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Loma Linda University Student Association

Dwight Nelson: Rumors from the East

Dwight Nelson

War!

It is truly an honor to be here on the campus of Loma Linda University.

And I'm not saying that just because we had snow last Sabbath and on Easter.

We had snow, accumulating snow at Andrews University in Michigan.

Just when we're talking global warming and then they get this crazy, crazy spring winter.

That aside, it's an honor to be here and I'll just tell you from the heart, because of the passion and persistence of a particular young adult here at Loma Linda University.

The only reason you and I are together tonight is because of 1 of your co-eds who is taking pharmacy.

Got an e-mail from her, I think it was last, Terry, last October.

And she said, Pastor, would you be willing to come and meet with some students here on a weekend in April?

I wrote her an answer, thanking her for the 3 dates she gave.

I almost hit send and my executive assistant, Cherry, she said, you know, Dwight, I think you need to pray about this 1.

And so I did and I shot an email finally back to Annie.

If you go to my friend's, Randy Roberts, Pastor Randy, your pastor right here in this beautiful church.

Last time I saw this place, you were meeting in some gym somewhere, and this was a mess.

Anyway, so you go to Pastor Randy and you go to my friend, Pastor Hiveth, and you make sure that the 2 spiritual leaders on this campus are amenable to some guest preacher from out of nowhere coming in here.

And if they say okay, then let's talk further." And she, bless her heart, Annie, she just took it.

And you went to everybody up the food chain here and talked to them and got the support of the university.

We got some kids like that at Andrews University that love the school that they're at, just like you do, love God, and are thinking, you know, we got to get young adults together.

We just need to huddle up and have some community of faith fellowship, and let's just do it.

And so I'm proud of Annie, And I guess next Friday night, you're gonna start doing this on a regular basis.

So, thank you very much for having Karen.

You know, we've been married almost 33 years.

She's just a wonderful young lady and honor to have her and of course an extra bonus for us was to be able to come out here where my mother is living in Banning with her husband bird and so mom you know we don't get to do this very often.

She's the lady that brought me into this world and it's such an honor to have her sitting in the audience.

Oh, and my Uncle Ralph and Aunt Pat are here and Really, they are.

I got some cousins sitting right over there.

So, we're here tonight and tomorrow morning twice and then once tomorrow afternoon to get into the Word together.

I want to do something that I've never done before because Annie said, hey, Dwight, I saw this thing on Hope TV, and would you mind sharing that stuff with us if we get together and so I want to do this you got a study guide tonight when you came in for rumor number 1 we're gonna get to that study guide in just a moment but put a little addendum together for rumor 1 tonight and rumor 2 tomorrow morning at 930 in that hall up the mall here.

And I'd like to go through this first addendum.

And the reason is because I understand we're on a university campus.

I know that not every university student is gonna be as excited as I am about the veracity of this book right here, and there are gonna be some that are saying, you know what, I'm just not sure that this book is reliable anymore, can't speak to the third millennium, and prove it to me, and so I'm gonna prove it to you right now.

I'd like to give you 7 compelling evidences for the veracity of this book right here, which I boom, boom, boom, will fly through these 7.

Then I want to have a prayer with you and read to you a letter I received 5 weeks ago from the war front in Baghdad, Iraq.

5 weeks ago, I got an e-mail from a soldier.

But first, I want to share these 7 compelling evidences.

Just be praying that this works because at Andrew's, somebody's doing this in a booth, and I don't have to touch a thing, but we're gonna do it anyway, just kind of do it barefoot together.

I want to share with you 7 compelling evidences.

You say, Oh, now, listen, Dwight, I'm already a believer.

You will now have 7 reasons you can share with a skeptical or nonbelieving colleague, associate, friend, neighbor of yours, and you can just use these 7 and pass them along.

A lot of people accuse Christians of turning to the Bible to prove the Bible.

In other words, using circular reasoning.

I mean, you're going into the book to prove the book.

Okay, so let's use external evidences first.

Let me just fly through these because I want to get to that first rumor, the first rumor we have got to hear tonight.

Number 1, the preeminence of the Holy Scripture among all human literature.

