God's Spirit lives in you?"
VII. The Remant people of God
Adventists have been criticized for their view that they are God's special people constituting the remnant
church in the last days. However, the official statements, "Seventh-day Adventists have never sought to
equate their church with the church invisible--"Those in every denomination who remain faithful to the
Scriptures...Seventh-day Adventists firmly believe that God has a precious remnant, a multitude of earnest,
sincere believers, in every church...the host of the true followers of Christ are scattered all through the
various churches of Christendom, including the Roman Catholic Church. These God clearly recognizes as
His own...." 33
Adventists and evangelicals alike recognize that it would be no less than revolting arrogance to claim that
one has the absolute truth and monopoly of God's revelation to humans. In my view, the richness of God's
attributes and His infinite love and wisdom demand at the minimum many perspectives and, yes, many
revised versions of interpretations, through the reflections and experiences of many Christian bodies.
Reality as well as our humility ought to drive us to heed Paul's insight, "Now we see but a poor reflection as
in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully
known." 1 Cor. 13: 12.
What is a cult?
a) E. Troeltsch's original meaning of cult--a mystical or spiritual form of religion which enlivens a dead
orthodoxy. Such spirituality is often embraced by intellectuals and the educated. The early Luther, many
Puritans, and Pietists were examples of followers of cultic religion, in Troeltsch's view.
b) General definition: A particular system of religious belief, practice or worship by devotees (usually
extremists) with blind devotion to and veneration for a person (usually a charismatic leader), for an ideal
(usually false or heretical), or to a fad (often short-lived), in secrecy, with practice of mind-control and fraud
and deception.
c)
Emphases often have been on the leaders' character, their fraudulent claims and the deceived followers.
d)
regarded as the normative expressions of religion in our total culture.
d) The Current Social and Legal Perception of a Cult--any fringe group posing as a major threat to society's
peace and order.
I shall argue that one of the greatest contributions of Seventh-Day Adventism to Christian faith and
practice as well as to the evangelical tradition is CHRISTIAN WHOLISM--a truly foundational Christian
concept based on Creation, Christian anthropology, the Image of God, the mission of Christ, the telos of
God's redemptive activities, God's sovereign will for fallen humanity, culminated in our resurrected bodies
on Christ's Second Coming. The Sabbath is a recurrent, periodic, insulated time for practice of Christian
Wholism. The Second Advent is God's appointed time for the ultimate fulfillment of Christian Wholism in
believers' resurrected bodies. By its very name, Seventh-Day Adventism implicates an emphasis on
Christian Wholism as I shall define below: (a working definition) sozo, soteria, hugies, hugiaino--to save,
make whole, to heal, to be well; salvation, healing, wholeness.
Christian Wholism is a belief and practice that is grounded in God's creation of the human as a unitary
whole person with physical, mental, emotional, relational, social and spiritual dimensions in a dynamic