Grievance can be powerful—and deadly. Often in history it has fueled cultural, ethnic, and national hatreds, motivating societal antagonism and even military conflict. Families too can find themselves driven apart by long-held grievances. Parents and children, brothers and sisters, even husbands and wives, can experience estrangement due to such memories, even if—in the case of the latter—they remain married for social or other reasons.
In the spiritual realm, grievance can also prove hurtful, not only in dividing church members and fellow workers from one another, but even in fostering theological heresies. People can find themselves refusing to accept certain Biblical teachings because of negative experiences in their past lives. Instead of simply allowing the written Word to decide issues of faith and practice (Isa. 8:20; Acts 17:11), such persons permit festering memories of mistreatment—real or imagined—to determine their religious convictions.
Grievance-Driven Theology
Some of us are old enough to remember a book written by a former, now-deceased Adventist pastor, whose name I will desist from mentioning. Rumors circulated as to the actual reasons for his bitterness; exactly what they were is beside the point for our present purposes. But in the end, he produced a venom-dripping book against one of the fundamental doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. One couldn’t read or even peruse its pages without hearing visceral rage snarling from just about every paragraph. It didn’t help his cause much. In spite of what some believed (or hoped) would happen, the book exerted much less of an impact on the church than it might otherwise have, precisely because of its pugilistic tone.
More recently, I read a book by a non-Adventist evangelical author on the subject of gender roles, which was similarly suffused with personal grievance drawn from past experiences in hers and her family’s spiritual journey. Whether or not her resentments are justified is a separate issue. The bottom line is that God’s Word alone, not personal experience (be it positive or negative), has the right to determine how the Christian believes and lives. Despite her claims to the contrary, despite earnest efforts on her part to explain certain Bible passages and concepts in the light of culture and history, it is clear to any objective reader of her book that grievances on her part against the faith community in which she was raised represent the ultimate driving force behind her arguments.
In my interaction with fellow believers on various social media sites, I have been especially saddened by the way in which personal grievance so often permeates discussion regarding key issues in the church. The claim may be offered by some that this is natural and inevitable, but for Seventh-day Adventists especially, it should not be. Our heritage as a people identifies us as the “people of the Book”—the Holy Bible. The written counsel of God must stand supreme above all other factors, forces, and influences—human opinion, human culture, human scholarship, human experience, or any others.
Despite the claims of certain ones, even some who profess to be conservative in their theology, the written counsel of God (whether in Scripture or the writings of Ellen White) is not the product of man-made culture or random historical trends. In the words of the modern prophet:
In God’s word only do we behold the power that laid the foundations of the earth, and that stretched out the heavens. Here only do we find an authentic account of the origin of nations. Here only is given a history of our race unsullied by human pride or prejudice [1].
That unsullied Word must be the final arbiter of conviction, faith, and conduct for the Seventh-day Adventist Christian. A woman’s history of abuse at the hands of outwardly pious but wicked men is not an excuse to reject the Biblical doctrine of spiritual male headship (Gen. 3:9; I Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:22-25; I Tim. 2:12-13). Fanatical behaviors on the part of certain ones who believe in perfection theology is not a valid argument against that theology, especially as the very inspired writings which establish that theology disallow such extremism. In the ongoing controversy within Adventism over the various teachings comprising Last Generation Theology, this experience-driven rationale for the rejection of that construct is too often heard, as is the similar argument for the rejection of headship theology. Such reasoning holds no water. Only the written counsel of God has the right to direct and decide our doctrinal and moral conclusions.
Conclusion
One big problem with the nurturing of grievances is the toll they can take on our emotional as well as our spiritual well-being. The old saying is quite correct that “half the people you hate don’t know it, and the other half don’t care.” Some people even get sick and die because they cherish these feelings. Not only are such resentments off-limits for one professing to be a follower of Christ; they have no legitimate role in the determination of faith or practice on the part of the Christian.
As we near the climax of history, the enemy of our souls will muster every weapon of feeling and intellect to dissuade people from embracing God’s last message for humanity. We can be sure individual and collective grievances will play a key role in forming a spiritual rationale for saying No to Bible truth. However painful certain memories may be for any of us, we must claim the grace and power of our Lord to forgive those who have wronged us, to let go of festering resentment regardless of the source, and to at last “[settle] into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so [we] cannot be moved” [2].
REFERENCES
1. Ellen G. White, Messages to Young People, p. 263.
2. ----Maranatha, p. 200.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan