| Author | Message | ||
| Jorgfe Registered user Username: Jorgfe Post Number: 244 Registered: 11-2005 |
If any of you have not yet read Dale Ratzlaff's excellet book Cultic Doctrine, you may enjoy the review that I am currently doing at http://blogs.ellenwhitenews.org/gjorgensen/ I don't see how any historical Seventh-day Adventist can get past Ellen White's glowing endorsement of William Miller's 15 "proofs" which she called a "perfect chain of truth". There is need to even debate the theological interpretation of Daniel 8:14. Just the historical premise is bizarre enough! Gilbert Jorgensen | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 4395 Registered: 12-2003  |
So true, Gilbert! I remember thinking that same thing when I read the book! Colleen | ||
| Susan_2 Registered user Username: Susan_2 Post Number: 2264 Registered: 11-2002 |
I have that book. It is an excellant book, easy to read and explains each topic completely and easy to understand. | ||
| Jeremiah Registered user Username: Jeremiah Post Number: 124 Registered: 1-2004  |
My parents are historical SDA as they come, and they got Cultic Doctrine a long time ago. Right when it first came out, probably. They read it through. It didn't even make them think twice about SDAism; they are as strong historic SDA's today as back then. My comment is that things look different from outside the box. Jeremiah | ||
| Mrsbrian3 Registered user Username: Mrsbrian3 Post Number: 56 Registered: 8-2005 |
My mom is HSDA also, Jeremiah. She told us last Saturday that she read the documentation we gave her on EGW but that she didn't believe it because we got it "off the computer". We didn't do the research ourselves. I don't think we ever did get her to understand that the people who put the information "on the computer" HAD been in the vaults and personally looked at the documents in question. This of course was in the same conversation where she tried to convince me that we were Jews. It was such a fun morning ... Kim | ||
| Cathy2 Registered user Username: Cathy2 Post Number: 179 Registered: 2-2006 |
My dad is the same way about the Interent. If anything is off the computer, it is suspect, like it is always from kooks or evildoers. Not that he would read the book, either, by now. Perhaps, back in the 1980's, when he was into Des Ford and Walter Rea, but no hope, now. He completely turned back to HSDA.  Cathy | ||
| Cathy2 Registered user Username: Cathy2 Post Number: 180 Registered: 2-2006 |
Gilbert, I like your blog. Thanks for creating it! I love the verse you have on the page you linked, today: ~And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.~ Matthew 18:3 (KJV) I want to share an example, if no one minds. As some of you know, my girls are with their dad, who has a shamman (that's what she calls herself) girlfriend. My 10 y/o daughter asked her the other day, why she didn't have any crosses or Bibles in her house? Linda said that they reminded her of death. When Amy first told me that sentence, I was horrified and instantly worried about the influence on my youngest, who is still getting her 'religous training', so to speak. But, Amy continued on and said that Annie came into Amy, giggling, and said, "Linda is crazy. She said crosses and Bibles are death, but they mean Life!" It hit me that, although, Annie does not know all the theological details, she knows and is sure that Jesus Christ, the cross (and resurrection) and scripture are LIFE for us. I didn't worry anymore; I just praised God for answered prayers and the faith of my little child. As a child, growing up in HSDA, I didn't have this kind of faith in the continuing LIFE of Christ. I heard that we were supposed to have faith like a little child, but I sure couldn't come up with it. I never began to understand it until I was babysitting a 3 y/o and she put her hand in mine, and I realized how much she trusted me. I thought, this must be how we are supposed to trust God. I think the Holy Spirit was speaking to me. No one else in my life was teaching me anyhting. They only taught me what I was supposed to do to the inth degree with guilt, not what God did and does with grace, including giving us the gift of faith. Like your blog points out, keep it simple! HSDA is convuluted and confusing. Cathy | ||
| Violet Registered user Username: Violet Post Number: 467 Registered: 2-2001 |
Cathy2 does your Dad realize the "complete" writings of White are on the net and also the Sabbath School quarterly. Are these from Kooks? Oh don't answer that last question;) | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 2708 Registered: 3-2004  |
Cathy2, It is evident that God is telling you how to raise your children. I am so glad your daughter knows Jesus and has that trust in him. I will continue to pray for you and all others here on FAF. God is awesome. Diana | ||
