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While embarrassing to me I wanted to describe what happened to me this last Saturday to possibly prevent the same thing from happening to someone else who was as ignorant as I was about this topic. My wife and I drove to Canada and checked into a hot spring resort this last Saturday and within an hour of our arrival we climbed into a 105-degree spring fed pool. Within two minutes my wife said that was too extreme for her and got out and went to another pool that was cooler (they had different pools of different temps). Foolishly I said I was going to get my money's worth and stayed in that pool. Prior to entering we both saw a sign that said no glass bottles or drinking glasses. Long story made short - after an hour and 20 some minutes I lost consciousness in the pool and had to be drug out of it (one should only stay in hot water like that for 10 to 15 minutes tops), had some sort of seizure. Ambulance transported me to the hospital where the primary concern was possibility of a stroke or cardiac event (both negative thankfully). Diagnoses was severe heat syncope with convulsive syncope (I think I'm spelling that right). The first question the Doctor asked me was to detail my alcohol consumption for the previous 24 hours - I'm not much of a drinker so my answer was a zero. In any event the last thing I remember was I was feeling dizzy and started to move to exit area and that was it, no memory after that until I woke up on the floor with a bunch of people over me and my poor wife in hysterics. Hot springs can be dangerous.

After Ceasefire, ADRA Ramps Up Aid to Combat Hunger in Gaza ADRA International, the Adventist humanitarian organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, is mobilizing critical lifesaving aid to support communities in Gaza following the recent Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement. The region has been ravaged by months of conflict, resulting in widespread loss of life, countless injuries, and millions displaced from their homes. https://adventist.news/news/after-ceasefire-adra-ramps-up-aid-to-combat-hunger-in-gaza

? Thank you, first responders! Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP Search and rescue efforts early this morning, around the wreckage site in the Potomac River.

The following article is long and well worth readding: https://spectrummagazine.org/views/analysis/reinder-bruinsma-on-adventism-and-catholicism-in-a-changing-world-what-can-we-learn-from-each-other/

What I Think I Know About Rev 17: 3) When you apply the previous principle to Revelation 17, it becomes evident that there are three main entities being described in the chapter. The confluence of symbols in Revelation 17 lead me to believe that three main entities are in view. The first entity is Babylon, […] The post What I Think I Know About Rev 17: 3) When you apply the previous principle to Revelation 17, it becomes evident that there are three main entities being described in the chapter. appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

One of my basic understandings, is that God uses imperfect people to do His will. I do not expect perfection in myself, in the leadership of the SDA Church, in the members of the SDA Church. I do not expect perfection in the other leadership and members of the Christian community. I can believe that God has given imperfect organizations a specific task, mission, ministry to perform in a specific time and place. I do not exclude other Christian groups from such. God is a God of truth. If I am to be faithful in representing Him, I must also acknowledge truth, wherever it leads. It is from that perspective that I removed my previous post. It contained factual errors. It is in the same sense that I believe that you are an honest person, Gustave. Let no one misunderstand me, I do not believe that Gustave is correct in all that he states. We have our differences, but I am OK in engaging in civil discussions of them. It is from that perspective that Club Adventist exists: To engage in civil discussions of our differences. With 22,000,000 SDA members, we are not solely able to provide the witness to the world that God wants to be made. God has to be using others, on some levels, at the present time, to do what God wants done. In many ways, the Church of God on Earth today is made up of Christians of very diverse backgrounds. That is actually SDA teaching.

I have researched the post that Gustave made: * I have found it on the EGW website. * I have also located it on page 926 of the 1980 edition of vol. 7, of the 1980 SDA Bible Commentary. * I have therefore removed a previous post of mine which contained factual errors. No informed person challenges the proposition that Ellen White was incorrect in her view of a Biblical teaching. She was human. She grew spiritually over time as we also should do. I could list multiple examples in her writings in which she developed her views over time and made changes in them. No informed person could challenge the idea that in her early life, she held so-called heretical views on the Trinity. Over time, she made changes in her understanding of the Trinity. She likely held some of her erly views due to the fact that her husband, and some other early SDA leaders, came from the so-called Chrisian Connection, which is thought today to have held Arian views on the Trinity. Some aspects of this are subject to debate among SDA scholars. I will not attempt to settle those issues. I simply point out that I have found the citation that Gustave referenced and therefore I have removed a post that I made which contained some factual errors.

