The NAD Ministerial Department ‘Christian Nationalism, Adventism, and Prophecy’ symposium was held online last Sabbath (April 24th).
Sponsoring Organizations
• Adventist Society for Religious Studies
• Adventist Theological Society
• Adventist Peace Fellowship
• Conscience & Justice Council
• Society of Adventist Philosophers
• SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University
• Loma Linda University School of Religion
• NAD Ministerial Association
I didn’t view this symposium in real time, but I was forced to watch it later. Pray for me!
People all over the Adventist landscape “Hey man (‘Hey Bro’, for the hipsters) did you watch the NAD Symposium on Christian Nationalism? You gotta report on it.” Ugh.
I would rather trim my nosehairs with a chainsaw than subject myself to almost four hours of Seventh-day Adventist polilib wokeness, but not one to shirk from a challenge, I took a stab at it. Here’s what I see occuring, on a macro level.
Like the culture around us, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is currently in a period of profound ferment and demand for change. Over the last 50-years, the Church in western regions has moved from political indifference & (mostly) conservative to liberal. And during the last decade, the Church is now transitioning to political leftism, especially in North America.
How We Got Here
Beginning in the 1950’s, a wave of bright young Adventists moved into the graduate schools of major secular universities in the United States and Europe. They were a kind of experimental species, for prior to them only a few SDA believers had ventured into such studies, typically persons of long experience in church service.
Now, bright young Adventists experienced the stimulation of high quality, but liberal education. And many of them found it attractive in ways that distanced them from their previous Adventist faith. Then they came home, bringing their newfound way of thinking with them.
From these youthful graduates came a number of faculty members placed in our schools and the rapidly developing seminary, transferred from its former location in the Washington Missionary College in 1959. Within the decade the seminary experienced a convulsion of faith that some of the older readers may recall. It led to the departure of several faculty members; some of whom continued active in promoting the reinterpretation of the faith. Liberalism had infiltrated Adventism, and like a cancer it began to spread, albeit slowly at first.
During the 1970’s and 80’s, liberalism continued to fester in many of our university faculty departments and the openly-liberal Adventist Forums. In the 1980’s and 90’s, it began to transition into Political Progressive Adventist Wokeness (PPAW). PPAW became entrenched in religious liberty departments of the church, eventually—with only a few exceptions—taking over the entire field. Content to leave the task of theological reinterpretation to the academic wing and liberal theologians of the Church, these religious liberty department ‘leaders’ needed a reason to justify their increasingly political liberal penchant. They needed a boogeyman, if you will. Enter the religious right and Jerry Falwell in the early 1980’s, who were thoroughly opposed to homosexual marriage and abortion.
These moral majority fundamentalists of the 1980s and 90s strayed from biblical wisdom at times and were way too much into politics. It’s OK to care about the direction of politics as it impacts our lives, but it is too easy to make that into an idol, and many of them did. The answers that we seek are not in politics, whether right or left. They just aren’t.
Messchatology
In 2015, I coined the term Messchatology to describe the intertwining of liberal politics with Seventh-day Adventist end-time prophetic understandings (or eschatology). It makes a mess.
Religious liberty departments of the church saw in Falwell and the religious right a massive boogeyman that could be construed as the fulfillment of our prophetic expectations. For ten years, this boogeyman dominated Adventist prophetic writings, each author convinced that he had found—in them—the epitome of apocalyptic evil. I have a number of these books in my personal library. Many of these authors meant well, but were carried along by a current of Adventist assumption that we had it all figured out. Messchatology was now in full bloom.
There are innumerable things to be grateful for in our Adventist prophetic understandings, and we must hold onto them in the midst of a hostile world. We must also be aware that there are some things yet to be revealed, that the Lord will make plain in His good time. This dual approach of gratefulness and trust will keep us both inspired and humble.
In the last ten years, many people in the Church turned to political advocacy as the next progressive step. Aided by social media, and reinforced by the culture around them, these progressives exchanged liberalism for leftism (the two are not synonymous, btw), unconcerned that the left's agenda is working against the cause of liberty.
2020 Arrived
The ‘mostly dead’ religious right was dangling from the edge of the cultural cliff by their mere fingerprints, and our PPAW became bored camping out at Jerry Falwell Sr’s grave for the last 13 years. A new Messchatological (my word) monster was needed to justify wokeness, BLM and steroidal social justice in the Seventh-day Adventist church. Enter ‘Christian Nationalism’ a term eagerly seized upon by PPAW.
What is Nationalism?
