The Distinguishing Difference
1994 Annual Council Keynote Address
By: R S Folkenberg

The graffiti spray-painted on the wall at a subway stop in a large American city proclaimed, "God is dead--Nietzsche." Below it, someone had scrawled, "Nietzsche is dead--God."

The philosopher Nietzsche, of course, is dead, along with his "God is dead" philosophy. If anything, God seems to have been making a comeback in recent years. There has been a surge of interest in religion, a turn of events that, quite frankly, has surprised social scientists.

We were told we were entering the post-industrial age, the age of science, the age of technology, the age of cyberspace and space shuttles. We humans, the social scientists said, were shaking off the superstitions -- the traditions -- the myths of our ancestors. Science would answer our prayers for life and health and longevity, not some mythical deity invoked with chants, prayers, and liturgy.

Yet, for some reason, we humans didn't cooperate with the social scientists. All over the world--belief in God is "in." Fundamentalism, be it Islamic, Hindu, or Christian, has been surging in ways no one expected. Even in American politics today, a politician's religion is deemed more important to some people than his political views.

TIME magazine ran an article describing how even among cold, rational and empirical scientists, God is more and more being talked about in ways that He hasn't been in years.

But I want to make a simple point this evening: It's one thing to talk about God, to claim that God is on your side -- to invoke the name of God. As Seventh-day Adventists, we do it all the time. As a matter of fact, one of the early names considered for our church was "The Church of God." Obviously, we rejected the idea, but through the years numerous other groups have embraced it. But again, calling yourself the "Church of God" doesn't make you the church of God anymore than putting "M.D." after your names makes you a medical doctor.

What makes us "of God" isn't having the right doctrines, either. Ancient Israel had the right doctrines--or at least the best ones--when they plotted to arrest and kill Jesus (Matthew 26: 3,4).

More than anything else, what makes us "of God" is having the presence of God in our lives. And we can have no greater evidence of God's presence in our lives than by having the character of God become our character as well. This will give us the discernment to deal with the multitude of problems we face. This will give us the distinguishing, crucial difference that more than anything else should make us different from the world.

Open your Bibles with me to Exodus 33:1-21. First, let's look at verse 1: "Then the LORD said to Moses, "Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, `I will give it to your descendants.'"

The Israelites were camped below Mount Sinai.

They had been camped too long.
They had been at ease too long.
Some had even forgotten about the promised land.
They were doing OK! Some may have even thought they were in the promised land.

They had so much time on their hands that they got into trouble. They crafted a golden calf, an idol. So "the LORD said to Moses, "Leave this place!" It was time to be moving on to the promised land.

Today, the fact that we are not yet in the promised land leads me to believe that there must be some changes in the way we are dong things if we expect our generation to usher in the second coming of Christ.

Ancient Israel could not wander in the desert for 39 years and give good reports to the constituency. They could not claim wonderful progress,

• no matter how optimistic the administration,
• no matter how many miles were covered,
• no matter how much their flocks increased,
• no matter how many children were born,
• no matter how much their tithes and offerings increased.

They were not where they were supposed to be, and that highlighted their problem.

Today, we are not with our Lord, and that means we must confront today's problems. There is a fading, I believe, of that distinguishing difference that the Advent movement had 150 years ago.

Our church -- the Seventh-day Adventist Church -- grew out of the remnants of the Millerite movement. We were given a mission that was to take us to the promised land. We were commissioned with the 3 Angels messages and the proclamation of the Second Advent.

Isn't it time for us to be leaving this place?
Haven't we been camped comfortably around the mountain too long?
Shouldn't we be moving on to the promised land?

I am tired of reading about

• ethnic cleansing,
• airliners crashing,
• tribal massacres
• parental and spousal abuse,
• dysfunctional families,
• corrupt politicians,
• our drug-plagued society.

I am tired of hearing about divorces, deaths, and diseases.

The Lord is telling us today it is time to leave this place and make our way to our heavenly home.

