WE STILL BELIEVE . . . THE BIBLE
1997 Annual Council Keynote Address
By: R S Folkenberg

I. INTRODUCTION

Recently, MCI ran an amusing TV ad for their long-distance telephone service. The ad was particularly aimed at the quality of their competitors. The scene begins with the Space Shuttle sitting on the pad while the camera slowly pans in. The voice of the launch director is heard over an intercom counting down to liftoff.

Approximately 10...
9--give or take...
Somewhere in the vicinity of 8...
About 7...
6 or so...
5--plus or minus...
4--I think...
Uh, 3...
2-ish...
1.

Lift off! [The Shuttle sits there]
Any moment now [Still no action]
Here it comes...still waiting."

The words: "PRECISION IS IMPORTANT" flashes over the earth-bound shuttle, and it's not hard to get the point. The commercial works because everyone knows that there can be no margin for error when it comes to getting something as technologically sophisticated as the Space Shuttle off the ground and into the heavens.

There's no guesswork, no flying by the seat of the pants, no approximates, or best estimates, or instincts. Every moment of the launch sequence is planned, timed, and accounted for.

The lives of astronauts depend on their following their detailed flight plans. We Christians are travelers too. We who believe in Jesus are traveling to a "City with foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews. 11:10). We too have a detailed "flight plan" called the Bible. And our eternal lives depend on following that plan.

Strangely, while most of the world applauds the precision and accuracy of watches, computers, and the space program, more and more people seem to be content to view God's "flight plan" to heaven with sloppiness, human speculation, guesswork, and distrust.

Even some professed Christians openly question whether there are true absolutes in the world, and often treat the Bible with doubt and, in the worst cases, outright contempt.

Is the Bible still relevant for today? Does it still speak to the needs of the college student? The troubled administrator? The teen-age run-away? The cashier at the supermarket? The business executive? The computer programmer? The cancer patient? The busy homemaker?

Does it speak with the authority of the Creator God, providing humankind with a fully trustworthy "map" through the wilderness of life here on Earth to the promised land of Heaven? Or is it like the flawed shuttle countdown in the TV commercial -- uncertain and untrustworthy -- filled with fables and myths and subject to the whims and opinions of fickle society?

II. DOUBT IS "IN"

Doubt is in vogue today. It's "cool" to disregard authority. Tim "The-Tool-Man" Taylor of TV's "Home Improvement" has turned ineptitude and disregard of directions into an art form.

And Ellen Degeneres, the first openly gay actress in a lead role on a TV sitcom, has caused millions to view the moral guidelines of the Bible as hopelessly outdated, narrow, and politically incorrect. Everywhere we turn today, we're told to "color outside the lines," "The rules have changed," and "Question everything."

Sadly, the Bible predicts a time when trust in the Bible would erode:  "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths" (II Timothy 4:3,4 -- NKJV).

And though there are more Bibles available than ever before, our lives seem to be less impacted by the words in those Bibles.

Pastor Jesse Wilson noted this trend in the May/June issue of Message magazine:  "The research of George Barna and George Gallup, in The Day America Told the Truth, has revealed some embarrassing facts: the actions of many Christians do not line up with their words. In fact, recent surveys seem to indicate that Christians lie, cheat on their taxes, fornicate, divorce, and generally sin at roughly the same rate as non-Christians" ("Test of Discipleship," p. 6).

We are a people who love "good preaching" -- to hear the word proclaimed with power and authority. But more and more our response imitates how we respond to secular entertainment.

We sit. We watch. We applaud, laugh or cry, talk about the good time we had--AND GO HOME. We seem to react like those who listened to Ezekiel preach. . . "As for you, son of man, your countrymen are talking together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, saying to each other, 'Come and hear the message that has come from the Lord.' My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice" (Ezekiel 33:30-32 -- NKJV).

