InFOCUS adventist news. November 26, 2008

A New Humanity. By Jan Paulsen

Our lives on earth should reflect our heavenly hope.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:16-20, NIV).

This passage of Scripture speaks strongly to me about the new kind of humanity God will create through a process described as “reconciliation.” But before we explore this further, I want to first recognize two “buffer zones,” or “bookends,” that support and shape this message of a “new humanity.”

1. What God has done for each of us personally and individually: Through Christ He extends salvation—complete, total, and never-ending—to all who accept Him as their Savior. He says: “I am not going to hold your sins and transgressions against you. Christ has taken care of that; He paid for it when He died on the cross. And that is enough.” By this act—by this means—He says, we have been reconciled with God.

2. God wants us to tell the world about His salvation: I want you to be my witnesses—my “ambassadors”—says God. Your assignment is to tell everyone who is a stranger to Jesus Christ that God is offering a fresh start, a new start, to every man, woman, and child. This is the “new humanity” He offers, and it is different from anything you have been before. It has to do with basic values and qualities of life. This is the witness you have to bring to the unbelieving world, He says. And I don’t want you to stop doing it until I come again. In fact, I will not come back again until you have done this.

These form the bookends for this new humanity—the personal gift of salvation in Christ, and His second coming, when the full benefit of this gift will be realized. Today we live between these two moments. God says to us: Because of what I have already done for you through the death of my son, Jesus Christ, I will begin now to create a “new humanity” of those who accept Jesus. I will do this in preparation for the second coming of My Son, at which time it will be completed.

Seventh-day Adventists are well familiar with the truth of Christ’s second coming. It has defined us as a community since we began 160 years ago. It is a truth that is solidly based on Scripture. Therefore, we know that His second coming is not an imaginary idea. We know that it is not an unrealistic, vague, existential notion. We know that it will be a real event in time, just as real as His first coming. We know that it will end the ongoing process of history. We know that it is only after the second coming of Christ that we will discover what it really means for Him to “make all things new” (see Rev. 21). If this is not clear to you, or if you do not believe this, you have a major problem with Scripture.

New Relationships

We are people who have been reconciled to God by Christ’s death, and who are awaiting the full consummation of that reconciliation at Christ’s second coming. And so now the big question is: How is this meant to shape our relationship with other people?

Christ says, through the apostle: I am sending you out and I want you to be My ambassadors. Clearly, then, our life and our mission mandate involve relationships with people on a comprehensive, grand scale. How is that to be?

Reconciliation with God translates into reconciliation between people—people who, for one reason or another, have been estranged and hostile to each other. It is not enough to preach reconciliation between an individual and God; there has to be reconciliation between people. It is with this in mind that God says: My intention is to make of you “a new humanity” (see Eph. 2:11-18).

What does this “new humanity” look like? “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17, NIV). The new humanity has a new attitude in relationships with other people; in Paul’s words: “From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view” (2 Cor. 5:16, NIV). The world of prejudices looks at the external—what immediately meets the eye—and judges you on that basis. That, says Paul, will not do for reconciled people. We do not value people by external considerations such as wealth, status, position, education, race, color of skin, language, culture, tribal identity, gender, or age.

We are a global church. How is the church in your country doing in this regard? People are on the move, and we are constantly in contact with people who are different from us. Do the differences bother you? Some people we meet are dispossessed by war, some are victims of poverty, and others are just seeking better opportunities for their children. We meet them by the millions in the more highly developed countries. Wars, poverty, or ethnic persecution, whether it be in the Balkans, in Eastern Europe, in Sudan, in the Middle East, in the rest of Africa, or in Asia, have set masses of people on the move.

How do we deal with this flood of “strangers”? Is it the flood—the fact there are so many—that is the problem, or is it that they are “strangers”? What if they are Adventists? Do our basic sentiments change? Yes, I know, we are to treat with particular kindness those who are our brothers and sisters in faith, but we also have an obligation to relate to people just simply because they are human beings—whether in the faith or out of it.

In Ephesians 2:11 Paul speaks of the “circumcision” and the “uncircumcision.” The setting is the barrier between Gentiles and Jews. The Jews called the Gentiles the “uncircumcision”—a description of contempt, because the Jews had nothing but contempt for the Gentiles. There was a saying among the Jews that God created the Gentiles to be the fuel for the fires of hell. Until Christ came the barriers between Jews and Gentiles were absolute. Marriage could not cross that line. Even to enter a Gentile house was for a Jew to become unclean. Before Christ, the barriers were up. After Christ, the barriers are down.

