I don’t think I ever did that…but, I probably could have faked it. I’m pretty introverted, so greeting wouldn’t have been a good fit for me. I was the treasurer for a while. Behind the scenes is what I like.
I have been everything except Treasurer, Organ player, or small children teacher…lol
Absolutely hated helping with Potlucks. They (Nominating Committee) will always find a job for you though.
And, yes…I have been on those too!
I didn’t mind helping with potlucks too much. I enjoyed working in the cafe during camp meetings with some of the other ladies, it was much more enjoyable than the sermons!
I do have to admit…that it was a break in the usual sermon routine to be in the kitchen.
There is a misconception making the rounds on all sides of the W.O. issue that the ‘Kingdom of God’ is a ‘democracy’ in which the people decide what does or does not ‘go’. Yet, Jesus both described and acted out the Kingdom of God in the upper room before Gethsemane and Calvary.
In contrast to the world’s kingdoms where kings lorded it over their subjects, God serves His, even to the extent of washing manure from their feet. Such a King is wide open to much abuse, but does not deserve it.
Women, too, have for too long been wide open to abuses like those Mary of Magdala received, but have they deserved them ? The test of a Christian is whether or not they can – like Christ – look down at a grovelling, church-condemned human and lift them up with the words, “Neither do I condemn you . . . .” (But only Christ, as a Creator, could effectively go on to creatively say, ‘. . . Go, and sin no more.’) Those ‘Christians’ who in heart insist on condemning vulnerable daughters of Eve, also condemn King God – the most vulnerable servant of all – in order to justify themselves.
Back to ‘votes’ and ‘democracy’:
The delegates to the 2010 SDA GC Session in Atlanta were all given – freely – a copy of Ron Duffield’s, The Return of the Latter Rain, so there is no excuse for SDA GC ignorance regarding former GC-session failures in SDA history. One of these failures is described in Duffield’s book, quoting Alonzo Jones, quoting Ellen. Pages 119 and 120 of The Return . . .:
“At the 1893 General Conference Session, A.T. Jones spoke about the solemn events of 1888, when “three direct efforts” were made, by those claiming to stand by the landmarks (My note: Compare ‘landmarks’ with ‘28 Fundamental Beliefs’.), to vote down the message sent of God. The reason these efforts were not successful was because the angel of the Lord, speaking through Ellen White, said:”‘do not do it:’" (Then Ron quotes Jones at the 1893 GC Session:)
"Some of those who stood so openly against that [message of the righteousness of Christ] at that time [the Minneapolis meeting], and voted with uplifted hand against it and since that time I have heard say “amen” to statements that were as openly and decidedly papal as the papal church itself can state them. . . .
“Whether a creed is drawn up in actual writing, or whether it is somebody’s idea that they want to pass off by a vote in a General Conference, it makes no difference . . . . And there are people here who remember a time – four years ago; and a place – Minneapolis – when three direct efforts were made to get such a thing as that fastened upon the third angel’s message, by a vote in a General Conference. What somebody believed – set that up as the landmarks, and then vote to stand by the landmarks, whether you know what the landmarks are or not; and then go ahead and agree to keep the commandments of God, and a lot of other things that you are going to do, and that was to be passed off as justification by faith. Were we not told at that time that the angel of God said, “Do not take that step; you do not know what is in that” ? “I can’t take time to tell you what is in that, but the angel has said, Do not do it.” The papacy was in it. That was what the Lord was trying to tell us, get us to understand.” footnote 55
In footnote 55 of ‘The Return . . .’, Ron goes on with another Jones quote:
“Several years later, A.T. Jones again spoke of these attempted votes:
‘At Minneapolis, in 1888, the General Conference ‘administration’ did its very best to have the denomination committed by a vote of the General Conference to the covenant of ‘Obey and Live,’ to righteousness by works’ ( God’s Everlasting Covenant [n.p. 1907, p.31).”
