Objection:
It would be best if you spent more time helping people make this a better world rather than stir them up about another world, as is the case when the Second Advent doctrine is preached.
Answer:
All will agree that this world would be a much better place if sickness could be removed; and that our earth would be almost ideal if we could banish from human hearts selfishness, jealousy, hatred, and lust.
But does preaching to humanity to make ready for another world prevent us in any way from dealing with the first of these two fundamental troubles, namely sickness? No, assuredly not. Christ spent much of His time ministering to the sick, and yet He preached to the people. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth,… but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven:… for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:19-21.
Christ commissioned His disciples to go out and heal the sick. They did that, but they also made the doctrine of the Second Advent, the preparing of men for heaven, the central feature of their preaching. And it is a simple matter of record that we make the Second Advent so distinctive a part of our preaching, yet at the same time minister to the sick through gospel medical missionary work.
Given the objection before us, this is a remarkable fact. Yet, it is not remarkable, but rather the natural result of belief in the Advent doctrine. The love of Christ that comes into the hearts of those who believe that He will come again causes them to spend their time and means in aiding the sick.
In preaching that Christ, who had ascended, would come again, the disciples made this present world a better one to live, not only by healing the sick but also by helping the poor. Moreover, those who accepted the preaching and who had money willingly gave it into a general fund so that those who were poor might not suffer (See Acts 4:32-37). What untold hunger and want might be relieved if that same spirit controlled the Christian church at large today!
And what of the relation of the vices of men’s hearts to the doctrine of the Second Advent? Indeed, all the schemes that the wise of this world have devised have failed to provide any solution for the steadily growing problem of crime and moral corruption. Does the objector wish us to spend our time on some crime commission or social research committee rather than on the preaching of the Advent? If so, which committee would he suggest, and what proof would he offer that our time would be well spent?
Men can devise ways of confining the body but not of changing the heart, and the prisoner goes forth from the jail ready to repeat his offense or commit a worse one. The fear of the law may hold back a wicked man from the outward act of violence. Still, he is nevertheless a criminal at heart and awaits only the favorable opportunity to carry out his evil desires.
But when the mighty doctrine of the personal and literal return of Christ is preached to men, there is brought home to their sin-dulled senses, with a vividness not otherwise possible, the astonishing fact that they must someday meet God face to face and give an account for their deeds. And that mighty truth may prove the means, under God, of arousing them to cry out for spiritual help, that they may be ready for that day. Therefore, if the objector is willing to admit that religion has any message for man, then he must acknowledge that the message of accountability to God, as outlined in the Advent doctrine, is one of the most powerful that can ever be brought to the human heart.
Every man who accepts the Advent doctrine and lives in the hope of meeting Christ face to face has ever within his heart the mightiest incentive to holy living. “Every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.” 1 John 3:3. And the man whose heart is purified is a good citizen. The more such people there are in the world, the better place it will be to live.
