HMS RIchards was one of the godliest men I’ve ever known. He never uttered a disparaging word, and I’ve traveled on tours several times where he talked each night of what we would be seeing the following morning. He was never seen without a book, although he had vision in only one eye, He was also one of the best educated Adventists I have known. I also knew his daughter, now deceased. Her son was gay and I am sure that HMS Richards never spoke against him, although knowing the church well, the son “disappeared” for many years, no one knowing his whereabouts. A sad story of how the church has treated its own.
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H.M.S. Richards and the entire musical group had Sabbath dinners at our home both in Milwaukee and Augusta, Gs. what a delightful experience… A times he would bring his grand daughter to my office. we had some fine chats… He had a grand sense of humor. Tom Z
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Elaine,
I wonder if you have any recollection of your last conversation with Uriah Smith!
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Elaine
"Aunt Carol" can probably fill you in regarding HMS grand-son. I believe his daughter wrote a short book about it. “Aunt Carol” can fill us in more about that.
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How could I? He was only a child then.
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Maybe she will see this and give us all a short summary.
In another place we were asked to think about Jonah.
I like how Jonah felt comfortable talking with God, and God listening.
Jonah 4.
And Jonah became HOT with anger.
"Ah, was this not my concern, when I was in my own land? THAT is why i tried to flee to Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a compassionate and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loyal love, one who feels grieved over calamity."
In the next book over, Nahum 7:18.
“WHO is a God like you? Pardoning error and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance. He will not hold onto his anger forever. For he delights in loyal love.”
We have to be careful HOW we treat Children of, and A Child of God.
Adventists are Not known for their embracing of Sinners.
We tend to be prone to be like our New England brothers and sisters and SHUN.
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For sure. Washing feet is not God’s literal concern. Bringing ourselves down to the lowest status and serving others is the concern. This is why perfection pursuit is usually wrong headed. Perfection IS found in washing metaphorical feet.
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Actually, true. They marginalized and ostracized science - again. Being in the science community I can vouch for the nonsense of the GC position now.
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Virginia, HMS’s daughter, had two children who were gay - a son and a daughter. She often told other parents of gay children, “Just keep them and love them.” She was an example of loving kindness, as was her father.
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While our church leadership seems to be concerned with nailing down every jot and tittle of the “correct” doctrines, those who truly want to follow Christ are trying to live in the Kingdom of Heaven which Jesus brought to this earth, by continuing to show his love to everyone we meet. ADRA is doing a great work in this regard, and so is the Adventist Peace Fellowship. I wish its work were better known and more of us were involved in it.
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Again, you seem quick in showing people the exit to the church Allen. What a shame. I don’t find that consistent with the teachings of the man who told the story of going out to seek for one lost sheep. Those with whom you disagree should be treated with respect, not shunned. “In Christ there is no East or West, in Him no South or North. But ONE great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.”
How are you going to learn to live on earth with others who will share eternity with you, though you condemned them here? What if Christ were to ask you where that person was who you said should leave the church? “Oh, they weren’t faithful to our teachings, Lord.” And what if He were to say, “I told you that I am the reaper. I know you not.”
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There are some ideas affecting Adventists since the beginning that actually became the definition of Adventism. Judgmentalism is certainly one of them. Then we have also, triumphalism, elitism, exclusivism, separatism, perfectionism, and how many more isms…
I bet the only inconvenient “ism” to Adventism has been “Spectrumism”…
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And Virginia [I forget her last name] composed many of the children’s Sabbath School Songs which are printed in the children’s books used in our Sabbath schools. She was actively involved in her children’s lives, obviously.
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In the Bible “world” may mean what is “worldly”–opposed to God. Or it may mean God’s creation, as when we learn that God “so loved the world” that he gave us Jesus.
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Then adventism is dead.
I never could grasp why the fact that other christians are being the Church means that Adventists are forced to continue to play church. Why does Adventism refuse to participate in the Church?
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George is there a – It depends upon whose ox is gored ism. Seems I’ve been goring the wrong ox lately. I never learned the benign smile of religion based institutionalism. Tom Z
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gill, i think we just have a different take on the gospel stories…i don’t read them in a vacuum…for me, there is context…that context is that jesus had been confronted in heaven, before he created earth, with the fact that billions of humans, at birth, would be doomed to eternal extinguishment…he had made the decision to do whatever it took to give them the opportunity to escape that inheritance and be what he had originally conceived them to be…that decision, to be effective, meant taking the entire cause of disobedience, which had brought on humanity’s inheritance, as his own, and suffering the excruciating agony of the implementation of that inheritance in the same way all humans were and are slated to, and then some…
when jesus fed the 5,000, he wasn’t simply harnessing supernatural power to fill their stomachs on a pleasant grassy hillside overlooking the sea…he was indicating his desire to exercise his power on behalf of all who perceive and reach out to avail themselves of the escape he was in the process of working out…all jesus’ miracles of healing, aside from being evidence of his divine character, were not exercised simply to bring freedom from disease to those who were healed…they were designed to show his supernatural ability to bring healing from and power to live above disobedience, and escape the inheritance of permanent death all humans were and are born hopelessly into because of that disobedience…
as i see it, to infer from the jesus story that we, his followers, are merely being encouraged to be nice to all, and seek opportunities to benefit those around us that amount to nothing different than the opportunities sought by those who have no intention or interest in having anything to do with jesus is, i think, staggeringly myopic…in general, i think it’s missing the entire point of the jesus story presented in the gospels, which, again, is not that jesus came to be a miracle-working do-gooder, but a savior from the destiny all humans were and are born into…i just think the context canvas of the jesus story is vastly larger and more momentous than facilitating people, who may or may not be grateful, to feel good about themselves in a temporary time and place…
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Was it Virginia Cason?
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I’m sorry, but I am a scientist, I feel the thumb in my eye. Who are you to speak for me? Whether or not a person believes in a literal creation week or not, and whether or not it was a recent event, has nothing to do with the rest of our beliefs, they can still be supported, just as Jews have long done so while in many cases considering Creation non-literal. To insist that it must be interpreted literally, come what may, is to build a house of cards that will indeed tumble down when truths from nature are known. It is also a good way to drive away any intellectuals of any sort from wanting to join the church.
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