Ode to Curiosity

Spectrum Website
1

Curiosity has a bad reputation. It is certainly not one of the generally accepted Christian virtues, and that is a shame. Curiosity takes us deeper in our faith and in life. Long live curiosity, and God bless the curious!

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://spectrummagazine.org/article/2017/06/20/ode-curiosity
2

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths”. . Walt Disney
One of my favorite reasons for being a Seventh-day Adventist is the idea that Dr. Tom de Bruin is setting forth in this fine article, Adventists should be curious people. (We are already thought of us by some as "peculiar’) We should be asking more questions and willing to search for answers to the issues and needs that God is directing our attention to. We should be more curious about how to understand doctrine. We should be curious about administrative decisions that our leaders make in the operation of our church. The opposite of curiosity is inertia, blind loyalty, stagnation and despair.
We need more questions!

3 Likes
3

Sam–
We have moved theologically as SDAs to FUNDAMENTALISM!
We have THE TRUTH. We have Ellen White.
WE already KNOW everything, so questions are irrelevant NOW.
In fact, QUESTIONS, CURIOSITY if you please, are no longer welcome.
You can see for yourself what happened when someone QUESTIONED — WHY ORDINATION? WHERE DID IT and WHEN DID IT ARISE? WHY ARE NOT ALL ADULT MEMBERS ELIGIBLE FOR “ordination”?
DO we even NEED “ordination” as it is done now?
Other persons have raised other Questions in the past, and you see where it got them. They were condemned even before they had the opportunity for discussion. Finally disfellowshiped.
It is DANGEROUS to raise QUESTIONS, to speak CURIOSITY in public.

4 Likes
5

What is “progressive truth” and the mindset that it takes to pursue it?

How has the focus on traditional Adventism, pioneers, “we have the truth,” and laser focus on the past encouraged us to move forward?

How, without progressing forward, would a tiny 20-million member group impact the entire world with the Gospel?

2 Likes
6

We need to look at three mindsets.

  1. Moving forward. Thinking of the way thing could be.
  2. Staying the same. We (the church) are at perfection, so don’t change a thing.
  3. Falling backwards Thinking of the way things might have been. Make the church great again.
    By looking at the Bible and History, it appears God has to kick his peoples down the road every now and then. Having been kicked, moved, then stopped, every church believes there is not more road to travel. No more kicks. No more better places. No other group for God to choose. Look back 150 years, 400, 2000, 4500 years.

While “we” fight over “women rights” who did God push down the road?

1 Like
7

I appreciate the beautiful thoughts of this article. What amazes me is the lack of curiosity when it comes to the final verses, the very climax of the book of Daniel. I have heard all the various reasons why we in the SDA Church ignore these important verses, and cannot be allowed to study the whole book of Daniel. Fear is the main reason… Our church was founded upon a misunderstanding of Daniel, verse 8:13. Everyone loves to talk about the first nine chapters of Daniel. Right? Many are afraid of “division”. So we must only talk about the “safe” subjects, the 28 Fundamental beliefs. I believe this hypocrisy is killing our people. Fortunately, some of us are still curious, especially about the book of Daniel, and the mysterious portions of Revelation (such as the Seven Trumpets and the Two Witnesses). May God give us more Light for these Last Days, not less.

8