The Sabbath, It is Finished

For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Matthew 5: 18 

I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. Matthew 26:29

Seventh-day Adventists believe that in these two texts Jesus was speaking of the fulfillment of all things at the Second Coming. That the law given to the Hebrews at Sinai is still in effect (at least some aspects of it) for Christians today because the Kingdom hasn’t yet come. According to Adventists, not a jot or tittle can be changed because at the Cross, all things were not fulfilled, God’s Kingdom did not come.

But what if, what if, at the Cross all things were fulfilled and the Kingdom of God came? Think about it. What if the Kingdom of God actually came at the Cross and resurrection of Christ and God mission was fulfilled --every single jot and tittle?

That is why today, most Christians do not follow the Old Covenant, but the New Covenant. We believe God absolutely fulfilled all of His mission to save at the Cross and with the resurrection the Kingdom of God came onto the earth.

When Jesus came to earth, He was the Word made flesh. Jesus was God’s Word! Jesus came to fulfill the Law and Prophets. He was the Torah incarnate and with His death a profound change in all human history occurred. With the resurrection a new order was established with a new heaven and a new earth. 

The Kingdom was fulfilled

Let’s look at all the texts in the Book of Matthew that show Jesus fulfilled the Law to the very last jot and tittle while on earth:

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.” 1:22 

“This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Out of Egypt have I called my son.” 2:15

“Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet.” Jeremiah.” 2: 17

“And he went and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” 2: 23

But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented.” 3:15

“...that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.” 4:14

“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them.” 5: 17

“This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” 8:17

“This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah,” 12: 17

“With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says: 'You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive.” 13: 14

“This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” 13: 35

“This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying...” 21: 4

“But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” 26: 54

“But all this has taken place, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples forsook him and fled.” 26: 56

“Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel,” 27:9

Every jot and tittle at the Cross was fulfilled. Now a New Covenant has come. We see this specifically noted in the final moments before Christ died.

The Kingdom came at the cup on the Cross

I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. Matthew 26:29

At the Last Supper, Jesus declared to His disciples that He would not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom came! Adventists assume this is still to happen when Christ comes again. And yet the scripture indicates that at the cross Christ specifically asked for and drank wine right before His death. 

After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), "I thirst." A bowl full of sour wine stood there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished"; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19: 28-30

So at the Cross not only was all finished but the Kingdom of God came. And this mustard seed of a kingdom will continue until Jesus comes in the clouds and brings the New Jerusalem, the capital city of God’s kingdom on earth. 

My Love for Adventists

It is frustrating year after year when people misunderstand your motives. I can clearly see how they would misunderstand, for I did the same when I was Adventist. They think I hate them or are bitter towards my former church. No such thing is true.

Rather, I see myself as someone who has escaped from a dark cave. I know Adventists will think comparing their faith with a cave is such an insult. I am not attempting to insult them, only tell the story of how I felt within Adventism's doctrine. The people were wonderful, but so much of the doctrine was dark, paranoid, confusing and unbiblical. Think about it. They think they will one day be the focus of a modern Catholic witch hunt and the entire globe will turn and hunt them down because they worship on Sabbath. Their whole world is defensive and irrational, seeing sinister conspiracies in every black helicopter and papal decree. Everyone is a potential enemy, even Christians!

So, I will characterize some SDA doctrine as cave-like in order to be experiential rather than insulting.

For years, I searched this theological scary, dank cave and its dark places with bats and spiders hoping for some light. In my quest, sometimes there was so little light I felt like giving up and remaining within the dark cave. Yet for me, I saw that I was so much closer to the entrance than most, that I had to keep looking. Most of these cave dwellers were farther, in little groups, much deeper in the cave complex than I had been raised.

Many people were hiding in the shadows, afraid. Too afraid and too proud to believe that there was something warmer, healthier, brighter and more wonderful out there towards the light.

Over time, I met up with a few others who were escaping and with their knowledge of things I didn't know and with my own studying of the cave, we finally got out.

Of those who escaped, some just kept going, so glad to be out that they walked on and now are happily dancing merrily in the light of the sun, singing like Maria von Trapp "The hills are alive with the sound of music!" But a few of us, thought about those back in the cave. Maybe some of them would like to know what it is like out here in the sun! Perhaps some would like to quit being scared and proud. There had to be many more like me. So, reluctantly, a few of us went back into the cave.

