Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
I was quite sick the last 10-14 days and was unable to write last week to you all. And now, today, I plan to write 2 singular pieces for your consideration. First, a very short comment on this week’s lesson. And then a long, extensive treatise on my understanding of the Gospel. This long (several pages) treatise comes about from an email reply I received from one of the weekly readers regarding my “Thought for the Week of June 16… A Changed Life”. If one weekly reader is concerned and questioning because of comments I made there, then others may also question, too. Therefore, I decided to answer the question in this forum so all can see my understanding. I am including it here, after this brief weekly “thought”, if any are interested to read it. If after reading my understanding of the Gospel, any of you wish to be removed from this electronic weekly mailing, please let me know (a brief email reply will be fine). I do not ever want to intrude into the privacy of your computer with unwanted emails. Sometimes I may state things rather passionately. If I offend, I apologize. Our God values each as individuals and would never have one of us dictate to the other. I pray I never violate this characteristic of our God… respect for each individual.
*Weekly Thought
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Blueprint for a Better World”. And Sunday’s lesson states an important truth… “The God Who Hears”. We need to be like our God. People who see, and hear, and listen to our fellow sinners. This is God’s way. It is to be our way, too… the very crux of a “Blueprint for a better World”. If we would but really listen to our fellow sinners, we would hear an important truth…”The classes of people you meet-with, decide for you the way in which the work should be handled” (Evangelism pg. 106). Wow! The people we listen to, really listen with the ears of God, will tip us off to the method to reach them. So let us follow God’s blueprint.
*Gospel Treatise
As I start this treatise, allow me to create an outline that I will follow. It may help some to minimize the reading-time and focus on the relevant topics. I apologize again if I tax your patience. It seems I have danced around the “Gospel” and it is time for me to be crystal clear. If your time or inclination is limited, please read at least the conclusion.
1. Overview/ Introduction
2. Tenets… concepts that are always true.
a. How to know the truth
b. Counting verses
c. What makes a doctrine (teaching) false
d. Push assumptions to their logical conclusion
e. What is “sin”
f. What is “faith”
g. Following Christ
h. Freed from Sin
i. Christ our Substitute
j. Probation
k. All God’s initiating or enabling are for your sake, not His sake.
l. Forgiveness is not enough
m. Atonement
3. Copy of the June 16 “Thought for the Week”
4. Copy of the question/ comment from a weekly reader.
5. My reply… my understanding of the Gospel.
6. Conclusion
1. Overview/ Introduction:
I was fortunate to be adopted by a wonderful Christian couple. They had waited many years to have children (as my adopted dad would say, they tried to have children by the “do it yourself” method). But eventually decided to adopt. They were courageous loving Christian parents! I am blessed to have been raised by them. It was a wonderful Christian home and I was a consistent attendee at Sunday school and Church each week (Baptist). Over those early years, I heard many explanations for the “plan of salvation”. When I was 16 I heard for the first time the explanation that is widely touted from pulpits these days (that Jesus paid the price for your sin, in your stead [death], so that you need not pay that price [die]). I was somewhat taken aback. I knew this was a poor explanation of “why Christ had to die”. But I figured that it might help some people make the initial acceptance of Christ. I reasoned that after coming to Christ, the real reason for Christ’s death could be understood better and appreciated more (that Christ’s death is not in place of your death, because your death to sin and self is imperative, vital. Christ did not die in place of you but died so that you and I could die with Him). But I was dismayed to realize that this need to die with Christ was never really emphasized. It was as if the initial explanation (a very legal definition) was the final explanation. Yikes! So this popular explanation leads me to list some tenets that I believe are always true.
2. Tenets… Concepts that are always true:
a. How to know the truth: There are so many Christian denominations. All of them have a collection of Bible verses that support their particular understanding. It is so tempting to use “precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little” (Isaiah 28:10). Each denomination has their collection of “littles” to support their doctrines. We Adventists have done this, too. And when we do, it is our weakest argument. We can promote our “littles” and others can promote theirs. And the truth is lost in the debate. Much smoke, but no real “heat”. In the end, the truth must rest on the Bible taken as a whole. When we dissect the “Word” and take snippets of scripture to support our doctrine, we are on thin ice… easily broken.
