new directions for adventism

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Atmual Council 1983
The Death of a Boarding Academy
A Quarterly Journal of the Association of Adventist Fonuns Volume 14, Number 3
NEW DIRECTIONS
FOR ADVENTISM
Radical Discipleship
Covenant, Holy War, and Glory
Apocalypse as Liturgy
SPECTRUM
Editorial Board Consulting Editors
Edward Lugeabeal
Editor Roy Branson Earl W. AmuDdsoD Anthro'pology
Ethics. Kennedy Institute President Kettering; Ohio
Roy Branson Georgetown University Atlantic Union Conf~ence Margaret McFarland
Molleurus Couperus Eric Anderson Attorney
Associate Editor
Physician History Washington, D.C.
Charles Scriven Angwin, California Pacific Union College LaVoDne Neff
Gene Daffern Roy Benton Publishing
Senior Editor Physician Mathematics . I?owners Grove; Illinois
Washington. D.C. Columbia Union College
Tom Dybdahl Rooald Numbers
Bonnie Dwyer Bonnie Casey History of Medicine
Journalism Writer/Editor University of Wisconsin
News Editor Lorna Linda, California Washington, D.C. Gary Patterson
Bonnie Dwyer Tom Dybdahl George Colvin President
Editor Government Georgia-Cumberland Conference
Manuscript Editor AlJenrown, Pennsylvania Claremont Graduate School Edward E. Robinson
Richard Emmerson RaymoDd Cottrell Attorney
Gene Daffern English Theology Chicago, Illinois
Book Review Editors Walla Walla College Loma Linda, California Gerhard Svrcek-Seiler
Alvin L. Kwiram Geri Fuller Psychiatrist
Peggy Corbett Chemistry Public Relations Vienna, Austria
University of Washington Washington, D.C. Carolyn Stevens
Rennie Schoepflin Gary LaDd Lawrence Geraty English
I:-listory Old Testament Walla Walla College
Editorial Associate Andrews University SDA Theological Seminary Helen Ward Thompson
Penelope Kellogg Winkler Rennie Scboepflin Fritz Guy Administration
History Theology Walla Walla College
Editorial Assistant University of Wisconsin SDA Theological Seminary L. E. Trader
Charles Scriven F.EJ. Harder Education
Dana Lauren West Theology Educational Administration Marienhoehe Gymnasium
Walla Walla College College Place, Washington Wen Germany
Ottilie Stafford Jorgen Henriksen Louis Venden
English Artist Pastor
Aclaotic Union ColIege Boston. Massachusetts Lorna Linda Univeristy Church
Association of Adventist Forums
President Directors Regional Representatives Southern
LYDdrey A. Niles T. Grace Emori
Communications Atlantic Nursing
Howard University, Washington, D.C. Of Chapter Development john Hamer Atlanta, Ge{)rgia
Walter Douglas
Business Southern Pacific
Vice President Theology Hudson. Massachusetts Mike Scofield
Edward Lugenbeal Andrews University Business
Systems Management Of International Relations Monterey Park. California
Kettering. Ohio MoHeurus Couperus Central
Physician Darrell j. Huenergardt
Executive Secretary Angwin. California Attorney
Claire Hosten Kimball, Nebraska Staff
Attorney Of Membership
Washington. D.C. Ronald D. Cople Columbia Legal Consultant
Business Bradley Litchfield
E. Theodore Agard
Treasurer Silver Spring. Maryland Radiation Physicist Attorney
Richard C. Osborn Of Promotion Kettering Medical Center Washington. D.C.
