Vol. 24, No. 2 Straight and Nar row Feb ru ary 2015

Transcription

1 Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16 The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant. Psalm 25:14 Vol. 24, No. 2 Straight and Nar row Feb ru ary 2015 The Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula; Photo courtesy of NASA Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee. (Jeremiah 32:17)

2 Could You Become an Atheist? Could you become an athe ist? You might be say ing, I never could become an athe ist. Maybe you have been a Chris tian or have been in church all your life and think you could never become an athe ist. I read about an Ortho dox priest who lived dur ing World War II. Per haps he never thought he would ever be an athe ist, but after see ing thou sands of peo ple mur - dered by the Nazis with seem ingly no help being sent from God, he lost his faith. Just as the Schutzstaffel (SS) exe cu - tioner raised his pis tol to shoot the priest, the priest raised his fist in defi ance and shouted blas phe mies at the God in whom he no lon ger believed. Maybe you have heard of a man named Ryan Bell. Ryan Bell is a for mer Sev enth-day Adven tist min is ter who is now an athe ist. He was ordained and had nine teen years of expe ri ence as a min is ter. He served eight years as a senior pas tor of the Hol ly wood Sev - enth-day Adven tist Church in Hol ly wood, Cal i for nia, but in the spring of 2013, he was released from being the pas tor by the South ern Cal i for nia Con fer ence because of his belief and pro mo tion of marriage equal ity. In other words, he believed that the sacred insti tu tion of mar - riage should be extended to homo sex u als. He was released from his posi tion of pas tor for this and for other reasons, as well, but some sources also state that he had pub licly expressed doubt even in his belief in the real ity of God. Bell has stated: I was asked to re sign, and I agreed to re - sign be cause I was no lon ger Ad ven tist enough to be em ployed as a pas tor. ( /02/where-i-stand-a-six-month-re port/). By his own admis sion he real ized that he was not an Adven tist any more. At the begin ning of the next year, 2014, Bell began a unique jour ney. Every year peo ple make New Year s Ryan Bell Photo courtesy of Ryan Bell res o lu tions, such as I am not going to eat candy any more, I m not going to drink tea, or I am going to exer cise more. Bell had a New Year s res o lu tion that he was going to give up God. He decided to live a year with out God, to see what would hap pen. As hard as it is to believe, this is exactly what he did. He decided to live as if God did not exist and to see if he could find a rea son to believe in God. After mak ing this announce ment, he was asked to resign from the two schools at which he taught Azusa Pacific Uni ver sity and Fuller Theo log i cal Sem i nary. The year was up recently and after a year with out God, Bell now states that he is, in fact, an athe ist. In an inter view with National Pub lic Radio, he stated: I think at this point, you know, I ve looked at the ma jor ity of the ar - gu ments that I ve been able to find for the ex is tence of God. And on the ques tion of God s ex is tence or not, I have to say I don t find there to be a con vinc ing case, in my view. I don t think that God ex ists. I think that makes the most sense of the ev i - dence that I have and my experience. You know, I think there are much more im por tant is sues to be fo cused on -... my fo cus is I want to have a closer re - la tion ship to re al ity. I think be fore I wanted a closer re la tion ship to God, and to day, I just want a closer re la tion ship with re al ity. ( plates/transcript/transcript.php?storyid= ) I am going to ask you a ques tion: How do you have a rela - tion ship with a non-per son? But this is what Bell now wants. Bell says he is still ded i cated to help ing peo ple, but he now finds it sim pler to do with out God. Now let us move from what Bell calls real ity to sup po si - tion. Sup pose your mother or some other per son very close to you and whom you really love decided to live a year with out Old Paths February 2015

3 you. They would live as if you never existed. How would you feel? Rejected? Unloved? Unap pre ci ated? You would ques tion why any one would want to do this. Can you imag ine, beloved, that you would ever want to break off com mu ni ca tion or a rela tion ship for a year with some one you really loved? If you really love that per son, I do not believe that you would ever, or could ever, do this. Think of the men tal and emo tional anguish that men and women face who have spouses in the armed forces who are deployed some times for over a year. All they think about is that hus - band in Iraq or that wife in Sioux City, Iowa. No, I do not think that they would ever vol un tarily decide to live with out each other for a year with out any com mu ni ca tion. We will call our army spe cial ist Charles Brown. Spe cial ist Brown may be deployed in Iraq, but he can at least write let ters home. He can send s. He may be able to Skype and see and talk to his fam ily on occa sions. But to live with out them and with no com mu ni ca tion, that is not rea son able, if he loves his fam ily. In the past the most antic i pated time of any sol ider was mail call. In days there when there were no text mes sages, s, Skype, or Internet phones, peo ple lived for mail call and for a let ter from home. To hear from those they loved, that was what they wanted, and it was not what they tried to avoid! Only God knows Ryan Bell s heart, but if I were to put myself in his place, the only way I could do what he did would be if I first ques tioned the exis tence of God before I started the exper i ment, and, in fact, the evi dence is that is what he did. Ryan Bell stated in one of his blogs, as he was half way through this so-called jour ney: When I started the jour ney I think I was 3 Weak The ist ( /02/where-i-stand-a-six-month-re port/). That is a 3 on what is called the Dawkins Scale, con - structed by well-known athe ist Rich ard Dawkins. The Dawkins Scale speaks about the the ist ver sus the athe ist. The strong the ist says, I do not ques tion the exis tence of God. I know he exists, but the strong athe ist says, I am 100% per cent sure there is no God. Num ber 3, the weak the ist says, I am very uncer tain, but I am inclined to believe in God. So when Bell began this jour ney, he was not even cer tain that there was a God in heaven. In fact, he wrote on the sixth month into his jour ney that he was 5, a weak athe ist. It only took him six months to become an athe ist, even though a weak one at that point. The truth of this mat ter, how ever, is that true believ ers have a per sonal rela tion ship with God, one that is lov ing, ten - der, inti mate, and ful fill ing. They could never decide to walk away from the one they love and who loves them, and cer - tainly they could never deny God s exis tence. So I ask you today, could you become an athe ist? I would like to pro pose that if you have a truly vibrant and liv ing rela - tion ship with God, you could not. You might lose that rela tion ship and decide that you do not want God any more. You might back slide, but if you are hon est at heart, you will not deny, as an athe ist does, that God exists because you know by your own per sonal rela tion ship and expe ri ence that he is real. Whether you choose to fol low him or not, you will admit that he exists, that he has worked in your life, and that he has had your wel fare in his hands, but you have sim ply decided that you did not want to give your life to him any more. On the other hand, if you have never had a per sonal rela - tion ship with God and if you have never known by expe ri ence that he is real and exists, then you, indeed, do not have a safe guard from becom ing an athe ist. Maybe God has sim ply been an intel lec tual part of your life and you have thought, I stud ied the proph e cies, and the proph ets said that there would be this suc ces sion of nations and it has come to pass, so God must be real. I will, there fore, serve him and since he says that if I con fess my sins, he will for give me, I do not have to worry about going to hell but will go to heaven since I have con fessed my sins. Have you thought this way? If so, you are using God as an insur ance safe guard. Per haps you are bat tling between being a the ist or an athe ist and think, If I become an athe ist, what good does it do me? If I am a the ist and believe in God, even if the athe ists are right, I do not lose out on any thing by serv ing God, but if the the ists are right, and I become an athe ist, I lose all. So just to make sure, I will con fess my sins and be a Chris tian. And it seems, intel - lec tu ally, the right thing to do, if you read the Bible. Is this your posi tion? If it is, then you could become an athe ist. Ellen White insightfully wrote: Like our Sav iour, we are in this world to do ser vice for God. We are here to be come like God in char ac ter, and by a life of ser vice to re veal Him to the world. In or der to be co-work ers with God, in or der to be come like Him and to re veal His char ac ter, we must know Him aright. We must know Him as He re veals Him self. A knowl edge of God is the foun da tion of all true ed u ca - tion and of all true ser vice. It is the only real safe guard against temp ta tion. It is this alone that can make us like God in char ac ter. This is the knowl edge needed by all who are work ing for the up lift ing of their fel low men. Trans for ma tion of character, purity of life, efficiency in service, adherence to cor rect prin ci ples, all de pend upon a right knowl edge of God. This knowl edge is the es sen tial prep a ra tion both for this life and for the life to come. (The Min is try of Heal ing, p. 409) When the tes ti mony of Jesus speaks about a knowl edge of God, do you think it is speak ing about get ting the ency clo pe - dic facts? If you research the bio graphic data of some one in an ency clo pe dia, you will get the name, place and date of birth, fam ily rel a tives, cause and date of death and many of the facts in between. Is Jesus speak ing in the spirit of proph - ecy only about the bio graph i cal infor ma tion of God? Vol. 24, No

4 We can know a lot about var i ous peo ple. We can know about peo ple we have never met. I dare say any reader of this arti cle will know some thing about Pres i dent Barack Obama. We know cer tain sta tis tics about him, but do any of us per - son ally know Barack Obama? I dare say not one of us knows him. We have never been intro duced to him per son ally. We have never had inter ac tion with him. There is a lot of dif fer - ence between know ing some one and know ing about that person. In John 17:3, Jesus said, And this is life eter nal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. One trans la tion of the Bible from a church that places almost no empha sis upon hav ing a per sonal rela tion ship with God takes great pains to twist the Greek of this text to say that sal va tion is know ing about God. The trans la tion of John 17:3 by the Jeho vah s Wit nesses says: This means everlasting life, their tak ing in knowl edge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ. The Greek does not say that it is life eter nal to take in knowl edge about God. That is a cor rup tion of the text. The Greek text says that it is life eter nal to know the only true God. It is inter est ing that the Greek word trans lated know is ginosko, and it means: to learn to know a per son through di rect per sonal ex pe - ri ence, im ply ing a con ti nu ity of re la tion ship. (Greek-Eng lish lex i con of the New Tes ta ment: based on Se man tic Do mains, Reference 27:18) It is also inter est ing that ginosko was cho sen by John, when there are twenty-five other Greek words for know that he could have used. In other words, if you look at all the vocab u lary in the Greek, there are twenty-six words that John chose from to express what Jesus was say ing, and he chose ginosko. The Theo log i cal Dic tio nary of the New Tes ta ment Abridged, page 119, says that ginosko... is a per cep tion of things as they are, not an opin ion about them. Jesus is speak ing about know ing God that is life eter nal. Jesus said in John 17:25, O righ teous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. When he said I have known thee, he used the same Greek expres sion ginosko I have known you; I have had this per sonal expe ri ence with you and this is what God wants us to have. Jer e miah 9:23, 24 pro claims: Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wis dom, nei ther let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judg ment, and righ teous ness, in the earth: for in these things I de light, saith the LORD. God says that we should glory in that we under stand and know him. It is inter est ing that the Hebrew word trans lated under stand means to have cog ni tive under stand ing (Bible Sense Lexicon, Logos Soft ware). The Hebrew word trans - lated knoweth means to be or become famil iar with some thing through expe ri ence (Ibid.). Jer e miah is tell ing us that we are to glory in being knowl edge able about God through expe ri ence. To know God is not merely to know things about him or even to know things such as what his char ac ter is like, but it is to expe ri ence his pres ence and power. God s Revelation to Humanity We are to know that Christ is our per sonal Sav iour because we have found him our per sonal ref uge. To know God is to be trans formed by him, and, I would like to sug gest, this human knowl edge of God is a result of God s rev e la tion of him self. We could not know about God if God did not give us a rev e la - tion. In the begin ning God cre ated the heaven and the earth (Gen e sis 1:1). How do we know that? Do we see it in the rocks? Well, some peo ple think that we do, but this kind of sci ence could be con tro verted by some peo ple. Maybe it is accu rate; maybe it is not, but one thing that can not be con tro - verted is the word of God. That word states: O the depth of the riches both of the wis dom and knowl - edge of God! how unsearchable are his judg ments, and his ways past find ing out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his coun sel lor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be rec om pensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. (Romans 11:33 36) God him self claims to be the source of every thing, and we would never know of God with out his rev e la tion of him self. Yuri Gagarin was the first per son to fly into space in a rocket. This Soviet cos mo naut bragged about being in space and fail ing to see God: I looked and looked but I did n t see God. Other Soviet cos mo nauts gave sim i lar tes ti mo nies. In the nearly twenty-five years that the Hub ble space tele - scope has been pho to graph ing space, it has never recorded a sin gle pic ture of God or of an angel, but is this lack of evi - dence proof? No, not at all. In fact, we would not expect God to be seen by these unbe liev ers because to all but those whose eyes are opened, the Father is the invis i ble God (Colossians 1:15). Remem ber the story of Balaam when he was rid ing his ass, and an angel stopped him? God allowed that ani mal to see the angel, but Balaam could not see until his eyes were opened. (Num bers 22:21 31). Except by rev e la tion, we will never see God or angels, but God has given us knowl edge of his real ity. He has told us through his word, and he has even told us through cre ation, whether the cos mo nauts saw it or not. Romans 1:20 declares: For the invis i ble things of him from the cre ation of the world are clearly seen, being under - stood by the things that are made, even his eter nal power and Old Paths February 2015

