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To reiterate an earlier post:

“One reasons that the tithe may be applied to school purposes. Still others reason that canvassers and colporteurs should be supported from the tithe. But a great mistake is made when the tithe is drawn from the object for which it is to be used–the support of the ministers. . . .
The tithe is the Lord’s, and those who meddle with it will be punished with the loss of their heavenly treasure unless they repent. Let the work no longer be hedged up because the tithe has been diverted into various channels other than the one to which the Lord has said it should go. Provision is to be made for these other lines of work. They are to be sustained, but not from the tithe. God has not changed; the tithe is still to be used for the support of the ministry.–9T 247-250.”

As I understand from this one statement, tithe is not to be used to support schools in any way. So why are we doing it?

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Rich Constantinescu: The young woman, now taken in by church members said, “I don’t understand this. When I was living in the world, dancing, staying out at night, wild, my mother had no problems. Now that I’m drawing close to God, my mother is angry with me!”

colin campbell: The catholic church obviously believes apostasy is a more serious sin than dancing, staying out late etc.

This illustrates how irrational man-made theories are, such as evolution or love for the world (1 John 2:15-17) over the Word of God (Exodus 20:11) and the unreasonable opposition of their adherents to those who challenge evil by word and example (2 Timothy 3:12.)
God bless,

Rich

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Faith: “I truly don’t understand the mentality that comes down on people who are trying to stand up for the right when there are people out there doing their best to undermine faith in the Creator and in His church. Surely your efforts could be put to better use.”

A young teenage woman baptized into a latino SDA church not far from where I live. At her baptism service she testified that her mother had told to leave her home because of her decision to be baptized. When she started to study the Bible earnestly her mother had begun disciplining her by taking away her privileges – car, insurance … and eventually delivering the ultimatum – ‘You get baptized and you find another home.’ The young woman, now taken in by church members said, “I don’t understand this. When I was living in the world, dancing, staying out at night, wild, my mother had no problems. Now that I’m drawing close to God, my mother is angry with me!”
God bless,

Rich

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@Darrell:

My argument is that regardless of the obviousness of error in TE, the mindset that people are generating of ‘kill em all and let God sort them out’ will usually be applied to other things that are not the mountains like TE…

The current mentality from many conservatives is, ‘If you can’t believe as our church believes in every doctrinal specific, you shouldn’t be an SDA.” And I’m not talking about TE here. I’m talking about not believing on how to keep the Sabbath as some do, I’m talking about not believing the finer points of biblical prophecy or eschaetology as some in our church do. I’m talking about styles of worship, dress, eating and drinking that others feel they have a monopoly on the truth of it. This mentality is taken further when the witch-hunters decide you are not moving out the door fast enough for them. Character assassination, slander, railroading, vicious gossip..all of these have been engaged in because people won’t toe the status line.

Darrell I think it is facinating how you redirect this subject on the serious issue of leading SDA students into gross apostasy (such as atheist views on origins as found in evolutionism) – into the more bland subject of “what did you do on Sabbath that I don’t agree with”.

Is it your argument that all differences of every kind must be eliminated from church discusssion BEFORE we are allowed to even start to deal with the serious decades-long problem of evolutionism being promoted in our own universities?

Surely you have not gone to such an extreme.

Yet this is the logic in your argument above.

Did you really mean to go there?

This brings up a secondary issue. In the SDA church today we have an emerging group calling themselves “Progressive Seventh-day Adventists”. I am not convinced that that group is uniformly in favor of evolutionism. However I am concerned that they may see evolutionism as “their cause” to defend – as it gets to the subject of “let everyone believe whatever they choose” that is so near and dear to the Progressive agenda.

in Christ,

Bob

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Darrell, I think you are over-reacting a bit. No one has said to ‘kill em all and let God sort them out’. There has not been the least whiff of physical violence or mob mentality displayed on this site at all. If these professors were caught committing adultry, would we be asking for them to be fired? Of course we would. Would we expect them to be disfellowshiped? Of course we would. Well, they may not be guilty of physical adultry, but, (as my sister reminds me), they certainly have been guilty of spiritual adultery.

And, Darrell, what do you think defines any given group of people? It is the rules and standards they live by, be it Hell’s Angels or the SDA church. You are basically arguing that people who don’t agree with the official doctrines of the church and refuse to follow the defined standards should be allowed to continue representing the church. Inspiration tells us that such ones are worse than infidels because they claim to be SDAs and don’t live up to the principles of SDAs; they essentially misrepresent the church and mislead people who don’t know what we are supposed to be.

This idea that God loves us all, no matter what we do, say, or believe has been skewed to the interpretation that anything goes. Why, then, did God lead the pioneers to study the scriptures and establish the doctrines and standards of this church–sometimes even giving Ellen White visions to lead them in the right way concerning issues that couldn’t be resolved in any other way? Why, then, do angels keep records of every word, thought, and action of every human being on this earth? Do you really believe that people will go to heaven and live in harmony unless they share the same beliefs and lifestyles? (You need only look around you on this earth to know that is impossible!) God has outlined doctrines and standards for us in the Scriptures and the Spirit of Prophecy. Do you honestly think that He called the Bible writers and Ellen White to devote their lives to record all these truths just to have them ignored?

There IS a standard for us to live by–as has been defined by God Himself. And yes, woe will come to him who doesn’t follow it. When the Lord separates the sheep from the goats, many who thought they were saved, won’t be. (Does that make God a “Catholic Inquisitor” or a “Pharisaical persecutor”?–and, no, I am not putting myself in the place of God–don’t even go there. I am only trying to uphold the standards and doctrines He has set for us.) It is a serious thing to live according to your own will and desires instead of conforming to the will of God. All are free to choose to live the way they like, but to take the name of SDA and not to strive to live up to the standards of the church is to be dishonest. To actively teach heresy is reprehensible.

By choosing to teach evolution in any way, shape, or form, these professors have disqualified themselves as instuctors in our institutions and, yes, even as church members. You don’t seem to understand (or care) that they are daily leading young people away from the truth. Frankly, I don’t understand why our people don’t consider this an urgent matter that needs immediate attention. With every day that passes, this poison spreads wider and deeper. Simply sitting back and letting it resolve itself is not an option. The past 25 or 30 years should have made that abundantly obvious. Even withdrawing support from the institutions involved is not going to work. We need action and we need it yesterday. Why should these people hold our institutions hostage to their false beliefs? Did they struggle to establish these schools? Men and women committed their whole lives to get these places up and running for the benefit of our people and these professed SDA teachers are being allowed to bring them to ruin. We all need to read Job 38:4-41:34 It begins:
“Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.”

When you read this passage, it really makes you humble. God is so much greater than we could ever be. He has given us so much in the way of understanding that we could never have discovered by ourselves. What a privilege to know God…what an incalulable gift is eternal life with Him! Instead of striving to live in comformity to the world, we should be striving to live in conformity to Him and His will. We are here on this planet to get ourselves ready to live in heaven. That means we need to develop characters that will enable us to live in heaven in perfect harmony with other like-minded believers. That means we need to quit looking at the world, quit looking at self, and look to Christ, our perfect example and our essential helper.

I truly don’t understand the mentality that comes down on people who are trying to stand up for the right when there are people out there doing their best to undermine faith in the Creator and in His church. Surely your efforts could be put to better use.

Faith

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