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On Sabbath, December 20, 2014 the Youth Department of Central Jamaica Conference (CJC) launched O-SAY (Operation Save a Youth), a mission-driven program for the youth and by the youth of Central Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. View the full article

Mrs. White started out as a shut door Adventist, but grew into someone more welcoming of others. She wrote Steps to Christ for the general Christian world and had it published, not by an Adventist publishing house but a popular Christian publishing house. She even became a popular speaker in Sunday keeping churches on Sunday mornings. Now the "Shut door" protected us to a great amount from something that was very sad happening in other churches over those years. Churches. The theory of Evolution produced many Atheists and one group started to see the Bible as fiction following evolution and became preterists. In a radical reaction to this those who wanted to believe the Bible came up with the views of Fundamentalism. While Fundamentalism did not have the huge impact that it had in other churches, and produced a resistance movement to it (such as Elder Butler, Mrs. White, Willie and eventually A. G. Daniels, W. W. Prescott, who turned from fundamentalism, and the religion theology in some of our schools most notable Washington Missionary college.) yet it did grow in. Elder Butler sided with his nephew Elder Washburn in opposing Jones and Wagner. He had to leave for a while after 1888 and struggle. I believe that it was his anit-fundamentalism views that got him through this process. His nephew, however was not only anti-Jones and Wagner, but also a strong fundamentalist. He liked to collect Mrs. White quotes that he saw as supporting his views, and apply a fundamentalist mindset to these and use them as authority to push his views. Mrs. White wrote to him and others from his camp saying that he was misusing her writings. He somehow was able to come up with reasons for the quotes he liked to have been from God, but her criticisms of how he was using her writings as not binding upon him. I know that some from that school of thought saw Mrs. White as having apostatized, and taught that you needed to turn to her pre-1888 writings which were from God, with her post 1888 writings being from Jones, Wagner, Willie, Prescott and Daniels. Washburn became a good friend of a young man, Benjamin G. Wilkinson who used the same methods and held very similar views and who got very similar letters from Willie as Willie's mother wrote to Washburn. I don't know how familiar Wilkinson was with the fact that Washburn and Mrs. White had the same friction that Wilkinson was having with Willie, but he saw Willie as an example of prophet's children being unfaithful and compared him to the complaints of Samuel's sons. [by the way, there is evidence in the Bible that the accusations against Samuel's children may have been exaggerated and more political differences rather than issues with their relationship with God.] Anyway, Mrs. White, Elder Butler, Daniel's, Prescott, Willie and the Religion faculty of Washington Missionary College in the 1900s became active in opposing Fundamentalism. Mrs. White was of course getting old. And there were those who saw her as having apostatized or other reasons to down play the post 1888 Mrs. White. While Butler was united with is nephew against Jones and Wagner, they were on opposite sides of the Fundamentalist issue. Mrs. White died in 1915, and Butler died in 1917. In 1919 a number of our scholars, who had been more ecumenical were heading to an interdenominational Bible conference in Philadelphia PA. This was put on by the people who published the tracts "The Fundamentals" and pushed "Fundamentalism." Elder Daniels and W. W. Prescott wanted to stop this feeling that if the church accepted Fundamentalism that people would reject Mrs. White when people realize how she does not meet the fundamentalists standard and did a lot of copying and did not have a one sized fit all theology. So he called for a Bible Conference just prior to the one in Philadelphia. Where those heading to Philadelphia could hear some things to try to prevent what Philadelphia was going to offer them. Willie was to join Daniels and Prescott, but seeing the trend that was happening, he discovered that he had to do some work out of town. At first it looked like Daniels and Prescott was making progress. There was a lot of agreement and positive feelings at the end of the conference. It was mostly Elder Washburn and Wilkinson who left unhappy with the conference. Also, Stephen Haskell, while not as extreme as Washburn and Wilkinson, was also a supporter of fundamentalism and unhappy with Daniels and Prescott. However, sadly the others did not turn around and go home with the message from Washington D. C. They went on to Philadelphia where in the fellowship with the Fundamentalists, they left behind what they had just learned in Washington DC and took home what they learned in Philadelphia. Most Adventists following the views of Haskell, with a sub group following Washburn and Wilkinson. This lead to the 1923 General Conference where Daniels was taken out of office, Prescott demoted, Willie White got to "keep" his job, however it was amended to change his job description where it was stripped of all power. So basically he was fired but was allowed to continue to come to the office and pick up the paycheck. The religion department of Washington Missionary College were thrown out and there were witch hunts for anti-fundamentalists. As they studied Mrs. White with fundamentalist mindsets, they came upon her Shut door views and also had some pre-1888 views that gave us more distance from others who we had become more open towards, so our openness lead us to Philadelphia, which made us put more power to Mrs. White's earlier more closed view and thus caused us to close off our self more from others.

I think that is actually at true statement. The United Nations are only ever interested in voting through resolutions against Israel and nothing else. https://www.facebook.com/AdventistIsraelFriendship/photos/a.738770232854961.1073741827.738764469522204/761949487203702/?type=1&theater

And so have I. Again and again and again!! But you know what? They are in the minority, thank God.

Yes, and my point is, that if Jesus based one of His lessons on this book (from chapter 11 if I remember properly), then Jesus shows us something quite significant here, in terms of His teaching methods. Jesus knew exactly what He was doing of course, and if we feel moved to employ the same method, hopefully we will know what we are doing too. But as I mentioned earlier, Jesus was, and is, a very "free" teacher. "In this parable Christ was meeting the people on their own ground. The doctrine of a conscious state of existence between death and the resurrection was held by many of those who were listening to Christ's words. The Saviour knew of their [wrong] ideas, and He framed His parable so as to inculcate important truths through these preconceived opinions." (COL p.263, on the Rich man and Lazarus.)

not particularly... I just happen to value research integrity, and am not prone to accepting any and all manner of unsupported statements..

