Month: October 2008

stock market “blessings” for sda church?


Recently the Seventh-day Adventist church of which i am a member, held its annual council. Yes, i know the church has invested in stocks, even in hamburger companies etc., things that make a total mockery of God, but here is fresh information that we must repent, from our GC president down, if we wish again to have the favor of God. Oh Lord, please don’t punish us according to our sins, or there would be none of us left.
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“Our budgets are not built on the dollars we have,” Lemon noted, “but on the blessings we anticipate.” This means “we don’t know what effect the markets will have” on future income, he said.
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A major portion of the Oct. 13 Annual Council discussion surrounded the world church’s operational funds equity investments. Some of these have taken a 30 to 40 percent “hit” in recent days, but they represent a very small portion of overall operating funds for the world church. Associate treasurer Roy Ryan said the purpose of most equity investments is to generate sufficient returns to compensate for inflation and to preserve purchasing power. Ryan said it is not prudent to attempt to “time the market.”

World church president Jan Paulsen agreed, saying the church “is as conservative as possible” with its investments.

what kind of land should God’s school or sanitarium be on?


Mothers should let little ones play in open air. Teach them from nature. Books may be used later. Let them also learn, even in their earliest years, to be useful.

The love of pleasure is one of the most dangerous, because it is one of the most subtle of the many temptations that assail the children and youth in the cities.

There is a refining, subduing influence in nature that should be taken into account in selecting the locality for a school.

While the Bible should hold the first place in the education of children and youth, the book of nature is next in importance.

The most effective way to teach the heathen who know not God, is through his works.

…cultivation of the soil is good work for children and youth. It brings them into direct contact with nature and nature’s God.

Never can the proper education be given to the youth…unless they are separated a wide distance from the cities.

The natural and the spiritual are to be combined in the studies of our schools.

Testomonies for the Church vlume 6:
This land is not to be occupied with buildings except to provide the facilities essential for the teachers and students of the school. This land about the school is to be reserved as the school farm. It is to become a living parable to the students. The students are not to regard the school land as a common thing, but are to look upon it as a lessonbook open before them which the Lord would have them study.
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R&H 09-01-1904
A small building should be put up, in which the students can be taught how to care for one another in times of sickness.
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Pacific Union Recorder 09-23-1909
It will be a great advantage to raise on our own school land a large part at least of the fruits, grains, and vegetables that will be necessary for those in the institution…..At Angwin’s there are great advantages for us healthwise. The place is elevated, but is not too high. I found that the air was bracing, and that I could breathe freely. There is an abundance of clear, pure water, sufficient for all purposes.
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Talks and Sermons:
As soon as possible a printing press should be connected with our school, in order to educate in this line. Tent making also should be taken hold of. Buildings should be erected, and masonry should be learned. There are also many things which the lady students may be engaged in. There is cooking, dressmaking, and gardening to be done. Strawberries should be planted, plants and flowers cultivated. This the lady students may be called out of doors to do. Thus they may be educated to useful labor. Thoughtful, necessary work is essential for all to have to prepare them to be missionaries.
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SPTB17B (about Loma Linda)
“There is danger of our becoming too narrow. These many little houses close together across the railroad do not look well. If we can get land, and have room, so as not to build any more in that way, it will be better.
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10 OM
I have seen representations of several locations in high altitudes that should be secured for sanitarium purposes.
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11 OM
All through the mountains there were little valleys where families might locate and have a few acres of land for a garden or orchard.
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Madison was about 400 acres. Avondale was about 1,500 acres. Loma Linda was 76 acres, and later 87 acres then later 47 acres adjoining it were purchased. New England Sanitarium had 40 acres, but was in the middle of a state park of 3,500 acres. Paradise Valley Sanitarium had 20 acres. Huntsville (Oakwood College) had more than 300 acres. Sydney Sanitarium 70 acres. Pacific Union College 1,600 acres. San Fernando 10 acres. Berrien Springs (Andrews Univ.) 112 acres.

NOTE: It is often best to connect a school with sanitarium together, and to be away from the cities, but close enough to be able to evangelize there. The place should have a bit of a high elevation if possible, as that is good for health. Many of the properties purchased already had buildings, that with a little work, could be used for school buiildings or sanitarium buildings. Ellen White actually refused gifts of 100 nice, flat acres of land, saying that it was not suited for a school as there were no trees, and near a heavily travelled road.

“To Separate or not to Separate? That is the Question!”

“To Separate or not to Separate? That is the Question!” by David M. Curtis.
Review: C-

This book’s purpose is to refute those who believe that we must separate from the Seventh-day Adventist church.

