This blog, 1GSDA — that’s “First-Generation Seventh-day Adventist” — marks my tenth year as an SDA. (Holy cow!)
That's quite extraordinary to me since, in the past, my viewpoints have tended to change frequently as new information, always abundant, whether true or false, pours in and messes with my overall worldview.
Indeed, my mind, given time, has repeatedly shown that it will eventually change no matter how hard I try to hold on to a certain set of beliefs — whether political, religious (or antireligious), social ... whatever.
"So what’s with this decade-old belief stuff, man?"
In this case, I would say that the SDA church has held my loyalty because it is the best available expression of Bible Christianity that I've come across. This isn't to say that I believe it is a perfect church, which it logically cannot be ... or even just the “right” church. Even further, I'll be bold and say that I have yet to give its extra-biblical doctrines my uttermost assent.
My loyalty to this or any church can only go so far; it will only last as I continue to believe it has truth. I will jump ship. I’ve taken the plunge before. I can try to swim to shore or another boat — or just drown. Whatever, dude!
But if I learned that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is a false expression of the faith, it would be hard for me to accept that any other form of Christianity could be called the true expression of the faith. Why? Because no other Christian belief system can refute it. There isn’t even a close second … (I’m not so dogmatic actually, but this idea serves my purpose.)
So here’s the point:
Even as I totter on with that dogmatic position, all these ten years in this church, I still consider myself an outsider looking in. Whenever I think of my relationship to the church, I never think “my church.” It is always “that church.” I would think that after a decade of tithing, I would be all right with saying that the SDA church is “my church.” But I am apparently not okay with saying that.
This isn't because I am some sort of individualist or part-time anarchist who balks at the idea of joining groups. Rather, my reluctance primarily stems from an enormous amount of skepticism about everything under the sun. I’ll write more about this primary cause in another post.
For now, I want to consider a secondary cause: the cause that inspired the name of this infant blog.
As to my reluctance of going all in with the church, perhaps the most significant secondary cause is the existence of SDA “fundies” and “generationalists.” It didn’t take long for this noob to see that Seventh-day Adventism can lead to Pharisaical ideology and a special brand of religious arrogance. I might have thrown myself into the church a little deeper had I not heard that there were such things as “third-generation Adventists" and that these folks refer to Ellen White with the archaic “Sister White.”
Who are these people? Why do they chart the lineage of their faith as if they were supplementing the Gospel of Matthew? What kind of person calls Ellen White “Sister White” in this day? I admit it; it was a little frightening. It’s as if they actually say with some pride, “I AM a Seventh-day Adventist!”
Now the first time I heard the phrase “Seventh-day Adventist,” it came with, “Don’t listen to these people. It’s a cult.” These fundy generationalists don’t help assuage that kind of tension in a skeptic. Not one bit. Thus, I’m only willing to go as deep into this church as these people are willing to go into open water on the Sabbath — that is to say, only about up to my ankles.
Yet don’t be tricked. I’m a die-hard Adventist. Don’t take me to task about the Sabbath, the state of the dead, the millennium, the health message, or the truth about hell-fire. As weird as “you people” can be, “your beliefs” make the most biblical sense. And most important, these truths helped to transform my understanding of who God is, which in turn allowed me to open my heart to Jesus Christ. I was given this access to God by walking through the door of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Why SDA? Because “that church” deserves my respect, and I gladly stand by it.
So why 1G? Because I don’t want to be a part of the cult of arrogance and the Pharisaical spirit abundantly found and matured in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Fo'reelz, I believe we are all 1GSDAs. We are all first-generation Christians. No matter who our parents are … where we come from … or how we find ourselves in this church … we are each in the first generation of believers. I’m happy with that. If there is any group that I might dive into, that's the one.
And that’s what I hope this blog represents. If you are of the same mind, maybe this blog can be your voice just as it is my voice. I hope you will join me, discuss with me, point out what you like and don’t like about what I write … and at times just have some fun with each other.
Ultimately, I hope that we can help each other transform into the next generation of believers, whatever that might be.
