The Jericho Road

Since the Reformation, a theological battle has raged between Protestants and Catholics. The differences have spilled over to political debate and even war, blood being shed by both sides. I am not addressing the merits of the respective positions here, but I am offering a quotation that bears strongly on the way in which we disagree. I offer it here because I continue to be disappointed by the way professing Christians attack those who disagree with them. Reference Walter Veith’s webite as an example of what I consider unacceptable diatribe against Catholics and other groups. An example I consider generally more objective in his voice of dissent is from Bill Cork, a former Catholic and now Adventist pastor.

All men and women have a moral obligation to promote truth over error, but that obligation, given them of God and confirmed in the ministry of his Son, Jesus Christ, does not sanction force, cruelty, or even condemnation. Even when acceptable, the unrelenting, daily nature of some debates create an unacceptable spirit, merely by the compounded weight of repeated attack. The gospel is a postive message. Yes, Christ said he came to bring a sword, in a certain context, but that does not keep him from being the Prince of Peace. The controversy (sword) that he brought was in the preaching and example of humility in the face of pride, the preaching of love in the face of hatred. It was his opponents, not Christ, who drew the sword, spilling his blood.

Christ, in his sinlessness and prophetic office, had prerogatives of judgment not afforded others. He could read the thoughts and intentions of the heart. He knew the motive of all he met. We do not. We may and should defend the truth against lies and against attacks, but the weapons of our warfare should never bear the imprint of evil. We are to speak with the gentleness and love a humble heart creates. Even in rebuke, even in strong disagreement, our tone and assumptions should assume a deep compassion, avoiding any impression of unfairness or character assassination.

The quote below, which speaks directly to my point, is from an early founding member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Ellen G. White. She was no stranger to controversy. She was and remains the object of virulent personal attacks from time to time. However, I fully support her work and consider her an authority of highest standing in all things spiritual. I do accept her work as prophetically inspired. That said, here is something of what she had to say on the way Protestants should regard their Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ:

    It is true that we are commanded to “cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” Isaiah 58:1. This message must be given; but while it must be given, we should be careful not to thrust and crowd and condemn those who have not the light that we have. We should not go out of our way to make hard thrusts at the Catholics. Among the Catholics there are many who are most conscientious Christians and who walk in all the light that shines upon them, and God will work in their behalf. Those who have had great privileges and opportunities, and who have failed to improve their physical, mental, and moral powers, but who have lived to please themselves and have refused to bear their responsibility, are in greater danger and in greater condemnation before God than those who are in error upon doctrinal points, yet who seek to live to do good to others. Do not censure others; do not condemn them. From the book, “Testimonies, Vol. 9, page 243, by Ellen White.

It is common today in some Adventist circles, to frequently and presistantly make hard, attacking statements against public figures, political or religious. It is as if this statement was never read, or ignored, or simply denied. But such attacks on persons, persons such as the Pope, are uncalled for and not done in the spirit of love.

I reserve my right to openly disagree with some Catholic doctrine. I believe some beliefs of the Catholic church undermine some Biblical truth. I also regret and repudiate the violence both Catholics and Protestants have exercised toward those they deemed “heretics”.

While heresy is a real concern for the church, one I too have spoken against, the violent attitudes and actions shown our opponents is not Christian. I know this spirit of violence is still alive in the world and I believe the prophets when they say it will increase. I believe religious persecution, from every side, from Protestant and Catholic, will increase against those who stand for Biblical truth. However, I choose today and I hope forever to not be part of that class who use evil to overcome good.

I think i need to add a word of explanation for newer readers, especially for my church members in Kentucky. Some of you may have noticed the discussion in my my comments section regarding the teachings of Walter Veith, a pastor and evangelist of the Seventh-day Adventist church.

In 2008 I posted four times on the work of Dr. Veith (he holds a Ph.d in Zoology). Veith is an ordained pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist church. I believe he is still based out of South Africa. For more information you can see his website here. I objected strongly to the conspiracy theories he offers in his “Total Onslaught” DVD series, clips of which you can find on YouTube. As your pastor, for those who are members, I would advise great care with Dr. Veith’s website. Should you choose to explore it in depth, I would do so in a spirit of careful, considered inquiry. Check the “facts” offered. Be sure quotes are in context and represent the writers orginal meaning. Check the sources for accuracy, authority, and bias.

