A Prophet among Us

Manuscript for Sermon at North Hill, August 28, 2010. Who knows how closely the actual "preached sermon" will be to this manuscript.


Sometimes a prophet's messages can make a real difference. Other times, the prophet must wonder why he or she bothered.

About 2000 years ago, a prophet named Agabus, visited the church in Antioch. While there he had a vision that there was going to be a severe recession and called on the church to get ready. The Christians in Antioch believed him and not only prepared themselves, they also took up a collection to help the believers in Jerusalem.

Agabus must have been pretty pleased with this response of the Antiochan, especially since Jerusalem was his home town. It appears that without the message of Agabus, there would have been no collection for Jerusalem. People there would have suffered severe hardship. Some may have actually starved to death. So Agabus' message was pretty important.

Several years later we meet Agabus again. He was still a citizen of Jerusalem, but this time he was visiting a town named Caesarea, about fifty miles northwest of Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul was also in Caesarea on his way to Jerusalem. Agabus gave Paul a message from God: “If you go to Jerusalem, you will be arrested and end up in the hands of the Romans.”

Paul decided to go to Jerusalem any way. Sure enough, while there, he was arrested. Paul spent the next couple of years in prison in Palestine. Then he was shipped off to Rome where he spent another couple of years under house arrest.

It is interesting to note that when the believers in Antioch responded to Agabus' first prediction and took up a collection for the Christians in Jerusalem, Paul was the head of the delegation that carried the money to Jerusalem. Paul had experience with the ministry of Agabus! He knew Agabus was a genuine prophet. But when Agabus gave Paul a personal message that contradicted Paul's own plans, Paul felt free to ignore Agabus' counsel.

In hindsight, we can say, “Oops!”

God did not abandon Paul because of his refusal to pay attention to Agabus' warning. Even in captivity, Paul was still able to share his faith and preach the gospel, though in a far more limited way than if he had not been a prisoner. Through the message of the prophet Agabus, God offered Paul an alternative to prison. Paul ignored Agabus to his own detriment.

Which reminds us of the words of 2 Chronicles 20:20. “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established. Believe his prophets so shall you be established.”

The reason God sends message through prophets is he wants the best for us.

Today, I'm going to talk about the work of Ellen White, a woman Seventh-day Adventists believe was called by God to act as a prophet among us.

Over the course of her life time Mrs. White, as we often refer to her, had something like 2000 visions. She produced 100,000 pages of sermons, articles, letters and books. No other person has come anywhere close to having the impact on the Adventist Church she has.

The church did not start with Ellen White. She was not the founder of the church in the sense that Luther founded the Lutheran Church or Mary Baker Eddy founded the Christian Science Church or Joseph Smith founded the Mormon Church. In those cases the formal doctrines of the church were first articulated by the founders. In the Adventist church, the formal doctrines were developed in small group sessions and conferences. Ellen White was part of these early gatherings, but she was not the leader, either in a social or theological sense.

But she remained active in the leadership of the church for 70 years. Long after all the other early leaders had died, she remained active and engaged. And the belief of the church that she had the gift of prophecy made her writings, her ideas more and more influential over time. She is now the most famous of all Adventists, having eclipsed all the other leaders she worked with during her life time.

What does it mean to be a prophet? What is the job of a prophet? Idoes a prophet do?

1. Call people to repentance
The first words of the Gospel of Mark are, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God: It is written in Isaiah the prophet, “I will send my messenger before you to prepare the way . . . And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Mark 1:1-3.

Repent! This was the central theme of John's prophetic message. Which is hardly surprising. It is the dominant theme of all prophets.

Repent! Alter the status quo. Change. Do something different. Quit doing the same thing.

A growing field of business is the professing of coaching. What is the essence of coaching? Helping people change. You want to write a book? There are people who specialize as writing coaches. The purpose of the coach is to help you change. Move from thinking about writing a book to actually writing a book. One of my sisters has signed up with a personal trainer. Why? To help her improve her physical condition. Business owner hire business coaches. Why? To help them improve—that is CHANGE—the way they engage in business.

The only reason to hire a coach is because you want to change because the job of a coach is helping people change.

This is primary job of a prophet.

When Elijah summoned the nation of Israel to Mt. Carmel he wanted them to change. Quit messing around with Baal the god of the Philistines and give yourselves unreservedly to the worship of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

When God sent Jonah to Nineveh, he wanted the residents there to give up their evil habits and devote themselves to goodness. (As you will remember, Jonah wasn't all that in synch with God's purposes. Still through Jonah's prophetic work, God got the people of Nineveh to change.)

The prophet Jeremiah is famous for his stern messages of warning. Repent! Change! Quit doing what you're doing! Do something different. If you don't, disaster looms over you.

The central work of a prophet is to call people to change. To repent. To do differently. To do better.

When Agabus gave Paul a prophecy, it was not “Great job you're doing there.” Agabus did not say, “You're on your way to Jerusalem. Way to go. Keep up your courage.” No, Agabus cautioned about impending calamity. The prophet was urging the apostle to change his plans. Repent. Change direction. Do something different. This is the central work of a prophet.

When you read the writings of Ellen White, this is one of the most obvious characteristics of her content. She is constantly urging her readers to repent. To move their lives in greater harmony with the will of God and the teachings of the Bible. She paints a vivid picture of a dauntingly high ideal:

Like our Savior, we are in this world to do service for God. In order to be co-workers with God, we must know Him as He reveals Himself. This is the knowledge needed by all who are working for the uplifting of their fellow men. Transformation of character, purity of life, efficiency in service, adherence to correct principles, all depend upon a right knowledge of God. This knowledge is the essential preparation both for this life and for the life to come.
Ministry of Healing, p. 409 (with ellipses).

We are to act like God, to be like God. Our habits are to flow out of a deep, genuine knowledge of God. (I'll come back to this later.) But for those who like to “do theology” in the sense of playing with ideas about God's activity and character, Ellen White offers a very direct challenge: make sure all that “knowledge” is actually shaping our lives. Just as Jesus came to serve, so we, if we are going to call ourselves Christians, are also here to serve, to be co-workers with God. Not merely co-thinkers or co-theologians with God. Ellen White was constantly prodding people to actually live their Christianity. She pushed so hard for obedience that people with sensitive consciences who relied on her as their primary spiritual guide could become overcome with the weight of duty.

2. Organize God's People

The prophet Elisha helped the people of Israel in all sorts of ways. He helped the city of Jericho fix their water supply. He set up schools for young men. He traveled from place to place advising, preaching and healing. Near the end of Elisha's life, the king, who was not a very devout man, came to visit him. When he saw the old prophet lying sick in bed, he exclaimed, “My father! My Father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”

That's how influential Elisha was. That's how indispensable he had become in the nation. Elisha was like an entire army all by himself. His action, however, was not defeating enemies, it was organizing the domestic affairs of Israel. His primary foreign policy work was the reduction of military conflict.

In the years after the Jewish people returned from captivity in Babylon, the prophet Haggai called for a new, vigorous movement to finish reconstruction of the temple which had been demolished by the Babylonians. He told them their own current economic difficulties were the result of neglecting the temple. If they would make the reconstruction of God's house top priority, God would bless them in their own personal lives.

