On the Street on the Christian 7th-Day Sabbath

Christ, let me be sure of my salvation; it's the only thing I've got. These words came to mind after I had spent the first hours of the Sabbath, not like a happy hermit in my home but out among the masses strolling along on a mild Floridian night.

Anything is Posible

This is the first real post from my non-smart phone. Now I can blog on the go. God, thanks for this small but useful miracle.

Science Fiction Messiah

This blog post is not about any science fiction messiah, per se,  though the most famous of SciFi messiahs does come to mind. I'm referring to Muad'Dib aka Paul Atreides from the classic novel, Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert. More recently popular culture has given us Thomas A. Anderson (alias Neo) from the Matrix film trilogy. For decades the world has been fascinated by, perhaps, the most famous of SciFi messiahs, i.e., Kal-El (alias Superman) from the planet Krypton. Humans, by nature, need messiahs at every stage of their development.

What if a new real-world messiah would appear in our midst? I'm not talking about an anti-Christ type of messiah, and, of course, he would not take the place of the quintessential messiah, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Would this theoretical messiah one day be reading a secret text, or praying to God, or walking among us and, suddenly, the awareness that (s)he was a new 21st century messiah would dawn on him or her? It would be wonderful to have a female messiah, for a change. This line of questioning also applies to potential new genuine prophets after the biblical tradition. Examples that come to mind throughout history are the Buddha, Mohamed, Joseph Smith and Ellen G. White. How did these individuals realize that they were the genuine article and not just imagining things. Perhaps a test of their worth is that they helped found important world religions. In contrast, those who imagine themselves to be prophets or messiahs, and contribute very little to world history that is also beneficial, can be sure that they are probably wasting their time, and ours, and would do better to seek another vocation.

If a modern prophet or messiah is out there, please make yourself known as soon as possible. The world would be in a better shape with your ministry in place.

Death of My Personal Computer

Dear friends, it pains me to inform you that my beloved PC of eight years has gone to meet its cybernetic maker somewhere in the Matrix where all "dead ghosts in the machine" go when they expire. For that reason I will attempt to blog from my non-smart cell phone as it has unlimited data usage though it features a lousy browser. If the next couple of months produce very succinct posts it is because the 9 pad keypad is slower than entropy when inputting text. I may enjoy the challenge of tightening my prose beyond belief. God bless. Thank you for your patronage.

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.

Adventist Futurist Blog Begins

Adventist Futurist, a new blog devoted to Adventist Futurism, was launched on August 14, 2010. The first post states that the purpose of "Adventist Futurist, is to collect, organize and coordinate past, present and future articles regarding Adventist Futurism." Another reason for this new blog is to trace, when possible, the origins and influences of Adventist Futurism." The blog header specifies that the blog will concentrate on futurology, futurism, science, aesthetics, ethics, space exploration, cybernetics, and other forward-thinking areas of study.

Macrolife, Space Colonization & Adventist Futurism

Adventist Futurists and their supporters may soon be in a unique historical vantage point and, with planning, can continue to be at history's cutting edge for many years to come. Adventists are growing at a healthy rate and, within the foreseeable future, will be at a unique juncture in human history as a force to be reckoned with as trend setters. The following is one of the vehicles that Adventist Futurists can utilize to effectively shape history on a larger scale than they have previously impacted it.

First of all it's important to note that Macrolife is based on real science. Macrolife is the vision of Dandridge MacFarlan Cole who "saw the human race as being at a turning point, corresponding to the adolescence of an individual, in which humanity would either destroy itself or come to a collective state of maturity and relative stability." [1] Additionally, Cole "was known especially for promoting the idea of colonizing the asteroids, or 'planetoids' as he argued they should more properly be called. The planetoids could be hollowed out, or actually inflated to create a bubbleworld with habitable space on the inside. The resulting space arks could orbit within the solar system, or be sent out on interstellar expeditions." [2] For a significant update of Cole's prescient vision consult the link below titled Islands in Space: The Challenge of the Planetoids, the Pioneering Work of Dandridge M. Cole. [3]

Some may not see what Macrolife has to do with the gospel commission to preach the good news that Jesus Christ died, rose again, and is returning to rescue those he loves from a dying world. Traditionalists focus on Christ's immanent return which Adventists have been hoping for since 1844. If, and this is not meant disrespectfully, Christ does not return by 2044, the fact that 200 years will have elapsed since Adventists started looking for Christ's return should force another assessment as to his delay. If Christ's coming can be delayed 200 years, it is not inconceivable that it could also be delayed another 100 or 200 years. What am I getting at? Humanity is capable right now, on a limited scale, of beginning the move into other worlds. Humanity lives in space right now, on a limited scale, on the International Space station. With the proper resources and vision, it can be on its way to making Macrolife a reality by 2044.

