Christian and Animist

 

[1]

John 13:15, 17 King James Version

¹⁵ For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

¹⁷ If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

 

In the highlands of Madagascar, we were attending a large church. We knew very few people there, the vast majority of whom were Malagasy. The service had been in Malagasy and I understood nothing. Then they separated the group by gender to experience the Ordinance of Humility. I sat on the right hand side near the front of the church and figured I would not participate because I couldn’t communicate meaningfully with the men in attendance.

The majority of people had left when I noticed a man sitting near the center of the church, whom I had never seen before. When no one stopped and chatted with him, I walked over and said, “May I serve you?” in English.

“Yes!” he responded with a smile and in English. English is a distant third in the languages of Madagascar.

We went outside the church through the far door, where the men were washing each other’s feet. We found a vacant seat and I asked him to sit there. I fetched a basin with fresh water in it and brought it back to the man. Kneeling in front of him I washed his feet. Since most people walk barefoot a lot, the water turned a red brown—the earth color of the Red Island. I found out that he had been called to be the new pastor for this church and was attending that day mainly to see how things were done there.

He had pastored a number of churches in various places on the island. Animism is the majority religion on the island. Forms of animism exist very widely especially in Asia, Africa, and South America, but certainly on all continents. A major tenet of Animism is ancestor worship. Ancestors are believed to communicate with their descendants and direct a lot of their behavior. Even Christians very often find it difficult to not follow what an ancestor directs them to do. Adventists believe the dead know not anything[2], nor can they communicate anything. These communications from the so-called ancestors come in reality from the evil spirits that are rife in the world. Their counsel often results in the persecutions of Christians. It also results in discouragement, despair, impoverishment, and suicide.

I gained a rich blessing from washing this new pastor’s feet, and him washing my feet. I will remember it for the rest of my life. He gave every evidence that he understood the part God’s free grace plays in the salvation of humanity. This is contrary to the strong legalism that permeates much of Adventism in Madagascar.

Thank You Lord for the hope we have because of Your free grace to us.

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[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=ordinance+of+humility&rlz=1C1JZAP_enUS880US880&sxsrf=AOaemvKTMk9PwgdMZgheaUbJzZu1fBTJ4w:1641226743226&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjf7JmI_pX1AhVEJzQIHcalDSIQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=958&bih=682&dpr=1.25#imgrc=LyU0rH7SAeVlvM

[2] Ecclesiastes 9:5

Chris Oberg

[1]

Isaiah 58:10

Christian Standard Bible

¹⁰ and if you offer yourself to the hungry,
and satisfy the afflicted one,
then your light will shine in the darkness,
and your night will be like noonday.

 

Chris Oberg has been our lead pastor for 13 years. This is a long time for an Adventist pastor to remain at the same church. But where could she go? This church is one of the largest churches in the South-Eastern Conference of the Adventist Church. Most other conferences are not hiring female pastors.

She has long fought for the acceptance of women as equals in the sight of God and especially in the the church. One would expect that, of course, because of her gender. She has become more and more interested in helping the unfortunate, the discriminated against, the impoverished in our community. She took in the LGBTQ+ community and created a place for them to worship and be accepted. She assigned a pastor to foster a separate building for health and wellness.

Chris resigned her post as lead Pastor of the La Sierra University Church to promote the cause of the less fortunate in our Riverside area. The last count of homeless in Riverside County found 2,884[2] individuals. There are many more who are desperate for the bare necessities of life.

Now with this new move, she should be fulfilling the prerequisites of this promise in the book of Isaiah, and we should see her career blossom and her fame grow. Her work should become known everywhere, even in the dark places of this world. Go for it, Chris!

We pray for God’s guidance in pursuing her new mission. We also pray for the choice of a new pastor for our church!

