Seventh-day Adventist

I had a recent epiphany that I want to share. It may not be profound for you or it may even seem ridiculous but I’m going to share it anyway. I am a Seventh-day Adventist. Some may not know what that entails so I want to give a brief explanation of the meaning of the name.

First of all, Seventh-day refers to Genesis 2 where God blessed the seventh day and made it holy in the Garden of Eden. He not only designated this day as holy for unfallen man, but God allowed man to take this gift out of the garden and into a world of sin. The day was to be a day of relationship with God. Mankind would need that reconnecting day of relationship in a sinful world. There is another reason that man needed this day. It was to be an eternal reminder that God is the creator and man is the creature. It is a day that was intended to center man in his creatureness. Seventh-day then refers to the beginning of scripture and to a perfect world that became marred by sin, but through God’s plan of salvation would one day be restored. In fact, the rest of scripture would document the process that God uses to bring about that restoration.

Adventist means someone who is awaiting the advent or appearance of the Messiah. In this case since we believe as most Christians; Jesus has already come once. He became incarnate through the womb of a human and took on human nature to live with us and become the second Adam to pay the price we couldn’t pay. The Advent I’m talking about here is His re-appearing or what the Bible refers to as the second coming. Many mainline churches that celebrate the liturgical calendar know of the season of Advent. This season refers to the first coming of Jesus as a babe in Bethlehem. But the term Adventist in the name of our movement refers to Revelation when Jesus comes in glory to claim as His own what He won at Calvary.

So, the name Seventh-day Adventist has reference to Genesis and Revelation and therefore implies that we teach and believe in all that goes between the two. We are a people of the book. We believe God has revealed His character and His plan in the whole of Scripture and He is a God who does not change. He is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow. That’s why we take serious the prescriptions of the Bible.

As I was thinking about this my epiphany came. There is another group in scripture that could accurately be called Seventh-day Adventists. That is the people of Israel. They took their scriptures (what we call the Old Testament) very seriously. They were Sabbatarians and they looked forward to the advent of the Messiah.

This led me to all sorts of comparisons and contrasts. Israel is still waiting for the first Advent, while modern Adventists are still waiting for the second. Israel become steeped in their traditions as most religious movements do, this is also true for modern Adventists. Israel became so legalistic in their approach to God that they missed the Messiah; it is possible that modern Adventism is heading in the same direction.

The problem doesn’t lie in the revelation of Scripture nor in the God we worship. The problem isn’t inherent in religion per se, the problem lies with people. People tend to put God in a box and limit Him. It is an effort to control our environment. Humans don’t want a God that is too big because then we are not in control. All religious worship seems to boil down to controlling the deity. We attempt to do it through our prayers, our offering and our worship services.
I don’t have a solution to the problem, just questions. What if we let God be as big as He really is? What would that do to our response to Him? What would our religion look like if we stopped trying to control Him and let Him be in control? What if?

Orthodoxy vs. Orthopraxy

Recently I’ve been confronted with reading material and a seminar that has challenged my long term belief systems. No, I’m not throwing everything out and redefining my theology. Instead, my theology has been expanded, stretched, and challenged to make me look at my religion in a new way. The title of this week’s blog is from a sermon I did a couple of weeks ago and since I that time, I’ve read two different books that have used the same concepts.

Let me first deal with definitions. Orthodoxy, as found in the term Orthodox Church, means right thinking. Orthopraxy on the other hand means right doing. These two are not in contrast to each other but should be in harmony. Unfortunately Christians today spend most of their time and energy on orthodoxy. Let me share a quote from one of the books I recently read regarding the three great religions that have descended from Abraham: “It must also be recalled that beliefs and doctrines are not as important in Islam as they are in Christianity. Like Judaism, Islam is a religion that requires people to live in a certain way, rather than to accept certain creedal propositions. It stresses orthopraxy rather than orthodoxy." (Armstrong 2002, 66)[1]

Othropraxy, or right doing or behaving seems to be a missing element in Christianity. But it is and was a major component of Judaism, or the chosen people of God; the people to whom the Messiah came. Modern Christians have a hard time understanding how the Pharisees and Sadducees could work together in the Sanhedrin with such differing theological positions but this view helps us to see that what they believed was less important than how they lived their lives.
It seems that what you do is more important than what you believe! How you live your life speaks volumes regarding your belief system. The interesting thing about this is a Bible verse that comes to mind. Revelation 20:13 (NIV) says: “The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.” Notice it doesn’t say you are judged by what you know, it says you are judged by what you do!

