Normal Theology as “skew” and Slanted Theology as “Straight”

How many times have you seen something as skew and it was actually straight or straight and it was actually skew? Not many times but that does not mean it does not happen. Or so many think. But what about the case where you are a long time Adventist and many writings on subjects in your faith is “watered down” or “shaded over”. Making the nuances disappear, nuances that were the cornerstone of your difference with other faiths and other denominations in Christianity. Well, you may say that is not important or that it doesn’t matter really. Really?

Recently I ran into cases of slanted views in my surrounded area, which is of course South Korea, but I was quickly corrected that it is not only here but a worldwide phenomenon these days. As dr. Alberto Treiyer, former associate of the BRI told me, there is the push-drive to fuse Adventist Theology with Evangelical Theology and that is a major concern for him. But what about us?

First it was the case I saw where Vicarius Filii Dei that adds up in Roman letters or Latin numerical system as 600+60+6. Discovered in 1611 and published in re-editions of 1618 and 1630 by Andreas Helwig. No other explanation can substitute this explanation. I thought. Until “Evangelical minded ones” it seems, try their best to nullify it with feeble excuses. Feeble, because Edwin de Kock came out with a 1000+ page research documenting the term from the start of the Catholic Church to recent times even if they transformed the same title into a equal semantic title Vicarius Christi. Christ is the Son of God is He not? So this attempt to jump find excuses to rationalize for computer chips and other options will not succeed. It is a case of taking normal theological thinking and slanted it and hold it out for straight. Times Roman Fonts is made Italics.

 

It is extra-biblical hermeneutics you may add, and agreeably so. What is wrong with that? If you have slanted theology said long enough and repeated uncontested in more houses on more lips then the skew will be considered “straight”. The outcome is that the “straight”, and I mean real straight with biblical exactitude and verification, the biblical faithful saint that is, is left on the margin of this new phenomenon creeping into our church: they are considered “skew”.

This Trojan Horse of Liberalism moves into the church and affects every level of the church life and church doctrine.

They try to create a new-normal. They want to Italicize Theology. They package the old truths with new content and flavor, hoping the fusion with Evangelical Theology will wake up sleeping saints in Laodicea. It is still the old jargon, a glimpse of continuity that one recognize the same Advent doctrinal “brand name” but the content has been shaken out or removed and replaced by Evangelical calls of the “Jesus movement”. The secular turned liberal or vice versa mind from a similar lifestyle, come forward with the so-called innovation.

But what about the slanted view of the Investigative Judgment as Investigative Judgment. It is God calling throughout the Old Testament saying, “Let us get together at Judgment to speak” (Isaiah 41:1). He meant the Investigative Judgment for there Books will be opened (Daniel 7:13). Books, yes, records of our works, deeds, thoughts, and everything. As Edward Heppenstall said in his book Our High Priest, we are not saved by our works but we are judged by it. The Investigative Judgment was not an ongoing process from Adam’s Fall time. That is why God is calling: “Let us….” It was not yet. God set a time and the discovering of the year-day principle applied in Daniel not only for the First coming of Christ as Thomas Aquinas and the Reformers did and the ecumenist papist-Calvinist Hugo Grotius also. However they stopped applying the principle to other long prophetic numbers in the same book. But Adventists did just that. Thus the 2300 days ended in 1844 using the same starting number. But the other denominations stultified and did not follow Adventists in this new discovery. And still not. Instead of embrazing that rich development in understanding the proper application of the Sanctuary message of the Bible, the other older denominations are distracted with a “bible-less” or “bible-lesser” or “bible-least” approach (Culture over Bible importance) or (Modern over Ancient ideas) or (message for our time over message for their time, thus antiquated ideas to be skipped or bypassed). They have no room for it. The Book of Hebrews has not been studied for a long time carefully by them.

So Adventists are the only denomination in Christianity with this Sanctuary Message understanding and the Investigative Judgment doctrine role of the High Priest in the most Holy that Paul spoke of in Hebrews 9:8 as not yet as well as in 1Peter 4:17. Peter and Paul (Hebrews) are very clear that the Investigative Judgment (not of evil, sinners) are still to be in their time, namely of the “house of God”. Job was complaining exactly about that namely, if only there was an Advocate on his side in Heaven. He meant in the Investigative Judgment, he felt that he would prevail. Why? The judgment did not start yet and Job lived around 2154 BC. Nearly two millenniums after Creation and Fall. Traditional Christianity missed the separation of the processes of the Investigative Judgment and the Executive Judgment (see Isaiah 5:1-7). Jesus said similarly that the harvest of the one is first and then the harvest of the other. Revelation 14 the last part also.

We have to be worthy of the price He paid for us. Accepting Christ is always the requirement, not only for Baptism. Living a victorious overcoming lifestyle with the Holy Spirit washed daily is essential for a record to be kept of our progress. Progress is an outcome of a life tapped in Him. Angels keep careful record of this in Books. Books to be opened in the Investigative Judgment in Daniel 7:13ff.

The relationship is positive and very effective. God helps us getting over our slips of the ear, eye, hand, tongue and emotions. Cheap grace, said Heppenstall, is to emphasize the emotional over the intellectual. It is to dichotomize that I want Jesus not doctrines, which is a false dichotomy. Paul says it is not either or but both. We must not read Scripture selectively and profess a half-truth. The inroads of Evangelicalism into Adventism is serious and a current problem Treiyer warns us. End item.