Archive for June, 2010
To those SDA’s who are embracing the theory of evolution as an explanation for the origin of life and at the same time attempting to keep their faith in a future life after the Second Coming, I suggest they consider the following:
The Biblical record reveals four resurrection incidents in the Old Testament, and four in the New. That makes a total of eight people who were resurrected after death. The estimated earth’s cumulative population since creation is approximately eighty billion. This means that your chances of getting resurrected is 0.0000008. Would you buy a lottery ticket if your chances of winning were 1 in ten billion? You can place your faith in statistics, or else in the One who said: “I am the Resurrection and the Life.”
The source of the above quotation is unknown to me, but it reveals the schizophrenia of those who attempt to embrace both biblical truth and the alleged ’scientific’ solution to the origin of life dilemma. Unfortunately, many Seventh-day Adventists are trying to blend evolution and Christianity. This is like trying to mix water and oil. The result is an unstable mixture. If you believe that Jesus did in fact come out of the tomb alive and ascended to heaven, if you believe that he did in fact resurrect Lazarus after he had been four days buried, then how can you deny God’s power to have created Adam and Eve instantaneously, instead of relying on millions of years of evolutionary forces based on natural selection and genetic mutation?
Of course, if we doubt, like Thomas, that Jesus had the power to come out of the tomb alive, then there is no point in calling ourselves Adventists. This is quite simple: If Jesus did not come out of the tomb, then he is dead, and if he is dead, then there is no way for him to come back; which means that calling ourselves Adventists is a total misnomer, because the name Adventist means we do believe that Jesus is coming back to claim those who are his own. We might as well admit that we are not true Seventh-day Adventists!
Let me ask you again: If God could bring Jesus and Lazarus back to life in an instant, why would he rely on millions of years of evolution to produce the first pair of human beings, Adam and Eve? I invite you to consider that the same scientific facts utilized by the defenders of the theory of evolution in order to justify their theory of common descent can be explained by common design. If we reject common design, we are actually rejecting the Common Designer– or should perhaps we call Him a rather Uncommon Designer.
But that is not all. God is depicted as the Creator from the first page of Genesis through the last page of Revelation. By accepting the humanistic theory of evolution, we are in fact not only rejecting a living Jesus, we are at the same time, by the same token, rejecting both the Bible and the Author of life. Then our hope of seeing Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven is destroyed and any hope of a future life with him after his second coming. Do you think that such a decision represents a bargain? Should we trade our faith in Jesus for a reliance on Darwin? Can Darwin forgive our sins and grant us eternal life?
I had the privilege of presenting the following material at the Loma Linda University Church Dalton Baldwin’s Sabbath School back in February 11, 2006. I published it originally in the www.sdaforum.com web site and I am now including it in this new forum which will eventually replace the old one.
The Catholic Dogma of the Trinity
What is the origin of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity? The issue goes back to 325 when at the Council of Nicaea the Catholic prelates decided that Jesus Christ and God the Father were coequal in power and authority. Half a century later, in 381 A.D., at the Council of Constantinople, the leaders of the church determined that the Holy Spirit was a third member of the Godhead, possessing the same attributes of power and authority within the Divinity. This doctrine was further developed both by Augustine of Hippo, and Thomas Aquinas. This doctrine was inherited by the majority of Christian denominations that emerged over time following the Protestant Reformation led by Marin Luther.
No major challenge to the doctrine developed that elapsed between its inception and the centuries that followed. Nevertheless, some theologians began to question the adequacy of the traditional understanding of the Trinity, arguing that it was rather remote from biblical witness and events of salvation history [1]. This led the way for the setting aside the classical Augustinian-Thomistic synthesis of the mystery of the Trinity [2]. A new understanding developed based on the biblical teaching that man was created in the image of God.
Continued below. Click on “Comments” if needed.
Can the Democratic Party Survive?
I recognize that there are a large number of factors which determine the future viability and survival of any movement. I would like to limit myself in this posting to only one of them: the Democratic Party stand on the abortion issue.
Can the Democratic position on this issue impact on the effectiveness and eventual survival of this political party. I believe it can, especially if we could hold all the other factors constant. I want to start my analysis by submitting to you the following propositions, which I hope you will accept as valid premises:
Basic Indisputable Premises.
