Like many of my fellow Seventh-day Adventists, I feel great sorrow about the level of spirituality that characterizes the church today – including in my own life. As one examines the landscape of Adventism, it would be hard to argue with the idea that, overall, the church looks more and more like the culture around it (I will resist using the term “worldly,” because I find it to be somewhat ambiguous).
Some could argue, of course, that the culture around us – as a general concept – is not bad, per se, and I would agree to a large extent (after all, the word “culture” is a morally-neutral word in an objective sense). However, the reality is, we as a people have become more and more enamored with the ways, practices, and fashions of Hollywood and have lowered the bar when it comes to our “standards,” to say nothing of how many of our views about sexuality have become troublingly liberalized.
For some, this is all a good thing. I am not completely convinced.
At the same time, it is also evident that, theologically speaking, the Adventist message has become more and more watered down and seems to be hardly discernible from evangelical perspectives. Our “peculiar” teachings are irrelevant to many and even a point of embarrassment to some. We hear more sermons about God’s love and grace than about sanctification and overcoming sin.
So why is this? Why does it seem as though Adventism and Adventists, whether in worship or in practice, look a lot less “unique” than we did 50 or 100 years ago – save for the fact that we go to church on Saturday?
And what do we do about it?
Many have offered various proposals: we need to preach the “straight testimony” and call sin by its right name. We need to stop reading evangelical authors. We need to emphasize the standards again and help our people know what it is that we believe and what makes us unique.
While all these proposals may have some level of truth, they fail to really understand the pathology of the problem. They fail to recognize what lies at the root – and, subsequently, what the solution is.
Here’s a thought: Adventism became more “worldly” not because people simply decided to get more rebellious. Adventism became more “worldly” because we failed to produce a gospel that was more attractive to them than the “world.”
At the same time, Adventist worship services became more amped up not because attendees wanted to be idolatrous but because our traditional services (saying nothing of the actual style) were genuinely lifeless, dry and – at their root – devoid of the Holy Spirit.
Similarly, Adventists became enamored with the love and grace that evangelicals offered not because they simply wanted to live a life of disobedience but because they were desperate for an escape from the guilt and shame they felt – something that Adventism had failed to deliver.
This last thought is an idea that became more clearly articulated in my own mind after listening to a series of sermons by the late J.W. “Bill” Lehman. He noted that we cannot underestimate the power of guilt and the lengths to which a person will go to escape from it. Every person experiences guilt and shame – and if they are not presented with a gospel solution to such guilt, they will either go looking for it elsewhere (hello evangelicalism) or deny the sin that produced the guilt in the first place (hello secular humanism).
Thus, in the absence of a clear articulation of grace within Adventism, Adventists don’t want to hear about obedience, sanctification – and especially not perfection. If there is, after all, no balm for the times we fail to obey, we’re just going to throw the whole program out altogether.
This last critical point is, I think, the root of it all. Laxity in standards, liberality in worship, all these other things, are coping mechanisms in the quest to escape from guilt and shame. We thus go to great lengths to medicate and numb the pain.
This is not to deny, of course, that some of us have rejected the standards and theology of classic Adventism simply because we are rebellious. But, among other things, I choose to ascribe the best motives to people – just as I’d hope they would do with me!
At the same time, we know, based on history, why we are where we are. We, as leaders, rejected the message that would lead to Adventism embracing its unique identity, rather than running away from it. The message of Christ’s boundless love and grace – which presented Christ not only as the solution to the feelings of guilt and shame, but would eventuate in the sanctification that our conservative brothers and sisters crave – was turned away. And we’ve been wandering ever since.
So the solution to our compromise is not to try to get more strict in our enforcement of standards or to ban evangelical books or to preach the “straight testimony” from our pulpits. Such tactics would simply address the fruit and not the root; they would deal with the external and not the heart. They would rob our people of the only medication they have found that works – leaving them to search for other sources of pain-relief that are perhaps more lethal. Indeed, we would leave them as the man that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 12:43-45 who had a demon cast out of him, only to have seven more inhabit him because he was left empty and not filled with something better, “the last state of that man . . . worse than the first” (v. 45).
Instead, the solution is to acknowledge our rejection of the gospel, repent of it, and then univocally present the message of God’s love and grace that would attract people away from the theology and practices that so trouble us.
