At this point I can’t help commenting. I have long …

Comment on Strumming the Attached Strings by George Hilton.

At this point I can’t help commenting. I have long feared that there aren’t many minds being changed by this and its opposing blog sites. Nonetheless, I think it’s appropriate to say a few things that might at least clarify the debate.

First, I think this web site needs to rethink its fundamental argument: “employees need to espouse what their employer has hired them to represent.” Let me say that I fervently agree with this point of view. However, the question is “who hires the faculty of LSU?” Unfortunately, the world SDA church does NOT do the hiring. After following this for years (I taught at LSU in the 80s) I think the sad fact is that the professors in question ARE for the most part representing their employers.

The first point brings up a second. Our church may not be officially split, but it is in all actuality split. All you have to do is compare the Conferences in Michigan and Ohio to know that. Or the West Coast to the heartland. Or Europe and North America to the “third world.”

Folks, we have a much bigger problem here than LSU. We have a significant number of leaders who themselves question the historicity of Scripture, the role of E. G. White, the notion of the remnant, the importance of Sabbath observance, great chunks of our health message, and our historicist prophetic interpretation. Strangely, I believe almost exactly as my parents did, not just because they did, but because my own research has led me to believe as they did. Again strangely, they were pretty mainstream Adventists back then. I now seem to be a
“right wing extremist” in the eyes of many of my former colleagues. Sad.
The Adventism of many of our “intelligencia” has moved. I haven’t.

I think it’s time we stood back, took a deep breath, and realized this has all been foretold. The sky may seem to be falling, but it is really echoes of a coming Lord. It’s up to each one of us personally to be ready. We can’t trust any leader, or any institution to be the ark of safety. It’s between me and my Lord.

Meanwhile, let’s keep up the good fight — kindly, but firmly speaking the truth as revealed by God. Let us expect to receive the same response that Christ received long ago. Let us treat others with respect and dignity, but never, ever let that come to mean that we accept any picture of Christ that makes Him anything less than the omnipotent Word that took six days to create.

Finally, I want to encourage you that there are MANY pastors in North America who are still faithful. I am proud to sign my name to my belief in Christ as the God who created me, and has redeemed me, and will one day place me in a new heaven and new earth that did not take five billion years to make.

George Hilton