Nathan Brown > Quotes

“Jesus is not one among the 28 Adventist Fundamental Beliefs. Rather, He is the fundamental Adventist Belief through whom all other “beliefs” unfold and find their meaning.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“presence and prescience of God”
― Nathan Brown, Do Not Be Afraid

“By the time Jesus enters the story, instead of the failsafe system reminding God’s people of His mighty outstretched arm and turning their hearts to back Him, it had become a sign of spiritual pedigree. The children of Israel developed a false sense of security in their system of rules, regulations, rituals, and rites. They placed their faith in having the system, rather than the God who created the system. The leaders were using the forms of the system to show their piety rather than renew the reality of a life surrendered to God. That which was supposed to be a renewable resource continuously recalibrating their hearts back to God, simply became an outward declaration of who’s better than who.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“As real spiritual life declines, it has ever been the tendency to cease to advance in the knowledge of the truth.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“Before Ellen White had her first vision, we were about one thing. We had an all-consuming, irrepressible, irresistible, overpowering, radical desire to be with Jesus.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“Lord, we thank you for bringing us through the dark moments of 1844. You led us beyond the struggle and the disappointment that shook us to our very core. May this sublime reality keep us from dividing into separate camps and alienating ourselves from the world. May we extend to everyone we encounter the grace You have bestowed on us. Keep us from every evil inclination, but may we be led to serve you as Lord with all of our heart, mind, and soul.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“However, there is room in its shadow for everyone who ever has, does or ever will live.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“If William Miller is a great example of someone who started out with a deep conversion, then sought to be theologically correct out of that experience, Ellen White represents those who started out wanting to be right, then learned to love Jesus.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“Due to his growing trust in God, David ignored the concerns of those around him,”
― Nathan Brown, Do Not Be Afraid

“Our missiology has always been clearly defined for us and our ecclesiology has been inherited, healthy or not.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“We need to be united in what or who we are “for,” not in what we are against. Our enemy is defeated and will soon cease to exist, but we will remain united in Christ, our core, for eternity.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“Adventism was born because of a wrong calculation about the Second Coming . . . fuelled by an intense, emotional, highly personal, fervent, and ultimately right desire to be with Jesus.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“Racism might be the most common atheism among Christians today.”
― Nathan Brown, Engage: Faith that Matters

“I know Jesus—I have encountered Him—but I want more and more of Him. I am not ready to say, “I have enough Jesus.” I want more of Jesus. And I want more of Him for my church. I want more of Him for you and for me. I want more of Jesus. If discovering more of Jesus means plunging into uncomfortable and unknown deep waters, then let’s be uncomfortable, let’s risk it, because it is there in the deep waters where amazement is found. There in the deep waters we discover more of Jesus.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“A relationship with God includes arguing with Him, voicing our questions and disappointments, appealing to His love and grace, and advocating for others and for our world.”
― Nathan Brown, Do Not Be Afraid

“But there is not room on the cross for two.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“Christianity agrees with Dualism that this universe is at war.”
― Nathan Brown, Engage: Faith that Matters

“Among His own people, Jesus is tekton. For the centurion, Jesus is kyrie.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“Creationism is not so much about scientific argument as a call to celebrate and serve God’s good creation.”
― Nathan Brown, Engage: Faith that Matters

“My job is not to be right; it is to be in Christ. My job is to explore the wonders of His mercy and His grace together, in community.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“I honestly can’t remember the exact moment that the significance of our conversations sank in for all of us. Maybe it was when Terry asked us to share the stories that had brought us together. Maybe it was when Alex lifted us in song with “Jesus Loves Me This I Know.” Perhaps when we laughed or cried like little children, when the red-lettered words of Jesus leapt out of the Bible like live embers into our dry wooden hearts and ignited once again the relentless passion for Jesus. But everything came together when Tim stopped the rapid-fire conversation suddenly and said, “Jesus (period) All (period).” Jesus. All.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“I’ve been accused of being a Jesuit. I am not a Jesuit. I’m not even sure how one would become a Jesuit. It seems like a lot of work. It isn’t one of my hobbies.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“And Bible reading is an important spiritual practice but I wonder if quantity is everything and I wonder how we might measure the Bible’s effect in our lives. After all, even Ellen White warned that “there is much reading of the Bible that is without profit and in many cases a positive injury.” 1”
― Nathan Brown, Engage: Faith that Matters

“I love being a Seventh-day Adventist. I chose it . . . on purpose. And I love what my church teaches about God.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“Writing in the context of racial prejudice—as one who marched with Martin Luther King Jr in the 1960s—Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel argued that prejudice is atheism, “a treacherous denial of the existence of God.” In other words, prejudice negates any pretence of trying to believe in a God who claims to have made all people in His image. Heschel continues, “Any god who is mine but not yours, any god concerned with me but not with you, is an idol.”
― Nathan Brown, Engage: Faith that Matters

“To have the church define Christ is dangerous. The bride did not ask the groom for the relationship, it was the groom who asked. The church is the bride of Christ only because He asked us to be, not because we have any place or title from which to attract Him.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“And when we gather with our fellow believers, confessing our sins, hearing each other’s stories, sharing each other’s heartbreaks—then, most of all, Jesus is here.”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“the God who commands our courage is also the God who promises His presence.”
― Nathan Brown, Do Not Be Afraid

“Is it possible to be so blinded by your own doctrine that you would actually take human life in God’s name and think you are doing Him a service?”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project

“Faith is fearful and defensive when it begins to die inwardly, struggling to maintain itself and reaching out for security and guarantees. In so doing, it removes itself from the hand of the One who has promised to maintain it. And its own manipulations bring it to ruin. The pugilistic faith usually occurs in the form of an orthodoxy that feels threatened and is therefore more rigid than ever.3”
― Nathan Brown, For the One: Voices from The One Project