Another Look at Adventism by HERBERT S. BIRD

This article is from Christianity Today, April 28, 1958, Volume 2, Number 15, pages 14-17. I found this article quite interesting because the author is "criticizing" the Adventist church, yet he does it in a very respectful manner. Below is the article:

A distinctive feature of Seventh-day Adventist teaching is the “heavenly sanctuary” doctrine. On the day after “the great disappointment” in 1844, Hiram Edson assertedly experienced a vision of heaven in which he saw Christ, the High Priest, entering the most holy place in heaven to cleanse it. Here then, of course, lay the readiest explanation for the failure of Christ to return to earth as had been expected by the Adventists. 

What was the purpose of this supposed cleansing of the sanctuary in 1844? To learn this, the Adventists turned to the biblical account of the yearly day of Atonement, and found there, presumably in type, the explanation of this new phase of the ministry of Christ in behalf of sinners. 

A passage from Mrs. White’s writings, reprinted by the Seventh-day Adventists in 1947, summarizes the meaning of this doctrine: 

As the sins of the people were anciently transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary by the blood of the sin offering, so our sins are, in fact, transferred to the heavenly sanctuary by the blood of Christ. And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or blotting out of the sins which are there recorded. This necessitates an examination of the books of record to determine who, through repentance of sin and faith in Christ, are entitled to the benefits of his atonement. The cleansing of the sanctuary, therefore, involves a work of investigative judgment. This work must be performed prior to the coming of Christ to redeem his people, for when he comes, his reward is with him to give to every man according to his works. 

THE NEED FOR BUTTRESSING 

This passage is neither out of context nor unrepresentative of Adventist thought. Several matters here require attention. Something might well be said respecting the Adventist view of the time of Christ’s entering the most holy place. The New Testament informs us that in connection with his atoning work at Calvary, Christ entered once for all into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us, and a reading of the book of Hebrews alone ought to make this clear enough. It might be urged too that this whole system has based an idea of the Atonement around a precarious interpretation of a difficult prophetic theme, rather than deriving it from a treatment of those passages of Scripture which deal explicitly with the subject—certainly a most unfortunate way of dealing with the Bible. Lacking a special theory of this kind, who would ever have thought of understanding the Scriptures to teach that Christ “in 1844 entered the 2nd apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, and that he had a work to perform in the most holy before coming to this earth”? 

THE INVESTIGATIVE JUDGMENT 

But, most important, we must ask just what, in the Adventist view, is Christ doing in the most holy place in heaven? He is carrying on what is described as the investigative judgment, the purpose of which is to determine who, from among those sinners whose sins have been forgiven by faith in him, are entitled to the benefits of his atonement, and thus have their sins finally blotted out. The question that interests us here is, who are shown to be entitled to the benefits of the atoning work of Christ? The answer to this question is found in the writings of Mrs. White, who was assertedly given prophetic insight into these matters. This passage is also quoted in Questions on Doctrine, latest publication of the Adventists explaining their views to the public. 

All who have truly repented of sin, it says, and by faith claimed the blood of Christ as their atoning sacrifice have had pardon entered against their names in the books of heaven. “As they have become partakers of the righteousness of Christ, and their characters are found to be in harmony with the law of God, their sins will be blotted out, and they themselves accounted worthy of eternal life.” 

Now it must be emphasized that the Adventists do not say that salvation is through keeping the Commandments. In their view it is not possible for a sinner in his own strength to reach the stage where his character is found to be entirely in harmony with the Law of God. The situation is rather that Christ imparts his character to believers, as they allow him to, keeping the Law in and through them, that they may be found acceptable in the great assize. Moreover, the Adventists do not teach that any believer will keep the Law perfectly; continual cleansing from sin is necessary and is provided for; in their words, “When the name of a true child of God comes up in the judgment the record will reveal that every sin has been confessed”—that in itself, as Martin Luther would testify, is a large order—“that every sin has been confessed and has been forgiven.” 

THE CRUCIAL POINT 

When we have given full weight to these reservations, however, it remains true that at the crucial point, the point at which the destiny of the sinner is forever settled, the righteousness of Christ is not the sole ground of his hope; it is the righteousness of Christ and, in some measure, his character which is the basis of his acceptance. Thus, at that moment when, in the view of Adventism, life and death hang in the balance, the appropriate word is not, after all, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.” For in Adventism at least one stitch in the saint’s celestial garment shall be of his own making. And if it is thus, then grace is no more grace. 

