Your Crippled Teacher

Imagine you are in a mid-sized city in East Africa.  The three paved roads that intersect the highway running through town turn into dust tracks after a few kilometers.  The noises and activity of a bustling city seem to never end, and you are one of the few foreigners there.  

You are holding an evangelistic meeting series in the city, which is being attended by about a thousand people.  Other churches have promised to outpreach you, but they soon run out of things to say, and those attending the dancing sessions begin to come to your meeting instead.  The contending preachers end their efforts within a week of beginning, but you wonder how you are going to say all you want to say in three short weeks!  The Lord is blessing, and people are beginning to tell you that they want to be baptized and join your church.  

You hear about a lady who wants a visit in her home, so you and a friend agree on a time.  You have not met the woman yourself, but those helping in the meetings have told you about her, given you her name, and told you where she lives.  You travel as far as you can in an over-crowded minibus, then crawl out where the broken, bumpy asphalt road intersects with the rutted dirt path to the section of town where the lady lives.  There are no real street names or house numbers, but you ask those you pass where the neighborhood is, and they point you further up the mountain.  

You continue your climb up the mountain, past the dwindling number of houses.  A man on an orange Honda 90cc motorcycle bounces down the hill past you, waving and greeting you as he passes in a cloud of swirling dust.  The road cannot be called a road anymore, and you doubt that anybody who lives up here could afford to own a car.  Finally a lady sitting outside of her house points to the house where the lady lives, and you near the end of your dusty journey.  

As you approach the little two-room hut covered with rusty roofing sheets, you see the woman sitting on a three-legged stool, enjoying the warm sunshine.  You are a bit surprised that she does not rise to greet you, but just then you notice her bicycle and understand.  Her “bicycle” is more of a “tri-cycle,” crudely welded together from various bicycle parts and other pieces of iron.  Instead of pedals as you are used to on the three-wheeled cycles around town, you see that this is a hand-pedaled cycle, specially designed for people who cannot use their legs.  The lady you have come to visit is lame, paralyzed in both of her legs.  Her hand-shake tells you firmly that you would not want to try and arm-wrestle this woman!  You are still out of breath from the climb up the hill to her house, but she obviously has hand-cranked her way up this hill many times.  

The lady wants to talk about serious matters, so she invites you to enter her home.  You stoop through the low door and wait for her to follow.  As the smoke stings your eyes and the chickens dart around pecking for food on the floor, you start to wonder how this lady is going to move into the house.  Will she drag herself along the ground, as you have seen other cripples do?  Soon you see that she has a cleaner method of transporting herself.  As she sits on one stool, she places another three-legged stool beside her.  She lifts herself over to the empty stool, then moves the stool she has just left between her and the house, and repeats the process.  She moves quite efficiently, and soon she joins you in the hut.  

While you stand and watch her progress, you find yourself wondering why you are here.  Of course God’s love is for everybody, but we need strong people in the church!  What can this lady add to the body of Christ?  What will she contribute, when she is so needy herself?  Soon the real conversation starts, so you try to focus on what the lady is saying, and not on your own thoughts.

“I have been attending the meetings you have been holding.  I appreciate what you have been saying, and I want to join this church.”

“Well, that is good to hear,” you say, although you still wonder if it is really so good to hear.  “So, you would like to be baptized?”

“Yes, I would,” she replies.  You begin to talk to her about the various things she has been learning, and find out that she has been studying with church members for several months, but has now finally made the decision.  Yet, for some reason, she hesitates.

“Pastor, I am a bit worried.  I can’t swim, and I am afraid of water.  How can I be baptized?”

For the first time, you realize why this lady has asked you to visit her.  Her heart is calling her to follow Jesus in baptism, but her fear is strong.  You begin to wonder how she could practically be baptized, since she can obviously not carry her own weight, but you don’t need to wonder long.

“Oh, that will be ok,” your friend speaks out.  “We are used to this.  We will have other people in the water with the pastor, and they will hold you and make sure that you go under and come right back up again.  Don’t worry, we have done this before, and you will be fine.”

Good thing somebody with more experience was with you today!  Soon you take your leave of the lady who has now confirmed her decision, and make your way back down to the noisy, bustling city.  

On the day of baptism, 160 people line up on the banks of a small river to be baptized.  Several thousand others are also there to watch.  It is a day of happy singing and hearty “Amen!”s as each person goes into the watery grave and comes up to new life.  After a time of watching the others, the paralyzed lady has her opportunity to go into the water.  Nervously, she takes the hands of two strong helpers, who lead her into the water to the pastor.  Two men hold her firmly, and the pastor places his hands on her and pronounces the blessings.  “Because you have decided to follow Jesus, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”  

Gently the lady is lowered into the water.  You can see the terror on her face, but as she comes up again, borne by the strong men holding her, she is no longer afraid.  Peace fills her heart, and she tearfully expresses her joy that she has made this decision.  She is carried out of the river, where she is greeted by the deaconesses who help her dry off and change her clothes.  

Tears fill your eyes as you think of the new life this lady is going to experience.  You marvel at her display of faith.  Not only has she committed her life to God in her heart, but in a very real sense she has trusted her life into the hands of others.  You feel that her faith is far greater than anything you have personally ever known, and you are filled with joy unspeakable.

And as you stand there, thinking of what you have seen today, you realize you are living life to its fullest.  You say to yourself, “I am alive!  I was created to be here today.  I was born to be a missionary in Africa!”  

You thank God for the "weak" ones who can teach you so much!  And you thank Him that He allowed you to be a part of this beautiful moment.

The Premature Honeymoon

The Pause on the Brink of Eternity, part 7

Imagine if Jesus were to get impatient up in Heaven, and decide that He has waited long enough to return.  He decides to hop over a few details in His prophecies and promises, and His passionate love for His people drives Him to abbreviate the history of the world.  He quickly finishes up His ministry in the Most Holy Place of the Heavenly Sanctuary, and marshals the armies of heaven for the great rescue they have been waiting for for millennia. The Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the earth, and the final events take place in rapid succession.  Those who are ready are sealed with the seal of God, and those who are not are marked by the beast.  The great time of trouble commences, and Jesus soon returns in the clouds to gather His jewels to Himself.  

