September 03, 2010
Come Again
Saturday morning a few folks were getting the church ready for Sunday services when one of our older ladies walked in with her Bible all dressed up and ready for Sunday School. When she was told she was a day early it took a moment to register but then she laughed and said, “I got up and around early today…I don’t know if I can do it again tomorrow.” Interestingly both the woman and the scheduled lesson had something in common…both were about ‘The Second Coming’.
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Gail;
-----In this dear lady’s reply, I perceived a hint of wish that the service could be on the day she was actually able to get up and around early. Of course, reality was undeniable, and she obviously went home compliantly. But that has not always happened when folks have gotten up on the wrong day. Two movements we label more as cults than denominations began by men who got up early on the wrong day expecting Christ’s second coming: the Seventh Day Adventists and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In these cases, reality was also undeniable, however their leaders did not go home compliantly. Their wish for their chosen days to be correct was too embedded in their demand to be right.
-----Now it is good to be right. But in the effort to be right is where it gets tricky. Implicit in that effort is the fact that there is some mismatch between understanding and reality, otherwise there would be no need for effort. When reality is as apparent as our dear sister found Saturday to not be Sunday, understanding has no choice other than relinquishing to adjustment. So her adjustment came with little effort. The reality that these men had shown up some days too early for Christ’s return was also readily apparent. But the Bible delivers few concepts with such undeniable explicitness. The implicit nature of much the Bible teaches us is evidenced by the diversity of doctrine amongst the many denominations of Christianity. This means many aspects of spiritual reality can be known only through a great deal of effort, and most realities can not even be known with absolute certainty. The leaders who began the Seventh Day Adventist and Jehovah’s Witness movements applied their efforts to adjust the implicit realities of the Bible to their understanding more than visa-versa. Simply put, they were not willing to go home Saturday and come back Sunday.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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