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Former Adventist Fellowship Forum » ARCHIVED DISCUSSIONS 9 » Competition is Now OK? » Archive through March 23, 2012 « Previous Next »

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Surfy
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Username: Surfy

Post Number: 776
Registered: 11-2007
Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 7:26 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Saw a pic and comment on a friend's facebook page showing that Andrews University just won the USCAA (probably association of Christian athletes or something) DivII Men's Basketball Championship.

I remember back in academy we were not allowed to play other schools because of the evils of competition. I remember spending countless hours discussing this subject but the bottom line was that competition was banned.

EGW quotes were used liberally to support their views.

When did this change? What would be their reasoning to defy the counsel of their own "prophet" in this manner?

Surfy
Helovesme2
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Username: Helovesme2

Post Number: 2983
Registered: 8-2004


Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 7:32 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

To 'err on the side of the people" they are trying to reach?
Ric_b
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Username: Ric_b

Post Number: 1677
Registered: 7-2004


Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 10:25 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Nothing Christian about the "C", it stands for collegiate.
Ric_b
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Username: Ric_b

Post Number: 1678
Registered: 7-2004


Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 10:29 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

And Oakwood University wins the Div 1 title.
http://www.theuscaa.com/2012_Basketball_National_Championships/Oakwood_wins_USCAA_Men-s_Division_I_National_Championship!
Ric_b
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Username: Ric_b

Post Number: 1679
Registered: 7-2004


Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 10:37 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It does dampen the accomplishment when there are only 8 schools in Div 1 and 10 in Div 2 Basketball. That isn't the size of the tournament, that is the total number of schools.

So it really isn't "much" competition!

Dances, sports teams, what's next?
Asurprise
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Username: Asurprise

Post Number: 2476
Registered: 7-2007
Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 2:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It must be "okay" if it's used to bring the Adventist "gospel" to people. I know I stretched the truth occasionally when I was an Adventist in order to get them to consider SDAism as a valid Christian religion.
Once was when I told someone I was saved (when I believed that no one could know that until - or just before - Jesus came back.) Another was when I was passing out Adventist books and someone asked what church they came from. I said "Seventh-day Adventist," and they missunderstood; saying something like: "Southern Baptist? I'll take some!" I gave them the books and didn't correct their missunderstanding.

I didn't believe (and still don't) that the end justifies the means, but I felt back then that it was okay to do a "little sin" in order for people to embrace the "truth!" I feel bad about that now and pray that no-one became an SDA as a result!
Raven
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Username: Raven

Post Number: 1208
Registered: 7-2004


Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 5:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I don't know when it changed, but when I was in the SDA academy (through early 80's) that wasn't done. By the time our girls started in that very same school (early 2000's, it was a K-12 school) the high schoolers were playing competitive sports with other local Christian schools. What most surprised me was that by then they were also doing cheerleading.

Best I could tell it had more to do with the newer generation of SDAs recognizing there's really not anything wrong with those activities after all.

(Message edited by Raven on March 15, 2012)
Surfy
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Username: Surfy

Post Number: 777
Registered: 11-2007
Posted on Friday, March 16, 2012 - 1:10 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

We would play other academies but not us against them. We would have a pick up game..some of ours and some of theirs on each team.

It just bugs me that we couldn't play in a league or against other schools but now they can.

On the other hand...throwing EGW under the bus is always a good idea.

Surfy
Butterfly_poette
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Username: Butterfly_poette

Post Number: 164
Registered: 5-2011
Posted on Friday, March 16, 2012 - 7:57 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I went to AU from 1999-2001 and I never paid attention to sports. I could ask some fellow former classmates and see what went on.
Mjcmcook
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Username: Mjcmcook

Post Number: 405
Registered: 2-2011
Posted on Friday, March 16, 2012 - 11:37 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ric_b~

Regarding your mention of, "Dances"...

Many years ago when I was still a member of the sda church in California, we had an Associate Pastor who was having problems in his marriage. He and his wife were going to the same counselor as my husband and I were seeing! Anyway, one of the suggested things for them to do as a couple was to have a date-night that included "line-dancing"!! and they enjoyed it very much!!!

~mj~
Grace_alone
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Username: Grace_alone

Post Number: 2048
Registered: 6-2006


Posted on Friday, March 16, 2012 - 1:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

If I'm not mistaken, our SDA school has been involved in CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) for at least a year now, maybe two, much to my hubby's chagrin. He would have LOVED to have been on a sports team in high school, but of course when he attended in the '80's it was still very much a sin. Even when the sports teams were established a few years ago, my FIL refused to go watch his granddaughters play basketball.

It does make me wonder how they reconcile EGW's writings...
Ric_b
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Username: Ric_b

Post Number: 1680
Registered: 7-2004


Posted on Friday, March 16, 2012 - 2:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I think sports teams must be "Present Truth".

