A WAY OF FINDING TRUTH

After we left the Seventh-day Adventist church in 2001, I began an online support group for former Adventists. I considered it my ministry. I saw this ministry as a hospital for the war wounded. That is not a criticism of Adventists at all. Anytime a person makes such a large change in belief it it can be traumatic for themselves as well as their families.

Most Adventists became former Adventists because they had been raised to believe that they had the truth. Adventists alone not just had the truth but lived the truth by going to church on the seventh day of the week. They had a prophetess, Ellen White, who supposedly explained the Bible and they have a Bible, the Clear Word, that clarifies scripture by translating it in accordance with Ellen White's writings.

The SDA church emphasized the Sabbath-truth to evangelize other Christians into our denomination. They preached that a true Christian must have the courage to join the remnant church even against the wishes of their family. Fiery Revelation Seminar speakers would plead for souls to have the faith to quit jobs that make one work on the Sabbath day, suffer financial depravation and humiliation and even, in the soon-coming last-days, be martyred for their faith in the Adventist message.

SDA church school teachers read mission stories during Bible class about distant villages learning the Three Angels' Message. A few children would desire to become SDA, but their parents would be so against it that they would threaten their children's lives if they believed the missionaries. Upon being lifted out of the baptismal waters, these brave parent-defying children, were shot and killed by their fathers. And one day, we SDA children would also be called upon to die for the Sabbath truth. And many of us sincerely prepared our hearts to live and die for Jesus by never, ever giving up the truth.

Adventist children were primed to be willing to follow truth no matter what, and later many would give all to follow truth if they found it outside Adventism. So the majority of former Adventists who joined our group, did so because they no longer believed the SDA church had truth and in fact, taught false doctrines.

On the other hand, there are always people who leave a denomination because they were hurt by someone in the church and it had nothing to do with truth. Our Former Adventist group had many people purging years of hurt, anger or bitterness and our Facebook page allowed them to criticize Adventism. I prayed each day for these souls that they would heal and learn that there is joy reaching out for them from heaven. I believed truth would set them free from pain.

But thank God, many former Adventists were not bitter at all and had happily moved forward to finding truth in other Protestant, Messianic, Orthodox or Catholic churches. I appreciated these formers joining with us as witnesses to others that there was light at the end of the tunnel.

Soon we had hundreds of people join, then a thousand and several hundred more.

However, the nature of Facebook is that anyone can come on to a group and many of those who came were Seventh-day Adventists, hurt, angry and bitter that there was even a Facebook page they felt was against their church. Unfortunately, they were right. When former Adventists got together to talk things out, it was anti-Adventist by its very nature. Disagreements and debates broke out about how one read the scriptures. It was a battle of truth interpretations.

As the administrator of the group, I felt it necessary to ask the Adventists to leave because our corporate scrutiny of truth confused and offended them. This was their beloved church, they would naturally see us as being hateful by pointing out how the SDA doctrine was not correct. Then, many former Adventists pled with me to allow the debates to continue because it was helping them heal. Many of them did not have the time to sit down and figure out just what was wrong with Adventism and these debates clarified it.

So I allowed it. And mostly I was the main person debating the Adventists. I hated it and it grieved me because I knew something was wrong with Christians battling each other—competing over who had the truth. We could hurt each other, dismiss each other, judge each other, abuse and desert each other if truth was at stake. Above all, individual Christians had to protect "truth" because we evidently thought God was unable to do it, or at least we thought God had given each of us a special duty to protect truth. We all wanted to be the bold and faithful Martin Luther standing against the world to defend God's truth.

It took a huge toll on my health. If you think that is an exaggeration, please contact my husband and children. I sincerely didn't know what to do because I was seeing great fruit from our ministry, but also I was daily witnessing and being a part of an online battle that left a few even more wounded. Something was wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Then after becoming Catholic, I was speaking to a priest about our online former Adventist ministry. Without knowing much, he was concerned and
said I needed to quit any ministry that did not bring Christians together in unity and love.

WHAT? My heart sped up in panic as I pondered his words. Did the priest not realize that the entire "ministry" of Adventism is to break apart the bonds of Christian unity by drawing Christians from their churches into the SDA church? The entire raison d'etre for Adventism was to give the Third Angels' Message—the Adventist gospel to the world— that everyone should recognize Catholicism and every other Protestant denomination on the planet was apostate. They believe that anyone going to church on Sunday would one day wear the demonic sign of 666 and be lost. By its very definition, Adventism was unloving and divisive. I argued with the priest in my head, "Didn't former Adventists deserve a safe space?"

