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06 Mar

THE STORY OF A GOD WHO IS LOVE

In

A few months ago, I had a clarifying conversation with a young lady who’s been journeying with our church for the last 18 months or so, after she met one of my church members in line at the post office.

Since they both had children around the same age, they soon started getting together for playdates. And the friendship quickly ratcheted up when the young lady—we’ll call her Stephanie—tragically lost her son in a freak accident. My church member immediately provided emotional care and support and recruited others from our church to do the same.

Unfortunately, Stephanie’s bad luck didn’t end there, as the loss of her son led to one series of tragic events after the other. And each time tragedy struck, she kept coming back to the inevitable age-old question: If there truly is a God, why does all this bad stuff keep happening to me?

The reality is, Stephanie’s unsure of the God thing altogether. She was raised in a country where animism was the religion of the land, and though she was adopted by a family here in Maine when she was 12, her adopted family practiced a very strict, fundamentalist version of Christianity, leaving her confused about God and turned off by organized religion altogether.

Despite spending a lot of time, and having lots of open conversations about God, with our church family, she still feels very unsettled about God (which isn’t surprising, considering all she’s been through).

A few months back, however, it seems like we had a bit of a breakthrough. As she and I, along with one of my female elders, sat for a couple hours in her small, dark, upstairs apartment, it seems like the lights flickered on—just around the time that she literally decided to turn the lights on to brighten up the room.

What was it that finally seemed to help things click?

I told her a story.

But not just any story. I told her the biggest, grandest, and most captivating story ever told.

I told her, in short, about the cosmic conflict.

The Story Behind the Story

It was then and there that I realized something—though I’ve had moments of clarity about this before.

It occurs to me that, in our current cultural moment, there are two ways that we as Seventh-day Adventist are uniquely positioned to reach the growing post-Christian and secular population in the West.

The first way is through our storytelling. We live in an age when the power of story trumps just about every other form of communication. People have always loved stories, of course—which is why Jesus never spoke to the masses without a parable—but I think it’s truer today than ever before.

Most people today aren’t interested in propositional ideas; they’re turned off by dogma. But they’re captivated by stories.

And we, as Adventists, for nearly as long as we’ve existed, have understood our theology in the form of a grand story—a great controversy, a cosmic conflict.

We understand the main characters, Christ and Satan, and the basic plotline. We understand how God’s character has been maligned and how He’s seeking to return the universe to a place of eternal safety and security, which can only be accomplished by fully demonstrating His trustworthiness.

We understand Christ’s plans to return, and how we’ll bring us back to heaven for a thousand years, at which point all our questions will be answered and all our doubts will be alleviated. We’ll then return to this earth, where God will set up His eternal home with us, and we’ll live forever with Him in peace, harmony, and love—with trauma, abuse, and hatred never rising again.

We understand that the story truly ends with God and His people living “happily ever after.”

Though I’m omitting a lot of important chapters in the story, this is a broad overview of how we understand the grand story. And it’s what I shared with Stephanie—seemingly helping the “light” turn on for her.

And that’s just it: after spinning our wheels for nearly two hours, with me patiently listening and trying to answer her questions with propositional answers, I finally decided to put it all in story form—and it was then that it started to make sense.

The second way we as Adventists are primed to reach secular minds is something I’ve already hinted at. We have not only a story to tell; we have a theological story to tell.

Indeed, we have a story about God.

And I’d humbly submit that this big God-story makes more sense of all the smaller stories than other theological narratives.

I won’t pretend to be an expert on all other versions of the big story. I haven’t exhaustively studied any other religion—nor familiarized myself with every nuance of each version of the story that various Christians tell.

I can just say, purely from anecdotal experience, that the God-story that Adventists tell (properly understood and articulated) seems to resonate a lot more with thinking people today than the way many other Christians tells the story.

Instead of telling a story about a God who predestines some to be saved and others to suffer the eternal torments of hell, we tell a story about a God who loves all equally and desperately wants everyone to live eternally.

Instead of telling a story about a God who’s going to torture people forever in the flames of hell, we tell a story about a God who, despite His deep desire to live eternally with everyone, honors the choices of all, realizing that eternal existence with Him would feel like hell to those who can’t imagine living only ever by other-centered love.

And so, in His mercy, he will gently “pull the plug” on all those who refuse to embrace and be embraced by His love. He won’t torture them eternally.

Instead of telling a story about a God who refuses to be questioned by His creatures, and who pulls a “power-play” by insisting that we’re to blindly follow Him, we tell a story about a God who eagerly opens up his decision-making process and actions, inviting examination and even “judgment” from us as a way to demonstrate His trustworthy character.

I could keep going with this line of thinking, but I trust my point is clear.

In short, we tell a story about a God who is love at His very core—and all that he does stems from and flows out of His character of love.

And I’ve discovered that that story really resonates with thinking people today.

Adventist Worldview

Essentially, what I’m talking about here is the Adventist “worldview.” The way we make sense of the world, the lens through which we see all that exists, is through a story—a theological story.

Indeed, we don’t simply have a worldview. We have a universal view.

As mentioned above, we sometimes refer to it as the “Great Controversy” or perhaps even the “cosmic conflict.”

Oftentimes, when we use the term “Great Controversy” especially, we think of fear-inducing end-times scenarios. We think of “Sunday laws” and the “mark of the beast.” We think of the “time of trouble” and hiding in the mountains.

