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 Clayton Brandt Discusses the Authenticity of the Bible Sabbath services at the Laurelbrook Seventh-day Adventist Church on February 20, 2010 beganwith a song service led by Vasti (senior), accompanied by Donna Kanna on the piano. The opening song was “Morning Has Broken”. Maureen (9th grader) had prayer and welcomed everyone.
Akia Gore then had prayer and read Deuteronomy 13:6-9 “6 ¶ If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which [is] as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; 7 [Namely], of the gods of the people which [are] round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the [one] end of the earth even unto the [other] end of the earth; 8 Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: 9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.”
Vasti had the mission report about a man in Rwanda who made his decision for Christ as a teenager. His father opposed his conversion until the father became ill. The church elders came and prayed for him. The father accepted Jesus – three days later he died. This left the teenager as head of the household. To help with school fees of his brother and sister, he joined the army and served for three years. Then he went to the capital city and found a job as a security guard. His salary paid for his studies at the local Adventist university. His funds are limited; some days he eats only one meal a day to save money. Part of this 13th Sabbath Offering will go to complete the church building on the new university campus.
Darius and Kasai (Laurelbrook Elementary School students) collected the Laurelbrook Missions Offering. Eilish and Erin (twin sophomores) sang a duet for special music.
Maureen (9th grader) had a few remarks about peer pressure. An Adventist student decided to go to a public school. Eventually, he got into a group and neglected his grades. A principal warned him he was not going to graduate unless his grades improved. Teens get bombarded with negative messages about God and His ways of doing things. In Psalm 73, the psalmist talks about how it seems that the wicked have it all, but God showed him that the wicked get their reward now. Deuteronomy 13:6-9 says that the righteous should not help the wicked in their wickedness. The righteous need to put a stop to the wicked and their wicked ways. It is not worth it to be someone else when you really want to follow God.
Vasti had closing prayer. The congregation then broke up into two adult Sabbath School classes to study faithfulness as a fruit of the Spirit; the students studied a lesson from the Young Disciples organization.
 In between Sabbath School and church, Laura Mae Zollinger had a presentation on Liberty magazine. She mentioned that there were only a couple of weeks left in the campaign for this magazine, which presents the principles of religious liberty to prominent officials in the local area and all over the United States. There are four jars – elementary school, boys’ dorm, girls’ dorm – collecting money to send this magazine to these officials.The church service proper began with an organ introit by Donna Kanna. Clayton Brandt had the invocation. David Moses welcomed everyone and made the necessary announcements. There will communion next Friday evening. The Spiritual Retreat speaker will be speaking in the church Thursday evening, Friday evening, and Sabbath. Vespers this evening will be at the Picnic Pavilion.
The congregation sang “I Sing the Mighty Power of God”. David Moses had the Morning Prayer and called for the offering. Louis Pina and Roger Westfall collected the morning offerings. The congregation sang the doxology; Doyce Hughes had a prayer for the offering and read Psalm 119:24 “Thy testimonies also [are] my delight [and] my counsellors.”
Clayton Brandt told the children a story. The Laurelbrook Instrumental Ensemble under the direction of Donna Kanna played a number for special music. Clayton Brandt talked about the divine origin of the Bible, the congregation sang “Give Me the Bible”, and Doyce Hughes had the benediction.
Friday evening the choir from Hartland College in Virginia presented a musical program.
Personnel Other Than Students:
Akia Gore – works in the school kitchen
Clayton Brandt – one of Laurelbrook’s maintenance men assigned to the vehicle shop and heavy equipment, local church elder.
David Moses – teaches academy freshmen and junior Bible, works with the grounds department, local church elder
Donna Kanna – Laurelbrook’s music director
Doyce Hughes – C.N.A. at the Laurelbrook Nursing Home, studying to become an L.P.N.
Laura Mae Zollinger – retired nurse living with her husband Glenn on the edge of the Laurelbrook property
Louis Pina – works in restorative care at Laurelbrook Nursing Home
Roger Westfall – Laurelbrook’s vice-president for personnel, head of housekeeping for the Laurelbrook Nursing Home
Notes on the sermon:
1. Psalm 119:89, 128 “89 For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. 128 Therefore I esteem all [thy] precepts [concerning] all [things to be] right; [and] I hate every false way.”
2. King David struggled with unbelief. At one point, it seemed like the enemy would conquer, but David finally overcame with God’s help.
3. Prophecies are given to us to confirm our faith. For example, comparing the 2300-day/year prophecy of Daniel 2 with the actual events can help our faith. Jesus’ birth and crucifixion, the long time of persecution during the Dark Ages, the rise of the papacy and its fall (1798) and rise again, the falling of the stars (1833), the Dark Day, the fall of Turkey as a world power (1840) – all these gave emphasis to the year-day principle William Miller used to confirm the 1844 movement.
4. The Bible was written over a period of 1600 years with approximately 40 authors but with no contraction – this is a strong evidence of the divine origin of the Bible.
5. That Satan has long tried to destroy the Bible is an evidence of its divine origin.
6. The effect the Bible has on people is also evidence of its divine origin. William Miller, for example, was converted from atheism and led to preach the 1844 message after he read the Bible.
7. Another evidence for the authenticity of the Bible is the effect it has had on people who were clearly doing wrong. An officer in England captured a band of criminals, but the leader escaped and vowed revenge. The officer’s wife believed in the Bible, but the officer trusted in his guns and dogs. One morning the couple woke up and discovered a knife in place of their Bible. Later the officer was wounded in another region and about ready to die. A kind fisherman found him and took him to his home and nursed him back to health. When the officer left, he thanked this man for saving his life – the fisherman confessed that he had come to the officer’s home with a knife and heard the officer’s wife read from the Bible. It touched the criminal’s heart so he took the Bible and left the knife. That Bible changed his heart.
8. Astronomy is another strong evidence for the Bible.
9. Job 38:31-32 “31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? 32 Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?”
10. The book of Job was written shortly after the Flood, but the stars concerned have only recently given up their secrets. Arcturus is a gigantic star that could swallow up our solar system with many other smaller planets. This system passes through other systems without colliding with those other stars.
11. Scientists have recently documented that changes are taking place in Orion for preparation for the saints to go to heaven.
12. Archeology also authenticates the Bible story. On the Dead Sea people have discovered impressions of chariot wheels and remains of bronze parts of the wheels. In the area of Sodom and Gomorrah, they have found sand melted together like glass similar to the effect an atomic bomb has on the surrounding environment. This effect is also found from the effects of burning sulfur.
13. If men had believed the Bible, they would never have believed the world was flat. Isaiah 40:22 “[It is] he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof [are] as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:”
14. Scientific evidence also proves the Bible is authentic. One scientist who was an atheist and evolutionist changed his mind after studying genetics. This pointed him to the idea that an intelligent believer had to have created the earth.
15. Inside of granite rock there are small particles of other types of rocks. Some of this material is radioactive and breaks down into lead. There were radioactive halos in the mica in the rock. Measurement of the distance and the circumference of the halo tell about the rock’s age. There were originally two different types of halos, but there was only one type remaining. These halos could not have been the result of millions of years of molten Earth because the type remaining only has a life of three minutes.
16. These halos do not appear in granite recreated in a laboratory. The Adventist scientist felt this was evidence that God left to assure us that His Word is true.
17. These evidence point to the fact that we can believe God, that we can be assured that our sins are forgiven, that He will be with us to the end of time. God doesn’t ask us to trust Him blindly.
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