I would like to ask you some questions:

1. Is it true that you have to be a Seventh-day Adventist to receive salvation and become a child of God?
2. Do only Seventh-day Adventists have their names written in the Book of Life?
3. Are there true born-again children of God in other denominations?

If the answer to the first question is No, and if the answer to the second question is No, and if the answer to the third question is Yes...then we have to ask ourselves another question: If you don't have to be an Adventist to receive salvation and become a child of God, why be an Adventist at all? Then we must ask ourselves still another question, and that is, what is the significance of the Seventh-day Adventist Church? Is our church just another option? A generation ago we didn't ask these kinds of questions or think much about it. Though it was never a "policy statement," the fact was that many of us believed that everyone who wasn't an SDA did not have salvation and was not a child of God.

Even we Adventists wondered if we had salvation, being the kind of Adventists that we knew that we were! So back then everybody was lost but you and me, and sometimes I worried about you! Today the thinking has changed. Today, everybody is as saved as everybody else, so why worry?

Of course, if that is true, it brings up another question: If everybody is as saved as everybody else, aren't we Adventists going to a lot of trouble for nothing? In the 21st century many of us have gone in our thinking from ridiculous to the sublime. It seems to me that it is important, both corporately and from a personal point of view, that we come to grips with the matter of, Why are we Seventh-day Adventists? Why am I a Seventh-day Adventist? Has our church simply become "our favorite charity?" Is the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the 21st century just another option?

Yes, many of us used to feel that we were the only ones going to be saved. This feeling was driven by the fear that we felt we had a life and death message for the world, and this message was so important that if a person didn't accept it they would be lost. Another question: Was that ever really true? Or more importantly...is it true now?

Speaking of the Message. We used to talk about the "Message;" now we are more likely to talk about "Adventism." I would like to ask you, is there a difference in concepts when we say "Message" or when we speak of "Adventism?" I think there is an important difference of concept expressed by the two words, because to me it seems that a "Message" would be something for everybody while "Adventism" would be for Adventists. That would make "Adventism" an option to be considered like the other "isms" like Methodism or Catholicism.

I believe in another generation we had a clearer vision of who we were because we had a sense of relevancy. You have heard the word "relevant." We say something is relevant or irrelevant. "Relevant" is a word that has to do with the here and now. We say something is relevant or irrelevant based on its relationship to the here and now. Something is considered relevant if it has to do with what is going on; it is considered irrelevant if it doesn't have anything to do with what is going on.

The founders of our faith believed that the hour of God's judgment had begun. They believed that the coming of Jesus was "at the door." In fact, they were so convinced about the nearness of the Second Coming of Jesus that their life's decisions were actually influenced by this conviction. This little dish that I have in my hand is a piece from a set of dishes that was sold by a family that disposed of everything that they had to get ready for October 22, 1844. To put it in plain language, those people put their money where their mouth was.

A study of the beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church will soon lead you to conclude that the message of this church only has relevancy if you believe in the concept of the Investigative Judgment, and also that the signs indicate that His return is even now at the door. By the way, the doctrine of the Investigative Judgment is not complicated. Basically, it means that Jesus decides who will be saved or lost before He comes. The average person in the street essentially believes that they have until the moment that Jesus comes to get ready.

But let's go on. If a person believes that the Coming of Christ is open-ended, and that there is no Investigative Judgment or close of probation, then the message we have is at worse emasculated and loses relevance or at best it simply becomes institutionalized. What was once a "Message," then becomes simply another institution. Another institution which takes its place in the Hall of Fame where the other respected institutions who got there first reside: The Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Churches of Jesus Christ, and now Adventism.

Though some would argue that it isn't so, I believe that we are to an important degree having an identity crisis in our church, particularly in North America, Western Europe, and in Australia. This has resulted in a kind of disorientation and loss of sense of purpose among many. There are also signs of demoralization in certain sectors of the ministry. But let's go back to the original question. Did our church ever have relevancy? Was our relevancy real or perceived? Were we really relevant or did we just think we were? Is our seeming irrelevancy in the 21st century real or perceived? Is it just all in our heads? In other words, does the world of the 21st century still need the message of the Adventist Church, or in fact, does it need it more now than it ever did? Have we lost the vision? Somehow, did we throw out the baby with the bath water?

In many places people even seem to somehow have gotten bored with preaching the doctrines the way we used to do. In surveys that have been conducted, people are giving doctrinal preaching very low marks. In many places we are now playing down "doctrines" and playing up "relationships." We used to speak of our doctrines as the "truth"... and as "the truth for this time," but we had a shock when we learned from the pollsters that people in the 21st century really don't care about the truth. They are looking for a church that meets their "needs." So exit "truth" as our outreach and enter "meeting needs" as our forte. So we have ripped down as it were the banners that declared, "Truth for This Time," and replaced them with banners that say, "We Will Meet Your Needs."

