August 2008 May 2008
NORTH NSW CONFERENCE EVANGELISM NEWS
What the Pope Forgot to Say World youth day brought a great amount of good will into the Australian community toward the Christian church. This is a good thing. In a country that increasingly despises organized religion, secular Australians were given a real shake up by these young enthusiastic Roman Catholic pilgrims joyously practicing their faith in public. As a Seventh-day Adventist Christian I whole heartedly support their God given right to practice their faith according to their convictions. But for all the joy and celebration, one important thing was left out. The Gospel! Missing was the Biblical doctrine that teaches ‘man is saved by grace alone’; the message that is called ‘good news’ in the New Testament; the message that says no matter how far I have fallen Jesus can pick me up where I am. At the Council of Trent the Roman Catholic Church explicitly rejected the Biblical Gospel of ‘salvation by grace alone’. Since that time the gap between Roman Catholic theology and Biblical teaching has actually grown wider. It should disturb everyone of us that the Bible’s clear witness on who God is and how He saves us from sin, has been
overrun by the mysticism and falsehood of the Dark Ages. This is not biblical Christianity. But wait! Before I throw any more stones in my righteous indignation, before I condemn such a false witness to Jesus, I need to ask a few questions. How am I doing with this gospel? How does my church rate on its witness to this gospel? A recent Newspoll survey re-
vealed that 54% of Australians know next to nothing about Seventh-day Adventists. That is over half the country! Another 42% know a little, and a whopping 4% know a lot. If they don’t know us, they sure don’t know what we teach and preach. Paul says in Romans 1:16 the gospel is God’s power to save all who believe. Let us fall on
our knees and ask God fill us with His passion for a lost world. Let us rise up from our knees and share the wonderful news of Jesus with all who will listen. Pastor Justin Lawman Evangelism Coordinator, NNSW Conference