A nationalist believes that the world is governed best when nations are free to chart their own independent course, cultivating their traditions and pursuing their interests without interference. Nationalism is not about racism, in fact most nations, including America, are tremendously diverse. And it isn’t about isolationism either, in spite of what wokesters may say.
Nationalism is the opposite of imperialism or globalism, which are all names for the attempt to bring ‘peace and prosperity’ to the world by uniting mankind under a single political authority (Revelation 13:14-18).
In the 20th century, communism and Nazism both sought to impose a universal human vision at gunpoint. Both the communists and the Nazis were imperialists: They wanted to eliminate the independent nations of the world around them. By the way, wokeness is the ideological offspring of communist Marxism—intensely imperialistic and technologically weaponized.
Christian Nationalism
Christian Nationalism is the new scapegoat of leftism. Along with white supremacy & privilege, it is claimed to be the cause of all disparity, of racism, capitalism, white privilege and measles. In other words, it’s a good fit for Messchatology and its PPAW warriors.
I agree that the Bible is calling us to a better country than America and a better city than Los Angeles, as the hope of the redeemed (Hebrews 11:16). You and I want to be there, one day. In the meantime, I am grateful to live in America, with its tremendous opportunities and Constitutional checks and balances. If I hated America, I would leave.
By investing Christian Nationalism with pejorative meaning PPAW warriors essentially condemn patriotism, or any concern for the lawless drift in the country, often equating the two.
By condemning America, the PPAW claim to be concerned only with the world to come while simultaneously trying hard to create a utopian wonder-world here on earth. Yes, it’s hypocritical.
We should have no kinship with skinheads and the small number of KKK wannabees that dwell in America, unless we are trying to bring gospel truth to them, like I did in Houston in 2012. Neither can we condemn a parent or grandparent—our older declining generation with traditional cultural and religious values—as neo nazi nationalist facists, simply because they reject Progressive Political Adventist Wokeness.
PPAW claims that wokeness, reparations, and BLM support will cleanse your soul for the latter rain, even though wokeness revolutionaries in America utilize lawlessness, politics, demonic bitterness, leftism and godless humanism to achieve these goals
PPAW condemns almost anyone, who refuses to go along with the NAD social justice wokeness agenda, as a Christian nationalist (or bad person) who should be veggie-canceled in the church. I could provide a whole series of examples.
PPAW misuses SDA eschatology to justify importing political leftism in the Church (Messchatology). This makes leftism an imperative—it is ‘needed’ for you to be a good member, and be part of the herd. To the PPAW, if you don’t support political leftism you are a Christian Nationalist on your way to setting up an image to the beast. In short, they blend church and state (leftists politics) in order to keep people from blending church and state. Instead of seeking some sort of anti-political neutral ground (which would be great) the fundamental premise of Progressive Political Adventist Wokeness is now exclusively leftist.
That brings us back to the NAD Minsterial Department ‘Christian Nationalism, Adventism, and Prophecy’ symposium held online on April 24th.
NAD Minsterial Department ‘Christian Nationalism, Adventism, and Prophecy’ Symposium
I found the title incredibly misleading and was tempted to call it "Why We Should All Despise Christians” or “If You Are Not a Woke Social Justice Warrior Adventist Polilib, You Are A Terrible Person.” Instead I call it The “NAD Christian Nationalism is Bad and Critical Race Theory is Good Social Justice SDA Polilib Woke Symposium” or NADCNBCRTGSJSDAPWS for short.
It is interesting to me that this symposium invited two non-Adventist authors to keynote the SDA panelists. Both authors are (it goes without saying) wokesters, one claiming to be a progressive Christian, the other a pro-gay marriage professor at Purdue. By the end of the Symposium, I was convinced that white Christians are not good people, unless they are woke white lefty ‘Christians.’ Then they are ok.
There were five Adventist panelists and the two woke non-SDA authors. Here’s one of the SDA panelists, possibly the most clamorous.
Claudia Allen
In true social justice fashion, she equates evangelicalism with white supremacy. She states—without persuasive proof—that racism is a feature of American evangelicalism. Going even further, she states that white supremacy and Christian nationalism are one. She says white supremacy is the embodiment of capitalism, anti-black racism, xenophobia, exploitive labor and political allegiances. Notice how capitalism is the repeated target of these social justice warriors turned socialist. You will find hostility towards the free market throughout the Black Lives Matter organization. Small wonder, for communist revolution is the holy grail of these woke revolutionaries. (By the way, when you accept critical theory the ultimate end is revolution. And that’s why you want to defund the police.)
