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The Bible is not a book of science. Rather it is a revelation of God and how God has interacted in human life on the planet Earth. As a revelation of God, the Bible is authoritative. However, our understanding as to what the Bible actually teaches is not always accurate. I acknowledge that there may appear to be some contradictions between what the Bible teaches and what science understands. I believe that some of those contradictions are only in the minds of those who have not understood what the Bible actually teaches. But, some remain and await our better understanding of both science and the Bible.

This is an important subject. The "Cosmic Week" theory makes Mrs. White's comment that "The Lord could have come err this" heresy. And the chapter of the SDABC the Role of Israel in Old Testament prophecy equally a lie. God has given his people different times that could have finished the work and the end come, dating back to Biblical times. To study the text in their current framework of eschatology gives us information on how to apply the prophecies to our day. But the "Cosmic Week" destroys this way how God is trying to reach us. 1844 was the dawn of the age of exegesis that has opened the doors to where we can study this context. Also, those who like the cosmic week heresy turn to the texts that says that a day to the Lord is like a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. The context is how timeless God is. In Leviticus 23 and 25 and here and there in Deuteronomy gives the Hebrew cycles. As Leviticus 23 points out the Hebrew week was 6 days and the Sabbath, 6 months and the Passover or Day of Atonement, 6 years and the Sabbatical year, and while not in Deuteronomy, 6 Sabbatical years and the Jubilee. Thus the Hebrew cycles are the day, the growing season (or half year) the full year, and in some cases the Sabbatical year. None of these passages speaking directly about the time cycle includes "Day = Thousand years" and the texts that say that a day to the Lord is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day does not include the words "Oh, the Holy Spirit forgot to bring this up in the passages which discuss the Hebrew cycles. so please add these words to Leviticus and Deuteronomy". The cosmic week is taking a couple of texts out of context and ignoring the texts who's context is dealing with these cycles. Thus it is preparing hearts to how Satan will use the Bible when he comes claiming to be Jesus.

For a heartwarming story see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THMwV7GxmEc

The following article will give you the best update on how the war in the Ukraine has affected the SDA Church. https://atoday.org/death-toll-rises-to-7-among-adventist-church-members-in-ukraine/

The Genesis record does leave room for people to discuss and differ as to their understandings: Genesis 1:1 tells us that at the time God began the creation described in that 1st chapter, something already existed. Honest people can differ as to what it was that existed. Genesis 1:14-19 tells us that God created the sun, moon and stars. But it is not clear as to whether those were created at the same time as Earth, or at a different time. Honest people can differ on this. There are other issues that I could cite. But, I will simply illustrate with those two.

I believe it is critical not to flouncy flouncy around with Creation week, and yet hold other non prophetic parts of the bible to be exact. God said He created in six days and rested the 7th, and we have a weekly cycle that remains. If we start jacking around with this, how do we know that it rained for 40 days? Same deal guys. Trying to lessen the Creator. God sitting around waiting for the grass to grow, and maybe even waiting till the apes develop into man. What a day that must have been for Adam's parents to hold their little human baby! (Adam's mom and dad,shown here before the big event) I can't understand for the life of me, why we are supposed to allow science to make us question our beliefs. There is nothing wrong with the Genesis account. There was no evolution. To say so, not only takes away from the Creator, who, and the Bible is clear, made man from the dust of the ground, but also introduces death before the Fall. Why does 6 days bother everyone so? Go look outside your window. See flowers, grass, animals? The Book of He who created those can surely be held as truth. Rev 14 tells us that we are to worship God as Creator. This other stuff is chomping at that bit by bit.

For some very interesting history, see: https://www.thoughtco.com/pledge-of-allegiance-brief-history-3320198

For a 30 minute video interview with Michael Campbell, see:

https://atoday.org/the-way-home-variation-on-an-old-family-story/

Also, when Christianity spread different countries wanted part of the Bible to have occurred in their land. But since we know where most of the Bible took place, there was little they could choose for their land. One popular idea was that they had Mt. Ararat. So there were many Mt. Ararat's around. The one in Turkey was one of these named after the spread of Christianity. It became THE Mt. Ararat as the crusaders came into contact with it on their travels to and from the Holy Land. The Bible said that the people traveled west from Ararat to Babylon, and the Mt. Ararat in Turkey is north of Babylon.

