Avondale College Church opened its pulpit on a Holy Sabbath Day to Lutheran, Philip Yancey

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Dear Reader, 

This is an internet post to me from Wally, an SDA in Australia.

 

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In our ABC book shops, every year there is less and less of our true adventist items and more and more foreign stuff. Recently the most popular books in our Avodale ABC, are the books by Philip Yancey:-( At the bottom of this letter i attached an article from The Remnent Herald (our Australian idepandent magazine) by pastor Russell Standish. It says it all, what sort of Adventists we have here.
Sorry for a late answer but I am not everyday on the computer and besides I havn't yet recieved my letters I sent to the forum. Sometimes there is something wrong with the 'letter distributing machine' on yahoo groups.

Wally.

Remnant Herald No.115, October 2007

On 20 October, 2001 Avondale College Church opened its pulpit on a Holy Sabbath Day to Lu­theran, Philip Yancey, the author of a number of books, including What's So Amazing About Grace? The lone answer that could be gained from his presentation was that he did not un­derstand the elements of God's incomparable grace.
 
I wrote a report on his meeting, in The Remnant Herald, No. 68, December, 2001, pp. 1079, 1080. Sister White informs us that grace both justifies and sanctifies. Philip Yancey knew nothing of the sanctifying power of grace.
 
"Grace is unmerited favour, and the be­liever is justified without any merit of his own, without any claim to offer God." (Selected Messages, Book 1, p.398.)
 
Sister White was only confirming Scripture.
 
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8, 9)
 
She also spoke of sanctifying grace.
 
"Christ is the great depository of justifying righteousness and sanctifying grace." (Selected Messages, Book 1, p.398)
 
Of course Sister White again was simply echoing Scriptures:
 
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
 
And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my com­mandments. (Exodus 20:6)
 
If any single professing Christian did most to dis­tort the grace and faith of God, it was surely Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354-430). Yet Philip Yancey stated:
 
"Augustine started from God's grace and got it right." (What's So Amazing About Grace?)
In his book, which has been widely praised in Protestantism, Philip Yancey employed bizarre and outrageous definitions of grace. These included, "Grace is shockingly personal". He wrote of the "shocking reminder of grace". Another comment was "Perhaps the word `atrocious' was ill-chosen, but surely grace sounds a shrill note of unfair­ness". The terms "the scandal of grace"; "the scandalous mathematics of grace"; "Paul harped on grace"; "Grace baffles us because it goes against our intuition"; "God tears up the mathe­matical tables and introduces the new maths of grace", pepper his book.
 
On 20 October, 2001, Philip Yancey spoke in the Divine Service period in the Avondale College Church. In his forty minute oration he read nothing from Scripture. He did mention a little about the woman caught in adultery. He did say that Christ was full of grace and faith and mentioned that Je­sus prayed the prayer of John 17. He also men­tioned that God is love. These brief forays into Scripture - by mention only - amounted to a small proportion of his presentation.
 
Philip Yancey's benediction said it all. He thanked God that "You don't ask us to be perfect". Yet this limp message was sent to over 180 centres via satellite in a number of countries in the South Pa­cific and also to the United States.
 
Three days later Philip Yancey was interviewed on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio station in Melbourne at 3:45 pm. He was in­terviewed concerning another of his books, How My Faith Survived the Church. In the interview he spoke of five of the thirteen men "who rescued him from doubt and restored him to the Christian faith." Only two of them confessed Christianity - poet and Anglican cleric, John Donne and Roman Catholic convert, English twentieth century novelist, G.K. Chesterton. The other three were Russian nine­teenth century, agnostic novelists Leo Tolstoy and Fedor Dostoeski, both drunkards, and Hindu Ma­hatma Gandhi. How this set of men restored the faith of Philip Yancey remains an unsolved mys­tery.
 
