| Author | Message | ||
| Agapetos Registered user Username: Agapetos Post Number: 830 Registered: 10-2002  |
I would have never admitted it, but as an Adventist I felt like "love" and "truth" had trouble existing together. I and the Adventists I knew all seemed to be forced to embrace one or the other. Teachers of "the truth" Growing up we saw people like those in the "Amazing Facts" ministry (etc.) who preached "truth". Because they knew more of the Adventist literature and seemed to read their Bibles more, they seemed to be more spiritual. They were the teachers, and they loved to talk about "the truth". When I occasionally did read through some Ellen White or other founding Adventist literature, I saw that they sounded the same as these modern teachers. They too talked about "the truth". I and others around me often didn't read that much of the original Adventist literature -- my former mission director once lamented on his site online that my fellow missionary and I had not read a complete Ellen White book between the two of us (we later did, though). So the people who did read more of her writings (which talked about "the truth") naturally seemed to be experts in the truth. However, it seemed like there was so little love most of the time. Of course they could love one another. If you agreed with them, they showed you a lot of love. If you had the same interests as they did, the love poured out. And if you simply didn't know of the things they did, that was okay, too. They'd love you and pour encouragement on you to love "the truth" and get to know it. But if you disagreed with them or felt that it wasn't necessary to read so much of that stuff, then the love seemed to turn cold. And if others continued on in their "sins" by ignoring "the truth", then these teachers taught how we were to have nothing to do with those people. Essentially, love was conditional on embracing the truth. If someone embraced it, they were to be loved. If they were ignorant of it, they could be loved into the truth. But if they disagreed or ignored it, then it was wrong to give them love. But that was half of the story, half the picture. I first knew it as I grew up in semi-conservativism and had some elementary and academy teachers who espoused the strong teachings (and fears) of traditional Adventism. And at home I heard much from my mother who, God bless her, was trying not to be too controlling on us as her mother had been to her. But she couldn't help passing on much of what she had learned and believed. I learned "truth" growing up. It wasn't until university that I began to learn more of the other side, "love". Teachers of "love" My university was LaSierra, the notorious bastion of liberal Adventist education. Among them I learned to appreciate the Cross a little more, and learned that I could be spiritual without reading Ellen White. I felt more love around them, and experienced "nurture" for the first time I could really remember. When someone came talking "the truth", many LaSierra-ites would speak "love" in response. They didn't disagree with "the truth", but they tried to focus on "love" instead. From them I learned that "love" was more important. But I realize now that I also learned that "love" meant ignoring "the truth". In regards to Adventist truth, "love" did not disagree with it, but kind of just ignored it a little. Returning to "the truth" LaSierra sponsored me as a missionary to Japan. When I arrived in Osaka to be a missionary for a year, my mission director was very conservative and solely enthusiastic about the early days of Adventism. From him and others I learned again of "the truth". I learned the conditionality of bestowing our love on people -- we gave love to those who were receptive to or already agreed to "the truth". Not to those who rejected or ignored it. Come to think of it, this is in harmony with Ellen White's writings of how God felt about those who rejected 1844 and the Sanctuary message -- she taught that God rejected them. So we firmly believed that it was correct for us to do the same. Thus I learned that "true love" meant "loving the truth" and loving those who agreed with "the truth", not those who disagreed with it. Love was the truth, or the truth was love. From them I essentially learned that the Adventist "truth" was the definition of "love". I learned to judge people who did not love "the truth", and how to give them love only conditionally. Seeing the contrast When I returned to LaSierra, the contrast between those who held onto "love" and those who held onto "truth" became clearer and clearer. I had begun reading and researching more of Ellen White and the early days of Adventism. Yet I still walked among both groups, the love-focused and the truth-focused. Among the "love" group, I knew some of God's love. Yet I wanted to search deeper into "the truth" as well. Things would soon come to a head, and love and truth would soon meet to kiss each other in my life. "Love" meant ignoring "the truth", and loving "the truth" meant being judgmental and accepting