21 March 2002 Editorial:
Regular Adventists

Larry Kirkpatrick

What makes one a regular Adventist? Is one who reads the Review and goes along with everything published there a regular Adventist? Is one who goes to one of the church's book stores and buys the latest books by Billy Graham or Philip Yancey or the currently most popular SDA author a regular Adventist?

Canvassing an idea in the church doesn't make it Adventist. Running it in a major denominational publication doesn't either. Nor does publishing something in a location outside of the church's flagship journals make it Adventist or non-Adventist. Adventism is defined by ideas about God.

When the General Conference Session says these 27 points stand for our best current understanding of ideas about God that He wants highlighted at this time, that counts heavily. That's a formal statement coming from the authority of the worldwide SDA church, and it should be respected. I'm glad to be one who upholds these teachings. What a privilege!

When someone says to pass by the doctrine and just give me Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, they are presenting something of their own ideas about God. It may be truth or it may be error, but it is an idea about God, and its expression doesn't make it truth. It either was truth before it was expressed, or it was not and is not truth even after expressed.

Ideas about God are important. A church should have ideas about God. You can't copyright one. It would be obvious that we had caved-in entirely to the secular world if we trademarked our ideas about God. Imagine a sentence where the author had to write, "Now in the investigative judgment^TM it is taught that God is going over the records of every individual professing salvation in Christ." Absurd, I know. But we make a point. Ideas are valid or invalid in and of themselves. They are important to a church. Ideas about God have a lot to do with separating us from other churches, both in what we believe and in how we behave.

Regular Adventists, it has seemed to me in my travels, tend to be those who love Jesus, they love the third angel's message. They want to be sound in how they live it and thoughtful in how they give it. They read from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. They measure by these. They become concerned when they see developments within the church that don't harmonize with these sources. They get branded as conservative, legalist, traditionalist, off-shoot. Critical of the church, you name it; anything to de-legitimize their ideas. This is because there is a battle underway over ideas about God in our church.

We have become used to this. We tend to allow ourselves to be identified as "conservative" Adventists, and maybe we are. But it seems to me that really, when it comes down to ideas about God, "conservative" Adventists are just regular Adventists. We play into the hands of those with mutually exclusive ideas about God when we accept the label "conservative." We might want to, when we are called this, clarify by saying, "No, I'm just a regular Adventist."

Truth is truth; an idea about God is an idea about God. Perception can be adjusted, turned to good or not good. Those pressing forward an agenda composed of ideas about God that cannot harmonize with what Adventism is in its essence, are spinning perceptions. They are trying to reposition you as a conservative Adventist, because then you're views are just those views, views they may feel they have long ago discredited.

But if you are really just a regular Adventist, say so. They can try for spin-cycle if they want, but you just keep right on reading your Bible, believing the counsel God gave us through the Spirit of Prophecy; keep right on teaching your children to keep the Sabbath and avoid worldly music; don't stop insisting that your church baptize only persons who have undergone a meaningful preparation for it and who are converted. When you feel something presenting a mistaken idea about God has been published on the denominational press, don't hesitate to write and call them on it. This is the solution to spin-cycle. Hang in there, stay right there; editors come and editors go, but the truth is still the truth is still the truth is still the truth. You can spin it 80 times and it will still be the truth. It will still have its peculiar texture, its identifiable markings. And it is plain old regular Adventists who can make a difference between spin-cycle and finishing the work. You regular Adventists keep on sharing the ideas about God that led you to embrace Adventism. Let's see what happens.

Pastor Larry Kirkpatrick is an ordained minister of the gospel. Since 1994 he has served in the American Southwest as pastor to several churches. He received his BA in Religion from Southern Adventist University in 1994 and a Master of Divinity from Andrews University in 1999 with a specialization in Adventist Studies. While in Michigan he was employed by the General Conference at the White Estate Berrien Springs branch office. More important than his scholastic preparation has been his immersion in the biblical and Spirit of Prophecy materials. He is author of the 2003 book Real Grace for Real People. Presently he serves as Pastor of the Mentone Church of Seventh-day Adventists, located near Loma Linda, California. Larry is married to Pamela. The couple presently live in Highland, California along with their two children, Etienne and Melinda.