For some Adventists, this worldview causes them to look suspiciously at every little event, seeing it as a “sign of the times,” and to look suspiciously at other people, seeing a Jesuit behind every bush.

This isn’t the type of “Great Controversy” worldview I’m referring to—it’s not, I’d submit, a healthy lens through which to see the world.

This isn’t to deny the reality of last-day events. But such scenarios and prognostications are too speculative to provide solid footing for us—and often lead us to be unpleasant residents of this world rather than the “aroma of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:15) that brings healing, wholeness, and happiness to those around us.

What isn’t too speculative is God’s love. What isn’t too speculative is His commitment to freedom and justice and mercy. What isn’t too speculative is his invitation to us to participate in His story—to step into His plan to renew and restore all things, to bring “healing” to the nations (see Revelation 22:2).

When we put on that pair of glasses and look at the world, we don’t look with fear, we look with hope and love. We answer the invitation to participate in God’s redemptive work, while recognizing that our task will ever be incomplete this side of His return.

We see suffering and pain and sin and understand that was never God’s plan—and we rest in the assurance that He will one day, at last, put things to rights, even as we strive to bring that future reality into the present.

Indeed, when we put on those glasses, we recognize that the story ends (or, really, it would be more accurate to say that the story begins) with those lines that come at the end of every great love story: “And they lived happily ever after.”

Shawn Brace is a pastor in Bangor, Maine, whose life, ministry, and writing focus on incarnational expressions of faith. The author of four books and a columnist for Adventist Review, he is also a DPhil student at the University of Oxford, focusing on nineteenth-century American Christianity. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter @shawnbrace and sign up for his weekly newsletter at: shawnbrace.substack.com

06 Mar

ROOM WITH A (WORLD) VIEW

In

If you have ever visited England, you may well have made your way to Oxford. You may remember charming buildings of yellowish Cotswold stone. Bookshops and libraries everywhere. A bell sounding somewhere. The feeling that you might just have walked past a future prime minister. Old black bicycles flying in all directions, student gowns flapping in the wind. Arched gatehouses giving on to college quadrangles.

Walk into a quadrangle and you will find student rooms built maybe two or three levels high overlooking a carefully manicured lawn carrying the warning “Keep off the grass.” It is like stepping into another world. If you were to trespass a little and walk past the sign which says “Staircase not open to visitors—residents only” you would find yourself on a rather bare corridor. A few strides and through an open door and you will be in a student room. It has a
window overlooking the quad.

The sun is streaming in. From the window, you can see a few bicycles propped up against the wall. The porter’s lodge at the arched entrance is visible to the right. In the center of the quad is a modern sculpture, roughly in the shape of an “S,” gifted by some wealthy benefactor who wanted to be remembered by future generations.

Wander further into another corridor at right angles to the present one and another open door. This room is not yet touched by the sun. Over to the window and there’s a different view on to the quad. You can no longer see those bicycles. Neither is the gatehouse visible. You can now see the window of the room you were just in. But the sculpture now looks like a kind of fat vertical—nothing more. No shape of an “S.”

Another few strides. Another open door. The sun is slanting across this room. Through this window, yet another aspect of the quad. Everything is somehow familiar but it’s all in a different place. And the sculpture now looks like a back-to-front “S.” The bicycles must be leaning against the wall below this window.

Your wander into the quad has taught you a valuable lesson: that it all depends on which window you look out of as to what you see in the quad.

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It’s a little like this with our windows on the world. Familiar things look strange under an unfamiliar aspect. And some things are just not visible to us.

Go into the Adventist room, go to the Adventist window, go to your Adventist window, and what do you see from there? Something different from what others see from their own windows.

What can you see? I can only describe what I see from my own window on the world.

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First, I see a place, the church, where the story of Jesus is kept alive. Where the Living God is part of the reality in which we live. Where God’s unpredictable Spirit moves where the Spirit wills. Where, mysteriously, we can have direct access to God in prayer and worship, and so learn who we really are and who God really is. That is the center piece of the Adventist worldview.

The church is like the Oxford quad in offering a protected space. The noise of the busy street outside is quickly excluded by the old walls. But once in the quad it will not be long before you sniff a sense of privilege. Of exclusivism. Of superiority. One university wit said that the great virtue of Oxford was its tolerance, its great vice was its arrogance. He was not wrong.

Adventism is somewhat similar. Certainly, it can offer a safe place in this conflicted world. Tolerant? Often but not always, and perhaps less so now in this binary world, in this binary church, in which we live. Arrogant? Maybe to some extent. The idea of being “a remnant,” of being a “peculiar people,” of having a unique mission in Christianity, is perhaps not of itself toxic but it easily becomes so. A superior, self-regarding group? The idea of being “special” can easily lead to distorted ideas of entitlement.

But I see other things through my Adventist window.

I see a community which tends to see things in terms of conflict. Its lead story, the “Great controversy,” pits one against another with no middle ground. Battle, competition, strife. This is not an inaccurate description of the world in which we live. At least on the grand scale. The danger is that we take an adversarial spirit into the smaller world in which we go about our daily business. It is dangerous to see the enemy everywhere. It is thus that conspiracy theories breed. Paranoia sets in. The will to see the good in other communities is squeezed.

