african lemba tribe “lost jews”?

Leave a Comment / daily rambliniscings / March 8, 2010

There is a tribe in Zimbabwe that follow many of the Jewish customs like not eating pork, keeping the Sabbath (but not mentioned in this link), and now have been shown to have Hebrew DNA. Of course it is very interesting to me to see that they kept the Sabbath for many centuries, all basically unknown to the outside world.
African Jewish Lemba tribe

If they can accept Jesus, and keep the commandments, surely they will be in heaven. It makes me wonder how many “hidden tribes” God has reserved unto himself?

thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart :)

Leave a Comment / christian study / March 5, 2010

Jeremiah 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.
Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?
Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.
And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.

There are many things in this text, nearly all of them “politically incorrect”. Oh yes, one more i saw a couple of days previous to this one:

Jer 10:2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

Wouldn’t this apply to our not learning the Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu etc literature and customs and ways in order to be “culturally sensitive”? Sure, i understand very well, for example, that it is required in some societies to take off your shoes before entering the house, or for women and men to sit on opposite sides of the church – that is not what i’m talking about. I’m talking about the deliberate formation by our Seventh-day Adventist church of “Buddhist Study Center”s (since renamed) and “Adventist/Muslim Relations” people advocating studying the Qur’an.

Ellen White conference oct 22-25 2009

1 Comment / christian study / March 1, 2010

In Portland Maine, from October 22-25 last year, there was a “historical event” for the SDA church. There was a large meeting of scholarly SDAs and non-SDAs to discuss Ellen White.

Jon Paulien has blogged a bit about the event:
Conference on Ellen White

They are planning to make an “authoratative” book on her life. Why they held part of the meetings on the Sabbath hours, i don’t know, but hope that they end result is good. I did learn one thing from it already: “Jon Paulien note: Calvin Stowe was the source of Ellen White’s wording on biblical hermeneutics in Selected Messages, vol. 1: “It is not the words of the Bible that were inspired, but the men that were inspired.”). ”

Perhaps that explains this very contradictory statement???

forgiven (^-^)

1 Comment / daily rambliniscings / February 26, 2010

Psalm 32:1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

Last month i told someone wrong information that reflected badly on someone else. While it was not done with the intention of hurting that person, the lost synapses in my brain made me think and say something that i thot was true, but was not. Now that i’ve been shown that i was in error, i’ve asked the people involved to forgive me, and the one who was hurt most by my actions wrote “you are forgiven, my brother.”

It is nice to be forgiven 🙂

May God forgive me too, and use this incident to show me a good lesson about how to treat others.
May i be more careful, and not have memory lapses in the future!

End-Time Countdown (Certainty of Signs Unfolding) (Signs of Hope) by Alejandro Bullon review

4 Comments / book and video review / August 29, 2010

End-Time Countdown (Certainty of Signs Unfolding) (Signs of Hope) by Alejandro Bullon (2008)
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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?

Let’s keep to the Bible and let it explain itself, and yes, DO prepare for Jesus’ soon coming.

The Radical Prayer by Derek Morris review

17 Comments / book and video review / February 19, 2010

The Radical Prayer by Derek Morris (2008)
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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.

Hopefully this little book will serve its intended purpose of waking up people to depend more on Jesus to do what he has promised, and will inspire them to give their all to work for saving souls for Jesus’ kingdom.

we are responsible for sins we see, but do not reprove

Leave a Comment / sigh and cry / February 19, 2010

We must rebuke sins when we see them in God’s people. This must be done in love for their souls, and done very carefully, just as Jesus would.
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Advent Review and Sabbath Herald Vol.3
06-08-1886
Faithfulness in Reproving Sin
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The true people of God, who have the spirit of the work of the Lord and the salvation of souls at heart, will ever view sin it its real, sinful character. They will always be on the side of faithful and plain dealing with sins which easily beset the people of God. Especially in the closing work for the church, in the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, who are to stand without fault before the throne of God, will they feel most deeply the wrongs of God’s professed people. This is forcibly set forth by the prophet’s illustration of the last work, under the figure of the men, each having a slaughter weapon in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side. “And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.”

