There are times where certain issues become rather big issues which demand to be resolved.
For example, at the 2015 General Conference in San Antonio, big issues included our beliefs regarding a recent literal, six-day Creation and the definition of marriage. For most Seventh-day Adventists, the Bible is clear that God created this world and everything in it in six literal days and gave us His divine example of resting on the Sabbath as a weekly memorial of this spectacular, supernatural work of creation. The Bible is also clear on its definition of marriage. The issue, of course, which overshadowed them all at the 2015 General Conference was women’s ordination. On this issue, it was not so clear. There are good, spiritual people on both sides of the issue and the vote on the motion that related to this issue demonstrated this. How do you effectively resolve it?
There are big issues in the broader society as well. The Australian Federal Election is rapidly approaching, and lurking behind the election campaigning is the issue of same-sex marriage and the pledged plebiscite. Browsing the news headlines, though, you quickly realise that the Australian Election is seriously trumped by the election process in the United States, where racism, radical Islamic terrorism and gun control are the outstanding issues, with the possibility of electing one person embodying and trumping them all.
In spite of how big these issues may seem at the time, the big issues now are not always the big issues in the past or what they will be in the future. About 30 AD, the big issues that the Pharisees had with Jesus’ ministry was that they felt that He was breaking the Sabbath, by compassionately healing people on God’s Global Freedom Day. They also took offence that He predicted that the temple of God would be destroyed, but that He had the power to rebuild it in three days. What a disrespectful attitude towards the Jewish religion! The issue that overshadowed both of these was the identity of the Person making these claims. Was He really claiming to be the Messiah, the Son of God? If He was, that amounted to blasphemy, plain and simple. Unless, of course, that is who He really was…
Today one denomination is being rocked by the big issue regarding ordination of homosexual bishops and whether their priests should be permitted to officiate at same-sex marriage ceremonies. It is such a big issue at the moment that it threatens to break their denomination apart.
However, I am almost certain that you cannot guess what the big issue that was being debated within the Church of England was in 1660. Go ahead and have a guess… Theophilus Brabourne wrote in 1660 that the biggest debate in the church was whether the Sabbath was on Saturday or Sunday. How incredible is that?!
The early Christian church was not free of big issues either. As we read about in Acts 15, the big issue was to what extent Gentiles had to become Jewish in order to be saved. There were a number of sub-issues within this big issue, but the one which become the litmus test was circumcision. Did Gentiles need to be circumcised to be saved?
Of course, to us living in Sydney in 2016, this is totally a non-issue. How many people do you know are surreptitiously handing out DVDs at the door of your local Seventh-day Adventist church with recordings of hour-long sermons advocating that we need to circumcise baptismal candidates to secure their salvation? It just isn’t an issue.
However, even though it isn’t an issue now, we can learn a lot about how they handled the big issue of their time. When Paul and Barnabas began debating the issue with the Pharisees who had come up to Antioch on their own initiative, the church at Antioch took a very mature approach and commissioned them to go to Jerusalem to resolve this issue with the key leaders of the church at that time. The church leadership used the following approach:
- The church took time to listen to the stories of how God was clearly working amongst the Gentiles by performing miracles and giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- The church reflected on Biblical prophecies about what God had predicted His future direction would be.
- The church observed a clear consensus amongst key church leaders, including Paul, Barnabas, Peter and James, whom they knew that God had called into leadership.
- James, a person with the gift of leadership, clarified and articulated the decision.
- The church communicated the decision to the rest of the churches.
It was a powerful demonstration of how the Holy Spirit led the church to resolve the big issue that it was facing. This was not just about whether believing Greek men needed to be circumcised. It was whether the gift of salvation could be freely shared with the whole world. It is important to note that, while the Holy Spirit led the church to understand that the Jewish sign of circumcision was not essential to salvation, He continued to uphold the principles of the Ten Commandments with regards to teaching people to abstain from sexual immorality. The Holy Spirit did not lead the church down a path of unbridled freedom, where everyone did as they saw fit.
Unfortunately, the issue regarding circumcision was not fully laid to rest, as Paul continued to indicate in his letters. On a subsequent visit to Antioch, Peter started off on good ground, fellowshipping enthusiastically with the uncircumcised Gentile Christians. But when some of the circumcision party arrived, he gave into the peer pressure and pulled away to eat where only Jewish Christians were invited. Even Barnabas followed suite. It was a tragic slip amongst the key leaders who had demonstrated such maturity at the council in Jerusalem only a short time before. However, over time, the whole issue of circumcision settled down and now there is not even a murmur about this issue.
I believe that many of the big issues that we are facing will also settle down over time. For some of them, the church will head in one direction while society will head in another. In others, the church will mature and grow in ways that it could not previously have imagined, but which are still fully in harmony with the Bible.
History does have a tendency to repeat itself, and prophecy points to the future fact that the Sabbath will become a big issue once again, just like it did in Jesus’ time and in the Church of England in 1660. At its core, the future charge will be this: “Are you really claiming that you are the genuine followers of Jesus at this time because you keep the whole Jewish Sabbath as a day of rest and do not attend compulsory church services on the day that the global church-state has specified?”
May the God give His church both the discernment to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to His church through the Bible and collectively through His church, as well as the strength to share the eternally good news, keep His commandments and the faith of Jesus in the midst of all the big issues that we face.
The book of Acts is drenched with the Holy Spirit. Reading it is like taking time to play out in the tropical rain! Read the full stories for today in:
Acts 15 NKJV
Acts of the Apostles “Jew and Gentile”
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