I see a church which has become so heavily bureaucratized that it appears to differ little from a multinational corporation like Coca Cola. With a worldwide membership of 20 million plus and a multitude of institutions, this is probably inevitable. It is too easy to measure success simply in terms of growing “sales”—baptisms, size, rising tithes and offerings, and other empirical indicators used to measure the unmeasurable. The danger is that at the heart of things is not God, just the concept of God. The church easily degenerates into a mere religious bureaucracy.

Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, has identified the wider church’s “constant struggle not to become the object of its own faith.” Christ on Trial (Fount, 2000, p. 135). That’s a short but devastating indictment and we Adventists do well to reflect on it.

But the Church wants to be a worldwide family too. It offers warmth and a sense of direction. A home. I see a community of people who have given me a sense of belonging. It is a large family with many different personalities, and so it needs some sort of structure to contain it. And that is where identity problems begin.

Members tend to think of the church either as a family or a multinational corporation as it suits them. Family for warmth and institution for structure. Flesh and bones. But families and corporations are regulated in different ways. When members seek a sympathetic understanding, they think of the church as family. At other times they think of the church as a corporation with procedures and rules. It inevitably creates conflict in our church.

I also see a community where the teaching of the imminent Advent has been in tension with the doctrine of the divine creation. It is strange that Adventists are not especially interested in the well-being of our planet. We say that it makes no sense to protect the Creator’s handiwork when it will soon be destroyed at Christ’s return. A strange logic for creationists. Similarly, I see a community which is more interested in providing social welfare than in seeking social justice. These are expressions of the tension between the now and the not-yet. There are tensions aplenty in this Adventist worldview.

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But enough of things in the shadows. I see other things too out of my Adventist window.

I see a concern for excellence. The charity Oxfam began in Oxford and has become a worldwide force for good. So too is ADRA. It is smaller but the humanitarian impulse is the same. I see some fine academic institutions. I also see institutions which have given a chance to those on the margins. I see vital medical institutions, large and small, where great human need exists. I see a strong musical tradition. I see a church which has been well ahead of the curve when it comes to matters of healthy lifestyle.

Most of all, I see a chain of local church communities which are good at transmitting the love of Jesus not only among their members but often those beyond too. They provide support, warmth, and direction for those who make them their home. I see friendships which last a lifetime sometimes despite barriers of great distance and culture. I see people swimming against the strong tide of changing values. They are an inspiration. I see people who can find some peace amid the frenetic activity of the wider world thanks to the Sabbath rest and all it entails.

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Perhaps there is no such thing as a single Adventist worldview nowadays. The global spread of the Adventist Church is perhaps also its fragility. When Adventism meets any culture, it will inevitably produce variants. And so today we have many Seventh-day Adventist windows on the world.

But the genius of Adventism is its uniting value of wholeness. A whole mind in a whole body in a whole world. At its best, it creates coherence in a fragmented world. This hunger for wholeness finds different expression in different places in the world. And not just personal wholeness but community wholeness. And not stiff uniformity but organic wholeness. Creating community, generating wholeness is valuable but hard work. It demands no less than our whole self.

To this, we are called.

Michael Pearson is Principal Lecturer Emeritus at Newbold College in the U.K. For many years, he taught topics in ethics, philosophy, and spirituality. He and his wife, Helen, write a weekly blog pearsonsperspectives.com Email him at: [email protected]

06 Mar

DISTILLED ADVENTISM

In

Sometimes I do things I know I shouldn’t do.

It usually feels pretty good. At first. Later, I feel really bad about it.

That’s my worldview.

Well, part of it. From there it goes in some rather bizarre directions. Extraterrestrials battle over the character, government, methods, and motives of the Ruler of the Universe. Unanswerable questions are raised. Questionable answers are offered.

I call what I believe, the distilled Adventist worldview. It’s not a finished view. It’s not the final truth. There is room for growth. It continues to mature. Newfound truths may advance our understanding. It’s not uniquely Adventist. Glimpses of it can be found in the writings of John Milton and Henry Melvill, in Manicheanism, and in stories like The Mandalorian.

Distillation is a process through which impurities are removed. Simple nuisance particles may also be detached. The process is often intense. It calls for heat and transparency. It must be closely monitored. Combustion or even explosions may occur.

I find a clear distinction between the distilled Adventist worldview and both the historic and current Adventist worldviews, which seem more and more undifferentiated to me. Instead of going through this tedious and potentially dangerous distillation process, I see our church “retreating” to a safer, evangelical, fundamentalistic, Reformation-based form of theology. I don’t believe that was the intention of our founders. I believe they are two radically different worldviews.

I see one based in love; the other, based in fear.

I don’t think I was afraid of God when I was six-years old.

That year, my friend, Gayle, and I, saw a dark cloud about half the size of a man’s hand in what she thought might be the eastern sky. She excitedly told me that Jesus was coming! Her father was a pastor. I figured she knew. We ran home and told our mothers. They gave us Graham crackers and milk and told us to calm down.

That’s the last time I can remember being excited about Jesus coming back. Mostly it scares me. Still.

By the time I was eight, my worldview was saturated in fear.

