Leaderboard

Well joeb, if you see a fork in the road, take it.

To be clear, I agree that Yahweh wants us to study his word. I also believe in studying His word in an orderly and organized manner. But if we want to tie that to scripture, there is a lot of scripture that provides more clarity and less room for debate than Is. 28:10: "Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness." (2 Tim. 2:14-16) “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. 39 You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. 40 Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God." (Num. 15:38-40) The only way we can "remember" God's Word is to have been taught and/or studied it.

Just how does it work? I see people saying/implying that prophets don't really understand what God communicates to them or that a prophet will choose his own words and thus throw a monkey wrench in God's communication lines. The Bible and SOP give us some clear indications on how inspiration works. 1. A prophet, under inspiration, can only say what God tells him to say. See Balaam, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. All three at times wished to not say what God told them to say, yet did it anyway when the Spirit of inspiration came upon them. Ellen White experienced the same thing. 2. There is a divine-human relationship in inspiration. The same divine human relationship that existed in Jesus. 3. God condescends to speak to us in our own language, for it is impossible for us to grasp the divine language. Think about this. Can we finite people understand an infinite language? No. It is beyond our grasp. God speaks with His prophets in the language they know and understand, and He is the one choosing how to make his message known. Thus while human language cannot adequately express all of divine thought it is God that is doing the translating from divine language to human language, not the prophet.

I read this today from the devotional, The Faith I Live By:

THE BODY Colossians 1:18 “He is the head of the body, the church” (NRS). Colossians 1:24 “Christ's afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the church.” Ephesians 5:23 “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior” (NIV). Ephesians 5:30 & 32 “For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. . . . This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (NKJ). Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (NRS). Paul says Christ “gave himself up for her” - meaning His bride - His church. When Paul says “we are members of His body” he is addressing “the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus.” Paul is NOT addressing the general public!

It's easy with 20/20 hindsight to see the plan of salvation in the OT; but I don't believe that either the humans or the evil spirit beings running around over 2,000 years ago could even fathom the plan of salvation. Even the NT claims: No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor.2:7-9) The "rulers of this age" referred to in this scripture are satan and his ilk. Prophecy is written cryptically on purpose. We never know how it will unfold until it unfolds.

**SPECIAL PROJECT ALERT** <3 Good Morning. Lonnie Melashenko's 70’th BD is on Feb 14.... So, I am trying to help Jeannie get the word out. Let’s see how many cards Lonnie will get, to celebrate his special milestone BD. Would you please share this with your friends and post it on your FB page if possible so together, we can make Lonnie’s BD, extra special. Thank You for helping us. :-) Jeannie wrote - "Dear Friends, Lonnie’s 70th birthday is on February 14! I’m inviting his friends and family to send him a birthday greeting by card in the mail, to help him celebrate this big milestone. I’m hoping Lonnie will receive many birthday wishes. He will be so surprised and pleased, and I will get to witness the expressions of joy and delight when so many have remembered him in this thoughtful way. Thanks for making his day special for him. Jeannie Melashenko Our Arizona address is: 12477 N. Augusta Drive Sun City, AZ 85351"

EGW takes the scriptural quote (Is. 28:10) completely out of context. The subject matter of Is 28 is not an encouragement to study, it is a warning to Judah and Ephraim about spouting off false prophecies while they are drunk: And these also stagger from wine and reel from beer: Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions. All the tables are covered with vomit and there is not a spot without filth. “Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast? For it is: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there.” Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people, to whom he said, “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”; and, “This is the place of repose”— but they would not listen. So then, the word of the Lord to them will become: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there — so that as they go they will fall backward;" (Is. 28:7-13) To me, this is an indication that she was not infallible in her interpretation of scripture. The fact that a lot of people just swallow whatever she allegedly wrote without checking the scriptural context is an indication that they take her word over the Word of God rather than the other way around. No knocking EGW - she was an inspired writer. But an infallible prophet of the order of Isaiah, Daniels, etc? No way.