Finding peace within

 

Unclean animal?

Around 1990, person or persons unknown were standing just outside T-Centralen, the main metro station in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, passing out religious tracts of unclear provenance. Most commuters took them…and promptly threw them away in the trash bins! We´re talking hundreds of tracts here. I might have been the only person who kept the two tracts being passed out, but still today – over 30 years later – I still haven´t read all of the material they contained.

So this is a review of only one portion of one of the tracts.

The tract or booklet in question is titled “Finding Peace Within: A book for people in need”. The publication date is 1989. The publisher is given as Inspiration Books East (IBE) in Alabama. It´s clear from the contents that we´re dealing with a Seventh Day Adventists. However, I´m not familiar with the exact relationship between the SDA Church and IBE. “Finding Peace Within” contains two texts: “The Way to Christ” by Ellen G White and “The Christian Way” by L Munilla and C E Wheeling. However, the booklet is marketed as a self-help book in positive thinking on the front and back covers. Only if you actually open it, do you realize that it´s a fairly old fashioned Bible tract. It´s said to have been translates to over 100 languages, but at least 30+ years ago, Swedish clearly wasn´t one of them, since it was passed out in English in the Stockholm metro!

I´m not an expert on every nook and cranny of Seventh Day Adventist theology, but “The Christian Way” sounds reasonably orthodox-Adventist to an outsider with a working knowledge of fringe Christian denominations. Some time ago, I discussed with one of my perennial commentators whether or not the SDA Church believes that God has a physical body. If read carefully, the tract is strangely non-committed on this point. It seems to affirm the Trinity, but without actually using the term. However, it also seems to suggest that “heaven” is an actual location in or beyond the sky. There, Christ sits on the right hand of God´s throne. There is no clarification, but it does sound literal. But how can this be squared with a trinitarian godhead?

An important point in Adventist theology is that God´s Law from the Old Testament is still in force. This Law is identified with the Ten Commandments, which (of course) include the command to keep the Sabbath on Saturdays. The booklet proves by quoting both Catholics and Protestants that the Sabbath was transferred to Sunday due to Church decision/tradition. This is unproblematic if you indeed are a Catholic or a High Church Anglican. It´s more problematic for, say, Baptists. The authors have even located a Catholic magazine which says that only the Seventh Day Adventists are consistent with the Protestant belief in “sola Scriptura”. More unexpected is the claim that the distinction between clean and unclean food is still in place. Don´t eat herons, bats and white owls! Do the IBE follow Jewish dietary restrictions? There is also a more general emphasis on healthy living, including abstention from alcohol, tobacco and drugs. Modest dress, regular tithing and prayer are also important for the Christian life.

The soteriology is somewhat distinct. The Millennium is a literal 1000-year period, but not on Earth, but rather in heaven. The resurrection of the righteous takes place at the Second Advent of Christ, and these are raptured to heaven together with the righteous that are alive at the time. The wicked will be destroyed (or remain dead if they passed away before the Second Advent). During the Millenium, Earth will be completely desolate, with Satan as its only inhabitant. When the thousand years have ended, the wicked will be resurrected (!), only to be deceived once more by the Devil. Meanwhile, the New Jerusalem have descended to Earth, together with all the righteous. Satan and his minions will try to take it. This fails (surprise) and they are destroyed once and for all. Note the Annihilationism.

The tone of “The Christian Way” is rather strident. We are admonished to be baptized by immersion. This life is the only “probation” we´ll ever get. The time is near: Jesus Christ can come at any moment. However, the pamphlet also emphasizes that the second coming will be unexpected – perhaps a warning not to concoct elaborate eschatological schemes. A necessary warning due to Adventist history?

If apocalyptic radical Protestantism can really make you find peace within is not clear to me at the present time, but I promise I´ll finally read E G White´s portion of the tract as soon as I can!