Morning

The complete condensed version of Elder Tottress's biography.

R.E. Tottress

Elder Richard E. Tottress at the Berean food pantry last year, lugging a briefcase filled with edification. Bible Worker Shirley

Crenshaw is visible in the doorway beyond.

98 YEARS OLD, AND STILL GOING STRONG

Elder Richard Edward Tottress has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, evangelist, educator, broadcaster, and author. In the Fall of 2016 Elder Tottress is still working. He regularly attends services at Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Elder Tottress is the son of a Baptist minister. His father, M.A. Tottress was born in Texas in 1898. His mother Edna was an Oklahoma native. Richard is the eldest of a family of eighteen children. Three of his eleven brothers also became preachers. The 1940 U.S. Census notes that he was born in 1918 on a farm near the Creek County township of Newby, Oklahoma. A few years after his birth oil was discovered in nearby Slick, Oklahoma. Favored landowners of all races prospered for a season, but a decade later the boom had peaked and the boomtown of Slick was depopulated.

Dr. R.E. Tottress attended school in Bristow, Oklahoma, about ten miles away from Newby. At Lincoln High School he distinguished himself by winning a statewide oratory competition. Founded in 1922, Lincoln served as a premier learning environment for Bristow’s African-American Community, at least until Bristow High School integrated in 1958. Elder Tottress also diligently studied the Bible as a youth, and noted the disparity between Scriptural precepts and the actions of most of the people who professed to be Christian.

Upon graduation from Lincoln High, Elder Tottress (like many other Oklahoma residents during the depths of the Great Depression) migrated to California. His first stop was in Fresno, where a company of Adventists had been formed in 1931. In Fresno Elder Tottress had not yet accepted the Advent message, but God intended that he would soon do so.

It was on the West Coast that Elder Tottress providentially encountered a book by African-American Adventist pioneer Elder F.L. Peterson. Its title is “The Hope of the Race.” This 1934 work advocates Jesus as the only solution to problems that plague disadvantaged black Americans. It strongly recommends the Seventh-day Adventist denomination as an effective doctrine and discipline not only for the present day, but for all eternity. Elder Tottress read this book and discovered answers to questions that had been nagging him as a seeker of truth, and simultaneously discovered a satisfying model upon which he could pattern his own life. Apparently Adventists made every effort to observe and obey the commandments of God. And while Adventists are by no means perfect people (for all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God), strict obedience is a certain proof against charges of hypocrisy.

The author of the book that so influenced young Richard Tottress, Frank Loris Peterson, happened to be the first black student at Pacific Union College. This Adventist institution was founded in 1882. In 2012 the U.S. News & World Report ranked Pacific Union College second out of 219 national liberal arts colleges for campus ethnic diversity. F.L. Peterson inaugurated this trend toward diversity, graduating in 1916. In 1917 he became the first black teacher at another Adventist institution, one that was created in 1896 specifically for African-Americans. Ironically, for the first two decades of its existence the staff of what was then known as “Oakwood Junior College” was all Caucasian.

Dr. Tottress not only fully embraced the faith that Elder Peterson had publisized, but also followed the trailsthat his mentor had blazed to Pacific Union College and (ultimately) to Oakwood College.

In California Elder Tottress gained further knowledge of the Advent message in the San Francisco area through the evangelical activity of Elder Byron Spears. He was baptized in the Pacific Heights district of San Francisco by Elder Norman S. McLeod. This immersion occurred at Philadelphian Seventh-day Adventist Church. The fresh convert would now enroll in Pacific Union College, F.L. Peterson’s alma mater, located 75 miles due north of the site of his baptism.

At Pacific Union Elder Tottress personally encountered the man of God who had influenced him to become an Adventist, F.L. Peterson. The new student was practically adopted into the Peterson family. He was even roommates at Pacific Union with F.L. Peterson’s son, Frank Jr. While attending the school Elder Tottress served as religion editor for the school newspaper, the “Campus Chronicle” during 1941 and 1942. Future General Conference President Neal Wilson was concurrently the chapel editor of this publication, and in 1943 Frank Jr. was made an associate editor.

Having earned his B.A. in theology in 1943, Elder Tottress now spent his internship assisting in a series of tent revivals that took place in the Lubbock, Texas area. This evangelical campaign was under the direction of Russell Nelson, a native of New York. The elder also served as a civilian chaplain for Camp Barkeley, a World War II era United States Army training facility located near Abilene, Texas. At the peak of its operation this base had a population of 50,000 souls.