I don’t blame my parents for my fears. They always shared a loving view of God with me. Largely unwittingly, and I think for the most part unintentionally, my pastors, teachers, and Sabbath School leaders somehow instilled in me a fear of God, a fear of my neighbors, a fear of our government, a fear of the Devil, a fear of the Ten Commandments, a fear of The Last Days, a fear of the Judgment, a fear of the Second Coming, a fear of persecution, a fear of Hell, a fear of the General Conference president, a fear of hidden sins, a fear of death, a fear of my body, and a fear of Roman Catholic Sisters of Charity. I feared everything outside of the safe and comfortable confines of the church. Although inside the church it wasn’t always so comfortable, either.

When fear is overwhelming, there are at least three possible responses. You may have a mental health crisis, you may deny the fear and its causes, or you can “whistle past the graveyard.” I chose the latter. I pretended I was not afraid. I was terrified.

I’ve been asked how I can seem to be so critical of our church and yet continue to be a loyal member. My loyalty to Adventism is directly tied to the classes and tape ministries of several Adventist pastors, theologians, and educators that I encountered in the 1970s and 1980s. Through them I finally saw the light of the good news about God and His character. It shines brilliantly in the First Testament in the writings of men like Moses, David, Isaiah,

Jeremiah, Micah, and Hosea. It explodes into vibrant colors through the prism of Christ’s life and death in the Second Testament—most clearly in the works of John, the disciple who so gratefully reveled in the love of Jesus.

Based on the intended audience for this article, I will presume most of you are well acquainted with the current Adventist worldview. As I mentioned above, I do not see it as being significantly different from an evangelical, fundamentalistic, Reformation-informed Christian worldview. Not having the space to expand and contrast the differences between the current and distilled worldviews, I will focus on describing the distilled Adventist worldview. Hopefully, you will be able to see some of the important lines of divergence between the two views.

In distilled Adventist theology, sin is rebelliousness. It is an attitude of self-centeredness, not a collection of behaviors and acts—a vicious inborn character flaw that leads us to fight God and His government. It is less “what we do,” and more “who we are.” Living with this attitude, everything we do, good or bad, is sin. God’s response to our sin is less anger than sorrow. Each time we act out in sin, we hurt both ourselves and others whom He has created. We form scars, and accumulated scar tissue will eventually destroy both our capacity and our desire to be healed.

God has given us at least five “tools” to help us fight against our sinful natures. The first is the enmity he has put between us and our great enemy. This is what makes us want to change for the better. It’s what eventually makes us feel bad about doing those things we know we shouldn’t. God has also given us His Spirit, to help us respond to that enmity against sin and to give us the power to take the steps needed to accomplish a change in our characters.

And He has given us forgiveness.

We often worry about forgiveness, but forgiveness is not a problem for God. We’ve been forgiven. It’s guaranteed. He forgives freely—even before we ask. The father of the Prodigal Son was not waiting for his son to come back with a speech of confession and repentance. The love and goodness of the father drew the son home to himself. He cut his son off with a hug and a family robe when he began his speech of contrition.

The Roman soldiers at the Cross didn’t ask for forgiveness. Christ gave it to them anyway. But being forgiven doesn’t mean being saved. And presuming on God’s forgiveness may callous us to such a degree that we eventually no longer respond to His entreaties.

What we need is a new character. A rebirth. A change of heart. A healing.

To be healed, we must trust God enough to allow Him to heal us. If we do, He can and will heal us completely. While we must confess (admit guilt) and repent of (turn away from) our sin, that doesn’t induce forgiveness. Confession and repentance are but the first steps in the healing process. They make forgiveness efficacious in our lives. They are not down payments to help cover our sins.

The last two gifts, the greatest ones from God, are found in His Son.

Christ’s primary mission to earth was to show us the Father. He, being of the same nature and character of God, could not fail to do this. He was the greatest gift the Trinity could possibly give. Through Him, we receive the fifth gift, a clear representation and revelation of the goodness and righteousness of God.

This Gift was not meant for humanity alone. In that peculiar, “Star Warsian,” extraterrestrial conflict we Adventists have recognized in our reading of Scripture, we find that a defense of the righteousness of God, His goodness, and His trustworthiness, was necessary for the eternal peace and safety of all creation. That defense was most brilliantly displayed on the Cross.

At the Cross, the impure accretions that had formed on the world’s view of God were distilled off in the clearest revelation of the character of God that the universe could ever receive! Lesser nuisances that had accumulated were also removed. Confusing terms such as propitiation, expiation, payment, cost, penalty, and appeasement were clarified and should no longer befog our view. God doesn’t demand sacrifices, nor does He destroy sinners! The death of Christ ultimately and irrefutably verified that God told the truth regarding the natural results of sin and demonstrated His role in the destruction of the wicked.

Calvary was Hell. On it, Christ experienced the full wrath of God. No eternal fire. No brimstone. No smoke of torment. No destruction at the Father’s hand. Nothing like the anger we humans possess. Just the overwhelming, fatal pain of separation from the Creator—of being given up (forsaken). “God’s wrath is simply His turning away in loving disappointment from those who do not want Him, anyway, thus leaving them to the inevitable and awful consequences of their own rebellious choice” (A. Graham Maxwell).

We can’t overstate the goodness of God. Everything He does and allows is a manifestation of loving righteousness. This is the distilled Adventist worldview. This should be our message to the world.

Mark Johnson, MD, is a retired public health physician and the chairman of the Boulder Vision Board. Email him at: [email protected]

06 Mar

WHAT DID AND WHAT SHOULD MAKE US DIFFERENT TODAY?

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We are often told: “You, Seventh-day Adventists, are different from other Christians! You are rather peculiar!” Indeed, many Adventist church members like to cite 1 Peter 5:9 in the King James Version and pride themselves that they are a “peculiar” people. Unfortunately, in many parts of the world many have never heard of Seventh-day Adventists or, if they know of their existence, have a rather negative view of them. In fact, Adventists are often better known for what they don’t do—smoking, drinking alcohol, eating pork—than for what they do!

I must admit that, growing up, I was often quite uneasy about my Adventist background. It was unpleasant to be “different.” This negative feeling did gradually fade away, but I must admit that I still find some of my fellow-believers rather “peculiar” and in the not so positive sense of the word. In this short article I want to highlight a few important aspects of Adventism that in the past have made us different. I will suggest how these features, in fact, have the potential to make us more “peculiar” in a positive way.

1. Adventists have almost everywhere constituted a small minority.

We were the only Adventist family in the village where we lived, some 25 miles north of Amsterdam. The less than 3,000 Dutch Adventists were seen as a small American sect among the different Calvinistic denominations. Undoubtedly, many fellow-Adventists of my generation have similar memories of what being an Adventist was like “when we were young.” Today, Adventists are still a small minority in most places. Worldwide, there is only one Adventist for every 358 persons. In the USA we find one Adventist for every 305 people, and in Europe the ratio is as low as 1:2,049.

But there is another side to the coin. Today, in 2024, we are a minority of over 22 million people. This means that there are now almost as many Adventists as, for instance, there are Sikhs in the world, and the Sikh religion is regarded as the fifth largest world religion! There are more Adventists than Jewish believers, who worldwide number just under 16 million.

We may be a minority, but we are far more numerous than many other religious groups! We have every reason to no longer emphasize our minority position but to claim our rightful role on the ecclesiastical scene. In the past we were “different”—largely because of our minority status. Now the time may have come to tell the world: “Look, we are here! Yes, we are still small when compared with the Catholic Church or the Methodists or the Southern Baptists, but we are not as small as you may have thought.” Moreover, you find Adventists in almost every country of the world. And listen: We have a contribution to make. We have resources and expertise. We deserve a place at the table when important social and environmental issues are discussed.

Our “remnant theology” suggests that we will remain a minority, but we are a minority to be reckoned with. We have something important to say and may have to be much more daring than we have often been in speaking up.

2. Can our enemies become our allies?

In its early history, the Adventist Church often found itself in a hostile environment. Our forms of outreach were not appreciated by other religious communities. Also, the Adventist end-time scenario, in which Sabbath keepers would have to face the fury of a Sunday keeping coalition, did not endear them to other Christians.

Today, Adventists are living in a totally different world. Tragically, quite a few church members seem not to be not aware of this, and, as a result, continue to treat other Christians as their enemies. In reality, institutionalized Christianity has suffered a dramatic decline in the Western world. All churches—Seventh-day Adventists included—are facing the challenge of preaching the gospel in an ever more secular and materialistic society.

The differences between Seventh-day Adventists and other Christians have not been obliterated and Adventists still have a “peculiar” message, but these other Christians are now, in fact, our allies. Together we must stand firm for the gospel of Christ in a world that has largely forgotten its Christian values. Let us not waste energy on fighting other Christians but recognize what other faith communities have done and are doing, while ensuring that our “peculiar” message gets heard.

3. The Sabbath—from being a burden to being a blessing.

Millions of believers have experienced that keeping the
Sabbath holy has been a great blessing. But all too often it was also a burden for many of us. It made us “different.” My place in the classroom of my secondary school remained empty on Saturdays, leaving my classmates wondering about my strange religion. Many church members lost their jobs and missed opportunities for promotion because they refused to work on Saturdays. Even today, in our 24-hour economy, insistence on having Saturdays off can cause serious problems. When sharing the Sabbath doctrines with others, their first reaction tends to be negative. It would upset their life and would mean a significant burden if they were to decide to keep the Sabbath!

But now, with the twenty-first century well under way, the Western World is suffering from an epidemic of stress and burnout. Medication can help people relax and can suppress the symptoms of their mental exhaustion. There is, however, no better antidote for a burnout, and no remedy for the relentless pressure of our society, than the divine prescription of one full day of rest, on the seventh day, after every six days of work. The Sabbath is a day of physical rest—of radically interrupting our daily activities—and a day of spiritual refocus. It is a day of connecting in a special way—with God, our family, and significant others. Far from being a burden it can become a blessing for millions around us. When will Adventists become more cognizant of having this unique selling point?

4. Are we living in the time of the end or in a time of new beginnings?

Adventist preaching about the nearness of the Second Coming was a major factor in the growth of our movement. But, after about 180 years, this theme has lost much of its momentum. As war is tearing its destructive path through Ukraine and the Gaza strip, there is every reason to place the current military and political developments once again in the world in the prophetic timeframe that once was a steady diet in Adventist preaching.

Preaching about the time of the end must, however, be combined with actions that show how the gospel can improve life, even in this final phase of earth’s history. “If I knew that Jesus would come tomorrow, I would plant an apple tree today.” This statement, which is often attributed to Martin Luther, has greatly increased in relevancy. Adventist should do more than they have done so far in showing the world what a healthy, balanced, lifestyle looks like. The link between Adventists and “Blue Zones” should not only be a Loma Linda phenomenon but can be duplicated in many places.