“This is our God, the one we have waited for,” sing the waiting faithful, and they are caught up with the newly-risen dead in Christ to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall they ever be with the Lord.  Oh, bliss, oh, wonderful, glorious, heavenly joy.  One second of heaven would be worth more than all the sufferings of this earthly life, and now all eternity stretches out before the bride of Christ, the redeemed from the earth.  The wedding for which the Bridegroom has waited so long can now take place, and just imagine what the honeymoon will be like!

Well, yeah, imagine what the honeymoon will be like.  Sex will no longer be a part of human existence, but the personal knowing of Jesus in person will far surpass any joy that sex can bring anyway.  So, the honeymoon begins, with the joys and revelations that surpass anything the most-faithful couple have ever enjoyed.  Or, ... well, ... maybe not exactly.  As Jesus rejoices over His bride, He begins to inspect her more closely, and what does He find?  She’s not all there!  She’s missing some very vital and important parts of her body!  She looked ok from a distance, but so much of what would have made her beautiful is lacking, and can never be replaced!  

“Oh, no!” Jesus cries out!  “She wasn’t ready to get married!  She wasn’t whole yet!  What have I done?  It’s over, it’s too late to change anything.  There are over 12,000 nations, tribes, peoples, and languages that didn’t have the opportunity to be part of the body, My body!  Oh, no, now they are lost forever, beyond the reach of any hope, and my bride is crippled, maimed, blemished for all eternity!  She’s missing toes, fingers, teeth, one eyeball, half her heart, and an ear!”

“Count the patience of our Lord as salvation.”  “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”  2 Peter 3:15, 9.  “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.  See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.”  James 5:7.

As of today, there are still over 6,600 individual people groups, representing over 2.75 billion people, that are unreached, meaning that they do not have a significant Christian presence among them.  When we look at Adventists, the number is over 12,000 people groups with no SDA church established among them.  How could Jesus come back until members from those groups have been reached, warned, and gathered into His body, the church?  Jesus is a gentleman, a Lover who is passionately in love with one Beloved.  He will have nobody else, and even if decades and centuries pass, He will wait until she is ready for marriage.  Today she is not ready, so He waits.  And waits.  And still waits.  How long will He wait?  Hopefully not much longer, but according to His word we know that He will wait long enough for the prophecies to come true that there will be individuals “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” standing in the innumerable multitude before the Throne of God in heaven.  

Jesus doesn’t want to get married to an incomplete bride, and if you think about it, I am sure you would agree that you wouldn’t want to get married to an all-powerful being who doesn’t keep His word.  Could the saved really trust Jesus to keep other promises in His Word if He jumped the gun and came back to earth before every people group is represented in the church?  What other promises might He overlook down the road?  If He didn’t care enough about those nations, tribes, languages, and peoples, how much does He really care about those of us who make it?  

I have heard it said that when a person has sex with their lover outside of marriage, even if they are engaged, they are giving their future spouse permission to have sex outside of marriage.  If a person is not self-controlled enough to wait to get married, can they be trusted even after they are married?  If Jesus jumps the gun now, so to speak, ending history before His bride is ready, can His bride ever really trust Him?  The regret and remorse experienced by impatient lovers here on earth is surely next to nothing compared to the eternal remorse of hastening the second coming.

So, Jesus waits.  He is a gentleman, and He will keep His Word.  He will keep His Word to return, but before that can happen, His Word about who will be in heaven must be kept as well.  I don’t know about you, but I would like to be married to somebody like that, and I would want to do everything possible to be ready for the wedding and the eternal honeymoon following.  Do you want to receive the seal of God in your forehead?  Then consider that that process will be inextricably intwined with the carrying of the gospel to the unreached people groups of this world.  Those who are sealed will be involved to one degree or another in proclaiming the gospel.  

The Seal of God and the Great Multitude Before the Throne of God

The Pause on the Brink of Eternity, part 6

Moving backwards from the seven trumpets, we come again to the seven seals, and the interlude between the sixth and seventh seals.  In chapter seven of Revelation, the issue at stake is not called the mystery of God being finished, but is referred to as sealing the servants of God with the seal of God in their foreheads.  Very little is told us in that passage about what the seal of God is, but by looking at other passages of Scripture, we know that the sealing of God’s people will be manifested in their keeping of the commandments of God.  All the commandments, including those neglected by most other Christians, and by the way, including those neglected by many Seventh-day Adventists.  This obedience will not be a merely outward obedience, but will include the keeping of the commandments from the heart, since the tenth commandment, forbidding covetousness, is also part of the moral law of God.  We would have to have the living Jesus living in us to be able to ever truly keep the commandments of God.  “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”  Galatians 2:20.  

Interestingly enough, the seal of God is only a small part of the interlude of Revelation 7.  After listing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel that represent the group known as the 144,000, the first thing John writes is, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, and from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothes in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”  Revelation 7:9, 10.  See that?  The preparation of the people of God and the gathering in of souls from “every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages,” go hand-in-hand.  When God’s people are prepared, the message goes out.  The personal preparation and mission work go together.  We should be careful to remember that active zeal in missionary activity in and of itself is not effective for spreading the gospel, because if it is done in our own power, it is doing more damage than good.

