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We Have Killed the Sanctuary Message

sanctuary255We have killed the Sanctuary Message. We all have contributed to its demise. From the local elder who drones on and on about the color of the tassel the priest was wearing to the pastor who oftentimes just ignores the whole message. From the Bible Teacher who made it merely a mathematical calculation to the lay person who goes to sleep every time it comes up. We have Killed the Sanctuary Message!

We all had a Hand in this

Part of it is the culture that doesn’t want to work for anything. We would rather sing “Jesus loves me this I know…” for the rest of our lives than to put forth any effort to provide depth to our religious experience. Part of it is due to the whole tabernacle service being so alien to us. We do not know anything about sacrificing animals and priests representing the people. The sanctuary illustration doesn’t make sense to us. Part of it is due to the issues over the years that external and internal theologians, preachers, and Bible teachers have had with parts of the message. Part of it is due to the fact that few seem to be able to give the “cliff note” version of the message which might provide the context to understand the message.

I have been reading the evangelistic messages of some of the great evangelists of our past. One thing that is interesting is that oftentimes the Sanctuary was given to open up the way for the Sabbath. We preached the Sanctuary in heaven where the very Law of God was placed in the throne of God. S. N. Haskell used to use the Sanctuary as his organizing principle for his teaching all of our doctrines. He spoke of everything through this model.

Understanding from the Sanctuary

The simple fact is that we don’t know as much as we think we know without referring to the Sanctuary. We cannot understand the “lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) without referring to the tabernacle services. It is problematic to attempt to speak of the “priest after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:6) without looking at the sanctuary. And even what we think we know takes on added significance like why and how we can come “come boldly to the throne of grace.” (Hebrews 4:16) Without the sanctuary as a model we would miss some of that imagery.

But we have missed it. The Sanctuary message has not been “seeker-sensitive.” It is deemed not “relevant” and even called “valueless. Yes we have killed the Sanctuary message, but what is perhaps more interesting than that is that few seem to notice or care.

Can We Survive Without It?

Certainly there are quarters of Adventism where the sanctuary message is all you hear. And the leadership of the church still produces Sanctuary materials from time to time. The Seven Volumes of the Daniel and Revelation Committee definitely seek to affirm the value of the message. The upcoming Sabbath School Lesson makes reference to this subject. In addition, Clifford Goldstein has made a career out of reminding us of the importance of the sanctuary. There are others who teach this as well, but the majority of American Adventists, those who proport to believe the teaching or not, have set it aside for more “pressing” concerns. And there are some parts of Adventism that would tend to celebrate its demise. One can only hope that Ellen White was incorrect when she said that this is one of the pillars of our movement. In addition, when she said that this is one of the principal subjects we should be preaching, we have to hope she was wrong. Because if Sister White is right, we may have seen a part of our foundation leave…And if that is true, what will we do when all that can be shaken will be shaken?

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Get Over It? – Race and Black Conferences Re-mixed

Someone emailed the following:

Discussions of white racism. You call for unity, yet insist on segregating yourselves from “white” people. Get over it! Jesus didn’t segregate, and neither should you.

I assume this is in response to this balanced post

Would Jesus Attack Racism?


I can only assume that this person would deny that Jesus would attack racism. Would Jesus speak the truth about why these conferences were created? We are in a wold of hurt when we cannot acknowledge the fact of racism and discrimination. We will never get over this hump towards supposed unity by sweeping this under the rug and telling black folks to “Get over it!” I guess they would assume that Jesus would sweep this under the rug and call for a superficial unity not based in a true unity that comes from an acknowledgment and understanding of each other.

Who Should Get Over It?

No, it is time for those who do not wish to acknowledge the truth of the past to get over their blindness. It is time for those who think that unity comes from ignoring the pain and hurt and reality of continued problems to get over it! It is time for the strong to get over their use of power to attempt to silence others.

This sentiment reminds me that there is still a role and place for these conferences, because we cannot truly “get over it” by solely blaming black people for their creation or continued existence. I am seeing this argument more and more and find it offensive.

Should I Lie?

It is offensive to blame black people for the creation or continued existence of these conferences when they were created because of white racism. Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? (Galatians 4:16) Should I lie and blame black people as too many are doing? Should I lie and ignore the years of mess that caused its creation? Would you be happy if I lied? Truth is truth, and I plan to say it and shame the devil.

I do reiterate as I wrote in that article under consideration, that we should come together and discuss when and under what circumstances we should move beyond this, but merely sweeping under the rug differences is not an acceptable strategy.

The Laughable Accusation of Racism

Finally, there is the laughable accusation of racism. There is simple minded idea that the elimination of the black conferences will eliminate the black and white churches.

But more than that, my accuser makes an unwarranted assumption about my church affiliation based on my recognizing that Black conferences were created because of white racism. This assumption is shown to be false by the fact that while I am not a member, the church I have been attending for the last 2 years is a mixed, but predominantly white church in a non-black conference. I wonder if my accuser would move beyond rhetoric and actually work towards the vision he or she describes, or simply make assumptions about those who acknowledge the truth…

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Is it Time? – Frederick Russell, Calvin Rock, and the Black Conferences

In a very interesting move, the Allegheny West Conference has elected Pastor Frederick Russell to become its next president. What is interesting to me is that this happens during the discussion in the Adventist world over the existence of so called “regional conferences.”

Russell has written an article that calls for the removal of the separated conferences in America. His plan, which looks like one of the plans presented in the General Conference document that we blogged on two years ago and can be found at this link, calls for the abolishment of both the local conference and the union conference levels and then create a new entity that is larger than a local conference, but smaller than a union conference.

In contrast, Dr. Calvin Rock disagrees with Russel. You can find his compelling piece at this link.

What to Keep in Mind

I think when we talk about the Black and White conferences we need to keep a few things in mind. First and foremost many of our brothers and sisters of other denominational traditions are being hypocritical when they condemn us for having black and white conferences. We must keep in mind that many of their denominations may not have black and white conferences, the reason being is because they have white and black Denominations. The Methodists split along the color line and so did the Baptists. Certainly today we see some black churches in predominantly white denominations, and a few in the other direction, but I have heard to many Adventists doing hand wringing when a baptist asks about Black conferences when we can at least say we didn’t split the denomination itself.

Black People Can’t Bear the Brunt of The Black Conference Existence

Another important point to keep in mind, Black people cannot bear the brunt for the reason for their existence. I sometimes hear black and white brothers and sisters blaming black people for the existence of “Black conferences.” Their existence was due to white racism totally. This was not created by so called black racism, but white racism plain and simple. If we ever do away with them, we must recognize this and state it, if we don’t it will demonstrate their need. A new way this is argued is to say “we don’t’ have white conferences we have black conferences and integrated conferences.” This is attempting to sweep it all under the rug and blame black people for its current existence.

Structural Renewal Can’t be Used to Sweep Under the Rug

Also, The real need for structural renewal cannot be used to sweep away the Black conferences without us fully dealing with why we created them in the first place.

Is it time to get rid of the Black conferences? I don’t know, but I tend to doubt it. Is it time to get together and figure out when that time would be? Well it is way past time for that determination. We pray that Frederick Russell can begin that conversation in his new role.