Adventist Review UNDER FIRE – Progressive Adventist Couple Complains about Fiction & Untruths

Dear Power of Pride,

We have a loving, monoganamous, and committed relationship with each other, and with our church. Seeing as, for obvious reasons, we don’t have children, we often spend time in the evenings reading from the Spirit of Prophecy books.

Sister White speaks very negatively about fiction. And now the Adventist Review is starting to bring fiction stories. What are things coming to in our church??!!

Is this the massive apostasy that will come just before the Second Coming? Should we even read the Review anymore?

Femke & Kirsten

!!YOUR ANSWERS FROM POWER OF PRIDE!!

Dear Fellow Adventists,

AN AGE OF APOSTASY

The present-day situation reminds me so much of the days of Noah:

Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 1 Peter 3:20

ADVENTIST REVIEW FICTION

There is evil on every hand in our modern society. I’ve seen the fiction, and its wrong!

THEORY & PRACTICE

“Adhering to the Biblical teaching that makes no accommodation for homosexual activity or relationships, the Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that sexual intimacy belongs only with the marital relationship of a man and a woman. (Editors, Adventist Review Online Edition, 24 Sep 2009, http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=2858)

LEADING FIGURE IN DENOMINATION TAKES A DIFFERENT POSITION

“Clifford R. Goldstein (b. in 1960) is an American author and editor. He is a leading figure in the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Goldstein

A COGNITIVE KIND OF PERSON

Dr. Goldstein is not “touchy-feely kind of stuff”. Oh, no, he just wants the facts!

GREEK WORLDVIEW

“and I again I think this works I tend to be somewhat of a cognitive kind of person. This is the modernist in me. I’m not this touchy-feely kind of stuff. I WANT THE FACTS!” (Cliff Goldstein, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6lnMNjBFyo)

THE TOUCHY-FEELY CROWD

So how could the editors of the Adventist Review make such a totally false statement?

Are they “touchy-feely kind of stuff” (as per Goldstein, supra)? Do they not want the facts?

It almost sounds like they forgot to check in with the “leading figures in the denomination” (per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Goldstein). Of course, the Adventist church is a huge organization which spans the globe, so they have more than one leader.

SEASONED ADVENTIST LEADER

Which brings us to Dr. Charles Scriven. He’s the president at Kettering College of Medical Arts. http://www.kcma.edu/NewsandEvents/Pacesetter/SprSum09/presMessage.html
“Kettering College of Medical Arts, occupying a suburban campus near Dayton in southwest Ohio, is a coeducational college owned by the Kettering Medical Center and chartered by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.” http://www.kcma.edu/AboutUs/index.html
This prominent Adventist leader is in the process of “Reconstructing Seventh-day Adventism“. http://www.spectrummagazine.org/podcast/2008/06/24/test

WHO RUNS A PUBLICATION FOR ADVENTISTS

“Charles Scriven is president of Kettering College of the Medical Arts and chairs the Adventist Forum/SPECTRUM board.” (Alexander Carpenter, Reconstructing Seventh-day Adventism – Charles Scriven, 26 June 2008, http://www.spectrummagazine.org/podcast/2008/06/24/test)

A VISION FOR THE FUTURE

Dr. Scriven’s Spectrum publication has published a call for: Gay Theology Without Apology.

And that’s as gay as it gets!!
So what gives? How did the editors of the Adventist Review dream up such fiction?

“Adhering to the Biblical teaching that makes no accommodation for homosexual activity or relationships, the Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that sexual intimacy belongs only with the marital relationship of a man and a woman.” (Editors, Adventist Review Online Edition, 24 Sep 2009, http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=2858)

OUR PRESIDENT GETS IT RIGHT (AS ALWAYS) — ADVENTIST REVIEW EDITORS ARE DISORIENTED

Let’s check with Adventist president Dr. Jan Paulsen, a man of wisdom and experience. “People seem to be disoriented.” (Jan Paulsen, Message from the President, Adventist Review Online Edition, 24 Sep 2009, http://www.adventistreview.org/issue.php?issue=2009-1527&page=2)

WE’VE CONSIDERED THE EVIDENCE CAREFULLY

And must conclude the Adventist Review’s perception does not match with reality. If “the Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that sexual intimacy belongs only with the marital relationship of a man and a woman.“, their top leaders (both current and emerging) would not state beliefs contrary to this:

“I’m sure Jesus looks approvingly on ‘loving, monoganamous, and committed’ homosexual sodomy, don’t you?” Cliff Goldstein (click for citation) Elder Goldstein is a top Adventist theologian:
“I edit the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guides (the “Quarterly”), the official denominational teaching publication for the world SDA Church; the publisher is the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.” (Clifford Goldstein, Graffiti in the Holy of Holies: An Impassioned Response to Recent Attacks on the Sanctuary and Ellen White, Pacific Press Publishing, 2003, p. 12)

“At the Second Coming God will proclaim, “My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done” (Rev. 22:12).” (Haffner, supra)

BUT THE EMERGING LEADERS?

