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I do not support the concept that Adventists are to be isolationist.. not at all. Jesus mingled with people, we have the same mission but a higher responsibility to share the Three Angels Messages. I do not view people as being unclean just because no one has had the ability to present these messages in a way they can receive them. NOR do I believed Adventist should present the messages in the " IN YOUR FACE" kind of presentation.

Not sure what the COG7D finds its' authority from but I find it a stretch to assume it was a vision, especially when the meeting with Jesus, Moses and Elijah reflect a powerful encouragement to those still here on earth as to their trust in evidence, not only in translation by Elijah without seeing death, but also of Moses' resurrection after experiencing death and burial on this earth. For those not seeking Jesus, there would be nothing to be gained, at least so assumed as reported here in this text. 31"But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'"....Luke 16 God is Love! Jesus saves!

When stepping out into the cow pasture, you only have to step into something once to know what it is.

Jesus said we are to be salt and light to the world. Both have the quality of mixing with the surroundings and changing them and losing themselves in the process. Mixing salt in food enhances its flavor and works best when it loses itself in the food. Salt by itself is not good for food and very quickly overwhelms the taste buds making it difficult to taste anything else. Too much salt is not a good thing. Light functions in a similar way. Too much is blinding. A photographer knows that light and shadow must be in balance to produce the best image. The best light is not obvious because it blends with the shadows but does not wash them out.

Make war on the natives and conquer their land?

We had a very wealthy couple in our church when I was a child.He sponsored german immigrant families to the US. They arrived knowing little if any english. The children went to our very small church school and it was sink or swim. They went from not knowing english to very passable english in one school year. Most left us in the dust when it came to academics by the end of the year. They were motivated and wanted to succeed. Regardless of your race,skin color,or language,each one should be expected to live up to their individual capabilities.

{Mar 177.3} At present Sunday-keeping is not the test. The time will come when men will not only forbid Sunday work, but they will try to force men to labor on the Sabbath, and to subscribe to Sunday observance or forfeit their freedom and their lives. But the time for this has not yet come, for the truth must be presented more fully before the people as a witness....

Enjoy http://www.adventist.ca/3dissue/messenger/84-1/index.html

To know that the LORD has promised to heal all diseases, and to continue in pain, is to me, the greatest test of faith. I try to consider my own situation in the light of how others are suffering. I could be a poor Muslim woman, living in a mud hut, being beaten 3 times a day. I could be paralyzed in a wheelchair. So - compared to others, my suffering is very mild. I personally KNOW that the LORD does heal, but not frequently. I think He heals when it will accomplish something significant or His plan. I will share with you a personal experience. I was a nurse anesthetist, working at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque. I was assigned a case for an eye surgery - a corneal transplant. Normally, those were done with just sedation, but the surgeon wanted a general for this woman - maybe because he thought it might take longer than usual. Anyway, the woman was 72 and on high blood pressure medication. We got her to sleep, and intubated, and had given her a paralyzing drug. We monitored the level of paralysis using a nerve stimulation at her wrist which was on my side of the OR table. I tested the paralysis, and thought it was just beginning to wear off. I was reaching for the syringe to give another dose, when she got "light" and coughed on the endotrachael tube. She was never "awake". This was just a reflex. We had to keep her "light" because her blood pressure dropped very low with the anesthesia. We were giving a drug to keep her BP up. Anyway - when she coughed, she ruptured a vessel in the choroid plexus behind the retina. Blood filled the globe of her eye, and floated the retina almost out the pupil, which was now "open". The surgeon held the graft in place with one finger, and put 30 stitches around it to hold it on. He thought he would have to remove the eye, but decided not to do it at that time. I went around and looked thru the microscope at the eye, and so did my anesthesiologist chief. I was devastated!!! I had never had something "bad" happen to a patient before. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. I would sit and rock. This happened on a Friday. We got up and went to church on Sabbath, and I asked the head elder to pray for this patient during church. He did. The whole church prayed for my patient. I didn't know it then, but her church did the same the next day. On Sunday afternoon I was sitting in the living room, and I "heard" a voice say, "I have healed her." I was so startled I said, "If I just heard what I heard, would you say that again". I heard it again. On Monday, I went in to relieve the CRNA giving anesthesia in the room where the surgeon was working - the one who did my patient's case. When he heard my voice, he stopped and looked around from the microscope. "Is that you Rachel", he said. "Yes that's me, I quietly replied" "Boy have I got news for you". "Her eye is healed, isn't it !!", I said excitedly. "Rachel, she came into my exam room this morning and told me, 'Don't you worry. The Lord has healed me.'" "I covered her good eye, took the bandage off the other, and asked her to tell me how many fingers I was holding up. She said, 'Three". I have searched the Medline databases, and I even called my preceptor at the Mayo. He told me, 'Give it up John. You're looking at a miracle'." The surgeon said to me, "I've never been a believer in such things Rachel, but I'm gonna have to rethink things." The news spread like wildfire, because there were 3 other people in the room besides the surgeon and me. I had people coming up and asking if they could touch me. I had people asking me to pray for them. The anesthesiologist who was with me when the rupture occurred was a Hindu. I later noticed him reading Josh McDowell's "More than a Carpenter". I had left a copy in the anesthesiology lounge. This miracle effected so MANY people. I'm sure I will learn of the ripples from it, when I get to The City. Blessings, Rachel

