From: Herb Douglass [herbdouglass@sbcglobal.net]

Sent: Friday, December 28, 2007 3:47 PM

To: herb Douglass

Subject: To Dear Loved Ones

To Dear Loved Ones, including our circle of Friends, from Herb and Norma Douglass,

Celebrating our Lord’s Birth, in this year of our Lord, 2007

Florida sun flows through the window of Chip and Judy’s home. Hibiscus in full-bloom. Dramatic snowdrifts get as close as the TV. Most of the country looks forward to Christmas snow-cover. And Norma and I are trying to fit a whole year into two sides of this sheet of paper! In a way, after living through our 80^th year, high lights and shadows become even more distinct. More meaningful. Time, ever fleeting, becomes more friendly (think of the alternative), more compelling, more hungry for a good report at the end of the day!

Each year most of us look back and realize, in every area of our lives, that what we once were accustomed to, seems so long ago! In a way we can say, “More of the same!” But, from another viewpoint, “We never thought it would happen so quickly!” Wherever we look, in our extended families, or national stress, or international tensions, the biblical harvest of good and evil is ripening very fast (Revelation 14:14-16). What used to take years to develop, now happens in a matter of days or weeks! Just to recite all this would take another book!

In fact, if we were to write Truth Matters or Never Been This Late Before today, we surely would write several new chapters. The spotlight we put on the Rick Warren phenomenon in 2005 would today point to predictions highlighted then regarding the remarkable rise of the “emerging church” virus that is reshaping many Protestant churches into a reflection of centuries-old Roman Catholicism! Unfortunately, many local churches in my own denomination are enmeshed in its novelties.

Whenever one hears of “spiritual formation,” “the silence,” “contemplative prayers,” “alpha,” “spiritual mantras,” “the mystics,” “finding God within,” “innovating the church,” “Jesus, not doctrine,” etc., bells should ring. When books by Foster, Mclaren, Willard, Pagitt, Bailey, Jones, Bell, Konki, Kimball, Sweet, McManus, and many more, are flooding Christian bookstores—sirens should go off! What’s going on here? On one hand, it is the Willow Creek and Saddleback models gone to seed; on the other, it is the failure of four centuries of Protestant inadequacies in preaching the fullness of the New Testament gospel.

They are responding to the inertia and irrelevancy of most Christian churches the world over in a time that has been signatured as a “Post-Christian Era.” They represent hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) who have looked at what the church has to offer and they found it wanting. Emerging spokesmen recognize that this current credibility gap has made it hard to communicate with clarity and authenticity. No church is immune. Paradoxically, all this is happening in a time of unprecedented openness to God-issues: faith and meaning. Thus, for these leaders, “innovation” and “missional effort” is needed because church doctrine and propositional truth has been tried and is no longer relevant. In effect, with no doctrinal commitment, we are left with indescribable “spirituality” and the rallying cry is to deconstruct what we know as “church.”

But the emerging church excitement is the cure that kills the patient. What our tired world needs today is exactly what God has been offering for more than a century—“the everlasting gospel” described in Revelation 14:6 and on. It always works whenever tried! Just like abstinence! Whenever any church forgets its mission and message, it looks for excuses, then to innovations, then to frustration, and then to dissolution. Too many young people leave church in order to preserve their faith grounded in authentic meaning.

Watching all this happen over many decades surely emphasizes it has “Never Been This Late Before.” But since we last wrote, we have been “living these issues.” Wish you all had been with us! In February, looking for an excuse, we celebrated Queen N’s birthday on a 12-day Princess cruise from San Fran to Ixtapa, Puerto Vallarta, Cabo, etc. Early April we were at Atlantic Union College’s Founder’s Day/Alumni Weekend and lo!—I was installed as a “Living Legend.” And planted a tree! We are grateful! Hard to believe that I graduated from that great school sixty years ago!

May 2007 will never be forgotten. Herb planned and pulled off a birthday party for me at a local Marie Callender restaurant. People came from far and near and said things that, of course, no one believed. Herb is a great organizer! The many cards are all keepers!

In June we returned to the Idaho Campmeeting near Caldwell/Nampa where I spoke in the evening meetings. Nothing like a genuine Adventist Campmeeting! Then we drove through gorgeous country along the Columbia River then north to Marrowstone Island, across the water from Everett/Seattle to spend time with Dan and Marilyn Cotton, friends for the last one hundred years, and to do some flying with Dean Sanders, a remarkable guy.

August always starts out with Herb and Dad doing their annual ballgame at the Sacramento River Cats Stadium, to signal how fast the years are adding up for his favorite son! Always-good seats near third base. A few days later, we were in Louisville, Kentucky, attending ASI and an Amazing Facts Board Meeting, always an interesting weekend. A week later we were with Granddaughter Vanessa, Jon, Grant and Raquel in their dream, beach home on the Maryland shore. Not good to see grandchildren so infrequently.

In between all these safaris, Pacific Press (which means the guns of Russ Holt and its indefatigable president, Dale Galusha), kept me tethered finishing up Dramatic Prophecies of Ellen White—Divine Predictions of World Events and Love Makes a Way (an annual devotional). By November more than 30,000 were sold, not because I wrote it but because it was a daily summary of each chapter as I went through the Conflict of the Ages set, and three other books, including Christ’s Object Lessons, Steps to Christ, and Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing. You guessed it: add all those books together and you get 367 chapters (bunched two together)—whole idea, a brainstorm of Dale Galusha.

In September we had another church centennial in Illinois. Last year it was Sheridan where I pastored in 1950-2 (had four churches in the district) and this year, the home church of Aurora where I served for four years. These are very poignant occasions to work with the children grown up, for the most part. And the growth of the church itself is worth rejoicing over.

The last week in October was very full of meetings: Bible Research Committee where I read a research paper for an upcoming book, edited by Merlin Burt and then the 50^th Anniversary of Questions on Doctrines, a volume that has been called “the most divisive book” Adventists ever published! My evening presentation was called, “Earthquake of 1957—the Collision of Two Theological Tectonic Plates.” The fallout of that book has affected everyone who has been in the Adventist Church since 1957 to this day—indubitably!

In Merced, CA, in November—another centennial sermon. I have entitled all three of them: “How Should Adventists (of all people) Celebrate Centennials?” How would you answer that? As soon as the program was over, we headed for Jan’s home in Bakersfield and together we headed for Loma Linda to sort of surprise my brother Richard on his 75^th birthday! Emily and Vivienne Sue joined us. Viv was recovering from another back surgery! And at the moment, recovering from an apparently rare operation to remove pressure on nerves that well-nigh immobilized her right arm and hand. Does it ever end? What a soldier!

Before the week was over, we thought of a good reason to celebrate our anniversary with an Amtrak trip to Denver for a few days and an Amtrak return. We saw scenery that no one sees by car. The sleeping compartments were an exciting adventure! Reatha and Randy in Collegedale became grandparents with the birth of Harrison to Ryan and Oriona—and that makes seven great-grandchildren for us! For two weeks, Herb, Candi and Kelli are now in the Far East. The second week in January will find us in Kiev, Ukraine for two weeks of talks, one group, the Ukrainian Medical Personnel Convention and a Week of Prayer at a nearby school. Oops! Out of space! Wish we could pen personal notes to each of you—our dear family of children and our many friends. Cheers!

Herb and Norma Douglass – 1538 Perdita Lane, Lincoln, CA 95648 (916) 408-5881 herbdouglass@sbcglobal.net