In 1850, about the time that our Seventh Day Adventist faith community was founded, most people lived the majority of their lives within about a 10 mile radius. Your worldview and your view of God were determined by the immediate circle of your family and your few friends. There was no television, no radio, no cell phones, no internet. The newsprint was local and limited. There was no Sunday edition of The New York Times or The Washington Post to give you a broader view of the world. It was easy to believe what you were told about life, what you were told about death, and what you were told about God.
Even books were somewhat limited. The box for thinking was small, limited, and narrow. Thinking outside of the box, especially concerning God and things of the Spirit, was not only discouraged but often forbidden. That there was a great world “out there”—somehow full of people different from you, who didn’t speak your language, didn’t eat your food, didn’t share your culture—was only a theoretical idea. It was not something that had real world value. This isolationism fostered all kinds of thinking, from paranoid to grandiose. Our view of our ourselves in relationship to the real world was markedly skewed.
Worldview, which markedly influences faith and the concepts you hold about God, is reinforced by your immediate context, who you share your experiences with, who you share your sensory inputs with, and who you share your identical worldview with. When I was a boy, in the 1950s, the world was a little bit bigger than it was for my parents and grandparents. Maybe people lived on an average around a 200 mile radius. Radio was prevalent but there were very few stations. Television was in its infancy. Newsprint media were more widely available.
Faith groups, by then, had published a variety of printed materials for their members to read. These magazines were to assure uniformity in thinking. They were to establish official positions on things and to promote thinking within the box inside which only those thoughts should pertain.
Uniformity was the name of the game. In my church, everyone looked like me and my family. There was no color, no accents, no other worldview, no thinking outside the box. Within such limited thinking, certain ideas take root and they hold on—ideas such as: “We are unique, we are special, we are chosen. We are the sure way to salvation.” It’s easy to see, in an environment like this, that the whole world is like me; that I am normal and I am normative.
Fast forward to today. Here we sit together in this class as a faith community from all over the world. We have different backgrounds, different languages, different cultures, different notions and ideas about God. But more than that: We have different ideas.
The question is: What is actually real? For our founding fathers, what was real was the sky and the earth, the grass and the trees, the horse in the plow, the dew, the rain, the hail, the snow, mother’s bread, and old Bessie’s milk. That was what was real; nothing more and nothing less. As a boy, what was real to me was my dad’s ’55 Chevy, my teacher’s paddle, baseball cards, grandma’s pie, and the pile of coal that heated my grandfather’s furnace. What was real to me was white skin, English language, peanut butter, and present truth.
But what is real keeps changing. The reality around us keeps changing and so too does our worldview. Our picture of faith and our image of God and the line between what is real and what isn’t becomes blurred. Is the Mario brother real? Is Facebook real? Is Zoom Sabbath School real? Is it real to assess that our faith group is unique, special, and that we are chosen? Out of the billions of people who have ever lived on this earth and the billions that live here now, is it real to think that it’s really all about us? That we also possess the truth—the only truth—and that we alone have the way to God?
When your world is small, it’s easy to see yourself as filling up that world. But when your world is large, it is difficult to see yourself and your faith group as that of ultimate importance. Technology takes us to a place that makes us really question what is real and what is not. Just this week in my study I ran across this article:
Virtual Reality’s amazing opportunity to encourage faith
14th January 2017
By Not Only Sundays
The future is here and it’s a box on your head. We know it as Virtual Reality (VR) and it will be an amazing opportunity for Christians.
If you haven’t experienced it yet, you will soon. It’s one of the biggest technological changes this decade (alongside AI and robotics) and is set to change our culture for the next century. And it will alter our experience of being a Christian in the world. Christians will need to be more involved in producing and using VR because it will likely redefine how we worship.
Given that VR will become more pervasive (not unlike the internet), a clear Biblical stance on its use and misuse is needed for the good of all. And there will be good that comes of it. It’s a remarkable opportunity for the Christian faith. What’s all the fuss about Virtual Reality and should Christians care?
So what’s so great about VR? After all the idea of has been around since the 1990s and websites such as Second Life already create a virtual world for their users online. But recently there’s been a recent technology leap in the quality and accessibility of VR. Now with the release of the Oculus Rift it takes VR into the homes of millions. Other makes are in the market too, notably the Samsung Gear VR and HTC Vive.