Another verse that comes to mind is dealing with a parable Jesus taught regarding the second coming and judgment. The parable is found in Luke 12 starting in verse 37. But I want to reflect on the commentary that Jesus gives regarding this parable found in verses 47 & 48. Jesus says: “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. "

To whom much has been entrusted, much will be asked. In this parable Jesus is speaking of both orthodoxy (knowledge given to people through God’s revelation) and orthopraxy (what you did with that knowledge). From this I must conclude that the pagan who lives and behaves up to the level of knowledge he is given through nature (Romans 1:18-20 speaks clearly of this) is better off than the Christian who has access to Scripture but refuses to do what Scripture says.

This is pretty heavy for a blog I know, but it is Biblical and this is where I’m being stretched. As Christians we have an obligation to live what we have been shown through Scripture. In fact, the parable of the sheep and the goats is quite clear on this matter. The separation of the sheep and goats is not based on what they believed, but on what they did with what they understood. How does the Gospel impact your actions? That is the question in the judgment. To say you are a Christian and to act like a heathen is misrepresenting God.

Why is this line of thinking pressing me at this time you might ask? Well it has a lot to do with a seminar I attended and the subsequent reading I did afterward. The seminar was on Islam and a Christian’s response. I was blown away by some of the concepts presented. Imagine that God loves Muslims and is working right now in their culture for their salvation! This is where the rubber meets the road. Many Muslims are living their faith (orthopraxy) better than most Christians!

We look down on some customs and teaching of the Islamic faith as barbaric; but what do they think of us? When you mention a Christian to a Muslim, they think swine eating, wine guzzling, adulterers. That’s their definition of a Christian. What does that image convey to you? What image should they have of Christians? Maybe Christians should be known for our modesty, our temperance and our healthy life styles as indicated by our Holy Book.

I want to use an illustration that might shock or trouble some of you. It has to do with the Catholic Church’s teaching on lent and the eating of meat on Friday. Whether you agree with this teaching or not is not the issue or the point I’m trying to make. Below is the news article found on the web on Tuesday, March 13, 2007. Read it and see if you can find out why this illustrates my point.

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Catholics Denied Hot Dogs For Home Opener
First game falls on Good Friday. Bishop won't grant dispensation to eat meat at Jacobs Field.
By Darren Toms, Newsradio WTAM 1100Monday, March 12, 2007
(Cleveland) - What's a Catholic to do on opening day? Enjoy a fish sandwich. Cleveland Catholic Diocese Bishop Richard Lennon tells Newsradio WTAM 1100 he will not grant dispensation for Catholics to eat hot dogs at Jacobs Field on opening day. This year, the Indians home opener falls on Good Friday. There was a similar case last year when St. Patrick's Day was held on Friday. Then Bishop Anthony Pilla allowed Catholics to eat corned beef on St. Patrick's Day. This is a tradition that goes back to the 1880's. It varies by diocese on whether to grant dispensation. But while St. Patrick's Day celebrates a saint, the same can't be said for the Cleveland Indians. So for the home opener, Catholics need to limit themselves to things like peanuts and cracker jacks.
(Copyright © 2007 Clear Channel. All rights reserved.)
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It appears from this article that when a teaching of the church or the Bible interferes with our desires or passions, we look for a dispensation. A dispensation only means an exemption from a law or oath. Christians spend all their time looking to define their orthodoxy only to request dispensations as to why they don’t need to practice orthopraxy! Let’s stop looking to define and let’s start living our faith. It seems to me that we should use both orthodoxy to listen to what God says and then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, use orthopraxy to do what God is calling us to do. Let’s hear the voice of God and obey. Not obedience that attempts to gain salvation, but obedience because of the great salvation we have been given. Recent trends in Christianity denigrate obedience as legalism. Was Jesus a legalist? He was obedient to His Father in far greater ways than we can conceive. Shouldn’t Jesus be our example? Having a faith relationship with Jesus is not a dispensation to live a life of rebellion and sin, defining what we want or do not want to do in our lives.