So I hit that thing twice so we got 2 of them up there.

So you might as well go ahead and fill up the second 1.

Evidence number 1, the preeminence of the Bible among human literature.

The Bible is preeminent in its circulation.

Let me just run some numbers by you real quick.

The Last Sunrise

We've been saying it all morning, but when it's the Sabbath and it's happy, you've got to say it.

This is fine, I'll just give you the hymnal.

There's no place in the world like Southern California, true or false?

True, it's the only Southern California there is.

And you're here, and it's an honor to be here, caring to me and being out.

Last night, My mother lives out in Banning with her husband.

Beautiful place, just beyond the smog line.

And Just San Jacinto mountains right up, they look right up their house on those mountains.

And I'm telling you the truth, last night after we got back, a little late when we got home, but yapping coyotes, just yap, yap, yap, yap, yap.

They've seen a mountain line come actually down to the edge of Sun Lakes where my mother lives.

And snow, as I was telling you last night, snow.

But here we are, and you singers that led us in our praise segment a moment ago, that line about fill the lambs, I scribbled that down.

That's what we're doing these few hours of the Sabbath.

We're asking the Spirit to come in a special way and anoint us, come in a special way and fill us.

We're doing a series called Rumors from the East.

I'm gonna plunge into rumor number 2 this morning in just a moment.

The background to the series is that in the Bible's longest prophecy Daniel chapter 11 it states that there's a king called the king of the north I wish we had time to unveil who that king is this is a nine-part series and we just got 4 parts of it you can go to the website that's at the top of your study guide if you wanna get the rest of it.

But there's a king called the King of the North and he hears at the end of time, just before the return of Jesus, just before Michael stands up, Daniel 12 verse 1, Michael stands up to deliver his people on this planet.

The King of the North hears in the new American Standard Version renders it this way.

He hears rumors from the east Talked about Iraq last night.

There's a way out of this war Iran Iraq Islam Israel all these eyes that are clustered around, 4 eyes clustered there in the Middle East, and all eyes of the world are on the Middle East.

No, no, no, no, no, no, those aren't the rumors.

That's going on, but simultaneous to that, there is the approaching tread of rumor after rumor after rumor.

And by the time we're through this afternoon, there'll be 3 rumors we have carefully examined.

3 uses of the word East in apocalyptic literature.

Daniel, Revelation, the 2 major apocalyptic books, 3 references to the East.

And it is those rumors that are stirring up my heart, and I'm realizing we are living on the brink.

Annie, who put this series together, she saw something that we did on Hope TV a while back and she said, oh, Dwight, could you please just work a little bit of that in?

And so I have done something I normally don't do.

But because this is the Sabbath school hour, by the way, let me ask you a question.

You do go to Sabbath school every Sabbath, don't you?

This is the Sabbath school hour, So this is an extra Bible study hour.

And so this is we're just gonna throw this in There is an addendum that I prepared for this little series called the LLU journey addendum And when you came in there, there was an 8 and a half by 11 sheet that they handed you We filled in the first half and I'm sorry We can't take the time to those of you that missed last evening, to fill that half in, but I'd like to go to addendum number 2, which has to do with rumors.

So if you'll just pull that out, because we're looking at Holy Scripture.

Look, I'm from a university campus, Andrews University, I've had the privilege of pastoring there for a few years.

So I know that even in a Christian setting like this, in the community of faith that we love, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, I understand that there are bright minds who say, you know what preacher, you know what, do I, I happen to disagree.

So last night we looked at 7 evidences for the veracity.

That means the reliability of Holy Scripture 7 compelling by the way I'm convinced compelling evidences So we made the case and if you can disprove that case you need to get the 7 I need you to disprove those 7 before you tell me that this book is not reliable You have to disprove those 7 before you come and tell me that we cannot rely on this book.

Having established that the book is reliable, let me share with you now before we get into rumor number 2, I'll put it on the screen here, that little white X means we're ready to go.

7 phenomenal benefits that will come to you as you take Holy Scripture.

By the end of this morning's presentation, I want to give you a way to meet Jesus every single day of your life for the rest of your life in between the covers of this book.