In June of 1946 Elder Tottress married the former Margarreau Flourine Norton. She would accompany him wherever his ministry called him to be up until her death in February of 1999, a partnership that would endure for over a half-century. The couple’s life journey would eventually include the Southwest Region, South Central. and finally the South Atlantic conferences of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Elder Tottress earned two additional degrees, a second B.A. from Oakwood College (currently named Oakwood University), and a doctorate from the University of Beverly Hills. He also studied as a post-graduate student at Andrews University and Texas A&M. He was ordained as a pastor in 1951, and went on to lead churches in Texas, Georgia, and North and South Carolina.

The long-running syndicated radio program created and hosted by Elder Tottress, “Your Bible Speaks,”  was first aired in Charleston, South Carolina in 1963 while he was the pastor of Shiloh Seventh-day Adventist Church. It would continue to be broadcast for the next four decades. A men’s chorale ensemble which currently performs as “The Singing Men of Oakwood University Church” was founded in order to provide music for this program.

The June 1, 1963 edition of the Southern Union publication “Southern Tidings” declares that “Elder R.E. Tottress has accepted a call to serve as dean of boys for the Academy of Oakwood College.” The Tottress family relocated from South Carolina to Huntsville, Alabama, location of Oakwood, and served at this institution in various positions. He initially headed the Bible and History Departments at the Academy, then went on to join the Bible Department of the College. He also served as assistant dean of men at Oakwood.

When the Oakwood College Church became independent of the Huntsville district in 1965, Elder Tottress became its first pastor after this reorganization. He helped to forge a strategic vision for the prominent and influential house of worship, one which is now led by Dr. Carlton P. Byrd. In 1969 Elder Tottress relinquished the helm, but assumed it once again when he served as as interim pastor from 1972-1973. At the time of a special Oakwood tribute to the elder, biographer E.C. Ward recorded the pastor’s current responsibilities as including a staff position in the Bible Department of Oakwood, duties as a media librarian, the chaplaincy of the radio station WOCG-FM, and a co-pastorate at the Oakwood College Church.

The literary and poetic work of Elder Tottress were written during the course of his academic, administrative, and pastoral activities. His juvenilia and manuscripts now reside in the Andrews University Library, but a good number of his books have been published and are available online.  An enormous quantity of brochures, pamphlets, tracts, and essays have also been penned by the elder. Whatever length or form  his output may assume, all are at least partially intended to familiarize potential converts to the Adventist faith with some of the denomination’s distinctive beliefs. These are the very truths that so attracted Elder Tottress  when he first encountered them as a young man. The worldwide online library catalog list five of his seven publications as being “widely held.”

The first of these catalogued works was written in the fifties, and was published between 1955 and 1957 in three editions. It is titled “Heaven’s Entrance Requirements for the Races.” In this book, one released in the early days of that portion of the ongoing struggle for Civil Rights that benefited from national media coverage, Elder Tottress reminds his readers that God is no respecter of persons. The Biblical precepts and promises that lead the believer to eternal life are universally applicable, and entirely color-blind. Elder Tottress exhibits a forgiving nature in the pages of the book, as Jesus commanded us to forgive others.

A two-volume set of poem by Richard E. Tottress entitled “Selections from Pastor Tot’s poems and points” was published in 1956. Nineteen years later, in 1975,  another book of verse, “Truth speaks: poems”  was published. Two works were printed in 1979; “Twenty-five silver “A” broadcasts,” a compendium of some of his radio addresses, and “Aspects of N., C., & B. history: All within a lifetime.” The N., C., & B. stand for the evolution of the terms that society has chosen in order to designate African-Americans; Negro, Colored, and Black. It describes many of the noteworthy people and places in the development of the African-American Adventist church that Elder Tottress was  eyewitness to during the course of his long career. Finally, a less well-documented work titled “Special sermon series: no. 1-” was published in 1979.

Resist the Devil

Roadmap

Job SDA 4th Qrtr Sabbath School Topic

More "alleged" Spam for the Glory of God: A Tripartite Sermon on Sacrifice.

Russell, Humphreys, and Pilgrim go the Distance 

THE THREE CABALLEROS

The September 24, 2016 worship service at Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church, Atlanta featured a sermon that was sequentially delivered by all three of the primary pastors: Fredrick Russell, Austin Humphreys, and Danielle Pilgrim. Here is a link to the ENTIRE SERVICE. The sermon was immediately preceded by a song that starts at time marker 1:24:03,  “He Kept Me,” a 2004 composition by Kurt Carr. It was performed by the Berean choral ensemble “Open Praise” under the direction of David Trofort. A memorable riff on the organ provided a transition to the sermon. It can be heard, along with the sermon itself by accessing the linked YouTube video at time marker 1:29:35. Pastor Russell started out by staunchly reaffirming the message of “He Kept Me,” then invoked a brief reprise of the song from the choir. This coda was completed by time marker 1:30:55, and the sermon proper began.

