I am hurt and appalled by any association of the Adventist church with atrocities, whether it be the David Koresh conflagration in Texas, the Spokane (Washington) rapist and serial killer, the killing fields of Rwanda or the uprisings on the scattered islands of the South Pacific you might want to call paradise (Guns in Paradise, August 17, 2000.)
South Pacific Islands never were, nor are they now paradise. . . Please remember that it was to a great extent that the brute force of European colonial power (first wielded by sword and musket) that allowed for the peaceful existence and tourist driven prosperity of the South Pacific which is usually depicted in travel brochures. Within the Pax Colonica, western religions, including those as diverse as Catholicism, Mormonism, and Adventism, planted roots and to an extent thrived.
While we might wish for the "good old days" where British, French, and American, interests and power kept people in line, they will not come back. And it will not always be possible for local Adventist leaders in government (you proudly feature them at times in the Review) to lead only in times of peace and tranquility.
But a good Adventist Christian must be differentiated from a thug who might have Adventist background. In most situations, the Christ centered life will be more powerful than the gun. Preach Christ, pray for the leaders of government, and counsel wisely. That is what must be done by Adventists around the world. Even with that evil will, at times, come. I shudder to think what might be the outcome of outright civil war across Indonesia.
Now, for a real problem in your editorial. Of the two areas you state that should be of special concern to Adventists, your comments on noncombatancy are simply Biblically unsupportable and irrelevant to the points raised in the editorial. You state that "We're slowly losing this defining characteristic" Did you mean to say "doctrine" but just could not quite bring yourself to it? It is not a Biblical, supportable doctrine. In fact it is a historical aberation born within very unique circumstances during the American Civil War.
To be blunt: At the beginning of what turned into the Rwanda genocide, I was stationed at the 45th U.S. Army Field Hospital in Vicenza, Italy. I was chief of one of the surgical divisions of the hospital. At Vicenza is also stationed a U.S. Army paratrooper division, ready to be virtually any place in the world within a day or two. It was on stand down (as were we at the Field Hospital) for orders to go into Rwanda. Those orders never came. . . As we waited, a planned and systematic genocide began as the West watched and ignored pleas for help. And as you also know, Adventists were butchering their countrymen with macheties, while those of us in Europe who had planes and guns and tanks and field hospitals sat on our hands. And yes, there were those of who, as Adventists, were ready to fly in to separate the waring parties, including fellow Adventists.
I served in the U.S. Army for 31 years as a physician, all the while fully qualified to handle the standard issue weapons if called upon to protect my medical unit and the patients it might contain. I did that, I fully believe, within the context of the authority and responsibility God places on national authorities to organize military power to keep peace.
The Adventist Church has benefitted greatly by the peace imposed by the military of a number of countries, particularly the US and its Allies. Adventist young men (and women) have and continue to serve heroically to keep that peace. To even imply that combantancy is the same as brute lawlessness, killing and criminality is just wrong.
I do not have any problem with any Adventist young person having a personal belief against the bearing of arms. But the Church must stop the misapplication of scripture in implying that what should be a personal decision of conscience is somehow a doctrine (defining characteristic, as you
put it).
Russel J. Thomsen, MD
USA, Marine Corp. (Ret)
THE DAY THE BANKS CLOSED
Thank you for reprinting the article "God Was Ready The Day The Banks Closed" (August 31, 2000). I was a 12-year old when this happened. Chester Rogers and his wife Anne were special friends of my family. We spent many Sabbath afternoons together. And Emma Howell was my
heroine. What a lady she was, and I always wanted to be like her. I can still see in my memory the little china bisque doll she brought me one time when I was ill--all dressed in a rich dark green silk with ecru lace trimming.
Growing up in Takoma Park was a privilege. And I have never doubted God's guidance, though He hasn't always answered my prayers in the way I wanted them answered. To Him be the glory
forever!
Violet Cole Roe
Southern California
MESSIANIC WORSHIP
My family sympathizes with Clifford Goldstein (Vertical Truths, August 25) when he says he feels
uncomfortable in a Gentile church worship, even if it is in our own Seventh-day Adventist church! We too love the Messianic worship but also love the Adventist truths which have been ignored by Messianic Jews.
These feelings are shared by many other Adventist Jews around the world. But, we say: take heart, for soon an Adventist Messianic worship is coming near you! The kind of worship that will make you rejoice in Messiah, both vertically and horizontally, seems finally to be taking roots within our denomination. At Andrews University, Dr. Jacques Doukhan has been holding Beit B'nei Zion worships once a month for over a year. Others have been holding the same kind of worships on a regular basis: Jeff Jarensky in Florida, Reinaldo Siqueira in Brazil, Ismael Rabinovich in Argentina, Pablo Rotman in Chile, as well as other small groups here and there.