| Cathy2 Registered user Username: Cathy2 Post Number: 188 Registered: 2-2006 |
Violet, My elderly dad wouldn't touch a computer--let alone the Internet-- if you paid him. He seems to even take a twisted pride in that. I have no idea why. If it feels crazy, it probably is; so I pray a lot. ************ Diana, Thank you. I depend on God so much in raising children in this world. We all need each other's prayers, wisdom and support very much. The girls are home, now, and I am saner, again.  Ya'll helped carry me through in prayers. Love & prayers in Christ, Cathy | ||
| Melissa Registered user Username: Melissa Post Number: 1441 Registered: 7-2003 |
Cathy, hallelujah your girls are safe. My son comes home tomorrow! | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 583 Registered: 8-2004  |
Awesome Kathy! One more night Melissa. I'm so glad! Blessings, Mary | ||
| Cathy2 Registered user Username: Cathy2 Post Number: 189 Registered: 2-2006 |
Dear Melissa, Happy, happy day, tomorrow!!!! I am continuing in prayer for you both. It is going to be all right, sister, even if you must 'debrief' him a bit and re-explain some truths to him. Sons bond the most to their mothers at this age; he trusts you. Trust me (as a mother of a 19 y/o son, now), you are precious to him. He will listen and take in what you teach, even though some boys don't always talk a lot in response. I have had to debrief all my children (at all ages) about HSDA doctrine and myths (like going through the 'hole' in Orion's 'sword', when Jesus comes back, to get to heaven) from my family because we live near a few of them; including their grandma (although she has changed. Even watches TV on Friday nights, now :0!!!) The truth of Christ remained in my children, to date. Nothing and no one changed that because of Christ and his strength. What begins in Christ will remain in Christ, in your son. What Christ began in him, through you, Christ will finish. Give time and the Holy Spirit a chance and let yourself breath. You deserve it! Enjoy your precious boy! Love & prayers, Cathy | ||
| Kbandrews Registered user Username: Kbandrews Post Number: 2 Registered: 11-2005 |
Adventists are encouaged to think in black and White terms (pun intended), which discourages honest inquiry. You are either in or out, and you will feel like a backslider if you have been living the SDA lifestyle and begin to doubt or question the teachings of the one true church. Hence, when a book such as this is released, the SDA is faced with a horrifying choice. To face these questions, one must let go of his firm hold on salvation by church and risk God's awful wrath. It is more comfortable to subscribe to the notion that such revelations as this book are simply evidence of the tremendous skill and power of "the Enemy". If sincere religious leaders and honest scholars can be "deceived" by such tricks, how much more dangerous for the lay person to even contemplate such treacherous propaganda. The unwillingness to entertain concepts in opposition to one's existing beliefs is perhaps the greatest of spiritual weaknesses. It presupposes that the individual has reached such a state of enlightenment and thereby stunts growth. | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 2723 Registered: 3-2004 |
That is why I am glad God started pulling me out gently more than 30 years ago. He let me get used to seeing things His way, one at a time and when, in God's time, I was ready, He showed me about EGW. That is when I studied SDA beliefs using a concordance and studied my way into Jesus and out of the SDA church. Thank You God, You are always AWESOME. By the Way, Kbandrews, welcome to FAF. Let us know more about yourself. Diana | ||
| Melissa Registered user Username: Melissa Post Number: 1451 Registered: 7-2003 |
"The unwillingness to entertain concepts in opposition to one's existing beliefs is perhaps the greatest of spiritual weaknesses. It presupposes that the individual has reached such a state of enlightenment and thereby stunts growth." That is GREAT insight. For me, it was as I began reading end-time scenarios that differed from the primary teaching I had had through my younger years. I remember the first time I read a book attacking my 'inherited' position and how the pit of my stomach just ached as they attacked various points. But it helped me let go of frivoless dogmatism about something that ultimately cannot be proven and has no impact upon how I live my life. I think most people would like to know how life is going to play out, but we just don't get such clear cut 'blueprints' as my SDA former friend used to tell me. We get a light upon our paths, not a satellite view of the way to come. It is much harder to walk step by step than to be so sure and confident of the end you can let go days at a time. |