Just got the book and read the first chapter. Fantastic!!! May I recommend people to read this with the book on 1919 Bible Conference, and the W. W. Prescott and A. G. Daniels biography, the introduction to Great Controversy and the article from Selected Messages on Inspiration. Mrs. White tried to bring us to a balanced view of inspiration. But we are so afraid of Modernism that we run into the welcoming arms of Satan's deception at the other extreme.

Additional problems that I understand from the "Cosmic Week" is that language is constantly changing. Over the centuries the Biblical texts were updated. Now, the numbers from which we get the ages are so old (indicating their antiquity and thus authenticy) that they are hard to translate. In Jesus day there were 3 textual families: The Palestinian text, of which the most complete copy and most well known are the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Egyptian text of which the most complete and well known is the Septuagint. And the Babylonian Text of which the most complete and well known is the Mesocratic text. Rabbis adding up the ages in their Bible in Israel came to the conclusion that they were approaching the 7,000th year and they were the first to form the cosmic week. Their calculations brought them to the year that we now consider 31 AD. When nothing happened then, except that troublemaker Jesus, they looked at the other possible ways of adding the ages, and one way of reading the numbers in the Septuagint got them from 8000 to 5,000 years (7,000, to 10,000 for us today) and one of the ways of reading the numbers in the Babylonian text got them to again 8,000 but as low as 4,000 years, which would push the 7th thousand year two thousand years in the future and thus far from Jesus, and this reading became the popular one we use today that those preaching the cosmic week are turning to. When I was at Andrews a couple of years before the official formation of the Adventist Theological Society, the ideas were in formation. Now some churches have a more narrow 6,000 year belief. At Andrews were were taught an "about" 6,000 years, with emphasis on the "about" and we were sent to the White Estate Vault where we read an article by Mrs. White that down played the 6,000 years and said that what ever age we pick for the world to just make sure that it is fair to the scriptural record. (At AUC we were shown a copy of a document where Mrs. White seemed to have given a stronger endorsement to the 6,000 years, but as she was arranging her writings to produce Patriarchs and Prophets, she crossed through that statement and initialed the cross-out and we do not find that quote in PP) It was pointed out that the numbers can be translated from 6,000 years to 10,000 years so most believed that the world was 10,000 years or so. Some took the 7,000 as the earliest in the Septuagint and felt that Mrs. White's article was that God showed her that the early date in the Septuagint was correct. Still others who believed (and later signed the ATS form that they believed that the world was "about" 6,000 years old) went back as far as 21,000 years. They pointed out that 21,000 years solves many of the problems in the age of the world. That ancient genealogies have 3 things that we need to keep in mind. Our strict Father to Son included everyone was only started in the golden age of Greece. Prior to then genealogies were 1.) Not necessarily genetic relatives, but where they may be a list of people holding a position. 2.) Even if we are dealing with a genetic relative genealogy they tend not to include all generations but the most important people in the family line. And 3.) Often in history the first born son is named after the paternal grandfather. Thus we have generations repeating the same two names. In the ancient genealogies (and this has been found in our Adventist studies of Biblical genealogies) the two names are only recorded once despite the number of generations that repeat those two names. If we are going to be fair to the Bible, we need to be fair to these issues. The cosmic week is NOT fair to these issues, and again brining us to a superficial study of the Bible that prepares us for how Satan will use the Bible when he comes claiming to be Christ.

1922: The Rise of Adventist "Fundamentalism, written by the head of Archives, Statistics & Research for the NAD & the General Conference is one of the most interesting and important books that has come off the SDA press in recent years. It is important for the typical NAD SDA members as well as those who educate and inform others. The following are two quotes from near the end of the book. " . . . the temptation to a rigid and narrow reading of Ellen White, one that prioritizes her writings above scripture, is a temptation that the church continues to face." Page 114. " . . . history over the past century has demonstrated, Adventists fundamentalism, not modernism, has reliably been the key temptation that Adventism has struggled with, and the way a person understands and interprets inspired writings matters a great deal;" Page 116.