adventist identity, Sabbath Justice, Page 5

February 17, 2006August 10, 2017

What Bind does Adventism Get you out of?

Eugene Lowry writes in The Homiletical Plot that when one of our problems is placed next to the Gospel a sermon emerges. Thus we can approach this in two ways. We can either approach it from the problem and see what aspects of the Gospel address this problem, or we can approach it from the Gospel and ask what questions does this particular Aspect of the Gospel address.

Lowry demonstrates this by looking at the Trinity. He states that if one wishes to preach on the trinity one can ask, “What problem or bind does the Trinity get us out of?” Likewise we can take a particular problem and then ask how does the Trinity address this issue? It is interesting to see some theologians taking issues like racism or ecology and then asking how the Godhead addresses such issues. Sally McFague structures her ecology theology on the trinity. Nancy Eisland takes disability as her problem and then asks the question what does Jesus have to say to that problem.

Our Job is to relate the Gospel to the People

As preachers are job is to relate the Gospel to the people. Like every other kind of preacher there are resources unique to us for this undertaking. So I would ask, can we take a problem like Ecology and Address it with the tools that we have for understanding the Gospel? How does the health message relate to ecology? Does it? How about Racism? does the vision of equality in the Sabbath help us address this perinial problem even among our own ranks? (I have written a seminary paper on this, if you want it email me). While these are all academic problems, we could also ask more practical problems like what does Adventism have to say to the one in your congregation that has just lost a loved one? What does Advnetism have to say to one in your congregation that is struggling with Addiction? And finally what does Adventism have to say to systemic structures of evil in the world? Do we only deal with individuals?

What Problems do our Doctrines Address?

But also looking at it from the other side, what problems do our doctrines really address? For example, one might conclude that the Sanctuary message is solely about calculating the 2300 days to prove that we really weren’t wrong on the date 1844. That was truly a question 150 years ago, but does the doctrine have anything to say to us today? I think it does, but remember Lowry pushing us to ask the question what problem is truly address by that doctrine? What bind does it get us out of?

These questions are part of the reason that I began this weblog. I want to begin asking questions of Adventism that we normally do not ask. I also wish to give Adventism a chance to answer…

February 10, 2006August 10, 2017

What is the Core of Adventist Identity?

The Adventist News Network quotes Dr. Paul Peterson (Link No Longer Available) as saying, “We preach a message that is distinct, but if it is not relevant it will not be perceived as part of my personal identity, which means when I am faced with a crisis it won’t help me…”? At a Bible Conference that explored Adventist Identity.

Later, Peterson?emphasizes that while the truth does not change, the environment changes and thus we need to explore what this unchageable truth means in this changing culture.

Dr. Niels-Eric Andreasen, president of Andrews University, presents the following definition of an Adventist as “a Christian who waits for Jesus to come”

Such a definition seems to be too simple to be of any value, but the struggle to come up with a simple definition of what it means to be an Adventist in todays world would help the Preacher immensely as the preacher seeks to make the Gospel as understood by Adventists relevant.

January 18, 2006August 10, 2017

What does this have to do with my Salvation?

Keep it Real

My homiletics professor encouraged us to “Keep it real!” When he first told me that a story came to my mind. A zealous elder was “teaching the Sanctuary Message” in Sabbath School. The church was discussing the Sanctuary becuause it was the study of the day in the Sabbath school lesson.

The elder wanted to make it simple so he created a drawing to supplement the lesson. The elder began talking about the geography of the wilderness tabernacle and from the beginning lost the people. He described the importance of the color of the curtains. He described the different pieces of furniture. He then asked the question, “Was the ark of the covenant God the Father’s throne or God the Son’s throne?” One sister in the audience had had enough. She yelled out “What does this have to do with my salvation?” The elder stumbled and then ignored the answer going right back to his discussion of the minutia of the geography of the Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary So-What!

I then fully realized why the Sanctuary is sat aside by many. It is the same reason why no one preaches on the liniage of Jesus Christ. (I have heard a very good sermon on this by Henry Wright, but it is the only one I have every heard that did not degenerate into a lecture.) Our teaching of the Sanctuary is limited by the fact that we either ignore it or we don’t answer the question of that Sister, What difference does this make? Am I better off for knowing this? Why even bring it up? No wonder it is only trotted out during Revlation Seminars when we are trying to prove that Adventism is true by resorting to a mathmatical calculation.

In the end like many of our doctrines, we have not passed the so-what test. Without passing the “so-what test”, a teaching is unprofitable and useless. When we preach Advnetism we must stop making it useless either by our disuse or by our faulty use of it.