Elder Winston Armstrong Serves Up a Most Adventist Rhetorical Repast

Elder Winston Armstrong on Eschatological Matters as Stated by Jesus Himself in Luke

THE SECOND IN A SUCCESSSON OF ELDERS

The Wednesday night prayer meeting at Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church, Atlanta (called the “War Room,” after the movie and the place) featured  a short sermon by Berean Elder Winston Armstrong. Elder Armstrong is a native of Jamaica. Jamaica has hosted a Seventh-day Adventist conference since 1903. In the manner of Paul, ” I bear them record that they have a zeal of God…” It is one of the few places I have been outside of the USA. The majority of Jamaicans do not deify Haile Selassie (a great man, but no god), but rather place the credit where all credit is due.
One of the praise songs featured at the start of the service was I Love You Lord (and I Lift My Voice) (all internet versions are too slow to do very much “lifting,” and sound like Gregorian chants. The Bereans, with accompaniment by Elder Bruce Seawood, set a better tempo). Pastor Fredrick Russell referred to this song at the beginning of his introduction of Elder Armstrong’s presentation. “Every time you open your mind to God, and you open your heart to God, it will be a sweet, sweet sound in your ears.”

Pastor Russell anticipated the theme of Elder Armstrong’s sermon by describing a few of the “signs of the time” from the news. He asked the congregation how many had heard of the tragic death by drowning of more than 500 people in the Mediterranean that had just occurred (many, including myself, had not heard, but I recalled that similarly large scale maritime tragedies often strike ferry boats that link the archipelagos of the Pacific Ocean). The pastor also noted a recent earthquake in Ecuador, one that took the lives of even more people than the Mediterranean disaster did. Pastor Russell reminded us that is only by the mercy and the grace of God that we continue to come forth. Another song provided an interlude at this point. Pastor Russell then redirected the topic from current events to pragmatic Christianity.

This image of the stupendous 1906 earthquake in Ecuador is reminiscent of some of Brady’s pictures of  obliterated Richmond taken just after the Civil War.

“How many believe in the promises of God?” There were many more promise believers than news readers in attendance at the War Room, as the majority responded in the affirmative. Pastor Russell revealed that he often read the promises of God (the pastor has a book, I assume. Here is a LINK to an “Amazing Facts” compilation of God’s promises), and then would “pray God’s promises back to Him.” Joshua 1:7 was mentioned:

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go” (NIV)
Adventists are vigilant about including God’s requirement for obedience in any discussion of receiving God’s blessings. Pastor Russell urged us that “the Word be honored.” God has promised favor to His children. The pastor defined “favor” as “blessing you have that only God can give you.” He cited Joseph as an example (Genesis 39:4, partial: “Joseph found favor,” an out of context quote from the NIV, as it refers to Potiphar, and not to God). God has favored us all, including the next speaker. Pastor Russell provided a brief biography of tonight’s speaker, and capped his introduction with the following solicitation: “Would you receive the man of God with a hand praise?”

Elder Winston Armstrong in the big church. I hope it OK to use these official photos.  They may be purchased at this very informative and highly professional  LINK.

THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY DESCRIBED IN 15 MINUTES

The Elders, at least so far, appear to be putting a lot of preparation into their Wednesday night presentations. Elder Samuel Cort focused on “witnessing” for his War Room sermon last week. Elder Winston Armstrong offered commentary based on three verses of Luke that are so pregnant with potential, they could give birth to one of the longest sermon ever preached. The Elder kept his remarks brief, however. The content was all of the utmost urgency. Nobody fell asleep! The three verses under scrutiny will flesh out this summary very nicely. They are Luke 21:25-28, and well worth hanging on to. I will paste in the NIV instead of the King James, part of my new campaign to eliminate personal eccentricities, and create a broader appeal. Jesus speaks to some of His disciples of the Last Days, an excerpt from a much longer chunk of eschatology:

“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Art history is full of Transfigurations and Ascensions, but no Second Advents. Lots of Judgments, though. Another unattributed image (maybe a mosaic from St. Peters) of the Transfiguration from another BLOG.

ELDER WINSTON ARMSTRONG ON CHRIST’S SOON RETURN

Elder Armstrong extended salutations, “Greetings to the War Room here today! I am just another person, just like you; but if I know that if God can use me, He can use you too!” He read the verses from Luke that are pasted in above. He than prayed (a preface known as an invocation that has historically served both pagan and Christian purposes). In the course of the prayer, he made a statement that is a universal truth in regard to every person’s service to the Lord. “If it sound good, its You. If it sounds bad, its me.”

Elder Winston Armstrong shared a testimony with the War Room. He revealed that, as a youth, he managed to miss quite a bit of church. He once went seventeen years without attending worship services. He had been exposed to many churches and denominations, but none appealed to him. At the tail of his seventeen year hiatus, someone invited him to a church. It was not just any church. It was a Seventh-day Adventist church. Elder Armstrong noted that God has a way of providing invitations to lost persons that He would like join His family, but it is up to us to answer the invitation.

