We Do Not Talk About How Great Our Church Is

[Neil D]

Some things need to be repeated....this is one of them....

Quote:

I don't think we understand the message of God..and we certainly haven't incorporatated it into our being...I would even say that we truely don't believe it....

We don't believe it because we have messed up the message or we give superficial respect to it. More often than not, we really don't understand the message.....Is it a message of grace and mercy or a message of Law and respect? Are we here to promote OUR agenda or the message of God? How do we know that we have the right message? How do we know that WE have not perverted it ourselves?

points to ponder.................

The question that we all have to ask ourselves is where do we fit in this scenerio.....and ask ourselves what we are going to do to correct the "OUR" problem....

[whbae]

I am wondering if movie going is a proper activity to do for a SDA. Even some other protestant denominations restrain from movie going.

I am not blaming any one, just wondering.

Won

[Neil D]

Can you explain to me why I should be dismayed if you agree?

[snip]

Would you mind explaining to me why I should be dismayed if you agree?

pondering

sky

Ever agree with the conclusion, but realize that HOW you got there was totally different than the other person traveling a differnt path....? Now you ARE dismayed. lol

You said-

We are still here wandering in this world of sin and sorrow and we are lacking behind waiting for the latter rain message which we initially rejected between 1888 and 1903.

and I said-

I don't think we understand the message of God..and we certainly haven't incorporatated it into our being...I would even say that we truely don't believe it....

We don't believe it because we have messed up the message or we give superficial respect to it. More often than not, we really don't understand the message.....Is it a message of a]grace and mercy or b] a message of Law and respect? Are we here to promote OUR agenda or the message of God? How do we know that we have the right message? How do we know that WE have not perverted it ourselves?

i was attempting to emphasise concepts the grace and mercy vs Law and respect and our lack of understanding them , let alone the concept of rejecting or even understanding the message 1888.....of which you seem to understand....

[skyblue888]

hb, thanks for your comments. I just noticed your reply today, almost 3 months later!

The message is very simple. "The sinner must ever look toward Calvary and with the simple faith of a little child, he must rest in the merits of Christ, accepting His righteousness and believing in His mercy." Evangelism, 185.

The Holy Spirit so simplified the matter of salvation that there remains no excuse for our not understanding it. Yet, she writes, "The matter of salvation is just as simple as ABC. But we don't understand it." Faith & Works, 64.

The message is presented to us in clear, distinct lines:

"The merits of Christ's sacrifice are sufficient to present to the Father in our behalf." Steps to Christ, 36.

Of course only those who have been made to feel their great need, their utterly helpless condition, can appreciate the above statement. See D.A.317,318)

The merits of Christ's sacrifice are sufficient to present to the Father in our behalf in order to bring Christ's righteousness into the life and His righteousness accomplishes everything (F.W.27) as it imparts all the powers, all the grace, all the penitence, all the inclination, and all the pardon of sin.(F.W.24)It is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. (T.M.92)

For "The merits of Christ blot out transgression and clothe us with the robe of righteousness woven in the loom of Heaven." Evangelism,186.

This is law and grace through faith in the all-sufficient merits of a crucified and risen Saviour. It is not the doctrine of once saved always saved for "Unless we make it our lifebusiness to behold the uplifted Saviour and to accept the merits which it is our privilege to claim, we can no more be saved than Peter could walk upon the water unless he kept his eyes fixed steadily upon Jesus." Testimonies to Ministers, 93.

Thus we read, "The only faith that will benefit us is that which embraces Him as a personal Saviour: which appropriates His merits to ourselves." Desire of Ages, 347.

We appropriate His merits by claiming them, daily.

Back to you hb

sky :)

[Sojourner]

On the ABC - Australian Broadcasting Corporation - the government run television and radio network in Australia, they recently reported that the Seventh Day Adventist Church is the fastest growing church on the populous east coast of Australia.

To put this in some perspective, less than 10% of people in Australia attend church and that number has been plummenting since the 1960's. Many churches are either going backwards or are only holding their numbers in a growing population. In my city the Jehovahs Witnesses have closed several meeting halls and mainstream churches like the Baptist and Salvation Army have also closed churches. Some Baptist churches are much larger now than they were several years ago though.

Australia is a very difficult place to evangalise in as its a very secular humanistic place where a lot of people do not like authority and churches that are seen as "institutional" are shunned by many of the population.

The only way the SDA can be seeing such growth in Australia is by Gods Grace alone. We need a true revival of Christianity in our country now more than ever. If the SDA are the group to show the others leadership then that is awesome IMO.

