When the Beast became a Lamb

Dr. Ciro Sepulveda, chair of the History department at Oakwood College, wrote an article entitled "Reinventing Adventist History." You can find the abridged version of the article at Adventist Today. The full article can be found at the Oakwod College Website.

Lamb Horned Beast to Lamb Like Beast

In this article Dr. Sepulveda traces the develoment of Adventist understanding of the American power. In this article we see the early Adventists "...considered the United States to be a two-horned beast of Revelation 13, a demonic power in collusion with forces of evil."

Joseph Bates stated that "Then I suppose we shall begin to think (if not before) that the third woe has come upon this nation, this boasted land of liberty, this heaven-daring, soul destroying, slave holding, murdering country."

Over time Sepulveda notes, the Adventist understanding of the United States changed from a beast with lamblike horns to a lamblike beast. In his final paragraph he states:

In summary, the historiography of the Adventist church helped create a new identity for the modern Adventist, no longer burdened by the troublesome baggage or worldview of the early founders, and no longer seeing the government as an evil beast in collusion with satanic powers. They no longer pressed to proclaim the second coming of Jesus because the world, after all, is not that bad. Unlike the Adventists of the middle nineteenth century who saw the nation as a warmongering two-horned beast, the modern Adventist feels very comfortable embracing the values and culture of the nation and its never-ending search for power and dominance.

Liberals and Conservatives disagree with the Pioneers

As I think about this work it hits me how many Adventists "conservative" and "liberal" would have problems with this characterization of the United States as an unredeemable beast bent on savagery. We have conservatives among us who seek to defend the policies and practices of the United States at all costs even to the point of taking up arms and dieing in the wars of this nation. Some of these may say that in the future America will be a beast, but would argue that today the United States is the best hope for humanity's good.

In addition, we have liberals who work for peace and justice in the United States believing that their work can make the United States a better place. They might say that the United States acts beastly, but acting beastly is not necessarily the obvious outcome of all its actions. In other words our work can make the beast less of a beast.

Beast or Lamb?

Is the United States a Beast or a Lamb in its heart? Should we support it when desception is used to rationalize wars? Should we resign in the belief that it is unredeemable? Whatever one's beleifs on that question we must admit that there have been reforms in the United States throughout history that have made the world a better place.

As an African American I am happy that people did not just assume that America was a beast that could not be reformed. Those in the Civil Rights, peace, and other movements acted in the belief that some good can come from their work. Is it a beast or a lamb? Whatever it is, our calling as Christians is to demonstrate the principles of God in this world. Such a demonstration will place us at odds with the powers of this world. But, our witness to the principles of Christ will be a blessing to others in the world.

The Sabbath as Mindset - Summary of Posts

Is the Sabbath a day we keep? Is it just 24 hours in which we worship God and become strengthened for living the life we are all called to live? Or is it more?

In earlier posts I have looked at principles from the Sabbath. We have seen the Sabbath as Participation in Coming Kingdom. Here the Sabbath provides time to live as if the Kingdom of God has been more fully realized. We have also seen the Sabbath as Disengagement from the Present World. Here is a time to more fully separate from a world bent on destruction so that we can come back to that world with added vigor and faith that what we do does matter. We have also seen the Sabbath as a Celebration of our Communities. Here we spend time with our families and larger families to strengthen the bond between us and recognize that we do really need each other. Finally we have seen how contemplation of the creation that the Sabbath Celebrates helps us to victory.

All of these things point to the Sabbath being more than just a day that we rest on, but a mindset that informs us as we live every day. I can truly sing that old song that we don't sing anymore, Don't Forget The Sabbath. If you forget the Sabbath you lose something that will help you through the dark night we find ourselves in.

Praise God for the Sabbath!

Podcast Episode #2 How To Deliver The Sick

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In this second episode of our podcast, I explore Mark 1:21-30 and see the text answer the question, "How do we deliver the Sick?" We will find that it is something that God can use any of us to do.

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...

PodCast Eposode #1: When You Can't Do What the Letter Tells You To Do

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We are proud to announce out PodCast that will run somewhere between biweekly and weekly. In future episodes we hope to include interviews with preachers and Adventist leaders. However in the first few we will be posting some of my own material.

In this first episode I explore 2 Kings 5:1-14 to find out "What to do when you can't do what you are Supposed to do?"

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.

Sanctuary Discussion On-Line

The Church is studying 1844 this quarter in its Sabbath School Lesson. You can find the Sabbath School Lessons here.

If you want to download the full Sabbath School lesson in PDF format you can find it here.

Because the Sanctuary is such a volitile topic some sites are doing special studies during this time. For example, Adventist Today is attempting to have a discussion from many sides of Adventism on the topic. This includes Jack Sequeira, Brad Cole, Raymond Cottrell, and Desmond Ford. You can read that discussion here.

You might be wondering who is Brad Cole? Well he is the President of HeavenlySanctuary.Com which is called "Virus Protection for the Mind." There is a forum at that site. You might go on over to join the discussion.

Ron Corson of Adventist Media Response and Conversation is interacting with the AdventistToday.Com discussion.

You might also find SabbathSchoolLessons.Com helpful. That site is maintained by a Bruce Cameron, JD. SabbathSchoolLessons.Com is basically some lesson plans for teachers who use the Sabbath School Lesson.

And of course you may know that I have a few posts up on the Sanctuary and will have a few more up before the quarter is over.

If you know of anyone else who is doing a study of the Sanctuary on-line or has Sabbath School Resources available, let me know by email or by a comment to this post.

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.