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The Secret to the Adventist Life Style
This commentary is wrapped in autobiography and sins against the quarterly by snitching verses 13-15 from last week’s lesson to add to our passage for this week. So we’ll be working on Galatians 5:13-25.
The autobiographical part came several years ago when I was locked in a sporadic but contentious email exchange with a former student. Feeling the need of a Sabbath truce one Friday afternoon, I went looking for the fruit of the spirit passage, intending to use it as the basis of my appeal. I don’t recall any great breakthrough in the resulting dialogue, but I did discover some very good things in Galatians 5 that have stayed with me ever since.
In the first instance, I rediscovered something that I’m sure I knew before but forgot, namely, that the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is singular. The love- joy- peace sequence doesn’t represent a basket of nine different fruits. It’s just one fruit. In other words, one may expect the Spirit to guide God’s children into a experience marked by all nine traits.
The second startling discovery was that Paul, like Jesus in Matthew 7:12 – “In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you” – summarizes the “law” in terms of Jesus’ second command, not the first. That wouldn’t be surprising in a crowd of left-of-center Christians who generally are much more eager to talk about duty to humans than duty to God. But to see both Jesus and Paul zero in on the human side of things somehow seemed surprising to me.
Modern liberals, of course, depart far from the New Testament model when they subvert the divine in order to exalt the human, a move undoubtedly triggered by exasperation with those conservatives who diminish the human in order to exalt the divine. It is interesting to note that early in her experience Ellen White actually seemed to side with those conservatives. “Human love,” she wrote in 1877, “is a sacred attribute; but should not be allowed to mar our religious experience, or draw our hearts from God.”1 But by the time that she was writing the Conflict of the Ages series she had seen a clearer vision: “Love to man is the earthward manifestation of the love of God”2 and “It is the fragrance of our love for our fellow-men that reveals our love for God.”3 In short, love to God and love to our fellow humans are not competing forces. When we love people we are loving God. That idea lies at the very heart of Paul’s message in Galatians 5. And that was an essential part of my third discovery. For there I saw that anything driving a wedge between us and those around us is of the “flesh,” and “flesh” in Galatians 5 is much broader in application than just sexual sin, a point that is illustrated by his laundry list of 15 “works of the flesh.” Using the words from the NRSV, we can cluster these fleshly works under four headings. Sexual sins do in fact head the list: fornication, impurity, and licentiousness. The second category involves religious perversions: idolatry and sorcery. The third category includes a hefty list of 8 items that we could put under the heading of “contentious behavior”: enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, and envy. The last two items on Paul’s list, drunkenness and carousing, are similar but could be called “disruptive contentious behavior.”
In one sense or another all 15 items involve relationships between people. But that big chunk under the heading of “contentious behavior” really caught my eye. I suppose I could lock myself in my house and let those nasty behaviors unfold or explode. But that’s not what usually happens. They describe unhappy relations between people. Paul then takes us immediately to the “fruit of the spirit”: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here again is a list that almost always involves relationships between people. I know what kind of world I want to live in. But then the hard question: How does my behavior contribute to one or the other of these two worlds, one marked by the works of the flesh, the other by the fruit of the Spirit? And asking that question helped me realize that this passage contains the secret to Adventist life-style, a secret which greatly simplifies the issues at the same time that it greatly complicates them. It simplifies by asking the question: Does a particular activity, behavior, or line of thinking contribute to the works of the flesh or to the fruit of the spirit? Painfully simple.
The complications come when I realize that my list of acceptable or forbidden behaviors may not be the same as yours because they don’t affect me in the same way that they affect you. Furthermore, my strong convictions about important things, both in and outside the church, so easily run afoul of the works of the flesh. “Righteous indignation,” for example, does not come under the heading of “fruit of the Spirit.” “Do you have a right to be angry?” God asked Jonah. “Yes,” groused the prophet, “angry enough to die.” Think again, Jonah, and think in terms of “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness....”
As I have reflected on my Adventist upbringing, I have realized that most of our life-style issues focus on things I shouldn’t do in connection with food, recreation, dress, or life in general. Usually, however, a list of negatives does not readily contribute to love, joy and peace. Mark Twain, hardly speaking as a Christian or an Adventist, highlights the problem with this grumble: “The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.” Is that unhappiness somehow linked with the early results of the Loma Linda health study indicating that Lacto-ovo vegetarians live 10 years longer on average than either the vegans or the carnivores? The extra dose of self-denial in a vegan diet may be telling. Some foods no doubt contribute to an early death. But worrying too much about food in general may accomplish the same deadly result. “If you are in constant fear that your food will hurt you,” Ellen White once counseled a sister, “it most assuredly will.”4 She also said: “It is important that we relish the food we eat.”5
Now I know that conversion often triggers remorse for a promiscuous and hedonistic life style and can result in the opposite extreme of a rigorous asceticism. All that must be factored into the life of the Adventist community if we are to grow together towards God’s kingdom. But it is too easy for us simply to compile a deadly list of negatives. Should we then simply dump all our “negatives”? Hardly. The last item in the fruit of the Spirit list is self-control, implying limits of some kind on certain ways of thinking and doing. In other words, a negative. But if my “negatives” are motivated out of love for other people, they are blessed by God. This illustration from C. S. Lewis isn’t a very Adventist one, because we don’t know much about the difference between high church and low church. But in his Screwtape Letters, Lewis uses that high church/low church tension to illustrate the proper role of “negatives” in the life of the believer. Screwtape, speaking on behalf of the demonic realm, makes this point to Wormwood, his devil-in-training nephew:
We have quite removed from men’s minds what that pestilent fellow Paul used to teach about food and other unessentials – namely, that the human without scruples should always give in to the human with scruples. You would think they could not fail to see the application. You would expect to find the “low” churchman genuflecting and crossing himself lest the weak conscience of his “high” brother should be moved to irreverence, and the “high” one refraining from these exercises lest he should betray his “low” brother into idolatry. And so it would have been but for our ceaseless labour. Without that, the variety of usage within the Church of England might have become a positive hotbed of charity and humility.6
When the limitations that I place on my behavior out of respect for others lead to love, joy, and peace in their lives, there can be a reflex reaction on me in the same direction. And that’s why this passage in Galatians 5 holds the key to Adventist life-style issues. I’ll illustrate with a “secular” example and a “religious” one.
On the secular front, it was an eye-opening experience to me to learn from a colleague the positive role that sports played in his early life. For him, the benefits were positive. My problem is that I am so terribly competitive that any form of competition does not contribute to love, joy, and peace in the world, not in my world or in anyone else’s. I can turn anything into a game with winners and losers. Who has the most watermelon seeds... Let’s guess how long it takes before the light turns... And on and on. If the stakes are high for major sporting events, my response is not likely to contribute to love, joy, and peace. Some softening has come with age, to be sure, perhaps illustrating what Dr. Charles Wittschiebe used to call “sanctification by senility.” Still I have to watch my behavior.
On the religious front, my sense of idealism is so high that I have to be careful about attending certain church functions. I have not been to a General Conference session, for example, in my adult years. It’s much safer for me to go to Scotland to pray. I’m grateful for good people who can help guide the church through troubled waters. But I know my vulnerability. In that connection I am haunted by Ellen White’s counsel to A. T. Jones, a real firebrand of an Adventist: “We long to see reforms,” she noted, “and because we do not see that which we desire, an evil spirit is too often allowed to cast drops of gall into our cup, and thus others are embittered. By our ill-advised words their spirit is chafed, and they are stirred to rebellion.”7 I must admit that I know far too much about that.
Finally, I must note that Ellen White’s amazing “diversity” quotes have helped me be less judgmental about others. The opening lines of the chapter “In Contact with Others,” in The Ministry of Healing are particularly helpful. In post-modern style she affirms: “Our understanding of truth, our ideas in regard to the conduct of life are not in all respects the same. There are no two whose experiences are like in every particular.” She goes on to spell out the implications: “The trials of one are not the trials of another. The duties that one finds light are to another most difficult and perplexing.”8
Others will not react to the Super Bowl or to the General Conference in session in the same ways that I do. Their battles may lie elsewhere. But instead of making one master list for all, let’s recognize that the bottom line is what counts: a community reflecting the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-discipline.”
By God’s grace we can help each other build that kind of community.
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San Diego Adventist Forum
Sigve Tonstad, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Religion, Loma Linda
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Such wisdom. Thank-you, Dr Thompson, for inspiring me to seek that good fruit.
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"be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good" titus 2:3
Thanks, Alden, for helping us to remember that years do (or should) add to our gentleness in relating to others. Hey, you are not the only one who would rather be in Scotland rather than attend, at least some, of the General Conference Sessions. I know something of what I speak. Paul's remarkable comparison of those who "walk in the Spirit" with those who do not (those who "fulfill the lust of the heart") is what separates the wheat and tares in the Judgment. The Judgment simply means "we all get what we chose."
Alden makes it very clear that our self-control made possible by the Spirit is Paul's (and our Lord's) good news that we all should salute and appreciate and live out today. Trying to reflect "the fruit" so that others will like us without the enabling, moment-by-moment, "walk in the Spirit" is a gloomy dead end. What a promise: Walking with the Spirit, "you do not do the things that you wish." Gal 5:17.
Alden, how long does one have to live before figuring all this out?
To be able to "let go" of our wishes to restrict other's freedom for the sake of religion should be the description of a mature individual. To live peacably with others gives both us and them freedom to choose, not by some unwritten or even written rule.
For some, we must divorce ourselves from a restrictive religious sytem that has been aggressive in monitoring human behaviors, and realize that we alone have the right and privilege to live with respect for everyone. After all, if we believe that man is God's highest creative act, we should always treat others with the same respect and understanding we wish for ourselves. To do otherwise, is to diminish God's final act in giving humans freedom to choose.
Elaine
While the political decisions are the first things that come to mind with regards to the General Conference sessions, it is the music and the prayers that I particularly enjoy. Effort is always made to include musicians from around the world and to have prayers offered in many different languages. The drama and beauty of music by a steel-drum orchestra, or a pan-flutist, prayer in a language that you have never heard of, let alone understand make for very poignant moments. It is from such incidents at GC sessions that I have come to know and appreciate the worldwide Adventist family.
The politics of it all, well, wherever people are deciding on how to organize their efforts there will always be politics. We have to learn how to be gracious and kind even in the midst of disagreements. That is very hard and can make one long for a trip to Scotland or anywhere else. . . . Jesus and Paul understood that, and that gives me hope, but also reminds me that we have issues to address as a community as well as individuals.
Thanks, Alden, for your reminder of what the Adventist Lifestyle is supposed to be.
Effort is always made to include musicians from around the world and to have prayers offered in many different languages. The drama and beauty of music by a steel-drum orchestra, or a pan-flutist, prayer in a language that you have never heard of, let alone understand make for very poignant moments. Bonnie Dwyer
Wouldn't it be telling and particularly fulfilling if the world church were to come together periodically to do just that, minus the political shuffling - just praying and singing to each other. Now that would be a unifying event.
Does a particular activity or behavior or line of thinking contribute to the flesh or to the fruit of the spirit. - Alden Thompson
That seems like a good method of training sanctified behavior. But shouldn't we be looking for more - shouldn't we, at some point, discard the training wheels, and be able to soar with inner beauty that comes from who we are, rather than what we choose? - too fine a fine point, perhaps. The thing is, a good person chooses the good; but good behavior doesn't always come from good people.
It's just that fruit grows naturally, and isn't produced with much effort of choice. The effort goes into nourishing the plant in good soil, sunshine, and water (of life, if you will). The fruit depends on where you grow the plant. Perhaps I'm over-sensitive to effort - nothing wrong with effort, but as C.S. Lewis also says, if our fruit depends on our effort to choose the good, then those of us with strong will-power will be hanging much superior looking fruit. I'm afraid the choices must spring from within as naturally as the well-nourished cherry tree glories in sweet cherries without any deliberation at all.
"a good person chooses the good; but good behavior doesn't always come from good people."
One's actions should flow from the heart, not from some expectations of how and what should be done.
When good people choose good, for them it is natural; when religion affects one's behavior there is no guarantee that the actions will be good. Much evil has been done, and is still being done under the guise of religion
Elaine
Gentle but penetrating counsel from a seasoned teacher of the Word. Thank you. Tom Z
Sirje,
Your comments above were truly wonderful to read. The Holy Spirit produces the good fruit in us, which is the result of being born again. The conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus says it all.
A law-based, or legalistic religion produces some good behavior, and some positive outcomes, but that's not the same result as being born again
carol f.
Among the most scathing rebukes in the Bible are the ones for shepherds that mislead the flock.
The "secret" to keeping the Adventist flock in line is to make them feel good and guilty for questioning the shepherds.
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Ezekiel: And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them.
So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.”
Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: “as I live,” says the Lord GOD, “surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock”— therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD!
Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them.” For thus says the Lord GOD: “Indeed I Myself will search for
My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day.
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I guess one has to be a certain fearless age to say that the Adventist shepherds have made prey of their sheep.