THE SERMON: “THE STRETCH”

“The sermon today, by all three pastors, one sermon, is called ‘The Stretch.'” Pastor Fredrick Russell introduced the sermon, and provided the title. “Stretch” is a word that possesses multiple, but somewhat similar meanings. One of the these meanings is directly applicable to the structure of the sermon, and will now be illustrated by the image just below:

“Handing Off Baton in Relay Race,” a situation that requires one to stretch. Thanks again, Getty Images!

The sermon was a “relay race.” The metaphorical “baton” that was passed was a microphone. Pastor Russell had fired the starter’s pistol, but Pastor Humphreys would run the first leg of the relay. Pastor Humphreys retrieved the baton from the “Holy Desk” where Pastor Russell had laid it. He started to run…

HUMPHREYS: “Our text for this morning… begins with  a familiar passage in Genesis 22…” The subject of the first leg would be Abraham, and the providentially interrupted sacrifice of his beloved son Isaac. The theme word, “stretch,” will now be foreshadowed by the premature quotation of a relevant verse of Scripture, one describing a significant moment in the unfolding of the highly prophetic, but thankfully abbreviated sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham. It is Genesis 22:10, which will again make its appearance in its appropriate location:

“And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.”

Pastor Humphreys was off like a shot: “We know the story, choir, of Abraham. Abraham is to become the father of many nations… Firstly, Abraham is a man of God, and he’s on fire. He’s asking for a son. He’s asking for a child and God grants him this child…” The synopsis by Pastor Humphreys continued: “In our text God has now asked Abraham to sacrifice what He just promised him.” Abraham does not question God’s command, but journeys with young, yet strapping Isaac to the mountain, the “place God wants him to be,” the pastor noted.

“Vous restez ici,” (You stay here) Abraham informs his servants at time marker 33:30 in a scene from the French-language YouTube version of “Abraham.” A disclaimer notes that some liberties have been taken with the source material for the script of this movie.

The pair of attendants that had accompanied the patriarch and his son to the base of the mountain were ordered by Abraham to stay behind. “The lad and I go up to worship,” quoted the pastor, “and WE will be back…” Pastor Humphreys emphasized that Abraham did not say “I’ll be Back.” He said “we’ll be back.” The attendants were not to tag along, as “sacrifice will require separation,” Pastor Humphreys noted. This was to be no typical sacrifice. The pastor said that we, too, can be hampered in our desire to advance in our own spirituality by those of our associates who are not so eager to advance alongside us, “stuck in their one season.” But we must make our own way in life. God makes plans for us as individuals, and not as members of a posse, or interchangeable cogs in some machine.

The “Spirit of Prophecy” was referenced with regard to this separation. A work by Ellen White reveals that If the two servants of Abraham had been with him at the moment of the proposed sacrifice of his son, “they would have stopped him from doing what God had asked him to do” [The book by Ellen G. White, “Patriarchs and Prophets,” contains a chapter (13) titled ” The Test of Faith.” It describes the interrupted sacrifice of Isaac in an enlightening manner, but does not include the insight just mentioned by Pastor Humphreys. This data may be discovered on Page 81 of “The Story of Redemption” in a chapter (10) titled “Abraham and the Promised Seed“]. The pastor drew a lesson for his auditors from this inspired addenda of E.G. White: “The reality is that we must sometimes separate ourselves even from the people we care about.”



[Here is a link to an earlier Wednesday night “War Room” sermon by Pastor Humphreys titled “I’m Gonna Get it All Back.” It was a more extended analysis of Abraham’s projected sacrifice by Abraham of his son. You must scroll past the first lengthy segment of the post to access the sermon summary. When you have read the summary you are advised to scroll no further, unless you are a masochist.]

“And so he lets them know ‘I need you to stay here, but WE WILL BE BACK!'” This assurance by Abraham to his menservants was repeated by Pastor Humphreys. He mentioned Isaac’s question to his father, “but daddy, where is the sacrifice?” Abraham’s answer to his son is also a prophecy: “God will provide.”

