Memory, Meaning & Faith

The Hour Of His Judgment Is Come

Recently an email received by Memory, Meaning, Faith posed the question of whether reaching out to the physical needs of the poor and downtrodden is a part of the Adventist mission of spreading the message of the three angels declared in Revelation 14:6-12. While the specific situation described in the email is a complex one, involving also the significant issues of racism and of political and interfaith involvement, in the current blog post I will consider only the fundamental issue of the relationship of involvement in social concerns to the message of the three angels.

Historically, Revelation 14:6-12 has held an important place at the heart of Adventist identity and mission. Adventists have long recognized the three-fold message of the angels as a passionate wake-up call sent to all humanity from God Himself, announcing the beginning of the judgment in heaven. This judgment is announced as good news for those who will heed the angels’ warning and worship God alone as He requires. However, to those who are tempted to stubbornly cling to their own humanly-constructed means for worldly success and eternal salvation, the angels offer an anguished warning of imminent destruction.

The Hour Of His Judgment Has Come

Edson White

Recently, Memory, Meaning & Faith received the following email:

On two separate occasions, I have been told that what I am focused on in my ministry is not reflective of the 3^rd Angels Message. I was surprised by this, since I consider the 3^rd Angels Message to be embedded in the substance and form of The Southern Work tract, by E[llen] G. W[hite], promoted and promulgated by her son, J. Edson White.

Was Phoebe A Deacon, A Servant, Or A Minister?

It depends what translation you read.

In Romans 16:1, Paul begins a long series of greetings to people he knows in or near Rome. The first person he mentions is a woman, Phoebe, “who is a diakonon of the church which is at Cenchrea.” This Greek word used by Paul to refer to Phoebe is a familiar word in the Greek world. It’s the word we translate as "deacon."

A diakonos in the first century was a household servant, whose duties were those of administration and service for a master (see Matt 22:13; John 2:5). In the secular world, the term rarely implied selfless service. But in the New Testament, the term became associated with voluntary and selfless service to God (Rom 13:4), being a servant of Christ (John 12:26), or of one another (Matt 23:11). Hence the group of seven men selected in Acts 6 are said to “serve tables” and the qualification for deacons in 1 Timothy include the ability to rule or manage well their own households (3:12). These uses of the word diakonos conform to the common usage in the first century.

Protestant Theology and the American Constitution

Did the American system of the separation of church and state (disestablishment) come from primarily Enlightenment influences, or did religious beliefs also play an important role?

A number of scholars have acknowledged the importance of religion in early American disestablishment, but they have generally categorized religious influences in one of two ways:

1. The reaction of religious minorities to the intolerance or insensitivity of religious majorities. We all favor religious toleration and freedom when we are being persecuted, and/or
2. The sheer, brute fact of religious diversity and pluralism made intolerance and a state established religion impracticable and politically untenable.

Both these insights are valid, but I believe, incomplete. Both suggest that the religious reasons for disestablishment were pragmatic, practical responses, which did not require any sort of principled foundation or framework in religious belief or theology. Generally, Enlightenment thought, which prioritized reason over revelation, is given central place in providing the ideology for disestablishment.

The problem is, that neither of these facts alone, or in combination, adequately explain the actual facts of the early American experience.

Luther Promises To Recant

Martin Luther

The mass is an evil thing, and God is displeased with it . . . it must be abolished . . . . Yet Christian love should not employ harshness here nor force the matter. However, it should be preached and taught with tongue and pen that to hold mass in such a manner is sinful, and yet no one should be dragged away from it by the hair; for it should be left to God, and his Word should be allowed to work alone, without our interference? Why? Because is not in my power or hand to fashion the hearts of men as the potter molds the clay and fashion them at my pleasure. I can get no farther than their ears; their hearts I cannot reach. And since I cannot pour faith into their hearts, I cannot, nor should I, force any one to have faith. That is God’s work alone, who causes faith to live in the heart. Therefore, we should give free course to the Word and not add our works to it. We have the right to speak, but not the power to act. We should preach the Word, but the results must be left solely to God’s good pleasure.