• Haven't we had enough Annual Councils?
• Haven't we had enough committees? (Amen).
• Haven't we had enough General Conference Sessions?

I am tired of camping at the foot of Sinai. As I look around I don't see the clear distinguishing difference we must have. Our dysfunctional families and divorce rates are not much different than the world's.

If we are to make a distinguishing difference and be God's remnant people, we need more than theoretical truth. We need the presence of God manifested in our lives. The world needs to see in our lives what it reads in our books.

(ILL) A man once escaped from a mental institution. He was faced with the prospect of being recognized and returned to the asylum. He decided that he would take some widely recognized truth and repeat it so people would know that he wasn't insane. He found a ball along the road and as he walked through town, he bounced the ball and with every bounce said, "The earth is round, the earth is round, the earth is round." Understandably he was immediately recognized and returned to the hospital.

Why? Isn't the earth round? Yes, but there is something nonsensical about truth spoken by one who is not living the truth.

Ellen White stressed the importance of having Christ in our lives. Here is a series of quotations from Ministry of Healing, pages 469 and 470: "There is an eloquence far more powerful than the eloquence of words in the quiet, consistent life of a pure, true Christian" (page 469).

"It is our own character and experience that determine our influence upon others. In order to convince others of the power of Christ's grace, we must know its power in our own hearts and lives" (page 469).

"The badge of Christianity is not an outward sign, not the wearing of a cross or a crown, but it is that which reveals the union of man with God.... No other influence that can surround the human soul has such power as the influence of an unselfish life. The strongest argument in favor of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian" (page 470).

Doctrines of the church that are not experienced in the lives of our members will not be transmitted to future generations except as sterile creedal statements.

It is easy to pass the doctrines to our children in books, through rote learning. But if we don't pass those doctrines along in the lives of our children, this church will not fulfill its commission. We do that by living Christ-centered lives. We can't communicate what we haven't experienced. Our Church will make no distinguishing difference to the world unless and until our doctrines are an expression of the presence of God, rather then theoretical theological concepts.

In giving His moving instructions for the trip to the promised land to Moses, God gave good news and bad news.

First the good news in verse 2 of Exodus 33: {2} "I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. {3} Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey."

That is good news! God will send an angel to fight the battles. God will empower this move. The enemies of God's people will be defeated, the doors of opportunity will be opened, and the land of milk and honey would be theirs.

But in the next verse God delivers the bad news: "But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way."

God said, "I will help you, I will send an angel, but you are such difficult people I won't go with you Myself because if I did I might wipe you all out."

Once again, (in verses 4-13) as he had before, Moses pled with God. Moses said: "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here."

Moses had learned to know God, to know that going anywhere without His presence was a futile exercise. "Lord, don't even send us if your presence doesn't go with us!" Moses knew that it was hopeless to try to go to the promised land without the presence of God.

• Have we learned the lesson that Moses learned?
• Have we learned that all of our efforts are nothing but golden calves without God's presence?
• Have we learned that the trip to the promised land is not accomplished by our efforts?
• Have we learned that we don't travel to the promised land by our many actions, resolutions, votes, and committees?

We have a big agenda this week:

• There are Church Manual issues to consider.
• We will consider what items should be on the General Conference Session agenda.
• The effect of removing restrictions from world publishing policies will lead us to struggle with the tension between the primacy of mission versus institutionalism.
• We will consider many recommendations from the Commission on World Church organization.
• We will struggle with the implications of one of the most significant financial challenges in the recent history of our church, which has consumed our attention for weeks.

But, I am not concerned about capping the number of G C Session delegates.  As important as it is, I am not concerned about restructuring the Department of Church Ministries.  Even the budget pressures don't keep me awake at night--very often.

Even though this will be a tough financial year, I am not concerned about money. All the money in the world will not get us to the promised land without God's presence. We will pass a lot of resolutions, some of them of vital importance to the mission of this church. However, let us remember that the road to the promised land is not paved with committee resolutions and policy decisions. With His presence, and only with His presence, will we accomplish His task. Only with His presence will we go to the promised land.