1. Most members of the Democratic Party are pro-abortion.
2. Most members of the Republican Party favor a pro-life position.
3. Children tend to inherit the moral values of their parents.
4. The survival of any movement is contingent on the survival of the children.
5. No organization can survive on a long-term basis if they start decimating the future members of their group
Unavoidable Conclusion.
If you accept the premises I enumerated above, I hope you will agree with me that. Given the fact that the members of the Republican Party tend to avoid aborting the future members of their group, while at the same time the members of the Democratic Party tend to abort them, the logical outcome seems to be that the members of the first group will tend to increase, while the members of the second one will inevitably diminish.
If there were no other factors at play, then we must conclude that the Democratic Party is doomed to eventual extinction. No wise country expecting to preserve its strenghth and identity will start by destroying the future soldiers that are currently on their way to being born. It would be suicidal to start killing those who, if allowed to be born, would eventually be able to replace the soldiers who are retiring and dying.
This is why, for the sake of the welfare and survival of the Democratic Party, for the sake of the survival of our country, and for the sake of even the welfare and survival of the pro-abortion movement, there is an urgent need for all of us: Democrats and Republicans, pro-abortion and pro-life, to join hand in an effort to reduce and if possible elliminate the large number of abortions that are performed on a regular basis, which number currently approximately 3,000 every week–the number of those that died on 9/11. If I am all wet, please let me know!
Following Senator Dianne Feinstein unsuccessful efforts to block the confirmation of Judge Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court, I decided to contact the California Senator with a suggestion regarding a sure way Democrats could preserve women’s right to choose in the future. Here is a copy of my E-mail.
Dear Senator Dianne Feinstein,
Considering the Democratic failure to stop the confirmation of Judge Alito for the U.S. Supreme Court, I would like to suggest a sure way of protecting women’s right to abortion in the future.
It is a well-known fact that children tend to inherit the values of their parents. This means that the children of Pro-choice women will likely inherit the Pro-choice values of their parents, and they will be the ones who will fight to preserve women’s abortion rights in the future. The problem is that we are killing them by the thousands.
We have killed 47 million of those who would have likely defended the right of women to choose. We need to reverse this trend if we want to succeed in protecting women’s rights. Democrats like you need to yield their influence to reduce the number of abortions. Otherwise, the number of Pro-choice individuals will continue to decrease, while the number of Pro-life will keep increasing, since Pro-life women do not abort theirs. This is precisely why the Pro-life movement is gaining strength.
There is more. Surveys have discovered that in France out of three babies born, one of them is born to a Moslem woman. At this trend, Europe will be increasingly be populated by Moslems. Decreasing the number of abortions by non-Moslems can reverse this trend. If we want to continue to lead the world, we need to set a wise example to follow by other nations. In the U.S., the birth rate is well below what is needed to maintain a stable demographic level.
Were it not for both the legal and illegal immigration, our U.S. population would slowly implode. We need to reverse this trend, and one way of accomplishing this is by reducing the number of abortions. The security of out country demands that we remedy this situation. We need to better control our borders, reduce the number of illegal immigrants, and increase the birth rate of Americans. Anything you can do encourage the decrease of the number of abortions in our country will help us in achieving these objectives.
Following the funeral of my brother-in-law, who had devoted his entire life to the work of a literature evangelist, I began to reminisce about the time, many decades ago, when my sister asked my dad to design their future home. They had acquired the building lot, and my dad accepted the unusual challenge of designing a home with the church in mind. How do you do that? Dad was a builder, and he had designed and built not only homes, but churches as well, but this particular assignment was different: My sister asked him to do this with the needs of the church in mind.
*Can you give me some specifics? my father asked my sister.
*Yes, she responded. Make the living room the largest room in the house.
*And why do you want me to make the living room the largest room of the house? he inquired.
*Because I am planning to use our home for sharing our faith in the soon coming of the Lord with our future neighbors, she responded.
*And how are you going to do this? My dad insisted.
*I am going to invite the neighborhood children for a children’s story time and singing. Children always like that, she explained.
And that is exactly what she did. She was a nurse, and in a short time she became known as the neighborhood nurse. On one occasion I stopped by her place for a short visit. It was dark and rainy, and my sister asked me whether I would be willing to accompany her for a nurse visit. One of the neighbors was sick and needed some medications the physician had prescribed to be administered, and she did not want to be out in the street alone in the dark. I accepted the invitation. The family was poor, and they had no money to pay her for her services, and promised to pay her later. She did not mind doing this because there was a need, and she was willing to supply it.