“Not only will sacrifice require separation,” Pastor Humphreys continued, but “sacrifice will require trust.” The speaker noted the apparent contradiction between God’s promise to Abraham that he would be the “father of many nations” with the present requirement that he sacrifice his only son. God is incapable of lying, so there had to have been more to the story. The pastor expressed Abraham’s reaction to God’s illogical requirement as follows: “If God is asking me to kill my only son, then God must be getting ready to do something ridiculous!” Pastor Humphreys stated that Abraham, upon consideration of the paradox that confronted him, was fully anticipating that God was about to act in a manner that Paul would later describe as being “…exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think…” (Ephesians 3:20)

Ephesians 3:20 is nicely complimented by Malachi 3:10

“He literally had to believe in something that ‘eye has not seen, and ear [had] not heard” [First Corinthians 2:9, partial]. God, for whom nothing is too hard, could conceivably resurrect Isaac from the dead after Abraham had sacrificed him, despite the fact that it was as yet an unprecedented thing back in Abraham’s day. The pastor described Abraham’s reaction to God in the face of his own confusion: “If God’s asking me to do this crazy request, then I am going to give him a crazy thing.” This crazy thing? The sacrifice itself.

The methodical preparations that Abraham made at the site of the intended sacrifice were meticulously described by Pastor Humphreys. God allows Abraham to proceed as if no obstacle would retard the progress of this overwhelmingly significant enterprise. “God does not stop him when he puts the wood under his son, no. God does not stop him when he grabs the knife,” the pastor declared. But these procedures are dramatically interrupted by God at the “eleventh hour” (a World War One era expression) in the previously cited verse, Genesis 22:10. It will now make its promised reappearance:

“And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.”

A High Baroque depiction of God’s timely intervention from the High Museum of Art, right here in the ATL. It was painted in 1700 by “Il Baciccio” (aka Giovanni Battista Gaulli), who also did all the frescos in “Il Gesu.” I noted on Facebook that “Il Gesu” is the Jesuit HQ.

Pastor Humphreys quoted the preceding verse twice, then declared that “when Abraham stretched, that’s when God stepped in!” He continued: “The reality in here for some of us today is that if you would just learn how to stretch yourself, God will step in.” The pastor revealed that “the word ‘stretch‘ in the original Hebrew literally means ‘to extend beyond'” [to exert oneself to a much greater than normal extent] so that whatever extraordinary thing that needs to be done can be successfully accomplished. Here it is the whole verse for all of you advanced Hebrew scholars:

וַיִּשְׁלַ֤ח אַבְרָהָם֙ אֶת־יָדֹ֔ו וַיִּקַּ֖ח אֶת־הַֽמַּאֲכֶ֑לֶת לִשְׁחֹ֖ט אֶת־בְּנֹֽו׃
[Don’t forget to read from right to left!]

“But that word ‘stretch’ is also the same word used when you stretch your hand in total praise,” the Pastor Humphreys added. This augmented level of praise is suitable for every occasion, and the pastor admonished every listener to “stretch your hand in the good times and in the bad times of life.” Pastor Humphrey’s leg of the race was almost run…

“Let me leave you with this: Usain Bolt, after he had won all these various medals… when they asked him about the relay races, they asked him ‘what do you practice the most?'” Pastor Humphreys now furnished Usain’s reply: “I’ve got the speed down pat, and the timing down pat, but you know in those races they’ve got to stretch to grab the baton… I’ve learned that we’ve got to practice the stretch.” The pastor was about to “pass the baton” himself, but just prior to doing so he revealed the compelling reason that had had motivated him carry this baton for the initial leg of this Sabbath’s rhetorical relay race:

“… I came by to let someone in here know today that if you would just practice the stretch, and let God know ‘Father, I stretch my hands to thee,’ no other help will I know. But I’ve got to learn to trust in the God that can keep me from falling!”

A very famous photo of Steelworkers taking a lunch break high over Manhattan. My prayer for these men as a child was “God, please keep them from falling!”

PILGRIM: “Continuing on the topic of sacrifice, in First Kings 17 we find a story that demonstrates another aspect of sacrifice.” Pastor Danielle Pilgrim revealed that this portion of the Bible demonstrates that sacrifice not only requires trust; it also requires unselfishness.

“We are introduced to Elijah, a prophet who was travelling to a land named Zerephath.” Pastor Pilgrim described Elijah’s predicament as an “interesting” one [I will paraphrase this predicament as being “out of the frying pan, and into the fire”]. “…There was famine in the land that he was travelling from, and there was also famine in the land where he was travelling to.” But Pastor Pilgrim noted that even though Elijah was leaving one bad situation for another, he neither “stressed nor worried, because he knew that the same God that fed him by ravens in the old famine land was the same God that would feed him in the new famine land.”