(It is important to note that in the Bible, the prophets did not possess political or religious authority. They gave advice to kings and high priests. They thundered warnings and urged courses of action. But the final decision did not lie in the hands of the prophets. The authority for making decisions remained in the hands of the properly constituted authority of the monarchy and priesthood. To the extent we Christians think of ourselves as a “prophetic voice,” it is proper for us to speak up and voice our opinions about how the nation ought to be run. We must also respect the proper authority of government and we can confidently leave the decision making in the hands of secular authorities.)

Ellen White gave the Adventist Church pointed counsel regarding colleges, a medical school, publishing houses and missions. She supported a massive restructuring of the entire administrative structure of the denomination in 1902. Most observers agree that it was largely her counsel that set in motion the trends that led to the incredible world-wide growth of the church.

Today there are somewhere between 15 and 20 million Adventists world-wide. There are over a hundred colleges and universities, including three medical schools. More than 170 hospitals. All of this is largely the consequence of the advice and counsel of Mrs. White.

So Ellen White demonstrated the work of a prophet in her constant calls for repentance, her constant urging for us to do better, do differently. She acted in harmony with the Bible prophets in giving guidance to the church regarding how our life together should be organized.

Then there is theology.

3. Prophets Teach Theology.

The Gospel of Mark describes the work of John the Baptist as a message of repentance. Mark also uses another phrase. The work of John the Baptist was to prepare the way for the Messiah, to smooth the road for Jesus. In the Gospel of John, we read that Jesus came to make his Father known. Jesus reveals God more clearly than any other prophet or priest. He is the supreme teacher and model of God. All prophets participate in this work to a lesser degree. The job of prophet is to make God known.

Ellen White has been dead for almost a hundred years. The passage of time has made some of the details of her messages less and less relevant. A favorite illustration of this is her counsel regarding education of girls. She wrote that every girl should learn to harness a horse. The context of the statement is equipping girls for practical living. In her day, transportation was by horse. If a girl did not learn to harness a horse, it made her less independent, less capable of functioning apart from a man in her life.

Harnessing a horse is obviously not an important skill in today's world. The equivalent in our world would be that every girl should know how to change a tire or use jumper cables.

However, the spiritual theological heart of Ellen White's writings is as relevant as ever.

Of the scores of books that have her name on them, by far the most famous are the five volumes of a narrative commentary on the Bible called "The Conflict of the Ages Series" --Patriarchs and Prophets, Prophets and Kings, The Desire of Ages, Acts of the Apostles, and the Great Controversy. In these books Ellen White reviews the entire history of God as we know it in the Bible and church history. She works to explain how every action God has ever taken is an expression of amazing love. Even the bad news stories—Noah's Flood, the destruction of the Philistines, the terrors of the last days—all of these calamities and disasters are actually the outgrowth of God's commitment to love, to freedom and the eternal blessedness of not only human beings but every living creature in the universe.

The first sentence of the first book, Patriarchs and Prophets, is God is love.
“God is love.” 1 John 4:16. His nature, his law, is love. Every manifestation of creative power is an expression of infinite love. The history of the great conflict between good and evil, from the time it first began in heaven to the final overthrow of rebellion and the total eradication of sin, is also a demonstration of God’s unchanging love.

Patriarchs and Prophets, Chapter One, page one. (with ellipses)

Mrs. White's phrase “the history of the great conflict” is really a reference to the Bible. Patriarchs and Prophets is the first book in a five-volume narrative commentary on the Bible. The over-arching organizing theme of this series is her attempt to show that every action of God, from his miracles of creation, healing and deliverance to his sternest judgments and curses, can be best explained as expressions of deep, genuine love for humanity.

Ellen White grew up believing in eternal hellfire. She was driven away from that belief by its incompatibility with the truth of God's love.

The conviction that God is love is one of the few things all Adventist theologians agree on—conservative and liberal. All agree that ultimately whatever theories they advance must be squared with this bedrock conviction.

The last sentence of the last book in Mrs. White's commentary series, repeats the opening sentence of the first book: God is love.

And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character.

The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.
Great Controversy, Last Paragraph. (p. 678) (with ellipses)

Persuading us of this truth and helping us understand and apply its implications in our lives is the central task of all prophecy and all prophets. Because Ellen White has given us so much help, we are confident that her visions did indeed come from God.

It remains for us, now, to carry forward in our world the work she did so admirably in hers. We are called to know God ever more fully and to make him known.

To repent and to call the world to repentance. (Remember, repentance is not some mysterious, complicated theological process. To repent means to make positive change. One step in the right direction.)

To organize ourselves for carrying forward Jesus' ministry of hope, help and healing.

If we do these things we will have properly honored the legacy of the prophet among us.

Downstream from Revival

Last week I talked about the Mt Carmel showdown. Elijah on one side. Ahab, the prophets of Baal and Jezebel (in absentia, but represented by the prophets) on the other. The people are pictured as lying between these competing claims to loyalty.

Elijah wins. The people shout, "The Lord, he is God."

After the sermon, I got a text: Is there any evidence that Elijah's sermon and demonstration on Mt Carmel had any lasting effect?

Intriguing question. My first response was, No. The fire fell. The rain came. Elijah ran off into the wilderness whining he was the only Israelite left who was loyal to God.

God's response to Elijah's whining was to have him anoint Elisha as his successor. Elisha's story is full of evidence that there was a pervasive change in the nation. Ahab and Jezebel did not convert. Baal worship did not disappear. ON THE OTHER HAND. People in Jericho turned to Elisha for help when they had a problem with water quality. A prophet's widow found miraculous support when she went to Elisha. Wealthy people provided hospitality for Elisha out of deep regard for his ministry. People sent their sons to schools allied with Elisha. A foreign general came to Israel to be healed, Elisha's reputation for healing had become so widespread.

While the nation did not "officially" reject the gods of the Philistines and Jeroboam. A substantial population obviously did. This is a dramatic downstream effect of Elijah's revival.

Elijah, on Mt Carmel asked God to send fire as evidence that he really was God, and that he was turning the people's hearts back to himself. From what we see in the stories of Elisha it is clear that many people did turn to God.

There is a place for "event," for special occasions, for revivals, and congresses. For excitement and times of enthusiasm. These special times help us set a new direction. They help us get up and move in the direction we have known we should be moving. Revivals or events are valuable because they are beginnings. Obviously, beginnings are not worth much if there is no continued movement. On the other hand, there can be no "continued movement" if there is not a start. There can be no maturation if there is no birth.

So take a step. Any step. Just one step. In the right direction. That is the essence of revival. And if you'll take a second step in the same direction, you're well on your way to maturity and holiness.

The World according to Ahab

Actually, the title should be something like the world according to God in the light of how he interacted with Ahab.
Preached at North Hill, July 31, 2010
1 Kings 16-22

Has something you posted on the internet ever come back to bite you? Some flaming rhetoric, a picture? Or perhaps something someone else posted, a scathing review of your work as a teacher or your practice as a physician?

Last week, I heard an interview with a law professor who was discussing the “new world” the internet has brought into existence—a world of total, eternal recall. Once something shows up on the web, it's there forever. And a determined searcher can find it. The professor raised the question of how we relate to this world of total, eternal recall. How, in the future, will anyone be qualified for public service if we hold them accountable for every infelicitous remark, every youthful indiscretion, every sexual peccadillo? Some people have suggested there should be some kind of expiration date on information on the internet. But that's not likely.

Just how do we live in a world of total, eternal recall?