The Gentiles had no hope of the Messiah. They were described as being “separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants” (Eph. 2:12, NIV). They were considered to be without promise, without hope, without God, and without a future. To the Gentiles history was cyclical—it was going nowhere. By contrast, to the Jews history was a march toward God. Even in their most bitter and defeated moments, the Jews never doubted that the Messiah would come and the future would be glorious.

What does it mean to be a stranger to the covenants on which the promises were made? Israel was the covenant people. They believed that God had handpicked them in preference to all other peoples. He said: “I will take you to me for a people” (Ex. 6:7, KJV). This was both a privilege and a responsibility. It involved keeping the law that God gave them. And they affirmed: “All the words which the Lord has said we will do” (Ex. 24:3, 7). It was a grave and serious commitment, but it gave to the Jews a special consciousness of being the chosen people of God. This is a mind-set Paul was well aware of, for it was part of his own heritage and culture. It is a mind-set that could be a problem.

Maybe it is good to pause just for a moment and reflect on what it does to you and me if we believe we are God’s handpicked people. Is it wrong to believe we are God’s movement of destiny? I think not, but the big question is: What does it do to our self-consciousness and to our relationships with other people? How genuinely open and caring can we be toward others? Can we function in an inoffensive way as witnesses for God?

No More Barriers

Paul continues, and here we see the “newness”: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ…. He has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph. 2:13, 14, NIV). This “dividing wall” is a symbol from the Temple. There was the court of the Gentiles; then there was the court of women; then the court of the Israelites; followed by the court of the priests and the Most Holy Place. It all had to do with access to God’s presence. No foreigner could go into the inner courts of the Temple, and for someone from another nation to violate the sanctity of the Most Holy Place would result in death.

This kind of religious or cultural barrier was not unique to the Jews. The Greeks had the same as they related to the “barbarians,” on whom they similarly looked with contempt. Refugees, people—foreigners—who come from a foreign land, are very commonly viewed with suspicion. Consciously or unconsciously we may ask: “What luggage, in terms of crime or even just different cultural habits, do they carry?” There is a saying: “Unknown makes unloved.” Is this the kind of measured apprehension we have toward foreigners who come and invade our space?

But the text says that people reconciled to God relate to other human beings differently. “From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.” That is a foundational statement for us as Seventh-day Adventists to take with us as we relate individually to people who are different from us. It is true in respect to how we view anybody, but it is all the more true about how we view people who are part of our spiritual community. In the church, an international and cross-cultural community, we see and treat diversity as an enrichment factor, not as something negative. Racial discrimination and a sense of racial superiority do not belong within the Seventh-day Adventist Church. A sense of respect or disrespect must not arise from either wealth or poverty, formal education or none, public position or the lack of such. We will treat all people with a sense of respect and dignity, for we are all children of God.

We have in so many countries around the world a considerable number of “ethnic” or national churches. They are churches to which people, immigrants or refugees, can come and taste and feel a bit of their own home culture, speak their own language, sing their own songs, and nurture much-needed social links. That is the reality we live with in which people are on the move, and many of them are our brothers and sisters. That is how we must accept those who have come into our areas—into our space. “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household” (Eph. 2:19, NIV).

Being reconciled to God causes barriers to be gone! As God reached out to His reconciled people and embraced them, so reconciled people reach out to each other and embrace. Being “reconciled” is inclusive, affirming, and nonjudgmental. Yes, they may come into your space; yes, they may take your job; yes, they may eat your food; but we are joined as human beings by values that are greater.

I have to come back to what I have commented on many times before, namely the engagement of youth in the life of our local congregations. We say: “They are too young. They lack experience.” I say: experience is overrated. Get the right personal qualities and personality. Experience will come with exposure to the assignment. Inclusion, affirmation, and empowerment come first. Only after you have done that do you come to the next question: are they able to do it? You make sure first that the spiritual gifts, personal values, and commitment are in place. And then, let us help them to be able!

Paul’s discussion of the removal of barriers among God’s people is in the context of unity. Suppose two people have a quarrel and a difference. How can that be resolved? The surest way to bring the two sides together is through a mediator—someone whom they both love and respect. That is what Christ is. He is our peace. He heals broken relationships. He reconciles (Eph. 2:14). It is God’s plan that the people who share faith and hope, and who live in anticipation of Christ’s second coming, should be bonded and united as one. This is a sacred bond ministered to by the Holy Spirit. These are Paul’s words: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3, NIV). This is why Christ, during the last few hours He was with His disciples before His death, underscored repeatedly the importance of unity. He prayed: “… that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me…. May they be brought to complete unity” (John 17:21-23, NIV). The catalyst that brings this about is the love ministered by the Holy Spirit.

When Paul makes the point that Christ made “a new humanity out of the two,” he chooses the word for “new” (kainos), which means a new quality (not new in time), meaning “newness” of a different kind. The newness that Christ achieved is not that He made all Gentiles into Jews or Jews into Gentiles. By becoming reconciled to God one does not become deculturized or denaturalized; you don’t lose your racial, tribal, national, or cultural characteristics. You just become, additionally, what you were not before: citizens of God’s everlasting kingdom. People on both sides of the previous dividing line have been reconciled to God. Through Christ people from “all sides” have equal access to the Father (Eph. 2:18).

By what language does the Bible describe the relationship between reconciled people? “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Eph. 4:2, NIV); “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger” (Eph. 4:31, NIV); “Do nothing out of selfish ambition … but in humility consider others better than yourselves” (Phil. 2:3, NIV); “As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with … kindness…. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another” (Col. 3:12, 13, NIV); “Live in harmony…. Do not repay evil with evil” (1 Peter 3:8, 9, NIV); “God has called us to live in peace” (1 Cor. 7:15, NIV). Living in peace is the commission that the Lord Himself gave when He said: “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matt. 5:9).

Pardoning Grace

This all demonstrates the different kind of person that you and I are meant to be. In addition to the word “love,” the one word that catches my attention more than any other in a reconciled community is the word “forgiveness.” It is difficult to find any word that describes the Christian attitude better than the readiness to forgive. We have all been faulted; we all need forgiveness. As Albert Schweitzer wrote: “Why do I forgive anyone? I must forgive the lies directed against myself, because my own life has been so many times blotted by lies; I must forgive the lovelessness, the hatred, the slander, the fraud, the arrogance which I encounter since I myself have so often lacked love, hated, slandered, defrauded, and been arrogant.”¹

We have this in common: we are all sinners in need of forgiveness!

“Forgiveness” does not trivialize sin; it heals the damage and hurt caused by it. That is as true for the relationship between God and humanity as it is for the relationships between people.

Listen to the inspired words of the Lord’s servant: “The ground of all forgiveness is found in the unmerited love of God, but by our attitude toward others we show whether we have made that love our own…. He who is unmerciful toward others shows that he himself is not a partaker of God’s pardoning grace.”²

“In the consciousness of sins forgiven there is inexpressible peace and joy and rest…. ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.’ … Ps. 23:4.”³

God, who reconciled us to Himself in Christ Jesus, has appointed us, as His ambassadors, to be ministers of reconciliation. That is our assignment, our mission, until He comes again when we shall see Him face to face, as literally as we see and greet each other here today, and we shall hear from Him the blessed words: “Well done, good and faithful servant! … Come and share your master’s happiness” (Matt. 25:23, NIV).

Source: AdventistsWorld.com
Author: Jan Paulsen is president of the General 
Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. References: ¹ A. Schweitzer, Civilization and Ethics, II, p. 260. ² Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 251. ³ Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, pp. 267, 268.

Adventist Church tightens its belt

Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders announced financial restraints and cutbacks to deal with the current economic situation, ranging from delaying pay increases and budgeted increases in appropriations to reducing travel budgets and relocating executive meetings. Also, a hiring freeze is in effect for the church's General Conference, one of several entities at the church's headquarters building near Washington, D.C.

The moves come in response to global economies facing declines in stock market value, a credit crunch and increased unemployment rates, realities that could significantly affect tithe and other contributions to local congregations and administrative offices worldwide.

Church finance officers will review the church's budget in mid-February, shortly after new tithe and offerings figures will be available. Leaders emphasized the church was not in a "crisis" mode, but making short-term changes until they have a clearer understanding of where the economy and financial markets are headed.

"We believe that the time frame is not long," said the church's treasurer, Bob Lemon. "If we felt this was going to last 3 to 5 years or was permanent we could look at other changes. But we can cover for a short period of time until we have a clearer picture."

Officers announced the approved measures Monday, November 17, during a special meeting with employees following regularly scheduled worship in the building's auditorium.

Leaders also said they valued employees' sense of security in their work and would do their "utmost" to protect it.

Changes include:

• Keeping 2009 wages at the 2008 rate for General Conference salaried staff and hourly employees. Normal step increases for those not at the maximum of their pay grade will still be implemented.
• A 20 percent reduction in travel budget for GC staff.
• Delaying a $3.5 million supplemental budget for the church's Kenya-based Adventist University of Africa until after a mid-2009 review. The Executive Committee approved the supplement during Annual Council in October.
• Holding off a scheduled 3 percent increase in appropriations to world Division regions and institutions until after a review in three months.
• Holding the April Executive Committee's Spring Meeting inhouse instead of at the church's Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama. While the Executive Committee generally meets outside of Washington once every five years, committee members would already be in Washington for pre-meetings, leaders said.
• Shortening the President's Executive Administrative Council meeting and holding it at the church's headquarters instead of at an offsite location.
• Delaying the implementation of a document management system.
  

Lemon announced that future construction of the Hope Channel/Adventist Television Network studio will proceed because of signed contracts, which would be expensive to break.

He also announced that the hiring freeze and travel budget reduction would not apply to field staff of the General Conference Auditing Service, an entity that would have to otherwise hire external auditors to complete audits.

The restraints come a month after the Executive Committee voted to give the Administrative Committee the ability to withhold implementation of some aspects of budgets.

The Administrative Committee will conduct a major review of the restraints by February 17, with subsequent reports every two months following.

Church finance officers have continually monitored the economy. In September, church investment manager Roy Ryan said the church was not changing its investment strategy, maintaining a conservative, long-term approach for retirement funds.

"The Lord and His people are immensely faithful, even when they face hardships," church world president Jan Paulsen said at Monday's meeting. "So we go into the future with assurance, but at the same time with a sense of responsibility that we will have been prudent and careful".

"We praise the Lord and are privileged to serve Him, also in difficult times," he said.

Source: ANN Adventist News Network

FRIDAY FAX November 21, 2008

click here and see on the NAD website

InFOCUS adventist news. November 21, 2008

Four Lessons From the Potter’s House. By Keisha McKenzie

An ancient metaphor rich with meaning for today

All through Scripture prophets and preachers paint 
 portraits of God. David, Ezekiel, John, and Paul all 
 write of our shepherding Lord, while Jesus pictures God sowing seeds and tending vines. As a nation of shepherds and farmers, Israel understood these images, which show God working in, for, and through His people.

But the Bible also describes the Lord as a potter, an image we rarely explore.

Said Isaiah, “O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand” (Isa. 64:8, KJV).* And in Jeremiah God reminds His straying children, “You are in my hands just like clay in the potter’s hands” (Jer. 18:6). This image, which once spoke most clearly to the ancients, can also speak to us today, no matter where we live.

Most of the Bible’s potter metaphors fall into two categories: (a) judgment on the wicked, and (b) restoration of the righteous. When God thunders His judgment, He destroys a clay pot, sometimes by smashing it on the ground: “You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Ps. 2:9). However, when God displays His restoration, it comes by way of creating a pot of clay. In Jeremiah 18 God the Potter is constructive and purposeful. He’s at His potter’s wheel, making a vessel.

God told Jeremiah, “Go down to the potter’s house, where I will give you my message” (Jer. 18:2). Visiting the potter’s house with Jeremiah, we too may learn lessons God wants to teach us.

Lesson 1: The need for the Holy Spirit

One Bible dictionary explains that clay becomes “increasingly miry and workable as water is added, and more fixed as the mixture dries.” Its nature changes when it has been touched by water.¹ Clay particles won’t cohere without water, and if they won’t stick together, the potter can’t shape them. Water—that softening, binding agent—represents the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus declares in John 7:37-39 that “whoever is thirsty should come to me and drink,” John tells us that He “said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in Him were going to receive.” That Spirit, as Paul says, brings oneness to God’s people: “Do your best to preserve the unity which the Spirit gives by means of the peace that binds you together” (Eph. 4:3). As the Spirit comes to believers, “He causes them to transcend human prejudices of culture, race, sex, color, nationality, and status.”² The Spirit unifies us.

Our first lesson from the potter’s house is that we need the water of the Spirit so we can be malleable—so we can be used by God.

Lesson 2: We’re not yet pots.

Scripture calls us clay. And though there was a chemical similarity between clay and a pot, the Bible made a clear (theological) distinction between them. We may look at a pot as fixed clay, while clay itself is a pot in progress.

Pottery itself is neither hardy nor recyclable. If you mishandle a vessel and it shatters, the worthless fragments won’t disintegrate. Ancient potters would collect and dump them at special waste grounds—like the heap near which Job sat while scraping his itching skin (Job 2:8). The Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem was one such site, a place where the city disposed of its waste, including its broken pottery. That’s where God takes Jeremiah.

As a lesson to Judah (and to us), God relegates a clay pot to this rubbish heap—not just dumping it, but destroying it. As on God’s command Jeremiah breaks the clay jar, God explains: “I will break this people and this city, and it will be like this broken clay jar that cannot be put together again” (Jer. 19:11). God decrees there will be no restoration for the vessel. It “cannot be made whole again”—not with adhesive tape or superglue or by any other human agency. The pot shatters. Its “probation” is over.

Like Jeremiah’s clay pot, each of us will face one of two futures. Either we’ll be shattered in the antitypical Valley of Hinnom, or we will be perfect vessels, gathered for use in God’s House—either eternal destruction or eternal service (Mal. 4:1; John 14:2, 3). God, our Potter, will soon complete His constructive work in us, and probation’s door will close.

So our second lesson is that we are not yet pots: we are still clay in God’s hands. While our probation remains open, God our Potter still works with us, on us, and in us, molding and forming “as seems good to Him” (Jer. 18:4).

Lesson 3: We must pass through the fire.

To create his vessel, the ancient potter would tear the clay from the earth, throw it on the ground, and trample on it (Isa. 41:25). Next he would soften the clay with water and knead it into a paste. He would then slap the kneaded clay firmly onto the center of his potter’s wheel, a flat disk mounted horizontally on a vertical rod (Jer. 18:3). By holding the turning clay and manipulating it with his fingers, thumbs, and palms, the potter would form his vessel.

Thus formed, the new vessel could harden in the sunlight. But if so, it would buckle and fall apart when filled with liquid. That is why all ancient potters baked their product in a kiln, a special furnace that might easily reach 2700°F. After being trampled and kneaded and poked and prodded and spun around at dizzying speeds, the clay was finally baked in a fiery furnace.

Not a calming, delightful experience, but that’s what faces us as clay. Life’s “fiery trials”—debt and divorce, decay and disorder, pain and death—assault us all. But we have the consolation that there’s an eternal purpose behind it all. Said Ellen White: “The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the Lord Jesus sees in us something precious which He desires to develop…. He does not cast worthless stones into His furnace. It is valuable ore that He refines.”³ Through our “fiery trials” we share Christ’s pain “so that [we] may be full of joy when His glory is revealed” (1 Pet. 4:12, 13).

Lesson 4: The hotter the furnace, 
the finer the vessel.

Earthenware, though brightly colored and glazed, chips easily if it is baked at lower temperatures. Such vessels have none of the inner strength needed to withstand pressure or vigorous service. Stoneware, much harder and stronger, bakes in a furnace nearly twice as hot as that for earthenware. But porcelain, baked between 2400 and 2700 degrees Fahrenheit, is the finest and most expensive type of pottery.

Yet a potter doesn’t arbitrarily require monstrous degrees of endurance from any of his vessels. Indeed, different kinds of pots require different doses of heat, and in the Master Potter’s house no vessel receives more heat than it needs. Still, it takes “fiery trial” to produce fine pottery, and the product of the greatest “pain” is porcelain, one of whose characteristics is that it “sings” when hit. Like John Huss and Jerome, who sang at the stake, or Paul and Silas, who sang in a Philippi jail, Christians are human porcelain. Day by day through the Spirit, believers develop this Christlike resonance, this total rejection of revenge, this ability to love under pressure.