When inspired writings can be wrong, or even contain commands that only apply to a historical time period, then there is no real need to reconcile. EGW's statements on competition were just the result of her cultural time period, they don't apply to us today. The Bible and EGW become books with good ideas but lacking in any real authority.
Helovesme2
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Username: Helovesme2

Post Number: 2986
Registered: 8-2004


Posted on Friday, March 16, 2012 - 2:33 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Not unlike bicycles!
Asurprise
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Username: Asurprise

Post Number: 2478
Registered: 7-2007
Posted on Saturday, March 17, 2012 - 1:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yeah, it's funny how it's okay now to do all those things - even eating cheese! Remember how many cheesy dishes people brought to SDA church potlucks? Yet, they still believe that Ellen White is as much inspired as the Bible!

They can let the little things like sports to slide, but if it's something important like salvation, they cling to Ellen White with all their might! They often cling to her even when the Bible obviously contradicts her such as in Hebrews where it says that Jesus went into the Most Holy Place in Heaven when He ascended back into Heaven after His death and resurrection! The LEADERS of the Adventist churches seem to be trying to shield their flocks from the truth of the Bible, with all their might. An E.G. White quote comes to mind - where she says that in the end the false leaders will exert almost superhuman effort to shield their churches from the "light." She had it exactly backwards. The leaders of the SDA church are writing books and doing everything in their power to explain away their weird doctrines so that SDAs will continue to believe them. The end result has the effect of keeping people from realizing that Jesus paid the WHOLE penalty for their sins and that all they have to do is accept it. They feel that part of it is up to them so they never "put their weight down" on Jesus and get saved! :-(
Nowisee
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Username: Nowisee

Post Number: 1097
Registered: 5-2009
Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - 11:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It's just the same old 'cherry-picking'...we'll blink @ EGW if we really want to do something...what's next? Proms?

It's upsetting to know were denied normal activities and believed them to be sin, but now they're not. It's crazy-making to see the definitions changing. (Yet those of us who point this out and leave are the 'bad guys'.)

Sin on a sliding scale?

In practical everyday life the church doesn't uphold the authority of their own prophet...not really. And it's OK?
Gcfrankie
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Username: Gcfrankie

Post Number: 884
Registered: 1-2007
Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 11:53 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Years ago I drove a van of kids to an sda high school and they would play football with the college next door, they just did not keep score. I guess if they did not keep score and wear uniforms the sda school was able to justify it. This was in the 70's.
Gail
Gcfrankie
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Username: Gcfrankie

Post Number: 885
Registered: 1-2007
Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 11:57 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Years ago I drove a van of kids to an sda high school and they would play football with the college next door, they just did not keep score. I guess if they did not keep score and wear uniforms the sda school was able to justify it. This was in the 70's.
Gail
Grace_alone
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Username: Grace_alone

Post Number: 2049
Registered: 6-2006


Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 5:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Nowisee, it's crazy-making isn't it?! I guess it would be one thing if the General Conference made a statement that "hey, we were wrong and no longer believe that (insert name here) is a sin". Don't think that will ever happen though...
Caseyk
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Username: Caseyk

Post Number: 15
Registered: 2-2012
Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 9:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I feel really old reading all these remarks. In the early fifties I went to SMC and got punished for going to a roller derby in Chattanoga with 3 other guys from the dorm. They lied about their going and weren't punished. In 1955 I was in the USAF and claimed 1-A-O. When the GC sent a man to help me. he told me that the only reason we went 1-A-O was that as a Medic we could work on the Sabbath. That we had SDA's fighting in Europe in Germany as German soldiers and there was nothing wrong about them killing Americans if following orders. They had a duty to their country. He also informed me that in France, at the academies they played volley ball on Sabbath afternoon. You talk about confused? I thought he was kidding me but he was serious. He told this in front of the local pastor who was also trying to help me. I questioned him about using a gun and his answer was you can't really get out of a foxhole on Saturday but you could administer medical help. Shocked, but somehow made it through without a court marshall. Opened my eyes a little but did not want to believe it. Dumb, as I look back but God was at work despite me or the GC man. Over the years I found hypocrisy in many leaders. Crooks, con-men, you name it. Unless you are directly exposed some local pastors and the membership never hear or see this. I know Ric_b felt many SDA have salvation. I do not. Lucifer is the father of lies and is the great deceiver and that means Lucifer is leading the SDA church with his deceptive doctrines of the investigative judgement and personal righeousness to stand in front of a Holy God? They will be consumed by His Holiness and deception will be no excuse. We all need Christ's Righteousness only, to stand before God. Our righteousness is filthy rags.
Ric_b
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Username: Ric_b

Post Number: 1702
Registered: 7-2004


Posted on Friday, March 23, 2012 - 6:33 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I believe that salvation happens at the individual level, not at the church. People aren't saved based on what church they belong to.

Some people leave SDAism and ignore anything about God for years, only to find the grace of God while they are outside of the SDA church.

Other people find the grace of God while in the SDA church, not because of the SDA church, but because God is greater than any errors taught about Him.

How much more than faith in Christ is necessary for a person to be saved?

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