In short, no one has ever experienced lasting change because they were told what they were doing was wrong. Such an approach can lead to conviction but not to victory. The only way lasting change can be realized is to present something better, something more beautiful, something more attractive.
Indeed, let’s light a candle instead of cursing the darkness.
deandginger said:
I have begun reading “The Hidden Half of the Gospel” by Paul Coneff. He addresses this directly. The guilt, the shame…and how we can lose that too when we are forgiven. Your thoughts?
Dick Odenthal said:
The reasons are more than one but I think one of the main reasons is that if you go to our schools our distinctive truths are no longer taught (spent over $400,000 sending my kids through them) and when I reviewed the religious instruction and it was underwhelming and basically non-denominational. To top that off as a life long Adventist I go years sometimes more than a decade between even a simple sermon on the second coming and in the 30 years I have lived as an adult with my own family only had one Pastor that taught with Seventh Day Adventist themes in his sermons. When I analyze what almost every Pastor refuses to preach (SDA doctrine) I can’t help but think they have either lost faith or have been instructed by the various conference Presidents where I have lived not to teach what we say we believe. I have never heard a sermon on Daniel 8:13 in a Church service in my entire life. If our Pastors do not teach it and our schools do not teach it why are we surprised we are just another declining evangelical denomination in North America.
David said:
You’ve made many excellent points! Having gone through our educational institutions, I can honestly say that I had no understanding of what I believed and why I believed it. My personal conviction regarding presenting our distinctive truths is that they need to be presented. We should present them in light of God’s much more abounding grace. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. Romans 5:20. In other words, God’s grace is the power that delivers us from the guilt and punishment of sin, the power and slavery to sin and the nature and presences of sin.
roger said:
Good points Shawn, thanks for pointing us to the gospel
Peter Davis said:
Here’s a thought: Adventism became more “worldly” not because people simply decided to get more rebellious. Adventism became more “worldly” because we failed to produce a gospel that was more attractive to them than the “world.”
its not that we failed to produce a gospel but that we failed to live out the message that god has called us to respond to in the llight of righteousness by faith (the 1888)message
you probay meant live out in your statement (produce a gospel) but the message has to be recieved and it brings about repentance but the message has generally been rejected and another spirit comes in to fill the void
just my two cents
oceallaigh4815 said:
Good thoughts, Peter. I believe, however, that the Pastor articulated the idea of “Produc(ing) a Gospel” in the real sense of presenting it to the people for it cannot truly be “Produced” by the people until the heave “Heard ” it and have been able to assimilate it. Some of us teach an preach our hearts out before groups of varying venues, large and small, and are met with blank stares and glazed eyes couples with accommodating comments by the hearers like, “Oh, I was blessed by that!” or “Very good sermon, Elder!”
When Jesus explained why He spoke in parables (Matthew 13) He said to them, “…(I)t is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but to them it is not given…”
Spiros Zodiates comments: “Since the parables were given to explain spiritual truths, those who had already rejected Jesus did not have Divinely enlightened minds with which to perceive these truths, and no amount of explanation would make them understand.” (Jn 3:3; 1 Cor 2:14 and others) They could watch and hear Jesus with their physical eyes and ears, but they were not capable of understanding the truth in their heart because they had rejected Him.” (Note Jn 14:17) [Key word Bible, notes on Matthew 13:10-17; AMG Publishers]
We need to be able to “Produce a Gospel” under the tutelage (perhaps control” of the Holy Spirit that will strike to the heart as dis Peter on Pentecost when those complicit in the demise of their own Messiah were “…pricked in their hearts…” and, realizing what they had done for the first time, responded with, “Men and brethren, What shall we do?”
oceallaigh4815 said:
Boy! Could I ever proof and edit this!!
Dave said:
“Produce a gospel”? That seems to be the whole issue here. There is but one Gospel, all other gospels are false. And what we as a denomination have done is teach a false gospel. A gospel of judgement, condemnation, and works. We can teach all the “truths” in the world, but if we get this most basic doctrine wrong, none of the others matter..AT ALL, and in fact they are substantially weakened. In this case, rebellion as many see it, is nothing more than people coming to this realization and living the real Gospel out in their lives. Traditional SDA’s have difficulty relating to these folk because of the freedom from said judgement and condemnation exhibits in their lives.
Rhonda said:
The title alone is enough to make me what to turn and run! Really! I think Jesus was actually considered a REBEL in his day!! And for good reason!!
