What is My Platform,
or...
Who IS My Brother?
The Day of Atonement fell once a year. How often does the Day of Atonement
fall today? Not only were they to be memorials for what God did for His children,
they pointed forth also to the sacrifice of His Lamb, no?
My question is; does the death of Christ tie in with His next coming,
ceremonially speaking?.. jc
I don't think I responded to this...I was rearranging my computer
and it's peripherals most of the day, I didn't power on rill 4pm...
I do not know if the ceremonies ties in in with His Second Coming, except that
He kept and accomplished them ALL while here on earth. Since
we do not have His depth to know what is involved in Salvation, I don't think
that any living being
knows. Moses may say they do, if he were living on earth
today...but there must be a bigger reason than he being faithful why he was
taken to heaven after his
death, while Elijah went straight there. In other words is
there another reason for these ceremonies in God's greater plan, why He says
they are to be kept until
everlasting...another word I have seen is perpetual or perpetuity.
I have not installed my eSword software yet, which is a digital Strong's Concordance
which you can also
get from www.esword.com sometimes it's easier than opening that BIG BOOK! But
before I woke up to the facts of the SDA Church, I used to look at it a lot.
It is very hard to use for a blind guy, so many columns and the text is too small
for me.
The first question you asked depends on who is observing it. If it were to
resemble the Last Supper which it sort of dues, the number of times it is observed
can
vart from several times a day as in the RC, minus the foot
washing, to every quarter ala Adventism. The thing that I do not fully understand
is if and how
these Sabbaths tie in with the Lunar cycles.
Regarding your following Message. If Christ kept
and honored each and every festival & Sabbath
why He was here, do we need another REAL heavenly Messenger?
I don't believe that Paul qualifies under this category even if he was inspired
by heaven.
I have to agree with you that I would much rather be known as a Student of
His Word than to be known or even considered as being religious..unfortunately
in
this world, especially the Christian world in which we were
both a part of... the two would be considered as being synonymous. In other
words if you are NOT
considered by the establishment to be 'religious' then you
have no platform and
thus no listeners....bd
I must beg to differ with
your closing statement. I often get a
feeling that by not coming across as religious nor preaching
doctrine, I create my own "platform" by
telling the Truth. That is to say that I find an
entirely new group of listeners. Not only do I find them,
I find them hungry for Truth.
Sometimes
they find me.
Perhaps the very fact I am associated with no religion
or church sparks curiosity in their minds to ask honest
questions. Honest questions
provoke
thoughtful and
heartfelt responses. Having rejected religion,
I find thoughtful and heartfelt responses not only more meaningful
for me, but also more acceptable
by my audience.
Perhaps it is the Spirit speaking through me? Regardless,
these days
it is coming from my heart.
I have been in the trenches with some
of the folk with whom I speak of Jesus
and His love for us today and
when I say trenches, I mean to say dregs.
Some
of my hearers remain hung up on Ellen White and
deflect my words with predictable
responses. "Pastor Doug's" group is one fine such recent example. I
have my personal contacts as well who opt to take whatever Pastor Doug and Ellen
have to say for granted. They even encourage me to listen to the tapes. Some
desire to re-convert me. Re-convert me? Conversion happens only through the Spirit
of God speaking to the soul. It is either True, or it is false. I genuinely believed
at one point in my life I was converted. Man, was I wrong. All I had done was
join something and as a child at that. God does not have joiners. He has only
True believers in Him. In order to become a true believer, one must know in Whom
he believes. Even the devils believe because they know He against Whom they rebelled.
I've a feeling they know God personally. Much more so than your average "believer".
They've been around "forever".
That begs the question; can we have a personal relationship with Christ and still
be lost? What if we know Him personally yet continue to deny and defy His holy
Law? How long can that last? Seems Judas had a very personal relationship with
Him.
I don't listen to tapes anymore. Tapes detour me
from Scripture. Tapes distract me from what the
Spirit is saying to the "churches" today. Genuine
Truth seekers will hear the Voice of the Spirit and will be in tune with one
another naturally. We are brothers in Christ. We will give one another a big "Amen",
and praise God for the privilege of understanding
rather than giving one another high fives
for agreeing on cooperate doctrine.
Some of my hearers have never heard of Ellen White
and are only vaguely familiar with my former religion.
Some have rejected
religion altogether due
to so many
contradictions of Scripture respective to the various
churches. Many, however, have some kind of religious
background whether or
not they continue
to participate.
These are the types of people who tend to listen
when I speak and act interested, perhaps for the
first time in their lives, in
the possibility of
salvation for
them. Perhaps this is because I am not looking
down on them from a "platform"?
I can actually get excited today over discussing
God's Word where before I only felt obligated to
do so and left with a guilty
conscience whenever I
did not
or wondering if I got the Ellen quotes right when
I did. Yes, as a sinner I have a duty to speak
of Him having come to know
His Son. The more
I speak of the wonder
of our God the more I desire to speak of Him. Truth
sets us free.
