SOMETIMES PREACH A SERMON IN WHICH, at the outset, I ask the listeners to open their Bibles to Hezekiah 1:18. There’s a rustling of pages, followed by a look that asks, Where is that text? Someone in the congregation may even call out, “Don’t you mean Ezekiel?”

About that time with tongue firmly planted in cheek, I say, “No, I didn’t mean Ezekiel. I mean Hezekiah.” Then I tell them that, of course, there’s no such text. Hezekiah 1:18 is just one that I made up, but would they mind if I read it anyway? When they give their approval, I read: “Verily, verily I say unto you, unless you people who are members of other denominations repent and become Seventh-day Adventists, you cannot receive salvation.”

Before there is a mass exodus out the back door I quickly add, “I have three questions to ask.”

1. “Is it true that you have to be a Seventh-day Adventist to receive salvation and become a child of God?” (The congregation naturally responds with a hearty “No.”)

2. “Do only Seventh-day Adventists have their names written in the book of life?” (Again, the response is a loud negative.)

3. “Are there true born-again children of God in other denominations?” (The answer is always a resounding “Yes.”)

I then continue by proposing a dilemma that forms the basis for the sermon: If it is true that a person doesn’t have to be a Seventh-day Adventist to receive salvation, and if it is also true that Seventh-day Adventists are not the only ones to have their names written in the Lamb’s book of life and therefore there are true born-again Christians in other denominations, then why be an Adventist at all? What is the significance of the Seventh-day Adventist Church?

A generation ago we didn’t ask these kinds of questions, or at least, not out loud. Though it was never a “policy statement” of the church, many of us had somehow come to believe that anyone who wasn’t a member of our faith didn’t have salvation and wasn’t yet a child of God. That was bad enough, especially when even we who were Adventists wondered if we ourselves were saved!

Today, fortunately, our thinking has changed. Yet in the process some may have gone from one untenable conclusion to another, assuming that all who take the name of Jesus will be saved by simple profession. As a result, for many Adventists there is now clear evidence of an emerging “identity crisis.”

It’s important, both as individuals and as members of a body of believers, that we come to grips with why we are Seventh-day Adventists. Why am I a Seventh-day Adventist? Has the Seventh-day Adventist Church simply become a favorite charity? Is it just another Christian option for the third millennium?

As I look back over those decades when many Adventists assumed that only fellow Adventists were going to be saved, I’ve come to the conclusion that this unspoken view was  driven by the conviction that our church had a life-and-death message for the world, a message so important that if a person didn’t accept it, he or she would be lost. We spoke much of allegiance to “the message” or “the truth.” In general, however, we don’t hear many references to those two terms these days. Now it’s more likely for us to refer to ourselves in the context of “Adventism.”

Someone might ask, “But what is the difference? What’s wrong with the word ‘Adventism’?” And I hasten to add that nothing is wrong with the word “Adventism.” But there’s clearly a difference between an allegiance to the “truth” or the “message” and an embrace of Seventh-day Adventism. The “truth” and the “message” represent something vitally important to everyone, while “Adventism” refers primarily, at least these days, to the corporate experience of Seventh-day Adventists. “Adventism,” as we popularly define it, pertains primarily to the institution of the church.

A key question emerges just here: Did God bring this church as an institution into existence to be a means to an end, or as an end in itself? This question is urgent, for history teaches that unless we are careful, what God designed to be a means to an end can easily evolve into an organization primarily focused on its own survival. The history of the Jewish nation recorded in Scripture is a case in point. God called the Jewish nation into existence as a means to prepare the world for the coming of the Messiah. But over the centuries the development of “Judaism” not only caused the message to be blurred but finally made it necessary to be ethnically a Jew to receive it.

Any step away from the “message” and the “truth” to focus on “Adventism” in our day could well be a step backward in relation to the task the Lord has called us to do.