Actually, this is not such a genuinely new reality. Rather it is best seen as a technologically empowered expression of the world most humans have always lived in. Namely, the world of small, stable communities where the librarian and the mayor remember the stupid things you did during middle school and high school.

Memory is the primary accellerant of the endless conflicts in places like the Middle East and the Balkans. I remember not only your offenses against me. I remember the offenses of your great, great, great grandfather against my great, great, great grandfather. I remember and nurse my hunger for justice (which, experientially, is inseparable from a desire for revenge.) Even in small town Mississippi, memory fuels eternal fear and antipathy. (Those @*#& Yankees! The South shall rise again!)

American culture has been built on the possibility of starting a new story. I can move away from the memories—others memories of my past, my memories of their past. We can start over. A new place. A new identity.

How do we live when erasing inconvenient parts of our histories is no longer an option? How do we live hopefully and joyously in a world of eternal, total recall.

The story of Ahab offers some help.

Ahab, Son of Omri. 1 Kings 16-22.

Ahab's father, Omri, “did evil in the eyes of the Lord and sinned more than all those before him. Omri walked in all the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit, so that they provoked the Lord, . . . to anger by their worthless idols.

That sounds pretty bad. You would hope that Ahab would learn something from his dad's mistakes and do better. Alas.

Instead, Ahab “did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. [Like father like son.] Ahab not only mimicked the sins of Jeroboam, he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. Ahab built a temple for Baal and set up an altar in the temple. He made an Asherah pole and “did more to provoke the Lord, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.” 1 Kings 16:30-33.

And God was watching. God was writing it all down. The heavenly digital recorders were running. And the ancient scribes were writing it down in the annals of the kings of Israel. We, too, that is the Christian church and preachers, we, too, remember. Ahab was a bad man. Wicked. Evil. In our eyes, hopeless. Worthless.

God sent a message to Ahab through Elijah. “This is what God, the one I serve, says, 'For the next several years it will not rain unless I say so.'”

This is not good news! Not on its face anyway. But hidden in this dire prediction is a message of hope. God scolds and warns because he is interested in turning us toward life and righteousness.

Ahab did not warm to Elijah's message. He did allow the prophet to walk out of the palace unscathed. But as the drought increasingly affected agriculture and people and animals began starving to death Ahab got angry. He launched a search for the prophet . . . to kill him. No luck. Ahab sent ambassadors to neighboring kingdoms demanding they certify they were not harboring the prophet.

Curiously, during this time, Ahab's leading domestic official was a devout believer, a man named Obadiah. Obadiah dared to defy Ahab's wife, Jezebel. She began a campaign to kill off all of the prophets with any connection with Yahweh. Obadiah hid a hundred prophets and supplied them with food.

It is the second example of Ahab's curious inconsistency. He is a wicked man complicit in the worst forms of idolatry, but he allowed Elijah to walk out of the palace after announcing the drought. And now this: His chief of staff is a devout believer who has the conviction and the guts to defy Jezebel!

One of the most important characteristics of the way the Bible pictures people is its clear-eyed view of people's goodness and badness. Ahab was a “bad guy.” But the Bible does not reduce him to “only bad.” Abraham is the Father of the Faithful. But the Bible does not gloss over his moral and personal failings.

At the end of three years, God gives Elijah another message for Ahab. To deliver the message Elijah finds Obadiah. He tells Obadiah, “Go tell Ahab, I'm here waiting to see him.”

Obadiah protests. “You're trying to get me killed. King Ahab has scoured the nation looking for you. He has sent ambassadors to every nation in the region requiring them to swear an oath that they are not harboring you. Now you show up and tell me to go tell the king that you want to talk to him. And while I'm gone to fetch the king, who knows where the Spirit of God will take you. I'll show back up here with the king and you'll be gone. And he will kill me for not arresting you. Why are you trying to get me killed?”

“No,” Elijah says, “I'll be here. You go get Ahab.”

Ahab comes. When he sees Elijah he exclaims, “Ah, there you, you troubler of Israel.”

“No way.” Elijah rebuts. “I am not the one causing trouble. It is you and your idolatry and wickedness that have brought on this trouble. Now summon the nation—all of the people and all of the prophets of Baal—to Mt. Carmel. We are going to have a show down.”

Amazingly Ahab complies.

Take notice. Ahab is God's agent for calling the nation together to witness God's dramatic call to revival. Elijah is going to preach the sermon prior to the fiery miracle. But it is Ahab who gives the invitation. Ahab, the wicked king, Ahab, the son of Omri is God's agent for calling the people together for a dramatic demonstration of God's power and his continued interest in Israel.

The nation gathers. The prophets of Baal spend the day dancing before a sacrifice they have laid out on an altar. Nothing happens. At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah announces it is his turn. He invites the people to come close. He buillds an altar and prepares his sacrifice. He has it doused with twelve large jars of water. Then he kneels and prays.

God responds with fire from heaven. It is so intense it burns not only the sacrifice, but the altar itself and the water in the surrounding trench. The people fall on their faces shouting, “Yahweh, he is God.”

Elijah then give orders for the prophets of Baal to be killed. And Ahab's officers obey!

Again this curious inconsistency. Elijah had no army. It was Ahab's officers who performed these executions. Obviously, Ahab consented to Elijah's order.

My impression is that Ahab was weak rather than massively evil. He was influenced by his father. No help there. Then by his wife Jezebel, a formidable woman if there ever was one. She even intimidated Elijah, who is presented as one of the boldest, most iron-willed prophets. Ahab went along with Jezebel in the fostering of Baal worship. When confronted by Elijah, Ahab bends toward righteousness. Then when back in Jezebel's company he reverts to pleasing her.

God does not write Ahab off as worthless or hopeless. God sets up the call to revival at Carmel and has Ahab play an active part. A little later in Ahab's reign, when the king of Damascus invades, God works a dramatic series of miracles to protect Israel. A message of grace ot Ahab.

It doesn't work.

Later still, Ahab tries to buy a piece of property next door to his palace. When the owner, Naboth, refuses to sell, Jezebel has Naboth framed and killed. Ahab goes along with the scheme. God then sends Elijah to confront Ahab yet again. Elijah announces total destruction of Ahab's royal house and lineage.

In response, Ahab puts on sackcloth and goes about in mourning.

God visits Elijah again and asks, “Have you noticed how Ahas has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.”

This does not sound like a great reprieve. It is a dramatic picture of God's willingness to take notice of the slightest evidence of repentance. Most commentators consider Ahab's “humbling himself” as mere regret over consequences. It is the lament of someone who has been caught not the genuine repentance of someone who has had a change of heart. Still, God asks Elijah, “Have you noticed?”

The story of Ahab offers several points of wisdom for living in a world of total recall.

1. Don't wait for perfect people. Don't even look for perfect people. Not in politics, not at church, not at school, not at home. If God used Ahab to summon Israel to the revival at Mt. Carmel, why would we demand perfection of our political leaders? Why would we demand perfection of ourselves? Just do what it is you're called to do today. See what you can get the people around to do then let it go. Why would we hold our children hostage to their histories. God will use our children to do wonderful, significant work. Fully aware of their history but not imprisoned by it.

2. Honor any evidence of openness to God. Ahab's repentance was not highly believable. God believed it. Let's put the very best imaginable spin on other people's actions. Our own efforts are often mixtures of noble and ignoble intentions, godly and base motivations. So are the efforts of others. Practice overlooking the ignoble and base motivations. What does it matter whether others or even we ourselves have pure motives? Do the best you can and imagine that others are doing the same.

