Shape of the planet: both sides have a point

Transcription

1 Adventist Heritage Center From: Sent: To: Subject: ADvindicate on behalf of ADvindicate Friday, October 30, :05 AM Adventist Heritage Center "Shape of the planet: both sides have a point" by Kevin Paulson ADvindicate takes a biblical look at trending Seventh-day Adventist issues. View this in your browser Excerpts: Shape of the planet: both sides have a point Relativistic thinking has been a notable factor in very recent (and continuing) Seventh-day Adventist controversies. Read on» Growth, budget and a new year You may have been surprised to read ADvindicate's 2016 projected budget is $60,000, or wondered why it went up within a year. The simple answer growth! Read on» 1

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3 Shape of the planet: both sides have a point ADvindicate 1 of 2 10/30/ :38 AM advindicate.com Kevin Paulson October 26, 2015 The Pluralism Trap The notion of some that pluralistic accommodation to variant views is the best road to peace and mutual acceptance in the faith community that gray is preferable to black and white thinking in spiritual matters goes all the way back to humanity s first encounter with sin. At the forbidden tree, Eve was not overtly invited to exchange righteousness for sin, but rather, to find room in her spiritual life for both. Ye shall be as gods, the serpent promised, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:5). Ever after, in the history of God s people, this would become the preferred pattern of apostasy. The pagan religions to which ancient Israel so often succumbed did not require abandonment of the worship of Jehovah, only that Jehovah s worship be accommodating to other beliefs and practices. This helps explain why Aaron, in announcing the golden calf festival at Sinai, declared, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord (Ex. 32:5), and why Elijah was constrained to ask on Mount Carmel, If the Lord be God, follow Him, but if Baal, then follow him (I Kings 18:21). On the plain of Dura, the three Hebrew worthies were not commanded to forsake the worship of the true God, only to add to this worship the homage their kind demanded for his golden image. One historian notes how this eclectic approach so typical of polytheistic cults helps explain the frustration the Romans experienced in dealing with the early Christians: Rome could accept their version of the Supreme God, whom others called Jupiter or Sol; it could accept Christ together with other heroes and divinities (the eclectic Emperor Alexander Severus honoured Christ in his temple alongside Orpheus, Abraham, and others). But what was preposterous was the Christians arrogant insistence that no gods had ever walked the earth until an obscure Jewish teacher who was executed in the reign of Tiberius. (Stephen Williams, Diocletian and the Roman Recovery, 169) In other words, the religion of God s faithful in every age has been one of theological and moral absolutism, not theological and moral accommodation. (One is intrigued at how the charge of arrogance, in the words of the above historian, has attended the uncompromising spirit of God s saints long before the dawn of postmodernism.) God s revelation is not only depicted in Scripture as understandable by finite mortals; it is portrayed as sufficiently understandable so that both the faith community and ultimately God Himself can fairly hold recipients of this revelation accountable for their choices, ideas, and actions. Conclusion Relativistic thinking has been a notable factor in very recent (and continuing) Seventh-day Adventist controversies. Van Harvey s notion of truth being relative and historically conditioned, cited earlier, has been given by some as a basic hermeneutical justification for identical gender roles in the gospel ministry

4 Shape of the planet: both sides have a point ADvindicate 2 of 2 10/30/ :38 AM The text is primarily seen as a construct, insofar as meaning is taken to reside in the encounter or interchange between text and reader. Meaning thus emerges as an outcome of interplay between text and reader, both of which are culturally and historically conditioned. (Theology of Ordination Study Committee Report 28) One such author is even more explicit: For them (supporters of women s ordination), biblical inspiration is a mediated process in which God imparts information that is then contaminated by the social, cultural, historical, and language context of the human author. In its nature, Scripture, while containing the divine message, also contains human baggage. (Jan Barna, Ordination of Women and the Two Ways to Unity: Ecclesiastical and Biblical, 4) Once culture and other human factors are seen as playing a pivotal role in defining religious truth, once the Holy Word of God is seen as including contamination and human baggage, divine revelation loses its objectivity and religious facts cease to be facts. And as in the illustration from Paul Krugman cited at the beginning, all opinions are given equal status. The apostle s Paul s belief in objective, transcendent truth is clear in his statement to the Thessalonians that when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God (I Thess. 2:13). He was equally clear that his hearers were obligated to understand the difference between truth and error on the basis of previous revelation, particularly when he wrote to the Galatians: But thou we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed (Gal. 1:8). Ellen White affirms the Biblical view of truth in such statements as the following: That which in the councils of heaven the Father and the Son deemed essential for the salvation of man, was defined from eternity by infinite truths which finite beings cannot fail to comprehend. (Fundamentals of Christian Education 408) There are many in this age of the world who act as if they were at liberty to question the words of the Infinite, to review His decisions and statutes, endorsing, revising, reshaping, and annulling at their pleasure. We are never safe while we are guided by human opinions, but we are safe when we are guided by a thus saith the Lord.... Those who are thus led do not dare to judge the Word of God, but ever hold that His Word judges them. (In Heavenly Places 132)

5 Growth, budget and a new year ADvindicate 1 of 1 10/30/ :39 AM advindicate.com Shane Hilde October 23, 2015 You may have been surprised to read ADvindicate's 2016 projected budget is $60,000, or wondered why it went up within a year. The simple answer growth! Readers are expecting more from ADvindicate, and that's a good thing. Over 37,000 people from around the world visit ADvindicate every month, and while ADvindicate offers a plethora of articles on different topics, the most-read articles are news stories. There is a significant demand for church-related news, which can often be the most time-consuming and costly to deliver. There is only so much news that can be reported from the comfort of our homes, and because of the recent generosity of our readers, we were able to send a reporter to the 2015 Annual Council. Costs for reporting on an event like this are travel and lodging, and ADvindicate plans to report on both spring and fall councils next year too. In addition to adding these two events, ADvindicate will be increasing its output of articles from 156 to 208 a year. Content accounts for nearly 80 percent of ADvindicate's projected 2016 budget. The remaining $12,000 is split between operations and promotions, which includes ADvindicate's annual trips to ASI and GYC. These events help expose ADvindicate to new readers and give current ones a chance to interact with ADvindicate on a personal level. You are a big reason ADvindicate exists. By God's grace we inched along for two years without any financial assistance, but we soon realized it was unrealistic to expect much more growth without funding. In 2014, we drafted and voted a budget and stepped out in faith. God provided for every expense ADvindicate had, and more. Prayerfully consider supporting ADvindicate financially today. We have been humbled by your generous gifts in the past, and ask that you continue to walk with us as we grow. Shane Hilde is the publisher and founder of ADvindicate, and in his spare time teaches English at a public school in Southern California.