Though each seems to be doing his/her own thing, ignoring the guidelines established at the First Seventh-day Adventist Jewish Community Conference global meetings held in Brazil in January of 1999, the tendency will be for all to stick to one type of corporate Adventist Jewish synagogue worship all over the world. Unlike the Messianic movement, we wish all of our Adventist synagogues to be named the same, for instance, Beit B'nei Zion (as voted during said meeting), and
following the same structure of worship with minor local cultural differences, so that people out there may identify us as being part of one and same unified Adventist Jewish movement. We can expect that to happen since, in the context of the Global Mission, Richard Elofer, president
of the Israel Mission, has been appointed to oversee this work.
Let us pray that soon such lack of comfort will turn into pure joy to many like Goldstein, when Messiah will be worshiped in an Adventist Jewish way all over the world. .
Susan Oliver
Goldstein did it again. He wrote from his own unique background, completely different from my own, and yet managed to teach me something.
Unlike Goldstein, I did not truly choose to initially enter the Adventist Church. I was born into it-- a third generation Adventist. I am not a Jew like Goldstein, but a Filipino-Caucasian, who grew up in Hawaii, earned degrees from Adventist universities, and settled into this church because
emotionally it was my home.
I have never doubted the 27 Fundamental Beliefs. Those truths were too clearly supported by the facts and by my personal experience of God to seriously question.
Yet I have found that the logic of our 27 Fundamental Beliefs was never been enough to keep me in the church. What has kept me in the church has been less head knowledge than a heart relationship, less proposition and proof than prayerful communion, less intellectual assent to vertical truths than a burning passion for Him Who is Truth.
Were it not for the community of believers, the steadfast fellowship of fellow pilgrims, the loving and forgiving family that is my Adventist Church, I might not be an active Adventist today. That's 180 degrees from where Goldstein's article was headed, but it's my perspective.
David A. Pendleton, Esq.
Hawaii Conference communication
and public affairs and religious liberty director
HOPE INTERNATIONAL
The article on Hope International (August 2000) correctly points out some key problems with Hope International's relationship with the mainstream church. It seems however, that Hope International is not the only independent ministry that makes serious charges against the church, while claiming loyalty to it. These other ministries, however, are more subtle in their methods so do not generate the reaction that Hope International does. We need to be equally alert to the same spirit of criticism, the same unwillingness to submit to the counsel of the church, the same need of parallel organizations, and the implied charges of apostasy that are evident in some other major independent ministries. Hope International is not the only group with such problems. They are simply the least subtle.
Stephen Bauer,
Assistant Professor of Theology,
Southern Adventist University
NEW NAD PRESIDENT
I received so many blessings from the reading of the August 2000 NAD edition. In reference to "Don Schneider: He Enjoys Every Day," I [also] know how to talk to telemarketers and turn bad experiences into good ones!
Betty Pearson
Port Orchard, WA
SEARCHING FOR ANGELS
I thoroughly enjoyed Doug Hardt's excellent article, "Searching for Angels" in the June 2000 NAD edition. A truly timely piece for all church members and especially for those who will sit on nominating committees as the church election process takes place. Thank God for examples in His word of how He uses men and women, in spite of their background, weakness, or education, to accomplish His work. If only we can see with the eyes of Jesus!
Claudine Houston
Atlanta, Georgia
(PDF version of this article is available online - see page 8)
AR ONLINE
The last two weeks the Review has not been in PDF format on your web page. Has that service been discontinued? If so, we will really miss it.
We enjoyed it so much because we put it on our Church Bulletin Board. It was very attractive because the pictures were in color in contrast to the xeroxed black and white. The church is on the seventh floor of the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital and our bulletin board is out where everyone can see it when they go or come from the Cafeteria and other Dr's offices. The stories and
articles stay up for a week and all during the week you see all kinds of people reading the articles. About 95% of our workers are non-Adventists.
Our church is mostly Filipino ladies who seldom hear or see any Church magazines and they have so much enjoyed reading the articles and seeing the pictures. Especially the GC Bulletins. They were excellent and we thank you.
Gary Rustad, Pastor
Hong Kong Adventist Hospital Church
Our online archives has been rebuilt and all the issues are now available.
I enjoy your [e-mail] updates. May I make a request? It would be helpful if you would offer links to the articles and a link to the Adventist Review site. Although I have you in my Favorites list, by the time I exit the e-mail and find your site, I forget what articles I was going to access.
Sincerely,
Dorrie Philbeck
Thanks so much for your suggestions. They truly help to improve the quality of our journals. –Editors
