This idea that the only way one can figure out God’s will for your life is to read a book, or that reading that book will in fact magically teach you God’s will for your life is complete nonsense.
It is only since the reformation that bibles were even published in vernacular languages. Further, very few Christians could read before the enlightenment.
If it is necessary to read the bible in order to know Gods will for your life, then this means only literate people who posses a bible in a language they can read can know Gods will for their life. So then, almost no one on the earth before a few centuries ago. Really?
It also strongly implies that if you “read His Word, understand His Word, and fulfill His Word” you will know God’s will for your life. This seems blatantly false, since many don’t ever feel that they know such a thing, and is also arrogant as can be. We can actually know God’s will? Unlikely.
Tim –
The New Testament letters to the churches say “Hearing of the Word”.
This MEANS that the Scripture has to be READ in churches.
HEARING processes words and thoughts DIFFERENT pathways in the
brain than just by the eyes SEEING a word.
This is Why Reading Out Loud is more beneficial than Reading Silently.
All the Sda church services I have been in only give one or two VERSES.
NOT long passages spoken moderately and loud enough to understand.
This is why I like singing in the choir in my Sunday church. I get to hear
at LEAST 150 Scripture passages from OT, NT, Gospels. and plus at least
50 Psalms READ each year. MORE if one considers Halloween-All Saints
and Advent-Christmas. [We SING the Psalms each week] All the Psalms
are either Prayers, or Affirmations of Faith. Many of the Affirmations of Faith
can be RE-WRITTEN as Prayers and not just statements of fact.
Re-Writing the Psalms as Prayers is a great Meditation activity.
Doing so with each chapter of Proverbs is also a great Meditation activity.
There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, ONE for EACH DAY of the Month and
EVERY MONTH.
Can anyone honestly read this statement without thinking that it is blatantly asking people to allow us to slant their reading of the Bible in order to see it our way?
It’s good that Jesus is the focus of the “brand promise”. Kudos for that! The challenge is for us to disciple each other to effectively fulfill that promise…and to refrain from bickering and faultfinding so visitors aren’t repulsed by us.
People outside of ‘church’ are already skeptical of organisations who view people as ‘consumers’ - ie, the meal ticket to the organisation’s bottom line. And we wonder why there is increasing skepticism of organised religion who now, blatantly, adopts the same terminology and methodology?
‘Church’ is being reduced to a ‘Brand’ that is being ‘marketed’ to ‘consumers’. In this process, true Christianity is getting more and more pushed to the background.
If marketing was the way to go, I wonder why Jesus didn’t implement that approach 2000 years ago? Perhaps it was because marketing principles and practices and true Christianity are an incompatible alliance.
Tim –
A company can have a great slogan to get you to try a product.
But the Proof of the Truth is that the product provides what you expected.
The PROOF of the Truth in this slogan is persons trying out the local SDA
church to see if what is being “sold” is what is being Advertised.
If they don’t see it, they aren’t going to return to “THAT STORE”.
AFTER all the Hype from ANN, did anyone Notice the DISCLAIMER CLAUSE???
Neves said, [Quote] It is NOT the Role of the SDA Church to bring freedom, healing, and hope."
There is ALSO a PLAY ON WORDS HERE – “It” is about helping people understand the Bible
so that they get to know Jesus for themselves, and through Him, find the hope they have been
craving.
So, the PRODUCT ADVERTISED is NOT necessarily going to be delivered.
People SHOPPING have to Create their own freedom, healing, and hope without directions
to know if they got it.
Anyway, It is an interesting Advertisement to make the SDA person in the pew “feel good”.
"It is not the role of the Church to bring freedom, healing and hope", said Neves.
Sam Neves, are you for real? You seem to have disenfranchised the Church’s:
Religious Liberty Department; the vast network of doctors, nurses, and dentists in
hospitals and clinics; also chaplains and counselling services, IN ONE FOUL SWOOP!!
_The people serving in these areas are Jesus’ hands and feet, and endeavor to bring spiritual and physical freedom, healing and hope to persons seeking help.
This is NOT a clear message from the GC Communication Dept, but an ambiguous one, at best.
The GC Admin Committee approved the Adventist Promise. It was PRESENTED TO the 2018 Annual Council. Was it APPROVED BY the same group?
… "the public will lose trust in the Adventist Church if leaders, institutions and members are perceived as not living up to the statement."
I wonder who is being indicted here, given what is currently occurring in the Church?
This is not true. People keep repeating this false statement apparently in the hope that others will believe it. Traditionally Adventists cannot teach biblical doctrine utilizing only the Bible. EGW’s writings are always the “last word” no matter what.
Adventists cannot live based on the “Sola Scriptura” principle. Their teachings have to always be intertwined with “the boox.” Adventists are unable to “think out of the boox”…
I didn’t k now we ever had a “brand”, much less a “brand promise”.
This church is looking more and more like a business venture. Instead of reaching out to our neighbours and fellow traveler on this journey we call LIFE, we are now looking for CUSTOMERS, who are looking for TANGIBLE BENEFITS, sort of like an insurance policy. Come get dunked here and you’re sure to reap the “BENEFITS” afforded the remnant.
I just wonder who wrote such a monstrous DOCUMENT - cold and manipulative. We know it was
…just another way of getting signatures guaranteeing UNITY. Do we get to sign it before baptism… what about us, long timers…is it an addendum to our baptismal certificate?
Yes, and even if we could make such a claim, we could not in all fairness claim that our teachings completely follow all of the bible. That’s just not possible.
We pick - cherry pick - the parts that we choose to follow while pretending the entire bible is in a sort of magical harmony with itself, implying that if we follow one teaching on a subject we’re following all of the teachings on that subject.