Christians are very far geographically today from whence they originated. It would have been astounding for early Christians, who did not conceive of a round and far-flung world, to envision the full extent of the Earth and how far Christianity would travel in the next 2,000 years. Christianity has even transcended the Earth itself as there, no doubt, have been astronauts who believed, and continue to believe, in Christ Jesus as their savior. Who is to say that this Earth is the limit of where Christians and their supporters can live and still await Christ's return.

References:

1. "Extraterrestrial Colonies," Navigation, No. 7, Summer-Autumn 1960, p. 85.
2. Dandridge MacFarlan Cole
3. Islands in Space: The Challenge of the Planetoids, the Pioneering Work of Dandridge M. Cole

Related posts:

Noah's Interstellar Ark, Future Worlds, Creating an Ideal World, Christianity 3001 A.D. Adventist's New Horizons, Adventist Futurism

Seeking Jesus at Any Cost

I've known Jesus Christ for most of my life. Correction: I've known about Jesus Christ for most of my life. Christ Jesus never really made personal sense until the age of 17 when I had what I refer to as my first spiritual revival. My first baptism had occurred at the age of 11. All my friends had been baptized a year or months before I finally made my decision. It makes me wonder how the pastor could have baptized me when I answered his question this way: I want to be baptized because I want to go to heaven. He smiled and said I can't remember what, but since I had shown up at the pre-Baptism classes Sabbath after Sabbath, he thought it would do no harm to baptize me. I can't say I understood what baptism really meant. All I can remember is how I shivered in my wet baptismal gown as the air-condition blasted the changing room where all the other men, teens and young boys changed into warm, dry clothes. I seemed to be paralyzed with wonder and awe as I sat immobile in that makeshift dressing room which was the scene of perhaps the largest baptism I have ever been a witness to.

My seventeenth summer and its new-found consecration to Christ started what was to be a life-saving span of years for me when I really did become a new person. Nevertheless, personal problems took their toll and five years later I slid into the slipstream of young adulthood with catastrophic results.

Two years later the hedonism of New York City's underground clubs and above-ground temptations left me cold and I headed back to church and my second major revival replete with my first rebaptism. This time I really had something to repent of instead of the vague mini-sins of early childhood and its simple reasons for seeking baptism. In spite of being reintegrated into the fold of believers I never felt that I was an accepted member of the family of Christ. Some church members made me welcome, others did not. Nevertheless, I persisted as I had nowhere else to go.

Five years later, I had found a new maturity as an adult and had found a more rational approach to living my life which unfortunately led me further and further away from the Christian faith though not entirely. I could not ever risk not praying or asking for the gift of the Holy Spirit. My prayers were probably not heart felt, but they comforted me with the realization that I kept on saying them and that they helped me in some way. When troubles more acute than any I had ever experienced threatened to literally end my life, it was God's favor and mercy and the words of Psalms I had learned as a child that kept me from going insane and losing all hope.

Twenty years later I mercifully experienced my third spiritual revival and--yes, my second rebaptism. I had been told that one rebaptism was a serious thing, indeed, and that it seldom was necessary or should be entered into with great purpose or need, but a third rebatism was almost unheard of though I'm told that there are others who have been rebaptized more times than they have changed the make and model of their car. As five years came and went I felt relieved that this time the third time was for good.

Impatience with unfulfilled expectations threw me into experimental and foolish attempts at empowerment five years later. Five years later is where I am right now. Through all the challenging and perplexing changes I have been experiencing for most of this year, I am grateful and amazed that I continue to read my Bible every morning and most evenings along with the Spirit of Prophecy. In spite of old and new temptations jumping in and out of my life for half a year now, I still continue praying, waiting, holding on for dear life, and trying to make sense of the complicated Christian I have been for most of my self-aware life. The very fact that I have a desire to document all three major spiritual revivals and intervening crises of my life, is a miracle. You see I was supposed to have died at 17 on a twisting, wet and dark highway where the friend I was sitting next to died at 14.

God must have a mysterious purpose for my kaleidoscopic life. I am still waiting to find out what that elusive purpose might be.

