Comment on Ricardo Graham clarifies LSU Board releases by Erik.
Sean,
You have over-emphasized your point. I can agree with you up to a point, but you go too far in saying everyone should obey the edicts of the church. It is as if you are saying, “The Church is infallible. Even if it were to fall, it is still to be obeyed. We ought to obey the Church, rather than God or conscience.”
Skip that. I will obey God, rather than the church. Our church was not built upon the same authoritarian plan that many organizations operate under.
Jesus referred to the common practice in the world of rank under which “their great ones exercise authority upon them†(Mark 10:42). However, His response called for a difference: “But so shall it not be among you: but…whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all†(verses 43-44). Other biblical injunctions counsel Christ’s followers not to be respecters of persons, nor to treat people differently based on their wealth or lack of it (James 2:1-9). So much for the theory that “he who has the gold makes the rules.”
Mrs. White, speaking of managers in our Adventist institutions, says they “should not be governed by the principles which control other institutions of this kind†(4T 550, 1948). She also declares that “in our institutions, where many persons of varied temperaments are brought together, it is necessary that each should cultivate a spirit of unselfishness. Let no one feel that it is his place to mold others to his individual mind or opinions†(COH, 1923).
So much for the “church” playing conscience for its “underlings.” Paul asked the question thus: “Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man’s conscience?” (1 Corinthians 10:29).
Now, I agree with you, Sean, that Biblical truth, instead of worldly, godless farce should be taught in our schools. But I think instead of appealing to the authority of the “Church,” we should appeal to the authority of God. We need look no further than Judgment Day to have something upon which to reflect. At that time, every man’s work will be brought into judgment, with every secret thing. Do you suppose God will give His approbation for those who destroyed their students’ faith in His Word, in His Creation of the world? I don’t.
Don’t get me wrong, here. I think the “church” needs to purge out these heretical teachings from our institutions. However, it should not be done with an attitude of “do as I say, or else!” Every individual is a free moral agent. No one should serve as conscience for another. Just give them their walking papers, and let them serve their conscience in another place. Those who do not teach their students to respect the Bible, “every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God,” should be immediately released from their labors in our schools. Those administrators who allow error to grow and prosper will be held accountable. Ezekiel 3 and 33 apply to this situation. God has set watchmen among His people whose work it is to sound the note of alarm, of warning, when dangers approach and when the deceitfulness of sin has blinded the people.
This website is helping to serve as a “watchman on the wall” in this very sense.
Erik
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Recent Comments by Erik
CCC Requests “Decisive and Conclusive Resolution” from LSU
Dear Adventist in High School,
The devil frequently mixes just a small amount of error in with a larger amount of truth. This is sufficient to accomplish his purposes. He does not need to undermine every truth, only some select truths. The Bible tells us how to know whether or not we can accept something as pure and true: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). If what they say, even a part of it, does not agree with scripture, even the rest of what they have said is of no value according to this.
We have a saying in English that goes something like this:
A barrel full of sewage with one tablespoon of wine is sewage.
A barrel full of wine with one tablespoon of sewage is sewage.
It does not matter how much “wine” there may be with that sewage, the sewage has perverted the entirety.
Consider how entirely the “sewage” has perverted truth at LSU, given that one of the professors’ statements relegated Mrs. White to “the lunatic fringe” for “the absolute necessity of believing that the only way a creator God could do things is by speaking them into existence a few thousand years ago.” Mrs. White clearly informed us that Creation week was six literal days about six thousand years ago, and further, she has told us that God was not dependent upon pre-existing matter and could but speak them into existence. Yet all of that flies in the face of those who wish to believe their own opinions to be superior to inspiration, doesn’t it? It makes perfect sense that if they believe we evolved from apes, they could not believe what Ellen White taught was true.
Nay, the evolutionist “sewage” has defiled the pure and true at LSU, and its effect permeates the remaining departments of the university. One cannot contain such a far-reaching apostasy as this within a single corner or department of the university. Indeed, we have been given clear evidences that the theologians at the university have also been affected. Whither goes the biology department, and then the theology department, thither goes the whole school.
Erik
Mrs. White: “Don’t send your children to…”
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13)
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” (Romans 8:14)
“That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” (Philippians 2:15)
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:1-2)
We are the sons of God if we receive Christ and follow Him. The line of Seth did this, and were, therefore, called the sons of God. Cain’s descendants did not follow God, and were not called His sons.
Erik
Mrs. White: “Don’t send your children to…”
The descendants of Seth were called the sons of God–the descendants of Cain, the sons of men. As the sons of God mingled with the sons of men, they became corrupt, and by intermarriage with them, lost, through the influence of their wives, their peculiar, holy character, and united with the sons of Cain in their idolatry. Many cast aside the fear of God, and trampled upon his commandments. But there were a few who did righteousness, who feared and honored their Creator. Noah and his family were among the righteous few. {3SG 60.2}
After the translation of Enoch to heaven, the sons of men that were set against the worship of God were drawing away the sons of God. There were two parties in the world then, and there always will be. The worshipers of God called themselves the sons of God. The descendants of Seth went up into the mountains and there made themselves homes separate from the sons of Cain. Here in their mountainous homes they thought to preserve themselves from the prevailing wickedness and idolatry of the descendants of Cain. But after the exhortations and the influence of Enoch were removed from them, they commenced to unite with the descendants of Cain. {CTr 39.2}
That should help clarify the identity of the “sons of God.”
Erik
Mrs. White: “Don’t send your children to…”
It does our position no service to claim too much or to base too much on such large leaps into very thin air… claiming that this or that animal within the fossil record was the clear result of human genetic manipulation before the flood and for that reason was not saved on the Ark….
Sean,
It seems like Ellen White said “Every species of animals which God had created was preserved in the ark” (1 SP 78.2). Therefore, any species which became extinct at the time of the flood must necessarily have come about via amalgamation. That seems fairly clear. So we know where T-Rex came from, right?
Erik
Mrs. White: “Don’t send your children to…”
David,
Your logic is sound regarding what amalgamation cannot be properly applied to. Such applications as forbid certain inter-human marriages are racist, as you have said, and as I have attempted to express. I almost fully agree with your reasoning on this. However, I will differ slightly on one point, and that is that since we do not know how the amalgamations occurred, we cannot rule out the possibility of men tinkering with plant, animal, and human genetics by means of cross-breeding (as opposed to a more “laboratory” approach). They were very intelligent. Perhaps they knew ways of intermixing species which we would never guess could be mixed with any survivable result, including humans with animals.
So, on the lighter side, if evolutionists like to think they have descended from apes…maybe we should give them a fair hearing (and a DNA test)!
Erik