At 1889’s GC session, Ellen also had to stop the Religious Liberty dept. from voting for a hard and fast rule for all SDAs to follow when dealing with the ‘Sunday Laws’ being enforced around the various States. From ‘The Return . . .’ pages 258 & 259:
"Now, at the 1889 General Conference, and under Eldridge’s leadership, the NRLA formed and passed its by-laws, some of which were similar to the resolutions which had failed to pass at Minneapolis in 1888. Two of the by-laws were: ‘No literature shall be published or circulated under the name of this Society by any of its officers or members until it has been indorsed by the Executive Committee of the Association. . . . All matter for publication in newspapers shall be subject to the inspection and approval of the President and at least a majority of the Editorial Committee, before it is sent out by the Secretary, provided, that in the absence of the editorial quorum, the President and first Vice President may act as members of the Editorial Committee.’ " p 258
"Ellen White saw danger on both sides of the issue if a resolution were passed. She warned the brethren not to ‘get into the place of God before the people. Enough of this kind of work has been done. Let God work on human minds. . . . Leave God something to do. . . . Do not cast burdens upon any class that He would have them released from. . . .’ ", p259
My mother-in-law worked in the bindery at Emmanuel Missionary College in 1949 when M.L. Andreasen came for a ‘Week of Prayer’. She bound copies of his presentations into a book for herself. In his last ‘Sabbath Afternoon’ sermon, Andreasen took up the topic of Dr. Kellogg’s book The Living Temple, and a meeting that he had attended at ‘South Hall’ there on campus (now Andrews University) focused on that book.
After describing how the teachers, ministers, doctors and even Waggoner and Jones heartily endorsed – ‘voted’ for – Dr. Kellogg’s book, and that students were selling it, he describes how Dr. Kellogg was about to take the stage after, even A.T. Jones’, gushing endorsement:
“Dr. Kellogg came up on the platform at the other end of the building. At the other side was a door leading onto the platform, and in came Sister White, and Doctor Kellogg backed down, courteously giving her the floor. Then she began to speak. And I assure you it was a tense moment for we knew that she would oppose it, and we knew that she was wrong. That’s how we felt and with that resistance she began speaking, ‘Now you Doctor Sutherland, when you got up back there’ (pointing out) ‘Now you over there, and you over there.’ And then she gave a picture of what had taken place and launched into the argument itself and the danger of it and what it would lead to. . . .”
Then he describes how that, by noon, the students had gotten word that something big was up and had crowded the hall, just in time to see a whole hall full of their ‘strong male leadership’ break into tears from changed hearts (before a feeble little old grandma), including A.T. Jones. Andreasen remembered it as, “A mighty moment ! A wonderful moment, and to my mind that was the place where the Spirit of Prophecy saved this denomination from splitting up.”
So, no, just because the SDA GC – even in ‘holy convocation’, so-called – ‘votes’ on an issue, does not mean that God will change the way He governs the rest of the universe in order to please the SDA GC, in spite of their ‘majority vote’. Korah’s Rebellion infected not only the ‘Princes of Israel’, but through them the masses – the ‘General Conference’ – of the people, as well. If we don’t learn these lessons from history, we repeat them. And today’s more popular SDA historians have not yet done the best job of educating us about the whole truth of our past, thus the ‘free’ book, ‘The Return of the Latter Rain’, given to the 2010 SDA GC delegates as the current president was elected by reactionary ‘vote’.
If Women’s Ordination is right, or wrong . . . let that Servant God rule as King in His own church, in each individual heart-kingdom. Do not ‘vote’ Him off of the throne merely because He is as vulnerable as each lonesome individual (Just like Grandma Ellen was, repeatedly, in facing down the ‘strong men’ of the SDA GC, ‘alone’). That was already done in the strong male Jewish Sanhedrin 2,000 years ago when only ‘King Jesus’ and the daughters of Jerusalem wept.
I learned about unity in the 1970’s from a NON-SDA pastor who did an verse by verse exposition of the book of Ephesians.
The word “Unity” is mentioned in the new testament only 2 times and that is in chapter 4. His sermon was more insightful than anything that was in the video.
Adventist on this sight are so obsessed with WO, TW, GC that they have no clue at reality.
SDA=people of the book??
Yesterday I did a poll of the SS class of over 50 attendees and 20% or less did not even read the whole book of ACTS over 13 weeks.
WOW! Such dedication for the group supposedly called out of the world!!
And did you learn the use of sarcasm and mockery as weapons for intimidation from Paul’s Ephesians taught by a NON-SDA pastor ? . . . or from the ACTS of the Apostles of Jesus ?
