Why the Early Church Didn't Have Worship Services

 This is a really good presentation on what the New Testament means when it says worship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw4MTdbq3Xw&t=561s

GC Prez says worship right

Adventist Today posted a transcript of the newly appointed GC president Ted Wilson’s press conference.  It looks even less promising then I had originally thought. Then of course I heard and you can read Wilson’s Sermon and see that the future does not look bright. Much of this post was composed a few days ago and I had not finished it before hearing Wilson’s sermon which pretty much verified Wilson’s traditional/historic Adventism and his now clearly active opposition to Progressive Adventism.  But since the interviewed contained something that was very important and overlooked so far I am going to still post this article dealing with his press conference statements.

Early on Wilson reflects on the mission of the Adventist church which he feels is somehow found in Revelation 14. He states:

“…that message is found in Revelation 14, verses 6 through 12, which announces, really,

the righteousness of God, the righteousness of Christ, the everlasting gospel, and God’s

call to his people around the world who truly worship him in the right way.”

That statement truly worship Him the right way? Is an interesting turn of phrase. It reminds me of the Chris Lizotte song “Hard Enough” that says:

 “All I want to do is grow in the love of Jesus Christ/ I don’t want to be one to say You don’t worship right/But you know that it’s hard enough, hard enough to keep our feet walking the straight and narrow/well it’s hard enough, hard enough we all were called to carry the same cross”

Sort of different philosophy from Ted Wilson but a philosophy I agree with much more than Wilson’s emphasis on “truly worshiping right”.

Here is the full quote I referenced in my last blog article:

“Newman: David Newman, Adventist Today. During the next five years, what would be

your main priorities, as President?

Wilson: Well, I am sure they will develop a little further, as I think about them, even

more. But definitely, as I have already mentioned, a very high priority will be on the

Bible reformation—on an understanding of Scripture from a historical biblical

perspective; not a historical critical or higher critical approach. I think—really the

authority of scripture is going to become the most critical areas of contention within, I

don’t think only the Adventist church, but in Christianity itself. The word of God is

relevant, is pertinent for us, and that, I think, is an extremely important thing. Within the

Adventist Church, we must place strong emphasis on the Spirit of Prophecy, not just as a

devotional reading, but as instructional counsel for every facet of life.”

Asked about bringing unity to the church Wilson noted that unity is based upon our beliefs and he concluded:

“I will bring unity in every possible way we can, but I want

us to understand that we are going to remain faithful to the Word and to what Spirit of

Prophecy indicates. Some people may find that archaic—not in tune with the times. I

think it’s eternal”

The problem with this statement is we don’t know what being faithful to the word means. Of course we do know that with his statement about his opposition to historical criticism he means that being faithful to the Word is a form of literalism and traditionalism when literalism does not work. And we know that the reference to the Spirit of Prophecy indicates that Ellen White is meant to be used as the interpreter of Scriptures.

All in all I think Wilson’s statement “truly worship him in the right way”. Will define the Ted Wilson era of the Adventist church; the right way of course being what the Traditional Adventist bureaucracy determines to be the right way. It is a return to the works era righteousness of Adventism expressed once by Ellen White  in Early Writings page 55-56 1882 when she said:

  I saw the Father rise from the throne, and in a flaming chariot go into the holy of holies within the veil, and sit down. Then Jesus rose up from the throne, and the most of those who were bowed down arose with Him. I did not see one ray of light pass from Jesus to the careless multitude after He arose, and they were left in perfect darkness. Those who arose when Jesus did, kept their eyes fixed on Him as He left the throne and led them out a little way. Then He raised His right arm, and we heard His lovely voice saying, "Wait here; I am going to My Father to receive the kingdom; keep your garments spotless, and in a little while I will return from the wedding and receive you to Myself." Then a cloudy chariot, with wheels like flaming fire, surrounded by angels, came to where Jesus was. He stepped into the chariot and was borne to the holiest, where the Father sat. There I beheld Jesus, a great High Priest, standing before the Father. On the hem of His garment was a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate. Those who rose up with Jesus would send up their faith to Him in the holiest, and pray, "My Father, give us Thy Spirit." Then Jesus would breathe upon them the Holy Ghost. In that breath was light, power, and much love, joy, and peace. 56

      I turned to look at the company who were still bowed before the throne; they did not know that Jesus had left it. Satan appeared to be by the throne, trying to carry on the work of God. I saw them look up to the throne, and pray, "Father, give us Thy Spirit." Satan would then breathe upon them an unholy influence; in it there was light and much power, but no sweet love, joy, and peace. Satan's object was to keep them deceived and to draw back and deceive God's children.   