We knew the cave dwellers and their resistance. While a couple of those who had seen the light came in shouting that the cave dwellers were stupid, deceived and they better get out, I took a passive approach. I knew that many of them liked dwelling in the dark. They felt safe there and might need to watch a few people more go out and come back with good news before they would try and leave what they had always known--what they had grown up in. I was there only to help those like me who wanted light, no matter what.

I held up a sign with the words illuminated, "It's okay to leave the cave. It's good out there! Follow us and we will take you out." We didn't try and force people out, but many who read the sign panicked and tried to convince everyone out there that we were liars and deceivers. They told us that we hated the cave dwellers. That the cave is where God wants them and we are of the devil to say that there is something better outside the cave. They have all they need there, they are safe there. No place other than the cave gives them such sharp sight and white skin.

We showed a few people out and watched their eyes as they saw the green meadows and blue sky and felt the warmth of the sun. We cried as we saw their happiness. Then we thought we would love to show even more how wonderful it is outside. So, with reluctance and bolstering our courage, we went back into the cave. We thought it was the sacrifice God wanted of us--to do for others what we would have loved someone to have done for us.

Some of the cave dwellers, upon seeing us back, smirked and said that if we loved the light so much why would we be hanging around in the cave? We must really think the cave is better.

Some of those who came back to help got so sick of the abuse, they just left with a huge "good riddance." They are now all living with such happiness out in the light.

I know my time to help the cave dwellers is growing short. There are now others who have been in the light who wish to go back and help and I can rest, knowing I did my best. But I can't go quite yet, God says I still have a few trips left.

I wouldn't go back into the cave unless I loved the people I was rescuing. I hate the cave. It smells and I am no longer used to the cold, my eyes have adjusted for the sun and I can't see as well as I used to in there. So going in is hard on me, I do it only because of love.

End of allegory.

What I wish to tell everyone plainly is that my ministry to Adventists is about love.


I have never known an Adventist I didn't like. (There are some I dislike but I have never met them, like SDA abortionists. I am praying for, but I don't hate them.) To a SDA worldview, for me to forcefully disagree with some of the SDA doctrines is tantamount to hating Adventists or being very "disturbed". I have as much hope of disabusing them of that self-deception as of helping them to see the error of their doctrines. I will love them at a distance and hope that one day they will get to walk in the light and see the flowers and mountains and beauty of God, outside their cave of theology.

SDA pride will tell them I dislike them and that makes me so sad because they don't even know that they are fearful and prideful.

It's not about anything but love. I absolutely do love Adventists.

Did Catholics Change the Sabbath

JimmyAkin

Did the Catholic Church "Change the Sabbath"?

BY JIMMY AKIN Thursday, October 11, 2012 9:17 PM Comments (3)

Did the Catholic Church "Change the Sabbath"?

You sometimes encounter the charge that the Catholic Church wrongly "changed the sabbath" from Saturday to Sunday. This claim is often made by Seventh-Day Adventists, for example. But even if one isn't accusing the Church of wrongdoing, the question can still arise: Why do Catholics worship on Sunday rather than Saturday? Here's the story . . .

What Day the Sabbath Is

First, let's clear away a potential source of confusion. While it's true that people sometimes speak of Sunday as "the Christian sabbath," this is a loose way of speaking. Strictly speaking, the sabbath is the day it always was--Saturday--though it should be noted that traditionally Jewish people have celebrated the sabbath from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. Sunday is a distinct day, which follows the sabbath. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains:

2175 Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man's eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ.

Why We Celebrate Sunday

That same paragraph explains why we celebrate on Sunday. For Christians the ceremonial observance of Sunday replaces that of the sabbath. Properly speaking, we're not celebrating the sabbath on Sunday. We're celebrating something else, but it's something that the sabbath points toward. As the Catechism says, the Jewish sabbath announces man's eternal rest in God and prefigures some aspects of Christ. Sunday thus fulfills what the sabbath pointed toward.

