| Author | Message | ||
| Andrewshort Registered user Username: Andrewshort Post Number: 1 Registered: 8-2015 |
Hello, I am Andrew from Canberra down under g'day. I am 36 years old with cerebral palsy. I was 4 years old when we left the sda church but my mother's mother did not leave so I spent my childhood going to her church on and off my last sda sabbath service was in 2004. Please let me explain why I wanted to join this forum, I want to see how much SDA brainwash I still have, I have a issue with perfectionism., and finding peace not in Christ but my ability to cope with my disability. I am a calvinist. and would be interested to hear other stories from people journeying from Adventism to Calvinism. | ||
| Mjcmcook Registered user Username: Mjcmcook Post Number: 1873 Registered: 2-2011  |
Andrewshort~ ~~~WELCOME~~~ to the Forum (^_^) I hope that you will have some of your questions answered here on the forum~ I will keep you in my prayers~ ~mj~ | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 15253 Registered: 12-2003  |
Andrew, welcome to the forum! You know, it took me a while to figure out how Calvinism and Arminianism (and many other "isms") fit into Christianity after leaving Adventism. I believe that we are called out of darkness into His glorious light, and that light is not identified by an "ism". We are called from spiritual death to life, and when God draws us out of Adventism to Himself, we move from death to life. We become part of Jesus' body, and we are made part of the movement known as "Christianity". All of the "isms" have some internal weakness, and I believe this reality is because "isms" seek to make explainable formulas that define the way God works with mankind. And to be sure, there is much that Scripture explains clearly. Nevertheless, any system of belief that is defined and identified with a name will have some points of weakness, because the systems are man-made explanations of God's inscrutable work. For example, God's election, foreknowledge, predestination, and choosing of His own is indisputable. Ephesians, Romans, and more explicitly tell us that these things are so. Concurrently, we are commanded to "Believe". When we hear the gospel, God's command is to "believe". When people fail to believe, they are personally responsible for their unbelief. Concurrent with God's sovereign acts in all of human history is the command that we believe. As humans we make decisions that have eternal consequences. If we remove this tension, we ultimately remove the power and the mystery of God's plan and purposes. In fact, we ultimately lose the cross. The cross, after all, was an eternal plan; Jesus is/was the eternal Sacrifice for human sin. Yet Jesus humbled Himself. He submitted Himself to the Father and went to the cross with our sin imputed to Him. God's foreknowledge and Jesus' obedience to the Father are inseparable in the reality of redemption and reconciliation. Therefore, while I share what I imagine you love about the Calvinist framework which recognizes God's utter sovereignty and foreknowledge and our inability to thwart His plans, I believe we are on much more biblical grounds to say we are journeying from Adventism to Christianity! I'm looking forward to hearing more from you and to hearing others weigh in on this subject! Colleen | ||
| Resjudicata Registered user Username: Resjudicata Post Number: 615 Registered: 4-2014 |
Early Christianity seemed to get along just fine without help from any of the "isms." I have become more and more fascinated by their stories of otherworldly, unbelievable courage and honesty. Adventists (and most cults) proclaim that the Early Christians immediately apostatized, and adopted Pagan customs in order to attract Pagan converts. The Early Church WAS irresistible to Pagans. Only not in the way that Adventists normally see it. I wrote the following on the CARM website a few weeks ago. It illustrates some techniques used by the Early Christians that truly made Christianity irresistible to Pagans: THE LAST SNAP OF THE TAIL OF THE DRAGON They were 40 Roman Legionnaires in the Twelve Corp Fulminata (“Armed with Lightning”) The legion's emblem was a Thunderbolt. Many of them had thunderbolts tattooed to their arms and legs. They were ruthless, remorseless killers. They were the Seal Team Six of their day and age, the meanest and toughest Roman battalion, that never lost a single battle. They converted to Christianity in the bitter winter of 320 AD, on the frozen Armenian Frontier. They refused to obey an imperial edict to burn incense before the idols of the ancient Roman gods. The Roman Emperor Licinius wanted to make an example out of these tough soldiers, in order to impress rival emperor Constantine with his ruthlessness and his deadly intent to seize the throne. Licinius ignored the fact that persecution, according to Tertullian, was like spreading milkweed seeds. Kill one Christian and 100 pagans instantly converted. Many a jaded Roman soldier was converted to Christianity by sinking his sword to the hilt into a Christian’s windpipe at the Coliseum, and watching the Light of the Son of the Morning Star slowly flicker and die in those innocent eyes. They wanted that light. Many dropped their swords and fell to their knees, consigning themselves to an immediate death sentence. It was worth whatever it took to get that light of the everlasting light in their eyes. So many soldiers were converting to Christianity that the Empire was quickly running low on soldiers to execute. The desperate local magistrate offered the 40 soldiers a promotion if they would burn some desultory incense for a few seconds. How hard could it be? Nothing worked, not earnest pleading, threats and promises of money and promotion. Bound to freezing small cells, the soldiers wrote their last wills, urging their fellow Christians to focus on heaven. They pleaded with the surviving Christians not to fight over their relics. They knew it is their last night on Earth. They were sentenced by the outraged Magistrate the next morning, who had bent over backwards to bring the men inline: They were to be stripped of their clothes, marched to the middle of a frozen lake, and exposed to the brutal cold and wind of the Armenian winter until they were dead. Pagan guards set up fires and warm baths to tempt the soldiers to recant, but “an insurmountable barrier stands between them and the shore: the unseen Christ, whom they would have to deny to grasp the life that is leaving their bodies moment by moment” (Riciotti, 212). The soldiers huddled together for courage, and prayed that all will be martyrs. They wanted that everlasting light of the Son of the Morning Star in their eyes. It was worth whatever it took. The bitter cold was too much for one. He crawled for the bank, but the hot water in the bath killed the half-frozen soldier instantly, from shock. One of the pagan guards saw a supernatural glow over the remaining 39; immediately announced his conversion to Christianity, threw off his clothes and joined the near-death others. Thus the number of forty remained complete. Only one survived the night, the youngest who died afterword in his mother’s arms. He was 16 years old. The frozen bodies were burned alive before they could die from the cold alone. O Forty Champions of the Lord, you abandoned the armies of the world and attached yourselves to the Master in heaven. Having gone through fire and water, O Blessed Ones, you worthily won glory from heaven and a multitude of crowns. The ordeal of the 40 Martyrs of Sebastia is the last snap of the dragon’s tail. Christianity was legalized a year later. The Mighty Roman Empire saw that light. The light was more powerful than anything else ever seen, by the mightiest empire the world had ever seen. But it simply buckled and surrendered to that supernatural light in those 40 eyes, its first defeat in history. | ||
| Mjcmcook Registered user Username: Mjcmcook Post Number: 1875 Registered: 2-2011 |
Resjudicata~ Thank-you for the history lesson! I always appreciate your sharing what you have researched with us here on the Forum! ~mj~ |