“It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, (2 Peter 3:12, margin).  Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel.  Quickly the last great harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain.”  Christ’s Object Lessons, page 69

“You may manifest great zeal in missionary effort, and yet because it is corrupted with selfishness, and tastes strongly of self, it is nought in the sight of God; for it is a tainted, corrupted offering.  Unless the door of the heart is open to Jesus, unless He occupies the soul temple, unless the heart is imbued with His divine attributes, human actions when weighed in the heavenly balances, will be pronounced ‘Wanting.’  The love of Christ would make you rich; but many do not realize the value of His love.  Many do not realize that the spirit which they cherish is destitute of the meekness and lowliness of Christ, destitute of the love that would constitute them channels of light.”  Ellen G. White, Manuscript 33, 1894

Personal religion and effective soul-winning are inseparable.  If we are not living Christians, with the living Jesus dwelling in our hearts through faith via the Holy Spirit, we will not be hastening the coming of the day of God, even if we are the most active missionaries in the world.  The seal of God and the multitude around the throne are both part of what must take place before Jesus returns to get His children.  His servants must be sealed in their foreheads, and the gospel must go out with such intensity, power, and reach that representatives from “every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” can become part of that great multitude that will sing “Salvation” in heaven.

Adventists have always been focused on reaching the unreached to a greater or less degree.  We have seldom been leaders in entering new territory with the gospel, but we are currently represented in nearly every country on the globe.  Geographically speaking, we have covered the planet with the SDA church.  It seems, however, that we have largely failed to realize that political countries alone are not the only divisions of people on this earth.  In the Revelation, John seems to have tried to make this abundantly clear by repeatedly referring to the world in terms of “peoples and nations and languages and kings;” “the peoples and tribes and languages and nations;” “peoples and multitudes and nations and languages;” “every nation, ... tribes and peoples and languages;” and “those who dwell on the earth, ... every nation and tribe and language and people.”  Revelation 10:11; 11:9; 17:15; 7:9; 14:6.

In connection with the opening of the seven seals, Jesus, the Lamb who was slain, is told: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”  Revelation 5:9.

The Rumor

The Mystery of God

The Pause on the Brink of Eternity, part 5

“The mystery of God.”  Doesn’t that sound, well, rather mysterious?  Is it one of those things that is not revealed to us, that we should just leave in God’s hands?  Does this mean that we can never really know what Jesus is waiting for?  Well, perhaps in one sense, that is true, but the New Testament gives us enough explanation of this subject that we can unravel this mystery to a great degree.

Paul wrote several places about the mystery of God, the mystery of Christ, the mystery of godliness, the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of the faith, and the mystery of God’s will.  See Romans 16:25, 26: Ephesians 1:9; 3:3-9; 6:19; Colossians 1:26, 27; 2:2; 4:3; 1 Timothy 3:9, 16.  These all are apparently essentially the same thing, that which John called “the mystery of God.”  From reading these verses, we find out that before Paul’s day, the mystery was kept secret, but was revealed in his time.  Paul wrote about “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.”  Colossians 1:26.  In the clearest possible language, he wrote a few verses later, “God’s mystery, which is Christ.”  Colossians 2:2.  Jesus Christ was and is the ultimate revelation of God’s heart, God’s plan of salvation, God’s mystery.  “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: he was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”  1 Timothy 3:16.  What is the mystery of God?  It is Jesus, first and foremost.  He has revealed to the world and to the universe the thoughts of God that have been unknown to other intelligent beings throughout all eternity.  

However, Revelation 10:7 says that the mystery of God would be “finished,” or “fulfilled.”  Does Jesus have more to do in the plan of salvation?  Didn’t He declare, “It is finished,” long before John wrote the book of Revelation?  What else did He need to do?  This question brings us back to a central teaching in the Adventist church about the investigative judgment going on in heaven before Jesus returns to earth.  We believe that Jesus did all He needed to do on earth while He was here, but there is a work that He is working to complete in heaven even as you are reading this now!  But, we don’t need to get too complicated in this matter in order to understand what the mystery of God has to do with us personally and with the mission of the church.  

Jesus told His disciples while He was still on this earth, “...whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”  John 14:12.  The only sense in which His disciples can be said to have done greater works than Jesus did is in the sense of greater geographic coverage in their work.  They didn’t do purer or holier works than Jesus did, nor did they save more people by their lives or death, but they did end up traveling to places that Jesus did not personally visit, and they carried the gospel further than He had been able to do in His ministry in Palestine.  But, they did so because Jesus went “to the Father.”  Jesus was able to be closer to His disciples when He was in heaven than when He was on earth, because through the Holy Spirit, He was able to be in His disciples.  He was not with them, but He was in them, closer than when He walked by their sides on the paths around Israel.  And this miracle is what is involved in the mystery of God being finished.

“...this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  Colossians 1:27.  The mystery of God is Jesus Christ, and the mystery of God will be finished when Christ is in His people.  

“Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church.  When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.

“It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, (2 Peter 3:12, margin).  Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel.  Quickly the last great harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain.”  Christ’s Object Lessons, page 69

Christ is waiting for His character to be reproduced in His people, and when it is, He will come back.  No wonder the same writer also wrote, “Character building is the most important work ever entrusted to human beings; and never before was its diligent study so important as now.”  Education, page 225.  The development of a Christ-like character is a subject running throughout the Bible, closely tied in to the character of God Himself, and the call for us to glorify Him.  

So, when the church reflects the character of Christ fully, He will return to the earth on the biggest rescue mission of all time!  This is the event that God is waiting for, the event that will transpire before Jesus returns.  God is not waiting for a specific date to arrive, but He is waiting for a specific event to occur among the church here on earth.

Let me be a little bit open and vulnerable with you for a while here.  In teaching from the book of Revelation for several years, my classes on Revelation 10 ended here.  When I had made it clear that the mystery of God being fulfilled consisted of Christ’s character being reproduced in His people, I figured that my job was done, the lesson was passed on.  I was so blind, missing perhaps the most-obvious conclusion that this study should have led me to!

Shame on me!  Shame on me for thinking that having the character of Christ consists of eating the right foods, avoiding the wrong foods and drinks, avoiding improper forms of entertainment, dressing modestly, following the eight laws of health, and a whole bunch of other rules and regulations!  I honestly have believed that when the church gets its act together, and everybody moves out into the country, becomes vegans and stops wearing jewelry, Jesus would come back!  Shame on me, and shame on the people who supported me in my misunderstanding!  May God forgive me for leaving such a legalistic, imbalanced impression on my students.  