b. Counting verses: Some people count the number of verses that state a certain thing. The number of verses that state it a certain way shows the truth, so some state. This is not the way to get to the bottom of things. Instead of counting verses, we must weigh them. Many verses show us a vindictive God… and those verses can be cited to prove that point. The few verses that show us a different God are not as plentiful, but are weighty with deeper meaning. Those few verses are more valuable for they help explain the supposed vindictiveness of God. Plus, it dispels the concept that God is two-faced or schizophrenic. Only a picture of a loving God explains both the soft/ gentle side of God and the firm/ disciplinarian side of God. The few verses outweigh the many verses. Seems contradictory to tenet letter “A” above, but the “few” often make the “whole” more coherent.
c. What makes a doctrine (teaching) false: As we develop our picture of God, using the whole Bible, a loving, patient, Fatherly God emerges to our view. Any doctrine that does insult to this picture of God is false. Any doctrine that puts our God in a false light is a false doctrine.
d. Push assumptions to their logical conclusions: We often rest doctrine on assumptions. We may not always realize this. For example, we often say that “Christ is pleading our case before the Father. That the Father needs an intercessor between us and Him. Christ is that intercessor that brings the things of man to God the Father”. This assertion has some assumptions in it that need to be pushed to see if they “hold water”. Here is an example of how this is done, using the statement just cited. A question that pushes the assumption is a good way to do this:
Question: If God needs an intercessor, does Christ need an intercessor, for He is God, too?
Answer: No one was between Christ and His betrayer as intercessor when Christ washed his betrayer’s dirty feet. No one needed to intercede for Christ to forgive. No one interceded for Christ when he prayed the Father to forgive the ones torturing Him on the cross. His statement to the Father shows that Christ Himself had already forgiven His tormentors. And they had not even asked for forgiveness.
Question: Isn’t God the Father just like God the Son?
Answer: Yes. So Christ states.
Question: Then if Christ needed no one to intercede for Him in order to forgive or relate to sinners, does the Father then need someone to intercede for Him?
Conclusion: The Father needs no one to intercede for Him in order to forgive or relate to us sinners.
Question: Why is Christ said to be our Intercessor, Intervener, and Mediator?
Answer: Because Christ brings the things of God to man, not the other way around. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19) also see John 16:26. (here is also an example of one weighty verse helping to explain the multitude of verses that seem contrary).
e. What is Sin: If “love is the fulfilling of the Law” (Romans 13:10) then love-less-ness is breaking the Law. Sin is really a lack of love. No matter what we do, if love is lacking, it is nothing, as Paul tells us in 1Corinthians 13. So sin is really a state of mind. Sinners are those who do not love. So how does Christ death on the cross solve our love-less-ness? A mere “payment of penalty” explanation is inadequate. Actually, it’s a dangerous explanation. The popular understanding of the gospel “Christ dying our death in our place and then giving us His righteousness” does not really help us here. It can lull us into a state of complacency. Our victory over sin into a world of love for others is not accomplished by complacency. The popular Gospel has helped create nominal Christians (in name only), and not real Christians (living like Christ… loving like Christ… love that will sacrifice even our eternal security for others). We say this kind of love is impossible for fallen man. But God tells us it is not just possible, but it is essential, required. Sin is how you think. Christ’s death is the means of changing our mind because the cross demonstrates the entire Godhead and their self-less ways.
f. What is faith: Faith is one of those concepts that is so often misunderstood. Faith is not mere assent… not just agreement. Faith, belief, trust (all the same word in the Greek… “pistis”) is an action word. Faith means “to commit to”, “reliance upon” and can even mean “obey”. So “righteousness by faith” is not saying that I reckon Christ’s righteousness to my “account”. But that I commit my whole being to my God. And this commitment (this “faith”) is how true righteousness is born and grows in my heart and mind. This word “faith” really describes our repentance and conversion. The popular explanation of faith is seen as my agreement to a business arrangement between Father and Son. Lame. A very lame explanation that enables sinners such as we to go on with our self-destructive lives, believing that our mere acknowledgment is sufficient to “escape the fire” at the end. In reality, the popular explanation leaves us asleep and numb to our death-like condition. True faith is action. Trusting God with all aspects of our lives. Trusting Him enough to do what He says and follow and trust His methods at all times. Not a mere mental assent.
g. Following Christ: He is our example in all things. But we often stop short when following Him. We think the cross was a means to change the Father so He can forgive. NO! NO! Everything about Christ has nothing at all to do with changing the Father. “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6). Everything about Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension is to change us. Therefore, we are to follow Him to the cross, too. Christ’s death ~2,000 years ago means absolutely nothing to you unless you go there with Him every day and die to self with Him there, too.
