conservative contentions

9 Comments / christian study / March 15, 2009

Generally speaking, i have always thot of myself as a “Conservative Seventh-day Adventist”. The main difference i see between the “Liberal Seventh-day Adventists” and the Conservatives, is that the Liberals believe that what you do has nothing to do with salvation. Therefore, there is no need to try to live a godly lifestyle. This view accounts for a lot of the compromise we see with the world that has come into the Seventh-day Adventist church in doctrines too, but most noticeably in lifestyles, with even homosexuality being accepted by some of the more “progressive” Liberals (currently liberals like to call themselves “progressives”, and conservatives like to call themselves “historicists”. i’m not interested in names, and even dividing them into these 2 lib/con camps is an arbitrary affair, but the fact is, everyone fits, to varying degrees, into one of these two groups).

Believing that what i do IS important in relating to my salvation, i identify with the conservatives. The Bible is very clear that no liars, for example, will go to heaven. Ellen White’s books are FULL of counsel on how to eat, dress, drink, sleep, every aspect of our lives. This is God’s will, to prepare us for the soon coming of Jesus, as only a holy people can meet a holy God.

Having said that, i have five main contentions with conservatives in the Seventh-day Adventist church. This

1. I believe the Bible is the WORD OF GOD, and that there are no mistakes in it. No, i’m not talking about the translations, and yes, i do know that the copyists thru the ages changed a bit, but in the original manuscripts, the words are the words of God himself – not “the ideas of God as given to man and then the men/women wrote words they chose”. In the SDA official beliefs it says the Bible is “infallible”, which is not the same as “inerrant”. Of course liberals believe in mistakes in the Bible, but many conservatives do too 🙁

2. Nature of Christ: Surprisingly, the Liberals are closer to the correct view than the Conservatives. The Bible and Spirit of Prophecy are very clear that Christ was born with no tendency to sin, but we are. What is difficult about believing that?

3. Most Conservatives are stuck in the past. No kidding 🙂 Really, they refuse to read Daniel and Revelation seeing the prophecies as anything pointing to the future. They’ve read so much of Uriah Smith’s stuff, and those who repeated what he wrote (most of which came from William Miller in the 1844 movement), that they are in big danger of repeating the Jewish experience of being destroyed for not understanding the prophecies which applied to them. Yes, William Miller was especially directed of God to arrive at his prophetic interpretations, but he had to have everything finished by 1843/4! Especially the 1260, 1290, 1335 days in Daniel, and the 7 Trumpets in Revelation cannot have possibly happened in their final fulfillment as i write this in 2008. Some of the liberals are starting to see this.

4. I forgot.
5. Unconditional Love is a concept not supported by any inspired writing. To think even that if God loves Satan now, and i’m supposed to be like God, then i should be loving Satan too?!?! From what i’ve studied, this phrase was first used in the 1950s by two psychologists in the U.S., then made a bit popular during the hippie ’60s, then entered Sunday-keeping churches in the ’70s, then the SDA church in the 80s, and by now this concept is deeply rooted among our people. What always amuses me is the violent (usually very violent) reaction i get from people when i tell them i don’t believe this doctrine. ha! So much for their love…. No, God says he “hates” bad people in the Bible like in IIChronicles 19:2, and the first 11 chapters of Psalms, and i believe it. He will kill all of the bad people at the end, showing how much “unconditional love” he has. May we repent and come to him before our names come up in the judgment which is going on now.

SDA liberal and conserative positions

So while my heart is generally with the Conservative group, and supports their interpretation of the inspired word, these points need to be considered, repented of where we have done wrong, and then make a covenant with God that we will follow the truth, and nothing but the whole truth. So help us God.

things i’d like to do in 2008

Leave a Comment / daily rambliniscings / January 2, 2008

1. Go home (heaven).
2. Print a new health book that is a compilation similar to Counsels on Diet and Foods.
3. Get the Myanmar and Thai 1858GC translations completed and print and help distribute them.
4. See the Romanian, Chinese, and Azeri 1858GC translations completed.
5. Find more translators for Indian languages and Indonesian and Spanish.
6. Get the animation for the 1858GC at least half done, and find funds to do this, and if possible, funds to make a 3D movie.
7. Get funds to my northern Indian pastor friend to support 10 full-time evangelists working near the Bhutan border, in preparation for the opening up of that country probably after elections this summer.
8. Help my Thai friends start either a school for kids, or a Bible training/medical missionary school for teens/adults etc.
9. Do my work well at the school where i’m employed.
10. Keep doing 1858 Great Controversy studies and Bible studies with people.
11. Go to Japan.
12. Finish off the corn flakes i bot in Greece in 2006.
13. Keep telling the straight truth, and learn more from the Bible and Ellen White’s writings what the straight truth is – especially in regards to end-time prophecy and the 1260 days and 7 trumpets.
14. Read the entire Old Testament thru for the 4th time (currently twice English and once Japanese).
15. Be led by God every moment.

