book and video review

C

This is a booklet (originally 32 pages) on the subject of whether or not we should be keeping the feast days today by a man who is regarded as one of the straightest in his theology among conservative Seventh-day Adventists from around 1970 to his death in 1994. He is the founder of Amazing Facts, a biblically centered organization that is known for its “conservative” “solid” theology. I too respect Amazing Facts very much, and consider Joe Crews to be one of the greatest champions of truth in the latter part of the 20th century. His book “Creeping Compromise” is still the standard among SDA literature for showing how our church has become Laodicean, and calling on us to repent, lift the standards, and let Jesus come in.

I was challenged to study into the feast days/holy days of the Lord in summer of 2010 by my cousin’s husband. He wasn’t a keeper either, but said he couldn’t see where they were abolished in the Bible. I did some surfing on the net, and quickly found this booklet by Br. Crews. Respecting him highly, read thru it quickly, and it confirmed what i’d always been taught and believed – the ceremonial system was abolished at the cross. I told him the results of my study, capping it with Colossians 2: 14-17, and Ephesians 2:15, and told him that settled it for me.

The next year i decided to really study deeply into whether or not October 22, 1844 was the actual date for Jesus to go into the Most Holy Place in heaven. I believed so, but wanted to know exactly how to arrive at that date. My journey led me to the Grace Amadon collection of material. The General Conference had gotten her and several other people including top theologians Froom and Andreason into a group to calculate carefully the date in the late 1930s. They did a very thorough job.

In reading their material, and of course other material i could find on how the Millerites came to the conclusion that Oct. 22, 1844 would be THE day, i slowly came to the inescapable conclusion that it all hinged on the actual day for the Day of Atonement that year. It depended on:
1. When the new year starts
2. When the month starts
3. Everything by the Hebrew calendar

There are lots of detailed charts and explanations about conjunctions and translations etc., but it keeps going back to the point that everything hinges on whether or not new moons and such have any relevance at all today. Being taught that everything related to that ended at the cross, it was very discomforting to realize that our denomination’s deepest roots go back to the moon phases of the Hebrew calendar!

That realization made me study more into what the holy days were all about. It soon became clear that our current teaching that they ended all significance at the cross is totally mistaken. For example, the disciples did not receive the gift of the Holy Ghost on just any old day, but exactly on the day of Pentecost. This is irrefutable evidence that the holy days had significance after the cross. Of course Oct. 22, 1844 had great significance too, and that is all tied into a holy day.

To the review:
He shows clearly that the 10 Commandments are not part of the Mosaic law. Good. But then he quickly turns on the Mosaic law and says that while the 10 Commandments were not done away, the “ceremonial law of statutes and ordinances came to an end when Jesus died”. He quotes 2Kings 21:8 to try and distinguish between “God’s law”, and “Moses’ law”. Inadvertently or not, he has now set up God against Moses.
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“Feast Days & Sabbaths” by Joe Crews reviewRead More »

B-

This book’s goal is to show the path the author’s took to find that the Old Testament God is the same God of the New Testament, and how that led to accepting the Statutes of the Lord, all the while showing what the title proclaims from Malachi 4:4,5. The goal of making a case for keeping the Statutes of the Lord today is carried out, but the random-type fashion in which it is done, and the lack of focus on the message of the title prevent a higher recommendation.

The Moral Law is shown to have existed before Mt. Sinai. Suddenly the word “Torah” is inserted with no explanation, leaving the reader confused about what the point is.

Colossians 2:13-16 is shown to not be talking about doing away with any of the Feast days. In the middle of the explanation tho, the reader is taken on a trip with Paul to show that he kept the Feasts, and an explanation that sacrifices were done on the 7th day Sabbath, and then brought back again to the topic of Colossians 2.

The only thing that looks like error to me in the book is the explanation of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The novel idea is proposed that the OC was what man made under his own power, and the NC is what God made, and just a few days after the OC was made at Sinai! Israelites who had incorporated pagan worship into their practices are said to have “fallen into the Old Covenant”. Then in talking about the Passover, it suddenly introduces the concept of having 4 cups at the meal, and the mistake of the Rabbis in calculating the correct day for the Feasts. It is this “out of the blue” aspect of the book that makes it confusing to all except those who have already studied up on this material.

