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Monday, January 12, 1981 / Volume 80, Number 27 / Angwin, California / Official Organ of the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Religious Liberty Is Endangered
By Roland R. Hegstad, Editor, Liberty, a magazine of religious freedom
Pictured from left to right are Angel de la Torre, Rodolfo Varela, Eliezer
Benavides and Manuel Vasquez. Mr. Varela is receiving his graduation
certificate.
Spanish Personal Ministries Has
Theme for New
“Each one win one in Eighty-
one’ is the theme of the Spanish
Personal Ministries thrust in the
Pacific Union Conference for
19K 1.
To assist the nearly 15,000
Spanish lay persons meet this
challenge, a number of Lav Ral-
lies (Sabbath afternoons on how
to witness for Christ), Lay Con-
gresses (weekends, on the methods
and techniques for soul winning),
and 10-day Lay Training Schools
will be conducted throughout the
Union from the church to the con-
ference level.
One of these lay training
schools was given at Modesto
Spanish church in November.
IF ABSEN KES THE
HEART GROW FONDER,
SOME PEOPLE MUST REALLY
LOVE CHURCH. |
RAY SHURANCE, PASTOR
THIS NEIGHBORHOOD SIGN il-
luminating a Sunday church at
Kailua, Hawaii, might just as well
have been posted in behalf of
Seventh-day Adventists. where
records show that 4 out of every
10 members regularly miss Sab-
bath school and/or church service.
However, this new year is a great
time to begin again with one's
stewardship of worship time.
Year Thrust
Subjects taught were: Modern
Doctrines, by Angel de la Torre,
pastor of the Modesto Spanish
Church; Lay Evangelism and Bi-
ble Survey, by Manuel Vasquez,
associate director otf the Spanish
Department, Pacitic Union.
Eighteen members of the Mo-
desto Spanish Church graduated
and participated in the receiving
of certificates, the pinning of the
“70 Disciples Sent Out’ button,
and a candlelight ceremony.
Is religious liberty really as
much a part of our national scene
as apple pie?
Most Americans would answer
spontancously “*Of course.”
But as cditor of Liberty, a
magazine specializing in religious
rights, I'm not so sure. In fact,
['ve met many people who don't
seem to like “tapple pie’ liberties.
During the 20 vears I've been in
the nation’s capital, I've seen vir-
tually every facet of religious free-
dom attacked as un-American,
subversive and communist. Rights
guaranteed under the First
God’s Spiritual Goals for His
People Are Revealed in Scripture
Several years ago I came upon a
text that has become increasingly
impressed on me as the most com-
prehensive state-
ment in Scrip-
ture as to what
LIF our church 1S
MINISTRIES about In these
last days.
In this choice text, God reveals
His own spiritual goals on behalt
of His people: ‘I will seck the
lost, and | will bring back the
strayed, and 1 will bind up the
crippled, and I will strengthen the
weak, and the tat and the strong |
will watch over; I will feed them In
justice.” Ezekiel 34:16, RSV.
I propose that these goals,
which God has set for Himself in
January TELESEMINAR Countdown Is On
Seven hundred churches are
cooperating nationwide for It Is
Written’s TEL ESEMINAR sched-
uled tor Sunday, March 1.
Approximately 25.000 people
will be involved. Now is the time
to prepare tor this once-n-a-
lifetime experience.
Early January provides one
final opportunity to further
cultivate Tt Is Written names and
vour special omterests for this
event. Are they viewing the tele-
cast? This 1s one sure wav to
deepen conviction and stimulate
terest in TELESENINAR.
Have vour interests been con-
tacted by vou personally? Do they
know of vour sincere mterest in
ther spiritual growth and vour
desire that they explore the faith?
Remember that the more thor-
ough the preparation and the
more definite the cultivation now,
UNITED WE FALL
“| sense . . . the mood of some of my fellow evangelicals . . .
and it scares the daylights out of me. The Israelites discovered,
after they got what they wanted, that power, even with anointed
beginnings. has an unfortunate way of turning in upon and magni-
itself. | see little
fying
to convince me
that evangelical
power—past or present—is less immune to that kind of misuse
than any other kind of power." —Stan Mooneyham, editor of World
Vision, quoted in LIBERTY, Sept.-Oct., 1980, p. 7.
the more truitful the results of
TELESEMINAR and the reaping
that follows.
This month It Is Written will
mail a colortul brochure to cach
viewer with an mvitation to attend
TEIESENITINAR. Tt will reach the
homes later in the month, with a
similar follow-up mailing arriving
in carly February, avmen may
use these brochures with their
local interests. The piece gives the
benefits of attending, an outline
of the dav's program, and intor-
mation on how to register—com-
plete with coupons to Hill out and
mail mn.
Let little groups be praving tor
this endeavor. Could not this be
an opportunity for serious in-
tercession for the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit?
If you're
reading
your Bible through
this year
you should complete
Genesis and Exodus
this month.
His own ministry tor His people,
are the very goals toward which
we as a church ought to be praying
and working to ftulfill our ap-
pointed share in His ministry to
the world. They tell us what we
should be about as a church. They
should guide our planning and our
decisions of policy. They should
torm the rule by which every
church program should be tested.
Let’s briefly consider these
goals:
1. Seeking the Lost
This has ever been a major
priority of God’s in His mission to
the world. Jesus said He came into
our world ‘‘to seek and to save the
(Continued on page 2)
Amendment have been labeled
drivel, obscenity, bigotry, trash
and hogwash—to mention only a
few of the printable designations.
Readers have suggested using Lih-
erry tor lining trash cans, papering
privies and cleaning dirty paint-
brushes.
I believe such critics of religious
liberty are a minority mn today’s
America. But polls show that a
majority of Americans are willing
to discard some guarantees of the
Bill of Rights.
Even those who survive these
tests of commitment waver before
seeming threats to their “rights.”
Today there is talk by the Moral
Majority of ‘“‘anti-God’ forc-
es—the November 17 ruling by
the U.S. Supreme Court that
struck down the Kentucky law re-
quiring the posting of the Ten
Commandments in the state's
public schools, and the U.S. Su-
preme Court's praver—and Bible-
reading decisions of the carly
1960s—which, they sav, ‘kicked
God out of our schools.™
Attempts to rectify the per-
ceived ills have included a drive to
(Continued on page 8)
*... yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he
doeth God service. John 16:2.