Who are standing in the counsel of God at this time? Is it those who virtually excuse wrongs among the professed people of God, and murmur in their hearts, if not openly, against those who would reprove sin? It is those who take their stand against them, and sympathize with those who commit wrong?–No, indeed! These, unless they repent, and leave the work of Satan in oppressing those who have the burden of the work, and in holding up the hands of sinners in Zion, will never
receive the mark of God’s sealing approval. They will fall in the general destruction of all the wicked, represented by the five men bearing slaughter weapons. Mark this point with care; those who receive the pure mark of truth, wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost, represented by the man in linen, are those “that sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done” in the church. Their love for purity and the honor and glory of God is such, and they have so clear a view of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, that they are represented as being in an agony, even sighing and crying.

But the general slaughter of all those who do not thus see the wide contrast between sin and righteousness, and do not feel as those do who stand in the counsel of God and receive the mark, is described in the order to the five men with slaughter weapons: “Go ye after him through the city, and smite; let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity; slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary.”

God said to Joshua (in the case of Achan’s sins), “Neither will I be with you any more except ye destroy the accursed from among you.”
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God holds his people, as a body, responsible for sins existing in individuals among them. If there is a neglect with the leaders of the church to diligently search out the sins which bring the displeasure of God upon his people as a body, they become responsible for these sins. But this is the nicest work that men ever engaged in, to deal with minds. All are not fitted to correct the erring. They have not wisdom to deal justly, while loving mercy. They will not be inclined to see the necessity of mingling love and tender compassion with faithful reproof of wrongs. Some will ever be needlessly severe, and will not feel the necessity of the injunction of the apostle, “And of some have compassion, making a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.” There are many who do not have the discretion of Joshua, and who have no special duty to search out wrongs, and to deal promptly with the sins existing among them. Let not such hinder those who have the burden of this work upon them. Let them not stand in the way of those who have this duty to do. Some make it a point to question, and doubt, and find fault, because others do the work that God has not laid upon themselves. These stand directly in the way to hinder those upon whom God has laid the burden of reproof, and of correcting the sins that are prevailing, that his frown may be turned away from his people. Should a case like Achan’s be among us, there are many who would accuse those who might act the part of Joshua in searching out the wrong, of having a faultfinding, wicked spirit. God is not to be trifled with, and his warnings disregarded with impunity by a perverse people.
……..
Those who work in the fear of God to rid the church of hindrances, and to correct grievous wrongs, that the people of God may see the necessity of abhorring sin, and that they may prosper in purity, and the name of God be glorified, will ever meet with resisting influences from the unconsecrated.
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The love of Jesus for blood-bought souls will manifest itself in tenderness to the lost, and will grow by exercise: He will sink self in his interest for the work. He will have many straight and plain words to address to those who need them; for when God commissions men to do his work, he lays upon them the burden of watching for souls as they that must give an account. When needed, warnings are to be given, sins are to be rebuked, errors and wrongs are to be corrected, not only in the pulpit but by personal labor. This is divine work; and although it is not congenial to the natural inclinations, the minister must proclaim the straight truth, which will make the ears of them that hear tingle; he must lay before those who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, the dangers and perils that are around them, and the doom that awaits the impenitent.

the sealing is future according to colin and russell standish

3 Comments / christian study / February 10, 2010

I’m very happy to see this by the Standish brothers on the Sealing. I highly doubt that their intention was to disprove our standard SDA teaching on the Seven Trumpets, but here are 2 well-known “conservative” Adventist names showing clearly that while there is a general sealing into the truth of everyone who really becomes a child of Jesus, there is a SPECIAL SEALING at the end time for those who go alive to heaven. No one has received that mark yet, meaning that the Seven Trumpets are still ALL IN THE FUTURE.

Here is the chapter in their book, sent to me by email:

The Sealing
By Colin and Russell Standish

One of the most dramatic and significant events in the history of this sin-cursed earth is the sealing of God’s end-time saints. It is the culmination of Christ’s high-priestly ministry in the heavenly sanctuary. It includes the vindication of God’s people, the conclusion of the investigative judgment, the completion of the atonement and the blotting out of the forgiven sins of God’s remnant. It settles the eternal destiny of the very elect. None who are sealed will be “unsealed.” They have proven to the all-wise God of the universe that their loyalty to Him has no reservations. Quintillions of years will not erode their loyalty to Christ. The fiercest persecution, the most pressing temptations, the craftiest deceptions cannot seduce them away from the blood-stained banner of Jesus Christ. However, before we proceed further, we need to clarify that the Bible reveals two sealings. It is essential that this distinction be clearly delineated. First, when we are fully converted we are sealed. Paul wrote:

And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)

Plainly, this is not the final sealing, for Paul would not need to warn these individuals against later grieving the Holy Spirit, subsequent to this preliminary sealing.