3. Acknowledge there are limits to deferred justice. There are real consequences of evil. Judgment on Ahab was postponed, not annulled. Even God's patience has its limits when he is confronting injustice. Sometimes, we, too, must say, Enough! To protect others, sometimes to protect ourselves, we appropriately say, “Enough!” “No more.” “Done.”


Ahab was an evil man. Weak. Manipulated by the wicked witch he married. Still God sought his repentance. God worked through him to summon the nation to a major spiritual event. God took notice of his slightest tipping of the hat to goodness.

How do we live in a world of total, eternal recall? We honor every hint of goodness and deal graciously and gently with the inevitable evidences of frailty that show up in every complete telling of anyone's story. Even if someone passes a limit of forebearance, don't forget the good things they did, the good people they associated with. Don't "remember" that they did only evil.

The World according to Obadiah

Sermon for North Hill Adventist Fellowship, Sabbath, July 24, 2010

The shortest book in the Old Testament begins: “The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord says . . .”
Nothing particularly surprising so far. Then comes the bomb: This is what the Lord says . . . concerning Edom.

The entire prophecy of Obadiah is about a small insignificant country southeast of Judah. Sure, the prophet makes references to the Jewish people and the temple, but the primary focus of Obadiah is Edom. What's up with that?

The people of Edom were relatives of the Jews, in a sense. The founding ancestor of the Edomite people was Esau. The founding ancestor of the Jews was Jacob. Jacob and Esau were twin brothers. (This is going back hundreds of years before Obadiah wrote his book.)

The Edomites were never a super power like Babylon, Persia, the Assyrians or Egyptians. They were not major players on the world stage. While we would probably call them heathen, since they did n ot worship Yahweh, the God of Israel, they were not famous (or infamous) for their idols or their worship practices.

So what's up with an entire book in the Bible devoted to this obscure desert nation of distant relatives of the Jews?

The first and most important idea highlighted by the book of Obadiah is explicitly stated by the Prophet Malachi in his own prophecy about Edom. He announced a dreadful judgment on the nation of Edom, then concluded his message with these words: “You will see it with your own eyes and say, 'Great is the Lord—even beyond the borders of Israel.'”

The Bible focuses on God's work among the Jewish people. King David and his descendants, Jerusalem and the temple, the history of the Jewish people and the visions of the prophets recorded in the sacred scrolls, these things form the great foundation for Jewish and Christian theology. There would be no Messiah and no gospel apart from the foundation of God's special work among the Jewish people. But God's work in the earth was not limited to the Jewish people. It was not limited to Palestine. It was not “contained” in the temple or the Jewish royal line or the Jewish nation. What God did among the Jews was a lesson for the world. What God promised the Jews, was promised, in effect, to the world. The warnings God gave the Jews applied to all humans, not just a particular group.

Obadiah's message concerning Edom is a dramatic illustration of God's engagement with the whole earth. All peoples are God's people. Which sometimes is good news and sometimes is bad news.

Obadiah's message, at least on the surface was bad news for the Edomites.

It began with an announcement of an approaching invasion.

“An envoy was sent to the nations saying, “Rise. Let us go up against Edom.”

God goes on to say through the prophet, “Look, I'm going to make you small among the nations. You will be utterly despised.”

Ouch!

The prophet continues, “Your pride has deceived you. You thought you were impregnable, invincible. Fact is, even if you soar like an eagle . . . even if you make your nest among the stars . . . God will bring you down.”

Just how bad is it going to get?

“If thieves raided your house, they would take only what they wanted. They wouldn't take EVERYTHING! But when judgment comes, you will indeed lose everything.

“What's more, your allies, the very people you have counted on for protection and cooperation, the people you yourself have helped, they will join the attackers. They will take part in the looting.”

Why was God pronouncing such a severe judgment on Edom? What crimes were they guilty of? Primarily this: Callous disregard of the desperate straits of their relatives.

The prophet speaks of the Edomite pride. Their pride was what got them into trouble. It appears that it was their pride that somehow allowed them to be sucked into the cruelty and treachery for which they were going to be punished. They were not punished for their pride. They were punished for the damnable evil their pride opened the door for.

When the Jews marched out of Egypt headed for the the land of Canaan, their natural route went through the land of Edom. God told the Jews, “Do not give any offense to the Edomites. They are your brothers. Buy any food you need. Pay for any water you use. I will not give you an inch of the Edomite territory” (Deuteronomy 2).

When Moses asked the Edomites for permission to cross their territory, promising to pay for everything they used or damaged, the Edomites refused. God told the Jews to go around instead of fighting.

Over the next couple of hundred years there were wars between the Edomites and the Jews but the prophets never allowed the Jews to forget the Edomites were relatives and had their own special relationship with God. That special relationship with God required a special respect for the Edomites.

The special relationship the Edomites had with God and with the Jews became the basis for stern judgment by the prophets when the Edomites acted badly toward the Jews. Special relationships never bring only privileges. They always also confer responsibilities.

Obadiah the prophet announced terrible disaster for Edom precisely because they failed to act in harmony with their special relationship. The Edomites failed to carry out the duties of relatives. When foreign forces attacked Jerusalem and broke through their defenses, the Edomites cheered. When Jewish refugees came looking for sanctuary, the Edomites captured them and sold them as slaves. The Edomites even joined the foreigners in looting Jewish homes.

In view of this cruelty, Obadiah thundered, God was going to act. “As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return on your own head.”

God would eventually rescue Jerusalem. God would turn back the foreign occupiers. God was going to restore the fortunes of the Jews. But because of their cruelty to their Jewish relatives, the Edomites were doomed.

It is a sober message.

One of the most recurrent themes in the Bible concerns God's response to evil and injustice. Bad things will happen. There is no glossing over this fact. There will be bad times and conflict and trouble and injustice and suffering. Then God will step in. Judgment day is coming.

The kingdom—the authority and power to order the world—will be turned over to God. God will rule. Bad news for the bad guys. Good news for the good guys.

The prophet Daniel described the ups and downs, in and outs of human political sytems. Kingdoms come and go, come and go. Then God steps in. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, a kingdom that will never be destroyed.

Hannah spoke of the grand reversal that is the hope of oppressed people through the ages: “The Lord will raise the poor from the dust and lift the needy from the manure pile, giving them seats among the nobility, and a legitimate claim to the throne.”

Mary sang of the same great reversal: “God will bring down the rulers from their thrones and lift up the humble.”

In the grand climax of Scripture, the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John writes that God will eliminate pain and grief. He will put an end to evil and evildoers and seat his people with himself on the eternal throne. God wins. And we with him.

In harmony with this symphony, Obadiah ends his book with these words: The kingdom will be the Lord's.

God wins. Justice wins. Faithfulness wins. Compassion wins.

How does this apply to our lives? First, remember, God is watching. If you are breaking faith, watch out.

Do not steal from your family. Don't shame your children. Don't disrespect your parents. Don't mock your spouse. Don't neglect your relatives. Don't cheer when annoying people get the trouble they deserve. God was watching the Edomites. Even though they were an insignificant nation hiding in the desert mountains in a remote part of the world, God was watching. And God is watching us. There are no free passes when we gain our pleasure at the cost of other's pain.