LEGALISM AND THE LAW 

This brings us to the question of legalism. In the various books and pamphlets which oppose the Seventh-day Adventist movement, a prominent note is criticism of their legalism. That Adventism has elements of what is undoubtedly a real legalism, by which is meant that there is the note of salvation by character, has, I think, been demonstrated. It is also true that they are legalistic in the sense that they presume to legislate the details of Christian conduct beyond what the Scriptures require. An Adventist, for example, must not only forego the use of alcohol and tobacco, but is forbidden, under penalty of sin, to indulge in tea, coffee, ham, shrimp, lobster, clams, oysters, snails. Much of the anti-Adventist polemic, however, takes them to task for something which is not legalism at all, namely, for their affirmation of the perpetual and universal validity of the moral law as the standard of conduct which is pleasing to God. It is most distressing to read in Eternity magazine statements such as “[The Adventists] take a position, [to us very illogical] that the Ten Commandments are to be obeyed.…” But that Adventists so believe is no reason for barring them from evangelical fellowship. For it is not their honoring of the Law, but their wrong use of the Law, which constitutes their fatal error in understanding the way of life. 

THE SABBATH QUESTION 

Again, what of this matter of the Sabbath? In Adventism this question, of course, looms large. As worked out in the early days of the movement by Edson and Bates, afterwards with the help of the Whites, the “history” of it is that originally the Christian Church kept the seventh-day Sabbath. All too soon, however, the Church was corrupted from its primitive purity and, along with the rise of the papacy, a false Sunday sacredness came to be accepted. At last, during the reign of Constantine, Sunday was established by civil law as the Sabbath day. Thus for some 1500 years, the Church manifested its apostasy by keeping Sunday. Even the Reformers of the sixteenth century unwittingly gave the Pope his due by failing to recognize that the seventh day is the Sabbath. 

With the beginning of this new phase of the ministry of Christ in the heavenly temple, however, the Church was to be recalled to obedience to the Commandments. Indeed, Mrs. White herself reported that she had been given a look inside the heavenly ark of the covenant, where the originals of the two tables of the Law are kept, and the Fourth Commandment appeared to glow more brightly than the others. This vision of course, did not originate the doctrine; as always, it simply “confirmed” it and pointed out erroneous ideas. The “real basis” for this teaching is found in the Bible; for the Fourth Commandment says that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and, further, the message of the third angel of Revelation 14, who, along with the other two are manifestly intended to describe the several phases of the Adventist movement, speaks of the “mark of the Beast” which again, by every “sound rule” of exegesis, is to be equated with worship on the first day. Thus the Seventh-day Adventists, being a commandment-keeping people, are the “real” remnant church and the rest of Christendom is Babylon. It is to be marked well, I realize, that Adventists acknowledge there are true believers in the apostate churches; not all have come to understand that by honoring the first day they are breaking the commandment; moreover, no one has yet received the mark because the Sunday Sabbath has not yet been made the universal law. (Perhaps the observation is unnecessary that it is small comfort to be told that what one does is the same thing as having the mark of the beast, but that as yet it has not been ineradicably graven on his forehead.) 

LEARNING FROM ADVENTISM 

I am convinced that any approach to this movement which views it as just another evangelical denomination is mistaken, and cannot help but bring about greater confusion in the Christian world than exists already. Nevertheless, we would be very unwise not to be willing to learn even from those who differ with us. There are several respects in which the Adventists can be our instructors. For one thing, I think that they can show us that we are wrong if we think that high standards are in themselves an impediment to the growth of a church or to its impact on a community in which it is located. 

Every now and then one hears it remarked that a church which takes seriously a full-orbed confession of faith cannot but be at a disadvantage in competing with other groups in which there is no concern for sound doctrine. Consider, however, that in the eyes of the man on the street, the gate to full-fledged membership in the SDA church is considerably straiter than it is, as far as I know, to any other within the Christian tradition. For entrance into this church requires not only the knowledge and acceptance of its distinctive doctrines; not only agreement to forego the items of diet against which they legislate; but it requires further the honoring of Saturday, with attendant economic disadvantage and sometimes ridicule. On top of all this, it requires the payment to the local church of 10 per cent of one’s income plus regular offerings for the denominational program. 

