I THOUGHT I had kept up with all of the entries posted on this web site since I first discovered it., but apparently that wasn’t the case because I just ran across this one (quoted below in case someone else hasn’t read it either.) My questions follows the copy.
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Ken Lytle says: (entered 1-10-10):

“I attended an Adventist college in Mid-America where I came across anti-Adventist ideas brought about by two full-time professors.

One professor (English) taught that God has female breast and male genitals… that when He created male and female, He gave man the genitals and woman the breast. This same professor also taught that the flood was an isolated event.

The second professor (Theology) taught the JEDP Theory. “In brief, the JEDP theory states that the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, were not written entirely by Moses, who died in 1451 B.C., but also by different authors/compilers after Moses.” This THEORY is dangerous if taught to young minds that are not grounded in truth. The professor also had other anti-Adventist ideas he presented. I made 2-3 trips to the Academic Dean’s office in one year and the problem was never taken care of. After years of teaching at this college… poisoning many young minds, the professor studied himself right out of the church (did his Ph D studies at a Catholic university). He is now a minister at a first-day church.

I also attended an Adventist college on the West Coast where the Psychology professor promoted the homosexual agenda in class. This professor has been allowed to teach in our school full-time for many years.

How long will we allow the devil to poison our young people? I don’t know about you, but I believe we need zero to very little tolerance when it comes to theological poison. Our schools should be spiritually safe for my kids and your kids. If we don’t want to hurt our school (and church) leader’s feelings, then we had better do a better job screening each and everyone before we hire them and follow-up with regular evaluations. There is HOPE!!!
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My question is this:
HOW DO THESE PEOPLE GET INTO OUR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE FIRST PLACE? IS THERE NO “SCREENING BODY” AROUND ANYWHERE THAT DECIDES WHETHER OR NOT SOMEONE IS QUALIFIED TO TEACH OUR YOUNG PEOPLE?

There are just too many of instances such as this now coming to light for it to be “accidental.” Either we don’t have such a screening process, the people who do the screening are terribly inept or else nobody “screened” them before putting them in that position. Either the “screeners “ weren’t screened in the first place or the folks that “screened” them didn’t do a very good job. How far up the chain of command does this responsibility go? Is it a case of “too many foxes guarding the chicken coop?”

And where do we go now in getting things really cleaned up (or have things gone so far that it is now about impossible for humans to correct the situation) ??? I don’t mean to be critical or unbelieving but sometimes I truly wonder if that is the case. It sort of makes me feel that “home schooling” is the only option for parents who truly want their children to grow up genuine Adventists.

I am cheered, howver, to see so many of our youth standing up for the truth as demonstrated by the GYC 2009 “Unashamed” conference and those who have had the courage to stand up against their teachers who are teaching heresy in our class rooms. Also for some of our laity and ministers who are making their influence felt at this time. (God does still have some “Daniel and his three friends” among us and I am thankful for that!)

My only remaining question (at this point) is what can the rest of us do to help the situation–except pray? Surely there must be something and some way we can help besides just voicing our concerns on this website–as much as I am grateful to be able to do this.

And how do we go about “doing a better job screening each and everyone before we hire them and follow-up with regular evaluations.” Frankly, (and I really hate to say this) I’ve pretty much lost my confidence in “studies” and “committees to study…” set up by the folks in the leadership positions (with the exception of a very few–but thank God for the “few!”) May their tribe increase at the coming GC in Atlanta! (I don’t know much about Wilson–who is said to be “in line” for the job of president of the GC but my choice at this point would be Findley (sp?).

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I just read Nic Samojulk’s article of 1-7-10 (which some others may not have read.) I will quote the entire article before giving my response:

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“The church has several options in dealing with this chronic and seemingly intractable problem. Here are some of them:
1. Require that the LSU stop presenting the theory of evolution as the only credible explanation of origins and balance it with the creation alternative, including the presentation of the serious weaknesses which beset the Darwinian views.
2. Abandon our Adventist fundamental belief in a literal six days creation as a credible explanation for origins, and replace it with a naturalistic view of what happened at the beginning.
3. Cut our financial and denominational connection with La Sierra University and transform it into an independent ministry similar to 3ABN and The Quiet Hour. This will allow LSU to do their own thing without any interference from those who believe in the story of creation found in Genesis.

