Silent Witnessing at the Apple Store in SoHo (NYC)

During a self-directed walking tour of lower Manhattan (New York City) I stumbled upon the Apple Store in SoHo. Curious about what such a store could offer, and in need of a rest, I wandered into what quickly turned out to be a type of free Internet cafe. I wasn't sure how long one could use a computer so I set about to try different computers for no more than five or seven minutes.

Having not had access to a computer for almost a week, I accessed Adventist blogs I normally visit when at home in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I briefly visited progressiveadventism.com & spectrummagazine.typepad.com. I was careful to not spend more than five or seven minutes at each of the half dozen Apple computers I visited. As is my custom when visiting these sites and similar religious sites in public Internet cafes or restaurants, I left each blog on the screen as I walked away, hoping that the content might catch a curious person's attention, and hopefully expose them to either Christianity or Adventism, as the case may be. There was no way that I could subsequently find out how long anyone stayed at each of these Adventist blogs.

I then visited each of my own web sites or blogs, starting with my oldest blog, http://www.perfectfuturo.com/, so see how it would look on an Apple laptop. I then proceeded to visit the rest, but probably from the same computer. At each laptop I visited, no more than six, I left the page on the screen in case the next user in this busy showroom was vaguely curious about the pictures or titles of the blog posts. This is the probable order in which I visited the rest of my blogs:

Design your Future - Diseñe su Futuro
Desperate Christian Housewives
Christians on the Verge of a Cosmic Meltdown - Cristianos al Borde de un Desastre Cósmico

I can't be sure if I left all four at different computers, as two of the six Apple laptops I sampled were devoted to the aforementioned Adventist blogs. I left the Apple showroom after spending no more than 30 minutes.

When I returned home to Ft. Lauderdale, I accessed the website that informs me what websites were visited, from what country and for how long. I want to make it clear that the Apple showroom was very busy and that it was hard to find an empty computer for very long. I previously noted that I spent no more than seven minutes at each of the six computers I sampled. I was pleased to learn that one of the Apple laptops I had left with the following blog,
http://realjesuscristo.blogspot.com/, was up for a total of 26 minutes, 7 seconds. A total of 8 pages were viewed. the Exit Page was http://perfectfuturo.com/FutureTales.html.

Of course, time has a way of slipping away while browsing, but the pressure from walking showroom clerks walking around the showroom makes it unlikely that I spent no longer than 10 or 12 mintues at any one computer. There is always the slim possibility that I may have stayed longer than the 30 minutes I thought I spent in the store, or that the computer in question was vacant for a total of 26 minutes, 7 seconds, which is unlikely, as I mentioned earlier that the store was very busy.

Some modern or progressive Adventists feel that old style evangelism such as giving out religious leaflets or books or "street evangelism" consisting of walking up to a stranger and asking them if they knew the real Jeus Christ and then telling them about the saving experience of knowing and loving Christ, is passe or out-of-fashion. Nevertheless, who knows who might learn of either Christianity or Adventism by visiting Internet cafes or showrooms such as the Apple Store and after viewing a web page you intended to view anyway, of a religious nature, you simply leave the page up in hope that in this vaguely voyeuristic age of blogging and Internet websites and profiles, someone will be nosy or curious enough to take note of the previous user's web site. This is similar in some ways to what some shy Christians or Adventists, no doubt, have done by leaving Christian literature in public places, after having read them themselves, in hope that someone who accidentally, or perhaps not so accidentally, picks up the literature in question, might find something that they perhaps had no idea they were looking for.

How important whether in printing evangelistic literature or publishing religious blogs, to ask for the Holy Spirit's guidance before committing words and ideas to print or cyberspace pages.

We may never know the results of our mildly passive attempts at evangelism until the Next World.

