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Battle Creek Tabernacle SDA Church

A Voice of Warning

Chris Holland

A Voice of Warning: The Time is Now

It is to a certain degree that we all are pilgrims and strangers, because this is not our final home.

And what a fitting song for Buddy to sing, because there in Bethany, a place that he found peace and comfort is where he gave instructions for those of us living in these last days.

1 thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her.

What a special day it has been as we have heard the various languages of the world, and it is a reminder that your message is to go to all peoples, all tongues, all nations.

And Lord, what joy it gives us to hear these languages, knowing that someday, someday soon, we will all be in heaven.

We will all hear the various expressions of people's love for you and I pray dear God that you would prepare our hearts and during this time in which we study your word, we might experience true transformation.

While we are most certainly in a crisis in the secular world, the more challenging, the more troubling crisis we are in is that we are facing a crisis in the church.

Christian Smith in his book, Soul Searching, the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers, coins a phrase, and the phrase that he coins is this, moralistic, therapeutic deism.

Later in a blog article by Al Mohler, who is the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, calls this moralistic, therapeutic deism as the new American religion.

The beliefs of this new religion can be summarized and boiled down to 5 summary point.

A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.

Number 2, God wants to be good, nice, and fair to each other.

God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

Number 3, the central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.

Number 4, God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.

And number 5, good people go to heaven when they die.

Christian Smith reports in that book, to the extent that the teens were interviewed, to the extent that the teens we interviewed did manage to articulate what they understood and believed religiously, it became clear that most religious teenagers either do not really comprehend what their own religious traditions say they are supposed to believe or they do not understand excuse me or they do understand it and simply do not care to believe it.

Either way it is apparent that most religiously affiliated US teens are not particularly interested in espousing and upholding the beliefs of their faith tradition or that their communities of faith are failing in attempts to educate their youth or both.

The researchers go on to explain, for most teens nobody has to do anything in life including anything to do with religion.

Whatever is just fine if that's what a person wants.

This led Al Mohler to state in his article, the casual whatever that marks so much of the American moral and theological landscapes, adolescent and otherwise, is a substitute for serious and responsible thinking.

More importantly, it is a verbal cover for an embrace of relativism.

Accordingly, most religious teenagers' opinions and views, 1 can hardly call them worldviews, are vague, limited, and often quite at variance with the actual teachings of their own religion.

But the alarming conclusion of Christian Smith is this.

Many teenagers know abundant details about the lives of favorite musicians and television stars or about what it takes to get into a good college, but most are not very clear on who Moses and Jesus were.

This suggests that a strong, visible, salient, or intentional faith is not operating in the foreground of most teenagers lives.

However, possibly the most alarming conclusion from this study, other than the findings themselves, is articulated by Al Mohler.

1 other aspect of this study deserves attention at this point.

The researchers who conducted thousands of hours of interviews with a carefully identified spectrum of teenagers, discovered that for many of these teens, the interview itself was the first time they had ever discussed a theological question with an adult.

What does this say about this generation of parents?

The moralistic therapeutic deism that these researchers identify as the most fundamental faith posture and belief system of American teenagers appears in a larger sense to reflect the culture as a whole.

Clearly this generalized conception of a belief system is what appears to characterize the beliefs of vast millions of Americans both young and old.

Other more accomplished scholars in these areas will have to examine and evaluate these possibilities in greater depth, but we can say here that we have come with some confidence to believe that a significant part of Christianity in the United States is actually only tenuously Christian in any sense that is seriously connected the actual historical Christian tradition, but is rather substantially morphed into Christianity's misbegotten step-cousin, Christian moralistic therapeutic deism.

This leads Moeller to his final conclusion.

Obviously moralistic therapeutic deism is not an organized faith.

This belief system has no denominational headquarters and no mailing address.

Nevertheless, it has millions and millions of devotees across the United States and other advanced cultures where subtle cultural shifts have produced a context in which belief in such an undemanding deity makes sense.

Furthermore, this deity does not challenge the most basic self-centered assumptions of our postmodern age, particularly when it comes to so-called lifestyle issues.

This God is exceedingly tolerant and this religion is radically undemanding.

Does this mean that America is becoming more secularized?

These researchers assert that Christianity is either degenerating into a pathetic version of itself or more significantly, Christianity is actively being colonized and displaced by a quite different religious faith.

This radical transformation of Christian theology and Christian belief replaces the sovereignty of God with the sovereignty of the self.

