Photo by BoksiBeing a son of an Adventist preacher, I will never forget the camp meetings. We were out there. We were out at the camp when my father and the other workers worked to get the camp in shape for the visitors and members. I can still remember seeing preachers who you normally see gracing pulpits instead cleaning stalls throwing away trash and cleaning kitchens.
I then remember the encampment itself. There were programs for the youth. I still remember the “happy time tent.” It was an era when little kids could roam and discover the landscape of our old “Camp Shady Hill.”
I remember walking around everywhere. I can remember getting chiggers and mosquito bites. I can remember seeing frogs and other animals as we invaded their teritory. Those were great days.
Then the meetings themselves. Of course you got to hear the other preachers from the conference. You could hear T.A. Mcneally and Butch Rice and the rest of the preachers out there. But then you could also hear the best of the preachers outside of the conference. people like Henry Wright, C. D. Brooks, E. E. Cleveland, and Calvin Rock would come in. Then there would be singers some you have heard of like Walter Artist and some who you may not have heard of although well known out side,
Camp meeting was more than meetings, it was a time to interact with the children of the other workers. Folks who I still remember and many who I even interact with on occassion today. It was a time to become a community. We were a conference. But more than that, it was a time for many, who find themselves at very remote areas, to recognize that there were more Seventh-day people than just the 30 or 40 who meet at their congregaton.
It was a time to be reminded of who we are and why we are here. It was a time to be encouraged that the end is still coming and Jesus is still coming again.
I sometimes wonder what the moving of camp meeting online means for camp meeting. Certainly it is a different era than the era of a 10 year old kid running around “Camp Shady Hill” in the 1970s, but I miss it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the ability to turn on camp meeting online. I did it this year. I looked at Kentucky-Tenn, South Central, and 3abn camp meetings online. I love seeing these preachers and musicians sing and preach to the glory of God. I love the lack of heat and travel. In short, I love the convenience.
In an era when camp meeting attendance during the week seems to be going down, one wonders if the one week on an encampment makes sense financially, but I must admit that I will miss it if it goes away. And I will always remember singing and doing crafts at the “happy time tent.”
John CalvinHerbert Douglass, in the book Fork in the Road has written a helpful summary of why Calvinism and Adventism cannot be unified on the idea of what the Gospel means. You may not know it, but Calvinists are the “big wigs” in the evangelical world. From popular scholars like R. C. Sproul to pastors like D. James Kennedy and John McAurthur. Certainly there are some who do not agree with all of the positions of the Calvinistic cause, but many of the popular authors and preachers in the Evangelical world are Calvinists.
The Five Points
By Calvinists, I mean those who hold to the five points of Calvinism, or at least most of the points. This is often referred to as TULIP, In short these are:
Total Depravity – When humanity sinned it was placed in a position where they can do nothing but sin. It is sometimes called “total inability.”
Unconditional Election – God unconditionally elected some to be saved.
Limited Atonement – God only died and provided the atonement for salvation to those who were elected to be saved.
Irresistible Grace – The grace that saves cannot be resisted by the human being it is given to.
Perseverance of the Saints – Once you are saved, there is nothing that can remove you from that saved condition.
Where the System Begins
They begin their system with the idea of God’s sovereignty. God is ultimately in charge and can do anything God wants to do. No one else has freedom. God alone has freedom. Due to total depravity, we cannot chose anything but sin. Thus God must choose those who will be saved and thereby will be choosing those who will be lost. Humanity can not judge God, the saved should be happy that they are among the ones that God has chosen to save.
Adventism’s Starting Point
Adventism begins with the concept of God giving humanity Freedom. We say that God has given the gift of freedom to all of humanity. We get to choose whether we will follow Satan or God’s government. This gift of freedom has been given to the entire universe of beings, according to this idea.
Interestingly God uses this world to demonstrate where Satan’s principles will lead. Thus God chooses to demonstrate the rightness of God’s cause in this system.
Finally, God has chosen all of us in his son to eternal life, and those who do not reject God’s rule of love will be saved at last.
In the end, we have one scheme beginning with God’s sovereignty that makes human freedom impossible. On the other end we have humanities freedom as being something given to humanity by a sovereign God. God wants us to choose the righteous government. But the Calvanistic system makes such a choice impossible unless the one has already been predestined to salvation.
Finally, in the Adventist system, God allows Satan’s choice to play out before the entire universe. Freedom of choice is an important component of Adventism while it is impossible under Calvinism.
Can’t Synthesize the Two
While there are certain similarities between the two groups, and both can recognize that one can be saved while agreeing with the other position. But like my Calvinist friend told me after a long conversation, “You may be saved…but you are wrong on this issue.” So we see that we can’t synthesize the two views. And why would we want to? Either the Calvinist view is right, or the Adventism view is right, or perhaps logically another option is correct, but all of them are not right. Because of this, it is time for Adventists to stop getting our “understanding of the love of God” from folks who do not accept at all the freedom of humanity which is at the foundation of the Great Controversy that we preach. It is time to decide if we are Adventists or not. If not, then Calvinism might be an acceptable alternative, go ahead and look into it, but if you are going to be Adventist, then it is time to stop running behind the evangelical teachers who have different presuppositions than we have. If we are going to be Adventists, be Adventists.
They Don’t Mix
No Adventism and Calvinism don’t mix. It is time to stop acting as if it does. It is time to stop acting like the contradictions that we are currently spouting are actually “paradoxes.” It is time to stop telling our people that our evangelical friends have Jesus and we have the law, so go to them to get Jesus and come to us to get the law! No! If we ain’t preaching Jesus, then we need to start preaching him in the context of the message that God has given to us. Be not deceived our Calvinist brothers and sisters do have a place for the law, and it is an important place, but it is just not the same place we have for the law and for Jesus in our understanding.
So what is the answer? Maybe it is time to start reading Steps to Christ again instead of Experiencing God. What’s the answer? Using The Great Controversy Theme as a hermeneutical key to interpret everything. Otherwise we will continue to drift wondering why we even exist as a people.
Are you tired of the never ending push to more and more activity? The Sabbath is God’s vehicle to provide for all of God’s beings much needed rest. Listen as Elder Cox talks about the Sabbath as permission to just stop.
