Being God's Remnant
This series is based on and inspired by the article On Being The Remnant by Fernando Canale. I will be quoting at length and also summarizing and paraphrasing some of Dr. Canale’s positions. I do not claim that I came up with these ideas. What I will present in this post are my understandings and practical applications of Dr. Canale’s insights into this topic.
Are you ready for this? We are going to go deep and wrestle with some things that might make some uncomfortable and go above the head of others. I would love for you to allow me to finish my argument, that is, to suspend judgment until the end. I say my argument, but really it is my elaboration on Dr. Canale’s argument. I hope you will find this journey as challenging and rewarding as I have.
Seventh-day Adventists claim to be the remnant church of biblical prophecy. Following the historicist method of prophetic interpretation they see themselves as the end time remnant predicted in Revelation 12:17. Specifically, they see their movement meeting the identifying marks of the remnant in the book of Revelation. These marks include commandment keeping (12:17), having the testimony of Jesus (12:17; 19:10), perseverance (14:12), having the faith of Jesus (14:12), and proclaiming the three angels’ messages (14:6–12). Adventists teach that one should keep all the commandments of God, believe in the gift of prophecy manifested through the writings of Ellen White, persevere, have the faith of Jesus (the truths of the Bible that Jesus believed and taught), and preach the three angels’ message of Revelation 14:6–12 that prepares God’s people for the Second Advent.
- Canale, F. (2013). On Being the Remnant. Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 24(1), 127.
That paragraph either made you nod in agreement or sit back in disbelief. But hear me out. If you are a Seventh-day Adventist you are likely familiar with these types of statements. If you’re not you might have a good number of questions, and understandably so. I hope that as this post progresses this statement will make more sense as a context is developed for it. But whether you agree or disagree with it, this is in essence what the Seventh-day Adventist holds as its identity and mission.
What this does not mean
This does not mean that Seventh-day Adventists believe they are the only ones who will be saved. In other words, believing that we are the remnant does not mean that we believe that every Seventh-day Adventist is saved nor that all non-Seventh-day Adventists are lost. We just see ourselves as the remnant and as such believe we have a special responsibility towards all others to share the light we have received from the study of the word of God. Seeing ourselves as the remnant is not about feelings of superiority or pride but rather about a sense of responsibility.
Challenges
How can Adventists hold this view when other Protestant Christians interpret these texts differently?
Moreover, how could the keeping of the Sabbath, having a manifestation of the gift of prophecy in the writings of Ellen White, and preaching the Gospel in the context of the three angels’ messages make Adventism the only true visible expression of God’s church on the planet? After all, other Protestant Christians keep the commandments, even the seventh-day Sabbath. They also have manifestations of the prophetic gift, persevere in the faith of Christ and preach the Gospel. If Adventists and Evangelicals preach the same Gospel, other Christian denominations also should belong to the visible church as the body of Christ, and therefore, to the remnant.
Protestants generally think the “church” is the spiritual invisible interdenominational body of Christ. From this perspective, they must find the idea that one denomination is the true visible Church of Christ odd, misguided, unbiblical, and perhaps presumptuous. Clearly, a simple declaration that Adventism is the Remnant church because we fit the identifying marks of the Remnant presented in the book of Revelation is insufficient both for church members and for fellow Christians.
- Canale, F. (2013). On Being the Remnant. Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 24(1), 128. (Bold mine)
So what is the point of this post?
I want to ask questions that will make us uncomfortable but need to be asked in order for us to mature our faith.
In this context, we need to ask ourselves some important questions.
What does it mean to be the Remnant?
How does the Remnant relate to other Christian denominations and the ongoing Ecumenical movement?
What is the ground on which the Remnant stands?
What transforms a group of Christians into the Biblical Remnant?
In other words, we need to look beyond the identifying marks and think about the essence or basic characteristics of the Remnant and the ground on which it stands.
This post is not intended to prove that the Seventh-day Adventist church is the remnant church. My intent is to show Adventists and non-Adventists the understanding that undergirds the claim and mission of the remnant. This post will not be exhaustive, I will only attempt (with the help of Dr. Canale’s paper) to draw an introductory and incomplete picture of what it means to be the remnant in our times.
