Responding to the “Uplifting Jesus” Statement • The Apocalyptic Imagination • Last-Generation Lifestyle • Waco’s 25th Anniversary • Postum Makes a Comeback • Freedom for Neighbor Love • Hospitality Begins at Home VOLUME 46 ISSUE 2 ■ 2018 SPECTRUM is a journal established to encourage Seventh-day Adventist participation in the discussion of contemporary issues from a Christian viewpoint, to look without prejudice at all sides of a subject, to evaluate the merits of diverse views, and to foster Christian intellectual and cultural growth. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED COPYRIGHT © 2017 ADVENTIST FORUM Although effort is made to ensure accurate scholarship and discriminating judgment, the statements of fact Editor Bonnie Dwyer are the responsibility of contributors, and the views Editorial Assistants Wendy Trim, Linda Terry individual authors express are not necessarily those of Design Mark Dwyer the editorial staff as a whole or as individuals. Spectrum Web Team Alita Byrd, Pam Dietrich, Bonnie Dwyer, Rich Hannon, Steve Hergert, Wendy Trim, Jared SPECTRUM is published by Adventist Forum, a non- Wright, Alisa Williams; managing editor subsidized, nonprofit organization for which gifts are deductible in the report of income for purposes of taxation. The publishing of SPECTRUM depends on subscriptions, gifts from individuals, and the voluntary ABOUT THE COVER ART AND ARTIST: Editorial Board: efforts of the contributors. Richard W. Hawkins is a Beverly Beem Richard Rice SPECTRUM can be accessed on the World Wide Web at multimedia artist, born 1989 in Walla Walla, Washington Riverside, California Lodi, California. Richard’s work www.spectrummagazine.org. varies in media from paintings Alita Byrd Charles Scriven and sculptures to metal working, Dublin, Ireland Phoenix, Arizona mixed media and experimenting with unconventional materials. Alexander Carpenter Gerhard Svrcek-Seiler Richard is a graduate of Pacific Sacramento, California Vienna, Austria Union College (‘13) and went on Editorial Correspondence to obtain a Master’s Degree in Fine Sharon Fujimoto- Gil Valentine Art from the top metal smithing Johnson Riverside, California Direct all correspondence and letters to the editor to: program in the United States Roseville, California at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Kendra Haloviak- Richard’s work has been exhibited Fritz Guy Valentine SPECTRUM nationally and internationally. Riverside, California His work has acquired collectors Riverside, California P. O. Box 619047 ranging from former politicians, Roseville, CA 95661-9047 star athletes, and architects. David R. Larson Norman Young Beaumont, California Cooranbong, Australia Richard, on the cover piece of this issue, entitled, “Void”: Juli Miller tel: (916) 774-1080 Bellevue, Idaho fax: (916) 791-4938 “There come moments in life when all is pushed away by [email protected] circumstances. When foundations of family, relationships, and the continuity of stability are Letters to the editor may be edited for publication. in question there is a great emptiness. All the beauty in life is pushed away from the radar ISSN: 0890-0264 and we are left with what seems insurmountable. Made in a challenging period Subscriptions and Advertising of my own life, I am reminded that when faced with uncertainty [email protected] there is only one way to face it all, (916) 774-1080 head on. If I can face my fear, be it loneliness, rejection, or loss, I can only then see what exists on the other side of a great void.” Additional images of Richard’s metal and etching work appear on divider spreads within this issue. For more, visit http://rhawki1. otherpeoplespixels.com. VOLUME 46 ISSUE 2 SPECTRUM contents 8 Editorials 2 The Ties that Bind or Set Us Free | BY BONNIE DWYER 3 Unity by Authoritarian Means | BY CHARLES SCRIVEN Noteworthy: GC Spring Meeting 18 5 Spring Meeting Postlude | BY BONNIE DWYER 7 Responding to the General Conference’s Latest Document | BY BONNIE DWYER 8 A Committed and Concerned Church Executive Responds to the General Conference’s New Declaration | BY ANONYMOUS 27 10 The “Uplifting Jesus” Statement: A Theological Perspective | BY WILLIAM G. JOHNSSON 12 “Reformatio in Capite et in Membris” —17 Questions That Need an Answer | BY EDWIN TORKELSEN 40 Reading the Bible: Apocalyptic Literature 18 The Apocalyptic Imagination: Challenges and Opportunities | BY HEROLD WEISS 27 The Wars Waco Revealed: Reflecting on Waco Twenty-five Years Later | BY KENDRA HALOVIAK VALENTINE 56 40 Inhabiting the Kingdom: On Apocalyptic Identity and Last-Generation Lifestyle | BY ANTE JERONČIĆ Health & Wellness 56 Postum Making a Comeback | BY ALITA BYRD 60 60 What is Vitamin B12 and Why is it Important? | BY ROMAN PAWLAK Love Thy Neighbor 66 Freedom for Neighbor Love | BY GERALD WINSLOW 66 70 Hospitality Begins at Home: Seventh-day