Now if I should rush in and abolish it by force, there are many who would be compelled to consent to it and yet not know where they stand, whether it is right or wrong . . . . And this forcing and commanding results in a mere mockery, an external show, a fool’s play, man-made ordinances, sham-saints, and hypocrites. For where the heart is not good, I care nothing at all for the works. We must first win the hearts of the people. . . . Dear lords or pastors, abandon the mass, it is not right, you are sinning when you do this; I cannot refrain from telling you this. But I would not make it an ordinance for them, nor urge a general law. . . . And if you should carry them out with such general laws, then I will recant everything that I have written and preached and I will not support you. . . . In short, I will preach it, teach it, write it, but I will constrain no man by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion.

Martin Luther, “The Second Sermon, March 10, 1522, Monday after Invocavit,” in Selected Writings of Martin Luther 1520-1523, vol. 2, Theodore, G. Tappert, ed. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007), 239-241, emphasis supplied.

Questions

1. On what basis would Luther recant his writings and preaching? Why did he make this promise?
2. Given this early statement, why did both Calvinism and Lutheranism eventually use civil laws to force religious obedience?

Week Four Giveaway! Recipients

Thank you to all who suggested topics for our contributors to cover! Out of those who left comments at Memory, Meaning & Faith on Facebook,

• Edwin Mejia will receive an autographed copy of The Cosmic Christ of Scripture, by Martin Hanna,
• and Christian Dumitrescu will receive an autographed copy of The Trinity by  John W. Reeve.

Stay tuned for more draws next week.

The Great Commission Inside The Church

What Can Our Beginnings Teach Us For Our Future?

Most parents try to train their children well. They want to see them grow up well-informed, well-balanced, and good citizens. Imagine how God feels about His children. A system of religious education existed in the Old Testament. Jesus Himself started the training process in the Christian church with His disciples. And He left us with a Great Commission to train God’s children as they become adopted into His family and continue to grow.

The verbs we associate with Christ’s Great Commission are go, preach, baptize, and teach. Mark 16:15-18 (KJV) gives a version of the Great Commission that uses the word preach [Greek: kerusso], which implies being a public crier of the truth. Matthew 28:18-20 uses the words teach [matheteuo] and teaching [didasko], which indicate that we are to make ongoing students, to disciple, and to share information.

Teaching Was A Major Consideration In The Apostolic Church

Teaching was a major consideration in the apostolic church. Paul, Peter, John, and Jude all wrote about false teachers (both Judaizers and Gnostics) warning believers to beware of heretical teachings. James echoed the teachings of Jesus by cautioning teachers of their great responsibility: ‘Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly’ (3:1).

Paul added to the portrait of instruction in the early church by his directions to Titus, his pastoral assistant stationed on Crete. Apparently Judaistic teachers were persuading some Christians to depart from the truth. Titus was told to ‘teach what is in accord with sound doctrine’ (2:1). Paul then specified various groups in the church needing instruction. He also outlined what was to be taught to those groups. . . . The ability to teach was required in pastoral leadership. Paul gave both Timothy and Titus lists of qualifications of a bishop or pastor. One of the major differences in the qualities required in a pastor and those of a deacon was the ability to teach (1 Tim. 3:2). When Paul listed the four gifted leaders for the churches in Ephesian 4:11, he identified one of the four as pastor-teacher. These church leaders had responsibility to equip believers for their ministries. This meant helping them ‘grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’ (2 Pet. 3:18). The teaching ministry of the church has always been an integral part of God’s plan for spreading the gospel and changing lives. Paul’s closing words to Timothy capture this concept: ‘The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others: (2 Tim. 2:2).

James E. Reed & Ronnie Prevost, A History of Christian Education, (Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1993), 73-74, emphasis supplied.