Halfway through her merciless denunciation of America, she praises fellow presenter Jeffery Rosario for pointing out that “American Christianity has always acted like a lamb and spoken like dragon.”
“American Christianity has a dark duality, acting like a lamb and speaking like a dragon.” They have done this for—according to Claudia Allen and Jeffery Rosario—500 years. Her dark pessimism insists that America is not a Christian nation and has never been. There was never a time when America was decent, happy or noble. Barely able to contain her indignation, she decries capitalism again, exposing the not-so-subtle political undercurrent in the whole symposium. PPAW, all the way.
If you oppose black lives matter you are a white supremacist. (I enthusiastically oppose the BLM organization, and affirm Acts 17:26 and Revelation 7:9. Call me what you will.)
She exposes her political agenda by equating socialism and civil rights. Spitting out the words with generational vitriol, she blames capitalism three more times, and condemns free enterprise as an artifact of chattel slavery and ‘Christian nationalism’. She claims that America and the Christian church form a symbiotic bond that keeps either from dismantling the structural and systemic racism that pervades America. This is utter nonsense. Explanation later.
Lastly, white American Christians are the most racist people in the entire country. But she isn’t. “White supremacy and racism are central tenets of white Christianity in America.” Such vitriol, friends. Such self-righteous hatred. Such lack of the fundamental quality that fits one for heaven. Gratitude. Her final comment is that ‘people who voted for Donald Trump are bigoted, because he is a racist white supremacist.’ She says so.
Observations
So everyone else is horrible but SJW woke millennials and PPAW have it right?
The idea that you can target an ethnic group with a collective crime, regardless of the specific guilt or innocence of the constituent elements of that group is the height of racism. There is nothing more racist than that.
True Christians are not the victimizers in this war on speech but the victims of the very leftists who falsely accuse them.
How much patriotism is acceptable? It’s ok to appreciate the family you were born into, and the country in which you live. That is a good thing. Keeping Christ supreme in our affections makes all our lesser affections better, not worse. Never feel more attached to your homeland or your tribe or your family than you do to the people of Christ (those of us who have had to walk away from friends and family for the sake of Christ know this, intensely).
It’s not healthy to hate the country that you live in. It will make you sick with bitterness and fear. No nation can survive if it teaches its children to hate their country.
One of the reasons I loathe leftism is it thrives on the ugliest of human traits. Ingratitude. Ingratitude is one the ugliest human traits, and gratitude is one of the most beautiful traits. Gratitude is the mother of both happiness and goodness. You cannot be happy and you cannot be good if you are not grateful. And you can not enter the New Jerusalem (Psalm 100:4). Leftism thrives on and is rooted in ingratitude. The ungrateful are unhappy and they want others to be equally unhappy. Don’t believe me? Watch the NAD Minsterial Department ‘Christian Nationalism, Adventism, and Prophecy’ symposium from 1:51:20 to 2:08 and ask yourself “Is this the kind of attitude that will be in heaven?” Is this the “Gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God”? (1 Peter 3:3-4).
The righteous are willing to disadvantage themselves to be a blessing to the community; the wicked are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.
Messchatology beat the religious right horse until it was pretty much dead. They beat it while homosexual marriage became the law of our land; while the White House was illuminated in LGBTQ colors on 6- 26-2015 to celebrate gay marriage, and while One World Trade Center Tower was illuminated in pink to celebrate full term abortion.
My fellow Adventist Americans, you are among the luckiest people on earth to be Americans. It is pure undeserved luck on my part and yours that we were born American citizens. That is why most of the world wants to come here. That is why, in the last 20 years alone, 3 million blacks (2 million from Africa and 1 million from the Caribbean) have come to America. Why would they come to a systemically racist country? Are they foolish? Ask your left-wing PPAW friends “Why have millions of blacks from Africa come here voluntarily?” 340,000 came on those despicable torture chambers known as slave ships, but tens of millions have come here voluntarily.
Liberal Adventism is pursuing a deadly timeline. Doctrine (orthodoxy) is giving way to good works (social justice) or orthopraxy, which gives way to doing good as a substitute for doctrinal orthodoxy. Social justice eventually gives way to advocating for others to do the same ‘good works’, which leads to political activism for the state to mandate those ‘good works’ and ultimately to dangerous leftist utopian totalitarianism. Progressive Political Adventist Wokeness is near the end of this arc.
Tremendous changes are occurring within our Church, friend. Don’t lose heart; God still loves you and trusts you with the Three Angels’ Messages. Resist these PPAW attempts to infest our precious Advent Message with wokeness, and reach out to people with God’s truth and the love of Christ.
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“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:5-6).