The Lord's Day

What we are celebrating instead of the sabbath is "the Lord's day." That's something Christians have celebrated since the first century. In fact, in the very first chapter of Revelation, we read that John experienced the inaugural vision of the book on "the Lord's day." He writes:

I John, your brother, who share with you in Jesus the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet [Revelation 1:9-10].

And he goes on to describe the vision of Jesus Christ he received. For our purposes, the important thing to note is that he speaks of the Lord's day as an already-established thing. He expects his readers to know what it is. So, when is it?

 

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/did-the-catholic-church-change-the-sabbath#ixzz295mwrVDc

The Adventist Auschwitz

I have never encountered a place like Keene, Texas anywhere. Good people, really nice and good people live there. But few people who grew up or lived there for any amount of time come out alive (metaphorically). To call it the Adventist Auschwitz sounds highly and offensively dramatic, but you don't know what I know about the place and if you did, you would use the same language.

Something is wrong, evil about that town. It is a haunt of demons who prowl around harassing and devouring the innocent people there.

If you live there, get out.

My family hates when I talk about Keene this way because they think I am insulting the people which is totally misunderstanding me. I want people out because I love them and think the world of them.

Yes, I know horrible stuff happens everywhere, but nothing like in Keene. Ninety-five percent of people who spend years living in Keene have a life that is hell and ruined by various evils. I lived there for twenty years and saw the outcomes--the suicides, the suicide attempts, the sexual promiscuity, the rape, the incest, the sexual abuse of minors by both family member and religious leaders and the forced abortions when the youth get pregnant, the affairs, the divorces, the satanic groups, the mental illness, the communal deception, the drug abuse, murder (even murder!), the hopelessness, the wanton life of evil cloaked under religion. Consciences are seared as a hot iron and when someone lives too long in Keene they become deaf and blind to it.

Because I was a person people, for some reason, went to with their horrors, I found out more than probably most of the pastors there. If you live there, you probably won't know how bad it is until it is too late. I heard all the stuff I just wrote BY THE VICTIMS themselves--there is nothing I have written that was second hand.

If you think people just make this stuff up, I say... okay, perhaps some of the stuff I heard was from people who just made it up... fine. But then Keene has a different problem. It is full of liars and mental derangement. It is a city of mental sickness. But then we must ask why?

You drive through Keene, or even move there, and the first few years are fine. It seems like any sweet little old-fashioned town. People are SO nice and they have great traditions, unique traditions. Yet, somehow the longer you are there, the darkness shows itself. It's weird and I can't describe it. It's as if a shadow of demonic forces begin to follow a person around. It is a vortex and the nicer you are... the more you are targeted.

Of course there are a few who live blissfully ignorant of what goes on in Keene and think it a sweet place. And if you are a retired SDA leader and can stay out of everyone else's life and live like a monk--then you will probably be fine. But just don't look under the sweet overcoat of Keene or you will see things you never wanted to see. And then you will be culpable if you don't cry out.

If you live in Keene today:

GET OUT!! Do not live in Keene and for God's sake don't let your kids grow up there. Something wicked that way comes...

Adventists Face Abuse of Minors

http://www.atoday.org/article/1361/news/august-headlines/abuse-is-a-challenge-for-the-adventist-church-new-campaign-is-launched-to-counter-it


Though Adventists claim sexual and physical abuse is not at "crisis" level in their church... (many former SDAs and current SDAs would vehemently disagree)... at least the church is now beginning to openly deal with it...

Abuse is a Challenge for the Adventist Church; New Campaign is Launched to Counter It

Submitted: Aug 22, 2012
By AT News Team

Although the number of cases has not reached the crisis level that it has in some denominations, the Seventh-day Adventist Church does face an incidence of abuse suffered by its children and teens sufficient to result in the launch of a new, world-wide campaign. In a scan of public records over the past 30 days, Adventist Today found at least four serious cases of sexual abuse, physical harm and even murder by ministers, teachers and lay leaders. This is not a scientific sample and it is not intended to imply that this is a typical period, yet it is disturbing.

A 23-year-old Fifth Grade teacher in an Adventist elementary school in St. George’s, Grenada, was arrested during the last week of July and charged with murder. According to the Jamaica Observer, the remains of a 19-year-old young woman were found in a refuse container along with a weapon and personal belongings. An autopsy showed that the woman died from strangulation and bleeding. To date, there is no report of how the young teacher pled in court.