But what about the coming generation of leaders? Perhaps Bill Knott has checked with them?

“Alexander Carpenter, a fifth-generation Adventist … teaches full-time in the Department of Visual Arts at Pacific Union College. He has been a part of Spectrum since 2004.” http://spectrummagazine.org/about_us

A QUALITY ADVENTIST EDUCATION

“Pacific Union College is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a world-wide Christian community that runs one of the world’s largest Protestant school systems. The college is owned, operated and subsidized by the regional division of the Adventist Church, the Pacific Union Conference.” http://www.puc.edu/about-puc/about-our-adventist-faith

ADVENTIST LEADERS – PRESENT AND FUTURE

Dr. Scriven leads an Adventist college and an Adventist chat club. Dr. Carpenter is an emerging leader. http://www.beatitudessociety.org/blog/alex_carpenter/20080609/883

They have published a special message for the church:

“There are too many of us who are not sick, or inverted, or perverted, or even “effeminate,” but who just have a knack for falling in love with people of our own sex. When we have been damaged, it has not been due to our homosexuality but to your and our denial of it. The burden of proof now is not on us, to show that we are not sick, but rather on those who insist that we would be better off going back into the closet.” Posted by: Alexander Carpenter 17 June 2008 at 5:35
http://www.spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/06/16/why_adventists_should_consider_supporting_gay_marriage

“In the last days, God’s remnant church will call attention to authentic, biblical worship.” (Karl Haffner, Accepting the Message of Hope, Adventist Review Online Edition, 24 Sep 2009, http://www.adventistreview.org/issue.php?issue=2009-1527&page=16)

Adventist Review editor Bill Knott has made claims about what the Seventh-day Adventist church believes which conflict with what the leaders of the church actually have to say. President Jan Paulsen knows what the problem is: “People seem to be disoriented.” (Jan Paulsen, Message from the President, Adventist Review Online Edition, 24 Sep 2009, http://www.adventistreview.org/issue.php?issue=2009-1527&page=2)

And Dr. Paulsen is 100% right!!!!

Which brings us close to an answer to your question, girls. Fiction: “An untrue declaration”. http://www.answers.com/topic/women-s-fiction Reading fiction of the sort brought by the Adventist Review is an abuse of the mind: “Minds that have been amused and abused by reading fiction may in nature have an open book, and read truth in the works of God around them.” ( Ellen White, Testimonies for the Church Volume Four, p 581)

You see, girls, this presentation of fiction is nothing new: “Fiction, spurious interpretations of the Scriptures, dishes of fables, are everywhere presented for your acceptance. But great discernment is needed that the girdle should be the golden chain of truth.” (Ellen White, That I May Know Him, p 346)


You read the Adventist Review at your peril.

These people publish fiction when the Prophet spoke against it, and we know who works like that:

“Satan will go to the extent of his power to harass, tempt, and mislead God’s people. He who dared to face, and tempt, and taunt our Lord, and who had power to take Him in his arms and carry Him to a pinnacle of the temple, and up into an exceedingly high mountain, will exercise his power to a wonderful degree upon the present generation, who are far inferior in wisdom to their Lord, and who are almost wholly ignorant of Satan’s subtlety and strength.” (Ellen White, Testimonies For The Church Volume One, p 341)

SO WHAT TO DO?

Why, pray, of course, praying:

1) that the Adventist Review will stop publishing untrue works of fiction;
2) that the leaders of the church may be guided in making personnel decisions consistent with the professed beliefs of the church;
3) that Adventist Church practice may coincide with Adventist Church theory;
4) that we all may be ready to meet the King when he comes;
5) and, of course, “pray for the world church as it fulfills the mission of hope entrusted to it by our glorified Lord. Church members like you are involved in this mission around the world, at times under difficult circumstances. Pray for them that their faith may be strengthened and their work be fruitful to the glory of the Lord.” (Paulsen, supra)

Graphics:

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e2/Jan_paulsen.jpg/200px-Jan_paulsen.jpg

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