Consider the patience of God, as He set about restoring a knowledge of Himself in a world that had nearly forgotten Him.
God called Abraham, a man with a responsive heart, and began to patiently teach him lessons of faith and trust. On two
Consider the patience of God, as He set about restoring a knowledge of Himself in a world that had nearly forgotten Him.
God called Abraham, a man with a responsive heart, and began to patiently teach him lessons of faith and trust. On two occasions, Abraham’s trust failed. Fearing he would be killed in order to take his beautiful wife Sarah, he lied, both to the Pharaoh of Egypt and Abimilech, king of Gerar, and both times God rescued him.
When God promised him a son, but he remained childless, he followed Sarah’s suggestion to father a child with her maid, a human solution that led to great difficulties, both then and through the centuries since. God did not punish him for this, but provided a son, Isaac, through Sarah in His own time. As God continued to teach and guide, Abraham’s faith grew, and today we know him as the “Father of the Faithful.”
After 400 years of slavery in Egypt, Abraham’s descendents had lost much of their knowledge about the God of their forefather, Abraham. But once again, God called Moses, a man who had learned patience, to deliver them and teach them His ways. Trapped against the Red Sea, God made a path of dry land and led them to the other side. Discouraged by hunger and thirst, God provided their needs. Afraid of facing the inhabitants of Canaan, God promised to send hornets to drive them out, but when they misunderstood, He let them do it their way.
Jesus came to tell people that His Father’s Kingdom of Love was already beginning. He spent three years ministering to people’s needs, showing love to the outcasts, and teaching His disciples as much as He could about a new way of understanding God. Jesus realized that those who followed Him were slow of heart and didn’t understand many of the things He had been telling them. As they ate the Passover Supper together before His death, He tried to prepare His disciples for what was coming, to comfort them in advance of an event that would devastate them.
He promised, “I tell you the truth: it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. (John 16:12,13) What a precious gift the Holy Spirit was! It would be like having Jesus living in their hearts. The Spirit would be able to open their minds to more truth, when they were able to understand it. And the Spirit would continue to enlighten Jesus’ followers through the ages, even today.
The understanding that Jesus had truly been God, embodied in human flesh, did not fully dawn on His followers at first, but after He returned to heaven and the Holy Spirit had been poured out on them, they were enlightened. Regarding this insight, Peter later wrote, “I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the present truth.” (2 Pet. 1:12-13)
“Present truth” is a significant phrase for Seventh-day Adventists, dating back to the founding of the church. This expression implies truth that is revealed at an appropriate time in history, a truth which people are ready or able to understand. In early Adventist history, pioneer Joseph Bates defined “present truth” as the sanctuary and Sabbath doctrines.
Church founder James White wrote, “In Peter’s time there was present truth, or truth applicable to that present time. The Church have [sic] ever had a present truth. The present truth now is that which shows present duty and the right position for us.” It is important for Adventists today to continue to keep our minds open to the guidance of God’s Spirit in discerning “present truth” for our day.
Sometimes it’s not so easy to accept new light when it seems to conflict with the way we’ve always understood something. There are many biblical examples: polygamy, for instance. This practice was accepted as normal in the culture of Old Testament times, if a man was wealthy enough to support more than one wife. We think of Abraham, Jacob, Elkannah, David, and Solomon. God even gave commands to protect the rights of the first wife, when a second wife was taken. (Ex. 21:10, Deut. 21:16,17) If a man died without children, God commanded that his brother take his widow and give her a child to carry on the deceased’s line.
And yet, by the time the early Christian church was established, Paul suggests that the ideal is to be the husband of one wife. (1 Tim. 3:2,12) And today, certainly, this is recognized as God’s ideal.
We find a very strong patriarchal bias in the Old Testament, and the understanding that women were possessions owned by 