any case, I've been praying a lot, and researching a lot, and coming up with little insights--not so good that I'd want to preach them at ASI. Nevertheless. I believe the Lord will hear my prayer and give us something to chew on by August.

The original question was: If EGW said that the Third Angel's Message is righteousness by faith in verity, why then do our evangelist, when preaching on the 3rd Angel, only preach on the Mark of the Beast? The original answer went something like this: R by F is not explicit in the text, it is implied. It is there by contrast. The Beast's theology on righteousness is righteousness by works, righteousness by force, righteousness by legislation, bribery, flattery, and if none of the above work, then it is righteousness by torture.

With the Beast, you cannot possibly have R by F. Faith implies a trust in God as opposed to tradition, the church, the Pope, or in men, or in religious dogma, etc. R by F is right-doing thru' faith in God's power.

After researching for a couple of months, I was beginning to feel very sympathetic toward our poor evangelists. When I put myself in their shoes and tried to see how I would do differently, I have to admit pure frustration. Who am I to question our elite preachers, or to think I could do better? So I began to prepare a sermon to explain why preaching the 3rd Angel in relation to R by F couldn't be done. Just then, the Lord sent some light. (Dr. Fred Bischoff comes along.)

I posed to famous question to him, and here is what I heard. "The message is marred in our hands." 1888 Mat. 367:1. That is a Spirit of Prophecy quote on the 3rd Angel of Rev. 14.

Here is the whole paragraph: "The message that was given to the people in these meetings (Minneapolis 1888) presented in clear lines not alone the commandments of God--a part of the 3rd angel's message--but the faith of Jesus, which comprehends more than is generally supposed. and it will be well for the 3rd angel's message to be proclaimed in all its parts, for the people need every jot and tittle of it. If we proclaim the commandments of God and leave the other half scarcely touched, the message is marred in our hands." Ouch! That is exactly what we've been doing since 1888.

Again, talking about the 3rd angel's message, she says, "The discourses of some (since 1888) might be correctly represented as like the offering of Cain--Christless." 1888 Mat. 212:1.

Can we see what is happening here? We've been presenting the history and the prophecies of the three angels of Rev. 14, but the messages have been void of the gospel. Facts, history and prophecies are important, but they give our Christian experience the wrong flavor, if not seasoned with the righteousness of Christ.

So says the Preacher to his Tribe.