On Thursday evening, April 18, at Loma Linda, California, the incoming Dean of the Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary offered an interpretation of the death of Jesus.  A native of the Czech Republic, something that became important toward the end of his presentation, his name is Jiri Moskala. The occasion was the first session of “The Cross:  A Symposium on Atonement” which the Adventist Theological Society organized and the place was the Campus Hill Church.

Moskala unfolded his interpretation in three steps.  In the first, he emphasized the significance of the topic, the need to approach it with a humble attitude and the importance of an inclusive theory today.  He stressed the danger of allowing contemporary sensibilities to distort current interpretations.

In his second step, Mosksala reviewed eight of the theories which Christians have developed over the centuries.  These are the ransom, satisfaction, moral influence, Socinian, governmental, Christus Victor, penal substitutionary and nonviolent atonement alternatives.  He identified weaknesses of each; however, in keeping with his inclusive approach, he put more emphasis upon the positive contributions each one makes to our understanding of God’s character.  He reviewed the contributions of several contemporary Seventh-day Adventists in the same way. These were  A. Graham Maxwell, Jack Provonsha, George Knight and Dan Smith.  He expressed special appreciation for the work of Norman Gulley of Southern Adventist University 

Although he highlighted positive features of all eight, Moskala’s greatest sympathies were with the penal substitutionary interpretations of sixteenth century Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin.  He agreed with what they wrote about the seriousness of sin, the wrath of God and the contribution of Jesus in accepting the punishment that we deserve. But he explicitly rejected the doctrines of predestination and limited atonement that say that the positive consequences of the death of Jesus apply only to those whom God has chosen in advance.  He didn’t say anything one way or another about the idea of original sin or about the Anabaptist or Roman Catholic Reformations views of the time.

In his third step Moskala outlined his own “Cosmic, Substituionary, Great Controversy Atonement Theory” and expounded it by appealing to a number of Biblical texts.  This theory is “cosmic” in that it thinks of the battles with sin as more than the struggles within individuals, “substitutinary” because it says that Jesus accepted the punishment that humans deserve and part of the “Great Controversy” because of its focus on the universe-wide conflict about the character of God..  He described the atoning or reconciling accomplishments of the death of Jesus as “complete but not completed.”  Only at the very end of the “Great Controversy” and the final elimination of sin will God be fully vindicated.

Centuries ago the Czeck Jon Hus declared that “The Truth of God will Prevail!” Moskala reported.  During the “Velvet Revolution” Vaclav Havel proclaimed that “Truth and Love will Prevail!”  Moskala’s own proclamation:  “Truth, Love and Justice will Prevail!”

Although all Christians believe that the Roman Empire’s execution of Jesus of Nazareth more than two thousand years ago was an important event, they have somewhat different explanations as to why this is so. As they are everywhere else, these differences are present among the world’s eighteen million Seventh-day Adventists.

Giving them special attention, the Adventist Theological Society will launch “The Cross: A Symposium on Atonement” at the Loma Linda University Campus Hill Church at 7:00 pm on Thursday, April 18. The meetings will continue the whole of Friday, April 19, and the entirety of Sabbath, April 20.

In addition, as separate events, at the two worship services on Sabbath morning in the nearby Loma Linda University Church, Jon Paulien’s sermons will address the same topic. He is the Dean of the LLU School of Religion.

The symposium will begin on Thursday evening with a “Welcome and Orientation” by Felix Cortez of University of Montemorelos. A presentation titled “The Death of Christ and Theodicy: Main Theories of the Atonement and their Impact on Understanding the Character of God” will follow. It will be given by Jiri Moskala incoming dean of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University.

The meetings will conclude late on Sabbath afternoon with a panel consisting of Jiri Moskala, JoAnn Davidson, Richard Davidson, Roy Gane, John Jovan Markovic and Tom Shepherd of Andrews University. Ross Winkle from Pacific Union College will also join them.

The majority of the symposium’s presenters will be professors and students at Andrews University; however, there will be some from other places too. These will include one from the University of Montemorelos, one from the General Conference Biblical Research Institute, one from Middle East College, one from Pacific Union College, one from the Washington Conference and one from the world of business and the Adventist Review.

The Seventh-day Adventist colleges and universities in North America that will not have presenters in the symposium include the Adventist University of Health Sciences (formerly Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences), Canadian University College, Kettering College, La Sierra University, Loma Linda University, Union College, Southern Adventist University, Southwestern Adventist University, Walla Walla University and Washington Adventist University.

Some might view the symposium as an Andrews University event that is co-sponsored by Loma Linda University. This is not so. Andrews University and the Adventist Theological Society are organizationally distinct. Also, the Andrews University professors who will participate in the symposium constitute a small proportion of the approximately 50 faculty at its theological seminary and the 10 or so in its Department of Religion and Biblical Languages. As is the case everywhere else, AU’s religion professors don’t all agree about everything and they don’t all share the same understanding of atonement.” The symposium will therefore be an activity of the Adventist Theological Society and not Andrews University, even though there is considerable overlap in their personnel. Also, it will take place on the campus of LLU without being sponsored by it.

The Adventist Theological Society is one of two independent associations that serve Seventh-day Adventist college and university religion teachers. It sprouted from the earlier association, now called the Adventist Society for Religious Studies, for several related reasons. One of these was theological. Many of those who formed the ATS believed that the ASRS was insufficiently supportive of the denomination’s doctrinal positions. A second factor was logistical. Although the ASRS grew in numbers, it was reluctant to schedule concurrent sessions at its annual meetings. The result was that the opportunities to present papers and so forth were limited and some felt that even these were not distributed equitably. A third factor was cultural. Differences in how people dressed, talked, ate, read, worshipped and respected authority became increasingly uncomfortable for many. A fourth factor was professional. The ASRS has held its annual meetings in conjunction with those of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion whereas the ATS has aligned itself with the Evangelical Theological Society which often meets at the same time. A fifth factor was psychological. Those who formed the ATS often felt that the greatest danger facing the denomination is that it will not be true it its past. Many of those in the ASRS were equally anxious that it might forfeit its future.

All members of the ATS can be members of the ASRS and many are; however, the opposite is not true. This is because the ATS requires its members to adhere to a very specific list of theological positions whereas the ASRS doesn’t. The two societies often meet around the time of other professional meetings for one meal and scholarly papers by the two presidents.

Paragraph “a” in Section 2 of Article III in the Constitution of the Adventist Theological Society reads as follows:

The Society affirms that Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross was both the supreme revelation of God’s love for humankind and atoning sacrifice for sin and that his life provided a perfect example for His people to imitate. His substitutionary death pays the penalty for sin, provides forgiveness, and creates gratitude and saving faith in all who receive Him. The cross is central to every aspect of life and work, of witness and outreach, of research and doctrine.

This statement, with its emphasis on “substitution,” will strike many as an unusually focused understanding of atonement. It is more common to be reminded that the Biblical writers used many different analogies to explain the meaning and importance of the execution of Jesus. Because each of these analogies illumines some features of God’s reconciling or atoning endeavors and obscures others, we need them all and we need them to interact in mutually informing and mutually correcting ways. One analogy is not sufficient, most people in all denominations hold. Neither is a plurality of analogies that are controlled by any one of them as though it trumps all the others.

It will be interesting to hear what the presenters at the ATS symposium will say this weekend.

This week, Japp Korteweg sets the table for Sabbath at the Spectrum Café. In addition to memorable Sabbath meals, Sabbath at the Spectrum Café features guest columnists’ fresh perspectives on food, community and unique stories surrounding vegetarian cuisine.

My name is Jaap Korteweg, and I am an eighth-generation farmer from the Netherlands. Twenty years ago I decided to switch to organic farming on our farm, now 230 acres, where the challenge was to show that in this way, we could reap a harvest that was of higher quality than usual. Our company, Biotrio,is very successful, and for many years now we have been one of the largest organic vegetable and herb growers in Europe.

From my experience on a mixed farm, and after witnessing major disasters in large-scale animal farming in the Netherlands, I decided to try to shorten the food chain. I was—and still am—very attached to the taste, structure and feeling of meat, but the production was bothering me, so I decided not to eat animals anymore. As a response, I launched the world’s first Vegetarian Butcher, which cannot be distinguished from a traditional butcher, with one single difference: no slaughter animals are involved.

We market a completely new generation of meat substitutes, which are indistinguishable from real meat, in the most positive way. For example, we have developed 100 percent vegetarian chicken with exactly the same taste, appearance and texture as real chicken, but without the collateral damage or artificial additives.

Mark Bittman, food critic for The New York Times wrote a lyrical review about our chicken, “A Chicken Without Guilt.”When Ferran Adrià, the chef of El Bulli, tasted our meat he thought that he was dealing with "Chicken thigh of high quality, probably a free-range chicken from France." And in the culinary capital of the world, Paris, France, we launched a vegetarian hamburger, which attracted lots of media attention earlier this month.

Within two years, we grew from one single shop to 500 Vegetarian Butcher dealers in the Netherlands. Our ambition is to be the biggest butcher in the world within 10 years.

We would like to benefit the world in terms of the environment, climate, health, fair food distribution, animal welfare and nature, in line with the heritage of Adventist food factories from the past and the ideas of Adventist pioneers. In theory, we could feed 30 billion people with a plant-based diet, using the current agricultural surface.And together with the Netherlands’ Wageningen University and Delft University of Technology, we are developing a new machine that makes fresh meat substitutes accessible for developing countries.

We are on the verge of a breakthrough that the food industry has not witnessed before. A century ago, 20 million horses in the United States were starting to be replaced by tractors. In a similar way, we will also be able to liberate the billions of slaughter animals from the food chain! Whereas a chicken yields about .66 lb (0.3 kg) of meat from about 2.2 lb (1 kg) of soy, the new “mechanical chicken” yields about 6.6 lb (3 kg) of chicken meat from the same amount of soy.

When the slaughter of animals becomes an outdated production method, the words of Albert Einstein can come true: “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. We hope to set foot on U.S. ground soon, when we find a suitable distributor, perhaps following the heritage of the Adventist food tradition.

The Vegetarian Butcher is linked with the Sabbath tradition in terms of culinary experience, but also in terms of a healthy mindset. I feel that mankind and the planet need to rest to be restored, and to touch ground. I know the Sabbath meal tradition from my wife, Marianne Thieme, and friend and business partner, Niko Koffeman, both members of the Adventist church. Vegetarian meals can complement the Sabbath holiday and give it extra meaning.

Jaap Korteweg is the founder of the Vegetarian Butcher, a vegan and vegetarian meat substitute company in the Netherlands. He is also the husband of Marianne Thieme, a Dutch politician of the Party for the Animals (Partij voor de Dieren).

For more images of the Vegetarian Butcher shop, products and more, click here.

This week’s recipe for Indonesian Stew (pictured, bottom left) comes from Jaap Korteweg in the Netherlands. He writes that as someone who eats vegetarian meat daily, this is his favorite recipe. Korteweg adds that the main difference between using vegetable meat and real meat in this recipe is that this sauté needs less time to simmer, because the vegetable meat is already precooked and tender. Serve with yellow rice and spicy green beans in coconut milk (top right and bottom right, respectively).

Indonesian Sauté

Total prep. time: 50 min.
Active prep. time: 20 min.
Serves: 4-6

2 medium onions, chopped
Optional: replace ¼ c onions with ¼ c chopped green onions
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil or rapeseed oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, crushed
6 tbsp. reduced-sodium or regular soy sauce
1/3  c + 2 tbsp. (100 mL) water
1 tablespoon brown sugar, or to taste
1 pinch of nutmeg, or to taste
½ tsp. freshly ground pepper, or to taste
12 oz. vegetarian chicken strips, 1 block (about 16 oz.) extra-firm tofu, or 1 cakes (about 16 oz.) tempeh
Optional: 2 tbsp. sesame seeds

1. Warm 2 tbsp. oil in a large nonstick skillet. Add the onions, and sauté for 10 minutes, or until nearly translucent, stirring occasionally.

2. Add the garlic green onions (if using) and sauté for another five minutes.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients (soy sauce through pepper) and let simmer gently for about 15 minutes.

4. Sauté the vegetarian chicken, tofu or tempeh in the remaining 1 tbsp. oil in a medium nonstick skillet, then add it to the sauce. Let the mixture simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the liquid begins to evaporate and the sauce becomes thicker. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, if using.

Looking for a recipe from a previous meal at the Spectrum Café? See previous weeks' postings below.

Sabbath at the Spectrum Café: Craveable Foods

Sabbath at the Spectrum Café: In Praise of Potluck

Sabbath at the Spectrum Café

Sabbath at the Spectrum Café: Sweet Potato Tacos

Sabbath Lunch at the Spectrum Café