Seventh-day Adventist Last Generation Theologies, Righteousness by Faith Theologies and Truth about God Theologies All Blame Human Failure for the Delay of the Second Coming of Jesus

There now are three primary and overlapping schools of theological thought each of which has several versions, among Seventh-day Adventist in the local congregations of North America. All of them blame the delay of the second coming of Jesus on human failure. Although they differ in what they say this human failure is, they all say that it is the culprit.

Last Generation Theology.

Those in this group say that the Second Coming of Jesus has been delayed because not enough of us are perfectly reproducing the character of Christ.

They are confident. They believe that there is only one true version of the Gospel and they know what it is. All others are counterfeits.

They sometimes divide families, congregations, campuses by insisting that everybody must agree with them.

They are theological exclusivists. They are swift to call other views "heresy" and those who hold them "heretics." They think in either/or terms. Either we are members of their group and see things as they see them or we aren't.

Righteousness-by-Faith Theology.

Those in this group say that the Second Coming of Jesus has been delayed because not enough of us have traded our perfectionism for the gospel of being forgiven by God through faith in Jesus Christ.

This typically includes a heavy emphasis upon the forensic theory of the atonement, a sharp division between justification and sanctification, the idea that the human nature of Jesus was not like Adam's after the Fall but like Adam's before the Fall, Sola Scriptura, and much admiration for Martin Luther and the Lutheran Scholastics who followed him.

It often retells the story of the 1888 Session of the General Conference and how, they say but others don't, its delegates rejected Righteousness-by-Faith. Probably, some did and some didn't.

They are confident. They believe that there is only one true version of the Gospel and they know what it is. All others are counterfeits. They sometimes divide families, congregations, campuses and sometimes the entire denomination by insisting that everybody must agree with them. They are theological exclusivists.

They are swift to call other views "heresy" and those who hold them "heretics." They think in either/or terms. Either we are members of their group and see things as they do or we aren't.

Truth-about-God Theology.

Those in this group say that the Second Coming of Jesus has been delayed because we cling to distorted pictures of God as cruel, arbitrary, and angry and then act the same way ourselves. They put much emphasis upon the Great Controversy theme when it is understood not so much as a battle between good and evil and more as a cosmic debate about the character of God. Some have gone so far as to say that those who believe in the forensic theory of the atonement must "come out of Babylon."

This group usually puts more emphasis on evidence than authority, integrating faith and reason, reservations about Sola Scriptura and the forensic theory of the atonement.

They vigorously deny that they favor a moral influence theory of the atonement. They speak of a revelatory theory of the atonement in which the crucifixion of Jesus is not understood as God transferring his wrath because of our sin to Jesus but as a manifestation of the truth that, among other things, God doesn't send suffering but absorbs it.

The wrath of God is not thought of as God punishing us but as God allowing us to suffer the inherent negative consequences of wrong doing.

They are confident. They believe that there is only one true version of the Gospel and they know what it is.. All others are counterfeits. They sometimes divide families, congregations, campuses and the entire denomination by insisting that everybody must agree with them. They are theological exclusivists.

They are swift to call other views "heresy" and those who hold them "heretics." They think in either/or terms. Either we are members of their group and see things as they do or we aren't. ............................

We SDAs have a tendency to align with one of the three primary groups, denounce other views as heresy, condemn those who hold them as heretics and try to eliminate them from our community of hope. This is as impossible as it is undesirable. Within the doctrinal boundaries, SDA theology is irreducibly pluralistic. It has always been pluralistic. It will always be pluralistic.

I expect some Righteousness by faith SDAs and some Truth about God SDAs to resist the suggestion that in they are very much like LGT people in blaiming the delay in the second coming of Jesus on human failure, It is nevertheless true.

Blaming each other for a delay is not the best. Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour. II Peter says that a day is as a thousand years for God and a thousand years are as a day. In other words, heaven and earth are not in the same time zone. God's relationship to time is both more intensive and more extensive than our own.

Strictly speaking, there can be no delay The reason for this is not that God is keeping everything on schedule. It is that there is no schedule. God whose steadast love endures forever endlessly interacts with us as things unfold no matter what happens. My arrival somewhere can be delayed only if I was supposed to get there at a pinpointed time. Otherwise, I am "on time" no matter when I arrive. There is much about all this that we do not undertand and never will. For instance, in its discussion of these matters II Peter 3 says that God is not willing to have anyone perish but that all will repent. This can be read as expressing some form of the doctrine of universal salvation; however, this is not how most Christians over the centuries have understood what the Bible as a whole says. Some say that there is a "Millerite Mindset" and an "Adventist Mindset" and SDAism has always had both. Both believe that the Second Coming of Jesus is "soon" but what they think we should be doing in the meantime matters. Those with a "Millerite Mindset" do not build institutions that can outlive their founders. Those with an "Adventist Mindset" do this wherever they go. They, also, believe that it will be "soon." But they are neither discouraged nor critical of others if it does not happen in their lifetimes.