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What would a REAL Revival look like?
The President of the General Conference recently issued a call for Revival and Reformation; this got me thinking about what a real revival in our church would look like. While thinking about this I came across a sermon (titled “Seekers for Truth” or “Defenders of the Faith”) that I preached in Johannesburg North SDA Church about three or so years ago. Reading through the sermon I am more convinced than ever that the thoughts expressed in the sermon represent what I believe would be a real revival.
I invite readers to express their thoughts on both the sermon and on what they think a real revival in the SDA church would look like.
In love to the members of the church I love, Johannesburg North.
Courtenay Harebottle
“Seekers for Truth” or “Defenders of the Faith”
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 13:15 (NIV)
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.
“The sky grew brighter and brighter. The earth seemed to shake, and people were rushing about wildly. I didn’t know whether to run or stand still. And then it hit me: This was IT. This was the Second Coming of Jesus.
I wanted to be glad, but instead I was terribly afraid. The light got even brighter, until I could see nothing around me. I heard shouts of joy, but none of them were mine. I tried to speak, but I could make only a croaking sound. Then everything went black. And then I woke up” Tom Dybdahl editor at Rodale Press, in Pennsylvania
I recently read this in an online commentary for a Sabbath School lesson study, and it struck a chord with me. As a child I had very similar dreams, only mine started with a small cloud, “about the size of a man's hand”, in the distance, getting closer, ominously closer... Sometimes, when I first saw the cloud in my dreams, we were hiding in the mountains; having fled from the cities, sometimes I was just outside playing with my friends, but irrespective of the situation the approaching cloud seemed no less threatening.
We have discussed this at length in our class in the Lapa and all the people of my generation, those from about ten, twelve, years younger than me and up recall having had similar dreams. Some remember how they were daydreaming in the car, more asleep than awake, when they noticed a cloud with the sun behind it, rays of light pouring from behind the cloud; the immediate thought, "Jesus is coming!"
The specifics of the dreams vary but one thing remains constant. In every case the dream was not just a dream but a nightmare. The overwhelming emotion, fear. A fear that we kept to ourselves, not sharing it with others, because of guilt. We knew that we were supposed to be looking forward to the Second Coming, not having nightmares about it, and so even as children we bore our terrors alone.
As a church we claim to preach the “Gospel”, the word means Good News! Not just good news but good news of victory! Somehow we contrived to preach the good news… that gives children nightmares. What a tragedy. What a travesty! How sad.
The only thing that makes me sadder is what I see when I look around me in church. This is particularly the case when we go to a combined meeting, a “saamtrek” something like camp-meeting.
I love camp-meeting. Now don’t tell Dave Spencer this, but what I love about camp-meeting has nothing to do with the speaker. I know that Dave and other members of the conference go to a lot of trouble and expense, trying to find great speakers, but what I enjoy about camp-meeting has nothing to do with this. I love meeting old friends, and acquaintances; people from the Church who I knew in my youth and now only get to see maybe once a year, or even less than that, at a place like camp-meeting.
What makes me sad though, when I go to camp-meeting, or just when I look around the church, is how many of my old friends and acquaintances have left the church. Probably sixty, seventy percent, maybe more of the church friends and acquaintances of my youth no longer consider themselves part of this family.
Here I must complement this church, “Johannesburg North”. The vast majority of the people that I grew up with who are still part of the church, grew up in this church. Jo’burg North has done much better in keeping its family together than many churches, but! – Jo’burg North has lost too many of its children!
The SDA church, we hear, is experiencing enormous growth. According to the GC website there are now more than 15 million members worldwide. But I sometimes wonder who’s counting? I’m not a member of the board, and I haven’t seen the church list but it would not surprise me if more than half of the people on the list no longer come to church. I know, I have been a member of a church that had somewhere between 3 and 4 hundred members on its books, but on any given Sabbath it was a good day if there were fifty people in church. One wonders just how accurate the church growth figures are. If the numbers are correct, then if we could just have kept our old members we might now be approaching 30 or maybe even 50 million.