The relevance of this concept to our own lives was now described by the pastor: “…I know that right now, in this very room there are some of us experiencing famine in our lives…” Anaphora (repetition for artistic effect) was now employed by the speaker for the first, but not for the last time in the course of her segment of the relay:

“Some of us are experiencing famine in our finances, and famine on our jobs, and famine in our love life.”

Albert A, Goodman wrote the song “We’ve Come This Far by Faith,” a testimony that God can get you through just about anything. This image is from a VIDEO produced by the Bible Way Baptist Church. Check out time marker 6:40 in the YouTube video of the Berean Sabbath service for “Open Praise’s” version.

But there is no reason to fret about this famine. Pastor Pilgrim assured us that “the Most High God will keep you in peace in the famine land.” She quoted Ellen G. White: “We have nothing to fear for the future, except we forget how God has led us in the past.” She asked a question: “Is there anyone here thankful that God has led you through the famine land of your past? You have got to understand that if God kept you in the past, it is an indication that He can keep you in the future.”

[The quote by Ellen G. White that Pastor Pilgrim used can be found placed at the head of chapter 17 of a biography of the prophet by Herbert E. Douglass entitled “Messenger of the Lord.” This chapter is prosaically named “Organization, Unity, and Institutional Development.” The source of the quote is safely ensconced in chapter 31 of “Life Sketches of Ellen G. White,” a collection of autobiographical writings. This chapter is titled “Burden Bearers,” and the quote is on page 196. Here is the original: ” We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.”]

We must never lose sight of the fact that God is sovereign, the pastor emphasized. The spotlight was now redirected from the congregation and back toward Elijah: “And so we have Elijah travelling to the land of Zarephath. And the Bible says that as he enters the gate of Zarephath he meets this woman.” Although unnamed, this woman plays a leading role in the prophet’s affairs. The pastor noted that “he commands her to give him bread.” She  clarified the nature of this command: “Now you must understand that the woman is not required to give Elijah any bread.” Pastor Pilgrim reminded everyone that the woman was a Gentile, a Phoenician, an enemy of the Israelites [as was the Samaritan “woman at the well” who Jesus addresses in John 4]. “Therefore,” the pastor revealed, “she was not required to follow the hospitality customs of the Israelites.” But even if she were, “You can’t get blood out of a turnip” [the summarizer’s goofy contribution]. “She simply had nothing to give,” Pastor Pilgrim more soberly stated.

A scene from a cute children’s VIDEO (one with very bad audio, however) that dramatically illustrates the statement by Pastor Pilgrim that is above this image.

“Understand that this woman was dirt-poor. She was a single woman. She was a widow. She was destitute. She was so poor that the Bible says that when Elijah met her she was preparing to make her last meal, and preparing to die.” First Kings 17:12 includes her reply to Elijah’s importunate command for victuals:

“…As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

But the Phoenician widow nonetheless determined to heed the stranger’s instructions. Pastor Danielle Pilgrim continued: “The Bible says that she poured out her last bit of oil, and her last but of [meal] to make bread for a stranger she just met,  because sacrifice demands unselfishness.” This assertion was repeated in an attempt to fix it in the minds of both the congregation and the online audience. “Here’s the beauty; it’s the correlation that this Gentile woman demonstrates the message of the Gospel… the message of the Cross.” Now a version of John 3:16 was most appropriately quoted:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

“…Because sacrifice demands unselfishness!” A lesson about the happy aftermath of unselfishness was now drawn from the actions of the Phoenician woman by the second of the three preachers: “Here’s the gem of the text: the Bible says that after she fed Elijah, although her flour pot and oil jar were emptied, the text says that she kept on pouring.” This miracle is recorded in First Kings 17:16, just below the picture:

“And they lived happily ever after…”

“And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.”

This transcendent miracle was highlighted by Pastor Pilgrim’s enthusiastic description of it. A final lesson was drawn: “… Sacrifice is always linked with a promise. And the good news is that when you put others first [and, alternately, “when you are unselfish”] then even when the jug is empty you can still keep pouring! Because the Bible says when you give, the Lord will give you ‘good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.'” (Luke 6:38, partial) “So as long as you give,” the pastor promised, “you will have bread in your house!” This important information was repeated three times. The Psalm that bears directly on this topic was the last Scriptural citation of this second leg of the rhetorical relay race, Psalm 37:25:

“I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”

Pastor Pilgrim now proclaimed for an unprecedented fourth time the salient point that she was trying to drive home:  “So as long as you give, you will always have bread in your house. But remember,” she added, “that while sacrifice requires trust, it also demands unselfishness!”