h. Freed from sin: We can be freed from sin in only one way. “He who has died has been freed from sin” (Romans 6:7). This means you. You and I must die to sin every day. But self cannot kill self or else self would boast and be even stronger for the killing. Self can only die with Christ. Hence, the cross… for our sakes. So we can finally escape our “old man”. So we can finally “die”. We are freed not by fiat, or by proclamation, or even by God’s declaration. But by dying to self with Christ and then living to love.
i. Christ our Substitute: A substitute teacher is one that fills-in UNTIL THE CORRECT TEACHER SHOWS UP! A piece of cardboard placed in a broken window sash is a substitute pane of glass until you can install a real pane of glass… UNTIL THE CORRECT PANE OF GLASS SHOWS UP! As stated several times, Christ’s death is not in place of yours and mine, but demonstrates the love each are to have. His cross stands as the supreme evidence of love. A love we are to possess in our own hearts and minds by submitting all to the Father… like at the cross. Christ’s death is a demonstration of that love. Love, WAITING FOR US TO SHOW UP on the cross with Him. The idea that His death is in place of ours is a palatable explanation for us sinners who are loath to die to self. Who will devise any fabrication in order to have “heaven” and this sin-filled life, too.
j. Probation: From a sinner’s point of view, probation is someone watching over you to see if you misbehave (we so often picture our God like this). But from God’s point of view, probation is a time where we can learn how to live, how to love, how to give, how to fulfill our high calling as a child of God. Probation is a gracious time when we all can learn and grow and mature (the real definition of “prefect”). A time when the natural consequences of the choices we have made to serve self are not fully realized. A time when the natural results of self-centeredness are held in abeyance by our loving Father.
k. All God’s initiating or enabling are for our sake, not His sake: This is at the core of so much misinterpretation of Christ, the Gospel, the Plan of Salvation, and the defamation of the Father’s character. Please hold to this one concept. ALL. I repeat, ALL of God’s actions are for your sake not for His sake. God needs no one to plead with Him to forgive… does not need to see someone die in order to forgive. He is forgiveness personified. God needs no one to “propitiate” His wrath. God needs no one to mediate in orderto bring the things of man to God. God provided the mediator because we needed it, asked for a mediator, begged for a mediator (see Deuteronomy 18: 15-19 to read how we asked for someone between us and God… and God agreed to the idea).
l. Forgiveness is not enough: Sin is not deadly because it angers the “Master”. It is deadly because of how it changes you. It separates you from our God of love… our God of life. Forgiveness is what we seek if we believe that our “Master” will kill us if we are caught sinning. But if we believe that it is sin itself that is killing us, then what we seek is healing (the true definition of “salvation”). Forgiveness is the open door to God’s healing presence. But we must enter the very presence of our “Great Physician” and let Him “touch” our “sores” in order for healing to take place. Christ did not say to Nicodemus that he needed to be forgiven to enter the Kingdom. He said he must be born again. A new heart and a right Spirit. Not someone else’s heart and spirit. Not Christ hiding your sinful heart under His heart and spirit. But you, yourself, having a new heart and spirit.
m. Atonement: See the SDA Bible Dictionary. Atonement is not reparation for damage done. It is “reconciliation”. Actually from the early English word “one”. To “one” somebody was to be reconciled to them. To win them back to love and trust. At-one-ment… to “one” or “win” back to love and trust. “At-one-ment” is the state of being at “one”.
3. Copy of the June 16 “Thought for the Week: I will underline the sentences and phrases that I believe were problematic:
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “What Have They Seen in Your House?” This question really strikes at the bedrock of our “faith”. For some, “faith” is not a “way of life”. For some, “faith” is merely accession to a theology. Coming to a certain understanding of God. But true “faith” is not confined to intellectual agreement. True “faith” is a life-changing experience. As we are told, “Saving faith is a transaction by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God. Genuine faith is life. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which the soul becomes a conquering power” (Desire of Ages pg. 347). This is not some mere acknowledgement. This is devotion! This is life! A new life where all priorities are re-aligned with God and His priorities… not your priorities. A new life lived to love others more than yourself. A “born-again” life.