5 God head; so that they are with out excuse. God says that whether they see me up there or not, they are with out excuse because the very heav ens declare me. There is a gran deur and there is a beauty to the heav ens. The heav ens de clare the glory of God; and the fir ma - ment sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowl edge. There is no speech nor lan guage, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a ta ber na cle for the sun. (Psalm 19:1 4) One of my favor ite images from the Hub ble tele scope is the Helix Neb ula. This neb ula is about seven hun dred light years from earth. Due to its unique appear ance, it is often called The Eye of God. God gives knowl edge of his mercy and of his will through the Scrip tures. Both through his law and through his gos pel, he helps us under stand this. Writ ing to the Romans, Paul says: For I am not ashamed of the gos pel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto sal va tion to ev ery one that be - liev eth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righ teous ness of God re vealed from faith to faith: as it is writ ten, The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:16, 17) This Scrip ture tells us about God. It speaks about his law and his grace. Paul says, for therein is the righ teous ness of God revealed. Where is the righ teous ness revealed? If you go back to verse 16, you will read it is in the gos pel. What is God s righ teous ness? In Psalm 119:172, we are told: All thy com mand ments are righ teous ness. All his com mand ments are righ teous ness and his law is the truth. (See Psalm 119:142.) The law and the gos pel are rev e la tions of God and his char ac ter, and they are inter laced and insep a ra ble from each other. God s love for his peo ple and his desire to have them in har mony with him self is expressed in the New Cov e nant. Paul, quot ing from Jer e miah 31, wrote: For this is the cov e nant that I will make with the house of Is rael af ter those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a peo ple: And they shall not teach ev ery man his neigh bour, and ev ery man his brother, say ing, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the great est. (He brews 8:10, 11) God makes a prom ise of putt ing his law in our hearts, and he can do this because he has given us a new heart. Remem - ber what David prayed in Psalm 51:10: Cre ate in me a clean heart. He wanted a new heart, for he real ized that his old NASA courtesy of Photo heart was a heart of stone, and he needed a heart of flesh. In Ezekiel 36:26, 27, God prom ises us a new heart: A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my stat - utes, and ye shall keep my judg ments, and do them. (Ezekiel 36:26, 27) In this new heart he will write his law for us. This is part of his rev e la tion to us, and we would never have any knowl edge of this with out him. God writes his law, his char ac ter, in our hearts, and that is as inti mate as it gets. God wants to have an inti mate, close rela tion ship with us. God also gives knowl edge of him self through Jesus Christ. In Mat thew 11:27, Jesus says: All things are deliv - ered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; nei ther knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whom so ever the Son will reveal him. And so we under stand this being who cre ated all things, who is the author and source of all things and by whom all things exist, through his Son, Jesus Christ. Sec ond Corin thi ans 4:6 declares, For God, who com - manded the light to shine out of dark ness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowl edge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This light, the glory of God that is in the face of Christ, has been shined into our hearts by his Father. He wants us to have that kind of expe ri ence. God wants us to know he is for us. In Psalm 56:9 11, David wrote: When I cry unto thee, then shall mine ene mies turn back: this I know; for God is for me. In God will I praise his word: in the LORD will I praise his word. In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me. David could put his trust in God because he knew that God existed, he knew that God was real, and he knew that God was on his side. Dur ing World War II, the United States went through a great trans for ma tion. It went from being one of the smaller indus trial nations in out put, to being the larg est indus trial nation in the world. It went from hav ing a stand ing army, smaller than the stand ing army of Roma nia, to hav ing one of the most pow er ful armies in the world. There were vir tu ally no pro tests against the war, as hap - pened dur ing the Viet nam War. The United States knew it had a righ teous cause. We were fight ing for some thing more than just our own pres er va tion.we were fight ing for the pres - er va tion of the world and soci ety. The peo ple under stood that what was hap pen ing in Europe by the Axis pow ers was intrin si cally evil. We believed, as Amer i cans, that even if we did not have an army any big ger than Roma nia s army, God was going to give us the vic tory because what we were stand - ing for was right. I real ize that we might not be able to say that today, unfor tu nately, but at that time we were stand ing for things that were right and true, and we believed that God was with us. That made a dif fer ence, and if we believe that Vol. 24, No

6 God is with us, it will make a dif fer ence. The Psalm ist said, God is with me. If our eyes are open, we know that the Lord is God of all. Con sider, for exam ple,egypt just before the Exo dus. The plagues have begun to fall, includ ing the hail, and Moses has been called to ask Jeho vah to stop the hail. Moses declared to Pha raoh, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thun der shall cease, nei ther shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORD S (Exo dus 9:29). Though the hail was kill ing peo ple, destroy ing ani mals, and ruin ing the crops of Egypt, Moses, with out a thought of fear, walked out in the midst of it and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thun ders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth (Exo dus 9:33). God wanted Pha raoh to know that he existed and that he was the ruler of all things. Sadly, Pha raoh s heart was hard ened. The Nature of Knowing God Jonah believed in God and knew his char ac ter. Jonah was the reluc tant prophet because he wanted to be taken seri ously. After his great fish adven ture, Jonah went to Nineveh and announced that in forty days the city was going to be destroyed. And then it did not hap pen. Jonah did not like that because it made him look like a false prophet. In Jonah 4:2, we read: And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my say ing, when I was yet in my coun try? There fore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gra cious God, and mer ci ful, slow to anger, and of great kind ness, and repentest thee of the evil. Jonah knew enough about God s char ac ter that he attempted to avoid his call ing to Ninevah. He fig ured, If I go tell this peo ple that God is going to send fire, they will repent and he will not do it, and I will appear like a false prophet. I am not going to do it because I know how God works. Do we know God today? Do we under stand his char ac ter? Over and over in the Bible, the writ ers of Scrip ture speak of per son ally know ing God and his ways. The Psalm ist said, For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods (Psalm 135:5). As your read through the Scrip tures, you find these kind of state ments over and over. In 1 John 4:8, 16, 19, John could pos i tively write: He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.... And we have known and be lieved the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.... We love him, be cause he first loved us. Maybe in your life you read cer tain things in the Bible and some times you have to think deeply on what some thing means, and some times, espe cially when you read the Apos tle Paul, you find there are things that can be hard to under stand. Some times our cul ture cre ates a lit tle bit of a block. For instance, the Apos tle Paul tells the aged sis ters to teach the youn ger sis ters how to love their hus bands (Titus 2:4). And the young girls today read that verse and might think, What does it mean to love their hus bands? Of course I love my hus band. I would not have mar ried him if I did not love him. We have to under stand that in Paul s day most of the mar - riages were arranged mar riages, and a woman might not even know her future hus band before she became mar ried to him. She would have to learn to love him. God, in his wis dom, insti tuted this pro gram and though it seems strange to us today, it worked well. But con tin u ing on the point, an unbe - liever might think, How do I learn to love God? When some one does some thing dra mat i cally great for you, dynamic and per sonal, it plants a seed of love in your heart to be able to love and appre ci ate that per son for what he or she has done. And the more you see the love of some one toward you, the more you love that per son. That is the way you were made, and God designed us to see and under stand his love, so that we will love him in return. In the time of arranged mar riages, when the hus band would righ teously love his wife and show his con cern, care, and kind ness, she would under stand that this is what love is, and she would learn to love him back. It will work with us, too, as we see the love of God, but it can not work if we are not expe ri enc ing first hand the love of God. We will not find this love at the ball games. We can not do so at the night clubs. We can not find it at the dances. These places are not where we find the love of God because this is not where God is found. He is found in his word. Love for God hap pens when you are with God. It hap pens through a view of his cre ation. It hap pens through prayer. It hap pens through observ ing the prov i den tial lead ing and guid ance of God in our lives. God is an indi vid ual who wants to reveal him self and his ways to human ity. Surely the Lord GOD will do noth ing, but he revealeth his secret unto his ser vants the proph ets (Amos 3:7). God has repeat edly done this through the course of his - tory. God planned to destroy Sodom and Gomor rah. And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abra ham that thing which I do (Gen e sis 18:17)? And he revealed his plans to Abra ham his prophet. God revealed him self to Egypt and to Pha raoh. He gave him two dreams the dream about the ears of corn and the dream about the kine. And then he sent a man, whose name was Joseph, to inter pret those dreams so that Egypt could be pre pared for the com ing fam ine. (See Gen e sis 41:25 36.) Even when there arose a new Pha raoh who knew not Joseph, God still tried to warn those peo ple about what would hap pen in the plagues so that they might know what was com ing (Exo dus 6:6 7; 7:5, 17; 18:11), and even when it did hap pen, Moses said, We are going to stop this so you will know that the earth is the Lord s. Now we come to the end times, and God has decided to warn the last gen er a tion. In Rev e la tion 1:1, we read: The Rev e la tion of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to Old Paths February 2015