But this does not keep SDA from growing; on the contrary, it seems to afford them a rate of growth which compares favorably with that of most other groups, and, unlike most other groups, it assures them of a thoroughly committed and active constituency, and financial resources in abundance. This, of course, does not mean that we ought to make entrance into the church more difficult, certainly not more difficult than the Word of God requires; but it may well mean that if our impact is not what it should be, we ought to look elsewhere than to our purity for the reason. 

And this brings me to a second and final observation; namely, that the Adventists can also instruct many who have an incomparably better theology that there is a distinction between the idea, as Robert Churchill has put it, of preaching in a place and preaching to a place. How do the Adventists preach to a place? In many ways, but the most significant is by training, and in some way or other setting on fire scores of lay workers in every area that they enter. Their zeal, though misguided, is astonishing in its fervency. 

Over the past decade or so I have had contact in one way or another with dozens of workers connected with the Adventist movement: literature salesmen, lay preachers, house-to-house evangelists, and the like, each one of them convinced that his message was “present truth,” the only gospel that can bring hope and salvation to a confused and fearful age. As far as I know, however, with the exception of some of their foreign missionaries in Ethiopia, not one of these has been an ordained person fully supported by the church; they have been laboring men, housewives, students. Thus the Adventists have grasped, to a degree which few others have, the scriptural principle that every member is a witness, and have implemented that principle with remarkable success. Cannot we, and those to whom we minister, be provoked to jealousy by the Seventh-day Adventists, and, while there is yet opportunity, be up and doing?

Bird, H. S. (1958). Another Look at Adventism. Christianity Today, 2(15), 14–17.

Sermon: To the Glory of God

 TO THE GLORY OF GOD

"We've got a subject that I think you will find interesting. Turn with me to First Corinthians, chapter six. Somebody already asked, 'What is this to the glory of God?' Well, let me warn you a little bit. This sermon used to be traumatic until science caught up with the Bible. Did you hear the way I said that? You see, some people think that the cutting edge of science is way ahead of the Word of God. You'd be surprised to know that God, who invented all of this and holds the world in the palm of His hand, knows far more than most people imagine. In fact, they think that scientists are ahead of God. Let me assure you that God gives the information to the scientists. So, scientists finally caught up with First Corinthians, chapter six.

I want to read in your hearing verses 19 and 20. And here's what the Bible says: 'What! Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.'

Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, we are so grateful for what the Bible tells us. Tonight, we open it with expectation. As we've read these amazing words that we are bought with a price, we ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit might continue to be with us, to guide us into all truth, help us to recognize truth, to embrace truth, and we shall give glory and honor to the name of Jesus. It is in His name that we pray. Amen.

So tonight, we start with what I think is one of those 'Experience the Power' moments. The Bible says that we are bought with a price. Let's break that down. Whether you have embraced Jesus or not, and you know we began when we started this whole 'Experience the Power' meeting series, we started by saying that we don't exclude people who don't think they're religious because God doesn't exclude people who don't think they're religious. You don't have to dress a certain way; you don't have to look holy for Jesus to love you. Before you were born, He already loved you. In fact, when we were born in rebellion, His love did not cease. It is an unconditional love. And He says, 'You are bought with a price.' Now that's interesting because to some, it might seem odd language. But here is the case: Jesus can claim me tonight, first because He made me.

Well, you say, 'I understand the Adam and Eve thing, preacher, but how did He make you?' Well, He made me because, without the spark of life that only Jesus can give, I would never have been born alive. I read some amazing literature a few months ago. It says that scientists have almost been able to put together every element of the human body. They have constructed practically everything that makes me me. But this article said there's one little impediment, and that is why they've got something that looks just like me. In fact, they could probably imitate the human body all the way down to the end. There's something that they don't have the power to do, and that's what Jesus did after He had formed Adam from the dust of the earth. Remember, the Bible says He breathed into his nostrils.

You know, I've read those beautiful poems that are so wonderful, but I can see it. I can see Jesus with dust, forming a skeletal system, putting nerves around the bones artfully. Then He begins, maybe with the muscles, and forms them in the right place, the right size, and the right strength. Then He puts skin, the integumentary system. I read the article, that covers it with skin. But see, there must have been some special places. Can you imagine what it was to see Him form a little ball and press it into that socket that made an eye? Can you imagine what it was for Him to form a tongue and put it right in there, to the extent that when He breathed into Adam's nostrils, Adam awakened, able to speak? Huh. If that's not a moment for you, I don't know what it is because I believe that Jesus pulled that wonderful reflection of Himself, pulled it up, faced it, and then can you imagine that moment, and He turned it loose? And instead of falling back down like something I would have made, this thing is animated by the power of the spark that only Jesus can give.

