Month: May 2010

Adventists should “avoid criticism”?

8 Comments / sigh and cry / May 31, 2010

The Adventist News Network has an article quoting SDA President Jan Paulsen while in Africa. There are two things he said that are very troubling. Jan Paulsen in East Africa
—————
Paulsen also spoke at Sabbath worship services in Mombasa, where he emphasized the value of unity within both the church and the broader community. Adventists in largely Muslim Mombasa should live in peace and harmony and avoid criticism, he told the congregation.

“We worship one God … so I am coming to Mombasa to worship with my family,” Paulsen said, adding that religious convictions should not stir tension in the community.
—————
With due respect to the leader of Christ’s body on earth – The Muslims and Christians DO NOT worship the same God.

Secondly, Christ himself brought on criticism and tension in his community.

God said thru Ellen White: “But when they make special efforts to accommodate themselves to the peculiar ideas and feelings of their hearers, in order to avoid criticism, they will weaken their own testimony, and fail of the object they wish to secure. They will do injustice to their mission, injustice to themselves, and also to those who criticize them.” STMW(1897).

God said thru Matthew: 5:11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Brother Paulsen, please repent and give the trumpet a certain sound.

natural law

5 Comments / christian study / May 19, 2010

“Natural Law” first came to my attention in the late 80s – early 90s thru a newsletter by a SDA layman “Bob Trefz”. Fortunately i got disassociated from him around 93 or so when he was openly advocating buying guns and running to the hills (yes, i know i should have ditched him when he talked about the black helicopters sent by the UN to spy out America – hah!). But the subject of “natural law” was dealt with in detail, and i remember wondering the first 2 or 3 times he delved into it, what has this got to do with Seventh-day Adventists preparing for the end time, but around the 4th time or so i started to catch on (i’m a slow learner), and this has stuck with me thru all these years. Just this week i told a very good friend about “natural law”, and now just today i see this article in the National Review: Natural Law in National Review

In this article, George Weigel, who i presume to be a Catholic (and whom National Review writes as “a distinguished senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center”, speaks quite persuasively in favor of natural law. It is mind-boggling to see the title of his article: “Defending Religious Freedom in Full”, while knowing full well where this mindset is leading – to the world’s last dark age where everyone who doesn’t “fit in” is exterminated.

What am i talking about?

To give a very short background: Natural Law basically arose from the Catholic church. The ablest proponent of this theory is Thomas Aquinas, who is quoted: “… all human laws were to be judged by their conformity to the natural law. An unjust law is not a law, in the full sense of the word. It retains merely the ‘appearance’ of law insofar as it is duly constituted and enforced in the same way a just law is, but is itself a ‘perversion of law.’ At this point, the natural law was not only used to pass judgment on the moral worth of various laws, but also to determine what the law said in the first place”. So according to this, all human laws are subject to some super law which is enshrined in nature itself. There are various flavors of “Natural Law”: to see a short write-up in wikipedia, try this

I think all thinking SDAs will be able to see from this where this will lead.

Let me explain it very simply: There is a theory of law saying that there are universal “natural laws” which apply to all humans in all situations. Of course God’s Word is not the source of these laws, they just somehow “exist”. Since God created the natural world, proponents of this theory try to use God as their “source”, but of course, never seem to get around to actually quoting the 10 Commandments. They use very persuasive arguements like:
1. If a tree has a dead branch, you must prune it off to make the tree healthier.
2. If you have a barrel of apples, and there is one spoiled apple in it, you must throw it out to save the other apples.
3. Nature itself teaches you what is right and wrong, so abortion and homosexuality are wrong.

See, the logic sounds impeccable, and for most everything i’ve seen, the proponents of this theory DO go by the Biblical principles. But what about in the future when a “bad apple” wishes to keep the 7th day Sabbath? When all of Satan’s angels and Satan himself appearing as Jesus and the whole world are clamoring for a Sunday Law, how will “Natural Law” help those who wish to stay true to the words of the God who wrote “Keep the 7th day Sabbath” on tables of stone with his own finger? It won’t, of course. And this is what is so dangerous about it.

