HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2015 / SPRING / EDITORIAL
S P R I N G • 2 0 1 5
VOLUME 16, ISSUE 1
D E P A R T M E N T S
Editor's COMMENTS
I always resented Christians who stridently opposed movements or practices that were widely accepted by other Christians. Especially as I discovered the new covenant gospel and left Adventism, I was startled by the polarizing I began to see within Christianity.
In fact, I understood how the writers of many letters to the editor resorted to chiding us for “bashing”; can’t we just get along? After all, they would say, we all love Jesus. Let our differences slide off the radar screen and just accept one another!
As time has passed and I have watched many former Adventists settle in very different places, from being grounded in biblical teaching to believing the that the second coming occurred in AD 70 to believing in sinlessness or even universalism, I have concluded three things. First, the issue of authority is foundational. The Bible is our only source of truth, and we must be committed to reading it using the normal rules of grammar and vocabulary in context and understanding the historical setting of each book.
Second, when people have been systematically mis-taught what the Bible says and how it should be read, it is necessary to “unpack” that warped worldview by comparing what we learned to the words of Scripture in context. This process sometimes looks painstaking to those who grew up without an extra-biblical prophet or authoritative interpreter of Scripture. Nevertheless, as one shines the light of God’s word onto the teachings and practices of a false religion or teacher, that light of truth sometimes reveals more than the deceptions of the false religion. It may actually reveal the ways many widely-accepted practices that have entered the larger Christian community also deviate from the clear teaching and sufficiency of Scripture.
Third, insisting that Scripture is sufficient in revealing all we need for life and godliness as the Holy Spirit applies His revelation to our lives, is often an unpopular stance. No one who loves Jesus willingly embraces untruth, but we all can be deceived by promises of comfort, relief, and power couched in almost-biblical language. It is necessary, therefore, to test everything by Scripture, not rationalizing or bargaining in order to retain “permission” to believe or practice things that subtly undermine resting in Jesus alone for both our justification and our sanctification.
In this issue Cheryl Granger shares the results from her months of researching the sources and similarities of Ellen White’s health message, Adventism’s “right arm of the gospel”, with the practices and beliefs of other movements and religions. In the process of her research, she has discovered the non-Christian influences behind many of Adventism’s practices—influences which are largely unnoticed even within western Christianity.
In contrast, Bryan Clark, senior pastor of Lincoln Berean Bible Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, shares a verse-by-verse explication of 2 Corinthians 3—the contrast between the covenant engraved on stone, which kills, and the new covenant of the Spirit which gives life. The good news of the new covenant is the answer to the ascetic demands of the health message which ultimately has no power “against fleshly indulgence” (Col. 2:23).
Also in this issue Sharon Clark shares her faith story, and Dale Ratzlaff addresses the “health message” in his Pastor’s Column. We hear from our columnists Rick Barker, Chris Lee, and Carolyn Macomber, and we share a reflection on our tenth annual Former Adventist Fellowship conference in Redlands, California.
I thank God for the life He gave me, raising me and protecting me within Adventism and giving me the understanding I needed of the religion which I loved before overwhelming me with the wonder of the new covenant. When I saw that Jesus keeps the covenant conditions for me, that in Him I am born again of the Spirit and adopted by the Father, I had no choice but to go where He led. The truth of Jesus shined the light on the reality of Adventism. It is Jesus, not the health message, that gives me life. He, not lifestyle, is who I must share.†
Copyright 2015 Life Assurance Ministries, Inc., Camp Verde, Arizona, USA. All rights reserved. Revised May 19, 2015. Contact email: proclamation@gmail.com
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