7 shew unto his ser vants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and sig ni fied it by his angel unto his ser vant John. God wants us to be aware of what is to come. He wants us to be aware of him, of his ways of work ing, and of who he is. Beloved, God has sent us his Son so that we can know him and under stand him and so that we can see the light of the knowl edge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corin thi ans 4:6). As we come to know Jesus, we can come to know the true God of the Uni verse. Jesus said: Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye nei - ther know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also (John 8:19). As we know Christ, we know the Father. Jesus said in John 14:6: I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man com - eth unto the Father, but by me. As we know Christ we know God, and he has taught us about the Father. Hence forth I call you not ser vants; for the ser vant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Fa ther I have made known unto you. (John 15:15) All things that the Fa ther hath are mine: there fore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (John 16:15) Jesus said he had declared the name of God to the dis ci ples: And I have de clared unto them thy name, and will de - clare it: that the love where with thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:26) Do you know how many times Mat thew, Mark, Luke and John record Jesus use of the divine name (Jeho vah or Yahweh or what ever pro nun ci a tion you favor)? Zero. In fact, in all of the New Tes ta ment, the divine name is never used, not once, but Jesus said: I have declared unto them thy name. What he meant is that he has declared God s char ac - ter to us, what he is like, and Jesus did that repeat edly. To Know God Is To Experience His Salvation Jesus said, And this is life eter nal [that is, sal va tion], that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent (John 17:3). In the book The Desire of Ages, on page 347, we are told: It is not enough to be lieve about Christ; we must be lieve in Him. The only faith that will ben e fit us is that which em - braces Him as a per sonal Sav iour; which ap pro pri ates His mer its to our selves. Many hold faith as an opin ion. Sav ing faith is a trans ac tion by which those who re ceive Christ join them selves in cov e nant re la tion with God. Gen u ine faith is life. A liv ing faith means an in crease of vigor, a con fid ing trust, by which the soul be comes a con quer ing power. (El len White, The De sire of Ages, p. 347). With whom do you con fide? Do you con fide with just any - one and every one? You con fide with the peo ple that you know, that you love, and that you trust. How do you have a con fid ing trust if you do not con fide in any one? You do not do that unless you are hav ing a per sonal rela tion ship with that person. Friends, we can not find that kind of rela tion ship with God by sim ply know ing him intel lec tu ally. We have to know him per son ally. First John 5:20 states, And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an under stand ing, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eter nal life. John does not say we think or we hope, but we know. He says that we may know. In the book Christ s Object Les sons, we are told: Moral per fec tion is re quired of all. Never should we lower the stan dard of righ teous ness in or der to ac com mo - date in her ited or cul ti vated ten den cies to wrong-do ing. We need to un der stand that im per fec tion of char ac ter is sin. All righ teous at trib utes of char ac ter dwell in God as a per fect, har mo ni ous whole, and ev ery one who re ceives Christ as a per sonal Sav iour is priv i leged to pos sess these at trib utes (El len White, Christ s Ob ject Les sons, p. 330). How do we get these attrib utes if we do not have Christ as our per sonal Sav iour? We can not, and we will not! When we have Christ as our per sonal Sav iour, how ever, then we can have all of these beau ti ful, holy attrib utes of God. We might say they just rub off on us. This kind of learn ing is exhib ited some times in cou ples who spend years together they pick up traits from each other. To have this kind of rela tion ship, we have to spend time in the study of God s word. We are not going to find it some - where else. To have this kind of rela tion ship, we have to spend time not only in the study God s word, but also in prayer. We are not going to find it at worldly events. We are not going to find it read ing nov els. We are cer tainly not going to find it in the evo lu tion ary sci ence books. To have this kind of rela tion ship with God, we must spend time with God s word in study and prayer. It is not going to hap pen any other way. How can you have a per sonal rela tion ship with God? First of all, you need to acknowl edge that you are a sin ner and that your sins have sep a rated you from God. Sec ondly, you must believe that Jesus Christ came to be your sub sti tute. God so loved the world... (John 3:16). Yes, he loved the world, but friends that is not how the verse ends. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begot ten Son, that who so ever believ eth in him should not per ish, but have ever last ing life. The gift is for the world, but the call is to the indi vid ual. You need to believe that Jesus died for you, that the LORD put on him the iniq uity of us all. (See Isa iah 53:6.) He has laid on him my iniq uity, as well as your iniq uity. Vol. 24, No

8 Thirdly, you must con tinue on, even if you fall down. In 1 John 2:1, we have the prom ise: My lit tle chil dren, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advo cate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righ - teous. Acknowl edge that when you come to Jesus you have not yet fully arrived. You have the source, but you have not tapped fully into the source yet. God wants you to walk fully in him, but if you stum ble along the path way, you have an advo cate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righ teous. You need to accept the love that God has for you as a father. Preach ers can intro duce you to Jesus. They can talk to you about Jesus, but you and Jesus have to become friends. Nobody can intro duce some one to you and then become a friend by proxy for that per son. It just does not work. Remem ber Ryan Bell? In his sixth-month blog report on his jour ney, he also wrote this: As He brews 11 says, Faith is the ev i dence of things un seen. In the bib li cal book of Joshua, God tells Joshua that he will part the Jor dan river so they can cross, but it is only as they step into the wa ter that it opens (Joshua 3). To change the met a phor, imag ine a bridge that is only vis i ble to those who take the first step off the cliff. This is what we usu ally mean by a leap of faith. The prob lem is that most skep tics, my self in cluded, have al ready leaped and dis cov ered that the bridge is n t there. Or it is - n t there for us. Or at least not any more ( /02/where-i-stand-a-six-month-re port/). The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God (Psalm 14:1). Maybe Ryan Bell jumped where God did not tell him to leap, but I have made that leap of faith, and I found a solid bridge that has held me up. A bridge joins two sides together. Jesus joins us to the Father. He is our medi a tor, whose strong grasp will never let go. He is there for me, and he is there for you. It is eter nally true that those who com eth to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that dil i - gently seek him (Hebrews 11:6). There are some very intel li gent and artic u late men who teach cre ation sci ence. Peo ple like Ariel Roth, Ken Ham, and oth ers have done a good ser vice for the cause of believ ers; how ever, I do not base my rela tion ship with Christ upon what they, or any of the cre ation sci en tists, teach. I think they have inter est ing and good ideas, as well as stud ies, but I do not base my Chris tian ity upon them and their teach ings. This is because when you just look at the sci ence alone, both evo lu - tionists and creationists can make com pel ling argu ments. I know creationists have the cor rect pic ture, but I can see that if you just look at the sci en tific stand point, there is a lot of evi - dence on the other side. I do not base my faith in Christ on sci ence. I do not base my faith on the tes ti mony of oth ers (and I have heard some really good tes ti mo nies). No, I must base my faith with Christ on my per sonal rela tion ship with him. I serve a risen Sav iour, He s in the world today; I know that He is liv ing, What ever men may say; I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer, And just the time I need Him, He s always near. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today! He walks with me and talks with me Along life s nar row way. He lives, He lives, sal va tion to impart! You ask me how I know He lives: He lives within my heart. (Alfred Henry Ackley) Friends, until you taste and see that the Lord is good, you will never know him. If you have never had a per sonal rela - tion ship with him, or if you have lived a life in which you thought you had a rela tion ship with Christ but now real ize it was just an intel lec tual rela tion ship, I encour age you today to turn your life over to Jesus Christ. Find out what it is like to really walk with Jesus and to talk to him. And find out what it is like to know God through Christ. You can do this as you sur ren der to his will and as you con fess your sins and ask him to come enter your heart. A word of cau tion, though. Some peo ple expect to have a warm, euphoric feel ing when they con fess their sins and come to Jesus. This is usu ally not the case. God does not want us to base our faith or our expe ri ence upon feel ings, but rather upon his word. In the Mor mon Church there is a teach ing called the burn - ing of the bosom (Doc trine and Cov e nants 9:8, 9). Mor mons will share their doc trine with pos si ble con verts and then ask them to pray and ask God if the teach ings are true. If they are, the learner is sup posed to have a warm sen sa tion over their chest and in their bosom. This, they claim, will be the evi - dence that the teach ing is true; how ever, friends, God does not work that way because Satan can give us a warm, fuzzy feeling. Part of the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, and peace, but do not depend upon feel ings to be a test. Truth is the test and our obe di ence to that truth. God has prom ised us that if we will sur ren der our wills to walk in his ways, he will walk with us per son ally. This will bring joy and hap pi ness to our hearts. It will bring warmth in our hearts, but it will come in the right way. It comes in har mony with the word of God. Today the door of invi ta tion is open. You do not need a min is ter to accept Christ as your per sonal Sav iour. You sim - ply need Christ. A min is ter can be your friend. He can intro duce you to his friend, Jesus Christ, but then you have to become Christ s friend, and you have to do it in a per sonal way. He offers this to each one of us. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begot ten Son, that who so ever believ eth in him should not per ish, but have ever last ing life (John 3:16). Who so ever means you. You can give your heart to Jesus Christ today. Allen Stump Old Paths February 2015

9 God s Plans Are Perfect By faith he sojourned in the land of prom ise, as in a strange coun try, dwell ing in taber na cles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same prom ise: for he looked for a city which hath foun da tions, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:9, 10) Jesus ascended to the Father as a rep re sen ta tive of the human race, and God will bring those who reflect His image to behold and share with Him His glory. There are homes for the pil grims of earth. There are robes for the righ teous, with crowns of glory and palms of vic tory. All that per plexed us in the provi dences of God will then be made plain. The things hard to be under stood will then find an expla na tion. The mys ter ies of grace will unfold before us. Where our finite minds dis cov ered only con fu sion and bro ken pur poses, we shall see the most per fect and beau ti ful har mony. We shall know that infi nite love ordered the expe ri ences that seemed most try ing and hard to bear. As we real ize the ten der care of Him who makes all things work together for our good, we shall rejoice with joy unspeak able and full of glory. Pain can not exist in the atmo sphere of heaven. In the home of the redeemed there will be no tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourn ing. The inhab it ant shall not say, I am sick: the peo ple that dwell therein shall be for given their iniq uity (Isa iah 33:24). One rich tide of hap pi ness will flow and deepen as eter nity rolls on. Think of this; tell it to the chil dren of suf fer ing and sor row, and bid them rejoice in hope. The nearer we come to Jesus, the more clearly we behold the purity and great ness of His char ac ter, the less we shall feel like exalt ing self. The con trast between our char ac ters and His will lead to humil i a tion of soul and deep heart search ing. The more we love Jesus, the more entirely will self be hum bled and for got ten.... He who is meek in spirit, he who is pur est and most child - like, will be made strong for the bat tle. He will be strength ened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. He who feels his weak ness, and wres tles with God as did Jacob, and like this ser vant of old cries, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me, will go forth with the fresh anoint ing of the Holy Spirit. The atmo sphere of heaven will sur round him. He will go about doing good. His influ ence will be a pos i tive force in favor of the reli gion of Christ.... Our God is a very pres ent help in time of need. He is acquainted with the most secret thoughts of our hearts, with all the intents and pur poses of our souls. When we are in per - plex ity, even before we open to Him our dis tresses, He is mak ing arrange ments for our deliv er ance. Let ter 73, Feb. 1, 1905, to Drs. D. H. and Lauretta Kress. (Ellen White, The Upward Look, p. 46) Signal Lights for the Homeward Bound There s a buoy on the star board bow, said a friend, com ing down the com pan ion way. Already? I cried. Impos si ble! We are a hun dred miles from port. Well, it s there, he said, and it isn t a bar rel. I ran on deck. There was noth ing to see but the great, rest - less ocean and the white caps streak ing its gray, heav ing sur face. And noth ing to hear save the scream of the wind in the rig ging and the swish of the spray over the bow. Where is it? I cried. There, he cried, point ing. Over there! He was right. Only a pin point in the vast expanse, but unmis tak able nev er the less. A buoy! It was incred i ble. A buoy this far from port! There was no land any where in sight. North, south, east, west noth ing but wind swept waves that merged into the haze of the hori zon. We were not due in port for six hours at least; yet here was this buoy. Surely, I thought, it must have a mean ing. Per haps it marked the begin ning of the chan nel to the dis tant har bor. It did. An hour passed. A sec ond buoy appeared, this time on the port bow. Half an hour more, and across the surg ing waves came the toll ing of a bell. It was another buoy, one with a bell attached. As the buoy rolled in the trough of the sea the bell clanged out its mourn ful warn ing note. Now, far in the dis tance and low down on the hori zon I saw some thing that seemed more solid than cloud, an irreg u lar line that might be hills and moun tains. Land! I cried jubi lantly. But it was gone again engulfed in mist and the gath er ing gloom of even tide. Then a light shone out. Only a light, but cheer ing as the lamp on the porch at home. Dark ness had set in oper a tion the auto matic switch on yet another buoy. Soon another light appeared. Then another and another. Some were red, some green, some amber, and the ship was going between them, while every where around, it seemed the warn ing bells were toll ing as the buoys were tossed by the waves/ We must be nearly there, I cried. We were. Sud denly, mak ing a sharp turn, the ship bore us into a quiet and tran quil bay, where the gay lights of a city just ahead beamed their wel come. We were in port at last. Even so has been the voy age of the advent peo ple since that day in 1844 when as a lit tle, lonely band they set out on their jour ney to the king dom. con tin ued on page 22, col umn 2 Vol. 24, No