Now Philip Yancey has been brought to Australia again in August and September, 2007. He was programmed to speak in all six states of Australia and also in the Australian Capital Territory. Grace is free but Philip Yancey's meetings most certainly are not! Every attendee had to make a booking
with the Koorong Christian book stores located in the various cities in which he was speaking. What was most disturbing was that the convenor for the Newcastle meeting was Avondale College. In other cities the venues were in charismatic churches including the Assemblies of God, the Uniting Church of Australia (a union of Congrega­tional, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches) and a Church of Christ. This told God's people the type of meeting that was presented on the subject of prayer which Philip Yancey presented.
 
Just as concerning was the fact that the Avondale meeting was convened at 7:30 pm on Friday eve­ning on 7 September. What a commencement for the holy Sabbath day! Most attendees had paid $30 per seat (about US$26). Surely this must set a precedent in Seventh-day Adventism - that at­tendees had to pay for their seats in a Sabbath service!
 
Further, 7 September was the Friday evening of our Church's Week of Prayer!
 
This time Philip Yancey was accompanied by the Saltmine Theatre Company. Their style and con­tribution to the holiness of the sacred Sabbath day can be measured by the spiel in the advertise­ment. The words of Philip Yancey are recorded:
 
"I have toured with the Saltmine theatre troupe twice in the U.K. and once in South Africa. Through sketches which some­times leaves the audience roaring with laughter and sometimes weeping, they poignantly and entertainingly explore the themes I speak about. I can't imagine touring Australia without them."
 
The South Pacific Record wasted a half page of its 23 July, 2007 edition and a full page in its 18 Au­gust, 2007 edition, advertising this truth-destroying meeting. Not only did the Avondale College host the Yancey meeting, both the Avondale College and the Avondale Memorial Churches advertised the meetings in their Church Bulletins.
 
Distressingly, the Glenorchy Seventh-day Advent­ist Church in Hobart in the Tasmanian Conference, advertised in various Church Bulletins of 11 Au­gust, 2007 that it was taking a bus to Launceston for a presentation in a Sunday-keeping church there. Travel time between Hobart is between two and two-and-half hours, each way. Yet faithful Seventh-day Adventist speakers are condemned by the Tasmanian Conference.
 
At Remnant Herald we feel so devastated to see
the course of our beloved church in our homeland. Yet so few of God's people are prepared to shout, "Halt!" More and more God's people place the will of church leaders above Christ's will for His church. If ever there was an era in the Seventh­day Adventist Church to learn the lessons of the First Advent, provided in the gospels and the book of Acts, it is today! It is now not a matter of sur­prise that our prophet, Sister White, writing specifi­cally to our church, saw this very day when
 
"...deception of almost every kind [is] in the church." (Testimonies for the Church, Vol.5, p.210)
 
Philip Yancey's topic, "Prayer", was no doubt based on his latest book, Prayer. Does It Make Any Difference? Brothers and Sisters, it most cer­tainly does. This is time for us to pray for our be­loved church more earnestly than ever before. It is time for those who know and promote the truth to raise their voices in protest and warning, caring nothing for their reputations nor the condemnation of unfaithful pastors and church leaders, nor seek­ing the expressed approval of anyone, save Christ, who, for our salvation, "made Himself of no repu­tation". (Philippians 2:7)
 
Naturally Philip Yancey was promoting his latest book.
It says little for Billy Graham's perceptions that he is quoted in the flyer as stating of Philip Yancey, "There is no writer in the evangelical world that I admire and appreciate more".
 
One estimate of the number attending the Yancey meeting in the Avondale College Auditorium was 1300, including about 600 Avondale College stu­dents who were admitted free of charge. Even 700 paying $30, if these estimates are correct, would gross $21,000, not an insignificant sum for one evening's work.
 
Philip Yancey also was interviewed from 10am to noon on Sabbath morning in the auditorium and the Saltmine Theatre Group presented a pro­gramme there on Sabbath afternoon. A similar number was estimated to have attended.
 
Avondale College continues to be an institution totally unfit to train the precious youth of God's Church for service in the army of the Lord. Our people must cease to emulate the sin of King Ahaziah of Israel, who sought the "Lord's" counsel from Baalzebub the god of Ekron. We have the Bible! We possess the Spirit of Prophecy! __._,_.___