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Wow! I admitted and took care of patients and even delivered babies at the Madera Community Hospital years ago!

Derek: You have raised an issue that is exceedingly complex, often misunderstood and misunderstood by SDAs. I will make a very brief response to certain aspects of this doctrine: 1) Sanctuary in heaven: This is not to be understood as a building composed of bricks and wood. God speaks to us in human language and we on earth have not accurate idea related to buildings, etc. 2) A central component of this SDA doctrine is that at all times we live due to God actively giving us the power today to live. 3) Judgment: It is not humanity that is the central focus of the judgment. It is God. God is on trial before the created beings of the universe. Back in the beginning of time, there was a rebellion in heaven. A being we now call Satan rebelled, charged God with misconduct and proposed that people given freedom of choice would chose to reject God and follow his. This Earth has been the working out of that rebellion. At the cross, it convinced the unfallen universe that Satan was a false leader and God was right. Now in this time of judgment, God is showing the universe that those who will be translated into eternity to live forever with God have had the propensity to sin removed from them and they are safe to save. 4) At the same time it will be shown to the universe that those who will not spend eternity with God have exercised their freedom to chose whom they will spend eternity with, God of Stan 5) Then for eternity God will remove HIs life-giving power from those who do not want to spend it with God and with that life-giving power removed they with all who have sinned go out of existence. Derek: In short, the focus of this doctrine is on God, not humanity.

"Do not resent growing old. Many are denied the privilege."

If my last name is the same as the president, it does not follow that I am directly or even indirectly related. Just because one worships on the 7th day of the week, does not make them SDA. Our beliefs, what ever the number, make for an SDA. There are others who choose to worship that day and believe in the 2nd advent, they are not considered SDA's. I find it rather specious to try and tag everyone who believes the same as us on those two or even more issues as being SDA's. By trying to claim Biblical persons as being SDA the effort is to make us seem more superior or legitimate. Christ taught extensivly against such an attitude.

Continuing chapter one of Conversations About God, by Graham Maxwell, edited from the oral text by Jon Paulien. Conversations About God 1:4 Not all Christians have understood the Plan of Salvation in this larger view of a cosmic conflict over the character and government of God. Even the great theologians of the Reformation did not […] The post The Larger View of the Bible and the Cross appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

spiritual abuse is using manipulation and "spin" of spiritual needs, wants, desires, and beliefs in order to gain control over someone... there's nothing "God-directed" about it.

this kinda bothers me.... The 1833 Leonid meteor showers were apparently heavy only in the NE part of the United States. What about all the other countries that read the Bible and look for signs? I doubt that New England is the only place important enough to be privy to the signs foretold in scripture...

C'mon Samie, Are you saying that the translator of the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) was a Sunday Keeper? That would be novel - a Sunday keeping Jew. "When Yeshua rose early Sunday, he appeared first to Miryam of Magdala, from whom he had expelled seven demons ..." (Mark 16:9 CJB)

We are all in the fight between wanting to respect the world and have contempt and put down the world while we just live for self. We are constantly choosing between the two. The sin of the Holy Spirit is were we reach a point where we consciously just live for self and stop reaching out to anything out there. I believe that God has special angels who are surrounding the people with mental illness keeping the demons farther away from them because they have enough personal demons fighting in them.

Acts 17:30 talks about God winking at man's ignorance, IOW He takes it into consideration. It then goes on to say that He is now calling people to repentance. We cannot expect people to repent if they are ignorant (not knowing). And even healthy people can do things in ignorance. But this verse is telling me that when one becomes convicted one needs to follow up in God's direction. To avoid doing so would be rejecting the Holy Spirit. God is FOR us. Sometimes that means that if we don't believe that we are forgiven after bringing our sins to Him, say, if we can't forgive ourselves, we can trust in Him and take Him at His word.

Spiritual abuse, within the SDA Church happens. It cannot be dismissed. The first step in dealing with it, is to recognize that it exists.

I don't know how God will ultimately "handle" the salvation of babies, people with mental illness, or people throughout history who never even heard of the scriptures or Jesus, or have just plainly been "ruined" by off-balance denominational religion. I really like a concept that 8thdaypriest has been posting about for a couple years proposing that "the rest of the dead" said to be resurrected at the end of the millennium will consist of these people who never had the opportunity to make an intelligent, informed decision about God; and they will be judged on their response after being exposed to the "real" Yahweh. I agree strongly with Pam's statement above. Furthermore, in my opinion, if you are experiencing any concern about committing the unpardonable sin, you haven't committed it. The only sins that cannot be forgiven are the known sins that we refuse to confess. As soon as we say "Please forgive me for my sin of ____" (fill in the blank), God responds "What sin?" See 1 John 1:9.

