La teoría del sujeto eterno en Green; algunos comentarios críticos

He was one of the SDA ministers and a writer. He renounced his church affiliation and became the “champion” of theological opposition to SDA teachings. He was a polemic writer of considerable ability. He became intolerant of the opinions of others. In 1889 he published a book entitled “Seventh-day Adventism Renounced”. In it he set forth his arguments against the doctrine of the imminent return of Christ, denied the binding nature of the Ten Commandments, rejected the ministry of Ellen White, ridiculed the church leaders, and predicted the disappearance of the SDA (Neufeld 1976: 1190).

These are only a few examples which can help us to understand that this church experienced opposition from its believers. Fortunately, this situation did not hinder the expansion of the church’s mission.

The reaction of the Church vis à vis these dissidents was not violent. The leaders of the church employed an approach of non-confrontation. Humberto (2001:486) later argued that “Studies have demonstrated that the more efforts are expanded to combat such groups or individuals, the more they gain sympathizers, grow resistant and stubborn. The confrontation approach has caused some to grow numerically and gain ground. Instead, the church used the dialogue with the dissidents whenever an opportunity comes to clarify some issues”. Humberto (2001:496) further proposed that the dissidents be given a hearing so as to understand them so that their objections can be answered effectively.

Another approach adopted to handle the problem was to educate the lay and pastoral leadership to enable them to educate church members regarding the proper hermeneutics of the Bible and the writings of Ellen White. The SDA Church continued to grow in spite of these dissidents.

Conclusion

The message of the three angels in Revelation 14:12-16 formed the basic structure of the theology of mission during the formative years of the SDA Church. These messages were considered as preparing people for the Second Advent. This basic structure slowly evolved, to the view of a worldwide outreach. Thus it was not until the 1870s, when the theology of mission had sufficiently matured, that the increasing interest in the SDA message in other continents led to sending missionaries to areas outside of North America.

Having arrived in Europe, Andrews John Nevins described the importance of the world-wide SDA mission as “giving to the world the warning of the near approach of the Judgment, and in setting forth the sacred character of the law of God, as the rule of our lives and of the final Judgment, and the obligation of mankind to keep God’s commandments” (Damsteegt 1981:291). The Adventists carried out this mission by expounding the message in different parts of the world. The results were remarkable. Today the SDA message is heard in 842 languages

and dialects around the world. Every minute of every day two more people are baptized and added to church membership and the Adventist Church has a presence in 204 of the 230 countries recognized by the United Nations (Paulsen 2005:9).

In response to the question as to whether the SDA is member of the Ecumenical Movement or the World Council of Churches, Beach (2000:97), one of the leaders of the church, replies: “We have never been members, we are not now, and we have no plans to become members of the World Council of Churches as it has been organized for the past half-century”. This position is radical. However, it is not easy to place the position of the SDA on the Christian field. Beach (2000:26) further wrote: “The church wants to have good relationship with other churches and participates in the meetings of Christian World Communion, but is not part of organized ecumenism”. The church recognizes that the WCC has helped provide more accurate information regarding churches and has promoted human rights, including religious liberty, has combated the evils of racism etcetera; nevertheless, there are several obstacles to membership.

According to the Policy Statement of the WCC, to be a member means understanding the mission of the church as a joint responsibility shared with others, rather than engaging in missionary or evangelistic activities in isolation from each other, much less in competition with or proselytism of other Christian believers (Statement art. 3.7.7,9). Therefore the Adventists, with their concept of a worldwide commission, could not accept the idea of being “frozen out” of large areas of the world. They feel that the evangelical task can be best accomplished by remaining, organizationally, separate from the National Council and World Council of Churches and some other organizations in the religious world. For them, joining forces with church people and churches whose beliefs and goals differ from theirs would be dishonest. Certainly this attitude is not welcomed by the WCC. Fortunately, to date no friction between the WCC and the SDA has occurred.

As I have said, the position of the Church seems to be non-specific. On the one hand some Adventists have stated that SDAs cannot join the WCC yet on the other, many SDA theologians and other leaders are involved in the WCC, but in an individual capacity. Sometimes the church is invited to send observers to assemblies or some other conferences of the WCC. They can attend but only enjoy observer status. They do not pay any dues or funds to the organization. The position of the SDA towards the WCC remains the same.

CHAPTER 3

3. IMPLANTATION OF THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH IN