But let me just show you in advance what you can expect.

7 phenomenal benefits when you take the Word of God seriously.

Number 1, it will benefit you physically.

Absolutely, it will benefit you physically.

Do I need to remind you about this story?

Do you know what Daniel 1 is a story about?

I bet you don't remember the 3 companions' names.

All right, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

4 boys, 4 young adults, their hopes were pinned on getting graduate degrees in the university they had planned to attend in Jerusalem.

Middle of the night, hands over their mouths, gag, blindfolded, thrown into a long chain that was marched across the hot desert sands straight to Baghdad, straight to Baghdad.

The East Gate

Take everything I have, my hands, my feet, my voice, my silver, my gold, my thoughts, and have my life completely.

Thank you Annie and Claudio for reminding us that this is just the beginning.

I'm really starting to, The real event happens next Friday, next Friday night.

And I'm so proud of these students at Loma Linda University.

You know, I've had the privilege of working, pastoring on a university campus.

Twenty-three years now I've been there at VanDusk University, the Planning Memorial Church.

Campuses can come up with all kinds of strategic plans and programming and emphases, but there is nothing that will impact a campus more significantly than something, a movement that is initiated by the students themselves.

And so when you talk about getting together on Friday nights now, 6.30 at Drayson Center, We need to be praying.

And then, through support, say, hey, let's band together.

Take my hand, take my feet, take my voice, my silver and gold, take everything.

Take all of me and use me for your glory.

Because that's what we need at Andrews University.

I'm convinced that it will have to be your generation.

We have sunk our roots so deep you can't move us now.

We have so much of this life, possessions.

We need a generation now, highly mobile, instantly possessed and energized by the mighty third person of the Godhead.

And if you don't do it, you'll raise up your kid brothers and sisters.

But I believe you are what God has been waiting for.

I want to pray with you and then plunge into, this is rumor number 2.

Introductory session last night over at the church.

Jesus himself at Calvary experienced the ultimate intensification that will finally be manifested again in the last chapter of verse history.

I hear the sound of the approaching tread.

Rumor 1 at 9.30, rumor 2 now, and rumor 3 at 03:00 this afternoon.

Holy Father, take our hands, take our feet, take our voices, take our silver, take our gold, Take our wills, take our hearts, take our lives, take us, use us, dear God, for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's all about the 1 we call friend and master.

He's here, His Spirit is hovering over us.

Make this a saving place right now for your glory.

I have a very special guest that I've invited to come and join me this morning, just a little bit of time here at the beginning together.

Every now and then I like to have somebody special to come and just kind of talk with and interview.

And this seemed to be the right place and time for this guest to come.

And so those of you that have our guests, just bring them on up here.

Sometimes guests come in their own power.

Other guests have to be helped, and this particular guest has to be helped to the front.

But if he can make it here, she, well, we'll just have to decide.

But I want my guest well-dressed for the Sabbath.

Nothing like a little Sabbath white for this occasion.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, please, all the way up here, yes.

All right, just, yeah, you can take the shroud off, actually.

Oh, my, these are, yeah, this is something you look at every day around this university, I understand.

This is a seventh-year med student that Said I'm just gonna stick around I'm not leaving this place Ladies and gentlemen the skeleton the human skeleton you've met 1 before I have a feeling that in a class or 2 that you take here at Loma Linda University, you run into this man, woman, 1 of his cousins or her brothers or sisters.

Just a very lovely portrait of the inner structure of the human organism.

I've invited our friend to come and stand before us this morning for a reason.

I don't know diddly squat about what I'm talking about for this part.

There are 206 pieces that make up the average human skeleton.

If we wanted to ascertain together, you and I, as young scientists and worshippers, we wanted to ascertain together, how many different ways could you put together 206 variables, a 206-part system?

I mean, some of you are mathematicians and you can verify this.

If there's 1 part to the system, how many different ways are there to put 1 part together?

If there are 2 parts to the system, how many ways are there to put the system together?

Series

Dwight Nelson: Rumors from the East

The East Gate

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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The Call of Nehemiah

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Sound Doctrine