It’s hard to explain the experience, you have to have it yourself. But this analogy may be helpful. In the same way, headphones create an audio surrounding for the listener, VR headsets represent a visual surrounding for the viewer. By putting on the headset, the real world is obscured and the user is immersed in a fully digital experience with a view all around with just a turn of the head.
What’s also powerful is that you can potentially interact with others connected via the internet in real time creating a ‘third place’ separate from where you and the other(s) are. Many are predicting that this is the future of social media.
That’s why as Christians, we need to care and understand the trends that are happening.
My childhood ‘Virtual Reality’.
But I’ve had that feeling before, kind of. It took me back to another childhood memory. A friend of mine brought home from the States a flashy red ViewMaster. Remember those? It was like looking through a small pair of binoculars to see a series of amazing 3D views of scenes from around the world. That was ‘so cool’ for its time as well. Of course, VR is a massive jump ahead in every way but it taps into the same human fascination for escape and experience. It’s this fascination that’s going to drive our desire for more VR. And there will be unlimited creative possibilities but also perils.
VR is like a forbidden fruit. We’ve taken a bite out of it and now there’s no going back. VR is here to stay.
What’s Virtual Reality being used for?
VR is already being used in education. Students are able to become avatars (a digital representation of someone in a virtual environment) and interact with other students. It’s proven to be a very effective tool to teach subjects such as maths, science, and medicine where abstract ideas can be represented in more creative ways. But how about Christian communication? Imagine the possibilities of believers from all over the world sharing in the teaching of the Bible? And there’s no need to worry about language, a virtual simultaneous translation will take care of that too.
A whole new area of filmmaking is now opening up with companies producing ‘digital worlds’ that users can experience and explore. It’s a different kind of filmmaking to traditional narrative movies but Hollywood directors are already interested in the commercial prospects of this new kind of experience. A unique production called Clouds Over Sidra places the viewer inside a refugee camp in Jordan. This filming has been enabled with increasingly sophisticated 360° cameras and more and more 360° short films and promos are coming on stream.
The fact that a viewer can be immersed into the experience of another part of the world, in this instance a refugee camp, is hugely powerful. It can only create a higher degree of understanding and empathy. Could Christians use this to illustrate the world of the Gospels?
VR is also taking on a healing role and is being used as a therapeutic tool to help overcome trauma. It has been trialled successfully for those overcoming Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. That’s because the user is able to realistically relive and therefore manage the stress of the trauma. I’ve no doubt Christian counsellors could one day use VR as another tool to help with healing traumas such as these. This is just only the beginning of the already amazing possibilities and benefits beginning to emerge with this nascent technology. But there has to be a downside, right? Sadly, yes.
The problems and dangers of Virtual Reality for Christians.
We get anxious about change, especially pervasive technological change where we can’t imagine where it will end. The temptation to really disappear into VR and escape the tough realities of life must surely be a difficult thing to resist. So the same importance of self-discipline, regulating time in and out of VR is just the same as any other pastime. Whether that’s gaming or watching movies online. Some, however, will struggle. I’m sure VR will hold even more of a grip on some people because of its escapist appeal. It begs the question, just where exactly are we when we’re in a virtual world?
Judging by how our body responds in these ‘places’, psychologists have demonstrated that our emotions can’t be switched off between real and virtual worlds. Your subconscious mind actually can’t tell the difference. For example, in a game, you’ll duck and dive at things coming your way as your body’s physiology responds in the same way as in the real world. The emotional impact of experiences in VR is as real as the actual world. More troubling is that our emotions can be as easily affected or manipulated by the environment we’re in. ll our human nature and frailties we know so well in the real world are as strong in the virtual. This is another danger with VR, it impacts on our emotional wellbeing. We just can’t escape our own natures there.
Warnings for Christians: Virtual Reality’s negative impact on relationships.
It is possible in VR to form relationships with others and it has been known for people to form deep attachments and even have ‘affairs’. Like every new technology on the scene, the sex industry is always there at the forefront, leading the way (in a bad way). It is possible to have virtual sexual encounters through VR too. This article https://theconversation.com/unfaithfully-yours-what-happens-when-virtual-reality-affairs-get-real-67842 on VR adultery is a safe discussion on this new moral issue.
Bizarre as all this may sound, it has been shown that the emotional consequences of the virtual world do spill over into the real world. They can’t be separated. All our vices and sins are as real in the virtual body as in the actual body.
