"Progressive Adventism" Blog (by Julius Nam) has Ended

The following lengthy quote was excerpted from the final post which can be found at Progressive Adventism Blog. I am quoting it here because Julius Nam's web ministry meant a lot to me especially when his blog first appeared. I always assumed his blog was going to exist until Christ came or until something better came along. Perhaps something better has come along.

Thank you, brother Nam for the time and all the work that went into what will always be in my fondest memories. May God bless you and may we meet some day when blogging is no longer necessary.

"I [Julius Nam] continue to envision our [Adventist] community:

as one of doers of God's love and compassion, and transformers of lives, communities and societies toward justice and peace

as one that affirms the presence and reality of God in diverse and plural expressions of humanity, even as we affirm the Oneness and Ultimacy of Truth in God, in Jesus

as one that takes Scripture very, very seriously and obeys its high call for sanctified and sanctifying living, even as we disagree on some of its specific applications,

as one that affirms the visionary, prophetic ministry of Ellen White and the amazing gift she has been to us, even as we disagree on the continuing utility of her specific statements and teachings,

as one that is humble, confessing our fallenness and inadequacies, depending fervently and radically on God

One note about the issue of sexual/gender identity equality:

I continue to believe and affirm the need for deeper study and dialogue in the Adventist church on the question of sexual identity. Clearly, the issue of sexual identity is not at the heart of the Gospel, but ... the issue of justice is. And I'm convicted that God's high call for righteousness includes in our time to recognize the full humanity, dignity, and equality of bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgendered children of God for the way God made them--both in society and in our church community.

Yet, I recognize that the prevailing understanding of justice in Adventism differs widely.

So, I'm committed to working through these issues with prayer, communal study of Scripture, patience, and most of all, compassion for and trust in each other who make up the Body of Christ. It may indeed be that I am completely wrong on this and many other matters. But that is why it's all the more important for me to remain committed to a process of learning and dialogue--to be held accountable by my community--all the while asking God for wisdom, patience and humility.

I seek your prayers as I seek to discern for myself what it means to be courageous, and not stubborn, what it means to be patient, and not cowardly, what it means to defer, and not avoid, what it means to obey, and not merely comply, what it means to be prophetic, and not be narcissistic, what it means to follow Christ."

May each of us follow Christ as the Holy Spirit leads us.

Jacob's Time of Trouble Happens in Your Mind

Before the sun set today I realized that during the past four years, especially this last year, I have been experiencing the long-awaited Jacob's time of trouble. Most of it is occurring in my mind. Some events, of course, happen around me or to me personally or to my loved ones.

This special time of testing, of doubt and of soon-to-arrive victory happens in my quiet moments. The Shaking has been trying to shake me loose, but I hang on by the power of God. The Latter Rain of the Holy Spirit has been falling since last spring.

Jesus' coming is only years away.

Jesus' coming is only months away.

Jesus' coming is only days away.

I believe Jesus Christ is coming back within my lifetime to take me with him. He's coming back to take my loved ones and all who believe in his name with him, as well.

The Second Coming of Christ is practically here. The Waiting is almost over.

The Challenges of Righteousness by Faith

What challenges you might ask? Righteousness by Faith (Justification by Faith) can only be thought of as a good thing. Why speak of any challenges?

Basically we are saved by faith through grace and not of ourselves lest anyone should boast (Ephesians 2:8) . To balance this and not slide into so-called "cheap grace", some bring up James' advice about grace without works being dead. (James 2:17)

Morris Venden tells us that the only two (or four) activities we can engage in that open the way for righteousness by faith to kick in are:

1. Spending time at the feet of Christ through bible study and prayer
2. Working with Christ through service for others and sharing our faith

Some might feel that the actual time and effort invested in all of these may seem like works themselves. It is important to focus on the fact that prayer and bible study are means to an end. The end is a relationship with Jesus Christ who saves us by his grace.

The service and sharing of our faith are the results of a genuine relationship with Christ. This brings us to the challenges I have alluded to before.

If you spend time in prayer and bible study, but don't share your faith, are you then not saved? Some have suggested that something is wrong in your faith experience if you only nourish yourself, but don't nourish others. While it is relatively easier to sit down with your bible or kneel in prayer at the beginning of each day, going about the sharing of your faith is not as effortless. You have to find the people to share your faith with. You have to have something to say to them that is appropriate so you don't turn them away by any heavy-handed approaches. You have to follow up, give them bible studies, invite them to your church or to evangelistic meetings. It gets more and more complicated.