I vote for either solution # 1 or # 3. Actually, I am more inclined towards the last solution. The problem is rather chronic and probably hopeless. The roots of the Darwinian deception are rather deep, and this cancer has spread to even the religious department of the school.
There is no known treatment able to eradicate this type of cancer; not even a proton cure will be able to produce a miraculous cure! Any effort to solve the problem will serve only to prolong the agony. If LSU is interested in supporting any other facet of the church’s work, let it do so as an independent ministry.”

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I respectfully disagree with both points 2 and – especially – 3.

As I see it, there is simply no way to make LSU “an independent ministry similar to 3ABN and The Quiet Hour.” These ministries stand 100% staunchly for Adventist beliefs and teachings. Evolution is NOT “just another option” for us. With all due respect to the people involved, the “beliefs” they are teaching are diametrically opposed to our most fundamental belief–that God created our world in six literal days. Remove THAT PILLAR from our message and everything else we believe evaporates–the Sabbath, prophecy, the second coming–in fact, the whole Bible crumbles. God either did what he said he did in the opening statements of the Bible or he is a liar and we just throw the whole Bible out the window. If the very first words of the Bible are untrue, how can anyone put any confidence in any of it?

Also, as I see it, the only solution is to either clean up the science AND the religion departments–as well as any other places this poison is hiding or else completely break all ties to LSU and let it survive as best it can as an independent institution (not an “independent ministry”of the church) without the slightest ties to the Adventist church body. Our pioneers certainly did not make Kellogg’s theory an “independent ministry” (nor did we make Des Ford one) they completely broke ties with him and his “theology.” Regardless of the very real consequences–and there will be many–we can do no less with LSU and it’s teachers if we want to remain true to our God-given message.

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Ellen White’s response to the Kellogg situation was used as an example of how to wait for the right time to act. However, there were notable differences. John Harvey Kellogg was not an employee paid by church funds. He was the chief admnistrator of a sanitarium, and he was in a position to take the sanitarium right out of the church’s control. He was a man of powerful influence in the church and the world, widely admired for the spectacular success of the sanitarium. (His position was more analagous to the leader of an independent ministry in our day.)

By contrast, professors at LSU are employees. Discipline of employees is a relatively simple matter — especially if they do not have tenure, as is the case for those who most blatantly teach evolution as the factual answer to the question of origins.

Ellen White had special ties to John Harvey Kellog, regarding him almost as a son, and she naturally wanted to do all she could to win him back. But in time, she had a dream of the ship of the church meeting an iceberg, with the Captain’s command to “meet it!” After that she threw her influence behind those who believed it was time to act. That part of the story should have been included in the reference to White and Kellogg.

Actually Mark Finley did include the followup fact that Ellen White was told by God in a dream to “meet it” to face it head on when it came to Kellogg’s errors in “Living Temple”, as can be seen on that video.

One guess is that Finley was trying to “allow the point” made by Don to as much a degree as was possible – but was trying to add the balancing fact that action is still required and you cannot excuse yourself from taking decisive action decade after decade with the old “I am just being pastoral” argument. Finley was just being tactful in pointing out “there is a limit”.

Of course, even in meeting obstinate error, we should always act in the spirit of Christ. But it takes wisdom only the Holy Spirit can give to know just what that means in specific situations. In Kellogg’s time, students and staff who worked under him had trouble distancing themselves from his errors. The church suffered from the fall-out right up into the 1960’s, when I was a young man.

We had a similar situation in the Desmond Ford crisis. Instead of giving him a bigger platform and more students to influence by calling him to PUC, church administrators should have dealt with him in Australia. Concerns of “pastoral compassion” caused a delay which proved costly in terms loss of confidence in fundamental Adventist beliefs throughout the world, but particularly in North America. The aftershocks are still shaking the Adventist world.

As Ellen White said – lack of timely decisive action on the part of church administrators yields the church itself no end of grief. In a time of crisis we need men of prayer, students of history, men of vision – who are known for letting their actions speak for them.

But a note of interest – comparing Ford to the LSU problem. Even the “fix” for evolutionism still has the SDA church universities teaching evolutionism in science courses so that students can be informed about the particulars in that junk-science religion as it is practiced in the secular world today.