We’re now moving into very troubling areas for Christians. VR can easily become another form of idolatry where we choose to focus our worship on something created or artificial other than God. ‘You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them’ Exodus 20:4-5. This will be the big ethical question surrounding a Christian response to VR. But the opportunities for good are still clear.
Developing a Christian theology of Virtual Reality.
These warnings should give us pause for thinking and praying. But it would also be a colossal mistake for Christians and the church to completely reject this technology. Instead, it needs to be handled with great care because it is powerful. The good news is that we have a two thousand year tradition and even older God-given scriptures to help us navigate the issue. So here are some initial areas to explore and debate.
Firstly, it’s my contention that VR is not actually new. What I mean by that is that the church has also been engaging the senses for centuries. It’s always harnessed impressive visual and aural experiences. This has been to educate, inspire and move the emotions of people to worship God. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this: [INSERT SISTINE CHAPEL PIC HERE] What is this created to do if not to take the believer beyond themselves into another realm of spiritual experience and contemplation? The Sistine Chapel is one of the greatest artistic achievements in human history. But also a little bit VR, don’t you think? VR is the same thing.
Virtual Reality and the opportunity for new Christian experiences.
Like the middle ages and Renaissance, there are artistic expressions in VR to impact the faithful and inspire the curious. Companies like Bible VR are doing just that and there’ll be more and more. VR will redefine the ‘place’ of the church too. People will be more able to worship in shared virtual spaces with other members who share similar perspectives on faith. This has the advantage of connecting and having ‘fellowship’ with believers you wouldn’t otherwise meet from around the world. I’m not suggesting this is good or bad, it just is. We will have to develop a theology to fit a body of Christ that is meeting in a very different way.
The advantages of worshipping in a virtual church mean those who are housebound, unwell or feel unable to attend a ‘real world’ church can still partake in worship. Virtual churches are also more likely to be outside the establishment where more radical doctrines might be given freer reign. In the virtual world of Second Life, this has proven to be the case. How the established churches manage this and ensure good doctrine is taught in the virtual church may well be a challenge.
Rediscovering God’s real world through Virtual Reality.
The virtual realm has the possibility of altering our perspective in the real. With a VR opportunity to be elsewhere and to experience other places and states of emotion, we can return to the actual world changed for the better. We can feel more empathy for a situation or more inspired to remake the real world in ways more perfected in the virtual. This is a fascinating possibility. Could we get a glimpse of the Kingdom of God in the virtual world and bring it back into the real?
This raises all sorts of fascinating and deeper questions that will need to be worked out. We remember Jesus’s words ‘for where two or three gathers in my name, there I am with them.’ Matthew 18:20. I see no reason why Christ’s presence can’t be in the virtual as in the real. It is entirely possible that people may find faith in the virtual world for the first time and ‘be sent’ back into the actual world as disciples of Christ. Now that is mind-expanding stuff.
Virtual Reality and the opportunity for Christian evangelism.
As Christians in the non-virtual church, we are entering into a time unlike any other. The opportunity to communicate the good news and reach millions of people is right there. All thanks to this new technology. This alternate virtual space is a new place for evangelism. I can imagine churches sending out ‘missionaries’ into the virtual. And it could all happen in our lifetime.
But we can also discern the dangers and distortions that VR can create. Now, more than ever Christians need to discover, talk, experience, share and pray ‘your kingdom come, on earth as in heaven’. With the earth getting a little bigger to encompass this amazing, newly created virtual world. God give us wisdom, discernment, and guidance for such an incredible time and opportunity as this.
Peter needed to learn the same lesson that that we’re referring to here—the same lesson that we need to learn: How to expand his world?…
Now there was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and made many charitable contributions to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually. About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!” And he looked at him intently and became terrified, and said, “What is it, lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and charitable gifts have ascended as a memorial offering before God. Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter; he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.” When the angel who *spoke to him left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier from his personal attendants, and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.
On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and wanted to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; and he *saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and on it were all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the sky. A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.
Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius had asked directions to Simon’s house, and they appeared at the gate; and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.” Peter went down to the men and said, “Behold, I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for which you have come?” They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you.” So he invited them in and gave them lodging.
Now on the next day he got ready and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. On the following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter helped him up, saying, “Stand up; I, too, am just a man.” As he talked with him, he entered and *found many people assembled. And he said to them, “You yourselves know that it is forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner; and yet God has shown me that I am not to call any person unholy or unclean. That is why I came without even raising any objection when I was sent for. So I ask, for what reason did you send for me?”
