Good story, antony! 
I think it shows how different the world is now from the time of Moses.
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Eugene Peterson in his “The Message” puts it this way.
15. It is permissible to slaughter your nonsacrificial animals like gazelle and deer
in your towns and eat all you want from them with the blessing of God, your God.
Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat."
The Voice Compass bible –
15. “However, if you just want to have meat for a meal, if the Eternal your God
has blessed you and you can afford it, you can do that in your own towns.
Slaughter the animals and eat them there. It is not a sacred meal, so people
don’t need to be ritually pure to eat it, and it can be gazelle or a deer.”
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Robin,
“So EGW’s anti-coffee bias is clearly flawed.”
In what way? Her concern appears to have been the caffeine, while the recent study ruled out caffeine as being the cause of the purported benefits. Were there any points that she raised that the study contradicted?
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It is interesting to see how God gave many purity laws, then offered exceptions to them. When I think about it I see that God has permitted many more exceptions to his commands.
We are not to kill, except Canaanites. We are not to commit adultery, except your brothers widow is OK and a man can take an extra slave wife. We are to honor our parents, except we can leave them for religious reasons. Only priest can eat the consecrated temple bread, except when David was really hungry. We should love our enemies, except Samson is given strength to kill them. Only men can be hold the priesthood, but women can be prophets, a step above priesthood.
Perhaps we should not be so serious, so fundamental, so inflexible. To be more gracious with Sunday keepers and those whom we differ with. Maybe not all truth is absolute?
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That would be a great start, frank.
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Elmer,
Is the placebo effect not exactly the opposite of what you are suggesting?
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Just as smoking and alcohol were once thought to be good for you, caffeine will also be proven to do more harm than good. In case you didn’t know, caffeine is one of many substances that reduces blood flow to the frontal cortex which is where the judgment center of the brain is.
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Fermented drink is a poor translation. It is better translated as strong drink which can mean a drink that is very sweet not necessarily alcoholic. Wine is a generic term for any grape juice without regards to the level of fermentation.
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I was told the same in SS. Then I grew up and studied for myself.
Strong’s Definitions
יַיִן yayin, yah’-yin; from an unused root meaning to effervesce; wine (as fermented); by implication, intoxication:—banqueting, wine, wine(-bibber).
KJV Translation Count — Total: 140x
The KJV translates Strong’s H3196 in the following manner: wine (138x), banqueting (1x), winebibbers (with H5433) (1x).
Strong’s Definitions
שֵׁכָר shêkâr, shay-kawr’; from H7937; an intoxicant, i.e. intensely alcoholic liquor:—strong drink, drunkard, strong wine.
KJV Translation Count — Total: 23x
The KJV translates Strong’s H7941 in the following manner: strong drink (21x), strong wine (1x), drunkard (1x).
By the way, “clean and unclean meat” means meat, not bigfranks.
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Frank –
I have a Jewish friend I take to “church” on Sabbath prior to going to my SDA. then I go
back and take him home.
But before I do the Jewish group always have a light lunch, and then sing a bunch of
Thank You and Blessing songs for about 20-30 minutes.
I have knows some of them for over 6 years, as I have worshiped with them on
Friday evenings. And attended MANY religious festivals over the years.
I got to thinking will these nice people, worshiping God, not be allowed in Heaven??
Did I have an answer? No. But they would enjoy being there.
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Walking home from Synagogue this afternoon, I thought of this statement from
Ellen White, that I read as a kid from, I believe, Early Writings.
ELLEN – She said she was in a vision in heaven. She wrote that she picked
some flowers and excitedly exclaimed to all of those in the group with her,
“These WILL NEVER FADE.” Meaning they will NEVER die.
I got to thinking, if I had cut flowers that never died, what would I do with them
once I wanted to dispose of them and create a different arrangement???
Aren’t the TOTAL PURPOSE of flower pedals to attract bees and other insects
to pollinate them and make seeds??? Make seed pods without flower pedals
attached???
