Our global mission
LB, 10-16-2023
The Bible School Study Guide for this quarter has to do with our MISSION, its authors being the directors of our Global MISSION Centers.
But the reading of the Guide manifests some departing from our mission which is quite perplexing. Could it be that the directors of our Global Mission Centers were somehow globally confused about the mission, at least in some important respect?
In the Table of Contents we see lessons 7-11 dealing with our mission “to my neighbor”, “to the needy”, “to the powerful”, and twice —in two separated lessons— our mission “to the unreached”, that is, the non-believers, the unchurched, the non-Christians —the pagans—, what the Bible calls spiritually —and prophetically— “Egypt”.
This seems to be quite intentional, as in the introductory reading we see: “We will learn about available resources to assist us in reaching out to our neighbors (especially to those who have no Christian background)”. That’s “Egypt”.
Why especially to those who have no Christian background?
Our mission is defined by the three angel’s messages, as illustrated in this well-known quote:
In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and light-bearers. To them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world. On them is shining wonderful light from the Word of God. They have been given a work of the most solemn import, —the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels’ messages. There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention { Ev 119.3 }.
But the second angel’s message, significantly enlarged in Rev 18, says nothing about calling “especially” to those in “Egypt” to get out of it. Verse 4 reads: “Come out of her, my people”. “Her” does not refer to the unchurched, to non-Christians. It’s not “Egypt”, but “Babylon”.
Where in the Guide is a lesson to teach us how to reach Catholics and Protestants (Babylon, the mother and her daughters, Rev 17)?
That one is another well-known quotation:
Notwithstanding the spiritual darkness and alienation from God that exist in the churches which constitute Babylon, the great body of Christ’s true followers are still to be found in their communion. There are many of these who have never seen the special truths for this time. Not a few are dissatisfied with their present condition and are longing for clearer light. They look in vain for the image of Christ in the churches with which they are connected { GC 390.1 }.
The emphasis to evangelize the unchurched started at the beginning of the 1980’s, along with the emerging church movement (not in Adventism, but in the Christian world).
Catholics, Anglicans, and the world federation of Lutherans met in Lima in the year 1982, to sign the B-E-M agreements, by which they considered acceptable:
(B) Baptism: new-born babies by aspersion, as well as adult believers by immersion.
(E) Eucharistic: it’s OK the transubstantiation in which the priest “creates” the Creator, as well as the unleavened bread and unfermented wine as only symbolic of the flesh and blood of Christ.
And then, the unavoidable and looked for conclusion:
(M) MISSION! Given that no matter what kind of believing and practice is acceptable among Christian denominations, it’s a nonsense trying to evangelize Christians, which are considered already saved. Hence, the church's mission must be “especially” focused on reaching the unchurched, the “unreached”.
Is our present Sabbath School Quarterly promoting the ecumenical emerging church agenda, rather than our true mission prophetically depicted, and stated in clear lines?
Our dear Catholics and Evangelicals in “Babylon”, very good people as they are (most of them), have no clue, and are utterly unprepared for the close of probation, for the mark of the beast crisis, and in general for the events preceding the second advent. Should it not be our commitment to give the “special truths for this time” to Babylon, where is still to be found this “great body of Christ’s true followers”? That one is precisely central to our global mission! It is the one aspect emphasized and developed in Rev 18:1-4.
It’s discouraging to see the representatives of our Global Mission missing the true meaning of the commission God has entrusted to us, the remnant church for the time of the end. We are not another denomination among thousands to bring a generic gospel as was fitted for the XVI century.
Noah could have presented just the eternal gospel of peace and preach about the promised Messiah coming in a distant future time, but he was entrusted with a special truth for his time. Had he not conveyed this present truth —the imminent destruction by a flood and God’s salvation in the ark—, he would have been untrue to the mission entrusted to him. No generic (although eternal) gospel would suffice there. The Great Commission —preaching the gospel to every nation, tribe, language and people— is not under discussion here, but this is also the alleged mission of each one of the fallen Christian churches on earth. Our commission must go beyond that if we have any valid reason to exist as a separated church. Our days will be indeed “as in the days of Noah”.
I'm worried that this Guide doesn't align with our mission, especially given the current times and the unique truths we've been entrusted with.