Anyone paying attention to Western political leaders in the years since September 11, 2001, will have noticed that they often opine about what Islam is or is not. To cite a recent example, in responding to the massacre of the senior staff of Charlie Hebdo, a Paris magazine that published cartoons deriding Muhammad, French President Francois Hollande said this: “Those who committed these acts, these fanatics, have nothing to do with the Muslim religion.”
Occult epistemology teaches that there are two levels of knowledge. The lower level is the knowledge that can be gained by observation and reason through the normal and boring disciplines of history, science, philosophy, etc. The higher level of knowledge that leads to supernatural power is not laid open to ordinary observation and disciplined reason but is secretly layered on top of ordinary reality in a system of hidden symbols that only the initiated can interpret.
Multiple times I have heard well-meaning Adventists–in an attempt to prove that we should force ourselves to obey even if we don't want to–quote Ellen White where she says we are to "do right because it is right." This has perplexed me and given me quite a bit of anxiety, because while I have seen a lot of evidence against this, the phrase still seemed to back up their belief.
My first thought after reading “Old Universe But Young Life?” by Dr. Lynden J. Rogers in the recent issue of Christian Spirituality and Science published by Avondale College was that Mrs. White would be rolling over in her grave if she knew what the school she helped to found in the late 1800s was promoting in its “Christian Spirituality and Science” journal. How can one of our own schools be publishing articles like this that strike as the very basis of the church’s existence? – the very basis of the name “Seventh-day Adventist”? And, how can the Adventist Church continue to be associated with a school that is so willing to publicly thumb its nose that the organized church and its leadership?
In the most recent 2015 issue of Christian Spirituality and Science published by Avondale College (a Seventh-day Adventist institution under the South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists) there are three articles, all of which appear to challenge the firm position of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on the literal nature of the creation week described in Genesis. The authors of these papers suggest that the church should put aside such antiquated 19th century notions and accept or at least tolerate the idea that life has existed and evolved on this planet over the course of at least a couple billion years or so.
In the December edition of Adventist World, an article titled "Question on Women's Ordination Sent to GC Session" by Andrew McChesney reported, "Annual Council delegates agreed to ask the General Conference session next year to decide whether each division may decide for itself whether to ordain women. Many expressed hope that a final decision on the matter will allow the church to focus more fully on its mission of proclaiming Jesus’ soon coming."
Christ represents the Husband, and the church represents the bride. They are expected to be symbolically intimate one with another. Speaking of Christ and the church Isaiah says, “For thy Maker is thine Husband” (54:5). If the local pastor represents Christ, and the local church represents the bride, then what would it mean if we took the male pastor out of his position to place a female pastor there?
I think at this point, you know, I've looked at the majority of the arguments that I've been able to find for the existence of God. And on the question of God's existence or not, I have to say I don't find there to be a convincing case, in my view. I don't think that God exists. I think that makes the most sense of the evidence that I have and my experience, ... I want to have a closer relationship to reality. --Ryan Bell
Christianity Today published an article called "The Season of Adventists: Can Ben Carson's Church Stay Separatist Amid Booming Growth?" by Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra in its January/February edition about the denomination's worries the church is becoming too mainstream. A picture of Ellen White and Billy Graham's faces posed opposite of each other in a venn diagram illustrates the article.
Many people are aware of the existence of the emerging/emergent church movement, but few know that the idea of “emerging/emergent church” goes back to the early 20th century. The emerging/emergent church movement is a tangible manifestation of a new way of thinking, a new way of doing Christianity, and a new worldview increasingly referred to as Emergence Christianity.
After the Flood, God gave mankind permission to eat meat.But He was very clear that, “you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.”(Gen. 9:4) This command was repeated by Moses to the Israelites, and it is just as important as the rules on clean and unclean animals. (See, Lev. 3:17; 7:26-27; 17:10; 19:26; Deut. 12:16, 23; 15:23; 1 Sam. 14:32-34) The Jerusalem Council, which was called to rule on the extent to which gentile converts needed to follow Jewish customs, particularly circumcision, said nothing about the clean/unclean distinction but did direct that gentile converts should avoid eating blood.