A second implication of the truth that God is watching: Take courage. If you have been wounded by others breaking faith with you, be sure that God was watching and he will see justice done. God saw what was done to you and God makes himself the guarantor of justice. Which frees you to go and live. Don't waste your life resenting those who have done you wrong. Don't allow evildoers to define your identity through engaging you in lingering hatred.

There are a couple of very different ways to use the doctrine of judgment. One is try to join God on the bench. When he points at people and pronounces them guilty, we are right there beside him, pointing with our crooked little fingers and squealing in our puny voices, “Guilty.” Then we busy ourselves looking for ways to make sure the guilty pays.

When we do this, the doctrine of judgment becomes an unbreakable chain tying us forever to our miserable past and our tormentors. As long as we hold ourselves responsible for making sure they experience justice our minds and hearts are possessed by our enemies.

This view of our connection to judgment is actually pictured here in the book of Obadiah. The prophet writes that the house of Jacob and the house of Joseph will be a fire burning up the house of Esau. Which is poetic language for warfare by the Jews against the Edomites. Over time Jewish writers and then supremely, Christian writers, moved away from this vision of human participation in judgment. It does not lead to happiness, fulfillment, satisfaction, health or, paradoxically, even to justice. We cannot create justice by punishing evildoers.

To be sure, in human society there is a place for punishment. Some actions must be met by forceful reaction. But even in civil society we have found it is better to have systems do this instead of individuals. That is why we have police and courts and prisons and fines. When individuals or families try to bring about justice by imposing sanctions on evil doers, usually what happens is that evil multiplies.

A much better use of the doctrine of judgment, at least on the personal level, is to turn over the business of judgment and enforcement to God and get on with living the rich life God intends for us. You are not a victim of abuse. You are not a neglected spouse. You are not an unloved child. You are not a betrayed lover. You are not a victim of robbery. In the eyes of God your identity does not come from the evil that happened to you. Instead you are nobility. You are the daughter or son of God. You belong to a family of winners, lovers, artists, scholars, saints, missionaries, doctors, saint-makers (i.e. parents and teachers).

Abuse, neglect, betrayal happened. They were evil events. They are not the definition of who you are. They are not guides for how you are to use your energy, creativity and mental power. Leave the evil ones to God. Your job is to live. To love. To thrive. To create. To worship and take delight in God and God's world.

Obadiah (speaking for God) is clear: Breaking faith. Gloating over the misfortune of others. Failing to practice compassion in the face of human suffering. All these things are wrong. They are evil. And God IS WATCHING. No one gets a free pass. Ever. So let God take care of it and you get on with doing what God created you for—loving, caring, growing, creating.

Letting go of evil, releasing it into the care of God applies in our personal lives and in the world of politics. Do not get caught up in the cultivation of rage that appears to be the common characteristic of both the political left and right. Rage is not a wise guide.

If you cultivate fury at political parties or political personalities, you are giving them too large a place in your life. Where you can voice an opinion about what policies you believe should be adopted by government, do so. Write your senators. Give money. Make phone calls. But don't get sucked into the culture of rage and outrage.

In both our personal lives and the worlds of politics and business and international relations the bedrock truth is the final words of Obadiah's prophecy. The kingdom will be the Lord's.

Since Jesus is going to win, don't get too bent out of shape if the world doesn't operate the way you think it should. Since Jesus is going to win, if you yourself experience a loss, even if it is a serious loss, take courage. Truth and justice are still on the path to victory.

Our job is to cooperate with God in his work toward that goal. Engage in business with an eye toward making the world a better place. Go to school and acquire skills or insight or ideas that you can use to bless people, to help people, to advance the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus is going to win. So will you, if you work with him.

True Prophet, False Info

(This is a first draft. There are probably errors in it that I will correct later. It's 8:00 Sabbath morning. I've got to go get ready to preach.)

Things were going pretty good in Jonah's world. He had prophesied that his nation would prosper. And his prophecy had come true. The king at the time was a man named Jeroboam II. Under his reign, Israel, the northern Jewish kingdom whose capital was the city of Samaria, (not to be confused with the southern Jewish kingdom of Judah whose capital was Jerusalem) experienced the greatest wealth and territorial expansion in its history. Times were good—for the nation and for Jonah, the prophet.

Then he gets this really weird message from God: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

When God referred to Nineveh as “the great city,” he was not exaggerating. Nineveh was the largest city on earth at the time. It had probably twice the population of Babylon. It was rich, famous, powerful. It made Samaria, the capital of Israel look like Nowheresville.

Nineveh was wicked. So wicked, it had come in for special notice from God.

Go to Nineveh, God said, and preach against it. Imagine a prophet in Iran being told, “Go to New York and preach against it.” Or imagine someone from Taiwan being told, “Go to Beijing and preach against it.” Not exactly a plum assignment. It sounded like a potential death warrant. At minimum it sounded like a pointless mission. Why go to the largest city on earth and announce to the population they were going to be destroyed?

Jonah understood God's call and then did the only smart thing to do. He went to the port city of Jaffe and bought a ticket headed the opposite direction from Nineveh. (The location of Tarshish is not positvely known. Ancient histories and modern scholars point to several different possible locations. One possible location is a place in what is now Spain. No matter, wherever it was, it away from Nineveh.)

The ship set sail. It was lovely weather for sailing. Every hour takes Jonah farther from Nineveh, farther from God's call. Jonah begins to relax. He has escaped. Nothing more to worry about.

He heads below deck for a nap.

While he's sleeping, a terrific squall blows up. It is so fierce the sailors begin heaving cargo overboard to lighten the ship.

It's not enough.

The sailors were all praying to their respective gods. This was no ordinary storm. It was like a divine fury. The captain notices Jonah is not on deck. He goes below and finds his passenger sleeping. He wakes him.

Get up and pray. We're lost.

As the storm rages on, someone suggests casting lots to see who it is that has brought the divine rage down on them. The lot singles out Jonah.

Okay, they demand, what's up? Who's responsible for all the trouble? What do you do? Who are you? Where do you come from? What tribe do you belong to?

“I'm a Hebrew. I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

When they heard this they were mortified. They knew something of the reputation of Yahweh. He was the one who had brought Israel out of Egypt. He was known to be a fierce defender of justice.

Jonah had already told some of them that he was running away from his god, but they had no idea which god. Now they knew and they were terrified.

The waves were piling higher and higher. They were desperate.

What can we to make the sea calm?

Throw me overboard the prophet says. This storm is all my fault. If you throw me overboard, the sea will become calm.

The sailors refuse. They go back to trying to save the ship.

They do not refuse because they don't believe Jonah. They are sure he is a prophet. They are sure he is telling the truth. The storm is because of him. If they will just throw him overboard, the storm will abate. They will be saved. But they refuse.

Finally, the crew face the inescapable fact: Either they heave Jonah or the ship goes down and they all die. They reluctantly agree to do what the prophet has said.

They pray, asking God to forgive them, even though they are doing what he ordered them to do. Then they pick Jonah up and heave him overboard. The storm abates.

A message here: Even highly merciful people sometimes reach the place where they have to take action. No more! Enough is enough. Heave ho.

This holds in families, churches and societies. Justice should not be the first response to human failure and wrong doing. It must, however, be an available answer.

When there is strain in a marriage, splitting should not be the first response. But if there is abuse, at some point, there comes a time to give the abuser the heave ho.

