Introduction

In spite of eschatology being often relegated to the periphery of the Christian faith, it is a central theological discipline.

There can be little doubt about the importance in the NT teachings concerning the Second Coming of Christ. It is referred to 300 times in the NT, which is once every 5 verses. Paul made 50 references to the Second Coming. Statistically this becomes 8 times more references to the Second Coming than to the First Coming. Whole books are devoted to Second Coming revelations (1 & 2 Thessalonians and Revelation), and whole chapters are dedicated to this subject (Matt 24-25; Mark 13; Luke 21). It was evidently intended to be a major motivation in the Christian’s worldview.¹

Missiology studies and describes how God interacts with the world in the meantime (between Pentecost and Parousia), especially through His people, which are commissioned to engage in the proclamation and witnessing of the gospel to every people until the end of the age.

The Seventh-day Adventist movement itself was born with a clear teleological interest in God’s judgment, coming, and final restauration. While the belief in an imminent coming of Jesus has given a sense of urgency to Adventist mission, it should also shape today’s missional-incarnational impulse, a key element of the ethos of Adventist expressions. The sending and the identification aspects of God’s commission take on a special meaning in the context of the last days due to the nature of the spiritual attacks and challenges, as well as the urgency of mission driven by living in a state of continual expectancy, watchfulness, and readiness. Thus, the Adventist missional-incarnational impulse happens within an essentially eschatological context.

Eschatology gives Christianity the power to be more than wistful nostalgia or weekly entertainment. The ethics of the kingdom give Christians and the Christian community character and identity. Biblical warnings of God’s judgment provide Christians with a moral vision. The promise of resurrection and new creation provides Christians with hope. Without eschatology Christianity has no mission and the church has no purpose.²

This article will focus on the idea that, because the “Adventist” aspect sometimes separates the movement from this world,³ a mature Adventist Missiology should be founded on a solid eschatological understanding not only about happenings of the future or the last days, but for the identity of the Adventist movement today. That will lead to the development of effective mission strategies for disciple-making (including its godliness, zeal, joy, and hope aspects), for the new generations (including its understanding of the kingdom), and for world religions adherents (including its various eschatological views).

Eschatology and Missiology

Eschatology was rediscovered and became very much a part of the theological development in the twentieth century; and it impacted the theology of mission during the same period. Influential theologians such as Barth, Bultmann, and Tillich and their understanding about eschatology influenced the meaning of mission. “Barth oriented mission to the transcendent word of God and the church’s witness to it, Bultmann to the kerygma and the existential decision of the self, and Tillich to the kingdom of God as the final meaning of history.”⁴

However, it was Oscar Cullmann and his understanding on salvation that had the largest impacted. Mission was defined by the preaching of the gospel to all nations, which is central to salvation history. It is worth noting that other eschatologically-oriented theologians such as Pannenberg, Moltmann, and the liberation theologians, later in the twentieth century, debated the tensions between eschatology and history in the church’s missionary practice.

According to Cullmann’s view, mission is a preparation for the end, a sign of the end, and an essential condition of the end. This view emphasizes the present and future reality of the kingdom of God,⁵ which became one of the main points of contact between biblical studies and contemporary missiology.⁶

David Bosch, one of the most influential missiologists of the twentieth century, highlights the centrality of the kingdom of God to the understanding of the missionary church as an eschatological community. According to him, four different teachings have been affirmed by different groups: First, the kingdom equals the visible church. Mission is characterized by planting and extension of the church into all the world, competing entitites. “Mission means ‘more and more church, and less and less world.’” This is a de-eschatologized kingdom. Second, the kingdom is a spiritual reality invisibly present in the hearts of true believers. This is characterized by a rejection of institutional church. In history, this led to creation of independend missionary societies which focused on converting individuals and form small communities. Third, the world will become the kingdom. The focus was on the way God is leading the history of this world. Mission therefore means to help build up the kingdom through humanitarian developmental assistance while realizing God’s will in this world. Last, the kingdom is a future reality. Bosch identifies this model with the Adventist perspective and highlights the radical distinction between God’s work in the church and in the world. Mission according to this understanding is “the collection of people into such waiting rooms.” Using a different analogy, the mission of the church is to row around in a tiny lifeboat picking up survivors adrift in the sea. “Existence in the lifeboat is essentially meaningless.”⁷

Bosch concludes that all models are insuficcient and should stand in creating tension with one another. He suggests the following combination for mission: “planting the Church, as the firstfruits of God’s kingdom; winning over people’s hearts to Christ, and to a total commitment to him; going into the world to change structures of injustice and to help the poor, the afflicted and the suffering; and hoping for the day when the Kingdom will be fully consummated in all its glory.”⁸ From the understanding about mission and the kingdom of God derives the conclusion that mission happens in the end times as an eschatological event. Bosch’s understanding about the relationship between eschatology and mission has been summarized in seven theses: (1) mission cannot and does not hasten the end; (2) mission pushes the church outward into the world; (3) mission reminds the church that her mission is never finished; (4) mission proceeds from the certainty that the kingdom is not only a future but also a present reality; (5) mission reminds the kingdom can never be attained in this world; (6) mission means infusing the world with hope through an unshakable confidence in God’s purposes for the future of this world; and (7) mission preserves the church from disappointment.⁹

The key has become, in this sense, to find the right balance between extreme eschatologization and extreme historicization of mission. “It is this focus on the reign of God, both present and future, that may grant us some appropriate perspective on our mission in the world. Without this eschatological dimension our ‘gospel’ becomes reduced to ethics.”¹⁰ The “already-not yet” emphasis is fundamental in order to avoid the paralisis of Christian mission. The realization that the future is in the process of being fulfilled, now is already part of the end, the new creation has already begun.¹¹ Therefore, there is a close link between eschatology, missiology, and ecclesiology.

Eschatology and the Adventist Movement

The Seventh-day Adventist church’s origin in the Millerite movement, named after William Miller, “the most famous millenarian in American history,”¹² certainly kept eschatology at the core of its theology. That translated into a strong interest in the study of prophecy, the understanding of a soon-coming millennium kingdom of God.¹³

Miller’s studies showed that Old Testament prophecies pointed to the return of Jesus in 1844 and his objective was to shed new light on eschatology in the Protestant world. Miller did not see his doctrine as sectarian as he believed it belonged to all denominations. “Pre-1845 Millerism was not a denomination. Rather, it was an ecumenical movement composed of ministers and laypeople from all the evangelical denominations.”¹⁴ Nonetheless, the movement resulting from that new understanding, especially as it faced divergent religious traditions after October 22, 1844, became divisive and led to the formation of a new sect.

After the disappointment, the movement was forced to review its identity and mission during the decisive following months and years. While part of that search for identity was related to sorting out their beliefs, an equally important related resolution had to do with the definition of their mission. The early years were characterized by what came to be known as the shut door theory, which held that there was no possibility of salvation for those who had not accepted their message, therefore, there was no need for evangelization.¹⁵ Eventually the leaders of the Adventist movement realized their worldwide mission. “This had a significant impact on the understanding of the nature of the Adventist church.”¹⁶

The acceptance of the shut door belief was related to the fulfillment of the 2300-day prophecy of Daniel 8:14 as being the return of Jesus in October 1844.¹⁷ Logical and practical arguments revealed the inconsistence of the shut door belief, especially after the new understanding of the event that had taken place in October 22, 1844. On the one hand, “if there was no fulfillment of prophecy, there could be no shut door—and vice versa” and on the other hand, “probation could not be over because souls were being converted.”¹⁸ That conviction that God had been leading them played an important role in giving the movement a renewed identity and a worldwide evangelistic and missionary thrust defined in major ways by “a new divine imperative to preach the Sabbath and the third angel’s message of Revelation 14 ‘to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.’”¹⁹

Their renewed sense of worldwide mission seems to have temporarily motivated leaders like Himes who went to Britain on June 1, 1846, with two others to hold conferences, distribute literature, and establish a publishing ministry.²⁰ New members were very active and zealous in propagating their new-found faith and making this a missionary, lay Adventist movement.²¹

Over time Adventist elaborated eschatology has been shaped primarily a historicist interpretation of the prophetic books of Daniel and Revelation to emphasize that premillennial second coming of Jesus preceded by a global crisis around the Sabbath as a central issue -- “a period in which the papacy will enforce Sunday worship on the world.”²² The three angels’ messages (Rev 14:6-12) became the “central text in Adventist history” since it defines the historical role of the movement.²³

Eschatology has been at the core of Adventism’s identity. More than that, it has had a direct relation to the life of the church as it shapes the understanding about the Adventist movement’s mission throughout its history.

The Ethos of the Adventist Movement

As one seeks to systematize a model for the ethos of the Adventist movement, they will find a close relation between the beliefs, in this case, eschatological beliefs and the group’s life. Social studies also indicate a close relation between cognitive, affective, and evaluative themes in a group’s worldview.

In a very brief exercise, what follows is an overview of major themes in Adventist eschatology and its implication for mission, including Jesus’ priestly ministry, the Great Controversy, the imminent second coming of Jesus, the remnant (including the Sabbath and the spirit of prophecy), and the three angels’ messages.

The central element of the ethos model to which all others are connected is Christ and His role in the plan of salvation through His ministry and mission. As part of His mission, He initiated a new phase in God’s missionary plan by starting a movement through the training of the twelve disciples, giving them a specific commission, eliminating the ethnic primacy of the Israelites as missionaries, and restating the worldwide scope of God’s mission. During the last days it is key to understand that Jesus, who is Savior and Lord, is also a priest in heaven, ministering on behalf of humanity. This should foster an even more genuine relationship with Christ and lead to obedience of His will. His ministry today will give assurance of salvation to those who have accepted Him and warn others of the importance of taking that same step. The understanding that the Lord of time and space is “working in all things to accomplish the divine purpose” should also give bold confidence to join God in His mission.²⁴

The great controversy between God and Satan has been the frame of reference for the development of Adventist theology and mission. Mission then has implications in other dimensions besides the natural world since the whole universe is engaged in some way in this scenario of a battle between God and Satan. Among these repercussions is the fact that “the church’s witnessing to the heavenly beings is so formidable that they will eventually see in it a full display of God’s love.”²⁵ The development of inspirational and moral leadership within the context of missionary movements becomes a clear spiritual challenge above all else in which both God, through the Holy Spirit, is bestowing His gifts on His people and Satan is looking for ways to detract them from fully developing those and offering counterfeit demonstrations to confuse people. Therefore, the Adventist movement should develop an apostolic environment that acknowledges the spiritual nature of its context.

The belief in an imminent coming of Jesus has given a sense of urgency to Adventist mission. It should also shape the missional-incarnational impulse of Adventist expressions. The sending and the identification aspects of God’s commission take on a special meaning in the context of the last days due to the nature of the spiritual attacks and challenges, as well as the urgency of mission driven by living in a state of continual expectancy, watchfulness, and readiness. Thus, the Adventist missional-incarnational impulse happens within an essentially eschatological context.

A life of continual expectancy in the context of the great controversy should result in hope, love, humility, and holiness. Believers should be motivated to obey God’s commandments and develop the values of the Kingdom of God by fostering a sense of love, justice, goodness, beauty, and truth in their community. Adventist expressions should emphasize the importance of the experience of the Sabbath in this context as a special time of fellowship and companionship with God. The Sabbath is an agent of rest, of worship, and of relationships, given with no regards to race, gender, and social status in order to be a cure, a blessing, and a constant reminder of who God is—an important element of holistic development.²⁶ Thus, Adventists should keep the future and the present realities in tension, making the experience on earth a foretaste of the heavenly one.²⁷ That vigorous transformative vision of living in a restored world in the near future should bring that element of liminality to their experience—something that can only be developed in their common experience. The biblical metaphor of the family is especially relevant for this element that is based on an understanding of God’s covenant with His people.

