In Defense of the Faith

Work Among The Heathen

Of the work of Seventh-day Adventists, Mr. Canright says: DOF 381.1

“They have missions in many of the large cities and in foreign lands; but they are wholly proselyting agencies. They do not work among the heathen, nor for the destitute and fallen.”—Seventh-day Adventism Renounced, p. 31. DOF 381.2

And again we read: DOF 381.3

“Their ‘missions,’ of which they boast so much, Are not to convert the heathen of the foreign lands, nor the drunkards, wretched and degraded, of our cities, but to proselyte or work among people already in fair circumstances.”—Ibid. p. 83. DOF 381.4

As stated in chapter I of this volume, Seventh-day Adventists believe that they have a message to bear to all the peoples of earth, Christian and pagan, Jew and Gentile, civilized and uncivilized. Said the prophet Joel, “Blow you the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord comes, for it is nigh at hand.” Joel 2:1. They preach the message to all who will hear. DOF 381.5

But to suggest that this preaching is addressed only to church members, either at home or abroad, is a gross misrepresentation. The writer spent a number of years as a missionary leader in Africa, and therefore can speak from firsthand knowledge. He knows personally that in the Dark Continent the vast majority of the many thousands of converts to the Seventh-day Adventist faith have been won from the most primitive tribes; often our missionaries have gone where others had never been before them; they have established hospitals, schools, and chapels, and have civilized and Christianized natives who hitherto had had no knowledge whatsoever of God. DOF 381.6

Seventh-day Adventist mission stations are to be found far away from the centers of civilization, out where the darkness of heathenism has reigned supreme for generations. The writer has personally had the privilege of preaching in many a heathen village the first gospel sermon the villagers had ever heard. And what is true of the work of Seventh-day Adventists in Africa is true of their work in the cannibal islands of the South Seas, in India, in Borneo, in China, and in fact in every, heathen land. Seventh-day Adventists. probably have more missions operating today amid heathen surroundings than any other single Protestant church in the world. DOF 382.1

What, then, becomes of the statement that they do not work for the heathen? It is untrue, just as are most of Mr. Canright’s other statements regarding the faith and work of Seventh-day Adventists. DOF 382.2