God’s Remnant Church in the Bible
In Scripture, the nature and existence of the Remnant are embedded in the history of salvation and become a synonym for the people of God both as Israel and the church. Paul clearly conceived the Christian church as the remnant of Israel (Romans 11:16–26). He sees the emerging Christian church as “grafted,” “nourished,” (v. 17), and “supported” (v. 18) by faith in God’s covenant with Israel. Like Israel, the church stands on its faith in God’s word and covenant with Abraham. As branches, both belong to the same cultivated olive tree, and, receive by faith their nourishment from its “holy root” (vv. 16–17). The church is a “cultivated tree” that stems from a “holy root.” The preceding context strongly states that God has not rejected Israel (v. 1) and suggests that the “cultivated tree” is the concrete remnant of Israel, chosen by God’s grace (v. 5) and constituted by the faith response of part of Israel (v. 23). In this way, Paul describes the emerging Christian church to which he belongs (v. 1) as the remnant of Israel, God’s tenderly cultivated olive tree.
Paul’s view suggests that the eschatological remnant described by John in Revelation 12:17 is not to be understood as an entity different from the church but as the church itself, the historical-spiritual continuation of the church as the remnant of Israel.
The Biblical anticipation of the emergence of an end time remnant and the description of its identifying marks alert Christians to its appearance and mission. However, we should not think about the remnant as an entity that will come into existence only at the end time before the second coming of Christ. Instead, we should think about the remnant as a biblical designation applied to the historical and spiritual development of God’s people, both Israel, and the church, through the history of salvation.
“The “remnant,” then, is a qualifier describing the historical-spiritual reality of God’s Church throughout the history of redemption. ”
You could argue that the only reason there is an eschatological remnant is that the historical nature of God, His covenant, and the history of salvation require and open up the future for His faithful people, the church. (Canale, F. pp.129–130)
The Essence of the Remnant
Due to its historical nature, the people of God always exists as a remnant, that is, like the rest, residue, or last ones to join the long history of believers who no longer exist. Additionally, because God’s people’s commitment to God is always under attack by the forces of evil (Ephesians 6:12; 1 Peter 5:8; Revelation 12:16–17) it can survive only by holding fast through faith to God’s word and covenantal promises (Ephesians 6:13–19). These facts help us to understand why in Scripture the word remnant not only names the eschatological church but also and mainly describes the essence of the Church as historical and faithful to God’s revelation in Scripture.
Two essential characteristics of the remnant are faithfulness and mission.
Within the broad context of the history of salvation, covenant, and divine election, two essential characteristics of the people of God (Israel, church, and eschatological remnant) are faithfulness and mission. The remnant church was, is, and will be the community faithful to God’s call. The existence of the church depends and stands on her faithfulness to God’s word (Psalm 12:6; Matthew 4:4; Luke 11:28; Acts 17:11; 1 Peter 1:25; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Ephesians 6:17; Job 23:12).
“Without faith in God’s word in Scripture, the church becomes a human organization.”
The origin of the Christian church took place because the God of the Old Testament fulfilled his covenantal promise to the world (Genesis 3:15) and to Abraham (Genesis 12:3) by revealing His being and character in Jesus Christ’s life and death on the cross (Matthew 16:16–18; John 14:8–10). More precisely, the Christian church emerged as a faithful remnant of God’s people who by faith embraced God’s revelation in the Old Testament, and Christ’s revelation in the New Testament (Hebrews 1:1–2).
The Church is the historical-spiritual community that gathers around, coheres in, stands on, and testifies about Jesus.
The Church exists because of her faith in Christ and her witnessing Christ to the world. In the most real sense, the Church exists in-Christ. Her existence is spiritual. It takes place as a historical communal relationship of faith in His Word and His mission as revealed through the history of salvation and recorded in Scripture under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In the history of salvation, then, the eschatological remnant is not something new but rather is the continuation of the Christian church as a remnant of Israel. Her nature and existence revolve around her spiritual faithfulness to Christ’s Word and mission. Consequently, in order to move beyond only the claim of being the eschatological remnant on the basis of its identifying marks to actually being the remnant God will use with power in the end time, Adventists should examine their faithfulness to Christ’s Word and His mission within the general context of Christian Church history. (Canale, pp 131–132.)
This seems like a good place to stop for now. I hope you will be back for my next post on this series where I will address the emergence of tradition.
Until then I would love to have some feedback from you. This post is more technical than my usual posts, what are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments section.
(Part two is now available - The Remnant and Tradition)