We should not be putting every young person who foolishly plays around with drugs in jail. It's crazy that our jails should be full of young men whose crime is providing product for rich people who want to use drugs recreationally. Like the crew we should do everything we can to keep young, foolish people out of jail. We should look for ways to keep their futures open, their lives full of hope. But there comes a time when we have to give the heave ho.

I remember a woman in one of my first churches who was constantly obnoxious, cantankerous and mean. She was mean to kids. She made every board meeting miserable with her pugnacity. She offended visitors. We talked to her. Warned her. Then finally removed her from office.

It was amazing. Instantly, after we gave her the heave ho, the entire church became a peaceful, tranquil place. We worked with her over a four year period. We didn't throw her overboard immediately, but there came a time when we had done everything we could. Then we tossed her overboard and there was a great calm.

The sailors threw Jonah overboard. There was nothing else they could do.

But God was not through with him.

A great fish swallowed Jonah, then three days later spit him out on the beach. As Jonah crawled up the beach, he here's a voice. Jonah!

I wonder, did he groan? Was he thrilled?

I don't know.

But whatever he felt, he recognized the voice.

“Go to Nineveh and deliver the message I give you.”

So Jonah heads to Nineveh. Once there,he begins preaching the message God has given him: Forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

Then the most astonishing thing happens. People listen. They begin praying. And repenting. The King hears the message. Instead of having the prophet kicked out of town or strung up, he issues a proclamation ordering the entire population to fast. They are to make even their animals fast. He removes his royal robes and publicly wears sackcloth. He descends from his throne and sits in a pile of dust.

Who knows, the king says, God may yet repent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.

Because we are Christians we are not surprised at what happens next. Nineveh is not destroyed. God repents. That is he changes his mind. The city is saved.

Jonah complains. Look God, isn't just what I said when I was still at home. I knew you were a gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who repents from sending calamity and disaster. Now, just let me die. You've made into a false prophet just like I was afraid of.

So where are you in this story?

Adventists have traditionally been Jonah. God called us to announce to the world: Forty days and the world is going to be destroyed. Well, not exactly forty days. But soon. Not more than five or ten years. This generation. Surely before the turn of the century.

That's what my ancestors were saying in the 1800s. That's what I said in the 1900s. And now look at us. We're false prophets. It didn't happen.

We think of ourselves as false prophets only because we misunderstand the job of a prophet. A prophet's job is not to give people special information. The work of a prophet is not to serve as a conduit between God and people for specialized knowledge.

In Deuteronomy, Moses specifically cautioned the people of Israel,

What I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it? Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. Deuteronomy 30:11-14

There is a great debate going on now in the church about the respective role of prophets and science. On one side people argue we must look to the prophets for information. The information the prophets give us, that is the truth. Others argue, no, we must look to science for trustworthy information.

The story of Jonah highlights the foolishness of this debate.

In this story the words of the prophet were false—if you evaluate them merely as information. Nineveh was not destroyed.

The perspective of science would have proven useless. The routine of life in Nineveh would not have changed. There would have been no change.

Nineveh did not need information. They needed motivation and inspiration. The words of Jonah served that purpose perfectly. The city repented.

So today, Christians need to spend little time fighting over sources of information. What people need, people inside and outside the church, is not more information. It is motivation and inspiration. It is help to do the very things we are trying to do, the things we wish we were doing, the things that are already written deeply in our hearts and even in our mouths.

What does that mean, written in our mouths? It means we affirm the things we need to do. We give lip service. Everyone I know says, I need to lose five pounds. They do not need me to tell them they need to lose weight. They know it. They say it. They need help to do it.

How many people in your world do not know that we are supposed to tell the truth or honor our parents or focus our sexual desires or earn a living or help our neighbors?

Some people and some cultures are less aware of God's ideals for humanity than others, still the greatest challenge for nearly everyone is not acquiring information, it is practicing it, living it.

Twice in this story Jonah eloquently affirms God's mercy and compassion. Jonah knows God is merciful and gracious. It's just that Jonah doesn't like it when God's mercy costs him something. Jonah even would have been happy for God to show mercy to the Ninevites, as long as God left Jonah out of it. But being a prophet means Jonah cannot be left out of it. And being a prophetic movement, we as a church cannot be left out of God's intention to show mercy to the world. We must enter into God's mercy mission, even if it means we look like “false prophets.” Our goal must not be proving that we are “true prophets.” Instead, our goal must be to cooperate with God in leading people to repentance, thus setting up an opportunity for God himself to repent. (At least that's the way the old King James Version put it before more modern translators realized the indelicacy of attributing repentance to God.)

Another application of this story: Jonah's condemnation of the Ninevites and his radical commitment to being a “true prophet” is linked to his own self-evaluation. He runs from God. When God brings him up short, by sending the storm, Jonah writes himself off. “Throw me overboard.”

The sailors were closer to the heart of God than the prophet was. They refused to throw him overboard. They did everything in their power to save him. Even after they knew he was running from God. Even after they knew his rebelliousness had cost them a lot of money (all that cargo overboard). Even after they knew he was putting their own lives at risk.

When Jonah faced up to the fact that he had run from God, he saw himself as useless. The heathen sailors still saw him as a human being.

When the sailors were finally compelled to throw him overboard, after doing everything they could to save him, God confirmed their instincts. God sent a special submarine to rescue the miserable prophet. Then God gave him a second chance.

Are you ready to give yourself a second chance? I hope so.

I leave you with the final picture in the book of Jonah:

Jonah is sitting outside the city waiting to see if it is going to be destroyed. He already knows it's a pointless wait. He's observed the repentance of the people. /He knows God is going to repent as well. Still he sits there and mopes.

God, ever the gracious one, causes a vine to miraculously grow in a day to cover a shelter of sticks the prophet has made. Jonah is pleased. The vine gives him shade and pleasure. I think there is a hint as well that he takes pleasure in it as a living thing. Maybe he was a plant lover like me.

In any case a day after the vine has grown and Jonah has enjoyed its life and shade, God sends a worm to eat the root of the vine and it dies. Jonah gets mad.

God confronts him. “What's up with the anger?” You didn't make the vine, so why do you feel like you have the right to be angry if it dies? Jonah mutters back.

God has the last word. “You lament the death of a simple vine.

Nineveh has more than a 120,000 people—people who are so simple they can't tell their right hand from their left hand. They are mere children morally speaking compared to you. And besides all these precious children, there are countless cows as well.

If you are distressed at the death of a vine can you really wonder about my reluctance to destroy all these children? Is saving your reputation really more important than saving these people?

What Now - Answering Fundamentalists, part 2

Sometimes we talk like the best days are in the past. The most glorious period for the Christian church was back in the days of the apostles. If only we could restore the church to its apostolic purity and power. Others focus on the Reformation. If we can just recover the theological purity and clarity of the Reformers, then everything will be all right. In some Adventist circles, it is common to pine for the church of the early Adventist pioneers. If people today were more like James and Ellen White, Joseph Bates, J. N. Andrews, Haskell and Loughboro, then we could finish the work God has given us to do and we could go home.

Listening to these laments for the better church of long ago, you can get the impression that the best theology is the oldest theology. The best music is the oldest music. The best habits for cultivating spiritual life are the oldest practices. The best moral and ethical standards are found in the oldest books. If only we could make ourselves more like those spiritual heroes of an earlier time, then all would be right. We would accomplish what God wants.

