Details

Hits: 3642

“Human nature limits our comprehension, but this was not God's purpose. ‘The fact needs to be emphasized and often repeated, that the mysteries of the Bible are not such because God has sought to conceal truth, but because our own weakness or ignorance makes us incapable of comprehending or appropriating truth. The limitation is not in His purpose but in our capacity. Of those very portions of scriptures often passed by as impossible to be understood, God desires us to understand as much as our minds are capable of receiving: ‘All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.’ that we may be ‘thoroughly furnished unto all good works.’ 2 Tim. 3:16,17’ [Signs of the Times, (Australian), March 21, 1904, 209] (P. Gerard Damsteegt, Objectives and Limitations of Interpreting the Bible, Art. The Word of God for the People of God, 2004, p. 35)

Details

Hits: 4761

Details

Hits: 3513

“Many see this entertainment form of worship we have been discussing as a fad that will pass through our land and ultimately vanish over the horizon. If so, it will leave behind a scorched earth full of discouraged and bewildered believers, or quasi- believers, who will not know where to turn next. Nevertheless, it would appear that some are already flying the coop. Donald G Bloesch reported this recently in Christianity Today article (Feb. 5, 2001) outlining the early signs of a backlash to the seeker- sensitive services so popular today:

Evangelical Protestantism is in trouble today as an increasing number of business and professional people are searching for a new church. The complaint I hear most often is that people can no longer sense the sacred either in the preaching or the liturgy… Worship has become performance rather than praise. The praise choruses that have preempted the great hymns of the church do not hide the fact our worship is essentially a spectacle that appeals to the senses rather than an act of obeisance to the mighty God who is both holiness and love. Contemporary worship is far more ego-centric than theocentric. The aim is less to give glory to God than to satisfy the longings of the human heart. Even when we sing God's praises the focus is on fulfilling and satisfying the human desire for wholeness and serenity.” (Gary Gilley, This Little Church Went to Market, 2005, p. 83-84)

Details

Hits: 3631

“Love is the sign and evidence of Christian life. Zeal for mere doctrines may degenerate into hatred for those who differ in belief. A church may be sound in doctrines and patient under bitter persecution and yet be guilty of relaxing the love once manifest. ‘The great fault lies not in the outward but inner life, visible only to Him ‘Who seeth in secret.’ The task, the work, the organization, the bands of workers, the crowd of worshippers-all as great and splendid as ever, but that which made the whole to be living and true had gone. And only Christ sees it. Is it in any measure so with ourselves? It is so easy to offer our Lord the head, and the hands, the feet, while the heart is far from Him. It is easy to drift into being an earnest and devoted Church worshipper, and worker, devoted in our service, busy in various departments of Church work, teaching, visiting, speaking, praying, and yet to have left the first love.’- A Devotional Commentary, The Revelation of St. John, the Divine.’” (Taylor Bunch, The Seven Epistles of Christ, 1947, p.123-124)

Details

Hits: 3729

The Sabbath also is the great leveler because it calls us to leave our vocations behind and worship God as fellow creatures. According to the Sabbath command, the master must allow the servant to rest, and together they worship on the Sabbath. [Samuel] Dresner brings out the point that ‘although one Jew may have peddled onions and another may have owned great forests of lumber. on the Sabbath all were equal, all were kings, all welcomed the Sabbath Queen, all chanted the Kiddush, all basked in the glory of the seventh day. The uneven divisions of society were leveled with the setting of the sun. On the Sabbath there was neither banker nor clerk, neither farmer nor hired hand, neither mistress nor maid, neither rich nor poor. There were only Jews hollowing the Sabbath’”. (Sakae Kubo, The God of Relationships, 1993, p. 37)

Details

Hits: 3401

“One of the greatest tragedies in the history of the Christian Church was the justification of religious persecution and holy wars. In the beginning of the 5th century AD Augustine (354 – 430), one of the greatest theologians, used Jesus’ words to justify persecution of heretics. According to James Carroll. ‘ It was the late Augustine who, no longer depending on the force of reason, justified the use of coercion in defending, and spreading, the orthodox faith: in being first compelled by fear or pain, so that they might afterward be influenced by teaching’.
Augustine who had to face the heresy of Donatism made an unfortunate interpretation of Jesus parable of the banquet (Luke 14:16-24). A master organized a great supper and invited his friends. They declined the invitation. In the context of the story this was very humiliating for the master. The dinner was ready and nobody was there. The master decided to send his servants out to the streets and to come back with all those they can find. His order in verse 23 (KJV) is to ‘Compel them to come in.’ The Greek verb anagkazo can be translated as to constrain or to compel, whether by force or by persuasion… Augustine's view formed the basis of the doctrine and practice of the Middle Ages. It opened the way for the inquisition. A few centuries later the great theologian Thomas Aquinas (AD 1224-1274) went even further. He justified the death penalty for heretics.” (John Gratz, Issues of faith & Freedom, 2008, p.32-33).

