Category: Adventism

Posted on

Return to the Good Old Days?

James Nix wrote an article for the Adventist Review entitled Growing Up Adventist: No Apologies Needed. You can find some reader’s reaction and appreciation for the article also on the Adventist Review Site. In addition, at the Ellen White Estate site you can find an unabridged copy of the original presentation.

The article appears to be a look back to what the Author seems to beleive were the good old days when Adventists were Adventists. I understand the frustration that brought this article. It is often assumed by Adventists and non Adventists alike that the Adventism of the 50s and 60s was hopelessly legalistic. This assumption is at the base of much of the materials today that seek to give “Christ Centered” or “gospel centered” presentations in contrast to the assumed “law centered,” “anti-gospel,” and “Christless” presentations of our past.

Now since I was born in 1968, I grew up in the 70s and 80s so I do not know about the 50s and the 60s from experience, but somehow I think that the picture of Adventism as being totally legalistic and anti gospel that has emerged is probably a distortion of that brand of Adventism. However, to act as if there was no need for development or that “those were the days” that we need to return, is to distort the need to follow progressive revelation.

Perhaps leaders of both sides can stop yelling to their followers and attempt a harder thing. Perhaps we can attempt to dialog with each other and learn from each other. We may find that both liberal and conservative have something to bring to the table in the discussion. Maybe a stronger Synthesis that we can celebrate will emerge. Perhaps we can recognize that the history that some want to uphold has something of value to teach us today. In addition we may also recognize that progress can be accomplished without ignoring the past.

I look forward to the day when we all can look back at the past and recognize that while we stand on their shoulders of great pioneers of our faith, we still have to move forward. One day we will also recognize that we cannot simply disavow our past or throw it away…if we do we will lose a part of ourselves.

In short…Praise God for the Good Old Days…I know you all weren’t legalists. I know many of you loved Jesus. I know that you attempted to learn something about Jesus which brought forth the doctrines that we continue to teach today. But I also praise God that we are living today and I hope that I will be true to our pioneers spirit of inquiry that made them continue to determine what God has to say to us today…

Posted on

Magnificient Disappointment – 1844 and Being Adventist

In the Book Magnificient Disappointment Dr. Maxwell asks the Question, “Where did the word Adventist Come From?” Maxwell anticipates a standard answer of “An Adventist is a person who believes that Christ is coming soon.” Magnificent Disappointment page 89.

Maxwell finds such an answer inadequate because, as Maxwell states, the Dispensationalists believe that Christ is coming soon and they are not Adventists.IBID Instead of seeing Adventists as simply those who believe Christ coming soon, Maxwell sees 1844 as the reason that we are called Adventist.

Because historically the term Advent refers to the first coming, Maxwell makes a big deal out of the fact that early Advnetists were called “Second Adventists.” Over time the term was shortened to simply Adventist.

So Maxwell goes to the question, Why were Second Adventists believing that Christ was coming soon? His answer was that it was due to the fullfillment of the 2300 days in 1844. Thus we are Adventists becuase historically we believed that Christ was returning in “light of the fulfillment of the 2300 days.”IBID 90

Sanctuary Part of our History

All of the above simply reherses what we already know. Namely that the Sanctuary message and 1844 played a great part in our historical heritage. To deny or remove this pillar is to deny something about ourselves.

But to simply declare that the doctrine is true is not enough. When we discuss the Sanctuary message, we often spend most of our time defending or attacking the doctrine. However if we don’t spend enough time discussing the relevance of the doctrine we will ultimately set it aside.

I believe that this is what has happened to the Sanctuary message. Even though we are seeing a resurgence in interest regarding the Sanctuary message, a lot of this interest is in defending or attacking the doctrine. The larger question remains, namely, is the Sanctuary message relevant.

A Question

Today one must ask if 1844 is driving us to believe that Christ is returning soon? I would think that it did in early Adventism, but not at all today.

Can we rehabilitate and reframe the Sanctuary message for our end time? Does the Sanctuary message have anything to say to us today?

I think that there is something about the Sanctuary and the judgment that God has called us into existence to be a witness to in these final days. To get at this something we must push beyond just defining the doctrine or defending it as true, but push to understand and celebrate it in our daily lives.

My plan is to continue on this theme in the AdventistPulpit.Com for the foreseable future.

Posted on

Magnificent Disappointment – 1844 and the Sanctuary

In 1994, the late Dr. C. Mervyn Maxwell wrote a book entitled Magnificent Disappointment for the Pacific Press Anchors Series.

The book had 3 sections. In the first section the basic question was how do we calculate the date? This calculation has been done by many and here in basic terms is a quick overview of how Adventists have calculated 1844 from Daniel 7-9. Such calculations are abundant in many places. In fact the current Sabbath School Lessons seem to be totally about defending the Investigative Judgment and the date 1844.

In section two there is a discussion of what happened in 1844. Here we have a basic description of the traditional Adventist understanding of what happened.

Finally, Section 3 is where Maxwell attempts to explore the meaning of 1844 for contemporary Adventists. This section is the majority of the book and I think is the reason why this book is still of value to Adventists today. Maxwell Celebrates the doctrine and thus it is relevant to this website. In addition, Maxwell attempts to answer the question, “Sanctuary So What?” This question is what interests me as I discuss the Sabbath, nonimortality of the wicked, and Sanctuary themes. I wish to find out what does it have to say about individual and communal ethics? What does it mean for us as a people?

For the next few weeks I will take a chapter every other day or so and interact with the book. A stated before, if you want to understand the traditional understanding of the the Sanctuary message of Seventh-day Adventists including an overview of the calculation of the date 1844, a discussion of what happened on that date, and the ramifications of that belief for Adventists, then this book will provide that for you. It is too bad that the book is out of print, but you can purchase a reprint of the book at Maxwell’s Gifts and Books. You may also be able to find it used at Amazon.Com.