So, I don't care how far away from creation we are; you must understand that when a mother bears a child, whether she's at home or in a hospital, they've got all those wonderful machines around, but no machine can make that baby live. It is still the spark of life that Jesus gives. So He made us. But when the devil saw how fantastic the creation was, and when he was cast out of heaven down to the earth, he began to look at Adam and Eve and wonder how he could conquer them. So he beguiled them. And when Eve wandered away from her husband (I don't have time to stop there, but every wife ought to make note of that), you might want to stay close to the man because when you separate from each other, psychologically or physiologically, there comes a strain in the process. He goes away, and encounters a serpent who can talk (it is the devil talking through the serpent). When she comes back to Adam, he looks at her and knows that something's wrong. Every man in the audience knows what we should have done. Adam should have gone back to God, Eve, wait, stay right there.

“Lord, something happened to her. You're not looking the same, and I don't know what it is, but you know I got a few more ribs if you got the time.” But listen, when God put them together, He did a marvelous thing. You remember that when Adam saw Eve, he said it three times: 'This, this, this… is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.' And even when she came back looking funny, he still loved her. She said, 'Take a bite of this fruit,' and he bit it, and we thought that mankind was lost. But the text says that He bought us. Jesus promised, one day, in the fullness of time, one day I will go to Calvary's cross, and I will shed my blood so that this couple can live. So instead of dropping dead like the Bible says, 'The wages of sin is death,' Jesus promised His own blood. So man did not die instantly, but man continued to live on the promise of Jesus Christ, our buyer with a price. The price is higher than anybody could pay except that God became man and shed His blood. So tonight, we can declare there is power in the blood of Jesus.

I used to ask my parents—you know, I wasn't old, but I was trying to think that thing through. I said, 'You know, did the Bible say the wages of sin is death?' 'Yes.' 'Well, didn't they sin?' 'Yes.' So I asked him why they dropped dead. God doesn't lie, so why didn't Eve drop dead and Adam dropped that? And the answer is we are living on borrowed life. We are living on the power that was first promised, that kept us alive before the cross. We lived on the promise of Jesus; after the cross, we live on the power of Jesus' blood. But His word was powerful enough that even before He died, His word kept us alive. So tonight, your body is not your own; God owns it twice. He made you, then when you were lost, He paid to get you back. So whoever you may think you are, you are bought with a price.

Well, let's move from the happy times for some, but let's go to First Corinthians chapter 10 because, and look, incidentally, you've got to get that first part. That is the decoder for the rest of the sermon. If you forget that, you'll be lost. The decoder for the sermon is 'You are not your own; you are Jesus' property, twice—made, bought, redeemed.' So this is First Corinthians chapter 10, and let's look at verse 21. First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 21, and here's what [31, forgive me]. Here's what the Bible says: 'Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.' Now, without the first text, the second one for some people would not make sense because people want to ask. We are in a generation of doubters; people want to know what is this thing about God's sovereignty. I don't question it; I'm grateful that I've read enough scriptures to know that Jesus is sovereign. So I don't question His requests or His commands because He made me, and He redeemed me. So two times I am here. This text says whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, now whatever you do covers a lot—covers a lot. But whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do everything to the glory of God because I am not my own.

So we've got the decoder. Everybody remembers it; if you forget, somebody will nudge you, I hope, and remind you. Now, if that be so, I believe that Jesus has the right to say what you ought to put into your body because, as that little trite phrase goes, you are what you eat. And don't get nervous; this is not going to be a diet sermon. Not diet as in how much you eat; I have a little thing I'll share with you in a minute about that. We come in different sizes; if you could wish yourself a size, most of us would wish ourselves slim and trim, but some of us didn't come in that package, and we struggled for the rest of our days to be slim. But that's not what this is about because the fact is that your eating habits, in that sense, diet, those things are of interest to God. Let's start with the basics: you ought to care for your body because it doesn't belong to you. You are not treated like you think it ought to be treated because it is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Now, I know it's hard to believe that some of our bodies measure up because they don't necessarily look like temples. I'm waiting for you. But if the Bible says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, you cannot nonchalantly treat your body; you can't be like young people generally are. Most young people think that life and health are resources that will never be exhausted. When I was young, I thought that strength was a given; I strutted and fretted and thought that I had the power to live forever. I remember a preacher came to the high school where I was and preached every night about people dying; he tried to frighten us into Jesus. What he did not recognize is that young people, particularly then before the horrors of drugs, we thought nothing could kill us; we lived with reckless abandon because it seemed like we could do anything we thought to do. You could jump as high as you imagined; you could run as fast as you chose to. It is only when you get to the end of your thirties—can we talk. I have a friend who says, and this gentleman is authorized to give an opinion, his physician—he says when you reach 40, an amazing thing happens.

