27 June 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, All my life I’ve been urged to witness to my friends and neighbors about Adventist beliefs. But I just don’t feel like my good Christian next-door neighbor needs to be convinced of all the things Adventists believe to be loved by God. So, sorry, Aunty, in spite of […]
21 June 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, People tell me that Ellen White didn’t plagiarize, because copying from other authors was a commonly accepted practice in Ellen White’s time. Is this true? Signed, Truth Seeker Dear Seeker, When in the 1970s Adventist scholars began to notice that significant amounts of Ellen White’s writings (in some […]
6 June 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, “Let go and let God.” I’ve heard this phrase frequently. People tout it as the answer to their prayers. It doesn’t work for me, no matter how I try to apply it to my life’s situations, nor can I find satisfactory examples in scripture. Is there, or is […]
by Sigve Tonstad | 4 June 2022 | They are praying again in Texas, the governor praying, too, politics of the pious, praying is what they do, and now the news from heaven, fresh from a first-hand source: the prayers will go unanswered: “The prayers show no remorse.” ’Twas time long ago to admit it, […]
by Patti Purdy Hansen Tompkins | 3 June 2022 | When You made us keepers of Your earth, O God, You expected a lot of us. But we have become careless with Your trust. The oceans and the firmament, the forests and living creatures, All the works of Your hands have been tainted by our […]
30 May 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, This weekend was Memorial Day in the United States, when we are supposed to remember our servicemen and women who died fighting for our country. Every year on Memorial Day Sabbath in my church, an elderly veteran arranges for the uniformed Pathfinders to march in (with barked military […]
23 May 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Recently I’ve been hearing in vegan online groups that anything with cane sugar isn’t vegetarian because sugar is processed with bone char. Is this something I should be concerned about? Signed, Vegan with a Sweet Tooth Dear Sweet Tooth: Though Aunty isn’t vegan, she understands concerns about what’s […]
16 May 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy: I just recently read Aunt Sevvy’s response to a person who had issues with having a drug addict attending church with them. I have a related question. How should the church handle a person addicted to pornography, masturbation, or illicit sex? The church manual lists these as issues […]
9 May 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Is Jesus white, and are we black people a cursed race? Signed, Puzzled African Dear Puzzled: The short answer is an emphatic no, to both questions. Jesus was a Jew of the Levant, and though artists pictured him for centuries with European features, he undoubtedly had dark skin, […]
8 May 2022 Much of what we say we know about Biblical interpretation is derived from what the Bible says about itself. While the Bible is right to self-identify itself as an inspired book, the problem is that several of the oft-used passages are taken out of context, and in some cases wholly misinterpreted. This […]
by Jay Linthicum | 6 May 2022 | This was originally presented by Jay during a Mother’s Day Sabbath at the Gathering Place Sabbath School, Loma Linda University Church. It being the time of the year when we honor our mothers, I thought I would tell you some stories about my remarkable mom. Ducks Once […]
2 May 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Is detaching the Ukraine Union from the Euro-Asia Division and attaching it directly to the General Conference a good thing? What impact will the change have? Just Curious Dear Curious: According to the press release, “a 21-member Ukrainian Union Conference Oversight Committee, chaired by GC general vice president […]