This church has lost, and continues to lose, too many members of its family and I would like to see that end. I believe that this can be done. What is needed is not some clever marketing campaign or public relations exercise. What we need is a return to proper Christian standards, a revival of the spirit and attitudes of our church founders. We need to actually become what we have always claimed to be, “The People of the Book”.
Did I just say Revival…? I did, didn’t I…? I said that we need a revival of the spirit and attitudes of our church founders. I must be getting old. Suddenly I’m a revivalist preacher. Revival is one of those words that put me off, scare me. Whenever there is a series of meetings or a week of prayer with “Revival” in the title I have always thought Oh, Oh, not for me.
But revive does not mean, start something new, but rather fanning back to life the spark of something that once burned brightly. In the morning, after a camp out, we revive the fire by fanning to life the little spark that remains. The night before it was a roaring fire, in the morning it seems as if nothing remains but with a little effort one can usually fan back to life the fire that appeared to be completely dead.
The more I read about our Church’s history the more I discover what remarkable people our founding fathers were. From nothing, worse, from the broken remains that were left after the great disappointment, they started an organization that today spans the globe, with not only a network of tens of thousands of churches, companies, groups… but of schools colleges and universities, a vast network of clinics, and hospitals, hospitals that are often among the best hospitals to be found in the countries in which they operate. Now tell me that the people who started all of that were not remarkable…!
Especially when we consider what we know about them; what do we know? They were young people, I read somewhere recently, you know how it is, you can never find the source when you need it, but if I remember correctly, the average age of the church founders when they began the SDA Church was somewhere under twenty five. Most had little in the way of formal education, certainly none of the qualifications or experience that one would look for when recruiting someone to launch and manage a global corporation. But more than anything else they were dedicated enthusiastic seekers after truth.
They recognized that Truth could never remain static. This was demonstrated in all of their documents, books and pamphlets where they never refer simply to truth, but always to “Present Truth”. They acknowledged that what one understood as truth yesterday, did not necessarily remain truth today; that one’s understanding of truth should continually grow and develop.
This commitment to a continued search for truth was written into the church’s founding statements where it is stated that the SDA Church has no Creed, save the Bible.
In 1861, when the SDA ministers from Michigan gathered in Battle Creek to consider the prospect of adopting a formal organizational structure, the very idea of adopting a formal “creed” was believed to be a step toward “becoming Babylon”.
One of the participants, John Loughborough, was blunt. He said: “The first step to apostasy is to get up a creed, telling us what we shall believe. The second is to make the creed a test of fellowship. The third is to try members by that creed. The fourth is to denounce as heretics those who do not believe that creed. And the fifth is to commence persecution against such.”
Don’t you just love that? Can’t you hear the passion?
Another well-known participant, James White, said that he too was opposed to forming a creed but he put it differently. He said, “Making a creed is setting the stakes, and barring the way to all future advancement… The Bible is our creed. We take the bible and the gifts of the Spirit; embracing the faith that the lord will teach us from time to time. In this we take a position against forming a creed.”
Embracing the faith that the Lord will continue to teach us from time to time. Can we honestly say that we are still seekers after truth?
In the book Gospel Worker Ellen White said, “Whenever the people of God are growing in grace, they will be constantly obtaining a clearer understanding of His word. They will discern new light and beauty in its sacred truths. This has been true in the history of the church in all ages, and thus it will continue to the end. But as real spiritual life declines, it has ever been the tendency to cease to advance in the knowledge of the truth. Men rest satisfied with the light already received, and discourage any further investigation of the Scriptures. They become conservative, and seek to avoid discussion.” Gospel workers pp. 297, 298
It has been my experience that as this process develops, as real spiritual life declines in the church, three very unfortunate things happen.