C-

This is a very timely book, as the subject of keeping the feasts has become fairly “hot” in the past few years among Seventh-day Adventists. Br. du Preez kindly sent me this book free after i contacted him with some questions after watching his 2-hour program on this topic on 3abn (on youtube). He has treated me nicer than any other “scholar” i’ve contacted among offical SDA employees, and if for that reason alone, i have a reason to want to like the book even before opening it. However the plethora of letters after his real name send up a slightly yellow caution flag before i flip the first page. In my brief life, i’ve found that the more letters there are behind someone’s name nearly always equals more arrogance and worldly thinking. And yes, that impression is mostly reinforced by this book. There are many instances where the “opposition” is called “ignorant” and their tool of choice – Strong’s Concordance – is savaged. Many “great scholars” of the world are quoted (which means nothing to me) and their suppositions are quoted as fact. To be fair, there is a lot of digging into the meanings of the words in the Bible, and he does believe in the entire Bible, unlike many of our “top theologians” who pick and choose which parts of the Bible they wish to believe.

The final analysis? He believes that the feasts are part of the ceremonial law, and that law is done away, so we know the feasts are done away also. However, there is no inspired proof given for that position. There are several errors of logic where he quotes some Babylonian author, and then accepts that as fact. He does a good service by showing that some of the Bible and SOP quotes used by feast-keepers to support their position are taken out of context or just false. He comes up with a new interpretation of Colossians 2:16, saying it is referring to pilgrimage, new moon and non-pilgrimage feasts. He shows that he will not accept any evidence in favor of feast-keeping, even dissing Ellen White in one instance. He strives mightily (and in vain) to link the feasts with animal sacrifices. He says to keep the feasts is to deny the atonement, then at the end of the book says it is OK for Jews to observe the feasts “merely as part of their cultural heritage”. This type of cut-and-paste theology is exactly what he accuses the feast-keepers of doing. My final impression is that he wants everyone to toe the official SDA position, whether that position is correct or not – just don’t rock the boat.

I sent him a email giving my “first impressions” on Dec. 26, 2011. After waiting more than a month for a reply, i sent him another email asking if he received my Dec. 26 email, and he replied that he had, and that he had sent a response. Sadly, i did not receive that response, and he did not offer to resend it. He asked me to read the book in detail and then reply again which i did, up to page 185, and sent him a reply to which there has not been a reply for almost 1 month now, so it looks like there will not be more communication between us.

Following are my notes (shown as “my”), things that struck me as either good or bad, but in some way important. Most of the following are actual quotes from the book, but not all. I have not capitalized most of them, as they are quotes taken from parts of sentences.
——————————————
There are 2 full pages just listing various translations used.
Br. du Preez has written a whole book to explain the sabbath in Colossians 2:16.
p.13 The Holy Spirit inspired … in their own words
“my”I believe the Holy Spirit dictated it, just as written in chapter 30 of the 1858 Great Controversy, and Testimonies volume26: “The scribes of God wrote as they were dictated by the Holy Spirit, having no control of the work themselves.”

p.22 Br. du Preez writes that we must follow Biblical methods

p.25 one could “mark” (the feasts) without observing them
“my”This starts a very troublesome assertion made several times in this book, one without any biblical support at all. That is – that while we can do something with the feasts to learn from them, we MUST NOT keep them. I fail to see any precedent for this in the inspired writings either.

p.26 The New Testament says these are “Jewish” feasts
“my”The New Testament also says salvation is “of the Jews”. So are we supposed to reject salvation because it is Jewish?!

p.29 disses Strong’s Concordance, completely rejecting it
“my”Strong’s is so vehemently dissed, that i checked the book cover to make sure the subtitle wasn’t something like “and throw away your Strong’s Concordance as fast as you can!”

p.29 Genesis 1:14 Mo’ed here simply means “fixed/appointed time”. Mo’ed is translated “assembly” about 2/3 of the time, and “festival” around 1/4
“my”This is very true. So my question is, how are we really supposed to view it? Is it wrong to view ALL these instances as connected somehow?

p.39 Proof text method of study is not good
“my”Perhaps true, but this is how the Seventh-day Adventist church was born, so to diss it now is basically saying that our church is based on a false method of bible study.
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Feast-Keeping and the Faithful by Ron du Preez reviewRead More »

D

The tone of the book is clearly seen in the author’s commercial for it: “The Feast Days by Vance Ferrell. 128 pp. Everything in the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy on this subject. Christ fulfilled them.”