Ellen White who wrote about "the truth". It wasn't right to accept only part of what she wrote -- doing so meant not loving "the truth" at all. A Spiritual Earthquake As I searched through the old pages of "the truth", God was preparing me for a spiritual earthquake, increasing my hunger for the truth -- my hunger for Him Himself. God used my search through the old dusty writings to lead me to someone who would speak words which let loose the spiritual earthquake in my life. It was time for "the truth" to meet the Truth. Christ the Truth was about to smack into the Adventist truth and overrun it. I had read the New Testament twice as a missionary, and particularly the book of Romans, which struck me with its clear condemnation of hypocrisy and fakeness, its condemnation of judging others, and its words about trusting in God through faith. God planted the seeds of His word in me through those readings, and I became acquainted with the Truth (with Christ) even though I still didn't see the difference between His truth and the Adventist truth. I had learned that we are saved by faith in Christ, not by our works. Of course I hadn't applied this to the Ten Commandments, but when God felt it was time to let loose the spiritual earthquake in my life, He led me to a friend who simply said that if we are saved by keeping Sabbath in the last days, then we're saved by our works and not by faith in Christ. The earthquake had begun! I would not have been shaken if I had not read Romans and the New Testament. But because I did, I knew my friend was speaking the Truth, and that the Adventist "truth" fell short. It wasn't the Truth. After that meeting I was shaken, but I could not go back to what I had once believed. I had tasted and seen that the Lord is truly good, and that His Truth is good and Adventist truth was wrong. I had to follow Him even though it looked like there was no ground before me. Love and Truth meet and kiss As I learned of the Holy Spirit, the true Sabbath-rest (it's Jesus!), and the New Covenant, I began to experience "love" and "truth" agreeing with one another. The warmth I knew at LaSierra and liberal Adventist churches magnified, and the passion for truth I had epxerienced among conservative Adventism increased. Before it had been mistakenly set on what was not truth at all. Now it found the true source of Truth -- Jesus Christ and the gospel of His grace. I wrote what I had learned as an Adventist that "love" meant ignoring "the truth", and that "the truth" meant ignoring "love". But I did not realize this consciously. In my heart I knew it, but because I blindly believed Adventist truth was true, I also couldn't clearly see these destructive effects the Adventist doublethink was wreaking on my mind. But as I studied and grew in relationship with the real Holy Spirit, I began to love the Scriptures like I had never loved them before. I began to love the way everything fit together in the Bible, the way the Covenants framed everything and the way the New Covenant provided everything we need in Jesus Christ. I no longer had to say that "law" only meant this or that. I no longer had to qualify or add disclaimers to what was written about being saved by God's grace, by faith in Christ instead of works. No longer did I have to look down on those who did not know the truth -- instead God gave me love for them, because I saw that He loved them just as He loved me before I had even been born! His love was given to me unconditionally! His Son died for me long before I ever chose to repent or have faith in Him. Ultimately, I no longer had to add "but's" to the statement, "God is love". Loving the Truth One day it occurred to me that I love the truth! I had never been able to clearly say that all my life. For one, the Adventist "truth" heavy and I could never completely kid myself into saying that I loved it. I truly tried, and if you had asked me then, I might've been able to say it---but not without feeling mixed inside. But now Christ had set me free! I loved His truth. The weight attached to the word "truth" fell and I began to see that "truth" was not what I had learned in Adventism. Instead it was His gospel, His grace, His New Covenant, and everything that He Himself is because He is the truth! (John 14:6) I learned that the Truth loves me!! When I was around conservative/historical Adventists, I often heard the phrase "the truth will set you free". To tell you the truth, I heard it so much that I began to grow sick of it. It did not set people free, but put them under a lot of rules and taught them to judge one another according to those rules. It taught people to withhold love. Somehow even before I could clearly think or articulate these things, I had an aversion to repeating that phrase for myself. Deep inside the Spirit was already witnessing that the Adventist truth did not set people free. The word "truth" was stained for me, so that even after leaving Adventism it took me a long time to be able to say that I loved the truth. "No, love is the truth," they responded As I was