things learned (or emphasized) in 2007

Leave a Comment / daily rambliniscings / January 2, 2008

1. Make sure you know what the will of God is for you!
2. Travelling can wear you out.
3. Sabah Malaysia, in general, has the most dedicated Seventh-day Adventists anywhere.
4. The false doctrines of “don’t judge” and “unconditional love” are still very much alive in our SDA church.
5. Many people are nice to you until you point out their sins.
6. Kids are very precious, especially when you see their minds humbly accept Jesus as God 🙂
7. Working for someone is hard when Christian principles are not viewed (or carried out) in a similar light.
8. Most workers could care less about anything other than their paycheck.
9. Being white in a poor land can make you a target of various things.
10. You should change your water bottle every so often.
11. My best friend has the biggest bank account in the world 🙂
12. Some church leaders will offer to kick you out of places if you disagree with them.
14. It is a very good thing to show mercy.
15. Smells of food cooking can really make you sick.
16. Lots of bus drivers in Bangkok are crazy.
17. If you don’t use toilet paper, make sure there are no cuts on your fingers.
18. Kids learn more about life playing at recess than in the classroom.
19. Four seasons are good for your mental health.
20. A true friend is very, very precious and rare.

happy new year

Leave a Comment / daily rambliniscings / January 1, 2008

2008 starts off with a real name for this blog instead of “blog theme” – ha!

Wishing everyone a closer walk with Jesus this new year.

I think my new year’s resolution will be the same as last year’s – to pray more.  I really, really want to know the will of God, and then have the health and courage to do it.

No matter what.

move or not?

4 Comments / daily rambliniscings / December 20, 2007

Three weeks ago my apartment building caretaker gave a tenant all the keys in the place, and he got into my room and stole all my money (which i’ve gotten around 60% back). Now, this morning, i open my door to see seven men standing around, and two of them flash police badges. They asked me about the man who just moved in next door, and i tell them that a couple of ladies moved in, and i saw a man with them last Friday. They sing karaoke until late at nite, and when i knocked on their door 2 nites ago, around 10:30, they turned it off. The police asked me to knock on that door, which i did, but thot it was very strange. No one came, so i told them i needed to get to work, and as i had finished my cucumber and cracker that was the tail end of my breakfast, i vamoosed.

Should i stay or should i go?

global warming’s next step?

Leave a Comment / daily rambliniscings / December 12, 2007

I don’t believe any of the current spin — that the world is warming and us humans are to blame. There is no scientific evidence at all for humans causing any rise in temperatures, as there is no hard scientific evidence for any type of rise in temperatures at all! They say that in the last 100 years, temperatures have risen 0.6C. That is with a margin of error of around 1C!! But even if true that it has risen 0.6C in the last 100 years, it still doesn’t mean that the long-term “since the flood” trendline has been broken to the upside.

What i despise about the whole “global warming” myth tho, is that it has become a religion, and anyone talking against it is automatically branded as “cuckoo”. It should raise lots of warning bells in especially Seventh-day Adventist minds when we see people of all religions/faiths/athiests etc. join together in promulgating some theory.

I have seen that most all of the leading “global warming” promoters (btw, the people who started global warming first said the world was in global cooling, but nobody believed them, so they changed their tune 180!) are nearly all pro-death – meaning that they believe the less humans there are, the better.

Well, today i found this article that shows where this whole movement may be leading in their next steps to “save the planet”. It comes from a doctor in Australia who proposes a “carbon tax” on every baby:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22896334-2,00.html

“A WEST Australian medical expert wants families to pay a $5000-plus “baby levy” at birth and an annual carbon tax of up to $800 a child.

Writing in today’s Medical Journal of Australia, Associate Professor Barry Walters said every couple with more than two children should be taxed to pay for enough trees to offset the carbon emissions generated over each child’s lifetime. “

It is nice to see at least one person has a clear mind:
“Australian Family Association spokeswoman Angela Conway said it was ridiculous to blame babies for global warming.
I think self-important professors with silly ideas should have to pay carbon tax for all the hot air they create,” she said.”