I would like to say something here about doctrines. It is not unusual to hear people saying that we ought not to be preaching doctrines. We ought to preach the gospel. To try to play off doctrines against the gospel is like arguing which is more important, being born or staying alive! In the first place, the word gospel means "good news." In the second place, the word doctrine means "teaching." The point is that doctrine then is the explanation of what the gospel is all about. The significance of the cross is a doctrine; the grace and forgiveness of God are doctrines.

So what is the point in saying that we should not preach doctrines, but the gospel? I am afraid I know what the point is, and it is that those who are telling us to preach the gospel and not the doctrines mean that we should stop preaching the doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and be content with preaching a generic evangelical gospel.

But then let's go back to the question: Is the Adventist message relevant in the 21st century? Or let's put it in a different perspective: Is the Adventist message a matter of life and death in the 21st century? The answer, ladies and gentlemen, is a thousand times YES. Even though it seems to us that the Lord is delaying His coming, this is only a perception on our part. He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness. Contrary to what many of us think, the Second Coming of Christ is not a floating event carried along by the tides of human events. The flood of Noah came on time. The children of Israel came out on the self-same day. The captivity ended in 70 years. Jesus died in the fullness of time. The Investigative Judgment began when it was supposed to. God has always fulfilled His purposes on the day appointed and I believe the Second Coming of our Lord will be no exception. Who is in charge here? Him or us?

Beloved, believe it or not, our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Now hang on to your seats. The generation that is alive when Jesus comes the second time will not only see Jesus face to face, they will have seen the Devil face to face. But he will not appear as the Devil. He will appear as Christ himself. Ladies and gentlemen, listen to what happens just before Jesus comes.

II Cor. 11:14, "And no marvel! For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."

Matt. 24:24, "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, in so much that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."

Revelation 16:13-14, "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty."

II Thess. 2:8-12, "And there shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His Coming! Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

The deception that is referred to in these texts is not perpetrated against the lost. Why should the Devil worry about deceiving his own? The great deception of the evil one is directed against those whose names are found written in the Book of Life, whether they be Baptists, Methodists, Assemblies of God or Catholics. The great deception is leveled by the Devil to deceive and snatch away those who have given their hearts to Jesus and who have salvation.

Remember, to get your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life, to receive salvation, to get saved, you have only to believe in Jesus and accept Him as Savior with all your heart. No questions asked. The Great Deception then, if it is to be a deception at all, must be targeted toward those who have the promise of salvation no matter what denomination they are from. The purpose of the great deception is to deceive them into giving up their salvation and throwing in their lot with the Antichrist, which in those days will be Satan himself.

So where do Adventists come in? It's right here. At this time in earth's history, here is where having all our doctrinal ducks in a row not only is essential for our salvation, but for the salvation of the whole Christian world. Do you have to be an Adventist to receive salvation? No. But if you are a Baptist or Methodist or Catholic, you had better listen to what Adventists are saying or you could lose your salvation, because the deception that is played out by the Devil on the last generation deceives, if possible, the very elect.

You, Seventh-day Adventist, if you think we are just another "ism" or another option for people to consider, think again! If you think that in the 21st century it is not important what a person believes, as long as he believes in Jesus, think again! If you think that there is no harm done if your Methodist friend believes in the Secret Rapture, think again, because those who believe in the Secret Rapture think they will already be in Heaven when the Antichrist appears. Those who believe in Sunday sacredness in that day will be 100% deceived unless the matter is cleared up in their minds before the final deception, because the Antichrist will use Sunday sacredness as a rallying point to bring Christians together. Those Christians who believe in the immortality of the soul in the Last Days will be 100% deceived, because even now the Virgin Mary is beginning to appear in different parts of the earth.

Come on, Adventist, let's wake up! God has not called us to be an anybody or a nobody, but a somebody. As Elder Richards used to say, we are to be "a voice crying in the wilderness of these latter days. Prepare ye the way of the Lord." Mr. and Mrs. Adventist, come on, wake up! If you think the Coming of Jesus has somehow gotten stalled, think again! The delay is only a perceived delay. The Coming of Christ like every important event in this earth's history is not a floating event. The day of His coming is sure. He hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world. And that day is nearing. Yea, is even at the door. Come on, Mr. and Mrs. Seventh-day Adventist, the game has started. There are no spectators here on earth in this game. We are all players. Only this is hardball and the winner takes all.