10 Peruvian Health Mission Recently a bur den was laid upon the hearts of a gen er ous cou ple for the health work in Peru, and in the fall of 2013 they donated a hec tor (about 6 acres) prop erty to the Sev enth Day Home Church Fel low ship for such pur poses. (This cou ple has fam ily and loved ones in this area of Peru and has a desire to better their phys i cal and spir i tual wel fare.) For those who may not know, Sev enth Day Home Church Fel low ship (SDHCF) is an asso ci a tion of Sab bath-keep ing home churches com mit ted to uphold ing the his toric prin ci - ples and doc trines of the Sev enth-day Adven tist Church. SDHCF firmly bases its foun da tion upon the Bible and the Spirit of Proph ecy. It pro vides the mem bers a vehi cle for dis - cus sion, study, and a means of orga niz ing to work together for var i ous mis sion ary pro jects. For more infor ma tion about SDHCF, go to: This prop erty is located on the out skirts of Tarapoto, Peru. Tarapoto is a quaint city of approx i mately 120,000 pop u la - tion yet still has a small town atmo sphere. It is sit u ated at the east ern foot hills of the Andes Moun tains, just west of the Ama zon jun gle basin (north east of the cap i tal city, Lima). Tarapoto has a tem per ate cli mate that aver ages from the low 70 s to the high 80 s every day, year round. There is a dry sea - son and a rainy sea son, and it would be con sid ered a sub trop i cal envi ron ment. The countryside surrounding Tarapoto is largely agri cul - tural and grows a vari ety of foods, like beans, corn, rice, potatoes, and quinoa. Many fruits and nuts grow in abun - dance, as well, such as aloe vera, avo ca dos, bananas, bread fruit, cit rus, coco nut, grapes, man gos, noni fruit, olives, papaya, pine ap ples, Peru vian plums, star fruit, sug ar cane, yucca, Brazil nuts, cashews, and sev eral other types of trop i cal fruits, in addi tion to many of our normal vegetables, like beets, cab bage, car rots, cucum bers, egg plant, onions, squash, toma toes, and sev eral dif fer ent herbs and sea son ings. There is a small air port, with ser vice of approx i mately ten flights per day to and from Tarapoto. Auto mo biles are a wide spread form of ground trans por ta tion, but the most com - mon method is the moto-taxi (a motor ized tri cy cle taxi). The peo ple liv ing out and around Tarapoto seem to be sim - ple, hard-work ing farm ers and arti sans, while the peo ple in town appear to be look ing for an alter nate way of life through com merce and var i ous busi ness endeav ors. Crime is low, and Tarapoto seems to be a safe city (as cit ies go), but one can see the influ ences of the big city life encroach ing on this old-world town. Tarapoto hosts sev eral reli gious per sua sions, includ ing Cathol i cism, sev eral Protestant faiths, and var i ous New Age spir i tu al ists. There is a strong Adven tist pres ence, as well, with sev eral churches (includ ing a reformed church), with ele men tary and sec ond ary schools, and with an Adven - tist uni ver sity. The peo ple of the local Adven tist churches are Mission Appeal very gra cious and kind, yet they seem to be igno rant of many of the basic fun da men tal prin ci ples and doc trines of our faith. As with many of the churches of this land, there is def i - nite room for improve ment! The prop erty itself is located about a ten min ute walk from town. Vehi cles can drive down into the val ley, but most of the motor-taxis don t like to leave the flat, paved streets. Nes tled at the bot tom of the hill, with a beau ti ful stream cross ing through the mid dle of the prop erty, sits the Tarapotillo Farm. The gravel road passes around and through the prop erty, mak ing eas ier access to it. In the front of the lot stands the remains of a block home that was destroyed by fire, yet it appears that some of the struc ture could be uti lized to rebuild on the site. There are a few large mango trees and sev eral cit rus trees around that home stead, too. Other than that, no addi tional devel op ment has taken place on the prop erty. Elec tric ity is acces si ble, and there is cell phone recep tion, as well. The ter rain is rather hilly and very beau ti ful, but would not be the best for large-scale agri cul ture. How ever, sev eral fruit trees and small areas could eas ily be planted for more ade - quate food sup plies. In addi tion to the creek that passes through the prop erty, there are two or three fresh and pure springs that orig i nate on the prop erty and feed into the creek. This past May, Wally and Ana Maria Wood ward, Michael Wood ward, along with Todd and Caleb Brown, vis ited the farm and eval u ated the mis sion poten tial in this area of Peru. After assess ing the town, the peo ple, and the prop erty and after report ing back to the SDHCF board, it was deter mined that a health retreat would be an ideal wedge that God could use to intro duce both phys i cal and spir i tual reform to the com mu nity in and around Tarapoto. Peru is a coun try where GMO foods are not allowed, and one could eas ily and eco nom i cally grow and eat healthy foods and edu cate peo ple of the area about a healthy vegan life style. There seems to be a real area of igno rance when it comes to health reform in this part of Peru, and healthy liv ing is scarce among the peo ple. The com mu nity is ripe for a clinic that offers sim ple nat u ral rem e dies and edu ca tional classes to the pub lic. Inter min gled with these nat u ral rem e - dies, the gos pel would be pre sented to open the way for spir i tual growth. Another self-sup port ing Adven tist mis sion, Peru Pro - jects, located in cen tral Peru, reported in their May 2014 news let ter that the peo ple of Peru are ripe for cook ing classes and health sem i nars. No ques tion, the needs are great and the peo ple seem to be ready! We are look ing to con struct two homes of approx i mately 2,000 square feet each. One would be of a con ven tional floor plan with a kitchen, liv ing room, three bed rooms, etc. The other would con sist of a small apart ment with a treat ment facil ity and an all pur pose liv ing/meet ing room. After doing Old Paths February 2015

11 research as to some of the local build ing reg u la tions, as well as look ing at mate rial costs, we believe that $30,000 (USD) will be enough funds to make some of the first stages of this pro ject a real ity. Tem po rary hous ing is avail able while under go ing this ini - tial stage of devel op ment, and then these two homes would pro vide hous ing for at least two or three cou ples or fam i lies. While build ing we would also like to begin mak ing con - tacts in the com mu nity and start with sim ple house-to-house treat ments and edu ca tional pre sen ta tions. (At pres ent, there are two ladies who have repeat edly requested help for their phys i cal infir mi ties.) Qual i fied cou ples and fam i lies have been con tacted, and they are pray ing about join ing these efforts, as well! We believe God has a work to be done in Tarapoto, and now we are openly inform ing the breth ren of our plans and inten tions. We are look ing for your sup port. Pri mar ily we need prayer for God s lead ing in these efforts. Please keep the Peru vian Health Retreat in your prayers! We also need well-bal anced, con verted per son nel who are will ing to give of their time and ener gies. Peo ple, young and older, are needed on a short-term basis to help with some of the ini tial devel op ment and infra struc ture. Peo ple are needed to help con struct hous - ing and treat ment facil i ties and to plant and clear for gar dens and water sys tems. We are look ing to coor di nate short-term mis sion trips for such peo ple who love the Lord and who want to sup port these efforts. Also, we need peo ple of like mind and faith who know and can share God s word, peo ple who are skilled in the med i cal mis sion ary field, peo ple who can speak Span ish or who are will ing to learn, peo ple who are will ing to take a year or two out of their lives to help spread the gos pel in Tarapoto! Lastly, we need to raise the finan cial resources to help get this pro ject started. We want to start small, and we should never despise the day of small begin nings, but even with small begin nings, it takes money to get started. Please pray and see if the Lord leads you to part ner with us in the Peru - vian Health Retreat! For addi tional infor ma tion, com ments, or ques tions, please con tact Todd Brown by phone at , or at tbjbrtown@aol.com and ref er ence the sub ject line as Peru vian Health Mis sion. Missionary School in Philippines and Elsewhere The work of the gos pel is mov ing for ward in the Phil ip pines. Many indi vid u als and groups have accepted the good news about God and there are many young peo ple want ing to be trained and edu cated under the prin ci ples of true edu ca tion. Because of this need, Res ti tu tion Min is tries has started a mis sion ary school in the Phil ip pines. The desire and goal for this school is to fol low the blue print of true edu ca tion. Although cur rently located in Ilocos Sur at Brother Carlos Romero s Health Res to ra tion coun try site, it is still in need of more land to pro vide the nec es sary agri cul tural and indus trial train ing. There are eleven stu dents attend ing the school right now, and oth ers that are ready to attend at the begin ning of the next ses sion. We have a few small hand and power tools to teach some trades, but there is still a great need to pur chase more tools and equip ment. We need table saws, chop saws, recip ro cat ing saws, drills, sanders, plan ers, a lathe, drill press, as well as sew ing machines, farm imple ments, etc. There is need of proper ed u ca tion. Schools should be es tab lished for the pur pose of ob tain ing not only knowl - edge from books, but knowl edge of prac ti cal in dus try. (El len White, Fun da men tals of Chris tian Ed u ca tion, p. 316) Our pur pose is to bring the school into the posi tion of being self-sup port ing, so it does not need to con stantly be sup ported from over seas. Also, the stu dents need to be able to earn their own tui tion, so even those who oth er wise could not afford it may attend. This requires some ini tial fund ing to get things started, and may require dona tions from time to time for help with spe cial pro jects. To accom plish this, we need to estab lish indus tries, where the stu dents and teach ers can work to help sup port the school. These indus tries are of great impor tance for the growth of the stu dents and for any Chris tian school that wants to be estab lished upon the prin ci - ples of true edu ca tion. There is a great need for trained, con se crated young men and women to work in the vine yard of the Mas ter. In ac quir ing an ed u ca tion, many stu dents would gain a most valu able train ing if they would be come self-sus tain - ing. In stead of in cur ring debts, or de pend ing on the self-de nial of their par ents, let young men and young women de pend on them selves. They will thus learn the value of money, the value of time, strength, and op por tu ni - ties, and will be un der far less temp ta tion to in dulge idle and spend thrift hab its. The les sons of econ omy, in dus try, self-denial, practical business management, and steadfastness of pur pose, thus mas tered, would prove a most im por tant part of their equip ment for the bat tle of life. And the les son of self-help learned by the stu dent would go far to ward pre serv ing in sti tu tions of learn ing from the bur den of debt un der which so many schools have strug gled, and which has done so much to ward crip pling their use ful ness. (El len White, Ed u ca tion, p. 221) The need for schools founded upon true edu ca tion is not only pres ent in the Phil ip pines, for we are also actively work - ing to begin a sim i lar school in another island coun try as well. If you are impressed to help with these pro jects that will bring true edu ca tion to our young peo ple in these coun tries, please con tact David Sims: admin@seventhdayhomechurchfellowships.org. Thank you for your help. Da vid Sims Vol. 24, No