The body of Christ, another biblical metaphor, helps to understand that Christian expressions should be organized—organically structured by the Holy Spirit. The recovery of the awareness of the Holy Spirit’s empowerment through spiritual gifts is necessary to enable harmony, edification, and the growth of the church. Adventist expressions should be structured by organic systems, taking into consideration the headship of Christ and the bestowing of spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts emphasize a common ministry, in which clergy and laity work together in decentralized, spread out, and multiplied ways. In such cases, a simple, flexible, and reproducible denominational structure²⁸ helps foster unity and, above all, the mission of the church in an organic, spontaneous, and hyperbolic way.²⁹ This is an antidote to overinstitutionalism, typical of older movements. The Adventist movement has especially benefitted from the spiritual gift of prophecy, a characteristic of God’s last day people, to guide its development and mission.³⁰ The classic Ellen White quotation reminds one that “the church is God’s appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world.”³¹

Being an expression of God’s people in the end times means to develop a way of living, both individually and collectively, that includes engaging in God’s holistic mission. The remnant is not only the missiological result but also the missionary means. Adventist eschatological understanding “do not entail a rupture with, but rather a reorientation of, everyday life.”³² Adventist expressions define their mission in terms of (1) making disciples of all nations, (2) instructing believers, (3) caring for the needy and suffering, and (4) glorifying God. Mission, therefore, happens in the context of the purpose of the three angels’ messages that goes beyond proclamation and includes the preparation of the inhabitants of the earth for the second coming of Christ. This preparation involves developing a life of Spirit, love and unity, worship, witness, and hope. It involves a holistic development that is inclusive and integrative and addressed the person in his or her wholesomeness, both in word and deed, as a work of redemption and transformation.³³ Thus, disciple making in the context of the three angels’ messages means leading people toward God as they receive the eternal gospel with the objective of developing a worshipful way of living and a character according to the Lord’s, and sharing with others about God’s love in preparation for God’s final encounter.

The waiting time, for Adventists, is a time for witnessing. “Global mission and evangelism are essential elements of the SDA ethos.”³⁴ As the official statement concerning Adventist mission declares, “Mission is woven into [the SDA church’s] identity; mission defines who [Adventists] are and why [Adventists] exist.”³⁵ This missionary identity at the center of their self-understanding will move people toward unentered areas and unreached people groups, thus keeping the community open, adaptable, and alive. The description of the heavenly great multitude that no one could count in Rev 7:9 implies the universality of the saved and that they all do not come from the traditional Christian strongholds, but also from areas that are today predominantly dominated by the world’s religions.³⁶

Therefore, taking into consideration Alan Hirsch’s model for the ethos of Christian movements and Adventist distinctive eschatological beliefs, a model for Seventh-day Adventist movement ethos would include the following six elements: confession of Jesus as Savior, Lord, and Priest; a missional-incarnational impulse of the soon coming of Jesus; an apostolic movement as part of the Great Controversy; communitas as a reflection of the will of God for relationships as described in God’s commandments; organic systems according to spiritual gifts; and disciple making in preparation for eternity (see figure 4).³⁷

These six elements seem to be part of the essence of the ethos of any Seventh-day Adventist movement. The same way all elements of Hirsch’s model of ethos of missionary movements are interrelated, these elements are part of a whole, which could include other elements for specific emphasis. The application of the Adventist beliefs has broadened and deepened the understanding of the elements of Hirsch’s model and, at the same time, grounded the definitions in the Bible. One of these implications is the fact that Adventist mission happens in the end times in preparation for the second coming of Christ and God’s final judgment and, therefore, the ethos characteristics of an Adventist missionary movement should reflect that specific context. That prophetic understanding of their mission, integrated with their doctrines within the framework of the three angels’ messages, provided the Sabbatarians with the motive power to sacrifice in order to spread their message far and wide.