Details

Hits: 3959

Dr. Edwin Hernandez, (an Adventist sociologist) summarized parts of a book Acts of Faith, written by social scientists in 2000: “Recent research shows that as mainline denominations relaxed their traditional observance of [Sunday] Sabbath and other time-consuming practices, members were deprived of the benefits of belonging to such a religion-the distinctive sense of identity and communal belonging.”

“Dr. Hernandez asks: ‘Will relaxing the standards [of the SDA church] in order to make them more reasonable and palatable- thus less costly- to modern sensibilities lead to a more vibrant faith?’

Examining the considerable evidence social scientists have collected over the past thirty years as they have looked at these other denominations, Hernandez correctly and categorically concludes that the results of lowering standards indeed ‘devastating.’

Before the above scientific analysis was done, a Methodist preacher Dean Kelly wrote a book called Why Conservative Churches are Growing. A decade later, in 1982, Kelly was invited to present a paper at Andrews University essentially the same issue. He opened his remarks with: ‘It's a little ironic, I think, that somebody from one of the declining churches should come to talk about church growth to a body that is growing at a very significant, precisely consistent rates.’ Later in his presentation Pastor Dean Kelly made the following tongue- in- cheek observation:

‘If Adventists want to stop growing and begin declining like everybody else, all they have to do is emphasize that abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine isn't really essential to Salvation. Decide that vegetarianism isn't actually all that important, and foot washing ,is a little tacky… Recognize that tithing, like the requirements already mentioned, can be a form of righteousness by works. And (I am almost unable to mention this) introduce the idea that one can worship as well on Sunday as on Saturday.’

In simple terms, Dean Kelly was saying: ‘If you want your church to die, then get rid of your standards and be just like the rest of us.’” (Ron du Preez, No Fear for the Future, 2006, 193-194)

Details

Hits: 3513

“The subject of prophecy is both zealously pursued and pointedly avoided by many Christians. Some are intrigued by the possibility of knowing what the future may hold, and are eager to be more informed about what the Bible has to say about the future. Others fear that to place one’s hope in or alter one's life due to what may amount to a sincere yet sincerely wrong speculation, is potentially more trouble than it's worth. There are also those who just plain have no interest in putting forth an effort to understand prophecy, complaining that it's language is sometimes ambiguous and there are too many other mental labors involved.

While overzealousness can be detrimental, fear, apathy and laziness regarding prophecy are the greater evils because they are more akin to disobedience. After all, the Bible does present a great deal of prophetic material for the very purpose of being understood and acted upon. God Himself declares throughout His Scriptures that its content is presented at His command for our benefit. ‘Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord?...Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.’ Isaiah 45:21, 22. ‘And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people.’ 2 Chron. 36:15.

There is no doubt, however, that recorded prophecy raises some problems. On the one hand, if it is misinterpreted or misapplied, the results can be disheartening or mistaken at best, and both physically and spiritually devastating at worst. On the other hand, if we tend to avoid or ignore the prophetic insights given in the Bible, we could similarly be led down a path that will eventually end in our destruction.” (McMahon & Oakland, Understand The Times, 1990, p.26-27)

Details

Hits: 3536

“Another recent trend relating to control and authority in American politics is regulation of media. In the past, the media sector has been regulated in order to avoid concentration of power, which would threaten the freedom of information and opinion. However, large media companies in the United States have lobbied lawmakers, especially Republicans, to make changes to media legislation that have allowed unprecedented concentration of most media production into a few companies. This is contrary to the principles of American democracy, for which freedom of the press has always been seen as fundamental.

In the early 1980’s, 80% of U.S book, newspaper, magazine, radio, television and film production was under the control of 46 large companies. In 1983, with the creation of the Federal Communications Commission, the rigid legislation was amended. The process of fusion and formation of conglomerates progressed with changes in law, and a group of 46 companies was reduced to 23 by 1990. In 2003, no less than 90% of all that Americans saw, heard, and read was produced by only six large companies (AOL, Time Warner, Viacom, Disney, General Electric, News Corp and Vivendi Universal). This 90% of American cultural production included over 1,800 newspapers, 11,000 magazines, 11,000 radio stations, 2,000 television stations and 3,000 publishers, as well as Internet sites.” (Vanderlei Dorneles, The Last Empire, 2015, pages, 169-170)