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July 14 - Alive to Foreign Mission-1

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All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord. Ps. 22:27.

The contact from Switzerland changed Adventism forever. The once-anti-foreign-mission people soon found themselves on a path that would eventually take them to the endsof the earth.

Even though Erzberger failed to arrive in time for the 1869 General Conference session, the implications of his visit were pregnant with meaning.

That session saw the creation of a Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society. "The object of this society," read the action that created it, "shall be to send the truths of the third angel's message to foreign lands, and to distant parts of our own country, by means of missionaries, papers, books, tracts, etc." In introuducing the resolution, James White noted that the church was receiving "almost daily applications to send publications to other lands."

A few months later Andrews noted the providence of God in the work of Czechowski. And in 1871 the General Conference session voted to "do what lies in our power to assist the spread of the truth" to the countries of Europe.

Meanwhile, Ellen White did her part to encourage the denomination's missionary outreach. In December 1871 she had a vision that showed her that the Seventh-day Adventists had "truths of vital importance" that were "to test the world." Thus young Adventists should qualify themselves in "other languages, that God may use them as mediums to communicate His saving truth to those of other nations"(LS 203, 204).

Not only was the denomination to send its publications to foreign peoples, but "living preachers" as well. "Missionaries," she asserted, "are needed to go to other nations to preach the truth." The Adventist "message of warning" was to "go to all nations" that the light of its truth might test them. "We have not one moment to lose," she penned. "If we have been careless in this matter, it is high time we were now in earnest to redeem the time, lest the blood of souls be found on our garments." "This will be attended with considerable expense, but expense shoudl in no case hinder the performance of this work"(ibid, 205, 206).

Adventism was being transformed again. This time it involved the opening of their missionlogical eyes. The God who always leads His people was still guiding them step by step.

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Not judgment and condemnation of others, but humility and distrust of self, is the teaching of Christ's parable(COL 74).
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