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Babylon Is Fallen—Or Is It?

Adventism’s Tussle With Culture

B y Al d e n Th o m p s o n

Two angels from the book of Revelation

have shouldered the burden of protecting

Adventists from the dangers of modern

culture. “Babylon is fallen!” shouts the

second angel of Revelation 14. “Come out

of her, my people,” trumpets the angel of

Rev. 18:4, “so that you do not take part in

her sins” (NRSV).

Those two voices have often pushed us

deep into the wilderness in search of safe

havens for our children and our schools.

But, alas, our schools introduce

Adventist students to the exciting world

of ideas and people. And now our

children are in the thick of it. In the cities.

In business. In commerce.

Are we at risk? Yes. But the risks of

immersion may be no worse than the

risks of isolation. Indeed, I will argue here

that involvement with the larger world

could force us to rediscover the Bible

and enhance our mission. That would be

good. Very good.

So here are five examples that focus

on the question of how culture impinges

on belief and practice. Two are from the

Bible; three are from our day.

1. According to Ex. 23:19, Israelites

were forbidden to boil a baby goat in its

mother’s milk. Why? Culture.

2. According to Acts 15:28-29, the

fledgling Christian Church decided to

require its members to refrain from

eating food offered to idols. Why?

Culture.

3. In 2005 the General Conference of

Seventh-day Adventists voted to add a

28th Fundamental Belief, “Growing in

Christ” (listed as #11 of the 28). Why?

Culture.

4. In 1965, the year I graduated from

Walla Walla College, dormitory students

were required to attend 15 religious

services a week. Count them: 15. Why?

Culture.

5. In 2009, the year I retired from fulltime

teaching at Walla Walla University,

unmarried students under the age of 25

were required to attend one religious

service per week. Just one. Why? Culture.

We’ll return to those examples. But

first let’s ask what they might mean for

our understanding of “truth.” Adventists

have always loved the “truth.” Indeed, in

an earlier era, joining the church meant

accepting the “truth,” leaving the church

meant leaving the “truth.” And almost

from the start we have referred to cuttingedge

insight as “present truth.”

But can we know when truth is

enduring and when it is shaped

by culture? That’s one of the most

challenging questions facing the church

today. Yet the answer is simple: all truth

that can be known by humans is shaped

by culture. All. Ultimate or absolute truth

is indeed untouched by culture. But Isa.

55:8-9 makes it clear that we cannot

know ultimate or absolute truth: “For my

thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are

your ways my ways, says the Lord. For

as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts”

(NRSV). Ellen White was equally clear:

“God and heaven alone are infallible,” she

declared.1

When we say all that out loud, however,

it sounds dangerously like “relativism,” an

alarming word to many devout believers e n t h o mps o n

because of the anything-goes relativism

everywhere evident in today’s popular

culture. But if we can think in terms

of a biblical relativism rather than an

anything-goes relativism, we can begin to

see how the diverse examples in Scripture

simply illustrate how the practical truths

found in God’s word were lived out in

different times and places. By comparing

these biblical examples with each other,

we gain a clearer understanding of what

is enduring and what is simply a more

local application of enduring principles.

Such a biblical relativism points toward

“applied” truth rather than absolute truth

and allows the diverse illustrations in

Scripture to fall into place as part of a

larger coherent picture. The touchstone

for such an approach must always be

the words and acts of Jesus, especially

the principle of putting people first. In

everything, said Jesus in Matt. 7:12, treat

others as you would want to be treated.

This is the law and the prophets. Paul

agrees: “The whole law,” he says, “is

summed up in a single commandment,

‘You shall love your neighbor as

yourself ’” (Gal. 5:14, NRSV).

Focusing on people as Jesus and Paul

did allows us to see “truth” in a much more

practical light, enabling us to deal positively

with those who may not share our personal

perspectives. If we think we have “absolute”

truth in Scripture, we too easily fall to

quarreling, simply defending ourselves

rather than understanding others.

Here Ellen White’s comments are

revealing. “A jealous regard for what is

termed theological truth,” she declares,

“often accompanies a hatred of genuine

truth as made manifest in life.”2 The test

for “genuine truth”? “Men may profess

faith in the truth,” she says, “but if it does

not make them sincere, kind, patient,

forbearing, heavenly-minded, it is a

curse to its possessors, and through their

influence it is a curse to the world.”3

Put quite simply in another way, the

“fruit of the Spirit” should be reflected

in all our words and deeds: “Love, joy,

peace, patience, kindness, generosity,

faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”

(Gal. 5:22-23, NRSV).

Now let’s return to our five examples

and ask questions about truth and

culture. And here I assume that God

and his people will always seek to follow

the Pauline principle of being “all things

to all people” so that they “might by

all means save some” (1 Cor. 9:22). We

should also note, however, that for very

good reasons, God works through human

messengers. Thus we will frequently have

the opportunity to say (with Ellen White)

that “such an expression [in the Bible] is

not like God.”4

1. Don’t boil a baby goat in its

mother’s milk (Ex. 23:19). Why?

Although the Bible does not explain this

law, the best judgment of biblical scholars

is that it spoke to the threat posed by

degraded Canaanite fertility practices.

In short, the Canaanites attempted to

re-enact on earth the sexual orgies they

imagined happening among their gods.

The biblical law spoke to that specific

cultural threat and was just what was

needed at that time. In our day, we should

speak to those symbols that imply horrible

things about God and human beings. The

symbols will be different, but the need to

address them will be just as urgent.

2. Not eating food offered to idols

(Acts 15:28-29). Why? Food offered to

idols wasn’t an issue in the Old Testament.

