Shocked by hurtful sentiments
Colleen, I just wanted to express my heartfelt sympathy towards Dale, Richard, and yourself for the harsh, unloving comments you received in relation to current or future illnesses in the “We Got Mail” section of Proclamation!.
I was so shocked to read the letter which you answered calmly and eloquently. The sentiments expressed by the writer are very hurtful.
As you said in your very polite response, Jesus made it clear that illness is not a reflection on any sins committed.
I sadly know of several Adventists who (even though they observed the seventh-day Sabbath) have, sadly, suffered with cancer or strokes and died in their 40’s or 50’s, thus demonstrating that the claims in the letter are unfounded.
Romans 3:11 makes it clear that “no one is righteous no not one”, and also in Ephesians 2:9 it says that we should not boast about what we have done.
I pray for the writer of the letter and for Dale, Richard and you.
—VIA EMAIL
Invoking Jesus without talking about Him
I just listened to this week’s podcast, and once again, it was very good.
Right at the end you said something that really “clicked” with me. You were talking about streaming the LLU church service and mentioned how it is strong on social justice without much gospel.
Just last week as I overheard a Friday evening 3ABN (or possibly It Is Written) talk from the other room, I noticed that their favorite Friday evening subjects are 1. the sabbath, 2. state of the dead, and 3. “disproving” the rapture. I took notes on the latest one which was trying to disprove the rapture, and at the end, I summed up my observations of two characteristics of these speakers: 1. they talk fast, refer to Bible verses usually taken out of context while just assuming they support their premise, and 2. as you observed in the podcast, I noticed that they mention Jesus—a lot!—but rarely talk about Him. His name is invoked to give weight and support for their opinions, but I rarely hear them actually talking about Jesus or what He did for us.
It was just my observation, but I find it encouraging to hear that you have heard the same things. It isn’t just my biased opinion.
Thanks again for the podcasts and all your teaching.
—VIA EMAIL
How would you address these questions?
I received these questions from someone attending my online Bible study. How would you address them?
- I’m a former Adventist. I wanted to know about the throne of God because today, Jesus is at the Father’s right hand. How is He there if the three are one?
- In the case of the conception of Jesus by the Virgin Mary, she found herself pregnant with the Holy Spirit who is also Jesus. Could it be Jesus himself who impregnated Mary?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: It’s really hard to answer some of these questions to people who don’t grasp One Being expressed in Three Persons. Furthermore, that mystery is not fully explainable. It is, rather, BELIEVED, and in believing every word of Scripture, the confusion is resolved even if the answers aren’t clear.
So, as to the Father’s right hand, I would say first of all that God is One in substance. Exactly how there are Three persons but only one Being we are not told, but we are told that of those three, Jesus has taken a human body. The “right hand” expression in Scripture is an anthropomorphic phrase used to describe the power and strength of God. It doesn’t mean God literally has a physical arm—only the Lord Jesus has a physical body since His incarnation. But God’s “right hand” is the phrase designating His power and authority—and the resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus sits at His Father’s right hand, meaning that, as the Lamb who has paid for all human sin, He reigns over His enemies with all the power of God at His command until His enemies are abolished (see 1 Cor. 15:23–28). He will destroy all enemies who oppose God with all the power and authority of God.
At the same time, Jesus’ substance (His attributes and His spirit—Jn. 4:2)—are one with the Father and the Spirit, but the three Persons have different roles. The Father sent the Son to be the incarnate sacrifice for sin. The Father and the Son send the Spirit to indwell and empower believers. Jesus reigns and rules until all His enemies are abolished under His feet—and then He hands over the kingdom to the Father so that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:24–28). I don’t fully understand that, but that is what is said.
The writer sounds as if she or he might be thinking of the Trinity in a modal fashion, that God is One Spirit who expresses Himself in various manifestations depending upon the current need. This idea is not supported in Scripture. Gabriel clearly said that the Holy Spirit would come upon Mary, and we have to believe the words to mean just what they say. We see at Jesus’ baptism that the three Persons were all present together: the Lord Jesus rising from the water, the Holy Spirit manifesting as a dove resting on Him, and the Father’s voice declaring Jesus’ identity as His beloved Son. They are not the same person. They are three, yet One. Jesus did not impregnate Mary. We do not understand the incarnation any farther than Scripture explains it, and we have to accept the words of the Bible just as they are written without trying to redefine them. The more we believe what the words actually SAY, the more consistent Scripture is within itself, and the more clear reality is to us. Scripture reveals that the Holy Spirit would come upon Mary, and Jesus was her baby. We believe this revelation without trying to redefine it. Further, we learn that this whole miracle was God’s will. He sent His Son, and the Holy Spirit was the means of this pregnancy.
It does seems interesting to me that when we are born again, we receive the eternal resurrection life of the Jesus and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit—and He was sinless and spiritually alive from conception. Being fundamentally born of the Spirit is the thing true believers have in common with the Lord Jesus. We are not God’s only begotten sons, but we are made alive by the intimate presence of the Holy Spirit through belief in the Son.
Hebrews 2:11 says, “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.”
Jesus was made in Mary when the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. And of course one cannot separate the Trinity; the Trinity was fully involved, but we are not told HOW these things “work”. We are simply told that they ARE.
I think your writer may understand these things more fully as he/she grasps that he is a spirit living inside a body, and his/her spirit is either dead in sin or alive in Christ. When that reality becomes clear, the mysteries of the incarnation and ascension become less confusing even though not fully understood.
- We Got Mail - October 31, 2024
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