Principal Richard B. Lewis, jr. Kettering. Ohio Secretary
Takoma Academy Advertising Vinette Anderson
Takoma Park. Maryland Weston, Massachusetts Takoma Park, Maryland
Northern Pacific
Editor Of Special Projects Jobo BruDt Systems Manager
Roy Branson Glenn E. Coe Theology Don McNeil
Ethics, Kennedy Institute Attorney Walla Walla College Computer Programmer
Georgetown University West Hartford, Connecticut College Place, Washington Spencerville, Maryland
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® 1983 All rights reserved. a<idress. Litho USA
In This Issue
Volume Fourteen, Number 3, Published December 1983
Special Section: New Directions for Adventism
Four Great Ideas in Adventism-An Evangelical's
Testimony Timothy L. Smith 2
Radical Discipleship and the Renewal of Adventist
Mission Charles Scriven 11
Covenant, Holy War, and Glory: Motifs in Adventist
Identity Roy Branson 21
The Apocalypse as Liturgy Charles Teel, Jr. 33
Articles
Money, Mergers, and Marriage
The 1983 Annual Council Penelope Kellogg Winkler 44
Must We Keep the Sanctuary Doctrine? -Edward vick 52
Reviews 56
News Update 59
The Mid-America Outlook on Davenport; Small Boarding Academies:
The Pioneer Valley Case
Responses 63
About This Issue Winkler, who teaches writing at Columbia
Union College and whom we are pleased to
welcome to our masthead as editorial
associate, reports on this year's eventful
T
he special section of Annual Council. Ted Vick, an Adventist
this issue suggests professor in England who received his
new dimensions of the Adventist vision. graduate degrees in theology from Vander
Timothy Smith, a distinguished professor of bilt and Oxford universities, comments
American religious history atJohns Hopkins on the three essays exploring the sanctu
University and an ordained Nazarene ary which appeared in the last issue of
minister, recommends that Adventists in Spectrum.
tensify their pursuit of sanctification, Finally, we welcome two new consulting
a path on which they were launched by editors who have already made significant
their Wesleyan forbears. Two editors contributions to Spectrum through their
of Spectrum, Charles Scriven and Roy writing and editing. Bonnie Casey, who
Branson, suggest that Christian traditions received her master's degree in English and
emphasizing radical discipleship and the has taught at Loma Linda University and
experience of the holy provide fresh under Columbia Union College, now writes and
standings of Adventism. Charles Teel shows edits in the Washington, D.C. area. George
how Adventists can make the book of Colvin is completing a doctorate in govern
Revelation a part of their present experi ment at the Claremont Graduate School in
ence of worship. California.
In other articles, Penelope Kellogg -The Editors
Special Section
Four Great Ideas
In Adventisrn-
An Evangelical's Testimony
by Timothy L. Smith
S
ometimes I think deeply interested outsider might what your
youthful or scholarly most priceless gifts really are, or always
Adventists, like youthful or scholarly mem known how to share them as generally as
bers of other communions, may be too quick you wished. I am sure that we have rarely
to yield to the temptation to dismiss one or been wise enough to receive them thank
another aspect of their denomination's fully.
teachings as vestiges of folk-dogmas inher The dynamic character of biblical revela
ited from simple-minded forebears. This is tion, evident across the centuries of its
particularly true of doctrines that have composition, and Christ's promise that the
become denominational distinctives, serv same Holy Spirit who inspired "all Scrip
ing to separate an oncoming generation ture" would attend the believing and obey
from other Christians. I listened recently to ing church "to the ends of the earth" prompt
a group of young Mennonite graduate stu us to listen closely to every historic Chris
dents in the congregation gathered around tian community that has taken the Bible
Boston by those who have moved there to seriously as the word of the Lord. The light
study or teach at Harvard and MIT. Their shed upon its entire message by the particu
impatience with the ancient Mennonite lar doctrines that each one of the great
insistence upon radical Christian pacifism evangelical traditions has found crucial is, I
saddened me, for at this moment in history think, indispensable to a full illumination of
people outside their tradition are turning to its meanings. Wesleyans like me, therefore,
the peace-churches to help save humanity, need you to be the very best and most
and perhaps all life on earth, from destruc thoughtful Adventists you can be, utterly
tion in a firestorm of nuclear violence that is open to the Holy Spirit's guidance as you
falsely called war. seek to understand the truth of Scripture.