Cornelius said, “Four days ago to this hour, I was praying in my house during the ninth hour; and behold, a man stood before me in shining clothing, and he *said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your charitable gifts have been remembered before God. Therefore send some men to Joppa and invite Simon, who is also called Peter, to come to you; he is staying at the house of Simon the tanner, by the sea.’ So I sent men to you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here present before God to hear everything that you have been commanded by the Lord.”
Opening his mouth, Peter said:
“I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the one who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him. The word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all)— you yourselves know the thing that happened throughout Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed. You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. We are witnesses of all the things that He did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He be revealed, not to all the people, but to witnesses who had been chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He ordered us to preach to the people, and to testify solemnly that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify of Him, that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.”
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. All the Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had also been poured out on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter responded, “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?” And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days. (Acts 10)
Peter, like us, saw himself and his faith community as the center of the universe. He was the big fish in a small pond. God wanted him to learn something about expanding his thinking. We see the pitfalls and the possibilities of a faith community. Here are nine points I’d like to make about the story:
- God’s people are everywhere. God is Cornelius’ God and Peter’s God, the same God.
- Peter and Cornelius share the same worldview. Do they share the same celestial view about God?
- God has a way of getting his message through to whoever he wants to send it to.
- Our job is to be ready to do what God asks, not to have our own agenda.
- Key to doing our job is to be able to lay aside preconceived notions and long-held prejudices, and abandon tightly held ideas in order to do what God wants us to do.
- God’s way of seeing things, especially his way of seeing other people and other faith communities, is not the same way we see them.
- God’s people are whoever God says they are, regardless of our point of view. Whether we see others as God’s people are not, if God says they are his people, they are his people.
- The job of the faith community is to be real people modeling the kingdom of heaven, so that other real people who want to be part of the kingdom of heaven can see what the kingdom of heaven on earth is really like.
- “Chosenness” means that you may be chosen to be put to work. You’re not chosen, it seems, for salvation. You’re not chosen for knowing the only way to God. You’re not chosen to possess the truth. You are chosen to be the arms, the feet, the hands, the heart of God.
Like Peter, we so easily fall into the trap of thinking that our faith community is about us, when in fact the faith community must be about God. Technology is tearing down the cultural, geographic, and even the linguistic barriers that divide us. My daughter, who is visiting China, has an app on her phone that translates written Chinese and interprets spoken Chinese into English. She speaks in English and it comes out in Chinese.
Even religious barriers are coming down and as we see in others that none is common or unclean. When these barriers come down we see in ourselves who we are: Sinners, just like the next man, in need of God’s grace. Paul talks about taking down the barriers between Gentile and Jew:
For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the hostility, which is the Law composed of commandments expressed in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two one new person, in this way establishing peace; and that He might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the hostility. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:14-22)
What does your worldview have to do with your faith and with your faith community? How can you tell what is real and what is fake? How would you compare the worldview of your great grandfather with your worldview today? What is the future of faith? The faith of our fathers was a faith that was contained. It was limited and narrow. It was within the box. It was based on “facts” as they saw them. It was an earthy, real world faith of about a 10 mile radius. In contrast, the faith of my children and my grandchildren is expansive, with a wide worldview, with torn down barriers between us. This faith is outside the box.
I must say I’ve spent much of my adult life trying to stuff faith back inside the box. But now we have virtual faith, augmented reality faith, the faith of a missionary to the virtual world coming back to minister to postmodern man. What must our faith community be today? What does the future hold for the faith community and for faith in general? What shapes your faith? What shapes your worldview? What shapes your view about God and your celestial view?
C-J: I agree with the necessity of not coming with preconceived notions or even our own traditions, because we feel safe there. There’s so much to learn about the fullness of the Creator, with the diversity about things getting lost in translation, about how important language is, and openness. Virtual reality I think is what some cultures do that take various herbs to produce a spiritual experience and bring back a message to the community. Of course, it could be abused, but it is today as well.
Our class is very diverse, our experiences are diverse, our first languages are diverse, and our willingness to come together seeking a relationship with the divine, and with one another out of humanity. I think that’s pretty remarkable.
