The Voice of the Holy Spirit Sang to Me in the Darkness

"Don't write about the Holy Spirit. Don't talk about him. He is too holy, too sacred, yes too dangerous, to even think about."

These words spoken long ago by some now-forgotten preacher still haunt me even five minutes ago as I prepared to start this post. For 20 years I had feared even saying the Holy Spirit's name lest he be offended in some way. Christ's warning about the finality of sinning against the Holy Spirit was taken to heart with a vengeance that amazes me now.

Six years ago this perplexing experience started to change. Let me share an experience that I have never heard anyone speak of before.

Out of boredom I started singing a Christian song I learned at 16 during a young people's weekend at Camp Berkshire in Wingdale, New York. I sang it both in Spanish and English as I walked my golden retriever, Callisto, on his long, long walks through concrete and green in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

It's important that I share the entire lyric as you will understand that it was the vehicle by which the Holy Spirit spoke to me and changed me almost against my will. I must state that I was bored out of my mind and had gotten bored with singing pop tunes on my long, long walks with Callisto. This song, however, sprang to life and wouldn't let go. It had a will of its own. I'd stop singing it and it reasserted itself.

It's a wonderful, wonderful life when you're with the Lord above./ It's a wonderful, wonderful life when you're saved by his love./ There's a joy that you never can tell and great peace with the Lord above./ As I walk with the Lord in my heart there's a song./ It's a wonderful, wonderful life. -- Author Unknown

Week after week prior to 2005 I had been singing this song out of habit. I'd sing other songs, secular songs, but no other spiritual songs at all. In late 2004 or early 2005 I noted something was happening or had already happened. Without explanation I had a new-found interest in rising early and spending 30 minutes reading a chapter or two of the gospels in the New Testament, e.g., Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I had no time to pray so I prayed on the way to work for 15-20 minutes.

After a few weeks of this I thought maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to attend church again. I hadn't attended church at all in over 15 years. For some mysterious reason I actually enjoyed going to church. More importantly I enjoyed reading the Bible, the writings of Ellen White and other Christan books. I played no Christian music CDs even though I probably had one or two in some bottom storage box--who knows where in my home. The new songs I sang in church, praise songs, were all I needed for my new phase.

Then it dawned on me that I had been touched by the Holy Spirit, almost without asking for it. I must share with you that I never stopped believing in God even though my impression of God was and still is imperfect and skewed by life's experiences. Out of guilt and to avoid psychological discomfort only, I  had continued for 20 long years to repeat the following words on most mornings as I drove to work:

If you then who are earthly know how to give good things to your children how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to you if you ask him. Luke 11:13

These words were the only contact I had with God and with the religion of my parents and I was not about to give it up just in case there really was something to the God experience, salvation, heaven, eternal life, etc. It was how I convinced myself that I still held onto the only lifeline I still had in case these were more than just pleasant words written 2,000 years ago.

Three months after this change started occurring in me I was awakened in my darkened room at 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. by a voice singing inside my  head. It awakened me from a deep sleep with the clarity of its melody. I had not sang these words in over 25 years. The voice grew louder and  louder and the sweetness of the words almost moved me to tears. These are the words the voice sang [I am translating from Spanish as the voice was in the tongue of the first five years of my life:]

The Shepherd loves his sheep with a paternal love. The Shepherd loves his flock with a love that cannot compare. The Shepherd loves his other sheep that are scattered and lost. He looks for them with great concern wherever they may be be.

Down on my knees I found myself thanking God for the first and only time I had ever experienced such a phenomenon. I was actually hearing God's voice and in song. This time I knew something was happening, had happened, that had never happened before--at least not like this. This was the God experience and it took me decades of my life to fall into it. This was not some transitory emotion. This really grabbed me and wouldn't let me go. This was God taking me by the hand and  leading me very much like how I walked with my dear Callisto and led him on his daily walks.

Life has been full of temptations, disappointments and yes, shocks to my system, for six years now. But what else can I do?

When you have been touched by God it is for life. You just don't turn around and go anywhere else.

If you've never been touched by God, repeat the lyrics of my childhood song about how this is a wonderful, wonderful life. May God also touch you and never stop touching you throughout your life.