But in the New Testament era, emperor

worship made it a very real issue indeed,

symbolizing a loyalty to the emperor that

took precedence over one’s commitment

to God. Thus, at the Jerusalem Council,

the young Christian community spoke out

against eating food offered to idols. The

prohibition addressed a real cultural threat

in their day.

But what is so intriguing about this

issue is that the threat was being recast

within the New Testament itself. In 1

Corinthians 8, Paul argues that the issue

of food offered to idols only affects those

who think of an idol as a living force.

For mature believers, Paul declares, an

idol is nothing. Yet even as Paul is gently

recasting the action of the Jerusalem

Council, he articulates another principle

with far-reaching implications for us

today. If someone else is still gripped by

the potential power of idols, Paul says,

never let your liberty lead them astray. In

short, we act for their sake, not for ours.

If believers could adopt this “weaker

brother” principle in addressing the issues

of our day, it would transform life in the

church and in the world. Yes, the issue

of food offered to idols was driven by

their culture, not by ours. But it is still a

powerful example for us when we confront

the competing symbols of our day. To live

for another rather than for ourselves is

the very heart of the gospel. And the New

Testament has shown us how to do it.

www . at o d a y . c o m 21

22 a d v entist t o d a y • s u m m e r 2 0 0 9

3. “Growing in Christ,” the new

Fundamental Belief #11, voted by

the General Conference in 2005.

Interestingly enough, Fundamental

Belief #11 nowhere reveals why it was

so urgent. Without a knowledge of the

driving cultural issue, it is likely to be

puzzling rather than revealing. In short,

it is needed, especially in Africa, where

new believers can still be gripped by

their previous experience with demonic

powers. So the

church adopted a

forceful declaration

of Christ’s victory

over evil: “By His

death on the cross,”

says the statement,

“Jesus triumphed

over the forces

of evil. He who

subjugated the

demonic spirits

during His early

ministry has

broken their power

and made certain

their ultimate

doom.” The

statement is true

even if one does

not understand the

cultural issue. But knowing about believers

who are locked in life-and-death struggles

with the forces of evil helps us recognize

the statement as a powerful application of

the gospel to a specific cultural need in our

world today.

4 and 5. Required worships in

Adventist schools. The comparison

between the 15 required worship

appointments in 1965 and the one

solitary requirement in 2009 is a powerful

testimony to the effect of modern culture

on campus life. In an increasingly secular

world, individualism and the love of

freedom have joined forces to make

requirements of any kind a difficult sell.

What I find troubling, however, is not

so much the change in the requirements

for students, but the double standard of

requiring of students what is no longer

expected from the entire campus family.

“They” need public worship; “we” don’t.

From what I have seen, the dilemma

haunts every Adventist campus.

So why should the campus family

worship together? To preserve those values

that a secular culture puts at risk. Heb.

10:23-25 presents the biblical argument

for communal worship: “Let us hold fast

to the confession of our hope without

wavering,” pleads the New Testament

author, “…not neglecting to meet together,

as is the habit of some, but encouraging

one another, and all the more as you see

the Day approaching” (NRSV).

The biblical writer sensed intuitively

what modern sociological analysis

confirms—namely, that much of what we

consider reasonable is often little more

than the consensus of the people around

us. In an increasingly secular world, our

very existence as a believing community

is at risk. Sociologist Peter Berger,

for example, argues how important

it is to “huddle together closely and

continuously with one’s fellow believers”

if one is to believe “what one wants to

believe” in our modern world.5

C.S. Lewis, certainly no sociologist,

recognized intuitively the multiple

threats to our convictions. “If we wish

to be rational, not now and then, but

constantly, we must pray for the gift of

Faith, for the power to go on believing

not in the teeth of reason but in the

teeth of lust and terror and jealousy and

boredom and indifference... .”6

In that same essay, Lewis also offers

this candid insight: “The society of

unbelievers makes Faith harder,” he

observes, “even when they are people

whose opinions, on any other subject, are

known to be worthless.”7

Individualism and Freedom

Individualism and freedom are significant

values within Adventism. But our secular

culture can commandeer those values

and use them to destroy the community

that gave them birth. That’s a threat we

should take very seriously.

In short, I long for that dynamic

experience to which Acts 15 bears

witness. In a world threatened by an alien

culture, the believers met together, talked

it through, prayed it through, until they

could preface their conclusions with these

words: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit

and to us” (Acts 15:28, NIV). Then they

gave a list that addressed their culture,

a list prepared under the guidance of

the Spirit as they sought to be faithful

witnesses in their world.

I pray that such a meeting of minds

and hearts could happen more often in

Adventism as we ponder the multiple

threats posed by a pervasive secular

culture. Babylon has fallen. But we still

have work to do. Like Daniel, we are called

to be in the court of the king, witnessing

for our faith. We must engage our world

as believers committed to the One who

walked among people of every shape and

flavor, declaring that the kingdom of God

was at hand. The kingdom is still at hand.

And his task is now ours.

1Ellen White, The Advent Review and Sabbath

Herald, July 26, 1892 [also published in Selected

Messages, Vol. 1, p. 37].

2Ellen White, The Desire of Ages, p. 309.

3Ellen White, The Desire of Ages, p. 310.

4Ellen White, Manuscript 24, 1886 [published in

Selected Messages, Vol. 1, p. 21].

5Peter L. Berger, The Sacred Canopy (New York:

Anchor Books, 1969, 1990), p. 164.

6C.S. Lewis, “Religion: Reality or Substitute?”

in Christian Reflections (Grand Rapids, Mich.:

Eerdmans, 1995) p. 43.

7Ibid., p. 42.