Annual Council 2002

Morning Devotional by Niels-Erik Andreasen,

President, Andrews University

October 8, 2002

 

 

Knowing the God Whom We Worship

 

In 1915 Ellen G White died from complications of a fractured hip bone while staying at her Elmshaven home in Deer Park, California. She was 88 years old. The last words reported to have been uttered by the dying Ellen White were: "I know in whom I have believed."

 

How well do we know Him in whom we believe? It is an important question and it is very personal. It does not ask about our education, our theology degrees, or our success as leaders. It asks how well we know our God. That is the question I have been invited to consider during this worship hour. And I am honored to do so, but also a little overwhelmed for you are all people of deep spiritual experience.

 

Can we say along with Sister White, Yes, we know Him in whom we believe? Sometimes it is well for a speaker, even a preacher, to tip his or her hand right from the beginning. So let me do that and tell you right up front what I have come to believe about knowing God, and then we will reflect upon it a little bit. I believe that we can and do know God, but that knowing God does not mean that we have Him figured out, as it were. Rather, knowing God at the deepest personal level means that we feel safe in His presence and that we seek His company.

 

Let me share three things I have come to know about God from my experience, three ways of saying that I feel safe in His presence, I seek His company because I know Him.

First, I know God as my Creator. Creation is a strange, unusual, and marvelous event, is it not? Even the Bible admits it. Only God can create. He made the whole world by His word. We cannot make things that way. Nothing else has been made that way since, as far as we know. Creation is a miracle. Creation is also a bit frightening. There is no preparation for it, no way to get ready for it. It is just there before our eyes on page one of the Bible, with no introduction. "In the beginning God created," it blurts out. No wonder many people--even some Christians--struggle to accept creation as a way of making the world and everything within it. We have many questions about creation, some of them troubling, because it is so different from the way we make things. We want to know precisely how it was done, in what order it was done. What came first--the material substance of the world or merely a deep, wet darkness--and how did it begin? What materials or immaterial forces, if any, were used? We want to understand the method. We want to know when the world was made--how many years ago.

 

To help answer some of these questions, we have a Geoscience Research Center. I have been on two Geoscience study tours. They were enjoyable and informative. But when I look back on them I must admit that I learned little about creation itself from the lectures and explanations of the layers upon layers of rocks and sand we saw, for these deal mostly with the flood, that great catastrophe. And catastrophe, of course, is just the opposite of creation. Nevertheless, in between the lectures I had time to contemplate God's world--the sea beneath and the stars above. I began to feel safe in the presence of my Creator and to seek His company more earnestly than before. I began to know Him better.

 

Consider for a moment yet another story of creation, this time from a child's point of view. In Psalm 8:1-5 two people are talking--a father or mother and a child. Perhaps it was the psalmist, King David, and one of his children, Absalom or Solomon. They are walking on the roof of the palace one night. Think of little children. What do we notice first about them? Yes, their eyes and fingers. We have a grandchild with big brown eyes. He is always looking up, because he is so small compared to his parents. And then we notice the little fingers, not the arms which he moves like the wings of a penguin--from the shoulders--but the fingers, strong, active, touching, pulling, holding on, strong enough to hold his whole body suspended.

 

Here in Psalm 8 is a picture of a small child looking up one evening and asking: "Daddy, how many twinkling stars are there? And daddy, who put them there? Look, one is falling." That is when the psalmist wrote: "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise." And further, "When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you pay attention to us?" Notice the expression, "the work of your fingers." To the psalmist God's creative work is but finger work, simple, like child's play.

I have thought that simple folk, children, and sensitive adults have a much better understanding of God our Creator than some of us. Children know God instinctively because they have big curious eyes that are always looking up, and they have strong fingers to hold on with for safety. They know what it means to feel safe in the presence of their parents, if they have good parents. Therefore, they teach us how to feel safe in God's presence and how to seek His company. According to Psalm 8 they teach us how to know God.

 

But, you say, that is just too simplistic. We are not children any longer. How can we know our Creator without first having resolved every questions about the world He created--

questions about primate fossils found in Africa, about the ice ages in Scandinavia, about the geological column, about dinosaurs, and so on.