After seven years, I closed out my former Adventist Facebook, being obedient to the priest and knowing that if the priest was wrong, then the Lord would raise up another person to continue the ministry.

As I reflect back, I know the priest was right. It has taken me lots of soul searching and prayer, but I have come to a conclusion that is easily going to be misunderstood. Therefore, I beg your patience as I struggle to explain why I believe the priest was correct.

SOLA VERITAS

Many Christians have placed the cart before the horse. Many Protestants have focused exclusively on truth. Every aspect of Christianity—why we join a particular church, how we judge other Christians, how we behave—is measured only by truth. It is the reason we separate from other Christians and other churches. We divide over what we believe is correct doctrine. As if correct theology is the standard by which Christ judges us. Because of this standard, many Protestants believe that Catholics and Mormons and Adventists do not have truth, therefore, they cannot consider them Christians. Many Catholics do the same.

Hmmm, what if…. what if we began to change our way of thinking. What if we began assessing other Christian denominations not only by their truth, but also by their love? How many Christians would stand up against that measurement? While I absolutely, please sincerely understand me when I write, I do not in anyway shape or form believe we should bend to something that is not true, I do think truth is essential. However, maybe we are looking at this wrongly.

I would like to adjust a famous statement by St. Anslem of Canterbury who wrote: “For I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand.”

What if we replaced the idea of truth for understanding and faith community for belief.  The statement would then read, "I do not seek truth that I may join a church, but I join a church in order to have truth." Boy that is a scary thought for Protestants. It makes my body shiver all the way down in fright. That is so contrary and almost downright blasphemous to even think. Are Christians just supposed to be zombies—blindly following any church? If so then no one would ever leave Adventism! I know that makes no sense.

However…. let us take a moment to think about it. I am not asking in any way to give up truth. I am saying that perhaps, we cannot reach truth by simply, individually seeking it. What if Christ purposefully created humans dependent upon each other to see things correctly.  And what if God purposefully placed truth in a position that it took Christians together in community to discover it. Like each of us was looking at a small pinpoint through a fence describing and elephant standing right next to the fence. If we each describe the part we can see, we can put the pieces together to see the whole picture. The fullness of faith in found in God's community.

And this is through the supernatural gift of God's vision for each of us. For no matter how brilliant an individual is, understanding is given to us by faith and through God's grace.

The nature of truth is that it is found within unity in Christ and cannot be found outside of this unity.

The Problem of Sola Veritas

I noticed through the years that when Christians begin discussing "truth" we tend to put on our mental armor and pull out our weapons. Instead of reveling in the holy pursuit of truth, we draw back in defensive self protection because any "truth" that contradicts ours causes us to panic feeling a direct hit upon our souls. It is an existential threat, because we are our beliefs. They are our identity and disagreement feels like an arrogant aggression. Truth seems to attack. The problem is that all of us are wrong about some belief.

Because of this perhaps truth should never to be our front line of evangelization. And that is what it has become.

Let's go to scripture to test my theory. The saint and apostle who wrote most of the New Testament and who Protestants claim is the greatest expositor of faith, also wrote the following:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  …And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Perhaps this should be our map to evangelization rather than sola veritas or riding into a conversation making truth the most important of all things to give to an unbeliever. Maybe we should first give them Christ's love. Perhaps only after we are known by our patience, kindness rather than our knowledge, perhaps it is only after they know that we are not proud, but that we respect them, that we are not angry or keeping records of wrong that they will listen to our truth. Perhaps after they know we are perseveringly there for them, to protect them—trust them, then their hearts and minds will be open to hearing our truth. And isn't that the point? We want them to know truth, right? Let us bring it to them as Christ did, we must be with them, healing their sickness, casting out the demons that torment their life. Love should always soften the beaches first, for if we do not have love. NO matter how right we are….

WE HAVE NOTHING. 

Truth is not the purest form of the Cross, love is.

Please don't misunderstand. I am not saying we must say truth nicely. Love is not how sweet the wording. I am saying, first be loving. They need to see how you respect them and understand them to the point that you are willing to sacrifice what you need or want for them. In fact, you need to show them that you love them like Christ first.