The problem with this view is that there is no golden age we can go back to.

While the Christians were still concentrated in Jerusalem and holding most of their large meetings in the temple, Ananias and Sapphira engaged in hypocritical posturing that was so bad God killed them (Acts 5).

In Acts 6 we read about problems in the church's structure. The inequities in the system got bad enough people began complaining loudly. Finally, the disciples called the church together and set up a new management system. Notice, this new management system was not prompted by prayerful strategic thinking. It was prompted by problems. By unhappiness with the present system.

In Acts 8, we read about a prominent convert trying to buy into the Apostolic power.

In Acts 9, we find out the church was not willing to accept Paul's conversion as genuine until Barnabas intervened.

In Acts 11, Peter was severely criticized because he had eaten dinner in the home of a Gentile.

In Acts 12, The church refuses to believe Rhoda when she reports that Peter has escaped from prison and is right that instant knocking at the front door.

In Acts 13, we read that John Mark who had come along on a missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas, dropped out of the trip. He couldn't handle the pressure.

In Acts 15, we read that Barnabas and Paul split up because Paul was unwilling to give John Mark a second chance.

To summarize, the apostolic church included hypocrites, complainers, critics, doubters, quitters and preachers who found it easier to preach grace than to live it.

The Reformers were, if anything, even more defective. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin approved the death penalty for Christians who disagreed with them. Both rejected Sabbath-keeping.

The early Adventist pioneers were hard-driven people who knew hardly anything of grace. They set dates for the second coming in contradiction of the explicit words of Jesus. Most of them rejected the deity of Jesus. They ate pork and squirrels and other unclean meat.

Now here is the good news. God used the apostolic church to give an explosive start to the spread of the gospel. God used the Reformers to help liberate Christianity from the tyranny of papal authority and Catholic soteriology. God used the Adventist pioneers to develop a more wholisitic theology that eventually brought to light a profound understanding of the love of God.

In each of these instances, the individuals and the church as a community had obvious flaws. And just as obviously God used them to advance his cause in the world. God has a work for us, too. Apparently, God does not need a perfect church to do his work.

Our job is not to “recover” some putative purity, integrity or orthodoxy of the past. Our goal is not to “get back” to some spiritual status achieved by our forebears. Rather, our job is to cooperate with Jesus in “doing even greater things” than he did (John 14:12). Our job is cooperate with God's mission in the world (Matthew 28:19; Acts 1:8). Our calling is to pay attention to God's plans for now.

I like to say that our proof texts are Micah 6:8 and Matthew 22:37. The value of these texts is in our acting them out. One of the positive characteristics of fundamentalism is a commitment to action, to implementation of belief. It is not enough to have an idea in your head, that idea is to be fully implemented in life. In this fundamentalists have it exactly right. We who think we have "larger" ideas ought to demonstrate those ideas in real world action. Then it will be true that the best days are now.

Answering Fundamentalists

Sermon for North Hill, July 3, 2010


The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, . . .”

Most Christians in America happily agree that all human beings are created equal. This is TRUTH beyond reasonable doubt. Most Christians even agree with the claim that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.

We assume these “self-evident” truths are perfectly aligned with the clear teaching of the Bible. In reality, these words, however grand and eloquent, set forth a radical departure from the picture of government found in the Bible. In the Bible there is only one form of government recognized as legitimate: monarchy. (Theocracy is not an exception. In a theocracy, God is the absolute monarch.)

When the American innovators challenged the legitimacy of the reign of King George, they did not do so on the basis of the plain meaning of the Word of God. They did it on the basis of “self-evident truth” which contradicted the Apostle Paul who explicitly stated that any earthly authority system was set in place by God and the proper role of Christians was respect and obedience. (Paul did not qualify his statement to make exceptions for “unworthy” monarchs.

In short, the American founders dramatically rejected the claims of fundamentalism. They rejected the Bible as their sole source of authority. American Christians who celebrate their privileges and rights as citizens of “the greatest country on earth” are tacitly embracing a rationalistic, humanistic reading of the Bible. The United States was founded by men who insisted that we must interpret Scripture in line with human need and dignity. In their case, that meant rejecting a thousands-of-years-old understanding of the rightful authority of kings.

So, on this Fourth of July weekend, let's consider the right response to fundamentalists.

First, three stories:

Abraham

God told Abraham he was going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness. God did not ask Abraham for his opinion. God did not invite Abraham to critique the destruction plan. Abraham did it any way. In fact, Abraham challenged God, accusing him of injustice if God went ahead with his plan.

God did not rebuke Abraham. God agreed with him. God even allowed Abraham to set the conditions that had to be met if the cities were going to be destroyed. When it turned out that the cities met even Abraham's conditions for destruction—fewer than ten righteous people—God honored Abraham's scruples by sending angels to evacuate Abraham's four relatives before the fire fell. At least this is one way to read the story. (Genesis 18, 19).

Moses

God gave Moses a direct command: “Get out of my way so I can destroy these miserable people and start over!”

Moses understood. God was not diffident or ambiguous. God gave Moses a direct, clear, explicit, personal communication, in his own native language. Moses heard what God said, then argued. “God, I don't think you really want to do that.” Later, Moses upped his protest. “I will not step aside. If you insist on taking out these people, you're going to have to go through me. If you're going to kill them, you've got to kill me, first.”

Curiously, Moses the man who defied God to his face, is celebrated as the human being who enjoyed the most intimate access to God. The Bible says no one can see God and live. It also says that in contrast to all other people, God spoke with Moses face-to-face. (Exodus 32; 33:11)

Peter

In Acts 15, the leaders of the church are having an intense debate over how to relate to the crowds of non-Jews who are flooding into the church. Should the church require these new believers to embrace all the rules God had given to the Hebrews? God had been quite explicit: the rules regarding food, clothes, circumcision, sacrifices, sexual purity, the Sabbath, the annual feasts were for all time. They were to last forever. (Multiple references in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. See particularly Dt. 29:29.)

You would think the explicit teachings of Scripture would have ended all discussion. God had spoken. That settled it. But not for Peter. Instead, Peter argued the system of rules should be abandoned, at least for new converts, for two reasons: 1. The system had proved to be an unbearable burden. 2. God had poured his spirit out on believers who did not practice the rules, showing divine approval for them as non-observant believers. Note, that Peter did not attempt to quote other Bible passages to support his views. Rather he advocated overturning the longstanding understanding of God's word by citing the history of God's people.

The church leaders, who were mostly very strict Jews, agreed with Peter. They did not themselves give up their classic Jewish practices. They did, however, agree that many of the specific requirements detailed in the Word of God should no longer be taught as obligatory for new believers.

It was a dramatic rejection of fundamentalism.

Definition of Fundamentalist

What is a fundamentalist? The term is used in various ways in different contexts. In this sermon, when I speak of “fundamentalists” or “fundamentalism” I have two dominant characteristics in mind. First, is a radical commitment to a single text as the only source of authority. In Christianity, this is exemplified by the slogan, The Bible and Bible Only. Or the bumper sticker, “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” The second characteristic of fundamentalists is their belief that the best religion is that which is most similar to the pure, authentic religion of their spiritual forebears. So Adventist fundamentalists want to “restore” the apostolic church. They want to “return” to the pure faith of the Adventist pioneers. For fundamentalists, any discernible change from the practices or beliefs of their spiritual forebears is necessarily a movement away from God's ideal.