Though it has been almost two years ago, 30 percent of the search traffic on my blog relates to Dr. Veith. These posts continue to generate the largest comment content on this blog. I have chosen not to close those comment sections because it seems obvious to me that the question is very much alive on the internet and within the Adventist church. I try to respond to each comment made, even though this has involved repeating myself from time to time.

Some of those who leave comments appear to be very angry with me, going so far as to accuse me of being a child of Lucifer. At least one man does so with entire web pages.

I’m not posting now to make a personal defense or review my objections to some of Dr. Veith’s teaching. If your interested in that, you can enter search words such as “Walter Veith” in the search box in the upper right side of this blog. You will find more than you probably care to read. You would see how much the intervening two years have generated.

I’ll close this explanation by saying I am not familiar with any changes Dr. Veith may have made in his work to date. Though his website is current and would offer that opportunity, my curent work doen’t allow me the time to keep exploring this single issue. A brief look in that direction does suggest to me that matters remain largly the same.

In 2008 my interest had more to do with the effect of his conspiracy theories on my local churches in Wales and the church in Europe as a whole. I stand by my objections, though on review, I wish I had stated them with less “vigor” from time to time. But you should not consider that caveat a retraction of my objections to the preaching of conspiracy theories or to the distortions of Bible prophecy they create.

My objections to Dr. Veith’s teaching have not been intended as a personal attack on his character, though many seem to construe any objection to the work of a pastor as just that. Separating objections to the work of a man and the man himself is not always easy. I do apologize if I have not made that clear.

I have no doubt this post, because it intentiionally contains Walter Veith’s name and restates my objection, will be a new source of comment. It will more than likely generate more invective and diatribe me personally. I do not plan on repeatedly answering old arguments. I would refer objectors to my previous writing unless they offer something truly new.

This is a little test of my new iPhone application. I can now post to my blog using my iPhone. Not sure how much I'll want or need to do this or if it will change how I use this space. It would certainly make it easy to microblog, to post short, frequent updates. But then that might lead to more trivial posts, something like this one, something more casual, something to fill the void just for the sake of it.

Still, I like having the choice. What I choose to do with it will say something, one way or another, about the things I value. There is at least a lesson worth learning in that.

Af the moment this new way of posting is proving useful since I'm alone in my office without my Mac. I came by with Sharon for our second meeting with a baptismal candidate, someone who is becoming a friend. That meeting is over. Now I'm waiting for Sharon to finish rehearsing with her worship team.

I think now would be a good time to stop writing with both thumbs and do some reading.

Vanity is a common theme running through my head today. Perhaps it has something to do with shopping for shoes. I don’t need any more shoes and I didn’t buy any more shoes, but I wanted some. I tried on several pair waiting for Sharon as she shopped. She did need a pair and found some. 

On the way home we stopped at Krogers for a few groceries. She went in. I parked and sat in the Audi, slightly slouched in my leather seat, thinking more about my vanity and comfortable life. As I thought I watched. Men and women moved across the parking lot. A tall grey man in maroon and kaki, long-legged, short-waisted, heavy through the bottom like a pear, limped slowly across the drive, stumbling and stopping and starting again just before the doors. Was it age or illness that made him limp?

A mature woman with long, brown, stringy hair, her right hand clinched palm up, awkwardly, unnaturally like a claw, walked next to a shorter, older woman, someone I imagined as her mother. I couldn’t remember ever seeing legs so thin. They were tightly wrapped in black jeans. How did she get them on? One leg seem thinner than the other. Unable to fully lift her right foot, she pulled it behind her, catching the edge of her white shoe where the asphalt met the sidewalk. She wore a flowing black cloak festooned with brightly colored musical notes and a keyboard, perhaps in memory of a time when she could extend her long fingers toward the piano. A young, bulging woman laughed behind her, at her I think; her husband looked down at his feet as he shushed her. 