When You Don't Want to Love Your Neighbor

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Matthew 5:44 (NIV)

If one feels, even out of "good motives," that one needs to do good works, whether as gratitude for the the gift of salvation, or out of fear, both are variations of salvation by works. It is Christ's Spirit of righteousness working in us supernaturally to do the impossible--doing what is good for selfless reasons--that is the genuine article. That solves the problem of the times when you consciously attempt to maintain a loving relation to God through prayer and bible study and working with Jesus, but still wind up doing things, whether accidentally, or intentionally, that are against his law. If salvation depends on your efforts, whatever the motive, love for God or out of fear, then some have a greater advantage since it's easier for some people to live a more upright life than it is for others.

If you have to repeatedly keep yourself from turning on the television to watch secular programming, out of boredom, during the Sabbath, you are living by works, and not by faith. On the other hand, if you naturally have no desire to turn on that TV or DVD player or secular radio station because it doesn't agree with you on the sabbath, then that is the genuine righteousness by faith in Christ, not in yourself and your effort to keep God's law, whatever the motive. The same goes for being faithful to your mate, or paying tithe, or loving your neighbor who hates you for no reason you can think of. If you have to grin and bear it as you make an attempt to "love your neighbor as yourself", you are not experiencing genuine righteousness by faith. And believe me, it shows. Your less-than-loving neighbor will see the phoniness of your efforts to love him in spite of his hatred for you.

If you are not genuinely able to love your neighbor, it's better to walk away and not interact with him as long as humanly possible, instead of smiling one of those phony, painful-to-watch smiles that do more harm than good.

Desperate Christian Wife Alone (in Pakistan)

Whenever I think of this nameless woman, I pray for her. All I know about her is what sitemeter.com's daily statistics informed me about her visit.

She used google.com.pk to type in the words that caught my attention: desperate christian wife alone. She visited one of my sites, Desperate Christian Housewives, on March 26 2007, 5:38:25 a.m. The length of her visit was 3 minutes 56 seconds. She viewed three pages on my blog. She lives in Pakistan in the Punjab State, or region, in the City of Lahore.

Is her husband or family Muslim? Did she find what she was looking for to help her in her desperation? I felt for her and was sad my blog didn't offer her more than it did. Or perhaps it did help her a bit, especially since she remained on my site for almost four minutes. She even clicked on one of the pictures and that was her last contact with my blog. If she, or someone like her, returns in the future, I want to offer more than what that particular blog offers at present. I said a prayer for this unknown woman in Pakistan. How important it is to ask the Holy Spirit to guide you whenever you post something that is of a spiritual or semi-spiritual nature in the blogosphere. It may be someone's only chance to find the help they're seeking. Cyber encounters like this are indeed unusual and frustrating. But also rewarding, in a way.

One seldom hears about Christians in Muslim countries and the challenges they face. If one does read about them they are distant and don't impact directly on one's life. This nameless Pakistani Christian woman crossed my path in an indirect way and now she's real enough to me that I think about her and pray that God will help her in her desperate and lonely Christian life in Pakistan. I wonder how she came to believe in Christ in a country that is predominantly Muslim? Even more important is how she is able to continue struggling with Christianity to the point of desperation and loneliness. Perhaps my struggles don't compare with hers. It makes me think that one may sometimes have to struggle in one's Christian walk even to the point of desperation and loneliness.

We take freedom of religion for granted so often. We think we have problems when, in fact, we don't. Our problems pale in comparison to women like the one in question, who find themselves wanting to follow Christ in a country, and perhaps a home, that is Muslim. Even if she has an understanding husband or family, who love her in spite of her interest in Christ, there is still an empty part of her life, that makes her feel alone and desperate. Perhaps her business associates or her neighbors contribute to her desperation and her aloneness. What would I tell her if she had asked me point blank for help in overcoming her problems? The only thing I could have done is point her to the source of her faith. I know that it's easier to say to others than it is to practice oneself. But when things had pretty much reached rock bottom at one point in my life where I also felt desperate and alone, I prayed that God would lead me to a bible text that would help me. Even though I didn't fully understand the text he led me to, it helped me in ways I can't explain even today.

But he [Christ] said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." 2 Cor. 12:19 (NIV)

Awaiting 2033 A.D. and October 22, 2044 A.D.