You and your body have to reconcile what your life has been up until then, so all of your bad habits are brought to your attention. Says he, this is not from the Bible; this is from a physician who, rather with a twinkle in his eye, says that young people don't understand that this thing can run out. Yes, sir, I wish I could convince them it will never happen; they are just like I was; they don't believe it when old people talk. They say, 'You're just old, don't pay attention to him; he's an old man.' But the old try to tell the young, 'Preserve your strength, don't do silly things because one day you'll reach back for the resource, and it won't be there. So live in the prime of your youth; glorify God in what you do because there'll come a day when there won't be as much left as you thought. Are we together?

So here are some things you ought to do, and this is not from the Bible; these things are from physicians. You ought to give yourself fresh air, and sunlight. I was just reading this afternoon, trying to kind of bone up quickly on a couple of things that I thought might be interesting. In sunlight for half an hour or 45 minutes, the sun does amazing things to your body. Now, you can't stay out there forever, particularly during the hottest times of the day; there are dangers in being exposed to the sun without protection. But the sun should not be hidden from; even though my tan is absolutely perfect, I need to get into the sun. So you ought to have sunlight; you ought to have rest.

Let me pause there for a minute because now we live in a generation where nobody has time to rest. You've got more than 200 television channels, and some of us can never stop searching. Gentlemen, you and I are the most horrible people when it comes to the remote. Your wife can barely get her hands on it; your family tries to get it, but you've got it hidden somewhere, and you're always clicking, trying to find something else. And you find yourself up in the middle of the night still clicking through channels, and what I've got to tell you based on so much information is this: there's nothing there. Sometimes the insides of your eyelids are better to watch than what's on television. There are people who think that eight hours sleep is a joke; it is not. I read one scientist, a psychologist, who says unless you sleep four and a half hours uninterrupted, your brain can't figure out which way is up. So you wake up with unresolved issues, huh? And some people are wondering why life seems so strange. Go to sleep. Your brain is a marvelous mechanism; it's fearfully and wonderfully made. And if you just let it sleep, it can do marvelous things. It figures out what you did wrong before and what you ought to do tomorrow, but you can't just keep it up and up and up; finally, it will put you into the netherworld. You will not know what to do; you gotta rest.

Then you've also got to have exercise, and you know this is really not enough. You heard the doctor say last night, you've got two doctors: left leg, right leg. You've got to use it; you've got to keep your body in motion. You've got to get air and pure water. And let me tell you, I have had the experience of being away from water. For those who have never had the challenge, you think that anything will quench your thirst. But if you ever get really thirsty, I was in a foreign country, I hadn't had all the shots; they told me you can only drink bottled water on this trip. So I had enough to carry me for a few days, and I went and bought a little more where I traveled. But there came a day when I was away from the car, and I couldn't drink any water except bottled water; I couldn't buy any, couldn't find any. And when I got back to the car, the sun had been shining on my bottle. Are you there with me? So I reached for my bottom; now I got to take it, and I'm so thirsty that the temperature doesn't matter if I can just get it to the point where I can put it to my lips; it can be hot. Because I didn't want any juice, I didn't want anything sweet; my body craved water. Physicians say that your brain can't function properly without enough water. Do you know anybody who needs water? Your heart can't function properly. When I heard that, I got a supply; I went and got one of those filters and put it on my faucet. I got water, water everywhere now because I'm at the point where I am little concerned that the heart keeps on beating in rhythm, and if what my heart needs is water, it shall have water. That's what it takes; those are basics. But then you need to eat the freshest quality fruits, nuts, and grains. This is from the physicians; now I'm not trying to be a doctor; I'm just quoting what they say. You ought to eat some raw food every day; you ought to stay away from refined foods as much as possible. You ought to eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

Very few fast food establishments, very few, serve fruits and vegetables. But you ought to eat five or more servings; you already green and yellow vegetables along with citrus and try to avoid animal fats because it's not good for the body. But let me tell you something; the Bible gets a little more involved than that. In fact, let me promise you that for a long time, God has been interested in what we eat. Can I go back a little bit? Is Genesis far back enough? Let me show you how Jesus began with our diet: Genesis chapter 1. That is the beginning.

