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RevivalSermons.org Discussion Forums
News => From the Pastor's Desk => Topic started by: Richard
OFfill on May 06, 2009, 09:22:27 AM
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The following is from David Aasscherick to Washington church
leadership:
Dear Pastors Paulsen, Schneider, and Graham,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ. Like each of you, I
am an ordained pastor of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist
Church. I write these words with my heart on full
display--from pastor to pastor. This letter concerns the
teaching of evolution at La Sierra University. While I am
not a formally trained scientist, I am, however, familiar
with many of the apologetic, philosophical, and theological
issues surrounding the theories of naturalistic evolution. I
have made this an area of special study in my life and
ministry. So, I feel both comfortable and qualified to speak
to the issue, especially in its ecclesiastical
ramifications.
It is a matter of incontestable fact that naturalistic
evolution is being taught at La Sierra University. This is
not in and of itself a bad thing. Evolution should be taught
at our denominational universities. But it should be taught
as a competing and inimical worldview to the biblical
worldview. We need our young people to know what it is they
are up against, yes, but when naturalistic evolution is
taught as fact or as the preferred and normative worldview,
then we can be sure that the enemy has breached our lines.
There is no point in equivocating. I have seen the class
materials with my own eyes. Frankly, I think every
Seventh-day Adventist deserves to see them. Our people need
to know what is happening. Many of them have heard various
rumblings, but being the conscientious, confiding, and
hopeful people they are, they have generally assumed the
very best. We are making capital of their trust.
In 2003 I preached a two-week evangelistic meeting on the
Loma Linda University campus. The event was student-led and
university-sponsored. Many students from La Sierra
University attended those meetings, and I personally visited
with many of them. They told me what was being taught in
some of their science classes. I shall never forget the
looks and questions of unadorned incredulity that I
witnessed among those students. I have talked to many more
since. What should I do? Should I say something? Should I
just attend a non-SDA school? Do our leaders know about
this? How come these people are allowed to teach at a
Seventh-day Adventist University? These young people, and
many others like them, are justifiably nonplussed. Frankly,
I share their confusion!
What deeply concerns me is that the faith of many students,
who look up to their Adventist professors as more than just
academic instructors, but also as spiritual leaders, is
being undermined. Jesus' words in Luke 17:1, 2 about causing
one of these little ones to stumble carry inestimable
weight, and they should be reason enough to propel us to
responsible action. Brethren, what are we doing and
allowing? Will not God hold us accountable in our respective
spheres for what happens on our watch?
I am aware, of course, that the church's governmental
structure gives institutions like La Sierra University a
necessary degree of administrative freedom. This is a good
and wise arrangement. But this freedom, surely, is not
synonymous with virtually unaccountable autonomy. La Sierra
University is, after all, a denominational university. If
the board has not yet adequately addressed this matter, then
doesn't that evince a kind of complicity, if not outright
mismanagement and denominational disloyalty? I genuinely
ask, at what point is La Sierra University's board
accountable and answerable to you men and the levels of
church government that you represent? When, if ever, can
someone step in and save our children and the institutions
they attend?
Governing and administrative structures are not the church.
The people are the church. The governing and administrative
structures are the scaffolding of the church. Scaffolds are
for building and strengthening a thing; they are not the
thing itself. But what if some are using the scaffolding to
tear down the very church they were commissioned and created
to build up? What then? I genuinely want to know. Where does
the buck stop?
Perhaps you feel that your hands are tied by policy and
protocol. But surely they cannot be tied completely. What
should I, as a church pastor, do if someone is teaching
doctrine that undermines the church's biblical positions in
one of my Sabbath School classes? Wouldn't it be expected of
me, the pastor--shepherd--of the flock, to address it? To
ask this question is to answer it. Of course, I would work
though the Sabbath School council and the church board, but
you can be sure that I would deal with the problem. My
conference president, to say nothing of my Lord, would
surely hold me in contempt if I told him lamely that my
hands were tied, no?
Furthermore, the greater the errancy, the greater the
urgency. As even a cursory analysis plainly reveals, few
doctrines are at greater philosophical odds with Seventh-day
Adventism than naturalistic evolution, the arguments of
well-meaning theistic evolutionists notwithstanding. Our
Magna Carta is Revelation 14:6-12. If naturalistic evolution
is true, Creation is cremated, the Sabbath is sabotaged, and
our very name is neutered. What becomes of Scripture? And of
our unique eschatology? We are not talking about bongo
drums, wedding bands, and Christmas trees here.
If our hands are tied, then surely we must let an
unfaltering love for God, for His Word, and for His young
people dash these fetters into so many deserved pieces! We
must do something. You must do something.
Who knows but that you have come to your positions for such
a time as this. My ministry places me in somewhat of a
unique situation in the world church. In partnership with
the Central California Conference, I run ARISE, a mission
training school that has seen hundreds of young people over
the last seven years. I also have the privilege of preaching
regularly on 3ABN and the Hope Channel. Too, I travel all
over the world holding evangelistic meetings and preaching
at camp meetings, youth conferences, weeks of prayer, etc. I
genuinely feel that I have my finger on the pulse of the
average lay person in the Seventh-day Adventist church the
world over. Especially the young people ages 15 to 30. I can
say with unblinking confidence that God is working in His
church! Praise Him!
I just arrived home from the Youth Mission Congress in
Frankfurt, Germany. Over 1600 young people attended the
meetings. Night after night I preached the Adventist
message--I preached Christ! The theme chosen for the
congress was Follow the Bible, and what an indescribable joy
it was to see, at the end of my last sermon, hundreds and
hundreds of young people streaming forward. All of them had
personal decision cards in their hands. A beautiful,
five-foot-tall wooden Bible had been constructed for just
this moment. On the side of the Bible was a slot designed to
receive the decision cards the young people clutched in
their surrendered hands. One by one, each placed his or her
card in the Bible. The symbolism was rich and thrillingly
profound. It was impossible to not be moved at a fundamental
level as each eager young person placed their decision, and
thus their life in that wooden Bible. My translator openly
wept at the sight. We will follow the Bible they were each
saying. All over the world, God's people--and in particular,
it seems, His young people--are saying We will follow the
Word--the Living Word, Jesus, and the Written Word, the
Bible.
God has entrusted us with these young people. They are His.
He has given us His wise counsel to raise up institutions of
learning to educate, equip, and empower them. To build them
up.
But what do we do when one of our institutions turns from
this inestimably important responsibility, a responsibility
that is fraught with eternal significance and involves the
souls of those Jesus died to save? This is what I want to
know.
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