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Continuing the Emergent Conversation, Part 3.
Submitted Dec 17, 2010
Retreat centers, seminars, and worship experiences that focus on mystical rituals and ancient practices are often seeking to find "the God within." In the ensuing blur of sacred, secular, and mystical, the God who transcends the universe vanishes and is replaced by pantheism or panentheism. Thus, the Creator God cannot be distinguished or worshipped over creation. As a result, each person's interpretations or ideas are as valuable or perhaps more valuable than the expressed Word of God in Scripture.Postmodern emergent often mixes the sacred and the profane, the holy and the unholy, God and culture in ways that make it impossible to call individuals out of false worship (Revelation 14:8; 18:1-4). Emergent truth is culturally conditioned and there is therefore no such thing as "false worship." Further, if God is "in" Babylon, why would there be a necessity of calling individuals out of it? This inclusiveness is in direct opposition to the biblical teaching of differences between sacred and common, good and evil (Leviticus 10:8-10; Ezekiel 22:26; Isaiah 5:20).
Adventists, particularly those in youth ministries and seeker-friendly church plants, are looking for ways to "cast the net in new directions" in the laudable effort to win a postmodern culture to Jesus Christ. If we are uncritical in our efforts to be innovative, however, there is danger of losing the heart of the gospel, the authority of Scripture, and our identity as Seventh-day Adventists.
Adventism: A Unique Spirituality
Many persons might argue that Adventism is primarily propositional. However, the heart of Adventism is Jesus Christ, who invites His creation to come into relationship with Him. Since Jesus said, "I am the Truth" (John 14:6), we could infer that truth can be equated both with doctrine and a relationship with the Person who is the Source of that doctrine. In a sense, both justification and sanctification are highly experiential since both are dependent on a living, working, dynamic consociation with Christ. Because Jesus declares Himself to be God (John 8:58), the Word (John 1:1-4, 14), and is declared by Paul to be the Creator God (Colossians 1:13-17), He offers a way to God that is superior to any other religion or methodology (John 14:6). Adventists come, then, into special relationship with God every seventh day Sabbath when we rejoice in His dual creation (Exodus 20:8-11; Ephesians 1:7).
The genuine spiritual need of all Christians, including Seventh-day Adventists, is to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. In fact, it would seem that the endowment of the Spirit was Jesus' favorite topic. The reception of the Holy Spirit into the heart of the believer brings all of heaven's blessings in its train. This authentic and deep spirituality that the Spirit brings is conditional on obedience (Acts 5:32) which we joyously render as a response to God's grace.
God wants to use Adventists as His agents to call people out of Babylon, so that they do not receive of Babylon's plagues, and so that they can be new creatures in Jesus. This commission in no way gives Adventists superiority over non-Adventists, any more than Phillip's commission to share with the Ethiopian made Phillip superior. All of us are sinners, in need of grace. The Holy Spirit is calling all His people, wherever they are found, to conversion and holiness, to a complete transformation from one way of life to another. This is accomplished through repentance, forgiveness, and cleansing from our sins through the blood of Jesus. Christ's atoning grace, worked out in our lives through the agency of the Spirit, is not legalism or dead formalism! It is victory, liberation, and joy! Jesus calls us to belief, commitment, and certainty in His power to transform our lives and redeem us at last. This is the depth of the call to authentic spirituality that we are to make in these uncertain and chaotic times.
We engage in social activism, obedience, and moral living not to find meaning in life, not merely to make the current world a better place, but as a response to Christ's grace! Our goal is not to achieve deep spirituality as an end in itself. God's goal for our spirituality is transformation of all that we are (Colossians 3:1-17). Christ is the indisputable, anchored center for Seventh-day Adventist Christians. He is Substitute, Savior, and Model. Because he served, we serve. Because He loved, we love. We recognize in Him the exclusive means of salvation.
Some Contrasts Between Adventism And Emergent
Adventism models a community with biblical boundaries--boundaries that help prevent chaos within the community, disintegration into disputing factions, and heresy. Adventists have boundaries (1 Corinthians 6:9-11), beliefs and doctrines and ethical parameters (1 John 2:22; 1 John 3:14-15; Matthew 7:15-20). We are not ashamed of the relational-driven statement that there are responsibilities and privileges in belonging to God's family. An ecclesiology that includes elders and deacons is biblical and modeled in the early Christian church (Acts 14:23).
Rather than tradition informing our theology and serving as an outside marker to help us know when we have moved from biblical fidelity, Seventh-day Adventists have the contemporary prophetic voice of Ellen White. We are not immune to the beckoning of the decadent aspects of our culture (Romans 12:2), and God in His graciousness has sent a "lesser light" to point to a "greater light" (Scripture) that reminds us of our accountability to Christ and His Way.
A Prediction
Religious entities combined with interdependent global economic systems, as well as information and social networking that bring near instant connection and response, may soon cause radical shifts in world religions and concepts of religious liberty. In this projected milieu, emergent thought may play a more significant role than many Adventists imagine.
To be continued
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