Thanks Gregory, Yes - I agree. No one from earth had ever gone up to heaven, and returned to tell of it. There WERE visions of heaven, and the Ancient of Days, and the movable throne (Ezekiel and Daniel). And those men wrote about it. Exodus 6:3, Gen 18 - The LORD said that He "appeared" to Abram. But I believe that was Christ, NOT the Father. And Abraham was not transported up to heaven, and brought back. Same for Exo 33:9, where the LORD spoke with Moses face to face, and Exo 24:10 where Moses and the elders "saw the God of Israel". The Church of God 7th Day has, as one of its fundamentals, that the dead are all sleeping in their graves - no exceptions. I've had several questions send to my website concerning John 3:13. So - I thought I'd run it by the forum. Maybe they had come up with some better answers.

Rachel: You have raised a good question, which had not previously occurred to me. My initial, off the cuff thought: The context is one in which Christ is telling Nicodemus the He (Christ) is the only one who has come from heaven to Earth to teach humans about God. In verse 2, Nicodemus calls Christ a RAbbi sent from God. In the next few verses Christ is teaching Nicodemus. Nicodemus then asks Christ how those teachings can be truth, verse 9. Christ in essence responds by telling him that the truth in the matter lies in the fact that Christ has been in heaven and has come to earth teach people about God. No other has gone from Earth to heaven and then returned to teach people. I do not claim that this is a perfect answer, but it is my initial thought.

Well, HCH, it seems that you would rather convict by "guilt by association" and 2nd hand so-called evidence. Well you are in company with those who convicted Christ of "guilt by association" and 2nd hand evidence. I will quote an interesting comment: See: Alex Bryan, "Primal Adventism: Jesus at our Beginning." in Nathan Brown, Alex Bryan & Japhet De Oliveira, editors. FOR THE ONE: VOICES FROM THE ONE PROJECT. Signs Publishing, Australia, page 30. There are many people today who do not believe that SDAs of today have that same longing to be with Jesus. The One Project would like, in part, to restore that longing to be with Jesus.

This blog stands by itself, but can also be read as the conclusion of the previous blogs in this series on the problem of evil in the world. What was the cross all about in God’s purpose? What difference did it make? I’d like to highlight two things. First, the cross changes the way we […] The post The Implications of the Cross appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

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.)

To carefully study the life and teachings of Christ should be the program for all who believe in him. To reprogram our behaviors to model his would be our life's work.

I read the book the One Project produced. That really confirmed for me that the critics did not know what they were talking about. It really strikes as weird in a truly disturbing sense that a single-minded focus on Jesus should draw such resistance, criticism and even hostility from those claiming to be fellow Christians. Really?

The One Project appears to be a genuinely open-minded outreach. It looks like a work of faith that will require Divine support to succeed. As Gamaliel said about the new Jesus sect in Jerusalem. if it is not of God, it will fail. If it is of God, nothing will stop it from succeeding. At least they're doing something besides lamenting the hoards of people leaving the church. God wants us to reach out in faith. That involves risk - risk of failure, risk of criticism, risk of condemnation. I would rather take a risk for God than refuse Him out of fear or religious conformity.