As an aspiring science fiction writer, I couldn’t resist checking out this seminar titled “Battle for Planet Earth.” It was held at the local Post Falls Adventist Church over the weekend. I attended the Saturday seminar, “God’s Counter Assault.”
The overriding theme was the war between good and evil. Lucifer is trying to undermine God’s kingdom. According to Pastor Owen Bandy, the battle for planet Earth has at its core the battle over God’s character. We’ve all bought into lies Lucifer has told about God. When Jesus was on the cross, he faced an angry foe. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between her seed and your seed,” Genesis 3:15. But Jesus won that battle at the cross.
In a talk that lasted about an hour, Pastor Bandy further expounded the purpose of the cross. Sometimes Christians have the impression the gospel is what we get out of it personally. The death of Jesus wasn’t just done so I can save my hide; it was done to vindicate God in the war of good and evil. Our salvation is secondary. When we look at the sacrifice of Christ in the context of the war being waged against God’s kingdom, our attention moves away from what I get so we can focus on the cosmic effect and the benefit of the sacrifice of Christ. With this new directive, we can then envision becoming part of something bigger than ourselves.
The seminar will conclude on Oct 19 with “The Map of History,” decoding the symbols that reveal the rise and fall of nations right down to the second coming of Christ.
Any commentary from you Bruce?
Thanks for the prompt Eric. I’m working on the relationship of good and evil in my own science fiction writing. I’ll also be posting more on this subject in the future. I was only reporting what i heard as the Adventist view on this post.
Thanks for the write up Bruce. The seminar actually goes every Thursday through Sunday evening until the weekend of the 3rd of November.
Personally I think a lot of the ‘prophecy seminar’ thing is deeply problematic on so many levels. It’s been my pastoral experience that the ‘end times’ genre often breeds emotionally unstable, socially awkward, typically isolationist, fairly paranoid and generally see things in things, when things are not things type of followers.
I was raised SDA and then swam in the Pentecostal waters for my teen/young adult years and I’ve seen and heard so much that is just plain odd. I know there is legit prophetic passages and themes but when you look into SDA history, Ellen White, the Millerites etc, you start seeing a newspaper myoptic type of premillienialism that often leads to fear.
I love a lot about SDA but the B movie poster stuff is too much to me, unfortunately it seems much like you described it…science fiction.
Eric, I always appreciate your input. It sounds like you have more experience with prophecy than me. From my standpoint, I think there is too much faith in and emphasis of the Bible rather than trusting in God, and too much interpreting the Bible literally rather than reading it for the message. But then prophecy makes for some great sci-fi!