I thought of Christ in his suffering, of the call to share his sufferings. I thought more about my vanity.

I just discovered the loss of my archive links, my photo gallery, and my Amazon book list. I’ll see if I can recover the last two from my webhost. 

As for the ARCHIVES, the renewed link is at the top of the page, left side, in the header next to “home journal”. 

The archives are listed in three ways. 1. By category 2. By title…it’s a long, long list 3. By month, at the bottom of the page. 

I hope I can recover the other lost pages. If not, it will be a slow process of rebuilding. 

I’ve also re-instated an old feature, recent comments, just to your left in the sidebar, in case you want to see who is saying what lately. It seems certain older post still catch a lot of google search traffic. 

Update on Thursday, March 4, 2010 by Jan McKenzie

Looks like my gallery and book list are gone for good, lost in a buggy glitch I can’t account for. Perhaps I’ll have time to rebuild them. But that might be a while. 

“Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” 

Proverbs 29.20

“For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words”.

Ecclesiastes 3.5

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” 

Matthew 12.33-36

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord. 
He is like a tree planted by water, 
that sends out its roots by the stream, 
and does not fear when heat comes, 
for its leaves remain green, 
and is not anxious in the year of drought, 
for it does not cease to bear fruit.” The heart is deceitful above all things,
 and desperately sick;
 who can understand it?
“ I the Lord search the heart
 and test the mind,
 to give every man according to his ways, 
according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Jeremiah 17.7-10

Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.“ I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 

Matthew 3.4-12

Update on Sunday, February 28, 2010 by Jan McKenzie

My painful sense of shame, along with knowing how it effects others, makes me appreciate the mercy of God and that of my friends much more.

I felt the need to reschedule two appointments today. A worldly sense of professionalism threatens me with more guilt, but experience in spiritual life told me I was not really fit for human consumption. Having said that, when I shared my spiritual need with them, without a false excuse, their understanding and compassion touched me, opening my heart for healing. The movement of the Spirit in his sacrificial work for sinful hearts is an “amazing grace”. The flow from lostness to the comfort of being forgiven is like a dry, barren river bed feeling the first trickle of water in its graveled veins. 

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” James 5.16

 

I’m leaving the house soon for Sabbath worship with the smaller of my two churches, the one in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Planning to preach on Philippians 2.5-11. I’ve wondered if this is out of my own need or because I believe it best for the members. Not an easy question for the heart. It takes time in prayer, study, and visiting the members to know the word God has for each of us day by day, as well as on Sabbath morning. 

Too often the preacher’s felt-needs, his spiritual hunger or spiritual drought, dominate his ministry to others; his particular area’s of weakness too often control his mind and heart. They continually spew from his mouth. Only through a daily surrender of myself to the Spirit of God, only by a daily conversion, a rebirth from the flesh to the spirit, am I able to have an abiding, living relationship with Christ. 

“Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus”. The mind of Christ, his humble, self-sacrificing spirit, can be ours “in him”. It is ours together as his body and ours separately as believers alone with God. Knowing the weakness of our flesh as we see ourselves in “Christ crucified”, we will long for and have the spirit of his resurrection. Our obedience is to be the obedience of the cross. It comes out of death and receives the new life of his righteousness. Each day calls us, as Christ calls us, to “take up our cross” and follow him.

Jesus said that unless we do this we cannot be his disciples. That is, only in the daily experience of death and resurrection in him will we be able to follow him in the path of self-denial for the sake of others. Without this daily experience we prefer to be served rather than to serve. Our life will be the working out of our naturally self-centered heart.

The Word of God presents only one solution for the terrible work of the flesh. It is death in Christ. When we are weak enough to count ourselves dead to the world and alive to him we can have the confidence of his own abiding strength in our heart.

I have this one day, this one Sabbath day, ahead of me. I can live it through dying with Christ or I can be dead to the Spirit as I am alive to my selfish need. The choice of faith, as always, remains my own. If I will exercise this faith that he has given me, then I can make Christ my own as he has made me his own. Today I have life and death presented to me by the Word of God. The choice and the privilege of dying to live are mine in Christ.