 

I agree these are difficult questions, and quite frankly I have not found satisfactory answers to all of them. But then I remember Psalm 8, and I think of a child standing at a street corner waiting to cross through heavy traffic. He reaches up to take the hand of his parent, and now he feels safe. That is how I relate to my Creator. There are questions and problems, of course. There are mysteries in the world. But when we take His hand, we feel safe. That is how we know Him as our Creator. Holding the hand of God has to do with accepting that we are God's children from birth.

 

When we know God like this we confess without hesitation or reservation: I believe in Father God, the Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I know in whom I believe, I feel safe in the presence of my Creator, and I seek His company.

Second, I know God by accepting His will for my life.

 

I admit that it has taken me a long time to learn that, and I am still working at it. But here is what I have learned so far. God's will for us is our welfare, and His will is revealed in His law. It sounds simple enough, and yet God's will is a strange thing to many people, even to some Christians. Some of us think of His will as strict, oppressive, legalistic, harsh, judgmental--full of legal do's and don'ts. For that reason some people, even some Christians, do not seriously seek to know God's will. Rather they attempt to avoid it so they can follow their own will. Such people feel insecure in God's presence, and they do not seek His company for they worry that once they learn to know God's will they will not enjoy it.

 

As I have thought of this within the short history of our own Adventist Church and its ministry, I see two distinct phases in our teaching regarding God's will and His law.

 

Phase one: Early on, without intending to, we managed to turn many of our people away from God's will as revealed in His law. Ellen White spoke of that in 1888. At first we listened and changed, but then we forgot what we had learned.

 

We have no one but ourselves to blame for this state of affairs for somehow, during nearly 100 years of ministry, we as pastors and teachers managed to preach about the law of God and in the same breath as we spoke of God's judgment, especially the so-called investigative judgment, or pre-advent judgment. Is that not so? I really do not think that all of us intended to do it that way, but somehow we did, and we managed to frighten many of our members with the judgment. We made them fearful that they would surely be lost during the end time, because they had failed (as we all have truly failed) to obey the law of God.

 

As a young Bible teacher I ran into this all the time, especially among my first year college students. This was especially true 30 years or more ago before the Project Affirmation and the Value Genesis initiatives took hold. "I know I have sinned," they would say. "So if God is going to weigh my sins against His law in the investigative judgment, I will not make it. I give up. I do not even want to hear of God's law any more." My assignment was to change their minds.

 

Phase two: Toward the end of the 20^th century we remedied that attitude in our Church, at least in this country, with the Project Affirmation which affirmed once again God's grace and righteousness by faith. I think our members really accepted this affirmation, namely that grace precedes everything else in our relationship with God and that once we accept His grace we will know Him and we will know His will for us. But did that change reestablish the law of God as a guide in our lives and in our Church? I see little evidence of that. Despite our reorientation to the primacy of grace, the will of God in His law has not always found its proper place in our thinking. In fact, it seems that the law of God is spoken of much less now than before, but for a different reason--not because we are afraid of it, but because we set it aside. We reason as follows: If grace is all sufficient, as many believers conclude, why worry about the law? We will just do the best we can.

 

Here is my take on our young members and some older ones as well. They are full of faith, they love the Lord, they want to know His will, and they want to serve Him in many different ways--although not necessarily in the way proposed by denominational leadership. As to God's law? For many of them it has been translated in their thinking into this single principle: Do the best you can. That is all God really expects of us. His grace will take care of the rest. So, is this our new doctrine--just do the best we can under the circumstances? And when something goes wrong in our lives, what do we say? It was difficult, but I did my best. Is that a new interpretation of God's law? How can we ever know God unless we also know His will for us?

 

In thinking of all this I have come to two conclusion in my teaching and Bible study, first about the judgment and second about God's law. As for the judgment, the so-called investigative judgment, here is my first conclusion on that subject. In all the judgment passages, especially in the prophets where this judgment is presented, God does not judge His people for failure to obey His law but for failure to remain loyal to His covenant. Think of Micah 6:6-8 as a good example. It speaks of Israel's failure and goes on the enumerate the many ways in which the people Israel might have been more obedient--with burnt offerings (thousands of them), oil (rivers full of it), a human sacrifice of the first born child. "Is that what is missing?" the people asked Micah? So much to do, and so hopelessly difficult to obey the law in full measure. "No," comes the answer from the Lord. "I only ask three things: Be fair, be merciful and be humble--that is to say, be loyal to me." I ask you to be loyal--that is what God requires.

