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? promise Lord is around about His people Psalm 125:2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.

I think calling it "abuse" is just plain over the top and out of touch with reality. While I have questioned how much we should focus on the scarier parts of prophecy, and the Bible, in general, I cannot see any sensible reason to "apologize" for it at all. Its quite common these days to be called "abusive" soon as someone doesn't like something one may say, think, or do. The article, if I were to adopt it in its entirety would make me feel like I was still giving the world the wrong message by saying that the Bible is "wrong," so just pay attention to what you like, and label as "wrong" or 'abusive" anything you don't like. Its a much bigger picture than "abuse."

I have been thinking over this article for several days. I considered doing a serious answer to the article, but decided not to. So, I will just make a few points. I read this article and it necessitated reading the original article. Between the two of the articles, I was very concerned about a number of things. First of all that a pastor of forty years could write such an article. I fear for the spiritual safety of his congregations. He seemed to trash every thing from understandings of the Bible all the way thru EGW and on to President Wilson. Unbelievable. In fact, trashing Wilson seems to be the rule for an article to be published on aToday. In the second article he trotted out a number of people who related feelings of fear regarding the close of probation. I can see some fear in the people who experienced it as children, however, they are all adults now. While those teaching the close of probation certainly got it wrong at times, the reality is that all these scared individuals have not taken the time to open up their Bibles and do as the Bereans did and see if these things are true. Only a small amount of church members even read their Bibles today and an even smaller amount even read EGW (some estimates have put it at about 2% of the church members read her books anymore). Then EGW is accused of scaring people. Sorry, got news for you, but the Bible is even scarier for those in rebellion. Some of the pronouncements on the wicked by some of the prophets are pretty intense and graphic regarding what God is going to do to those who are lost. I mention these things because I intensively read EGW and am approaching having read nearly 10,000 pages of her writings. The one thing I see more than anything else is how much God loves people and what He has done to try and win their hearts. Even in the Bible God pleads with people to turn and be saved and in frustration ask, "what more could I have done?" One of the things attacked in these articles is Wilson suggesting that probation is closing soon. It really should have been closed a long time ago, but that is a another discussion. But the serious error in Seibold's screed is that God is arbitrarily going to slam the gates of mercy shut and people will be trying to be saved and be lost. I don't think what he says could be further from the truth. The close of probation will come when every person has personally decided one way or another who they will follow. Everyone will have decided already before that event. One pastor compared the closing of probation as a "going out of business event." No one is any longer seeking forgiveness or to have the mind of Jesus anymore. So, given all I have written and noting the general tone of the article including the choice of words, it really makes me wonder where the influence of this article comes from. I see nothing of heaven or the Holy Spirit in it and will leave you to decide who inspired his articles.

All of our six children have left the SDA Church. In fact, only two are Christians - one the wife of a Calvary Chapel preacher. We have asked them why; and the prevalent answer is because of the nightmares from fire and brimstone church sermons and persecution from my extended family (all good Catholics) because of our hatred of Catholicism and the papcy, not to mention strict veganism and Sabbath "rules". I think back on what "good" SDA's we were; and fear that we caused our children to lose salvation over how strict we were; thinking we were doing the right thing. I pray the HS will reach our children's hearts as well as the hearts of other people - children and adults - who turned their backs on God because of how strict He was and because of their despair about not meeting the mark set by our dear Sister White.

Interesting. I remember when I was 11 yrs old, our teacher would read to the class from an "end times" story that someone had written. The story included instances of family members turning other family members into the authorities, and all sorts of other atrocities. Creepy stuff! I'm sure I wasn't the only one who would go home and have nightmares about it.

Hrm, the 'edit' button has vanished. Is there a edit post time limit set or is there an edit limit of 1?