Prophecy Days 10-12: George is getting upset!

It’s time to be honest. When I first started this venture, I thought as time progressed I would start to find things to love about the Church. I thought my time spent in this seminar would climb toward a dramatic epiphany whereby I would have new found, relevant wisdom to share with every church going person I came across. I’m not building toward that epiphany. If anything I’m building more reason to be frustrated with the church. I don’t hate it, and that’s a good thing. I think I even like it at times, but I am frustrated with it.

The frustration wouldn’t even be so bad if only I knew what it was I was frustrated about. Is it what we’ve done with Jesus’ message; distorting it to serve our own selfish fantasies of what Christian life should look like? Is it that we come in to church day in and day out unchanged and unaffected by a life changing and life affecting message (at least that’s the appearance we give)? I think it’s both. But what’s really frustrating is asking these questions about me. Do I distort Jesus’ message for my own gain? Yes. Do I walk out of church unchanged and unaffected? Yes. I carry the same problems as the church; it’s just not publically evident. Well, now it is. (In a way.)

Anyway, here are some of the events that have led to this train of thought.

Day 10: How to Erase Your Past Mistakes Forever. AKA: Baptism means immersion not sprinkling. Repeat: not sprinkling; oh!, and it’s not for babies either. Oh!, and it’s immersion not sprinkling.

This day also had a video about Protestant reformer John Huss. It was in the same vein as A Man for All Seasons about Sir Thomas More and his stand against King Henry VIII’s divorce. The film was of the same technical quality, being made in the ‘60s. It contained bad costumes, poor acting, and obviously fake facial hair. The message of the film was standing up for truth is worth giving one’s life, which I believe to be true and so did the rest of the audience. However, in my mind, a discrepancy shows its ugly head at this point. Here we are watching a film about someone whose life, to some, was cut short. It was cut short directly because of his obedience to God’s Word. Then, we have the next session.

Day 11: How to Live Longer and Healthier. AKA: No bacon or beer. (Sorry Bob and Doug McKenzie.) The premise being that God gave us laws by which, if we follow, we’ll live longer and healthier. How can we, one day, praise someone who obeyed God’s laws and lived short and rather stingily in a jail cell and the next day say by obeying God’s laws we’ll live long and healthy? Again, the difference between interpretations of ‘commandments’ comes into play. I see following God’s laws as following His example in Christ, and following Him brought about suffering and premature death to His disciples and to Himself. The seminar sees following God’s laws as directly following kosher laws given in Leviticus.

It was here also that I got the first hint that I was going to hell. I was given a pamphlet about God’s health laws and consequences for breaking them. I quote:

6. But I like pork. Will God destroy me if I eat it?

“For, behold, the Lord will come with fire . . . and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh; and the slain of the Lord shall be many. They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves . . . eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord.” Isaiah 66:15-17

Answer: This may be shocking, but it is true and must be told. The Bible positively states that all who eat “swine’s flesh,” “the mouse,” and other unclean things that are an “abomination” will be destroyed with fire at the coming of the Lord. When God says to leave something alone and not eat it, we should by all means obey Him. After all, the mere eating of a piece of forbidden fruit by Adam and Eve, a sinless couple, brought sin and death to this world in the first place. Can anyone say it doesn’t matter, when God so clearly shows it does? God says men will be destroyed because they “chose that in which I delighted not.” Isaiah 66:4.

I have two things to say about my going to hell here. One, here’s the Isaiah passage in full and in the modern language:

15 See, the Lord is coming with fire,
and his swift chariots roar like a whirlwind.
He will bring punishment with the fury of his anger
and the flaming fire of his hot rebuke.
16 The Lord will punish the world by fire
and by his sword. He will judge the earth,
and many will be killed by him.

17 “Those who ‘consecrate’ and ‘purify’ themselves in a sacred garden with its idol in the center—feasting on pork and rats and other detestable meats—will come to a terrible end,” says the Lord.

-Isaiah 66: 15-17 (NLT)

First of all, verse 17 is broken up from verse 15 and 16 in some literary fashion. So, if one is going to take verse 17 with verses 15 and 16, one would have to start from verse 12 where it says, “This is what the Lord says.” If God says something, it’s good to hear all of it rather than just the later half. Also, it seems as though this feasting on pork and rats was a cleansing ritual done for this particular idol. I’m not an Ancient Near Eastern historian, but that’s how it reads to me. So, its those that are substituting this cleansing practice for the given practice by God and those who are substituting this idol for the actual God that are in for a world of hurt. So it would seem.

Second, here’s a passage from Acts that was not mentioned at all during the session.