Donald: I’ve had the privilege of traveling around the world. There’s something wonderful about being in a foreign environment, hearing only a foreign language for days or weeks, then all of a sudden hearing your own language spoken. It is like the feeling I had when Don talked about his childhood just now. I remember the literature he mentioned—the Junior Guide and Pathfinders and all the rest of it. There is no question that as we grow older the world is changing very rapidly. That is unsettling. It’s very comforting to share a common context with others who share what made me who I am, such as the music from in the 1960s.
All that being said, I don’t know if it’s just getting old and wanting things back the way they were. Or whether, if truly the world is so confusing, it’s great to have the opportunity to have shared the same context. The context for a younger man will surely be different, but when he reaches my age, he’ll probably have that same feeling!
Is doctrine the thing that really has a hard time changing? Doctrine was created in a particular context. God never changes. So because we wrap God within a doctrine, it makes it difficult for us to move with the times relating to God, because we share it within the context of a doctrine.
Bryan: Our world is very complex and chaotic. It is often very hard to sort things out. We have so many choices. It seems to me that religion has been dragged along that same route. We talk about virtual reality and things that our grandfathers wouldn’t have a clue about. It’s so different than it was not that many years ago. And religion has to adapt, I guess like we have to adapt.
Here’s a paragraph from a book (not a religious book) I think might actually fit:
You’d think after so many years, I would be as wise as an old owl. But if anything, the opposite is true. The more I learn the less I understand, the more uncertain I become. And maybe that’s just the way it should be. The afterlife is a mystery known only to God.
How poignant is that? We struggle with all of the complexities of life and with the choices we have. Religion is no different. Every religion thinks it has the one God. I’m assuming there is only one God, who may be manifested differently to different people. He may work with different people in different ways. But the more we learn the less we know. It is a mystery that God only knows. Maybe what we have to do is to try to understand it as best we can, and faith communities maybe is the way we go about doing that.
David: I’d like to interject the concept of the exponential acceleration of change into this discussion. We talk about our grandparents not knowing and not even being able to understand the concept of virtual reality. We can look back and say that everything has changed enormously in the last 100 years and quite considerably even in the last 20 years. In the last 10 years, we can still see change. We’re on an exponential curve of technologically induced change.
Where we will be just 10 years from now I think will be utterly mind-blowing to us, in the same way that our grandfathers’ minds would be blown if you were able to go back 40 years and show them an iPhone. In 10 years time we will have that level of shock at the emerging technologies. I’m not sure it’s possible to prepare for this in any way other than to simply clear your mind and be open to it, be ready to accept that things are going to change radically, drastically.
Don: Is that encouraging or discouraging?
David: I’m an optimist. So I’ll be encouraged.
Don: It’s our tendency to try to stuff things back in the box, as Donald said.
David: But as CJ noted, the result of opening the box is evident all around us in this class, in the form of various accents, ethnicities, and perspectives on faith. We come because it’s a great place to be and we love it here. So I think to the extent that accelerating change is going to open the box even further, as the article on Virtual Reality above says, it’s a time of great and wonderful potential.
Donald: I don’t know how many of you have had the opportunity to tune into the new TV series regarding Christ, called The Chosen. It’s presented through the eyes of his disciples. It’s done in a radically different way than traditional TV serials. We grew up on very specific still images relating to what the Christ story was about. They framed him in a personality. The Chosen is a wonderful way of doing it differently. It takes a little effort to accept it because it’s so different. But I think it’s meaningful.
So there’s a technology change that the world is looking at, and it’s all funded by people who are viewing it and seeing it as a meaningful experience.
Kiran: After Cornelius and Peter’s meeting, and then Paul with the Gentiles, they all go back to Jerusalem and talk about how the Holy Spirit is coming to Gentiles. And then there’s a big fight about doctrine, with Christian Jews still expected to follow Jewish doctrines and Gentiles refusing to do so. The upshot of that meeting was pretty much to strike the entire doctrine. They said don’t eat the meat, offer to the idols, don’t eat the blood. That doesn’t make any sense at all. It’s not coherent with the rest of the doctrine.
As a new Seventh Day Adventist I tried to adhere so closely to the 28 fundamental beliefs of Adventism. But the discord in Jersualem and recorded in Acts used to confuse me. First they strike down their doctrine then they cling to it! Actually, it makes more sense now, thinking about it. Because as Peter was talking to Cornelius, knowing that Cornelius was wrong and needed grace and then Christ offered grace and with faith he accepted it. That’s all that matters, that is all is that is necessary.
