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YES... AS I currently read Daniel's prophecy: President Obama is the last American President identified in Daniel (he will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ's Coming). As I currently understand Daniel, 28 March 2017, is the deadline if that aligns with ancient Babylon's New Year's Day (archeologists are all over the map when I try to nail down the day for ancient Babylon's New Year's Day---But it is in March = before April 1). If Heaven is using America's Inauguration Day (January 20, 2017) then I will have the right events, but would be very premature in my timing. I find it very difficult to tell people things that they do not want to hear. This is especially true of the Laodiceans who have the Bible, the Spirit of prophecy, and the Sabbath. They say that they have no need for Present Truth. They would rather wait and see and then make up their minds. Or some like ... fault me as though my grey matter is lacking in some way. If it was a matter of intelligence, God blessed me with a 4.0 GPA when I went to college and I could have done better if I had studied. But I have studied prophecy very prayerfully and with an open mind that did not try to prove my ideas, but that followed wherever God led. I believe that it is better to study to show ourselves approve of God and learn from prophecy when it is fulfilled. But those who are not expecting popes and presidents to fulfill prophecy will not see it when it happens because they are not looking for it (they are looking for something else?)

Well, today we have one functioning washbasin and WC, plus the washing machine. So, progress is being made. Later today, all should be functional again. The next step will be to have the repairs pass inspection, for which the inspector must be able to view the repairs. That will then be followed by dry wall repairs, texturing and painting. So, hopefully, sometime next week we will be back to operation again.

If that is correct then it can work the other way too....presumably in areas wider than physical abuse.

A number of years ago a Rabbi told me that wife abuse was adultery. That makes sense.

Many years ago, one of the ordained ministers in our congregation who was also a Ph.D. in Clinical Counseling, gave a Sabbath school lesson series on divorce and remarriage. One of his important points which has stuck with me for all those years since that time is that ADULTERY IS NOT A PHYSICAL ACT. It is ANYthing which comes to interfere in the intimacy of the partners. And just as there must be social intimacy before there can be physical intimacy, so there is sometimes a break in the social intimacy without any break in the physical intimacy. But that still constitutes adultery. Human beings being what they are, it usually follows that broken physical intimacy follows broken social intimacy -- but not always. [This law of human behavior was put to the test several times in my law practice, when good, upstanding Adventist members would come to me seeking to file for a divorce, even though their partner had never "slept" with anybody else. I often referred the client to this Adventist clinical counselor, and he helped them see what had actually happened in their marriage.] --Actually, a dear friend of mine, a man [this was 40 years ago or so] even went to the conference president and asked him to send somebody to spy on my friend's ex-wife (up in Northern California), so my friend could get PERMISSION to go abroad as an Adventist missionary and be remarried first! [I was not the potential new wife, BTW!] I was aghast when he did that, but I didn't get involved. This topic has caused many heartaches over the years. I believe God sees our hearts, and He knows each one of us. We needn't worry ourselves sick about whether we'll go to heaven when Jesus comes. He loves us! I fully believe He will save every person who does not actively resist.

JoeMo wrote: As has been stated over and over again, much of the viewpoints and beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist church were developed out of groups of Bible students seriously studying Scripture. This includes many of the end time events. Hence, the invitation to study the writings of Uriah Smith and other writers for additional insights into Biblical understanding. There is a considerable wealth of writers in Bible topics other than Ellen White. And again, Ellen White did not invent the Seventh-day Adventist church. She was one of many founders, albeit an important one. JoeMo wrote: This doesn't make sense. You seem to be suggesting that God chose Ellen White, gave her visions, and allowed them to be misinterpreted. Since you seem to be implying that someone with gifts of interpretation and discernment should have been revealing the meanings of her visions, who should have been the interpeter of her visions? JoeMo wrote: What make sense to one, may not make sense to another. Generally, when I find criticism and/or putdowns of Ellen White, I no longer find any reason to keep listening to them. (This is usually more of a real life situation where you can sense the hostility towards Ellen White as you then have the additional ability to make use of non-verbal input. Online, it takes a more strident black & white writing that leaves no room for any other understanding.) And, it does become easy to find holes in these alternative views where they misinterpret Scripture. Sometimes, they even lose any realistic logic.

I think I will stick to the historical Seventh-day Adventist chain of events in eschatology as discerned by the early church pioneers. While there may be a bit of confusion about some minor points relative to the Ottoman Empire, most of it (Daniel & Revelation by Uriah Smith) lines up well with the Bible. Also, as many of the early pioneers studied their Bibles and came to their opinions, they were often confirmed by the visions of EGW. While many in the church today are "falling away", if you will, I am not impressed by many of the theories that have been devised to take the place of the early pioneers conclusions. This does not mean I am not open to new ideas, but a serious restructuring is something I will immediately dismiss with a serious compelling demonstration from the Bible and I do not see that happening. Understandings not available prior can be interesting and it is not like I have heard some very interesting concepts presented from the pulpit by SDA pastors. In the meantime, riddle me this, for the Anti-deluvian people, when did their probation end? I do not accept the the end of probation is going to be when Jesus is arriving from heaven and the verse from Revelation indicates He has already judged the world. BTW, the righteous who will go to heaven are not judged as they are not under condemnation (or judgement, the same Greek word). So, His reward He has with Him. Many have problems with the 2300 day prophecy, that is not really my problem. I accept that the Most Holy part of the Sanctuary started in 1844, as discerned by the early pioneers. Complicating everything, is that many theories about the sequence of events were devised ind the early reformation period, and some even by Catholic monks, specifically to confuse the issues when the students of the Bible began serious Bible study. And as a result, there is now serious confusion throughout Christendom regarding endtime events.

Are you sure about that? Are you sure that the three days and three nights began when He was put in the tomb? Or did the three days and three nights begin when the wicked were finally able to capture Him and the the mob came and carried Him away? Like how the great fish came and carried Jonah away against his will. Three Days and Three Nights Before addressing the meaning behind the “sign of Jonah,” I first want to explain the time interval of “three days and three nights.” That is a frequently asked question in connection with this familiar text. Because of a simple misunderstanding, this particular passage in Matthew has managed to cause confusion, frustration and even division among laypersons, clergy and scholars alike. By first dealing with the popular “three days and nights” conundrum regarding the story of Jonah, we’ll be able to peacefully proceed through the rest of this wonderful study. Jesus says that the Son of Man will “be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” —meaning in the tomb. We’ll assume, as commonly believed, that Jesus died Friday and rose Sunday. Noting this, no matter how you cut it, Jesus was not in the tomb for three nights—even though Scripture distinctly states “three nights.” Frankly, it’s very sad to see Christians expend so much energy struggling to explain something that the Bible clearly explains itself! The problem is not in “the three days and three nights” at all. The problem springs from our misunderstanding of the phrase “in the heart of the earth.” I’ll first address this issue, and then explain what “heart of the earth” means. The Heart of the Earth Whenever we attempt to gather the meaning of a passage in Scripture, we must compare it with other similar or related passages. This allows the Bible—the inspired Word—to interpret itself. Since the term “heart of the earth” is found only in Matthew 12, and nowhere else in Scripture, we need to find similar verses to reference. The phrase “in the earth” appears 66 times in the King James Bible, but none of these refers to the grave. For instance, in the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” Does this mean we’re praying for God’s will to be done in the tomb as it is in heaven? No, of course not! Rather, it means His will among the people of earth—the nations of the earth—as it isdone among the angels in heaven. In the second commandment, we read, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Exodus 20:4). We easily recognize here that “in the earth beneath” does not mean in the grave, but rather in the world. Jesus also says, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). Does that mean they will inherit the tomb? I think you get my point. Hell’s Headquarters A distinct change took place the hour Christ was betrayed into the “hands of sinners”—or we might better say “into the hands of the devil.” Something different began to happen. You see, before this point in Jesus’ ministry, every time a mob tried to capture or stone Him or hurl Him off a cliff, He passed unharmed. He slipped right through their fingers. This was because He was innocent before the Father, and therefore under divine angelic protection. His hour had not yet come. It was not yet His time to suffer for the sins of the world. But after that hour—Thursday evening—when the past, present, and future sins of the world were placed upon the Lamb of God, then it was time. Sometimes we forget that the penalty for sin is not just death; there is also punishment or suffering that is perfectly measured out according to our works (Luke 12:47; 2 Peter 2:9). Jesus came to take our total penalty, the suffering, and the death (Romans 6:23). When exactly did He begin to bear the sins of the world? It was actually long before that. It began Thursday evening in the Garden of Gethsemane. From the moment He began bearing the penalty for our sins, Jesus was in the heart of the earth, or more accurately, the headquarters of hell. Soldiers beat Him. The crowds spat on Him. He was dragged from one trial to another—from the high priest to Pilate, from Herod back to Pilate, and then finally to Golgotha. He was in the clutches of this evil world, the clutches of the devil who is the prince of this world (John 16:11). Also, remember that Jonah was not stationary while he was sequestered in the great fish, as with a dead person in a tomb. Rather, he was like a living captive in a mobile submarine, to go wherever the fish took him. When the fish went up, he went up; and when the fish went down, he went down. In like manner, Jesus was a captive of the devil and his minions. Satan was completely in the control of a demon-crazed mob that took Jesus from place to place, heaping abuse, insult, and physical punishment upon our Redeemer. When He suffered the punishment and penalty for our sins, He was “in the heart,” or in the midst, of this lost world. - DOUG BATCHELOR Full Article: The Sign of Jonah | Free Book Library | Amazing Facts The Sign of Jonah | Free Book Library | Amazing Facts The scribes and Pharisees wanted a sign from Jesus that He was the Christ, so Jesus likened His ministry to the ...

Total darkness lasting 3 hours due to an eclipse? I don't think so!