Effective Mission Methods

Adventist mission, which has been traditionally conceived of in terms of a prophetic mission, is defined in the church’s mission statements as the need “to proclaim to all peoples the everlasting gospel in the context of the three angels’ messages of Rev 14:6-12, leading them to accept Jesus as personal Savior and to unite with His church, and nurturing them in preparation for His soon return.”³⁸ Therefore, Adventist mission aims “not only at spiritual conversion, but also at a lifestyle change and well-being.”³⁹

Quite surprising in view of their [Seventh-day Adventists] firm belief in the imminent end of the world was their heavy investment in publishing houses, hospitals, homes for the aged, and especially educational institutions. Not only did they maintain numerous academies, colleges, graduate schools, and both a theological seminary and a medical and dental school, but they also established a widespread network of elementary schools. Noting their many good works, one observer has commented that seldom while expecting a Kingdom of God from heaven has a group worked so diligently for one on earth.⁴⁰

When the six principles of the model are the foundation for mission methods, important understandings become part such strategies. “Seventh-day Adventists celebrate God's actions past, present and future; that they have a thoroughly biblical eschatology that justifies their intense and sustained effort here and now to demonstrate the character of the Kingdom of God.”⁴¹

The development of mission methods should begin with deep, thorough Bible exploration, that foster a Christocentric approach for every teaching, where Jesus remains the center to the distinctive SDA beliefs and offers a real relationship to each believer, and the church continues the preaching, teaching, and healing of Jesus.

The Adventist prophetic understanding should be translated into more than cluttered and complicated theologies that become obstacles to those who approach the church and that sometimes give members a vague sense of identity disconnected from their lives. The comprehension about God’s priestly ministry in heaven during the time of the end should foster a relationship of fear, trust, and joy for Adventists. The Great Controversy belief should also give a strong basis for a non-dualistic spirituality, that develops an all-of-life perspective to faith, and that fosters an ethos that takes into consideration the interaction between God, the church, and the world. It seems that sometimes the Adventist heavy emphasis on keeping the Sabbath results in a dualistic spirituality, which leads to a practical polytheism. People have one identity on Sabbath and a different one during the rest of the week. All the following aspects of the ethos depend on this biblical understanding about God.

In order to rekindle the motivation that comes from the assurance of the imminent return of Jesus, the blessed hope of the church, and the grand climax of the gospel, it is important to foster a way of being in this world characterized by continual expectancy, urgency, and watchfulness. There is need of a readiness that is not passive but rather responsibly active. Adventist pastors should be equipped to be intentional in the contextualization of their strategies. Because Adventists understand that earth’s history is in the last days, in the time of God’s judgment, and Jesus’ return is imminent, they have a special message for this time, the “time of the end.” “Since the Adventist objective is a certain quality of faith exhibited in all people groups so that the issues in the Great Controversy over the character and government of God are demonstrated and proclaimed accurately to all people, it is even more imperative that this faith development take place in context.”⁴² That would place a heavy emphasis on being dedicated to learning the local context and the people’s worldviews as part of the process of preparation for mission and the transmission of the gospel.

The realization that people are increasingly resistant and repulsed by organized religion should be a warning that the churches’ dependence on methods and strategies focused on attracting people to the churches will limit the possibilities of evangelization. As the missional ethos of the movement is rekindled there is a need to have leaders that are mission-minded, have an apostolic passion, and are able to instill that passion in church members.⁴³ Such leadership is less based on personality and charisma, and more based on faithfulness to the biblical vision, engagement with the stewardship of God’s mission, and the mobilization of God’s people. Such leaders are especially interested in the formation of new leaders found both in the denominational ranks and in the local congregations.⁴⁴ Missional leadership would also be a spiritual-gifted leadership that recognizes every believer’s empowerment for witnessing and the role of basic spiritual gifts (Eph 4:7-11: apostles, evangelists, prophets, and pastor-teachers).

