@Professor Kent: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; …

Comment on SDA Darwinians compromise key church doctrines by Sean Pitman.

@Professor Kent:

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5

– as quoted by Shane Hilde.

You’ve gotta be kidding. You’re going to tell us now that God’s word can be trusted ahead of empirical evidence and human reason? That sounds a lot like believing in Santa Claus, the Tooth Monster, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Sorry, but that’s not good enough. Every SDA knows that God wants us to use our God-given brains rather than accept God’s word at face value.

You’re not answering how one can recognize the Bible as truly being “God’s Word” to begin with, out of all the competing options, without using one’s own brain? – without the use of human reason to which the Bible appeals? without any appeal to the candid intelligent mind as the Word of God?

Certainly once the candid intelligent mind is convinced, by the weight of evidence (as described by Mrs. White), then one can take the Bible as a Source of Divine Authority regarding those various points of which one might originally have thought differently than the Bible makes clear.

Those who teach uncritical acceptance of God’s word ahead of our own understanding (the historical-grammatical hermeneutic), like Dr. Ben Clauson at the Geoscience Research Institute, are unfit for employment in the Church. EducateTruth has already established this, and quite forcefully I might add.

The SDA Church has asked for teachers to fill teaching positions in the Church who can actively promote the Church’s position on origins from a position of scientific credibility. Consider, yet again, the very clear request of the SDA Church in this matter:

We call on all boards and educators at Seventh-day Adventist institutions at all levels to continue upholding and advocating the church’s position on origins. We, along with Seventh-day Adventist parents, expect students to receive a thorough, balanced, and scientifically rigorous exposure to and affirmation of our historic belief in a literal, recent six-day creation, even as they are educated to understand and assess competing philosophies of origins that dominate scientific discussion in the contemporary world.

http://adventist.org/beliefs/statements/main-stat55.html

If an individual cannot provide “a thorough, balanced, and scientifically rigorous exposure to and affirmation of our historic belief in a literal, recent six-day creation” then that individual would not be someone who could effectively fulfill the mission of the SDA Church in the capacity of a science teacher within the Church’s employ.

Not everyone is qualified to fulfill such positions within the Church. This doesn’t mean that those who are unqualified are therefore bad people. On the contrary, they may be very good people indeed who are sincerely honest in their respective positions. It is just that not all honest people can be effectively employed to do certain specific tasks within the SDA Church organization.

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com

Sean Pitman Also Commented

SDA Darwinians compromise key church doctrines
@Professor Kent:

Totally agreed…even though they reject a literal 6-day creation 6,000 years ago. Fancy that.

Fancy that. Knowledge, by itself, doesn’t save. The motive of selfless love is what saves. Yet, knowledge has the power to provide one with a solid hope of bright future in this life, making this life more tolerable and giving us a closer and more intimate walk with God here and now. It also has the power to quicken the conscience and in this way has an indirect role in contributing to our salvation.

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


SDA Darwinians compromise key church doctrines
@Professor Kent:

I ask, yet again, what do you do with the evaluation of the former Education Director for the Adventist World Church, Humberto Rasi, of Dr. Davidon’s paper?

“This paper [by Dr. Davidson] does not deal with the issue of epistemology (i.e., how we come to believe, and in particular, how we come to accept the authority of Scripture); in the pages that follow we assume the acceptance of the Bible as the Word of God. Within this presupposition of faith, the question that occupies our attention is the issue of biblical hermeutics, i.e., how to properly interpret the text”.

http://www.andrews.edu/~davidson/Publications/Hermeneutics,%20Biblical/Bible%20&%20Hermeneutics.pdf

Further repetitions of your very same argument without even addressing the counters presented to you will not be posted in this forum…

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


SDA Darwinians compromise key church doctrines
@Professor Kent:

There are many different voices claiming to be “God’s” voice. Picking out the true voice of God must be based on understood empirical evidence if it is to be rationally convincing to the intelligent candid mind.

This is why only God can tell if one has honestly considered the evidence that was made available to him/her – to include those who take on the “atheist” position. Salvation isn’t based on a correct understanding of the empirical evidence, but on a love of or a desire to have a correct understanding.

Because of this, I dare say that it is quite likely that more than a few “atheists” will find themselves in Heaven someday…

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com


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