I get their magazine also. It is beyond excellent. …

Comment on Adventists are virtually silent by Lydian Belknap.

I get their magazine also. It is beyond excellent. I wish it was “required reading” for every student in every Bible and science class in every one of our Academies and Colleges and Universities! Grade school kids need the Bible books so many of us “oldies” grew up with many years ago. (My only problem with Acts and Facts is that I don’t really have a scientific background and at my age and stage in life–86 coming up very soon–I sometimes have a bit of a problem following their scientific reasoning.) But their conclusions are 100% biblical.

I’ve just started having a discussion (by mail) with one of their scientists on the Sabbath. Just finished copping Elder George I. Butler‘s book, “The Change of the Sabbath” which I found on the new EGW DVD under “The Voice of the Pioneers.” That DVD is priceless in my opinion and every Adventist with a computer should buy one. The price is extremely reasonable –only $20.00– from any ABC Book Store. The only problem I have with it is that the more I read articles by her and the Adventist pioneers the more woefully ignorant of the Bible I feel!

I am also including three articles I ran across (from a different location) by the Catholic Church on the same topic–which every SDA should memorize! They debunk the Protestant’s reasoning for Sunday keeping better than any SDA articles I’ve ever run across. I’m also sending him these articles. Plus a short article by Cliff Goldstein entitled “The Indestructible, Universal Sabbath.” I hope to get all of this in the mail Monday. (I hope I’m not overdoing it!) If thing look at all promising I want to send him the “Conflict” set later on. (I’m also corresponding with a Church of Christ minister I came in contact with some time ago and am sending him the same material. Please remember this feeble effort by a very old lady in your prayers!

(Hey, we are supposed to be the head–not the tail–in all things biblical. Where in the world are OUR creation scientists hiding in all of this discussion???)

For anyone who is interested in this issue and wants to have the “facts” here is their address:

Acts and Facts
Institute for Creation Research
P. O. Box 59029
Dallas, Texas 75229

Their Phone Number is: 214-615-8300

And their Web Site is:www.icr.org

I assure you, you won’t be disappointed.

Lydian Belknap Also Commented

Adventists are virtually silent
@Michael Prewitt:

Michael, how can you say there “are several ways of interpreting the ‘days’ in Genesis 1 as being something other than 24-hour days” when the passage plainly says, “the evening and the morning were the “first–second–third, etc. day.” Obviously you do not believe what God plainly states–obviously you don’t even believe that there is a God and that what He says is true. You also obviously do not believe the Bible is His inspired Word to mankind.

My friend, with that mindset it is no wonder you see “several ways to interpret Genesis 1.” Those of us who believe the Bible to be the living Word of God simply cannot dialog intelligently with you on this topic because we are only ‘not on the same page’–we’re not even in the same book!” (And there are MANY good scientists–a lot of whom once believed as you apparently do but the more they studied into it with an open mind the more they became disillusioned with evolution and the more they turned to the Bible–and the God of the Bible–as being the only true explanation of how this world we–and all that live therein–came to be. I suggest you read some of their books with an open mind. Look up “Acts and Facts” at www.icr.org or call them at 214-615-8300. I’m sure they will be happy to work with you on this issue.

Incidentally, please explain to me how you account for the seven-day week? The months and the years are determined by the sun and the moon but there is nothing in nature that determines the weekly cycle–God gave that to us when He created our world–and all that in it is. There is simply no other reason for the weekly cycle.


Adventists are virtually silent
I did not mean to imply (in my earlier post) for one minute that we do not have many wonderful teachers in our schools. I know some of them personally and many are struggling to teach the children and youth under their care true Adventism. But, unfortunately, some are “under the thumb” of some (not all, by any means) who are hard to deal with and determined to run things “their way” which, unfortunately, is not always “GOD’S way!” Our school teachers–from the grade school through college–are sometimes put in very difficult situations and try to do the very best they can under the circumstances. They need our prayers and encouragement!

PS–If we really want the truth and strong support for our position on creation perhaps we should all sign up for course work at ICR–Institution for Creation Research–based in Dallas, Texas. Unfortunately. they aren’t Adventists (and they put us to shame) but they really have this issue “straight!”


Adventists are virtually silent
Michael, David and Doug, I think you have made a very good point–and one that I have mentioned several times–though perhaps in a somewhat different way

When I was going through church school our Bible lessons were so different from the ones our children are getting today in probably the majority of our schools. An example of this–which I have mentioned several times on this web site–is that our Bible text books today are such that any “Christian” school could easily use them. I’ll admit I haven’t looked at our grade schools Bible books for several years–after all, my children and grandchildren are way beyond the church school age–but when I last looked I was very disturbed by the “pablum” they contained. And the results are shown in an incident I have also mentioned before.

A girl that I am personally acquainted with–she has been a guest in our home several times–took a course in Daniel in her senior year in one of our academies and was “shocked” to learn that the story of Daniel in the lion’s den was a true story–and not a fairy tale like Cinderella! This girl was reared an SDA and had attended SDA a church schools all her life! When I showed her a very old copy of my 8th grade Bible book–“God’s Great Plan” she looked at me in utter amazement and said, “You took THAT in GRADE SCHOOL???” That book started with the fall of Lucifer and ended with the New Earth. My 7th grade Bible book was “Tell it to the world” and was definitely very “mission minded.” Those books produced men like H. M. S. Richards, George Vandeman and Joe Crews. (Has anybody notice that Doug Batchelor, Shawn Boonstra, and David Asscherick did NOT “grow up Adventists”? They are NOT “products of our current educational system!” That should tell us something.)