John Muir memorized much of God’s Word in Scripture, in harmony with his father’s whip on his flesh. Is it any wonder that Muir – the father of U.S. National Parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone – later turned to God’s Word in comforting Nature as a consequence ?
( As have millions of other world-and-religion-whipped souls who still visit the National Parks for comfort.)
From Wikipedia:
"Stephen Fox recounts that Muir’s father found the Church of Scotland insufficiently strict in faith and practice, leading to their emigration and joining a congregation of the CampbelliteRestoration Movement, called the Disciples of Christ.[19]:7 By the age of 11, the young Muir had learned to recite “by heart and by sore flesh” all of the New Testament and most of the Old Testament.[5]:30 In maturity, while remaining a deeply spiritual man, Muir may have changed his orthodox beliefs. He wrote, “I never tried to abandon creeds or code of civilization; they went away of their own accord… without leaving any consciousness of loss.”
“Jesus wept.” ~ John 11:35
Understanding the meaning and Spirit of those 2 words of Scripture, completely, is the key to actually understanding any other scriptures being read, however incompletely.
Dennis,
I have been reading an article on the Minneapolis meeting of 1888 and it occurred to me that The One Project was really a restatement of the Christ-centred, RBF message proposed to the church 130 years ago.
To me, it’s as though God gave the Adventist Church another chance to grasp the gospel and once again the church leadership had trouble accepting the good news of salvation received through faith alone and based solely on what Christ has done for us.
Is that how you see it?
Gal 3:26-29 reads, ‘You are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, and there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.’
I think that the Adventist Church has great difficulty in accepting things of the Spirit. I have heard more than one official warn against becoming involved in spiritual things. Hence, SDAs are taught not to interpret Paul’s statement as a spiritual reality but rather only metaphorically. But, I believe what Paul is saying is that if we are in Christ, if we are Christ’s, then race/nationality, position in the systems of the world, and gender do not exist as we now know them in God’s spiritual realm, and in the coming kingdom. If we are to be in the world but not of the world and if we are to have the mind of Christ then we are to see things as He does.
In this age we are called to be ambassadors or representatives of Christ and as such, we Christians, and any Christian organization we are affiliated with, should be now living by spiritual principles.
Yes it would be okay. If you will recall the vote was about allowing diversity of opinion and practice rather than forced compliance.
Perhaps.
Like many, I became focused on the options of just what ‘spiritual’ can mean. Many – even Ron Duffield the ‘1888’ enthusiast – became obsessed with The One Project’s possible connections to ‘spiritualism’ through outside (of SDA) sources (Methodist pastor, Leonard Sweet) that had been involved some way in the education of the founders.
But, decades earlier, Robert Wieland – fresh from dealing with the same thing in Uganda --clearly identified a form of ‘spiritualism’ being promoted and taught by the famous SDA evangelist George Vandeman of ‘It Is Written’ fame, and fan of another Methodist, E. Stanley Jones, in 1949. Wieland was immediately expelled from the SDA seminary for his questioning of SDA authority figures . . . So, the SDA GC has no right to claim innocence in such matters, and condemn The One Project, alone. Both have counteracted those who have tried to promote the ‘1888 Message’ whether or not they realize it.
I have personal experience with just how closely ‘spiritualism’ and ‘spiritual’ reside. About the time I officially left the ‘organized’ SDA church in disgust in 1994 ( returned 2009 ) I learned the truth about my best friends, who were members of the Self-Realization Fellowship. The husband’s father had been a Lutheran Pastor and had held a high position at Suomi College (Finlandia University).
One evening while my wife and I were visiting them, the wife of my friend expressed her eagerness to speak with the dead . . . and that pretty much dulled the luster of our friendship ! (If Solomon and Jesus did not believe that the dead knew anything, then how can a person say ‘Jesus All’ while claiming to know better than He did ? . . . If that was indeed the ‘spiritual’ philosophy The One Project was leading up to.)
Nonetheless, The One Project could have, and might still, move beyond any perceived weaknesses in its founders, or their ‘outside’ education, to become larger and even more appropriate to meet current SDA needs than they were. That would be nice ! Nicodemus, after all, was a member of the same Jewish governing body that condemned Jesus as being the worst of sinners. Why should The One Project founders be given less of a chance ?
