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And because of that, we have tried to make Him more like ourselves in order to have some consept of who or what He is. When ever the question is asked, I am reminded of an Episode from Star Trek about who or what God is. It was very interesting and no, I do not remeber the name of the episode.

I guess my question would have to be 'which God?' That's probably just because I'm too analytical, but I also don't think I can answer the question in the OP without asking that question. I've been watching this thread throughout its life, and refraining from posting. The reason was that, if the God in question is an interventionist God as usually described in Adventism and Christianity, my answer would have to be 'nothing'. Nothing makes that God real to me. I didn't want to post that because I thought it would bring my friends here down. I'm not an atheist: I do think a God exists. But it is a God that is larger than our universe, and that our universe exists within. This view is described as 'panentheism'. This infinite God contains all possibilities, and does not directly intervene in our lives. When it comes to what we can observe and measure, there is no perceptible difference between how the world looks from a panentheist perspective and from a purely naturalistic perspective. So I guess what makes God real for me is a set of beliefs and ideas, but that the God that is real for me is somewhat unlike the God worshipped by most of my friends here.

HEY ALL tomorrow MARCH 2018 is the 1st day of Spring dgrimm60

you are kind in your words. Thank-you.

i think of the blind men all touching a different part of the elephant describing the elephant. i think i am all of the blind men, touching a different aspect or quality of God at different times in my life or at different places of need. My God provides for all of my needs, and my needs vary through the day, and from the cradle to the grave. Over the development of my life my needs are changing. What i would draw from God is shifting, and to put all those provisions together with all those needs, yes they draw a picture of me, in a relationship to a providing God. I am not seeing one without the other. Yes we see God through the lens of our being which he created with the potential of knowing him. so many times i wept and my tears were subdued, but not immediately. i had a season of tears flowing. or my tummy was hungry, and i hungered, but food came. or i hungered for God, then as much as i could bear the Spirit came, or i hungered for wisdom, drops of wisdom came, now i am longing for more, more of Christ in my relationships... like Elijah sending his servant to search the sky on Mt. Carmel, and when the servant finally came back and said he saw a small cloud Elijah said run, the rain is coming. I believe the rain is coming. and when i am dying and need more time, and need more air and need relief from pain... it may not come till the resurrection, but indeed, oh yes indeed it will come. God is many things at many times of many needs, He is the provider, sustainer, creator, innovator, re-creator, preserver, cleanser, protector, author, life giver.. and more are you alive? are you forgiven? do you have faith? are you holding up in a long struggle? do you spend time surrounded by nature? are you bearing up in discouragement? are you buoyed up after a long course of more difficult days? are you living insights gained? are you hoping for better days? I offer that these are lenses by which we may glimpse God by faith.

The people of God in the final conflict are called the “remnant” (Greek: loipôn) in Revelation 12:17. This end-time designation looks back on a long Old Testament tradition. The original meaning of “remnant” is a group of people who are “survivors of a disaster.” Due to flood, earthquake or conquest, a tribe or people could […] The post The Biblical Concept of the Remnant (Twelve 5) appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

thank you ..I feel understood and that means a lot to me. I have great respect for you and like to see your thoughts whereever i happen upon them. Yesterday my mom would have been 74.

I have a feeling, Bravus, that your perception of God is not all that unlike many of the rest of us. We just may not voice it as you have!

[The following is a question that I was asked in a public, non-SDA forum and the answer that I gave--GM.] Why do Seventh-day Adventist believe Ellen G White was a prophet? Gregory Matthews, studied at Andrews University (1968) Brief answer: Seventh-day Adventists (SDA) believe that there is a spiritual gift of prophecy that is stated in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and that Ellen G. White, met the requirements of that Scriptural passage. SDAs believe that in the developing days of the SDA denomination, EGW gave administrative guidance as to the development of the denomination that often came from God. The SDA denomination of some 20,000,000 people would not be the international Church that it is today absent the guidance EGW, in the following areas: * Healthcare: SDA Clinical facilities are located around the world. * Education: SDAs have an international school system that goes fr om primary school to university level. * Publishing: SDA literature is published, in house, in many languages. In addition, EGW strongly supported SDA entry into evangelism in nations around the world. We have in China today congregations where hundreds of persons worship publicly in SDA churches. In Russia today we have a Seminary where we train our clergy and we also freely publish our religious materials. Expanded answer: To accurately answer this question, I must address some other issues: The SDA understanding of what constitutes a Biblical prophet is that the prophet is presenting a message from God. SDA understanding of a Biblical prophet differs from a common understanding today, such as Jean Dixon, that a prophet predicts the future. SDAs do not teach that EGW predicted either the SF Earthquake or what is commonly called 9/11. But, if we were to think that she did predict that, we would not consider that to be the fulfillment of the Biblical test of a prophet. In addition neither the SDA Church, nor EGW, teach that her writings hold authority over the Bible. On the contrary, it is taught that in all, the Bible has authority over her writings. IOW, if her writings are contradicted by the Bible, the Biblical position is to rule. On this basis, The Bible is the authorative stadard, period. Earlier, I stated that EGW gave administrative advice to the SDA denomination in its developing days. That advice was given to individual members as well as to denominational leaders. Sometimes it included personal rebuke. Sometimes it included advice as to the direction that we should go. One example of this was in the establishment of what is now Loma Linda University School of Medicine. The importance of her administrative advice in the development of the SDA denomination cannot be understated. On a personal basis, EGW was a human person who was not infallible. Her spiritual development occurred as it does in the rest of us--progressively over her lifetime. In the later years of her life, she understood spiritual issues differently from what she had understood in her early years. The fact that God used her did not make either perfect or infallible. In short, we believe that the evidence that EGW was used by God in the development of the SDA denomination lies in demonstrating what it has become as a result of following her advice.