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. 2 Pet. 3:8-10 (NIV)

There are two dates I look forward to living long enough to experience. The first is 2033. Christ would have ascended 2000 years prior to that date. The other is October 22, 2044. The Great Disappointment as well as the reassessment as to what took place on that date, the beginning of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, will have started 200 years prior to that date.

Even if I don't live to see those dates, others will, hopefully, find this post and think of someone who wanted to be alive on those two separate dates. To you of the future who are reading this, I wish you greater faith and a newness of vision as you make sense of the next thousand years of waiting for the Lord's return.

Might there not be similar written hopes left behind from believers looking forward to 1033 as well as forwards to October 22, 1944? What, if anything, did they wish for those who lived, and died in either of those years?

No doubt most of those who would have read those documents years before those anniversaries came to pass, scoffed at the thought that Earth's history would ever experience such unlikely years as 1033, as well as, October 22, 1944.

We are a species that was born to wait. We live our lives waiting. We will die waiting. At least we have each other as we wait and hope for new beginnings.

Dark Energy, Dark Matter and God

"Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne." Psalm 97:2 (NIV)

Dark energy and dark matter are beyond the electromagnetic spectrum. They have to be inferred by their effects on visible objects and cannot be detected directly. It is possible that they may never be detected directly.

How similar this is to God himself. We cannot see him directly nor perhaps, will ever be able to do so, for God is invisible. [Rom. 1:20, Col. 1:15, 1 Tim. 1:17] Nevertheless, we infer his existence from what we perceive in ourselves when we have a positive reaction to him. We perceive him indirectly as we contemplate his creation. We perceive him indirectly as we read the bible, as well.

Scientists accept the possible existence of dark energy and dark matter on faith, in a way. It is quite possibly the only explanation to explain why the visible universe doesn't fall apart or fly apart. Something we cannot see is holding the visible universe together. In the same way we accept God's existence on faith, so our world, and our place in it, doesn't fall apart or fly apart.

It is said that the .04 percent of the visible universe is truly inconsequential when compared with the remaining .96 percent of the "invisible" dark energy and dark matter components of the universe. It is also said that, potentially, dark energy and dark matter particles are bombarding our bodies constantly and we are oblivious to their reality.

Whether we choose to believe in God's existence or not, his sustaining power is also constantly bombarding our bodies and minds and our visible world with his perfect essence.

Eradicating Legalism in the Adventist Church

"The righteous will live by his faith [alone.] Habakuk 2:4 (NIV)

Sitting in a pew near the front of the church, to not be distracted by the occasional conversations that my congregation produces frequently, I was saddened by a pre-offering appeal made by a church member. He started to rattle off a list of sacrifices, or offerings, that ancient Israelites offered when ceremonial law was still in place on planet Earth. Among those he mentioned was a special live offering for sins committed. He summed it up by saying, "so you see brethren, there are lots of sacrifices (offerings) in the bible that one should think about when thinking of what or how much to give today. I've been attending this particular church only two years and I had never heard legalism rear its ugly head as much as I did last Saturday.

While I tried to listen to the sermon as best I could, I occasionally was compelled to jot down some reflections that this offering call made on me.

I'm without a computer these days and I've got only 41 minutes left at the public library. So I apologize if these are mere reflections and nothing more. Thank you for your understanding.

There's a deadly quality to legalism. Two years ago I used to pray a strange prayer. I had forgotten it until this moment. I went something like this: "Lord, save me from legalism, which is worse than death." [I remembered the original phrase late last night. "Lord, save me from legalism, for in legalism there is only death."] I prayed that wholeheartedly. Perhaps I need to start praying that strange prayer again.

Legalism is so deadly to me that I wondered if because of it, Adventism was dying, in a limited sense? As secularism increases in society, we need less not more legalism in the Adventist church. As our youth are leaving and some never to return, legalism is, perhaps one of the causes. As Adventism splinters internally into different isms, i.e., ultra-conservatism, progressivism, cultural adventism, postmodern adventism, etc., is legalism party to blame?