I imagine it to be possible that Adventists You may not yet realize it, but you also
have sometimes not seen as clearly as a need me this morning to be the very best
Wesleyan that my Nazarene background
calls me to be. Indeed, whenever I speak in
Timothy L. Smith is a professor of history and
the pulpits of other ministers, or in the more
director of the program in American Religious
History at the Johns Hopkins University. He is well neutral pulpits of college and university
known as the author of Revivalism and Social Reform. chapels, I have found it best always to speak
Smith first gave this presentation at the national clearly as a Wesleyan; in that tradition lies
conference of the Association of Adventist Forums,
the particular treasure I have to share. You
September, 1982.
Volume 14, Number 3 3
Adventists have something likewise to share gathering of your denomination seems a
with me and every other evangelical. relatively short time.
None of us intends to be sectarian. I I want to affirm the continuing relevance
sometimes think of my fellow Nazarenes as of this Adventist expectation of the end of
a Jewish friend did of the Jewish communi ty time to any proper understanding of what
in New York. "We Jews are not really Scripture has to say to us today. It seems odd
sectarian," he said "we just find our own to quote Jonathan Schell's book, The Fate of
inner life so interesting." Indeed, the inner the Earth, in support of Ellen White and of
life of each evangelical community should you who remain persuaded of the truth
also be interesting to other evangelicals. about the end of history that she set forth.
Though our distinguishing doctrines may Schell foreswears any religious commitment
not be the wheel on which all Christian and denies any faith in divine help to spare us
truth must turn, they do mark the bound from what the political leaders of our world
aries of our own fellowship, and they and nation seem bent on making inevitable.
identify the special gift we have to offer to Schell describes, in terms that sound new
the others. Let me, then, speak this morning only to secular readers, events so horrible as
of four great ideas which I hear singing out to ignite, he barely hopes, a worldwide
of Adventist history, forming a chorus that peoples' crusade to stave off the fiery suicide
the whole evangelical community might of our race, and the murder of all other
Jom. living creatures. You have inherited a stark
doctrine of divine judgment; in it one can
The End of History is at Hand hear the heartbeat of grace. In the "last
days," as the growth of your own commu
I begin ( to surprise nion demonstrates to be true, the Lord has
promised to pour out his Spirit upon all
you) with your con
flesh. What may be proceeding behind the
viction that the end of history is at hand. The
veil of eternity in the cleansing of the
hope for the long-deferred fulfillment of the
sanctuary certainly does not preclude the
promise of Christ's Second Coming first
renewal of the vitality of Christian faith that
drew together the Seventh-day Adventist
is taking place on earth now, in these closing
community in the early 1860's. Ellen White
decades of what was supposed to be the post
helped to shape and thereafter expounded
Christian century.
the doctrine of the cleansing of the sanctu
ary to deal with, though not in her view to
T
explain fully, what had been happening in he trans-national
the years since the great disappointment of character of the doc
1844. Thereafter, she and her associates and trine that we are living in the end-time is
successors used this doctrine to deal with also important to contemporary Christian
what has happened both within and beyond ity, as it has been, historically, to Adventists.
history since the 1860's, though none of them It underlays the amazing interracial and
foresaw many of the particular events that international perspective on Christian evan
have taken place in human affairs. In the gelism which has been so much a part of
long perspective of what Bible scholars call Adventist perceptions since Mrs. White
"salvation history," and in light of the belief went to Australia and endorsed her son
of many of them that the early church Edson's determination to preach to black
likewise expected the immediate return of people in northern Alabama. Your commu
Christ and reacted to its delay by rethinking nity presently is the most international of all
their understanding of the prophecies of His religious ones, including the Buddhist and
return, the century and a quarter since the Islamic. Its loyalties cut across all allegiance
4 SPECTRUM
to nations, races, and places, all identifica Christians, because the largest Protestant
tion with classes, customs, and cultures. On community in Swaziland is Nazarene, and
no college or university campus in this many of the king's family are members of
country can one experience intercultural our churches there. Through such overseas
and inter-racial friendships better than at missions, done at the simple bidding of
Andrews University. Moreover, the move Christ that we preach the Gospel to every
ment of black people converted to Advent creature, an international view of things has
ism out of Alabama and Mississippi during been imprinted in the minds of young people
the early years of this century, especially in Bible-believing churches.