I remember just after I rejoined the SDA church in 2009, my sister, who worked with one of The One Project founders, told me not to pay any attention to what was being said about Derek Morris on the internet, or to that South African man (Walter Veith. Funny thing is, she put me in email contact with her friends in South Africa, who did pay attention, and they sent us DVDs !) Anyway, I also remember the mocking attitude of my sister and her future One Project friend, when they made a ‘funny’ promotional video for raising money for the even larger church parking lot where they both worked ( to spite Walter Veith ). I didn’t laugh.
So, that’s why I personally questioned the ‘spirit’ working in The One Project founders. Human salvation is not a mocking matter. Jesus was mocked. How could Jesus endorse mocking ?
Thankfully, most of the people in SDA pews, circa 1888, did not agree with the leaders of the stalling Adventist movement, or with their mocking attitudes toward Waggoner’s, Jones’ and Ellen’s ‘old light in new settings’. That bad attitude of those earlier SDA leaders toward the true issues of ‘1888’ ( the ‘circumcision of the heart’ and the corresponding eradication of SDA hypocrisy) has continually been reproduced and has thrived for 130 years, now. But unlike ‘The One Project’, the GC’s leaders have refused to fully back down and regroup.
( Refusal, partly due, I assume, to the published opinions and strong influence of a famous SDA contributor to Spectrum, who also served on the most recent ‘1888’ official investigation – the ‘Primacy of the Gospel Committee’ , 1995-2000 – and who had a chance to help set things straight regarding the ‘1888 message’ – the ‘Spiritual’ message – before the current GC mess being discussed now at Spectrum developed. A mess which could have been prevented by that committee, had they encouraged even greater publicity for, study into, and more heartfelt acceptance of, that message by SDAs everywhere. . . what a tangled mess of ‘half-minded’ ambivalence SDA ‘leadership’ has all become, now ! Partially right. Partially wrong. Wholly confused and confusing. Yet, still arguing with confidence, as if they alone are safe to follow. )
So, yes, the only safety now is in following the best of all Spirits, in our own spirits, in our own hearts. To be ‘in Christ’ involves emotionally-intelligent ‘in feeling’ with Christ, ‘em-pathy’ with Christ. That Christ who seeks only to heal, and consequently, to unify, to ‘at-one’, all things in empathy with Himself and with the God-Family. If/when this Spirit of God, sent to represent Christ most accurately to minds and hearts is successful, then it will be the end of all the contempt and distrust that has been bred for thousands of years in the hearts of many of the heirs of Eve’s and Adam’s distrust of God, and of all else other than themselves.
In 1893, at the General Conference sessions to which he spoke, Jones pled that everyone would adopt the attitude of I Corinthians 8:2: ‘And if any man ( or woman) thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know it.’ The human body can only grow as big as a lifetime allows, but the character of the emotionally-intelligent human heart, as it is taught by the Spirit of God, about the infinite ‘Spiritual’ heart of God – as expressed by the empathetic Christ – will grow for all eternity. That ‘eternity’ could, and should, begin for the SDA GC church leadership at this ‘Fall Council’, 2018. The led, childlike students of the Spirit of God are waiting, regardless of outward labels such as ‘SDA’, or ‘One Project’, or ‘male’, or ‘female’, or ‘race’. Will the leaders catch up ?
Years ago, around 1980, weary of the busy-ness of the world’s competitive treadmill, I was taking a shower after a hot steamy day at work. I had put on a Rolling Stones LP before getting into the hotter shower. I remember being exhausted and also moved to tears by the words filtering through from my bedroom, sung by the ‘evil’ Mick Jagger,
“Don’t wanna hear no talk about Jesus, just wanna see His fa-a-ace.” ( Ellen said that children loved to look into that face. )
A few years later, after a breakdown, and after finding a sweetheart, I was leading out in the Adult Sabbath School service for the first time in front of the whole congregation. I had chosen the theme, ‘The Face of Jesus’, and mentioned my ‘eureka’ moment in the shower . . . only to be told by some in the audience, “Send it to the Review !”. But, as I headed through the church lobby, the re-nominated SS Superintendent made sure to tell me that I ‘took too long’. (Yes, I shamefully confess, I did.) Clearly he wasn’t focused on eternity, or Spiritual, emotionally-intelligent ‘knowledge’, and there were 10 hours of Sabbath time left . . . . Never again.