What is the basic character of Jesus?  It is love, of course.  And how was that love manifested?  We can say much about how Jesus demonstrated the love of God, but undergirding His entire life, we see that Jesus was intensely interested in bringing salvation to those who did not have it.  The spirit of Christ is a missionary spirit.  Jesus left the comfortable, luxurious surroundings that were most-conducive to His spiritual health and growth, and entered the mission field!  Jesus is the ultimate missionary!  Jesus left heaven to come to a sin-filled, disease-infested mission field, to take the ultimate risk of failure and rejection, in order to bring the good news of the gospel to those who needed it.  How could an individual possibly have the character of Jesus without having the character of a missionary?  How have we come so far that so many of us have seemed to come to the conclusion that having the character of Christ can happen while we are living separated from contact with people as much as possible?  We might not all be able to travel overseas or to another culture, but we can have and demonstrate the missionary spirit wherever we are, and if Christ’s church as a whole has Christ living in them, “the hope of glory”, there will be many more overseas missionaries than we see today.  Jesus was a cross-cultural missionary, crossing cultural barriers far greater and far more difficult than any modern missionary could be called to cross on this planet.

Shame on us!  Shame on so many of us in the Seventh-day Adventist church who have believed that character development consists in primarily personal matters of what we eat, how we dress, and whether we have a television or not.  Shame on us for reducing the kingdom of God to “meat and drink,” for having a religion consisting of “touch not; taste not; handle not.”  See Romans 14:17 and Colossians 2:21.  What we eat, drink, and whatever we do, is to be done to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31), but let us not forget that giving glory to God is a public matter, a matter especially involved in evangelism.  See Isaiah 60:1-3; Revelation 14:6, 7; Isaiah 40:5.  Eating right, dressing modestly and healthfully, which Bible translation to use, and having a television or not are secondary or tertiary issues that should be submitted to the great goal of our lives, which as members of the church of Jesus Christ, should be spreading the knowledge of our Saviour as far as possible.  If I eat well and stay healthy, then, with that health that God gives me, I can learn from Jesus how to be loving like He is, and I can go to other places, visit other peoples, and share the beautiful gospel with them.  But, my Seventh-day Adventist friend, let me tell you that a born-again Christian can be an effective missionary even if they have never heard that such a thing as a health message or dress reform exists.  Private, personal religion must be in place for the character of Christ to be reproduced in me or in any other, but private religion in those who are already Christians is not sufficient to bring about the end of this world as long as over 12,000 different people groups have never heard of the message of the three angels which is so central to the teaching of the Seventh-day Adventist church.

Multiple times, Paul ties in the preaching of the gospel to other people groups (Gentiles) to the mystery of God.  Notice these texts:  “...the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith.”  Romans 16:25, 26.  “When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.  This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”  Ephesians 3:4-6.

And if Paul’s statements are not clear enough, John himself, in Revelation 10 itself, refers to the proclamation of the gospel in a cross-cultural context when he records the angel telling him, “you must prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”  Revelation 10:11.  

Ok, now we’ve explored the subject of the mystery of God to some degree.  This was only one part of the key.  There are two more pieces remaining.  We need to understand them better in order to get a full picture of what Revelation has to say about why Jesus waits.

Synced!

"Synced!"

“Did you spot it? He’s synced.”  “No, but I caught myself being synced today.”  “Ok, ten points for each of us!”  

We could make it into a sort of a game, but it is really a matter too serious to be a game!

It’s not synchronized, but syncretized.  Syncretism is the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought, according to the dictionary on my computer.
  

Syncretism in a religious context happens when somebody joins a new religion, like Christianity, but continues to live in many ways in the way they lived before becoming a Christian.  Like a church elder keeping his charms from when he was a witch doctor.  Or a church board disfellowshipping a deacon because he mixed up the order of service one Sabbath.  (That really happened, according to one of our teachers from AFM.)  

Avoiding syncretism is one of our largest concerns as AFM missionaries.  It might be possible to fill a church with people who call themselves Seventh-day Adventist Christians, but who in reality are living like animists in nearly every way.  They interact with God as they used to interact with nature spirits, and they turn to the devil and his agents when they encounter a crisis.  They might treat God as some all-powerful fairy godfather who can be manipulated, but who cannot be known or loved.  

Consider this: The Bible is relevant for every culture, and gives counsel and instruction that can be useful for a person from any culture in the world to find their way to Jesus.  On the other hand, my understanding of the Bible is incomplete.  My application of the Bible principles I understand may be even more incomplete.  I may not do all that I know I could or should do.  

Now, I, a Christian from America, travel to Africa.  I go with the Bible in my hands, and I try my best to present the Bible as it reads to the people I come to serve.  Inevitably, I will present a biased and incomplete picture of the Bible message, no matter how hard I may try to do otherwise.  In other words, I will inevitably to some degree pass on my religion and not only the pure religion from the Bible itself.  I am a corrupt channel, and even a perfect message flowing through me will be tainted by me in some ways.  It is unavoidable.  

My religion may seem sufficient for me when I am living in a culture similar to what I have grown up in.  However, the people in the culture I will be serving will have different needs and problems than I have had in my life.  They will need answers from the Bible that I will not even realize the Bible contains.  The Bible is a book for all cultures, but my religion is not, even if it is based on the Bible.  

In order to avoid syncretism, we will need to do our best to help people in our host culture to study the Bible for themselves, through their own eyes, to find in it the answers they are looking for.  Through the Bible, the Holy Spirit will seek to show them how to meet the problems and issues they face in a Jesus-like way, instead of reverting to old, familiar ways of dealing with crises.  

Syncretism is no game, but finding ways to eliminate it will be a great thrill.  It will give us the greatest challenge of our lives!  As we work with others, we will pray that the Lord will show us our own syncretistic tendencies and help us to interact with life in a truly biblical way.  Mission work is a challenging blast!

Chicken Manure and True Generosity

Our donor letter from December.