Genesis chapter 1 and verse 29, and God said, 'Behold, I have given you every herb-bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed. To you, it shall be for meat.' Don't let the word 'meat' discomfort you; that does not mean it becomes meat. That's what you eat: fruits, nuts, and whole grains. Can you imagine that God gave that diet to Adam and Eve? They had just come fresh from His hand. Adam was tall and sturdy; he had a bounce in his step. Can you imagine how handsome he was? I don't want to disturb the ladies too much, but just think a minute about what Adam must have looked like. And God said, 'In order to keep Adam like that, I want you to eat fruits, nuts, and grains.' Eve was amazing, Adam tells us, that a beautiful creature. And God says, 'I will keep her looking like that; I will give her a diet that will make her live at an optimum level.' And He gave them fruits, nuts, and whole grains.

Some people have had so many processed foods that they can't imagine that there is joy in eating that diet. But the one who made Adam and Eve gave Adam and Eve that diet. I have learned something; some fruits are so sweet. I'm happy to have traveled to some places. I was in West Africa, and I took some food over there because I was on a special diet one of those times, and I ran out of it. And I was very careful; I said, 'Look, I want to be very careful about what I eat.' And the dear lady where I was living said, 'My husband, when he wants to be careful, eats pineapple.' Yeah, pineapples where I live are not all that spectacular, but in Ghana, he brought me a pineapple. And she cut that thing, and I said, 'What kind of pineapple?' She said, 'Oh, it's just a pineapple; we eat them every day.' And I tasted it; it was sweeter than anything I'd ever tasted before. And for days until I left, that was the main staple of my diet, and it was so sweet and juicy until I wish now at this very moment.

But the taste of fruits, I've been in the Caribbean where they have fruits everywhere; you can pick them up off the ground. If you ever need to be homeless, be homeless in the Caribbean because you can eat. And I ate all kinds of things, and the fruits have different flavors and different tastes. And I confess to you that there is a mango named Julie. But what I discovered was that the fruits have all the flavors.

And then when I was a child, we used to eat bread; it was the best that we could afford. It was very light in color; there was a consistency that was regrettable. You could take a slice of this bread, boil it up in your hand, put it down, and it would stay just like that. My family moved up just slightly on the socioeconomic scale, and we started eating some different bread. When my dad first brought it home, my brother and I were angry; it was dark and thick and heavy.

When you picked it up, it almost strained you to begin, and Dad says, 'This is what we're going to be eating from now on,' and we resisted. We went on a hunger fast for at least an hour. Then I finally started tasting what real grain was like, and I confess to you I've come to the point now where I can't eat that thing anymore that you can ball up in your hand because of the taste of real bread.

And then if you were to go to my house tonight, you would find nuts of every description because there is a richness there I understand. Adam and Eve, they had a wonderful diet, and I'm going to imagine they had some things that we don't have anymore. Can you imagine, Eve, how do you look? What are we going to eat today? And they were eating all those trees that God had given to them. Remember, there was only one that He said you can't eat; there were hundreds of them. So, I understand now, there came a moment when sin tainted Adam and Eve.

Genesis, go to Genesis chapter 3 and look at verse 18. After sin entered the picture, there was something that changed, and here's what God allowed: 'Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shall eat the herb of the field.' I've got to say this gently because there's a little cultural highlight that I'm going to have to share with you, but herbs are simply vegetables. There are certain vegetables that are popular in certain places.

I apologize to all of my friends who are in other countries who have never encountered something called collard greens. Perhaps if we meet one day, my wife will make some for you. It is an herb with a sublime taste. In fact, I have said to people, I've said to people, assuming that I make it to heaven, I want to make a special request. I know that sin will have been conquered, and we will no longer need herbs; we can go to the tree of life and take a leaf for the healing of the nations. I said, but do you think the Lord would smile on me and cause one leaf to taste like a collard green?