I said the ‘F-word’ right in his face in the crowded church lobby, drove off to the public high school parking lot to scream and sob, went back and apologized to him after the sermon, and never attended services at that church again . . . until I was looking for the new pastor to give me my ‘apostasy’ release from SDA ‘hell’ in 1994. And, I threw away my ‘Face of Jesus’ SS presentation, because it brought too-real memories of that terrible ‘spiritual’ pain I experienced in ‘God’s SDA church’. ( Total Member Involvement ? ) True ‘Spirituality’ means true, and scary, vulnerability . . . until Jesus becomes ‘all’. This ‘vulnerability’ is a more difficult proposition for ‘strong male leadership’, than for traditionally vulnerable females . . . who are not to be ‘ordained’ ? !
How, then, do I dare condemn The One Project, even if they had some ‘loose ends’ to ‘tie up’ ? Mick Jagger – who also sang ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ – had been successfully used to preach the ‘Spiritual’ Gospel of the Face of Jesus to my heart, where my ‘official’ SDA pastors had long failed !
I’ll erase all of this ‘too long’ response, if you wish.
Dennis,
I can only speak for myself but I ask that you not erase your reply.
Thanks for your thoughtful answer and being open about your own journey.
I believe many readers besides myself can benefit from your insights.
The most serious issue the church has faced occur at Glacier View. The church is just now feeling the arrogance of that action.
It does seem to have been a toxic buildup, but as I look back on what I know and remember, starting with my earliest memories of the denomination at its official business, it has always been. While I have some me very dear memories of my life growing up in the church, I can also look back and see the politics, the control, the at times base evil that was done in the name of Christ’s Church and I find myself obligated to denounce and reject those things.
EGW in the book AA pg. 12 says, “Enfebled and defective as it may appear, the church is the one object upon which God bestows, in a special scense, his supreme regard.”
I am forced to conclude that this statement refers to the constituency rather than the organization, if even that. And in the end, doesn’t it always come down to the individual and his/her vertical relationship to the Creator? There will be no church that has any spiritual or ecclesiastical power to decide my status when I’m on my deathbed.
True…no church organization has anything to do with our salvation or our faith in Christ. Anyone who says otherwise, has lost the plot…or never had it.
I would not be surprised if you thought all Adventists in general were clueless. First we do not have a clue as to what is “desire.” Now we are clueless with “reality.” How did you get to be so knowledgeable and all-knowing? What book did you read, what air did you inhale and what cookie did you ingest?
I will stay out of this conversation with @gideonjrn at this time. I had enough of him criticizing everyone but never sharing his “real wisdom” and knowledge with anyone of us. Nobody knows anything… but him, who knows everything.
A conversation like this with him becomes nothing but wasted time, with absolutely no gain for anybody.
No time for such a nonsense. I’m out.
Me too…
Never a dialogue, only a diatribe!
I have to be careful. Any line of your reply to me can ignite Niagara-scale floods of thought !
If you search the internet on the topic of ‘1888’ you will find all kinds of people, with all kinds of arguments, using ‘1888’ to support those arguments in all kinds of ways. (Even returning to the keeping of the ‘typical’ Hebrew Feasts.) But one thing is clear:
For an SDA General Conference that supposedly ‘accepted’ the ‘1888 Message’ there is still a lot of ignorance of it among those pastors who fill its ‘official’ pulpits. The former pastor in our county did not know about it, and said he was not taught it at the seminary at Andrews. Yet he attacked my wife and I and our 2 friends for enjoying it, and produced a ‘Ministry’ magazine article using Anglican church heroes to condemn those SDAs like Graham Maxwell, who spoke well of 1888, as being guilty of teaching ‘Moral Influence Theory’. (I suppose such accusers would prefer that sinners continue to be immorally influenced by the death of Christ on the cross . . . ?)
Before Graham Maxwell, there were several others who tried to draw SDA attention back to the essential Gospel-Truth tools that are still left waiting behind in the 1888-era of the wayward SDA movement. Herbert Douglass’ book, A Fork in the Road, is one of his own attempts to get SDAs to return and get back on track with a more complete tool kit. Before him, in the 1930s Taylor Bunch was silenced when he tried to explain the SDA mistakes in comparison with ancient wandering Israel, in, ‘Two Parallel Movements’. Midway between Douglass and Bunch, both Robert Wieland and Donald Short risked their SDA credentials to draw GC attention back to the missing tools of ‘1888’.