First, as we become more conservative we become more stuck in our ways. In our worship service we become obsessed with the order and formality of the service. Instead of recognizing the service as a blessed opportunity to engage in corporate worship; if the service isn’t absolutely solemn and orderly, if it is not what we consider to be reverent enough, if the music is not the type that we like, if it is too loud, or sometimes the other way round if it is too old fashioned, then we get all bitter and twisted.
In a book about the history and development of the SDA Church called “Power of Prophecy” in chapter four we read:
Among early Adventists the preferred mode of religious expression was shouting. In the 1840s they followed the practice of the “Shouting” Methodists, from whose ranks many of them were drawn, of uttering cries of spiritual exaltation. “Glory! Glory! Glory!... In general Adventists shouted out short, unconnected phrases, the vigor of the enunciation making up for whatever was lacking in sophistication. Graybill “Power of Prophecy” ch 4
Now that is one tradition that I’m glad we haven’t maintained, but when we recognize that few of the early members had much in the way of education or any formal musical or artistic training we can understand why. Can you imagine the noise, I almost said mayhem, in the church when a number of people started shouting at the same time, and I’m sure that they did, as they fed off each other’s enthusiasm. Hardly the stayed reverence that we sometimes seem to think is the requirement.
The second unfortunate thing that happens is that instead of being “Seekers after Truth” we become “Defenders of the Faith”.
Instead of being bold adventurers, explorers on an exciting journey of discovery through the Word-of-God, we become timed settlers trying to defend an encampment. Instead of focusing on the glorious, liberating, life giving principles contained in our faith, we try to defend our traditions by setting up all sorts of rules, rules to be used as weapons in our defensive battle.
As the E G White quote said this is nothing new but has ever been the case… We read about how the Pharisees had changed the wonderful gift of the Sabbath, an opportunity to spend uninterrupted time in the company of God, into a terrible burden. I have had some experience of this. I have a business acquaintance who is the most Orthodox Jew I have ever met. Clive sticks rigidly to all of the old traditions; he is proud to tell you that there are six hundred forty something rules, he knows the exact number by heart, and he keeps them all.
Some of the rules are related to all of the Old Testament rules on diet and so on, but many of them are about how to “properly” keep the Ten Commandments, and a good number of those are to do with how to keep the Sabbath. As Clive explains: for a good Jew the rules are designed to keep you a step away from sinning. For instance; the bible says that you should not do any business on the Sabbath, so as an Orthodox Jew Clive may not carry any money on the Sabbath, because if he doesn’t have money, then he can’t do business. Of course you can negotiate and agree on a deal and then conclude it tomorrow or the next day, as long as you don’t actually pay for it on Sabbath.
When Clive buys a new house he has to be very careful that it is not too far from the Synagogue; you see Clive can’t drive a car on Sabbath because that would be using machinery. Although he can’t drive he also can’t walk any further than a precisely stipulated distance because walking any further than that is also considered work. Before sunset on Friday night, Clive goes carefully through the house switching on some of the lights and switching off others. Those in the lounge and study are left on, and those in the bedrooms are switched off. You see Clive wont switch a light on or off during the Sabbath. Friday afternoons Clive’s wife carefully prepares meals that cook very slowly, so that the family can enjoy a hot meal for Sabbath lunch. The food is then placed on the stove, on a very low heat, just before sunset and cooks slowly until lunchtime. At lunch time she has to taste carefully to make sure the food is properly cooked, before she takes it off the stove because, as Clive explained to me, it is alright to take the pot off the stove, but putting it back on would be working.
The sad thing is that looking through the long list of Sabbath rules it seems that you can keep them all, without spending any time simply resting in the company of God.
We find this strange but unfortunately as we become “Defenders of the Faith” we too try to set up all sorts of rules to be used as weapons in our rear-guard defensive action.