Every part of a missionary movement must have a clear missionary focus. The continuous assessment of the role of every institution and the need to study the most effective organizational structure to support a missionary movement is essential. While a noninstitutional movement is not an alternative, organic systems of networks could inspire new models of structures that are better at survival, adaptation, and reproduction. These models should be simple and rely on decentralized authority, dynamic decision processes, and contextualized approaches.

The remnant-claimed identity should be witnessed through the fostering of the values of the Kingdom of God such as a sense of justice, goodness, beauty, and truth among believers and toward those who do not belong to their faith. A way of living that truly reflects the keeping of God’s commandments and the faith of Jesus would confirm that this movement’s self-understanding is based on the revelation God has entrusted to it and is not restricted to its belief statement. This would also foster unity within the movement that comes from a common mission, not only common beliefs.⁴⁵

The experience of Christian togetherness should not simply be for the benefit of those who are part of the Adventist community as it seeks to embrace all humanity including the public. Sabbath should be at the center of this experience as the special day to develop a kind of community based on relationships with God and with others. As Adventists live out different aspects of their doctrines, especially the Sabbath, they must also fight the bubble effect resulting from an exclusivist attitude. This would reinforce the movement’s role as part of the people of God and the universal church by taking part in worldwide worship and witness that helps vindicate God’s character before the universe.

Finally, at the core of the movement there has to be a disciple-making process, usually more cyclical than linear, moving people from non-believers to disciplers. This disciple-making process has to begin before conversion and involve much more than baptism as one grows toward spiritual maturity.

The process’ goal is full allegiance to Christ and engagement through community service and mission involvement. It cannot be assumed through church attendance as it has to include Scripture teaching, journeying together, worshiping God with all one’s life, caring for the unreached, mobilizing people, and being a witness in every way. This is a learning process that connects cognitive, affective, and practical dimensions.

An Adventist understanding of the preparation for Christ’s second coming involves life transformation in all the different spheres of relationships: with God, family, church, and world. Everyone should develop a life of total surrender that can persevere, if needed, through persecution and death. Consequently, success metrics have to be based on the transformation of lives by the power of the gospel. The vitality of the Adventist movement should be assessed based on more than number of baptisms, planted churches, tithe paying, offerings, church attendance, and avoidance of certain destructive behaviors.⁴⁶

Solid eschatological understanding that shapes the identity of the Adventist movement today should influence the development of effective mission methods in different areas such as the new generations (including its understanding of the kingdom), disciple-making (including its godliness, zeal, joy, and hope aspects), and world religions adherents (including its various eschatological views).

Contrary perhaps to a general expectation, new generations demonstrate a growing interest in apocalyptic fiction. A proof of that is the number of TV series and novels of zombie apocalypse stories. This phenomenon offers an opportunity to explore their social criticism and as a hermeneutic for understanding culture as they become “an interesting glimpse into the way that secular culture views itself prophetically.”⁴⁷ It also becomes an opportunity to retell the eschatological narrative according to God’s revealed Word.

Recent publications have been devoted to exploring more the connection between an eschatological understanding and one’s discipleship journey, another current trend. Berry suggests a path from theological reflection to practical life that includes beginning with the end in mind, embracing the journey, focusing on people as well as practices, and making room for God’s Work.⁴⁸ Eschatological Discipleship: Leading Christians to Understand Their Historical and Cultural Context by Trevin Wax, Ph.D., from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, to be released on April 1, 2018, promises to make the same connection and help Christians in their understanding of following Jesus.

In the globalized world of today with people who come from different religious backgrounds and display various levels of secularization, mission strategies should dialogue with their eschatological views. The shift of the center of gravity of Christianity to the Southern Hemisphere is a relevant factor for eschatological articulation.

Outside of America, it is exactly the set of traditional Adventist core doctrines and the scriptural literalism that are very much valued by converts in developing nations. The Adventist view of the ‘cosmic conflict’ and eschatology has been attractive to people in the southern hemisphere as a pattern of interpretation for human history and social developments, and there is a clarity in doctrine that provides precise and reasonable advices and explanations in questions of theology and lifestyle.⁴⁹

Eschatological discussions and studies in the different world’s religious traditions focus on more than the timing of the millennium. It includes myths, cosmological understandings, and views of time.⁵⁰ Venter has pointed out the importance of understanding cultural orientation toward time in developing eschatology, for example.

