HILE LEAFING THROUGH THE latest issue of Wakeboard magazine, I ran across an interesting ad. TheTruth.com, the good folks who brought us a slew of provocative tobacco advertisements, has added another target to its sights. After a long and successful tenure of revealing the nefarious practices of our friendly neighborhood tobacco execs, TheTruth.com now also targets milk.
That’s right—milk. Surprised? I sure was. Milk is rarely seen as a public health threat, especially in comparison to cigarettes. Cigarettes are a politically correct issue to attack. Milk is not—at least, not yet. Seeing this ad plastered across Wakeboard, whose readers aren’t exactly known as a demographic receptive to healthful lifestyle issues, was interesting to say the least.
What I enjoy about TheTruth.com ads is that they tell what’s what, and they don’t care what the response is. We could learn from these guys. We have abundant blessings from God. We have prophetic insights. Our health message is remarkably on point. We have the good news of the Sabbath. Most important, we have an intimate knowledge of a mighty God, who is quick, eager, and able to save.
Sometimes Adventists spend a lot of time watering down our messages, trying to be as similar to others as possible. A strain of compromise has filtered into the church that can’t be denied.
In certain circles, maintaining the essence of salvation by faith alongside the specific details of Ellen G. White’s revelation has led to an unfortunate compromise, and an unsettling ambiguity about just how we integrate the Spirit of Prophecy into the magnificent truth of salvation by faith. One target of this compromise is the health message. Alcohol, tobacco, and recreational drugs remain on the cultural taboo list, while other specifics of the message remain personal preference, though they generally go unheeded. The point is not to suggest that meat or cheese or milk is as bad as tobacco or alcohol. The point is that comparison is not the point at all.
Regardless of how harmful tobacco is for us on a scale of 1 to 10, our reasons for promoting healthful living rest on the premise that our bodies are temples of God, to be cared for with as much decency and common sense as we can muster by the grace of God. Any moral imperative we might create to disallow the consumption of tobacco would be equally valid for any other unhealthful practice (eating meat, for instance). The difference is one of degree, not ontology. And, of course, the question of salvation is beyond what one eats or does not eat.
Too much of our time has been spent either ignoring or repackaging key elements of our message, when we should have been yelling our message to the world—at the top of our lungs. Instead, we Adventists often bicker internally and avoid addressing many specifics publicly for fear—it seems—of causing conflict.
We Adventist Christians have to speak God’s truth, and speak it clearly. That is what our Lord requires.
In the book Prophets and Kings Ellen G. White emphasizes the need for clear speech. In the chapter titled “The Voice of Stern Rebuke” Elijah stands before Ahab and the people of Israel and delivers uncompromising words of rebuke. It is entirely unlike those smooth sermons in which “men are not cut to the heart by the plain, sharp truths of God’s Word” (p. 140). She continues: “The Lord abhors indifference and disloyalty in a time of crisis in His work. The whole universe is watching with inexpressible interest the closing scenes of the great controversy between good and evil. . . . His special blessing accompanies the labors of men of action, men who will not be swerved from the straight line of duty, . . . men who will not stop merely with the inquiry, but who will demand that those who choose to identify themselves with the people of God shall step forward and reveal unmistakably their allegiance to the King of kings and Lord of lords” (p. 148).
Adventist-held healthful lifestyle principles, as well as many of our doctrinal beliefs, are now being advocated by many outside the church. Let’s not be left behind, or what a shame it will be for us! Instead, let’s loudly proclaim the special insights God has given the Adventist Church—not avidly avoid them.
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Derek Sloan was a senior at Pacific Union College and president of the school’s Student Association when he wrote this article. He has since graduated and now lives in Courtice, Ontario, Canada.