One day, she invited some of the neighbors’ children to her home for a story time followed by singing. The children came, and the group kept growing, and soon the parents wanted to know why their children were so motivated by the stories and the singing. To make the story short, this is how the Villa Adelina SDA Church, in Buenos Aires, Argentina was born. When the group of children and their parents could no longer fit inside my sister’s living room, they decided to secure a building site, and eventually a church building was in place.
Can you imagine how the church would grow if every SDA family would try this church growth concept? Of course, this idea was not new with my sister. She drank this with her mother’s milk. We were born in Privitne, Ukraine, and during the Communist hegemony in Eastern Europe, it was impossible to get a permit to build churches. The solution? House churches. For half a century, an SDA house church functioned at one of my cousin’s home in that small town. My cousin removed a partition between two of the bedrooms, and that became the local house church.
As you can see, there is a way of designing your home with the soon coming of our Lord in mind. Perhaps someone reading this might be inspired to take into consideration the needs of the church while planning for their own comfort as they build or buy their next home.
Some years ago I received the following question from one of our readers:
How has it come about that a small minority has gotten to the place where they are able to force their views on society?
My answer then was: “I believe that many have contributed to this unfortunate situation; nevertheless, the major culprit, I believe is the U.S. Congress, for failing to fulfill its duty to act when action is needed to hold the Supreme Court accountable for doing what Congress was designed to do: Creating new laws. Activist judges are constantly creating new laws out of thin air. A good example is the legalization of abortion, which cannot be justified under the U.S. Constitution.
The notion that privacy can be more sacred than the life of the unborn is a dangerous myth. It has caused the death of 45 million unborn babies. Now a social security crisis is looming on the horizon, since an entire generation [45 million] are missing from the pool of young workers, and the constant inflow of both legal and illegal immigrants is a rather poor alternative to the shortage.
Europe is facing a similar crisis. The birthrate per woman is way below replacement level. This situation is rather serious in nations like Russia, Italy, Germany, and Japan. Some countries are already considering legislation to encourage pregnant women to carry their pregnancy to term, with financial incentives for them to do so.”
Continued below. Click on “Comments” if needed.
“If enough people refused to pay their tithe to the Church until the Church changed their stand on abortion, I have no doubt, the Church would change their stand very quickly, I’m sure….It is all about money…right now, some of the big donators are those running the abortion clinics and various other sinful places….so it is more to the churches benefit to keep quiet….but if all other donators refused to pay their tithe I believe that the church would change their mind almost over night.
No, I cannot belong to a church that OK’s murder…. How can you? How can I go to my Sunday keeping friends and ask them to come to my Church so that they can keep the 4th Commandment, when I know that my Church sanctions abortions? Doesn’t that sound a bit hypocritical?????? Would you join ANY other organizations that sanctions abortions???? I wouldn’t….and I doubt you would, either. Why then would you join a church that sanctions abortions? would you join a church that sanctions adulItery? I don’t think you would…is not abortions even worse than adultery? I cannot think of anything that is worse! ”
[Tammy Roesch]
Source:
http://www.thenarrowway.yourlivecommunity.com/topic599_post15901.html#15901
LSU promotes acceptance of homosexuality but not creation
By Educate Truth Staff
“One student got permission to write an article rebutting the church’s position on homosexuality, but Louie Bishop couldn’t get permission to distribute a letter to his classmates about the theory of evolution being promoted in the classrooms.
Current LSU student, Louie Bishop, published a letter in response to “LSU responds to Adventist Review article” on his website May 11, 2010. In his letter he states:
Because of my concern for the salvation of other students who could lose their faith because of the promotion of evolution in Biology classes at LSU, I wrote a personal note which I gave to about 20 of my fellow classmates.
For this alleged infraction I was disciplined by the so-called “Judicial Committee,” which does not appear to be an official committee of LSU. I was given a “Letter of Censure” for not having my note approved by LSU before I distributed it. I have since sought approval for distribution of my letter through the process that the Administration requestedmy letter was denied.
