My Legal La-La Land

The History Channel has a researcher who claims she is a genetic descendant of Christ and Mary Magdalene. When I saw her being interviewed on one of those reality-docu-drama shows, I just shook my head in disbelief. She is being taken as a serious researcher.

On a FOX News morning show in the past few mornings, the anchors were discussing a man who wishes to be a woman and has changed his name to Michelle and insists everyone call him "her."

Then I read the headlines that Planned Parenthood is giving Sex-Ed classes to tenth graders that gives them a gender-choice. And teachers are taking this seriously.

I can't help but think Uncle Sam needs to be put into a straightjacket.

Does anyone else see the madness in this? And I am not speaking about anger but about the stark, raving kind. Why are we, as a culture, demanding that everyone accept our personal craziness. If a man insists that we legally accept his inner woman-ness so he can use women's public restrooms, then scientists need to officially hang up their lab coats. For not only is God dead, but so is science.

DNA and all empiric evidence... the scientific method? Fill those test tubes with shots of vodka, drink up and toss them into your bunsen burners because there is no such thing as rational, scientific thought anymore. 

So let's go to the next logical step. What if DNA is found at a crime scene and it points to a specific person who is a woman. And the person who committed the crime self-identifies as a man? If that person has legally changed her gender, can DNA evidence be used in a court of law to incriminate the woman turned man? 

Or let's go the opposite way. What if someone believes their inner person to be a criminal, but has yet to commit a crime. Could that personal legally insist on being incarcerated without evidence because of their self-identification?

This is exactly what is happening with gender-identification. If gender is open to legal challenge, so is every other self-identification. Evidence, absolute DNA evidence, no longer legally matters.

If how we feel, how we self-identify is going to be the new normal and we must all speak in unrealities, then I might as well jump in

because, I think today I self-identify as an Ethiopian. 

If gender is about how one feels about oneself, then one's race is open for self-identifying. 

(President Obama just told the Jewish media that he is Jewish "in his soul.")

And I really feel old today. So I am an Ethiopian who should legally receiving social security. I think I shall demand that today. And tomorrow when I go to the theater, I shall self-identify as under twelve, especially if I go to a PG movie. Then I could insist that I get a cheaper ticket because I feel like a kid, right?

And I can tell you I really do not feel fat. My identity is truly very, very thin. In fact, skinny. Therefore, I am a tall, skinny and elderly Ethiopian. That is my official self-identification today. And I will demand that everyone around me, acknowledge my self- identification or I will press charges against them. Or worse, I will call them an intolerant bigot.

And since our society is insisting on living in a legal delusion, I believe in my heart that I am of royal blood and am vastly wealthy. And since I can say with great sincerity that I know I do not belong in this century, I identify more with a future world. So, who I really am is a 23rd-century, Ethiopian elderly Lord, who is tall, thin and wildly rich.

And not only can I live in this world of lunacy, America is telling me that I have a right to walk around being offended and horrified and even legally insisting that everyone else treat me as I self-identify.

QUIZ FOR ADVENTISTS

A Quiz for Seventh-day Adventists:

Which of the following Seventh-day Adventist quotes do you believe?

...in the last days, a time of widespread apostasy, a remnant has been called out [of the worldwide church] to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This remnant announces the arrival of the judgment hour, proclaims salvation through Christ, and heralds the approach of His second advent. This proclamation is symbolized by the three angels of Revelation 14; it coincides with the work of judgment in heaven and results in a work of repentance and reform on earth. Every believer is called to have a personal part in this worldwide witness. (GC website, Fundamental Belief # 13 Remnant and Its Mission)

[Prophecy] is an identifying mark of the remnant church and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen. G. White. As the Lord’s messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction.
(GC Website, Fundamental Belief # 18 The Gift of Prophecy)

[At His Ascension, Christ entered the heavenly sanctuary and ministers on our behalf]... In 1844, at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 days, He entered the second and last phase of His atoning ministry. It is a work of investigative judgment which is part of the ultimate disposition of all sin...The investigative judgment reveals to heavenly intelligences who among the dead are asleep in Christ and therefore, in Him, are deemed worthy to have part in the first resurrection. It also makes manifest who among the living are abiding in Christ, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and in Him, therefore, are ready for translation into His everlasting kingdom. This judgment vindicates the justice of God in saving those who believe in Jesus. It declares that those who have remained loyal to God shall receive the kingdom. The completion of this ministry of Christ will mark the close of human probation before the Second Advent. (GC Website, Fundamental Belief # 24 Christ’s Ministry in the Heavenly Sanctuary)

Seventh-day Adventists Believe. . .

Copyright 1988 by the Ministerial Association General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Printed by the Review and Herald Publishing Association, pp 342-344.

Scripture predicts that a number of significant signs in the religious world will mark the time just preceding Christ's return. A great religious awakening. The book of Revelation reveals the rise of a great, worldwide religious movement before the Second Advent [declaring the 3 Angels' Message/ Everlasting Gospel]. 