There is an acute awareness of the dissimilarity between Christian eschatology and traditional African views According to him a conventional Western eschatology is futuristic, marked by anxiety about individual survival and desacralizes the present time. Global Christianity may bring fruitful corrections; it may highlight orientations which are not biblical but typical Western, and it may encourage a more faithful attention to the Bible.⁵¹

Threats to Adventist Eschatology

After 170 years, many researches, publications, meetings have advanced the Adventist eschatological understanding, which continues to be a key element of the movement’s identity. However, as far as contemporary trends in Adventist eschatology and its influence on mission, some concerns have been raised. Although they all seem to be interconnected, they are listed below separately.

First of all, there is a dampening effect of the “apparent” long delay of the second coming of Christ. The aging of religious movements tend to weaken their original transformative vision. “It proved increasingly difficult to maintain a high level of expectation.”⁵² In some places of the world the membership has also been aging, which also affects the vitality of the movement.⁵³ The insistence by some groups in renewed time-settings for the end-time events has done damage to the proclamation of the Adventist message. Perceived prophetic failure leads to disappointment, doubt, and attrition.⁵⁴

Secondly, there is a replacing of epistemology with eschatology. It has been pointed out that “some Seventh-day Adventists have (unintentionally) fallen into a trap, for a variety of reasons, of replacing epistemology with eschatology… In doing so, one is no longer analyzing the present objectively or honestly, but with ‘eschaton-tinted glasses.’”⁵⁵ Almost every development or piece of news has to be related to fulfillment of prophecy or signs of the times.

Thirdly, there is a turning of eschatology into catastrophic apocalypticism and conspiracy theories. Knight points out that Millerism and, consequently, Adventism, followed the historical pattern of millennial movements and attracted some “on the radical edge who get carried away by the excitement and are quick to identify esoteric ‘new truth’ and to pronounce those who do not agree with them as both apostate and Babylon.” He further highlights that “the spirit of the radicals lives on among some of the more stable descendants of Millerism”. Therefore, “all other Adventists were forced to define themselves in terms of the radical wing. The task was not only one of defining but also one of distancing themselves from the ‘fanatics’.”⁵⁶

Partridge points out that “because Antichrist believers are strong dualists, it is relatively easy for them to accept theories of dark networks and occult global control, just as it is easy for conspiracy theorists to accept the unifying notion of a dark, organizing intelligence controlling world events and influencing secret societies”⁵⁷ Usually those emphases turn into sensationalist motivation for apocalyptic perfectionism on the fringes of Adventism. Those are those who are so “heavenly-minded” that they are of no earthly good!

Fourthly, there is a short eschatological memory. While Adventists watch world developments, especially in relation to the religious freedom, they are very sensitive to signs of the end. However, some point out that “when it comes to eschatology Adventist memories are often short When looking at current events in relation to Bible prophecy, one must weigh the present in light of a long-term perspective. There is nothing going on in the world at this moment that guarantees the imminent return of Jesus, though we certainly might wish there were such.”⁵⁸

As demonstrated earlier, the eschatological perspective is directly related to the identity of the Adventist movement. These attitudes toward Adventist eschatology are not only internal issues but identity issues that directly influence the missiological understanding of the church, and often become evangelistic barriers.