Christians need to stop “play-acting”. The true gospel needs to be upheld. Not the spurious gospel peddled from so many pulpits. This spurious gospel sounds so much like a bartered business deal. A bartered business deal carried out between Father and Son where the Father accepts Christ’s life of obedience instead of your life of sin. This trivializes sin and trivializes our responsibility for our own actions. Such “business deals” are nonsense (no-sense). As much nonsense as the “indulgences” of the middle-ages. At least with the indulgences you had to sacrifice something (money) in order to be forgiven and obtain “salvation”, so-called. In today’s spurious gospel we only need to say the words, “I believe”. We do not even need to part with any money!
We are not to have faith in some legal arrangement between Father and Son. True saving faith is confiding trust in a Person, not trust in a deal or trust in the “merits” of another. But trust that leads you to surrender all, commit all to the One you trust. Commit everything. Not just money or a morning at church every 7 days. But commit everything… especially what you hold most dear. Your very life. In the popular Christian teaching of faith, where God accepts what Jesus did in your behalf and then proclaims you righteous, you commit nothing. Perhaps you henceforth try to live a “good” life… as it suits you. But this is not faith. It is nonsense. As nonsensical as the Jews of old who bartered with men over the blood sacrifice in order to obtain God’s forgiveness. Faith is trust in God. A trust that leads you to lose yourself in love to the One who loves you, and lose yourself in love to the ones He loves. Because true salvation and healing only come “through Christ only as by faith they should make His life their own” (Desire of Ages pg. 82).
Do you desire to make Christ’s “life your own” (ibid)? Is it more than just desire? Is it desire that leads you to act? To repent, to commit, to devote, to consecrate your life? For this is “faith”. And nothing else can be called such. True and abiding “faith” is a repudiation of all the self-centeredness that has gone before. Turning your back on the “old man” and being “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20) every day, every moment of every day. Being born anew every day, every moment of every day. Loving others for whom Christ died more than self every day, every moment of every day.
Let us be honest with our Father… and with ourselves. If this true faith I’ve just described is not yours, then run (don’t walk) to our Father and confess it all. Fall at His feet and tell Him your lack of such faith. Tell Him how you place so much ahead-of Him, ahead-of loving others, ahead-of making the life of His Son your own. Confess that there is even a part of you that does not want to give-up your selfishness and worldliness. Confess that you place your own eternal life ahead of love for others. Confess that He is not first in your affections, your desires, your plans, your dreams. TELL HIM THE TRUTH!! The truth He already knows, but cannot help you with until you acknowledge it yourself. Don’t “snow” our Father. Do not tell Him half-truths that you think He wants to hear. Say it! Say the truth!
This is the beginning of true faith. Faith and trust enough to confess the truth. And once you do this, God our Father can start to work with you to show you the beauty of “crucifixion with Christ”. The beauty of loving others more than self. The beauty of living a new life. He will direct you to the Scriptures to see Him and to see love in action. And create in you the burning desire for such a love as His. The burning desire to make His life your own. The journey has begun. And a new life awaits. A life that is reflected in all you do, henceforth. A changed life that will be “seen in your house” (quoted above)... and your entire life. I pray that this is the “faith” you want. Faith that commits all to make Christ’s life your own.
With brotherly love,
Jim
4. Copy of the question/ comment from a weekly reader:
Sounds like you are sharing a gospel of heresy yourself, which as you know, is very dangerous (Gal. 1-2). I'm surprised by this. I never saw that before in your emails. Am I understanding you correctly? (or, misunderstanding?)
Let me relate to you the gospel I know from the Bible.
A. We have all sinned and are worthy to die for it. We have come short of God's glory. (Rom. 3:23; 6:23)
B. Jesus lived a perfect life without sin and died to pay for our sins. He bore them upon Himself, and died in our place (i.e. substitution - the Lamb instead of the sinner). (Rom. 6:23; Isaiah 53; 2 Cor. 5:21). [Jesus died the death we should have died, for our sins, in order to give us the life he should have received for His perfect righteousness]
C. By faith we receive Jesus' death on our behalf to pay for our sins, and the gift of His righteousness by faith. We are saved by His righteousness alone, and His shed blood (i.e. righteousness by faith) (Ephesians 2:8-10).
D. Receiving Jesus' righteousness and grace by faith, we are also "taught" and empowered through Jesus, His promises, and especially the Holy Spirit to live righteous lives, departing from sin (Romans 6:1-6; Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:10; Matthew 5:6). Self dies and Jesus lives out His righteous life within us (Rom. 6:1-6; Gal. 2:20).