Last week a 46-year-old man in Berrien County, Michigan, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he pled guilty to sex crimes against a nine-year-old girl which occurred at the Niles Westside Seventh-day Adventist Church. He was also convicted of failing to register for prior convictions of criminal sexual misconduct. The prosecuting attorney was quoted by the South Bend Tribune, “He’s done this before. He said that he couldn’t control himself with children.” There was no comment about why he was allowed to have contact with children at the church.

On July 29 The Times of India reported that a female teacher at the Adventist school in Virudhunagar allegedly hit a seven-year-old girl with a wooden ruler causing injuries that made it difficult for the girl to walk home. “Police sources said they had filed a complaint under section 323” of India’s criminal law and “section 23 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2000.” An unnamed police official is quoted as stating that the teacher had “accepted that she caned the girl.”

On August 20 the tabloid London Daily Mail and the South Africa Press Association (SAPA) wire service both reported that Elder Steyn Venter, pastor of the Adventist church in Bloemfontein, South Africa, had been fired for “improper advice” in marriage counseling. The newspapers reported that he had encouraged young couples to engage in public nudity and kept photographs in which at least one couple appeared naked. Elder B. M. P. Ngwenya, president of the KwaZulu-Natal and Free State Conference, told the Die Volksblad newspaper that the pastor had been fired.

Among those who might have access to statistics on cases of this kind, no one was willing to give Adventist Today any hint if this is a typical month or not. What is widely reported is that the Adventist Risk Management (ARM) insurance company owned by the General Conference used the occasion of the recent North American Division Teacher’s Convention in Nashville to launch the Seven Campaign, a “grassroots” effort “stop child abuse.” In February ARM had launched a Child Protection Plan and it has presented recommendations that led to the adoption of strong prevention measures in the NAD Working Policy over the last decade or two.

“We want to not only make it clear that we stand against child abuse, but we want to get our members talking and actually engaged in spotting and preventing misconduct,” an ARM spokesman told the Adventist News Network (ANN), the official news service of the GC. He stressed the involvement of local church members as a major goal of the campaign in his comments to ANN.

Yet, to some observers the initiative stumbled out of the starting blocks when convention planners pulled the plug on an Adventist group that is involved in anti-bullying efforts. Someone to Talk To is an independent organization pulled together by Carol Grady, the wife of an Adventist minister, who has written a book entitled My Son, Beloved Strangerabout her gay son and the problems he faced growing up in the Adventist denomination’s schools and youth ministries. Her group had applied to be one of 160 organizations that had exhibits at the convention. Because her web site does not take the official position of the denomination regarding gays and lesbians, she was told she could not participate.

An article about refusing Grady as an exhibitor appeared in The Huffington Post and a response was released by the denomination, stressing that the NAD Office of Education provide eight contact hours of in-service education on bullying during the convention, including a preview of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, “a whole-school program that has been proven to prevent or reduce bullying.”

The Church “recognizes that every human being is valuable in the sight of God, and we seek to minister to all men and women in the spirit of Jesus,” the statement quoted from the denomination’s position paper on homosexuality. “We hold that all people, no matter their sexual orientation, are children of God. We do not condone singling out any group for scorn and derision, let alone abuse.”

“Being a gay, lesbian or bisexual teenager in the United States is risky business,” pointed out Elder Ryan Bell, senior pastor of the Hollywood Seventh-day Adventist Church. “According to the 2009 National School Climate Survey nearly 85 percent of LGBT teens report being harassed in school and nearly two-thirds report feeling unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation.” Adventists and other Christians have found it difficult to balance a belief that homosexual behavior is sinful and a belief that all people should be respected and treated without discrimination.

At the same time, it is clear that there are problems of abuse and violence that do not appear to be related to tensions over sexual orientation. “Sexuality and spirituality are both powerful things,” one veteran pastor told Adventist Today. “All human beings are sinners. It is only by God’s grace that things do not go wrong more often than they do. This is why those of us who are preachers must constantly hammer on the duty of compassion and the core doctrine of grace. If we let off the emphasis, more people get hurt.”