The profound point made today is that we are “chosen” not to be the bearers of the “true” way of God but to be his hands and his feet, to bring people to the heart of Christ. That’s simple but profound. It actually liberates us and makes us realize that our duty is not about putting the doctrine in other people’s minds—it’s about helping them to come to the heart of Jesus.
C-J: When we get caught up in doctrine, people dig in or become offended, but when we demonstrate, they come and ask: “Tell me more.” They don’t have to embrace the interpretation, because they’re trying to line it up with their worldview. It always comes back to the hands and feet, the love in this person’s heart, the joy in this person’s heart. They’re just open, they are servants. And in everything they do they give glory to this relationship, to this opportunity to be restored. That’s the best message you can give in your service to others, in the joy in your heart.
Reinhard: I think in global terms we may be in the final stage of the Great Controversy between evil and good. Throughout the history of the world God set the tone—how to live as good, moral people, who obey his commandments as the people of Israel did when Moses brought them down from the mountain. Jesus, of course, refined the commandments through his teaching.
Christianity came to Indonesia about 300 years ago. First were the Catholic missionaries and then Protestant missionaries from the Netherlands. Now we have the pandemic and we have Zoom. Technology is a double edged sword. God knows how to bring the good news of how to live as good, moral people. We are more fortunate than the Israelites because we have more information about God and what he likes in our lives. And God has a remedy.
There’s always challenge in every generation. Scientific advances in the 20th century and the theory of evolution in the 19th century challenged faith. But the word of God was the same yesterday as it is today and will be tomorrow. There’s always an antidote to challenge. The 1918 pandemic did not affect every country but because of advanced technology in aircraft, disease can spread everywhere quickly today.
Advancement is good if we use it the right way. If we stay close to God and hold God’s work in our hearts, we need not fear to face the challenges.
Michael: I’ve heard a lot from CEOs of tech companies that the pandemic has accelerated our adoption of virtual reality technologies by five to 10 years. I do think religion will look very different in a virtual world. It seems that our way of understanding—via religion, church, mosque, etc.—is heading for extinction. Things are going to look much different, and for people who are religious it might look disheartening, but I think it would be interesting to see how things are going to change, to try to predict it. Things might change for better or worse, but for sure, it will be interesting to observe.
David: Acceleration will so diminish the time available for reconsidering doctrine that religious institutions won’t have time to to come up with a new doctrine to accommodate a technological advance before another advance supersedes it. All we will be left with is to have faith in God and live by the golden rule. To me, that will be a more perfect world than we have now, and I believe that’s where we’re heading.
Reinhard may be right: There may be a big struggle coming between the Good supporters of the golden rule and its Evil opponents. But if we have faith in God—the force for Good throughout the universe—there is every reason to be optimistic that Good will prevail. But in the meantime there will be no time for the kind of consideration of new advances we’ve had in the past. As you start to consider the ramifications of some new concept or thing, a new one emerges to replace it. It is shaking up doctrinally driven faith. There will be no time for deliberation. And I’m talking decades, not thousands or even hundreds of years, from now.
I’m talking about our children and grandchildren, from whom we are—observably—growing apart in many ways. As Donald said, older people get set in their ways and see things differently from the younger generations. That’s only going to get “worse” as older people may see it. Generation Z is being raised very differently from Generation Y as a result of the technologies they’re exposed to as children. They are in a real sense brought up not just on technology but by technology. The ideas they’re exposed to and the worldview that they develop in their own minds may be vastly different between generations. They will grow up in worlds neither their parents nor their grandparents—nobody, in fact—have ever lived in before. Every week will present a new world to live in. That is the future with which we have to come to grips. If there is time for doctrinal deliberations, that time has to be now.
Jay: The teaching of new things has to be based on established prior knowledge without which the new thing is incomprehensible. It can’t be absorbed. It can’t be taught, it can’t be learned. So there has to be a hook, a construct by which you hang the new thing. The difficulty is that because of the acceleration of change, the hook is constantly changing such that to hang new ideas on one becomes very difficult.
I have no problem hanging faith on its old doctrinal hook if that doctrine leads you to serve your fellow wo/man and love the Lord your God with all your heart. I don’t care how old the hook is if it continues to lead you to do that despite the changes swirling around you. It might not always do so, but instead of saying we need a new faith paradigm or a new doctrine or a new something, we should say we need to change the focus of what the faith paradigm is about.