In this therapeutic age, human problems are reduced to pathologies in need of a treatment plan.

Sin is simply excluded from the picture, and doctrines as central as the wrath and justice of God are discarded as out of step with the times and unhelpful to the project of self-actualization.

Self-actualization, summarized by psychologist Joe Quincelva as the full realization of one's creative intellectual and social potential through internal drive.

Self-actualization is actually the goal of many Eastern religions and many ancient pagan religions.

A new religion has in fact been created just as Al Mohler has warned.

And Seventh-day Adventism has not been immune to this invasion.

A strange mixture of New Age, Eastern, mystical, religious concepts wrapped in moral relativism, grounded in cultural Christianity, and misguided attempts of changing the Bible and history.

And there is a voice of warning, an ancient voice of warning against what we are facing today.

And that ancient voice of warning comes through 1 of those prophets that is designated as a minor prophet.

And in our study over the coming weeks of the minor prophets, we will see many voices of warning, but in particular, the voice of warning today is that of the prophet Jonah.

Jonah lived in a time in which there was religious pluralism.

He served under the reign of Jeroboam II, who was reigning in Samaria, and under Amaziah, who was there in Judah.

This was long after the kingdom had divided into the North and the South.

Historically, we find Jonah mentioned in 1st, excuse me, in 2nd Kings chapter 14.

If you have your Bibles, I'd encourage you to open your Bibles.

2nd Kings chapter 14, beginning in verse 23, it mentions the name of Jonah.

In the 15th year of Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, this is now Jeroboam the second, king of Israel, became king in Samaria and reigned for 41 years.

And he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin.

He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the Arabah according to the word of the Lord, excuse me, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he had spoken through his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath-Hephir." This is when we are introduced to Jonah.

Jonah predicted to Jeroboam II a return to national strength.

But sometime after that prophecy, you know the story well.

Go ahead and turn now to the book of Jonah.

These minor prophets can be difficult to locate, but if you can locate Daniel, which we've been studying for some time, then turn to Hosea.

After Hosea you have Joel and then you have Amos and then after Amos, what's the next book?

Obadiah and then after Obadiah, the book of Jonah.

Some of you might be wondering why am I speaking about the book of Jonah?

Hosea is first of the minor prophets listed in our Bible, but Jonah is actually first chronologically.

And so we're going to, in an attempt to understand what was happening in Israel and Judah prior to the incursion of Babylon, what was going on in the lives of the people.

Jonah has prophesied that Israel would return to its national strength, But then Jonah is called.

Nineveh is 1 of, or was 1 of the oldest Assyrian cities, served as the capital of the Assyrian Empire, an empire known for its brutality.

Assyria lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris River opposite today of what is modern-day Mosul.

Jonah talks about 120, 000 people, Jonah talks about a hundred and 20000 people.

The estimated population of Nineveh wide, which would have been the, in modern vernacular, the suburbs of Nineveh would be somewhere between 600, 000 and 2 million people.

Some would say why does Jonah say a hundred and 20000?

Most come to the agreement that Jonah was saying there were 120, 000 persons who could not discern between their right hand and their left, their right hand and their left.

A Voice of Warning: Without a King

No matter what we have done, no matter what we...

What situation we find ourselves in, God is good.

And desires to pursue each of us that he might call us his.

Father in heaven, as we have come to study your word, it is our prayer that through this study, we would be sanctified by your truth because your word is truth.

Father in heaven work in a mighty way today.

That we might experience the transforming power of your grace and mercy in each of our lives.

December the 4th 2024 seemed like any other day and seemed like any other Wednesday for Brian Thompson.

Brian Thompson had worked for UnitedHealthcare for 20 years and held various positions.

But now he was the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.

Many considered him to be the ideal CEO, a low-key kind of guy who was committed to making insurance simpler for all people.

He had traveled to New York to attend an investors meeting for the company.

And that Wednesday morning he left his Manhattan Hilton Hotel around 640.

And as he left, cowering in the darkness was a man by the name of Luigi Mangione.

He strategically waited across the street and As Brian Thompson exited the Hilton Hotel, he opened fire.

And there, 50-year-old Brian Thompson was killed.

A husband, a father of 2 teenage boys, and a beloved CEO of this company.

While tragic, what is disturbing is the commentary that followed.

Anthony Zenkis, teacher at Columbia School of Social Work, posted this on Twitter that very day.

Today we mourn the death of United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson, gunned down...wait, I'm sorry.