These young people belie the public illu
sion and rhetoric of some of their leaders
The God of the sacred Scripture that evangelicals are super-patriots with
little sense of responsibility for the world.
does not stand on the side of
Adventists have renounced with a special
racial oppression, or legitimize
urgency the notion that the Christian
routing villagers by the
religion is to be identified with American
thousands out of ancestral culture, with any country's nationalist
homes. policies, or with upper-class social ideals.
The particular shape of your beliefs about
the end of history has foreclosed for you the
during the two World Wars, laid founda dispensationalist option of embracing in
tions for an indigenous black Adventist Christ's name the militarist national social
movement that was a rebuke to the racism ism that has recently engulfed the modern
that still gripped American Protestantism state of Israel. The God of the sacred
decades after the end of the Civil War. Your Scriptures does not stand on the side of racial
church's history demonstrates, then, the oppression or legitimize a foreign policy
coming end of the old world of ethnic, that routs villagers by the thousands out of
national, and religious discrimination, and their ancestral homes to make room for
the dawn of a new one in which neither Jew those who believe they are still God's
nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female favorites.
may claim precedence in world Christen The language of extermination that
dom. cropped up during the recent attacks on
The foreign missions that you have Beirut by the Israeli army (as one colonel
carried on with such astonishing success are put it, "The PLO are like termites; if you
likewise the seedbed of internationalism, as leave one they'll all be back next year")
they are in every other evangelical commu echoed, in all our memories, the neurotic
nity, including the fundamentalist one for oratory of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goeb
which the Reverend Jerry Falwell often bels. Some wise man said, "Choose your
presumes to speak. I feel very close to Haiti enemies carefully, for you are apt to end up
today, partly because one of my former being much like them." Jewish psychoana
students helped found a mission there in lysts, carrying out their studies of the
which the N azarenes have been prompted psychology of concentration camps, first
for the first time to respond to immense demonstrated the tendency of the oppressed
poverty with a broad range of social to take upon themselves the traits of their
ministries for persons to whom we are oppressors. It is not an anti-semitic state
preaching the Gospel. Likewise, when the ment at all, but a sober warning to friends
King of Swaziland passed away a few weeks and to members of my family who are Jews,
ago, Nazarenes everywhere felt differently to say that the greatest corruption of biblical
about it, I suppose, than other evangelical idealism and of Jewish morali ty in the past
Volume 14, Number 3 5
1500 years now threatens to prevail in greater compromise has undermined Protes
modern Israel. tant and Catholic Christianity during the
If we Americans are obliged to warn our last 80 years than the growth of antinomian
Jewish allies of their danger, we should also ism-the notion that the moral law of Moses
press our own leaders to draw back from the is out of date and has been ever since Jesus
parallel corruption of this nation's idealism preached the law of love. Under the new
and morality. The world we have known is covenant, we hear on every hand, in phrases
in sober fact coming to an end, either by
violence of fire or by the radical submission
of humankind to the "righteousness that is
Ellen White herself could not
by faith in Christ." You Adventists have
never compromised for a moment this have improved upon the
biblical conviction. concept of the consummation
The Law of the Lord is Life of history in Sabbath rest that
appears in the line reading,
S
econd, I want to lift "When the church victorious,
up the Adventist af Shall be the church at rest."