How to Find a Near-Perfect Spiritual Group Experience

Imagine a group where everyone feels part of the group even when they are not. It is the main purpose of the group to welcome each new and continuing member. Every effort is made to address each participant's needs. Some may think it is too intrusive for the Adventist Futurism Fellowship to be so concerned with every need a member or visitor might have. For these individuals this concern about too much intrusiveness is also perceived as a valid need.

The first time one enters through the doors into an Adventist Futurist Fellowship seminar one wonders why no one had ever alerted him or her before to the outstanding cornucopia of benefits that one finds when one is welcomed into this unique group. Some find this somewhat elusive knowledge of the group as having a quasi-Gnostic quality in that knowledge of this group seems like--though is not in reality--an awareness or perception that is only available to the initiated or chosen few. That is not the case at all. What then is the source of this esoteric quality that renders this group almost invisible to the public-at-large?

The fellowship of the Adventist Futurists, or the initiation into Adventist Futurism and all its tantalizing benefits is that no one--or very few at any rate--can find information about the Adventist Futurists as one would when searching for similar groups. Some claim that they have found easy entry into the society of Adventist Futurists when what they stumble upon is one of the illusory doors that are meant to keep out the merely curious.

Only those who are dead-set on finding this once-in-a-lifetime experience and fellowship will ever find it. It is not understood by some why entry into the almost esoteric society is made so difficult. If the benefits of the Adventist Futurists are as valuable as are reported by those who have once participated, but for some reason, did not remain, then why the difficulty in gaining access into this quintessential group?

The answer may never be completely known. However, it appears that the commitment that each member of the Adventist Futurists has for each of his brothers and sisters is so complete--if one can classify the endeavor to fulfill each participant's every need as an attempt to confer completeness in this life--is taken so seriously, that only the true devotee can ever find and enter into this exquisite group of people.

I myself was serendipitously welcomed into the camaraderie of the Adventist Futurists some time in the recent past, but took a wrong step once inside and thought it preferable to venture outside the group and find my own way in the world. It is my earnest desire to once again--if they will accept me--gain entry into the beneficent care of the Friends of Adventist Futurism.

It is my hope that you too will somehow find your way into the indescribable society where each need is almost anticipated before it is fully expressed.

Redefining God

If God is sometimes perceived by some unbelievers, as well as believers, as not being as good as we'd like him to be, then we have to be as good as we think he should be. Sometimes we attribute to God partial blame for the unpleasant experiences we see all around us, e.g., suffering, death, hunger, poverty, etc. While it is true that he doesn't cause these terrible things, he allows them since he could prevent them if he wanted to. Or he could have avoided all of them by not creating the world and humanity in the first place.

I wouldn't save the entire human population--the good with the evil--if I were God, but I'd give them a million life times to make a decision in my favor. If after a million life times they still would not want to love me, I'd give them a million more chances. At some point they would tire out of having to do it all over again, and they would throw up their hands and say, "Okay, you win, I'm on your side, as well." 

On the other hand, I'd be unfeeling, in a sense, to allow someone who made some truly horrific mistakes in his or her lifetime, e.g., Hitler, Stalin, Nero, etc., to live again and again, with the possibility that they might well make the same kind of mistakes time after time. Perhaps there is some benevolence after all in letting individuals only live once and make a choice for good or evil.

On the other hand, I would never destroy what I have created. It would be an admission that I had made a mistake in creating mankind in the first place. And, of course, we know that God does not make mistakes. Otherwise he would not be God.

Or perhaps there are other explanations like the traditional Great Controversy theme that Joseph Bates developed and Ellen White wrote about in the book of the same name. In that explanation as to why there exists good and evil in this world, it boils down to man possessing freedom of choice. 

Another factor put forth in the Great Controversy theme is that the other created intelligences in heaven and other worlds need to know that God is a God of love and who will not destroy those he's created in his image. He provided a way out for those who rebelled against him by coming and suffering in their place the death that should have been theirs at a great risk to himself. God, in the person of Jesus Christ, could have failed in his mission to live a sinless life in place of sinful humanity. Had he failed it would have been an imaginable disaster on a cosmic scale:  the very creator of the universe doomed to eternal oblivion for violating his own moral law. Few mention this unthinkable potential result of Christ's sacrifice in becoming God with Us.

Other explanations as to why we live in an imperfect world have, no doubt, been put forward by philosophers, theologians and scientists, and by other individuals who are perplexed by the inconsistencies of life as we see it.

In spite of these observations, I still choose to live my life with a desire to know God and to seek his face. It's better than looking at reality through totally humanistic eyes.