Does this mean that we shouldn’t be organized or have institutions? Obviously not. Twenty-five hundred years ago, God needed a “basket” to carry a message that would prepare the world for the coming of the Messiah, and the Jewish nation was called to be that basket. Likewise, in the last days God needed a “basket” to carry a message that would prepare His people, be they Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostal, Catholics, and those yet unsaved, for the second coming of Jesus: the Seventh-day Adventist Church was meant to be that “basket.” It should go without saying that the emphasis then must not be the “basket” but on what it is meant to carry. If the emphasis is mistakenly placed on the “basket” rather than the message, the standards for measuring the success of the endeavor will be completely different. The message could easily become diluted or even mislaid along the way.

As the coming of our Lord draws closer with each passing day, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is not to be just another “ism” or another option. We are to be a voice crying in the modern-day wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” Our mandate goes beyond the work that is being done by our brothers and sisters in Christ who are members of other traditions. Billy Graham has been responsible for bringing tens of thousands to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the mission God gave to our pioneers—originally Methodists, Baptists, Christian Connectionists, and all the rest—wasn’t simply to call sinners to repentance but to prepare those who had received salvation to be ready to face the great deception that would come just before the close of probation.

Scripture is clear that just before the close of probation there will be great signs and lying wonders. These deceptions will be so well crafted that they will deceive if possible the very elect—the saved. (See 2 Cor. 11:14; Matt. 24:24; 2 Thess. 2:8-12.) These texts make it very clear that those not rooted and grounded in the truth could very well be deceived and actually lose their salvation! For this reason the message that God has given this church is not only to save the lost but to keep the saved from being lost just before the close of probation.

There are some well-meaning Christians who believe that it makes no difference what you believe so long as you are sincere. Yet history teaches that it is possible to be sincerely wrong. For hundreds of years many Jewish believers expected the coming of the Messiah, even while there wasn’t a clear understanding as to how the Messiah would come and what His ministry would be. Through the centuries this lack of understanding was not a life-and-death matter: the important thing was that people put their faith in a coming Deliverer. But one day in the year A.D 31 it became not just a matter of faith but of fact. At that crucial moment the majority of those who had a mistaken belief about the person and work of the Messiah rejected Jesus of Nazareth and crucified the Lord of glory.

Many of our brothers and sisters in other denominations love the Lord Jesus with all their hearts, and their names are written in heaven. Yet many of them are also overburdened by traditions not founded on the Word of God. In His love God has taken it upon Himself to give a message to His people at just the right time. That message will strip away the error and the misunderstandings that have accumulated through the centuries and prepare them to stand in the last day.

Some are saying that as a church we Adventists ought not preach doctrines but should preach only the gospel, forgetting that the word “gospel” means simply the “good news” and that doctrine means “teaching.” (The truth about the cross is itself a doctrine.) The unique teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a timely fleshing out of the gospel were not a life-and-death issue in other generations because the test had not yet come. Our great-grandparents died with the belief that they would enter heaven immediately. For them, it may not have mattered that they were wrong in their understanding of the state of the dead; it was their faith that mattered. But now, in a generation amazed by apparitions of the virgin Mary appearing all around the world, those who are confused about what Scripture says about the state of the dead could well be deceived.

Does God love Seventh-day Adventists more than He loves charismatics or Catholics? Of course not. But He has given a precious message to this church that is for His people in all churches, and to this message we must be true. To go back now to being Methodist or Baptist or generically evangelical in our focus is not an option.

As darkness continues to cover the earth and gross darkness the people (Isa. 60:2), we must grasp that God has called this movement into His kingdom for such a time as this—not because He loves us more, but because He loves all those for whom Christ died. This is no time for us to become generic Christians. God has given us the task of cooperating with Him, and He has assured us that He who has begun this work will finish it (Rom. 9:28). When Jesus comes the gospel of His kingdom will have been carried to all the world for a witness to all nations (Matt. 24:14) by those who understand and teach His truth for these last days.

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Richard W. O’Ffill is director of personal ministries for the Florida Conference and the author of Transforming Prayer.