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this will probably sound kinda dumb, but currently it's the change of seasons — from winter into spring — that keeps me in a hopeful mindset that things will change, and life will get better. Spring flowers always cheer me up...

I just mean watched over by God. There are many in churches other than the SDA that love God and Jesus and will come into the SDA church at the time of the shaking when many SDAs leave the church. I run into many people all the time who love God very much and will make their decisions when the Sabbath issue comes to national debate. This can be read about in the Great Controversy.

I am sorry for the pain that you have experienced at the hands of Adventism. I wish that I had a magic wand and could wave it and make it right, but I can not. I have no idea as to where you live. In some places, there is only one SDA congregation to which one can attend. In other places there may be many. Congregations have personalities, so to speak. Whether or not there is a nearby congregation to which you could receive spiritual nurture, I Do not know. I can only say: May God bless and lead you in you spiritual journey. Yes, there are some congregations to which I would not take some visitors.

A recent visitor to The One Project in San Diego, tells us what he believes is wrong with TOP. See: http://atoday.org/whats-wrong-with-the-one-project/

Women in the U. S. military: In the ongoing discussion in the United States as to the role of women in our society, some attention has been given to the entry of women into the military. That discussion has carried over into discussion here in Club Adventist. Part of that discussion has centered on whether or not women were required to meet the same standards as men were required to meet. I thought that it would be of value to address that issue. My comments are based upon the following article: Gina Harkins. “The Right to Fight,” Military Officer, March 2017, Pages 96 – 101. General: In 2015,Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced that the ban on females serving in combat positons would be rescinded. Over the past 12 months, women have attempted to join military positions in artillery, Army Rangers, Navy SEALS, infantry, and armor. Air Force: Prior to the directive of Ashton Carter, 99 % of the Air Force positions were open to females. In 2011, in Afghanistan, a combat mission was carried out by a 100% group of females. All positions are now open to women. Five (5) women have passed the Physical Aptitude Stamina Test that is required to serve in certain positions now open. They are in continued training needed to enter those positions. Major Jennifer Cannon has flown more than 1,000 combat hours as pilot of a F-15E Strike Eagle in combat in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. In that role, she has saved the lives of Americans. Major Cannon is the mother of two sons and is about to become the mother of a daughter. Army: The Army has the largest number of women attempting to move into combat positons. In December 2016, 13 females successfully completed the training to become Armor officers. By late 2016, 178 females were headed to training in infantry or armor positions. 27 women have been commissioned as infantry officers and 31 as armor officers through either the ROTC program or by graduation from West Point. A female has passed the Army Ranger Assessment and Selection Program 2 and is assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment. Three (3) females, in 2015, completed the Army Ranger School. 23 female officers are scheduled to attend that school this year. Females and males are now required to take the same Physical Fitness Test which is scored exactly the same for both. Coast Guard: Women have been allowed to serve in all positions since the late 1970s. Navy: As in the Air force, most positons were open to females prior to the decision by Ashton Carter. Women are now eligible to be assigned to Marine Corps positons. Women are now eligible to serve as Navy SEALS. But, no woman has presently completed that training. 3 % of submarine officers are now females and 1 % of submarine enlisted crew are women. 18 submarine crews have females crew members. By 2021 all Ohio-class submarine crews will have women assigned. Under the Navy & Marine Corps Career Intermission Program Navy personnel may take up to three (3) years off to attend school , start a family , or to work in a civilian occupation. Marine Corps: No women have completed the Infantry Officer Course. Three (3) enlisted Marines have completed training and are on their way to an infantry assignment. Nine (9) women are expected to graduate from boot came this year and to then be assigned to the infantry. Some 400 women have volunteered to become infantry. About 35 % of them completed their training. The first female Marine artillery officer graduated # 1 in her class of 137. Males and Females are required to take the same physical fitness test which is scored the same way for both. In 2006, in Iraq, the first female Marine officer was killed in combat.

Yes - Satan would retain dominion of this earth. But it would do him no good. The earth is dying and Satan has no power to bring it back to life. Satan - if he retained dominion of earth - would be left with a DEAD PLANET. Not much of a victory.

