Rest and Reflect

http://www.notaprophet.org/articles/open_letter_to_ernie_knoll.html

“If Satan has a specific target in our world today, it would be the sincere, spiritually minded Seventh-day Adventist, who is sighing and crying for the abominations done in the land and in the church. They are open to prophecy because they believe in the Spirit of Prophecy. They are open to new light because Ellen White has said there will be new light. They are open to dreams and visions, because Ellen White had dreams and visions, and the Bible prophesies that this will take place in the last days. So, what deception could Satan use to reach this group?”

I stand by the door.
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out,
The door is the most important door in the world-
It is the door through which people walk when they find God.
There’s no use my going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where a door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind people,
With outstretched, groping hands.
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it …
So I stand by the door.

The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for people to find that door–the door to God.
The most important thing any person can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands,
And put it on the latch–the latch that only clicks
And opens to the person’s own touch.
People die outside that door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter—
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live, on the other side of it–live because they have not found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him …
So I stand by the door.

Go in, great saints, go all the way in–
Go way down into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics–
It is a vast roomy house, this house where God is.
Go into the deepest of hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms.
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in,
Sometimes venture in a little farther;
But my place seems closer to the opening …
So I stand by the door.

There is another reason why I stand there.
Some people get part way in and become afraid
Lest God and the zeal of His house devour them
For God is so very great, and asks all of us.
And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobia,
And want to get out. “Let me out!” they cry,
And the people way inside only terrify, them more.
Somebody must be by the door to tell them that they are spoiled
For the old life, they have seen too much:
Once taste God, and nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be watching for the frightened
Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,
To tell them how much better it is inside.
The people too far in do not see how near these are
To leaving–preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door,
But would like to run away. So for them, too,
I stand by the door.

I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who have not, yet even found the door,
Or the people who want to run away again from God,
You can go in too deeply, and stay in too long,
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him, and know He is there,
But not so far from people as not to hear them,
And remember they are there, too.
Where? Outside the door–
Thousands of them, millions of them.
But–more important for me–
One of them, two of them, ten of them,
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.
So I shall stand by the door and wait
For those who seek it.
“I had rather be a door-keeper …”
So I stand by the door.

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about[a] himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

http://atoday.com/bible-facts-andor-truth

The bible is full of Parables, and Jesus often spoke in symbols, stories, hyperbole and metaphor.

Man’s justice fits the crime.
“An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth.”

God’s justice is fit for the criminal.
Only he sees the heart, for the motive determines the character of the crime.

God’s justice sets right the criminal.
Man’s justice sets right the crime.

John 9:2 The disciples asked Jesus, who sinned for this man to be born blind, himself or his parents

Jesus’ answer is revealing.

Jesus separated the consequences/effects/nature of sin in general from the choices/acts/behaviour which are condemnable and lead to guilt.

There is a popular gospel that says we are condemned because we have a sinful nature (nothing we chose, nothing we can do about it). And the solution is supposedly that God forgives us. All we have to do is accept.

But:
Results of evil or sinful nature (bad equipment) – don’t need forgiveness, they need restoration.

Guiltiness from sinful choices (conscious rejection) – needs forgiveness.

In reality, the Bible teaches we are condemned because of our own personal choice to go against God – or what is right (James 4:17; John 3:18-21). We are condemned for using our free will in a destructive (self or others) way. Jesus didn’t come to condemn but to save (John 3:16-17).

Our nature (the results of evil; bad equipment) is just a consequence of our choices (or sometimes the choices of others). For this we need healing, not forgiveness. Does any patient say to their doctor, I want forgiveness?

But because of God’s forgiveness, it draws us to the One who can heal.

—

At the cross, Jesus experienced two things:

1. Psychological and emotional torment — This is the natural consequence of “sin”. We feel separated from God (Isaiah 59:2). “Afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4). He took on the disease. But this was all unseen by us. He did this because he had already *charizomai* us (accepted us with his gracious favour).

2. Physical scourging — this was what we did to Christ. This we saw. And it was this torture that we see Jesus forgiving (Luke 23:34). This was the ultimate display of Christ’s matchless love – in ultimate suffering. “By his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Drawn to that we can be *aphiemi* (our burden be lifted away).

http://www.adventist.org.my/books.htm

Tell The World (Bible Speaks)
Studying Together – Mark Finley

Bible Handbook – SN Haskell
(http://www.adventistbookcenter.com/Detail.tpl?sku=0828005567 and http://maranathamedia.com/start/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=424&Itemid=99999999)

Seventh-day Adventists Believe
http://www.sdanet.org/atissue/books/27/

http://catalog.hopetalk.org/english

http://www.vop.com/article.php?id=386

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=82396727

http://blip.tv/file/1890847

Download http://blip.tv/file/get/EclecticChoice-GrahamMaxwellInterview726.flv

Thanks to the Eclectic.

Conversations about God http://conversationsofgod.blip.tv/

As I see it is summarised in this way:

Justification is seen primarily as a legal adjustment in heaven (i.e. objective salvation only or “counting right” only not “making right” as well).

Sanctification (or “perfection”) is me doing the best I can and God fills in the gaps. Hence sanctification becomes faith + works. It’s not part of salvation, it’s what happens “after you are saved.” Which begs the question, “what actually happens when you are saved?” The answer will be a change in legal standing (a narrow definition of “justification”). This results in a belief in imperfection until Jesus comes. (This is in contrast to descriptions of “dying to sin”, “crucified with Christ”, “not I that live, but Christ living in me”. God clearly calls for “perfection” in the Bible. I feel the reason “New Theology” proponents have difficulty accepting this Biblical position is because of how they define “perfection”.)