Today we mourn the deaths of the 68, 000 Americans who die needlessly each year so that insurance company executives like Brian Thompson can become multi-millionaires.

And if that post itself is not troubling enough, what is even more troubling that is the fact that 112, 000 individuals have actually liked that post.

Zankes, and I don't want to put words in his mouth, would argue that killing someone isn't justified.

His post on the other hand indicates an argument that it was justified.

But even more troubling is an Axios survey that found that 48% of collegiate respondents said that the killing of CEO Brian Thompson was either fully or somewhat justified.

In fact, in a popularity poll amongst collegiates, there was more sympathy for Luigi Mangione than Brian Thompson.

And it leads me to ask the question, what in the world is happening in our society today?

The line between right and wrong is being blurred daily.

We are living in this vortex of cultural and moral relativism.

Cultural relativism is based on the idea that there is no absolute standard of good and evil and thus every decision and judgment of what is right or wrong is individually decided in each society.

Cultural relativism challenges beliefs about the objectivity and universality of moral truth.

Moral relativism, while nuanced, is different.

It is the idea that there is no universal or absolute set of moral principles.

It's a version of morality that advocates to each his own.

And those who follow it say these words, who am I to judge?

And while we could find examples of this all over our society, what is more concerning is that this creeping compromise has made its way into Christian churches, even into Seventh-day Adventist churches.

In his groundbreaking work and book from 2019.

Author Dean Insara wrote this book, The Unsaved Christian, Reaching cultural Christianity with the Gospel.

In the Bible Belt, many people think they're Christians, but have no concept of the severity of sin, the necessity of repentance, message of grace, or the overall message of the gospel.

They think they're just fine with God and God is fine with them because they aren't atheists and have been to church before as a kid.

It's almost like you have to help them get lost so they can actually be saved.

They believe in God, but do not believe their sin has done anything to separate them from him or cause them to need the Jesus they claim to believe in.

According to the Arizona Christian University study, 69% of Americans identify, self-identify as Christians, yet only 9% actually hold to the key tenets of the Christian faith.

And Sarah points out in his book on page 13, cultural Christianity, a religion that, I believe, is practiced by more Americans than any other faith or religion.

Its participants can be found in Catholic or Protestant churches, in the South and Midwest, on high school football fields, at patriotic celebrations, and around family dinner tables.

It looks and sounds very Christian on the surface, but is merely Christian by culture rather than conviction.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not part of the equation.

According to Barna research, 58% of all Christians believe that the Holy Spirit is just a symbol of God's power and not an actual living entity.

39% of all Christians or self-identified Christians strongly agree or agree that Jesus sinned while he was on the earth.

40% of self-identified Christians believe that the devil is just a symbol of evil and not real.

This leads in Sarah to conclude on pages 13 and 14 of his book, the people who practice cultural Christianity are not atheists or agnostics.

In fact, cultural Christians would be offended if described with such labels.

These are not the urban academics living in loft apartments who could articulate their opposition to Christian beliefs.

These are the suburban cul-de-sac folks hosting a cookout to watch the game.

They take seriously their Christian traditions.

Prayer in schools, nativity scenes, and Linus reciting the story of the birth of Christ during a Charlie Brown Christmas.

What is wrong with being a monotheist who loves Charlie Brown and believes Jesus was born in a manger?

Nothing if it leads to gospel belief and practice.

But the difficulty comes when we examine exactly who their God is and question why the coming of Jesus even matters.

Cultural Christianity admires Jesus, but doesn't really think he is needed, except to take the wheel in a moment of crisis.

The Jesus of cultural Christianity is a type of historical, imaginary friend with some magic powers for good luck and sentimentality.

Amazing Grace is a song known from memory, but why that grace is amazing cannot be explained.

The God of cultural Christianity is the big man upstairs, and Whether or not he is holy and people have sinned against him is irrelevant.

Words such as hope, faith, and believe hang on the walls of living rooms as decorations, But the actual words of God only come around when Psalm 23 is read at a loved one's funeral.

He goes on to say, cultural Christianity is a mindset that places one's security in heritage, values, rights of passage such as first communion or a baptism from childhood, and a generic deity, rather than the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

These false Gospels pose serious challenges to pastors and local church members who are seeking to live on a mission and remain faithful to the Great Commission where the Lord has them living, working, and being part of local life.

And while Nsera is not a Seventh-day Adventist, his assessment is 1 that there is no doubt we are struggling with, in particular, in North America.