And love is not a means to an end. What devastation a Christian will reek in the name of Christ if we are good to people for the purpose of evangelizing them.  That will cause people to hate Christ because Christians use love to insinuate into their lives to manipulate them. 

St. Paul said love is greater than truth. So truth is not the point. Love is. If all we ever do is show them Christ's love and we never get to teaching them truth, that is enough. Because of we bring them to Christ, He is truth. And we can trust Him.

That is what I learned from the priest.

We were arguing truth on Former Adventist Facebook. We had put the cart before the horse. And I realized as I spoke with both sides, the Adventists there were wrong, and we were wrong. Healing will not come through a battle of truths, healing will come through love. And once healing is underway, truth will come in a surprisingly easy way. For only when our hearts are opened, can our minds be reached. 

ROOTS OF MODERN FEMINISM

This is just WOW!! You go girls!

SELF EVIDENT TRUTHS, THE NATURAL LAW AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

I am doing some research and at this point I don't know who or where to continue researching for answers. (Scholars who might have the answers are too busy to answer my emails--evidently.) 

Anyone who knows anything about this or knows of a book or class to recommend, let me know. 

My questions: 

1) The American Founding Fathers stated that some things are "self-evident." Would that mean that self-evident principles are self-evident to all cultures and peoples for all time? 

2) How do "self-evident" propositions compare to the Natural Law? Would the Founding Fathers believe they are the same? Are they basically the same? Or are they very different and why?

3) Would the Ten Commandments fall under laws that are "self-evident" or the Natural Law? Why or why not? 

LONGING TO SEE WHAT YOU SEE

Since my life-altering car accident in 1997, I have had the time-luxury of immersing myself in history and Christian philosophy. I have encountered such fascinating figures as Homer, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero; Cicero being my favorite so far.

These great men of old seemed to have had an ancient, unified cry-of-the-heart for truth. Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Cicero's writings to his son, Socrates and Platos writings were profound attempts to solve the same cosmic questions of: "What is goodness?" "What is virtue and heroism?" 

Only lately have I been able to discern, from my considerable historical distance, that these men did not ask these questions as we do today. They were not being wistfully romantic or sentimental. This was a raw, existential quest to make sense of what many saw as a meaningless, hopeless life.

While they had the oracles, these philosophers' search for truth was not settled in any satisfying way by the Greco-Roman gods. Their gods were like humans: fallible, capricious, narcissistic, blaming others for their mistakes. Zeus gave men little truth or hope. All seemed chaotic and unfathomable to the ancients. Therefore these thinkers—their time, their energy and their very lives were poured out in search of the meaning of life and death. What does it mean to be human? 

We get a glimpse of this heart-rendering nihilism that had befallen the world in the question of Pilate to Jesus, "What is truth?" (John 18:38)

This encounter with the ancients has made me realize that Christ did not come into the world simply to solve the problems of the afterlife. He came as the answer to the unending fount of questions for those living during the millennia before Him. The Messiah was the answer for the world's questions. His authentic heroism stood in stark contrast to Achilles and Odysseus. His life gave meaning to existence. With His incarnation, death and resurrection, Jesus answered the heart-cry of the ancients of what is good and virtuous.

For two thousand years, we have lived within the grand framework of The Answer. Christendom built an entire civilization upon the values and teachings of Jesus. Western civilization has flourished in the rich Christian soil for so long it taints our view of history. We study the ancient struggle for truth with an entertaining romanticism. For we have the light of Christ so brilliantly surrounding us that we take it for granted and often close our eyes to truth when it makes us uncomfortable. We no longer understand the desperate struggle for meaning pre-Christ and can be presumptuous about living in the era of the answer.

Our culture celebrates our political freedom on July 4, Veteran's day, Memorial Day with mindless festivities and gluttony, forgetting that our freedoms were paid for with the incalculable sacrifices of our young men. So, too, do we bask in these days of eternal answers, made so clear by Christ, that we are no longer aware that questions--real, heartfelt questions of why--ever existed. In fact, our post-Christ, comfortable peace has entertained us into a stupor where asking such philosophical questions is considered a bore. 

Or much worse. Those who rejected The Answer fall back into the same nihilistic question of Pilate. 

