I know I'm supposed to be continuing to discuss Adventist Education, but I'd like to take a little break. It was probably 4 years ago that I had an interesting conversation with my cousin sitting outside Starbucks in Redlands, California. We started talking about how traditionally Adventists have had a problem with coffee because of caffeine and some might even call it a sin to consume caffeine, (or at least they will make you feel that it is.)
That conversation morphed into a longer conversation on the nature of sin. I think that for Adventists today that conversation is more relevant to our continued success as a church than almost any other topic. Over the last 20 years the church, in trying to escape the notion that we are a bunch of legalistic jerks, has strongly emphasized (and rightly so) the concept of grace. We are saved by grace, nothing else. But then we have this thing called the law that is also important ( I would encourage every Adventist to read N.T. Wrights After You Believe: Why Christian Character Counts) to our church as well. If you break the law then you are logically sinning and by most definitions sin separates us from God so many have concluded that separation from God is Hell.
I for one am beginning to question that concept. I have a hard time believing that if drinking caffeine is a sin that I will go hell for drinking it. I also have a hard time believing that one sin is greater than another. Is murder really different than idol worship or breaking the Sabbath?
Now, I am not trying to get a license to sin, please understand me, but I'm wondering if our application of God's supposed reaction to sin is correct...What do you think? Does sin change God's view of us or our view of God? Does sin send us to Hell? How does this change SDA theology?
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