This is incontrovertible. This is present truth. The cup is full. No room to stuff any more of the social detritus of the last 150 years of abuse.
I just posted here & it didn't show up on the "Recent Comments" list to the right:
http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2011/11/27/hope-adventist-societies/#co...
Maggie,
That happened to me earlier today, but then turned up eventually.
carol f.
Thanks, Carol - looks like they're getting the kinks out of the system.
Dr. Thompson said: "But by the time that she was writing the Conflict of the Ages series she had seen a clearer vision...."
I believe that there is great significance in what Dr. Thompson said above in this sense: if one believes his statement, and I do, then it follows that, in order to make that discrimination, he had to be functioning at a higher spiritual level of discernment than the Adventist prophetess was when she made the earlier and the later statements he referred to.
I would say that Dr. Thompson is functioning at a, you might say, postformal spiritual level in order to be able to make that assessment, just as Piaget was functioning at a postformal intellectual level when he created his schema of human development.
IOW, one must have developmentally transcended the material in question in order to schematize it in a valid way.
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Piaget and Postformal Theory
It is important to distinguish between Piaget's theoretical framework and the products of that framework, in particular formal operations.
While the argument has just been made that formal operations is inadequate as a model for the activities that have most likely been operating in Western thinking for approximately a century, the same claim is not made about Piaget's theoretical framework.
Piaget advanced a complex theory of processes of assimilation, accommodation, and autoregulation that could only be formulated using postformal operations.
If Piaget's own explanatory system is explicable in terms of a higher level logic than that of formal operations, then it is the former, but not the latter logic that is of use to psychologists attempting to understand adult stages of development.
http://www.tiac.net/~commons/Four%20Postformal%20Stages.html
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The significance for Adventist thinking is vast, I believe.
If it is true that Dr. Thompson has accurately seen the qualitative spiritual difference, if not the progression (which I find arguable), in Ellen White's thinking, then it follows that his spiritual thinking transcends hers, simply because he has enough faith, and spiritual experience, to allow it to.
And it follows that anyone can similarly enter the priesthood of all believers, where all may prophesy, and exit the socially, spiritually and emotionally damaging authoritarian mindset, just by means of faith.
That is not at all to say that everyone must see-it-my-way-or-the-highway. People have a right to follow God in the way their hearts lead them. God grants us all freedom, and our growth is up to Him. He makes all things beautiful in His time.
However spiritual shepherds do not, in my opinion, have the right to manipulate other people's minds and withhold and distort information in order to control their parishioners consciences and behavior, and that is what has manifestly been the case in Adventism since dirt.
I will not be intimated by guilt into tamed, domesticated niceness and/or silence about that.
Christianity is not tapioca pudding, and Adventism does not have to remain a cult of personality, and neither does it have to repudiate Ellen White entirely.
It's really okay with God if we expand on what we've been given.
Thank you, Dr. Thompson, for being a way shower.
Just my thoughts.
"spiritual shepherds do not, in my opinion, have the right to manipulate other people's minds and withhold and distort information in order to control their parishioners consciences and behavior, and that is what has manifestly been the case in Adventism since dirt."
Maggie, if only this had been followed! What tragic consequences might have been avoided.
When placing EGW's writings on the highest pedestal in Adventism it has failed to recognize that few, very few, have the ability to process those books as you have described:
"in order to make that discrimination, he had to be functioning at a higher spiritual level of discernment than the Adventist prophetess was when she made the earlier and the later statements he referred to."
For the majority who have not developed that discernment, how has it been beneficial, or detrimental?
Elaine
Yes, Elaine, many thousands of tragic stories could have been happy stories of growth and Christian support.
Instead we have thousands of stories of Adventism dealing out crippling social sanctions against spiritual, emotional and intellectual growth, resulting in ever-widening spirals of family and corporate dysfunction and misery.
A million people in the NAD have left the church, according to the Review!
But everything is forgivable. We all are subject to human nature and capable of every kind of abuse, until we mature in Christ. And who can say they are mature? Certainly not I.
My hope is that Adventism can find empathy, benefit from these hard, hard experiences, and learn to think multidimensionally to include the necessities of human growth and development from prenatal to adult development as part of their theology.
When people are adequately nurtured and supported, the fruit of the spirit appears as by magic, and there will be no need to resort to Madison Avenue manipulations, for people will be drawn to such a fellowship to receive what Adventists have developed and are ready to share.
That's my vision. What's yours?