Joshua O'Donnell said:
Two points. One, the socially and intellectually accepted form of rebellion is skepticism and it’s rife in the church. It’s the opposite of how God characterizes love in 1 Cor. 13:7, where He says that love “believeth all things”. As Ellen White says “Skepticism is attractive to the human mind. The youth see in it an independence that captivates the imagination, and they are deceived.” {8T 305.2} The place my wife and I meet blatant skepticism in the church is when trying to present the health message.
Point number two: Ellen White points out why our churches are dying in at least two different ways. I’ve quoted them as briefly as possible, but the fuller context is worth a look. Her first point is made very clear if you answer in your mind “Who is the Comforter?” before reading her quote:
“The reason why the churches are weak and sickly and ready to die, is that the enemy has brought influences of a discouraging nature to bear upon trembling souls. He has sought to shut Jesus from their view as the Comforter, as one who reproves, who warns, who admonishes them, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” {RH, August 26, 1890 par. 10} Her second quote is from 11 years later: “He who loves not those for whom the Father has done so much, knows not God. This is the reason there is so little genuine vitality in our churches. Theology is valueless unless it is saturated with the love of Christ.” {GH, January 1, 1901 par. 1}
oceallaigh4815 said:
Place these two very appropriate citations along side DA 671. This becomes helpful.
Jim Brassard said:
You nailed it Shawn. A good daily primer to keep one at the feet of the Author of that Gospel is Oswald Chamber’s “My Utmost for His Highest”. In Him, Jim
Won Bae said:
Hi, who is the author of this post? I agree with you.
deandginger said:
@ Won Bae: http://newenglandpastor.net/about/
mikecmanea said:
An otherwise good article ruined by the 1888MSC nonsense. Saying that the leaders have rejected the gospel is equivalent to saying the Adventist church is Babylon. It means that this is not the remnant church but that God has another remnant church on the earth and we should transfer our membership there. Why? Because the gospel is the most important thing. And God is not gonna have a remnant that is missing the most important thing for a hundred and twenty years. That would be like having a secret service that can do anything, cook, clean, iron, but can’t protect the president.
It’s not ‘Adventist leaders’ that have rejected the gospel but one small group of leaders at a specific time in history. Most of them later repented but the opportunity was lost. Since then our church has seen much bigger problems and it is naive to minimize everything to something that happened a century ago.
I really don’t understand 1888MSC proponents. When I make a claim and others disagree with it, I either come back with better arguments or give up that claim. MSC claims have been thoroughly debunked for decades and yet 1888ers continue repeating them ad nauseam like a broken record. They never bring anything new to the table, never address the counter arguments but somehow just think that if they continue to beat the church over the head with claims that we’ve rejected the gospel or calls to corporate repentance, sooner or later the church will listen. Reality check: the church can’t listen because what the MSC is saying is, sorry to say, just plain stupid.
deandginger said:
I liken this to a puzzle. You may have a general picture, you may even have most of the pieces, but just a few missing from their places alter the whole outlook. As you bring those pieces into place, find just where they fit, find the proper shape and coloring, the picture becomes more complete, but is not yet fully complete.
Sister White told us we will be constantly learning throughout eternity since our God is an infinite God. That means we don’t have everything down pat and correct yet…and this side of heaven, we won’t see it all. In fact, even in eternity we will continue to learn. See here:
Food for the Soul.
This experience is the highest evidence of the divine authorship of the Bible. We receive God’s Word as food for the soul, through the same evidence by which we receive bread as food for the body. Bread supplies the need of our nature; we know by experience that it produces blood, bone, and brain. Apply the same test to the Bible; when its principles have actually become the elements of character, what has been the result? what changes have been made in the life?–“Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” In its power, men and women have broken the chains of sinful habit. They have renounced selfishness. The profane have become reverent, the drunken sober, the profligate pure. Souls that have borne the likeness of Satan, have been transformed into the image of God. The change is itself the miracle of miracles. A change wrought by the Word, it is one of the deepest mysteries of the Word. We can not understand it; we can only believe, that, as declared by the Scriptures, it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” {ST, April 25, 1906 par. 5}
A knowledge of this mystery furnishes a key to every other. It opens to the soul the treasures of the universe, the possibilities of infinite development. {ST, April 25, 1906 par. 6}
And this development is gained through the constant unfolding to us of the character of God–the glory and mystery of the written Word. If it were possible for us to attain to a full understanding of God and His truth, there would be for us no further discovery of truth, no greater knowledge, no further development. God would cease to be supreme, and man would cease to advance. Thank God, it is not so. Since God is infinite, and in Him are all the treasures of wisdom, we may to all eternity be ever searching, ever learning, yet never exhaust the riches of His wisdom, His goodness, or His power.