NOTE: This topic has gone on for some 41 pages. You (HCH) began it about 23 months ago. More than 1,000 posts have been made in this thread. You have posted several hundred times to this thread. You have been given every opportunity to present your views, which you have done many times and often been proven wrong. I think that it is time to consider that enough is enough. I doubt that anyone will change your mind. I doubt that you will change anyone's mind. On the basic level I doubt that you have anything more to say that will be of value. In any case, you have been given a full opportunity to present your views. So, I think that the time has come to simply let your views stand as you have presented them. People can read them and decide whether or not they are of value. But, enough is enough. It is time to close this thread. Feel free to appeal to the Administrators of this thread to overrule me. That is your right. They can open this thread again. Frankly, if there are a number of people who wish to continue to discuss this with you, I will open it up again. I simply think that the majority of people and not reading it and those that are probably do not want to continue the discussion. Again, I will overrule myself if I am wrong as to what people want.

I am stubborn enough to keep going through the motions every day, but I'm not getting anywhere. Every time I look at a blank page I feel the weight of responsibility to fill it with something valuable, and a sense of dread that I will have to do everything alone until I can reliably do that. I ask God for help, over and over and over again, for so many years, and come up empty. I understand that I might not get to have anything outside of myself to keep me going, but so far that hasn't worked too well.

He is risen

Shloimie Applebaum was driving down the highway late one night when his family mini-van broke down. He turned on his flashers and tried to get someone's attention to help him. Eventually a Lamborghini pulls up. "Any chance I could get a lift into town?" Shloimie asked. "I can do better than that," the man driving the Lamborghini replied. "I've got a V-12 under this hood, I can tow you to the nearest town, no problem. Just honk your horn and flash your lights if I start going too fast." They head off down the road and eventually come to a stop light and up pulls a Ferrari with a V-10. The Ferrari began to rev its engine to get the Lamborghini to race. The Lamborghini revs its engine and the light turns green. They fly out of there, and about a half a mile down the road they pass a speed trap. The officer there watches them pass and radios to base saying, "Base, you will not believe what I just saw. A Ferrari and a Lamborghini were driving down the road doing about 120 with a Hassidic Jew driving a Mini-van honking his horn and flashing his lights trying to pass them!"

A well known Israeli rabbi had a call in radio program on Israeli radio. One day a lady called it and, crying, said, "Rabbi, I was born blind, and I've been blind all my life. I don't mind being blind but I have some well meaning friends who tell me that if I had more emunah (faith) I could be healed." The Rabbi asked her, "Tell me, do you carry one of those white canes?" "Yes I do," she replied. "Then the next time someone says that hit them over the head with the cane," the Rabbi said. "Then tell them, 'If you had more emunah that wouldn't hurt!'"