12 Old Paths February 2015

13 Vol. 24, No

14 Tasty Recipe Jeff Burgers If you are like a lot of peo ple, you may need food that is easy and quick to make, but that is also nutri tious. For a sand wich, some folks choose MorningStar Farms Grillers (bur gers). They cer tainly seem tasty, and they are veg e tar ian, right? Well, if you mean they have no meat, that is cor rect, but they are not free of ani mal prod ucts, as they con tain egg whites and whey. Grillers con tain large amounts of veg e ta ble oil, and they also con tain autolyzed yeast extract and cal cium caseinate, which con tain MSG and maltodextrin, another ingre di ent which also con tains MSG, but to a lesser degree. Accord ing to the MorningStar website, Grillers con tain: Tex tured veg e ta ble pro tein (wheat glu ten, soy pro tein concentrate, water for hydration), egg whites, corn oil, calcium caseinate, con tains two per cent or less of mod i - fied tap i oca starch, on ion pow der, ca no la oil, triglycerides from coconut oil, hy - dro lyzed veg e ta ble pro tein (corn glu ten, wheat glu ten, soy pro tein), dex - trose, salt, soy pro tein iso late, autolyzed yeast ex tract, sugar, natural and ar ti fi cial fla vors from non-meat sources, car a mel color, cul tured whey, maltodextrin, gar lic pow der, spice, cel lu lose gum, di sod - ium guanylate, di sod ium inosinate, soy sauce (wa ter, soy beans, salt, wheat), vi ta mins and min er als (niacinamide, iron [fer rous sul fate], thi a min mononitrate [vi ta min b1], pyridoxine hy dro chlo ride [vi ta min b6], ri bo fla vin [vi ta min b2], vi ta min b12), ses ame seed oil, cel ery ex tract, soy lec i thin. ( ucts/bur - gers/grillers-orig i nal, em pha sis sup plied.) These bur gers con tain 130 cal o ries, 50 of which are from fat, mean ing that they are over 38% fat by cal o ries. So, although they are lower in fat than beef, this does not mean a lot. Fur ther more, the soy they con tain is not listed as being non-genet i cally mod i fied. They are also high in sodium (260 mg). These bur gers are nei ther healthy nor vegan. One of Boca s vegan bur gers has a much better ingre di ent list. Boca s website gives the fol low ing ingre di ents for one of its vegan bur gers: Wa ter, soy pro tein, con cen trate*, wheat gulten, con tains less than 2% of dried on ions, yeast ex tract, mod i fied cel lu lose, nat u ral flavor (non-meat), salt, car a mel color, gar lic pow der, ses ame oil. Con tains Soy, wheat, ses ame. *Made with soy pro tein from non-ge net i cally en gi neered soy beans. ( These bur gers do not con tain genet i cally mod i fied soy - beans and are truly vegan. We are not told this about the wheat in them. These bur gers con tain 100 cal o ries, 20 of which are from fat, mean ing that they are 20% fat by cal o - ries. While these bur gers are lower in fat then the MorningStar Grillers, they can not be con sid ered low fat. They do not have the MSG of the MorningStar Grillers, but they are much higher in sodium (470 mg). Both of these prod ucts cost about a dol lar per serv ing, so they are costly to use. We have found a healthy, vegan, and low-cost alter na tive. Per haps you know of Jeff Novick, food nutri tion ist and health speaker. He is the author of Fast Food, a DVD that explains how to make healthy food fast. Jeff has cre ated another DVD on healthy bur gers, and it truly is a sim ple approach to mak ing dif fer ent kinds of bur gers that are easy, fast, healthy, and low cost. The ingre di ents call for five basic items, and by vary ing the items you can have dif fer ent kinds of bur gers. The five basic items are: 1 can (15 oz, about 1½ cups) beans (kid ney, pinto, navy, etc.) ½ cup old-fash ioned oats (uncooked) ½ cup cooked brown rice 2 table spoons of some tomato prod uct, such as sauce, chopped toma toes, ketchup, or salsa sea son ings (gar lic pow der, onion pow der, etc.) The pro ce dure is to place the well-drained beans in a mix ing bowl and Our version of the Jeff Burger to use a potato masher to mash the beans thor oughly. (Jeff says to not use a food pro ces sor, as the beans become too liquidly.) Then mix in all the other ingre di ents, until all is well-blended, and form into bur gers. For firmer bur gers, form the pat ties, place them on a bak ing sheet, and put into a refrig er a tor for 20 min utes before bak ing. Bake them in an oven at 350 F for 5 min utes, flip them and bake for another 5 min utes. If you are inclined to use a non-stick skil let or a no-stick spray, you may fry them until brown on both sides. A spe cific rec ipe that I typ i cally use con tains: 1 can of kid ney beans ½ cup of oats ½ cup of long grain brown rice 2 table spoons of tomato sauce ½ cup of finely chopped onions and red bell pep per ½ t of onion pow der ¼ t gar lic pow der ½ t sage ½ t basil Why are these bur gers better? They are com posed of unpro cessed foods, which can all be organic, if you pre fer. con tin ued on page 22, col umn 2 Old Paths February 2015

15 Youth s Cor ner (Our story this month is the con clud ing install ment from the book Youth ful Wit nesses, by W. A. Spicer.) Jim and the Idol Stone A young Afri can mis sion outschool teacher named Jim Mayenza was stirred to emu late Gid eon s exam ple in destroy ing an idol. Gid eon, it will be recalled, went out one night and cast down the altar of Baal. When the men of the place next morn - ing saw what had been done, they said, Who hath done this thing? and threat ened death to the man who did it. Gid eon s father said: Will ye plead for Baal?... If he be a god, let him plead for him self. The peo ple there upon let Gid eon alone. So the peo ple of an Afri can kraal, by Jim s vig or ous action, had wit ness borne to them that their idol was help less. Tell us the story of the idol stone, we said, at the Solusi sta tion, Rho de sia [now Zim ba bwe], where Jim had been inter pret ing for us. This, in brief, is the story he told: I had just be gun to be a teacher. The chil dren came to the outschools from dif fer ent kraals. Near the school was an idol stone that the peo ple wor shiped. It was only a com - mon stone, stand ing up right, half bur ied in the earth; but the witch doc tors had tra di tions about it, and of fer ings and sac ri fices were made to it to the spirit that was in it. It was said to be able to make rain, and to do any thing. It was very much against the school. The boys be lieved in it. The chiefs were say ing that the idol would be dis - pleased with the mis sion teach ing. There is noth ing to it, I said; it is only a stone. But there is a god in it, they said. If you touch it or hurt it, it will kill you. At last I was driven to show them that there was noth ing to it. I told them I would smash it up. You will die if you do, they said. But one day I took the boys down and car - ried an axe and smashed up the old stone al to gether. The peo ple looked to see some thing hap pen to me; but as time passed, and noth ing came of it, they saw that I had spo ken truly. There had been threats at first against me; but the break ing down of the idol stone had a good ef fect in turn - ing the peo ple to think more of the teach ing about the true God. It took more cour age than one might think for an Afri can youth at an out post thus to defy age-long super sti tion and the ven geance of the rain doc tors in a dark cor ner of Africa. So in many a dark region of earth, wit ness is being borne under cir cum stances like these, call ing for cour age and action on the part of youth just begin ning the ser vice of the liv ing God. The grace of Christ makes the young con verts of the mis sion fields strong to do and dare for God and His cause of truth. Father, hear the prayer we offer! Not for ease that prayer shall be, But for strength that we may ever Live our lives cou ra geously. Be our strength in hours of weak ness, In our wand rings be our guide; Through endeavor, hard ships, dan ger, Father, be Thou at our side. The Secret of Courage and Constancy Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. (Mat thew 28: 2) What made these youth of whom we have read, strong to bear their tes ti mony, unmoved by scorn or threat of sword or flame? We find the secret of it in the life motto of one who was called as a youth to show how great things he should suf - fer for the sake of Christ: The love of Christ constraineth us. This love that won the heart of the youth ful Saul of Tar sus brought such an expe ri ence of the for give ness of sins and fel - low ship with the Sav iour that noth ing else mat tered. None of these things move me, he said, in face of wait ing per ils. We find the secret of cour age in the prom ise of Christ s pres ence with His own. Weak in him self, long ing for human com pan ion ship in trial, the Apos tle Paul once sadly wrote, At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men for - sook me. But there was one who stood by, the Mas ter who had known in His own soul s agony what it was to have His friends leave Him along in the hour of trial. Not with stand - ing, added Paul, the Lord stood with me, and strength ened me. This pres ence of Christ, bring ing assur ance of the for give - ness of sin, is the secret of con stancy and cour age. The Form that once appeared walk ing in the midst of the fiery fur nace with the three Hebrew youth, has ever, though by mor tal eyes unseen, walked the way of trial with His own. I am with you, whis pered to the ear of faith, has held hearts true. As the angry chief on can ni bal Tanna held the mus ket at John Paton s head, the mis sion ary s thoughts were upon Christ s prom ises. No the ory or doc trine, how ever true, suf - ficed. It was per sonal expe ri ence in the liv ing Christ that held. Paton wrote after ward: Look ing up in in creas ing prayer to our dear Lord Je sus, I left all in His hands, and felt im mor tal till my work was done. Tri als and hair breadth es capes strength ened my faith, and seemed only to nerve me for more to fol low, and they did tread swiftly upon each other s heels. With out that abid ing con scious ness of the pres ence and power of my dear Lord and Sav iour, noth ing else in all the world could have pre served me from los ing my rea son and per ish ing mis er a bly. His words, Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world, be came to me so real that it would Vol. 24, No

16 not have star tled me to have be held Him, as Ste phen did, gaz ing down upon the scene. And how the power of the word of His grace has com - forted and sup ported in the try ing hour! The wit nesses for God have rested their help less souls upon the prom ises of the blessed Bible. With his hand upon the open Book, wherein he had found sal va tion, Luther could say, expect ing death: Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Mar tyrs at the stake have found sup port in repeat ing over and over the prom ises, or sing ing the inspired psalms of prayer and trust. Mar ga ret Wil son, watch ing the cruel, crawl ing foam, pleaded with God, and not in vain, O do Thou keep my soul! Do Thou deliver me! And let me never be ashamed, Because I trust in Thee. God s Holy Word was prized when it was unsafe to read it. John nie Davis, at the age of twelve, was impris oned in Eng land for read ing the New Tes ta ment. By prom is ing not to read it, he could have escaped at any time, owing to his being but a child, who had to be lifted up in court so the twenty-four judges could see the Bible-read ing her e tic. He was proved by the can dle, the blaze being held first under one fin ger then another. Months he spent in prison; but finally the death of the king and a change of pol icy released him. In the days when Foxe wrote his Book of Mar tyrs, the lad, grown old, was still liv ing, and was a min is ter of the gos pel. Even those of tenderest years were made strong by trust. Crockett writes of the lit tle Gal lo way chil dren who would not tell where the for bid den field meet ings were held. Threat ened with shoot ing, they were made to kneel in a row with eyes blind folded. A maid of eight said: Let me hold my lit tle brother s hand, will you? We could die better that way. The threat, how ever, was but an attempt to frighten the chil - dren into tell ing; the sol diers mus kets were loaded with pow der only. But chil dren s hearts were strong in child like trust in Jesus. The prom ises of God have power to sus tain under trial the youth who have made the word of God the man of their coun - sel in daily ser vice. Acquain tance with the source of strength is not usu ally made in emer gen cies. When Paul wrote to young Tim o thy, Study, he meant the daily study of the word of God, able to build up and for tify for com mon ser vice as well as for the supreme trial. It is still the same, no mat ter where, no mat ter who. The Mal a gasy girl, shown from the prec i pice the man gled forms of the con vert mar tyrs of Mad a gas car, far below, remem - bered how dark a place the world would be with out the Sav iour, and when asked to deny her part with Christ, said: I am a Chris tian, too; you may throw me over. Those boys of Uganda, just emerged from hea then dark ness, found in the sal va tion of Jesus some thing more pre cious to them than life itself, when their hea then per se cu tors demanded that they come back to the jun gle gods. As Dr. A. T. Pierson says: In these lowly lads, with their dark skins, there was a heart made white in the blood of the Lamb; and the spirit of the mar tyrs burned within, while the fires of the mar tyrs burned with out; and so in the flames, and un til their tongues, dried and shriv eled in the heat, could no lon ger ar tic u late, they sang in the Luganda: Daily, daily, sing to Jesus, Sing, my soul, His praises due; All He does deserves our praises, And our deep devo tion, too: For in deep humil i a tion, He for us did live below, Died on Cal vary s cross of tor ture, Rose to save our souls from woe. From out the noise of con flict which loyal sol diers of the cross have waged in all past times, there comes the word of cheer and shout of vic tory from the lips of youth and chil - dren. Moody gave a good answer to the man who thought lessly asked him if he had faith to be a mar tyr. No, he replied; but when God wants me to be a mar tyr, He will give me a mar tyr s faith. The grace suf fi cient comes with the time of need and test - ing. It is as mighty now as in the days of old, and young peo ple of today have found it so. Canon Langbridge s verses answer truly the ques tion of pres ent-day faith and cour age for the right, because Christ s grace is still suf fi cient, and true cour age and con stancy are all of grace, and not of self: Tell me: if Smith field blazed again, Would new con fes sors rise From farm and wynd and rural lane, Calm hearts with con stant eyes! Would the old weaver watch his hand Waste in the can dle blaze? The nurse maid at the fagot stand, And turn the pain to praise? Would men in boots of vil lage make And frieze of home spun wear, Trudge on serenely to the stake, As if to church or fair? Would milk ing maid and vil lage sire, And lad in prentice gray, Tread the fierce ecstasy of fire Into a homely way? Where keeps the faith that lit their eyes, Who sank to Ste phen s sleep? Per chance the Book that six pence buys Grows vul gar now and cheap. Enough of ques tion ing, enough Too much of bit ter doubt: Old Paths February 2015

