Faith Community

To further our study of faith communities I propose for consideration today three faith groups: The Jews of the Old Testament, the kingdom of heaven faith community as outlined by Jesus in the gospels, and the faith group of Revelation 7—the uncountable multitude:

 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all the tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9-10)

Leaving aside how they got there, the multitude that can’t be counted is an infinite number. It is far more than all the Christians who ever lived and are alive today. If they all went to heaven they still could be counted. The meaning is clear: There is always room for one more in the Revelation 7 faith group, and they must, simply going by the numbers, include more than just Christians.

Thus, a multitude that no one can number is way more than the estimated world population of Christians since the beginning of Jesus’ time. But it’s more than just a huge number: It’s a number comprising people from every nation, every tribe, every tongue. It is an all-inclusive faith community, and that, of course, is the meaning of the passage. This faith community is populated from every nook and cranny of the globe, all worshiping God, but there’s always room for one more member. The question for us is how did they get there? Was their earthly faith community a factor in how they got there, and if so, how?

The claim to specialness or religious privilege of exclusivity has its roots in the Old Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures are full of language about the Jewish nation’s special status as God’s chosen people. For instance:

 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His personal possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 7:6

Does God favor Israel over all other nations? What does being chosen actually mean? What can we learn about our own faith community from the study of the story of the Hebrews? God told Abraham:

“Go from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;  And I will make you into a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing;  And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

Here we see the promise and the commission to Israel. “The whole earth is mine,” says God, “but you have a job to do.” Jeremiah (32: 27) says that God is “the God of all flesh.” God reminds the prophet of the key point that he is the God of all mankind. But not just every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. He is the God, he says, of all flesh. He is the God of donkeys and dogs, of cattle and chicken, fish and fowl, of anteaters and antelope.

It is easy to see both the expectations of being chosen, and the failure on the part of the Jews as chosen. Their specialness was to be a driving force for good in the world. It was to show others who God is and how God works. It was to be the lineage of the Messiah, the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. If properly deported, they were to show that Jesus is the way, not me and my faith and my faith community, especially not me and my faith community.

A faith community is to highlight and show the way. It is chosen not for salvation, not for an exclusive access to God, but to guide others, to make the gift to others, and to show the grace of God to others. But we cannot resist making ourselves and our faith community the center of God’s plan. When we are “chosen,” history teaches us we tend to go off the rails, making it about us instead of about God. We make our own chosen-ness about our beliefs, about our doctrines, about our practices, and about our culture, too often losing the sight of the real need to stress the gift of grace.

Chosen-ness, it is clear, is about mission, not about salvation. Faith community mission, like individual mission, can be voluntary, as we see in Isaiah who says “Here am I, send me” or it may be conscriptive, as we see in the life of Moses, a reluctant missionary, as is Jeremiah (1:3-8). But mission must never be mistaken for mercy, especially not for God’s mercy because God’s mercy and grace is free and available to all.

This brings us to the third faith group and some difficult texts, often misunderstood and frequently misquoted. The first is:

 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)

In the second text, Peter says:

“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).

This sounds exclusionary, like the only way, the one way, one faith community. And Paul piles it on, saying there is…

“… one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:5-6)

How did the multitude which can’t be counted get to the new heaven and the new earth, from everywhere, from every nook and cranny of the globe? And how could all the world that lived before Christ, even the Old Testament patriarchs who didn’t know Jesus, be saved, not knowing of Jesus and his sacrifice?

The plan of salvation dates from the foundation of the world:

All who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slaughtered. (Revelation 13:8)

The Lamb of God was slain before Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity; before any of the great religions and before all the denominations of Christianity. The plan of salvation for a fallen world was made. That God chose his son to be the savior of the world is the way it was. You might believe it, or you might believe something else. But it is a law of nature and of the universe. It is like gravity in that you can’t see it. You may or may not believe in it. But it’s an invisible force, a law of nature that pulls objects toward each other by their mass. So too Jesus pulls Humankind toward himself, even if you don’t recognize or believe it. He does so in order that he might form a community of faith.

Paul made the startling and highly provocative declaration:

For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all mankind, especially of believers. (1 Timothy 4:10).

Jesus is the Savior of all mankind, whether you believe it or not. And it seems that it’s not even essential to believe that, in order to be the recipient of God’s grace. If you do believe it, it seems that it is especially satisfying, especially valuable, and wonderful to believe. But even if you don’t, even if you don’t know, even if you don’t believe, it does not negate its value or validity.

