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BURNE-Jones,_Edward_Days_of_Creation_(First)_1870-1876

It’s An Angel Speaking

 

Adventists Listen Again
to  the First Angel

by Jack Hoehn

BURNE-Jones,_Edward_Days_of_Creation_(First)_1870-1876

And I saw another angel

Heaven has many messengers, Seventh-day Adventists are surely one of them
and this is our charter, this is our mission.

Flying in the midst of heaven

We are to fly in the middle, not too high, not too low,
not too right, not too left,
in the middle with a ministry of reconciliation,
or bringing together,
of common ground.

Having the everlasting gospel

The good news we have is not to be dependent on Darwin or Newton or Einstein or Hubble.
It is also not dependent Luther, Calvin, Dwight L. Moody or Ellen G. White.

To preach to those who dwell on the earth—

All creatures that on earth do dwell need to give Him praise.

To every Nation

This news is for Islamic nations, Buddhist nations, Confucian nations,
Hindu nations, Catholic nations, Protestant nations, Communist nations, Socialist nations, Capitalist nations, big nations, little nations, every nation.

Tribe, Tongue, and People.

Our message must be global, universal, ecumenical, trans-cultural,
trans-philosophical, trans-doctrinal, trans-theoretical.

Saying with a loud voice

This truth dare not be whispered, hidden, buffered, silenced by disputable detail,
personal interpretations, and minority opinions.
It needs to be a loud, bold, universal truth
that can be heard on front pages everywhere.

Fear God and Give Glory to Him–

Withdraw glory from chance, randomness, and purposelessness.
Withdraw fear of meaningless, hopeless insignificance
and replace it with universal awe for the Creator.

For the Hour of His Judgment has come

There is now a tipping point, a pivot of history, everything depends
on one broad, universal, trans-cultural, widely acceptable fact.

And Worship Him

(Please church, It does NOT say worship WHEN, it says Worship HIM.)

Who made

(The angel does not ask humans to worship HOW God made.
It demands no vote on WHEN God made
only WHO made.)

Heaven and Earth, the Sea and Springs of Water.

Heaven’s 1st Angel’s Message is a broad, not a narrow interpretation of Creation. It is a truth intended to bring together mankind’s diversity of opinion on one central fact:
God is your Creator.
The angel mentions nothing about the days of creation, nothing about the method of creation, nothing about the chronology of creation, only the fact of creation.
If Adventist are to be bearers of the first angel’s message, we need to have something to say loudly to every university, every scientist, every political party, every nationality,
every theory of creation: God did it. Worship Him with us.
Come from your Friday mosques, come from you Sunday cathedrals, and join on the universal Sabbath made for mankind, with Jewish sisters and brothers, united not in science, not on chronology, not over methods of Creation, or one interpretation of Scripture.
United in universal worship of the Creator, irrespective of science,
excluded from this grand program of common worship
only by unwillingness to agree—God did it
.
The “fear of the Lord” is not the end of wisdom,
it is the beginning of wisdom.
United in universal Creator worship, there remains much room for honest science,
careful exegesis, thoughtful coordination of the facts of science with the truths of revelation.
Each theory of how and when God created will have to bend and learn from each other.
But please Adventist church, don’t tie down the wings of the mighty angel,
don’t muffle its voice of universal unity,
by a narrowing or restriction
of the grand truth of Creation
to one narrow
opinion on its
timing and
duration.
Re-open the doors to Adventism by keeping our fundamental belief on creation inclusive
and open to all willing to worship God as our Creator.
(Reprinted with permission of the editor from ADVENTIST TODAY print magazine, Summer 2015, page 52.)
Illustration from Edward Burne-Jones, Days of Creation (First), 1870-76,  Original in the Harvard University, Fogg Art Museum.  This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license..

 

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