The baton now changed hands for the second time. Lead Pastor Fredrick Russell would traverse the third leg of the relay.



RUSSELL: “So it was the end of the movie, where the end of the movie is the beginning of the movie.”

This was a temporarily enigmatic and thought provoking introduction by Pastor Russell (although anyone who has seen the 1950 film noir classic “Sunset Boulevard” can immediately relate to this concept). In some movies the initially presented “end” of a story gets subsequently explained throughout the remainder of the feature.

A refined method of Scriptural analysis is to explain not only events that may occur within the separate “scenes” that make up the Bible, but to relate these scenes to nearby and adjacent occurrences. The Holy Spirit (who dictated the entire Biblical “screenplay” to holy men of God) frequently links the meanings of these scenes in order to create a kind of “meta-theme.” This is what Hollywood film editors are also known to do, should they have the right kind of raw footage to work with, and possess enough talent to creatively deal with it. Pastor Russell now explained to the congregation one of the many instances of “inspired” Scriptural juxtaposition that the Spirit (an extremely competent craftsman) has composed for our instruction and edification.

“Three days earlier, in Acts chapter 5, we begin with the end of the movie. What happens? You have a couple that have died, tragically, with… massive heart attacks in church. She [the wife] shows up, and her husband has died an hour or two earlier where he stood before the apostles… and he died. End of the movie!” The incident that the pastor related was by this point recognizable to anyone who had ever read Acts as the one concerning the confrontation between the apostle Peter, Ananias, and his wife Sapphira [this was the first time that the reclusive summarizer of these remarks had ever heard a preacher attempt to sermonize by referencing an episode that most “seeker sensitive” ministers would not want to touch with a ten-foot-pole].

The movie “The Book of Acts” does not begin with the ending (Paul in Rome, awaiting execution), but rather with a scene about the writer of the screenplay, Luke.

“An hour or so later the wife walks in. She hears that her husband has died, and she also, in church, has a massive heart attack… and the deacons carry her out as well. That’s the end of the movie. Here’s the beginning of the movie.” Pastor Russell now taught that Acts chapter 5 reveals that the early church had a “lot of needs in the body.” They would pool their resources. “The Bible says ‘they all held everything in common,'” the pastor affirmed. People with tangible properties converted these into liquid assets. “They were all going to give it to the body of Christ,” the pastor also said. There were widows in the body who required support. Thousands of new converts were joining every week. There was as admirable consensus among the members, and Pastor Russell voiced their attitude: “We are all going to give for the common good!”

But Ananias and Sapphira stood apart from this general spirit of generosity. They sold their properties for the sake of the church with the noblest of intentions, yet Satan slipped into their hearts when they were in fresh possession of a neat pile of highly negotiable lucre. “… They ended up getting way more money than they expected,” Pastor Russell revealed. “As opposed to a ‘few thousand of dollars,’ they ended up with ‘hundreds of thousands of dollars,’ and they began to say, ‘Hold on here!'” They jettisoned their original intent. The pastor imagined what kind of exchange of dialogue may have taken place between the colluding pair: “Ananias said, ‘Sapphira, do you see all this money? Do you see how much we’ve made here? Well, the church doesn’t deserve that much!” The upshot? “They both conspired to lie to God,” Pastor Russell stated.

The movie “The Book of Acts,” a very low-budget production, allows this gentleman to relate the tale of dishonest Ananias and Sapphira. This is much more economical than actually depicting the scene itself.

The plot of the Acts 5 movie continued to be described, scene by painful scene. It was film noir, just like “Sunset Boulevard.” The pastor resumed his voice-over narration: “…The Bible says he [Ananias] shows up at church, and in the basket he drops all of this money.” The apostle asks him a question: “Is this what God blessed you with?” The pastor dramatically voiced Ananias’s brazen lie for him: “YES! I’ve given it all! I told you! I will make a sacrifice for God, whatever God asks me for in my life; I’m willing to give everything! And we’ve given everything!” [Note: “TMI” is often the hallmark of a liar, and the pastor parodied this style to good effect. One good lie always seems to draw another one in its wake.]

“And Peter said to him, ‘you did not give everything. You lied. And not only did you lie, but you have lied to the Holy Spirit.'” The pastor affected the soft-spoken manner of Clint Eastwood in order to declaim Peter’s reply. This cool placidity is usually a harbinger of some spectacularly violent action in most of the movies that star Eastwood. Similarly explosive violence now struck Ananias. He died “on the spot,” the pastor related. “The young deacons came in and removed him.”