Wow. “Everything”?! This sense of superiority/arrogance is abundantly evident thruout the book. The reason i give it a “D” instead of a “F”, is that it gives the standard Seventh-day Adventist stance towards the feasts, and is useful in that regard as a reference.

Main points:
1. The feasts are part of the ceremonial law – finished
2. The feasts have blood sacrifices – finished
3. The New Testament and Ellen White did not tell us specifically to keep the feasts
4. The feasts are just for the nation of Israel starting with the Exodus
5. The feasts, if kept, must be carried out in every detail, even must be done in physical Jerusalem with animal sacrifices
“(Elsewhere, the Spirit of Prophecy speaks about some of the feast days as part of the ceremonial laws.)”

He writes regarding the statutes: “These commands were enforced by the power of the moral law, and they clearly and definitely explained that law .” But then he writes “Next, as quoted above, we are told that these statutes help explain some details about the moral law.” However, Ellen White wrote in Important Facts of Faith, History of the Holy Men of Old” (SG3) “there would have been no necessity of God’s proclaiming his law from Sinai, and engraving it upon tables of stone, and guarding it by definite directions in the judgments and statutes given to Moses.” The statutes are not “some details”, but according to inspired word “definite directions”.

He makes 3 classes:
1. Moral law
2. Ceremonial laws
3. Statutes and judgments

“The lengthy chapter (Psalm 119) seems to be referring exclusively to the moral law of Ten Commandments.” Psalms 119 uses the word “statutes” 22 times in the KJV Bible. If his assertion is correct, he must show that the translators mistranslated the original Hebrew word here, something which is impossible to do. There are 15 verses in the Bible with “commandments” “statutes” and “judgments” listed together, and they are properly translated individually.

“The tithe is specifically named in the New Testament as of continued obligation. But there is no such obligation – no definite requirement – that we must keep the feast days after Calvary.” This is the same argument used by Sunday-keepers to diss the 7th day sabbath. Actually, just as in the case of the 7th day sabbath, you can find abundant evidence to keep the feasts in the NT also, mostly by just looking at the example of Jesus and the apostles who kept them!

“Careful study into the matter reveals that God’s covenant with mankind is founded solely on the Ten Commandments and obedience to them.” This is a strange assertion, as God’s covenant with Abraham mentions nothing of the 10 commandments, and totally on God’s grace in calling him. As a sign, Abraham had to do circumcision.

“The feasts cannot be separated from their specified offerings.” Be very, very careful here. This type of thinking will eventually lead to throwing away the 7th day sabbath, as it also had “specified offerings” and sacrifices. (1Chronicles 23:31)

“Does God require that we keep any or all of these feast days today? Here is the answer:”
“First…. There is no definite passage, either in the Bible or Spirit of Prophecy, which tells us we should keep any of the feast days.” Leviticus 23:41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. [It shall be] a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. The SOP is clear that the statutes of the Lord are still binding, but it is true that there is no definite passage in the SOP to keep the feasts. I submit that it may be possible that this may have not been present truth in Ellen White’s day (and perhaps it is not truth at all, which is why i’m still studying it out). This idea of “don’t believe it if your pioneers didn’t” has ruined many a people of God, as they never rise beyond their forefathers – witness the Lutherans, Baptists, Jews etc.

“Second, the regulations for the feasts required that each one be kept at the Temple in Jerusalem.” True only of 3 of the 7 feasts.

“Third, observance at the feasts requires blood offerings during the feasts at the Temple.” Noticed above that the 7th day sabbath did also.

“Sixth, the feasts were closely tied to the special Israelite agricultural calendar,” The calendar given them was the MAIN impetus for the rise of the Seventh-day Adventist church!! Our forefathers used that calendar to figure out October 22, 1844.

“Seventh, by special command of God, each feast day could only be held at a certain time in the year.” And the 7th day Sabbath is only held at a certain time of the year (each week).