JIM GILLEY and Me

Jim Gilley: Adventist Celebrity: President and Televangelist of 3 ABN[Fourth in series of Adventist Celebrities and Me... because so many SDAs claim I wasn't ever really an SDA but someone on the periphery of the church.]

My father and Jim Gilley grew up in Dallas and attending the same church and church school. They fought over girls, got into trouble together and shared each others secrets.

On our old, silent black and white family movies there is young Jim with curly dark hair, skinny and handsome teasing Camille, his not-yet wife, who is smiling broadly waving and playing self-consciously on film.

So our families go way back... my grandmother knew Jim's mother...

The Gilleys were pillars of the Dallas First SDA Church on Central Expressway where my family attended and all of the kids attended the SDA church school there. The Gilley's four kids, about the same ages as my younger four siblings all played together too. I remember picking the phone up and hearing Jimmy Gilley (in fifth grade) crying, trying to "win back" my sister Heidi who he evidently had a crush on.

I have enough memories of the Gilleys to fill a book. Mr. Gilley, as I knew him before he was "pastor Gilley," with his charming and always calm smile, his slurred melodious voice and his gracious wife always at his side. Our families, along with the Collums, were the ones with the large homes and we were always entertaining--giving each other showers and surprise parties and occasionally spending a fourth of July or New Year's Eve together. We had fun.

Jim and Camille are there in my most wonderful childhood memories, laughing, singing: at school, at church, at ingathering, at church or school sponsored events. They were a big part of my childhood formation.

But I have to say, I don't remember our families ever really speaking about religion or spiritual things--or of Ellen White or the Investigative Judgement or even of the Sabbath. We had enormous fun as "gladventists." To me, I thought of Jim as more of a business man than a pastor.

When my parents moved to Keene, Texas so that our family could attend Southwestern Adventist College, soon the Gilley's followed suit as well as several other prominent Dallas Adventist families. We were bringing Dallas liberalism to the "holy city."

Jim rose in the SDA ranks rather later in life. He became a pastor and eventually did something with the General Conference. The last time I saw them was when they, as always, graciously opened there home for us to stay with them near the General Conference in DC. It was so fun for my family to hear some of Jim's fabulous adventure stories, as well as the horrible time he had with shingles.

Now Jim Gilley is head of the ailing 3ABN (Three Angels' Broadcasting Network). I was so glad to hear that he was placed there. Jim is good at bringing humor and relaxation to whatever he is doing. I wish him the very best. Jim is one of the reasons I think Adventism will eventually become a mainstream religion. Unless he has sincerely become orthodox as he grows older (and I guess some do sometimes) he will melt the radicalism of the SDA conservatives with his generous smile.

Dear Mr. Gilley,

HI! HOW ARE YOU? Wow, I miss our families having fun together. Wish we could all just go back to those simple days at the Dallas Church....

Please use this opportunity you have to influence your church about abortion. Mr. Gilley, the SDA church is really a one-commandment church because of its exclusive promotion of the fourth commandment, when our society is collapsing under the weight of sin of ALL Christ's commandments. I know you aren't going to jump into a picket line, that is not your style. But you have enormous pull--a quiet strength, that can mean all the difference. You can be a silent hero of Adventism. Take the opportunity.

Love you SOOO much, tell your beautiful wife that we said hello.

Little Tesa Fry! (Now Beem)

Mike Tucker and Me

Mike Tucker: Adventist Celebrity: Televangelist, Faith for Today
[Third in series of Adventist Celebrities and Me... because so many SDAs claim I wasn't ever really an SDA but someone on the periphery of the church.]

All the seventh-grade girls at Dallas Junior Academy were thrilled to get a single young male as our homeroom teacher. It was an instant crush for them. I was the only hold-out as I thought he was too lanky and gooey sweet. We knew it was inevitable that he would have a girl friend, but when he spoke about Gayle, it irritated the girls.

That year, with tears in Shari Workman's eyes, Mike married Gayle. That announcement in class didn't go over well....

Within a few months, the dudes (and a few really far out girls) no longer "dug" him, as my admiration soared. You see he was a godly man and his extremely mild and soothing manner grated on early teens who are trying their best to be cool. My roll-your-eyes-at-the-I-have-a-crush-on-Mr.-Tucker chicks helped me maintain a more judicious attitude about him.

