Below is an interview with Pastor James Wright, whose central focus is the public proclamation of the Three Angels’ Message through weekly articles in the local secular media, combined with practical community outreach—distributing food, clothing, blankets, and firewood; operating a soup kitchen; organizing Bible studies for incarcerated women; and much more.
Advent Messenger: Pastor James Wright, for readers who may not be familiar with you, can you tell us a little about your background and your ministry? How has God led you in His service?
Pastor James Wright: I was born in Manchester, Jamaica, about 15 miles from the Adventist university that was once known as West Indies College of Seventh-day Adventists and is now Northern Caribbean University. I was born to a Seventh-day Adventist mother and attended West Indies College High School, where I lived in the dormitory for three years. I graduated in 1985 and had the privilege of serving as head boy of the Class of ’85.
In 1984, the students conducted a Spring Week of Prayer from Monday through Friday. Merrick Walker preached on Monday morning; I delivered the Tuesday morning message entitled “Naaman the Leper” from 2 Kings 5; Joseph Smith preached on Wednesday; and Wayne Tulloch and George McCallum preached on Thursday and Friday morning, respectively. That Friday, 40 students confirmed their decision through baptism in the pool at the chapel. In the spring of 1985, another student, Lesep Whyte, and I went to the parish of Hanover in the pastoral district of Pastor Vincent Peterkin and conducted a three-week evangelistic outreach, during which eleven precious souls were baptized.
In 1996, I migrated to the United States and was ordained as an elder at Mount Olivet SDA Church in Camden, New Jersey, by Pastor Coby Matlock. I later attended the Moses Mason Upper Room Camp Meeting in Alabama, where I was inspired to follow in the steps of Jesus, who carried forward an independent ministry as described by God’s prophet:
“From its earliest years the Jewish child was surrounded with the requirements of the rabbis. Rigid rules were prescribed for every act, down to the smallest details of life. Under the synagogue teachers the youth were instructed in the countless regulations which as orthodox Israelites they were expected to observe. But Jesus did not interest Himself in these matters. From childhood He acted independently of the rabbinical laws. The Scriptures of the Old Testament were His constant study, and the words, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ were ever upon His lips” (The Desire of Ages, p. 84).
After moving to Tennessee in 2015, we started an independent ministry called Trumpet in the Wilderness, also known as The Voice in the Wilderness, accepting what we understand to be the role of the third Elijah—John the Baptist being the second Elijah (Matthew 11:14; 17:12–13). We held house church gatherings before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Eventually, we purchased a building, and by the Lord’s blessing, it was paid off in four months.
For about seven years, we witnessed throughout the Nashville community, providing food, clothing, literature, firewood, blankets, tents, propane stoves, and even opening our home to help recovering prostitutes. Later, we centralized the outreach around the church location by operating a soup kitchen from the church’s kitchen.
During the summer of 2025, on a very hot day in Tennessee, the thought impressed me that someone must be in need of a cool drink of water. Acting on what we later recognized as the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I loaded two large coolers into the back of my truck, purchased water and natural fruit juices from Walmart, and began distributing them in parks and on the streets. On my way home from Hohenwald, where I had been giving out these items, I noticed a group of women gathered at a playground near a large house. I made a U-turn and asked if they would like a cool drink. They gladly accepted and called their supervisors over. I soon realized it was a drug rehabilitation center for women completing the final year of their sentence for substance abuse.
The supervisor accepted the remaining water and juices and explained that the women were in need of supplies. I called Sister Beverly Young, who immediately went shopping to provide what was needed. The staff then asked if we had volunteers who could serve at the Hope Center, where the women resided. When I inquired, “Volunteering for what?” they responded, “Bible studies.” I called Sister Young again, and she accepted the assignment. Remarkably, this all occurred the week before we were scheduled to begin our church soup kitchen. When I mentioned that the soup kitchen would be held on Wednesdays, the supervisor responded that Wednesdays were perfect because the women were free that day and could volunteer.
As a result, Bible studies were held on Wednesday mornings at the Hope Center, led by Sister Beverly Young, followed by volunteer service at the soup kitchen. We praise the Lord for His divine providence. These women are completing the final year of their sentences for drug-related offenses, and we ask that they be kept in prayer.
Elder Charles Young and I have also served the community by building wood sheds for firewood storage, repairing decks, and fixing small engines such as lawnmowers, ATVs, and generators. We are currently constructing a warming center for displaced individuals with the help of a skilled carpenter. In 2025, we also held a camp meeting on our property, and seven precious souls gave their lives to the Lord.
Advent Messenger: In Evangelism, page 129, we read: “It is necessary that wise plans should be laid to secure the privilege of inserting articles into the secular papers; for this will be a means of awakening souls to see the truth.” How has God guided you into this form of outreach, and what role do you see media playing in evangelism today?