Questions

• If teaching is to be a major consideration in the church today, how is pastoral leadership being trained to do it effectively?
• How do local churches today go about preparing “reliable men [and women] who will also be qualified to teach others”?
• What ministries within the local church today intentionally help each member “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”?

Week Four Giveaway!

At Memory, Meaning & Faith, we want to scratch where it itches, be where the rubber meets the road, and avoid stagnant clichés. In other words, we want to know what you're interested in. So we're asking you to tell us what specific topics you'd like to see us cover by tweeting @memmngfaith on Twitter or writing our wall at Memory, Meaning & Faith on Facebook.

All those who tweet @ us or write on our wall will be entered in a draw, and two (2) will receive free books. Read the details here.

Week Two Giveaway! Recipients

Out of those who linked to us from their personal blog or website

• Nick Jones at Speak Free
• and Matt Burdette at Constructing Adventist Theology

are receiving a two year (2009-2010) subscription to AUSS.

Week Three Giveaway! Recipients

Out of those who commented on our website on Monday, April 5

• Denis Kaiser is receiving Politics and Prophecy,
• and Victor Reyes-Perito is receiving The Cosmic Christ of Scripture.

The Savior Is God

My last post overviewed the development of the doctrine of the Trinity, both in the early Christian centuries and in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and then addressed the paradox of three in one. I also suggested that there are soteriological ramifications of God being three persons with one nature. One of those ramifications is that our salvation is secured by the very God who is the creator and sustainer of all.

Jesus, The Word

In John 1 we have a description of Jesus Christ as the Logos (Word). This Word is described as both creator and God (John 1:1-3). As such, he is also the all powerful ruler of the universe. (See Titus 2:11-14 and Romans 9:5, where Paul describes Christ as “our great God” and “eternally blessed God”). Most Adventists would be familiar with the description in Patriarchs and Prophets p. 34, where Ellen White describes Jesus Christ as “one in nature, character, and purpose” with God the Father.

What Did Early Adventist Pioneers Think About Women in Ministry?

Click here to read Denis Fortin's follow-up to this essay, "Was Phoebe A Deacon, A Servant, Or A Minister?"

Recently, a leading Adventist pastor in California spoke in opposition to women in pastoral ministry.  Such a position is not new in Adventism, particularly in the last three decades or so.  But this position is not the long-standing traditional Adventist position regarding the contributions women can make to all aspects of ministry.

Early Adventists understood Paul's prophetic words in Galatians 3:28 that there is "neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ" (NKJV) as the seed of many reforms that led to the abolition of social evils like slavery, class distinctions based on birth rights, and gender exclusion in society and church.  Early Adventists were thus abolitionists, social democrats and republicans in government.

Ellen White's Ministry Challenged

Let me illustrate my thought with one anecdote from Ellen White’s ministry.  In a letter to her husband, James White, written on April 1st, 1880, Ellen White recounted some of the activities she and other colleagues had been involved in recently near Oakland, California.  Among many things, she told James the following.

Irenaeus On The Incarnation

Irenaeus of Lyons

6. This also does likewise meet [the case] of those who maintain that HE suffered only in appearance. For if He did not truly suffer, no thanks to Him, since there was no suffering at all; and when we shall actually begin to suffer, He will seem as leading us astray, exhorting us to endure buffeting, and to turn the other cheek, if He did not Himself before us in reality suffer the same; and as He misled them by seeming to them what He was not, so does He also mislead us, be exhorting us to endure what He did not endure Himself. [In that case] we shall be even above the Master, because we suffer and sustain what our Master never bore or endured. But as our Lord is alone truly Master, so the Son of God is truly good and patient, the Word of God the Father having been made the Son of man. For He fought and conquered; for He was man contending for the fathers, and through obedience doing away with disobedience completely: For He bound the strong man, and set free the weak, and endowed His own handiwork with salvation, by destroying sin. For He is a most holy and merciful Lord, and loves the human race.