Reflections on the Human-Divine Nature of Christ

Years ago I read that Christ had two wills: a human as well as a divine will. While on Earth, however, the divine will was present in the historical being, Jesus Christ, but it took a back seat to the extent that it did not reveal itself very often except at the transfiguration.

The same author--probably Ellen White and/or Elder John Wood of Atlantic Union College-- states that only human Christ died on the cross. The divine Christ cannot die since God cannot die. (End of reference to either White or Wood.)  How could a member of the Godhead, which is One, die without all three dying?

For argument's sake only, let's suppose human-divine Christ died and not just human Christ, died. It follows then that the Trinity died for "our God is One." If God died on the cross--and He did through Jesus Christ--then it's conceivable that He raised himself by his own power as the New Testament states. At the cross when Christ cried "my God, my God why have you forsaken me" it was because the Godhead was dying with Christ and would be resurrected with Christ. The universe had its automatic laws and could function until the divine watchman rose from the tomb three days later.

Would Gabriel, who is in the presence of God, have been temporarily in charge of heaven--if anyone really needs to be in charge God's absence?

Another matter presents itself: what would have happened if human Christ had failed the test in the wilderness with the Accuser? He probably would not have to go through with the crucifixion since his sacrifice would have been incomplete or unacceptable to God the Father. What then would have become of the human Christ? Could he have been destroyed and die as a mortal man dies? He then could have died on the cross though it seems pointless to have done so if it no longer carried cosmic significance. Or, as John Wood stated in the 1970s, human Christ would have been kept in heaven in a comatose state throughout eternity, since even human Jesus of Nazareth was Christ, nevertheless, and could not be allowed to die as a mere human man dies.

Here we get into tricky waters. Since human-divine Jesus of Nazareth couldn't die, then he was not as human as mere men since mere men who fail in life's cosmic struggle die as mere men and don't have the option to remain comatose throughout eternity. We now get back to the age-old questions about was Christ fully human and fully divine but perfectly fused together as one inseparable entity or could he, in some way, separate the human from the divine?

If you state that only human Jesus of Nazareth died and rose again while the Divine Christ, of course, would still be alive since he was a member of the Godhead then you may be able to say that Christ of Nazareth had an advantage that we don't have. We can't, of course, separate our divine nature--which is God-given and frequently not apparent as we disconnect from God the only source of divinity--from our human nature. We are only human and can only depend on God for the gift of divinity through his divine Spirit. However, this may suggest that Jesus of Nazareth was not like us, in a way. In other ways, of course, he was very much like us. Just read the gospels and you see a very human man who cried, hungered and got tired and had to sleep as you and I sleep.

Finally, it is said that Christ paid the ultimate price in sacrificing himself to save the human race. The Bible says that Christ died once for us all. It has been bothering me for years that if you die as Christ did for the human race, then rise again after three days and live eternally after that, how is that a sacrifice? When you and I sacrifice our last dollar bill so a poorer or needier person can eat while we starve temporarily, we experience real hunger, and/or eventual death. It is a sacrifice that cannot be gainsaid.

However, if you die and suffer and live again and remain alive, it presents other ramifications. Perhaps the sacrifice was in that Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, could have failed, and could have been comatose throughout eternity. That, my friend, is a big sacrifice. For a divine being to risk ceasing to be divine just to save a wayward world of created beings, is more than anyone can fathom. It truly boggles the imagination. Jesus Christ, if only his human nature, comatose throughout eternity could be looked upon as either two things:

1. A  kind of death for the divine-human entity known as Jesus Christ of Nazareth. One of your two natures would be unconscious and would remain so throughout eternity.
2. A reminder that the human side of Jesus of Nazareth had failed and in him failing, God failed in proving that a human-divine entity could succeed as Adam was supposed to have succeeded when offered the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.