[ClubV12]

Sojourner, be advised there are many here who quote Ellen White and claim to be members in good standing that are Seventh-day Adventists in name only. In some cases they may retain an official record of membership but do not support the Church in any way. Not with tithe, offerings, pen or voice. Some are obviously opposed to the Church, call it Babylon and urge people to leave it. Others are more dangerous and insidious, from all appearances they seem to love the Church, seem to be members, are well versed in the Spirit of Prophecy, but they preach a false doctrine. They too are calling people out of the Church. Many wolves in sheeps clothing, very well disguised, very convincing.

Watch for the tone and spirit of the posts. A constant flow of negative comments and much posting of Ellen White to support a position that the Church is in apostasy and no longer favored of God, is a dead give away of the true spirit you are dealing with!!!

Walk carefully Sojourner, be careful of what you read here and make no assumptions anything is truth without doing as the Bereans did, searching carefully to see whether these things are so. YOu can learn a lot here, both good and evil. God bless!

As for me, I am a Seventh-day Adventist. No if's, and's, explanations, excuses, pauses or clairification needed. I support the organized visible Seventh-day Adventist Church with my tithe, offerings, pen, voice and believe in the doctrines and theology that Church preaches and teaches. I recognize it has it's flaws and it's problems, what else is new? It remains, the sole object of Gods supreme affection, His chosen people, with a message to give to the world. It WIL endure to the end.

[hch]

As for me, I am a Seventh-day Adventist. No if's, and's, explanations, excuses, pauses or clairification needed. I support the organized visible Seventh-day Adventist Church with my tithe, offerings, pen, voice and believe in the doctrines and theology that Church preaches and teaches. I recognize it has it's flaws and it's problems, what else is new? It remains, the sole object of Gods supreme affection, His chosen people, with a message to give to the world. It WIL endure to the end.

Agreed: The SDA Church will endure to the end! But only 5 of the 10 Virgins get into the wedding. They all think that they are ready to go to the wedding, but too late to many discover that in spite of having the Spirit of Prophecy, the Bible, the doctrines, the theology, and the profession of great faith, they are poor, wretched, blind, miserable, and naked.

We have Peter's example before us. He said he'd die for Jesus. But before the night ended, Peter denied Jesus thrice.

If there were 14,000,000 SDA's worldwide and only 50% are ready, to meet the Bridegroom, something is wrong. To have 7,000,000 church members to be rejected at the end something is wrong. Imagine a manufacturing company that had a 50% failure rate for its product line. Would you buy their product knowing that when you got it home there was a 50% chance that it would be worthless? What to do for a church that is prophesied to have a 50% failure rate when the Bridegroom comes?

If there were 14,000,000 SDA's and not 1 in a 100 were what they should be, we would have a hard time populating the 144,000. Do the math. What to do for a church of 14,000,000 members that can't find 144,000 saints (1 in a 100) in their midst?

The message to Laodicea is not that the church is great. It is a message of how to make the Church great. But only the remnant of the remnant who hear the message and that fall on the Rock and are broken will be in that number when the saints go marching in.

So no matter how we look at it when "The SDA Church endures to the end" all of the members won't, and that is too many to loose!

So while clubv12 is crying peace and safety:

"Watch for the tone and spirit of the posts. A constant flow of negative comments and much posting of Ellen White to support a position that the Church is in apostasy and no longer favored of God, is a dead give away of the true spirit you are dealing with!!!"

The frozen chosen slumber and sleep, and dare anybody sound an alarm of warning that something is wrong with a church that has left its first love or that is poor, wretched, miserable, blind, and naked. There has got to be something wrong with people that love the church and see the errors that have crept in since 1844. Watch out for those members that don't like the high failure rates and who will call it like they see it because they are going to be labeled as the ones that are causing the apostasy that they are trying to avoid.

[Naomi]

As for me, I am a Seventh-day Adventist. No if's, and's, explanations, excuses, pauses or clairification needed. I support the organized visible Seventh-day Adventist Church with my tithe, offerings, pen, voice and believe in the doctrines and theology that Church preaches and teaches. I recognize it has it's flaws and it's problems, what else is new? It remains, the sole object of Gods supreme affection, His chosen people, with a message to give to the world. It WIL endure to the end.

Well said Club!!

[phkrause]

Originally Posted By: ClubV12

As for me, I am a Seventh-day Adventist. No if's, and's, explanations, excuses, pauses or clairification needed. I support the organized visible Seventh-day Adventist Church with my tithe, offerings, pen, voice and believe in the doctrines and theology that Church preaches and teaches. I recognize it has it's flaws and it's problems, what else is new? It remains, the sole object of Gods supreme affection, His chosen people, with a message to give to the world. It WIL endure to the end.

Well said Club!!