David It is true God can make it easier to be saved than to be lost, but it is still free choice. He will not have Heaven populated with robots, and an Adolf Hitler or Edi Amin or,, fill in the blank,,, would not make heaven a pleasant place for others. And what about the fallen angels that have already been banished from Heaven?

In this life, as humans we have no "Delete" button, no system reset. We really don't get any do overs. But what about God? What is forgiveness from God's perspective? A delete? Resurrection? A system reset? Redemption? A chance to start afresh, a do over?

Interesting idea to consider, universalism... While it seems, from my limited human perspective, highly unlikely that it will be the final reality of this earth's history, the question is not ours to determine. What if... God did just that? Is it possible? Does God have the ability - power, authority, wisdom and grace to do just that? Does God have limitations in what he can do? Is my weak will stronger than God when it comes to redemption? Can an all wise God persuade even the most hardened sinner to accept salvation? Can he take the worst of humanity and recreate them in His own perfect image and erase all trace of evil from their soul and preserve what little redeemable bit is left? Can God create a rock so big even He cannot lift it? I have to believe in a God who has no limitations in what He can do... And simply trust that He knows what is best. Even if it is to save the worst possible being. If that is possible there is reason to hope when all else seems absolutely hopeless and impossible from my tiny myopic human perception. I have a hard time seeing beyond the end of my nose. But what about God?

That isn't really the whole story regarding our history. Yes, some of that perhaps happened. But many others departed willingly and on good terms. Actually the Millerites fragmented and dispersed after the Great disappointment. Some returned to their old churches, some banded together to form other groups. And even those who remained a part of the Millerites that became known as Advent believers continued to interact with their own churches and other churches. But the Millerites didn't as a whole simply regroup and reorganize. As for "no choice but to form another organization", that is also not really the case either. You do realize it was nearly 20 years after the Great Disappointment of the Millerites that a growing segment of Advent believers finally got together as the Adventist denomination and actually formed a new organization in 1863. But even then there actually was very strong resistence to forming a new and separate denominational organization. You also mistakenly make it sound like that this group of rejects and outcasts from other denominations started all over as a new denomination completely fresh in discovering Truth without any reference to their old doctrines and beliefs. The truth is that they all came bringing those, some of which were not in dispute, others which were restudied and refined. And a few new beliefs and doctrines emerged among Adventists. But much of what we have, including our worship forms, structure, and doctrines are common to various other denominations as a result. As has been said many times before, we have far more in common than we have that is distinctly different. And even after the Adventist denomination was organized, the early Adventists continued to interact with other denominations, meeting with them and preaching in those churches. Ellen White herself was a much sought after speaker by other denominations and often preached in their services on Sunday. I just read an acount from one of her letters from 1891 where she was telling of a large non-Adventist meeting that she and a number of other Adventist leaders were attending. In her letter she made positve reference to a well known, at the time, woman preacher from another denomination that was speaking. And EGW was encouraging others to come to that meeting. I think EGW was more ecumenically minded than many assume. In addition to the above, she encourages Adventists to work "shoulder to shoulder" with those of other churches in activities for the common good, such as the temperance movement and other welfare ministries. She also encouraged our pastors to fellowship with and pray with the pastors of other churches. She also spoke of pastors of other denominations positively, referring to them as fellow shepherds of the flock of Christian believers. She also encouraged coming together with other beleivers on "common ground" which seems to be a basic ecumenical idea.

Yes, it is so true that we never run out of our need for the prayers of others to bring us home safely ... or to be safe. I am so sorry to hear about your two vehicle accidents and the issues which you had to deal with due to them. I can understand how traumatized you both were with two accidents. I get that. I spent mother's last Christmas eve alone with her knowing that it was highly unlikelihood that she would be alive in the morning. It was a long night but I continued to read aloud her favorite scriptures and talk about good family memories. No, I don't know if she heard or not, but hopefully she could comprehend. Christmas was her favorite season of the year. She would began preparing for the next one before decorations were taken down. Of course I remember that Christmas and a couple of others which I would rather not repeat. This is not meant to sound self-righteous or callous, but in my heart I know that I did all that I could do at the time. I could not prevent anything that happened. Yes, I have memories some very, very heartbreaking and some very happy, but try to focus on all the years of good things ... I still maintain that it is what you make it.

Oh, I hope that we will still be creative and build stuff. Some of us may be interested in building, and others more interested in other things so perhaps some of us will build for other people as well as ourselves. I will be a builder because I love architecture. I would love to plan and construct entire cities. As for materials, structures tend to be built with materials that are in the vicinity so how they look should vary as much as buildings do currently in different parts of the world. Hopefully in the New Jerusalem we would still have Jerusalem stone so buildings there might resemble the ancient world. Depends on whether we want to remember, whether we will tell the old stories on the new world. Buildings will also be impacted by how we have changed as creatures. Our structures may be different from old human structures because possibly we will be somewhat different physically. Will we be able to see infrared and ultraviolet? We may have a whole new palate of colors to work with. Can we fly? The ability to fly will change how we design our buildings as well as our thoroughfares. Also our ways of thinking about religion will have changed if we have spent a thousand years with heavenly beings. That, too, will affect how we build.... I could go on, but this is starting to sound like Science Fiction.