This is no time to condemn the people of other faiths anymore than you would condemn your neighbor when his house is on fire, but rather you would run to wake him up before it is too late! Our Baptist and Methodist and Catholic friends had their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life when they received Jesus as their Savior just like you did. But their doctrines are skewed, mixed up! The matter of Sunday sacredness, the immortality of the soul, and the doctrine of the rapture were no salvation issues in other generations. The time of our ignorance God winked at. But these are exactly the issues in the last generation, because those doctrines of Sunday sacredness, immortality of the soul, and the Secret Rapture will be the raw materials of which the Antichrist, the Devil, will craft his final deception.

So come on, Seventh-day Adventist Church in the 21st century Raise up your heads! Look up! Get in the game! We have not been called into the world at such a time as this to condemn the world, but that the world in these final moments in earth's history might be saved because of the warning that God has called upon us to give.

There are some who say that it makes no difference what we believe as long as we believe in Jesus. We must be careful with this. Let me explain. Before Jesus came to the earth the first time there were faithful ones who believed in the coming of the Messiah and were looking forward to it. Among those who were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah there were two groups: There were those who believed that the Messiah would come as a conquering king to rule the earth, and there were those (and they were the minority) who were expecting Him to come as was prophesied in Isaiah 53. A man who would be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. It made no difference what you believed about the Messiah 500 years before He came. The important thing was that you were looking forward by faith to His coming. It made no difference 100 years or even 50 years before He came. But it made all the difference in the world what you believed about the Messiah when He actually came, because if your doctrine of the Messiah was not correct, you crucified the Lord of Glory.

Friends, it is not true that it makes no difference what you believe as long as you believe. When a certain time comes, if your doctrinal ducks are not in a row, you could make the mistake of your life. The Jewish system had developed a set of expectations about the Coming of the Messiah that were false. So when the Messiah came, because their doctrines about the Messiah were wrong, even though they were hoping for the coming of the Messiah, the majority rejected Him and were lost. And so in these last days, the majority of God's people have false doctrines and false expectations concerning the final events and the great deception. Unless Seventh-day Adventists, to whom God has entrusted truth for this time, get on with it, great numbers of sincere Christians will be deceived when the Antichrist makes his final move to ensnare the world. Remember, it is the Devil's game plan to deceive as many as possible to his side and eliminate the resistance.

Preacher, come on, "isms" are for club members; messages are for everybody. Preacher, you've got a message for the Methodist, and the Baptist, and the Catholic. How will they know if they haven't heard? How will they hear if there is no preacher? These days we are talking about reaching the unchurched. Listen, Preacher, in the face of the final deception of the Antichrist, the churched stand to be as lost as the unchurched. Let me say something here about the matter of the unchurched. In the first place, I am not sure that in Scripture people are divided up as churched and unchurched. The Bible sees two classes of people, the saved and the lost. The word unchurched among our brethren in other faiths is a code word. They speak of winning the unchurched. That really means that we try not to steal each other's members. My Dad was once the secretary of a local ministerial association. During the year that he served, he did not feel comfortable about holding evangelistic meetings, because they were perceived as sheep stealing. As Seventh-day Adventists we are not sheep stealers. Our message does not belong to Adventism; it is for people of all faiths and of no faith at all. We can understand that Methodism would be for Methodists and Catholicism for Catholics, but the truth for this time is not about Adventism, it is about preparing both the saved and the unsaved to be alive to meet a living God.

Elder, Deacon, Church Member, come on...the doctrines as believed and taught by the Seventh-day Adventist Church are not an option. Vast numbers of God's people will lose their salvation if we don't get serious! Church, now you know who you are, and what you are for. You might be saying, "Pastor O'Ffill, what you are saying is arrogant. You are saying that our gospel is superior to everyone else's!" Wait a minute, hear me out. One day Jesus was talking to the woman at the well. She wanted to argue about who had the truth. Jesus, who is God Himself, set the record straight. He said to her that salvation was of the Jews. Now did that mean that God loved the Jews more than He loved anyone else? Did that mean that the Jews were perfect? Not at all. But it did mean that God had decided to give to the Jews a message that would prepare the world for the first coming of the Messiah. And so in these last days does God love Adventists better than the rest? Of course not. Are Adventist better than other Christians? Of course not! But God has given to the Seventh-day Adventist Church a message that is for every church. No, it is not a message for "isms" or for religious traditions; it is a message for people. A message that will prepare a living generation to meet a living God.

The gospel that Billy Graham teaches is a valid gospel. But it is a gospel to die by. The message that this church carries is one that God has graciously given to prepare both the living saved and the living lost, the living churched and the living unchurched to meet a living Holy God. So take it. Run with it! "Arise. Shine, for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, as darkness continues to cover the earth and gross darkness the people, the Lord shall arise upon thee...and His glory shall be seen upon thee."