And porcelain has a second characteristic: when near a light source, it channels that light. In the same way, having come through the fire, we channel Christ’s light to the world’s darkness (Matt. 5:16).

At His wheel, through His Spirit, the Master Potter can shape you. He sees you not as “marred clay,” but as fine porcelain. He promises to restore you. And because “[He] is faithful … he will do it” (1 Thess. 5:24, NIV).

At His House, God your Potter is waiting for you. Will you meet Him there?

Link: AdventistWorld.com
Author: Keisha McKenzie, who describes herself as “clay on the Potter’s wheel,” writes from Mandeville, Jamaica.

*All scriptural references, unless otherwise indicated, are from Today’s English Version. ¹ Seventh-dayAdventist Bible Dictionary, sv. “Clay,” p214. ² F. D. Nichol, ed., SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 1021; cf. Seventh-day Adventists Believe, p. 175. ³ The Ministry of Healing, p. 471. ⁴ White, The Great Controversy, pp. 109-115; Acts 16:26.

MOST the movie

MOST, Academy Awards (Oscar) nominated best live-action short film and winner of several awards. An amazing story... tells the story of a father who is forced to choose between the life of their beloved son or the salvation of a train full of people. Surprised how this carried the story, characters and music, which makes the message more impactful.

It would be very important that the whole world saw this short, it will surely move the fibers intimate of many souls. And if they could fully comprehend the message, surely would be changed by that message. This is really a reflection in the form of video...

...is the sacrifice of God the Father giving his son Jesus, in order to save many, or you and me.

More information on the film in www.MostTheMovie.com

FRIDAY FAX November 14, 2008

click here and see on the NAD website

InFOCUS adventist news. November 14, 2008

2008 NAD Year-End Meeting

The purpose of the 2008 North American Division Year-end Meeting, held November 6-10, is to consider budget requests, make appropriations, as well as adopt policies that are necessary for the operation of the Division. Here are a few glimpses to this year's meeting.

• Don McLaferty shared with delegates the alarming statistics about age of people in the US and how it relates to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America: median age in the United States (2008): 39 years, median age in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America (2007): 58, and median age in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America (2008): 66... continue in coming days.

InFOCUS adventist news. November 7, 2008

AMAZING GRACE. Wintley Phipps

MORE TO FEAR FROM WITHIN. By Clifford Goldstein

I'll never forget what it was like, almost about 28 years ago, when I first became an Adventist. Having come out of pretty much a secular atheistic (and Jewish) background, I faced quite a shock, culturally and intellectually, when I joined the SDA church. Unless you've been there, you have no idea how large a gap I had to cross. Yet, it was, by far, the greatest thing to ever happen to me.

I, still, too, can remember being in bed at night, unable to sleep because my heart was racing in awe, excitement, trepidation: Wow, there really is a God! Wow, this God died for me! Wow, God has raised up this church, and I am part of it! Wow, the Sabbath is really Saturday, and one day the "mark of the beast" will come!

Of course, not too long after I joined the SDA church I got a glimpse of what was going on in it. Though I hardly expected perfection (I was cynical enough to know better than that), what I didn't expect was to find, almost from the start, were SDAs who were openly skeptical about teachings of the church itself and seemed bent on doing their best to promote their skepticism, much to the detriment of the church.

How right EGW was when she wrote:

"We have far more to fear from within than from without. The hindrances to strength and success are far greater from the church itself than from the world. Unbelievers have a right to expect that those who profess to be keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, will do more than any other class to promote and honor, by their consistent lives, by their godly example and their active influence, the cause which they represent. But how often have the professed advocates of the truth proved the greatest obstacle to its advancement! The unbelief indulged, the doubts expressed, the darkness cherished, encourage the presence of evil angels, and open the way for the accomplishment of Satan's devices." (1SM 122.3)

I mean, we have one dear brother, in the blog across the way, advocating evolution. It astounds me how anyone thinking evolution is true can't see how that would, completely, totally and categorically annul Adventism or anything even close to it.

Almost from the start, I had to deal with SDAs who were attacking one way or another the ministry of EGW. If that woman weren't of God, and her ministry not of God, then, folks, there is no God--and of all people, SDAs should know that. And yet, what? Those among us have been and still continue to be some of her biggest critics and scolds. (Most likely, I guess, because she points out their favorite sins and they don't want to be reminded of them.)

