Comment on GC Votes to Revise SDA Fundamental #6 on Creation by JohnB.
I write on this blog not because I wish to destroy the church but because I do not wish you to destroy the church with your platitudes of certainty and hostility to one of the least of these who wish to come to salvation through the God of Grace.
pauluc, what you wrote at the end is admirable (in a sense). It is good that a person not want another to destroy the church….but whether you understand it or not, or believe it or not, that really is the point of this website.
Scriptures speak of “grievous wolves” in Acts 20:29 “entering among you, not sparing the flock”, and the administrators of this site believe, along with many of the rest of us here, that indeed that has happened at LSU.
Personally, I believe there is an agenda which many in Adventist education are a part of. This agenda is (I believe) part of a counter-reformation, and is intended to destroy the faith of Adventist youth. Do I know who is behind it all? Well, ultimately, yes, it is the adversary of Christ: Satan. I believe the teaching of evolution is a part of that agenda, and unwittingly or not, teachers that espouse that view are buying into it lock, stock, and barrel (aka: Completely). It is being used as a means to undermine the validity and force of Scriptures as being the Inspired Word of God.
This is a ‘tug of war’ in a certain sense, and there is much at stake. Will we continue as a church to subscribe to the complete and total authority of Scriptures or not? Will we go the way of the rest of the world, and place science above scriptures? Many in academics would have us believe Scriptures are an allegory, and unworthy of respect as being Divinely authored. If we surrender on this point, where does it end? Do we then surrender the Sabbath? Do we surrender the sanctity of marriage as given in Eden? Do we surrender the idea of One Creator God? Where does it end?
Being a Seventh-Day Adventist is more than merely being part of a social organization, or club (whether your parents were part of it or not). There is no nepotism in Adventism, and there is no nepotism in the kingdom of God. Ezekiel 14:20 makes that abundantly clear when it says that “Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, [were] in it (the land), [as] I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall [but] deliver their own souls by their righteousness.”
The same is true of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Don’t be an Adventist because your parents or your friends were Adventists, or even because you were raised a Seventh-Day Adventist. Please, only be an Adventist if you really believe what the Seventh-Day Adventist Church teaches and believes.
If we want harmony within the church, it must be around one and only one guiding principle, and that is the doctrinal inerrancy of the Inspired Word of God. Everything else leads off from this, and yes, even the concepts of love and brotherhood/ sisterhood.
If we build our ‘house’ (Church) on the shifting sands of skepticism (including evolutionism), what do we really have? We only have an apostate church ready for the vials of wrath and destruction spoken of in Revelation because we haven’t kept the ‘Words of this testimony’ (Scripture).
Pauluc, If you really want to keep from destroying this church, and if you really want to keep others from destroying it too, then please place your efforts on the side of building up this Church from its true foundations: The inerrancy of Scriptures (Sola Scriptura), which this church was built upon and exists by.
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Recent Comments by JohnB
Professor Kent: Informed Seventh-day Adventists are well aware that the world of science rejects a supernatural creation, yet the vast majority still believe. You should not mock their faith.
Au, Contraire Monsieur professeur, it was no mockery of faith, but merely a statement that there is room in this discussion for both faith AND evidence, and also we should not demonize Dr. Pitman for presenting the evidence!
Perhaps you would see that if you re-read again what the good Doctor wrote?
Certainly within this body of believers there is room for both faith And evidence in this discussion, and as Dr. Kime suggests, we would do well to combine them both.
For any of us to attempt to cause needless division by distorting that point is in fact the real mockery here. It should be completely below any and all of us to engage in such tactics.
WASC Reviews LSU’s Accreditation
Ron: Don’t forget that Mrs. White implied that we would have to change some of our fundamental beliefs as truth progresses.
Ron, I think what you are implying is a very serious mis-reading of what she said and implied.
Also, how do you know she wasn’t addressing that to folks such as yourself that apparently don’t believe in the authority of Scripture? Maybe she was implying that you needed to come into closer harmony with Scripture?
I might remind you briefly of Proverbs 16:25 which says that “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
What I say doesn’t matter. What you say doesn’t matter. If either one of us is in rebellion against God, it won’t end well for for the one(s) in rebellion.
We might all do well to always remember that.
WASC Reviews LSU’s Accreditation
@Ron:
“I think WASC should be commended for defending religious freedom within our schools. I am still mystified how the church can claim to believe in religious freedom and persecute their teachers”
Ron, the issue is not one of religious freedom. Each of these teachers is free to think and believe what they want to. I have absolutely no problem with that, and would most rigorously defend that right. However, they don’t have a right to sabotage their employer, which is LSU, and by extension, the Adventist Church at large.
Having a secret agenda (and pushing that agenda) which counters the beliefs of the church cannot be anything more or less than sabotage.
Everyone must be aware of his/her influence, and especially people in positions of authority. Officials at a school always represent the school, and if they don’t want that responsibility (or can’t handle that responsibility) then they should not accept that responsibility. It is very appropriate to ask them to resign if they cannot properly represent the school.
WASC Reviews LSU’s Accreditation
I wish the leadership of our church would disavow all WASC and the like accreditations, and do self-accreditations instead. THAT would give the school TRUE autonomy.
The Metamorphosis of La Sierra University: an eye-witness account
It seems that ‘Conspire’ is more of an underhanded move by some in an unofficial capacity, while ‘ally’ is more of a sanctioned behavior. The difference between the two is primarily the one action being an allowed official behavior, while the other is a subversive behavior in rebellion to or against officially accepted behavior. In this context, ‘conspire’ is the correct word.
When I read the eyewitness account, I was struck by the similarity to the story of the rebellion in heaven, when Satan conspired against the government of heaven to ‘free’ its inhabitants from the ‘constraints’ of God’s Law. Revelation 12:7,8,9 goes on to say that “…there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels. And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out….”
In heaven, the ‘dragon’ and his angels were cast out. Will that happen at LSU? Only time will tell.
I think a battle is still brewing over this (with LSU) which will become more intense if the church does take a definite stand (which it should). We should all be prepared for it, because it will likely get pretty ugly.
As in heaven, so with LSU: Each person will have to take a stand. Each will have to take sides. These ‘conspirators’ are more out in the open now. They have prepared for battle, and I don’t think they have any intent of coming under the direction of or submitting to the control of the board (if it isn’t also compromised), nor of the church at large. They feel in control, and they aren’t going to back down. LSU as an Adventist university may be a lost cause.
Again, the similarities to the rebellion in heaven seem glaringly obvious. The words spoken by the prophet Samual to King Saul in 1 Samuel 15:23 seem applicable here too: “For rebellion [is as] the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness [is as] iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee….”