firmation that the law of the Lord is life for
humankind. No single biblical notion is
more pervasive in Scripture than this, and
because of your distinctive emphasis upon wrenched out of their actual biblical sense,
Sabbath law, it stands at the very heart of grace supplants law and forgiveness makes
Adventist faith and life. Like most Protes obedience unnecessary. The result is to
tant evangelicals, I was reared to think that obscure the biblical point: God's priceless
your opposition to laws forbidding many gift of love, through faith, was intended
activities on Sundays was helping to destroy precisely to enable us to fulfill the righteous
the "Christian Sabbath." As time went on, ness of the law.
however, it became evident that large The fulfillment, which Jesus proclaimed
numbers of evangelical Protestants were not in his "Sermon on the Mount" as the essence
going to be careful about keeping Sunday in of the Good News, was not a new doctrine
the old way, and were on that account losing at all, but the central promise of the old
interest in such legislation. covenant. Only recently has the determina
It was refreshing last night to hear Mrs. tion of Old Testament scholars to confront
Hartman explain that her family became us with Torah on its own terms forced us to
Seventh-day Adventists under the guidance realize that the Bible does not contain two
of a new landlord who refused to accept ethical systems, one for the Old and the
their rent check on Sabbath morning. From other for the New Testament. What Jesus
this flowed friendship and an opportunity and St. Paul preached was the same ethical
for this man to bear witness to his faith. Her system that Moses set forth, under the
family soon chose the Adventist way, inspiration of the same Holy Spirit. When
convinced in large measure by one Chris Jesus answered the question, "What is the
tian's loyalty to the Ten Commandments; greatest commandment of all?" with the
her father was eventually ordained an elder word, "You must love the Lord your God
in the church. with all your heart and mind and soul and
I think this Adventist strength," he was quoting Moses' commen
"gift" is more im tary on the meaning of the Ten Command
portant for its potential than for any success ments in Deuteronomy 8. (Moses' words
you have had recently in sharing it. No have stood at the heart of every Jewish
6 SPECTRUM
service of worship until this day.) On Moses' that appears in the line reading, "When the
terms, the law is life for Israel: it is holy, church victorious shall be the church at
just, and good. St. Paul reiterated the point, rest. "
in that section of Romans 7 that many 20th
century evangelicals pass over in their The Promise of Righteousness
eagerness to expound its last section,
by Faith
misconstruing it to teach that believers must
expect to continue in their old and sinful
C
ways. When Jesus went on to say, in losely linked to all
response to his questioners, that the second this is your historic
"great" commandment was like the first, understanding that the gospel consists in the
"yo u must love your neighbor as yourself," promise of righteousness, by grace, through
he was again quoting Moses from another faith. I am aware that arguments over this
key summary of the meaning of the law in question have recently been substantial
Leviticus 19. St. Paul, going back to Moses among Adventist theologians. I think I
but echoing also the words ofJ esus, affirmed know, however, though I am not sure I
in Romans 13 that the last five of the Ten know as fully as I should, where Ellen White
Commandments, having to do with our stood on this question. Her perceptions and
relationships to other human beings, can sensibility, like those of other Adventists
only be fulfilled in love. and Millerites, were shaped under Method
Mrs. White's generation of Adventist ist influences. No theme was more crucial to
leaders had fully absorbed this deep sense of Wesleyan religion, either in England under
the moral unity of the Old and New the leadership of the founder or in 19th
Testaments, having inherited it from their century America. In my book, Revivalism
varied Methodist and Puritan backgrounds. and Social Reform, now reprinted in paperback
You have not forgotten it. In the nuances of by my own university, I stressed the
speech that I hear in your celebrative Wesleyan roots and character of the moral
worship, such as the gathering last night, it is perfectionism of the mid-nineteenth cen
clear that keeping the Sabbath, as you view tury. I am now persuaded that New School
it, means far more than simply observing a Presbyterians Charles G. Finney and Asa
series of restraints on behavior. I hear Mahan read Wesleyan writings more deeply
instead an immense affirmation of the during the years between 1832 and 1839 than
continuity of law and love in the Old and I had originally thought. The new book of
New Testament scriptures, in the lives of Finney's lectures, Promise of the Spirit, that I
faith you now endeavor to live and in your have edited reflects Finney's embrace in
hopes for the future. In Adventist under 1839 of an essentially Wesleyan view.