–
{ST, April 25, 1906 par. 7}
deandginger said:
And yes, when we put that puzzle together we reject a piece that doesn’t look like it belongs only to find out later that the very piece we rejected goes where we thought it could never fit, to our amazement it completes a vital portion of the puzzle. God bless!
Artie Hamann said:
Ellen White said in 1SM 234 that the message of Christ our Righteousness by kept away from our people and the world in a large degree. The most precious message brings much to the table and wonderful truths we have been blinded of. Rev 3 tells us we are blind spiritually. For example that Christ gave, not offered or lent the world the gift of salvation. If we believe and appreciate this gift our hearts our melted into obedience and love for our fellow man. No merit to our faith though. All the glory goes to Jesus. The 1888 Message saved my life because I saw Jesus as He really is. I have a long ways to go, and I will never get enough of Jesus. In Heaven we will still be learning. May God help us to see Him as He really is!
mszr1 said:
Amen Artie
mszr1 said:
Altho most of us shrink from anything that could be taken as criticism we cannot refuse to point out select things that, if corrected, would make a big difference in the promulgation of the Most Precious Message of Righteousness by Faith which would result in the keeping of all 10 commandments because the people become a good tree which cannot help but produce good fruit to the glory of God.
The comment by Dick Odenthal up there is a prime example. Honest inquiry needs to be made as to why churches do not hear Advent messages which are designed to initiate discomfort and have the needy soul flee to Jesus who Himself said ‘be ye also ready’. Quite a startling statement from the One who went to the cross. If He didn’t tell us would it be love?
deandginger said:
I guess we aren’t having the dearth of Adventist messages in our area the same as elsewhere (Central Maine – both by local pastors, at prayer retreats, and camp meeting) because we ARE getting the messages, not the feel-good cheap grace messages, but the call to submit, lay all on the altar, Jesus is coming soon and we have NO TIME to waste in humanism, answer the call today, ask for God to show you where your hidden sin is that your lamp will not go out in the night, sermons. And yes, we get Daniel 8:13 in that kind of message.
I’m sorry in your area(s) you are not. Perhaps it’s time to ask your pastor to preach the whole gospel. And if he (she) won’t, perhaps time to request a new pastor? Or, if like in our area where the pastor has multiple churches to cover, and isn’t at every church every week, the elder – lay person – perhaps you – could preach the 1888 message that we so badly need to hear.
And yes, Pastor Brace is in my Conference and he sees and hears things I don’t. I’m speaking on a local level to me and what I hear. Thank you, Chrissie
mszr1 said:
So, Chrissie, what do you perceive has been the result of people hearing these more traditional Adventist messages?
deandginger said:
I cannot speak for anyone else’s heart. For myself, it is driven me first to my knees, then onto my feet in action. I can say that the prayer line in Northern New England is more alive than I’ve ever seen it. The prayer retreats are reaching people that never would come to a ‘prayer retreat’ before and that Camp Meeting has had more people seeking reconciliation with their Lord, as well as brothers and sisters than I’ve ever seen in my 60 years attending a Seventh-day Adventist Church. We cannot see into the heart, but we can see the fruit that comes from the heart connection. I’m seeing the buds, young fruit, mature fruit that the Gospel brings.
I was raised a Seventh-day Adventist. I went to the SDA elementary schools – when they were open as they weren’t always when I was in grade school and I heard more ‘hell-fire and time of trouble’ sermons than I can count. I’ve seen the worldliness, I’ve seen some small revivals. I’ve been a part of both, though I’ve always been ‘in’ the church.
I also know what hearing the 1888 message has done for me. Now, I have hope where before, I knew I would never measure up, so I was a cultural Seventh-day Adventist that knew I would not be in heaven. Now, I know Jesus paid it all, suffered it all – for me!
This message has brought a change. I see something happening like I’ve never seen before. People confessing their faults one to another. I’ve also seen people walking away from the church of their youth both to become SDA or leave this church and go elsewhere for the ‘cheap grace’ that does not call for a response. I believe we are in the time of the shaking, and I’m seeing people hungry for the Gospel walking into church already knowing the messages asking for baptism. Or, saying, I want what Jesus has to offer, teach me.