Still, their ‘1888 Message Study Committee’ struggles along, having tragically lost Will Pergerson 3 years ago. I attended their 2018 National Conference for a while in July. Fred Bischoff quietly gave one of the most fascinating studies on ‘the faith of Jesus’ – in line with how Waggoner and Jones and Ellen glimpsed it – that I’ve seen. (The Faith of Jesus: A Topic Dimly Understood-Fred Bischoff, on You Tube) Fred described how that the Source of ‘our faith’ is the same as the Source of everything else – God.
God, in Christ, trusted the untrustworthy with His very life at the cross, and His own people despised Him for His trust in them. Yet many of the Levites soon came around to the Disciples, begging to know what to do. God’s faith worked to create faith in them, even. (There is hope in this kind of undeserved faith, given the current condition of the SDA GC.)
And, in The Desire of Ages, in telling the story of the Samaritan woman and Jesus at Jacob’s Well, Ellen implies the same, saying,
"The hatred between Jews and Samaritans prevented the woman from offering a kindness to Jesus; but the Saviour was seeking to find the key to this heart, and with the tact born of divine love, He asked, not offered, a favor. The offer of a kindness might have been rejected; but trust awakens trust. The King of heaven came to this outcast soul, asking a service at her hands. He who made the ocean, who controls the waters of the great deep, who opened the springs and channels of the earth, rested from His weariness at Jacob’s well, and was dependent upon a stranger’s kindness for even the gift of a drink of water. {DA 183.4}
So, not only the ‘righteousness of Christ’ is a free gift, but also ‘the faith of Jesus’.
Not our own righteousness. Not our own faith. Not our own ‘righteousness by faith’.
Just what do we contribute to our own healing ? A helpless, wounded, distrusting heart.
So, if The One Project could take the fascinating Good News of this Christly righteousness of God, resulting from His own creative Faith-full-ness toward even the ‘chief of sinners’, to the SDA church and the World . . . Well, perhaps not only the SDA GC might come begging to know what to ‘do’ to be healed, but many in the World also. All God is waiting for is our helpless response to His unjustifiable faith in us.
Then what request might God make for help from the SDA GC at the Fall Council, that might melt hearts and create a faith-full response to His unjustified faith in them ?
Some years ago I was out in Chipmunk Territory in ‘my’ garage, zoned-out in my kinda world, welding and grinding with earplugs in. As I was working at my vise with sparks flying all around, I saw something being too still at my feet. Actually, ON the steel toe of my work boot. It was the spidery front toes of a prayerful Chippy, above which floated 2 watery dark eyes staring steadily up into me, and which seemed to be begging, “Please, Mr. Hofer, could you please stop the screeching noises ? ! Our little(-r) ones can’t sleep, and Mrs. Chippy is in a terrible state . . . Please ? !”
If that’s what it takes to thwart the rebirth of the Industrial Revolution in ‘my’ garage, why wouldn’t it work to thwart the rebirth of fatal revolving SDA distrust at the Fall Council in Battle Creek ?
‘Bambi Lives’. . . and His name is ‘Jesus’.
"God is leading a people out from the world upon the exalted platform of eternal truth, the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. He will discipline and fit up His people. They will not be at variance, one believing one thing, and another having faith and views entirely opposite; each moving independently of the body. Through the diversity of the gifts and governments that He has placed in the church, they will all come to the unity of the faith. If one man takes his views of Bible truth without regard to the opinion of his brethren, and justifies his course, alleging that he has a right to his own peculiar views, and then presses them upon others, how can he be fulfilling the prayer of Christ? And if another and still another arises, each asserting his right to believe and talk what he pleases, without reference to the faith of the body, where will be that harmony which existed between Christ and His Father, and which Christ prayed might exist among His brethren? {CET 201.2}
It’s clear from the history of the church and the SOP counsel that you can not have unity without the foundation of that unity being the unity in believe in the interpretation of the word. It’s never existed without it for very long when you have differences of this magnitude of understanding. Groups break off and form upon their own ideas of interpretation of the word.
What is being pontificated by Dr. Knight is just not plausible and it’s a specious argument given his depth of study to say otherwise.