Truth to Power: What If That’s Why Adventism Is Flowering in the Developing World and Wilting at Home?

What if Adventism is flowering in the Third World because we establish schools and hospitals, not because of our theology? Tyrants fear the educated citizens of their countries; medical care for the poor is not a priority.

TRUTH TO POWER



Successful evangelism in Developing Nations may be blinding us as to the ineffectiveness and Christian irrelevance of our evangelistic efforts in the United States and Europe. In the First World we are a politically and socially powerless denomination that attempts of evangelize by scaring people using the “final judgment” and terrifying end-time events. In the Third World our emphasis is The Gospel i.e. education and medical care that results inevitably in Truth to Power--spiritual, social, and political.

THE GREAT ESCAPE?



What if Adventist First World evangelism was a message of boldness rather than timidity, Truth to Power instead of terror and helplessness, determined optimism instead of deus ex machina. Might more of our educated, idealistic young people “stay with us” into maturity?