Objection 63: We should spend more time helping people to make this a better world rather than stir them up about another world, as is the case when the Second Advent doctrine is preached.
The answer to this objection is that we can do both. We can both preach the soon return of Jesus Christ to this earth, and relieve human suffering to the best of our ability.
Preaching to prepare people for the world to come does not prevent us in any way from dealing with sickness and want. No, assuredly not. Christ spent much of His time ministering to the sick, and yet He preached to the people. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, ... but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven: ... for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matt. 6:19-21.
Jesus gave sight to the man born blind (John 9), but he also taught that there will most assuredly be a Second Coming: “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)
Yes, Jesus told the lame man to take up his bed and walk (John 5:8-16), but he also told the disciples to be watchful for the Second Coming:
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Mat. 24:30-51)
Christ commissioned His disciples to go out and heal the sick. This they did, but they also made the doctrine of the Second Advent, the preparing of men for heaven, the central feature of their preaching. And it is well known that Seventh-day Adventists, who make the Second Advent so distinctive a feature of their preaching, are also ministering to the sick through a chain of hospitals and clinics on every continent, in addition to teaching lifestyle changes that reverse lifestyle diseases and prolong life. The love of Christ that comes into the hearts of those who believe in His soon return causes them to spend their time and means on charity and healing.
In preaching that Christ, who had ascended, would come again, the disciples made this present world a better one in which to live, not only by healing the sick but also by helping the poor. Those who accepted the preaching and who had money, willingly gave it into a general fund, so that those who were poor might not suffer. (Acts 4:32-37) What untold hunger and want might he relieved if that same spirit controlled the Christian church at large today!
And what of the relation of the vices of men's hearts to the doctrine of the Second Advent? Certainly all the schemes that the wise of this world have devised, have failed to provide any solution for the steadily growing problem of crime and moral corruption. Does the objector wish us to spend our time on some crime commission or social research committee rather than on the preaching of the Advent? If so, which committee would he suggest and what proof would he offer that our time would be well spent?
Men can devise ways of chaining the body but not of changing the heart, and the prisoner goes forth from the jail ready to repeat his offense, or to commit a worse one. The fear of the law may hold back a wicked man from the outward act of violence, but he is nevertheless a criminal at heart, and awaits only the favorable opportunity to carry out his evil desires.
But when the mighty doctrine of the personal and literal return of Christ is preached to men, there is brought home to their sin-dulled senses with a vividness not otherwise possible the tremendous fact that they must meet God face to face and give an account for their deeds. And that mighty truth, driven home by the Holy Spirit, will prove the means of arousing them to cry out for spiritual help that they might be ready for that day.
If the objector is willing to grant that religion has any message for man, then he must grant that the message of accountability to God, as set forth in the doctrine of the Advent, is one of the most powerful that can ever be brought to the human heart.
Every man who accepts the Advent doctrine, and lives in the hope of meeting Christ face to face, has the mightiest incentive to holy living. “Every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.” (1 John 3:3) And the man whose heart is purified is a good citizen. The more such people there are in the world, the better it is to live in.