Editorial: Our Only Security
I was brought up not to ask questions.
There were nine of us in the family. We were supposed to do what we were told in order to keep that large household ticking: stay quiet, obey, and keep the peace.
Our church had a youth group, but we were not allowed to take part—it was too liberal. So our family grew up in our own bubble. This was part of our mission, my parents said: presumably, people around us could see we were different and perhaps be curious about what we believe.
There is genuine security in knowing what to believe, clinging to black-and-white answers to every question, and staying safe within the walls of your faith. It feels like if you follow a check list of dos and don’ts, maybe that will ensure your salvation.
But we weren’t taught how to think for ourselves, or how to question authority safely.
Eventually the natural progression of life takes you outside of the safe walls of family and church. As teenagers, the rules began to feel restrictive. Eventually everyone has to create their own check list and find answers to life’s questions for themselves.
I confess, reading articles published in Adventist Today that question those old safe assumptions shakes me up sometimes. For a brief moment, I want to hurry back to the safe certainty of my childhood, the black-and-white answers. I want to check off the entries in the salvation checklist, which back then made me feel so secure.
I then remind myself of Mark 12:30-31: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
The security of salvation is in Jesus—not doctrines, not churches, not rules, not dos and don’ts, no matter how simple and safe they seem. In the end it is Jesus, and Jesus alone.
Annet Johnston
AT Operations Manager
13 July 2024
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