1 While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers: “Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them, arguing vehemently. Finally, the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local believers, to talk to the apostles and elders about this question. 3 The church sent the delegates to Jerusalem, and they stopped along the way in Phoenicia and Samaria to visit the believers. They told them—much to everyone’s joy—that the Gentiles, too, were being converted.
4 When they arrived in Jerusalem, Barnabas and Paul were welcomed by the whole church, including the apostles and elders. They reported everything God had done through them. 5 But then some of the believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and insisted, “The Gentile converts must be circumcised and required to follow the law of Moses.”
6 So the apostles and elders met together to resolve this issue. 7 At the meeting, after a long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows: “Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the Good News and believe. 8 God knows people’s hearts, and he confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts through faith. 10 So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? 11 We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.”
12 Everyone listened quietly as Barnabas and Paul told about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.
13 When they had finished, James stood and said, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Peter has told you about the time God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for himself. 15 And this conversion of Gentiles is exactly what the prophets predicted. As it is written:
16 ‘Afterward I will return and restore the fallen house of David. I will rebuild its ruins and restore it, 17 so that the rest of humanity might seek the Lord, including the Gentiles— all those I have called to be mine. The Lord has spoken— 18 he who made these things known so long ago.’
19 “And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood. 21 For these laws of Moses have been preached in Jewish synagogues in every city on every Sabbath for many generations.”

-Acts 15:1-21 (NLT)

I’ll let that passage speak for itself.

Day 12: Heavenly Judgment Here on Earth (Or something like that. I don’t recall the exact phrasing. Something about judgment and heaven and earth and Jesus and Saturday and Pork). This session got us back into some major prophecy as the last sessions were sufficiently lacking. The prophecy is found in Daniel 8:13-27. The story of the interpretation of this prophecy in the history of the Seventh Day Adventist church is interesting and can be found here. A summary: the founder of the SDA church, William Miller, was reading the Bible and came across this prophecy. With much study, he concluded that it pertained to the second coming of Christ and was scheduled to take place in the year of 1844. This was based off of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem made in 457 BC that was also in the previous Daniel prophecy discussed in the seminar. Needless to say, 1844 came and passed and Jesus neither came nor passed. William, and his rather large gathering of followers at this point (if you preach the end is near, some people listen), were forced to reinterpret this prophecy; for obviously their first attempt was false. It was then concluded that this prophecy refers to an event that takes place in Heaven rather than on earth. The session referred to it as the cleansing of the sanctuary in Heaven. This event, thus, kicked off in 1844.

23:59:56 December 31, 1843.
Location: Heaven.

God: 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . Happy sanctuary cleansing!
Angels: Hurray!
God: I call basement!
Angels: Ahh! You always get the basement.
God: But I called it.
Angels: (Mockingly) But I called it.
God: Hey! You know where the last angel that gave me lip ended up. Don’t think I won’t do it again!
Angels: Supreme beings; always so pushy.

I can’t reveal my sources for this bit of dialogue, but I’m pretty sure that’s how it went down. But what was missing from this presentation was what this meant for us earth dwelling beings. Also, what was missing was the fact that this was not the original interpretation of the prophecy by the SDA church, and in fact that the SDA guessed at a date for the second coming because of this prophecy and got it wrong. That little bit of information I had to look up on my own.

That’s the odd thing though. Continuously, throughout this seminar it has been repeated that the purpose of these sessions is for people to learn how to discover the Bible on their own. I think that’s a great thing. But what happens when a member of the church comes across the passage in Acts 15 referring to food laws?

It may seem I am putting down the SDA church a lot more this post than in previous, but I don’t mean to. Remember, I’m frustrated with the whole Church right now. I’m frustrated with the whole because this happens in every church. At some point, if you study the Bible and are a part of the church, you’re going to be told how to interpret certain passages. You will develop a bias for certain passages that explain your beliefs and you will develop a counter interpretation for passages that others bring forth that negate those beliefs. To me this all comes back to our distortion of Jesus’ message to fit our own version of our Christianity. I am guilty of it too.

So, the Church and I have a common problem. You and the church have a common problem (that’s right, I said you). What commonality do all have with the church; we’re all broken pieces that make up the Kingdom of God. How can I love a broken Church? I’m broken too. Why do the homeless tend to look after other homeless? They share a commonality of brokenness. Why do alcoholic sympathize with other alcoholics? They share a commonality of brokenness.

When I find it hard to love the Church, guess what I’m assuming about myself? I’m not broken. Well, I am broken, and until I’m able to accept that every day, I won’t be able to love the Church every day.

3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

-Matthew 7: 3-5 (NLT)

Now, this is not to say that all of the Church’s problems will go away for me. Or that my frustration will cease. Rather, I still think the Church needs to acknowledge the log in its eye before it can go taking specks out of the world’s eye. This all comes down to allowing the life changing, life altering message of Christ change and alter lives; both in the Church and out.

So, Friday’s session attempts to answer the question: Why so many churches and how do you tell the true ones from the false. It should be really interesting. If you’re at all interested, contact me.