Adventists can do much more in reducing their carbon footprint and can be much more on the forefront in campaigns to reduce the consequences of climate change. They can become much more outspoken (and active) in the fight against poverty, racial discrimination, and gender inequality. They could have a much bigger role in peace projects. While reminding the world that time is short, we must be determined to plant as many apple trees as we possibly can!

5. Turning past “present truth” into today’s “present truth.”

From the beginning, Adventists have referred to their message as “present truth.” They were convinced that some aspects of the biblical prophecies had a special application for the very times in which they lived.

‘Present truth’ is a biblical term, inspired by 2 Peter 1:12 (KJV). Unfortunately, more recently this concept has mostly been restricted to the body of doctrinal truth that we inherited from our Adventist forebears. In other words: This present truth refers to a past understanding of truth, i.e. to aspects of the truth that were considered particularly relevant for the days of the “pioneers” of Adventism. A better interpretation of the text in 2 Peter would be: “truth” that is “made present”—that is actualized in what we (individually and collectively) say and do today.1

We do well to study the historical development of our doctrines. But being an Adventist in 2024 entails more than knowing about our Adventist heritage and preserving the “present truth” of earlier generations. The truth we have inherited can easily become just “past truth,” if we do not succeed in making it present, so that it can continue to speak to us, and to those we seek to reach, in ways that are meaningful in today’s context.

In summary: As we seek to be faithful to our mission, let us critically look at what made us what we are today, and how these characteristics might be re-shaped so that they can help us to share our message in our day and age with greater effectiveness.

Reinder Bruinsma, PhD, has served the Seventh-day Adventist Church in publishing, education, teaching, and church administration in West-Africa, the USA, and Europe. He now lives in his native country, the Netherlands, together with his wife Aafje. Although retired, he is still very active in preaching, lecturing, and writing. Among his latest books is He Comes: Why, When and How Jesus Will Return. Email him at: [email protected]

 

1   For a very informative essay about the concept of “present truth,” see: Roberto Badenas, “Dealing with ‘Present Truth’: 2 Peter 1:12 Revisited,” in: Reinder Bruinsma and Børge Schantz, eds., Exploring the Frontiers of Faith: Festschrift in Honour of Dr. Jan Paulsen (Lüneburg, Germany: Advent-Verlag, 2009), pp. 207-217.

06 Mar

LIFESOURCE BAKE-OFF SUPPORTS KIDS AND BUILDS COMMUNITY

In

Heidi Carpenter – Denver, Colorado … The tables at LifeSource Adventist Fellowship (LAF) were loaded with delicious baked goods for the annual Great LifeSource Bake-off, March 2.

Members had lovingly planned and prepared for this event culminating in the donations of their tasty creations. All-you-can-eat tickets were for sale at the door with all proceeds benefiting LAF Club Ministries! Over 95 people attended, giving more than $1,730 in support of the children.

All ages took part in the competition, with the youngest group being our Little Lambs baking and decorating their own cookies. Club Ministries Leaders Daisy Dalegowski, Lydie Birai, and Karene Watts, with their entire team of teachers and helpers, envisioned a night of connection as a church family through fun and competition.

Intergenerational games brought young and old together at the event. “My favorite part was the teams of different ages represented,” said Orpha Thomas, LAF member and Club Ministries teammate. When asked what she enjoyed the most, she commented, “The creativity, laughter, and competitiveness when playing the games.”

Karene Watts, a LAF Club Ministries leader, shared this: “I just love seeing the church coming together and having fun. This year was also really special because I saw others outside of LifeSource participating in the event. It truly is a representation of us ‘doing life together.’”

A fantastic group of judges came to try a bite of every baked entry. Their job was to decide the winners for each age category. Our judges were from all over the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) including RMC Education director Diane Harris, RMC Public Affairs and Religious Liberty director Nathaniel Gamble, realtor Matt Prowant, RMC Youth director Brandon Westgate, and cook and personal trainer Stephen Harris. Many thanks to these judges for their time and support!

The annual Great LifeSource Bake-off was made possible by our members, our sponsors, and, most importantly, by our children, the key ingredient and reason for it all.

—Heidi Carpenter is the LifeCycle Coordinator at LifeSource Adventist Fellowship. Photos supplied.

05 Mar

CAMPION SCHOOLS AND CHURCH JOIN TO CELEBRATE DIFFERENT CULTURES

In

Vashty Segovia Santos – Loveland, Colorado … Campion Academy, HMS Richards Adventist School, and the Campion Seventh-day Adventist Church in Loveland, Colorado, came together to celebrate the diversity in our community with an International Sabbath, February 24.

Students from both schools started off the program by dressing up in clothes from the countries they were representing and carrying flags from all over the world. The students greeted the church in different languages.

Afterwards, the praise team presented songs in other languages that had different translations. They sang songs in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Indonesian. Natan Fogaca, Campion Academy student, commented, “It was a good experience, I got to sing and praise God.”

Students shared special performances, scriptures, and prayers in different languages. Campion Academy students Julia Santiago and Beatriz Moraes sang a special music called “Alem” in Portuguese.

Moraes shared, “This song is important to me because it shows me that I always have someone I can trust and always do what’s best for me. God showed me in this song that he is always with us, even in the storms. Believe and trust in Him that he will do what is best.”