A famous scene from the Spaghetti Western “A Fistful of Dollars.” The carpenter is told to “Get three coffins ready…”

Meanwhile (cut to tranquil domestic interior scene) Sapphira is oblivious to the judgment that has just descended upon her late spouse, her partner in complicity. She is gleeful about the windfall that she and Ananias have raked up from under the boughs of the fruit-tree of the nascent church. She eventually grows a bit apprehensive about husband’s prolonged absence, however, so she decides to saunter on over to where all the saints are assembled. She walks in and nonchalantly inquires about her co-conspirator. Pastor Russell now provided the congregation with an English language audio track of her and Peter’s dialogue, just as he had previously done for her recently departed spouse in his encounter with the discerning fisher of men:

“‘Have you seen my husband? He was supposed to be back home, and he had no other errands to run.’ And Peter asks her, ‘I know you made a public display of sacrifice, and I know you’re a part of those believers that says in my life, anything God asks me to do, I’m willing to do it. But did you give all that you had?’ And she says, “Yea! We gave all that we had!’ And Peter says to her, ‘You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you have never come to the place where you have laid everything on the line, You’ve always held back.’ And he then says, ‘your husband is dead. And guess what? The men are here to take your body out as well.’ And she dies immediately with a massive heart attack. And here’s the point…”

“I can say to God I will sacrifice everything, as long as it demands of me nothing.” The pastor elaborated upon the all-too-prevalent attitude that he had just described: “I come to church and I say, ‘God, I’ll put everything on the line as long as it demands of me nothing that stretches me, and pushes me outside of my comfort zone!”

Andrew Carnagie advocated that all of one’s fortune be given to charitable causes a century before the establishment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He wrote a book bout this idea, “The Gospel of Wealth.”

A recap of the previous segments of the sermon was now provided by Pastor Russell:

“Abraham put it all on the line, Pastor Humphreys said, for God; even his own kin.”

“Pastor Pilgrim said when it came to sacrifice, that woman who was about to die along with her son; when the prophet shows up and she shares her last meal with him she understood that it was not about her only.”

“And in the final story, with Ananias and Sapphira, talking about sacrifice…”

“I will make a public declaration that I will put everything on the line for God as long as it makes no demands on me” [Pastor Russell had now placed himself in the position of a “stand-in.” The real culprits were probably hiding in their trailers, powdering their noses]. “And as a body of Christ, God today will make a brief, powerful demand of us.” Details would be forthcoming. But before the Lead Pastor’s leg of the race ended (as will the summarizer’s annoying cinematic allusions) the “grand unified field theory” of spiritual physics was introduced in order to firmly bind together the preceding three components of the sermon. This is, of course, Jesus Christ Himself, the ultimate sacrifice. Abraham and Isaac were a shadow and type of this sacrifice, and can stand a comparison to the outward form of the Cross. But the near-infinite suffering that Jesus endured when He “became sin for us” drives any sacrifice that we may be willing to offer into insignificance by comparison. Pastor Russell now unexpectedly passed the baton back to Pastor Humphreys.

Rembrandt- “The Three Crosses,” AKA “Christ Crucified Between the Two Thieves.”

“And Pastor Humphreys… what was the ultimate sacrifice?”

The microphone was now physically handed to the man who had run the first leg of the relay. He had regained his wind by now, and was prepared for a sprint to the finish line.

HUMPHREYS: “When Abraham stretched his hand, the angel stepped in and called his name, ‘Abraham, Abraham.’ God told him ‘now I know that you fear God.’ As Abraham, whose hands happened to be shaking, the knife in his hand to do whatever it takes to sacrifice for God, the angel points and there’s a ram in the thicket” [This solemn declaration by Pastor Humphries assumed exceptional gravity by its contrast to his typically animated style of preaching.  It was unmistakably a message of the utmost import]. “And while you’re going up the rough side of the mountain, your blessing is coming up the smooth side. And that day Isaac was willing to do whatever it took because he trusted the father.”

Pastor Humphries asked his listeners to imagine that long ago God had a conversation with His Son. “I need you to sacrifice yourself.” The pastor described Jesus’ reaction to this request: “There was no hesitation. There was ‘no questions asked.’ He gave His life freely. He came to this world, and in 33 years turned everything upside-down. Peoples’ lives were touched, healed, set free, raised from the dead. But He had to make an ultimate sacrifice.”

Matthew 27:54: “Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.”

“He was tempted to give up, but He loved YOU too much.”