17 If Ridley s can dle craves the snuff, No time shall put it out. They do but ask the beck of God, The cause of instant need, To spring from Eng land s every sod, Men of the mar tyr breed: Men of the breed no fear can tame, True to the hard-won right, Ready to pour their souls in flame To spread the larger light. It is the gift of God to His chil dren of every age and of every land. The call to ser vice for Christ and the right comes now as never before. No gen er a tion of youth that ever lived had such call to devo tion and activ ity and ambi tion to be strong in ser - vice, as comes to the youth of this gen er a tion. The last wit ness is to be borne to all the world, at home and abroad. The young peo ple are needed now. With such an army of work ers as our youth, rightly trained, might fur nish, how soon the mes sage of a cru ci - fied, risen, and soon-com ing Sav iour might be car ried to the whole world! (El len White, Ed u ca tion, p. 271) The great con tro versy between Christ and Satan is soon to be fin ished; and age and youth and child hood are sum moned to fol low to final vic tory in the ranks of our Prince Imman uel. The Son of God goes forth to war, A kingly crown to gain; His blood-red ban ner streams afar; Who fol lows in His train? Who best can drink His cup of woe, Tri um phant over pain, Who patient bears His cross below, He fol lows in His train. A glo ri ous band, the cho sen few On whom the Spirit came, Twelve val iant saints, their hope they knew, And mocked the cross and flame: They met the tyrant s bran dished steel, The lion s gory mane. They bowed their necks the death to feel: Who fol lows in their train? A noble army men and boys, The matron and the maid Shall round the Sav iour s throne rejoice, In robes of light arrayed: They climbed the steep ascent toward heaven, Through peril, toil, and pain: O God, to us may grace be given To fol low in their train! W. A. Spicer SPICER, WILLIAM AMBROSE ( ). Mis - sion ary, edi tor, admin is tra tor. Born into a Sev enth Day Bap tist home, he early became a Sev enth-day Adven tist and at 16 was employed as a call boy at the Bat tle Creek San i tar - ium, later as a sec re tary to Dr. J. H. Kellogg, the med i cal super in ten dent of that insti tu tion. He went to Eng land in 1887 as sec re tary to S. N. Haskell. While there, he served for a time on the edi to rial staff of the Pres ent Truth. There he mar ried Geor gia Eleanora Harper, whom he had met at Bat tle Creek San i tar ium when she was tak ing nurse s train ing. He returned to Amer ica in 1892 as for eign mis sion sec re tary of the Gen eral Con fer ence, and the next year helped to estab lish Solusi Mis sion in Matabeleland on 12,000 acres (4,900 hect - ares) of land obtained from Cecil Rhodes, then prime min is ter of Cape Col ony. In 1898 he went to India and the next year became edi tor of the newly founded Ori en tal Watch man. He also became leader of Sev - enth-day Adven tist work in India. He was the only ordained SDA min - is ter in South ern Asia at that time. In 1901 he was appointed sec re tary to the Mis sion Board at Bat tle Creek, Mich i gan, becom - ing in 1903 sec re tary of the Gen - eral Conference. When A. G. Daniells relin - W. A. Spicer quished the pres i dency of the Gen eral Con fer ence in 1922, Spicer suc ceeded him and held the office until He then served as gen eral field sec re tary of the Gen eral Con fer ence until his retire ment in He con tin ued as asso ci ate edi tor of the Review and Her ald, and for a short time was its edi tor. Spicer wrote con tin u ously for the Review and Her ald for 50 years, and pro duced numer ous books, such as Our Day in the Light of Proph ecy, Mir a cles of Mod ern Mis sions, The Hand That Inter venes, and The Spirit of Proph ecy in the Advent Move ment. He is remem bered as a man of the peo ple, inspir ing con fi - dence by his sim ple hab its and reports of mis sion expe ri ences. Only four years (accord ing to one record, two years), between 1900 and 1940, did not find him over seas inspect ing or super vis ing the rap idly expand ing world pro - gram of the church. (The Sev enth-day Adven tist Encyclopedia.) Vol. 24, No

18 Have you ever thought about the ques tion, What is health? How would you answer? The New Oxford Amer i can Dic tio - nary defines health as the state of being free from ill ness or injury. This def i ni tion sim ply gives health as a state of being, minus neg a tive com po nents. The World Health Orga ni za tion (WHO) defined health in its 1948 con sti tu tion, in a more pos i tive man ner, as a state of com plete phys i cal, men tal, and social well-being and not merely the absence of dis ease or infir mity ( le tin/archives/80(12)981.pdf). In what ever way we define health, we know that: Health is a bless ing of which few ap pre ci ate the value; yet upon it the ef fi ciency of our men tal and phys i cal pow - ers largely de pends. (El len White, Christ s Ob ject Lessons, p. 346). Health is a great trea sure. It is the rich est pos ses sion mor tals can have. Wealth, honor, or learn ing is dearly pur - chased, if it be at the loss of the vigor of health. (El len White, Chris tian Ed u ca tion, p. 16) Think ing about health may bring about thoughts of phys i - cal well-being, but it also encom passes men tal and spir i tual well-being. Paul writes: And the very God of peace sanc tify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be pre - served blame less unto the com ing of our Lord Je sus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23) The impor tance of phys i cal, men tal, and spir i tual well-being all have to be con sid ered when we speak of health, with the lat ter being the most impor tant com po nent but with all being inter con nected with each other. We have been told: The re la tion that ex ists be tween the mind and the body is very in ti mate. When one is af fected, the other sym pa - thizes. The con di tion of the mind af fects the health to a far greater de gree than many re al ize. Many of the dis eases from which men suf fer are the re sult of men tal de pres sion. Grief, anx i ety, dis con tent, re morse, guilt, dis trust, all tend to break down the life forces and to in vite de cay and death. (El len White, The Min is try of Heal ing, p. 241) Look ing at sal va tion as spir i tual health helps us to keep a good pro spec tive on the impor tance of spir i tual health. David said: There is no sound ness in my flesh be cause of thine an - ger; nei ther is there any rest in my bones be cause of my sin. (Psalm 38:3) Here we see the rela tion ship that exists between the mind and the body. It is the anger of God that caused David s flesh to have no sound ness, and there was no rest in his bones because of the guilt of sin. Yet God has prom ised sal va tion (spir i tual health) to his peo ple. Moses could write: Some Thoughts on Health The Lord is my strength and song, and he is be come my sal va tion: he is my God, and I will pre pare him an hab i ta - tion; my fa ther s God, and I will ex alt him. (Ex o dus 15:2) God is our strength, and the con text is spir i tual strength, for he is our sal va tion. The Bible assures us that: God hath not ap pointed us to wrath, but to ob tain sal va - tion by our Lord Je sus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:9) This prom ise is that sal va tion, and not wrath, is appointed to each by God. It is true that not all will be saved because many will choose the way of evil instead of Christ, but for all who do not wish wrath, sal va tion, spir i tual health, is freely available. The expe ri ence of sal va tion, spir i tual health, brings joy to the believer. But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy sal va tion. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt boun ti fully with me (Psalm 13:5, 6). God says, With long life will I sat isfy him, and shew him my sal va - tion (Psalm 91:16). Our faith is impor tant not only for sal va tion, but for our total health. We have been told: Pure and un de filed re li gion is not a sen ti ment, but the do ing of works of mercy and love. This re li gion is nec es - sary to health and hap pi ness. It en ters the pol luted soul-tem ple, and with a scourge drives out the sin ful in - trud ers. Tak ing the throne, it con se crates all by its pres ence, il lu mi nat ing the heart with the bright beams of the Sun of Righ teous ness. It opens the win dows of the soul heav en ward, let ting in the sun shine of God s love. With it co mes se ren ity and com po sure. Phys i cal, men tal, and moral strength in crease, be cause the at mo sphere of heaven, as a liv ing, ac tive agency, fills the soul. Christ is formed within, the hope of glory. (El len White, The Re - view and Her ald, Oc to ber 15, 1901; all em pha sis sup plied un less oth er wise noted) Pure and unde filed reli gion, which is defined as doing works of mercy and love, is nec es sary for health and hap pi - ness, and it is the whole per son who is here brought to view, for we are told that it includes the phys i cal, men tal, and moral aspects. Good health is cer tainly some thing we should strive to have and some thing that heaven wishes for God s peo ple. John writes, Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest pros per and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth (3 John 2). The health spo ken of here is phys i cal and men tal health, for John par al lels it with spir i tual, or moral, health. In fact, Jesus stated that he came from heaven so that we might have life and have it more abun dantly (see John 10:10). God s word brings health to us. Sol o mon wrote: My son, at tend to my words; in cline thine ear unto my say ings. Let them not de part from thine eyes; keep them in Old Paths February 2015