Tending to the needs of others can be as difficult, but perhaps easier than sharing your faith. You can, for example, contribute to mission fields, charities, etc., and by your means help those in need. If you have more time than money, you could volunteer your time and help out in soup kitchens, or similar groups that benefit those in need.

I would say that just as it is difficult to actually find time for Christ for prayer and bible study, but essential, so it is equally difficult (perhaps even harder) to share your faith with those in need of the good news of salvation.

All of these activities, both the faith-related ones (prayer and bible study) and the works-related ones (service to others and sharing your faith) are impossible for the natural man or woman. These experiences or activities are gifts of the Spirit if they are the genuine article.

Therefore, the only thing you can do is ask God to give you the free gift of his Holy Spirit and he will move you to will (choose) and to do of his own good pleasure (Luke 11:13 and Ezekiel 36:26,27).

Ask for the Spirit of Christ, wait for him to transform and motivate you to seek the relationship with Christ. Look for the change in your life as you read your bible daily and kneel in prayer for divine blessing. Look also for the spontaneous and supernatural change in your life that leads you, out of gratitude, to help those in need and to share your faith with others as the Spirit leads you.

Remember the Future

The future wasn't supposed to be like this. There was supposed to have been only one great depression. Technology was supposed to have made it easier for humanity to pursue the finer things of life: research, space exploration, learning, altruism, and an endless stream of marvelous approaches to life.

There are, of course, different visions of the future. Not all Sci-Fi writers or futurists painted a golden futuristic age. There are enough possible dystopias to go around as far as those who like imagining negative visions of the future. The dismal world imagined in the Matrix film series is only one example of the worst possible vision for humankind. Might not the current obsession with experiencing reality via social network sites, as well as virtual reality programs such as Second Life, not be as close an attempt to live in the alternate reality of the world-within-a-world that is force fed into the minds of the sleeping masses of humanity that the Matrix films present?

Hopefully, things will return to normal in a year or two--or ten. If things continue the way they are now, and we somehow grow to accept that the future turned out quite differently than we imagined it would be, then how nostalgically we will long for the imperfect past of the 1960s or 1990s and their relatively golden prosperity.

Some religious individuals are gleefully celebrating that things are getting worse. They believe that the final prophecies are coming true and that a new order of things will be ushered in, after the grim realities that are just beginning to come to pass take their expected course. They believe that after the darkness seems to be gaining the upper hand, then the light of the new kingdom will make any momentary darkness worthwhile.

I, for one, have never been able to rejoice when bad things take place, no matter what good might come of it. I hope and pray that we can all continue living our lives of progress, plenty and possibility. In the mean time, I will keep my eyes fixed on the being that engineered all of reality, good or not-so-good. In the final analysis, whatever happens next year or next century is what he allows.

In the meantime, enjoy every breath, every ray of sunshine, every fragrant flower. These are gifts in good times and bad ones that God has blessed us with.

Mysteries of the Second Coming

Alternate titles: Radical Second Coming, Second Coming Re-Conceived

The first coming was not what the remnant thought it would be. Why does the second coming have to be what the remnant people are so dead sure it will be? The prophecies were misinterpreted the first time. How can you rule out that the same thing won't happen a second time?

What if Christ comes and, somehow, those who are looking for his coming miss it altogether?

The first time Christ didn't come to free the Jews from Roman bondage, but rather from bondage to sin. What if Christ comes not to Earth, but leaves from Earth? What if Christ has been here living among us for 2,000 years. Then it could be said that he "comes quickly" because he never left us?

When he leaves it will be with those who, mistakenly, have awaited his coming from the skies. The first time he came from the Earth. Why can't he also come from the Earth the second time?

Reinterpret all the prophecies of the last 2,000 years and see how this new way of looking at Christ's second coming fits into the picture.

Disclaimer: This is only meant as a "what if" scenario. I am not suggesting that Christ will not come in the clouds and that every-eye-shall-see-him, will not take place.

The Million-Year Sabbath

As a child I once had a nightmare that all the days of the week were Sabbaths. The Sabbath was not so bad, but it wasn't as fun as, say, Sunday morning. Sundays seemed to last forever.

