Most of our readers
are acquainted with the notorious Evangelical Conferences which occurred
from 1954 to 1956. (The most complete narrative on those unfortunate
events, and what they led to afterward, will be found in our 146-page Evangelical
Conferences and Their Aftermath, now in our Doctrinal History Tractbook
(232 pp., $17.50 + $2.00 p&h).
Well, forty-six years later, it
appears our leaders may try to finish what they started back then. The
objective, in the 1950s, was the attainment of full acceptance by the
Protestant denominations; the method used was partial compromise on
several of our historic beliefs. What will our objective be during this
second series?
The problem is that the only
practical way we can buy peace with the Protestants is to push our own distinctive teachings further back into the shadows.
It was the only way we could do it back then; it is the only way we will
be able to do it now.
It is an astounding fact that
the nation of modern Israel is willing to hand over most of its land in
order to purchase peace with its neighbors. It is even more incredible
that Gods last-day people are so willing to give away their beliefs, in
trade for acceptance by the other churches.
Seriously, now: Why do we
need acceptance by the other churches? For over a hundred years, prior
to the 1950s, our leaders and workers did not worry about trying to
appease the Sundaykeepers! We were heartily disliked back then because we
obeyed the law of God and stood in defense of the Bible Sabbath. We still
are.
What is this strange infatuation
with the fallen churches that is driving our leaders in this direction?
As the storm
approaches a large class who have professed faith in the third angels
message, but have not been sanctified through obedience to the truth,
abandon their position and join the ranks of the opposition. By uniting
with the world and partaking of its spirit they have come to view matters
in nearly the same light; and when the test is brought, they are prepared
to choose the easy, popular side. Great Controversy, 608.
The following information is
based on a news release by our General Conference and is accompanied by
our comments:
On November 14, 2000,
Seventh-day Adventist church leaders in Silver Spring, Maryland, disclosed
that they are making arrangements to hold a series of dialogues with
the World Evangelical Fellowship.
A proposed series of
meetings between the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the World
Evangelical Fellowship (WEF) will aim to break down stereotypes and foster
greater understanding between the two groups, said Bert Beverly Beach,
director of the General Conference Department of Inter-church Relations.
The decision was the
culmination of extended contacts with the WEF, which reached tentative
finalization six days earlier, on November 8, at a meeting of several
Adventist leaders and Dr. James Stamoolis, executive director of the
WEFs Theological Commission. The meeting, held at our General
Conference, was hosted by Bert Beach.
Its primarily about
getting to know each other, Beach said. He admitted that he began
working on the idea with Stamoolis about a year earlier. We want to
move beyond false stereotypes, to see where we agree and disagree, and to
explore areas where we could mutually benefit by working together, such as
on religious liberty initiatives.
Perhaps one of the religious
liberty initiatives will be to convince the Evangelicals that they
should not file amicus curiae briefs on behalf of the beleaguered
group in Florida who is trying to defend their religious liberty
rights,or any of the other groups which the General Conference later
sues in order to deprive them of their religious liberty rights.
But, at the heart of the matter,
doctrinal emphasis has always stood between us and the other churches. As
Beach said, we want to see where we can agree.
For quite some time, a concerted
attempt has been made to make peace with the Sundaykeeping churches. Under
the leadership of B.B. Beach, we gave a valuable gold medal to Pope Paul
VI on May 18, 1977 (Gold Medal to the Pope [MB54]).
Due to his brinkmanship and
remarkable linguistic skills, Beach has, for years, been chairman of an
ecumenical council at the World Council of Churches headquarters in
Geneva, Switzerland. He has served on that committee since
1965,immediately after Vatican II cleared the way for that joint
Vatican-Protestant-Orthodox-Adventist committee to begin holding ongoing
discussions.
More recently, accords were
signed with the Lutheran Church. In addition, you will recall our
discovery a year ago of a series of secret meetings, held at Geneva,
between our leaders and several other denominations, at which time we
agreed to tone down our public presentations of the Sabbath.