Why did Moses have this commitment to not move without the presence of the Lord?

• It wasn't because of the power that the presence of the Lord would provide because God had said He would send an angel ahead to drive out their enemies.
• It wasn't because Moses felt the need for companionship.
• It wasn't because of the protection the Lord's presence gave.

Lets read:  {16} "How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?"

It was the presence of God that distinguished the Israelites.

The Israelites were an undistinguished, motley group of desert dwellers

EXCEPT they had God's presence.

This family clan, descendants of Abraham, were an undistinguished lot

EXCEPT they had God's presence.

This generation of nomadic camel herders were an undistinguished group of campers

EXCEPT they had God's presence. They were a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, by God's presence.

When God's presence is with a people it makes the distinguishing difference.

As Paul quotes Hosea in Romans 9:25: "I will call them `my people' who are not my people; and I will call her `my loved one' who is not my loved one," (NIV)

Being chosen by God and living in the presence of God was the distinguishing difference for the Israelites, and it is the distinguishing difference for us today.

• We are distinguished, not by our doctrines -- but by our Christ-like love.
• We are distinguished not by our hospitals -- but by our caring health care.
• We are distinguished not by keeping the Sabbath -- but by the Sabbath keeping us in His presence.
• We are distinguished not by our large educational program -- but by the spiritual quality of our graduates.
• We are distinguished not by our abstention from unclean meats -- but by being a moral voice in an immoral world.

God's presence gives:

• character to our actions
• meaning to our behavior
• morality to our resolutions
• life to our institutions
• power to our committees
• identity to our living, and
• distinction to our church.

"People are like a stained glass window, they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but in the darkness, beauty is seen only if there is light within." [Leadership Vol 1 #2]

When God called his people out of Babylon, it was not so they could look just like Babylon. No, the remnant is called to look different than Babylon! As a people we are to be distinguished from all the other people on the face of the earth.

• The Seventh-day Adventist Church did not come into existence to be the same as every other church.
• The Seventh-day Adventist Church was not called by God to blend into the woodwork of society.
• The Seventh-day Adventist Church was not commissioned to be just another in a long line of spiritual revivals leading eventually to a declining group that historians view as the relics of some past glory.

William Barclay said, "A saint is someone whose life makes it easier to believe in God." [Leadership Vol. 8 #2] The life of our church should make it easier to believe in God.

The distinguishing difference in the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the presence of God, in our message, yes, but more importantly in our lives.

Called into being by the will of God, we are called to a mission to communicate the 3 angels messages and we are called today to "Leave this place" and move on to the promised land. At the core of the existence of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the fact that we are distinguished from others by the presence of God, and when we lose that distinction, we lose our reason for existence.

Moses said that if the presence of God didn't accompany them there would be nothing that distinguished them from all the other people on the face of the earth.

The people of God are to be distinguished, they are to be different, they are to be a unique people, a peculiar people. Without being distinguished by the presence of God there was:

• no reason to leave Sinai,
• no reason to stop worshiping the Golden Calf.
• no reason to have the 10 commandments
• no reason to travel to the Holy Land
• no reason to have a tabernacle.

And for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, if we don't have the distinguishing difference of God's presence, there is no reason for any of our:

• actions,
• committees,
• recommendations,
• resolutions
• our wherefores and whereas'es

I began with Nietzsche. I'd like to end with him too. He said that "God is dead," and he, of course, was wrong, dead wrong. Nietzsche also once said that the world saw only one true Christian--and it crucified Him. Let us prove Nietzsche wrong again. May the world see scores and hundreds and thousands and millions of true Christians -- Seventh-day Adventist Christians who live with the presence of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in their hearts and minds.

God is calling us from this place. Let us resolve to say with Moses, "If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here."

Copyright ^© 1994 by R S Folkenberg