Video show LSU undermining church doctrine
Sean,

I’m sorry, but I fail to see how the 1888 conflict over righteousness by faith (mainly anyway) was over an established “pillar” of SDA faith or against the idea that the Church must have order and government that is in fact larger than the individual (as noted already by Mrs. White herself).

Understandable, perhaps, your unfamiliarity with the 1888 period in Adventism, in terms of both its theological as well as church governance patterns, patterns the Almighty seems to endorse by reason of Ellen White’s visionless participation.

Keep in mind, Sean, the GC president boycotted the 1888 GC session (something you might have approved of?) based on his physical debilitation over his frustration not only with Jones and Wagner’s articles in the Signs of the Times, and their growing support in the ‘field’, but specifically after a 40-page letter to EGW pleading for personal and positional support was met with silence.

He telegrams all of the delegates: ‘STAND BY THE OLD LANDMARKS’ And by landmarks, Butler no doubt agreed with those claiming that in Jones’ and Wagoner’s propositions, the very Sabbath itself was at stake in the debate. It was technical. It was brutal. Attempts to muzzle discussion prior to and during the session was heated and utterly unsuccessful. It might be noted that EGW’s appeal was only to civility. Once again, I recommend Tyner’s account in “Searching for the God of Grace.” It is a short chapter. They all are. It is pretty exciting reading, however.

My thought is that whatever is going on or not going on in the classrooms of La Sierra pales by comparison to the run up to 1888. To my knowledge, no one was fired or threatened to be, but a few left their membership behind in 1888. I think that is how it is supposed to work.

Video show LSU undermining church doctrine

It’s fine if you wish to disagree with me on these issues, but don’t think to invoke Mrs. White to support a cause with which she was in very clear fundamental disagreement and wrote so earnestly and ardently against…

Strong work there Sean!

You can quote ’em with the best. And you’ll note I was not quoting. I am referencing actual church behavior and at a much higher and deeper level than what Educate Truth is addressing. It appears that God clearly endorses what you condemn and did so through EGW’s endorsement by reason of her participatory witness, participation made without God’s intervention by vision during the lengthy run up to, during, or the decades following the 1888 GC conflict over what many at the time, and some today, including the GC president at the time, considered a full-on frontal attack on absolute foundational Biblical truth on which the whole of Adventist history and theology was grounded.

I’m for transparency. I’m for ecclesiastical freedom for Educate Truth and La Sierra University both to operate free of the threat of excommunication (job wise or membership wise), which, of course, is left to those who best know the individuals, their employers or their fellow members at their congregation, who do not answer to any church hierarchy in either regard.

It is not a fundamental theological bedrock of Adventism, this ceding of power locally to accept or dismiss employees or members, but rather a long-standing tradition in celebration of the person over the organization, the congregation over the hierarchy, the Holy Spirit over creeds.

t sense a certain dissonance that Educate Truth it attempting to put its boot to the neck of an organization and hierarchy for not putting its boot to the neck of a lower level institution making far less of a threat to the same hierarchy than Educate Truth.

How confident are you that Educate Truth has not left the amphitheater of discourse and has embraced the field of battle?

Video show LSU undermining church doctrine
Sean,

If one thinks that one has discovered something that truly counters the SDA position, and the SDA Church, as an organization, is not convinced, that person should simply promote his/her views elsewhere without expected to be paid by the SDA Church. No hard feelings. It’s simply a matter of practicality – of Church order and government.

Actually that is not at all how the church is set up nor how it acts, whether in the pulpit or the magazines of the church, or the books printed by the publishing houses of the church, as evidenced by the run up to 1888 GC, and the impending 2010 GC, of course, where various church entities and individuals are appropriately articulating positions opposed by authority or being campaigned against or for by many, many individuals employed by various church-owned institutions. Some are minor, and some are fundamental, and all are vital to those sharing their opinion.

Your views on “academic freedom” would not a viable organization make.

I’m pretty sure I have not addressed “academic freedom,” though having brought it up, you clearly make a point quite opposed by EGW, namely that the organization takes precedence over the search itself for truth. Do take time to review the historical materials documenting the prelude to the 1888 GC, available from the White Estate and referenced in numerous books, one of my favorites being Tyner’s “Searcing for the God of Grace”

http://www.amazon.com/Searching-God-Grace-Before-Religion/dp/0816321523

I’m sorry, but your comparison of our efforts to support the Church’s own stated pillars of faith as “present truth” to the insanity of David Koresh at Waco comes across as desperate and uninformed. Surely, at the very least, you must agree with the idea that parents, students and the church constituency at large have a right to know what they are really purchasing and supporting with their hard-earned dollars. Surely you support increased transparency from our Church’s and schools? – at the very least?

To your questions, my answer is Absolutely! Indeed, ever more so!

As for Koresh and Educate Truth, I clearly was not clear. My deep apology. Koresh got drunk on an endorphin rush realizing how easy it seemed to draw a following for his all too personalized mission opposing the church. In his case, perhaps, it only took one defiant lung to trigger a public-support-powered delusional messianic vision with him in the leading role. It ended in self immolation for real, some time after he burned his bridge with the church, to keep the rush coming.

I’m not in the least suggesting Education Truth is an alternate religion, and apologize for not making that clear. And the rush of support you personally experience as the result of your own words and actions in going up against the church and one of its major institutions, may well be giving you a rush not unlike what Koresh clearly became addicted to.

I wish you a safe passage in the weeks and months and years ahead.