After 59 years as a Seventh-day Adventist, I find that my decision to honor God’s Sabbath and await the second coming of Jesus never ceases to be a delight. My roots in the “church of the remnant” have grown deep during these years. Has it seemed too long a wait? Yes, sometimes. I long to see Jesus face to face. Yet I’m not disappointed in Him, because I trust in His timing.
As I have lived, studied, shared, and waited, I have developed an affinity with those who cast their lot many years ago with others who awaited a soon-coming Savior. It was a belief that often met with scorn, especially after Jesus didn’t arrive in 1844, as some had erroneously predicted and hoped for. It isn’t easy being a “loser”—and for those precious ones that’s what it must have seemed like. Regardless, they pressed on, realizing that they erred concerning the date of His arrival, not with the fact. They’d overlooked Jesus’ own words: “Only my Father knows the exact time when I will come back, and He hasn’t even told me or the angels” (Matt. 24:36). 1 The tears and anguish they experienced over this mistake are beyond imagining. These hardy early Christian pioneers, however, set again on a brave course.
No Seventh-day Adventist denomination existed in those days, but plenty of people were tagged as “Advents.” These stalwarts were roots, as it were, planted in the soil of belief in God’s Word, which withstood the winds of strife. I’m grateful to them for staying planted in Jesus, for not giving up. In essence, they were as a combined resolute root for what became the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In addition, because of their error and subsequent disappointment, their deeper study brought about the beautiful understanding of God’s sanctuary in heaven—a unique gift to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
If we look at the dangling roots of a flowering plant, they can’t be described as lovely, yet the lovely doesn’t come without them. The root, in verity, is the plant. The flowers can be cut off and put in a fine vase, but they will die in a few days. Unless destroyed, the root lives on.
Sometimes living in the way, as faithful Paul describes the Christian life, takes some standing up—and often alone. This isn’t possible without a resolute root.
Study of our Adventist heritage reveals to us that the pioneers of our faith were mostly young folk, some in their teens. With a strong desire to herald Jesus’ second coming, they gave heart to the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19, to “go and tell people of all nations the good news.”
Thus, today, we who are older need to heed our responsibility of teaching the youth of our church about our legacy. Are you aware that seven out of 10 people in the pew don’t know how our religious roots were planted? Outside of James and Ellen White, few are acquainted with the names of those who set our spiritual roots. Might their lack of information about their counterparts of 165 years or more ago be one of the reasons that many young people lose interest in the church? Yet when youth are introduced to their dauntless forebears, they find a kinship of lively spirit, a comradeship.
Ellen White, our most notable young Adventist ancestor, wrote: “We want something besides Sabbath religion. We want the living principle, and to daily feel individual responsibility. This is shunned by many, and the fruit is carelessness, indifference, a lack of watchfulness and spirituality. Where is the spirituality of the church?”2
If we feel this lack today, perhaps the reason is, in part, that our youth are not being properly introduced to the heroes of the past who set the Adventist roots by example. Those long-ago youth still can serve as mentors, not only to youth but to the hoary heads as well. To study and restudy about their passion for Jesus can often stir the most indolent heart. May we, along with the youth, nurture those roots of faith and be found ready when Jesus returns. Maranatha!
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1 Bible references in this article are taken from The Clear Word, copyright © 1994, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2006 by Review and Herald Publishing Association. All rights reserved.
2 Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts, vol. 2, p. 200.
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Betty Kossick and her husband, Johnny, live in a mountain home in Talking Rock, Georgia, where Betty continues her work as a freelance writer. This article was published August 11, 2011.