It is not enough to raise “nice’’ children–children who are pleasant, friendly, well-mannered, carefully groomed (preferably conservatively dressed), person. We must prepare our children to “change their world”. And, as I see it, the only way to accomplish this is to thoroughly ground them in the real truths of the Bible at an early age. Do we realize that reliable studies show that the primary years are the years when this is best accomplished?

We definitely need to trim out the bad “branches” from our educational system –and from our system as a whole–but.as I see it anyway, more importantly, we need to drastically change the “fertilizer” we are feeding the “roots” of that tree. How can we expect our young people to courageously carry the “torch of truth” if we adults have not given it to them in the first place?


Recent Comments by Lydian Belknap

A New Endowment Program for Adventist Education
So here I sit–a “very old lady”–totally confused and not having a clue as to whether to donate or not–or where to donate if I should.

As things stand now I think I will just continue putting my own little amount to my current “missionary out reach” of buying “Steps to Christ” and “Who Do You Think You Are?” and passing them on to the clerks in the stores where I shop or other people I meet that I think would like them.

If and when you folks decide on what, how and where to help in this very worthy project let me know and I’ll do what I can then.


A New Endowment Program for Adventist Education
I just noticed that there is such a program in place in northern California but I would want one that is nation wide. After all, if our kids aren’t already in danger here in the southern union also (as well the rest of the US) it’s most likely only a short matter of time till they will be.


A New Endowment Program for Adventist Education
I am far from a wealthy person who could and gladly would donate large sums of money to such a program but I could and would gladly donate some if such assurances were solidly in place. I’m sure there are many “old folks” like me “out there” who feel the same way. (Is there already such a program in place? If so please post all needed information.)


The God of the Gaps
While browsing my rather voluminous file of articles to “save” I ran across this jewel—I think it is worth saving and thinking about–especially the last statement by Darwin himself:
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Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

While Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is a relatively young archetype, the evolutionary worldview itself is as old as antiquity. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Anaximander postulated the development of life from non-life and the evolutionary descent of man from animal. Charles Darwin simply brought something new to the old philosophy — a plausible mechanism called “natural selection.” Natural selection acts to preserve and accumulate minor advantageous genetic mutations. Suppose a member of a species developed a functional advantage (it grew wings and learned to fly). Its offspring would inherit that advantage and pass it on to their offspring. The inferior (disadvantaged) members of the same species would gradually die out, leaving only the superior (advantaged) members of the species. Natural selection is the preservation of a functional advantage that enables a species to compete better in the wild. Natural selection is the naturalistic equivalent to domestic breeding. Over the centuries, human breeders have produced dramatic changes in domestic animal populations by selecting individuals to breed. Breeders eliminate undesirable traits gradually over time. Similarly, natural selection eliminates inferior species gradually over time.
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Darwin’s Theory of Evolution – Slowly But Surely…

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is a slow gradual process. Darwin wrote, “…Natural selection acts only by taking advantage of slight successive variations; she can never take a great and sudden leap, but must advance by short and sure, though slow steps.” [1] Thus, Darwin conceded that, “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” [2] Such a complex organ would be known as an “irreducibly complex system”. An irreducibly complex system is one composed of multiple parts, all of which are necessary for the system to function. If even one part is missing, the entire system will fail to function. Every individual part is integral. [3] Thus, such a system could not have evolved slowly, piece by piece. The common mousetrap is an everyday non-biological example of irreducible complexity. It is composed of five basic parts: a catch (to hold the bait), a powerful spring, a thin rod called “the hammer,” a holding bar to secure the hammer in place, and a platform to mount the trap. If any one of these parts is missing, the mechanism will not work. Each individual part is integral. The mousetrap is irreducibly complex. [4]

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is a theory in crisis in light of the tremendous advances we’ve made in molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics over the past fifty years. We now know that there are in fact tens of thousands of irreducibly complex systems on the cellular level. Specified complexity pervades the microscopic biological world. Molecular biologist

Michael Denton wrote, “Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small, weighing less than 10-12 grams, each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up altogether of one hundred thousand million atoms, far more complicated than any machinery built by man and absolutely without parallel in the non-living world.” [5]

And we don’t need a microscope to observe irreducible complexity. The eye, the ear and the heart are all examples of irreducible complexity, though they were not recognized as such in Darwin’s day. Nevertheless, Darwin confessed, “To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” [6]

Footnotes:
1. Charles Darwin, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life,” 1859, p. 162.
2. Ibid. p. 158.
3. Michael Behe, “Darwin’s Black Box,” 1996.
4. “Unlocking the Mystery of Life,” documentary by Illustra Media, 2002.
5. Michael Denton, “Evolution: A Theory in Crisis,” 1986, p. 250.
6. Charles Darwin, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life,” 1859, p. 155.

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I don’t think Sean could have said it better himself!


Walla Walla University: The Collegian Debates Evolution vs. Creation
Sean, I guess I “bit off more than I can chew” when I subscribed to some of your other options.
All I can handle is the ^way it used to be”–like this column still is. Please put me back to this mode of information and I will be very happy. Thanks.