Pastor James Wright: After we moved to Hohenwald, the city where our ministry is now located, we began using the Lewis County Herald to print our church bulletin. On one occasion, when I went to pick up the completed bulletin for the upcoming Sabbath service, the editor and owner, Miss Amanda Curtis, asked if I would be interested in writing an article for the paper. She explained that the pastors of the 13 churches in the area each write one article per month. My response was a quick and somewhat surprising yes.
She then gave me the submission date and instructions for posting the article on the paper’s website. Before the conversation ended, she asked if I would be interested in writing an article each week instead of just once a month. Again, I responded without hesitation—yes. That day, I truly felt that the Holy Spirit was at work in a powerful way, and I could see it no other way.
Ironically, within various Adventist circles—whether historic, nominal, or present-truth—microphones have at times been muted when I have presented the unadulterated Three Angels’ Messages. Yet here, in a secular newspaper, I have been given the freedom to publish messages such as “The Woman Rides the Beast,” “Just Where Are the Dead?” “Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord,” “The Bible, Catholics, and Protestants’ Views on the Sabbath Day,” “Daniel and the Revelation Prophetic Period,” “The Murder Plot of the Dragon,” “The Woman Finds Liberty in the Wilderness,” and “Revelation 12,” just to name a few.
Advent Messenger: Many people sense that our nation—and the world—has changed dramatically in recent years. From your perspective, what concerns you most about the direction we are heading, and do you believe we are living in the last days Jesus warned about?
Pastor James Wright: My number one concern is the vigorous efforts of the Heritage Foundation and its co-conspirators to repeal, reinterpret, and rewrite the United States Constitution. This attack on liberty is being orchestrated by the current administration, which promotes states’ rights, instigating a popular movement that will grow ever larger and lead to a civil war like the one in the 1860s.
Yes, we are living in the last days. God’s end-time Prophet Ellen G. White warned in Manuscripts 63, 1899: “We have come to a time when God’s sacred work is represented by the feet of the image in which the iron is mixed with the miry clay … The mingling of Church craft and State craft is represented by the iron and the clay. This investing the Church with the power of the State will bring evil results.”
Please note that virtually all Protestant churches, including the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, during the recent COVID-19 Pandemic (COVID-19), wielded state power and imposed vaccination mandates on their members worldwide. According to God’s last-day prophet, Ellen G. White, in The Great Controversy, page 443, when a church or religious body applies a state law to its members, that church is helping to pave the way for the image of the beast, which is Roman Catholicism.
“In order for the United States to form an image of the beast, the religious power must so control the civil government that the authority of the state will also be employed by the church to accomplish her own end” (Great Controversy, p. 443).
She also said in another place, “The Lord has shown me clearly that the image of the Beast will be formed before probation closes, for it is to be the great test for the people of God” (Selected Messages, Vol. 2, p. 80).
Advent Messenger: There is a growing call today for religions to deepen cooperation and present a more visible unity. Do you view this trend as having prophetic significance, and how should God’s people respond in light of biblical prophecy?
Pastor James Wright: It is very dangerous to deepen cooperation merely for the sake of presenting visible unity. The Apostle Paul writes, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” Ephesians 5:11.
Great Controversy, p. 507, says, “The followers of Christ and the servants of Satan cannot harmonize.”
Great Controversy, p. 45: “But there is no union between the Prince of Light and the prince of darkness, and there can be no union between their followers.”
Great Controversy, p. 45: “If unity could be secured only by the compromise of truth and righteousness, then let there be difference and even war.”
The prophetic significance of what is described as the sin of ecumenism is reflected in the following Bible verses:
“That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” Genesis 6:2.
“And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.” Ezekiel 8:16.
And in both cases, probation closes. How should God’s people respond? The answer is found in Isaiah 58:1: “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.”
Advent Messenger: Some Christians argue that the Third Angel’s Message is no longer relevant for our time and that the focus should be solely on preaching Jesus. How would you respond to that claim?
Pastor James Wright: The claim that the Third Angel’s Message is no longer relevant reveals a strange infatuation and a form of spiritual blindness, especially when, according to Early Writings, p. 118, the Third Angel’s Message is identified as the sealing message. It reads:
“I then saw the third angel. Said my accompanying angel, ‘Fearful is his work. Awful is his mission. He is the angel that selects the wheat from the tares, and seal, or bind, the wheat for the heavenly garner. These things should engross the whole mind, the whole attention.” (Early Writings, p. 118).
It is called the Loud Cry and the Latter Rain in another place:
“As the third message swells to a loud cry, and as great power and glory attend the closing work, the faithful people of God will partake of that glory. It is the latter rain which revives and strengthens them to pass through the time of trouble. Their faces will shine with the glory of that light which attends the third angel” (Testimonies, Vol. 1, p. 353).
The separation and the sealing take place under the proclamation of the Third Angel’s Message. Many who hold the view that this solemn message is no longer important are, by that very position, aligning themselves on the side of the tares rather than the wheat.
About: If you would like to connect with Pastor James Wright, plan to visit Tennessee and attend one of his camp meetings, or feel led to support the ministry he and his team are carrying forward, you may contact him at: wrightjames1226@gmail.com
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