Comment on La Sierra University Granted Window to Show its Faithfulness to Church’s Creation Belief by Charles.
D Fender
“If those that believe that evolution is the explanation to our origins…”
Good comments, I’d like to add a few:
For the astute member who has faithfully studied the purpose of our church and the events related to its founding, these events (apostasy in the church) are a signal of end times. Add the events of the world – the increasing “birth pains” – both in frequency and intensity – and one may clearly see the unfolding of the inspired words of Ellen G White. Yes, I said it – “Ellen G White”. Is her name unmentionable anymore?
She was a prophet that God raised up to be a core component of the founding of this church. Our very reason for existence is to proclaim the three angel’s messages to the world. What are those messages?
1. Worship God as Creator.
2. Expose Babylon.
3. Clearly warn the world of impending doom.
Jesus said of his second coming that it would be like the days of Noah: While Noah was in the boat with his family, the world partied and ridiculed outside – oblivious to the impending doom.
We KNOW that when Jesus comes and takes His redeemed home with him, the earth will be left desolate of any human life. Thats what happened in Noah’s day. But this is not the message of any form of evolution theory. Those ideas all point to a continued march toward God-hood under the banner of His enemy – Satan.
I am not pointing fingers at anyone without having three pointed back at myself. But what are we doing to finish this work? Building a retirement plan? A big new school? A mega-chain of hospitals?
Ellen White wrote more than a hundred years ago, “We could have been in the kingdom long er this…” So why are we not there? There will come a time when the end will happen. I believe this time is very close (according to the signs) and long-term planning is wasted time. Many will leave the church but many more will come in – according to EGW.
If I had lived in Noah’s day and understood the impending flood, how would I have related to those I love? Would I casually walk up the steps into the boat and wave bye? Or would I have desperately pled with them to come with me? We are in the same circumstance today. The world, as we know it, is about to end. Is there someone we love who needs to be persuaded to have their lamps filled with the sweet oil of God’s Holy Spirit?
The end will come soon. The way we are going at the work that God gave us to do, I think the angels are going to have to join in to get it finished.
Lets pray for each other.
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Charles Also Commented
La Sierra University Granted Window to Show its Faithfulness to Church’s Creation Belief
You are right, Ron. I have only even been in Califoria a very few times. I cannot understand what you are dealing with re the liberal culture of where you are.
Truthfully, I have no wisdom to know how to deal with the problem of some who take the name of Adventist but deny or try to change the fundamentals of the faith. The only thing I can do is pray for and support world leadership as they struggle for wisdom to deal with it.
Really, it is a sign of the times – one of many. Jesus is coming soon (are “Adventists” scoffing me for saying this?) and the time is now to make the final preparations to meet him. Any naysayers? They are a sign of the times.
From the buckle of the Bible belt…
Charles
La Sierra University Granted Window to Show its Faithfulness to Church’s Creation Belief
I simply cannot believe that those who have sought to bring the ideas of evolution (in any form)into our institutions will change. The statements that I have been reading do not show change but rather a begrudging assent to hide what they really believe in their hearts.
Let’s not forget the Adventist mission which is to bring God’s final warning to a world that is about to perish: The “Three Angels Messages”. The core of that message is that God is the Creator. Scripture plainly teaches that God created us and all that surrounds us in a seven-literal-day cycle. It was accomplished quickly and in perfection. A decline began when mankind entered the state of sin and that decline has continued until today.
In contrast, every form of evolution that I have ever seen, teaches that life on the earth began simply and has grown toward perfection. These two teachings are the opposite of each other and are mutually exclusive. They cannot be reconciled.
To those who would bring the ideas of evolution into our faith, please be honest about what you are trying to do. Go ahead and sign the “Clergy Letter Project” letter with Butler University and at least be as honest as the thousands of clergy of other “faiths” who have signed the document. Here is the link:
http://blue.butler.edu/~mzimmerm/rel_evol_sun.htm
Go and do it, if that is what you believe. But know this, that faithful Adventist people believe in a God who is not subject to “laws of nature” and has power beyond the ability of our scientific methods to even detect or measure. If you don’t believe in such a God, then you are not really a SDA, no matter what you claim to be. Just please be honest – at least.
La Sierra University Granted Window to Show its Faithfulness to Church’s Creation Belief
Well here I sit, wallowing in my “superstitious” beliefs.
Yep, that is it. I actually do believe in a Great and All-powerful God who stands outside of the boundaries of time and science and actually does have the power to form a man out of dirt and breathe into this element-composed lifeless form, the “breath of life”. Imagine my foolishness? In all of the great discoveries of science, even a clue as to what constitutes the “breath of life” cannot be found. We know when it is there, and we know when it is gone. How can it be tested?
But science is all about discovery and will not acknowledge that some crucial things about our existence are a part of the secrets of God – not to be discovered by man. That essence of LIFE is one of them. I know when it is present and I know when it is gone. Where it comes from is not a thing I can discover. So for my feeble mind that cannot discern the secret of what actually constitutes LIFE, I must indulge in FAITH – that is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”.
I look at myself, others, and my surroundings. I realize that even though there is much reality that can be studied and explored by science, all of it still goes back to the existence of LIFE – which, again, is NOT something that “science” has been able to touch. And so I indulge in accepting something on FAITH – or without proof – simply because I can observe that I do exist.
My faith has given me a sort of blissfulness. Yes, it is because I believe in such an all-powerful Being that can form a person from dirt and put life into it within a literal day, that I have FAITH. Thus, I also find it not a stretch to believe that the same Great Being has a similar power that can bring the millions back to life who once existed but whose bodies are now totally decomposed. There is no “scientific method” involved and that event will defy any natural laws with which we have any familiarity.
My belief here is what makes me an “Adventist”. Yes, I believe in a literal return of the Creator who will exercise those non-scientific powers that raise the dead back to life. I am a “Seventh-Day” Adventist because I believe that the world was created in seven literal days through his non-scientific power.
If studies in faith and science cause conflicting conclusions, which one has the greater authority? Truth is absolute, is it not? I see our realities as totally dependant on the existence of life. Science knows nothing about life – beyond simply being able to observe that it does exist. One cannot study Biblical history in one discipline and science in another, and come to two opposite true conclusions.
A very brilliant person recently told me that he does not believe in the “hocus pocus” of a God creating by “His Word”. He said he “has no problem” with the existence of a God but that this God is constrained by natural laws to use them to perform his creative works. I understand exactly what he is saying but what he does not realize is that he is foolishly trying to put God into limits to which God is not subject. God is totally beyond our ability to fathom – especially in the fallen state that we live in on this earth today. That is why we must have FAITH. That is why He said, “Except …ye become as little children…”
Sadly, so-called “science” and “religion” have found themselves on the opposite ends of a continuum of explaining existence and reality. They are opposite and mutually exclusive conclusions and there is no reconciliation of the two belief systems.
The SDA church’s existence is absolutely and wholly based on the FAITH side – on the extreme end of the continuum. The view is so extreme as to be found as foolish or deluded by the adherents of the other extreme. There can be no conciliation between the two views.
To the “scientist”:
Call me a fool or superstitious about such an all-powerful God, if you like. Yes we are a minority in today’s world but we are the Seventh-Day Adventist church and we have “FAITH” – meaning that we accept as reality those things we cannot see, test, or prove. You cannot prove how we got here so if you must try, please join the armies of the scientists of the world who believe as you do and allow us the HOPE (yes “hope” based on “faith”) that is the reason for our existence. Argue with us if you like, but please do not try to dishonestly destroy us from within.
Matthew 18
3And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
4Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