I support the major purpose of this book strongly.
My mother had her name removed from the SDA church in the 1970s, citing the medal to the pope as the last straw in an organization that is “no longer going down the same path as the organization i joined”. In my own life i’ve seriously considered twice the possibility that my duty to God may be to separate from the church. One time was over the tithe and trademarks, and the other time was over what my local church did to me. Both times after much study of the inspired word and prayer, i came to the same conclusion – i must stay with the church at this time. To separate because of what some local church does to me is just a personal “tit for tat” that cannot be of God, and to quit because of the tithe and trademark problem where the GC is not following God’s revealed will (and doctrinal errors that have come in), is not God’s will either. God’s leaders in Israel’s time even killed some of the prophets, yet Israel was still God’s people until they killed Jesus.

The Bible passage that helped me most in deciding whether to separate from the SDA church or not was Ezekiel 9. I definitely want to receive the seal of God in my forehead, and to get that mark, i must not only be sighing and crying for the abominations done in Jerusalem, i must physically be IN it.

Having said that, i do not know but that maybe there will be a message in the future to leave the church. That is my biggest problem with this book. In my heart i wish to give it a “A”, because the conclusion is correct – we should not leave the SDA church here in 2008.

The poor proofreading precludes that tho, and the use of very selective inspired texts pushes it down more. But the stated purpose of the book “To Separate or not to Separate?” is never fully come to grips with. The logic-killers to the author’s whole purpose are shown below in numbers 4 & 13. Truth is progressive, and if God gives the order in the future to leave the SDA church, we must follow. And the clearest example of “separation” in the Bible – the rejection of Israel – is strangely ignored….

So this book (actually small enough to justify calling it a “booklet”), is basically just a Ellen White CD run of quotes on limited topics.

Below are some quotes from the book with selected comments:

1. “The Midnight Cry of the 1830’s and 1840’s…”. Actually, the Midnight Cry lasted from around the middle of August 1844 to October 22, 1844. Ellen White writes in the 1858 Great Controversy regarding the Loud Cry: “This message seemed to be an addition to the third message, and joined it, as the midnight cry joined the second angel’s message in 1844.”

2. “To our shame there are entire web sites devoted to exposing every detail of our churches dirty laundry to the entire world. I pity the person who actually believes that this sort of thing pleases the Lord.”

True that we should not air private sins, but we should, and must, air leader-type denominational sins. As noted above, that is the only way to receive the seal of God in the forehead.

regenerate northern thailand trip

One of my young SDA Brothers recently fell back into the world, so feeling compassion for him, and the knowing a bit of the strength of sin myself (!), went up to Mission College to ascertain his current state. and help him come back to Jesus. While there i had many good talks with students, finding that while most of the students are very worldly, some are deeply desirous of a closer walk with Jesus. The nicest thing, was that my friend has already repented, and is trying to keep that close connection with Jesus.

While on the campus i met the daughter of a good friend from Sabah. She had been handed over 5 English 1858gcs that i had printed there in 2005, and being down to only 4 copies myself, it was good to get replenished – thank you!!

The following evening, my friends came up with a pickup from Bangkok, and with several of us riding in the back with the computers and books, 4 of us sprawled spaghetti-like in the back, and endured over 12 hours of bouncing around. Actually, it was quite nice at first, with the rising moon providing a soft light for the rice fields and rows of shoplots that we passed. As the nite progressed tho, it got a bit chilly. As usual, i envied all the others who seemed to have little problem dozing off to sleep. How can anyone sleep when you are moving is beyond me, but i admit that it is within the realm of possibility. I finally got some sleep in the morning when we stopped at a relative’s house, and i drank some cough syrup 🙂

We arrived in Phrao around noon. One church member runs a fried-banana shop, and i ran over there to say “konnichiwa” to her. She and her husband lived in Japan for several years, so we usually speak in Japanese. She graciously presented me with some yummy fried-bananas, which i took back to everyone who were already starting to eat in the little vegetarian restaurant.

The pastor’s house is just a couple of km out of town, but is very large and old. It sits on about 1/3 acre of land with some lychee trees and a vegetable garden. Actually, he is just renting it – for 1,000thb a month (30usd). Most of the houses there are grouped together, surrounding large rice fields. Sometimes we could hear the chanting of the monks in the large temple nearby, but overall, it was very quiet.

in malaysia-2008

This post is long overdue, as i left this country in September, but the strangeness of it all has kept me wondering what, if anything, i should write about.

The main reason i went was to help get the 1858 Great Controversy book translated into Chinese. A Malaysian lady of Chinese descent invited me to come so we could work together in translating the book. We had many emails before arriving, and she kindly asked a church member to let me stay at their place which they graciously agreed to.

Malaysia is my 3rd favorite country in the world, after America and Japan, as it is quite safe, full of good food, mostly cheap, nice climate, and best of all (in Sabah anyway) there are many on-fire Seventh-day Adventists.

After arriving at the small Senai airport that serves Johor Bahru, i called my pastor friend who quickly came to pick me up. I spent the first 5 days of my stay with him, traveling 8 hours by car to Kuala Lumpur. We took the back roads to avoid the tolls, which was nice, as we could see the countryside. The talks in the car were very deep at times, among the most interesting i’ve ever had with any pastor anywhere.