Avondale
College Church opened its pulpit on a Holy Sabbath Day to Lutheran, Philip
Yancey
Dear Reader,
This is
an internet post to me from Wally, an SDA in Australia.
***
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! __._,_.___
|