“I would like to have more chickens so I can help the widows more.”  I’d had a feeling that was coming!  We had been well fed by one of the church leaders in a village I was visiting with some friends.  (This was not in Benin, by the way.)  We had visited the local church, and had been invited to this man’s house for Sabbath lunch.  

As we ate, our host began to tell us about his work with the widows in the area.  He told us he wanted us to help him buy more chickens.  He already had several hundred chickens, but he wanted more so he could help out more than he was currently able to do.  This seemed like a worthy cause to us, though we felt we had been slightly misled by the lunch invitation, so we wanted to find out more.  As the man’s somewhat-more-than-pleasantly plump wife continued to serve us delicious food, we probed more into the subject.

“Please explain a little more to us,” we said.  “How is it that you help the widows with the chickens?”  

“Oh, I give them the chicken manure to use as fertilizer in their fields.  They struggle to support their families, so free fertilizer is very useful for them.”

“Interesting.  That sounds like a good idea.”  As we were shown around the various rooms filled with squawking poultry, we could smell that it must certainly be nice to have a place to dispose of all that filth!  And to think that he uses it for such a worthy cause!  We were getting more and more impressed all the time.  

However, after a little while of gazing at all those chickens, it occurred to us that nobody keeps chickens just for their manure!  “So, what do you do with the eggs all these hens lay?”

“Oh, we sell them.  We have to live, of course, and we have several children to send through school.  These chickens are a great help for that.  But if we had more, we would have even more manure to give to the widows,” he reminded us, bringing us back to the point he wanted us to focus on.  

As we left the well-furnished home that day, we decided our money would go to some other cause with less “waste!”  I don’t doubt the brother’s sincerity or that he really did share his excess chicken manure with the widows of the village, but we felt that if we really wanted to help the widows, there were surely ways by which our money could go further.  

I am not sharing this story in order to criticize my chicken-farming friend but rather to make a point about an attitude I have begun to see more plainly in myself lately.  Two books have recently made a deep impression on me.  Missions and Money, by Jonathan J. Bonk, is a book that will affect the rest of my life.  Often painfully, it exposes the problems involved with missionary affluence in the presence of the poor they are serving.  To Give or Not to Give, by John Rowell, picks up where Bonk left off and continues the painful journey of exposing missionary double standards and selfishness.  God has used these two books to expose the selfishness in my own heart and has torn away the reasons I had stacked against sharing of our abundance with our brothers and sisters in poorer settings.  We do not want to be missionaries in order to enjoy a standard of living we would otherwise not be able to attain.  

We don’t want to try to say we will keep the manure and give away the eggs, so to speak, but we are learning to share of the abundance we have been blessed with.  All of God’s children, and especially those in His church, are sitting at the table of our Father.  Before some of us, there is an abundance of food, while others have little.  As long as we remember this, it is not hard for us to “pass the plate” to those who need what we have within our reach.  There is enough at the Father’s table for all to eat and be satisfied. We are praying that true generosity will always find a central place in our hearts and our lives as missionaries and Christians.

On the home front, we have some happy news to share.  Although the miracle has happened countless times before, we cannot help but be amazed at the new life God has blessed our home with.  On December 8, little Kaia Renée entered the world.  She was apparently anxious to get out and find out what life was like, since Maggi was in labor for a very short time, and the birth was thankfully quite easy.  Life for Kaia now consists mainly of eating, sleeping and filling diapers, but we have some precious hours with her each day when she is very awake and alert, listening to her brother fill our home with laughter and music. Reuben is a proud big brother!  He is very gentle with her and gives her many hugs each day.  

I attended a Wilderness First Responder advanced First-aid course in Sweden in the beginning of November.  I learned how to take care of many common medical issues in remote locations.  It is the kind of information I hope I never need to put to use, but I am glad to have it “in case of emergency.”

Our launching goal is now complete, thanks to God and to those who have given!  We now have less than $700 per month in support to raise, so we should soon be able to book our tickets to Benin!  These are exciting days as we make sure we have all the papers and last-minute details taken care of.

Beyond our chicken-farmer friend, we want to thank our donors for giving us an example of true generosity.  We are amazed over and over to think that so many people have given so much to this project, and we know they have given of their best, not of their waste.  We pray we will be able to show that same generosity to those we will be working with in Benin, to receive in order to give, not vice-versa.  

May God richly bless you this holiday season and throughout 2011.  Thank you again for being part of God’s plan for our lives and for being a channel for His generosity.  We appreciate you and wish you a Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year!

The Seven Trumpets

The Pause on the Brink of Eternity, part 4

The seven trumpets, described in Revelation 8, 9, and 11, seem to portray various political events in the world that can serve as warnings to the church.  In my opinion, C. Mervyn Maxwell’s explanation of the first four trumpets is more biblical and consistent than Uriah Smith’s.  Smith, in his book Daniel and the Revelation, has the trumpets representing non-chronological events associated with the fall of Western Rome, while Maxwell, in God Cares Volume 2, shows how the trumpets represent significant events that took place during each of the time periods represented by the seven churches and seven seals.  My understanding is that the first trumpet represents the fall of Jerusalem, the second trumpet represents the fall of Western Rome, while the third trumpet represents the rise of the Papacy as a political power, and the fourth trumpet represents the Dark Ages.  The last three trumpets are special, called trumpets of “Woe”, and represent respectively the Arab forces, the Ottoman empire (not Otammari, but almost!), and the Second Coming.  There are many fascinating prophecies contained in the seven trumpets, and I would recommend their study to anybody interested in the book of Revelation, prophecy, history, or the Bible in general!

So, what does all of this have to do with answering the question of why Jesus hasn’t come back to earth yet, which we started this study series with?  Well, actually, a lot!  The seven churches, seven seals, and seven trumpets all cover time from Christ’s first Advent to His Second Advent, and I believe that each of them contains a piece of a key that will unlock our understanding on this issue, a piece of a picture that can show us what needs to happen before Jesus can return to get His church.  

