Comment on Northern California Conference Votes to Act Independent of the General Conference by Tongkam.
Sean Pitman:
I’m sorry, but the concept of “ordination” isn’t really in the Bible at all – at least not as it is currently practiced in the church. It is more akin, currently, to Catholic practices of creating hierarchical leadership positions – which really weren’t part of the early Christian church where no one was called “father” or anything else except for “brother” or “sister” all equally under the kingship of God. Therefore, the concept of ordination, as it is currently practiced, in no way qualifies as a fundamental doctrinal issue. …
Actually, the Bible calls “the laying on of hands” a “doctrine.” See Hebrews 6:2. I look forward to the day when Isaiah 29:24 will be fulfilled: “They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.” Remember Jesus’ story of the wise man and the foolish man? The Bible calls that “doctrine.” (See Mathew 7:24-28.) No vote is required to determine doctrine. Nor is doctrine the same as church governance. Conflating them does not make them equal.
Table of Contents
Tongkam Also Commented
Northern California Conference Votes to Act Independent of the General Conference
@Sean Pitman:
Sean, I’m sure Uzzah was sincere.
Northern California Conference Votes to Act Independent of the General Conference
@S. Heisey: I agree with what you are saying. This is why adding women’s ordination to our doctrinal repertoire is so problematic. There is simply no Biblical support for it. Contrariwise, the scriptures speak plainly of ordaining men.
Northern California Conference Votes to Act Independent of the General Conference
@Sean Pitman: It is not for me or others, of course, to question your sincerity. We all well know, however, the possibility of being sincerely wrong. In place of being sincere, we must study to show ourselves approved unto God–i.e., we should strive to be diligent. I may be sincere, but I would rather be praised for diligence than sincerity.
Diligence in this study requires some linguistic scholarship. Hebrew and Greek must be consulted to ascertain certain facts. For example, the “husband of one wife” passage becomes inescapably clear when a careful study is made of it. One cannot lightly add to the Word of God in twisting the phrase into “wife of one husband.” Nor can one lightly claim there is no distinction made between genders in the Bible on account of Galatians 3:28–doing so would enable homosexuality by the same interpretation. In fact, of course, the context is that of salvation and not of ordination nor of sexuality. But when the context does not suit the post-modern “progressives,” they wrest the lines that they like from it to leverage a thought never expressed in the original, supporting a concept foreign to its author. Thus they fall prey to a deception of their own making.
Mrs. White made clear that the last great deception would include self-deception. We see that happening among many today. The frightening thing with self-deception is that one may be oblivious to the fact. Sincerely self-deceived? How terrible the possibility! None of us can be confident of our own views except as they are based on a PLAIN “thus saith the LORD.”
