@Professor Kent: Here, you have argued that it should be …

Comment on Adventist Review: Pastors Who Don’t Believe by Sean Pitman.

@Professor Kent:

Here, you have argued that it should be lack of support for any fundamental belief. But you have gone FAR BEYOND this. You have lambasted individuals by name who believe in the very same things but not to the same extent you do, or who have arrived at their beliefs by a different means (faith vs. evidence) than you.

I’ve only commented on the public comments and actions of various paid leaders within our Church organization. You’re doing very much the same thing here in this forum – publicly calling out individuals for what you perceive to be grievous wrongs.

Despite your red herring comparisons, I’ve not called anyone out on any secret or private “sin” here. We are talking about the public actions and comments of paid leaders in our Church. Parents, students, and the Church membership at large have the right to know about these comments and the potential problems for the Church that public comments and efforts which oppose or directly attack the foundational pillars of the Church are causing for the Church or for Church-sponsored organizations whose very purpose is being undermined from within.

I’m quite amazed at your suggestion that members of an organization do not have a basic right to know this information and that public leaders should be free from criticism of their public comments and actions even if they are directly attacking the stated goals and ideals of the organization for which they work! You can’t be serious… can you?

I’m sorry, but you’re doing the very same things in public forum that you’re so upset that others are doing. I appreciate your concern and your public calls against what we are doing here, but you need to understand that we are just as concerned as you are when we see paid Church representatives attacking the fundamental pillars of the Church or undermining the purpose of Church-sponsored organizations.

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com

Sean Pitman Also Commented

Adventist Review: Pastors Who Don’t Believe
In any case, any further comments concerning the morality or lack thereof of those involved with the LSU situation will no longer be posted here on Educate Truth. However, You are free to send me a personal E-mail if you wish (my E-mail can be obtained by visiting my website listed below).

Sincerely,

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


Adventist Review: Pastors Who Don’t Believe
@Ron Stone M.D.:

Well, Sean, atheists have written books explaining what, why, and how they have rejected God’s Truth. Those at LSU have explained what they believe and why they have accepted Man’s word and rejected God’s Truth. You say we can never know anything about this, and they must not really “understand” what they are doing.

I don’t know if they do or do not really understand what they are doing; and neither do you. Only God knows for sure…

Not only would I and others here disagree with you, but I believe the atheists would disagree. The idea that church members cannot be “judged” by their words and actions is simply not biblical.

And the soldiers who nailed Jesus to the cross would have claimed at the time that they knew exactly what they were doing too… but did they really? Jesus prayed for them saying, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” – Luke 23:34 NIV

It is quite possible that even if a person is very adamant that he/she knows exactly what he/she is doing, that this person may not really know. This is a possibility that only God knows for sure. You simply cannot make this particular type of moral judgment with complete accuracy. You and I can judge the rightness or wrongness of the word or act (specifically regarding a doctrine like the literal 6-day creation week), but we cannot judge the rightness or wrongness of the heart; the motive.

There is a difference between being mistaken and sinning. Sinning requires a deliberate rebellion against known truth – something that you cannot tell for sure in cases of doctrinal disagreements on such things as the literal creation week or the true origin of the Sabbath or any other such commandment that deals specifically with man’s relationship with his or her God and God alone.

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


Adventist Review: Pastors Who Don’t Believe
@Ron Stone M.D.:

Sean says Moses and the Prophets are “empirical” evidence then says they are not!

Moses and the prophets are only “empirical evidence” in support of the Bible’s credibility if they actually say something true regarding the real world in which we all live (which I think they clearly do).

However, if Moses and the prophets did in fact clearly contradicted the real world (i.e., real history), the hypothesis that the Bible’s credibility is supported by them would be effectively falsified (as is the case for the Book of Mormon, for example) in such a situation.

It is in this sense that things like biblical prophecy must be held up for testing before biblical prophecy can be rationally accepted as credible (at least any more credible than the Book of Mormon).

In other words, biblical credibility is dependent upon the empirical evidence. Without the empirical evidence, there would simply be no greater rational reason to believe the Bible as any more credible than some moral fable that someone simply made up as a “cleverly invented story”. – 2 Peter 1:16 NIV

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


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