Michigan Conference Campmeeting 2021: How Much More?

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

His Invitation

Gregory Allen

Carol Allen

01 Reconciliation, Unity, and Latter Rain Power

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2021 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

Father, you have promised that where 2 or 3 are gathered, you would be in our midst.

Bless us to that end, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, we're going to go right into our presentation because it is pretty long and so we want to use every minute.

And so we're going to start with the purpose and the outline.

This presentation is designed to demonstrate the absolute necessity of the acceptance of Christ-centered communal reconciliation through the Spirit as a prerequisite for unity and latter-reign power.

Now, look at that carefully because we're making an important assertion that we're going to develop in the next 6 days or look next 5 presentations after today.

This notion of the spirit making us 1, the spirit making us 1, unity, and then and only then, Laterane power.

Then we'll deal with our text, which is Romans 8, verses 1 through 17.

The historical cultural context, the old consensus, and then the new consensus on how to read Romans.

Textual analysis, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, life in the flesh and life in the spirit.

And then finally, so what the application towards a theology of reconciliation, unity, and latter-reign power.

And then his invitation, the gospel imperative, welcome 1 another for Christ has welcomed you.

And so this outline covers the 6 days of presentation.

And Today we're just going to make it to the old consensus.

So you won't be here forever and ever, okay?

So now we have some questions for you and unfortunately we're both teachers and these have to be rhetorical questions because we can't get your feedback.

Do you believe that the Seventh-day Adventist Church was called into existence by God?

Given the fact that most SDAs would say that God has blessed the work of corporate Adventism, its message and mission, How do you account for the deep divisions in the Seventh-day Adventist Church based on ethnocentrism, ethnicity, race, tribe, and caste?

And as you will see as we go along, we're using this term ethnocentrism because it is the ancient term.

The whole idea of race, by the way, is only 500 years old.

So back in antiquity, back in time of scripture, the idea was ethnocentrism.

How do we account for the deep divisions in Adventism?

And by the way, we're not just talking because I had the opportunity to serve at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for a number of years.

And in that role, you go all around the Adventist world, whether it's India or Europe or Africa, wherever it is, And you see ethnocentric division.

What role does fundamental belief number 14 actually play in Adventism?

Now you know that we have 28 fundamental beliefs, and when I was a little younger, before it switched, we had only, what, 27, the additive beliefs.

And so this belief used to be 13, but now it's 14.

And we actually call it, we actually call it unity, the unknown doctrine, because most Seventh-day Adventists know nothing about this doctrine.

We know a lot about the Sabbath doctrine and so forth, but we know almost nothing about this doctrine.

And so that's why we call it the unknown doctrine.

The church is 1 body with many members called from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.

Distinctions of race, culture, learning, and nationality, and differences between high and low, rich and poor, male and female, must not be divisive among us.

We are all equal in Christ, who by 1 spirit has bonded us into 1 fellowship with him and with 1 another.

We are to serve and be served without partiality or reservation.

Through the revelation of Jesus Christ in the scriptures we share the same faith and hope and reach out in 1 witness to all.

This unity has its source in the oneness of the Triune God, who has adopted us as his children." Yeah, so this is Fundamental Belief, number 14.

And so we want to ask a couple of critical questions.

Does Adventism as a whole practice this doctrine?

And we want to look at this next question.

More importantly, where is Christ's call to love 1 another so that the world might know?

And by the way, it may interest you to know that our 28 fundamental beliefs based on our preface, these are doctrines that we have developed as a church looking at scripture.

But they can be changed at any general conference session.

In other words, as the Holy Spirit gives us more understanding, they can be changed, they can be updated.

It's interesting that the original Pioneer Adventists had only 4 doctrines.

We call the 4 S's, the Sabbath, the Sanctuary, the Second Coming and the State of the Dead.

And so I think from there we went to 10 and then we went to 27.

An apology more than 2 decades after the horror of the Rwandan genocide.

This abbey in Belgium is where the perpetrator of 1 massacre of hundreds of Tutsi men, women and children sought refuge.

Sister Juliane Kizito gave petrol to the Hutu militia pursuing them and helped to set them on fire.

Sister Kizito gave the Hutu militia the fuel that they used to burn alive the people who'd sought refuge in the convent's medical centre.

It was a terrible thing for someone to do, especially a sister.

Such frenzied killings ripped the country apart and also displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

The Vatican had previously said such actions were those of individuals.

But on Sunday it accepted full responsibility, as the Holy Year of Mercy instituted by Pope Francis came to an end.

Human rights activists say the Church's apology will help heal the wounds inflicted by the clergy's role in the Rwandan genocide.

It remains a defining moment in the history of the people of Rwanda.

1 that's commemorated in this annual vigil held for those murdered in the capital Kigali.

Sister Julianne was sentenced to 12 years in prison for helping to burn alive 1500 Tutsis hiding close to her abbey.