“It was beautiful to see so many countries represented throughout the church,” Euan O’Keeffe, Campion Academy student, expressed, “It really painted the church as what it should be—a great unifier, unrelated to language and culture.”

—Vashty Segovia Santos, Campion Student News Team. Photos supplied.

05 Mar

A MEATLESS MARCH: MORE PLANTS, LESS PROCESSED!

In

Carey Jordan – Loveland, Colorado … In the month of March, HMS Richards Adventist School in Loveland, Colorado, is diving into finding more plant-based options and fresh ideas to swap for animal proteins and processed foods.

The current movement towards more plant-based eating is nothing new (hello, Adam, Eve, and the Garden of Eden!). Thanks to recent documentaries like Forks over Knives and books like The China Study, the quest to find answers on what should be consumed is becoming clearer: eat more plants! Many have chosen to increase the plant load on their plate in a search to become healthier and free their bodies of the bondage of Western diseases.

As we see omnivores increasing their percentage of vegetarian options and more vegetarians becoming vegan, there is one thing standing in the gap: convenience. This has given rise to many pre-packaged foods loaded with sugars, unhealthy oils, and faux meat. But, hey it is “vegan” right?!

I can’t help but think about Daniel and how the king showered him with all the most expensive and decadent foods available. But Daniel refused. In Daniel 1:12-15, we read:

Daniel said to the guard, “Please give us this test for ten days: Don’t give us anything but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then after ten days compare us with the other young men who eat the king’s food. See for yourself who looks healthier. Then you judge for yourself how you want to treat us, your servants.” So, the guard agreed to test them for ten days. After ten days they looked very healthy. They looked better than all of the young men who ate the king’s food.

Could you imagine if he asked for vegan food and was brought cakes, candy, fake burgers, or oil-laden crackers? Do you think he would have kept his strength up?!?

If you find yourself leaning heavily on processed foods for you and your family, do not despair! Do not overwhelm yourself, but instead commit to small changes at a time. It is March, and the season of making things anew is right around the corner! Spring brings a renewed hope as we remember the journey Jesus made for us to the cross and his resurrection from the dead. He did that for us. You can do this!

Here’s to fresh start with more plants this March!

—Carey Jordan is principal at HMS Richards Adventist School. Photo by Unsplash.

05 Mar

WEEK OF WORSHIP SPEAKER TESTIFIES OF CHRIST’S LOVE

In

Pedro Vieira – Loveland, Colorado … Campion Academy in Loveland, Colorado, held a Week of Worship (WOW), February 19-24, with guest speaker Wayne Morrison, lead pastor at the Brighton Seventh-day Adventist Church in Brighton, Colorado. Morrison shared about the unconditional love of Jesus and how He transforms us to be more like Him.

 

The main point of Morrison’s message was to help students understand the gift of eternal life, our identity as children of God, and our transformation in Christ. Morrison gave a clear message of how God is working in our lives and that He is love.

 

Davi Vieira, a new student at Campion Academy this semester, shared, “For my first Week of Worship at Campion, I really enjoyed taking some time away from classes and worshiping God with my friends this week. The way Morrison talked made me feel motivated and happy because we are not alone, and Jesus is working in our lives. I can’t wait to have another week like that.”

 

In addition to the speaker, the praise team introduced the theme song “Champion,” making the message more impactful to the students. 

 

Yngrid Silva, a Campion junior student, expressed, “I think the theme song for WOW was one of the best. It really impacted my thoughts about our salvation in Christ, and I really enjoyed listening to the praise team singing it on the stage. It made me feel good and inspired by the lyrics.”

 

Piano player for the praise team, Shawn Ferguson, shared, “Honestly, this week was one of the best we’ve had as far as music, in my opinion, and I really enjoyed the message. Overall, the experience was great, and I can’t wait for the next Week of Worship.”

 

—Pedro Vieira, Campion Student News Team. Photos supplied.

29 Feb

KNOWING CHRIST AND MAKING HIM FULLY KNOWN: PART 2

In

During the revamp of the Rocky Mountain Conference’s priorities for this current term, attention was given to something that had been on the conference website for some time. Listed as priorities were some items that would need to be embraced and done as individuals, some as a local church, and some as a conference as a whole.

As I worked to refresh and refine this list, I split things out into two separate sections. We now have a separate section for Aspirations and one for Priorities. The Priorities list shows concrete steps the conference organization needs to pursue as those are things that the conference can address directly in various ways.

The Aspirations list also includes things that can be addressed directly, but they are not things that your conference can legislate and make happen just “because we said so!” They require a personal buy-in. They require each of us as members in a local church to respond with prayer and study to see how we can best live out the Gospel commission where we are. Living the aspirations I have prepared, and that the Executive Committee has voted, will help mark our churches in a consistent manner throughout our conference though the circumstances vary greatly from church to church.

My next few articles will unpack these Aspirations, and it’s my earnest prayer and desire that each church member will decide in each of our churches to endeavor by God’s grace to rise to these aspirations, for they, together, represent what a healthy and well-functioning body of believers can do together. All of these Aspirations are written in the present tense, as if they are all happening everywhere right now. I believe they are all attainable, and I believe that these already exist in our conference to varying degrees.

It’s my personal belief that if these are all lived strongly in the present in each of our churches that this conference will be a powerful force for Christ—the kind of force He can use to build us His kingdom here where He has planted each of us.