And the prophet Amos added:  "'The days are coming,' declares the Sovereign Lord, 'when I will send a famine throughout the land not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord." (Amos 8:11 NIV)

Have we as Seventh-day Adventists entered that time of famine? Are we, in the words of A.W.Tozer, "starving while actually seated at the Father's table?" (The Pursuit of God, 1982 by Christian Publications, Inc., p. 9)

As we prepare to cross the threshold of a new millennium, we will need greater grace and wisdom to be able to articulate the everlasting gospel and the revelation of His imminent return in glory to a global family living in the 21st century. If our message is to remain relevant and bear the divine credentials of Holy Spirit power and authority, . .

III. HOW OUR MESSAGE WILL REMAIN RELEVANT

Our message will remain relevant if we remember:

1. The Bible, not human opinion, is the foundation of the Seventh-day Adventist message.

Despite what some individual Seventh-day Adventists have been teaching, we still believe in a literal creation and a literal seven-day creation week, of which the Sabbath is a memorial.

"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth. . . .For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm" (Psalm 33:6, 9, NIV).

Not only does the Bible exclude a multi-million-year evolutionary process it simply states, God spoke and it was so. Even some modern, secular, scientists acknowledge that evolutionary model of origins requires as much faith (if not more) as does accepting the Word of God.

Why then do so many find godless evolution attractive? Ah, simply because it is godless.

"The higher critics put themselves in the place of God, and review the Word of God, revising or endorsing it. . . . These higher critics have fixed things to suit the popular heresies of these last days. If they cannot subvert and misapply the Word of God, if they cannot bend it to human practices, they break it" (The Upward Look, 35).

2. The Bible, not pop psychology, provides power for character-change and Christlike living.

"For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" (Hebrews, 4:12, NIV).

It was the power of the living Christ through the Word of God that

Our message will remain relevant if we remember that. . . .

3. The Bible, not culture, is the essence of Seventh-day Adventist standards and always lifts us above our cultures.

Born-again believers have a new culture. The Bible describes it:   "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. . . . Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. . . . But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy" (Eph. 5:8; Col. 3:11; 1 Pet. 2:9,10, NIV).

We are citizens of heaven and adopt the culture of our new home. We must remember that once we join Christ, this world and its culture is not our home.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2, NIV).

Our message will remain relevant if we remember that. . . .

4. The Bible, not trends in contemporary society or even Protestantism, form the heart of all SDA worship.

Worship of the true God -- how we worship, why we worship, when we worship -- is central to the Great Controversy and forms part of the first angels' message:

"He said in a loud voice, 'Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgement has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water" (Rev. 14:7, NIV).

Remove the Bible and you have consumer-driven worship focusing on what people want and not on what God wants. This is not true worship, no matter how entertaining the "show," how big the "cathedral," or how large the crowd in the pews.

A watered-down gospel will never save the lost. Ours is a message of revival and reformation. Our ability to respond to heaven's call, to return to true worship based on the Word of God and not the whim of man, will lighten the whole earth with the glory of God and prove Satan a liar!

HOW IS SATAN A LIAR?

A) Satan is a liar when he gets us to believe that the end justifies the means.

(ILL) Our flight from Moldova to Moscow was scheduled to be only two hours. But winter weather closed the Moscow airport and we flew to Siberia to wait -- and wait -- and wait. During the many hours we sat in the cramped airliner, watching several inches of ice accumulate on the wings, I was impressed by a group of Orthodox Rabbis who were on the same flight. One was seated close by, so when his time for prayer arrived, I watched him carefully. Ignoring the plane filled with people, most of whom were undoubtedly atheists, he took out three little boxes, each with a strap attached. Each contained a portion of scripture. One of these he placed on his forehead and wrapped the strap around his head to keep it in place. A second box he placed on his upper arm and the third he wrapped around his hand. Then, wrapping a prayer shawl around his shoulders, he began to pray. I have to commend the rabbi for his dedication.

But his mechanical use of the Word caused my mind to flash back to the newscast with pictures of the assassination of Israel's Prime Minister Rabin. What affect did such mechanical use of Scripture have on the young zealot who rationalized his murderous act as the will of God? Are there parallels to this within the Remnant Movement? Some of the most unchristian, savage letters I get come from those who in effect declare themselves to be so holy that they can justify just about every imaginable sin.

B) Satan is a liar when he entices Christians to buy into a relativistic world view that excludes moral accountability.