How God—through Jesus and the Holy Spirit—assembles the faith community which no man can number is apparently a mystery. Paul wrote this about it:

… if indeed you have heard of the administration of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before briefly. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to mankind, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, (Ephesians 3:2-8).

Note that the Gentiles are part of the community of faith: ”fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise.” They’re there, even though they don’t know it. God is the God of all mankind. He has sheep not of this fold.

The faith community is all about God, not about us. Our job is mission, to do what we can to point others to him. It is not that God can’t save those to whom we don’t point; it is that they, like us, are in need of God’s grace and they benefit us. We benefit as much as they do when we point them to a religion that is about God and what he does, not about us and what we do

It’s about a faith community called the kingdom of heaven. It’s here on earth and it is embodied in the story of the Good Samaritan. It is about living the golden rule. It is about letting God be God so that he can save whoever he wants, not just those we give him permission to save. We still wish to hold on to religion about us, about what we do or what we don’t do, about our beliefs, doctrines, practices, culture, and above all our faith community.

God calls us to a mission of grace, and knowing about God’s grace is extremely liberating. It frees us up from a religion of legalism and rules. But it is not a call to frivolous or careless religion. It is an invitation to the kingdom of heaven faith community where you turn the other cheek, go the to the back of the line, traverse the extra mile, give without limits, forgive without restriction, and live by the golden rule.

Jesus is the way and the way is grace. It is not the way of performance or belief. But whether you believe it or not doesn’t make a difference as far as salvation is concerned. God knows who his sheep are and they may or may not know about how salvation works. Just because salvation works through Jesus doesn’t mean that you have to accept it or understand it to make it work. It is what it is: A law of nature in the universe. Jesus is the way. His grace is for all, and he decides who will be in that multitude no one can number.

We so much want to make it about us and about what we do, and what we believe compared to what others do and what they believe or don’t believe or don’t do. But that’s God’s work. It’s not ours. Separating the wheat from the tares, separating the sheep from the goats, is the work of divinity, not humanity. In Matthew 25, everyone is surprised when Jesus calls them to the kingdom and says: “Because you’ve done this unto the least of these, you’ve done unto me.” They ask: “When did we do that?” Similarly, when the people put forth their curriculum vitae and their credentials for entry into the kingdom of heaven, God says: “I don’t know you”:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Is it possible that mission itself is to benefit ourselves as much as it is to benefit others? To be a blessing to others we find ourselves to be blessed ourselves. The life that you save may be your own. These are things to be considered in the subject of proselytizing.

So your thoughts about faith communities: What are they for? What is their future? How do they get us to be in the multitude—that faith community no one can number? What are your thoughts about Jesus being the Way—the way of grace? And how does the multitude that no man can number actually get there anyway?

David: I do wonder if people who lived before Jesus came down to earth were just as salvageable as people who lived after he came? If so, what does that do to the notion that Jesus came in order to save the world? It seems to me there is a contradiction in what is one of the most fundamental tenets of Christianity.

Reinhard: The Bible says that God saved even those who came before Jesus, They had their own set of rules for worshiping God, just like any other religion. Based on John 3:16 (“Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”) other religions don’t have to believe in Jesus but they can be recipients of his grace. God judges according to their ways of life. Romans 1 mentions people who never knew about the gospel but will be judged according to their ways of life and the moral standards in their community. God will judge, not us. People who have never heard about Jesus or the gospel will not be rejected just for that. That’s why so many people from so many places and tribes will be in the kingdom of heaven someday.

C-J: I agree. The Scripture says that he wrote his law in our hearts to know the difference between right and wrong, and if we live our life with conscious effort not to harm others, to respect all life, and to worship with clean hands and a pure heart, towards their understanding, I think the God that picked me up and dusted me off didn’t have a prize there. There are people who have lived a much better life than me but may not have been using the name Jesus or have an understanding of what Judaeo-Christians believe. I think God’s grace is more than we can imagine.

Donald: I was raised to be a Seventh Day Adventist. My parents wanted me to be a Christian in the context of Adventism. Should we reverse that to say we are Adventists in the context of Christianity, so I’m a Christian and my faith community is Adventist, so that I take on the value or the opportunity that Adventism brings to Christianity? I think the order is important.

Robin: Maybe if we can understand at some level (trapped in our humanity, as we are) the main driving characteristic of Father God, which is love that makes a person respond to the inner light with kindness, justice, a helping hand, encouragement, and other good attributes, then I think that person is feeling and responding to the heart of God. It’s hard to believe that there are people today who haven’t heard of Jesus. In ancient times there were many. But we all have the inner light that can respond to the Spirit. A pastor once told me that when we have questions such as this, we don’t know specifically how God will judge, but we do know God will judge rightly.

