Dear Friend in Christ,
A friend told me that in the church he attended Sabbath, the one who preached said the gospel is not the Three Angels' Messages but "Christ in you". This makes me sad. Why couldn't the speaker have affirmed our message and said the Three Angels' Messages will be manifested in the life of the believer. Increasingly, there seems to be a fascination in trying to down-play God's special message for his people at this time.
The choice is not shall we preach the Gospel or shall we preach the Three Angels' Messages. The Three Angels' Messages have the Gospel embedded in them and are a made-to-fit application of it to the times in which we live.
Make no mistake. The message given to the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the 'firewall' that will keep the errors of the enemy from overthrowing the people of God just before the close of probation. We must not forget that error keeps truth from doing its work in our lives. Error, mixed with truth, tends to neutralize it and make it ineffective. If we continue to down-play God's special message for this time we will pay a bitter price.
Another thought to consider- we do well to remember the words of our Lord when he said that the way to heaven was narrow and that, in the long run, a comparative few would chose to go enter in. This doesn't mean that he wants to save a comparative few, but that the majority would choose the easy way. We are not meaning to be arrogant, but historically when religion suddenly becomes the popular way to go, something has gone wrong with the message that is being preached.
In His Service,
Pastor Richard W. O'Ffill