I am really reluctant to use the terms Justification and Sanctification and Perfection in this setting because they are quite strictly defined in various ways by different people. Thus they carry a lot of baggage – they are loaded. Baptist and Methodist theology have always rigidly separated Justification and Sanctification. Whereas in reality, they are probably simply two models (one legal, one ceremonial) of describing the same change!

This “New Theology” viewpoint naturally develops from a purely forensic/legal model of looking at the sin problem. One that comes through the Magisterial Reformation and influenced by Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin and Arminius (all of whom were concerned with some sort of debt owed to God which demanded some sort of price/payment/penance/punishment). It misses the fact that Adventist soteriology developed from a Radical Reformation basis and progressed far away from Lutheran and Calvinist views. Adventist “Righteousness by Faith” brought out by the 1888 controversy is radically different from the conventional Protestant Righteousness by Faith taught today.

In “New Theology”, Sin is primarily our status (it is our nature or we are in great debt or we are under a death penalty). And hence salvation is primarily a change of this legal status. The emphasis on choice, that sin is a product of our misuse of free-will, is lost in Calvinistic TULIP. As a result, we are “sinful because we are sinners” (wrap your head around that one), we can’t help it, we were born that way – it’s in our nature. God (almost) appears to be the enemy. After all it is He who has determined our legal standing as lost or saved. And he’s blaming us for a nature we can’t help!

This naturally leads to a belief that Christ had a completely “sinless nature” (i.e. He was not like us in every way, but without sin). “There needs to be something Christ had that we don’t have access to, otherwise why do we keep sinning? Jesus can’t have all of the faulty equipment we have (otherwise He’d need a saviour too). We don’t have a choice in the matter, we’re imperfect and will be until Christ comes.”

But we are not condemned because of faulty equipment. Christ was “tempted in every way that we are” (in our equipment) “yet he did not sin” (Heb 4:15; 1 Peter 2:22). Yet even on the cross, Jesus is described (albeit by His mockers) as “trusting in God” (Matthew 27:43). We are condemned because we allow our temptations and faulty thought patterns to make us distrust God (make God the enemy). That’s what makes us sinners. John emphasises (1 John 4:2; 2 John 7) that is important to believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh (and you will never find “holy” or “sinless” flesh in the bible – “flesh” is always a description of the fallen human condition).

All God asks of us is trust. We don’t need new “equipment”. We need healing of the “equipment” we have. Look at how the bible describes this “renewing of the mind” Rom 12:2, 2 Cor. 4:16, Eph 4:23, Col 3:10, Titus 3:5 (a great list of verse: http://www.christinyou.net/pages/renewmind.html). There is a real subjective change of heart described by the Bible of the saved. A change of heart leads to a change of action. But it’s not I that live but Christ in me (Gal 2:19-20). God now works in me (Heb 13:20-21).

I believe you don’t have to take any of the “New Theology” views to arrive at a fully grace-based soteriology. I believe that perhaps a trust-healing model could negate the necessity to adopt “New Theology” to find assurance and a loving God.

John 15:3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Jesus’ disciples hearts had become teachable. Their hearts now cleansed, trusted in God. Christ calls the “clean” before the Cross! He says they are clean because of the “word”! There is far more to salvation than a legal acquittal of charges (although that is a fair way to describe one aspect of salvation).

Here is a statement by E.J. Waggoner in Christ Our Righteousness p. 69

The taking away of the filthy garments [Zechariah 3:1-5] is the same as causing the iniquity to pass from the person. And so we find that when Christ covers us with the robe of His own righteousness, He does not furnish a cloak for sin but takes the sin away. And this shows that the forgiveness of sins is something more than a mere form, something more than a mere entry in the books of record in heaven, to the effect that the sin has been canceled. The forgiveness of sins is a reality; it is something tangible, something that vitally affects the individual. It actually clears him from guilt, and if he is cleared from guilt, is justified, made righteous, he has certainly undergone a radical change.

In fact in the people who need them the most (those with low self-esteem), they have the opposite effect:

http://www.canada.com/health/Sorry+Oprah+Self+help+books+seldom+helpful/1756585/story.html

Just being told that “God is love” and “Christ died for you” over and over and over again is unlikely to have any benefit for the soul who feels lost and unworthy. Unless this is proven through experience (through a real relationship with Christ), nothing much may change. It’s interesting that one rarely is able to convince oneself to believe something when one is aware that one does not yet believe it. Most people who believe something strongly either have clear evidence, or have never needed convincing in the first place.

I appreciate the elegance of Rob Bell’s Trampoline analogy expressed in his book Velvet Elvis. The springs represent doctrine, which may or may not facilitate jumping. But the point is not the springs. The point is to jump.

Here are some alternate views:
http://www.blog.godfidence.org/2008/05/rob-bells-trampoline/
http://michaelkrahn.wordpress.com/2007/04/18/smashing-brickworld-rob-bells-velvet-elvis-part-4/

http://www.spectrummagazine.org/blog/2009/06/30/why_mathematics_science_and_humanities_including_religion_don%E2%80%99t_have_quarrel