Sonika: Scripture says:

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law instinctively perform the requirements of the Law, these, though not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of mankind through Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:14-16)

So even Gentiles who didn’t have the law or didn’t know what God’s law was did things naturally that were required by the law, and that shows the requirements of the laws were written on their hearts. And their conscience also bore witness of that. So God will judge in secret through Jesus Christ as the gospel says.

Jay: A little bit before that passage, Paul talks about being led by righteousness: It’s your choice to do good things or bad things. That is the standard by which judgment will take place. Right after that passage, Paul tells his audience that they are what they are: Jews, born here and doing according to their understanding of the law which shaped their lives and behaviors. He doesn’t tear that down, but there is some warning there about perverting it or straying away from what the essence is—love, goodness, and the responsibility to take care of other people.

But Paul does not tear down the Jewish faith community. He’s not seeking to undermine it or take it away. If you can accept that this is what you were born into or joined or become aware of and it helps you to connect with God, then you can just leave it at that. It’s a pretty great thing, I would say. I’ve had non-Adventist friends who’ve admired the benefits of Adventism—the family success and economic success they see in our families. They were able to appreciate what Adventist culture did to help develop loving people. If only we could leave it at that, it would be a really exciting faith community by which to draw other people.

The problem is we just cannot leave it alone. For some reason, we just can’t let it be what it is. One of the questions I struggle with is: If we’re judged by what we know, does being an Adventist, knowing certain things peculiar to Adventism, and having different perceptions on things then other faith communities hold me to a different standard? Were the Jews held a different standard because they thought they had a better understanding of the law? If we are held to a standard because of what has been revealed to us, where does that lead us? What is the difference, if any?

Don: Even worse than that is that idea that if you take these “heathens” who know nothing about Jesus, nothing about Christianity, and nothing about Adventism, and you teach them and then they reject it, now you’ve turned into the instrument of their destruction, not of their salvation. So are you culpable then for their mistake?

Sonika: Jesus told us to go preach the gospel to the end of the world, to all nations and tribes, so I don’t think you’ll be held responsible for that. I think you’re just providing the opportunity for them to make a decision.

C-J: I think it also depends on how it is presented. Jason’s family “speaks” through its self-evident success, without his having to talk about it. That’s the beauty of people who live their faith in a congruent way. Do we trip? Yes. But when we start telling, it’s like white folk of privilege telling black folk who live in the ‘hood: “I know better than you.” It’s just wrong. The ground has to be fertile. Maybe you want the person to come and plant the seed. But what you did was leave them with a question: “How come it works for this person, but it didn’t work for me?” I just think it’s a journey. Our spiritual walk is our own journey. We were born into a family at a time in history with intention and purpose. So I don’t think we fail. Because if we say that, it’s like saying God isn’t big enough. It’s really God’s job to do the work. We just show up and try to be his instrument.

Jay: Another important characteristic of a faith community seems to be the need to share something. That comes from the Gospels, which tell us to go spread the gospel to every kindred tongue and nation. But what is the gospel? Is it the spreading of my faith community? Or is it the spreading of something else? Christ asked the disciples to go spread the gospel when there were no Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons and so on. So what was he asking them to go spread? There was really even no such thing as Christianity back then, at least not as it was defined later. So we’re asked to go and preach the gospel, but what is that Great Commission exactly? What are the disciples being asked to go and spread?

Donald: The community of faith is a wonderful thing. It brings us together. Gives us a shared purpose. But we can trip over words such as “truth.” We believe we have the truth and we need to share it. It suggests I know something you don’t, so you need to leave what you think you know and join us. Sharing the gospel is sharing the purpose of God and the love of Jesus Christ who died for our sins. It is not to spread doctrine, but (even in heartfelt sincerity) we’ve made it about us and our faith community.

Jay: If the Great Commission is to go and spread the purpose of God and that Jesus died for our sins, does that mean that there was no Great Commission before Christ? That there was no Gospel to be spread before Christ’s ministry? That the sacrifice of Christ and the Great Commission was impossible in all the millennia before Jesus came and lived for just 33 years before dying on the cross? That’s where I get hung up. When I put gospel and faith into chronological context they start to fall apart for me. That is scary. It seems like it’s got to be beyond that.

Reinhard: Because the Israelites failed to meet God’s requirements and laws, Jesus, the Son of God, was the perfect person to show human beings—his fellow Man—how to live right in God’s eyes. He set the example while He was here on earth. As Adventists who know a lot about God’s will and laws, we assume we are in the first tier—closest to God—compared to other believers. Just like in any educational system, those with the highest standards have higher exam pass rates compared to those with lower standards.

