I have been a baptized SDA for many years and …

Comment on What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist? by M. Shelton.

I have been a baptized SDA for many years and I have yet to meet an SDA who believes that the church or members have ALL the truth. It may appear that way to some who would now eschew certain beliefs and pillars on which our church was founded through much prayer, study, and even revelation by our pioneers in favor of more “enlightened progressive views”.

But to my way of thinking and the facts certainly verify that our church has become a kalidiscope of views on almost any teaching found in Scripture. We are bombarded with SDAs both within and without our fellowship proselytizing their views often in direct opposition to the church’s interests.

I believe with Sean that whether for good or ill people are entitled to their views even to the point of proselytizing. However, accepting payment while doing so in an institution of the church or the pulpit of the church is not “honest or ethical”.

M. Shelton Also Commented

What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist?
Sean Pitman:
I went back and read what you were saying about the teaching of creationism in our schools. Should have done this first as I see where I am not on track with your argument for empirical (got sp. right lol) evidence in our schools. That is, of course, the right thing to be done. I guess my difference with you would be that I find that much of Bible truths are faith-based, not proof-based. Much of the Bible seems like a fairytale without faith to believe, which is God-given. The difference between say believing in the Book of Mormon and the Bible alone is deep within the heart that no one but God can see and understand. It would not be sin to believe a lie if the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, were not available to every man to bring us into “all truth”. Anyway, thanks for your patience and courtesy.


What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist?
@Sean Pitman.
No, I do not believe in feelings versus what EGW calls “living faith”. Even the devils believe and tremble. And they have the greatest imperical evidence but it does them no good. Why, because it is not mixed with faith. And I would suggest that there are more scientists, biologists, geologists, etc. who lack living faith and are essentially non-believers. I had a teacher once who taught that “believing is seeing” not “seeing is believing”.

But I do believe there is plenty of “imperical evidence” in the Word of God and life itself for the humble seekers of truth. Pride and prejudice, however, bar any true faith to take hold in the heart and if evidence were enough the scientific world would be preachers of righteousness instead of teachers of a godless evolution theory, big bang theory, etc. Nature itself, our miraculous bodies that produce life are all evidence for believing in the God of Scripture. The older I get, the more I am overwhelmed with imperical evidence and the truths of God’s Word. And I am not a scientist on any level and I believe the same evidence is available for anyone. So if that is what you seem to be referring to, I agree wholeheartedly. If you are referring to faith based on the imperical evidence of an earth billions of years old and man evolving from something in the ocean or whatever, then I do not agree because I take the Word of God as it reads and I don’t need a scientist proving what the Bible does not plainly teach. Faith comes first and without it, no amount of imperical evidence will lead to the belief of the Bible which leads to everlasting life. And that is based on the acceptance of the Holy Spirit to guide us into “all truth”. Those who believe and are deceived such as you described are no argument against those who believe unto salvation. They just prove the Bible true because it plainly teaches, sadly, that the majority of earth’s population both deceived believers and unbelievers for whom Jesus died will not be saved. All because of unbelief, not a lack of proof of imperical evidence.


What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist?
@Sean Pitman:
“Even the babe in its mother’s arms may dwell as under the shadow of the Almighty through the faith of the praying mother. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his birth. If we will live in communion with God, we too may expect the divine Spirit to mold our little ones, even from their earliest moments.”

Seems to me this gets right into the nature of Christ, a fascinating and important subject and since it was brought up I will comment. The above quote by you indicates how Jesus was from birth in a sinless state though born with our sinful human nature. He did not have our “propensities” to sin because He took our sinful nature upon His sinless nature and therefore had no past sinful propensities. Our nature was not His by right, He merely assumed it. He was born filled with the Holy Spirit just as we can be by accepting the new birth. To say as some believe that we are born guilty is an Augustinian theory which resulted in the Catholic doctrine of an immaculate conception.

Although we inherited Adam’s sinful flesh we are not guilty until we deliberately, consciously choose to sin. If that were not so how could babies be saved who have not reached the age of accountability to repent and believe? But many will be. They need a Savior too, all sinful flesh needs a Savior, and praise the Lord, we have one!


Recent Comments by M. Shelton

NCSE Report: Adventist Education in the Midst of a Sea of Science
Bill,
I thought your reply made a lot of sense. The devil realizes he can’t change an event but he doesn’t need to if he can change the meaning such as the evolution theory. Genesis can stand but God’s seven-day creation falls exactly like the fourth commandment that is included in most faiths in the U.S. including Catholicism and there it will stay giving lip service but changing the meaning entirely. [edit]

“Association with learned men is esteemed by some more highly than communion with the God of heaven. The statements of learned men are thought of more value than the highest wisdom revealed in the word of God. . .The men who parade before the world as wonderful specimens of greatness. .robe man with honor, and talk of the perfection of nature. They paint a very fine picture, but it is an illusion. . Those who present a doctrine contrary to that of the Bible, are led by the great Apostate. . .With such a leader expelled from heaven–the supposedly great men of earth may fabricate bewitching theories with which to infatuate the minds of men. (YI Feb. 7, 1895; FE 331, 332)


NCSE Report: Adventist Education in the Midst of a Sea of Science
You can’t dance with the devil without at some point his follow will hijack the lead and you will dance to his tune.

“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” 2Cor. 6:14.

If we must dance with the world and their unbiblical philosophies to obtain accreditation, do we then decry the results? Maybe we should rethink. . do we base our beliefs on the Word of God alone or are we to compromise with the “foolishness” of man’s reinterpretation of the Bible?

Soon Job 42:5,6 will take on a fresh and relevant meaning. “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Something to think seriously about while it is “yet today”.


NCSE Report: Adventist Education in the Midst of a Sea of Science
Higher education can be a great blessing but it can be, and sometimes is, a greater curse. Jesus must have taken this into consideration when He chose His disciples, unschooled but teachable fishermen. Judas, the self-chosen disciple, had the “higher education” and it was he who thought he knew so much that sold the Master for thirty pieces of silver. It seems to me that evolutionary theories came into being for the purpose of degrading God’s creative power and doing away with the sign of that power, His holy Sabbath day. But the truly wise will not be fooled. No amount of machinations of man will succeed in perverting God’s Word to make it comply with their theories. The God who holds the sub-atomic particles and the universe together will have the last word and it will be the same as He wrote it in the Genesis creation account and signed and sealed it in His immutable Ten Commandments.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the “seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work; you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11 Blessings


Eugenie Scott’s Letter of Alarm – “Evolution Under Attack”
Eugenie Scott is going to be far more alarmed when Jesus comes! However, unless she invites the truths of His Word into her heart, she will have a lot of evolutionary company. The rocks and the mountains will have no answer in that day to the cry of despair from the godless who would make science their god. So sad. . .


NCSE Report: Adventist Education in the Midst of a Sea of Science
Actually there is only one Sabbath day and that is the seventh day Sabbath. Sunday is the counterfeit sabbath of Baal worship on which the sun was worshipped. You cannot celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday, however, you can choose to worship on that day or any other day but it will not be Sabbath worship. This, I believe, underlies the creation versus evolution controversy, however it may be protested, but a controversy between Sunday worship and Sabbath worship is on the way such as the world has never seen and the groundwork is being laid. Blessings