Herbs became medication. Now let me show you how involved God is in our nutrition. When we were without sin, fruits, nuts, whole grains. After sin, God knew that we needed medication, so He gave us herbs to eat, and herbs were added to the diet to give us health after sin. Now go to Genesis chapter 7, and I will show you that it changed even more after the flood. Genesis, pardon me, yes, Genesis chapter 7. And you remember that for a time the earth was covered with water.

So you'd be surprised how God looks at our needs and reaches out to take care of us. Let me start with verse 1, 'And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.' I am so excited about this. Do you know what this tells me? Even if I live in a wicked generation, if I am faithful to God, God will be faithful to me. You know the story; I won't even dramatize it. It's something that we all know.

When Noah started building that boat that God instructed him to build, people thought he had gone out of his mind. There had never been rain; the earth was given moisture by the dew. So when he said it's going to rain, they said he's out of his mind. But he built anyway, and they teased him, they shouted at him. But God finally told them, 'Look, start making preparations.' And here they are, 'Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female, and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.'

Let's look at God's love. When man was fresh from His hand, He gave the perfect diet. It's still perfect. It's still perfect. When sin entered their lives, He allowed them to have herbs because they needed the healing properties of herbs. When the earth was covered with water and when He saved one family that was faithful, and I tell you tonight, if your family had been the only family that trusted and believed in God, He would have told you how to make some craft to save you because Jesus honors those who honor Him.

So He knows that when they leave this boat, there will be no vegetation. So He says, 'Here's what I want you to do.' Most people, if I were to ask you how the animals come to the ark, you would have said two by two because that's what you learned; they gave you little songs. And your enemies came to the back, not disturbed at you. But the fact is, the unclean ones came two by two. He said, 'Bring the clean ones by sevens because that's what you're gonna have to eat for a while.' Are you still there? So He gave them enough clean animals to help them survive. He said, 'Don't bring these two by two because you've got to eat some pretty soon.'

I'm not sure whether the animals were aware of the plan, but here's what God says, and you've got to stick with me. God in Genesis, when creation was still fresh in memory, said some animals are clean and some are unclean. Okay, this used to be so horrible, but now it's kind of fun when you see that some animals were created to be scavengers.

Certainly, here's the text organized into paragraphs with punctuation marks:

"I was once an aquarist. That's a cute word for somebody who has a fish tank. I went and chose my fish, and finally, the gentleman who was adding things pretty regularly said, 'You've got to get some catfish.' I said, 'But I don't like them. I don't like the way they look.' He said, 'Well, if you want to keep that tank clean, you've got to get some catfish.' 'I don't want any. I don't like them.' He said, 'But catfish will clean the tank for you.'

Now, I'm not going to be indelicate with you. I used to preach this sermon in a far different way, but the fact is that God created some fish, some birds, and some animals to clean the earth. All right. I don't know about you, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if God made an animal and said, 'This one is unclean,' I want that one. I want that. If anybody knows whether he's clean or unclean, it's God, the One.

So here is what happens, and I'm going to tell you this and hope you go home and do research. If you go to read in Leviticus 11, if you read in Deuteronomy 14, you will find a listing of animals, fish, and birds that are unclean. And I'm going to save you a little time by telling you that here they are; here are some of them: swine's flesh, pork, ham, bacon. I could go down a long list. I got one, but the flesh of the pig is unclean.

Among those things that move in the sea: are seafood, shellfish, clean crab. I'm in Maryland, but I've got to preach the truth. Crab, lobster, shrimp, crayfish, catfish, eel, shark, turtle - unclean, huh? Unclean. God made them scavenge and clean the earth, and the fact is that even if you find which ones are clean - and let me say this gently, but you need to hear it - there are some of the fowls that were in the clean category.

And in certain communities that are near and dear to my heart, people need to know that the chicken is among them. You're just being quiet because you knew where I was going. And that lamb and beef are among those. But let me tell you what I've come to know: first of all, that if you're going to eat even clean animals, Leviticus chapter 17 and verse 14 says you must not eat the blood because in the blood is the life of the creature, and you must not let that come into your body because it carries the life.

Then you must understand that other things are deleterious to your body, not just what you eat, and I've cleaned up a few. But if you study in those chapters, you will see that some animals should never be eaten. Some beverages should never go into the human body. Go to Proverbs chapter 20 and let's look at verse one. 'Wine is a mocker; strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.'

