JOIN ME IN MY JOURNEY The year1844 was indeed a remarkable period in the history of planet earth!

While historian purists may debate the precise starting points and ending dates of certain significant happenings in the history of humanity, it is an incontrovertible and objective fact that 1844 was a watershed in world events. Part One of this volume, 1844 The Day That Changed the World, invites you to come on a tantalizing trip through time, back to that pivotal period, to marvel at the meteoric mushrooming of major movements, and then to be impressed and inspired by the incredible evidence of the guidance of a gracious God in the lives of a small but bold band of Bible-believers. People all over the planet were proclaiming it The Second Coming of the Savior, Jesus Christ! Yet, one crucial exegetical error culminated in the Great Disappointment of October 22, 1844. Reflect on how God, nevertheless, turned that major mistake into a mighty message of what Jesus is doing right now. Challenging the Christian church from outside through an intellectual ideology, as well as by an insidious infiltration from the inside through novel theological theories, Satan, in the mid1840s, sought to subvert the scriptural teaching towards which all of history is marching. However, at that very time God was preparing a people to properly proclaim this paramount event. It was in the summer of 1844 that a theology graduate wrote over 200 pages of a theory that would indelibly impact the world. Yet, that very year, 1844, God was bringing to light a longneglected Bible truth about the special day that celebrates the creation of this world. Way before Harry became famous, there were Kate and Maggie, and before them there was Andrew, who in 1844 claimed to have had a trance in a country graveyard. Yet, just as modern mediums started mushrooming, God was creating a community to correctly communicate the truth about life only through the Lord. Bible-believers know that God at times chooses to communicate through prophetic messengers. In the 1800s new movements were started by people who claimed to have had visions. Examine the messages and messengers who, in the mid-1840s, claimed to be speaking for God. See which ones actually square with Scripture, and so separate the spurious from those inspired by the Spirit of God. Historical records reveal a sudden surge in Bible translations in the early 1800s, including a direct attack on this in 1844 by a major world church leader. Then came the devastating discovery that produced a profusion of Scripture versions, causing considerable confusion. Still, God was proactively providing a prophetic perspective for this devilish diversion. Besides the expectation in the west of the Messiahs advent in 1844, in the east many awaited the arrival of their Promised One thus a new global religious movement arose in 1844, a worldwide church that teaches that all religious truth is relative. But, right at that tumultuous time God was raising up a remnant who believe in biblical absolutes, a community committed to proclaiming the everlasting gospel globally, through the use of communication techniques that actually began right there in 1844! Ellen White stated: In reviewing our past history, having traveled over every step of advance to our present standing, I can say, Praise God! As I see what the Lord has wrought, I am filled with astonishment, and with confidence in Christ as leader. 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. (Life Sketches, 196).

While Part One looks back at the amazing manner in which the compassionate Creator established the Advent movement, Part Two focuses on how to live for the Lord, especially in light of the last days; hence, its title, Master of Morality: Methods for Making Correct Choices. Addressing a broad spectrum of questions and concerns, this section of the book seeks to provide a proper Christ-centered, Bible-based, appropriately-applied guide for the committed Christian who desires to be transformed by the Word rather than conformed to this world. To accomplish that task, the following issues are examined: Is obedience to Gods moral law legalism? What should motivate the Christians choices? What are the methods Jesus used to rightly understand and interpret biblical morality? How is one to know which laws in Scripture are absolute, and which are simply relative? When faced with a moral dilemma, what should one do? How do consequences factor in? What is the purpose of Scripture chronicles, and how can one properly interpret them? How should a Christian respond to modern ethical issues not addressed in the Bible? On moral matters, what responsibilities belong to humans, and what is Gods business? And why is this matter of the method of making moral decisions so vital at present? Not only because we are clearly living in tumultuous and troublous times a period in the planets history when catastrophic calamities are causing even secular people to seriously search for spiritual solutions to satisfy the souls deepest desires. But also, because materialistic methodologies, intellectual ideologies, philosophical frameworks, hedonistic humanism, and rationalistic reasoning have unobtrusively usurped the place of God-glorifying, faith-filled, ecclesiastically-endorsed, divinely-directed, Christ-centered, Bible-based, appropriately-applied thinking, action, and lifestyle. Consider, for example, a February 2005 public television series dealing with the clash between secular culture and biblical beliefs. In clear categorical language two Seventh-day Adventist evangelists spoke out against the secular system of situation ethics. They aptly pointed out the fundamental fallacy of relativistic reasoning. Then, they proceeded to show that the only safe course lay in loyalty to the absolute moral standards that come from the divinely-inspired Bible. Yet, amazingly, despite their correct recognition of the deceitfulness of the human heart, and the necessity of faithful obedience to Gods objective moral law, both of these men began to waffle and waver when it came to a discussion of how to make decisions in desperate and difficult situations. In fact, they radically reversed themselves, basically discarded the Decalogue, and succumbed to selfjustifying situationistic rationalization. Thus, they ended up promoting the very type of relativistic reasoning they had at first so categorically condemned. How could this have happened? Part Two of this volume provides pivotal principles that will assist the committed Christian in avoiding the pitfalls of such spiritually seductive thought patterns. An even more recent example of a contemporary trend in moral reasoning, which is becoming increasingly popular among laity and leader alike, appears in the June 2005 issue of Ministry magazine. The article in question deals with how the Adventist Church should respond to pastors who have had a moral fall, i.e., who have been sexually immoral, but who have then repented, and are still convinced that they are called by God to pastoral ministry. The current working policy of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists states that a sexually immoral pastor is to be removed from duty, and will no longer be eligible for pastoral, teaching, or other denominational leadership responsibilities. The writer of the Ministry article, a bioethicist by profession, sets forth to show that this policy needs to be radically reconsidered, so that rehabilitated sexually-promiscuous pastors can be rehired as spiritual leaders. He believes that the

action of leaders to ignore implementing the present policy may be a reason for reformulating it. No mention is made of the fact that such failure could be due to a lack of faithful leadership; and that the real issue may be a call to repentance and reformation among such personnel rather than the reformulation of policy to conform to current practice. Perhaps more intriguing about this article, is the way in which a Bible story about Jesus has been interpreted, and an example from Ellen Whites life and ministry has been applied, in a bold bid to bolster his belief for a change in church policy. Part Two of this study seeks to supply a scriptural platform upon which pastors and parishioners, leaders and laity, bioethicists and Bible-based believers can build, in order to deal with the difficult decisions that must be made in the context of contemporary culture. The road may be rough, the journey jumbled, yet Jesus the Messiah, the Master of Morality calls on all to Live by Faith in the Father, and Not by Fear of the Future.