The Cosmic Conflict and the Future (of America)

1. The Cosmic Conflict and the Future (of America) sktonstad@llu.edu October 8, 2011

2. Re-acceptances • Re-acceptance of the Church as State • Re-acceptance of extreme economic inequities • Re-acceptance of unaccountable authority • Re-acceptance of the mother

3. Accountability and Fallibility “As President of the United States, I will devote myself to an American Century. And I will never, ever apologize for America. …I believe we are an exceptional country with a unique destiny and role in the world. Not exceptional, as the President has derisively said, in the way that the British think Great Britain is exceptional or the Greeks think Greece is exceptional. In Barack Obama’s profoundly mistaken view, there is nothing unique about the United States.”--Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, October 7, 2011.

4. Our Losses

5. Understanding and Accountability “Christian theology invincibly confirms this, in that it tells us that the torments of the damned will be eternal and continuous, and as strong at the end of one hundred thousand years as they were the first day.” - Pierre Bayle, Dictionary, 171.

6. Beyond Accountability “All of this warns us that we should not dispute with the Manicheans until we have established the doctrine of the elevation of faith and the abasement of reason.” “What must be done then? Man’s understanding must be made a captive of faith and must submit to it. He must never dispute about certain things.” - - Pierre Bayle, Dictionary, 177.

7. Politics Theology “Augustine identified God’s purposes with Rome’s policies. .. Politics had recast prophecy.”Paula Fredriksen, Augustine and the Jews, 341, 343.

8. Political Theology • “The Church gave unto God the attributes which belonged exclusively to Caesar.” - A. N. Whitehead, Process and Reality, 485.

9. Luther:God’s Imperial Will From this it follows irrefutably that everything we do, everything that happens, even if it seems to us to happen mutably and contingently, happens in fact nonetheless necessarily and immutably, if you have regard to the will of God. For the will of God is effectual and cannot be hindered, since it is the power of the divine nature itself; moreover it is wise, so that it cannot be deceived. - Martin:Luther, The Bondage of the Will, 37.

10. Faith vs. Understanding This is the highest degree of faith, to believe him [God] merciful when he saves so few and damns so many, and to believe him righteous when by his own will he makes us necessarily damnable, so that he seems…to delight in the torments of the wretched and to be worthy of hatred rather than of love. If, then, I could by any means comprehend how this God can be merciful and just who displays so much wrath and iniquity, there would be no need of faith. - Luther, The Bondage of the Will,62.

11. Infallibility • Therefore, …we teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma that • when the Roman pontiff speaks EX CATHEDRA, • that is, when, • in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole church,

12. Infallibility (cont.) • he possesses, • by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, • that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals. • Therefore, such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves, and not by the consent of the church, irreformable. - First Vatican Council, 1870

13. Infallibility and Unaccountability Have these persons forgotten the claim of infallibility put forth for eight hundred years by this haughty power? So far from being relinquished, this claim was affirmed in the nineteenth century with greater positiveness than ever before. As Rome asserts that the “church never erred; nor will it, according to the Scriptures, ever err” how can she renounce the principles which governed her course in past ages? - E. G. White, The Great Controversy, 564.

14. Infallibility as Institutional DNA The papal church will never relinquish her claim to infallibility. All that she has done in her persecution of those who reject her dogmas she holds to be right; and would she not repeat the same acts, should the opportunity be presented? Let the restraints now imposed by secular governments be removed and Rome be reinstated in her former power, and there would speedily be a revival of her tyranny and persecution. - E. G. White, The Great Controversy, 564.

15. Revelation and Trust God in His wisdom permitted Satan to carry forward his work, until the spirit of disaffection ripened into active revolt. It was necessary for his plans to be fully developed, that their true nature and tendency might be seen by all. - E. G. White, The Great Controversy, 497.

16. Faith and Understanding Satan had made it appear that he himself was seeking to promote the good of the universe. The true character of the usurper, and his real object, must be understood by all. He must have time to manifest himself by his wicked works. - E. G. White, The Great Controversy, 498.

17. Disclosure and Transparency God could have destroyed Satan and his sympathizers as easily as one can cast a pebble to the earth; but He did not do this. Rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. The Lord’s principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God’s government is moral, and truth and love are to be the prevailing power. - E. G. White, The Desireof Ages, 759.

18. Transparency and Trust - I It was God’s purpose to place things on an eternal basis of security, and in the councils of heaven it was decided that time must be given for Satan to develop the principles which were the foundation of his system of government. He had claimed that these were superior to God’s principles. Time was given for the working of Satan’s principles, that they might be seen by the heavenly universe. - E. G. White, The Desire of Ages, 759.

19. Transparency and Trust - II Yet Satan was not then destroyed. The angels did not even then understand all that was involved in the great controversy. The principles at stake were to be more fully revealed. And for the sake of man, Satan’s existence must be continued. Man as well as angels must see the contrast between the Prince of light and the prince of darkness. - E. G. White, The Desire of Ages, 761.

20. SDA Theology and Accountability “…in the context of the Great Controversy, it is not the role of humans to bring God into judgment, but vice versa” “This theological presupposition is especially important in the interpretation of passages in Job, Psalms, Isaiah, Romans, and Revelation, which have often been viewed from a rational/empirical perspective…” - Hermeneutical Statement for the International Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, 2010.

21. Questions about Authority and Accountability Which is the more distinctive [SDA] belief, that (1) we are accountable to God, or that (2) God wields accountable authority? If there is divine accountability, is it because we demand it or because God demands it? Are we no longer permitted to find the message of divine accountability in Isaiah, Romans, and Revelation?

22. Next Sabbath Re-acceptance of the mother

23. Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience. {GC 588.1}