First, I want to welcome all of our readers this month to our new (yet again) format. I hope that this doesn’t throw you off any. I am finally settling in to the “newspaper” look and feel. Also, I’ve decided that the home page should suffice for meeting the monthly need of news and commentary along with a featured article from an Adventist author who stands for the pillars of our faith. These articles will be focused on one or more of the many doctrines that are under attack today.
In addition, you will notice that I have dropped the forums from the lineup. The lack of participation was discouraging to me, and I have decided that I will pursue the avenue of blogging and podcasting in an effort to reach more people on the cutting edge of technology. For those of you who may not be “in the know”, a blog is simply a web log - a diary of sorts. I will attempt each day to log in to the blog and make a comment on recent developments, sermons, news, or world events effecting the Adventist church. Appropriately, I’ve decided to name the blog “A Historic Adventist in the 21st Century“. I was reminiscing of Mark Twain’s story “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” when I came up with the title. Similar to the character in Twain’s story, I feel like the historic Adventist is out of place and almost anachronistic in the post-modern Christianity which our 21st century church is attempting to embrace. Hopefully you will enjoy the daily musings and participate in the chance to leave your own commentary as well.
Now, on to this month’s review of the news stories. The first news story I’ve selected this month is actually a press release sent out on the wire by the Glendale Adventist Medical Center in California. They herald the advances of modern medicine, and the fact that the center has become the first in California to be FDA approved for the use of a new brain stint in preventing strokes. While I’m sure the intentions of those advancing this marvel of modern medical science have the best intentions at heart (to save lives), I think it is a tragedy that we have come so far from the original concept of the medical missionary work that was started by the original Adventist pioneers. How sad it is that the simple, natural methods of preventing heart disease and stroke have fallen to the wayside. Instead of promoting the natural methods provided by our Creator, using a healthy diet and observing the laws of health, we’ve succumbed to the worldly methods of developing and gaining approval for the latest and greatest science. I wonder what Ellen White would think today of our great medical missionary program?
The next news piece is rather interesting. The report comes from Douglas Clayville, the GC Associate Secretary. It’s interesting that Clayville is concerned that the church won’t meet it’s goals of speading the gospel to all the earth, since the population appears to be growing so fast. However, he uses the membership numbers of the church to validate his conclusions. These conclusions are enlightening to our understanding of the GC viewpoint on our mission. He states that by 2130 everyone should be a SDA! Is this our ultimate goal? To convert everyone, globally, to a Seventh-day Adventist? Is this really what Jesus is waiting on? Somehow I think not. Consider the fact that E.G. White stated over 100 years ago that if we had recieved the 1888 message of righteousness by faith that ere this we would be in the kingdom! I believe Jesus is waiting for His character to be revealed in His people, not for a world-wide conversion. Each day we come closer to the final scene of Earth’s history - are you ready?
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