Here is the letter Louie wrote to his fellow classmates that was denied distribution: …”
“Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it. Our greatest enemy today is not Obama. It’s not the socialists in Congress, the liberal activists that serve as judges, it’s not Islamist terrorists, the Communist Chinese, the Federal Reserve, or illegal immigrants. Let us learn from history.
The Roman empire covered the world with roads, trade, soldiers, and technology. It was a thing of pride to be a Roman citizen. Produce and goods were inexpensive. They were the wealthiest people in the world who conquered all her challengers.
But Rome became overrun with illegal immigrants, who at first assimilated and worked as servants, but then came so fast that they did not learn the language or adopt the Roman culture. Rome became addicted to the cheap labor, and didn’t enforce her immigration laws. Politicians and businesses catered to illegal immigrants.
The highly-trained Roman military, moving rapidly on their advanced road system, was over-stretched in conflicts at the boundaries of their vast empire. For the military industrial complex, business was booming.
Motivated by the intrusive military presence all over the world, Attila the Hun was committing terrorist attacks against Rome. The over-extended military could not catch him.
Rome had a trade deficit, having outsourced most of its grain production to N. Africa. When Vandals captured the area, Rome did not have the resources to retaliate.
The citizens of Rome were on welfare. They were given free food. Those who lived at the expense of the public treasury were more numerous than those who paid into it.
To the taxpaying Romans, tax collectors were more terrible than the enemy.
The courts were unjust and corrupt. They didn’t follow the law.
Adultery and immorality were the norm. Bathhouses were filled with homosexual and heterosexual lust.
Unwanted and unloved infants were abandoned in fields to die. Some Roman leaders even proposed paying men to stay married and father more children, as Rome’s birth rate was dropping too low to sustain their culture and their quality of life.
The Roman citizen’s heart was not in the home, but in the Coliseum, the bathhouse, and the theater. They lived for entertainment. Plays, music, art, and literature – the Romans were intoxicated with entertaining themselves. Gladiators provided violent entertainment in the Coliseum.
Continued below. Click on “Comments” if needed.
“It appeared to be solid ground, but in an instant a plot of land in Guatemala City collapsed into a giant sinkhole 60 feet across that by early reports is more than 300 feet deep.
Pictured above is this monstrous hole that swallowed a three-story building and one or more unsuspecting Guatemalans on May 31, 2010. Subterranean water had undermined and carried away underground soil here until a final heavy rainstorm sent those standing on what they thought was terra firma screaming as they fell to their doom.”
“When I joined the military it was illegal
to be homosexual, then it became optional.
I’m getting out before Obama makes it mandatory.”
GySgt Harry Berres, USMC
Submitted by Wyjoz
“The question of what students at La Sierra University, a Seventh-day Adventist-owned tertiary institution in Riverside, California, learn about the origins of life on Earth is being resolved, said Ricardo Graham, LSU board of trustees chair and president of the church’s Pacific Union Conference.
“The board is intent on resolving this issue as quickly as possible, recognizing we have to be methodical and precise, and that process is of vital importance in higher education,” Graham told Adventist Review in a telephone interview on May 19. “I am very, very hopeful of a resolution very, very soon,” he added.
BOARD CHAIRMAN: Dr. Ricardo Graham, president of the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, is also chairman of the Board of Trustees at La Sierra University, which is owned by the Union. [Photo: Gerry Chudleigh/Pacific Union Recorder]
The controversy, as Adventist Review reported in its April 15, 2010 issue [Read the original story.], centers on the presentation of evolutionary theory as an explanation of origins. Some La Sierra students and alumni have complained that the school presents evolution in opposition to the Genesis accounts of creation, which the Seventh-day Adventist Church has affirmed as part of its “Fundamental Beliefs” statement.
When one student, Louie Bishop, handed out fliers on campus to protest the lectures without official permission, he was placed on “citizenship probation” by school administrators and initially not allowed to register for fall 2009 classes. Among other items, critics said a new 2009 class announced by the school as “guiding these [freshman biology] students through the ongoing dialogue between faith development and scientific investigation” presented and endorsed views contrary to the church’s beliefs.
The class, “General Biology Seminar 111A,” will be reviewed, Graham said. …”
An Illinois-based pro-life group says lost in the politics of the abortion debate is the surprising evidence that most — not some — abortions are unwanted or coerced, and many are forced.
