Reviewing the Adventist Review

March 19, 2009
Vol. 186, No, 8

GENERAL COMMENTS
In this issue, reader comments in the INBOX were thoughtful and interesting. It’s a really big deal that Patrick Allen has matriculated FROM ADVENTIST PASTOR TO CHIEF OF STATE, because Allen “would become president should Jamaicans approve a referendum changing the nation to a republic”. DIRECTV SERVICE GETS HOPE CHANNEL 368 at the end of April. And Merle Poirier, reminiscing about her family’s “century house” in Plainfield, Wisconsin, introduces us to seven generations of Seventh-day Adventists.


COMMENTS
In light of the Montana plane crash that killed four of my neighbors and nine other adults and children, and the plane crash reported in this issue in which 7 lives have been lost, IN VENEZUELA, SEARCH CONTINUES FOR MISSING PLANE, it’s difficult to be reassured by Luste Maran’s explanation that MONSTERS DO EXIST, BUT GOD IS BIGGER.

“The closer we are to God, the safer we are, for Satan hates and fears the presence of God. We must not be ignorant of Satan’s tactics, which include the people he uses. . .Maintaining a close relationship with Jesus, full with prayer and the pursuit of godly things, will protect us—even when we do encounter monsters. We may—no, we will—be hurt, but we will still be protected. And we’ll be healed. Because God is bigger.”

Such naive words comfort children, but they ring hollow in light of actual events. As rational adult Christians, we are obligated to face facts and tell the truth. Bad things happen to good people. God offered Job no explanation, and none of us is qualified to speak for God.


CRACKERS, CHEESE, AND ORLANGE JUICE by Gina Wahlen asks the reader to believe that God answered her prayer for crackers, cheese, and orange juice. Claims like this one trivialize not only prayer but God. These stories border on the obscene in the context of a world of unimaginable pain and chaos.