“Eighth, Christ has freed us from the obligation to keep the Jewish ceremonies, so why should we return to them?” No proof is given. This assertion is entirely supposition, maybe true, maybe not.

“Ninth, if you choose to return to a position of obedience to those laws, you must obey them fully.” Same thing we SDAs tell the Sunday-keepers (don’t just keep 9, but keep all 10).

“Tenth, Gentiles are not under the Ceremonial Laws.” Are the feasts part of the ceremonial laws? No evidence is given. I used to believe that too, before studying this subject deeply. It appears that the feasts are part of the “Statutes of the Lord”. And is he saying here that if you are a natural born Jew, that you must still keep the feasts? God is trying to bring the two houses together into one branch, isn’t he?
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Feast Days by Vance Ferrell reviewRead More »

F

Actually, if this book had not been written by a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, i would probably give it a D+. But with the added responsibility of being a shepherd of God’s little flock, the errors are that much more egregious.

My cousin asked me to review this book. Usually i have no inclination to read books by my church leaders, as i am troubled by the waywardness from the inspired words nearly every time i do. This time proved to be no exception. Please note: I am biased against spiritual “teachers/leaders” hailing from Australia, California, and Western Europe. As this pastor grew up in California and lives now in Australia, my antenna is on high alert before reading anything he writes.

This pastor loves stories, and that passion shines in this book, as it is mostly story after story. I too believe it is very important for this generation to get a good story to them, as that is what strikes their hearts most, more than straight logic or history. But there is a strong tendency to what i see as an attempt to “re-storify” the Bible by putting a strange spin on many Bible stories.

It is troubling to read his version of the Bible stories, which is very imaginative. For example, he says king Saul went to urinate inside the cave when David cut off a piece of his robe (read 4ST 1888-10-12 for an inspired account that Saul went to sleep), that David’s megolamania caused Saul to go mad (totally speculative and doing despite to the fact that the Holy Spirit was with David, and leaving Saul at that time), that Samson did bad things like kill the Philistines (again, dissing the Holy Spirit that “came upon Samson” and made him kill those wicked people), that Jesus was standing right behind Thomas when Thomas doubted his resurrection (John 20 says it was 8 days later), and that Paul was basically dependent on Barnabas for “empowering” him (dependent on a man?), that Paul did a good thing in quoting heathen authors in his speech in Athens (Paul’s mistake), confuses Assyrians with Armenians, quotes bar-room jokes, and even manages to get a dig in against Internet Explorer (!?).

There are a few serious theological errors also such as where he says: “Changing behaviour before belonging and believing creates warped followers”. This is absolutely wrong. In other words, love the people and make them feel at home and warm and safe and then try to help them change their bad habits. This is totally the opposite of what John the Baptist and
Jesus Christ did. The FIRST thing they preached was REPENT. This “inclusive” type of evangelism is what has driven the Holy Spirit away from the church.

This quote from the 1858 Great Controversy seems especially appropriate in reviewing this book:

Hypocrites and sinners unite with the church. Pleasing fables are taught, and readily received. But if the truth should be preached in its purity, it would soon shut out hypocrites and sinners.

Notice where it says “pleasing fables”. This is exactly what Pastor David Edgren is doing in his ministry to put his own twist to the inspired stories in the Bible.
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“The NEW Church” by David Edgren reviewRead More »

I believe the weight of evidence is on the side of what this author is trying to prove, ie: that God had a very remarkable, large movement to signal the beginning of the investigative judgment in heaven which started October 22, 1844, and that the change from the judgment of the righteous dead, to the righteous living, will also entail some remarkable event – namely, the bringing forth of the physical Ark of the Covenant.

Those who know me, know that i rarely get onto “obscure bandwagons”. Yes, i believed in goofy conspiracy theories for a while around 20 years ago, but have not gotten into many of the mini-prophecies which have swept the fringes of Adventism. So why am i interested in being “fringe” now? I’m not sure myself. Actually, i read some of these quotes around 25 years ago, and in this same context, but it wasn’t so methodical, so i just put it in my memory banks, and basically let it rot. Then, in February of 2009, in some fashion i found this booklet on the internet. Having studied much more of the prophecies in Daniel and Revelation in the last 15 years, it hit me hard this time that this might just play a large role indeed in end-time events. But for some reason, i only made some notes, and then let it sit in my computer for 2 years, with no mention to anyone hardly, except to put it in a directory for the search engines on the internet.