Conclusion

There is a direct correlation between eschatology and missiology. Eschatological understandings have been a strong incentive for the mission of the church. The first sentence in the “Principles and Practice” of the China Inland Mission (now Overseas Missionary Fellowship), from 1903, for example, reads as follows: “The China Inland Mission was formed under a deep sense of China’s pressing need, and with an earnest desire, constrained by the love of Christ and the hope of His coming, to obey His command to preach the Gospel to every creature.”⁵⁹ As C. S. Lewis has pointed out, “if you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”⁶⁰

The commission to preach to all nations, tongues, and tribes before the end has been a major incentive especially for the Adventist church to engage in God’s mission and reach the whole globe. Today, Adventist mission, which has been traditionally conceived of in terms of a prophetic mission, is defined in the church’s mission statements as the need “to proclaim to all peoples the everlasting gospel in the context of the three angels’ messages of Rev 14:6-12, leading them to accept Jesus as personal Savior and to unite with His church, and nurturing them in preparation for His soon return.”⁶¹ Consequently, eschatology has been at the center of Adventist evangelism as the major thrust at public meetings, Revelation Seminars, maganizes (i.e. Signs of the Times) and many other initiatives that are focused on end time events and prophecies.

However, exclusive emphasis on learning the correct prophetic sequence of facts and on debating the final interpretation of apocalyptic prophecy is a deviation of true Adventist theology and mission. Futurology is also not an option for Adventist missiology. Futurology considers “how things are evolving, and, in accordance with their direction and intentionality . . . try to devise how things might look in the foreseeable future.” Eschatology, on the other hand, begins with a point in the future and asks “what is going to be our vision of the church and its mission?”⁶² Even worse, continually hyping the End without an outcome can kill people’s interest in eschatology. And that’s where things are in most of the Western world. “If the way we engage in mission is largely determined by how we understand its goal, then lack of clarity and conviction in our eschatology will cause confusion and loss of incentive for mission.”⁶³

Bible prophecy was not given to satisfy our curiosity about the future, it was given to teach us how to live as we approach the End. When we experience the eschatological Kingdom Jesus introduced, we are motivated to lay large plans for building up that Kingdom while at the same time living as if He was coming today. That tension is not easy to balance, but it is at the core of preparation for the Second Coming.⁶⁴

Unfortunately for Seventh-day Adventism, that very vision appears to be in jeopardy in the twenty-first century.⁶⁵ Knight has pointed out that “a final temptation faced by Seventh-day Adventism will be to give up its vision of itself as a people of prophecy, to forget its prophetic heritage.”

Adventists believe that the everlasting gospel of Revelation is the same gospel which Jesus, the apostles, and the Early Church preached and should be preached around the world in these last days. Throughout the history of Christianity the gospel has been emphasized and applied differently in specific contexts and has been “present truth”⁶⁶ to the people who received it. Because Adventists understand that earth’s history is in the last days, in the time of God’s judgment, and Jesus’ return is imminent, they have a special message for the “time of the end.”⁶⁷ Thus, this is the apostolic gospel, “understood and emphasized in the setting of God’s great last-day judgment hour.”⁶⁸ Eschatology cannot work as escapism from today’s practical demands in the world God made for us. Eschatology, Ethics, and Mission should go hand in hand.⁶⁹

A biblically-solid eschatology will lead to a balanced eschatological Adventist missiology that balances the eager expectation of Jesus’ return with a strong focus on mission. “To be an Adventist Christian means to live with a forward look.”⁷⁰

Adventists see themselves as a fulfillment of apocalyptic prophecy, a prophetic movement called to prepare a people in all parts of the earth to be ready for Christ’s appearance Seventh-day Adventists believe it their appointed role as the remnant church to restore revealed truth in worshiping God as Creator-Redeemer by restoring the seventh-day Sabbath as the memorial of His creation and the sign of giving Him glory Such an identification with the remnant church of prophecy (Rev. 12:17; 14:6–12) offers no ground for a spirit of exclusivism or triumphalism. . . . Instead, Seventh-day Adventists understand their mission as the antitype of the ancient exodus movements of Israel from Egypt and Babylon. Such a comparison serves to heighten a sense of responsibility and self-criticism.⁷¹

As Ellen White so clearly understood the relation between eschatology and mission, “Christ is coming the second time, with power unto salvation. To prepare human beings for this event, He has sent the first, second, and third angels’ messages. These angels represent those who receive the truth, and with power open the gospel to the world” (7BC 978, 979).⁷²

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