Instead of focusing on the wonderful liberating truth that, real beauty comes from the inside, we set up all sorts of rules about what you can and can’t wear. Then as trends and fashions change, we have to keep amending the rules. I read the following in an article in an Adventist magazine a few weeks ago and it really amused me.
"When I was baptized, I had to promise I would not wear feathers."
My friend, James Reece, told me this a few months ago during a retreat we were both attending, and my mouth dropped open. Later he sent me a copy of his baptismal certificate, and I could see—I am not making this up—that question nine began: "Are you willing to follow the Bible rule of plainness in dress, refraining from the wearing of plumes...?"
Reece, who had perfect recall for the spirit of the question, was baptized on December 19, 1936. Back then, I gather, "plumes" made hats (and who knows what else) ostentatious. I expect someone fought for years to keep plumes on the prohibited adornment list, but they dropped off. If they returned to fashion, no one today, I expect, would object to plume-y Adventists holding membership on church boards. C Scriven : Spectrum Vol. 36 issue 1
Instead of recognizing that we may have focused on the wrong things we change the list of what you can and can’t wear, then we beat our chests and wail about the dangers of “creeping compromise”. But how can you compromise on something that was never a principle in the first place!
“True beauty comes from the inside.” That is a wonderful liberating truth, one that as a father of two daughters I would love my daughters to understand and accept, but one that I must confess I may sometimes have made about what they can and can’t wear.
In studying everything that the Bible has to say about adornment I have come to the recognition that what it says is that true beauty comes from the inside. Now I fully accept that I may have misinterpreted, and if you think that I have, please feel free to come and we can study this together. But please remember that the operative word was study, find out what the whole Bible says; Please don’t just come and throw a proof text at me because then I may be tempted to hurl one back at you and we end up using the texts that should have served as signpost on the road to discovery of truth, as weapons to defend our position.
Please also don’t think, that I think, that the rules on adornment are the central pillars of our faith. I know that they are not. I just used this as one example of the many rules that we set up as weapons in our defensive battle. Rules that very often distract from the liberating principle that motivated them in the first place.
The third thing that happens is something that I have just touched on, and that is that instead of being the “People of the Book” we become the “People of the Proof-text”. It is sad to see how easily the devil can turn something good into something bad. Those of us who have grown up in the church have learned our memory verses ever since we were in Cradle Roll. This is, or should be, a good thing but having learned the verses we start to think that we know all that we need to know; we think that “we have the truth”. How many times have you heard that said? If we really do have the truth, the complete truth and a convenient quiver full of “Proof Texts” to be used as arrows to support our views, then let’s face it, there really is no need to study any further. Let’s be honest, studying the bible simply to find out what you already know must be an almost sinful waste of time. Surely there are more important things that we can do with our precious time than simply study what we already know?
Unfortunately all too often our spiritual understanding of the verses never grows past the level of understanding we had when we first learned the memory verse in the kindergarten and primary Sabbath School.
I recently had one of those flashes of insight, an epiphany, a moment when I suddenly saw a text that I had known all my life, and thought that I fully understood, in an entirely different light. Let me share this with you.
John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
That must have been one of the very first memory verses that I learned, and always understood it as definitive proof of a command from Jesus for us to keep the Ten Commandments. Not until recently when I started reading the Bible in bigger chunks did I suddenly see the text in an entirely different light. Now you might have always understood what I only recently discovered. I am not trying to imply that I have made some startling discovery; I am just trying to show how different being a person of the Book is from being a person of the proof text.
We all know that the original writers of the Bible did not put in the chapters and verses as we have them, but unfortunately we still tend to read the Bible in bits defined by the chapters and verses. Reading the Bible in larger chunks I discovered the context in which Jesus was speaking. Let me share this with you.