Then last month i read something by Br. Franklin Fowler, where he puts the bringing forth of the Ark of the Covenant into his view of an end-time timeline. It hit me with fresh force, and made me realize that i must do something with this knowledge, whether people think i’ve gone off the deep end, or not. look for newsletter April 11, 2011

Why only a “B” if i think this booklet is very important? Mainly because while the first half stays mostly on subject, the last half is mostly a plug for the author’s work, asking for others to help distribute this booklet, and gets sidetracked into meat eating etc. Also, there are lots of spelling/grammar errors, perhaps some of which tho, were introduced in scanning this into pdf format.

One of the most powerful quotes supporting his position, is this one from Review and Herald, dated 1909/01/28:

“When the judgment shall sit, and the books shall be opened, and every man shall be judged according to the things written in the books, then the tables of stone, hidden by God until that day, will be presented before the world as the standard of righteousness. Then men and women will see that the prerequisite of their salvation is obedience to the perfect law of God.”

Following are some quotes from the booklet, with some comments:
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The Unnoticed Waymark by J. A. Hiebert reviewRead More »

This book, originally written in Spanish, deserves at least a “A” for content, but the very poor English precludes it from being recommended more highly. Read with a heart to know truth, it would cause us to have an “entirely different religious experience”.

The purpose of this book is to help especially Seventh-day Adventists understand more about Revelation, showing specifically that the 7 Trumpets have a final fulfillment in the future. This is something i have believed for many years too, and am fascinated to see others coming to the same conclusion from different angles, with additional insights.

The main focus is on the 7 Trumpets, so the author looks to the Bible itself to see if there are any other references to 7 trumpets. The connection with the fall of Jericho, and the trumpets, and the 7 times around the city is brought forth forcefully. Actually, the author makes an intriguing observation by writing “7+7=13”. Yes, the Israelites walked around Jericho 7 days, and 7 times on the last day, and yet, if you count up all the times together, there are 13. A re-reading of Joshua chapter 6 would be helpful in understanding this book. Just as the 7 trumpets in Joshua’s day immediately preceded the destruction of Jericho, so the 7 trumpets at the end time will immediately precede the destruction of the world.

He agrees, like i do, that: “The historical interpretation of the 7 Trumpets is correct”. He says he is trying to give a “second interpretation”, that i usually refer to as “final fulfillment”. Either way, the historical interpretation that the 7 Trumpets represents the Vandals and Goths and Muslims etc. is seen as God’s leading for the people in the 1844 movement, but with the increased light today, we see that not everything written concerning the trumpets has been fulfilled yet, here in 2010.

The book in Rev. 5 is shown to be the “Book of Life”, and he says the Book of Life is used to judge (Rev. 20:12), showing that we have been in the judging process since 1844 (See Dan. 7).

The first 4 of the 7 Seals are shown to be specifically for the people of God. A convincing case is made for this, as the words “sword, hunger, and death (sword, famine, and pestilence)” are said to occur in Scripture 25 times, and ALL 25 times refer to punishment for the people of God! So we see that AFTER the start of the Investigative Judgment in 1844, the Seals are broken, and we see the judgments on the people of God first. The 2nd seal’s parallel is found in Rev 12:17, the balance of the 3rd seal with Rev. 13:17, and the death of the 4th seal with Rev. 13:15. The 5th seal shows that the dead in Christ have been forgiven of their sins because of the Investigative Judgment.

What happens after the righteous dead are judged? The righteous living are judged – Rev. 7:1-3. Rev. 6:11 and 7:14 are compared, showing how the dead group is “given”, and the living group washes, and is “made”. This amazing connection, and in order as written, is explained in a beautiful way to make one praise God for making it so clear, and also making one scratch their head wondering why we SDAs have been so dull to comprehend this truth!

The 6th seal describes the lost, and the 7th seal describes the saved. Rev. 6:17 asks who will stand? and then Rev. 7 shows who will stand – the 144,000.