Thinking themselves kindred spirits to the noble Socrates, many modern intellectuals dismiss two-thousand years of light, assuming that the philosophers of old would reject the Cross. They waste away formulating new, irrational answers to their unending existential inquiries. Yet, there is nothing similar in those who die of starvation searching for bread during a famine and those who die of starvation ignoring a banquet around them. 

Christians live and move and breathe within the living bread and the banquet of God. It is unconscionable for us who have tasted that God is good and have been nourished by Christendom to not cherish our preeminent position in time. 

Jesus has a warning for us today, "Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it." (Matt. 13:17)

Christians have the incredible honor of living after many of the great mysteries have been revealed, having been born into or chosen to walk into the Kingdom of God. The Answer should permeate everything we think and do with eternal awe and gratitude.

Is Your Religion Making You More Like Christ?

(This is written for Christian audiences who have already given their hearts to Christ and are saved (in Protestant lingo) and baptized (for Catholics.)

Some Christian denominations stress what you do (commandment-keeping or acts of charity) and other churches stress what you think and believe. Some denominations teach that prayer and Bible study are the most important things you can do strengthen your relationship with Christ. Other churches stress that if you want a closer relationship to Christ, then obey Him in: helping the poor, visiting the sick and imprisoned, giving offerings, fasting, confession and repentance, evangelization and missions.

All of these are good things. But when you do them, are they making you good? Are the things you do and think actually making you more like Christ? Really ponder this. Is your religion making you love like Christ?

If God is love, then your religion should be taking away your pride, arrogance, anger, selfishness, greed, laziness.Your faith should be bringing you into closer contact with His holiness and that affects you.

Is your religion transforming you into His love?

St. Paul writes to the people in Corinth in chapter 13 first about the importance of "agape" (charity). He lists all the supernatural fruits of the spirit: tongues, prophecy, wisdom, knowledge, and faith. However, he writes that without love all of these are NOTHING. He emphasizes this admonition with—if you give away all your possessions and give your body to be burned, without out love…you gain nothing! Ouch!

Love is even greater than faith! And if faith can save you, what amazing things can love do? What is this vital thing called love? St. Paul defines "agape" (charity/love) in the next few verses:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. …And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Ask yourself again: Is your religion giving you the graces to be patient, kind, humble, to not anger easily nor hold onto wrongs and grudges? Does your religion help you to delight in truth and protect, trust, hope and persevere?

Is your religion opening your ears and eyes and bringing you out of the stupor of sin? Is it giving you the strength and courage to humbly serve others? Is your religion lifting you out of the crippling disfunction of me-ism and calming that desire to be better than others?

I am not bashing religion at all. Because the word "religion" comes from the same root word as "ligament," religion is supposed to help us shed the shackles of enslavement to sin and make us holy enough to stand in the brilliance of Pure Love. Our belief system, our church attendance, our Bible study and prayer times are supposed to re-align and reconnect us with God. Commandments are for the purpose of helping us to be like Christ.

If what you do is not transforming you into the image of Christ and opening up your heart to both giving and receiving love, something is wrong. It may be your specific denomination, but probably it is something inside you. Perhaps you are not understanding the purpose of religion.

When I was young, my mother told me that manners were not to make one feel they are above others who do not have manners, but manners were developed carefully over time to show respect for others. If we become arrogant or resentful because we are more mannerly than those around us, we have reversed the entire reason manners were developed. Manners are unselfish acts of kindness towards others.

This is the same thing with religious rules and traditions. Commandments are to help us learn love. Prayers and fasting, Bible study, works of mercy and charity are to strip us of our pride and self-centeredness and help us to be patient and kind. Rules and works are to give us God's noble character so that we may stand before a holy God for all eternity.

Religion is to make us love like God loves.

If your faith does not do this for you, do not give up keeping Christ's New Covenant commandments, do not stop prayer and Bible study, do not stop acts of mercy and charity. Rather, rethink your motivation and attitude. Go to God and ask for His grace to change your heart. Pray that He will shower you with gratitude and praise for Him, pray that your eyes will be opened to see how much He loves you and that you may see others through His loving eyes.

Pray for radical transformation of your heart that the barriers of sin in your life will fall so that you can experience the overwhelming joy of His love and you then can overflow His love to others.

For that is what religion is all about.