The series of seven seals and seven trumpets both contain a very prominent break or interruption in the story-line.  It seems that either John was getting very distracted in his writing, or he needed to explain something important that needed to take place before the final seal could be opened or the final trumpet blown.  


Since John was clearly anything but distracted in writing Revelation, the last book of the Bible is written just as it is for a very specific purpose.  The breaks in the depicting of the seven seals and trumpets contain what I call the pause on the brink of eternity, the interlude that must occur before Jesus will return.  The seven churches don’t contain a break like that, but we will come back to that later on.

I like to save the best part of a Bible study for last, so let’s do that here by taking the three key-pieces in reverse order, starting with the mystery of God, then going to the seal of God, and finishing with the Laodicean message.

The interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets is filled with prophetic descriptions of two important historic events: the Advent movement of 1833 to 1844, and the French Revolution.  Again, abbreviating the matter so dramatically is making a long and interesting story extremely short.  For more detail, please read the books I have listed above.

In the middle of a description of events surrounding the Millerite movement of the 1830’s and 1840’s, John sees an angel come down from heaven and make a statement that has made this one of my absolute favorite passages of the Bible.  When I get started on this subject, I get so excited!  I was first shown this prophecy in the summer of 2002, and every time I have re-studied it since then, I just get more and more on fire!  

Standing on the sea and on the land, this angel declares that there will be no more time, or no more delay, according to various translations.  See Revelation 10:6.  Literal time continues in the narrative, and it seems that probationary time does as well, so the time spoken of, or the delay that would no longer be, must refer to the end of specific prophetic time.  The statement must mean that the people of God will never again have a prophetic message based on definite time, after the longest time prophecies of the Bible reached their ends in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s.  Any message claiming to tell us the timing of the return of Jesus is un-Biblical and misleading, and will be wrong, as so many such messages have already been.  Jesus is not waiting for a specific date to return, thus there will be “no more delay.”  Remember Y2K and all the hype, even by Adventist preachers around that time?  To be honest, I wanted Jesus to return at that time, I wanted to go to heaven so badly, but He didn’t come, and when I got to understand Revelation 10, I understood that no such message can be trusted.

So, if Jesus isn’t waiting for a specific time prophecy or date to come before He can return, what is He waiting for?  Back to the original question in this study, Why hasn’t Jesus come back to get His church yet?  If He wasn’t waiting for the year 2000, or 2008, or 2010 (or 2012), what is He waiting for?  Does Revelation 10 give us an answer?  Yes, it does!  Praise God!  This is why I love this chapter so much, why I have considered writing a book on this subject.  

Perhaps we should quote from the chapter itself, so you can see the answer for yourself.  Here it is, from Revelation 10:5 through 7.  “And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there should be no more delay, but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.”  Did you see it?  Isn’t it wonderful?  Right there in the Bible is the answer as to why Jesus hasn’t come back yet.  Isn’t that fantastic?  What is going to happen before Jesus returns?  “The mystery of God would be fulfilled,” or “finished” as other translations say.  Isn’t that great?

Or, are you sitting there shaking your head as most of my students usually do?  “What in the world does that mean?  What is the mystery of God, and what does it mean that it will be fulfilled?”  Oh, yeah, we should probably look to see what the Bible has to say in other places about what the mystery of God is, and see if that helps us to understand Revelation 10 better.

Starting to Look at Revelation

The Pause on the Brink of Eternity, part 3

So, if natural disasters, diseases, and crime are not enough in themselves to let us know clearly when Jesus is almost here, what is Jesus really waiting for?  If these events are destined to increase in frequency and intensity in the future, in fulfillment of the words of Jesus, is it possible for us to determine when the end of time is truly near?  What is Jesus waiting for, and why has He not come yet?

This question has been on my heart for years, and when I used to teach classes on the book of Revelation, finding an answer to that question was the focus of my lessons.  I believe that the last book of the Bible gives some of the clearest answers to that question in all of Scripture, and my heart thrills as God continues to reveal more and more to my mind as I ask why we are still on this planet and not in heaven.  This is a big subject, and I certainly don’t claim to understand it in all of its manifold ramifications, but I would like to share with you at least part of the aspect of the answer that I have begun to understand.

Why are we still here on earth, and how will the end come?  I believe that Revelation gives clear answers to those questions, and gives us hope and clear direction both as individuals and as a church.  I am no theologian, but I do know that I have come to my understanding through the study of Revelation in connection with other books, and that I am not alone in the bulk of my thinking on this matter.  I may present the matter differently than others would, but I tread well-worn paths in my lessons on Revelation.

In the first half of the book of Revelation, three series of seven elements are presented: seven churches, seven seals, and seven trumpets.  The historical Adventist understanding of these three series of seven is that they are concurrent time-lines, if you will, of events in the world from the time of Christ and up to the Second Coming, and I believe that understanding is  correct.  The messages to the churches represent conditions in the church of Christ from the time He was here on earth, up to the end, with the church that should be waiting for Him to return, but which in reality looks like it ends up being too consumed with its own attainments and possessions.  The seven seals largely represent the effect that the church has on the world during that same period, and the seven trumpets depict events in the world that the church may be affected by, and should take warning from.  

The church, as represented by the letters to the seven churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, goes through many differing stages, often needing reproval and correction, but never forsaken by Christ.  Ephesus has lost its first love, but not its Lover.  Smyrna is poor and persecuted, but unrebuked.  Pergamos is becoming infiltrated with non-biblical doctrine, but is still commended and given promises for the overcomer.  Thyatira stands for the church of the Middle Ages, doing much good, but needing reproof in this longest of the letters.  Yet, they are not forsaken, and the overcomers are promised power over the nations, which the church received during the Reformation.  Sardis is largely a hypocritical church, claiming to be alive while actually dead, but not everybody in Sardis has soiled their robes.  Philadelphia is the second unrebuked church, in which their weakness doesn’t keep them from holding fast to the truth.  Then we come to the letter to Laodicea, which is the most reproaching of all of the letters, with nothing to commend in Laodicea, but with beautiful promises to those in the church who let Jesus into their hearts.  Perhaps we can say that the best thing about the letter to Laodicea is that the letter exists at all, that Jesus has not forsaken this pathetic, self-deceived church.

