| Author |
Message |
Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 9712
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 20, 2009 - 4:06 pm: |     |
Thank you, Dennis. I agree--amazing articles.
Colleen |
Dennis
Registered user
Username: Dennis
Post Number: 1657
Registered: 4-2000
| | Posted on Monday, April 20, 2009 - 8:15 pm: | |
Recently, in Uganda, a 2,000-student SDA secondary boarding school was closed due to campus rioting by the students. The students rioted (breaking many things) due to the faculty not being transparent in their dealings. The students claimed the faculty only had a form of godliness.
Dennis Fischer |
Psalm107v2
Registered user
Username: Psalm107v2
Post Number: 193
Registered: 10-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 7:06 am: | |
I see the 144 graduating as 144 too many, however, it is somewhat encouraging to see the lower numbers.
Over the past couple years I've been on some SDA discussion groups on Facebook and what has been disheartening is to see how many young people in their teens and 20s are really holding on to EGW and have her writings memorized or pulled upon as much as the Bible. When I was a teen and before my conversion to Christianity I read her daily but my loyalty was to study of truth and where she seemed to disagree with the Bible or common sense I ignored or excused EGW.
Perhaps there is something about that particular forum but there are quite a few. As a West Indian/North American it was my experience that being devoted to the SDA church and EGW were just as important culturally as our Caribbean heritage it is sad to see the number of people graduating from Oakwood (where I figured I would have attended/graduated and found my perfect SDA wife-thank God none of the above happened) and AUC (where my sister went
Alas, all I can do is pray but if God can reach a stubborn wretch like me He can reach anybody
Enoch |
Psalm107v2
Registered user
Username: Psalm107v2
Post Number: 194
Registered: 10-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 7:14 am: | |
I see the 144 graduating as 144 too many, however, it is somewhat encouraging to see the lower numbers.
Over the past couple years I've been on some SDA discussion groups on Facebook and what has been disheartening is to see how many young people in their teens and 20s are really holding on to EGW and have her writings memorized or pulled upon as much as the Bible. When I was a teen and before my conversion to Christianity I read her daily but my loyalty was to study of truth and where she seemed to disagree with the Bible or common sense I ignored or excused EGW.
Perhaps there is something about that particular forum but there are quite a few. As a West Indian/North American it was my experience that being devoted to the SDA church and EGW were just as important culturally as our Caribbean heritage it is sad to see the number of people graduating from Oakwood (where I figured I would have attended/graduated and found my perfect SDA wife-thank God none of the above happened) and AUC (where my sister went
Alas, all I can do is pray but if God can reach a stubborn wretch like me He can reach anybody
Enoch |
Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 9718
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 4:24 pm: | |
Actually, I also have the sense that the younger generation of Adventists (lower twenties and down) have been given a heavier diet of Adventist indoctrination than happened during, say, the mid-eighties into the nineties.
Some of the elementary Bible texts have much more intentional and detailed Adventist culture and historical figures in them than I remember them having when our sons were in elementary school.
There does seem to be (to me) a swing back toward embracing the distinctives that had been blurred or ignored for a while.
Colleen |
Indy4now
Registered user
Username: Indy4now
Post Number: 475
Registered: 2-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 3:35 am: | |
When we were in California, my son went through 2nd grade (2001-02) there and had no church history taught to him. Out here in Indiana, when my daughter went through 2nd grade (2005-06), she was taught Adventist history. She came home talking about Bates, etc.
Also, when we first moved out here, I wanted to attend a Friday night worship at the academy which is 25 min. from me. I called ahead to get some details and the lady also told me that "tonight would be a great night for you to come... we're just finishing up a week long emphasis on EGW" well... I didn't go that night. But I think that Colleen is right that there does seem to be a "re-education" about EGW going on now.
~vivian |
Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 9721
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 12:18 pm: | |
A forum member who has grandchildren somewhere in central California sent me what was left of a Bible workbook from her (can't remember if it was first or second grade) granddaughter's class about three years ago. Most of the pages were torn out and turned in, but the last portion of the book was unfinished.
The exercises in the book featured a dot-to-dot drawing of Ellen and James in a buggy, a matching exercise featuring ADRA, an exercise featuring John Loughboro, and various Adventist pioneers and programs. It amazed me.
Colleen |
Surfy
Registered user
Username: Surfy
Post Number: 524
Registered: 11-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 4:50 pm: | |
The conference vacation Bible school brochure stated specifically that EGW writings would be part of the program. That was either last year or the year before.
Poor little kids.
Surfy |
Seekinglight
Registered user
Username: Seekinglight
Post Number: 100
Registered: 3-2009
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 5:08 pm: | |
Colleen, the notion that SDAism has/had lost its historical roots is the theme of George Knight's recent book "The Neutering of Adventism". Here's the little promo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgXe0cNHjl8 |
Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 9726
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 5:50 pm: | |
Very interesting, Seekinglight. Knight is right, of course...but he's wrong about there being something worth defending and teaching. Of course, from an Adventist perspective, his recommendation is on target.
It really frustrates me to see people frantically trying to prop up a spiritually bankrupt system and repackaging it as something vital for the next generation. It is a shell, a corpse...there is no life in it. It serves, rather, as an inoculation against the biblical gospel.
Praise God He is responsible for convicting and drawing people out and to Himself!
Colleen |
River
Registered user
Username: River
Post Number: 4629
Registered: 9-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 6:41 pm: | |
What really frustrates me no end Colleen is formers trying to prop it up.
River |
Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 9727
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 8:35 pm: | |
Ha! Yes, River, me too!!
Colleen |
Jeremy
Registered user
Username: Jeremy
Post Number: 2710
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 9:24 pm: | |
Oh, don't get me started, River!
Jeremy |
Seekinglight
Registered user
Username: Seekinglight
Post Number: 101
Registered: 3-2009
| | Posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 3:12 am: | |
Just to clarify, I wasn't trying to prop it up. Just keeping ya'll in touch with the latest tidbits of news. |
Jrt
Registered user
Username: Jrt
Post Number: 328
Registered: 10-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 6:06 am: | |
Seekinglight,
I understand you weren't trying to prop it up.
I may be wrong in this, but it seems to me that George Knight has become the "champion" of the progressive side of Adventism. He is the one that "documents" EGW's "progressive" revelation. He will admit to early errors and problems in Adventism, but then he'll not go to where Adventists need to go to...repentance and a turning away from the heresies.
I have a dear friend who referred to Knight when I was sharing my "new" understandings. She asked me if I had read his books. I've read a few. She then referred to the "progressive" truth motif. And I inundated her with scripture texts and how the texts disagree with EGW. I just got a email from her last night and am praying on how to respond.
Anyways, thanks for the link seekinglight.
Keri |
Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 9731
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 9:01 am: | |
Seekinglight--I don't think we had you in mind as the "one who props up" Adventism! At least I know I surely didn't!
Keri, I totally agree with you re: Knight's stance. He's in the business of revisioning Adventism, of trying to gloss over the effects of the foundation and trying to make it lovely and warm today.
It's just a truism, however, that a broken or unstable or false foundation will not support a useable structure. Buildings with broken foundations are condemned. The building will fall if the foundation is not sound.
Colleen |