The book of Daniel informs us that in the time of the end its prophecies would be unsealed (Dan. 12:4). At that time people would understand its mysteries. The unsealing took place as the 1260-year period of papal dominance came to its end with the captivity of the pope in 1798. The combination of the exile of the pope and the signs in the natural world led many Christians to study the prophecies about the events leading to the Second Advent, which resulted in a new depth of understanding of these prophecies.

The worldwide nature of this [SDA] movement is one of the clearest signs that Christ's return is drawing near. As John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ's first advent, so the Advent movement is preparing the way for His second advent—proclaiming the message of Revelation 14;6-12, God's final call to get ready for the glorious return of the Savior.     

A Resurgence of the Papacy. According to Biblical prophecy, at the end of the 1260 years the papacy would receive "a deadly wound" but it would not die. Scripture reveals that this deadly wound would heal. The papacy would experience a great renewal of influence and respect—"all the world marveled and followed the beast". Already today many view the pope as the moral leader of the world.

To a large extent, the papacy's rising influence has come as Christians have substituted traditions, human standards, and science for the authority of the Bible. In doing so, they have become vulnerable to "the lawless one," who works "with all power, signs, and lying wonders." ...Satan and his instruments will bring about a confederation of evil, symbolized by the unholy trinity of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, that will deceive the world. Only those whose guide is the Bible and who "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" can successfully resist the overwhelming deception this confederation brings.

Decline of Religious Freedom: The revival of the papacy will affect Christianity dramatically. The religious liberty obtained at great cost, guaranteed by the separation between church and state, will erode and finally be abolished. With the support of powerful civil governments, this apostate power will attempt to force its form of worship on all people. Everyone will have to choose between loyalty to God and His commandments and loyalty to the beast and his image.

The pressure to conform will include economic coercion: "No one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Eventually those who refuse to go along will face a death penalty. 

Ellen White's Writings

When Christ shall cease His work as mediator in man’s behalf, then this time of trouble will begin. Then the case of every soul will have been decided, and there will be no atoning blood to cleanse from sin. (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 201, 1890 edition.)

And the statement that the beast with two horns “causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast” indicates that the authority of this nation is to be exercised in enforcing some observance which shall be an act of homage to the papacy. (Great Controversy, p. 442)

When Jesus ceases to plead for man, the cases of all are forever decided.... Probation closes; Christ’s intercessions cease in heaven. This time finally comes suddenly upon all, and those who have neglected to purify their souls by obeying the truth are found sleeping. (Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 2 p. 191, 1868 version.)

What is the “image to the beast”? and how is it to be formed? The image is made by the two-horned beast, and is an image to the beast. It is also called an image of the beast. Then to learn what the image is like and how it is to be formed, we must study the characteristics of the beast itself—the papacy. In order for the United States to form an image of the beast, the religious power must so control the civil government that the authority of the state will also be employed by the [Catholic] church to accomplish her own ends.... The “image to the beast” represents that form of apostate Protestantism which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas. (The Great Controversy, p. 443-445, 1911 edition.)

When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result. (Great Controversy, p. 445.1)

The third angel’s warning is: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.” “The beast” mentioned in this message, whose worship is enforced by the two-horned beast, is the first, or leopardlike beast of Revelation 13—the papacy. The “image to the beast” represents that form of apostate Protestantism which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas. The “mark of the beast” still remains to be defined.  (Great Controversy, p. 445.2)

The papacy has attempted to change the law of God....Here the papal power openly sets itself above God. ...While the worshipers of God will be especially distinguished by their regard for the fourth commandment,—since this is the sign of His creative power and the witness to His claim upon man’s reverence and homage,—the worshipers of the beast will be distinguished by their efforts to tear down the Creator’s memorial, to exalt the institution of Rome. It was in behalf of the Sunday that popery first asserted its arrogant claims; and its first resort to the power of the state was to compel the observance of Sunday as “the Lord’s day.” But the Bible points to the seventh day, and not to the first, as the Lord’s day. (Great Controversy p. 446)

What then is the change of the Sabbath, but the sign, or mark, of the authority of the Roman Church—“the mark of the beast”? The Roman Church has not relinquished her claim to supremacy; and when the world and the Protestant churches accept a sabbath of her creating, while they reject the Bible Sabbath, they virtually admit this assumption. They may claim the authority of tradition and of the Fathers for the change; but in so doing they ignore the very principle which separates them from Rome—that “the Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants.” The papist can see that they are deceiving themselves, willingly closing their eyes to the facts in the case. As the movement for Sunday enforcement gains favor, he rejoices, feeling assured that it will eventually bring the whole Protestant world under the banner of Rome.  But in the very act of enforcing a religious duty by secular power, the churches would themselves form an image to the beast; hence the enforcement of Sundaykeeping in the United States would be an enforcement of the worship of the beast and his image. (Great Controversy p. 448) 

But when Sunday observance shall be enforced by law, and the world shall be enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath, then whoever shall transgress the command of God, to obey a precept which has no higher authority than that of Rome, will thereby honor popery above God. He is paying homage to Rome and to the power which enforces the institution ordained by Rome. He is worshiping the beast and his image. As men then reject the institution which God has declared to be the sign of His authority, and honor in its stead that which Rome has chosen as the token of her supremacy, they will thereby accept the sign of allegiance to Rome—“the mark of the beast.” And it is not until the issue is thus plainly set before the people, and they are brought to choose between the commandments of God and the commandments of men, that those who continue in transgression will receive “the mark of the beast.” (Great Controversy p. 449)

Seventh-day Adventists Believe. . .