These days, however, I look forward to the Sabbath and wish that every day was a Sabbath. Yes, there are things I miss doing on the Sabbath, but I'm realizing that they are becoming less and less important.

The only two things that I would miss if the Sabbath were an everyday thing would be working and buying. You can't very well live without those two activities.

During the past four years I have toyed with different names for my interest in a longer Sabbath day. Originally I thought of a conceptual Sabbath which would last from sunset on Friday and not end until Sunday sunrise. The busy nature of living in the material world suggested another approach, the Seven Minute Sabbath which could be observed at any point throughout the week. The Eternal Sabbath was a term for a Sabbath day that never started or ended. It simply was.

Even a good thing has to end sometime so it can begin again. For this reason I've come up with the concept of the million-year Sabbath. The only place we can keep such an impossibly long Sabbath is in the New Earth where, in theory, we wouldn't need to buy or earn a living and no activity would be inappropriate to engage in during the million-year-long Sabbath.

In the meantime enjoy the Sabbath and imagine it's going to last a million years.

The Evolution of God?

My God is not a God of death; he is a God of life. However, since the creators of sophisticated robotic medical equipment are responsible for faulty product if something disastrous should occur, can our God be held liable for the death we see all around us since time began?

Yes, it is true that our God created all things perfect, but since he allows--for a variety of complicated reasons--for things to go on as they do, then, in a way, he has to take responsibility for the imperfections of our otherwise perfect world.

Let's face it, if God wanted to stop all pain and death right now, he could. God's hands are not tied. There must be valid reasons why so many negative realities continue to exist. Let's try to analyze what some of them might be.

Some conservative Christians believe that God allows the controversy between good and evil to continue to protect man's free will. Conservatively speaking, you have to admit that 6,000 years is ample time to show that God offers humankind his way or the other fellow's way.

Progressively speaking, however, we are not talking about 6,000 but millions of years for this cosmic struggle between good and evil to have been resolved.

This brings us to the subject that the title hints at. Does God bring about life, humankind's life specifically, through the death that is essential for natural selection and the survival of the species? It is, after all, only the strong that survive to procreate and pass on their genes to the next generation. How can a God of love possibly be responsible for a system that uses death in order to bring about life and complex organisms?

The Bible account is very simple: God creates all of our reality in six days and rests on the seventh day. For those who have a problem with such simplicity, then the only other option is that God used evolution, and before that--the Big Bang--to create our world and the cosmos. Because this would make God the author of death--and life--such a paradigm is not consistent with a God of love.

The third possibility we will not focus on very much other than to state, for the occasional agnostic who may wander in by chance, that evolution, life, death, etc., have nothing whatsoever to do with God, only with humankind.

So where does that leave us? Perplexed? Frustrated? Despairing? Not at all; there is a fourth explanation. We all think this is all happening to us. This dream called life, death, rebirth. The incredible reality is that we are dreamers twisting and turning--sometimes smiling and laughing--through a long dreamlike state called life and death. One day we will awaken and learn who God really is and why all this death and life and rebirth were necessary.

Until then, look to God and worship him for the hour of his judgment has come.

Mountain-High Christianity and Reality

On my way to prayer meeting last night I claimed my travelling promises. The first was for God's protection. Then I prayed for the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Next I prayed Matthew 6:6 about "seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (by faith) and that God would provide all the other things I needed. Finally, I prayed the prayer of Jabez: "Oh that you would bless me and increase my borders. Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I may be free of pain." And God granted his request.

Usually I turn on the radio, National Public Radio or the classical music station and enjoy the fading light. Last night, however, I started singing hymns but not just cut-and-dry like you sing them in church. I imagined myself a distant descendant of Maria Callas who never sang an aria in concert the same way on any two performances. Each note was lovingly caressed or interpreted. When I felt like inserting a grace note I did. When I wanted to change the key slightly before returning to the familiar key, I went ahead and enjoyed the non-standard approach to singing hymns. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed that first hymn. They were all hymns in Spanish as I was heading to Spanish prayer meeting at my local Adventist church.

It was the first time that I really enjoyed singing hymns as I traveled back to my neck-of-the-woods after having worked my eight hour day. One hymn effortlessly melded into the next and I knew something strange was happening. Singing hymns was what I most wanted to do. It actually produced a pleasant state of awareness. Boredom was the farthest thing from my mind. How easy it was to capture a spiritual high, simply by singing hymns, but singing them with such feeling and awareness.

