Sunday, August 7, 2011

Seventh-day Mongrel

It says here on my Baptismal Certificate that I am a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It's true, and yet on reflection, I have to say that it's not true.
There's no head-scratcher here if one thinks about it.
Consider this: In our ecclesiology (beliefs) what did the SDA church have to do with translating the Bible into English? Were we the ones who first brought baptism by immersion back to Christianity where, with its powerful symbolism, it belonged? Where were the Adventists when Luther discovered the truth of righteousness by faith? Was it an itinerant* Adventist preacher who woke up much of the world with his preaching about Christ's soon return? (BTW, those who were awake are asleep again.) Are Adventists the only church looking forward to the return (advent) of the Christ? Was it this church that first taught that good works accompany faith; that works and faith are sisters? (The book of James talks about that.)
So there was Wycliffe, Zwingli, Huss, Jerome, Luther, Calvin, and a host of others who brought truths from the Bible back into the light from the darkness that was the Holy Roman Empire.
SDA's had nothing to do with any of this, and yet, every one of these truths are found in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Each of these men...and a host of others from all faiths...discovered light shining from the pages of God's Word and passed it on; often at the cost of their life. What would my church, what would your church look like had these men not lived (and died) for the truth as it is in Christ Jesus and His Word. Truth never goes on SALE. It is never discounted; 70% off. Truth is never downgraded, though it has been diluted and hidden.
Because people do not know, nor do they care, Seventh-day Adventists are regarded as a cult; an obscure, meaningless, misinformed and misdirected temporary blotch on the page in the history of Christianity; something more in need of "spot remover" than study..."to see if these things were so." Acts 17:10-12
Calling all (more fair-minded) Bereans! e.c.
*William Miller was not a Seventh-day Adventist; the SDA church did not exist in 1844 and was nor formally organized until 1863.

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