Reading Revelation, one sees that after the letters to the seven churches, the focus of the narrative shifts to things transpiring in heaven, specifically in the throne-room of heaven, and especially surrounding a certain book which is sealed with seven seals.  Those seals are removed from the book in chapters six and eight, with chapter seven containing an interlude in the opening of the seals, to tell about a different seal, the seal of God, which is placed in the foreheads of the 144,000.  While the book with the seven seals is in heaven, the opening of the seals reveals events that happen on earth, events that will take place before the book in the hand of God can be opened. 

The first four seals reveal horses that show the progression of the church from a white, conquering power that turned the world upside down, to a red, persecuted church that took peace from the earth by the preaching of the gospel, then a black, compromising church selling the graces of salvation, to the pale horse of death, representing the church that brought death to others.  From being willing to die for its faith, the church ended up killing for the faith, and was best depicted by words such as Death and Hell.  From bringing life to the world, the church had become so corrupted that it brought death instead.  With the confusion resulting from such a regression of the once-pure church of Christ, the fifth seal makes perfect sense.  Souls are seen under the altar, crying out for vengeance.  These martyrs are given white robes, when the Reformation uncovers the truth about who the true “heretics” really were during the Dark Ages of the pale horse, and the world sees that the martyrs were righteous.  The sixth seal portrays celestial and terrestrial events leading up to the Second Coming, when the church’s effect on the world is one of being the center of a rescue mission that ends up unraveling the very sky.  When the seventh seal is opened, there is silence in heaven, an event that must surely be connected with the Second Coming itself.

I know that I am here going through these beautiful prophecies very quickly.  I do that because I don’t want to make this too long, and because if you are interested in more details, and have not already studied these prophecies for yourself, you can find several books covering these matters in greater detail in your nearest Adventist Book Center.

I Was There

“Were you at Kibao village one time?”

“Let me think.  Kibao.  When?  Six or seven years ago?”

“Yes, it was several years ago.  I think you came and held some meetings with some other white people.  Was that you?”  

“Yes, it probably was.  We were there one weekend.  It is amazing that you remember me.”

“Oh, I remember you.  I was not an Adventist at that time.  I was wondering about whether or not I should be baptized and join the church.  Some of the things that you said in your sermon helped me make the decision, and you gave me a book that day that helped to seal my decision forever.”

I stared in wonder at the man who was talking with me.  He remembered me so well, and he told me that I had made a big difference in his life at a time he was in a valley of decision.  I couldn’t remember him at all, but I was sure he was telling me the truth.  

His story is one of several I could tell.  People came to me years later and told me I had made a difference in their lives.  I had said something in a sermon, or given them a book which had helped them during a hard time.  All the praise for this goes to God, who had led me to Tanzania in the first place, and had given me something to say, and money to buy Bibles and books to give away.  God chose to use me, not because I was a super Christian or some sinless saint, but because I was available.  We are not all-important or indispensable, but God choses to use us if we are willing to go where He calls.  

Tanzania is a different place today than it would have been if I had not been there.  Not in any big way, not in a way that is easy to measure, but in some small, significant ways for those who are today closer to Jesus because of contact with me.  I don’t think this is pride, just a fact.  I am positive that there will be people in heaven eternally because I chose to go to Tanzania, people who would not be there if I had not gone.  

The difference was made, not because I was there, but because I was THERE.   Somebody else could have been there and been a blessing as well.  

There are thousands of places in the world that need to have a Christian present.  There are millions of lives that could be changed for eternity if a Christian will come to them and seek to help them in some way.  “Lord of the harvest, send forth laborers into Your harvest.”

Do We Need More Earthquakes?

The Pause on the Brink of Eternity, part 2.

Could it be that we are misunderstanding the signs of the times and being lulled into inactivity instead of being stirred to action?

After experiencing the transforming power of God in my life, my great desire in life was to tell others about the joy I had discovered, and to share that Jesus was coming back soon.  The school I was working for found an opportunity for me to work as a Bible worker in another state, and I packed my few belongings into the back of my dad’s pickup truck, and headed off to revive the church in that state.  At least in my eager zeal I thought so.

Bible working was not as easy as I had expected, and it seemed like the hardest part was trying to get church members excited for the same fascinating truths that burned in my heart.  I was young and on fire, and the church was largely filled with older members, so their excitement was subdued and expressed in different ways than mine was, to put it mildly.  I was the young, ignorant fanatic who took things to extremes, and I needed to be put in my place, according to a few of the members, apparently.

I so clearly remember one Sabbath, when the subject of the Sabbath School lesson touched on when Jesus would return, and as I was teaching the lesson, I was in a good position to be taught a lesson that one member of Sabbath School thought I needed.  An older man read from Matthew 24 words I knew so well, “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places, and then shall the end come.”  Oh, how easily I fell into the trap, and as I burst out with my hearty, “Amen!”, smirking glances were passed between a few of those present.  Then the reader who had intentionally misquoted Matthew 24:8 loudly and clearly announced to the whole Sabbath School class present that I did not know what I was doing, that I was a fanatical and ignorant young upstart with crazy ideas and a mistaken understanding of end-time events.  Well, maybe he didn’t say all of that exactly, but I read as much in his voice as he said, smirking, “no, Jesus didn’t say that.  He said, ‘All these are the beginning of sorrows.’”  

My pride was hurt, but the lesson was not lost on me, even though it seemed to be given in a rude and humiliating way.  I wanted the classic signs of the times to be proof that Jesus was soon to return to this earth, but the text did not make it as clear as I had wanted.  Jesus did talk about natural disasters and diseases increasing in the end of time, but He did not tell His disciples that these signs of the end are any safe measuring device for us to be able to know when the end is truly imminent.  Earthquakes, famines, pestilences, wars and rumors of wars, are not what Jesus is waiting for before He returns.  He has said that these events will increase and increase, as birth pangs of a woman in labor, but they will not bring about the end of the world.  Only one sign is determinative of the return of Jesus.  There is only one thing that Jesus told us will happen, and then the end will come.  Until that one event takes place, earthquakes, pestilences, wars, and all the rest of the signs that this planet is falling apart will continue to increase in frequency and intensity, for the Word of our Lord is sure, and cannot fail.  Paul wrote, “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”  2 Timothy 3:13, KJV.  This statement also is true, and will continue to be true, even if time were to last another 500 years, as hard as it might be for our imagination to grasp how things can get worse than they are already today.

Have you considered what a picture we paint of our loving God when we make it sound like the wickedness and natural disasters of the world is a sign that Jesus is coming back soon?  We are essentially saying that, 100 years ago the world was not bad enough, when we compare our time with the world a century ago, and are thereby saying that God needed to have more evil in the world before the end could come.  Listen, 100 years ago, things were plenty bad enough for Jesus to return, but the gospel had not been taken to the world, because of the lack of faith and obedience on the part of the church.  When we preach about the signs of the times in an imbalanced way, we are actually stating that apparently things need to get even worse before God will end it all.  More people need to suffer, more lives need to be ravaged and destroyed by wicked men and natural disasters, then at some point, when it is finally bad enough, and He is finally satisfied, Jesus will return to put an end to it all.  What kind of a God do we serve, anyway?  Do we serve a God who is in the business of perpetuating the gruesome suffering of millions of His creatures on this planet?  Does all of society need to come to utter degradation and decadence before God decides that enough is enough?  Isn’t the fact that one small child has been brutally tortured, raped, or murdered evidence enough to God and to the universe, and to us as well, of how ugly sin really is?  Isn’t the history of any war from the last 2000 years sufficiently full of grotesque filth and wickedness and injustice to tell us that the way this world works is perverse, and God’s way is far better?  Does society need to crumble to pieces to the point that we can not be safe any time, any place on the planet, in order for God to put an end to it all?  Really, just think about it: isn’t planet earth in bad enough condition today for our Lord to come back? 

The world absolutely is falling apart, and at a rapid rate, and Jesus predicted that this would happen.  We can know that His Word is true, and that we truly are living in the end of time.  My point is not to diminish that fact.  My point is rather to state that the condition of the world and the decay happening all around us can open up a special opportunity to us to be part of finishing up the work that must be done before Jesus returns.  The condition of the world has an effect on those in the world, and it should have an effect on the church, as well.  Men and women all around the world are looking at what is happening to the planet, and are concerned.  Actually, to say they are concerned is a huge understatement.  Some people are scared to death about what is happening in nature.  Scientists and politicians are proclaiming the end of the world in more graphic detail than many Christians are willing to do!  The thought-leaders of the planet are trying to do what they can to avert the tragedy that they see on the imminent horizon; and movies, books, and theories abound about how the world will end and how mankind can prevent the end from coming.  The people of the world need exactly the message that we can give them, the message of the truth of how the world will end, and how we can be prepared for that event.  Minds are open, and we, as Bible-believing Christians, have the message that can avert tragedy for each person who will take the steps to be ready for the dissolution of all things.  Men’s and women’s hearts are failing them for fear, and for looking after the things coming upon the world, and born-again Christians can plainly declare that there is a way to find peace in the midst of reigning madness and chaos!  The world needs our message!  The world needs the everlasting gospel as never before!  And the world is now being uniquely prepared to listen to that gospel which gives the most-logical explanation possible for what is really happening all around us.

The condition of the world is not designed to have an effect only upon the people of the world, however.  It should and can have a dramatic effect on the church of Christ, as well.  As we see financial towers collapsing around us, as we see the planet itself crumbling like a rotten cookie, we should wake up!  This is no time for us to be enjoying a good life, getting spiritually prepared for the future, while neglecting to help others get prepared for that future.  We might think that since the world is falling apart so rapidly, the scientists and politicians are correct in their worse-case scenarios, and we will see Jesus so soon that we don’t have time to finish the work God has chosen to involve us in, but this is exactly what the devil wants us to believe.  We know that there are still people in the world, whole societies and language groups, in fact, with no Adventists among them, but surely since the world is falling apart so quickly, we don’t have time to learn a new language, learn to live and function in a different culture, and then go through the time-consuming process of taking months or even years to present the gospel to people in that culture, and then to disciple the converts.  Or so we could think.

Instead of looking at the predictions of Jesus which are being fulfilled all around us and concluding that time is too short to allow us to go and preach the gospel to every creature under heaven, God would have us come to a different conclusion.  Even though “Christian” financial counselors tell us how we could have millions of dollars saved up for retirement by properly investing in mutual funds and tax-sheltered savings accounts, the collapse of the world economy shows us how fragile the whole financial world really is.  Perhaps we could be millionaires by investing our money in the right places, but we cannot be sure.  The stable economy that we take for granted could crumble in a matter of weeks, leaving us penniless and bankrupt, while greedy people take advantage of our loss, mocking our choice to lay up our treasure on earth.

While the incessant reports of fresh disasters and exposures of the wickedness of the human hearts could harden us and make our love grow cold, God allows these things to happen so that His sleeping church will wake out of her slumber.  Our attachment for the treasures of the world is to be dissolved as we see nature apparently turning against us, and we should realize that this planet is no place worth living anymore.  This world is falling apart, there is no safety nor security here, and it’s time for the church to begin to “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.”  It is time for us to invest in another form of mutual fund: building the community of the body of Christ.

Christian, wake up and see what is happening around us!  Jesus has given us a work to do, a work that we will find to be the most worthy and satisfying occupation we could ever engage in, if we will lay hold of His strength, making peace with Him, and then seeking to reconcile others to Him.  This world has nothing lasting to offer us, and God is letting that become abundantly clear so that His church will arise and shine upon those who have never seen the light.