 

Does God demand full and perfect obedience of His law? No, not exactly. Does He ask us merely to do our best? No, not that either. In fact, God expects something very specific. He expects fairness, constant love, humility, and loyalty to Him. He does not ask us to be perfect, though that would be nice, instead He asks us to be loyal to Him. With this discovery, as a teacher I could now explain to my students that the judgment is an important Bible teaching, but when our names come up in the heavenly court the question God asks is not how good we have been--how perfectly we have obeyed Him, but how loyal we have been. That is what matters most to God. In fact, it is not our sins that get us into trouble with God on the judgment day, but it is contempt of court that puts us at risk with Him. As for our sin, God knows that we sin, but He has a remedy for sin--forgiveness. He will cast our sins into the sea and deposit them on the bottom (Micah 7:19 ). But what can God do with disloyalty on our part? What can He do when we do not care? What can He do when we turn our backs? That is what the judgment is all about--did we turn our backs toward God in contempt of His court, or did we come boldly to His throne seeking His acceptance and forgiveness through Jesus Christ our friend and advocate? That is the meaning of loyalty and that is what I taught my students.

The second discovery I made is that the law of God is not intended to provide a way of salvation. At best it may enable us to share redemption with our fellow human beings. So then, the law is helpful, but not by granting us salvation. It helps us to see ourselves honestly as we really are, and then to show us how to act and live more responsibly. The law is more like a teacher than a Savior, for it presents God's great ethical demand. Is that not so?

 

Let us look again at God's law. How does it read? What does it ask of us? It consists of ten commandments on two tablets. Let us begin with the easy part, the second tablet which teaches us to relate to others. Do not desire the property of others--be content. Do not lie about your neighbor--tell the truth. Do not steal what belongs to others. Respect your friend's spouse--do not commit adultery. Do not commit murder--the life of another is not yours to take. "But how can we learn to live in harmony with these demanding prohibitions?" we ask. Here comes the answer in the one positive commandment on the second tablet which points to the heart of all relationships: Honor your father and mother. That is where it all begins, at home with father, mother, and children. If things go right at home, then they will go right in the neighborhood, in the country, and between nations. God's will really is no mystery at all, and it is not frightening either. It begins with a good and safe home.

 

The fifth commandment, the one expressed in the positive, holds the key to the next five, does it not? I believe that explains why it is positive, whereupon the don'ts follow quite naturally. Here is a powerful statement about personal and social responsibility, and it begins at home with parents and children. Thus the positive fifth commandment sets the stage and all the rest follow.

 

But, we ask, who gave us these principles, and why should we pay attention? The answer is equally instructive and startling and is found on the first tablet--the four commandments dealing with our relationship with God. Not just anyone is the author of these commandments. They come from God and they are His will. Who is this God? Not just anyone. We cannot see Him, and don't even think of making a picture of God. Well, can I speak to Him, we wonder? Yes, sort of, in prayer and meditation, but not by using His name in a common way. How then do we go about it, for we want to know this God and His will. That takes us to the corresponding positive commandment on the first tablet, the fourth. It contains a startling message: The law giver who sets such high ethical standards for us begins by giving us a gift--a day off, a holiday, sacred time without work, a time to rest. That is the day on which we learn to know God in the safety of His presence. Once we catch the meaning of the positive fourth commandment, all the previous questions are resolved. We know Him by feeling safe in His presence and by seeking His company on His day.

 

Leviticus 19:3 puts these two climactic positive commandment together in an interesting text: "You shall love your father and mother and you shall keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God." One commandment gives us a safe day of rest in the presence of God, without work obligations. The other gives us a family where children enjoy the company of their parents and the parents care for their children. Think of those two positive commandments as supporting pillars of all human life. Hereby we will know God by submitting to His will as revealed in His law. We will know Him by feeling safe in His presence, and we will seek His company. So brothers and sisters, if we want to know the will of God, we must speak of it in our classes and from our pulpits, and we must examine the place of His law in our lives.