I have zero issue with every single Seventh Day Adventist doctrine because, for me, they lead to being able to serve one’s fellow human and to love the Lord your God with all your heart. If that is the “Why?” of the faith paradigm, of the box you’ve jammed your faith into, the hook you’ve hung your faith on, what does it matter what it is? What does it matter what it looks like? What does it matter if mine’s different from yours? What does it matter if mine is different from one that existed 2000 years ago, or if mine is different from another one halfway around the world?
So jamming your faith back in its old box is a great idea provided that you’re doing it for the purpose of being equipped to serve your fellow human, because you desire to serve your fellow human, to live out the Good Samaritan story, and to feel very connected to God. With such faith, what’s the problem with having a very neatly defined construct? If your 12 year old child tells the pastor she wants to be baptized and, asked why, she says she wants to give her life to Jesus, to have her sins forgiven, to sacrifice her soul to God, then praise the Lord! That’s great, right?
But you need her to understand what else she’s doing here. You should tell her: When you’re baptized as an Adventist, you’re saying: “I think that being a Seventh Day Adventist will accomplish things in my life. I’m making a commitment to being a Seventh Day Adventist.” Whether we say it or not, that’s what we’re doing.
Let’s be blunt about it. We have to go through a bunch of doctrinal things and say “Yes, I believe; Yes, I believe; Yes, I believe.” What you’re doing is accepting a culture, a faith paradigm, a construct. I would ask her: “Is this the construct you want? Is this construct going to help you accomplish the goals we just talked about? If you believe it can, great, but think hard about it. Think hard about what you’re doing.”
My goal as a parent is not to make new Seventh Day Adventists. It is to use Seventh Day Adventism to develop future leaders who will serve their fellow wo/man. That is my tool, but I also believe there’s probably a lot of other ways to do it.
Donald: What about proselytizing?
Jay: I’m more than happy to tell you how Adventism works for me. Because it might work for you too. It might resonate for you. I’m all about letting people know that my Seventh Day Adventist belief in the state of the dead takes the fear of death away from me. And because the fear of death has been taken away from me, I feel much more connected to God and feel less risk in serving my fellow man. If that’s proselytizing, so be it. Proselytizing should be about how you can abide by the golden rule. Here’s a way, a construct, a methodology, a curriculum by which you might undertake the commission of the golden rule in your life. Do you like it? Does it work for you? If it does, great.
It’s like dieting or exercise like anything: Once you find the one that really resonates with you, you become successful at it. Adventism has the potential to do that for a lot of people.
C-J: I’m concerned about the rapidness of technologically driven change. People I talk to who are in their 30s are overwhelmed. It’s moving and changing so fast, even they can’t keep up with it—and they grew up pretty much with some device in their hand.
Will there be technology haves and have-nots? In the beginning of this pandemic, we didn’t realize how many people didn’t have access, or good access, to the internet. I’m just wondering if we are just going to cause more division. It has the potential to bring inclusivity. But I’m really concerned. Look at all the junk that’s on the internet. It would take me forever to filter everything and block everything to keep that away. How are we going to do that? It’s filled with landmines!
David: Have faith that it will all turn out well. I believe that. I don’t think there’s any other choice. And I don’t think there needs to be any other choice. If you have faith, there is nothing to worry about. But you are right to be concerned. To follow the golden rule, you have to ask these questions which, ultimately, perhaps are political and social at some deep level but there are also some real pragmatic questions.
I was privileged just yesterday to receive a recording of a Grand Rounds presentation Don made recently about the future of medicine. In it he makes the interesting observation that when his father (also a surgeon) graduated from medical school, the training he received lasted him throughout his life. Right up to his retirement he was still practicing basically the same medicine he learned in medical school. But a trainee doctor entering medicine today is not going to be practicing the same medicine at the end of his career that he is practicing at the beginning of it.
Everything is changing, so we have an obligation to think about that, to ask the questions that CJ just asked, and to try to make some kind of predictions about the future. Ultimately, I believe, things are changing so rapidly we’re due for some kind of quantum shift in civilization, in society. I think that needs to be sitting at the top of our minds. For one thing, it might actually drive people to be a little bit less concerned about doctrine and a little bit more concerned about their fellow human being.
Don: We will leave it on that note, and pick it up again next week. If anyone comes up with a coherent construction for the future of faith, we’ll certainly be looking forward to hearing it.