Preperation Day

[Gregory Matthews]

Gerry, please do not take a specific application that I have made to the issue of keeping the Sabbath, and generalize it to other issues. I think that I have been quite careful to state that I believe it is Bibliecal in regard to Sabbath keeping to teach principles and let the application come from the leading of the Holy Spirit, and individual Bible Study. I have been quite specific, and I have never generalized it.

In regard to your comment on Pitcarian, I am glad that you made it. I have written so much on the underlying issue (not Pitcarian specificly, although I have written on that) that I cannot see how anyone who has read what I have written (Club Adventist, ADVENTIST TODAY, and more) could ever make the implication that is associated with your comment.

You may disagree with me in regard to Sabbath keeping. O.K. But, if you do, please do not go beyond what I have said.

You have engaged in inductive reasoning. That is generally considered to be subject to error to a greater extent than deductive reasoning.

[Gregory Matthews]

Comments on Pitcarin:

1) At the present time the people who live on Pitcarin are NOT all SDA. I say this as one post seemed to me to believe that they all were. I am not saying this is a major point. I am simply making a factual statement.

Re: "Greg, I wonder if the reason we have the sex scandal in Pitcairn (you saw it in another thread), was because no one told the islanders that what they were doing was wrong for fear of being called a legalist or guilty of judging?"

Your implication is speculatiove.

I suggest that your will find a better factual basis for the situation in Pitcarin in the book written by the journalist who lived on the Island for six months.

If I remember correctly, her book was titled SERPENT IN PARADISE.

I think that you will find the answer to your question in that book. So, if you really want to know, purchase it, and read.

NOTE: Among other points that she makes in regard to Island life, she presents the SDA pastors as essentially being out of the loop, kept in the dark, and not aware of what was going on in the lives and culture of the islaand.

Speaking as a pastor, I will say that there is another fundamental issue at work, in addition to many others: The people living on Pitcarin Island have not always been servied by the highest quality of pastoral support from the SDA Chruch.

[LifeHiscost]

Quote:

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Gregory Matthews said:

I think that I have been quite careful to state that I believe it is Bibliecal in regard to Sabbath keeping to teach principles and let the application come from the leading of the Holy Spirit, and individual Bible Study.

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Seems like good Biblical reasoning to me.

[:"red"] "One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." [/] Romans 14:5 KJV

[Gerr]

Greg, if proper Sabbath keeping canot be discussed with individuals and should just let the Holy Spirit convict them, why can we not apply the same principle in other areas of our lives, whether it be in matters of sex, honoring our parents or whatever?

Of course it is true that ultimately we have to let the Holy Spirit to convict the person of the truth and whether to implement that truth into one's life. However, did not the Lord command us to teach everything He has commanded? And how shall anyone believe anything unless they hear it? And how shall they hear it without someone telling them about it?

Gerry

[Gregory Matthews]

Gerry:

Again you are generalizing beyond what I have said.

I have never said that proper Sabbath Keeping cannot be discussed with people. I have stated that in teaching Sabbath Keeping I attempt to teach principles, and attempt to teach them to apply those principles.

Sabbath keeping fits into a catagory that differs in some ways from some other Commandments. Do not commit murder, do not steal what does not belong to you, and do not commit adultry to a greater or lessor extent are more cut and dried than the issue of Sabbath keeping.

[i have got to go now. I will continue later.]

In the matter of Sabbath keeping, when the principles are properly taught, one can learn the application.

Also, I have lived in foriegh countries. Doing so, I have found that in some cases applications depend upon cultureal issues. To some degree, that is accurate for us here in North America. I suggest that there are principles that go beyond culture, and can be applied in any culture. OF coures, I look to the 4th Commandment for basic principles that are derived from specific applications.

In addition, I have seen people who understood the principles engage in ongoing growth in their application, as they experienced their Christian life.

I have got to go again. Later, maybe?