In fact, if you go to Proverbs chapter 23, you'll find a little bit more. I used to do it severely, but almost everybody knows this already. This is Proverbs chapter 23; go to verse 29. It says, 'Who hath woe, who hath sorrow, who hath contentions, who hath babbling? Oh, I could describe that. Who hath wounds without cause, who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine.' The fact is that alcoholic beverages are not good for the human body, and God said so in the Word.

Now, there is some new information that I'm sure everybody has heard by now. They say if you take a little wine, just moderate wine, it can be good for your heart. And I know people who have rejoiced to hear this news. Well, let me read you something not from the Bible but from the scientists. This is from Ronald Watson, PhD, professor at the College of Public Health and School of Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He was the former head of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for six years. He says, 'I and the NIH conclude that increasing alcohol use will benefit a few by lowering heart disease a little while increasing the chances of damage to many by addiction.'

Dr. Ronnie A. Bell, PhD, MS at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, says this, and it's a little more conclusive: 'Alcohol is by no means a safe drug nor something that can in any way be recommended for health promotion. Suggesting that alcohol is somehow beneficial is so outweighed by its toxicity as to be criminal. What they've discovered is that the benefits that you can get from a little wine, you can get from a little grape juice, and there is no worry about being addicted.'

Friend of mine, let's be real. There are things that we know for sure harm the human body: alcoholic beverages, illegal and non-prescription drugs, even caffeine. I saw the other night an athlete who said you must never take in caffeine. He was so adamant about it; I went back and looked at my research to make sure I understood. He said it makes your heart beat faster; he said it affects negatively your blood pressure. He said, 'I could never function as an athlete putting caffeine in my body.' But you find it in tea, coffee, cola, and other soft drinks.

And some people can't make it for one day. But what you're doing is taking from your own health. And here is all I've got to tell you tonight: don't let me try and be a physician; I'm not one. Everyone in this sound of my voice knows that smoking is dangerous to your health, even being in the place where others are smoking - sidestream smoke - is dangerous to your health. So if you know that tobacco, alcohol, and even certain kinds of food - even animals - and let me tell you, we have come to the time now where the system for keeping the supply of meat clean is flawed.

I don't want to traumatize you with stories about mad cows. I don't want to remind you about what you saw about the processing of chicken - clean meats but handled in a fashion that is dangerous to your health. We have come to the point where you have to have your hamburger cooked at a certain temperature for a certain length of time or a hamburger could make you sick.

Certainly, here's the text organized into paragraphs with punctuation marks:

"If we are there, let me get real with you for just a minute. My body doesn't belong to me. The apostle Paul says, let's come to the facts: Jesus made you, and I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. It's amazing what the human body can do. You can't imagine some of the things that your body can do. Your body can take foods; it can take not even enough water; it can take not even enough nourishment; it can process it in a certain way that builds up your immune system, and your body fights off disease with no doctor. God has made us so wonderful.

There's a physician friend of mine who may be in this audience tonight, who tells me all the time he can cure diseases simply by changing his diet. There are certain kinds of cancer that he has cured simply by changing the diet, going to the diet that God said you ought to use.

On the contrary, if you play havoc with what you eat, and let me tell you, it's gotten dangerous now. I was in a community in Atlanta, and there was a friend of mine who was working for a major newspaper in Atlanta. He said, 'Pastor, what I'm going to do, I'm going to make you look like a prophet.' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Yes, he said what I'll do when I get something off the wire that's not even out yet, I'll bring it to you as soon as I can confirm it. He said to mention it before your congregation, and they will go around saying our pastor is a prophet.' I said, 'I like that.'

One day he came to me and he said, 'Look, this isn't funny.' He showed me an article where research had been done to discover that the water in the earth in some places has become so polluted that even melons were carrying salmonella. I said, 'Well, what can we do about this?' He said, 'Pastor, there's nothing we can do. You've got to be more careful than ever about what you eat. You've got to be careful to get the best food, and you know it's sad, but the best food always costs the most. The stuff that'll kill you, you can get for a song. They'll have a sale in the morning on it. But the bread and the nuts and the fruits, you've got to pay. It seems almost unfair.

However, God has done this amazing thing. He has arranged it so that some of the best foods available you can get without gigantic expenditures. But we have got to get real. Let's end with this thought: If my body belongs to God, I can't play havoc with it. I've got to put only the best, and I've got to make sure of that because my body is not my own.

Until Tuesday night, may God hear you when you call. May God lift you if you fall. May God bless you as you stand, and may God hold you in the palm of His hand. Good night. God bless you."