Greetings again Samie, I appreciate your response, but I do not accept that you have explained Luke 21:24. There has been since AD70 a down-treading of Jerusalem by the Gentiles, and only recently in 1967 have we seen a partial reversal of this as Jerusalem is once again in the hands of the Jews. On the other hand you seem to be excluding AD70 altogether, but Luke 21:24 seems to indicate that Luke 21:20 is talking primarily about the Roman armies surrounding Jerusalem and destroying (note desolation KJV) it in AD70. Kind regards Trevor

I kid to my friends and family ..Every morning that I get up its a Resurrection HALLELUJAH ! lol ... I am such a night owl. But on a serious note ..I see it! Though I see a weaker version more than not. It is when my heart turns toward God. I am selfish and can be inside myself sometimes. I asked God a long time ago that when I get bringing back the old dusty hurts or the spinning down thinking that takes me to a sullen place and I feel sorry for self that God has more than my permission to stop it. "When the enemy comes in like a flood The Holy Spirit will lift up the standard against it." The standard is Gods love for me and others. When am bought back to the unseen by faith I see Gods power in my life.

Thank you all for your response. I live in Kelowna, BC. Canada. We have about 5 churches here. I've been to all of them. There is a very large retirement community in Kelowna. It is a lovely place to retire, so the majority of Adventists here are elderly. Still, I found the legalistic attitude to even be in the pastors, and they were not old. However, I don't wish to say only bad things about the church. I know by reading Adventist magazines that there are many Adventist organizations that help the poor and do a lot of good. There are many wonderful preachers, Ty Gibson comes to mind and his Lighthouse organization. Of course ADRA is wonderful. I love the thought by Gayatfootofcross, that "...something beautiful will come forth," after the shaking.

I "look for" miracles; and I see many events that could be miracles. Once when I was severely discouraged, God sent a sparrow to land on my head and sing like crazy. Once (on Christman morning) when my with was very sick, after I prayed over her, a bald eagle landed on our back porch with his wings spread and looked into the house. At our church, a woman who suffered a severe injury that would have ended her sex life and ability to reproduce was healed instantly when the women in the congregation prayed over her. Once when we were praying over a man with several herniated discs in his cervical spine He was spontaneously healed (after a scare of listening to bones pop and watching muscles twitch for 5 minutes). Seeing the spiritual transformation in myself and others is no small miracle. When you get right down to it, every breath we take and every beat of our heart is a small miracle.

I wouldn't know. I occasionally see what appear to be miracles happening to other people, but my turn has not come around yet.

To say on the one hand that Ellen White was used as a messenger from God and on the other hand that she did not have any authority is to diminish and negate that importance, value and authority of the message that she brings. If Ellen White was used by God as a messenger, she had authority over all who were to be subject to that message. If both males and females were to be subject to that message then she had authority over both males and females. Yes, her authority was a derived authority. Her authority was not inherent in herself. It was derived from the claim that God had selected her to be His messenger. If God could select her, God could remove her. She functioned only as long as God desired her to function. This is the same as we see in the political world today. The Chief of Staff for the U.S. President has real authority, but only as long as the President has that person as Chief of Staff. A Cabinet Secretary has real power and authority, but only as long as the President and Congress agree that the person so selected shall continue to remain in that position. Either Congress of the President can remove that person from the position. The U.S. President has real power, but again it is derived authority. The President's authority is derived from an election by the voters and remains only while so elected and not impeached. So, also the authority of a messenger of God is real and powerful, but only as long as God agrees. To say otherwise is to diminish what God has established. NOTE: Now if you do not believe that God established Ellen White as a messenger/prophet, then that is another issue.

