Welcome to JOLT! JOLT stands for: Jesus’ Justice Oasis for Truth and Life because justice is a crucial essence of godliness in the Bible and is essential to win the most people to God’s truths!
Our aim is to JOLT Christians & seekers out of lies/ignorance/complacency into God’s love, truth, freedom, biblical justice, biblical economics, etc. in a time when the Bible says there will be a myriad of deceptions to confuse even God’s elect (Matt. 24:14) so that we can enable the highest quality of life for all on this earth and for eternity which is the essence of godliness:
“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” 1 Tim. 4:8 (NLT)
“The rules of the Lord can be trusted; they make plain people wise.” Psalm 19:7 (NCV)
We will only be able to JOLT the world and turn it upside down when we follow the principles that the early church in Acts did far more fully (Acts 2:42-47, 4:32-35, 17:6, EGW in MB p 136+).
We want to dialogue to best educate people about truth and sophisticated deceptions, ways to influence people in the right ways best, act practically, protest & empower people to make the most valuable changes on this earth that we can (Luke 4:18-19, Prov. 15:27, 28:25, 29:7, 31:8,9, Isaiah 1:17, 1 Tim. 6:10,Titus 3:14, 2 John 8)!
To see JOLT posts regularly, do this
1) Go to the JOLT main page: https://www.facebook.com/GodlyJOLT (we may be adding a group page since I’m having trouble inviting people to this one, but will keep this one too).
2) Click “like” near the top under the page photo.
3) Click the three dots next to the magnifying glass and “follow settings” or something similar.
4) Click “favorites” or “see first” to see our posts first (or the default if you prefer that).
The process may differ for some. But it’s fairly similar .
We want to advocate for the SDA church and others to adopt several new fundamental beliefs and develop materials to help educate members on biblical belief AND action in these areas as soon as possible including these below. The final end to all evil will come when we finish God’s work. But we can do much before that as Jews/Christians/SDAs did before us, pioneering nearly every major human right, as well as many important doctrines that brought more freedoms.
There will soon be a specific page for people to petition on so we can hopefully add some of these at the 2022 SDA GC session. But here are some of the things we want to advocate for:
1) BIBLICAL FAITH is based on “many infallible proofs and unquestionable demonstrations.” Acts 1:3 (AMP) and enable all our people to do as Ellen White said, “Truth [should be]…backed up with a few strong proofs.” (TC3 p.36, CW p. 83) Dr. John Lennox from Oxford says we can testify that faith is based on “proof…beyond reasonable doubt”.[2]
The idea that faith should be presupposed only became common in Christianity after Cornelius Van Til developed presuppositional apologetics in the 1920s. Presupposing faith is wholly unbiblical, and extremely dangerous. If people presuppose their whole worldview, then it’s a very small step to presuppose their denomination based on family and friends they grew up with, economics, views on justice, that your views on marriage are correct, education, media, free time and a host of other things. Disunity cripples societies and makes them easy to fracture and oppress. This is a primary reason why we have so much division in our country and churches.
We must return to the biblical standard that faith is based on proof ( Isaiah 41-44, John 10:24-45, Luke 1:1-4, Acts 1:1-4, Acts 17:31, 1 Peter 3:15, 1 Cor. 15:1-19, etc.).
2) WHOLLY SOUND, OBJECTIVE TRUTH
It is essential for Christians SDA to use objective methods of truth. Proof based faith by definition cannot use presuppositions of worldview/doctrine, materialistic or theistic. The Bible gives us 7 major ways in 3 categories to find truth, and many scholars both secular and Christian uses the same methods and say they are the most effective methods of truth. Their technical names are correspondence truth, coherence truth and pragmatic truth but they boil down to gathering all experiences and treating each as evidence, without excluding any experiences using fallacies, following the majority of evidence to whatever view does the greatest good for the most people long term. The Bible has many verses bout this, but puts it most simply here,
“Test everything that is said…always do good to each person and all people” 1 Thess. 5:21,15
It is crucial to use objective methods to find truth that are “wholly sound” and “honor the truth” as EGW said (EV. p. 166). in this modern world which has become highly secular and multi-cultural. The greatest weapon of freedom and justice for all is a commitment to follow truth WHEREVER it leads. Jesus said,
“Truth will make you free” John 8:32
Ellen White of course concurs,
“It is a matter of the highest importance…that we understand what the truth is.” (R & H, Feb. 7, 1888)
Yale professor Jason Stanley similarly says:
“Truth is required to act freely. Freedom requires knowledge, and in order to act freely in the world, you need to know what the world is and know what you’re doing. You only know what you’re doing if you have access to the truth. So freedom requires truth, and so to smash freedom you must smash truth.”
