The lesson this week makes me wonder if I should think of Abraham as just an average person. I typically read the story of God’s interaction with Abraham as a seminal event in human history. God reaches out to communicate with a man who thus becomes the father of three of the world’s largest religions, making a profound promise to him along the way. Of late, however, I am struck with just how normal Abraham was, a human with fears and anxieties much like my own. Perhaps we can all learn something from Abraham’s fear, anger, and frustration.
Let’s see. There’s a story going around that once upon a time God teased a man called Abraham with a command to murder his son as a burnt offering. The command(ment) turned out to be fake, but Jews are right when they kid us that we got the better Testament… God probably groans at our willingness to believe He would play such a dirty trick.
As a Church, I don’t believe we are the remnant as there are remnant in every denomination and religion. it is a boastful claim.
How reliable was his story? Did God (Christ) really show him that He had been ministering in the holy place until 1844, when he was actually in the most holy place? It must have been his imagination!
We are of course, another denomination! No denomination has all the truth, neither is perfect.
This is the greatest on going controversy that is dividing our church. Placing her on a par with the Bible is the real problem.
By addressing these false claims and telling the truth.
Ellen white says that God tested Abraham to meet Satan’s challenge about Abraham’s faithfulness like the test of Job we read later. This was a part of great controversy for her. Bible does not support this view any way.
i see no chance of this happening…it would be a false witness to the world to pretend to be just another denomination…
if some adventists have this fear, it’s totally unfounded, and irrational…egw is to adventism what moses was to israel…her supernatural visions should be celebrated, and shared with the world, and definitely not kept or hidden in the background…she is the first demonstration of the all-important gift of prophecy that we know of since the days of the apostles, almost 2,000 yrs ago…this gift is really why we are the remnant church of destiny…we should be praying for the latter rain, and even more manifestations of this gift…
i just hope we can live up to and stay true to our calling…after many centuries, israel proved to be unfaithful to their calling…what will our future be, i wonder…
obviously there is such a thing as counterfeits…ask yourself this: if there is a satan interested in deceiving people out of the one way that leads to eternal life, which he knows well, and has forever forfeited and lost, would he allow a true prophet of god to operate on an unchallenged platform of any kind…
i actually think the advent of counterfeits can be an indication that the true is impending…for instance, Spectrum ran a story of daisy escalante, a supposedly new prophet from puerto rico:
i see her as a possible indication that maybe the latter rain is about to fall, with the gift of prophecy springing into action once again…of course she could also be just a trial run…maybe satan is floating trial balloons to see what most people are likely to believe…
what’s interesting is how obvious the counterfeits to egw and adventism - mormonism, JW’s, christian science - really are…all originated in the same area at about the same time…you’d think satan would make it less obvious by calling someone or something out of africa, china, or peru, and maybe 100 yrs or so before, or later…
but these counterfeits are by and large successful, even if they are relatively easy to spot…there are strong believers in each of these religions…
this isn’t necessarily a problem, christopher…after-all, the book of Jonah doesn’t support things in Ezekiel or Daniel, and the book of Romans doesn’t support many things in Hebrews and John…in fact the OT supports very little of what we find liberally in the NT, at least in the way you are using the term…
inspiration doesn’t need to artificially mimic itself, everywhere it is found…it can forge its own stand alone path…the important thing is that true inspiration will never contradict other instances of true inspiration when it is properly understood…in addition, it demonstrates increased understanding over time, which necessarily means that earlier instances of inspiration will not be as complete as more recent instances…
Years ago I read Fawn Brodie’s book about Joseph Smith, No Man Knows My History, and then tried to get my Mormon sister-in-law to read it–without success. It occurred to me that I was just as bad if I didn’t read a dissenter’s critique of my own prophet. So I read Ron Numbers’ Prophetess of Health.
to some extent, i think faith is a choice…if you believe only what can be scientifically validated, what you have isn’t faith…that’s probably why faith is rewarded, whereas devils who believe, and tremble, won’t be rewarded…
Jeremy, everybody believes something, and disbelieves the opposite. You and I don’t believe the thousands of lies told by an ex-POTUS. Does that mean we’re faithless?
You feel that EGW’s grade in Honesty 101 is not bad enough to disqualify her as a genuine prophet. I think you set the bar too low.
for me, it isn’t just about objective facts, although that is important…the reason i feel the way about egw that i do is because her writing never fails to lift my mind and spirit into a place that literally is out of this world…it’s hard to define, or describe, but i instinctively sense a heavenly, elevated quality in everything she says…because of what i’m sensing, i’m not troubled, at all, by the flaws i see in her personally, or in her approach to her work…i sense some of this in many of the bible writers, as well, for instance david, isaiah, moses, really all the prophets, and most of the apostles…
there isn’t anything else i’ve seen or come across that equals it…what egw encompasses is really a very unique blend of wisdom and spiritual power…i can soar in my mind for days, and even weeks, from reading from what she’s written…
i know other people don’t see or feel this…but i’m used to being alone when it comes to feeling things…being a performing musician almost forces you to take seriously what you feel, even when you can see no-one else gets it…
well, i’m not an expert on addictions, either, but i seriously doubt whether my interest in egw, or the bible, for that matter, can be considered an addiction…in my mind, an addiction is a lack of control over something harmful that crowds out aspects of regular living…by way of contrast, i have total control over when and whether i read egw, and i don’t see her as something that’s harmful, or that crowds out things in my regular life…in fact i find egw to be highly beneficial in terms of motivation, discipline, and setting reasonable goals…this isn’t the effect of an addition…
perhaps my mention of soaring in my mind for days, and even weeks, as an occasional result of reading egw suggested to you some kind of high, as in the brief euphoria that results from the use of crystal meth or ecstasy, or even alcohol…these kinds of physical highs are altogether different from when you’re lifted and enlightened by the HS…the effect of the HS is always a feeling of health, controlled clarity and vitality, whereas as street drugs and alcohol produce an uncontrollable state - depending on how much you take - and always result in a feeling of withdrawal after a time, and usually a headache…
in addition, being lifted by the HS isn’t something you can induce, just because you decide you want it…it’s something wonderful that happens when it happens…and it can happen when you least expect it…drugs and alcohol, on the other hand, are always predictable…you will always get what you want, when you want it (this would be why some people spend all their money on it)…it’s something you can directly manipulate…this isn’t ever the case with spiritual lifting from the HS…