leaving Adventism, I began to hear some progressive Adventists talk about how love is the truth. But they didn't generally talk about this on their own teaching time. They would say this when I told them about what the Lord was showing me -- the New Covenant, the completness of Christ Himself, and the contradictions of Adventism to the gospel of God's grace. In response to these things they would espouse "love", saying or hinting that my exposure of true & false "truth" was off the point. Basically they seemed to be saying that "love" wouldn't care about those things, and that true "truth" also wouldn't care about those things. "Love and truth" would ignore them and focus on love. Essentially, love/truth would ignore the clear darkness of Adventism. I didn't know how to explain to them that you don't have to be afraid of finding negative things -- in fact, the quickest way to healing is to search them out and let the Lord resolve them in His love. Yes, His light will expose our darkness, but this is the process of being cleaned! If we want to experience the refreshing joy of His cleansing, then we have to let Him expose us. We have to "get naked". And as we get "naked", yes we are going to see a lot of dirt. But He is faithful to wash it off. My progressive friends seemed to prefer staying clothed and trying to take a shower, so to speak. Yes, it gets you wet, but it doesn't remove the dirt underneath which you can never completely forget is there. In God's kind of "love" there is no darkness. There is no need to ignore "truth". There is no need to cover-up or gloss over history. There is no need to read a writing and say it means something completely different from what it says. There is no fear in His love. One Love, One Truth, One God! His truth and love go hand in hand; His truth teaches us how to love, and as we love, we discover that His word is true. There is no greater way to love than through His truth. And there is no more profound truth than the unqualified word of truth: "God is love". His love cleans us and exposes our darkness. Out of His love for us He strips us down naked and removes our dirt if we will let Him. Out of His love He teaches us His truth, because His truth sets us free and makes us joyful in Him. His truth takes away our burdens and gives us rest. His truth rises up in us and we shout Hallelu Yah with tears in our eyes because we see that He is love, that He is the Truth, and He loves us! Praise God for revealing His truth, for revealing His love, for revealing Himself! Praise God for healing the divide, for setting us free from doublethink, from cognitive dissonance, from things that were not His truth, and free from all our burdens. Praise God for enabling us to rejoice in His truth and love without feeling like we must ignore one for the other! | ||
| Jonvil Registered user Username: Jonvil Post Number: 26 Registered: 4-2007 |
Agapetos, beautifully written! As I was reading your post I could not help but conclude that our relationship with God is formed by how we perceive Him – Appeasing an angry God Exacting, angry and vengeful (the view found in the legalistic works/Adventist group think) ‘while you live in my house you’ll live by my rules or GET OUT-I don’t want you’ Responding to a loving God Loving, rescuing, understanding, patient, compassionate, empathetic (the view found in His Word) ‘Well john, you fell flat on your face again. Here, take my hand and I’ll lead the way and show you how. Don’t worry for I’ll always be here for you, this is your home now.’ Praise God, I’m home now JonVil | ||
| Agapetos Registered user Username: Agapetos Post Number: 831 Registered: 10-2002 |
Shabbat shalom, Shabbat shalom Yeshua ha Moshiach, You have brought us home Shabbat shalom, Shabbat shalom Yeshua ha Moshiach, You have brought us home Yeshua, Yeshua! Shabbat, Shabbat shalom! | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 938 Registered: 8-2004  |
Awesome post Ramone! God is Truth and God is Love, but that does not mean that love is truth or truth is love. Well said! | ||
| Reb Registered user Username: Reb Post Number: 84 Registered: 5-2007 |
Great post, Ramone! As usual you have again hit the nail on the head! | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 5921 Registered: 12-2003  |
Ramone, wonderful insights. Thank you so much! I agree with Mary; this is a wonderful summary: "God is Truth and God is Love, but that does not mean that love is truth or truth is love. Well said!" Colleen | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 793 Registered: 9-2006  |
Well put Ramone. River | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 3699 Registered: 3-2004  |
Ramone, What you wrote is what I have experienced in my long life with adventism. The love I have learned, being a Christian is awesome. Very well said. Diana | ||
| Bobj Registered user Username: Bobj Post Number: 174 Registered: 1-2006  |
Ramone Thank you for sharing your thoughts on love and truth. I never really thought of the scriptural link as you so clearly showed. Bob |