E. We see justification (atonement by faith / righteousness imputed), sanctification (growth in grace and holiness / righteousness imparted), and finally there will be glorification (final experience just before Jesus takes us from earth in our newly transformed bodies. Anti-typical Day of Atonement has ended. Saints walk in God's Spirit and live in full righteousness. We get reintroduced back into God's presence at His coming).
Are you against this gospel message, as stated above? (If so, how?)
5. My reply… my understanding of the Gospel: I have lettered the comments in #4 above to facilitate your reading.
A. True we have all sinned. But the death from sin is not torture and death at the hands of our loving Father. The death from sin is not an imposed punishment that God must make due to the holiness of His character and government. As Paul states, “Sin pays its servants: the wage is death” (Romans 6:23, Phillips). Death is a natural consequence of sin, not an imposed consequence. This concept alone changes our understanding of the Gospel and why Christ had to die. If we have God punishing the Righteous Son instead of the guilty you and me, then we have a real problem. We have a God who has just perverted the meaning of “justice”. Must we state the obvious, that IT IS NOT “JUST” TO PUNISH THE INNOCENT INSTEAD OF THE GUILTY. Christ’s death on the cross was not punishment at the hands of His loving Father.
Christ tells us what the Father was doing as He hung on the cross. The Father was not torturing Him. Was not punishing Him. The Father was treating the Son AS IF He was a rebellious sinner. He was “giving up” the Son. He was “forsaking” the Son. Let’s continue this thought into item letter “B”…
B. Jesus death was not to “pay” for our sins (as stated in the “tenets” above). Payment of penalty has no place in our theology. This concept is right out of paganism (please look-up “Atonement” in the SDA Bible Dictionary for a good explanation). So what was Christ doing on the cross if not some required payment? Well, several things. He was demonstrating that sin causes death… separation from our God of Life. He was demonstrating the heart of the Father who would sacrifice Himself to save even one sinner. And He was demonstrating what we must be if we follow Him. We, too, must die to self… as surely as crucifixion killed the Son. The cross is the supreme revelation of love and the revelation of what each must be if we follow the Son. And if we do follow Him there… every day to the cross… then the “gift” of righteousness is ours. Not as some reward. But by definition. According to the SDA Bible Dictionary, “Righteousness” is defined as “a right relationship with God”. The very righteousness of God is a result of this right relationship with God. A relationship as demonstrated by the Son on the cross. When we go to the cross daily and allow our “old man” to die with Christ there, we are now in a right relationship with God… we are righteous. The gift of God is Him coming and dying the death that is ours so that we might die with Him (see, “Christ our Substitute” above). And by so doing, the righteousness he enjoyed with the Father is ours… in our hearts and in our minds. We have placed others above ourselves just as Christ did. This righteousness is not some mere covering to hide our sinful self. This “hiding” idea is the definition of a Pharisee (whited tombs full of dead men’s bones). Righteousness is not a legal transaction. Righteousness is in the individual’s heart and mind. And to suggest it can be somehow accounted to someone else makes little sense. Righteousness can only be inside the possessor of it, not accounted in legal fashion. “When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness” (Christ’s Object Lessons pg. 311). Righteousness is part of you, not laid-upon you, not there to hide you, not legally accounted in some bookkeeping fashion.
C. “Faith” is an action word, not a mere acknowledgement or mental assent (see “What is Faith” above). “Faith” is entering into the very life of God Himself. Choosing to be engulfed by Him so completely that being “born again” is an apt description. There is no such thing as somebody else “paying” for your sin. This only is an acceptable definition if sin is some legal offense requiring a legal remedy… (“There’s been some sinning going on around here and someone must die so that there can be forgiveness”. Horrors!) But sin is not a legal issue. Sin is a real issue (see “What is Sin” above). Sin is not dispensed by a legal arrangement contracted between the Son and the Father. Sin kills you. So the question really is… will you die with Christ so that you can be born again and have a new life following our Savior… or will you die alone? But die you will. Sin has done its work. Its self-focused living to self has destroyed us. We are all dead men. But God has given us probation… for He knows we are deceived (see “Probation” above). Probation is a gracious gift from our loving Father.
We are not saved by Christ’s merits or by “grace” (whatever that means), or by “faith” or by someone else’s righteousness (righteousness is always something in the heart and mind of the individual possessor… as is sin and faith. Another’s faith does you no good. It is not your faith, and faith cannot be “accounted” to another. It must be your faith. Another’s righteousness is not your righteousness. Another’s sin and self-centeredness is not your sin and self-centeredness). We are saved by a Person. We are saved by our Father… who is gracious. And we are saved (healed) by coming into intimate relationship with Him who is Life (have faith).