“All of life is a test, a test whether we will do it God’s way, or do it our own way!”

Remember, the issue in the judgment is not how much you know, it’s what have you done in practice with the knowledge you have. Are you following the Lamb wherever He leads or are you following your own sinful desires? There is only one path that leads to eternal life and the Bible says that path is narrow and few will find it (Matt. 7:13, 14).

[1] Armstrong, Karen, Islam; A short history. Chronicles book, 2002

HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD?

I haven’t written a blog since returning to the states from my evangelistic trip to India back in February. I’ve missed writing it. So I’m going to attempt to write a blog a week as opposed to a blog a day that I was doing while I was gone. It seems like the blog was easier in India because there was always new stories and content to provide for those “back home” who were seeing India through my eyes and experience. But if I were to be honest, there is much content here to write about too; I just get too narrow focused and don’t see the big picture as I was doing while in a different culture and country.

I want to begin this blog by giving an update. I received an email from my new friends in India with some pictures that I want to share. There are two pictures that are very meaningful to me. Before I left India, I gave the local pastor enough money to purchase four goats for Kanatha and a bicycle for Danny to use to get to work and to school. Both of these people are very poor and they would never have been able to obtain these things on their own.

I don’t want this to come across as arrogant or prideful, but this was an important part of my experience and I want to share it with you. I walked in the midst of this village’s poverty and my heart constantly went out to these people as I compared my wealth to their poverty. I knew I couldn’t help everyone in the village, but I could send a message to others of how Jesus loved them and cared about them now, not just future salvation.

When I gave the money to the pastor, I took Kanatha aside with the pastor and talked to her about the gift I was giving. I told her that I couldn’t help everyone but I had chosen to help her. With the gift came responsibility I told her: “to whom much is given, much is expected and now she had an obligation to help others in her village as she had been helped.” I asked her to serve her Lord (Kanatha, if you remember, had been one of the first I baptized) and her village by sharing Jesus with her neighbors and the pray for the village.

I hoped she understood the lesson, I had a hard time reading her facial expression and I asked the pastor if something was wrong. She was lamenting the fact that her husband had died before this time and she wanted to share this with him. She was happy, but many emotions ran through her head.

How big is your God? This was the title of a sermon I preached two weeks ago at Walk of Faith. I had seen and experienced a VERY BIG God while I was in India; a God much bigger than most of Christianity seems to believe in. This big God that I got a picture of is bigger than the toothless, elderly grandfather who spoils his grandchildren and shows no discipline. The big God I experienced deserves more honor and obedience than the God most of Christianity portrays. The God in a box is what most Christians have defined and feel they can control. A God that many Christians feel little need to truly serve with all their heart, mind, and bodies.

I fear that as Christians, we have lost sight of the bigness of God as demonstrated by our spiritless and powerless lives. A small God that Christians have defined and give lip service to but hasn’t caused real life changing service in their lives. This God no longer speaks to them or has authority over them, but they go on living and defining their lives as the pagans do. NO, worse, they live a life that is less devoted than a pagan. In fact, I would submit, pagans who know less than what many Christians claim are less guilty than the ones who claim Jesus as LORD and Savior!

How big is your God and how is it shown in your life of devotion and service?

Until next week, may your God be bigger and bigger as you grow to love Him and serve Him.

Pastor Kevin