Jesus did it. He picked-up the Sabbath from the mire of traditions interdictions-prohibitions, and offered it back to humanity, fresh and anew as it was intended to be. The New Testament Sabbath was the Old Testament commandment extrapolated to the never-ending rest of eternity.
John did it. When he wrote the book of Revelation, he changed everything. It was a different way of writing, in 3D. A special perspective of Jesus Christ and the Gospel. He extracted freshness from the old Hebrew Scripture: excerpts, allusions, echoing the Old Testament prophets, mastering the chiastic-structure A-B-C-X-C-B-A in ways that are astounding. John the Revelator was John the Disciple of tomorrow.
Henry Ford did it. One car and one process after another. All the other automakers wanted to be the Ford of tomorrow. Progress makes more progress easier. Momentum builds. Yet Ford couldn’t make the streak last. In today’s world, Tesla is the Ford of tomorrow.
Google did it. Changing the way we search for useful information, giving away for free several tools like editing, and sharing on-line documents, videos, and even rewarding its “worshipers”, reinventing this way the advertising business. A lot of tech companies strive to be the Google of tomorrow.
Apple did it, First offering the new universe of the personal computer. Then another hit, the me-phone. I meant to say iphone. All the tech companies want to replicate its success, envying its products’ charisma and striving to be the Apple of tomorrow.
And then there are some of yesterday’s reputable brands like Sears, and Macys, and Kodak. They were stuck in the past, incapable of adapting their market strategies, services and goods, to the new realities of e-commerce and digital information. Companies such as Amazon, Walmart, and Samsung, crushed them in less than a generation.
The church should learn from this paradigm. The 1844 pioneers still an inspiration for preachers, teachers, missionaries, administrators, and church members. The Adventists of today seem to have more nostalgia for a past time when people were apparently more interested to read our pamphlets with beasts and prophetical maps, than actually have cheerfulness for sharing the good news with the lost of AD 2017.
Joel Osteens of today are not James White of yesterday. No way. Tele-sermons filled with clichés and slogans cannot replicate the enthusiasm of David Hewitt, “the most honest man” of the town, when he found the Lord of the Sabbath because someone visited him in person. The contemporary heated debate around ordination cannot (and must not) produce the excitement as then when the church sent its first Adventist missionary to Europe in 1874.
The what is there What to do? How can we to be a distinct voice and not part of today’s cacophony? By reasserting our identity. Re-branding the brand. Apple still does it. Amazon got it. Tesla still does it. The church must do it. Seventh-day Adventism’s distinctive identity is unmistakablye found in the book of Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus”. (NKJV)
This is our distinctive “brand”: Keeping the commandments of God and having the faith of Jesus.
But wait, there is more:
- Keeping the commandments of God and having the sweetness of Jesus.
- Keeping the commandments of God and having the methods of Jesus.
- Keeping the commandments of God and having the character of Jesus.
The legacy of yesterday must fire up and turn the mission of today into the certainty of tomorrow. Jesus is coming. Soon.
Ovidiu Radulescu