What happens between the prohibition to harm the trees and then allowing the trees to be harmed? – the sealing of the servants of God. This unequivocally places the 7 trumpets in the future. The first 6 trumpets will come, and then during the 7th, the 7 vials of the 7 last plagues will be poured out. Leviticus 16:12-13 is shown to correlate with Rev. 8:3-5, showing that this is Most Holy Place symbolic language, inferring the judgment of the living righteous in the Day of Atonement. The fire from the altar in Rev. 8 and from under the cherubim in Ezekiel 10 represents forgiveness and sanctification. Eze. 9 and Rev. 7 show the sealing, then Eze. 10 and Rev. 8 show the purification!
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The Jericho Code reviewRead More »

This Christian book of the year in 2003 is a gripping autobiography of a living, Chinese house-church leader and encourages and causes introspection for all those interested in knowing what it is like to be persecuted in the world today for being a Christian. Hard to believe for those of us living in free countries where you can worship anything or nothing at all, but this is a reality for many Christians around the world today.

Captivated by this book for approximately 6 hours one Sabbath afternoon, i followed down the life story of “Brother Yun”. Born into a poor family, where his mother had once been a Christian before Mao took over China, then fell away, then came back to Jesus, Yun started to hunger and thirst for the Word of God. A teenager, he was so anxious to have a Bible of his own, that he fasted and prayed many days for one, so much so, that his family became concerned for his health. Then, one nite, he had a dream of someone coming to his house bringing a loaf of bread. The next morning, an elderly man came and deposited a Bible with him! Stories like this, how God miraculously provided things and dreams and brought him into contact with just the right people at just the right time — this gives encouragement that Gid indeed is alive and working actively in the affairs of mankind today.
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The Heavenly Man reviewRead More »

F

Well, this review is similar to my previous one of Stephen Dickie’s book: “Islam, God’s Forgotten Blessing” F.

This sermon does show refinement in the presentation of the message – that is, it doesn’t talk about the Qur’an as being a book from God, or about Allah being the same god as the Christian God, and in general, the tone is much better. The same error tho, about Islam being “good” and that we are all “God-Brothers” and the troubling scriptural twisting that somehow Ishmael’s line got the blessings of God is present.

Specific things regarding this sermon:
Right up front Stephen Dickie says the most egregious error of the sermon, the “block-buster” which seems to fail to awaken any reaction in the audience. He says near the beginning that after 9/11 he got interested in studying about Islam, and that it took him around 3 months to get up the courage to put what he thot was “satanic” material about Islam on his computer. He chuckles, and then says: “Islam…. is not satanic.” Now, with this blatant error out of the way quickly, and the audience not reacting, he then goes on mostly a true path for the rest of the sermon.

“I will never let a Muslim call me a Christian”. WOW. And no response from the audience, or from us listening today? How can us Seventh-day Adventists be promoting this kind of material with a pure conscience? How will we feel when the eyes of CHRIST are piercing us thru and thru when he gazes at us from that glorious cloudy chariot? “Um, oh, yes, i’m a Christian now?!”

“Tell them (Muslims) that you don’t eat pork in the first 45 seconds.” This seems like very good advice, as it opens a good wedge for the reception of the gospel.

He says when he reads Deut 21:15-17 to a Muslim, he changes the word “hated” to “unloved”, because he got badly verbally beaten up by a Muslim once! He uses these texts to try and prove that Ishmael must have received a double portion, and the right of the first-born is his!!! He says that God gave the land to Abraham’s descendants, and Ishmael’s line got twice as much as the Jews – plus all the oil! He says that they were never “cut off”, so i wonder what his position is on the Jews, who definitely WERE God’s chosen nation for over 1,000 years, until they killed him on the cross.

This fundamental misunderstanding about what is the “firstborn” derails everything that Brother Dickie is trying to produce – a reason why the Muslims are our “elder brother” and that we are all one family. Of course i recognize that they are humans, and we are all made in the image of God, but they are no more in favor with God than the Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists, or even Satanists.
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“reaching islam made simple” reviewRead More »

I was asked to read this little book regarding the importance of the Sabbath. It is printed so as to be distributed freely as an evangelistic tool, and inside the book itself it is written: “Distribution goal: 20 million copies”. Well that certainly is a large goal, but is this book worthy of that large goal?