The Word of God is universal. There is no class
of people better than another in His eye. His Word
is available to all kindred,
nations and tongues.
It is
the Same for all. God has "a people".
I am not defending Adventism in my personal ministry today. I am defending the
everlasting Word of God. Many Adventists, in the end, will come out of Babylon
along with the rest of Christianity and the religions of the world.
Truth makes Perfect sense and Truth will set us
free. Truth is the Testimony of Jesus. Jesus is
a True Friend. When we come to
know Him as such,
He will lead
us into all Truth and guide us to His Father. Jesus
is our Lord but, God is LORD over all. One day
we, too, will know Him. Sin
has separated us
from the Father.
Christ Jesus has prepared for us a Way out of the
darkness. He chose to become our Intercessor. He
did it out of LOVE. What love
our Lord has bestowed
upon
us to give up His place in heaven, come here to
live among us and be put to death by us in order
to become a Ransom for our
souls. And, when I say "us",
I mean to say we are no different today than were
His people of the day. The entire universe must
be focused on our behavior at
this very moment.
Time is
fleeting.
Let's get real. Let's not approach the Word of
God from any angle, rather simply study to show
ourselves approved. Let's allow
the Spirit to speak
Truth as did
Christ when He was here among us and allow the
Spirit of God to do Its job (It is God). We need
to become His mouthpiece.
Take another look at
2 Timothy 3:16; "All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness".
"
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches".
jc
I don't think I responded to this...I was rearranging my computer
and it's peripherals most of the day, I didn't power on rill 4pm...
I do not know if the ceremonies ties in in with His Second Coming,
except that He kept and accomplished them ALL while here
on earth. Since we do not have His depth to know what is involved in
Salvation, I don't think
that any living being knows. Moses may say they do, if he
were living on earth today...but there must be a bigger reason than
he being faithful why he was
taken to heaven after his death, while Elijah went straight
there. In other words is there another reason for these ceremonies
in God's greater plan, why
He says they are to be kept until everlasting...another word
I have seen is perpetual or perpetuity. I have not installed my eSword
software yet, which
is a digital Strong's Concordance which you can also get
from www.esword.com sometimes it's easier than opening that BIG BOOK! But
before I woke up to
the facts of the
SDA Church, I used to look at it a lot. It is very hard to
use for a blind guy, so many columns and the text is too small
for me.
The first question you asked depends on who is observing it. If it
were to resonable the Last Supper which it sort of dues,
the number of times it is observed can vary from several times a day
as in the RC, minuw the foot
washing, to every quarter ala Adventism. The thing that I
do not fully understand is if and how these Sabbaths tie in with the
Lunar cycles.
Regarding your following Message. If Christ kept and honored
each and every festival & Sabbath why He was here, do we need another
REAL heavenly Messenger?
I don't believe that Paul qualifies under this category even if he
was inspired by heaven.
I have to agree with you that I would much rather be known as a Student
of His Word than to be known or even considered as being religious..unfortunately
in this world, especially the Christian world in which we were both a part
of... the two would be considered as being synonamous. In other words if you
are NOT considered by the establishment to be 'religious' then you have no
platform and thus no listeners....bd
I believe that you realize that my last comment was made in reference to the establishment in which we were both a part of and consequently left...probably not because we were not be fulfilled but rather because we realized that they considered them to be whole, without fault...where did I see that in the Bible? A well meaning Church BUT arrogant to its core, inside and out! Only they have the truth...
I soon discovered how wrong I was in thinking this way, and I was thinking in this way by being a part of them! I also believe that you will acknowledge what I have said in the context of Adventist circles. You ARE on the outside until you listen to their tapes and agree with the man that walks on water for them, 'Brother Doug', as you called him. You see John, your olatform does exist, but it will not be found amongst their uf concentric circles, until you are hopelessly trapped and can never get out.
To my way of thinking what we are doing is adding a touch of pepper here and there, to spice up our understanding of the Scriptures. Why, just look at what it has done since you wrote to me! I can only praise God that through His Holy Spirit you were impressed to write; I was certainly going down a path like a friend of ours has done to escape error and what it does is get us deeper into error! Which is why our stidies have been strictly on what the Bible has to say and take it from there.
Another thing that must be considered in my short response and comment is that most if not all of the Adventists that I have been involved with are connected at the hip to their Church or to Ellen White, you choose. It takes an undividual to have almost superhuman strength to be able to separate themselves from this bond. Une has to only look at the dictionary to see where this bond originated, wasn't this group considered a Cult and a Sect decadesago? Has it really changed any from that timespan?
Let's contnue keeping one foot ahead of the other so that we do not stray from this purpose. We both recognize that we have found Truth and that it is far different from what we were led to believe by those that appointed themselves as our 'scribes & Pharisees'....bd