[second thought – it could have been Spiritual Gifts. I read them,too, when a kid.]
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Precisely Dave. Biblical authority ultimately depends on the church’s recognition and acceptance of that authority, not on whether you can either prove or “assume” that it is all “inspired” as the prophets were. No different for Ellen White. The church gave her authority, but it never was and never can be absolute. It can be challenged, either in part, or as a whole. But it remains an authority in Adventism.
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Well, in fact this turns out to not be the case. More and more evidence is building that indicates that a pescatarian diet is the best (including, horror of horrors, shellfish!)
The preliminary results form the Adventist Health Study show the same results.
So, fire up the barbie and pop some shrimp on it for dinner. To your health!
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Well, in fact this turns out to not be the case. More and more evidence is building that indicates that a pescatarian diet is the best (including, horror of horrors, shellfish!)
The preliminary results form the Adventist Health Study show the same results.
You are entirely correct. —-OMEGA 3 is very beneficial to health.
We like TRADER JOES or COSTCO, skinless and boneless sardines packed in olive oil. These smaller fish are less likely to be contaminated by mercury and are very tasty.
Alaskan or wild caught salmon are delicious. We try to avoid the farm raised salmon raised in very polluted tanks, and fed unnatural junk.
Pregnant and breast feeding mothers with higher omega three intake have children with higher IQs.
How did Adventists on a fish free diet end up with such brilliant children??
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Medicine seems to have a different take on that:
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You are correct,
The longevity boost was seen with all three coffees
instant,
ground
and de caffeinated coffee.
So it was not the caffeine but the flavenoids and polyphenols in the coffee bean that were beneficial. And of course, the coffee bean is a PLANT so is compatible with vegetarianism.
Overall, coffee drinkers were 10-15 per cent less likely to die than coffee abstainers —a pertinent statistical fact.
Cocoa powder, and chocolate (the unsweetened kind) is extremely high anti oxidants also
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Why? Why does the authority come without legitimate proof? (That is a rhetorical question.) It is all about tradition. The original Adventists, as has been pointed out, grew out of the times. Everything carries our cultural “genes” into the next generation - I get it; but why isn’t each generation interested in WHY? If a belief or, in this case, authority given, turns out to be, what I believe, manufactured by the culture in which it was born, don’t we have the responsibility to look at it honestly and correct what must be corrected. Just because a belief is held for a long time, doesn’t make it true.
Reading Scot McKnight’s The Blue Parakeet, the point is made that, while tradition is important in setting us on the right path - one which has stood the test of time, we too often don’t go back far enough to the kernel. There is a difference between reading through the “Great Tradition” without becoming a “traditionalist”, giving too much power to tradition, making us traditionalists and inflexible. He makes a great point that each Bible writer wrote in the “ways of his times” - DAVID, IN DAVID’S WAYS, JEREMIAH, IN JEREMIAH’S WAYS, etc. down to JOHN, IN JOHN’S WAYS, AND IS "CALLING US TO CARRY ON THE PATTERN IN OIUR WORLD TODAY, IN OUR WAY.
I have read accounts, written by a reporter in Portland, Maine, who witnessed one of these charismatic sessions where EGW was also present. It surprised me, but then, I never have been able to to take someone’s word just because everybody around me does. EGW has never been a big part of my spiritual life; but it does bother me, for some reason. I guess it’s because it puts everything else into question, and we have to go back to the beginning - again.
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Tim, you are welcome to have clams, shellfish etc.
Perhaps you might be interested in the advice provided by a prominent and
very successful food litigation firm: “Oysters are filter feeders, so they pick
up everything that’s in the water … If there’s bacteria in the water it’ll get into
their system, and if you eat it you could have trouble.”
Given the present pollution levels in our waterways and oceans …
yes, “horror of horrors.”
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Mmm … shades of Edward W. H. Vick, et al.
Agreed (if you follow him/them), “Biblical authority [pen]ultimately depends on
the church’s recognition.” Ultimately, it can be conflated to personal acceptance.