One last note on this whole judicial/law thing, is that if Kagan is selected to serve as a Supreme Court Justice, there will be 6 Catholics and 3 Jews on the bench – not a Protestant in sight. Wake up SDAs, for the nite is far spent and we are not saved!

burma orphans

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized / May 17, 2010

There are Christian groups trying to help the Karen people from Burma. Many of them have fled to the Thai border, but the Thai government is not so happy about having to care for them. This blog is quite powerful in showing what the Christian Karen people are going thru: International Christian Concern’s blog about Karen

There is also a laymen-run SDA organization doing something there too. I’ve met the lady running it, and hope she tries to work more with the SDA organization in the future. At least she seems to be wanting to follow the Bible in most instances, which is great. I met one very elderly NZ lady who has been helping the Karen for many years, and she said that they should take up guns and fight the government! I was shocked, and asked her what Jesus would do. She then asked if i would just sit by why the village was burned and raped and pillaged. I asked her what did Jesus say to do when someone strikes you on your left cheek. So much anger in her…. how can the Karen see the true love of Christ if they are told to fight? I was also told by her that the top Karen rebel leader is/was a Seventh-day Adventist – oh no!!!! No wonder our church is under suspicion in that country: eopmissions.org

beautiful day

1 Comment / daily rambliniscings / May 7, 2010

Yesterday was one of the most beautiful days i’ve had in a long time. It felt just so good to be alive 🙂

After a nice breakfast with the lady of the house i’m staying in, i hopped on the bicycle and rode a bit over 2 hours over to a mountain road in Kyoto prefecture. This is my 2nd time to go that direction, and last time i remember getting off and pushing several places, including most all of the last 3km. But this time i didn’t get off at all until right up to the mountain, and even on the mountain road i only need to get down around 3 times, making me wonder what all my body fuss was about the time before, and a little proud that my muscles are slowing improving 🙂 But my knees are telling me that i better chill out a bit!

On the way there was a big boulder with a rope around it, showing it to be something that people worship, so i went to look at what it was – a carving of a horse onto a rock, about 3feet long. It is said to have been carved there around 800 years ago, and ladies who wish to get more proficient in sewing go there and pray – what a waste! I was the only one there, and seeing the beautiful new green on the trees, with a cherry blossom fluttering once in a while in the wind, and the bright shining sunshine all combined for a great feeling.

When i got to the house that i had stayed at for a week before, i emptied their trash and fed the dogs, and then an other friend came with her father to go together with the father of this house to hunt bamboo shoots again – yea! During the week i had stayed here, we went hunting 3 times, and i even had a dream about scouting the ground carefully to look for the little critters 🙂 Of course the pro looks for the cracks in the ground, showing where a potential baby is coming out. But sometimes the ones underground are bigger than the ones that have poked their heads out already! The ones underground are white and soft and delicious, while the ones already above-ground are black and sometimes hard and not quite as delicious. Anyway, thanks to him keeping 2 of his dogs out in the bamboo forest, the wild boar avoid the place, leaving us with around 30 shoots. I’m pretty good at finding the ones already poking their heads out, but still it is embarrassing to have someone point out one right in front of you that you overlooked – ha!

Then we went back to the house and got the bamboo shoots ready to boil, looked at the bees that were very active, helped around a bit, and then had a wonderful lunch – all Kyoto veggies – which is a very big treat in Japan. While there i got a letter from a SDA Sister, and in opening it found enough funds to put me over-the-top in getting an airplane ticket to America so i can go to the General Conference Session in Atlanta in June – thank you Lord!

My friend and her father took me in a car with my suitcase back to the house where i’m staying now, and then soon i went to teach English. But before reaching the place, i stopped in at a former English student’s house and she wants me to start teaching her kids next Tuesday. Then i actually earned 2,000yen for one hour of teaching to a 6-grade boy. We studied geography mostly, and then played Uno having each one say an English phrase using “have been” before playing.

On the 20-minute walk back to the house i heard a voice behind me saying “Danny”. I turned to look and there was a former English student, 16y.o. now. We talked about many things on the way back, and it was kinda fun being with a group of teenage boys for a few minutes. When i got back i fixed up the bicycle that has been sitting for almost 5 years, and was surprised to see that the battery-powered tail light still works fine! There is a lot of rust and the vinyl seat and rubber hand grips are no good, but putting a plastic bag over the seat fixed that, and black tape on the grips fixed that, so now, other than no front light (need a new bulb i’m afraid), i’m set to go – and go i hope to go – like maybe 20some km tomorrow to church in Nara.

The lady of the house fixed a good supper of white stew without using meat, and with a side of rice (mandatory at every meal in Japan), and a salad, made an excellent meal. Oh yes, i shared a little chestnut sweet thing for dessert.

Then to finish off the nice day, i was able to get my computer hooked up to the internet here, and found out that a different former student wants me to start teaching her English next week too – yea!

What a great day! I thank Jesus most especially for allowing me this opportunity to be in Japan, and hope i can be of benefit to the spiritual lives of the people here. It is really nice sometimes just to enjoy being alive, and having all cares blown away for awhile 🙂 Thank you Lord. Even tho i didn’t really do much at all to spread your good news, or hasten your kingdom today, it was a nice day of wonderful things, and i praise you for giving me lots of encouragement and peace today. Please bless the people around me who helped make this a happy day for me. May they all want to serve you first and best, and may those who do not know you want to start on that beautiful walk that ends in paradise forever with you. Amen.