On page 25 of his work he says, cultural Christians are those who genuinely believe they are on good terms with God because of church familiarity, a generic moral code, political affiliation, a religious family heritage, et cetera.

Cultural Christianity is largely based on confusion.

To modern day cultural Christians, just like the religious people in Matthew 7, the idea of being saved is unnecessary.

After all, they're good people who live moral lives.

Cultural Christians have faith and they don't consider themselves atheists, but their God is a generic deity rather than the God of the Bible.

And because somehow, someway I have placed my name upon the books of the remnant church, that means I must be saved.

The question we're confronted with is are we living out the gospel message as articulated in the New Testament of the Bible?

Are we living out the faith that is articulated in the Old Testament of the Bible?

Are we worshiping the God of the Bible, or are we worshiping something that we have simply constructed that makes us feel good, and sound good, and experience what we might call the good life.

And the challenge we are facing is that this is nothing new.

If you have your Bibles, please open them to Deuteronomy the 12th chapter.

Deuteronomy chapter 12, Moses was outlining principles on the issue of worship and proper worship when the children of Israel who were now on the cusp of crossing in to the promised land how they were to worship.

A Voice of Warning: Returning to His Faithfulness

And the only reason we can come and seek his face is because he first sought us.

Father in heaven we are thankful that while we were yet sinners, your son Jesus Christ died for our sins.

Today we come seeking a message from you.

Not because we first loved you but because you first loved us.

So as we come So as we come seeking, I pray that you would speak to us.

As Al Mohler stated, we are living in a new religious experience called moralistic, therapeutic deism.

An idea or belief that there is a God who created and ordered the world, a God who wants people to be good and nice and fair, but with a central goal of simply being happy and God not particularly involved in our lives and the principle of feeling good about oneself.

You will not find its headquarters anywhere.

And what is being passed out to you, by the way, I will address in just a moment, so if don't worry I'll go over it and explain it to you, so just stick with me.

We are dealing with an invasion of secular ideas into Adventism, and we are facing a crisis.

A strange mixture of New Age, Eastern religious concepts, wrapped in moral relativism and grounded in a cultural Christianity with misguided attempts at changing the Bible in history.

There is a voice of warning in the times in which we are living and the times that we are facing.

Because these times are very similar to those times of the Old Testament prophets.

The Hebrew Bible calls these prophets the book of 12.

In the English Bible it is referred to as the minor prophets.

They are only minor not because of their message but minor because of their length in comparison with the major prophets of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.

You have received a handout that is front and back and I would encourage you that you would keep this with you for the coming weeks.

This is an attempt at trying to help us see the times in which we are living.

There are a couple of points of clarification.

The major and minor prophets side of that, the only prophets that I have included in this chart are those prophets that have written a biblical book.

There were certainly other prophets such as Nathan and Abijah and so on and so forth.

If you want to challenge yourself in your own Bible study, you can go and look up all of those prophets and insert them To help us understand the message of the minor prophets we need to understand the history of Israel and Israel as a nation as is addressed in the first 3 rows on this chart you have been given was a united kingdom under Saul first who reigned for almost 40 years you can see those years there then David and then after David Solomon But then the nation was divided into the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom.

And what I have is I have listed those kings.

There are a variety of scholars that will put different dates, but these are my best attempt at giving you dates to help us understand.

And so you can see under Judah is a list of all the kings of the southern kingdom.

Under Israel, all the kings of the northern kingdom.

On the back page is where we will be most concerned because that is where the minor prophets fall.

Last week we studied the book of Jonah and as you can see Jonah was a prophet during the time of Jeroboam II, who was the king of Israel.

Does everyone see Jeroboam II in your column there under the kings of Israel.

He was also a prophet during the time of Azariah who goes by a different name in the Bible, Uzziah.

And then you can see this week, this week we'll be addressing Hosea.

Hosea was a prophet during the reign of Jeroboam II, Zechariah, Shalem, Manahem, Pecahiah, Pecah, and Hosea.

Not to be mistaken with the prophet Hosea, there was the king Hosea.

Those were all the kings of the northern kingdom during the time in which Hosea was prophesying.

In the Southern Kingdom, during the time in which Hosea was prophesying, were the kings Azariah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.

And if it doesn't make sense, please come and talk to me and I'm being very serious.

But hopefully this chart will help this all make sense.

Because Hosea was prophesying at a time where outwardly Israel appeared to be very strong.

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A Voice of Warning

A Voice of Warning: Love at the Depths of the Sea

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