Book NoteS

1 Cor 12:7 Acts 2:38 Matt 7:21–23

Each true Christian has received at least one spiritual gift in addition to natural faculties and talents. Prerequisites for receiving spiritual gifts are repentance, receiving the Holy Spirit and baptism.
Even miracles may not be evidence that divine power has been in operation. They may be counterfeits. It is im- portant to do the will of God.

Alex Bryan, The Green Cord Dream. Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2012, 125 pp. US$ 12.99.

The title of this book refers to a dream fifteen-year old Ellen Harmon had in 1842, in which an angel handed her a closely coiled up green cord and told her to stretch it to the utmost, if she wished to see Jesus. With

this reference to young Ellen’s dream the author wants to capture the essence of his message – the centrality of Jesus in Adventist thinking. The Adventist church is in crisis, he says, and what we need are Green-Cord dreams emerging from every generation of Adventists. In short, we need Jesus.

The book has eight chapters which are summarized in the form of questions in the last chapter. Chapter one: Will Jesus be everything in Adventism? Chapter two: Will Adventism be humble and generous in the way Jesus was, or will we boast much about ourselves and thereby become more isolated from the rest of Christianity? Chapter three: Will we desire the Bible again—as a way to fall in love with Jesus? Chapter four: Will we live for heaven alone, or will we live to create heaven on earth—the prayer vision of Jesus? Chapter five: Will we crave violence, wealth, and power, or will we humbly choose peace, simplicity, and service? Chapter six: Will we get lost in minor theological disputes and church spats, or will we choose Jesus instead of the accusations of Satan? Chapter seven: Will we honor and celebrate our bodies as Christ’s creation? Chapter eight: What will we think about the end times?

The style is appealing to the modern generation that is used to texting and twitter: short sentences, frequently in bullet form. The language is fresh-and-down to earth with many personal illustrations. At times it maybe too down-to-earth. To compare the Bible to a “dirty pan”
(p. 42) may not exactly engender respect for it among the younger generation. The Green Cord Dream is a book that will primarily appeal to young Adventists, and therein lies its danger. While seasoned Adventists, who know what the Adventist message is all about, can take this book in their stride and applaud the author’s empha- sis on the necessity of making Jesus the focus of their lives, young and impressionable Adventists will come away from this book with a skewed picture of what Adventism is all about. Yes, Jesus needs to be at the center of our teaching and our lives, but who is this Jesus and what is his message?

Reading through the book this reviewer was reminded of the Jesus Movement of the sixties and seventies. These people talked much about Jesus, and the words “Jesus” and “love” flowed easily from their lips. Yes, their preaching gave many a warm and fuzzy feeling about Jesus, but it was an incomplete picture of who Jesus really is. Similarly, The Green Cord Dream contains much valuable material, and yes we need to be reminded again and again that Jesus must be the center of our lives, but we must get the facts right and present a complete picture of Christ’s message.

Considering some facts first: In chapter one, the author identifies Seventh-day Adventists with the Millerites. While the Seventh-day Adventist Church came out of the Great Disappointment, we need to be careful not to equate Seventh-day Adventists with the time setting of the Millerites. We did not quit our jobs, leave our homes and walk out of our churches (p. 11). God called the Adventist church, the remnant church of prophecy, into existence because of the failure of the Millerite movement. Not to distinguish between these two movements will confuse the young people as to the real origin of their church. And yes, contrary to the author’s contention (p. 18), the Adventist church was also called into existence to correct the teachings of already existing denominations and to resurrect long-forgotten teachings. If this were not the case, why would our pioneers have majored on such distinctive truths as the Sanctuary, the Three Angels’ messages, conditional immortality, the Second Advent, and the Sabbath? They almost forgot about Christ our Righteousness; the Lord in 1888, therefore, had to send a correcting message. The Adventist Church was not born because of a wrong calculation (p. 18), the Millerite Movement was. Our young people deserve a correct picture of our origins.

On page 69 the author says, “less than 5 percent of Adventists live in America now.” I am not sure which statistics the author used, but according to the latest statistics of the office of Archives and Statistics at the General Conference, Seventh-day Adventist membership stands at 17 million of whom 1.2 million live in America, which is seven percent not five. Let’s not make it worse than it is.

Satan did not convince the angels that “darkness is better than light, envy is better than peace, hate is better than love—and death better than life” (p. 86), he deceived some of them into thinking that God is unjust (PP 37). The results were darkness, envy, hate, and death.

More important is the fact that throughout the book there is an implied denigration of the Adventist church and its teachings. We don’t look in the mirror and admire the body of our own faith tradition, the result of our insights, our brain power (p. 31). God raised up the Adventist church to preach and teach the biblical doctrines needed to prepare the world for the Second Advent (see 1 SM 206–208), they are not based on our brain power. The author is correct in stating that we have not been given the authority to deny other Christians their sonship or daughtership of God (p. 35). We have never claimed that we are the only children of God (see Rev 18:4; Ev 575). This reviewer has been invited to and preached in Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, and Pentecostal churches and has seen many of God’s children in these churches, but this does not mean we should soft-pedal our distinctive truths and jump on the ecumenical bandwagon, as the author seems to imply.

With the author this reviewer deplores the theological controversies in the church, but in contrast to him this reviewer does not believe that these controversies concern matters that the Bible leaves opaque (p. 43). Creation, salvation, the remnant, the sanctuary, and the Spirit of Prophecy, are not opaque matters in Scripture. To give this impression to the young people is doing them a disservice. It will only further alienate them from studying these doctrines for themselves. 

Like most critics, the author (p. 47) loves Ellen White’s statement that “There is no excuse for anyone in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed” (CW 35), but let’s not forget that she also said, “Many of our people do not realize how firmly the foundation of our faith has been laid” (1SM 206). We have made a few adjustments in our doctrines since the days of our pioneers. They did not teach the doctrine of the Trinity, or that the investigative judgment in Daniel 7 also concerns the little horn. Further Bible study has made this clear, but we do not change our doctrines merely to accommodate modern trends or opinions, like evolution or a homosexual lifestyle.

A typical case of accommodation to modern trends in theology, even in some Adventist circles, is the author’s statement that Babylon is “representative of all totalitarian regimes throughout history” (p. 71). Most totalitarian regimes in history were political regimes; the little horn of Daniel and the Babylon of the book of Revelation is a religious power, and the religious power that fits the prophetic picture is the religion alliance of the papacy, fallen Protestantism and spiritualism; and our young people should know that too.

In summary, while The Green Cord Dream contains some excellent material, particularly on the issue of violence, health, and the need to put Jesus first, the overall impression the book conveys of the church and its teachings is not favorable. Is this really what our young people need? Most importantly, if we need to wash our dirty linen in public, and there may be such times, let’s get the facts and our theology straight before we do so.

Gerhard Pfandl, BRI