History also shows that it’s almost impossible to get large numbers of people living according to love and justice on this earth unless they have confidence in eternal life. If this life is the only one we have, then most people will be willing to do quite a few harmful things to get the most out of this life. So confidence in eternal life is crucial and that means we have to boldly claim AND demonstrate that faith is based on proof (Acts 1:3).
So some of our first discussions will be about finding truth fairly.
3) BIBLICAL JUSTICE: God tells us that godly people are on the side of justice, wicked people aren’t (Prov. 29:7) and “a religion that would lead us to be careless of human needs, sufferings, or rights, is a spurious religion.” (MB p. 136). The Bible speaks of at least 8 major categories of justice and we need to teach and act on biblical justice in all our choices to do the most good on earth and win the most for eternal life as well.
If we want to have eternal life, we need to build characters on earth with God’s help now that can live in a perfect heaven. In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus told us to pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10).
So, is there poverty, racism, abuse, exploitation, slavery and other kinds of injustice in heaven? NO? Then we should work to eliminate all injustices from our lives and oppose it wherever we see it. This is esp. true since Prov. 14:34 says that it is righteousness/justice that makes nations great.
Is there war in heaven? No? Then we should oppose war in nearly all cases (esp. since war is usually waged for greed, not freedom).
Is there abortion in heaven? No? Then we should oppose abortion on earth in almost all cases (abortion harms not just the fetus but the mother as well, and is mostly targeted at minorities).
Is there abuse in heaven? No? Then we should eliminate all abuse from our lives and oppose it wherever we see it.
Is there economic injustice in heaven? No? Then we should eliminate all economic injustice from our lives and oppose it wherever we see it.
Are there people eating foods that cause disease in heaven? No? Then we should eliminate those harmful foods from our diets.
Are there people polluting and poisoning the environment in heaven? No? Then we shouldn’t be doing that on earth.
The closer we are living to God’s ideals in heaven, the more power on earth our church will have to show a far better way than anything the world can produce. And this is what God repeatedly calls Christians to do:
“I, the Lord, love justice…Hate evil, love good; maintain justice.” Isaiah 61:8/Hosea 5:15 (e.g. Rom 12:9, 1 Tim. 6:10, Eph. 5:11, Titus 3:14)
“Our people must learn to do good by meeting the urgent needs of others.” Titus 3:14, 1 John 3:17
“The righteous care about justice for the poor, the wicked have no such concern.” Prov. 29:7 (NLT) (& Pr. 31:8-9)
“Justice exalts a nation, but sin is a people’s disgrace.” Prov. 14:34 (NABRE)
“I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.” Amos 5:21-24
“a religion that would lead us to be careless of human needs, sufferings, or rights, is a spurious religion…” Ellen White MB p. 136
There are false versions of justice just like there are false versions of most biblical truths. But to finish God’s work, it is essential that we follow biblical justice. We can’t finish God’s work without it. I’ve written about ~7 major things the early disciples did that we also need to do to have the same power they did here here:
http://blog.truth-is-life.org/missions/finish-commission/
4) BIBLICAL ECONOMICS: God gave many principles of Bible economics including tithe (Mal. 3:8-10), offerings (Deut.14), working diligently, health principles which double wealth according to research, canceling debt (Deut. 15:1), the principle that those who don’t work shouldn’t eat (if able), and many others. But the most important economic right according to God, Ellen White, many great economists across the spectrum, American pioneers, and one which is the most crucial foundation of preserving freedom is the God given rights for all to won land (Ez. 47:22-23). This is connected closely to Sabbaths (Lev. 25). These and other principles were how the Jews survived and thrived under persecution.
Ellen White writes that “no devising of man” ever improved on God’s land rights plans, most misery today come from rejecting it (WM p. 195), and no better mission work can be done for multitudes than restoring land rights (MH p. 192, Lt 72, 1898).