While the list of Aspirations is not listed in any particular order, the One at the top of the list is there on purpose. That’s where we’ll start because it’s, or rather He’s the most important.

Jesus is Our Highest Focus

Easy to say. And we even mean it when we say it. But, in my lifetime as a Seventh-day Adventist, I’ve noticed we don’t always live that way in reality.

We have entire cottage industries in our faith community devoted to something that each organization feels is really the most important thing. Jesus, yes, but this, too, is the most important thing. In fact, I’ve noticed that some in these cottage industries react as if you don’t really love Jesus or take Him seriously unless you fully buy in and think what they are telling you or selling you is the most important thing, too.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not indicting anyone here. Most of those in these cottage industries are all about good things. But there is only One first thing, and His name is Jesus.

Some of you might have heard my take on the Biblical scene we call the Transfiguration. It was that brief, holy, tearing of time and space where Jesus was revealed in His full glory before three rather frightened friends—Peter, James, and John. James and John knew enough to keep their mouths shut at such a time, but Peter blathered on about building three tents or huts or something for each of these three glorious beings to occupy—as if any earthly dwelling would be enough.

Remember who was at that scene with Jesus? Moses and Elijah, as you well remember. Two great heroes and legendary figures in Jewish history. If you had asked most any common Jew of that time who the person from the past they’d love to meet, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t say Moses or Elijah.

And it wasn’t that there just weren’t many people to choose from in heaven who had once lived on earth, I believe these two were chosen for another reason. The Old Testament is referred to in the New Testament as “The Law and the Prophets.” Moses wrote the books containing the Law, and who better to symbolize the prophets than Elijah?

When the great voice spoke from the cloud of glory surrounding Jesus and His companions, I can’t help but think God placed a specific emphasis on one particular word: “Him.” Instead of saying, “This is my beloved son, listen to Him,” I rather think God said, “This is my beloved son, listen to Him.”

Do you count the significance of that? Who could possibly be greater than Moses and Elijah? What could possibly be greater than the Scriptures themselves? Him. Jesus. The others were certainly good things. But Jesus was above them all.

I recently was blessed to hear a devotional sermon by Elizabeth Talbot, director-speaker of Jesus 101, an official media ministry of the North American Division. Her text was John 4, the familiar story of the woman at the well. Among the things she pointed out was the worship issue between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Jews, of course, only believed you can worship on their mountain, and the Samaritans only believed God could be worshipped on theirs.

Dr. Talbot rightly pointed out that it’s far too easy to make our preference into our principle. Forgetting that our principle is really only a preference, we make our preference the first thing and then we judge others by their fidelity to our preference, our first thing.

Only a determined effort to keep Jesus as our highest focus will keep us from making other things first. Keeping Jesus first is the only way I know of to protect us from going off on tangents and detours, however compelling they might seem.

I challenge each of us to be so determined—so focused on Jesus that when others look at your face, they will wonder what’s going on inside of you! I promise you that if Jesus is your highest priority, if lifting Him up is the highest priority of your church, that God will bring into your path those who are ready to follow Him. And isn’t that what we all most want?

Until next time,
Pastor Mic

—Mic Thurber is RMC president.

29 Feb

SEVEN TEAMS PARTICIPATE IN PATHFINDER BIBLE EXPERIENCE FINALS

In

Sue Nelson – Denver, Colorado … The Pathfinder Bible Experience (PBE) for the books of Joshua and Judges, was held at Denver South Hispanic Seventh-day Adventist Church in Denver, Colorado, February 24. Six teams participated in person, including Colorado Springs Pleyades, Colorado-American Indonesian Flying Garuda’s, Greeley Lesem, Longmont Thunder, Loveland Cougars, and Pecos Rocky Mountain Stallions, and the Durango Ironhorse participated remotely from Durango, Colorado.

The PBE got underway with the Color Guard, performed by the teen representatives Clemente Martinez, Jr., Kariany Ortiz, and Jamie Mira. Praise music was led by Daniel Gonzalez of the Redeemed Music Ministry from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and a devotional was led by Andrew Carpenter, Mile High Academy principal.

Nearpod, a teacher-based computer program, was used for interactive lessons. It enabled the teams to see questions, write answers, and submit on a computer or tablet as the presenter controlled the questions in English and Spanish from the platform. This system is also used at the Union and North America Division (NAD) levels.

All the teams’ answers come into Nearpod, which is then sent to a team of judges and scorekeepers to grade and record. Using a code for access allowed the Durango club to participate in the event without having to drive long distance during wintertime.

There were 90 questions total, with a 10-minute break halfway through. Questions were taken from the Andrews Bible Commentary, which is the official commentary for the PBE.

The Loveland Cougars and Greeley Lesem teams won first place finish, and both will be advancing to the Union level of the competition in Lincoln, Nebraska, on March 16. All first-place winners at the Union level will advance on to the NAD level, which is being held this year in Greeley, Colorado, on April 20.

Stacey Rodriguez, Loveland Cougars director, commented, “the kids were so nervous that they weren’t going to do well. So, it was such an encouragement for them to do that well.”

Brent Learned, Rocky Mountain Conference associate youth director said, “it was wonderful to have so many pathfinders passionate about studying and memorizing scripture together for PBE.”

—Sue Nelson is the Rocky Mountain Conference Club Ministries executive coordinator. Photos supplied.

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