But she is not the only member of the Catholic Church to be convicted.

Several other senior officials have also been jailed for their part in the Tutsi genocide.

Human rights groups say that genocide is second only to the genocide of the Jews during the Holocaust.

Shoaib Hassan, TRT World Now we want to show you this genocide, but particularly Adventist participation.

02 Reconciliation, Unity, and Latter Rain Power

Dear Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the opportunity that you've given us to be here together at this camp.

We thank you for the people that have come, for the safety that you have provided, And for the assurance that we have that if we put our trust in you, that we can achieve the salvation that you so willingly have died to provide for us.

Help us today as we learn more about your will for us, in fact your prayer that we might be 1.

Open our hearts and minds to the inspiration of your spirit.

And help us to be willing to share the things that we learn from your word with others.

For we pray these things in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.

And so we're going to remind you of the presentation purpose and outline at this time.

This presentation is designed to demonstrate the absolute necessity of the acceptance of Christ-centered communal reconciliation through the spirit as a prerequisite for unity and latter reign power.

And now the outline, the first part we have done, and that's why it's in blue.

We have done discussion questions, we looked at the text.

We started our historical cultural context with looking at the old consensus on why Romans was written.

Then we'll go into textual analysis, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, life in the flesh, and life in the spirit.

Towards the theology of reconciliation, unity, and latter-reign power.

And on Friday, we're going to deal with the end of this outline and it's entitled, His Invitation, the Gospel Imperative.

Welcome 1 another for Christ has welcomed you.

Some of you were here, some not, and so this will help you to marry what we're going to do this afternoon.

So here's a brief review of the old consensus on the letter to the Romans.

Based on the 16th century work of Martin Luther, it was believed that Paul, without knowledge of the situation in Rome, wrote a theological treatise to Christians living in the capital city.

Luther, using a thematic approach, believed that justification by faith was Paul's theological focus in Romans.

And let me say, just for a moment, we talked about it on Sunday.

This thematic approach to the Bible is fairly dangerous, actually, Because if you use a thematic approach or if you use a proof text approach, then you take the text out of what?

And so you can make the Bible say anything when you take it out of context.

And so that approach is a very difficult approach.

In the time of Luther, that was basically the approach that the Catholic Church used.

For Luther, the letter emphasizes individual justification attained by grace through faith in Christ alone as opposed to righteousness by works as taught by medieval Catholicism.

Yeah, and so this is 1 of the reasons why we celebrate Luther, because Luther was able through the power of Christ's spirit to blunt the effect of the Catholic Church and its heretical teachings.

And so we celebrate that aspect of his life and ministry.

Yet Luther's propositional understanding of the gospel as set forth in Romans allowed him to maintain and promulgate the prevailing cultural prejudice in Germany towards ethnic Jews.

Yeah, and we talked about that yesterday, Sunday, that that was part of the culture of the time.

In other words, Luther was really very much a product of his culture when you deal with this notion of anti-Semitism.

But what we want to emphasize now, again, we're still in the review, is this way that he interpreted Romans.

This is what we're interested in, the proper interpretation of Romans.

And so reconciliation between God and the individual through faith in Christ emphasized.

And so Luther placed his emphasis on what we call vertical salvation.

And this is important because Luther, as a Catholic, he dealt with this notion of condemnation every moment in his life until he read the text a different way, both Romans and Galatians.

And so it was really good news for Luther.

And so he focused on this, you know, the relationship between God and the individual.

And of course That is part of the equation, but Luther left out a very important part.

Reconciliation between sinners in light of the cross, especially the ethnic other, de-emphasized from the Reformation to the present.

And so now we're talking about this idea of horizontal, horizontal, horizontal salvation.

You know, Keep it in your mind that the Bible teaches, and I'm going to show you that in a moment, that you cannot separate the 2.

You cannot have a relationship with God and at the same time not have a relationship with your brothers and sisters.

You know I talk to people all the time as a pastor, and many of my Seventh-day Adventist brothers and sisters believe that you only need a relationship with Jesus.

In Genesis 2.18, so you have God and you have Adam.

Eve is not created yet in the second chapter.

She's created in the first chapter, but then, you know, the second chapter gives us a deeper look.

And so that verse says, it is not good for what?

He is being told by God that you need a companion.

And that Companionship is about community.

Let me surprise you, and then we'll go on.

And then Adam and Eve were created as a community.

And so Luther de-emphasized this notion of the horizontal, and we've been having a problem with it until today.

And so look at the biblical, what we call the biblical pronouncement.

If anyone says I love God and hates his brother he is a liar for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

You know, the text is actually definitive.

If you don't love your brothers and sisters whom you see, you cannot.

You know, it's 1 of those definitive words in the Bible.

I'm pausing because I want us to be clear.

And so let's move to the problem then of Western theology.

And there are a lot of strengths in Western theology, but there are limitations.

And so, Western theology emphasizes, it idolizes propositional truth.