standing, grounded, I think, on a profound But my understanding of the biblical
grasp of Biblical teachings, God hallows authenticity of the experience of righteous
ordinary time in the Sabbath, linking it to ness through faith has been greatly enriched
eternal time-called, in the Greek New by recent reading in the history of Calvinist
Testament, kairos. In that eternal kairos we and Puritan thought. Indeed, from the
live now, by faith, and one day shall in it be earliest years of the Puritan movement in
gathered to the presence of the Lord. As we England and the earliest days of its
began our worship this morning, I sang the transplanting in America, the only firm
hymn "The Church Has One Foundation" ground of one's assurance of being among
like an Adventist, having sung it as a N aza the elect was the discovery of inward grace
rene all my life. Ellen White herself could and power to live above ordinary sinfulness.
not have improved upon the conception of Scholars have known this for many years.
the consummation of history in Sabbath rest Nevertheless, I was scarcely prepared for
Volume 14, Number 3 7
my discovery last year in the sermons of fulfillment of the law of the Old. You may
George Whitefield (which I began reading look high and low in the religious literature
in order to see more clearly what John of the evangelicals of that century-Luther
Wesley taught) an obsession with precisely ans, Calvinists, Wesleyans, Baptists,
this good news. The Holy Spirit who brings Disciples of Christ, or Adventists-and you
repentant sinners to new life in Christ, will find nowhere the antinomian under
Whitefield preached often and nearly standing of grace that has become such a
always, breaks the power as well as cancels pernicious infection in the 20th century
the guilt of sin; He enables each believer to evangelical revival. Precisely to the degree
live a life of consistent victory over that the revival of our age is continuing and
temptation. In 1737, a year before John deepening, just so are leaders in all these
Wesley experienced "salvation by faith," as traditions (illustrated not.ably by Richard
he called it, at a prayer meeting in Aldergate Lovelace's book, The Dynamic of the Spirit)
Street, London, Whitefield published in rediscovering the centrality of the biblical
England his sermon On the Nature and promise of sanctification, of a transforma
Necessity of Our Regeneration or New Birth in tion of moral life through the work of the
Christ Jesus. It is a "fatal mistake," Holy Spirit.
Whitefield warned in that sermon, to "put If she were alive, I believe Ellen White
asunder what God has inseparably joined would be embarrassed if you Adventists
together" and to "expect to be justified were to resolve your current discussions of
by Christ without also being sanctified, this question simply by attributing the
that is, having one's nature 'changed' and
made holy." That sermon, republished in
Boston with the blessing of leading clergy I imagine it to be possible that
men, prompted the invitation that brought Adventists have sometimes not
Whitefield to that Puritan city in Sep
seen as clearly as a deeply
tember 1740 for the revival that has ever
interested outsider might what
since been called a "Great Awakening."
George Whitefield did not learn this your most priceless gifts really
doctrine from Jonathan Edwards at all. He are.
