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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/27/2022 in all areas

  1. ReturntoDar

    How old was earth BEFORE sin entered?

    Proof... thats a tricky thing. What is proof to one, may not be proof to another. From the counsel of Ellen White I have learned "evidence" is a better word. "God never asks us to believe, without giving sufficient evidence upon which to base our faith. His existence, His character, the truthfulness of His word, are all established by testimony that appeals to our reason; and this testimony is abundant. Yet God has never removed the possibility of doubt. Our faith must rest upon evidence, not demonstration. Those who wish to doubt will have opportunity; while those who really desire to know the truth will find plenty of evidence on which to rest their faith." {CSA 46.1} There is no doubt I am convinced and convicted that many things are proof, OK, "strong evidence"! It is amazing how some folks will reject truth in spite of clear, convincing evidence upon evidence. Why is that? Because God never removes the possibility of doubt. At some point, one must take hold of faith.
    2 points
  2. Gregory Matthews

    Kindness

    If you read the following, it will touch your heart. https://spectrummagazine.org/views/2022/thankful-la-sierra-kindness
    1 point
  3. Gregory Matthews

    Adult Education

    Adult education is an important tool in keeping adults informed and intellectually sharp. Sharon and I have a son who is a Software Engineer in Silicon Valley. He recommends Coursera as a source for adult education. It features more than 7,000 courses. Some are free of charge. Some are not and some may require a connection to a California public library in order to be free. On a personal basis, I recommend The Great Courses which offers some 900+ courses taught by highly qualified experts. One can access those courses by either purchasing them, or paying a fee of about $12.50 a month for digital access. Purchase may be pricy. However, they always have a sale going on. During the Black Friday sales all 900+ courses were offered delivered to your home with all tax and shipping charges included for either $30 or $40. For more information see: https://www.coursera.org/ https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses https://www.wondrium.com/?utm_source=Branded_Search&utm_medium=Bing&utm_campaign=1005585&mkwid=s_dc&pcrid=&pkw=the%20great%20courses&pmt=e&c3apimn=&intent=&msclkid=45e92dccc3c91547f8304e4d36fa0182
    1 point
  4. Kevin H

    How old was earth BEFORE sin entered?

    In studying the Bible we have hints, evidence and proof. God mostly likes to work with evidence. The phrase translated "Without form and void" indicates a period of time prior to creation week. With this and a few other phrases here and there, including in the writings of Mrs. White, we have at least hints, if not evidence that there was something here for Lucifer, the other angels and other worlds to do things to study out Lucifer's questions. We are not given details about this; but hints and evidence that point to this. Then when the two sides of the great controversy was formed, and when what ever was here turned into complete chaos; that is when the Spirit of God hovered over the chaos and said "Let there be light" both including the physical light; but also announcing that the universe was moving into a new age of learning light about God. So we have an unknown period prior to those special 7 days. Another unknown period after the 7 days when Adam and Eve were working with the garden. Now the text is not as clear as we would like to whether or not Adam and Eve were physically distant or if he was there with her. Mrs. White draws lessons on the idea that they were distant. While she does warn us that her job is to make applications to us today and to NOT use her words for exegesis of the text; the idea of Adam standing there clueless through the conversation seems odd, so I lean in the direction that they has separated. But we have a second unknown leant of time. A third unknown is the time from the fall to different times in history. We tend to read the genealogies through the eyes of western Greek eyes started centuries later. Ancient genealogies, even studies within the Bible, tends to first list the important people, and skip the less important. The text that made Genesis is so old and multi updating's in the language that it is difficult to translate the numbers. We tend to get from 6,000 to 10,000 years from these attempts. And often in history a first born child would be named after a paternal grandfather; and thus two names repeat over several generations, but we get one listing of each name in written genealogies. So we can't get much beyond saying that the earth is young enough for the memory of Adam and Eve and the people listed stayed in human memory. Elder Robert Pierson first wanted the church to become strong proponents of the 6,000 years, but even the theologians who were trying to apply his fundamentalist views had trouble, so he requested them to try not to get much beyond 10,000 to 12,000 years (When I was at the Seminary this conservative group was open to go as far back as 21,000 years).
    1 point
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