Third, I know God because He loves me.

 

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."--John 3:16 As a young person I was greatly impressed with the thought that our Lord and Savior would give His life to save one sinner. Elder E L Minchen once conducted a week of prayer on that theme when I was in college. It deeply moved my young mind. Added to this is the thought by the Apostle Paul that it is perhaps understandable how someone might give his or her life for a friend, but Christ gave His life for us while we were still enemies (Rom 5:7-8). This early admiration of a love strong enough to save another person has been confused by the now all-to-common reports of individuals (suicide bombers) who are more than ready to give their lives to kill those they hate. How can both love and hate inspire the same level of sacrifice of one's life? Love and hate are equally strong emotions, so much so that some are willing to die for either one. Therefore we need to think carefully about the word love, especially since it expresses the third part of our knowledge of God. We must consider our love and God's love. We must examine love as an emotion--what it means to fall in love and what it means to fall in lust.

 

Do you recall the story in the Bible of Amnon and Tamar (2 Sam 13:15)? The story begins with two of King David's children, brother and sister. One of them, Amnon, thought he had fallen in love with his sister, and he violated her. The story ends this way: The hate with which he hated her was now greater than the love with which he had formerly loved her. Here are strong emotions at work, like the emotions we read about in our papers and hear about on television. How then do we understand the word love when we use it to describe our knowledge of God?

 

First of all, just as God's judgment is not motivated by hatred or strong dislike on God's part, so God's love is not motivated by emotions or passions. His love is a principle. That is what we need to know about Him, and once we do we feel safe in His presence and seek His company--that is, we love God back. Some Christians develop merely an emotional, passionate love relationship to God. Perhaps they have been encouraged to respond that way by preachers, week of prayer speakers, and teachers who speak of God's love in an almost seductive way, as though He were our "lover." Even some of the praise songs projected on our church walls, instead of printed in the hymn book, use seductive language and music to communicate our relationship with God. Our young members, even children, sometimes get caught up in believing that Christianity is merely an affair of the heart. "Give your heart to Jesus" we instruct them when they are small. But how do they deal with that "love language" when the hormones kick in and these young believers begin to give their hearts to each other as well? Will there continue to be room in their hearts for Jesus during the passion of dating, falling in and out of love, and getting married?

 

One of the saddest experiences I have had is to see young and not so young Christians replace their passionate love of God with a strong dislike of anything religious and Christian--as in the story of Amnon and Tamor. (The hatred with which he now hated her was greater than the love with which he had formerly loved her.) The prophet Hosea also speaks of that experience when he, on God's behalf, complains that Israel's love is like the morning dew. It evaporates with the first rays of the morning sun (Hos 6:4). So to clarify God's kind of love, the prophet introduced a special word for love, Hesed, which means love based on principle. This is often translated as steadfast love, or covenant-keeping love, or lasting love. That is God's way of loving.

 

Well, you say, the fickle kind of love demonstrated by Israel in Hosea's time may describe young believers who know a great deal about passion but not much about lasting love. But it does not apply to us; we are more mature. Our love has become much more a principle than a passion, much more like God's love. We understand principled love. Well, think again. Has it become more principle than passion, or has it just become more dull? Let me illustrate with a personal note. Last April, during the Spring Meeting, I received an urgent call from my son in California. I had been to Asia for some fund-raising activities, then on to Thailand for a workshop for ADRA workers dealing with the Scriptural foundation of development and relief work, then off to India to conduct a college graduation and some consultation work on international Adventist education. Then, with just enough time to change clothes, I continued east to attend Spring Meeting. Does this sound familiar? Do you work like this? And when you return do you find your desk piled so high that you put in 12 to 14 hour days so you can catch up before the next trip? Now then, my son called on my cell phone saying, "Dad, you had better call home. I just talked to mom and she sounds as though she is in some kind of trouble." So I called to find out what this trouble was about. "Well," said my wife, "it is not so bad really. Yes, the car does not go anymore, the washing machine is broken, the lawn needs cutting and I cannot start the mower. Perhaps you do need to come home." If you noticed that I missed the last half day of Spring Meeting, you now know why. And yes, there is now a car that works, the washing machine hums again, and the grass is cut. Do we love each other at home? Yes, on principle, surely. There is not much time for puppy love, teen passion, and constant attention when you reach this age and work for the Church or serve as university president. Surely our love has become a principle by now, but is the principle of love at work? Or has it dulled a little because of inattention due to a busy life?