Is the golden age of Adventism behind us? Was it during the 50s, 60s and 70s? Or is it still ahead of us? It is said that Adventism is fading in parts of North America, Europe and Australia. I'm told that only in the third world, parts of Africa, parts of South America, parts of Asia it is still thriving and alive. Is legalism causing that growth there and is it causing a slow death in the other declining areas? Or is righteousness by faith alive in well in the third world, but not in the places where Adventism is dying out slowly?

I'm tired of legalism. Aren't' you? What can we do about it?

It almost felt like the fear one used to get before knocking on some one's door before you gave them a smile and literature. I went to the speaker after church and I congratulated her for the good points in her sermon. I explained to her my concern with the legalism in the Adventist church and I asked her if in the future she could dwell more on Christ our righteousness. I told her I was especially concerned about the young people and how important it was for them to hear those worlds. Not appeals to give more offerings or tithes, or to come to prayer meeting more often so as not to miss out on a special blessing, or other similar mildly legalistic appeals. I told her that I never heard any sermons about righteousness by faith in Christ until I was almost 18 years of age. It was the best news I had ever heard. It made Adventism come alive for me.

Other suggestions to rid Adventism of legalism might be to email every Adventist publication or magazine and complain when you read something that smacks of legalism to you. Write Bill Knott at the Adventist Review. Write Cliff Goldstein at the Sabbath School Quarterly. Write the conference president. Tell him to keep legalism out of the publication in question and keep it out of Adventism. If you hear a church member saying anything that smacks too highly of legalism, take him aside courteously and speak to him or her of your concerns. If you lose friends in the name of ridding Adventism of legalism, those are the casualties of the war on legalism. Perhaps they were never very dear friends to begin with. Perhaps you need newer, less legalistic friends in and out of church.

Adventism needs to be simplified, cleansed, re energized. Legalism is the enemy. Righteousness by faith in Christ is our ally. These three thoughts came to me in church last Sabbath as I thought how to simplify Adventism. Look to Jesus Christ. Seek the daily baptism of the Holy Spirit. Read your bible and pray.

In closing, let me speak of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is beautiful. It, however, has to be kept naturally, effortlessly, spiritually. When you have to make an effort to keep the Sabbath you are not, in fact, keeping the Sabbath. Ask God to make you holy so you can keep his Sabbath holy. Ask God to fill you with his Spirit of righteousness so you can love Christ and keep his commands. Ask him to fill you with his Spirit of love so you can treat others as you would like to be treated.

Lord, save me from legalism, for in legalism there is only death.

God bless you all. God bless Adventism.

Mysteries of Perfect Fire

River of Fire, Lake of Fire, Sea of Glass Mingled with Fire

“… The ancient of Days took his seat. … His throne was flaming with fire. … A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him.” – Daniel 7:9,10 (NIV)

After I read these texts my mind suddenly started visualizing this scene. I had not planned to do this. It almost started automatically. In a way, I was lost in a trance, though a somewhat conscious one. It’s intriguing when moments like this happen.

Lest I forget, let me mention that I had in mind concurrently the other bodies of fire that apocalyptic literature mentions, i.e., the Sea of glass mingled with fire, the Lake of fire in which death and Hades are destroyed. I’ve thought more and more that all of these fiery bodies of water or energy, whether river, sea or lake, are different manifestations of the same reality: God’s presence or his very essence and nature. The text comes to mind, “Our God is a consuming fire.”

As I envisioned the river of fire I thought of the large rivers I’ve seen during my life whether in the United States or in Europe. I saw this river of fire that comes out from before him [the Ancient of Days] as wide and as long as the rivers I had seen. For some reason I didn’t think that this river ever ended.

Since God’s throne will one day be on the new earth as it is now in heaven, I thought that the river of fire encircled the entire globe and ended where it had begun, God’s throne and God, himself.

The book of Revelation says that the new earth will have no need of the sun because God’s presence will provide light enough for its inhabitants. Since the river of fire encircled the globe from east to west, I thought of an extension or continuation of the same river flowing out from God’s presence but going north to south to compliment the river of fire that flows east to west.