was still a very young man and had been
taught in Oxford's "Holy Club" to make
Scripture the source and test of all Christian doctrine of righteousness through faith to
doctrine. He had read, on the recommenda her. (She would have instantly rejected the
tion of Charles and John Wesley, the great notion that a vision or a series of moving
devtional works of the Puritans of the thoughts was revelation from God if in
previous century, as well as Scottish Henry substance they contradicted what she
Scougal's Life of God in the Soul of Man and thought were the plain teachings of Scrip
Anglican William Law's Plain and Serious Call ture. She would have called such a vision
to a Devout and Holy Life. Like the Wesleys simply a bad dream, for she stood as firmly
and all evangelicals of that century, he had as any of her contemporaries upon the
also read Bishop Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living authority of the Bible.) Rather, you Advent
and Holy Dying. But he tested all his reading ists owe your longstanding commitment to
by the Scriptures. moral restoration, as Wesleyans and other
The doctrine of righteousness by faith Christians do, to that same loving God who
was the moral heartbeat of 19th century in the power and grace of his Spirit made
evangelicalism. Few then would have con the world, revealed himself to fallen
sidered for a moment reinterpreting the humanity in Scripture, and in his blessed
New Testament as a rejection rather than a Son, our Savior, created the faith, through
8 SPECTRUM
love, that reopened our lives to the Spirit's the church, empowering it for righteousness
transforming presence. by constantly renewing the community's
The promise of righteousness by faith is understanding of Scripture. Here, again, I
the central theme of the Hebrew and point to a strong current of Christian
Christian Scriptures. If you share my dismay doctrine whose source is far deeper and
at the fragmentation of biblical studies that wider than the inspiration of Ellen White. It
has taken place in the 20th century, and the springs from the teachings of the apostles
resultant uncertainty as to how something and the early church fathers, from the
called "biblical theology" might grow out rediscovery of the unity of Spirit and Word
of such a patchwork of varied writings, I in Puritan and Wesleyan thought, and from
urge you to consider the wholeness of the common evangelical understanding of
Scripture. Today, we tend to think that the inspiration and authority of Scripture. A
concept was an affirmation of faith that the good place to begin reading about this
same Holy Spirit had been present from age question is in Geoffrey Nuttall's book, The
to age, in every situation, inspiring alike Holy Spirit in Puritan Faith and Practice, notably
prophets, lawgivers, and the writers of the his great chapter on "The Spirit and the
four gospels and the New Testament Word. " Nuttall shows how the 17 th century
epistles. Our earlier teachers, however, Puritans and the Quakers who followed in
whether John Wesley, John Cotton, Alex their train laid out very carefully and clearly
ander Campbell, or Ellen White, saw the the link between the revelation of the Spirit
wholeness of Scripture as an observable fact. in the Word, and the illumination of the
Study it in this light for yourself. I urge Spirit which guides Christians as they search
you to see whether you do not find that, on for the meaning of the Word. He stresses the
common sense examination, from the first firm bond that has existed in the minds of
chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of evangelical leaders between the authority
Revelation, its central theme is God's call of Scripture and the Spirit's leadership.
to righteousness and his promise to restore The 19th century understood that the
in us by grace the divine image and so enable Scriptures comprised, as virtually all the
us to fulfill that call. His love (in the biblical creeds in evangelical Christendom put it,
text the word means "loyalty"), his "the only guide to Christian faith and
fai thfulness (which is the very ground of all practice." They assumed that the guiding
Revelation and the reason for His giving to Spirit was with believers as they studied the
us the law), are the fountain from which Bible. The authority of Scripture lay, then,
springs the grace that saves us from not in each particular word but in the
unrighteousness. meanings of the sentences and paragraphs, in
Such convictions have been one of your what they taught about salvation and
gifts to your fellow evangelicals. Now, in holiness. The recent struggle over theories
the 20th century, when they need that gift of biblical inspiration, conducted some
most grievously, I urge you to continue times, I think, by persons who care more
making it, discharging that only debt that about the battle than about the Bible, seems
Christians should really know, "the debt of almost to ignore this point.
mutual love. " Here stands the watershed that separates
the Hebrew and Christian faiths from
The Presence of the Hallowing Spirit
virtually all the other religions of the world.
The Bible declares that our Heavenly Father
O
ne final contribu wants his children to understand. To Ezekiel
tion, to which I have he said, "Son of Man, stand upon your feet
been pointing throughout this talk, is the and I will speak with you." Don't grovel
conviction that the Holy Spirit is present in in the dust before God; he is not an idol,