 

Even we who have lived long enough to experience the maturing of passion to principle in love have something to learn about God's love. Yes, He loves us on principle but, unlike our love, His love never dulls. It remains warm and attentive always, even passionate, but principled. God is someone who loves us always. He is Someone whose love is steady no matter the circumstances. He is Someone who loves so differently from the way even the most lovable among us love. That is the type of love we seek and will find when we know God.

 

That is what Jesus explained to us in His parable of the lost son who returned to his father, his mother, and his brother (Luke 15). The Dutch painter, Rembrandt, portrayed the scene in a famous painting on display in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia. I have been to Russia, but regrettably was unable to visit St Petersburg to see that painting--something I would very much like to do one day. Theologian Henry Neuwen wrote a book about that painting that you may want to read. The single point in the parable, the painting, and the book is that God the Father loved this boy against all odds and he loved him with a mother's love and with a father's love. This unusual point is implied in Jesus' parable where both parents--father and mother--played a role in loving their son back home. One covered him with a robe and the other prepared him a home-cooked meal. This is expressed explicitly in Rembrandt's painting and in Neuwen's interpretation of it. Rembrandt painted the father's two hands on his son's shoulders, so that one imitates a man's strong hand and the other looks like a women's gentle hand. And he placed a woman faintly in the background of the canvas to indicate her shared presence.

It is a story of God's love for His lost child. He loved him during his absence and He loved him when he returned. He loved him while he was handsome and He loved him when he looked awful. He also loved his arrogant older son who stood nearby looking on with an air of importance, judgment, and self-righteousness

How can we gain such knowledge of God? Let me tell you a story from my college days in England. It is about Hyde Park Corner in London, where on Sunday morning people who have a speech to give can do so and attempt to attracts an audience of passers by. Are you familiar with that tradition? I once went to Hyde Park corner to see for myself. I must say that most of the speakers were a bit odd and few had much of an audience. Now, according to this story, one Sunday morning a very persuasive speaker, quite an orator, was speaking against God, giving argument upon argument as to why there really is no God and why everyone ought to drop that old superstition. A large audience gathered. At a pause in his speech he challenged anyone to reply or to enter a counter argument, but no one was ready to risk being made into a fool by this clever man. Presently, a short, elderly gentleman dressed in a large overcoat with big pockets elbowed his way to the front and indicated his willingness to offer a response. Once up front he fished an orange out of one of his coat pockets and a small pocket knife out of the other and proceeded to peel the orange. He broke it open and shared its wedges with the listeners nearby and instructed them: "Taste and see that God is good" (Ps 34:8). Then he stepped down, walked away, and took most of the audience with him. Knowing God is not about clever arguments and certainly not about having Him figured out. It is about feeling safe in His presence; it is about seeking His company.

 

In difficult moments, during personal and national tragedies such as we have experienced in the last year, it is not easy to keep our knowledge of God clearly in mind. I understand this. But we must stay focused on it just the same, for it is at such times that we especially must know Him in whom we believe. At moments of catastrophic destruction all around us, as this world reaches its end, we must know for certain that He is our Creator and the Creator of the whole world. At moments when law and order are flaunted, the unjust are arrogant, and the enemies of God sin with a high hand, we must know God's will and the ethical demands He has placed on us, for only they can bring order to our lives, our families, and our society. When love turns to hate or becomes dulled by absence and inattention, and those we have embraced become our enemies, we need to know God who loves all His children, always, without condition. That, I believe, is what Ellen White had in mind when she uttered her last works: "I know in whom I have believed." So we too will know Him, because we feel safe in His presence and enjoy His company; and we will worship Him and serve Him until that glorious day spoken of by the prophet when the "Knowledge of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea."--Isa 11:9