But the Bible reminds us that “to those who are given more, more is asked.” Christianity is rejected by people who already believe in another religion and by people who don’t believe in God or religion. Adventists can show that socially and economically they do indeed receive much, so we are obligated to work hard on God’s behalf.

Pastor Giddi: To Jay’s question of a gospel commission before Jesus was born, I find this passage relevant:

Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the horn and warns the people, then someone who hears the sound of the horn but does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. He heard the sound of the horn but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have saved his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the horn and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away for his wrongdoing; but I will require his blood from the watchman’s hand.’ (Ezekiel 33:1-6)

I think the gospel commission is foreshadowed in this passage. Jesus said to go and make disciples of all nations, all tribes, all tongues. Ezekiel was told to warn his people of the calamity. I do believe this serves in a literal sense as a gospel commission. You and I need to sound the trumpet to warn of the coming of Jesus Christ. So surely there were commissions in the Old Testament to tell people about God and the calamities that are coming.

Robin: Adventism does not say that if you are accepted by God—if you are going to heaven—you will be economically successful her eon earth. I certainly hope that economic success is not a requirement for heaven! But some Jews of old held poverty to be a sign of God’s judgment.

C-J: I think faith is always about relationships. You don’t go into a relationship with the premise of “What am I going to get out of this relationship?” You go into the relationship to value yourself until you do have something to offer in the relationship. And that other person that you’re considering entering into a relationship with also has something that you can benefit from in terms of fellowship, knowledge, understanding, companionship, mutually shared values, or just enlarging your borders as a person, with new experiences.

We often get caught up in ritual tradition and law. I agree with others’ comments about this choice of life, and that how to live our life in our expression and what we’re responsible for to ourself into others really is about relationship, and people who do that well usually benefit from it. It isn’t about your zip code or how many letters you have after your name. It’s the quality of life, it’s the people in your circle.

Janelin: As Donald said, we’re Christian first and part of the Seventh Day Adventist community second. I’m very thankful that my upbringing was defined by being a Seventh Day Adventist. It was a big part continues to be a big part of my life. We like structure. For instance, my marrying a non-Adventist was a psychological struggle. Of course I wanted to get married in my church—this is what I knew. But I was told I couldn’t have a Seventh Day Adventist pastor officiate. It was very confusing to me and made me wonder how the church manages to attract new members. I’m very thankful nevertheless that Adventism is and has been part of my life—it does confer the benefits people have mentioned.

David: Jason hit the key question today: What exactly is the gospel that we’re expected to spread to the world? Pearl S. Buck, the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, grew up with her missionary parents in China. She spoke fluent Chinese and wrote wonderful books about China—novels, but embodying much authentic cultural and historical truth. One of her books, Imperial Woman, was about the Empress Dowager—the last Empress of China. Buck took great poetic license in putting words into the Empress’ mouth and thoughts in the Empress’ mind, but I think she was right in writing the following, which is central to the issue of taking the gospel to other countries:

These matters [referring to incidents involving foreigners who had been flocking into China], which at the time the Empress Mother had considered small affairs and scarcely worth more than a day’s attention, she now knew were but a sign of the greatest danger in her realm, which was the invasion by the Christians, those men who went where they willed, teaching and preaching and proclaiming their god the one true god. And the Christian women were scarcely less dangerous than the men, for they did not stay within the gates of their homes, but walked freely abroad, even into the presence of men, and behaved as only women of ill repute behave. Never before had there been such persons as these who declared their religion the only one. For hundreds of years the followers of Confucius and Buddha and Lao Tse had lived together in peace and courtesy, each honoring the other’s gods and teachings. Not so these Christians, who would cast out all gods except their own. (Excerpt From Pearl S. Buck. “Imperial Woman.”

I believe there’s a great deal of truth in this interpretation of how the Empress Dowager and indeed probably most Chinese viewed the Great Commission as Christian missionaries practiced it then. Their proselytizing resulted in bloody insurrection and over a hundred thousand deaths, including over 2,000 Chinese Christian converts massacred during the Boxer Rebellion. And for what? China today is further from ever being a Christian country than it was before the missionaries came. The church in China is tiny and tightly controlled. The missionaries largely failed in what they perceived to be their Great Commission to take the gospel to China. Perhaps it was the wrong gospel. So as Jason asks, what is the right gospel that Christians are commissioned to spread?

Don: Maybe we’ll pick it up there next week.