Stephen
Terry, Director
The
Impending Conflict
Commentary
for the June 15, 2024, Sabbath School Lesson
"For such people are false apostles,
deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan
himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his
servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what
their actions deserve." 2 Corinthians
11:13-15
For centuries, Christians have done
evangelism, motivated by the words of Jesus recorded in the Gospel According to
Matthew: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19) Like
the picture that accompanies this commentary, thousands have come forward
during altar calls to what is called the Penitent Form, the kneeling bench
found in some churches in front of the altar where those coming forward
publicly renounce their former life and commit to living for Jesus. Methodists
and Baptists were both major evangelizers in North America since before the
United States came into existence. Circuit riding preachers on horseback would
travel the colonies and into the wilderness, performing frontier weddings and
calling together the people to preach the word of the Lord. Depending on the
denomination of the preacher, those coming forward would be led through the
Sinner's Prayer of repentance or baptized in a nearby lake or stream. In some cases, the prayer and baptism might both be required on
the model of the Apostle Peter's preaching at Pentecost, where he stated that
all must "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit." (Acts 2:38) Where possible, these circuit riders would organize churches,
leaving their administration in the hands of capable lay leaders so the
preacher could continue to ride circuit.
With the isolation of frontier
families and little opportunity for social interaction, these evangelistic
meetings were major events. Not everyone was there to hear the preacher. While
the adults were in the meeting, the younger folks would find the opportunity to
join with their peers in the trees and bushes on the periphery. The result was
often a wave of "camp meeting baby" births nine months later, ensuring when the
circuit preacher returned, he would have a new round of frontier weddings
awaiting his blessing. Therefore, those denominations doing evangelism grew
through altar calls and the opportunity to come together to bring about the next
generation of believers born to the faith and raised from the cradle on. From
this long-established evangelistic momentum sprung William Miller and the many thousands that were drawn in by his preaching of
imminent apocalypse. From that ecclesiastical heritage our own Seventh-day
Adventist denomination arose almost two centuries ago.
Originally beset with the idea
that the door of probation had closed, they saw no point in evangelism. Once
they overcome that hurdle, their evangelistic DNA asserted itself, and they began
to present a message of repentance and baptism centered around three ideas: 1)that
Jesus' return remained imminent; 2)Adventists are a special remnant people for
the End Times, identified as those who "keep God's commands and hold fast their
testimony about Jesus." (Revelation 12:17); and 3)keeping
God's commands includes the Fourth Commandment regarding Sabbath observance. This
alone makes Adventists a peculiar people for almost the entire Christian world believes
that all the Ten Commandments still define normal Christian behavior except for
the Sabbath Commandment. When it is mentioned to them,
they assert that we are under grace not law, a grace that strangely only does away
with one law, the Sabbath. It is little wonder then that Adventists see this as
a front for impending conflict before Jesus returns. There has been an
extensive list of legislative attempts by local, state, and federal governments,
some of which have been successful, to substitute
Sunday as the Sabbath as an attempt to reinforce the idea that all Sunday worshipers
are legally compliant with the will of God. It is hard to understand why that
would even be necessary if the law no longer applies as some so eagerly assert
over this very issue.
When we consider the reason for
the Sabbath, the conflict becomes even clearer when we understand the
implications of Sabbath observance. As the Fourth Commandment points out, "in
six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in
them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath
day and made it holy." (Exodus 20:11) Observing the Sabbath is recognizing God
as Creator. The Sabbath is just as much a memorial of Creation as the cross is
of Jesus' crucifixion. The latter did not do away with the former. Instead,
Creation will be a key issue in the final days of history before Jesus returns.
The Apostle John says as much when he shares the messages of the three angels
of Revelation 14. The first angel cries out, "Worship him who made the heavens,
the earth, the sea and the springs of water." (Revelation 14:7) See God as
Creator, the one who brings life into existence ex nihilo. God is
greater than what we could ever imagine him to be. Our strawman god we create in order to tear down, rejoicing in our wit and genius in
overcoming such a pitiable foe, is not God. By definition, it
is only an effigy created within the limits of our own ideas. Of course, it
follows that there is no such god, for such a god would only be us with a mask
on. Why would anyone in their right mind ever wish to serve such a god?
Before I go on, I want to deal
with another strawman regarding the issue of Creation. There is no assertion of
the age of the Earth in the Bible. Young Earth Creationists have simply gone
with a strawman created by an Archbishop centuries ago who felt that by
stringing together biblical genealogies he could derive how old the Earth is. This
is theological humanism, attempting to define God and the Bible with man as the
only relevant measure of everything. We are not. There are mysteries that go
far beyond the idea of a six-thousand-year-old creation. Much of that mystery
is hidden in metaphor, lost to the literalist. For example, John tells us that Jesus
is the Word of God, and "He was with God in the beginning. Through him all
things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." (John
1:1-3) Further, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, we read "in these last days he
has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through
whom also he made the universe." (Hebrews 1:2) When God spoke Creation into
being as we read in Genesis, chapter one, the word he spoke was Jesus. This is
what the Bible is trying to tell us, not something about six literal days, but
a revelation of the mystery of God, Jesus, and Creation. There is no limitation
to the creative power of God through his Word, Jesus.
Now let us return from this
slight segway to the matter at hand. What is the nature of the impending
conflict of Revelation? There are fault lines both within and without
Christianity over several issues. This is so much so that it creates massive
confusion over dogma and derides the character of God through the intolerance
of humankind, one to another. The second and third angels of Revelation, chapter
14 call us to leave the confusion behind and become the loving, caring, empathetic
people God created us to be when He created us in his image. He will not force
us to do so. That's not how love works. Only those who
are convinced that God is love and wish to love him in return will ever be
happy with God.
Whenever I have been involved
with evangelism, the same question comes up every time. Many do not want to
hear about Jesus, the love of God, or anything that would change their path in
life. Instead, they want to know what the Mark of the Beast is in Revelation,
chapter 13. They want another strawman they can assail to prove that God is
nothing in the face of their humanism. Once again, they lose the metaphor in
straining at their literalism. In Revelation, the Seal of God is in the
forehead, but the Mark of the Beast is in the forehead or the hand. If we allow
the forehead to represent the mind, and the hand to represent one's actions, those
who truly follow God will be those who fully believe in him as Creator and
Redeemer. But those who are opposed and who have the "Mark
of the Beast," will be those fully convinced against God, and along with them, those
who, while not fully convinced, nonetheless, go along with much of humanity in
opposing God because it is convenient to do so. As sychophants, they wish to enjoy
life without persecution from those opposed to God and his kingdom. In either
case, whether fully convinced against God or just going along for the ride, they will have
made their choice through words, action, or lifestyle. Throughout its pages,
the Bible tells us there are no choices without consequences. The consequence
here is not a choice about receiving a mark. It is a matter of eternal life or
death. The silence of the grave, or the paradise of Eden restored. Some place little value on these things, but all the wealth
of the world cannot buy one's way into paradise, and all the wealth of the
world cannot bring one back from the grave once the course of this life has
run. Choose wisely.