What is probably next (or maybe a few years down the pipe)? Outright killing of people of who don’t go along with this – of course starting with the killing of the unborn and very old and mentally mixed-up….

pope and jan paulsen in common

37 Comments / sigh and cry / August 26, 2012

Just found something on the net i didn’t know before. It makes me disgusted about my beloved SDA church…..
Leader of the Seventh-day Adventist church, Jan Paulsen, received some of his schooling at the same school the pope did! The University of Tubingen is also the school: “which initiated historical analysis of Biblical texts, an approach also generally referred to as the higher criticism”!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universitat_Tubingen

We must put a stop to this madness of getting our leaders from Satan’s schools!

Edited on Aug 26,2012 – the following link is dead:
http://www.temcat.com/TC%20Letters/Letters-P2.htm#Paulsens_Alma_Mater_

do to others what you want them to do to you

2 Comments / daily rambliniscings / December 6, 2007

This is a very nice Bible verse, and probably most of us smile inwardly and nod our heads when we read this passage from Jesus himself.  But what happens when something happens to really test if we will live it out in our lives or not?

Last Sabbath i went to the Bangkok SDA Chinese Church, getting there in record time of only 1:15.  The Southeast Asian Union ASI director was preaching there, and had asked me by email the day before to bring some English 1858 Great Controversy books.  Of course i was only too happy to oblige, and had a good time distributing the books to the people, and then listening to him give a sermon word-for-word covering the entire chapter 31 – Covetousness – wonderful!

My friend and i went back together, getting off our bus stop around 4:20, having spent almost 2 hours on the bus.  Arriving at my room, i went to my Acer notebook, and popped in The Miracle Maker CD, and watched that.  While getting the computer set up, i noticed that my shaver that i always leave on top of my little black personal-items travel bag was missing.  “Oh well, it probably just slipped down behind something” i thot, and spent the next hour and a half happily watching the claymation movie of Jesus’ life.

By now Sabbath is over, and i’m feeling hungry, especially since i don’t eat cooked food on the Sabbath anymore, and try to eat sparingly even of the simple food i do partake of.  So i put some split yellow mung beans in the water, and turn on the electric cooker.  Now i get serious about finding the shaver.  I look all around the black travel case – no luck.  I look elsewhere in my little room, thinking that maybe my brain was foggy in the morning, and i had left it somewhere else – no luck.  Something about the clothes in the box where my computer is wasn’t quite right, and hey! my notebook is always put in a black soft case and then inside a white plastic bag, but the plastic bag is on the bottom of the box now – what????!

My heart beats faster as i look at my suitcase.  It looks alright, in the same place.  My fingers slide down to the 3-number lock – my heart almost stops —– the numbers are set totally different than the way i leave them!!!  In a flash i open the suitcase, and look at the pockets where i keep all my money that i’ve earned since coming to Thailand in August – GONE!  I feel weak.  Oh no!  First thing i do is pray, then call my friend.  She and her husband come over pretty quickly, and advise me to fill out a police report.  There is a lot of advice given, like how i shouldn’t have kept so much money in my room, how i should have put an extra lock on my door, how i should have…..  Of course my own head presents me with lots of “what ifs?”, but the most important thing at the moment is to try and recover the stolen money.

…

do to others what you want them to do to youRead More »

audio for 1858 great controversy working!

Leave a Comment / great controversy book work / November 29, 2007

The old version was read by me in my room in Japan, and recorded on a cassette, then done over to computer format, so was not very clear.  Last year, while in Pune India, a man who works at our SDA Western Indian Union for VOP or some other audio ministry found out that i wanted to re-record this book, so invited me to his home where i stayed for 2 days recording this book.  It took him about one year to edit it and send it on a CD, and about 4 months for me to see the need of getting it up on the internet – but today it is done!

Please check it out at: http://earlysda.com/index.html

The book is broken out into 4 downloads, with a total file size of around 71mb, so you will probably need a fast connection to get it all.  If anyone cannot download it, please contact me here by leaving a comment, and if necessary, i will be happy to mail it to you on a CD.

The same man also mixed my recording with a music background, and i plan to get that version ready for the internet soon 🙂  May God bless the man in India who helped so much to get this ready, and may he bless all the listeners too.

what has an idol done for you today?