Further, this sealing certainly is not the end-time sealing, for it would force us into the false Augustinian doctrine of “once saved, always saved.” That belief is not sustained by Scripture. Here are two examples of this sealing.

Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. (2 Corinthians 1:21–22)

In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise. (Ephesians 1:13)
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38,000 angels busy?

9 Comments / great controversy book work / February 10, 2010

Last year approximately 38,000 1858 Great Controversy books were downloaded in the various languages. I praise God, and pray that i can help get the book into more languages this year. Please Lord, may an angel go with each book, and help impress the importance of your words on the peoples’ minds.

books downloaded in 2009

new india pics

12 Comments / travel spreading 1858gc / February 5, 2010

Lots of pics uploaded today of my stay in India from July – December 2009:
2009 India pics

Most of the pics are from Pune, but some from Mumbai, and then Bangalore and Tamil Nadu at the end. Please note the pics are in order from last part of stay to first part of stay.

Wang Fue false “SDA” prophet in Thailand

5 Comments / sigh and cry / January 22, 2010

Wang Fue is the name of a man in northern Thailand who says he has had visions from God for the last 7 years. I believe him to be a false prophet, but since some of my close friends believe him to be a true prophet, i write this post.

According to what has been told me, he was an ordinary farmer. He wanted a deep experience with God, and something happened and he was in a rice field for days, about to die, when God gave him a vision. Even tho he is basically an illiterate farmer, he started writing out what he received from God. He started writing things about biocips being connected to the Mark of the Beast, some of the personal sins of the leaders of the Thailand Adventist Mission, and other things that it would seem to be impossible for him to normally know. Up to this point everything sounds to me too, like he is a true prophet except that i have now found out that he used to be not just an idol worshipper, but an actual sorcerer, being used directly by the devil. This raises a big yellow flag, as i can found no one in the Bible who after being demon-possessed, later became a prophet. Yes, i know the demon-possessed man whose devils went into the pigs later became an evangelist for Jesus, but he did not become a prophet who is directly speaking for God himself.

But this man predicted a huge flood in Thailand that would occur in 2006, one that would submerge half the country after large earthquakes. Well, over 300 people gathered for year-end meetings that year to see it happen. When of course it didn’t happen, over half of the group fell away from the Seventh-day Adventist faith altogether. I heard of a few others who tried to show how “global warming” really did cause floods around the world in 2006, but even they have now rejected this prophecy as false, and have left this false prophet.

But there is still a group of people who believe this man to be a true prophet even after all this. Wang Fue explains that even he didn’t realize the true meaning of the 2006 flood prediction, the true meaning being that there would be “political” earthquakes and floods in the year 2006. Very convenient.

Now i enter the picture when i ask my friend if i can come to Thailand to do the 1858 Great Controversy animation, and help start a homeschool. She asks Wang Fue, and on the very day i arrive in Thailand the answer comes from him: “We are so near the end, that we should not do either project”. Now i can understand if the animation project is out, but to tell people not to start little schools to train up children in the Lord? This is not what any true prophet does.

He is also predicting, according to his dream of 3 cows, that three years of famine will start this year, so we should stock up on rice and cooking oil. This again is against what God had Ellen White write about not stocking up food for the Time of Trouble. He says that this famine will continue until Jesus comes. He is also saying that it is not good to have baptisms or the Lord’s Supper on the Sabbath, as the Sabbath is supposed to be a day of rest. This can be easily disproved by looking at the Spirit of Prophecy, but really, it just goes against common sense too. The Sabbath is to be a “high day” to be with Jesus, and what could be higher than baptisms or the Communion service? Some of the followers have been so diswrought about their being baptized on the Sabbath, that they have asked Wang Fue if they need to be rebaptized. He has told them “no”.
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Last Day Events by Ellen G. White review

1 Comment / book and video review / January 22, 2010

Last Day Events by Ellen G. White
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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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india! at last

2 Comments / travel spreading 1858gc / January 20, 2010

5 months and 6 days after arriving in mumbai, i write standing up at a recharge center in the Bengaluru (or whatever this city’s name is when you read this – think BLR) airport. 5 months and 6 days. Wow. Has the total life time spent in this country really been close to a year now? (1998, 2006, 2009) While focusing mostly on the last two weeks of my entire stay here, i want to reflect a bit on my total time in India on this journey.

