Friday: Further Thought – The Church Militant
Thursday’s study touched on the divinity of Christ. Why is that so important? Ellen G. White wrote: “Since the divine law is as sacred as God Himself, only one equal with God could make atonement for its transgression. None but Christ could redeem fallen man from the curse of the law, and bring him again into harmony with Heaven. Christ would take upon Himself the guilt and shame of sin-sin so offensive to a holy God that it must separate the Father and His Son.
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
Christ would reach to the depths of misery to rescue the ruined race.”-God’s Amazing Grace, p. 42. It’s simple logic: the law is as sacred as God; so, only a Being as sacred as God could make atonement for transgression of the law. Angels, though sinless, are not as sacred as their Creator, for how could anything created be as sacred as who created it? No wonder, then, that over and over Scripture teaches that Christ is God Himself. The sacrifice of Christ, in a sense, centers around the sacredness of God’s law. It was because of the law, or, more precisely, because of the transgression of the law, that Jesus-if we were to be saved-would have to die for us. Indeed, the severity of sin can be seen best in the infinite sacrifice needed to atone for it; that severity itself speaks to the very sacredness of the law itself. If the law is so holy that only the sacrifice of God Himself could answer its claims, then we have all the proof we need of just how exalted the law is.
Discussion Questions:
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I'm a baby boomer,born in the good old days. When I was a kid,my first computer was a Tandy hooked up to black and white TV.God has revealed much to me in my later years. Technology is changing so rapidly, cling to the real Jesus Christ in these perilous times. Don't let the world decieve you with empty promises. Each day my eyes are opened a bit more. May God protect us all as time marches forward to the return of Jesus according to His timeline.
Technically I too am a baby boomer and computers have been a significant part of my life. (I am a computer scientist) One of the things that working with computer science has taught me is that it is very important to make computers work in a way that other people can use them without understanding their internal workings. We call that notion abstraction.
Christianity is like that too. There are theological concepts that challenge the greatest minds alive but our task, with the help of the Holy Spirit is to present the love of Jesus, in a practical way so that other people may experience the Gospel.
Remembering Laodicean troubles, and that God's law is what God is - could it be that His last church's self-righteous attitude has left them naked of the robe Christ provided for the wedding feast! His church needs to LAF!! (Love, Accept others, and Forgive -unconditionally)! Only Christ's gold, robe and our opening the door can provide His law within me!
we do receive REPENTANT sinners...but if he/she wants to continue in their ways, then no will have to be our answer
Only our daily relation and communion with God can give us the real salvation. This is the why we are advised to buy Gold - Holy Spirit, cloths- Christ justice and eyewash- The word of God.
Our salvation is certain in Gods Hands.
Yes Jose,
we would do well to buy the Gold, the White Clothes, and the Eyewash. They are not cheap things. They will cost us... not in a monetary sense of course, but yes, getting those things will "cost us". (They will cost us our pride. Getting them will cost us self-denial, effort, and perseverance, etc.)
But if people are looking for cheap experiences, they will never be able to "buy" (experience) the things that Jesus has to "sell".
Prov 23:23
Luke 14:28
Jose, how do you define salvation? The key to understanding the true reason for the advice to the laodiceans is to understand what salvation is. Salvation is not a reservation for a spot in the great heavenly retirement village in the sky. It is much more than that. You might like to expand on that idea.
Until Jesus returns, the church remains in a militant mode in the battle of the great controversy between the forces of good and evil. We are engaged on a daily basis in a battle for the Lord, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph.6:12). Therefore, since we are soldiers at war , we must always have our swords in hand along with all the other items of the armor of God, and be at the ready for the onslaught of the enemy, but the battle is the Lord's.
Though we are living in the prophetic fulfillment of the Laodicean phase of the church, we are not doomed! We must respond to God's call to repentance and deliverance out of our lukewarm, naked, poor, wretched and blind condition. We have no need to fear for the Lord is our leader and by faith we will conquer; our General has never lost a battle. The lot falls on us to deliver the clarion message of warning, hope and salvation to the world at this time, and as we carry out this mission, the enemy is wroth and will continue to wage fiercer attacks against us, the last light-bearers till Jesus returns. So, forward! forward we shall move, at the Lords command. "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy GOD is with thee whithersoever thou goest" (Josh. 1:9).
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
Forward into battle see His banner go!
Ref.
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
After all has been said and done may we never forget the one and only true foundation of the church, allow me to draw your attention to hymn number 348. The words may vary but the underlying theme is that the church has one foundation.