And I have hope! I know now it isn’t my deeds that can get me to heaven, it’s what Christ has done for me, and I accept it, living out my life in love now to please my Father, not because he’s a ‘santa clause’ waiting to cross my name off the list but because I want to please Him and never make him sad. I want Him to rejoice over me with singing. (Zeph 3:17)
So Brother Mszr1, you ask what the result is? People are getting ready to go home!
It is decision time. Time for me, time for you to decide who’s side we’re on. Share the messages, hold them dear in your heart. Jesus is coming soon. Our young people at the GYC have covenanted to share the Lord so He can return in their generation. I join them in that plan. At 60, I am not too old to see the Lord return in my lifetime. Yet even if I pass from this earth, I have a blessed hope now. How about you? If yes, share it, if no, search out Jesus while you still have the time.
Blessings. Chrissie
Kayo said:
More posts of this quyitla. Not the usual c***, please
günstigster online-kredit said:
dit :Moi! Moi! Moi!!!! Ca me botte! D’autant que je n’y suis encore jamais allé!! Allez… S’il te plait… Que la chance soit avec moi!! OK, jeune padawan, t’es notée !
Warren Ritchie Christianson said:
Rather than focus on theory as to why the church is not like the early new testament church, I think one useful tool is to see where it is working and let those people share some answers backed up by reality. Reggie Wooden, a Baptist pastor in Huntsville, Alabama is principal of a Christian school in Huntsville. There were SDA families who sent their children to that school. Pastor Wooden shares the elements that led him and his entire congregation to change his way of thinking. To see his comments do an internet search on Reggie Wooden, Huntsville. I found it on Youtube, but you can probably locate this in a variety of ways. Once again, reality trumps theory.
Ritchie Christianson, Columbia, CA
deandginger said:
(Reggie Whidden)
deandginger said:
(sorry, Whiddon)
proper kaonda said:
Good
Peter said:
Corinthians 3 states that when Moses is read (10 commandments, old covenant) a veil covers their heart.
I’ve seen that veil reflected in Adventists eyes when I try to talk about a real, loving relationship with Jesus. They are actually embarrassed to say the name Jesus as if it is a childish name for God.
As for your ‘distinctive’ doctrines, haven’t you wondered why the rest of Christendom don’t believe them? It’s because they are anti-gospel therefore anti-Christ.
To actually understand the real gospel, not a man produced one, you have to leave Adventism and be filled with Holy Spirit.
Adventists do not understand the gospel.
mszr1 said:
I agree Peter that most Adventists do not understand the gospel. But the ones who leave the SDA church get another bogus gospel. The true gospel, the everlasting one spoken of in Revelation 14, results in a glad reception of the true Holy Spirit who writes all 10 commandments on our hearts , Hebrews 8:10 , which we carry out because it is God who works in us to do and to will of His good pleasure, Philippians 2:13 and we thereby cease from our own works (the false gospel that seeks to destroy the law contrary to what Jesus teaches in Matt. 5:17). see Hebrews 4:10.
No Peter, true Adventists will not leave the church God instituted and will allow Him to prepare us for the loud cry of the angel in Revelation 18.
jason said:
Here’s a thought – that the Adventist message is not actually the gospel at all.
mszr1 said:
The true gospel that God gave to this church over a century ago has not been heard by many Adventists so I don’t blame you for saying that, Jason. but if you hang in there God promises the latter rain will come and reveal Himself through His word.
The gospel He designed for the Adventist church which He has not withdrawn but has been suppressed in unrighteousness will lighten the earth with His glory
jmcblane said:
I believe God has shown me the truth about guilt. Read my latest post. I address the solution in the latter half. We have to learn what guilt is: God offering us victory over the sin we feel guilty for.
mszr1 said:
amen, and “we should not dishonor Him by doubting His love. The feeling of guiltiness must be laid at the foot of the cross or it will poison the springs of life.” TM518
“I will rejoice in God who gives the victory” ibid 520
Last Nyamasoka said:
Let’s remember the presence of the great con
troversy. I don’t want to ignore the reality of the facts by the author but we should also remember that the devil will not let the saints have their salvation in a silver plate. As we approach the end of time the devil intensifies his fight.