Chapter thirteen is one of those chapters that does actually start at a new event. Jesus and his Disciples have gathered for the Last Supper and Jesus, understanding all the pride and arrogance in the hearts of his disciples gets down and washes their feet. Knowing what is about to happen, and recognising that his disciples are still so far from being the type of people that they need to be, Jesus is concerned. The Bible says “He was troubled in spirit”. Jesus dips a piece of bread in the stew, hands it to Judas and says, “Judas, what you are about to do, do it quickly.” Judas leaves and Jesus starts a conversation with his disciples trying to warn them about what is about to happen, prepare them for the fact that shortly after that he will be leaving them permanently, and helping them to grow and develop into the type of people they need to become.
John chapter 14 begins with a list of beautiful Adventist promises; John 14: 1 Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Beautiful promises. There must be at least three maybe four of my old memory verses right there. But the conversation does not start there; it starts earlier, towards the end of John chapter 13. Early in the conversation, almost right at the end of chapter 13 in John 13: 34-35 Jesus says, “A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, (35) By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.”
Then in the middle of chapter 14 – John 14:15 comes my old memory verse, “If you love me keep my commandments”. A little bit further in Chapter 15:10, remember that this is all part of the same conversation, Jesus says “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love” then in Verse 12 “This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you.” Verse 17 “This is my command: Love each other.”
When I saw this version of my old memory verse I almost fell out of my chair, I suddenly saw my old memory verse in an entirely new light. This prompted me to study a bit further and see if it could be interpreted differently and so I did something that I have never done before; I looked the verse up in the SDA Bible Commentary and this told me that the Greek for the verse could just as properly be interpreted in another way, and in fact considering the surrounding verses, probably should be interpreted as, “if you love me you will keep my commandments.” In other words keeping His commands is not something that we do in order to prove our love, but the natural outcome of our love. Something that we simply cannot stop ourselves from doing; but there is another whole sermon there.
Now please don’t go home and say that Courtenay said that we don’t have to keep the Commandments. That is not what I am saying. But I do believe that as “people of the book” we need to be honest with our Bible texts and it seems clear to me that the primary focus of my old memory verse is not the Ten Commandments. I do however believe that this whole conversation gives us a great deal of insight into how we should interpret the Ten Commandments – as Gods blueprint or template of love.
John 15:17 “This is my command: Love each other.” Now there we have a real Christian Standard. A standard that is not affected by changing trends or fashions, one the is not undermined by advances in knowledge or new scientific discoveries, but a standard that is as valid today as it was when it was given.
If we as a church will again focus on these real standards, Love Justice, Mercy; if as people of the Book we will again become seekers of truth, then we won’t have to long for, or pray for a revival, because a revival will already have taken place. The church will be a place where we can bring our most difficult question, our deepest and darkest doubts, secure in the knowledge that we won’t be condemned as heretics, or have our questions summarily dismissed with a trite and tired “Proof Text”, but that as real “People of the Book” we will welcome the questions, seeing them as exciting starting points for new journeys of discovery through the Bible.
I believe that as we do this we will re-discover and then keep on and on discovering, more and more, about the Good News; the incredible mystery of salvation; an incredible contradiction, a truth that convicts us of sin but liberates us from guilt.
Our church will be a place where we never again have to worry about our children having nightmares about the Second-Coming, as we rest secure in the Gospel – the good news that the victory has been won, death has been conquered, we can again sing the hymn the way it was written, “Joy to the world the Lord is come.”
As we do this we won’t be able to stop ourselves from praising God. And it won’t matter how we do this because our focus will be on the who not the how.
If we sing, even if we sing flat, it won’t matter because our focus won’t be on our singing, but on our praise. We will truly be singing to His glory. If we play the organ, or the guitar, or beat the drums… or yes, even if we shout, it won’t matter because we won’t be doing it to show how cleaver and talented we are, or strange and different, but because we are simply praising Him in the best way that we each know how.
Then as a church we will come together with grateful hearts to offer our sacrifice to God, just like people did in the Old Testament, but recognising that the true sacrifice has been made; the Lamb of God has paid the price, we will, as our Scripture reading said, “offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.”
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