Adventist Churches Craft Welcoming Statements Book Reviews 74 Speaking Out Against Last Generation Theology | BY REINDER BRUINSMA WWW.SPECTRUMMAGAZINE.ORG 1 EDITORIAL ■ from the editor The Ties that Bind or Set Us Free | BY BONNIE DWYER amily conversations about money, policy that specifies unions are the level of especially when you have very the church to decide on women’s ordination little, can move quickly into was not changed, so unions can continue arguments with pointed fingers. making the decisions on who is ordained in TheF saver versus the spender. After a couple their territory. Those people are taken aback Would of such heated sessions early in my marriage, by the push from the church administration acknowledging it dawned on me that we were both really to develop “consequences” for those entities trying to do the same thing. My thrifty that are “out of compliance.” that we have husband wanted to build a nest egg to take Would acknowledging that we have the care of the family and provide for our future. I same goal of taking care of the church take the same goal wanted to purchase things to make our home some of the heat out of the current church comfortable and attractive. We both had debate? of taking care the same goal of wanting to take care of the In this issue of the journal, we have a family, but we had very different ideas about collection of articles arranged in a topical of the church how to accomplish that goal. Acknowledging fashion. In the Noteworthy section, we’ve our mutual goal helped take some of the heat grouped together articles about the “Uplifting take some of out of the budget discussions. Jesus” document that came out in April right Taking care of the church is another goal after Spring Meetings. We’ve pulled together the heat out that can be visualized in very different book reviews at the end of the journal. ways. There are those who understand Discussion of the Apocalypse is in the Bible of the current Total Member Involvement as an official Section. But the ideas in the various articles church program for evangelizing the world go beyond the boundaries of the organizing church and including lay people in the process. And topic. Gerald Winslow’s discussion of freedom then there are those who hear those words and neighbor love might influence how you debate? “Total Member Involvement” and think of the understand the news in the Noteworthy Priesthood of All Believers and the need to section, for instance. I mention this because engage both men and women equally in the our goal in this issue is to help you think ministry of the church. There are those who about seemingly common topics in new ways. think the vote of the church in San Antonio Our hope is that ideas that set our minds against allowing divisions to ordain women free can also draw us together, help us to see means that the unions that do ordain women our common goals. Such ideas can bind us are out of compliance with church policy. together as family by helping us to understand There are those who see the same vote as, each other even if we see things differently.■ to use a phrase Ted Wilson himself put into play, “changing nothing,” which is what he Bonnie Dwyer is editor of Spectrum magazine. said the day after the vote was taken. Church 2 spectrum VOLUME 46 ISSUE 2 ■ 2018 from the forum chairman ■ EDITORIAL Unity by Authoritarian Means | BY CHARLES SCRIVEN ’m a troublemaker, and perhaps to no avail. I bawl, the same yesterday, today and forever. It is true as well whimper, raise my voice, and point fingers in print. that the text of Scripture remains (but for scholarly dis- And because the tide I am now fretting over is fe- coveries concerning some details) essentially unchanged rocious, I know that a single sandbag—or a dozen and unchangeable. Still, the Bible teaches that the living orI a hundred—amounts to little. By the thousands and Word of God—the actual message of God to actual hu- the tens of thousands, Adventists must now, every one man beings—does change. The prophets say repeatedly of us—resist. that God will tell us “new” things. According to John, Can you please lay off the overheated rhetoric? Jesus himself declared that the Holy Spirit—his own liv- No, and here is why. Our church’s leadership is becom- ing presence in the church—would one day say what was ing more and more authoritarian and is thereby threaten- then too hard for his disciples to bear. By the ultimate ing the very soul of Adventism. I don’t mean conference authority of Christ, the living Word would continue to and union presidents, who do what they can to buoy up speak and minds continue to change. The sermon in At- the lay leaders and church pastors who mind and encour- lanta overlooked these points. age our local congregations. I mean Adventist leadership Here Christian consensus in condemning slavery pro- at the top.