Theology with Meat

In almost every issue during the early 1990s, the "Adventist Review" used to make gleeful reports on the thousands of souls that were being baptised by western, mostly North American and Australian evangelists. (If i recall correctly, on one occasion in a former USSR Republic, three thousand people were baptised in one day by a North American evangelist). Yet, no-one would ever read (especially on a church publication) that ca. 80% of these "thousands" quit attending either shortly after their baptism, or during that same year. To be fair, this phenomenon affected all evangelical denominations, not just Adventists. Whether for superstitious reasons, (oriental, pagan, folk-Islam and Eastern Orthodox cultural influences), emotional reasons (freedom, post-communist euphoria), or for purely economical reasons (ADRA sending food and clothes to baptised members, other financial and educational benefits), thousands joined the church for less then ideal reasons. The baptism