God is extolled in Scripture as a lawgiver:  “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.”  Is. 33:12 NIV. 

The law of God can be compared to safety concerns that bracket in time a fatal car wreck that occurs at an unmarked intersection.  A benevolent concern for others is a universal sentiment that precedes the car wreck, but placement of the stop sign follows the car wreck.  Law precedes sin and sin precedes law.

One of the best editors I ever wrote for frequently reminded me that I had a tendency – unfortunate from his perspective – to try to cover too many topics in one column.  “Keep it simple, Thompson,” he would plead. “Focus on one point.”

Usually he was right. But sometimes I was rebellious and deliberately slipped into sin.  This piece is another example of that since because I am so eager to see the grace/judgment theme become fertile soil for enriching Adventist dialogue, rather than being just a trigger for destructive argument.

Editor's Note: After reading the Teachers notes for this week's Sabbath School lesson, Phillip Brantley was moved to send us this comment, which we are sharing here.]

This quarter’s Sabbath School Lessons—Glimpses of our God—devotes the second week’s lesson to the biblical teaching about Creation.  I am dismayed to note that the Teachers Edition sets forth comments I find disturbing regarding science, the scientific method, and scientists, as follows:

I am, by nature, an orthodox soul, but when it comes to the doctrine of the Trinity, I find myself strangely unsettled. After reading the best of the ancients (Tertullian, Athanasius, Augustine) I still get the sense that this doctrine is just a bit 'too clever by half'.