“The Elliot Institute has updated a study on forced abortion in America. One aspect of the study focuses on the risks that women and girls often face when they refuse to have an abortion. Amy Sobie with the Elliot Institute says updated information confirms a previous conclusion that the number-one cause of death among pregnant women is homicide.
“We believe from the research and from anecdotal evidence that a lot of abortions, probably the majority of abortions in the United States, are unwanted or coerced in one way or another,” she shares. “That could be from pregnancy discrimination [or] that could be from pressure. One study shows that 64 percent of women having abortions in the U.S. reported feeling pressured by others.”
Pregnancy discrimination, says Sobie, involves employers who push an employee to have an abortion — and she adds that such complaints are on the rise. She believes states are doing a poor job in screening abortion seekers for pressure factors.
“The state of Nebraska recently became the first state to actually pass a bill that would hold abortion clinics liable,” says the pro-lifer. “Basically it allows for lawsuits when [clinics] fail to screen for coercion or force, and when they fail to screen for risk factors that put women at risk for psychological problems after abortions.” …”
More:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=1027288
“Louie Bishop pulls the veil from LSU’s new biology seminar (BIOL 111A). An advertisement for the class in the Pacific Union Recorder (Nov. 2009) said the class would include “the Seventh-day Adventist teachings on the biblical doctrine of creation….” This is not the case.
According to Bishop, quite the opposite was occurring in the classroom, but we aren’t left with just Bishop’s word on the matter. LSU recorded the lectures, and Bishop challenges President Randal Wisbey to post the videos so people can see for themselves what is really being taught.
UPDATE: Educate Truth has posted the videos here.
Also, in a letter to the Adventist Review, Randal Wisbey said, “Let me assure you and your readers that La Sierra University never, ever disciplines a student for expressing and upholding Adventist beliefs.” While this is somewhat true in word, Bishop shows how false this is in deed. LSU administration may not discipline a student for expressing Adventist beliefs by stating it in those words, but if Louie tells people what is being taught in the biology department, LSU will do all they can to keep him quiet. They have already done all they can to keep him quiet, aside from kicking him out of school. …”
This was written by a Mexican who is now a naturalized U.S. Citizen, living in Globe, AZ.
I think it’s a great explanation of the illegal immigration issue.
Here is the quote:
“If you had tickets to a sports event, concert, Disneyland , or for an airline flight, and when you got to your assigned seat you found someone else was in that seat, what would you do? You would call for a person in charge of ticket checking and have the person in your seat removed. You would properly be asked to show your ticket, and you would gladly and proudly do so, for you have bought and paid for that seat. The person in your seat would also be asked for a ticket, which they would not be able to produce. They would be called “gate crashers” and they would properly be removed.
Now in this huge stadium called the USA we have had millions of gate crashers. We have been asking security to check for tickets and remove the gate crashers. We have been asking security to have better controls in checking at the door. We have asked security to lock the back doors. Security has failed us. They are still looking the other way. They are afraid to ask to see the tickets. Many people say there is unlimited seating, and whether there is or not, no one should be allowed in for free while the rest of us pay full price!
In “section AZ”, of “Stadium USA “, we have had enough of the failures of Security. We have decided to do our own ticket checking, and properly remove those who do not have tickets. Now it seems very strange to me that so many people in the other 49 “sections”, and even many in our own “section” do not want tickets checked, or even to be asked to show their ticket! Even the head of Security is chastising us, while not doing his own job which he has sworn to do.
My own ticket has been bought and paid for, so I am proudly going to show it when asked to do so. I have a right to my seat, and I want the gate crashers to be asked to show their tickets too. The only reason that I can imagine anyone objecting to being asked for their ticket is that they are in favor of gate crashing, and all of the illegal activities that go with it, such as drug smuggling, gang wars, murder, human smuggling for profit, and many more illegal and inhumane acts that we are trying to prevent with our new legislation. Is that what I am hearing from all of the protestors such as Phoenix Mayor Gordon, U.S. Rep. Grijalva, even President Obama? If you are not in favor of showing tickets, (proof of citizenship, passport, green card, or other legal document) when asked, as I would do proudly, then you must be condoning those illegal activities.”
This makes perfect sense to me. What do you think?
Since Obama has never shown his ticket I guess he feels obligated to not ask others to show theirs.
This item was submitted by Wyjoz.