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Commentary on "Community"
Day 5: Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Overview
“To be united in Christ means to be united in the truth. Christ defined Himself as the Truth.”
Problems
Seriously, this may be the best written section of the entire lesson. I believe it should have been Monday’s lesson. (Sunday’s lesson should have been this quarterly’s Thursday lesson, but more about that later.)
I absolutely agree that the only source of unity among Christians is Jesus. The vast majority of what divides the various denominations and their members from everyone else amounts to what Paul described in Philippians 3:8 as dung or refuse to be thrown away compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ.
How can this lesson, or any other lesson written by any other church, talk about the idea of community while trapped in the mire of denominational exclusiveness?! When is Seventh-day Adventism going to quit worshiping at the idol originally erected by the Catholic Church? When is Seventh-day Adventism going to once and for all recant of all the “distinctives” that make it so cult-like?
Surely, Jesus is not divided. Surely, Jesus is more important than the 2300 Days, the prototypical Day of Atonement, Ellen G. White, the Sabbath (as taught by Adventists), and the like. Surely, freedom is better than bondage, faith is better than works, grace is better than law.
I pray that all of those trapped in denominationalism, regardless of its man-made designation, will allow the Holy Spirit to lead them into the complete assurance and overwhelming peace of knowing Jesus, and only Jesus. I fear that far too many will hear, “I never knew you,” when they try to drag all the wood, hay and stubble of their dead works into heaven.
Summary
- To think; perchance, to dream…
Copyright 2009 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised May 12, 2009. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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