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Swami Beyondananda on Driving Your Own Karma:
Do you realize that the most powerful tool we have for manifesting our heart's desire is Tell-A-Vision?
No, I'm not talking about "Moonlighting" or "Die-Nasty" or the six-o'clock news.
I'm talking about you tell a vision to me, I tell a vision to you. That way, everybody becomes their own channel.
So don't always assume that father knows best, and for goodness sake, don't leave it to Beaver.
Forget your old taped programs. In the coming years, we are going back to live broadcasting.
You see, each of us is on the planet for a very important reason - and Tell-A-Vision helps us to find our special gift.
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Helping people find their special gifts is Dr. Thompson's speciality! He is a gift to the community, IMO.
Alden, the way you quote EGW as wise authority is misleading, for it cherry picks the best and neglect large sections of poor to bad theological advice.
For instance, repeatedly EGW ties appetite into the law of God and the Eden fall, neither of which is Scriptural. In her theology, food suppresses or in-vigor’s a Spirit filled life. After years of earnest study of EGW, I embraced “food religion?” Why was I so mislead? Because I believed what I was taught that EGW was the “Testimony of Jesus” and I desired with all my heart to please God. I would have been better off with general instruction to eat good whole foods and exercise then the heavy health rules that Ellen laid on me.
My guess is that about 15% or more of EGW’s writings are somehow related to food or appetite whereas in the Gospels it is 0%.
Neglect Health Reform—no Fruits of the Spirit: “No man can become a successful workman in spiritual things until he observes strict temperance in his dietetic habits. God cannot let His Holy Spirit rest upon those who, while they know how they should eat for health, persist in a course that will enfeeble mind and body” (CD 55). The reality is the opposite; those who eat poorly need more, not less of the Spirit, not to mention that the Spirit comes by faith not by diet reform. What about the 3rd world nations where the best food is unavailable?
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Dr. Thompson said:
But instead of making one master list for all, let’s recognize that the bottom line is what counts: a community reflecting the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-discipline.”
By God’s grace we can help each other build that kind of community.
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Death By Deletion, Adventist Health System IT Whistleblower Patricia Moleski Speaks Out:
"Data integrity doesn't exist...it's all about money...they want money."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F91hN9nR1KA
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The company sued her, she was shot at, her car was set on fire.
Adventism is deeply embedded in the world system. Does anyone seriously think it's not all going to collapse of its own rot?
Watch the video & let's talk about reality, okay?
The system is not redeemable.
Maggie,
Have you ever heard anyone who advocated EGW that applauded everything she wrote? Selectively choosing anything they wish to accent must always be used. For those who simply read through her writings, they will soon realize how much "cherry-picking" has been done. It is easy to choose any well known writer and only select what you you wish to advocate; EGW wrote on nearly everything and took many positions; which is why one should beware of anyone quoting her that is so comforting and soothing. The obverse is too well known that is condemning, upholding perfection as what we should all expect. Is any doctrine more discouraging? You should know.
Elaine
[EDIT: correction]
Elaine, my point above is that by the time one has taken Ellen White seriously enough to analyze her to the nth degree, as Dr. Thompson has, one has to have surpassed her.
I tend to think this is the way out of this morass, and, perhaps the way it is meant to be.
Geoffrey Paxton: "It is fascinating to observe how Adventism has re-enacted the doctrinal struggles of the church down the ages."
http://www.presenttruthmag.com/7dayadventist/shaking/conclusion.html
I've always thought of it, not entirely T.I.C., as an ontogeny-recapitulates-phylogeny sort of dynamic -- we have to repeat all the mistakes of history until we finally have no choice but to reckon ourselves wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked, eventuating in hope. :)
See...there were no central Thundering Old Testament Prophet figures in the New Testament, so how did we end up with one?
True, "He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets...", but where in the New Testament do we find anything like an Ellen White?
I see the Ellen White phenomenon as perhaps an example of cultural atavism, a peculiar product of nineteenth century conditions, a meme which threw us back into the Old Testament which we've largely imported unexamined into later centuries.
I think a large body of unexamined assumptions can hold only so long before it all comes unraveled, eroded by time, despite the counterforces of propaganda and hagiography.
Elaine said, "It is easy to choose any well known writer and only select what you you wish to advocate...."
The only problem with that regarding EGW, I think, Elaine, is if one supposes one can trump one side of Ellen White with the other side of Ellen White, i.e., if one supposes that she is coherent, which she is not. I quote her with full appreciation of her incoherence.