I dissent from both of these convictions. Today, I will examine “The Bible and Bible Only.” Next week, I'll consider “The Faith of the Pioneers.”

Did you understand what God said? Are you sure?

Adventists have always been people of the book. That should always be true. But BBO is not realistic. It is not a prescription for spiritual or moral health. Here's why.

Fundamentalists couch their claim to authority as mere obedience to the plain statements of God. The Bible is God's word. Since God has spoken plainly in his Word, our only proper response is unhesitating acquiescence and obedience. But the examples of Abraham and Moses flatly contradict this approach to spiritual life. God spoke. Abraham and Moses argued. And God changed his mind!

God gave rules in Scripture. A thousand years or so later, Peter stood up in church council and said, “Let's change the rules.”

If Abraham and Moses honored their friendship with God by arguing with his direct, explicit, personal communication, why would we think the children of Abraham ought to be less active in their engagement with the written word of God. If Moses and Abraham advanced the cause of God by arguing with his direct, personal communication, surely we would do well to argue with the text, which given the passage of time, the change of culture, etc., is far more susceptible to misunderstanding. Mindless obedience is not what God desires.

If Peter demonstrated his sensitivity to the leading of God and the mission of Jesus by calling for the annulling of centuries-old rules, why wouldn't contemporary disciples raise questions about elements of the biblical text or its classic interpretation that appear to interfere with the present work of God?

When fundamentalists quote the Bible in support of ideas that contradict the wisdom that flows out of church history, science or mature human experience, our first question should be, “Why are you so sure you understand what God said?” This question is given a sharp point when we consider the relationships among fundamentalists. If the Bible was as unambiguous and clear as fundamentalists claim, we would expect BBO to produce unity. Au contraire.

BBO and Religious Conflicts

One curious feature of fundamentalism is the fierce conflicts that commonly characterize its proponents. Sunnis and Shias, both of whom regard the Quran as the inerrant, infallible revelation of God's will, bomb each other. People from Weimar and people from Hartland anathematize each other for misreading Ellen White. Southern Baptists and Adventists condemn each other for misinterpreting the Bible.

Koranteng-Pipim and Ratzlaff, a case study on the limits of The Bible and Bible Only (BBO)

Dale Ratzlaff used to be an Adventist academy Bible teacher. He was a devout, conservative Adventist. Then he changed his mind. Now he has a large ministry with a congregation, a web site and print journal all devoted to helping people “escape” the erroneous theology and unwholesome culture of Adventism. Dale proposes to help people shackled by Adventism by pointing them to a true theology that is based on the Bible and Bible Only. (This BBO theology just happens to be the theology of classic evangelicalism.)

Samuel Koranteng-Pipim earned his first degree in engineering. Later he earned an M. Div. and a Ph. D. in theology from Andrews university. His mission is to help Adventists rediscover the truthfulness and profound value of traditional, classic Adventism. The key to this discovery is BBO.

So both Dale and Samuel believe the remedy for all that ails Adventism is the radical embracing of BBO. Each believes that a genuine commitment to BBO will lead all Adventists to agree with him. Yet a devout commitment to BBO has led them to emphatically contradictory positions. Instead of leading to unity, BBO has fueled their mutual rejection. (I, of course, think Samuel is far closer to a "whole-Bible" theology than is Dale. But my point is, unless I'm willing to dismiss one of them as dishonest, I cannot distinguish between them by their relative commitment to BBO.)

Goldstein and Patzer, a second case study on the limits of BBO to produce unity.

Clifford Goldstein is a popular voice among Adventist fundamentalists. He bombastically calls for the preservation of the Church's classic teachings regarding Creation. Any theologian or church-employed scientist who denies the truth of the classic Adventist understanding of 6 days/6000 years should have the courage to resign. Clifford does not take this stand because he wants to be mean or harsh. He is fighting to protect the integrity and purity of his church. He is fighting to defend the single point source of truth—the Bible.

Goldstein's reverence for Scripture was shared by the late North Pacific Union president, Jere Patzer. Patzer wrote more than one editorial in the Gleaner detailing his convictions regarding creation. In one (March, 203), he gave special attention to “the fourth day.” On that day, God created the sun and moon and stars. This is the plain meaning of the text. Patzer was aware that some Adventists disputed this and instead believed God created the solar system billions of years before the events of creation week. Patzer worried that such a view was a dangerous compromise of Bible authority.

While I do not recall seeing Goldstein defend this view in the pages of the Adventist Review, I have personally heard him (and Davidson and Rodriguez) defend this “dangerous view” as the correct view. In fact, no conservative Adventist theologian I know of agrees with Patzer. So much for unity based on a commitment to BBO.

If Not Fundamentalism, Then What?

So if we don't define our view as BBO, what is our stance in regard to the Bible and living a godly life?

Mercy not Sacrifice

We who are not fundamentalists insist we are actually more faithful to the Bible than they are. We argue the continued pursuit of truth and justice is more in line what the Bible is about than attempting to impose in our world all of the specific strictures and ideas voiced in the Bible. We gladly honor the Bible as the Adventist constitution and case book. We never conduct our arguments in the absence of the Biblical text. But we deny that there is a single, incontrovertible meaning that all devout, reasonable people will recognize. Our interpretation of the text is shaped by our own histories and cultures, our temperaments and education. This does not remove the Bible from its privileged place as the greatest authority among us. It does make us hesitant to make our understanding of the Bible the basis of harsh action toward others. We unabashedly give priority to the Bible passages that highlight compassion, justice and humility as the greatest considerations of all. When obedience to the “plain meaning” of the text conflicts with compassionate regard for persons, we choose compassion over rigorous enforcement.

To quote Jesus (and Hosea): God prefers mercy not sacrifice (Matthew 12:7).

Our response to fundamentalists is to claim partnership with Abraham, Moses and Peter who discerned God's will by paying attention to what brought health, hope and healing to people. Abraham, Moses and Peter trusted more in their ability make sense of human need than they did in their capacity to understand the infallible word and will of God.

If our first response to fundamentalists is: How can you be so sure you understand perfectly what God has said, our second response is to cite Abraham and Moses as our case studies and declare, “Even if you do understand what God said, you are going to have to go through us to get at the people you wish to hammer.”

When fundamentalists clamor for the firing of professors, for the subjugation of women, for the spanking of children, for the demonization of homosexual orientation, we ought to stand squarely in their path. If Moses would interpose his own body between God and the miserable rebels in Israel, the least we can do is interpose our bodies between the devout fundamentalists who are concerned for the purity of the church and the various people groups who are their targets.

But we must not stop with merely interfering with the destructive aspect of fundamentalism. We must cooperate with its positive themes. All fundamentalisms strongly affirm the importance of morality and compassion. While this devotion to compassion may be obscured by other harsher elements, it is always there. And we who protest against the negative elements of fundamentalism must vigorously, actively engage in the very acts of compassion and creative love that fundamentalism's best people and ideas call for.

We who are not fundamentalists have our own proof texts: Micah 6:8 and Matthew 22:37-39. And if we do not actually live out the ideals voiced in these texts, our critiques of fundamentalists will be tragically misplaced.

Our final answer to fundamentalists is to invite them to join us doing justice, loving mercy, walking humbly with God. Or as Jesus put it, loving God with our entire being and our neighbor (including the fundamentalist) as ourselves.