However, I have to say... Mr. Tucker should have been a bit more teenage savvy, as the ardent tears for us to turn to the Lord each Friday during Bible class (a huge shock that really impressed us at first) (cringe).... as sincere as they might have been.... you know... it started to be mocked by the boys... I really felt sorry for him. I had never seen a guy cry and I sort of looked forward to it.


Several years later I worked for a friend of Mike's and learned WAY too much about him. And then he became pastor of a church nearby. My cousins, the Coles, are very good friends with him and I have always very much enjoyed going to the Arlington SDA church. It tries to be gospel-oriented and contemporary.

Once I spoke privately to Mike about starting a ministry for kids who had been sexually abused by SDA teachers and pastors. (NOT ME! I assure you, this idea was born from hearing so many stories from others....) He admitted that it was a real problem, but didn't really believe that he could get involved with something like that at the time. And I am sure that wasn't just an excuse, because he really was zooming his way to the top then. But when he said those kids need to just get over it with prayer, I thought.... "hum... what about those tears now? Where's the compassion for kids now?"

Not too long afterwards he became the televangelist for the Adventists TV program, Faith for Today.

I can't really see him in the SDA celebrity role, as I will always remember him as my sweet seventh-grade teacher who cried.

Dear Mr. Tucker,

I will ask the same thing of you as I have Shawn Boonstra, Cliff Goldstein and Doug Batchelor. Please, please, stop being a one commandment church. Join the rest of Christianity in fighting the culture of death, a culture steeped in immorality. No one can really understand anything about Sabbath when they are overwhelmed in sin. Sabbath isn't the answer, only Christ is the answer. I know you preach that, but begin opening up yourself to some really courageous statements. You may have to fall on your sword for this one, but why not really start preaching that abortion is a sin?

Now maybe you have been.... if so, then God bless you. But if so, speak a little louder so that the General Conference can hear!

CLIFF GOLDSTEIN AND ME

Cliff Goldstein: Adventist Celebrity: Writer and Editor for Adult Sabbath School Quarterly
[First in series of Adventist Celebrities and Me... because so many SDAs claim I wasn't ever really an SDA but someone on the periphery of the church.]

I love Cliff Goldstein. His program "Cliff" on The Hope Channel was the best thing on there.

A guy who worked for the General Conference, Mr. Newhart, pulled me aside when I was manning a pro-life booth at a campmeeting in Keene, Texas and insisted that I talk with Cliff Goldstein. I had no idea who either of them were, but I went.... I found Cliff dramatic, enthusiastic, entertaining and smart. His energy and worldview has always thrilled and mesmerized me.

We, my husband and I, have had several encounters-- including a dinner at Jose's Mexican restaurant in Cleburne, Texas, an Indian dinner in Fort Worth followed by dessert at La Madeline's. Once he came over our house and told a fascinating experience about watching an exorcism.

My last encounter with him wasn't wholly unexpected. After we left Adventism, we stopped by the General Conference offices in DC to see him. He sat for a second and then made a quick exit.... He seemed a little uncomfortable.

He is what makes the adage "opposites attract" true for me in a theological and political sense anyway. We have very little in common other than we both have been called "Jesuits who have infiltrated the SDA church." Other than that, we really are about as opposite as you come. He hates music.... which is beyond my comprehension and Sylvia Plath is one of his favorite poets. He's a Democrat and is pro-choice.

If I were God, Cliff would get into heaven just for the sheer joy of an eternity of trying to figure out HOW he can believe what he believes!

This clip of Cliff speaking is a perfect example, he states that as an Adventist some doctrines cross the line of tolerance and the big-tent idea.

"If evolution hasn't crossed that line, nothing has."

Really? Seriously? Evolution is what gets Cliff to finally wake up and smell the Postum percolating?

Monkey dad and mom is where Cliff draws the line? Maybe if Adventists had stood courageous for the right decades ago, Adventism and evolution wouldn't be doing some theological fencing at the moment.

For all their apocalyptic handwringing, the Investigative-Judgment-preaching, Ten-Commandment-keeping sole remnant should have seen this coming. They have silently let the culture slide (and their church too!) into chaos without letting a peep come from within the hallowed halls of the General Conference against gay marriage, the sin of homosexuality and abortion... They may have a dusty document in the fine print stating firmly (and we really mean it) that they are kinda against the slow decay of our country. But hey, that doesn't mean we have to get personally involved, after all the Lord is coming soon....