Now suppose in the case of Kellogg, that the Adventist church had to “continue teaching” Kellogg’s ideas in all of our schools – because those ideas were in fact “the religion of the land” outside of our schools.

The problem with Kellogg would have been 1000 fold greater.

in Christ,

Bob

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Hopefully there is more information generally available to them by this time.

At the 1:11:15 Mark Finley gives his “no academic freedom” response when it comes to teaching non-SDA doctrines such as evolutionism at an SDA school.

At the 1:20:52 point – Mark Finley addresses the need to “meet it head on” when it comes to issues like the Living Temple and evolutionism taught in SDA schools.

And at the 1:13:30 point – Don Schneider expresses is primary concern which is that there be no trials, no uncomforable circumstances for the teachers – but rather that they be asked “are you happy doing what you are doing”. In his view those people that report to him in some fashion who have been teaching non-SDA doctrines from whatever those positions were – were not really happy in their jobs and would be happier in some other area, working someplace else.

Very interesting video segment.

in Christ,

Bob

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To start with, Who and what Books have been around the longest and have stood the test of time? I don’t think anyone can question the fact that the Bible has been around for centuries longer than any other book. It has been burned, hidden, reviled and scoffed at for centuries but so far nothing has been able to destroy it or successfully contradict what it says. Men have devised many plans to destroy it, or dispute its message. There is no other Book on planet earth that has gone through so many attacks, so many disasters, so much ridicule as has the Bible. At the same time, no other book has been so loved, so trusted, so died for than the Bible. There is just something about this Book that defies mans’ every attempt to destroy it.

What other book has lasted this long–and done this much good in the world? Whether you love it or hate it you have to admit that there is something supernatural about it–it has a kind of “protection” no other book in the history of mankind can claim. And not another one can even approach it’s “staying power.” And it’s messages have never changed or been equaled. Every place it goes people’s lives are changed for the better.

That says something profound about it’s real Author! Yes, it was actually written by human beings–but all attest to the fact that they were only able to “write” what a Being called God had given them. It was written over centuries of time by men–many of whom who lived centuries apart, in different parts of the world and never knew each other–yet never contradict each other. There is “something about this Book” that no other book in the history of mankind has ever even come close to being it’s equal.

Millions of books have been written by human authors–the vast majority of which are no longer around–and many that are still around have been discredited by other authors who came along later. And the vast majority were written by someone whose names no one even recognizes today.

The Bible never “corrects” itself . It’s message today about how our world came to be is just as it was centuries ago while even among today’s most brilliant scientists there is no completely agreed upon understanding of every detail of how our world came to be. Even Darwin’s ideas have been ‘tweaked’ a bit here and there over the years. This has never been done with the Bible. Yes, additional details have been added here and there but they all agree with the Genesis account –and none have ever been contradicted by other Biblical writers.

And there is no way modern scientists can read into the Genesis account vast amounts of time for each “day.” And the weekly cycle–established by God during creation week–is still with us. The moons determine the monthly cycle, the sun determines the length of days, but only the Genesis account gives us the seven-day week–still recognized around the world!

And “academic freedom” as is being tossed around so freely by many –and sounds so noble–in this debate I believe is seen by God as “Treason against the Most High.” We are living closer to the end of time than any previous generation and I, for one, believe that event is approaching far more rapidly than we have any concept of. The most important question any of us can ask ourselves is, “Am I ready for Jesus to come?” At that time the wheat and tares will forever be separated. “Which side will I be on?” is the paramount question we should be asking ourselves today. And the choices we are making TODAY on this and other questions will determine whether we will be among the “wheat” or among the “tares” when Jesus comes. “Choose you THIS DAY whom you will serve!” After all, Tomorrow may well be too late because none of us have the assurance of a “tomorrow!”

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I would certainly not tolerate a physics professor dictating my method of teaching or the content of my music theory classes, nor would he or she be qualified to do so. We are professionals and experts in our own fields

Point well made.

“evolutionists taking over” a university should not be thought of as “evolution taking over music theory” or evolution taking over computer science, or graphic arts, or Calculus or geometry etc.

in Christ,

Bob

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