D. Jesus’ righteousness demonstrates to us God’s righteousness. “All heaven suffered in Christ's agony; but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that sin, from its very inception, has brought to the heart of God” (GCB 7/1/1902). The cross shows us the Father. the cross is not to appease the Father. Jesus’ righteous life shows us the Father’s heart so that we are free to come home to our all-giving Father… if we will. Christ’s righteousness is not ever in-place of your righteousness. This makes no sense (nonsense). Your righteousness is not my righteousness or lack thereof. And our righteousness can only be like Jesus’ righteousness if we have the same faith in our Father as Jesus had. Because righteousness is defined as “a right relationship with God” (see response letter “B” above). The only way we can be righteous is by dying to self with Christ and then trusting Him and His methods with every interaction in our lives. In order to do this, self must die with Him. God does not want you dead. He wants your “old man” dead so that you can be fully alive to live a life full of “light” and love.
E. “Justification” and “Righteousness” used in the Bible come from the same Greek word. Therefore “justification” should more accurately be translated as “set right”. And the word is used this way most often in the Good News Bible and by Goodspeed’s translation. And sanctification could be translated as “kept right”. Christ’s death on the cross “sets us right” (justifies us) because it finally demonstrates the truth about our Father, whose character has been so maligned over the millennia as a fearsome God who demands death before He can forgive. And when we are “set right” (justified) and fully commit to our Father (have faith), then we will be “kept right” (sanctified).
God was most glorious on the cross. Then and there, the Godhead’s character was fully seen. When Christ prayed in the upper room, “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5), he was stating a truth. The glory Christ referenced is the glory of the love he possessed poured-out at the cross. True glorification is the out-living of love. And so we, too, are glorified in the same manner. The “glorification” at the coming of Christ that we so often tout is but the visible glory of a heart of love, a character of love, visibly seen and already present in the believer.
6. Conclusion: We read that we are to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world and then the end will come. I maintain that we still need to work-on precisely what the Gospel is. Our popular definition of the Gospel is still too much “dark speech” and symbolic language. We seem to fall prey to the same issue that dogged the Israelites of old. We seem to be content to use the symbolism for the substance. God told us to “DIG” for the truth. “Dig” to find the substance. And that we will not find it unless we really dig. Dig, not because he is hiding from us but that we sinners are so prone to interpret God and the Gospel in terms that appeal to us sinners and our self-focused perspective. I believe that much of what we call the “Gospel” is misleading because it presents our Father in a false light. As vindictive, implacable and unforgiving… which He is not. I believe our beloved denomination should have another summit conference where we discuss precisely what the “Gospel” really is. If not, are we really proclaiming the “good news” to the world?
With brotherly love, Jim.
P.S. Years ago, Ellen White coined the phrase “present truth” to describe the new understanding of the “Word” that we Adventists now hold dear. However, those who came to hold this new “present truth” were labelled heretics and decried as a cult by the very protestant churches from which the adherents of “present truth” had come. The protestant churches were left with an incomplete picture of God and an incomplete Gospel. The same thing happened when Luther proclaimed his own understanding of that day’s “present truth”. It happened again yet earlier when Christ came and presented the truth about God. Each adherent of the progressive truth were labelled as heretic. Yet our understanding shows that each church that refused to move closer to the light was left in the darkness. Darkness that became even darker as the years have progressed. I am not so arrogant to claim that what I have written today is more light shed upon our Savior and our Father. But for me, I cannot go back to a picture of God that speaks so poorly of the Dad I love. I welcome your comments and insights. Please “reply all” if you have any. That way, all the weekly readers can see them. You can read them all for yourself without some extended comments by me. I am but a layman who has learned the truth (as I see it) about our “Dad”. I am convinced that He is just like Christ, and that He longs to have us in relationship to Him so that we can be restored into His image. If we have a false picture of our Dad, we will become like that false image. If my understanding and my thrust of each weekly thought is opposite of your own and you want me to desist sending these thoughts to your computer, please email me to remove you. If my stance on the gospel is sufficiently worrisome to you, please contact the Rocky Mountain Conference and voice your concerns to them. Perhaps they will intervene in your behalf. I am convinced in my own heart and mind that what I have said is not heresy. I can but present my Father and my Dad in the light of my own understanding. May each one of us “see” Him as He really is and as He has presented Himself to each is my prayer for us all.