And now we learn of this latest
series of discussions with representatives from the highest levels of the
Evangelical churches! This is what we did back in the 1950s. Where we
headed? Leaders are powerful. Look what our national leaders have done to
America in the past eight years. R.A. Anderson, Leroy E. Froom, and Walter
Martin had a powerful impact on our church nearly half a century ago. We
are still living with the errors on the nature of Christ, finished
atonement at the cross, downgrading of obedience by faith, and other
doctrinal errors which they gave uswith the resultant lowering of
standards that it brought.
For more information on our
ecumenical contacts with Rome, the World Council of Churches, and the
National Council of Churches, we refer you to our two-book set on this
subject: Seventh-day Adventist/Vatican Ecumenical Involvement, Book I
(History80 pp., $6.00 + $1.50 p&h); Book 2 (Documents146 pp.,
$11.00 + $2.00 p&h).
Here is additional information
on this forthcoming series of meetings by General Conference leaders
which, as you might expect, will be led by Beach and Evangelical leaders
of their World Evangelical Fellowship:
The first meeting is slated to
be held at Glacier View, Colorado, September 9 to 14, 2001. The
dialogue-conversation will take the form of a series of papers, produced
by both the Adventist Church and the WEFs Theological Commission. The
papers are be presented at a series of annual meetings over a period of
four or five years.
Beach says the meetings will
help our church work with the other denominations on religious
liberty issues. But did you notice that our papers will be presented
to their Theological Commission. Religious liberty is not theology.
The Theological Commission of
the WEF, headed by Stamoolis, facilitates networking between Evangelical
theologians and produces scholarly and popular works on Christian
theology. Its stated goal, according to Beach,
is to encourage Christians around the world to develop and
articulate a Biblical theology which takes into account the needs and
opportunities of local contexts within a global perspective.
What is the meaning of that
statement? It sounds like the kind of talk which could include additional
doctrinal concessions by us, to help bring us together. The phrase,
Biblical theology, sounds ominous. That was what we were discussing
with Walter Martin and Donald Barnhouse back in the 1950s, which resulted
in gutting our teachings for the sake of peace in our time.
Our forefathers preached the
truth, unpalatable though it might be. They laid the ax at the root of the
tree of modern religious apostasy. Their descendants want to turn and lay
the ax at the root of our own treeand chop the truth into palatable
pieces.
In order to alleviate any
concerns conservative church members might have, George Reid, director of
our General Conference Biblical Research Institute, commented that the
forthcoming meetings will not be about forging agreements on theological
or doctrinal issues. There is no interest in ecumenism as such on
either side, says Reid.
Instead, he said, the two groups
will produce papers aimed at establishing a profile of each group, in
order to foster better understanding and to remove stereotypes. But, he
added that parties to the dialogue will also review areas of doctrinal
agreement and disagreement and discuss hermeneutics, or Biblical
interpretation.
If both sides are not interested
in coming together on theology, why will our papers be presented to
their Theological Commission?
If both sides are not interested
in working through agreements on theological or doctrinal issues, why will
areas of doctrinal agreement and disagreement be carefully
considered?
If all our leaders are concerned
about are religious liberty initiatives, why will we be discussing
areas of Biblical interpretation?
Are you aware of the fact
that the presenting of papers was exactly that which got us into
trouble forty-six years ago? Walter Martin
would present us with a theological question and Leroy Edwin Froom would
spend several weeks writing a subtly worded reply which would compromise
our teachings in order to please Martin while trying to retain Adventist
words and phrases which would hide the sellout to our members. This
process continued for the better part of two years, during an extended
series of meetings! The result was our 1947 book, the full title of which
was Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine. Because of
the churches which Martin and Barnhouse represented, these came to be know
as the Evangelical Conferences.
Now, we are going to present
papers once again, at a series of meetings to another group of leaders
representing the Evangelical churches. The one in the 1950s was a little
under three years in length. We are told that this forthcoming series will
extend to four or five years.
Stamoolis, of the WEF,
reportedly said that he hopes the outcome of the talks will be a clear
understanding between the parties in the dialogue regarding each others
position. I would like to see respect and an honest agreement to disagree
when, after examination and study, the two sides find themselves on
opposite sides of an issue.
Do not underestimate the influence of the World Evangelical
Fellowship. With origins that go back to 1846, this organization
represents Evangelical Christian denominations and organizations from 111
countries. It claims to serve a constituency of approximately 160 million
Christians. Now is a time for prayer. vf
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