Ask yourselves Adventists, when have you attended a Revelation seminar about the evils of premarital sex or adultery or theft?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

You have been so single-minded about the Sabbath as to completely erase your church from any cultural significance. It is not us who have forgotten one commandment out of ten, it is YOU who have forgotten NINE out of ten!

Today you are dealing with the evolution crisis in your schools because you didn't join the rest of us Christians in dealing with the cultural crisis of Relativism, nihilism, abortion, homosexuality. You are a one-commandment church and you let everything else slide as less important. On that note, Cliff was aware of the problem of relativism as seen on his television show and for that he was far ahead of the rest of you.

Don't mean to sound as critical as this is coming out. All I am saying is now is the time to start focusing on ALL the commandments of Christ. The NEW TESTAMENT commandments that deal a lot more with immorality and disunity than the Sabbath.

Time to step into unity with the full Body of Christ and begin the enormous task of bringing Christ back into the culture and a true sense of what being a Christian means.

And as personal note to Cliff, I still LOVE YOU!!

PRAYER FOR SDA LEADERS

The leaders of the Adventist church have been on my heart lately. I think we need to do more than simply educate, we need to do some prayer warrior intervention. Most of us already pray for them, but I would like to make a more formal prayer request of you--specifically for the leaders of this church. I would like to ask all my Christian friends, especially those who used to be SDA, to pray for the leaders of that church each week. I was originally thinking Saturday, but I know I am not on my blog much on the weekend, so I might forget to post the prayer. How many of you would join me in prayer for them on Friday afternoon or evening?

From my own encounters with Adventist leaders, I believe there is a deep pride that must be broken at the foot of the cross, but even more than that a fear of knowing the truth. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to find out you are preaching or teaching a false gospel? It would be crushing to those who are sincere.

Please join me in praying for them each Friday (I will try and remember to post the prayer on my facebook page) and please add names of SDA leaders you would like us to pray for.

This is my personal prayer, feel free to use it or your own prayers:

Dear Almighty and Holy Father,

We ask that you will open our hearts to see Adventists through Your eyes, Father. Protect us from the plague of self-righteousness, that our gentle, humble spirit will draw them irresistibly to Your eternal love and infinite mercy.

We bring before Your sacred throne these people who are leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist church:

President, Ted Wilson
Cliff Goldstein
Doug Batchelor

Randy Roberts
Alden Ho
Ira Bartolome
Ron Halverson, Jr.
Shawn Boonstra

Mark Witas

Jerry Arnold

Pastor and Mrs. Tom Losey

Dr. Merlin Bert
Dr. Jud Lake
Dr. Ken Ford
Pastor Jim Hiner
Pastor Loren Siebold
Greg Nelson
Pastor Dwight Nelson
Pastor Skip MacCarty
Pastor Seth Pierce
Pastor Clinton Meharry
Pastor Don Keele
Pastor Ron Kelly
Pastor Ray HousePastor Paul Vunileva

Norman  Lim of Singapore 
Teddy Asok

For these we entreat You, Father, to break the shackles of subconscious spiritual pride found in SDA doctrine, which divides Adventists from Your Body and starves them of unity with other Christians. We pray that their eyes and ears will be opened to Truth, their hearts humbly melted by Your love which casts out fearful, erroneous doctrines. Sustain them, succor them through the shock and grief of recognizing they have taught a false gospel. Give them a thriving, healing faith and open up the joy of heaven as they grasp the beauty of the New Covenant of grace. Then, Lord, pour upon them the superabundance of courage that they will boldly preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

We ask this In the precious name of Jesus Christ and through His blood,
Amen

Obedience in the Darkness, Part IV by Teresa Beem

You can find the final post on my "personal testimony" series "Obedience in the Darkness" at the following blog site:

THE JOYS OF BEING CATHOLIC: Obedience in the Darkness, Part IV by Teresa Beem: "(The first three parts can be found at www.arthurandteresabeem@blogspot.com) “Sweet Jesus, Precious Lord, More than anything, I ..."