1
The church’s one foundation
is Jesus Christ her Lord;
she is his new creation
by water and the Word.
From heaven he came and sought her
to be his holy bride;
with his own blood he bought her,
and for her life he died.
2
Elect from every nation,
yet one o’er all the earth;
her charter of salvation,
one Lord, one faith, one birth;
one holy name she blesses,
partakes one holy food,
and to one hope she presses,
with every grace endued.
3
Though with a scornful wonder
we see her sore oppressed,
by schisms rent asunder,
by heresies distressed,
yet saints their watch are keeping;
their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
shall be the morn of song.
4
‘Mid toil and tribulation,
and tumult of her war,
she waits the consummation
of peace forevermore;
till, with the vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blest,
and the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest.
I must admit to finding Discussion Question #2 rather difficult, because in my opinion there was a time, before those words were written, that can truly be called "the good old days". I believe those days were quite real, and are no myth.
When [in 1852] Mrs. White was looking for "the humble followers" of Jesus, that search was difficult. It was not an easy matter for her to find many that were truly meek and lowly. But the Church had, by that time, descended into the Laodicean state.
But there was a time, not too many years prior to that, when things were very different.
There was a time leading up to the great disappointment in 1844 when "hearts were united in the sweetest fellowship, and love and joy reigned supreme." (GC 379.) This was no joke. Many were full of resolve, and not only were they doing everything possible to make things right with God, they were doing everything they could to make things right with man as well. Many people were truly preparing to meet Jesus, and they engaged in a genuine, ardent, work of repentance and preparation. (And yes, while it is true that there were tares among them, the truth is that the majority of Adventists were not hypocrites.)
There really was a time among Adventists when "love and joy reigned supreme"!
There really were "good old days."
If the "church" reference is to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, then there really were no "good old days," because the time you mention was twenty or so years before the formation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Seventh-day Adventist Church was not even organized by 1852, the time of the quotation.
I understand what you're saying Inge. Technically I have to agree with you, but technically I think we will run into problems... because the "Seventh Day Adventist Church" did not exist until 1860 [when the name was first adopted]. (Early Writings, xxxi.)
Testimonies to the "Church" were being written prior to 1860... but should SDA's regard them as inapplicable, because she was not actually addressing SDA's at that time?
Personally, I cannot divorce myself from the history of the Advent people. I regard their history as part of our history. In my view, people like William Miller (who died in 1849) fulfill an important part in SDA history, even though, technically, he was never an SDA.
I think Stewart is right on. If we limit our view of "the church" to the formal organization post 1860, we lose a great deal of pertinent history. Not just the maturation period of doctrines after the 1844 disappointment, but the growth of the Millerite Movement that made that development possible.
We tend as a people to become ossified in the doctrines we grew up with, wary of any digression not approved by the leaders of "the church." The first ten years of the church, not as an institution but as a community of believers, was very fluid in doctrinal matters. Anyone with a Bible in hand was welcome to contribute to the doctrinal development. Many ideas were shot down before they took hold. Ellen White was explicit that any new ideas needed to be vetted by group study and group acceptance. By the 1880s that spirit had essentially vanished, and Ellen found it necessary to condemn Adventist preaching as "as dry as the hills of Gilboah." The 1888 General Conference unleashed a new era of doctrinal development, with many things not yet settled.
We face in some quarters a new trend toward ossification. I know a chap who insists that anyone who does not subscribe to his particular interpretation of the 28 Fundamental Beliefs does not belong in "the church." We need to try to recapture the spirit of the believers from about 1840 to 1950, a time we can rightfully call "the good old days," not as a myth, but as a way of Christian living.
The issue at stake should not be about when, but the what and why. Insisting that we are laodiceans because of when it applies is part of the problem. We need to think a lot more about the why.
I live in a community with a lot of Seventh-day Adventists in it. The general opinion held by non-SDAs in the area about us is that we are elitist and smug! They perceive us as feeling somewhat better than them. They also know that it is no use talking to us on Sarurday.
Such perceptions tell us a lot about ourselves. Rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. Complacent spiritual arrogance is a blunt way of saying it.
Christianity is always a journey never a status. Once we see ourselves as fellow learners rather than encyclopaedic teachers we will cease being laodiceans. And that is more important than the when.
Inge that is much the same reference point as I see it. That it is factual and realistic. When we make application to issues that are historically inaccurate, it may serve no logical purpose. We form ideas sometimes that may not be what God intended.