“He was tempted to back down, but He cared for your future.”

“And so all throughout these 33 years He courted us. He dated us. He took us out to make sure that everything was alright. And then on Gethsemane He knelt down and proposed to us. He let us know He’ll never leave us nor forsake us [Deuteronomy 31:6].” Pastor Humphreys now vividly described that fateful day on Calvary. He was preaching “the Blood,” which should be the foundation of every Christian homely. Paul once wrote to the body at Corinth about his recent visit to that ancient crossroads: “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (First Corinthians 2:2).

“Right there on that cross He solidified His covenant with us and said ‘I do.'” He then gave up the ghost. Pastor Humphreys personalized this event for the congregation: “Don’t you know He would just do it for one of us? He made the ultimate sacrifice because YOU were worth it.”
The pastor declared that God often asks us to make sacrifices in our lives. They may not be “comfortable,” he said, “but we need to learn to trust the one that’s able to keep us from falling.” Pastor Humphrey now restated a Psalm that Pastor Pilgrim had quoted earlier, one that assures us that our personal sacrifices will not prove to be fatal (as did Christ’s). Here again is Psalm 37:25:

“I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”

Unoccupied

Christ’s atonement was not permanently fatal. “The good news is, He got back up,” the pastor said. All that Jesus requires of us is faith, even if there should be no compelling physical evidence to convince us [For we walk by faith, not by sight (Second Corinthians 5:70]. Even in the midst of adversity we are not to relinquish the hope that is in Jesus Christ. A prerequisite for any tangible sacrifice one might contemplate is the intangible sacrifice of our hearts to our Redeemer. “There are some people who have been here a long time and you have still not given Him everything,” Pastor Humphreys truthfully observed. A pending opportunity to sacrifice was again mentioned, one which would be prefaced by a rendition of Pastor Don Moen‘s song “Lord I Offer My Life to You” (a contemporary cousin of “I Surrender All”) which is located in the VIDEO of the service at time marker 1:58:00.

The race was now effectively over. It might be said that Christ Himself completed it when He spoke the words “It is finished.” The song was over, and Pastor Russell now urged that the members of Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church “go the distance” themselves.

RUSSELL:  “OK everybody; one of the levels we’ve been trying to go to in this church of where we, as a people… first of all say to God, “God- all of my life, everything about me, God, I sacrifice for you my total life, withholding… choir?” The choir most certainly knew what it was that we are to withhold, as did many in the congregation. Pastor Russell himself provided the answer as to what exactly we are supposed to withhold: “Nothing.” He spoke of a projected “whole ‘nother level” that the church could ascend to if we (and he included himself as well) were to truly withhold “nothing.” It was all about sacrifice. The Biblical exemplar Pastor Humphreys had cited was referenced by Pastor Russell. He now furnished a model statement that everyone could make thier own: “God, like Abraham I sacrifice. I lay it all before you.”

This ram can let you off the hook!

“In the Old Testament something happened that God permitted His people to do. We are about to go on that same journey as a church.” The Lead Pastor noted that days devoted to “extraordinary” sacrifice were honored by the Israelites of old. With the entire assembly as witnesses, each person would bring their gift forward and place it on the altar. Pastor Russell announced that the members of Berean will soon have an opportunity (November 12, a Sabbath that will feature Admiral/Doctor Barry Black) to emulate the ancient Hebrews. The ongoing “R3” Capital Campaign (Restore, Rebuild, Renew) could use some supplemental funds. All ages and tax-brackets were encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to engage in “equal sacrifice.” More important than the gift itself will be the display, before God, of a willingness to give. The benefits would be both individual and corporate. The pastor again noted that, “in a culture where no one sacrifices, no one puts anything on the line, God is raising this church [to] a higher level of spirituality.” The definition of true “sacrifice” was clarified by the speaker: “It’s not ‘God, here is my tip. This is what I can afford.’ But here is my sacrifice.”

Mark Twain once said, “I can afford to be generous with other people’s money.” Pastor Russell’s ironic assertion that “I can say to God I will sacrifice everything, as long as it demands of me nothing” is in the same vein as Twain’s, and was restated in the course of the closing prayer. As he had noted in a previous sermon, the pastor looked forward to whatever thrilling form God’s intervention in a climate of (deceptive) scarcity might assume. “To stretch. To do what we’ve not done on a regular basis,” he prayed. The lesson of the widow’s mite was cited. The prayer ended. “Father, Holy Spirit, move upon every heart right now, and God, we thank you for what you’re going to do. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Second Chronicles 34:9: “And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin…”