The past week was a very good week indeed. A good friend–a lady from around Loma Linda in California–visited us and that meant a few nice touristic activities (as e.g. a visit to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam), some good meals and, above all, some very inspiring discussions.
A few days ago I was able to send the English translation of my last devotional book (with portraits of 366 men and women in the Bible) to the Stanborough Press in England. I am delighted that they are interested in publishing it. The Dutch original came off the press about two years ago and was well received in the Netherlands. It was a major job to translate the 366 meditations into English and my wife also invested a good number of hours in checking my translation and spotting numerous typo’s and other impurities. She has a sharper eye for that kind of thing than I have.
Some months ago a Russian edition appeared of my book FACING DOUBT. This edition is distributed through Amazon and is primarily intended for the Russian-speaking Adventist ‘diapora’–i.e. those who live outside of Russia. People in Russia, and such countries as Ukraine and Belarus, find it difficult to get the book through Amazon, and it is also quite expensive for them. From this week there is now also a cheaper edition available through a Russian online bookseller. (http://www.ozon.ru/context=search&text=%c2%d1%d2%d0%c5%d7%c0%df+%d1%ce%cc%cd%c5%cd%c8%df&store=1,0).
In addition there was some other good news. The work on a Spanish translation of FACING DOUBT has now started.
In between other activities during the past few weeks I have started work on a new book, after I had already done a substantial amount of reading and thinking about it in the past months. The first 24.000 words of a first draft have been written. I am writing this book first in English rather than in Dutch. The theme of the book is Last Generation Theology (LGT). Lately this theological trend has become quite prominent in the Adventist Church. I (and many with me) believe that this theory has a very shaky foundation on a rather selective use of a number of Bible texts and Ellem G. White statements, and that it is, in fact, quite dangerous to a healthy faith.
The supporters of the LGT maintain that just before the end of history there will be a group of people who have overcome all sin. Moreover, Christ will not return until this is a reality. Another essential element of the LGT is that Christ took upon himself the kind of human nature that Adam had after the Fall. It is then argued that, if Jesus could be perfect while he had the same inclinations towards sin as we have, there is no excuse for us not to become perfect also. I will try to explain in reasonably simple language that this particular theology rests on a number of faulty premises and will also make clear why this is an important matter.
It will take a few more months before the manuscript is ready, as there are also other things in the coming months that demand my attention. Among other things I must prepare presentations for a number of speaking appointments in several European countries and the USA. And then, of course, there is also some vacation time.
Well, all in all, it was a good week!