Dr. Thompson said: "By God’s grace we can help each other build that kind of community."
I have to say that I don't believe that "we" can build a community out of what Jim Moyers aptly calls a "multinational corporation."
As long as one personally identifies with this multinational corporation as one's community, one is, arguably, responsible for the egregious behavior of this entity. This is a most unenviable position, as these dudes are completely out of control, and will not be controlled!
Anyone want to take on the Adventist Health System and do better than the FBI? Didn't think so....
How 'bout takin' on the financial hanky-panky that got David Dennis canned? Didn't think so....
Is this multinational corporation really your community, Adventists?
Well, maybe Spectrum is your community? But...a person can get "disappeared" from Spectrum without a word from anyone here! Does that strike you as a community? What if someone got "disappeared" from your local church, or your family, without a word. Hmmm....
Unless you really want to take responsibility for all that goes on in Adventism, it might be good to reconsider what really constitutes the Adventist community, where we can build love, joy, peace as Dr. Thompson hopes.
Personally, I think the system is unredeemable and is going to collapse of its own rot, and that real community can only be had in small, physical groups, and that is challenging enough!
It's just that fruit grows naturally, and isn't produced with much effort of choice. The effort goes into nourishing the plant in good soil, sunshine, and water (of life, if you will). The fruit depends on where you grow the plant.
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Sirje...
I heartily agree with your thoughts. It seems that Adventism has made a point of almost deifying the will, that everything depends upon the right action of the will. This is certainly due to the theological lenses of EGW, and her roots in Methodism and Arminianism.
This minimizes the reality of the depth of our human brokenness, which has distorted everything about us...mind, heart, emotions, conscience, relationships, and our will. And, the damage we've sustained in all these other areas very often sub-consciously brings our wills into bondage, and drives our conscious, outward choices. Thus, the remedy often given in conservative Christian circles, and in Adventism, that disciplining ourselves into making better behavioral choices will cause us to produce healthy spiritual fruit and growth, with the usual caveat that it's not in our own strength, is a crazy-maker that can partially work for the self disciplined, but not for the rest of us.
What you say is so true; our effort needs to go into taking in "good nutrients." We need connection with God and others that will begin to heal our deficits. Connection with God and others that will administer grace and truth to our injuries, that will provide us with safety to bring those hurting and out of control parts of us into the light without fear of rejection, that will give us time and space to heal our inner landscapes, and that will over time begin to reshape the conscious choices we make in our lives.
This is how 12 step programs work, and how people recover a day at a time from devastating addictions. It's a comprehensive treatment of our whole beings, not an appeal to just say no with a spiritual booster pack strapped on. Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend have done some significant work in this area, and are well worth reading.
Thanks...
Frank
Webmaster...
Why are my posts often not being listed?
Thanks...
Frank
Maggie,
I believe Dr. Thompson hopes, wishes, and dreams of an Adventism that can never be. The ideal community that he dreams of can never be fulfilled with the huge corporation that this church has become. Eventually, it will either break up into smaller groups here and there, as is happening now, although not officially recognized. Many of the posters here are so far from traditional Adventism as not to be recognized by the other groups.
The history of religions should have demonstrated that no one church can be the same as it began; none are, and neither is Adventism. Some of us who have been around longer and have read the history before we were born know well that the early SDA church would be difficult to recognize today. Time changes everything and progression demands that nothing stays the same, or it dies.
Be the person you want to be without the approval of any church.
Elaine
2011.12.19, Response to Spectrum SS [duplicate]
A comment on cherry-picking and idealism. Anyone who seeks to deal with real people in a real community constantly faces contradictions, and I mean real contradictions, not just apparent ones. That’s because people are so contradictory. And for that very reason, we must always pick the best cherries, in Ellen White, and even more in Scripture. Here in Galatians 5:14 we have a wonderful cherry that matches the one in Matthew 7:12: Treating others as we would want to be treated if we were in their place.
And I must admit that it was Ellen White who gave me permission to pick cherries in the Bible: “Men will often say that such an expression is not like God,” she wrote. Isaiah 55:8-9 tells me the same thing – “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Our problem is that we often have such a hard time seeing something before we believe it. That’s why we all need lots of help.
As for the ideal community, Elaine, we only catch glimpses of it here and there. But let us not give up our dreams, we’re not likely to go any higher than our dreams. I would love to see the whole church transformed. Unlikely? Of course. But I can start where I am and do what I can.
aldenthompson
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