Adventist Review editor Bill Johnsson quotes George Barna when he says:  "America appears to be drowning in a sea of relativistic, nonbiblical theology. We are living amid the dilution of traditional, Bible- based Christian faith. Millions of Americans are comfortable calling themselves Christian even though their beliefs suggest otherwise. At the same time, our rejection of orthodox Christian beliefs, coupled with a relativistic culture, has led millions of adults to embrace a worldview totally at odds with the faith they allegedly embrace. The irony is that most of the individuals who are caught up in their own contradictions are completely unaware of those conflicts" (Adventist Review, August 1997, p. 5).

This relativism is creeping into our church too because too many of us want the joy, peace, and grace that the Bible offers while ignoring the accountability, submission, and death-to-self that the same Bible commands.

"We want," as the song Marshall Kelly used to sing, "the crown but [we] won't bear the cross, but it takes your everything to serve the Lord."

C) Satan is a liar when he convinces us that fellowship is superior to discipleship.

Recently I listened to a recorded sermon of an Adventist minister who basically said: "Look folks, you may not believe in the Sabbath, the 2nd coming, our church organization, the sanctuary, tithing, or our lifestyle. That's OK. I don't accept some of those either. But still be part of our "community." We want you to come and fellowship with us."

That's the message of modern society, which seems to say, "It's our determination to do something that gives it legitimacy and relevancy. Salvation, well, just don't worry about it.

It's hard to believe. Seventh-day Adventist teachers and pastors proclaiming a God of their own design, preaching do-it-yourself righteousness, that bears little or no resemblance to Seventh-day Adventism.

A few days ago I received this little sheaf of papers containing a report from heartbroken parents for children who had lost their faith attending a Seventh-day Adventist college. Former students, summarizing some of their Bible classes wrote,

"The concept of absolute truth was negated totally by some lecturers and downplayed by others. Rightness and wrongness were replaced by believing what is right according to presuppositions and culture. I never saw any instruction concerning the power and validity of the Three Angels' Messages."

"I rarely received any positive instruction concerning the sanctuary message. The investigative judgment was moved from 1844 to just before the second coming. The thought of remanancy was almost completely removed."

"Most of the scholars quoted from some evangelical churches. While the use of such authors is good, there was little use of Adventist scholars, except maybe to show their errors."

I know, and want to assure you, that most Seventh-day Adventist pastors and Seventh-day Adventist teachers are solid Seventh-day Adventists. They preach it and they teach it. But it is not popular nor is it "politically correct" in much of the world to deal with those who feel perfectly comfortable undermining the beliefs of those to whom they are called to serve.

Ministers and teachers are not called to preach or teach their own ideas. We are called to hold the Word of God high without question. And if preachers and teachers cannot do that, after prayerfully searching the scriptures for the foundations of Seventh-day Adventist beliefs, integrity and honesty demands they resign. They have no right to undermine, from the pulpit or classroom, the faith of those to whom they have been called to minister.

What that pastor -- or you or I -- think is irrelevant. Does God's Word or His will or the truth as it is in Jesus vanish at the command of this pastoral magician? Of course not. God's authority as manifested through His Word is unchanging. In spite of the pastor's invitation to create a "designer god" and "do-it-yourself-righteousness," the purpose of worship and fellowship is to bring together those who are searching for God's will, not those who search for justification to do their own will.

The church is not a place where we come to find mutual comfort and anesthesia to give us peace of mind. We have to define hope and assurance and peace in the context of a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

We cannot claim to hold the Bible as the authoritative Word of the Sovereign of the Universe and then in our worship of Him:

Seventh-day Adventist ministers must give heart-penetrating, soul-searching messages from the living Word of the Living God. Such preaching is what leads people to the foot of the cross.

And lastly:  Our message will remain relevant if we remember that. . . .

5. The Bible, not sociology, motivates us for world mission.

Making disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only reason the church exists. Our commission comes from the Master Himself:  "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Mt. 28:19, 20, NIV).