Hi Belle! Nice to meet you! There is a growing movement that you are a part of I see emerging. I myself growing up SDA (more or less) church witnessed my tiny rural conservative church do what you described ad naseum. We were right in the middle of independent ministries and self supporting lil companies of people here and there. I heard it all and saw it all. People either confronting others are talking about others. What was worn at church. What they ate at church. What was in their grocery carts in the small town stores. I thought that was Christianity! I became just like them. And boy was I in trouble thinking that is how god is toward me as well UGH!. There was no safe place. He was no safe place. You cant invite others to this and expect them to be happy ..much less Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee. You mention the shaking. Yes yes! I believe the Church will fall. Fall hard and fall big and something beautiful will come forth. A Remnant who's focus will not be on my failings or others but on Jesus and His Love for us. And His Love on others. To look upon each person as Jesus Himself no matter who or what they are! The dos and don'ts will not be on anyone's mind or breath .. but only two of the Highest Standards will drive this Remnant. Sealed that God is in absolute head over heels in love with you and everyone else. This people (church) will be a Safe Place for you to bring others into the Fold before Jesus comes to take us Home. So happy to meet you here

I left the Adventist Church because of legalism, unkindness, and constant criticism of its members. The last day I went to my regular church, the old guard were berating another teenager about the song she sang and using a guitar. This was around 20 years ago. I much prefer to worship God in my own way in my own home with my family. My husband had quit going a year before me because when he had cancer and was in the hospital, some Adventist couples came to visit him and told him he got cancer because he ate meat and he was going to hell. That was just the last straw for him. I could write a book on the meanness of Seventh-Day-Adventists. When I decided I couldn't in good conscience bring a visitor to my church, that was the day I said to myself, "What am I doing here?" What the church needs is love, love, love. Mrs. White says the church will be good when thousands leave in the shaking and thousands from outside come in. That will be a good day.

The following was written by Dr. Kellogg PRIOR to his coming to accept the Doctrine of the Trinity - he was "in the circle of trust" at this point: "The only grounds upon which our reviewer could be justified in making such a statement would be the supposition on his part that we believe in the doctrine of the trinity ; but he very well knows, from positions taken and arguments used in previous articles, that we do not agree with him on this subject any better than on that of the nature of the soul. We believe in but one Deity, God, who is a unity, not a compound 'being. We think the Bible as well as common sense sustains this view." & "Says Eld. W., "'His trinitarianism' seems to shackle him much." We repel the charge of "trinita­rianism" without the slightest hesitation. We do not believe in a triune God, as before remarked. And we will not, as did our reviewer in a former article, leave the reader in doubt aa to our position on this point. We are utterly at a loss to comprehend how our re­viewer could have blundered so strangely: as to sup­pose us to share in so gross an error as w believe the orthodox doctrine of the trinity." In the Living Temple book Dr. Kellogg was speaking of "GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT" - Dr. Kellogg's crime was that he claimed something without a body of Flesh could be God - this was considered within Adventism to be "pantheism". Kellogg was removed from membership shortly after that.

Dr. Kellogg was a militant anti-Trinitarian. The denomination used Dr. Kellogg's writing / debate skills to argue that the Trinity was the wine of Babylon. Dr. Kellogg however came to believe in the Doctrine of the Trinity - & that the Holy Spirit WAS God. SDA teaching at that time & prior was absolute that God the Father, Lucifer & Michael the archangels all had bodies of flesh - with all the organs, members & parts of perfect "men". The Holy Spirit was taught to be a presence OF God the Father - similar to flatulence - therefore "IT" lacked a "personality" ( i.e. a body of flesh ). Dr. Kellogg asserting that something without a body of flesh, bones and organs could be God WAS PANTHEISM according to the Pioneers & Ellen White. This is literally saturated in the SDA publications of the time. The omega is simply the acceptance of the Trinity by Seventh-day Adventists. In speaking of the P.O.G. doctrine as handed down from the Pioneers Ellen offers a most serious warning: "He who denies the personality of God and of his Son Jesus 'Christ, is denying God and 'Christ. " If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father." If you continue to believe and obey the truths you first embraced regarding the personality of the Father and the Son, you will be joined together with him in love. There will be seen that union for which Christ prayed just before his trial and crucifixion". Ellen White / Review & Sabbath Herald March 8, 1906