When I arrived in church I shared my wonderful song fest experience after the officiating elder asked if anyone had a special testimony. Requests for special prayer came and went and I offered my request for difficult neighbors. I, unfortunately, had not thought of whether my neighbors needed God's blessings in spite of their unpleasant behavior. The elder made me realize my one-sided approach to prayer requests. When it came time to pray with my payer partners I remembered my neighbors and asked that God would help them and that he would help me as well as far as the slamming doors and occasional running marathons they seemed to enjoy in the passage just outside my front door. I asked God to take control of the situation and to provide a solution to the noise and bizarre behavior of my young neighbors.

After the evening meditation had come and gone, I was asked to offer the final prayer. Normally, the thought of praying in public, especially in Spanish, unsettles me, but this time I spoke as confidently and as sincerely as I've ever prayed in a long while.

Something was happening that was different from what I normally feel in a prayer meeting or during my ride home. A strange lightness of being, a closeness to God, and something else, a forgetfulness of self, were making themselves felt as never before.

Once home I read the Spirit of Prophecy and just couldn't put it down. When it was finally time to retire, I thanked God for hours of spiritual introspection like nothing I had experienced for many years.

The next day during a staff meeting, something didn't click and I was too facetious with others during the appropriate time in the meeting for informal remarks, but unfortunately my comments were inappropriate and I realized it, but said nothing further in order to save face. The afternoon sun was spilling its cheerfulness on me as I walked to my car and wondered how I could have been so thoughtless to have made such an off-color comment without any premeditation on my part.

Instead of singing more hymns I reached for my electronica CD deep in the glove compartment and let synthesizer rhythms and vague whisperings of "walking on thin ice" transport me to a secularized cinema-like drive home.

What a change from yesterday. How easily a mountain top experience becomes a living-in-the-real world drive home.

Oh well, it was wonderful while it lasted and I look forward to everything falling into place again very soon. Perhaps one day soon I'll sing and pray and read my bible non-stop from morning till evening time and leave everything else behind.

The Gods of the Internet Age

I love reading the Bible, especially the New Testament. However, when I read it I sometimes realize that the only reason I believe in its spiritual realities is because they appear in its pages. Yes, I see a change in my life from when I didn't read the Bible. But it still strikes me as amazing that aside from the Bible there is no accounting for all this talk of God, Christ, and the spiritual life.


Others believe in the realities the Bible speaks of because they heard it from others and were convinced by the account of the people who spoke to them about it.


Of course, other religions, e.g., Hindus, believe their religious tradition because it's mentioned in their religious texts.


The printed word continues to exert influence. Entire movements have begun simply because someone put words on paper.


What kind of movements might yet come into being, not because someone writes about them, but because a computerized program creates that new reality? So many people's lives revolve around the Internet and its labyrinthine realities. What's to stop some of them from choosing a life based on Internet realities?


Welcome to the transcendent worlds and realities of the Internet and their effects on people's lives.

The Best Temptation of All: Eternal Life

The person who is tempted on a daily basis and gives into temptation because it is his daily choice is really not being tempted at all. For the Christian, however, who is tempted from time to time by a specific alluring desire, the concept of temptation is very real.

What's especially difficult to endure is when temptation comes when least expected. Sometimes a Christian does not go looking for temptation; it comes to him or her. At the time the temptation comes the shock value of being tempted by a specific allurement may leave the Christian unprepared. Only through a merciful turn of events can the temptation be sidestepped until there is time to pray and fortify oneself with the word of God.

Perhaps one is tempted to think that one's faith experience is false since temptation almost got one where it would have hurt the most. However, the best solution is to chalk it up to the mysteries of the Christian life and not decide that one's desire to follow Christ is somehow not sincere. Temptations come and go. We need to live through them and not get discouraged.

It also is unrealistic to live in fear of temptation and to lock yourself in your home so as never to be tempted. Christians are not called to be hermits. Of course, depending on your particular set of temptations, you may have to change your daily routine. But, again, don't live in constant fear of running into an old friend, or of accidentally finding yourself in the chocolate aisle at the supermarket when you had purposely avoided that aisle so as not to be tempted with your old chocolate addiction.

Remember that no temptation is worth giving up the hope of eternal life.

The phrase "the best temptation of all" was coined by Richard Baskin in "Welcome to L.A."