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Amen, Pam. Other great authors - Joseph Prince, Bill Johnson, Leif Hetland, Smith Wigglesworth, John Bevere. All of these people point to a relationship with Jesus Christ - not a relationship with a religion - as the path to redemption. Bono once said that religion is what you are left with when the Holy Spirit leaves the building.

I will keep him in my prayers.

Just my 2¢ ..... Being SDA doesn't automatically give someone (minister or not) the stamp of God's approval on whatever they say or write. There are many, many non-SDA speakers and authors who I think are/were inspired by God. To name a few: Oswald Chambers, AW Tozer, Gandhi, CS Lewis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Beth Moore, Max Lucado. I found it rather distasteful when some complained about the inclusion of non-SDA speakers at the ONE Project. If SDAs already "have it all," why then would we even need something like the ONE Project?

He gives pretty regular updates on FB.

They are going to have to learn to treat tourists with far less suspicion and restrictions to be a serious tourist destination. Sort of throws a serious pall over the whole idea of tourism if you get thrown in prison on charges of espionage for taking pictures of the wrong thing or wandering off the prescribed path.

and the speaker just breaks down the explanation so *everyone* can understand it! LOL

That is the entire point of the law of inheritance, i.e. the concept of ga'al(kinsman-redeemer). It is the law that says it is legal for a substitute to pay a debt for another person, which is what we see in the plan of salvation. We suffer under the curse of the law for we have broken it. Christ, who kept the law perfectly, is legally able to made the curse for us so that he can pay off the debt we owe due to breaking the law. He ransoms us out of our condition. The Bible is full of this imagery. Every time the words redemption, redeemer, redeem, redeemed are used the original Hebrew or Greek, depending on which Testament it is found, they are tied to the concept of ga'al. Since the Greek doesn't have the word ga'al the NT writers always used words meaning ransom/ed, purchase/d, or buy/bought. The NT writers do this because the only scriptures they knew were the OT writers. Those OT writers always tied those words to the meaning kinsman-redeemer, or ransom, the very idea found in the law of inheritance. The linkage from this law to the plan of salvation is very solid. In Luke 24:21, the story of the disciple's walk to Emmaus after the crucifixtion, the disciples say, "But we trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel:...: The Greek word translated as redeemed is lutroo (#3084 in Strong's) which means "to ransom". So, a more literal translation of what the disciples said is "But we trusted that it had been he who should have ransomed Israel:". Where did they get that understanding? From the OT, the only scriptures they had to study. In the text you quoted from Galations we find that the English word redeemed comes from the Greek word exagorago (#1805 from Strong's) which means "to buy up, i.e. ransom". Funny how the very text you thought would stump me is evidence for what I've been saying here. The text could be written: Christ has bought us, or in other words, ransomed us, from the curse of the law. The curse of the law is simple. It is that the law of God condemns all who break it to death. Thus the curse of the law is death, the second death. And since Jesus has been made that curse for us, i.e. He died for us, He has ransomed us from it. See how simple and easily understood this is when we allow the Bible to explain it?

Most Hospitals use your name, as do many of our Schools of Higher learning.. Why can't IIW us the adventist logo? it would help brand each other better... etc etc etc etc

Glad you also mentioned Bono - some truly profound spiritual messages from a most unlikely source. I have gravitated to mostly non-Adventist authors for my spiritual and theological reading. I find the spiritual insights to be refreshing and inspired, even some that would raise eyebrows among some Adventists. Sadly I have found many Adventist authors more interested in rehashing the same old tired ideas and themes with very little in the way of fresh and new thoughts or even new ways of expressing old truths. I am also current reading through a collection of classic books that are exclusively by non-SDA authors... The collection is commonly known as the Bible.

Why didn't I think of that! All the time I've been working on a machine based on analog hypersonic discombobulation without taking the retroactivity and magneto-static hysteresis into account.

The company also needs a new proofreader.

Still, there are certain subjects I will NEVER speak about when using my "real name". I choose to use a pen-name here at ClubAdventist and other places online because I want to speak freely and honestly--without having to hide my true thoughts. I maintain that a person can be respectful of others, avoid rude comments and a harsh tongue--even while using a pseudonym.

Pandering politicians.....never changes. Who one endorses is every ones right to choice. But when religious organizations start endorsing people who don't even know their Bibles, makes you wonder why they are endorsing.... not really! Both are pandering.

The real name may be a common law name, which is what one is known by in society. One's legal name may be the name on the Birth Certificate, but in many cases that is not the name by which one is known. The name on my birth certificate in not the name by which I am known in society.

Anonymity can bring out the worst in people who have forgotten (or never learned) the social graces of courtesy and respect.

A sample of the reason why we are transitioning to using real names here.