HEY ALL I did not put the date====MARCH 20 dgrimm60

NOTE: I have read the article. I do not believe that the heading of the article justly represents the substance of the article. But, one would have to read the article to see that. The truth, is as the article makes clear, spiritually supporting an individual who is a member of the military is not the same as supporting a military conflict in which that person may be participating. The Seventh-day Adventist Church today has members who take the following positions related to military service: 1) Those who will fully participate in all aspects of military service. 2) Those who will limit their participating in military service to a few areas in which they are not directly involved in taking human life. 3) Those who will not participate in any form of military service. The official position of the SDA Church is that members who take any of the above three (3) positions should be spiritually supported by their churches and should not be disciplined by the congregation for the position that they took. My personal position is that that any member who holds to traditional beliefs, should not enlist in the military in almost all cases. [NOTE: Chaplains are an exception.] This is the official recommendation. This recommendation comes from an experience that tells us that people with traditional SDA beliefs will likely have a hard, if not impossible, time in keeping true to their faith. However, the bottom line is: People with ties to the SDA Church enlist in the U.S. military in large numbers and in all fields of military service. The issue now becomes one as to how the SDA Church can reach out to those people and help them in their spiritual life. Well, my post does not respond to Stan's question. Continue the discussion.

It is the idea that it is the strongest, as in physically strong, that win out. Love and compassion values the weak and unfortunate. When I think of "only the fittest survive," it brings to mind Hitler and Stalin's regimes. I have heard it said that Hitler was influenced by Darwinian thoughts. While it is true that there's a LOT of violence in the natural world, just as humans can and do very naturally behave brutally against each other. But then- there are the exceptions to that. And when examples of kindness occur, we are moved.

Keep thyself pure

The important thing that Mrs. White adds are the issues of the Great Controversy. That was a part of the ancient world and Bible writers and original audience had those issues in mind as they wrote, read, and heard. It is not a part of our world so we miss a lot when reading the Bible. She fills in this missing gap for people who don't become scholars of the ancient world. As for the Nephilim , Mrs. White tells us that it is our job to do exegesis, not hers. Thus she would only deal with applying the principle to today. Mrs. White APPLIES it to intermarriage of believers with non-believers, and talks about amalgamation. There is evidence that it is talking about demons having relationships with women, maybe yes, maybe no. For now we find them being too selfish to do anything like that, so whether it is this or not, we still have Mrs. White's warning of intermarriage believers and unbelievers and amalgamation, we can apply this to our situations as well as apply it to the possibility of demon's having relations with women back then.

Crucified with Christ

Maybe we need to expand our view of what the "church" is. Just because EGW was an SDA pioneer does not mean that her writings are strictly to SDA's. God has a WAY bigger church than just SDA's; and some are better at being inclusive and welcoming of all than many SDA churches. God's church are those who have a deep relationship with Him - not a deep relationship with a man-made organization.

People can study things into the ground, and still not be wise. True wisdom comes from God; not from the ability to take random scriptures and history and twist them into a web of deep conspiracy that no one else can see. If we see something that no one else appears to see - especially after being mistaken so many times - does that make us wiser than anyone else or just wrong? Time will tell.

Two SDA males have teamed up to moderate a Facebook discussion of modesty. For an interview with one of those males as to what they expect from that group, see: https://atoday.org/why-a-facebook-group-about-modesty/

So that when the girl is sexually assaulted it is her fault?

The year-day principle is a crucial element of Adventist interpretation of apocalyptic prophecy. It is particularly important to the understanding of chapter twelve of Revelation. In verses 6 and 14 the woman flees into the wilderness for “1260 days” (12:6, ESV) or “a time, times and half a time” (12:14, NIV). Adventists have understood these […] The post The Development of the Year-Day Principle (Twelve 4) appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

The war in heaven of Revelation 12:7-9 is described in military language. There is the language of “war” (12:7– Greek: polemos), and “fighting” (also verse 7– Greek: polemêsai, epolemêsen). These Greek words normally describe armed conflict in the military sense. But these same words can be used in figurative ways as well, to heighten the […] The post The Nature of the Cosmic Conflict (Twelve 3) appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

The twelfth chapter of Revelation portrays the history and experience of the church from the birth of Christ (Rev. 12:5) to the final crisis of earth’s history (12:17). As such it sets the stage for Revelation’s primary focus on end-time events from chapter thirteen on (see next week’s lesson for details on Rev. 13). The […] The post What Happens When New Characters Appear in Revelation (Twelve 2) appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

Revelation twelve covers the entire sweep of Christian history with glimpses of the universal war that lies behind the conflicts of earth. This history is presented in four stages, beginning in Old Testament times: 1) The period before the birth of Christ; with a glimpse of Old Testament Israel, represented by a woman, (Rev. 12:1-2) […] The post Revelation 12 and Christian History (Twelve 1) appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

The material in the seven trumpets does not lend itself to a great deal of application to everyday life experience. But the following two points have been helpful to me. 1) How does the connection between the introduction to the trumpets (Rev. 8:3-5) and the fifth seal (Rev. 6:9-11) offer encouragement to those suffering for […] The post The Spiritual Payoff in the Trumpets (Trumpets 7) appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article