I thought of the dwellers of the new earth living in homes along both east-west or north-south axes along the river of fire, to stay close to the light and thus to God’s presence.

I also thought of the light and of the awe-inspiring scene of God’s flaming and glorious throne at the nexus of both the east-west and the north-south rivers of fire.

The Bible speaks of God dwelling in unapproachable light. These wide and globe-encircling rivers of fire would certainly prevent anyone or anything from getting too close to the light of God’s presence.

I thought of the fate of the unrepentant. It is possible that they will, in fact, be near these rivers of fire. As moths would do when delighted with an incandescent light bulb, the unrepentant will run into the fire, or light, and will destroy themselves. In this way it will be said that the unrepentant ran to their own destruction by running headlong into the lake or river of fire.

Perhaps the tranquil sea of glass mingled with fire will be what comes into being after the unrepentant have run, of their own choice, into the Lake of fire.

The source of their being was God and in their final moments it was to that same source of life that they returned of their own free will. However, not having accepted Christ’s robes of righteousness, they were not able to stand in the presence of God and live.

God didn’t cause them to run into the Lake or River of fire. He merely allowed them to finalize their own self-destruction. Perhaps their own stubbornness resulted in what common sense would tell them was an unwise course of action—running into a lake or river of fire.

In spite of their physical bodies being destroyed by their own conscious action, might not their minds be preserved at least in God’s memories? An earthly parent who’s watched the execution of their child because of crimes against the state does not stop loving and does not forget the memory of their evil and perhaps unrepentant child. How could they? That child was the fruit of their bodies and dreams, however frustrated those dreams turned out.

Throughout eternity God will always remember each life or soul (mind) that he created, even the ones that ran to their own self-destruction in the Lake or River of fire. Such is the price, or nature, of perfect love. It does not end, even in the face of the death of those it loves.

With God as our Time Machine where Can we not Venture?

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

"Frank J. Tipler suggested in 1974 that if a sufficiently long cylinder with the mass of several neutron stars was induced to spin along its longitudinal axis, the cylinder should create a frame-dragging effect and warp spacetime in its locality as the spin approached the speed of light." http://www.wikipedia.org/

This article from which the above quote is taken set me to thinking about the real possibility of an advanced civilization, or being, creating such a device. Serious scientists today postulate three scientifically realistic modes in which to engage in time travel, i.e., "near light-speed passage, black hole ergosphere passage and Tipler 2-way time machine (construction of a large rotating cylinder of dense matter.) " George Zebrowski, Macrolife: A Mobile Utopia. Even though these are technically for forward time travel, we won't digress too much by exploring the equivalent modes for reverse time travel.

After we've been in the Next World, i.e., Heaven, for a million years, might not the theoretical concept of Tipler's Cylinder make it an interesting historical, scientific and experiential enterprise with which to revisit some of the significant occurrences of human history, as well as the distant future. The reasons for wanting to do so are more than just educative. In an age where seeing a filmed version of something is no longer absolute proof, might not witnessing the actual event in real-time be beyond proof? It would also be an enriching experience to outdo all such experiences.

Perhaps the most significant events or people in human history, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, for example, would be of utmost importance to experience first-hand. Others might also wish to witness first hand the creation of the universe, the beginning of life on Earth, and other similar historical events. Since anything is possible for God, and since Tipler's conjectures are based on Einstein's theories of relativity, might there not already have been humans from the distant future who where present at the crucifixion itself? Of course, all of the precautions of cause and effect would have to be left untouched. I am referring to, for example, visiting early twentieth-century Germany and convincing young Adolf Hitler to enter a monastery or other non-political vocation.

It has been suggested that we will be remade in the Next World so as to have enough challenges and novelty to make sense of living the millions of years successfully that eternal beings will be privileged to enjoy. Be that as it may, revisiting key events, or people, in cosmic history might be what keeps eternity constantly challenging and meaningful. Some would rather forget everything that happened in the previous imperfect world, our present world. Others might want to be reminded about how much they have to be thankful for in their transcendent glorified life.

