The Promise of Peace
According to Charles
Scriven, the journey of "becoming
Adventist" is and must be a continuing reality for both the church and each of
its members. "As understanding and commitment advance, the practice of hope advances
too," he urges in The Promise of Peace.
In his overview, that process and practice should always be advancing and
growing as we live corporately and individually "between our dreams and
disappointments."
The Promise of Peace traces this journey of "becoming" across the spiritual and organisational history of what has become the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Beginning with a burning hope and stinging disappointment, Adventism has grown in ways that could never have been imagined by its earliest members. With an expanding understanding of its hope, Adventism has grown in its wholism and worldwide impact, offering a hope that makes a difference in the world today as well as promising a world fully restored and renewed.
But Scriven also traces this thread through the biblical narrative. From the covenant with Abraham that God would bless him "so that you will be a blessing" (see Genesis 12:1-3), The Promise of Peace follows the recurring call of God for His people to be good for the world, to enact a "covenant of peace" (see Ezekiel 34:25) and to be "peacemakers" (see Matthew 5:9). Scriven also points out the regularity with which the gospel is described as a message of peace (see Isaiah 52:7; Ephesians 6:15; and Revelation 1:4).
Through both biblical and Adventist history, Scriven urges, these themes should call us to seek how better to live out our faith and to ensure it is a faith that is a blessing to those around us. That is what we should be always "becoming," finding real ways to contribute to "human flourishing."
Having worked as a church pastor and college lecturer, Scriven is currently president of the Kettering College of Medical Arts, an Adventist institution in Ohio. As such, his argument is particularly fitted to explaining, exploring and extending the theology that underpins the church's wellbeing and medical work around the world.
But The Promise of Peace should not be sidelined as a handbook for the health-focused. It provides an interesting and worthwhile contrast to George Knight's recent The Apocalyptic Vision and the Neutering of Adventism. Knight also works to strip away the cultural layers and "compromises" of Adventism, recounting the passion of the early Adventist believers. But his brief book tries to make up for its lack of argument with an excess of passion-although a harsher critic might describe it as bluster. He calls Adventism back to its apocalyptic vision and evangelism as well as the core of Christianity, but offers little by way of practical expressions of this faith.
Scriven also calls us back to the theological roots and vision of Adventism but offers a larger, more practical and ultimately more attractive vision of the Adventist hope--"just when your hope for a new world is most intense, you engage the present world. Just then you busy yourself, the best way you can, with the healing of the here-and-now." While not forgetting the importance and necessity of the Second Coming, Scriven describes a group of people animated by this great hope who would dare to change the world.
Scriven has a lyrical style of writing, which takes a little getting used to but soon settles into a rolling lilt. As a writer who obviously loves words, he returns to the earliest formulations of Adventist belief as first adopted in 1861. In line with his description of "becoming," he adds to and refines this statement at key points of the book, offering the following pledge of belief as the climax of his work: "Thanks to the gift of grace, and for the purpose of blessing all, we take up the peacemaking mission and join together in keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."
The Promise of Peace calls us to the best of Adventism. Perhaps it is a useful second volume to Knight's robust call; perhaps it is the book that should have been heavily promoted and distributed in place of Knight's. Whatever the case, The Promise of Peace is a significant contribution to our thinking about what it means to be Adventist and how we can better live out that hope.
 | Nathan Brown | Nathan Brown is a book editor and former magazine editor for the Adventist Church in the South Pacific, based just out of Melbourne, Australia. He was also a regular columnist for Adventist Review for four years. He has degrees in law, literature and English. He is married to Angela and they have two mismatched dogs and sponsor kids in a number of countries. Nathan is the author of four books: a novel Nemesis Train (2008), the thought-provoking Relevation (2006), Seven Reasons Life is Better with God (2007) and Ordinary People, Extraordinary God (2007). |
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Re: The Promise of Peace
I'm still not sure what the book is about. Can you give some concrete examples of Scriven's recommendations?
Re: The Promise of Peace
Re: The Promise of Peace
Dear David,
To a significant extent, The Promise of Peace is a retelling of both the Bible and the Adventist stories, focussing on the covenant relationship God has with groups of people throughout history as his agents to bless the world, working to bring about goodness, peace and human flourishing.
His book includes a number of contemporary stories of Adventists in different parts of the world who have worked to these ends in the most practical ways, practising forgiveness, serving others and by faith working in partnership with God to heal the world, demonstrating want it means to be "bless to be a blessing."
Hope this is helpful—and hope you check out the book for yourself.
Re: The Promise of Peace
Ryan,
Yes, I think more could be made of this comparison, whether they are really two schools of thought, to what degree they overlap and what each has to say about what it means to be Adventist today (there's an interesting expression). Is one or other more truly Adventist? Or can we just choose the expression we prefer or think is more useful/hopeful/however we might judge it?
I do, however, think Scriven's is the more creative work—in a positive sense—and more likely to prompt us toward thinking about how we can grow toward a more generous Adventism (to adapt from the phrase, "generous orthodoxy"), perhaps even a more hope-filled Adventism.
But perhaps my main critique of Knight's book in this regard is simply that he hasn't done enough work to develop the story of Adventism that he is re-telling, which is perhaps the why I suggest Scriven's book just might be more of a second volume to Knight's, rather than an alternative vision.
Re: The Promise of Peace
The coming of Jesus is in three phases. The first phase was not to restore the earth nor set up an earthly kingdom of peace. Neither is the second phase of His coming for this purpose. It is to simply take His people to heaven and destroy the wicked. To imply Jesus is coming in this second phase to "right all the wrongs" and correct all the evil and solve all the problems in this world is a false implication.
The third phase of His coming will bring the final peace and restoration that many seem to think will take place in the second phase. This opens the door for Satan to impersonate Christ and deceive all who mis-understand the three phase coming of Jesus. Of all people, SDA's should dispell this false notion and smash any false hope of such an event. Jesus is not coming the second time to solve all the world problems. We should abandon any such delusion and prepare people for an evacuation out of this world to "escape the wrath to come."
We seek to raise the quality of life, even in this world, for all people. But it is to prepare for the second coming event and a conversion experience that emulates the biblical norm. Not some political "conversion of the world" that emulates Satan's kingdom and prepares for his final deception. To accomplish this goal, Satan must "dumb down" true bible conversion and present a human standard that is far less than the biblical norm. Isn't modern Adventism helping Satan accomplish his goal? It is the eccumenical spirit of acceptance of all religions with the idea "no one can judge anyone else" even if their ideas and actions are not in accord with the bible.
George Knight seems to want to re-affirm more clearly the fundamental truths of the historic SDA message. How far he is willing to go to do this remains to be seen.
Bill Sorensen
Re: The Promise of Peace
Nathan:
I really enjoyed this book, thanks for the review and recommendation. It holds out the hope that Adventism may still have a unique contribution to make to the world by realizing its peacemaking roots and furthering the peacemaking message in a world so desperate for change. It coincides quite well with what I've heard Julius Nam speak of: reimagining the Adventist message to include a more practical Christianity, one that interacts with the world today and insinuates itself to solve real-world problems, not just longing for God's kingdom to come but helping to bring about that kingdom in the here and now.