The End of the Age was now introduced as primary subject of the sermon. The Elder told us how many times the Bible refers to the Second Coming of Jesus. I failed to note the exact number spoken by the Elder. This Chuck Swindoll LINK speaks of over 300 references in the New Testament alone. I suspect 200 may be incontrovertible, with the other 100 perhaps being a matter of interpretation. It would be fun to mark them all, next time you read through the Bible! Elder Armstrong restated one of the themes of Pastor Russell’s very topical introduction. “Even if you don’t read the news, ” the Elder said, “you can tell something is about to happen!” A few outrages were cited, including the lamentable tenor of the ongoing Presidential campaign. The solution was predicted to Christ’s disciples at the time of His departure into heaven. It is an much more exalted version of General Douglass MacArthur’s promise to the Filipinos: “I shall return!” If an imperfect man like “Big Mac” could keep his promise, then a perfect Savior will surely keep His promise! Elder Armstrong pointed us to the words spoken by the mysterious bearers of this promise in Acts 1:11:

“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (NIV)

An ethereal scene from a movie that is crammed full of eschatological metaphors (the same way that “E.T. the Exrta-Terrestrial” imitated Christ), Steven Spielburg’s 1973 film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

Elder Armstrong remarked on how crestfallen Christ’s disciples must have felt subsequent to the temporary departure of their Master. Their level of expectancy for the speedy return of Jesus was very high, and level of anticipation they must have felt was compared by the Elder to the levels experienced by lovers in the process of courtship, awaiting the arrival of their beau for a date. It can lead to depression (a condition Peter tried to mitigate with his assurances to us that God is “not slack” regarding this promised return). The Elder cheered the War Room up with a few  nice verses, the second of which makes an appeal to the secret materialist that lives inside all of us, thanks to the KJV use of the word “mansions, instead of the more modest “abode” intended by the Greek original, ” μονή.”

John 14:1-2: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” (KJV)

Don’t get hooked on “stuff” while you are earthside, the Elder warned us. It will be consumed in the mightiest “bonfire of the vanities” (my lame citation. Just remember: it its good, its Elder Armstrong. If its bad, its me) ever seen when the world is consumed by fire; Matthew 13:40: “”As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age” (NIV). You will assuredly be detached from whatever you are currently attached to, Elder Armstrong asserted. He enlarged upon the fact that you “can’t take it with you.” Will…

• Warren Buffet (the “Wizard of Omaha”) be taking his fortune to heaven with him? The answer is “NO!” Will…
• Mark Zuckerberg (a Phillips Exeter alumnus, just like Adventist Man-of-All-Work Uriah Smith) be taking his fortune to heaven with him? The answer is, again, a great big “NO!” Will…
• Jim Walton (Walmart founder Sam’s baby boy, and the ninth richest person in the world) be taking his fortune to heaven with him? The answer should be familiar by now. It is “NO!”

Before there were Adventists, there were Millerites. Before there was Microsoft, there was Traf-O-Data, a car-counting program that used punch-tape. It was basic training for Paul Allen and Bill Gates.

[Who stands to lose the most filthy lucre in the pending conflagration? I will ask the internet, which pretends to be omniscient like God, but is, instead, very undiscerning about what constitutes truth. Will the current “Richest Person on Earth…”

• Bill Gates (surely a man who needs no introduction) be taking his fortune to heaven with him? NO! Yet, he is to be credited with some awareness of this fact. I remember an interview of him 30 years ago. When asked why he did not give away more of his fortune, he responded that “the time for charitable giving has not yet come.” All of that changed drastically with the founding in 2000 of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  According to this LINK, Gates and his wife are set to give away 99.96% of their wealth before they die.

Gates was raised in a denomination that was started in his hometown of Seattle, the Congregational Christian Church. They merged with the United Church of Christ in 1957. During the Civil Rights era, Dr. Martin Luther King talked the denomination into suing Southern TV stations for their news blackouts of national events they considered to be “unpleasant.” As a result of this, Federal Courts determined that the airwaves are public, and not private property (Note: the second richest “family” in the world, after the Waltons, is one that does not come readily to mind for most: it is the Mars family. A few pennies profit on each candy bar can really add up. It is like dealing illegal drugs in terms of its profitability, and also with regard to it’s morality!

In the words of the theme song from the James Bond movie “Goldfinger,” this lady will try hard to entice you to “enter her web of sim. But don’t go in!” More prosperity for the Mars dynasty, if you do indulge.

Elder Armstrong cited another verse concerning what our attitudes must be while awaiting the second Advent of Jesus. It is from the same long quotation of Jesus found in the Gospel of Luke. It is (approximately Luke 21:18-19: “But not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life.” Have you ever seen as many signs as you see today?” The Elder mentioned, as did Pastor Russell, the frequency of earthquakes. He noted the violence done by many exceptionally strong hurricanes recently.  He lamented the current state of the presidential campaign (as did Pastor Russell in this hastily assembled, but nonetheless polished SERMON : posting it to Reddit got me banned from their news site, but it was my fault for illustrating it with Nazi war criminals. Hundreds read it nevertheless, from other portals. It drew many comments, none of which I cared to read. An unavoidable comment on the main site informed me that it was “every Christian’s duty to vote for Donald Trump.”  As maximum supreme arbiter, I used “extreme prejudice” in dealing with this insane statement).