And then there's the horrible perfidious doctrine of the pre-advent judgment, or the investigative judgment. I mean, unless you believe in once-saved-always-saved, unless you believe that once a person accepts Jesus, then there's no way that person can call fall away, then what's the problem with the idea of a final judgment, in which God separates the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats, among the professed followers of Jesus? Seems very biblical to me. And yet, the tirades, the accusations, the calumny raised by those in the church against that doctrine never seem to end.

I could go on and on. On a sister website I saw someone blogged about the "The Myth of the Flood" or some of silliness like that. I assume the person was an Adventist, or at least a professed one. I remember, too, on another blog, I mentioned that those who believe in evolution probably aren't going to stand for Sabbath when the "mark of the beast" comes. An SDA, a professor at one of our schools, answered something to the effect of, "Well, no one else believes in Sunday as the mark of the beast, so why should we?"

Brilliant, just brilliant.

It's sad, has been from the day I first encountered it, that the ones who have assaulted my beliefs the most haven't been pork-eating-Sunday-keeping-eternal-torment-in-hell Protestants but, instead, SDAs, or those who claim to be. And, I figure, it will only get worse, not better, before all those things that they mock come to pass, and if the past is any precursor to the future, they'll continue to mock, even when the predicted events unfold right before their eyes.

The little old lady was, par usual, right: "We have far more to fear from within than from without. "

No kidding.

Link: AdventistToday.com, posted November 1st, 2008
Author: Clifford Goldstein

InFOCUS adventist news. October 30, 2008

FRIDAY FAX October 31, 2008

RESOURCES

• SUPPORT DISCOVERIES ‘08 — Pray for the series. Invite friends to attend with you or to watch it in your own home. It began Friday night, October 24, with 1050 host sites. View it on the Hope Channel at 7 pm, ET, in streaming video on www.forestlakechurch.org or down-load archived programs from www.Discoveries08.org or the Forest Lake site starting at the end of this week.

• 2009 YEAR OF EVANGELISM (YE09) GOAL TO BAPTIZE 100,000 IN 2009 is more than twice the highest number of baptisms in any previous year. It is hoped that every church in the North American Division will hold at least two soul-winning projects for during 2009. Contact: http://www.nadadventist.org/article.php?id=323 and www.nadadventist.org/article.php?id=274 to refresh your memory about this initiative. The official web site for YE09 is www.yearofevangelism.org. Please alert your pastors and church leaders to register their involvement.

• CHURCH PASTORS ARE ESPECIALLY INVITED TO ATTEND THE NAD MINISTRIES CONVENTION in January — Encourage pastors in your conference to attend. Check out the more-than-40 excellent seminars planned just for them in the Ministerial section of the convention web site. Encourage pastors in your conference to register before the holiday rush. Contact: www.comeseegotell.org for more information and to register.

• SEMINAR, HOW TO IMPLEMENT PASSIONATE SPIRITUALITY in the Local Church will be held November 16, 8 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. at Andrews University. Hear the story of the church that went from 40 to 500 in attendance through the implementation of passionate spirituality. Contact: 269-471-3408. Material Fee, US$10.00. Instructor: Joseph Kidder, DMin

• CONNECT AND RECONNECT DURING 2009 — About 1 million people have quit attending the Adventist church regularly. To reconnect and invite them back will tie in well with the 2009 evangelism initiative. Creative Ministries supplies training and resources to help church members reconnect with former members or those who have taken a break from active church attendance. Contact: http://creativeministry.org/index.php. The coming holidays are excellent times to reconnect.

• THE 2008 INNOVATIVE CHURCH OF THE YEAR WINNER, awarded at the 2008 National Conference on Innovation, was the Hillsboro Spanish Church in Portland, Ore. The church attributes much of its success in the community to their relevant community outreach projects such as food banks, health fairs, and free haircuts. One out of every 15 people in the community is attending the church.

• TALENTED MUSICIANS WANTED to perform at the 2010 GC Session in Atlanta, Georgia. Contact: www.gcsession.org/music to apply. Applications must be received by January 31.

INSIDE SCOOP

• JERE PATZER DIED ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, after a long battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He had been the president of the North Pacific Union since 1996. Contact: “In Memory Of...” at the North American Division web site, www.nadadventist.org for more information.