I have placed some responses to Gustave inside his post. Please read his post again to see my responses. *The Bible is inerrant, my understanding of the Bible is not. * Ellen White's understanding of the Bible was not inerrant. I could provide you with multiple instances of her changing her doctrinal views over her lifetime. The spiritual life of every human does not lead them to an inerrant understanding of all that God has for them to know during the period of their human life. In eternity humans will increase their understanding of God well beyond what they have learned in their human life.

This principle is stated explicitly in Revelation 17:9-10, ESV: “. . . the seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman is seated, they are also seven kings. . . .” Revelation 17 can be totally bewildering if each symbol is treated as a unique entity. But the chapter simplifies quite a bit when […] The post What I Think I Know About Rev 17: 2) Multiple symbols can represent the same entity in reality. appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

Found it!

The Spectrum review of the book on the Trinity begins with: "The Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary on the campus of Andrews University has publicly rended its garments, in the paradoxically understated way careful scholars do, by producing a video series of lectures on the Trinity. This series of sixteen lectures is introduced by a sobering observation: “In the last two decades, there has been a resurgence of Arianism and anti-Trinitarianism, not only in the Seventh-day Adventist Church but also in the wider Christian and Evangelical world.” I opine that many Seventh-day Adventists do not possess a conscious realization of what they believe about the nature of God; they will articulate that they believe in the biblical doctrine of the Trinity, but if you engage them in dialogue, you can gradually discern that they incline toward one or more anti-Trinitarian heresies. Furthermore, most Seventh-day Adventists do not realize that anti-Trinitarianism is inextricably linked to opposition to women’s ordination. Although this stealthy linkage is not expressly set forth in the lectures, the scholars provide a thorough biblical, historical, and practical discussion of the Trinity."

Writing in Chapter 8, 'Doctrine of God." (The Oxford Handbook of Seventh-Day Adventism) John C. Peckham, addresses in the 14-page chapter many of the issues that Gustave has raised about the SDA understanding of the Trinity. He clearly acknowledges that Arian/Semi-Arian position of early Adventists. I also acknowledge such and include James White holding such views due to his relationship to the so-called "Christian Connection." I acknowledge such for the early views of Ellen White. Dr. Peckham suggests that there are some variations in the classical understanding of the Trinity, as he states on page 117. "However, Adventist Theology departs from the concept of God known as (strict) classical immutability, and impassability." To best understand, one should read the entire chapter, which contains much that is of value in understanding the SDA position on the Trinity, both in history and currently. For an entire book on this issue, it is of value to see: Peterson, Paul & Mciver, Rob, Editors. Biblical and Theological Studies On the Trinity. Avondale Press, 2014, 251 pages. Paul Brantley authored a 7- page review of this book that was published in Spectrum, December 13, 2017. See: https://spectrummagazine.org/views/no-longer-neglected-biblical-doctrine-trinity/

This connection (between Rev 17 and 16:12-21) is signaled in the very first verse of chapter 17, ESV: “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me. . . .” This is a clear connection between chapter 17 and the content of chapter 16. But the question remains: […] The post Revelation 17 as a whole is an elaboration of the sixth and seventh bowl-plagues (Rev 16:12-21) appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

Dick Button, Olympic great and voice of skating, dies at 95 https://apnews.com/article/dick-button-dead-figure-skating-892b9b339e96411499c8864d8737b219?

Marianne Faithfull, singer and pop icon, dies at 78 https://apnews.com/article/marianne-faithfull-obit-rolling-stones-broken-english-54e9ba7a549142d2a40bea6d88e68a38?