Lesson 4: “Sharing God’s Mission”
COLLEEN TINKER
Problems with this lesson:
- Abraham is represented as an example of great love for his neighbors and as an intercessor for the salvation of Sodom and Gomorrah.
- The lesson says that readers must intercede for their friends, but their free will might decide against salvation no matter what one does.
- The effect of the lesson is to guilt readers into more intense mission-driven prayer and proselytizing.
Abraham seems to be the author’s choice for an archetype of being on God’s mission. This week the lesson focuses on Genesis 18 where Abraham entertains three strangers, one of whom turns out to be the Angel of the Lord, and where God tells Abraham He will destroy Sodom for its wickedness.
Sodom was the city where Abraham’s nephew Lot lived with his family. The city’s evil was widely known, but Abraham, worried about Lot, asked the Lord if He would destroy the city if it had 50 righteous people. When the Lord said no, Abraham continued asking, counting down by fives and tens, until the Lord said He would not destroy the city if it had even ten righteous people.
Abraham realized that the city was desperately wicked, and when he reached ten, he stopped asking.
The lesson compares this questioning of God’s intentions with intercessory prayer—a comparison that the text doesn’t support. In none of his questions about Sodom does Abraham ever plead with God not to destroy the city or beg Him to cause the people to repent. He doesn’t intercede for them!
Instead, what the story reveals, is Abraham questioning God’s decision. He seems unable to believe that there could be so few righteous in Sodom. Here is what Genesis 18:24–26 says:
“Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to put to death the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justice?”
So Yahweh said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account” (Genesis 18:24-26 LSB).
Here is what the lesson says on page 46:
Through his love, Abraham hoped to save all the people in these cities, not only the righteous. Certainly, Abraham knew just how evil and wicked the people were who lived there. Who knows what stories he had heard regarding those people and their practices? And from what we know about them, as revealed in the next chapter, with the sordid story of Lot and the mob outside his house (see Gen. 19:1–11), these were very evil people.
Yet Abraham, knowing for himself the love of God, appealed to Him in their behalf. Abraham knew that human beings always can return to God in repentance. To Abraham, saving the inhabitants of these cities would give them a chance to repent.
In the end, Abraham based his request on what he personally knew about God’s love for human beings. He himself had a great love for sinners, and he knew that as long as there is life, there is hope for salvation.
On the contrary, in context Abraham was struggling with God. God did not change His mind as Abraham questioned Him; in the end, Abraham came to see that God IS just, and He would not unjustly destroy the cities. There were so few righteous people in them that He would rescue one family and destroy all the others.
In the end, Abraham saw and understood. He was not interceding; the lesson’s author simply imposes a “missional” attitude onto Abraham for the sake of having the moral authority to use Scripture to convince the Adventist readers to get busy and pray and proselytize.
The actual account of the Lord and Abraham reveals the opposite of what the lesson’s author attempts to portray. God was patient with Abraham as He revealed to him that His purposes and omniscience were just. He patiently allowed Abraham to talk through the Lord’s criteria, and in the end, Abraham ceased asking and the Lord was finished speaking.
Furthermore, the lesson teaches that we are obligated to pray always for “our mission”. We must pray that people will be converted. Nevertheless, those people can choose to refuse God. It’s a double-bind situation. It is implied that the Adventist is in disobedience if he or she isn’t continually interceding, yet even God is limited by each person’s free will. As it says on page 48:
The small number of residents of Sodom who were saved has implications for our own mission: not everyone will be saved. We would like everyone to accept Jesus and His plan of salvation, but each person has free will. Our task is to invite as many people as possible to make the choice for Jesus. While we are carrying out our mission, God assists us through the Holy Spirit, but He will never go against the will of anyone. Free will means that, in the end, no matter what we do, no matter how much we pray, salvation comes down to each individual’s choice.
And there is the hopeless reality of Adventism: we have to pray and share Adventism with those who aren’t Adventist, yet God never “goes against the will of anyone”. In the end, each person’s free will has the last word. Salvation all comes down to each individual’s free choice.
The Bible, however, says that salvation is entirely of the Lord. He uses us and asks us to make disciples, and the news of the Lord Jesus and His finished work is our witness. Yet HE takes responsibility for each person’s salvation. He is not limited by “free will”. He makes it possible for each person, born dead in sin, to hear the gospel and to believe. We do not open others’ eyes.
Each person is responsible for the decisions he makes, but salvation is of the Lord. It is a mystery we cannot explain—but salvation is not a product of free will.
Jesus said,
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44 LSB).
“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out: (John 6:37 LSB).
This lesson is typical Adventism, “guilting” the reader into doing more to make converts, reinforcing the Adventist view that members are responsible to bring people into membership and reminding them that even God has to wait patiently for the humans to do their work before He can do His.
Once again, this lesson sees reality through a great controversy lens; God is limited by His creatures, and humans are responsible for whatever happens—even for “finishing the work” so Jesus can return.
The Bible, however, reveals a sovereign God and a finished atonement. We are able to trust Him and know that our lives are not dependent upon our flawed decisions; rather, we are in His hands. †
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