Early Adventists Used Popular Songs and Set them to Sacred Words

One way of addressing this issue was to set new hymns to well known popular tunes, and early Adventist hymnals display several examples of this practice. “Land of Light” was written by Uriah Smith and first published in 1856. Smith’s hymn focused on heaven and was set to the popular secular tune “Old Folks at Home” by Stephen Foster. Smith also penned “O Brother Be Faithful” and set it to the popular tune, “Be Kind to the Loved Ones at home” by Isaac Baker Woodbury. [1]

How many times I have changed the words to songs from my youth and enjoyed--as though a secret vice--the joy that these Christianized pop songs gave me. Perhaps the earliest instance was in the mid-70s when I found a particularly transcendent sentence from Steps to Christ [2] and mysteriously started singing those words to the tune of "I've Seen All Good People" by the Progressive Rock group Yes. For me, that combination of a song by a group that had altered my reality and had introduced me to the music of Igor Stravinsky, with the much loved words from Steps to Christ will forever remind me of, perhaps, the most natural and spiritual time of my life.

References:

1. I Have Heard the Angel's Sing
2. Steps to Christ. See Chapter 9, "The Work and the Life." which contains these words: "God is the source of life and light and joy to the universe" which I adapted to the Yes song I've mentioned above.

The Evolution of Adventist Christianity

Adventism keeps adapting and changing as any living entity must. Where will it be twenty years hence? Will Adventists one day be nothing more than Sabbath-keeping Methodists? Now there's nothing wrong with Methodists, especially since Adventist pioneers were Methodists themselves. Nevertheless, there has traditionally been something outstandingly different about Seventh-Day Adventists.

In addition to observing the seventh day, Saturday, as the day of holy rest and devotion, Adventists have traditionally held beliefs that most of Christendom does not possess. Some of these major beliefs are the following:

1. The Investigative Judgement: We are all being judged according to whether we have accepted Jesus Christ as our savior and the life that results after experiencing such belief.


2. The State of the Dead: The soul is not immortal. When we die we enter soul sleep and await the resurrection of the body at the Second Coming of Christ.


3. The Sanctuary in Heaven: Christ entered the most holy place in the Heavenly Sanctuary (temple) and has been acting as intercessor in a heightened sense since 1844.


4. The Seventh Day Sabbath: The fourth commandment requires that Saturday, not Sunday, be kept holy.


5. The Spirit of Prophecy: Spirit-inspired writings did not end with the Book of Revelation. Adventists believe that the writings of Ellen G. White are inspired though are not above the Bible. The possibility of future manifestations of the prophetic gift are certainly possible, as well.

Again, Adventism is changing in different ways. For example: positive views about evolution by science professors in a few centers of higher learning though not at the official level; divorced persons are accepted as church members; in some progressive congregations gays, lesbians and transgender folk are welcomed though not necessarily accepted as members; some worship services feature Christian rock music; some congregations allow members to sport jewelry; some members attend movie theatres or see the same movies at home on their DVD players; some members don't endorse some of the distinctive doctrines mentioned above (investigative judgment, sanctuary in heaven, spirit of prophecy)

In spite of these changes in North America, Europe and Australia, Adventism continues to experience explosive growth in Brazil and the Philippines, just to name a couple, where church growth outpaces comparable groups like the Church of Latter Day Saints and Jehovah Witnesses (The Watchtower Society.) It has been suggested that in countries like Brazil and Philippines the dissemination of church publications, e.g., tracts, bible studies courses, Spirit of Prophecy books, etc., have contributed to the explosive growth in proselytes in countries in the developing world.

Like any vibrant and dynamic entity, there are developments toward or away from orthodoxy. Which strain of Adventism will triumph remains to be seen. Which would make more sense in the long run if it absorbed the other one?

Great Controversy Prophecy Is on the Verge of Taking Place

Only an avid reader of Ellen G. White's Great Controversy would find this headline in today's New York Times astounding:

Pope Urges New World Economic Order

The lead paragraph is like a swim in a cold ocean:

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday called for a radical rethinking of the global economy, criticizing a growing divide between rich and poor and urging the establishment of a “world political authority” to oversee the economy and work for the “common good.”

Another paragraph contains a reference to labor unions which Ellen G. White also was wont to attack:

Indeed, sometimes Benedict sounds like an old-school European socialist, lamenting the decline of the social welfare state and praising the “importance” of labor unions to protect workers. Without stable work, he notes, people lose hope and tend not to get married and have children.

It seems that Ellen G. White did have a window into the future after all.