• FOR NEWS ABOUT ANNUAL COUNCIL, remember to check ANN News at http://news.adventist.org/.

UPCOMING EVENTS For a more complete list of upcoming events go to www.nadadventist.org/article.php?id=280

• NET 2008, with Mark Finley live via satellite, October 24 - November 29, Forest Lake Church, Apopka, FL - www.acn.info
• Women & the Word, October 31, and LeaderShaping '08, November 2, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI - www.leadershaping.blogspot.com and www.plusline.org
• “From This Day Forward/Seattle” Marriage Conference, November 8, Seattle, WA – www.adventistfamilyministries.com
• UCAA 4th Annual Music Conference, November 13-15, Nashville, Tennessee - ucaa@ucaaonline.org
• NAD Adventist Association of Camping Professionals, December 4-6, Pine Lake Retreat Center, FL – http://www.adventistcamps.org, http://www.adventistcamps.org
• Instep for Life Begins Division-wide, Jan 1 -- www.instepforlife.com
• Youth & Young Adult Ministries Leadership Training, Jan 16-18, Spanish “Gente Joven”/East Coast – www.innovation2009.com
• Adventist Ministries Convention 2009 - Jan 18-21, Myrtle Beach, NC – www.comeseegotell.org

COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT. Seventh-day Adventist CHURCH MANUAL

Importance of Effective Communication—Through the years divine instruction has come to the church concerning the importance of using contemporary communication media in spreading the gospel. We have been counseled:

“We must take every justifiable means of bringing the light before the people. Let the press be utilized, and let every advertising agency be employed that will call attention to the work.”—Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 36.
“Means will be devised to reach hearts. Some of the methods used in this work will be different from the methods used in the work in the past. . . .”—Evangelism, p. 105.

Organization—The organization of this ministry calls for the enlistment of support from every denominational worker, layperson, and Seventh-day Adventist institution. The Communication Department promotes the use of a sound program of public relations and all contemporary communication techniques, sustainable technologies, and media in the promulgation of the everlasting gospel. It calls for the election of a Communication secretary in every local church and, where needed, a Communication Committee.

Communication Secretary’s Work—The church Communication secretary is responsible for the gathering and dissemination of news. As opportunity presents, the secretary will place on the air persons of interest in interview-type programs, and arrange for news features on such persons. Every effort will be made to maintain a friendly, cooperative relationship with editors and other communications/media personnel. (See Notes, #16, p. 139.)
The Communication secretary will cooperate with the conference/ mission/field Communication secretary in carrying out the plans of the conference/mission/field and reporting as requested and will also present periodic reports to the church business meeting.

Communication Committee—In a large church a Communication Committee may more adequately handle the many facets of the public relations and communication program of the church than can a secretary working alone. This committee, with the Communication secretary as chairperson, will be elected at the time of the general election of church officers. Individual members of the committee may be assigned specific communication responsibilities, such as working with the press, with media producers and online personnel, and with the internal media of the church. Where there is a church institution in the area, a member of its public relations staff should be invited to sit with the committee. (See Notes, #17, p. 139.)
The pastor, who is primarily responsible for the communication program of his church, will work closely in an advisory capacity with the Communication secretary and/or the Communication Committee.

Relation to Other Departments of Church—To serve the church properly, the Communication secretary should be alerted regarding plans and scheduled events. Any auxiliary unit of the church organization mayappoint an individual to provide the Communication secretary or Communication Committee with news of that particular department’s activities.

In Large Adventist Centers—If several churches in a city arrange for a central Communication Committee, each Communication secretary should be a member and should work in harmony with any general plan that will better coordinate the handling of news and other media activities for the several churches. The establishment of this committee would be initiated by the conference/mission/field Communication director. Meetings of such a central committee would be called and presided over by a chairperson selected by the group.
The Communication Departments of the division, union, and local conference/mission/field provide detailed instruction for Communication secretaries and, by their printed materials, correspondence, and other means, give constant help and inspiration.

Qualifications—The Communication secretary should be carefully chosen for (1) the ability rightly to represent the church, (2) sound judgment, (3) organizational ability, (4) ability to put facts down on paper in attractive and persuasive grammatical form, (5) willingness to carry out an assignment, (6) ability to meet people.

Seventh-day Adventist CHURCH MANUAL, p.121-123