It is largely a story of the personal journey of the author to come out of a Sunday-keeping church, into the truth of keeping the seventh-day sabbath of the Lord. As such, it is commendable, and higly readable. Somehow tho, it seems that the latter half of the book was written much later, and is of the sensationalist style ala “National Sunday Law” with many words in all caps, and ramblings about many non-essential things (like the episode regarding the National Enquirer) etc.

The only cause for doctrinal pause is given on page 56 of this 58 page book. “I am NOT lost every time I sin.” hmmmmm. While being true in the sense that we don’t have our names immediately erased from the Book of Life as soon as we sin, it is absolutely true that if we do not repent from any known sin, our names definitely WILL be blotted out, and we will die the eternal death. Then in the same paragraph he says: “When you keep God’s Sabbath, motivated by unconditional love, the deeper implication is that your judgment is OVER!” Those who know me well know that i cringe deeply whenever confronted with “unconditional love”, but actually in this context of our love/submission towards God, it just might be true. But is our judgment actually “over” when we keep the sabbath? hmmmmm.

This book is the current missionary book of the year (2009) for the entire General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Some of the other English titles include “Signs of Hope” and “He is Coming!”. It is said to have been translated into over 70 languages, and over 15,000,000 printed. It is your very typical evangelism book put out by our Seventh-day Adventist church over the years – for good and for bad.

The good is that things are written with authority – Christ is coming back, and we need to prepare. There are many Bible texts given to show clearly what the issues will be in the last days, and what to do to go to heaven and be with Jesus. The bad of it, is that there are many supposed “signs” to show the nearness of Christ’s coming, but many of them are wrong. Thinking readers of this book who rightly reject the writer’s assertion that crime is exploding, people around the world are getting poorer and poorer, that no one denies global warming (he obviously didn’t ask me!!), earthquakes increasing etc etc will have a hard time accepting the truths given about Jesus’ coming being literal, and soon. The next to last chapter showing how the Sabbath will be the dividing point for the whole world is excellent. It would have been great if he had just focused on the Bible itself, but then in the very last chapter of the book, after talking before how there will be such a big tribulation and many people dying and huge earthquakes and the sun turning dark etc, he says that the little cloud with Jesus in it will show up on a day just like any other day when people are going to work and to clubs to party and….

One thing i wonder is, why can our church go all out on something like this project, and yet let the inspired words God gave his church lie in the dust?

Why?

The main theme of this book is Luke 10:2 “Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” Derek Morris, pastor of the Forest Lake Seventh-day Adventist church in Apopka, Florida, exhorts us to take the words of this verse personally, and go out and spread the gospel. Excellent. This is something that all of us should have been doing already, but sad to say, we haven’t. So if this book helps wake up some people to how they should get serious about being used by God, then all glory to God 🙂

Meeting the objectives of the title nicely, the book only falls short in the area of saying parts of the Bible are not translated correctly, and that in talking about how to work for Jesus, it just mentions in how to work: “many people… only need to hear the good news, and receive the invitation.” Nowhere does it talk about the need to call people to repentance, the very first thing that Jesus did when starting his ministry. The last part of the book gives some real-life examples of people who allowed God to use them.

This book is a compilation of writings from Ellen White, and i think was first published in 1992.

How can i possibly give a book attributed to Ellen White anything less than a “A+” mark? Because this book highlights at least two of the problems of compilations – they often are (as this one is) trying to make certain points, and secondly, they are self-contradictory.

The book is laid out quite well, first showing how we are approaching the end of the world, then talking about how God’s people should be living in this preparation time, and how they should get out of the cities, then the events leading up to the coming of Jesus.

The order of the chapters too is mostly chronological, according to last day events as they will occur, but having a separate chapter for “The Latter Rain”, and then “The Loud Cry” makes one think that these are two separate events, while they are actually one and the same thing, the two names being used to show different aspects of the same event.

What are the self-contradictory parts? Where it talks about no one knowing when probation has closed in one place, and then talking about how the saints will not even be able to pray for the lost after probation has closed is one example, another is where it is said that no one will need to rest in heaven, yet in another place it says that we will sleep, and perhaps the worst is where it talks about how the coming of Jesus will be like a thief in the nite with no one knowing about it, while on the other hand it talks about the terrible earthquakes and floods and famines and of course 7 plagues that precede his coming.
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