Camp Meeting 2.0

Baptism as Naturalization

The scripture uses explicitly political metaphors to speak of the church. Paul, in particular does this in two key places. In his classic statement about salvation he says,

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Then, just three verses later, Paul sets this salvation in explicitly political terms.

Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world (vs. 12).

But, because of what Christ has done to break down the wall of separation through his death on the cross, he declares, “you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household” (vs. 19). Read the rest here

The Holy Spirit moves in different ways for different people, for different generations, different cultures, and different situations. The Spirit is unpredictable. The Spirit isn’t always flashy or dramatic, with rushing wind, earth-shaking excitement, or a flood of Amens. Pentecostals believes the Spirit can practically be summoned at will. Us Adventists have tended to the opposite extreme, underplaying anything that smacks of spontaneity. Indeed, we’ve too often thought we had the Spirit in a can: The Spirit moved on the Bible writers, and the Spirit moved on Ellen White, and there ya go folks--don’t mess with it, and certainly don’t mess with my interpretation of it.

Read the rest at this link

The equation is not salvation = grace + x, but rather, it is simply salvation = grace. Severing that mental link between what we do and how we’re saved changes the entire landscape of our faith. We struggle with this, obviously. We look often and hard for a loophole in this divine gift, for the small print that will tell us that salvation isn’t really free. But it is. Though Adventism has perhaps failed to emphasize this, it is.

Read the Rest at this Link.

We are also called to give witness in ways that are even more “alternative” and counter to the prevailing culture. It is not enough for the church to witness to God’s kingdom by the things it embraces. We are also called to the more difficult task of bearing witness through resistance.

There are some things that are just inconsistent with the gospel of the kingdom. For example – and here again, Adventists are uniquely positioned to be this embodied witness – followers of the Way of Jesus cannot embrace our world’s way of violence. Jesus was a person of uncompromising peace. He was a pacifist. Our Adventist forebears understood this. And so we are called to give witness to God’s reign of peace by resisting war and other forms of violence and exploitation.

Admit it, you have no idea what the newest fundamental belief really teaches. I’ll confess that the main reason I decided to blog on this belief was to get motivated enough to buy the new fundamental beliefs book and read it for myself. Out with the classic creme hardcover and in with a paperback version which just doesn’t feel the same but surely will in about ten years.

The purpose of the Bloggin the 28 series is to focus on the practical, social implications of each belief which inherently provides the critique that the fundamental beliefs as currently written have some great theology but little practical, social emphasis. The newest fundamental belief is part of the church’s attempt to address the critique inherent in this bloggin the 28 series. The new belief is very well written and in many ways reads like a sermon. The reader is urged to accept Christ’s sacrifice which means that they will die to self daily and live a life of spiritual growth which they outline the hallmarks of.

I found it very interesting that the belief places a huge emphasis on the death of Jesus while barely referencing how he lived his life.

Nathan Brown continues our Camp Meeting 2.0 with an interesting discussion of the Second Coming which reads in part:

Because we believe God's righteous intention will eventually become the ultimate reality for humanity, it makes sense for us to practice this way of living now and order our lives in such a way as to try to give reality to it. It is also something God's people will choose to do as those who desire to live in the ways of God now.

Our Camp Meeting 2.0 continues with an interesting look at the Sabbath by Brian Swarts at the fool's Gospel blog. The post reads in part:

The biblical teachings on Sabbath have as much to say about everyday life issues like agriculture, economics and politics as they do about religion. Or more accurately, from a Sabbath perspective there is no distinction between religious practice and, for example, economic practice.

Read the rest here

The Sabbath Pulpit is proud to be invovled in the Camp Meeting 2.0 series. Here is our submission to the community on Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Belief #7

Head over to the Faith in Context Blog by Monte Sahlin where he continues the Camp Meeting 2.0 series with a discussion of the New Earth. It reads in part:

Much of conservative Protestant/Evangelical theology focuses almost entirely on the individual's personal relationship with God and the hereafter. The most important thing in this approach to Christian faith is to be "saved," meaning to be with God in some ethereal sense in the hereafter. The risk, to quote my dad, is a religion that "is so heavenly-minded as to be no earthly good."

The Reinventing the Adventist Wheel Blog continues the Camp Meeting 2.0 with a post on Spiritual Gifts that reads in part:

Today's church is going through a crisis in leadership. Leaders of the old guard often resist change in fear of loss of status or position. Moreover, leadership practice is changing. Hierarchical models are disappearing in favor of egalitarian and holistic models. This crisis is opening up the door for new leaders to rediscover the nature and calling of the church as an authentic community, a missional people in a hostile land.