India is really a country where the impossible, and totally illogical, is a daily occurence. How can it be that you see cows and dogs and pigs and humans all scrounging thru the trash bins (together sometimes!) and when mentioning how this is not seen in most of the world you get a blank stare like “that’s impossible”? How can you really call a populace civilized when they explode HUGE fireworks right in the middle of the street? What kind of education is it that produces many people that cannot explain a simple event with any sort of understandability? Or a culture where the rickshaw driver would rather yell and scream at you for 15 minutes (thus losing revenue) than accepting the fare he originally agreed to?

Please note that these are large generalizations. Saying that Americans are fat, or Japanese are clean is also a generalization. But these types of things are so common, as to almost identify a culture. Being someone who likes to ask questions, who likes to know the whys and hows of things, it was humbling to be told by so many people how to walk and talk and carry my bag etc etc. Yes, i believe this was God’s plan – to push down any pride i had remaining from my 48 years of life-experience. I can even be told now that i mustn’t clean the kitchen or toilet or floor etc., and keep on smiling and doing it anyway (only servants or women are supposed to get dirty inside the house it seems).

The purpose to come to India – to find young people willing to do animation to make the Great Controversy into a movie was stillborn. It is possible that a couple of people i met might help in the future, but as for setting up a little training school and doing the work – nothing got accomplished. But still i’m sure God DID lead me here. I had a wonderful, precious time homeschooling 2 children for the majority of the time. They taught me some more patience, and hopefully i got good experience that will be put into practice elsewhere as i hope to start or help in little schools and homeschools. If someone ever starts a “school of the prophets”, that would be a dream come true. And who knows, perhaps that is God’s will for me in the future. I had many wonderful talks, especially with the father at the house where i stayed most of the time, and i was fortunate to meet several people who are strong with Jesus.

And the last 2 weeks of my stay were like “icing on the cake”, and i mean that in a good way (mostly). It started out with a bus ride from Pune to Bangalore that was supposed to be 17 hours, but wound up being 23. The bedbug or whatever it was bites kept me itching almost uncontrollably for 2 days, and then normal painfully for about a week. Yes, the trains are much better, even with their stream of beggars, but i was just glad to get a ticket on any means of transport to reach my destination. I tried to call the pastor friend who said he would pick me up, but the call placed on the phone of a nice man i met on the bus wouldn’t go thru, so i asked a rickshaw driver at the ending point if he could call. He called somebody, then cut the phone, turned to me, and said “50 rupees i take you there”. I said “can you please call again and let me speak”? He agreed, and after satisfying him with a 10-rupee note for the call, he walked off, and i walked (dragged) the 40kg of books and calendars with me to the travel office down the road where the pastor met me. He was very gracious, and said something about being in the area since 4am when he had taken someone to the train station. It was after noon now, so i knew he had a lot of patience waiting for me. He took me to his church which is being renovated, and it was just good being with him again after a 6-week or so absence from our first meeting in Bombay.

After a bath and applying gobs of soothing jelly medicine that he so kindly purchased for me, i took a nap. He and his wife gave me their own cot-bed, and slept on the floor themselves on a little rice throw-mat. I felt bad putting them out like that, but protesting didn’t help things, so just accepted their hospitality cheerfully. That is one of the great things about India, there are so many bad things here i guess, that people who are in your group are looked after quite well, and worried over and watched over carefully. In all the 15 years i lived in the Japan with its 20+ landings at its airports, i never once was greeted by anyone. And i’ve never been taken all the way to the airport yet by anyone either, altho last time i was taken to a train station near the airport. But here, two pastors who have never met me before greeted me at the Mumbai airport in July, and, well, just tonite, i had three people go along with me to the Bangalore airport, just to make sure everything went well for me. That’s some hospitality! Of course, without that hospitality, it would be difficult to get here by public transport, as it is not connected well (hard to understand bus system and extremely overcrowded), and taxi drivers often charge what long-time foreigners here refer to as “skin tax” which is about a 5times surcharge.

People are lining up for my flight to Bangkok, so i better put this away for now. Thank you, some nice, dedicated people in this maelstrom that is called India, for making my stay profitable to my spiritual welfare, and i hope to yours as well 🙂

I’ll try to finish this now, a week later, typing in northern Thailand:
The pastor in Bangalore took me to many of his church members’ homes and businesses to talk and pray with them. He tries to meet with all his members in their homes once a week. This close contact is key, i believe, to keeping people healthy and strong in their church experience. I had many precious interviews, trying to lift the people up to look more closely to Jesus for everything.
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