I may be wrong, but it is my understanding that the unpardonable sin is the continual and knowingly (until death) rejection of the Holy Spirit's bidding to come to Christ.

Here is the link: http://ejcsda.com/news/it-is-joy-unspeakable-joy-says-elder-after-baptizing-his-eighty-two-year-old-mother-on-special-ltm-baptism-day/

For me, it's not that I want to know anything about this ONE particular person, but rather, what happens in the minds of those with visions...purely scientific motivations, not personal or judging motivations. I have the same interests in knowing how the brain works when thinking about math or logic problems, or when creating artwork or poetry, or even what happens when a person is attracted to another person, or what's going on when the brain starts to lose memory. I'd actually LOVE to have my own brain scanned when I'm working intensely on a logic problem (and have that scan compared to other people doing the same sort of tasks).

Yes; as can solar eclipses. I don't know if its valid to equating 3 hours of darkness to a 3-hour solar eclipse. Even astronomers way back then could predict solar eclipses. I infer from the texts in the gospel that this darkness was a supernatural cosmic disturbance rather than a 3-hour eclipse. Complete solar eclipses generally only last 5 - 10 minutes.

God, angels, and humans all share one characteristic - they all have a free will. In my opinion, any being with a free will "could" sin. Jesus was not a robot - He "could" sin. He did not; as is proven by His resurrection. Just because God "knew" Jesus would succeed does not mean He "forced" Jesus to succeed.

I will suggest the divorced individuals are often disciplined indirectly by the local congregation. They are typically not asked to serve by the nominating committee - even when there are empty position that no one is willing to volunteer for. The Adventist church is very much dedicated to the position that adultery and abandonment by an unbelieving spouse are the only "Biblical" reasons for divorce. I suspect this is because Ellen White made reference to Jesus' comment about this. However as I read it, that is not what Jesus was saying. Let's look at Matthew 5:32. "But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery" I realize the commas were not in the original text but now let's eliminate the exceptions phrase and see how it looks. "But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery." That changes the whole focus of the verse. The message Jesus was teaching is that if I divorce my wife and thus cause her to go find another man, I am guilty of adultery." In verse 28 Jesus said anyone that looked at a woman with lust was guilty of adultery. Now when many read this, they are assuming that when Jesus said "except for sexual immorality" that Jesus was giving the only acceptable grounds for divorce. However the other way to read it is that Jesus is saying if a man divorces his wife, that man causes her to commit adultery unless (of course) she is already committing adultery before he divorces her. In Mark 10:9 we find "Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." I believe the Bible clearly teaches that divorce is never God's will. In the story of Hosea we see God commanding a prophet to marry a prostitute. Yet if adultery is divine grounds for divorce, Hosea would have divorced the woman the first time she went out on him. But that is not the story. He goes after her and when she is sold, he purchases her back. Hosea indeed loved Gomer as Christ loves the church. The point Jesus makes is that if someone like Hosea did divorce his wife, Hosea wouldn't be guilty of adultery. In Matthew 19:8 Jesus tells us that Moses permitted divorce due to the hardness of our hearts. That is still the reality we live in today. What is a hard heart? It is a heart that cannot forgive. Or it is a heart consumed with sinful desire (which normally doesn't forgive either). Most definitely Hosea did not have a hard heart. He was able to forgive 70x7. If we were all able to do that, there would be no divorce. However for marriage to work, both spouses have to have a heart like Hosea. It only takes one hard heart to end a marriage. For transparency sake, let me admit to being divorced myself. I do not even like the term 'Biblical divorce" because I don't believe there is such a thing. I also don't like the idea of trying to judge people who have been divorced and trying to figure out if they had Biblical grounds or not. To what point? To figure out if they can teach Sabbath School, be a Pathfinder leader, a deacon or an elder? The trauma of a divorce draws some people closer to God than they ever had been before. Some people are more fit to serve after their divorce than they were while married. I will suggest that every divorce is the result of at least one hard heart. That is why divorces happen and why Moses permitted them. I agree with Brother Matthews, "There is a reality that in our human condition, there are some marriages that simply can not reasonably be expected to be fixed. Reality tells us that they are damaged beyond repair. As to remarriage after a divorce, that must be between the individual and God" The church has done a lot in the past couple of decade to minister to marriages and help them stay together. That is a needed and powerful ministry. However we also need to minister to the divorced. I saw one article that stated that 50% of Adventists that get divorced will quit attending church within three years. That isn't hard to believe. Especially when you consider that most nominating committees will not ask them to actively be part of the organized church.