Reviewing the Adventist Review

October 9, 2008
Vol.185, No. 28

GENERAL COMMENTS
Drumroll, Please. This is the first issue of the “new” Review, and it substantially meets Bill Knott’s pledge of expanded news of the global Adventist church, fresh unambiguous explorations of key Bible teachings, a special focus on young adults as well as those new in the faith, a new emphasis on wellness and preventive medicine, thought-provoking opinion and incisive commentary, heartwarming stories of grace and witness, and an abiding focus on the certainty of Jesus’ second coming. Impressive! A MUST READ.

BOUQUETS
The editors and technical staff of the Adventist Review
It’s All About Me, Isn’t it by Tompaul Wheeler
The World’s third-Largest Illegal Trade by Diana Scimone

COMMENTS
I have very few nits to pick in this issue, but that’s my job, right?

Page 7, Where is the Mission? Adventist to Population Ratio
The North American and world graphic should also include, Christian to Population Ratio. The charge has been made that Adventists are primarily focused on “converting” other Christians rather than nonbelievers.

Headlines like Rolling Markets Won’t Change Investment Strategy are not specific enough to be informative. Comments like “We feel the portfolios of the church’s investments are prudently invested” are not reassuring. In these troubled financial times, investors (us) would appreciate easily accessible, complete information regarding our investments.

In the Zone, Roger Gotch makes a dubious claim that a tennis victory was due to divine intervention. “True, I had practiced a great deal, but was my expertise that day really due to my own power? I think not. Looking back, I think God was with me that day. The power, the deft touch, the feel for my game came from Him. I realize that now that I’ve had the opportunity to know the Lord and His ways.”

“When we accept His Son’s sacrifice and claim Christ as our Savior and Lord, God blots out the sins we have committed from our records and doesn’t remember them anymore.” Chongo Mundende makes this assertion in Busted! What I Learned About Grace from a State Trouper. Question: Is this statement hyperbole or can you and I give God amnesia? Can created beings do something that God can’t, i.e. remember sins? Isn’t forgiveness the issue here?

In Clifford Goldstein’s essay, The Evanescence of Us, he speaks directly to me, a recent retiree. Allow me to insert my name and institution:

“After 36 years of working in the Education Department of California State University, Chico, I’ve seen many people come and go. And what boggles my mind is that some of them, while here, were significant and influential figures. Then they moved on, and before long it’s as if they had never been here at all. Their presence, their influence, even the memory of their presence and influence, start to evaporate the day they leave. Time, and not much of it either, ravenously devours it all.”

Cliff, it’s not important that one is remembered by the institution one serves; it matters only that that service is remembered by those served, for good or ill. (I’m inclined to believe that those who strive to be remembered will be forgotten rather quickly.)

And by the way, sight is far more than “nothing but light waves bouncing off objects and then reaching our eyes.”