Comment on What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist? by Sean Pitman.
So, you determine that the Bible is true based on the Holy Spirit telling you that the Bible is true? You know, my Latter-day Saints friends use the very same argument for how they determine that the Book of Mormon is superior to the Bible – because the Holy Spirit told them so via a “burning in the bosom” deep down inside of themselves.
Really then, the ultimate basis of your faith in some kind of feeling or impression that you think came from the Holy Spirit. Such a faith really isn’t based on an intelligent understanding of the Bible and it’s claims as being rationally valid or invalid from the available “weight of evidence”.
The Bible itself points to various forms of empirical evidence as a basis for its own credibility. Your arguments for empirically blind belief simply isn’t Biblical. Jesus didn’t chastise Thomas for wanting evidence. God always provides the weight of evidence for the candid mind to perceive and understand the truth. Jesus chastised Thomas for refusing to believe without first being given conclusive evidence (well beyond the weight of evidence he already had been given). Thomas had the testimony of Scripture concerning the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He also had his own past experience with Jesus as someone who could raise the dead with the use of Divine Power – as well as Jesus’ own claim regarding His own resurrection. He also had the personal testimony of a great many of his closest friends in the world. Yet, despite all of this evidence, the weight of evidence, he refused to believe without conclusive evidence.
God wishes faith to be based not on demonstration, but upon the weight of evidence – to include the origin and credibility of the Bible. Otherwise, what you really have is wishful thinking, not a Biblical faith in the as yet unseen. What you have is a fideistic form of faith – a type of faith which is not the type of faith promoted by the Bible itself.
And, Genesis isn’t the only part of the Bible open various forms of empirical testing. Many of the passages of the Bible make claims about the empirical world, to include empirically testable historical events, that can be investigated as a basis to establish Biblical credibility. The same is true of the Book of Mormon and other such books that claim to be the true Word of God. The problem for these other books is that only the Bible is able to establish a very high degree of credibility regarding those claims that are actually open to empirical investigation and the potential for falsification…
Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com
Sean Pitman Also Commented
What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist?
I guess someone who accepts neo-Darwinism must have some problems with the reality of Biblical prophecy…
What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist?
You didn’t answer my question as to what you would do if you happened to have been in a place like Sandy Hook Elementary School when a shooter entered the building. Or, what you would do if someone threatened the lives of your own family. Also, don’t tell me that Australia has no police force or that the police there don’t carry guns…
What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist?
The Bible and Ellen White are very clear that Satan and his angels were forced to leave heaven just as Adam and Eve were forced to leave Eden after they fell to Satan’s charms. They are also very clear that the wicked will one day be excluded, by force, from the New Jerusalem and will, eventually, be completely destroyed from existence. I don’t think that’s how it worked with you and your family…
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Thank you Ariel. Hope you are doing well these days. Miss seeing you down at Loma Linda. Hope you had a Great Thanksgiving!
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Thank you Colin. Just trying to save lives any way I can. Not everything that the government does or leaders do is “evil” BTW…
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Only someone who knows the future can make such decisions without being a monster…
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Where did I “gloss over it”?
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I fail to see where you have convincingly supported your claim that the GC leadership contributed to the harm of anyone’s personal religious liberties? – given that the GC leadership does not and could not override personal religious liberties in this country, nor substantively change the outcome of those who lost their jobs over various vaccine mandates. That’s just not how it works here in this country. Religious liberties are personally derived. Again, they simply are not based on a corporate or church position, but rely solely upon individual convictions – regardless of what the church may or may not say or do.
Yet, you say, “Who cares if it is written into law”? You should care. Everyone should care. It’s a very important law in this country. The idea that the organized church could have changed vaccine mandates simply isn’t true – particularly given the nature of certain types of jobs dealing with the most vulnerable in society (such as health care workers for example).
Beyond this, the GC Leadership did, in fact, write in support of personal religious convictions on this topic – and there are GC lawyers who have and continue to write personal letters in support of personal religious convictions (even if these personal convictions are at odds with the position of the church on a given topic). Just because the GC leadership also supports the advances of modern medicine doesn’t mean that the GC leadership cannot support individual convictions at the same time. Both are possible. This is not an inconsistency.