Worshipping God is not enough when it has to be done so specifically that to Worship Christ and not realize he left a portion of the heavenly sanctuary which no one sees of course and will be hijacked by Satan will lead to God’s children’s destruction. Ted Wilson wants to interpret the Bible by Ellen White; he is condemning the Adventist church to irrelevancy and ultimate cult status. The sad thing is he is not alone but the product of the leadership of the SDA church.

“Theologolatry”—making an idol of our own theology

The title of this post comes from an article published at Progressive Adventism Blog, The article is a presentation at the 50th Anniversary Question on Doctrines conference by Fritz Guy entitled:

The Saga of Questions on Doctrines and the Adventist Future

I am often troubled by some of the things I read about happening in the Adventists church. In a recent discussion on a forum I will not mention because I think overall the majority of people there are toxic I posted a defense against the claim that Roman Catholics worship Mary. I felt pretty comfortable posting the material from the Catholic church which says that they don't worship Mary yet to the majority on the forum it matters little what they Roman Catholics themselves say but what the anti-Catholics say. Of course to the Protestant mind all the Roman Catholic Mariology is silly, but to these traditional SDA's by saying that Roman Catholics worship Mary and bow and worship idols they move from silly to saying "look if they are not worshiping God they are worshiping the devil." They have moved to take fellow Christians away from the community of Christianity.

How big is your God? Can you serve God if you have some wrong theology, which by the way I can assure you is true of every human being alive from Old Testament to today. God alone is perfect and even when God was incarnate He was hindered by having to communicate to people who were often stuck in their traditions. Think of all those people in the middle ages who only had the words of their priests and the theology of abuse of the rich over the poor. I often think of the two greatest problems in Christianity, the idea of a God who would eternally torment those not saved and the idea that God can't forgive until He punishes someone. Yet in reality there are people who accept and embrace both of those problems and love God and trust Him. Granted I could never believe those things and be a Christian, but I love that God can still develop a relationship with people even when their views are so problematic.

So I am therefore left in the position of saying that God reaches us where we are and while I am sure like any good parent He wants us to grow and mature our retardation does not stop His relationship with us. We are crippled, sick and defective; the kind of people God came to save. But very clearly His salvation has not been by way of excellent theology. The better our theology the more likely we are to see the love that God has for us and the more likely we are going to be to share that love with others. My old internet friend Elaine said in her comment at the above Progressive Adventism blog this:

"Rabbi Hillel was more than correct when he answered the young seminarian who asked if he could recite the whole Torah while standing on one foot, and he said "Do not do to others what you would not wish done to you. All the rest is commentary." But, oh, how the rabbis, both Jewish and Christian, love to argue the fine points of Scripture as if they were of life-saving importance. They ignore the simple to argue the 'finer' points'?"

I enjoy arguing the finer points it is how I get to know people and they get to know me. It is how I sharpen my thinking and how I rethink my positions. It is a fellowship I enjoy but it is not salvation it is only part, a small part of what it means to be a Christian. As Fritz Guy said in his article:

"We can listen to each other even—no, especially—when we disagree, remembering that no one in the conversation is wholly wrong, and that if we are willing we can learn from anyone. We can encourage theological experiments. We can consider new understandings, new ways of thinking that just might turn out to be "present truth" for Adventists in the 21st century."

We grow in the conversation, unless we discount those with different views, unless we accuse them of being of the devil. We live in a world where so many people are in need of someone to talk to about their lives and what is important to them. The Christian church is the ideal place to bring together these people with Christians, Christians who need the interpersonal relations with other people just as much as the person living outside of Christianity. We can fill the void with so many things, entertainments that don't need another person TV, movies, video games, music, drinking or drugs, often we try and fix the symptom but never bother with the disease. We are not offering our fellow human beings the comfort that our God asks us to give them. Christianity is dying because we don't offer a God the loves and we don't love, often we don't even try to show interest.

Someday I hope to find a church family who is interesting in being innovative in putting the simple idea of talking to people, really talking, not saying "how are you today" or "welcome to our church". A church that does not stress passive listening to some Pastor no matter how well intentioned he is drag them through a sermon. A church that leads to people talking and getting to know and love each other whether they agree on theology or not.

That is my dream…or maybe that is my curse I don't know yet.

[In my next few blog articles I will go over the new book entitled UnChristian. I have only read the first chapter but I can tell that the major problem it will reveal is that Christians are losing to the world because we are not showing the love and care that is so needed in this world.]