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According to Adventist Today online, there has been a mass mailing of the book GREAT CONTROVERSY by Ellen White to a large segment of the population in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Also according to this report, several newspaper articles in Philadelphia have come out against this as being illogical or wrong. I guess those who live in Philadelphia are bothered by the account of persecution, torture, etc., for religious reasons found in this book. I wonder if this might not be doing more harm than good to our Adventist ministry in Philadelphia. [I know what feelings arise in me whenever I'm forced to accept a copy of "The Watchtower" publication given to me by a stranger.] Perhaps it would have been better to use those books in one-on-one contacts, after an interested person asks for it.

Social Darwinism seems to be the economic philosophy they support, with their disdain for safety nets and expectation that the poor, vulnerable and disabled fend for themselves. For those that consider truth important it is interesting they repeat this falsehood every chance they get. Maybe repeating it over and over will make it sound more truthful? You can search C/A from beginning to end or and you will not find any conservative that believes or has said the underlined.Total fabrication. Nor is it true in the general public Truth should be important to liberals as well

As usual, Bravus, you filter everything through your ideological lens before you begin to reason. 1. God didn't set up a dog-eat-dog system. He doesn't work that way. 2. Christians, at least those who put Biblical principles before political ideology, believe in the system God set up, both economically and socially: Individualism and capitalism. 3. Individualism stresses personal responsibility, personal morality, and liberty of conscience. Capitalism is compatible with that. What you want is to make the government the conscience for everyone. You want it to tell everyone what to do. How much money they can make. How they can spend what they earn. What is moral and what isn't. And on and on. You deny it every time I start posting what socialist governments do, but the fact remains that what I posted above is exactly what you want. You don't think people are capable of thinking on their own and making good decisions so you want the government to make those decisions for them. That, Bravus, is the very spirit of totalitarianism. You've denied it again and again, but your denials ring false in light of opening post on this thread, and other posts you have made. You want government to do what YOU think is right, and run right over the top of those who disagree with you. That's the socialism that YOU are for. Socialism is not compatible with personal responsibility, personal morality, and liberty of conscience. What's going on in this country right now tells that story very well, as the government is making arbitrary decisions as to what is moral and what isn't. And what it decides isn't moral it suppresses, even though that suppression goes against the sincerely held beliefs of individuals. That is the story of socialism everywhere it has been. It doesn't put an end to the evils of human nature. Far from it. The exact same faults are found everywhere in this world. Racism, greed, hatred, selfishness, etc.... All of those evils exist in great quantity in Australia. They also exist in the same quantity in all the socialist states of Europe. Just like they do in the US. No form of human government can extinguish them. All socialism does is create a monstrously large monopoly and focus all the power in just a very few hands. And every government always accrues power to itself so the more power you give it to begin with the the worse the situation gets. Power corrupts, and that is something you socialists always forget.

Rachel; I agree that the circumstances about the timing between your work schedule and your mom's demise are more than coincidence. They are an example of God arranging the timing of events to maximize your blessing and support of your mom. pnatt; you make a good case. However, I don't think God thinks deterministically (one cause leads to one result); I believe God thinks stochastically or in terms of probabilities. He takes a "random walk" (does the equivalent of a Monte-Carlo simulation for all you statistical geeks ou there); and sees every scenario a person's life can take; and offers a solution for every risk taken or threat manifested. Jesus is NOT in the Driver's seat; He's more like a GPS telling us how to get from here to the Kingdom. When we make a wrong turn; He says something like "Recalculating - turn [to] right[eousness] at the next opportunity". We make a choice for or against that directive; and the process starts over. The challenge is to reach your destination (the Kingdom) before you run out of gas (die).

It's not literally in the heart, which is a muscle, but in the mind. It doesn't have to be limited to logical and cognitive higher functions though.

I suspect that the presentation of the teachings of Christ would cut through most, if not all, doctrinal resistance. He tells us what to think, do, say, and pray. His is a message that can transform our thinking and our way of life if we make the effort to believe it and live it. Maybe some good will come of stuffing mailboxes with 600-page GC's, but I think that the money could be better spent on a non-sectarian presentation of the Kingdom. It's the Kingdom that we should all ultimately want to join, not just a particular denomination.

This guy is different:

I'm gonna use a very small example. I contracted to cover a hospital 2 hours away from my home. It's a small hospital, with only two operating rooms. I was on call every other night, with a second CRNA. My contract was for 3 months. I got a call from the agency who had set up the contract. This was only one week into the contract. They messed up with their scheduling, she said. We need you to take off one week, the first week the second month, of your 2-month contract. I said fine. It would give me some time at home. As I drove homeward on Monday morning of THAT week, I got a call from my husband, to tell me that my Mom had a massive stroke - just THAT MORNING. I got to her bedside an hour later. I was with her for 5 days, until she died. Then I had 2 days off. Then I went back to my assignment. Now - did God "see" the exact time, when my Mom was going to throw that blood clot to her brain. I believe so. He arranged the time off - for me. Or maybe his angel made that blood clot break off and float up to Mom's brain, 'cause God knew it was time for her to go.

I've never had that particular "gift" of a prayer "language". I don't know anyone with that "gift" - 'cept you of course. I agree, that the action of the spirit, can affect the "heart" (the emotions). People "feel" that something is right, or wrong. Other people - mostly non-believing co-workers or bosses, did things that seemed uncharacteristic of them. I used to provide anesthesia. There were times that I would just have a "feeling" that I needed to go check on a patient, or enter the hospital by the front door rather than the back, etc. etc. etc. Once I got that feeling, for no apparent reason. The case had gone just fine. I found the man in shock. If I had not found him just when I did, and then taken him straight to the OR, he would have died. I remember, a locum assignment cancelled without the required 2 weeks notice. I was upset. I didn't have time to get another job assignment. If I HAD taken another assignment, I would have been far from home, in a motel room, just after 9/11/01. I'm quite sure that the LORD "moved things around" causing that employer to cancel my assignment, so I could be home with my husband at that awful time.

I was approached by an independent ministry this week that is trying to raise $150 Million to mail the Great Contraversy to every home in America. I didn't donate.

My personal belief is this. Doing that is wrong with that book. I am for sharing that book with friends after I tell them what it is about. BUT their methods, is so "IN YOUR FACE" EGW did not want any of her books printed in cheap newsprint. Their will be people who have changed lives, their will be more that view this as tacky and worse. Just my opinion..

Thank you Robert! GBU! This guy is dynamite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Inside of 1 moment when i turned it on when i was busy I knew I knew He Found the Real Pic of GOD! OMWG : Oh My Wonderful God He will go viral in my FB world. Many points he made I heard on the GOOD NEWS TOUR on the internet. a few years ago And was instantly transfixed at a Pic of God I never heard of. It literally lightened the LOAD.

I won't make predictions, but I think you may very well be quite surprised. The people in the this country are starved for honesty and sick of being lied to by politicians. In Ben Carson you have a man honest enough to admit to mistakes and to say he doesn't know everything. People are very hungry for that, and even those who dislike his policies have to admit he is a high-character individual. He is a leader that people will follow, and he is a uniter, not a divider.

it is interesting that in the baptism vows we just don't have to sell tobacco or alcohol not unclean meats