The “Richest People in the World” listings exclude royalty and dictators. Stupendously rich people are those who lay claim to all the property (and even the persons) that constitutes their realms. The majority of these types are not Christians, a fact that leads into Elder Armstrong’s next remarks. He noted that there are currently over seven billion people in the world. Out of this number, only slightly more than 2 billion are “Christians.” This leaves around five billion people that stand desperately in need of salvation. I own a book titled “The Open Secret: An introduction to the Theology of Mission.” It was written by Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, a former missionary to South India. He is not a “syncretist” exactly, but notes that people must hear the Gospel in terms of their “own cultures.” He writes that “God accepts world cultures.” Since I am producing so many sentences at present, let me pile one more on the heap. It is my view on ecumenicalism: “God accepts world cultures, as long as they are keeping His commandments!” Much tolerance, and forbearance, and patience, and longsuffering is required to educate others about this neglected subject. Even in the United States.

Bishop Lesslie Newbigin was not nearly as uptight as this old photograph makes him out to be. He could stand on his head, and was know to do so!

Bishop Newbigin reveals that the sun now sets frequently on the British Empire, and the age of Dr. Livingston and Cecil Rhodes is long gone. Missionary activity can no longer be conducted from a position of strength, but must humbly admit to its weakness. He notes the rise in expectations of the average world citizen (the ubiquity of the “Prosperity Gospel” message is something I have now seen firsthand, via the depressing “Facebook” window I now peek through on occasion). This universal quest for more than what Scripture guarantees has no ready antidote except for patience, education, and the Holy Spirit working strongly alongside the missionaries of today.

The West  may have lost its prestige, but I am happy to report that Seventh-day Adventists, as a result of their dedication, and by their good examples, are doing OK by themselves in certain quarters. They turn up in the unlikeliest of places, but I have yet to discover any in the citadels of Islam. The Orient, too, is a tough nut to crack. I have read theologians other than Bishop Newbigin say that the encyclopedic  faiths of India and the Far East have ready answers for all of life’s questions. The adherents are not looking for alternatives. Bishop Newbigin reveals that many of the fundamental tenets of Christianity, in the forms that they have evolved into under the aegis of Western minds, cannot even be translated so as to be comprehensible to more ancient and “alien” peoples.

One of the soundest mission strategies might be as follows: Show up in person! Augment your freely shared faith with industrious good works! Remain unspotted! Share the life of the peoples you seek to redeem! Strive to make these lives easier! This approach has been successfully used by dedicated missionaries, many of whom happen to be Adventists. Adventists breed many missionaries, but could always use a few more. They might think about adopting the Mormon model. In Switzerland, every able bodied man is a soldier, and keeps a gun by his side. In the Church of the Latter Day saints, all spend a few years in the mission field, keeping a Bible close by. It is that other book they keep that makes me uneasy! As I have noted, I worked for Mormons in a warehouse they owned in Tennessee for a year, a distribution facility for Melaleuca. Why did they locate in East Tennessee? I will reveal the unpardonable answer to you when I see you in heaven, should I be counted worthy to be there.

The site this came from boasts that a big expansion to Melaleuca’s Idaho Fall Headquarters was “debt free.” They are pyramid scheme operators, extorters of money from the innocent. They also happen to be Mormons.

After providing a few additional instances of the downward course of civilization (including the high murder rates in Venezuela and Jamaica, his homeland), Elder Armstrong warned us there is more to come. He quoted from page 172 of a work by Ellen G, White concerning the inability of simple church membership to save anyone. I failed to catch the name of this work. I only know this: it has at least 172 pages! Here is a Sermon from the White Estate that is not by Ellen White, but it is about Ellen White. It is a recent one, by Gerhard Pfandl, titled “Is There a Prophet of the Lord Here?” It features the following statement in its conclusion:

“My friends, you are members of God’s remnant church. However, this identification with the remnant does not give us an exclusive status with God. Salvation is not guaranteed through membership in any church—we are saved as individuals, not as a church.”

Elder Armstrong also quoted Ellen G. White to the effect that “not one in twenty” church members were likely to pass muster before the judgment seat of Christ. This indispensable LINK from the White Estate gives pointers on how to read E.G. White with comprehension. It cites the expression “one in twenty” as an example of the prophet’s use of hyperbole. As an example, it provides this quote from the 1893 work “Christian Service.”

“It is a solemn statement that I make to the church, that not one in twenty whose names are registered upon the church books are prepared to close their earthly history, and would be as verily without God and without hope in the world as the common sinner.”

Elder Armstrong admitted that It saddened him to read such statements. But all of this is temporary. Jesus has a plan. He will stand by us in our hour of trial. We may find ourselves, as was Jesus, hauled before some authorities who do not have our best interests in mind. Luke 21:13-15 instructs us what to do:

“And so you will bear testimony to me. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.” (NIV)

Elder Winston Armstrong ended his enlightening sermon with a hearty admonition to the War Room crowd:

“Saints, wake up and be counted!