Our mission has not changed.  "We [still] believe that God has given this church a unique end-time assignment: to proclaim the three angels' messages of Revelation 14, including 1) the arrival of the judgment in the context of the everlasting gospel, 2) the importance of keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and 3) the imminent return of Jesus" (We Still Believe, Pacific Press, 1994, p. 51).

I call on you as leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be faithful to the Christ of the Bible and global proclamation of the gospel. Perhaps the Bible is under attack today because we haven't lived it. We've studied it, debated it, interpreted it, argued over it, preached from it, bludgeoned each other with it, quoted it, read it, memorized it -- but we just haven't lived it. I haven't lived it.

The Bible says we're to  "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. That Each of you should not only look to your own interests, but also to the interests of others" (Phil. 2:3,4 -NIV).

What a high standard! We consider it "natural"to protect our regional, national, organizational or institutional, or departmental interests. Could it be this is a reason we expend almost all of our human and financial resources to care for our own needs instead of those who have never heard the gospel message? Can we look our Savior in the eyes and say that we're truly looking out for the interests of others?

IV. THE TEST FOR SDAs

The test on Scripture for Seventh-day Adventists is simply this: Is the Bible going to be the authoritative means by which God communicates to us and through which we can find a saving relationship with Him that transforms my life?

Beware of several basic counterfeits:

All these aberrations exist within our Church. Some believe and even teach or preach the Bible is the Word of God only if you believe it is. In other words, I decide whether there is a God and if the Bible is His Word. So if the teachings of scripture conflict with what I want to believe or do, I decide that it isn't relevant much less authoritative. I do what I please. In other words, I set myself up as God.

The doubt and skepticism leveled at the Word of God is more often an unwillingness to do what we know God's Word says we ought to do. Ellen White put it this way:  "Disguise it as they may, the real cause of doubt and skepticism, in most cases, is the love of sin. The teachings and restrictions of God's word are not welcome to the proud, sin-loving heart, and those who are unwilling to obey its requirements are ready to doubt its authority. In order to arrive at truth, we must have a sincere desire to know the truth and a willingness of heart to obey it. And all who come in this spirit to the study of the Bible will find abundant evidence that it is God's word, and they may gain an understanding of its truths that will make them wise unto salvation (Steps to Christ, 111).

Jesus -- the living Word of God -- is coming again. If we plan to receive the Living Word when He comes, we must receive His written Word today.

V. CONCLUSION

At Independence Hall in Philadelphia, guides show visitors a printed copy of the Declaration of Independence and suggest they see the original at the Archives in Washington because, as one explained, "The ink is fading and there is nothing anyone can do about it."

What about the church -- you and me? Are the principles, values, and beliefs of the Word of God fading from our day-to-day experience?

There may be nothing scientists can do about the fading ink of the Declaration of Independence except to try to retard the process, but there is still something Christians can do to get the word of God out from between the covers of our Bibles and into our hearts.

As H L Hastings wrote:  "The hammers of the infidels have been pecking away at this book for ages, but the hammers are worn out, and the anvil still endures. If the book had not been the book of God, men would have destroyed it long ago. Emperors and popes, kings and priests, princes and rulers have all tried their hand at it; they die and the book still lives." (H.L. Hastings, quoted in Receiving the Word, by Samuel Koranteng-Pipim, [Berrien Springs, Michigan, 1996], p. 46)

My brothers, my sisters, God has entrusted to us His Word. I invite you, charge you, to lift high the holy Word of God. You are responsible before God that you not only preach the Word and teach the Word and live the Word. Many of you have been elected by your constituents and who now hold you accountable for what happens in the pulpits and in the classrooms. And God holds you responsible-not just the constituents.

I want to challenge you. No, I beg of you, never ever allow God's Word to be undermined in the area for which you have been charged with responsibility. And remember, every revival in the history of Christianity has been accompanied by scriptural preaching and you will not have biblical preaching unless you first have biblical teaching.

So this evening before the ink fades, I want to invite you to hold high the Word of God. If you will commit yourself unreservedly, even though it will not be politically correct, but if are willing to hold yourself unreservedly to that standard, I invite you to stand with me tonight. Shall we pray.

Copyright © 1997 by R S Folkenberg