You know, so tell me an idea and I'm good.

But it's a proposition, propositional truth.

03 Reconciliation, Unity, and Latter Rain Power

Loving Father, we thank you this afternoon for Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

When we think about the world in which we live, when we think about the difficulties that we sometime face, we ask ourselves through the Spirit, where would we be without Jesus?

This afternoon we invite your presence to be with us and we simply pray this afternoon the prayer of Jesus.

Let your love flow so that the world will know we are 1 in you.

And throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity, we will praise you.

And we will praise you in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, excuse me I got to help my wife, she got to be closer.

Okay, we are again looking at our subject, and our subject is His Invitation, Reconciliation, Unity, and Lateran power.

And this afternoon we want to quickly review our purpose and the outline.

This presentation is designed to demonstrate the absolute necessity of the acceptance of Christ-centered communal reconciliation through the Spirit as a prerequisite for unity and latter-brain power.

This is the material that we've already covered.

You know, we looked at the old consensus for Romans and we've looked at the new consensus and now we're dealing with the textual analysis and it is entitled, The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.

When we come together tomorrow we're going to begin to look at what Paul calls life according to the flesh or life in the flesh versus life in the spirit.

In other words, the application towards the theology of reconciliation, unity, and latter-reign power.

Okay, And so we want to go to the text this afternoon, and so we're going to look at it 1 more time.

It is Romans 8, 1 through 17, and we'll have it for you on the screen, and of course you can look at it in your Bible.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit, for the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

However, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you but if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to him.

If Christ is in you though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

So then brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh for if you are living according to the flesh you must die but if by the spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body you will live.

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God these are the sons of God for you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out Abba Father The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him." And here is an interpretive note we shared with you on Sunday, but we want to share it again just by way of review.

This passage functions as an internal summary and transition in Paul's argument to believers in Rome.

Yeah and so we want to also remind you and this is a little review of how you go about interpreting scripture and the big technical term is that term exegesis and it has a very simple meaning.

Exegesis is used to establish what the text meant then, literally to pull out the author's inspired meaning.

Now it is so easy when you read the Bible, if you're not careful, to read into the Bible your thoughts, to read into the Bible your values, to read into the Bible your culture.

And so it is very important to follow the process that we're outlining right now.

And we recommend to you that if your pastor has not sat with you and taught you this process, we learn it in the seminary, then they should do that.

It's a very important process because you don't want to add or subtract from the Bible.

You know, you remember Revelation 22, right?

Yeah, so we're not supposed to add or subtract.

There are 3 levels of formal exegesis – historical, cultural, literary, which involves the immediate context, the verses or the passage before your passage of interest and that behind your passage of interest, and also grammar analyses.

And stuff like word studies, and we have so many tools now.

You know, you don't have to have any kind of degrees in theology to really study the Bible.

You know, it's interesting, my mom did not have real formal education, but she was a giant in the Word.

And so the Spirit can work with you in that Word.

The interpretive key being to discover God's saving purpose in Christ.

And so again, we wanna show it to you visually.

And so when you're dealing with biblical interpretations, there are what we call 2 horizons of interpretation.

So today we're dealing with a first century text.

So the first thing that we want to clarify in our mind is this idea of what it the meaning of the text then, in other words in the first century.

And so we start with the inspired author.

Today, we're going to look at his message to the Romans, and there were original recipients.

And so we call this the original context.

And so we have to do things to make sure that we are looking at it in context, in its original context.

And so you identify the principles and then the original applications before you come to the second horizon, and that is significance now.

So remember, we're dealing with a first century text, and we are 21st century believers.

And so you still have a process because you have to have as an interpreter of the text, you have to have the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

You want to deal with the same message, not a different message, but we're different recipients because this is a new context.

We want to identify those original principles, but there are new applications.

Now, again, I want to show you all of your Bible study, all of your Bible interpretation must lead you here.

It must lead you to Christ or you have just engaged in heresy and I can prove it to you I can prove it to you look at what Jesus says here you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is they that testify of me." Now look at what Jesus says to these scholars, to these Jewish scholars, look at the next line.

Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

So all of Scripture bears witness to 1 person and that 1 person is who?

Now, we're going to look at textual analysis.

So we're going to our text now, and we're gonna start with Romans 8, verses 1 and 2.

So this is the text, and today we're only going to deal with a bit of the 2 verses, the first 2 verses.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Now you can see on the screen, I hope, because this passage is color-coded and it means something.

So that word, therefore, is extremely important.

You know, it's a conjunction and it is connecting conjunction and so it connects all the things that went before the first 7 chapters with chapter 8.

And we're going to deal with that but we're not going to deal with it today.

Series

His Invitation

05 Reconciliation, Unity, and Latter Rain Power

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Recorded

His Invitation

04 Reconciliation, Unity, and Latter Rain Power

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His Invitation

06 Reconciliation, Unity, and Latter Rain Power

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