The Spirit of Prophecy in the Seventh-day Adventist Church

The gift of prophecy was active in the ministry of Ellen G. White, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. She has given inspired instruction for God's people living during the time of the end... From 1844, when she was 17, until 1915—the year of her death—she had more than 2, 000 visions. 

To claim to be a prophetess is something that I have never done. If others call me by that name, I have no controversy with them. But my work has covered so many lines that I can not call myself other than a messenger." (Seventh-day Adventists Believe p. 225)

[E]very human being's loyalty to God will be tested by the Sabbath command placed in the midst of the Decalogue. Scripture reveals that before the Second Advent the whole world will be divided into two classes: those who are loyal and "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,' and those who worship "the beast and his image." At that time God's truth will be magnified before the world and it will be clear to all that the obedient observance of the seventh-day Sabbath of Scripture gives evidence of loyalty to the Creator. (Seventh-day Adventists Believe p. 257)

It is the proclamation of the message of Revelation 14:6-12 in connection with the everlasting gospel that accomplishes this work of restoring and magnifying the law. And it is the proclaiming of this message that is the mission of God's church at the time of the Second Advent. 

The wording of the summons to worship the Creator, "Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water," is a direct reference to the fourth commandment of God's eternal law. Its inclusion in this final warning confirms God's special concern to have His widely forgotten Sabbath restored before the Second Advent.

The delivering of this message will precipitate a conflict that will involve the whole world. The central issue will be obedience to God's law and the observance of the Sabbath. In the face of this conflict everyone must decide whether to keep God's commandments or those of men. This message will produce a people who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Those who reject it will eventually receive the mark of the beast.

To successfully accomplish this mission of magnifying God's law and honoring His neglected Sabbath, God's people must set a consistent, loving example of Sabbathkeeping. (Seventh-day Adventists Believe pp. 263-264.)

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST

Church Manual

❖

REVISED 2010 18TH EDITION 

"...[W]hen, in a General Conference, the judgment of the brethren assembled from all parts of the field is exercised, private independence and private judgment must not be stubbornly maintained, but surrendered. Never should a laborer regard as a virtue the persistent maintenance of his position of independence, contrary to the decision of the general body.” (Ellen White, Testimonies to the Church, Vol. 9, p. 260. Church Manual p. 31.)

 Baptismal Vow (p. 44)

6. Do you accept the Ten Commandments as a transcript of the character of God and a revelation of His will? Is it your purpose by the power of the indwelling Christ to keep this law, including the fourth commandment, which requires the observance of the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath of the Lord and the memorial of Creation?

8. Do you accept the biblical teaching of spiritual gifts and believe that the gift of prophecy is one of the identifying marks of the remnant church? 

11. Do you know and understand the fundamental Bible principles as taught by the Seventh-day Adventist Church? Do you purpose, by the grace of God, to fulfill His will by ordering your life in harmony with these principles?

13. Do you accept and believe that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the remnant church of Bible prophecy and that people of every nation, race, and language are invited and accepted into its fellowship? 

So many Seventh-day Adventists no longer believe much of what their prophetess Ellen White wrote and taught. They do not believe the fundamentals of the SDA Church. Do you? Take the test and see if you really are, deep down, a Seventh-day Adventist. 

COUNT THE COST

"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise , when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'

 Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions."    Luke 14:27-33

_______________

I'll never forget it. 

I was in high school going to Dallas Junior Academy, a Seventh-day Adventists church school. At a youth camp religious retreat on Friday night a pastor gave a fiery--but relevant--sermon. The music, tailor-made for the 1970's youth, had been emotional. The altar call to come give your life to Christ had been short when one of the cool kids went up front. 

It was a very impactful moment for the rest of the teenagers, as well as the adults.

Soon many more of the cool kids, known to have been involved in both promiscuous relationships and occasional drug use, went to the front of the out-of-doors picnic area to dedicate their lives to Christ.  

They all cried, I cried. I thanked the Lord for this moment. It was a miracle.

I was on supernatural wings until school started again on Monday. Those kids would be different now. Their lives will begin to change and the school will become a little piece of heaven.

Then, at lunch, those same kids began to talk to each other and the rest of us who had watched them. They mocked their spiritual experience and brushed it off as if it had been stupid. I was aghast. Hurt for them, hurt for God. But it taught me a lesson.

The Lord wants us to really think about becoming a disciple, not just have an experience that takes us to the altar of a church on an emotional whim. Jesus said we are to calmly, rationally think about what it means and the sacrifice we must make to be a follower of His.

It takes time to count the cost.

One can have an experience of God's love and an emotional supernatural understanding of the gospel in a moment. Christ can show us our sins and we can truly repent and determine to turn from our sins in one short evening. Yet Christ says that once we begin plowing we are not to look back. We need to take a few minutes to think about it. 

Becoming a disciple of Christ is life changing.