On the other hand, might not the exceptional thinkers of human history, e.g., Einstein, Galileo, Copernicus, Mozart and others, actually be future visitors from a time when time travel presents one of the significant vehicles to better the future, by improving the past. If we consider this unlikely, but potentially feasible approach to Earth's history, might not we be constantly experiencing an adjusted reality because of benign visitors from the future?

Another possibility might be that given enough visitors from the future perfect world visiting us throughout their future eternity, might not this imperfect world slowly be transformed into a shadow of their future perfect world? What if finally, after millions of years, the two worlds, the perfect and the formerly imperfect world merged, leaving one pristine, eternal, incorruptible perfect world.

The future creates the past. The past creates the future. It is all a cycle.

Adventism's New Horizons

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea exists no more. Revelation 21:1

After having done a google search for both Adventism and “space colonization” I was intrigued by the 19,000 results the search engine produced. One link, http://www.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/utopo-amer.htmlo-amer.html contained a footnote with an interesting resource: “This book, entitled Worlds Beyond, edited by Larry Geis and Fabrice Florin, explores the social, political, and technological aspects of space colonization. It is particularly interesting due to the continual references to 1492, Colombus, and America.”

The title of the article speaks of America-as-Utopia. I took this line of thought one step further and came up with Adventism-as-Utopia as though Adventism itself, or the world community and its resources, could be a Utopian community virtually and with some planning, physically. I remarked to a progressive acquaintance years ago that if only for their value as Utopian literature, Ellen G. White’s Testimonies for the Church had value. I now believe their value is more than just wishful thinking about a perfect world.

This started me thinking. What if life in this world gets worse and worse, e.g., global warming, terrorism, disease, a nuclear holocaust, other cataclysms, enforced immorality, and it becomes less and less utopian as the decades fade into the next century? Adventism with its significant intellectual and financial resources should start exploring what most think unnecessary or unfeasible, seeking a more ideal and permanent place to fulfill their future destiny.

What would the early Christians have thought of future Christians sailing across the great sea west of the European continent and building huge and long-term cities in the undiscovered countries of the Americas? Adventists should learn from their short-sightedness and think about the next phase of humanity and Adventism as well, the migration to non-terrestrial worlds or space habitats. Private citizens have already started exploring space exploration for financial or personal advantages. Why shouldn’t Adventists do likewise?

What if Jesus delays not because He’s taking too long to come to us, but because we haven’t made the physical enterprise to move closer to Him, literally? Perhaps this is what Adventism and 21st century Christianity is destined to do—to leave this dying world and start again elsewhere.

"This is not the stuff of science fiction only. Scientist Dandridge Cole originated the term "Macro Life" in his 1961 book The Ultimate Human Society, where he outlines the idea of using asteroids as mobile "societal containers." www.wikipedia.org

See also, the following quote about U.S. Physicist and space pioneer, Gerard O'Neill: "In 1977 O'Neill founded the Space Studies Institute at Princeton University, an organization that continues today to fund research in space manufacturing and resources. He also worked on mass drivers for space propulsion, research and design concepts for space stations, Space colonization, solar power satellites, and lunar and asteroid mining. He authored the book The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space which inspired a generation of space exploration advocates." www.wikipedia.org

How meaningless and pointless all of human and Adventist-Christian history would turn out if our lack of future vision derails the future of humanity by not planning now for the potential self-destruction of life by the criminal and unwise excesses of modern as well as post-modern humanity?

I propose that Adventism start planning this eventual migration or partial migration to a safer and more permanent world, or worlds, now while we have the intellectual, spiritual and financial resources to make it a future reality. Won’t you join those of us who presently share this visionary interpretaton of taking the everlasting “gospel into all the world,” where “world” is best thought of as cosmos, and not just this small, dying planet?

On the Road Alone

God, if you're only a concept in my mind tonight
What a beautiful concept you are.

Even if you exist only in my mind
I still want to believe in you.