DAY OF PRAYER FOR JUSTICE AND RACIAL EQUALITY
Promoted by the North American Division
Once again, the social gospel has distracted the North American Division from God’s mission to the Adventist Church. This time it was promoting June 27 as a day of prayer to fight for justice and racial equality.
The first article, by José Cortez Jr., “Should We Protest Discrimination And Racism?,” contains several politically and racially biased analyses of Jesus’ work in the New Testament. For example, he presents Jesus as promoting a protest on behalf of the Samaritans, as if Jesus had been trumpeting, “Samaritan Lives Matters.” He also gives other examples that he sees as a social protest by Jesus against the social injustices of his day. Among them he mentions Jesus' use of a whip to attack temple trade. He completely misinterprets that act, which had nothing to do with a political and social protest movement. It was a warning of the final judgment for those who engaged in those activities.
No one denies that there are social injustices. No one claims that nothing should be done to heal the wounds that these injustices inflict on those who suffer from them. The question is, “how?”
The mission of the Adventist Church and authentic Christianity is not political, it is not entangled in resistance activism for women’s equality with men, for the LGTB+ community, or in any other form of political activism for social vindication. These struggles have always existed on this earth, and they will not end until the Lord comes.
“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal,” the Apostle Paul said, but spiritual (2 Cor 10:4). None of the apostles became engulfed in public demonstrations of resistance to the social inequality of their day. Not one of them. They knew that by cutting the branches of a tree that produced bitter oranges, they would never prevent it from continuing to give bitter oranges. The gospel is spiritual, it cuts the trunk of the tree, and grafts a new strain that will always give sweet oranges.
It is good to pray for people who are oppressed. But we have to be careful as not to give the impression of uniting in a political struggle for justice and racial equality. Does the North American Division believe that the world can become the new Eden that God promises us? By taking part in a political struggle for justice and racial equality, the North American Division seems to believe that it can. In this manner the Protestant world lost its mission, which today, instead of leading people to prepare for a better world, focuses on a ministry of protest against political authorities to impose their social gospel.
No, the world is not going to convert! Joining social protests leads you into a spiral of political reaction that arouses resentment, hatred and anger, and leads people to stop focusing on Jesus and a better world to come. For, on this side of eternity, we will never succeed in imposing the ideal world of the afterlife we are promised. On the contrary, we were warned that this world will be destroyed, and that we must keep our hearts under control, so that no root of bitterness will prevent us from contemplating Christ in His glory when He comes (Heb 12:14-15).
The Apostle James did not urge the church to unite in a public outcry against the rich who were going to accumulate immeasurable wealth in the last days. On the contrary, he warned them not to complain about it in order to avoid being condemned themselves for their bitter feelings. His exhortation was to be patient, while we await the coming of the Lord (James 5). And in a similar way, the Apostle Peter affirmed, that “in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, as you anticipate these things, make every effort to be found at peace with Him, without spot or blemish. Consider also that our Lord’s patience brings salvation” (2 Peter 3:13-15).
In this context, I liked the response of an Asian sister who also reacted against this new social or racial movement of the North American Division. She insisted on the fact that racism, classicism, oppression of any of the isms are all problems of sin, and that Jesus came to be the only bridge between heaven and earth. Let me share her reaction, which she accompanied with quotes from E. G. White:
She wrote: “We should not be soooo busy or distracted by trying to create a utopia on this earth (just like Israelites wanted Jesus to set up earthly kingdom) when we should first and foremost be focusing on character issues, sharing Good News, and the very soon coming of Jesus Christ.” And then, she quoted E. G. White:
“The government under which Jesus lived was corrupt and oppressive; on every hand were crying abuses—extortion, intolerance, and grinding cruelty. Yet the Savior attempted no civil reforms. He attacked no national abuses, nor condemned the national enemies. He did not interfere with the authority or administration of those in power. He who was our example kept aloof from earthly governments. Not because He was indifferent to the woes of men, but because the remedy did not lie in merely human and external measures. To be efficient, the cure must reach men individually, and must regenerate the heart” (DA 509).
The Asian sister continued:
“The great controversy we are caught up in is so much bigger than race issues and viruses. The devil is doing everything he can to hinder us. Be alert, stay the course, focus on Jesus and not this world, forward on our knees. In light of the riots and now the curfew for tonight in Portland (yes, curfew due to rioting), like Jesus we should be careful of becoming involved by acting like SJW (social justice warriors) as written in the Desire of Ages, page 506-509 in my other comment above…”
May we say a hearty “Amen.”
Dr. Alberto R. Treiyer was born in the Adventist community of Libertador San Martín, Entre Ríos, Argentina. Dr. Treiyer is an author, and has a doctoral degree in theology from the University of Strasbourg, France. He has served as the director of the theological department at the Adventist Antillian College in Puerto Rico, where he taught for six years. He has also taught at the University of La Sierra, and Columbia Union College, as well as theology in Costa Rica and Columbia. Alberto is now a retired pastor, giving seminars, and writing books and papers that support our distinctive message.