19 the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. (Prov erbs 4:20 22) The Bible says that God s words are not only food for the soul, but that they bring health to the flesh. Because the body and mind sym pa thize so much with each other it is very impor tant to bring the body under the care of the mind instead of the mind under the con trol of the body. What does this mean? Sim ply that God wants to use the mind, or spirit, to con trol the flesh and its lusts. Satan, on the other hand, wants to use the lusts of the flesh to con trol the mind! Both want total con trol of the indi vid ual, but each works from a dif fer ent basis. Satan works from the pas sions of the flesh. This is one rea son that the Pen te cos tal move ment is so suc - cess ful. Through the pas sions of the flesh, Satan dis guises his decep tions with a cloak of pre tended light. God, how ever, works from the intel lect of the mind, or the spirit. God wants to con trol us through the deci sion-mak ing of the mind. That is one rea son that habit-form ing drugs and sub stances are not proper for Chris tians, for they allow Satan to con trol the mind through the flesh. I once remem ber talk ing about health with a man who strongly opposed smok ing. He said, I don t know where the verse is, but I know the Bible says thou shalt not smoke the filthy weed! The Bible does not have any such verse. The Bible, though, declares that our bod ies are the tem ple of the Holy Spirit and if we prac tice health-destroy ing hab its that destroy this tem ple, God will destroy us (1 Corin thi ans 3:16, 17). But even beyond that is the spir i tual issue of con trol. Romans 6:16 says: Know ye not, that to whom ye yield your selves ser vants to obey, his ser vants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obe di ence unto righ teous ness? (Romans 6:16) Paul also said: I will not be brought under the power of any (1 Corin thi ans 6:12). Any habit that con trols us takes con trol away from God, and we become its ser vant instead of being the ser vant of God. How can Chris tians have good men tal and spir i tual health when they know that they do not belong totally to the Lord? They can t! Sin ful, health-destroy ing hab its are forms of idol a try, and there can be no peace with God while serv ing another. Have you ever con sid ered what makes you, you? Is it your legs? If you were to have your legs ampu tated, would you still be you? If your arms were ampu tated, would you still be you? Of course, you would. You would be no less of a per - son, even though there is less of your body. While we have rea son to keep the body healthy sim ply because God asks us to, we need to real ize that the real goal of health reform is to enable the mind to use its men tal and spir i tual pow ers to the utmost to serve God. Let us, there fore, explore a lit tle more on the issue of men tal health, for there is a lot of con fu sion upon this sub ject. It is true that much phys i cal ill ness begins in the mind. Dis ease is some times pro duced, and is of ten greatly ag - gra vated, by the imag i na tion. Many are life long in va lids who might be well if they only thought so. Many imag ine that ev ery slight ex po sure will cause ill ness, and the evil ef fect is pro duced be cause it is ex pected. Many die from dis ease the cause of which is wholly imag i nary. (White, The Min is try of Heal ing, p. 241) No won der the Bible says that a merry heart doeth good like a med i cine: but a bro ken spirit drieth the bones (Prov - erbs 17:22)! Noth ing tends more to pro mote health of body and of soul than does a spirit of grat i tude and praise. It is a pos i - tive duty to re sist mel an choly, dis con tented thoughts and feel ings as much a duty as it is to pray. If we are heaven-bound, how can we go as a band of mourn ers, groan ing and com plain ing all along the way to our Fa - ther s house? (White, The Min is try of Heal ing, p. 251) Remem ber ing that the body and the mind sym pa thize with each other, we can see that grat i tude and praise not only help our spiritiual health, but our bod ies and our men tal health, as well. God also tells us that heavi ness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad (Prov erbs 12:25). So the good words of God s word makes the heart glad! This is cer tainly needed today, due to the great abun - dance of men tal health issues peo ple are fac ing. In fact, the National Insti tute of Men tal Health tells us: In 2012, there were an es ti mated 43.7 mil lion adults aged 18 or older in the U.S. with AMI [any men tal ill ness] in the past year. This rep re sented 18.6 per cent of all U.S. adults. ( tis tics/prev a - lence/any-mental-illness-ami-among-adults.shtml)... ap prox i mately 13 per cent of chil dren ages 8 to 15 had a diagnosable men tal dis or der within the pre vi ous year. ( tis tics/prev a - lence/any-dis or der-among-chil dren.shtml) Fur thermore, chil dren between the ages of 13 and 18 have a life time prev a lence of 46.3% for any men tal dis or der. (See pre ced ing link for chil dren at the National Insti tute of Men tal Health.) Real iz ing that many issues are never diag nosed, we can begin to see the mag ni tude of the prob lem. While much ill ness begins in the mind, it must not be over - looked that there are many peo ple who have men tal health issues which are derived from phys i cal prob lems. The fol - low ing are some com mon phys i cal issues that cause men tal health issues. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy We men tion Chronic Trau matic Encephalopathy first because it is such a dra matic illus tra tion of how phys i cal dis - ease or trauma affects the mind. Accord ing to Boston Uni ver sity s CTE cen ter, Chronic Trau matic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a pro gres - sive de gen er a tive dis ease of the brain found in ath letes Vol. 24, No

20 (and oth ers) with a his tory of re pet i tive brain trauma, in - clud ing symp tom atic con cus sions as well as asymp tom atic subconcussive hits to the head. CTE has been known to af fect box ers since the 1920s. How ever, re - cent re ports have been pub lished of neuropathologically con firmed CTE in re tired pro fes sional foot ball play ers and other ath letes who have a his tory of re pet i tive brain trauma. This trauma trig gers pro gres sive de gen er a tion of the brain tis sue, in clud ing the build-up of an ab nor mal pro tein called tau. These changes in the brain can be gin months, years, or even de cades af ter the last brain trauma or end of ac tive ath letic in volve ment. The brain de gen er a - tion is as so ci ated with mem ory loss, con fu sion, im paired judg ment, im pulse con trol prob lems, ag gres sion, de pres - sion, and, even tu ally, pro gres sive de men tia. ( Mike Web ster, for mer All-Pro cen ter for the Pitts burgh Steelers foot ball team, is a sad exam ple of CTE. Web ster played col lege foot ball at the Uni ver sity of Wis con sin. After mov ing to the National Foot ball League, he played well enough to be con sid ered the best cen ter ever, and his acco - lades and list of awards could fill this page. Web ster was nick named Iron Mike because he played with inju ries. Some doc tors esti mated he had been in the equiv a lent of 25,000 auto mo bile crashes in over 25 years of play ing foot - ball ( ster). Though Web ster had been a strong com pet i tor on the field, he was known for being very slow to anger off the field. Yet in his later years, he became vio lent with a bad tem per. He died when he was only fifty. His autopsy revealed he had severe CTE. John Grimsley is another pro fes sional foot ball player who died from CTE. A sec tion of his brain is in the mid dle photo below: Photo courtesy of Boston University In both sets of pho to graphs, above, the brain tis sue has been immunostained for tau pro tein, which ap pears as a dark brown color. Tau immunostained sec tions of me dial tem po ral lobe from 3 in di vid u als Top left: Whole brain sec tion from a 65 year old con trol sub ject show ing no tau pro tein de po si tion Bot tom left: Mi cro scopic sec tion from 65 year old con - trol sub ject also shows no tau pro tein de po si tion Top mid dle: Whole brain sec tion from John Grimsley show ing abun dant tau pro tein de po si tion in the amygdala and adjacent temporal cortex Bot tom mid dle: Mi cro scopic sec tion show ing nu mer - ous tau pos i tive neurofibrillary tan gles and neurites in the amygdala Top right: Whole brain sec tion from a 73 year old world cham pion boxer with se vere de men tia show ing very se - vere tau pro tein de po si tion in the amygdala and thalamus Bot tom right: Mi cro scopic sec tion from a 73 year old world cham pion boxer with se vere de men tia show - ing ex tremely dense tau pos i tive neurofibrillary tan gles and neurites in the amygdala ( While CTE affects only a select group of peo ple, it clearly shows a link between the phys i cal and the men tal. Some more com mon and more widely-spread issues will now be con sid ered. Vitamin Deficiencies B 12 is a vita min that many vegans are con cerned about because it is not found in plant-based foods in suf fi cient quan ti ties to sup ply the needs of humans. Many vegans take a sup ple ment of, or eat foods for ti fied with, vita min B 12. The Jour nal of The Asso ci a tion of Phy si cians of India pub lished a study stat ing that: B 12 de fi ciency is widely prev a lent and usu ally pres ents with haematologic and neu ro psy chi at ric man i fes ta tions.... a large num ber of psy chi at ric pa tients have low se - rum B 12 lev els. ( The Israel Med i cal Asso ci a tion Jour nal also pub lished a study declar ing that B 12 defi cien cies caused psy chotic behav iour which was reversed when patients were given ample B 12. (See An AARP -approved Medicare sup ple ment ad noted that irri ta bil ity and con fu sion can result from a lack of B 12 ( cles/ php), and Mother Earth News reported: Vi ta min B 12 de fi ciency can of ten be mis taken for schizo phre nia or bi po lar dis or der. ( u ral-health/phys i - cal-causes-of-men tal-ill ness-zbcz1304zhei.aspx#axzz3p V1cf45c) Accord ing to WebMD, low lev els of vita min D 3 pro duce cog ni tive impair ment in older adults ( i pes/vita min-d-defi ciency). Nature News reports that one of the ten most com mon prob lems with vita min D defi ciency is schizo phre nia and depres sion: These dis or ders have been linked to vi ta min D de fi - ciency. In a study, it was dis cov ered that main tain ing Old Paths February 2015

21 suf fi cient vi ta min D among preg nant women and dur ing child hood was nec es sary to sat isfy the vi ta min D re cep tor in the brain in te gral for brain de vel op ment and men tal func tion main te nance in later life. ( ta min_d_de fi - ciency_signs_symp toms.html) Also, con cern ing min er als, we know that: Mag ne sium de fi ciency also heavily con trib utes to anx i - ety, de pres sion, and in som nia, which can lead to psy cho sis. Men with a de fi ciency in the es sen tial min eral zinc of - ten have low tes tos ter one lev els, which can lead to ir ri ta bil ity, mood swings, de pres sion, and anx i ety. ( u ral-health/phys i - cal-causes-of-men tal-ill ness-zbcz1304zhei.aspx#axzz3p V1cf45c) Gluten Intolerance Glu ten is a pro tein found in wheat, bar ley, rye, and some oats. It is es ti mated that 1 in 88 peo ple are un able to suc - cess fully di gest this pro tein. In ad di tion to chronic di ges tive prob lems, glu ten in tol er ance can also lead to psy chi at ric symp toms in clud ing de pres sion, anx i ety, ob - ses sive com pul sive dis or der, and psy cho sis. Glu ten acts as neurotoxin to the in tol er ant per son, which de stroys brain cells and leads to the symp toms of men tal ill ness. Glu ten in tol er ance can also lead to a con di - tion called leaky gut syn drome, where the lin ing of the in tes tines are more po rous than they should be. This causes un di gested food par ti cles, tox ins, and yeast to leak into the blood stream, lead ing to mul ti ple food and chemical intolerance and symptoms of mental illness. ( u ral-health/phys i - cal-causes-of-men tal-ill ness-zbcz1304zhei.aspx#axzz3p V1cf45c) If you have ques tions about the valid ity of this issue, please read the paper Neu ro logic and Psy chi at ric Man i fes - ta tions of Celiac Dis ease and Glu ten Sen si tiv ity pub lished by the National Insti tute of Health ( - cles/pmc /). This site lists the fol low ing as some of the pos si ble effects of glu ten intol er ance: Anx i ety dis or ders De pres sion and mood dis or ders At ten tion Def i cit-hy per ac tiv ity Dis or der (ADHD) Au tism spec trum dis or ders Schizo phre nia Thyroid Disease Accord ing to Todd D. Nippoldt, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic:... thy roid dis ease can af fect your mood pri mar ily caus ing ei ther anx i ety or de pres sion. Gen er ally, the more se vere the thy roid dis ease, the more se vere the mood changes. If you have an over ac tive thy roid (hyperthyroidism), you may experience: Un usual ner vous ness Restlessness Anx i ety Ir ri ta bil ity On the op po site end of the spec trum, if you have an underactive thy roid (hypothyroidism), you may ex pe ri - ence: Mild to se vere fa tigue De pres sion ( roid-dis - ease/expert-answers/faq ) Chronic Candida Syndrome Candida is a type of yeast found in small quan ti ties in the di ges tive tract and gen i tals. Over use of an ti bi ot ics and a diet high in re fined flour and sugar feeds this yeast and can cause it to over grow. When yeast be come sys temic, it ends up in the blood - stream, where it slowly in fects the en tire body. This leads to a host of men tal and phys i cal symp toms that of ten baf fle doc tors and leads to in ac cu rate di ag no sis. Some of these symp toms in clude ex ces sive fa tigue, chronic head aches, ir ri ta bil ity, mood swings, im paired con cen tra tion, de pres sion, PMS, cog ni tive im pair ment, chronic pain, and di ges tive mal func tion. ( u ral-health/phys i - cal-causes-of-men tal-ill ness-zbcz1304zhei.aspx#axzz3p V1cf45c) Amy Myers, M.D. writes that dif fi culty con cen trat ing, poor mem ory, lack of focus, ADD, ADHD and brain fog are symp toms of chronic candida syn drome ( ve-candida-over growth-what-to-do-about-it.html) Mercury Toxicity The year was 1914, and Sir Ernest Henry Shackle ton was check ing the store room of his ship Endur ance. He found the ship s store man ager, Thomas Orde-Lees, col lect ing bent nails and other seem ingly use less items. He said to Orde-Lees, You are a mad hat ter, aren t you? He was say ing, You are insane! Mad hat ter dis ease was the com - monly used name for occu pa tional chronic mer cury poi son ing among hatmakers whose felt ing work involved pro longed expo sure to mer cury vapours. The neurotoxic effects included tremor and the patho log i cal shy ness and irri ta bil ity char ac ter is tic of erethism ( ter_dis ease). Mer - cury poi son ing has long been known to be very dan ger ous to not only phys i cal health, but to men tal health, as well. Vol. 24, No