God says greed is “the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10), but the most destructive greed is robbing land rights which God considers violence (Ez. 45:8-9), brings sorrow (Isaiah 5:7-8), causes child slavery (Neh. 5), will bring greater damnation (Matthew 23:14/Luke 20:47), etc. It starts a vicious cycle of greed, then concentration of power and then tyranny. God warns about 20+ nightmares of greed including grief to families (Prov. 15:27), terrible times (2 Tim. 3:1-2).eradication of godliness (1 John 3:17), etc. Former journalist and now pastor Chris Hedges show some of the traumatic impact of greed powerfully in “What Greed Has Done”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w-DVGWVhIw
Research shows greed is at the most abusive levels in all known history. This is causing terrible times as God predicted (2 Tim. 3:1-2). So this is the time above all when Christians should reject man made economics and follow God’s economics. Most land now is monopolized by the top 10%. Since God repeatedly connects equitable land rights with peace (1 Kings 4:25), restoration (2 Chronicles 7:14, Micah 4:4), even in heaven (Isaiah 66:22-23), how can godly Christians implement this principle now?
I lived in S. Korea for 23 years. Bible economics helped S. Korea rise from almost the poorest nation to top 15 GDP, many top rankings and from 1% to 30% Christian. We need a massive advance in Bible economics now so we can protect more families from harm, improve evangelism and education, stop more injustice, and much more. Research I’ve found shows that if our church in America learned and followed more Bible economics principles better, we could earn at least billions more dollars every year for SDAs.
5) BIBLICAL POLITICS: Politics is one of the things that most fractures unity in families, among friends and in churches. But EGW says that we most need unity at this time. To have that unity, we must follow Bible principles of politics.
The Bible has at least 20 principles that relate to politics, starting with never supporting any political leaders who support principles of greed, are promiscuous or ignorant of God’s laws (Deut. 17:17-20), because they will either betray their people or be manipulated by powerful people to do that and this will be the result.
“Those who plant injustice will harvest disaster, and their reign of terror will come to an end.” Proverbs 22:8 NLT
“A ruler with no understanding will oppress his people” Prov. 28:16
To have unity in our church, we absolutely cannot align with any political party, for the same reason that the early Christians could not align with the conservative Pharisees or the liberal Sadducees who both united to crucify Jesus. Ellen White said that we must not align with any political party, although we can vote for our conscience based on each individual’s alignment with God’s politics. Both chop off major amounts of biblical truth regarding politics. The church is FAR more powerful to do God’s work than any government can be to stop injustice if it follows truth and Bible economics.
There are others that will be on the JOLT website too soon. They will have specific pages of Bible and EGW support as well as history and science.
Let me end with a shocking statistic. It’s about churches in general. SDAs may be some better, but as someone who lived overseas for 25 years, I know we have similar problems (since I was never paid less than $1000 a month for nearly all of my time as a full time missionary, a salary which is impossible to support a family on…I had to get many extra jobs to make ends meet, which reduced time for Bible studies). These are statistics from a major missions site:
–Evangelical Christians could
provide all of the funds needed to plant a church in each of the 6,900
unreached people groups with only 0.03% of their income.
–“The Church has roughly 3,000 times the financial resources and 9,000 times
the manpower needed to finish the Great Commission.”
–Problem: “Americans have recently spent more money buying Halloween costumes
for their pets than the amount given to reach the unreached.”
www.thetravelingteam.org/stats/
This is one of a myriad of reasons why I and all godly Christians must oppose most secular corporations that are based on profit as their #1 goal. They dupe people into spending gigantic amounts of money on useless things instead of God’s work and lives are lost for eternity because of this. And we could change what is spent on Halloween for what is spent on sports, useless beauty products, upgrading cars, houses and inanimate things, junk food of many types, and many other things, as well as the waste of enormous amounts of time on junk media, etc.
Following man made economics instead of God’s economics costs Christian churches in America ALONE at least trillions of dollars PER YEAR. AT LEAST. I have major amounts of research that prove this.
We have so much power to finish God’s work if we follow God’s laws a lot better, but we just don’t realize it. Truly my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). But if people wake up and listen and act, we can change this..and God’s people who follow truth wherever it leads, WILL change. They will be the ones who complete God’s Great Commission. I am and will be part of that…and I hope that each of you readers will be part of this movement to JOLT people out of complacency as well. We need to advance far faster than we have. Time is short. But God will be with us!
In the service of Jesus who has always prophets, apostles and godly believers to jolt societies out of the slavery of sin (Romans 6:16) into God’s far higher freedom (John 8:32),
Bryan Bissell