sabbath july 3 – final day!

What a great day to end the 2010 General Conference Session in Atlanta Georgia! We figured there would be more people attending today than the previous Sabbath, so we left the house early and arrived around 8:45am and got our usual parking space on level 2 in the red deck ($10/day). We always sat in section L23, which we did again, up only 10 rows from the floor where all the delegates were seated. It is kind of funny to look at the small people on the stage far away, and then notice that most of the people around you are looking the opposite direction – towards the large screen at the other end of the dome – ha!

A few rows behind us, there was a group of around 30 Japanese. I asked one of them something in Japanese, and they responded, and then i told them i was from the Osaka Center church, and they clapped for me – haha. After the sermon, one of them came by and handed all of us in our group nicely printed envelopes with 2 bookmarks enclosed.

The Sabbath school lesson was done by a lady and John Fowler and Clifford Goldstein. They had a lively discussion on the book of Romans, keeping interest high. Brother Fowler did display a tendency to talk big emptiness, which is a national liability of his home country. Then Ted Wilson gave the main sermon, an entire hour regarding what the Seventh-day Adventist church is and should do. Before that tho, there was a letter read from the president of America – Barack Obama, stating his good wishes on us.

It was an amazing sermon, titled “Go Forward”, one which i’ve been desiring to listen to from a top church official for over 30 years.
The audio is here: Ted Wilson’s Sabbath July 3 sermon, and the written pdf text is here: sermon text to read

He said “we are a peculiar people”. The word “peculiar” was mentioned twice in the sermon, putting a thrill thru my bones. For much too long we’ve wanted as a people to be just like the world as much as possible, and avoiding any hint of “peculiarity”. So right near the start of the sermon, there is this direct “back to the basics” drive which made my heart sing. He strongly uplifted creation and the SOP, quoted from Steps to Christ, presented Justification and Sanctification in clear terms, said we must be humble, and need revival and latter rain. He said we must have a literal interpretation of the Bible, should be Christ-centered, and that we must support Spirit of Prophecy until the “end of time”.

He came out against a liberal interpretation of the Bible, going to mega-churches, the emerging church, and wrong worship styles. He even clearly stated at the beginning of his sermon that he wished us not to clap, but could say “amen” at appropriate times. He even clearly said that the higher-critical method of Bible interpretation is not good.

The very only one thing that made me pause at all about his sermon, is that in talking about prophecy charts, he said “historical Adventism will not be moved”. This sounds to me like he is set in interpreting the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation in the old, dried, “all in the past” style we have set in concrete, but maybe that is not his intent, and then again, maybe he has not studied it out in detail to know that many of the things we teach are in the past (like the 7 Trumpets) are actually in the future.

My sister and neice came, and we enjoyed all eating out in the park afterwards. Some in our group complained of the heat, but it felt good to me 🙂 I lost connection with the person with the car keys, and as i wanted to get my 1858 Great Controversy books out of the car, i quickly parted company with my relatives which probably made them think i was running away from them….. I need to think more of others than my own desires sometimes. Anyway, the car was locked, so i couldn’t get my stuff until around 4pm. Then i took some of the books to the exhibition hall, where i talked with Brother Henderson of The Great Controversy Project. He had talked in the dome in the morning describing his project until someone came up and asked him to cut it off – ha! Lots of passion, but not sure of results. Anyway, he looked at my book and said he was not interested in putting out a stripped-down version of the book. I assured him it is the ENTIRE original book, and he asked if it was printed in 1844, then mentioned something about the book he is promoting as coming out in 1910. No doubt he was a bit stressed out, but i got the feeling that he is very passionate about spreading the Great Controversy book, but not too well versed in the history of the making of the Great Controversy book. He said some Divison people in various parts of the world have asked him for smaller versions to print, so i handed him one of these 1858gc books, and asked him to at least consider it if there is a need for a smaller book with the whole great controversy story in it. He accepted it, and we prayed together. At his booth i met John Brereton, who used to be the publishing director for the SE Asia Union Mission. We have run into each other at more places (Singapore, Thailand, Sabah Malaysia, etc) than i have run into anyone else in the world i think 🙂 He is now the publishing director or something in the South-Pacific Asian Division, and said sales of books in Papua New-Guinea were up 60% last year, and up 19% in Australia too – wow! Praise God. We had a nice prayer together too.

I went to the prayer room, then went to see the new painting by Nathan Greene that was unveiled at the morning church service. It is nicely done, i understand taking 8 months to plan and paint. It is of the 2nd Coming, and while being politically correct, something about it leaves me flat. I don’t know why…..

The evening meeting saw us surrounded by rows and rows of over 80% black members. That was one thing nice to see about the Session overall – the great expansion of the message to Central and South America and Africa and India. But the “Parade of Nations” itself was a bit strange. There was a short video from each Divison highlighting the scenery from their area, mostly with a heavy backbeat. It was my first time to hear the “Hallelujah Chorus” with a backbeat – ouch! Then the representatives would walk across the stage holding their flags, and then they walked around a darkened dome and then sat down in their seats on the opposite side. It was a bit disappointing, as i had imagined a huge mass of waving flags at least at the end, but such was not to be. The Vatican’s flag did NOT appear, raising several questions in my mind. But the worst thing of the whole show, was that this was on the Sabbath, yet there was no sense of worship at all, with many jumping up and shouting and whistling and clapping when their respective countries were called. This really must be changed to either a different day, or else the whole idea of parading flags should be re-examined.

The human traffic jam (69,989 official attendees at the morning meeting) going out was equalled only by the automobile jam. We got back to the house a little after 11:30pm, extremely tired, but also very happy and excited to think of what God has wrought for his people, both in the way of spreading the gospel over the whole world, and also of the election of a God-fearing leader.