22 The eat ing of fish is the main sus pect for mer cury poi son - ing. Coal-pow ered elec tric gen er at ing plants account for about one-half of the atmo spheric mer cury. Mer cury den tal fill ings are sug gested to be a cause of tox ic ity in some peo ple. What Can We Do? We need to rec og nize that the phys i cal, men tal, and spir i tual aspects of man are insep a ra bly linked together, that phys i cal sick ness is not lim ited to phys i cal issues alone, and that men - tal ill ness is not lim ited to sim ply poor think ing or to a lack of spir i tual per cep tion. A per son with a vita min defi ciency may be depressed and think that he or she is sim ply not pray ing enough or sub mit ting to the Lord enough, and that may not be true. If we are sick, we may claim the prom ise of James 1:5 for wis dom to first under stand the nature of our prob lem and then to seek for solid answers in how to solve the prob lem. The most basic place to begin is with the eight basic prin ci - ples of health: Pure air, sun light, abstemiousness, rest, ex er cise, proper diet, the use of wa ter, trust in di vine power these are the true rem e dies. (White, The Min is try of Heal ing, p. 127) Know ing how to apply these prin ci ples spe cif i cally to our needs is vital, for one size does not fix all. What may be con - sid ered a proper diet for some does not work for oth ers. Some peo ple can thrive on wheat prod ucts that con tain glu ten, while oth ers find glu ten a poi son. This is why know ing our own sys tem is so vital. If you are or have been phys i cally or men tally sick for a long time, first seek the Lord for wis dom and heal ing, but also remem ber that it is a part of God s plan to use com pe tent phy si cians who have a broad knowl edge of health and phys i - ol ogy. Ellen White wrote to Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, stat ing: As you looked to God in your crit i cal op er a tions, an gels of God were stand ing by your side, and their hands were seen as your hand per form ing the work with an ac cu racy that made the be hold ers sur prised. Let ter 73, 1899 (Ellen White, Selected Messages, bk. 2, p. 285) If you are help ing other peo ple, there is an impor tant rule that must be con sid ered. As for mer Pres i dent The o dore Roo - se velt said, Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care. Peo ple need to be cared about; peo ple need to be loved, but even if the world seems shut out from us, let us remem ber we may cast all our cares upon God because he careth for you (1 Peter 5:7). God cared so much that he gave his only begot ten Son, so that we might not per - ish but have eter nal life. (See John 3:16.) Surely these are good words that, if taken to heart, will ener gize and revi tal ize the entire being! Allen Stump Jeff Bur gers con tin ued from page 14 These bur gers have no added salt, sugar, or oil and they are inex pen sive to make, about twenty-five cents per bur ger. The taste of the bur ger may vary, depend ing upon the sea - son ings you use and upon the type of beans, and they can be served with let tuce, onion, tomato, cucum bers, and what ever else you like. The bur gers form the basis of a tasty and healthy sand wich, one you can eat with a clear con science. Remem ber that the wise man said, Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due sea son, for strength, and not for drunk en ness (Eccle si as tes 10: 17)! We will be blessed, too,when we eat for strength and not for drunk en ness. Allen Stump Sig nal Lights con tin ued from page 9 Scarcely had they embarked when some one raised the cry, I see a sign of the end! And peo ple clus tered on deck, as it were, and talked of it and believed in it. It may have been but a tiny buoy on the mighty ocean of his tory, but to them it marked the entrance to the chan nel that led to the har bor of heaven. As the years passed by, other mark ers appeared. Look! cried the advent peo ple. See the signs of the com ing of the Lord. Yet the pio neers were still far from their goal. There was no land in sight, though in moments of ecstasy and high expec ta tion some thought they saw it now and then. Eigh teen fifty-four, sixty-four, sev enty-four, eighty-four, ninety-four. The years rolled by till the nine teenth cen tury merged into the twen ti eth. Nine teen hun dred and four, nine - teen four teen, twenty-four, thirty-four, forty-four. Slowly but surely the advent ship steamed on its divinely charted way. Every decade the night grew darker, the storm more fierce, the sea more bois ter ous. And every year the warn ing signs have become more numer ous, until now the lights are flash ing all about us while the warn ing bells are toll ing out their mes sage with an insis tence and a grav ity never known before. Near-ly home, near-ly home, they boom across the bois - ter ous waves of these tur bu lent times. (Arthur S. Maxwell, The Youth s Instruc tor, Octo ber 17, 1944, p. 6) Old Paths February 2015

23 Dear Beloved Pas tor Allen, I greet you again in the name of our lov ing Sav ior Jesus Christ, the Son of the liv ing God. I am doing well, and my fam ily is also fine. Our boy turned one year on 12 th this month, but I was away. About my trip to Eldored: I just returned home yes ter day (Wednes day) in the eve ning from Eldored. When I was there, I was unable to com mu ni - cate because I never went to any cybercafe for Internet. My sched ule was tight, and I was only able to com mu ni cate through my phone, which has no Internet con nec - tion, but I was in two areas. One place is called Road Block and another place is called Tire Mbili or Two Tires. Those are well-known places out - side the cen ter of Eldoret. The mis sion went well, as was planned. I arrived there on Mon day at nine in the morn ing and began the first meet ing at eleven. These meet ings took place in com pounds and not in churches, as I thought. The first meet ing and all Wednes day meet ings took place in a com pound of Brother David, and it ended at lunch time. In this first meet ing I shared with them about the two Adams. From this study we saw that the first Adam gave life to all, but after sin he could only pass on a fallen nature to man kind. But the last Adam is a life-giv ing spirit. In Adam, all die phys i - cally, what we have received will all die, but in Christ, all will be made alive. We receive this life of Christ by the new birth. This birth is by faith. It s faith that brings us into the king dom of Christ. It s faith that gives us this new life. We need to die daily to allow Christ, the last Adam, to live and us to die. We need to carry our cross daily, when we deny our selves and those sins Mary, Allen, Ben, and Sylvia Otieno that would sep a rate us from him. We must sur ren - der our will to God because it s when we choose to place our life into the hands of God, to be molded and fash ioned as he will, that our will is sanc ti fied because it s through this vital con nec tion with Christ, that we can live that vic to ri ous Chris tian life. We have a choice to make. After this study, three ladies gave their lives to Christ and five other peo ple renewed their sal va tion. I prayed for them and prom ised to make sev eral vis its to nur ture them in the Lord. There were twenty adults and four chil dren attend ing this meet ing. After lunch we had another meet ing at sis ter Rosebella s house. The house was large enough for all of us. This meet - ing started at three in the eve ning and I talked for one and half hours and then intro duced a DVD. This meet ing was attended by four pas tors from dif fer ent Sunday churches. In total, sev en teen peo ple attended this eve ning meet ing. They were all adults. I shared with them, Are We on the Right Path? After the talk, many admit ted that they have been blinded by the tra di tions in their churches and that they now need to start fol low ing the path of the truth. This hap pened after I men tioned sev eral doc trines that churches teach today, doc trines such as the trin ity, the immor tal soul, and false under stand - ing about the role of the Ten Com mand ments. And it was a per fect time to intro duce the DVD study, The Roots of the Trin ity After watch ing the DVD, they requested if they can burn cop ies so that they can watch in their houses. I car ried with me three cop ies of The Spirit of Antichrist, The God of the Bible, The Love of God, The Holy Spirit, and The Roots of the Trin ity. They are all from the series The Good News About God. I also car ried three cop ies of Crime of All Ages from Total Onslaught Series to help peo ple know the truth about the Sab bath. On Tues day I worked with youth in the com pound of a friend named Abra - ham Mlimo. He is a friend in Christ who, together with David, who hosted me, brought youth together. They were twenty-three total, all men from fif teen to twenty-three years old of age. We got this num ber Meeting with a Sunday church group because pub lic schools were closed due to the teach ers being on strike, demand ing for a better pay. As you know, this age group is an age where they must be sure that they are mov ing towards man hood in the right way and to make sure that their day counted not only for them selves, but for God. I advised them to be addicted to the word of God because when peo ple reject God, they strug gle in vain to fill that black hole with some other obses sion. Vol. 24, No

24 We must be filled with the mind which is in Jesus because when God is not the cen ter of our lives we will des per ately seek to fill that vac uum with some thing else. After advis ing them and shar ing with them about Jesus and the hope we have in him when we believe in his name, seven youths raised their hands to receive Christ in their lives. I made sev - eral pho to cop ies of the study about The Two Adams and gave them five cop ies so that those who have money can pho to copy so that they, too, can have their own cop ies. The study I gave to them is called Writ ten To Young Men. Tues day after lunch we met again at David s com pound and shared with them the study Are We on The Right Path? Five new peo ple attended this meet ing, and there were twenty-five adults, both men, women, and some chil dren. After fin ish ing this study, ques tions were raised by those who attended, and we answered these ques tions from the Bible. We closed at 5:20 pm because the ladies wanted to go home to pre pare food for their chil dren so that they could then come back for fur ther answers con cern ing the ques tion which was asked about the Holy Spirit by one pas tor and because I already men tioned that I have sev eral DVDs with very good teach ings, nine men decided to come back. These nine broth ers wanted to learn more about why I oppose the trin i tar ian doc trine. Dear beloved, you under stand how today peo ple are wor ship - ing a being that does not exist. And what does the Bible call that? Idol a try! False wor ship! No con cept of God that is untrue can glo rify God. By 7:30 pm all who were able to make it were pres ent. I began by not ing that if they wanted to learn about this topic, they must have a good foun da tion so that they all will be able to under - stand in depth about the truth con cern ing God. They all agreed, and I requested them to come even the fol low ing day so that we can fin ish the study about this topic. That night I showed them The Roots of the Trin ity. After that pre sen ta tion, I shared a small talk about the sub ject, and we fin ished at 9:30 pm. We agreed to meet the fol low ing day to study about God and to show them the DVD enti tled The God of the Bible. On Wednes day they started arriv ing at 9:00 am and by 9:45 am, six teen were pres ent. We started, and I began by review ing for them what we learned the night before. Then I started show ing them The God of the Bible. We fin ished, and they went for lunch. David s wife pre pared a meal, and we enjoyed wait ing for broth ers to come from lunch. After lunch all sev en teen peo ple came back, and we con - tin ued with the last DVD of that day. This time I showed them The Holy Spirit. When I fin ished I asked every Transportation is interesting at times! Meeting with a group of believers per son whether they still believed in the trin ity. They all said NO. We prayed, and they all repented of their sins. I gave them the remain ing cop ies so that they can make cop ies for them selves. I prom ised to visit them reg u larly to nur ture them in the true foun da tion. If God will con tinue to open ways, I will be vis it ing them to teach them many things. I encour aged them to con tinue in the truth rather than the cus - toms and tra di tion of men. Thank you dear beloved brother in Christ. Thank you for your con tin ual prayers. Some times my sen tences are not per fect and, there fore, I urge you to bear with me. Today, Thurs day, I am at home rest ing, and I will resume door-to-door and other group meet ings tomor row. Always remem ber us in your prayers. God bless you. Kind Regards,Your Ser vant in Christ, Benard Owino Otieno Old Paths is a free monthly news let ter/study-pa per pub lished by Smyrna Gospel Ministries, 750 Smyrna Road, Welch, WV U. S. A. The pa per is ded i cated to the prop a ga tion and res to ra tion of the prin ci ples of truth that God gave to the early Sev enth-day Ad ven tist pi o neers. Du pli ca tion is not only per mit - ted, but strongly en cour aged. This is sue, with other gos pel lit er a ture we pub lish, can be found at our website. The url is: Phone: (304) Fax: (304) Editor...Allen Stump ed i tor@smyrna.org Associate Editor...Onycha Holt onycha@smyrna.org Old Paths February 2015