 

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[1] https://www.adventistreview.org/141510-16

[2] https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/health/2020/12/28/riverside-county-homeless-point-time-count-canceled-2021/4066741001/

Reap Without Burn Out

 

[1]

Galatians 6:9 

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

 

After five years teaching high school in Africa and giving higher mathematics no mind, I gained permission to work on a doctorate in mathematics—something I had made as a personal goal. I got told in no uncertain terms that I didn’t need a doctorate in mathematics to work as a missionary. The university accepted me and told me they would give me a financial assistantship if I passed two of the three required qualifying examinations in September. That was at the end of May after only one semester back in graduate school. Night and day, I set myself to master the material that I could expect on these comprehensive examinations. It seemed like an impossible task. Yet I took copies of the previous qualifying exams over the last 10 years and methodically started doing each one. I worked backward from the most recent.

Sylvia insisted we needed to spend several weeks with her parents in Michigan. Her dad provided me a room in one of his churches where I could study uninterrupted. I knew I was making progress, but I grew exceedingly weary from the intense effort. I did not let the weary feeling slow me down or turn me from my purpose. I passed the two qualifiers I attempted.

The relief was short lived as I started teaching half time, taking graduate classes full time, being a father of a three-year-old daughter, being husband of a wife who was expecting a second child in October, and preparing for the third qualifier, which was coming up the next May.

Sylvia gave birth to a bonnie lass after a really scary complication and the resulting Caesarian-section. I felt the least prepared for the third qualifier and consequently gave it even more preparation, which paid off by the active help of the Lord. We had a marvelous second summer as we all reaped the results of a successful year.

Thank you, Lord, for seeing to it that in due time we do reap what we have toiled so diligently for.

  

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[1] https://bitesizebio.com/3437/10-tips-for-mastering-your-qualifying-exam/

Gender Discrimination

Titus 1:5-7

King James Version (KJV)

⁵ For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.  For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God.

My great-grandfather was an Adventist.   In his later years he lived with my grandfather.  My grandfather was an itinerant preacher in the Michigan conference.  His brother was sent by Ellen White as a missionary to freed slaves in the South.  My father spent 42 years as a missionary to Africa.  He founded a university at Solusi Mission.  He spent 18 years teaching and being an administrator at Helderberg College.  He carved an Adventist Academy for over 700 students from virgin bush in Zambia.  So I am at least 4^th generation Adventist.

When I was born in the first years of World War II, I was reared in the strictest form of Seventh-day Adventism.  I attended Adventists schools from my first year in school through a Bachelor of Science.  I was taught that the Bible is the Word of God and the Spirit of Prophecy was given to point us to the Bible.  The Bible is the foundation of both individual Christian life and the Church.  I gave my life and career to the Church as a foreign missionary and educator. 

I have watched the Church grow and prosper where it followed the council and guidance of Scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy.  It has grown from an insignificant American sect to a vast Spirit-led worldwide denomination.  It has worked its way from a works-based theology to a grace-based dynamo of spiritual power.

Following the example of Ellen White, the Church has encouraged all members, male and female, to contribute as witnesses to the world.  Over the years I have been interested in how we have ordained men and women as elders and deacons as Bible sanctioned officials of the Church.  We have interpreted “husband of one wife” (KJV) to mean “faithful in marriage” (CEV).  This choice has stood us well.

The Church has a group of officials whom they pay.  The rest of the officials perform their duty as many did in early Christian times, namely voluntarily and without pay.  Now the Church has become of two minds.  The Church is happy to ordain the volunteers without reference to gender even though many of them are mentioned as elders and deacons in Titus.  The majority of Church leaders have decided to not be consistent and insist that those whom the church is paying must now follow the instructions above and be husbands, i.e. males.  On the contrary a strong minority of Church leaders have decided that they will be consistent in their Christian belief and treat and pay the officials equally without reference to their gender.  This disagreement is fast escalating into a rift.

The Church, my Church, is racing down a road to self-destruction and significant loss of human souls to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.  My soul weeps to see the leaders of the Church, to which I have given 47 years of service, doing their utmost to destroy the very Church I love. 

May the all wise, all powerful, gracious Lord Jesus Christ be able to convince my church leaders to be gentle in their leadership and totally fair in how they treat everyone whom He has called to be His officials.