Must Belief in the Second Advent of Jesus Christ Promote Passivity?

In the next few posts I will serialize a paper I wrote to address this question. In this post I will give the introduction of the paper:

The Second Advent and Passivity: A Position Paper on Eschatology

As one reads the literature produced by many who accept a literal Second Advent of Jesus Christ, one sees what I believe to be a problematic emphasis on passivly waiting and seeing God unfold what God said would happen in the Bible. In many cases there is nothing for humanity to do and the Christian simply watches with “inside information” on what will happen in the end. This kind of eschatology can promote a passivity that merely supports the status quo in the world. I believe that there will be a literal, visible Second Advent where Jesus Christ will break into human history to fully set up the Kingdom of God on this earth. However, this belief does not necessarily promote passivity or mere acceptance of the status quo. I will show that this kind of emphasis on passively waiting actually postpones the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

The Seventh-day Adventist church teaches that right now both human and divine agencies are in a work that is a pre-requisite to the Second Advent. In other words there is something that humanity, with the help of God, must do before the Second Advent can take place. In this paper, I will describe this work as bringing God?s intention for humanity. At creation, we see God?s original intention for humanity. At the Second Advent, we see God?s ultimate intention for humanity. Today in the ongoing work of Christ and the Holy Spirit, we see God seeking to implement God?s current intention for humanity.

We cannot fully describe any of God?s intentions for we don?t have a full record of creation neither do we have a full record of how the Kingdom of God will look after the Second Advent, but we can catch a glimpse. We can catch a glimpse of these intentions by appealing to ethnic tradition as exemplified in the yearnings of the slaves in their spirituals. We can catch a glimpse by theological reflection on the demands of justice and mercy. We can catch a glimpse by looking at God?s intentions in the Bible and in the doctrines and teachings of my own and other ecclesial traditions. In this paper, I will organize my reflection with three primary symbols from my ecclesial tradition that speak to God?s intention and humanities work in bringing God?s intention. My guiding purpose is to show how reflection on God?s intention can help to sidestep the possibility of passivity in light of the Second Advent.

E. J. Waggoner a Practical Theologian

The other day I was reading Christ and His Righteousness by E. J. Waggoner of 1888 fame. In it Dr. Waggoner states, “Every doctrine of the Bible is for our practical benefit, and should be studied for that purpose. I immediately thought of The Homiletical Plot by Eugene Lowery which encourages us to ask the question “What bind does a doctrine get us out of?” I like the question and have come back to it often in the past as can be shown in this post from the past.
The Homiletical Plot: The Sermon As Narrative Art Form
I will also come back to the question in the future. Answering that question will force the sermon and teaching to be practical and has the added benefit of helping the congregation to understand what good is a doctrine for daily living.

After stating that we must look for the Practical benefit Dr. Waggoner then tries to tackle the Sabbath doctrine and seeks to point us to a practical basis for understanding the doctrine. In the next couple of posts we will look at this attempt.

Benefits of Reading Ellen White?

John Nix of the Ellen White Estate gives some interesting findings about the lifestyle blessings of regular study of Ellen White. While I have no idea of the methodology of the survey, the statistics are very intresting. for example of those members who read Ellen White daily 85% stated that they had a strong relationship with Jesus Christ while 59% of those who do not read her stated this. 82% of those who read Ellen White regularly also have daily Bible study while only 47% of those who do not read her had daily study.

What does this mean? Well, there are benefits to reading Ellen White regularly. It also might suggest that in practice a lack of Ellen White reading usually manifests itself in lack of Bible reading among Adventists…And vice versa…It also might illustrate that it is not “reading” Ellen White that necessarily contributes to the legalism that so many people think is rampant in the church at the present time.