Leave a Comment / daily rambliniscings / November 29, 2007

In Values class today we reviewed the Mid-term exam.  We spent a little time with the last section, as that dealt with idols.  I drove home the point in several different ways that an idol cannot help you at all – it can’t speak, it can’t move, it’s just a rock or whatever somebody made it to be.  The kids got into too, making statements showing they fully understand that an idol is not going to get up and help you.  One girl, when i asked what an idol was going to do to help you if you have trouble, made the cross-legged position, closed her eyes, and put her fingers in the classic pose of this idol that is seen so often in Thailand, usually golden in color, sitting imposingly in or around a Buddhist temple.  I couldn’t help but laugh, and praised God inwardly that they fully understand that this rock isn’t going to, isn’t able to, cannot possibly, do anything at all, and will certainly not help you!

Then one student mentioned something, and 3 others (his brother was one) chimed in “yes, yes”.  “My mom said that there are good idols, and there are bad idols”.  Well, i was surprised, but quickly responded: “Even the GOOD one, what can it do to help you?  Can it get up and scare off a bad person who wants to hit you?  Can it give you food?  What CAN it do for you?”  They practically shouted out “NOTHING!!”  Praise God, praise God!!  I’m so happy i came here, and so happy that there are at least 7 young kids in Bangkok who have heard, and said it themselves, that idols cannot do anything at all 🙂

adventist/muslim relations

75 Comments / christian study / December 22, 2008


Yesterday i went to an Adventist/Muslim Relations seminar held in the Thailand SDA Mission compound. The two speakers were Rick McEdwards, and Jerald Whitehouse. Rick McEdwards is the Global Mission leader for the Southern-Asia Pacific Division, while Jerald Whitehouse is the leader of the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference organization called Global Center for Adventist-Muslim Relations.

Both of these men were very nice, spoke in a friendly manner, and seemed knowledgeable about their subject. With about 5% of the population in Thailand being Muslim, it is important to know how to reach them, to tell them about Jesus Christ. And while some good things were taught, the main idea was definitely not.

Brother Rick gave his talk first, and he mentioned that “We are ambassadors. I don’t call someone to be a citizen of my country. If someone wants to become a citizen of my country, i must help them.” hmmmm This sounds quite foreign to what the disciples did of preaching about Jesus, and baptizing in Jesus’ name, and resolving not to do anything except uplift Jesus….

He continued with “Why develop relationships with Muslims?”
1. Build relationships of mutual understanding
A. To clear misunderstandings listen and study
B. Develop relationship of trust
C. Takes sincere dialogue and discussion
2. Socialize with people of other cultures
3. Encourage each other to submit lives to God
Be united against secularism
4. Create communities of peace between religions
5. To build up God’s kingdom

While all these are admirable, except perhaps the study the other’s religion part, there is one glaring omission.  Can you see it?  Let’s continue with what the main speaker had to say.

 Jerald Whitehouse said:

“All humans carry breath of God in them, so i should respect them.”

Then he quoted 2Tim. 2:23, 2Cor 5:17-18, Sura 29:46, and Sura 16:25.  Here’s where anyone with an open heart should have started questioning what was going on – he was placing the Qur’an on the same level as the Bible.  In fact, he made a point of telling us how much he respects the Qur’an, and showed us how he opens it carefully and lays it down carefully.  Sura 29:46 says something about not arguing with the people of the Book (meaning not to argue with Christians or Jews), and 16:25 says something about “we worship the same God you do” (meaning their Allah is the same as the Christian “God”.)  This is definitely a red-flag statement.  He then went on to say, speaking like he was a Muslim, and saying softly out to the 40-45 in attendance – “We worship the same God you do”.  I shook my head sideways.

…

adventist/muslim relationsRead More »

and then there was one

Leave a Comment / daily rambliniscings / November 22, 2007

I started teaching in August with grade 3 and 4 students together – around 8 in all.  Then a new teacher was hired, and i got the 4 fourth graders only.  One left a month ago, one 2 weeks ago, and now…….i’m down to just one.  Why?  

Well, i started teaching at this school in August, and last Friday our administrator officially announced that the school needs more capital to continue.  I believe he did the right thing by telling all the parents and employees earlier than he is required to by law, as that is the Christian thing to do – to do unto others as you want them to do to you.

 What will happen to me?  I don’t know, but strangely enough, everything is moving pretty much according to what i had hoped for when first coming to this school, just that i did not know the format it would take – this school was not founded according to God’s will, in the country, starting small etc.  It is in a big city, with a huge building.  So no matter how further you purge the dross out, and make the school come closer to the ideal, it still has these two strikes against it.  But i believe that all this happening will somehow be to God’s glory, and that perhaps he has other plans that we don’t see yet (of course he does!)